12.18.2008

whoa...

My head hurts...for the reason why see here:
http://zoomzoommacy.blogspot.com/2008/12/wowzers.html

So this was my horoscope today according to Facebook:
Libra: Relax! Stressing about what's gonna happen later today or this week will get you nowhere. All you can do is wait and see..
That's amusing.  I've been stressing a lot lately...car, school, people, school.  Hopefully the break will give me an opportunity to relax and take things a bit slower now, and refocus on the bigger picture.

- redd

12.09.2008

life as it is...

I haven't written anything personal in awhile, and since I'm in need of venting my frustrations and no one really reads this anyway, I figured I'd post something new.

About a month and a half ago the security guard stole my laptop from a locked room, and very early in the morning. I won't go into details but I'm 110% positive it was him. He no longer works at school, and neither does his brother. Security (the other ones) have been pretty good with helping out, and the case is now in the hands of Beverly police. Honestly, I don't have much hope for getting it back. My problem now is having a machine to do work on. My boss at school is letting me use his Dell for schoolwork and such (I'm typing on it at the moment), but he's leaving soon. My mom, who was paying for my laptop, doesn't yet know what happened. I'm admittedly pretty worried about telling her, I already see where the conversation will go. While it really wasn't my fault at all, and I've had numerous people tell me that, it won't matter, I'll still get blamed and have the guilt trips for days. So, because I'm a procrastinator I haven't told them yet.

I'm now working for both my school and at a design firm. It's for my internship, but a paying one. I can say for the first time I actually enjoy going to work. When I'm working on stuff that drives me crazy I just want to go home, but I really enjoy doing what I'm doing, and I'm glad I chose the right career path for myself. It's a print firm, and we design mostly newsletters, books and marketing stuff, with an occasional odd project thrown in. I'm not sure what will happen after my hours are up, I kinda hope that I stay on and work there for awhile, we'll see. At school I just work a couple hours a week, updating the Macs in the photo and senior design labs, clean stuff up, etcetc. I found out this week that some people above me are leaving, which leaves a potential for gaining hours as well as potential job after I graduate. Again, we'll see.

About Macy, she's plugging along. I have a lot of work to do, the cam still ticks, but she's still getting me where I need to go. She ticked over 160k miles a week ago, and there's 16k less on the motor and trans. Third gear is completely gone, which kinda makes shifting a pain in the ass, so I'm just 1-2-4-5 shifting. I'd like to get the spare trans rebuilt with the LSD, but due to money constraints I don't think that's happening for awhile. I put the winter wheels on with newer Blizzaks on the back, but I still have to get some winter tires for the front. I also need to get the sway bar on, replace the tie rods and CV shafts. I'm planning on creating a blog specifically for my car though, since I always have something new.

School...well...meh. I ended up withdrawing from Art History awhile ago since there was not a chance in hell I would've passed. Instead I'm taking it again next year, as well as some other classes. I won't graduate with the rest of the '09 crew, but I'll finish up in the summer. It really won't make much difference with me since I'm planning on going back to Beverly soon anyway. I'm working on something for semester I'm pretty happy with, once I finish it. Client projects is going well, and I'm in it again next semester, and Science, yeah anyway.

I hate where I'm living. Well that's a strong statement I guess. If I really hated it I'd spend as much time as I could in Beverly at both school and people's houses. Anyone who knows me lately will find irony in that. I'm looking into moving back to Beverly soon. I have the luxury of having a place to live comfortably while I'm looking, so it's not like I'm desperate, and I know a few people who are looking for apartments that are roommate-acceptable. But seriously, I'm tired of the commute, and it's only going to get worse as the snow comes; I'm tired of never having privacy, or not feeling weird if I have people over; I'm tired of the fucking notes. People leaving notes where I live is a pet peeve of mine. It's one thing to leave a note with where you're going, that's fine, but don't leave a note reminding to do something I already did or something not to do I never did in the first place. I find it demeaning; you see me everyday, open your mouth and say something.

Dating...sucks. I've been dating quite a bit, more than I ever have, since I broke up with Chris in May. I've met some amazing guys at the wrong times, and the wrong guys at the right time. I'm sick of being single but I'm also tired of dating people I'm not both physically and emotionally attracted to. It doesn't help that I'm also completely insecure with myself...how I look, how I act, how I come across to other people, and how I'm a horrible person in so many ways. I know that I'm exaggerating myself but I can't deny it's things I feel sometimes. This also ties into living so far from "home" since I'm ridiculously lonely half the time here. I don't have a problem at all meeting people. Since freshman year I've done a complete 180 in my personality, at least as far as being outgoing and all that. I remember back then I'd rarely talk to anyone, I felt like a moron at school, and that there was no way I belonged there. And now...it's where I belong. Anywhere else and I would've dropped out. Montserrat and Beverly is my home, I plan on being here as long as I can afford to. In the past year I've made more friends than in my previous three years, now why the hell would I move away from that?

I broke my phone today. I was messing with it, like I always do with things I want to understand more, and I took it all apart and couldn't put it back together. The new piece was already paid for and in the mail courtesy of ebay. My phone is amazing, other than that. Though sometimes I hate technology because it just doesn't work.

I've been neglecting the car club. I feel really bad since I've been so busy with other stuff, since the club is my baby and all, but priorities are priorities. The club forum is down and I have no idea how to fix it...a project for the break I suppose.

I need to start writing in this more. Well that was a synopsis of my life for the past couple months, updates as I see fit.

- Ashley

11.05.2008

WE WIN!

As of 12:56 AM Nov. 5th:

Barack Obama is the next President of the United States.

Dems will have the majority in both Senate and the House.

My town voted Dem for the first time in at least two elections.

I'm so proud.

CHANGE.  HOPE.  OBAMA. (and Biden)

- Ashley

10.23.2008

Classes for next semester...

So I'm going to be here an extra semester, but honestly that's fine with me.  It means I get to take some classes that I've wanted to take next year that I haven't been able to, and I kinda have a nice schedule next semester...

Mon/Weds: 
Art Since 1945 (again, I withdrew from it this semester) | 6:30-7:45

Tues/Thurs: 
Senior Design Seminar | 8:30-11:10
Interactive Design (flash, yay!) | 6:30-9:10

Fri:
Contemporary Social Problems | 9:30-12:10

9.27.2008

Happy Birthday...

to me! Well....yesterday...

I'm now 22, and don't feel any different, except my wisdom tooth hurts more and my shoulder hurts less.

I unfortunately missed work yesterday because Thursday night my car died. More distributor problems, yay! So in the morning I picked up this from Hertz:


It's an '08 Subaru Impreza...I must say having AWD in yesterdays rain was a blast.  Driving a new car is definitely weird though...I'm used to the random weird noises mine makes...

So tonight is pike night with the guys (aka the club) and tomorrow is the cruise and cookout...

9.23.2008

not sick?


so i'm not getting sick afterall...i sprained something in my left shoulder and now have a sling and a prescription for muscle relaxers...

joy.

9.20.2008

uhg

I'm getting sick, I can feel it. I pushed myself too much this week, and am now paying for it. Doesn't help that it's like 40 degrees in this house. I need fucking heat, man. My chest feels heavy, like there's a pressure on it, my nose is starting to run, I was sneezing and coughing earlier today.

Fuck. This.

Oh, went to dunks late last night for a tea...got asked out by one of the guys who works there. That was really amusing. I'm not really interested at all, but it was still nice to know that someone wanted to ask me out for, and I quote, "weeks." Kinda reminds me of the thing with SS...kinda...

It's amusing to say the least.

I'm officially becoming a hermit today. Maybe venturing out later today to Haverhill, depending how shitty I feel.

