I’ve written about my desire to untether my music in the past.  I have Rhapsody and love it and listen to it often but I find it leaves me feeling stuck.  I have to be right in front of my computer to enjoy it.  Instead I want to be able to have music available to me throughout my house.   Queue up songs in my bedroom and then be able to hear the music as I unload the dishwasher or sit up in my loft.   I keep searching around trying to find the perfect solution.  Here are my latest discoveries.  Unfortunately none of them yet strike me as perfect.

Sonos and Linksys by Cisco Wireless Home Audio They seem to be pretty much the same concept.  Hook a “director” or a “zone player” to your stereo and now your music transmits from your computer to your stereo.  Then you need to get a remote control that allows you to change Internet radio stations or skip tracks, etc.  The price for this is around ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!  And the reason why I keep shying away from it is I only have 1 stereo and it’s old.  So not only would I have to pay ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!  I would also have to go out and buy another stereo or at the very least speakers.

Today I discovered a different solution called Audioengine W1.  This solution contains two little plugs, a sender and a recieiver.  You plug the sender into your computer and the receiver into your stereo and suddenly the music from the laptop is traveling wirelessly to your stereo.  Voila!  And it’s only 149.00.  Which is quite a huge savings from ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS but it still seems rather unwieldy considering you’re just getting two litle nubs.  I quite like the idea of using my laptop as the controller (one less piece to buy) BUT the sender can only transmit to one receiver at a time.  This means I can’t have music all over.  I would have to determine what room I want it in.  This might not be a horrible thing.  How often do I walk around the house?

I also discovered an Apple product called the Airport Express.  This seems an awful lot like the Audioengine W1 except it can simultaneously transmit to multiple receivers.  The unfortunate part of this is it seems like you need a lot of different cables and parts to make it happen AND it’s Apple which makes me think it’s iTunes or nothing at all.  And would it even work on an evil PC?  I doubt it.

I love the idea of having a Sonos/LinksysbyCisco remote control gadget.  It reminds me of Nick Knight in Forever Knight, using his universal remote to lower and raise his window blinds and turn off lights, and light his gas fireplace.  But I also can’t help but think I probably wouldn’t use it much.  It can’t be easy to type on and so I wouldn’t be sitting there using it to queue up songs as much as choosing a playlist and maybe skipping tracks.  I could easily do that with my laptop.   Why oh why doesn’t the AudioEngine W1 transmit to multiple receivers!?!?

I watched Gran Torino.  I enjoyed the story but I really disliked the racial slurs.  Were those names even necessary?  Couldn’t he have gotten the same point across (Lonely old man befriends Asian neighbors) without the excessive use of the term “Gooks?”  Could this be the reason it was said to be a conservative movie… because all of us conservatives are racist (and greedy and evil)?   At the end I bawled and I continue to think about the premise but I can’t agree that it’s a conservative movie.

I also FINALLY watched Yes Man.  LOVED IT!  LOVED IT!  Jim Carrey was totally Jim Carrey and he made me laugh and smile and wish he was my boyfriend.  And General Zod was in it which led to me saying “Come to me, son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod!!” over and over again.

Last night I found myself sitting in front of a TV playing Valkyrie.  I only gave it about 30% of my attention mainly because I can’t take stressful, violent movies.  I decided long ago to stay away from any film that makes me feel nervous or stressed– I get that enough in my own life.  If I am going to subject myself to a movie, I want to experience love, happiness, humor, inspiration, and other positive feelings.  Yes Man fit this perfectly.  Gran Torino, not so much. Valkyrie, not at all.

David Letterman has me angry. He told an off-joke on his show the other day. Something about Sarah Palin and her daughter’s visit to NYC and how her daughter got knocked up by a baseball player. Big brouhaha ensued, quite rightly in my opinion. And David Letterman FINALLY does the right thing and apologizes, sorta:

It was “a coarse joke,” “a bad joke,” Letterman told viewers. “But I never thought it was (about) anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18.”

Let’s totally take Palin and her politics out of this, okay? It’s a cruel joke and it shouldn’t have been told whether is was about the younger OR OLDER daughter. This is why I am angry. It doesn’t matter whether the girl is 18-years-old, 15-years-old or 25-years-old. Bristol Palin never sought out celebrity. What she has she got by default. Leave her alone.

And what really gets me angry is I realize this whole “news story” is stupid. I hate that I allowed myself to get caught up in it. But it hits me harder than most fluff stories because I was teased as a child and I know how much it hurts. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have some man serving you up on a plate for the entire country to laugh at. Whore! HAHAHA! Well, Karma’s a bitch and I hope David Letterman gets his.

I finally bought a new television the other day. I figured coveting wasn’t healthy and I might as well just buy one. Plus with the sheer amount of money the Fed has printed, we are going to start seeing inflation on a grand scale so I might as well spend some of the money I saved while it still holds a little value. Because of the new TV, I’ve been watching a lot more television than usual. Mainly I watch nature shows or animal shows– shows on Discovery or Animal Planet or National Geographic, etc… This weekend I noticed something that’s been staring me in the face a long time. Every single program has to prominently feature the imminent destruction of nature or animals by the evil hands of humans. Sharks? They are endangered because humans are running them over in speed boats. Coyotes? Endangered because humans are turning their home into strip malls. The Andes? Endangered because humans drive SUVs. Why can’t I watch a nature show that just shows cute little animals frolicking? Why must it be one long guilt trip? And is it really that terrible out there? I can’t help but think that the real danger is just low ratings.

