An image that will never ever leave the Lair. I can say so with a high degree of certainty, because there is no "film" (aka 8mm Videotape) in the camera, and the only output device is the Lair's primary viewscreen. (I have not quite yet stooped to that extreme level of strangeness at which I give my television a name.)

Yes, tonight, up in my parents room, I happened to spot a little brown case sitting untouched in the corner. (Some astute readers who are insane enough to not only read, but actually retain obscure details of my writings, might recall that at the end of the visit to grandparents' house last month, my grandpa presented the family with the gift of his old camcorder.) It would be a sin to leave such an exquisite device (a tad dated, but still very functional) unused.

Seeing that no one else had yet bothered to do anything with it, I pulled it out of the case, plugged in the power cables (according to grandpa, the battery needs a replacement), popped off the lense cap, peered into the viewfinder, and began attempts to frame up some so-called "shots". I started "directing" my mom (which had the intended effect of her not following the direction at all, but instead making ridiculous faces, which were even better).

Well, after a few minutes of that, my parents wanted to go to bed, so I lugged the camera downstairs, flipped through a few pages of the manual to clarify the functions of a couple controls I still wasn't sure about, connected it to the tv, and viola! Instant Bitscape's Lair onscreen.

Now I have the camera propped up in the corner next to the tv, pointing at yours truly, so that every few seconds, I can look to the right and see how much of an idiot I appear to be.

The lighting required some adjustments in order for the shot to look halfway decent. I powered down the lights next to Argo. (They were behind me and in the camera's direct line of sight. Not good.) I adjusted the light in the camera's corner of the ceiling to point towards the Lair's entrance, not quite directly at me. (The bulb for the other one there is burned out, and requires replacement. Maybe bring out the spray paint again, and I could really have some fun with wieeerd lighting shots.)

The composition as it stands currently isn't too terribly bad, although it is fairly dark and quite bland. At least the Dagobah memorial is the frame, lending the shot a small splash of color.

[Bitscape gets up, moves the clip lamp to the windowsill, position it, and powers up.]

That's a bit better. Still quite pathetic though. The subject is wearing a mostly white tshirt (with a tiny little penguin on the front), which, when positioned against the off-white wall... well... bleah. Maybe I should put one of my posters back up on the wall behind me. That might help it a bit.

[Bitscape wanders over to the closet, pulls out a poster featuring the two heroines of a recently cancelled tv show, and affixes it such that it fits nicely within the frame.]

"There, now Bitscape, move your head forward a little bit, such that it's right between Dagobah and Gabrielle. Yes, smoosh your nose right into the moniter. There. Perfect!"

Oh geeze. I think I'll have to go out tomorrow and buy some 8mm, and then we'll just see who can make the absolutely saddest scifi in the universe. lol.

Music please.

...

I'm mad at my DVD player. Every now and then, on semi-random occassions, the picture gums up, gets pixilated, stops, and/or jumps to another spot on the disc. Like it has a dirty disc with a spec of dust or smudge on it. At first, I thought that was what it was. I would take the disc out, wash it off, put it back in, and play without problems.

More recently, though, it has been getting worse, sometimes happening even with brand new discs, ones that have just been washed, and on stuff that works just fine when I play it Argo. With this annoying behavior happening with ever-increasing frequency, it became clear that it was NOT my discs that were the problem. So, I did a little net research on my particular model. (There's an interesting order of operations. First, buy a player. Use it happly for over a year. Then go do some research on the model.)

Well, it would seem that I am not the only one to have this experience with this particular model. Frankly, I can't even say I'm surprised. I should have learned my lesson regarding Sony products from have two Discmans fail after a year of use each. (Shortly after the warranty period was up on both.) If the reviews linked above are to be trusted, getting a repair would cost nearly as much as buying a fresh new player, and I'm not in any mood to reward Sony for making shit by paying one of their service centers to fix it.

Well, in other respects, it's still an excellent player. I love the remote. The feature set is awesome. If only it didn't exhibit such spotty, unreliable behavior after just 15 months of use.

Most of the time, it still plays movies through without error. But earlier tonight, I was getting really annoyed when it once again started choking in the middle of a brand new disc. I might be in the market for a new player before too much longer.

Next time around: region free for sure. (Actually, region switchable, since the bastards have been getting sneaky with some titles. (at least one of which I currently own)) Then I can order those season 1 Buffy discs, which the idiot lawyers decided to only make available in region 2. Also, I shall never again forget the moral of the story: NEVER buy Sony.

That said, it's not a top priority right now since my current player still mostly works. Just something to keep in mind.

I like this station.

Shall I make a movielog entry for the film I had to eject and reinsert 5 times to watch all the way through tonight? Yes, I think I shall.