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I've been working on my home theater for a while now. Well, work isn't the right word; for most of the time was just waiting for parts to come in. This week though, there was some real work to be done and frankly I enjoyed it.

It all started with Kyle's nemesis: Larry. Larry is an electrician. Kyle would rather get a phone call, drive down, and do the work in exchange for a few beers. I went with Larry though, he's bonded and licensed. The service panel and service into the house was upgraded, some grounded circuits were added (including a dedicated circuit for the home theater), and most importantly - the surround speaker wires were fished thru the walls.

I had a dream for my project. I wanted my surrounds mounted up on the wall cleanly, with no wires to be seen. The speakers I have, B&W LM1s, are perfect for mounting the way I wanted, but I still I no idea how to get the wires to speakers. Opinions ranged from "Peace of cake" (Jon) to "Can't be done" (Kyle). Turns out that if you know what you're doing, and you have wire designed to be inside a wall, it's pretty easy to fish the wires. The whole process took maybe a half hour.

Once Larry had left I drilled some more holes to get the wires to the receiver, and to get the subwoofer cable hidden. Then I mounted the speakers. My walls are plaster on a think wood lath and the speakers aren't that large, so four good woodscrews where more than enough to secure the speakers. The mounts cover up the wire hole, which is oversized so that the fish tape can be seen, and give the whole thing a nice clean look.

I think it's pretty damn nice, the speakers are just up on the walls, without any cables to be seen. They sound much better in their permanent locations, and it is very nice to have no cables going across the floor in the middle of the room. Next thing up is the stand. That involves moving the tv, which isn't so much heavy as awkward, and all the components. Lots of wires to unhook and then hook back up.

Then again, nothing makes a geek happier than combining a big stack of gear with a big heap of cables.

Due to circumstances outside my control, the party on Saturday has been canceled. There is going to be an art fair in town, you wouldn't have been able to park anywhere. It's going to be very hot, making my house a sauna; no one wants to party in a sauna. I'm not going to have the time this week to get everything ready, you would have been very bored, thirsty and hungry.

The party will be rescheduled, hopefully to a day that will be cooler and free of Ann Arbor's love of events. It'll be on a weekend, and you'll have plenty of advance notice.

This is my first, and last, summer without central air. Note the last part. Next summer I'm going to have central air here in the villa. I am not built for this sort of climate. I live in Michigan for a reason - I like things cold and miserable. See, if I'm cold I can put on a sweater and cease being cold. If it's an oven out there, I'm stuck being near death. I swear to god, a good cuddle right now might be fatal. It's just that warm out.

I was down at the local Borders just a while ago, and let it be known: the crazies are out. Outside the door, there were two older women in full Professor McGonagall regalia. Isn't it a little warm out for that sort of dress? Inside was bedlam. Loud, in charge, and wearing some interpretations of a Hogwart's uniform not fit for younger eyes; this was a meeting of the there but for the grace of god society.

By the way, there were 761 jelly beans in the jar. The winner got a copy of The Incredibles on DVD. I'm am not entirely sure how this relates to Harry Potter.

I think I might walk down to the store say... Wednesday afternoon and pick up a copy.

Tonight, I got to see a good bit of television. On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart had author Bernard Goldberg as a guest and good-god did he give Goldberg a hard time. Goldberg had just written a book entitled "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America." Jon Stewart ripped him a new one. First off, he pointed out that only 3 conservatives are on the list, while many a liberal where included. Goldberg insinuated that Hollywood was the root of all evil. Jon Stewart pointed out that Hollywood and Washington were pretty much the same thing, the only difference being that Washington had real power while Hollywood just made moving pictures.

A favorite quote:

Goldberg: "Once upon a time, a drunk in a bar would not have said the F-word [...] now, a guy like Chevy Chase can get into a grand gala with people in tuxedos and he can call the president a dumbass."

Stewart: "Once upon a time, Thomas Jefferson fucked slaves"

Which is the root of Stewart's argument: that concentrating on the decline of civility and formality distracts from real issues, and that while those cultural traits have declined great advances have been in concrete matters at the same time.

I've noticed that since the Daily Show has moved to their new set, Mr Stewart has been much more dour in his interviews, as though the new digs have freed him from the need to make a joke every ninety seconds. It works for him though. This last interview with Goldberg was the best thing I've seen since Jon Stewart went on crossfire. However, I can't seem to find a clip of it... yet.

Give it time.

I'm not good with endings. They don't sit well with me. When I watch the last episode of M*A*S*H or Star Trek: TNG, I tend to stare at the TV after the show has long ended, with an empty feeling in my heart. There's something very powerful about endings, in both life and art.

That empty feeling goes away the second I do anything else. A walk into the kitchen, a change of the channel, any of those things is enough to get my mind off of the thing. What if that feeling didn't go away? What if I was left with a goodbye of stones for the rest of my life?

I'm ready for a phase of my life to end. The only problem is that I have no idea which phase should end. I don't even know which phase I'm in. I've lived most of my life scared of change. Scared of loosing what I have. Now, I find myself searching for change. I feel like I should cut my hair, start drinking martinis, and date an actress.

What if I the phase ends like the TV show, with an empty heart and a blank screen?

I watched Lost In Translation tonight. To this day, that movie shows the lens that I see life thru. For all the things that leave my life filled, there always seems to be a fleeting idea that something is missing. But the second you turn your mind to the idea, it is gone like ghost. Are we ever supposed to see the idea? Or do you just have to keep trying?

Ends do come and go. If nothing else, we've reached the end of this post.

There is no better place to look for the fundamental divide between man and woman than moving day. A man will move the furniture, the appliances, stack the boxes, get the cable television hooked up, and call it a day. A woman will put stuff in logical places, hang art on the walls, and turn a house into a home at such a clip as to make your head spin.

Then there is my sister.

We moved my sister into her apartment this weekend. She's up in Lansing for law school. Her apartment is in a neighborhood just south of downtown, an area that your realtor would call "pre-gentrification." The building is the older sort, built when a two by four was two inches by four inches, brick was red, and windows moved up and down. The elevator is somewhere between "old" and "death trap o' horrors." It's Emily's sort of place.

I drove up to help shlep stuff up to the fifth story. Boxes, a bed, furniture, a couch; that sort of thing. My father and I started to put furniture together, and my sister did the exact same thing that she did when she helped me move in: she started hanging stuff on the walls.

The next day my sister calls me, "How do I get the cable to work?"

Sometimes I wonder if there is a man in my sister. She's not always centered around the same sensibilities that a typical woman is. Does that mean there is a woman in me? I have been told I keep a very neat house for a single man. I do like romantic comedies. I'm the guy girls call up when they need to a shoulder to cry on.

Meanwhile, my Uncle Mike has been in hospital for an aortic dissection. He had surgery, and things were looking good. Then he was getting restless and whatnot, and the decision was made to put him under for a day or two. This would give his body time to heal. This was last Monday and he was to wake up that Wednesday. As of today he still hasn't woken up completely. As my father put it, "This is starting to be a concern."

The light in my kitchen has broken, though I do not know how it is broken. My TV stand should be in soon. I'm redoing the electrical in the house soon. I've started very early work on a complete redesign of this site. I have to go now. The man in me is getting restless.