DarthClem's blog

Have you ever looked at pictures of the presidents when they are first elected and then compared them to when they're into their second term?  Look at either Bill Clinton or Dubya Bush and they both came into office looking youthful, but 6 or 7 years into their terms, they are completely grey and look like they've aged 20 years.

The good news:  my HD projector should be back to me from the Panasonic service center today.  They replace the iris assembly, optical block, the main board, and the lamp -- essentially everything but the case.  The cool thing is that the lamp had 830 hours on it and the lamp warranty expires at 500 hours, yet they replaced it for free.  Normally, the lamp would have been $399.

The good news:  my HD projector should be back to me from the Panasonic service center today.  They replace the iris assembly, optical block, the main board, and the lamp -- essentially everything but the case.  The cool thing is that the lamp had 830 hours on it and the lamp warranty expires at 500 hours, yet they replaced it for free.  Normally, the lamp would have been $399.

I've completed 4 weeks now of getting up early to run.  I am to the point that I don't even need my alarm clock anymore.  I automatically wake up at 5:50am.  This morning, I wish I hadn't.

I was having the coolest dream.  I had been traveling door to door demonstrating my 2 handed car washing technique.  I had sponge gloves on each hand and was doing the Daniel-san "wax on, wax off" technique.  Soon I found that I had worked my way out into the country, where the laws were more lax and thus strip clubs could serve alcohol while allowing full nudity.

I've completed 4 weeks now of getting up early to run.  I am to the point that I don't even need my alarm clock anymore.  I automatically wake up at 5:50am.  This morning, I wish I hadn't.

I was having the coolest dream.  I had been traveling door to door demonstrating my 2 handed car washing technique.  I had sponge gloves on each hand and was doing the Daniel-san "wax on, wax off" technique.  Soon I found that I had worked my way out into the country, where the laws were more lax and thus strip clubs could serve alcohol while allowing full nudity.

One thing that really irks me, and it seems to be getting more and more prevalent, is the pushing of product replacement plans.  Hell, you can't even buy a 360 game now without a Best Buy blue-shirt agressively insisting that you get a PRP.   Today's experience was with Office Depot, as I attempted to buy a nice leather chair for my office.

After the Depot dude drug out the box for me and I thanked him, he began trying to sell me a floor mat (my guess is that it's a high margin item that they use when you're buying something non-electronic).  The conversation went like this:

One thing that really irks me, and it seems to be getting more and more prevalent, is the pushing of product replacement plans.  Hell, you can't even buy a 360 game now without a Best Buy blue-shirt agressively insisting that you get a PRP.   Today's experience was with Office Depot, as I attempted to buy a nice leather chair for my office.

After the Depot dude drug out the box for me and I thanked him, he began trying to sell me a floor mat (my guess is that it's a high margin item that they use when you're buying something non-electronic).  The conversation went like this:

Okay, so my projector is on it's way to service center and my PC hard drive is crapping out on me.  I decided that I'd take the afternoon off and install a new hard drive in my PC and reistall XP and all of my miscellaneous applications.  Major ass ache to be sure.

Here's where it turns wonderful, though.  I decided to take the time to clean up my office while the hard drive is formating.  I've been telling myself to clean off my desk for years.  I couldn't believe how much crap I had that I could throw away.  I really feel like I've accomplished something.

Okay, so my projector is on it's way to service center and my PC hard drive is crapping out on me.  I decided that I'd take the afternoon off and install a new hard drive in my PC and reistall XP and all of my miscellaneous applications.  Major ass ache to be sure.

Here's where it turns wonderful, though.  I decided to take the time to clean up my office while the hard drive is formating.  I've been telling myself to clean off my desk for years.  I couldn't believe how much crap I had that I could throw away.  I really feel like I've accomplished something.

I purchased a Panasonic projector back in late February and let me tell you, playing games and watching movies on a 120" screen is the cat's ass.  The problem is that the image began to periodically dim and then brighten and I noticed a color convergence issue.  So, I sent it in for repair back in June.