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tomdo98@aol.com |
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Archives
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September 2007 Archives |
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09/27/2007 What's So Great About Yo Yo Ma and HD Television
Several months ago, I bought a LCD 42 inch HD television. I didn't really know what to expect and what exactly HD was. At the time, I had old school, basic cable service. This means that I didn't have a cable box and so I was watching "analog" cable as opposed to "digital." On a small television, analog cable looks fine. It doesn't look great but you don't really feel that there's anything wrong with watching tv in this way. And there isn't.
I remember bringing home my LCD television for the first time, plugging it in and hooking it up, and thinking, wow, I just paid about $1600 for this? It's big. That's sort of good. There's no more glare. Ok. It's light. But the picture was horrible. Was I doing something wrong? Did I get a lemon or just a crappy model? Maybe it was because I didn't splurge for the 1080i version instead of the 780p. Why was the world so hot on LCD and HD? Then I thought, oh I know. Fry's had DVD's on their display sets. I bet DVD's are awesome. The DVD's on my regular DVD player looked OK on my LCD TV but I certainly wasn't blown away.
I then remembered how people kept saying that they got HD television from regular rabbit ear antennas. I hooked those up and PHEW! The picture looks fantastic for sports.
A few months went by and I really didn't like switching from regular cable to my HD rabbit ears signal. It was a pain, there were only a few stations that came through the antenna, and the worst part is, I couldn't use my TIVO when I had it on antenna mode. Months and months go by and I pretty much watch everything in crappy, analog cable.
At first, I was kind of getting used to it. I still thought it looked crappy but I just told myself that's the way it is. Once in a while, I'll switch to HD for a big game and this "up converter" DVD player I bought makes the DVDs look pretty good. Then one day, the Emmy's came on. I was switching back and forth from Monday Night Football on antenna and the Emmy's, which I was taping on my TIVO, in analog cable. After I while I got tired of switching it to the TIVO and decided to watch the Emmy's through the digital rabbit ears. My TV world crashed all around me and my blinders were finally lifted.
There I was, watching Sally Field's in all her wrinkly, mole spotted glory in HD television. All night long, I was watching celebrity after celebrity in pixilated, gray, and washed out colors and in that instant of channel switching, I realized that I couldn't live like this any longer. I wanted, hell at that point I needed HD all the time. I needed digital television. I needed to find out how much more HD cable was.
The next day I called the cable company and they told me for only 5 dollars more I could get my same package with HD and Digital channels. DO IT. I asked the operator if he knows what TIVO will do when an HD signal was patched in. He had no idea what I was talking about. I didn't think it would work because I know that the current price on an HD TIVO is like $600 bucks. Do I want TIme Warner's DVR? Sure! Throw it in. That's another 6 bucks a month. I think I already pay TIVO 10 bucks a month. I might actually be saving money.
I get home, activate my cable box, patch the HD television in and it's a wondrous event. I realized that I've never really watched television before until that day. HD television actually makes things look better than they do in reality. It's like an ultra sharp technicolor treatment to the senses. Not everything is in HD but just watching digital cable instead of analog is a world of difference. I had never realized it, but getting a large HD television without upgrading your cable is like DEGRADING your television watching experience. It is actually worse. Getting a larger screen and exponentially worse programming quality isn't worth a red cent.
So what's the deal with YO YO MA? Why does everyone know the name YO YO MA and who he is but probably don't know much else about him other than he plays the Cello and is Asian? Funny thing you ask.
The networks have HD programming once in a while, mainly for sports, but not all the time. Time Warner's cable package comes with some channels that have HD programming all the time. There's ESPN HD, TBS HD, Music Television HD, HBO HD, Discovery HD, and there's also AE HD. Sometimes I tune into HD just to marvel at the wonderful colors for a few minutes. I don't always care what's on. Last night, at a really late hour, I tune into AE HD to see what's going on. I've never bothered to watch AE in the past except maybe for the show Intervention (or is that on Bravo?). Yo Yo Ma's biography is on. This is something I would probably never bother watching if I had regular cable but it's in HD so I have to give it a chance because at the moment, I'm mesmerized by everyone's flesh tones.
