Another appliance went on the fritz Friday night. Our TV went down. It wouldn't turn on, and then it would, but it was only the bottom half of the screen, and it was flickering and unresponsive to any controls on the remote, and then it wouldn't turn off. To put it in technical terms, the thing was tweaking out. Sometimes you can fix "broken" devices just by restarting them, so I unplugged the TV and waited ten minutes and plugged it back in, but it didn't do any good. Then, I turned to the internet to see if I could find any troubleshooting tips, but the only thing it said to do was to check all the connections, which I already did (duh) and hold down the factory reset button, but that didn't do anything either. So, I gave up and decided to just buy a new TV. We bought the broken one at the very beginning of the Covid shutdown, which seems like last week but was actually almost seven years ago. Is that a good lifespan for a TV? I'm not sure, but I don't feel completely cheated by it, at least.
Whenever something breaks in our house, I always face the impossible task of determining whether or not I should try to fix it myself or call a professional or replace it altogether, and if I do the latter, then I have to decide whether I should try to replace it myself or call a professional. I used to be very much in the just-book-a-professional camp, but I've changed my tune on that because of the prevalence of information on the internet, specifically very detailed YouTube videos. It's also just a mindset change, for the better, to think, Maybe I can fix this myself. It doesn't hurt to look at least. When I taught math, I would see so many students psych themselves out from even trying to solve the problem, but that's what I used to do with DIY. So, now, I at least give it an initial go, and sometimes, like when my laptop wouldn't charge, and I had to physically disconnect and reconnect a wire in the battery (which required me ordering a special type of screwdriver to open the back), it works, and I'm very happy. Other times, like with this broken TV, I can't figure it out, and I'm not happy. I'm not sad either. I'm just normal. Yeah, I have to buy a new TV, but that's a solution too and one that doesn't require much labor from me. And I can buy it with a clear conscience, knowing that at least I tried to fix it first.
Decent TVs are relatively inexpensive too. That's another thing. We got the new one yesterday, and it was $250 for a nice normal 50" flat screen smart TV. That's how much you pay, at a minimum, for service when you call a repairman to fix a broken appliance. It's also super easy go get a new TV. I bought it online at Best Buy, picked it up, brought it home and set it up, and the whole thing took maybe an hour total. The most onerous part is getting rid of the old TV. I have to search up on the DC website when and where is the next e-waste drop. As I recall, they have them a couple times a month at various points around city, never anywhere near where we live. Last one I went to was in the concrete ruins of old RFK Stadium. It was ridiculously crowded and took me a long time to get rid an old laptop and printer. They also had a paper shredded and a grease disposal service, but they didn't have the lines separated properly so everything was bleeding together, and it was pure chaos.
So, I'm not eager to do that again. Not only is it a huge hassle, but it's one that also bums you out. You go there and look out at this vast wasteland of broken electronics and have a Crying Indian moment. Putatively, it's a recycling center, but I doubt even half of that waste is getting reused. Surely, much of it is just piling up in a landfill somewhere. It's terrible, but it also probably doesn't make the cut of things I would fix right now with this country, if I somehow got a dozen One Wish Willows.
I read about this family who wanted to create as little new e-waste as possible, so whenever something broke, they would try to find somebody who could repair it, no matter how big or small it was. Like, their toaster broke, and instead of tossing it and getting a new toaster (what 99% of the population would do), they got it repaired. What they said is that you can basically get anything repaired if you're diligent enough about it, and often, it's a super easy fix. I completely believe that because I'm looking at our old TV, and the majority of it is fine—the casing and screen and all the ports and chords are all still good. There's just something inside that malfunctioned, and if I had the time and patience to figure out what it was or to take it to somebody who did, that piece could surely be replaced, and the whole TV could be used again. But therein lies the rub. I don't have the time nor patience to do that. For the family, this is their thing, but it's not my thing, and I don't want to make it my thing. My thing is riding the exercise bike while I watch football, and I need a working TV ASAP to be able to do that.
Also, it's worth pointing out that the companies who build our electronics are highly incentivized to make it very inconvenient to fix their products, since replacing them is more money in their pockets. Making new software and accessories incompatible with old hardware is a common means to this end. And I will admit, it works on me. If my iPad broke tomorrow, I wouldn't even attempt to get it repaired. I would just buy a new one, with the justification that "it was old anyway." That's how they get ya.
In other news, we watched Disclosure Day last night. It was good not great. Actually, I would say it was fine. It didn't quite get up to the good level. Like, if somebody asked me how it was, I'd say it was "worth a watch." I wouldn't say it was "good." There are some huge flaws with it that I can't explain without spoiling the entire movie (so I won't). I anticipated it wasn't going to be great because it's Spielberg, so if it was great, it would have been a way bigger deal than it was. There was almost no buzz surrounding this film and its release, and if you contrast that to another alien movie from this year, Project Hail Mary, you get an idea of what the public thought of it. The public isn't always right, but it often is—wisdom of the crowds and whatnot.
I probably wouldn't have even watched this film, but S wanted to have a family night, so she made us all watch it together. It was cool. I certainly didn't mind watching it. I love Spielberg, especially since hearing him go on the Rewatchables podcast to talk about 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was so unpretentious and enjoyable to listen to that I want to like his newer movies. Unfortunately, however, they aren't spectacular. Dude lost his fastball. It happens. He can still put out watchable movies (I thought Ready Player One was pretty good), but he's not the maestro he used to be. He hasn't been that in decades, honestly. His last real masterpiece, in my opinion, was Saving Private Ryan, and that came out in 1998. He hasn't had a true tour de force in the 21st century. But that's just life. As Sick Boy beautifully illustrates in Trainspotting: You get old and you can't hack it.
So it goes.
Until next time...
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