Okay, where was I?

Right, in process of building myself a DVR (Read Part One post), I did away with Linux since it wouldn’t play nice with the Hauppauge HVR-2250 tuner, or play sound through the HDMI cable. VISTA, once loaded, I put the install disc for my GeForce sound card, and when it rebooted after that, SOUND! No other configurations, nope, just install the drivers, and sound went through the HDMI like it should. One thing I didn’t like, I actually had to use my laptop to find the drivers for the wireless card, where Mythbuntu recognized it on its own. So I downloaded to a USB drive and then loaded it into my new DVR or PVR or HTPC (whatever you want to call it), got the wireless working, simple. Then popped the disc for the HVR-2250, installed, reboot, and boom. Tested the Windows Media Center, got it set up, and viola, got TV.

Unfortunately, VISTA only tuned to the analog cable signals. But, I had video and sound, further than with Mythbuntu. So, hours more into figuring out how to get the ClearQAM channels, from trying open source alternatives to Media Center (NPVR and Media Portal, both failures, from getting both analog and digital (versus just one), which the NPVR only came up with the digital (maybe it was because I was tired that I didn’t feel like working with it long enough). And with Media Portal, I couldn’t get the channel list to be accurate enough, probably because it doesn’t ask for a zip code to get local info, and I’m not gonna manually set with channel number is which channel). Basically, those open source solutions, I didn’t want to spend too much time playing with this, I wanted it to work.

So, in comes a Hauppauge plug-in (found here). I tried it after the NPVR but before Media Portal and didn’t get it to work. But I went back to it, as I read the instructions completely and realized that I was supposed to install from the Media Center program library. Then, set up the channels again, but start off with an Antenna setting, then also for cable. Once I did that, it worked.

So, with it working by the heavy Wednesday 9pm hour, I was happy. I have Mr. Sunshine and Breaking In still on there waiting for me to watch. I still have my DVD-Recorder hooked up, so I used that for Criminal Minds while I watched Ghost Hunters. Then I caught the midnight encore of Mythbusters, as I ran out of tuners.

I tested it with how it works with sleep mode: perfect. I can put my computer in sleep mode before I leave, and it’ll wake itself up for a recording. I’ll still turn it off, as it is a PC still and I don’t want it to be on ALL THE TIME, but have it on when I need it on.

But, given this is VISTA and my 30-day limit, I am gonna have to just get Windows 7 (the OEM version is $100, plus I also need to get a newer DVD burner drive so the old one can go back into my first built computer.

PROS:
No monthly fee – unlike TiVo or any cable/satellite providers, there’s a monthly fee. With TiVo, it’s like $13/mo and most cab/sat is about $6-$10/mo (I’ll say $8/mo to average it out).

It’s more than a DVR – Windows can do things right, and their Media Center works great. If I didn’t have a PS3 already doing it, I can stream my Netflix. I can watch any videos on my machine, listen to music. Plus, this is a computer, so outside the Media Center software, I can do whatever I can do with any computer: browse the web, check email, play games, etc.) I’m not gonna really do a lot of that, but it’s an option.

CONS:
I didn’t get a remote, but I printed a list of basic keyboard shortcuts, but still have to revert to the mouse sometimes. I really shouldn’t put it as a con, since I knew I wasn’t gonna set one up with use with a remote (I did get an OEM tv tuner which didn’t come with WinTV or a remote)

I’m running VISTA 32-bit, so my 4GB of RAM is not fully recognized (more like 3.2GB). Another reason to put down another $100 for Windows 7.

Being Windows instead of Linux, I have to have an antivirus running alongside. Luckily, I’m using a free Avast! AV, which has a nice silent feature for gaming (no pop-up notifications), plus, it’s not a system hog, I can deal with it.

Oddly, I can record an analog and a digital at the same time, but not a digital and a digital or an analog and an analog. Weird. So I have to pick which shows I want digital (any CW show has to record on digital as it’s the only way it’s available, so Big Bang Theory (funny!) recorded from an analog source so I could record the new The Vampire Diaries (which was GOOD tonight)).

