This is the modern world
When my parents wanted to move the TV, they’d unplug it, wheel the cart
from one part of the room to the other, and plug it back in. (And then
spend several hours fiddling with the rabbit ears, trying desperately to
pull in Channel 13, or, if we were really deluding ourselves, Channel
17). Yesterday I realized the modern world that we’ve heard about has changed our lives to the point where a simple rearranging of furniture in the living room sends me off to owner’s manuals and wiring diagrams in the hope of getting our crazy home entertainment system (so large you’ll lose consciousness) back into something like the same arrangement it was in before we moved it to the other side of the room. What used to be just a TV set is now more of a monitor, to which is connected a cable box with DVR, a DVD player, a VCR (yes, still), and two Playstations (thanks for fighting the forces of backward compatibility, Sony!). All of it was also connected to my stereo (remember stereos? We used to listen to music on them), and the nest of wires in back of all this is not to be believed, or tamed. So, rearranging the furniture in the living room required two solid hours of rewiring electronics (including fishing the cable back through the maze by which it got to the old location), testing, and swearing. Electronics generate a particularly inventive course of curses.
The video is apropos of nothing but the title, but you don’t need a reason to listen to The Jam.
How to convey our inner calm, our appreciation for the serenity of minimalism? We’re betrayed by the rats’ nest of wires fueling and integrating the electronic pleasure centers of our homes!
Wii surrender.
If you invite someone over and ask them to turn on the TV can they do it?
Sometimes. But if we forget to change the video input after playing a game or a DVD, probably not. I leave detailed instructions if my mother is coming over.