Leaf by Mohu Review - Best HDTV Antenna

Since I've been living alone one way I've found to cut my monthly bill costs is not pay for satellite or cable television.  And I do not miss it, mostly I do not miss those insane bills!  Between local television and things like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and internet tv there is plenty for me to watch.

Since analog television went extinct and we are left with digital television, aka DTV, I was frustrated with the reception of the signal I was receiving with DTV.  Between not getting local stations and then the few I was getting constantly digitizing and me having to do everything I could think of to get reception back... I decided I was fed up and there had to be a better antenna than the one I had with the big huge rods sticking to the sky and the stupid round pointless thing in the middle.  I had enough of cutting the power off to things and turning it back on, adjusting rods and changing channels.  I was spending more time just trying to keep a signal than I was watching the show.  Despite over the past year what I was experiencing with DTV, I still wasn't so frustrated that I was willing to pay huge bills every month to watch tv!!!


So began my reading of reviews, and more reviews, and even more reviews.  I wasn't sure how much I was going to be willing to pay for an antenna but I was seriously looking at reviews for everything from the cheap stuff to the ones into hundreds of dollars.  It had to be an indoor antenna since I live in an apartment.  I finally found it on Amazon.com, yes I know I refer to Amazon a lot but I am an avid shopper of Amazon and I find my best deals there and I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't shop there myself!  So what did I find on Amazon?  It's called the Leaf HDTV Antenna made by Mohu.  It is a paper thin indoor antenna and it is made in the USA.  It also has a black side or a white side so you can fit it in with your color scheme, or you can put in a window or behind some furniture, or I saw pictures where people just taped it to the back of the tv.  There is a super thin ring of plastic around it that they have provided if you'd like to secure it with push pins instead of tape.

I read dozens and dozens of reviews about it on and off of Amazon.  There are over 700 customer reviews on Amazon, actually that is what caught my attention because I believe it had the most reviews of any of them that I saw there.  It of course had mixed reviews as expected.  Some people live in areas where they really just aren't going to have much luck no matter what they use.  However in over 700 reviews less than 100 were 2 stars and under, 5 stars being max.

So I decided to give it a try!  I ordered it on Sunday and it arrived today on Friday via USPS mail.  The I opened it up and it resembled not much more than a piece of laminated paper with a wire attached.  I had it delivered to my office and had said to my coworker as I was showing her my new technology discovery, she has a love of technology like I do, that I was going to be pissed if I got home and it ended up just being a piece of plastic that didn't do anything!

I get home I take it out of the packaging, take the old crazy bulky antenna and toss it to the ground triumphantly now that I wouldn't have to look at the eyesore anymore, and hoping that this Leaf actually worked!  Oh no did I break the eyesore?  Well if I did it doesn't matter because the Leaf works beautifully!  When I first hooked it up there was no change in the channels and everything was still digitizing and I was like dang it!  Noooo!  Then I thought to go into my tv menu and have it re-tune the channels doing an auto-scan and my tv who is much smarter than I automatically tells me as soon as it starts the scan that it detects a new antenna and will be rewriting all the previous saved channels.  Why do I love technology?  That's why I love technology!  I'm thinking maybe this is why others had issues with the Leaf is because they didn't take the time to go into the menu and have it reset and wait on the tv to re-auto-tune the channels.

I checked with TV Guide online and looked at what the actual local broadcast area channels were for me and I now receive all but one with the Leaf!  From what I understand some areas have lots more channels available to them, and some people assume that since it was so widely broadcasted when the switch was made that it was going to be better because there would be so many more channels now, however that does not mean that they are all actually broadcasted in your area.  I suggest going to TV Guide putting in your zip and seeing what available to you.  Also the other exciting part, besides more channels, is the tv has been on for 7 hours and not once has it digitized!  I'm so excited over this more than anything because the digitizing was bad.  It would do it every few minutes before and sometimes I'd fully lose service for hours at a time. I would get so frustrated with the digitizing I'd just switch to watching a movie or tv show on Amazon Prime or Netflix! 

I know I've only had this thing for a few hours and it's working beautifully now and maybe I'm jumping the gun on writing this this long review, however I just couldn't wait to share this new discovery of mine with you.  And since I had read so many reviews where people had them for several months or over a year and they worked great I feel confident in telling you about this now!  But I promise if I have a problem in the near future I'll definitely make an update and let you know.

If you are frugal like me and prefer to not pay some corporation your hard earned dollars just to subscribe their overpriced service to watch television and are sick of only having 3 channels that you can barely watch anyways then I suggest try out the Leaf!

OH WAIT!!  I forgot one of the best parts!  This miracle antenna only cost me $37.59 and it was free shipping!  What what!  Yep that's right!

Ok Balue is sick of me giving you guys so much attention and is now laying here pawing at me and would love for me to spend some time snuggled up with him watching our perfectly clear awesome television picture.

Much Love! Have a wonderful weekend!

UPDATE: 5/1/12 - Antenna still works awesome!  No digitizing in months.  LOVE IT!

Freaky Fast Unwich

Update August 2013:  After finding out that Jimmy John hunts and kills endangered animals I have decided that I will no longer be eating there. 

 
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About once a month on a payday I like to treat myself to a lunch that I didn’t make… in other words I eat out.  It usually falls on a payday Friday.  About 9 times out of 10 I end up getting Jimmy John's because they are fantastic!  I love the quality of their ingredients and the fact that they deliver means I can hang out in my cubicle at work and perhaps work on a blog while I wait on my delicious lunch to get here.

