Les Miserables

I went to Les Miserables with my wife last night.  I'm a huge fan of the musicial and I've seen it on stage four or five times.  I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it.  Parts of it were really good, even great.  Other bits were distracting and didn't quite work for me.  Although Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway did a decent job, others like Russel Crowe were distracting.  I'm a huge fan for Russel Crowe, but he's not a great singer.  I think I would have preferred to have the movie full of singers who can act, rather than actors who can sing.  If you haven't ever seen Les Miserables, I think you'll love it.  If you have seen it on stage and are familiar with it, you'll enjoy it, but bits of it are going to bother you a little.

My wife, Shannon Noa , has the 25th anniversary performance playing right now. There is really no comparing the two. Is the movie enjoyable. Does it have merit? Is it like stage production. Nope.

Problems Burning a BluRay

Does anyone out there have experience burning bluray discs? I've prepped many videos and can burn DVDs easily, but I'm having trouble burning blurays. They play fine on my computers, but not on my bluray players. I'm guessing it's a compatibility issue with my slightly older, entry level bluray players, but I'm not sure. Send me a message if you have any experience with this. I've been googling this for weeks, but I'm not making much headway.

I have been fiddling with the encoding and other output options. I finally rendered a blu-ray disc that plays properly on my blu-ray problem, but despite being rendered in 1080p I can only get it to play in 480i. UGH! I suppose that's progress. I have another burn rendered differently, hopefully that will work a little better.

I've been comparing the blu-ray to the DVD I prepped. The video on the DVD is smoother, the blu-ray is jittery. Hmmm..... :-(Hopefully the other compression on my next burn will help. There isn't a lot of clear info out there. I suspect I am fighting the two blu-ray players I own as much as anything else.

Netflix and Comcast

I watch netflix instant regularly on my two roku devices and on my PC.  I've enjoyed HD  video for over a year. Two weeks ago the picture degraded and is worse than SD.  It's not a bandwidth issue or a wireless signal issue.  I've eliminated both.  I called netflix twice.  They believe comcast, my cable company is throttling them.   This fits, since I have ample bandwidth and other services, like Amazon still produce a good HD signal.  Netflix will email me data they have used to determine this.  I will share it with Comcast and see where I can get.  Wish me luck.

UPDATE:
I had an online chat with a support person at Comcast.  Comcast believes netflix is as fault.  Although the issue has not been resolved, Comcast agreed to work directly with netflix to resolve the issue.  I was pleased they were willing to take this step.

Mental Fish

My youngest two sons were having an epic battle royale, they type that only two brothers can have.  I separated them and sent them each to their own rooms.  While talking with one of them they told me their brother thought a long list of unkind and hurtful things.  I told him he didn’t know what his brother was thinking only what he was thinking.  He told me I was wrong, because he had mental tilapia.  

I wonder if he intertied mental fish from me or his mother?

Kerf Fitted Weatherstripping for a Ceco Entergy Door

I own an home built in 1985 with Ceco Entergy doors. The door has kerf fitted weatherstripping, but the stripping is very thin, and doesn't have the bulb found on most kerf fitted weatherstripping I can purchase a local hardware stores. The doors are difficult to close and lock with the kerf fitted weatherstripping I can find.

The product I can find is available all over town.  Here's a link to the product on the Menards Web Site.   It's got a decent picture.

The folks at Alexander Lumber in Champaign were very helpful, but could not find a suitable product.  Still I'd recommend paying them a visit, they were knowledgeable and took time to answer all of my questions. 

The folks at Pella Windows and Doors have also spent time offering advice and corresponding via email.

The bottom line I am really stuck.  I've contacted the original manufacturer, who referred me to various distributors and business who carry their products.  I've reached out to those folks via email and phone.  Most have been quite helpful, but I still haven't found a suitable replacement.

I am open to suggestions. Here are photos of the replacement product and what I used to have.   The replacement product on the left side and is white.  The old product is on the right and is black.

The new product is filled with a foam or padding, and the original is hollow.

Miscues and Misperception

I went grocery shopping with my two youngest sons.  They were mostly well behaved, but I did need to keep them focused and moving.   They were oblivious to the fact they were blocking an entire aisle, so I sternly said, “Single file please, heads up, there are people trying to get through.”   Ahead of us a mom and her teenage daughter quickly complied, nervously jumping into single file formation.  I was so preoccupied with my kids that I walked three of four paces past them before I realized they thought I was lecturing them.  I was incredibly embarrassed and apologized profusely to the woman and her daughter.  As we walked away my middle son accused me of ‘liking’ the lady who thought I was yelling at her and he also told me “Mom will be mad at you.”   That’s a whole lot o’ miscues and misperception crammed into about 30 seconds.

New Toothpaste?

A sign that my wonderful wife might be too busy. The kids needed a lot tonight. They were pleasant but kept us hopping. My wife decided to take a minute to run in the bathroom and brush my teeth after dinner and homework were done. 

She brushed my teeth for about 60 seconds. All of the sudden she had a horrible taste in her mouth--truly awful. She then realized that when she reached into the bathroom drawer without looking, she had grabbed a tube of desitin rather than the tooth paste. She has tried mouthwash, lemons, and cannot get that taste (or feeling) out of her mouth!

Look Dad, it's a distraction!

My wife had president’s day off and was home with our kids.   Our younger two boys were fighting and called me at work.  I settled the argument as best I could from the office and asked them to put their mother on the phone.  My middle son said, “You’re breaking up dad.  I can’t hear you.”  His younger brother said, “No you’re not.  You sound fine.”

This morning I was horsing around with my middle son.  I was getting the best of him and he pointed to the other end of the house and yelled, “Look dad, it’s a distraction.”

Classic.

Roku 1080p and Vizio 1080p

The two roku boxes we have at home work great.  They support 720p for most streamed television. 1080p support is available but only for a handful of video feeds, and not for major services like Netflix or Hulu.  There are now a handful of devices that support 1080p for Netflix.

According to this page on the roku website, the Roku 2 supports 1080p for Netflix.   However the roku 2 has changed their lineup.  Only the top two models the XD and XS support 1080p.   All units support wireless, but only the XS has an Ethernet port, which is ideal if you have access to an Ethernet port. 

I also learned about a new Vizio streaming box for about the same price as the roku that supposedly supports 1080p.   It doesn’t seem to have better services available, but it does have Ethernet and WiFi connectivity, two HDMI ports and DLNA support.

Finally roku has announced a new device for TVs with a high-definition port, a new port available on a growing number of new TVs.  It’s about the size of a flash drive and fits into a computers USB outlet.  The finger size device fill function like a roku box, but will be much smaller and won’t require an independent power source.  Sounds exciting!

Now if I could only get ESPN and the Big 10 network on my roku, I’d cut the cord from cable.   Lack of sports, football specifically, remains the missing link for me.

Locatelli Cheese

I love locatelli cheese, it’s a high quality romano cheese. Very dear family friends are nice enough to bring me a wedge of it every time they visit from the east coast. I love it. My two youngest sons love it. My folks love it. My brother and sister love it. My wonderful wife and eldest son hate it and call it ‘foot cheese’, because they think it smells like feet. I couldn’t disagree more. I’m going to have linguini with white clam sauce for dinner and I thought a little fresh grated locatelli on top would be perfect. I offered a little taste of cheese to my darlin’ wife who said she’d rather lick my foot.