http://www.haught.org/blog/ Matt Haught's Blog Copyright: (C) Haught.org Personal Blog http://www.haught.org/ 60 http://images.haught.org/haught_rss.jpg http://www.haught.org/blog/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/520/ It has been a long time since Jen and I have been able to stay a whole week at the beach, but this year we finally were able to. We ended up going much later in the summer to Sunset Beach with my family which worked out well for me and work. Tucker is finally old enough to battle the waves, Claire got to fly a kite and go putt-putt golfing. Jen and I went kayaking for the first time aound the island, which was a blast. We paddled around the marshy area betweem the island and the intercoastal waterway. The wind and current was a little more then I expected. The only problem was that the only boat launch on the island was blocked off due to the new bridge being built so we had to sneak the boat in on a little beach area on the back of the island. The weather was perfect the whole week, no rain. kayak sunset beach Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:20:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/520/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/519/ So Jen and I finally got new cell phones. Jen's old phone got a crack in the display and she started using an old borrowed one from a friend and then mine went through the wash, destroying it, and I had to start using Jen's old pink cracked phone. We looked at messaging phones and smart phones from AT&T, our courier at the time, but unfortunately if you did not go for the iPhone you were pretty much stuck with an overpriced Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone. I really like the iPhone, but Jen wanted a keyboard and I didn't want to have to install iTunes (glorified spreadsheet music manager memory hog) or pay the extra monthly fees just for the iPhone or Blackberry. There was a lot of hype around the Droid phone, but it is only available at Verizon and we will NEVER switch back too them. So that pretty much left T-mobile and Sprint in our area. Both of them have Android based smart phones, so after comparing the plans we went with Sprint and the Samsung Moment slider Android phone. I... [Read More] android att google iphone mobile moment samsung sprint Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:38:00 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/519/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/518/ So it is NC state fair time again and Jen and I decided to go early this year on Friday after work. We met up with Ryan and Jessica and started our journey. Things seemed pretty similar to years past, except it was cold, really cold for down here. We walked around a bit looking for some of the chocolate covered bacon we had heard so much about and Jen has been dreaming about, but could not find it. We had to settle on some pizza and powered sugar covered elephant ears (fried dough). My eyes were a little larger then my stomach as I was only able to get about half-way through the elephant ear before feeling like I was going to hurl. We walked over to the petting zoo where Jen and Jessica fed carrot pieces to an assortment of greedy little animals. After that we looked at the farm animals. There were some piglets and their mother, baby ducks and chickens, plenty of cows, and some of the weirdest dressed lambs I have ever seen. They were dressed in brightly colored spandex jump suits like... [Read More] food state fair Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:45:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/518/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/517/ Tonight the Canes took on the Pens at home and Jen and I got to go. The Canes haven't been doing so well so I figured that it would be another beating, and it was looking that way up until the 3rd when we started to play. It was looking like a shutout for the Pens but then Whitney scored twice to put us into overtime and then into a long shootout were we lost. All things considered, I was pretty happy with getting a point. We seemed to be glued to the boards and dumped and chased on just about every play. I think they may have figured out that we were always going to dump it and play around the boards after the first few minutes. Our passing was off and it felt like no one knew were their teammates were so there would be passes that weren't just off, they were to random areas where no one was -- well actually a Pittsburgh player was usually closer then we were which didn't help. Our seats were on the upper ledge which was nice in that we had a great view with no one in front of us. Overall... [Read More] canes hockey penguins rbc Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:01:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/517/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/516/ So Jen and I have found that many of our weekly TV show recordings coincide with hockey games. As long as there is only one show recording, all is fine, but when there are two shows and a live game on, we have to choose not to record one of the shows. We tried getting around this by using Hulu to see the missed shows but playing that on the TV was not enjoyable. AT&T Uverse has not made it up the road to us yet so their 4 tuner box is not an option. After some reading I decided to buy a AVerTVHD Duet TV tuner for our Windows7 desktop and plug it into the cable and use Windows Media Center and the XBox as an extender. The card two tuners and only gets ATSC and ClearQAM channels so it should be able to get all of the HD cable channels and just not the NTSC cable channels, or at least that is what I thought. Well after fighting with some bad coax cable and some odd tuning by the card, I only ended up with two channels and a few subchannels!. Not exactly what I had in mind. I did some research... [Read More] antenna atsc cable dtv media center