Author: James

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Cutting the Cable Bill?

Not long ago, we finally retired our old trusty Panasonic 27″ CRT television and upgraded to a new Panasonic 50″ Plasma. Unfortunately HD programming is needed to see the difference, and I could count the number of HD channels available by Comcast with my toes. Hence I ask myself the question, why pay for all this when it’s all available for free over the air? So I went on a little quest to try finding a way to save on cable bill.

First, I investigated what I can pick up from where I live, and for that, I found a nice web site, antennaweb.org that, given my location, revealed what channels I should receive as well as the direction of the stations. I later found that tvfool.com gave even better information, but either one works. After typing in my address, I found that I had all the local stations I wanted, but Fox would be very weak, so that would be my limiting factor.

Next, I tried hooking up some antennas. According to the web, all I need is any old UHF loop-style antenna, so I dug around my cobweb-filled garage and found an old Radio Shack UHF/VHF antenna…

When I tried it, the number of stations I got were limited and the signal strength wasn’t great. So I did some research on indoor antennas and found that the Philips Silver Sensor was a great indoor antenna. I didn’t find them being sold locally, and given that I wanted to be able to return it if it doesn’t work well, I ended up with an antenna with a similar design, the Terk HDTVa.

This antenna worked well, and if I pointed it at a specific location, I was able to pick up FOX. There was one issue, however, which was that it was directional and there was no spot that would pick up all channels. Given that I had a Tivo HD, which is always recording, I needed an antenna I don’t need to move.

Then I tried the omni-directional Terk TV-5, which is not as directional, but it was weaker and also was very sensitive to the degree of rotation of the antenna. Given that I still had to rotate the antenna, it might as well have been a directional antenna.

Finally I found the antenna that gave me all the stations…

The Radio Shack Indoor/Outdoor Antenna, 15-2187. It had great reviews, and given the size, it had a larger surface area, I decided to give it a try. Voila! I now have a spot where it picks up all channels! There’s still some occasional breakup on a channel during rainy days, but it’s certainly a whole lot better than the smaller indoor antennas. Despite some web sites mentioned that the higher the better, I found that the prime spot for picking up Fox was right on the ground next to the TV. It certainly isn’t the designer furniture I was looking for, but with it only half visible, it was acceptable, even to Karen.

I have currently hooked up the antenna to my Tivo have given it a trial run for a few days, and so far so good. As long as the antenna has a lock on the station, the picture is perfect because it is digital. Now with the writer’s strike, the original programming options are more limited, so this is the perfect time to cut the cable bill… completely!

Sports

Go Chargers, Seahawks!

The playoffs is here, and both my favorite teams, the Seahawks and the Chargers are both in the playoffs. The two teams have stadiums that will chew the other teams’ ears off, and both have home field advantage, which is great.

While Seahawk’s QB Hasselbeck is brilliant, I have my reservation about the hawks, though. The RB Alexander can’t run a yard without falling straight into the turf, we’re pressed to depend on the arms of Hasselbeck, and the game we had at Carolina revealed the weakness in that strategy, which is that external factors, such as wind, can really affect our result. As I type, I can hear the wind about to take my roof off, which is not a good sign. Hopefully the wind will die down a bit tomorrow.

As for Chargers, their problem is the exact opposite of Seahawks. The running game is excellent, as they have RB Tomlinson who does wonders, but QB Philip Rivers can be erratic and hit the umpire 10 feet away instead of his target. Then there’s coach Norv Turner, who is riding the talents of this team. I suppose having won last 6 games of the season means they’re how jelling together. Hopefully we won’t see any boneheaded decisions from Norv during this off season.

So there. Let’s go Chargers and Seahawks!

Health

Eat the lard!

We’ve heard that you can’t have too much of Vitamin C. Then we heard that too much of it causes cancer. We heard that eggs are bad because of the high cholesterol. Then we hear that perhaps it’s not as bad as we thought.

Now we have articles about how saturated fat may not be as bad as we thought.
I’ve always wondered about that because Chinese people eat all sorts of fat, yet we don’t see them having more heart issues.

Of course, studies change all the time, and you can’t go wrong with “everything in moderation”. But in the mean time, time to enjoy the hardy pig feet and beef ribs without the guilt!

General

New Years Resolutions

Every year it is good to set some new year’s resolutions. The key to making good resolutions is creating attainable, measurable goals, so here’s my crack at that list for the year of 2008:

  1. I will post blogs more frequently, at least once a year.
  2. I will keep the cleanliness of the house from being in disarray. The house shall never be compared to abandoned houses.
  3. I will not leave my preopened oatmeal packages on the kitchen island after having emptied its contents, for longer than a 24 hour period.
  4. I will not leave the soymilk container on the island when it is less than half empty, for longer than a 24 hour period.
  5. I will not covet my neighbors’ gadgets. I shall not go out and purchase the same item within 24 hours.
  6. I will work out everyday. Yes, that’s every single day. Of course, walking up and down the stairs should be considered step-aerobics…
  7. I will wake up and get to work early everyday. The work day should start no later than noon.
  8. I will sleep early every night. I need to be in bed and asleep before the sunlight is visible.
  9. I will eat healthy and keep my cholesterol level under control. I will not eat any single fast food restaurant, such as McDonalds, more than once a week.
  10. I will keep the TV watching under control. I will not use more than $20 in electrocity for powering on the TV in any given month.

