Redecorating

This past weekend was a nice period of renewal and redecorating.

Friday

On Friday, carpeting folks finally came and fixed the padding to our carpet. Remember the fiasco with all the wet carpet? We had several rooms with dry carpet, but the padding had been torn out. Two-and-a-half months later, our carpet is repaired. Hooray!

I got home from work on Friday and found Cathy interviewing several college girls for apartment one. Cathy has a pretty good feeling about them. They put a deposit down, so the apartment is off the market now. The girls are not moving in until 11/15, so that gives me two more weekends to finish up, rather than rushing through this week. That is a blessing.

When the carpeting repaired, I vacuumed everything thoroughly, moving the furniture around, and eventually rearranging all three rooms entirely. Cathy wanted me to put up the big screen on the wall, but I just didn't have time! That'll come next month, though, and I'll take some pictures to show everybody.

Saturday

On Saturday I slept in. I measured for the kitchen sink and played with the jigsaw. After returning to Home Depot and wasting two hours there, I finally cut out most of the counter before I snapped the blade, and I didn't buy any while at HD... :-(

Cathy wanted to go to Ikea for their 20th birthday sale (15% off) and spent $730!! Eek! We bought a rug, living room tables, new lamps and several picture frames. We bought this poster that reminded us of Oliver and put it in a white frame. I did not see this poster of a cat but I think I'll go back for it! I even bought a new water bowl for our pets!

Cathy is very happy about the purchases. We had a lot of hand-me-down furniture, and this replaces a lot of it (the ditchen will be the next room, several months from now). This is the first time (in her life?) that she can look around a room and say that all the furniture reflects her, rather than someone else. :-)

Sunday

Cathy was up to driving to church this week. Yeah! I think the time change helped, as we got an extra hour of sleep. We heard a good message, too, and we had a great discussion over lunch at Joe's Crab Shack.

We've got the frames, but they still need to be populated with phots. We'll probably print them at Costco... ah... there's no place like home!

Free Software For You?

What kind of software do you need to use? What if it were available for free? Would it surpise you to know that it probably is available, now, for free?

Cathy has claimed that I am philosophically egocentric; that is to say that I think the rest of world sees and understands things as I see and understand them.

This, as you have no doubt surmised, is simply not true.

I assumed that everyone else is as cheap as I am... that is not the case. That does not mean I always go for the least expensive item that will do the job. Rather, I look for the value I get for the resources I expend, including time, effort and dollars. That's why I rarely recommend the "newest and greatest" computers or software to people.

I believe in matching need with means. If you need a really fast computer to do your job, I'll recommend one. But if you only need a mid-range computer to browse the Internet, some word processing and photo editing, I'd recommend that.

I don't like to pay for things I don't need. I did not (directly) purchase the copy of Windows XP running on this laptop; it "came with" the computer. I needed a word processor, so I downloaded OpenOffice. I needed a web page editor, so I downloaded Nvu (granted, I could have used Mozilla Composer, but I was already using FireFox).

Being a computer nerd I probably use a greater percentage of my computer than the general computer-using population. People often consult me regarding what best to buy or how to accomplish something on their computer. Through time, my subconcious has absorbed a means of ascertaining just how large a feature set any given inquirer might actually need.

So, while most people are comfortably with spending the $124 at Costco for Microsoft Office (a pretty good deal, actually), I honestly doubt that most people will touch, say, 50% of the features of Microsoft Word. As such, OpenOffice is a far better solution. I've played with it, and it handles great.

I'll be posting more free (and usually opensource) products in the near future. What kind of things do you need? Let me know...

Remodeling, Studying and Recovering

It's been a while since I've posted. Let's see, theres more progress in the aprtment, Cathy is doing O.K., and I had a Hebrew exam. Sorry for not keeping everybody up to speed. I can usually tell when I'm not blogging often enough, as I start getting instant messages, emails and phone calls asking about Cathy. Let me say that Cathy really appreciates your support!

Let's see... I haven't really spoken of our lives in almost two weeks. I've been working on the apartment, of course. The kitchen cabinets are completed (still need to pick up a door from Ikea), and I've got the dishwaser in and the countertops are almost ready. I've yet to install the kitchen sink... but it's getting there; I'll get to play with a jigsaw next!

I didn't have class last Wednesday, so I spent the evening finishing up the countertops and installing all the doors. I took last Thursday off to hang out with Cathy, but she slept in so late that I spent the morning remodeling. By the time she woke up, Cathy decided to simply join me (it was way after lunch). She installed two toilets and helped mom straighten all the kitchen cabinet doors before running out of steam. It sure was helpful, though! Cathy loves to remodel, so she misses being part of the action.

Friday, Cathy went to get her normal shot, but her applicator had changed! It was not the syringe she was expecting, but a fat, weird contraption instead. She called the health line and got instructions, and things worked out, but it did cause her a little consternation for a short period.

