Friday, May 27, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
SOUVENIR MAGNET DISPLAYS
A long time ago, I started collecting souvenir magnets from places I visited. They were cheap, small, easy to carry (I was on the road at the time) and often quite attractive. I prefer the old, completely flat, incised, multi-colored, PVC type...
...though as they caught on, those have become harder to find, being replaced by more sculpted forms.
And then Disney got into it, and made hundreds if not thousands of various magnets, and my collection went through the roof: same thing they did with pressed pennies and lapel pins. And of course, what used to be an inexpensive and unique token of a visited spot became an over-done much higher priced "collectible". A typical lapel pin used to be $1.00, or maybe as high as $1.89 at some of the less frequented tourist sites: now they run from $6 to even $14 and higher at Disney, and the other places have followed suit though not quite to that extreme.
A few years ago, I wanted some sort of display for some of my magnets and made a display board to hang on the wall. Simple enough, I covered a sheet of galvanized metal with contact paper and screwed it to the wall.
That board having become completely filled, added to by a few very special post cards friends has sent me, I recently set about to make an additional display, but given the very high price of sheet metal now, I was looking for some alternative. I visited my local Wal-Mart and found a pizza pan for $3! I checked that it would hold magnets and having success, I bought two.
I used a few bits of picture hanging hardware and some duct tape to make a hanger, and later, after it failed, added some 3M double sided sticky foam tape and that has held so far. As a last resort, I could drill a small hole or two and simply hang it on a nail, but I am trying to avoid that.
The shiny metal was not a good background, so I got a can of primer and a can of flat white spray paint and sprayed both pans.
After that set up, I again found it to be an unsatisfactory background, and so then sprayed them flat black.
I still have to fully rearrange my collection, and am also going to use some leftover black foam core board to make a separate display for my postcards, but here's what I have so far.
Monday, May 09, 2011
HDTV WARNING!!!
My HDTV died this weekend: nothing happened, it simply died.
After doing a bit of a search on the net, I have discovered that this is not uncommon for HDTV's.
Life expectancy of 18-24 months!!!! Outrageous!
Repair cost is $310 plus tax, for a TV I got- on a super special doorbuster at Walmart on T-day- for $278... but replacement is $378.
A TV should last forever- or close to it. My Trinitron lasted over 20 years. Under fairly abusive conditions (complete home gut/reno... right there in the middle of it! Actually, it still works...)
I e-mailed Sanyo:
Hello,
First let me say I have a couple of Sanyo products and like them very much.
That includes my beautiful 32 inch HDTV. However, I have a serious issue with this now.
I bought this on Thanksgiving 2009 at my local Walmart.
Model# DP32649
S# ******************
Purchased: 24 November 2009
Before one year was out, I had to have the sound card replaced, which was covered under warranty: surprising, but as it was under warranty, no big problem.
It is now 18 months old.
This weekend, I turned it off, went and did some chores, came back and turned it on and nothing! The power light went on for a few seconds, then went out, and nothing. I unplugged it, thinking maybe to re-set something, and a few hours later plugged it in again with the same results.
Nothing had happened between the time it worked and the time it stopped working, specifically, no lightening storms or any other stress or abuse: it simply died.
I did some searching on the internet and have found that this is not an uncommon problem, not only for the Sanyo brand, but for HDTV's in general.
My repair man says it will be $310 plus tax to fix this, with his cost for the power board alone being $200.
That it needs to be fixed at all is outrageous: a life of 18-24 months? My last TV lasted 20 years and I expected this to do the same. I certainly did not expect, and will not accept, a life expectancy of 18 months. In fact, I consider that a defective product.
I ask that you make good on this.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jud Hindes
I expected the first reply to be the standard "out of warranty- sorry- thanks for using Sanyo' reply...
Actually, what I got this- which might also be standard- or they don't want to put anything in writing: "Please call 1-800-877-5032 7:30 a.m. till 7:00 p.m. central time Monday thru Friday. Please have the model number and serial number ready."
I called, and of course, they had no way of seeing what I wrote, so I repeated most of it. And got the reply I expected: "out of warranty- sorry- thanks for making it Sanyo."
I aksed for the supervisor: not available, asked for him to call me.
Ten minutes later, got a call from Sanyo and the guy said, HEY! We are going to take care of this! Should last 10-15 years!
Jerry- at Sanyo! Good man! No fussing about, simply, we are taking care of this! NOW! BAMM!
Good for Sanyo!
ANYONE who has an HDTV still under warranty, I would suggest you buy the extended warranty immediately (though I think that whole thing is a scam, but in this case, quite probably a needed one). This is NOT isolated to Sanyo. Check the net!
Monday, May 02, 2011
