Coach Takeno

My brother noticed the announcement of the death of a long-term coach from my high school.

I also had Coach Takeno as a driving instructor, gym teacher, and also as a health teacher. I think everyone that went to that school had to pass through the vale of tears that was gym class with Coach Takeno.

I vaguely remember the push-up position that my brother talks about. What I remember most clearly is the thing where you put your body up against the wall and position your legs at 90 degree angles- sort of like you were sitting on a chair, without the chair. Your body is supported by your legs pushing your body against the wall.

Coach Takeno would line us all up on the wall of the bleachers and would make sure that our legs were all exactly 90 degrees. He'd yell "go" and start his stopwatch. I don't remember exactly how long we had to hold the position, but it felt like 3 hours. If anyone collapsed before his timer ran out, everyone would have to start again. This was an incredibly difficult challenge for me, due to my high body mass and long legs. The amount of force that my legs would have to maintain to keep my body up was similar to the amount of force the Hoover Dam uses to hold back Lake Mead.

Needless to say, I was usually the one that would collapse early. My numb and bloodless legs would slowly weaken until my body would crash to the ground. "Peterman*, get up!", he'd yell. "Everyone- thank Peterman* for making you start over!" I was not popular in that class.

Health Class with Coach Takeno was also interesting. He was strict and didn't allow any fooling around. I was messing around one time and as a punishment was assigned a 5 or 10 page paper on some obsure health topic. I knew that he would never read it, so I put a sentence in the middle of the paper asking him to tell me if he really did read through the paper. He didn't!

It is strange that for how much he tortured me through high school, I really have fond memories of him. I have a great respect for the man. Maybe it's some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, who knows.

*(Some names have been changed to protect the innocent)

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Prepare Yourself...

I'm still trying to process this mentally.

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Aarghh!

Take a good look at these shoes. What do you notice? (What I notice first is that the shoes are pretty beat up and ugly. I didn't realize how bad they were- my feet are a long way from my eyes, you know.)

What I meant to point out is the laces.

The shoe on the right has a broken lace. I am somehow still able to get a little knot right up at the top. The shoelace on the left is much worse. It has broken three times. I'm reduced to tying it halfway down the eyes.

"But, Jeff, you idiot," you say, "just run out and buy some new laces!"
What you don't know is that these are the new laces. I broke the original laces that came with the shoes a couple of months ago.

After breaking the original laces, I went to Target, Shopko, Payless shoes, everywhere I could think of looking for replacement laces. None of those stores carry laces. I couldn't believe that laces were so hard to find. Why don't the shoe manufacturers stock stores with replacement laces that match the shoes that they are selling? Does no one else break their laces? I do pull pretty hard when I tighten them, and I am pretty strong. Please comment and let me know if I am the only one.

Personally, I blame George Bush and Karl Rove for the conspiracy to make me buy new shoes when all I need is new laces.

I finally found some laces at Dillards at the mall. I don't live very close to the mall and I don't really like the mall, so I don't go there very often. But Dillards had the laces shown in the picture- they don't really match and they're really thin, but what are you going to do?

And now, Aarghh! Broken again. I guess I'd better get back to the mall.

p.s. As part of my lace-search, I did find this interesting page about different methods of tying laces. This one is called the "one-handed lacing", which supposedly lets you tighten the shoes without tying a knot. That would be perfect for my boys. They HATE tying their shoes. Their hatred results in them walking around with their lace ends dragging on the ground, or trying to jam their feet into their shoes while still tied.

I think I'll try this and let you know how it goes.

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I Know a Good Deal When I See One

This is supposedly a letter from a Maryland resident to his senator. This is obviously tongue-in-cheek, but it's funny because it's true.

Here's my quick take on immigration. I think that one of the great strengths of this country is that motivated, intelligent people self-select to move here. I believe that we need to correct the glacier-like pace of legal immigration and allow people with clean backgrounds to immigrate, on a trial basis. Along with this should be extremely tight border control and all government interaction should be in English. After the trial period, the immigrant's progress could be measured: does he have a job, is there progress in his education, can he pass an English proficiency test, what is his criminal record? At this point citizenship could be offered.

The Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes
Senate Office Building
309 Hart
Washington DC, 20510

Dear Senator Sarbanes,

As a native Marylander and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stem from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.

Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.

Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year. Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well as "in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son.

Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car.

If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance.

