5.30.2007
8:55pm

Started watching Heroes yesterday, starting with episode 1 on NBC.com. I've seen three of them so far, and they are definitely weird. I know a number of people who are hooked on the show.

5.29.2007
8:39pm

Yesterday I read a review on Audioholics of the recent Genesis performance at the VH1 Rock Honors show. Apparently the tribute band was horrendous and Genesis wasn't a whole lot better. Gene had some links to various Genesis videos at the end of the article, which were entertaining to watch. Although after seeing The Musical Box, I think I liked the song more before I saw the video. Kinda glad I missed the 70s. On a related note, the Genesis SACD box set that everyone was raving about a month ago turns out to be rather lackluster too. I was planning to eventually buy it, but after hearing some reviews it looks like the regular CDs were better mastered. Then somehow I got sidetracked into watching old Weird Al videos on Youtube. Maybe a few newer ones too. Sorry Canada. Don't miss the new polka either, some of the best parodies in there.

I read Slate at least a couple times a week, just because they write some really intelligent stuff every once in a while. While everybody is lauding The Secret, including Oprah, Slate gives a slap in the face where needed.

Today my banana plugs arrived from Partsexpress and I made some cables for the X-LS speakers which should be arriving tomorrow. Of course they look better without the grill.

5.28.2007
10:15am

If my feet and legs could talk, yesterday they would have cursed me out a dozen times in half as many languages. I made a trip up to the Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary in Merritt Island, only about 30 minutes from home. It's quite a large place and I ended up walking about 10 miles all told. See they trick you because the two main trails don't lead back to the starting point so you have to walk all the way back from point B to point A. On the plus side, I did get to see a variety of birds, a turtle, a snake, some fish, chipmunks, and too many mosquitos and dragonflys to count. I saw two birds with food in hand, one was a hawk working on a bird it had caught and another was a large bird with a fish flying off to some unknown location. The elementary school right nearby was fittingly called Audubon. Also kinda cool was the way a lot of the houses around there had back-yard canals so that people could just drop a boat in the water and go cruising out to the river. Pics. On the drive back home I decided to come down highway 3 which was a nice leisurely route.

5.25.2007
7:07pm

I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, more succinctly referred to as POTC3 by many fans, last night with Matt. We went to the 8:30pm showtime and got there plenty early to get good seats. The Oaks 10 theater dedicated every single screen to the movie for Thursday night, only possible because they are now a 100% DLP cinema. One of the local radio stations, appropriately called 95.9 Pirate Radio, showed up in the front parking lot to play some music and give out swag from their pirate ship styled truck. The manager of the theater was going around from screen to screen before it started to chat people up a bit about the film and put some plugs in for their brand new projectors. As soon as the trailers started rolling I knew it was the best digital projection I've ever seen, incredibly crisp and even better black levels than they used to have. We were also in one of the larger auditoriums so the sound system was really cranked up. Quite a few people in attendance had decided to dress up in some fashion or another, and all of the theater employees were also in pirate garb.

The movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes long but I didn't find the length to be much of a problem. There's plenty of action, drama, and humor throughout to keep most people happy. The plot was unnecessarily complex, as the critics have been pointing out, but it's just so visually fantastic that I went along for the "ride" so to speak and it all gets worked out at the end. In one part, Jack Sparrow (in semi-decomposed skeleton form) removes his brain from his skull and maybe that was a clue that the audience should do the same... hehe. There are a couple really amazing scenes that make the ticket price well worthwhile, and I'm not just talking in terms of special effects. One part of the film that I adored, as simplistic as it may seem, was the 15-seconds or so of a black screen around halfway through. They filled the 15 seconds with some appropriate surround sound effects from the real Disney ride and it was a perfect fit as a sort of interlude. They also included a few subtle humor parts that go by lightning fast so you can listen for laughter and figure out who didn't remove their brain before entering.

One last thing... stay through 'till the end of the credits. They have put something "extra" at the end of every POTC movie so far and the third one doesn't disappoint.

Tonight I picked up a pizza from Pizza Hut and am now enjoying some Rascal Flatts after finally calibrating my surround speakers. The auto-equalizer function in the Onkyo receiver seemed to actually do a decent job this time, unlike when I was back in the big house living room. The guys at the Sound & Vision get-together last weekend agreed that I'm crazy for keeping two SVS subs in an apartment. Nothing wrong with having lots of headroom... mwhahaha.

I have yet to see Shrek 3 but probably will do so this weekend. Of course after POTC3 it might be a let-down.

5.23.2007
7:55pm

I've never been much of a Melissa Etheridge fan, mainly because a few of her songs seemed to be extremely overplayed back in the 90's. However, today I saw her greatest hits album in Target for $10 and decided to get a copy. She does have a unique voice and I liked the album, especially the last two tracks. The CD came in an eco-friendly package, to no surprise, and a web URL instead of full liner notes. The last song is from the credits in An Inconvenient Truth

5.22.2007
10:52pm

Looks like CC is going to honor their mistake, at least up to one unit per person. All the would-be Ebay resellers are not going to get their satisfaction though.

