>> Creative Title Goes Here <<

For those in the know, I'm finalizing the USB app compilation. Please stand by... I added some quick financials down the sidebar instead.

Switching the DVR between dual-tuners is too fuggin' complicated but its worth the $6/mo. There's been no word on my A/V receiver. I think I'll call tomorrow.

I'll probably get Justin a cellphone for Xmas & tell the other boys Santa is dead. Sure I'm a cheapo but Christ on a stick, the youngest is 13! Chris will probably get an Crate amp while Casey will get some games, pants, etc.

Its getting cold & we expect snow tonight, yay! I hope it falls in feet. Its almost time to break out the vanilla extract! Our Thanksgiving turkey came out good but it was a small bird. Work has been slow.

NetFlix

I signed up for NetFlix to save a butt-load of money & stay current with the movie scene. I had been purchasing all of my DVDs & collected almost 200 before trading them back in for a loss. I'm down to about 20 now & will only buy the ones I wish to keep forever like LOTR.

If I averaged only 1 DVD purchase a month @ $20, that's $240/year. Compare that to $10/month for the cheapest NetFlix plan where I could easily watch 1 movie/week. The savings amounts to over $120/year while affording me the ability to watch 4 times the number of movies. The net gain is roughly 800%!! At $2.75 per movie, I don't think the deal can be beat. If I was practically able to watch 2 movies/week, I'd double my advantage yet again.

They're online reservation system is adequate. I've chosen 40 already to start us off. I don't think I'll run out of good titles to choose from. Maybe a solid month of Cheech & Chong classics are in the cards eh? :)

DVR Bound

Alright, I missed a couple days.. at least they weren't consecutive. I picked up a DirecTV dual-tuner DVR & will be hooking it up tomorrow. It was free with a rebate & a good friend hooked me up with a dual LNB & some quad-shielded cable. I only have to pay an extra $6/mo for a good step up in programming convenience. The worst case for the deal could have been about $150 but its a good thing I don't gettin' lubed up the wazzu & did my homework instead. In all, I'll be out the tax on the $100 unit which amounts to roughly 9 clams.

I've been considering the jump into NetFlix. I figure I could save hundred of dollars per annum by joining up by NOT having to buy those movies I end up trading back in at a fair loss. I could simply purchase the movies I REALLY want to keep forever like LOTR etc. I'm behind on the new releases 6 months or so anyway so we can still watch near 10 titles each month. Furthermore, $10/mo for NetFlix beats the hell out of any premium package through satellite.

I worked a few hours today even though it was my regular day off. We have some important deadlines at work this next week. Now I have some time to take off so that I may shop for Christmas.

Stuff

I bought a new LG dehumidifier to warm the boys' room & keep the mold at bay. It works surprisingly well bringing the ambient temperature up almost 10 degrees while reducing the humidity from 65% to 35% in about 12 hours. On another note, I was thinking of upgrading to DirecTV with DVR but would have to find a cheap dual LNB to make it worthwhile as the receiver is free & I don't want to blow $100 on a new dish. We'll see what transpires. I ripped 3 bad A/V units out this last weekend: receiver, DVD, & VHS. Sony isn't all it could be I'll tell you that right now.

Justin takes his driving test this Friday. He still needs to work on his parking skills. I suppose I must shell out more dough soon for his insurance. He'll be 17 in a couple weeks! He's diligent & fun loving, a pleasure to be around. I sure hope he keeps his head about him while driving. Chris will be off his grounding if he pulls his grades up. Then maybe I'll let him back on the computer. Casey is doing great in school this year averaging about a B. He grows so fast. I'm not sure about this Santa Claus thing anymore. Hell, I had to buy his last tooth because that damned fairy bitch just never showed up! hehe

I should find out what the boys want for Christmas this year so I can get shopping over with. Casey is really looking forward to that Xbox. At least I don't have to buy presents for all the family members this time around. What a commercial entity it all has become; lost all meaning if you ask me. I count on the kids getting ONE (maybe two) good presents from me as usual. Done. Over.

Oscar the Grouch

My Oscar had gotten along fine with my 3" Bala Shark for 2 months. All of a sudden last night he grabbed him by the head & by morning the poor Bala was face first down an Oscar. I picked up a 5-incher today at PetSmart but in a few hours he was missing some scales. The Tinfoil Barbs nipped at him & even the fun-loving loaches took an interest in his caudals. He's now laying on his side at the bottom & the situation looks grim.

I suppose by lowering the temperature a couple degrees & holding back a bit of food to buy myself some time before the Oscar grows too large for the 18 gallon tank just isn't going to work. He is simply acting his species, voraciously eating anything edible that will fit into his mouth. He seems to become more & more territorial as time progresses. Maybe when he grows into a 5-pound monster I'll pan-fry the bitch.

Nah, he's cool & teaching me valuable aquarist lessons. Besides, he's the master over all he surveys & the highlight of the tank!

Anyone have a half stick of butter I can borrow? Mwuhahahaaa... >;)

Bow Man!

Jesse started eating today so I think she'll be fine. In celebration, I present a very cool game to pass your time.

Files 4 You

I present two files for your financial pleasure that I use frequently to stay on top of things & payoff my loans early:

amortize.xls
loancalc.xls

The other file took great effort on my part to compile & basically is a rule list of many different dice & card games. It includes the ever popular Texas Hold'em & important BlackJack tables.

game_rules.doc

I'll add them to the sidebar for your future convenience.

