The Captains

This week I watched, ‘The Captains’ a new documentary by William Shatner about the five actors who played captains in the various incarnations of Star Trek. I really enjoyed the documentary and although I am an avid Star Trek fan I learned a few new things and enjoyed hearing each of the actors reflect on their experiences. William Shatner has a strong and unusual personality and he is admittedly an acquired taste. I tend to like Shatner’s eccentricities, but others may find it a bit distracting. William Shatner interviewed each of the actors one at a time, interspersed with interludes of his own travels and visits to Star Trek conventions. He appears to have a realy friendship with Patrick Stuart, and their interaction felt the most natural. The interview with Kate Mulgrew was good, and he seemed they seemed to get along well enough, although Shatner went off on a bizarre tangent about women not being able to hold high political office. It appeared to be the first time he met Scott Bakula and Chris Pine. I’ve always liked Scott Bakula as an actor, but he seemed to be a genuinely interesting guy and a real fan of classic Start Trek. William Shatner’s interaction with Avery Brooks was very odd, mildly uncomfortable and in some ways it stole the show. Avery Brooks is an accomplished jazz musician and instead of answering interview style he played light jazz on the piano interspersed with answer in song and ‘spoken word’. Shatner couldn’t resist and started interjecting his own improvised song and lyrics. They worked out an uneasy style by the end of the interview, but I swear Avery Brooks was ready irritated and ready to deck Shatner early on. If you are a die hard or causal Star Trek fan, put his on your list. It’s worth a look.

A Wrinkle In Time

My son and I read "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeline L'Engle for his school book report. I read the story when I was a little older than him and recall really enjoying it, although I could not remember much. I enjoyed it all over again. It was a bit advanced for my nine year son but he did well and wound up with an A+ on his book report. Today I stumbled on a TV\direct to video release of "A Wrinkle In Time" by Disney on netflix. It's not great, but considering it was a direct to video style production, it was quite enjoyable and a nice way to finish the experience with the book, particularly for my son.

Roku follow up.

In June I purchased a roku

in an effort to cut down on my cable bill. I subscribed to Netflix instant streaming service and hulu plus. We've changed a bit from our original configuration but after nearly 6 months I'm happy to report it's worked very well and it's drastically changed how we watch television. We've also saved some money on our cable bill. The biggest problem with the roku is an HDMI handshake. You can read about how HDMI works and HDMI handshake issues here. My Phillips LCD TV and Roku XDS had a handshake problem. The result is a green screen instead of a picture. This problem can be solved by re-seating the HDMI cable or by turning the Roku on and off. Reseating the HDMI cable causes unwanted ware and tear on the HDMI port. I've read posts from people who have had a spark when doing this repeatedly and burning out the HDMI port on there TV. This doesn't appear to be common, but I didn't want to run the risk of this. The Roku is basically a mini computer, so restarting it takes 2-3 minutes, too much time when you are ready to plop down and enjoy some TV.

I solved the problem by running my HDMI cable through a manual three port switch. This resolved avoids rebooting the roku and resetting the cable. If I get a green screen due to a handshake issue, I can cycle through the three ports on the switch, causing a new handshake and the problem is gone. The cable is ugly, but the problem is fixed. There are no first run television shows on Netflix, so I though Hulu plus was going to be a must. However, we cancelled Hulu plus last month. The interface was clunky compared to Netflix and watching commercials was a drag. It wasn't awful or 'broken' but it was enough of an impediment that we basically stopped using Hulu Plus. We find enough television on Netflix alone that we barely watch standard cable. Neither Netflix nor Hulu Plus have first run CBS shows or sports, and this may be a big drawback for some. I am not a big sports watcher. I like to watch a little NFL here and there, but Illinois Football is my big passion. Dropping the big 10 network to cut back our cable bill was going to hurt. I was pleasantly surprised the Comcast's 'Economy' cable package included Big 10 Network in standard def only. It's not as fun as watching the game in HD, but it's still fun. I miss the games on ESPN but occasionally they are on one of the major networks and I can still catch the game. I would highly recommend the roku as a cheap solution to lower your cable bill, but it's important to understand what you will and won't be able to watch before making the move. On my wish list for the future is a mini\media PC. I can watch Netflix and hulu standard through a media PC, and I can watch shows direct from the network web sites, such as CBS, NBC, etc... I'll wind up watching TV with a mouse and keyboard but I think this is the best way to get the most bang for your buck. You can buy remotes for your PC, but I think the keyboard will suit me fine. If you watch Hulu and other services through your Roku, DVD player, Wii, etc.... you may find that there are some shows labelled, "Web Only". You can only watch them on your PC. Plugging a media PC directly into the TV would avoid this particular problem. All in all, the Roku has been a very satisfying and money saving experiment. The money savings couldn't have come at a better time, now that I have a teenage son driving. It really helped offset those insurance costs.