RUNDOWN:
My PC versus getting TiVo

My PC was $363 at NewEgg (plus, I can get a $20 rebate which I have to mail in still) + $44 for the RAM I got at Amazon (Crucial, BTW, and only because I had unused gift card amount), comes to $407, right now. Add $100 for Windows 7 in the future and I can find a burner for about $20, so that cancels out with the rebate, and I’m looking at $507.

With TiVo, it’s either $100 for the unit plus $20 a month for the service, or $300 for the unit and $13/mo for the service. This is for the regular one which does 45hrs HD (about what my built one can do as well, according to Windows), but add $60 for a wireless-g adapter, so one year with $100/20 is $400. One year with the $300/13 is $516. The $100 way may be cheaper the first year, but I wouldn’t be able to do all the stuff a PC can do, and half way through the second year, I would have paid more for TiVo, as it’ll have surpassed the $507 mark for my system. The math doesn’t lie. The only positive to TiVo is cableCARD support, but that’ll be another $5/mo or something to the cable company so I wouldn’t need a box. Also, TiVo’s lifetime subscription (which is a one-time fee) is $400.

A built PC can last years, five years down the line, I still would only have paid $507 for the setup, where Tivo with a subscription (let’s go with the 300/13 setup) would come to [$300 for box + $13*12*5 for service + $60 for wireless adapter] a whopping $1,140. BTW, I had to find the price for the lifetime subscription hidden in their updated policy thingy, here. They don’t advertise it well, and the math proves why (over $1,000 in five years versus $500, that’s a big difference).

So that’s it, my new DVR setup, now I must get back to my HD recorded Bones, no conflicting shows meant I was able to record from the HD source, YAY!

I believe I’ve previously posted when I was job hunting and how much it sucked. Well, I’ve been working at a certain retail store (I won’t divulge that info, though I can give a hint: think of an Adam Sandler movie and a remote), but I just absolutely hate it. Being in a small town, our store is small with a bunch of shit cramped up inside. I fear for my life sometimes just walking in a stock room (which there are three different ones, for some reason). Between boxes stacked too high for anyone to really safely reach (as long as they aren’t too close to the light, it’s fine, but it’s still really high), only having multiple tall ladders (sometimes, I just need a damn step stool, it’s ridiculous), oh, and trying to get work done when getting called up front to run a register or “having” to stop and greet every customer (ech). I understand the need for customer service, but if the store was designed better, with like things together and decent amount of merch on the floor in reaching distance, they shouldn’t need help finding stuff. Oh, and I hate answering phones (so low tech to me).

But what am I to do? There are people who find a job they love, but I unfortunately don’t know exactly what I can do. I know I hate running a register (given) and dealing with too many people (I can help customers, but I actually hate it, especially if they don’t know what size comforter they need [you should know the size of your bed, at least I would think so]). I have no problem climbing ladders, but I hate doing that every five minutes. Again, if the store wasn’t so cramped, you wouldn’t need to stock things so high to require a ladder frequently. Even the stuff stocked in the back is up high.

It’s taking all my energy to just not quit, though I am very tempted to do so. I even bought a lottery ticket today (fingers crossed, it would make this decision easy, especially if I match at least 5 numbers, though I’d be lucky to just win the $3 with just getting a powerball number). Even four plus powerball is $10,000, which would be enough to not need to work for about 5 months (I’m gonna say 4 months, since I’d need time to look for a better job).

Now, I do have an Associate Degree for Internet Technology (specifically in Web Development), which is the most USELESS degree in this region (we’re not very up there in tech). Being on the coast, I wish I could go back and go into some like Marine Biology or something, there would a few more job options here with that. But, unfortunately, without a stable income, it’s not financially feasible to go back to school. Also, the community college, well, doesn’t really have that many great programs. Actually, there’s not a Marine Biology study, but general science, for the most part.

