Category: Uncategorized

Another round of pya! FLOOD!

Some previews:

Click image to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
わたしを倒してみろ！！ – Try Defeating Me!!

Click image to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
スモウグラップラーズ – Sumo Fighting

Click image to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
チュウ♥ – Kiss♥

(img) 力こぶ – Biceps – when you’re born with natural guns
(vid) 起きてるよ～ – Waking up – haha, this energy bar commercial almost had me for a moment
(img) ウォッカパン – Vodka bread – I guess the Real McCoy is hidden bottle of Vodka
(img) 雨どい – Rain Gutter – quite elaborate I must say
(img) ハート – Heart – made with a bunch of birds
(img) ダイエットしなきゃ – Off your diet – guy must be crazy to think his car would fit
(vid) ウエイトリフティング – Weight Lifting – a bunch of funny home videos
(img) 自由の女ゴミ – Trash Statue of Liberty
(img) ダンスの踊り方 – How to Dance – learning the tricks when you’re young
(vid) 釣るより釣られろ – Fish Fishing Human
(img) 間抜けな電車事故 – Stupid Cable Car Accident – I wonder who had the right of way
(vid) 手品ではありません – Not a Magic Trick – disappearing Rubiks cube
(img) プリン – Purine – burnt toast
(img) いい味出してます – Yummy – Windows computer sushi
(img) リアル Zガンダム – Real Gundam Z
(img) たっぷり入れないでね – Stirring without a spoon
(img) 未来のマチュピチュ – Future Machu Picchu – turns out to be a place in Peru.
(img) ナイフキーパー – Knife Holder – also seconds as a stress reliever
(img) マイPC – My PC – built with Legos!
(flash) What is Love! – tons of hilarious renderings of the SNL skit
(img) (wan)舌長っ – Long Tongue
(img) 時代の変遷 – Change of Times – See how Alice of Wonderland has evolved!
(vid) エリーゼのために – Because of Elise – playing Fur Elise on a scanner
(vid) 手品ではありません – Not a Magic Trick – took me awhile to figure out how he did that with the Rubiks cube
(flash) スターウォーズ – Star Wars – why is Chewbacca a mop?
(mp3) マッチ – Match – some cool 3D surround sound
(img) 一筆書き – 1 stroke drawing – Totoro girl and Cat Bus
(img) これは便利！- Convenience! – toilet docking station for iPods and iPod Shuffles
(img) くねくね – Wavelike – fun or unfun drive?
(img) オーダーメイド – Custom Made – Face or Vase?
(img) 食べてchu – Please Eat – hamster is trying to feed bunny
(img) しまった！ – Oh Shoot! – statue is trapped!
(img) よい子は – Good kids – why it’s great to have a little brother, until it’s his turn
(img) 整列 – Straight Line – Pikachu train

More to come tomorrow!

Here comes the long awaited pya! FLOOD!

Some previews:

Click image to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
運動？？？ – Exercise???

Click image to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
大決闘 – Big Battle

Click image to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
わたしを倒してみろ！！ (俺なら倒せる!!!) – Try Defeating Me!! (You will fall!!!)

(img) トイレットペーパー – Toilet Paper – reminds me of the Ferguson from Married With Children.
(img) X-Wing – is that photoshopped or is it really flying?
(vid) 人間スケボー – Human Skateboard
(img) 壁掛け時計 – Wall Clock – this clock has an awesome hour hand
(img) 遠い昔、ある美術館の中で・・・ – In a future art musuem… – Star Wars version of Temptation of St. Anthony by Salvador Dali
(img) ５匹のnya – 5 meows – a bunch of cute kittens
(flash) スーパーマリオボタン – Super Mario Button – an audiosound super-synthesizer which allows you to generate in game music and sound effects
(img) 次世代兵器 – Next Generation Weapon – Mitsubishi-Anaheim “PROTOTYPE 16” MSZ-006 Special Squardron Japan Imperial Navy Air Force at Okegawa airbase in Saitama Japan 1945
(vid) マスゲーム – Mass Game – a pretty neat commercial for Budweiser
(img) 【怪奇】見ると勝手に首が曲がってしまうwan画像 – [Weird] When you look at this puppies photo, your neck would tilt automatically – cute puppies!
(img) キラーwanサー – Killer Dog – reminds me of Red XIII from FFVII
(img) 今が買い時 – Time to buy – would you like your Pepsi served hot?
(img) スーファミ – Super Famicon – wonder if this is real and or if it’s just a shell. it’d be sweet if it can play SNES games on this portable system.
(vid) ハンティングゲーム – Hunting Game – spider tries to attack the mouse pointer on screen
(img) ニモ – Nemo – some neat 3D tilings. I always wished they’d show what it looked like from the other side
(img) トリックアート – Trick Art – another one of those where you have to look from a particular point to see
(vid) んんんんんんッ(((｀・ω・´)))ﾌﾟﾙﾌﾟﾙﾌﾟﾙﾌﾟﾙ – Sumo Robots
(img) ヒトフデ・ジブリ – Nausicaa – drawn w/o lifting the pencil
(img) 抱きしめたい – Want to hug – cute baby kangaroo!

