I may have spoke too soon when I said that my TV was healed. I thought it was. It turned on the last time I pushed the power button. It turned off too. But not when I pushed the button. No, it turned off because it wanted to.
After some research I found that this is a common problem with older TV. Basically every TV (tube based TV I believe) has something in them that accumulates voltage. The voltage that is accumulated in the TV is eventually dispersed either through a resistor or through being powered down. If the resistor goes then the TV can accumulate so much voltage that it can shut itself down due to short circuiting.
When this happens the only thing that really lets the TV off the hook is unplugging it. Apparently unplugging it allows the pent up voltage to disperse, slowly, until the circuit can actually close itself based on the voltage levels. And I believe that is what happened in my case.
I think the reason my TV “came back to life” when it did the other day was because my wife was thinking ahead and unplugged to minimize power usage by it. So when I plugged it in the other day the voltage that had shut it down the last time was completely dispersed and it allowed the TV to turn on.
What I am finding out now (I have spent some time researching this) is that if the TV ever decides to just shut down all by itself all I need to do is unplug it for about an hour and then plug it back in and turn it on. And you know what? It works.
So now I feel a little better about my TV. No, it isn’t healed. But at least I know how to medicate it when it decided to be cranky with me.
A couple of weeks ago my TV died. Flat out flat lined. Kicked the bucket. Gave up the ghost. Called it quits. Went belly up.
Amid the turmoil that ensued with no babysitter for the kids (yes, this is a joke - don’t call child protective services on anyone now) we were forced to maneuver our way around parenting without the aid of Barney, Teletubbies, Calliou or Arthur. Now that’ll stretch a parent.
To facilitate our sanity my in-laws, being generous and kind, offered us their old TV that was in their guest room. We, being the fairly needy and much maligned family that we have been, resoundingly approved of receiving such a gift and as of this past Tuesday acquired it. And last night, after a very long day at work, I began the process of removing our old TV and replacing it with our in-laws old TV.
On a whim, while the old broken down TV of ours was out of its TV stand place, I decided to plug it in to test if it was indeed broken. And you know what? The darn thing fired right up. Talk about excited!
You cannot imagine the glee and joy I feel knowing that I will not need to spend money fixing a broken TV or yet more money on buying a new TV. It is nice knowing that our TV is working again. I am not sure how it broke to begin with but at the moment I don’t care. All I know is that it is fixed and I am happy. And my in-laws, being the cool people they are, not only told us we can keep their old TV but that we were more than welcome to the TV stand that it occupied. How freaking cool is that?
Now we not only have our babysitter back, we now have a TV that my wife and I can fall asleep watching in the comfort of our very own room. Yeah, life could probably get better, but for now it is pretty good.
Wonder what might happen tomorrow?
Few things carry with it the pageantry, showmanship and stigma of the Olympic Games. The best athletes in the world coming together in international competition on quite possibly the largest stage some of them will ever see. Media hounding everyone at every turn. Entire cities rebuilt to accommodate the athletes, fans, coaches, supporters and staff.
And coming around once every four years certainly helps the hype. If nothing more it certainly offers a unique excuse to children to stay up later than normal, jump off of things they would not usually be allowed to jump off of and shout at the TV like dad does on Sundays during the football season.
Strangely the one thing about the Olympics, the bringing together of families to enjoy something in the company of each other instead of being off Facebooking, MySpacing, Texting or something else, is the same thing that gives me the biggest issue of contention with the Olympics. My family has been consumed by these games.
Regardless of the sport, from swimming to gymnastics to beach volleyball, my wife can sit and watch the games all night. My kids have been staying up until midnight or later so they can watch the Olympics, which “only come around every four years”, with mom. And I think I have had my fill of it.
I like sport as much as the next guy, and I am all for the spirit of competition that the Olympics bring. But dude, I am on freaking Olympics overload. I am ready for the games to end already. I want my TV, my family and my nights back. Family TV night is great, but not when it starts at 9:00 PM and goes through 1:00AM the next morning and only includes mom and the two older girls.
And I think it would be better if even the non-mainstream sports made it on to TV. I would love to see some wrestling or shooting or table tennis. Not the most popular, certainly not the biggest named athletes in the world in these events, but still, the Olympics are more than just swimming, gymnastics and tack & field.
Still, I am enjoying what little of the games I am letting myself consume. They have been exciting and even breathtaking at times. But I have a feeling when these games are over I will be a little happier for their departure than their arrival.
I waited on making this post until after American Idol because I wanted to try to capture something from the finale. Going into the show tonight I thought it would be a great show. I think I was pretty spot on.
Both Davids kicked butt tonight. Both of them showed great originality, great range, great vocals. Both of them sang very well.
And while I think that David Cook (Cookie, as I’ll call him from here on out) is an all around better performer, a la Ruben Studdard, tonight I think the singing went to David Archuleta (Archie as he will herein be known).
Cookie tore things up. But his singing I think sounded a little strained. That might be because of how hard he sings and the fact that all of his songs vary so much in style that he will almost always be using his voice. Whatever the cause, his voice sounded a little tired.
Archie sang his normal soft voiced love song type songs. But he sang them very well. Better than Cookie. And I think that might make the difference.
We’ll see tonight. I think it will be close like the Ruben / Clay finale of season 2. Regardless, I think we were treated to a great American Idol season. Thanks to the contestants for really bringing it this year.
Good luck to you David. Both Cookie and Archie.