New Products For Sale From The Court Jester

If you've never seen Danny Kaye in The Court Jester, you need to watch it right away. If you have seen it, you'll love these court-jester-inspired products currently available at Zazzle:

The Flagon With the Dragon T-Shirt
by whatsitsgalore

The Vessel with the Pestle T-Shirt
by whatsitsgalore

Or, if you prefer an actual drinking vessel:

The Flagon with the Dragon Beer Stein
by whatsitsgalore

The Vessel With the Pestle Beer Stein
by whatsitsgalore

Review: Vizio TV

I bought a Vizio TV in February from Wal-Mart, model #D24h-J09, serial #LINID2MX44414341. Just a small one to fit into a small space and watch while on the treadmill. At first, it worked well enough for both streaming and the DVD and VCR I hooked up. After a few months, things began to happen, namely:

It would update automatically, right in the middle of the program I was watching. And you couldn't watch during the update, unless you enjoy looking at a generic screen telling you there's an update in progress.

After every update, the on-screen controls were in a different place, often hidden in a drop-down menu, forcing me to click on everything until I found what I needed.

As the updates continued, they stopped interrupting my viewing, but started deleting channels. I had to run through the Add Channels function after every update.

In November, after 9 months of ownership, the channels could no longer be added. They registered as available, but the Add Channels function no longer accomplished anything. The streaming still works, but the DVD and satellite can not be viewed.

Three years later, the TV began to turn itself off at random intervals. Sometimes during a movie, sometimes on the welcome screen, sometimes on the menu. It just shut off, just like that.

After a month or so of this, the picture went wonky. That's the only way I can think of to describe it. Everything that was supposed to be black turned white, and everything else had a hazy purple shadow on one side. It was totally unwatchable. This lasted for three days before reverting to normal.

I still have the Vizio, so the saga continues. I can't even guess what will go wrong next, but you will not be surprised to hear that I will never again buy a Vizio device.

Music From Rocks

Anyone who has ever seen the excellent movie What's Up, Doc? starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal knows that a lot of laughs are derived from the idea of music made from rocks. But did you know that an instrument called a lithophone is an actual thing? Check out the video:

Due to the nature of YouTube, some videos may become inaccessable at any time. Here is the lithophone link, just in case.