The Mute Xbox Experience

So, I unpacked my new XBox 360, and went about attempting to connect it.

It only comes with one AV cable but no problem because it has an HDMI port on the back right?

Yes and no. The problem is: audio over the built in HDMI flat out won't work. I found an article that says Microsoft is attempting to fix the problem, but how am I going to hear my Xbox in the meantime?

After frustrating trips to Gamestop and Walmart to find out that Microsoft charges $50 for an xbox digital audio cable, I decided to use this article to Mutilate the excuse for a cable they include in the box so that I could jam them both in at the same time and actually see AND hear my games using the same stereo RCA connectors I used to connect my 8 track player to my grandmothers Hi Fi in 1981.

Classy Microsoft.



Thanks.

How to pull $73 directly out of your ASS.

If you don't live in a cave, you've probably heard how the evil American auto workers are robbing us blind to the tune of $73 dollars an hour. The only problem is that the figure comes from a right wing blogger who pulled it directly out of his ass.

They invented the number by adding together every penny paid to every employee who has ever worked at every plant, and the cost of health care for every employee that works, and has ever worked at every plant, and divided by the number of hours the CURRENT employees work.

In other words, the figure is complete and utter BULLSHIT.

The average UAW line worker earns $26 dollars per hour.

Now, it is true that the cost of paying the health care of retired UAW employees and their families is getting expensive because .... OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS A COMPLETE AND UTTER SCAM!! A system that many of the foreign car companies with whom we compete are not required to participate in because THEIR HEALTH CARE IS FREE!!

Christie's Magazine Ad

Christie's Magazine Ad
Originally uploaded by christie.blaisdell

I'm really proud of Christie's new magazine ad.

Her family is asking for an extra copy of the magazine so they can see and keep it.

Can I ask your help to click here and sign up for a free subscription to Nephrology News & Issues?

Google Nerd Theme For Email

Thanks Trevor, Finally Google creates an email theme for total and complete NERDS. Yay Nerds!

It's a BOY!! BOOYAHHH!!!

Roger Christopher Blaisdell
Originally uploaded by christie.blaisdell

World. Get ready for Roger Christopher Blaisdell!!

Saw my kid's garbage today, and he's a BOY!!!

BooyaHHH!!
http://flickr.com/photos/christieblaisdell

OK, No. I'm just getting a new Grill.

Well, not one of the best Saturday mornings I've ever had.

I still hadn't picked all the eye boogers out yet this morning when I noticed that the gas grill in my screen patio had a full on skirt of leaves around the bottom of it.

But huh? How did they make it through the screen room and then gather themselves around the bottom of my gas grill?

I opened one of the glass doors, and was hit in the face with a stench that you would not believe.

It began to sink in. Something has made its way in to my screen patio, built a nest, and promptly curled up and died! In my FFing Grill!!! Bastard!!

I slid the door closed as quickly as possible. Fuck!!. Now I have to go clean up dead varmint nest. Shit!! Not the way I wanted to spend my morning, but now the stench is leaking in to my house.

Now if only I could remember where my wife (a dialysis nurse) keeps her surgical gloves, and mask. Damn, nowhere to be found.

Holding my shirt over my nose, I got a shovel from the garage and pushed the grill back, and saw the biggest white faced opossum in the universe. How the fuck did that thing get in to my screen room!

Well, I suppose it would come in handy sooner or later, growing up on a farm in Michigan. I set out to the back yard with the shovel, searching for a proper burial site for my foul bloated rat friend. But apparently, every single inch of my back yard consists of Roots and twigs! Sigh, god this day sucks.

Back in to the kitchen, I found an entire bag of garbage bags and brought it back to the patio. God damn, sorry garbage man, but better you than me.

I wouldn't exactly call it a proper burial, but I was able (barely able) to hold breakfast down long enough to quadruple bag him, and haul him out to the garbage can where he will have to wait for garbage day ... ON TUESDAYY!! Sigh.

