Category: LiveJournal

Musical Geeky Treen

After I did my taxes this year, I decided to research small form PCs to use as a music server. Although I loved the Pandora Mini PCs that Cappuccino PC had on offer, I didn’t want to spend much more than $400 on a PC. And once I kitted one of those puppies up with the RAM and HD space I thought I’d need, I’d get into the $600+ range. I was also debating OS or no OS. If I got it without an OS, it would have been cheaper, but could I get Ubuntu or another Linux flavor to do what I wanted? Well, playing around with my old PC which had Ubuntu on it had convinced me that I don’t have enough Linux experience yet to do everything I wanted to do.

Some more searching around online led me to check out Shuttle PCs. They’re not as small as Mini PCs, but I found one kitted out with the specs I wanted and it was only $425 including shipping. Yay! Not only that, but it came with keyboard, mouse, and what could laughingly be called speakers. (I’ve had Solo Cup Phones with better sound, IMO.) I’d never ordered from Silicon Assets, but they did just as advertised. The PC arrived a few days after I ordered it and it’s so cute!

While rearranging the desk, I finally replaced the wonky fan in my main PC and put some fresh conductive goo on top of the CPU in order to fix my overheating problems. I also moved my old PC out from under the desk and will set it back up as a Win98 machine to give to my Aunt Becky. Two days after my Shuttle arrived, I finally got to turn it on. I didn’t have to uninstall too much crap from it, which is one way that Silicon Assets differs from, say, Dell or HP. And I figured I might as well leave OpenOffice.org on it. 🙂 (I have Star Office on my main PC and my laptop. No MS Office for me at home!)

I moved all of my MP3s onto the new MusicServer (which is what I’ve called it in the network). While doing so, I discovered FINALLY where all of my Christmas 2005 photos were stored on my main PC! I was sure I’d taken pictures that year, but I couldn’t find them at all. I’m not sure how it happened, but they were in my Shared folder (which I never use). I probably pulled ’em from my laptop and put ’em there or something. Finding those pictures, IMO, was worth the new PC. Heh heh.

I downloaded several programs which I figured I could use – MediaMonkey, Quintessential Player, Rhapsody, Last.FM and the Last.FM Proxy. Everything but iTunes, actually. Oh yeah, and Firefox. It turns out that Windows Media Connect is now part of Windows MediaPlayer 11, so they don’t have a standalone download of it. Thankfully, I had Media Connect 2.0 on my main PC so I installed that rather than MP11.

Once I had all of my media software installed and the songs moved over, I checked out my Roku Soundbridge to see if it could see the server. It could, and I can have it access my collection via Media Connect, my Rhapsody radio stations via Rhapsody, or even my Last.FM radio stations via Last.FM proxy. Woot! I can serve up any tunes anywhere! Well, OK, not anywhere, but in my reading room. Which got me thinking… What if I get myself another Roku? One for the living room or my bedroom?

As I started researching the Roku Soundbridge prices (this morning), I found out that the best place to get the M500 (which I have) is from them – refurbished. The M1001 sounds really nice, but the M500 works just peachy keen in my house. So I’ve ordered myself a second one. Of course, the drawback to a Roku is there are no speakers on it. So I decided to research speakers too.

I discovered the Bose Companion 2 in my research. Well, rediscovered was more like it. I’d actually seen them before, at Sam’s Club. And while researching them, I found out Sam’s Club had ’em $30 less than anyone else. Ah ha! A shopping trip was in order! I washed my hair, got dressed, and was ready to head off to Miller Lane for a good lunch and a Sam’s Club trip.

I had the Basil Pesto dish at Nothing But Noodles (without mushrooms, TYVM) for lunch, and then found the back way into Sam’s Club. I bought 2 sets of the speakers (one for the new PC, the other for the future Roku) and some CD-Rs plus some shelled pistachios. (Heh – at least I didn’t get the jumbo vat o’ cheese fondue.) A stop at Krogers for a few groceries and then I was back home.

