Friday, January 8, 2010

So Long, My Gargantuan Friend...

BZZZZTTT! Poof! Those were the death knell of our TV in the living room on Tuesday night. It just happened so fast. One moment we were watching the hockey game, the next it was smoking... The picture completely disappeared and only scrambled lines left, so we turned it off. Then smoke started to come out. I frantically fan the smoke with a nearby magazine so that it won't set off the sprinkler system. One dead TV was enough for that night...

Picture somewhat related and not related... Will elaborate further on it at the end of this post.



So here is what it will look like last before it gets recycled when the delivery truck shows up. It was a 53" rear video projector television made by Sony. So when I say "gargantuan", I mean it! Though I don't really call it a friend except in the post title ^^;

This TV has been with us for 10 years now, at the end of 1999 to be exact. I remember it very well because everyone else was panicking for our technology when the Y2K hits, while we bought a big screen TV... It was a floor model, so we got quite a discount on it. We also took the seller's protection plan since it is a floor model. The warranty has long expired now, but the offer was that if nothing happened to the TV for the length of their extended warranty they'll offer something for the amount of what we paid. So we got a VCR/DVD combo for my parents.

Of course my mom wasn't too thrilled that we got something so monstrous, especially since our old house was leaning one way. We placed it at the far end of the house where it leans the most... We joked so much that it will probably make the house lean even further.

Wiring's a mess back here... Only my brother knows what's going on in here... Does it remind of you Lain?

Eventually we moved to a bigger house and so we had more room for this TV. So we have better set up for it as well.

Wow it was actually made in 1998! So this TV lasted for about 11.5 years even after being a floor model.

The ladies and gents had to move from the top of the TV... Not sure where I'm going to put them... Can't exactly put them on top of a flat screen TV.

We moved to this new house around 2001... I'm pretty sure we haven't cleaned under the TV for that long... So if you can see clearly, that's the amount of dust that's accumulated since that time!

Here's a representation of how big the TV is by showing me standing beside it. I'm 5'10"-5'11" or 178-180 cm. So pretty big TV! I'll really miss it because we never thought we'd replace it. It was so big that even widescreen movies look good on it. Plus back then I didn't wear glasses yet, so I could read anime subtitles off of it with no problem!

Alas it has to go one day... the smell of whatever made that smoke from the back of the TV really signaled its death. The smell lasted for the night... A sad reminder that I can't play Bayonetta that night =(

Anyway... I quickly looked up and researched everything that I never had to do for a TV before. Finding out what the difference between LCD, plasma and now LED. What their prices are, their lifespan, pros & cons and all the hertz and HDMI that came along with them. From all the all nighter study, I think I've made a good decision, not to mention finding a cheaper price from another store so that Best Buy can beat it.

So make way for a new television! A new table stands at the place of my "gargantuan friend" ready to receive its new resident... I don't suppose y'all be interested in what I'm getting? I don't plan on showing or posting about it, but if you're curious enough about the process then I'll be happy to type it out one day.

The part highlighted in red... if you're not distracted by Sayla herself...

As for the top picture... If you've noticed for the last few titles of my blog, I've spelled out names of my favourite Vocaloid and my favourite voice actress, "MEIKO" and "AYAKO" Kawasumi. Well this time, the last five posts titles spells out "SAYLA". My favourite girl from the original Gundam series. I originally liked Frau Bow in the beginning, but the advent of strong female characters were the in thing... Sayla Mass was Amuro Ray's backup Gundam pilot. Though she wasn't as good as him, it shows that she can kick some ass as well! Perhaps she was also the reason why I started to like blond anime characters such as Saber, and strong female leads, such as Maki from Air Master.

She also lead to my liking of Cagalli's design from Gundam Seed, even though I haven't seen the show. Once I seen it though... my desire diminished... Good thing Lunamaria showed up in Gundam Seed Destiny. A spiritual successor to Sayla Mass. There's still no Gundam show with a main character who's female and a Gundam pilot that I know of to this day.

Oh and this should be the last one that I'm doing to spell out names of people for my post titles for a while ^^;;; It can be quite a challenge to make it work depending on what you want to post about, but fun also ^^

19 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear that!

    I remember when one of our TVs died. And the projector downstairs which got a DVD connected to it makes such whirring noises, due to age, and the TV upstairs? Its VHS is still working, but not the DVD, LOL

    Ah, life.

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  2. Aw. well, I do think you got your money's worth out of the thing, seeing how stuff's built to die nowadays.

    That actually reminds me of how old my analog tv is right now... My parents got it when they were studying in Canada, and in Hong Kong we just left it here. Now I'm back and still using the same thing o.o

    At first I thought something happened to Gundam, with that first picture xD

    you actually photo'd the dust ^^;

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  3. Hmm... my name seems to be omitted from the credits. LOL j/k... sorta. *Grrrr*

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  4. Gargantuan? ^^;

    Our TVs still working I dunno how many years now XD really. Sayla looks gorgeous but I need to know the chronology of Gundam series >_<

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  5. that TVis now part of History of Television. Lol

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  6. Your TV went out?

