happy tuesday?

I'd like a decent title, but heck, I'm gonna take the time to write something anyway, might even be something good for the 5 people including my wife who read this.

The "NewJim" program is doing pretty well. After a week of salads and lo carbs, my scale's gone from 206 to 199, the first week is always easy. We'll see, if I can get to 190, maybe it will keep coming off. Last time, I stuck at at 197, just wouldn't go any lower.

And Sunday I dyed my hair! Ya really, no more gray for me. Thank my kids for that excessive graying at the temples, but it's all gone now!

Last week was "new carpet week" upstairs.  We been cleaning and straightening and trying hard to dial in our master suite. Yesterday we finished "waterfall wall."

If you were running the coast with us last summer, you'll recognize these, most are on the south wide of the Columbia River Gorge.

Another thing I got done not too long ago was switching my camaro back to the z/28 finned valve covers

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Saturday night!!!

WooHoo, it's Saturday night and I ain't doin nuttin!

The carpet's done, and most of the stuff is moved back.

I went to North Dakota on business, and came back again.

I put in a new wireless n access point today, and hope to never ever have to go down in the basement and power cycle the linksys. o far so  good.

I can't remember the admin password for my webcam so I can't switch it to the new wireless.
It's still connected on the old wireless and it still works.

And I dyed the gray out of my hair this morning!!!
I like it, Carol doesn't, she's wondering who I'm trying to impress....
The scale was under 200 this morning for the first time since last spring, hopefully I can maintain a downward trend. I'd so like to have abs.

More later, maybe with some pictures.
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carpet and salad?

Friday the carpet man called! We had some extra cash at year end, so ordered and paid for new carpet for the master suite. And Tuesday they are coming to install it. I hate carpet, and would do hardwood if I could handle the $7 per square foot plus moving out for a week, but that ain't in the cards right now so new carpet it is. Stuff in there now is nasty. 10 years old, lots of spills. Some stains I think are cat pee but Carol says they ain't. Still nasty.

So we got started in the closet. Our last house had his and hers walkins, this one has a single clost that 8 feet wide and sixteen feet long! When you have closets this big, you hang everything, even t shirts, and you never have to throw anything away, there's always room for more. So we went in and started tossing everything that was stained. Everything that was ugly. Everything that hadn't been worn in a couple years. Everything. We were ruthless. Even tossed the T shirts from when we did the avon 3 day years ago.

It was depressing. I found pants with 32 inch waist. Today I wear a 36... relaxed fit. Was 168 when I was 30, and 203 now. Depressing. Carol threw out a bunch of size 6 stuff. 'Nough said about that.

Six giant hefty bags went to Goodwill, and we were left with this

We got all the junk cleaned out of the closet, and off the floor so the carpet guys can do their thing. We moved everything out of the sitting room and master bedroom except the bed. That goes tomorrow night. Stuff it all in the loft and the library. Without my sitting room, I'm stuck in the library on my laptop, so far away from the router that the wireless rarely works.

So this is what everything looks like almost empty.

Now ya remember what I said about the expanding waistline? Depressing. And that's not the worst of it. A pretty big portion of myself is riding both above and in front of that waistline. It's time to take some action. Exercise. And better eating. Less food. And as close to zero carbs as can be managed. So we had salad for lunch. For dinner we had hamburgers. Without buns. Without french fries. With another salad.

Odd thing is, I'm still full.

Oh well.

Tomorrow we start exercising.

Maybe the next day, after our rooms are put back together.

It's 28 degrees in Chicagoland right now.

It's 39 in Denver, was over 50 today, and will be over 50 tomorrow.

Next week I gotta go to Fargo and Grand Forks on business. I'll be halfway there. Night just keep going.

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hurt feelings and helpers?

How does one deal with "volunteer helpers"?

The new website http://www.firstgens.com/ is fantastic. Lots of fun to do, and lots of fun having all my friends from other websites, mostly Team Camaro, all coming over to say "Hello"! We're up to 158 members now!