twc Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:50:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/516/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/515/ So it happened again, I got another kidney stone in under a year! Right before leaving for work yesterday my back started hurting and within 5 minutes I was was in extreme pain. Nothing like the other times. It was the same feeling of pain just a lot more intense and this time it was making me sick and every time I tried to drink any water I threw up. It took everything I could to just write an email to work and give Jen a call to take me to the hospital. The drive to the Cary WakeMed hospital was possibly the longest drive ever. The ER was pretty much empty, but Jen still had to park a mile away as all the ER spots were full and the giant doctors lot right next to the ER is restricted. Once in, they took great care of me and after some pain killers, a CT scan, and some waiting I was allowed to go home. After some sleep and lots of water, I finally passed the stone and am all better other then a little sore. I guess I am going to have to drink more cranberry juice... er hospital kidney wakemed Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:54:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/515/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/514/ How great it is to see all the opposing team fans faces when they lose in another game 7. At the end of the first overtime, Scotty Walker hits in a goal sending the Bruins to the golf course. Some would say a knockout punch... Even with the refs trying to give every chance to the Bruins with terrible calls and looking the other way for the Bruins, the Canes powered through for the win. Everyone counted the Canes out, but what the forgot was that the Canes have been playing playoff hockey for months now. We had plenty of one goal games that tested the team and our last game 7 was unbelievable. Halfway through the season, at best I thought we could make it into the playoffs by some miracle and maybe win one game. After we lost to the Bruins in February we came alive and had an amazing rest of the regular season. Most people compare the whole season of teams before the playoffs, but if you look at the last 60 days of the regular season instead, we were winning more games then just about anyone... [Read More] bruins canes hockey playoffs Fri, 15 May 2009 07:57:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/514/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/513/ Wow what an exciting ending to an amazing series. I figured the canes were already thinking about getting tee times for later this week when we were down by one into the third. The Devils are not a team you want to be down with as they pretty much shut everything down. Ward was doing an great job of keeping us in the game by standing on his head for the whole 3rd. With two minutes left we were fighting back strong, but Brodeur and their defense were playing it safe. Then Jokinen received a perfect pass across the center to knock one in and tie things up. Jen and I were ecstatic! We had a chance to go into overtime and maybe win, and I think the Devils were thinking the same thing. Half a minute later Staal brought up the puck on the bench side to take a simple wrist shot. The puck flew past Brodeur and into the back of the net. Absolutely jaw-dropping. It looked to be from the same area Jokinen and Ruutu scored from earlier. Ward kept the puck out for the last 30 seconds and we won the... [Read More] canes devils hockey playoffs Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:56:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/513/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/512/ This morning I ran in the Angels Among Us 5K up at Duke University with Jen and Julie. The run was in support of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke. I have a bit of a cold so I loaded up on TheraFlu and nose spray before the race, and things weren't too bad. The run snaked through part of the Duke campus and was pretty nice. There weren't any hills but the course was a bit weird with a bunch of out-and-backs going through a round-about a few times. A bit confusing. Seeing the leaders running back at you so early was a bit of a let down. Next time I think I will try running for a few weeks before the race. angles among us duke running Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:55:33 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/512/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/511/ The city of Wilson, NC, just a little over 30 minutes from us, decided to build-out fiber to the home for the entire city calling it Greenlight. They were also stuck with the Time Warner Cable monopoly for their cable and broadband, but they got fed up with the ever increasing price and terrible internet access speeds and decided to do something about it. The city went to Embarq and TWC and asked to have things improved, but they were denied. So with a bond they ran fiber throughout the city allowing every home and company to gain access to the Co-Op for a much reduced cost compared to what Embarq or TWC were willing to provide. The bond will be paid by the subscribers in a few years and according to the website no taxes are involved. On top of it all, the minimum connection for internet is many many times faster then what you can actually get with TWC (not going by their fake "up-to" bullshit speed) and it is asymmetrical. The city's downtown also got free wireless and business... [Read More] broadband ftth greenlight twc Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:47:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/511/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/510/ Last night Jen and I went to our first playoff game of the post-season against the Devils. Steve Jozik drove up from the coast to join us for one of the best endings to a game I have ever seen live. The Canes were up for almost the whole game, but the the Devils