Chrissy's Driver rant

drivers everywhere:
-- It actually takes some hardware and software changes to make the rear fog work on your cars. Knowing that, you made this edit consciously and you should at least know that unless you can barely see the lines on the road, you shouldn't use it!
-- Just because you have a headlight out, doesn't mean that you need to flip on your high beams.
-- Don't speed up to pass someone and then hit your brakes before you've even completed the lane change.

New Content Schmu content

So, I said I was going to try to add some new content to my site this weekend, well, in a way this is new content (granted it is a real cop out). I planned on working on adding ACTUAL content, but the AT-AT Walker took up most of yesterday, and today, we ran to Best Buy, I am watching the Ravens rack up penalty yards, and I am backing up my computer (got a 1.5TB backup drive). Oh, I also got a new mouse, because the left mouse button on my mouse had started failing. I posted two bad videos of the AT-AT walker on Flickr. I will take some good pictures soon.

Well, I did add a bit of content, I updated the sites/links page and I updated the photos page to add a few more HDR images. Well, that is it for now I guess. I had some other things in mind, but I got distracted when the ravens lost

Walkin' in an Essex Wunderland

So, I figured I would post about what is goin on right now while I rock out to some Mashups (currently Beastie Boys vs Dandy Warhols). It turned out to be a very green Christmas, green as in money. I basically had told half of the family not to send stuff, to just send cash (well, check....can't really trust those postal workers ) It actually worked out that all of the close family just sent cash. While that means less "stuff" to open on Christmas day, it really is what we needed this year to pay down some debts (the year of hellish car repairs + getting a back deck). Combine that with the fact that we are ahead on the mortgage, have cut down our electric bill in the last few months, now have a 15% discount applied to our cellphone service, we are getting in MUCH better shape financially. (BTW - I am now listing to "One Vision" by Queen and picturing part of the movie Iron Eagle in my head.....hell yeah!)

So, anyway, right now, my sis is in town from Cairo and is staying with us and borrowing Kl0pfer for a few days before she flies down to Fla and then after she gets back from Fla, which means we are tooling around in the Jetta. That's all fine and dandy (we hadn't been driving it much since the great blow-out back in July/August) except that the CEL went on on Monday....I mean seriously...WTF???? From the looks of it, it was just the misfire coming back again, and it cleared itself and didn't show and problems today when we were driving it. It currently has around 84,000 miles on it, and the rabbit has just under 50,000. It would be nice to trade in the Jetta on a MkVI Golf TDI in the next year or two, but I doubt that finances will support that as comfortably as we would like.

As with last year the Christmas card from Mom & George included the surprise of a new pup (this time, a 6yr old Swissy Rescue). They took him in so he wouldn't be put down at the shelter. Speaking of Christmas, this year we are hosting Chrissy's family at the house, so for once, we don't have to go anywhere...not Fla, not NJ.....no where. It will be a nice change. I think next year we will try to hit up Fla for Christmas (hopefully I will have more leave available next week).

I am going to try to put some time into adding more content to mikecrutchfield.com sometime in the next couple weeks. Not sure if I will get to it, but I will try. Need to think about what I want to add and where. I have thought about leveraging the server to have web cams in the house that I can monitor remotely for security reasons. It would be cool, and since the server is in the house, it wouldn't have to constantly be uploading images.

Well, this is an unusually long update for me (at least by normal recent trends). I am gonna jet for now, but if I get around to adding content to mikecrutchfield.com, I will blog about that here as well. For now, I will leave you with am image of a winter wonderland:

The grain of salt with which to talk this blog

Like Yoda why am I speaking? Just felt like it. Anyway, I just felt I needed to add a little something to point out that I usually blog at certain times, mainly, when I am in a fowl mood. Why? Because that is just when I feel like sitting down to type usually. When I am distracted and keeping myself busy, I don;t usually sit down to type. Unfortunately, this leads to a very jaded view in the blog. It is all of the bad and none of the good.

For instance, I didn't blog about how Nick and Georgia came over last weekend, and Nick and I played hours of Rock Band (me on Guitar, him on drums) and that we met Chrissy and Georgia for dinner and then came back to the house, played some more Rock Band and then played Fact or Crap.

Sure, there is still a lot for me to be unhappy about right now. The holidays so far haven't been as enjoyable without Mom Mom. My weight is still an issue (which BTW, I am starting on Nutri-System after Christmas). Work is miserable right now (still). So much so, that it has me thinking about going Contractor for the first time since my career began (I am working on my Resume).

