Mehkai's Place

2006-04-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Now for the post you have all been waiting for. I like to think that thousands of people are reading my blog rather than the three that I know are actually viewing it. Thanks friends! So I bought an Xbox because of Halo and the future Halo 2 of course. And now I run a weekly Halo club at which I used a Dell 2300mp projection unit. This projector wasn't bad but at the same time it wasn't great. Due to certain events I needed to find a new projection unit. So I began looking for a projector that would be good for gaming. I used the greatest search engine Google. Searching for Xbox and projectors, and I found nothing worthwhile except for a lot of ads. However I kept up the search finally finding some information on a BenQ MP610. So after reading a couple of reviews I decided that the BenQ MP610 was for me so I ordered it from Provantage.com, a very good and inexpensive store to order from. Without further wasting of time lets get on to the review.

First some comparison pictures of my 20" TV to my 94" projection. One thing to note is that the projection was on my wall which is not totally flat so some of the finer details are a little askew.

Above you will see on the left my TV and on the right my projection. I don't know what Blogger did to my pictures but they look horrible click on them to go to flickr to get the real deal. Other than the TV being a little brighter I feel that the image on the projection is perfect, just the right contrast for me, especially for the price tag. This next picture shows the worst possible setup a light directly above your projection area, which in my case is a textured wall. Yes there is some wash out, but not that bad for a 2000 lumen projector. Not to mention who would play with a light on directly above, no one. But this shows that even with the worst light on the projector is still good. So if you have some light in the room no need to worry, as long as your screen isn't directly in the light path.

The next picture (below) shows a lighter picture with the lights on and a flash from my camera. Again there is a little washout of colors and although it looks like it is impossible to play like this it isn't. In fact the hardest part of playing like this is the top part of the screen because the light washes out the radar a little.

Another set of comparisons this time a light image instead of a dark image.

As you can see the image is darker on the projection unit. But it is still very clear. Sorry for my photography skills. I used to be a person who would say that he would rather play on a TV monitor than a projection of any sort. However after my research and purchase I might have to change my tune. Of course the projection is still not as perfect as my TV. It is very excellent and I can easily play on it and have a blast since I have nearly an 8 foot screen. There is little to no blur and I can see people in the background for sniping purposes. This is one of the hardest things to do on a projection is snipe especially in Halo and let me tell you this projector the BenQ MP610 handles the small details in the background like a pro. So the question is whether or not the BenQ MP610 is worth the cost. In my opinion yes, the only major draw back is the lamp which cost $400 to replace. However on economy mode you get 4000 hours of lamp time(verses the 2000 hours in normal mode) so that means it cost about $0.10 an hour to operate, which is still a little higher than most projectors in the $700 price range. However I have used a Dell 2300mp and it did not do as good a job with the contrast and it cost $300 more than the MP610. So the people in Flag at y HALO club and my-self believe that if you want an inexpensive projection unit for gaming, and you want a life size "Chief" this is the projector for you. Yes there are better projectors out there but they cost more, so save your-self the time and agony of getting a lesser projector and get the MP610.

Big Screen

2006-04-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

So recently I needed to buy a projection unit. For reasons to many to explain. I went in search of a projection unit that would suit my needs. The room I use it in is moderately lit and I will be using in mainly for gaming. (ie: Halo 2) One of the biggest concerns when looking for a projection unit (at least for most people) is Lumens. Which defined by dictionary.com (click on the word link) is unit of measurement for the amount of light one source puts out. However I beg to differ, I do not think your first or only concern should be Lumens, it should also be contrast. At least that is my opinoin. So I searched for a projection unit that had a high contrast ratio and good lumens.
First lumens since that is what everybody talks about. ANSI sets the standerd for which lumens are measured. In a dark room with absolutely no light you can easily get buy with a 1000 lumen or less system. These run under $500 usually for a basic projection unit. If you have moderate lighting or you need light for notetaking etc.. Then you will need a projector that has 1000-2000 lumens. These can run from $500 to over $2000. The cost depends on features such as weight, functionality, zoom and other features. If you need to project in a room with a lot of light you'll need a projector with at least 3500+ lumens. These can range in the $3000 to a whole lot of money like 15,000 or more. Again features and quality are what push up the cost.
Next contrast is important. The contrast ratio usually expressed as xxxx:1 is the measurement of the difference in light intensity between the brightest white and the darkest black. In other words the higher the contrast numer (the xxxx's), such as 400:1, represents a better color representation (the better the information will appear against a darker background) on the screen than a lower contrast ratio, such as 150:1. Confusing? Yeah, I bet it is. At least it was for me. So lets just accept that the higher the number the better. However pay attention to the method used to measure the contrast ratio. There are two methods used by the projection industry: 1) Full On/Off contrast measures the ratio of the light output of an all white image (full on) and the light output of an all black (full off) image. 2) ANSI contrast is measured with a pattern of 16 alternating black and white rectangles. The average light output from the white rectangles is divided by the average light output of the black rectangles to determine the ANSI contrast ratio. When comparing the contrast ratio of projectors make sure you are comparing the same type of contrast. Full On/Off contrast will always be a larger number than ANSI contrast for the same projector. The ANSI standard method will provide you with more information than the Full on/off method.
What else is there to consider? well resolution and the quality of picture. This article is just a primer. If you want more info check out these sites, http://www.unitedvisual.com/2tips/2tvp101.asp, http://www.nationalprojector.com/HowTo/Choose.htm.

