Turns out for $9.1 million USD you can launch 1.1 tons of whatever-the-hell-you-want into Low Earth Orbit.

Although that may piss off the people at NASA’s Orbital Debris Program. But what do they know, they just want to prevent useless junk from hitting the international space station at amazing speeds.

On an unrelated note, I have been getting email notifications when NASA publishes another ‘Orbital Debris Quarterly.’ I have no idea why I signed up for such an email alert, perhaps so I could pass along to you the wonder that is the Orbital Debris Quarterly Newsletter

I ordered this Samsung 50″ 1080p Plasma (model PN50A550) a few months ago after saving up for quite some time. Cost me like $2k and I thought “this is going to be awesome! I always wanted this!”

And it is.

Until part of the screen turned pink

3 service calls and a replaced panel later, no change. The same part of the screen is still pink.

I created a post about it on AVSForum and it turns out I am not the only one to have this problem.

The tint makes watching Citizen Kane unacceptable… Black & White needs to be Black and White… Not Black, White and Pink.

DAMN YOU!

I was in Denver this previous weekend and decided to leave on Tuesday… I had school and didn’t want to pay too much on housing. I had an HDTV, and thought watching Obama’s speech in HD would be just as good if not better than just being there in person.

Now I’ve fucked up BIG many, many, MANY times in my life. Hell, if you just Google “Nick4753“, “NickCatal” or “Nick Catalano” you will find more than enough evidence of my screwups.

Oh, I’ve made big mistakes in my 21 years on earth.

But coming back on Tuesday is by far the biggest one. Staying away from this convention, from that stadium last Thursday, when I had an easy way to stay longer and people who would support me if I wanted to, was a horrible idea.

An absolutely horrible idea.

And I’ll regret it for quite awhile.

Go Obama!

I was just outside a few hours ago and watched as Loyola put on a Fireworks display to celebrate Labor Day. It was shot off from the top of the parking garage.

Of course, I didn’t know about it until I heard some explosions out my window. At first I thought “What the hell”, then I thought “Is someone attacking Loyola”, then I thought “Why Loyola?” until I finally figured out “Oh, Fireworks”

See I knew there was a picnic this weekend, but it wasn’t until I went outside this evening to go to Target and OfficeMax to get some school supplies that I noticed that it was tonight. So I meandered over to grab a burger and some chips and after meeting a roommate I had back in 2006 and speaking with him for awhile I made my way to get supplies. As I got back I noticed that the games they had set up were gone but there were still people sitting at the tables enjoying conversation with others.

I took the supplies into my room and after hearing the explosions out my window I ran out the back of the building and made my way to find a good spot to watch the show. It was… impressive. And seemed to last a good 20 minutes.

It appeared that it was sponsored by EVOKE, an organization that is a “campus-wide initiative to help students, faculty, and staff explore and deepen their understandings of their ‘callings.’” Thankfully, this organization is almost exclusively funded by grants and other gifts, so I am pretty sure none (or very little) student activity funds went into the fireworks shindig. If the entire thing was paid for by student funds I would be rather pissed, but hey… free food and fireworks paid for by someone else… I can live with that.

A few months ago I was deciding between an LCD and Plasma HDTV. I finally settled on a 50″ Samsung Plasma.

It cost me just under $2k, but I had been saving up for it for quite some time and since I moved apartments I was finally in a place where I had enough room for one it was a good time to buy.

Now, having a HDTV is one thing, but finding enough HD content to view on it is another. And finding HD content has gotten a lot easier.. but finding GOOD HD content is difficult.

Thank god for my HD DVR.

I set my DVR to record the Olympics Opening Ceremony in HD.

Oh my.

The contrast, color… everything… is just perfect on this TV.

Oh, and the opening ceremony is pretty cool too.