Oversight Salvation

Ever bought a sprinkler and returned home only to remember you don’t own a garden hose? How about arriving at the campsite with your new camp stove but not so much as a drop of fuel? Maybe you’ve snapped up a bargain on a trailer at a garage sale and returned to pick it up before realizing there’s no hitch on your bumper.

There are truly thousands of examples in life where people have a greater likelihood of making an oversight related to purchases. I remember buying my first vehicle at 17, and my intention of driving it that evening being quashed by the remaining $46 dollars in my bank account meaning no insurance until next payday. Often, the ones that are the most dumbfounding occur when the buyer is overly-enthusiastic or eager to acquire his or her new purchase and has a genuine zeal for the product.

This seems to be particularly true of audio-visual components and systems and products that are related to other avidly-pursued hobbies and interests like musical instruments and sporting goods. With regards to A/V products, it’s very easy to understand how a person who’s a big movie, video game or sports buff – or all 3, as is often the case – could become so enthralled and encapsulated in their imminent purchase that he or she could overlook necessary accessories. While missing cables, adapters and the like can be just as problematic, there’s something very “D’OH!” about blowing the bulk of your wad on that new LCD TV only to arrive home and become aware you don’t have a stand that can accommodate it.

The same instance can occur easily with stereo components as well. You race home with your new 5-disc multi-player only to realize your component shelves will not take the additional size, or your mid-size bookshelf speakers are too wide for your speaker stands.
In addition, sometimes your current stand just doesn’t do your shiny and cutting-edge design TV or A/V components justice.

Of course, the last thing you want to do is subject your new electronic pride n’ joy to the risk of damage by either placing it on an existing inferior / insufficient stand or rack. Resting it on the floor would be wholly inadvisable as well and so very anti-climactic as you press power for the first time. As suggested earlier, it’s not uncommon for individuals in such circumstances to realize painfully they’ve gone a little too big with the bucks and feel the right stand or rack will have to wait.

Fortunately, Cymax Stores is pleased to advise you that with a visit to www.audio-video-furniture.com or www.toptvstands.com you can make amends your oversight with a large selection of TV stands and audio racks that have the newest looks and designs you demand at prices that may well not necessitate your putting it “on hold” until next payday comes around. Take a look at this Orispace Hi-Def Black Glass LCD TV Stand at $105.00 with free shipping and see what we mean!

If that grabs your attention, I urge you to stop by Top TV Stands to see many more attractive stands at great prices and protect the integrity of that first viewing.

Oh, To Have Been a Scribe

The fact that, in 1^st and 2^nd world countries at least, illiteracy has been by and large eradicated is an achievement worthy of praise and of tremendous benefit to society as a whole. The ability to read and write is no longer the divider it once was for everyone from children to adults, and the campaigns for literacy that began 30-plus years ago have been a great success. So much so in fact that Generation X folks like myself and the Y / Z s who’ve followed seem to take it for granted.

If I told you that at some point in the past and in a certain part of the world, your being literate was the only qualification necessary to ensure you a very well-paying, well-respected profession where you, among other perks, NEVER PAID TAXES – would you believe me?

In Ancient Egypt, scribes were part of the royal court who documented everything from the musings of the nobility to administrative and economic policies to legal statutes and much in between. They were compensated very well for their work and enjoyed many of the benefits of being faithful servants of the pharaoh or other nobility. Further, they had absolute job security as literacy was shared by only a tiny percentage of the population and nearly exclusively it was a skill passed down from older scribes to their sons. When not taking hand-written notes or assembling their submissions, these men would also read to their wealthy employers who could not do so on their own.

The benefits didn’t end there – scribes were absolved of military service obligations as well. So instead of being displaced and deemed disposable you’re taking the minutes of the Hieroglyphic Hansard and regaling the old boys with a tale or two before enjoying some wine and entertainment. Sounds like it would have been my kind of gig if I’d been born a few thousand years earlier a little to the left of the cradle of civilization.

Yet here we are in the 21^st century and taking notes by hand is not only unimpressive but quickly becoming as long lost as the Sphinx’s nose. Many people these days claim they have either forgotten how to handwrite or have difficulty with it, and I’m certainly one of them. The electronic medium has taken over, and although well it should, there’s still something of an attractive nostalgic value in scribbling out what you have to say. Love letters need to be commended for prolonging the life of pen n’ paper, and I suppose to a lesser extent so do birthday cards and the like.

For those who do
not channel the entirety of their communications or discourses through a keyboard, there are still furniture pieces that manage to incorporate a writing desk sensibility into their design. Audio-Video-Furniture.com has recently added a selection of Haugen Rolltop Desks that offer the vintage style appeal of more old world-themed writing desks with the versatility to accommodate more electronic means of communicating. Distinctive with the traditional roll-top enclosures that foster a charm seemingly incomplete without a quill pen in ink and sealing wax, these desks also have more modern design features like cord management outlets and drop-front keyboard tray drawers.

These desks are a tasteful hybrid between the old and the new. Not as old as 3000 BC though, as the fact that the scribes sat cross-legged with a slate on their lap writing on papyrus may have made the job slightly less appealing. Actually, come to think of it – no, it probably wouldn’t have. Knowing you’d be set for life shortly after Dad had taught you how to read and write must have been a darn good feeling.