Lately, the television in our living room has been giving warning signs of an impending collapse. The picture has been going slightly blurry at times, and the speakers emit a low whine if the volume is turned up higher than normal. In other words, it’s time that I begin shopping around for a new big-screen television.
I’m particularly envious of my friend’s large (almost wall-sized, really) plasma TV that she recently got - unfortunately, she bought it at a local electronics store on impulse and will probably be making payments on it for years to come, which isn’t really my style. I’d rather do some research, get an idea about the price range of the size/type of television I’m interested in, and start a separate savings account just for squirreling money away for the “new, nice TV” fund.
Does anyone have any particular brands that they recommend, or, conversely, recommend that I stay AWAY from? To be honest, this will be the first television that I really invest in - most of the televisions that we have in our house are older, inherited from parents when they upgraded their TVs, or just cheap $100-200 things we got at Target for dorm rooms past. So any ideas or ratings are very welcome!
I don’t know about where everyone reading this lives, but where I am, the weather has been pretty nasty. Around 90-95 degrees every day, with INSANE humidity because we’ve had a nightly thunderstorm every day for the past week and a half. And of course, probably because this weather is working it to its limit, this is when the A/C unit decides to start screwing up. I mean, it’s running, but hardly - it’s not uncommon for it to reach 90 degrees INSIDE our apartment this past week.
With a base of 90 degrees, I’m sure you can image how bad my home office has gotten - considering that having the computer on boosts the heat as well as the fact that there’s a TV and an Xbox 360 in this room as well… yeah, it gets gross in here.
I found two things on my beloved ThinkGeek.com
that I ordered today in hopes of making my workspace a bit more cool & livable: the Desktop Personal Air Conditioner ($22.99) - which is powered by water! - and the newly discounted USB LED Beverage Cooler ($14.99), basically a USB-powered mini-fridge to keep your drinks cool even in hot weather.
I’m totally excited for the UPS man to bring my deliciously cold goodies, and I’ll be sure to let everyone know how they work out. If you don’t want to wait for my feedback and feel that you need some relief from the summer heat as well, use coupon code 8CBB
for $5 off any order of $25 or more, or $10 off any order of $50 or more. Knock yourselves out!
If you’ve talked to me at all in the past few weeks, you’ll know that I’ve been increasingly unhappy with my current cable/internet service (yeah, Time Warner Cable, I’m calling you out for being shitty). I’m paying $130 a month for internet and cable TV with DVR, and it feels like the service pops in and out daily, sometimes leaving us without internet access for hours, or even days. And don’t get me started on the whole fiasco that happened when we moved - they sent out some mentally deficient tech who tried to hook our cable up to the DirectTV ports without realizing it, and then told us our cable was just irreparably broken and that we’d have to wait 2-3 weeks for a contractor to come and reroute the entire building. When said contractor got her, suffice to say he was pretty pissed at having to drive all the way out here because Time Warner can’t employ competent techs. ANYHOW.
Point being, is that I finally had enough after the internet went out for multiple hours EVERY SINGLE DAY THIS WEEK. I made the call to a different cable provider and made an appointment to switch on Wednesday, but here’s the interesting part: most of the equipment is being mailed to me and they’ll be walking me through the installation over the phone. Apparently it’s part of how they keep their costs down (by not having to send someone out for each installation) - and it works, because with them I’ll be getting cable, internet, AND home phone for $70. Assuming that their service is good (or at least better than Time Warner’s), that’s completely awesome.
But yeah, in preparation I’m looking into the sort of cables and such I’ll need - like CAT6 cables - and while it’s a bit over my head, I’m starting to get it a little bit. Oh well, they promised it would be easy, so here’s hoping I do it right!
I could probably start a blog dedicated solely to ThinkGeek products, because I am so thoroughly obsessed with all the amazing items they sell. Take the USB Podcast Studio, for example - pure genius. Podcasting has become increasingly prevalent, to the point where everybody from Project Runway’s Tim Gunn to your neighbor down the street are recording their thoughts and sending them out into the universe.
Now you can make your podcasts even more worth listening to: you’ll get crystal-clear sound, studio-grade editing capabilities, and you can’t even pretend that talking into the professional mic won’t make you feel a whole lot cooler.
The studio includes a shock mounted desktop microphone, Cakewalk Sonar LE audio workstation software, aluminum carrying case, and retails for $169.99 at ThinkGeek.
exterior shutters
You know the drill. You get to the grocery store, start wandering around, and realize you’ve completely forgotten half the things you set out to buy. You would’ve made a list, but you lost the magnetic notepad you usually keep on the fridge when you needed something to keep score on when you played Scrabble last week. So you stand there dumbly in the middle of the produce section, willing yourself to remember - what was that one thing that I absolutely needed the other day? The thing that I knew was really important, that I needed before anything else? Why can’t I remember something so simple?
The SmartShopper Voice-Activated Grocery List (SS250)
is a godsend, sent from electronics heaven to make sure you’re never put in such an embarassing situation again. You mount it on either the wall or your fridge, and when you think of something you need - you simply say it aloud to the SmartShopper. The small wonder then records the item, and once you’re ready to head to the grocery store, the SS250 will print out your list for you - categorized by section, so you don’t end up running back and forth all over the store - making sure that you remember every single item you need.
How amazing is that? You can also include errands like going to the bank or post office or picking up the kids from school - for anyone with a terrible short-term memory (like myself), this little gadget really makes your life so much easier. I personally used to go through that frozen moment of realizing you’ve forgotten what you needed almost every time I went shopping - it was annoying, embarassing, and resulted in far too many unnecessary return trips to the store once I got home and figured out what I’d missed. With this glorious gadget, those headaches are a thing of the past.
Sound like something you need? It’s available for $149.95 at Sharper Image and $144.99 at Amazon
, and believe me - it’s worth every penny in the time, energy, gas for return trips, and lost/unused notepads you’ll save in the long run!
travel deals
The highly-rated Zune is one of the most coveted items out there this holiday season, and with good reason - it does almost everything. Music, games (the Zune is compatible with your Xbox 360, letting you create your own soundtracks for your favorite games), videos, photos, podcasts, radio - all in the palm of your hand. Adding and sharing media is also a snap with the Zune’s wireless transfer system (you can both download and send files without the need of any sort of cables).The 30GB model holds up to 7,500 songs, or 25,000 pictures, or 100 hours of video. How much does all this goodness cost? Well, it usually retails for $249.99, but
Amazon is currently running a fantastic promo and has them on sale from $133.95 (brown) to $159.95 (white) - yes, that’s an average saving of $100 off. Seriously.
All five colors are currently available at Amazon.
Akavar
