Stages of Life

The stages of life are interesting. During the pre-teen years, you are totally dependent on your parents for everything. There's not a lot to worry about.

Then comes the difficult teen years. A time when you should know better but you have to find out for yourself. The teen years are primarily consumed setting the parameters of your social skills. Also during the teen years, you are invincible. Injury and death are things that happen to others.

Following the awkward teen years, the 20's are about being accepted as an adult by other adults while still having fun like a teenager. And you are still invincible.

During your 30's you actually become a productive citizen. You are old enough to have experience and young enough to have endurance. At this point you are likely to be married and either have or begin to think about having children.

Then there's the fabulous Forties. For some reason, during this stage of your life, you strive to hold on to your youth while is begins to gradually slip away. You get involved by going back to school or participating in exercise programs, running, swimming.....anything to keep that body looking good and proving you are smarter and stronger than those youngsters who are not yet 40.

The 40's are good years. Just before turning 50, you become aware of who you are, where you are in life, and settle into a level of comfortable acceptance.

The 50's are sort of a blur. You are not young enough to be called young and not old enough to be called old. You are still in pretty good physical shape and your mind is alert although enthusiasm is somewhat tempered by experience. At this point you know better. During you 50's, you just don't feel fiftyish and don't know how it's really supposed to feel.

Then you turn 60! Uh oh, now what? Your focus changes. You know for sure you will never be as pretty or handsome as you wanted to be. So you settle for looking and acting younger than your peers. At the same time you know social security, medicare, and retirement are things you will have to learn to cope with and you spend a lot of time trying to figure that out.

In your 60's you realize good health is a priceless gift and that you really are a mortal human being. You make the necessary arrangements to take care of your spouse if something happens to you. You make end of life decisions so others won't be charged with that duty. At the same time you realize that, with good health, you will continue to enjoy a normal life and do all the things you want to do. The emphasis should be on doing the things you "want" to do as you learn that "no" doesn't require a commitment.

And the 70's? I'll let you know when I have experienced them.

Thick and Packed

This morning I toasted some raisin cinnamon bread. I love good raisin cinnamon bread.

Yesterday my wife stopped by a local bakery on the north side of Jackson and picked up two loaves of bread...whole grain bread comprised of 8 or 9 grains.

This bread feels like a mushy brick. It is thick and packed. I assume this baker has something against light and fluffy. If you make a sandwich out of it, it will take all afternoon to eat it because you will have to gnaw, and gnaw, and gnaw in order to get the bread into a consistency that can be swallowed.

I'm sure that there are people out there who love to be challenged by their bread. I don't.

Take bagels for example. I don't like bagels either. A bagel has always seemed like a baker's botched roll. Apparently he made a lot of them and decided to avert criticism by telling people they were a Jewish delight, knowing folks are less apt to criticize if it is likely to offend a whole race of people. Bagels are hard, thick, and tasteless. Yet people buy them and rave about them. Good for those people. Quite frankly I have never tasted a Jewish dish that enticed me to ask for "seconds".

Back to the bread. I buttered two slices of the raisin cinnamon bread, toasted them and took a bite. After chewing a while, I decided that perhaps my taste sensors weren't awake yet. So I had another bite and chewed and chewed before finally swallowing. Then I did what I should have done to start with. I threw it in the garbage.

Maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy, but I like tasty baked goods that are light, fluffy, and easily chewed. "Thick and packed" best describes good ice cream, not baked goods

Searching For A New Television

During the past couple of months I have done a bit of research on HDTV's. I currently own a Sony LCD, 40 inch, 60 hz model. It gets an excellent picture and has given me outstanding service. But technology changes and I believe it is time for me to update my equipment.

Here's some things I have observed in my research. Plasma and LCD televisions are about equal in brightness. Plasma has several advantages. It has a much better viewing angle. Plasma is better for speed, i.e., auto racing, soccer, and yes, even football. Experts say plasma has a darker black than LCD, but my old eyes can't really tell the difference. But, plasma is prone to having images burn into the screen if left on it long enough.

