I just know it. Life right now is the best its been in years. No money problems. Marriage has never been better, and the wifey can't wait to get home from school this Thursday. Business is booming, but mostly stress free, and me and pops are chillin like a father & son should while enjoyin the ride. Garden is taking over the hot bed. Hoser hasn't eaten any poison mushrooms. I'm getting into better shape by joining zx fitness in Statesville. Me and da boss are gonna be playin golf in sunny 73 degree weather while enjoying some frosty adult beverages and 300+ yard drives. One republic is blarin in the background. The house is warm and the couch is comfy. My evenings are spent cooking whatever I like (tonight it was kabobs!) and enjoying a glass of Cabernet Sauvingon. Yesterday, it was killin the nazis in "company of heros" while enjoying a scotch and water. The weekends consist of great times with great friends, and meeting and greeting new friendly folks at the local watering hole. In between, I get to help my mom (and gardening coach) set up her own gardening plot for the coming crops while seeing my little niece think she's faster than my dog hoser (she's 1.5 years old by the way). My week trip to Hawaii is booked, and I'm so ready to go! I'm an elk. Already on the house committee, and get to help out with some upcoming veterans appreciate events. In the meantime, I get to shoot pool while watching the NCAA tourney in HD, and hang with the pops-in-law while sharing a few thoughts and a glass of Dewar's & water for me, and a Grouse & water for the old man-in-law.
So my question is, when is it all gonna come apart?! I feel like the big guy upstairs was conversing with the fates, and sayin, "He's got some stuff comin down the pipe he ain't gonna like, so let's cut him some slack!" Ok, so yesterday, during the thunderstorm, one of the windows in the casa de lever did leak a bit, but that will be easy enough to fix. I can actually afford to have someone come in and fix it FOR me! For the first time in my life, I actually have some spending money.
So what's gonna happen big guy?! Am I gonna get appendicitis? Is the wifey's car engine gonna blow up? Is Hoser gonna go on another psychedelic mushroom trip? HUH! What is it!!
I guess the moral of this story is, if you are constantly searching for something to go wrong - you'll never be disappointed - because something always does go wrong eventually. I suppose that's life. That's not a reason to fixate on what's wrong, and let everything that's right pass you by! Thank God that life has been so good to me lately. I hope it's been good for all of you as well :) Here's to hoping the good day's never end...
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
So Long Directv! Hello Freetv!!
Thank you to the makers of boxee! Boxee is a free software application that allows you to turn any desktop computer (or laptop in my case) into a tv tuner. Directv crossed the final line when they decided to continue charging me for nfl ticket - AFTER THE NFL SEASON WAS OVER to the tune of a cool $59.99. Apparently, they think you have to call them to cancel their service, even though there are no NFL games. My biggest frustration was that they wanted $50 bucks to come out and move the dish. The exact same dish that they positioned directly behind a tree, which would give us crappy reception every time a storm would kick up and the tree limbs would start blowing around. So kiss my grits directv!
Yet, somehow, I'm watching TV, at a level equivalent to Directv (standard def - I can't afford HD!), and instead of it costing almost $1k a year, I'm getting all my TV for free thanks to boxee! Here's a video of what I'm watching in real time by streaming the ncaa tournament(did I mention that I can select any NCAA tournament game that I want to watch?!):
I wanted to add that the resolution is much better than what is shown in the video. I shot it with my iPhone.
This week, I found an old & broken laptop that I had collecting dust in the closet. I'd just heard about boxee and decided to give it a shot. I installed xp professional on it, and updated all the drivers. I added the computer to my home network and setup the high speed internet connection, and then downloaded boxee. I then connected my laptop to my tv via an s-video cable, which I had lying around, and connected the sound to my surround sound via a headphone out to red/white rca cables to my surround sound. Total cost: $0! I already had the two cables, though you can probably pick either of them up for around $10 at Walmart.
Setting up boxee was a piece of cake. You simply download the program, set up your monitor under "display" settings, and set your resolution settings and your good to go. Another thing I like is the fact that it takes your movie collection and puts it on steroids. Because I have a ton of storage space (3TB mirrored), I decided to backup my DVD movies and save them to home server. I burned a copy of them and put them in a single folder. Boxee is super cool because it takes each movie title and organizes them from the imbd.com database. It provides the DVD cover and on top of that, it gives you all the information you ever wanted on every movie in your collection. You can download movies, stream movies, and a heck of a lot more as well. Here's what the movie interface looks like:
Boxee also organizes your entire audio collection. So at any time, I can have my audio files playing on my surround sound. You'll want to check out the audio visualizations. I know windows has some lame visualizations, but boxee's are very interesting. I definitely recommend checking them out!
