I didn’t post this week due to starting the new job and starting a freelance project on the side. Basically by the time I get home, I have an hour to spend with Josh before I need to start doing other work.

The job has been great. I’m documenting the procedures related to the things that I do and the people I speak with. Apparently there are certain (very unrelated) things that some people say that mean I need to do something. I got my first experience of that on Thursday when I was told to, “hit it” and had no idea whether I was being hit on or what. Apparently it meant that I needed to push something live. Yes, exactly.

The people I work with are pretty laid back. It is somewhat like a family there. Right now I am still the new adopted kid. I get the jokes, but I haven’t been there long enough to fully understand the humor of some situations. Thankfully many of my past experiences have prepared me.

My only complaint is that I can’t log into the employee section yet. Hopefully that will be cleared up on Monday, but I need to be able to log in and note that I worked, so I can get paid! You know, the important stuff.

I have just installed the Adobe Creative Suite 3 on my home desktop. Dear gord is it a hog. Eventually I will upgrade my poor desktop machine, but household stuff is more of a priority for the time. I don’t know what I will end up getting, but I’m not in a giant hurry.

I think I will go spend some time with my husband now. Tomorrow I am going to hang out with my mom. She needs a break.

My first official day on the job went well. I didn’t feel like I got much done because I don’t have my email and accounts to access anything yet. That may have been due in part to something going wonky with the network. I was able to do some work under my supervisor’s account until that issue occurred.

I’m hoping that tomorrow goes smoothly. I didn’t get bombarded with work, but that is because no one knows I am here yet. I can’t get to my email where there will be requests waiting for me. I haven’t setup my voice mail yet either. I’m doing that when I get to the office in the morning. I imagine the flood gates will probably open then.

The drive home wasn’t too bad. Then again, it is May 5th. There are probably a bunch of people celebrating Cinco de Mayo, even though they have no idea what they are celebrating. I did manage to acquire a massive headache today. I don’t know what it was from, but I felt like crap on the way home and it still hasn’t gone away.

I have other work I need to do, but for now I need sleep. It actually hurts to keep my eye open right now.

Josh worked on the brakes of my car today. It was rough for a few minutes, but everything is back together and driving smoothly.

Yesterday we spent the day at my parents’ house. Today was their 35th anniversary, so we went the day before to install a new kitchen faucet we bought for the occasion (they really needed a new faucet).  We did some other odds and ends for them as well. My dad managed to get a lot of steaks on sale and we ended up having a family gathering of sorts. We went and got some fresh veggies and fruits and made a big dinner for everyone. It was nice, but I was really tired when we got home.

Today has been full of me knocking things off of my to do list. I managed to take care of about half of it, but another fourth of the list requires other people to do something first. I guess that means I did a lot of what I could.

Time for bed. Tomorrow is my first official day at work. I just realized it is going to be a fuster-cluck of work coming in. Good gravy I am going to be drowning in requests, I know it. If I don’t write for a week or so, you’ll know why.

I am going to preface this entry just to let people know, this isn’t becoming all archos all day. I know how frustrating researching can be, so I’m trying to condense what I have experienced.  Ok, onto the archos

I purchased the dvr station for my archos yesterday. I know that when Josh and I finally get cable, we’ll have the dvr then. I went ahead and chose the archos dvr station because of the varying functionalities.

When I am not using it, I can charge the archos in the cradle. It is much faster than the usb charging.

The biggest advantage is that now I can playback movies over the network to our tv and entertainment center. I can also do that with our music. In the next few months, I am hoping to buy a new 1TB drive for movies and another for music.

I am currently encoding “The State: Skits and Stickers” from VHS. I did a couple sample records last night and it worked well. It is a 13 year old VHS, so it isn’t dvd quality, but it will suffice until MTV actually releases a dvd of the state (and not just iTunes downloads). I was able to pull the samples I recorded on the archos and play them back from my desktop computer. Yippee.

Now, I shall get ready for that which is work.

Good luck today Brittany. I fear for the sanity of the person that is driving them. Brittany and her partners (the three of them are “BFFs”) are going to be in the car for three hours. Good luck to the driver!

I am writing this from my archos. It is a bit tedious, but it works!

I will be entered into the matrix on Friday. I passed the tests and I have an appointment to get my work ID etc on Friday. Hopefully it won’t hurt.

One thing I have completely forgotten to ask about is parking. I don’t know how the parking garage system works. It is a pay garage, so I don’t know if I need to be parking elsewhere or if I am supposed to have a permit or something.

Josh got a call from work this morning around 5am, so he ended up going in early. He is getting out early (hopefully) and then we are going clothes shopping for him. He needs some new duds and it is getting down to the wire. He needs a haircut too. It is a little moppy right now.