Maybe I should make this blog post an almost sort resume, putting myself out there in some way, since places like Monster.com tend to attract Insurance Companies saying I’m qualified, despite not actually being qualified.

I like to draw, and like to think I have some creativity. I don’t really paint, mostly pencil sketches, but I don’t really draw these large original pieces that people would want to buy. And whatever I have painted, I start but never finish (for some reason, maybe there is a painter’s block, similar to a writer’s block).

Now, I have did some quick animations, the little 15-sec witch one (really about 3-sec) and a 10-sec eye one (actually 4-sec, the rest is credit roll):

But, that’s about the most I’ve done. Could I do something longer? I have thought of trying, even getting audio software in order to do voices (and messing with pitch and whatever), but I don’t really have time (damn work). At one point, back in high school, I once considered going to this certain school that dealt more with graphic design, animation, and, well, basically, using technology for creative projects. But it’s an expensive school, but I always wondered whether I could’ve worked in 3D animation, using the software to render video. Guess I’ll never know.

I’ve looked at other schools, wishing to go into something related to film and TV. I love movies, and obviously, I love a lot of TV shows (despite me limiting myself to any new series, since I no longer have a DVR to just be able to watch the 40-some odd number of shows I used to watch. It’ll be nice to find a job where knowing about a shit-load of TV shows, as well as understanding TV ratings and such, and getting paid. Though, I don’t consider myself much of a writer.

And, as I just said, I’m not the greatest writer. Right now, I have multiple, what I call “story ideas,” I’ve been working on (some I started as long as 5-6 years ago). Typically, they are of sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural themes (a few vampire/werewolf ones), but I generally have an idea of what is going on, but I have a hard time developing an actual plot.

I think what it comes down to, I’d love to work where I’d have more freedom (I never go to the movies) and don’t feel so miserable all the time. I was in the top 20 of my graduating class, I had a high GPA in both high school and at community college. I did well in general (not so much in gym, go figure, and also Spanish, and Chemistry (though I think that was the teacher, ’cause oddly, I did well in science classes, except that one). I only failed one class, Calculus (that is very hard, I didn’t even take the second part, went for a college course instead, dealing with computer multimedia (such as flash)).

I can build a computer (built my first for myself in 2006, and, though I now have a laptop, just last week it was plugged back in and it still works), I understand basic networking, and just to note, that computer I built had two Linux distros (PCLinux 2007 and OpenSUSE 10.2) as well as Windows XP Pro. If I could either find a better, more stable job, or just win the lottery, I would love to build another machine, this time one to serve as a DVR (I really, really want to do this, so that no matter what service I have, they can’t take it away from me). I was thinking a MythTV setup, since it’ll be Linux (not Windows), and since it’ll serve one purpose, it wouldn’t need to be overly powerful.

Geez, over a thousand words, yikes, I’ve got to stop going on like this.

Until another day…

I currently work at a small little (well, not small small, but just not a chain store of any kind) retail store. No, not saying what store and where (I’m not stupid), but it sells home decor stuff and bedding, but after 2008, along with actual merchandise, the owner acquired shit from like those liquidation people (stores have a bunch of shit people don’t buy for a reason, yet there are companies that buy off stuff from them and re-sell to dumbasses. These “seconds” aren’t always bad (such as the extra random fabric he got, or some decent mirrors, etc), but when it just random stuff thrown into boxes, you’re talking broken stuff, half-emptied bottles, or just completely leaked chemicals that got on everything, so nothing is even sell-able. The store has gone down the toilet. Now of course, it’s going out of business, since people with money decided to not buy stuff, causing people trying to work for a living, to either get laid off or have their hours cut (thanks, BTW).

