Some friends of mine were kind enough to send me an invitation to join GMail!  Needless to say, I jumped on the chance to register marklio immediately.  Thanks guys!

My first request of GMail is to let me change the reply-to address so I can hide it behind another address using forwarding, the way I currently do with my mail.com address and my RoadRunner account.  I'd really like to use a marklio.com address (don't send email there, it doesn't exist) as my email address because I feel like I own it.

If anyone has thoughts on what I should do with my email address, let me know.

P.S.  You've gotta love this:

You are currently using 0 MB (0%) of your 1000 MB

Update: I'm now set up to use my old method in parallel with gmail!  The only issue now is consolidating my sent mail.

I finished shooting and editing our Youth Camp promo video yesterday.  It was the first time I have done a video without any part of it hitting my desktop PC (Well, at least since we started doing them that way).  Doing it on the laptop added a great amount of flexibility to the schedule since we could edit on location while we were taking a break or waiting for someone to get back so we could film.

As I've mentioned before, my laptop is skewed toward portability rather than performance, so I wasn't sure if it was up to the task, but I never dropped a frame in or out.  It also gave me an opportunity to edit with some of the kids that were interested in doing that kind of thing on their own. We had a great time, and I felt alot more at ease making editing decisions that would impact the screen time of an actor when I had a couple of the kids around to ratify them.  It came out pretty good.  As usual, I didn't have time to do all the stuff I wanted to do with it.

I need to get back on my shotgun mic project, though.  We ended up shooting in a couple of places with horrible acoustics that plagued us when mixing audio.  I also wasn't able to get the kind of shots I wanted to because I had to keep the camera so close to the subjects to hear them.

I can't wait for some sunny weekend weather.  Lately, we've had beautiful weeks and it's just overcast and rainy on the weekends.

OK, I'm hooked.  After recording several HD broadcasts with my HD DVR, I can't see going back to an SD-only existence.  I admit that I long for 720p rather than my TV's limit of 1080i, and the DVR has MANY shortcomings, but I've found a few workarounds for my complaints.  For instance:

• I fast-forward at triple-arrow rather than double arrow on Tivo.  This gets me through commercials only slightly faster than Tivo.  Double-arrow is too slow.
• After ffwd, I hit the instant replay button instead of play, wihch will approximate Tivo's automatic jump back, and even though it jumps back further, my receiver takes a second or two to kick in with the optical input, so it works out.
• I'm getting used to hitting stop to get to a screen where I can do something with a recorded show.  I've grown to appreciate more and more Tivo's elegantly simple remote design where you can do everything with the 4-way cursor buttons, select, a couple of main menu buttons, ffwd, pause, and rewind.

Seeing The Mummy II in full HD goodness, I'm even starting to question the validity of trying to grow my DVD collection any more.

Peter and Jamie came into town yesterday.  We ate at the Shady Grove with the B-Dubs, and it was really nice out on the patio.

Peter and Jamie stayed at our place last night.  Peter and I stayed up way too late talking and stuff.  While we were doing some things with my computer, it died.  It started getting “disk read error, press ctrl-alt-del to restart” right after the POST.  That sent a chill down the old spine.  It was already late, so I didn't attempt to troubleshoot much past restarting it a few times.  Since my Tivo died within the past week, I wasn't feeling too good about it.

When I got home from work, I decided to try some things, and, to make a long story short, it appears the RAID controller on my motherboard is going out.  It still passes internal diagnostics somehow, but nothing can access the drive.  I'm running off of the secondary controller now, and the drive appears to be fully intact, which is a relief.  I didn't really want to buy another one just yet.

Anyway, we had a blast with Peter and Jamie.  I wish they could stay here longer, but I know that they've got to make the rounds and see as many people as possible while they're here.  Thanks, guys.

P.S.  Jamie, sorry if we woke you up with the Roomba this morning.

I picked up Becky from DFW last night.  She made it back from Germany safely.  In all the hustle and the bustle, I left my phone in the car with a low battery.  This morning, it was dead and I didn't realize it until I got to work, where I have no charger.

