Diary

TELEVISION for bedroom

At first I thought I should get RCA just for remote control compatability. But the 19" TVs they have look so much like TVs, with shape nonrectilinear. And both Sony and RCA have formica wood cabinets. There was a silver Sony but that's almost as bad, and Sony doesn't have channel selection on front panel, and no clock, though it did have the sleep feature (automatically turns off in an hour) and front auxiliary input port, and remote controllable picture brightness.

But then I found the 19" RCA MONITOR which has dark grey pewter rectilinear cabinet. It's everything I really want. And it's $10 cheaper than Sony.

Another 2 things I like about RCA: prior channel button on remote control, and display (channel + time) goes away automatically.

So I order RCA 19" monitor and it will be delivered Friday.

VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDER.

Choice came down to RCA 950 versus Panasonic 9600 in order to get high fidelity audio, portability, docking VHS.

RCA

5 Head

Black & horizontal

Help screen

Recording level meter

Integrated remote

Panasonic

4 Head advanced technology

$175 cheaper

All output from portable port, not just FR out as on RCA

Continuity with previous unit which I liked.

I decided on panasonic because the Help Screen probably isn't that important, nor the meter. The 5 head is an embarrassment of poor technology, and all other RCA units use just 3! RCA is not the chic unit.

Also I will probably use the system in the bedroom as usual, so that's where it's base should be. Taking RCA to living room is problem since it has no video/audio out on portable part.

Now all I must get is carrying case and camera.

AUTOMOBILE

The 2802X was in for 75K checkup & new wipe blades, etc. I've decided against getting new tires because I probably will get new car by year end, and dealer can put on new tires then, as well as fix up the upholstery.

However I will contact Holman Body to get dents & rust off the car for my own sake. And get detailing done.

STEREO

I pretty much knew I didn't want to get "Department Store" Fisher stuff again even if Magnolia was selling it. (Magnolia was rated one of the top 10 HIFI retailers.) But I wasn't sure what I wanted. So I looked at my old consumers reports, not so much for ratings but just to see what the considerations were. November 84 issue had small listings on each component, and

March 82 on turn tables

June 84 on cassette decks

July 84 on receivers

All of these focus on medium-priced components. Because I don't have the March 82 issue I'm happy that the series I've chosen, Sony includes a turntable listed in the Nov 84 small listings. Linear tracking with photoclas.

As I expected, receivers all have pretty much the same performance since the electronics are easy to do with today's advanced technology. (I just want to be sure it does about 50-70 watts for compact disk.) The key requirements centered around features & convenience.

Tuning: station scan, manual stepping, keypad

Memory backup

Remote control

Hooking up 2 tape decks

Tone control: equalizer, subsonic filter, push button

Mute switch

Switched power off

Sony was rated eighth in Consumers Report Ratings. It had a lot of extra conveniences, and it was a well-known name as well.

The unit with the most considerations is the tuner. Again features of operation are probably the dominant decision factor. It's amazing that so few offer Auto-Reverse. I've been told by Magnolia salesman that AR reduces fidelity because [?] must be compromised to read in both directions. BUT I WANT IT, and that reduced the selection quite severely.

But Sony was still in the running. And Fisher still has no Auto-Reverse, but their system has two decks now. But I don't do audio tape copying. And I want GAP Search.

So I asked the dealer about Sony, and he recommended it highly. And it comes in black. And Compact Disk Player is only 15" wide so it could fit next to "[?]7" stuff in my bookshelves. A SONY "SYSTEM." And it has remote control of all components, so it's integrated like RCA stuff is.

I have installed the receiver, and I have to pickup the tape player + turntable in the next few days.

ARTS/PLANTS for dining room

While I was in Pioneer Square I wanted to check out all the galleries. Most offer me very little. But one had a Vaserelie Serigraph which was great. Lots of shape and color. So I bought a Vaserelie book and I will decide about buying that soon.

And I must get some plants for the dining room too.

JEWELRY

I also went downtown to Diamond Resources to tell them about the jewelry I lost. The gold chain bracelet, and watch came to a total of $925. And pleasantly what I thought was a $500 limit has been increased to $1000, so I get it all.

Also the $100 limit on cash + gold coins has been increased to $200 helping to cover loss of gold coin. I must reorder that coin this week.

Also last week I saw Mom + Dad off to Germany on Friday June 7. I just can't imagine them over there. It seems so unlike them, but I do hope they have a good time.

Today Sunday I had a "Stacy Gil morning" because I didn't go out on Saturday night. But I did rent some porno tapes that were pretty fun.

After writing in here this morning I went to Volunteer Park and read about Receiver and Bottom Line, which had little article about Options Adviser...Also article on loneliness. To get out of it, build self esteem, and that means treating yourself better. I certainly am now!

But Volunteer Park was trollish as ever so I came home at 4:00 and wrote more in here.

Now have dinner, pay bills, and play with stereo.

MONDAY 6/10

As soon as I wrote the last sentence, Bob called and invited me to Seamec Party, so I had dinner and played for a little while with Stereo till 8.00. The party was quiet so we only stayed a few minutes, then came home + I did my situps while Bob called Katherin. There was a Beach Party at Watertown that all 3 of us went to after picking up Kate, and it was boring. Took them home at 11:00, and I should've stayed home but I went to tubs. Yuk. Be nicer to myself! And I drank too much 2 Midoris with dinner, wine at party, Midori at home w/Bob, Beer at Kate's, 2 beers at Watertown. All because it's so boring...And then I didn't get to sleep till 1:00 and sun comes up at 5:30, so I'm feeling slow today. What a fuckup.

So the bills got paid this morning after chiropractor + returning tapes to Blue Video. The 25-minute roundtrip is too much! And I don't like porno unless I'm drunk, so forget it. And membership at BV runs out next week anyway.