Lots of Monkeys

I don’t know how to answer whenever I’m asked, “Have you gone back?”

They always mean the Philippines. I know a few things about the Philippines.

Hundreds of islands. Dozens of dialects. Corruption in the government. Fought (and lost) a war against the United States for its independence. Really bad traffic. Surprisingly cool in the mountain provinces. Soda in a plastic baggie.

There’s more, but I find all of this self acquired knowledge woefully incomplete. I don’t know where the stereotypes end and my culture begins.

I know these things, but I don’t know them. I haven’t experienced them firsthand. So how could I return to someplace that I’ve never been?

Julie sent me a link to one of those online name profiler pages. After fiddling with it for a while, we were disappointed when we found out that it only says nice things. Inspired, I wrote a quick profile for my version of the site.

You are a nexus for hatred and spite. Despite this, you are incredibly charismatic and will amass a legion of followers, only to sacrifice them in order to achieve your evil deeds. You are selfish, and this trait brings nothing but suffering to those that find themselves in your presence. You are vicious, petty, borderline schizophrenic and people are naturally hesitant to be in the same room with you. You hate all of humanity and constantly plot its eradication and ultimate doom.

You also enjoy knitting.

Ah. Now to find out it already exists.

Windows Apple Media Center™ also known as Front Row makes its debut today. Also they announce Photo Booth, an app I feel should have been present at iSight launch.

The announcements of the video iPod, and videos available in iTunes Music Store, are not really “news” so much as people have been predicting that for a while. Then I read that television shows will be available for $1.99 a pop. For a brief moment, watching BattleStar Galactica Season 2 on the commute to work was a media junkie fantasy.

Then I remembered I walk to work, found out the videos are 320 x 240 with FairPlay DRM, and HD quality versions of the shows cost me nothing. I watched all of BSG season one this way.

I would like to support digital distribution. I think it’s a great idea. I used Steam to buy Half Life 2. However, there are issues if I want to watch QVGA on a certain 32″ Sharp Aquos that threatens to force its way into my condo.

I mentioned “The Omega” bundle from GameStop before. I thought it was ridiculous. I was mistaken, the new ridiculous is “The Omega + Plasma Television” bundle from GameStop.

Weighing in at a whopping $4499.68, this baby contains all the launch titles, the core system, the hard drive, four wireless controllers, a fuego faceplate, all the cables, and a forty-two inch Dell plasma screen. That’s a lot of stuff. Too much stuff, really. I can’t even play all the games I have now.

Perhaps this is “sour grapes” on my part. Perhaps it’s an uncommon episode of common sense. (This is the year of restraint, after all.) Perhaps I’m waiting for them to make a bundle with a home theater audio setup.

Either way, it’s equal parts five thousand dollars and not happening.

I’ve been considering an HD television for a while. Merely as an afterthought. After the next gen console announcements, I started research in earnest.

It is research, too. I feel like I have enough material to write a twenty page analysis on HD resolutions, LCD versus Plasma versus CRT versus Projection, and projected market shares for the various manufacturers and their affect on global warming.

I’m also browsing some forums to get a feel for what people have experienced with their televisions. A lot of posts have been, “I’m getting X model television in preparation for the Xbox 360 launch in November, is it a good one?”

Gaming has become the “push” technology for High Definition Television. Part of it may have been HD programming, but for a lot of people, it appears to be the next generation game consoles.

I think I’ve finally decided on a Sharp Aquos, probably the 32″ wide aspect screen. It’ll take some saving, but it’ll be worth it in the long run. It has all the inputs I want, and it suitable for what I plan to be doing. Mainly, playing games, watching DVDs and watching bittorent media.

It has no HD tuner, which is fine by me because I don’t watch anything until it’s broadcast on the Internets.