a history of me

Yeah, I flew in yesterday. Did I mention we flew to Florida on the new Song airline? It's a low-cost service run by Delta. We had a direct flight from JFK to RSW with a personal TV screen for everyone. While I was disappointed by their musical selections, I enjoyed watching the Olympics during the flight. There was no free food, just free soft drinks, so I brought a sandwich with me. I figure someday they'll realize the only way I'm spending money for airline food is if I have no alternatives available. Soon they'll start disallowing outside food and beverage onto the planes, which means security will get even tighter. Then it'll all turn into Woodstock 99 again.

I now face the unenviable task of packing or trashing everything I own. I've got less than two weeks before I have to check-in at Albany. One mixed blessing is that my TV finally broke today. I got it from my mom when she moved to Florida and declined to take it with her. It's a old projection TV with a giant speaker for a base. It's been a blast having it for almost a year, but I wasn't going to take it with me anyway and without the constant distraction of TV I might actually get something done around here.

Speaking of Albany, I finally received my room assignment today. No, I'm not going to type my exact location onto the Internet, that's just dumb. I will say that I've got a roommate and sometime this week I'll try and get a hold of him. They gave me a phone number and an address, but the number is area code 718 while the address is in Baltimore, MD. Further compounding matters is his unusual name. Yerachmiel. Frankly, I'm not sure how to pronounce it. I hope he speaks English. Without a language in common things tend to break down between roommates pretty quickly.

Going back to the TV, I should share a new experience I've had: HDTV. My friend Dave is, well, loaded, and his dad has a beautiful flat, widescreen HDTV in his den. Since Dave's family goes out of town every summer, we hang out at Dave's a lot. Almost as much as we spend time in our own homes even. Unfortunately, this is the first summer I can recall when we weren't alone in the house. One of Dave's sisters has been around all the time and she camps out in that den, cutting us of from the wondrous HD technology. But last night she was nowhere to be seen, so we moved in to give it a whirl. I needed some HD-lympics!

The perks are harder to describe than the shortcomings. Picture and sound are top-notch but I can't really explain how. The widescreen aspect of the TV is the fun part for me. This is the tool to explain to people why they've had to put up with letterboxing for so long. Regular TV signals are shown in the middle of the screen with blank space on the sides. HDTV signals take up the entire screen. That means full widescreen presentation of movies, sporting events and even some TV shows. But that "some" is the root of the problem. There simply isn't a lot of HD content to be broadcast right now.

Take ESPNHD as an example. They now broadcast their signature show, Sportscenter, in HD. This means a new stageset and new graphics to fit the screen. But all the sports highlights are collected from regular broadcast networks which must then be shown with big spaces on the sides. ESPNHD cleverly fills that space with graphics, but the different between the dressing and the content is glaring.

For an even bigger problem, let's look at what I wanted desperately to watch: HD-lympics. Yes, NBC is airing a special HD version of their Olympic coverage and it's virtually commercial-free. But it sucks and here's why: It's unorganized and way behind the current events. I say "unorganized" because the graphics were often missing or late. During normal Olympic swimming coverage, each lane is marked with the swimmer's name and nation before the race starts, and every time they hit the edge and turn, the leader's lane is highlighted to keep you involved. On NBCHD there are no such graphics. Each swimmer is shown on the blocks and hopefully you remember who's who once they're in the water. That's a minor complaint compared to the time-delay issue. Much like the news, sports has to be up-to-date or else it's pointless. Last night on NBCHD they were showing hours and hours of swimming, specifically the qualifying heats. But those races have all come and gone. It's like watching a pre-season game when you know someone's already won the Super Bowl. The programming shown on NBC at the same time was much more compelling. So don't break your back or wallet investing in HDTV just yet. It will be ready someday, but not today.