Ah, technology.

After a great deal of trial and error and screwing around behind a TV stand with a 150 pound Sharp 32" set set parked on top of it, I have determined that I didn't need to buy either of the fancy schmancy cables I bought at Radio Shack yesterday, which means taking them back later.

I haven't recorded a show since before I moved out of the Oakland apartment Gaius and I shared and the VCR/DVD player combo is going to recycle land, so I finally routed the cable from the cable box directly back into the TV set. The cable signal is coming through, the remote is doing what it's supposed to, all looks good. The DVD player plugs directly into three color coded jacks in the back of the TV set. All I need to do to watch DVDs is switch the TV set from Channel 3 to "Input 1" which is just below "Channel 2".  

Only somehow I managed to accidentally child-lock the DVD into the player. Evidently (after digging through the manual to figure out WTF "standby mode" means, not finding it and having to go on the internet with the model number), I can't put it IN standby mode. I have to leave the player on with nothing running for at least half an hour to get it to kick into standby mode, then press the appropriate sequence of buttons to unlock it.

Honestly, if I didn't have to sew, I'd read a book.

EDIT. Well, THAT didn't work. Nor did that, that, that or that.

EDIT: Or that. DVD player is unplugged for awhile. We'll see if that returns it to any default settings. If not, I'm stumped.

EDIT: It's going back - with the DVD inside it and a demand from the store that sold it to me for a replacement of both the player and the DVD.

No resolutions, or reservations. Or capes, even.

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

Seriously. I can obsess over calories and floss every night and for what? I am employed, I'm making ends meet, I'm finding time to make stuff and exercise my brain, but I'm still going to die at the end of it, no matter what.

Ten years ago New Years Eve I met a man. I fell in love. I started envisioning a future and making plans and none of it, not one single thing, went according to plan. I did the best I could with the hand I was dealt. That's all one can do. 

So no resolutions. Ultimately they don't matter. There are so few things in our lives we have any control over. Take the next breath. Take the next step.

That said, it looks like Rising Sun will exist at Estrella this year, though it may be on a smaller scale. We weren't that big to begin with, but purple_penguin  and his lady had a baby this year and his work schedule is such that I may end up with the first zori on the ground, even arriving Wednesday afternoon of war. Need to get in gear on new lanterns and camp gear after Twelfth Night too.

As for other 2010 plans? I'm getting some dental work done in three weeks, and probably more after that. I want to go home and see my folks at some point. I'd like to do a weekend in Yosemite in the spring.