dW

And They Say, “Shit Happens”

It was only yesterday I got myself a Yamaha HTR-6060BL Audio/Video Receiver and a set of 6.1 speakers to go with it. I am more than happy with them to say the least. I almost cried when I heard the audio coming out of the speakers. The YPAO microphone that came with it was a joy to use as it automatically set the speaker system for where I sit typically. After I plugged everything up it took no time to be sitting there listening to music and movies with awe.

Looking at that picture will show you that this post isn’t about my joy over the receiver and speaker system. It’s about my 5 year old 20″ Apple Cinema Display. I woke up this morning, woke the computer up from sleep, and saw that the backlight died on my 2nd monitor. Lately it’s been showing signs of dying, but I thought I could keep it going for a few months until I got the spare funds together to buy a replacement. The power LED would blink in a short, short, long pattern. Apple’s website categorizes it as a “backlight error”. It would blink like that, and nothing would be different on the screen, no part of the screen would be without light. When the backlight went out completely the LED would continue to blink the same way. Apparently the first generation Apple Cinema Displays (and any similar display by anyone made at that point in time) were notorious for the backlights going out. I guess it’s what I get for buying something that’s cutting edge. I got five good years out of it anyway. I worked it to death (literally… ha!). Naturally right after I spend a ton of money to replace my speaker system (if you could have called it that) it dies and forces myself to dip into my emergency money (called a credit card).

The funny thing about it is that Ed Palumbo was trying to coerse me into buying Pokémon Diamond yesterday saying it would be an “Emergency Pokémon”. Well, Ed… I’ve had to use my emergency money but not for a DS game.

A few months down the road when I was going to order the replacement for my monitor I was going to buy another 23″. I didn’t really want to spend the money for another 23″ (even though they are cheaper than they were when I bought the other one), but couldn’t decide whether to get just a 20″ to replace what I had or to get the 23″ that I wanted. I flipped a coin — Heads for 23″, Tails for 20″. The quarter came out Heads, so I ordered the 23 incher. Interesting way to decide, hmm? Maybe fate wants me broke…