Rolando came back to Melbourne today to work on the house; tomorrow we have to go talk to the person in the ECE department about our senior design project. They haven't removed the hold on our accounts yet which means they still desire something from us... sigh.

5.21.2007
5:53pm

Last night Circuit City had a pricing mistake on their web site for The Matrix trilogy on HD-DVD for only $19.99. Normal price for them was supposed to be $79.99. It was posted on AVSForum and Slickdeals so I went ahead and ordered the set; got my confirmation email and everything. However, somebody messed up not only the price, but the type of media. Last time I checked Circuit City doesn't sell LaserDiscs anymore.

5.19.2007
9:32pm

"Take a look at that, you pompous windbag!"

I had fun watching Cinderella last night. And then watching the backstage Disney stuff. Can you say animation geek? I did learn something interesting though; that entire movie was filmed in live action before being converted to cels and paint. Quite a few animators there took issue with that cost-saving method. Yep I did say cost-saving.

Today I had absolutely nothing planned but a call from Andrew changed that. He was going to come back to Melbourne to work on his car today (at the Palm Bay house) but he needed my garage door opener. Then I found out he was going furniture shopping so I tagged along to look at some desks and dining tables and such. I didn't buy anything myself but I ended up going back with him to Rockledge to see his Epson 1080p projector and the 3-bedroom townhouse he's living in now. Pretty nice place, puts the apartment to shame for sure. I'd be happier today if the electricity going to my A/C and kitchen wasn't flickering every 20 seconds. When FPL came out the other day I think they messed something up so a call to the apartment office will be in order tomorrow. The drywall guy did come by today to check out the damage in my bathroom from the water leak that was happening last week. He'll be fixing that on Monday even though I didn't mind the paint bubbles much. They probably just want to make sure the whole bathroom ceiling won't fall down in the future.

5.18.2007
9:14pm

Two male swordtails + one female swordtail = trouble. Oops. At least there's no actual damage done.

Sunday there is a home theater get together here in Melbourne sponsored by a guy from Sound and Vision magazine. Hopefully I will get to go to that and hear some cool speakers and subwoofers. Not like I have a whole lot else planned for the weekend...

I don't send rant emails very often but I decided to send one tonight to Mark Schifter, the owner of AV123. Of course it was very carefully worded which maybe takes away "rant" status. The pair of X-LS speakers I ordered from them 6 weeks ago have been delayed again and again, and this time nobody decided to inform me about it. Ah well, I'm sure I'll have them by next weekend. The response back was very understanding and they are working on increasing staffing at AV123 to help improve communication and customer service. What's ironic is that the main focus of the get-together this weekend is a few various sets of speakers from AV123.

I signed up for the Harris Stratex 401(k) plan today. Let the retirement savings begin! The hardest part was just figuring out what percentages to use for each fund.

5.17.2007
10:52pm

So tonight I decided, against the advice of several people I know, to go and finally see Spiderman 3. I'm not one of those people who has actually read all of the comic books for Spiderman so for me it was an enjoyable conclusion to the trilogy (if indeed it remains a trilogy). I heard on the radio the other day that Tobey has agreed to do a fourth so don't hold your breath. Yes, it had a few awkward moments, it had a few bad CG moments, and I can understand why some people didn't think Mary Jane really needed to sing anything. However, I didn't mind the length at all, I think Topher Grace actually did a decent job as Venom, and Aunt May was just as loveable as ever. The whole evil Spiderman concept was cool I thought.

Today when I got home there were people from FPL repairing a power line for the apartment. It's still sitting on the ground tonight with some caution tape nearby. At least the power was only out for about 30 minutes. I got a couple more swordtail fish at Petsmart today along with an algae eater and snail for the 20g tank and some more ghost shrimp for the 30g since there was only one left.

5.14.2007
6:54pm

"All dressed up with nowhere to go." Sitting in the new apartment living room, enjoying some Oingo Boingo ;)

Today was my first official day of work as a new-grad employee. It wasn't that much different from normal, other than some discussion with Felipe. I'm going to be using Microsoft Sharepoint a lot more now, both for issue tracking and information docs. It was a little weird getting back into the 8-5 schedule but that will become normal really quickly. I absolutely love the commute now from the new place; it took me 6 minutes to get to Harris this morning. Nate was a little envious.

Speaking of the new place, I'm now staying in my 2-bedroom apartment at The Berkshires complex in West Melbourne. I got the keys last Wednesday and moved almost everything on Thursday with Matt's help and a Budget 10 foot truck. My contact info page has been updated. On Friday I moved the fish (such a pain in the...) and some of the remaining small items and started getting things arranged in the apartment. I had one fish casualty because he jumped out of the holding bucket and was on the carpet for a while before I got back to the house and found him. Saturday was more of the same, particularly the HT electronics, plus hanging out with some friends. I had to consolidate all of the audio gear so I went vertical with it which worked out pretty well. My RoadRunner internet got hooked up on Sunday and I also bought a cheap futon from somebody over at Saratoga for the 2nd bedroom. Got some stuff at Target that I needed for the kitchen. Dan and Cory were in town visiting, so I went to dinner with them, Buff, Drew, and Tim on Sunday night.

