New! FCW Update! and....Television Buying Guide
Yesterday morning we heard the alarming noise of heavy, insistent pounding coming from next door. "Goddammit," I thought, "I have to work with THIS all day??"
It turned out no, I didn't, because soon thereafter came the more alarming noise of heavy, insistent pounding on our door. I opened it to the sight of a man and two women. The man was standing uncomfortably close for comfort; he must have seen the trepidation on my face, because he immediately flashed his badge at me.
Long story short, Ms. Crankwhore has apparently missed several probation appointments, and these law....people were coming round to see what the deal was. I admitted I hadn't actually seen her for weeks, which come to think of it is strange considering we've heard her dogs plenty through the door (though they were suspiciously silent during this exchange).
If she's fled the country or whatever, that works fine for us, aside from the thwarting of justice, etc. Either way, guess we're back on neighborhood watch duty.
UPDATE: Her screen door, which has hung open for weeks now, is suddenly closed this morning. Tery didn't hear her last night, proof that evidently she's perfectly capable of moving around quietly when she really, really wants to.
This doesn't appear to be related, but hear me out. This morning I got yet another call for this deadbeat, Greg Beret (sp). For some reason, this company that sounds like a collections agency has taken it into their head that my number is his, and at least once a month for the past 6 months they've been calling me looking for Greg. I've demanded, threatened, begged them to change their file, and thought I had finally succeeded until my phone rang this morning. When the lady cheerfully asked for Greg, I gritted my teeth and said with tightly controlled rage, "There is no one by that name here." "Oh," she said, less brightly. "I'll have them take it off the file then." I laughed bitterly, "Yeah, that's what I was told last time. You people call me ALL THE TIME...." "Well EXCUSE ME!" she said, and hung up on me. Oh HELL no. YOU don't get to have the attitude. I'M the innocent victim here.
Tery's solution was for me to track down this Greg person myself. I answered, "I've already got one fugitive from justice to keep an eye on. What do I look like, Dog the Bounty Hunter???"
~*~
I've decided to avoid killing myself to earn that production bonus as well as the TV, through the simple expedient of spending Saturday shopping for a TV. It sounded more fun than being the proverbial donkey chasing the dangling carrot. I was lured to Best Buy, a grumbling Tery in tow, by the promise of a Samsung CRT (tube TV) costing half as much as an HDTV, and the misconception that those fancy new LCD units only lasted a year or so. Not so! Evidently the technology has improved and they're more reliable now. Furthermore, the Samsung I had done exhaustive research on turned out to be a behemoth and would never have fit in my car, let alone on our existing TV stand.
Before discovering this though, we had to go through a spectacularly bad salesgirl. The minute our toes crossed the line into TV territory, she sprang on us like a panther, offering to help. I told her what we had come to look at and she joined us in wandering up and down the aisles cluelessly. When it became apparent it wasn't on display, she offered to go look for it in a flyer. We waited. And waited. And waited. When I finally decided to go looking for her, imagine my surprise to see her engrossed in helping an older couple pick out THEIR TV?
She looked up at me and I gave her a "WTF????" signal with my arms. To her credit she ran over immediately, explaining that she couldn't find it in the flyer. Not to her credit, I don't know why she didn't feel obligated to return to say as much, instead of leaving us hanging like that. I should have just walked out then, but I let her go through the rigamarole of checking stock in the computer. They had none (not that I would have bought it from her anyway), but she told us where we could find it.
On the way to the door I told Tery, "Let's go find a store that's interested in actually selling us a TV." She sighed heavily. "It's because we're a couple of women so they don't think we're serious about buying." Yeah, she's probably right.
The second Best Buy proved more fruitful, with the aforementioned realization that the Samsung wasn't a very good option. From there we edged closer to the wall of LCDs. It was quite breathtaking, and I murmured to Tery, "You do realize we're not leaving here empty-handed?" She rolled her eyes. "It's so funny you think after 15 years I'm not fully aware of that." She knows me so well, and loves me anyway.
After an hour of studying each unit and debating, and speaking to a young salesman who was enthusiastic, helpful and respectful, we settled on a 32" Sharp Aquos, a TV that could easily be carried by either of us without needing a chiropractor appointment the next day (having just watched the last 20 minutes of An Inconvenient Truth a few days prior, I'll admit I was swayed by the Energy Star sticker on the bottom left panel).
We talked to our salesman about how we weren't anywhere close to going full-bore HD yet. He warned us that standard programming didn't look that great on an HDTV, but I don't feel he tried hard enough to convey the sad, sad truth of that statement. After staring at the crystal clarity of HD for an hour, boy what a disappointment to see our ghetto standard satellite channels on the Aquos. It was a little like the difference between these two pictures:
Me HD ------------------------------------------ Me non-HD
DVDs fared significantly better, but could still stand a little improvement.
I called DirecTV the very next day. What no one tells you about the leap to HD is that it requires a whole new dish ($100 with installation), plus another $300 HD receiver (if you want Tivo, which has transmogrified from a luxury to a necessity for us, as they knew it would). An HD DVD player will add another $400 onto that tab. *despairs*
I thought I had the problem licked with something called a scaler/upconverter/line doubler, which reportedly achieves near-HD quality and allows you to plug multiple devices in, which would fix the DVD player and satellite simultaneously. However, I'm learning that units that truly accomplish this with a noticeable difference are so expensive ($1000-$3000) you're probably better off replacing the entire system as above. WHY can't I be a millionaire? Probably because I waste hours at a time shopping for stuff instead of working.
