Now I clock in and out, and suddenly find myself with 6 days left for getting those impressive gifts for my family. What a whiner right? I'm just saying its quite different now when you live 95% of your life with huge chunks of free time and little responsibility. Will it make these holidays and time off with family even more special, or will it go so fast that I can barely clear my mouth of candy cane fragments?

In other news, the escape from the ghetto is in progress. I'll be off this Thursday and Friday to see if I can get enough stuff moved to wake up in the new house Xmas morning. Thankfully I have a few good friends helping me out enormously - I'm not a good mover. Usually I just carry loads of my junk and toss it in the back seat until I'm surrounded by my stuff.

In the new house there will be plenty of time to put the New Video Sender to use. Can you say Halo Tourney? Well if not, I can, and will. But with the Video Sender I can cheat and send the signal from my competitions TV to mine and take a peek as to where they are sniping me from. Sounds...exciting right? You'd love it....

Check it out -- the new and improved Video Sender -- http://www.x10videosender.com

After a long week of Halo2 and sleeping.. I mean applying for jobs and ironing clothes for interviews... I would sit down Sunday morning to catch a bit of football on the television. About halfway into the first quarter my eyes get droopy and the boring parts of the game just blend into dreams of building go-karts with landlords. Just before I would fall completely into a slumber in would walk my father, apple in hand. Now everyone in my house knows that an apple, Popsicle, bowl of soup, or any other liquid snack spells an annoying time with my dad. You see - he's one of those loud chewers. I know you know a few - the people who say they leave their mouth open during the process because it adds to the flavor. So in comes my dad and the apple destroying begins.

By about bite number three my stomach is turning and I want out of the room pretty badly. But how can I justify leaving the Seahawks high and dry before the 1st half is even over? Well - I often made the sacrifice and found something else lazy to do, missing a large portion of the game till my dad's interest was gone.

So how does the New Video Sender come into play? Well not only could I have sent the video of the game from the main TV in our house to my secret screening room in their basement, but with the added channel control functionality I could have easily used my X10 5 in 1 remote to flip between games in another room while my dad focused on his apple. The same idea goes for DVD player, CD player, and most other major audio video component. Man I could have been lazy - It would have been amazing.

If you read my blog you’ll know that I chose looks over substance in my housing choice. I decided to live in a nice place located in a shady area. A few people warned me. To get to the point – my roommate and I were robbed again. Someone broke into his brand new used car a week or two ago and took just a pair of sunglasses and a few random cd’s. That’s it. The thief rammed a screw driver into his lock so hard that the mechanism fell into the door itself and broke. That’s an expensive inconvenience if you ask me.

I’ve been lucky and I have to admit a little smart. I didn’t have anything stored in our garage when it got hit, I knew better. As far as vehicles go, no one has touched either of my cars – yet…knock on wood and all that.

So we’ve decided its time to let the ghetto stay ghetto. You can’t keep nice things in areas where people like to take them. I certainly don’t want anyone taking a screwdriver to any part of my new truck unless it’s to install something superb, like a strobe light. We are moving a bit further north, closer to our old stomping grounds and further from the annoyances we’ve been facing lately.

If you see anyone wearing a pair of white sunglasses carrying two snowboards and wearing a shirt that says tony let me know, my roommate is very interested in talking to them.

First my car gave up on me. The water pump froze up and seized my engine while I was doing 65 in the far left lane of rush hour traffic. Picture Owen rolling to a stop in a congested part of I-5 just past the Tacoma Dome. Changing lanes without a gas pedal behind you is quite an experience. I made my way to the right and finally made it off the road. The car is toast. Well, not completely done, just too expensive for me to see the value in spending money on something with such high miles.

Second, my roomate and I almost moved. We had the opportunity to escape the ghetto and move in with a friend in Federal Way - a little closer to work, and a little farther from people who like to take things from our garage. But our landlord won't find the kindness in her check cashing heart to let us go. We are on a month to month lease. Apparently its a law that 20 days of notice must be given in order to vacate such a lease. We have come to terms with that, but in our lease there is a "no moving out in december" clause. I did my best to be kind in phone conversations with her, but I've thrown in the towel for the moment. Hopefully the offer to move will still be available in January. No big deal the place we are in right now is very nice, we just want to be closer to work and away from the hood.

Next I bought a truck. Oh yeah and I had a birthday. Then I bought a truck. While my car was broken my dad let me drive our old chevy; a truck I drove throughout college. This made me realize how much I missed driving a truck. I probably can't describe fully why this is, but it just is.

