Hey, it's been a while since I updated my LiveJournal. Here are some things I've done in the past month-and-a-half:
I gave up caffeine (again). No particularly deep reasons, it just felt like it was time. (It happened to be Lent, but that's just a coincidence. Really.) I had a cold, and there was no Diet Coke in the house, and I didn't have the energy to go to the store, and I figured the withdrawal headaches would be no worse than the general miserableness of the cold, and I was right. Now that it's been out of my system for a while, I don't feel any different (e.g. I'm not sleeping any better or worse), but it's nice not to have to think about where I'm going to get my fix every day.
The 15-year-old GE television in my bedroom had been having some problems: from time to time, the volume would spike to the maximum, and nothing would make it go back to normal except waiting a minute or two (sometimes banging on the side of the case did it). It was livable with Tivo, since I could pause and listen to loud silence (i.e. quiet buzzing from an ungrounded wire, I guess?) until it fixed itself. But it got to the point where the volume blast would last for a half hour, so I finally decided to spring for a new TV. I ended up getting a 26" flat-panel LG HDTV from Circuit City. It's great, and I think I got a pretty good deal, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it: it has a fan, which is on all the time—even when the TV is off! I guess this is OK for a living room, but it's rather loud for the bedroom. I've more or less gotten used to it, but unless I can figure out how to disable it (or rig up a switch to shut off the power at night) I may end up moving it downstairs and getting a different model for my room.
Oh, by the way, if anyone wants the old TV (20", color, stereo, SAP) let me know ASAP. It's probably not difficult (or expensive) to repair (the picture is fine), but I posted to Somerville FreeCycle and got no responses so it's headed for the curb soon.
So now that I have HDTV, I wanted to upgrade my Comcast digital cable box to include the HD channels (which is the only way to get HBO in HD). The basic cable box is $5/month; the HD cable box is $10/month; but it turns out the DVR cable box is only $15/month, which is dual-tuner and can record up to 15 hours of lossless HD. This seemed like too good an offer to pass up, since I was already paying $13/month for my Tivo, which is single-tuner and doesn't support HD (and still requires a cable box in addition). So I made the switch. I hate to be disloyal to Tivo, especially to support Comcast's somewhat monopolistic bundling scheme, but frankly I'm kind of appalled that Tivo still doesn't have HD support (and won't until this fall). It's not like it's any surprise that HDTV is getting popular—it's been on the horizon for the last, what, 25 years or so? Anyway, it's really sad how much worse the Comcast DVR interface is than Tivo's, in almost every respect (I might try to make a list in a future post). But even when the HD Tivo comes out finally, I can't see how it would be worthwhile to switch back, unless they can somehow work out a deal with Comcast to have a built-in decoder—otherwise they just can't beat the $5/month marginal price of the Comcast DVR.
By the way, the Master's golf tournament was pretty awesome in high-def, especially on the sunny days. It was nice to see Phil Mickelson get his second green jacket, but mostly I just soaked in the freakishly saturated colors of the greens, trees, flowers, and bunkers.
While I was doing the TV changeover, I also switched our phone service from Comcast Digital Phone to Comcast Digital Voice. I think this is just Voice-Over-IP: they gave us a new cable modem, which hooks up to a phone jack and supplies phone service to the other phone jacks in the house. So now I no longer get a separate bill for phone service apart from the TV and Internet bill, and it's also about $10/month cheaper all told. And supposedly I can now check my voice mail over the Web, but I still haven't gotten that to work (need to call them to see why I can't login).
Let's see, what else... I got a haircut. It's rather shorter than I'm used to, but the Supercuts near work did a better job than the two previous times I got it cut at random places in Davis Square. So much for supporting local merchants. There are some pictures floating around; I might try to post some later.
Oh, I saw Th' Faith Healers at PA's Lounge! They broke up in 1994, but got back together to do a mini-tour of the US to coincide with the release of a collection of their Peel Sessions. I loved their two albums and had always regretted not having seen them live, so I was super excited about this show. Amazingly, it lived up to my expectations. There's a write-up in the Warped Reality e-zine that does a great job at describing the band and the show. It was heart-warming to see how down-to-earth, normal, and friendly the band members were—absolutely no rock-star (or even indie-rock-star) attitude, they were just four quiet Brits who used to make raucous music together and who were pleased to be doing it again for old time's sake. Bradley's Almanac has mp3s of the show, as well as a nice picture of my back.
The day after that show I drove down to Newark, NJ for a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandfather. My uncle had arranged to have my mom and sister flown out from California for a Wednesday dinner, then I showed up for a Friday dinner, then a bunch of his nieces and nephews showed up for lunch on Saturday. I think it would have been more fun if we all showed up at once for one big surprise bash, but it worked out pretty well this way too. He was in great spirits throughout, and I think he was happy to have a break from taking care of my grandmother, who started showing signs of Alzheimer's about 8 years ago and has deteriorated pretty far by now (although she is still coherent enough to stay out of the assisted-living facility).
