cygweb

I think there's something to be said for simple, but functional, site designs. My recent redesign was fun, but I've got such a mess of things going on here that it's getting hard for me to make incremental changes. My current design is actually pretty darn inefficient when it comes to the archive pages. I know what you're thinking; why don't I just blather more and worry about the site design less? ;)

Here's what I'll probably do. I'm going to pick one of the non-standard MT 3.x styles (one that has slightly larger fonts) and alter it to match my current color scheme. That's one thing that's already simple and not broken (IMHO). Instead of adding columns and a lot of per-page content, I'm going optimize my rightbar with concise feed links, a Bloglines-powered blogroll, and links to other index pages (one for my linkblog and other headlines I currently display, one for media-related stuff - ICYG, podcasts, recommendations, and wishlists). I'm finally going to convert over to MT's support for dynamically building archive pages.

OK, this is mostly in my head. But I feel like I want to get this done before I begin concentrating on the production and distribution of the coming NFL season's BDFL podcasts. I also want to get everything tidied up so that when it comes time to find a new host next year, it'll be easy to pack up and move.

Well, I've been given permission to set up a 5.1 surround-sound system in my home office. My main motivation at this point is to listen to DVD-Audio. Of course, side benefits will be to watch DVD movies and play some of my games (like UT2004) with surround. Our family room is set up with a nice 2.1 speaker system, but putting up surround speakers hasn't been an option for me there. I'll take what I can get. ;)

All of my audio gear to this point is 2-channel, so I'll need to get a 5.1-capable soundcard. I'm currently leaning towards the Creative Audigy2 Value (or ZS) or the M-Audio Revolution 5.1. I have more recent experience with M-Audio, but the Creative cards appear to have more widespread use and application compatibility. I still need to investigate the software side of this equation. I believe the current version of WinDVD I use supports AC3 and DTS DVD soundtracks, but perhaps not DVD-Audio natively (although I think it has a plugin). The software that comes with at least the Audigy2 ZS includes a dedicated DVD-Audio player. On the other hand, I know M-Audio strives for compatibility with audio recording and editing applications I use, so it might be an OK choice as well. I've seen more reviews online for the Audigy2, and for the most part they are positive.

On the speaker side, based on online testimonials and features alone, I'm sold on the Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 system. I need a system that doesn't have hard-wired satellites, since I'm going to be wiring the rears neatly on a wall and need the flexiblity that spring-loaded terminals provide. Klipsch also has nice-looking wall mounts. Other systems I looked at included the two higher-end Logitech systems (both of which have hard-wired satellites) and the M-Audio LX system, which has larger satellites and a bigger price tag than the Klipsch. I'm hoping to do this all for $400-$500.

Any of you guys (or gals?) have experience with this kind of a setup? Please share your thoughts.

Out with the old, in with the... old? Yeah, this looks like a previous design, but with a few new features. First is the dynamic width adjustments via CSS width percentages. Another is the Bloglines-powered blogroll. I've moved my previous leftbar content on to two feature pages, which definitely have room for improvement. And archives are back to a simpler format.

After cleaning out my old templates, I'm going to improve the comments rendering and make a few more touchups.

It's currently 86° in Harrisburg today, and this is the first day we're using our air conditioning this year. That's got to be a record for us.

It's also the first day Ryan and I got out in the backyard to get wet!

I've been away from my desk a lot at work the last two weeks, so I haven't been listening to as many podcasts lately. However, the one so good I make time for it is the Gillmor Gang, which just recently started back up again recently. That's a good show.

My favorite droid makes a great computer.

I picked up my copy at Best Buy after work today. Great artwork by Hugh Syme, who's done lots of album artwork, most notably Rush's. I haven't had a chance to listen to the album too much the past week, but what I've heard, I've liked. I just loaded up ICYG with all eight of Dream Theater's studio albums, in reverse chronological order for this evening's listening.

