So instead, I go without.  And if you’ll see my last post I hooked up my laptop to my HDTV in my living room, so I have some of the angles covered.

However, NBCOlympics.com makes it dead simple to watch TV online.  I went to the site, plugged in the Microsoft Silverlight Plugin and I did have problems with the intro video pausing.  But then I switched to a channel, for example, now I am watching tennis, Raphael Nadal even, and here’s a screen shot of how it looks.

So far it’s been running smoothly and this way I can work on my main monitor and watch/listen to the video on the other monitor.  Obviously, I have dual monitors setup.  Which I highly recommend.  The video also is opens up in a new window, so you can move it around put it wherever you want.

There is also a commentary text button which allows you keep up to date with the announcers.  It’s kinda interesting watching a match and not hearing Dick Enberg or Johnny Mac rattle on about various things.  Just the players and the stadium noise.

So if you get a chance and want to keep up with the olympics, maybe you’re at work or something, you can just tune in and run it in a different window and it shouldn’t affect your work too much

So in order to hook up your laptop, you need to see what kind of ports you have.  IF you have HDMI for your computer and for your HDTV, then it’s a one cable deal..  Just plug in to the laptop and TV and you are good to go.

Otherwise, you’ll probably need to hook it up via an external monitor cable to the RGB connectors on the TV OR the external monitor DVI cable to the TV, if possible.  Read your TV manual to see what kind of connections you have as well as look at the side of your laptop to see what kind of ports there are.  Generally there is an external monitor port and you can plug that with the provided cable into most modern TV’s.

For me, it was simple, HDMI all the way.  Then on the TV I just have to switch to the right HDMI connection.  This is done through the input button on my remote control.  The sound comes through the speakers of the laptop or through the TV.  Depends on how you want to do it.  I can’t watch TV and use the HDMI connection at the same time.  I can listen to the TV, but not watch it.  I tried PIP (picture in picture) but no luck, doesn’t work with 2 HDMI’s.

THe major challenge with hooking up your laptop to the TV is that my recliner is about 10 - 12 feet away and sometimes the text is hard to read.  I also had to reformat the graphics display on the laptop.  I turned off the laptop display and told it to use the external monitor only.  And then I made the fonts large or xlarge.  I also changed the resolution to a lower resolution which made the screen coverage larger as well.  Now, this way, I can read most of the text.  I am running 1280 x 720 on the big screen/laptop.

But I didn’t stop there.  I also bought a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse.  A Microsoft laser 6000 keyboard to be exact.  That way there are no cables.  This was easy, but not cheap either.  Probably another $80 or so.  However, it works perfectly.  There was a little antenna to plugin to a USB port on the computer to receive the signal from the wireless keyboard and the mouse.  Has a range of 10 - 15 feet and it works flawlessly so far.

Ok, so getting the picture?  I now an kicking back in my recliner, surfing the web from my wireless keyboard and mouse.  Just one more problem though.  No room for the keyboard and the mouse.  I thought a TV stand or one of those laptop stands, but I went first class on this last improvement.  I bought an Airdesk.  It was about $200 for the desk.  Arrived in 2 days.  It’s basically 2 metal poles put together, one vertically into a heavy metal base and the other connecting horizontally with an acrylic shelf attached to it.  The shelves can pivot and rotate to accommodate pretty much any setting you want.  I also have 2 other shelves I stuck on the air desk.  The result?  The airdesk works very well for my recliner/HDTV setup.  You can easily customize each shelf height, distance and everything.

Now I have a place next to my recliner for my mouse, my remotes, my yerba mate (a drink from South America), cordless phone and my keyboard.  Thanks to the sturdy airdesk shelves which conveniently rotate away from my when I need to get up.  And it looks pretty cool too.  A modern touch to my living room.  The airdesk and my lazy boy recliner completes the ultimate setup for the laptop / TV connection.

Occasionally it’s hard to read the text.  But there is a magnification button on my wireless keyboard.  And a lot of sites allow for it.  It makes zooming in on text and images easy and more readable.

So that’s my pimped out setup for having a laptop connected to a TV.  I still use my other PC, because it’s still faster than my laptop and I have dual monitors and do a lot of graphics design and video processing.  But for surfing the web, checking email (using ZImbra) and reading different feeds it works great!  I even wrote this blog post on it…

All in all, me and the packed place seemed to have a great time.  The huge monitors showed close ups of Billy playing the piano, and man can that dude play the piano.  Amazing.

I hadn’t been to a Billy Joel concert in like 20 years.  He’s lost a bit of hair, seems a lot more humble and was very funny on stage telling jokes between songs.  It was the first time he’d ever been to the beach.  And he played and sounded much like he did back in his 30’s.  I hope I can ‘perfom’ that well when I am 60.

