Not much knitting going on but plenty of burning--

dvd's that is.

After learning way more than I should about the dvd format wars, with weary, tired eyes, I write you this.

Why can't pimply-faced teens that work in electronic stores understand the economic landscape some people face (of course they don't). Yes, my dvd player is four years old; yes, my hard-drive video recorder is one year old; yes, my computer is three years old. Am I supposed to upgrade this equipment every six months?! I want to scream at them; I want to pound my fists on the service counter "Do you not understand that I have two kids, work full-time (which makes even finding time to sit down to burn dvd's a miraculous event), have childcare to pay for blah blah blah????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

But I don't (because that would be pointless). Instead, behind my annoyance I smile politely, nod my head and leave the store with yet another piece of hardware or software purchased either needlessly or way beyond my budget or way beyond my technological-self or all of the above. I also leave knowing that my purchases have become dinosaurs the second I've left the parking lot.

After explaining this 'format war' to confused store clerks, I realize that maybe I know more than the average-joe about this (even if it's needlessly because, after all, I'm the only one that owns a four-year-old dvd player)--I mean if I purchased my dvd player 2 mos after I did--this whole thing wouldn't even affect me -- equipment today recognizes both formats (NOTE: CHECK THAT IT DOES IF YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM ME HERE TODAY). Turns out my player only plays DVD-R; my computer only burns to DVD+R . . . . get what I mean?

My husband comes home the other night to find me on the floor with the computer's cpu unscrewed, panels on the floor, wires everywhere. After ruining my manicure, I've installed a new drive (that writes to both formats).

I got to bed by 1 a.m. the last couple of nights after burning, playing, and going through multiple panic attacks when the only footage I have of my babies churns away on my hard drive--all 800 gazillion gigabytes worth. I know these humongous mpeg files cannot remain on my hard drive--this creates a sickening urgency to the project.

Well, video is on dvd's--cheap ones--Staples brand--and they play in my &*!@ player. And because some of the playback skips (completely crushing the high I was on after successfully installing hardware into my computer and being able to tech-speak on DVD formats), I'm going to re-burn to a nicer brand maybe slow the burn speed (ya, I've done way too much researching on this)--here's to that working. If not, I'll accept the low-quality video. Low-quality video that cost way too much.

I'll leave you with a couple of sunny pictures. A monarch butterfly, found in our backyard as an egg on a milkweed leaf (like the one pictured). Raised in a jar in our house. We let the butterfly go back on August 4. B loved it!





Have a wonderful weekend!

Labels: butterflies, life in the BerryKnitty household