(Not) Seeing Blue

10.16.2005

My favorite, most prized, and most used possession is my big screen tv. 53" of projection goodness. I bought it with a bonus from ResGen back in 2001, back when big screen projection tvs were expensive (I seem to remember it costing about $3K). Now, with the advent of flat screen tvs, plasma, lcd, and the forthcoming HD standard, the prices for the old big projection tvs have dropped. I think I saw my same tv for almost half the price about a year ago.

Mostly I watch DVDs on the tv, along with a smattering of wrestling, UFC shows, and whatever happens to be on if I'm bored during dinner. Friday, during one of those bored for dinner moments, I noticed that the colors seemed a little off. There seemed to be too much green, kind of like being in the Matrix. Normally I'm worse at fiddling with color settings on the tv than anyone else, but I had found a trick a few years back. THX certified DVDs (like Star Wars) have a utility called the THX Optimizer that will let you go through and calibrate your audio and video settings. So, I popped in a THX DVD, in this case the Incredibles, and went through the steps.

Except everything was still too green. I needed some blue. Unfortunately, there's not a straightforward setting for "more blue". Being me, I started looking at one of the non-standard, Sony presented options of "Mode" (my other tv is also a Sony from about 2 years ago, so for all I know every tv in the world has a "Mode" feature now). My Mode setting was on "Standard", which I had selected years ago. I also had the options of Movie, Pro, Vivid, and Game. Just for kicks, I tried "Movie". Suddenly, the colors started to change and a brilliant blue started to appear.

And then the screen went black.

There was still sound, there was still a blinking red LED that told me the tv was wearching for a signal, but the screen was black.

Not knowing what to do next, I fiddled with the remote and found that I set the Mode back to "Standard" as the picture came back, this time once again having too much green. I repeated the process my selecting "Movie" and again getting a black picture. After trying the other Modes,"Standard" seems to be the only setting that actually gives me a picture.

So I'm guessing that the part of the tv in charge of blue is having problems. Maybe there's a blub burning out. Something might be overheating. Maybe the tv saw that part of the cover for the remote that came with it is cracked and it's getting back at me. I dunno. Traditionally, this would be the time to pack up the tv in the car, take it some the local repair guy, and then have him tell me it's cheaper to buy a new tv than to fix this one. But this tv is a little over 350lbs. It won't fit in my car. Are those tv repair guys still around? Do they make house calls? Will they cart this thing away when they tell me it's cheaper to buy a new one than to fix it?

I bet this is the first step in me getting myself a flat tv for christmas.

Permalink random

2 Years 7 Months

10.10.2005

I recently noticed that this is the longest I've held any programming job since beginning my "professional" career in '96. I tend to become bored with jobs, so I've tended to hop around a lot:

• Job #1: Sirsi. 1 Year, 3 months
• Job #2: Sword Microsystems. 1 Year, 11 Months
• Job #3: ITC Deltacom. 1 Year, 2 Months
• Job #4: Research Genetics. 1 Year, 9 Months
• Job #5: Contractor for Open Biosystems. 8 Months
• Job #6: Spiritus Inc. 2 Years, 7 Months and counting.

Up until I started writing it down, I thought I had been at other jobs longer. I would remember 2 Christmases at a job and count it as 2 years, even though I might have started in October and left 18 months later in March. I had mentally tacked on an extra year at Sword because of that. Now I guess I know better.

3 of the 6 companies I've worked for have merged/been acquired by other companies since I left. I like to think that I added that much value to those companies that it made them much more lucrative to mergers.

Just for some fun with math:

• I tend to switch jobs every 18.5 months
• I've spent 27.7% of my career at Spiritus
• My salary has increased 283% over 112 months.

All of these numbers are interesting to me because I'm changing assigned work locations. Same job, same project, same people - just a bigger, more secure and restirctive building with more loopholes to jump through and hinder me. It makes me a little wary because I like working for the little guy. Spiritus and Sword have been my favorite jobs because they were small companies (I was employee #11 at Sword, #7 at Spiritus). Both had the "do whatever you want/need as long as you get the job done in the time allotted" mentality. Sword grew in size to where it needed a more corporate structure, and I remember the day I realized it was no longer for me. Now, Spritus isn't neccessarily growing like that, but the surroundings are changing to make it feel more like that.

But I really do like my job, so I don't think I'm going to jump out and start looking for another one. I like the people I work with. I like my boss. I can say that since he doesn't read this and not feel like I'm sucking up.

I like making 283% more than I did 9 years ago. That helps too ;)

Permalink random

Week of Busy-ness

09.27.2005

I seem to have a lot on my plate this week. Luckily, none (well, not much) of it is work related. I've been trying to wrap up little things I've either been putting off for a while or at least get started on projects that are going to take longer than a day or two to complete. Having a touch of insomnia and staying up until 3:30 tends to motivate me. It's a good day for me to be alone in the office - I'm used to hainvg a good 7 or 8 hours of sleep instead of 4.

Yesterday I ordered an iPod Nano directly from Apple. I've played around with a couple of different portaplpe MP3 players, but none of them have quite caught my fancy. I've become a converted user of iTunes, so a player that integrates with that seemed a good way to go. The odd thing is I've never really considered any of the other flavors of iPod. Jerry, Greg, and Jim at work all have iPods. Maybe now I'm joining their fringe ranks by getting the Nano. It's supposed to ship sometime today and should be arriving "within 5 days after shipping".

Today I'm also going to try and fill a whole in my Car Wars collection by placing an order from Titan Games. If they have what I've gotten checked to order in stock, I'll be down to only lacking 2 Map Sets and 2 Expansion Sets of completing my quest of having all of the rules. Then, of course, I'll have to find some other bandwagon full of stuff to jump on and acquire!

