Today and tomorrow off, then start four days of daytime relief: 0800-1600.

Kay and I watched the first disc of the Sopranos' (Netflix). We have, what an old friend called: "Peasant T.V."; ie: we receive off of an antenna... and yes, we have our converter boxes. I got my first one in 2004, it's an LG HD box with a DMI (no not HDMI) interface hooked to a 27" HD 1080i flat panel. We’ve had free HD and SD television for more than 5 years now. I cannot fathom what all the hub-bub is now about the digital TV conversion. I’ve been aware of it for a decade now.

In total we have 5 converter boxes in our house hooked up to various components such as DVD recorders, VCR's (yes we still use tape) and regular televisions. I can watch DVD, record TV to DVD; watch TV, record a different channel to DVD, play Wii and record television to DVD. With these RW- and RW+ Re-recordable DVS's they’re just like tape, watch it, erase it and re-record on it. If you're using RW- media; beware, you must use the video mode (not VR mode) and finalize it or you can't watch it on another player. It took me almost two years to actually figure this out. I was recording a bunch of movies onto R- just to keep them (when I had satellite TV), and that was ok, but I couldn't record a sports event to watch at work and erase it. I finally figured out, after reading the instruction manual for the recorder, that I was using the VR mode—which made for easier editing but it’s not compatible with other make players. So I put the games on a one write only, permanent use ‘R-.’ (At this time I had only one recorder that only did the "-" format.) I had to put some football games on the permanent record (no erase) "R" disc's. And the way the Cowboys ended the season, they’re now just ‘coasters.’

However, if you're using a player that uses the "+" format you can use RW+ and you don't even have to finalize the disc's, they're watchable on all players as soon as you finish recording. It's the best of the two format's in my humble opionon.

So now I have one "cheap" dvd recorder that only uses the "-" format DVD's and it's in the living room and I have one VCR/DVD recorder with built in NTSC/ATSC tuner that's in the bedroom that does both the "-" and "+" formats. It'll also dub vcr to dvd.

With 40+ channels free and all the majors in HD, I simply got tired of paying for Cable/Satellite Television that shows the same old BS over and over.

So we dumped them, and went with Netflix's 3 at home for $16.99/month with the ability to watch movies on the computer. Now with the "watch anytime" that Hulu offers for free, who really needs cable and their >$80.00/month bills?

Titan offer's a really good television schedule online, and I'm able to use them with my Wii on the 53" Sony in the living room. Yep, the Wii has a built in web browser--ok it won't do everything, but it will go to many of my favorites and it also has a built in news and weather programs.



Also tomorrow I am going to meet with Andy K5CEO to talk about R.A.C.E.S. and the problems in the organization right now.

I talked to Stephanie about Wells Fargo today also.