My husband and I decided to buy a new HDTV for our new apartment. After looking at our Cousin's 32" TV we felt that it might be right size for our apartment too, besides we also felt we could push the big TV purchase for later. We found the Sharp Aquous 32" LC3234U at costco for $499 and bought it. We brought it home and watched TV programs and they all looked great and later that night we watche Surf's Up and both of us felt the TV was smaller.
We decided we'll get a 37" or a 40" TV and were searching for deals. We were eyeing the 40" Samsung A550 model and a Sharp Aquos 37" model. We went to Fry's that friday night and looked at all the models they had we still liked the Samsung, Sharp and 40" Sony Bravia sets. The Sony model wasn't sleek which was a big bummer. We felt Samsung 450 looked better
than the 550 so we were unsure about buying that. We decided to look the Plasma TVs and we liked the Panasonic 42" models 42PX80U and the 42PZ80U models. The latter being the 1080p version. We were unsure if 1080p would actually make a difference at a distance of 6ft or slightly more. After walking up and down the aisles and struggling to pick between LCD vs Plasma we finally got the TH-42PZ80U model home. The reasoning behind picking this TV was that it was a 480hz tv with no motion blur or pixelation issues. Besides the these days plasma TVs come with an anti reflective coating so reflections in bright rooms isn't that big of a deal. In addition all plasmas have better contrast ratio and superior black levels than their lcd counterparts.
The Panasonic Viera TH-42PZ80U has a recommended minium viewing distance of 5.5 ft and has a resolution of 1080p. We were thankful we got the 1080p because it was fairly easy to tell the difference between a 1080p image and a 720p image. Other than that the TV has a native contrast ratio of 20,000:1 and a dynamic contrast ratio of 1000000:1 which is quite higher than most LCD Tvs at the same price range or even significantly more. The Tv doesn't have PC input but supports svideo so it's really not a big deal.
We got the TV home set it up and watched Harry potter for a while, we didn't like the movie but the picture quality was brilliant, the cinema mode was fantastic. Later on we watched Transformers and Spiderman movies and they all looked brilliant, we also played the orange box and Assasin's creed games and we noticed that the blacks pretty much appear fully black. Overall the image quality looked amazing and we thorougly enjoyed the whole experience. I was worried that the TV might be big for watching regular TV shows but I must admit that all the HD shows like House, 24 and American Idol just look fantastic. Bones in Fox looks the best and CBS looks the best compared to FOX and NBC. Even the SD shows like Friends and Frasier look very good. Seinfeld is the only show that doesn't look great.
This TV tuner is one of the fastest tuners I've seen and the menu is so user friendly compared to the menu in Samsung TVs. The remote buttons are nice, big and respond well when you use them. The picture quality of this TV has been compared to the Pioneer Kuro in some regards and that really makes my husband and I happy about having picked this TV. It's a delightful bonus to have a TV that you enjoy watching and notice that several other rever this TV.
We also tested the TV with Planet Earth HD DVDs and they just looked awesome, I'm lost for words to describe how cool it was to be able to watch such stuff at home. I should also note
that we got a good deal for this TV when its selling for $999 else where (yaaaay!!!!).
Finally, I would just like to conclude by saying that my husband and I are so delighted and so extremely happy about the Panasonic Viera TH42PZ80U.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Recipes to dainty dishes :)
When I left India after marriage, my husband's granny showed me some recipe booklets that got published with the Aval Vikatan tamil magazine and asked me if I like them, I told her I'd definitely like to try them sometime. Basically, each small booklet contains 30 different recipes that would help you to cook 30 variations of the same basic dish (more like specializing it).
I went through the one for Rasam and tried some stuff and I really like it. I like the fact that 30 different recipes for one dish are provided and I could just pick one and make it instead of having to search the internet. Besides I really love to read the traditional south indian recipes in tamil. I guess its just a cheap satisfaction that I get :)
I've had the "samaithu paar" culinary book by meenakshi ammal which is pretty much what most south indian brahmins/vegans follow. I'd like to think of the aval vikatan recipes as a nice extension to that samaithu paar book that I have.
I was trying to find out what other recipe booklets had gotten published and during my pursuit I found all the booklets being shared on esnips. Here's the link to the page http://www.esnips.com/web/SamaithuPaar , it has all the booklets listed in nice PDF. If you are interested, you could just download these and try them out. The only catch is that they are all in tamil.
For those who know tamil and in the mood to try this out "Good luck"
I went through the one for Rasam and tried some stuff and I really like it. I like the fact that 30 different recipes for one dish are provided and I could just pick one and make it instead of having to search the internet. Besides I really love to read the traditional south indian recipes in tamil. I guess its just a cheap satisfaction that I get :)
I've had the "samaithu paar" culinary book by meenakshi ammal which is pretty much what most south indian brahmins/vegans follow. I'd like to think of the aval vikatan recipes as a nice extension to that samaithu paar book that I have.
