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Warren Shea

Archive for July, 2010

My TV & Future Shop’s Product Service Plan

Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 5:18 pm

My 40″ Samsung TV (LN40A550) of 2.25 years started having some power issues recently. It wouldn’t turn on using either the remote or power button…but would sometimes randomly turn on without pressing anything. Freaky.

When I purchased my TV from Future Shop, I also purchased 4 years of Product Service Plan for 329.99. The PSP…sort of extends the manufacturer’s warranty and other stuff.

I called Future Shop Thursday night at 1:30AM to discuss my issue. They told me someone would contact me in 2 days. The next morning, less than 12 hours after my call was placed, I got a call back to set up a time for a technician to come and see the TV. We set up a meeting for Sunday at noon. Today (Sunday), at around noon, the technician came by. He opened the TV up, switched out some faulty/blown capacitors, TV worked and he left. My internet research tells me Samsung uses some cheap capacitors, they last a little longer than usual warranties. Sneaky!

Anyways, regarding the PSP (Product Service Plan), I thought it was a good idea at the time, only to learn that it’s pretty much a scam…well, usually nothing will go wrong with your TV. It’s TV insurance that doesn’t usually get used. In this case tho….it certainly did come in handy. Well…paying about 83$/year for TV insurance isn’t great…but if I didn’t have that, I don’t know what I would have done. Taken the TV to get it repaired by…? Considering the hassle and cost of repairing it yourself, safely transporting a 40″ around….compared to sitting at home and waiting for this dude to come and fix it…well, it’s not bad. I still have 1.75 years of warranty left. I hope that nothing breaks after that 1.75 years…

I learned a lot when I purchased that TV. The $80 HDMI cable which I got at a discounted $34…is still overpaying because that cable is actually pretty cheap.

All in all…I wanted to post about this because people usually only post about these things when they’re angry or extremely happy. So when you try to find information, it’s either the guy that got scammed…well, the other guy that got scammed. People are rarely “extremely happy” with service from a big company. Well…everything went pretty smoothly on my end. I can’t fault Future Shop for Samsung’s product. Was the PSP worth it? Probably not…but would I have paid it knowing my TV was going to have issues in 2.25 years? Probably…I certainly stressed less knowing my TV was still covered.

/content with Future Shop’s Product Service Plan…happy my TV is fixed :D

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Anime/Cartoon) – Review

Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 3:44 am

Avatar: The Last Airbender – Introduction (taken from IMDB)

In a lost age the world is divided into four equal powers: Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. In each nation there’s a group of gifted people known as Benders who have the ability to manipulate their native element using martial arts and elemental magic. For thousands of years the nations lived together peacefully. But then disaster struck. The young ruler of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Sozin, began a war of world conquest. The only one who could have prevented it was the Avatar. The Avatar is the human incarnation of the Spirit of the World, he alone can master bending all four elements. But, just when he was needed most, he disappeared. Now, 100 years later, a young Waterbender named Katara and her older brother Sokka stumble upon the long lost Avatar, Aang, who was encased in an iceberg for 100 years. Now, they must help Aang master all four elements before summer when Sozin’s grandson Fire Lord Ozai will use a comet to deal one last deadly strike against the other nations and claim a Fire Nation victory. But, all that is easier said than done with the Fire Lord’s determined and hot-tempered son, Prince Zuko, hot on their trail. Written by Melanie

Review
I watched the entire series of Avatar: The Last Airbender within the last week. Half of season 2 and all of Season 3 today actually >_<. I thought it was a masterpiece of animation, epic in proportion, dramatic, hilarious, entertaining, all around great. It gave me the same whole hearted chilidish fun of Digimon Season 1 except without the terrible dubbedness of it all. I loved Digimon Season 1, I loved how imaginative and unique the Digmon world was. I love the variety of characters as well as the character interaction. Avatar: The Last Airbender does the same trick, taking you to a fantastic, unique world with superb, unique characters.

I should point out that sadly, Season 1 was below my expectations. Given the amount of hype and recommendations from my friends, I found the series good, not great. Very episodic (which I hate). Worth watching but nothing spectacular.

Season 2 picks up the pace. It’s a lot less episodic, the story arcs are larger, the characters are better. They introduce Toph whom is probably my favorite character. Think Gaara of the Sand, but blind, cute and with a spunky attitude. I guess once they get some of the initial character development out of the way and once you know and like the characters better, the show is just so much easier to watch.

Season 3 is epicly good. It’s insanely focused on character development…BUT also focused on plot at the same time. Is that possible? They do….everything right. The bring Season 1 and 2 together and every episode is spectacular. They put their A+ game into everything.

Now that it’s over, I completely understand why I’ve gotten so many recommendations on it. It’s pretty damn good…

I would give it a 9/10….the only drawback is the first season. It was just a little too…episodic, I would have given up on this series if not for Z. But…I’m glad I stuck through it, it was definitely worth it.

9/10! Go watch it if you haven’t…be sure to stick with it even if it starts off a bit slow. It just gets better and better and better.

…Because Dragon Ball has everything to do with Family Studies

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 3:10 am

The cover of my Grade 8 Family Studies duo-tang…
I don’t know why Gohan’s on the cover of a Family Studies course. I don’t know why Gohan has a sword.

Remember when TV Guides looked like this?

Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 8:49 pm

Remember when people used TV guides?
Remember TV Guides?! >_<


This is from 1998…from a Seinfeld dedicated TV Guide that I thought I’d save…

You don’t wanna mess with my new super computer

Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 8:40 pm

75 Mhz CPU
8 MB RAM
1 GB HDD

I think this was my first computer…I would have been…13…early high school? or is that late elementary school? Anyways, found the specs as I was rummaging through old stuff