Not Such Deep Thoughts: Special Stanley Cup Edition

Well, it’s that time again; the old noggin is filled to ‘esplodin’ with unvoiced thoughts, so let’s get right to it, and there’s no better way to start this off than by saying:

How ‘bout those Bruins, eh?

They took us for a long and wild ride on their quest for the cup, and the victory was made that much sweeter by its sheer unexpectedness. Sure, they were a pretty good team this year, but after their epic collapse in last year’s playoffs, I just didn’t think they had it in them. Boy was I wrong. In retrospect, it played out a lot like our other sports team’s recent championships; the dark horse team that rose to every occasion, time and time again, always managing to get the job done. No trash talk, no false bravado, just blood, sweat and hustle. It’s become standard operating procedure for our Boston teams. Shut up and play is our mantra here, and it’s served us well.


Speaking of the Bruins, could these guys be any more likable? They just keep surprising me with the things they do, mainly because they’re so down to earth. Out and about with the general public after the victory, walking the streets, stopping in at a barber shop to have their beards buzzed, putting the Cup in a baby stroller and taking it down to Tia’s to hold court, beautiful. You just don’t see that type of behavior in professional sports these days and it’s very refreshing.


Anyone know where I can get one of those Locker Room hats? Damn they’re hard to find.


Not to diminish this year’s feats in any way, shape or form, but while we’re on the subject of the Stanley Cup, I’ve been weighing this years Championship victory against what I’ve always considered to be the most exciting hockey moments of my life; the 1970 Bruins quest for the cup.

Orr, Sanderson, Espo, The Chief, Hodge, Pie and The Cheese, that was quite a team, my team, and they were having an incredible season. My Dad and 2 of my Uncles were long time season ticket holders back then, so I got to go to a lot of games, but when it came to the playoffs, nuh-uh, no one was giving those babies up, so my buddy, his little brother and I packed up our lawn chairs, sleeping bags and street hockey sticks and headed on down to the Gah-den to get us some tickets.

We spent three days waiting in line; two camping in the alley between the Garden and the Registry, and one night sleeping in the Garden itself. Our parents would come by a couple of times a day to drop off food and generally check on our well being; it was long before the cell phone, no way to check on Junior except in person in those days. We kept ourselves busy playing street hockey in that alley, there was always a game going on, or playing cards with our neighbors in line. Barrel fires lit the night, and the only thing to fear were the rats (great big rats). We’d sit there at night clutching our sticks, trying in vain to stay awake.

On the last night they herded us all inside and sat us in sections according to our place in line. We ended up exploring every inch of that place before the night was through, us and about a thousand other kids. Pure nirvana for a 15 year old Bruins fan. We walked out of there the next day clutching tickets to games 3 and 4 of the finals, feeling like we had just hit the lottery, and we had, of course, because we were standing high in the gallery during the game 4 overtime period, screaming and yelling ourselves hoarse, when we all learned that number 4 could fly.

Ah, memories. As I said before though, I don’t bring this up to diminish what this year’s team has done; it’s just hard to think of any Bruins team without measuring them up with The Big Bad Bruins of my youth. This season was just as exciting, but for much different reasons.

That 1970 team seemed predestined for coronation; the Orr era Bruins were akin to the Montana era Niners, you just knew they were going to win, and we ate it up. The excitement they generated with their spectacular play and bloody fights, combined with the unabashed hero worship of my youth and the new found freedom our parents had afforded us that spring was totally intoxicating, and it left an indelible mark on me.

This 2011 Bruins Championship was exciting because the outcome was always in doubt. Close, hard fought games, incredible plays, incredible hustle, and incredible determination. They personified team, and made you proud to be a fan.

As I said; just as exciting, but for much different reasons.

On a sad note; I lost 2 of those Bruin loving, larger than life Uncles during this past season, one of them passing just before game five. I like to think they went to join my Dad, and they were all watching from the gallery as that final horn sounded and bedlam ensued. In my mind’s eye I can see the pure joy and excitement on their faces. It’s such a clear and beautiful image that it has to be true.

That is all.

It's All In The Water!

I Love That Dirty Water!





and Nathan Horton!

Welcome to Boston, boys.