Ross blogged about some new blogs at PennLive Weblogs and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm (finally!) on the list of local bloggers. Cool. Thanks to Adam and/or Dean for the link lovin'.

I'd have a link to PennLive in my list, but that would require them to have a feed I can read. ;) C'mon guys... yeah, I know you've heard that one a few times. Heh.

PennLive is the home of Know@Noon - check it out.

I forgot to mention how much I'm digging the new features over on del.icio.us. They've made it a lot easier to quickly tag your submitted links. It's one heck of a useful and flexible service. Thanks to Joshua and the team for making it a full-time gig and forging new ground.

My del.icio.us.

The Revolution 5.1/Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1/WinDVD 6 combo is undergoing initial testing. Results are excellent!

This weekend saw a Manolas appearance at the Lititz AMBUCS craft festival on Saturday, an excellent grilled pork tenderloin dinner from my dad, a 30-mile Sunday morning ride (my longest yet in preparing for Bike Virginia), and some barbequed chicken for lunch. We also gave my dad his Father's Day gifts a week early.

I also found some time to get my new toys unboxed and working and started moving the displaced hardware around. My reference stereo monitoring setup (a Carvin F150 amp and two Hafler M5 monitors) will be moving downstairs, but I'm not sure whether I'll move my Mackie 1202-VLZ mixer (which I connect via low-z cables to the F150) down with them. It makes sense, since I seem to do more mic-based recording down there (podcasts and such). We'll see.

Now that I'm happy with the new hardware, I'll work on getting the rear satellites wall-mounted and the subwoofer and wiring in its final position. I assume the fine folks at Bryn Mawr, uhh... Tweeter will have all the supplies I'll need. As I mentioned a previous comment, I'm also going to swap computers so that my quieter Dell Poweredge 400SC moves to the office. That'll be fun. (NOT)

Streeter sent me some new music to check out; I'll probably load it up on a Hi-MD and use the nights on BV to give them a good listen. Thanks Dude!

Been listening to both DT's Octavarium and John Wesley's Shiver over the last week; both are excellent albums. This is a year that's yielding lots of great music so far.

If you're feeling randy, check out the Cygweb swag. My favorite is the blue/white ringer T.

This is purely for fun, not profit.

My father-in-law Frank is an avid amateur acoustic guitar player and teacher in the Buffalo area, and he likes to frequent the open mic nights in several local bars there. He's visiting this weekend and arrived on Thursday, so we checked out the open mic at the Appalachian Brewing Company's Abbey Bar that night. It was great! The house band warmed things up with some SRV and Hendrix and played along with several of the solo players that signed up, including Frank, who was happy to have them! A number of bands came to the stage and played on the shared drums and amps; I liked two of them, "herbie" and "The Flies", a lot. This weekly gathering of talent has quite a following and I will definitely be back. Will I get up on stage? That depends on how much Mountain Lager I've consumed... ;)

Update 6/20: I found herbie! Gotta check out their CDs. They are listed along with a lot of other bands at Harrisburg Online.

Melissa had heard good things about Knoebel's from friends and of course, I'd read Phil's take recently, so we (really she) decided to take Ryan and her parents up there today for a pre-birthday celebration. It was amazing; the first two things I liked were the free parking (Hersheypark is now up to $7) and the lack of pat-downs and bag checks as we entered. We paid as we went with ride tickets and there were a bunch of rides that Ryan went on, both by himself or with one of us adults. Also, it was nice not to have to pay through the nose for food. We all had a great time for 2+ more hours of driving and $100+ less money spent compared to Hersheypark. We'll be back.

Today is a busy day at the Harden house. Besides being, of course, Fathers' Day, it's also Ryan's 5th birthday and the 6th anniversary of my marriage to Melissa. Frank and I are watching the Open right now. Yes, I did get a ride in really early today, and I hope to get at least one more decent one in before heading to Roanoke on Friday for Bike Virginia. One more busy week before I get to unplug and relax.

