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Friday, July 01, 2011 9:14 AM

I am NOT a stalker.

Yesterday, I as was stepping out of Penn Station on my way to work, I noticed that the woman walking a few steps ahead of me appeared, from the rear at least, rather pretty. And as we started to walk up 8th Avenue, it seemed that our routes to work overlapped,
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Wednesday, December 27, 2006 10:25 AM

The Dumbest Christmas Tradition

Merry Christmas. Attending midnight mass last night, (message delayed a bit due to technical difficulties) I was reminded of what is clearly one of the dumbest Christmas traditions practiced by many. Many (probably most) Christians will display a nativity
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Wednesday, December 27, 2006 8:57 AM

2006 Holiday Card

For those of you who weren't on my Christmas card list (or whose name fell after the point where I ran out of envelopes), my Christmas card for 2006 is available here (785K PDF). Download it, print it out (one 8 1/2 x 11 page), fold it into quarters,
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Friday, December 22, 2006 10:14 AM

One reason why it's cool to have WindowsCE on your mobile phone.

Like most Americans (and many others around the world), I've spent a lot of time the passed few weeks shopping for Christmas presents. Actually, I didn't spend that much until this week, which was part of the problem, so this week was a panic. Anyway,
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Wednesday, December 13, 2006 8:34 PM

Ok, One more quiz...Commonly Confused Words Test

English Genius You scored 92% Beginner, 92% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert! You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 3:08 AM

More Videos

Ok, in this selection we've got politians and Rev Billy. One or the other is not going to forgive me. Music first. The Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir singing "Not For Sale" Now the talking heads. We start with two from Rep Pascrell. Next, we toss
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Saturday, October 07, 2006 7:28 PM

At the Democratic HQ

I volunteer for the Menendez Campaign. He came by the this morning And so was Rep. Pascrell: (Update: I finally got the YouTube links working) Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! Readability Stats: Word Count: 31; Sentence Count:
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Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:26 AM

Rockstar : Recap

OK, now that Rockstar: Supernova has been over for a couple weeks, I guess it's about time for me to review my earlier predictions . My top four were all in the final five. Dilana, who I said was the most talented, made it to the last two, so my sense
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Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:04 AM

Games Tax Agencies Play

I live in NJ, and last year (and half of this year -- but that's another story) I worked in New York State (Manhattan to be precise). This meant that back in April, in addition to the Federal tax return, I also had to file returns for both NY & NJ.
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006 6:58 AM

My Pirate Name (Sorry, I'm a day late.....)

My pirate name is: Dirty James Rackham You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem,
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006 8:08 PM

RockStar : Supernova

My guilty please of the summer of watching the Reality show "RockStar : Supernova". It's the sequel/spin-off/second season of last year's "RockStar : INXS" where the surviving members of the band INXS selected a replacement for Michael Hutchence who had
Posted by James | 1 Comments
Thursday, June 08, 2006 12:28 PM

Death Forecast

James's Death Forecast: It is estimated that you will die at the age of 77 Years Old . http://deathforecast.com/result.php?record=106381 . However, after I filled that out for myself, I tried it for my father (who died 2000 at age 71). It predicted he
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Monday, April 24, 2006 10:34 AM

Growing & Shrinking Freeze Tag

On Saturdays, I take a class in Improv Comedy. I thought I'd share with you one of the exercises/game we did it class. The game is called "Growing & Shrinking Freeze Tag". In regular Improv Freeze Tag, two people start a scene, and at some point,
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Monday, April 24, 2006 7:41 AM

One thing after another....

The problem started small. I was trying to install a headset on my PC. I'd got a switch, to toggle between the speakers and the headphones. Things were going fine, when suddenly, my keyboard stopped working. I've got 5 PCs using the same keyboard &
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Tuesday, December 20, 2005 11:55 PM

Yes, I'm from Jersey.....