- Redd

9.14.2008

IMG00259.jpg

Wheeee
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9.13.2008

my goal...

my goal is to at least go to the state i completely missed on our way to and from CA.

I'm going to Philly tonight with the NER crew...pics and such will be up later, or if I take a good one with the crackberry en route.

- ashley

9.03.2008

IMG00245.jpg

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Emailing: IMG00243

Downtown Beverly, working on the church.

7.28.2008

Fellow rallier spotted!

In Lawrence Sunday afternoon at showcase cinemas.
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New England Rally | This Weekend!

The New England Rally is this coming weekend (Fri-Sat) and as some of you know I'm the "official" film crew for the event. I get to get in everyones faces with a camera and ask a million questions. Nah I won't do that but I'm going to be getting comments from participants, maybe outsiders who just see us pass through, and of course rolling videos of people's cars and whatever interesting, crazy stuff happens like always.

Last year I was a participant, and the rally was awesome. I had taken my car on its first long journey, and man what a journey. At the end of it all I had done 2000 miles in 4 days, at one point driving 17 hours straight. My co-driver couldn't drive standard so I was it. This also meant that as a photographer I was annoyed that I couldn't take as many pictures as I could. However, looking back, at the time I didn't have my new fancy camera. Last year we ventured into Canada and had the overnight going through New York on the highway. This year, no Canada for us, but we do get to hit up every state in New England, and have some awesome times in store (I can't spill the beans!)

This year I'll have a co-driver who can both drive stick and take photos, so I'll still be able to drive aways. Actually I'll still end up doing most of the driving...I've noticed my 3rd gear isn't liking me lately and if you don't catch it just right it grinds like crazy :( Good thing I have a spare tranny at home for next year!

Here's a few pics from fellow participants from last year's run:















Much much more of that for this years run, though I doubt I'll be hanging out the window as far as Gino was.

My gear for the trip:
- Canon Rebel XT w/55mm standard lens
- Canon 75-300mm telephoto lens
- Samsung 8.3mp point-and-shoot that takes video
- Samsung digital video camera
- car mounted camera mount
- laptop mount
- handheld CB
- car mounted CB attached to antenna
- car mounted FRS radio w/antenna
- handheld FRS radios
- GPS on phone, GPS device AND laptop (we won't get lost :D)
- 400w power invertor

I'm sure I have more and just can't remember! My co-driver will also have his DSLR camera.

So since I love to write I'm sure I'll be making posts with pictures from the road (from my phone) and keeping people updated on where we are and what we're doing!

- Ashley
Film Crew
New England Rally '08

7.01.2008

IMG00174.jpg

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5.31.2008

I can haz...

...moth?
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5.23.2008

What's wrong...

With that picture? The guy on the right looks he's enjoying it way too much.
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New phone!

Yeah, so, took me a few days but I set up a mail account only for my new blackberry. I have gmail on this but it doesn't let me send pics...like this one of fizzle being vacuumed. Priceless.

In t-20 min I'm off to CT to my brothers going away party. He's moving to CA for a year for acting classes. Kudos to him.

Well my thumbs hurt, time to post this.

-redd
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5.14.2008

Seminar Proposal and an Update

Classes ended yesterday.  Thank god.

I had my seminar review today for my proposal which I think went well.  For the first time I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do, while still having room to expand and evolve my idea. 

I still have a few things to turn in...but I have allll day tomarrow to work on stuff.  No worries.

Chris and I are doing well :)  He's going to NC for a week with his family, therefore I am going back to CT...

Work is good, with more freelance work on the horizon.

Here's my proposal:

Senior Seminar Proposal

The automobile plays a major role in my life.  Most of my personal and class work, and some client work, is geared for the automotive culture.  It defines who I am, what I do, and is what I like doing.  I have run a car club for several years, built from the ground up, I do web design work for car enthusiasts and am a believer in both automobiles of today and "way back when."  What I hope to find out and research next semester is why cars have such an impact on my life, and how and why their design defines the American culture, especially from the 1950's on.

