Shutting down

I'm retiring this weBlog. It hardly gets read, and I've never really been sold on the whole idea. Anything I write here usually belongs in email. SK's recent revelation has me realizing that my time is better spent elsewhere.

If this page has held any significance for you, watch for me to put stuff on my actual website sometime soon, at theHutch.net. After almost 10 years on the web, it's about time I put something up that I'm not ashamed of. But it might be awhile.

Shipping

I've ordered a bunch of stuff online lately. It seems I have hassles whether things are sent to work or home, but I usually go with work. Postal is cheaper, but always a crapshoot as far as time and you don't get tracking. FedEx is decent, but cross-country with ground is nerve-racking with no updates for days. I hope my amp gets here tomorrow. Then I get to take it home on public transportation, oh joy. I think I'll drive.

Karaoke has been going pretty well. I seriously need better gear all around, except for the rock-solid microphones and my turntables. First priority is a pro disc player (Numark definitely), and then something to eliminate the hum that my scratch mixer seems to be causing. Back to shopping for mixers, and I need real road cases to set everything up right. Then I can just buy music awhile and pay stuff off, before getting my own PA.

The side benefit is that this is paying for my other DJ intentions, so I can start doing the hip-hop and dance/party spinning stuff. I hope to do remixing too with the computer, and incorporate my own tracks or rhythm layers into a set someday. Somehow I need to find time to learn bass guitar, too.

Microwaves

Now, I'm a smart guy and I can usually figure out something electronic. But why don't half the microwaves out there let you press the number buttons for a time and then hit start? You have to select the power somehow (full power, thank you very much), or some kind of reheat/defrost mode, or other such nonsense. 9 times out of 10, I just want to microwave something for a minute or two. Don't make it that complicated to do. I'm hungry and I want something now, that's why I'm using a microwave.

I still haven't figured out this one here at work; I just hit the reheat button and take it out when I think it's done, because the microwave obviously doesn't know. Shame on anyone who buys a microwave that forces you to hit more than one button besides the numbers just to start it. It's just enabling the designers' disease.

Update:
I figured out this crazy Magic Chef. If you press "power", and then just enter a time and press "start", it will cook at full power. Maybe later I'll fiddle around with it more sometime, and figure out how to make the "power" button actually select the power level. The funny part is that there's actually a button on this thing labeled "fish fillet". Yeah, people are gonna use that all the time, put that on there.

Another website suggests that the reason for all the different wierd control panels is patents. Companies selling cheap microwaves just make something new up, instead of having to pay to license someone else's patented design. That's a shame, since patents are declared invalid if the design is "obvious" or has been done before the submitter. I'm sure press-numbers-to-start-a-timer qualifies for one or both. But I guess a lawyer fighting the patent office costs more than a bad button designer, so that's what the corner-cutting cheapo brands do.