Viva El Cable Guy
12/17/2

Well, regardless of what the weather report says, I think we�ll get bigtime storms today. Why? Because it�s 56 degrees at 6:55 a.m. on December 17th.

Yesterday, I left work at around 12:30 since the cable guy was showing up between 1 and 3. In fact, I was rushing to get out since when I was walking to see if my VIN was etched on the windows of my car (which is a common �bumper to bumper theft prevention� technique) I saw it. The sample from the new digester. Ook, I was supposed to do volatile acids on three samples before I left. It takes about two hours, and I had 35 minutes. Labman finished it up for me.

Well, I tried to start playing Vice City while I was waiting, but he showed up exactly on time. While he was getting stuff set up in his truck, I disconnected everthing. And everything had a bazillion wires to it.

Playstation 2 = AV output wire to front of VCR, power wire. = 2

WowThing = Audio in wire, audio out wire, power wire = 3

Phone = phone cord, power cord = 2

Subwoofer/Amp = audio in wire, �surround� speakers (ha ha) wires, power wire = 4

VCR = AV in front from PS2, AV in back from ReplayTV, Raw Cable, AV out to TV, Power = 5

ReplayTV = Cable In, Phone In, AV out to VCR, Power = 4

TV = AV in from VCR, power = 2

So that�s a total of 22 wires. Cable guy brought the box in and it had two coaxial and a power. After he left, I put it all back together incorporating the box and adding another wire with the IR blaster from the ReplayTV to control the cable box. Also, the WowThing was sent packing due to space and outlet constraints. I had like four cables left over. I feel like some carnie who keeps having spare bolts show up every time they put the ferris wheel together.

Why was carnie in the MS Word spell check?

After I verified that everything was working well with the core units (TV, VCR, Replay, Cable Box), I decided that the cable box was too big and ugly to be seen, so I put it in a drawer of the antique birds-eye maple washstand that all this sits on. Yes, my ugly TV monstrosity covers some very pretty wood. Since the IR blaster had a little adhesive foot, you just stick it to the sensor on the unit. I just had so snake the Cable, the AV out, and IR blaster, and power cables into a drawer. I experimented with S-video, but couldn�t tell the differnce. I did find a cable that was giving me echos or static or ghosts, whatever, and it became corda non grata. I ended up just doing coaxial from the cable box to the replay.

Oh, and all this is because I�ve now got digital cable. A few more channels and lots of music channels. One of those channels was Tech TV, which I was very pleased to see recording a show called Extended Play, which is video game reviews. I actually wanted to see the weather channel [on the TV in the kitchen], but I had him take back the converter box on the ancient TV in the kitchen. Now it only gets 12 channels. I�ve had that TV since I was 16, and my sister had it for a few years before that.

I also swapped out the TV in my monstrosity. Went from the Sanyo, which has better picture quality but chops the corners of the screen off, to the Sansui, which doesn�t quite have the best refresh rate in my opinion, but has a nice angular screen. The Sansui also favors the high end of the sound spectrum too, but the amp takes care of that.

After all that, started searching for shows we don�t normally get. I found �What Not To Wear� for Aisai and then just added random crap. Game show network�s Matchgame 74 is freakin� brilliant. Reminds me of my childhood.

Nothing much happened in Vice City yesterday. I�m working for the Cubans now. I�m keeping at least two hummers on hand and now have a Jeep CJ too. But in my freak garage, I have my two little cars. I have a baggage tractor from the airport and a golf cart. Both are very fun to tool around with. I was terrorizing a Mustang yesterday on the way back from the mission where I proved myself to the Cubans, and then realized that I hadn�t saved�and I was repeatedly ramming some innocent in a Mustang with a golf cart.

I�m tellin� ya, it�s more fun than it sounds, too.