Burried in DVDs / Scotty 2.0 / Mom's Return
When my brother, Ryan, and I returned from Fargo in June (Is it already August? Ugh), one of his big projects was to convert his and my parents' DVD collection to easily accessible MP4 iPod-formatted movie files for quick viewing on "Scotty", our family's media center PC. Problem with that is that my folks and Ryan altogether own close to one-thousand DVDs after a decade of collecting. This collection is gigantic, and to help out, years back my dad got two 400-disc DVD players and we've since filled both. To say that my family is big on collecting and serious about viewing movies is an understatement. We have a whole lot of movies. Ryan was here for six weeks and he only really scratched the surface of the work needed to be done on such a monumental conversion project.
With the realization that we have too many movies no one watches no mo', my family has decided to begin selling off a big chunk of them (About 250 movies total). It has fallen upon me to find, clean, sort and prepare the movies that are on a master sales list (Which itself took weeks to compile and may never be done). We began selling DVDs for $5 each to my dad's coworkers last week and the response has been good. Already sold 25. Hoping to sell lots more. Yea, cataloging and preparing all these movies is more work than I thought it would be. But I'm a Virgo: I'm horribly thorough and my attention to detail could be considered by some to be a compulsive disorder. All and all, I just want this money-making endeavor to be successful. I'm not going half-way with this. It's a lot of work.
Speaking of Scotty, everyone has grown tired of it's quirks. To recap, Scotty is a Windows PC my dad and I built in February that has really only one purpose- To be a media server allowing us to drop movies, photos, music and video data on it and view it on their attached HDTV downstairs. At first it worked fine, but after several months, the application we use to view the movies, Microsoft Media Center 2005, has turned to mush and locks up more than often. It's embarrassing to have to restart the machine mid-film. My dad works at Intel, so every once in a while they give some of their employees new computer CPUs. Last week, Intel gave him an Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9450. The model is only 4 months old and is one of Intel's top of the line chips. With this new CPU and all the software issues we've had, I've decided to rebuild Scotty and find a new media center program.
I've put new fans and a new set of ultraviolet black lights in there. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll put a new operating system on there and a new media application. I do have to admit, making a PC from scratch is kinda fun. Here's a quick photo of how the new UV lights make the inside of the machine glow:
Tomorrow morning, early, I'm off to the Portland airport to pick up my mother who's flying home after a week's vacation in Fargo, North Dakota. This has been a monumental trip for my mom, who's battled anxiety for many years and has put off making this trip to visit her family for just as long. There's some concern that she might panic on the plane or during her stop in Denver, but she's told everyone she's determined to go it alone. Such a huge breakthrough. So in the morning, I'll be there to either pick her up. Hopefully she'll be on the planes!
With the realization that we have too many movies no one watches no mo', my family has decided to begin selling off a big chunk of them (About 250 movies total). It has fallen upon me to find, clean, sort and prepare the movies that are on a master sales list (Which itself took weeks to compile and may never be done). We began selling DVDs for $5 each to my dad's coworkers last week and the response has been good. Already sold 25. Hoping to sell lots more. Yea, cataloging and preparing all these movies is more work than I thought it would be. But I'm a Virgo: I'm horribly thorough and my attention to detail could be considered by some to be a compulsive disorder. All and all, I just want this money-making endeavor to be successful. I'm not going half-way with this. It's a lot of work.
Speaking of Scotty, everyone has grown tired of it's quirks. To recap, Scotty is a Windows PC my dad and I built in February that has really only one purpose- To be a media server allowing us to drop movies, photos, music and video data on it and view it on their attached HDTV downstairs. At first it worked fine, but after several months, the application we use to view the movies, Microsoft Media Center 2005, has turned to mush and locks up more than often. It's embarrassing to have to restart the machine mid-film. My dad works at Intel, so every once in a while they give some of their employees new computer CPUs. Last week, Intel gave him an Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9450. The model is only 4 months old and is one of Intel's top of the line chips. With this new CPU and all the software issues we've had, I've decided to rebuild Scotty and find a new media center program.
I've put new fans and a new set of ultraviolet black lights in there. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll put a new operating system on there and a new media application. I do have to admit, making a PC from scratch is kinda fun. Here's a quick photo of how the new UV lights make the inside of the machine glow:
Tomorrow morning, early, I'm off to the Portland airport to pick up my mother who's flying home after a week's vacation in Fargo, North Dakota. This has been a monumental trip for my mom, who's battled anxiety for many years and has put off making this trip to visit her family for just as long. There's some concern that she might panic on the plane or during her stop in Denver, but she's told everyone she's determined to go it alone. Such a huge breakthrough. So in the morning, I'll be there to either pick her up. Hopefully she'll be on the planes!