Matt’s News / Blog

I got into Greystones yesterday morning.  My flight was good and I was able to sleep a little on the plan.  When I got into Dublin, I had to take a bus to the train station, then a train to Greystones.  Once in Greystones, I had to walk a bit to conference center where Alisse is staying.  The bed and breakfast that I’m staying at is right across the street from the conference center.

Since I was pretty tired yesterday, we just stayed around Greystones.  I enjoyed see all of the places Alisse has told me about.

This afternoon, Alisse has class for a couple of hours.  Later this evening we are going Irish dancing with the group. Alisse is trying to teach me.  It’ll be fun!

The weather today is cool and cloudy, but tomorrow it’s suppose to be sunny!

Tomorrow I start my journey to Greystones, Ireland.  It will take 2 days and utilize almost all common forms of transportation (car, airplane, bus, train, walking).  After work, I’m headed home to Michigan.

I’m really excited! I can’t wait!

I hope I packed everything I need.  I hope I didn’t over pack.  I think I’m all set.

In one week I’ll be on a plane for Ireland!  I’m excited

I downloaded and installed the Xanga Cross Post plugin, so now all of you Xanga daily subscription readers (Alisse ) can easily read my blog.

I just got off the phone with Comcast to cancel my service because I’ve switched to Uverse.  Uverse is a new service that AT&T has for Internet and TV.  The technology uses fiber to a box in the neighborhood and then the existing phone lines to you house/apartment. So, it’s similar to DSL but TV also comes across on the phone line.

I got Uverse setup yesterday afternoon.  It did take a long time (3 hours) to setup my computer and 1 TV.  Mostly, it was working on the phone jacks.

The interesting thing is that ‘modem’ that is used for the internet also is the modem for the TV receiver.  Then they run the TV signal to the TV using Ethernet or Ethernet over the phone line (HomePNA) to the TV receiver.

The Internet connection is good.  It doesn’t seem any different then cable or DSL.  I got the “Express” package, which is 1.5 Mbps (but they also have 3.0 and 6.0).  The ‘modem’ has a built in router and Wireless access point.  It seems to be pretty nice, I’ve even taken down my IPCOP Linux firewall.

The TV is pretty nice.  It comes with a built in DVR for the higher packages (which I have now because of the special they were offering).  The user interface is really nice.  It’s the best cable/satellite box interface I’ve seen so far.  I have two complaints: It runs Windows (CE) and there is a descent bit of lag in many of the actions.  The picture looks pretty good, much clearer then Analog but there are times when digital artifacts are visible .

Over all I like it.  And the best part about Uverse compared to Comcast: it’s cheaper!

Stolen shamelessly from Ashley, I took the Love Language test.

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Acts of Service.

Complete set of results

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don’t understand our partner’s requirements, or even our own. We all have a “love tank” that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

It seems like the last time I took one of these tests “Words of Affirmation” was second.  I guess they are pretty close in this one.