This weekend sees the final race of 2011 at Interlagos in Brazil.
The championship was decided a while ago of course and it's actually fairly rare that it comes down to the wire, so since Brazil is normally towards the end, usually it's been decided before then.
The place where the race is in Brazil is not a particularly nice area, as I understand it. Brazil has a lot of poor people and big slum areas, and I believe the track is close to one of those.
This usually leads to someone getting robbed or mugged or something similar. This usually makes the headlines, but the media generally reports it as crime, rather than focusing a spotlight on the poverty. I mention this specifically because in India that was clearly the angle they'd gone for - F1 is profligate and rich but India's poor, so do the Indians really want it?
It's a ludicrous argument of course.
Football is wasteful and rich, with big British team players being paid ludicrous salaries and tickets costing a small fortune, but I don't hear anyone saying there shouldn't be football allowed in India.
And any sort of argument that anyone can play football is only on slightly firmer ground. Okay, very few people ever become F1 drivers, but then few ever become premier league players of football. And there's lots of motor racing people can have a go at, from rallying to carting.
Anyway, got sidetracked a bit there.
Brazil is usually a really good race. The circuit has always had lots of opportunities to pass and it's not uncommon for it to rain and make things a bit complex for the teams. I'll be interested to see what happens with things like DRS and KERS - could this be a track where they're not really needed? Could they make things silly in terms of passing and repassing, etc?
The race will be on fairly late in the evening as it's run on local time, which is always interesting.
I will hopefully also go and get a haircut at some point this weekend. It's really becoming something of a mop head at the moment.
And I'll also hopefully be able to get some more stuff on e-bay. I put a lot of the DVDs I ripped up there last weekend. I thought about putting some up that I hadn't ripped, but it's always risky doing that.
I've done it before with things I hadn't quite finished, and if something happens it can be very tricky. The obvious example this time is not finding the time, but I've also had problems ripping some of the DVDs and while I sorted them, that suggests there's a risk of delay or finding one that just won't rip at all.
Showing posts with label dvds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dvds. Show all posts
Friday, 25 November 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
dvd burning
I really need a haircut, but I doubt I'm going to get the chance this weekend.
In fact I know I won't get the chance, as I need to do loads of washing and I do that first thing Saturday, so I won't be able to go to the hairdresser's early, which is my usual slot. Plus it's a cleaning weekend and that takes up all day Saturday anyway.
I'm a bit sick of this new pattern of doing stuff - it's kinda burdensome. It was sparked because of my desire to save a bit of money (well, more like not be ripped off so badly) on getting my washing done. This hasn't worked out too well, because I'm pretty sure my local laundrette charges a lot more for use of washing machines and tumble dryers than the place I used to get my washing done via service wash.
So although I'm not paying for the service wash and I'm able to adjust the payment base don size of load and how much drying it needs, the extra expense of the wash itself kinda wipes that out.
It also has the issue that it now sucks up a total of about two hours of my time on the days I do it. This is quite a bit of time, and because I'm doing it first thing (so I can get easy access to tumble dryers) it blocks me from doing other stuff.
I've actually considered going and doing it after work or late on - the place is open pretty late, but I dunno. A big problem there is I never seem to have much time in the evening anyway (I go to bed pretty early) and I've no guarantees it will be any easier. I'd also be worried about getting finished before it closes.
I think the whole BBC loosing full rights to coverage of all the races may be a blessing in disguise, as it could free up a lot of spare time.
Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to cover was how my adventure with ripping DVDs is going.
Last weekend was actually stupidly busy. There was all the GP stuff to watch, but I also decided I was going to process some audio books (more on that another day) and see about ripping the DVDs.
I mentioned this a little while ago and I've been investigating options. The one that I thought I'd try was by slysoft and there are two parts. Firstly they have a bit of software that allows you to watch any region locked DVD and then there's another bit of software you can use to clone/copy DVDs.
Both are available on free trial, so I downloaded them and gave them a go.
Results were pretty good. Initially I tried it out on my laptop. My theory was that this will be a convenient way of doing it - I can position my laptop to keep an eye on the progress of the rip and burn while I watch TV or whatever in the evening.
It worked well. My laptop DVD isn't the quickest, but it took about 45 minutes to rip and burn a DVD containing a complete series of the show peep show. I think it took less time burning a film, but I didn't pay attention tot eh time.
There was a problem with one disk I tried, but I didn't experiment to see if this was solvable. The software has various options and it's very easy to use. The only difficult is working out what's what ("title 2" doesn't mean anything, but it has a preview thing so you can see what it s).
It wasn't quite as successful when I tried it on my proper PC. The issue was that it failed to burn at a decent speed, although I've had this problem before and I think it's more to do with the drive itself. This meant it wasn't any quicker on the desktop, so I think laptop is the ay to go.
As I've said before it's a little daft if you think about it - why not spend that time watching the stuff instead of ripping it? Well, I can still watch other stuff and it's way quicker ripping than watching - that 45 minutes was for a series with 6 half hour episodes, 3 of which had commentaries and about 45 minutes of other extras, so time wise it's better.
