
^^^ I love this post.
No, because yesterday the prodigal son (my Uncle the Radical) was coming and she had to be in her home for him...

So here's how one gets roped into spending hours and dollars all because of darn Toys R Us.
I was there with Aureilia and she was picking out stuff for the gift certificate she got 4 her bday the other day.
She picks out a Thomas Train software for kids with numbers/letters. Fine. I get to the cashier, and JUST as the kid swipes my credit card, I realise that this Thomas game is NOT a CD, but a proprietary cartridge for some console we don't have. Too late. Card's gone thru. Refund? Yeah, just trot to the back of the toy warehouse and wait in line @ cust service.
Umm, I don't think so. The consoles are closer than the refund counter. I grab one for $45. Go home. Unload child and toys. Child starts up mantra: I want my
PEWter. I want my
PEWter. I am feverishly trying to cut several twist-ties and other atmospheric re-entry style wrapping apparatus from said comPEWter package.
Finally. Computer's out of the box. Oh. It needs 4 AA's and 4 C's worth of batteries to work.
I go and fish batteries out of various and sundry toys until I have enough to bring this stupid thing to life. It connects via a simple RCA audio and composite video jack to "any television!" So simple!
Well I do not have "any television". But.... my trusty new HP has these fabulous onboard front panel composite video/audio jacks! No prob!
I plug it in.
("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.")Nothing happens.
I Google
"composite video input"+m8200n.
("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.")Turns out that everyone online but me has been ranting about the "just for show" jacks on the front of the HP m8200n since last July. They don't work due to some Vista shit.
Ergo: PEWter doesn't work. ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.")Okay, okay, I'll go to Future Shop tonight and buy a female RCA to S-video cord, and maybe the S-video will work. Go out. They don't even HAVE the cord (stupid Future Shop). Buy combo of joiners and male/female thingies to make all the cords go together. Bring cords home. Hook it up. Doesn't work.
("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.")Call my mom. "Can I have your old TV?" "Sure, drive 30km and pick it up tomorrow." "Okay. *sigh*"
(I mean there must be 300 million old TV's rotting out there in the world that would work fine.)
("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.")Next day: drive 30 km. Let myself and Aureilia into Mom's house. Tv is in the hall.
Tv is so old, it was old when I was 4. I try not to scream aloud at my absent mother, who works at the CABLE company and KNOWS about these jacks.
WHY WOULD YOU EVER THINK THIS WOULD WORK? THIS "TELEVISION"'s INPUTS REQUIRE USE OF A FREAKING SCREWDRIVER MOTHER!!!! Leave fossilized cretaceous TV there. Internalize rage for sake of child. Lock house. Drivve 30 km home again.
("I want my PEWter! I want my PEEEEEEEEEEEEWter.")Losing it now, I feverishly place a (free) ad on a local classifieds site for a TV...ANY tv with jacks!!! A guy emails me. He has an old TV with composite jacks and I can have it 4 free. Pick it up tomorrow. 35 km away.
("I want my PEEEEEEEEEEEEEWter! I want my PEWter.")Next day, with a doctor's appt AND a swim lesson to get to, we speed out to this guy's neighbourhood by the sea and he comes out of his house carrying something that looks suspiciously ancient and cretaceous, and I go, (admirably without screaming,) "But I need a TV with video/audio inputs."
And he turns the thing around and it's an old Commodore 1702 monitor from the 80's with...with...
with.....
COMPOSITE JACKS ON THE FRONT!
(Faithful $7000 colour 80's Commodore monitor from way back when technology was crafted with loving care.) ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.") ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.") ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.") ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.") ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.") ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.") ("I want my PEWter! I want my PEWter.")Run to doctor's. Run to swimming. Run home.
Plug. In. Pewter.
And it worked!
THANK ALMIGHTY GOD AND ANY OTHER DEITY WHO HAD A HAND IN THIS MADNESS!


