Tyler On Everything

Monthly archives

Search

New Speakers… in Council Bluffs No Less!

I ordered some new speakers earlier this week.

Last weekend I went auditioning, and couldn’t find anything that was exactly what I wanted, but the AV123 rockets fit the bill with a less bright top end, and a little bit more punch for rock music.

Anyway I got the AV123 Rocket 760s:

Rocket 760

As well I got the RSC200 Center (Affectionately referred to as ‘Bigfoot’):

Bigfoot

And the RSS300 Surrounds:

Surrounds

As you can imagine I am pretty excited and have been watching the tracking. Well today where do they end up! COUNCIL BLUFFS! If you are a huge Tim Kasher fan (Cursive/The Good Life) you would know that he lived near there and has referenced Council Bluffs in a few songs off of The Good Life’s Album of the Year:

Album Of The Year:

spring was popping daises
around rusted trucks and busted lawn chairs.
we moved into a studio in Council Bluffs
to save a couple of bucks.
where the mice came out at night.
neighbors were screaming all the time.
we’d make love in the afternoon
to chelsea girls and bachelor number 2.
i’d play for her some songs i wrote
she’d joke and say i’m shooting through the roof.
i’d say they’re all for you dear.

Inmates:

When you said you’d leave me…well, why haven’t you left me? What are we still doing here, so desperate for company? There’s a greyhound on Jackson Street, there’s an airport in Council Bluffs…hell, there’s a car in the driveway – fifty ways to get lost.

Two of my favorite songs on the album to boot! I figure that this is a good omen. I hope that Tim’s stuff sounds great on the new speakers!

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Personal Life No Comments » June 2008

Oh Cursive is SO COOL!

It has been about one year, no not since I blogged last, although it may feel that way. It has been about one year since I saw my favourite band Cursive the one and only time I saw them. It was a great show, and with all the shows I have seen over the years it is hard for me to say that. I honestly wasn’t disappointed. I figured that in honour a year later I would post a list of what I think are Tim Kasher’s best songs (in order no less):

Sierra (Cursive)
Art Is Hard (Cursive)
O’Rourkes 1:20 AM (The Good Life)
A Gentleman Caller (Cursive)
Inmates (Acoustic) (The Good Life -Version that Tim sings)
The Great Decay (Cursive)
The Martyr (Cursive)
A Little More (The Good Life)
The Radiator Hums (Cursive)
Album Of The Year (The Good Life)
Staying Alive (Cursive)
Driftwood: A Fairy Tale (Cursive)
Ceilings Crack (Cursive)

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything, Personal Life 1 Comment » May 2008

Disappointed With Richcraft - For the First Time

For the first time I am disappointed with my home builder. That isn’t bad considering that I have been in the house for over 4 months.

We have had some minor issues but Richcraft has been very quick to come and fix them. Today they were in looking at a minor issue, so we decided to ask about our grass.

A quick little break down:

Committed to buy the house in March of 07. House was slated to be completed in November 07 (it was). We were to take possession in December 07 (we did). Now the houses across the street were completed in September and they had their sod laid in October, and at the same time had their driveways paved. Finishing in November our side of the street did not have that gone, and as such our yards are mud, sand and gravel, and our driveways are gravel.

Back to today, we asked about when our yard and driveway would be completed. They told us July or September! Unbelievable, we basically need to live in a muddy puddle of crap for the better part of the summer - AT LEAST! The reasoning for this? Because the ground needs to settle and the company that does the landscaping needs to become available. I’m sure that its more of part 2 rather than part 1, since I don’t see how much more setttling they are waiting for considering that the neighbours across the street were able to get their grass a full year ahead of time.

Gah… In a few weeks -when the snow is done melting- I will post photos of my muddy nightmare.

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything, Personal Life No Comments » April 2008

HD World…

Everything HD, all the time. That is the way is should be.

Last night I kept flipping back from the SD hockey game to the HD baseball game. Its so hard to watch SD content now. As I was watching the baseball game a commercial came on. It was a commercial for the JVC Everio HD Camcorder. I was thinking to myself: Well that is a toy that I should have!

But wait… This commercial with the smiley baby and big hair is in standard definition. Why would a company trying to attract HD users on an HD channel not shoot their commercial in HD. I mean, its a commercial and most commercials are still in SD, but really if you are trying to sell an HD accessory you would think you could advertise it well in HD.

Still looks like a toy I would want…

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything, Personal Life, Technology 1 Comment » April 2008

Friday Marked The Day!

Friday marked the day that my actual Enbridge usage matched the amount that they estimated for January 7th. Friday was the 28th of March. Note that it took 116 days to use the same amount of gas that they estimated I would use in 35. I am using 3 times less than they estimate.

My advice: Read your meters frequently, and correct them if things are hugely out of wack. They love your money, and if you don’t call, then they love your money more than you do.

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything, Personal Life No Comments » March 2008

Yester-day of Hell

Every now and then one of these days comes along, its rare, thankfully because they are quite difficult to take.

To start off the day, well I need to go into a bit of history. Two days prior there was a solid foot of standing water in the road, over the previous few months we had continually contacted the city regarding getting it cleaned up. No luck. So on Tuesday I went out with my neighbour to find and open up the storm drain. After a few hours of chipping ice, we had cleared the 10 inches on top of the storm drain, and had the road draining. The road was rutted to no end.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I knew there was a winter storm blowing in, and I had a dental appointment at 8am so I was up early.

