Grazing Rites

An interesting thought occurred to me while watching Studio 60 today…

What would a Star Trek TV show created by Aaron Sorkin look like?

Other than, you know, pure unrivaled awesomeness.

The vocalist always gets first pick.

And now I present today’s Jimmy Shaker Day…
“I strongly encourage everybody who has the ability to commit this to film and posterity that should happen because as I said on my blog if it doesn’t I honestly don’t know why we fought the Spanish-American war”.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=9wbhT9gOwEk

I challenge you to find something funnier.

Ha. I didn’t think so.

There you have it, Wil Wheaton making the internet better one day at a time.

I want to go to Comicon because playing Rock Band with Wil Wheaton really would make anyone’s life complete.

It looks to me like a little something for everyone (except deficit hawks but how many of those do we have in Canada?) in an effort to prop up a government that has lost the confidence of the House and the people and distract from their attempt to destroy all other political parties a few weeks back.

Personally I suspect this new budget will actually be a bit of a boon for me and my family.

It includes tax cuts to low and middle income earners with an increase in personal tax exemption and raising the threshold for the 2 lowest personal income tax brackets.

(They keep using the word “personal”; I hope this still applies if we file jointly which we plan to do for the first time this year)

They haven’t released all the details but they also mentioned raising phase-out levels for National Child Benefit and Canada Child Tax Benefit so if that means some of our government funding for daycare gets restored/increased, well, I’ll be ready to do cartwheels. And maybe book a vacation. Seriously, daycare is easily our second largest expense after rent. Anything that puts a substantial dent in daycare costs, say a couple hundred dollars, would allow Mindi to pay off her debt, allow me to rebuild my crumbling savings, and then let us start serious car shopping.

Paying off debt, rebuilding savings, buying a car, going on vacation – these are all good for the economy which, it turns out, is now officially in a recession in Canada. So at least when it comes to my family the changes will do what they are intended for – generating economic activity. I know, paying off debt is the opposite of that but the money is owed to my mom and not a bank so it isn’t changing a balance sheet; it’s putting money back in the hands of another member of my family who will likely spend or invest it.

But is this enough to buy me off and make me forget what the Conservatives tried to do in December? Thankfully I’m not the one who has to decide. I suppose an ideal outcome for me personally would be for the budget to pass but then have the government fall on a non-confidence vote immediately thereafter. I get my presents and a coalition government or election that way.

I guess we’ll see but now it feels somewhat like a win-win scenario for me personally no matter which way this thing goes. Of course it’s still too early for me to even have a preliminary impression of how our tax filing would go this year anyways so my vantage point could yet be skewed.

The speech was powerful, here are my favorite excerpts:

“We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders”

“We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.”

“Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.”

“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.”

And now I present my Top 5 quotes from President Obama’s (God, it feels good to say that) Inaugural speech:

#5 “Because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself”

#4 “Our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please”

#3 “To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”

#2 “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”

#1 “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals”

But for those of you who prefer visuals, here’s my favorite picture from the inauguration:

Rahm says bye to Bush

There’s too much to say and you’re likely to hear it everywhere anyways so I would just like to take a moment to point something out.

On January 3rd 2008, well over a year ago, on this very blog I wrote in an entry titled Iowa: What’s At Stake For Democrats “Barack Obama: Beat Clinton and you’re the president”.

It’s so hard to choose between ‘I told you so’ and ‘I called it!’

This was a rather unremarkable Bond film in my opinion. It generally felt more like a Bourne Identity movie than a Bond flick given its focus on close-quarters combat and the directorial style. Personally I found this to be, while having a somewhat complicated plot, less intelligent than your average Bond film. It seemed to more often than not come down to who could punch harder and faster rather than who could outwit the other or who was better prepared which in my mind were hallmarks of a Bond film.

I understand that they wanted to go in a different direction with Daniel Craig’s Bond and I can appreciate them wanting to get away from the puns and not wanting to rely too heavily on the gadgets but I think making Bond such a physical person takes away from the suave charisma of Bond. Bond would pun because he had outwitted someone or had planned so far ahead that it was almost funny when he defeated the bad guys – I think they could have done away with the puns but kept the intellectual side of Bond.

