Holy shit rant why don'tcha

So we were talking about things today at breakfast as usual as the subject bounced from topic to topic from the sequester to other things.. And then mom says she clicked on that song on one of either Donald or Lucy Facebook and she asked if I ever listen to anything they link to and I tell her where it concerns the crap they link to I don't very often.. I did hear some sort of nasty confunctionality coming from her computer yesterday afternoon and wondered if  it was from one of them.. Turns out it was, and she asked if I had heard it and I said I heard what she was listening to.. it was about last year at this time that we had heard that they were going to do Jordan and Adam's wedding and I thought I hope they don't play any of that crap there..  But today I did look for this "song" that she had linked and I listened to about thirty seconds of it.. I have evolved my listening habits over the years and now with the computer I can listen to parts of songs, kinda like the old records where if you want to try another part of the song just pick up the needle and try here.. In the case of this "song" I listened to the first ten seconds then moved to a couple minutes in where it sounded like the needle was stuck but in this case it was digital so it was on purpose stuck for (eternity).. I moved forward a little more then gave up.. I kept waiting for a hook.. The hook is that it makes me feel like throwing up.. If there was any good thing that came from the blowup last August is I don't get to be around that gawd aweful ...  stuff..   Maybe I am way behind in my taste in music.. Maybe I will get into this plastic sounding slark...  Slark isn't a word and this isn't music no matter what anyone says!! There were musical movements (experiments) that I never got into, hip-hop and rap I just never got into ever and they just   sucked in my books but people buy that shit.. I never did and as an example of the sampling and remixing, the second U2 decades best of release where that is the second disc, I tried to get into stuff like that but I just can't..  Some groups like Kaskade I like the Strobelight Disco album, and some of ATB is good but it is when they are being creative with a single instrument that I like the most.. ATB has piano works that are some of the best I have ever heard.. It's the main disc of beat loop and fifteen minutes of the same three notes that drop me into delete this shit mode..  I never thought Donald would ever get into this kind of music..  When I was in my experimental mood I went into jazz or classical  then instrumental music  (where Tangerine Dream came from)..  Is this his delving into that type of music??  I would say yes except that they use the technology of today without any idea where it came from.. I'd rather listen to where it came from.. The early days of synthi music development, where everything that they do today could never be done without what those people did from the sixties through the midi years..  It's easy to do the crap that is out there now, anyone can do it.. It's why all that crap sounds the same, it uses the same formula of attack and retreat then build and attack again.. Fifteen minutes of the same thing looping over and over.. Made me physically ill everytime Lucy would get home last year and crank that up..  There is no soul, no life to that stuff, it is here today and gone tomorrow with the piles of heavage that goes with it.. I always thought of this type of "music" was identified with tweekers, you know  meth users or other drug users.. More power to you if you like that type of thing.. Of course people said the same thing about Pink Floyd music, I just never used drugs when listening to them.  Call me strange I just liked the visuals I created without the chemicals to help..  In all honesty though I did get into disco some twenty years or more after it was the IT music of the late Seventies ..  Took me until I bought the Bee Gees best of recording "Record" to come to grips with a way to warrant having their music.. Basically when you listen to the evolution of their music they really didn't change to disco, disco claimed them (including a huge chunk of their music in the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack).  So the electrofunctionmonkey mix jive that is out there now, I might figure a way to like it by the time Ian graduates, from college, you never know..

New to Roku Tuesday; they added the Daily Motion site (channel) to the channel store.. They had it in beta testing for what I think was two years.. I don't know for sure how long it was in beta testing, I checked the forum site and it looks like it was a private channel (beta build test) and then at Christmas time I added it to my then brand spanking new Roku.. Looked at it (kicked the tires as it were) and then shortly after the new year they stopped, or I should say it stopped working.. The notice said the channel would be added in the channel store shortly.. And then Tuesday it was added..   Blockbuster was added Tuesday.  How good is it?? Well the movie I looked at as a rental was $3.99, and that I believe is a single watching.. Nearly four dollars is just over half of what Netflix disc rental is per month (three at a time, twelve discs per month).. Ok so it might be worth it to see a movie right now or whenever you want to but I can wait a month for it to be on Netflix.. I've developed patience over the years..   The 8ctave (Octave) channel I had was the beta channel because it was goobered up from the store.. Tuesday my 8ctave channel had changed into the Hero channel.. Hero is being developed by the 8ctive people and is beta right now.. I think I will check it over the next little bit to see how it does develop.. Hero seems to be about the service people.. Those who are serving as well as those who are back home.. Something like that and has all the branches of the service including F.B.I. & C.I.A. and all the branches as well as police, fire department and other things therein.. Might be interesting to watch..  The I-tunes channel is incredible.. Every podcast in both video and audio are there.. This is another beta (private) channel and is just unbelievable.. The search brings so many things..  I came across this on Christmas day but haven't really used it, that is changing.. I just can't believe what is on this channel.. Everything that you can get on I-tunes on the computer is available on the Roku.. EVERYTHING..   And I-tunes shows what Nowhere t.v. has but there is more there.. Nowhere tv is easier to move around and they have several BBC type of programming channels of which Challenge is one I hit just about every night..  And the MSNBC stuff I watch almost every night..


 I came across this little gem yesterday, thought it was fitting to add here::

I am catching myself getting away from news sites.. The news is so depressing, I think I know why people stop watching real news and opt to watch E! with the celebrity stuff.. Real news is hard to watch.. I try to watch RT and the Aljezera (I know everyone is going to say that's muslim, it's not, it's real news presented by a source that isn't Fox (Faux) news.. I think everyone is starting to awaken to the fact that FNC isn't news..  And really what is wrong with getting news from more than one site, more than one channel.. I will listen to shows on the radio and do listen to that off his nut conspiracy turd Alex Jones.. He is yet to actually nail something 100% right.. I mean if you spout enough crap over time you can go back and say I predicted that, it took twenty times over a ten year period but I was right..



Then there is John McCain and his stupid answers at a town hall meeting.. Truth is I agree with what he said, there will be no meaningful legislation passed with this do nothing congress. I just think he lacks tact.. He just blurts out whatever and doesn't think, the lady he was answering had just lost a loved one in one of the recent mass shootings recently.. I do think they should at the very least have background checks on everyone who wants to buy a gun..   It is the least they should have to do..  To think he could have been the president.. Scary stuff there..

Badge Henry

 

Records and this one here start readin nooooow.. now..

So today, or recently my little brother had an entry on his Facebook about not wanting to teach anyone who wants to play the drumset without learning the rudements first.. I think it is a good idea for people who say flipantly that they would like to play the drumset and it looks easy..  I think learning the rudements on a single drum is a very good idea to learn rhythm and feel for playing that aspect of the drums. How long will it take to learn the rudements??  There are some 20-26 or there abouts rudements.. Why don't I know how many rudements there are??  I did learn how to play the drums and when I was in seventh grade I got a drumset for Christmas.. By this time I had been playing the drums (snare) for two years .. I learned some of the rudements but not all of them, and was bored with them.. When I got the drumset I wasn't overwhelmed by them, quite the opposite.. I had been playing ice cream buckets and coffee cans as a drumset for years.. I was watching midnight special on Friday nights for a few years so I could see what drummers do.. When I got a drumset I started playing and it came natural to me.. So could anyone set behind a drumset and play without rudements??  The rudements give a certain amount of discipline to  to playing, to learning the drumset..  I think learning to play them is a good idea especially if you don't have natural rhythm.. It's hard to tell how someone has natural rhythm, how to tell.. I'm not sure.. I understood music from an early age, and when I saw a guy play the drumset at a basketball game I knew I wanted to play them as well..   I could never teach anyone how to play the drums because I was never taught how to play them.. I did learn the snare drum but I taught myself how to play the kit drums..   I learned maybe the first five rudements then got bored and never really learned the rest of them.. I have always said I was a very good faker when it came to playing the drums, nobody believed me back then.. Now everyone can read this and know, I'm telling you here & now I never really learned all there is of how to play the drums, I just learned what got me the record deal.. or you know.. I got the gig, because I gave a shit to learn the basics, but not the whole kitten kaboodle..  just   didn't.. But I had a lot of fun though..