Well, this article turned out to be longer than expected I will post my review of my latest projector purchase in a little while.

Growing in God

2006-03-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

If you read the small post I made about myself you would know that I am a youth pastor. I love my job. However I am disappointed with my life and most Christian lives that I get to see. Anyways I will stop being critical. The sad thing in life is that it is hard; it is especially hard to live in our world if you want to follow rules. Too often we get in the way of following God, we see His life for us as just a bunch of rules. When yes it does have rules but the rules do not hold us down but free us. During my study time recently God really spoke to me about this. He really reached out to me (which He always does) and said "Son I love you but you need to grow there is so much more for you that I want you to have". I try to work hard to share with the students at my church how much God loves them and how important it is to deny yourself and follow Him. I had let myself start to rule in my life again and stopped following God, and now it is time to grow again and deny what I want for what He wants in my life.

I am sorry if this blog is incoherent I am writing from my heart and not as clearly as I usually try to. What I want to say is wake up, being with God is totally awesome. Lets all start being disciples. I found a website that God used to talk to me. Maybe He wants to use it to talk to you. The site is http://www.intothyword.com/. The ministry is run by a Dr. Richard Joseph Krejcir, who is an awesome man for responding to God's calling and creating into thy word ministries. The focus of his website is to create disciples, which is what all Christians are called to do via the Great commission (Matthew 28:19-20). The great thing is he doesn't call you stupid he just tells you straight forward what God wants from all of us. So lets get started on following God like we should.

May God bless you for He already loves you no matter what!

Trance - The art of Good Music

2006-03-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Ok so it has been a long time since I posted. But I am back, yea. Ok you can stop the applause I know all one of you who are reading this probably could care less that I am back. Although I have had many Ideas of something to write about I never took the steps to write. However I have another topic and I am truly excited about writing right now so here it is. I love Dance music, specifically Trance. Now originally I thought I just liked dance, however there are many categories of Electronic music, and after a little bit of research I discovered I didn't really like dance. I liked trance. Although there are a few dance songs I like, it is not my favorite category. So what is the difference between Trance and Dance? Well you might as well ask how to predict the weather. There are many opinions on electronic music; I did find one site that explains a lot, almost too much. So at your own risk (there is some crass language) here it is the answer to what is Electronic music.
So now that you are back 30min later why did I choose to write about this. Recently I received a coupon in my new sound equipment box. The coupon directed me to go to e-music and download 50 free songs. I said cool, so I typed in http://www.emusic.com/ and blam there I was looking at 25 free downloads. Wait what happened to 50?! So I checked my coupon and it told me to type in the address www.emusic.com/freetrial30 . Which I did and behold 50 free downloads, then I got an idea I wonder how many free downloads I can get. So I Google emusic and low and behold 100 downloads is the most you can get. Don't worry if it says I river and you are only going to play this on your ipod or computer. Emusic doesn't care what mp3 player you use. So jazzed I go in search of music. And like most of you expected I found no real artist that I liked. However they have an extensive electronic music collection, and if you are into electronic music some of the best music is done by independents or unknown artists. So I searched and found it easy to download 8o songs so far. I am saving my last 20 for some really good songs. I am just being stingy. So what did I download lots the only one truly worth mentioning is Kate Ryan. I downloaded her whole album Stronger and I love it. She has a great voice and awesome music. If you want to know more about her click on her name above otherwise enjoy the song I hope that I loaded on here correctly. So now I am done; all of that to say that Trance music is the best and good luck at emusic.