I am interested in a cars' outward appearance; their aesthetics.  What is it that makes people look at one car over another?  Why do some instantly catch your eye?  Why are designs from before we were born still a part of automotive design today?  What makes those lines so classic, and what lines are classic?  I want to explore the lines, the geometry, the form and shape of the automobile.  I want to connect the underlying philosophy behind car design to other forms of commercial and consumer design; trains, planes, radios.  Post WWII was a redefining period in design of the automobile, as well as more recently with the emerging need for efficiency.  My seminar project will be an extension and conclusion to the ideas, concepts and projects I've done in design for the past few years.

I see myself utilizing skills and processes from more than just design.  I want to incorporate photography and hands-on media such as sculpture to illustrate my ideas and findings.  I also plan on using 3D animation to showcase the flowing lines of the automobile.  This would be in addition to graphic design work; a book, posters or a website; all possibilities.

Let me know what you think.

- Redd

4.08.2008

Classes for Next Semester

Here are my classes for next semester.

Mon/Weds:
  • Senior Design Seminar | 8:30-11:10
  • Art Since 1945 | 1:55-3:10
Tues/Thurs
  • Special Topics in Graphic Design | 12:30-3:10
  • Concepts in Science | 4:55-6:10
I'm also going to be doing the Special Topics class over the summer as well as an 'internship' so that we don't have to pay for it, and we still get credits.  I'm going to be maxed out at 18 credits next semester, but still missing a few classes, so I'll have to either take a summer class at Salem State or a class here over the winter...or both.

And no, I have no idea what my topic will be for senior seminar...I just look forward to having my own lil studio to do work in.

- Redd

3.18.2008

mmmmm Firefox

Just for shits and giggles I downloaded the new Firefox 3 Beta, so far so good. Some of my add-ons don't work but that's to be expected. My old browser of choice was of course Firefox 2, and I have definitely noticed that 3 is faster, which is always a bonus on my Vista machine. This of course is a Beta so I'm sure I'll see some issues, but meh, new technology is sometimes good technology.

In other news, tomarrow is hopefully the day I fix the suspension on my car. I need to replace both control arms (which are in transit), install new sway bar endlinks (mmm Moog), put on the slotted rotors and then the new pads. Eventually when I have mula I'll put on new strut mounts since I suppose the bearings are bad. Friday night is Pike Night and then I'm going to Chris' so the car has to be drivable by then.

No idea when I'm going to replace the cam, I now have all the parts at least, IM and VC gaskets, VC, plugs, wires, and the cam and journals are in Chris' car (whoops).

I did an impromptu photoshoot last night with my brother and sister. My brother, Matt, is going to CA for a year for acting school, so he needed some headshots, and more pictures for MySpace. My sister is also photogenic (why couldn't I have gotten that?) so of course all those pics are here.

- Redd

3.11.2008

Yesss

I used to love this show.

Sweet.

- Redd

I want this...

Somehow while browsing Slashdot I came across mini-ITX.com and some cool computer case projects...one was this.



I want one, like really.

- Redd

3.07.2008

Getting better every day...

So something just happened that made me sit back and go...oh...

Well two things actually...I took the stairs to the 1st floor of the Cummings Center, instead of the elevator, and I bought a Vitamin Water instead of my usual Fresca or Root Beer. Granted, I did buy a chocolate chip cookie, which I will be devouring in a few minutes, but the fact that I made two healthy decisions unconsciously is a good thing.

I'm not the healthiest person, I mean I have pretty good hygiene, but I don't always eat what I should, or exercise as much as I should. But then the other day I realized while ordering a #4 off the McD's menu, that I hadn't gotten fast food in over a week or two. When I worked at Autozone I would always stop at McD's before work, or on break, or after work...totally unhealthy...what changed? New job, new BF, new focus on life I guess, all good things most definitely.