I dug up some tree trunks and some bushes today. I stopped when I was confronted by about six bees and three wasps. They were visiting some flowering weeds where I was working. I didn’t feel comfortable working around them, so I will get started on it again tomorrow.

We are coming upon 25 hours of having my Archos 605 Wifi. So far I am happy I made the purchase.

Let’s start with the bad things.

• You have to buy the additional charger. The whole charging by USB is ridiculous. I’ve already decided that I will buy the DVR station. In the grand scheme of things, it is the most bang for my buck. Walmart has it for $73.
• You will want to buy the web browser plugin. Of all of the things, this opens you up to a new world.
• Depending on where you get your videos, you may need to buy the additional codecs. Of all of my videos, only the quicktime (.mov etc) files have come up unplayable. I only have two or three of them, so it isn’t a big deal.  Over at the Archos forums at anythingbutipod.com, there is a recommendation about using Super Video Converter to convert files.
•  You’ll want to download some flash games to your flash folder. Not all flash games work, but some do. Some are too slow. I currently have solitaire and mahjongg from this site.  I haven’t purchased the browser yet, so I can’t say for certain, but I think when you register the browser (purchase it), you also end up upgrading to Flash 9. That could open you up to more games, but I’m not certain.
• There is no way for you to stop the archos from going to a blank screen after 90 seconds of idle time. Annoying, but I understand the usefulness of doing this. At least it just takes a tap to restore.
• To truly power down, you have to go to go to settings -> power -> Device Complete Power Off. Most devices are like this (going into standby mode), but until I get another charging method, I am powering completely down!

Alright, now that the bad stuff is out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff.

•  Once I switched by USB preference to Hard Drive (from Windows Media Player), I was browsing all of the shared directories on our network. I played movies that were on my desktop on the archos and the playback was flawless. I also found it easy to copy files over.
• Deleting and adding files was easy both on the archos and from a computer.
• The video is awesome. No skipping of flubs. Just smooth playback
• The screen size is definitely a huge asset to this device.
• I’ve heard people complain about the buttons and navigation, but I think that is due to having used an ipod or devices with similar navigation. I was able to navigate through the screens fairly easily.
• The touchpad is great. No smudges. I am so happy that it comes with a stylus, but I can actually use my fingers and not cry about smudges. I did sneeze a little too close to it, but a microfiber cloth cleaned the screen easily.
• Photos show up beautifully. I like the smooth transition between the photos. I also like that the screen is large enough that I could show photos to my mom and know that she can see the detail.
• Flash games. I found myself playing Solitaire for twenty minutes before realizing I had things to do.

Speaking of things to do, I should go get started.

OK. I have debated the purchase for over a year. It has been on my wishlist for just as long. A newer model was released, but I still wanted this model. Today I bought it. I bought an Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 GB)!

I had to run into Wal-mart for something and I decided to swing by their electronics department. They had one, but I saw the price and thought it was probably the 4GB flash version. I came home and matched numbers. Then I called the store to make sure. Son of a gun, it really was under $200. I called Josh and told him if he loved me, he would let me get it. Tee Hee. It was a really good deal. He knows I am careful enough with money that I wouldn’t spend it unwisely.

So, there we have it. I have a new toy. I am patiently waiting for it to finish charging before playing with it. I played around with it for a few minutes while it was charging and was so damn giddy. I will have to buy the browser for it, but I don’t need it right now.

See, I’m helping out the economy, getting something I have wanted for a long time and getting it for $100 less than the regular price. Score!

You know, I’m kind of wishing I was at Coachella. Maybe next year, yes Josh?

Josh gave me some surprising news this morning. He informed me that Twin was on the front porch with a dead mouse. Great, thanks. From the looks of it (I’m not getting that close), I think it was a field mouse. I know he’s a great hunter and all, but honestly. Did he really have to?

In other kitty news. My little demon princess is sick. We think that she hurt one of her toes, but she doesn’t seem to be bothered when she walks. She isn’t eating, which really worries us. I managed to get her to take a few laps of milk. She’s resting in her kitty bed. We will watch her today and see if she improves. I know she is getting old, but she is our first born, if you will.

I did manage to stay up and watch Doctor Who. I also managed to watch an episode of Dirty Jobs. I still haven’t watched this past week’s LOST yet. I can’t do that with Josh around because he doesn’t normally watch it. Currently I think there are four shows on each week that I will watch.

I’m trying to think of all of the shows I willingly watch throughout the year. Doctor Who, Torchwood, LOST, Heroes, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and Pushing Daisies. I can take or leave Bones and House.

Time to go check on my kitty. I hope she’s OK.