The Creation

2006-02-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

The other night I was sitting up late and pondering one of the greatest questions I have ever asked myself. Why did God create us? And if He knew sin would enter the world why not start over or why not just show Himself in all of his glory and then all would believe. Then I realized something. God created us to have a relationship with Him. Not only that but He wants us to love Him freely. Meaning that He wants us to choose to love Him, that is the key; He wants us to choose to love Him. Knowing this we now understand why He created us so that He can love us and we can love Him. However that is only one part see He wanted us to choose to love Him. And since God is a just and loving God He must play fair. Meaning if He wants us to choose to love Him He must give us the option to not love Him. Thus what Christians call sin is born. Choosing to not love God or choosing to say He doesn’t exist is doing something against God and that is sin. Thus God not only created us but gave us the option to not choose to love Him. So for all of you who think that God can not be a just God well think again because if He wasn’t a just God all of us would already love Him. Think about that, and for all of you who like to quote that if God really loved everyone He would save everyone. Well to answer that He does love everyone and wants to save everyone but has given everyone the option to choose Him or not to choose Him and since He can not force us to make the right decision (and this may sound a bit callous) but it is their own fault for not choosing Him they had the option and opted out and now they get the penalty in full. Those of thus who choose get a lucky break since Jesus decided to pay the penalty for our sins. So my recommendation is that you choose God and take his free gift so that you may live eternally with Him.

The Mind

2006-01-27T00:57:00.000-07:00

It is only recently that I have really started to think about what I think about. What a conundrum. But seriously what do you think about most often, what is at the top of your mind? Our thoughts really do matter and even though some of us can claim in one ear and out the other, what we think about effects us deeply. In many cultures the heart is who you are or better put the truth of what and who you are. Now we all know that we are not red muscles that beat in a timely manner, rather the heart is a metaphor for our core. Better put those things that we value and desire most is who we are. Knowing this how can we change who we are or maybe can we change who we are?

Although that seems like a deep and possibly unanswerable question it truly isn't either. We see it in life all the time when our friends start hanging with a different crowd all of a sudden it is as if we never knew them in the first place. Why is that? Well it is because their heart or who they are has changed. So what change their heart well since I am a nerd and I like math, I like to look at this situation with a formula.

The heart is who we are and what we value and desire. What we value and desire is what we think about the most. What we think about the most is what we do.

And the same is true in reverse:

What we do is what we think about. What we think about soon becomes what we value and what we value is who we are.

So if we look at those formulas suddenly things become a lot clearer. For one we really need to watch what we do and think about, for if we don't we could easily change who we are without even knowing it. That is why God tells us to take our thoughts captive. Meaning we should take our thoughts and look at them and study them to see if they are righteous (a really big word meaning an action that is right and pleasing to God). If we do not take our thoughts captive and judge them then it is easy for us to be tricked; tricked into thinking that something is good and worth doing when it is not. Sometimes when are tricked nothing really bad happens other than we look foolish but other times it is painful. It is not only painful to us but to our friends and family members also.

Why would I bring this up? We all wish to belong or fit in. We will do anything and everything to do this at times; often going so far as to betray ourselves and our friends. It is a goal that can never be fulfilled. It is as King Solomon put it "chasing after the wind". Confused? Let me be direct, the only way to belong is to accept God and his gift for you (which is the only real free thing in life). Only then will you truly understand belonging. But it doesn't stop there, after you accept Him, you need to grow in a relationship with Him. Meaning that your heart has to change, and one of the steps is to focus your thoughts on Him. Thus changing your heart and suddenly you will find a complete life where you really do fit in. Rather than a life that is as meaningless as chasing after the wind. I know it sounds simple but remember everything takes time and often the better the change is for you the more time it will take. So take it slow, set small reachable goals and watch how God changes your life so that you can live it to the fullest.

If you have questions or want to know more about the free gift from God. E-mail me at carlvereen@hotmail.com.

Gaming

2006-01-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

If you have read my profile you would have noted that I love to play games. I will play just about any game once. Recently for Christmas I received Settlers of Catan. Now this is truly an awesome game worth mentioning and playing many times over. Yes I am one of those people who will play any game against himself. I whole heartedly believe that everyone should play games. For one it makes you use your brain, two it helps to develop social skills and if you play enough you will learn humility, a lesson that all of us need to learn and gain more of. Could you imagine if everyone in the world considered everyone more important than themselves? What a world that would be. It would be kind of like heaven.

Anyhow back to Settlers; the great thing about this game is that it is simple to learn and easy to play and can have any amount of depth to it that you want. You can take it as is and bet on luck or you can think and scheme to win. Basically it is a game where you roll the dice produce resources and use those resources to build your domain. The first person to 10 points wins. One other part of this game that I enjoy is that the board is never the same. Every time you play you get to set up the map of Catan. It still amazes me how people can come up with such great games. Let us all take a moment and pause for those great game creators. For without them I truly would have nothing to do..

Welcome

2006-01-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well this is my first post. I created this blog because one of my friends Chris(www.chriswarren.org) told me that I have a lot to say. I do not know what I will do here but who knows. If nothing else I will learn more about web pages and html etc.. Today I am currently cooking dinner making BBQ shredded pork. I am looking right now for a recipe on how to make my own BBQ sauce. Well any way if you want to know more about me check out my profile and soon I shall post a picture.