Bruins 8, Canucks 1

That is all.

Nook Color Firmware Upgrade

Barnes and Noble recently released their long awaited firmware upgrade for the Nook Color, Version 1.2. It’s based on the Android 2.2 OS, and it brings all kinds of new features to the already cool and functional device.

With the addition of Email, Adobe Flash Player and the availability of productive Apps like Quickoffice® software, as well as time wasters like Angry Birds, it’s got the whole package now, and at half the price of an iPad, this device has become pretty hard to pass up.

Check out our previous review of this device for more details.


That is all.


Oh, wait… Angry Birds anyone?

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day:
we turn over the fresh earth
growing flowers for you to see

Barnes and Noble Nook Color

The Nook Color certainly gives you a lot of bang for your buck. It’s not just an e-book reader; it’s almost a full blown tablet. Barnes and Noble bills it as a “reader’s tablet”, and I think that pretty well sums it up. It’s a web browsing, music playing, full color, touch-screen e-book reader.

It runs Android 2.1, has 8GB of on board memory plus a microSD expansion slot for up to 32GB of additional storage, and a microUSB port for easy connectivity. It also sports a beautiful and very responsive 7” VividView Color Touch-Screen with an extra layer of laminate that cuts down on glare and increases off angle viewing. The instructional video it connects to at setup is so colorful and lifelike, and streams so seamlessly, that it will knock your eyes out.

Purchasing and downloading books, magazines and newspapers is quick and easy via the built in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), and transferring documents, photos, music and other large files (like OS upgrades, Android 2.2 is coming!) is a snap with drag and drop file transfer from your PC or Mac via the USB port. The Nook Color supports both the EPUB and PDF formats, plus has Quickoffice software installed, so it supports a myriad of file types. It also comes with the Pandora Internet Radio app installed, which is a very nice feature.

It’s sized perfectly for an e-reader at 8.1”x 5” x .48”, and weighs in at just a hair under a pound. The casing has a rubberized back that gives it a non-slip grip, and it has a good solid feel without being too heavy. Slide it into one of their leather folios and it looks like a high quality date book.

While it’s not nearly as readable in bright sunlight as a standard e-ink reader, this baby really excels on the e-magazine and children’s book fronts. It even supports audio read along books, which is pretty great if you have children or grandchildren in your life. Like the iPad, flash isn’t supported yet either, and there’s currently no access to the Android Marketplace, so there’s a limited amount of apps available for now, but good things are supposed to be coming with 2.2, we’ll see.

So, it’s not as fully functional as an iPad, but it’s also not nearly as pricey ($249), or as large and unwieldy, and it’s not as bright light friendly as a standard e-reader, but it has much more to offer. Like most things in life, it’s all about finding a happy compromise. While I wouldn’t be upset if this thing suddenly was able to provide me with a little Angry Bird action, for now I’m happy with it just the way it is; as a “readers tablet”.

Truthfully, I really didn’t think an e-reader was something I wanted; I love real books, and I’m not much for bringing electronics with me into the great outdoors, but this device has found a niche in my life. It’s a bedside companion, a book pile reducer, a quick webmail and website tool, a portable picture and document viewer, and a great grandchild entertainer. Plus, all of your purchases are archived on the B&N website, so you don’t have to sweat losing them. Also, with the free Nook apps available for the iPod touch, IPhone and PC, you have cross platform portability of all of your purchases. That means you can sneak a peek at whatever book you’re currently reading, or anything in your library for that matter, even if you don’t have your e-reader with you.

The real kicker for me though, is the ability to download virtually any book, magazine or newspaper that my heart desires, whenever my heart desires. Reader nirvana.

That is all.

2 and 7!

Beckett was lights out tonight, the bats were there when we needed them, and I’m slowly sliding my hand away from the panic button. Not far, but at least I’ve stopped hovering over it. Hope is alive again in Red Sox Nation!

Although there were brighter stars tonight, I think Tek made all the difference. He knows how to work these guys, and they need to use him more. At least until Salty picks it up, if he ever can.

I’m not saying that pitching, and consequently catching, is their only problem, but without consistent pitching, not much else matters. Let’s start from there. A few more wins under their belt, and I think we’ll see this team gel into something beautiful.