On Saturday I got up early and finished cutting out the countertops; they look pretty good! I'm putting so much work into this apartment, and I'm more practiced now, that I wish we were moving in! I also installed the bathroom sinks and most of the cabinets while (get this!) mom replaced most of the electrical outlets with new ones. Cathy rested in bed with the intention of gathering her strength to attend church on Sunday.

My mother-in-law is very flexible these days in learning new things. She really wants to make it on her own, and she's being very steady in her studying for the real estate license while still helping me out in every way possible!

I had not studied Hebrew since Monday the 17th, so I tried to catch up Saturday evening. We all gathered in the bedroom; I studied, Cathy and mom read, and the cats and dog were scattered all around.

Sunday came, but despite Cathy's efforts and her strong desire to attend church she simply could not muster the strength to get out of bed. She even tried sleeping in a bit and getting up to attend a local church, but that was too much, as well. I figured it was somehow "wrong" to work on the apartment so I read a little and studied Hebrew instead.

I now know about 170 words and 20 verbes, plus a bunch of derivitives of thoese words. I took my second Hebrew exam tonight, and boy was it difficult!

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one to feel that way. I figure I probably got about 80%, maybe 85% right. Sheesh.

Cathys looking pretty good tonight, even though she was quite tired today. We may try to get out of the house for a period of time tomorrow.

Vito the Kitten Attacks the Wiggly Fingers

Vito is getting real big. His legs are definitely longer, his markings are more distinct, his purring is quite loud, and he can jump and climb rather well.

Here's a video of him attacking Cathy's fingers.


Here's Vito purring...

OpenOffice 2.0 Thoroughly Equipped

The OpenOffice.Org (OOo) suite version 2.0 has emerged from testing and is now available for download.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 is an open, feature-rich multi-platform office productivity suite. The user interface and the functionality is very similar to other products in the market like Microsoft Office or Lotus SmartSuite, but in contrast to these commercial products OpenOffice.org is absolutely free.

OOo 2.0 (oh-oh-oh two-point-oh... heh) is full-featured, and easily a Microsoft Office replacement.

I have nothing against Microsoft; frankly, I've been a fan of Microsoft Word since I first used it in junior high. However, OOo is free, cross-platform, and thoroughly equipped for every type of office work. If you already own Microsoft Office 2000 or newer, don't bother; if you are looking to acquire an office suite, OOo 2.0 is a great place to start.

Recording Audio from Sermons and Classes

This post gives an overview of how I record audio files from my classes and sermons at church. I'm a tightwad, always looking for the cheap instead of the expensive, the free instead of the cheap. Being a techie at heart, I also look for better, cheaper ways to do things. Efficiency with efficacy is the key.

I have to take many classes in the course of preparing for ministry. I wanted to record the class audio, but tapes just don't work for me. I wanted a digital recorder, ideally one that records in MP3. I also needed to record sermons at church, so I began to look for a devices that would be able to do both.

I found one device that would do it all. Frankly, there are three or foud on the market now that do what I require, but I believe the products from iRiver continue to be the most reasonable and the most faithful recordings.

MP3 Recording Hardware

For church, I purchased an iRiver iFP-390T (256mb). For my own use, Cathy bought me an iFP-380T (128mb). There are much larger capcities available now. I selected the 3xx series because they include a line-in jack as well as an omnidirectional microphone.

Software (PC)

CDex Version 1.51 (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net)
MP3Gain v1.2.2 (http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net)
Mp3 Tag Tools v 1.2 Build 008 (http://massid3lib.sourceforge.net/)
mp3DirectCut (http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch/)
dBpowerAMP Music Converter (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/)

Acquiring the source audio

The iRiver iFP-380T/390T is a flash ram MP3 player and voice recorder. It has a stereo line-in jack which can be used to record MP3 audio (requires a powered signal). For sermons, I record the audio on the line-in jack at 64kbps at mono. I can record about 7:45 of audio on the 390T )256mb, which allows up to four recordings.

For my classes, the 380T gives me 7:45 of voice recording at 32kbps, which should be sufficient if you are diligent in archiving your audio files weekly. A single battery will usually record about 16 hours worth. The trick is to place the device at least three feet from the speaker but with no osbstruction between the device and the speaker.

For both devices, I use the iRiver's UMS (USB Mass Storage) firmware version 111. This causes the device to show up as a USB drive (like an USB keychain).

Why record in mono instead of stereo? The final output file I desire is mono, so recording in stereo is a waste bandwidth. Also, note that a mono 64k MP3 has the same quality as a 128k joint stereo stream recoded to mono. I get a better quality source file by encoding in mono.

Since I am recording sermons from a live church service, I am plugging directly into the sound board. I am using the Studio Out, which is pre-fader, in order to avoid someone turning down the pastor's mic for the house and killing my recording level. I record the audio file with the dial at unity (0 gain). Ideally, I would use a pre-fader mono aux send, but my setup at church limits me. Also, I find that disabling all effects, such as reverb, is best for the speech portions of the recording.

