Say It Random again
Surprise Kitty (video)
Twilight New Moon in a Minute (video)
Girl’s Tooth Pulled by RC Car (video)
Sex Offender Shuffle (video)
Techno Chicken (video)
Window Washer Falls 8 Stories (video)
Danny Buys A Blobbit (video)
Oh My Gosh!! (video)
I HID IT!!! IT’S GONE (video)
Two Worlds Collide ft. Reba McEntire (video)
Rock Band Name Origins (link)
10 commonly believed myths (link)
At around 5AM this morning, me and my dogs could hear this… sound.. coming from beyond our back yard. We couldn’t see the source of what’s making the sound, but it was definitely very audible from inside the house (as you could tell from the video below). In the video, my brown dog’s barks are quite obvious, but then there’s the other sound. A coyote? wolf? another dog? bird? monkey? llama? monster? Can’t say I know, but it sure was getting a reaction from my dogs. I didn’t want to investigate, as it was dark enough outside and because it could be something wild and dangerous. The sounds lasted maybe about 10-15 minutes, and then it was gone. duhn duhn duhn!
Better Off Alone Random
Possible Twilight: Breaking Dawn Footage? (video)
Modern Warfare 2: Rick Roll – NSFW language (video)
Little Boy steals the show at Santa Monica! (video)
Nikon Girl / Canon Boy (video)
Destino DALI + Walt Disney (video)
Super Emo Friends Super Set (pix)
Crazy Girlfriend Smashes Xbox – NSFW language (video)
117 Sneezes In a Minute (video)
Let’s Talk About Sext (video)
Remix: American Idol Suspense Moment (video)
Death Metal Bowser’s Castle Theme (video)
empty Los Angeles (pix)
As it usually is the case in the Thanksgiving season, people state what they are thankful for. So what should I really be thankful for? Should I be thankful for my blog, that is essentially an outlet for my thoughts, acting as a sort of self-therapy? Should I be thankful for my Canon Powershot S5 IS, that’s produced some great photos of memorable events that I’ve experienced (like Comic-Con and Concerts), as well as awesome videos that I’ve been able to put up on youtube? Should I be thankful for the movies, music, podcasts, or video games that’s provided me with tons of happy entertainment? Should I simply be thankful for my family, my friends, my dogs? The truth is that I’m clearly thankful for all that and more, but there’s got to be one thing that stands above the rest… and I always knew the answer to this question before I started writing this post. My wife. My wife is clearly what I am thankful for the most, because even though we don’t see eye to eye at times, and she doesn’t share many of my interests, she still at the end understands and supports me like the loving person that she is.
I am thankful for my wife… ’nuff said.
below, some fun, random Thanksgiving related links
- Nine myths about thanksgiving
- great moments in turkey pardoning
- 25 horrifying Thanksgiving turkey cakes
- vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes
- PETA Thanksgiving ad
- hologram thanksgiving – NSFW language
- http://googlegooglegooglegoogle.com/
With this Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years season upon us, I’m reminded of one thing… I miss mandatory vacations! It’s been years since I’ve been a full-time student, and it’s been a long time since I had government sanctioned vacation time. Just the fact that I could take time off because I was told to take a day (or weeks) off, is a luxury I just do not have anymore. Spring break, Summer break, Winter break, none of that! Unlike a good majority of jobs out there, I don’t have one that gets mandatory vacation days, as my work place runs every day of the year. Even holidays. Sure it’s true that I could put in some vacation hours and get those holidays off, but it’s just not the same than getting them automatically off. Besides, holiday pay is a nice thing to take advantage of. So all you full-time students out there, know that you should be thankful of having those vacation times, because it’s not going to last forever.
| How Thankful Are You? You Are 90% Thankful |
 You inspire people to be more optimistic, forgiving, and grateful. |
What I’m listening to this week…
1) This WEEK In TECH – twit 222: 3 dollah coffee pot
2) Alice In Chains – black gives way to blue
3) Anvil – this is thirteen
4) Dead By Sunrise – out of ashes
5) Gwar – lust in space
6) Metallica – load
Random Fool
Give Thanks For Awkward Facebook Messages (link)
Turkey Attack! (video)
Great Sign Dancer (video)
Kitten Loves Police Officer (video)
Family Can’t Afford Moving Truck (video)
Paranormal Activity Deleted Scenes (video)
Twilight Fans Get Punked (video)
Twilight New Moon Spoof – Rise of the Man Wolf (video)
Barbie and Bratz D&M (video)
MASS: WE PRAY the Video Game (video)
Rejected Mortal Kombat Fatalities Ep.4 (video)
5 Musicians Who Need to Find Something New to Sing About (link)
For almost a month now, I’ve dropped DirecTV from my household and have had FiOS TV. The question that ran throughout my head these past weeks was whether I made the right choice in switching providers. Honestly, that’s still up for debate. What isn’t up for debate however, is that you’ll definitely get more bang for your buck with FiOS TV. Combining the cost of the three services in the package, which are home phone, internet, and TV, FiOS TV wins over DirecTV at a slightly cheaper total price ($10-$40 difference?). FiOS TV wins that price war for the simple fact that it includes Verizon internet at a fast minimum speed of 25MB/s and offers more HD channels to DirecTV’s most comparable plan.