As many times as I’ve ordered a JJ’s sandwich looking at their online menu I’ve never noticed the Nutritional Information tab.  I’ve been making an effort to be aware of how many calories and whatnot that I am consuming in an attempt to achieve a healthier lifestyle.  Therefore today I actually sought out the nutritional information before ordering instead of just jumping in and indulging without a care and trying to work it off later.

I am impressed with the nutritional tool that JJ's has on the website!  It’s truly fantastic.  If you go to their Menu, then click on the Nutritional Information link you will be taken to the interactive tool they have provided.  Click on the sandwich that you would like to see and you will find out exactly how many calories you are consuming if you purchase your yummy sandwich as is. 

However the really cool part is if you click Add To Meal and then in the Your Selected Meal Items box click on Edit.

You can then start adding and taking away ingredients and see the nutritional information of your sandwich if you customize. 

I love the Beach Club and I’ve always ordered it on their fantastic wheat bread with Dijon mustard added.  We will just talk calories and the rest you can play with yourself. 

When I added the Beach Club as is with the sandwich on the default French bread you will see that it started out at 729.35 calories. 

I was like whoa… no wonder it tastes so good. 

Take away the French bread and put it on my usual wheat and it is now 730.35 calories.

Add Dijon mustard and I find that I typically consume 738.55 calories just with the sandwich alone.

The yummy factor of this sandwich makes it worth the extra work out later. 

But of course I had to see what would happen if I removed the mayo, I’m not big on mayo anyways but usually do not bother removing it… get ready for it…. No mayo brings us down to 545.55 calories!  The mayo is definitely something me and my hips can live without.

Now what else can I do… all of the other ingredients really do make the sandwich but I decided to see what would happen if I made it an Unwich aka Lettuce Wrap… remove bread and lettuce since it will be wrapped in lettuce and we are now at a phenomenal 201.85 calories!

So my dilemma… do I go Unwich and sacrifice my beloved bread?  I spent about 10 minutes showing my coworkers my new Nutritional Information toy that JJ’s has provided me while deciding (they seemed as amused as I was) and in the pursuit of practicing indulgence restraint (and I just had that awesome dinner last night Omelet Night) I decided this time I will go out on a limb and try the Unwich.

I was fearful that without the bread I’d feel like I’d wasted my money because I thought I’d just basically purchased a salad wrapped in paper.  Was it going to be enough to be filling?  I was also afraid that maybe the lettuce would be be kind of gross, perhaps not at its freshest or some weird something.

My fears were for not!  Oh my gosh!  It was good!  First thing I was impressed that it was the same size as if you had ordered it on bread.  The lettuce was flavorful and crunchy.  And mostly I did not miss the bread at all!  All those ingredients that go in the bread that make the sandwich were able to shine and be the grand star in the Unwich.  Turkey, tomato, avocado, cucumber, provolone cheese, sprouts, and Dijon mustard wrapped in lettuce was awesome flavors exploding in your mouth goodness.

I realized I needed to stop and take a picture when there were only a few bites left.

The Unwich filled me up and I did not feel overly full like I usually do when I order it on bread.  I consumed 536.7 less calories than I normally do when I order my beloved sandwich.

I actually started this blog before my food was delivered by the super friendly delivery girl because I was so enthused by the interactive nutritional guide, however the Unwich was so good it needed attention as well.  I am now a JJ’s Unwich convert.

Take a risk!  Make healthier choices, you may be surprised at how good it is.  And never forget to tip your delivery driver.

Much love!

Please note that Jimmy John’s did not ask me to write this blog… I just really love their food!  All screen shots of the Jimmy John's website were taken by me as I played with the nutritional information tool and I claim no ownership of them, nor do I have intention of any copywrite infringement.

Dead Phone Walking

I purchased my cell phone about a year ago, and not surprisingly it is now having issues.  I’ll be talking, texting or it’ll just be sitting there on the desk and it decides to restart.  It’s so weird!  Oh and reception quality is not as good.  It’s not having charging issues because it seems to hold about the same charge as it did when I purchased it.  The brain is just giving out I suppose.  So I’m assuming I have a limited amount of time with this phone as it’s begun its stretch down the green mile so I must prepare for its untimely departure.  It’s been such a good little phone.

My techno savvy does not include the vast cell phone world.  So now I’m researching phone advantages and disadvantages.  From the choices I have with my current carrier it’s either a Blackberry or an Android, or another simplistic non smart phone.  However I’m ready to leap into the Smart World!

My phone is not a Smart Phone.  Its a little touch phone with a slider keyboard.  I love having a keyboard.  I text more than talk and having to deal with a touch screen only keyboard is not appealing to me.  My carrier happened to come out with a new Android with a slider this week, which is the only reason it’s in the running.   

It seems to me on forums Blackberry users are diehard go Blackberry and Android users are the same about their Androids.  I then tried doing some recon by checking out some tech site reviews and they try to keep everything neutral…. ‘Oh the Blackberry is great and the Android is too, get them both! ‘

I need a baby of the Blackberry and Android.  It could come in Blackberry box and you pull it out and it looks like an Android and then you put it on the charger for 2 hours in a dark dry area that’s elevated by at least 7 feet and come back and you find that it has transformed into a DroidBerry!   Mmmm droidberries…. ;p

What do you think?  Are you a diehard Blackberry or Android fan?

Much Love!

***Imagine a big picture of a Blackberry and an Android boxing right here!