I was feeling rather confident and nerd-like yesterday, marvelling over the immense amount of knowledge I have somehow come to possess about computers. It doesn’t mean a damn thing when it comes to getting them to behave, but nevertheless, I seem to have soaked up an unusually large amount of knowledge about computers.
And then, the VCR struck.
I have been fighting with this thing ever since my roommate Jamie and I lost the original remote freshman year. I’ve been trying to get a universal remote that works for it and have gone through half a dozen that wouldn’t even respond. I finally found an RCA brand one (it’s an RCA VCR) that can turn it on, play, rewind, etc., so I was like great, now I can finally program it.
Except the VCR doesn’t recognize the menu button.
The menu button, it turns out, is a crucial part of controlling my VCR. I can’t program channels (which means I can’t tape anything higher than channel 13), I can’t program the clock, I can’t set it to tape at a certain time. This defeats much of the purpose of a good VCR.
I think I’m going to call RCA and see what the possibility is of trying to find a remote that will actually make the goddamn thing work. I may just crack and get a new VCR and sell this one to someone who doesn’t care about taping shows off TV. If you are that person, email me and make me an offer. The picture quality is still really good, this thing is just making me insane.
And I feel bad that I constantly have to ask people to tape The Real World for me, though I usually try to get people who are watching it anyway. At least I’m home for ER and don’t have to subject anyone else to the festival of bad writing that show has become this season.