Poll: Life Decisions (Now with added Beard)

[f4f3]

The Beard in Question:



[Poll #1932558][Poll #1932558]

Comments

[ravurian]

Let's have a picture of you with the beard, so we can judge. Otherwise it's purely down to imaginary aesthetics. Do you have a chin without one? Do you have multiple chins that the beard reduces to one? Do you have a perfectly fine chin that should be displayed to the world at large? What kind of beard do you have anyway? What's wrong with Dundreary Whiskers?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

To be fair, that chin has a tendency towards multiplying...

[ravurian]

I think I'd've voted to keep the beard if it was a full beard rather than the goatee. I mean, it suits you, but I think you'd be better either going the whole way (neatly trimmed and maintained, of course) or losing it entirely. And anyway, a change is as good as arrest. I suspect you could grow a new one in 20 minutes or so if you don't like being without.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I used to have a full beard, and, take it from me, it was terrible!

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I’m not against the beard but I think in a time of change making a visible commitment to that change might be useful.

IIRC, unless you have a massive room and like to sit at the far end of the room from your TV I’m not sure if a 60 inch TV will give you any benefit and might actually not be as good as a smaller one.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I have a fairly massive room, and do indeed sit at the far end.

Last time I shaved off the beard I was making a visible commitment to change - then I grew it back again :)

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

What's the benefit to you of a larger TV?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

That is an EXCELLENT question.
My answer is that I get a better experience from watching on a bigger screen.

First, and obviously, it's larger. A bigger screen has a bigger picture, which has a more immersive nature.
This doesn't necessarily follow, of course. If you just magnify an image of a certain quality then you get a degredation in the quality of the image, and the experience actually gets worse.

So it's more about the quality of the image than the size of the screen.
When I started watching TV, off-air picture quality was as good as it got. VHS was lossy, and Laser Discs were for the rich or the technophiles. For rich technophiles.
A 26 inch TV was about as far as you'd want to go with that sort of signal uness (and this is going to get repititious) you could afford to spend a lot of money.
DVDs upped the game in terms of quality, and made a screen somewhere in the 30 inch range worthwhile. A couple of years later, the price on them came down to something I could afford.
Then came blu-ray, and I followed that up to 42 inches, which was as much as I could afford six years ago. Bigger screens with the image quality to display Blu Ray to best advantage were around then, but mostly in the £5-10k range. Did HD come out before or after Blu-Ray? In my head they hit town around the same time. Over the last six years, 60 inch screens have appeared that were almost in my price range, but they were the low end of the quality market, and my picture quality would actually have gone backwards.
In the last year or two, smart TVs have started to appear that cost around £2-3k and have either better picture quality or more features than my current TV. And that left room in the ecosystem for 60 inch screens which cost less than 4 figures and have at least as good picture quality and some more features than my current set.

So in my own "what you pay v. what you get" technology comparison, the time is probably right to buy.

As well, there's a limit to how much detail I can make out on a screen. Sitting 15-20 feet from the TV watching The Hobbit on Blu-Ray last night, the system was able to show more detail than I can take in. That movie is an extreme case, I know, but more and more of my viewing is done in HD or Blu-Ray, and a good 60 inch screen will do a better job of displaying that detail than a good 42 inch screen. (I know - I could sit closer. Or move to a smaller house. Not going to happen in the short term).

How I watch TV has changed too - I've never had it as a background, but now I only sit down to watch it if there's something I want to pay attention to on it. I generally give it my sole attention.

There's a couple of other factors, one being economic. I budgeted £1k for a holiday this year that didn't happen, so I can use that money elsewhere without robbing myself.

I'm spending more time at home alone, so I'm watching proportionately more TV.

I need a new telly for the cottage (where need and new are relative terms, of course - I do have a functioning TV up there, but it's on it's last legs - the old telly from the flat will go there if I buy a new one).

To sum up - the improvement in my viewing pleasure seems to be worth the financial outlay.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

That all sounds fair enough.

A 60 inch screen wouldn’t work for me because where we watch TV the distance from screen to sofa is too short. We’d be able to see the individual pixels.

But if you are sitting on a sofa quite a distance away and looking for a cinema experience then I see how a large screen is going to work for you.

I do quite fancy a projector for watching movies in larger groups in the red sitting room but as this is not something I currently do on my existing TV I’m loathe to spend the money on the kit.

I am thinking of buying a Sonos Playbar for the TV / Family Room.

Mum has a smart TV which she likes very much. She’s a bit on an evangalist for it and is very proud that she managed to make it all work on her own.

[deililly.livejournal.com]

I like the beard. And know the tv is a done deal XD

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Not quite - I need to see what they actually look like first. And decide which one to buy.

[ruric.livejournal.com]

I like the beard, it suits you.

And I'm all for 60 inch TV to facilitate the watching of suitable things, I was swayed to this viewpoint after watching my fave fanvid on gingerpig's TV of awesome. It caused palpitations. I may have fallen in WANT with a very large TV myself recently. I am womanfully resisting purchasing....so far.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

For some reason, people do seem to think the beard suits me.

I'm about to give Dan my breakdown on why the Mammoth Vid-Screen is a good idea...

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

I'm not normally a beard fan, and lately with all the hipsters growing hugely unappealing facial fuzz, I'm even less fond of them. However, that being said I don't mind a neat goatee on the right face, and yours does sit very well. :)

Unless maintaining it is a hassle, or you prefer yourself without it, then why take it off?

As to the TV - I suspect you're looking for some 'hell, yeahs' here, but I'm going to be a conditional naysayer, unless you have a rather huge living room. They're not designed to be viewed from up close, and the larger the screen, the worse the effect. 60" isn't ginormous, but it's pretty damned big. If you have the room to get the range on it, however, go for it. Shiny!

:D

[dyllanne.livejournal.com]

I like the beard. It suits you.

And the big telly.....why the hell not.

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

I'm actually experiencing vicarious excitement at you owning a 60" TV. Clearly I need to get out more.

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

Re: TV- would you enjoy it? Can you afford it? Then buy it.