So today I made my first pork shoulder roast.

Of course the first thing I did was pre-heat the oven to 325 for 15 minutes. While the oven was pre-heating I removed the wrapper.

Then I added my choice of spices, to all over the meat:

I put into the oven for 2 hours and 40 minutes, and when it came out and I started to remove the net, it looked like this:

Today I posted a new video I recorded with my HTC Hero, and then edited with Windows Live Movie Maker, catch it on YouTube!

So recently I upgraded my cell phone to the HTC Hero Android Phone (Sprint).

While this isn’t my first phone, that could play MP3 files, its the first one I wanted to replace my Apple iPod nano 8 GB Blue (4th Generation).

This led me to being rather spoiled by the iPod and iTunes, work together. Of the podcast catchers I have experimented with in the past week, none of the them knew how to tell if I had listened to a podcast. This of course makes sense as that isn’t one of the variables the MSDOS file system (which at least my Android uses) knows of.  And while I know there a few good Android Apps that do podcatching, I would prefer that my computer keep my podcasts, and dishes them out to the Android, ala iPod / iTunes.

So here is what I would like to see in a PodCatcher:

Computer side:

• Be able to download regular podcasts
• Be able to download paid podcasts (ie: with login information)
• Generate a simple table to give to the Android based player.

Android (or other phone) side:

• Be able to play MP3 files
• Update simple table for Computer side to check

The table I think is key, currently I try using gPodder to send my music to, the bad thing is it doesn’t know how to tell if I have listened to the episode, its controls are simplistic at best. This means manually updating the client every time I want automatically update it so that it erases the old MP3s. The client on the Android will play the file, and then edit the table (perhaps in SQLite format) so that the next time the computer based side checks it will be able to know which episodes have been listened to.  As another side idea, instead of having it like iTunes used to have it where it was a Yes No toggle of have you listened to it, make it so it can take:

• 0 — haven’t listened to any of it
• 1– started but not finished
• 2– finished

Do you have any comments? Would this type of Open source catcher work?

So on February 6, 2010 I had some kittens. One of them, which was pure black and I was going to name Shadow didn’t survive 24 hours. However her two brothers are now 16 days old, and their eyes are opening.

The one I wasn’t able to get a good shot of, I have chosen to name him Hunter, but the one I did get sort of a good shot of, I have not yet chose a name for.

Here is my best picture of him (he’s the one sorta facing the camera):

And if your interested, here is a picture of Nina, who is over 7 months and 17 days old:

If you have a suggestion as to what to name him, please let me know on Twitter! You can reach me at @chrismoody

So I do have a new camera now, it may not be as nice as the one stolen from me, however it does the job that I need it to. I now have a FujiFilm FinePix J38. While I can’t say I have done a lot with the camera yet, it does work well in what I have asked it to do.

Fujifilm Finepix J38 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD

I have sometimes missed the higher optical zoom from my previous camera, but this is usable.

I previously had found and tried a FujiFilm S1500 from WalMart, however the item was obviously previously used, and locked up a couple of times during use. I was disappointed having to return it, for my purposes it was close enough to the S2000HD that I had previously lost. The only item they had left was the display unit, which obviously did not want.

So recently I had yet another birthday. I decided to do something quiet, and just have a few friends join me for dinner at one of my new favorite restaurants.

This was the restaurant I chose, if your in the mood for a good Bar-B-Que buffet, this is the place I would select in Houston, TX anyways.  I invited several people but only two came:

On the left is Paul E Cooley on the right is one of my neighbor’s Dave. While I had hoped more would come, hence the long table, it wounded up being fun as it was and a good time was had by all.

It may be a bit early for me to do a 2009 Year in Review, but being that its January 1st, 2010 seems to be as good as any place.

At the beginning of 2009, I was part of the 7.6% of American’s who were on the Unemployment roles. I was almost at the end of my initial unemployment funds was getting ready to have to request an extension. Up to this point, all I had been able to find was one day jobs till even that dried up.

I spent the end of 2008 and start of 2009 visiting someone I went to High School with to see if anything could be there. Her 7 year old son and I hit it off famously, her and I? not so much.

