Any of you peoples out there on XBox Live? If so... add me.

MainMor1

(MainMor was my old one that has somehow gotten locked from ever being
usable again.)

Let me make this perfectly clear, if I had one of these I would not get any work done ever again. I would be taking him everywhere.

Those of you whom have been with my blog a while know how much of a media
freak I am. I love movies, tv, music, books and games. I really enjoy
storytelling and I wanted to share with you how my setup at home works. I
shall start with a listing of everything you need to be as cool as me if you
use a Mac, which in hindsight makes me horribly uncool in some folks eyes.

- Flip4Mac - Software from Microsoft that allows the playing of Windows
Media audio and video to play on a Mac.
- Connect360 - Indexes iTunes and iPhoto content and shares it for the
XBox 360, cost is $20.
- iMac
- XBox 360
- Miro - "A free, open source Internet TV and video player that can
automatically download videos from RSS-based channels"

Now that we have our list, here is what I did with all of this.

1. First let me start off by saying that I am not really sure why
Flip4Mac needs to be installed, I already had it anyways and then on the
Connect360 website it said I needed it for Windows Media. So if you do not
have it already, go ahead and install it. (I understand why I need it on my
Mac, just not why I need it in conjunction with Connect360).
2. I hooked up my XBox 360 to my network, I went wired as I heard that it
works better than wireless and also because my router sits next to the spot
where the XBox would sit.
3. I purchased and installed Connect360 for $20 on to my iMac.
4. Configure the Connect360 to read the location of all of your video
files, it will index anything in subdirectories as well and it grabs
everything in iTunes automatically so you do not have to point this to where
iTunes saves everything, it can be an external hard drive where you save
your videos.
5. At this point you could be done, you could walk away and use your XBox
and be content. However, I am not satisfied... that is simply not "geeky"
enough for me.
6. Subscribe to a bunch of video podcasts via iTunes and you will have
new content hit whenever there is an update.
7. Now Install Miro on the iMac.
8. Surf to TVRSS.Net and look up your favorite show.
9. Copy the feed URL for that show.
10. Go into Miro and "Add Channel" and paste the feed into the software.
11. Go into Miro Preferences and tell it to save the videos to the same
folder where your other videos reside.
12. Tell Miro to start whenever your profile is logged in.

I realize that I could take those feeds and install them into other
programs, however I like Miro's ability to delete items after x number of
days. This way if I like something I can go into Miro later and tell it to
save it for me and if I don't care for something then I can let it naturally
expire and delete itself.

You have the files you have saved, ripped, leached or procured and you also
have new content automatically being downloaded from Miro and iTunes via RSS
feeds. Tons of content comes directly to you now. The only downside to all
of this is that anything encoded with Apple's DRM will not play and to Apple
I say "Booooo". However I have tons of free content and anything else I need
I will transcode from various sources... and *cough*NetFlix*cough* for
everything else. Using a combination of MacTheRipper and VisualHub which
will transcode just about anything.

What is Transcode? From Wikipedia "*Transcoding* is the direct
digital-to-digital conversion from one (usually
lossy)
codec to another. It involves
decoding/decompressing the original data to a raw intermediate format (i.e.
PCM for audio or
YUVfor video), in a way that mimics
standard playback of the lossy content, and
then re-encoding this into the target format. The simplest way to do
transcoding is to decode a bitstream into YUV format using a compatible
decoder and then encode the data using an encoder of a different standard. A
better way to transcode is to change the bitstream format from one standard
to another without its undergoing the complete decoding and encoding
process. Many algorithms exist to achieve this."

So I am driving home from the appointment yesterday when I come to a stop when around the bend I see flashing police lights.

Horse Traffic Jam 1

I sat there a second wondering what was going on... when it suddenly dawned on me that some horses have somehow gotten loose and decided to go for a stroll down the road and the police car was escorting them and driving backwards.

Horse Traffic Jam 2

Horse Traffic Jam 3

Horse Traffice Jam 4

What is going on with your knee? It appears that I have a torn meniscus.

Knee diagram

What the snot is that? Well, it is a common knee problem regarding a very very fine layer of cartilage and I have somehow torn it. It resides between the tibia and the femur and it basically allows the bones to glide against each other.

So now what? Welp, first thing is that I get an MRI done today. Once we know for sure then I go back to the doctor and we plan the next step.

What exactly is the next step? They do something called Arthoscopic knee surgery. Which they basically drill a few holes into my knee the size of a small pencil and in one of these holes they insert a camera and in the other two they insert the tools to perform what is known as a partial meniscectomy where they then remove the torn cartilage from my knee.

Arthoscopic Setup

Youch, this all sounds pretty painful for you MainMor, what is the recovery time like? It looks like it is going to be fairly simple actually. I may be on crutches for a few days, but then after about 48 hours I can walk around. Total recovery time is really about 4-6 weeks.

You are going to be off work for a few days I bet. Yes, I will be.

So what will you do? Hey, I am going to sit around and play my XBox. 'Call of Duty IV' will be beckoning me.

Torn meniscus

So I am heading to see a specialist.

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I love this place.

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I was saving this story a few days as I was in too much physical pain to
type. I am feeling pretty numb thanks to the fine makes of Advil liquid gels
and so now I can tell you what kinds of things that manly men do that nearly
get a person killed.

This Saturday while my friends and I were hanging out and working on my van
and I was tuning it up and changing brake pads... we began to do a bit of
drinking. Massive amounts of whiskey too... forget beer... beer is for the
lightweights. I did not drink nearly as much as my friends did, but we were
all pretty toasted.

When we finished up working on my van, my friend's father came outside with
a chainsaw.

Ok, we are going to stop here a moment while you let this sink in.

...
...
...

Now that you have had a moment to digest this information let us proceed
with the story.

The main branch that my friend's father wanted cut down was about 11 to 12
feet in the air and was about the same length. So we grab a really tall
ladder and we make our way down the hill to this massive tree. My friend
climbs the ladder and begins to cut the limb while his brother, his father
and I stare stupidly up at the branch directly over our heads while we hold
the ladder.

Oh yes...

Someone is about to die...

Ok, not die... how about... massive trauma?

Ok, how about lots of missing layers of skin?

The branch breaks and begins to fall directly towards us. The heaviest piece
raining down to his brother... his brother braces and I reach up and pummel
the tree limb like I am the Incredible Hulk from a direct impact to the
guy's face... thus deflecting this massive branch from instantly killing or
maiming the poor guy... instead of slamming into his head, it rolls down his
arm taking a whole lot of skin with it.

Me? My entire forearm and hand are stunned and locked in a clenched bent
finger pose for about ten minutes.

We were freaking lucky... especially doing something so incredibly stupid.

Oh yes, none of the wives were around either. We would have probably been
given a series of expletives with lines such as "Are you nuts?!" and been
saved from injury... well... unless they joined us in the drinking, then I
would have had to do more Hulk Smashing of tree limbs to save more people's
lives.

From Friday, near Opry Mills.

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I never understood this, it makes me laugh every time. 24 mph?? Not 20, not 25.

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