I'm meeting the Coulters and B-Dub's for dinner tonight, and I don't have numbers to get ahold of either one of them!  I thought, “I'll just borrow a charger from one of my co-workers.  Surely here at Motorola, someone will have a charger that will work for my phone.”  No dice.

So if you're out there guys, I'll be there at 7:00?  Is that right?  Shady Grove, right?  Becky will not be able to join us.  She's got an important rehearsal to go to since she missed most of last week's rehearsals.

UPDATE: Connection established...disaster averted.

I'm assuming these would apply to the SD DVR as well.

Good:

• Multiple tuners - I can record two shows at once
• All digital pipeline - Digital channels are recorded directly.
• Digital sound - Lots more Dolby digital than I thought there would be.  Sounds great.
• HD - duh.  Seems like everything is being up-converted to 1080i.

Bad:

• Not very responsive - Tivo solved this by providing audio feedback of button clicks.  The picture didn't immediately respond, but you had almost immediate feedback of stuff.  Overall the interface is more sluggish.
• Transport controls suck - Tivo had a small jump backwards at the end of a fast-forward since you can't react fast enough.  It doesn't appear to have that feature.
• Tivo's interface was all about giving you access to your shows.  This interface is about cramming lots of information down your throat and making you weed through it with inadequate tools.  You have to wade through the guide to find shows, or attempt to browse by the first letter of the shows for a given day in a list that's not quite alphabetized correctly.  I never had to know what channel or showing time, or even the name of my shows with Tivo.  That is a necessity for this machine.
• Since everything is being converted to 1080i, my TV is locked in HD mode, which doesn't give me alot of control over the geometry of the picture. That's a shortcoming of my TV, but some of the HD channels are bizarrely stretched, and some channels seem to have the field order reversed, or the fields scaled oddly and it makes them unwatchable.  The Fox HD channel is that way when it's scaling SD content like the Simpsons.  They look much better on the SD station.
• Tools for managing your scheduled recordings are practically non-existent.
• The remote has no enter key, forcing you to wait for the entry to “take“ or by typing 0, 0, 0, 2 to get to channel two.
• In order to see what shows are recording, you have to scroll through the list of scheduled recordings to get the details and find the ones with the “rec“ indicator.  There's also no easy way to delete shows or manage recording priorities.

The list goes on.  I'm sure you're tired of hearing me complain, but I just thought it might aid some other people in their decisions, or help people who think Time Warner's hardware is good to see the light.  Maybe someone at Time Warner will come across this as well and take it as good feedback.

Well, I've spent my first evening with my Time Warner HD DVR.  Two things:

1. The HD is beautiful.  I had to calibrate my 1080i mode since I've never really used it.
2. The DVR...SUCKS.  Compared to Tivo, it is crap.  I would rather have standard definition and the wonderfully intuitive interface of Tivo than HD with this crap.

I'm going to make a stab at resurrecting the Tivo, using the Time Warner DVR as an interim solution.  If that doesn't work, I'll put my efforts into the HTPC where I have more control over the interface.

I'll post more on my findings as I use the DVR more.

I dropped Becky off at DFW today.  She is going to Germany for a few days for her brother's wedding.  I could not go because of work and the cost of flying over there.  She's got a pretty major fear of flying, so pray that she makes it there and back without incident.

Every time she flys, there is some crazy thing that happens that re-enforces her fears.  Things that make everyone on the plane scream.  Those things never happen when I fly.

On the way to DFW, we watched Shanghai Noon on my laptop (well, I just listened), with the sound pumping through the car's stereo.  It was cool to be able to do that, and I think it helped keep her mind off the trip for a while.  She met up with her parents at the airport, and they should arrive about midnight my time.

Again I say, “Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”  I sat down this evening to catch the new episode of Smallville, only to discover my Tivo was acting weird.  I rebooted it, and it all went down hill from there.