climbed back up to a disappointing tie. No one as happy. We tried and tried to get something past Brodeur, but nothing was going our way. We were pretty sure there would be another shitty overtime. We had the puck with just a few seconds on the clock and the whole place shaking and everyone was on their feet yelling to shoot the puck. Seidenberg took a shot and Jokinen redirected into the net. The scoreboard showed 00.0. The place was going crazy! Without being able to watch the clock and the play at the same time, no one knew if it crossed in time. The goal was reviewed and the goal was allowed. Only afterwards did we discover how close it actually was; only 0.2 seconds left as it crossed the line. Brodeur was going crazy, broke... [Read More] brodeur canes devils jen & me jozij Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:56:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/510/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/509/ So this weekend Jen and I went to see Monsters vs Aliens at the Imax downtown with some friends. It is the first completely 3D Imax movie I have seen and it was pretty amazing. I saw Superman at the Imax that had some 3D, but that was unimpressive. I was afraid that the movie would be full of gimmicky 3D effects like something you would see at DisneyWorld. There were a few, like the paddle ball flying at the screen at the beginning, but after that it was pretty immersive without the 3D distractions. The combination of the Imax and the 3D was amazing. At one point the "camera" was over the shoulder of the groom and you could see the stubble on his face and it was cool. The slight hint of detail of the freckles on the bride were a nice touch. The storyline was ok for a kids movie, there were some long drawn out parts that I could since from the kids in the crowd were not enjoyed. If it weren't for the 3D and Imax, I probably would have waited to watch it on Netflix. I can't wait... [Read More] 3d imax movies Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:12:00 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/509/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/508/ I has been a busy few months and I am finally updating this blog. Just a few weeks ago, Jen turned 30. Her parents came in to visit for a surprise and we had a nice weekend. It really perked her up. It was actually nice enough while they were visiting for me to finally mow the lawn and play with the pups outside. Jager is adjusting to the outside a bit better. It rained all week before then pretty much everyday until yesterday. Yesterday was beautiful here, so I spent a few hours turning over the flower bed in the front of the house. There was only some ground cover and some sparse flowers randomly thrown around. Mostly weeds. Jen and I went out and got some dirt and seeds in the morning, and I started some vegetables in little burlap-like trays. I started some cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, bell peppers, and some bush beans. I have a few weeks before I have to transplant them so I am going to have to find a good place to have my garden in the backyard. Being our first year, it is hard... [Read More] birthday ethernet flowers garden home jen spring Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:38:07 -0400 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/508/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/507/ The bluetooth on my laptop really hasn't been too useful. I got it thinking that I would eventually get a bluetooth mouse, but I have so many spare mice at work that I end up just plugging ones in. I do use it to move files to and from my cell phone, but I can do that with a usb cable and a little more work. It was not until yesterday that I stumbled upon BlueProximity. It is a little Gnome app that pairs with your bluetooth enabled phone and is able to monitor the distance you are from your computer by the strength of the bluetooth signal. When the program detects you have left your computer for an adjustable amount of time, it locks the desktop or runs any other command you want. You can leave it at that, or you can have it unlock it when it detects you have have returned. Pretty slick. bluetooth gnome linux Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:46:47 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/507/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/506/ It hasn't snowed in Raleigh in years. Well it has spit snow here and there, and iced over roads, but I have not seen any real snow in years down here. Well this morning Jen and I woke up to see three inches of snow on the ground and it has kept snowing all day. Probably around 4 or 5 total, maybe more. Jen got a ride to work and I got to stay home and play with the pups in the snow. I have never seen a snow plow here and just a few times have I seen a salt/sand truck, so going out on the roads with the crazy NC drivers is not my idea of a fun time. My mother told me about the snow coming and Monday which I didn't really believe, but I still went and bought a snow shovel. I watched the local weather channel before going to bed and they were saying it would hit at midnight, but that came and went without any snow, just a light rain, and then they updated their forecast as there just being a dusting of maybe a inch. Wrong again. Guinness and Jager had a great time running around in the snow.... [Read More] guinness home jager plow pups snow The first snow at our new house. The first snow at our new house. nonadult The first snow at our new house. The first snow at our new house. nonadult The first snow at our new house. The first snow at our new house. nonadult The first snow at our new house and the pups are loving it! The first snow at our new house and the pups are loving it! nonadult Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:21:00 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/506/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/505/ So I finally