Thursday, March 22, 2007

Remote Controlling My Spending

Tonight we're having our little neighbors over for a "movie night" and they have chosen to watch Babe. We got off to a rough start, however, due to the increased number of remote controls in our house! I thought when we got FIOS that our remote control would be "universal" due to the fact that it is HUGE and has a command for just about every audio visual gadget imaginable. Boy was I wrong!

There I was, three little girls getting a little squirrelly around me while I was trying to figure out how to get the VCR to play onto the TV through our new receiver. I needed 4 remote controls, including the FIOS "all-in-one" remote control and a phone call to T, who was at gymnastics with Kt. It was entirely too frustrating and I almost lost my little girls to Polly Pocket in the process!

In looking back on this experience, and others in the recent past, I'm starting to think that the "universal" remote controls are actually a bizarre and twisted marketing ploy, almost like a secret treasure hunt. If you can figure out which company designed your particular "universal" remote, then it will universally work for all that company's products. The key is finding the correct components that it "speaks" to. It's all a little too Close Encounters for me!

My particular FIOS universal remote is owned by a company that I have not yet discovered. I do know what it's not: JVC, Samsung and Sony. Hmmm.... I still have to try Emerson, Sanyo and Pioneer!! Oh, wait, do I have Pioneer??? Now, I'm just totally confused! Apparently, so is my remote!

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