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March 31, 2006
web TV!
Computer? On the television? That's crazy talk!
But I have, at long last, installed the video card and USB wireless LAN connector that, along with this wireless keyboard and mouse, is enabling me to write these words...while sitting on the couch! You heard it right folks! I'm surfing the web....on my TV!
Except the type is kinda small so I might be making some typos here and there. I can't really see.
But it's the future of technology...today!
Posted by Mark at 06:57 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
quick update again
Just a quick update. I went to the gym at lunch today, which worked out well. I'm trying to start actually filling out the weight-watchers stuff again. I got a pretty solid amount of work done today too. My stomach virus appears to be going around the office. That's not so good.
That's about it.
Posted by Mark at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)
homestar lego
I've been meaning to post this for a few days. Presenting Mike's most recent art project:
Posted by Mark at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2006
health updates
There's nothing quite so nice as the pleasant rebound after being sick. I am feeling considerably better.
Also, Mom's appointment yesterday went well. They say the tumor is gone. They have to continue to check up on her over the next few months to make sure that the cancer doesn't come back, but for now, things are looking good.
Posted by Mark at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2006
24-hour something
Something I ate last night did not agree with me. That, or I got a nice 24-hour stomach virus. I'm feeling lots better now, but I left work after lunchtime and spent the rest of the day working from home. Still got my stuff done, and didn't have to waste a sick day, but not a good time.
So I'm feeling better now. Drinking orange soda and re-hydrating. I'm happy that work was cool with me wanting to finish my day up from home. After I got all my stuff done, I took a little nap, and I guess sweated out the last of whatever it was that was tying my gut in knots.
Posted by Mark at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2006
addendum
Maybe a little addendum, since I'm at home now and a bit more relaxed.
Today is Pam's birthday, so even though we had an explicit agreement that I was not to buy her anything, I flagrantly disregarded said agreement and got her a little gift cert to a local restaurant where she's a regular and a bottle of wine. I believe she will enjoy it, despite herself.
Also, I'm really enjoying that Matt is updating his blog on a regular basis. It makes for good reading and it's quite the nostalgia trip. All the stuff he's going through as he transitions from college to adulthood--the challenging years of the early twenties, which really is just late adolescence--reminds me of exactly what I went through. What I'm still going through, frankly. Challenge, uncertainty, unfairness, good and bad luck, and the struggle to figure out how life really works. You know, school just doesn't do a good job of getting you ready for reality.
Anyway, the nice thing is that, in my experience at least, life is like fine whisky: it gets smoother, more mature, yet more complex as it gets older. But it also improves immensely in quality. And value.
Posted by Mark at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)
quick update
Just a real quick note. Kara had a nice birthday yesterday; we went out to the West Street Grille where she had grilled salmon and I had grilled tuna. Interesting note: I do not have any desire to ever eat tuna from a can, but I really like a good tuna steak, and it goes without saying that tuna sushi is delicious. We also had a grilled shrimp appetizer, which was really really good. Let me tell you, throw some shrimp on the barbie for a few minutes; the flavor is amazing.
I got her some furniture for her birthday. She has never really had a linen closet in her place, and so was storing her bedsheets and towels in a basket; I have rectified that. I also got her a basket for keeping her purses in from Ikea.
This past weekend we went out with her friends to Tapeo on Newbury Street for tapas with 14 (!) people, and then out for drinks afterwards. And on Sunday we went to Rockport to visit RM and Kara's dad and Nonnie. Her dad has the same birthday as me, and we got him an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader and a Bluetooth headset for his cell phone. He got her a gift card and got me a nice slim wallet with a magnetic money clip and an official Geek Squad T-shirt. And I got a whole ton of old fishing gear catalogs. I'm trying to pick out a nice custom life jacket.
I'm a little sleepy today but excited for LOST tonight. The porter has been in bottles for over a week now, and I have an amber fermenting in the bucket. That's the main stuff.
Gah. Back to work! Work is going pretty good...getting stuff done. I would like to take a nap though.
Posted by Mark at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
first batch
Batch number one is in bottles! I got some confirmation from the folks on Home Brew Talk that the relatively high specific gravity of my brew might indicate not that I was having problems with fermentation, but just that a porter has a lot of "unfermentables" in the mix. So, on a whim, I bottled it tonight.
Ended up with just under 2 cases. There's a fair amount of waste, since you can't quite pick up the last little bit of beer in the bucket. But it went smoothly. I had about a third of a bottle left over at the end, which I decided to drink. Aside from being flat (the beer doesn't carbonate until you leave it in the bottle with some added sugar, which the remaining yeast converts to CO2), it was pretty good. Definitely tasted like porter. No skunky flavors or anything to suggest that the brew was contaminated. So I'm pretty happy about that.
I'll let it sit in bottles for 2 weeks, minimum, or maybe longer. I have a kit to make an amber, but I think I'll wait until later in the week to make it.
So any suggestions on what to call it? I am thinking of Muddy Branch Porter, after the original name of Brookline.