I won't get into the details of his life just in case you want to watch AE's Biography on Yo Yo Ma yourself. So what's so great about Yo Yo Ma? He's led quite an interesting life that I would have never known about without HD. |
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09/25/2007 Fall and Football
The only sport I used to like to watch on television was NBA basketball. I could never get into NCAA sports because it was too hard to follow a team whose lineup was changing every year. The NBA had icons like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Karl Malone. Even if you followed a team that wasn't full of icons you could be pretty sure their lineup didn't change much year after year. My favorite NBA team growing up were the Phoenix Suns with Kevin Johnson, Tom Chambers, Jeff Hornacek, and company. I even collected basketball cards for a little bit.
The NBA was pretty mediocre to me last year. The only team I really wanted to watch were the Dallas Mavericks and of course they got knocked out of the first round. Then came the dog days of summer where the only major sport on television is baseball.
The only time I ever watched baseball frequently was when the Rangers were full of sluggers. I think this was when I was in high school. I remember one year when they had four or five guys in the all star game. Let me see if I can remember them: Julio Franco, Pete Incaviglia, Ruben Sierra, and Rafael Palmeiro. I was even at the ballpark when Nolan Ryan pitched his seventh no hitter. I can't tell you one guy who's on the Texas Rangers these day. I remember hearing the name Texeria but I heard he got traded. The only reason that name stood out is because it's spelled like Texas something but pronounced Teckshera. Something like that.
So basically I've been chomping at the bit for college and pro football to start and it hasn't disappointed for the Longhorns and the Cowboys. Both teams are a combined 7 and 0. The Horns are struggling but staying in the win column. Without a playoff system in college football every single game counts. Lose one game to a team like Central Florida and your season is ruined. No chance for redemption in the post season.
The cowboys looks like one of the best teams in the league. I could be biased because I grew up in Dallas/Fort Worth but I heard on ESPN the other day the only the RAMS have started out with more points in their first 3 games.
On top of all this, I finally broke down and got HD cable from Time Warner which basically means that I'm watching every game in High Def on my LCD television. More on high def later. |
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09/22/2007 Connected Through Football
For the most part of the past two weeks, I've been in Boulder, Colorado for work.
You would think Boulder, Colorado has nothing in common with Austin, Texas but I found there is a connection. The very first night I'm there, a group of us go to a sports bar called Harpo's. One of the walls is decorated with 12 college football helmets that makes me feel very much at home.
Big 12, Baby!
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09/18/2007 Breakfast Isn't Back
There's a commercial on television for Denny's showing this mopey person eating a breakfast bar in their work break room which is a dull, colorless environment. Then, all of the sudden, boom! They're in Denny's and everything is bright and fun and the person has a huge breakfast in front of them including eggs, pancakes, sausages, and other comforting, greasy breakfast things. The big catchphrase on this commercial is "Fall in Love With Breakfast Again"
I like having a big breakfast on weekends. I enjoy a hearty breakfast at IHop, breakfast tacos at Curra's, or brunch at Z-Tejas. Most of the time, I get back to my apartment kind of too full and I have to lay down for an hour or so. It's kind of a treat to eat such a huge breakfast because I never eat breakfast during the week.
My GF's birthday is today so I thought I'd eat breakfast with her since she's taking the day off. I don't know why people think breakfast gives you energy because the big breakfast at IHop did anything but. I got the quick two egg breakfast, sunny side up, sausage links, white toast with jelly, and hash browns with onions added. The difference between eating this meal on a Tuesday at 8:00 am as opposed to 11:00 am on Saturday is: I have to go to work!
