Christmas was shaping up to be a wonderful time. Everything was going well with family, friends and pets. The shopping had been finished and the dinner fixings had all been purchased. All was well until Christmas Eve morning when we discovered that our Christmas display had been vandalized. The whole street's display actually. Our big animated Mama Polar Bear and and animated seal had been stolen. We called the police and they took a report for insurance. Gilroy police came to the house 10 minutes after we made the call for such a small crime. After the police left, we got a call from the policeman that he saw some decorations lying by the side of the road down by the farm. We quickly got in the truck and went down there. It was the bear, crushed by a car, and the head of the seal. We were heart broken. We spend 20 minutes looking for the seal body and found other's decorations along the way. All damaged. All had had the wires cut. So we lost some of our treasures for good. On the positive side, we immediately went to the store to find something to replace the damaged decorations with and got fantastic deal on a set of set to music Christmas tree displays. It was perfect timing for something we had wanted to buy in the first place and we would not have gotten it otherwise. We paid a price though by losing a few memories.
It bothers me too about this. It is not unusual for decorations to be stolen by someone less fortunate to have something of their own. That kind of defeats the Christmas spirit though. I can understand that. Sometimes, something is stolen to sell in a flea market or out of the back of a car. This though was worse. A couple of kids, drinking beer, we found the bottles, running along and wantonly destroying peoples displays and happiness. Apparently it happened a lot in other places that night. We're speculating it might have been a gang initiation thing or something. Too many incidents happening at the same time. All destruction, not stealing. This is what our kids are growing up to be? Destroyers of happiness? Very troubling and sad. We spent a sleepless night wondering if they were going to strike again. Kind of like a terror attack on a much much smaller scale. No loss of life or injuries but fear and worry none the less.
The rest of Christmas was wonderful. Got to talk to family. Got most of the presents we wanted and the meal was delicious. Quiet but fullfilling of a need to experience abd enjoy the Christmas spirit. It's time to rest and reflect. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. God Bless.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
What I Got For Christmas 2007
DVD J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
DVD J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Limited Edition
DVD J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Limited Edition
DVD J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Limited Edition
DVD Caddyshack
DVD Halloween
DVD Chicago
DVD Darby O'Gill and the Little People
DVD Bourne Identity
DVD Bourne Supremacy
DVD Bourne Ultimatum
DVD Disney Something Wicked This Way Comes
DVD Jingle all the Way Extended Edition
PS2 Atari Godzilla: Save the Earth
DVD J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Limited Edition
DVD J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Limited Edition
DVD J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Limited Edition
DVD Caddyshack
DVD Halloween
DVD Chicago
DVD Darby O'Gill and the Little People
DVD Bourne Identity
DVD Bourne Supremacy
DVD Bourne Ultimatum
DVD Disney Something Wicked This Way Comes
DVD Jingle all the Way Extended Edition
PS2 Atari Godzilla: Save the Earth
Monday, December 10, 2007
American Chop Suey
This is a common dish if you grew up around Boston, MA. Everybody had their own spin on it and it's pretty easy to make.
12oz. Box of Barilla Tri-Colored Rotini
1 lb. of lean ground beef (85%+)
1/2 lb. mild Italian sausages (Cut into bite sized slices)
Note: You can leave out the sausage and increase the ground beef to 1 1/2 lbs.
(2) 14.4 oz. cans of S&W Italian Recipe Stewed Tomatoes
2 large stalks of celery (chopped)
1 med. onion (chopped)
2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves crushed garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste
Shredded or Grated Parmesan Cheese for topping.
Optional
1 large green or red bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup mushooms (sliced)
Serves 4
Cook, until just soft, a box of your favorite shaped pasta that holds sauce well. Rotini, elbow or penne pasta are good examples. Look at your pasta's cooking directions and figure about 1-2 minutes less cooking time. The pasta will finish cooking later. Drain in colander well and set aside.
