My ongoing efforts to broadcast my life continue.  It’s a bit bizarre as I’m such a private person in general. I’m so fascinated to play with all of the technology involved I suppose I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of privacy. For now.

Anyway, I played Carl in my SEC Dynasty in NCAA last night and not only did I broadcast the game, I also recorded it to my gergi-TV channel.  
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My first ustream broadcast went off pretty well.  The broadcast was a bit delayed as Dan showed up about an hour late but three other friends stayed on and watched Fresno State grind out a solid 24-7 victory over New Mexico State.  My second-straight run at a WAC title is in motion and off to a very good start.  My only regret was that I forgot to record the broadcast.

I’m a big fan of finding little tech-related projects and then seeing if I can get them to work.  Inspired by the lack of a spectator-mode in NCAA, Mike and I have been discussing various ways of streaming the game to various other members of our dynasties.  Audio/Video capture from the 360 would be ideal but we were looking for something a little cheaper — preferably $0.

Enter ustream.tv.  Ustream and others like Mogulus (shout-out for Dan!) are a new breed of web application and the ease with which they make webcasting available is nothing short of astounding.  Using the iSight on my MacBook, my upcoming Fresno State/New Mexico State game will be broadcast over the web for my other friends to watch on the newly formed gergi TV.  

Granted, the scale of nerdiness here is a bit high.  Not nearly as high as setting up the webcam to watch my cats sleep all day long… which I did today.   Nor as high as setting up Twitter accounts last night for both Argo & Beta.   That said, I have a project in mind that will put all of these nerd endeavors to shame.  Cats and blatant misuse of technology will be involved if I can find the time to work on it.

My NCAA dynasties continue, though ever more slowly.  I’m now in three dynasties: WAC as Fresno State, SEC as Vanderbilt, and CUSA as Tulsa.  We’ve got 6-10 people in each dynasty and the time between “weeks” is getting further and further apart.  

The WAC is still my #1 dynasty and Fresno State is off to a spectacular start with huge wins over Kansas, Oregon, and an in-conference victory over Carl’s La Tech.  I’ve been practicing various plays and finally  figured out how I can call in my backup QB to run certain plays — something I’m definitely planning on doing in my upcoming game against Dan’s NMSU team.  My backup QB is the superstar recruit I snagged last season whom I promised early playing time and I’m definitely interested in using him to help me acquire my 2nd WAC title.  Unlike last season, Chris (Hawaii) is off to a red-hot start and could be the favorite to win the conference at this point while Josh (Boise State) seems to have fallen off a bit.  Right now, I have to like my chances though it will likely come down to the games against Chris and Mike (Nevada) for the title.  

The SEC is the slowest moving dynasty and Vanderbilt is really struggling against the competition.  I’m 1-3 though I have confidence I have at least one upset forthcoming.  The talent pool is a lot deeper than my WAC team but the competition is light-years above.  Most of my fellow dynasty-ers picked the cream of the crop in the SEC so it may be awhile before I can compete in that league.

CUSA is my newest dynasty and is made up mostly of people in the WAC dynasty.  I got assigned Tulsa who, in real life, had a pretty phenomenal seaon with a ridiculous offense.  That offense prowess is not to be found in the dynasty however.  In my three games, I’ve gone 1-2, scored 4 offensive touchdowns, and thrown 9-10 interceptions.  My receivers can’t seem to get open and while my HB is solid, the offensive line is awful and can’t hold off any sort of defensive rush.  My prospects at Tulsa are also pretty weak as the recruiting pool for a 1-star school in Oklahoma is rather limited.  Tulsa is definitely a work in a progress — from the ground up.

… is not to be found at Cox. My long awaited TiVo HD arrived last Friday and I quickly scheduled an appointment to have them come out to install the CableCARD necessary to get their encrypted HD channels. I was pleasantly surprised that they were extremely accommodating and friendly on the phone and they promised to send a technician out Saturday evening. Sure enough, the tech came out and installed the CableCARDs — two as they decided to give me two SingleStream cards instead of one MultiStream card… a bit odd but it seemed to work just fine.