So, yes, right now, the lows outweigh the highs (no pun intended, but it was a pretty good one). As time passes, some of those things will improve. I figured I would throw up a blog post right now while I was in a good mood for a change. I just finished rocking out on the Guitar and Drums in Rock Band, we planned out where we are going to put the Christmas tree (now we just need to pick one up). And our finances are improving. That is it for now...gonna go.

Acquaintances I have....it's friends I need

I KNOW a lot of people, but my list of true friends is very short. Of the 190 "Friends" on Facebook, three are true good friends. Unfortunately, one lives 2+ hours away, one is very occupied with his (VERY CUTE) kid, and the other lives half-way across the country. Back when we were in the states before (and we didn't live in bumfuck) Matt, Heather, Chrissy and I would often get together, or we would get together with Kirk & Sarah or occasionally Chris (when he wasn't TDY and didn't get lost....I joke I joke )

While we were in Germany, there weren't any issues in that regard because when I was feeling down, we would just drive to one of the tracks, and there were a few co-workers we would hang out with. We were also going on vacations regularly to other countries and I was enjoying doing photography as well. Then we came back.

Now we are back. There are a few people I talk to at work, but I sit in a spot separated from them. Because of how far we live out and that we work on an earlier schedule than most of our friends, we can't do we what used to do which is cruise home to the house and THEN figure out what we are going to do. We have to plan ahead for getting together with people. I don't drink so meeting up with people for drinks after work isn't really that fun for me (because it makes me want to drink, but after one drink I feel like total crap).

I miss it being convenient for people to just come over and hang for a few hours, not being required to devote an entire day to it. I also miss when I had the energy to do ANYTHING We used to go bowling, now I get winded waling down the f-ing hallway. Fuck....lost my train of thought...screw it...I will end the post here.

Windows 7 - How far we've come

Windows 7 is here, and after my time with the release candidate, I decided it was time to bring us forward from (mostly) XP and one Vista machine. Why? Not because of Microsoft's ads, not because of the press, but because of my experience with it. I had set it up on Chrissy's computer (which was a little underpowered for Aero) and my Macbook Pro in Bootcamp. Both ran good (although I knew I was going to upgrade Chrissy's hardware before I moved her to 7). I had been running Vista Ultimate 64bit on my primary machine for some time and ended up still having a clunky-feeling when using that machine at times, even after a RAM and graphics card update.

Windows 7 ran smooth all throughout the time with the Release candidate and hasn't disappointed since upgrading to the released edition. The new task-bar (while a copy of the OS X Doc) is very nice, as are the previews of running applications for Aero capable hardware. Even Windows 7 Starter edition which is on this Netbook I am using right now is not bad. Sure, there is no Aero, and it is limited in RAM capacity, etc... but for a Netbook, running on a 1ghz Atom processor (that only has a 30W power supply) this thing actually runs fairly smooth. I won't be gaming on here, or multi-tasking much, but it works.

The new Home Network features are nice, and it does a much better job of finding devices on the network (such as printers). The carry-overs from Vista (such as the new System tray) are welcome and Microsoft's decision to sell a Family pack of upgrade licenses is also a plus.

Even on my Macbook Pro running Leopard (which doesn't official support Windows 7 in bootcamp, and never will) is very happy with Windows 7. Now if only my battery were happy (that is a separate issue all together though).

So final tally: Windows 7 is much better than Windows Vista and might finally pry people away from Windows XP. In the line of consumer windows versions that were really solid, I think Windows 7 stands tall with Windows 98SE and Windows XP. Kudos!

Oh, and this isn't the post I said I was working on, just thought I would throw this out there too.

Missing my "rolling therapy"

While we were in Germany, whenever I was in a funk, we took a drive. That drive usually consisted of going 120mph+ on the autobahn ~ 1 hour north or south and ending up at a race track. Once there, I would put in some track time. That was the most cathartic "therapy" I had ever found for myself. After 3-4 rounds on the Nürburgring, I would be exhausted and happy. 15 minutes on Hockenheimring could have the same effect. Unfortunately, that isn't an option anymore.

Yes, driving is still helpful for me at times, but nearly as much as in Germany. Having gone as fast as 155 behind the wheel, driving over here feels like a hell (unlike the Green Hell, which was Heaven). Now, a thrilling drive is one where I don't get stuck behind a tractor. Wooo! So now I need to come up with an alternative to my "rolling therapy." Especially since there is so much involved in going to a track day here in the states.

So, where does that leave me? I am not really sure yet. I just wish going to the track was as easy here (and cheap) as it is in Germany.

PS - I have already started another entry as well, but this one was the quickest to finish.