Uverse still ok

The Uverse is still ok. It takes a ridiculously long amount of time to reboot the boxes and the main router thing. Crazy. Yesterday the TV worked...but no internet. I figured I would "diagnose" the problem via a link.....It warned me it would shut off the internet. Since the internet wasn't working...no biggie right? Well once I clicked it the TV stopped working. Then I remembered...the TV is basically streaming off the internet. Craziness commences as I scramble around for 5 minutes. We miss the last 5 minutes of American Idol.  This month is free....gotta remember that.

Weight loss is going well. My job is helping as I can't eat bad while I fly. I can only eat what I bring. I bring healthy stuff. If it's a short flight....like under 45 minutes, there isn't much time to eat anyway. Yesterday I did a flight to Norfolk, VA and back. It's a little over 2 hours there and over 3 hours back. I had a simple sandwich and fruit cup on the return trip. I had not eaten anywhere near my points when I got home. So I ate more. I am down 7 pounds in three weeks. Not too shabby.

So far Uverse=Good

Uverse is installed and running. So far we both love it. The number of HD channels we have is up by more than 3X. The number of movie channels we have is up by 5X. The cost? Up $8 a month. The installation took a while..I knew it would. The replaced the tips of the coax where each device was installed. Then they tested the lines and they were good. The line going to the house was dead. Luckily our lot has the fiber box IN THE BACK YARD! The line tech came over an waaa la they had a singal...a very good signal. The main box is huge. The main box is the router for internet AND TV. Pretty nifty. It took me an hour to figure out how to open the ports to allow all traffic to go inside to my main router. All is good. THe picture quality of the HD and regular (SD) TV is much better than Time Warner. Changing channels is faster as well. The guide isn't as robust, but is better as we can log on to any website and schedule TV shows or delete content on the hard drive! I am disappointed that the two other receivers in the house can't pull shows off the main DVR. I am sure it's coming soon. The boxes themselves are very small. The main DVR can record 4 shows at once...but only one HD. I am going to make the former media center and HD media center to record more in HD.

The Internet is fast. The upload speed is 4X as fast. The download speed is just a little slower.

Kelli is in love with the new HD channels. Animal Planet HD, Big Ten HD and Discovery HD. There are more. A lot more. So far.....I don't see us going back to Time Warner.

New Mobo

I am writing this on my laptop which contains a brand spanking new motherboard. The installation went ok. I think there is something loose as once in a while....the damn thing just shuts off. Could just be the chips on the motherboard seating themselves. The board was a factory new board. I'm happy. I can't imagine what "normal" people do when laptops die.....I guess spend boatloads of money. It's good to be me.

Paid off my loan....well one of them

So I have had my college student loan on autopay since I graduated. A whopping $75 a month...every month....for the last....damn almost 8 years. I check my balance once or twice a year. I checked just now....I owe $86.41! That's it! Wow. Now the story of the loan. I worked every year except my freshman year of college. I was a Resident Assistant for a year, then a janitor for a summer and finally a school bus driver for 3 years. Well after 4 years and having not graduated my mom called me and my siblings up and stated since we were all in school for at least 4 years and no one was graduating we were all cut off as far as school payments. Neither of the other two worked while in school. My brother had a 4 year scholarship that he dropped and chased a girl to Germany. My sister dropped all her classes her freshman year and blew the money on......stuff. I was responsible. I was only in school 5 years because 1) I was having fun and met a girl who would be graduating one year after me 2) having fun. I could have graduated in 4. Hell I double majored. Anyways so I had to get a student loan for one year....$5500. I ended up paying back $6300 after interest. Not too shabby. I never had a desire to pay off early. I could deduct the interest! Now for my other loan...flying loan. I am paying on it. But the balance is so high I am afraid to check the balance.

Soldering.....Smoldering

So the power jack on my laptop is going out. I have to wiggle the cable and hold it just right for it to work. Kelli and I have the same model laptops. Hers is dead. Her old one. Well I figured I would just take the port off of hers and put it on mine. I haven't used a soldering gun in 17 years. Off to Radio Shack I went. I bought a "cold heat" soldering gun thinking it being high tech and all. I bought some solder and a desoldering device. The "cold heat" gun lasted about 3 minutes. The tip broke off. Apparently it is very different from the soldering fun I remember. I didn't read the instructions....can't be held on very long. Back to Radio Shack...a different one though. Gotta save face. I bought a normal soldering gun. Went home. Fired it up. Took apart the old laptop. Soldering away. I couldn't get the old power jack off! Solder...smolder....cuss....damn. $50 down the drain. I am sure the gun will come in handy at some point in the future. So what now? Either spend $800 on a new laptop...or $200 on a new motherboard. I went for the latter. Stay tuned.

Cleaning up the network and cabling

I spent the morning redoing the network cabling and cabling in general in the office. I added another computer to the office. Well it was the bedroom computer that will now serve as a dedicated security computer. In doing do I made the network cables as nice as possible. Below is the network table.



From left to right. Wireless hard drive (which will soon be hidden in the house in a remote location), Gigabit router for the three computers in the office, wireless routers for computers outside the office, Vonage phone system box, wireless router for security cameras and finally cable modem. I have the cameras on a totally separate network so they have dedicated bandwith and are not on the internet.

No PDX for me

I got home around 6PM yesterday. Tired. The flight to Portland looked too full this morning. I checked in anyway and had every intention of going. I packed my bags and was getting dressed. Then I saw 4 standby passengers due to being oversold. Hmm....they go before me. After grumbling around I decided to save some cash. The flight, rental car and hotel would have been $200 for less than 48 hours in Albany. There will be other weekends. Turns out there were still 8 empty seats when the flight left. Still better off saving money.

I have 16 gigs filled on my 80 gig zune. Doubt I could ever fill it up.

The dogs are home. In the idea of saving money I picked them up before 10AM which is the cut off time for paying an extra day. Kelli kept one of the smaller crates in her car so I only had one for 3 dogs. I can't fit the other crates in my car. The whole drive there I kept thinking of what combination I could put two dogs in and not have the third piss me off or run around. I had a blanket next to the crate for one dog. I decided to put Lilo and Vegas in the crate and Doogie out loose. He really wasn't loose as I moved the passenger seat all the way back, creating a pseudo wall. Worked great.

This weekend I will do very little. I have to update 4 manuals for flying. Beyond that.....not much to do. Will prolly clean my car....fix the network cabling.

Just gave Lilo a bath. The boys pee on her in the kennel. Don't know why. First time I ever gave her a bath. I had always bluffed. Not anymore.