Having people around me that are more motivated than I am definitely doesn't hurt either.

So I'm going to consciously think about this from now on, and take the stairs, and drink more water and tea (I've found the joy of Lemon Arizona Iced Tea), and maybe *gasp* start riding my bike to school, or at least around the area when I'm actually in Salem on weekends.

- Redd

3.04.2008

Story of my life.

I went to Autozone the other day, spent about 20 minutes cleaning the exterior of my car for the hell of it in the freezing cold, then proceeded to drive home, where I hit a huge pothole, messing up my alignment even more and splattering mud on one side of my car.

Beautiful.

So anyway, recently I've become re-addicted to Midnite Challenge, which is an online multi-player text-based racing game. *breathe* I've gotten some of the club to join, and am therefore kicking their asses :) It allows me to get my car fix without actually getting my car fixed.

Speaking of club, we're aiming high this year with a bunch of awesome-assed events, one including the 24 Hours of LeMons. It's an endurance race using only a $500 car. Most excellent. Thread here.
The image “http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/i/logo.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Life is good, I have an awesome BF who gets more awesome by the weekend, I just got a $415 refund check from my school today, I've given up paying attention to all the new sounds my car makes and I'm balancing school and five jobs all at once.

ADD note: muthafuckingawsome site.

I may or may not have a new project "in the works." Details are being worked out...slowly...when I can concentrate. Oh yeah and party this Sat!

- Redd

2.25.2008

I want a cupcake.


Story here.

Best comment ever:
Please, be nice to this guy. A human just lost their life on cup cakes. We should all be worried about what he intends to tell God as reason for his death.
______________

Nothing. It would be very rude to speak to God with your mouth full.


2.21.2008

Life Part 2

So I'm sitting here drinking a beer...and remembered I have a blog.

Oops.

Update on my life I suppose? Well it's still going good mostly. I've been working at the law firm for a few weeks, doing database work and designing stuff. I've since quit Autozone, and was instantly happy because of that. I've reconnected with someone who was under my nose for the past few years, and that's going very well. School is meh, lots of reading and overthinking about things I couldn't care less thinking about, but it's still going at least. I'm learning to balance things out better, though I still need a lot of work.

Having weekends off is amazing, seriously.

I went back home this past weekend, went to the always fun Pike with some of the club crew. I miss those guys, really. I can't wait till the "season" starts again and more and more people are out. This cold weather means we don't hang out till 1am anymore. Of course that just means theres less chance of me falling asleep when I drive home...

On Sunday I visited my Gramps, then went to my CT home, and surprised everyone since no one knew I was going to visit. I ended up being not so productive as usual, but did "start" taking apart my spare motor. I'm planning to rebuild it and get it ready for teh boosht. I do have a somewhat serious problem with my car though, known to Mazda as TSB #97-17-13.

Linky

So it's seriously annoying. I don't notice any performance problems, instead it's just really hard to go through drive-thrus since the sound is so loud. My recipe for fixing involves either grabbing parts from the old motor, or buying the J-Spec KLZE cams and swapping them in. The former must be done in CT, the latter can be done anywhere. Whatever I decide I'll be doing the intake manifold and valve cover gaskets, which have to be done anyway, yay for leaking oil.

Oh, btw, I'm on Vista right now. Linux is amazingly awesome and fast, but WINE still doesn't support CS3, yet:

Google + Linux + WINE = godliness

Oh and here's some bullshit, and a very good story.

Pictures from my weekend can be found here.

Lunar eclipse here.

Over and out.

- Redd

Edit: I forgot to mention that unfortunately I had to leave my job at my school in the IT department. As a parting gift though, awesomeRob and amazingBrian bought me WoW. I may start playing again for the hell of it, not like I have a life when I'm in Salem anyway.

2.05.2008

Going, going, bye!

It's amazing how much your life can change within a few days...