So yeah, I think I may actually purchase this software, with the hopes that it will quickly pay for itself via e-bay selling.
In fact I know I won't get the chance, as I need to do loads of washing and I do that first thing Saturday, so I won't be able to go to the hairdresser's early, which is my usual slot. Plus it's a cleaning weekend and that takes up all day Saturday anyway.
I'm a bit sick of this new pattern of doing stuff - it's kinda burdensome. It was sparked because of my desire to save a bit of money (well, more like not be ripped off so badly) on getting my washing done. This hasn't worked out too well, because I'm pretty sure my local laundrette charges a lot more for use of washing machines and tumble dryers than the place I used to get my washing done via service wash.
So although I'm not paying for the service wash and I'm able to adjust the payment base don size of load and how much drying it needs, the extra expense of the wash itself kinda wipes that out.
It also has the issue that it now sucks up a total of about two hours of my time on the days I do it. This is quite a bit of time, and because I'm doing it first thing (so I can get easy access to tumble dryers) it blocks me from doing other stuff.
I've actually considered going and doing it after work or late on - the place is open pretty late, but I dunno. A big problem there is I never seem to have much time in the evening anyway (I go to bed pretty early) and I've no guarantees it will be any easier. I'd also be worried about getting finished before it closes.
I think the whole BBC loosing full rights to coverage of all the races may be a blessing in disguise, as it could free up a lot of spare time.
Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to cover was how my adventure with ripping DVDs is going.
Last weekend was actually stupidly busy. There was all the GP stuff to watch, but I also decided I was going to process some audio books (more on that another day) and see about ripping the DVDs.
I mentioned this a little while ago and I've been investigating options. The one that I thought I'd try was by slysoft and there are two parts. Firstly they have a bit of software that allows you to watch any region locked DVD and then there's another bit of software you can use to clone/copy DVDs.
Both are available on free trial, so I downloaded them and gave them a go.
Results were pretty good. Initially I tried it out on my laptop. My theory was that this will be a convenient way of doing it - I can position my laptop to keep an eye on the progress of the rip and burn while I watch TV or whatever in the evening.
It worked well. My laptop DVD isn't the quickest, but it took about 45 minutes to rip and burn a DVD containing a complete series of the show peep show. I think it took less time burning a film, but I didn't pay attention tot eh time.
There was a problem with one disk I tried, but I didn't experiment to see if this was solvable. The software has various options and it's very easy to use. The only difficult is working out what's what ("title 2" doesn't mean anything, but it has a preview thing so you can see what it s).
It wasn't quite as successful when I tried it on my proper PC. The issue was that it failed to burn at a decent speed, although I've had this problem before and I think it's more to do with the drive itself. This meant it wasn't any quicker on the desktop, so I think laptop is the ay to go.
As I've said before it's a little daft if you think about it - why not spend that time watching the stuff instead of ripping it? Well, I can still watch other stuff and it's way quicker ripping than watching - that 45 minutes was for a series with 6 half hour episodes, 3 of which had commentaries and about 45 minutes of other extras, so time wise it's better.
So yeah, I think I may actually purchase this software, with the hopes that it will quickly pay for itself via e-bay selling.
Friday, 11 November 2011
abu dhabi du
It's the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend.
I can't say I'm particularly looking forward to it as it's not really produced any classics so far. It's one of the newer races and it's also one of the duller ones.
From memory it's held in the evening, so it starts out fairly light but the sun sets during the race and it's dark at the end. This doesn't really add much to the race, but I guess it's something different.
It's also the circuit where it goes under the weird hotel which has loads of glowing lights on it. Also, the exit from the pits is a tunnel. Again, neither really add anything to the race, but it's something a bit different.
It's also the second to last grand prix. The season is way too long this year - the last race is Brazil, which is usually a good race, but it's way out at the end of November and the new season starts mid-March next year.
I appreciate with F1 being a properly global sport you can go on for a long time, but I think it's kinda reached a maximum length this year. Also, by adding more races you actually amplify the effect of dominance. So this year there have been lots of races where Vettel has already won the title.
To be honest, I don't think it matters as much in F1 - they still want to win each race, but the heat does go out of it a little.
Other plans for the weekend are... to be honest, I'm not sure. I know I need to do a big shop and one of the things I did do when I got back of holiday was identify a bunch of stuff for e-baying.
In fact I'm actually almost out of stuff I could put on e-bay in the shed. Indeed, I've actually got loads of empty stacking boxes in the shed that I've positioned to give the illusion that the space is has still got loads in it, but actually they're mostly empty.
Well, I say that - there's still quite a bit I could get rid of, it's just it would take quite a lot of sorting out, and I'd say half of what's left is really only tip-worthy if I was forced to dispose of it.
Also I've actually cheated. I've brought all of my manga in and stacked it up on top of my smaller set of shelves.