Badge Henry

Merry tuesday to you

I think I figured out why I was in such a funk last week..   This sequester thing and knowing that the reason the knobs went on vacation last week wasn't because they wanted to get rested up for this weeks do nothing to avert it, they can do nothing as easily any time anywhere... They just knew there would be a hub bub made to avert the sequester, which they have no intention to avert.. I say let it happen and oh by the way they avoided or will avoid preventing the sequester and also will let the debt ceiling happen as well.. Anyone who thinks they will avoid this debacle, GUESS AGAIN!!

I admit I have been posting nasty comments on sites on Facebook, and so far I haven't been contacted by the admins. at Facebook to stop..  I post more links to sites having to do with political crap on Twitter than on Facebook now and want to keep the stuff on Facebook more light and humorous rather than deep and heavy with political crap..

Sunday was interesting, I was checking to see what time the big race started and found the time and under the story it said the race wouldn't be available online.. In other words NO STREAMING.. Well I thought I might have a site that might stream it.. Justin.tv, a private channel on Roku and the first one I checked in the sports section it looked like the race might be on there, clicked it and sure enough it was the race prerace that was going on.. I wondered where it was originating from so i watched it.. The quality wasn't great maybe a three out of five with a cream of mash pixelation going on there.. But it was on line.. I watched this until the race started and then it was blocked.. Darn, is it on elsewhere??  Turns out I was able to see the first half of the race on this app.. After that it was hit & miss, and at the final 25 laps I went strictly cable tv for the remainder of the race.. GO DANICA.. But alas it wasn't meant to be as she dropped like a stone in the final third of the last lap..  I was proud of her, she didn't once have to pull over to pee..  Good girl..

The new 6 strikes and you're out policy has gone into account.. What is the six strikes policy??  Well if you torrent you can be caught by isp's and be sent a nasty note saying stop that.. Supposedly it is going to curb that activity, and for doing movies and music I can see the point.. But as far as tv shows I don't agree that this is illegal and let me tell you why.. The dish network has a device called the hopper and it lets you record a nights shows and watch them without commercials and to me torenting is the same exact thing.. That and you really can't gain much from getting tv shows this way.. I get the lower end of the shows, the 233MB type of thing, the others are 1.3GB type, full on 1080p high def, which to me is just a huge waste of time to download.. For one thing the sound rarely syncs up right on any of the downloads no matter how good the thing is.. High def or low def is all the same, something happens in they process.. I like to watch some shows, some from america and some from everywhere else, experimenting with watching.. 

Speaking of trying some stuff I've never seen, Silver Rush looked like a show that might be good to see, with gold rush going off last friday.. I forgot it was on the night it was on so I got it via torrent and part one was really good so I went after parts 2 & 3 and will watch them today..

I got an app on the roku the other day that shows the netflix site completely different but the thing I liked most is it showed programming that they will be dropping soon, and so I made a concerted effort to see some of these shows just to see what they were like.. The shows I watched were documentery type and when I watched it the screen was square.. Didn't fill to the edges so that was one of the reasons they were letting some of these go.. I keep reading where netflix is having troubles getting new programs for their site and when I look at what I want to see, it's going to be a full year of watching shows before I will be worried about things to watch.. And watching a show like Rules of Engagement where I saw most of the show series originally, I will more than likely watch it again and again.. One of my favorite shows..  A lot of series I have never seen I want to watch..  Hopefully before the world ends..

The PNOP site has six days entries done..  The ones preset are around the twenty things within the entry.. The days that didn't have anything will have thirty or more entry things.. You know, smart asseed dipshitology type of things.. And the video clips like yesterdays here where it was just clips, will now be there instead, because they didn't make sense to have them here, so beginning next month those clips will be on days in March.. Kinda like I did for the third rock clips.. I might clip another show, maybe the first two seasons of MASH..  Those were the best in my mind but not everyone agrees.. Anyway that's the idea.. Enjoy the sequester, buy some popcorn and set back and watch the world crumble.. Have a happy sequester everyone.. Happy sequester..

Badge Henry

More show clips

Archer..  This seasons shows are just as off the nut bag as the earlier seasons..   Another great show with my sense of humor all over it..

Ok these two shows aren't related.. Or are they??  Might they be because I'm not sure.. I clipped two episodes and then made the mistake of putting all the clips in the same folder together, without naming or numbering them.. Oh well the clips wouldn't have a continuous story line feel  anyway..

I called this clip 25/8...  A line in this scene.  25/8...  Anyway.. told you it would make no sense..

Blood pressure..  ...  What insanity..

Archer sets off a rocket launcher in the room with all the arms & cool devices they use for spying.. Yea this is a good idea..

Mind Blown.. This was from the previous video but from earlier..    Oh well..

Reach around...  from the other episode..

Way out of sequence but worth having at any rate..

The Spray and pray scene.. 

The opening scene for Bones recently ...   Nice nasty start as usual.. I've gotten back to watching this show again after not really watching it very much last year.. I don't know why I stopped watching it..

Sometimes being book smart doesn't mean you are smart..

The comeback...

I will say this about the show Cracked, they have very original storylines.. In this scene they find something very important out.. This makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.. Really a cool idea and more than likely from a true event..

To show how far away from reality he is, his girlfriend lays it on the line.. Exgirlfriend I should say..

As I said earlier I put all the Archer clips in this folder marked tv show clips and this one was elsewhere in the folder and marked differently.. So here it is a little out of place.. Oh well.. Enjoy the insanity..

The Summer Glau fight scene from a recent Hawaii 5-0 episode..    Just love this girl.. Her and that Sarah Shahi should be on a regular series, maybe together fighting crime like a new Cagney & Lacey.. or not..

The opening sequence of Cracked.. 

"Fight on the honeymoon"   episode 2 of Cracked started ominously..  

Wearing the vest ...  The second episode where he goes to the hospital pscyc ward.. 

Badge Henry

Bite your tongue

More snow more depression from the weather??  I usually go through a blue period in late February and pretty much all March..  Last year was different, I didn't hit the wall at all that I can remember.. I think I was living within my self somehow.. Someway. I don't know..

The other day I tried to play Monopoly on the computer rather than the hand held version.. It is always tricky to play the computer version.. I get this rush feeling, get something in monopoly state and develop.. The game was set to have two properties dealt and a few other "house" rules, setting landing on free parking a $500 bonus as well landing on GO gives double the money so $400 instead of the regular $200 for passing GO.. That was fine, and meant more money was in the game but again I wasn't able to get the properties I wanted and would lose a quick game.. Turned around and set another game with house rules set as such; All the properties were dealt out at the start of the game, $100 for passing go and $200 for landing directly on GO.. The free parking would collect all the taxes that were paid during the game up until then, sometimes that was more sometimes less..  and to make it easy to manipulate the game only twelve houses were available. So to start the game I traded for the baby blue properties since I had two from the dealing of all the properties.. When I had all three I built to four houses each and left it that way.. When I rolled I moved and did what ever needed to be done (paid rent, whatever) then as each of the other two started they all traded the same as I did and some had really expensive properties but unlike me, they couldn't develop them.. This is hardly fair but I learned a lot from seeing how the computer players play, the strategy the use.. I kept the houses there that way until one of the other three computer players was out of the game.. Then I took them to hotels.. After I got the three green properties I knocked my houses down on the baby blues and built on the green properties.. Needless to say I won the game but it was  a hallow victory..  Making the rules where it is impossible for anyone to compete, sounds like real America to me.. But I learned a little bit.. I also have the Monopoly Here & Now version on the computer, I have only started a game but never really got into it.. The more money sounds great but it really is hard to conceive that kind of money..  I guess I can relate to the broke version of the game.. I know why I hated playing real people in Monopoly, because when you are winning it feels so good, but when you are losing.. That hurts..  And even when you are winning you have that regret feeling.. I would build to hotels in the board version of the game.. The computer game building to houses is a strategy to keep the other players from building too..  