I was trying to find out what other recipe booklets had gotten published and during my pursuit I found all the booklets being shared on esnips. Here's the link to the page http://www.esnips.com/web/SamaithuPaar , it has all the booklets listed in nice PDF. If you are interested, you could just download these and try them out. The only catch is that they are all in tamil.
For those who know tamil and in the mood to try this out "Good luck"
Friday, January 9, 2009
Buying inexpensive petite clothing
I have a few lady friends at work and they also happen to be petites and sometimes we ask each other where they usually buy their clothes. Being petite and finding nice casual clothing is a big challenge. I have no clue why most of the Petite clothing looks like its been designed for middle aged women, in addition a lot of them look formal as well. Living here in the silicon valley I've found a few stores and brands that I like and I've found that people notice and do compliment me on my clothes.
Kohls, JcPenney and Macy's are some of the big departmental stores that everyone knows that sell petite stores. In Macy's their home brand charter club and style & co aren't that expensive and they usually fit okay. The only catch with Charter club is that most of the tops also look like they are made for older women. I love the Jeans by Ralph Lauren, its quite a steal if you manage to find it on sale.
Kohls and JcPenney have a decent Petite collection, but I personally feel that anything more than 6P is usually easy to find. I like Croft&Barrow, Briggs and Jones Signature.
Now onto the other stores, for some reason everyone thinks that the Petite Sophisticate in great mall has been closed forever, but that's untrue. The store re-opened last year and petite sophisticate now has more causual clothes as opposed to the usual formal wear they used to carry before. Since its an outlet store its really easy to find good clothes for relatively less price.
But the best price value is usually at discount stores like Ross or Burlington, I personally like Ross when it comes to stuff other than coats or Jackets. Even at Ross smaller sizes are tough to find but still you can find most of the brands you usually find at Macy's in addtion they have certain other brands that I've never heard of but they fit so well. I like the brand Rafaella a lot. I regularly shop at Macy's and under numerous occassions I've noticed that most tops from Macy's end up somewhere in Ross for prices that are under $10. Lot of people aren't comfortable shopping at Ross as they think its cheap, but in reality if you get the same branded clothing for prices that are a lot lesser what's there to feel bad about.
With the recent downturn in economy, discount stores are doing extremely well but even otherwise what's wrong with buying the same thing for a lower price???
Kohls, JcPenney and Macy's are some of the big departmental stores that everyone knows that sell petite stores. In Macy's their home brand charter club and style & co aren't that expensive and they usually fit okay. The only catch with Charter club is that most of the tops also look like they are made for older women. I love the Jeans by Ralph Lauren, its quite a steal if you manage to find it on sale.
Kohls and JcPenney have a decent Petite collection, but I personally feel that anything more than 6P is usually easy to find. I like Croft&Barrow, Briggs and Jones Signature.
Now onto the other stores, for some reason everyone thinks that the Petite Sophisticate in great mall has been closed forever, but that's untrue. The store re-opened last year and petite sophisticate now has more causual clothes as opposed to the usual formal wear they used to carry before. Since its an outlet store its really easy to find good clothes for relatively less price.
But the best price value is usually at discount stores like Ross or Burlington, I personally like Ross when it comes to stuff other than coats or Jackets. Even at Ross smaller sizes are tough to find but still you can find most of the brands you usually find at Macy's in addtion they have certain other brands that I've never heard of but they fit so well. I like the brand Rafaella a lot. I regularly shop at Macy's and under numerous occassions I've noticed that most tops from Macy's end up somewhere in Ross for prices that are under $10. Lot of people aren't comfortable shopping at Ross as they think its cheap, but in reality if you get the same branded clothing for prices that are a lot lesser what's there to feel bad about.
With the recent downturn in economy, discount stores are doing extremely well but even otherwise what's wrong with buying the same thing for a lower price???
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Shortage of rice in Indian stores in the bay area
If you've been living in the silicon valley you'd be well aware that most Indian stores have run out of the tamil ponni and sona masoori rice varieties which are widely used by most Indians. With the elections approaching soon in India, the government has no plans to lift the ban on rice export. Last month my husband and I had to make trips to 4 different stores before we could get a 20lbs bag of Sona Masoori for $35, in the end we got the last bag that was remaining at one of the stores.
