I got bored and decided to do some shopping on Amazon. Here’s my latest order…

Music:

It’s official, I’m now thirty years old.

My birthday present consisted of my dad buying my ticket at the movies for Star Trek. And, wow, what a movie Star Trek turned out to be. Going into it I had high expectations since A) the reviews have almost all been positive; from both average moviegoers and hardcore fans alike and B) it was directed by J. J. Abrams, the man behind several of my favorite shows. I wasn’t disappointed, either. It’s full of action. And the CG imagery was very impressive. Also, every cast member fit their roles like a glove. The acting was top notch, too. Heck, I would have paid for my own ticket Anyhow.

I’m thirty. No longer twenty something. Not sure if I like that yet or not

So, I did it. I got the Charter HD DVR package installed the other day. The reason I did this was so that I could record my favorite shows and then watch them at a later time. That way I don’t have to be chained to the TV, because that’s what happened after my Panasonic DVD recorder bit the dust several months back. Besides, it’s HD, right? Well, not all the channels are in HD, of course. There’s about two dozen or so that even interest me; the rest are all HD movie channels. I’d say Direct TV has Charter seriously beat when it comes to HD. I mean, they don’t even have USA or SciFi available in HD. Oh well. Sure would be nice to see Burn Notice in HD.

There’s a few things that I already don’t like, though, besides the paltry channel line-up. The HD receiver/recorder box is bulky and runs hot. To cool down there’s a fairly loud fan, which you can often hear over top of the TV. It’s definitely noticeable. Then, there’s the way it connects: component cables. In fact, it doesn’t even have an HDMI port! What the heck? It does have optical and coax digital connectors for audio, though.

However, the most irritating part is that the box doesn’t seem to be configured right. The guy from Charter didn’t seem to have a clue. I hate to say it. I didn’t have much faith after he got lost twice trying to get to my house, especially when it’s near several major roads. In fact, he was about an hour and a half late! And had to call me twice and still got lost! Then…

After he left the channels still weren’t setup right. I can watch say HistoryHD with no trouble, but National Geographic HD, for example, is hit or miss. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don’t. Same thing goes for FXHD and a few other digital cable channels like BBC America. I called and Charter confirmed I should be getting these channels. The woman supposedly reset the box, but nothing happened. I have a suspicion they’re trying to reset the old digital cable box that my brother has in his room. Why? The guy at Charter had put me down for a swap out. That’s not what I had wanted. I had wanted to keep the other box, because my brother uses it to watch the Center Ice hockey package. Oddly enough, the hockey channels show up on the new HD box. Hmm…

I’m going to call tomorrow when I have more time and see if I can’t get this all straightened out. If I can’t, I’m telling them to take it back. Why do cable companies make things so frustrating? Anyway. I got the box so that I could do other things–like write–and not worry if I’m going to miss my favorite shows. That’s it.

I’ve been working on refining and developing my writing lately. The biggest commitment, though, for me is to actually get past myself and start actually writing. I mean, I do bits here and there, but I’d really like to stop procrastinating and get down to working on a full length novel. It’s up to me to do it. Because, hell, nobody else is going to do it for me Same goes for other parts of my life. I need to live. I need to do.

Now, with all this procrastination out of the way, I might be able to get something done. Like write all those reviews for TV-Reviewed.com. Sorry about that Jim! I’ll get right to it.

This entry is short because I’m doing this from work

Not that anybody’s reading…but I got the Polk Audio Soundbar installed this weekend in its temporary location on the TV stand. I was surprised by how good it actually does sound–no lie. The sound does seem to wrap around you. The only problem is that you really do have to have the speaker up higher to get the full effect, I think, which is no problem for me because I’m going to mount it on the wall beneath the TV. I think the next thing I’m going to do–before I get the rest of the speakers and larger TV–is buy a Blu-Ray player. Right now, it’s between the Pioneer BDP-51FD and the Panasonic DMK-BD60K.

I like the Pioneer because it has 1GB built-in memory for the BD-Live as well as the ability to use external USB flash drives. Whereas the Panasonic has no built-in memory and only supports SD cards. But, it has the cool new Vieracast feature–where you can watch Youtube and other online content without the use of a computer. Still, the new Panasonic plasmas have the same feature, and if I get one of those, I’ll still have that function. Other than that, the two models are very similiar with the same load times and other features. Yet, I got to say the Pioneer looks nicer…

I’ve decided to update my home theater system, starting with the speakers. For three years now I’ve had a small but decent MTX surround sound system. Basically, it’s four small satellites, a small center channel speaker, and a sub-woofer. The sub, even though 8″, can really pump out some bass for its size. Now, however, I want to go up to something a little more sophisticated–this has lead me to a unique solution to my strangely-shaped living room/great room.

I’ve decided to go with a so-called sound bar for the front left and right and center channel speakers. It also has built-in rear surrounds, but I won’t be using them. The idea of the sound bar is to replace five speakers with one. It’s supposed to give the illusion of surround sound. Now, before you yell at me for believing that bullshit, let me explain.

The sound bar I chose is from Polk Audio–who make some of the best speakers you can…afford. It has a large “sound stage”, meaning that it sounds “big.” That’s the idea. It has more of a dynamic sound that seems to spread out in front of you. Still, though, you need something for the back and something for the bass. For now, I’m keeping my MTX sub hooked up to give some oomph on the low end. Of course, I’ll eventually replace it with a larger Polk sub, probably a 10″. In the back I’m going to go with a pair of dipolar Polk satellites. Again, the dipolar speakers have a larger spread; they send sound out in two directions instead of one, producing a more immersive effect.