That is all.

No Substitutions Please

So, the other day I had to get a considerable amount of stitches, and before I left the Dr’s office they gave me a “Wound Care” sheet. You know the drill; Keep the wound covered and dry for 24 hours, Ice the area for 20 minutes every 2 hours to prevent swelling and bruising and call 911 if you’re bleeding out. All straightforward, common sense stuff. It also contained a warning against using chemical ice packs when icing open wounds, and suggested substituting a bag of frozen peas or corn, which you could then refreeze and reuse.

Sounded good to me; no harmful chemicals, no ice cubes to melt and leak all over, no fuss, no muss. Or so I thought…

I went to the freezer, and quickly realized that there was very little in the way of frozen vegetables in there. After poking around for a few minutes, I discovered an old bag of frozen blueberries buried way in the back. Perfect, I thought. In retrospect, this was my first big mistake, in a series of big mistakes.

I took out the bag, wrapped it in a dish towel, and proceeded to ice. It worked like a charm, and felt great to boot. When I was finished, I threw the bag back in the freezer, and then repeated the ritual a few more times throughout the day. No problem.

After dinner I got my pseudo ice pack out again. This time I decided to sit in my favorite leather chair and watch a little TV while I iced. Big mistake number two. I got myself settled in, commenced icing, and quickly fell asleep. Big mistake number three.

I woke up about an hour and a half later, and my first thought as the fog cleared was that something wasn’t right. Then I felt something cold and wet dripping down my leg. Oh-oh...

Panic jolted me fully awake, and I looked down to see that my “ice pack” had ended up in my lap. The dishtowel I had wrapped around it was stained purple, as was the crotch of my khakis, and the juice was beginning to run down my legs. As I picked the ruined mess up, a small stream of blueberry juice began leaking out.

I just sat there and stared at the tiny blue stream for a minute as it arced down, soaking into my crotch. I wasn’t quite sure what to do next.

It was the awful thought that I may have been massaging blueberry juice into my leather chair with my ass that finally got me up and moving. Holding the ruined mess of an ice pack against my pants (what the heck, they were already toast anyway), I stood, and then waddled into the kitchen, leaving a trail of blueberry juice across the new hardwood floor. Once I had my feet planted on un-stainable linoleum, I quickly stripped off my sneakers, khakis, socks and underwear. Leaving them in a heap, I grabbed the roll of paper towels off the counter and headed back into the den.

Much to my relief, my wife’s new throw had been on the chair and had soaked up the bulk of the leakage, so I balled it up and launched it into the kitchen with the rest of the mess. I wiped up the little bit of juice that had made its way through to the chair, and then got down on my hands and knees and began blotting up the juice off the hardwood.

And that’s how my wife found me; on my hands and knees, naked from the waist down, swearing and cursing like Donald Duck.

She just shook her head and got right down to business. Nothing I do surprises her very much anymore. She grabbed the paper towels from me, and then told me to get my sticky butt into the bathroom. By the time I got myself hosed down and covered up, she had everything under control. No wonder I love her.

Believe it or not, she had thrown the whole sodden mess into the washing machine with one of her magic Oxi Clean stain packets, and gotten almost all of the stains out with the first wash. A little spray action before the second pass did the trick, and everything is as good as new. I’m thinking my little boneheaded adventure might make a great Oxi Clean commercial. I could be the next Billy Mays! "Watch as I rub bluberries into my crotch. You probably think these pants are ruined, right? Just watch what Oxi Clean can do!"

Probably have to leave out the naked floor cleaning part, though...

Oh well, all’s well that ends well I guess, and I’ve certainly learned a valuable lesson; If the recipe calls for corn or peas, blueberries just won’t do.

That is all.

HP SimpleSave - Revisited

Last year I added an HP SimpleSave 1TB External Hard Drive to my ever expanding desktop disk farm, and I did a post shortly thereafter extolling its virtues. Not only did it increase my storage capacity, it also automatically backs up my systems on a regular basis, and it’s large enough to be useful for both purposes.

After having it in service for a few months, I’m still pleased with the device, but… I have a little user tip that I’m way overdue in sharing.