And as far as the software stuff, I'm so far over my head it isn't even funny. I can handle some simple stuff, but nothing complicated.

A  number of guys have stepped up, asking to do some things, artwork mostly, to help out. The thing with volunteers is you can't push them, cause they owe you nothing. They are after all, taking their time to help out. All you can do is appreciate them.

but what do you do when 2 guys take up the same project? How do you decide which to use? How do you deal with the one that didn't get chosen? How do you handle hurt feelings and bruised egos?

And that's just small stuff. As we speak, a really good professional web designer is putting together a first class software package for the site. I've seen his work, and it's fabulous. While it is absolutely my intention to compensate those who help out with the site, when and if the site starts generating cash flow, there is no cash flow now, other than a slow trickle out. But even in my wildest dreams for this site,  2 or 3 years down the road even, I really doubt my ability to fairly compensate Jan for the work he's doing.

And I just can't wait for it to be done. And I can do nothing but wait quietly. So I cheated. He'd setup a dummy site so I could see what kind of stuff he was talking about. Taking a chance, I dug out the pm and clicked on the link. Sure enough, it was there. Very raw, not close to finished, but at least there. Two problems. It's gonna be weeks or more before it's done. I can't push a freebie, so I need to move forward with other things on the current site. I need to put the new banner in place. And I need to figure out something to generate keywords within the forum. Right now, the database is a black hole to the search engines, the only metatags are on the frontpage, and they never change. I "know" that the phpbb builds an html page out of the style and the database fields on the fly with every click. There are applications that can run with the database and "collect" keywords out of the fields, also on the fly. If I "view source" on other forums, I see code from a "generator" which is putting metatags into the html. We need this for the search engines to find us, and we need it right now.

The novelty of JimM, moderator at Team Camaro starting his own forum will wear off, heck, all ready is wearing off. We need newbies. Guys with questions. Guys who'll give us something to talk about. Now.

And Jan, I know you know this, but the site you have out there now is way to wide. 1024 pixels (the width of most laptop screens) has to fit the full page. Also, the forum that's in there now is not "variable width" As you shrink it (shrink it hell, I can display it on my laptop, I'm about 300 pixels short!) it grows scroll bars, the middle column doesn't change width, the right columns vanish. I know, it's not done. and you know this. And you'll fix it. And you have a job, a family, a life, many things that are more important than this website. So I'm patient.... really. Ask anyone who knows me, I do patient very well... (not)
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how many days?

This new website http://www.firstgens.com/ is taking some kinda time. And I'm not even doing anything to it, other than posting, and answering emails and pm's (twenty or thirty per day!!!) and fixing avatars for people.

The average avatar takes 4 - 6 pm's and 2-3 emails. Many can't manage to send me the picture first try, and nearly all don't tell me in the email what their user id is! So it takes me 32 seconds to crop and resize the picture, and 5 minutes or so to figure out who they are, and attach the avatar to their profile.

We're looking at some new software that will automatically rezise pictures, both for display and for avatars. And I'm not complaining, I like avatars, and  don't mind helping out. All the extras take time tho.

I understand now why Al never turned on avatars on TC.

We're up to 141 members,  and well over 1700 posts now. Growing very quickly.
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Rolling Rolling Rolling

My new website is really taking off. It's a gas watching it grow. http://www.firstgens.com/

We're up to 84 members and 1138 posts now, that's more than 30 new members this week alone!

And today... wow, what a day. Today we opened a new section with a new moderator.

For the first time ever, Jerry McNeish has agreed to lead a section on an internet board!

So come on over to "Jerry's Place to talk about what's correct and what's not, rare cars, copo's, and dealer modified supercars.

We'll also have a special section called "On the Road with Jerry"

Here we'll post Jerry's schedule, and you can come out to watch him race, or post to schedule inspections and certifications when Jerry's going to be in your area.
Since we all stop at many different boards, and the people who run Team Camaro have always known and understood that, make Jerry's Place one of your regular internet stops.
http://www.firstgens.com/
 
does anyone know if there's a limit to pictures on blogger, I seem to be unable to upload a pic.. :(
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Yes, I know...

it's time for a blog post.

