What a quixotic mission it can be to not submit to consumer trends! I have written about the insanity in the automobile/pickup truck industry, and how ridiculous their products are. I "solved" that problem by accepting defeat, that is, by losing interest.
Another example is the "combo" meal at a fast food restaurant. Again, they are oversized, and their price belies the 1.8% inflation that the government tells us we have. I solved that problem by deciding that french fries are not sacred, and therefore it is advantageous to buy from the Dollar Menu.
The final example is the BIG flat television. This is hardly the electrical appliance needed for a small camper -- of course I've seen people put ridiculously large TVs in RVs as small as vans!
In addition to physical compactness, a small television uses less electricity.
Of course you don't need a television at all if you don't watch broadcast signals. (I watch old television westerns in DVD disc form, as a sleeping pill at night.) All you need is a "display or monitor" to receive a cable and signal from a DVD/BluRay player or laptop computer.
So after the quixotic mission of finding small televisions over the years -- and seeing it harder and harder to find televisions that are small!-- I switched to searching for small monitors/displays. What a pleasure it was to learn that they aren't so hard to find.
It was gratifying to sneak out of paying for things I didn't want, such as a tuner for broadcast signals, an auxiliary and cheap DVD player in the side of the television, or WIFI.
The write-up on Amazon even mentioned that it was powered by 12 volts DC, making it easy to wire it directly to the 12 VDC wiring in my camper. The screen was 11.6 diagonal, as is my laptop computer.
A display of this size is great at arm's length, in bed. It is lightweight, so hopefully the wall mount will survive brutal washboard roads I ride on.
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What was really gratifying about this project is getting what I actually wanted, instead of being swept along with the great global tribe of mindless consumers. That is the usual choice offered to us, and it can make a consumer feel so puny and impotent.
It might seem hopeless and pathetic from one point of view, but there really is a grandeur to one human pixel escaping the screen.
Another example is the "combo" meal at a fast food restaurant. Again, they are oversized, and their price belies the 1.8% inflation that the government tells us we have. I solved that problem by deciding that french fries are not sacred, and therefore it is advantageous to buy from the Dollar Menu.
The final example is the BIG flat television. This is hardly the electrical appliance needed for a small camper -- of course I've seen people put ridiculously large TVs in RVs as small as vans!
In addition to physical compactness, a small television uses less electricity.
Of course you don't need a television at all if you don't watch broadcast signals. (I watch old television westerns in DVD disc form, as a sleeping pill at night.) All you need is a "display or monitor" to receive a cable and signal from a DVD/BluRay player or laptop computer.
So after the quixotic mission of finding small televisions over the years -- and seeing it harder and harder to find televisions that are small!-- I switched to searching for small monitors/displays. What a pleasure it was to learn that they aren't so hard to find.
It was gratifying to sneak out of paying for things I didn't want, such as a tuner for broadcast signals, an auxiliary and cheap DVD player in the side of the television, or WIFI.
The write-up on Amazon even mentioned that it was powered by 12 volts DC, making it easy to wire it directly to the 12 VDC wiring in my camper. The screen was 11.6 diagonal, as is my laptop computer.
A display of this size is great at arm's length, in bed. It is lightweight, so hopefully the wall mount will survive brutal washboard roads I ride on.
____________________________________
What was really gratifying about this project is getting what I actually wanted, instead of being swept along with the great global tribe of mindless consumers. That is the usual choice offered to us, and it can make a consumer feel so puny and impotent.
It might seem hopeless and pathetic from one point of view, but there really is a grandeur to one human pixel escaping the screen.
Comments
Chris
You aren't the only one who hates the cable companies. (I have no direct experience with them.) Congratulations on cutting the cord!