65. Buy a big widescreen computer monitor.

We just took another step towards flying cars. One of the signs of living in the future, Holly and I have always agreed, would be merging screens - having your TV and computer all on one screen. We finally entered the future by purchasing a Samsung T240HD monitor/HDTV.



It works beautifully for the computer, running at a crisp 1920x1200 widescreen resolution. I'm instantly hooked on the extra screen space. Games look amazing, browsers have so much more room, and images and videos show beautifully.

The extra reason that we went with this one was that it has extra connections, including component (for DVD player) and coaxial (for VCR and rabbit ears). (Plus, if I ever join the gamer revolution and get a XBox360 or PS3, it'll connect too.) The upshot of being able to connect the DVD player, VCR, and rabbit ears is that we were able to put my old 14" Electrohome TV into mothballs. That crazy TV - I bought it around 17 or 18 years ago, and it's still running perfectly. I wasn't able to justify getting a new TV with the old one working fine, but finally we found a reasonable justification in merging screens!

The other bonus here is that by taking the TV and assorted equipment out of Sophie's room, we now have more shelf space for books! Hooray!

So, a single monitor. The future is now. Bring on cheap space flight, personal jetpacks, and of course, flying cars.