After all these years, I finally got my HDTV. Oddly enough, it hasn’t truly hit me yet. You would think that I would be dancing around, giddy like a little schoolgirl. It would be within the realm of possibility that I would do that, and justifiably so. I’ve absolutely salivated over the thought. Instead, I’ve been pretty chill about the entire purchase. I think it’s partly because I haven’t truly had an opportunity to enjoy it very much. I should explain. We’ve had a busy few days, so my mind has been elsewhere.

• For the past week, I’ve been working in Delaware and staying at my sister’s house.
• Work has been generally pretty busy.
• We have my friend Paul staying over next weekend (July 4th weekend.)
• On July 4th itself, we’re hosting a large BBQ summer party at our little abode, so we’re in preparation for that.
• We’re in the midst of decluttering, and have been tossing out all the old stuff, and organizing the house a little bit better.
• I’ve been having trouble configuring the new Pioneer AV receiver. [More on that later.]

With all that going on, who has free time to sit on the couch and vegetate? Not us. I think televisions are fine, but my life stopped revolving around it years ago. What I do think is that when I DO get to sit in front of it, I like it. I watched Star Wars: A New Hope Sunday morning with Josh & Lily. It was something else to see all the visual detail that I’d never noticed before. I also watched a bit of the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game, and that was picture perfect bummer of a result. I played a little Uncharted 2, and the game went from nice vista to panoramic beauty.

On Friday morning, I woke up at 4:30am, and began to put the tv stand together. The AV receiver has been sitting here since last Saturday, and I was expecting to move the old Sony tv and stand to someone’s house. The tv was scheduled to come Saturday, and I wanted a headstart to get the new stand up, and the packaging bagged and thrown out. It took me about four hours to put the stand together. On a tangent, if I could go back in time, I’d invent the Allen wrench. It’s as if the entire slate of Chinese-manufactured products are required to be built with Allen wrenches. I can not tell you how many months of my life so far have been spent putting together some piece of furniture with an Allen wrench. And dowels. And those annoying bolts that you have to stick into one of those round things in a hole, and twist and lock that bolt in. You know what I’m talking about. Anyway, occasionally, I used a Philips screwdriver as needed, but towards the end, I did have to switch to my Black & Decker cordless screwdriver, which was a big help.

I finished assembling the stand around 9am, which was good, because I had to switch over to doing work. Good timing, eh? I think I’m getting better at putting furniture together after all these years. In the evening, one of Namita’s friends came over to pick up our old 32″ Sony Wega tv and stand. We put that heavy tv in my Highlander, and loaded the stand in her car. Josh wanted to come along, so I belted him in, and we then drove to Princeton to move it all into her apartment. It was heavy, but she was pretty happy. And it was free, since we couldn’t find a buyer. In 2010, everybody wants an HDTV, not a clunky, heavy, SDTV. On the way back, we picked up some Papa John’s and wings for dinner at home for the whole family.

On Saturday afternoon, I moved the old AV rack, and old Onkyo receiver and 6-disc DVD players into storage in our basement. I moved the stand into place, and put all our current devices into their respective spaces. The tv delivery guys from Ceva arrived in the late afternoon, unboxed the tv, assembled the stand, and turned it on for me to verify all was in order. Below is a picture of the new setup, until we re-arrange the rest of the living room. I have mixed feelings about no longer using the old Onkyo DVD player and receiver as they’ve served us well since I purchasing in Nov 2003. Unfortunately, the only reason driving my decision is that neither was compatible with HD. I’m happy that my PS3 plays Blu-rays and upscales DVDs well. For now, I don’t need another Blu-ray player, and that means one less device that I have to buy.

We were busy the rest of the weekend with kid birthday parties and more shopping, but I was a little frustrated with getting the new Pioneer receiver working properly. I did the automatic setup (with the included microphone), but I could tell that the 5.1 surround features weren’t working. It kept defaulting to Stereo, and I couldn’t get the subwoofer to go from Standby to On. It should turn on if the receiver tells it to. Late Sunday night, I read most of the thick VSX-1020-K manual, and played with the HDMI connections via trial-and-error. Eureka! The subwoofer’s little light changed from Standby red to Green On, and I could hear a little bass now.

I’ve also noticed a slight buzz with this G25. If you stick your head behind it or have the surround sound on low, I can hear the slightly perceptible buzz. It’s probably not a dealbreaker, but I thought I should notice it. It’s very reminiscent of a flourescent bulb. I’m wondering if it’s just because I’m in the break-in period on the set? I’ll wait out the two weeks, adjust the display settings (color, brightness, etc.) and review the results.