The next weekend I drove back down to South Jersey, where I picked up my brother to go see the final show of Th' Faith Healers tour at the Khyber in Philadelphia. I don't think it was really his kind of music (he's more into emo and HC metal) but he seemed not to hate it. I enjoyed it too, though it was much less exciting than the first show, and the sound mix was pretty bad—all kick drum and vocals, which is just not right for a guitar-noise band. It was kinda cool to see the Gibbons brothers from Bardo Pond there; on the way out of the club I tapped Michael Gibbons on the shoulder and said I'd see him at Terrastock. Really looking forward that that.
Anyway, the next day my bro and I drove out to York, PA for my sister's graduation from the Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts with a degree in Interior Design. My dad and stepmom had flown out from Oregon, and my sister's boyfriend and his family were there too. Afterward we had a nice barbecue, and then helped sis and her boyfriend finish packing for their move to a new apartment down in Baltimore. Which was much more frenetic than expected because they had to return the moving truck at 1pm the next day, and had only done about half the packing ahead of time, and on top of that had just gotten a new basset hound puppy which they were trying to housebreak and introduce to their cat, which spent most of the time hissing at it. So it was pretty much a circus, but that's nothing new with my family.
The next Friday night was a party and improvisational performance at Kris & Laura's house to celebrate the release of the Easter Invocation mini-disc. "Ambient guitar, theremin and processed cello conjure swirling spirits." Sounds about right. And everyone was again made jealous by their beautiful home.
Sunday,
cthulhia's birthday tapas and cakes. I was lame and didn't get her a present, but I had treated her to a buffalo burger at the Deluxe Town Diner before the party on Friday so I'm hoping that will suffice. Tuesday, Greg N.'s going-away games party at David & Melissa's, where I somehow came in 8th at the 16-player Texas Hold 'Em tournament. Wednesday,
rosminah was in town on business—well, if Marlboro counts as "in town"—so
ahkond and
hotpoint and I had Brazilian BBQ with her in Natick, followed by a visit to the Jordan's Furniture Entertainment Complex. We were only looking for some late-night ice cream, but I think it worked out well as a tourist attraction too.
This weekend was blessedly quiet. I caught up with TV (or at least made a dent) and finished reading The Blind Watchmaker. I needed a good rest before the Terrastock festivities start this week: Landing and Paik at PA's Lounge on Wednesday, Acid Mothers Temple and the Abunai! reunion in Providence on Thursday, then the festival proper in Providence on Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday, then Green Pajamas at TT the Bear's Place on Monday if I'm not completely conked out by then. And maybe St. Joan and Tanakh at PA's Lounge next Wednesday, and then back again for Elf Power on April 30.
I gave up caffeine (again). No particularly deep reasons, it just felt like it was time. (It happened to be Lent, but that's just a coincidence. Really.) I had a cold, and there was no Diet Coke in the house, and I didn't have the energy to go to the store, and I figured the withdrawal headaches would be no worse than the general miserableness of the cold, and I was right. Now that it's been out of my system for a while, I don't feel any different (e.g. I'm not sleeping any better or worse), but it's nice not to have to think about where I'm going to get my fix every day.
The 15-year-old GE television in my bedroom had been having some problems: from time to time, the volume would spike to the maximum, and nothing would make it go back to normal except waiting a minute or two (sometimes banging on the side of the case did it). It was livable with Tivo, since I could pause and listen to loud silence (i.e. quiet buzzing from an ungrounded wire, I guess?) until it fixed itself. But it got to the point where the volume blast would last for a half hour, so I finally decided to spring for a new TV. I ended up getting a 26" flat-panel LG HDTV from Circuit City. It's great, and I think I got a pretty good deal, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it: it has a fan, which is on all the time—even when the TV is off! I guess this is OK for a living room, but it's rather loud for the bedroom. I've more or less gotten used to it, but unless I can figure out how to disable it (or rig up a switch to shut off the power at night) I may end up moving it downstairs and getting a different model for my room.
Oh, by the way, if anyone wants the old TV (20", color, stereo, SAP) let me know ASAP. It's probably not difficult (or expensive) to repair (the picture is fine), but I posted to Somerville FreeCycle and got no responses so it's headed for the curb soon.
