i received my replacement outlaw audio receiver and everything works as it should. it seems like i might have just been the one with some bad luck, but everything is working crisply and boomingly well now. i decided to go with a pretty small set up, the smaller definitive technology speakers, the small subwoofer, and with everything wired up, it sounds incredible. i love it.
now, my next big project is building my own old school arcade!
my surround speaker mounts have arrived! it looks like it is going to be a pretty simple install, though where i am going to be installing them appears to be sub-optimal. oh well. this should be the last phase of my home theatre set up. finally! it’ll be done. i think that i will celebrate by watching my all time favorite movie ever — Bring It On!
hmmm…maybe i should watch something with more action. stunts, thrills, and spills! maybe i’ll watch my all time favorite action movie ever — Bring It On!
hmmm…maybe i should watch something with good dialogue. perhaps my favorite romantic comedy — Bring It On!
err.
uhhh.
ahem.
i went to john’s place for burgers and dole whip last night and what i saw at his place surprised me. driving his home theatre was an outlaw audio receiver!
“hey!” i exclaimed. “you have an outlaw!”
so someone i know HAS heard of this brand before! it turns out that most of john’s friends use outlaw products and have been using them for quite some time. i found that to be quite cool.
not that i think it is really possible, but i was forced to ask myself the question, “too much pizza?” the other day when i walked into the local pizza joint and they recognized me and knew my order before i got to the cash register.
have i been eating too much pizza?
my netflix queue is starting to get a little thin and i am in need of some good movies to watch. summertime tv is slow and mostly sucks so i have very little to watch at night. if anyone has any suggestions for some good movies, i would love to add them to my list.
i generally tend to like good action movies and romantic comedies. nothing too cheesy or over the top with the romantic comedies. if it’s dark humor, i generally tend to like it more.
i had been a little lazy and nervous about mounting the LCD in the office, but finally got around to doing it last night. the first time i drilled into the wall into a stud found by the edge to edge stud finder that i borrowed from paul i drilled through the wall, but instead of drilling through the stud, i hit nothing!
i looked again and realized that i think the stud finder actually probably found the cable tv wires instead of a stud. so i looked again for more studs and finally was able to mount the LCD to the wall. i used my power drill/screwdriver to pre-drill some starter holes and then to screw in the base plate. what i really needed was a socket wrench, but i didn’t have one handy, so i used the power screwdriver until it couldn’t drive the screw in anymore (stupid 12V power drill, should have gotten the 16V!) and then painfully hand tightened it the rest of the way.
but it’s all mounted. i just need to set up the sound system and then we’ll be in business!
this weekend was also the annual queens tournament. traditionally, there are many, many more men who show up than women, so to even out the numbers, guys have the option to wear bikini tops and play as a woman. i have played as a woman for the last two years and was ready to finally play as a man.
initially diana and i were paired up, but there was a twist in the partners this year. this year, girls had the option to steal someone else’s partner away, similar to that of a white elephant gift exchange. there actually weren’t that many trades that happened, but i was involved in one of them. so diana didn’t end up trading me (much to my surprise) but instead someone else stole me away from diana. my partner for the day has played with me once before and wanted to play with me because i was someone she knew.
we played the day out and went 6-2, the last two games i think we were just too drained to play well and ended up losing. we made it to playoffs and ended up taking second place for the day. all in all a good day and fun. i didn’t get too sunburned, just a little pink, so that’s good too.
the only tradition that i wished would not continue was diana blocking me at the net. not only did she block me, but everyone on our court gasped and cheered for her interrupting play on the other two courts who looked over to see what the commotion was all about. i had to yell at the other courts to mind their own business and keep playing, but it didn’t seem to stop the many, many people who came up to me afterwards to ask me how i was doing because they had heard that i got stuffed by diana.
sheesh!
i decided recently to buy a new home audio solution for my home theatre. it has been a long time coming and now all of the components are finally at the house. they’ve actually been at the house for a while now. of course, no one has ever heard of anything that i got, i guess that’s the price you pay for going with non-big brand name gear.
the speakers i got are made by a company called definitive technology or “def tech” for those in-the-know. *wink, wink*
and the receiver that i got to drive it all is made by a company called outlaw audio. i know, i know, you’ve probably never heard of them. when i received my receiver, i was giddy as ever. but when i hooked it all up, i noticed some problems with the digital coax inputs. i kept getting pops frequently through DVD playback. what’s worse was that even with analog sources, i still heard the occasional pop. i dealt with customer support both online and via phone. online response time is about once a day and it was hard to troubleshoot a problem in this fashion as you would do one thing, wait a day, do one thing, and wait again. finally, i called their tech support while i was at home during a lunch break and was able to go through the troubleshooting process.
it was determined that i needed to get a new receiver, so they shipped me a replacement and it finally came. the replacement receiver sounds great with no more popping of audio. and now, finally, i can blissfully enjoy my new home audio solution. i do admit that i was watching the usual suspects just a little too loudly while i was demoing the unit because i just couldn’t help myself.
the one drawback to buying non-mainstream stuff is that when people hear that i’ve been doing all of this research and have spent a non-trivial amount of money on the new setup, if they ask me what i ended up getting and i tell them def tech speakers being driven by an outlaw audio receiver, i almost always get a blank stare, followed by the question “why didn’t you get a
this weekend i was told that i need to make myself scarce. christi was having her bridesmaids luncheon and her bachelorette party so i decided that i was going to go out and have some fun. on saturday i went to san francisco for a long overdue visit to see jenny. i checked out her new digs in the city and let me just say that she is living in style!
we had lunch at the ferry building marketplace along the bay. she said we could just walk over there, so i figured it would be a short walk, but no! silly me, i had forgotten that this was my friend jenny, former new yorker, who LIKES to walk.
so instead, what we did was walk. and we did walk…for 1.3 miles! that’s crazy! i don’t think that i’ve walked that much since…i was in new york with her! but it was fun and the weather was absolutely stunning. we caught up with what’s been going on with each other’s lives and waxed philosophy about all sorts of things, some serious, some not quite so much. it was great to catch up with her.
after that, i met up with geoff and checked out HIS new digs. he and pak bought a place in daly city. it is amazing how foggy and cold it can get in daly city when it is still warm and sunny in san francisco. geoff and i were able to catch up on some good times. we had dinner at banana island, this little hidden away malaysian restaurant. geoff called it a filipino restaurant, but i don’t think that i saw a single filipino dish there. i was a little nervous about going there because i haven’t been a huge filipino restaurant fan in the past, but was open to try it out. still, the food was good, i especially liked the roti canal that i ordered there.
after a long day out and about, i came home and rested up.
sunday came and while christi was having her bridesmaid luncheon, she threw a purse making party. basically, everyone gets together to design their own purses. they pick fabrics and designs and a purse gets handmade for them. while christi and friends were doing that, thanh and i met up and had lunch at darda. i love the sesame bread there. our lunch got interrupted short and i had to go pick up my mom to take her to the purse party.
all in all, it was a long, but fun weekend and i was able to catch up with people so it was all good.
i have had issues in the past trying to get ramble to work on my blackberry, but i installed the new version today and it works without a hitch! finally i have an AIM and yahoo solution on the blackberry. though i really like jivetalk, i can’t get myself to pay money for an IM client. i don’t need to IM on my blackberry THAT much. so now i have to fire up two apps, the official yahoo IM client and ramble, but i’ve got coverage on the two major IM networks i use so it’s all good.