Turning 24 has resulted in me having to act like an adult more frequently than I care for. I barely have time for video games and family guy. Instead its car insurance shopping, and catching up on rental law.

Video Calling, huh, what’s that? I can hear you now sitting in your stiff office chair or worn out Ikea chair at home. Several years ago my grandfather invested in a video calling phone from, I think, AT&T. It looked very cool – very Jetson’s like, but no one else had one. So it turned out to be a clunky normal phone with a useless screen. Time has passed and everyone is gradually upgrading to broadband internet and turning in Newspapers for E-Newsletters.

My grandma fires up her brand new E-Machine at 5am and sends out her daily emails. She then jumps on Msn Live Messenger to see if any cousins, grandkids, or friends in foreign countries have anything to say to her. “Did you ring my bell?” she asks me as I sign on. It took her a while to realize the dinging bell she was hearing was just a messenger contact signing on – while not actually trying to get a hold of her. She eventually got the hang of it and to my amazement she uses it quite a lot. I have to ease her into new ideas when it comes to the internet and her computer, but I am thinking of a way to tell her about video calling. She already uses a compatible messenger to chat, so all that I need to do is get her a Video Calling System and go through the easy one time setup process. It only takes me 5 minutes. After that it’s as simple as a click of a button during her chats. Just click on share webcam and she can let her friends see her brilliant smile, and hear her unique laugh. She’s often alone in her big house. The house her husband built; the house they raised their kids – my mother. Being able to communicate face to face could be so important to her. I’ll get it done for her.

I didn’t even tell my sister I had received the cam before I sent her an invitation to view my webcam. She was surprised, but even more surprised to see me so clearly over the internet. Sometimes if I get a cell phone call from her I turn on the cam so she can see me as I come and go. I like to walk around when I talk on the phone – very odd. I almost always get up when my phone rings. Brings a new meaning to the word Mobile Phone I guess.
Oh yeah - did you want one - well check out The X10 Video Calling Website for more information and purchasing options.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by two Americans, John Baur ("Ol' Chum Bucket") and Mark Summers ("Cap'n Slappy"), who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like pirates. For example, instead of "hello," an observer of this holiday would greet his mates with "Ahoy, me hearty!"

So wiki knew. It sill makes very little sense to me as it relates to the world dedicating a day to it. I will say I’ll be delighted if it ever catches on fully. Imagine a day where the secretary greets you with an Ahoy, and your boss tells you of great treasure buried somewhere near the break room. It’d be nice for the serious world of deadlines and business suits to take a minute to be silly. I’ve never fully taken to pirate talk, so maybe today will be a good day to break it out. I think I’ll keep it quiet at first just dropping a few pirate words into sentences here and there. “So Carrie, what do you think of the new webcam, Yo Ho ho?” It’ll be quite a show seeing reactions all day long. Our work on the video calling system is still in full gear.

Maybe when I get home tonight I’ll try out some of my favorite sayings from the day on my family. There just getting used seeing my face live on their computer screen as we chat over little things. I remember my grandfather having a video calling phone over five years ago. It seemed cool but I never really saw it in action because no one else had the phone so there wasn’t anyone to call. With the expansion and availability of high-speed internet growing, the ability of communicating over the internet is even better. Even my grandma has DSL and uses MSN messenger all day. Many people are unaware that with just about every major messenger there is the ability to use video calling. All you need is a camera. And that’s what we are bringing you soon. The best camera for video calling on the internet.

I even stopped by my parent’s house the other night to show them how incredible I am. I stopped short of giving them notice that they would be witnessing greatness in their living room that night. I hooked my gear up in the basement and then the receiver to stereo setup in the den where they were both reading. I mic’ed up and plugged in I should have used my webcam to see the expression on their faces when they heard the explosion of arpeggios and lead guitar. Halfway through my song about the MiniTimer they figured out where the racket was coming from and unplugged me from the stereo. I’m sure it was only to keep the neighbors from complaining because I think I heard my mom yelling for an encore – it was either that or she really wanted me to stop. I prefer to think she’s still my biggest fan – who’d drive the tour bus without her?

Anyway, I think it’s one of the best uses I’ve found for my X10 Gadgets yet. I’m available for parties and other special occasions. But do to my high demand around my parent’s house my rates have gone up. Look for me on MTV…or like a local cable access channel…ok ..www.youtube.com soon.

Uh oh, Marko’s glaring so I better get back to work. Later my fans, love you two.

