Check Your Purse

Well, I guess there’s a camera out there for everyone. I look for a good quality HD camera without touch screen controls.  But not everyone is looking to  make movies, just record memories.

That’s where DXG’s high definition Luxe collection comes in.  The whole concept has the small camcorders covered in the slightly cheesy plastic designs of familiar purses.  At $129 they’re priced right for simple recording every so often.  It’s not the kind of camera I’d want, but I guess it can come in handy for some mom who just wants a clip of a kid’s school play.

Twilight Mama

I can’t let the weekend pass without commenting on the cultural phenomenon that is Twilight. I know I’m not the only Twilight Mom out there.

To be honest, it’s been a while since I have purchased a DVD. I typically prefer downloading to my Tivo via Amazon Unbox.  However, I just had to have the three-disc set from Target.

Now buyers have so many options–one disc, two disc, blu-ray, HD, download.

Target scored with the three-disc bonus and they let buyers have a free download of the movie from iTunes.

Amazon kept their pre-order customers happy by offering a free digital download so you didn’t have to wait for delivery on Monday since the movie came out on Saturday (12:01 a.m.)

How did you get your Twilight fix?

The Big Knight

I have seen The Dark Knight (twice) and it was excellent.  Don’t ask me to choose between Dark Knight and Iron Man though because I can’t do it.  On the other hand I have come to the conclusion that the movie experience can be defined, in part, by screen.

Leading up to the Dark Knight weekend Batman Begins was making its rounds on TV.  I really liked the original, and I still do.  Most of the major characters made their revamped debut there:  Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon, Michael Caine’s Alfred, Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox, and of course Christian Bale’s Batman.  There performances were great in the original, if not even more so in the new Batman.  No matter where you watch the movie that will never change, what does change is spectacle.

Anyone will admit that aside from noise, trailers, and special popcorn the movie experience is defined by the “big screen”.  It all adds to the adrenaline, the rush, the experience.  So what can be done once the summer blockbuster season fades and the DVD release finally provides a daily fix for superhero addictions?

Well, there are a few possibilities.  With the exploding market of LCD, Plasma, and HD TV’s picture quality at home can rival that in many theaters, even size is catching up (though hardly superior).  Home Entertainment Systems , 72” sets, and Blu Ray projectors have all contributed to the quality jump in the home viewing experience.

So maybe I’ll have to see The Dark Knight a couple more time before it leaves theaters, but when Iron Man comes out on DVD (hopefully in September) maybe I won’t miss the long ticket lines so much after all.

Despi-cable

I need to rant about my recent adventures with my cable company. I now truly understand why cable companies need to be a monopoly in any given market: if they had any competiion, my cable company wouldn’t have a single customer left. Out of deference to the folks at Digital Landing (who do business with my cable provider) I won’t name names, but our story begins on a rainy spring day…

With the coming of the rainy season in Florida came the horrifying realization that my broadband internet connection died every time it rained. And some of my premium and HD channels began to randomly disappear. I called my cable company, went through the standard round of idiocy:

“Unplug your modem, shot down your computer, re-start the modem, restart the computer.” “I did that already before I called you.” “I’ll need you to do it again, sir.” Followed by “Hmm, I don’t see your modem online. There must be a problem. We can have technician there in 4 days” ARRRGGHHH! Fortunately I have a backup DSL line, so I waited…

By the time the technician arrived, the service had mysteriously restored, but after  checking my wiring and signal strength I was told that the problem was with the outside cable coming into the house, which of course required a different technician. Two weeks and numerous rainy outages later, the outside problem wasn’t resolved. So I called customer service and insisted on escalating. I’m pretty sure that when they put you on hold whle they get a supervisor, the rep turns to the guy next to him and says “Hey, Joe - I got another loser who needs to bitch. Wanna pretend to be a supervisor?” My chat with the supervisor accomplished nothing and I asked for the next level. This is when it gets fun…

The next level of support is called “The Office of the President”. Seriously. That’s how they answer the phone. Boy, that made me feel important! Now, let me give you a little perspective - I subscribe to every premium channel available (yes, I really need 72 HBO channels) in addition to their fastest Internet service, all of which results in a monthly bill over $200. So I’m not the kind of customer they want to lose. But since I also have DirecTV (for football, it’s a necessity) and that backup DSL, I’m also in the position where dumping my cable would be pretty easy. So I thought I as in a pretty good negotiating position.

I explained my problem to a representative of the Office of the President and she was very sympathetic. 15 minutes later, the ocal service manager called me and within an hour a technician was at my house, with orders to make me happy. Nd he tried - I gotta tell you. The guy spent 6 hours rewiring everything in my house, and then told me I had a weak signal and they need to replace the cable coming into my house, which of course required a different technician. Deja vu all over again.

Four weeks later, still no resolution, and according to the Office of the President, my issue had been marked “resolved”, a mistake I was eager to correct. The same tech came back again, astonished that nothing else was done. So he took it upon himself to run a new cable to the house (although someone else would have to come bury it). The cable ran to the main box which is in a neighbor’s yard. Suddenly I had all my channels and a markedly improved internet connection. Three hours later, of course after business hours, I lost cable service completely. I went in my yard and found that my new cable wasn’t connected to anything.

The next morning I called the Office of the President (I REALLY like saying that!) and asked if Ashton Kutscher was setting me up for an episode of Punk’d. 2 hours later, new guys come to re-connect the cable. 2 hours later after that, cable is gone again and I was on the phone with the Office of the President. I ran out for a few minutes and when I returned, the cable truck was in front of my house. As I got out of my car, he drove away, so I thought my problem had been solved, but I still had no service. Guess who I called…

The cable guy returned an hour later and told me that while I did indeed need that new cable, the last outages had new wrinkle: the neighbor (whose yard is adjacent to mine but actually lives one block over) had his own gripes with the cable company and had expressed his displeasure by rpping all the wires out of the ain junction box. When they’d been repaired, he ripped them out again. And so the cable guys had to call the police, who in turn told the neighbor that if he touched the wires again, he’d be in jail.

So no I have new cables inside my house and outside. The outside ones have been buried. I have a brand new modem. Everything seems to be going fine. But tonight’s forecast calls for rain…