Now for the coolest part. Since all of the stuff plays on my laptop...no remote, right? Wrong! It just so happens I got an iPhone this year. iPhone has an app on it that connects via your wireless network to Boxee, and allows you to control everything from surfing on the web to video sites, to selecting movies, to controlling volume.
There are a few small things that I don't like. If your internet is slow, you might have choppy play when you stream video. I've got a pretty beefy internet connection (the fastest that at&t dsl offers for residential service), and I don't really see any choppiness unless I'm streaming a show (rather than playing a file) AND downloading a bunch of other stuff. Adriana has even watched shows on her laptop while I've watched shows on my tv without any choppiness. Just something to be aware of if you have a slow internet connection though.
Another thing I don't like is the remote. Don't get me wrong, it is by far the best feature since you don't have to get up out of your chair every time you want to do something, but if you leave the remote app on, it drains your iPhone in a matter of hours. As long as you turn off the app, and just make changes when you want to its no big deal.
Bottomline: I love it. You can't beat free TV! So if you've got a cable or dsl high speed internet, and an old computer lying around, put them to work! Then send the notorious L.E.V. a check for saving you $1k a year! :)
Yet, somehow, I'm watching TV, at a level equivalent to Directv (standard def - I can't afford HD!), and instead of it costing almost $1k a year, I'm getting all my TV for free thanks to boxee! Here's a video of what I'm watching in real time by streaming the ncaa tournament(did I mention that I can select any NCAA tournament game that I want to watch?!):
I wanted to add that the resolution is much better than what is shown in the video. I shot it with my iPhone.
This week, I found an old & broken laptop that I had collecting dust in the closet. I'd just heard about boxee and decided to give it a shot. I installed xp professional on it, and updated all the drivers. I added the computer to my home network and setup the high speed internet connection, and then downloaded boxee. I then connected my laptop to my tv via an s-video cable, which I had lying around, and connected the sound to my surround sound via a headphone out to red/white rca cables to my surround sound. Total cost: $0! I already had the two cables, though you can probably pick either of them up for around $10 at Walmart.
Setting up boxee was a piece of cake. You simply download the program, set up your monitor under "display" settings, and set your resolution settings and your good to go. Another thing I like is the fact that it takes your movie collection and puts it on steroids. Because I have a ton of storage space (3TB mirrored), I decided to backup my DVD movies and save them to home server. I burned a copy of them and put them in a single folder. Boxee is super cool because it takes each movie title and organizes them from the imbd.com database. It provides the DVD cover and on top of that, it gives you all the information you ever wanted on every movie in your collection. You can download movies, stream movies, and a heck of a lot more as well. Here's what the movie interface looks like:
Boxee also organizes your entire audio collection. So at any time, I can have my audio files playing on my surround sound. You'll want to check out the audio visualizations. I know windows has some lame visualizations, but boxee's are very interesting. I definitely recommend checking them out!
Now for the coolest part. Since all of the stuff plays on my laptop...no remote, right? Wrong! It just so happens I got an iPhone this year. iPhone has an app on it that connects via your wireless network to Boxee, and allows you to control everything from surfing on the web to video sites, to selecting movies, to controlling volume.
There are a few small things that I don't like. If your internet is slow, you might have choppy play when you stream video. I've got a pretty beefy internet connection (the fastest that at&t dsl offers for residential service), and I don't really see any choppiness unless I'm streaming a show (rather than playing a file) AND downloading a bunch of other stuff. Adriana has even watched shows on her laptop while I've watched shows on my tv without any choppiness. Just something to be aware of if you have a slow internet connection though.
Another thing I don't like is the remote. Don't get me wrong, it is by far the best feature since you don't have to get up out of your chair every time you want to do something, but if you leave the remote app on, it drains your iPhone in a matter of hours. As long as you turn off the app, and just make changes when you want to its no big deal.
Bottomline: I love it. You can't beat free TV! So if you've got a cable or dsl high speed internet, and an old computer lying around, put them to work! Then send the notorious L.E.V. a check for saving you $1k a year! :)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Spring Fever Hits! Time to break out the green thumbs....