Usually Bond was the coolest guy in the room, not because of how he looked or dressed (although that didn’t hurt) but rather because he was informed, prepared, and confident but when Craig’s Bond is perpetually chasing and fighting people it’s hard not to come off as a little frantic. And Craig’s performance…it’s almost unfair to other actors to call it a performance. He fights and says his lines but it’s like Craig was trying to keep so stoic and avoid every pitfall of every previous Bond he ended up making no decisions and barely reacting to anything. He could be looking at someone and be falling in love, planning their death, or thinking they’re hilarious and his face would look the same. Perhaps that was a choice Craig or the director made but frankly I find a Bond this stoic and stone-faced to be forgettable and boring. Frankly it came off as lazy.

Now I know Bond means a lot of different things to a lot of different people so let me assure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

The Sunday Times said “Bond has been stripped of his iconic status. He no longer represents anything particularly British, or even modern. In place of glamour, we get a spurious grit; instead of style…”

The Guardian said “Quantum of Solace isn’t as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig’s Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action.”

Roger Ebert said “James Bond is not an action hero! He is too good for that. He is an attitude. Violence for him is an annoyance…The chase, with Bond under constant machinegun fire, is so quickly cut and so obviously composed of incomprehensible CGI that we’re essentially looking at bright colors bouncing off each other, intercut with Bond at the wheel…I didn’t count, but I think M has more dialogue than 007…Greene could get useful security tips from Wal-Mart. There is no Q in “Quantum of Solace,” except in the title. No Miss Moneypenny at all…This Bond, he doesn’t bring much to the party. Daniel Craig can play suave and he can be funny and Brits are born doing double entendre. Craig is a fine actor. Here they lock him down. I repeat: James Bond is not an action hero! Leave the action to your Jason Bournes.”

I rest my case.

If you ever played a game on the NES and became frustrated by something that seemed a result of poor game design then you have got to check this guy out.

Warning: Extreme language and childish humour may occur…frequently and repeatedly.

http://www.cinemassacre.com/new/?page_id=13

Enjoy.

As mentioned previously having a kickass vacation this year is one of my new year’s resolutions. One I really hope to keep one way or another. It’s early in the year but I got a message on TripAdvisor the other day asking for advice about getting discount Wayne Brady tickets so I guess that got the ball rolling in my head. Where will I go? When? With whom? For what purpose?

I do hear Orlando calling me back. Warm sunny humid days…running to the Red Lobster next to the hotel in the rain…walking almost everywhere…an IHOP practically in the lobby of the hotel…Sleuths…Wet N Wild in our back yard…

Anaheim is also a tempting destination. Dry sunny days…walking the CityWalk at Universal Studios…doing Disneyland in 2 hours…Six Flags…The Tonight Show…

Las Vegas is likely to be cheap. Walking the strip in the sun…outstanding performances…impossible buildings doing impossible things…gondola ride…famous people…dressing up…dancing… But there’s something that doesn’t seem quite right about going to the same place 2 years in a row. Not that I’d say no to the opportunity mind you, it just wouldn’t be my first choice for 2009. 2010 maybe, depends when The Experience is reborn.

San Francisco could be fun. Sitting on the dock of the bay…Six Flags…chocolate factories… the Golden Gate Bridge…

I’m not particularly feeling any pull towards Edmonton or Europe this year but Toronto could be nice…Niagara Falls…the CN Tower…

I guess wherever I go I stand a better than even chance of enjoying some Hard Rock Café.

Perhaps I shouldn’t let the destination drive the planning, I’ve had 2 fantastic vacations largely inspired by concerts: Las Vegas in 2008 to see James Darren and Seattle and Las Vegas in 2006 to see the Pet Shop Boys.

Speaking of which the release dates for the upcoming Pet Shop Boys album and single have been released; the album Yes comes out March 23rd and the single Love Etc drops March 16th. I’m sure they’d want to have a huge world tour to promote the new album. I think we proved the west coast loves PSB back in 2006 but even if they don’t make it out this way I’d be willing to travel to the east coast to see them. Overseas might be where I draw the line – for one thing if I didn’t I’d be doing that every year…well for a couple years until I was flat broke anyways. Going to Europe once or somewhere domestic for 3 or more times is a hell of a trade-off.

Depeche Mode is advertising something called Tour of the Universe 2009 on their website. Thankfully they almost always include a stop in Vancouver on their tours so I probably won’t have to worry about travelling to see them. Although I should make sure not to plan my vacation for when they’re here – that’s just crazy. I want to introduce more people to the religious experience that is a Depeche Mode concert; currently only European dates have been announced. My days of missing Depeche Mode concerts in Vancouver are OVER.

James Darren has updated his website to remove the 2008 dates (yea, both of them) and it now says “New Dates Coming Soon”.