My good fortune lasted until I tried to watch ESPNHD the next day. For some reason, only one of my tuners could capture HD video from the non-broadcast channels. Ah! The well-known issues of CableCARDs that I had hoped to avoid had decided to haunt me as well. I called Cox and they tried to diagnose over the phone, gave up, and promised to send another technician out Monday evening. I assumed he was coming out to “fix” the problem but I suppose I was a bit optimistic. The tech came out, confirmed I had a faulty CableCARD (um, yeah, I knew that — thanks!) and promised to send yes, another tech out to fix it. He couldn’t do anything because he didn’t have any CableCARDs.   Why a technician would schedule an appointment to come fix a CableCARD issue without a spare CableCARD is beyond me.

The tech promised another tech would come out from 7-9 Wednesday.  In addition, I got a call from Cox telling me they had to send a technician out for field line testing or some such, as mandated by the FCC.  Whatever.  That appointment was scheduled from 5-7 on Wednesday.  Needless to say, nothing happened until 8:50pm on Wednesday.  Finally, my technician arrived and I was relieved to know my CableCARD issue would soon be resolved.  However, it was not to be;  the tech that showed up was NOT the CableCARD tech, he was the field line test guy — running just a wee bit late.  At this point, I can honestly say I was not very surprised when the night passed without any CableCARD guy showing up.   

For what its worth, the phone service has been extremely helpful.  Once you get past the useless automated menus and speak to a representative, they’ve been pretty gracious and apologetic.  As nice as they have been, I simply wish I didn’t have to deal with them quite so often.  My fourth (and hopefully final) appointment is set for tomorrow.

Despite what Pandora thinks, I have a pretty wide and varied taste in music.  My iPod shuffles between rock, country, rap, and even classical throughout the day in my rather eclectic music collection.  I’m always on the lookout for new music.  These days, however, it’s almost always because I heard it on a TV show or commercial, in a movie or video game, or some other non-traditional means.  I almost never listen to the radio anymore and that’s because of one thing: podcasts.  Last week when I was without my Celica, not being able to listen to my podcasts was probably the hardest thing to adjust to.

Podcasts can be found on pretty much any topic though it still heavily favors news & technology — the first industries to adopt podcasting.  For me, beyond my weekly must-listen in the form of TWIT, the granddaddy and standard-bearer for all tech-related podcasts, I don’t really listen to any other technology related podcasts; I get enough technology in the hundreds of related articles I read every day.  As for news, I’ve tried repeatedly to get into the NPR podcasts but I just habitually find myself leaning more toward other podcasts.  Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me is always entertaining but more often, I pass the quick trips with ESPN’s PTI and College Football podcasts.

I’m a complete history junkie and, as far as I’m concerned, the history podcasts are the jewels in the world of podcasting.  I’m constantly searching iTunes for more quality podcasts along the lines of The History of Rome and The History Network.  For longer trips, Christina and I have steadily been listening to the in-depth TPN::Napoleon series.  Also, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History is… well, for hardcore history fans… but is also an excellent podcast.

iTunes + iPod + crazy car adapter + podcasts = awesome nerdiness.

I’m making even more progress on getting my media-related situation resolved.  I figure it’s been long enough for me to go without HD service so I finally ordered a TiVo HD.  The final selling point for me was the Netflix integration they added in — supposedly the nicest integration yet on a device.  Every device and software package out there seems to be adding Netflix integration at this point — TiVo, XBox 360, Roku, Boxee, PlayOn. Most important to me is Boxee though they haven’t quite figured it out on the AppleTV yet.  Oh well, the hacked AppleTV+Boxee is doing a great job as my movie and TV show watching media extender.  A new HDTV, an HD TiVo, AppleTV, and even a 360 when the others are insufficient.  It’s been a good few months for my media collection!

This past weekend was another full one.  Friday night was an old-school Gears party and a great time, as usual.  The chainsaw is still overpowered but what can you do.  Saturday was another painting day at the condo as we try and class up the joint for the new tenant.   It went pretty well and I was even able to get home in time to watch VT pull ahead in the ACC championship game — in HD on my new TV as well.  I told Christina later that might have been one of the best hours I’ve ever had.

Anyway, I then had to head out for my company’s (very early) Christmas party.  My company always does something a little different than most — we can get away with it since we’re so tiny — and this year we had a bowling outing and then dinner at McCormick and Schmick’s.  It was fun despite my worst bowling game ever — need to do Wii Bowling next year so I can show them up.

