mgroves

Archive for September, 2007

Missed the last Tuesday Tube? Head over to the tag search for ‘tuesday tube’ and browse through the archives.

It’s another motley assortment of videos, fresh out of the interpipes. Enjoy.

It took me a long time to nail down the origin of the “The goggles! They do nothing!” catch phrase. It’s from “The Simpsons”. Kinda anticlimactic…

I guess I now know where the name for a certain band came from too…

If you’d ask me what my favorite Steve Martin movie is, you might be suprised by the answer:

I thought this was the best promotion ever when I was a kid. It always seemed like pulling teeth to get my parents to buy fast food though.

Not really sure what’s going on in this next clip, but at least they used a tripod…sometimes.

This guy wishes he was the next Tay Zonday.

Good Lord, what’s wrong with these people?

I think someone owes Emilio Estevez some money for this clip.

(I sure hope someone gets that reference).

I’m going to keep posting “mena mena” clips until you like it!

And finally, here’s a trailer for an incredible looking game that I can’t wait to play, NiGHTS 2 for Wii.

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So, there’s this thing that people do where they record stuff in a series. You are supposed to load it up on your iPod on a regular basis (automatically if you are using iTunes) and listen to it when you’re on your way to work or something.

Since I cancelled the XM and purchased the Game King-II, my commute has switched over to podcasts. My recent road trip to Philadelphia was also a great time for podcasts as well.

I will say that I very much prefer short shows, or at least a series of short clips. This is as much for practical reasons as it is about attention span. I will sometimes even break up long clips.

With that in mind, here’s what I’ve been listening to:

• 1UP – Retronauts. This is kinda a podcast that’s related to classic gaming, a topic in which I am well-versed. They usually start out talking about “retro news”, but usually veer off onto interesting tangents. I usually don’t listen to the whole show, and they update infrequently.
• Alan Watts podcast. Not really a podcast, but selected clips from the Alan Watts audio archive. I actually found a torrent of about 1gig of Alan Watts recordings, so I’ve been rolling my own podcast. A very interesting guy with a lot of great things to say.
• A Prairie Home Companion – News from Lake Wobegon. This is a 10 minute or so clip from the weekly NPR show. Garrison Keillor is a really good writer with a unique voice, and I enjoy listening to him occasionally.
• MBA Working Girl. Laura Adams gives quick tips to working business men and women on a variety of stuff. The tips are pretty short, but useful. Her tagline, “where business theory and the real world collide” bothers me with its triteness, but it’s still an interesting listen.
• Car Talk – Call of the Week. Car Talk offers a full 60 minute podcast, but again, I prefer the short clips. Car Talk is a great show with two really sharp guys. It’s not just for mechanics, it’s for anyone with a car.

Besides podcasts, I’ve also been listening to some audio books. So far, I’ve “read” 1984 (again), Animal Farm (again), Ender’s Game (again), and Rats in the Wall by H.P. Lovecraft. I have all the Hitchhiker’s books at the ready, as well as some more Ender’s books. It’s slow going listening to them at 15-20 minutes at a time, but it beats FM radio commercials any day.

I also started listening to a few “Learn German in Your Car” MP3s, which are pretty good. I haven’t really committed hardcore to learning another language, but I’m getting the basics down.

This is the Weekend Update for the weekend of September 14th – 17th.

Missed the last Weekend Update? Check out the Weekend Update archives.

I spent a lot of time this week remodeling a bedroom for baby Groves. It’s really starting to look very nice, and I think it’s an excellent prototype of what I eventually want to do with the rest of the house. Here’s what I’ve done so far this week:

• Removed floor molding, closet shelves, etc
• Paint (wall)
• Started painting door and closet doors
• Installed overhead light
• Replace all outlets, switches, jacks
• Installed cellular blinds (these things are freaking great)
• Installed crown molding (this looks amazing: all houses should have it)

I still have to finish some painting, get new carpet installed, and install new floor molding. Painting is what takes the most time. Someone needs to figure out how to get a Wagner indoors. I’ve been taking pictures along the way, and I intend to do a post in the future about the whole process and some things I’ve learned along the way.

Move-in at OSU is Sunday. This will be the third one that I’ve been through. It’s no small task to handle move-in on one of the biggest college campuses in the world, but I think OSU has it down pretty good. If you are an incoming freshman, I’ll be in the stadium holding lot, available to sign autographs.

I’ve started a trial blog for an idea that I’ve been tossing around for a week or so now: Stuff You Don’t Need. I was inspired by Sky Mall, Fingerhut, infomercials, etc. Handy/useless/clever stuff. This should include some reviews, but mostly just affiliate links to products and (hopefully) comedic content about the products. Like I said, this is a trial at this point: there’s no affiliate links and it’s on Blogspot, things that should both change should I decide to go with this. Check it out, tell me what you think. I’m not too keen on the name either, so I’m open to suggestions.

When jonjay posted some pictures of the inside of his Game King-II, I realized that even though
the instruction manual indicated a 1100mAh battery, that there was actually a 750mAh battery in there.
Such dishonesty from a random Chinese company!

