Thad

Well, my Kenwood KDC-MP919 has completely crapped out again. I am almost completely certain it is the ribbon cable that connects the face to the rest of the unit, but I am tired of it failing. I had already sent it back for repair once for the same problem.

So now, I am looking for a new deck. Single DIN preferred, though the dash is a GM bastard sorta-1.5-DIN dash. The ability to read CD-R and CD-RW would be a must. MP3 support required, of course. Other formats (FLAC or Ogg Vorbis) would be nice. Front AUX and USB would be cool. iPod support not needed. Amp preouts not currently required, as I am using the stock wiring and mostly stock speakers (had to replace the rear speakers last year).

Anyone have any suggestions or recommendations?

Apparently, sometime after I edited my post on Wednesday, there were at least 10 confirmed tornadoes. So far, they all look to be quite a ways south and east of Atlanta. Also, there was at least one fatality and at least four injuries, between Hancock and Putnam counties.

Here is the NWS report.

I hope that everyone I know down in Georgia makes it through the various tornadoes that appear to be sprouting up around Atlanta...

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/

Edit: Ok. Only watches and some warnings with no confirmed reports of funnel clouds. Lots of hail so far, though.

From Anime News Network: Missing 14-Year-Old girl reportedly headed to Ikkicon.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) reports that 14-year-old Deborah Kalai Fourzan disappeared on Monday from her hometown of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and "is believed to be traveling to California with James Reimer," a man who also lives in Oklahoma. According to the KVUE television station in Texas, investigators learned from Fourzan's schoolmates that the two "were heading to various anime conventions en-route to California." The two are reportedly first heading to the Ikkicon anime convention, which takes place at the Austin Hilton Hotel in Texas from February 6 to 9. The NCMEC is asking for the public's help in finding Fourzan and Reimer.

I really hope she is found before anything really bad happens to her. Her mom discovered a week or two ago that Reimer had been sending her sexual text messages when Deborah was grounded from her cellphone.

Reservations for the AWA group rate at the Renaissance Waverly opened at 10AM (EST) Monday, February 2. As of 1AM (EST) Tuesday, February 3, the convention rate is already sold out for Thursday. All the other nights are currently still available at the convention rate. I am somewhat shocked at how quickly Thursday sold out.

If you have the means to cover the difference, it is possible to split your rate, such that Thursday is a the normal rate (which is kinda high) and have the rest of your stay at the group rate. It might be possible to do with the web reservation system, but I think it is easier to just call the hotel reservation phone number and set it up there.

Update (2/4/2009 6:15AM EST): I just called up the reservation line and got my stay switched over to having all four nights at the group rate.

I just learned that a local movie theater, Studio 28, is closing.

Studio 28 was a pioneer in the movie theater industry. They were the first in the country with multiple screens. From 1988 to 1995, they were also the largest in the country, with 20 screens.

wow...

guess who's making a comeback...

from the lagarith changes page:

Version 1.3.16 released on 6-21-2008
Fixed a bug that would occasionally corrupt frames in TMPGEnc (and possibly other programs as well). Thanks to Aleksey Gankov for reporting this.
Ported the 64 bit build to Visual Studio 2005.

This means that the problem that caused corrupt frames in the first SAS contest should be fixed.

The info page

(from sailordeath)

I'm just about ready to leave for ACen. Only about 7 hours later than I had intended. A very large portion of that was because I wanted to finish cataloging my collection so I had a list I could refer to should I visit the dealers. Too many times I'd be at a store or a dealer's table and see a dvd that reminded me I still hadn't bought all of the discs, but I couldn't remember which one was the last one I had.

Over the weekend I had whipped up a custom PHP/MySQL app that would take a UPC code (borrowed my boss' barcode reader he bought to use with ReaderWare for his books) look up the title on Amazon (if they had it) and then allow me to modify the title, make sure the format was right, and so on, before adding it to the database. Unfortunately I didn't get the scanner until monday night and wound up tweaking my app a bit more before I even started scanning anything. Monday I only got a little bit of my collection scanned, Tuesday I got home quite late and went directly to bed, and last night I was up all night finishing up the scanning. I went to go sit down for a bit somewhere around 8am and wound up falling asleep. A few hours later I woke up and went to complete the scanning (including all my live action and music DVDs). After that was all out of the way I realized I still needed to get a usable list, so I spent even MORE time farting around in PHP to make a nifty small-print two-column tabular view with each item alternating colors which I could print out reasonably. (probably much faster than trying to figure out how to get it into my old PDA which I haven't used in many months and is probably completely dead as far as a charge goes).

During all of that, I forgot I needed to get a prescription refilled which may have required me talking to my doctor, as the last time I filled it was right before the thing expired. I was pretty sure I had a new prescription on file, but I needed to call Walgreens to check. If I had one on file, I had been intending to get it filled sometime after I got to Chicago. Had a new one on file, but the pharmacist misunderstood what I was looking for, so I wound up having to kill some time while waiting for that to be filled. (They were very busy when I called, and I wound up waiting for something like 10 minutes on hold.)  At that point it was 5 to 6.

Finished packing and took a shower. Now I'm just about to head out the door to go to walgreens, get the meds, and jump on the highway for a few hours.

ARGH. Why do I suck so bad at planning?

I saw this interesting editorial piece in my local paper today, which reminded me of the videos of people at AWA throwing stuff from the balconies because they thought it was hilarious. I think Pitts nailed the problem right on the head. Society seems to have lost the distinction between notoriety and fame, and many people are seeking fame any way they can. Often, they do stupid or downright disgusting things, record it on video, and post it up on youtube for their piece of fame. I wonder what we all can do to reverse this troubling trend.

I need to get a new pair of 6x9s to replace the stock ones in my car, which are dead. I'm hoping to get some suggestions on a good set of replacements. The thing I miss the most right now is bass. The 5.25s in the doors can only do so much...

(The car in question is a 2000 Grand Prix with the premium audio package (I think), if that makes any difference.)

Also, at some point, I'd like to replace my Kenwood KDC-MP919 head with something else, as it seems to be flaking out again. I've had it repaired once already, where the cable connecting the rotating face to the unit had gone bad, and the unit wouldn't power on. Well, the thing still works, but the display won't light up when the headlights are on. I've verified that the signal is getting to the connector on the back of the unit, so I am pretty sure the fault is in the unit.

I'd like something that can at least take recordable CDs (perhaps DVDs) with MP3 (and possibly other format) files. A sane aux in would be handy, too. it doesn't have to be on the front, but something that doesn't require an add-on part (official kenwood line is that I would need a CD changer A/B switch unit to get aux in with the MP919, though it seems there is a 3rd party cable available). Up to this point, I'm using the stock system, so I don't really need preamp outs. Any suggestions on this?

I hope everyone I know in Atlanta is okay... Just heard about the tornadoes and hail and stuff... crazy.

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here's a clip for you...

After seeing this clip, I have a desire to check out the actual show...

Edit: Somehow my embed got lost...

Who, who, who

I just felt the need to share this: