Entry# 0021 (Part Two)

Ok, we just got done painting our guest room.. whew! I think we’ve painted more in the last 3 years than anybody I know. It’s good to have that all taken care of. Kinda of got me thinking about finishing my wife’s computer post.. so here it goes.

Below are some more pictures of the process, I wish I had taken some step by step pics.. but I think you’ll get the idea (they’re in timeline order).

The toughest part of this step was to make sure the DVD burner holes where covered up by tape so that none of the pain got into the drive itself. The rest was pretty simple except for the multiple coats.

Painting tip: Less is more. When painting anything, multiple coats is always the best route to go. This allows you to avoid drips and get a seamless paint-job.

Everything I did on this case has 2 layers or primer, 4 layers of paint and 4 layers of clear coat. The clear-coat gives a deep “car-like” look.

I’m also a sucka for metallic paint, it gives it just a little more shine and sparkle when light hits it. Not for everybody, but to each his/her own!

Ok, now we’re getting into the actual build itself where you can see it take life! You’ll see the huge ZALMAN CNPS8700 2 Ball CPU Cooler attached to the mobo. I don’t care what anybody says I never go with the factory heat sink and fan. I will say that this one was very tough to install and I cut my hands a bit on the fins, so be careful.

We lucked out when we found the ram, it came with pink/light purple heat-syncs. The ram we got wasn’t high high end but for 8gb of ram, it wasn’t too shabby and has done us well so far. You can see in the photos above the massive amount of packaging involved.

Well, that’s all for now, more to come so stay tuned!

Entry# 0021 (Part One)

For those of you that may remember, I made plans to build my wife’s computer nearly 2 years ago. Well, I finally got around to getting it all put together. Below are the specs of the final build.

Case: X-QPACK-AL/420 APEVIA X-QPACK Aluminum Case w/ 3 Window-Silver
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GhZ
Heatsink/Fan: ZALMAN CNPS8700 2 Ball CPU Cooler
Mobo: ASUS P5E-VM HDMI LGA 775 Intel G35 HDMI Micro ATX
Ram: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Hard Drives (2): SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Video Card: ASUS EN8500GT (128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready)
TV Tuner: HauppaugeWinTV-PVR 500 MCE
Case Light: Meteor Light – UV
Case Fan: 120mm CoolerMaster Silent Purple LED
Front Fans: StarTech FANDRIVE2BK 5.25″
Media Card Reader: Rosewill RCR-102 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader
Speakers: Logitech Z-4 40 Watts 2.1
Keyboard: Rosewill RK650 Silver/Black
Mouse: Razer Diamondback
Optical Drive: LiteOn Lightscribe DVD+/-RW Drive

The case, dvd-rw drive, front fan, case fan, speakers, keyboard, and mouse were all purchased nearly 2 years ago. Since then we’ve moved twice, bought a house, got engaged, got married..

X-QPack Case: one of the main reasons that we picked out this case was because of the small foot-print. She looked thru tons of different cases before settling on this one (there’s lots of choices out there!).

She wanted to have it be purple, and we couldn’t really find a purple computer that didn’t look stupid so here’s were the custom stuff comes in. Since the case has 3 clear windows this allows for high visibility into the case, so we decided to make the inside of the case purple. This was achieved by painting the inside of the case as well as the dvd drive, here are some pics of the painting process.

I will post the rest as I get time, you know how life goes!

Entry #0020

Wow, so I suppose you can guess that it’s been a while since I blogged last. It’s actually been nearly half a year since my last entry. A lot has happened in the meantime. Tricia and I got married! Everything went so well it’s hard to believe it all went so well.. by far the best day of my life. If you’d like to take a look at some of the pictures you can visit our MySpace Page to see more pictures of the big day.

I would like to thank you to all those who attended, rsvp’ed, and gave gifts/cards. It wouldn’t have been the same without all of your support. If you didn’t take any pizza with you, you missed out.. we ended up with nearly 12 boxes of pizza left over!

For the invites we made little messages in a bottle, which we made and mailed to each person along with custom wine labels to go on the outside of each bottle. Below is a picture of the programs we designed and printed out. The graphic design portion of the labels and programs was a join effort and very tedious.. but worth every moment.

My wife custom designed her gown, and as you can see it’s wonderful! She also designed all of the bride’s maids dresses (and mom’s) custom to each person. She went thru hell and high water getting those things made just right, and it worked out wonderfully. Another hand made item in the wedding was the wedding gifts.. the purple and blue throw’s that we used to decorate each chair. My mother made each one.. and we had tons left over cause people didn’t take them when they left.. which is fine.. we actually have used a few around the house.