Risk, now there's the game.. On he computer it is so easy to play. But the board game is hard to play, I never really cared for it in the board version..   I have a good number of railroad board games that I would love to play with the nephew but he will have to understand game play and be able to sit and play a game for a few hours before I will ever introduce him to these.. Avalon Hill games are the best, but they are for the kids who love to play hands on board games.. Is there any of these out there anymore??  The gadgets and computer games are the big IT games..

We got that Atari game system back in the day and even when we got it, the system was about to be out dated soon with the sega genesis system.. I think I've written about this here earlier  but the idea of continuously trying to get the new IT game was daunting to me as I watched my little brother in fact do this, getting the Genesis system, while I got the Game Gear version which is a hand held LED  version.. I knew seeing how good this looked that LED would be the future of television although I was told it would be too expensive.. Here we are this many years later and LED is the television to have..  Anyway he would grdually get the Sony Playstation and then the handheld version, then the next whatever it was and I got out of video games.. Just stopped playing them.. Plus I wasn't very good at them..  Now I play computer games that were board games and a few that are true computer only Crazy Machines franchise being my favorite.. 

Badge Henry

Strategy to win but then..

I made a mistake the other day..  I grabbed the handheld Monopoly game to play a quick game and was setting it up to play what I thought would be a four payer game against who I thought would be the toughest opponents on it.. I set to play the three others that were there, a choice between five, so pick the three you think will be tough since I've walked all over the game the last few times I've played it..  I pushed the numbers but when all was said and done I got only one opponent.. HOT SHOT..

Well that isn't what I wanted but decided to give it a shot.. And from the get go the computer player wanted to trade, first for the railroad (my first property) and then others as we went around.. Finally I traded the railroad later in the game, a mistake no doubt.. I saw how things were going in the game and the money as short, very little amount and as the cheap properties were gotten I decided to try my luck and go "slum lord" to try to win.. That's right, from having the most expensive and winning with them, to taking the cheapest and winning with them.. But in this case the cheapest properties are not the   DU  DU DU DU!!  big hit properties that the big hits are.. Yes with hotels they can be expensive and I wanted to see if I could get by with the cheapos and build from there.. At hotel, I was nailed once.. Got the rent and then got nailed with the street repairs.. From there it seems like the game went downhill quickly.. I got the orange (dark yellow) upper lefthand properties I usually win with but decided to hold off on developing them (houses) beyond my better judgement.. And HOT SHOT got the red properties in monopoly and started to build.. The thing that I saw was with him coming around I waited a turn or two too long to develop the better properties..

 Then the plan to stop the bleeding.. I took the houses down on the two cheapos and also mortgaged the properties and also traded a property for money at mortgaged a few other properties.. I was going all in to develop these three properties at the expense of everything else.. Has this strategy ever worked before??  It sounds beyond any idea of smart to try.. I have done this before and had it work.. This time however there were many things that were against me..  Hot shot had two or three houses on his properties and was making me lose my ass every time around.. I waited too long??  I went slum lord?? I should have tried to develop the entire cheap side of the board instead of the two cheapest.. Develop the whole slum side would make hot shot hit one of the seven along that side more often than just the two although I didn't have one of the baby blue properties I could have gotten it with the slightest of efforts. I was in a hurry to play the game and a few times did some stupid things.. I would think twice about some of them.. For instance there was a couple times where I wasn't paying attention to hot shots money on hand..

Landing on a property that hasn't been sold yet you have two options on the property, either buy it or have it go to auction.. I went to auction a couple times without knowing what the computer player had money wise.. That burned me both times, although two more times i was able to get properties for next to nothing which included getting Boardwalk for a ten shot.. Ten dollars because I was first bid and hot shot had ten dollars in that one.. Again that was a time I didn't know what he had and found out..  Another was a railroad and over bid and had to mortgage to buy it.. Big mistake.. On the computer game you can bid beyond what you have cash on hand, I usually know what everyone else has.. This time I bid beyond what I had and thought I would stop just shy of his broke limit.. Ooops, I screwed the pooch on several occasions..  It was my undoing and I would lose because I wasn't paying attention.. But I also lost because I am not very good at one on one game like this.. Better luck next time..

Badge Henry

Snow back to normal??

My older brother had a entry on his Facebook about the blizzard we just went through and yeah, just like the last blizzard it wasn't that horrible.. The wind blew the snow a little but as the storm kicked in  the wind stopped blowing as hard.. The storm before was more wind and less snow.. When they talked about drifts up to eight feet deep I thought of the old days when we would explore the aftermath of storms and walked on the drifts across to the highschool roof..  And then this storm today as they were saying get your snowblowers ready to work and I thought hell we haven't gotten dug out from the last snow storm yet..

The sequester looms big.. How big of a deal  is it??  We were listening to Randy Rhoads on the radio yesterday as we got home and she was saying there are some in the republican party (the GOP) that think going through a depression would be a good thing.. To which both me and mom said WHAT??  and it just blew us away.. Who would do such a thing to people on purpose??  There is so much wrong with this country now it blows me away..  I have said this before, I can't imagine what this country is going to be like in twenty years when the current young generation is getting ready to go into the job market.. What career will there be..  What will the three and soon to be forth addition be looking at as far as jobs or even the country.. I wonder if people felt this way in the great depression era, will there be a future??  The country is just balanced on the edge right now.. I wouldn't think the government would fail the economy right now.. But there is that feeling that they tried to fail the economy enough to where they thought they could get  dumb assed Romney elected but failed.. Now they have four years to really ruin it so the next election will go republican.. Who thinks the country will even be here by then if they ruin it??  The GOP  (the middle initial stands for OLD as in out dated.. They want a return to the fifties America and they make no bones about it.. Well fail the economy and turn the clocks back to the fifties because we are headed there quickly..

It is frustrating, I look at sites and read the replies by people and you know that a lot of the replies are from people who are in their thirties that are thinking get rid of social security or make cuts in these programs what do they care it won't be there when they retire.. Well it might not be but why cut these programs??  Social security doesn't add to the deficit.. But let's starve the old people.. I am watching these things closely,  nobody stays young forever.. 

I'm watching the series "House of Cards" on Netflix and am almost done with it.. Wednesday night is Netflix night as the entire night is devoted to watching this site.. Last night I looked through the whole site that was showing, and what that means is they have suggested viewing shows and movies because I watched this or that show.. And there is just a ton of stuff to watch on this site.. I continue to be amazed at what there is to watch on the netflix site and they have even more.. You go to the netflix site online and see just what there really is to stream..    walking dead is a series I've always wanted to watch but haven't yet.. That will change once I've completed watching House of Cards.. I read an article online where they said 85% of subscribers are more likely to keep their subscription because of the series being on there.. I like the series and when we got the Roku I knew I would be filling in a lot of time watching from this device, even more so than the old digital cable..  I still look at other sites (channels) on the Roku and have added some new sites recently, mostly to see if there is anything that these sites might offer for viewing..


This was on Reddit today :  "When was the moment that you realized "hey, I'm an adult now"?
 It made me think as I have been over the past little while now about things like growing older.. When did I feel like I am an adult now?..  I don't know.. I feel the same and sadly certain mentalities go with being this way..    I think one of the things that made me feel more grown up was when I wanted something really bad and then rather than buy it, I thought about it.. Took my time about getting it, taking time and looking at all aspects of getting it and then buying it some time (months) later.. Sometimes thinking about buying something and doing my research and then realizing that I didn't really want it.. I see tools and tool collections (preset tool kit type of things) that I think it sure would be cool to have this or that, only to figure I have that tool set, maybe not presented this way but still, I have it..   Back in the day (shortly after high school) my older brother went in to the hospital for tests and I had my little brother with me and I remember thinking what could be taking so long and couldn't find mom or anyone and I was growing frustrated and then sort of came unglued to mom which was a huge mistake..  Turn the clock forward and through all of what dad had done first with his heart and then the kidney situation and everything and thinking how I was the day with my brother and I think of that every time I am involved with taking mom to any doctor..  Four years ago (was it really that long ago?)  moms life was changed forever and thinking about that and running back & forth to the hospital and then having to take her to everywhere and now having to help her, things have changed mentally for me.. I think for the better but in some instances I feel the same..

