Home Theater gotcha's

This is for people who are considering or actually buying/receiving a small home theater setup for the Christmas holiday. (It is NOT intended for those very experienced home theater buffs. :) ) Usually at this time of year, the stores are flooded with a veritable plethora of "Complete Surround Sound Systems" aka "Home Theater in a box" items. All of these 'systems' usually boast fairly impressive specifications with decent styling and color schemes. On top of that, they also have reasonable (ok, somewhat reasonable) price tags to match. All in all it sounds like a good deal all around. At least that is what one would think.

Since I have been in the hobby of Audio for some 20+ years I thought I would shed some light on the dark side of Home Theater. This is the side that most manufacturers don't want you to know about. Certain little "tricks" that are played with specifications etc.



It wasn't the best week

It wasn't the best week. Mum called last Sunday to let me know Wellington was dying. They took him to the vet Friday, and they said to bring him home over the weekend to say goodbye. They took him back Monday and had him put to sleep. It was all very sudden, and the third kitty we've lost this year. It's been hard, especially not being with them now they're all with my parents.

Then Nin's day off Friday got canceled, so we weren't able to go up to our friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. I was kind of looking forward to a Thanksgiving dinner. Silly me. So friends came down here for the weekend, which was nice. Tomorrow, back to work.



Incredibly Strange behaviour

Well now,

This is my second article as one of Ith's guest bloggers and usuallly I don't talk about crazes...However....

Anyway....I imagine you have all heard of the "craze" of the new Sony platform the PS3. However cool it may be ( and I don't think it is ), is any new product, worth waiting over a DAY in line, getting trampled/injured in a rush, and then getting robbed???! The other day the news had on that a pair of masked robbers basically approached a line of hopeful customers outside a door and simply went down the line, one by one robbing them!!! Good Grief, what is this, a new Jasminlive product hits the shelves and people's brain power just shuts off?? Not to mention that the silly product will probably be available all through the season as shipments ramp up. Oh, and lets not forget that by summer it will be selling for a little bit less AND have the bug fixes that these wannabe beta testers have found in the first run!!!



Once a Week

Okay, I suppose once a week posting is better than once a month or none at all. I don't have a whole lot to blog about. Unless you care that I made posole for dinner last night. Nin liked it, so I guess it will be added to our menu list. I made it with red hominy I mail ordered from the Santa ana Pueblo. I also bought some blue corn meal and venison summer sausage from there. Oh, and I am now making homemade yogurt. It's good stuff!

Haven't seen a movie since I last saw Dead Man's Chest on my birthday in July, so nothing current to discuss on that front. TV, the usual, with this year's additions of Supernatural, Ugly Betty, Torchwood, and Holby City.

Still don't have the comments situation sorted out, so you're more than free to email me if you're dying to talk to me.

Oh, and guest bloggers -- still looking for some. so there you go.



Technical Tips and Tricks

The title and category may give some people pause. The War Front category is rather appropriate as such due to the unceasing cyber war that is going on silently all around us. I refer of course, to the barrage of viruses, trojans, malware and spyware plus other as yet unknown attackers that everyone's computer faces whilst connected to the internet.

Hi, I'm one of Ith's guest bloggers and today I would like to introduce you to some tips and tricks which will make your life a little bit easier and the attacker's just a little bit harder.



All Done In

Well, as I said to C tonight, "We're Republicans in Monterey County -- we're used to disappointment". So I guess it's just a matter of how much damage Pelosi and her band of nutburgers can do in the next two years. And hopefully, they'll only have two years. We've survived Dems in power before, no doubt we'll do it again. Hunker down and be prepared to take care of ourselves, 'cus we certainly can't depend on them. The opposite in fact. The one silver lining is that a lot of the Dems elected tonight aren't the fringe whacko leftists of the Dem leadership. I guess we'll see.

Pelosi third in line to the White House. If that doesn't give you nightmares, I don't know what will.

One happy thought: I can be as obnoxious about their Chaturbate congress as the other side as been. That has potential. One thing I have learned from the Dems is that playing nice gets you nowhere. I hope we take a page from their book, finally, and stat playing hardball like they do.

Sorry for the rambly post, but that's the best I can do tonight.



Guest Blogger

I'm still looking for a guest blogger for the month of November. All the details here. Still having comment problems, so email me if you would.

In related news, Bob the Tech Guy, who was a guest blogger here last year, is going to be the official A&C; guest tech blogger. He'll be posting occasionally about all that's hot, fresh, and new in the jasminelive.online world. I think he's going to be a great addition to the blog!

Since I don't seem to blog as much as I used to, and I enjoy reading what my guest bloggers come up with while I'm away, I thought I might try an experiment. So, if you'd like to be a guest blogger for the month of October November!, then let me know. You don't have to have a blog already, and you don't have to agree with me on every issue, just try and keep to the tone of the blog, which is pretty much just no profanity. If you're interested, email me -- still having comment issues -- edithna AT yahoo DOT com, and tell me a bit about yourself (if I don't already 'know' you) and why you should be the one. If this works out, I may have another guest blogger in November December. We'll see how it goes.



Autumn Cooking

I am so sick of all the prepared foods we've been eating due to Nin's change in schedule, the upheaval with our truck being at the mechanic, and getting ready for vacation. I'm double sick of eating it after two weeks away and eating in restaurants. So, we went shopping late last night, and I'm going to try and get us back on track. I just put a loaf of pumpkin apple spice bread in the oven, then I'm making three meals worth of chicken parmigiana, macaroni and cheese, and pumpkin soup. One of each will stay out for this week's meals, the rest will go in the freezer in aluminum containers so Nin can just pop them in the oven before I get off work. The rest of the week will be what I have left in the freezer currently: baked potato soup, BBQ beef, and apple sausage (which will be cooked with potatoes and onions)

I'm hoping the spices form the bread and listening to Loreena McKennitt will put me in the mood to write tomorrow and the next day. I may not be able to finish my Halloween fic, but I'd love to get it mostly done.

It's a lovely Autumn day! October is always our nicest month -- fog free with actual sun!



Gar!

The MT people were morons for removing blacklist from their newest version. Whatever they use built in now to try and reduce spam sucks. I raise the aggressiveness of the spam filter, and it junks actual comments, I lower it, and it alls all sorts of crap through. It was just perfect before, and I rarely got spam. Gar! Now I feel like I'm back to the version from several years ago.

One, I'm never upgrading again. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Though in this case, it's just broke it seems.

Two, I think I will have to start using the 'trusted commenters' function so comments from all of you can actually get through, while hopefully allowing me to up the spam filter to junk everything else.