Crave Truck

A few months ago a colleague of mine at work arranged for the 'Crave Truck' to make a stop in the mid-afternoon. Last night the Crave Truck was at St Matthew's Church for this years Trunk or Treat. Crave is a family owned business started by high schooler, Zachary Ware. Zach has a passion for food and a passion for fast cars. The crave truck combines the best of both to bring Chambana the latest food trend: Artisinal Food where the people are– on the streets.

The Crave Truck specializes in Street Waffles They use their own recipe made from scratch each day. Made from a yeast dough instead of a baking powder batter, these waffles are Belgium’s other waffle. They have all the fresh ingredients found in a great brioche along with a secret Belgian ingredient. This ingredient is part of what makes the Street Waffle different from any other Belgian waffle. Take a look a there menu here:

I would highly recommend seeking out the Crave Truck. These waffles are treat not to be missed. Watch for the crave truck in Downtown Champaign, Downtown Urbana, Campustown. Friday mornings- on the corner of Hessel Blv. and Neil (actually BEHIND the Circle K) in Champaign and Saturdays 7am-Noon- at the Market at the Square, Urbana’s farmer’s market at Lincoln Square Mall. You can also follow them on twitter for up to the minute news on where to find the truck.

Roku

I purchase two roku units in early June and cut way back on cable service. We had two DVRs and a pretty extensive lineup of channels through Comcast. Now we have one DVR and the economy plan. We subscribed to Netflix steaming service and hulu plus, for a total cost of $17 per month. After recouping the cost of the roku, which are $75 each, we’ll be saving a lot of money.

The Roku with Netflix and hulu plus has really changed the way we watch television. We only kept cable to watch particular shows that are not (yet) available through Netflix and Hulu. Other than the shows we record on the DVR, we never watch cable. It’s all on demand viewing via Netflix and Hulu. I don’t think our kids have watched any television through cable since the switch.

The savings and selection are nice, but there is a downside. First and foremost, there are almost no live sports through the Roku. You can watch live baseball for a fee, but I only watch Big 10 football. I will sorely miss that.

The biggest problem impacts some television models and Roku has been trying to resolve it for 4 years+ Sometimes when switching to the Roku you will only see a green screen. This only occurs if you are using an HDMI cable with specific television sets. I want to use the HDMI cable to get a 1080 picture when it’s available. There are a variety of ways to work around this problem. You can restart the Roku but this takes 3 minutes. You can reseat the HDMI cable but this is hard on the cable and I’ve read you can damage the cable or the HDMI port on your Roku or TV. Reseating the cable every time you want to watch TV is a real drag. I have found if I switch from a HD signal off another HDMI device to the Roku it’s fine 100% of the time. If I switch from a standard def signal or a device using component cables, it produces the green screen 100% of the time.

I’ve read you can set your Roku to 720p max or use component cables, but I really want that 1080p picture when it’s available, so I haven’t tested these methods.

