Settling In

So many things have been going on recently and I finally have some time to sit down and write.

It’s pretty damned surreal sitting here in my “office” (which is actually a dining/kitchen room) 500 miles away from SF. Overall, I’m coping well living here so far. It’s really helpful to be living so close to family because familiar faces are always comforting. They even cook me dinner everyday! So it’s a sweet deal. I was asking about the stove at my place, and they were like you’re not eating dinner by yourself stupid haha.

I love having my own place! I can’t believe this unit was just sitting here unused for so long. It was actually in pretty decent shape, but I wanted to thoroughly clean it anyways. So the past 2-3 days, I’ve been spending a lot of time vacuuming, scrubbing, re-arranging. Bathroom cleaning, and fridge cleaning sucks. But with cleaning, once I clean one corner, something clicks in my head and I MUST finish the rest. It’s so much work because this place is huge! It’s really meant for 2-3 people to live in so it’s a shame I can’t share it with friends.

Coolest part of this place so far? The Mini Pool/Ping Pong/Air Hockey Table in the living room. It’s been pretty fun playing with my cousins, but it would be damned sweet if I had a set up like this in SF.

The rest of the house is pretty empty. It has so much potential! Once I make some scratch:

Living Room
- 47” LCD 1080P 120Hz tv
- PS3
- Couch/Futon?
- Plants. You gotta have plants

Spare Bedroom
- Makeshift audio recording studio for fun?!

Basement
- Darts
- Punching Bag
- Weight Room
- Wine Cellar

DSL drama and Bizarre Happy-Ending!

OIAHF:OEIFAEF:OAJFI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about that. But it's 4AM, an ungodly hour to scream in real life.  I just can't contain my excitement right now so I'm having trouble sleeping.  So....Here's what happened (Warning: lengthy nerd talk ensues):

DSL Drama
So the past few days, I've been having a shitty unstable DSL connection that would crap out ONLY at night.  My DSL has had random periods of solid connection, but spurts of disconnecting for many years now and I have never been able to resolve it completely.  The only thing I've noticed is that it always happens at night. 

So I call the Sonic.net support rep a few times, and every time they keep telling me: "Sir your line seems fine"  "please check your filters blah blah"  "reset modem, reset router, reset computer" (reset this <^>(-_-)<^>!!!) and we could never figure the damned problem.  On Monday, support guru "John" tells me I should probably switch out the modem and see what happens.

By now, my patience has worn thin, so I head to Best Buy the next day and buy a complete set of Modem and Router.  I never buy electronics from retail stores, but I was fed up and needed a solution QUICK.  Luckily Angel's cousin was working there and I got a discount to lessen the pain :)  It was a nice router though, because it had NAS support (Network Attached Storage) so that I could access a USB harddrive from anywhere in my house (and maybe outside my house too!)  I was so happy.   I plug everything in that night, and man everything was so snappy, solid connection, cool features = BLISS.  I've never had a network up and running by just plugging things in.  This was a great sign, and money does buy happiness haha.

The Belkin N+ router, the answer to all my prayers?

wtf.
So this setup is running great until Wednesday, when the guys were over after we went to the Exploratorium.  We exhausted our burritos, boxing, and Mario Kart and got bored as hell, so...let's just look at stuff online! (SCREEEECH!) Internet is dead again.  wtf.  I just dropped 100+ on a new network and it conks out on me.  I'm just floored.  Morgan tells me about his similar DSL problems, and said it was due to worn out rubber around the phone lines outside his house.  Hey! maybe that's it!  I call Sonic again, so that I could have them send a guy over, but they are assuring me that there's nothing wrong with the line.  At that time, the DSL is working again so I just hangup and give up for the day. 

Then God said, "Let there be Light" and there was light, but my DSL got the died.

Today, I finally found the problem to all my white hairs and pimple outbreaks.  I turn on the ultra-bright Halogens in my room downstairs before I went to sleep, cus they're right next to my bed.  That way I can turn them off with my foot once my head hits the pillow.  Internet Dies. (oh here we go again).

