Saturday, January 17, 2009

Info Dump; Or, What I've Been Up To

2008 is thankfully behind us...undoubtedly, a global "annus horribilis." Although, because Queen Elizabeth II famously used the term in 1992 to refer to her family's soap opera travails the previous year, "annus freaking ridiculous" might be a better descriptor of this last year. Dave Barry's review of 2008 has to be one of the finest satirical works of modern times. Obama is about to take power as most noble purveyor of all that he sees--literally. And, he has the burden of having to craft an inaugural address that actually measures up to the moment of the times. I'll be there in the million person mob on the mall, listening to our new King attempt to do so.

In these incredible times, life brings joy for me in the little things, perhaps because I can actually understand them. Nationalized economy? I honestly still don't comprehend. Here are some of the mundane, personal activities that have been preoccupying me:

Watching HDTV on my computer: My wife and I have long used our pc as our primary TV. Just a Dell with Vista Home, 22" LCD monitor, and an ATI 250 Wonder tuner card. Windows Media Center is a very satisfactory DVR, so we can record our favorite shows for free, without paying for another box. It had long bothered me that we weren't making full use of the tuner card. It has two coaxial inputs (what you hook up your cable/antenna to, just like the one on the back of a regular TV): but, one input is for regular analog TV signals, while the other input is for digital signals. The question was how to get digital TV on our pc without paying our cable company for a high definition package. From all that I read online, I was told that I could just hook up a simple rabbit ears antenna to this input to watch HDTV because these antennas can also pick up HD signals "off the air." Well, for some unknown reason this didn't work for me when I tried it a while back. I thought that maybe the antenna wasn't oriented properly to pick up the signals, but unlike the old school analog signals, HD is On/Off only: there is no fuzzy picture if your antenna is facing the wrong way. This can be frustrating setting up HD because you're not sure if your setup/equipment is wrong or if the problem is with the antenna. There is either a crystal-clear picture or nothing. So, I decided to try one more time a couple of weeks ago, and, presto! We now have several digital TV channels from local Washington, DC stations. These broadcasts are all in DTV, with some shows in the higher definition HDTV--most sports games and shows like Lost. The difference in picture quality is simply staggering. Even plain DTV is so much clearer than analog. HD is over the top good. Next step: get a second tuner card so we can record a show while watching something else. We can do that now only if we're recording a cable TV channel while watching a DTV channel or vice-versa.

DVDs on my iPhone: Being cheap, I didn't want to pay for software to convert my DVDs and load them on to my awesome iPhone (3G, 16GB). Enter, Videora. This fantastic freeware comes in several versions, depending on what you're trying to convert movies for: iPod, iPhone 3G, or the old iPhone. Stark, but simple interface made converting my movies a snap. I used this before going on a flight, and I tell ya, 'twas a wonderful flight with my own personal movie selections at my fingertips.

Better Shaving: Yes, I can hear the chuckling from those that know me and my propensity to shave as infrequently as possible. But, hey, when I do shave twice a year, I want it to be worth my time. In November, I tired of my normal gillette/shaving gel setup and decided to bust out the ol' double edge safety razor and shaving brush that I had kept around for some reason. Took me twice as long to shave, but the results were astonishing. I had lost practice using the safety razor, so I had a couple of nicks, but the effort was truly worth it...no ingrown hairs and a much more even and close shave. A little ironic, considering that this is how I began shaving as a teenager in India and that the only reason I ditched these medieval implements was because a friend made fun of me. On a whim I decided to research shaving, and I discovered this lovely article on "wetshaving":
The perfect shave is what all men strive for every morning when they bring their razor up their chin – an effortless shave that’s baby smooth, and without any of the usual skin irritation, redness, and that burning sensation most guys seem to feel is par for the course when it comes to shaving.

Why do so many guys find this so hard to achieve? Because proper shaving has become a lost art. Shaving is one of those glorious male traditions that used to be passed down from father to son, but somewhere along the line, when shaving became more about cheap, disposable razors than a nice, precision-made metal tool in your hand, it became a brainless routine to rush through in the morning without even thinking about it. A dull disposable razor dragged across a layer of foam or gel on your cheeks is a step backward from the past, not an improvement. Now that men of all ages are paying more attention to their appearance, it’s no wonder that the hottest trend right now in male grooming is a return to the traditional wet shave – and millions of men have been shocked to discover that the “old fashioned” method of shaving they thought went out with the Hula Hoop is actually the best quality shave you can get.
Lost art, indeed. Sniff. Glorious male tradition. Very moving. The article discusses shaving brushes at great length, and I learned that there are different kinds of brushes. Mine had synthetic bristles, but I saw that there were more advanced "throwback" options: natural hair brushes such as boars bristle and badger hair. Apparently, the progression in effectiveness (and cost) of shaving brushes is as follows, with a major leap between each:

Synthetic --> Boars Bristle --> Badger Hair

More research told me that badger hair brushes come in various grades, from "pure" (dark, stiffer hair, starting at $20) to the premium "silver tip" (softer, denser, and as much as $550!). Being the aforementioned cheap bugger that I am, and not wanting to spend $500 on a freaking shaving brush, I asked and got a basic "pure" badger hair shaving brush for Christmas. Yes, I'm weird, but I have a loving and understanding wife. No doubt she also has a vested interest in me having smooth cheeks, so she readily got one for me from Amazon for $30. Wow! I believe. The brush is dense, holds water beautifully--necessary for a great lather. The proof is in the second lather after the first brush shave (ha ha, so punny). Even against bare skin, the badger hair brush brings up a wonderful lather, unlike the old synthetic one that was pretty wimpy on the second run. Suffice it to say that shaving is now a semi-religious experience, lasting approximately 30 minutes, with my trusty iPhone's most awesome Pandora radio application playing my favorite tunes in the background. Have I mentioned that my loving wife is very sweet and understanding?

Happy 2009 and happy shaving. It's good to be a guy.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice post, Raj! I may heed your shaving advice very soon!
MT

Post a Comment