No, I have not been upgraded by the latest tech available from Cyberdyne Systems. No matter what Trallyus tells you. So no need to fear. I'll be back... Anyway, yes I have some new hardware. I've been saving up some and all were things I had been thinking about getting over the year so I went ahead and got them all around the same time. One thing that will not be talked about here are some NAS drives, but then again I haven't received them yet so it would be pretty hard to talk about them. I know, that's no excuse for some of you but too bad! Here I'll talk about the headphones, a monitor and an e-ink reader.
Headphones: ATH AD700, Grado SR80I and Sennheiser HD280 Pro.
The AD700 are really nice with everything from music to movies and games. They are very big though. I did not expect them to be as big as they were, even though they are very light fitting. So light fitting that I often worry that they are going to fall off, so I try to adjust them but they are self adjusting and trying to adjust them is quite pointless. I've worn them for quite a few hours and they are the most comfortable head phones I've ever worn. Playing games with these are just splendid. A lot easier to tell the direction of the action.
The SR80I are nice as well but in different ways. They have a different cushion compared to the old SR80 and are way more comfortable. I can wear them without my ears starting to hurt after an hour. Of course the sound stage isn't as open now since the drivers sit closer to the ears. That loss is made up with the more intense bass. Even with the new smaller, more comfortable cushions, they sound on par with the AD700. The cushions are smaller so the headphones look smaller and I can fit them in my laptop bag. I'm wearing them right now. Also they fit really nice and I have no worry they are going to fall off, since I can easily adjust the tightness. Though interesting they are the only ones of the three that make my ears the warm. With the new design, it feels as if the action is a few feet away in a room that is a bit smaller than before. Where as the AD700 sounds like the action is further away and the room a bit more spacious. I believe this is a result of the different cushion design, and I rather this than having my ear hurt so soon.
The HD280 are a closed design and good for when I want to block out noises and listen to music and play games with louder sounds without having others hear it. They fit tighter than the others and with the Grados using a smaller cushion, the HD280's are larger, but they also fold up to fit in smaller places. They don't sound as good as the others but then again, from a closed design, they sound pretty good. Especially with being able to have the sound really low and still hear details. They block out so much sounds though that I can't really wear them at work since I would barely be able to hear the phone or people with them on, and if I was listening to anything on them, even less able to hear the outside world. They will mainly be used in noisy places or where I don't want others to listen to what I'm playing. The sound is more inside your head than the others.
The interesting issue with the open designed headphones is that often you'll hear something and you'll look in a certain direction truly thinking you heard someone say something to you. Or you ignore it and it turns out there is actually someone there. While writing this, and listening to music, I looked up twice while using my Grados. This is something I never got used to with my old ones either, since it would happen random enough that I could never truly block it out. So if you have people randomly talk to you while you are wearing headphones you'll sometimes encounter this issue as well. Which says something that it sounds so good that it is as if someone is actually there. I've not encountered this issue with the HD280's but then again, while at my parents they had to yell in order for me to barely hear them.
Monitor: AOC 2436VW
It's a 23.6 inch wide screen monitor and it looked amazing hooked up to my laptop's external VGA connection. I set this up at my parents and had downloaded quite a bit of 1080p content to show it off. Planet Earth being one of the videos and really showed it off. Even 720p tv shows looked good. I got to a rocky start setting it up at home trying to get it exactly how i wanted, since the cd that came didn't want to work correctly. This caused me to not notice that some I-Menu software was there to control the settings on the monitor. So I fiddled with the settings via the monitor buttons for quite some time until finally I just gave up and settled. Then I found the software online and then was able to just click some buttons to see the changes quickly and have it now set exactly the way I want. The buttons are very strange though. Touch sensitive, which is easy to turn on as you just brush your finger over the power button. I had used the buttons quite a bit trying to configure it and I must say in the dark, using those controls was harder than would have been with regular controls. Then again at least I'll not have to worry about the buttons getting jammed. One downside is that the monitor's power signal is a bright enough blue led that is has distracted me a couple times. I'm thinking about using a marker on it. Then again, I've been distracted by the very low blue status light on my laptop. Yet this light is brighter on the monitor and so would rather not have to deal with it.