I think I need to accept that I’m not likely to see Hootie again live anytime soon – unless I win some kind of see-any-concert-you-want contest in which case my response will likely be “Morning after the Masters, bitches!” I refuse to explain that one until I win this contest I just imagined.

Roadtrips are also quite welcome. I’m still hoping to make it to the Rainforest Café in Seattle sometime this spring perhaps but that’d just be a mini-break not the main show. Currently I’m trying to convince Jon to rent a car and go down for a weekend for his birthday.

There are so many variables. I think I’ll begin to stalk PSB, James Darren, and Depeche Mode on the internet to see what their tour plans become while I try to secure long-term (5 or 7 days or more) babysitting and push (read: guilt trip and blackmail if necessary) Jon into making some vacation time available and we’ll see what that mix produces.

Given that I still need to repay $1,200 into my savings I wouldn’t expect any announcements any time soon. I haven’t even picked up Rock Band 2 yet.

I suppose a best case scenario would be a road trip to Anaheim with Jon and Mindi including a Pet Shop Boys concert all dirt-cheap. I won’t hold my breath for that particular outcome.

So I just got upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007 at work and I have some mixed feelings about the whole thing.

Outlook 2007: This is a slight improvement. More information is squeezed into the same space but clearly enough and somewhat usefully. Customization is as easy as with 2003.

Excel 2007: Fantastic. You can learn the ribbon in seconds and then you’re off to the races. Improved functionality and ease of access of tools (once you figure out where everything is) will save you tons of time. A big part of my job just got a lot easier – although continue reading to find out why I think other parts just became an enormous headache.

Word 2007: I suppose everything comes at a price and what they did to Word was just wrong. It’s a pain in the rectum to customize this beast. The ribbon works great for something like Excel when you have tons of features you need at your fingertips but soon as you see the new Word you just want to simplify the whole damn thing but it isn’t about to let you do that. No, this is post-iPod Microsoft when a pretty interface is more important than user control. Although I’m not sure that’s much worse than pre-iPod post-iMac Microsoft when so-called ‘user-friendliness’ was more important than user control. Why does it seem like Microsoft policy and philosophy is increasingly being driven by whatever Apple is doing? Let Apple be for the people who want pretty things without too much thinking and let Microsoft serve the masses happy with complete control and functionality at the cost of a little learning. The bastards just need to let me right-click and tell stuff to go the hell away and STAY away unless I expressly ask for it to return cause I’m the user goddamn it and you should bloody well listen to what I say not what your freaking marketing department tells you, you mindless sons of…

Okay, got a little carried away there. Microsoft will do that to you, especially if you remember a Windows OS that was built on DOS. You know, back in the good ol’ days when whatever else went wrong, at least you knew where to sucker-punch the thing. Like when the damn paperclip wouldn’t die so you found its image files and deleted the little bastard’s face. I still remember how good that felt.

Calibri: This is the new default font with this version of Office and while it does look very nice I find it sometimes difficult to see the spaces. The subtle difference between no space, one space, and two spaces can be hard to distinguish. Probably only bothers people with my particular brand of OCD.

So overall while I am absolutely in love with the new Excel and can see some slight new usefulness in the new Outlook, the serious issues with Word are keeping me from upgrading the home PC. Perhaps once Word 2007 and I get to know each other a little better (read: I find out where to punch it to make it do my bidding) then I’ll see about upgrading the desktop on the home front. I think the primary mistake Microsoft made here was assuming that what made sense for Excel must also make sense for Word but seriously, if that was the case they’d be the same damn program rather than separate applications. Microsoft understands that Outlook is different, why force Word to conform to an inconvenient standard while Outlook gets tailored to its specific needs?

I’ve decided to let the genie out of the bottle and tell you all about my favorite restaurant of all time. It actually has about 6 different names and multiple business streams including fine French-Italian dining (La Rustica & La Lorraine), a tapas bar, a heritage house built in 1894, a travel agency, and a casual dining restaurant (La Spaghetteria).

My father actually discovered this restaurant when he came to see my graduation with my brother. Back then we went to the fine dining side with ninja-like waiters. Seriously, my brother knocked over a glass of milk and before the glass hit the table the response team was already half-done. Don’t be surprised if your water magically refills itself if you, you know, blink. But with meals in the $50+ range this really is for special occasions but if you do have a special occasion I promise you won’t be disappointed.

