Saturday, November 05, 2005

Pets --> Dogs --> Bichons

Took 2 cute pics of the dogs the other day. Thought I'd post them on here. Both dogs are Bichon Frises.

The first one is Brian, named after the family dog on Family Guy. The second one is Buster, named after the younger son on Arrested Development.

I think it's true what they say about dogs, especially these two, they do have a calming effect. Anytime I'm stressed out, I'll just go play with the dogs for a little bit. And one of the BEST things about owning Bichons is that they are non-shedding and hypoallergenic. So they don't shed all over my furniture.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more pics of them in the near future.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Review of the AngelTrax CATV2400

I've been looking for a device like this for a long time, so that I could get TV into one of the rooms in the home without using hundreds of feet of cable and wires.

After doing some extensive Google searching, many websites pointed to the CATV2400 by AngelTrax. The other alternative was to get a wireless LCD screen by Sharp, which works over the wireless broadband connection, for over $1,000, but I thought I'd try the cheaper option first.

Their website said that it was available at Best Buy, so I went to the one in Bellevue and found an Open Box model for $134.99, discounted from the MSRP of $150.

I took it home, and it setup in about 5 minutes as promised. I had the base setup in the family room right below the bedroom where the receiver was.

When I first turned the TV on, everything seemed to work great. I sat and watched TV for a few minutes and thought, "Hey, this isn't bad." It wasn't HD quality by any means, but that's not what I expected to see on the small 19 inch tube TV.

But as the family started coming home, and using the cordless phones, cell phones, wireless internet, and strangely turning lights on and off, the quality of the TV video and sound started to go bad.

I tried other channels (not TV channels, but different frequencies between the base and the receiver in order to minimize interference)... channel 2 was the worst. I could tell whenever a phone or computer was turned on because of all the static on the screen. The best was channel 4, but still not perfect. And strangely, the quality was worse when I turned the lights on.

The Verdict: If I only watched TV in the dark, late at night with everyone else asleep, this would be a sweet setup. And it's almost worth keeping because of the clean, nearly wire-free look it has when it's all connected, but I can't stand the "snap, snap, snap" static sound every few seconds. This one will have to go back.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

First post ever to a blog

Today I've been stuck at home because Tmobile is shipping me a new cell phone via UPS and someone needs to be here to sign for it. So I thought I'd take the time to start up a Blog website, mainly to post some stuff about real estate, restaurant reviews, product reviews and anything else I might run into during the day.

It's a good thing though that I'm stuck at home because my back has been killing me all week and I needed the rest. I think I messed it up playing tennis on Sunday at the Sammamish Club. Plus, I'm hopefully going snowboarding this upcoming weekend, since Crystal Mountain is opening up.