Pocket Universe

Some call it Mardi Gras. Others call it Super Tuesday. I have a different name for it: my birthday.

Another year has gone by, and I am still walking the earth. To celebrate, I decided to cast my vote on an important national issue, one that will shape our country for years to come. This is perhaps the preeminent concern of our generation, and I thought it was time to take a stand and make my position known:

I bought my first Blu-ray Disc.

After the shocking announcement by Warner Bros. at CES that they would be dropping HD-DVD support (after which the HD-DVD consortium cancelled their press conference), Blu-ray now has support from 80% of the major motion picture studios, with Paramount and Universal being the remaining holdouts. There are rumors that even they will commit to Blu-ray by June. Combined with plummeting HD-DVD sales, it looks like Blu-ray finally has the marketshare and the mindshare to become the new high-definition standard for home video. But the reason I decided to make my first purchase today is out of nostalgia: It was on this day ten years ago that I bought my first DVD. I think it is only fitting that I make the switch to HD on the same day. (For the curious, my first DVD was Little Shop of Horrors, which had just been recalled, and the Blu-ray Disc I bought today was The Fifth Element.)

In other election news, I continued my celebration by doing what all good Americans should do: voting for Mitt Romney. Hopefully he can pull the Republican nomination out. In any case, it’s nice to vote in a national election where my vote actually counts, since California is not a winner-take-all state. Most of the time, my voice is drowned out among all the liberals around here. I guess we’ll know later tonight if my birthday truly is a day for celebration, or a day of mourning.