Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Name Game: Kent Clark Kent

 It happened again. I think this name variant has happened before, but I'm not sure. I thought I had enunciated my name properly, then again I was wearing one of those COVID KN-95 masks and had my glasses on. So I was sort of incognito. 

Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent in "Superman"

Yep this time the cashier thought I had said my name was CLARK. I had to listen for this vastly different name to be called to pickup my order. Usually with the other names they are similar enough to mine that I can sort of tune out the difference in pronunciation. I could sort of do that with this too, but I always have to check to see what the ticket spells out and listen for that name. It is tempting sometime to give a wildly fictitious name. The problem though it can't be too crazy because then the person who has to call out the names wouldn't be able to pronounce it correctly. I would also have to remember whatever name I gave. I have toyed with giving "Captain Kirk" as my name, which isn't too far off from the truth. I would just have to worry about getting caught impersonating an officer or accused of stolen valor.

Thursday, July 07, 2022

Random Stuff Episode 1: DVD Update & Ebay

Random Stuff Episode 1:
Updates: DVD & Ebay

For quite a while now my regular DVD player attached to the TV in my living room I have not used because it gradually stopped recognizing DVDs. It accepts audio CDs but sadly the laser that reads DVD video information has been broken for something like 2 or 3 years. It has been even longer since I watched DVDs on a regular basis. When this problem started back whenever at first it was just an occasional DVD disc. Then it became every DVD disc I would put in a disc and it would give me a "no disc" error. I noticed I could put an audio CD in and it recognized that and played the audio from them, but didn't recognized DVDs. I had purchased a cleaning disc that is supposed to help, but it didn't. However  I have still been buying occasional DVDs via Ebay and elsewhere, but mostly from EBay.

I have a CD/DVD ROM player on my ancient Windows XP laptop but ages ago whenever I would view videos the computer would overheat and crash. I also have an external DVD ROM Drive but that is a pain to have to plug in all the time plus I had the overheating problem with that laptop so I got out of the practice of DVD viewing.
This lack of a DVD player problem was on the back burner for a long time. I finally got a really cheap DVD player from Best Buy ($37 and some change including sales tax). I was going to get one at Target for about twice as much, but my Target no longer carries DVD players or DVDs and I don't like buying electronics online or trust getting electronic equipment shipped. Ironically that is how I got my Chromebook. My biggest concern with that isn't with the risk of damage during shipping but rather the porch pirates when it gets delivered. Anyway now I have a basic DVD player again. I hooked it up and the first disc I watched was a Doctor Who episode on DVD. Felt good. 

Also related to the DVD issue and my past computer problems, which my Chromebook has helped recover from somethings. My lack of activity for my DVDProfiler cataloging. I need to get things updated and try to see if I can transfer the base program from my ancient XP to my Chromebook. I don't want to have to download the program and learn that I have to pay for it. I think I paid for the software ages ago to have an account tracking more than 50 DVDS. I have way way more than that in TV series alone. A few years back they added an Android app. Not sure if you can add stuff on it, but I can at least see my online collection on it. 
 

I sold another card on Ebay on 29 June for $6 ($2 plus $4 shipping I don't use the Ebay Standard Envelope or PWEs when selling) the last sale was on May 3rd for $7 total.