Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

In a saucepan:

Heat 3 cups milk until near boil/ turn off heat

In a separate pan

Cook pasta and drain

In a large, heavy frying pan:

Melt butter- When foam disappears, remove from heat, add flour and mix well. Return to medium/low heat and stir occasionally for 2-3 minutes (Don’t brown the flour). Gradually stir in hot milk. Add Velveeta cheese. Raise heat to medium/high and stir constantly until smooth and thick. Remove from heat. Add parmesan and romano cheese and whisk until smooth, stir in tobasco and white pepper. Fold in cooked pasta into cheese sauce mixture.

In a large pan (at least a 13×9) Layer in the following order:

Bake 1 hour, uncovered, at 375 degrees, until edges are bubbling

If it browns before the hour is up, cover it with foil in the oven.  If possible, when done, let it sit for 15+ min

(For Immediate Release)

Arroyo Grande, CA – After last week’s game, LEVEL looked unstoppable in their quest for a second title. However, while Kasey was busy signing autographs for LEVEL fans, the Stuntmen came out firing on all cylinders, especially the 3-point kind. Defensively, LEVEL struggled to stop the Stuntmen’s onslaught from the 3 point line, but Aaron’s huge rebound numbers kept the ball in LEVELs hands and out of the Stuntmen’s, a key in keeping the game close. Offensively, once again, Kasey, Justin, and Miguel not only moved the ball effectively, but kept the ball going into the hoop.

Entering the second half, LEVEL came out with a purpose, but the turning point in the game came when a Troy caused turnover ended with Justin throwing the ball down for 2 of his 24 points on the night. Tom said of Troy’s play, “Who knew Zach Galifianakis could play ball?!” In the end, it took a gritty second half effort for LEVEL to pull out the win, but win they did. Two wins down, eight more to go!

I have a phone.

My wife has a phone.

I want to upgrade. I want a phone with a keyboard. I don’t want a data plan. We’re Verizon customers and a switch doesn’t appear to make for a better deal. All the phones available (12 under $50) are basic phones like the one I have, and are pretty much crap. I’ve been offered a Blackberry, but even though I wouldn’t need a contract, I would have to add a data plan. I’m even willing to consider adding some phones for the kiddos, but with the crap phones available, and anything decent requiring data plans, what options are there?

Do I wait? Do I take my business else where? If so, AT&T? They suck even worse…

But then came kids. Heather and I decided a long time ago, in an internet world that only existed on computers, that we would not allow computers to be in the bedrooms. Keep it public was our idea. Minimize the potential for misuse and exploitation. Back when I was running the forums for SAF, a member of the group, who was just a teen at the time, talked about being grounded due to porn. “If my parents don’t want me looking at porn, they shouldn’t let me have a computer in my room.” Forget about all the personal responsibility issues present in that statement, and think about what you would do to prevent misuse for your kid. His comment spurred our desire for a public computer only. At the time, it was easy for us, because, back then, the computer was also the entertainment center sitting in the middle of the living room.

Fast forward to today. Now the internet and all it’s good and bad are available from just about any electronic device. iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone, any smartphone, Nintendo DS, PSP, etc… Where does one draw the line? Making sure the kids have adequate access to computer resources, I haven’t been shy it getting them laptops. Hayden is using the Hackitosh that I got a while back. Harrison was recently upgraded to Heather’s old MacBook. Heather of course has her own laptop and work is kind enough to me to provide me a laptop so I can work extra hours from home. Then there’s still the computer hooked to the TV. So if I say “no computers in the bedrooms (NCiTB),” it seems simple, but how does that work?

By using the decree of NCitB, I think I’m protecting my kids. However, I’ve just also said, that your room’s can’t be used for homework. OK, we can deal. But that doesn’t say no internet in the rooms, which is really the goal. Does the ban extend to the iPod, the DS, or what ever the future holds for internet connected devices? Does this mean that when Harrison gets his first phone, he can’t use it in his room? Facebook and the bullying that can come along with it, google images, even video, are all easily accessible from any internet connected device.

I do my best to protect my kids. To make sure they have the tools to succeed in life, as well as how to know good from bad, but the internet is a beast that the rules of yesterday just don’t apply to. What are your plans? How are you handling this with your kids? I’d love to know.

First let me layout the setup.

• Vizio HDTV: 2 HDMI, 1 RGB/VGA, 2 Composite, 2 Component
• XBox 360: Component connection 1
• Wii: Component connection 2
• MacMini (2.26GHz, 4GB): RGB/VGA connection
• All sound to Yamaha 5.1 DTS capable Pre-amp.

The important thing here are the MacMini, all the rest can be edited to your liking/setup.

So how does having a MacMini let us watch TV? Well, on the Mac, we’re using Plex! Plex is a Home Theater Media PC (HTPC) interface. Simple to control via a remote (mac remote works great), many audio and video plugins, and a media manager that just keeps getting better. All my DVD’s, UFC’s and downloaded content is stored on an external USB drive. Plex not only makes all the content available, it utilizes the interwebs to provide meta data about the content, including images and music.

The plugins allow me to watch the shows I want to watch via CBS.com, Hulu.com, ESPN3.com, ComedyCentral.com. This way, we never miss an episode of The Daily Show! For those few items that aren’t avail, I utilize bit torrents to grab the show and add it to my library. And that’s where the work starts.

See, even though I utilize an RSS Feed scanner to grab shows, sometimes, things don’t work perfectly. Also, Plex is still in beta and is often updated. I also use a program called transpRAR to automatically make RAR’d files available to the media manager without having to uncompress them. All these things work together to keep me involved on a daily basis. Something I didn’t have to do with Dish. Even this level of involvement isn’t the worst part.

The worst part of this setup is the professional sports leagues. None of the sports leagues are making it easy to watch their content on the internet. The NFL is just a blank. Unless you’re a DirecTV Sunday Ticket sbscriber, you’re out of luck! That’s $220 on top of your normal DirecTV bill. The NBA offers the ability to watch some games using League Pass… those that aren’t blacked out or nationally televised. As a Lakers fan, I’m pretty much screwed. The UFC does makes fights available, even in HD. I haven’t tried it yet, but the costs are higher than a fight available on Dish/Direct/cable.

I hope, someday, the professional sports leagues will “get it” and start making content available, but until then, I’ll spend time with friends watching the important games.

Have you made the switch? What have you done to solve some of the issues? What is your setup?