June 2008 – Krunk4Ever!

June 30, 2008

Weekly Top Posts (6/22/2008 to 6/28/2008)

Here’s this week’s top post:

Still super busy, had to work both days this weekend, so posts will still be dwindling in. Anyway, we have a new comer this week: New Bedroom Set solely due to a Craigslist listing: 5 piece cal king bedroom set – $999 (Guthrie, OK ). The bedroom set he’s selling isn’t the one I have, but was one which I considered and posted pictures of.

June 30, 2008

Shure Earbud Sleeves

I got my Shure E4c-n earphones awhile back and have always used the soft flex sleeves. I haven’t really ever tried the other ones since the soft flex sleeves were comfortable.

However this past trip home, the sleeve must’ve slipped off somewhere between check-in and when I sat down in my seat on the plane. The retail package came with a bunch of different ones, but only a pair for each type, though each type does have a S(mall), M(edium), and L(arge). I recalled that medium was a bit too big for my ears. So on my flight home, I only got mono for the satellite TV feed.

Anyway when I got home, I started digging through my storage and found my Shure retail box. I tried out the foams which TekMan said he preferred, but never really got it to stick into my ear snuggly.

I then gave the clear flex sleeves a try. The difference between these and the charcoal ones I was using before is that the charcoal ones are softer and I guess just a bit more comfortable.

Anyway the small clear flex ones were a nice fit and they had one additional benefit. The earphones were no longer slipping out of my ear. I don’t recall if the charcoal soft flex ones slipped when I first got them, but recently they wouldn’t stay in my ear hole for longer than a few minutes without me pushing it back in. I tried to loop the earphone wires so it goes over my ears, but that only helped in some cases.

I’m just happy these new sleeves are no longer slipping. 🙂

June 29, 2008July 6, 2008

Another Free Guitar Hero III Track: I AM MURLOC

So I finally logged into Xbox Live today to accept Xyon’s friend invitation (apparently he’s now addicted to Rock Band and went out to purchase an Xbox 360 and the Rock Band Special Edition).

Anyway, while I was browsing through the Inside Xbox videos and noticed that there was a new free track for Guitar Hero III: I Am Murloc

From OXM’s World of Warcraft meets Guitar Hero:

Thursday 26-Jun-2008 9:52 AM “I Am Murloc” available to download for GH3, which is great if you actually know what it is.

Fans of Guitar Hero III and free stuff can download “I Am Murloc” today, a World of Warcraft song by Blizzard’s in-house band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain.

This promotional exercise is supposed to build hype for a big announcement ahead of the Activision and Blizzard merger finally taking place. It could be an announcement that World of Warcraft is heading to consoles (which makes sense given the console DLC and merging) but it’s more likely to be something in the vein of Diablo 3 being announced.

As for the song itself, here it is. Erm… what?

Looking up on YouTube, I found the song and music video: I AM MURLOC – L70ETC.

Enjoy!

June 25, 2008

Weekly Top Posts (6/15/2008 to 6/21/2008)

Here’s this week’s top post:

Previously…

Nothing too interesting to point out here. I do have a few blog posts I’d like to write, but unfortunately I’m in crunch mode this week and probably won’t have time to write it.

June 21, 2008

TransUnion Settlement To Provide Free Credit Monitoring and Scores

So awhile back I read about on SlickDeals and Consumerist that there was a lawsuit involving TransUnion and they’ve agreed to give 6 or 9 month free credit monitoring and a bunch of other perks to basically every American, but you were only allowed to sign up on June 16th, 2008 or later.

June 16th came and went and I forgot about it, but thanks to WordPress drafts, I knew I had wanted to blog about it.

For a brief overview, you can read this MSN article: Consumers win free credit scores:

Any consumer who had a credit card or a mortgage, auto or student loan, or other open credit account or credit line in the U.S. anytime from 1987 to May 28 of this year will be able to choose from two free TransUnion services for a limited time, according to the terms of a settlement, which likely sets a record in affecting the largest number of people.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago, claimed that TransUnion had violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it sold consumer information to businesses for their targeted marketing efforts.

[…]

Seeking to end a class-action lawsuit that’s been pending for almost a decade, TransUnion agreed to offer consumers one of two options:

Six months of TransUnion’s credit-monitoring service for free, giving consumers unlimited access to their credit reports and scores, and e-mail notifications when changes occur on their credit reports. The settlement values this service at $59.75.

Nine months of the credit-monitoring service, plus access to the credit scores used in insurance decisions, and TransUnion’s mortgage simulator service, by which consumers can see how their credit score affects their mortgage rate. Value: $115.50.

Consumers who choose the first option sacrifice their rights to enter a class-action claim against TransUnion, though they might still bring an individual case, while those who choose the second option sacrifice any further legal claims of any kind in the matter. Consumers will not need to provide a credit card to sign up for either service, and both services will simply end — that is, TransUnion will not automatically sign people up for a paid service, according to the settlement agreement.

There is a third option: Consumers can sign up for a cash payment instead of the free services, but any such payments won’t be made for two years — and they’ll be paid only if there’s money left after any other “post-settlement claims” have been paid out of a $75 million fund set up by TransUnion for the purpose, according to the settlement.

[…]

Eligible consumers will be able to choose their free service as of June 16 by going to ListClassAction.com or calling 1-866-416-3470.

Personally I don’t really have much use for this service. I already can get daily credit scores from Credit Karma (which is based on data provided by TransUnion). I also get monthly TransUnion credit scores from my Wamu Credit Card.

The credit monitoring service is nice, but if it’s only going to last 6 or 9 months, then I really don’t have a use for it.