!--Disclaimer--! Some of the incidents in this blog post may be half-truths, inaccurate, or completely made up. But I have tried it out and its pretty cool.

-Elliot Smith-

The Lola report this week features two different bands/artists that spent a great deal of time in Portland, Oregon. Elliot Smith is known for his deep introspective lyrics focusing on the addictions and other battles he faced in his life. Since he left us in 2003 many artists have paid tribute to the great music and artist that he was. His music reached its highest point when he worked on the soundtrack for Good Will Hunting. His solo career featured songs blending acoustic guitars with melancholy vocals tacked together with poignant lyrics. I know, I know – why would you want to listen to depressing music? That’s what your wondering to yourself. Well I seem to buy in to the idea that a lot of the greatest artists we have had were troubled in some way. But – beyond the subjects of his songs is the greatness of his melodies. Some songs make me think of the Beatles, while others are too uniquely his own for comparison.

The album I’ve had on my iPod all week is either/or. I think this album exemplifies his melodic talents more so than some of his others. It’s a good album to write to, or take a night drive. In one of Smith’s early bands Heatmiser he displayed the ability to push his voice and fall in line with the Portland grunge scene that was around in the early 90’s. Fans of his solo career might be surprised by the heavy guitars and drums surrounding such a usually gentle voice.

The Good: Melodies, Melodies, Melodies…
The Bad: His unfortunate death.
Best Song: Right now I’d have to say angeles.

-Everclear-

Let me clarify, early Everclear. I think it was eighth grade when I got my first copy of Sparkle and Fade. You might remember it for its popular song titled Santa Monica, “We can live beside the ocean…” So I played that CD quite a bit in the years that followed. I even enjoyed the follow up of that album, So Much for the Afterglow. I became a little disinterested in the albums that came after the first two. There’s a pop element to the songs that don’t work with what Everclear does best. The band revolves around Art Alexakis, who is the only remaining member since the original lineup split a year or two ago. Luckily for me I discovered a CD that was meant to be there Demo, which capitol later remastered and re-released. World of Noise was made on a tiny budget, but the sound is perfect - Heavy guitars with powerful distortion. I have found through exploring music I like, that often enjoy a bands 1st and 2nd albums more than any other because there is a rawness and straightforwardness to the music. It could be a hard listen for a lot of people, but if you like hard rock I’d suggest it.

The Good: Heavy Guitars, yes!
The Bad: Its not what it used to be
Best Song: Genius Hands

Its Friday and my friend Shelby’s Bday so lets get this work done and go out!

Have you ever called someone’s cell and let it rang and rang all the while imagining them just hitting the ignore button, or choosing not to answer. I have had that feeling many times whether calling a sister or a good friend. I have even been on the opposite side where I just really didn’t feel like answering another call. Our old home phones give us legitimate reasons for missing calls and since we aren’t always there we receive less personal phone calls. That makes the ones we do get a little more special.
That’s what communicating with those you care about should be, special. I’ve been pondering this cell phone situation for a long time. We now have text messages, email, live voice chat, instant messaging, and cell phones. All of these things have made it easier to communicate with the world, but doesn’t a lot of it seem impersonal? I know of many instances of emails being misconstrued as having a cold or angry tone. Wouldn’t it be better if we could be face to face during these interactions?

That’s part of the equation we are working on here at X10. Bringing people together through convenient communication, while adding the personal factor of being able to see smiles, frowns, and tears. Isn’t physical communication an important part of understanding what someone is trying to convey. Without seeing them, they might be saying yes while their face and body language clearly are saying no.

On the DMOZ website they have a social contract written out explicitly including the fact that the Open Directory will remain without inclusion costs. I was shocked today to find out that some of the DMOZ editors might be charging web publishers for inclusion. Browsing the webproworld.com forum I came across a post about this very thing happening. An editor from the DMOZ contacted the owner of a submitted website. He explained to him that though not condoned, editors do take money in return for reviewing and including websites. He even went on to give this guy a breakdown in prices corresponding to wait time for inclusion. Check it out:

I doubt I will even attempt putting our new projects website in the directory. We’ve been spending so much time working on it that I wouldn’t want to waste any on the DMOZ. As soon as we have something to present to our X10 fans on the new product I promise I’ll post it here first.