    I'd guess it's due to that horrible wiring back there. Having a ton of wiring like that is a huge risk...

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  7. ew.. 11.5 years is really a long age for a TV.. It's almost the same with my TV.. a CRT one.. 12 years until it died recently and changed..

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  8. I'M SOOOOO JEALOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  9. @Guy: Yikes. One works, the other doesn't... Such a pain that is life.

    @Ningyo: Well it really is getting my money's worth out of it, but I really was reluctant to replace it because it was just that reliable. WOW! That is an old TV! Gonna give it to your children when they study in Canada? XD Heheh sorry for the misconception. And yep. I had to take pictures of the dust. :P

    @FatB: Not on purpose. I will be including the full details including giving credit where credit is due once I write up the next part ;)

    @Yamada: We really used the heck out of it! Hmm... A lot of the Gundam stories do stand alone by themselves, but I'm sure looking up the Universal Century timeline, you'll be able to get a sense of what's happening in the series. Maybe I'll do a Gundam timeline post one day.

    @phossil: LOL. It indeed is part of the history now. Our history of TV at least XD

    @Jubbz: Yeah... I'm gonna try to dust some of those off, but I mean it's been like that for years, so it didn't really make a difference ^^; The wiring is not all electrical, btw.

    @Leon: I guess a TV's lifespan is around that long then.

    @FaS: Jealous? You want smoke coming out of your TV too? XD

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  10. That is really a huge TV!
    11 years is a pretty good run though. Anyway, good luck getting another one. Is it going to be just as big?

    Very clever thing you did with the title of your posts. ^ ^

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  11. Tv is now about 20 years old and it sometimes wont start up and youll have to turn it on and off for several times and youll sometimes see it glowing in a light orange on the interior but it served me well so far XD

    I dont know what Ill do when it dies since I rarely watch TV.I only need a TV for videogaming

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  12. Sad to hear about your TV. I have my 20 year old 21" RCA TV that still sorta works, though it has no power button so I have to poke inside the TV with a chopstick to turn it on. The image is definitely getting blurry though.

    Sayla, hmm, I do like her more than Frau, but I got really mad when (SPOILERS!!!) she "stole" the Gundam and failed to pilot it correctly. (END SPOILERS) I literally yelled out loud, "What the heck are you doing!? Get out!". Though it is a sad trend of female characters nowadays, no one is really that strong or memorable, but I don't watch as much anime now so don't quote me ont that. (^_^)

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  13. MATILDA-SAN!!!!!!

    Way better than Sayla!

    And now that you mention it, I still have an old 36" CRT TV back with my parents. It's kinda got a bit of dodgy colour on the top right and the right speaker is kinda blown but it still works and it's coming up to 20 years old!! I use it for all my old SDTV consoles back there.

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  14. I'm guessing your TV started smoking when a spider or something got into it and shorted something out! O_O

    Well, on a positive note, congratulations on a new TV! :)

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  15. many many years ago i had the same experience. we had a BIG Sony projector TV that im sure was a floor model of some sorts too. one day it popped a smelly fart and never recovered Lol

    dude i was just craving some Salya Mass and woohoo you posted some. shes my fav so far, im a few eps away from completing the original series :3

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  16. @Yi: I was going for something smaller, but returned it to get something slightly bigger, but still not as big as this old one ^^;

    Oh and thanks! I'm having fun with the posts titles ^_^

    @Blowfish: WHOA! 20 years old! I'm surprised you can still play games on it at all!

    @pyauki: Everyone's having sets that are 20 year old, lol. Haha funny thing about the chopstick... We used to have a VCR that had a broken eject button, but we can still press the button using a popsicle stick XD

    I haven't seen Gundam in a while, so I've forgotten about some of the events ^^; The Gundam girls really don't get a lot of credit in the shows, do they? >_<

    @gundamjehutykai: Ahaha, a Matilda fan, eh? Another person with a 20 year old TV set! Crazy! I guess these kinds of TV don't last as long or maybe I overused it ^^;

    @radiantdreamer: LOL it might've been a spider. We have a lot of spiders here. New TV post will be delayed, but will be coming ^_^

    @rockleelotus: Heheh so we pretty much had the same thing, eh? Those things didn't last as long as normal CRT TVs as I've read from people's comments above... Heheh, maybe I'll do a Gundam girl gallery one day. Sayla doesn't have as much as say... Lacus Clyne, but still a pretty Gundam girl :) Good luck with your watching!

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  17. Shamelessly catching up on your old post, I read it, but never got around to comment. Sorry to see your Gargantuan friend going to the way side, but there is no beginning without destruction~

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  18. wow, I wish my TV will die too...so we have an excuse to buy a new one. ^^;

    I haven't seen one of those huge projection tvs in a long time. And I'm surprised that it lasted so long after being a floor model.

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  19. @Wolf: Don't worry about it, bud ^^ That's a good line, btw :)

    @Tommy: LoL get a Wii and forget to put on the strap on the Wii-mote and have a Wii "accident" XD Ya, we were all worried about it being a floor model in the first place, but hey surprise, it lasted a long time!

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