Crash Into January
Posted on | December 29, 2007 at 5:01 pm | 9 Comments
Be careful what you wish for…
I knew that if I complained long enough about having nothing to post about, something would happen. Well, it did. I had a very close encounter with a stopped RTD bus on a slippery road yesterday. The bus wasn’t damaged and luckily it had no passengers; the driver was on the way back to the station. Neither I or the bus driver was injured, and I had no passengers either. The policeman who investigated didn’t even give me a ticket. The RTD supervisor said it was the third one he had seen that day. In fact, there was another accident around five blocks or so down on the same street, and there was an ambulance at that one. I don’t think there was a bus involved though.
The airbag on the Prius did not deploy and it’s still somewhat drivable. But, oh boy, it doesn’t look good:
So it’s back to the body shop for the Prius. The front bumper and the hood took the brunt of the impact. From what I can tell, the engine compartment wasn’t damaged. I can’t really open the hood to check. It seems to be driving okay and no warning lights are on. But I think I’m going to drop it off Monday at the auto body shop and get a rental, even if they can’t fit me in right away.
Jogged Today: No
Today’s Weight: 163.8 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: Cheesy Beefy Melt (or whatever it’s called) and a taco at Taco Bell.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Anti-lock brakes that lock.
[Insert Clever Title Here]
Posted on | December 28, 2007 at 2:59 pm | 1 Comment
I should just cede the daily posting contest to Steve. This is essentially a space filler blog entry; a quickie so that I don’t lose ground. I don’t know if I’ll have time later today to do something more detailed/interesting. I wasted most of the day so far reprogramming my Pronto remote for the new receiver. Works great! But now I need to devote the rest of the day to someone special whose birthday it is. I’m glad my birthday’s not near Christmas, that would be hellish. My sister’s is Dec 30th and my niece’s is Dec 22nd, so we’ve got a few of them in the family. I’m content to be a Labor Day Baby (very appropriate).
So here’s to all the Capricorns out there! I hope you’re having a good one!
Jogged Today: Nope.
Today’s Weight: 164.8 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: Homemade ham sandwich.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Why doesn’t Taco Bell have the Cheesy Beefy Melt on the menu, since they still serve it? I love it but can never remember the name of it, and the counter guy always looks at me like I’m retarded when I try to order it.
Latre.
Component Switching
Posted on | December 27, 2007 at 11:47 pm | 4 Comments
How I’m spending my Christmas vacation…
As expected, there was more snow today. Luckily I’m still on vacation and I didn’t have to be anywhere. As I mentioned back in this blog entry, I ordered an Onkyo TR-SX605 receiver. I ended up getting a refurbished unit direct from Onkyo for a total of $305. I got it a few weeks ago, but haven’t had a chance to hook it up. So that was my project for today: Switching out the Denon AVR-4800 for the Onkyo, and moving all my components to the stand underneath the new plasma TV (although I’m not sure I’m going to leave it all there; I might miss my old Tower of Components). Mission accomplished. The only thing I have left to do is reprogram my Philips Pronto remote to control the new setup. Since I mostly use the remote for component switching, I’ve got my work cut out for me. No macro left untouched.
The $300 Onkyo does everything my old $2000 Denon did and more, like HDMI switching, for one. I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough inputs, since I didn’t bother to count everything up beforehand. And you never really know until you start hooking stuff up. But everything came together and I didn’t have to ditch any components. I did, however, ditch a lot of cables. I really love how the Onkyo allows you to have only one connection to the TV (an HDMI one) and it converts all other video input signals to that one output. That saves on a bunch of cables right there. The sound quality on DVDs, CDs, SACDs and DVD-Audio discs sounds just as good as with the Denon to these old ears. I’ll miss the Denon, but it appears I really don’t need it.
So now I’m still thinking about BluRay or HD-DVD, especially now that I can get the full audio experience as well as the video. I suppose I could wait out the format war. My main purpose in buying the Onkyo was to future proof the system, and to get that part out of the way so that it would simple to add a new HDMI component. But knowing me, I’ll probably dive right in and get something; I’m still leaning toward the PlayStation3/BluRay player. Stay Tuned. Like I really need more toys. I don’t have time to play with the ones I do have.
Speaking of PlayStations, I took out my Sony PSP tonight for the first time in a long time and downloaded the latest software update (3.80 – I was on 2.71). Wow! Lots of new features. I was especially impressed with the Internet Radio feature. Commentor 2fs may be interested to learn that the first song playing when I fired it up and switched to the “Indie” genre was a tune by The Wrens. Anyway, the PSP update has this new Remote Play feature, which may also factor into my decision to get a PS3.
Another, more altruistic reason to get a PS3 is to run Folding@Home distributed computing and help out Stanford University in their disease research. Although I could do that on my regular PC as well. I’m for anything that could help find a cure for Huntington’s Disease.
So right now I’m in my post-Christmas techie nirvana. And it may not be over yet. Though I really wish I had about two more months of vacation.
Jogged Today: No
Today’s Weight: 165 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich at Racines.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Steeeeeeeeeeve! We’ve both been posting daily since Oct 30th so we’re in an unofficial contest (”Master of my Internet Domain”) to see who misses a day first. Unfortunately for me, Steve never runs out of actual interesting things to talk about, and even had a running theme throughout December. I’m doomed.
Latre.
