Im home

Yep, I'm home. Its so good to finally be back, felt like I was away for a long time. I'm worn out and looking forward to a couple days off. I learned quite a bit on my trip and it was some pretty cool stuff. I learned a lot about HDTVs and color theory. But right now my brain is kind of a mush ball, so I'm going to bed.

Training, Day 3

I forgot to mention that we did get the hotel snafu corrected. I sent an email to my contact at corporate who took care of it almost instantly.

We had day 2 of classroom training and hands on experience with the calibration equipment. Pretty intense stuff, we prepped for our exam which made me realize I didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did. We got some good experience using the equipment so that helped quite a bit.

Tomorrow we attend a short meeting with other installers that are already certified, then we will go on ridealongs to see more work done out in the field. Will be nice getting out of the classroom, the day goes much faster.

I'm pretty worn out tonight. My roommate and I needed a change of scenery so we headed out to the Mall of America to bum around and have dinner. We discovered that we both love Famous Dave's so there we went. Ate way more food than any one person should consume in one sitting. And I couldn't even finish my plate it was so much food. Beef brisket, pork ribs, cole slaw, country fries, corn on the cob, and cornbread muffin. Delicious!

Training, day 2

Today was the first day of classroom training for our ISF Certification for HDTV calibrations. I have learned a ridiculous amount to information today and got to play with some very cool and VERY expensive calibration equipment, test pattern generators, and light meters. At the end of the training, I will be given a large equipment box similar to the ones you see in movies that transport a nuclear warhead. I'm pretty sure the cost is similar between the warhead and the calibration equipment.

I'm very please that they are providing lunch for us over the 2 days of classroom training so we don't have to leave and pay for lunch on our own, me being the cheap bastard that I am.

I'm still up here for 3 more days and I really can't wait to come back home. I already miss my wife, house, bed, comfy chair and couch.

Day 1

Today was my first day of the HDTV calibration training. They had me and my roommate go along with one of the guys that is already certified to do calibrations. we got to see him do calibrations for 4 different customers' TVs. We learned quite a bit and I was surprised at how much of a difference it made for their TVs. The detail and color was quite a bit better and the picture just looked better overall.

I had met my assigned roommate before at a prior training and we're getting along pretty well, so that's great. Our hotel reservations are a bit screwed up, my company told us we had reservations through Thursday, but the hotel has them only through Tuesday. We're going to have to figure this out or there's going to be some bad stuff going down.

End to the week

It has been a very long week for me.  Luckily, my only appointment today canceled on me.  It is snowing quite hard here and it would have been difficult to get to their house anyway.  I’m home for the day now, then early Sunday morning I head up to St Paul to begin my HDTV calibration certification training.  I will be coming back home Thursday night.

At least I can see across the street now, earlier today it was snowing so hard I could barely see the houses across the street.  We were planning on going grocery shopping today but I think it would be a bad idea to be out on the streets if it weren’t completely necessary.  I’ll have to get creative for dinner here.

I'm running out

It would appear that lately I have been running out of things to say here. Ah, I thought of a short story to tell about something that happened to Anna and I a few days ago.

We were doing a shopping spree in town of various items we needed. It is coming near the end of the year to spend my Healthcare Spending Account money or I lose it all. Unfortunately there is a lot of money still in there because they seem to deny every doctor visit I have submitted, but they have no problem if I buy 5 bottles of Tylenol.

We stopped by Target to stock up on more medical supplies and found some very nice disaster/first aid kits. Full of all sorts of bandages, ointments, thermal blankets, and other disaster-preparedness items. There were kind of expensive so we decided to get 3 to really use up some of the money. One for each of our cars and one for the house.

We then had to pick up some groceries so we headed over to Wal Mart (yes, I still feel dirty for shopping there) and as we were getting out of the car we heard someone's car alarm going off. No big deal, someone bumps into the car and it goes off, right? Well soon another alarm goes off, then another, and then a 4th!

Anna and I looked at each other as we were walking to the Wal Mart entrance and I asked Anna half-seriously if we should run. We were able to swiftly walk inside and avoid whatever gremlins were causing the car alarms to go off. The rest of the shopping inside the store went uneventful. On the way out, we almost got hit by a car which honestly I expect every time I'm in the Wal Mart parking lot.

We are headed for home less than 2 miles away and up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light. No, it was not the Hotel California but 5 emergency vehicles. It would appear that there was a collision between one of those large vans that can transport 15 people and some other vehicle that was already gone. The van was pretty smashed up, it is my theory that some idiot pulled out and tried to make a turn when the van was coming right for them.

Between the weird car alarm stuff and all the emergency vehicles at the accident site, I felt very relieved that we were ready for any disaster with our new kits from Target. Needless to say, once we got home, the front door was immediately locked and we stayed away from all windows. Safety first!

below freezing? Booooo.

Its a chilly morning today, thankfully I have the day off and don't need to leave the house unless I want to. We were thinking about a road trip in March, head out somewhere for a few days but we realized we really can't afford it right now. As much as we'd like to take some time off and get away, we would end up having to charge it to the credit card and thats just stupid.

We're loving the new grill, I think I've cooked dinner on it more times in two weeks than I used the last grill all summer. Did up some BBQ pork ribs last night, and although they didn't turn out as good as the ones I made last July 4th, they were still very tasty.

I found out yesterday that I was confirmed to get ISF Certified to do professional calibrations on high definition TVs. Its actually a very big deal and would be quite expensive if I had to pay for the courses on my own. My employer will be sending me to Minneapolis for 2 days for about 15 hours of training. Then I will be able to calibrate a client's TV set which would give them much better picture quality and decrease the electricity usage of the TV by up to 70%.