I do actually want to sell most of these titles, it's just that I'm either waiting for them to finish (which could take a few years in some cases :/) or to get a good chunk that I can sell as a batch (1-10 say) and then when new volumes turn up I'll sell them individually.
This doesn't get me such good prices, but it reduces the amount of stuff I've got hanging about.
Oh, I also made a bit of a decision - I want to rip some of the DVDs I've got so that I can get the originals on e-bay. Having spent quite a lot of time recently sorting through things there's a lot that clearly isn't going to be of "classic - must keep" status so I think I'll rip them and sell them.
That does mean I need to work out a quick, easy and efficient way of doing that. And of course it means there's a weird bit of transference going on - I won't be doing what I really need to (watching stuff) but I'll still be able to sell it :/. Also, I'm going to spend hours (?) ripping it when I could be watching it... ?
I can't say I'm particularly looking forward to it as it's not really produced any classics so far. It's one of the newer races and it's also one of the duller ones.
From memory it's held in the evening, so it starts out fairly light but the sun sets during the race and it's dark at the end. This doesn't really add much to the race, but I guess it's something different.
It's also the circuit where it goes under the weird hotel which has loads of glowing lights on it. Also, the exit from the pits is a tunnel. Again, neither really add anything to the race, but it's something a bit different.
It's also the second to last grand prix. The season is way too long this year - the last race is Brazil, which is usually a good race, but it's way out at the end of November and the new season starts mid-March next year.
I appreciate with F1 being a properly global sport you can go on for a long time, but I think it's kinda reached a maximum length this year. Also, by adding more races you actually amplify the effect of dominance. So this year there have been lots of races where Vettel has already won the title.
To be honest, I don't think it matters as much in F1 - they still want to win each race, but the heat does go out of it a little.
Other plans for the weekend are... to be honest, I'm not sure. I know I need to do a big shop and one of the things I did do when I got back of holiday was identify a bunch of stuff for e-baying.
In fact I'm actually almost out of stuff I could put on e-bay in the shed. Indeed, I've actually got loads of empty stacking boxes in the shed that I've positioned to give the illusion that the space is has still got loads in it, but actually they're mostly empty.
Well, I say that - there's still quite a bit I could get rid of, it's just it would take quite a lot of sorting out, and I'd say half of what's left is really only tip-worthy if I was forced to dispose of it.
Also I've actually cheated. I've brought all of my manga in and stacked it up on top of my smaller set of shelves.
I do actually want to sell most of these titles, it's just that I'm either waiting for them to finish (which could take a few years in some cases :/) or to get a good chunk that I can sell as a batch (1-10 say) and then when new volumes turn up I'll sell them individually.
This doesn't get me such good prices, but it reduces the amount of stuff I've got hanging about.
Oh, I also made a bit of a decision - I want to rip some of the DVDs I've got so that I can get the originals on e-bay. Having spent quite a lot of time recently sorting through things there's a lot that clearly isn't going to be of "classic - must keep" status so I think I'll rip them and sell them.
That does mean I need to work out a quick, easy and efficient way of doing that. And of course it means there's a weird bit of transference going on - I won't be doing what I really need to (watching stuff) but I'll still be able to sell it :/. Also, I'm going to spend hours (?) ripping it when I could be watching it... ?
Thursday, 29 September 2011
shelves of doom
I mentioned last week I would take some pics of my shelves, so I thought I'd present those today.
There are actually two shelves.
First is the one on the right.
A: Ink Cartridges
B: Some of my important documents.
C: Stack of important (and non-important, to be frank) documents that I haven't sorted out yet (though I'll need to go through them soon as I need to find something). Plus this is where I keep my TV listing and all my remote controls.
D: These are basically piles of anime where I've bought and imported the original Japanese anime version (and I wonder why I'm skint). I'm also in the process of collecting the western versions and my hope is that this combo will sell quite well on e-bay. I'm somewhat afraid that actually they won't sell at all well, so I'm also kinda ignoring them.
E: This shelf is where I keep all the unscanned Japanese anime magazines. As you can see, it's a fair pile, but it's a lot smaller than it was. There used to be so many that they lived on the shelf below, which is much taller.
F: These are my PC games. The ones in the front row are those I haven't really played much yet, if at all, and the ones in the back are ones I have played and want to hold on too or want to play a bit more, but feel I should really do something about those unplayed ones first.
G: And this is the core stack of anime. As you can see it's quite a deep shelf and you have to remember that these are stacked in two piles, one in front of the other. That's a lot of unwatched stuff. It's also the stuff I've prioritised to watch "first" which obviously means I have a couple of other stacks of stuff I want to watch "after" :/.
H: This stack (again, double depth) is the real life TV series (or at least non-anime and non-film) all unwatched (well, I'll have watch the majority of the actual shows when they were broadcast, but I've not watched the DVDs).
I: This stack is "films". Again, double depth and featuring a mix of live action, foreign and anime.
J: This is my cheater stack, where I've stacked up all those series I'm in the middle of. It's yet another way of excluding stuff from the to watch pile because I like to marathon things.