I'll try later this morning, got to hit the shower and get off to work now.
http://www.firstgens.com/
Jim
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The holidays are over....

... and tomorrow winter just might set in. But we had a fun day. Sister in law Shannon came over, brought the kids to look at Sarah's senior pics.

Brian and Andrew took off doing boy things with plastic weapons and strange noises. I went downstairs, figured I'd work on getting the basement apartment ready to paint. Next thing I know, Kayla follows me down and tells me she's helping.

I had no idea she did such things, like standing on the itsy bitsy skinny ledge and taping the woodwork.

I had no idea she did such things, like standing on the itsy bitsy skinny ledge and taping the woodwork.


Then she says "boost me up on your shoulder so I can tape above the door! and I says "I never tape above the door, no one can see it!" and she says "Just DO it!" So... right, I'm a pushover.

Course  it seemed fun to duck into the bathroom and snap a few pics in the mirror!

Eeeeek! who are those crazy people, and why do they have red and green stickers on their cheeks?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We did eventually actually get some  painting done, too, after we finished being silly.
 
Later on, we got to experience what I like to call "suburban wildlife" 4 deer came out of the woods and into our neighbors yard, looking for something to eat. They came all the way into our yard, checked out some former greenery at the end of my driveway, and then crossed the street in search of greener pastures.

That's all for today. I'm getting a stuffy nose, and my back is sore. Caught a cold from my office manager last week. she called in sick 2 days after Christmas, then showed up on death's door. So now it's gonna be my turn. Carol, pass me the kleenex please?

And of course my back hurts from carrying 90 pounds of 13 year old around on my shoulders...lol.

Carol, will you pass me the ibu's too?

"May I never grow up"

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camaro boards?

Well, it looks like it's gonna be hitting the fan this weekend. As most of my very few readers know, a few weeks ago, I started my very own Camaro Board. The url is http://www.firstgens.com/

There's our front door. Anyway, this morning i recieved a PM from the autoforum guy who owns Team Camaro now, it went like this:

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Hi Jim:

I see that you have started up your own Camaro web site. It may come as no surprise to you that some will see this as a conflict of interest.


Here, I am assuming that JimM on Firstgens.com is the same JimM here. I hope that you are able to build what you are looking for but this is a situation where you cannot walk on both sides of the fence.


Please confirm that your are the JimM on that site and let's look at whatever transition issues may be required.

Thanks... Don
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Still waiting for the west coast to wake up. I did reply, via email, this doesn't seem the sort of conversation that should take place somewhere that "they" can just ban me from, or erase, at any moment.

And I'm kinda wondering:

How I could have a conflict of interest, when I have no agreement (other than  the basic posting rules when I signed up to be a member, 10 years and 21,000 posts ago) with them of any kind. I'm just a volunteer moderator, they don't even pay me.

What gave autoforums the right to put up fences on the internet? Heck, there's a hundred Camaro boards, maybe more. Who do they think they are?

"whatever transition issues" there may be? I have no transition issues. I've been a member of TC for 10 years. I post a lot. 22093 posts as of right now.  Many years ago, I was asked to be a moderator, and I've done my best in that role all along, up to and including right now today. A LOT of people know me and respect me there.

So, I really got to wonder what autoforums will do?

If they decide I can't be a moderator any more, but I can still post, then EVERYONE who see's me post (and you betcha I'll keep answering every tech thread that comes up!) will ask why I no longer have a mod flag next to my name. Of course I'll tell them. With the way thousands of people roll thru that board every week... well, I'm not blowing my horn to think I'll be the main topic of conversation for a long long time. And everyone will be sent to my new board http://www.firstgens.com/ And i won't even have to do it.

If they ban me it'll be even worse.

You'd think "they" would just decide live and let live is the best approach.

JimM
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