It's Not Xbox's Fault This Time

For those of you wondering where I’ve been since the close of the school year, here goes. In a hammock in the back yard drinking beer. For most of you who know me this will come as no surprise. However not all of that time was spent goofing off. Much of it was spent convalescing from a fall through my deck. I would like to take this moment to briefly say that the new Beverly Hospital emergency room system is way better then the old one. I limped in there and was out in a leg brace in less than an hour. That included X-rays and a very short wait in a private room. The new ER was money well spent despite the fact that it took 3 years to build.

My immediate plans include more hammock time and probably fixing the hole in the deck.

Things I Love

iSquint for converting avi, mp4 and wmv files to an iPhone viewable format.

HandBrake for converting (format shifting) my DVD collection to QuickTime files so I can watch them on my iPhone.

320x480 or 480x320 depending on how you hold it is the magic setting to optimize your videos for the 3 1/2 inch monitor.

Also in HandBrake, I notice no flicker down converting to 24 frames per second and unless you're watching something with subtitles 300mb file size looks as good as larger files. There's no need to waste valuable real estate on my puny 4 gig which is really 3.64 gigs.

iRule

The new iPhone finally got set up after waiting all night for an email that was never going to come. Lisa called AT$T a couple times and basically got blown off each time. So I called. Two and a half hours and 3 service reps and a whole lot of swearing is what it took to activate my and Lisa's phones.

Yes we both got iPhones. Lisa needed a new battery for her phone and my phone was a piece of crap. We were due for new phones anyway and even though we shouldn't have for so many reasons we got our one treat for the summer.

I love it.

On another topic also about me. Tomorrow I'm getting surgery on my ankle. I will be in a cast for 2 months. Don't expect much out of me this summer. I'll probably be able to go out and sit places but no manual clutch driving for me. Expect to pick me up or wait until my wife is free to drive me around if you want to hang out.

Vacation Is All I Ever Wanted

Schools is out. I'm drinking beer in my hammock. I'm watching movies on Lisa's widescreen laptop.

I'm watching the "The Warriors".

Why didn't they just get into a cab?