blog
New home
5/21/2008
As many of you know, I've been moving to Rochester, Minnesota over the past week for my new job. I've come to despise moving after doing it so many times over my college career for co-ops and internships in Minnesota. Thankfully, this should be the last move for a while... at least I hope so!
My townhouse is pretty cool and I'm convinced I probably got the unit with the best view. It's a corner unit (8 in each building) so I have windows facing two directions. One direction looks off into darkness where Rochester basically ends. The other direction looks out over some rolling hills of a farm. Each unit also has a small patio area outside which allows you to look out over the city. I'll have to post pictures of the views when I find all of my camera stuff in all my junk. The only downside to these views is having some pretty strong winds all the time since I'm on a hill. Since Rochester is windy all the time I guess it doesn't really matter anyway.
I'm pretty much done unpacking now and it comes at a good time since I start my job next week. I fly to New York for a few days for some orientation stuff and then come back to work in town. I don't know exactly what kind of stuff I'll be working on but judging from the previous times I've worked here I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
Normally when I move I only bring my LCD monitor which I got when I first started college, but since I was moving almost all my stuff this time I decided to bring my old CRT monitor along too. I have them setup as dual monitors right now and I think I'll really enjoy it. I don't really know what to put on the other monitor though. So far I just have my buddy list over there and if anyone messages me I'm sure I'd put that over on the second monitor as well. Two monitors almost seems unnecessary to me at home but it's funny how I can't live without two screens at work.
The way my living room is built, there is a hole cutout in the wall above the fireplace which is made for a TV. The hole is reasonably large so you can fit a decent size TV in it, but they really didn't design it for doing things other than watching TV. There is a small shelf at the top of the hole for things like cable boxes or small DVD players, but game consoles or speaker equipment just won't fit at all. I have been thinking about the situation for a long time and decided I'd try and get one HDMI cable to go through the wall in the hole down to the floor outside the wall and plug all my stuff into a receiver there. My dad is a pretty handy guy so I suggested that we try the project ourselves. I'm sure a professional could have come in with his/her fancy tools and done the job in 10 minutes but I really didn't want to pay or setup the appointment. My dad and I ended up getting the job done, but it took several days since we weren't really sure where in the hole to make the hole. It's going to look very nice once I get my receiver (this Friday) and the cabinet I ordered to put the electronic equipment in. However, currently it looks weird since there are a ton of wires coming out of the wall and they don't plug into anything.
My dad has always enjoyed using X10 stuff in our homes to automate lights so that they go on and off at certain times during the day. Now that I have my own place I think I might try and do the same sort of stuff. I'd love to replace all the light switches in the house with X10 (or Insteon, I guess it's newer?) switches so I can put things on timers. Since my place is obviously not as big as a house I really don't have that many things to automate though. I think the thing that really matters the most would be the outside lights. I never remember to turn it on so having it on a timer would be nice.
The webcam will be back eventually. I just setup the computer that it normally plugs into about an hour ago and I still need to figure out how to get the camera pointing out the window. The shades I have are sort of heavy and may be provide a challenge while trying to put the webcam in front of them. The webcam I currently have really works pretty poorly anyway, so maybe if I can think of a better solution using a new camera I'll try that. Stay tuned.
My townhouse is pretty cool and I'm convinced I probably got the unit with the best view. It's a corner unit (8 in each building) so I have windows facing two directions. One direction looks off into darkness where Rochester basically ends. The other direction looks out over some rolling hills of a farm. Each unit also has a small patio area outside which allows you to look out over the city. I'll have to post pictures of the views when I find all of my camera stuff in all my junk. The only downside to these views is having some pretty strong winds all the time since I'm on a hill. Since Rochester is windy all the time I guess it doesn't really matter anyway.
I'm pretty much done unpacking now and it comes at a good time since I start my job next week. I fly to New York for a few days for some orientation stuff and then come back to work in town. I don't know exactly what kind of stuff I'll be working on but judging from the previous times I've worked here I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
Normally when I move I only bring my LCD monitor which I got when I first started college, but since I was moving almost all my stuff this time I decided to bring my old CRT monitor along too. I have them setup as dual monitors right now and I think I'll really enjoy it. I don't really know what to put on the other monitor though. So far I just have my buddy list over there and if anyone messages me I'm sure I'd put that over on the second monitor as well. Two monitors almost seems unnecessary to me at home but it's funny how I can't live without two screens at work.
