World Cup Final

It's a pretty momentous day today... The Netherlands is in the World Cup Final match for the first time since before I was born. I got my KNVB shirt on, ready to watch the game starting at 2:30. I find it a bit surprising that most commentators are making Spain the overwhelming favourite, even though before the tournament (like most tournaments), the Dutch are picked as one of the favourites. However, it was the same situation as when Holland played Brazil in the quarterfinals... the amount of shock people expressed in the Dutch victory was a little much and a bit disgusting at the same time. The Dutch are always talented and are always a threat to win. They're on a 25 game unbeaten streak. I can't see how anyone would write them off.

My pick is Netherland 2:1 Spain in extra time.

One thing to remember is that Spain has proven one thing that The Netherlands has not this World Cup... they've shown that they can be beaten.

New TV Ordered

Thanks for all your suggestions in response to my last post. It seems the overwhelming opinion was in line with my original thought... go with LCD over plasma. I ended up ordering the Philips LCD set.

I'm glad I didn't rush into a sale in the store on Wednesday, because both of the sets I was looking at went on sale a few hours later in the Shop of the Future's online-only Canada Day Sale. I'm guessing the salesman knew about this, and while I can't blame him for trying to make his commission as opposed to telling me to buy it online, it really reinforces the fact that you have to really know exactly what you want when buying there, because you can't ever fully trust them.

Anyway, after the problem I had with my plasma and the other tiny day-to-day issues I had with it, it seemed silly to go with a plasma again. I would have really been kicking myself for that decision. I don't know why I even let that guy throw me off track.

Delivery is Wednesday afternoon. Exactly one day too late to watch Holland's semi-final victory over Uruguay. So, now my dilemma is do I watch it online, or just deal with the crappy picture on my current TV?

Help Me Replace My TV: LCD, LED or Plasma?

So, I've started on my quest to replace my broken Dell plasma. My thinking going into this is that I don't need to go super-top-of-the-line, since just about everything is better in quality than a TV bought 4 years ago, but at the same time I might as well use this as an opportunity to upgrade the size. My initial leaning were towards the 55" LCD range. I know 2 of the issues about my old plasma is that it gave off a tonne of heat and (while I didn't have any permanent burn-in problems) there were temporary ghost images of static images left of the screen for a few minutes... that's why I was thinking LCD.

So, I went out to a local TV shop (not a chain, but just an independent) to see what they had. I couldn't get a feel for what they really offered, but the salesman there was seeming to guide me to Sharp's new line of LED TVs (with the fourth "yellow" pixel). While the image looked great on the showroom floor, I'm not convinced that the extra yellow pixel is anything more than a marketing ploy and that the brilliant picture was just achieved with playing around with the colour settings.

Tonight I went to look at the local Shop of the Future to see what they had. After talking to the salesman about my leanings towards an LCD and what I'll primarily use it for (let's be honest... gaming), he steered me back towards the 50" plasmas. He recommended the plasma due to its superior refresh rate over LCDs, among other things.

So as it stands right now, I'm stuck between a 55" Philips LCD and a 50" Panasonic Plasma. They're about the same price. Pros for the LCD: Larger screen, cooler operation, no annoying ghost images. Pros for the Plasma: Better refresh rate, better contrast ratio.

Help a guy out here. Anyone got opinions/experience with TVs recently?

Things Should Last Longer Than This, Right?

Yesterday, right after the Dutch soccer game, my TV decides it's had enough of being a useful piece of electronics and the picture went all funky on me. Now everything I watch is along with a bunch of horizontal lines throughout the screen, no matter what source the video is coming from.



I'm sure there are TVs out there that have been working for about 40 years, but mine lasted barely more than 4. What is it with these high-end electronics that make them little more than disposable products?

Well, silver lining... bigger and better TV coming soon.

$200 Less Because I Don't Wear A Ring On My Left Hand

I got a letter in the mail from Dalton McGuinty himself today. In it, it explains how the changes to the Ontario tax system will create 591,000 jobs and all sorts of other great things. To help us transition into this new and improved system that makes everything better, Dalton is giving away money to everyone. Seems to me, if it was so great, we should be paying him! Oh, wait... Anyway, ragging on the HST isn't the point of this post. The point is about the amount that we get under this Tax Transition Benefit.

According to the official site, a single person will get $300, while a couple (regardless of children) and single parents will get $1000. Excuse me? So, you're telling me that because two people signed a piece of paper and now live together, they get $200 more each? Maybe the rationale is that seeing how I love being single so much, I don't need as much money. Yeah... that's it. Thanks for kicking me while I'm down, McGuinty.

Plus, I think it's funny that a letter from the Ontario government is return-addressed to Summerside, PEI.

Popular For A Day

A good day for hits on this blog is about 10 unique visitors. Most of the time, it's the usual suspects of people I know who check to see if I've posted something new lately. Well, today I decided to check the stats for my blog, just on a whim. What did I find for last Sunday? 698 unique visitors! Wow, that's just not a new record, but it completely dwarfs any previous daily total. Of course, on Sunday I posted about how I was in Leamington during the tornado. Well, apparently that post ranked high on Google for the search "Leamington Tornado".

Of course, I know that everything I post is public and potentially readable by anyone, but it's still kinda weird when I think of all the people who came across my random ramblings.

Tornado Photos

As promised, here are some of the photos I took walking around the morning after the tornado in Leamington, as uploaded to Flickr. Obviously, the police kept everyone away from where most of the damage occurred, but I still got a couple shots in.

Leamington Tornado

This week I've been surveying people riding the ferries to and from Pelee Island. I've been staying in Leamington this weekend, because one of the ferries begins and end its trips here. Last night a (suspected) tornado ripped through town, mostly along the lake. There are trees down everywhere and roads are closed. So far, I haven't heard of any reports of injuries, just lots and lots of property damage. Locals are all walking around where they can taking pictures... and I decided to join them. If I can get my hands on a USB cable, I'll upload the couple of shots I took to my flickr page.

The ferry service was cancelled this morning, so I got the morning off. It may run later, but out of Kingsville maybe. I still have to call the ferry service to find out.

Maybe I can get some danger pay out of this.

Lost Finale

I, for one, was really satisfied with the series finale of Lost tonight. All good stories must have an ending.

What I'm Doing On My Summer Vacation

This summer I'm coaching a minor baseball team here in Waterloo. There weren't enough parent coaches available so the manager, who I curl with, ask me if I was interested knowing that I used to play and umpire. Thinking it might be good to do some community volunteering for a change, I accepted. It's a Tier 2 Mosquito team (kids born in 1999... scary in and of itself), so we do a bit of travelling, but not too far. It's pretty good, as the kids are good enough to want to be there but they aren't the Tier 1, Triple-A, more focussed on winning pressure cooker. So far, we're at 1 win and 2 losses. If you really feel like keeping track of our progress, here is the league homepage (after clicking on schedule or standings, select Mosquito Tier 2 in the drop down box).

The downside to it is that it's a few more of my evenings every week taken up than I had originally thought. We usually have 2 games (home and away) and 2 practices each week. The consolation is that it's good fun while I'm out there.

Now all I have to do it learn all their names without using the lineup card as a cheat sheet.