I’ve gone from using Movable Type -> Roller Weblog -> Wordpress over the past 3 years. I’ve missed converting a few entries so today I went through my old MT blog (which is buried on m87-blackhole.org that I even forgot about it). So below are links to my china trip in 2006, which I still reminisce about.
HK AVR 254
It is no secret that I love watching movies in the comfort of my own living room. I get to eat what I want, drink and not have to worry about driving, and most of the time I’m by myself so I don’t have to worry about shushing people. What can I say, its a great way for me to recharge and get lost for a few hours.
Since I upgraded my HTPC to playback the new high definition formats, Blu Ray and HD DVD, I’ve come across a few little hiccups and had to re-think how I was going to get the most out of my setup. Some hiccups are just part of the new format, like decoding Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Digital Plus/DTS HD/DTS HD Master, the whole “trusted path” for the audio and video (HDMI output). Others were limitations of my equipment and what others were willing to put up with (both Michele and Caralyne did not welcome using a computer to playback movies). So as I started refining things, I new I needed and wanted a few things:
So for the last few months, I’ve started to read up on the very helpful avsforum.com forum (yet another redundant statement, I’m getting good at these), looking at current receivers, and all of the quirks. Since every consumer electronic device now is a computer with its own embedded OS, we now have to be concerned with our alarm clock panic’ing, or our TV’s seg faulting. Receivers are no longer an exception to this. They used to amplify speakers and transmit analog, then there was bitstream decoding, and now we have complicated HDMI switching and handshaking, high res audio formats, auto-eq features and full screen menu’s. So I was not surprised to see a 200+ page thread dedicated to the HK AVR x54’s problems. Some of them were terrifying, with audio popping, black HDMI screens, all the stuff I was not interested in. There has been a new firmware update though, and that seemed to fix a lot of the issues, and while there were a lot of posts describing these issues, there were a lot of happy Harman Kardon owners. I’d like to add myself to that list, because so far everything has worked GREAT.
Here is a quick rundown of the hardware and software I’m using
Lets get to the fun stuff, I picked up the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, so I’ll get a screen in of that.
The Tools!
I have to use a mirror and a flashlight, its pretty tight quarters in the entertainment center. the large pair of dikes there, well.. lets check out the rats nest behind the TV and it will become obvious.
I think I see a skeleton in there...
I find the add’s for HDMI equipment very funny:
marketting awesomeness
Its all so easy, this one cable replaces at least 5 -6 other cables. Its true, it does replace the separate video and audio cables. Of course, when you have a computer, an XBOX, a DVR, a DVD player, and a reciever, they all need their own power, video/audio cable, network connection (yeah, everything now needs to be online) not to mention the 5.1 surround sound cables. It would be great not to have all this mess, in the end, I’m too darn lazy to really clean it up. Just don’t look behind there…
Back to the environment:
The other half of the AV setup.
So there is the HDA3, the Xbox 360, and the HTPC. All of them are now connected to th reciever. The HTPC and DVD player are native HDMI devices, but the Xbox is component. So, I configured the reciever to transcode the YPbPr signal to a digital 1080i signal. Sweet!
Me blogging about the device while I use the device... Its like an MC Escher painting
This is the output of the HTPC, I’m very satisfied with the image quality. The camera makes it look worse, its hard to capture the detail there.
Now for a coloring Break:
Caralyne and I drew some some pictures
She is very proud of her landscape drawing, and her rainbow
Okay, with it now late enough in the evening, I can watch a movie…
A random scene in Quantum of Solace
It sounded great, nice and punchy, and I got my subwoofer cable fixed again so I can rattle the windows again (and I really mean my neighbors windows). I’ll hold of on the firmware update, if I don’t encounter an issue, I’ll leave it alone.
Let The Right One In
Let the Right One In is a very memorable horror movie. It’s in the vein (HA!) of a vampire movie, yet it never really addresses the question and creatively dodges it.
The two characters are a boy and a girl. Oskar and Eli. The young boy lives in an apartment complex with his single (and very absent) mother. Like most boys, he has a bully problem. He is also awkward and anti-social, which makes him a fine target bot both the bully, and Eli.
Eli is a 12 year old “girl”, though there is some ambiguity there. She shows up with her “Father” one evening at the same Apartment Oskar lives in. She and Oskar develop a friendship, and it starts to become obvious there is an ulterior motive. Eli is 12 years old, indefinitely, and she needs a new caretaker.
This isn’t your standard Vampire movie, where its full of cheesy Freudian-isms. My Mom complained about how awful she thought Twilight was. My Mother is into horror movies, and she’s always enjoyed a good Vamipre movie. I recommended this one to her, it’s very simple, and very cold (really, it will make you feel chilly). It’s also a Swedish movie, so prepare to read a little.
These noise-aholics, these quiet-ophobics
I liked that statement, it is mentioned many times throughout the book with some variation. There is a great part where the protagonist, Carl Streaton, talks about his apartment tenets “sound wars”. Where its not about the music anymore, but the volume. As much as I dislike loud noises and chaos, I was able to relate very well to the main character.
