The Howerter Blog » General

Congratulations to Eric and Ana Johnson!

Jay Howerter — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:45:14 +0000

Yesterday at 2:38 pm David Anthony Johnson was born to Eric and Ana Johnson. I look forward to seeing David grow up and become a geek just like his father.

Old TV

Jay Howerter — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:54:01 +0000

After we bought the new TV, I wanted to move the old one downstairs. After Eric and I tried for about 5 minutes, we realized that it wouldn’t fit. After further investigation, I realized that it wouldn’t fit anywhere else in my house (thank you Construx). I was very mad. Last night, my brother and I finally moved the TV. Brandt decided that he wanted to fill up his apartment with the TV. I am so glad that TVs have gotten smaller and lighter.

Interesting random thought

Jay Howerter — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:34:41 +0000

Have you ever noticed that when you look through both of your eyes, you cannot see you nose?

A new member of the family

Jay Howerter — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:57:36 +0000

Thursday August 23 at 3:22 pm, we welcomed Lily Jean Howerter into the family. She weighs 8 lbs., 4 oz. and is 20 inches long. She has dark hair and dark blue eyes (for now). Mother and baby are doing well.

The Simpson’s Movie Contest

Jay Howerter — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:26:27 +0000

Well, the votes are in and Vermont beat Illinois by 733 votes in the Simpson’s Springfield contest. At least we placed second and not last.

My Brother’s new ride

Jay Howerter — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:29:52 +0000

My brother purchased a new Suburban a while ago. I finally took a picture of it. It is definitely worth posting.

We call it the Convurban.

Tackling the DVD ripping project

Jay Howerter — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:47:50 +0000

I recently assembled and installed a Windows Vista Media Center PC next to my TV. I have been slowly getting all the features to work. Getting the PC to display over component video was a task! I really wanted this box for two reasons: 1) Free HDTV via an antenna and decoder card 2) On demand movies. I am currently working on the on demand portion. I would be getting the HDTV to work, but UPS bent my antenna into a nice S shape while shipping it to me. I am waiting for a replacement. Anyway, I bought a 500GB hard drive and found some good ripping software (DVDShrink, HD Decryptor and Vob2MPG). Yesterday I spend about an hour figuring out how to make video play-lists. I purchased nVidia’s PureVideo codec to handle hardware MPEG-2 video playback and I use AC3Filter to pass through AC3 sound to my receiver. Those previous things took me about a month to figure out and get working. With all that said, I am finally starting to rip all of my DVDs. I have only gotten a couple of seasons of Katherine’s Golden Girls ripped (there are seven seasons), but I have been very impressed with the results. Playback is good and it is really nice to be able to choose the video from the Media Center menu instead of getting up and putting in the disc. I think I will need at least one more 500GB drive, but it should be worth it. Anyone thinking about buying a Media Center PC, I would recommend getting one. It is very nice having a full featured PC sitting next to your TV.

Weekend at the lake

Jay Howerter — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:32:16 +0000

This weekend Kat and I went to Oak Run with Kyle and Jenny Scroggin. We had a lot of fun. It was overcast the whole time, but I still managed to get sun burned. They brought their eight month old Great Dane puppy along. Her name is Joey. She is quite a handful. Kat and I had a great time and we are glad that they invited us to go. I rode Kyle’s WaveRunner most of the time. I may have to buy one of those someday. There is something about going 50 mph on the water that is irresistible.

The largest single container of mashed potatoes.

Jay Howerter — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:06:53 +0000

This is a little late, but over the holidays I experienced the largest vat of mashed potatoes that I have ever seen. See for yourself:

New Acquisition

Jay Howerter — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:12:49 +0000

I recently acquired a new toy. Well, it is not new, but it is new to me. It is a piece of technology that has been forgotten about. It it time to bring it back. Here it is:

I am still trying to figure out what to plug it into. Any suggestions will be appreciated.