Farewell, U-Verse and Hello, HD Antenna

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You might remember my spring post on AT&T’s U-Verse service, which we ordered for Internet access and TV service. After some debate and foot-dragging, we finally disconnected the TV service this week to save some cash. Receiving all those channels in HD was a blast, the DVR worked well, and the digital music channels offered a nice mix of styles. But as much as we liked the service, it just wasn’t worth the money we were paying. So we pulled the plug. I dropped off the DVR at the local UPS store as instructed, which I thought was a cool way to handle equipment returns.

In the past we’ve made futile attempts to watch TV using a rabbit-ears antenna. I don’t know whether it was the antenna, our distance from the broadcast towers, the construction materials for our houses and apartments, or some combination, but they NEVER worked well for us. But after hearing about a friend’s success with an HD antenna, we gave it a try. Naturally, I ordered ours from Amazon: the Clearstream4 by Antennas Direct. Although it’s designed for outdoor use, I currently have it set up inside behind the TV, and it actually works! The picture is nice and sharp, the sound clear. I’m still experimenting with the placement and might break down and mount it outside to pick up more channels. We already get some of the locals in HD plus a couple of nice weather channels. Our TV already had a built-in digital tuner (just like pretty much any TV made after 2007), so we don’t need a converter box. So if you don’t want to pay for cable/satellite but want HD (Lisa, this means you!), an HD antenna might be your answer.

One Choice

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Last night I got to thinking about my days as a high school tennis player. I played JV freshman year and varsity for half of my sophomore year and all my junior year. Junior year brought out the best tennis of my life. Focusing on doubles, my good friend/doubles partner and I took second in district and got to compete (read: we showed up and got blown off the court) in the regional tournament down in Waco, where we saw a whole different league of players.

Despite our success and lots of fun, I decided not to play for the team my senior year. The main reason was wanting to write for the newspaper, a class which met during tennis practice, and wanting to have my other fourth period off for all the other stuff I did. I had a few other reasons as well, including being tired of the constant stress of calling shots in or out when I often couldn’t seen them clearly. Coach and my friends were a little disappointed, and my doubles partner was very disappointed, but I had to make a choice.

Last night I got to wondering: how would my life have been different had I played tennis my senior year instead? How big of an impact did that single choice make? Did it really matter at all? In the grand scheme of things it was probably a medium-significance decision, right? What I eat for lunch is low significance, I assume. Whom I marry is high significance. Yeah, medium sounds about right. Let’s see…

Obviously, I would have kept playing, probably gotten better, possibly won district and returned to regionals, and helped out with team tennis. I would have maintained a better relationship with a friend who didn’t know Jesus. I suppose my college resume would have been roughly the same after trading another year of a varsity sport for one extra activity. Due to time constraints, I probably would not have gotten involved in the spring one-act play, which means I probably would not have started my three-year relationship with Dawn, would not have gone to California the following summer for my first real mission trip, would never have gotten involved with a charismatic church, and probably would have avoided my little spiritual wilderness that resulted from my relationship with Dawn. Most likely I would have stayed at Baylor on the weekends instead of coming home to see her, getting to know my classmates better and possibly meeting a nice Baylor girl. Who knows, maybe I would have ended up marrying nice Baylor girl. If I’d already married nice Baylor girl, I probably wouldn’t have even met Jenny or had Brenden. I also might have pursued another career besides tech writing. Wow.

Only God knows what other changes would have resulted from that one decision back in high school. It had a much bigger impact than I’d realized, some negative, some positive. Would I go back and change it if I could? No. The road I took made me who I am today and brought me to my wife, son, job, friends, and everything else in my life. I am grateful for where I am. But I wonder how many decisions I’ve made somewhat flippantly that turned out to be much more important than expected.

Can any of you think of a choice you made that produced significant, unexpected results?

10 Commonly Mispronounced Words

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Whether it’s the complexity of the English language, regional differences, laziness, or other factors, we mispronounce many of our words, often without even realizing it. Here are ten that I’ve noticed in other people. You’ve probably heard some from me, as well.

CORRECT INCORRECT
What-a-Burger Water-Burger
Realtor Real-a-tor
Height Heighth
Nuclear Nucular
Ask Aks
Idea Ideal
Wash Warsh
Chipotle Chi-pol-tee
Louisiana Loo-zee-ann-a
Vanilla Va-nell-a

In doubt about the correct pronunciation of a word? Check Dictionary.com.

What have you heard?

Where to Go for Furniture

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Today Jenny and I dropped Brenden off and trekked up to IKEA in Frisco. IKEA is a Swedish furniture store that sells well-made, modern furniture at VERY low prices. The store is HUGE, and you can only find three of them in Texas. Pretty much every type of home furnishing is there, from silverware to kitchen cabinets. IKEA keeps its costs low through high volume, efficient operations, creativity, and lack of pushy commission-oriented salespeople like you’ll find at most furniture stores. But it’s not a Wal-Mart experience, either. Shopping there is very comfortable, well-designed, easy, and – dare I say – FUN. While there you can enjoy a reasonably priced and tasty meal that can include delicious Swedish meatballs or traditional American food such as chicken caesar salads or spaghetti.

Almost our entire bedroom came from IKEA. We have a mental list of many more things we would love to get there if the budget allowed, including decorations and an entertainment center. Thanks to today’s trip, Newbie’s new bedroom is all IKEA except for the mattress. We chose white furniture to go with his airplane theme. I’ll post pics after we get everything assembled, probably sometime this weekend.