Roku forums and support have been pretty good. I had trouble setting up one of the two units I purchased and their support staff did an excellent job resolving the issue. Information on the green screen issue has been inconsistent and unclear.

Now that I have a way to make my roku work 100% of the time, I’m quite happy with the purchase. It’s a nice addition and has really changed how my family watches TV.

No Cable TV?

I am interested in dumping my cable TV and just keeping internet. I’d like to buy a streaming device or higher end blu-ray player with streaming capability. Right now it seems to make sense to buy a mid-level Roku and augment it with an antenna for local TV. I’ll post some links below about the products I’m thinking about. Anyone have experience or recommendations?

I'm looking at the mid-level roku. http://www.roku.com/roku-products#2

It would be nice to have an internal antenna, so I don't have to mount it outside, but I'm not sure if they work well.http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT1650-Digital-Amplified-Antenna/dp/B0027FGW3K/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1305406281&sr=1-1

If I did a higher end blu-ray, I'd look at something like this:http://www.amazon.com/LG-BD570-Network-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B0036WT1RW/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1305405905&sr=1-2

Toilets, why does it have to be toilets.

Toilet issue #3.

Remember this: http://enoa4.blogspot.com/2009/10/home-repair-saga.html

or this: http://enoa4.blogspot.com/2006/09/toys-in-toilet.html

Well we've got a new toilet issue for January 1st 2011. I ran to the store and came back to reports of a overflowed toilet and a leaking ceiling. The upstairs replacement toilet featured in this story http://enoa4.blogspot.com/2009/10/home-repair-saga.html was clogged and overflowed. This has caused some damage to the ceiling in the floor below.

The ceiling is damp, cracked and sagging a little. The floor is fine. Serve Pro is on their way. Here we go again.

Black Swan

My wife and I were able to slip out and see a movie tonight thanks to my oldest son, who was nice enough to watch his brothers. (Thanks Sean, watching your brothers is #429 on my list of reasons you rock. ) At any rate, we saw ‘Black Swan’ starring Natalie Portman. I like Natalie Portman a great deal, I like the arts, and I like thrillers. I thought this was a terrible movie. Neither my wife nor I liked it. It was supposed to be a dark psychological thriller. I didn’t find it scary, in fact I found myself laughing at the what was supposed to be scary. I like all kinds of movies, mainstream, art, sci-fi, drama, mystery, comedy, old, new and consider myself to be a bit of a moviephile. I rarely get bored with movies, even bad ones that I’ve seen more than once, but this was tough to pay attention to. I was bored, not scared, didn’t care about the characters, and guessed what the resolution was going to be after 10 minutes. It was bad. I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes when I got home and was STUNNED to find it’s getting 88% positive. I don’t get it.

The Most Interesting Man in the World

This is my favorite ad campaign. The best line, 'He speaks French, in Russian.'

The HTML Gnome

I brought in a garden gnome for my friend and co-worker a month ago. He had no furniture and he hates mushrooms with a passion. The gnome is sitting on a big mushroom. The gnome took on a life of his own. We have been working for months on a re-build/relaunch of our main web site. He quickly became known as the HTML-gnome. We put the gnome in the office of our marketing director, who is leading the redevelopment project and it got a lot of strange looks and comments. It spent a month, prominently displayed on or near her desk. Gnomes have also made brief appearances in the new web site as 'Easter egg' jokes.







We launch on Monday. Today is the last full big push before we turn the key on the new site. We the gnome and an owl on our desks with notes, and donuts holes. The HTML gnome turned in a vacation slip requesting 40 hours off because he had been working so hard. The owl, is 'Mo' the marketing team mascot, and he's here to keep an eye on the gnome.

Buttitta's

I took my wife and Grandmother out to dinner at Buttitta's tonight. I have wanted to try it since it opened several months ago. I was very impressed with the food and service. The prices were reasonable and the atmosphere was pleasant. I would highly recommened it to anyone. My wife and I may have found our new favorite resturaunt.