Your Loyal Constituent,

Pete McGlaughlin
Get your Forms (NOW)!! Call your Internal Revenue Service 1-800-289-1040.
Please pass this onto your friends so they can save on this great offer!!!!

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Who's your neighbor?

Here's an important link that I just ran across. You can map the listed home address of sex offenders in your area. The map shows little red indicators that you an click on to see a picture. Just thought you'd like to know.

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Brain Age

My boys got Nintendo DSs for Christmas this year. I know what you're thinking, "What a terrible parent! How could he let his children's minds rot like that!" Well, how about this: Brain Age.

This 'game' has become a favorite of my oldest boy. He actually is excited to do speed drills on math and counting and all sorts of brain expanding exercises. I am excited to let him play on his DS. It's a win-win!

Brain age is based on the work of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, who apparently is some sort of a brain expert. The game grades you with a 'brain age' score, which is supposed to be the age at which your brain operates. If your brain age is 80, your brain is equivalent in raw computing power to a moldy orange. A brain age of 20 (the best awarded in the game) means that Einstein has a new rival. Actually, it means that you can do simple math problems really fast and you are proficient at recognizing colors, but you feel really smart!

In Brain Age, you do drills like answering 100 random math problems, keeping track of how many people are in a building while people go in and out, memorize the position of numbers placed on the screen, memorizing lists of 5 letter words, etc. The DS has two screens, and one of the screens is touch sensitive so you can use a stylus to write answers to the questions. The key to the whole thing is getting the answer right and FAST. There is a little floating head guy that encourages you if you do poorly and cheers you if you do well.

My 9 year old looked over the game and turned up his nose when he first saw it. He called it the 'stupid math game' and refused to even try it. I, on the other hand, was instantly hooked. I rarely missed a day of my training, partly because the funny floating head would make me feel bad if I did. Plus, the game tracks your progress with charts, so it's easy to see if you're improving.

Finally, about a week ago, my 9 year old sat down and watched me do my training. I could tell he was intrigued. When I finished, he popped it in his DS and wandered off. Next thing I knew he ran out to show me how well he had done on one of the tests. The game warns you that it is meant for adults, and the results for children are not particularly meaningful. But, hey, anything that gets him to work on math without threat of permanent bodily harm has to be good.

It's been amazing to watch him figure out how to do each type of training. His brain age that first day was 80. He didn't let that discourage him. He has improved a bit every day and his brain age is getting younger. Last night he came running in all excited because his brain age was 45! Almost the first thing he does every day is pull out brain age and do his training. (the game only lets you train/test each problem type once a day.)

What's my brain age? Of course I'm at a 20. That should you give you, dear reader, confidence in the opinions that you read here on this blog. Or at least give you confidence that I can tell you what 5+6 is very quickly! Also 16-9, and 8*9.

I'll have more to say about the Nintendo DS later, all of it good.

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Bad Day at the Range

I enjoy shooting guns. I have a lot of fond memories going out with my dad on a drive to some remote desert hill. It was neat watching him repeatedly hit some tiny target that was really far away with his .38 revolver while I plinked with a .22 rifle. Now that I'm older, it's much harder to find time to shoot.

I enjoy the challenge of concentrating and controlling my body so that I don't flinch even though I know what's coming when I squeeze the trigger. Mastering the kick and succeeding at hitting the target with a decent grouping is really satisfying.

Last fall I went several times with my Dad to the range, where we had a (literal) blast shooting several different pistols and rifles. We did have some problems following the stringent rules enforced by large, impatient, yet kindly range masters. They didn't have range-masters out in the desert by the hill. We just enforced the safety rules ourselves.

I wonder what those range masters would say about this ridiculous gun. I've shot .357 magnum and .44 magnum pistols with a lot of kick, but nothing like this. I was sent an email with this explanation.

This pistol is basically a "show and tell" custom built on a
Thompson Encore frame. The caliber is a .600 Nitro Express. The guy that built it is some kind of custom gun maker. He built this as an exhibition piece. He takes it to the range just to show it off, and the big guy that shot it in the video had been bugging the builder to let him shoot it.

Now think about this... Only until fairly recently (early-mid '80's) the 600 Nitro Express was hands down the biggest, nastiest, hardest hitting, and heaviest recoiling weapon you could buy. It was designed for one simple purpose... to knock an elephant flat on his butt. This cartridge is known for breaking the collarbones, arms and shoulders of the shooter!