Posted by Mark at 08:29 PM | Comments (2)
come sail away
My sailing application is in the mail! I'll be learning to sail on the Charles come April 1st.
The other night, I was eating a bowl of chili at my computer and drinking Diet Orange Sunpop, which is my favorite cheap soda. I went to refill my glass with orangy goodness. Of course, I inexplicably poured the soda into the chili.
It wasn't terrible.
Posted by Mark at 11:37 AM | Comments (1)
March 13, 2006
go terriers!
I guess I'm going to have to rely on my undergrad alma-mater when it comes to ESPN coverage. The BU Terriers aren't exactly the Orange when it comes to athletic prowess.
Of course, that implies that I did, in fact, get in to BU. Which I did.
I got the official acceptance letter on Saturday, and I know, I'm just now blogging about it, but it was a busy weekend. I owe them a grand to reserve my spot, and I'll start the 64-credit Evening MBA program in September of this year. I am VERY excited!
64 credits breaks down to 16 a year, which is 8 a semester, which is 2 4-credit classes in the Fall, and 2 in the Spring. I am going to take my time, remain a half-time student for FAFSA purposes, and hopefully if Mike gets in to BU and chooses to go there, I'll walk with him at graduation in 2010, at the ripe old age of 32.
Have I mentioned I am excited?
So that's the biggest news of the weekend. In other news, Kara took me to the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum of Science on Sunday, and I got to learn a lot of neat little facts about the props. I never noticed the dent in the front bumper of Luke's landspeeder. Did you know that the model of the Tantive IV (that's the ship at the beginning of the first Star Wars that Leia is on, that gets boarded by the Empire) is actually bigger than the model of the Star Destroyer that captures it? By a good 2 feet! Also, I always wondered why the TIE fighters were gray in the first movie and blue in Empire; turns out, it's because they had to use a blue screen in the special effects, and blue paint wouldn't have worked. By the time of Empire, I guess they could use another color, and so they painted them the intended blue color. And, if you watch Star Wars, and then Empire, you'll see that the Millennium Falcon is much more ponderous and freighter-like in Star Wars, but is much faster and more maneuverable in Empire. That's because the original 4-foot scale model was too big to really move around quickly, so they built a half-size model for Empire.
Star Wars! Neat!
I just got my wireless keyboard and mouse in the mail. It's a neat little laptop-size keyboard, and a wireless gyroscopic mouse, that I'm planning to use with my media computer in the living room. Last thing I need to do is buy a video card that has a TV out, but it's not a super pressing priority. I have to give money to BU first.
Posted by Mark at 08:54 PM | Comments (1)
March 10, 2006
28
Generally, I celebrate my birthday with some sort of depressed nervous breakdown, an overanalysis of my life and events, and some sort of mid-life-crisis-esque indulgence. Things like buying a motorcycle, quitting my job, resolving to move to Boston, etc.
This year, I am doing none of those things. Yes, I am still waiting to hear back from BU on the status of my acceptance, but I started that process months ago, and classes wouldn't start until the fall anyway. And yes, I am house-hunting, but Kara needs to wait at least until after the 15th to come with me, and we're nowhere near making a decision. And I'm sorta halfheartedly doing Weight Watchers, but I haven't been very good about it lately, and I'm trying to start going back to the gym, but that's an ongoing thing, and I'm going to sign up for sailing lessons, but that's just something fun to do in the summer months.
So, no big changes. I'm 28. My job is going pretty good. I have a good plan for where I want to be in the coming years, career-wise. My relationship is great. I'm making some solid and fairly respectable life decisions, and while I"m not perfect, I'm moving in the right direction. I'm actually pretty happy today.
And of course it's getting warmer--60 degrees today, although that's a fluke--and soon I'll be riding the motorcycle again. I can't wait to spend more time outside.
I got a package from Mom and Dad yesterday and opened it up after midnight last night. They sent me some snacks and money that I can use towards the sailing club membership. Also, Kara's mum sent me a card with some scratch-off tickets in it. And tonight, Kara is taking me to dinnner someplace, and then we're going to see the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum of Science on Sunday.
And that's pretty much it. No big drama. No revelations. Just a quiet, calm birthday. That's a big change in itself.
Posted by Mark at 02:50 PM | Comments (1)
March 09, 2006
bubbles
So, this time tomorrow, I'll be 28. I still haven't heard from BU, and I haven't bought a house yet. Perhaps this will be the first birthday in awhile where I don't do anything big. That is actually kind of nice for a change.
My beer mysteriously started bubbling again this morning. I know the yeast was working over the last few days, but I hadn't actually seen the airlock bubbling consistently. I am hoping that means that it is continuing to ferment and will be bottle-able by this weekend.
Posted by Mark at 12:46 PM | Comments (2)
March 08, 2006
games article
This is a neat article that I am posting for Matt, because there are a whole bunch of neat Playstation 1 games out there that I've never played:
http://1up.com/do/feature?cId=3146775
Posted by Mark at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2006
birthday wish list
Since Mom asked, and since I figure it's just as fast to post it here, this is some stuff I'd like.