And I do feel the same, the same as I did when I was younger, I think the same way but not.. I think of the music I listened to back then and.. That hasn't changed much.. You can listen to what you like.. And I do, and try to listen to what is out there now but it is tough..   I still use the same influence guide I have always used..  I think my doing what I call Friday night music night and watching old Midnight Special segments on YouTube that I feel about the same as I did way back then.. Makes me feel good but also makes me feel sad a little, to know that those were in fact for me the  happiest days of my life..

Badge Henry
 

Seed 2 seed

Episode 2 of the show seed.. I tried to upload this here Monday and it wouldn't go..  So here it is linked to my youtube account..  I like this show.. In the first show  Brenda/Linda asked him if he was married and he said no, he would never do that to himself...  There is where the show starts and you see things start to change in this episode..  Still quirky as usual...

Badge Henry

Remote chance change

I have been in the need for  a new remote for quite a while now.. First let me explain.. I don't use or try not to use the remote that comes with the piece of electronic goodie.. I try to get that remote to be used in a multiple remote type of thing.. When I get a new thing to do that with, such as  new television or whatever.. My last remote was a double set sold as a pair of remotes one being bigger than the other.. Why get two instead of just one??  The one has four things it controls, the other has three, so seven things controlled over two remotes cuts the clutter down to.. Well not a very good idea, but here is how good it worked.. The main remote controlled the tv, the cable/satellite box, the sound system and the satellite radio.. The smaller was set to control only the satellite radio.. The bigger remote was more quickly to be worn out.. How do they wear out??  Aren't they supposed to last a longer time??  These remotes lasted a year before showing signs of wear. You know buttons that you have to push harder over time.. Then last year, last winter I should say, it was getting harder to get the buttons to react, they had to be warmed up to work.. Well I started looking for a replacement remote last summer and found the remote and it worked for everything I have except it would only do the very basic functions (i.e. turn things on & off and change the tv channels) basically worthless.. So I set it aside and lived with the mistake and through the early winter it seemed fine, and then it got cold and my bedroom is not heated and the remote was getting to the point where I was nearly having to stand on the remote to get it to work..  Taking them apart to fix this, I've done that and it is easy but they never seem to work any better after cleaning.. So the last few remotes I just ditch after getting the next new and better remote..  So the last month or so I've been looking more seriously for a new remote and this time with the Roku needing to be there.. Why add Roku??  The new Roku remotes are so small they are easily lost, and a week after getting the Roku I did misplace the remote.. Took a while to find but I found it and vowed to get a multiple remote that had Roku on it.. I found several on walmart site, found a few (quite a few on Amazon) and then looked at walmart store for what they had.. There was  remote that had the main tv and Roku as the two it controlled and it was regular sized.. It got my vote but I wanted  remote that worked everything I have so I looked a little more.. A few other remotes caught my eye and that was mostly the RCA brand and then one by Logictec as well.. The logictec showed very little promise as it was a three device  tv, dvd, cable/satellite remote..  So that was out.. I was set to get what I thought would be the remote then after looking I decided to come home and read up on my discoveries that night..

Looking up the three remotes I found something beyond my belief, and was glad I waited to get the remote that I thought was the winner.. It might have been the winner but for only two devices.. the Logictec remote I looked up on Amazon and was stunned.. The perfect remote.. Could it be perfect, I've never had perfection in a remote..  :

The Harmony 2000 by Logitec can be fully programmable via the computer.. The tev the roku (in the cable tv section) the sound system (under the dvd function) and then there is more.. While it can be programmed to do those three things it can be programmed to run other things as well.. I use an old vcr as a switchbox, an ab switch box or abc since it can switch between three devices.. so I added a few commands to buttons that aren't used for anything.. This idea wasn't an original, I read a review on Amazon that a guy did this and can run six devices with a remote that runs three.. I run five with mine although just the basic functions.. Programming the buttons individually makes all the sense in the world.. Makes this remote control be seriously missed because as with all remotes they all fail eventually and I'm already dreading replacing this one..

Went to check this out that day and when it got rung up the readout said $17.95 and I told the checkout lady that it was on a ten dollar peg.. I had seen it on Amazon for 18 greenbacks and I thought ten was  deal.. Turns out it was on the ten peg and that is what I got it for..   Sometimes I wonder if the security cams are watching me and I think they were that day.. (seriously ever wonder what they are watching or if they are at all??  I think they are from the time you get out of your car until you get back into your car to leave)...   What I hate about getting new remotes is that they are all so different.. The buttons are all placed in different places and everything very rarely they work with everything they are supposed to.. I am happy with the basic functions of the remote but the sound system needs to have the ability to switch between different things like the radio and tv and that lot.. I try to go with the best and yet cheapest remote I can find, usually well under the twenty dollar range.. the ONN remote from this past fall was less that ten dollars and shows it, very basic remote.. But sometimes the remotes can do what you want, you just have to read through all the instructions (I know, read the instructions??  that's not a very "guy" thing to do)  But I like to see just what these cheapie remotes can maybe do..    The remote of all remotes I had could do the dish and everything I had way back twenty years ago and I kept going by that peg in the walmart store and thought I love this remote I should but a dozen of these, or at least two to have one to replace this when it goes bad.. That remote lasted the longest and I cleaned it out several times before it finally gave it up..

This new remote I will try to keep working if I can.. The buttons are set up about the same as the remote it is replacing (one of the greatest selling points to get it was the buttons all seemed to have the same design)..   I know a lot of people reading this will be saying replace the batteries, that does work and is the first thing I do replace but even I can tell when the batteries aren't the problem.. Buying a new remote is the last thing I want to do, not because of how much the cost.. They could be free, I just hate to break in  a new remote and mind set to run it this way, always different from the remote it replaced..

Wow what a long winded entry about nothing..  There's ten minutes you'll never get back..

Badge Henry

Telling tall tales

I like sodahead and so much so that todays question of do you have a favorite president (of the United States) I answered yes and explained in a quick short answer as to who it would be but didn't get specific.. I said any president before Nixon.. When Nixon got himself impeached it was lights out for the office.. While it still is a high office and looked up by most Americans, it lost a certain amount of luster back when that happened.. My least favorite president would be Reagan.. I know people think fondly of him but my memory is that the economy wasn't that good, and would improve after he left office.. He also signed to start the deregulation of the financial institution which would start us on a long trip to where we are today... Enough of this shit..

So the last few entries were video involved with some favorite shows clipped and one show that made it unclipped.. Seed first episode was fun and funny to watch.. Then last night I watched the second episode and again clipped it in three segs  for upload here and or YouTube since the show isn't available here in the USA but rather still only in Canada..  Hey I'm watching Last Resort even though it is cancelled, I wasn't going to watch it but then I thought why not watch it..  It sure is a soap opera..

What a rude awakening the other day for anyone in that Russian town that had a meteorite explode nearby.. An air burst of that rock, reminded me of the re-entry of the space shuttle ten years ago (?) people saying there was a loud thunderous sound from that..  Then that big asteroid that flew by later on made you wonder if they were right when the first bit wasn't predicted to happen (the meteor in Russia), you had to hope they were right that the asteroid would in fact miss us..  But would they have been upfront about it hitting the Earth..  Some have said they wouldn't.. I thought they should have tried to blast this rock about the time it got just beyond us.. Test to see if we could prevent a rock of this size from hitting the Earth, but with the knowledge that if we messed with it that it might change it enough that the next time around it might hit us..  Leave it well enough alone I guess.. In the coming months we are supposed to have two comets fly by Earth.. Should be fun to watch..

