Let me give you an idea of what my setup is going to look like. I have a relatively powerful desktop that I no longer use as my main machine (although I sometimes wish I still did) that will be running Windows Vista Ultimate. The basic specs are:

• Pentium 4 2.8ghz HT CPU
• 1GB RAM
• Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600
• ATI Radeon X850 Pro (256MB)
• Seagate 300GB 7200RPM external HDD (USB 2.0)

I did a lot of research when trying to find a good TV tuner card that is compatible with media center. The Hauppauge HVR-1600 was the one that I came across repeatedly. The product page gives a better description than I ever could, but it has two coaxial inputs - one for a HDTV antenna and another for cable/satellite/etc. The external hard drive is what I'm going to be using to store recorded programs and act as storage for the live TV buffer. I figure this will keep the machine's main hard drive clean and running a bit faster.

I know a lot of people simply put their media PC next to their television and hook it up directly. However, I didn't want to buy a new case for my existing desktop (which would help it blend into our entertainment center) and I already have an Xbox 360 that adds enough cable-clutter. So, with that in mind, this machine will sit downstairs in my utility room, conveniently located next to my networking gear and coaxial cables (for television signal).

Upstairs, I have a Samsung 46" DLP television and an Xbox 360. The 360 is connected to my home's network via ethernet to a D-Link Xtreme N router, which sits right behind my television.

We don't subscribe to any cable or satellite television plan because my wife and I don't watch a lot of TV - just enough to warrant this sweet setup - so I bought an indoor Terk HDTV antenna. After some playing around with signal, I found the best place for the antenna was upstairs (we'll get to this later).

Alright, let's get started. The first step is to install Vista Ultimate on the computer. I'm starting with a clean slate - no back-ups, no upgrades - just a freshly-formatted hard drive ready for Vista. Obviously, there are many tutorials (and included directions) for how to install Windows, so I'll let you do that on your own. Go through all of the steps of installation and meet me at the very first login screen.

Done already? That was quick. Unfortunately, there is usually some clean-up work to be done after a fresh OS install. This usually involves getting the newest Windows updates, installing drivers, etc. Go ahead and get all of this stuff taken care of. In my case, I need to find drivers for the network card and install 77.7MB worth of patches.

Alright, I'm done - how about you? I'm also going to disable that sidebar, it bugs me. Now you need to get connected to a television signal. Either plug in your cable line or antenna line to the TV tuner card. Once you've got that hooked up, fire up Windows Media Center. It'll start with a setup wizard - go ahead and select express setup.

Once the initial setup is done, go and configure your TV signal.

• Go to Tasks -> Settings -> TV -> Set Up TV Signal
• Make sure your region is correct.
• Select "Configure my TV signal automatically". This part takes a long time and scans for all different types of signal sources.
• Once it's all done, it will tell you what it found. If it's correct, go ahead and select "Yes" and continue.

If you're using an antenna to receive your signal, you now get the chance to tweak it and see the strength of each individual channel. Depending on your antenna's location, this can be somewhat annoying. I initially had my antenna downstairs and got most stations up to 3 green bars. Once I moved it upstairs, the results were dramatically different. It also depends on your geographical location, antenna size, weather, etc. My advice is to play around with different types of configurations until you get the reception that you're happiest with. Note that you don't need a full signal in order to successfully view a station.

Now that you've got your television signal set up, you can change what storage medium you want to use for a live TV buffer and recording folder. Go to Tasks -> Settings -> Recorder. Here, I'm setting my external hard drive as the location I want media center to use. I also want recorded programs to use the best quality.

At this point, you should be good to go and watch tv. Head back to the main menu and select "Live TV" to see how your stations come in.

In my case, the guide doesn't list all of the stations I know exist in my area. You can manually add these stations, but I don't know of a way to actually get guide listings for them (which really sucks). Anyhow, at least you can watch them. This is how you add additional channels: go back to Tasks -> Settings -> TV -> Guide -> Add Missing Channels -> Add DTV Channel and enter the necessary information for the station you want to add. A really great resource for finding available channels in your area is CEA's Antenna Web.

Now, the final step is to get the 360 to work with the media center PC. Flip on the 360 and head over the "Media" tab and select "Media Center". It will give you a pin number to use when adding the extender from your media PC. Now that you have this number, go back Media Center on your PC: Tasks -> Add Extender. Follow the wizard and your 360 will be ready to go!

If everything worked correctly, you'll be able to go to Media Center on your Xbox and watch & record television shows.

Here are some other helpful and related articles for Windows Vista Media Center:

• Coding Horror: Windows Vista Media Center
• Xbox 360 Media Download Center

Since I moved out from home, I hadn't really even given them much thought until, on a recent trip home, my mother handed me a quart bag full of what appeared to be dirty yeast. Oh yes, little rocks of breakfast bliss that I had neglected to take with me. What's great about CoCo Wheats is that a box can last you well over a year (however, I'm assuming that, when not consumed, they could outlast civilization as we know it). So, I've got my breakfast plans decided on until next summer.

Being Saturday morning and all, I decided that it would be a great time to dedicate to my old chocolaty friend. Unfortunately, I didn't have the original box - meaning I didn't have any instructions for making them. I spent a good thirty minutes Googling for some hint, but I guess only important information can be found on the web. However, I did find some dedicated CoCo Wheats fans that even had a comment posted by the president of Little Crow Foods. Anyhow, I had a good idea of how I used to make them so I threw caution to the wind and started breakfast knowing full well that it could be a cocoa catastrophe.

As it turns out, my memory isn't as bad as I thought it was and my recipe worked out terrifically. Now, if I recall correctly, the original instructions indicate that you can use water(?) or milk in the mixture. We all know that using water produces nothing but runny cereal, so most people settle for the milk. However, the first time I tried this I was terribly disappointed - there simply wasn't enough cocoa taste (nor did a cuckoo bird come out of a grandfather clock and talk to me). That's when it hit me - it was time to call in the big guns: Cass Clay's Swiss-style Chocolate Milk. And, without any further ado, my CoCo Wheats instructions:

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons CoCo Wheats
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• one cup thick chocolate milk

Instructions:

• Mix above ingredients into bowl and stir until mostly blended (it never completely mixes)
• Put into microwave on highest setting for 3 minutes total
• Stir after the first minute
• Stir after the second minute
• Stir every 30 seconds after until mixture reaches critical mass
• Let cool for a minute or two (let it congeal)
• ENJOY!

So there you have it. Very simple instructions, but a very tasty breakfast. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put on my favorite t-shirt.

This first entry is more of a placeholder than anything else. I've added some fairly basic information to the about page to tide you over until later. It's late and I want to go to sleep - I'll expound more wisdom later.