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Thursday - April 28, 2005
Geeked out
Yesterday, I stopped by Andy's place to play my first (and probably last) pen & paper Role Playing Game. It was a game about zombies that basically incorporated every good and bad zombie movie I've ever seen. It wasn't a horrible experience, but I didn't find it to be the most entertaining night either. The session lasted 3 or so hours, which is apparently longer than my attention span. By the end, I was playing The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on Scott's GameBoy DS. I guess maybe video games and TiVo have rotted my brain so much that I don't have enough imagination to enjoy these types of things.
Posted by jcraven at 9:01 AM | Comments (2) | Misc
Tuesday - April 26, 2005
TiVo fun
Since I'm moving to Vonage for my home phone access, I was curious as to what would happen with the daily calls for my TiVo boxes. Some people have had success by simply hooking up the TiVo to Vonage and letting it dial out. I personally didn't even try. I decided to take the more complicated route just for the fun of it. The process involves setting your PC up as a PPP server, and bridging the data over your broadband connection. I already had the serial cable, so I gave it a shot using Otto's instructions found here. The setup went flawless, I had both of my TiVo boxes dialing out in less than 10 minutes. The TiVo upstairs already makes it's calls via broadband, so no need to try there. One caveat, you have to let the TiVo dial out with the regular modem at least once during the initial setup. After that, you can use serial PPP. If you need a serial cable, you can make one with instructions from the internet, or simply buy one from 9thtee.com.
Posted by jcraven at 7:58 PM | Tech | Television
Thursday - April 21, 2005
21st century
This week I signed up for Vonage. We were getting sick of paying $35/month for a basic phone line with caller-id. We seldom use the home phone, but want it available if needed. They finally allowed us to port our old number to Vonage, so we decided to give it a shot. The equipment is on it's way already and should be here next week. We went with the $14.95 plan. It includes 500 minutes, along with all the cool features such as voicemail, caller-id, call waiting, etc. If you're interested, let me know and I'll send you a referral. Both of us will then get a month free.
Posted by jcraven at 2:42 PM | Tech
Tuesday - April 19, 2005
Movable Type 3.16 released
I upgraded my installation of MT to version 3.16. There's a handful of bug fixes, but nothing major. If you want to upgrade, full details can be found here. It's pretty easy if you're already running 3.1, because you just replace the files from the downloadable upgrade package. Thanks to Scott for the heads up.
Posted by jcraven at 10:16 AM | Tech
Monday - April 18, 2005
Boone
This past weekend, Lara and I visited Boone. She had a couple meetings to attend. Other than the meetings, we made the standard rounds through Boone and Blowing Rock. We ate at some of our old favorites, Macado's, Our Daily Bread, Woodlands BBQ, and Kilwin's for a little treat.
I always enjoy visiting our alma mater, Appalachian State University. At the same time, it's also somewhat depressing. This weekend, ASU was having an open house for prospective students. So we saw hundreds or maybe thousands of high school juniors and seniors being led around in little tour groups. It really makes you feel old. Too bad the job market is so small in Boone outside of the university, we would love to live there.
Every time we visit there is a new building to see. They have completed the Summit Trail Solarium in the student union. This new area is amazing, and we stopped for a little rest while sitting beside the tranquil waterfalls. The new Bookstore is also open. It's 1000 times better than the old one, and still isn't totally completed. Also, the new Library will open next weekend, along with the installation of our new Chancellor, Dr. Kenneth E. Peacock. I really miss it all, maybe I should re-enroll. :)
Posted by jcraven at 1:36 PM | Comments (3) | Misc
Thursday - April 14, 2005
I smell an Emmy nomination
Last night I watched the Series premiere of Pam Anderson's new comedy Stacked. Not a horrible show, considering this was a pilot, but nothing spectacular (besides the lead characters obvious 'assets'). Stuart DeWitt, Marissa Jaret, and Christopher Lloyd all put in entertaining performances, which gives the show some potential. Zap2it has an outline of the plot here. Overall, it was good enough to get setup on my TiVo as a Season Pass.
On an unrelated note, I'm trying out a new trick with this post..... using a 'floating' image on the left side of the text. Feel free to check out my .css file for the code to make it work for you. Special thanks to Elise's Learning Movable Type website for the idea.