I was asked if I was ready for planting and what I was going to plant this year.. I do have an idea and I was in walmart the other day and saw some ideas of what I'd like to plant but caught myself nearly slapping my hand to keep from buying another failed attempt to grow something from seed.. I wrote my uncle last year at about this time asking him if he ever tried to grow anything from seed and he said he tried once or twice and that they never grew very big or were very disappointing at harvest time.. I decided to grow from seed and a few of the plants looked very good with the roma looking like it was going to grow into the clouds.. This plant stopped growing as the heat was unbearable last summer.. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, the plant grew so great only to sputter out when it got so hot and dry even though it was in the self watering Earth box planter.. I will admit last year was an experiment and hopefully be the last time I try something like that.. First time I strayed away from the tried and true was the year I tried to grow corn, I planted too many seeds and didn't thin as they say when the plants came up.. I have troubles doing that, thinning to fewer plants.. Same as with pruning the tomato plants.. So this year should still be the five maximum tomato plants  or four tomato and one pepper.. And the pumpkin patch will make a return this year, it was supposed to last year but ended up being sunflowers and weeds.. This year I plan  to plant three pumpkins (maybe four) and maybe a few sunflowers.. all will be the big plants on everything.. I want big.. HUGE pumpkins and maybe the same with sunflowers.. 

Badge Henry

Pre highschool..

Elementary; the show that took the place of The Mentalist this past fall.. I could not fathom such a move to take a proven show in a proven time slot and move it to Sunday evenings and replace it with this   show... But I started to watch it from the very beginning.. It's a grand concept to have Watson be a councilor to make sure Sherlock doesn't slide back into a life of drug addiction.. He didn't like it and couldn't stand her at first and was a serious pain in the ass to her... In the opening scene from the latest show he does what he does best..

Sherlock wants Watson to get some form of self protection training and discusses it with Watson throughout the episode... 

Clip three is a wager he makes with a thug.. This clip reminded me of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane is constantly pissing people off at him..  This is one of those scenes..

Clip Four  I titled Ball Locks..  Fun to see what happens when Watson  gets pushed too far..

In what I call the revelation scene things get situated for the remainder of the series in this scene...  I have often called Elementary "the mentalist" on steroids.. It really has become must see tv... Following Person of Interest on Thursday night it takes the night up and is very good watching for these two shows.. Zero Hour has started in place of the now cancelled Last Resort on ABC in the seven to eight time slot..  And while I'm not completely sold on the show, I will watch for a little while.. It could become ABC's Lost replacement this many seasons after but   I doubt it..  But you never know..

Badge Henry

SEED

So here it is.. The  show SEED that I thought I'd check out.. All three of the videos here are the full show.. seed s1e1 part 1   This show is just funny and it works on an interesting premise that a guy who deposited some of his ...  splooge at a sperm bank is now being visited by the fruits of his labor.. Interesting concept.. Sadly another show only available currently on the CBC..

Above is part 2... Below is part three.. Watch & enjoy.. This has my sense of humor all over it..

Badge Henry

Cold again

Colder than crap again.. Winter holds court.. 

Sadly I got that channel on Roku that is called 8ctave and is supposed to be called octave for whatever the reason.. Sadly I was trying to find something good to watch on it and make it a point to find that that I thought would be great about the channel.. I was finding things to watch, one of which was the music set to animation called animusic and there were some videos that I hadn't ever seen in the series so I was so looking forward to viewing those.. I say was because the channel has stopped working.. For what reason it doesn't work anymore I don't know.. Truth is the Nowhereman tv channel made a lot of people wonder why this channel was put together because they overlap with certain content.. I saw a lot of potential in the 8ctave channel but have since Sunday it won't load up.. They updated the channel a couple weeks ago and added a ton of content and I'm not sure if some of it might not have been under some sort of contract somehow.. They did say that everything they offer is available free on the internet.. I watched the weather for the Memphis Tennessee area a couple weeks ago.. Watched for Omaha as well.. When the big snowstorm hit last weekend I watched a New York area channel.. ..  Looked for the SOTU on certain roku channels and found it.. Came across the BBC the other night at midnight here it is six in the morning there.. Watched the morning edition of their news live.. There is a section of nowhereman that has Letterman clips and I watch those every night before his show is on in our timezone it has clips of the show on this channel.. I watch the NBC nightly news most nights (it is commercial free on the website)  also I watch Global new (out of Canada) and wish the had the Global television feed as well as the CBC.. The Challenge channel has game shows on it, some are good and some are strange.. Yesterday channel has old shows & movies that are running (not VOD).. American Primetime has old shows as well.. NWA has wrastling without comentators on it.. Then there is Netflix.. I started watching the House of Cards series last week but it clipped and glipped and so I shut it down figuring their servers were having troubles so I waited until Tuesday to start it.. I've heard it is good and it really is.. Good..  So for now I am through part three of twelve..




Badge Henry

Funkadeliexpialidoshus..

Two days of being in  a deep funk was just about enough for me.. I don't know why I was in that way these past few days.. I have a set time when I know that is coming and usually that is March.. You would think it would be earlier in the year like January or February but usually it is March.. I was in continuation today, the funk was deep again but I was at the park and not feeling the best and I reached back and picked up the handheld Monopoly game and went at it.. Played a game in a little over an hour and a half.. Blazing speed and was disappointed again that the computer couldn't get a trade done with itself as I got the properties that I usually win with, developed them gradually and got my finances set to the point where like the last time when the others landed on my well developed properties they were in trouble.. Normally I avoid building to hotels because of the street repairs card in chance and community chest, but with the four houses I got nailed by the first card with four houses it cost $300 and as i listened to the tally of what it would cost with the houses or hotels the price would be $300 either way with three hotels or twelve houses.. So I went ahead and built to hotels on each property.. Then I nail the other street repairs card and it was more expensive and I knew it would be but I also thought the odds of getting both cards in the same game were very unlikely.. But I nailed them both.. Thankfully I had the money for the repairs and as the game continued I was able to clean everyone out without having to unmortgage every property.. Like the last game I played where the other "players" nailed my property and hit bankruptcy, the game today was the same and having the properties at the hotel mark helped clean them out and the fact that they were mid range on the expense I was able to develop quickly.. There wasn't very much money in the game, and just like the Boardwalk/Park place game I only developed the three properties and as I acquired the other properties I decided not to develop those because no others had a monopoly to build on.. There was no rush to build anything else because there wasn't a chance of anything being built.. In games from years past I would have built more houses and such to make the odds of being hit greater.. Also, one of the main reasons I would build to houses only was to make the building count smaller.. In the handheld and the computer game you have to build the houses first then the hotels.. I've played the board game where I developed to hotels without building houses first.. Taking say $1500 and paying for the hotels and not building houses first.. I think it is a rule that you build houses first.. Here's the reason why you build houses first, there are only so many houses in the game and once the houses are all used up there are no more to build and so you can't build to hotels.. If you have the houses on other properties you can knock them down and build elsewhere, say if you have houses on the cheapie light blue and move them to the green to build to hotels then rebuild after you achieve that.. Or build to four houses and corner the market to keep the opponent from building any houses at all.. or very few.. It's what I try to do to keep the other players from getting to where they can compete very well..  Not very nice but, it's business.. Sort of..

Badge Henry

Scene of the...

This is from the show CRACKED.. I call this the "holy shit" moment in the show.. Towards the end they have their "man" and then this happened.. I gave Cracked a shot, not knowing for sure if this show would be funny or not.. It is a cop crime drama, and sadly it isn't shown here in the United States yet, it is from the CBC  (Canada Broadcast Corporation) and it is a very good show, or at least from the first episode it looks like it might be..   This scene has the main character and his partner who isn't a cop (sort of like on the mentalist or castle here in American television).. She is however a psycologist and she was tasked with putting a task force together that consists of officers who are on the edge of not being able to perform.. And she goes out in the field to see how her crew works and evaluate them.. And help as well.. This is a very good scene.. Watch and enjoy..

On a recent episode of Bones the two main characters were discussing their last will & testament as they were driving to question suspect.... The interesting banter between Seely and Bones is what makes this show as good as it is.. It's what I've always liked about it..

A little further in the show one of the guys was talking to another about a pre 30 bucket list..

This scene from the new Primeval series just a little humor on a show that is so serious .. so serious and struggling to stay on the air sadly..

Trip 42 from Last Man Standing.. Tim Allen gets my vote for great guy.. I think he has something to do with the show besides staring in it..  This is a great scene using a real veteran...

From the show necessary roughness.. the "Yuck my Yum" scene..

 From the same episode of Bones as the other two scenes.. Kinda like this one here..