Spoiler warning - if you haven't yet seen this movie, you're lamer than me and should expect it to be spoiled. ;)

I forgot to blog the fact that I finally saw ROTS on Friday with Melissa. What's there to say that hasn't been already said? I felt the final 20 minutes were well spent to set the stage for the original SW trilogy. I'm a huge Artoo fan, so my favorite part was his chuckle when he and Threepio are given to Captain Antilles and Bail Organa tells him to wipe Threepio's memory. Which of course means Obi-Wan and Artoo now share secrets throughout Episode 4 (Kenobi: "I don't recall ever owning a droid before." Revisionist fan: "Hah - he's playing dumb.") Sir Alec Guinness was already less than enamored with how big the character of OWK became; the fact that Lucas has "altered" the SW storyline to introduce continuity with the previously barely-imagined backstory of Darth Vader might cause him to roll over in his grave. Well, probably not.

OK, one minor rant out of the way. The movie was entertaining, but it spent too much time with fighting and not enough time on Padme and Anakin. After the wooden performances in Episode 2, I had higher hopes for the love scenes and they were hurried and choppy and unfulfilled. How are they supposed to get away to Padme's dream love nest on Naboo when Anakin is supposed to be jumping around the galaxy as a Jedi Knight? Their spoken hopes seemed unbelievable in the context of the overall story. I did like the fact that Padme was buried with a seemingly pregnant belly (only from the perspective of the overall plot of the series, of course) since that effectively covered up the fact that she gave birth to Luke and Leia from the public and hence Anakin.

I thought the rushed birth of the pimped-out Darth Vader in the end was a mistake. Were they paying James Earl Jones $1m/word or something? Also thought it was weird that Palpatine himself came out to find the badly beaten Anakin on the volcano planet.

What did I like? Technically, the movie was a knockout. I enjoyed watching General Grievous, Artoo, and the droids. I always dig the light saber battles. Ewan McGregor should get an Oscar for "Best Performance By An Actor In An Obligated Leading Role"; he made the movie more fun and he kicked ass.

I'm glad I got that movie out of my system. Now I have to get some buddies together and go see a movie I expect to be better: Batman Begins. I have high hopes for Fantastic Four as well.

I'm slowly getting ready for the trip. Loading up music on a few Hi-MD's: the discs Streeter gave me, the new DT, and one that just arrived today, Porcupine Tree's XMII. I haven't camped in a while, so I'm being meticulous about getting all my toiletries together and compact. I'll start packing in earnest tomorrow.

I bought my bike from Holmes Cycling in '98 and it has never had a tune up, so I took it over there today to get one. Allen Holmes was nice enough to commit to having it back to me Thursday afternoon, which should give me the opportunity to get one more ride in before the trip.

Streeter is now an adjunct member of ICYG! I used the CDs he sent as his first contribution. Thanks dude!

Update 6/22: Holmes called late this afternoon and said my bike was ready, so I got to pick it up a day earlier than promised. Great service!

Tomorrow after lunch I'll be heading down to Roanoke (about a 5-hour drive) for Bike Virginia. I haven't biked as much as I'd liked to prior to this, but I think I'll do OK. I expect to be a bit sore, since I've never done so much riding before. I'm not worried about having the endurance to finish the rides, but it'll be interesting to see how I'm doing on day three.

The only non-cycling technology I'm bringing with me is my Hi-MD Walkman, my digital camera, and my cell phone. I realized the other day that tells a convergence story I've thought about before.

If I can find free Internet access during the downtime on the tour, I'll probably check in. I'll bring my camera's USB cable in the case I can get some pictures uploaded while I'm there.

Party on!

My Bike Virginia trip was a lot of fun and I'll share details later (tomorrow?) after I decompress and upload pics. I ended up riding four out of five days and accumulated about 230 miles. My dad and I had a great time together and we hope we'll be able to do it again next year.