The way my living room is built, there is a hole cutout in the wall above the fireplace which is made for a TV. The hole is reasonably large so you can fit a decent size TV in it, but they really didn't design it for doing things other than watching TV. There is a small shelf at the top of the hole for things like cable boxes or small DVD players, but game consoles or speaker equipment just won't fit at all. I have been thinking about the situation for a long time and decided I'd try and get one HDMI cable to go through the wall in the hole down to the floor outside the wall and plug all my stuff into a receiver there. My dad is a pretty handy guy so I suggested that we try the project ourselves. I'm sure a professional could have come in with his/her fancy tools and done the job in 10 minutes but I really didn't want to pay or setup the appointment. My dad and I ended up getting the job done, but it took several days since we weren't really sure where in the hole to make the hole. It's going to look very nice once I get my receiver (this Friday) and the cabinet I ordered to put the electronic equipment in. However, currently it looks weird since there are a ton of wires coming out of the wall and they don't plug into anything.
My dad has always enjoyed using X10 stuff in our homes to automate lights so that they go on and off at certain times during the day. Now that I have my own place I think I might try and do the same sort of stuff. I'd love to replace all the light switches in the house with X10 (or Insteon, I guess it's newer?) switches so I can put things on timers. Since my place is obviously not as big as a house I really don't have that many things to automate though. I think the thing that really matters the most would be the outside lights. I never remember to turn it on so having it on a timer would be nice.
The webcam will be back eventually. I just setup the computer that it normally plugs into about an hour ago and I still need to figure out how to get the camera pointing out the window. The shades I have are sort of heavy and may be provide a challenge while trying to put the webcam in front of them. The webcam I currently have really works pretty poorly anyway, so maybe if I can think of a better solution using a new camera I'll try that. Stay tuned.
Labels: computers, davecam, home theater, house, insteon, job, rochester
MN bound
9/24/2007
The webcam is back up. The leak in my ceiling *might* be fixed but I won't be able to tell until it rains really hard again. Because I'm sick of waiting I just pulled the desk far enough away from the leak that it won't get hit by anything that comes down. Anyway, I put the webcam back up so you can enjoy the Hancock traffic.
I've officially accepted a job at the place I've been working at in Rochester these past few years. I will probably be starting sometime in late May after I pack stuff, move, and do various things like get a new license and plates for the car. It will be nice to be able to not have to worry about looking for a job this year and just focus on fun (I guess school too).
Halo 3 comes out tomorrow and should be delivered to my door around mid-day, I hope. I usually work 8-1 Tuesdays, but I might start a little earlier so that when I get the package I can play it more quickly. I guess people are loving it so far as it has a 96/100 average score when I wrote this.
The bike trainer was kind of annoying to setup. The instructions were decent but the pictures they refer to were too small to figure out what they were talking about. It was also annoying to put my bike in the trainer but I think that was more due to my bike's design in the back. It fits though and it will be nice having this when it's too cold out to go biking. I briefly tried it and it appears to give a realistic road experience. I think it might be a little easier resistance than a road, but I'll reserve judgment until I do a longer ride on it.
I've officially accepted a job at the place I've been working at in Rochester these past few years. I will probably be starting sometime in late May after I pack stuff, move, and do various things like get a new license and plates for the car. It will be nice to be able to not have to worry about looking for a job this year and just focus on fun (I guess school too).
Halo 3 comes out tomorrow and should be delivered to my door around mid-day, I hope. I usually work 8-1 Tuesdays, but I might start a little earlier so that when I get the package I can play it more quickly. I guess people are loving it so far as it has a 96/100 average score when I wrote this.
The bike trainer was kind of annoying to setup. The instructions were decent but the pictures they refer to were too small to figure out what they were talking about. It was also annoying to put my bike in the trainer but I think that was more due to my bike's design in the back. It fits though and it will be nice having this when it's too cold out to go biking. I briefly tried it and it appears to give a realistic road experience. I think it might be a little easier resistance than a road, but I'll reserve judgment until I do a longer ride on it.