In the gun world they use what is termed as a "recoil index" to give prospective buyers an idea of what a gun kicks like. A 30-06 gets a rating of 1.0, which for many people is about the limit of what they can shoot multiple rounds through comfortably. A 243 is rated at .4, a .270 at .8, etc. The 600 Nitro Express is rated at 9.4... which is 9.4 times more punishing power than a 30-06. Now watch the video.

I hope the man wasn't hurt. This must have been a bad day at the range for him. He didn't have a chance- it just blew right out of his hand!

Watching this made me think of the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle. I watched a Discovery channel program about it- it's a really big gun. Unlike that pistol, it's actually usable.

The image shows the relative sizes of various shells: From left to right: .50 BMG, 300 Win Mag, .308 Winchester, 7.62 Soviet, 5.56 NATO, .22LR. The .50 caliber is BIG.

Here's a clip from that Discovery channel show. These guys are shooting from 1000 yards at steel plating and cinder block walls. 1000 yards is really far to hit anything and to have any energy left in the bullet. I have a hard enough time shooting accurately at 70 or 100 yards.

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The Road Trip

You may have noticed that posting has been light. Of course, that's just a polite way to say that I haven't been posting. I apologize about that. I have a lot to say, but things are happening that I can't discuss that are eating up all of my free time. More to come about that in a few weeks.

The big problem this last weekend was a family car trip to Phoenix, or more specifically, Gilbert. Of course, where we really went was right on the edge of Queen Creek, not where most people think of when they think of Gilbert. But all of that is beside the point. It's about a 12 hour drive from my house to my wife's brother's house in Arizona. 12 hours is a long time to be in a car with 3 boys 9 and under.

Don't misunderstand me, they are really good at entertaining themselves. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 is almost 3 hours long, King Kong has about 2 hours of entertainment(they make me fast forward past the first boring hour) and Monster House is probably an hour and a half, so that takes a good chunk of it. We also plan the trip to arrive at around midnight, so if the boys fall asleep at 9:00, that takes 3 hours out of the trip. We also stop for dinner which eats up (get it?) most of an hour. If you add this up, there is still about 2-3 hours of time when the kids are sick of movies.

The older boys can draw or play with their new Nintendo DSs, but the 4 year old just can't. At around 7:00 he just wants to chat.

4yo: Dad
me: what, 4yo (see I remembered!)
4yo: who would win, a Trex or a triceratops?
me: Hmm, probably the triceratops, because of the sharp horns.
4yo: no, dad, the Trex has sharp teeth and he's mean.
me: you're probably right.
4yo: Dad
me: what, 4yo
4yo: who would win, a TRex or a pterodactyl?
me: well, the Trex does have sharp teeth, so I pick the Trex.
4y0: dad, the pterodactyl has sharp teeth too, and he can fly really high
me: but the pterodactyl can't fight the Trex until it comes down next to it, then the Trex could bite it.
4yo: dad, the pterodactyl can fly REALLY high. (logic is not his strong point)
me: OK, you're right.
4yo: dad, who would win between a Trex and Darth Vader.
me: (this is a tricky one) Well, 4yo, I think that Darth Vader would win
4yo: I think so too (YES, I got one right!)
4yo: dad, who would win between Darth Vader and all the people in the whole world?
me: I think all the people in the whole world would kill Darth Vader.
4yo: dad, no, Darth Vader has a lightsaber, No one can win Darth Vader.
...and so forth. This is mildly entertaining for 20 minutes or so, but I start to lose it after a while.

The Escapee at Wendys
There was a winter storm that blew through the day of our trip, so we didn't want to take the shorter, yet narrower/twistier mountain roads. This left the longer route through Las Vegas. And we arrived in Vegas at around dinner time. You know those FOOD signs on the freeway that alert the hungry motorist to appetizing dining options in the vicinity? I like those while we're travelling, because we can pop off on an exit and find a McDonalds or Wendys easily.

Well, we entered Las Vegas from the north and saw a FOOD sign with a Wendys on it. So, off we went. We had to drive a way in from the freeway to find the Wendys, and that part of town was a little scary. All the windows that I saw had bars on them and lots of homeless people were wandering around. I thought about turning back, but we were almost to the Wendys. We should have turned back. Not all Wendy's are created equal, and the FOOD sign dosen't tell you that. I mean, chicken nuggets are chicken nuggets, but my wife's salad had that slimy salad slime on it, and my spicy chicken sandwich was nasty.

The Wendys was across the street from a hospital. I didn't think much about it, except for a brief thought about stomach pumping, until this lady came walking in. I thought that she was another homeless person (there were 3 or four homeless people wandering around the street outside), but she was a bit different. She did have kind of a homeless person vibe, but she was wearing a coat over a hospital gown- and I think I remember her wearing slippers. She had a plastic grocery bag that looked like it had street clothes in it.

She came in and bee-lined it straight to a window seat near the hospital-side of the Wendys. She kept making furtive glances out toward the hospital. After about 5 minutes of this, she made a break for the door and jetted off down the street. I'm not sure, but it looked to me as if she'd escaped from the hospital. We were glad to leave and get back on the interstate.


I'm a Scofflaw
The rest of the trip was uneventful until the trip home. The storm had passed and the shorter way was clear. This way takes you through some lonely country pretty close to the Grand Canyon. Late at night there aren't many other cars and it's dark. You may have read about my love of fast cars. Well, it's a long drive and not a lot of traffic- even my minivan goes pretty well. Let me just say that I may have surpassed the speed limit a time or two.

As we approached Page, Arizona (A lovely town with a professional and helpful police force) I noticed a pair of headlights approaching me from behind. I didn't think too much about it, because there are people who drive faster that I do. Suddenly this new car turned on its scary roof-mounted police lights and beeped its siren a couple of times. I haven't been pulled over since 1994, and I'd forgotten how humiliating it is.

It didn't help to have the family in the car.

Wife: Were you speeding?
Child A: What's going on?
Child B: Are we stopping!
Wife: What's the speed limit? How fast were you going?
Child A: Dad! Were you breaking the law?
Child B: Cool a policeman!
Child C: Why are we stopping?
Wife: Do you know how much this is going to cost us?
Child A: Were you speeding, Dad!
Child B: Dad! I can't believe you were speeding!
Child C: Why are we stopping?
Wife: Why were you speeding?
Child A: Do we have to go to jail?
Child B: I don't want to go to jail!
Child C: Dad, who would win, a Trex or the Monster House?

I thought I was doomed. Visions of ticket fines and huge markups in my insurance rates danced in my head. The police officer walked up- "Good evening, I pulled you over because of your excessive speed- 76 in a 65 zone." "Really!?!?" I say, trying to sound shocked, "I'm so sorry!" I'm doomed. We had to scramble for the registration and insurance card- but we found them. He walked back to his car- probably to radio in our plate and names to search for any APBs out on a silver minivan with a family of 5. I'm doomed. My wife was trying to keep a good attitude, but she kept sneaking a crusty look my way. I'm doomed.

The officer came back and said, "You were speeding a bit too much and I want you to be more careful, especially with your family along" I'm doomed. "I'm going to give you a warning tonight, but slow it down." I'm saved! He hands me what he calls my 'souvenir'(the warning form) and tells me to have a good night. I'll have a good night all right! I'm saved! I can't believe he just gave me a warning! I was sure he was out to fill his quota and make some money for his small town. But, maybe he really was concerned about my safety. I drove at 4 miles per hour over the speed limit the whole rest of the way home.

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Vroom, Vroom

I can't remember a time when I wasn't fascinated by cars. Fast cars. I would pour over car magazines and dream about owning Porsches and Ferraris. I memorized specs and the profiles of cars so that I could name the make, model, and year of cars I saw driving by. I remember compromising with myself that I would never spend more than a years salary on a car. What sweet dreams of childhood!

I still love cars, but my passion is tempered by the realities of a too-small paycheck, house mortgage, and 3 children. I still have the same bittersweet longing for a Porsche 911 as a boy for his dead dog. A few years ago I whined enough to my wife that she let me buy a decent car. I was able to buy a 3 year old Volkwagon Passat. (The picture to the side is not my car, but looks a lot like it. Mine is far too winter-dirty to show right now) It has a smallish 1.8 liter engine, but it does have a turbo. It's a blast to drive around in and the handling is tight. The engine likes to rev and it has great brakes. It's silver, as every good German car should be, and has a slight family resemblance to a 911(or so I like to delude myself). I really like this car. I am so happy with this car that I haven't felt the need to attend the car show for a few years. That is big!

