Another HDTV, phone fun, and 360 happenings...

Was out running around after work tonight and came across a Phillips 30PW8402 16:9 HDTV (see below) at Goodwill. Let me tell you about this bad boy, it's a 30" inch wide screen CRT television set, really close to the Samsung 30" 16:9 HDTV I've owned for probably 5-6 years now. It supports 480p/1080i plus has an HDMI input (a feature which my Samsung lacks) but like the Samsung lacks a digital tuner (a mute point with the digital Cox box hooked up). While my Samsung has a beautiful HD picture (almost crisper to me than the 42" HD projection TV that replaced it) these CRT monstrosity's have one big downside, they weigh around 125 lbs. The Phillips set is actually more 'carry' friendly having a hand hold under the speakers in front and a lip over the rear connectors to grasp onto. I played around in the store for about 30 minutes powering it on, checking the menu options from the remote, which all worked fine, but didn't have a antenna to get a picture. I asked one of the clerks and she said there were no refunds, but had no objections to me hooking up a VCR that was for sale and trying out a tape. The set worked as far as I could tell so I went ahead an plunked down my $38.24 (including tax) and was on my way.

A couple curse words later (did I mention how heavy these are??), and a trip downstairs, my daughter is now playing her 360 in HD chucking the 19" set she had to the curb. The first shot is the Phillips website thumbnail, the second shot is my daughter playing 1943 on the 360.

I upgraded my phone a couple months back (android Cliq) and started playing around with some of the games about a week ago. I've played around with Raging Thunder 2 a pretty cool racing game (which I suck at), and Crystallight (a tower defense game) but so far I'm enjoying Colorix (think Sega's Columns), Gameboid (a GBA emulator), and Shoot U! (a simple physics based 'puzzle' game) the most. One of the podcast I listen to recommended Devilry Huntress (a match 3 game with a horror theme) so I'm looking forward to trying it out next. I went with the Cliq because Motorola had stated there was a 2.x OS update coming March-April this year (plus I wanted the real keyboard) well here we are almost into June and the 2.x update is still nowhere to be found. :( Other than that shortcoming I'm enjoying my phone so far.

I've gotten back into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multi-player recently, as I never really started playing when it came out. I'm 'jonesing' for the extra map pack (Stimulus) that came out back at the end of March, but I'm having a really hard time justifying $15.00 bucks for 3 new maps, and 2 redo's from COD4. Then (Activision) goes and announces the new pack (Resurgence) set for June 3rd again consisting of 3 new maps, and 2 redo's from COD4 for $15.00 (hmmm... notice a trend here?). I held off buying the Stimulus pack in some sort of hope filled, fairy tale, kitty cuddling universe that when the Resurgence pack goes up there will be a package discount for one or both. The other game that has monopolized my 360 time is Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Horse as some like to call it, playing like GTA set in the old west. It gets the look and feel down cold, I'm having as much fun riding around killing wildlife and skinning them for cash, as I am completing the missions.