This system is going to be primarily for movies, since that’s what I use my system for now. I like that big sound. The other reason I’m doing this sort of setup is the circumstances of my house’s design. The living room is long and narrow and open on one side to the kitchen. Furniture placement has always been awkward. Right now, everything is centered in the middle of the space, because of where the TV is located. I can’t put the TV on either of the end walls, so it’s in the middle. Why? Because, on one end is the door to the back deck, which would cut off running wires easily to rear speakers, unless I wanted to run them in front of the door or under the house–not going to happen. On the opposite wall are two 70’s-ish glass niches; no idea what the previous homeowners displayed there, I now use them for storing my DVDs. They’re in the way, though.

Many of the websites I’ve looked at recommend placing the speakers up high, so that it’s harder to locate where the sound is coming from when watching a movie, and it gives a larger, more immersive sound stage. Of course, that’s not really an option for me. I’ve read, though, that dipolar surrounds are a good solution if you have to place the satellites close to the listening area. Hence the reason that’s what I’m going to do.

The Polk Audio sound bar is a significant speaker, too. It’s basically looks like a giant center channel speaker. It’s 42″ long, longer than my current television, and is designed to be placed above or below the TV, on either the provided cradle or the provided wall mount. I intend on mounting it below the television, which I’m going to mount on the wall as well.

Television-wise I’m probably going to replace my current 42″ 720p Panasonic plasma with a new 50″ 1080p Panasonic plasma. Then, I’m going to get a blu-ray player and possibly a new receiver as well. For the blu-ray player it’s between the Panasonic or the Pioneer. Both are great players, but the Pioneer has 1GB of built-in memory, plus the capability to use USB flash drives–great for the BD-Live functions; the Panasonic only has a SD memory slot. SD can’t hold as much.

You know, I’ve heard about writers coming up with like ideas independently. Honestly, I never really thought about it too much–That is until I realized it’s happened to me! That’s right. One of the main ideas I’ve been working on for a long time…Well, another writer has already done a similiar story. And it’s hard to get mad at him, too, when it’s a damned good story. Plus, it was completely an independent endeavor. The weird thing, though, is that his influences are similiar to mine–I.E. similiar (or some of the same) authors. Here, let me lay it down for you.

Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn is the work I’ll be referring to. It’s a great book. I hadn’t even heard of it when I started on my project because–guess what–it wasn’t even out yet! In fact, the only way I found out about it was the fact that Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. Yeah. Which, oddly enough, I’m a big fan of Robert Jordan’s work. In fact, the particular project of mine that’s so similiar to Mistborn was influenced by one of Jordan’s Conan works. I’ll admit that. Makes me wonder if Sanderson didn’t read the same story and go: Damn, what if this, what if that?

OK. So, let me talk about the similiarities and then the differences.

• The protagonist of Mistborn is a female thief at the start of the story. Mine is too.
• She’s a bastard and an orphan. Same.
• Has an older more experienced male mentor help her learn how to use her magic abilities. Same.
• She’s unusually strong in her power. Same.
• She’s involved in a big thieving/mercenary job. Same.

Okay. Now, let me talk about the differences.

• He has created a complex magic system based on the use of various metals. I don’t.
• My world is completely different culturally and politically and geographically.
• My magic system is different except for one part, which irritates me the most. Every metal in Allomancy has a different purpose. Well, the rarest, Atium, does exactly what I had in mind for a major part of my magic system: It let’s you see “a bit” into the future to see what somebody’s going to do before they do it. You can then telegraph that person’s moves. It works just like what I had in mind for my sages!

Anyway. Now, I feel the need to make major changes. Good thing I have a back up plan. The magic though is what’s going to be a big factor. As I need to do something different but yet still interesting. The source of my magic is still going to be a big rock that fell from the sky called the One’s Tear. There’s actually some interesting, I think, behind-the-scenes facts about the One’s Tear, which I won’t release here, that make my story really, really different from Mistborn. But, my main character has to change now, because she’s too similiar as you can see.

Sometimes you just have to laugh at how the media and government can sugarcoat things. Last night, on the Colbert Report, Colbert nailed something that was sort of ironic. With the recent pirate attack on the Alabama Maersk, which, thankfully, ended with the captain walking out alive. But, let’s talk about HOW that happened.

I’m not against using special forces, like the Navy Seals, to do rescue operations, and I’m not against the use of deadly force where needed. But, let’s face, deadly force WAS used to free the captain of the Alabama Maersk. Three of the pirates–while thugs who would have no doubt killed the captain sooner or later–were killed. Well, they were actually sniped, if you will. They didn’t know what was coming

But, the point is, as Colbert noted, people WERE hurt, just not on ours–thankfully. I’m not sure who said it…But, somebody said (in the media, I believe), “And nobody was hurt.” That was after the operation had succeeded. Colbert said, “Unless you call a bullet to the head not being hurt.” LOL That cracked me up.

Pirates. Scum. Ha! It’s true. But, let’s not sugarcoat the fact that we–I mean, our guys–double-tapped three of them. Three pirates whose brains got splattered. I’m not being morbid, here. I’m just telling the truth of it, because anything less is just freaking silly.