Now, it does nothing but get to the “Almost there.  A few more seconds please...” and hang.  After several minutes, it will reboot itself again.

This will accelerate my home theater pc project.  I'm not going to pay for another dead-end box, but I'm not ready to plunge into my HTPC yet.  I suppose my options are:

• Get the Time Warner DVR.  That could be nice since they have an HD model now.  I'm also toying with getting their Voice over IP solution for unlimited calling for $40 a month.  That may become a good solution.
• Get another Tivo.  Series 2 has some nice options, but a few years down the road, I'd be in the same boat.
• Build my Home Theater PC.  I'm not entirely ready for this.

I suppose, I'll check out the Time Warner route.  If we'd save enough money on the VoIP for phone, and not paying Tivo fee, I might come out even.  I'll have to check it out.

In light of recent posts, controversy, and direct questioning, I will attempt to articulate my preferences in a comparison between Chipotle and Freebirds.  For the sake of brevity, I will only compare burritos, since that is all I've had at either location.  In fact, I will keep the whole comparison within the scope of my personal experience.  I will also not link to their respective websites every time I mention them.  Feel free to correct or refute anything I say.

What I usually get at both establishments is a chicken burrito.  In the case of Freebirds, I get a large cayenne tortilla.  I get rice, cheese, lettuce, and some kind of spicy salsa/sauce.  To most people, this is pretty plain.

On to the comparison, which I will categorize in whatever way comes out as I write it:

• Tortillas (+3 Freebirds)
• Chipotle has only 1 size, 1 “flavor“ of tortilla.
• Freebirds has (I believe) 4 sizes and 4 different “flavors“ of tortillas
• This is a big deal since I've been on a diet for a while.  You can get a smaller serving at Freebirds, which is nice since Becky doesn't usually finish Chipotle.
• Rice (even)
• The rice is hard to compare because it's completely different
• Chipotle has white rice with some green herb stuff in it, and is delicious.
• Freebirds has more Spanish-style rice, and is equally delicious, although completely different.  I have no preference here.
• Meats (even)
• This is another toss-up in my book.  I usually get chicken, but have had the beef as well in their different varieties.  Not alot of difference here.
• Vegetables (even)
• I ranked these even since I don't get much of them, although from what I can tell, Freebirds seems to have a larger selection.
• Salsas/Sauces (+1 Freebirds)
• I get the hottest stuff at Chipotle, and a generous helping of the second-hottest at Freebirds.
• I gave +1 to Freebirds because I feel like I have more control over content.  They always let me tell them “when“ to stop.  They also do a better job of even distribution.
• I will mention that Chipotle makes Chipotle Tabasco available as well.
• Cheese (even)
• Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Freebirds has more variety of cheese.
• I will score them even, unless I can remember getting different cheeses.
• Service (+2 Freebirds)
• At Freebirds, you get a person assigned to you that takes you through the whole process.
• At Chipotle, the service is not as good (in my experience).
• Atmosphere (+1 Freebirds)
• In my experience, all Chipotle's are the same.  They've got some interesting art, but it's mostly stainless steel and wood everywhere.
• Every Freebirds is different, and they make an effort to make the experience unique.
• Location (with respect to me and my promiment locations. +4 Chipotle)
• There is 2 Chipotle locations less than a 5-minute drive from my house, and one well within “lunch radius“ from work.
• The I-35 Freebirds is over 10 minutes away with good traffic, but it's I-35 we're talking about.  There is a new one off of Mopac that is at the fringe of “lunch radius“ from work.
• Packaging (+1 Freebirds)
• I don't think there can be any argument that Freebirds packages their burritos better.  They are much easier to eat, even if you get a monster.
• Non-Evilness (-1 Chipotle)
• Chipotle is at least partly owned by McDonalds.  I've heard everything from completely owned to mostly owned.
• Freebirds is it's own deal, as far as I know.

So let's tally it up.  Seems Freebirds is up 3 on Chipotle.  The primary reasons I've visited Chipotle more is the convenient location, and Dave really likes it.

