HDTV

If you want the latest and greatest when it comes to home entertainment, you know your going HDTV. I bought a 42 inch Samsung not too long ago and I've never looked back, in fact I wonder what the hell took me so long!!! Ok, the basic questions; do you go LCD or do you go Plasma. I'll break them down for you pretty easy -

LCD - These are typically slimmer and lighter and the colors are very bright and vibrant. If you're looking for a small to medium sized TV these have really come down in price and are a real bargain now. If you want anything bigger then 40 inches, you'll be spending a lot of money, prices are still a premium for the bigger screens. Viewing angles on LCD are still a bit narrow, you'll need to sit pretty much right in front to get the best picture.

Plasma - Plasmas only come in bigger sizes, 42 inches and up, so if you want smaller, you'll have to look at the LCDs. The Plasmas have a wider range for viewing, and deeper blacks. The main concerns with having a Plasma is that there are concerns with image "burn in" where if an image is displayed for a long time, such as a stock ticker, the image eventually becomes permanant. Never sets are more resistant against this, some even coming with a time of screen saver.

Ok once you have one picked out, you'll need to get a HD cable box. Most companies offer them for free, in my case Time Warner. I also upgraded to the built in DVR which is like cables version of TiVo. There are 3 types of cables you will need to hook up your cable box/dvd player/satelitte etc to your HDTV.

Component, HDMI and DVI. Component is kinda like the old video cables that you used to you, you know the one that had yellow fo video and a red and white for audio, except now the video is split into 3 cables Red, Blue and Green. You'll need a total of 5 cables to get everything working. HDMI and DVI are very similar, the HDMI is a single cable that designed to specifically transit both audio and video in digital format. DVI converts the digital video signal, but you'll still need the seperate audio cables. My recomendation, get the HDMI cables. It's easiest and the picture comes out great.

Last bit of advice, don't worry about name brands, I see people paying $149.00 for "Monster" HDMI cables. I bought mine at the Apple store for $19.99. Enjoy your HD entertainment!

Riverside Park

Here's a little under-appreciated gem here on the West-side, Riverside Park. It's just as close to me to get to as Central Park, a lot less crowded, almost no tourists at all, and it's got a really great view of the Hudson River. I love Central Park, but for a quick jaunt on the roller blades or a simple walk, I think I may gravitate towards this little beauty.

Street Fairs!

Seems like this time of year, there's a street fair just about every weekend. We've never been to one in this neighborhood, so we decided to venture out and explore a bit. As usual the street fairs are full of overpriced food vendors, the same trinket selling booths, and lot's and lot's of kids. It was a good time, until the rain came and chased everyone away. I love street fair food, especially the meat on a stick! Smoothies are great too, but I hate paying $5 for bananas and strawberries blended together.

Geoff and Michelle welcome a little bundle!

Well, so the stork has finally left the little bundle of joy for Geoff and Michelle. Congratulations guys! You guys are going to be such awesome parents!

Danielle Emma
born 5/3/07 at 4:41 pm
7 pounds 6 ounces
20 inches

Michelle you are so freakin' tiny, where did you hide that 7 and 1/2 pound baby!!!!!

Free Museums

Hey, wanna take the kids, the wife, the girlfriend or just you to a local museum for free? Now, courtesy of the Bank of America, you can visit one for free. If you are a Bank of America customer, just go to their website and check out the free Museums and parks available. Then show up and present your card, and you're in! Woo-Hoo! See link for more!

Bank of America

New Macbook

I love this computer. I networked the airport, so now I have blazing internet anywhere in the apartment. Then I hooked up my Scanner/Copier/Printer to the wireless router, so I can print from anywhere in the room without wires! How cool is that. I can also hook up speakers and do the same thing with my music. Having a copier or scanner immediately available sure does come in handy as well. I'd had my old ibook for 5 years, old by electronics standards, ancient for laptops. The black is real sleek and sexy, the computer comes with so many add ons I don't think I've even found them all!

My only regret is that I have to pay Time Warner for the priveledge of using this high speed internet. Alas, there are no open wifi hotpots near me (or none that are open anyway).

Spiderman 3

This movie was fun. It wasn't great, it wasn't amazing. It was fun. The first 2 were so good, that it's really hard to live up to them, but this movie was still worth seeing in the theatre. I'm a huge Spiderman fan, so to see him and some great villians on the big screen is such a great treat. I still don't think Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane is such a great casting, James Franco who plays the new Green Goblin, in my opinion, stole the show. He and his character simply rock! They did Vemon justice, but blew up the Sandman too much (also, enough with the "Mummy" special FX). I'm also surprised no one made any comparisons to the Superman trilogies. In number 2 Spidey/Supes lose their powers for a bit and regain them in time to kick ass. In 3, both heroes go through an asshole phase (Spiderman cause of the suit, Superman because of the fucked up nicotine laden kryptonite).

