2006 - January

Archive for January, 2006

Site stuff

1/15/2006

Not that anyone cares, but I’m going to post all relevant content here on the blog instead of having the pages separated. I’ve moved my GPS stuff to ehpro.com.

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Site update / music stuph

1/15/2006

Again, not that anyone cares, but I made this site “all blog” again. I will be putting some more menu options at the top soon.

I finally hooked up my mixer and have started putting down some tracks for my upcoming release. Don’t know when that’s going to be finished but I’ll get something together eventually. Maybe before February? Yeah. That sounds good. :-)

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Read all over

1/16/2006

Changed my site template because I was bored; nothing new there. (grin)

Ben called earlier and we spoke for a bit. He received the DVD I made of Frosted TV Episode I but couldn’t play it in his DVD player because it’s a “burnt” DVD, so.. I gave him instructions on how to rectify that, i.e. get a new DVD player. :-)

I also told him how the screenplay is coming along. The beginnings are set and I have a rough idea of how the story begins and ends but there’s no middle - and that’s the part(s) I have to fill in. It’ll take some time to write it out but no big deal.

I caught a glimpse of a Maine plate that said TROGDOR on this recent H*R cartoon (it’s very quick, you have to watch closely). Being that I used to live in Bangor it definitely got my attention. My opinion of it is this: The person who has this, whoever s/he may be is either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid. You be the judge.

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The tunes return

1/17/2006

Just put up a music section, something I haven’t had here for a very long time. Some MP3’s are available for download, check ‘em out.

I will put up some more info on that page soon, like the specs of my home studio, my guitars, synths, effects, et cetera.

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King Milo

1/17/2006

My sister’s cat Milo. He’s staying here until sis finalizes a place of her own in Massachusetts.

Milo is a big cat. Seventeen pounds. Very friendly. He lives a good life. :-) He’s “King Milo” because of the “crown” between his eyes.

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Taking the plunge

1/17/2006

Today is a day of both jubilation and outright being scared out of my wits. I bought a Mac. It’ll arrive in about a week or less. The Mac I decided to get was an iMac with the new Intel Core Duo processor(s). Apple must have received a lot of bitching from the Mac community for doing this.. to the tune of INTEL? In my MAC?! (fall off chair on floor into fetal position) or something similar, but I personally don’t care what processor resides in the box as long as the box works, and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.

I know I’ve said in years past that Macs suck, and to be honest, they did. The first iMac was absolutely worthless. Underpowered, overpriced and too “cliquey”. The iMac was more of a toy rather than a real computer. I give credit to Apple for having the marketing savvy to offer computers in different colors, but all that truly did was take away any credibility of what it could truly do - which wasn’t much. The rest of their lineup was overpriced. While there are some who would say “You get what you pay for” concerning Macs, this was not so with Macs of yesteryear.

Only now have Macs come down in price enough to where you actually do get what you pay for in a package that looks good and performs very well. The fact my iMac will have intel procs in it is a good thing.

Okay, so the big question: Why did I buy a Mac? This is best answered in parts.

1. Easy HD Video Editing

Even though I really like Windows XP (truly), video editing has always led me to outright frustration. It is the one thing I wish Windows would do without having to have a bazillion-dollar PC. I mean, yeah, I could easily build a $5000 PC with all the best-tech gadgetry available for power video editing, but why? The Mac is cheaper and does video much better.

2. Unix based OS

It may be a Mac, but the core of the OS is Unix based - and I like Unix. A lot. I’ve been wanting to use a Unix (or at least Unix based) OS as my primary OS for a long time now and this will fit the bill very nicely.

3. Better display

Mac has always been a very “visual” computer. For some reason, Mac displays look better than PC’s and the color resolution is more “true” (very important for video editing). This particular Mac I got has the 20-inch widescreen display - the largest display I’ve ever had on computer.. well.. one that I’ve owned anyway.

4. Built for visual apps

I first used a Mac IIci back in high school. After that I used a few in college and I remember seeing the baby stages of the Avid video editing system - and it was for Mac. I was very impressed with it. This was circa the early 90’s. It had dual-monitor capability - and this was before Windows 95.

Mac’s tradition hasn’t changed from being very visual, and well, I need that to further do what I want to do with a computer. The iMac has everything in place ready to go for what I want to do with it, while a PC would take many add-ons costing me several thousand dollars (on top of the PC price) that I don’t have.

5. Size

The fact my Mac comes with a 20-inch widescreen display with the computer and everything else built into it is nothing short of astonishing. Add to that it’s compact and doesn’t take up much desk space.

6. Price

I compared the Mac to the PC and the fact of the matter is that I get a lot more for a lot less by buying the Mac. The PC equivalent would have easily costed twice as much.

–

I said at the beginning of this that I’m scared out of my wits. Maybe that’s not exactly true. What I’m concerned about is the OS itself. This is not a PC. I’ve never used a Mac full time. Will it actually do what I want it to do? Will it work? Will it be reliable?

Guess I’ll find out soon enough. I’m crossing fingers that I will write many happy posts about my Mac.

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Here I come to save the day

1/18/2006

One thing that I’m concerned with my new iMac will be the Mighty Mouse it comes with. Not sure if I’ll actually like it or not. It has no buttons on it. This mouse operates by touch rather than button click. I’m very used to my Logitech mouse which is larger than most mice.. err.. mouses.. whatever. Hopefully this one will have some size to it. While I really dig the fact that you can program the bejeezus out of it, if my right hand doesn’t like it I’ll have to get something else. Let’s hope I don’t have to.

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A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man… who does not exist

1/18/2006

One day (soon) I will explain this photo, where it was taken and why it’s significant.

No I don’t have a neon license plate, the camera did that.. but it looks cool as hell. ;-)

– edit –

For those I completely lost with the title of this entry, here’s a big hint.

– Commentary added 5/10/2006 –

I never did explain this photo (I’d forgotten about it), so I will
here.

This photo was taken in Newport Maine in early evening at an Irving
gas station. Note there are no lights anywhere - even on the pumps.
This is because the entire town has a power outage due to the storm.

It’s just a rare thing when you see a whole town lose power, even if
only for a short while.

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Thank you, underpaid clothes makers

1/19/2006

My coat’s zipper broke so I had to get a new one. I returned to the same high-brow place I bought it originally and they no longer make that style. As a matter of fact they don’t make anything even remotely close to it. I left empty-handed. Bleah.

Decided to hit Wal-Mart after that and see what they had. Nothing too great there. After walking ’round for a bit I noticed some fleece half-zip pullovers for… wait for it… seven dollars each.

I bought five. Two black, one green, one blue, one red. Total cost: under forty bucks after taxes.

Score.

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