Movies and Stuff

I managed to get all of my movies transfered (or transfered back) to DVD. However, it turns out that I'd set the timer on the DVD-Recorder for too short a time when I recorded The Day After Tomorrow, because it cut off right as Dennis Quaid was dragging the other guy into the fast food restaurant. Bummer. That's one of my favorite movies too. I guess I'll just have to wait until it's on again though.

On Sunday, Ocean's Eleven was showing again, between two showings of Mission: Impossible II. I got both movies, so now the only empty DVD cover on my floor with a title on it already is for The Day After Tomorrow.

I have found cover images for all the movies I didn't have images for now, but I haven't printed them out, because my laptop is still up in my bedroom. I can't print unless it's in the dock on my desk, so I'm finishing up a few more projects upstairs before I finish with the movies.

I had finished recording all ten Dutch units last week, so I tried to disconnect the harddrive and take it (with an empty CD) to my parents' house on Sunday so that Dad could burn it for me. For some reason, the computer couldn't stop the USB drive, so I just got fed up and un-plugged it.

Imagine my surprise when Dad couldn't find ANY of the MP3 files I'd saved onto that harddrive from the Dutch tapes! I had saved them in a specific folder, and they were all named things like Unit One - Reading Exercises, or Unit One - Greetings (there were two files for each unit).

They were there before I disconnected the hard drive--I know, because I'd tried to record them on the DVD-R, but couldn't, since apparently my DVD-R can only play CDs, not record them. Go figure.

But anyway, now I have to record the tapes to the harddrive again. I just hope I can get them to stay on there this time, especially since I have no idea why they wouldn't have stayed the first time!

I'm hoping it won't rain on Saturday, so that I can try to time the bicycle ride to work in the morning, and then maybe go to the pool (even just to get my pool pass) after I go grocery shopping. I'm pretty sure there's no movie that I want to see this week, but I'll have to look at my calendar at home.

I'm planning on making another post either tonight or later this week, if I've had a chance to talk to Heather on AIM again.

Making Progress

"That's a rather grim beginning for a Disney movie."

That's what Jason O. said when we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End last Saturday, and I totally agree.

That doesn't mean the beginning wasn't as awesome as the rest of the movie--far from it! The whole movie was an action-packed three hours full of total, mind-boggling thrills. I'd've just never expected that particular type of beginning to come out of that particular producer.

And now, in order to avoid the temptation to spoil you all any further, I shall continue recounting my week so far.

Sunday was dinner at Mom & Dad's again--of course. Dad gave me his old Palm Tungsten T3, because he'd gotten a BlackJack.

Then, on Monday was Memorial Day. I had to do my grocery shopping then too, because I'd skipped it on Saturday and I was running out of food. I thought about going swimming at my neighborhood pool, but there wasn't enough time afterward, and I didn't feel like trying to get my hot and sweaty body into a clean and getting-too-small bathing suit.

Not to mention, the people running the pool were supposed to have put my pool pass into my mailbox (they'd run out of ribbon for their card printer when I got my picture taken for it), but it still hasn't shown up. I'm hoping that, when I do actually end up going, they'll have it there for me.

So, instead of going to the pool, after I went shopping, I went back to Mom & Dad's so that Dad could help me configure the Wi-Fi card that he'd given me with the PDA. That didn't take very long, but I stayed anyway because they were all going to another movie. We went to see Meet the Robinsons in the $2.99 theater. That was a cute movie. But I want to know what his mother looked like too!

Tuesday meant back to work for Darcy. The same old boring thing, day in and day out. After work, I managed to finish recording the Dutch tapes to my computer, but when I tried to use the DVD-Recorder to copy the files to CD, it didn't work. Apparently, the DVD-R only works for playing audio CDs, not recording them. Darn. I'll just have to get Dad to burn the CD for me next time I go over there or something.

I also managed to get Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone over to the VHS, and I got Spiderman onto the DVD. Now, I just have to get Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone back to DVD, then I can get The Day After Tomorrow to go both ways and I'll be finished with those.