By end of January I had accepted a job with my current employer, I just had to move from the Los Angeles area to Houston, TX.  Unfortunately my Twitter’s on the subject seem to be lost, I can only go back to a point after I had arrived here in Houston so the exact time frame escapes me.

However, I do see that by January 31st, according to my blog entry “I have a Job” I was already planning on moving for this job. And I know my start date was February 9th.

If my deduction reasoning works right now I would surmise then I arrived in Houston on either the 4th or 5th of February 2009.

Looking over the rest of my blog entries for this year, I can’t say things have been remarkable if this year follows weather wise the same as last year, March will be very rainy and the start of the muggy season which will last until fall hits again.

September was a particularly bad month for me, starting with having all of expensive (ie: worth more than $100) electronics stolen, being stolen from and attacked while at home, and then deciding to move in a hurry as I leave the hospital with 7 stitches in my forehead.

This explains the lack of photography, and related blog entries since then. I have looked to see if I could find a camera that is the equivalent to the Fujifilm S2000HD that was stolen. While I may not have known the half of what it could do, I would like something that is in that same line. Who knows perhaps I will pick one up off of E-Bay, or Amazon, I see Amazon still sells them new.

Overall, I’d say 2009 was much better than 2008 (with the glaring exception of September). However, I do still miss my friends from California. I have also found that I miss the singular season of LA, however here at least snow is a rarity.

So recently I was thinking about a new idea for Podcasters, those of us who with very little thanks bring you our dear listeners “whatever nut job idea” we have. Here is an idea which may have been attempted previously but I’m not aware of it.

A blogging tool specifically designed for podcasters. Currently most podcasters use a combination of: WordPress + PodPress / Blubrry PowerPress + Feedburner Feedsmith

And this system works well, however I have to believe that something geared directly toward podcasters would work even better. Taking the best parts of each of the 3 systems, along with additional things that podcasters may want, to build the ultimate podcasting web tool.

Of course, as a side benefit there would be less hacks (initially at least) as this wouldn’t be as common of a blogging system.

So what goodies beyond the ones I listed here would you also like to have? Google Analytics? Something else?

So last night as I was getting ready for work, I was chatting with a friend and she suggested that I run a tool called Belarc Advisor to get a detailed look at my computer. Well one of the tests it ran was telling me what other computers were attached to my router.

Well what do you know, I wasn’t the only one connected to my computer. I tried to log into the control page for the router, and it was “unavailable.”

Well I showed them, I unplugged the router, and today when I came home I did a hard reset on it, and changed all the passwords and turned off the wireless access.

You really shouldn’t use someone else’s internet with out asking. If you don’t know who it belongs to, that isn’t an excuse.

Chris

Today I decided to go see the 12:25 PM showing of District 9. For those who don’t know, my current sleep schedule is something like 4AM till I wake up but usually somewhere between 11 am and noon. However that seems to be changing as my kitten wants me to have a ‘normal’ schedule, at least when she thinks its time to eat.

So after she had gotten me up, I decided I was going to go see this movie, with really having only seen a few twitter messages about it, and I believe a trailer for it when I went to go see Star Trek District 9.

Why this pre-amble? Well I wasn’t really fully awake when the movie started. [UPDATE: And apparently I wasn't all that awake when I wrote the review either, Star Trek wasn't even out yet]

For the first 30 minutes, I was desperately trying to keep myself up, the thought of leaving the theatre had actually crossed my mind because I was finding myself wanting to go to sleep.

Then they get out to the camp where the aliens have been set aside to live, to evict them. This part of the movie I call “Lets realistically portray how stupid humans really are.”  If you look at a lot of our fiction, and its clear that unless you come to us with guns blazing, we are going to treat you like a 9th world country.

To the human race’s benefit, we didn’t force them to learn English, and the people who worked with them, was able to understand their native language, and the aliens were able to understand the humans who spoke English anyways.

The only thing I wish they had explained more, is “what was in the fuel?” I won’t spoil the movie, but if you have seen it I’m sure you know why I ask.

Once the main human star of the movie, is hit with the chemical he begins to change, and then fight the humans.

As with many other reviews I’ve read of this movie, I’d say go see it in the theatre.