I have finally decided on a paint scheme for my Victoria-class RC sailboat. It’s going to have a black hull with blue wave graphic. As you can see in the pic, the rudder and keel will also be black. I saw a photo of a Vic that had a black hull with bright green graphics overlayed on top and it looked really nice, so I figured I would try something similar. I think he used stickers for the green parts, but I am going to probably hand-paint the waves. Time to put my fine-arts degree to work!

I read some articles on the Web that indicated that most RC sailboats which are built for competition are not painted because it just adds weight and drag. I am not so concerned about maximizing for speed, however. I just want it to look nice! Also, I decided on the name, “Brezza di mare” which is a Zard album name, and means “A light wind which blows from the sea to the land”.

Click the pic above to open a larger version graphic.

Yesterday we bought a brand new LCD tv at Best Buy. This is to replace our downstairs family room television, and we decided to just go “cheap” with this one, but then later get a really nice one for our upstairs “media room” when we have some furniture! The requirements for the downstairs LCD were connection to PC (to watch Japanese dorama over the network), 720p, and it had to fit in our entertainment center. At Best Buy, we looked at the entire range, and settled on the Insignia brand, which is Best Buy’s house brand. It looked pretty good, actually, and the price was great. Plus it was 1080p!! We also used a 12%-off coupon, so we were stoked. When we put it in our entertainment center, we found that it just barely fit, with maybe ½” clearance on each side (including the top!). Unfortunately, there is a set of RCA inputs in the side which are inaccessible at the moment, but a little drillwork to the side of the entertainment center will fix that.

I also picked up a set of component cables for the Wii, and now the Wii looks amazing! The menus are really sharp, and the games look fantastic in 16:9 widescreen. The only things left to buy are a set of component cables to hook the dvd player up to it, and perhaps an over-air HD antenna. Once I get those, we will have everything set and hooked up, including our archaic VHS machine.

I really want the Asus Eee PC. It’s tiny (a little bigger than a dvd movie case) and runs a custom version of Linux. The cool thing is, it can play DivX and Xvid videos, which means it is perfect as a J-dorama viewer! It’s relatively cheap too, at $399. The specs are pretty modest, but running Linux, it doesn’t have to be so beefy. And with all the storage on flash memory, the thing boots up in 15 seconds.

I will be following the Eee PC community closely to see how people’s upgrades go (memory, OS, etc). Loading Ubuntu on my old laptop has really turned me on to Linux and has shown me what a great alternative to Windows and OS X it really is. If I get one, I am not sure if I would change the OS to Ubuntu or keep the custom preinstalled version of Linux, Xandros. All the apps are there with the default installation, including Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Skype, and the movie player. I am not sure if you can add more apps with Xandros, which may lead me to installing Ubuntu, but I will let the Eee PC community work out the details!

You know, this thing would make a really nice e-book reader as well. It’s way more versatile than the similarly priced Sony Reader or forthcoming Amazon Kindle. I bet those two companies aren’t too happy about the Eee PC coming out!

In the end, I probably won’t get one (budget!), but it’s fun to do a little wishful thinking.

No no no!!! But it looks like it is gonna happen. WTH?!

Appetizer

Which snack do you like to get when you go to the movies?

Popcorn, if anything.

Soup

What year did you start using the internet?

I think it was 1994

Salad

What is your first name in Pig Latin?

Arronbay

Main Course

Name something you are picky about.

Can’t think of anything!

Dessert

Fill in the blanks: I [u>felt[/u> [u>genki[/u> yesterday and I [u>am[/u> [u>tired[/u> today.

One of the great things about the YMCA near us is that they have a “Parents’ Night Out” every month. That happens to be tonight! While the kids will be playing and watching movies at the Y, Mariko and I will probably be pigging out on sushi! Can’t wait.

Dodger Stadium is so much better when Nancy Bea Heffley is playing the organ.

The air in Texas is getting a chill. In our house, that means big pots of warm food. In particular, oden, nabe, and curry. We had oden a couple weeks ago, and Mariko and the kids had nabe the other night. That means curry time is next! Woohoo! I love beef curry, chicken curry, curry over katsu, curry over croquettes, etc etc. I am talking about Japanese style curry here. Although I love all other curries too, a big dish of kare-raisu cannot be beat on a cold evening.

Yay! Episode 4 is up! This is a pretty good “series” if you ever were in a MMORPG guild.

Please, please let this be true! Next, the Dodgers need to grab Torii Hunter…