I’d go into more detail, but honestly you just had to be there and I think I could write a book about everything that went on. Only advice I would give is if you’re going to plan it yourself, you either have to be very lucky, or plan like crazy.. so give yourself some time. 1-2 months planning won’t cut it. My wife did all the planning and it took almost a year of amazing plans coming together to make it all work perfectly.

Yesterday was her birthday, and we just got back from a b-day dinner with her dad. So if you’re reading this honey,… Happy B-Day and I Love You! I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you!

Entry #0019

Ok, we’re down to less than 1 month now before the big day! We’re both so excited, the anticipation is killing us. There’s nobody else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with than Tricia. If you’re reading this.. I love you, and I always will.

I know everyone else out there just ralphed in their computer chair, but oh well.. we’re sappy, so get over it! Anyways, there has been so much going on lately that it’s hard to know where to begin.

I suppose I’ll start off with www.thinkgeek.com – this website is absolutely amazing. If anyone wants to get me anything, start here first. One of the items on the website is the Driving LED Emoticon.

Above: Image from ThinkGeek’s website, showing how it works.

Below: The Driving LED Emoticon installed in my car! (getting one for Tricia too)

---

Another item that we just got from ThinkGeek.Com was the DaysAgo Fridge Timer. It’s great, it shows you how long things have been in the fridge/freezer and without cluttering up the fridge itself. I think they could have made it a little more low-profile, but for the price, who can complain?Below: DaysAgo Fridge Timer in our fridge / and other photos

---

And the last thing that I’ll write about today is the Glowing Led Faucet from thinkgeek.com / this just speaks for itself. It’s blue when cold, and red when hot.

It was very easy to install, however don’t use this on a faucet that is low to the basin. You’ll need a little extra room to accommodate the device. (compares to the space needed for a pure water filter).

•The LED isn’t variable: Once you hit 89 degrees or greater, the red LED switches on. Before that, its blue. And when your water isn’t running the circuit opens and the light goes off.
•The piece is long, so if you’ve got a shallow sink basin, you’re going to be annoyed.
•It’ll runs an unspecified number of hours with three easily changed small button batteries.
•Comes with two adapters for different faucet sizes.
•That’s not chrome. It’s silverized plastic (the kind that chips). What do you expect for $20?

Entry #0018

As the last entry said, there has been a ton of stuff going on lately. We just moved into our new house, and are loving every minute of it. Tricia and I are to be married very very soon, less than 3 months (72 days to be precise) away now! I did want to say thanks to my folks and friends who have helped us paint, move in, etc and who have helped out with the wedding stuff.

On a side note, I have regained control of djsavage.com!!

So now if you go to djsavage.com or djsavage.net it will take you to the same place. I forgot to renew the domain name a few years back and another DJ from the UK snatched up the site. He used to go by the name DJ Savage as well; however his name is really Jeroen Joosten, and he now he goes by Svache, another stage name. When this happened, I attempted to contact him to regain the website and was met with much resistance and finally no contact what-so-ever. I had the website for 3 years before he snatched it, and I did all the web advertising and marketing to drive hits to the site. I had the url mp3.com/djsavage from the time mp3.com started until its demise in December of 2003.

“Until a while ago, Svache was better known as DJ Savage but due to his change of musical interests (and also a bit because there are more people called ‘Savage’) he decided to change his ‘main’ name into Svache as this doesn’t reflect the hard styles which ‘Savage’ can be with the literal translation of that name.” http://www.svache.com

So by his own admission, he took the name Savage before really checking up to see who else had the name, or even what the name meant. His statement, “Svache is a unique name and thus the decision was easy to make,” is quite odd because if that were the case, why didn’t he use that to begin with? My real name is Dylan Joseph Savage; DJ Savage is my name, not a pseudonym, and I was established in 1982. According to Joosten’s website, he started in 1994.

There is also a very famous DJ Anne Savage who is a DJ here in the US (her name is real too, hmmm). So I suppose my point is: if you haven’t done your research and don’t know how to build a website(here’s what it looked like when he had it), then don’t go snatching up domains just because you can. Oh, and get a better translator.

-DJ Savage (a.k.a. DJ Savage) and soon to have a Savage wife as well!

Here’s a list of domains I own:
http://www.djsavage.com
http://www.djsavage.net
http://www.withbeans.com
http://www.pixelsavvy.com
http://www.zidanegifs.com
http://www.zidanegifs.net

Entry #0017

There’s been way too much to write out here right now, but stay tuned, there will be some goodness coming soon.

