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eftychia at 03:36am on 2009-06-18WTF? Before I left for rehearsal I very carefully programmed the DTV converter to tune in to The Unusuals and then The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (I didn't try to record Great Performances ("Chess in Concert") because I planned to catch the rebroadcast tomorrow -- ah, today). I even told it to switch channels fifteen minutes early, because at least one television station from which it's updating its clock gives it wonky-ass data (no idea which one(s); the process is invisible to the user). Then I carefully programmed the recorder to record at the right times (because I can set its clock myself). But when I got around to looking at the television just now, the DTV converter was off (I disabled the inactivity-timeout shutdown because it kept turning off in the middle of shows I was recording -- which it knew I wanted all of, because the timer event setting screen includes a %@#^ing duration for the event -- so it should have still been on from those two events earlier).
Sure enough, two hours of black screen got recorded. And when I turned on the DTV converter, those two events had been erased from the timer event list, while Charlie Rose at 9AM was still showing as a future event -- so I did program the timer (otherwise Charlie Rose wouldn't have been there either), and I programmed them for the right day and got the AM/PM part right (because otherwise they'd still be in the list as future events (this converter will not allow me to set events in the past (which makes sense, but annoys me when I go to set the time for a show tomorrow before I set the date, and have to go back and do things in its order instead of mine))). So why. the. [expletive]. did it not turn itself on at the designated time and tune in those two shows? (And no, neither was on a channel that goes away when it rains, not that I think the rain got heavy enough for that tonight anyhow.)
DTV is not enhancing my television-viewing experience. It's mostly just making me much more frustrated, much more often. Getting a classic-movies channel and the second channel of MPT is not quite making up for All The Ways It Goes Wrong.
(And yes, I do understand that making my life better -- or at least shinier -- was not the reason for the change. Reallocating frequencies in the radio spectrum was the reason. Making television better for everyone was just the marketing spin to mollify everyone who hadn't planned to buy a digital television on their own as long as NTSC was still being broadcast. Knowing that does not make me any less annoyed.)
The kind of day I'd already been having before I noticed that:
This morning I went to check my blood sugar, and the lancet device (aka "the clicky-jabby thing") I was going to use is cocked by holding the front half, and pulling the rear end backward. The very front is a shroud that covers the lancet itself, with a little hole for the pointy end to poke through when the spring is released and make a smaller hole in me for the purpose of getting some blood out. Well, I grabbed it too far forward and had an attack of the clumsies, and wound up shooting that shroud across the room, where it disappeared, in the process of cocking the device. I wound up using the clicky-jabby thing from a different glucometer instead.
I did not manage to get out to the nail salon and supermarket before rehearsal, so I went to rehearsal still missing the useful part of the nail on my middle finger, and with the acrylic on my thumb and ring finger in precarious condition. On the way, I realized that I'd forgotten to put a tube of Krazy Glue in my purse, but remembered that I had a tube in my music bag anyhow. After I got to rehearsal I discovered that the never-used / never-opened tube of Krazy Glue in the music bag was old enough that it had solidified (all the way through, as far as I could tell). So after catching the back edge of the thumb acrylic on an upstroke and narrowly escaping ripping off half my thumbnail, I adjusted my right hand technique to use only downstrokes for the rest of the evening. (The ring finger held up, fortunately.)
And on the way to rehearsal, I spent most of the I-95 portion of the trip in what looked like the tail end of rush hour traffic. But I'm not sure that was part of "having that kind of day" or not -- the last four or so times that I've gotten on I-95 south out of Baltimore in the evening, it's been like that. So have I just been really unlucky the last few outings, or does the trailing-off-but-not-done-yet part of rush hour now extend until around eight o'clock in the evening or later? (Used to be, any time after about a quarter past seven it was uncluttered evening/nighttime traffic density and room to get up to a good cruising speed.)
On the plus side, I did get to a supermarket after rehearsal, so I've got cat litter, and some groceries for me (and no more money, because when you put off buying stuff for a long time, just replacing the essentials that have run out / are running out adds up to a whole lot of dough, even without any frills or fun stuff).
And I still had enough spoons left to deal with the litter box and the garbage and even give Perrine a good brushing -- I wonder how many grams of fur I took off her with the brush and the comb tonight.
Alas, I don't think I'm going to manage to get up to Boston (well, Worcester actually) this weekend like I wanted to. But I'd started to resign myself to this because it had already been looking less and less likely. Between not having any money left, and probably needing until sometime Friday to recoup spent spoons, I think that trying to work things out at the last minute is going to use up whatever energy I'd need to enjoy the con with, even if I could pull it off. *sigh*
But there's something closer to home that I'd said "probably not" to when I thought I still had some chance of getting to ConCertino, and I still have three quarters of a tank of gas, so maybe I'll be feeling well enough Saturday to go be social like I'd really wanted to do this past weekend. Wish me luck.