Then a crazy idea pops into my head: "what if the lights are causing the DSL blackout?"
I turn off the halogens. YouTube Loads.
Turn on the halogens. YouTube freezes.
Halogens Off....  Hilarious cat video.

...oh my god.

The halogen lights were like death rays to my DSL connection.  Like an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) just like in The Matrix! or Starcraft!

haha reminds me of the light switch Friends episode:

Fast forward to 3:20 for relevancy

Retrospective Reflection and Research

• Felt like I wasted my 100+ on the new network, but hey, this new router is pretty cool so I'm gonna keep it.  Still happy! Plus, my old modem was borrowed 10 years ago from a friend.
  
• Parents tell me this DSL problem started happening again only a few days ago.  The room that I'm sleeping in now used to be used as storage.  I used to sleep in the top bunk of my brother's room until I got fed up with his 5:30AM alarm clock that he doesn't hear until 7AM!!?  So I cleared out this storage room, set up my bed, and unknowingly turned on the Death Rays. 
• DSL gets flaky not just b4 I sleep, but also around 7:30PM (dinner time).  We also use Halogens with dimmer switches in our kitchen. 
• But how do these Halogen dimmer lights affect the DSL?  It took me so many years to find out because the lights were never in the same room as the modem or router!
  

The Answer: Science
Here's what I found researching online:


Some DSL modems are overly sensitive to RFI (radio frequency interference). Lighting dimmer switches and/or electronic (non-magnetic) power supplies for halogen lighting are a common source of such interference. The result can be a degradation of DSL performance or even a complete loss of DSL sync, even when the source of the interference is not in close proximity to the DSL modem (because the interference can be not only radiated, but also conducted through building wiring).



Old phone lines? nope.  Moisture at night affecting the external phone lines? nope.

Who woulda thunk it?

As Bill Nye the science guy says it: Science Rules.

So... if you guys have erratic behavior with your DSL, it could be your lights!

Fitness Fun

I had a WTB post last week about buying gloves and mitts to play around with, and I bought them! I got them online because Big 5 had no selection and they were overpriced.  So I hunted online for a while..

Everlast Pro Style Training Gloves 14oz Black from Amazon.com

Top Contender Leather Focus Mitts from BoxingDepot.com

Haha I always spend way too much time researching stuff online b4 I buy it.  I'd go up and down different price ranges, I almost bought 60+ dollar mitts! But I snapped back to rationality and got the 30 dollar ones.  It's so hard to choose what equipment you want, but Boxing Depot had the widest selection and a very reasonable shipping rate (2.95 vs 10+ at other places).  I can't wait to get these and start pummeling!

(Also, I got an email from BoxingDepot saying that if I posted about them on my blog, I'd get a free Everlast desktop punching bag.   I already have one at home, but.. its free! Whoever wants it can have it, first comment wins!)

Crap I had more fitness stuff to talk about, but my battery is complaining... ill continue tomorrow

WTB: Boxing Gloves and Pads

That kid is crazy.  But he's not the main point of this post.  I want a set of gloves and pads! This weekend, I was hanging out at my cousin Dillon's apartment and he shows me his room mate's set of gloves and pads.  Apparently his roomie practices Wing Chun, and taught Dillon how to do some drills.  Man seeing those gloves just brought back fondish memories of when my friends and I boxed in highschool.

Ouch.

Anyways, Dillon had me do some drills of Jab-Hook-Uppercut and it was great! I was really slow and uncoordinated, but punching things just feels good. Definitely a good stress reliever. pop-pop POW pop-pop POW! After 2 sets of drills, I was spent. It's one of the funnest cardio I've done, and now my back and arm muscles are sore. I'm itching to snag a set and do this with my buddies.

Cardio + De-Stress + Muskles! = Let's get it on, DING DING DING!

Michael Jackson Video Game?!?!

