[cpd2009]

Found out that due to my new diet, Kid Cuisine meals are just the right size for the occasional TV Dinner. The "All American Fried Chicken" is the best kind. The Reduced-fat Pepperoni Pizza and Mac N' Cheese are also delicious.

One thing that is great with TV dinners are the desserts, especially the brownies and chocolate pudding.

I am the proud owner of an Abigail interactive story buddy. I keep forgetting to put up the pictures because I have been lazy lately.

Turns out my trusty red Timex watch will end up fitting after all.
Now, I have an extra watch that I will probably never wear now and I lost the receipt to return it.
EDIT: Found receipt... returned the watch and learned my lesson.

It's been very quiet here lately.

[Blackberry Bun]

Finally weekend again. And yeah, pretty quiet lately.

[Stella Grapes]

She is in a foster home. She was in an orphanage for three years.

Hello, everyone.

[cpd2009]

She is in a foster home. She was in an orphanage for three years.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, Prue. Nice to hear from you after awhile. This place has fallen quiet as of late. Hope you had a wonderful Valentines Day holiday.

As for me, today is a special day for me. For today is the official Birthday of Clifford, the Big Red Dog, according to Scholastic. It's also the author's birthday as well. I always try to do something special on this day, and today, I decided to bring Lilly, my Mac Mini back to life because I am trying to find a different, unique use for her.

I really don't want to sell Lilly off to a Mac store, as that would spell complete failure for me as I planned for Lilly almost three years before I purchased her in Mac Mini form. I should have made her a Windows PC from the get go. Lilly didn't work out as planned because her speed is lackluster compared to her replacement, Audrey. Apple is also starting to restrict OSX more, much like they do with their iPhone software, and they are also removing features from their iLife and iWork programs. They simplify them for novice users, but for advanced users like me, it becomes very limiting.

However, today, I decided not to give up and I am currently exploring using her with my Sony Bravia HDTV, Anna-Lena. I'm thinking of using her for DVD/BluRay playback, classic arcade video games, and the occasional Mac application like GarageBand. Recording quality with GarageBand is astounding, especially when converting old audio tapes to digital format.

If this is the way I plan on going, I will need the following items.... an Apple Remote (I found one for $9.95 on eBay, but appears to be a third-party clone or knockoff. That will work fine) and an Apple wireless keyboard. I already have a wireless keyboard and mouse, but I bought that for my Android adapter for my TV.

I hope this works.

[cpd2009]

So far, I'm impressed. More later...

Some things I discovered... 1080p works great, but everything is super small, from the icons to the text. You have to be right up in front of the screen to read stuff, so I had to set the video output to 720p. Not full-HD, but good enough for DVD. For BluRay though....

[huckleberrypie]

Just can't help but post this in response to Samantha's comeback:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U4p-r6Q3Rc[/youtube]

[RAMChYLD]

The sooner people stop trying to take my things away from me and leave me alone, the better.

[cpd2009]

Okay, I have completed initial testing of making Lilly a media Mac. Here are my observations....

DVD Playback works well with the Mac "DVD Player" application. Discs play like they would on a real DVD player, including unskippable promos and warnings. Unfortunately, DVD Player will play only Region Free or Region 1 discs by default. Playing an Region 2 disc will prompt you to change the region code of the drive, which I can do only four more times. To get around this, I had to install VLC Media Player along with a package that enables VLC to get around CSS. With this, I can play foreign DVDs without having to change her DVD drive region code. Even so, R2 discs that have Macrovision protection, like some of my UK Clifford discs, may have trouble playing as I ran into this issue a few years ago under Linux, and I still have to test that.

As for playing videos that I have downloaded or converted from DVD... well, it works wonderfully. As it stands, it's a bit cumbersome with a mouse, but with my forthcoming Apple remote and a program called RemoteBuddy, this shouldn't be an issue.

I believe Lilly has a future now, and with her large hard drive and additional 160gb drive connected, she will be far more versatile than that Android HDMI stick I have. And I still have to post my review of that.

[Blackberry Bun]

Almost weekend again. My mother will be away on vacation starting Friday until Sunday.

[cpd2009]

Short story: Found awesome vintage VHS VCR at Salvation Army store. $8.99 asking price. Purchased... hauled home... plugged it in.


And it works!!

I had another VHS player before this, a newer RCA VCR. Worked great, but the HiFi stereo never worked. This one has working HiFi, which is important for making high quality transfers of non-protected VHS movies and cartoons.