One thing I've learned is that I value peace and quiet. That may sound strange from someone that gave up living in a single family home in north Austin to live downtown but it's true. I like to have quiet time to read and reflect.

I never noticed noise from things in my home before but now I do and am glad that my current place is quiet and has been made quieter. Bear in mind that since my place is small and with a lot of hard surfaces any noise can still be more noticeable and that the small size means my dishwasher could be heard 20 feet away from my bedroom which wouldn't be the case in a house (one would hope).

air conditioner: wasn't too loud to start with but I reduced the fan speed further and other than when I have a lot of people over in the summertime it still can keep up fine. Now it's almost whisper quiet. Contrast this to a new downtown apt I was in recently which makes me change the volume on the tv as the a/c turns on and off.

dish washer: At my mother's new house in Round Rock the dish washer is so loud you have to raise your voice and it really drowns out everything. Mine is better but still noticeable during certain parts of the cycle (it's some Jenn-Air). Paulie sprung for the Bosch and it's super quiet. I will get one of those next time and may buy my mother one from Christmas.

ambient noise: while the insulation at my place is really good, nothing can get rid of the annoyance of loud motorcycles going by and the occasional siren. Away from downtown I had to put up with stupid dogs barking and the grating sound of kids playing. I'll take the sirens.

Outside my place I can really notice the difference in noise on Town Lake between the sections that are away from the road and the places where it is alongside it (along first street near lamar). Fortunately most of it is away from the road. I went for a fitness walk with a friend that lives near the Galleria in Houston and it was not nearly as pleasant to walk along streets and dodge cars the whole time.

Next, I see that many small towns don't allow large trucks to do engine braking. That can be really loud and I hear trucks (fire trucks too) doing it in Austin when they aren't even on any kind of slope. Some of the towns on 281 west of Austin have signs against this and I think I've seen it on the left coast too. We could use it here.

Honking of horns can be annoying (try visiting Bangalore, India) but I did find it interesting that parts of New York City have stiff fines for unncessary horn honking.

I normally don't fly Southwest since I like being able to have a seat assignment ahead of time and upgrading to first class periodically. That being said their open seating is great for getting all the annoying crying babies on a plane to be seated all together near the front. All airlines allow them to board first but only on Southwest does that result in them usually being together. I will gladly accept extra droning by sitting closer to the back of the plane instead of a baby crying. Thankfully I have good earplugs for both cases.

That's enought about noise pollution and how I hate it. No need to mention the noise pollution that comes from listening political talk radio.

Since I have 7 remote controls for my a/v system I've been meaning to buy a good universal remote. After some research I decided to try out the Harmony 880. Since I think it's a hassle to return things purchased online I decided to buy locally. I called Best Buy and they had some in-stock for $250. I checked Best Buy's web site and they had it on sale for $225 so I called Best Buy back and they said they would honor the online price.

So I go to Best Buy and they say they will match the price once they verify it themselves. They go to a computer and pull up Best Buy's site and go to the exact same place that I went to but the price is $250! I thought maybe the sale ended in the time it took me for me to get to the store so I went a ahead and purchased it for $250. I get home and check the web site again and it's still $225! WTF? I guess it's true that sites charge different rates for different users (or maybe the store is always set to retrieve the higher price to prevent what I was doing).

Regardless I can order it online from Best Buy and have it picked up at the store for $225 and since I have 30 days to return the one I purchased I guess I could order one and return the one I already purchased but I'm too lazy for that. You win this round Best Buy but only due to my laziness.