LCD on the other hand has a crisper picture. It is a worry free screen as regards burn in, even though there have been instances of pixels going bad which will leave a dark spot on the screen. Burn in is not a problem with LCD. The viewing angle of less expensive LCD's is rather "iffy". The greater the angle of viewing the less clear the picture. However, I noticed that not to be the case on the more expensive models. Still, plasma is clearly the winner where viewing angle is important. If you sit close enough to an LCD screen, you can see some actual blurring in fast motion scenes. It is not very noticeable unless you really know what you are looking for. Manufacturer's have solved that problem by increasing the refresh rate and labeling it as increasing from 60 hz to 120 or 240 hz.

LED televisions use a LCD screen with LED bulbs lighting the edge of the screen. The result is a much brighter picture and improved intensity of blacks. An LED screen will almost equal plasma in black intensity. Still, plasma is the clear winner on viewing angle even though most LED manufacturer's claim a viewing angle of 178 degrees. I favor the LED over plasma and LCD mostly because of the brighter screen.

The top brands all have good pictures. By top brands I refer to Sony, Samsung, Vizio, and LG. Up until recently, Sony had been considered the "spec" model. Samsung has replaced them. Vizio has significantly improved as has LG. Of the top brands, Sony is the only Japanese manufacturer. The remainder are Korean. Vizio has made significant quality strides in the last couple of years and receives some fine ratings while still marketing itself at a lower price. Vizio is worth serious consideration by all consumers. Samsung is the largest manufacturer of HDTV screens. Sharp has a new "quattron" color scheme which adds yellow to their color spectrum. It produces a very good picture. However, the Sharp brand is still riddled with problems. I would give them at least a year to get their quality problems under control. And I believe they will.

New technology has convoluted the market with 3D, internet access, LED, huge contrast ratios, and higher refresh rates. Some of that, in my opinion, is not very good. Internet access is nice if you do not have a laptop computer you can plug into your TV. The internet access available on the TV or through the BluRay player is still quite limited. You can access Net Flix, Pandora Radio, Facebook, and a few other internet sites, but you don't have unlimited access to the internet. Various internet sites are moving to block access unless you pay for it. So I don't recommend purchasing a TV based on internet access. There are better ways to do that. If you absolutely have to have internet access for your television and don't want to use a laptop computer, then consider getting that technology through your BluRay player. It is the less expensive route. You will pay $50 to $75 for that technology in your BluRay player. When included in the TV itself, it increases the price between $300 and $500.

3D is the coming technology that will be evolving over the next two to three years. Very little 3D content is being broadcast, and when it is, you will pay a premium price to view it. Currently 3D requires the use of special glasses for viewing. Just off the horizon, manufacturers are engineering sets which will transmit 3D pictures without the necessity of using the glasses. Toshiba currently is marketing a small screen that shows 3D without any extra apparatus. I expect the technology to reach the regular sized screens fairly rapidly. Still, the amount of 3D broadcasts will be limited for several years to come. Many broadcast stations are still only broadcasting in 720p while depending on your TV set to upconvert the 720p picture to 1080i. The maximum potential right now is to broadcast in 1080p. Americans only have that available in limited quantities or through BluRay dvd's.

So what am I going to purchase. I have chosen the Samsung 6300 series LED with a refresh rate of 120 hz and a contrast rate of 4.5 million to one. I like the picture very much. I think Samsung makes a quality product. And I am not getting any non-TV bells or whistles; just a TV with a good picture. That's what it's all about isn't it?

If you don't currently have a HDTV and are looking, I suggest you look at the 720p models which are significantly lower in price. You will see everything in HD with a very good picture. Another good choice would be to go with a Panasonic plasma set in either 720p or 1080p. The plasma prices have dropped significantly. If you don't have cable access or a satellite receiver, remember that you can pick up local channels via an old fashioned television antenna. If you are close enough to the TV broadcast tower, you can use a set of $20 rabbit ears to get the signal. The "off air" signal straight from an antenna is far superior to cable or satellite reception. That is because the signal is not condensed for rebroadcast. Cable and satellite have limited bandwidth and they have to "squeeze" the signal in order to preserve bandwidth to offer hundreds of additional channels. I have always said that my satellite picture is outstanding but my over the air picture from the antenna is astonishing.