The new AV setup

Finally, just to note, I’m currently kicking myself for miscounting the number of HDMI and digital optical cables I needed. I had ordered them last week through Amazon for outstanding prices at less than $7 each, but found out that I needed one more of each. I considered running out to Best Buy, but the brick-and-mortar big-box retailers charge 4x the amount. I decided to order from Amazon again, and just wait until Tuesday. In the meantime, if we want to watch movies / play games , or watch television, I have to switch the cables to different inputs. By Tuesday, this should all be better. We renewed our Amazon Prime membership again this year, and I’m very pleased. When this type of situation like the need for additional occurs, it’s not too bad. I can order more stuff, and am not penalized by additional shipping fees. It’s all paid for, and it gets here in just two days. It’s a win-win-win situation.

This week, I’m working in Delaware, but I don’t have an available hotel room. Crazy, right? I considered driving back and forth every day, as it’s about a 1:45 drive each way. I am already accustomed to my regular 1:15 commute, so enduring an extra 30 mins of highway driving isn’t outside the realm of possibility. In the end, my sister offered to let me stay with them for a few days in South Jersey. I was happy, as it saved me a good hour off my commute, and I could hang out with them for at least 2-3 nights.

Now, on to the movie review. Wednesday night, we all decided to catch the late showing of A-Team. If you haven’t heard, this is the latest 2010 remake of 70′s & 80′s entertainment properties. Now, I grew up in the 80′s getting my weekly fix of the A-Team. Who didn’t love Hannibal, Face, B.A., and Howlin’ Mad Murdock?

A-Team (2010)

Coincidentally, I recently caught a viewing of the pilot episode, which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen. I had no clue that Dirk Benedict was not the first choice for Templeton “Faceman” Peck. It was some Tim Duggar fellow who lasted one episode, and he didn’t have the same charisma of Dirk Benedict. You need a guy who can turn on the charm, and this fellow was just some guy with dark hair. He was that nondescript.

Back to the movie review — how do I put this? Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Rampage Jackson, and Sharto Copley, this movie is an amazing movie to be written and directed by…. an eleven-year old boy. That’s the only explanation for a film like this that had no basis in reality, history, or common sense. I don’t know where to begin to describe it, except that I had major problems with the movie’s logic within the first, say, 10 minutes of the beginning.

I’m not a 34-year old A-Team fanboy complaining that Rampage Jackson wasn’t a good Mr. T. As a matter of fact, I generally liked the actors in their specific roles, but I do admit that Jessica Biel didn’t quite fit. Instead, I’m referring to the non-sensical plot. Very little in the movie makes actual sense. Some examples from just the 30 mins, in no particular order, and here’s the obligatory minor spoiler warning anyway:

1. Hannibal escapes from the hands of corrupt Mexican Federal Police, runs across the Mexican desert (no car), and coincidentally meets B.A. driving along deserted road. Tries to carjack B.A, shoots him, but all is forgiven as they are both former U.S. Army Rangers.
2. Together, they rescue Face from a corrupt Mexican general. Btw, Face is also an Army Ranger.  They head to a Mexican insane asylum, and look for a pilot (I didn’t skip anything, that’s what happened), find Murdock, then steal a broken-down Mexican ambulance helicopter.  Murdock is a good choice, as he’s both American AND ALSO a former U.S. Army Ranger. Did I mention that only only Face and Hannibal know each other, but there a lot of “former U.S. Army Rangers” hanging around in the same dusty part of the Mexican countryside.
3. While in the broken-down helicopter, they then get chased by the aforementioned corrupt mexican general…. in his own attack helicopter. No worries, as it’s flown by a pilot with terrible skills. He can’t maneuver to catch the rusty helicopter, nor can he hit them with any of assortment of guns or missiles. Murdock avoids a barrage of heat-seeking missiles by doing a loop (still in the rusty helicopter), and then does a move where he turns off the engine, the helicopter engine cools down unrealistically fast, and the missiles strike each other. Oh, and the helicopter restarts, establishes adequate upward lift, and they get away again.
4. Finally, Hanibal makes a plan? He “tricks” the general into chasing them via helicopters over the U.S-Mexican border where the Mexican general is promptly shot down by a F-22 Raptor miraculously patrolling that portion of the border. Then the movie jumps to “8 years and 80 missions later”, they are now all re-enlisted in the U.S. Army, and serving in Iraq. The Raptor wasn’t in service eight years ago. Why would the Raptor be flying around with weapons hot, and then only shoot down the 2nd helicopter (with the bad guys?) Why would the Army take back former Army soldiers who are noticeably much older than the normal age range?

