As promised, here's a look at my new Ikea TV stand and multi-media system.
The TV is new and very nice. It's small by today's big-TV standards -- just 27" -- but has a very good quality flat tube. In my book those $300 36" TVs at Wal-mart are junk. They don't last too long and have pretty rotten pictures.
At the bottom middle you can see the Doors movie laserdisc hanging out. I have over 100 laserdiscs and still watch them. Great quality, and those manufactured in the last 4 years of LD's reign have dolby digital (just like DVDs). Picture quality is essentially equivalent to DVD -- sometimes better, sometimes not as good. The distortions come from different sources since LD video is completely analog. And since the LD market collapsed about 3 years ago, I've picked up tons of great movies for a song, along with many that are not yet available on DVD. Though, like what happened with CD reissues, I'm sure most movies will be on DVD soon enough.
I voted today, against my growing anti-statist tendencies. The deluge of TV campaign advertising in Illinois succeeded in turning me off to most of the major candidates from both parties, but fear of a fascist police-state Jim Ryan governorship moved me to vote anyway. Way too much money has been wasted on electoral campaigning by both parties in my neck of the woods -- I get sick just thinking about it.
It's been a dirty campaign season, and it's starting to look like the local Republicans pulled a last-minute dirty trick this morning by plastering their campaign signs all over Champaign-Urbana, especially on public property, which is illegal. It's such that in some areas their signs outnumber the Dems and Greens by 4 or 5 to 1. I guess they figure the only way they can win is by carpet-bombing voters' short-term memory.
Unfortunately there were some races, like schools superintendent, that had unopposed Republicans -- so I just didn't vote. We also had the reappointment of a load of judges on the ballot. Of course, finding out any info on these folks is near-impossible, so I just voted all the fuckers down. The justice system is horrendously screwed up, and I can't imagine any of them are making it any better.
And then this press release hit my inbox:
Santa Rosa Beach, Florida – November 5, 2002 – Southern author and humorist Ken Revell is touring his home state of Florida presenting the top election officials with a jug of moonshine. ... When asked why he decided on the unusual tour, Revell who is himself an attorney and former U.S. Congressional Candidate, stated “If the last two elections are any indication of what’s ahead, I think they’re gonna need it.” ... Revell, also a cousin to former President Jimmy Carter, says that he has requested that Carter come down to Florida to monitor the election, “I understand Cousin Jimmy has had some experience with this kind of thing before.”A bunch of folks I know who are a little more involved in electoral politics plan to be drinking as the returns trickle in tonight. Doesn't sound like such a bad idea...