After Christmas Post

Well I have today off, which is very nice - So I am using my time off to do important Christmas things like play with presents. I have played a few games on my PS3, and I love it. the graphics are great. I have also watched some blu-ray movies, and They look amazing.

Some people wanted to see the name I got for my desk, so I took a picture, and am posting it here. It is made out of a very special wood that unless you are in the family and know what dad has been working with, you'll never guess the type of wood. The color that you see in the wood (ie the yellow) is naturally occurig in this wood.
I need to go and have mom take some pictures of me so I can submit them with my passport application on Monday. Assuming I get my passport in time and a visa in time I am tentatively planning on traveling on April 30th for about 10 days.

more cold and Projects

it is cold outside this week, so I've been inside more.

I emailed my cousin, and unfortunately he will be leaving Israel before I head out that way so our paths will not cross this time. I think because of that I will probably just focus my vacation on Egypt, and leave Israel for another time.

Since I've been inside more, and watching HD, I have especially started watching the discovery channel. It has given me an idea for a small project to work on. I am going to make a short film. I don't have a cam corder, so I may just use my digital camera's video mode. I have a few parts written, but I still have more to write.

Well thats all for now...

I need a vacation ...

Well I guess I really don't need one, but I think I want one. I've decided to plan a bit more extravagant vacation too.

I'm not certain on my time frame yet, but I think I have narrowed down my travel location.

And I plan on going to ...

Egypt, and Israel.

I am going to contact my cousin in Israel and see if he minds if I visit him. There are so many thing to do and see in Egypt I'm not sure which I want to do. I'd love traveling the desert on a safari, taking a cruise down the Nile, and of course visiting the pyramids. And round of golf in Egypt sounds nice...

Hopefully I'll get my plan laid out i the coming month or two. I'll keep you informed when I do. oh and if anyone wants to come with let me know.

High Def and Cold

Man it got really cold last night. -18 F.

I now have High Def TV. It is great. I love the picture quality. I did have a little trouble with directv creating a second account instead of using my current account, and then not deactivating the old receiver I was replacing, and putting me on a new channel package, but a couple of phone calls, and I am all setup how I want to be.

I get to keep my old programming package, and just add HD to it which is great because I have a 4 year old package that they don't offer anymore and it gives me some extra channels that you can otherwise only get with the premier package or the sports pack (CBSCS in particular). Plus my old package costs less than the current similar package.

The new DTV HD Receiver is ok, but I was really used to my tivo and its features. I especially miss being able to switch back and forth between two channels and rewind either one. With the new setup you can only be buffering one channel. Also the receiver is now leased instead of owned, so you can't make any modifications to it. They seem to offer the features I want like being able to use my cell phone to tell it to record, so maybe that won't be to bad. I probably won't be able to stream video from my computer anymore, so I may keep the old receiver around for that purpose, I'll need to test it out to be sure. Also I don't like the 30 second skip on the new receiver. It fast forwards 30 seconds while the old one instantly jumped ahead 30 seconds. Minor things really.

I thought about upgrading to premium with HD, but I calculatd that would be $121.00 a month. I'm not sure I'm ready to pay that much for tv.