tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186058242009-10-13T19:26:39.841-04:00Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-65269443158104982532008-07-02T13:32:00.003-04:002008-07-02T13:43:25.316-04:00

I wrote a short blog post about Google's Pay Per Click Beta. They are ending the beta, unfortunately, forcing online retailers to find other ways to measure ROI from paid search campaigns.

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-69252395522965633942007-11-27T14:12:00.000-05:002008-12-11T10:47:23.681-05:00

Attention data junkies: you use Quicken to see where your dollars and cents go, Google Analytics to see who visits your blog, and got the upgraded package in your car just to get the trip computer. Now, you can track how you spend your time on your computer and the internet with RescueTime.com. It keeps track of how much time you spend in various desktop apps, but it also tracks time on websites.

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-51944816022953056892007-11-21T09:32:00.000-05:002007-11-21T09:45:54.252-05:00

Been playing with Google Maps, and created a route of the run I've been doing the last week or so. I want to run the 5 mile Gallop and Gorge race Thanksgiving morning, and needed to go on a couple of training runs. It's a good 3.8 mile loop, pretty well lit, with sidewalks on the entire path. That's useful since much of it is through downtown Carrboro, and I've been running at night.View Larger

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-89039989812992202762007-11-02T16:42:00.000-04:002007-11-02T16:45:26.030-04:00

I just uploaded a post to ChannelAdvisor's blog about click fraud in paid search marketing; what it is, where it comes from, and what to do about it. Here's an excerpt but check out the full post for all the details.Fraudulent clicks can kill a search engine marketing program. Costs can skyrocket, and for the on-line retailer, revenue goes nowhere. Most of my clients worry about it, and it's

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-68887669868041428982007-09-12T14:12:00.000-04:002007-09-12T16:00:12.916-04:00

According to a recently published study, liberals are now definitely conclusively and obviously smarter than conservatives. I read it in the newspaper. It must be true.Unfortunately, the actual study in question was so narrow in scope as to be practically meaningless. According to the LA Times, liberals were more likely to do the Right Thing (that is, a politically correct, and therefore, liberal

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-71958853615065721992007-09-07T12:29:00.001-04:002007-09-07T12:40:14.952-04:00

My buddy Tony Woodlief has been productive since our college days, having produced a PhD and 4 boys with his wife Celeste. He also writes about life as a parent in the modern age while quoting great thinkers and philosophers. Though his tone is quite critical of many modern parenting theories, he's also quite well read and funny to boot. I bought his short pamphlet, "Raising Wild Boys into Men"

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-89224406986479789552007-09-06T11:47:00.001-04:002008-12-11T10:47:23.848-05:00

My brother Brett was involved in a cool art project at Burning Man this year. He spent much of the summer helping to disassemble, then weld, machine, grind, and generally construct a large installation of two tanker trucks.I visited the American Steel building in Oakland where the construction was taking place. It was noisy and dusty, but sculpture artist Mike Ross and crew were close to

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-77172690633737867052007-06-13T16:44:00.000-04:002008-12-11T10:47:24.166-05:00

Interesting prognostications from a great inventor and thinker. In Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, he argues that by the year 2030, we will have computers that are as smart as humans, nanobots that can cure disease and eliminate aging, and we will transcend biology to mesh with technology. His evidence essentially stems from what he perceives as the

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-13043657062201525232007-04-27T11:49:00.000-04:002007-05-08T21:22:31.548-04:00

My Uncle Bruce was my father's little brother, and as kids they were thick as thieves. If there was mischief to get into, they found a way to get into it. They grew up in a different era, where toughness and friendship were king. Bruce was the smaller of the two, but the way my dad tells it, the one you didn't want to mess with. The two of them always stuck together and when Bruce did manage to

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-77996894636457996582007-04-17T09:04:00.000-04:002007-04-18T22:33:54.358-04:00

Modern home design is unfortunately, usually a high-end affair for the rich and posh amongst us. Take a magazine like Dwell, for example. They feature some really great design and innovative techniques and technology. Unfortunately, it's really more of a Architecture Digest for the modern crowd than anything useful for designing or building your own home. The ads, typically one of the most useful

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-52736380058838272662007-03-14T22:54:00.000-04:002007-03-15T00:31:56.353-04:00

This project is wrapping up. I'm living in the house now.Periodically someone asks me if being the general contractor on this renovation has been hard. Well, it's not hard like quantum physics is hard. And it isn't hard like running a marathon. And it definitely isn't as hard as finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It's more that it is time-consuming. And it requires organization. And

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-82440462175444279142007-01-17T23:25:00.000-05:002007-03-14T22:12:45.350-04:00

Again, I haven't blogged about the house in awhile, and much has changed. The kitchen is largely done now and you can see the high-tech high-gloss red cabinets and white appliances. Just don't touch cause they smudge and scratch. The plumbing, electrical, and HVAC finals are complete.The family room even has a TV, though it only has one chair, no curtains, and cardboard on the floor protecting

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-89093422471374996422006-11-03T22:34:00.000-05:002007-03-15T00:20:22.258-04:00

Paint and FlooringFlooring and PaintTILE!!

