Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2523
Van odometer: 154556
Aches & pains: miniature frost bite on my elbow (turned black), back in spasm for 3 days
Current reading: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, Cross-platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets
Recent listening: Coverville, Live from Austin, TX by Neko Case, The 99 Most Essential Beethoven Masterpieces, Weird Al Yankovic, Final Boss by MC Frontalot
Recent viewing: The Thing, The Tick, Numbers, Coraline, The Daily Show, Battlestar Galactica, This Week with George Stephanopolous, Meet the Press, Firefly, Welcome to Macintosh, Fringe, Confessions of a Superhero, Lost (Season 1)
Recent playing: Chain Factor, Galcon
Recently accomplished: Can recycling for Scouts, Coldplay tickets for Thomas, found outlet for Boy Scout can recycling, yard debris, Valentine’s Day plans, volunteered to be Troop 820 Treasurer, visited Evergreen Aerospace Museum
Imperative To Do: Freecycle, get rid of MacRenewal Macs, recover network functionality on old Tivo. Read their multimeter reviews for more information.

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2523
Van odometer: 154411
Aches & pains: sciatica, tiny frostbite on elbow, lower back
Current reading: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, Cross-platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets
Recent listening: Bucketheadland by Buckethead, The Complete Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould, Across A Crowded Room by Richard Thompson, Weird Al Yankovic
Recent viewing: The Illusionist, Hancock, Brainman, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Stay, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Ravens at Steelers, Eagles at Cardinals, Fantastic Four, Battlestar Galactica, Monkey Shines, The Dark Knight, Mars Attacks
Recent playing: Chain Factor, Galcon
Recently accomplished: Cancelled Costco TV order, activated “new” Tivo, purchased new TV (again), Pinewood derby car for Graham, shopping, taking care of Tina
Imperative To Do: Freecycle, get rid of MacRenewal Macs, recover network functionality on old Tivo

Netflix again

Back in 2003, we dropped cable TV in order to save money when I was unemployed. When my employment became stable again, I decided against monopolistic and customer-unfriendly Comcast and signed up with DirecTV. Part of the package included a dual-tuner Tivo with which I immediately fell in love. It didn’t take long before I had used up the 50 hours of available space and started to feel the pressure to watch my shows before they disappeared. As a result we dropped our Netflix subscription since we were watching Tivo all the time and never had time for DVDs.

2009 has brought the advent of the HD age to our household and things are changing in our content consumption. Before I purchased our new LCD TV at Costco, I promised myself that I would not spend a bunch of money after to make all our content HD. In fact, the main reason we got the TV was because of the Xbox. The impending HD switch-over was a consideration but not a big one because DirecTV provides our television content and they will continue to provide the same service for some time.

Continue reading “Netflix again”

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2423
Van odometer: 152328
Weight lost (in pounds): 4
Aches & pains: left achilles tendon, sciatic
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, CSS: The Definitive Guide (O’Reilly) by Eric A. Meyer
Recent listening: This American Life, Chrome Dreams II by Neil Young
Recent viewing: Medium, NBA Playoffs, The Colbert Report, Mary Poppins, The Simpsons, Doctor Who
Recent playing: Virus 2, Multitasking
Recently accomplished: Sent Xbox in for repairs, cleaned cat boxes, haircut, best Mother’s Day ever, mowed lawn
Imperative To Do: Sell G4, get rid of junk (couch, vacuum cleaner, mower), buy trailer for van, activate new Tivo, oil change for van, GPS rebate

Vital Statistics

Van odometer: 151601
Weight lost (in pounds): 10
Aches & pains: sciatic, right ankle
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Recent listening: Clutch, This American Life
Recent viewing: The Quiet, The Office, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Democratic Presidential Debate, America’s Funniest Home Videos
Recent playing: n/a
Recently accomplished: Joined Bally’s gym, finished 401k rollover, replaced heating element in clothes dryer, tagged old blog posts, prescription refill, coordinated Xbox repair
Imperative To Do: Sell G4, get rid of junk (couch, vacuum cleaner, mower), buy trailer for van, activate new Tivo, weed & feed, change voter registration, develop comprehensive reward/punishment plan for homework, bike to work

More than a million roses bloom

Thomas’ term came to an end on Friday and he still had unfinished homework. Homework has been an ongoing concern all year and the frustration level for everyone involved is high. We’ve been working on getting him organized and learning to break big projects into smaller chunks, but he still becomes overwhelmed and fails to factor in his busy schedule. He was originally scheduled to join his Boy Scout troop on a campout this weekend but we made him stay home and finish this project that had been due on Friday. He was lucky that his teacher allowed him until Monday morning to finish it before she submitted his final grade. Still, it’s been a struggle all weekend to keep him focused on the task and he’s still working on it even now. A few weeks ago we addressed these issues with him and his teachers during conferences and he said he had a good plan going forward. Since that plan has failed it’s time for our plan. More on this as it develops.