I start a new job tomorrow doing designing and marketing for a patent lawyer. It's good money and will be an excellent experience for me, with the added bonus of being just enough money to afford quitting Autozone. I've worked at Autozone for two years now, was promoted to a part-time manager position, but now it's time to move on towards getting a "real" job. This all sorta happened in a flash, one day I sent out a resume and two days later I had an interview. This job also means I can have a reason to wear "nice" clothes instead of grey and black.

Another interesting thing I've noticed, is when I boot my computer into Windows, I'm much less apt to procrastinate and waste time online. I'm on Windows right now, but only to edit something in Photoshop and email it to a client. As soon as that's done it's back to Linux for me to continue my obsession with MySpace.

I am also going to be a busy bee this semester, but so far so good.

- Redd

1.31.2008

This is the story of a girl...

I'm not a religious person, I like philosophy but don't believe in most of it, I'm not into supernatural things (but have no problems with people who do) and yet, I regularly read my horoscope. The sad thing is, usually it's right.

Here's mine for the day (or two days, Facebook is lame):
Libra: You're about to get really busy, but at least it will be bunch of fun events you're looking forward to.
This couldn't be more true. Well, "fun" is a relative term I guess. This is the busiest my life has EVER been, but, strangely, I'm enjoying it, and it keeps my mind occupied. Here's a partial list, I'm sure day to day there's random things people ask me to do:

  • still work at Autozone on weekends, for now
  • starting a new job next week as a marketing designer at a law firm part-time
  • full load of 5 classes; Humanities 2, Drawing 2, Design Stories, Eastern Philosophy and:
  • Special Aspects in Graphic Design, which is going to be awesome, and also stressful, and demanding. It's basically working with outside clients to develop identities and such, doesn't really have a meeting time but is going to be a lot of work from home.
  • running my web design thing, which will pay good once I finish something, but is a lot of work from home
  • working at my school every Friday in the IT department
Oh man, this is gonna be one hell of a semester.

- Redd

1.30.2008

Linux FTW

So two posts ago I spoke of continuing with Vista and just making it run how I want.

Yeah that thought changed again.

I'm typing this from the comfortable, reasonably easy-to-use and rather excellent Ubuntu KNOME platform. I was at work one day and saw a fellow classmate loading what "looked" like OSX on a Gateway machine, but lo and behold after questioning such an atrocity it turns out she was running Linux Ubuntu with a few hacks.

I pulled out the trusty Seagate external HDD and threw Ubuntu on there, no literally, threw. I got it up and running in about 10 minutes. The only thing was Grub (the boot loader for Linux) h ad been installed onto the external HDD, so the only way to boot Vista from the local HDD was to plug it in so it would read Ubuntu. This was remedied last week when I bit the bullet and partitioned my drive, giving Ubuntu 40gigs of space to steal. So now I have a dual-boot machine: Ubuntu 7.10 and Epic Fail (aka Vista).

The biggest problems I had were making sure all my random Windows programs still worked, aka Adobe CS3, Max's HTML Beauty, WoW (not really), etc etc. The best thing about Linux is WINE, which is a Windows emulator. I could even use this on a sole Linux machine to install and run Windows programs. Chuck Yeagar's Air Combat here I come. Unfortunately, CS3 is not *yet* supported by WINE, but will run CS2 and earlier perfectly. I think I'll wait until WINE gets an update and just run CS3 from the Vista side for now.

There are SO MANY programs for Linux, mostly free and open-source, the way it should be. Firefox comes pre-installed, as well as OpenOffice, which is an excellent alternative to MS Office. I've been running OpenOffice on my Vista and XP machines for a few years. Favorite programs are: WINE (of course), Rhythmboc Music Player (which feels similar to iTunes), KNotes (think Stickies on OSX), Picasa (which is a Google product also available for the PC and Mac, think iPhoto), Pidgin (Trillian or Adium-like but faster and cleaner) and the aforementioned OpenOffice. Another nice app is VMWare, though it's not free. VMWare is basically Parallels for Linux, except not a beta program, and it actually works. I'm having trouble getting it to work with Vista since I have an earlier version but the newest version should work fine. VMWare lets you run a virtual desktop of almost any other OS (except Mac of course) ie: WinXP, 2000, NT, Vista and another Linux install.