A week back when I went to the store I didn't find any non-basmati rice at all, I was even okay with buying parboiloed rice but even those seem to have gone. I did ask the store owner if they do have sona masoori and she said that she had but rice is no longer kept in any of regular isles anymore :(. I got lucky this second time also as I could still buy rice for the same $35 and not having to eat the long grain rice.
Even some people have switched to eating long grain rice due to the increasing rice shortage I always wonder how it would taste with the traditional south indian dishes. I'm not sure if I should transition and start eating long grain rice instead of hunting for a rice bag everytime. or should I make the transition only when there's no sona masoori available?
A week back when I went to the store I didn't find any non-basmati rice at all, I was even okay with buying parboiloed rice but even those seem to have gone. I did ask the store owner if they do have sona masoori and she said that she had but rice is no longer kept in any of regular isles anymore :(. I got lucky this second time also as I could still buy rice for the same $35 and not having to eat the long grain rice.
Even some people have switched to eating long grain rice due to the increasing rice shortage I always wonder how it would taste with the traditional south indian dishes. I'm not sure if I should transition and start eating long grain rice instead of hunting for a rice bag everytime. or should I make the transition only when there's no sona masoori available?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Opeth's Watershed review
I have been wanting to write this review for a long long time now...This album was released when fans were quite concerned about the departure of both their drummer and guitarist from the band. Fredrik Akesson and Martin Axenrot are the newbies (new only to the band, they were previously associated with bloodbath and witchery respectively) that worked on this album. I think I've listened to Watershed a whole lotta times that its about time I wrote a review.
I'm musically challenged quite a bit so the rest of the review wouldn't be filled with any of the technical stuff. It's solely wat i think about the album and how I feel when listening to it. First of all I can't help but notice that blabbermouth has given this album a 9.5 which pretty much means its an excellent album.
There are a total of 7 tracks in this album, the first song is titled Coil and its a swedish folk song, the song has Axe's girlfriend Nathalie Lorichs rendering vocals as well. Both Akerfeldt and Lorichs sound excellent and I like this song, but I've listened to it too many times to a point where it gets boring...as good as it sounds it does get a bit boring after a while.
The next song is "Heir Apparent" I consider this the best song in the album, the speed at which Axe ends up drumming is just stellar. It gets quite intersting towards the middle, you would know what I'm talking about when you listen to this song...I watched Opeth play this song and I have to say Axe did drum so perfectly it was just amazing :). My husband and I definitely consider ourselves privileged :)
The third song is the "Lotus Eater" it has the sound of Opeth but its nothing like the other songs that Opeth has ever done. It's really progressive and I absolutely love it, I love it so much that I don't even want to judge it. The bouts of silence followed by intense drumming is amazing. Listening to Lotus Eater just elevates my sense especially when the music gets real intense.
The 4th and 5th songs are Burden and Porcelain Heart and I'm not a big fan of both and I don't really have much to say. I find them both to be simple and lacking creativity. I have a problem with just trying to get to like the basic tunes of these songs. Others might very well like 'em, I don't like it simply because its not my kinda songs.
The 6th song is the Hessian Peel, I still remember, when I watched the DVD and heard Akerfeldt play I really couldn't believe the first verse was real. Its such a sadly pleasant bitterly sweet tune. I love the rest of the song as well...but the solo blows me away. Every time I listen to the solo I feel like I'm not here anymore.
The 7th song is Hex Omega its yet another brilliant song.
So, overall I love 5 out of 7 tracks the remaining two aren't bad but they are simply not as good as the other ones. I personally feel that Ghost Reveries is still the best album by Opeth and with this album is definitely not as great as Ghost Reveries but it's definitely close. Opeth with this album has taken a new direction and inclusion of Axe has definitely contributed to the change. This album is certainly great in terms of musicality but the quality of lyrics has certainly dropped. Most other bands run out of ideas when they get this old but Opeth seems to have the conviction to really make good music. In all I understand why blabbermouth gave this album a 9.5 and I certainly feel that the band deserves every single point.
I'm musically challenged quite a bit so the rest of the review wouldn't be filled with any of the technical stuff. It's solely wat i think about the album and how I feel when listening to it. First of all I can't help but notice that blabbermouth has given this album a 9.5 which pretty much means its an excellent album.
There are a total of 7 tracks in this album, the first song is titled Coil and its a swedish folk song, the song has Axe's girlfriend Nathalie Lorichs rendering vocals as well. Both Akerfeldt and Lorichs sound excellent and I like this song, but I've listened to it too many times to a point where it gets boring...as good as it sounds it does get a bit boring after a while.