After the winter we had, I am sooooooo ready for spring! It appears to have finally arrived. Well, at least I hope it's here to stay. Today we hit 74 on the dial. Righteous weather for biking, running, playing with the hell hound "Hoser", or getting ready for the spring/summer garden and getting outdoors to do a little yard work!
Like any real farmer, I had to have a tractor. Enter this sweet pickup I found on craigslist after my bolens exploded (don't waste your money on bolens or troy bilt - straight...up...garbage). The husqvarna 46" cutting, 20 hp, cruise control equipped, hydrostic on the fly shifting, terror of unkempt grass and weeds everywhere. The blades sound like a freight train. You take this baby out in the yard, and the grass just faints. Job done...
Just one problem. The fence on one side of my yard isn't big enough to fit this orange beasty through! Here's the freddie kruger of lawn tractors...
Just took out husky for her first spring cut. Did a nice job. You're done before you know it, but it takes a little bit longer because it bags all the grass clippings. Bagging, mulching, or just plain blowing...what's the difference right? When you don't have to hear about how pissed your wife is because hoser the hell hound just went bounding through some left over glass clippings, you'd learn to appreciate the bagging just like I did. Not to mention, the clippings are going to really help the compost heap!
A week or two ago, we took what we had in our compost heap and prepped the garden area with my troy bilt tiller. We turned the soil over and added what we could to improve the soil quality. Hopefully this year, we'll have a huge garden. Hoser the hell hound took about 15 seconds out of her busy schedule to pose in front of the plot!
Hoser has only romped through the garden a few times so far!
So I started the garden a little early this year. I believe everyone is with me when I say, "Thank God Winter Is OVER!" I got a peat moss planter this year and started the plants from seeds rather than cheating and going to the local nursery. It's also far cheaper. I think I have enough seeds to feed a family of 10, and I got them all for a mere 30 bones. We planted the seeds in my peat moss indoor green house, and the plants practically exploded. We've moved on to dixie cups, and that wasn't enough either. It's too early to plant them outside (actually April 30th is supposedly when we enter the safe zone concerning frosts), so it gave me an excuse to do another project. I made a hot bed! It's not quite done yet, because I'm having trouble finding a clear cover for the top, but so far, the marigold's and a few pumpkins and kentucky blue beans are calling it home!
So the green thumb is in full swing!
Like any real farmer, I had to have a tractor. Enter this sweet pickup I found on craigslist after my bolens exploded (don't waste your money on bolens or troy bilt - straight...up...garbage). The husqvarna 46" cutting, 20 hp, cruise control equipped, hydrostic on the fly shifting, terror of unkempt grass and weeds everywhere. The blades sound like a freight train. You take this baby out in the yard, and the grass just faints. Job done...
Just one problem. The fence on one side of my yard isn't big enough to fit this orange beasty through! Here's the freddie kruger of lawn tractors...
Just took out husky for her first spring cut. Did a nice job. You're done before you know it, but it takes a little bit longer because it bags all the grass clippings. Bagging, mulching, or just plain blowing...what's the difference right? When you don't have to hear about how pissed your wife is because hoser the hell hound just went bounding through some left over glass clippings, you'd learn to appreciate the bagging just like I did. Not to mention, the clippings are going to really help the compost heap!
A week or two ago, we took what we had in our compost heap and prepped the garden area with my troy bilt tiller. We turned the soil over and added what we could to improve the soil quality. Hopefully this year, we'll have a huge garden. Hoser the hell hound took about 15 seconds out of her busy schedule to pose in front of the plot!
Hoser has only romped through the garden a few times so far!
So I started the garden a little early this year. I believe everyone is with me when I say, "Thank God Winter Is OVER!" I got a peat moss planter this year and started the plants from seeds rather than cheating and going to the local nursery. It's also far cheaper. I think I have enough seeds to feed a family of 10, and I got them all for a mere 30 bones. We planted the seeds in my peat moss indoor green house, and the plants practically exploded. We've moved on to dixie cups, and that wasn't enough either. It's too early to plant them outside (actually April 30th is supposedly when we enter the safe zone concerning frosts), so it gave me an excuse to do another project. I made a hot bed! It's not quite done yet, because I'm having trouble finding a clear cover for the top, but so far, the marigold's and a few pumpkins and kentucky blue beans are calling it home!
So the green thumb is in full swing!
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