It was a dark and stormy night

I can file this under entertainment because now I have time to be entertained. Thank goodness my paper for that class is done with. And to boot, I’m hopefully going to be able to use some of that work in my dissertation proposal. Double-dipping is the key to success in grad school. Working on projects that do not ultimately help you get the hell out are not recommended.

 

The title of this entry refers not only to Snoopy’s cliche’d stories but also to the circumstances surrounding the breakdown of our poor TV, which incidentally, is only about 5 years old. There was one night back in July when it was ridiculously stormy. I could probably go back and figure out what night it was because Alan was down for a visit, and Rebecca had to work that night. It was raining sideways, that’s how crazy it was. Anyways, the tv first went on the fritz that evening. Al and I had rented a movie and were in the middle of watching it when the volume inexplicably went up. And then it started flicking through the TV channels. After some fiddling around with the remote (including removing the batteries to make sure the remote wasn’t responsible) it eventually settled down. This has happened a few other times since then, most recently being the other day, when Rebecca went downstairs to watch her newly arrived Frosty the Snowman DVD — this computer has a video card with a TV tuner on it. Because the cable comes in the room (for the modem) and the computers are all in this room, this computer has become our primary television. Thus, despite the fact that there’s a dedicated machine in the rec room (which I finished specifically with the intent of making that the entertainment room), all the TV viewing is done in here. As a result, the malfunctioning of the TV (in the basement) hasn’t been much of a problem until this week, when I was working on my essay. Fortunately, all the shows are on hiatus for the holiday break.

 

It looks like it might be time for a widescreen LCD. O cruel fortune.