I wasn't gonna blog this until I wake up, but what the hell.  I got trashed today playing Tower and Kings Cup and I just don't want to sleep yet.  I don't wanna fall asleep with a throbbing headache, and I want to talk about my video games!

So the day I got to Eugene David's roommate Simon shows me his modded X-BOX loaded up with pretty much ALL THE GAMES in the world ever made! (NES, SNES, GENESIS, ATARI, MAME (arcade), XBOX, N64) Ok, maybe not all the games, but it's pretty sweet.  I was planning to just KO once I got there, but this was just too awesome.  I need something like this soon, imagine playing the following games, without getting up to change the cartridge or powering up another console.

1. Sunset Riders
2. Tetris Attack  (my favorite game of all time)
3. Mario Kart 64
4a. Goldeneye
4b. Perfect Dark
5. Halo 2
6. Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (?????)

Wow that last game was the most ridiculous yet fun game I've played.  Haha so you play as Michael Jackson, killing bad guys.  And Michael Jackson has "The Force" (the lightning thing that comes out of your hands in Star Wars).  Powerups? A monkey shows up, and when you go up to it, you transform into a robot Michael that shoots lasers?!!?   And the most hilarious and mind-boggling part is the end when you win.  Michael morphs into a jet airplane and flies away?! WHAT!?  Oh yea, his special move is him pulling off moves from Billie Jean, Thriller, or Smooth Criminal, and everythign on the screen just dies lol.  The best part of the game in my opinion is the music.  Beat it, Smooth Criminal, Billie Jean, BAD, Thriller.  awesome. 

Enjoy, and crave this game :)


The Ending, Skip to 2:50

Bought Buzz!!

Yea this was like a week overdue.  but it fits with the birthday theme!  I was hella itching to play this again, so I went and bought it, even though I don't have a PS3.  But whatever, I knew people would love it.  Let's just call it my birthday present to myself.  Thanks to Alex and Henry for their PS3's haha.

Some Crazy games:
+Alex pulls an amazing comeback win in "The Final Countdown" even though he started with only 750 points. (I don't remember it, so I'm just taking his word for it.. still kinda skeptical though)
+Andrew challenges us to a Sports Trivia Game, and who win's by a landslide? Andy.. HAHA


It's a great game, because it has so many categories that everyone's mostly on an even playing field.  And it's also really easy to learn, so everyone gets into it quick.  Whoever hasn't played it yet, you gotta come play soon!

Buzz!!

Funnest party game of recent!  Well its kind of a old game, but I just played it this month when my cousin got it for only 30 bucks! It's so much fun, we couldn't put it down.  You can play with up to 4 friends, and everybody gets their own personal buzzer!  If I find it for 30 bucks, I'm buying it, even though I dont have a PS3 yet (I'll get one in the next year! maybe.) 

Its got all kinds of trivia, like movies, tv shows, music, science/tech, nature. So its usually a close game everytime.  And the competition gets pretty intense (yelling, cursing, and even occasional choking) hahah.  Anyways I want to introduce this to my pals, so.. whoever has a PS3.. early X-mas/B-day present?

WTB: Yamaha

Imagine if it was all black, or all white.  mmm.. sexy.

Anyways, this is something I've wanted since... last year? But its hefty price has kept me from owning this beautiful beast.  Electric Violin!! how awesome would that be!!?  It all started when I was playing in my room to relieve some stress.  (dont take that out of context)  And my roommate yells at me to shut my door and keep it down.   At first I was pissed off, but then it dawned on me that not everyone likes classical music.  If only I had a violin only I could hear!

Tada! introducing the Yamaha SV-150.  I like the looks.  I mean its modern looking but still retains the classic violin shape.  I'm not into the awkward Quasimodo shaped electric violins that are out there, too craasyy.

And not only does it let  you practice silently, you can hook it up to an amp, to your computer to record, but the best of all is the control module that lets you add effects for fun!  Man it would be so cool to fake a rock guitar solo on this baby. OO! after watching the below video, it also lets you load MP3's and jam to them.  c'mon.. lottery!

Demo at the NAMM show!