Like I said videos look fantastic. The same can be said for any modern monitor capable of showing 1080p content. One thing that I found surprising is that when I was playing a game on it at the full resolution, after a while I got a bit dizzy. I've not gotten dizzy while watching fast paced movies, or television shows. It could be from having the laptop keyboard sitting to the side of the new monitor instead of in front of it so I was having to look at a different angle in order to play or perhaps it was so immense it was a bit disorientating. I must say playing that game in full res though really made it look amazing. I only play a few games and one of the two games I tried wouldn't even let me configure it to use 1080p. I'll have to get more updated games and try them out. Viewing the local news paper in pdf format was very nice and photoshop really made use of all the space. Also three browser windows open at a single time side by side was very interesting. I'll have to see if there is some software or way to do it so that they show up exactly where I want and with minimal browser interface to offer even more space for content. One thing I need to try out are comics that I have downloaded. They look quite well with my smaller laptop screen, so I'm sure it'll look even better on a larger screen.
Reader: 5” EZ Reader Pocket PRO
This was purchased after being pointed out to me by Trallyus. He's been telling me about different models in the past. This was one that finally had exactly what I wanted in an ereader with the format compatibility, to size and dpi, etc. I still haven't plugged it in to charge it since it was almost fully charged when I got it. So I'll have to remember to do that today when I get home. The screen was great outside and was good inside a somewhat dark room unless I had a light on, then was great again. The same with a real book. I wasn't impressed with the books that came on the 1gb sd card that came with the device though. The books wouldn't let me increase the font more than once or twice, and would then auto rotate or kick me back to the menu of list of books. This was very disappointing and I got a little worried. I soon deleted all the books that came on the card and put one book that I had downloaded on there. I put three different versions, rtf, pdf and the rtf converted to epub in Calibre. The experience was completely different. I could increase the font size quite a few times, the zoom feature was enabled and I could choose to rotate the text if I wanted. Not sure why they would supply such lacking books on the device with so many features disabled. Now I have about five books on there and am taking it slow for now. Using Calibre has been interesting as well. I was able to download information about the book I had and download a cover to put on the ebook. So far it's been working quite well.
One thing I've had an issue with is when a book has text that is formatted the exact same as in a book with line breaks. So that text stops so that it is in a perfect line down a page, and in such cases with the ereader with larger fonts would break and mid way through the line, break and continue on the next line and so on. I'm sure there is some setting in Calibre that will fix this issue with ignoring line breaks but I haven't really gone through the settings good enough yet. Either way reading a book on it is very nice. So nice my mother now wants one. She really liked the way it would increase font size and the quality of the text. Also that it would read aloud the text and also the ability to play audio books. The line break issue only affects a few books so far that I've tried. I have a lot of texts that are in different formats so this will be nice. The screen updates fast enough, and I feel like I could easily read a book or two on there without any eye fatigue while outside. Now I have to worry about getting so engrossed in a book that I lose track of time, something that has happened to me while reading a real book. Also being able to change the battery is perfect to have a spare battery or to replace it. Though with 8,000 page refreshes with each charge it'll take a while before it needs to be fully charged again.
The feel of the device is very interesting. Very rigid and yet the rubber coating is a bit soft. Feels like the kind of rubber you get on a tire. It feels very nice to hold and I don't worry so much about damaging it. Plus using it while it is in the case is just as easy and the case has an even more soft material so it feels quite nice. I haven't tried out the audio aspects of it yet, and not sure I will since reading on it is amazing.
Feeling tired while listening to music and had nothing to do for a few minutes, so of course I started writing. Not sure what title to give it thus far, but here's a few lines of it. I'll add more later when I get a chance.
A shadowy inferno sailing on winds that devour the heavens like summer rain.
Memories of grace scorched, bleeding thoughts open where floodgates fall.
Many were taken whilst slumbering in the darkness where dreams abound.
A great time of shared tribulation when the former sight one can no longer ignore.
The vacant sanctimoniously flock to the lone house of redemption for all to behold.
Serving no master but their wrath, soon consumed in the chaotic reality of sanity.
Morality a forgotten memory, a sinking island in a sea of man's propensity for evil.
Just had another tooth pulled out after the last time.
This time was quite different. The Dentist put int a swab that tasted like strawberries, and told me to keep it in place. After a few minutes he took it out and the area around outside the tooth that was to be extracted was quite numb. Then it felt like he stuck a needle in my cheek, though it was probably just into the area of the root and that connected to the nerves in my cheek. Then pulled it out and stuck it again. Both times I only felt pressure.