There. Hopefully I can stay true to these goals for the year of 2008. Happy new year!

Travel

Enatai Beach

Our fellowship went to the Enatai Beach park for some sun and fun.  Strangely, the park is directly under the I-90 bridge for some nice perpetual static noise.  After potluck, we had water balloon tossing…

 

And three-legged race…

 

And Maddy went into the water for the first time…

 

For more pictures, visit the Enatai Beach album!

Travel

Tent Camping

Karen and I went on the ECC tent camping trip this past weekend with Happyfish.  The initial plan was to arrive on Friday night, but due to some circumstantial events, our small group ended up arriving on Saturday morning, much to Karen’s delight.

We proceeded to erect the 10-men tent…

Afterwards, we went down to the beach, where some jet skis were available to cruise on free of charge, courtesy of some brother in ECC.  Erick and Jun took the initial run, squeezed the accelerator, and almost broke the 1 MPH barrier.  Yes, my grandma could have walked faster than that.  Evidently there was a foreign object caught in the vehicle, so my engineering instinct was unleashed as I attempted the delicate repair.

Having escaped shorting out the engine a few times, the repair was successful and the jet ski cruised down the runway at over 50 MPH…

When I took the helm, I decided to take it easy by squeezing the accelerator all the way, gliding down the waters through the slow region and nearly getting ticketed.  So what’s new?

After that, it was time for a change of pace, and we headed to the stable for some horseback riding.  When we arrived, there was no one in sight.  Having resisted the urge to hop on the horses for a self-guided tour around the region, we found another way to satiate that urge…

After that we got bored of playing horsey and started playing some caveman bocce…

Finally the cowboys returned and we each mounted a horse to ride into the wilderness, except when I gleefully hopped onto my horse, I ended up on a mule instead.  I got gypped.

His dominance must have been the donkey side, as Charlie kept glancing left and right and stopped every 30 seconds to eat the surrounding foliage, holding up the line.  When I tried to steer him, he appeared to be on autopilot and ignored my signals.  When I left him alone, he ended up walking through the bushes instead.

With everyone’s legs cramped up at this point, Karen assumed a funky posture to the relief the tension…

Then we had some BBQ dinner, sang some songs, and hit the sacks.  The next morning, we were revitalized as we attended the Sunday service…

Well, some of us were revitalized anyway…  For more pictures, go to the Tent Camping album!

Home

Goodbye, Fuzzy!

On Wednesday, Karen noticed that Fuzzy’s hind legs seemed to lack the usual strength.  We hoped that it was just morning weakness, but by the afternoon Fuzzy kept sleeping and breathing hard.  Normally, when we call his name, he would wake up with a mean demeanor, pat down our hand repeatedly with his small paws, which was really comfortable by the way until he switch to the biting maneuver, which was less comfortable.  By night time, Fuzzy would not leave his house.  We de-roofed the house and fed him water, then picked him up, and he just laid there, void of energy.  He had no appetite, not even when his favorite sunflower seed was hand peeled and personally fed to his mouth.  Something was definitely wrong.

By Thursday afternoon, Fuzzy didn’t even have energy for water, so Karen drove Fuzzy to the vet, the Bellevue Center of Veterinary Medicine.  Unfortunately, that was when we met doctor Death, who squeezed him all over and slapped him down, when he started shaking.  Doctor death was not done.  He picked him up again and strangled him, which was when Fuzzy perished at his evil hand.  Needless to say, the place would not receive our recommendation to anyone other than those interested in paying for Euthanasia, without the mercy part.

So we bid farewell to our beloved little pet, who had been with us for 1 yr 8 mo.

We will miss you, Fuzzy!

Travel

Strolling Down Sculpture Park

Instead of initiating another battle with the persistent weeds in our backyard, Karen and I decided to take the day off from housing duties and stroll around the downtown Seattle.

Afterwards, we were a little tired, so we headed to Myrtle Edwards park noth of the piers to take a breather.

  I had Karen go over to miniature peninsula and shot some pictures when suddenly an unexpected gust of wind caused an unexpected splash…

Then we noticed a new addition to the sidewalk resembling the an Oscar trophy making a splash…

Then we played with some artistic photoshoot…

and jumped to the area where the remaining pieces of sculture are…

The rest of the pictures can be found in the Waterfront gallery.

Family and Friends

Jeffrey & Grace’s Wedding!

Congratulations to Jeffrey and Grace for their beautiful wedding! Of course, the rest of us have been completely tired out from the endless amount of chores in the background… 

Without further ado, let’s see the bridesmaids…

and groomsmen… 

here comes the bride…

Here are Mr. and Mrs. Ma!!

and the traditional bouquet toss…

Of course, Karen and I needed a picture with the focus of the event…

For more pictures, go to Jeffrey and Grace’s Wedding section.  Once again, congratulations!