So, if you have some free time and want to check out something cool, dust off that old Dell that was running ME 6 years ago and throw Linux on it. It just works, and makes me happy. I didn't have to install any other drivers (except some proprietary graphics drivers, go Intel), the Logitech Wireless Music System works with no extra applications and there's really no need for an anti-virus.

Adam demands this
.

Oh and this would be amazing, it better be for AT&T.

Go penguin.

- Redd

1.19.2008

So much for that.

So I had for some reason gotten it into my brain that I should just switch back from Vista to XP Pro. I had good reasoning, Vista is not any faster on this 2gig ram machine then XP was on a 512mg ram machine. So, I figured, put XP on here and it'll be faster.

So I went through and created the bootable disc and backed up all my shit and wrote down the command lines I'd need to run to eject Vista from my machine so XP would be able to format it. Well, XP can't see my disc, and that's ok.

I gave up, I didn't have a very good excuse for switching to XP, plus, I had used Vista to back up all my data, so I wasn't entirely certain it would be able to come back from the dark side.

The good side is now I have all my data backed up for the inevitable crash, I won't have to reinstall all my programs and I went through all the options I never messed with before and now have Vista running kinda maybe sorta how I wanted it.

-- Redd

1.18.2008

Music from anywhere!

So I got my new toy in the mail yesterday and OMG, brilliant. I haven't tested the range yet but no real reason to. Installation was simple enough, pop the CD in, install the driver, connect the receiver to the home stereo, plug in the USB Bluetooth thing and once the blue light is on you're connected. There's a remote that comes with it that reminds me of the little iMac remotes, except it's black, and controls volume, mute and can skip to the next song or pause it. It worked great with iTunes and since the remote points to the receiver you don't need to have the computer around at all, it can be hiding away somewhere, which is great for parties where you'd rather not have your laptop out in the open.

The only two complaints I have is that when the receiver is set to variable sound you can't control the volume with the external volume control on the computer, only with the receiver controls or the remote. The other stupid problem is more of a opinion, and thats that the remote is tiny, and you really have to PRESS the buttons since they're soft buttons and not hard.

But, those things are easily overcome and there's many hours of wireless music to be enjoyed soon.

- Redd

1.15.2008

The Wireless Crusade

I've been on this wireless crusade lately...

It first started with getting the new laptop. The old laptop (Emachines) had such an old battery that it had to stay plugged in no matter what, so I got used to leaving it on a desk and always having it plugged in. The new one (Toshiba) of course has a new battery, therefore actually being mobile. So I'd have it on my lap while sitting on the couch, being plugged into the broadband modem, the mouse, the speakers on the shelf, etc.

Getting up to do something besides browsing the interweb became a federal project of not getting tangled, thus the crusade began. I bought a cheapie Netgear wireless router from Staples; since the apartments small I don't need too much of a range. For Christmas I ended up getting a wireless mouse and keyboard made by Smartlogic and runs about $25 at of all places BJ's Wholesale.

So that solved most of the wires situation. The only one left was really the external speakers setup, and since I don't use them too often (only for music while cleaning and such) I just dealt with the wire. Till it broke, however. I always have to move the bass box out in order to reach from it to my laptop stand, which is a pain in of itself, and I guess I pulled the wire a little too hard, so now the copper wires are showing and frayed. Awesome.

Answer? this. My friend Chris mentioned it to me, and got my impulse buying gear in action, and on the credit card it went. Here's an awesome picture of it:



So yes, a wireless bluetooth adapter thing for my computer to my speakers, awesome. It will be here on Thursday so expect a full review.

-- Redd