Sunday, November 22, 2009

How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

I never changed the time on the thermostat when daylight savings changed over.  The heat turned on 15 minutes ago and the temp change woke me up.  It needs to be cold when I am sleeping or I can't sleep.

I went on a hike with Wendy two days ago up Rock Canyon.  There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  She was wearing her backpack with some water bottles in it.  It didn't seem to faze her at all that she was carrying a few extra pounds.  She stayed off the path as much as possible, leaping through the fluffy snow and getting it in her nose.  When we got back she was tired and fell asleep.

Yesterday we walked up to Provo Canyon.  When we got to Timpanogos park it was dark, so I had to call around to find someone to bring us home.  Sara came and got us, but before she did Wendy found a dip cup and got it all over her snout.  It smelled horrible.  Chewing tobacco = gross.

So, I am starting off this Sunday bright and early because of the heater.  We're not really even suposed to be here, we should be in Park City.  Esther's family got a condo from Friday (two days ago) until Monday (a week from tomorrow).  During this week we will surely be up there.

Does anyone have exciting plans for Black Friday?  The deals this year don't look all that spectacular, but there is one thing that I would like to get - a plasma TV.  Over the past few months I have done a ton of research on HDTVs so that I can get one!  Esther says she will pay for half if I can come up with the first half.  Someone asked me a few days ago if they should get a plasma or an LCD, and this was my answer (with a little editing): 
Plasma FOR SURE. Go with either Samsung, LG, or Panasonic. The best deal I see coming up is Best Buy's Black Friday deal on a Samsung. Samsung 50" 1080p Plasma HDTV (Model # PN50B530S2F) - $897.99.  Sears has a BF deal on a similar model Samsung 50" Plasma HDTV (Model PN50B530) - $899.99 aaaand at Best Buy they have a Panasonic Viera 50" 1080p Plasma HDTV (Model# TC-P50U1) w/Blu-ray Disc Player (Model # DMP-BD60K) - $999.98. Go with something 1080p for that large. If you are going under 42" then you will have to go LCD, and you could also go with 720p at that size. The sweet spot of pricing right now is right at about 50", depending on brand. Very small discount for going smaller, very big jump for bigger. The three brands have different features such as if they have D-sub input, DVI, a slot for a memory card... Also very important is the Blue-ray player you are going to hook up. You usually want to go with the same brand as the TV, BUT they all have different features such as whether they stream Pandora, YouTube, Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon video... Some are wired, some are wireless. In most cases it is cheaper to buy a cheap wireless bridge than to get a player with wireless build in (save yourself around $100).  Keep in mind that the features that the blu-ray player has may make up for the features that the TV lacks, for xample an LG TV probably doesn't have an SDHC memory card slot for your pictures, but the blu-ray player might. Plasmas have blacker blacks, higher contrast ratios, and no refresh rate issues. They do use more power though. There are some brand new Plasmas that have the energy star logo if you are concerned with that (those are much better on power). I can give you lots of info on LCD as well, but I really don't think they are worth it comparatively. Plasmas haven't had problems with burn in for years. Many technologies have been developed to avoid this. http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-burnin.html As long as the image on the screen does not stay the same you will never have to worry, and even then, the new technologies *should* prevent it. The people who are most at risk of burn in, if it is going to happen, are people who play games with static graphics on the screen. As I said though, it is unlikely with a modern plasma. Back when a 50" would cost you $8000 it was a reasonable worry. This is a good excuse for the gamer in your family to never play games for more than an hour ;) LCD HDTVs can have uneven lighting, halos, judder, washed out colors and blacks, smaller viewing angle, and the decent ones are more expensive than their plasma counterparts. One other thing that I forgot to mention is whether your TV has a matte finish or glossy. To the eye glossy usually looks better, but it can be annoying to see reflections on your screen while watching TV. Many now have an adequate anti-glare finish, but it is worth a mention anyways. It is always best to see the TV in person first, BUT always remember that the floor models are not calibrated, so the picture will almost always look much better in your home after calibration. Some differences between LCD and Plasma http://hdguru.com/choosing-the-hdtv-that%E2%80%99s-right-for-you/603/ and here is a link to Black Friday HDTV deals http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/topic_view.php?catid=18&threadid=968537&start=0

The titlte: Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning

2 comments:

Miranda W. said...

We went Christmas Tree hunting on black friday and missed you.

Kate Challis said...

Okay so I'll be honest; I didn't realize that Wendy was your dog until I started reading the previous post to this one, so I was really confused about why you were posting about your date with a girl you're not married to...and why she would pour spitting tobacco all over herself...hahahaha