5-port HDMI switch is a bust

The new 5-port HDMI switch I ordered to replace my existing 3-port switch arrived today, and at first it seemed to work great. But later we discovered a problem... it would cause hiccups in the video and audio output by TiVo through the composite outputs, which is extremely weird. Why would an HDMI switch have any affect on the composite outputs? But it does, and the composite outputs are fed into the bedroom, so for our purposes that switch is not usable and I had to go back to the 3-port switch.

Fringe

We finished watching season 2 of Fringe this evening, and wow, that was just fantastic. Much more satisfying than the Lost series finale. We're both eager to see what's going to occur in season 3.

My wife's birthday present arrived today!

Grody Meat

We had bought a box of 6 individually shrink wrapped Stampede boneless beef ribeye steaks not too long ago from WalMart. I mention this because today we pulled out the last two from the freezer, and found that one was all dark green and otherwise discolored and just looking really nasty, so we didn't dare open it. How does a shrinkwrapped piece of meat that has been constantly frozen get to look like that? Anyway, we found something else to have for dinner.

A-Team

My wife and I went to see A-Team this morning, and we both really enjoyed it. Yeah, it was kind of ridiculous in parts, but there was tons of action and lots of comedic moments that worked. Definitely better than the TV series.

The Prince of Persia Movie

Went to see Prince of Persia this morning! I loved the games so was really looking forward to seeing what they did for the big screen. The special effects were cool, most of the action sequences weren't bad, and Jake Gyllenhaal looked great as the Prince, but I didn't feel much of a connection for either him or the female lead, and the story didn't feel very exciting or adventurous.

Taking it easy

For the first full day at home with my wife since she was discharged from the hospital, we basically just took it easy and watched TV and movies. I did run out for a couple errands, but otherwise it was a nice peaceful day at home hanging out with the love of my life.

Happy Discharge Day!

My wife was finally discharged from the hospital today! She was originally supposed to have been released yesterday, but the doc wanted her levels to be a bit higher so they kept her for one more. Wow, what a week. Hospitals are no fun, but I still enjoyed sitting next to my wife everyday, just talking and watching whatever stupid stuff happened to be on TV.

After we came home and she got cleaned up, we went out to pick up her new glasses, which not only help her see much better but also look fantastic. Then to celebrate we got some Chinese takeout... do we know how to party or what?!

Emergency Room Day

My wife finally agreed to go to the emergency room today, which was pretty scary since she doesn't go unless she feels she absolutely needs it. Once there we got right in, no waiting at all. They took an x-ray of her chest then took her off to get a CT scan, and soon discovered not one but two blood clots, one in each lung! She was admitted to the ICU that evening where they started her on Heparin. Doc said she wouldn't be going home for at least five days.

Frozen Computer & More Wrong Hooks

Woke up this morning to find my keyboard had no status lights active and my monitor was completely blank. Turned out that my computer had locked up somehow, and forcing a hard reset got everything working again. Glad it wasn't something serious!

Picked up a value pack of medium-sized 3M Command hooks, but discovered when I got home and tried to use them that this time they were the wrong shape! So now I'm going to have to return them and get the classic 3M Command medium-sized hooks, not the ones that widen out near the base.

Racing Pulse and Oversized Hooks

I woke up to find my wife had called in sick to work because her pulse was unusually high and wasn't settling down like it should. We took blood pressure measurements every half hour, and her blood pressure looked fine. Her pulse eventually decreased as she rested, but still never really got down to where it should have been. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

The large 3M hooks I ordered arrived today. I wanted to use them to hang up our kitchen pots, but unfortunately they are too big to fit the holes on the handles, except for one large pot and one large pan. So looks like I'll need to pick up some medium sized hooks

Hot Hot Hot!

Got up into the high 90s today, and got up to 83 in the house even with the A/C turned on... which we discovered because the A/C wasn't actually working. The air coming out of the vents wasn't cold at all, so I went out to check the A/C unit and found it wasn't even going! Then I touched one of the cords leading into it and the thing jumped to life, startling me in the process. I headed back inside and felt nice cool air flowing out of the vent. So the next time it's not too hot out I'm going to need to go check on that wire.

Recycling!

After a visit to the chirorpractor and a stop at the post office, we took a big plastic garbage bag full of our empty V8 Fusion bottles to the recycling place to see if the amount of money we would get for them would make it worth doing or if we should just keep throwing them in our curbside recycling. The final tally was $8.00, which won't buy us a flat panel LCD TV for the bedroom but will help offset the cost of movie tickets, so looks like we're going to be doing some of our own recycling from now on.

The NyQuil Haze

Today is kinda fuzzy. I wasn't feeling too great again this morning, throat still hurt and more congestion, so I took a NyQuil, since I was still groggy and couldn't find the DayQuil. So spent a lot of the day fighting to keep awake. I know I worked on the computer doing a few projects for people, and I probably messed with the new media player some more... then I know I ate dinner and watched some TV when my wife got home. At about 9:30PM I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore so went to the bedroom and crashed.