Of course, we get these people who say, “oh, I’m so sorry you’re going out of business,” or even, “I like coming in here to look around,” which makes me want to say, “yeah, well, looking around doesn’t pay the bills.” It’s bad enough that I have been working in retail (and I know I’m not the only one who has to put up with the stupidity of customers, found a great little site nicely called Retail-Sucks.com). But what sucks, is that we’re going out of business, and it was decided months after he opened a similar, yet much smaller, and more beachier, store, only about a 15min drive from the “main” store. They did well in the summer, but, in the off-season, saw a few days where they did even make any money (had some sales, but more returns). They’re staying open. Now, it’s spring-time, and we’ve been going out of business for about 4 months now, and they have only just started to pick up decent numbers, yet he’s not hiring any extra help. I feel sorry for them, working 50-60 hours in a week, because there are only 2 full-timers there, and 2 part-timers. While at our store, there’s 4 of us full-timers, and 2 part-timers (one of which has really low hours, and the other who has to go pee a lot, seriously). We have a manager who doesn’t always show up on time, and another who talks on the phone A LOT (mostly on her own cell phone). The other one sometimes uses the store phone, and has to take a cig break at least every hour. Not saying I’ve always came into work on time (5-15 min late, not a morning person), but I take no breaks, and lately, with business seeing some busy days, I sometimes don’t even get a lunch break, and if I do, it’s 10-15 min, just enough to eat a sandwich.

But back to what is sucking, and that is trying to find a job. I’m trying to look for higher paying jobs, or at least those similar to what I make now (~20,000 a year), but come up empty. The problem, there are TOO MANY damn restaurants now in the area, not that many places to shop, so staying away from restaurant jobs (which I’m reluctant to go back to) and finding a possible retail store where I may do some of the same stuff I do now, is hard. So, as for higher paying jobs, I’ve been looking into government jobs, but experience is a factor (I have an Associates in Internet Technologies, so I was looking at some tech jobs, but typically, that doesn’t seem to be enough).

I thought of maybe adding an ad to this blog, but if anyone actually views this and clicked on it, it wouldn’t be enough (though still, I’ve considered LinkShare, since they do the affiliate links with iTunes). I hate ads, but I may need to start monetizing this blog (the main site has some affiliate links, as does this blog already, from Zazzle, but I am having a hard time thinking of something truly original for a design to go on shirts and mugs that people may actually want to buy). If I can finish writing my story ideas, I thought of seeing if I have a writing future, but, as evidence of this blog, I don’t think I’m much of a writer.

Come to think of it, I don’t know what it is I’m really good at, except for watching a bunch of different TV shows, but I feel there are enough TV bloggers out there, and I think I’ve been real good about lessening TV talk on this blog. Although, I’ve been using this blog less and less now.

Oh well, felt the need to vent a little, plus my arm is tired and I need to finish Legend of the Seeker from my beautiful DVR that makes it possible for me to watch the amount of shows I do.

Oh, did I mention that job sites like Monster and HotJobs are useless, since I live in a tech-challenged county that are least likely to post job openings online.

I remember growing up without any cable TV networks, including MTV. But, whenever I was at my grandparents, MTV was a network we’d watch (now this is the early 90s, they still showed videos then). The only non-music program we watched was Beavis and Butt-head (and that even had them, I guess you can say, do commentary to shortened music videos). Even earlier in the 90s, or really late 80s, for me, when we visited my mom’s family 400 miles away, we stayed at my great-grandmother’s apartment, and from time to time, watched MTV (yes, my great-grandmother would watch MTV too). I remembered they didn’t restrict themselves to the newest videos, as I remember “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which at that time, was easily 3 years old. I remember 1990, with Aerosmith “Janie’s Got A Gun,” and Jon Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory” (loved that video as a little 5 year old).

The point is, I loved music videos. We had the VHS tapes for Def Leppard Hysteria videos (which wasn’t just Hysteria, also had Pyromania ones as well) and Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet the videos, so those were the only way for us to watch videos. NBC used to have Friday Night Videos (YEAH, I remember that), which became our only source for music videos, being an antenna family.