Then he went to stick the needle on the inside area of the tooth. It felt like it hit bone and it hurt a tiny bit. He apologized and went away for a few minutes and then came back with an extraction tool. When he squeezed a bit on it, it hurt. The inside wasn't hit correctly, and so he asked where it hurt and stuck the needle in again. This time it didn't really hurt as much as it felt very strange. The nerves started around the area of the tooth and then went up to my nose. Almost as if water was sprayed in my nose, but was merely the nerve signals. Though I never tasted the stuff in the needle like last time. Also it only took four sticks with the needle, and it only slightly hurt the once.
After that there was no pain. He got a good grip on the tooth and pulled it to the right, then to the left. Then back to the right again. Pulling my jaw along with it each time. Then he twisted the tooth, and twisted some more. Then started pulling it back and forth again. Finally it started to get loose, and I started to hear a slight cracking sound. Then pop, it was out.
A nurse to my side, that I did not notice before that very moment, used a tool to suction out the blood and whatnot. He put in the gauze and it was over. The time from getting a good grip on it and the time to the gauze was no more than about two minutes. My eyes were a bit watery but not from pain. From the lack thereof compared to last time. It was just so amazing.
Now I'm starting to feel some pain and my cheek feels puffy and a little desensitized. The area around the tooth is a bit sore but nothing like last time where the gum was cut. I'm taking some Lortab 7.5/500. I'm still afraid of getting dry socket. Last time he cut so much that the skin of the gum was flapped over almost, this time it is just an empty hole. Though the hole is not as deep as it was when I first took off the gauze. Both times it took several times applying new gauze before it stopped bleeding. This time I ran out of gauze and put in a folded up teabag and that helped a lot better.
Two problems, the drugs are making me not so tired. I was quite tired before going to the dentist and now I'm wide awake. I can't imagine how painful it would be without the pills. Another problem is I'm very thirsty, but like I said, scared of dry socket and washing out the clot by drinking water too soon. So there you have it, my second chance with a dentist.
Been watching more movies at the theaters recently. Mostly because my car has finally been fixed and I don't have to worry about it much. Which means I can travel more. And not get as tired from the stress. Last week I watched Star Trek on imax. Visually it may have been 35mm upscaled to 70mm, but the sound was great. Good enough to perhaps justify the bump in price. I could also sit back quite a few rows and still have it take up my entire field of vision. Where as with a regular screen I have to sit closer and the screen is higher up which can hurt my neck a bit after a while. I plan on watching Terminator next week or the following week, perhaps Angels and Demons as well.
Made a thing of it. Around the first of every month go over to the city and watch a movie and have dinner. Though next week I'll probably just catch a movie or two by myself, unless my brother wants to tag along. Then it'll just be one movie perhaps. I seemed to have found the perfect time span where as there haven't seemed to be any or very few kids in the movies. Which was one of my complaints about going to the movies. Second being Cellphones, or those who can't stop talking during the movie. Third being the people who overly laugh at every single barely funny joke. It's quite noticeable when only one person in the entire theater laughs at something.
I am planning on going to Jersey for my birthday next month. I requested a few days off from work. I may head down to Atlantic City and spend a day there, and then spend a day in Philadelphia taking pictures. If I don't go to Atlantic City, then I may go to New York City. Either way I'll take quite a few pictures. I have a large memory card and new camera that I haven't really used yet. So that will be fun in its own right.
Brightness warm and inviting abandon.
Vivid tantalization's glowing edges bound.
The verge of fracturing stars never storm.
Interjection's abrupt empathy not given lightly.
Come alive bleating to an auspicious world anew.
Dazzled elation beholden the unlikely flock.
Forbearance concedes acceptance of the moment.
Reflection's effulgent illuminations adorned.
Prevailing glorification of all without exception.
Bewildered exasperation realistic and lacking.
Temptation gushing wavering enlightenment.
Enchantment's embrace full of grimace and grace.
Understand. This is my time. Listen. My future, past and present. Unfold the future that breathes no more of the past sanctuary of false lies. Present bonds of blood, twisted control surrendering to the lost and scared memories caught in the whispering shadows of day. Here without imaginary solitude, numb and awake. Feel. Trembling hands held high, waiting for words of soothing rain. Desperate. I know. To show the world I am, alive.
Well I had bought a washer and dryer from Sears on Friday 6th. When they were loading them in the truck, I asked them to make sure all the stuff was included. As I had bought a power cord and vent for the dryer since that didn't come with the standard purchase. They said everything was included.