This is the website of the community boating center where I want to take sailing lessons:
http://www.community-boating.org/
I want to get a full year's membership, which is $190. That should keep me out of trouble somewhat for the summer.
Other stuff I want, I like toys from thinkgeek.com.
I could use a low-profile PCI video card with S-Video or TV out (I'd prefer S-Video, as I can use an adapter to turn S-Video to composite, but not the other way around) for my media PC that sits by the TV. I just ordered a wireless keyboard and mouse from woot.com. You can get a good one fairly cheap here:
Gift certificates here:
New Enough motorcycle leathers
or here:
Homestar Runner figurines set #1:
Or $300K for a nice condo would also be great.
Posted by Mark at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2006
condo conundrums
I just spent close to 4 hours with a realtor looking at houses. Things I have learned:
1. Price and how much you like a place do not necessarily correlate.
2. Some houses are just "vanilla boxes." You can live in them, but they don't have much character.
3. Even a place that you love and think is really neat and has a lot of impressive architectural features may have an awkwardly-placed bathroom.
4. You can get a place with a much nicer interior in a less-great neighborhood for the same price as a vanilla box in a much nicer neighborhood.
5. Things that are really noticable, like lousy a lousy painting job or missing electrical wallplates, may look bad, but they are at least cheap and easy to fix.
6. Things that are more important are more subtle, like the placement of windows, or the fact that the refrigerator door keeps you from opening the fire escape.
7. The perfect house is probably one that you cannot afford.
That last one is a bit flip. Actually, there are a lot of possibilities out there, and frankly, there are a lot of compromises to be made. I learned that we could probably get something that would be architecturally more pleasing, with better fixtures and furnishings, in Jamaica Plain--this is an up-and-coming neighborhood that we hadn't originally considered. We could get something in the area where we want to buy, but it would either be more than we want to pay, or might not be as nice as we would like.
However, if you are even considering buying something at any point, I would definitely recommend going out and looking at houses in person. I learned a lot. Now I can really look at an online listing and get a better feel for what that place is actually going to be like.
So. Who wants to give me 300K?
Posted by Mark at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2006
read carefully
When somebody sends you a letter telling them that you owe money for a subscription or what have you, read it carefully. I got one from the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the AAA, and I almost sent them $96. Then I realized that I no longer belong to that chapter--I transferred my membership to the New England chapter.
Tonight some coworkers are gathering at Scuba Steve's place to watch Firefly on DVD on his projection TV setup. Should be a good time.
MJP is in town this weekend but our schedules don't match up unfortunately, so I won't get a chance to see him. This is actually a fairly full weekend, what with looking at condos tomorrow morning, then bottling beer on Sunday.
Posted by Mark at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2006
homebrew batch 2
Today I made a lunchtime run up to Beer and Wine Hobby in Woburn, about 15 minutes up the road from the office. I needed to get bottlecaps for the big bottling this Sunday of the first 5-gallon batch, and I figured I'd pick up another kit so I could start a new batch right away when this one was done with the initial fermentation.
It's basically a warehouse store for Beer-Wine.com, which is where Matt and Mike ordered my homebrew kit from. It's pretty neat. They have bins of grain, all kinds of brewing equipment, ingredents, canned extracts, yeast...even grape presses for making your own wine. But it's a warehouse store, so the actual website order fulfillment operations happen right there. If you order something from their website, that's where it gets shipped from.
So when I went to the counter to pay for my stuff, the woman asked me for my last name. "Oh, you must be Matt," she said. I guess Matt's name is on the record for the previous order. How funny is that? So I was actually able to drive to the very place where my kit came from.
You can do your homebrews one of two ways: you can buy ingredients piecemeal, or you can buy an ingredient kit. I decided to stick with the latter for now. The ingredient kits come with all the stuff you need to make a particular recipe, and seem to range in price from about $25-$35 for a basic kit. I picked up a kit for an Amber-style beer, which they compared to a Bass Ale or something similar. I'm sure I'll be heading up there again soon.
Also, I am setting up an appointment to go look at some condos this Saturday. There are a fair number of places that seem like they would work, and I want to see what is out there in person, even if we aren't planning to buy for awhile. I'm excited.
Posted by Mark at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2006
dr. ethan?
Happy March!
And holy hatch! Some episodes of LOST are fairly mundane. And this one was the opposite. Wow did they reveal a lot! Our chief Seabillie, an actor with a fake beard? Dr. Ethan? And what of the rest of his emergency room staff?
What is up with these Others? Who are they? What's their deal? Seriously. C'mon now.
Work is fine. I am getting stuff done. I have not heard back from BU yet. I am going to set up an appointment to see some condos in the near future, possibly as soon as this Saturday...I want to see some of what is out there.
That's all for now.
Posted by Mark at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)