But in 1995, we got Primestar, a satellite dish company, but MTV wasn’t part of our lineup (or, wasn’t available to Primestar, I was only 10), but I remember when we got it, in Oct. ’95, it was available to us, and right when I got home from school, I tuned to it, and Bush “Comedown” was on. That’s how much I loved having the station. They played videos in the afternoon, so everyday we’d tune to it after school, caught the likes of Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” Alanis Morisette’s “You Oughta Know,” and more from the likes of U2, REM, as well as the shit being played at that time (Rap, not a fan of it) which there’s a ‘Mute’ button for. And, of course, Beavis and Butt-Head, which eventually even my parents ended up liking.

But the late 90′s became a problem. Right after school, this stupid video countdown was on (TRL, Which I believe stood for ‘Total Request Live,’ but it wasn’t a pure ‘request show,’ just more of a voting of current videos into a countdown, so MTV failed to understand one concept). And that was an hour of videos, MTV increased how often Real World and Road Rules was shown, and even when videos came on, the new shit playing (the Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys) was enough to want your ears ripped off. And they were also more strict to new videos, rarely anything older than 6 months, it seemed. Tom Petty used to be the one artist MTV showed and honored, but they swept him under the rug for young assholes, there is no nice way to put it. Music Television was for all music, not just youthful. (Which is why we have VH-1 Classic, but, eh they have been showing some of those ’100 whatevers’ VH-1 loves, but the good thing is they are all MUSIC RELATED, so far).

As the years progressed, TRL wasn’t in the afternoon, and the only time blocks of videos were played were in the wee-hours of the morning, and for only a few hours at best. Now, with more shit like Jersey Shore airing, videos are compressed to near nothing (maybe once a week there is an hour block, maybe).

For over ten years, MTV has been increasing non-music programs, but continued to refer to themselves as ‘Music Television,’ while the masses, people like me, lean more towards ‘Moronic TV,’ or ‘Meaningless TV.’

Now that’s changing, MTV is officially re-branding their logo, removing the ‘Music Television’ tag-line. Unfortunately, the general manager, Stephen Friedman, is still blind and believes that “”Music is still at the center of so much of what we do, but we’ve really expanded what that means. We needed the logo to be flexible enough to have the artists within it but also the stars of our shows.” (AdAge.com).

When was the last time you remember anything MTV has done with music at its center?

MTV drops ‘Music Television’ from official logo – LA Times

What’s the ‘M’ in MTV for? – BuddyTV

MTV Finally Gives Up on Music – TV.Com

Small opinion:

Now, VH1 (the ‘VH’ is supposed to be ‘Video Hits’) should follow, as they don’t showcase ‘videos’ much no more as well, neither does MTV2. Also, Cartoon Network needs to adjust their logo, as they have strayed from actual cartoons several times. Even TNT and TBS switch their roles, ’cause I remember a few occasions where TBS is showing something more on the drama side than comedy, despite TBS’s tagline is ‘Very Funny,’ and TNT’s is ‘We Know Drama.’ Seems like networks just can’t stick to one thing, since Sci-Fi Channel showed wrestling and they rebranded last year to Syfy, so they can justify showing wrestling, but other than that, all the programming is still consistent in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

Today it started snowing. Used to, especially when I was in school (phew, 5 years ago, man, time flies), I’d want snow. It’s been 20 years I think since we last had real good snow, not some lame 1-3 inch bullcrap, I mean GOOD snow (about a foot), but I was about 3 at the time, so not so good with any real memory of that, just pictures of it. But, I get two days off in a pay week, today was the end of that said pay week, meaning I had three days off now, since they decided to close early (I do evenings since I’m not a morning person). If they close earlier, I’m not needed, so I got the call from work telling me to not come in. This sucks. No, I don’t like my work, I hate it actually, but I need money, so I lost eight hours today, and that sucks.

Oh well, not much I can really do there, so here are some pictures (edited down for size).

Later,