I get back home, a fifty mile ride across a bridge. Only to find out they didn't include the other things I bought. So while I could get the washer running, the dryer was just a very heavy paper weight for the time being.
Called them up and told them that they didn't give me this other stuff I purchased. They checked on it and I called them back in a hour or so. They agreed to mail it to me. I called back on Monday to confirm that they sent it and they said they did. I wait, and wait... Friday comes and I've had enough waiting. I call them up and they say it was delivered. On Tuesday. How could that be, I still don't have it. What is going on!? It was delivered alright, to the wrong address!
How did this wrong address come to be? Well, I had given him my address and telephone number. When I purchased this order, the same address and telephone was given. Turns out somewhere between the sales manager taking this information down over the phone, then giving that to the shipping facility, my address was lost. At least that address, as my proper address was still in their system. They used my telephone number to find an address. The telephone number belonged to someone else of course before I got it, and that person had bought stuff there before. So, my stuff was sent to their address, according to their old telephone number. Well they had moved, and I actually knew them, so I had no idea who was staying there now. Splendid you say, and the end of the story you may think. But no, there is more.
I go to that address since it isn't too far away and knock on this old woman's door. She opens it after a minute, surprisingly. Since I wouldn't have opened it to some strange person. She told me her son had taken it to the post office in town on Thursday, the day before. So I go back to town and spend about twenty minutes talking to the post office workers. They search for the package without much luck. They would have had it in a returns area that would have been sent out after a few days since it was from ups and not them.
That's when the son arrives at the post office while I was waiting to see if the package was still there. He had told his mother that when he arrived the day before, the post office wasn't open. So he was going to take it the next day, during his lunch break, Friday. That was while I was in there...
So I get the package finally. I'm happy to have all this resolved. The box was old and had tape every which way. They couldn't have picked a worse box and made it look any worse than they did. They wrote my name in a very big marker on it and the wrong address on there. I laughed while looking at it as it looked like a three year old had written it with a big marker.
I take it home and open it up. The dryer cord and vent? It's in there, only not. Not because, the dryer cord I had paid for and was on my receipt was a four wire cord. They gave me a three wire cord, useless to me. The vent was alright, but I had to cut that to one third of its current size to fit the vent outlet. I bought the proper cord from another store only about twenty miles away after calling them up.
So I call them back up (thankfully nothing else bad had happened to me that week, so I still didn't get too angry) and after a while they give me a full refund and told me to keep the stuff. While talking to them I notice something on the box. They as well misspelled my name. Not the standard misspelling of Christopher, no... That would have been way too simple of a misspelling. Unless of course without me knowing that I was renamed to Kristoper.
So to recap. Not only did they say I had it before leaving, they send it to the wrong address. Put it in a nasty box, give me the wrong cord, and spell my name wrong.
Now that's what I call doing it the wrong way, just right.
Yep... Was in and out in about an hour. There were three machines where I went, but about sixty people in line inside, and the line went outside. It took on average about three minutes for people to confirm their identify and to vote. Thus with the three machines and three minutes, the line advanced about every minute. When I arrived there weren't many people outside. Once you got to the door, it was an hour wait.
They told me the line was quite long before, and I noticed after I got there that the line started growing behind me again. So perhaps I was lucky in my vote timing.
I had to park quite a bit away, and the rain eased up during the time I was outside. After I voted, which was very easy. How someone could mess that up, I am not sure. If they could mess that up, then perhaps they shouldn't vote! Still, after I was finished, the rain started to pick up more and got quite chilly. Inside was pretty warm. Warm enough that I had to take off my coat.
Only took me about twenty five seconds to vote, and about a minute and twenty seconds to verify my identity. I was a little worried though about my registration. Thankfully I registered at the DMV and they apparently mailed off one of my residence bills/paycheck with the application. Thus I only had to show my driver license. Still, my license has a different mailing address since I can't get mail at my residential address, and on the list they were reading from it was my actual address. Thankfully below that was my mailing address. So all was good. Well other than the woman yelling out my middle name to another woman behind her who I am guessing was her job to check the people off the list, as she had a sign on the table that said whomever sits at this table is not allow to talk to anyone. She thought my middle name was my last name. I corrected her and she yelled it out again, then added my last name on a second later.