I scored a 71% What about you? Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! Readability Stats: Word Count: 15; Sentence Count: 3; Grade Level: K, more info...
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Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:56 AM

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

You Passed 8th Grade Math Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct! Could You Pass 8th Grade Math? Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! Readability Stats: Word Count: 17; Sentence Count: 2; Grade Level: 2.3, more info...
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Friday, July 15, 2005 11:46 AM

What's Your Ideal Career?

Your Career Type: Investigative You are precise, scientific, and intellectual. Your talents lie in understanding and solving math and science problems. You would make an excellent: Architect - Biologist - Chemist Dentist - Electrical Technician - Mathematician
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:36 AM

kinda sad actually.....

Your Travel Profile: You Are Extremely Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (100%) You Are Well Traveled in Scandinavia (60%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Canada (40%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Southern United States (23%)
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Thursday, June 09, 2005 3:53 PM

SJP Alert

I think I saw Sarah Jessica Parker on the street yesterday. I was walking down 23rd St in NYC, from 6 th Ave (heading towards 5th Ave). A woman was walking the other way. I didn't think anything of it, as people pass all the time, but just as she passed
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Thursday, June 02, 2005 7:57 AM

Which Simon and Garfunkel album am I?

I'm Bridge Over Troubled Water ! Which Simon and Garfunkel album are you? Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! Readability Stats: Word Count: 12; Sentence Count: 2; Grade Level: 5.4, more info...
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Friday, May 27, 2005 3:36 PM

What Pre-1985 Video Game Character Am I?

Ya'know.... As long as I keep finding these quizes, I may be able to keep posting here occasionally, without effort.... I am a Breakout Bat . I am an abstract sort of creature, who dislikes any sort of restraint. If you try to pigeonhole me, I'll break
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 8:04 AM

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Your Linguistic Profile: 50% General American English 35% Yankee 10% Dixie 5% Upper Midwestern 0% Midwestern What Kind of American English Do You Speak? Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! Readability Stats: Word Count: 24;
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Sunday, April 17, 2005 10:47 PM

ESTAFest 2005, Day 3

OK, Let's try this again (The first one got eaten by the system) Sunday was the Closing Brunch and Awards ceremony. Here are the winners: Merit Awards (sort of like "Honorable mention") Ensemble Acting: Liz Keifer & Cat Guthrie, Going to the Chapel
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Saturday, April 16, 2005 9:45 PM

ESTAFest 2005, Day 2

After the hardy hotel breakfast, I joined in on the one "outside" activity planned for the weekend -- A walking tour of Historic Dover Delaware. Being a sucker for old building, I loved it -- I should have some photos up in the gallery soon. For lunch,
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Saturday, April 16, 2005 12:07 AM

ESTAFest 2005, Day 1

OK, so I don't write a message for 6 months. But you can always count on a good ESTA Festival to get me talking. This year it is being held in Delaware -- just about the same length of drive as the Maryland one last year (Hate to think where their gonna
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Friday, September 03, 2004 8:02 AM

The Republican National Convention, Day 4.

Not as many photos today, partial because what I did wasn't as photogenic, but mostly because, for the second time in three days, I let the battery on my camera run down. Since I got to bed later last night, I overslept and had to scramble to get into
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Thursday, September 02, 2004 3:56 AM

The Republican National Convention, Day 3.

Lots'o'photos today. Partial because I did a lot, and partial because one event lent itself to photographing everything. As usually, images are at: http://gallery.honestillusion.com First off, I dragged myself into the City an hour & a half earlier than
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004 1:00 AM

The Republican National Convention, Days 1 & 2.

Being that I work in Midtown Manhattan (*) and am quite opposed to the crook currently in th White House, I felt the need to join in on the protests going on around town. (*) Ok, I actually work in Gramercy Park, which is a bit south of Midtown, but basically,
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Monday, August 30, 2004 12:34 AM

The party & The crash

The funny thing about not posting all month is that I've had something I wanted to write about for 3 week; I just never got a chance. Every year on the first Saturday of August, my friends Paul & Deb have a barbecue on the 30 acre farm in western NJ.
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Wednesday, June 02, 2004 4:06 PM

Rainbow

Ooops... Somehow I let the entire month of May go without posting anything. Well, nothing blog worthy has happened to me lately. OK, Yesterday I did see a rainbow. Even photographed it (see the galleries) Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg
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Wednesday, April 21, 2004 8:14 AM

ESTAFest Day 3

Sorry, I guess I left you hanging there..... Sunday, we had the final performance, "Harriet" by the Serenity Players of Washington, DC. Originally a one-women monologue about Harriet Tubman, they added a second woman, who performed a couple hymns (Tubman
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Thursday, April 08, 2004 10:06 AM

MVP Summit, Day 3 & the Pink Door.

