Behemoth

Wait, I haven't mentioned our new 40" HD flatpanel and 5-speaker Bose surround system?! How is that possible! You should've reminded me.

Josh and I are kind of not big spenders, as I've mentioned in the past. We both tend toward the frugal, with me being a bargain hunter and Josh a non-purchaser. Seriously. He's still wearing pants that fit 60lbs ago.

We're also not big TV people, or, I should say, we have tried VALIANTLY and ultimately unsuccessfully to not be big TV watchers. We both hate commercials, hate them, and truly dislike background noise - so if we watch something, we WATCH it, and interruptions or disinterest are rare.* In Newport we survived on Netflix and library movies, and before that we had cable and often got sucked into watching horrible crap. Here in Japan our options are limited - Netflix takes too long from the States, and we haven't hooked up our satellite to receive the Armed Forces Network. We've been watching library movies still, and our own small DVD collection. I could probably make A Few Good Men a one-woman show by now.

All that watching was being done on a TV we got for free when we bought secondhand furniture in Massachusetts. The picture was fine but the sound was terrible, especially given the Mabori Speedway and Noisemaking Boulevard (MSNB) that is our front yard. A typical scene went like this:

Jack Nicholson: "You want an EXPLANATION?!"
Tom Cruise: "I want the TRUTH!"
Jack Nicholson: "YOU CAN'T HAN-"
MSNB:neeeAAAAAARRRNNNNNNNGGGHHH

We'd been contemplating a nicer TV and decent speakers for a couple years, and the street noise put us over the edge. After a couple months of Internet research, cost comparison, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, we bought the whole shebang from the utterly unhelpful NEX here and set it up.

So now we have surround sound, PC connectivity, high definition, and good old-fashioned rumbly bass from the subwoofer. It's pretty fantastic, I have to say.



Does this mean I have to admit that we're big spenders?


*In case you're wondering, I'm sure having children some day will not in any way change the number of TV interruptions we'll have. Not at all. We'll just tape the kids' mouths shut and tie them to the remote control for safekeeping.