*Another Multi-part Update

!.) Went down to Raleigh last week to visit with my coz Joe. Fun times as always, tho too short. Got to hang out with my NCLUG friends too, who were happy to see me. ^_^ Ate good Italian food at every meal (and as always at least one trip to Schiano's is mandatory!).
Driving home Thurs afternoon took a full hour longer than it should have (from DC thru MD) because it was the begining of Memorial Day weekend and it seems everyone got out of work early Thursday afternoon, grrrr.

@.) Saw Star Trek on the IMAX while in NC. Good stuff. Definitely didn't feel like Star Trek, and if you change all of the names of the characters, ships, planets & races, they could've kicked off an entirely different and NEW sci-fi Universe/series.
Still, very good movie. And once again Star Trek uses the time travel cop-out. ;P It was cool to know that Geordi La Forge designed Spock's special ship, but that fact was not even seen on a plaque on the ship. :-/
It will be interesting to see how they top it with the next one (a script is already being written).

#.) Bought and have been playing World of Warcraft! In fact I've not just playing with Stevo, but I was invited into a very friendly (chatty) & helpful guild -- which has made playing a lot more fun, even when I'm soloing.
I'll start new, separate posts about my adventures in WoW...

$.) Sunday afternoon my sister & bro-in-law came over. Frederic & I installed my new Sony Xplod car stereo. While I could've done it myself, it was definitely more fun with someone, particuarly someone who has installed car stereos before.
It looks good, with red glowing buttons & a bluish-grey screen that doesn't have any ugly gfx. Much better than the stock Saturn stereo's amber lighting scheme, which IMO looks cheap.
And now I can plug in my mp3 player into my car, for quickly added playlists & new songs without burning & using up CDs. ^_^
Frederic also brought over his Sony Xplod rear speakers to see if I could use 'em. They're in box frames, very nice, but too big for the rear deck. And since Saturn can't manufacture anything standard, my stock speakers are round and not oval like the standard.
So we put them in the trunk, up against the rear seats. Cut the rear speaker wires (looks like they had been swapped back in already) and hook 'em up to the new speakers. With a little tweaking of the output & fader settings of the stereo we got them sounding good & not muffled. And they have better bass than the stock rear speakers, as I tested that with some ska/reggae songs for their bass lines. B-)