Chapter 6 - Remote Control

The remote to the television had a multiple personality disorder. Sometimes you could press the channel up key and get a variety of responses from the television. Usually the channel number would change by increasing as expected. But some of the more interesting behaviors were the channel number going down, the volume being adjusted, the contrast being changed or in some cases the television shutting off. Jack considered the possibility that it was the television itself that had the problem of interpreting the signals correctly from the remote, but he had other remotes that worked well with this television. The remote to the video recorder seemed to work the best, but he began to like the randomness of the television’s own remote. Sometimes if you change your perspective by tricking your mind you get unexpected results. It is similar to the effect that one gets when approaching a box of cereal that has been sitting on the counter for a while. You don’t know how heavy it is going to be, but your brain thinks it knows and tells you to use a certain amount of force to pick up the box. Occasionally, you use too much force and the box is not as heavy as the last time you picked it up and you usually get all anxious that you tricked yourself.
Jack needed the random input to keep his boring ass life from kicking the shit out of him on a daily basis. The television remote was only a small example of that type of influence. He also kept a stack of pennies on the window sill next to his bed. He could usually stack about one hundred pennies up and let it sit there unnoticed for weeks. But at some random point in time, the stack would fall and shoot pennies in every direction on the floor. If it happened while he was sleeping it served its purpose by waking him up and scaring the shit out of him. If it happened while he was away, it served its purpose by giving him a surprise when he walked into the room. He never knew what the crazy remote or the crazy stack of pennies would do.