Journey Inside My Mind ™

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Back of apartment building

Day 4 of power being out in our neighborhood and for much of the Greater Cincinnati area.  The Hurricane Ike-related windstorm on Sunday has caused power outages across Central and Southwestern Ohio.  Utility crews are working to restore power to all customers.  Duke Energy reported that about 90% of their customers in the Greater Cincinnati area have had power outages.

At home we’re hunkered down with flashlights and candles (shh!), ice, our propane grill, and whatever non-perishables we’ve found.  We’ve thrown out most of the items in our refrigerator, and we really need to get some laundry done.  We’re hopeful that power will be restored soon.

As I’ve entered our darkened neighborhood on my way home these past few nights, it has felt like I’m entering a scene from I Am Legend.  I keep the blinds open at night when I go to bed to be cheered when the streetlights come on.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we’re using this time as an opportunity to get to know our neighbors better and definitely count our blessings.  Those in the Gulf states are certainly worse off than we are.

For now, among my online friends, we’re affectionately calling this time Survivor: Cincinnati.

  

	CBS – Theme From Survivor
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Post It Cast Live
Host: Michael W. Moss
Episode: Interview With Dan Johnson Jr.
Host Of The Journey Inside My Mind Podcast: http://jimmpodcast.blogspot.com/
Also huge promoter of a great cause: http://onevoicewalk.org/
Tuesday, 09 October 2007
6:15 pm Eastern
live podcast
724.444.7444
Talkcast ID 32555
Answers Here

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Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
Get That Job!
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I was recently interviewed for a piece in the Dayton Daily News about the Harry Potter series and faith. I just found out that the article is available online here and will be in the print edition either Saturday (9/22/2007) or Sunday (9/23/2007).

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Mike Schaffner points us to an eWeek report on a recent poll by Reuters that discussed how Blackberrys and laptops are blurring the distinction between home and work life.

He recommends the following useful techniques:

1. Take action to reduce the number of unnecessary emails that you receive
2. Prioritize your actions – take control of when you check and respond to email

He also recommends going into your Blackberry and turning the new email notification off so that you’re not tempted to check it every time a new one arrives. The key to remember is that laptops and Blackberrys are not your jobs; instead they are tools to help you do your jobs.

Here are the comments I left:

You hit a nerve in me with this one, Mike, on a couple of levels.

1. I am totally for getting information when it’s convenient for me. I consume most of my media on-demand these days. The idea of watching a program at a specific time is something I’m growing out of. The same with online media (blogs, podcasting, and the like). I’m learning to consume it on my schedule.
2. Having said that, I’m also a guy who checks every email that comes in and who also spends so much of my time lately watching what’s going on with Twitter (http://twitter.com).

I have recently found out how to change the notifications for Outlook and GMail, but I could do a lot better with Twitter.

What about you?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n4fDgmrF3o]

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I was checking out my Google personalized home page, where I have a feed from Topix.net related to ADHD. I saw this article mentioning the FDA’s recent approval of a new drug by Shire to help treat ADHD called Vyvanse.

The article mentions that Shire, the pharmaceutical company, has pushed for FDA approval of Vyvanse because it faces competition from generic versions of Adderall come 2009.

I used to take Adderall and Adderall XR a few years ago, and I found it to help as well as a drug can. I stopped taking it because it got to be too much of a hassle to get the doctor’s approval, then the insurance approval. I couldn’t believe how much this medicine cost, too. Geez.

I’m still looking for ways to adequately manage my ADHD symptoms, although I often feel like I wouldn’t have as much going on if I was taking some medicine for it.

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Steve Jobs has posted a revolutionary article on Apple’s website entitled, “Thoughts on Music“, in which he compares the sales of CDs, which are free from Digital Rights Management (DRM), to sales of individual tracks on the iTunes Music Store, which do have DRM. His argument is that major record labels are selling so many CDs right now and that, if Apple is able to remove the DRM from tracks it sells, even more tracks would be sold.

I probably can’t do the article justice. There’s more of a discussion on music players and other stuff. Head on over to the article.