Chipotle seems to be one of those marketing genius companies who have some really good advertising and slick packaging, like Apple I guess.  Just check out their website! I can't remember EVER seeing a Freebirds advertisement.  Most of my friends at work don't even know what Freebirds is.

So, Webdell, I guess the answer is I like Freebirds more.

Welcome Heath and the Robinsons! That sounds like a band name.

Heath is another one of my high school friends who went to high school in a different town...Temple.  Later, at Baylor, we were roommates for a while.  We worked at PDI for many school holidays.  In fact, he got me that gig.

Welcome again!

One piece of advice for dasBlog...don't let your categories get out of hand.  I have a ridiculous amount of redundancy in mine.  I also recommend reading blogs in an aggregator like RSSBandit.  With that, you can subscribe to an incredible amount of content.  I'll share some of my favorite sources of information later.  I'm late for work now.

UPDATE: After reading the inaugural post, it seems that we'll be hearing from Courtney the most.  It seems that she is the “me” in merobinson.com.

Several people have asked me where I got the latest version of dasBlog.  What is not readily apparent by looking at their site is that the project is now hosted on GotDotNet Workspaces.  The latest source and binaries are available there.

Since other people are sharing photos, here's a link to some of Jen and Dave's pictures of our Chipotle outing on Friday.  I'm on the lower right stuffing my face with burrito goodness.

This week, I received a check in the mail from some kind of CitiBank class action settlement.  I'm always skeptical of envelopes that say “check enclosed” on them, but it was legit, and on top of that, it was for a grand total of eight cents!  What a waste! Nevertheless, It was the most news-worthy check I've received recently...until today.

Today, Becky received a check from the Screen Actors Guild for $64 for the infamous Unsolved Mysteries episode she “starred” in back in 1990.  Evidently, they played that part of the episode again on some cable special.  My check is crap compared to that!

So no, the title of this entry is not a typo.  We received multiple checks in the mail, not a single check that is currently in the mail.

Now that I'm older, I've come to love the Spring time change.  I got home from work at about 6:00, and it was still bright out.  I went for a run around the pond and it was beautiful.  It poured rain like nobody's business early this morning, so the stream was flowing and everything was green.  It was great.

I went to Belton this weekend to spend some time with my family.  Saturday afternoon, Dad was needing some rest, so Andrew, Zack (Andrew's brother in law), and I went and played some golf at Sammon's in Temple.  I am not a good golfer.  The last time I played golf was at Andrew's bachelor party where I threw one of Zack's clubs into the water.  That's another story altogether.

Sammon's has ALOT of water, and has changed alot since Peter and I used to go swimming at the pool there.  I only lost about 9 balls.  I had a few choice shots including a chip-in from about 30 yards out.  Andrew and I were playing the best ball between us and ended up shooting an 83.  We tied Zack.

Dad is doing very well, you wouldn't have known he almost died on Tuesday, except he keeps bringing it up.  We ate at Chili's Saturday evening.  I have some pictures, but they're not very good because it was pretty dark.

The weekend was cut short when some joker left a weird note in our driveway. (Becky stayed home for some rehearsals)  I had to come home to make her feel better.  It was probably a completely innocent note, but we couldn't figure it out because it was so weird.

OK, Jen and Dave are here.  We're gonna eat left over pizza from our Sunday School party Friday night.

Dad got out of his pacemaker surgery at about 4:30pm yesterday.  I spoke with him on the phone, and he was feeling great, aside from, “an anvil on his shoulder”.  (He was referring to pain at the site of surgery, not an actual anvil)

He's very excited about having such a serious problem fixed.  His EKG is very strong and precise now, much better than it was before.  Since his thyroid surgery years and years ago, his resting heart-rate has been low, and now it cannot drop below 60 bpm.  This should help him have a more active lifestyle.

Anyway, he's doing great and should get to go home this evening.  Thanks for your continued prayers and support.