Over the holidays, My wife and I went on a trip to Phoenix. Guess what I got to drive while I was there?

No, sadly it wasn't a Porsche.

The Bulbous Beak
I did get to rent a car, and ended up with a really good one- the 3.5 liter Nissan Maxima. The Maxima has always been a favorite of mine. They have always had the clean styling, good handling, and great power to fall into the 'cool car' category. I fit in the car pretty well, fitting in a car is always dicey for my 6 foot 8 inch body. My right leg was jammed a bit too tight into the space between the wheel and the console, but it was livable for a few days. I know that you average-sized people can fit your legs under the steering wheel, but I have experienced that only in large pickups that I would never own.
My first enjoyable moment was the freeway on ramp next to the rental location. A big semi was lumbering up the ramp, and there was a little room to pass before the lanes merged. It would have been dicey in my Passat. "What the heck", I thought, "it's a rental." I floored it and, gee golly, it took off. I passed the semi with no problems and was up to freeway speeds with a big grin on my face. My wife just shook her head at me.

Speaking of her head, my wife couldn't get comfortable in the car. The Maximas have an unusual head rest that sticks out into the area where her head would usually reside. My head was well above the problem area , but it really bothered her.
The freeway ride was nice. The car is powerful and smooth, and you really feel in control. In control, that is, until you try to park the beast. One reason that the ride is so smooth is that the wheelbase is long. It also has an enormous hood that sticks out like Barbara Streisand's big beak. I don't think I successfully parked it once during my 5 days of driving. I'd aim for the spot and miss, requiring an embarrassing backup/try again mulligan.
One feature that was new to my wife and I was the dual temperature zones. She is always freezing and I am always hot (a common complaint, I know). With this car, we could set independent temperatures for our individual side of the car. It worked pretty well and both of use were comfortable.

Another dislike was the 'sunroof', which was more of a skylight. The image shows the skinny little window they've put in the roof. It did let in some light, but you couldn't open it. I love the fresh air from a sunroof, especially in a warm area like Phoenix, and this was a disappointment.

Overall, I liked the Maxima, but I would never buy it.

Carmageddon
We stayed in Phoenix with my wife's brother and his family. He also likes fancy cars and, unlike me, has the means to purchase them. He has a Chrysler 300. I've driven those before, and was impressed. I really like the styling and they are pretty powerful. The standard 300 did feel a bit heavy, though.

I didn't realize, however, that he had purchased the 300 SRT-8. And I didn't realize what that means. It means a LOT. It means a 6.1 liter V8 with 425 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque. It means being just a little bit scary to drive, just a little bit.

I was following his SUV and I let him get a little bit ahead of me so I could see how the car could accelerate. When I had about 100 feet of clear road in front of me, I hit the gas. The demons of the 7 hells awoke and started screaming from under the engine department. I was crushed back into the seat as the car lifted up and started to rocket down the road. In just a few seconds the empty road was gone and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid smashing into the SUV. I started breathing again and tried to absorb what had just happened. "Why do guys like that so much?", Asked my wife. As I turned to ask her what she meant, I caught a glimpse of my refection in the rear view mirror. There was a huge smile on my face, like a kid at the end of a roller coaster ride. "I dunno", I replied, "didn't you like it too?" She just rolled her eyes.

We continued on our drive to my brother in law's work. There was a lot of joyous acceleration and the demons from the 7 levels of hell were getting whiplash. When we got to our destination, he said, "Now watch this." He took the keys and started the engine of his hot rod. One important point of the story is that this car has an automatic transmission, not a manual. He pushed a button on the dash and said, "watch what happens when I turn off the traction control."

Traction control, for the uninitiated, is a method of controlling wheelspin in modern cars. Usually an onboard computer compares the speed of the four wheels to the current speed and accleration of the car. If it determines that a wheel is slipping, it engages the anti-lock brakes for that wheel until the slipping gets under control. Some very expensive cars will actually reduce the power sent to the wheel, but I don't think the 300 SRT-8 does that.

He put the car in drive and smashed the accelerator. This car, with an automatic transmission, broke loose both rear tires and we peeled out across the parking lot. The rear end started to move sideways and a huge cloud of white tire smoke rose over the parking lot. Wow, this is some car. He turned it around and did it again. Carmageddon!

