• Sep 11, 2005

    Sirius Radio

    My wife received a Sirius Sportster R from her parents for her birthday. While I'm not a huge fan of paying for radio or having another monthly recurring charge, it's nice to see her being able to listen to what she wants without flipping the station all the time. I'm a bit disappointed with the technology, however. Whenever we go under a bridge or are near some overshadowing trees, it cuts out for a few seconds. Some probably say that this can be expected; however, I just took possession of a Slim Devices Squeezebox 2 for our home audio system and as I was playing with it, I turned off the server and found that it kept playing for about 2 minutes. So, I think that Sirius should have about a 2 minute delay and buffer 2 minutes of audio on the receiving end. This would allow the slight blips to be handled without skipping a beat. Seems simple enough, but someone who designed or implemented the digital system forgot about this (or thought it would cost too much).

  • Sep 11, 2005

    Home Audio System

    I decided a few months ago to get a whole house audio system so that we can listen to music throughout the house. I decided on the components I wanted and found a local dealer. I picked the Russound CA6.4i 6 zone system and found out that the warranty is void if the product isn't purchased through a local dealer, Music and Movies by Mastercraft. So far, I've been quite happy with the dealer as being honest and straightforward about what I needed and what fit in my budget range. I'm waiting on the speakers and will have wires pulled by our contractor's (my wife's friend's husband) cousin before I can actually use the system. The speakers are backordered and should arrive in a few weeks.

  • Sep 11, 2005

    Fourth anniversary

    For our fourth wedding anniversary, my wife took me to Laguna Beach for some spa treatments and a night away from home. I enjoyed the massage at Yvonne Marciena Spa. However, our night at Hotel Laguna had much to be desired. There was a wedding at the hotel in the courtyard right out of our window. The noise from the wedding made it hard to watch TV and then eventually goto sleep. It really would have been nice for them to have told us about this when we booked the room. Definitely a place not to visit again.

  • Sep 9, 2005

    First blog entry

    After being pointed to RapidWeaver by a colleague for creating websites, I decided to try blogging. While I really don't expect anyone to read this, I hope that by keeping a journal, it will help me get things off my mind.