Author: James

Happy Labor Day!!!

Posted on by James

Greetings readers…

The weather here in Virginia is starting to cool down, as the Summer highway quickly comes to an end.  Fall is now upon us, with a nice cool Atlantic breeze blowing across my patio.  The sweltering summer days are finally over.   Labor Day is a matter of hours away.  The stores are already starting to sell Halloween supplies.  Shortly thereafter Thanksgiving and Christmas supplies will be in the mix as well.  Pretty much the remainder of the year is the last of the sand in an hour glass.

With the change of seasons, comes the York Counties first day of school.  Along with that comes quiet throughout the neighborhoods and throughout the house as well.  A much needed rest for my wife, I’m sure.  My oldest Daughter will start 1st grade, then Matthew will start 4th grade, then John will start 7th grade… Advanced I might add, taking 2 highschool courses.  I’m so proud.

Work… well… I think I should refrain from posting things about work at this time.

Recently I purchased a used metal detector from Craigslist.  It is notEnou a Whites detector, but a Bounty Hunter.  It’s a cheaper model, probably around $100, but will do until I get my new Whites XLT or whatever model I decided.  This will happen next month, and I can’t wait.

Think I close this entry up now, I’m sitting out on my back patio enjoying the cool breeze; as the sun eases across the horizon and darkness falls upon us… another day will come, and with it comes more challenges.  Approach each challenge wisely!

Settleing In

Posted on by James

Finally we’re starting to get settled in, here in Hampton Roads.  Yesterday our house hold goods finally arrived from Japan.  It’s funny how much stuff a family accumilates over a number of years.  We still have boxes of stuff we haven’t unpacked yet.  More clothes than I can count, and countless nick-nacks as well.  We only have one more shipment to arrive, and that is our Storage shipment, this is going to be like Christmas, because this is all the stuff that we haven’t seen since we left florida.  Included in shipment will be my badly missed tools, air compressor, and other manly stuff.

since it’s late, must go to bed…

Happy New Year

Posted on by James

Greetings fellow reader(s):

I hope all everyone has  had a wonderful Christmas, regardless of what religious background you claim.  I had a great Christmas with my Family this year.  Of course, any Christmas one spends with thier family would certainly be a great Christmas.  Eventhough this Christmas didn’t have the living room floor covered in presents like it did in past years.  The economy hits home here in Japan, perhaps not as hard as it has hit in the Untied States, but we certainly feel it as well.

Other than being with Family, another highlight would be the Wii the kids got for Christmas.  When the kids opened it, I couldn’t wait to play it.  Of course, I was the first one playing on it.

Yet another year has passed.  The Year 2009 will certainly be a memorable year for Americans and the world.  A new President who I hope restores the way the world views the Americans.  Someone who loves to travel the world, I don’t really want to be viewed as a “Bully,” which is how many countries of the world views us.  When I visit certain countries, I actually tell people I’m Canadian.

Enough for now, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!  Stay safe and take care of yourself and your Family.

New Look…

Posted on by James

After putting it off, for a while, I finally decided to re-do my website.  No templates, no Front Page… just me and some html & css.  Except for the Javascript that I used to switch styles.  Turned out decent.  Still working on it though, need to alter the background on a few, and get a good color scheme down.  Feel free to let me know what you think.

July Updates

Posted on by James

Fellow Readers… (Whomever that may be…)

Just some updates.  July was a busy month for me.  My little baby had to have surgery, so we were flown Hawaii where Doctors at Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) operated on my little girl.  The surgery went well, and we are very thankful.

It was very nice to visit Hawaii, but I was glad, as always, to get back home.  My Dad was fortunate enough to make it over to be with Audrey and I during the surgery.  This was the first time he had flown since around 1966.  Airports and aircraft have changed dramatically since then, huh?

I’m back to work now, and actually looked forward to coming to work for the first time in a long time.  The weather is raining, as usual this time in the pacific.  August is just around the corner, and school will be starting.

Sabayon Linux 3.5 was released while I was gone.  I’m downloading it now, and will install it when it’s done downloading or later on this week.  Probably won’t be done downloading until later on this week.  My ISP sucks over here.