The book isn’t about noise-aholics, peace-ophobics, but about a childrens lullaby that kills anyone who hears it. Carl, a reported, is doing a piece on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and discovers that a poem in a book is responsible. He is not the only one who knows about this poem though, and what it can do, so he works with these three other people to destroy any remaining copies of this book.
I liked this book, it had a few nice twists, I’ll probably pick up another one of his books soon.
I didn’t know, but this class marked Mark’s 14th year wushu anniversary. Thats awesome, he remembers the exact day, time and the fact that it was partially cloudy outside. Sheesh, I remember mine was around October 2001, around the time The One was released in theatres, not the exact time and day though. With that, congrats Mark!
The rule for showing up late is that you have to do 20 burpee’s. Burpee’s are not a cute package of seeds to start your own watermelon patch, burpee’s are the worst thing you can subject yourself to do. 10 is enough for me, 20 is impossible, and 30, which is the NEW requirement for showing up late, is a new state of exhaustion. I can’t wait till next week, I almost want to show up late and try 40. A burpee is a simple exercise, you start off standing, you jump straight up in the air (clapping your hands above you head), immediately fall into a squat/balled-up position on the floor, then your jut your legs out and do a push up and pop back up to a standing position. That, is just ONE burpee.
I was very warmed up after those, and I did some stretching real quick and joined the lines for basics. We did a LOT of jumping front kicks, and front stretch kicks. It was really nice to really focus on those.
When we split off into groups, I stuck it out and did 8 sections in a row, then my entire form twice. Of course, my entire form is about half of a real one, that is why I went twice. I think I wanted to die right after that, so I parked my self on the stage next to Mark and enjoyed his new nick-names for a few of the students, like “hand-eyes” which sounds like a cool nickname when said in Chinese.
Once all three groups finished, which was around 9:10pm, we did about 20 minutes or conditioning. First it was sprint relays, which then become frog leap relays, then duck walk relays, then sprinting again… After that, we did 30 sit ups, 30 push ups, and 30 “supermans”, which after my lunchtime workout with Jenny of just core exercises was difficult to complete. Finally, we ended with a set of horse-stances, and Mark was nice enough to push a few of us into a more “proper” stance, which felt like someone just ripped my legs out of their sockets. So today, I feel fantastic, and I really like walking up 3 flights of stairs a few times a day after a class like this. It reminds me of when I first started Wushu and I thought “this shouldn’t last forever, I’ll get used to this soon…”
I didn’t want to forget to blog about this, it is a little late.
Over a month ago (Jan 31st), Jenny invited me to hike Mount Diablo with the Stanford Outing Group, lead by “V”. I’ve posted her photos to the gallery here, and you should read her post on our trip. Its more entertaining than mine 
http://jettagirl.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/mount-diablo-hike-to-the-summit/
This was a 14 mile hike, took about 6-7 hours (I think) and made my legs feel like jelly. That’s definitely my kind of workout, now only if it was 20 miles instead…
The start of our hike, at Mitchell Canyon Road, is about 15 minutes away from my house. Thats right, I have a freaking mountain to hike in my backyard and I’ve never actually done it. For that matter, its been about 10 – 12 years since I was last at Mt. Diablo. I really do need a group of people to get me out of the house on a weekend. The entire group ( Jenny is excluded from this statement, because she’s always cool) was cool, and the leader, V, was hilarious. I loved how he would mention ways we could die, or how to check for ticks (or you’ll die!), or if you trip… you get the idea. He comes off as overly- cautious, but he was great to hike with and talk too.
This was my first hike, and I was glad I could ask Jenny before hand what I should bring or wear. I brought a couple of bottles of water, and I ended up re-filling one on the way back down. The three of you that check out this blog already know how much I sweat, so the minimum water recommendation for a normal human being should be doubled for me
The trip up was strenuous, I would zone out and put one foot in front of the othe during the real up-hill parts. We took a few breaks to get some water, have a snack, but the real enjoyment was when we reached the peak. After all the “hard” work was done, I felt I could look around more, check out the scenery, and even talk a little. On the way down, “V” and Jenny told me about the different rock types (“scree” is difficult to walk on), saw a little waterfall and a cave on the side of a cliff, and then we found our own little cave on the side of the path. It was cool.
Overall it was a awesome trip and I look forward to doing one again. I don’t think I’ll get lucky with it being 15 minutes away from my house any time soon though. Eventually I’ll have to start learning to get up before 8am
So thanks Jenny and “V” for a memorable trip.
Group photo
My Dad and I are very similar, one of those similar traits is that we procrastinate and push things like Christmas off until ALMOST March
This get together worked out last year, so we did it again. The traditional holiday schedule is so crazy and overwhelming (especially for an introvert) that it is miserable to try and cram everything in within a few days. With us getting together two months after settling down from the real event, its nice and relaxing and we get to have Pizza without worrying that the place will close due to a holiday.
So here are a few pictures from our visit:
Tawny, Jeff and Colten
Michele and Owen
Melissa
Live Oak tree
Happy trying to hide from me
Still trying to resist
I'm very persistent, he finally gave in and let me ruff him up
My Dad, Dave
You can see the entire gallery here:
http://www.m87-blackhole.org/photos/2009-christmas-in-feb/