Not Dead
Posted on March 20, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
But our TV died and I spent the day acquiring and setting up the new one. It’s a joy beyond compare, it is.
I’m off – I likely won’t be back on today so asking me questions about the TV won’t do you any good. I’ll post pictures when it’s ready to go.
Same thing happened to me last month: a few days without TV gave me the heebiejeebies. Alas, as I’m no US resident, I couldn’t check Stargate: Universe episodes online. But I survived.
But… but… I want to know about the new TV NAO!!!
The scary thing is that people actually want to know this kind of minutia.
I once went three months without a TV back when I got robbed and was poor due to a bad combination of stupidity and credit cards. That was long before the days of Hulu and Netflix streaming.
Now…now I rarely watch TV. I don’t say that in the sniffy arrogant pseudointellectual manner. What I mean is that, between video games, streaming video to my computer, and other non-highbrow distractions, I just rarely ever watch the big box in the living room called “TV” anymore.
(Of course, we’d replace a lost one immediately. My wife needs her “What Not to Wear” and my kid needs his “Curious George”.)
What!?! You went out and purchased a TV set without consulting us, your loyal fan base? Robbing us of the opportunity to inundate you with endless, useless advice on what brands to avoid, number of inputs, refresh rate, etc.!?! For shame, sir, for shame!!!
BTW, glad you’re not dead.
Shouldn’t that be: “I aten’t dead”?
Josh,
You’re on the website of man who gave us pictures of flooring… at least the TV is tech. :)
I’m still using the same 27″ color TV I bought for $99 on New Year’s Day, 1992. In 18 years, it hasn’t died. Someday, I’ll get one a them new-fangled flat screen thingys, but no need yet.
Appliance jealously. I saw it a lot when I worked in an appliance shop. A customer would buy a new washing machine, and the dryer would quit a week later. Put in a new range, and the microwave would die. Get a VCR and the TV would fizzle. Appliances could be so petty.
Since you have a house full of pretty new flooring, you’re probably going to have to replace everything electrical over the next couple of months.
Is it bigger than a breadbox?
JJS:
Same here until mine gave out a couple of weeks ago. Flat panel TVs are really awesome.
Are there any issues getting rid of the old one? In several parts of Sydney recently they’ve banned dumping old TVs and computers, etc. at the local dumps for environmental reasons.
Unfortunately they have so far failed to provide an alternative recycling scheme (local vs state vs Federal shenanigans, shocking eh?), at just the time when everyone is replacing their old analog sets with pretty new digital flat screens. And so the the streets are slowly filling with dead and broken CRT screen TVs, dumped on corners and in available bushland by their owners, who can’t figure out what else to do with them (having often spent $1,000+ on a new monster HD set they naturally refuse to pay $30 to have the old one removed by a commercial outfit).
Meanwhile the environment is in a darkened corner somewhere weeping softly.
How are you on Basketball craziness right now?
I bought a 46″ Samsung LCD a few months ago and it is very, very nice. Of course, most of what I watch on it is Netflix and Craig Ferguson.
Coming this summer to Whatever:
The exciting YouTube series “John Scalzi’s Paint Dries.”
Try to contain your excitement.
Must be a TV virus going around. On the other hand I was able to upgrade to a LCD also. I love HiDef, I just got to get my kid to put it back to original settings after he uses it for Xbox games. It also gave me the final reason to get rid of about 8 TV/ monitors that have been accumulating on the patio for 2 years. And yes I took them to the recycling center for disposal.
RickWINTR – Yeah, and people cared about that, too. Creepy.
I’m addicted to the TV. It started sometime around 1968, I think, when my mother realized I would sit quietly eating my Toaster Pastry while watching Captain Kangaroo, and this gave her time to do her hair and put on lipstick or something. Back in the day when TV in Orlando was 3 networks, PBS, one rerun riddled indie station, and occasionally a station from Tampa or Gainesville when the wind blew just so, I could tell you the day and the time by what was on the TV — any station. I studied the TV guide with the attention I should have given my math homework.
Fat lot of good that did me.
Now I watch TV to see Mythbusters blow shit up, Cesar Milan make people treat their dogs like dogs, tons of true crime stuff so I can feel paranoid with justification, and occasionally to watch idiot people try to outrun the local constabulary in a car, a van, or occasionally a city bus, which makes me feel unjustifiably more intelligent than average because, hell, I know it’s really hard to outrun a cop.
I guess it reflects just what sort of life I have that I AM interested in your new TV, in wondering what the story of your old TV was, reflecting with a slight twinge the arguments that could have graced these comments over comparative TVs, and whatever else is of some modicum of potential interest.
I also want to spell that word “modicrumb” because that seems apt.
When is the funeral and/or memorial service for the old TV?
Like Steve@4, I rarely watch broadcast TV; but my video card died the other weekend and I was without computer+internet (aside from work internet (which is the equivalent of methadone)) for the better part of a week.
Took me 2 days to stop shivering once I had my new PC (good enough excuse to upgrade as any) running and connected.
I knew I was old when I had to get my 7-year-old nephew to show me how to hook up the game console (Playstation 2, I think). I then felt the need to tell him all about Pong, but he seemed unimpressed.