When I opened the Bose Companion 2 speakers, I discovered they have RCA inputs. This was GREAT news, because that’s the inputs in the Soundbridge. Yay! No odd connections required to get down to 1/8″ stereo plug! (And they give you two cables, one all RCA and the other RCA to 1/8″.) They allow for 2 connections in one pair of speakers, so I could hook both computers up to the speakers. (I may have to play with the speaker setting some, however. I noticed the music sounds are WONDERFUL, but game playback sounds muted somehow. If I sort that out, I’ll just use the Bose for both PCs.)

Anyhoo, I’ve decided to kit this post out with lots of Links, and I’m going to go one step further. I have photographed my new desktop setup and I’ve made an image map of it. Heh – thank you Paint Shop Pro for doing all the difficult bits. (Gah! When did Corel buy Paint Shop Pro from Jasc? I feel betrayed!) If your browser knows how to interpret the “title” tag, you should see little pop ups over the image as you move around. They describe what you’re looking at. And there are links to them too! The one link I left off is for my current desktop wallpaper for the new MusicServer. It’s from the Big Finish audio The Rapture and was designed to look like a music CD cover. I thought that highly appropriate.

The transience of Hoar Frost, the permanence of Fog

I know that judiang will be jealous, but today school was closed. The reason wasn’t some new snow storm that rolled through, but rather some very dense fog that rolled through. That and the layer of ice which had covered the sidewalks and roads made for difficult travel this morning.

Despite the bad weather, dad and I carefully walked into work around 8am this morning. We slipped several times, but neither of us fell down, thankfully. And we worked all day with a nice hour home for lunch. And the fog? It’s only just now dissipating! This is the longest I remember fog hanging around. It was out when mother headed into work (she had to be there at 3am!!!!!) and now around 4pm it’s finally clearing. Visibility was only about 50 feet when dad and I headed into work and it hadn’t improved all that much when we left for lunch.

The good news about working with no one else in the building (OK, so there were a few folks, but not many!) is you can get a lot of stuff done. We managed to clear up quite a few work orders during the day and that’s a nice ease on my usual stress. Sure, we’re still behind, but not as behind as we were! 🙂

The big drawback to the day off today is that we’ve already had our 5 allotted Calamity Days. So today’s day off will have to be made up at the end of the school year. Currently I’m of the opinion that it was worth it. 😉 (I may feel differently on May 31st, heh.)

Oh, and regarding the title of this journal entry – one of the neatest things about today’s odd weather was on our walk back home. The trees were all covered in hoar frost and they looked beautiful. Alas, I had no camera on me, and when I was near my camera, the frost was already gone. Quite an interesting and (thankfully) productive day. 🙂

Winter Storm

Like others in my friend’s list, we were part of the Winter Storm that swept quite an area of the US. Thankfully, since I’m a school teacher, I had yesterday and today off. And I had fun documenting the storm with photos. 🙂

Oh, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my Valentine’s Day card. Linus and Lucy posed especially for it.

So, yesterday we had lots of snowing going on. I made chicken & rice soup for lunch, but since I put far too much rice in it, I wound up with very nice chicken & rice porridge. Yum! I spent the entire day indoors, except for a couple of minutes when I took some photos from my front porch. In the process of doing that, the kitties got out and Lucy hopped off the porch to investigate this “snow” thing better. I stepped down to coax her back up. And then proceeded to slip and fall onto the porch (into the thin layer of snow which had blown up that far). I now know why they call those things “slippers.” Heh. I’m pretty sure that Lucy was laughing as she hopped back inside the house.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I finished watching season 3 of Open All Hours (and now must order season 4…) I played some City of Heroes. I had leftovers for supper (from Dinner & a Movie). It was a very nice day.