But the real story, and indeed what should be the strength of any restaurant, is the food. Now the entire restaurant is served by the same kitchen so you can go to the casual side and enjoy the same food at nearly half the price. But that’s not all – you can get a $10 coupon if you have an Entertainment Book (or use just your Entertainment Card on the fine dining side) or even if you don’t have an Entertainment Book there is a $10 coupon on their website that they’ll even personalize for you! http://www.laspaghetteria.com/?q=coupon

The food would be a steal at twice the price. They make the best tortellini I’ve had in my life. Some of the best Margaritas I’ve ever had were there. Last year my semi-surprise Birthday dinner was held there and everyone present were absolutely blown away by the food. Not a single guest had a critical thing to say.

Even the bread is fantastic. I’m not big on balsamic vinaigrette but at this place you better watch your fingers when it’s out if I’m around. The desserts are fantastic what few I’ve had, the portions are so significant and filling it’s almost a mission to make it to dessert with enough room to continue.

The service, while not ninja-level on the casual side, is still very warm and the experience and charm of the staff is impressive and welcoming. The speed at which your food arrives will make your head spin.

A full meal for 2 people even with drinks should be less than $50 with the coupon even after tip – fine Italian food and a little old world charm doesn’t come more reasonably priced than that and I challenge anyone to find a place that can match their quality of product.

Located on 6th Street near 3rd Avenue in New Westminster, just a few blocks up the street from The Standard, I highly recommend you check it out – it’s an easy and affordable cure to the winter blues.

I went last weekend and I’ve already planned what I’m having there this Saturday night!

So while I did enjoy the first 2 hours of Day 7 I have to admit they were a little on the sedate side for the first 2 episodes of a season of 24. I mean, let’s compare:

(Warning: Spoilers follow. If you plan on catching up on 24 do not continue reading. I’m talking to you Jon. Seriously, that jackass hasn’t even watched season 4 yet which is only about the best season ever.)

Day 1: A plane blows up and Jack’s boss gets killed.
Day 2: Jack shoots a federal witness in the chest and then cuts off his head.
Day 3: A body infected with a super-deadly virus is dropped off at the hospital.
Day 4: A train blows up, Jack shoots a suspect in the leg, and the Secretary of Defense is kidnapped.
Day 5: An ex-president and an ex-CTU director are assassinated.
Day 6: Jack stops a bomb on a subway and discovers the president’s been double-crossed.
Day 7: Two planes almost crash but don’t, a sniper kills a semi-bad guy, Tony is captured.

So I guess I would place the first 2 hours of Day 7 above Days 3 and 6 but below the rest.

Now that said, I’ve got a bead on what’s happening tonight and it looks pretty good.  Remember the fourth hour of Day 6 had that season’s holy-crap-I-have-to-watch-the-whole-season-even-if-I’ve-never-seen-this-show-before moment. So the holy-crap moment of the premiere may very well be coming tonight.

But part of me wonders what if it doesn’t? What if they’re now just playing to the fans? With an average first-run audience of somewhere between 12 and 14 million viewers in the US alone, do they even need to try and bring new people in?

Anyways, clearly the primary plot is all about Tony. If you don’t really know (and love!) who Tony is, the relevance and dramatic weight of everything that’s happened so far might be somewhat lost on you. So let me try to bring you up to speed on what’s going on so that in case you’ve never seen 24 before (and might I ask what the hell is wrong with you if you haven’t?) you should be able to jump right in tonight.

(Jon: Are you still reading? Knock it off. Seriously, this post will still be here after you watch season 4. At least finish episode 7 of Day 4 before continuing for the love of God. I can’t be held responsible for what happens if you keep reading before watching that episode. It’s freaking beautiful and if you keep reading you’ll just be crapping all over it)

Jack used to be Tony’s boss at CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) and there was tension and resentment between the two over similar romantic interests and differing views on how to handle certain situations. Eventually both are betrayed by the same woman but a personal tragedy makes Jack resign.  Tony works hard and eventually takes over Jack’s old job and falls in love with a woman under his command named Michelle. Michelle and Tony marry but when Michelle is taken hostage by terrorists Tony commits treason to save her. Subsequently Tony loses his job, goes to jail only to be bailed out by Jack, and develops a drinking problem that causes him to separate from his wife. Jack offers what assistance he can but Tony’s in no mood to receive help from anyone.

(Jon: Okay seriously, stop reading now. This isn’t funny anymore.)

