Answers Day

The sequel to Questions Day

"best stand for a 50" tv that has space for several home theater components?" - Doobie

This depends on your room and needs. If you are establishing a media center with surround sound and the bells and whistles, or if the room really only has one orientation where the TV would look good, you'll want to split functions between a wall mount for the TV and any stand for the components. I have this inexpensive mount installed for our basement TV, which is never going to move, and has few components (just a DVD player). The downside of a wall mount is the presence of exposed cords, unless you're ambitious enough to run them inside the wall (not scalable as new components get added).

If the setup shouldn't be as permanent because you rearrange as much as I do and / or you are running from the law, you'll want a base alone, with the TV simply sitting on top. This easily conceals cords but reduces the amount of free surface available for random junk you drop as you come home from work (maybe this is a good thing). Go for one that's enclosed to keep toddlers from disconnecting things, and definitely strap the TV to a wall stud so it doesn't make toddler waffles when they inevitably try to pull it over.

"Of all the well-intentioned advice you've received over the years, what do you think has been the least congruent with your life experiences to date?" - Returned Mike

• "Ruby is the next Java." - former coworker
• "Hang out with people on your dorm hallway and make lifelong friends." - VT tour guide
• "This composition would be better with more atonality. Why don't you add a few more wrong notes?" - former composition instructor
• "The combination of MIDI and realistic sound samples will make orchestras obsolete." - former MIDI course instructor
• "You should play Half-Life. It's a work of art." - someone on my dorm hallway

"Do you think you can answer Mike (and Ghost Chompy)'s question without using my name?" - Mom

Yes.