Today I’ve been watching Columbo and trying to get caught up with grading. I’m nearly done with the physics tests, but then I’ve got chemistry tests and physics quizzes to grade. (The lab reports are stacking up too, but they’re on the server at work, so I’ll do them when I’m back in the building.) The folks and I walked up to the Post Office today, so I took some photos along the way. I took a cute photo of them outside their house so dad could send to one of his friend’s in California who’s been complaining about the 60­°F temperatures they’ve been having. Heh. Also took a photo of a neighbor’s house who’s off in Florida for the winter. That way they can remember why they go to Florida every winter. 🙂

Anyhoo, here are some of the photos from Winter Storm 2007:


Here is a shot off the porch during the storm. It’s all misty looking due to all of the snowflakes falling.


This is a similar view after the storm was over.


Lucy went out again some this morning and plopped into the same spot as yesterday. A little more snow in that space than yesterday. Silly kitty.


Getting from my doorway to the street was something. Some of those footprints are DEEP. (Up to my knees in one of ’em!)


My house in all of its glory!


Awwwww, aren’t they cute?


The mound of snow after they plowed out the Post Office parking lot makes for a fun snow mountain for kids!


My street on the walk back.


Dad shoveling the walk… Actually, a neighbor had just plowed through with her snow blower (and it was a chore for her!) and dad’s just following up.


This is a neat icicle that always gets formed in that tree each year. Some years it’s been much bigger. But it’s always pretty.

I know some of you are probably tired of snow and/or photos of snow, but for those of you who aren’t, I hope you enjoyed my pictorial journal. 🙂

A bad time to get insomnia…

… as if there’s ever a good time to get insomnia.

After a late night (for a week night) I finally did fall asleep last night. Only to wake up at 4am. And I can’t sleep. The annoying this is that we’re in the middle of a winter storm (9-12″ of snow predicted for my area) and school is closed – SO I COULD HAVE SLEPT IN!

Gah! Insomnia, you do me wrong!

I’ve already read more from American Gods, watched the early morning news (they ONLY thing they’re talking about is the weather), and responded to some e-mails. I’m a little worried about my mom (who has to go to work in this proto-blizzard – the joys of working for a hospital) so until I find out if she got to work OK, then I probably won’t be able to sleep anyhoo. She’s driven in some of the worst weather Ohio’s had, so if anyone can get her safely to Troy, she can. Dad and I, being teachers, are not good “bad weather” drivers.

Hmmm, and I’m hungry, too. Thankfully, it’s nearly my normal Wake Up time, so I think my stomach will be able to handle food. 🙂

Well, at least I’ll enjoy watching the snow when it gets light out. 🙂

ETA: Mom got to work just fine, according to dad. Apparently it’s not the worst she’s driven in. 🙂 (Here’s hoping she makes it home OK too!)

Short Work Week

Well, turns out Monday wasn’t our only day off of the week. Thanks to more cold weather and later snow (which came Tuesday afternoon and stayed around til late Tuesday night) we wound up with Tuesday and Wednesday off as well. And I really enjoyed the days off.

After playing some City of Heroes on Monday, I actually went to the basement and stained my boards for my future bookshelves. I was quite pleased to finish that job. So yay for day off Monday!

Tuesday, the folks and I went to the grocery in the morning. I picked up some Chinese when we finished (seems silly, I know, to get take away just after you’ve bought lots of lovely food, but I wanted to eat as soon as I got home, not prepare something!) And as we headed home, the snow began. My goal for the day, then, became sitting, watching the snow, and reading. Rather than read in the reading room (where I really can’t see out of the window) I opted to read in my living room, where I have lots of windows to look out. I wound up reading The Wisdom of Big Bird from cover to cover. Yay! Thank you day off #2!

Wednesday morning I decided to walk in the snow to work. I spent 3 hours at work mostly doing webpage work. I am so behind at work I could have spent a week there and still not get caught up, but it was pleasant working without interruption for 3 hours on some stuff that had been needing done. Wednesday afternoon was spent playing. Yay for Wednesday!