 The movie made about as much sense as the old 1960′s Batman tv show. It is extremely illogical, and most of the time, you get the sense that certain events and scenes are just set up for the next action sequence.  The writers made up story elements so that these key events can occur, or to move the flimsy plot. At one point, the A-Team steals a C-130 Hercules plane (with tank) from 3 Air Force men, from an Air Force base, without any weapons. Oh, they didn’t sneak and steal it. They walked onto the plane, and told the soldiers they were stealing it. One soldier says, “Oh, you’re the famous Hannibal Smith!” and says ok, and the three airbase men walk off the plane. Absolute nonsense.

Today was the kids’ last day of school, and summer camp starts next week. It was a busy day for them, including a pizza and ice cream party at lunch at school. They went to bed relatively early, so my wife and I were bless with a free and quiet evening to relax. We scrolled through the Netflix Instant Queue hunting for something to watch. Not finding a  lot of good choices, and finding some strange choices, we settled on Singles.

It’s a 1992 romantic comedy produced and directed by Cameron Crowe. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s a film about a collection of 20-somethings living in connecting circles, finding love, etc. It’s a romantic, comedy, you know. I was interested in the flashback to life in the 90′s, which yes, I did live through. It was the little things that I remembered — I laughed when I saw the characters opening car doors with actual keys. There were also no cell phones to be seen. How funny is that? It wasn’t that long ago, but car remotes and cell phones are so ubiquitous these days, so not seeing them was strange to me.

What I found interesting were the number of character actors and actresses, including:

• Kyra Sedgewick
• Bridget Fonda
• Matt Dillon
• Bill Pullman
• Paul Giamatti
• Jeremy Piven
• Eric Stoltz

I also liked the 90′s music featured in the movie, from the likes of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know this, but members of Pearl Jam (including Eddie Veder) cameod as Matt Dillon’s bandmates. Ah, good times. The movie itself didn’t change my life or anything, but it was a decent film to watch.

Singles (1992)

In 1999, I bought my 32″ Sony Wega flat TV. It weights 200 lbs, but the picture was very nice (and relatively big) compared to what my family had owned in the past. That was 1999, of course, and times have changed. Almost everyone I know has moved onto HDTVs. Knowing me, you would suppose that I would have jumped on one years ago. The first one I ever saw in the flesh must have been this Pioneer at my relative’s house 5-6 years ago.

I never did jump on the HDTV bandwagon for various reasons. For one, the cost. Although the historical costs of HDTVs have decreased, we’d still have to outlay the necessary money for upgrading to a new AV receiver, a new stand, and Blu-ray player. That’s a lot. We never had the extra cash sitting around to finance such a large purchase, especially with the high costs of daycare every month for the kids.

As for the second reason, I haven’t been able to commit to one particular technology. Consumer television technology has evolved over the past five years, and while I’ve always been particular to plasma technology, I’ve flirted with DLP, LCD, and LED LCD. Although I’ve finally decided to stick with plasma technology, manufacturers like Pioneer have exited the industry, and other industry-leading manufacturers like Panasonic have experienced problems with their 2009 models in terms of fading black levels.

What’s a technology enthusiast to do?

Sometimes, you just go to war with the army you got. Here’s the good news. The stars have aligned, the decisions have been made, and the national economy improved slightly. Here’s what we bought:

• Panasonic TC-54G25 – the 54″ model of the 2010 G25 series. I’ve decided against the Sony and Samsung LCD televisions, due to the rumored game lag, but also because the costs are higher. I’m a little worried about the 2010 Panasonics experiencing fading black levels like the 2009 models, but sometimes you need to take a leap of faith. We went for the larger 54″ (not 50″) because we’re planning to rearrange the living room layout, and I loves me a wall of high definition television.
• Pioneer vsx-1020-k — Pionoeer’s mid-to-higher end audio/video receiver. My current AV receiver is actually working fine. Purchased in December 2003, it doesn’t support HDMI. I thought we could space out the purchase to later in the year, but without HDMI, I won’t be able to play cable HD channels that have HDCP enabled. Ah well, now we’re future-proofed for 3D television viewing.
• Techcraft Veneto Series SWP60 TV Stand — This isn’t that fascinating, but we bought a new stand to match our future coffee tables and stuff. We need a new stand anyway, and now I can dump the current AV rack that takes up too much floor space.