I only saw a few people I recognized personally. The others, were what you would expect somewhat early in the morning and in a small community. Quite a few farmers and others trying to vote before having to go to work. Though I did notice quite a few young people my age. A couple younger and a few more around my sister's age. While the majority was above forty five, I'd have to say that about forty percent were younger. Also I heard Obama spoken aloud about fifteen times, while McCain only twice.
Overall, an hour well spent.
I wonder how many times I will have to call verizon about the same thing. I merely wanted a simple speed upgrade. Apparently they keep getting an error. What error? I went through checking my line several times already. Unplugging, plugging in the modem. Checking the line again. All the standard things. DSL billing first said it was a technical support matter. Technical support said it was a dsl billing request problem. Then dsl billing told me it was technical support again. That's when technical support told me it was provisioning. The provisioning department said it was a dsl billing problem. Then dsl billing told me it was never provisioned, thus provisioning fault. It has been escalated several times, and I have talked to them again and again. And now they finally they just contacted the Verizon MCO.
MCO says there is a major problem and that's about all they can tell me at this time. Supposed to contact me within twenty four hours, though most likely will have to call them back to inquire about any updates from them. I'm at the point where I am just going to see how long it takes them and how many times they can lay the blame on some other department. I've told them what happened when I first got service, but they keep thinking it is some problem on the back office end.
It took about a month before I got any service here. Apparently for some reason they weren't showing my residence as being able to receive any dsl service which caused the phone not to be hooked up either. Or rather, existing at all. A very strange thing since most of my neighbors have dsl through them. Verizon had to send someone out to hook up the service and they were the same person who told me they had to manually provision the line for my residence and switch pairs and other interesting things. That of course took them about a month before they sent anyone out. About how long it has taken for this upgrade. Now wondering how much longer before they finally send someone out to see if they can find the problem. The only reason I knew for certain I could get dsl service, even though there might have been a possibility that my neighbors could get service and I couldn't because of a looping issue, was because when I moved in there were verizon dsl filters still hooked up to the phone jacks. Unless the previous tenants were playing a very messed up joke on me. Which I suppose they did, considering how much trouble it was to even get service. I'll have to remember when I move out to leave a few of the filters hooked in for future tenets. 
Like last time, they ran out of things they could do on their end and just sent someone out as a last resort. An hour or so after their arrival I had service. It has to be more expensive for support to talk to me for an hour, sometimes more each time. Perhaps they just like talking to me. Damn my smooth talking ways. 
Today is August 26th. I placed my order on July 31st. I can only surmise Verizon has been doing me a service, preparing me for a future battle that shall encompass the world. A battle of incompetency!
Today I had driven to a fast food place to get some iced tea to drink with lunch. I see my sister had just ordered at the drive-through, and so I call Mom and get her to call my sister and tell her she should stop eating fast food. My sister of course inquires as to how Mom knows what she is doing. Mom did not take it any further, either from laughing as she can almost never pull off a prank, or could not think of anything.
A minute or two passes. I had already paid for the tea, and was at the other window to pick it up, when the woman there with tea in hand, looks at me with this very serious look. "Umm..." she paused, "I have something to tell you." I figured she somehow messed up the order, even though it was quite simple. The gravity she was giving the situation with her body language and tone of voice felt more serious. Therefore, I ask what it was, when she responds with happy birthday.
The thought of my sister who just drove through did not cross my mind until a split second later. After thoughts of how this woman, whom I have maybe seen once before, knew it was my birthday. They ranged from perhaps someone else there knew me, which wasn't very likely or the place was somehow able to track me, as well as other customers and knew it was my birthday because I was in some database. Then the thought that I did not pay with a card, rather cash made that even more interesting if not outlandish, as if it were not already.
I had sort of a curiously interested look on my face when the woman warned me she was about to tell me something. The possibility of her telling me happy birthday never crossed my mind. I am sure for a second I had a deer in the headlights look. My mouth dropped open a little, my eyes widened. She might as well have told me that she was going to burn down the establishment and I probably would have had the same reaction, though I most likely would not have drunk the tea afterward.
I blinked, and then paused with my eyes closed and thought of the most logical reason; my sister must have put her up to it. Upon asking her if that was how she knew, she nodded with a smile. Then after she gave me the tea, said she should not have revealed it so easily.
In a way, I would consider this a great birthday gift. Most would not agree, probably wondering how I could see it as a gift. Well, if you know me, then you would know why I would consider it that way. A moment after driving away, grinning, all I could think was, "Now that was birthday surprise."
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