I feel more like passing out on the coach or taking a couple of big craps than looking at some spreadsheets. I do not want to go to work. I don't usually want to go to work but I really don't want to go today. I'm super groggy. What breakfast are people having that gives them "fuel" for the day? Grapefruit and toast with no butter or jam? A plate of cottage cheese and a slice of cantaloupe? |
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09/14/2007 My Neighbor Wants Free Wi-Fi. Well Wi the FI not!
The other day I was sitting on the toilet at about 8:30 am on a Monday and I hear a rap rap rapping at my door. I HATE getting interrupted on the crapper. I'm trying to relax my bowels and I feel really vulnerable with no pants on and a dirty ass. What if someone breaks in my house while I'm on the toilet? How will I be able to react with an unwiped butt? What do I do first? Wipe my ass or just pull up my pants? Who knows.
Anyways, there's a rap rap rapping at my door. No one ever knocks on my door unexpectedly so I decide to hurriedly wipe and check who's at my door. It's some sweaty, fat guy in business casual clothes whom I recognize as my next door neighbor. I live in a 4-plex which is basically like living in an apartment except each unit has 4 rooms. This guy is in a unit over and up the stairs.
I peek my head out and ask him what he wants. He needs his car jumped. "You got cables?" Of course he does. Fine, whatever. I pop my trunk and let him jump his car. At first he has the cables crossed wrong and there are all these sparks. I pray he doesn't make my car explode cause I doubt I'll get any kind of reimbursement. He gets his car started, thanks me, and we both go about our day and our lives.
Maybe he felt a camaraderie with me because just a few days later, as I'm headed towards my car, the sweaty fat guy calls out to me from his porch upstairs.
"Hey, do you have Wi Fi?" he asks.
Not realizing where he's going with this, I give him an honest answer. "Yeah."
"You know I'm only here on the weekends, I'm not around much. Do you think I could borrow your Wi Fi?" he inquires coolly.
I freeze. You know the kind of freeze where you've never been in this situation before in your entire life and you try to calculate options and odds. What's this guy want again? My WIFI? The WIFI I spend 50 bucks a month for? Should I let him? Why should I let him? That sounds like a lot of trouble. I'd have to print up my secure key and give it to him. Wait a minute. I don't know this guy. It's pretty presumptuous of him to even think I would be cool with this. That's like me asking him if he'd split his coaxial cable with me so I can get free cable or let run me an extension cord out his window and into my house to power my electrical appliances.
As I'm thinking he senses my reservations.
"I'll give you 10 bucks a month."
10 bucks a month?? What the fuck do I want 10 bucks a month for? This puts even more reservations in my mind. Now I have to worry about the awkwardness of collecting 10 bucks a month. What if he doesn't pay? Do I cut him off? How long do I give him? Will he knock on my door when I cut it off and complain and then I have to tell him he's late with his payment? What if he hogs my bandwidth downloading shit all the time? What if he hacks into my other computers which I've opened up to anyone on the network? I'd have to change the security on my network. Do I even know how to do that?
Strangely enough, barely two weeks before, a friend of mine had told me a similar story. When he first moved into this new neighborhood, he didn't feel the need to secure his internet. He often latched on to other people's WIFI networks in the past and thought that his neighbors should feel free to use his internet. Well, jump ahead a few years later and he realizes that he dislikes his neighbors and thinks they're just a bunch of moochers. My friend decided that he would block his neighbors signal right before he leaves with his family for almost two months to California. That neighbor is unfazed by my friend's departure and calls him while he's in California. He wants the code to the garage so he can reset the router because there must be something wrong. So my friend still can not get rid of the next door internet moocher. Once you set a precedent, people think they have free reign. He said other than just disliking the neighbors, he doesn't want to be responsible for his neighbors downloading questionable things and possibly compromising the security of his network.
Armed with this story in mind, I knew it was bad news to set a precedent where my neighbor gets free internet off of me.
So my neighbor is looking at me, waiting for an answer. I start to stutter. "Well, you know, I don't know you. You could be downloading weird things. I'm not saying anything against you, but I just don't know you, it's not a good idea." I repeat that ramble like 3 more times with the central theme being, "I don't know you."