By the time i swept all the leaves from his death bed out in to the back yard, there were dead rodent streak marks all the way from where the grill was to the back door! God why me.

After dumping an entire bottle of dish detergent and scrubbing with a broom and washing down with the hose, oh and throwing away my Grill forever, (You're crazy if you think I am ever eating a cheeseburger out of that thing again in this lifetime.) I was able to retire back in to the house and try to think of something to tell the housekeeper about why me, and my entire house and yard, smells like a rotting corpse!

Nothing to be worried about Erica... Honest!

By the way, care for a cheeseburger?

Remember Where You Are America

Remember where you are America.

Your grandchildren will want to know.

I think we just changed the world.

All Episodes of Sanford & Son Ever

Ok, all episodes of Sanford & Son ever in one box. U got me. Sold.

What Will "W" Do On His Way Out?

If you thought George W. Bush was scary, how about a George W. Bush on his way out the door with NOTHING TO LOOSE?!

I've been afraid of anything from the usual list of pardons, to giving a wink and a nod to Israel on the way out the door to "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran"; but the cover of the Washington Post yesterday, has given me some completely new Halloween shivers.

According to the Post, "The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms. "

Rick Davis "Jazzed Up" about the Polls? Huh?

I was just reading John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis talking about how "Jazzed Up" he is about McCain's comeback and how he's looking at "the best ten days of polling" since the convention".

At first I was terrified, until I realized that he is completely delusional and / or just simply outright lying.

So, I thought I would take a look at every an average of every recent poll taken in the battleground states at pollster.com, and Rick Davis is "Jazzed Up".

And this is the "best week since the convention"? Holy God!

By the way... Here's the kicker. If John McCain does make a comeback by Tuesday, and wins every single one of these states.

He still loses 270 to 268.

Obama Twisting His Moustache?

So, the latest republican characterization of Senator Barack Obama is that of a mustache twisting villain from the 1800s?

If you are lucky enough to live in one of the battleground states of Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, or Colorado, you probably were greeted at your mailbox this week with this flier.



So, just by the looks of it, I am guessing it means Barack Obama ties baby carriages to um ... train tracks?

Swap Houses!

Holy Crap, I am TOTALLY doing this!

Two families swap houses, and it's Free! You stay in mine, I stay in yours.

http://www.homeexchange.com/

And what sucks.. I had this idea a long time ago and didn't write the site! Laziness sucks.

Here's the list of homes that users would like to swap for a house in Orlando, FL.

PATAGONIA, Argentina



BEIJING, China





French Alps



Cape Town South Africa

Now THAT'S a Burger!

CHILI'S JALAPEÑO SMOKEHOUSE BACON BIG MOUTH BURGER*

Extra thick-cut applewood smoked bacon topped with smoked cheddar cheese, crunchy tortilla strips, jalapeños, mayo, shredded lettuce, tomato and onion. Served with jalapeño-ranch dressing.

That is unless you can get your hands on THIS burger.

Sanford & Son Mac Pro

I stumbled upon this article recently about Cloning a Mac Pro for 1/3 the price.



I've already been working on a new Vmware Esx Server fileserver for my house, so I thought to myself, why not use the "guts" of the mac pro workstation! That way, I can not only use it for all my media downloading, converting and storing, but I can use it for a nice high end workstation as soon as all the kinks (and drm) are worked out of Apple's plans to allow virtualization of OS X. Grin.

Since the Mac Pro uses an intel 5000 series dual 771 chipset, my choices were the 5100, 5400, or 5000x chipsets, I decided on the 5100 so that I could use the cheap DDR2 ram I already own in my other boxes.

It seems newegg has some open box boards for a little over $200!!



If I start with one 45nm harpertown Xeon for $220, I am still only up to $400, less than I can get for selling some of my other old junk! ;) (or at least that's what I'll tell my wife) And still be able to scale up to another processor later on as I spin up more VMs.