More to come tomorrow!

I posted the Lazy Sunday video in a previous entry. Apparently this week, SNL got Natalie Portman to do a rap (from FuzzyWuzzy). It was first posted on YouTube, but has since been removed. After my search online (which actually took longer than I expected), I finally found the video at MissPortman (2nd to last video at that link).

You can also stream it from PutFile: SNL – Natalie Portman – Gansta Rap (direct download). The rap was okay and mildly funny, but I’m just not into Natalie Portman after she cut her hair short. Some find her sexy though (i.e. FuzzyWuzzy).

---

Random Crap:

Court says California oral sex law violates rights – A 22-year-old Californian man who received oral sex from a sixteen-year-old girl should not be forced to register for life as a sex offender, the California Supreme Court ruled on Monday. … In the case, Hofsheier pleaded guilty and received probation after meeting the teenager in an Internet chat room and sharing rum and orange juice with her at a beach.

Conn. City Hopes Music Will Clean Up Park – Activists propose playing recordings of classical music in Barnard Park in hopes of annoying petty criminals so much that they’ll leave. They also hope the music will make the park more pleasant for other people once it is cleaned up. … “Beethoven is not going to save you,” he said. It’s ironic that “some of the greatest composers in history are now being viewed as some kind of bug spray or disinfectant.”

Complexity causes 50% of product returns – Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can’t figure out how to operate the devices, a scientist said on Monday. Here I’m thinking half the returns made by people who purchased computers are people who can’t figure out how to turn it on. Hahaha.

Lost Ring Found in Fla. Home 23 Yrs. Later – Marlene Kiraly asked her husband to hide the 3 1/2 karat, uninsured diamond ring her mother had given her just before she died 23 years ago. Problem was, he did such a good job no one could remember where it was. … “I went to a psychic a month ago to find out where the ring is, and she said my husband hid it really well and I would find it,” Kiraly, 48, of Lake Worth said.

The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia (from FuzzyWuzzy) – “now that’s my kind of cs project” – FuzzyWuzzy. A CS project to determine the smallest Bacon Number (the number of movies to link 1 actor to Kevin Bacon) from any other actor. Their main database the used with from IMDb. Actually sounds like a lot of fun.

C.S.A. The Movie (from CDMCC) – C.S.A. stands for the Confederate States of America, a funny comedy describing what if the South had won the Civil War. Currently only playing in selected cities like New York and San Francisco.

The Simpsons come to life (from /.) – MAKERS of the hit cartoon The Simpsons have a filmed the show’s opening titles using real actors. In the hit viral going around the world we get to see what Bart, Homer, Marg, Lisa and Maggie would look like if they were humans. And you can be among the first to watch the hilarious titles, filmed over 18 months in Britain: The Real Simpsons.

Japanese Make Gasoline From Cattle Dung (from /.) – Scientists in energy-poor Japan said Friday they have found a new source of gasoline — cattle dung. Finally! A never ending supply of renewable energy! People need to eat hamburgers => cows will poop => cars that can move!

Fight graft with fat cat slimming drive, China urged – In a country where people often complain that police officers seem too well fed to catch villains, Miu Shouliang said limiting the weight of officials would stop them spending government money on wining and dining, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Professor Allegedly Shows Explicit Video – A criminal justice professor at Grand Rapids Community College has resigned after showing a video in class of a man having sex with a pig, students and a faculty representative said. … The video appeared on a projection screen and students begged Naves to show the 10-second footage, according to the accounts. Says quite a bit about the curiosity of college students.