So here are just a peek into some of the shows I have watched recently.. You like??  Good, but you know this is just the scratching of the surface of my odd taste in television shows.. I wish all the shows I like were on American tv channels but.. Sometimes it's good to look elsewhere for stuff to watch.. I also like Justified and have the entire season so far.. Gotta catch up on that one.. I have never seen the show on the night it airs.. The first two seasons were all watched the same way this season is being watched..  Eventually... (torrent)...

Badge Henry

The more things stay the same

Here's me getting up this morning seeing the nice blizzard going on outside..  Getting to the cupboard and getting a glass out to get my morning glass of water to kickstart the organs and I notice a glass there next to the plastic ones we have.. I got my shot of water then opened the door again and grabbed the glass I originally looked at.. Why did it catch my eye??  Well it isn't fancy, and wasn't store bought like they are now.. It was bought in a store, yes, but it was something completely the opposite that it was intended for.. Back in the early days of my mom & dads marriage they were looking at ways to cut costs, and one of them was reusing things that weren't originally intended for.. They got jelly & jam, peanut butter jars and some of them were in fact intended to be used as glasses you drink out of after they were empty.. How many of these did we have?? A fairly good lot of them.. I remember using this particular glass many times over the years and it has a great testimony to how good things were made back in "the day" (as they say).  And this glass still is fine, still does what it is intended to do instead of taking space in a trash pile somewhere.. I thought of this idea now and truth is there are some glass jars that could be used as drinking glasses but this one does have just a slight lip on it which suggests that it was an old jelly or jam glass jar.. Most peanut butter has a threaded top for the lid..

This snow storm (el blizzardo) hasn't been the major "NEMO" storm they got back in the New England part of the country.  In fact it looks like it was more of a piddling of snow ala last year when it happened on a Friday and altered things a bit.. That was supposed to be a nasty storm but didn't shit on us the way it was supposed to.. Then todays storm looks identical to that storm, only even less..

Went through a session yesterday where I looked at tv shows to watch.. Torrenting to get some of the shows, finding that a few shows that looked good to watch have in fact been cancelled so I might not even bother trying to watch them..  Then a show called Cracked was in the listing.. Does this sound good ??  I looked at the description and it says it is made in Canada and shown there so I get it to try..  Another is Seed, about a guy who deposited his sperm at a sperm bank and finds out that he has a lot of offspring that way.. I think it is a sitcom..  Should be interesting..

Badge Henry

So's it gonna snow or what...

The entry from Donald's Facebook was somewhat cryptic yesterday (last night) but it has to do with his band and it made me remember what I went through with the band I was in..   He was down last week and was talking about the place where the band practices getting vandalized and that they were now without a place to practice and that he was glad they had to find another place.. But he wanted them to find it.. The band was splintering and was on the verge of no more.. sadly they could have made a good start of it.. A rebirth was announced after the Oktoberfest gig with a new lead vocalist and new direction.. They even took to their old name.. But the old troubles resurfaced and the band was going through the motions again.. They practiced a good deal and Donald made the announcement that with their new lead vocalist learning the songs that they were being given a new feel.. It sounded like things were coming together and I could hardly wait to hear they were about to play somewhere.. But that never happened.. The lead guitarist wanted to change the direction of the band completely and have it be a Led Zeppelin cover band.. That could be a good thing except that they would only get to play a few times a year.. I'm pretty sure Donald would rather play fairly regularly and more locally..  He should have told them the only way they could play regular gigs is to play more rock & roll.. They didn't want to play rock & roll..  I would rather play rock & roll, it is what the bars around here want a band to play.. By rock & roll I mean stuff from the sixties and seventies.. The good old rock & roll..  The good stuff..


The end always comes..  the very first band I was ever in was while I was still in high school, the summer of my junior to senior year and I was hoping they (we) would be able to play for the homecoming dance my senior year but two weeks into my senior year the other members of the band threw it in.. We weren't very good and weren't getting better with rehearsal but I thought we might could give it a go.. Then a few years after I graduate the guy who started that band wanted me to join his new band.. He was starting his own music business selling equipment and I thought why not, I was desperate to gig, something I never had done.. Then that fell apart (AGAIN) and then the replacement guitarist called me to join his band.. I dragged my feet telling him I was in a band with the original guitarist.. They cleared it for me to come try out with him.. E (I won't use his full name) was a swindler of sorts, a fast talker and he wanted a band.. His little brother was just graduating from high school and with him a guy who would try to learn the guitar.. I thought great remedial band practice this should be good for ten years of practice and never gigging..  The very first practice things were strange, every band I jammed with was easy going and seemed ready to get on with it.. But with this band it seemed like a rastling match from the beginning..   I remember telling them four months into the band that if we don't get serious that I was gonna leave.  I hated to threaten them like that but I wanted us to gig.. Two moths later we would finally play and we would play fairly regular.. By the forth year we were in a lull.. By April that next year I pushed for us to get together, I wanted to play for my little brother graduation party.. They agreed to to that since I had done so many parties for free (of their friends) I thought they could do one more and that gig would be the last for me.. It was tough to leave.. I swore the first time I threatened to leave that the next time the threat would be real and I stuck to it.. They did call to try to get the band back together for a gig at the fair grounds opening for another band but I didn't return their call.. A few years ago one of the girls that followed the band in the early days had a daughter in an accident and I would have said yes to us getting together for a charity gig (a one off as they call it) but I don't think the band is around anymore.. When I left the band I severed all ties and maybe that is sad but I didn't want to be tempted to go back to that situation.. Two years into it I swore we could go either way.. We were about to be very popular and then a few months later we wouldn't be.. The roller coaster that is being in a band that teeny bopers supported was that way.. We rarely played a bar where our "fan base" couldn't be at.. Back in "the day" as they call it, we played at a bar in Colorado that had a reputation for letting quite literally anyone drink in.. Back then there were 3.2 bars and 6.4 bars.. We played in 3.2 bars where the beer was like drinking koolaid (supposedly)..  So you had to be 18 to drink in a 3.2 bar.. we had a lot of fans in R.D.'s bar.. My greatest memory playing there was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving one year.. We played to the most packed house with people on stage with us.. Yeah we were that popular but the beer was cheap.. We played until two in the morning but as we were packing up they told us the beer had sold out by ten.. Blew us away.. That was one of the few great times while I was in the band.. The best of times.. Would I have joined the band even with all the other shit that was going on??  Yes I would have.. In a heartbeat..

Badge Henry

what channel & why

Roku delivers the goods again.. Well sort of.. I will say this, that if we had to live without cable tv we could, however there is very little that is truly live.. In the entertainment area there  is E! on the AOL.ON channel. Truth is if you only had one channel to have this could be it.. They have new sources, entertainment, and a lot of things to watch.. The new channel 8ctave (what I called channel 8) has hundreds of channels and was updated yesterday when I added a channel*.. The biggest problem I have with this channel is before any video plays it plays an advertisement that can be a two minute infomercial which is annoying as hell because as I have done on YouTube on the computer, when the advertisement is two minutes and the video I want to watch is 30 seconds I opt out of watching the commercial and watch the video.. They have that skip add choice thing and most of the time when I am in a hurry (most of the time) I click this link when it becomes available to do so five seconds into it.. This site (channel 8ctave) has some interesting content, however it is community channels so you are getting free content put on by people who shouldn't, for the most part, be doing this.. But some is good.. I wish Sidney would get their community channel up there, I'd watch a little I think.. Plus there are school programs that are on there, some Christmas concerts and plays & stuff..


*The channel I added was TVNWEATHER.  Which is the Reed Timmer weather chaser channel. This guy must be full time weather (tornado) chaser..  He seems to be all  over the country chasing weather all year long.. I follow him on Facebook and Twitter and he has a chaser channel on the computer that shows (via GPS I assume) where they are in their chase vehicles.. That is interesting to watch but I think this channel on the Roku is a video channel, prerecorded type of stuff right now but all channels can change over time and this channel might be a live streaming site when the season calls for it.. It's the only way this channel will be of any interest to anyone.. The tornado videos are available by way of YouTube.. But live streaming is available by just a few sites right now.. That might change very soon as well.. 

