memoryloot » Xbox 360

Changes in 2008

Johnny — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:00:14 +0000

As I was sitting on the train today I was staring out in darkness and began to reflect what’s been happening in my life the last couple of months. I’m at a completely different phase in my life right now compared to last year. First of all, I’m sitting on a train to work! I’m sure I never thought I’d be doing this a year ago. I’m actually happy that I am doing this to help be more green and not contribute in the demise of our environment.

Last year, I was playing poker on a weekly basis. Now we’re playing once every 3 months as it seems. I miss the face time to BS with the friends and catch up. I got to do that 2 weekends ago when all of our schedules allowed it.

I’m 10lbs lighter than I was a year ago. I’m more active and enjoy running and biking this year. Last year, my bike was sitting in the garage collecting dust. I was coming with all sorts of excuses not to go to the gym. It was not until the blood results that came in on my annual check-up to wake my lazy ass up. I’ve already run 2 5K back-to-back weekends. I will be participating in my first sprint triathlon relay this year and hopefully the LA marathon next year. I’ve added 2 more bicycles to encourage myself to ride them. And ride them, I do. This is one trend I don’t want to forget.

This year we’ve been actively searching for a new home for my family. Unfortunately nothing has turned up and I may have to look for property for myself. I can’t help it when my folks are so picky about all the places we’ve seen. My second offer to potentially the last house of our search has been submitted. It’ll take a miracle for the seller to accept the offer but I guess we’ll see.

I’m in this weird purging phase. My motorcycle is listed on Craigslist still. I’ve had people who were interested inquire about it but no formidable offers that I can entertain. Lots of people want to trade me for another bike and even a boat. That does nothing to someone who doesn’t know how to swim. I’m also playing with the idea of selling my trusty car and get a more fuel efficient Honda Fit. I love the fact that you can carry crap in such a compact vehicle. Maybe after I buy my first property.

I’ve lost interest in gaming from last year. Yes I still play my XBox but it’s still the same game, NBA 2K8. I love that game!

In the work front, things aren’t looking so good. I’ve inherited more applications to handle and it’s starting to stress me out. The overall company politics is making it harder and harder for me to do my job. It’s only a matter of time where grinning and bearing won’t work. Until that time, I can only keep my head up and work through this tough time.

Radiohead, Mac, and UPS

Johnny — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:15:02 +0000

My free time has been completely consumed with 3 things this week.

Radiohead‘s In Rainbows album
My new Mac Mini
My new Uninterruptible Power Supply

I did get some Halo 3 in the mix but I must digress. In Rainbows has been playing non-stop on my work computers and my iPod. The more I listen to this album, the more I love it. Yes that’s right, love it! I find myself looking forward to Jigsaw Falling Into Places everytime the album loops around. I still haven’t decided if this is top 3 of my RH albums. It’s so hard because the more you listen to it, the more you enjoy an album. This happened to Amnesiac and Kid A. I didn’t like those album at first but when I started to listen to them more and more, it grew on me. In my opinion In Rainbows is another masterpiece.

I used the hell out of my Mac Mini this week. It’s been on 5 days straight. I’ve been making it my own by installing various freeware and testing out Parallels. I got my laptop’s WinXP loaded on my my Mac Mini. Only thing left is to get an activation key from Microsoft. My iTunes is setup similar to my PC but I don’t think I’m going to reformat my iPod with the Mac. The PC has all the interesting historical data like the star ratings and the times I’ve played a song. It’s so stupid how little things like that makes such a good experience in using an iPod. Moving it over to the Mac is a cumbersome task. My entire library is on my Linux fileserver.

I also had to replace my UPS this weekend. I got it setup but was interested in getting it to shutdown my server in the event of a power failure. The model I got was an APC BACK UPS XS 900. It came with software for Macs and PCs. Unfortunately none for Linux. I found out that there is an open-source solution called apcupsd. It basically are scripts that allows you to do shutdowns for APC branded UPS. I also found that people have used my UPS with this software solution successfully. I installed the source code and compiled it. Everything is working fine, I think. I’m in the middle of running various tests. So far it passed the few early tests. I need to simulate a complete power failure and see if it shuts down my server. May not sound fun to you but gobs of fun for a geek like me.

Xbox 360 vs Reading

Johnny — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:41:27 +0000

I just started reading again tonight. The reason this time was that I have 2 books to read by September 17th. I plan on finishing those well before that deadline. In fact the book, “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferris I’ve already completed 100 pages. I realized since I replaced my PS2 with my Xbox 360 console, I’ve been playing alot more games. I haven’t picked up a book since April of this year, when I bought the new system. I need to read more so hopefully reading these books will help me get back into the book-reading mood. So far so good.

So many distractions these days with the Xbox, birthdays, weddings, and other social functions. The only device that has been good for me is my iPod. I use that the most but listening to music and podcast doesn’t get in the way while I’m doing other things.

Christmas in February

Johnny — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:36:49 +0000

I’ve been obsessing about this for about 2 months so far and finally my wish was granted. I received a nice shiny iPod 80GB in black in exchange of my Magellan Roadmate 2000. It was a great gps. I got me out of some weird neighborhoods and showed me how to get home from work through paths I’ve never been through. I felt confident when I had it and was never afraid of ever getting lost. The reason why I opted to go with an iPod was because the Magellan’s cradle that held it on my mount kept on breaking. So after the 2nd time happening, we decided to return it to get something else. Originally I was okay with just swapping it out for a 3rd one but these things sell out! So with a little bit more money, I am a proud owner of the an iPod. Thanks to my hon who bought this for me. A great Chistmas/Valentines day gift.

I used to hate iTunes. But now that I have an iPod, I don’t think I can live with out it. It is so great to organize all my music and build playlists so easily. The ability to filter certain songs from a shuffle is ingenious. The more I learn about iTunes and its simple ways but yet powerful organization features, the more I enjoy using it. Unfortunately while updating my library it’s been very slow due to my slow 802.11b wireless connection. It took me over 12 hours for the first sync of half of my entire library. I eventually took my system off the wireless and plugged it directly to my wired network. It finished the remaining half in less than an hour.

I’ll also be picking up an Xbox 360 this weekend. The extended warranty on my PS2 runs out on the 21st so I have to take advantage of that purchase. This will be great on my 3 day weekend!

Some pictures of Kylee’s birthday dinner earlier this month.