You know you’re lazy when there’s a Brita pitcher filled with water sitting on the bottom of your refrigerator, but you still grab for an unopened bottle of water. I know it doesn’t help my case, but $4.65 for 35 bottles of water is only 13¢ per bottle.

---

Random Crap:

Lego Thriller (from Artemyst) – A lego version of thriller. Video is pretty creative, though their choice of female lego characters could’ve been better.

A Koopa’s Revenge (from RayAlome) – What mario would be like if one koopa had to do it all. Pretty fun flash game. You play the role of a Koopa Troopa (turtle soldier) and get revent stomping on Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Mushroom Soldiers, etc.

What are your rights? ‘D’oh’ – Somewhat interesting article, but the line that got me was: Here’s a hint: one of them is not the right to own and raise pets, an error committed by one in five respondents.

Sydney battles invasion of the tree-snatchers – Their victims are trees, and the perpetrators are property-obsessed Sydney homeowners seeking to increase the value of their land by adding or improving views of the city’s world-famous harbour and beaches.

Microsoft Research invents Dance Dance E-mail – I was the first one in the room to have noticed the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) pad on the floor, but even I was surprised when it turned out to be the centerpiece of the event. Dr. AJ Brush, PhD, jumped on the pad and showed us how the team had used the off-the-shelf gaming interface to demonstrate a new method of human-computer interaction.

Tripod perform at a Comedy Festival (from FuzzyWuzz) – Aussie comedy group Tripod performing their song “Make You Happy Tonight” at a Comedy Festival. The song they perform is actually quite funny.

Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car (from /.) – A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver’s interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School. The car actually looks a lot better than what I expected.

Super Mario Brothers Race (from RayAlome) – To be honest, this wasn’t much of race as much as it was a sychronization/coordination. You can clearly see one guy waiting or idling for a few secs for the other person to surpass him.

Jeff Ninneman and Jason Harmer race to finish Super Mario Brothers on NES, circa 2002. No emulators were used.

Watch Ninneman’s screen (left) for an amazing jump at the beginning of Lvl 8-2. Harmer opts out of attempting it.

Harmer’s all-time SMB record: 5:09
Ninneman’s all-time SMB record: 5:11

You can tell they fool around a little bit in this one for the talent show, so it’s just around 6 minutes.
Left Screen/Mario: Jeff Ninneman
Right Screen/Luigi: Jason Harmer

So I was first introduced to this candy by Derek. At first I thought it was a tangerine flavored mint, but boy was I wrong. Remember Super Cola or Super Lemon back in the elementary school days? Well, these Altoids Tangerine Sours are a bit like that. Speaking of which? What did happen to Super Colan and Super Lemon? I tried searching for them in Chinese supermarkets back in Monterey Park, but they were nowhere to be found. Anyway, back to the subject. These tangerine sours have a sour white coating (not as sour as Super Colas or Super Lemons though) followed by a sweet tangerine fruit drop. I’m addicted to these guys! I practically finished 1/2 of Derek’s can.

I was at Costco yesterday and saw these guys there. They were a pack of 6 for $6.39. Altoids.com sells 4 of them for $7.96. Yep, I grabbed a pack and I’ve been popping them into my mouth all night.

---

Random Crap:

Beckham baffled by son’s homework – Superstar David Beckham, whose mental agility has been questioned before in the media, has said his six-year-old son’s maths homework leaves him baffled. 6 years old… Isn’t that like 1st or 2nd grade? So like add/subtract, right? I don’t think multiplication/division was introduced till 3rd grade, though my father had me memorized the times table by 1st grade.

Distillery to Revive 184-Proof Whisky – The Bruichladdich distillery on the Isle of Islay, off Scotland’s west coast, is producing the quadruple-distilled 184-proof — or 92 percent alcohol — spirit “purely for fun,” managing director Mark Reynier said. A little note for you alcoholics *cough* I mean alcohol enthusiasts out there. Funny thing I read an a comic strip a few days ago showing a friend being worried his friend was addicted to beer. The friend assured him that he wasn’t addicted to beer, but it was the beer that was addicted to him. Then he goes, “Oh no! Here it comes again.” as he slowly tilts the bottle into his mouth.

Witnesses report seeing nothing unusual… – Article wasn’t that interesting, but I learnt a new word today: manhandle – 1. To handle roughly. / 2. To move or handle by manpower alone.

China opens Panda ‘kindergarten’ – The kid pandas are so cute! Definitely check out the video of this Panda playschool.

