I'm pretty sure I just heard a werewolf outside. It also could have been a coyote but I'm not ruling out werewolf just yet.

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A few weeks ago I was at an evening gathering of young people at someone's residence. Someone called it a "house party" or something. Anyways, it was basically a day after I barely escaped the layoffs at Black Box. With my good fortune, I knew I was going to be able to go through with my apartment purchase.

At the party, I saw a young married I couple I know, "Dave" and "Joyce". They had recently just bought a place themselves, so we had lots of stuff to talk about. The conversation turned to furniture, specifically placement of said furniture. I explained to Joyce that despite the absence of a den, I was still planning on having a modestly-sized desk (with my computer) in my apartment. Joyce was adamant about not placing the desk in my bedroom. She said a desk in the bedroom evokes images of a university student who studies and sleeps in the same room. I believe Joyce said the bedroom should be the place for only three things: sleeping, watching porn, or having sex. Joyce also said that no woman would take me seriously if she saw a desk in my bedroom. She said to get a small corner desk and place it in the living room.

I was slightly skeptical about her claims but then again, I have no idea what women are thinking about 99% of the time and here was a woman telling me what other women would be thinking, so I had to give it some serious thought.

To get another opinion, I spoke to my very good friend "Ron". Ron flat out said Joyce was crazy and not to listen to her. He said that I should place my desk anywhere that I wanted to because after all, it's my apartment, not Joyce's. Ron then also gave quite the compelling statement:

"If you found a girl that was willing to reject you based purely on where your desk was in your apartment, then that girl really wasn't the one you deserved in the first place."

It was if I was back in a small mud hut on Dagobah again. I could not find any argument against Ron's wisdom.

So here's my thoughts on this. I don't like the idea of placing a desk in my living room. I've seen it done in other places and it looks very messy. The living room is for entertaining, it should be kept neat, tidy, and clean. I also imagine I'll be doing most of my guest entertaining in the living room, so I want it to be a nicely decorated space. Having even a small but random desk in a corner doesn't help me achieve that goal. While I do think a desk in the bedroom is a better choice, keep in mind the desk size and shape will be respectful of the space it occupies. It won't have tons of papers or crap on it. It'll have my monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, maybe a book or two, and perhaps a few papers I'll be reading at the time. I plan on keeping it clean and minimal.

I'd like to open up this topic for discussion among my readers. Where do you think my desk should go? Please leave your thoughts as a comment. I'd like to hear what you have to say about this.

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After some thought, I am going to hold off on my TV purchase for at least another three weeks or more. After talking to some dudes whom I respect, I've been talked out of buying the $4000 LCD TV from the future. It's just too high of price for a TV that only displays pictures. Had it also cooked and cleaned for me, then it might be still in the running.

Since then, I've given more thought to buying a plasma TV. After doing some research, I came across a report on Panasonic's new plasma offerings for 2009 (my emphasis added):

"The G10 series is offered in 42”, 46” 50” and 54” screen sizes. Unlike the above series, the G10s are standard depth plasmas (around 3.5”). The G10 uses Panasonics new “green” (low power) Neo PDP technology with Infinite Black and 40,000:1 contrast ratio and full 1080 lines of motion resolution. Features include VIERA Cast Internet connectivity, THX Certification, SD card slot for still photos & AVCHD home movies and 3 HDMI inputs. The 42”, 46” and 50” models will be available in March with the 54” arriving in May. The model numbers are TC-42PG10, TC-46PG10, TC-50PG10 and the TC-54PG10."

This bit of info is important for several reasons. First, Panasonic has quietly positioned itself as one of the best plasma TV manufacturers in the world. Second, they've somehow managed to reduce the power requirements of their plasmas to apparently 50% of their 2007 models. For their higher-end models for 2009, this means some of them are about 1" thick now. Hopefully, this will also mean they've done away with the fans that were necessary with older models. I'm fine with a thicker TV but if they've reduced the amount of juice it requires then it becomes cheaper to use, it's better for the environment, and it's quieter since it doesn't require fans now.

Availability is supposed to be in March but unfortunately no pricing has been announced. So for now, I'm going to wait.

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I received a letter in the mail today from one of the banks I do business with. They were informing me they were about to cancel one of the credit cards I have with them. Apparently there was a security breach with a large payment processor based in the US. Heartland Payment Systems discovered some malicious software in their system and made the breach public in late January.

It's not known if any of my credit card info was compromised. What is known is that somehow my card went through their systems in a legit transaction. It could have been something I ordered online but it's my trip to Vegas that probably connected my card with a US payment processor.

I've looked at my statements and nothing has looked out of the ordinary. Every transaction has been mine. As a precaution, my bank will be issuing me a new card with new microchip-based security. I was scheduled to get this new fancy credit card a year from now but this breach has moved that timeline up. Interestingly, for retailers who have new terminals that support chipped cards, I will now be required to enter in a PIN to complete the credit card transaction, much like debit card. That's another PIN to remember.

As far as I know, this is the closest I've come to someone trying to steal my identity.

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Until this weekend, I wasn't sure which TV was the one I wanted. After some research I have determined the Samsung LN46A950 is object of my desires. This 46" marvel of technology is the first in the "9" series for Samsung. It features LED backlighting with the ability to provide local dimming. If that didn't make any sense to you, it didn't to me either until Saturday but in other terms, it means that this TV produces extremely deep blacks and faithfully reproduces stunning colour. It's quite possible this model is the best LCD TV for its size on the entire planet. You can read a review here.

Of course, with such accolades, one can't expect this thing to be cheap and unfortunately, it is not. The LN46A950 retails for just about $4000 CAD which is on the crazy upper-end of the price spectrum for LCD TVs. With prices dropping as the trend for the last two years and some decent models for even under $1000, this model stands out with its luxury price.

I haven't totally ruled out buying this but I've already started investigating alternatives. For example, I'm also looking at plasma models which could possibly offer somewhat similar performance at about half the cost. One drawback of plasmas are significantly higher power requirements. For example, with average use, the LN46A950 would cost about $45 a year to run. A similar sized plasma would cost about $130 a year to run. Of course, I'd have to keep my plasma for about a bazillion years before the operating cost savings of the LN46A950 would equal the initial difference in price.

Anyways, I'll do some more research.

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