K: These cake boxes contain all of the audio books that I've already listened to. I like to listen to audio books while I walk. as you can see I walk quite a bit.
L: This is the main chunk of box files containing important documents.
M: My digital radio which wakes me up in the morning. I got it as a present from my Dad and was worried I might not be able to get a signal, but actually it's great. My digital telly is problematic, but I think it's because the aerial is pointing at the London region antennae, rather than the Meridian, which is a lot closer. Also we've still not switched over to full digital service in either region, so signal strength is lower than it could be anyway.
N: These stacks are original Japanese manga that I'm disassembling in order that I can scan the big spreads and dramatic images. It's really a hang over from when I used to make wallpapers and I used to find new/different/original content by doing this. Now they're just stuck in the huge scanning backlog (they're sell for a pittance on e-bay, so this way they at least get put to some use before being chucked away)
O: My right speaker, perfectly positioned so I get great stereo effect when watching DVDs or Blu-Ray... except of course I stuck a bunch of stuff in front of it :/.
Second is the one on the left.
P: The other speaker
Q: The overspill pile. It's mainly anime, but there's plenty of normal TV stuff in there too. My intention is to watch this stuff after the other stuff... yeah, because I'm ever going to get through all that other stuff :/.
R: My unread books.
S: VHS Tapes - burn the heretic! They're old anime VHS tapes that I felt guilty about chucking away without rewatching at least once.
T: Supposed to be my unread manga pile, but they actually spill down on to the shelf below. I've actually not being doing so bad recently with keeping on top of reading manga.
U: This is ostensibly my western comics to read pile, but it also has a bunch of CD old/empty jewel case I intended to use as spare parts to replace broken ones, but have never gotten around to.
V: These are the CDs I'm hanging on to for now. There's two stacking crates into eh kitchen of CDs I either want to e-bay (god, the effort required) or sell on one of those "sell your DVD sites" (bound to be a rip off).
W: These fans were headed out to the garage. Well, until this current heat wave so now they're sort of back in use.
X: I'm rapidly running out of letter, so, from left to right we've got: The DVDs I plan to take to watch on my upcoming holiday; CD cake boxes containing fansubs (I'm supposed to be sorting through them but got distracted half way); my Blu-Rays (I promised myself I wouldn't let it grow :() and a box of software.
Y: These spindles are the blank ones with DVDs and (out of picture) CDs for burning stuff on too. Oh, and some pants.
So there you go. The perfect shopping list for burglars. Well, burglar nerds. Which is very different to nerd burglars.
There are actually two shelves.
First is the one on the right.
A: Ink Cartridges
B: Some of my important documents.
C: Stack of important (and non-important, to be frank) documents that I haven't sorted out yet (though I'll need to go through them soon as I need to find something). Plus this is where I keep my TV listing and all my remote controls.
D: These are basically piles of anime where I've bought and imported the original Japanese anime version (and I wonder why I'm skint). I'm also in the process of collecting the western versions and my hope is that this combo will sell quite well on e-bay. I'm somewhat afraid that actually they won't sell at all well, so I'm also kinda ignoring them.
E: This shelf is where I keep all the unscanned Japanese anime magazines. As you can see, it's a fair pile, but it's a lot smaller than it was. There used to be so many that they lived on the shelf below, which is much taller.
F: These are my PC games. The ones in the front row are those I haven't really played much yet, if at all, and the ones in the back are ones I have played and want to hold on too or want to play a bit more, but feel I should really do something about those unplayed ones first.
G: And this is the core stack of anime. As you can see it's quite a deep shelf and you have to remember that these are stacked in two piles, one in front of the other. That's a lot of unwatched stuff. It's also the stuff I've prioritised to watch "first" which obviously means I have a couple of other stacks of stuff I want to watch "after" :/.
H: This stack (again, double depth) is the real life TV series (or at least non-anime and non-film) all unwatched (well, I'll have watch the majority of the actual shows when they were broadcast, but I've not watched the DVDs).
I: This stack is "films". Again, double depth and featuring a mix of live action, foreign and anime.
J: This is my cheater stack, where I've stacked up all those series I'm in the middle of. It's yet another way of excluding stuff from the to watch pile because I like to marathon things.
K: These cake boxes contain all of the audio books that I've already listened to. I like to listen to audio books while I walk. as you can see I walk quite a bit.
L: This is the main chunk of box files containing important documents.
M: My digital radio which wakes me up in the morning. I got it as a present from my Dad and was worried I might not be able to get a signal, but actually it's great. My digital telly is problematic, but I think it's because the aerial is pointing at the London region antennae, rather than the Meridian, which is a lot closer. Also we've still not switched over to full digital service in either region, so signal strength is lower than it could be anyway.
N: These stacks are original Japanese manga that I'm disassembling in order that I can scan the big spreads and dramatic images. It's really a hang over from when I used to make wallpapers and I used to find new/different/original content by doing this. Now they're just stuck in the huge scanning backlog (they're sell for a pittance on e-bay, so this way they at least get put to some use before being chucked away)
O: My right speaker, perfectly positioned so I get great stereo effect when watching DVDs or Blu-Ray... except of course I stuck a bunch of stuff in front of it :/.
