I think it's time to just buckle and try to afford a new TV.

Here's the problem. My TV is a bit older (bigger than my original one, but still older), to the point that it only has a coax connector. This has been fine before. I mean, my cable box has one, and I squeaked by using my old VCR as a sort of ghetto switcher box (just switched out the RCA cables on the front depending on what I wanted). But when I got to the new place and had a better setup, I was given -- at a discount -- a four-button switcher box to make my life a bit easier.

And it did, until one day it just sorta went pop. No warning, no explosion, nothing I could actually pinpoint. It just failed to work.

Said friend brought me a replacement one. We figured it was faulty.

So the Co-Writer with the Longest Hair was down this weekend, and we'd been doing our usual DVD watching and we were about to use the PS2 to get him on a date with Hiyama Nobuyuki have a look at some super robots, but when we went to have a look ... it had done it again.

So I'm not having that brand anymore.

Yesterday I decided to go out in the not-threatening-but-still-annoying weather to hit up Best Buy for a new one. Grabbed a non-powered one, and discovered it only takes S-Video plugs. No coax because, well, coax is dead, I guess. So I went to one of the kindly men in blue and asked about the sort I needed. D'oh, sold out, go to Radio Shack.

I go to Radio Shack, ask for an RCA switcher box that will handle a coax cable, and the guy looks at me as though I've just asked him for a dishwasher that plays mp3s. 'I've ... never heard of one that does that. Do you mean S-Video? We've got those.'

'No, coax.' I know I'm a little girl, but give me some credit. 'You know, the near-obsolete plug with the little pin in the middle?'

'They don't make switcher boxes with coax plugs.'

Well, quite, that explains why I had two.

I give up and go home because I'm hungry, and figure out a roundabout way to use my new-old VCR to handle my DVD player/PS2. It involves more than just a little switching, which pisses me off, but at least I don't have to give shit up depending on how long it takes to find the box I'm looking for.

Or else to scrape together the money for a new TV.

Eesh.

If you have been, run!!!!