I Am Not Beowulf
Posted on | December 26, 2007 at 7:17 pm | 2 Comments
I am not really Legend either…
There was a break in the never-ending snowstorm cycle today, so I went out and saw the IMAX version of I Am Legend. I got to the theater only a few minutes before it started and was surprised it wasn’t sold out. There were lots of seats left. I guess a lot of people had to go back to work today, unlike me. [Slight spoilers follow] The movie was interesting and suspenseful, but I couldn’t help thinking I’d seen it all before: zombies/vampires, last survivor(s) of civilization, empty New York City, etc. Will Smith’s performance saved it somewhat, although I had trouble with the fact that his character was a total superman who could do anything: scientist/doctor, military colonel, hunter, engineer, totally buff athlete, devoted family man, great pet owner, and cook. If it were me, I would’ve given up once my iPod ran out of battery power. So it was nice to see him go a little crazy in his isolation, especially at the turning point where his Life Altering Event happens. (Well, second life-altering event, since I guess you have to count being the last man alive in NYC as the first.)
I felt the last act of the movie was strangely anti-climatic for a big Hollywood action flick. Maybe that’s a good thing. Aside from kind of a lengthy fight, there was no big action set piece. It’s weird: for a movie where the hero spends most of the time by himself, you’d think that things would get more interesting once others show up. But that’s where the movie starts to go downhill. And perhaps that’s why it ended somewhat abruptly. To me, it was more interesting seeing how this one guy gets along in a World Gone Mad than to see what happens when others come into his life.
And hey, if I were the last man on earth, alone for a few years, and the last woman on earth suddenly shows up, I’d be doing more than just watching a Shrek DVD.
One reason I really wanted to see the IMAX version of the movie (which was an awesome presentation, as always) was because I heard they were showing the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. (I raved about the trailer here.) There was really no Batman in it, although there were some quick flashes of him in a montage of scenes at the end, but what it did show looked pretty cool. William Finchter shined in his brief role as a bank manager who’s more than just a bank manager, and the first look at the Joker was chilling. Okay, there was a bit of high improbability there involving some school buses, but I’m willing to let it slide, because that’s how things are in Batman’s world, especially with the Joker involved. The scene was supposedly filmed with IMAX cameras, so it looks really, really good. It filled up the whole IMAX screen, not just a strip in the center like when non-IMAX movies (like Legend) are shown on IMAX screens. The level of detail was incredible.
Jogged Today: No.
Today’s Weight: 164 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: Didn’t really have any again. Late breakfast and early supper.
Pet Peeve of the Day: More snow (4 to 8 inches) coming in tomorrow! Good thing I’m on vacation and don’t need to be anywhere!
If you haven’t yet voted in the God Poll, please do so now! Voting is open for a few more days. Results are pretty even at this point.
Latre.
Fair Weather Fans
Posted on | December 25, 2007 at 6:21 pm | Comments Off
Another snowy day. I’m all for White Christmas and all that, but it’s kind of inconvenient. I wasn’t able to get down to the nursing home to visit my dad like I planned. It really cut short the time N and I could spend together. It just really sucks. I’m sick of all the snowstorms! White Christmases are really overrated. They interfere with plans and make traveling difficult. I’m a Fair Weather Christmas Fan.
Speaking of sucking… As I’ve said before, the only sport I’m really into watching is Pro Football. And really only for the Denver Broncos (and the playoffs and the Superbowl). But man, it’s really hard to be a Broncos fan this year. I didn’t even know they lost the Christmas Eve game against the Chargers until I opened up the paper this morning. This is the first season in a long time where I’ve not only missed watching a lot of games, but I didn’t even try to watch some, and didn’t even try to find out the results afterwards. Some people might blame this on me having a girlfriend, but she’s more of a Broncos fan than I am, and she has trouble watching also. It’s too bad too, because the games look really terrific on my new plasma TV. But I just can’t stand to watch them lose game after game after game, and look so bad doing it. I know that a lot of the true Broncos fans would say that this makes me not a fan at all. You’re supposed to support your team when they’re down as well as when they’re up. Well, I don’t care. I just can’t watch them lose as badly as they have been lately. It makes me sad and angry. I don’t want to feel that emotional over a sports game. I invested myself in the Rockies and the World Series, and you saw where that got me.
Part of the problem is undoubtedly that this isn’t really the Broncos that I knew. It’s a new, young team, with few familiar faces. It’s almost like some other city’s team moved in here and displaced our Broncos.
So, I will continue to hope that Broncos will improve and I’ll keep paying attention to what’s going on in that camp, but I really doubt I’ll be watching the last game of the season next week. I don’t even remember who they’re playing.
There’s always next year.
Jogged Today: No!
Jogged Yesterday: No!
Today’s Weight (same as yesterday’s): 164.6 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: An early Christmas dinner of Christmas Lasagne with meatballs, sausage, and shortribs. Yummy! Beats Turkey any day.
Lunch Sunday: None. Late breakfast and early dinner.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Please plow my street!
Merry Christmas! Latre.
Gracie in Greeley
Posted on | December 24, 2007 at 10:31 pm | 2 Comments
Cell phone post! Haven’t tried one of these in a while. Merry Christmas Eve from wonderful smelly Greeley! This is my sister’s dog Gracie – she’s some mutant breed. Have a good one! Latre.