Second is the one on the left.
P: The other speaker
Q: The overspill pile. It's mainly anime, but there's plenty of normal TV stuff in there too. My intention is to watch this stuff after the other stuff... yeah, because I'm ever going to get through all that other stuff :/.
R: My unread books.
T: Supposed to be my unread manga pile, but they actually spill down on to the shelf below. I've actually not being doing so bad recently with keeping on top of reading manga.
U: This is ostensibly my western comics to read pile, but it also has a bunch of CD old/empty jewel case I intended to use as spare parts to replace broken ones, but have never gotten around to.
V: These are the CDs I'm hanging on to for now. There's two stacking crates into eh kitchen of CDs I either want to e-bay (god, the effort required) or sell on one of those "sell your DVD sites" (bound to be a rip off).
W: These fans were headed out to the garage. Well, until this current heat wave so now they're sort of back in use.
X: I'm rapidly running out of letter, so, from left to right we've got: The DVDs I plan to take to watch on my upcoming holiday; CD cake boxes containing fansubs (I'm supposed to be sorting through them but got distracted half way); my Blu-Rays (I promised myself I wouldn't let it grow :() and a box of software.
Y: These spindles are the blank ones with DVDs and (out of picture) CDs for burning stuff on too. Oh, and some pants.
So there you go. The perfect shopping list for burglars. Well, burglar nerds. Which is very different to nerd burglars.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
re-rearrange
I rearranged my DVDs and books. Again... again.
I liked the idea of my plan when I rearranged them last time, but the results were a bit of a mess. The big problem was that I mixed stuff up and tried to put books, anime and normal DVDs all together.
Trouble was the ‘slots’ on the shelf weren’t the right size and so what I ended up with was more like a jumble of stuff where I was trying for a more sensible order to watch stuff in.
My new arrangement tries to keep things together - so all my books are back over on the other book shelf, for example - and instead I’ve focused more on putting the groups into a sensible order to watch them in. So in other words, all the books are together, all the normal DVDs are together and all the anime is together, but what I‘ve done is put those groups into an order where I can watch stuff from the top down.
Well, I say that, but there is one shelf that’s ended up as a random mix of stuff. I’m not too fussed about that, because it’s more a reflection of the stupid amount of DVDs I’ve got to watch than any real failure in my ordering.
There was also an ulterior motive for my rearrangement.
Basically, I couldn’t find my copy of High School of the Dead. HOTD was released last week on the Bank Holiday Monday an I’d pre-ordered the Blu-Ray version almost as soon as it was announced. But I couldn’t find it.
I say I couldn’t find it because I was sure I’d received it. I had a memory of being a little disappointed with the image they’d put on the Blu-Rays. I also vaguely remembered unwrapping it and, more importantly, I checked my e-mail and Amazon had sent it on the Bank Holiday.
Now obviously there was the possibility that I hadn’t actually received it, but as I say, I was sure I had, but I couldn’t find it. I have a small stack of Blu-Rays and it should have been with them, but no sign.
Therefore, by sorting out the mess I’d created with my last re-arrange, it gave me a chance to look through the piles and see if I’d put it somewhere odd. But there was no sign.
And then, a couple of days after I’d basically decided I’d somehow lost it (perhaps doing something silly like chucking it away like I did with a volume of Bakuman) it turned up in the post. It had taken some 8 days to arrive. Now to be fair I do use the Amazon slow and free service and of course if they posted it on the bank holiday, it wouldn’t actually get picked up until later, but still, I think that’s the longest I’ve ever had it take to get to me.
I’ve actually cancelled a lot of the stuff I pre-ordered on Amazon - manga, mostly. I‘m actually rather skint (all this dental work I’ve had to have has really not helped me) and I need to get more stuff on e-bay. I’ve got quite a lot lined up - not least of all because I’ve been watching stuff on DVD - but I just don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit down and take photos and write the stuff for the auction pages.
I liked the idea of my plan when I rearranged them last time, but the results were a bit of a mess. The big problem was that I mixed stuff up and tried to put books, anime and normal DVDs all together.
Trouble was the ‘slots’ on the shelf weren’t the right size and so what I ended up with was more like a jumble of stuff where I was trying for a more sensible order to watch stuff in.
My new arrangement tries to keep things together - so all my books are back over on the other book shelf, for example - and instead I’ve focused more on putting the groups into a sensible order to watch them in. So in other words, all the books are together, all the normal DVDs are together and all the anime is together, but what I‘ve done is put those groups into an order where I can watch stuff from the top down.
Well, I say that, but there is one shelf that’s ended up as a random mix of stuff. I’m not too fussed about that, because it’s more a reflection of the stupid amount of DVDs I’ve got to watch than any real failure in my ordering.
There was also an ulterior motive for my rearrangement.