Friday is the latest karate belt test, or as I tend to tell people, "the 4th belt." I'll be going for orange-green, the Japanese name of which I can't remember (if I ever even knew it). I keep getting a couple of blocks reversed in 2 of the katas, so I'll be working on that while walking through the halls at work. Of coure, I need to find out which order the blocks are supposed to go in before I start practicing down the hall. Hopefully I'll do a better job sparring this time. I've fad more practice now - I think Leonard, my Sensei, realized I needed a lot more practice after my 3 minute round of Suck-Fu last time. It looks like I may be the only Spiritus participant at the test. Jer has been home taking care of the wife and kids, and I think Keith has to go be an Indian Princess with his offspring. Ah, the joys of being the single guy. Single guy that can get thrown around on mats during a belt test, can't forget that.

Permalink rambling random

Mego Playsets

09.23.2005

I'm oft to reminisce about my childhood and the toys therein (aspecially X-mas of '79). As a child I had my favorite conglomeration of toys and playsets that I would meld into some new theme of play action here and there. My childlike mind would take toys and mentally twist them into something else to elevate my playing experience even higher. With that, I remember putting 3 of my Mego-scale playsets together and creating an interstellar spaceship, where (oddly enough) Capt Kirk and The Joker would wage many a battle.

The Enterprise Bridge Playset was the command bridge of my little spacecraft. From there Capt Kirk could fly around the universe and beam down to the planet using the transporter (which it was always fun to stick a doll in the transporter and send it spinning). There has to be somebody for Kirk to command, but I'll be damned if I can remember who I had for him to boss around. Maybe the Joker was leading a double life?

The Big Jim Sky Commander served as the middle section of the spaceship. The Sky Commander was a jet/airliner playset for Big Jim. For me it was the crew quarters, galley, and whatever other rooms I may have needed. The thing I remember most about this part was the hammock/cot that would fold down from the top of the playset. Capt Kirk would get awfully tired defending the universe from the Joker, so it was amazing how many naps he had to take.

This was rounded out by the back of the Batcave serving as the back of the ship. The back of the Batcave had the flop-down door for the batmobile as seen in the '66 Batman show. So now when Capt Kirk landed the ship, he could open the rear bay door (sounds better that Batcave door on a spaceship) and then survey the planet on his Batcycle. Alternately, the Batcave rear could serve as camouflage in case of crash landings.

Thanks to eBay, all of these playsets could once again be mine. The Enterprise Bridge and Big Jim Sky Commander seem to averaging about $50 each. I've seen 1 Batcave, still in the original box, for $495. Luckily, I'm lacking in Mego sized 8" dolls, so who would defend the universe?

But I do have an awful lot of the 5" Star trek figures and playsets....

Permalink action figures/toys

What The Hell Am I Supposed To Do?

09.20.2005

Everybody has hobbies, or at least one hobby. I've got multiple hobbies, but I'm really not sure which ones are active and which are merely there for me to talk about and make me think I'm better than everybody else. With that in mind, I've been trying to organize my hobbies so that I can make better use of my free/hobby time. At first it was overwhelming, but I've since been trying to categorize the hobbies so that I can get a better handle on them. Here's what I've come up with so far.

House
No, not building a house, but home improvement projects. There are things that need to be done, such as replacing the flashing around the vents on the roof so that they will no longer leak, fixing the ceiling in the kitchen and master bath where the leaking became too much. Unfortunately, these things are all beyond my abilities, so I instead have to search someone out. I'm 0/3 on getting contractors out, so I'm still searching for names. There are other, less critical things I would like to do to the house - Paint the other bedroom and put in some more Pergo. Add motion sensitive lights to the outside of the garage.

Non-Computer
Spending all day in front of the computer at work, I need to find something to do away from the blasted thing. I've been working half-heartedly on a pen and paper version of the wrestling game I've been trying to make for the past couple of years that will eventually become a computer game. I need to figure out a combat system that makes sense. If it's going to be a true RPG, then actually going through and creating your character needs to have some non-combat characteristics that are important to the game - so what should they be? Karate also fits into this category. I'm reaching the point where I really should be practicing more out of class, so I need to make the time and the room to make it happen. I've been collecting the rules for Car Wars that I've been missing, but I don't consider that an active hobby outside of browsing eBay every once in a while.

Computer
Well, I've got to have computer hobbies. In trying to make my wrestling game, I've found out there's lots of things I don't know, mainly about 3D graphics. I've been trying to pick up some things on how to create 3D models for games, but it's hard to get started completely from scratch. Once I learn how the models work (and how to create them), actually learning the ins and outs of the game engine will come along. I don't think this one will be wrapped up anytime soon. I've also missed playing around with Poser. I've been trying to sort out all the models I've got for the program. I think I had uncompressed and installed about 1500 that I've acquired over the past 4 years of using Poser, but the files are all over the place. Time for some sub-categorization before I can really start using this one again. And there's always the little tweaks for this site (I just added my own personal review to some of the DVDs, 3 out of 572, so it may take some searching to find which movies, but here'ssomehints).

So that's my short list of what I want to do in my free time. That's assuming I have the energy/drive/will to get my lazy butt up off the couch and do something besides play X-Box (should that be another category?). Then there's all the chores that come along - laundry, cleaning, mowing, washing. I tried setting aside a special time for just doing a hobby activity, but if you're not in the right mood it feels more like a waste of time. Nothing's worse than wasting free time. Well, maybe farting as you leave an elevator leaving anyone left in the elevator to suffer, but that's outside the scope of what I'm looking at here.

Permalink boardgames random renovation/remodelling