Thursday had a 2 hour delay (which I always treat as a 1 hour delay to get some work done before school) and Friday had a guest speaker from ITT and then the county tech meeting, so this was a very nice week for Trina!

Today, I spent most of the time shellacking my boards for the bookshelves. It turns out one quart container of shellac was all I needed. Now I just need to coax dad here to build my bookshelves. 🙂 (He is coming tomorrow, as is mother, for Dinner and a Movie. I’ll be making lasagna roll ups (from Market Day) and showing Zathura.)

If we get no other days off this year, I’ll be just fine. I got what I wanted – real snow (it’s still out there and still very pretty) and some time off work. I think this was just the break I needed to get me to Spring Break. Heh.

Watch out for brass monkey balls!

It’s cold outside. Very cold outside. And windy. And because of the cold and the wind and wind chills in the -20°F range, school is closed today. Yay!

OK, so I’d prefer it if it were lots of snow keeping us home, but staying home is nice regardless. The one drawback to this is that I’m not going in to the school to work on me own for a bit, which I’d do with lots of snow. It’s too damn cold out there to walk to school! So I shall stay home instead. 🙂

Death, Taxes & the Speed of Light…

Well, this post really won’t be talking about Death or the Speed of Light (3×108 m/s in case you were curious), but I shall mention the other constant in life – Taxes.

Yup, today is the day I decided to do my taxes. I was rather sad when I realized, after doing my taxes using TaxCut software, that I could have used the free file TaxCut instead of paying for the software. My AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) was below the requirement, so I could have done it for free. Well, I did it for nearly free since I decided to mail in my paperwork rather than pay $16 to e-file it. And last year I discovered that Ohio has completely free filing – yay! So I used I-File for state and school taxes. And send in the very odd paperwork we always do for the town taxes. And as usual, I’ll be getting money back from the Feds, the State, and even the school (only $12 there). But, also as usual, I owe for the town taxes. I hope you choke on that $8.55 check, town tax man! 😉

Now, last year I bought a lovely new laptop (and accouterments) with my winnings refund. What am I pondering this year? Well, I don’t know if I’ll do this or not, but I have been pondering getting a mini-PC upon which to house my music collection. I’d like a machine that I can turn on and forget about for, well, a long time which will send to my Roku Soundbridge. Anyhoo… I haven’t worked the details out yet. Do I go Linux? Do I go Windows MCE like my current PC? Is there a MediaMonkey or iTunes-style program for Linux? Still, it’s something fun to research knowing that I could afford it if I wanted it. 🙂

Anyhoo, there’s plenty of time to decide what to do with my refund. You know, I could put it all in savings? 🙂

Styrofoam snow

Happy February!

Wow, I can’t believe February’s here. The first half of January rocketed by and the second half was nearly as fast. I’m drowning in work at work and spend my time at home doing escapist things. (Thank goodness for cats, video games, DVDs, and books!) And worst of all? We’re getting very little snow!

Today, in fact, when we left work, I noticed a bit of snow in the corner of the window of dad’s truck. Well, I say snow, but it looked more like Styrofoam beads! Yup, that’s what’s going on. They’re run out of snow up there, so they’re sending down Hollywood Styrofoam snow instead. Bleh!

I’m ready for Spring Break already. (Not that I’m ready for spring, I’m ready for the break part of things.) I’m so behind at work and at home (my poor bookshelves are still just a thought, not a reality) that I just need a break from work to get work done. Heh. And the weather isn’t cooperating by giving us Snow Days. Tsk!

Ah well, someday I’ll get caught up (or something) so I just need to keep on keeping on until then. And maybe, just maybe, the Weather Things will find some snow to send down here for a Snow Day or two.

Reading 2006

I have been keeping track of which books I have read since June of 2001. Originally it was something I was doing to try and curb my book buying habit. I’d promised myself that I’d only buy a book if I’d read 5 (or was that 10?) that I already owned. It didn’t work out too well – I still bought books despite the agreement. But it did get me in the habit of recording my read books.