Basically, I couldn’t find my copy of High School of the Dead. HOTD was released last week on the Bank Holiday Monday an I’d pre-ordered the Blu-Ray version almost as soon as it was announced. But I couldn’t find it.
I say I couldn’t find it because I was sure I’d received it. I had a memory of being a little disappointed with the image they’d put on the Blu-Rays. I also vaguely remembered unwrapping it and, more importantly, I checked my e-mail and Amazon had sent it on the Bank Holiday.
Now obviously there was the possibility that I hadn’t actually received it, but as I say, I was sure I had, but I couldn’t find it. I have a small stack of Blu-Rays and it should have been with them, but no sign.
Therefore, by sorting out the mess I’d created with my last re-arrange, it gave me a chance to look through the piles and see if I’d put it somewhere odd. But there was no sign.
And then, a couple of days after I’d basically decided I’d somehow lost it (perhaps doing something silly like chucking it away like I did with a volume of Bakuman) it turned up in the post. It had taken some 8 days to arrive. Now to be fair I do use the Amazon slow and free service and of course if they posted it on the bank holiday, it wouldn’t actually get picked up until later, but still, I think that’s the longest I’ve ever had it take to get to me.
I’ve actually cancelled a lot of the stuff I pre-ordered on Amazon - manga, mostly. I‘m actually rather skint (all this dental work I’ve had to have has really not helped me) and I need to get more stuff on e-bay. I’ve got quite a lot lined up - not least of all because I’ve been watching stuff on DVD - but I just don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit down and take photos and write the stuff for the auction pages.
Friday, 18 March 2011
start of moto gp season
This weekend sees the start of the MotoGP season.
I'm rather in two minds about whether to follow the MotoGP season this year. The problem I've got is that it's going to add quite a few more hours of stuff to watch this year and I'm not sure I want to expend that time.
I've sorta been hoping that this summer would represent a bit of a "turning point" in terms of my unwatched DVD pile. I was hoping that I would roll on my new found desire to get stuff done that I've been putting to good use for the scanning into watching these DVDs.
I have actually been trying to watch some DVD stuff in the evenings and I've been doing okay, but my hope was that when it gets round to summer and interesting telly stuff dries up, I'll be able to use that time to make some sort of impression on it.
This hope is further boosted by the whole crunchyroll thing. Now that I've been tackling most of the new anime via the legal and paid for route of crunchyroll, I'm hoping that has a huge knock-on effect in terms of the DVDs or buy. Or rather, it will massively reduce the number of anime DVDs I buy (indeed, it may eradicate them altogether).
Of course, this will help me financially too - not only will I be able to sell stuff I've watched on e-bay, but crunchyroll only costs about £60 an entire year, and I can easily spend that every month on DVDs.
To this end, I've already been getting into quite a brutal mindset for the telly I watch at the moment. Once a week I like to set up all the stuff I want to watch on pre-record. This then allows me to take a look at the list and see how much of it there is and what stuff there is. If it's too much or there's some things on there I perhaps didn't like enough to keep them going, then I'll delete them.
Comedies in particular have tended to got the chop. I'm not sure if I'm becoming less tolerant, or I used to be overly-tolerant, but I've even found myself dropping things without completing the first episode.
So I think I'll suck it and see with the MotoGP season - give it maybe a couple of races and if it proves too much of a time burden or isn't that interesting, then I'll probably drop it.
I'm rather in two minds about whether to follow the MotoGP season this year. The problem I've got is that it's going to add quite a few more hours of stuff to watch this year and I'm not sure I want to expend that time.
I've sorta been hoping that this summer would represent a bit of a "turning point" in terms of my unwatched DVD pile. I was hoping that I would roll on my new found desire to get stuff done that I've been putting to good use for the scanning into watching these DVDs.
I have actually been trying to watch some DVD stuff in the evenings and I've been doing okay, but my hope was that when it gets round to summer and interesting telly stuff dries up, I'll be able to use that time to make some sort of impression on it.
This hope is further boosted by the whole crunchyroll thing. Now that I've been tackling most of the new anime via the legal and paid for route of crunchyroll, I'm hoping that has a huge knock-on effect in terms of the DVDs or buy. Or rather, it will massively reduce the number of anime DVDs I buy (indeed, it may eradicate them altogether).
Of course, this will help me financially too - not only will I be able to sell stuff I've watched on e-bay, but crunchyroll only costs about £60 an entire year, and I can easily spend that every month on DVDs.
To this end, I've already been getting into quite a brutal mindset for the telly I watch at the moment. Once a week I like to set up all the stuff I want to watch on pre-record. This then allows me to take a look at the list and see how much of it there is and what stuff there is. If it's too much or there's some things on there I perhaps didn't like enough to keep them going, then I'll delete them.
Comedies in particular have tended to got the chop. I'm not sure if I'm becoming less tolerant, or I used to be overly-tolerant, but I've even found myself dropping things without completing the first episode.
