So I slept in until after 10 once again today, though I had been dreaming that I’d slept until almost noon.
After getting up and doing not much of anything, I finally decided that I would once again venture out into the world.
So I took a shower and then found myself sitting around in my bathrobe, at which point I decided to turn on the TV. “Trading Spaces” was on, which I haven’t really watched in a very long time, and as it had an interesting “twist,” I opted to hold off on venturing out until after it was over.
The twist to the show was that the rooms that were going to be redesigned had not yet been selected. The homeowners had to go into each others’ homes and pick which room would be done. If the homeowners picked the “bonus” room (sort of like “the secret word”) they would get an additional $1,000 for their budget.
Only one set of homeowners found the “bonus” room. There was other stuff, too, like the homeowners designing their own carpentry projects, but that was the main thing.
Anyway, after that was over I got dressed and headed out into the world.
This consisted primarily of me going to Circuit City and just sort of aimlessly wandering around, as I wasn’t looking for anything in particular.
I found a hell of a deal in the form of a 19” LCD monitor for only $429 (it had been returned, apparently). That was extremely tempting, even though it would have meant pretty much draining my savings.
I managed to stay strong and not buy it, though.
However, I did find the Sarah McLachlan “Afterglow Live” DVD/CD set for $20. I could have gotten it a bit cheaper online, but after factoring in shipping it would cost more. Plus if I bought it at a store, I would actually have it the same day, so I bought it.
I also picked up a learning remote, which is very cool.
Ironically, there is a considerable learning curve involved in figuring out how to actually make use of it, but I think I’ve got it pretty well worked out.
Because of the way I have everything set up, and because I have a no-name DVD player/home theater system and TV which do not have codes in any of the major universal remotes, I’ve been forced to make use of three different remotes.
(As an aside, even though my DVD player is cheap and no-name, so far, with the exception of the Spider-Man 2 DVD, I’ve found that it can handle virtually every format thrown at it: VCD, SVCD, MP3, DVD-R, DVD+R/RW, CD-R, et. al. Also, it can play MPEG files that have not been reformatted as SVCD/VCD. Put in a CD ROM that has MPEG files on it, and the player brings up an on-screen directory display that allows you to play any compatible video/audio/picture files. It even identifies files that it may not be able to play [such as DIVX or AVI] with a question mark. I’ve been very impressed by it.)
Also, I haven’t been able to find a universal remote that can actually do more with my digital cable box than simply turn it on and off and change the channels, and I make considerable use of the guide and info stuff.
So I was very pleased to finally get a learning remote that can be taught to perform more than just the basic functions. Also, it ended up being $20 cheaper than it was marked, so that was a bonus.
It wasn’t really tricky to set it up, it was just kind of tedious. There are still some seldom-used features of my DVD player’s remote that I need to teach it, but I’ve got all of the major stuff programmed in.
Also, it has a macro feature, so by hitting two buttons I can turn on my digital cable box, TV, VCR, and DVD player/home theater (It’s a huge mess of wires back there, plus there are wires running over to my computer, as I have an ATI All-In-Wonder graphics card that allows me to watch TV on my computer).
Also, besides turning the DVD player on, it sets the mode to Aux, which is the audio input for my digital cable box.
So that’s very cool, and efficient. I mean, it increases my overall laziness by like 300%, and that’s nothing to sneeze at. Anything that can make me even lazier is practically a miracle.
Plus, the blue light for the LCD screen on the remote is really pretty.
Now that I’ve gotten the remote all sorted out, I need to figure out what I’m going to do for dinner. I took out some frozen leftovers last night, and I don’t have anything else thawed, so I’m not sure there’s too much left to figure out, but I think I’ll go take a look anyway, so I guess that’s it for right now.
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