Tuesday, June 30, 2009

True Blood

Oh it is so good. The second season is continuing on with the same greatness the first season had. I just wish I had HBO so I could watch it when it first comes on instead of having to downl...go downtown to a friends place and watch it on his DVR. That is what I do. Also, I bet if you did some fancy editing and took out all the gore, violence and fangs you would have a hilarious soap opera for youtube.

On an entirely different note, stemming from my use of "a hilarious" in that past sentence instead of "an hilarious", I really don't understand why an is used before words starting with H. Every other time "an" is used it makes sense because it allows for a smoother flow between the words than "a" does. But wait...my research over at Yahoo has brought much needed insight to my dilemma. I like the second response best which says that "an" is often used before words in which the H is silent, such as herb or hour. This makes sense to me. But I still must protest against people who say or write things such as "an historic event". It doesn't make any sense.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Digitized Eyes

Anyone who reads blogs has an appreciation for reading digital media. And why not? It is so easy to access any form of information online from sources like The New York Times, Digg, and 4Chan. If you don't know that last one I suggest you avoid it. If you choose to check it out, you do so of your own volition; so don't blame me.

In my approximation there are two downsides to reading on a computer. The first being the concern of eye strain from staring at a screen for an extended period of time. But as far as I can tell, from my limited research via the Internet, eye strain from staring at a computer and eye strain from reading a book have the same causes: too little or too much light.

The main issue when it came to accessing digital media was how inaccessible it was. We were always tethered to a clunky computer. And as nice as laptops are for on the go computering (that is my new word meaning: the act of using a computer) it is still a bit much for a quick commute downtown on the overcrowded 1 train.

Fortunately, the Amazon "Kindle" (I am omitting the Sony "Style" because I have yet to see anyone using one) solved this age old issue. It is small, has the ability to download books at any time, and looks to be pretty easy to use. Or so I thought. Because then I realized it was black and white, and a gazillion dollars, and the IPod Touch/IPhone could do everything the Kindle could do as well as access all those Internet blogs and websites...in color...and with a touchscreen. And if I have not mentioned it yet, let it be known that I think everything is better with a touchscreen.

Let me be clear, if the Kindle were $100 less and had a color screen I would probably own one right now. Because the IPod is just too small when reading for longer than 20 minutes. And if the Kindle had some sort of online library where I could rent one book at a time for a small monthly fee I would be...I don't know...I have yet to be what I would be in that situation.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Internet on my TV

Why can't I access the internet from my Television? This question has puzzled me for a while, but it has finally become so annoying that I can't deal with it anymore. I can watch various TV shows on my computer at any time because all the stations have uploaded the shows to their websites. But I can't watch youtube, play WoW, or download porn via my television. What gives?

The way I see it, the cable runs from my wall to my cable modem. From there it splits off to my cable TV box and my internet router. The internet is just hanging out there at my modem. So why can't my modem send the internet signal to my cable box too?

I understand that I would need an OS and some software to run programs on my TV. OK, so lets go do that then. My cable box has a hard drive of some sort. I know because I record shows onto it all the time. There is already a usb port on the front of my cable box also. So lets throw a little computer in there and make it funky already. I'll buy it.

I think I figured it out. There is a solution to this and it is not improving my cable box. My cable box will always suck. What I need to do is get a bunch of money and buy a big monitor. Then I need to buy a nice computer to hook up to the monitor. Then a nice surround sound system. Then I buy a wireless keyboard and mouse. And finally, I hook my cable box up to the monitor somehow. So I just gotta find a big lcd monitor with an HDMI port. Oh, and a receiver to manage all this new equipment. I can't forget that.

Yeah, this could work.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

To Those With Babies

Keep in mind, I have no children. So this advice is potentially baseless. But if I had a child in that age range where first steps, first words, and all those other firsts occur, I would want my partner to be there when those firsts occurred.

Lets say your wife is out of town for the week and you are home with the baby. Suddenly your baby blurts out its first word..."tofu!" Wow, what an odd first word. But now there is a dilemma; do you call your wife and announce this significant event over the phone? Or do you wait for your wife to get home and then slyly coax your child to repeat the first word? I vote for the latter option. It may be something of a white lie, but it is still better than calling and describing how amazing of a moment it was. After all, the magic of the first moment is really only experienced by the parents. So why not share that moment, no matter what it takes.

Dining in NYC

When going out to an upscale restaurant in Manhattan I often have to deal with places that don't accept reservations, meaning we either show up early or prepare to wait up to two hours. Additionally, many restaurants won't seat us until our entire party has arrived. We don't invite our artsy friends to those places very often.

But what is most annoying is when we arrive at one of these upscale restaurants, ready to wait the appropriate time for a seat, only to have some famous person waltz in, give their name, and immediately get seated with or without their full party present. It's not like these people are announcing themselves on the street to pull in more customers. Nor are they necessarily going to spend more money than we are. They are there to enjoy the food just like everyone else, and they should have to wait for that food like everyone else.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Brief Note

It is probably a bad idea to own cats and have a sand box in your yard. I'm just saying.