The HDTV and Ipod Situation
So I have a new HDTV and a new 30 GB Ipod. Cool, huh?
One would think so.
Let's start with the TV. I do not have cable. Doesn't fit into my budget. With my old TV, I had the sexy rabbit ears. The stations were mostly fuzzy, but I got them. Sometimes I had to jack with the damn rabbit ears, but they came through well enough. The TV arrives, I place said rabbit ears onto new TV. I get ONE PBS station, and nothing else. Hmm. I call my dad. He tells me I need an HD antenna. Off I go to Radio Shack to drop $50 on one of the f-ing things. Hook it up. Get a very snowy Channel 7, with some sound if I stand by a window and hold said antenna aloft. Hmm. I call my dad. He said he'll look into it. He looks into it, calls me back the next night. He says you have to get the antenna to a north-facing window. I said the north-facing window is in my bedroom. He says you have to get a long cord. I said I didn't want an ugly fucking cord stretching from the TV in the living room across the floor across a doorway across my bedroom to the goddamn north-facing window. He said if you don't want the fucking ugly ass cord stretching across the goddamn floor then take the new fucking TV and stick in your closet and use the old fucking TV. (This is seriously how the conversation went.) I apologized for getting angry but I was frustrated. He didn't exactly take my apology and we hung up and I felt like shit and emailed my friend J, who said I didn't really need the HD antenna, a UHF antenna would probably work, and they're cheaper. Hmm. Off I go to Best Buy to talk to a Best Buy dude (or dudette), since this is where the TV came from. Best Buy Dude says, "with the new HD TVs, it will be virtually impossible for you to pick up any stations." I said, "so I'm forced into buying cable?" and he said, apologetically, "pretty much."
That's the TV situation. Moving onto the Ipod. This is a really cool toy. 30 GB?! The sheer size and amount of music to be added to this thing just makes me tingly. First things first: need an adapter for the car so I could play it through my car speakers. I get on the Apple website and order a handy cassette-to-Ipod thingy. $20. I order it and run off happily to Best Buy to spend the gift certificate from my Uncle for Xmas on more fun stuff like DVDs. The cassette-to-Ipod thingy arrives and it does not work. Off to Radio Shack next, only slightly disheartened. I purchase a new thing for $50 that looks promising. I get it home, unwrap it. It makes no sense. It's the stupidest piece of useless gadgetry I have ever encountered. It boggles my mind that it exists, and that it exists on a store shelf for more than .05. Off to Best Buy to purchase one that might actually work, wishing I hadn't spent my gift certificate money on freakin' DVDs afterall. Said gadget will set me back $100. Other Best Buy Dude says this is the one he uses and that it definitely works. I hold up Crappy Gadget Purchased At Radio Shack for $50 and say, "This one doesn't work - but this one WILL work?" and he goes, "Really, that's the one I have in my car. That's the one I use." Okay, purchase made. I get home, try it out on the car. It works. Happiness.
This morning, I dart from the apartment to the car with the Ipod and gleefully hook it up and tune to the station that worked on Saturday. It works and I listen happily to MJ's Beat It. (Come on, you can't admit you don't like that song!) And then, somewhere along Hollywood Blvd., The Static sets in. I tune for another station, almost getting killed while doing so, as the eyes are not exactly on the road. No other station. Car won't tune to an empty station. Frustration. Fiddling with the fucking thing all the way to fucking work. Arrive at work pissed off. Want to shove TV in the closet and throw the Ipod into oncoming traffic.
On the drive home, mind wandering as I'm listening to a CD and occasionally glaring a the Ipod sitting on the passenger seat mocking me, a thought occurs: the cassette-to-Ipod thingy. I pop said thingy in the cassette player, almost cause another accident looking for the cassette player's hole in the New Crappy Ipod Thingy, and plug it in. Side A of the cassette does not work, the car keeps ejecting the cassette and flipping back over to the CD. I eject CD and toss to the side, and flip tape to B side. It works. TV on the Radio came flooding out and ohhhhh, YAY! Ipod situation solved.
