Analog to Binary to Big Bucks

04.11.2007

Today was the last trip to Movie Stop to trade in my final batch of VHS tapes for store credit. For the past 2 months I've been going and trading tapes in on Wednesdays for store credit. I've amassed $29.95 in credit at 10¢ for most, 15¢ for others. Today I traded in another 40 tapes (at 15¢ each) for another $6.00 credit. So now I had $45.95 burning a hole in my pocket!

My timing was just right, because the store was having a 40% off sale on their TV Box Sets. One of the batches on my Amazon Wish List has been the 24 series - I've watched a few episodes here and there with Gina and her mom, but this is one of those shows you really have to watch from beginning to end. Being that I hate watching a show like that on normal TV when schedules are apt to screw everything up, this is the perfect thing for me to get and watch at my leisure. The cheap price at Amazon was $34.99/season. With the 40% off the MSRP at Movie Stop, it was $31.79/season. The only drawback was that Movie Stop was missing Season 5, but I can always pick that one up later.

Another series I had been wanting to watch has been Band of Brothers. I've seen a couple of episodes on the History Channel, and it intrigued me. It too had been on my Amazon list, but it hadn't gone lower than $52.99, or $26.99 for a used copy that may or may not actually include everything. Movie Stop had a used copy for $44.99, which I added to my stack. (After buying everything and looking at my receipt, it rang up at $34.99, so maybe the box set sale applies to used box sets too?).

Even though Movie Stop runs a little high on their prices, I was able to save some money and use my credit with a little luck and timing. With store credit, sales, and taxes I kept $54.11 in my pocket that I would have spent at Amazon. All it took was 2 months and 338 VHS tapes.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

To Boldy Animate

04.10.2007

I've finally added the last piece to my Star Trek DVD collection. After waiting for months for the right time, the price dropped enough on The Animated Series for me to go ahead and order it from Amazon.

I had been planning on cashing in my traded VHS tapes at Movie Stop, where I've been taking anywhere from 25 to 50 tapes per week for a grandiose dime per tape credit, to purchase ST:TAS, but it looks like I'm going to max out at around $30 credit when I take in my last batch of tapes later this week. They would have to order the series for me, and after their markup (because they're an overpriced store) I would only be saving about $10 below the Amazon price after my credit was applied. So with that I've decided to go ahead and buy it from Amazon outright while finding something better to send my credit on.

But now with the animated series safely in my hands, or shelf as it may be, I now have a complete Star Trek collection:

Original Series	3 Seasons	79 episodes
The Next Generation	7 Seasons	176 episodes
Deep Space 9	7 Seasons	176 episodes
Voyager	7 Seasons	172 episodes
Enterprise	4 Seasons	98 episodes
Animated Series	(technically) 2 seasons	16 episodes
	30 seasons	717 episodes

Add in 10 movies, a couple of documentaries, and a blooper tape I managed to burn to DVD, and I think I wholeheartedly qualify as a Trekker. Or a Trekkie.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

Medals, Ribbons, and Rank

04.04.2007

I've mentioned elsewhere that my favorite non-wrestling game was Wing Commander, mainly because of the joy I had in collecting ribbons and medals and being able to view them in game on my little virtual me of a pilot.

Although the first Wing Commander is 17 years old, it still holds a special place in my heart. Now that I'm frequenting a message board with fellow Battlefield 2142 players, I came across a topic where someone suggested a way to have a dress uniform and display the awards they've won in-game. I had read (somewhere on the interweb) that you can't skin the 2142 in-game uniforms/armor because the UV mapping is unavailable. I'm not sure what that really means other than "common folk can't re-skin the game". After a little more discussion it was pointed out that this would be more for a sig file or something along those lines.

Well, being me I had already been thinking of this, mainly by playing around with Poser to create the uniform, then pasting on the awards from the game gleaned from screenshots within the game or various places around the web. I offered up my idea on the board, along with a mock-up or two of what I had in mind. After going back and forth a couple of times, this is what the latest version of my dress uniformed avatar looks like:

It's not the best thing I've made, and a lot of the detail seems to be lost inj the decorations, but so far I'm liking it. I think the neat thing to do would be to make a web application where you pick the awards you've gotten and it generates the image for you - this would be a good way of keeping things in order on the uniform. Right now I'm thinking that the easiest way to let people use it (if they want to) if to render out a blank uniform to a JPG, then have a file with all the awards appropriately sized so that people could cut and paste them on top of the uniform.

There's probably some more tweaking to go through first. Best not to get too far ahead of myself. There's no telling what it'll look like for people that have been playing for a while and have racked up mountains of awards.

Permalink video games

In A Clan

04.02.2007

Whilst playing of Battlefield 2142 I've managed to join a clan. I'm not sure what all that entails right now, other than the same people will get to blow me away rather than just folks on some random server.

I happened on their server over the weekend when there were not yet enough players for a game to actually start. Whenever this happens, I tend to take it on myself to go ahead and run around the map - maybe find a hiding spot I hadn't seen before, or try to improve my feeble flying skills. I warned the other 2 players that were logged in that I was going to try to fly, but that I wasn't very good so to not be surprised when I did something stupid. Instead of just killing me easily and outright, they offered a couple of handy suggestions as well as answered a couple of questions that offered up. After 10 or 15 minutes more people logged on and the proper game began.

I got an offer from one of the guys that had been giving me tips to join their clan. I poked around their message board and learned a couple of things. It seems that not everyone involved is 12 (important for an old fart like me). They're also forgiving with the less skilled/new players. I may have been playing this game off and on for 2 months, but I still think of myself as a novice. So with that, I cast my ballot and joined up.

Now I'm part of a gang! Don't be shocked if you see me in game, crouched down low, snapping my fingers and coming towards you with my West Side Story attack!

Permalink video games

De Plane

03.27.2007

It's not much to look at, but above is the result of my P-38 tutorial I talked about the other day. It's not thebest model in the world, but I'm proud of it. I followed the tutorial and didn't get lost in the basics, then when the tutorial said "and now you can add propellers and guns" I manged to figure out how to add propellers and guns.

They're not the prettiest of props or guns, but they are at the very least similar to props and guns.

Now to find another tutorial subject!

Permalink programming/interweb random