As far as my website goes, I plan on redoing it once again.  It needs a new look.  I’m pretty much tired of the look.  And since I have more time now, I plan on hand coding my new site.  As soon as I come up with a color scheme, I’ll get busy.

Enough for now… I’ll try to post more later and include some photo’s I took in Hawaii…

-ME

Filling up my Lawnmower

Posted on by James

Remember when you could fill your car up and only use a $20 bill? Well, I have accepted that we have passed that years ago. Remember when you could take the change out of the console of your vehicle and fill your lawnmower up? I certainly do. I think that the days of filling anything up for less than $5 are over. The days of taking $5 to the store to fill your lawnmower up and buying a coke are over.

Here’s what sparked this. I went to the store to fill my 1 gallon gas can up so I can mow the grass (Ok, so my two sons can mow the grass). After filling the gas can up, I only got back 10 cents from a $5 bill. I mean, I didn’t fill up a 5 gallon gas can… this was a small 1 gallon can. I think the lawnmower holds ½ gallon. So, that’s $2.50 per lawnmower “fill-up.” This is ridiculous. I have two cars, both run on Gasoline. Now, to fill both cars up, will take a $100 bill.

Of course, when I was a wee little lad, around the age of 10, I could also remember purchasing an ICE cold Coca Cola Classic, 16 ounce glass bottle for 35 cents. Then, when I was done drinking it, I could return the bottle and I would get 10 cents back. Return 10 bottles, and I would receive an entire dollar, to do with what I please. Of course, in the 80’s, a dollar would get you a bit farther that it does now. My Grandmother would always send me to the store down the road. Mr. Garlands store as it was called. This store was located on prime Highway 27 frontage. The price was gas was around $1.00 per gallon. The winters were colder… just seems that life was easier for a 10 year old. No Nintendo DS games, no Playstations, no XBOX… only Hot wheel cars, BB gun, army men, and my bicycle and cousins and friends to play with. Enough for now…

AutoFormat a spreadsheet

Posted on by James

Trying to AutoFormat an Excel Spreadsheet…

Sub OLVIMS_REPORT()
'======================================================
' CLOSED 868 REPORT AUTO FORMAT SCRIPT/MACRO
'======================================================

    Columns("A:B").Select
    Selection.Delete Shift:=xlToLeft
    Range("H1").Select
    Cells.Replace What:="END OF REPORT", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
        SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
        ReplaceFormat:=False
    Range("A2").Select
    Columns("H:H").EntireColumn.AutoFit
    Columns("I:I").EntireColumn.AutoFit
    Columns("C:C").EntireColumn.AutoFit
    Columns("B:B").EntireColumn.AutoFit
    Range("A2:I2").Select
    Selection.Cut Destination:=Range("H1:P1")
    Range("A4:I4").Select
    Selection.Cut Destination:=Range("H3:P3")
' the rest was cut out
    '
    ' Delete Blank Rows Macro
    '
    On Error Resume Next

    Columns("I:I").SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).EntireRow.Delete

    '
    ' auto_width Macro
    '
    '
    Columns("A:Z").EntireColumn.AutoFit

'
' COLOR Macro
'
'
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual   'pre XL97 xlManual
  Dim Rng As Range, ix As Long
  Set Rng = Intersect(Range("P:P"), ActiveSheet.UsedRange)
  For ix = Rng.Count To 1 Step -1
      If Trim(Replace(Rng.Item(ix).Text, Chr(160), Chr(32))) = "" Then
        Rng.Item(ix).ClearContents
      End If
  Next
done:
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
  Application.ScreenUpdating = True

    Columns("H:H").SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).Select
    With Selection.Interior
        .Pattern = xlSolid
        .PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
        .COLOR = 65535
        .TintAndShade = 0
        .PatternTintAndShade = 0
    End With
    Columns("P:P").Select
    Columns("P:P").SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).Select
    With Selection.Interior
        .Pattern = xlSolid
        .PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
        .COLOR = 65535
        .TintAndShade = 0
        .PatternTintAndShade = 0
    End With

End Sub

Here is the full code, in txt format.