Tonight I'm going to be recording Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl though, so the re-recording will have to wait until that's done, at least. On Sunday (I think, but it might be Saturday) I'll have another chance to record Ocean's Eleven, which is good, because I've had the cover sitting on my bedroom floor for at least two months now. I'm debating on whether or not I want to record Mission: Impossible 2. It'll be on both before and after Ocean's Eleven. I'll have to wait and see.

The Art of the Marathon Nap

Other than having Dad's pizza on Sunday for Anna's birthday dinner, the last week has been pretty boring. I haven't done anymore recording or re-recording of anything, audio or video.

I managed to get up the motivation to make scrambled eggs with toast (with grape jelly) last night for dinner though--that was yummy, and a far cry more interesting to eat than cereal for the second time that day. I'm out of ketchup though, so I had to eat the eggs plain.

I was online talking to Heather on AIM 6.0 for about an hour, then she signed off--I think her computer died again, or she got kicked off or something, 'cause she didn't say 'bye or anything.

Anyway, around 6:30, I was really tired. I seriously could not keep my eyes open. So, I closed the laptop (didn't close any programs or turn it off though), put my glasses away, and turned over in the bed with the bedroom light still on.

I was out like a light for about five hours.

At about 11:30, I woke up, got my pajamas on (yes, I'd been sleeping in my jeans and t-shirt), used the facilities, put my dirty dishes in the sink, turned out the bedroom light, and went back to sleep.

I woke up again at 7:30 this morning, when my alarm went off.

It looks like the only thing I really needed was one of my Marathon Naps, but it couldn't be forced--I had to take it at a time when my body would let, or rather force, me to take it.

I feel so much better than I have the last few weeks! I mean, sure, I'd been sleeping in on Saturdays and Sundays, and I'd even gone to bed an hour or two earlier than usual more than a few nights a week, but it just wasn't working. I think it was a combination of sleeping too much when I didn't need it and my allergies starting to get worse (but not nearly as bad as they were around the same time last year, thank goodness) as the grass pollen season wore on.

GAH!

Thursday night, there was a movie on that I wanted to record. It was actually on twice that night, but I didn't catch the first showing because I was watching the Smallville season finale (which was awesome, by the way--even though I hate it when Patrick J. is right about spoiler-y things).

The movie was Bulletproof Monk, and I'd seen it before, so I knew it was awesome. So, at 10:30, I started to record the second showing of the movie, all the while pausing the recording during commercials.

While I watched/recorded the movie, I got through Unit 8 of my Dutch tapes (recording them to my computer, that is, not really listening to them and learning anything). Actually, I managed to get that far before then--while I was watching Smallville.

After Smallville was over, I had decided to play the Smallville Legends: Justice & Doom game online. So, I got into that, and eventually the movie started, so I started recording that.

Shortly after the movie started, I noticed that it was taking a loooooong time to load one of the parts of the game, so I thought I might try defragmenting my hard drive. I knew defragging would take a while, so I just let it go while I watched the movie.

About 20 minutes before the movie ended (around 12:40 Friday morning), the defrag was complete. So, I went back to the game.

Problem is, I still had the movie paused, because the defrag ended during a commercial break. I completely forgot to press record again until I realized that the movie had been on again for at least two minutes, and I'd missed my cue!

And it wasn't just a couple seconds' worth of movie, so it wasn't worth pressing record again and just filling in what they would have said in my head--no. So, I pressed stop, and since I didn't know when the movie would be on TV again, I just deleted the whole thing off of the disc.

I had been recording on Long Play, so I have almost half of a disc to record another movie on. And depending on which speed I record it on, that could be almost four hours of movie there.

I figure, I'll just buy the movie when I can afford to splurge on a DVD again--it's just not worth sitting through another two-and-a-half hours to record something I should've already had.

Friday was boring, but okay.

Saturday, I went to see Shrek the Third with Anna, Kayla and the crowd. Anna and Kayla had to sit in a different row, because Anna's had surgery on her ankle and that was the only place her wheelchair would fit. The rest of us were stuck sitting in the very front row of the theater.