There were people in chairs – as if they’d been camping out there since 5 am. An employee greeted us with a few coupons and the specials list. I scanned the deals for anything eye catching, the only thing I was really impressed with was an electric guitar at 60% off. As soon as I walked through the door I saw that guitar already in someone else’s paws. It turned out to be one of the guys who had camped out. I figured he must have really wanted it so I stayed clear of grabbing it out of his hands. Instead I roamed around the place looking for something to catch my eye. A few things I wanted didn’t pan out so I went to poke around the acoustic guitar section. After playing a few favorite songs for my endearing guitar center fans I spotted a guitar I hadn’t seen in previous visits. Taylor makes a guitar called the “Big Baby”, named after its 15/16th scale size. Basically it’s a little big smaller than your typical acoustic guitar. I’ve been quietly playing with the idea of buying such a guitar for months, and as I play just about every night I figured now was the time. I keep you updated on it.

Saturday I watched the Cougars get slaughtered by an overpowering Auburn team. I’m afraid to say that I’m still not an Alex Brink Fan. He and Doba go hand in hand, in their personalities on the field. A quarterback should be a confident leader who can avoid being rattled by opponents. Gary Rodgers displayed some of that. We’ll see what comes of it.

Sunday I went fishing for salmon out in commencement bay. My two friends and I combined pulled up 10 salmon. Unfortunately not a single one of them were big enough to even consider breaking out the tin foil and lemon. It was still a blast having that much action out on the water.

And Monday, after my guitar outing it was off to bumbershoot. I am typically not impressed with bumbershoot lineups but 2006 was decent. My friends and I planned our attack – Rocky Votolato – Zach Galifinakis – Sparta – Atmosphere. We managed success in all but Zach. Theres a few gripes I have about bumbershoot, mainly the show attendance format. In order to get a spot for the headline show of the night you typically have to arrive around 11am for a reserve ticket. Then you have to run around all day lining up for show hoping you leave one show soon enough to meet the cut off for attending the next. Eh, I don’t really have a solution so I’ll stop my whining.

I’m back at work today ready to give my attention to our new project. We are still collecting data from our survey. Soon enough, I hope to be able to give you more information on our new product. I really think it will improve the daily interactions of those who use it. Don’t worry I won’t keep you in the dark much longer. Just give us a little more time to make it perfect and you’ll be able to enjoy it your own home.

Let’s just say I’ve been busy.

If you were here you’d see a blur, if you could slow it down it would be more recognizably me. The cycle has gone desk, meeting, testing, desk, more testing, focus group. It’s a special thing when we roll out things this large in scale. I am tired – I’ll admit that, but I think anyone would be in such a state given the amount of attention our new project is requiring. I fell asleep between bites of oatmeal this morning. Luckily, the thud of my head on the table woke me up in time to leave for work. As soon as I’m out the door it’s on my mind again, and the excitement returns. I know that if we give it to you, that you will love it.

This is so important I’m going to take time out of my precious Labor Day weekend to make even more progress. Don’t worry I’ll be back on Tuesday bright eyed and no longer sleep deprived. Maybe I’ll even grace you with another issue of the Lola Report!

p.s. You can help us. If you take a quick survey, and are chosen you will get $300 worth of X10 Gear and a chance to help us improve.
But you have to hurry Click Here because it won’t last long.

This week Matt Pond PA and Bernard Fanning.

-Matt Pond PA-

One evening in my apartment I was letting Pandora.com decide what to listen to. I seem to do this a lot when I’m running low on music I haven’t played over and over again. I typed in Elliott Smith – so Pandora created a radio station of similar artists. After a few decent songs and a few by Elliot Smith himself I heard a song that I really liked. This is my process, find a song you really like – research the artist on Wikipedia – and download a cd.

Matt Pond is a singer/songwriter from Pennsylvania of course. He writes relaxing songs with interesting arrangements of guitar, cello, keyboards, and drums. The name itself stood out because I had grabbed the cd once before for one of my sisters, but never listened to it myself. In 2005 the released the album Several Arrows Later. It is probably one of the best albums of 2005 in my mind. I am surprised I don’t see them on TV or hear them on the radio. I think that at the moment there is not much room for bands like Matt Pond PA or even a band I mentioned in a previous post – Idiot Ghost. All the kids like Emo, and Screamo, and whatever else goes along with that. You can ask Sara about all that madness, I’m quite sure she knows a lot more than I do. While all the adults are holding onto their 90’s favorites. Grunge was my favorite though – I have to admit.

This band really speaks to me because of the way they are able to blend acoustic guitars with other instruments so well. I play my guitar every day, acoustic that is – because its hard to rock out in a townhouse.

The Good: Acoustic Guitars and Relaxing Vocals
The Bad: Similarities in songs – but who isn’t guilty of that.
Best Song: Is it Safe?