This drive kicks off an auto backup after 5 minutes of system inactivity, which is a great way to insure that you’re always backed up, but the timer settings can’t be tweaked, and if you have a document open the SimpleSave program write locks it in preparation for backup after about 4 minutes of idle time. That’s just too short. It’s so short that even a quick bio break can trigger it.

Usually my first hint of trouble is an error message that pops up to the effect of: “Saving the Auto Recovery file is postponed for (your file name here)”, which means that Word has tried to do an auto-save on the document, and failed.

The consequence is that any changes you’ve made since the last time you’ve saved it, or the last time Word has done an auto-save, are going to be lost when you close the document. Word still prompts you to save the document when you try to close it, but that fails also.

When it catches me, I’ve usually just started creating a document and I’m cooking along, so when I see that error message I know the whole thing will be lost if I don’t engage in evasive maneuvers.

If it catches you, the fix is simple, although it’s a pain. Click Edit, Select All, and then Copy. Now close the document without saving changes, and then open it again, click on Edit and Select All again, and then paste.

Note: Be sure to go down to the system tray, right click on SimpleSave and selct Exit before you go any further, otherwise you’ll be painting yourself into the same corner.

The real fix is to either remove SimpleSave from your startup, or right click on the system tray icon and select exit before you start anything. I prefer to leave it in the startup and then kill it when I’m going to be working. It’s a pain, but that way I don’t have to sweat whether or not I’ve done a backup in times of crises.

Of course, the ultimate would be if HP made the idle time setting selectable, but I’m not holding my breath. I will, however, be holding my water.

That is all.

It’s Just Snow Fun Anymore

Growing up here in New England, winter doesn’t usually bother me that much. I’ve learned to roll with it, taking the good times with the bad, balancing the drudgery of the cold and snow with the small joys of the season, like skating, skiing, or just sitting snug by the fire.

This year has been different, though. We’ve been stuck in this pattern where every 2nd or 3rd day it snows. Sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot; 2” on a Sunday, followed by 16” on Tuesday, followed by another 6” on Friday, has taken all the fun out of the season.

Actually, there’s just no time for fun. Shoveling, snow blowing, and then shoveling some more, followed by a healthy dose of roof raking, followed by the disposal of the freshly displaced roof snow. Over and over and over again. And when it’s not snowing, I seem to be spending all of my time moving snow around, cuz there’s just no place left to put it, or chipping ice, cuz when the snow melts, there’s no run off.

I don’t think I can take much more of this; I’m beat and beat up. My right hand has been alternating between numbness and throbbing pain (Carpal Shovel Syndrome?), my back is killing me, and being wet and cold has become a way of life.

I’m tore down, baby; I’m almost level with the ground. I need to go someplace warm. Of course, the way this winter is going, my roof would probably collapse while I was away…

Speaking of rooves, what I’d value as much as a getaway, is back to back sunny days. We got all rain on Saturday night, as well as some intense thunder and lightning, instead of the predicted snow, and then a warm up to the mid 40’s today with bright sunshine. Between all of the roof raking and the warm up, I made some decent headway on the ice dam front. I even got most of my gutters reopened and the ice flows around the doors greatly reduced. One more day of sun would be huge.

Funny how your priorities can be so situational; with two more storms predicted for this coming week, one more decent day could make all the difference.

So for now I’ll just bide my time, wrap my claw, and hope for sun.

That, and the knowledge that the boys of summer have started arriving at City of Palms should be enough to get me through. I’ve got my place booked for almost all of Spring Training this year, and I’ll need to bop down between tenants for some quick landlord duties. Maybe I’ll even manage a trip or two to the park. That’ll get my sap flowing again.

Oh yeah.

Stunned

The Jets played well, Sanchez did just enough, and the Pats did far too little. Game, set, match.

It’s gonna take me a while to get over this one. Not because the Pats lost, it happens to the best of them. Any given Sunday, as they say. The real sting comes from the fact that this team beat them. I’m so sick of hearing from these guys. I can only hope that they get smacked in their collective WWF mouths in Pittsburgh. Small consolation, but it’s something to hope for. A reason to watch, and after this game, I need a reason to watch.

