Hi guys!
Thanks for all the warm welcomes.
ALL of my activities have been largely on hold for the past few months, my best friend moved in with me to escape an extremely abusive relationship.
I've been really tied up mothering her back onto her own two feet again.
I simply haven't had any time at all for my own self or pursuits.
She's finally (mostly) recovered from the evil that was done to her and is working her way back into the world again, she's left the nest and has moved in with a new boyfriend. I hope this relationship goes better than the last one. Whew!
So I'm trying to get back on track and pick my life back up where I put it on hold a few months back. Heck, I've barely even watched TV for the longest time. Maybe an hour here or there each day.
Pretty soon I need to get back on my little TV antenna project, I still want to try to get that Lake Charles station that plays Patty Duke & Mr. Ed and some of the oldies that came on a few of those Equity channels. I need more variety, RTV is pretty darn light on programming of interest to women.
I still miss the cornball movies from White Springs. And the low grade picture sort of added to the nostalgic spirit. I miss them. RIP White Springs.
(And after all the grief I went through to get them in, they died only a few weeks after I got them 100% :rant: )
I have done nothing at all on my motorized dish thing. I'm stuck. I don't have a clue how to hook the motor to the dish. I bought some adapter thingies but they all turned out to be poor choices so I just tossed it into the mystery pile for some distant future time. Gaaaah! $$$ down the drain, again.
I guess I won't be going to Australia after all, Mr Right turned out to be Mr. Dud. Oh well. At least it was over quickly and with little pain. :river
My ex came by for a few days. We get along ok most of the time, I guess, always did. We just drifted apart. No ill will there between us. He dug some stuff out of a closet and told me I could have it, he said maybe I could sell the stuff on ebay or play with it or whatever. I have no idea what to do with it. The biggest thing he was all proud of was this scope thing. He's in a one bedroom apt now and doesn't have room for anything. Darn. I was hoping he would haul some stuff off.
Picture is attached. He turned it on and made some patterns on it, that was sort of cool and he hooked a microphone to it, you could see your voice on it. That was pretty neat too. He hooked a little box to it (he took that with him) that makes color bar screens on the tv and you could see them on this scope, like stair steps. He tried to explain that to me but it was just a wee bit over my head.
He said it's mine to do with as I wish, he bought a new one that's like 100 times faster or something. I'm wondering if I should keep it or what. He said it's not very valuable, that the shipping on it (it's HEAVY!) is more than it's worth. He said it's real, real, real old school stuff. Mokay. Looks pretty high tech to me but I know how things go obsolete overnight. Maybe someone can make some suggestions as to what I could possibly use it for so it doesn't go to waste.
I also had him work on the satellite computer for me, which I shouldn't let him do because now the picture is ALL messed up on both the TV and the pc display.
It's badly, badly distorted, like looking in one of those warped mirrors at the carnival crazy house. In the very center of the screen it looks ok but to the sides, it's all distorted and warped and looks really horrible. People's faces stretch out like they are getting sucked into a black hole or something. Circles are squashed and stretched out, etc. It's a mess.
And what's stupid is now the sound will only play on one part of the house at a time. To hear it in like the bedroom, I have to go to the PC and change the default sound device from pc speakers to optical. And when I go to the office to watch tv and work, I have to switch it back. Before it just played on everything all over the house at the same time. And the picture was FINE on any set in the house.
There WAS a TV in the kitchen I could watch, now that's not working either.
He moved things around, said it would be better and easier for me to use. Hah!
Oh, and when you turn a TV or pc screen on or off, windows goes "bonk bonk" (some stupid sound that makes me want to go BONK BONK on it with a hammer!) and all the screen resolutions get all screwed up and I have to re-adjust them every time.
When the PC boots, now it only goes to the big TV in the bedroom where there is no keyboard or mouse. I can't log in on the pc screen because it's black until you log in and it's running windows! How stupid is that!?? It makes the TV the primary screen and NOTHING I do will change it. All I can do is unplug the TV from the PC which is a huge pain in the rear.
Once the pc is logged in and windows is running, I can use my iphone like a mouse and keyboard to control it from the bedroom. I found and bought an app called "air mouse". It's great! It saved me from spending like $150 on a bluetooth keyboard/mouse. I would still like to have one but not at the moment. $$ is tight right now.
All in all, it's a mess and I'm mad. :rant: I won't let him touch the stuff again.
Lucky for me I only see him once a year or so. Grrrrr.. So much for getting along I guess. Now I wish I could put it all back like it was, it was working fine before I let him mess with it. All in all, he wasn't very helpful, he just tore things up, made a mess and left things in a not so great state. Next time he comes around I'll smack his hands with a yardstick if he gets near my stuff.
Oh and the weird flashing on RTV, that's not as bad today. It seems to be behaving a little better than the past few days. I asked the ex about it and he just shrugged his shoulders and told me "hey, you're the one that moved all the dishes around and found that channel, it's your baby, baby." Gee thanks.
Oh, and FYI, the signals on RTV are showing 90% signal and 100% quality on the info. The weather is cool & clear. I'm afraid to go messing with the dish, I'm likely to make it worse, not better. As it is now, it's very watchable but sometimes it gets a little annoying with the weird flashing, especially when I'm in the middle of a migraine. Ugh...
For now I need to figure out how to put the TV antenna up, I put a mount pole on the roof but it's wiggly and I seriously doubt it's safe, I think a good strong breeze would tear it apart. I saw some of you guys have like extra poles to strengthen your dishes but I don't have anything like that and don't know where to get them.
They look like they were made just for that. Is there somewhere you can buy those? And what would they be called? Brace poles? I'm not sure. I would rather put a tall pole up along side the house like my dad did but those are expensive and the only place to get them is Radio Shack which is a rip off store. I hate them. I will not buy from those thieves. Besides, I hate the way they talk down to me, like I'm stupid. And no, I don't want to buy a car stereo or a cell phone (I have an iphone you dummy) and I don't want pizza dish satellite! And I hate that they won't even sell things cash to me unless I give them my phone number and zip code. Um, no way dude. Something stinks there. No other store asks me for that much info.
Oh and Home Depot only sells those stupid little indoor antennas you put on top of your TV. No good. I have a metal roof and my TV is mounted to the wall.
Not many options available for TV antennas I'm afraid. Maybe I will have to take a trip to Houston, China town there has everything you want... If I could only read the signs though..
I guess since I'll be staying here for the long term maybe I can reconsider putting up one of those BIG satellite dishes. I'm still not so hot on the idea but I guess it would give me more channel variety than I have now. Maybe this spring I could see about that.
I think I'm going to go lay down a bit, I'm not feeling so great today. I need to rest up, tomorrow my friend is coming by and we're going shopping a day late. I hate crowds.
Thanks guys!
- it was a hell of a dish! - 