-Bernard Fanning-

Yet another great artist that Pandora has brought to my attention.

Bernard Fanning is the man behind the Australian band Powderfinger. After going on hiatus in 2004, Fanning ventured out on a solo project. The result was an album entitled Tea and Sympathy. I just loaded this on my Ipod again recently after giving it a break. After I listened all the way through yesterday I thought to myself, “This whole album is actually good”.
Fanning’s style reminds me of Ben Harper in a way, but his songs are lighter and easier to relate to. If you like crisp clear vocals then this album is for you. He has done very well in Australia but I haven’t heard much about him in the States. He writes his songs about a lot of things, but isn’t shy about keeping a personal tone to his lyrics.

The Good: His Voice and Lyrics.
The Bad: Hmm – I’m sure I can think of something.
Best Song: Wish You Well.

For a few batches now I have made a mild IPA with the added flavor of Cascade Hops. A few people that have tried it relate it to Sierra Nevada IPA, which is a very good beer so I’ve decided to make it until I’m sick of it. I usually end up giving about half a batch away to friends and family that have yet to try my beer. This time around my friend chose to make a Cerveza, or something along the lines of a Corona. He has been a lot more adventurous as far as trying new beers each time. Some have been very good; others could use a little work.

Everything went very smooth this time around. Between rounds of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out (yes we got stuck on king hippo) we stirred the brew and timed the hops. No boil-overs or nasty spills this time around. There is a point during brewing where the wort, or the beer mixture, starts bubbling madly and foams upwards toward the edge of the pot. This is often called the “hot break” point. If you aren’t careful you can easily find your entire stovetop covered with a sticky beer mess. This action doesn’t really hurt the beer itself, but beer at this stage is very hard to clean up. The sugar is yet to be turned to alcohol so anything spilled is sticky. We haven’t really had any of these problems, probably because of the endless warnings you receive from brewers.

After the beer is transferred into the primary fermentor it sits to begin the fermentation process. On the top of the fermentor bucket there is an airlock filled with water, which bubbles when the fermentation process has begun. The intensity varies each time beer is made. This time I had something unusual happen that I haven’t experienced before. My airlock had began bubbling sooner than usual. Twenty Four hours after the boil I checked on the batch. The airlock was still bubbling, but this time there was beer in the chamber that holds the water. “Eureka!” I exclaimed. Ok so not really, I’m sure I used a more descriptive word, but I was shocked nonetheless. I just wanted to see if you were still reading. So, I figured I could probably do more damage changing out the airlock so I decided to leave it in. We’ll have to see what this does to my final product. I have made a few mistakes in the past, but it hasn’t spoiled the taste yet.

I’m thinking about getting and Xcam for just such a situation. I’ll call it my fermentation cam. You see, the airlock should bubble for about 2 to 4 days in my experience. Once it has slowed to less than 5 bubbles a minute you know its time to transfer to your secondary fermentor. If I had an Xcam set up I could access the footage anywhere I could get on the internet. That way if I was visiting my parents and forgot to check the progress I could simply go online and take a peek.

Now if I could only find an X10 product to complete the bottling process for me.

Incase you haven’t seen it – The Big Lebowski is my favorite movie. Something about the carefree nature of the Dude himself makes the bizarreness of the whole movie itself much easier to digest. I do like bowling and being lazy, but not to the extent that Lebowski does in the movie. That’s literally all he does – lounge around and bowl.

He is of course out to solve a mystery. Due to a few identity mix-ups his rug was pee’d on and the real Lebowski’s daughter kidnapped. Yep – they pee’d on his rug. And it really tied the room together. The story follows the Dude (Jeff Bridges) on his quest to eliminate the problems plaguing him since the big identity confusion.

So yeah, what does this have to do with anything Owen? You ask – from your slightly uncomfortable computer chair. Well – if the story were true – a guy like Lebowski would love X10 Products. Not only could he control his favorite Creedence tapes with an X10 remote – but he could also turn lights and appliances on or off with the push of a remote button. Better yet he could have his whole house on motion sensor lighting controls from NewtoX10. A Protector Plus and Sentinel Camera would be more than enough to keep his rug bandits out and prevent and harm done from ferrets and nihilists.

Friday is here and tomorrow is Brew day at my place. Ten gallons (atleast) to be boiled up and the process started. I’m gonna try to get Marko over to let him in on my secret beer brewing processes, but since I’ve bailed on the idea so many weekends in the past – he is thinking it will be the case again. It’s gonna happen – 11am (or so)!