Posted by jcraven at 11:00 AM | Television
Wednesday - April 13, 2005
150 days and counting
The NFL released the 2005/2006 schedule today. The Dolphins open up the year at home vs the Broncos on September 11th. You'll also notice, the schedule does NOT include a single Monday night game. Oh well, not a huge suprise. Full schedule here. With the draft less than two weeks away, let's hope they pick up a decent quarterback. The Dolphins should have an oppurtunity, considering they get pick #2.
Posted by jcraven at 4:16 PM | Comments (2) | Sports
Monday - April 11, 2005
Cake Masters
Yesterday we watched the final round of the Masters on CBS. It was pretty exciting. Yeah I know, golf and exciting in the same paragraph.... hard to believe. It came down to a sudden-death playoff between Tiger Woods and Chris DiMarco. I'm glad to see Tiger end his drought, but I was pulling for the underdog, DiMarco. Sports Illustrated has details here.
Afterwards, Lara felt the need to make a cake. Since she had never made a 'real' layer cake, that's what she wanted to make. We decided to go with Devil's Food cake. Everything went well last night, and we let the cake cool overnight. Then came the hard part, applying the icing. Let's just say we don't plan to use white icing on chocolate cake again anytime soon. Lara did a good job after some initial problems, and she says everyone at work is enjoying the treat. Sorry, no pictures this time around.
Posted by jcraven at 3:33 PM | Food | Sports
Saturday - April 9, 2005
Go Sox
Last night we went to see Fever Pitch. Overall it was an enjoyable 'chick flick'. Of course it had the standard pattern for a movie like this.
1.) Boy meets girl
2.) Boy falls in love with girl
3.) Boy and girl have a big fight and split up
4.) Boy gets girl in some elaborate scene
5.) Boy and girl live happily ever after
There's quite a few funny spots (it is directed by the Farrelly Brothers afterall), and overall I would recommend it to most folks. But if you're going to watch this strictly for the sports, you'll probably be somewhat disappointed. They pretty much gloss over the Sox's amazing run at the end of last year. I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5.
Posted by jcraven at 3:50 PM | Movies & Music
Friday - April 8, 2005
Voom finally dead
Not a huge suprise, but it appears Voom is truly on it's way out. Oh well, it was an interesting technology, and I hope DirecTV and Dish start to offer some of the same channels that were previously found on Voom.
Their website states:
Voom will cease to provide service to existing customers on April 30, 2005.
New customer orders are no longer being accepted, and we are unable to complete any scheduled installation or service appointments. You will be contacted regarding any scheduled appointment.
Posted by jcraven at 4:29 PM | Tech | Television
Friday is finally here
This week has been hellishly busy at work. I'm glad it's finally over. I think we're going to go see Fever Pitch tonight at Southpoint. Ebert and Roeper gave it two thumbs up, so hopefully it will be pretty good. Netflix has the original if you want to check it out.
And to signify just how slow this week has been, here is a picture I took recently. Enjoy.
Posted by jcraven at 4:12 PM | Misc
Wednesday - April 6, 2005
What's that smell?
So today we had to be evacuated due to some construction workers cutting a 16" gas pipe. Never really experienced anything like it. It sounds like a jet engine.
WRAL has the story here.
On a related note, for the past week and a half, these road construction crews have made the morning commute hell. I'll be glad when they're done.
Posted by jcraven at 5:32 PM | Misc
Monday - April 4, 2005
Congrats UNC
UNC had a great game vs. Illinois. Normally I wouldn't pull for UNC, but I think they really deserved to win this year. Also it lets me break even in our office pool. :)
Now we have the long wait until football season begins next Fall.......
Posted by jcraven at 11:39 PM | Comments (1) | Sports
Friday - April 1, 2005
TechTV's final stand
According to tonight's show of X-Play, Adam is no longer going to be hosting. He will have his own late night show on G4TV. Morgan is very popular, and maybe she can carry the show on her own......we'll see how it goes.
Is it true, or just a clever April Fool's joke? Guess we'll have to wait until next week.
UPDATE: I finished watching the show, and it does appear to just be a hoax. They did go to the trouble of creating a website for the fake show here.
Posted by jcraven at 11:10 PM | Tech | Television
News flash!
Cisco is set to buy Nabisco foods. Details here. ;-)
Other great news from today:
PodShave and PodShave Lady
Much anticipated iTunes Phone
Tasty Southern cooking
Google Gulp (Be sure to read the FAQs)
iCopulate