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-5839409301057344872006-10-01T19:29:00.000-04:002007-03-15T07:55:38.430-04:00

The drywall is almost finished. So that means that the flooring can be installed next. Which should take 3 or 4 weeks.Back in July, I wrote that I hoped to be done by Halloween. I could conceivably be "done" by Halloween, and move in, but, there wouldn't be any water, electricity, or heating. I could pitch a tent in the family room and sleep in it. Maybe burn some of the rubbish in the backyard

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-67442766826564765632006-07-06T22:22:00.000-04:002007-03-15T00:25:20.625-04:00

Did I say that I was going to finish up by end of summer? I think I said that. I now, officially, formally, take it back. Consider it rescinded. It ain't gonna happen, folks. This house is quite far away from being done. The original plan did not include such extensive renovations. The new plan has included a complete gutting of the interior. It's a good thing, because the house was in need of a

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-90193220973128853872006-06-15T21:22:00.000-04:002007-03-14T22:33:38.822-04:00

It's been awhile since I blogged about the house. Much has changed and it's starting to look like a house again on the inside. The framing is going in now. The sub-floor is completely finished, and the walls and ceilings are being roughed-in.Here is a shot of the skylights and the light wells. The skylights are one of my favorite upgrades from the old layout. This is in the family room, which

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-13633097917923603642006-05-15T21:48:00.000-04:002007-03-15T08:12:45.482-04:00

I need a lot of furnishings for this remodel. Even though the exterior of the house is craftsman style, I want a more modern interior. Modern interiors at an affordable price pretty much only come from a few places, IKEA and Target being the two that come to mind immediately. And IKEA sells fixtures, which Target doesn't. I also like the fact that IKEA has an environmental policy with some real

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-23317248170629149812006-05-01T18:33:00.000-04:002007-03-14T22:51:45.255-04:00

The floor joists and some of the wall framing are now up.The electrical rough-in is now complete.Master-carpenter-in-training Finn, with his tool belt, inspects the work and explains what we should do next. Actually, that's not a tool belt. It's a LEGO sword. But I'm sure he's explaining something.

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-33830057286390233772006-04-27T20:48:00.000-04:002008-12-11T10:47:24.566-05:00

Most of the sill on the north side of the house had to be replaced. (The sill is the wood that sits on top of the foundation.) It wasn't obvious at first, because the side of the wood that looks fine is the only side we could see. When Ray was trying to repair a small bit of settling in the front room floor, they discovered that the sill was more than half rotted away!It's fixed now, but this is

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-4446079961344252112006-04-17T20:37:00.000-04:002007-03-15T13:27:40.309-04:00

The old joists needed to be removed. Here, Ray is using a sawzall to remove part of the rotted sill.The old floor had settled more than 3 inches from east to west. You can see here how the old joists were patched together and repaired piecemeal over the years and shored up with makeshift piers. It's all coming out and being redone right.This rotted joist and crumbled pier were holding up the

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-5653840785287024752006-03-22T20:02:00.000-05:002007-03-15T13:09:50.866-04:00

Now that I've purchased the home, it's time to start tearing things up! Demolition started small and grew quickly, as the number of problems behind the walls and under the floors manifested themselves. I could have done a quick update, but the floors would have been very uneven, the low ceilings with popcorn would have remained, and generally the house would not look particularly original OR

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-1145411154242441842006-02-15T21:40:00.000-05:002007-03-14T23:48:23.671-04:00

Before I started renovations, the house interior was pretty basic. The house had been rented for many years, so the house was serviceable. The family had made an effort to get the house ready for sale, and wanted the house to be in good shape for whoever bought it.I decided that I want to live in the house, and to be a place that I want to live in, I needed to update the interior. I want to

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-1145052624440113252006-02-10T18:01:00.000-05:002007-03-14T23:47:22.226-04:00

I just bought a house in downtown Chapel Hill! It's an old house with a rich history, but had been vacant for several years as the heirs to the property decided what to do with it.There is a huge amount of work to do. Since buying the house, I've hired an excellent design/architecture firm, BellaDomus, to rework the interior to fit a more modern lifestyle. Part of the redesign is to move the

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18605824.post-1145051635283828562006-01-01T17:39:00.000-05:002007-03-14T23:45:50.822-04:00

So where did the title to my blog come from? It is from a poem by Matsuo Bashō, a Japanese poet from the Edo period. The full poem is: None is traveling Here along this way but I This autumn evening.The Edo Period of old Japan is really quite interesting. The poetry is beautiful, haunting, and full of sorrow. Yet the simple descriptions of nature really evoke a powerful image in my mind

Jason Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979359436466589836noreply@blogger.com0