Anyone got a suggestion the TV..?
One would think so.
Let's start with the TV. I do not have cable. Doesn't fit into my budget. With my old TV, I had the sexy rabbit ears. The stations were mostly fuzzy, but I got them. Sometimes I had to jack with the damn rabbit ears, but they came through well enough. The TV arrives, I place said rabbit ears onto new TV. I get ONE PBS station, and nothing else. Hmm. I call my dad. He tells me I need an HD antenna. Off I go to Radio Shack to drop $50 on one of the f-ing things. Hook it up. Get a very snowy Channel 7, with some sound if I stand by a window and hold said antenna aloft. Hmm. I call my dad. He said he'll look into it. He looks into it, calls me back the next night. He says you have to get the antenna to a north-facing window. I said the north-facing window is in my bedroom. He says you have to get a long cord. I said I didn't want an ugly fucking cord stretching from the TV in the living room across the floor across a doorway across my bedroom to the goddamn north-facing window. He said if you don't want the fucking ugly ass cord stretching across the goddamn floor then take the new fucking TV and stick in your closet and use the old fucking TV. (This is seriously how the conversation went.) I apologized for getting angry but I was frustrated. He didn't exactly take my apology and we hung up and I felt like shit and emailed my friend J, who said I didn't really need the HD antenna, a UHF antenna would probably work, and they're cheaper. Hmm. Off I go to Best Buy to talk to a Best Buy dude (or dudette), since this is where the TV came from. Best Buy Dude says, "with the new HD TVs, it will be virtually impossible for you to pick up any stations." I said, "so I'm forced into buying cable?" and he said, apologetically, "pretty much."
That's the TV situation. Moving onto the Ipod. This is a really cool toy. 30 GB?! The sheer size and amount of music to be added to this thing just makes me tingly. First things first: need an adapter for the car so I could play it through my car speakers. I get on the Apple website and order a handy cassette-to-Ipod thingy. $20. I order it and run off happily to Best Buy to spend the gift certificate from my Uncle for Xmas on more fun stuff like DVDs. The cassette-to-Ipod thingy arrives and it does not work. Off to Radio Shack next, only slightly disheartened. I purchase a new thing for $50 that looks promising. I get it home, unwrap it. It makes no sense. It's the stupidest piece of useless gadgetry I have ever encountered. It boggles my mind that it exists, and that it exists on a store shelf for more than .05. Off to Best Buy to purchase one that might actually work, wishing I hadn't spent my gift certificate money on freakin' DVDs afterall. Said gadget will set me back $100. Other Best Buy Dude says this is the one he uses and that it definitely works. I hold up Crappy Gadget Purchased At Radio Shack for $50 and say, "This one doesn't work - but this one WILL work?" and he goes, "Really, that's the one I have in my car. That's the one I use." Okay, purchase made. I get home, try it out on the car. It works. Happiness.
This morning, I dart from the apartment to the car with the Ipod and gleefully hook it up and tune to the station that worked on Saturday. It works and I listen happily to MJ's Beat It. (Come on, you can't admit you don't like that song!) And then, somewhere along Hollywood Blvd., The Static sets in. I tune for another station, almost getting killed while doing so, as the eyes are not exactly on the road. No other station. Car won't tune to an empty station. Frustration. Fiddling with the fucking thing all the way to fucking work. Arrive at work pissed off. Want to shove TV in the closet and throw the Ipod into oncoming traffic.
On the drive home, mind wandering as I'm listening to a CD and occasionally glaring a the Ipod sitting on the passenger seat mocking me, a thought occurs: the cassette-to-Ipod thingy. I pop said thingy in the cassette player, almost cause another accident looking for the cassette player's hole in the New Crappy Ipod Thingy, and plug it in. Side A of the cassette does not work, the car keeps ejecting the cassette and flipping back over to the CD. I eject CD and toss to the side, and flip tape to B side. It works. TV on the Radio came flooding out and ohhhhh, YAY! Ipod situation solved.
Anyone got a suggestion the TV..?
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