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random bits
He also pointed out a test to eliminate the TV: run the signal through a VCR. Yeah, it degrades the signal and that's not a permanent solution, but it's good enough for a test. Running a DVD signal to a VCR never occurred to me -- but then, bootlegging DVDs onto tape never occurred to me, either.
At Shabbat services we had both rabbis, for the first time in at least a month. We also had a large turnout, including some prospective new members. I guess that's one way to tell that summer is ending. :-)
This week, my rabbi said, pretty much all of the congregations in town (not just Jewish, everyone) started organizing efforts to relocate storm refugees to Pittsburgh. (Those that want to come here, that is. No one's insisting, but we do have space.) Apparently we've got hundreds of spots already and buses ready to go, just as soon as FEMA will let us talk to the refugees and drive those buses in to get the ones who want to come.
This map shows some of the bigger disaster risks in the US (funny). I forget who provided the link.
There have been lots of posts on some SCA lists trying to organize replacement SCA stuff for the folks hit by the hurricane -- new garb, scrolls, etc. Their hearts are in the right places, but most of this seems months premature to me. Let those people get housing before you start saddling them with stuff!
Why do so many people on mailing lists believe that a major event trumps the topic of the list? These people seem to think that somehow you won't find out about national news if you don't read it on the SCA kingdom list -- as if that was each subscriber's only source of information. Sheesh. The people on the lists I frequent are being better about this than they were for 9/11, but still... I've been deleting a lot of stuff from the moderation queue for one list.
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You can't. DVDs are recorded with this copy-protection signal called "Macrovision". It basically messes with the sync signals so that the picture is still displayable on a TV but if you try to record it, and play back that recording, you'll get grey-green fuzz.
Some DVD players include de-Macrovisioning in their (usually bootleg) chips if they do multi-zoning, and there is DVD copying software that will remove the Macrovision, but unless you do that you can't copy from DVD to VHS.
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It's possible that our region-free DVD player is also Macrovision-free. Didn't ask; haven't tested. So long as it can play legal DVDs (from anywhere in the world) we're happy.
Relief and Relief...
Two folks I spoke to who are completely wiped out -- only clothing & meds stuffed in the backpacks they were allowed to take out -- were frantic about the loss of their scrolls, which were gorgeous. More frantic about that than the loss of their house. I think it's shock; somehow they've fixated on that one thing, and the other losses will rise in their minds when they start getting back to normal; someplace to sleep that isn't a camping pad on a basement floor in a borrowed sleeping bag, among 25 strangers; getting FEMA money to buy clothes; getting to family's house; etc. Knowing that someone is organizing these things helps them rest easier.
I say this because my dad was completely wiped out in Andrew, and the only thing he could think about for the first few days was a really lovely picture taken of my mother just before they married. He was devastated by that loss (Mom was long dead by then), more so than anything else, even the loss of his lovely riverside house, or of all 200+ of my stepmother's exceptionally valuable antique dolls. When my sister Peg realized that the picture was his frenzy focus, she reminded him that she had a copy, and would replace his as soon as possible. It really helped settle him. (He slept for 14 hours straight shortly after the phone call, which is another clue to me.)
I think that many of us also feel helpless -- we can send money, and we can worry and pray, but the things in our special interest hobbies/lives that will need replacing is the only active thing we can do. As humans, many of us feel the need to do something rather than just send money. (Probably the reason I grabbed the perfect cloth for the cushions I hope to be able to replace for the new Kingdom; not just the fact that it was on sale for $2 a yard...)
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Not normally, though some TVs may be affected.
I guess what I'm really wondering is how this is implemented
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrovision
Re: Relief and Relief...
Re: Relief and Relief...
Ah, I get your point. Yes, knowing that it wasn't lost forever is exactly what my dad needed.
Yes, I can't imagine sending a gold-leaf, gesso-based scroll or a silk houp to someone who is living in a refugee tent city. I can imagine arranging such a thing, [snort] but talk about throwing good money after lost....
(One of the things I like about you,
Re: Relief and Relief...
They finally evacuated us because the water was rising to the level of the building electrical boxes, and the tops of our porches. Thank the powers that the James only nearly filled our basement with water; we got nothing in the upstairs itself.
Throwing everything out, including the plasterboard walls that separated one basement from another, and then washing the whole place down with bleach solution afterward was not fun. My neighbor the fire fighter got a 3" pump for the 5 of us in the unit to pump out with. Which meant we could get into the basement and start work a lot sooner than folks who were using their hoses and syphoning. Which meant our mildew problem was a lot less than many others in the complex.
We saved our washer and dryer by washing with distilled water and then drying the motors in a 100 degree oven for several days; then the guys in my husband's department (all gadget geeks) cleaned out all the other mechanisms, and so on. What a relief!!
The mucking out of nasty stuff remains a horrific memory; we bought 2nd-hand waders to try and stay clean-ish, and washed our hands with 2% bleach every time we stopped working in the basement. And, we had to try and remember what had been in the cans on which shelves, as they had no labels anymore! Surprise, surprise, surprise!
Re: Relief and Relief...
And our special interests...that's where it hits home...for me it was reading a description of somebody who's lost decades' of collected sheet music and their own compositions. Somhow, in that moment, the I got a tiny glimpse (but my deepest one so far) of what the devastation is like on a personal level.
Re: Relief and Relief...
If my ex were to lose his whole family of matched, hand-carved renn. recorders, I think I'd feel heartbroken, too. I know how much those things mean to him.
unlabeled cans
I suspect it's a lot funnier in fiction, though.
Re: unlabeled cans
Yeah, that's got to be a lot funnier when it's not happening to you.
Re: unlabeled cans
The good news is that most of them were veggies or fruit.
Re: unlabeled cans
Of course, compared to other things the Bagthorpes lived through, this was peanuts. (They're really funny books, but I'd be appalled to deal with a little kid who likes fires, floods, and writing on walls; many strong personalities; and a complete lack of concern for others.)
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Re: Relief and Relief...
That definitely sounds like a messy job, yes. I remember a flooded basement in our house when I was a teenager (I forget which storm caused it), but it was only a few feet, not all the way up. I shudder to think what the cleanup task would have been like if it the flood had been as bad as yours.
My parents still live in that house and it happened to them again last year with Ivan. Insurance covered the appliances that were totaled, which is a big help. No one in my family would have known to take apart the motor and dry it in the oven. :-)
Re: Relief and Relief...
There are advantages to hanging out with geeks. ;-)
I'm glad they had insurance. Dad's company tried to claim that it was the river flooding that caused the damage (not the hurricane) and therefore, since he didn't have flood insurance, they wouldn't do anything. FEMA got in their faces for them, and also picked up the difference between the insurance payment and total loss.
Our problem came not only from the river coming in the windows at the far end of the unit, but also from hydrostatic pressure (right whatsis name???), where the water leaks up through the concrete. Once we got all cleaned, the condo management painted the whole set of basements with some sort of sealant before we could move back in.
There were geeky arguments that sealing it would make all the units pop up out of the ground from water pressure, but I'm (again) unsure of the outcome, as I moved out in July of the next year (after the Gigantic 60" snowstorm, which coincided with my senior year in college...).
Re: unlabeled cans