Electronics that make our lives easier...

Okay, I'm not one to say that I'm 'good' with electronics, in fact, it would be somewhere as to 'they train me' as to how 'they' want to be treated. Seriously, it's insane. For as long as I can remember I've been a 'slave' to my electronics (in as non-slave sense as you can get). I had this stereo that was a hand me down. My friend said that CD player hadn't worked in months. I tried cleaning it. I put the disc in, but nothing would happen except this odd whirring sound and then nothing. One day I manually moved the cleaning disc around the playing tray and then tried. It worked. To my knowledge, the CD player still works, or has moved on to someone else.

Then I won a CD player at my high school prom and it worked through 3 moves, all with the original packaging. However, on the 4th move when I brought it back up from Tennessee it worked for a good couple of months and then after Caleb was born it stopped working completely. Not even my manual cleaning could get the CD player to work. The tape player worked/works beautifully.

Then there was a fiasco of getting a portable CD player for jogging and to listen in the house. The 'universal' adaptors that I bought didn't fit quite right so I cut off some of the plastic part and the adaptor fit perfectly. Except... now it wouldn't work without the adaptor in it. Not even with batteries and a headset. So I never took the adaptor out again. Until I moved to where I am now living and got a new car without a CD player in it. (Sad) I got the adaptor tape and hook up for the portable CD player in the car thing and tried it with my adaptor only CD player. It didn't work, and when I brought it back down into my basement studio, it had refused life from the adaptor it had only been seperated from for a matter of minutes. So I was Sans studio CD player for a bit.

So I went out and bought a new player. The correct adaptors for the player and it works beautifully in the car and out of the car. However the car stereo is another thing. As you could recall from a previous post about the grinding noise when the music is too quiet, or when it is too cold it'll grind as if complaining about being too cold and having to work. It's quite amusing and frustrating. Maybe someday I'll get a CD player for this car as well.

Next we move on to my computers.
The first computer given to me was from my first job down here at Budget Signs. I tried to install the software for my wireless mouse and keyboard (since this I haven't done it at all) and the computer stopped working. The software totally fried the processor. The computer is now used for parts and should be thrown away or recycled. Where does one do that? Recycle computers?

Offending Computer


The next computer was given to me by a good friend. It worked for the purposes of resume's of which it didn't get me any jobs, but it was there. It would turn on randomly. I would shut the computer down at night and during the night (and this became more noticable when it came to live in my room after the move) it would turn on. It was creepy. Since it has become Caleb's computer this has only happened once, and I think that he (Caleb) turned it on. Its missing a face plate because the computer was built for a burner, but the face plate wasn't. It's a sorry looking computer, but it did it's job the best it could.


I've also bought a portable CD player table top version for the kitchen. I now have a real stereo in the living room which belongs to Matt. I think I've only used 5 times for CD's and countless times for movies. It's great!

Offending TV

The old TV that I had (which now resides in Caleb's room for gillmore girl purposes) was/is a TV with VCR duo. Which was marvelous! For the first couple of months that I had it I couldn't figure out how to get the DVD player to work. It was all hooked up, ready to go and I couldn't for the life of me figure out that you had to press the 'input' button on the remote. Which, could've been tragic had I lost the remote. I didn't. Thank God! Throughout it's life it's aquired the distaste for VCR tapes. Having been fed crayons, peach pits, and other sorts of toys when mom wasn't looking or fast enough to get the tapes out of the VCR. It also has started to lose the audio capabilities somewhat. If the audio disappears one has to fool around in the back with the cables (this is the DVD function of the TV) and set them just so, so that the audio can be heard.

The TV that was brought over by Matt is great, except that it only gets a few channels and doesn't get Fox 29, WB 23, or PBS 17. Which are channels that Caleb and I have grown to love with Seasame street in the afternoons, Simpsons, and the gilmore girls. TV time at our house can be seen in two places depending on the night. Tuesdays I'm up in Caleb's room watching gilmore girls and he (caleb) enjoys the time we have together. Such a good little man. The TV rocks otherwise. And it does get the channel 5 which is most important, since it's the one that airs lost...

Why am I telling you these stories about my electronics? Because I'm not the only one out there who, even though they are frustrating things, loves the things that give us so much trouble. Here's what I'm talking about: 'My pwerbook g4'.

Aww!