The next song is "Heir Apparent" I consider this the best song in the album, the speed at which Axe ends up drumming is just stellar. It gets quite intersting towards the middle, you would know what I'm talking about when you listen to this song...I watched Opeth play this song and I have to say Axe did drum so perfectly it was just amazing :). My husband and I definitely consider ourselves privileged :)
The third song is the "Lotus Eater" it has the sound of Opeth but its nothing like the other songs that Opeth has ever done. It's really progressive and I absolutely love it, I love it so much that I don't even want to judge it. The bouts of silence followed by intense drumming is amazing. Listening to Lotus Eater just elevates my sense especially when the music gets real intense.
The 4th and 5th songs are Burden and Porcelain Heart and I'm not a big fan of both and I don't really have much to say. I find them both to be simple and lacking creativity. I have a problem with just trying to get to like the basic tunes of these songs. Others might very well like 'em, I don't like it simply because its not my kinda songs.
The 6th song is the Hessian Peel, I still remember, when I watched the DVD and heard Akerfeldt play I really couldn't believe the first verse was real. Its such a sadly pleasant bitterly sweet tune. I love the rest of the song as well...but the solo blows me away. Every time I listen to the solo I feel like I'm not here anymore.
The 7th song is Hex Omega its yet another brilliant song.
So, overall I love 5 out of 7 tracks the remaining two aren't bad but they are simply not as good as the other ones. I personally feel that Ghost Reveries is still the best album by Opeth and with this album is definitely not as great as Ghost Reveries but it's definitely close. Opeth with this album has taken a new direction and inclusion of Axe has definitely contributed to the change. This album is certainly great in terms of musicality but the quality of lyrics has certainly dropped. Most other bands run out of ideas when they get this old but Opeth seems to have the conviction to really make good music. In all I understand why blabbermouth gave this album a 9.5 and I certainly feel that the band deserves every single point.
Making a good bed
My husband and I like a lot other Indians were just sleeping on a plain bed with few regular pillows. We normally like to sit on the bed and watch Frasier before we fall asleep and we've had a tough time sitting on the bed for longer time. We decided we'll make our beds nicely and see if that makes any difference.
There are so many blogs and other sites that talk about how to make a bed for a good night's sleep. We read through some of them and found out that we were missing the euro pillows and the other small square pillows. We went on a shopping trip to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked a couple of 26x26 euro pillows and we also picked out a 300 thread count sheet set by Croscill. I've used Croscill sheets before and they are really soft and they were the first fitted sheets on which I could sleep properly. Since we already had the accent pillows and comforters we skipped those.
We have a memory foam mattress topper on our mattress which makes it nice and soft when we lie down. We aligned the mattress and the topper nicely and put the fitted sheet on it. The croscill sheet pockets are deep enough to fit our almost 13 inch mattress. Then we laid the flat sheet on top the fitted sheet and tucked it in on all sides except the top. We are still learning on how to make hospital corners but other than that we did a good job. We arranged the euro pillows, regular pillows and the accent pillows and neck roller respectively starting from the headboard. We laid the comforter on top like it should be.
After making the bed, when we used it for the first time we discovered that a properly arraged bed really does make a lot of difference. We were able to sit very comfortably with enough support for the back and the quality of our night sleep has improved considerably. Not only that when we are tired enough to fall asleep there's nothing thats more pleasing and inviting than a well made bed :). More importantly this really wasn't a very costly solution, it was very affordable considering the fact that I won't suffer from poor sleep or back ache due to my bed :)
There are so many blogs and other sites that talk about how to make a bed for a good night's sleep. We read through some of them and found out that we were missing the euro pillows and the other small square pillows. We went on a shopping trip to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked a couple of 26x26 euro pillows and we also picked out a 300 thread count sheet set by Croscill. I've used Croscill sheets before and they are really soft and they were the first fitted sheets on which I could sleep properly. Since we already had the accent pillows and comforters we skipped those.
We have a memory foam mattress topper on our mattress which makes it nice and soft when we lie down. We aligned the mattress and the topper nicely and put the fitted sheet on it. The croscill sheet pockets are deep enough to fit our almost 13 inch mattress. Then we laid the flat sheet on top the fitted sheet and tucked it in on all sides except the top. We are still learning on how to make hospital corners but other than that we did a good job. We arranged the euro pillows, regular pillows and the accent pillows and neck roller respectively starting from the headboard. We laid the comforter on top like it should be.
After making the bed, when we used it for the first time we discovered that a properly arraged bed really does make a lot of difference. We were able to sit very comfortably with enough support for the back and the quality of our night sleep has improved considerably. Not only that when we are tired enough to fall asleep there's nothing thats more pleasing and inviting than a well made bed :). More importantly this really wasn't a very costly solution, it was very affordable considering the fact that I won't suffer from poor sleep or back ache due to my bed :)
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