So the month of halloween is over, and it was over all a very good month, lots of time spent playing RockBand 2 with Bob and Angie, as well as making home made apple cider using an apple press, carving pumpkins and over all enjoying the company of our new Oregon friends.  I will say it doesn’t feel like Halloween but it did feel like fall and it was awesome, the leaves are all over the ground in so many colors.  We haven’t been on any real trips since my last post, however Portland is this weekend and Washington is the weekend after and then to Utah, so I shall be very busy this month.

I hope this finds all of my friends well, I miss all of you and hope to be in touch soon!

I am not sure if you knew this or not, but last Thursday was kind of a big deal.  Starting at about 6pm Star and I were filling out paper work until 8pm, at which time we drove home in our new 09 Murano LE.   

This is all a little strange though, considering we were set on a used 07 Murano, for around 18k, something that wouldn’t break the bank and was reliable, but Star did a 180 on me once we found out there were NO 07 used Murano’s avialable for us to buy, she said “Lets look at the new ones just to see”  and from there it was look at the S, the SL and finally the LE, and once we talked about it, if we were going to do this lets do it, so 38k later we own a knew Murano, the best they had.

I know, I know, what ARE you doing buying a new car when the economy is doing so horrible, and you haven’t even sold your house in Utah yet!?   To be fair, we travel a lot, we have family who just moved to Tucoma WA, so we go there, we also go to the coast about every weekend.  The above picture was taken in The Avenue of the Giants near Eureka, CA.   We needed a car we could rely on star nor myself had one, so it had to be done.  I promise, I did the budget though, and we are fine, renting the house in Utah helps a lot.

I do love it, despite all my fear of owing that much to anything, it’s so nice to have and to drive in and the view is amazing!  Don’t believe me, here is a picture I took from my view while Star was driving.

So, there you have it, we finally have a new car, for better or for worse, good or bad decision, something we have been wanting for 6 years and finally have.  

Well I was going to blog about how I have been feeling a lot different lately about my life, my relationship and things in general, all good things but things I never thought I would feel like, but alas, something is a little more important.

The Presidential election is coming soon, and we are being spammed with “Vote!”  Make your voice heard and so on..but I wager most American’s have no idea how this process works, even one of my friends assumed I was being stupid when I asked her “Why Vote?”

Instead of going over this for everyone I am going to quote someone else’s words that I sumbled on while trying to find a website that explains this better, and forgot about Wikipedia ;) 

From this site

Sure, you can show up to as many voting places as you want, cast as many ballots as you want, but in the end, it’s only for LOCAL issues, not federal ones. All this presidential ballyhooing that’s going on all across the country, and this upcoming super-duper-pooper Tuesday hype is mostly all for naught. We’ve forgotten in a big way that our president is NOT chosen by THE people, but by a very small and select group of individuals called The Electoral College.

Yep—super-duper Tuesday is going to be a “duper” alright. It’s going to dupe many states at once into thinking their citizens’ votes count for something, when it’s really a giant exercise in mobility and futility. The whole electoral process has managed to dupe us all into thinking we actually matter, have a voice, and representation in government. The only thing that matters is that we continue to pay our taxes on time and in full, but the country goes through this huge charade every four years to keep us from revolting en masse.

In spite of what you may think about casting your vote, the Electoral College doesn’t refer to, or take into consideration, your individual vote—or the majority votes of the country. Instead, they do this: a select group of Presidential Electors (each state has its own number of Electors—see map)), go to their state capitols to cast a ballot for their presidential and vice-presidential choice. Your individual vote determines who the Presidential Electors are, not who the actual President is going to be.

I would encourage you to read it from the site, and then of course encourage you to find more sources and educate me if I am/we are wrong on this, because for so many years now this is what I knew and no one has showed me evidence of the contrary.

Why am I saying this? Because I think the more you know the better a chance you have to make a change.  If everyone stopped voting then MAYBE the goverment would notice that we aren’t as blind as they think and maybe someone would step and cause change.  I hate the 2 party system, I hate the electoral, I hate that Americans are told we have this great ability to change our Federal goverment when in truth we do not, yet most of you have no idea.  Why must we chose between two parties who no longer work together and instead waste time and money on arguing with each other, the point of two parties was to see both sides of a problem, not to blame the other side for the problem.

Ok I am done, I promise I won’t do a political post again, I just had to get this off my chest.  Just thank Odin I haven’t ever addressed religion, Cthulhu knows after that I wouldn’t have any friends left.

So it was time for the yearly camping trip with the boys, and since Star’s mom had a birthday that week I was informed to stay for the whole week in Utah.  Truth be told I was worried I would be very bored about the 3rd day, but I did as I was told.

