"Distract him with this shiny CD"

I went to the USCIS building to get my fingerprints taken this morning. I was there for 3 hours, and I spent 95% of the time waiting. All the employees were extremely nice however. I watched one girl politely try to explain the concept of a maiden name to an older woman for almost five minutes before she finally got it. After I got my fingerprints taken, I was given a study booklet to help prepare for the interview. When I opened it, I was surprised to find an audio CD with all 100 questions and answers that could be asked. I could not believe they were giving these out for free. Then I remembered I paid $675 for the application fee...

Also, my favorite question is:
56. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?

Bike to Work Fail

So I tried to bike to work on Friday. I really did. You see, after my bike mishap two weeks ago, I was ready to give up. But I don't like quitting things, especially ones that are important to me. So I went online and ordered a new set of innertubes and tires. I watched videos online to learn how to change an innertube and got the tools I needed. I trained on the stationary bike at the gym the week before.

The day of the event, I was ready, or so I thought. I'm about 1 mile into my planned 14 mile route, when I notice my rear tire feels weird. I pull into a parking lot and find a rusty nail-like object sticking out of my tire. This sucks, I thought, but I had prepared for this. I take out the spare innertube in my backpack and change it in the parking lot. It takes me about 20 minutes. After a few spins around the parking lot to make sure everything feels right, I continue along the planned route. Not two minutes afterwards, I hear a loud pop, not disimilar to the one I heard two weeks ago. My tire's completely blown. I'm out of spares, and just too far from my house to be able to drag my bike back.

Next time I'll buy a real bike instead of a $70 piece of junk from Walmart.

Business Card

Look at that subtle off-white coloring.

The tasteful thickness of it.

Oh my God, it even has a watermark QR Code!

Closed

Wow, homedepot.com and lowes.com are both down right now. Does nobody want my money?

Tire Pressure

It's just not my day today. Not only did my new super efficient, save-the-world, lightbulb of the future die after a grand total of 5 hours of use, but so did my bicycle tire.

I was riding along, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I hear a sharp crack. The sound ambushes me like a sniper I didn't see (which doesn't normally happen). I literally jump off the bike. I find it hard to believe that my bike could have made such an deafening noise so I look around, thinking someone may have fired a gun or set off some firecrackers or something. All I see is my neighbor looking up from his yard work, staring at me. I examine my bike closer, and sure enough, see that the rear tire is completely deflated (like my dream of biking to work).

Looks like I'm going to miss Bike to Work Day again, but I guess there's always next year.

Light Bulbs of the Future

These are the light bulbs of the future

• 90% less energy than incandescents
• 50% less energy than CFLs
• Cool to the touch
  
• Lasers (actually no, it's just LEDs)

Update: Okay, it's been less than a week and this lightbulb is already dead. I switched on the light, it flashed for a second, then went out, never to come on again. So much for energy efficiency.

Home Theater 2.0

Ever since I did my first living room upgrade, I've been meaning to get a surround sound system. After six months, I felt like I've waited long enough. I went with the Onkyo HT-S5100 7.1 home theater in a box system because it was pretty inexpensive. More pictures here.

Both my HTPC and XBOX360 output 5.1, which the receiver can expand into 7.1. The only gripe I have with the receiver is that the HDMI inputs are pass-through only, meaning they can't be used for audio input. So whereas with my TV, I was able to connect one HDMI cable from my XBOX360 for both audio and video, now I need to connect one HDMI cable for video, and one optical S/PDIF cable for audio. Onkyo's higher end models do support audio over HDMI, but I wasn't going to pay an extra $200 or so for this extra convenience.

I hate visible wires about as much as Steve Jobs hates buttons (just look the latest shuffle), so I tried very hard to balance wire management with optimal speaker placement. The center speaker is on a wall shelf that is just above the TV. The front speakers are wall mounted with wires mostly hidden behind the TV. The surround speakers are on speaker stands with wires hidden under the thing that runs along the bottom of the wall (I have no idea what it's called). The surround back speakers are also on speakers stands with the wires hidden under the floor in the crawlspace (I hope I never have to go down there again).

Some movies that really show off the audio system:

• Transformers
• Cloverfield
  
• Children of Men
• Independence Day
• Terminator 2
• Iron Man