On the third day of the Summit, the MVPs met with the Product teams at Microsoft for whichever product they support. That means I met with the folks on the C++ Team, who told me all about what's coming up in the next version of Visual Studio. In other
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004 4:02 AM

The Scoble Watch, Day 1

Robert Scoble claims the Honest Illusion is one of the 1400 blogs he reads daily. We'll just have to see about that.... So, Robert, if you're reading this, you can just leave a comment right there --v Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it!
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004 3:58 AM

MVP Summit, Day 2

Today was the Executive day at the Summit.... Lot's'o'big shots. First up was Lori Moore, vice president of Product Service Service, ie, the woman who's budget is paying for all this. She is a rather nice person, and she tries to let he hair down a bit
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Tuesday, April 06, 2004 1:21 AM

MVP Summit, Day#1

I just left the first day of the MVP Summit. Saw a number of lectures: ASP.Net improvements, Visual Studio IDE improvements, Visual Studio Debugger improvements ( lot's Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! Readability Stats:
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Monday, April 05, 2004 2:55 AM

MVP Summit, Day 0.5

The real MVP summit starts tomorrow (The first bus leave the hotel at 6:30!!), but today they had the registration at the Washisngton State Cenvention Center. We went to one room, where they looked up our names, and handed as a bag, and then we went upstairs
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Saturday, April 03, 2004 9:28 PM

MVP Summit

As I write, I'm in Seattle, at Microsoft's MVP Summit. Actually, that's not entirely true: I am in Seattle, but I won't officially be at the summit until sometime tomorrow evening when it actually starts. Right now, I'm just hangin' out in my hotel room,
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Saturday, April 03, 2004 9:21 PM

Order in Chaos, the Answer...

Ok, before I get to anything else (and there will be a bit), I'd better answer the question I posed last month (BTW, notice that I've never let a full month go by without a blog entry -- I'll get the hang of this thing yet....) Anyway, the reason, as
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Sunday, March 07, 2004 8:44 AM

How I met Philip Glass

Some time ago, Raymond Chen blogged about the Glass Engine , and asked Marc Miller to tell the story of how he met Philip Glass. It appears that Marc never did, so I'll post my story. Actually, it's not very exciting. Circa 1989, he was doing a concert
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Thursday, February 12, 2004 10:43 AM

That's odd

I'm back..... The website was down about almost a week. (Did you miss us? I'd make the obvious joke about “all my regular reader -- both of you”, except even that is hopelessly optimitic -- but those of you who last week tried to do a Google
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Tuesday, January 27, 2004 10:39 PM

Office Football pool

Like pretty much every office in the country, mine has a pool of the Superbowl. Since we don't have enough employee to fill 100 boxes, each person got four combinations. Mine are 6-0, 5-0, 1-7, 2-3. (Patriot's scores listed first). So, given that, here
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Saturday, December 06, 2003 8:50 PM

Still more from last month.... (the Britney Spears post)

OK, I'll get to Thanksgiving soon. But I've still more it talk about from before that... Going back to, I guess, Nov 14th, I saw Saturday Night Live on TV. I don't watch it that often, so naturally, it was a repeat of a show I'd seen a few weeks earlier.
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Friday, December 05, 2003 12:15 PM

Catching up....

Ok, so where was I in filling you in on what I did last month? Oh, yes. Thanksgiving. Wait... I've got to go back a bit, On the 15 th -- after the NJTL meeting and the play (which were both in West Windsor, NJ), I thought about visiting my sister, since
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