Pleasant Surprise

Today did not start out as I had intended it to. For starters, I slept through my alarm and woke up at 11:59 am rather than 8:00 am. However, given the fact that while I went to bed at about 11:30 pm last night, but wasn't able to actually get to sleep until nearly 6:30 am this morning, I think that waking up at noon was better than it could have been.

After getting up, having breakfast (which was really more like lunch at that point), and checking my e-mail, I was about to do a bit of simple exercise (nothing more that a few crunches, push ups, etc...), when I received quite a pleasant surprise. The new television that I ordered last week arrived. I was surprised because I wasn't expecting it until at least the 18th, but it got here early.

The TV is a 15" flat panel LCD screen that I found on amazon.com for only $150. It's silver and super light wight and has this nice little handle on the back for easy carrying. It also has this nifty little feature of also being a computer screen. Technically, it's not actually "new," it's "refurbished," but it was still a really good deal and after setting it up, I really like it so far.

I think I shall call it Curtis...because that's the brand name...

I bought it because my former TV (an old magnovox tube) had no AV hook ups (for game consuls, DVD players, etc...) and (besides the fact that I haven't been able to play my Gamecube or PS2 on the damn thing in ages) I recently came into possession of a new Xbox 360 (I won it and a new Nintendo DS at my school's Project Graduation) that I would like to actually use. I also ordered a couple of games for the 360, Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect, but they having arrived yet. However, my wondrous best friend Lauren got me Halo 3 for a graduation present, so I think I'll start with that.

So I got a little side tracked with setting it up and everything, but I did get in a good bit of calisthenics for the day.

In other news, I found out that the diocese of Rome has forbidden Sony Pictures from filming scenes for the Angels & Demons movie in two of the important churches from the book, the Santa Maria del Popolo (Alter of Earth) and Santa Maria della Vittoria (Alter of Fire). Their reasoning for this is because they think that Angels & Demons follows the same theme as its sequel, The Da Vinci Code.

I disagree, Da Vinci Code focuses heavily on Jesus and Mary Magdalene and such, which would understandably upset some people in the church because it is a rather touchy subject with them, but Angels & Demons has very little, if anything, to do with Jesus. In fact, I don't recall him being mentioned even once in the whole book. Angels & Demons has to do with religion and science in general, and yes there may some of the devout who may not like the idea of science and religion existing in harmony, but I think that's hardly reason enough to bar the film crew from the church. I almost wonder if anyone on the diocese has even read the book.

Well that's about all I have for today, I think I'll go set my 360 now.