Ups and Downs of the week.

Roku HD Player – This thing is great. It streams Netflix movies and MLB.TV, so now I can watch the Sox on the big screen. Bit of a Thumbs Down to Amazon.com, though. A day or two after I ordered mine, they dropped the price $20. They had to know the price was going to drop.

Red Sox – Papelbon blew yet another game Thursday afternoon, this time a 5-3 lead against the Blue Jays. Tonight they blew an 8-2 lead and ended up losing against the Rangers. Second walk-off loss in two days. Plus they burned through the entire bullpen tonight, although Wakefield only threw one pitch. That one went into the stands for the game winner.

Writer’s Block – All I need to do to finish my degree program is to write this final paper. Yet I’m having the hardest time devoting energy to it. I’m sick of school.

Here we go again –  Another batch of kittens have found their way into our home. We need to find other homes for these guys.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox – Faltering on this West Coast trip, mostly due to poor bullpen pitching. That said, they left the bases loaded three times last night without bringing in a run. And worst of all, Pedroia is hurt and may be out for a while. Still, they’re in 2nd place, so it’s not all bad.

Blame Game – Enough with the useless finger pointing. The disaster in the gulf is now a physics problem and will be solved as such. Finger pointing won’t make it happen any sooner.

Apple iOS4 – Nice update. Couple of big improvements to an already cool system.

Windows 7 64-Bit – A little equal time here. MS has a winner in Windows 7 64-bit. Very fast and still with some way cool features. Just bring plenty of horsepower if you want to play.

Critters – Been busy in the backyard lately.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox – Playing their best baseball of the season lately. They’ve closed the gap to 1st place in the AL East to one game.

  State of Illinois economy – There’s no money to maintain backroads. The backroads here are tar and gravel and without new gravel, the tar is coming up in pools everywhere.This is just one symptom of a state that is circling the drain. And the idiots in the legislature still won’t vote for an income tax hike. Unbelievable.

Celtics – Nothing to be ashamed of in their loss to LA. They fought down to the wire. Kudos to them.

  New PC – Got a new PC for the office. Quad Core processor, 8GB RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate. After nearly 6 years with my old machine, this one seems impossibly fast.

  New Toy – Picked up an iPod Touch the other day. Simply amazing what this thing can do. I’ve been having a ball with it all week.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Michael Schumacher- Back in Formula One. It’s going to be a good year to watch.

Homework – I swear, no more classes for me after I’m done with this program. Ever.

Video-calls – Got it set up on my laptop. I’ve had a few very clear face-to-face conversations with my friend Dana back in MA.

Weather forecasting – Still a best guess scenario. Hard to even call it a science.

All Wheel Drive (AWD) – Sure was nice having it today.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo and the Tea Party Wingnuts – On the one hand, the more they talk, the more psychotic they appear and the less people will take them seriously. On the other hand, that’s what people thought about the Nazis when they first started out.

Ups and Downs of the week.

In-car iPod – Got the aux input installed in the X5. Love having 200+ songs at my disposal in the car. Next up, the Z4.

Illinois politics – For years both sides have been making a mess out of this state’s economy. Now everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else. Pitiful.

Photomatix Pro 3  – Very cool HDR software. Stay tuned for pics.

The NFL – Do they really think they own the phrase “Who dat?”

Internet forums -More than once I’ve been saved by info found on these various forums. The wiring diagram for the aux input in my X5 was wrong, so it didn’t work. But someone on the X5 forum had endured the same problem and had figured it out and posted the solution. Saved me a trip to the dealer.

Ups and Downs of the week.

iPods – Ok, I drank the Kool-Aid. But my new iPod Nano is very cool.

Negative Campaigning – I’m so disgusted with the Democrat choices for Governor of this state and so against the stance of the Republicans that I think I’ll be voting for the Green Party candidate again. The negative campaigning of both the current governor and his state comptroller opponent will only play into the Republicans’ hand. Self-defeating and stupid.

Windows 7  – So far, so good. There are a few nits to pick, but mostly it seems fast and stable.

Weather – What January thaw? The promised warmer temps never happened. We haven’t seen the sun in a week or more. And this weekend it’s supposed to rain heavily and then turn to snow. Ugh.

Ups and Downs of the week.

  Dad – Another setback. Serious this time. Things are day-to-day now.

  The Economy - No raises this year, possibly 12 furlough days (equating to a 5% pay cut), and continued unemployment everywhere. 

 New Laptop - Dell Latitude E6500. With lots of horsepower, it runs Flash programs a thousand times better than my old laptop. This image is MLB.TV’s Flash-based video of the Sox game. This picture really doesn’t do it justice. The full screen image is clear and crisp and the motion is very smooth. Like having a new TV in the house.

  Red Sox - Playing like the 2006 Sox. No offense, limited pitching depth, no spark. They went 15 innings against the Yankmees tonight and couldn’t score a single run. They wasted outstanding pitching by their entire staff. Pathetic. Time for hitting coach Magadan to go. They need a fresh start.

I love my toys. This one is among the coolest. It’s a Verizon Mifi 2200 portable EV-DO router. Just fire it up and 5 devices can connect wirelessly to Verizon’s EV-DO broadband network. I used it at home tonight with my EEE-PC to watch the Red Sox game on MLB.com. The game streamed fine. Once you set up the intial connection via USB, all subsequent connections are via wifi. As this device is usually right near the laptop, the laptop connects to it automatically. I just open up the EEE-PC and it’s already connected to the Mifi and out to the internet. This thing is about the size of a credit card and about 4 or 5 credit cards thick. It has a 4-hour battery life and can be plugged in and charged either to a wall socket or via USB to a laptop. Wireless access to it is controlled via WPA, with the WPA code stamped on the bottom of the router. Monthly fee for unlimited (really 5GB) data is $60. You can also buy lesser data accounts or a 24-hour for $15 option. It’s made for traveling and it eliminates the danger of snapping off a wifi PCMCIA card or USB dongle from your laptop. This is perfect for the family on vacation. Everyone gets to surf.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 New York City – This place has its down side to be sure, but it’s a great place to visit. I especially like Central Park. We walked about 4 miles today through the park and around the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’ll get some pics posted later. The food here is awesome as well. Today I stood dumbfounded in a deli just marveling at all the food choices. Then Sarah called and said she was coming back from the conference, so I was saved from the decision and went to meet her for lunch. 

   Dad – Back to the rehab facility to regain his strength after the hospitalization last week. Looks like a couple more weeks before he’s home again. 

  Red Sox - Well, they had first place for a bit. Tonight’s loss to the Jays could land them in second behind the Yankmees if the Evil Empire wins, which is likely.

 Verizon 3G data network - Got a Verizon USB760 adapter, so now I have broadband access virtually anywhere. I’ll be trading it in next week, though for Verizon’s new Mifi 2200. More on that gadget later.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Red Sox - Looking much better again. They swept the Yankmees and won game one against TB tonight at Fenway.

  Celtics/Bruins – Both teams struggling. Both lost tonight.

 New Toy - ASUS EEE-PC 10.1 inch mini-laptop. Intel Atom processor, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive. 9.5 hours (claimed) battery life. Just under 3-lbs. Right about $350. Nice color on the screen (picture doesn’t do it justice). Got it running MLB.com’s player with the Sox game on.

 Weather - Some nice days this week. Sunny and warm. Perfect weather to go topless. (The car, not me.)

  Virus/malware writers - Scum of the earth.

 Dad - Went home today with the advisors from the nursing home to check for possible issues with the apartment vis-à-vis his home recuperation. Everything looked good. He’s slated to go home for good this coming Tuesday.