*note to self, write more than once a month*

Entry #0016

Ok, so I’m getting very frustrated with DVD burning/making. I have tried multiple programs at it is getting very time consuming to say the least. I’m not an idiot, and I’m not a genius, but I just want something that I can quickly, and easily make generic DVD menus and burn avi/mpg/mp3’s etc onto a DVD that’ll play in my DVD player.

I tried Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus with nooo luck. This program was so buggy I never even got done with any kind of burn. First off when starting to create a project, everything looked great, but if you saved it and came back, everything was different. I also couldn’t get it to complete a burn.

I am currently trying Xilisoft’s DVD Creator, which I found very very easy to use, however it does seem very limited as well. This does provide for more stability as though.

Hopefully, this will be my last stop in the never-ending saga of DVD burning. Please leave a comment if you know of software you have used and like.

Entry #0015

Ok, so I know it’s been a while since I’ve written again.. but you know how things go. I have had a lot of great ideas lately, and I wish that I had recorded them, because now I feel that I’ve lost a little bit in time.

First off I’d like to mention the ADS Tech USBAV – a very handy little device. I have used it a few times already. It allows you to capture A/V RCA signals dirctly on your computer, so you can view and record. If you’ve ever done any video editing, you’ll know that it takes a while.. so I haven’t had as much time to play with it as I’d like to. But overall, it’s worth the money. Great quality, low profile, and cheap! This video capture device is one half of my A/V RC Car. The next piece is the wireless camera itself.

We have also been getting back into selling some things on e-bay, and I think I’ve gotten a little too nerdy with my auctions. I have put up videos, flash, etc.. to help the auctions go better. Tell me what you think… Click here to view my E-Bay Auctions

The wedding planning is going great as well, if you would like to see the website that Tricia has made for us, please shoot me an e-mail or myspace message, and I’ll let you take a look. She’s done so much already, but we’ve got so much to do! I think we’ve found my wedding ring, wich I’ll post on here when we get it. It’ll be hard not to wear it, but we shall see.. maybe I can wear it on another finger or something.

That’s all for right now, I’m sure that I’ll write more a little bit later.

Entry #0014

 So as some of you may already know, it’s now March of 2007. I have been super busy the last few months, and there has been a lot that has happened both good and bad.

First I would like to touch on my last entry. As we had feared, Mama-Re’ s condition got worse and she ended up passing away only a few days after I wrote that entry. I am positive that she is in a much better place right now, honky-tonky-in’ it up with Mr. Buster. She was a wonderful woman, and will forever have a place in my heart. She will be missed.

There has been a few other developments as well (which I will not too much elaborate here… if you know of what I’m speaking…then great). Outside of the deceit, betrayal, and backstabbing the last few months have been wonderful. If you are one of the two people I am referring to, then you are correct in assuming that I wish to have nothing further to do with you. What you have done (no matter how you put it) is unjustified and I will not allow myself to be surrounded by selfish idiots that think they know everything. It’s just sad that you think you’re normal, and that you think you can justify your actions. I feel sorry for you.. I really do. Ok, now that that’s out of the way (btw.. don’t’ ever contact me again)…..

To keep you on the same page as me, I’ll go ahead and let you know that I’m in no way referring to my relationship with my wonderful Fiancee’.. yes that’s right! I’m getting married! I popped the question on Feb 16th of 2006 on the beach by having a local sculptor make a sandcastle that said “Will you marry me” on it. We walked along the beach and when she was able to read what the 4′ tall sand-castle said I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife.

It was truely the happiest day of my life! I love you Tricia!

Entry #0013

OK, I know that it has been quite a while.. almost 2 months since I have written anything here. Due to the long time frame, I am not going to blog about anything specific today. The last 2 months have been great, my lovely girlfriend and I just celebrated our 2 year anniversary as a couple. She is honestly the best thing that has ever happened to me. We also just moved into a house and we are rooming with her sister. It’s a wonderful little quaint house in a small-town-esque community.

There has been quite a bit going on with the holiday’s and family as well. My parents just celebrated their 32nd marriage anniversery, and couldn’t be happier. On a side and sad note, my grandmother had to be put into a nursing home this last week due to advanced alsheimers symptoms. Keep her in your thoughts.

Hopefully I will have a few new gadgets to write about on here. There is so much that I would like to do with my time.. but most of all, I would just like more time. I hate having to spend all my time working just to spend a few tired hours catching up before I hit the sack. I need to hit the lotto or something.

As far as music goes, I am still very much into it.. and I think that hopefully soon I should be able to create a few new songs or at least start to work on music again. Again, this goes back to the not enough time thing.

Well, that’s all for now.