Today is the first day that I don’t feel like death. At least since last Saturday. That’s when the onset of this cold hit me. It also helps that the sun is shining for the first time in days. I am not 100% but I went for a walk and am sounding better.

Lisa came over last night and brought a Stromboli. Everyday this week I have had a visitor bringing food. Thank goodness because otherwise I don’t know what I would have done. So Lisa came over to see my new TV and VuNOW device. I think she fell in love with it. We spent 3 hours just poking around the menus. I think our favorite thing we found was this video:

Watching it on the big screen of a TV really turns it into an epic production. Toward the middle I noticed I started seeing colors and the image started to ripple. I told Lisa and she said, “Just ride with it!” Turns out, she saw it too. Crazy!

I feel lousy. I am stuffed up, congested, and I think my head is going to explode from the sinus pressure. At any rate I think I’ve decided to go with the family friend as the contractor. I called the other guy to clarify a few items and it turned out he didn’t really quote me the whole job, he left out a ton of stuff. “Oh, you want shower doors and a new shower basin?” Plus I googled his name thinking I might find some reviews of his work. Instead I found out he’s a registered sex offender. Apparently he molested a young girl. There is a chance this isn’t the same guy but the name’s the same, the location is the same, his job is the same, and the age is right. That’s a lot of coincidences. I can’t take the chance. Besides, I am warming up to the idea of fiberglass rather than the tile. There’s no way I am going to find a match to the tile that’s already EVERYWHERE in my bathroom– it’s going to look terrible having two different sets of tiles. The fiberglass will look better. Family friend’s quote is looking better every second.

Can you believe the hoopla surrounding David Carradine’s death? I feel terrible for his family. What a shameful way to pass on. His family seems pretty intent to get to a better answer than the most obvious one. And who can blame them? I think he hired a hooker who assisted him in his asphyxiation predilection. He passed out. She panicked and left the room real quiet like. Done. Dead. Hollywood Babylon 3, chapter 1. But who really knows what happened and I really wish none of the details were exposed. This is one of the very few times the public shouldn’t have the right to know. Regardless of the instances of his death, I LOVED Kung Fu and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Those were great shows and he gave me hours and hours of joy and entertainment. I am sorry he had to shuffle off this mortal coil in such a crazy way. I hope his family finds peace and the editor of the Thai newspaper that decided to put his death photo on their front cover burns in heck.

Here’s a video of David Carradine and Rick Springfield Kung Fu Fighting! This is how I prefer to remember him.

As I wrote the other day, I purchased the VuNOW pod device. The one thing I really was hoping I would be able to do is watch Hulu videos on it. Unfortunately, Hulu wasn’t one of the Web sites offered on the menu. I couldn’t just stand by and wait for Hulu to be added so I downloaded and installed MediaMall’s PlayON media server. I entered my account info for Hulu and that was that! Within the VuNOW menu I went to My Collection > Home Network > PlayOn and VOILA! HULU! I am currently testing it and it works pretty good. I did have have an issue when I was watching an episode of Twin Peaks– the episode just stopped in the middle. I don’t know why it happened but it hasn’t happened with any other shows I’ve queued up. I also found that I can access all my stolen Mp3s I downloaded so long ago from AudioGalaxy. I wonder if it’s possible to access Rhapsody? So far I am loving it!

I am so confused! A few months ago I got an email from XM telling me if I didn’t extend my contract with them, they would cut off the ability to listen online. This ticked me off to no end but I decided to just live with it. And so I simply stopped listening to the online radio. Just now I got an email stating they added a bunch of new online stations and to click here to listen. Well I clicked there and the online radio turned on! Apparently they didn’t cut me off! I wonder if enough people complained and Sirius/XM reversed their decision? Who knows. Knowing me I could have just read the email wrong.

My mom and sister just got back from their Las Vegas vacation. They brought me back the sweetest Swatch watch and they got Pookie a plastic skull mug.

I went to my OB-GYN today. This was my third time and I have really gotten better. I used to totally freak out knowing I had to go. In fact I would start hyperventilating a couple weeks beforehand. This last time was different. I was a changed woman! I didn’t freak out– not even once! I guess I have just gotten used to the exposure.

My mom gave me some Nyquil to take before I go to bed tonight. I still feel so terribly congested. Gosh, I hope I feel better tomorrow!

Here’s a pic of the skull mug from Treasure Island:

Saturday was fun. Pookie and I confronted Patrick Murphy at his Congress on Your Corner Community Outreach program and got him to promise -on camera- that he would support HR1207. The video is on Youtube if you want to see it.

Yesterday I was plagued by allergies but by the end of the day I started thinking maybe I was suffering from a cold or flu. I still feel crappy, just not crappy enough to spend the day in bed.

The VuNow device came in the other day and it’s pretty awesome. I like being able to surf YouTube on my TV. Unfortunately I can’t access Hulu…yet. There are a ton of other Web sites available and you can download movies from either Hollywood or Bollywood. On Sunday I queued up Abba videos and just let them play one right after the other. I’m liking this device!

The grandson of Kwai Chang Caine walks out of the past…
“But I want to fight.”
“Yes. So did your great-grandfather when he was your age.”
He teaches his son wisdom at a Shaolin temple. An evil force destroyed that temple. Father and son each believed the other had perished.
Fifteen years later they were reunited….
Now Caine faced new challenges…
And his son grew up.
“Look, I’m not my father. I don’t do kung fu. I’m a cop. That’s who I am. That’s what I do.”
“I am Caine. I will help you.”
[explosion]