Avoiding a close call yesterday.. Has anyone ever lost a cell phone??  I thought I did yesterday..  I had set the phone to the on position as it were and thought I put it in my pant pocket and went into Walmart.. While in the store I use it as a clock and went to check it, but it wasn't there.. Checked every pocket.. NO CELL PHONE!!  But it really isn't that big of a deal, I thought I left it in the car so no big deal. I get through looking around and left the store.. Got in the car and headed out and as I get to the stoplight I think where is the phone??  Looked where I thought it should be and it wasn't there, nor any of the other two or three places and a quick feel of the pockets again because I'm sure that pat down at the store wasn't enough to find it while standing up..  So I think, it fell out of the car and I just didn't hear it hit the lot there.. I can be quite not there when I have something else on my mind.. I get back to the 'mart and there in the parking stall is what looks to be a smear on the lot.. Could that be the phone??  I drive to the other side of that parking stall and it turns out to be an aluminum can.. So where is the phone?  I get to a parking lot and start looking for it in the car.."Can you imagine, I'm gonna have to go into Walmart and ask if someone brought a phone in, and describe it..  very old cell phone"..  I look and there under the seat support is what looks like the phone and as I felt for it..YUP that's it.. FOUND 'ER..  But I told mom this and as I was telling her about this I told her I doubted anyone would see the value in this phone.. It was the phone we got a few days after dad was in the hospital the last time.. it is the phone mom got the call on.  that Sunday night.. not the best news or the best reason to have a sentimental attachment to it, but I like it.. Very simple phone.. like me I guess I like simple things..   We had the chance to upgrade to one of the latest gadget phones but I like having a phone, and it is very basic.. I do remember sending a text to the computer at home while I was on the mountain by Silverton way back before texting was the big it thing to do..

I watched the first disc of music videos that I made last summer (fall) when the infinity project was first started.. That first disc is the IT disc.. Just my favorite set of videos, with the best ideas and songs that matched with Maiden Voyage being the highlight.. Such a cool song, and of course my favorites top notch in running order 3: Flightpath   2: Outreach  1: Stratos   ultimately stratos is my favorite Jonn Serrie song and one of my favorite songs of all time..   Watching NCIS the other night and the punk kid gave Gibbs shit for being old school in his music taste and Gibbs said yep.. Just like my taste.. OLD SCHOOL..

One last thing, I started to try to watch that Netflix original (exclusive) show House of Cards last night and then the Roku had other plans and so I ended up watching the Philadelphia Experiment 2 instead.. The show was alright but as it got to the end it made very little sense.. I guess they wanted it to be wrapped up nice and neat, but it was anything but.. Anyone ever watch that movie it left more questions than answers.. Good movie concept the original was, but the second wasn't very good.. To have the David Herdeg character back made it impossible to be the way it ended.. For anyone else it might have been fine but to have  guy who went through twice.. Too far fetched even for a far fetched concept anyway..

Badge Henry

To collision with an asteroid we go..

Ok, the PNOP entries might seem like they are partially put together now and then todays shows it was put together in October and more than likely it was.. Some were set in October and yesterdays was set on Friday before the super bowl and I thought the 49ers were going to win, but thought the ravens would win as well so that is why the entry subject said congrats to the 49ers for a well played contest.. It didn't say they are the winners or losers just a well played game and I knew it would be..

The day has finally come.. Back in July or August I swore I would leave the i-Google homepage be available through to after the super bowl and here it is after the big game and the countdown is on to delete the page.. Part of me wants to wait until November first to see what happens to it and another part wishes I would have deleted it a year ago when they announced they would eliminate support for the homepage..  What will I miss the most?  The sports part, I had the scores app set for whatever sport was going on at that point in the year.. Mostly it was great for Football both college and pro... It will be missed but time to move on... The RSS reader is just as important as it was before but the Sulia page is growing in importance daily..

Today I open the speed dial thing and it has a counter to show the importance of different sites.. And facebook set there with its number at 1234 hits.. Far and away more hits than any other site by over a thousand.. Strange since I don't like to admit going there the same as most people hate going to walmart ...

Yesterday I continued the videos work for phase 3 of the infinity project.. Two weeks ago I got the updated windows movie maker and with some updates it changes the way certain programs work some for the better, some not so much.. This update was for the better in that before I updated to the new version the old version wasn't working hardly at all.. The new version works but it is so much more touchier than it ever was before.. I read on forums where the old windows live movie maker was extremely touchy and crashed regularly which I never had happen to me.. I did do one video at a time which is to say when I got one video done I would click to shut the program down then restart it.. After a few times of not doing it this way I got in the habit of shutting it down, it just worked better this way.. Now when I go to use the program I restart the computer before using it because it just works better from a fresh slate than from being on for a very long time.. The restart time tends to give me time to focus on the task at hand.. Yesterday I did three videos.. When I save a video (movie) to 720p it takes around three minutes per minute of video. In the computer video version it is about even ratio, and in the email version it is reverse of the 720p version.. Very short time but the quality is horrible.. They have more settings on the save movie as..  They have several devices (gadgets) in mind  but the basic settings are 1080p, 720p, 480p, 272p, and 240p  with the smaller number being the worse in quality.. They have the android, Zune, i-everything and then dvd settings and computer (XVID) settings.. Take your pick..    And with the idea of trying to have the best quality be there I chose 720p because 1080p is almost not noticeable and if you are looking on a i-pod small screen gadget the 480p is just as good as 720p...  But you get bigger and things get shitty very fast..

The idea came across me yesterday to maybe try to see what HULU plus was like on the Roku streaming player.. Try the free trial version and I was just all set to try it when I came down and watched the shows I downloaded from HULU recently and then realized this is even better than hulu plus or hulu ... Hulu plus is the payed for version and offers nearly nothing more than the computer accessible version.. The computer accessible version is free, but why would people want it for free??  Isn't the pay version better quality??  There is no difference in quality, but some people would rather pay for their tv.. So there you go.. I try to download shows from torrent sites when the shows aren't available any other way.. Most of what I want to watch is available and I get the shows from any source.. Watch the shows when they are on, a dvr would be nice but I think you tend to rely on technology to much that way and when it doesn't work you are in a world of hurt.. I know when my first vcr went to hell I would be lost for something to watch and I hated to watch commercials, when I want to watch a show I only wanted to watch that show, no commercials.. That is why streaming VOD is so much more impressive..

I checked the Amazon video service for Roku last night.. They do have a lot of programming on their site but it adds up in a hurry price wise.. Netflix is still the best value overall. I still have only scratched the surface as far as watching programs there..  I watched a movie on Crackle last month just to see how it works and I think all the other "free" movie sites are the same.. 

Badge Henry

Super hangover Monday

Can I predict them or what??   I said I thought the 49ers would win and they DIDn't..  They almost did though, at the half or just before they got that halftime field goal I wrote of Facebook that the 49ers have the ravens right where they want them.. And after the kickoff of the second half I said this will be the greatest comeback in super bowl history..  But it fell short.. It was a good game though.  They had the ability to watch the camera angle of your choice online and I chose the cable cam.. The cable cam is the camera that basically dangles above the field, and runs around the field seemingly just above the heads of the players when in fact it is well out of touch, the camera can make it look like it is right on the players, it isn't really that close.. After the blackout the cable cam was still not working so I tried other angles.. The sideline cam was good.. There was a ceiling angle that was interesting..   During the first part of the return from the blackout I watched the action on regular tv and ate apples and enjoyed the horrible coverage that way.. Then as the forth quarter started I came to the computer to check the cable cam and it was back up and running so I watched the rest of the game that way.. It was so cool to see the field open up as Flaco threw those completions.. Seriously I wish they would give people the choice like that on EVERY game.. I would watch the cable cam for just about every game.. You don't get the replays and the graphics but it is worth watching that way.. I wish they would stream to the roku one angle like that.. I think they would be surprised at how many people watch alternate angles..  Odd people like me like to watch the game in different ways than the tried & true..