Then Jack gets stuck, surrounded by terrorists, his girlfriend at his side, completely without ammunition or a hope and he knows there’s only one man he can trust, only one man he can call. Jack’s hiding, the terrorists are about to find him, he’s holding his empty gun by the barrel futilely preparing to defend himself with the butt of his gun and precious little else against insurmountable odds when 2 shots ring out and it’s Tony, the man who was convinced he had nothing to live for. Jack not only bends over backwards to help him but gives Tony a good kick in the ass for his own good while moving heaven and earth to get Tony reinstated. Tony slowly begins to regain his old confidence and even manages to put his marriage back together all largely because of Jack’s help. Tony and Michelle leave government work altogether and start up their own security company and for a time things are better than ever for them. Until Michelle is assassinated by a bomb meant for both of them. Tony narrowly escapes with his life but is severely injured and later that day is killed by the man responsible, Christopher Henderson, via some kind of injection. Tony dies in Jack’s arms – his last words are “she’s gone”, referring to Michelle. Jack breaks down into uncontrollable sobbing. Tony is quickly carted away.

Now a series of technology thefts have lead the FBI to believe that Tony is alive and leading a terrorist group. Jack doesn’t believe it but has been convinced that somehow Tony is alive. He and an FBI agent have just apprehended him.

The following takes place between 10am and…

After far too long a wait, it’s finally here. Day 7 of 24 begins tonight at 8pm. 2 episodes tonight, 2 tomorrow. I’ve been waiting for this for over a year and a half. If you’re current on 24 you better plant yourself in front of a TV tonight and if you’re not caught up you best be getting to it. A full season of 24 takes about 16 hours to watch without commercials. As someone once said, when something’s important you make the time.

If you see any other movie before Mall Cop comes out, you’re an idiot.

Seriously, it’s fantastic. Great, wonderful, terrific. Clint Eastwood is brilliant. The dialogue is inspired. The supporting cast all do excellent jobs with the exception of one specific moment. Other than that one moment this movie could not have been better. I’m not one to talk about the Academy Awards but this thing deserves to win big.

If you want comedy, go see this film. You want drama? Go see this film. Want to see a good movie? Go see this film. Have 2 hours to spare and $15 or 1,000 Scene points? Go see this film.

2 Days ago…

So I finally got the HDMI cables and hooked up the blu-ray player, I got half way through First Contact (which looked fantastic) when it froze. Now all I get is this error whenever I try to put any disc in:

Disc Error
– Please eject the disc.–
Playback feature may not be available on this Disc.

So angry!

Today…

So I was wicked sick yesterday so other than firing off an e-mail to tech support I didn’t do anything. Today I come home and the kid hits the power button on the blu-ray player so I figure I’ll see if the error has magically gone away and sure enough it seems to be working fine now. I plan to put it through it’s paces (i.e watch a crapload of DVDs) to see if I can get the error to return because if this is going to be a returning or intermittent problem I want to know now while I can still return/exchange/repair under warranty.

So I got to try Red Steel at 480p on the new 32″ LCD widescreen today. Not only did it look better but it became much easier to play, quite a bit more fun too actually. It was much easier to see and follow what was going on and control became much more discrete. At points it started to remind me of Time Crisis, one of my all-time favorite arcade games. I wonder what multiplayer will be like…

Short enough post for ya?

I seriously considered writing about the damned snow but why get myself all riled up when I have a new toy at home?

She arrived on Friday despite having a projected delivery date of the following Monday (today) so I got to enjoy my new TV over the weekend. On the way home from work Friday I swung by Best Buy to get some component cables for the Wii, they were only $20 and going from composite to component is going from the lowest quality signal to the highest for the Wii. I could have gotten some HDMI cables as well but the lowest price place was out of stock and the second lowest price place more inconvenient and does not provide stock information so I may have gone out of my way, waited in line, and ultimately discovered them to be unavailable so I just decided to wait. Besides, I got a new TV and new cables for the Wii plus the PS2 – surely that would be plenty to enjoy for a few days if not weeks. And of course there’s my digital TV which I could upgrade from coax to composite but I figure a) the signal comes into the house via coax and b) the quality differential of coax versus composite is negligible as far as I’m concerned so why bother upgrading the cabling? I’ll do that when I get around to upgrading to HD cable – I hoping maybe in a year or so.

