A few months back I moved into a new house.  Since then I’ve finished most of my unpacking and moving in but a few projects have definitely lingered.  Most notably is running Ethernet cable all around the house.  The issue is I’ve got hardwood floors in the upstairs so running along baseboards/carpet just isn’t an option, nor is running in the ceilings.  So my only option is to drill into the side of the house and run it outside and that isn’t fun either.  So for now I’ve just had a long Ethernet cable running through the main floor of the house.  While it’s esthetically wonderful I should probably come up with a better solution as clearly I’ll trip over it and kill myself soon.

Belkin recently announced a powerline Ethernet adaptor that is capable of 1GB/sec.  Yup, 1GB/sec.  Given that, I figured it was time to try these little things out so I stopped off a BestBuy and picked up a set (they didn’t have the new Belkin ones so I went with the Netgear XAV101).  For $129 a set they are perfect.

Setup took all of 3 minutes.  The hardest part was getting behind my stereo in the living room to get to the wall outlet.  I plugged in there, plugged in my office, plug into networking on both ends and DONE.  My first test was to stream a 1080p Bluray rip from my PC to my Xbox in the living room.  Perfect, not a single stutter.  Next I streamed live 1080i television (so uncompressed and takes gobs of bandwidth) from my Media Center PC to the Xbox – again perfect, no issues at all.  Wow.

So if you need to get Ethernet around the house and don’t have cable get a set of these and try them out.  Isn’t it great when things just work?

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking on this one.  This weekend a group of friends got together to get their cars ready for the track in a few weeks.  Chris Wand and I decided we’d have a little surprise for everyone.  I give you the Bacon Explosion.

Stats on the bacon explosion:
- 2 lbs of Benton’s bacon (easily the best bacon in the entire world)
- 2 lbs of mild Italian sausage
- Rub of choice / BBQ sauce of choice

And how bad is it for you?  Well we each only had a small piece (some larger than others, Stevie…) but it racks up at:
- 4100 Calories
- 200g of fat
- 17,500mg of sodium
- 1200mg of cholesterol

And oh my gawd did it taste goooooood!

A few months ago I went to stay at Brad’s place up in Keystone and was greeted by a large box in his basement that held the Ion Drum Rocker.  I quickly tore into the box as I’d read about it many times and was very curious to see them in action.  If you can’t tell from the picture the Drum Rocker is a premium drum kit for Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

The difference in these drums and the toy that comes with the game is remarkable.  The standard drums are very light and flimsy, the heads are hard and loud and the pedal, well it sucks.  The Drum Rocker is basically a small, inexpensive digital drum kit.  A real digital drum kit I might add.  You can get an add-on module for it that turns it into a fully standalone drum set that you could play with real musicians.  The heads are quiet and very responsive, allowing for rolls and fast fills with ease.  While the cymbals are a bit hard (they don’t quite crash like a cymbal should) they are years beyond the Guitar Hero World Tour cymbals.  While I’m not a drummer (I can keep a beat fairly well) playing the game with these drums feels like you are actually playing drums, not a toy.

At $300 for the basic kit (the picture above adds the third cymbal for an extra $50) it’s not cheap.  Given the excellent quality if you enjoy playing drums it’s worth it.  Highly recommended.

This weekend I began the process of modifying Ginger for track work.  As I’m planning on taking her to the track several times this year I’m starting to get her all ready for it.  I’m mostly doing suspension upgrades (since I drive road courses) but I’m guessing a few power modifications may sneak in also.  So far I’ve installed a set of K-Sport coilovers (they are VERY stiff), new rims (they have my snow tires on them now, track tires are on order) and a front lips spoiler (that was mainly for look).  My big brake kit is sitting in the garage waiting to be installed (in a few weeks).  I’ve got a cold air intake on the way as well as a set of adjustable front and rear sway bars.

As you see from the picture I need to adjust the rear suspension to lower it inline with the front.  So far I haven’t scrapped anything as I do wish it wasn’t quite so low (I’m going to see if I can raise the front some).

I’ve also been busy inside the car – I’ve enable the navigation system while the car is moving, disabled the seat belt chime, and enabled video input on the back of the navigation screen (I can watch video from my iPhone on the screen and hear it through the audio system).  And no, I won’t be watching movies while I’m driving – I did it mostly because I could.

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything so I figured now was the time to give an update.  I’ve got several more posts in the hamper so hopefully I’ll be back to regular blogging soon.

So without further ado I introduce to you Ginger.  Ginger is a 2009 Subaru Legacy Spec.B.  What is a Spec.B you might ask?  Well it’s the adult fast Subaru.  Not the 22 year old WRX STi fast one, the adult one.  She has a 250 hp flat 4 motor (soon to be doing about 300 hp), Bilstein suspension, 18″ rims and a significantly upgraded interior over the standard Legacy GT (Alcantara seats, Harmon Kardon audio, Kenwood NAV system, etc).  Soon she’ll have new sway bars, coilovers, rims, exhaust and a big brake kit.

I’d been unsure of this purchase for a while as I was upgrading from a base 2008 Legacy 2.5i.  I wanted something that had all wheel drive, would be good around town, good to take to the mountains but quick and nibble enough to take to the track.  So far I’m extremely pleased with her, for the money I don’t think there is a better car out there (at least not one that fit me).  I also wasn’t sure about a red car (when I went to pick her up I’d never seen her) but I’m extremely happy with the dark color.  The Spec.B is a limited production car, with only 500 being built a year (and only 100 in this color).

So welcome to the family Ginger, I’m sure we’ll have a long and happy friendship!

Today is a sad day indeed for the music world as we’ve lost one of the great rock keyboard players, Richard Wright.  This also ends any hope for a full Pink Floyd reunion, which probably wouldn’t have happened anyway.

I’ve been a huge Pink Floyd fan since a friend gave me a copy of The Wall in 9th grade.  I quickly started amassing a collection of tapes from my local used music store.  Wish You Were Here, Animals, Delicate Sound of Thunder, on and on, then finally Dark Side of the Moon.  I’m not sure why I got that album so late in my Floyd loving career but once I got a copy I was hooked.  In my opinion Dark Side is the greatest rock album ever recorded and it might be the greatest album of all time.  I’ve probably listened to that album 10 times more than any other album in my life.  I’ve been fortunate enough to get to see Wright play with Floyd a few times and each time it’s been an almost religious experience.  A truly amazing musician who will be sadly missed.