Movie, interrupted.

So on the recommendation of byrdie we rented Pitch Black Saturday night. Due to needing to finish up a little furniture refinishing project[1], we didn't get to sit down to the movie until after midnight.

Our local video store is pretty spiffy - a little independent shop that has a quite good selection of off beat new films, utter classics, and enough bizarre cult flicks thrown in to make my geek soul happy. Oh, and they're moving to all DVD.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm having less than stellar experiences with rented DVDs. People are just way too rough with them, and they end up horribly scratched and just plain *filthy*. (The copy of Amelie we rented looked like it had been used as a dinner plate - it had *chunks* stuck to it.) I think this is probably just a matter of the general clubfooted and hamfisted public getting their hands on rather delicate items that they couldn't care less about "Well, it ain't *mine*..." This does not bode well for DVD rentals.

So before I pop any rented DVD into the player, I inspect it briefly, and gently clean it if necessary. This is just part of the ritual of movie watching now, I'm afraid.

Pitch Black had a little lint on it, but a little air took care of that. It did, however, have this strange ring around the outside, about 1/8" from the edge. It was probably 1/8" wide, and looked like a crosshatched track, perhaps a boundary marker, or some other strange little tidbit of digital goodness that I'm not familiar with. So I pop it in.

Two minutes into Chapter 9 (nice big climactic moment, naturally), the movie stutters... and then freezes. Hard.

Ever had to reboot a DVD player? Would you know *HOW* if you had to do it to yours? The player locked HARD. It had to be completely reset, and the DVD force-ejected.

I try again, but this time decide to fast forward over the offensive bit. It locks immediately upon reaching it again.

Once more into the breach, I skip to Chapter 10, then rewind to see how big the broken section is. Just over 3 minutes, and guess what happens when I rewind into it. Freeze.

At this point, I'm fuming. I decide 'screw it', we're just not going to watch Chapter 9.

Guess what happens less than a minute into Chapter 10?

I took the DVD back on Sunday, and told them what happened. The snooty clerk (new guy - must talk to owner about him) sniffs at me, pulls the DVD out, and points out the Ring of Mystery. In the bright lights of the store, I can see that it's actually a *GOUGE*. Turns out that someone's DVD player out there is damaging DVDs, and they're trying to track the person down by back-tracking ruined DVDs. So far they've lost quite a few, apparently. He goes on to say "I make it a point to check all the DVDs that come in, as they come in, and I don't let damaged ones back into circulation. Are you *SURE* this was there *BEFORE* you put it in your DVD player?"

Grrr. Okay, he had to ask, I'm sure, but did he have to have his eyebrow cocked in such disdain, and his voice dripping with sarcasm?

I retort that I *always* check before putting them into my player because the DVDs we've rented have been filthy and in extremely poor condition. I mention the food chunks. He obviously doesn't believe me. (What, you're the only clerk that works here?)

Considering that I've seen clerks there 'clean' DVDs by breathing lung sweat on them, and then *rubbing them in circles with their t-shirts*, I'm not exactly inclined to let him imply that my player destroyed the disc.

Anyway, we still haven't seen Pitch Black. It might be time to revert to VHS rentals until the store(s) get their collective acts together and put a little effort into cleaning or perhaps buffing incoming DVDs. (And holding renters accountable.)

So to whomever is out there screwing up the DVDs for everyone else: KNOCK IT OFF. Argh.

[1] My lovely wife gave me two tables for Xmas, an end table and a side table for the dining room. (I know what you're thinking, but they really were on my list.) Gorgeous little things, but unfinished. No problem, we like doing such tasks, and are actually pretty good at them.[2]

Okay, there is one problem, which is that we have nowhere in our current residence to do such work - no garage, no ventilated area out of the heat and humidity what is the Southern summer, etc. The closest thing we have is the basement, but for some silly reason I wasn't too keen on having the stain and polyurethane fumes building up in the same room as the pilot lights on the furnace and hot water heater.

Not to mention that the cat would probably be upset if she jumped on a wet table. Okay, I would be too, but there would be a small amount of compensation in the mirth.

So, we used my in-laws' kitchen. *grin*

They've been gone for an extended weekend, so we had four days to work on it without bother. Unfortunately, due to us oversleeping on Saturday, we had to apply the third coat late late Saturday night.

The tables look *wonderful* though. A beautiful fine grain softwood (luann, perhaps), with now three coats of a pecan stain/poly finish on it, it came out a nice dark honey color.

And now that everything is back in place at the in-laws, I'm sure they're going to very confused as to why their kitchen smells faintly of wood finishing.

[2] We've had multiple guests ask where they can buy a tiled and iron table like we have, and are generally impressed when we tell them we made it.