The movie was pretty cool though.

I went to Mom & Dad's house for Anna's birthday dinner yesterday. It was Dad's home-made pizza. Yum!

Fifteen minutes' more sleep = good!

Yesterday evening, before I left work, I got an e-mail saying that I could have one of the grass parking spots if I wanted it. There are only about 20 spots in the company lot, and they're given out by seniority.

There were two spaces available in the grass, and all the people ahead of me (except for Jade, who is currently on maternity leave) wanted to wait for concret spots. Me, I don't care what the spot is made of, as long as I can get my car in and out of it. So, I took the spot.

This morning, I woke up at 7:30 (as opposed to 7:15), and didn't have to leave the house until 8:10. I got into the door at work at 8:28. I love not being uber-early!

Last night, I did a bit of movie copying. I had recorded The Bourne Identity and Spiderman 2 on VHS during the last couple weeks, so the only thing that I needed to do was dub it over to DVD, minus the commercials. I did that last night. I've also got the first Spiderman movie on DVD, so I've got to dub it over to VHS and then back. But I'm putting both of those movies onto the same disc.

Tonight, I'm probably going to do Shrek from disc to tape and back. I don't have anymore that only need to go the one way, but I do have the two I've mentioned, plus three more (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Day After Tomorrow) that still have to go both ways.

I am such a geek.

So, I have these tapes, right? They're foreign language tapes. Pimsleur Language Programs' Speak and Read Essential Dutch. I've had them for at least a year and a half, and got them before I even thought of registering for that class down at the Belgian Embassy.

But my tape player is old, and sometimes doesn't work right. So I don't like to use it.

The other day, I was thinking, "If only I could get that onto CD--or my ipod--then that would be awesome, 'cause then I'd feel like listening to it more often." (You're supposed to listen to no more than one new unit per day, but if you didn't feel comfortable with the previous unit, you just repeat it the next day.)

And then I realized: I can do BOTH!

I got a cord a couple weeks back that connects headphone-jack-to-headphone-jack. Well, in this case, it's really headphone-jack-to-microphone-jack. And I've got a hard drive that will hold 160 GIGABYTES, so I have plenty of space for that kind of thing.

Today, I plugged the cord into the headphone jack of my tape player, with the other end plugged into the microphone jack of my laptop. Then, I plugged in my headphones to the laptop (so I wouldn't bug my roommates), and opened my Audacity program.

Holy Toledo, IT WORKS! It came through loud and clear, and I was able to record it and then export the recording to MP3! I also managed to get rid of the static (there was a lot of it) using Audacity's "Noise Removal" effect.

I've decided I'm going to record each of the ten units, plus each of the ten reading exercises, into twenty different "tracks."

And--this is the REALLY GEEKY part--I'm going to get some blank CDs, hook up my laptop to my VCR/DVD-R, and make my own CDs! I'd forgotten until this evening that my VCR/DVD-R could do that.

Once I've finished the Dutch course, I've got quite a few other cassettes (French, Finnish, and actual music tapes) which I can transfer to CD!

So, totally a geek.

How could I forget . . . ?

I forgot to mention that on Saturday I went to see Spiderman 3 with Anna, Kayla, and Jason O. It was awesome, and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

After that, Anna had to go to work, and Kayla, Jason and I went to my place to hang out. We did some stuff upstairs, and then went downstairs to watch last week's episode of Smallville. It cut off just as Jimmy was plugging in the ipod though--apparently, the clock on my DVD-Recorder is a couple minutes fast, even though I set it to record for an hour and two minutes. I'll have to fix that, once I figure out just HOW fast it is compared to the TV stations.

Minor Tribulations and Old Teachers

Not much has happened since my last entry. I've got a crick in my neck that prevents me from turning my head all the way to the left when I should be able to. I first noticed it yesterday, and I thought I'd be able to sleep it away, but that didn't quite work.

I'm just too tense--I want to go to the FMH Wellness Center in the FSK mall (I haven't been since November), but I can't afford it right now. Maybe I'll put that on my birthday list for this year--as many hour-long massages as people will give me.

