Of course I have been designing a new theme for the intranet site to brand it with out logo and stuff. This has got me thinking of making a unique theme for this site.  I love the theme I have been using for quite some time – the “Mandigo” theme, but I think it may be time for me to work on a custom theme.

I’ve been getting to know a theme called “Thematic” which is really a rather boring looking theme all by itself. But the power comes in with Child themes. A child theme uses another theme as a framework, but you customize it with as little as 1 file (css). You of course can get very creative and have a complicated child theme too.

I may try to work on this a little this weekend, unless I get burned out with it at work today and need the couple of days off of not web programming. We’ll wait and see.

I have a rather large purchase coming up and I wanted to review my financial situation. So over this past weekend I put almost everything into a spreadsheet. Took my monthly income and my known monthly recurring stuff and figured out where I stood. I’m doing OK, but I can do a bit better.

I’m looking at either a possible refi (not likely) or a perhaps a 5 year personal loan. A recent payback of 10% and a bonus has allowed me to put away most of what I need to pay for the upcoming large purchase, but I still need a bit more to cover it. It won’t take much more, but I may as well, try to rework the debt I have accumulated so I can pay it off sooner than later.

One of the things that is going to help me out, it scheduling of recurring payments. I’ve done a couple of those, but mostly have been trying to remember to make the payment. I’ve been a little late on a couple and I want to ensure my credit rating isn’t affected. So, I have scheduled some more payments so I don’t forget them.  Most are being pushed from my banks but a couple are being pulled. What I mean by that is the scheduled payment being pushed is triggered from my personal account, where-as the ones being pulled are coming from the people I owe (Dell, Amazon, etc.).  Of course, if I consolidate some of these things, I’ll lower my monthly payments, and no longer have to schedule multiple payments. I’ll just have a single one to deal with.

Images may appear out of order until I can get all my descriptions in…

So I have been doing some electronics switcheroos; replaced my DirecTivo with an HR21, cleaned up the stand and hooked everything up to the HDMI switch instead of the component switch. So far everything seems to be working pretty well. I have to manually switch on the projector when I want to use it, but that’s only because the remote wants to turn it on and off at the wrong times. The power button is a toggle – so there isn’t one signal for on and another for off. When I switch between receivers, if it will turn off the projector even if I’m watching it on the TV. When it turns off the projector (which was off already) it turns it on. It’s not a big deal to handle that one piece manually.

Just a couple of more days of work this week before I start my summer vacation. I’ll start preparing for the trip on Tuesday and spend Wednesday making sure everything is in order. I leave early on Thursday (7 AM flight).  I’m really looking forward to it.

I still haven’t made it back to the gym. The last full body workout was on July 3rd. I really need to get back in there, but my should is still bothering me. I’ve been taking the medications the doctor prescribed, but the muscle relaxer is only for nights and weekends. I need a clear head for work. We’ll keep at it and hopefully it will be better soon.

This weekend has been one of those weekends. I have things I need to do, but just haven’t been in the mood to get any of them done. I need to run a few errands, but I don’t really want to leave the house. I want to get caught up on some podcasts and a few shows, but I haven’t been in the mood for that either.  I’ll snap out of it soon, I’m sure.

Finally made it back to see Dr. Dua regarding my weight management. I had another body scan and it did show I’ve gained a bit of muscle mass, however not very much and that I’ve gained some fat too. Most of it is in my “trunk” and that’s where I need to start focusing. We’ve switched up the diet and exercise routines a bit to hopefully start dropping more of the fat.  I’ll be doing a full body workout once per week and at least 45 minutes of cardio 4 times per week. I see him in about 6 weeks to see how we’re doing.  I’m going to be heading to Seattle in a few weeks and I want to try and drop as much weight as I can before then.

My right shoulder has been bothering me for a few weeks (about 3 months now) and so I finally worked with Dr. Dua to have that checked out. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxer. I’m taking the “Aleve” twice a day and the muscle relaxer only at night. I need my head clear for working during the day.  You’re not suppose to take aspirin when you take the anti-inflammatory so I’ve halted my daily 81mg of aspirin.

I’ve been working on a Summary report for my health status – mostly to make it easier for me and the doctor to review my nutrition and exercising routines. I’m pretty happy with it for now, but I’m sure I can make some improvements. I need to see if I can disconnect the “live” connection to my home server and just publish static pages. That will allow the pages to load much faster than having to read in from several servers. I’ll work on it a bit at a time until I’m finished.

New HDMI Switch

I’ve picked up a new HDMI switch to take over the role of a component cable switch for my living room.  I’m thinking of installing it today, but I’ve had it for a couple of weeks. It will take some time because I need to pull everything apart and hook it all up, and then reprogram the remote control. I need to make sure I have enough HDMI cables too. Before I pull everything apart, I’ll make a plan so can order the cables if I need any.

Earthquake in Maryland

There was a 3.6 earthquake with an epicenter not too far away. My area didn’t really feel anything, but many people at work did feel it. I may have, but I was sleeping at the time it happened and it wasn’t enough to even wake me up. Many people don’t realize that we’re in an area that has many quakes, it’s just that most of them are so small that we don’t feel them.