Movie, interrupted.

So on the recommendation of byrdie we rented Pitch Black Saturday night. Due to needing to finish up a little furniture refinishing project[1], we didn't get to sit down to the movie until after midnight.

Our local video store is pretty spiffy - a little independent shop that has a quite good selection of off beat new films, utter classics, and enough bizarre cult flicks thrown in to make my geek soul happy. Oh, and they're moving to all DVD.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm having less than stellar experiences with rented DVDs. People are just way too rough with them, and they end up horribly scratched and just plain *filthy*. (The copy of Amelie we rented looked like it had been used as a dinner plate - it had *chunks* stuck to it.) I think this is probably just a matter of the general clubfooted and hamfisted public getting their hands on rather delicate items that they couldn't care less about "Well, it ain't *mine*..." This does not bode well for DVD rentals.

So before I pop any rented DVD into the player, I inspect it briefly, and gently clean it if necessary. This is just part of the ritual of movie watching now, I'm afraid.

Pitch Black had a little lint on it, but a little air took care of that. It did, however, have this strange ring around the outside, about 1/8" from the edge. It was probably 1/8" wide, and looked like a crosshatched track, perhaps a boundary marker, or some other strange little tidbit of digital goodness that I'm not familiar with. So I pop it in.

Two minutes into Chapter 9 (nice big climactic moment, naturally), the movie stutters... and then freezes. Hard.

Ever had to reboot a DVD player? Would you know *HOW* if you had to do it to yours? The player locked HARD. It had to be completely reset, and the DVD force-ejected.

I try again, but this time decide to fast forward over the offensive bit. It locks immediately upon reaching it again.

Once more into the breach, I skip to Chapter 10, then rewind to see how big the broken section is. Just over 3 minutes, and guess what happens when I rewind into it. Freeze.

At this point, I'm fuming. I decide 'screw it', we're just not going to watch Chapter 9.

Guess what happens less than a minute into Chapter 10?

I took the DVD back on Sunday, and told them what happened. The snooty clerk (new guy - must talk to owner about him) sniffs at me, pulls the DVD out, and points out the Ring of Mystery. In the bright lights of the store, I can see that it's actually a *GOUGE*. Turns out that someone's DVD player out there is damaging DVDs, and they're trying to track the person down by back-tracking ruined DVDs. So far they've lost quite a few, apparently. He goes on to say "I make it a point to check all the DVDs that come in, as they come in, and I don't let damaged ones back into circulation. Are you *SURE* this was there *BEFORE* you put it in your DVD player?"

Grrr. Okay, he had to ask, I'm sure, but did he have to have his eyebrow cocked in such disdain, and his voice dripping with sarcasm?

I retort that I *always* check before putting them into my player because the DVDs we've rented have been filthy and in extremely poor condition. I mention the food chunks. He obviously doesn't believe me. (What, you're the only clerk that works here?)

Considering that I've seen clerks there 'clean' DVDs by breathing lung sweat on them, and then *rubbing them in circles with their t-shirts*, I'm not exactly inclined to let him imply that my player destroyed the disc.

Anyway, we still haven't seen Pitch Black. It might be time to revert to VHS rentals until the store(s) get their collective acts together and put a little effort into cleaning or perhaps buffing incoming DVDs. (And holding renters accountable.)

So to whomever is out there screwing up the DVDs for everyone else: KNOCK IT OFF. Argh.

[1] My lovely wife gave me two tables for Xmas, an end table and a side table for the dining room. (I know what you're thinking, but they really were on my list.) Gorgeous little things, but unfinished. No problem, we like doing such tasks, and are actually pretty good at them.[2]

Okay, there is one problem, which is that we have nowhere in our current residence to do such work - no garage, no ventilated area out of the heat and humidity what is the Southern summer, etc. The closest thing we have is the basement, but for some silly reason I wasn't too keen on having the stain and polyurethane fumes building up in the same room as the pilot lights on the furnace and hot water heater.

Not to mention that the cat would probably be upset if she jumped on a wet table. Okay, I would be too, but there would be a small amount of compensation in the mirth.

So, we used my in-laws' kitchen. *grin*

They've been gone for an extended weekend, so we had four days to work on it without bother. Unfortunately, due to us oversleeping on Saturday, we had to apply the third coat late late Saturday night.

The tables look *wonderful* though. A beautiful fine grain softwood (luann, perhaps), with now three coats of a pecan stain/poly finish on it, it came out a nice dark honey color.

And now that everything is back in place at the in-laws, I'm sure they're going to very confused as to why their kitchen smells faintly of wood finishing.

[2] We've had multiple guests ask where they can buy a tiled and iron table like we have, and are generally impressed when we tell them we made it.