New Apartment Pics and Television

I have included a few pictures of the layout of the apartment for everyone who's been asking. I added them as small thumbnails. Just click them and you'll see a larger version. We finally ended up taking pictures because of the cleanliness of the apartment. Mandy's parents left this past Thursday and before leaving they decided to clean and vacuum the apartment - so we figured this is probably as good as it will get.

We paid for a new television today, but we'll be picking it up next week Wednesday. It's a 42-inch LCD made by Westinghouse. The cool thing about the TV is that it really is more of a monitor. It has no internal ATSC or NTSE decoder built in. That means, you can't just plug a pair of rabbit ears in and have it detect channels. It only reads from a digital source. This is handy for Mandy and I because A) We never watched broadcast TV and B) All of our sources are digital (DVD-player). The other cool thing that computer geeks out there might appreciate is that it's a 42 inch LCD with an 8ms response time, a DVI input, and a max resolution of 1920 x 1080...

The other cool thing about the monitor is that it support 1080p HD-TV which is the highest standard of HD-compliant signals. This will be really cool when the Playstation 3 comes out, since it support up to 1080p and plays BlueDisk HD-standard movies (Serenity will look SWEET!) The other cool thing about it is that it will support the HD channels we'll be receiving on our set-top digital cable tuner, so we can... what's that you say? Yes. A digital cabel tuner with HD stations. Yes. There will be a connection running from a cable provider to our house. Yes. We have finally decided to take the plunge and plug into the cable realm. The reasons for this are two-fold: They gave us a $250 discount on the TV for signing up and B) Because of Ohio laws, cable providers can only make charge you month-to-month. That means, if we decide the stations we receive are not worth the moola, we cancel at any time and keep the $250. RAWK! HD Discovery channel will look amazing on the 1080p monitor. Oh, and an interest-free loan for everything for 3 years helped seal the deal. I'll post some pics of the TV when we get here and setup. A good article on the TV. A quote, "This is a true 1080p display that is slightly ahead of its time – but definitely ready for the future… at least until some uptight MPAA associate demands a new DRM scheme that renders all hardware obsolete and forces us back to using slide projectors and reel to reel tape."

Mandy and I are spending the holiday around Cin City. We're going to check out a festival and some of the cool attractions the city has to offer. When we attend these events, I will try to actually take picture with the camera I am holding. I'll post a weekend recap when I have more to add. Hopefully, by the holiday's end, I'll have some interesting stories and pictures to regale everyone with.

(The loft as seen from standing on the staircase - computer is to the right)

(The living room as seen from leaning over the loft)

(The loft as seen from the laundry room door)

(The kitchen seen from the living room - enterance is to the right)

(Bathroom as seen from the door near the enterance. Tub is to the right)

(Staircase leading to the loft - bathroom and enterance are to the left)

(The basement, filled with SPAMers, as seen from the 'Overlord Lookout' ledge - pits of tar are to the left)