I rate this movie 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Pier 1 Imports

This trunk is a new addition to the apt. Originally it was $250 dollars, then went on sale for $62 (yeah, weird number right? not $60 or $65 but $62...) Since they were all out of stock, and this was the last one (floor model) I got them to lower it another 15%, so all said and done, I paid about $50 for this beautiful trunk! BOOO-YAHHHH!

I'm back

Sorry I've been away for so long, there's just been so much going on. I was studying for the promotional exams, which unfortunately didn't seem to go as well as I'd planned. Fingers still crossed. I've been moved to a new detail, which is an exciting new oppurtunity for me. It's a little more stressful, but the oppurtunities are endless! Lastly I've moved from my old Upper-East Side haunts, to the previously foreign Upper-West Side. I gotta admit, I never really thought a certain neighborhood is better then the next, but now I understand what they mean when they say "Location is everything". It's so true! Best of all, if you ever want to visit, I now live on the first floor, so no more grueling 5 floor walk up to hang out!

Other notes: Since I moved, I upgraded my cable box to HDTV, and it's simply breath-taking. I also opted for the DVR function and I know it's not quite TiVo, but it's still pretty darn good! I love being able to record all my shows and watch them at my leisure, the only regret i have is that 24 and Heroes are both pretty much over!

UFC buys rival Pride for less than $70M, plans to stage megafights

The majority owners of Ultimate Fighting Championship have agreed to buy their biggest mixed martial arts rival, Pride Fighting Championships, in a deal that will establish megafights among the outfits' titleholders and possibly attract huge pay-per-view audiences.



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300

Great movie. See this in the theatre if you can. I watched the history channel do a show on the Battle at Themopylae, which this movie is based on. Those Spartans are badasses.

How thieves hack into an ATM -- slideshow

Full sequence taken from security camera, with explanation



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Discounts

%40 off for Footlocker, Footaction and Champs. These are great, you'll need to click the links below.

Click me for Footlocker

Click me for Champs

Click me for Footaction

Hot and Hearty

Yummy, a hot, hearty and nutritious meal on the go, on in my case, when I'm too lazy to heat up some ramen noodles.

More MRE

More close-ups.

Close up of MRE

Here's a closer shot, oh yeah, it even included coffee, creamer and sugar! Can't have our boys getting drowsy (or cranky) out there!

MRE

MRE stands for Meals Ready to Eat. I'm lucky enough to work with someone who selflessly devotes himself to the military, as well as works in the same crummy profession I'm in. I asked him once about MRE's as they are fascinating to me for some unknown reason. I mean, a hot, ready to eat meal, with all the trimmings, any time you want? What convenience, what comfort, what simplicity! So he mentioned to me that he had one laying around and I was welcome to it! Woo-Hoo.

Here you go with pics! The one I got is Rice, beans and Cajun Sausage. It also comes with just about everything you could think of in a meal, from a mini tabasco (which lek, absolutely adored), to grape drink mix (Army issued kool-aid?!) Total items included - the meal in a pouch, like the kind caprisun drinks come in, so it can be heated. A heating element, a chocolate bar, Crackers with a tube of cheese (what? it's no different than that can of EZcheese I've seen you sucking down!), condiments, a plastic spoon, and the already mentioned grape drink mix.

I'm Salivating over the iPhone!

Ok, I'm an admitted fanboy of everything Apple! I love all their products, from the Macbook to the many variations of the iPod. I'm sure all of you also know, I'm a very big fan of gadgets in general and right now I'm sporting a not too fashionable, but very capable Treo 700P. Well now Apple has gone and announced the upcoming release of their very own new gadget phone - the iPhone. The skinny of it is, it's gorgeous! The widescreen is absolutely awesome. With built in sensors that automatically dim the screen when it senses your skin (such as when on a call, saves power, prevents accidental dials), senses when you wish to view in landscape mode and automatically adjusts, and even dims or brightens the keys and display according to how much ambient light it detects. WOW! It has an awesome interface, is very slim and sexy looking and plays movies and itunes every bit as easy as the iPod does. It also have a version of safari browser built in, and with the supported wifi, allows you to comfortably browse. Without wifi, it's a pokey slow EDGE network. No 3G, so browsing the web is probably going to suck unless you're in a hotspot. Another bummer is the lack of a keyboard. I hate typing on the screen, hopefully some companies will have some external keyboards. It's offered only on Cingular, which sucks, cause I finally got Verizon to just where I like it. Any way, some pics! Photos courtesy of treocentral.com