So I think I'll suck it and see with the MotoGP season - give it maybe a couple of races and if it proves too much of a time burden or isn't that interesting, then I'll probably drop it.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
hobilay
So today will almost certainly be my last blog entry for a good couple of weeks, as I'm going on holiday.
The plan is basically that tomorrow and Friday morning I'm going to do some room re-arrangement for when I'm away. While I'm gone my landlord will do the final bit of the decorating, so I'm going to more the furniture around and put some more stuff out in the shed so it's out of the way for him.
I'll also probably stick a bunch of stuff in the kitchen and in the bathroom as he won't be touching them. Well, as I understand it he won't be touching them - knowing how his plans change at the drop of hat anything could happen.
I'll also pack, which will be more complicated that you might imagine. See, my holiday proper is in two parts. The first bit I'm spending with my dad. It's his birthday and I've not really seen him much this year, so I'll be staying with him for a few days.
The second part of the holiday I'm basically booked into a hotel and I'm going to do two things - walk and watch DVDs. The first is pretty obvious - I can use the opportunity of not working to go on some reasonable sized walks and hopefully I won't lapse with the diet, so I'm kinda hoping to return a good few pounds lighter than I went.
The second part is to have a great big push of watching anime and other DVDs so that, upon my return, I can whack most, if not all of them on e-bay.
I then return home and there's the weekend and the Monday for me to catch up on all the domestic stuff before I'm back to work. I'm unsure at this stage whether I'll have the energy to re-arrange my room when I get back. I'm guessing probably not and I'll basically wait until the following weekend before I really start back with the sorting out.
There is also another potential problem there in that we'll be well into Autumn and the weather could start to play a big factor. My big fear is that we have another super-damp and cold autumn and winter and I get lazy and don't sell the stuff I need to. This is a fear because then there's a good chance of it getting wet and then going mouldy. And cold and damp is also not kind to electrical components, of which there are quite a few in the boxes currently out in the shed.
But anyway - I'll see you on the other side.
The plan is basically that tomorrow and Friday morning I'm going to do some room re-arrangement for when I'm away. While I'm gone my landlord will do the final bit of the decorating, so I'm going to more the furniture around and put some more stuff out in the shed so it's out of the way for him.
I'll also probably stick a bunch of stuff in the kitchen and in the bathroom as he won't be touching them. Well, as I understand it he won't be touching them - knowing how his plans change at the drop of hat anything could happen.
I'll also pack, which will be more complicated that you might imagine. See, my holiday proper is in two parts. The first bit I'm spending with my dad. It's his birthday and I've not really seen him much this year, so I'll be staying with him for a few days.
The second part of the holiday I'm basically booked into a hotel and I'm going to do two things - walk and watch DVDs. The first is pretty obvious - I can use the opportunity of not working to go on some reasonable sized walks and hopefully I won't lapse with the diet, so I'm kinda hoping to return a good few pounds lighter than I went.
The second part is to have a great big push of watching anime and other DVDs so that, upon my return, I can whack most, if not all of them on e-bay.
I then return home and there's the weekend and the Monday for me to catch up on all the domestic stuff before I'm back to work. I'm unsure at this stage whether I'll have the energy to re-arrange my room when I get back. I'm guessing probably not and I'll basically wait until the following weekend before I really start back with the sorting out.
There is also another potential problem there in that we'll be well into Autumn and the weather could start to play a big factor. My big fear is that we have another super-damp and cold autumn and winter and I get lazy and don't sell the stuff I need to. This is a fear because then there's a good chance of it getting wet and then going mouldy. And cold and damp is also not kind to electrical components, of which there are quite a few in the boxes currently out in the shed.
But anyway - I'll see you on the other side.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
telly trimming
The other night I surveyed my DVD shelves.
I discovered I have the following to watch:
18 Full anime series (meaning 20+episode long series)
16 Half anime series (meaning around 13 episode long series)
10 Anime films and OAV sets
21 Feature films
23 British TV series (normally 6 episodes)
27 American TV series (normally 20+ episodes)
If you do some simple maths and don't get hung up on details, that means I have at least 600 solid hours of stuff to watch. Or, to put it another way, if I were to spend 6 hours a day watching stuff (i.e. approximately a 'working day') it would take 100 solid days to get through it all.
Or, to keep with the working week thing, it would take approximately 6-months operating on a 9-to-5 Monday-to-Friday schedule to watch all of the DVDs I have on my shelves.
And that's just to watch the primary content. Part of the reason I buy TV show and film DVDs is because of extras. If you therefore say that for every hour of normal stuff there's half an hour of extras it could mean an extra 3 months just spent watching extras.
Also, I think that's a massive underestimate, because I'm mostly rounding down. Plus, if you include things like annual leave and Bank Holidays, I reckon it would take an entire working year to plough through my unwatched DVDs.
(Presumably in this fictional job I'm spending my free time reading books and manga :/.)
