Maybe you read the earlier entry. The woot BOC (bag of crap) arrived this weekend. Wanna see?

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In the immortal words of the Byrds, "There is a season / turn, turn, turn " -- hang on, wrong part of the song.

As I was saying, in the immortal words of the Byrds, "[there is] a time to be born, a time to die." For our friend Angi's iPod Nano, the former was February, 2006, and the latter was now.

The battery in the Nano just wouldn't hold a charge anymore, which made it less of a portable music player, and more a small, shiny rectangle. Instead of tossing it, she asked if could change the battery for her.

I said sure, why not? I was positive that a stiff shot of liquor would calm my nerves and steady my hands. Besides, it wasn't like it was my Nano, or anything. gulp.

As our Roomba started getting older, we noticed that he didn't have the same pep. He would peter out after vacuuming for 30 minutes or so, and he wasn't doing the best job, either.

I checked my manuals, and tried reconditioning the battery, but to no avail. There was no way around it. Roomba needed a new battery.

I could have just bought a new battery from irobot.com, but where's the fun in that? How could I turn that into an article?

I recently finished wiring and putting together our den/theater room, and was stumped on how to decorate it. I came up with an idea, which Nanc readily agreed to. (Remember that did you agreed to this, Nancy.)

I thought that it would be fun to decorate the room with props from some of our favorite movies and TV shows. After doing a little more research, I realized that the stuff that I really wanted was just a tad out of my price range.

Being the resourceful guy that I am, I decided to build some of the pieces myself. It's fun, and keeps me from doing anything useful. My first piece is finished. Pics and details inside.

We just got back from Maker Faire in Austin (ermm, two weeks ago), and have much to share!

Geek out, with lots of pix inside!

I have.

Atari is 30 years old this month. To celebrate, I just finished adding a cartridge slot to an Atari Flashback 2, which is a small game console with 40 built-in games. Now I can play the built-in games or play some of my old Atari cartridges. Anybody up for a quick game of E.T?*

Click the "read more" link for more general geekery on this topic.

Is geekery even a word?

I needed a new computer for an upcoming project at home (hereafter referred to as "Project X"). Instead of going out to Best Buy or Circuit City, I figured that I would save a couple of bucks and build one from parts.

I shopped wisely and built a basic computer that fit my needs. So, what kind of computer can you build on the cheap? Take a peek and see...

I've been getting ready for my new job, cleaning out my laptop bag and organizing my stuff. I took a look at my work keyboard, and it was kinda filthy. Okay, really filthy. If the CDC were to run tests on it, I'm sure they would quarantine or destroy it.

How would a lazy creative person deal with this situation?

A few months ago, I may have written a post on this site about how I wanted a Nintendo Wii. About how I wanted the Wii so much that it made my belly hurt. In retrospect, maybe the post came off a little whiny.

If you're expecting a retraction, you'll have to wait a little longer. Because I got one.

"But Matty, was it really worth all of your molly-coddling, lilly-livered whinery in that other blog entry?"

Oh, yeah.

I hope the title doesn't make you think that this post is about some kind of weird electronic pr0n or something.

or...

Maybe it is. There's really only one way to find out. Ickclay the inklay.

So, I haven't put up the next silk screen article yet, mainly out of sloth and laziness. Of course, there has been another pet project that's been taking up most of my free time. I just finished it, and Nanc suggested that I share.

I will warn you that it's not for the faint-of-heart. So, gird your loins, then come on in and get a look at my new Theremin.

If you happen to see me about and I'm dancing around, mouthing words, and acting pretty loony, don't call out the men in the while coats. Nope, I'm probably just listening to my new iPod. Yep. I couldn't hold back anymore. I fell head first into the masses of consumer humanity. And it only hurt a little.

And I fully admit that I didn't not perform hours of research or comparisons. I didn't search the interweb(s) for the best price or deal. Mainly, I like the sexiness of the iPods. That's pretty much it. Of course, Matty has done his research and knows that it really is one of the better mp3 players out there. The quality, interface, and usability put it in the tops. Today, the price was right and this girl needed a little bling.

Of course, the painful part wasn't paying for it, like some might assume, but getting the friggin' dorks at Comp[insert country acronym here] to help me. Hell, they didn't even need to *help* me, so much as just grab a box out of their lockup behind the counter. Oh, I was patient and kind for about 10 minutes (of just standing there... pointedly waiting... directly in front of the case - huff!). And no, they weren't busy.

Without ruining the rest of the story (or getting me all ticked off again, lets just say that I got my toy and we were outta' there. No thanks to them. [grumble, grumble] I got the new 20GB iPod. Although the minis are too cute, they're kind of small (4GB); and the 40GB was a bit too big.

My first ditty uploaded to my friend, the iPod? Why the Indigo Girls first album, of course. Because C. and I will be seeing them in concert on Monday! Yippie! (Second set was ABBA Gold Greatest Hits, cause there's no telling for taste in music.)

One of the items that came back from New Hampshire was a Macintosh SE. Manufactured in 1990, this little computer is made of hearty stock. It's my newest computer project.

This is the first Mac that I've encountered since college (Windows/Unix boy), so I am looking forward to figuring out what exactly to do with it!

I'll be updating this article as work progresses, so check back often.

the MediaMVP sittin' on top of the TV

We've been playing with the Media MVP for a few months, and now I've finally decided to write about it. What is it? hrm... well, it streams media files (like music, images and video) from your computer to your TV over a home network. How cool is that?

There is a bond between a man and his cell phone. This bond is sacred and must not be broken.

20 gigs of music, a text viewer, games, video player and more. Be honest, now you want one, too.