Put 1 tbl. olive oil in a large heavy skillet on medium heat. Once the oil is heated up, add garlic and saute 1 minute. Don't let the garlic burn. Add chopped onion, celery and optional bell pepper and mushrooms and saute until onion just starts to turn opaque. Remove vegetables from pan and set aside. Add 1 tbl. olive oil, ground beef, in small pieces, and sausage to skillet and brown meat throughly. Add back vegetables and stewed tomatoes, lower heat, partially cover skillet and medium simmer mixture for 12-15 minutes. Add pasta, salt & pepper to taste to skillet and low simmer an additional 5 minutes covered. Serve with warm bread. Note: This dish can be made ahead of time and refrigerated overnight. It actually tastes better day 2 because the spices have had time to marry better. Makes a great pot luck dish. You can add 1 tbl. of tomato paste to the meat while browning for a deeper tomato flavor.
12oz. Box of Barilla Tri-Colored Rotini
1 lb. of lean ground beef (85%+)
1/2 lb. mild Italian sausages (Cut into bite sized slices)
Note: You can leave out the sausage and increase the ground beef to 1 1/2 lbs.
(2) 14.4 oz. cans of S&W Italian Recipe Stewed Tomatoes
2 large stalks of celery (chopped)
1 med. onion (chopped)
2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves crushed garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste
Shredded or Grated Parmesan Cheese for topping.
Optional
1 large green or red bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup mushooms (sliced)
Serves 4
Cook, until just soft, a box of your favorite shaped pasta that holds sauce well. Rotini, elbow or penne pasta are good examples. Look at your pasta's cooking directions and figure about 1-2 minutes less cooking time. The pasta will finish cooking later. Drain in colander well and set aside.
Put 1 tbl. olive oil in a large heavy skillet on medium heat. Once the oil is heated up, add garlic and saute 1 minute. Don't let the garlic burn. Add chopped onion, celery and optional bell pepper and mushrooms and saute until onion just starts to turn opaque. Remove vegetables from pan and set aside. Add 1 tbl. olive oil, ground beef, in small pieces, and sausage to skillet and brown meat throughly. Add back vegetables and stewed tomatoes, lower heat, partially cover skillet and medium simmer mixture for 12-15 minutes. Add pasta, salt & pepper to taste to skillet and low simmer an additional 5 minutes covered. Serve with warm bread. Note: This dish can be made ahead of time and refrigerated overnight. It actually tastes better day 2 because the spices have had time to marry better. Makes a great pot luck dish. You can add 1 tbl. of tomato paste to the meat while browning for a deeper tomato flavor.
Eye Exam
I recently had an exam and I'm waiting for my new glasses. I asked about contacts or surgery and found out that no matter what, glasses will always be part of the solution. Oh well, I've been wearing them for 45 years what's a few more. Now, I just need to know why I had trouble lining objects up. I usually ace that. The doctor found nothing medically wrong. Pressure and everything is fine. It may have been how my old glasses were totally out of alignment for so long and my brain was having problems seeing n0rmal instead of compensating. So here are my options:
1) Bifoculs
2) Laser Surgery with close vision glasses.
3) Contacts with glasses over contacts for close work.
My right eye is too weak for mono vision options. My left eye has to carry both the long and short vision burden for the most part.
1) Bifoculs
2) Laser Surgery with close vision glasses.
3) Contacts with glasses over contacts for close work.
My right eye is too weak for mono vision options. My left eye has to carry both the long and short vision burden for the most part.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Books & Movies of the Month - December 2007
12/26/07
The Waterhorse. Good movie. Not as much a kids movie as I thought. Much more adult oriented plot then what the trailers portrayed. I'm not going to spoil it by giving any plot lines. Let's just say there are major characters and events that aren't even hined at in the trailers. The actual Waterhorse effects are done well.
12/16/07
Alvin and the Chipmunks. It's all about the Chipmunks. Forget Dave and his life crisis. That's just there to maybe appeal to adults. As an adult, OK, that might be debatable, it didn't do anything for the story. Nether did the eye candy girlfriend. It was fun, it made me laugh, it made me sing some old and new songs. It made my daughter giggle a lot. That's all that counts.
12/9/07
The Golden Compass. Although I liked the movie, I found it diverged or twisted the plot meanings from the book quite a bit. Also, the action flow was very stilted. Set scene. Stop. Switch. Set scene. Stop. Switch. Very annoying. OK, on second thought, maybe the movie wasn't as good as I thought.
I'll give it
12/7/07
Currently reading Stephen King's "Cell"
The Waterhorse. Good movie. Not as much a kids movie as I thought. Much more adult oriented plot then what the trailers portrayed. I'm not going to spoil it by giving any plot lines. Let's just say there are major characters and events that aren't even hined at in the trailers. The actual Waterhorse effects are done well.
12/16/07
Alvin and the Chipmunks. It's all about the Chipmunks. Forget Dave and his life crisis. That's just there to maybe appeal to adults. As an adult, OK, that might be debatable, it didn't do anything for the story. Nether did the eye candy girlfriend. It was fun, it made me laugh, it made me sing some old and new songs. It made my daughter giggle a lot. That's all that counts.
12/9/07
The Golden Compass. Although I liked the movie, I found it diverged or twisted the plot meanings from the book quite a bit. Also, the action flow was very stilted. Set scene. Stop. Switch. Set scene. Stop. Switch. Very annoying. OK, on second thought, maybe the movie wasn't as good as I thought.
I'll give it
12/7/07
Currently reading Stephen King's "Cell"
New TV Hookup Status
Update 12/10/2007:
Everything is rewired and configured. Much better. The HD Cable/DVR Box hooks to the TV via a HDMI connection. The Sony DVP-NS77H/B HDMI Upconverting DVD Player hooks to the TV via a HDMI connection. The Tivo Series 2 Dual Tuner DVR hooks to the TV via a S-Video and L/R Audio connections and the VCR hooks to the TV via a RCA Audio L/R & Video connections. All I can say is WOW! The HD video sources on cable and the upscaled DVDs look absolutely great. Even the audio is much better.
Previouly:
OK, the TV has been up and running in the family area. I guess that's what you call the little space next to the kitchen area. Previously, I had a standard cable box, a dvd player, a vhs recorder/player and a Tivo Series 2 Dual Tuner hooked up to the old TV. First thing I noticed is that standard cable on the HDTV sucked. The DVDs looked really good because the HDTV has built in signal upconverting circuitry from the DVD player. VHS playback is always going to suffer somewhat.
So, I called Charter Cable and had them come out to install an HD cable box and run a new outlet into a front room. Bad news was they'd have to run the line on the outside of the front of the house. There's a chance an electrician can run a line up in the ceiling since we have ceiling vents instead. So no go on the second line for now. The good news was they ran out of regular HD cable boxes and they gave me one with a built in DVR for N/C. All right! Except one problem. I have a Tivo DVR box already. The installer re-wired all my equipment and now I have boxes with wires hanging off them or routed in a way I'm not happy with. I have a "project."
Shouldn't be bad. I took a look at what I have and how it's wired and figured out what I'm going to do. I also want to take advantage of the highest quality signals the equipment can handle. I have HDMI connects but no wires. That's not cheap but doable.
This is what I'm going to do since the HDTV has a ton of input connections.
1) Get an HDMI cable for connecting the HD Cable Box to the HDTV
2) Use the built in HD cable box DVR to record HD channels or any channels > channel 99.
3) Split the cable signal and run a co-axial connection to the Tivo Box. I'll use the Tivo DVR to record channels 1-99. In other words, daughter can record all the cartoons and Hannah Montana, Sweet Life of Zack & Cody and other kids shows she wants on the Tivo without interfering with the "good stuff" that will be recorded on the cable box dvr. Once the old tv is hooked to a new cable connection then the Tivo box will be moved.