Panasonic-TC-P54G25

Pioneer-VSX-1020-K

TV Stand

As you’ll notice, I didn’t buy a Blu-ray player, speakers, or a universal remote. My PS3 will play Blu-ray discs and it can upscale, so I’m set for now. My current Onkyo speakers should work fine with the new AV receiver. I’d love a new Logitech Harmony One universal remote, but it’s too much money to purchase right now. I’ll get that for Christmas or something.

Everything is arriving sometime next week, but I’m most worried about the TV stand. It’s the first item I want set up, but it is only estimated to arrive between 6/23 and 6/28. That’s a big window, and the television is scheduled to be delivered smack dab in the middle of the window. Fingers are crossed. I’m somewhat excited to finally have an HDTV, but I think it hasn’t hit me yet. I’d say that I don’t know what I’ll watch first, but that’s a lie. I want to watch every action movie in my DVD collection, starting with every Star Wars movie and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Big news: I’m getting in some quality cycling time nowadays. On most weekends, I”m getting away for a few hours to ride the long roads of central NJ. Partly because I want to be on my bike, partly because it’s great exercise to help me lose the excess weight I accumulated, and partly because my wife has been willing to take care of the kids on her own so that I can get some free time. I started riding in late April, but I’ve also been working out at least once at the office fitness center, and I’ve significantly improved my diet. More fruit and vegetables every day, smaller/healthier food portions, and way less junk food snacking.

So far, I’m to announce this week that I’ve lost 5 lbs. since March. Now that I’m working out more often, I expect to see the weight loss continue. My goal is 170 lbs, so I have another 30 lbs. to go. Sounds like a long road ahead, and yes, it is. However, this isn’t a fad. It’s a complete change in my lifestyle to have healthier life. I don’t want temporary improvement. I want a permanent one.

So what does all have to do with being a professional cyclist? Cycling is still my favorite outdoor activity, and I want to do it right. I want to increase my stamina. I want to ride as fast and consistent as other riders. I recently dumped my kickstand, as most riders don’t use one. I thought it was simply to reduce overall weight, but apparently it’s worse than that. Having a kickstand is akin to walking around with a pocket protector. Gosh, that’s embarassing. I don’t want to be the nerd of cyclists.

I also moved to a smaller seat. I’ve used a big, fat cushion of  a saddle for eight years, but real riders use a smaller, firmer saddle. Last week, I swapped it out, and used my original Fuji bicycle saddle for a ride last Saturday morning. My behind was so sore, I cut short my ride to 18 miles because I couldn’t take the pain anymore. I also found out my rear wheel was crooked. Tuesday morning, I took my bicycle to the office so I could visit nearby High Gear Cyclery to fix the rear wheel, and pick out a new more comfortable saddle. $75 later, I walked out with a fixed rear wheel and a new saddle.  I’ll be trying it out during this coming Saturday’s early morning ride. I hope I’m not in for another morning of pain. The new saddle has more gel and is a bit wider to better support my sit bones.

Selle Royal Lookin Saddle

This is the ratchet that went into our tire

During the week that I was in Dallas, my wife was driving the kids home and got a flat tire somewhere between Princeton and our house. She didn’t know what it was, but last week when I took it to my local Toyota dealership’s servicing department, they and I were both shocked to find it was a large ratchet tool. They were so amazed, they gave it back to me to keep. You can see a picture of it in my hand on the right. Maybe someone was doing some auto repair, and lost this on the road at some point.

I asked Toyota if they could patch the tire, but they said they couldn’t. Furthermore, they stated all four tires were in bad shape and should be replaced. All four tires? The car is less than two years old, and we’ve accumulated only 42K miles on these tires. Depending on the variables, I would expect tires to last at least 50-60K miles. This is highly questionable. I’m sure Toyota is more than willing to sell me unneccessary services and parts, and that includes overpriced tires, but I asked for an initial quote.

Oh geez, that’s when I got my second shock of the day. The 2008 Highlander Limited originally comes standard with Toyo Open Country P245/55 R19 light truck tires. Fantastically expensive, four new tires would run me $1178. The only other option are Bridgestone Dueler H/T 400′s that will cost about $868. It’s not just the cost that’s shocking — these are the only two options, albeit expensive ones. In the past, I could  go to any tire shop and get a reasonable and comparable model. It turns out that nowadays, you’re going to find more cars/trucks with odd-sized tires that are not carried by many shops.

I went online, and there are numerous complaints from current Highlander owners that you are locked into these limited choices that aren’t readily available at Toyota or Firestone locations. Oh yeah, that’s right. Toyota doesn’t even stock the Toyo tires, and has to special order them. Furthermore, Highlander owners complained that both Toyo and Bridgestone tires will last you 40K miles or less, and you’ll see uneven wear-and-tear. Again, these are my options?