Aside from that, it’s been a very nice weekend here. The sun has been out and we even left our windows open last night. We spent this morning doing some yard work and then we let the kittens out but not for very long. It’s too hard tracking all three at the same time!

Thanks to Kathy Sue, we also have been enjoying a Starz Preview Weekend on DirecTV. My Tivo is overflowing with movies now and I’ve made most of them green (“Keep Until I Delete”) so we’ll need to watch some movies this week. We’ve already watched several including a really scary one with Luke Wilson called Vacancy. Tina kept squeezing my fingers when we were watching it and then claiming that I was squeezing hers!

Vital Statistics

Van odometer: 151601
Weight lost (in pounds): 6
Aches & pains: sciatic, right ankle
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
Recent listening: News from Lake Wobegon, Go Tell It On The Mountain by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Fruitcakes by Jimmy Buffett
Recent viewing: Suns at Spurs, The Simpsons, Medium, Torchwood
Recent playing: Xbox 360, Guitar Hero III
Recently accomplished: Cleaning up missing rynosoft.com stuff, tagged existing blog entries, installed statistics plugin for WordPress, modified blog sidebar, entertained the Camps, cleaned cat box, reorganized entertainment center
Imperative To Do: Join gym, post office (Kent, Sue, Lala), phone calls, test bike commute, finish 401k rollover, sell G4, get rid of junk (couch, vacuum cleaner, mower), buy trailer for van, clean van, activate new Tivo, pay bills

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2352
Weight lost (in pounds): 35
Hours of sleep last night: 7
Hours billed last week: 37
Aches & pains: sciatic (when I stand too long), right shoulder (when I extend my arm away from my body), left achilles tendon, joints in my right hand (likely RSI from Guitar Hero)
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein
Recent listening: In Rainbows by Radiohead, The Shepherd’s Dog by Iron & Wine
Recent viewing: Countdown, The 300 Spartans, Rank, Numb3rs, Eagles vs. Cowboys
Recent playing: foosball, Guitar Hero III (Wii)
Recently accomplished: cleaned cat boxes, recycling, old email, Christmas shopping
Imperative To Do: Sift through inbox, post office (Sunleafs, Seagate, Kent, Sue), sunglasses, InstantCake, phone calls, vacation planning, packing list

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2332
Weight lost (in pounds): 35
Hours of sleep last night: 9
Hours billed last week: 44
Aches & pains: sciatic (when I stand too long), right shoulder (when I extend my arm away from my body), left achilles tendon
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein
Recent listening: Velvet Goldmine: Original Soundtrack, Come On Christmas by Dwight Yoakam, Wolfmother by Wolfmother, Kid Rock by Kid Rock
Recent viewing: Countdown, Suns vs. Jazz, Steelers vs. Patriots, Raiders vs. Packers, Ravens vs. Colts, Wired Science
Recent playing: foosball, Guitar Hero III (Wii)
Recently accomplished: hosed off walkways and deck, stored hoses for the winter, groceries, gorilla shelf parts on Freecycle, paid bills, cat box, email to Curt N.
Imperative To Do: Sift through inbox, post office (Sunleafs, Seagate, Kent, Sue), sunglasses, InstantCake, phone calls, vacation planning, packing list

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2307
Weight lost (in pounds): 35
Hours of sleep last night: 10
Hours billed last week: 47
Aches & pains: sciatic
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein
Recent listening: Chicago IX by Chicago, Broken Boy Soldiers by The Raconteurs, Essential Ten Years After by Ten Years After, Chrome Dreams II by Neil Young
Recent viewing: The War, Countdown, High Stakes Poker
Recent playing: foosball, Guitar Hero III (Wii)
Recently accomplished: cat boxes, cardboard recycling, completed RMA for broken Tivo drive, final build of soon-to-be-released product
Imperative To Do: Sift through inbox, post office (Sunleafs, Seagate, Kent, Sue), freecycle gorilla shelf parts, sunglasses, InstantCake