So now that I have HDTV, I wanted to upgrade my Comcast digital cable box to include the HD channels (which is the only way to get HBO in HD). The basic cable box is $5/month; the HD cable box is $10/month; but it turns out the DVR cable box is only $15/month, which is dual-tuner and can record up to 15 hours of lossless HD. This seemed like too good an offer to pass up, since I was already paying $13/month for my Tivo, which is single-tuner and doesn't support HD (and still requires a cable box in addition). So I made the switch. I hate to be disloyal to Tivo, especially to support Comcast's somewhat monopolistic bundling scheme, but frankly I'm kind of appalled that Tivo still doesn't have HD support (and won't until this fall). It's not like it's any surprise that HDTV is getting popular—it's been on the horizon for the last, what, 25 years or so? Anyway, it's really sad how much worse the Comcast DVR interface is than Tivo's, in almost every respect (I might try to make a list in a future post). But even when the HD Tivo comes out finally, I can't see how it would be worthwhile to switch back, unless they can somehow work out a deal with Comcast to have a built-in decoder—otherwise they just can't beat the $5/month marginal price of the Comcast DVR.
By the way, the Master's golf tournament was pretty awesome in high-def, especially on the sunny days. It was nice to see Phil Mickelson get his second green jacket, but mostly I just soaked in the freakishly saturated colors of the greens, trees, flowers, and bunkers.
While I was doing the TV changeover, I also switched our phone service from Comcast Digital Phone to Comcast Digital Voice. I think this is just Voice-Over-IP: they gave us a new cable modem, which hooks up to a phone jack and supplies phone service to the other phone jacks in the house. So now I no longer get a separate bill for phone service apart from the TV and Internet bill, and it's also about $10/month cheaper all told. And supposedly I can now check my voice mail over the Web, but I still haven't gotten that to work (need to call them to see why I can't login).
Let's see, what else... I got a haircut. It's rather shorter than I'm used to, but the Supercuts near work did a better job than the two previous times I got it cut at random places in Davis Square. So much for supporting local merchants. There are some pictures floating around; I might try to post some later.
Oh, I saw Th' Faith Healers at PA's Lounge! They broke up in 1994, but got back together to do a mini-tour of the US to coincide with the release of a collection of their Peel Sessions. I loved their two albums and had always regretted not having seen them live, so I was super excited about this show. Amazingly, it lived up to my expectations. There's a write-up in the Warped Reality e-zine that does a great job at describing the band and the show. It was heart-warming to see how down-to-earth, normal, and friendly the band members were—absolutely no rock-star (or even indie-rock-star) attitude, they were just four quiet Brits who used to make raucous music together and who were pleased to be doing it again for old time's sake. Bradley's Almanac has mp3s of the show, as well as a nice picture of my back.
The day after that show I drove down to Newark, NJ for a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandfather. My uncle had arranged to have my mom and sister flown out from California for a Wednesday dinner, then I showed up for a Friday dinner, then a bunch of his nieces and nephews showed up for lunch on Saturday. I think it would have been more fun if we all showed up at once for one big surprise bash, but it worked out pretty well this way too. He was in great spirits throughout, and I think he was happy to have a break from taking care of my grandmother, who started showing signs of Alzheimer's about 8 years ago and has deteriorated pretty far by now (although she is still coherent enough to stay out of the assisted-living facility).
The next weekend I drove back down to South Jersey, where I picked up my brother to go see the final show of Th' Faith Healers tour at the Khyber in Philadelphia. I don't think it was really his kind of music (he's more into emo and HC metal) but he seemed not to hate it. I enjoyed it too, though it was much less exciting than the first show, and the sound mix was pretty bad—all kick drum and vocals, which is just not right for a guitar-noise band. It was kinda cool to see the Gibbons brothers from Bardo Pond there; on the way out of the club I tapped Michael Gibbons on the shoulder and said I'd see him at Terrastock. Really looking forward that that.
Anyway, the next day my bro and I drove out to York, PA for my sister's graduation from the Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts with a degree in Interior Design. My dad and stepmom had flown out from Oregon, and my sister's boyfriend and his family were there too. Afterward we had a nice barbecue, and then helped sis and her boyfriend finish packing for their move to a new apartment down in Baltimore. Which was much more frenetic than expected because they had to return the moving truck at 1pm the next day, and had only done about half the packing ahead of time, and on top of that had just gotten a new basset hound puppy which they were trying to housebreak and introduce to their cat, which spent most of the time hissing at it. So it was pretty much a circus, but that's nothing new with my family.
The next Friday night was a party and improvisational performance at Kris & Laura's house to celebrate the release of the Easter Invocation mini-disc. "Ambient guitar, theremin and processed cello conjure swirling spirits." Sounds about right. And everyone was again made jealous by their beautiful home.
Sunday,
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This weekend was blessedly quiet. I caught up with TV (or at least made a dent) and finished reading The Blind Watchmaker. I needed a good rest before the Terrastock festivities start this week: Landing and Paik at PA's Lounge on Wednesday, Acid Mothers Temple and the Abunai! reunion in Providence on Thursday, then the festival proper in Providence on Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday, then Green Pajamas at TT the Bear's Place on Monday if I'm not completely conked out by then. And maybe St. Joan and Tanakh at PA's Lounge next Wednesday, and then back again for Elf Power on April 30.