On an interesting side note, his much younger wife went the same college that I did back in Oxford, OH, but I didn’t know her.

Anyway, the songs were the usual and the audience seemed to know most of the words.  A good time was had by nearly all.

First of all, there was an unusual smell compared to the regular original crust. That should have been my first clue.

I have tried many ‘whole wheat’ products in the past. And usually they taste slightly better then cardboard. There is a reason that we use white flour - for ‘taste’ and ‘texture’. But I figured Papa Johns wouldn’t possibly put out a product that tastes slightly better than cardboard.

Well, uh, nice try Papa John, but I successfully ’struggled’ through the first piece.  Somehow I think maybe a thinner crust or a ‘blend’ with less whole wheat would deliver much better results. Whole wheat has a way of ‘dominating’ the taste of whatever you put it in. And in this case, Papa Johns pizza was no exception.

Now, interestingly enough, there were 2 definite positive things I noticed.

#1) I couldn’t eat more than 1 or 2 slices at a time, because it was so dense. And I also couldn’t eat it very fast, because of the whole wheat factor. It really made me chew the pizza more. This is probably a good thing in the long run.

#2) The pizza tasted MUCH BETTER the second day after sitting all night in the refrigerator. I warmed a slice up in the toaster oven and I almost got used to the ‘new’ flavor. I even ate 2 pieces this time.

So, all in all, my review of their whole wheat pizza is that they need to go back to the drawing board and change the ratio or make it a thin crust of something.

If you are thinking about ordering this version of their pizza, be warned it does not taste ANYTHING like their original pizza. It is edible, but I don’t really know if it was truly enjoyable.

Kudos anyway for attempting something ‘healthier’…

Bottom line, it was truly amazing.  It was incredibly full bodied and very sweet.  It was easily the best tea I had ever had. And it didn’t have any added sugar or anything, it was just loose leaf pure green tea.  One small problem, they didn’t know the name of the tea and neither did their friend who brought it back from China.  So they gave me a box of “Gunpowder Tea”, and sent me on my way.  Of course, the taste of that gunpowder tea was no where in comparison to the “best tea in China”.

So that lead me on a quest searching for the “best tea in China”.  I have since purchased a lot green tea, loose leaf form.  The stuff in bags are not the highest of quality and usually what’s leftover from the loose leaf, so I stopped drinking bagged tea.  I now only drink loose leaf tea (the kind that you spoon out into a strainer and steep for anywhere from 1 - 3 minutes and generally not available in supermarkets) and I have drank a lot of it.  I have tried about 20 different types of green tea and NONE of them came even close to the tea I had at my friends house.  Many of them are quite good and have sublte depths of various flavors, but that one tea was still the sweetest tea I have ever tasted.  But I have no idea what the name of it is.

So for now the quest continues, I buy tea from incredibleteas.com, dragonherbs.com, and Silk Road Teas.  I even have and grow my own little green tea bush in my backyard (which fortunately has taken hold and is starting to grow like crazy) and in a couple years, might be able to a cup or two from it.  As I understand it, the best tea comes from 500 year old bushes.  Just my luck.

In case you didn’t know ALL tea comes from the same plant - Camellia Sinensis.  It doesn’t matter if it’s black, green or oolong tea.  They are all the same leaves from that particular Camellia plant.  It’s ultimately a matter of how oxidized the leaves are allowed to get after picking that determines whether it’s green, black, white or oolong.

If I ever discover the “best tea in China” then I will blog about it, I suspect, or I might just keep it a secret and let people venture down their own path of consuming copious amounts of the green stuff.  I hear it even has health benefits…

Not all HD is created equal.  Most cable and satellite HDTV programs are broadcast in 720p (also known as 1080i).  And on cable systems, some HD channels aren’t even 720p, they are compressed because they can’t fit all that data through the cable.  So you aren’t even getting the full HD effect.  Sad, but true.  HD takes up alot of bandwidth.

Blu-Ray has become the most popular HD format for DVD’s.  More and more companies are now making DVD’s for blu ray, made by Sony.  So if you are thinking about getting an HD DVD, then get a Play Station 3 and you’ll automatically have a great blu-ray DVD HD player.  Not to mention you should buy Call of Duty 4 and play it in 1080p mode (FULL Hi Def) on at least a 46″ TV.  Simply Amazing.  I think my accuracy went up when I did.

Not all games for the PS3 are in 1080p.  For example, one of the top games, Oblivion 4, is not in 1080p.  It’s 720p.  Which means it has 30% less detail than it could.  Hopefully the next game in that series will be FULL HD.  So, it’s important to check the back of the box to see what the graphic detail is.  Lately I am addicted to full HD, and fortunately and amazingly COD4 is Full HD (1080p).  Be prepared to be sucked into hours / months of game play should you buy Call of Duty 4.  You have been warned.