Eye Exams, and Seeing the Advantages of the New Brite-View CinemaTube

Both my wife and I had our eye exams today. And now finally our insurance will let my wife get a new pair of glasses, which she desperately needed. Took a little while looking around and trying various ones on, but I think we finally found a pair that looks really good.

The new Brite-View CinemaTube arrived today, so I got that all set up and started testing it out. So far, I like it. Compared to our current networked media player, video and audio quality seems about the same, but the new player has advantages that I think outweigh the advantages of the previous player.

Advantages of the CinemaTube:

1. Sends the video signal to every output simultaneously, so no more switching back and forth.
2. There is an aspect ratio button for quickly switching ratios, so no more navigating through a bunch of menu options.
3. It boots up almost instantly, compared to the 60 second boot time of the EGreat.
4. Plays subtitles in MKV files
5. Played some DVD folders that the EGreat would crash on
6. Plays some FLV files
7. Better support and more frequent firmware updates

Disadvantages:

1. System folders, hidden folders, and empty folders are all displayed in the list
2. Page Down doesn't jump to the top of the list when on the last page, nor will Page Up jump to the bottom when on the first page
3. No way to create a shortcut to the video library folder, so have to navigate the network every time
4. Won't cause the HDMI switch to automatically switch when turned on or off
5. No 30 second skip (there is a GoTo feature, but nowhere near as convenient)
6. No Jukebox, so no poster art or movie description or genre filter

The main feature that got me to switch was the MKV subtitles, since I watch a lot of anime and want to convert my DVDs to MKVs so they don't take up as much space on the hard drive. That, plus the latest EGreat firmware, which was released in December, broke the machine's ability to play DVD folders, yet the firmware was left up and no mention was made of this.

Cleaned a Remote, Got a 9 Volt, and Glued a Seam

Spent several hours cleaning one of our MX-500 universal remote controls, though it was completely unintentional. I mean, I meant to clean it, but didn't figure on it taking so long. Ended up taking the entire thing apart and scraping off years of caked on dirt. Definitely nasty! And now I know I need to do the other ones as well, but it takes so long that I'm hesitant to get started....

Picked up a 9 volt battery for our sprinkler control box while I was out picking up a few grocery items, so now when the power goes out or I have to unplug the thing I won't have to re-enter everything. Doing so probably wouldn't be so bad if there were a full keypad, but entering all those dates and times and zones using four buttons?!

A seam in my leather chair had been separating for a while. I tried to so it up a while back, but couldn't find the right type of needle and so didn't get very far with that. Instead I used some safety pins to hold it together, but recently I noticed it started getting worse, so tonight I tried using that Sticky Ass glue. Guess I'll find out tomorrow night if it's going to work or not.

Sticky Ass Glue, Patch Painting, and Picked up a BBQ Grill

I'm really liking this Sticky Ass Glue I got from Amazon. So far, it's held together everything I've thrown at it. Today I used it to fix our pizza slicer that broke when it was accidentally put into the dish washer, where the heat slightly cracked the wooden handle and loosened the plastic piece that the handle fits into so that the two separated. To get the pieces back together, I had to put the wooden handle in boiling water so it would expand, then dried it off, added some glue, and shoved the two together. So now I'm looking forward to making a pizza so I can try it out.

Decided to do some touch up painting around the house with paint that has been out in the shed ever since we moved in. The lid was all rusted, and the paint inside was liquid on top and solid on the bottom. I tried to mix it up as best I could, but there was just no way it was going to become anything but a chunky mess. Still, it worked fine for just doing little touch-ups all over the place.

Finally got a full sized charcoal BBQ grill off craigslist, and it was free! Haven't tried it out yet but looks to be in pretty good shape. So now we have to make a pizza AND have a BBQ!

Going to Crackmaster, New Networked Media Player, New Shower Cady, and a Fresh Whiteboard

Took my wife's vehicle to a place called Crackmaster to get a nick in the windshield repaired. It's owned and operated by Jeff Wurst, who turned out to be a very nice guy. He told me what he was going to do and the potential outcomes, and made sure I knew that the repair was guaranteed for life, no charge. Before he got started, he told me to make myself at home, showed me where the TV was, and the fridge, saying I could grab whatever I wanted, and then got to work. I started reading Ray's book, Shackled, while I waited, but it only took like 30 minutes so I didn't get very far. When he was finished I couldn't even tell where the nick had been. So to anyone in the Redding area who needs their windshield repaired, this is the guy to go to!

Frustrated with the lack of updates and missing features with the Egreat EG-M34A Networked Media Tank, I decided to look around and see if something better had been release. The most popular one out there, the Western Digital, still doesn't see to have full DVD playback, but I did find another called the Brite-View BV-5005HD which looks like it has all the features I'm after. I placed my order so hopefully by this time next week I'll have a networked media player that supports full DVD playback and vobsub subtitles in MKV files.

