Being fiscally (ir)responsible

For years, about 10 or so, the family television has served us well. It's a great television with a fairly decent sized screen and nice picture. A couple months ago however, it started to malfunction. The top of the screen began folding over on top of itself. Think of the TV screen as a slinky. When it's compressed, the picture is fine and whole. If you take the topmost coils and fold it in front of it, they'll be spaced apart and showing whatever is on that part of the screen. Not only that, it was getting worse.

The original plan was to move my parents TV upstairs when they got a new one, or the problem with the old one became too much and they'd have to replace it. But I was given permission to buy a new one altogether. Me? Buy a television? Of course I've fantasized about owning such an electronic staple, but I never actually have. Since I was given the go ahead... well, let me explain that I don't pay rent in money, but in work. I really can't afford rent, so it would be a slap in the face to drop money I don't have on something I don't need (see how the 'don't need' wasn't italicized?). But, anyway.

I was given the go ahead to buy a TV so I started researching, and I decided that the TV I wanted would be 37"-40", 1080p and a Sony, LG or Sharp. Next was deciding where, but that was taken care of Monday night when I saw two options at Costco. One was a Philips 47" 1080p 60Mhz LCD, and the other a Sony 40" 1080p 120Mhz LCD and both were the same price. The Philips was bigger, but the Sony had double the refresh rate and looked bigger. I called my uncle Mike for advice and he asked about the refresh rate. I forgot the refresh rate for the Sony and assumed it too was 60, so I'm glad the call got me to take a close look at both. The Sony has a much clearer, less pixelized picture, so that's what I went with.

So, I present the unboxing pictures I took of my awesome new TV. One that I plan on having for a very, very long time, because I don't like dropping huge amounts of money on any one thing. By the way, the pictures were taken using my cell, and I have no idea how to properly arrange pictures on here.

ps. Love the TV, but I hate the way Blogger handles pictures.

There are so many people to thank...

Well, not really. But the ones that do deserve thanks deserve big chunks of the stuff. If you're not a friend of mine on Facebook, or one of the people I called while all giddy with excitement (I can get giddy, why not?), I have won the writing competition of the Mid-Columbia Literary Festival. I'm under the impression that I've won the grand prize, which also includes first place in my category and division.

I submitted a work of fiction, and a poem, and the poem is what won. My story didn't win anything, but that's not too surprising as there's a lot left to be done with it. It'll be a book someday, but only because that's what it wants to be. Anyway, my poem. I'll put it at the end of the post, so if you want to skip past all this to read it you can. I won't be offended.

The poem itself was inspired by a girl I work with. She actually showed interest in what I wrote, and liked all of it. I told her I was going to write a poem about her, and it was going to be called You and Your Waylon Jennings. It didn't quite turn out the way I had expected, but I really liked what I had. She really liked it too, and that's really all that mattered.

Then it came time to turn in my journal for creative writing last quarter. I needed 32 journal entries, four poems at least 14 lines long, and a story at least 6 pages long. I had the entries, story, and three poems, and so I decided to toss in that one as well. When I got my journal back, the poem had a simple "Love this" written on it in red ink. I knew I'd be turning something in for the competition, so I figured why not this poem.

I turned it in on April 16, and up until a couple days ago, I thought it had a chance to win. Then I looked over the rules and saw I'd get a call or letter in late April. It having just turned May, I shrugged my shoulders and gave a sigh of "Oh, well. At least I tried." It was until I got home from school today when my mom asked if I'd heard the "great news." Being all dreary I told her I didn't know of any great news.

When she told me I just about lost it. I couldn't believe that I had won. I thought at first I'd just gotten first place in my division, but she's almost positive I won the grand prize. I'm trying my best to stay level headed, but it's just not working. I'm stopping into the coordinator's office tomorrow to verify, but with how excited she was on the phone I think I got the grand prize. She even wants me to read it in front of the audience, which I'll be more than happy to do. I'll be leaving work early to go do it, and I'm secretly hoping I'll get to say a few words too.

I'm just really happy that I won, and I'm hoping somebody :cough:Lisa:cough: will be able to record it all. I want the people I want to thank get to hear/see it :) So, without further ado, my poem...

You and Your Waylon Jennings

You and your Waylon Jennings,
crooning from your Toyota
factory standard speakers.
Is that how you hear him?
Or are you there,
inside the studio?
The crumbling black
of the padded walls
for better acoustics, not
the hysterics you must be in.
Watching it happen, laying
down the master tracks you love
so dearly. No static here,
or aged fidelity.

And that's it... I still can't believe I won. I'm happy. :)