These are the ramblings of a young married couple in the great City of Chicago.
Was Lost and now is Found!
My sister has reported in! All is well again. Too bad that the information I wanted from her is no longer relevant. It is not her fault; my company just informed me that I cannot change groups like I was wanting. Grrr… I let myself think that something is as it seems here, even though I know it never is.
Vindication!
Tonight I took the second practice exam that came with my Java Certification book. I scored 44/50. 88%, I know I can do better. As soon as I saw the answer to the ones I missed, I said “doh!”
What is in a name?
The vivacious Joscelynn sends me this. Is it my parent?s fault I am who I am, or was my name fate?
Java Java
I have finished reading for the Java Programmer Certification Exam. I have done well on the chapter tests, 80-90%. I have not been thrilled with these scores, but I have learned why I answered incorrectly and moved on. Tonight I took the first comprehensive practice exam. I only answered 30 of the 50 questions correctly! I am sure I can do better then 60%. After reviewing my answers, I had misread a couple questions or did not answer fully some of them. I will do better of the next practice exam. I would like to schedule for the actual exam by the end of the week. I do not know exactly what happens after I have bought the exam from Sun.
Church in the Capital
This morning I went to church in the District of Columbia. I attended services at Foundry United Methodist Church. This is the main UMC in the DC area, much like the Temple is in Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley (Ever Great be His Name). It is a nice church. The footprint of the building is similar to the temple, but it is only 40ft high compared to the Temple’s 400ft. The sanctuary is similar to all of the urban First UMCs I have attended. The sanctuary is a little wider than the Temple and about 3/4 the depth. The service was nice, but it was a gimmick Sunday, Youth Sunday. I would like to attend again next month during a regular service and communion to see how a normal Sunday works.
I took the Merto into the city after parking at Vienna, VA. It is much like the CTA, but there are differences. The most obvious thing is that although the L is over 100 years old and the newest trains were bough about the same time as the Metros, the CTA has managed to stay away from Orange for the most part and keep a modern look. Everything in the Metro system screams 1960s and 70s.
One metro car is the length of an L car pair. The seats are padded (orange) and there is carpeting. The Metro is quieter, and runs a little less like a roller coaster.
The Metro uses a fare system similar to Metra where you pay for distance. You run your fare care to enter the station, and then again, when you leave. One nice feature in the stations is pass machines. You can purchase various passes using your credit card. I bought a 1-day pass for only $5. This was good for me because I was ridding from an end point to the center of town. Round trip would have been $6 with a fare card. These are two things the CTA should invest in, machines that take credit cards and machine where passes can be purchased.
After church, I explored (was lost in the insane street pattern of) Washington. I walked down by the White House, and just missed Marine One dropping off the President.
In the footsteps of James Madison
Yesterday I took a trip down to Montpelier in central Virginia. This was the home of our Fourth President and Father of the Constitution. I encourage everyone to take this fun trip. I do not have time to write up a full report tonight, but as soon as I can I will tell you all about my trip. For now, enjoy some uncommented photos.
Shout Out to the Host with the Most
My friend Greg asked me who hosts tomaw.com and if i would recommend them. Below I share my answer.
www.phpwebhosting.com
I only had one problem. A couple weeks ago, my server (including mail) went down for a night. They are not verbose so I do not know it was expected or if I lost and email. They do not have much customer service. You can send them mail, and they usually respond but I do not think they had 24-hour staff. Having said that, I do not think you can find better service for $9.95/mo. It is quietly billed to my credit card each month and I have email. They give you something like 100 MB or maybe 500 MB I do not know, but they say that you can have more you just have to ask. They ask that you do not put anything high traffic up. It is almost more like a co-op than a service. I do not bather them, they do not bother me. They have perl installed for each server instance. Moreover, due to the name, PHP is there, but I have never used it. The one thing I would like, and would make me change in an instant if I could find it is a service with J2EE. When I was looking a couple of years ago, everyone said it was a security risk. Which made me say what security risk? I do not know of any problems having a Java Container running on a server. The only think I can think of is that it might be hard to set up the servers to be restarted individually because they all reside on the same machine.
Untouchable down!
Robert Stack is dead! It is not a mystery, he had a heart attack. Many Wednesday nights were spent in my childhood watching Mr. Stack Unsolved Mysteries.
Is IU the Ball State of the future?
My Alma Mater has been ranked in the Top 5 for both drug and alcohol arrests! This explains why I have trouble contacting my sister and Joscelynn sometimes!
I am going to take Capt. Jerry Minger’s word for it that this is a result of higher arrest rates.
Where was IUPD when I was a sophomore and my roommate, “Bud”, was making deals in my room?
And my friend Anu sends me this.