Incident 1

I checked my email to find that I had an email from Zip.ca saying that my credit card had been declined. The previous night I had a similar incident at Bestbuy so I figured that I should look into it. I phoned PC Financial to have them tell me that my card had been suspended and they would have to transfer me to the security department. The security department informed me that there was 2 suspect transactions. I was shocked, so I asked what they were. Turns out it was two internet transactions I made, one to renew the hosting of this very site, and the other for a nose piece for a pair of Oakley M Frames. Turns out there was nothing suspect about it. I then started questioning why I was not called after my card was canceled. No satisfactory answer. From here on forward they will not be putting security holds on my card and will call instead. Sounds smart to me.

Incident 2

I was rushing out of the house, and fighting through the falling snow to get to my dental appointment. Right at the end of the driveway I got my left front wheel stuck in the very hole I had dug for the storm sewer two days earlier.

I did some digging, and its kind of hard to see in these photos, but I was really really stuck. Furious, I decided to phone a tow truck to get me going.

Incident 3

The tow truck hit my car!

He slid sideways trying to drive past the car. That would be the ruts I was talking about. Not only that, but my tow truck time saving affair also had the truck stuck. They needed another tow truck to pull him off the car.

Even after pulling the tow truck off my car, it was still stuck and needed helping getting out of the ruts.

At this point they offered to take my car to get it repaired, I accepted, I currently don’t know what the status is, but here is the damage.

This was quite the day, probably about as bad as humanly possible. I really hope I get my car back soon.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything, Personal Life 4 Comments » March 2008

Good Day, Amazon.com

Last afternoon I felt sick -still do. I went home early, if you consider 4:30pm early, and was disappointed that my Amazon.com order hadn’t arrived. After about 20 minutes of watching the X-Games big air comp, the door bell goes.

What arrives? My new coaching boots:

As well my Amazon.com order arrived (the same day that BHD became available from the BestBuy warehouse -I definitely won that battle). So I spent last night watching The Rock on Blu-Ray. I must say, the transfer looked better than I expected from a 17 year old movie. As well as I had said earlier Amazon.com does ship from within Canada -c/o DHL- so it will never be susceptible for taxes/duties, assuming that you are ordering DVDs or Books. I think Amazon.com will be my new shipper of choice.

I’m still feeling kinda sick, so I’m not sure I will make it through the day.

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything, Personal Life, Technology No Comments » February 2008

Utility Joy #9582: My Super Cheap??? Ottawa Hydro Bill

(Finally) Got my hydro bill. I have been waiting for -and fearing- the arrival of this bill. I had spoken to them, and knew it was going to be a two month bill. I thought it was going to be huge.

When it arrived it was small… No wait… It was huge… No wait it was small. I can’t decide.

The final tally was $338, but here is the real kicker. It included a $30 new user fee, and a $200 deposit because of my credit. I couldn’t understand -I have very good credit- so I called. Turned out that they didn’t run a credit check so I had to be charged the deposit amount. I told them to run a credit check, they said that there is a $15 fee for that (which I find unbelievable, what the hell is the $30 new account charge for then?!?!?!?!?). So I asked when I got my $200, back. It was going to be added to my bill after 1 year. Not too bad, after some mental math:

Interest on $200 (4% x $200 = $8) - Taxes on interest ( 40% x $8 = $3.20) = $4.80

So if I put it in a savings account then I’m looking at about $5. So the $15 is a large amount to pay. I decided to just give them the $200 for one year.

I still want to know what the hell the $30 for the new account included.

——————————————–

On the plus side. My two months of hydro usage was $108. That is $54 a month. That is great! I know that will increase during the summer AC season, but those numbers are very low. Perhaps things are looking up.

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Everything, Personal Life No Comments » February 2008

BestBuy.ca Feud Ends…

…with a draw.

So they replied back today and told me if I didn’t like their terms I could cancel the order. I poked around a little more and found I could make the same order for Amazon.com for $5 less (even with the sale price). I cancelled the BestBuy order, just as they wished. They didn’t get the sale, but I didn’t get them to admit that they are completely useless. I have some BestBuy Rewards Points so I will still be doing some shopping, but not on DVD/Blu-Ray.

I added one more item to cut down the shipping time even a little bit more, and placed the order. I got an email a few hours ago that it has already shipped. BestBuy.ca continues to provide the worst service in the industry. Amazon.com continues to impress.

——————————————

On a side note, I was told today that Amazon.com actually ships from within Canada on DVDs/Books so tax/duty is never an issue. I believe what I was told, and that makes Amazon.com even that more appealing. dotCa/BestBuy/Future Shop may have worked their way right out of my DVD/Blu-Ray market. How fun is that!?!?!

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

Loading ...

Posted by Tyler Posted in: Coaching, Personal Life, Technology 2 Comments » February 2008

Coming Up On Renovation Season

As a first time home-owner I feel like I should have a list of renovations for spring. So I do:

Replace main floor carpet with hardwood
Build backyard fence
Finish second half of basement, including installing bathroom

The last item is probably the most ambitious. I will try to get started on it as soon as possible, although the items are pretty close to priority going forward.

Here are some diagrams of the changes I would like to make in the basement.

Before: