Scotty Now Plays HD / eBay Madness / Magnificent Drizzle
Over the last week, my dad and I have gone crazy improving our home media center PC we call "Scotty." It all began when the local big electronics store started selling Blu-ray/HD DVD combination drives for $160. These are drives for computers that can play both Blu-ray and the defunct HD DVD high definition movies. Considering standalone Blu-ray players cost $300+ at the moment, getting one that also plays HD DVDs for only $160 was incredible. We had to snag a powerful video card and even a TV tuner to drive all the high def goodness and, I do have to say, it's pretty slick. It's future proof, too, so if Sony changes the Blu-ray standard in the future, the computer can be upgraded to keep up unlike standalone players. Scotty can now play every major media disc and format invented in the last two decades. "The Ultimate" is a description that comes to mind. I'm such a geek. There's even talk of using Scotty as a server for games including even running a server for World of Warcraft which anyone could hop on and play with us for free. The potential for what we can do with that black box is amazing.
Plus, being able to play HD DVDs has allowed us to score a bunch of movies from that dead format while some stores are still trying to get rid of them. We got all five Harry Potter films for $10 each. In the space of one week and thanks to low HD DVD prices, we've doubled the size of our high definition movie collection after picking up at least a dozen clearance HD DVDs. Last night we watched 2001 in HD. It's like seeing a whole new movie.
As parts for Scotty come and go or are replaced or made obsolete, I've been trying to sell them on eBay. This has created a tidal wave of stuff I've been meaning to sell and I'm feeling overwhelmed. My room is a catastrophe of empty shipping boxes and styrofoam peanuts. From here to there are items laid out that I've gotta sell and it seems like the research involved is daunting. To make matters worse, it looks like a buyer's payment failed to clear their bank this morning and now PayPal is having a cow. They've confiscated the money involved and are conducting an "investigation" that could take around 6 months according to some horror stories from the Internet. Thank god I hadn't shipped the thing yet and that it was only a $30 item, but that's now $30 I don't have. People suck.
There was also a heat wave over the weekend with at least two days above 100F degrees. Then, overnight practically, cold rainy weather rolled through and it feels magnificent. It's going to be miserably dreary with wind, rain, and highs in the 60s for days to come. I'm really enjoying it. I was at the post office yesterday and it was pouring. The clerk and I joked about how gorgeous it was compared to the weekend's heat. Yes. This truly is my kind of weather. Although, a little snow wouldn't hurt...
Plus, being able to play HD DVDs has allowed us to score a bunch of movies from that dead format while some stores are still trying to get rid of them. We got all five Harry Potter films for $10 each. In the space of one week and thanks to low HD DVD prices, we've doubled the size of our high definition movie collection after picking up at least a dozen clearance HD DVDs. Last night we watched 2001 in HD. It's like seeing a whole new movie.
As parts for Scotty come and go or are replaced or made obsolete, I've been trying to sell them on eBay. This has created a tidal wave of stuff I've been meaning to sell and I'm feeling overwhelmed. My room is a catastrophe of empty shipping boxes and styrofoam peanuts. From here to there are items laid out that I've gotta sell and it seems like the research involved is daunting. To make matters worse, it looks like a buyer's payment failed to clear their bank this morning and now PayPal is having a cow. They've confiscated the money involved and are conducting an "investigation" that could take around 6 months according to some horror stories from the Internet. Thank god I hadn't shipped the thing yet and that it was only a $30 item, but that's now $30 I don't have. People suck.
There was also a heat wave over the weekend with at least two days above 100F degrees. Then, overnight practically, cold rainy weather rolled through and it feels magnificent. It's going to be miserably dreary with wind, rain, and highs in the 60s for days to come. I'm really enjoying it. I was at the post office yesterday and it was pouring. The clerk and I joked about how gorgeous it was compared to the weekend's heat. Yes. This truly is my kind of weather. Although, a little snow wouldn't hurt...