'Brief' Update
Posted July 27 2008 9:53PM by Michael
There has been quite a hiatus in my blogging, as I wanted to change the look of the website but never got around to it yet. Hopefully this update will be sufficient for the time being.
I had an exciting trip to Puerto Rico two months ago (coincidentally, I have not updated this website since before I left). I succeeded in filling up the camera's memory card (about 1000 high quality pictures) and attempted to take some pictures I could put together into a panarama using photoshop. In fact, you can see me looking like a creep on the right. Perhaps whenever I get an inspiration for updating the website layout I will grab the best looking panarama and use it for the header, and who knows, I may even actually create a gallery.
In other news, I lasted a few days before I finally burned. According to Joyce, I allegedly forgot to apply suntan lotion completely on one arm. I beg to differ, but that arm appeared to burn. At that point I decided to lather on the lotion every day we went to the beach (negating any chance of tanning in fear of further burns). I also saw some crab like guys on the ocean floor with my goggles and then looked them up (Sea Urchins). Needless to say, after that day I was a little more careful where I put my feet while wading around.
In an attempt to exercise more, I purchased an iPod shuffle and Sennheiser MX75 headphones (on clearance) with some gift cards I had saved. You can see on the left that these headphones are a very vibrant lime green, but since I can't see them when I wear them I have to allow other people to be blinded by them. I am very excited to have headphones that don't fall out when I run. I found that carrying my phone was a pain, and the iPod headphones fell out every couple steps. I was able to clip the shuffle onto the back of my shorts and run the cable up my shirt and not even feel like I was carrying anything. That plan worked for that first weekend (although as out of shape as I was, I got home after running about half a mile and just laid down on the kitchen floor for 10 minutes in a pool of my own sweat). I like to tell myself that I will run the following morning, however I always am too tired. I 'eagerly' await my next attempt.
I finally ended up taking another stab at WebGuide (the free Slingbox-like plugin for Windows Media Center) after putting it aside for a month, and lo-and-behold it works. As you can see, the interface is pretty sleak and it is a very convenient way for me to schedule recordings (even on my phone). However, it seems to not like playing the actual recordings or streaming live TV on my MacBook (likely due to the now unsupported Mac version of Windows Media Player). So whenever I have the need to watch TV not on my TV (which has yet to really happen) I just open up a Windows XP Virtual Machine, and it works perfectly.
Since I now listen to music the majority of the day at work (and during the commute), I bought my first set of headphones that weren't under $20 or included with an MP3 player. They are the Shure SE210, and yes, I waited to find them on sale at a significantly lower price. I've never owned a pair of headphones that came with their own case before. Finally I can hear the TV shows on my phone on the train over the constant chattering of teenagers as the earplugs create a seal. I've tried playing some compressed 128 bit MP3's as well as some Apple Lossless tracks, and thus far have no idea how to tell the difference between them.