Music first; I love making playlists for parties, or for music I want to jam out to.  I enjoy being able to play music videos easily as well.  Sound quality is more than adequate for our needs.  Mandy also jams out to her Jimmy Buffett from a playlist I’ve created.

Pictures; Another great feature because I can load it up with pictures and show it off on a beautiful big screen so everyone in the room can enjoy.  I can set an album as a screen saver during a party (ie, this is what I did for our last party with pictures from Sydney) which people can enjoy.  Pictures also make great conversation pieces!

Movies; This is my second favorite feature.  I download a number of movies and put them on the apple TV for Mandy and I to enjoy!  I also rip DVD’s of Mandy’s favorite movies which watches repeatably (ie. The Italian Job, Any of the Pirates, The Holiday, The Incredibles, National Treasure 1 & 2, etc.).  This is very convenient because she doesn’t have to pop in a DVD and we don’t have to buy a 5 disc DVD player, we’re only limited to the amount of storage it can hold!  Also being able rent HD movies from Apple is also a huge convenience for a wife that loves renting movies from Blockbuster and On-Demand.

TV Shows;  This is my first favorite feature!  Again I download TV shows (don’t ask how), and put them on the apple TV for Mandy and I to catch up on.  This is great because I don’t have to worry about fast forwarding through commercials!  That convenience alone has made this device priceless!  We are usually one day behind on TV Shows, but if we can’t wait, we’ll just watch it live.  This has eliminated the need for a DVR type device (although I do have a software solution on my macbook pro for how I get tv shows).

The interface is very easy and beautiful, and not having a techy wife this makes her life a lot easier and more enjoyable to watch, and listen to things on the Apple TV.  We currently have the 40gb version, but I plan to hack it with a bigger drive.

So while on this aggressive travel schedule, I’ll download a whole bunch of movies, music and tv shows and then when I’m home get them on the Apple TV for Mandy to enjoy while I’m away.  It’s a win  win for the whole family!  So if you’re on the fence between a netflix streaming box, HTPC, or other home media device, research what your needs are, because Apple TV is a sure winner for us.

Well, that’s my mentality.  I’m living here in Perth, Australia till September on a TDY (temporary duty) for work.  I’ve moved into an apartment close to the base and near enough other things.  I’m still settling in and working on buying some groceries and other basic necessities.  I hope to explore some this weekend on things to do and keep me busy (maybe some horse back riding, or fishing charters).  Mandy is coming out here at the end of July for a few weeks to ‘live’ here too.  It’s a real sacrifice to be away from the family, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.  I hope to convince anyone else that wants to visit out here to come.  I’m staying in a spacious 3 bed 2 bath apartment in a gated community on a golf course with a community pool and jacuzzi (tempting?!?!  anyone? anyone?!?!).

Before I left Mandy and I threw a party so that I could see some people before I left, it was fun and I really appreciate the people that could make it so last minute!  I’ll try to keep you posted with what’s going on here and what not.  I let Mandy keep the camera to take pictures of things back home for me, so you may not see so many pictures from me, but I have the webcam on the laptop that I might use.

The best part really other than being healthy is, how much we save monthly. Nutrisystem sends you a 28 days worth of food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and desert). Now with each meal you should eat fruit, some carb or some other shit, but if you’re like us, you don’t eat that extra-good-for-you-stuff. Our meals together total $597.36. We normally spend around $1,000 in eating out, buying food, this also includes the cost of cooking. With not eating out as much (lunch, dinner, etc) it is obviously the big money saver and when we do we usually split the meals and have no alcohol. Saving on electric is the icing on the cake and it feels good to be green!!?! It’s been a huge boost in our income especially since I was unemployed for 3 months. So to anyone that is fat or lazy, frugal, wants to lose weight and wants to save money, Nutrisystem, or another food diet is the way to go. Or at least cooking a month’s worth of food before hand.

• Sea/Kosher Salt & Pepper is required by default.
• Green Onions go with almost anything.
• Breaking an egg is an art form, take your time, careful break around the center.
• It’s all about the slow cooking.
• Cummin, Garlic Powder, and Lemon Pepper are great ingredients, but don’t abuse them.

1. Buying my Macbook Pro, and selling my other computers. I’ve been wanting a laptop for a while for it’s mobility and power, I’ve been wanting a mac, because I’ve only heard good things about them and everyone seems to like them. It’s powerful and light enough for my needs. I love the 15″ screen, I would have really regretted getting the 13″ Macbook. I had a really nice windows desktop that I sold on craigslist, because Mandy bought me a mac mini which I loved, but wasn’t as portable as this thing. I upgraded the hell out of my mac mini and sold it on ebay. I’m still super glad I bought my macbook pro, it’s been really a pleasure.
2. My 1080p Plasma Samsung TV. It’s been another best purchase because the picture quality for high def movies, shows, and regular tv is just stunning clarity. Along with saving space in our medium sized living room. This is a Mandy idea.
3. Cutting the back legs off my desk and sitting it on the window ledge. This saves a huge amount of space again in our small guest room, and another of Mandy’s brilliant ideas.
4. Switching to Wordpress. This is definitely up there as a super smart decision to make, and I’m glad I did, I feel like it’s just a better platform and much easier to use for me.
5. Getting rid of the shed. I’m glad I did this cause I got rid of a shed that someone else was able to repair use (again thanks craigslist the free section). It also saves space and is now more ‘out of the way’. Once again, let’s thank the wife!
6. Buying the Jeep Commander, now this isn’t super great cause it was the most expensive purchase, but at the same time it really is a great decision. This car has everything, sirius radio, blue tooth, rear camera, sunroof, moon roofs, dvd player, navigation, auto windshields, V8 Hemi, and a 6 disc mp3 player. I love that I don’t want to ‘add’ or ‘install’ anything on it. Oh, the other best thing, remote start!

Now you may say, well these are all really expensive things that you bought, and yes you’re right, but every time I use these things, I’m grateful for them, and everything about them. One thing missing from this list if you’re very astute is ‘the Tivo Series 3 HD’ I returned……which is what my next post is about…….