I had the Chicken Galena, my wife had Barramundi and my grandmother had raviolli. Everything was fantastic!

Check out the full menu here: http://buttittascu.com/index.html

Disney World

After much planning and saving my wife and I were able to take our three wonderful kids on a trip to Disney World. Here are a few photos.

Oil Spill Deja Vu

Farewell Lost

I was a latecomer to LOST, but it was one of the best TV shows ever. The series finale was amazing. Just for fun here are three alternate endings to the show:

Boatload of children

After a rather intense day and week of work I returned home to start what I hope will be a relaxing three day weekend. I was suprised and amused to find a crowd of children racing back and forth across my front lawn. Four older neighborhood boys were playing basketball in my driveway. My kids were racing around with some younger kids. My great grandmother in law was watching from the front step, she had just dropped off the younger boys from Tae Kwon Do. My neighbor who runs a day care was also watching, and had a couple of very young kids running back and forth from her yard to mind.


I don't mind one bit at all, but the level of activity was both unexpected and amusing. I did not expect a boatload of children when I rounded my corner but there they were.



When I opened the garage door to park my van, a throng of them ran in and then back out carrying an assortment of toy lightsabers, and balls. It was really something to see.

Great Family Day

I spent most of the day with my family.

My younger two kids had Tae Kwon Do belt tests. My youngest earned his first belt, a yellow belt, and my middle son earned his third belt, a green belt. My oldest was there for one of the tests to support an encourage his younger brother.

This was followed by a play date for my middle son, which went extremely well. Everyone played well, no fights, and they kept themselves very well occupied.

Next it was off to my folks. My dad was teaching my wonderful wife about woodworking. She has a lot of intrest in the topic and a lot of interest in tinkering with light home repairs. My father is a home repair and woodworking guru. We had a light dinner with my parents (which was great), relaxed and headed home.

The kids went to bed I was surprised to see my middle son appear in the door of the home office. My wife was working and I was keeping her company working on a hobby of mine. At any rate, my middle son gave us a hand written note which read:

Dear Parents,
Thank you for a home and food and shelter and cloze and freinds and helping me on my blet test. Love [middle sons name]

This was followed by a copy of his schedule for tomorrow, which included 'fun with parents among other things. At the bottom was a picture of my wife, him and me.

How cool is that.

One man a cappella tribute to John Williams

Correspondence with a friend

Here are two recent emails from ongoing daily correspondence between a friend and I. There are the actual emails word for word. I'll let you wonder which is mine.

----------------------------------
To this simpleton's palate there reside yet few foods that can register true epicurean delight. Loftiest among them is the meatball. How grand a vision you delivered to me of steaming pots bristling with a battalion of these pan-fried crumbling concoctions slithering amongst one another within a hot tomato bath. Neither the armed will of spartan soldiers nor the entreaties of greek philosophers could compel this aging revolutionary away from a kitchen so enlivened as yours must have been on that day. My dearest Abigail, observing me in this state, has deemed me lost to Lucifer's will, the insidious devil having, with the greatest alacrity, traded away from the dangling of tobacco and spirits in favor of that singular vice from which this Achilles suffers - the meatball.

Your humble servant.

- - - - - -

Dear Sir, — The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I send you a Meatball, to evoke the exclamation of `mon Dieu! jusque à quand'! would make me immortal. I can never send half a meatball in addressing you when only a whole not the part would suffice. Indeed I think that every culinary pallet gives a great handle to sauced meatball that, without a revelation, there would be tomoato sauce on their cravat. Please give my best to dearest Abigail.

Going Batty at Work

While I was leaving the office after work yesterday I notice a small brown blob on the wall, about 5 or 6 feet over my head. I couldn't quite make it out but my friend and co-worker Bruce recognized it as a bat! He's been there all night, we're speculating he died in the cold. Here are some photos.

Click on each image for a larger view.

Those were the droids you were looking for.