HTPC - Home Theater PC
For quite awhile now, I’ve wanted to set up a media center PC in my Living Room to make internet access, digital photos, music and videos more convenient. Plus, it would just be really cool to be able to jump online and check email in between movies or TV shows. Here’s a diagram of the proposed addition (1 and 3) and my plan for configuring it into my current network.
My main goal was being able to listen to music - stored on my network’s external hardrive - and surf the internet using my home theater audio system. Other tasks like viewing digital photos and videos are nice-to-haves. That said, I’m not necessarily planning on using this HTPC to view TV or to record digital video. I have another PC with a TV-Wonder card (I think that’s its name) and I might re-purpose the card at a later time. I don’t see much of a reason to do so right now, given that fact that I’m happy with the current setup and am only looking to add the PC to the exiting hardware.. Maybe in the future, I’ll set it up to record video to the PC’s hard drive.
Staking my claim
This blog is now claimed.
-edit: Not that it’ll make much difference since I don’t update my blog for shit.
Curecanti National Park
Our weekend started at 9am on Saturday when we met up with Quentin, Chayo and his two boys, Diego and little Chayo. Our plan was to do a little recon of Curecanti National Park. We’re planning another trip there in August so we figured we’d get acquainted with the area so we knew what to expect. After a 4.5 hr drive through the heart of Colorado we made it to the Blue Mesa Reservoir. With its majestic sandstone cliffs and scenic mesas surrounding a canyon full of sparkling green water, we knew this was going to be a nice place to spend the weekend.
We set up our campsite, organized our food and gear then headed down to the Lake Fork Marina to rent a pontoon boat for a couple hours of fishing and relaxation on the lake. We cruised around the west end of the reservoir and explored a few inlets that yielded some calmer water than the main basin of the lake. We found some nice rocks to jump off of into the water and spend a few minutes cooling off. Quite literally.
By the time we returned the pontoon and got back to our campsite, it was time to fire up the grill for some burgers, hot dogs and bratwurst. We had worked up and appetite and were ready to relax by the campfire. We stayed up till almost midnight then hit the sack to prepare for the next day.
Surfing Clear Creek
This weekend was a blast! We left Golden around 9:00am on June 3 after rounding up some supplies and headed west on I-70 to Idaho Springs. Once past Evergreen, it takes almost no time at all to get down the hill and through the first tunnel into the heart of Clear Creek County. We were meeting some friends at the Clear Creek Rafting Company Headquarters for the order of the day, an 8-10 mile river run down Clear Creek. After a short introduction from our lead river guide, Jeff, we all grabbed websuits, splash jackets, helmets and PFD’s, loaded up on a big yellow school bus for a short drive upstream to our put-in.
Jeff ran through the obligatory safety instructions for the beginners’ benefit and we split up into four groups of 6. Maverick, our river guide, gave us a few pointers on paddling properly and we started downstream. The high-runoff season has just started to peak since it’s been so hot so the conditions were just about perfect for great river rafting.
The first few minutes gave us a chance to get used to the scenery and the frequent Class III’s before hitting our first Class IV, Nomad. Anticipation was high for Phoenix, our second set of Class IV’s, but we powered through that section without losing any paddlers. The same couldn’t be said for our fourth boat. They lost a couple paddlers in the rapids and they were quickly scooped up by Josh and Joe in one of the other boats. According to the river guides, the rescue went by the book, which is good to know after the fact.
We also saw a guy that had lost his kayak and was running along the bank trying to keep up with it. He was pretty distraught. Another guide in our group grabbed his boat and ferried it back across the river to him.
Our last set of big rapids was the Outer Limits, a stretch of 50-60 yards of pure Class IV’s, which turned out to be the most fun. I was in front and my biggest concern was just merely staying in the boat which I accomplished with a little effort.
I think I can safely say after my first rafting expedition that I’ll be back on the water very soon. Hopefully, in the next few weeks. I’ll post pictures once the film gets developed. (Yeah, I know, stone-age.)
Peace,
Dwight
Back to Work
Well it’s Monday and time to go back to work. I did get quite a bit of carbonbased work done this weekend with the exception of an API certificate I still need to integrate into the shopping cart for Pinnacle Achievement. It’s a little bit of a learning curve to say the least.
This weekend was fairly relaxing despite the 8 hours I put in on Sunday. I just worked on my blog a little, set up Howard’s first newsletter from Washington DC and watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Always a great (and funny) movie.
One short week to our 4-day Christmas weekend. It’ll be fast and furious, but I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. Friday is our floating holiday so the extra day makes it a really nice break. I can hear the lodge hot tub calling my name.
Right now it’s 22°F and Mostly Cloudy. Today we can expect a high of 38°F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.