A couple of years ago I saw some of my LJ friends had tried to read 50 books in one year. That sounded, to me, to be a noble goal. Now, compared to some folks in my family (mom, dad, my dearly departed Granny) 50 books in one year is a mere drop in the bucket. But it sounded reasonable to me. However, 2004 and 2005 eluded me. I’d get into the 40s, but never reach 50. But then came 2006! Although I never quite managed my 2006 goal of reading at least 30 min every day, I still wound up reading 54 books. Go me!

Before you start picturing me with 1000 page novels and stuff, I will admit that I do read children’s books as well as novels and science books. And yes, some comic graphic novels or the equivalent are present. That I don’t mine – reading is reading and I’m glad to be doing it. I still don’t think I’m doing as much as I’d could. I blame my addiction to City of Heroes for that.

The funny thing is that, despite my great number read last year, I’ve yet to finish a book this year. Whoops! I’m almost done with two of them – People of the Fire by the Gears and a Murder She Wrote novel which is in my purse. And I’ve got a few short reads that I received at Christmas which I might be able to get read before January is over. So I could well get back on schedule. And I’m hoping that, if I ever get my bookshelves started, much less finished, I’ll have even more reason to read. I’ll have a lovely library to read in. 🙂

Rather than include all 54 books that I’ve read, I’ll choose a few to discuss. A few notables: mom has gotten me hooked on a Nora Roberts trilogy, the one with the vampires (The Circle Trilogy) for those of you familiar with her work. She’s still waiting on book 3 from her friend and then she’ll loan it to me. 🙂 Also I was fortunate to not really have any clunkers in the selection this year. Two of them were very dry (in fact, the Quantum World was a book I’d started a couple of years ago and FINALLY finished in August), however.

2006 marked the end of the BBC Doctor Who books with past Doctors, and Atom Bomb Blues was the final one. Rather fitting to end with the 7th Doctor, especially one written by Andrew Cartmel. I enjoyed the books, but it did make me nostalgic for the days when Doc7 ruled the books and clever plots & characters were showing up every month. Thank you Virgin Publishing for keeping the flame burning during the dark times! 🙂

Speaking of the 7th Doctor, if you’d like to see a character somewhat based upon him, check out The Dying Days by Shannon Patrick Sullivan. I will admit I tend to look for roles to cast Sylvester McCoy in when reading books (and other actors I enjoy watching). And in this book, he slipped in perfectly. I checked with Shannon and he admitted that the character was inspired by Sylv’s 7th Doctor. But don’t worry, the character has his own special characteristics too – it’s not a rip off by any means. The novel itself was very enjoyable – a wonderful first novel. I’m hoping Shannon continues with his characters and setting in future novels.

I borrowed Life of Pi from Rachel when I was visiting her & Amy this summer. This is one of those books which I’ll remember for a very long time. Pi Patel is a fun character, which is good because you spend most of the book alone with him and a tiger on a boat in the ocean. The ending was the bit I liked least about it, but others have said that’s the part they like the most.

2006 was also notable for finally ending the Series of Unfortunate Events. This children’s series was entertaining, silly, stupid, and fun. I’m glad there was an End to it. Prolific authors will be my downfall (take a bow Terry Pratchett). Lemony Snickett should probably have his head examined. 😉

Speaking of children’s series, I read more of Philip Ardagh‘s work this year. (I’d been hoping they’d put out more audio books as read by Sylvester McCoy, but it never happened. So I bought the books & read ’em myself.) The House McNally series just didn’t work for me as well as the Eddie Dickens books have. And the second Eddie Dickens trilogy was almost as fun as the first trilogy. But like the McNally books, the third book of the series just didn’t entertain me as much. Not sure why. Maybe someday I’ll figure it out.

Other books that I read this year which I’d recommend to all: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley (I’d recommend it over the movie), the Nursery Crime series by Jasper Fforde (I’m enjoying those books more than the Thursday Next ones).

So, 2007, let’s see about another 50 books or so!