TV2

Continuing on with the theme of my last post, my poor TV tech savvy, has allowed me to be really wowed by seeing a nice picture on a TV set. I’m still not impressed or rich enough to have to have one – and since last week I have also not changed my viewing habits to being someone that watches TV a lot – so I am not worried or compelled yet to go out and buy one.

My first really wow that is a good picture was a few years ago when I spent a summer working out of state. I was invited to a party over someone’s house and they has a large screen HD set in their living room. I think it was the Discovery Channel, with its awesome nature shows, that really got me. It was really apparent to me in seeing some cool nature shots that this technology was a dramatic difference.

The strange thing about being over that house was the people that were having the party were not even close to being the kind of people that should have been spending the kind of money that did on that TV. In fact they were later evicted from their apartment because they could not afford to pay their rent.

I wonder if they got to keep their fancy and expensive TV?

TV

Television technology has gotten so out of hand. I must admit this is not a part of my realm of techno fascination. At least in terms of my knowing and dabbling in knowing what is going on with TV’s. I just plain don’t have the cash to go buy a $1,000 set.

My first weird experience, one that told me that I was out of touch with this technology, was a visit to one of the big box electronics retailers a number of years ago. Just to see what all this stuff was all about (plasma, HD, etc.), I wandered over to the TV section. I was floored. The prices, the number of different kinds and the awesome pictures that were on the screens. Still, I could not believe that this is where things had come to with this technology. I don’t watch to much TV, which is another reason I do not know or care very much about the latest greatest new sets.

With that I could not believe that folks were readily buying TVs that cost many thousands of dollars. Yet apparently there were. Very strange is what I thought then. And I still do think that today.

8 tracks?

Just kidding. I don't have any of those but I do have plenty of cassette tapes. I just can't let them go. I even have a two cassette stereo component with my music equipment.

Yeah it is true that at least I do not have any eight-tracks but still. I should throw in the towel with the cassettes and let all that go. Part of my inability to chuck all this stuff that I never use out the door is an old habitat.

When I was growing up with LP's, cassettes and eight-track tapes I was always very careful to protect my recordings. Part of that was often times recording a new album to a cassette so I did not harm the album by playing it too much. Not that they were that fragile, but every time you play an LP (especially with butter fingers like mine) there is the risk of a scratch. I was also dealing with this stuff when the quality of most vinyl records were pure crap. Poor quality control, cheap materials and a commitment to try to make the cheapest material that the medium could stand.

Another matter was that when I had records, I had a record collection. That soon expanded into a cassette and record collection but still the records were the core. I never bought a record, did not like it and got rid of it. There were plenty that went the one-two step but instead of heave hoing the bad, they backstopped the better things. They remained a part of the "collection." Kind of hilarious because I bought some of the most mainstream crap that you could imagine. Me and millions of others had the same records, with most of them pressed on crappy vinyl. It all eventually got lost in the shuffle of moving long after I got rid of my last record player.

Somehow a box or two of cassettes hung around. Later they grew larger as I would occasionally buy a cassette for what was then my car player. Later still I started listening to other kinds of things on cassette – talks and lectures. Those too were added to things. It is almost like this stuff grew larger of its own accord. Where did it all come from? Years of accumulation, lots of time in the car and my love of listening to stuff – music, spoken stuff, whatever.

Weird to even write all this in the age of mp3's, CDs and DVDs. Maybe writing this will motivate me to get rid of this stuff! Somehow though I doubt it. They are not as heavy as albums, are a little easier to hide away in a box, in a corner in a part of the house where stuff like that can be stored.