Freecycle

I just found out about something pretty cool.

Well, actually I found out about it some time ago, but I only just now bothered to sign up for it.

There's this website called Freecycle.org that is a network of YahooGroups for local areas where people post about things they would like to give away. Stuff they don't have a use for, but think someone else might and would rather see go to a good home than throw away. So, I've signed up for my local area group and am waiting for my subscription request to be approved. I have a number of things I'd like to get out of my apartment, and other things I'd like to try to find.

Pretty nifty idea. I can't wait to see what other people are giving away locally.

Speakers of the house—or at least the apartment

I've got some new surround speakers. The subwoofer on my old Logitech Z-640 surround set finally played out, after four years, so I ended up getting a new set: a Logitech X-540. (When you find a good brand, why change it?) The speakers are about equivalent in terms of price, but a bit advanced over the model of four years ago; the satellite speakers are a bit bigger and use some kind of funky "dual driver" technology that supposedly makes them sound super awesome or something. I don't know about that, but I do know they sound pretty darned nice.

And unlike the old set, which just had these kind of desktop stands, the stands on these can twist through 90 degrees to turn them into wall mounts, with a slot to slide them over a screw or a nail. And as I was looking at them last night, I suddenly realized, "Hey—I can put these suckers up on my walls!"

So after work today, after running by Kmart and not finding what I needed, I ended up hitting Best Buy for four 20' speaker extension cables ($3.50 each, not bad) then going to Home Depot to get some cup hooks on the recommendation genchaos and some roofing nails with big heads to fit into the mounting brackets. I was lucky in that I happened across a very understanding clerk; I just needed four nails (one for each speaker) but they only sold them in 8 pound boxes—so he opened a box, took out four nails, and told me to put them in my pocket and "Pray to the nail god."

It took a bit of doing, and I don't pretend it's the neatest looking job in the world, but now I have all my speakers off the floor, and the cables running along the top edges of the walls. I followed the advice of the surround speaker placement websites as best I could, too; putting the front ones at ear level sitting down and the rear ones at ear level standing up. I haven't had the chance to test it out thoroughly, with movie watching and stuff, but they look nice. And it's nice to have the cables out from underfoot where I would yank a speaker out of position every time I tripped over one—and I'll be able to vacuum without having to lift up the speakers.

Now to bed.