Merry Christmas Mr. Harper

So PM Coward has run away to hide for a month or two to see if he can't bolster public opinion, bully the Coalition and come up with a budget that isn't going to get his ass shredded anyway, putting off the inevitable. Would a coalition government have been any better for Canada? I don't know. It wasn't going to work the way it was, though, with everyone at odds and lines drawn in the snow. Canadians, prepare for a bombardment of spin.

It's Friday!
I think my Christmas tree will have to go up this weekend. Good time to tidy up this mess, too.

One more Face in Hole...


Create your own FACEinHOLE

New toys

Have changed my journal theme to one of those new "Minimalism" ones. A change is as good as a rest.

Am going to buy this little device at Staples, it's used to convert vcr tapes to dvd/digital. You plug the vcr into it and then usb it into the puter. The reviews sound like it's a fairly simple product to use. I have a bunch of old vcr tapes that have stuff recorded from television that i'd like to save to digital/dvd including video tapes that have been copied from another tape. Quality of those isn't so great but perhaps the editing software might be able to improve it a bit. I also have a couple of boxed tape sets that i'd like to digitize as well. This paves the way for me to eventually get a dvd recorder with hard drive so i can record my daily soaps that i don't want to keep, and record to keep movies and things. Staples has the box on sale for $79.99 so that's decent. The Source had been advertising what looked like a usb vcr for converting but that was over 200 dollars and once you were done converting your tapes, why would you need it? This device can capture video from other sources as well, apparently. Even if i don't need it again after converting my stuff, it's less than half the price of the other thing. The tapes aren't going to last forever. The dvds and digital files will last a bit longer at least. I have a couple of weeks off over Christmas so that will be a good little project.

I also have a video tape that was created by setting up a video camera on a tripod and aimed at a home movie screen and there are clips from all kinds of my Nan's home movies that she'd taken including footage of me and my sister when we were little and family from 30 to 40 years ago. That's another one i definitely want to preserve and will have to work it so that it copies it without sound. The only sound on the tape is that clicking of the movie projector which the video camera pickedup. The movies themselves never did have sound.

It got me thinking about what other "toys" i might like to get. Am starting to think about a digital SLR camera, to replace my old film camera. I'm still not sure though, since they are larger than the point and shoot and thus take up more room to carry around. However, the pictures would be soooo much better. I might like a new wider monitor, but that's not a "need to have" thing. I have to measure the area of my desk to see what would fit, too since i have a hutch type thing on the desk. Also, I'm thinking of getting an external hard drive sometime. That would be useful as a machine backup or if i get imaging software, a good place to store the machine image.

*snork*

The Royal Canadian Air Farce is having a field day with the political mess... Best joke of the night...

The Coalition parties have been compared to a cross between a skunk, a snake (i think), and a porcupine

... smelly, hard to handle and lots of little pricks!