This TV Haze Sucks Me Through I Watch The World From The Inside

Living with someone who works in the audio video field is both awesome and frustrating. Awesome because you get to have a lot of fancy toys and all the latest gadgets. Frustrating if you're like me (technophobic) and don't know how to work all the fancy toys and latest gadgets.

Enter the Harmony 1000:

This is our remote control. It controls all the fancy shite in our home. It makes me happy.

First let me say that this is not a complaint. I'd be a special kind of asshole if I was all "oooohh poor me and all my fancy toys."

However.

For someone who just doesn't get electronics, something as simple as watching tv in our home is massively difficult. In order to watch tv, you need the tv remote, the receiver remote and the PVR remote. But that's not all. Both the tv and the receiver need to be on specific input settings. So that's 3 remotes and 2 input settings that you need to have to watch tv. And don't even get me started on what's required to watch a movie on the projector or plug an ipod into the speaker system.

Harmony (we're on a first name basis) took care of all that. With the touch of one button (well, the touch of one icon on the touch screen), the tv, receiver, and PVR would all turn on and switch to the correct input. It was glorious. We've had universal remotes before but none as proficient as Harmony. Harmony was the first to work in the bedroom while all the components are in another room (through a concrete wall!) It has something to do with the IR Extender (don't ask me what that is - I just had to text Shawn to find out what it was even called.)

Anyway.

Harmony was my boyfriend. I loved Harmony. I trusted Harmony. Harmony let me down. Harmony stopped working last week and it has thrown me completely off kilter. Gone are the days of watching tv in the bedroom and changing channels with ease (you call it lazy, I call it highly efficient tv watching.) Now I need to turn the tv on manually (horror!) and use the PVR remote control. But that's not all! The PVR remote needs to be pointed at the PVR, which is in the living room. So I have to turn the PVR on in the living room and bring up the guide. Then I run into the bedroom to see what's on. Then I run back to the living room to scroll through the guide, trying to remember how many lines down the show I wanted to watch was. Then I run back into the bedroom to make sure the right channel is highlighted. Then I run back into the living room to press enter. It makes me laugh every time. It becomes even more hilarious if I'm trying to set my recordings (like yesterday - Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, CSI Miami, Castle, and House. Don't judge me - Monday is good tv night.) I ran back and forth between the bedroom and the living room approximately 8 million times. (First person to tell me I should just watch tv in the living room gets a punch in the ear. I tried to watch tv in the living room but after 15 minutes of scrolling through inputs and pushing random buttons on the receiver and getting nothing but fuzz, I called Shawn and he told me that he had disconnected the tv from the PVR to attach it to the projector or some such nonsense.)

I'm choosing to believe that the universe is just bringing more laughter (and exercise!) into my life, and not telling me that I need to watch less tv. That's just crazy talk. If the universe wanted me to watch less tv, why would there be so much good tv on? (First person to dispute my definition of "good tv" is grounded from watching House for 2 weeks.)