I recently replaced our livingroom HTPC with this Jetway-Minitop from Newegg.com.  It amazes me that this new machine is a quarter of the size of the one it’s replacing, yet it’s 4-8x more powerful.

Using software such as XBMC and MythTV, we take full advantage of computers hooked up to our TV’s:

• Check email/read webpages, while watching TV in another window
• Watch online content such as Netflix, ABC.com, Hulu, ESPN.com, YouTube, etc
• Play games on “the big screen”
• Family scripture study @ scriptures.lds.org
• Play music/audio books from our library (stored on the file server)
• An “extra PC” handy in case Mom and Dad are using both desktops
• Instant viewing access of our home video archive
• Instant viewing access of our recorded TV shows

Last two are the bread and butter — we record and archive TV shows using MythTV, and have amassed a collection of 600+ kids shows/movies/cartoons, and 200+ educational documentaries.  Even more, MythTV strips the commercials and compresses the archived video.

This enables scenarios such as automating MythTV to record all Disney movies as they air, strip the commercials, then put them in the Kids/Movies folder for later viewing.  According to eHow.com, it would even be legal to share these recordings with our friends and family!  The large amount of educational content we’re archiving from PBS, Animal Planet, History, Discovery will serve our kids for years to come.

(Side note: using SubSonic, we can access and watch all of our TV recordings and video archives remotely via web browser or Android phone)

The Jetway Mini-top (right) is a fraction of the size of the HTPC it's replacing.

Videos are usually viewed fullscreen, but Transformers was minimized for the photo.

A direct screenshot of our HTPC in the living room

Instant access to a growing library of 200+ documentaries and 600+ kid shows/movies

I recently came across this interesting article on Wired.com about the decreasing use of phone calls.  It wasn’t long ago that many of us (such as Tia) were not at all into texting (SMS) and thought that it made more sense to just pickup the phone and place a call:

According to Nielsen, the average number of mobile phone calls we make is dropping every year, after hitting a peak in 2007. And our calls are getting shorter: In 2005 they averaged three minutes in length; now they’re almost half that.

…

Consider: If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up, I have no way of knowing whether you’re busy, and you have no idea why I’m calling. We have to open Schrödinger’s box every time, having a conversation to figure out whether it’s OK to have a conversation. Plus, voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth, which is why it’s so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one.

The telephone, in other words, doesn’t provide any information about status, so we are constantly interrupting one another. The other tools at our disposal are more polite. Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without our bugging them, and texting lets us ping one another asynchronously. (Plus, we can spend more time thinking about what we want to say.) For all the hue and cry about becoming an “always on” society, we’re actually moving away from the demand that everyone be available immediately.

In fact, the newfangled media that’s currently supplanting the phone call might be the only thing that helps preserve it. Most people I know coordinate important calls in advance using email, text messaging, or chat (r u busy?). An unscheduled call that rings on my phone fails the conversational Turing test: It’s almost certainly junk, so I ignore it. (Unless it’s you, Mom!)

Source: Clive Thompson on the Death of the Phone Call (Wired.com)

8 years and a few months ago I received a phone call to go on a date.  About 3 months later we sent this out

We were married on January 4, 2003 at the Oakland Temple

At our reception this happened

And here we are each year since then

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

8 years, 2 kids, moving, traveling and more in love.  What will 2011 and the rest of forever hold for us?

Last port-of-call….COZUMEL, Mexico.  Larsens and Hansens rented a jeep and drove around the island and Matt and I did our own excursions this day.  I told Matt the only thing I wanted to do was swim with dolphins since he did that the year before without me.  The weather was nothing like the day before… It was very windy and we were not able to go parasailing as we planned.  However we were able to swim with the dolphins since they were in their own cove.  It was so exciting and I truly enjoyed it.  There were about a dozen people in our group and we had the main trainer with us, so more information was shared.  We were able to give a dolphin a handshake, hug, kiss, and belly ride.  After our dolphin experience we had lunch and did our last shopping at the port since we had some free time.

Dolphinaris Cozumel

Making friends in Cozumel

I love going on cruises and spending time with my family.  We are already thinking about our next cruise…maybe we will take the kids.

More photos of Cozumel here.  And video and photos of our whole cruise here.

Our second port-of-call was in Grand Cayman.  Matt found this guy, John, (via the Internet) who has his own boat and could take the 6 of us out for the day.  IT WAS FABULOUS!  Captain John took great care of us and helped us make Grand Cayman memorable.  He picked us up near the port and then drove us to his boat.  It was great to see part of the island and have our own private tour guide.

The ocean was so calm, it was as though we were cruising on glass.  SO BEAUTIFUL!.  Our first stop:  Stingray City

Stingray City

Stingrays swimming around our feet

Captain John brought squid for the stingrays and anchored us on a sandbar.  People who booked through the cruise line were jammed packed together, but we had plenty of room (away from those people) to enjoy the stingrays.  Once the stingrays got the scent of the squid, they came a looking.  And it was a little scary…after all one of these animals did kill Steve Irwin.

Just a little scared!

But, they really are just like puppy dogs.  They are so soft and gentle and are just looking for food.  Once the food was gone, so were the stingrays.

Getting some "love" from the stingrays

Second stop: snorkeling in a coral reef.  Our uncle had a great underwater digital camera and video camera

Underwater Beauty

Lunch on the beach at Rum Point

After lunch we walked down the beach to meet up with Captain John.  We saw the changes that an island has after a hurricane.  The sandy beach is doubled in size and turtle grass is now covered with sand for a good 30 yards in the sea.  John also had some surprises for us.  GIANT Starfish.

Beautiful BIG Starfish

Underside of one of the starfish

Tubing in a beautiful place

Then we finished the day by tubing off the back of the boat.  It was so much fun to see all of us acting like teenagers again!  Thank you Captain John for a wonderful day.  It was probably the best excursion ever!

6 of us enjoying Grand Cayman

More of our Grand Cayman photos here.  Or watch our 2010 Caribbean Cruise video for video footage and photos