And if I use this ~ $320 case, and this Adaptec raid card I found used on eBay, I will be able to just use the dozen or so 500gig drives I have now but scale up to 20 or 30 terrabytes using 1 or 1.5TB drives!




Now get in the in the kitchen and fix your Aunt Esther a fish-head sandwich!

SOBIESKI - WÓDKA POLSKA

I had a chance to try a chance to try a new vodka over the weekend, Sobieski - WÓdka Polska or, Sobieski Polish Vodka. New to the U.S.A. but one of the best selling premium vodkas in the world, and cheaper than Smirnoff!?!

How can a Polish dude not like that?

I know where YOU at

I was trying to find my wife the other day, and I remembered those "I know where You at" commercials. I started looking in to the service, but it turns out Sprint calls it "Family Locator Service" and charges $9.99 for it Per Month!

I looked a little more, and sure enough there is a free version at http://www.mologogo.com/. I signed up and downloaded the Windows Mobile flavor, and now, whenever I log on to the site, I can see the last reported GPS version location of my phone at all times!




The service has a feature to add "friends" to your account so that you can see where all of them are, or even send out tweets with your location, or your proximity to your friends on Mologogo/twitter.

Something happening in America - Obama today in St. Louis

"...you made it clear that at this moment - in
this election - there is something happening in America"

Hope

"We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about Hope." --Barack

Choose hope not hate.


Obama '08 - Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

Frozen Banana Daiquiri

Ingredients

• 2 ounces light rum
• 1/2-ounce banana liqueur
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/2 small banana, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup crushed ice

Directions

Combine all ingredients in an electric blender and blend at high speed until smooth. Pour into a large saucer champagne or similar glass.

The Downhome Crowd at the Palin Rally

Ok, my hillbilly is a little rusty. What exactly is a "Negra"?

And by the way, don't a lot of these comments bear an uncanny resemblance to what's in the massive McCain phone robot ads?

Just a coincidence I'm sure.

“I’m afraid if he wins, the blacks will take over. He’s not a Christian! This is a Christian nation! What is our country gonna end up like?”

“When you got a Negra running for president, you need a first stringer. He’s definitely a second stringer.”

“He seems like a sheep - or a wolf in sheep’s clothing to be honest with you. And I believe Palin - she’s filled with the Holy Spirit, and I believe she’s gonna bring honesty and integrity to the White House.”

“He’s related to a known terrorist, for one.”

“He is friends with a terrorist of this country!”

“He must support terrorists! You know, uh, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. And that to me is Obama.”

“Just the whole, Muslim thing, and everything, and everybody’s still kinda - a lot of people have forgotten about 9/11, but… I dunno, it’s just kinda… a little unnerving.”

“Obama and his wife, I’m concerned that they could be anti-white. That he might hide that.”

“I don’t like the fact that he thinks us white people are trash… because we’re not!”

"Joe the Plubmer" would get an Obama Tax CUT!

For anyone who watched the third presidential debate last night, you probably noticed John McCain talking about "Joe the Plumber", and how unfair it is that he would have to pay higher taxes under Obama's plan.

Well according to today's debate analysis on factcheck.org, it appears as though far from being hit with a tax increase: Mr. Plumber would actually "be eligible for an Obama tax cut!'"

"Wurzelbacher this morning told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that he was talking about, in Diane's words, the prospect, the hope that someday he would make $250,000.", and according to the Toledo Blade, fillings from his recent divorce show that he made $40,000 dollars in 2006.

Hateful McCain Ads Backfiring?

Well, the latest national CBS presidential poll is out, and it looks like the latest round of McCain's hateful Carl Rove style ads may have backfired.

The poll shows Obama up by 14 points, the largest margin of the campaign so far.

According to the CBS poll:

"Twenty-one percent of voters say their opinion of the Republican has changed for the worse in the last few weeks. The top two reasons cited for the change of heart are McCain's attacks on Obama and his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate."

Regardless of who wins, I'm proud that America doesn't appear to be making the decision based on hatred.