Finally I also upgraded to a quad core PC with 4 gb and rocking graphics card.  This new system smokes.  Should have upgraded a long time ago for sure.

The times that I do make an effort to quiet my mind, pay attention to my body and be calm and still are like mini-vacations.  And the great part, is that you can do it anytime you like…except while driving or operating heavy machinery.  Side effects will vary :)

And yes, you will still have to do the dishes, or go to work, or dress yourself, it just might be even better with a quiet mind

Today’s episode was about some horses grazing in a green field with majestic mountains in the background while the sun was rising on a ranch in Wyoming.   That was it.  For an hour.  And worth every penny.  No narritive, no commercials, just some horses.  Tranquil TV.

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s easy to forget to pay attention to the natural flow of this planet.  Not our screwed up, technologically saavy, productive society, mind you, but something even deeper.  Our natural world.  Nature - as healing as it gets.  And sadly, glimpses like these are slowly, but surely disappearing.  I drove down a rode I hadn’t been down in a while here in town.  Normally lined with woods on either side.  In just a year or two, all the trees were gone and there was nothing but houses.

Thank God and the former presidents (not W, btw) for creating and preserving natural parks, forrests and the like.  It’s entirely possible that someday at the rate of current construction, these video recordings might be all that we have left of what life was like on our planet before all the human development.

It’s ironic to rave of a TV show inside the comforts of our homes about nature, but I think it’s a good thing, independant of time and space to get a chance to experience moments (even if just virtual and temporary, without the smell, touch and ‘energy’) of the experience.  An experience I might not have had otherwise.  It’s like a breather and a reminder that we choose this life and these experiences and our stress levels.  And watching in hi-def seems to help amplify the experience.

The other day, I was walking through the state park and this spontaneous thought popped in…

I don’t know what makes the trees grow,
I don’t know what makes the wind blow
All I know is that I like it.

Well, this trifield meter measures electromagnetic fields. It’s been suggested that habitually being around devices with strong emf fields could be detrimental to our health and well-being. I’ve known about subtle energy, respect the concept and feel that it might warrant some attention.

The tri-field meter I got measures not only magnetic fields, but electrical and radio/microwave emissions. It’s very easy to use, you just turn it on and walk around. For the most part, my house was fairly inert - or lacking big emf fields. Except for the major appliances. The most notable being the refrigerator. And the side of the refigerator put out even a stronger field. Other strong ones (strong meaning way past 3 milligauss) was the stereo receiver for which I have my TV audio hooked to. That actually had a quite a big field (extended several feet beyond the device itself).

A couple interesting things. I switched over to measuring microwaves and turned on my microwave. Lesson learned. Don’t stand right next to my microwave when it’s on. The waves were strong, even with the door shut. I guess that’s why people with pacemakers shouldn’t use microwaves.

The other strong field was emitted by the Portable Sony Playstation (PSP). That cranked out some strong numbers. Makes me wonder if playing that over hours is such a hot idea. No pun intended.

My alarm clock in my bedroom had a pretty big em field. I guess that’s why the alternative docs suggested not to keep it near your head when you sleep. Fortunately, I keep mine on the other side of the room.

Lastly the surge protector to my computer equipment registered some of the strongest electromagnetic fields in my house. They were huge em readings. And I haven’t read that there are easy ways to counter em fields, something bout sheet metal. So I will have to play around with that, considering how much time I spend playing in that room.

Other than that, those were the most notable.

Being probably one of the few people in the world who don’t own a cell phone, I didn’t get a chance to play around with that yet. Also, it would also be interesting to see what the fields are like inside a car. Electric and gas powered.

I know there’s a difference between obsessive compulsive behavior and habit, but for the life of me can’t figure it out.  And for some reason watching Nadal pulling his underwear out really gets me to NOT want to watch Rafa play.  I mean I respect the guy and all, I think he’s the real deal, but I just can’t handle his social demeanor, uh I mean sports ritual.  And I, of all people, am not one usually for social demeanor.

So my suggestion to Rafael Nadal and his shorts problem is to try a different brand of underwear.  Maybe he’s wearing a jock strap, perhaps he should switch to boxers.  Maybe briefs might help prevent the underwear from riding up into his butt crack on every point.  How about powdering that area so that it doesn’t stick.  I mean something, anything. 

I just don’t ever recall seeing any other player in the history having so much problems with his underwear as Rafael Nadal does.  So there has to be a solution, somehow, somewhere.