I have never ridden in a car this fast, let alone driven one. It is an amazing vehicle. This is not only an amazingly fast car, but a lot of work has been done on the suspension and brakes. The wheels are enormous- The top of the tire was above my kneecap. The tires are wide and low profile and I'm sure very expensive (we probably burned up $50 in tires in that parking lot that beautiful December morning.) I didn't drive it on the freeway, so I can't comment on the ride, but I imagine it is wonderful. I remember joking with my brother in law that we should race my rental Maxima with his 300. Yea, that really was a joke.

Of course that car has tight leather seats, full GPS system and CD changer. It has a true sunroof and even a factory installed DVD system with a screen that pops up out of the armrest for the rear passengers.

This car makes me question my eternal vows of love for the 911.

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The iPhone is here!

Remember the fake iPhone rumors? That was a sweet concept, but this is a sweet phone! 3.5 inch touch screen with full iTunes support. Very nice. Now, how do I talk my wife into letting me get one?

This from Engadget:

Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that's frickin' thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch wide touchscreen display with multi-touch support, 2 megapixel cam, 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth with EDR, WiFi, and quadband GSM radio with EDGE -- and amazingly, it somehow runs OS X. A proximity sensor disables the touchscreen when it's close to your face, while the iTunes support rocks CoverFlow.

Don't forget that iTunes support means that it also supports video playback! Now it's widescreen! The Office on a portable widescreen! What a wonderful world.


UPDATE: $599 for an 8 GB version! Yikes, that'll be a tough sell. Maybe I won't be getting one for a while.

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Surprise at Sam's Club

I'm really not a fan of Wal Mart. Not specifically because of any globalization/taking over the world concerns, but more because of the crowded aisles, dirty floors, lack of selection, empty shelves, unhelpful employees, and lack of hygiene among the other shoppers. I do find myself going there a few times a year and I always leave unhappy and feeling a little bit unclean.

On the other hand, I really like Sam's Club. The only problem I have with Sam's Club is that when I leave, I've always spent at least $100. My disturbing lack of self control aside, I'm pleased with my shopping experience there. On the other hand, I have not ever been impressed with the service I've recieved from the employees. At least, not until last week.

I ran over to Sam's last week at lunch with a friend to look at flat panel TVs. His parents wanted a smallish flat panel HDTV and had asked him to do some research. (The HDTV topic is long and complicated and will not fit into this post, but it is coming, promise!)

So we arrived at Sam's. The big TVs are always right by the entrance. It's a painful pleasure for me on a normal trip to Sam's to have to walk by the big TVs on my way to buy enormous boxes of mini-wheats and multi-packs of ketchup.

This time I got to stop at the TVs and I started explaining to my friend the pluses and minuses of the large rear-projection HDTVs. I started there mostly because they were closest to the door. Suddenly a blue-vested, middle aged female Sam's Club employee sidled up to us. "Can I help you load one of these onto a cart?", she asked. I was shocked that an employee of a big box store had just approached me and asked me if I needed help! It was as if Nancy Pelosi had just announced tax cuts- I was blown away. "No", I said, "We're just browsing." What would this person know about HDTVs anyway, I thought. I hoped she'd just leave us be. However, she would not be deterred from helping us. She walked us around the TV section, showing off the various technologies. She was not only friendly and helpful, but very knowledgeable about what she was selling. She spent probably 20 minutes with us. I felt like I was at Ultimate Electronics, except that she didn't offer me a bottled water.

We ended up at the Vizio HDTVs, which was where I thought we would end up. These are inexpensive, yet nice, LCD and plasma HDTVs. I'd read a bit about them and was impressed, especially for the price. At Sam's a 32 inch widescreen LCD is about $680, and a 37 inch is about $900. They include the HD tuner, so you can pick up the free HD broadcasts and have 2 HDMI connectors. Now, these are not TVs that I'm interested in. But for my friend's parents, they're ideal.

I don't know what they will ultimately buy, but I couldn't recommend the television department at Sam's Club highly enough. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of service. Thanks, Sam Walton!

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Funniest quote from Christmas 2006

"Don't you EVER buy me underwear for Christmas again!'

- 7 year old

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I'm still here...

Sorry for the long break. I was out of town on a little vacation and since then I've been horribly ill. Never fear, posts are coming soon. There are some things happening that will interfere with my blogging time, but I'll do my best to keep interesting information coming.

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