Anyway I did watch the majority of the game via web on the computer and figured I could do that because eventually I will see the replay on NFL network and it will show the full production version.. That's why I watched the way I did.. Donald wrote on his Facebook that they were watching online because they again shut down the dish.. I told him back in December that I would ditch the digital cable after the first of the year when the Roku would take over and he told me then that they were going to do the same with their dish..  We still have analog cable which I couldn't see being without for the local news aspect.. However I get news via the roku from many sources but it is national nd international news sources.. Nearly no local news with the exception of KOTA but it is the Rapid City site..   I'm trying that "pay" weather site on roku.. it however isn't any better than the free sites.. Truth is I only need a weather site slightly because I have so many sites to chose from on the internet (computer).. It's not worth the one time fee of any money..  I'm hoping that someone will eventually get that streaming is the way people would rather go with their viewing.. And paying for what they watch, and not paying for what they don't watch.. In other words just because you have a three hundred channel pack might look great to have three hundred channels to those who think more or bigger is better.. How about you offer a fifty channel pack and not have filler shit in that pack.. I don't need ten shopping channels in my viewing package.. Hell I don't need any shopping channels in my pack.. When I had the digital box I had what channels I liked to have and nothing more..  I added a few more sites on the roku  Saturday to see what they offer but removed some of them and kept others and will do a more in depth looking at over the next few days..

The What's on "app" is seriously going to help a gigantic amount because of the loss of the EPG (Electronic Program Guide or Grid)  to see what is on.. I liked a lot of shows that were on the cable channels and over the last month of having the digital cable box I was trying to memorize the shows and locations where they were but after getting the roku I was a month of not watching anything I was getting memorized and then that was gone.. Now with a programming grid I can get used to watching these shows again.. On the digital cable box it did just show what was on, on the dish it would give a tv guide type of synopsis of what the show was about.. Digital cable just was the grid, the explanation of what the show was about was always lacking, and rarely showed anything.. Hopefully this "app" will stay active.. 

I looked all over on the Roku yesterday as the game got to be about to start for a foreign channel with the game on but couldn't find one.. I would have like to see a German channel with their announcers calling the game.. I would have watched that to see how they reacted.. Could have been interesting.. Or not...


Badge Henry

Snuper Bwol snuday

Ready for the big game..  Spent the past few days trying to get the game via roku but couldn't.. There are three different things (all three are private channel type) that had promise but on one I needed to change my proxy and didn't..  Setting to a server from outside the U.S. is the only way to get that to work while still being in America.. So that one didn't work.. There is an outside chance the nowhere man services might have one channel that has the game on it, so I will look during the game.. But I bet there won't be a site this year, however I do think the day is coming when they do have the big game on a streaming service.. 

So what was the Watch This private channel good for?  I went through all the public and private list again yesterday and the Watch This seemed like just another one of those preview channels for movies either at the theater or on dvd.. But what I was hoping to try to make on my own somehow was already there on this channel.. First they have movie previews, that's cool although I already have several of these.. The thing that makes this one better is you type in your zip code and they bring up a list of local theaters, so our twin theater has the movies listed same as the multiplex in other towns nearby.. Then the best part, it has a television setting, and you type in the zip code for that (actually it shares the zip code across all the apps it has, assumes you live there.. So I look at the cable tv listing and it has it for the general company that does our area, all the little towns have about the same identical settings, except for one odd ball town.. This was close to right but our town wasn't listed so I tried another town and it was spot on.. All 62 channels listed right.. I say 62, there really aren't 62 but rather maybe 56 true channels across 62 as listed.. I thought about looking at the digital channels as well but didn't care to, I was happy with what we have.. It is the grid the EPG grid that I missed so bad when we ditched the digital cable box last month.. Actually I shut it off back when I hooked up the roku box..

So here we are a little over a month after getting the roku and how has my viewing changed over this six week period??  Well I am getting into the habit of watching stuff here and there.. At night I will watch cable tv, then switch to the streaming box o' fun.. Netflix is a huge programming provider but it isn't all that I watch and I am finding more things to watch every day.. Added 18 sites to look at yesterday including the What's on  (watch this) channel..  Looking for what is out there.. Some sites with public domain programming which most people would say is total crap but I disagree ..  Public domain merely means that programing has lost value for someone to renew their rights to collect royalty fees for it.. So it becomes public domain.. (that might be true or I could be full of shit).. On my remote for the Roku it has preset Netflix, Crackle and Pandora buttons and I watch stuff on the two video services but don't use Pandora at all right now, but that could change.. I did set some channels up for Pandora but was disappointed when the music being played went from the group I based the channel on to something I don't care for.. Although the groups might seem like the same music, they aren't in my mind.. The groups in question are Lacuna Coil as the base group and Evenesence.. They might seem like the same music but to me Lacuna Coil is more relative to Within Temptation (another great European band) than the more poppy sounding Evenesence..  I was hoping for a run on the Lacuna Coil channel of Within Temptation, Nightwish... Groups that keep it real to the heavy rock sound there than the American pop sound.. My opinion there only..

The three movies this weekend were Tower Heist, watched that last night and it was really a great movie.. Haven't enjoyed a movie like that in a long time.. Dream House, I was expecting more of a thriller type but as the plot unfolded I started to understand where it was going.. Really a great movie, psycological  thriller but more thinking mans movie.. Really good movie..   Johnny English reborn was likely the worst of the three yet it was quite a good movie actually..  I'm trying to get one old movie a month now, but with some of the sites I have I can watch some really old classic movies.. There are some old Charlie Chaplin movies and some silent movies from that far back of era..

So who is going to win today's big game ??  The supper bowel (spelled wrong because the NFL likes to sue those who infringe on their names shit) has a team from the west versus a team from the east and two brothers , Hanzel & Gretal, although one is a female in that scenario.. Should be a good game and I figure the team from the west will win but don't be surprised if the eastern lads win it in a squeaker.. A real nail biter..

Music videos on the PNOP site were uploaded there and set back just before New Years Day.. I think it was the 27th or there abouts.. Maybe the next day but um.. The videos are ok.. I started working on the new videos this past week with the idea of doing one or two videos a week, but I started to work on the 220 volt live video album and decided to complete it in three days.. Not too smart but then worked on a few new ideas for phase three. Phase one is being abandoned in favor of moving forward.. Todays infinity phase one entry will be the last.. Next month will be a single entry for phase two with maybe the entire of phase two being loaded for that day.. Then April will be phase three starting and going on until I get tired of them, more than likely June.. Then it will likely be over, the Infinity project will be, trying to get a new idea for videos and might have one.. Not sure right off hand where to go from here, but phase three should take every idea I have and bleed my creative juices dry..  And then start over again on the next idea..

Badge Henry  

Midnight Special friday night music club

Last nights music show (midnight special)  started with some groups.. Journey from their early appearances on the Midnight Special with Aynsley Dunbar then Steve Smith on drums and then Jonathan Cain on keyboards.. The Baby's with Jonathan Cain (my older brother heard that Jonathan Cain cut his teeth with them, and I think he thought cutting his teethe meant he physically cut his teeth, what it really means is he learned how to play in a band as he was with them)...  As things progressed fairly quickly last night and took a strange turn as I clicked the "more videos like this" tab and went to see Heart, Crazy on You.. Clicked on the more like this link and got to a really odd area.. Someone named C.C. something and she was odd, the first video had her in black & white and everything else around her was colour and her lips were red.. Strange.. Then to the oddest a gal named Sabrina..  Her music was the kind that might have paved the way for all the mindless dribble that is out there today.. But one thing, her Boys (x3) song was ... Low grade porn.. she swims out to a water bar and is wearing a swimsuit that barely is there, and the top keeps slipping down a bit.. Just enough that all imagination is gone, yep them big yabos are big yabos with a thread around them, under them and stretched to be over them.. Why they bother covering up the nipple is beyond me, we can see everything but that so what's the big deal about seeing a quarter sized area more??

This evolved to more mindless music until we got to Kylie Minogue, I can handle her music..  I like it.. I guess it is because she isn't from America.. Maybe, maybe I can tell the difference between good and better than good..  Maybe I'm easily fooled..  After finding two concerts by Kylie I look at a few more videos and then my Friday night early Saturday morning music video show is over.. Quarter till two, time to call it a night..

Badge Henry