In the meantime, I'm getting behind on my friendslist again -- checking the most recent entries now and then but not getting very far down the page -- so, ah, I'm not ignoring you, I'm just not paying very good attention. Oh, wait. Uh ... if I've been ignoring you, it's not because I'm trying to; just not enough braincycles to spare in the last few days. Er ... several days. Ah, that is, I've lost track. Bleah.
Anyhow, if I leave a comment a week after everyone else, or fail to hear about something nifty/important/upsetting/personal/fascinating, that'd be why.
converter box
Maybe this information vacuum is to be expected in a world where many people never learned to set their VCR's clock. Programming the converter and the VCR is going to be too much for them. (And DVRs are easier and more convenient – VCR -> DVR is like vinyl -> CD or slide rules -> calculators. There's no looking back. But if you don't accommodate the VCRs in the transition, you really haven't accommodated the analog viewer.)
As for the shows your converter didn't tune in last night — maybe it got that wonky clock update before their airing, thought their time had gone past, and deleted them from its schedule. (And then perhaps got a correct clock setting later, but that wouldn't matter.)
Re: converter box
When I was shopping for mine, there weren't many -- especially converter-only units that qualify for the coupon program -- that did. The keyphrase to look for is "event timer".
"I've been saying all along that the converter boxes don't address the problem of people using VCRs because the VCR can't tell the converter what channel you want to record."
I kept saying that -- it was pretty damned well ignored by all the "look how easy it is" propoganda, and only sheepishly admitted to on a call-in show on MPT when a caller asked about hooking up a VCR -- and salespeople kept looking at me blankly and not understanding the problem. *grrrr*
I kept having conversations where they tried to explain how simple it was to hook up the cables to get the signal path right, and I'd explain that I knew that, but what about recording ... "Oh, that should work normally."
"Really? How do I make the VCR tell the converter when to change channels?"
"What? No, you just tell it to record."
"You mean the converter is a passive device that makes all the digital channels appear as analog channels at once, and I can just use the VCR's tuner?"
"No, no, you have to change channels on the converter box!"
"That's what I thought. How do I make the VCR tell it when to change channels?"
"Why do you need to do that?"
"[*grrr*] What if the reason I want to tape my shows is that I won't be home to change the channel on the converter?"
Then if I was lucky, I'd get, "Ooooh. Sorry, this won't do what you want," and the rest of the time I'd get a blank look while their brain went away for a while. Hmph. Note that most salespeople couldn't even tell me what features the one box their store sold had ("You just put it between the antenna and the television; what do you mean, 'features'?") and when I finally did find out (via the web) which models had event timers, those models weren't sold in any stores as far as i could tell, so I had to do mail-order. (Hey, retaildudes, if your store only sells one version of this device, how hard is it to familiarize yourself with what it does? It's not like you've got a dozen different models to keep straight in your head!)
Uh, can you tell I'm still feeling a bit peeved by that shopping experience?
"[...] one of which is actually a DVR"
*nod* And thus not eligible for the government coupon.
"But if you don't accommodate the VCRs in the transition, you really haven't accommodated the analog viewer."
Yes, that's what I thought too! But everywhere I turned (other than LJ/etc.), folks acted as though they had forgotten VCRs even exist! It's like waking up in some mirror universe where everyone keeps telling you you're crazy because the things you remember don't exist, until you start wondering whether they're right ... except that I've got the VCRs right here in front of me, and they still sell blank videocassettes in grocery stores and drug stores! Who do they think buys those tapes?
Sheesh.
"DVRs are easier and more convenient [...]"
If for no other feature than getting the space back when I delete a show even if it's not the very last show recorded (the big limit of a purely sequential medium in this application instead of DASD), I would like to move to DVR. I got my brother's old TiVo, and a friend sent me a remote for it, but it won't boot up. It gets stuck in an hours-long infinite loop, where it spends a half hour on one "please wait" screen, then a couple hours claiming to be doing something else, and eventually works its way back to the first starting-up screen. I haven't cracked it open to poke at the innards yet.
And I haven't scraped together the money for DTV tuner cards to stick into a Myth box yet. (I think there was one on Woot a while back that I missed for not having had any money in my bank account at the time.)
Oh my. When the pull-down list of icons reaches down into the dock, selecting an icon from late in the alphabet gets interesting...