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A local Cincinnati high school was recently profiled on CBS for reforming itself:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvW-Ga9AX0Y]

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I’ve been in the newspaper a few times in my life, and fortunately all of them have been good occasions. Let me see if I can remember correctly (cue the harp music):

• Winning the elementary school spelling bee, which meant I got to go to the citywide spelling bee
• Going to Buckeye Boys State in high school
• Mentioned a few times in the University of Cincinnati’s News Record (after the ’93 elections, in someone else’s column, and in an article I wrote about continuing education)
• Being on the front page of one of the sections of the USA Today. Having been interviewed and picture taken while walking in a dumpster, working on a project to restore an inner city building so that people could live in it again.
• Being on the front page of the Christmas Eve edition of the newspaper, when I volunteered for the Salvation Army
• That time when we lived in Middletown, Ohio, and were with some friends, and both their daughter Rachel and our daughter Keisha wore overalls. I was able to pick both of them up at the back part and swing them around. The photographer snapped our picture and it, too, wound up being on the front page.
• Now, recently, in comments made during an online poll to select the Best of Borgman 2006. Jim Borgman is the editorial cartoonist for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Check out number 18 on the list. I know it’s minor but it’s still in the newspaper!

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Evan Williams and Biz Stone through a new venture called Obvious Corp., have acquired the assets of Odeo and Twitter, two services I’ve been known to use over the past several weeks. Congratulations and best wishes!

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Since our 8-year old daughter is hard of hearing, I’m interested in stuff like this:

Bionic Ear Blog: Statistics on Hearing Problems

I found this article especially good for two main reasons:

1. I have a daughter who is hard of hearing
2. I spend a lot of time listening to audio content on a portable mp3 player

Hearing Loss News and Articles: Finding the right headphones

It’s been four years:

• Moving On – editorial cartoon Jim Borgman
• 9-11 Remembered
• 100 Words – All entries for September 11, 2002

LUTHER VANDROSS: 1951-2005 / Studio singer soared to stardom / Top-selling balladeer never fully recovered from stroke in 2003

CNN.com – Johnny Carson, late-night TV legend, dead at 79 – Jan 23, 2005

Yahoo! News – ‘Gloria’ Singer Laura Branigan Dies at 47

GOLF ON THE MOON

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ — Following is the daily “Profile America” feature for Feb. 6 from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6: GOLF ON THE MOON

Profile America — Friday, February 6th. Occasionally, when someone hits a tremendous golf shot, a partner will exclaim “out of this world!” The first and only golf shots really made out of this world occurred on this day in 1971. Astronaut Alan Shepard brought a six-iron he had stashed away aboard his Apollo spacecraft down to the surface of the moon and swung at three golf balls. He whiffed the first swing, but considering the bulkiness of his spacesuit, his others resulted in good shots. None of them went into orbit, however. Here on earth, nearly 27 million people play golf every year, making the rounds on some 15,500 courses, about two-thirds of them open to the public. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at http://www.census.gov

Now you know.

Bob Keeshan has passed away at 76. My favorite part of the “Captain Kangaroo” show was when Mr. Moose tricked the Captain into saying something that led to a bunch of ping pong balls dropping on him.

U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for Jan. 20: Fad Diets

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ — Following is the daily “Profile America” feature for Jan. 20 from the U.S. Census Bureau:

TUESDAY, JANUARY 20: FAD DIETS

Profile America — Tuesday, Jan. 20th. A lot of attention is being focused on dieting this month, probably as a result of all the tempting goodies that surrounded us during the holidays. The thrust of many of these observances is to promote a healthy lifestyle. But today’s is a little different it’s “rid the world of fad diets and gimmicks day,” concentrating on the down side of the desire to lose weight — diet products that defraud, disable and even kill. The annual “Slim Chance” awards will be given for the worst weight loss products of the year. Just over half the people in the U.S. are at least 25 percent over their ideal weight. More ominously, about 1-in-5 are considered clinically obese. More men are overweight than women by a large margin — 65 percent to 48. Find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at http://www.census.gov.