Saturday, September 10, 2005

The Vick Brothers

For the last year or two I have really enjoyed watching Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons play football. He is one of those players that always surprises you. If you don't know, he is the quarterback, but he can run with the ball better than anybody on the team. So when it is third and long, he will try to pass, but if no one is open, there he goes! And he usually makes the first down. So last week I watched his little brother Marcus play, and he has the same kind of style. He is the fastest runner on his team (Virginia Tech), and he throws the ball better than Mike. Today I saw them play Duke, and Marcus threw three TD passes. He has this style of throwing a really long pass like the ball is just up there floating, and then it falls right into the hands of the receiver. They are both a lot of fun to watch.

It was interesting to listen to the announcers today. I was pulling for Va Tech, but the announcers were Duke guys. So it was all Duke. It's kind of like when you watch a Panthers game on the local channel, and the announcers are all about the Panthers. But if you see it on ESPN they are more neutral.

BTW Starmount's football team is bad this year. I mean the bad that means bad, not the bad that means good. BUT, they will have a great basketball team! They have another Puerto Rican. He's a 6'5" junior. And he can also dunk the ball. So they will be fun to watch.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Satellite vs. Cable

(Note I put on our front door this morning)
"Cable guy, Please put the receiver on the porch swing. Thanks."
(Added to note when I got home this afternoon)
"OK Beautiful, if you'll give me a big kiss! Larry"

This is how it went down. I went to our local cablevision company last week and ordered cable TV along with the recording equipment. We would be paying less for a year, then it was going to be a little higher, but we would have the recording stuff, which we wanted. So on Wednesday the guy came and put it in. I had a really hard day at work and didn't really notice much while he was here. So when Bennie got home we tried it out. I wanted to cry. It was terrible! The picture was grainy, and nothing was clear like it had been. Plus there was a lot of junk every time you changed a channel. I just absolutely hated it. So yesterday morning I went to the cablevision office and told them about the poor picture quality. They said that the guy must not have put it in right, and they would send a technician to our house between 3:00 and 5:00. Okay. But it just nagged at me. It wasn't what I wanted anymore. So around lunch time yesterday I got on the phone to Direct TV (or DirecTV) and asked them about their recording stuff. I talked to one guy and happened to mention that we were thinking about switching to cable. So he transferred me to this other guy who was sweet as honey. He started making me all these deals. I finally fessed up and told him what we had done, but that I didn't know if the technician guy could fix it or not. He told me that no, he wouldn't be able to fix it because cable just wasn't the quality that satellite was. Which is true, I have found out. So, to make a really long story not as long, he offered us two recorders which were $148 each for $99 for one with $100 rebate, and the other one for free. So we made a dollar. Plus he took off $5 for six months on the HD package and $5 for a year on our total package. SO, we would be paying $10 less and having two recorders! Well, this all sounded good, but the tech was still coming between 3 and 5. So the guy gave me a new number to call and said he would put all of our deals on the computer if we wanted to stay with Direct TV.

Okay, so then the tech shows up, actually two of them. I explained about how the picture quality was grainy, and right away one of the guys said, "Yeah, there's nothing we can do about that, but it is only on Channels 2 through 70," like that was okay. And these were the main channels we would be watching! Well, it was NOT okay with me, and I told them so. They still tried to talk me into staying with cable (and I did feel bad because everyone had gone to so much trouble for us), but I held firm. I said that I wanted what I had before and didn't want less. So, they finally packed up the cable stuff, and one of them actually went out of his way to hook back up our satellite, which we hadn't turned off yet.

So, I called Direct TV as soon as they left and got us the sweet deal. I am so happy!

As for the beginning of this post - when the cable guy came on Wednesday he had to take one of our receivers with him as a trade off for switching, so he was supposed to bring us back the receiver today. I had to leave, so I left that note. Bennie is a lot of fun to live with sometimes!

Friday, September 02, 2005

Me and Haley Joel

If you haven't heard, Haley Joel Osment (the Sixth Sense kid {and Forest Gump kid}) is starring in a movie being filmed in North Carolina called "Home of the Giants". So last Wednesday I went down to Hanes Mall with my photo and pen and stood in line with a few other wannabe actors and actresses. Some of these people were real pros. They carried 8x10 black and white head shots to turn in with their form. I just had a digital pic that Bennie took at lunch time that day. When it was my turn I turned in my form and picture and talked to this guy for a little bit (my interview I guess). He said the most important thing they were looking for was availability and asked when would I be available to work. Because I work at home now I was able to say, "anytime". So, we'll see what happens. The guy told me that on another movie they had 1700 people apply for 200 spots. And, they mostly wanted teenagers and young adults. I don't really have my hopes up, especially with gas now, but it would be fun.

Today I went and signed us up for cable TV. We have had satellite now for almost ten years, but I liked Justin and Vanessa's set up with the recording thing. So Bennie and I discussed it and decided to go with it. The only con that we both had was that we won't be getting BYU anymore. But a big pro was that we will be paying less. So, now to learn the instructions. And I don't have much time before the FALL SEASON starts!