Put up the 3M Command Large Shower Caddy in our shower, and without even showering with it yet I already love it. It holds a bunch of small and medium sized items without them falling out, which is one of the main problems with the current caddy that's draped over the shower faucet.white wired. So hopefully it works just as good when we're actually in the shower.

Finally got around to cleaning our white dry-erase board. Those things really don't erase all that well! The eraser got some of the stuff we wrote, but none of the blue smear that was all over the board. Windex helped a bit, but to really get it clean I had to go with baking soda and a lot of scrubbing. But, it's finally clean! And I put away the dry erase marker to try out these wet erase markers, which are supposedly easier to erase. We'll see.

New Shelves, No Cable Guy, and a Failed Egreat Update

We tried to go see the 11:30am showing of Prince of Persia this morning, but once we were on the road we realized there was no way we'd make it in time, so instead we went to this place called Junk 'N Treasures and looked around. Ended up getting a nice little wooden shelf for the laundry room and a white wire shelf thing for the hall closet, all for the low price of $1.00. Unfortunately, didn't see any poster frames that were the right size.

Cable guy was supposed to arrive today to take care of the "equipment upgraded needed" notice we got in the mail, but he called and wasn't sure what he was coming over to do, and when he found out we had a cable card he said those are rare and they don't just carry cable cards on them and they aren't able to pick up any on Sunday so he'd have to reschedule. So we did reschedule, but all this just felt odd to me, so I decided to call the number on the mailer again. I was connected with some guy and he put me on hold to check out the promo code I gave him from the mailer, and that hold somehow turned into an automated message telling me about our appointment, at which point it hung up on me.

So I called back and got a girl this time, and after she took some time to investigate, she said that the upgrade the mailer was referring to only meant that people with TiVo units would no longer be able to record some programs, such as Pay Per View or music, and that no equipment upgrade was needed. So yey, now we don't have to wait around for a cable guy and have him touching and messing up all our equipment.

Moved the bedroom TV onto the new TV stand, but since the new stand was about an inch and a half shorter than the desk the TV was on, we stacked some old wood shelves I had, put them into two black pillowcases, and put the TV on top of that, which raised it about another four inches.

Tried to update the firmware for my EG-M34A Networked Media Tank, but after the update non of my DVDs would play! Not only that, but attempting to play them would lock up the machine so that rebooting was the only way to get it back. Thankfully, downgrading to the firmware that was previously installed got everything working as normal.

Good Day for Craigslist

Got some particleboard shelves for the garage that someone was selling on Craigslist for $5. It has some chips and small breaks, but still seem very sturdy and I think will be a good replacement for the milk crates. Craigslist also helped us net a $5 TV stand that's is taller than the current one we have in the bedroom. Our old one was way too short for our high bed, which is why we currently have the TV sitting on a desk with the TV stand just kind of hanging out underneath. Now we'll be able to move the desk into my office, and I don't know what we'll do with the old TV stand. Sell it I guess.

Summer Rain

Finally got around to fixing the time on the sprinkler control box, and setting a watering schedule for 4AM... not that it really matters much at the moment since it's been raining. I thought this was summer! Not that I'm complaining, as I actually like the current temperature. I'm definitely not looking forward to the impending heat wave.

Got a thing in the mail from Charter a little while ago saying we had to call them because we needed an equipment update due to some service upgrade their doing. So I called and now I've got a Charter person coming by sometime on Sunday (no idea when) to attach some new tuner to our cable card, or something.

Also made an appointment to get a nick in my wife's windshield fixed. It's small so should be easily reparable. I was gonna try one of those do-it-yourself kits, but called my insurance just to see how much it would cost going the professional route and learned it wouldn't cost me a dime. So yeah, I'll let a pro take care of it.

Rite Aid For a Change

After scrounging the bottom of a drawer last night to find the final two NyQuil tablets in the entire house so my wife could sleep peacefully, I knew I needed to go pick some more up at the store today. Usually I go to Walgreens for such a task, but this time I decided to mix it up a bit and try Rite Aid, which is just across the street from Walgreens. Picked up one box each of their house brand NyQuil and DayQuil, 40 pills per box, all for under $20 total, which seemed pretty good to me. Hopefully they work just as well as their brand name equivalents.

The Furniture Shuffle

Did a little rearranging today. When we got our giant headboard set, I temporarily shoved both of the Sterilite 3-drawer  carts into the back of the closet, so today I got those out to find a place for them. The location I choose was in my office area in the space already occupied by a big box of comic books and a little bookshelf. So the comics got relocated to the top shelf of the office closet, and the bookshelf found its way into the foyer where we had an end table that I always felt took up too much space, being 28" deep and 24" across. Putting the 10" deep bookcase there really makes the foyer look a lot more open and spacious, so I hope it works out convenience-wise. So where'd the end table find its new home. Uh, nowhere yet, I just threw it in the front room until I can find somewhere to put it. I'd like to just get rid of it on Craigslist, but it's part of a set and we're using the other one, so I'd need to find something to replace that first. I'd also like to replace the Sterilite carts, because even though they hold a good amount of stuff and don't look bad, you can't set anything on top them or they will warp.