Daily Archives: January 6, 2008

GeekWorld, General

Lashed to the Mast

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31  91%  29%  omph WSW bar29.75 rises windchill31  Winter

                             New Moon

There is something seductive about the large screen TV experience, seductive in an Ulysses lashed to the mast sense.  The visual image is close to movies in a theatre, though not the same.  Hard to describe, but it makes me want to keep watching.  I don’t like this part of it and will have to pay attention so I don’t fade into the couch and become one with the fabric.

On the other hand the picture is fantastic.  The set has so many different bells and whistles that it can accomodate different formats with ease and its easy to use.   Well, sort of easy.  I’ve still got the manual to read.  RTFM as my cello playing significant other in law likes to say.  The HD DVD player upconverts and it does make non-HD DVD’s look great, not HD great, but crisp and clear.  Since DVD’s are my main interest in the large screen, not sports (though I do watch football if the Vikings co-operate and win games), this set will take my interest in cinema to a different level.

I’ve gone down two belt notches since the middle of December when Kate and I started Nutrisystem.  I’m already scanning for maintenance after we finish with it at the end of January.  At the end of twenty-eight days I’ll get on the scale and take my blood glucose.  I expect both will show positive trends.  It’s the blood glucose level I really want to manage; so if it’s down, it will be a great reinforcer for maintaining a lower weight.

The New Year has begun well: some weight loss, workouts going well, writing in the AM underway with a good story happening, the new TV, the video calls with the kids and plenty of snow.  That last, unfortunately, has melted some over the last couple of days.  I hope we get some more snow soon. 

 Asia tour work tomorrow, finish the speaker setup, work some more on the Gunflint Faeries.  Good night and good luck.

                       -30-

Family, GeekWorld

The Fun in Making Things Work

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32  91%  30%  omph bar29.72 steep rise windchill32  Ephiphany

                              New Moon

Long ago in a lifetime faraway I learned mechanical projects and I don’t go together well.  Connecting the $#%!~& speakers has me mumbling to myself, but I have made headway.  It’s straight forward intellectually but when the finger meets the wire to connect the speakers to the receiver, not a pretty picture.  Feels my fingers become non-opposable thumbs.  But just think of the satisfaction I’ll feel when I’m done.

Just got off the video phone (skype) with Ruth, Jon and Jen and +.  Thursday is ultrasound day when we find out if the Olson line will continue with a male heir or whether we have to start saving for another dowry. 

I’ve seen a man on the moon, picture phones, video on telephones and computers at home far more powerful than the room-sized behemoths of yesteryear.  Clones, cell phones, test tube babies.  Geez.  Seems like immortality is not too much to ask.

GeekWorld

One Good Ear, Five Speakers and A Subwoofer Later

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39  78%  29%  0mph WSW  bar 29.60 steep rise  windchill39  Epiphany

                                    New Moon

Worked some more this morning on Faeries on the Gunflint Trail.  This story has legs. 

After the morning writing session, I set out on a quest to finish the installation of the 50″ Panasonic which now sits astride our Stickley coffee table turned TV stand like a colossus.  Speaker stands.  As I passed the $400 mark in post-purchase expenditures (a few really expensive cables, some new DVD’s and these damned speaker stands), I realized I hadn’t thought through this purchase quite as well as I thought as I had.

Best Buy (near by) have speaker stands?  Oh, yes.  Stands that fit my speakers?  Oh, no.  So, instead of working on my Taste of Asia tour for next Friday, the little red car headed across country to the Maple Grove temple to I just gotta have it now and turned in at the now familiar Ultimate Electronics store.  Clutching my tiny satellite speaker I walked in and a few minutes later walked back out with the four omni-post speaker stands.

Back home.  All the while listening to the adventures of poor Charlotte Simmons as she matriculates to Dupont University.  She’s sure out of her element in the co-ed dorm.

Up from my nap I have renewed determination to wire up everything and those speakers pounding so I can hear the rain drops in the opening scene of the Bourne Identity which the installer yesterday assured me I could hear once I had the speakers set up.  I’m no audiophile, hell, I’m barely able to hear with one good ear and the high sounds going in that one, but those rain drops.  Soon.