I e-mailed my old AP Literature & Composition teacher from high school today. This one thing I learned in that class kept bugging me, because I'd forgotten part of it, but I'd still want to know the part I'd forgotten every once in a while, and whenever I tried to remember, I could only remember that one little bit. So, I decided to go to the source, and asked Mr. P. what the answer was.

He was pretty ecstatic in his reply, that I'd even remembered taking the class, much less anything I learned from it.

I did a little reading out on the deck this evening. I could only concentrate on the book long enough to get through the chapter of Goblet of Fire where Harry finally hears the clue from the egg, gets stuck in the trick stair, and lends the fake Moody the Marauder's Map. When I was about halfway through the chapter, my neighbors came out to have dinner on the back deck, and they were pretty loud, so I couldn't keep my mind on the book after that.

Now, I'm doing my laundry and trying to find something else to occupy my mind besides dubbing movies (minus commercials) from DVD to VHS and back. I don't think I'd be able to do all that running up and down the stairs from my room to the laundry today--I'm still sore from doing it last week!

Bored Again

My VCR/DVD player was kind of on the fritz--whenever I taped something on the VCR, it would always have places where the sound cut out, the picture was fuzzy, the video sped up for no reason, etc. So, I bought a new one. Only this time, I got a VCR/DVD-Recorder.

I decided to start over with the Phil of the Future taping, so that I'd get a better quality. It's a good thing that imdb.com lists all of the episodes, plus two weeks' worth of future air dates, or I'd be screwed until my TVGuide subscription got processed.

Eventually, I'm going to have to re-tape Kim Possible: So the Drama, A Valentine Carol, and Zenon: The Zequel too . . . but none of them are playing anytime in the next two weeks. I'll also have to get The Lizzie McGuire Movie. I found out today though that I can buy Kim Possible: So the Drama AND the other KP movie: Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time from Amazon, but I can't buy the others. Bummer. *shrug* It's not like I'm actually going to buy them anyway.

I also want a copy of Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and the third Zenon movie (I'm pretty sure there is a third one), even though I haven't seen that one yet.

I need to check my DVD of Hook to make sure I got all of it. I'm pretty sure I did, but I want to be sure because the DVD says it holds 2 hours worth of video at standard speed, but when the movie (and the two "making of" things afterward) were finished, it said that the time was 2 hours and 40-some minutes. I'm not sure what speed it was recorded at though. If I didn't get all of it, I'll just fast-forward (on the tape) to the place where it stopped recording (on the DVD), put a 2nd DVD into my new recorder, and let it roll.

Gabe at work sent me an invitation to this one file-sharing program/group which sounds like it's a lot better than LimeWire. I'll have to check it out later.

While I was at Wal*Mart last night, I also bought butter (I was out), a 16-piece set of dishes, and a 20-piece flatware set. I got sick of washing one each of my two bowls and two spoons every time I had to eat breakfast.

Sheesh! It's only 3:30, and I've been out of stuff to do since noon!

Hectic Week

Lately, I've decided that I want all of the episodes of Phil of the Future, so I've been coordinating and figuring. I have an Excel spreadsheet of all the episodes, when they're showing next, what tape I'm keeping them on, and what timestamp I should look for on the tape.

Once I've got 4-5 episodes that are supposed to be all in a row, I'm going to use Kayla's (one of my roommates) VCR/DVD-R machine (with her permission, of course) to copy them in the right order onto one of the blank DVDs I bought last weekend. Once that's done, I'm going to copy the episodes onto my 160GB harddrive so that I can share them.

Smallville is a re-run this week, so I can also tape Zenon: The Zequel and put that on a DVD too, along with Kim Possible: So the Drama, and A Valentine Carol (with Emma Caulfield from Buffy the Vampire Slayer--if it's not as messed-up as I think it is on the tape). The Lizzie Maguire Movie is showing tomorrow, so I'm going to tape that too.

I went to the Earth Space and Science lab on Tuesday with the Relief Society. We saw the planetarium show called The Cowboy Astronomer. It was pretty fun.