I’ve always liked the idea of having my PCs hooked up to a TV, and following the advent of XP Media Center and MythTV home brewed DVRs became more of a reality.  Sadly, I’m too cheap to go out and buy a machine with enough processing power & tuner cards to make it work right.

I mentioned previously that I had taken an old teaser-ad Toshiba notebook that was dying under Windows XP and partitioned the back half of the drive to run PCLinuxOS.  That old laptop has an S-video cable out, which isn’t a great signal to go out to an HDTV but is better than nothing.  The rebirth of a working OS combined with (a) VLC Media Player, (b) the S-video, and (c) a good set of speakers hooked to the laptop makes for a fairly decent playback of video files on the big screen.  (I don’t have the conversion cable to RCA split the sound into the TV speaker, but the old PC speakers are more than adequate for output.)  I’ve also got a switch box behind the cabinet that allows for a LAN hook-in. In the end I don’t have TV signal in, but with a Net connected device I can access streams and files.

While it’s not as pretty as a Media Center PC hookup, the setup works pretty well.  The .avi files of shows we play comes across without obvious pixelation and blockiness, and while I could send across an HD stream of the video I doubt the S-cable would render it properly anyway.  (Our TV is older, so there’s only one HDMI hoopup and no serial connection for a monitor.)  Online sites like Hulu also play just fine through this rag-tag setup.

I’d love to be able to build the entertainment system exactly how it should be set up, but there’s only so much I can acquire at any one time.  Besides, coming up with a homebrew solution is both fun in the planning stage and satisfying when the final solution comes together.  And in the end we have a quite watchable product that allows us to enjoy programming we couldn’t otherwise have during the summer doldrums.

North Korea nukes. Iranian election manipulations.  Iraq security.  Honduran coups.  Argentinian elections.  Israel and Palestine.  Afghanistan & Pakistan.  Russia and Georgia.  Worldwide recession.  Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Manuel Zelaya. Hugo Chavez.  Kim Jong-il.  The Castro brothers.

Barry, I hope you’re ready.

It’s been darn near impossible to turn on a news show or check web sites without some reminder of all the famous deaths these past few days.  Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays – the wires are dropping BREAKING NEWS like raindrops.  I have to admit that I feel the worst for Mays and his family, both because he made his living busting his ass to sell his products and because we’ve been intrigued by his show “Pitchmen” on Discovery Channel. It was interesting to watch the behind-the-scenes efforts it took to find a product worthy enough to sell.  His was also the most sudden passing – McMahon was much older, Fawcett had been dealing with terminal cancer for years, and Jackson had become a weird medical configuration may years prior.

Elsewhere….

- Just heard Obama praising the House of Representatives for bravely passing the climate bill over “Washington politics.”  Baloney.  It is well publicized that the narrow approval of the bill required a heavy amount of horse trading with Democratic leadership to nervous rank-n-files who represent actual people who will suffer actual harm from all the rhetorical religion.

- Oh yeah….if I could, I would punch out anyone else who uses the argument “reduce our dependency on foreign oil.”  This phrase has long since passed “weapons of mass destruction” as a cultish phrase meant to confuse mindless recitation from true philosophical debate.  I do think that we have a duty not to be wasteful and stupid with our environment, but I’m a global warming skeptic. I don’t think mankind is capable of putting the Earth through the kind of punishment in 150 years that the planet has absorbed in 4 billion years.  Even so, if you disagree with me I ask you to frame your points in your own words rather than spout boilerplate.

- College football kicks off in a couple of months (my own counter was activated today), but for some reason I’m not jacked up like I normally am.  I have neglected my two message board accounts, I rarely read the sports pages web-wide, and I don’t check out my local stories.  I don’t know why this is.  Maybe I feel less excitement over The Painter.  Maybe it’s the amount of personal and professional stress I’m under.  Maybe there’s too many things going on elsewhere.  Whatever it is, I should probably try to shake it.

- Two weekends past, two weekends of seeing old friends and sharing good memories.  It’s been tiring, but a joy to reconnect.  We were a little disappointed that this year’s gatherings didn’t line up, but hopefully we can get them better aligned in the future.

- Baseball season is finally over for Garrett this year, and what a monsoon it was.  Thanks to our highly aquatic weather I have no idea how many games were washouts.

- It’s amazing how far Ethan has progressed in the past year with his issues.  We still have the occasional bad days, but it’s rewarding to see all the positive changes.