Or, to put things in a monetary vein, if you say each film cost an average of £10, a US/British TV series an average of £40, and that an anime series costs an average of £60 for a half series and £100 for a full series (this one is complicated because of the modern trend of releasing things in economical box sets, but most of my stuff isn't in said box sets) then that gives a monetary value of:
31 * £10 = £310
50 * £40 = £2000
60 * £60 = £3600
18 * £100 = £1800
That's approximately £8,000
I reckon I can probably average a return (meaning profit after all the fees and postage) of 25% on e-bay, so that means I could be sitting on about £2,000.
I wasn't intending to go on like that, but the basic point is I have tonnes of DVDs to watch and suddenly a couple of weeks ago loads of new shows I was interested in started on the TV.
As such, with the above situation brought into focus I've decided to stop watching some of them. (It also kinda puts my decision to subscribe to Crunchyroll into a whole knew light doesn't it? I mean, I've tonnes of stuff to watch, yet I'm subscribing (yes, that means paying) for even more stuff. I'm insane.)
The casualties include True Blood, Generation Kill and Flash Forward.
I have to say I'm a little bit regretful that I have to drop them, but with the backlog and all the other stuff that's on I just don't think I can justify spending the time they require to watch. Especially since none of them blew me away.
True Blood was probably the one I was most disappointed with. The main problem I had with it was the tone seemed to be all over the place. One minute it was kooky comedy, the next a veritable "bodice ripper" and then it would shift into high school type humour.
I dunno, it was like it was meant to be a parody that forgot it was a parody.
Generation Kill was, quite frankly, a bit dull and Flash Forward just felt like a low-rent Lost.
And speaking of lost, season 5 has just been sent to me.
Which is where I start to get annoyed with myself, because I bet I'll start marathoning Lost this evening and I'll probably have it finished by the end of the weekend.
That's annoying because if I can do it with Lost, why the hell don't I do it in a more general sense and plough though all these DVDs?
The answer is "because I'm an idiot," obviously.
I discovered I have the following to watch:
18 Full anime series (meaning 20+episode long series)
16 Half anime series (meaning around 13 episode long series)
10 Anime films and OAV sets
21 Feature films
23 British TV series (normally 6 episodes)
27 American TV series (normally 20+ episodes)
If you do some simple maths and don't get hung up on details, that means I have at least 600 solid hours of stuff to watch. Or, to put it another way, if I were to spend 6 hours a day watching stuff (i.e. approximately a 'working day') it would take 100 solid days to get through it all.
Or, to keep with the working week thing, it would take approximately 6-months operating on a 9-to-5 Monday-to-Friday schedule to watch all of the DVDs I have on my shelves.
And that's just to watch the primary content. Part of the reason I buy TV show and film DVDs is because of extras. If you therefore say that for every hour of normal stuff there's half an hour of extras it could mean an extra 3 months just spent watching extras.
Also, I think that's a massive underestimate, because I'm mostly rounding down. Plus, if you include things like annual leave and Bank Holidays, I reckon it would take an entire working year to plough through my unwatched DVDs.
(Presumably in this fictional job I'm spending my free time reading books and manga :/.)
Or, to put things in a monetary vein, if you say each film cost an average of £10, a US/British TV series an average of £40, and that an anime series costs an average of £60 for a half series and £100 for a full series (this one is complicated because of the modern trend of releasing things in economical box sets, but most of my stuff isn't in said box sets) then that gives a monetary value of:
31 * £10 = £310
50 * £40 = £2000
60 * £60 = £3600
18 * £100 = £1800
That's approximately £8,000
I reckon I can probably average a return (meaning profit after all the fees and postage) of 25% on e-bay, so that means I could be sitting on about £2,000.
I wasn't intending to go on like that, but the basic point is I have tonnes of DVDs to watch and suddenly a couple of weeks ago loads of new shows I was interested in started on the TV.
As such, with the above situation brought into focus I've decided to stop watching some of them. (It also kinda puts my decision to subscribe to Crunchyroll into a whole knew light doesn't it? I mean, I've tonnes of stuff to watch, yet I'm subscribing (yes, that means paying) for even more stuff. I'm insane.)
The casualties include True Blood, Generation Kill and Flash Forward.
I have to say I'm a little bit regretful that I have to drop them, but with the backlog and all the other stuff that's on I just don't think I can justify spending the time they require to watch. Especially since none of them blew me away.
True Blood was probably the one I was most disappointed with. The main problem I had with it was the tone seemed to be all over the place. One minute it was kooky comedy, the next a veritable "bodice ripper" and then it would shift into high school type humour.
I dunno, it was like it was meant to be a parody that forgot it was a parody.
Generation Kill was, quite frankly, a bit dull and Flash Forward just felt like a low-rent Lost.
And speaking of lost, season 5 has just been sent to me.
Which is where I start to get annoyed with myself, because I bet I'll start marathoning Lost this evening and I'll probably have it finished by the end of the weekend.
That's annoying because if I can do it with Lost, why the hell don't I do it in a more general sense and plough though all these DVDs?
The answer is "because I'm an idiot," obviously.
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