I was away from the blogs that I read for a few days, but when I got the net back I got to read a nice post from Brian about his Lotus Espirit pre-mid-life crisis. He still looks like a nerd though, even with the cool car ;)

Tomorrow Nate starts his system administration master's class at Florida Tech, taught by none other than Rhian Resnick. Anybody who has dealt with IT support at FIT knows who he is. I emailed to see if I could sit in on a few classes and see what the whole CIS thing is all about.

5.7.2007
6:24pm

I've never been happier to get a B in my life. I passed Communications and therfore will get both degrees on my diploma, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

Today I picked up a new Samsung cell phone with T-mobile To Go since my parents were paying for the Verizon one. New number is (321) 525-9978. No contract and no monthy fees = very nice. I'll be picking up a 1000 minute card for $100 that will be good for a whole year. I also went by the Berkshires apartments again and saw a nice unit that I want to move into. Hopefully that will be happening in a few days and I will have a new address to report.

I tried out the new Windows Live Mail today and discovered that it's been exactly 4 years since I started using my jvgillow@hotmail.com account.

5.6.2007
11:18am

Heckuva day yesterday. Graduation went smoothly, if a little longer than everyone would have liked due to the 711 graduates. At least they did omit the speaker this year so Dr. Catanese had to fill in with some interesting facts about some students and a couple amusing speeches. Ron did wear his motherboard mortarboard, and Rolando his LED mortarboard. A couple other notable ones was a huge 3ft x 3ft foam cap, and a student who wore his usual camouflage ballcap with the tassel. Florida Today had their article and photos up yesterday.

After the ceremony we got some photos with friends (Ron, Rolando, Matt, Sputnik, Tim) and my parents took some nice family photos in the botanical garden area. We headed downtown to the Island Pasta Company for lunch, but it was really busy since some other FIT people had the same idea. We disbanded after lunch and I went home to take a nap for a few hours. I went over to Javier's fiesta around 10pm and found out that it had actually been going on all afternoon. Rolando's parents, Jimmy's parents, and Javier's parents/grandma were there. Matt Reedy had been hanging around since lunch and he said a few of the other parents had stopped by earlier in the day. The party was pretty small at 10pm, around 20 people, but by the time it ended at 4am the whole street was covered with cars. Javier's neighbors had already been warned ahead of time that it was going to be noisy. I left with the usual crew and they decided to head for McDonald's for drive-thru breakfast and back to the apartment. We wound down there for a little while and Sputnik and Tim were already falling asleep. The rest of us, Ron, Courtney, and Jason, decided to head for the beach and watch the sun rise. Jason was pissed because he was tired and we got there early enough for nautical twilight which means we had to hang around for another 45 minutes before the sun actually came up. I crashed on their couch for a few hours and then came back to the house a little after 10am.

5.5.2007
7:17am

This is it... graduation day! I woke up plenty early so that I could try everything on and make sure it looked ok. Still not sure how the cords/stoles/etc are supposed to be arranged but I'm sure the coordinators will go over that at rehearsal this morning.

My parents are staying at a hotel in Indialantic so yesterday I had lunch with them and showed them the new apartment complex that I will most likely be moving to. After I finished the Communications exam and got my 2007 Florida Tech mug, I went home so that I could show the house to them. Mom and Brittany seemed to like the aquariums quite a bit. We went out to Carrabba's for dinner and when we got back some of Rolando's siblings were watching Happy Feet. Last night after they left I went out for a walk and saw some fireworks from one of the neighborhood residents, FIT students I would guess.

5.2.2007
9:36pm

New job, new cubicle, new place to live? Still working on that last one. Today I moved out of the lab into a cubicle next to Felipe; only took about an hour and made me realize how little stuff I accumulated in the past two years. Scott was upset that upper management decided to pull me off the lab duties without consulting him first, and I'm not sure why there was so little communication about that. I mean, I only found out a few days ago. The intern that's coming in next week, Adam Yohrling, is going to be taking my old cubicle next to Nate. I'm going to miss hanging out next to him for a while. Maybe when the summer is over I will end up back in there, depending on whether Adam stays I suppose.

Speaking of "Adam"s, yesterday I got a call from an Air Force background check officer. Adam Linsenbardt is applying for a job (at Lockheed I think), so they were doing the required background check and I was one of the people he listed as a neighbor. Adam and Dave Kincaid lived across the hall from Rolando and I when we were at Saratoga. It only took about ten minutes, the guy already had access to the Harris facilities so I just met him on our floor. Asked some basic questions to establish familiarity, loyalty, sanity, behavior, etc.

Today at work a lot of people were talking about the bad earnings report that just came out yesterday for Harris Stratex Networks. Apparently they had some usually high costs associated with the merger and so the stock went down around 20% with the news of the net losses.

Great article about Geek Squad. I've heard first-hand about a lot of these things from people I know that work there.