The neighbor doesn't pursue it. He says he understands. The nerve. At the most, I'd let the guy borrow my vacuum cleaner or something. If you want free internet, go to Starbucks. |
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09/13/2007 A Snapshot of Me in the 80's
It's probably a little conceited of me to think anyone wants to see kiddie pics or baby pics of me in the 80's but this site IS named after me and I love how my parents dressed me in this pic. Hell, I may not wear cowboy boots anymore but I still wear DOCS. Maybe I'm influenced by how I dressed in my early years.
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09/10/2007 The Karate Kid Effect
The Karate Kid could easily be my favorite pre adulthood movie. It spawned dozens and dozens of rip offs that never quite had that same formula that made people stand up and cheer in movie theaters for Ralph Macchio. It's not that the Karate Kid invented the concept of the wimpy underdog kid with the heart of the lion or the meek little Asian master that could beat up twenty men at the same time, but I think it did it the best. The best I've seen anyway. I felt like I could really identify with Daniel Laruso.
Here was a kid that was bullied. I've had my share of run ins with bullies. He learns Karate. I eventually got a black belt in Tae Kwon Do after being inspired by said movie. He beats up the bully, wins the girl, and wins the huge trophy in the tournament. I never did get that popular girl in high school, I never got to beat up the bully, and I won little tournaments and medals in Tae Kwon Do here and there. Still, Ralph was my hero and Elizabeth Shue was my wet dream.
What I was kind of decent at in High School was art. I won a number of art competitions but the biggest competition I ever won as a kid was called the Congressional Art Contest. It was judged by your local congressman all across the country and the prize was a trip to Washington DC. I have fond memories of that trip and that contest. I got to have my little picture hung in our nation's capitol and I, and a ton of people across the country, were honored in a ceremony with two surprise celebrities.
One celebrity was Billy Baldwin (Who the hell cares right? Where is that guy now?), and the other celebrity was ELIZABETH SHUE! That's right, the same Elizabeth Shue that played Ali in the Karate Kid whom I lusted over as a child. I was a pretty shy kid back then and it took a good deal of courage just to get in the line to get her autograph. What I remember was she asked who to write it to, I told her and she cheerfully signed the back of the certificate that I received as a reward. I certainly didn't look her in the eye or say anything else to her. She was very nice.
I used to wear out that Karate Kid VHS tape when I was a kid before and after meeting Elizabeth Shue. I was as annoying as those kids who watch the same cartoon over and over again except I was probably a lot older than kids who watch things in a loop. All said and done I've probably seen the Karate Kid at least 50 times. My friend even bought me the complete DVD collection on my birthday a couple of years ago. Karate Kid part I is awesome. Part II is watchable and I wish I could erase parts III and IV from the face of this earth. For some reason, Shue was only in the first one. I guess they thought it was more interesting to have Daniel with different love interests in every movie.
My friend taking the crappiest picture of me and Elizabeth while I'm getting her autograph
My congressman presenting me with my award. The picture that won me the trip isn't pictured here. Check out that braided belt tied off in a loop.
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09/04/2007 Gonna Scan In a Bunch of Old Pics
I went home to visit the old parentals last weekend with my GF and I had to show her the requisite "baby pics." The baby pics weren't nearly as interesting as my kiddie pics. The kiddie pics (pre high school) of me and my family are glorious in their celebration of the 80's. I loved those pictures so much that I took four photo albums back to Austin to archive. I'm going to scan them all in my free time and digitally immortalize them.
For some reason I thought there was an invention where you could feed in photos and have them scanned but apparently Amazon.com doesn't sell it. They do have machines where you can feed in the negatives but I don't need that. I'm going to have to use my flat bed scanner. That means I have to lift the lid, put the pic down, close the lid, hit scan button on my computer, and then repeat like 500 times.
In the meantime, as a blast from 2001, here's me and my buddy Enrique in a consulting gig in San Jose.
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