Sidebar Additions

Self explanatory so check it. Two-faced eh? Hell no, as my new pic portrays. Oh, I've got random backgrounds for ya too ;)

Kneel before Zod.

Sounds Like Work

I was talking with kanaeda late last night & didn't have time to post. It seems we'll work together on a couple homemade aquarium stands. I guess I should borrow my father's table saw & buy a mitre saw so I can return my bro-in-law's to him.

Jesse is up walking around, greeting us when we go out to check on her, still hydrated. She's STILL not eating though. Isn't she getting pretty damned hungry by now? Christ its been like 2 weeks since she ate anything real. If she doesn't start on her own tomorrow, then Saturday I'll use the turkey-baster aggressively.

On another note, its looks to be a challenge to grab an Xbox before Christmas but I'll do my best. I think I want Call of Duty 2 & while Casey wants Quake4, it really would be best on the PC.

Handy Bookmarklets

Drag & drop the following shortcuts to your IE Links toolbar:

Behind This will open all subsequent links you click in their own window, behind the current window. Great for multitasking through websites!

Dup This simply opens a duplicate window of the one you have open. Can be handy at times.

Light This highlights all clickable links on the webpage to increase their visibility. Its a toggle so you can turn them off too. It works a bit funny when you toggle it off on some sites (like this one) but normally is just fine. Refresh the page to fix as necessary.

Search Select some text on the webpage & click this to pass it to Google automatically. It really saves a step or two.

Tiny Convert the URL of the current page however long, into a tiny address you can more easily reference.

Next, go install Easy Read which gives you Plus & Minus buttons on your toolbar to zoom in & out of a webpage. The good thing about this one is that it affects all objects on the page including graphics.

I use another IE utility called FavSearch from HarmonyHollow but I think its been changed to ShellSearch. In any case, simply UNCHECK the Install SaveNow & you'll be fine.

I think of myself as a utility guru. If you ever need anything just ask, I'll do my best to service your request or provide further information. Enjoy :)

Milk Plus Vellocet

Title link continues to be my personal cult-classic of all time.

I've tweaked the blog source a bit & added some content including some favorite links. It is impractical to give you all 4000+ URLs but of course there's my compiled page of bookmarks over at My Favorite Links if thou dost wish.

Casey & I are going halves on the Xbox 360 & anxiously await its release on Nov 22.

Procrastination has got the better of me but tomorrow is the day I dig into the entertainment center to rip out the A/V receiver. What a drag.

I'll throw some polls at you from time to time so be sure to vote down the sidebar.

Invites Are Out

I've invited all I wish to the blog.. hope to get a little action. I finally hooked up with kanaeda again, my buddy from the mapping days. He's a cool cat but we've yet to meet F2F! See what I can do by year's end.

My Q2 server has been lonely for over a month now. I guess I'll get the boys hookin' in Q3 to entice them back ;)

Jesse is doing better, still not eating though. I imagine we'll know if she'll be alright by this next weekend.

Stay tuned for a quasi-religous experience so to speak as I plan to layout the basics of /me.

Jesse's Home

Well, the final bill came to about $2200 so we went & picked Jesse up at the vet. I may take Monday off next week to help her. We've made her a dry bed in the basement & I whipped up some chicken & rice for her. We shall start her meds tonight. She looks better hydrated up for sure, I just hope she doesn't lose it. She gets Pediolyte in her water & she seemed thirsty which was a good sign. Squirts of red goop came out of her ass but I expected as much.. she's very sick. I'd pray for her if I was a believer but I'm just a heathen who can't be saved.

These Titles Are Tough

The titles will sometimes include a link to somewhere I want to share so be sure to mouseover it! Today however is my regular day off work so I don't get out much hehe.

Jesse is doing a bit better but I'm fearful that she won't pull through. We'll pick her up tomorrow I guess as I'm about low on dough. On another note, the oldest boys have some grades to pull up but Casey is doing well though.

I've got to pull apart the A/V system tomorrow & yank the receiver for repair. Those wires are just a mess all weaved together in knots with dust & webs throughout. I think I'll pull a couple units we don't use often out of the rack to simplifiy things. I may reevaluate the speaker connections since I don't have true rear-channel separation but it would be a pain in the ass to crawl around the attic fixing the problem. Live & learn. We're relegated to watching broadcast on the 13" in the bedroom & DVDs through a TNT card on the computer which can stutter at times.

I wonder how many days in a row I can commit this heinous act of globbery...

Oh Donna

Who loves Donna Pinciotti? Stupid question. My nightly routine usually includes a Seinfeld & That 70s Show episodes. My favorite used to be brunettes but now redheads are top.

Jesse isn't responding to medical treatment & I'm feeling pretty bad about that. I suppose I'm more attached to her than I had realized. I just hope she makes it.. she deserves it.

Anyway, Deano should expect a waay cool download of USB apps soon enough. Its been quite an ongoing project for me to accumulate the best small apps to run off USB. I may post the readme.txt for you folks, dunno.

init readall /s

Finally, a glob of my zone --

New aquarium.
A/V receiver down.
Dog in medicare.
Tossing back a Johnnie Walker &
Hackin' some alpha...