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The Bench-mark

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:10:00 GMT

My first attempt at bench-building.

Home Office

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:17:26 GMT

My wife went out of town last weekend on business, and I took the opportunity to embark on a minor project I have been brainstorming for a few weeks. No, it is not the cat tower. Courtnye and I have been trying to update our home office for a while now, especially because she works from home.

More specifically, we wanted to have a home network for file sharing, a fax/printer/scanner, a shredder for those secret files she is always working on, a monthly calendar that we can erase and add notes to (and I can use to mark my on-call days), and a dream or goal board.

'What is a dream board?' you ask. A dream board, also known as a goal board, is where you put pictures or phrases that you are aspiring to achieve or own, so that they are constantly in your mind. It is one way that the people who actually get rich and successful reach their goals, as opposed to whining about not having what they want. For example, when you see someone driving a shiny new Porsche Cayenne, instead of saying, "Why can't I have that?" you say, "I will get one someday" and put a picture of it on the board. Just an example.

I also did something we have been meaning to do for a long time to help get our bills in order. I wrote down all our monthly bills, how much each payment is, and when it is due, and put it up next to the dry erase board. Each bill gets a box, and when the bill is paid, we check the box. Just a way of communicating about money, so we both know how much we owe (or in Courtnye's case, how much we can't spend shopping. J/K!). I call it a Bill Summary Sheet. Or BS sheet for short...

I also got a filing cabinet, finally, to put away all those documents that we know we can't throw away, but don't really need to have handy. Birth certificates, insurance, that kind of stuff. I don't know why, but just having a filing cabinet in my place immediately makes me feel old.

The best part of the project, my wife had no idea what I was up to. I told her I 'fixed' some things in the office and she got worried. I think she was pleased with the results though.

The Old Setup

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 23:39:04 GMT

This is the first entry for my AV blog thread, so I thought I would give some history of my home theater setup. I started out, way back when, with a Pioneer SX-1300 receiver, and two Bose bookshelf speakers (can't remember the model. they kicked ass though!). My older brother Aaron promptly stole my speakers, but I got his gigantic Pioneer three-way speakers with 12 inch sub woofers. Pretty awesome, especially when we hooked them up to the computer to play MP3s in college. I also had a basic single-disc CD player, and a tape deck I think...Does anyone remember tapes? After college, I stored most of my stuff in my mom's garage, and there it sat for years, collecting dust and mouse droppings.

My t.v. is currently a Toshiba CRT flat screen (NOT flat panel). It is nice for a CRT, and the flat screen increases the viewing angle significantly, but it isn't HD, and that hurts me. I bought in Medical school, close to 5 years ago, from Best Buy with money from a Dean's scholarship. It has been very educational... I have a Magnavox "progressive-scan" DVD player, which works OK. It is not region-free, and I'm pretty sure it is the least progressive of all the progressive scanning DVD-players on the market.

Well, I got married about a year ago, and my wife was able to snap my rampant video game addiction (WOW for the lose) on pain of death. Since that time, I have found myself with alot more time on my hands, and watching more T.V. and movies. Not necessarily good, as evidenced by the millions of obese Americans out there. With all this spare time, I have decided to do a few things, one of which is to improve my AV conditions. With a little research (and by little I mean a crapload), a little luck, and EBay, I have been able to put together a decent system and not break my bank. And my wife is only mildly ticked off with it all! Huzzah!!