4) The VHS recorder/player will have a RCA Audio/Video connection direct to the TV or maybe a co-axial connection. I'm not sure yet. I never use it for recording anymore so no problem being stand alone.
5) The DVD player is being moved to where the old TV is. Daughter can watch DVDs there. Eventually, the Tivo box and the PS2 will join it. A mini entertainment center so to speak. The HDTV will be strictly viewing pleasure.
6) I bought a Sony upconverting DVD player with HDMI interface. A real bargain. Retailers are getting desperate. The HDMI cable to connect it to the HDTV costs almost as much as I paid for the DVD player. Eventually it will be upgraded to a Blu Ray DVD player. Part of the reason I say Blu Ray is because I eventually want a PS3 and it has a built in Blu Ray player. I'm sneaky that way.
Everything is rewired and configured. Much better. The HD Cable/DVR Box hooks to the TV via a HDMI connection. The Sony DVP-NS77H/B HDMI Upconverting DVD Player hooks to the TV via a HDMI connection. The Tivo Series 2 Dual Tuner DVR hooks to the TV via a S-Video and L/R Audio connections and the VCR hooks to the TV via a RCA Audio L/R & Video connections. All I can say is WOW! The HD video sources on cable and the upscaled DVDs look absolutely great. Even the audio is much better.
Previouly:
OK, the TV has been up and running in the family area. I guess that's what you call the little space next to the kitchen area. Previously, I had a standard cable box, a dvd player, a vhs recorder/player and a Tivo Series 2 Dual Tuner hooked up to the old TV. First thing I noticed is that standard cable on the HDTV sucked. The DVDs looked really good because the HDTV has built in signal upconverting circuitry from the DVD player. VHS playback is always going to suffer somewhat.
So, I called Charter Cable and had them come out to install an HD cable box and run a new outlet into a front room. Bad news was they'd have to run the line on the outside of the front of the house. There's a chance an electrician can run a line up in the ceiling since we have ceiling vents instead. So no go on the second line for now. The good news was they ran out of regular HD cable boxes and they gave me one with a built in DVR for N/C. All right! Except one problem. I have a Tivo DVR box already. The installer re-wired all my equipment and now I have boxes with wires hanging off them or routed in a way I'm not happy with. I have a "project."
Shouldn't be bad. I took a look at what I have and how it's wired and figured out what I'm going to do. I also want to take advantage of the highest quality signals the equipment can handle. I have HDMI connects but no wires. That's not cheap but doable.This is what I'm going to do since the HDTV has a ton of input connections.
1) Get an HDMI cable for connecting the HD Cable Box to the HDTV
2) Use the built in HD cable box DVR to record HD channels or any channels > channel 99.
3) Split the cable signal and run a co-axial connection to the Tivo Box. I'll use the Tivo DVR to record channels 1-99. In other words, daughter can record all the cartoons and Hannah Montana, Sweet Life of Zack & Cody and other kids shows she wants on the Tivo without interfering with the "good stuff" that will be recorded on the cable box dvr. Once the old tv is hooked to a new cable connection then the Tivo box will be moved.
4) The VHS recorder/player will have a RCA Audio/Video connection direct to the TV or maybe a co-axial connection. I'm not sure yet. I never use it for recording anymore so no problem being stand alone.
5) The DVD player is being moved to where the old TV is. Daughter can watch DVDs there. Eventually, the Tivo box and the PS2 will join it. A mini entertainment center so to speak. The HDTV will be strictly viewing pleasure.
6) I bought a Sony upconverting DVD player with HDMI interface. A real bargain. Retailers are getting desperate. The HDMI cable to connect it to the HDTV costs almost as much as I paid for the DVD player. Eventually it will be upgraded to a Blu Ray DVD player. Part of the reason I say Blu Ray is because I eventually want a PS3 and it has a built in Blu Ray player. I'm sneaky that way.