The Pats were just flat. Was it the buy week? They’ve been on fire and I hated to see the pause in momentum; it was the one thing that scared me going into this game. The Jets came in flying high, and the Pats just weren’t ready for it. Mental mistakes, miscues, and a little bit of indefinable lethargy. You would have thought that they would be kicking ass and taking names after a buildup like this one, but that just wasn’t the case.

Oh well, blood on the tracks.

As tough as this is to take, I’m thankful to the Pats for giving us more than we dared hope for this season. I really like this team and I expect good things as they grow and mature. They learned a valuable lesson and have a lot to chew on, but they’ll be back, and hopefully be better than ever.

That is all.

Turn Your Laptop Into An HDTV

The Hauppauge WinTV- HVR 850 USB HDTV Adapter will turn your laptop into an HDTV with DVR functionality.

Back when my little 5” battery operated TV was rendered useless by the digital changeover, I started looking around for an alternative. There were very few digital portables on the market then, all in the 5 to 7” range. They started around $130 and went up from there, and that was more than I wanted to pay just for the security of having a way to catch the news in the event of a power outage. Then I found this bad boy that allows me to turn my 14” widescreen laptop into an HDTV with a 4 hour rechargeable battery, all for around $50. I jumped on it.

The Win-TV-HVR 850 receives both NTSC analog and ATSC HD digital over-the-air broadcasts, and also has an optional A/V input, and it comes with a USB extender cable and a remote antenna. The extender cable is great because you really don’t want a USB device that has a cable attached to it plugged directly into your laptop, it’s too easy to hit the cable and cause the USB adaptor to damage the port.

Setup was a breeze. It comes with its own tuner and DVR software, but it also will integrate seamlessly with the Windows Media Center application. Note: if your laptop has the Media Center app, don’t install the drivers that come on the included CD. Instead, go here and click on the Windows Media Center Install tab for the correct driver installation package.

Once the install is complete, reboot and then fire up Media Center. It will ask you if you want to scan for available signals, which you do, but before you do, you want to be sure you’re connected to a really decent set of rabbit ears, preferably powered, instead of the included remote antenna. The reason for this is so that Media Center will find and store the bulk of available channels. In my area it found about 20, as most stations broadcast multiple digital signals, ie: 7-1, 7-2. Once it’s found and stored the channels, the included antenna or a non powered set of bunny ears will work fine, although will need to be fiddled with on a channel by channel basis. That isn’t a big deal in the event of a power outage, but if you’re using it as a supplemental TV, say pool side for instance, or if your cable goes out, you’ll want to stick with the powered antenna. It’s much less work, as you can usually find a position and power setting that allows you to receive most of the channels without fiddling and diddling.

The picture quality is awesome, and over-the-air digital broadcasts include a wealth of program information which rivals the guide info available on cable. Both the included software and Media Center also have easy to use DVR features, which is pretty cool. Remember, it is a graphics and CPU intensive application, so for optimal usage you don't want to be doing too much else on your PC. Recommended minimum requirements are a 2.2 GHz Intel® P4 or 1.8 GHz Centrino processor or equivalent, with at least 64 MB of graphics memory. I’ve found that I can perform most functions on my laptop while having a small TV window open without problem, but if you’ve got an older laptop that only marginally meets the requirements, then you might have some trouble multitasking.

It also comes in both a 950Q and 1500 model for around $99. The only major difference with the 950 is that it comes with a remote. My desktop came with a Media Center remote that works on my laptop, plus if I’m using it, I’m usually pretty close to the laptop, so it’s not an issue for me. The 1500 however, has a twist; it docks to the laptop via an Expresscard/54 slot. While not all laptops have them, it is a pretty good option from a performance standpoint. Lastly, there’s the 1950 model, which retails for around $150. It’s a standalone unit about the size of an iPod dock that connects via USB, and it has an on-board MPEG-2 encoder, which allows your PC to run smoother while recording. All nice choices, but for my intended usage, and because of the $49 price point, I went with the 850.

Bottom line; the Hauppauge WinTV - HVR 850 USB HDTV is a great performer at a great value, and a much better solution for life's little emergencies than buying an overpriced handheld digital TV.


That is all.