got around to getting my locks re-keyed. I thought about having a locksmith do it for me, but it would cost me a couple hundred dollars to have a guy come out and get my 6 locks re-keyed. Instead I bought a kit from Change-A-Lock online on Monday and today it arrived. The kit consists of a couple sets of colored pins, some tools, and the new keys. It took me about 10 minutes to get the first one apart and I learned an important lesson to follow instructions carefully as I pulled the cylinder out instead of pushing it out with the tool and the springs and the upper pins and springs came falling out. I took me a while to get those back in, and I was able to change all the knobs and deadbolts in just a few minutes each. I was really surprised at how fast it actually went and how easy it was. It took me longer to get the locks in and out of the doors then it took to re-key them. Now I just have to get some extra keys made and put the originals in a safe place. home locksmith rekey Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:50:00 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/505/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/504/ We had a great first thanksgiving in our new house. Ryan and Jessica came over and we had quite the feast. I cooked a 20 pound turkey for the four of us and some mashed potatoes while Jen made stuffing, pop-overs, and opened the can of cranberry sauce. Jessica made her chestnut pie while Ryan entertained all of us with his witty banter. The Turkey turned out pretty well. I stitched up the bottom of the bird after stuffing it with cornbread stuffing and it ended up looking like the backend exploded with stuffing. I guess by stitches didn't hold but it turned out very nicely. We watched Christmas movies for the rest of the night and Fred Claus sucked. I got up at the crack of dawn for black friday at Home Depot to get a miter saw for $60 which is usually $99. It is not the best saw made, but you can't beat the price. The next one up was $199, so I figure I can almost replace it 3 times and still come in around the same price. There was a good crowd at 6AM at Home Depot, and I was able to... [Read More] black friday jessica ryan thanksgiving Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:20:00 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/504/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/503/ So after being in the new house for a few months, I finally have gotten around to making some work benches for the garage. In the back of garage there were four shelves made of 2x4s attached to the wall. Not really in the best of places and they were barely held up with just three drywall screws per shelf in the wall and a mix of nails and screws in horizontal 2x4s. They really didn't fit my vision of a workshop so I pulled them down, but did save all of the shelves. I took two of the shelves and removed the OSB boards leaving just the 2x4 frame. I got a few 4x4s and cut them for the 6 legs and bolted everything together with some gorilla glue. Everything was going well until I hit a nail with my spade bit and pretty much had to burn my way through all the holes with a very dull bit. The longest part of the whole project was cutting the 4x4s. Since I don't yet have a electric saw, I had to use my ancient hand miter box. I had to start the sawing with a hand saw for about half an inch just... [Read More] garage home workbench The start of my workbench The start of my workbench nonadult Early construction of my workbench Early construction of my workbench nonadult Workbench with some added support for the bottom shelf Workbench with some added support for the bottom shelf nonadult Finished workbench Finished workbench nonadult Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:23:00 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/503/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/502/ Finally I got the New Xbox Experience after work today. I have been waiting for it forever it seems, but just as scheduled, I got to download it. I tried to get into the early preview program, but was too late. The NXE is a redesigned interface for the Xbox 360 to deal with the huge amount of content available and it seems to make things more modular. The best feature that was added is the Netflix movie streaming natively on the 360. So now I can watch movies from the Xbox without going through a hacked Media Center and it works great. The interface only shows movies that you have added to your "Instant Queue" and they start up pretty quickly. Jen and I watched a few 30 Rock episodes from Season 1 and after a bit of buffering, it worked great. Their were some annoying stops when it was playing, but is probably due to the shitty Time Warner cable internet or just too many people trying things out. Another feature is the Avatar creator much like the Wii's. It lets you create a person... [Read More] netflix xbox360 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:20:00 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/502/ http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/501/ So tonight Jen and I , Julie and Moseley, Ryan and Jessica went to see a movie. We stopped off at CVS and grabbed some candy for 99 cents a box rather then 3-4 dollars and headed off. We wanted to see Role Models, but we just missed that showing so we went to see Zack and Miri Make a Porno. It was a pretty good movie. It had some really funny laugh-out-loud parts. Seth Rogen is one of my favorite actors from being in Knocked Up, Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin, and the short Freaks and Geeks, and he was great in this movie. Surprisingly there was a lot of hockey in the movie and with it taking place in Pittsburgh their were some Penguins jerseys and the igloo was featured. Overall it was a good movie and I will probably watch it again on Netflix. movies Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:20:00 -0500 http://www.haught.org/blog/detail/item/501/