Camping with the boys was as usual an awesome time, we seem to be getting better and better at it, this year we all slept in tents and despite it being cold it was a good time, lots of beer and coyotes as usual, for breakfast we decided to go to an old diner that was shipped from some other state back east, I am not sure the back story but it was suppose to be some big deal, and I co-worker from the University of Utah setup their network and music selection system, and thus had a dish named after him, the “Turner Taco”  and so  recommended the place to us.  It was good food for sure and was fun in general.

After that I stayed with Ryan (aka lunchie, Lunchb0x) for the week and to be honest had a great time, his condo was comfortable and cozy, he took time off most of the week to keep me company and we played games, drank a lot and watched lots of Netflix on demand, think I made it through most of “coupling”  Also played lots of games with friends who would come over his house or we would go over there.  I really wasn’t bored at all! I also introduced and got lunchie addicted to Munchkin the card games.  *sigh*  good times.

With all that said, I was happy to leave on Sunday, I don’t like Utah, it’s very hot and very dry there, the people all seem so angry and closed off, not the normal smiles and greetings found in Eugene, and my god their is a lot of people in Utah!  And when you have nothing to do there isn’t an ocean to run to just to watch the waves and sea-lions.  I don’t ever want to move back, but I will keep encouraging lunchie and other friends to move to Oregon, I love this state and even more so now.

Thanks again to all my friends who made a real effort to come out and play, it was nice seeing you all!  I will be back in Nov and Dec!

Well not long ago my truck died on me, and then my 360 does this

If you don’t know what this is, I will explain, this happens to some 30 percent of all Xbox360’s on the market, some huge design flaw, that kills the console, you can no longer boot into it, nothing.  Luckily Microsoft has extended a 3 year warranty on every 360 to cover this problem and in just 2 weeks I had it shipped and a new one back again, yes a new one, they no longer try to fix it, rather they just send you a new one.   So although I am sad this happened and really HATED watching T.V. instead of playing games, I am pleased with how this was dealt with by Microsoft, they even gave me 12 months of Xbox live for my troubles.

Funny thing, I had to buy a new laptop in it’s absence because I wanted to game so badly, so I bought this:

A Toshiba X305-Q701  for a very good price of $1499.  You should see the specs of this thing, well hell you here ya go, SPECS and may I say for that price you won’t find a better laptop, I am going to customize the back of the display though, since I decided I really don’t like the flames.

Well enough blogging, time to get back to gaming!

Most of you know what I drive, even those I havent seen in awhile, I drive a 95 ford explorer, old blue as she has been called.

From the moment I bought her I disliked her, I never wanted a ford but I did want an SUV and she was in my price range,  I bought her with the thoughts I would trade her in after a couple years, once my credit was a lot better and I could afford something better.  The asking price was 16k, Star and I did some research and sure enough that was a comparable price so we went ahead and purchased her, a month later word got out that ford explorers had a problem with the tires exploding, gaining them the nick name ford exploder, she was now valued at 6k, I was upside down 10k in a month, my dreams of trading her in were gone, there was no way to get it down in 2 years, I was stuck with her.

Luckily I bought an extended warranty for $1500.00, which was used within that first year to replace the transimission, for what would be the first of 3 times, it also covered a rear end that needed to be replaced that year as well and a computer chip that also went out.

Over the course of 8 years she has given me random trouble, but never broke down on me, just always let me know that she needed to be looked at before it became serious and we had a love hate relationship, she did what she needed to do and I loved her for that, but I hated who she was in general.

This weekend she let me down, big time.  We went camping in Humberg campground, about 3 hours from Eugene.  The trip up went fine, but the next day we drove 30 miles to the gold coast for lunch, where after parking for some coffee she refused to start.  Luckily my father in law was with us, he a mechanic by trade and hobbie so I felt pretty good we could get her fixed.  We first replaced the fuel filter, which took about an hour, but went fairly smoothly.  That did not solve the problem, so we bought some starter fluid and sprayed that into the air intake to verify it was a fuel problem, sure enough it started for a second, confirming that it was a fuel problem, and the next step was replacing the fuel pump.  If you have ever done this it’s not an easy task, first we had to get the fuel pump and the closest one in stock was 30 miles away in Brookside, luckily Bob and Angie were joining us for camping and came to rescue us.  Once we got the part we towed old blue to a strangers house we offered up his tools, we had to drop the gas tank to replace the fuel pump, and during the install we broke the wire on the new fuel pump that lets you know how much gas is in the tank, 3 hours later we finaly had it all back together and she started right up, but now her steering had some serious issues, it would shake violently during turns and bumps.

Long story short, she made it back to Eugene, and I am driving her now with the threat of the steering breaking at any moment due to the tie rod being worn out, on top of that she needs new shocks and tires.

It’s time to say goodbye to her, I know that its cheaper to fix a car then buy a new one, but reliability is more important to me and she let me down this weekend.  Once I am able she will be gone, I expect it to happen in the next few months.