Refund Please – Got this site from AT Hot Deals. There are a number of online retailers that offer to credit buyers back cash on past purchases. For instance, if the product you purchased at Amazon.com within the last 30 days has dropped in price they will credit you back the difference. The interface is pretty simple to use. You type in the item ID, price, purchase date, and your email and they’ll email you if the item drops below your purchase price within 30 days. Only thing they’re missng at the moment is to go in and edit the list. But I guess this system does not have to deal with storing user accounts and passwords.

‘Maid’ in heaven for geeks (from Artemyst) – I posted the article to this awhile ago, but now they a video of what it’s like to be in a “Maid Cafe”. CNN’s Atika Shubert visits a trendy ‘Maid Cafe’ in Japan where geeks are catered to and cartoon characters rule.

Just watched this trailer: The Sentinel. All I’ve got to say is that it’s basically 24, but Jack Bauer isn’t the federal agent being chased, he’s the one chasing Michael Douglas who’s being suspected for treason. If 24 has any relevance in this movie, I’m guessing what would happen would be both Jack Bauer and Michael Douglas were in this together to get through to some terrorists. Hahahaha.

Wow… It’s been awhile since I posted. It’s been a very long and tiring week. Several days, I didn’t leave the office till 11pm. Though I did go in after 1pm on several occasions. Anyway, I was pretty much burn out and fell asleep in front of my computer a few times. But thank god it’s the weekends and I don’t think I have to go in this weekend to play catch up, though I’m still behind.

I saw this article on Yahoo!: Americans work more, seem to accomplish less and I have to agree that’s how I feel like some of the time. “Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it’s slowed everything down, paradoxically,” said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. “We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you’re on to the next thing,” Challenger said on Wednesday. “It’s harder to feel like you’re accomplishing something.”

---

Random Crap:

Students Suspended for Snowball Fight – Two Ramona High School students were suspended for bringing dangerous objects to school — snowballs. HAHAHA. Next thing you know, students will be suspended for bringing teddy bears to school because there was a teddy bear fight!

Winning Powerball Ticket Found Under Bed – After hearing of a newspaper account of an unclaimed $853,492 Powerball ticket from October, Steve Jones decided to do a little housecleaning. Of the three tickets he swept out from under the bed, one wound up being the prizewinner. *goes searching underneath my bed* Doh! I’ve never bought a Lotto ticket. Oooooh! That’s where toys went!

Customers Cook Up Trouble With Fake Penis – The incident unfolded late Thursday afternoon when a man and a woman entered the store and the man asked the clerk, “Can you microwave something for me? It’s a life-or-death situation,” according to an account the woman later gave police. The man asked for paper towels, wrapped an object in them, and had the clerk microwave the item for 20 seconds, said McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero. When it was finished, the clerk handed the item back to the man and saw what she thought was a severed penis, Pero said. … According to the woman, the couple stopped to warm the device in the microwave so the urine would “pass the body temperature test,” Pero said — that is, be warm enough to not arouse the suspicion of those administering the test.

Psycho Path Voted Wackiest Street Name – Farfrompoopen Road, the only road to Constipation Ridge, lost to Divorce Court and Psycho Path, which placed No. 1 in an online poll of the nation’s wildest, weirdest and wackiest street names. The entire list is as follows:

10. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Texas
9. The intersection of Count and Basie in Richmond, Va.
8. Shades of Death Road in Warren County, N.J.
7. Unexpected Road in Buena, N.J.
6. Bucket of Blood Street in Holbrook, Ariz.
5. The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston
4. The intersection of Lonesome and Hardup in Albany, Ga.
3. Farfrompoopen Road in Tennessee (the only road up to Constipation Ridge)
2. Divorce Court in Heather Highlands, Pa.
1. Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich.

Iris scanners enroll in elementary school – A small elementary school in New Jersey is one of the first in the country to test new iris scanning technology in an educational setting. The Park Avenue Elementary School in Freehold Borough recently installed a US$370,000 system paid for with a grant from the Justice Department. What do they use it for? Opening the front door. Overkill? Seems like that money could’ve been spent on a lot more useful stuff.

Cable employee allegedly steals Verizon pamphlets – We’ve recently reported on the growing animosity between the cable and telephone industries, but this is ridiculous. From the Woburn, MA police log (via DSLReports) comes a bizarre story about the harassment of a Verizon contractor who was distributing leaflets. On Thursday, February 16, at 3 p.m., an unidentified man in a black car (naturally) began stealing the contractor’s material. Story wasn’t that interesting, but I found it hilarious that some cable guy is following these telephone guys around picking up pamphlets in order to secure their job.