But nevermind, why not just put a 1100mAh battery in it for great justice?

So first, I cracked open the Game King-II myself, to see about the physical size of the battery, and if
I could actually fit a different battery in there. Then, I went on to eBay to see what I could find.

The Game King-II uses a 3.7volt battery, which luckily for me, is pretty much the predominant battery used in cell phones. Next, I did a quick search for batteries in the 1000-1500mAh range. I found an LG 3.7volt 1100mAh battery which, by complete random luck, is the exact same size battery used in my cell phone. Perfect! Even if the mod doesn’t work, I can at least upgrade my phone. Not to mention I couldn’t really find any other batteries that would fit any higher than 1100mAh.

The next trick was taking out the old battery. It’s a ridiculously cheap looking battery. Imagine a tiny static bag filled with acid. The connections were soldered, and there were also some components connected to the battery on a small circuit board. I had to carefully removed the battery using a soldering iron.

Next, I had to figure out a way to connect the new battery. It’s made to fit in a cell phone, not to be soldered, so I had to get creative. I carefully dropped some molten solder on to the terminals. Please be very careful if you do this! There is plastic, heat, and battery acid, not things you want to mess with. I would only recommend this if you have precision experience using a soldering iron. Don’t apply heat directly to the battery.

I cut a couple of short jumpers, heated up the solder on the battery, and carefully attached them to the battery. I then wrapped it up with some electrical tape, but not too much, otherwise the battery wouldn’t have fit back in.

Fortunately, the board indicated where to connect the positive and negative, so I then made another couple of precision solders to the battery board. I tried to cover everything up with a small amount of electrical tape as best I could.

When putting the battery back in, I used some of the sticky strip that held the previous battery in place on the new battery. These batteries are almost identical in size. I closed the Game King-II back up after a quick power-on to test.

Voila! Upgraded Game King-II with longer battery life! It should last about 46% longer. All in all, it cost me less than $5 and only took about an hour.

This photo was just taken today. Please note that it was not photoshopped in any way.

Okay, that’s pretty much the worst photoshop ever.

Judging from some of the comments in the previous post, a few people (*cough* Tweeder and minywheats *cough*) think that having a child is a terrible thing and that I may as well kill myself now. Don’t worry, this is pretty much how these guys always greet me. “Hey Matt, why don’t you kill yourself? Wanna go to the driving range?” I’m very happy and very excited about having a child.

Ali left for Houston on a Thursday morning. She was to be there for 11 days, visiting family and relaxing during her job transition.

I brought my cell phone to bed with me that night, because normally I can count on Ali to wake me up at a respectable hour.

Around 7am or so, the klaxons on my alarm clock, then her alarm clock, and then my cell phone all went off. I stirred a little bit, turned off the alarms, and stayed put, just like every morning.

Five minutes later, my phone rang. Ali was calling me. It’s 6am Houston time, what in sweet Christmas is she calling me for?

“Matt? I’m pregnant.”

Missed the last Tuesday Tube? Head over to the tag search for ‘tuesday tube’ and browse through the archives.

Yeah, I know it’s not Tuesday and I really don’t have a good excuse (or a unifying theme for that matter). Just watch and enjoy these videos.

Here’s the “internet people” video that’s been making the rounds. It’s good.

These videos are pretty incredible. Kinda NSFW though.

Here’s the infamous Shatner/Rocketman video. Did I post this before?

As if there weren’t enough conspiracy theories blaming Bush for anything and everything, here’s the evil backmasking conspiracy!

The cryptozoological chupacabra has been found!

If you haven’t seen the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie, I’d recommend you watch it at least once, especially if you are a fan of the radio series/books/TV series/comic book/cave wall paintings. The opening credit sequence is very good.

Baby vs. Cobra. Who wins? Us, the viewer.

I’m glad the U.S. isn’t the only country to produce terrible commercials with rapping in the 80s.

And here is a giant thumb attacking a man. The end.

Just for future reference.

I personally believe that U.S. Americans must improve the education of Malaysia, such as the Iraq.

Missed the last Tuesday Tube? Head over to the tag search for ‘tuesday tube’ and browse through the archives.

Sorry for the late Tubes this week; it’s been a hectic time at the Groves Estate. More or that later…

This week’s tube is focused on kids and beating: kids getting beat, kids who need to be beat, and kids administering their own beatings. It’s fun for the whole family!

Here’s just a quick note before watching these videos: I do not condone the beating of children, unless it’s recreationally.

It’s pretty rare to find angry Germans like this kid. Warning, subtitles are potentially NSFW if your workplace uses English, and sound is potentially NSFW if your workplace uses German.

Speaking of killing children, here’s some children worth killing.

Here’s a kid break from Channel 5. I recommend not breakdancing in a public restroom.

Seriously, people. Stop trying to have a conversation and just start beating.

BLOOD! RED RUM!!! IT’S NOT FUNNY!

And finally, these kids know how to fight back.