Ever since the first time I got my hands on one, in the dim dark past, I've been in love.
I remember the pre-remote days, as some of you may. The days when 'cable' meant that you had twelve channels from which to choose!! Can you imagine? Not just 2, 4, and 8, with that 'riot snow' on ever channel in between? Rabbit ears? Yeah, I remember those as well. The clunky, tough to turn dial? When I was the remote control?
Yeah, it's all there for me, so you may begin to understand my love affair with the remote.
A device that lets you change the channel without getting up? Or turn the t.v. volume up or down?
My GOD!! Are you freaking serious? Even with a minuscule 12 channels to choose from, this made things so much easier. Now, with the Oh, I don't know 1000 or so that the right price can bring into the house, it's almost a necessity.
Like most things, I like my remotes to have a myriad of buttons. There are a couple (mentioned previously) that get a lot of use, namely the 'last channel' and 'mute' buttons. I use those like they're going out of style, and the mute button almost gets worn out. Even if remotes only had channel up, channel down, volume + and -, and mute, I'd still be in love.
These days, however, they're much more advanced. I guess that I should mention that as I blog this (from my coffee table since you asked) there are four remotes within easy reach. they are, in order of proximity, tv, cd player, digital media player, and home theatre.
With the exception of the audio device (silver) these remotes share some basic buttons: The volume, of course, and channel buttons, of course, but also something I like to call the four-way:
This one (my home theatre remote) also has some added buttons, but it's the four-way that we're on. Used primarily for menu navigation, it's a wonder of convenience up, down, left, right....all moves are a variation on these 4 directions, even in 3 dimensional space. The middle button, or 'go button' as I like to call it, confirms choice.
There's another group of buttons that most, if not all, 'player' devices share. I don't have a bitchin' name for it, but it's the play/pause section:
This one, (also my home theatre) also has some other options. The main ones, play, pause, and the others are totally awesome. I use them with such regularity, that's it's a good thing that the buttons have the markings imprinted into them, because a mere paint job world wear off in no time.
Getting up to get a drink? Pause button. Miss a bit of dialog, or didn't see something clearly? Rewind. Suicide note, or boobies/other nudity? Pause again. Something that you really like? Awesome special effect (like the gravediggers head exploding in bones), or the 'human claymore' at the beginning of Swordfish, or again, boobies/other nudity? Frame advance, to see everything in it's explosive/bloody/sexy goodness.
I can't express my level of love for these handy little devices.
What about you? Do you love/use your remotes like I do?
Weigh in.
Buenos con queso,
T.
