I was in Nottingham (UK) this weekend, went out to visit a book shop, on the way there I visited a record shop and general used goods shop in Mansfield Road (didn't note the shop name) that had a few laserdiscs, of which I ended up buying

Crystal Triangle NTSC. Crystal Triangle (1987) [ID2205CT]
11 Harrowhouse PAL. 11 Harrowhouse (1974) [1196-70]

Got the two for a fiver, which seemed reasonable. They had three others, can't remember titles, plus a few CED discs, if anyone else is in the area.

On my way back I went into another shop selling second-hand stuff and got five DVDs for a fiver, nothing wonderful but some anime etc. Annoyingly I didn't find anything I wanted in the book shop itself, but the disks more than made up for it.

A Texas Instruments TI-84Plus Graphic Calculator. Got it for £4 in a charity shop, sold it on eBay for £46. They aren't rare or anything, they just cost a LOT more new for some reason. I was a bit surprised, but I'm sure as hell not complaining.

Went to a thrift shop with a friend and came across this DVD player in the electronics section. Didn't think much of it at first, until I saw this on the face of it:



Haven't tested it out yet, but I wonder if it would be best to play HDCD's on this one through the analog outs or through the HDMI?

Shocking! I just purchased a Toshiba Dual-DVD/CD/HDCD player with the original remote and some rather high-end S-Video and Stereo RCA Audio cables for $9.95 last week Wednesday (December 15th). Had a bunch of HDCDs already I've bought over the years and tested it as soon as I got it home. My unit doesn't have HDMI output, so just used the RCA cables, but can't imagine there being any negatives to piping the audio through via HDMI.

It's sad to think that a man like Patton would never be allowed to advance their career in the U.S. Military today. He was quite the eccentric character, and the filmscore/soundtrack of that movie is amazing.

Hit up a local thrift shop recently and did my usual of perusing the electronics section just for the heckuvit. Came across this puppy:


Sony BDP-S5100

What caught my eye was that it had this logo on it:



Wondered if this was one of the models of SACD compatible blu-ray players that you could use to rip SACDs. A quick search on the mobile showed that it was!

It was a no-brainer since it was only $15. No remote of course, but I found a compatible replacement remote on Amazon for $7.

A few downloads and formatting a USB drive later, I was ripping SACDs like crazy!

Every now and then I usually hit up my local Cash Crusader store. I've picked up a couple decent CRTs there in the past.

Anyways, so about a week or so ago I saw an old EIKI 16mm projector, in really good shape given its age. There were a few reels there included with it. Paid the equivalent of a little under $40 for it.

The lamp still good but a few of the belts had turned to goo. Popped over to an automotive store and picked up a couple similar size/length O-ring belts. One for the motor belt, and one one for the reverse belt. Will also need to eventually replace the supply arm, and take-up arm belts. For the time being those are reasonably ok.

Fired it up and watched 'The Swimmer' (1968).

Remember, in science, there is no "proof" or conclusive evidence.

A theory is only made stronger by trying to disprove it.

eg: the theory of gravity is very strong because it has been tested so many times, every time i drop a pen it goes down, but according to scientific rigour, NO theory is ever proven 100%, there is always room for doubt and there MAY be other forces at play, other than gravity that is causing my pen to land on the ground and not go up. The next time I drop a pen, it MAY go up. In TRUE science, you ALWAYS have to leave room for doubt. My first year macroeconomics teacher taught me this.

Hit my local thrift store yesterday, walked away with this solid gold yacht for $1. Sucks for those losers who don't find a solid gold yacht at their local thrift store. LOSERS.

Oh REALLY nice. You can start collecting 16mm now like a Hollywood director who can't afford 35. Here, we have "CASH CONVERTERS", which is now a shadow of its former self. Nowadays in my area there's only one store that actually has items, the others are straight payday loan places. In the day we had 5 or 6 spots with tons of gear. I suspect our CCs would take one look at that projector and offer to pay the seller .05c. Then the seller would put it on ebay or gumtree.

Then again, I DID find a solid gold yacht at the last CCs in Canberra for $1 yesterday (just lucky I guess), so I shouldn't complain.