The best part of this settlement is the fact once your free service period ends, you don’t automatically get signed up to a paid service. The service will automatically terminate and if you want to continue using it, you probably have to call in and request so. There’s probably a way to do it online too.

I’m actually contemplating on the 3rd option: cash payment, even though there’s a risk of me getting nothing, but the services that are being offered to me has pretty much 0 value to me.

June 20, 2008

Melting in California…

So I’m back in California to attend my brother’s graduation. Unfortunately (maybe fortunately), my visit is only going to last a few days.

The flight from SEA to LGB was rather nice and relaxing on JetBlue. There was plenty of legroom even for the coach and individual LCDs were a plus. The fact this was also one of the cheapest flights I could find makes it even better.

Almost immediately while exiting the plane, I experienced the heatwave. I’ve been drinking ice water non-stop. The high of today was suppose to be around 104F (that’s 40C for you metric folks) and stepping outside of buildings made me feel like melting ice cream. It was like CA sunlight was my kryptonite. Every time sunlight hits me, I would move slower.

Equipped with unlimited ice water, I just might make it. Maybe…

June 18, 2008July 6, 2008

Motorola SURFboard SB5101 Cable Modem

So I finally picked up a Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem. Amazon.com finally had a deal for $43.99 – $20 rebate, making it only $23.99 shipped. Well, I had to pay sales tax too, but that’s because I’m in Washington.

There has been discussion on threads if the rebate is valid for Amazon.com given that the rebate form is hosted on Frys.com and that Amazon.com doesn’t actually list the rebate. However on the rebate form, it does state that Amazon.com is a valid retailer to purchase from. Then there was doubt about the UPC matching given that apparently there are 3 UPCs for this particular modem and something about the color of the box.

I got the modem today and the UPC do indeed match (6-12572-14827-3) and mine came in a blue/black box if that matters.

Previously, I had posted my results from Speedtest.net using my D-Link DCM-202 flashed with a special Comcast firmware yielding these results:

speed test with d-link dcm-202

A couple days later, TekMan showed me his results:

TekMan's Motorola SB5101 speed test

I was shocked how much of a jump there is just based on the cable modem alone! At this point I was determined to find a deal and get my own Motorola cable modem.

A week or 2 ago, there was a Circuit City deal for $20 after rebate, but required price matching to Office Depot and the fact that I had to actually visit a store discouraged me from attempting. When I saw this Amazon.com deal on SlickDeals, I knew I had to get it.

I ordered it last week for $44.99 + tax shipped and then it dropped a dollar further to $43.99. I did get my dollar back through Amazon.com’s 30 day price guarantee. Anyway, the modem arrived today and I called Comcast to update the MAC address so I can associate the new cable modem to my account. After giving him the information, he tells me the registration server was down and told me to try back at 3am. I had called around 11pm and the thought of me going internet-less for 4 hours was a scary thought.

So I sat around filing my rebate and did a couple other things while the clock ticked away. When the clock hit 1am, I knew I had to check to see if I can register my modem yet. I called and indeed the server was back up. Registration only took a few minutes and my internet was up and running in no time. Whoopee!

Of course, the first thing I do is another speed test:

My Motorola SB5101 speed test

This purchase was definitely worth it. I did 3 tests with my D-Link DCM-202 and they average to around 18000Kbps down and 1500Kbps up. I did 2 tests with my Motorola SB5101 and they average to 23000Kbps down and 3100Kbps up. Quite a performance increase for just $25! Of course, this could just be the initial burst speed, but I’m still excited about the speed increase.

Now I have a spare cable modem or if I sell it, it’ll probably pay for my Motorola cable modem completely!

June 16, 2008

Weekly Top Posts (6/8/2008 to 6/14/2008)

Here’s this week’s top post:

Previously…

Looks like Six Flags Discount (One-Day Adult Admission at Child’s Price) finally made it to the top 10.

June 14, 2008June 29, 2008

Planetes

So awhile back, I watched an anime series recommended to me by Tak Wai: Planetes. I definitely recommend this series if you haven’t seen it before. It ranks among my favorites and I’d probably give it 9 out of 10 stars.

The series is standard length, 26 episodes long. In short, the background story is about how humans were reckless in the future and started dumping trash into space. Later down the road, they realized that all this space debris would ultimately come back to haunt them as even tiny debris coming at you at 50 miles per hour can cause major damage to your spacecraft. Therefore, a new division in the space agency was created and their purpose is to remove debris from space. Like the janitorial position, no one sees this new department as anything that great, but because of them, space exploration can continue with a lot fewer accidents.

The story begins with Tanabe joining the space agency and getting assigned to the space cleaning department. Hachimaki is assigned as her mentor, guiding her along and the episodes are a series of missions they go out on. Hachimaki’s dream has always been to one day end up owning his own spaceship. As the mission continues, Tanabe slowly reveals Hachimaki’s past, and that’s when things start to get interesting.

The description above doesn’t really do it justice and I can’t really say much more without spoiling something.

For more details, visit Wikipedia or AniDB.net. You can also check out the trailer on YouTube.

June 13, 2008June 13, 2008

Junuary

So Derek introduced me to a new term today (which apparently originates from Seattle): Junuary

As Urban Dictionary defines it: A sarcastic reference to an extremely cold summer day.

The top 3 search results for Junuary are:

The fact that it actually makes sense makes it less funny. For the past few weeks, the sun has popped out only a few times, and we’ve been having high winds, cold weather, lots of rain, and even SNOW! Can you believe it? Snow in June? What’s next, Christmas in July? I was hearing on the radio the other day that it was snowing in the Snoqualmie pass and then Hjo3 blogs about snowing in Pullman.

Then I hear that we’ve hit our record low temperature ever recorded for this particular time of the year. Where’s my 5 months of guaranteed sunshine!?!?