After dinner I was finally able to get in a co-op game of Left 4 Dead.  All I can say is that it lived up to my expectations.  Exceeded them.  Chris, Frank, Lucas, and I teamed up and played through the No Mercy level and I can honestly say I’ve played few games that were as non-stop intense as Left 4 Dead.  The forced co-op works as advertised;  You simply cannot wander off alone no matter how good you are because the zombies will overwhelm and kill you in less than a minute.  The game is extremely polished with a lot of attention to detail, plenty of humor, and just an all around well-made game.  The other highlight is that each play-through is completely different due to the “AI Director” who randomizes everything on the level and adjusts based on the current status of your progress.  Very cool concept and adds tons of replayability.

Sunday was a bit more tame as I met my sister Erin in Fredericksburg to swap the van for my Celica.  So very glad to have my Celica back — it might not be the fanciest car in the world but it suits me perfectly.  The evening was wrapped up with a birthday dinner for Christina’s grandmother.  Whew!

Thanksgiving has come and gone and my least favorite holiday is now behind me.  It’s not that I dislike Thanksgiving — I’m just not a big traditional meal kind of guy so a holiday devoted to just that isn’t really my thing.  A few days off work, on the hand — That is something I can get behind.  Regardless, on my new rotating holiday schedule (thank you Married Life!), this year was Turkey Day down in Richmond.  True to my family, it was a loud and boisterous affair with people coming and going and upwards of 25 some people tucked away in every nook of my grandmother’s house.  In a rather bizarre turn of event, I somehow ended up spending a good portion of the day watching Dallas with a bunch of Cowboys groupies…  Ack!  Ah well, I’m more of a college fan anyway.

Speaking of college football, due to the crazy parity (and mediocrity) of the ACC conference this season, VT is somehow going to the ACC Championship game this Saturday.  They will match up against BC - Sound familiar?  That’s right — all of the twists and turns, the unexpected upsets, the week-by-week changes in division leaders… at the end of the season, the exact same teams from last season are playing for the ACC conference championship.  Surprise!

Now that the college football season is winding down, I finally got a new TV for my basement.  My too generous mom dragged me out to Circuit City on Black Friday and coerced me into picking out a new TV for my downstairs “man cave.”  After moving into the townhouse a bit over a year ago, I had given up my nice HDTV for the living room upstairs and had made do with a 19″ monitor down in my basement that was also hooked up to one of my computers. No more — I’m back to the sweet goodness of a big HDTV.

There was a catch, of course.  My car, which is ideally sized for me, is not quite as ideally sized for an HDTV.  I had a few different options for transferring the TV back to my townhouse but in the end, I settled on my mom’s minivan.

My mom will tell all who listen that the minivan she has, a Mazda MPV, is the only minivan that drives like a car.  She may be right but whichever car it is that it drives similarly to… well, it is definitely not a Toyota Celica.  While it’s a very nice vehicle in it’s own right, I just can’t get past the notion that I’m driving around in a minivan.  On the other hand, my mom can’t stand driving around “an inch from the ground” in my car either so I guess it’s good that we’re supposed to be swapping back next weekend.  I’m just glad I hadn’t chosen to borrow my uncles truck.

“What player would be the most annoyed on Valentines Day?”

Game night with my friends led to the above question during a round of Imaginiff.  We’ve been trying to have a regular get-together and it usually revolves around some combination of Cranium, Taboo, and what other board games we can come up.  In Imaginiff, each player picks the player they think the question most corresponds to and if you have the same answer as the majority, you score a point.  4 “Shawns” and 3 “Christinas” later, the above question illustrated the commonly held belief that I’m not a romantic.

I made a comment to Christina that despite what everyone thinks, I am certainly one of the more considerate “significant others” out there.  She didn’t disagree but made the comment that I’m probably the least romantic person — not she has a problem with that — and am not one to, for example, give flowers unsolicited.  I reminded her that I had done that at least once but I just didn’t want to spoil her.  :)

I continued that I just don’t want to give a gift without a reason.  Christina pointedly told me that being romantic means doing EXACTLY THAT: Giving gifts for no reason.  To which I responded: Doing things without reason leads to anarchy.  

Oh, and I won the game of Imagiff.