Now DirecTV does have more channels overall, better exclusive channels programming, and a better sports package, but you’ll have to pay more to get all those benefits. Once again it has to be said, at the most comparable plan between the two (Exteme HD plan vs Choice Extra package), I actually have additional HD channels on FiOS TV that I didn’t have with DirecTV. There are some channels that I could only watch on Standard Definition with DirecTV like Comedy Central, that I could now watch on High Definition. I can actually watch a few more movie channels like HDNET-Movies, which I like because it occasional shows films that are currently on limited release in theaters. In terms of sports, I usually stick with network broadcasts for basketball or football anyway, but I have HDNET and VS (which DirecTV does not have) for my Mixed Martial Arts. I’m sure there were some channels that I used to have on DirecTV that I don’t have on FiOS TV, but they must not matter for me to watch if I don’t even know what they are.
It should also be noted that picture quality for HD programming is slightly better with FiOS TV than DirecTV. Picture quality for SD programming though, is definitely noticeably better with FiOS TV than DirecTV (I regularly watch an SD channel like G4TV, so that’s a nice plus for me). Could be the simple difference of satellite versus fiber optic cables at play here.
When it comes to Video On Demand, I got to give the slight edge to FiOS TV. DirecTV seems to have more offerings on their VOD service, but it does require you to download the program first on the DVR before you can watch it. The download waiting time might be an issue for some people with slow internet speeds, but you do get to “keep” a VOD program on the DVR which some people might prefer over the instant streaming (but faster viewing) method that FiOS TV offers. You can’t “keep” a VOD program on a FiOS TV DVR though, and while it offers pretty fast real time streaming, it has limitations on fast forwarding. FiOS TV however does have a much more user friendly menu interface to access VOD channels, and beats DirecTV’s multi-channel method. There also seems to be more popular shows from the big networks on FiOS TV than with DirecTV. More VOD anime on DirecTV though.
As far as HD-DVR capabilities go, I’ll have to still give this to DirecTV. The simple math is this, DirecTV’s HD-DVR offers 50 hours of HD or 200 hours of SD, compared to FiOS TV’s HD-DVR which only offers 20 hours of HD or 80 hours of SD. When I sometimes record MMA events that can last for 5 hours, the space definitely becomes an issue.
The overall channel guide, and options menu flows better for DirecTV as well. There are also all these little short cuts that I loved taking advantage of with DirecTV that I now do not have with FiOS TV. Many times with FiOS TV, I’ve had to take several steps more to do something (like checking for “upcoming times”), when it was very easily doable with DirecTV. The standard remote control for DirecTV also feels better than FiOS TV’s. As a “power user” who tends to take full advantage of what a DVR can offer, I’m quite disappointed with FiOS TV.
Sure FiOS TV has widgets where you can check on facebook, twitter, sudoku, traffic, horroscope, weather, etc… but do you really need to use the TV for those? There is an option for multi-room TV viewing with FiOS TV that sounds great, except for the fact that I can’t use it at this time (need to call Verizon customer service for that sometime in the near future). Both DirecTV and FiOS TV have functions to view content from your PC and remote access capabilities, but I don’t really use any of those.
So here’s how this broke down to…
- Price : FiOS TV
- Overall number of channels SD+HD : DirecTV
- HD Channel packages/price : FiOS TV
- Picture quality : FiOS TV
- Video On Demand : FiOS TV
- DVR hard drive size : DirecTV
- DVR standard functions/menu/guide : DirecTV
- DVR extra features : FiOS TV
Even though FiOS TV wins more points in that comparison, it’s still not as clear cut as that. Having more HD channels and better picture for the price that FiOS TV offers is a huge advantage, but it’s DVRs are really much too basic in features and size compared to DirecTV’s that it actually makes a huge difference to me as well. It’s not easy to recommend which one to choose between the two, because it comes down to what people find more important. A more capable and robust DVR or more HD channels for the price? I think the average consumer will prefer more HD channels for the price, which is understandable, if they can live with the fact that they’ll need to constantly keep an eye on how many programs they can keep on the DVR at a time. There’s always room for FiOS TV to improve their DVRs though, and when they do, then the choice will be easy to make.
