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Not Dead Yet!

Jim McClain
May 23, 2009
Health
1 Comment

I can’t believe I let this website nearly die. It has been over a year since my last post and I am still kickin’. I am doing better than this blog. My apologies to all of you thinking you shoulda never added it to your favorites or bookmarks. To show you my sincerity, I have finally given the site its own favicon – the little graphic you should see just in front of the address in your browser (browsers are weird – you may not see it yet, but you will when your browser gets around to it). It looks like a smaller version of the graphic you see over there on the left upper corner of this post.

My health has deteriorated, as is expected with a disease that is chronic and has no cure. But they adjust my medication levels and (more…)

What My Other Foot Wants…

…My other foot should get. No doubt you’ve heard of “The Bucket List.” I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I understand the premise. Well, I don’t want to copy the title, but it is, in fact, a bucket list. But because my website’s name is “1 Foot in the Grave,” I figured a good and proper name for my bucket list would be “My Other Foot List.” Although I do have one foot in the grave because of this damned lung disease, my other foot is not ready yet. This is sorta what my other foot would like to do before I die. (more…)

Suicide On The Installment Plan

I believed in the black eye — “I would rather fight than switch” (the advertising slogan of Tareyton cigarettes) — but I finally quit almost 9 years ago. After smoking cigarettes for 35 years and pot for 20, I’m finally starting to get something back for it. Yeah, sure, I got the bad breath, the yellow teeth and stinky clothes a long time ago, but now the really good stuff is comin’ my way. (more…)

My Kinda Music: MAROON5

Not a whole lotta real pleasures in my life these days. I really love spending most of my time on this computer, building websites, working with graphics. I also enjoy…

I AM The Mad Modder

Jim McClain
December 31, 2007
Technology
4 Comments

“The Mad Modder” was a tag I picked up sometime in 2003. I was known as “Grump” for a long time – not an undeserved nick-name – and in ’03, I was hanging out a lot in case modding forums. I built the computer you see in the picture (click it to see a larger version) and it impressed someone at CPU Magazine and it was featured in the October 2003 issue and I became the first “Mad Reader Mod.” Of course, the title was derived from my nick-name and a few people in the modding circles began calling me “the mad modder.” I even got the domain name, The Mad Modder dot com, which at one time had a pretty nice forum – another one of those things I had to give up when I got sick. (more…)

My Thoughts About WordPress

Although I had planned for a long time to start a blog (I think I made my first effort in 1993 or 4), I had never decided on what script to use until just a couple days ago. I was actually looking for something that I could use for a Floor Pro Network so that my members could have their own blogs. I tried a couple things out and even settled on b2evolution. But when I installed that application and was faced with the configuration and other options, I gave WordPress another look. (more…)

The Bad News First

Jim McClain
December 29, 2007
Health
1 Comment

I should consider myself lucky that I've made it through life this far. My childhood was filled with accidents and I prob'ly cheated death a few times. Broke several bones,…

Grump’s Passion for Computers

This was originally one of the pages of the very early version of GrumpsPlace.com, one of my first websites way back in 2003. Here it is reprinted for my enjoyment – and maybe yours too.

I love computers – software, hardware…

I prob’ly spend way too much time on my computers, but they are just so fascinating. I got my first one in 1991, intimidating as Hell, but needing something to help me keep the books. It wasn’t long before I was fiddling around with the settings, trying to squeeze more performance out of a 386DX with 1MB RAM, a 4MB HDD and running MS-DOS 5. Then I discovered something quite different from my pet peeve about working on cars (more…)

Grump’s Pissin’ an’ Moanin’ Blog

Nestled in the nether regions of My Documents (this was either a Windows 98 or Windows 2000 Professional based computer) was a copy of the first blog post I ever did. Although this is February 2015, I time-stamped this at the same date and time this file was created. Click the image there on the left to see what it looked like back then. What you see below is word-for-WordPress. 😉 The only thing I changed was the email link at the end – it now links to my official contact page. Sorry. I know it’s bad, but remember, this was new to me in 2003 and still new to the World Wide Winternet back then. Enjoy.

Grump’s First Blog Post Ever

It’s an official fad. I read about “blogs” in my daily newspaper, (more…)