I fought the good fight, I think. I brought my intellect in, battered it with logic, pummeled it with intuition, and threatened it with information.
And yet, it stands firm, resisting my every move, countering my every feint, blocking my every attack. The trick bag is rapidly diminishing, and soon, soon, I will be forced to concede failure, vanquishment, and defeat.
I can't get my VCR to record.
It started Sunday afternoon, when I saw that the Discovery channel was going to re-show its magnificently sculpted three-hour special on dinosaurs, giving them much the same treatment as nature shows about modern animals. But we were going over to the Brandt's. So I interrupted Matt's enjoyment of Shark Week to program the VCR.
Yesterday I finally got a chance to check the tape. It hadn't taped.
I thought I would fiddle with it for a while and figure it out. I set it again, and watched the appointed hour come and then go.
I tried again. No dice.
I fished the manual out from under the television. Ah-ha! There are two buttons that have to be pushed after setting the timer, to tell it Yes, I really do mean what I programmed! I tried that. It taped! Hurrah!
I check the tape. Sure enough, the bad copy of some old anime I haven't watched in ten years is gone, replace with... static.
I try again. Same result. I try taping a different channel, and discover that the VCR simply won't let me enter a channel above 60.
After consulting the manual for a while, I think perhaps it needs to be re-programmed, to make sure it's getting all the channels. I tell it to auto-scan, and wait. When it finishes, I put the VCR into television mode (we usually just use the TV remote) and flip to the Disney channel on 38. I get a blue screen. I try to Food channel at 73. The VCR coughs and flips me back to channel 38. It won't accept 73 at all.
Just for kicks, I try taping channel 3. I get a full minute of some sitcom.
I try once more to tape the Disney channel. Static.
The VCR refuses to recognize any channel above 27. There must be something we've done wrong, setting it up, but I can't fathom what it might be.
My last attempt will be to go carefully through the manual, one page at a time, and verify our hookup. Maybe there's a switch you have to press to get channels outside the VHF/UHF range. But if that doesn't work...
Defeat, ignomony, and despair.
Word of the Day: vulnerary - used for or useful in healing wounds
I thought, for fun, instead of trying to write something around the Word of the Day, I might just list it. But it looked pitiful all by itself. And so I thought I might add some other factoid. Every Thursday evening (I actually get it Friday morning) I get an e-mail from CNN containing weird news. People doing strange things, bizarre items of interest. And the e-mail always advertises the "Alt" section of MyCNN, which is what you get at CNN's website if you register with them.
That, I thought, might be something fun to do - include a weird news item every morning. Fun. Educational.
I can't sign up for MyCNN.
That's not quite true. It lets me register and sign up. But then, when I try to log in, it tells me I've got an invalid login. It even gives me the "password hint" I registered with, so I know I'm making it into their databases. But it refuses to let me log in.
I need hardly tell you that this doesn't make me feel one jot better about my VCR ineptitude...
Later... Ha! I finally got completely registered for MyCNN. It saw me coming, I tell you...
- between books
Current Projects:
- nothing
Diet Progress: 5 lbs lost
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