Keeping up with the High-Definition Joneses

I graduated from the University of Washington yesterday, and it was a bit of a melancholy affair. The four-year grind has culminated in my Bachelor's degree, but it's also come at a fairly high price (not just tuition-wise, but relationship-wise as well). People keep telling me that they couldn't have done it, but at the same time I wonder if knowing what I know now if I'd have made the choice. I guess I'll never know.

Regardless, it's done now, and to celebrate, I ordered myself the 37" Westinghouse 1080p LCD TV (LVM-37w3) that I've been lusting after for a few years. Costco has the TV (monitor, really, since there is no tuner in the set) on sale for $799, and I just couldn't turn that down. Even after tax and shipping, it was $100 cheaper than I could find it anywhere else, and Costco's return policy is fantastic.

Of course, that means I'll be rewiring my entertainment center (one of my favorite hobbies), and probably moving my computer into a smaller media center-like case to take advantage of my HD card. I might upgrade my DirecTV receivers to HD, but since I may be moving shortly as well, I'm probably going to hold off, especially since Verizon has FIOS rolled out on Washington's "Eastside".

I'm also pretty excited to see how the Xbox 360 looks after the 1080p upgrade, since they rolled out a software release turning on 1080p upscaling a while back. The PS3 is still way out of my price range, but maybe after a year or two I'd be able to afford it.

New TV should be here in a couple of weeks!