We’re nearing the end of June 2009, meaning that it has been five years since we moved back home from Charlotte.  In a way so much has changed, while in other ways everything is much the same.

Since June 2004 I’ve had three different managers and moved across organizations twice to support different applications, and this doesn’t include our eventual landing place on board the stagecoach.  Still, through all this I’ve been able to be successful working away from our corporate facilities and have been recognized for the effort.  Back then I pictured this as a short term exercise, lasting a year or two, until I re-networked into the local economy and found a career here in town.  In retrospect I like how things turned out.

I’m still doing challenging work each day from the comfort of my basement. I’m able to better see my children grow, and I can participate in their activities more easily.  I’ve been able to read to Garrett’s classes on a monthly basis and partake in some of his school-day activities.  I’ve been able to help manage Ethan’s issues and would like to think I’ve played a small part in his personal growth over the last ear.  Since I am commute-less I’m able to go to their karate classes and baseball games, eat lunch with them, and be available sooner in the evenings for playtime.

Without giving an Oscar speech, I’m thankful for all my teammates and managers who gave me the chance to do this and the opportunity to be successful.  I’m also thankful to my family and especially Jen, since without her caring for the kids and awareness of my schedule this would not have worked.

There has been a lot of squawking on Capitol Hill about energy independence and clean power of late, and a goliath “climate change” bill just passed the House en route to an uncertain Senate future. Power has also been a hot topic here in the Mountain State, but on the clean energy front and the systematic foot-wiping on us by the Feds the tone is much darker.

On the old school front, efforts are afoot to rid the country of oil & coal energy.  Even though coal is essential to the modern West Virginia economy, coal is a dirty fuel source that has been proven dangerous to extract throughout the years.  Many mining communities in our state have at least one date circled on the calendar each year to remember victims of an underground disaster.  Politicians and scientists often talk about “clean coal”, a method to reduce the amount of pollution released during burning of coal, but the actual widespread introduction period is fuzzy at best.

During all of this discussion the powers that be here should be discussing ways to create the new “green energy” eco-types desire.  Sadly, we will remain in a state of denial for two reasons: foot-dragging and eco-nuts.  It’s no secret that the coal legacy chokes this state.  Companies have made billions of dollars pulling carbon bricks from the ground, and the UMW has made billions for their employees who pull those bricks.  This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue – Cecil Roberts AND Don Blankenship have a vested interest in preserving coal mining in West Virginia.  Lest we think that our elected officials are looking out for our state’s best interest, don’t forget that Joe Manchin & the Legislature get elected through the same systems Roberts & Blankenship manipulate.

While both would be blights on our scenic mountaintops, like the strip mining eco-types denounce, West Virginia is in a position to cash in nicely from both wind and solar farms.  Turbines are already appearing on some horizons on the Appalachian Mountains, and solar farms so far up would be in prime locations to capture the Sun’s energy.  Care should definitely be taken to ensure that all future installations do not overtake our visual resources, but well planned, developed, and regulated “clean” energy captures would put us at the forefront.

This is why it is essential that the Federal government and public utilities immediately stop trampling on our resources for the “upgrade” to the East Coast power grid.  I understand after the blackouts a few years back that our infrastructure needs upgraded, but TraiLCo and Allegheny Energy are being allowed to pretty much clear cut land and steal family estates for pennies on the dollar to subsidize the East Coast.  Rather than working with those in our state to develop a path that impacts Northern West Virginia in the least possible manner, both entities are basically bulldozing a path East.  Not only are we being raped aesthetically, but financially to as Allegheny is allowed to put in a surcharge on all bills to cover the costs of construction.  Horse shit!  We are a power provider to the country now, and can maintain that position in the future.  It is imperative that our state be able to export that power in the most efficient way possible that does not destroy our way of life.  We should also not be paying higher rates for the energy we produce.  Without our power blackouts & brownouts in the metropolitan areas would be more frequent.  They should be the ones paying extra to keep the lights on, rather than double dipping us.

West Virginia is in a unique position to provide the cleaner energy so many want, and can do it at minimal cost.  However, leadership at all levels of our public and private institutions look at us as nothing but high school sophomores…ready to be tossed aside after they’ve had their way with us.  Our people and our representatives need to step up and take command for once instead of doing what we usually do – stand back and wait to take it on the chin over and over.