She hasn’t been all bad, she lasted 8 years even with me telling her how much she sucks, towing and moving me and my family around, she also was the start of my credit going from poor to excellent and for the past 3 years has given me very little trouble.  For that old Blue I thank you and wish you the best as a beer can or two.

Goodbye.

Ok, so I have been so busy the past month I didn’t even have time to post!  So without further a due,

4 Weeks ago we went to Long Beach Washington to meet with Shaun and Carmen, Tyfanies aunt and uncle, they are moving to Tucoma, WA, we are so excited, so we drove down to greet them and spend a few days helping them adjust.  On our drive down we got to cross the coolest bridge! In the middle of the bridge you cross over from Oregon into Washington and I swear this thing is 10 miles long.

The picture was taken in Astera, OR  which is a cool little town, where people were fishing for Sturgeon, I was beyond jealous.  We stayed in Long Beach, WA and had some fresh Oysters and walked the beach and flew kites, it was a good time to be honest.  On our way back we took the 101 and pass through some really nice areas I want to visit, including this beach

The very next weekend we went to the Gold Coast to relax and enjoy the much calmer oceans, we stayed in a very nice hotel on the beach and just relexed most of the time, however we did take a Mail Boat ride, which is really a jet boat that cruises up the Rogue River showing you wild life and of course doing 360 degree turns getting everyone wet, it was a really fun ride, then we went to the beach and watched a seal looking for things near the shore to eat, we also got to see a flock of Peliguns eating, that was awesome.  Gold Coast has some of the most beautiful ocean fronts.

The third weekend Star had to work so Ely and I went to Portland with two local friends to see FlugTug!  I was so excited to see this event, but alas, it was SO crowded and people being asses that it turned out to be pretty dissapointing, maybe next year we will get a boat and watch it from the water.

The next weekend Star and Ely went to the fairy festival, I didn’t get to see any pictures but I hear it was a lot of hippies naked and dressed up, I think next year I should go!

and last weekend we went to portland with Stars family to celebrate her birthday, we took an awesome cruise on the willemette having brunch and looking at the portland river side houses, it was so nice and relaxing, we then also went to the Japanese garden, which was beautiful, I will have to get pictures and upload them.

This weekend we are headed to humberg campground, which is right next to the Gold Coast to go camping with Star’s parents while they are still in town, so more pictures from there!

Remember as always most of our pictures can be found at http://photo.wineriter.org

*breath*  ok, I know that is a pretty long and incoherent ramble, but it was to catch you all up!

Until next time!

Ok, so…as you may have noticed blogspot has redirected you here.  Well it was time for a change, to be honest I bought this domain without knowing if I wanted it to be my personal blog or not, I was debating using it just as my online persona, but since my life is so attached to this persona I decided to go ahead and make this my offical blog.

I will work on moving everything here over the next few months if possible.   Also I should be updating this very soon, as I have been really busy!  I have been to Long Beach, WA to visit family and the Gold Coast to to enjoy the Mail Boats and Portland for various reasons.

More on these trips should be posted soon.

Through out the past 4 years I have been trying to get all my DVD’s converted into Digital Media that I could easily stream to various computers or even to my TV, without paying a lot of money.  Being a Network Engineer I figured this task wouldn’t be that difficult….but alas, it has.

It all started when I decided .AVI was my format of choice, it seemed it was the format that would last the longest and it was the most widely accepted at the time.  At first this was working fine, converting DVD’s went fairly well;

1. DVD Dycrypter converted the DVD to a usable form
2. Random tools would take the largest .VOB file and convert it to the .AVI format ready to play
3. Stream said file to any computer in the house.

Now the problem with the above is;

• Will not stream to a TV
• Could not stream to XBOX to stream to TV
• DVD structure was always changing, so movies started using multiple .VOB files and soon you had to merge 6 different .AVI’s to get the full movie.

Since I am a gamer and the XBOX 360 came out, I decided to persue using the 360 as an extender to Windows MCE, but this required I convert all my DVD to .WMV rather then what I had been doing and then hoping that I didn’t get screwed in the long run by choosing that format.   This in itself proved to be difficult, and still didn’t address the the fact I had to merge multiple .WMV files to get the whole DVD, so I decided to research using other tools to convert the DVD’s to .WMV and I stumbled across AVS 4in 1 video converter which is able to read the .IFO file which stores the entire DVD structure and is able to create one file out of it, this was awesome.

So at this stage I am starting over and moving all my DVD’s to .WMV, since I can stream to my TV and watch any of them on any computer in the house, even the Linux computers.  But I am still running into the occasional DVD that just won’t convert correctly, either the sound is off or the subtitles are missing and that is a still something I need to work out.   Maybe since the XBOX 360 is adding support for other formats I will try to see if they convert more consistanlty.