Poor artists thrive in Copacabana sands – On Rio de Janeiro’s crowded Copacabana Beach, poor artists carve out a living from Carnival tourists who pay to snap photos of their magical cities and seductive women shaped entirely of sand. All I can say is that sand castle/city looks AMAZING!

Clothes maketh the man of the people in China – Getting the most out of clothes is somewhat of a tradition among China’s Communist leadership. The article wasn’t particularily interesting, but getting the most out of your clothes isn’t a Chinese Communist tradition. All Chinese people I know try to get the max out of their clothing, starting from father to son, cousin to cousin, hand-me-downs for 3 generations.

Injured woman can sue Postal Service – A woman who tripped and fell over letters, packages and periodicals left on her front porch can sue the U.S. Postal Service for damages, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday. American laws regarding suing really needs to be revamped. It needs to add a big fat disclaimer: DOES NOT APPLY TO STUPID PEOPLE! Honestly, the hardest concept that I can never grasp ahold of is why Americans are so afriad of taking responsibility when they’ve made a mistake instead of pushing the blame onto someone else.

I know it’s a bit late. In fact the weekend’s over already. Haha.

Stanman called me on Friday and asked if I wanted to go to TGI Fridays with the UW gang, and I said sure. The food and the service were both good. We all got one of the $12.99 3-course dinner deals. Saran asked if TGI Fridays stood for Thank God It’s Friday. Others seem to think it meant Thank Goodness It’s Friday. I mean in the PC (politically correct) world, TGI Friday’s might’ve changed their acronym to mean “goodness”, but I always thought the ‘g’ in TGIF was God. Acronym Finder shows these as the top 3 acronyms for TGIF:

1. Thank God It’s Friday
2. TGI Friday’s (US restaurant chain)
3. Thank Goodness It’s Friday

I’m pretty sure it started out as God, but to be politically correct, they may have changed it to Goodness. Sort of like how Kentucky Fried Chicken -> KFC -> Kitchen Fresh Chicken.

Anyway we came back to my place to play some Settlers of Catan. Once again Perry wins. I didn’t really have much of a chance. My settlements were basing on the #6 which did not come up once for the 1st 6 or 7 circles (where everyone rolled once). I actually had it made if luck was on my side. I had 2 tree accesses, a 6 and a 9 and then a 2:1 tree deal. But unfortunately, luck wasn’t on my side as I stated. So near the end game, I basically went and did sabotage, I built through areas so Perry couldn’t built the longest road. Saran came and took the largest army from him. He was back down to 5 points, but somehow ended up coming back to win the game. It helped him a lot that he got more special developer cards (non-soldiers) than soldier cards. Guess luck was totally on his side.

On Saturday, I went in to work. Our team is a bit behind and our lead thought it would be great if we could put in some time this weekend. I did get a lot done for some reason. Maybe cause there’s no one around to bother me and no one around for me to bother. Haha. I did get a free lunch out of it.

As for Sunday, just met up with CDMCC and Elizabeth, had dinner, and then a movie.

I actually finished vacuuming what I had unfinished the previous weekend. I did some house cleaning and my apartment’s looking pretty good.

Every watch a video online, but can’t save it because it’s streamed. There’s a bunch of software that apparently allows you to record it, but I didn’t have a need till yesterday when I was trying to save the Lazy Sunday – Chronicles of Narnia video off NBC’s website. There’s a better quality version here. The rap’s really funny and the tune is actually catchy.

According to Ars Technica: NBC orders removal of video from download site – Our story begins with the December 17th airing of Saturday Night Live. During that episode, a pretty funny rap video entitled Lazy Sunday: The Chronicles of Narnia was aired. The clip, starring Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg as a couple of incredibly lame rappers walking through New York doing incredibly lame things, was uploaded to video download site YouTube.com, where it became something of an instant hit. Although we don’t have statistics on the number of downloads, the video made enough of an impact to be featured in a New York Times story on SNL, and has been credited with turning a new generation of viewers on to the show. Enter the lawyers. This week, NBC’s lawyers sent a letter to YouTube, requesting removal of the video from its servers. The site complied with the request, and placed a short note on its blog explaining the removal and stating that “YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders.” The video was also belatedly made available for free on the NBC web site, along with being offered as a US$1.99 download from the iTunes Music Store. As a side note, videos streamed from the NBC web site only work on Windows machines.