Here’s the next surprise. The Highlander comes with a fantastic feature where a sensor detects a low tire pressure. Nice feature, right? I knew that, and sounded good to me, nor did I have to pay extra for that. Guess what? Every time you have to change a tire, you have to throw the sensor away, and buy a new one, and pay to install that. We all initially like how sophisticated our cars/trucks are these days, but when you have repairs, there are so many more expensive parts to either replace. It’s incredible. Talk about a double-edged sword.

Although I was nervous about driving around with no spare, I wasn’t going to throw money away without price comparison shopping. I tried a few Toyota and Firestone locations, and my Dad helped me as well. I also decided to limit myself to only two new tires for now, with the intention of replacing two more next month. Spreading that cost out over two months is a little easier to swallow. In the end, I went back to James Toyota where we originally purchased the Highlander. They offered us $460 on two tires plus a free car wash. I made a 7:30am appt on a Wed, waited in their nice customer lounge for about 90 mins, and then got on my way to the office. They also highly recommended that we change all four tires at once, but I wasn’t interested. I’m sure we can squeeze out another few weeks without the world ending.

$460 later, I have half of the new tires that I need, but it will have to be good enough for now. There’s no way we’re going to plunk down nearly a thousand dollars on tires in one month.

Julie’s 30th birthday cake

Saturday night, we drove to Philadelphia for my sister’s surprise 30th birthday party. First we dropped off the kids to my sister-in-laws’ for the evening, then we went to pick up the delicious (and lactose-free) cake, and then drove to Philly. The plan was for everyone to meet up at The Mexican Post restaurant at 6:30pm, decorate and get ready. Robbie would bring Julie to meet with Nums and myself for a birthday/anniversary dinner. Julie kinda knew something was going on, but I think she was still surprised when 35 family and friends jumped out screaming at her.

It was a nice venue, and good dinner too. Robbie and his sister Kitty organized a trivia game around Julie’s favorite shows, movies, book series, candy bars, and there were prizes for each winning team. Each prize was related to one my sister’s favorites like Wawa coffee and stuff. My sister and I both like Star TrekGeneration, so I grabbed a tiny replica of the NCC-1701 Enterprise (refit of course!). The Enterprise is currently adorning my cubicle with my Capt. James Kirk figure.

The Enterprise now adorns my lowly cubicle.

Nerds! I’m behind on publishing photos, but I’ll post the pictures in the next few days.

I’m looking forward to this game. It won’t run on my current home PC, but it’s another reason that I would buy a new PC in 2011. Check out the combat mechanics in this game.

On June 4th, the kids’ school hosted “Spring Sing”, a show with each class singing or doing some other action like dancing. Both sets of grandparents, and both our sisters and their respective husbands all came to our house then off to the school for the big show. At the end of the show, there would be a graduation ceremony for the kindergarteners leaving the school completely, and for Joshua’s class who would be leaving for kindergarten in September. Thankfully, my flight was on-time, so I was able to get home in time for the show and graduation. Phew!

In Lily’s class, it was some sort of sports players and cheerleaders thing where the kids either danced or jumped up and down in costumes to music. Hey, what do you expect from a classroom of two-year olds? In Josh’s class, they showcased dancing from the 50′s through the present day, and Josh did some 50′s dancing. At the end, the kids “graduating” walked down the aisle and on stage in red caps and gowns to receive their “diplomas.” It was all very cute.

Afterwards, we all went back to our house for dinner and drinks, and the kids ran around playing and screaming. My sister took photographs and I took video, but neither is actually available to be posted. Check back later.

On the flight home from Dallas, I watched the rest of Where the Wild Things Are on my iPod, a 2009 film directed by Spike Jonze, and based on the Shel Silverstein children’s book. I remember reading the book decades ago as a child, but I didn’t remember it to be a regular story with that much dialogue. It seems that the screenwriters did some extrapolating to create a film out of the short piece of work.

I thought the film itself was well done. After rambunctious Max runs away from home after an incident with his mother, he takes a small sailboat to a land where the monsters live. He becomes their king, and they’re initially happy to have him there, as he promises to make everyone happy to be with each other. However, the monsters continue to disagree with each other.

I didn’t find a lot online to help me interpret the film’s meaning or moral.  From what it seemed to me, the monsters appeared to be various aspects of Max’s personality. The rambunctious part, the quiet thoughtful one, the downers, etc. I liked the music and the art direction. As a whole, I thought it was a quiet, thoughtful movie about childhood. It made me think that I should spend more time with my own kids, playing and joking around with them, and encouraging their own imagination.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)