Monday, December 3, 2007
42" Philips 1080i HD LCD TV
Flat HDTV with Perfect Pixel HD and Ambilight 2 channel 42PFL7432D/37
42" LCD integrated digital
Specifications
Picture/Display
•Aspect ratio: 16:9
•Brightness: 500 cd/m²
•Contrast ratio (typical): 1100:1
•Dynamic screen contrast: 8000:1
•Response time (typical): 5 (BEW equiv.) ms
•Viewing angle: 176º (H) / 176º (V)
•Diagonal screen size (inch): 42 inch
•Display screen type: LCD Full HD W-UXGA Act. matrix
•Panel resolution: 1920x1080p
•Picture enhancement: Perfect Pixel HD Engine, Digital Natural Motion, Dynamic contrast enhancement, 1080p 50/60Hz processing, 3/2 - 2/2 motion pull down, 3D Combfilter, Active Control + Light sensor, Jagged Line Suppression, Progressive Scan, Widescreen Plus
•Screen enhancement: Anti-Reflection coated screen
Ambilight
•Ambilight Features: Ambilight 2 Channel, Auto adaptive to video content, Efficient low energy lamp
•Ambilight light system: LED wide color
•Color Settings: Full Multi Color
•Dimming Function: Manual and via Light Sensor
•Preset modes: 4 Active Adaptive modes
Supported Display Resolution
Sound
•Output power (RMS): 2x8W
•Sound Enhancement: Digital Signal Processing, Dynamic Bass Enhancement, Graphic Equaliser
•Sound System: Virtual Dolby Digital
Loudspeakers
•Built-in speakers: 2
•Loudspeaker types: Front Speakers, Dome tweeter
Convenience
•Child Protection: Child Lock+Parental Control
•Clock: Smart Clock
•Ease of Installation: Auto Program Naming, Automatic Tuning System (ATS), Autostore, PLL Digital Tuning, Plug & Play
•Ease of Use: Auto Volume Leveller (AVL), Channel list, Delta Volume per preset, Graphical User Interface, On Screen Display, Side Control, Smart Picture Control, Smart Sound Control
•Remote Control: TV
•Remote control type: RC4451
•Screen Format Adjustments: 4:3, 6 Widescreen Modes, Auto Format, Full screen, Movie expand 14:9, Movie expand 16:9, Super Zoom
•Teletext: Closed Captioning Full Text
Multimedia Applications
•Multimedia connections: USB
•Playback Formats: MP3, Slideshow files (.alb), JPEG Still pictures
Tuner/Reception/Transmission
•Aerial Input: 75 ohm F-type
•TV system: ATSC, NTSC
•Video Playback: NTSC
•Cable: Unscrambled Digital Cable -QAM
Connectivity
•AV 1: (1, 2, 3Fh autoranging), Audio L/R in, CVBS in, S-Video, YPbPr
•AV 2: Audio L/R in, CVBS
•AV 3: (1, 2, 3Fh autoranging), Audio L/R in, YPbPr
•AV 4: HDMI, Audio L/R in
•AV 5: HDMI
•AV 6: HDMI
•Front / Side connections: Audio L/R in, CVBS in, Headphone out, S-video in, USB
•Other connections: Monitor out L/R (Cinch), S/PDIF in (coaxial), S/PDIF out (coaxial)
Power
•Ambient temperature: 5 °C to 35 °C
•Mains power: AC 110 +/- 10%
•Power consumption: 264 W
•Standby power consumption: 0.64 W
Accessories
•Included Accessories: Tabletop swivel stand
Dimensions
•Color cabinet: High Gloss Black
•Set dimensions in inch (W x H x D): 41.2 x 27.0 x 4.6 inch
•Set dimensions with stand in inch (H x D): 29.5 x 10.4 inch
•Product weight (lb): 60.8 lb
•Product weight (+stand) (lb): 76.3 lb
•Box dimensions in inch (W x H x D): 44.3 x 30.7 x 10.9 inch
•Weight incl. Packaging (lb): 89.1 lb
•VESA wall mount compatible: 600 x 400 mm
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)