So first off I checked out the TV on the new set. At first I was unimpressed but that was largely because I was standing right next to the bloody thing. Once I sat my ass down on the couch it started to look pretty good. The larger screen size is a great improvement of course but image quality is important too. Cartoons like The Simpsons look pretty phenomenal and it’s easier to follow hockey now, particularly the fights – I found it quite the challenge to keep track of who was hitting whom on my 20” CRT but on the 32” LCD it was clear as day. I did quickly find myself less interested in TV shows and movies that were not in widescreen, they seemed a little silly but I’m slowly getting used to the black bars on the sides. And non-standard aspect ratios now officially drive me mad. I generally don’t watch movies I own on DVD when they’re on television but in the past I did on rare occasion but now I wouldn’t consider it for a moment.

Next I tested out the Wii with the new component cables – I went for the cheap knock-off cables so they didn’t fit that easily when plugged into the TV but I made it work. Then I set the Wii to widescreen and boy did it look great. Being the master of irony that I am the first thing I did was load up the original Super Mario Bros and let me tell you I’ve never seen that game look so good; the rich colours, the blue of the sky…absolutely fantastic. I had wondered if I would see the difference between composite and component but it was very striking. Aside from Red Steel which I have yet to try on the new TV I figured the Wii game that would most benefit from the larger screen would be Mario Kart Wii which I tried next. It made such a huge improvement that I was able to get 3 cups that had previously eluded my best efforts, and I didn’t even have to try that hard for the most part. I look forward to trying out and potentially replaying all of my Wii games on the new setup, everything is just so much more crisp and vibrant plus being able to see more and more clearly can only be an advantage.

Then for fun I thought I’d try out the PS2, really just to check the connection. I played a little Star Trek: Encounters but by then I had been spoiled by the Wii and despite the improvement I was somewhat unimpressed.

Then I remembered that PS2s can play DVDs. I had removed my DVD player in anticipation of hooking up the blu-ray player but I wasn’t going to go to all the work of hooking the blu-ray up on some inferior connection just to do it all over again when I get the HDMI cables. So I popped Star Trek VI into the PS2 and watched the whole thing in awe of the quality. Then I moved on to other classics I hadn’t watched in awhile: Star Trek Generations, some episodes of 24 and Firefly, Nothing To Lose, and I, Robot. High on my list of things yet to watch would be First Contact for the fight with the Borg, the Enterprise episode Azati Prime for some sweet explosive decompression, and of course the Star Wars films. I want to and surely will re-watch almost every DVD I own – on my old TV I didn’t always notice much of a quality difference between broadcast TV and DVDs and I had those DVDs playing on a dedicated player with an S-Video hook-up but the PS2 with a composite hookup made those movies and shows look better than I’ve ever seen them. And I saw most of them in theatres so that’s really saying something.

In fact I may just re-watch all of my DVDs twice – once now on the PS2 with the composite hookup and then again on the blu-ray with up-conversion once I get the HDMI cables. I can’t even imagine how great they’ll look then and I haven’t even begun to think about what the actual blu-ray discs will look like. T2 is patiently waiting for the shakedown cruise.

I, as usual, am perfectly content to enjoy each step up the ladder of quality.

I don’t want to oversell this TV but it really is life-altering. I’m spending less time on the computer now (its HDMI hookup is also pending). I want to watch TV and DVDs from the couch or the bed the way it’s meant to be seen rather than at an angle from the computer chair (not that it doesn’t look pretty awesome from there too!). In fact the prospect of being snowed in at home isn’t nearly as irritating as it was before the new TV, although having to truck through unholy amounts of the crap to get to work becomes proportionally more aggravating as a result. In the long run this could conceivably save us money as staying in at home is a much more appealing option now than it used to be. Also games being easier on the Wii and PS2 doesn’t hurt my aggravation levels either. And there’s some great new TV on the horizon with Hustle and 24 returning after an absence of far too long plus new Big Bang Theory and Torchwood episodes as well – hockey playoffs should also be more exciting this year now that we’ll be able to see everything that’s happening.

I look forward to showing off my new setup to friends and family although perhaps I should hold off on that some until I get everything hooked up just right. It seems there are rampaging hordes looking forward to a demonstration of full-quality blu-ray goodness. One person in particular seems to be calling almost daily to see if the blu-ray is up and running yet.

To quote Jon, I feel the jealousy growing within you.

Yes is expected in stores in March.

March 23rd is the provisional release date.

Here is the track listing:
1. Love etc.
2. All over the world
3. Beautiful people
4. Did you see me coming?
5. Vulnerable
6. More than a dream
7. Building a wall
8. King of Rome
9. Pandemonium
10. The way it used to be
11. Legacy

I’m ever-so-excited. 2009 looks like it could be a good year.

There, a short entry for those of you complaining of recent loquaciousness.