We are in the middle of financial problems, so I don't really get to go buy new things unless they prove to be absolute necessities. But I have had a few people over to watch movies on DVD recently, and I got several comments about the size of our Monitor. I think the final moment came when one person asked if I had a set of binoculars. We don't have TV in our house - haven't for over 25 years - but we do have a large collection of movies, nice surround sound gear, and a small monitor. It was a gift, and it was sharp and clear about five years ago...
I have seen the new HD stuff in the stores - you really can't miss it! They are big, bright, and with the new Blu-Ray discs and players, they are really in-your-face. I started shopping in the usual place: Craigslist. I know - I have gotten a few good deals this way, but I have also gotten stung. But I simply didn't have the cash for a new item this time, I saw a real low price on a 40" Samsung and I got excited. Too excited. I didn't listen to the little voice in my head which is usually very good at telling me when people are not telling the truth.
Oh, the story is long and sad. Suffice to say that once I parted with my cash I was the proud owner of a big-screen which did everything but turn on. That's right - sometimes it would come on and be awesome, but some times, it just sat there making clicking sound for hours. Not quite as entertaining. Yesterday I turned it on at 5am and it was still not running by 1 in the afternoon. I was not happy. My wife was not happy. Friends and relatives made jokes, roommates offered no hope, and I was beginning to wonder about the way the dog was looking at me.
I was about to take it back and throw it gently through the seller's window, but he lives with four other buff-looking guys so I didn't want to die over a simple thing like being robbed, cheated and lied to. So I did the next best thing: I went back to the source. I had found this "Deal" on the Internet, so I figured the Internet owed me a favor. I typed the model number into a Google search, and it came back with several discussion boards upon which people were discussing the very same problem! They had pictures, and part numbers and everything. So I dismantled the set, found the bad parts, went to Fry's Electronics on the busiest shopping day of my life (a blog for another day, I assure you) and purchased the parts. The only ones in stock at Fry's were larger physically, so I had to use a few former-electronics-teacher tricks to get them in, but by gosh and by golly I got them in, and it works.
Now - I just need to scratch together a couple hundred more dollars to get a High-Def DVD/Blu-Ray player. Oh what an amazing thing consumerism is... just like any other appetite, you can't satisfy it by feeding it. You only increase it's ability to grow...
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