You can also watch it on NBC’s Screening Room, but it seems to have problems in Firefox. Only seems to work in IE.

But anyway, back to the topic, I was going to show you this awesome tool:SDP (Streaming Download Project). SDP or the Streaming Download Project is a small dedicated team of independent software coders. We are a nonprofit team with only one goal – understanding (and documenting) MMS fully. Our resulting implementation of our MMS document has lead to the development of a MMS streaming receiver for windows media streaming. So now, not only can you view the streaming media in preview mode, SDP receiver downloads (or copies) the stream to your hard disk. This cannot be achieved with a standard Windows Media player. There’s actually a large lst of similar software here: Windows Media stream recorders, but SDP was the best one I found and it’s freeware!

So I talked to my apartment manager this morning for the 4th time and they’re finally sending a electrician to take a look at my problem. Before I tell you the good news, lets talk about what happened in the past few days.

As I mentioned, I had a power outage when I was in the middle of vacuuming and doing laundry at the same time. So yah… the laundry’s been in there since Sunday afternoon, when I first requested for assistance, and both machines were loaded. The whites and light colored were in the dryer and the colors and dark were in the middle of the washing cycle. In the mean time, I’ve ran out of clothing I can wear. I was actually wearing my last pair of pants that day and this pair of pants has been keeping me clothed for the past 4 days. I had plenty of shirts, so that wasn’t a problem, but I was out of underwear and if you know me, low on underwear = time to do laundry. Thankfully, the whites were the first one to be washed, so I hung a few pair of them out to dry.

Shower was another problem. My hot water heater ran on electricity. Though the heater was on, there was not enough power to it, and the hottest the water got could be said to be mildly luke warm. So I managed to take a shower every other day by using a vacant apartment. On the other days, I would just wash my hair in the mildly luke warm water.

My microwave and my stove were both non-functioning due to limited power it could draw. That didn’t really affect me much, since I just ate out the entire week. Nothing too drastically different from my normal eating habits.

I already mentioned moving my computer outside since there was 1 outlet that was functioning correctly. Turns out to be a better place for the computer anyway and I’m closer to the kitchen.

Welp, today when I got home, I did my routine check to see if the lights dimmed when I turned appliances on. BAM! Everything is working! I ran to the washing machine and pushed the start button and it started to work! Yay! Finally, my current pair of pants can go to rest.

So it turns out there’s like only 1 outlet (maybe 2, there’s a couple that hasn’t been checked yet) that works w/o any problems. I went to Fred Meyers after work today and bought one of those thick orange extension cables and am piping power from the dining room to the living room.

Here’s what my new setup looks like:

I’ve actually used double sided sticky foam to hold down my front 2 speakers cause pushing the on/off button would always move it. The double sided stick foam didn’t work out that well for my rear speakers so I’m just using rubberbands at the moment. They seem to hold up quite well.

Along with command center, you’ll see my AT&T 900MHz phone which automatically sends to the answering machine after 2 rings (I don’t use the phone much as you can see). The phone is actually connected to my computer which I’ve installed Microsoft Fax (comes with Windows XP) so I can send and receive fax on my computer. The last thing in the chain is the Linksys PAP2 which connects my phone and computer to my VoIP provider: Telepacket, which I’m only paying $0.95/mo for 100 incoming and 100 outgoing minutes to anywhere in the United States.

On my desk, you’ll also see my iPod Nano, which syncs to my iTunes and grabs my Top Rated songs.

On the left of my desk, you’ll see my trash bin. It actually resembles the Mac OS X trash bin quite a bit! I got this back when I came up here at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Behind my computer, you’ll see my APC UPS and a bundle of wires and cables. Connected to the surge protectors, you’ll find the Linksys PAP2 (which I mentioned already), a Belkin Wireless Router, my Comcast RCA Cable Modem, and of course my subwoofer.

Next to my desk, you’ll see a rather old TV and TV stand. I haven’t touched that in months, but it’s a good place to put my DVD collection, which as you can see is starting to pile up. As for a DVD player, that TV doesn’t even support composite (red, white, yellow cables). I watch my DVDs on my computer anyway.

The last thing I’d mention is my porta-heater which is currently sitting on top of my computer and heating me up from this awful Washington cold.