Fortunately, Tery has enough patience for both of us. She insists it's fine and for God's sake will I slow down? Guess until then I'll just watch from upstairs, since the picture looks better and better the farther away you sit. Poopie. *crossing arms sulkily*
It turned out no, I didn't, because soon thereafter came the more alarming noise of heavy, insistent pounding on our door. I opened it to the sight of a man and two women. The man was standing uncomfortably close for comfort; he must have seen the trepidation on my face, because he immediately flashed his badge at me.
Long story short, Ms. Crankwhore has apparently missed several probation appointments, and these law....people were coming round to see what the deal was. I admitted I hadn't actually seen her for weeks, which come to think of it is strange considering we've heard her dogs plenty through the door (though they were suspiciously silent during this exchange).
If she's fled the country or whatever, that works fine for us, aside from the thwarting of justice, etc. Either way, guess we're back on neighborhood watch duty.
UPDATE: Her screen door, which has hung open for weeks now, is suddenly closed this morning. Tery didn't hear her last night, proof that evidently she's perfectly capable of moving around quietly when she really, really wants to.
This doesn't appear to be related, but hear me out. This morning I got yet another call for this deadbeat, Greg Beret (sp). For some reason, this company that sounds like a collections agency has taken it into their head that my number is his, and at least once a month for the past 6 months they've been calling me looking for Greg. I've demanded, threatened, begged them to change their file, and thought I had finally succeeded until my phone rang this morning. When the lady cheerfully asked for Greg, I gritted my teeth and said with tightly controlled rage, "There is no one by that name here." "Oh," she said, less brightly. "I'll have them take it off the file then." I laughed bitterly, "Yeah, that's what I was told last time. You people call me ALL THE TIME...." "Well EXCUSE ME!" she said, and hung up on me. Oh HELL no. YOU don't get to have the attitude. I'M the innocent victim here.
Tery's solution was for me to track down this Greg person myself. I answered, "I've already got one fugitive from justice to keep an eye on. What do I look like, Dog the Bounty Hunter???"
~*~
I've decided to avoid killing myself to earn that production bonus as well as the TV, through the simple expedient of spending Saturday shopping for a TV. It sounded more fun than being the proverbial donkey chasing the dangling carrot. I was lured to Best Buy, a grumbling Tery in tow, by the promise of a Samsung CRT (tube TV) costing half as much as an HDTV, and the misconception that those fancy new LCD units only lasted a year or so. Not so! Evidently the technology has improved and they're more reliable now. Furthermore, the Samsung I had done exhaustive research on turned out to be a behemoth and would never have fit in my car, let alone on our existing TV stand.
Before discovering this though, we had to go through a spectacularly bad salesgirl. The minute our toes crossed the line into TV territory, she sprang on us like a panther, offering to help. I told her what we had come to look at and she joined us in wandering up and down the aisles cluelessly. When it became apparent it wasn't on display, she offered to go look for it in a flyer. We waited. And waited. And waited. When I finally decided to go looking for her, imagine my surprise to see her engrossed in helping an older couple pick out THEIR TV?
She looked up at me and I gave her a "WTF????" signal with my arms. To her credit she ran over immediately, explaining that she couldn't find it in the flyer. Not to her credit, I don't know why she didn't feel obligated to return to say as much, instead of leaving us hanging like that. I should have just walked out then, but I let her go through the rigamarole of checking stock in the computer. They had none (not that I would have bought it from her anyway), but she told us where we could find it.
On the way to the door I told Tery, "Let's go find a store that's interested in actually selling us a TV." She sighed heavily. "It's because we're a couple of women so they don't think we're serious about buying." Yeah, she's probably right.
The second Best Buy proved more fruitful, with the aforementioned realization that the Samsung wasn't a very good option. From there we edged closer to the wall of LCDs. It was quite breathtaking, and I murmured to Tery, "You do realize we're not leaving here empty-handed?" She rolled her eyes. "It's so funny you think after 15 years I'm not fully aware of that." She knows me so well, and loves me anyway.
After an hour of studying each unit and debating, and speaking to a young salesman who was enthusiastic, helpful and respectful, we settled on a 32" Sharp Aquos, a TV that could easily be carried by either of us without needing a chiropractor appointment the next day (having just watched the last 20 minutes of An Inconvenient Truth a few days prior, I'll admit I was swayed by the Energy Star sticker on the bottom left panel).
We talked to our salesman about how we weren't anywhere close to going full-bore HD yet. He warned us that standard programming didn't look that great on an HDTV, but I don't feel he tried hard enough to convey the sad, sad truth of that statement. After staring at the crystal clarity of HD for an hour, boy what a disappointment to see our ghetto standard satellite channels on the Aquos. It was a little like the difference between these two pictures:
Me HD ------------------------------------------ Me non-HD
DVDs fared significantly better, but could still stand a little improvement.
I called DirecTV the very next day. What no one tells you about the leap to HD is that it requires a whole new dish ($100 with installation), plus another $300 HD receiver (if you want Tivo, which has transmogrified from a luxury to a necessity for us, as they knew it would). An HD DVD player will add another $400 onto that tab. *despairs*
I thought I had the problem licked with something called a scaler/upconverter/line doubler, which reportedly achieves near-HD quality and allows you to plug multiple devices in, which would fix the DVD player and satellite simultaneously. However, I'm learning that units that truly accomplish this with a noticeable difference are so expensive ($1000-$3000) you're probably better off replacing the entire system as above. WHY can't I be a millionaire? Probably because I waste hours at a time shopping for stuff instead of working.
Fortunately, Tery has enough patience for both of us. She insists it's fine and for God's sake will I slow down? Guess until then I'll just watch from upstairs, since the picture looks better and better the farther away you sit. Poopie. *crossing arms sulkily*