Splitting and compressing the audio

I am using Windows XP, although most of this software if available for free on Linux as well. Non-Windows users can substitute Audacity for an audio splitter.

I use MP3DirectCut to split the source MP3 into smaller chunks and to eliminate silence or audio junk. Then I use MP3gain and adjust the audio to normalize at 89 db. The human ear cannot detect changes smaller than 1.5 db, so changes in increments of 3 db is suggested... some people suggest 92 db as a better baseline, I wouldn't really know.

Using "Mp3 Tag Tools" I label the tracks with the speaker or preach, when and where, the title and so on. Tagging the split up files allows all transcoded files to also have the same tags, thus saving you work later.

For uploading to the Internet, I use CDex, with Encoding Option set to "Windows MP3 Encoder" with a Codec Bitrate Selection of "24kBit/s, 11k Mono" and "High Quality" checked. This results in a FastEnc (FhG) encoded MP3 file, which sounds better for low bit rates than LAME encoding does. The file is about 21% the size of the original. I also take the tagged, uncompressed MP3 and use dbPowerAmp to creat "Windows Media Audio 9 Voice" files at 16k. The resultant file is smaller than the compressed MP3 about 14% the size of the original.

Why MP3 instead of XYZ

Why MP3? Why not Real Audio, or Vorbis? I selected MP3, not for its quality or size, but for the ubiquity of the format. Everybody has a MP3 player/decoder on their computer, and it will "just work." Although I am using FastEnc, I am not be required to pay royalties, from what I understand according to the licensing.

Why WMA? Windows Media Encoder (WMA) encodes voice at passable quality as low at 8kbps, and 16kbps is amazingly good. WMA has size as an advantage, the encoder is free, and there are no licensing fees for redistribution.

Why not OGG? I considered Oggs Vorbis, but while a quality of -1 does save 30% in size (a 6mb MP3 becomes a 4.2mb OGG), the Vorbis codec is simply not intended for voice, and does not sound as well. Without a size advantage, it doesn't make sense to transcode to Vorbis. Royalties are also not an issue here, but there is no compelling reasons to use OGG.

Finally, many folks, just as myself, have portable MP3/WMA players. Vorbis and other formats I have considered are usually not supported, or not supported at low enough bit rates for me to worry about them.

I initially used LAME to produce the smaller, lower-quality MP3 files to save space. I use all2lame (although any LAME front-end will do) and us the following encoding parameters:

--short --athtype 3 --lowpass 9.1 --cwlimit 7.2 --substep 0 --ns-bass 6 --ns-alto 13 --ns-treble 21 --ns-sfb21 6 --strictly-enforce-ISO --vbr-new --abr 24 --verbose -q0 -b 8 -B 40 -mm

For notes on which version of LAME to use see this forum link at HydrogenAudio. I started out using LAME version 3.93 because 3.90.3 did not work with All2LAME & tag.exe. The file is about 20% the size of the original.

I'm not an audio engineer or anything like that. I've done my homework and a lot of reading, but I'm just a computer geek that loves Jesus and wants to further His kingdom. I'll try to help you if you are trying to setup digital recording at your ministry, just don't expect a pro. You can contact me via email by looking in the footer on the main blog page.

Software to consider (also free)

LAME version 3.93 MMX (http://lame.sourceforge.net/, see also http://mitiok.free.fr)
all2lame v1.9.1 (http://home.wanadoo.nl/~w.speek/speek.htm)
RazorLAME (http://www.dors.de/razorlame/)
Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
DeepBurner (http://www.deepburner.com/)
CDBurnXP (http://hem.bredband.net/cdburnerxp/)

"Mango Fandango" is Fun to Say

Mom just asked me what I want to drink for dinner, and we have been consuming Knudsen juices recently. My favorite flavor is Mango Fandango so far. It tastes good, and it's fun to say!

Vito the Kitten Update

Vito has gotten even cuter! He now drinks water from the bowl, and he runs like the wind! I've gotta get some video of that.

I think he's cutest when he sleeps, though. He prefers to sleep on the tile, oddly enough. Vito also tends to clean both of his front paws at once, which looks like he's praying. How cute!

In a week or two he will be ready to be neutered; Toms are not allowed to be adopted out intact. Pretty soon, we'll be taking him to the adoption center on the weekends to look for a good, permanent home. *sigh*

Tests Should Assess Learning

I think exams should help you determine what you know instead of being a focal point of a class. What's the point of being able to pass an exam if the material isn't useful to you after you finish the class?

Anything I'm learning at the seminary should improve my ability to preach, teach, or otherwise discharge my responsbilities. Focusing on an exam does accomplish anything; focusing on the acquisition of knowledge is far more valuable.

New Link: Del Rosarios

I want to point out our friends, Mikel & Christine Del Rosarios, who are in the Philippines as missionaries. We are glad to know them and love what they are doing. You can also check out their blog which chronicles these early months after their arrival.