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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 13:13:19 GMT
I still buy DVDs and CDs because if I don't own the physical product, then I don't really own it. That's why I make a point of avoiding streaming services. They claim you can listen to / watch what you want when you want but quietly leave out the "so long as every single company in the chain wants to permit it". There's just one show I've bought and downloaded from iTunes (Tangled The Series) and if I don't get the chance to buy it on Blu-ray in due course I'll be giving serious consideration to ripping the DRM off it.
There's a show I like that's broadcast free to air in the US but also available on Netflix. Every so often its distribution contract doesn't get renewed until the last minute and loads of fans are up in arms over the disaster, and then the contract comes through and the crisis is over until the next time. And every time it happens everyone's shocked by the possibility of being cut off from the things they love, and every time it seems to take them by surprise. And I sit here banging my head against the keyboard wondering why people are buying into a service that makes everything unavailable by default.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 13:49:15 GMT
someone I know was outraged last week that anyone would still buy DVD over Blu Ray I love the idea of someone being outraged by this.
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Post by Mr Snow on Jan 21, 2019 13:49:33 GMT
Progress so far... Underestimated no of books. 20 bags is only between 1/4 and a 1/3rd - although 'some' will stay. Its a lot easier taking them up to the loft in two and threes, than down agian in big bags. 2 full bags of clothes and one of 'rags' is nearer 1/4 total. mmmmmm BHF tomorrow collecting 2 beds and the turntable I kept - and that's the most emotional, even though it hasn't 'connected' with an amplifier in 25 years! Tried Netflix for first time (realy) yesterday. Interesting Feeling smug after a good start. Meanwhile a 'friend' asked when am I collecting my old bike!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:05:18 GMT
someone I know was outraged last week that anyone would still buy DVD over Blu Ray I love the idea of someone being outraged by this. They also went as far as to suggest 'people outside London' don't buy DVD players...I mean sure us out here in the country we're still running our movies on steam....
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:12:05 GMT
I don't mind streaming services, I like having access to all sorts of things I wouldn't mind watching or listening to but without the commitment of paying for them (beyond my subscription fee), but I just treat 'em like a more cultivable version of TV or radio; all the channel-hopping, none of the ads, and I don't have to wait until that one particular hour on a Thursday night for the single radio show that caters specifically to my tastes. I'm just never going to fall into the trap of thinking that because I pay for Netflix, I therefore have guaranteed unfettered access to particular media in perpetuity.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:16:43 GMT
I mean it's all a matter of preference for how you engage with a medium and how much...someone I know was outraged last week that anyone would still buy DVD over Blu Ray...I explained I don't buy enough films or indeed watch enough to make forking out (even a relatively small amount) for a Blu Ray player worthwhile...it's just not a medium I'm that engaged with to make me care. Similarly with music, I don't 'consume' in the buying sense enough to be that invested in sound quality and all the other things that come with the debates around hard copy ownership. If that's your thing, then great, but I'd wager for the 'average Joe' who listens while working, at the gym, in the car, streaming is decent enough quality. You should have asked them why Blu ray is considered to have 'flopped' and DVDs still vastly outnumber them where both are sold. Off on a huge tangent, one of my great pleasures - I clearly don't get out too much! - is going around the amazing amount of charity shops I am lucky to live near and buying a whole eclectic array of films on DVD from about 99p to £1.99. At those prices I can take a chance on something and do a bit for charity too. Music streaming quality - especially through Spotify - has incredibly improved n the last few years and with a decent pair of headphones - mine are basic, in-ear, noise reduction Steinmeister which cost £45 - you will probably get a better sound through such sites than if you convert your own CDs to MP3.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:28:11 GMT
Off on a tangent but I very much enjoy getting DVDs from charity shops (even if I do eventually like books return them there) and this weekend I was very pleased to get the latest Sarah Millican tour DVD for 1.99! Comedy DVDs like music tours are one of the few I keep to watch over and over so I'm very pleased someone didn't want Sarah for Christmas it seems!
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Post by glossie on Jan 21, 2019 14:29:21 GMT
BHF tomorrow collecting 2 beds and the turntable I kept - and that's the most emotional, even though it hasn't 'connected' with an amplifier in 25 years! I also had a thing about picking up old musical cast LPs from charity shops. Got Chess, Sound of Music, JCS...all sorts even some original American Broadway stuff... but didn't have a turntable! I did eventually get one but have I played any of them? What do you think? I remember clearing out the kids' bedrooms and bagging up all the soft toys they'd (I'd) collected over the years - not the really precious ones (Ziggy and Little Ted still very much part of the family!) but all still had memories attached. I took them to a local charity shop and a while later, I happened to walk past and saw some of them sitting outside on top of old tables. My heart flipped and it was all I could do not to rush over and buy them all back. Couldn't walk past that shop for a very long time afterwards!
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 15:31:31 GMT
I remember clearing out the kids' bedrooms and bagging up all the soft toys they'd (I'd) collected over the years - not the really precious ones (Ziggy and Little Ted still very much part of the family!) but all still had memories attached. I took them to a local charity shop and a while later, I happened to walk past and saw some of them sitting outside on top of old tables. My heart flipped and it was all I could do not to rush over and buy them all back. Couldn't walk past that shop for a very long time afterwards! I trust you never used to watch The Forgotten Toys, that series about a doll, a teddy bear and a couple of other toys who all get left behind after a house move, so wander off in search of children who will love them?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 15:34:51 GMT
That sounds traumatic as hell. Honestly, I think the anthropomorphisation of toys is the worst thing we can possibly do to children, the Raggy Dolls left me desperately sad for every single toy I see that looks unloved or unlovable, a solid 30+ years later, and I dread to think what's going to happen to the generations raised on the Toy Story franchise. We'll be a society that *would* throw away our toys but absolutely 100% literally cannot bear to.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 15:36:28 GMT
I remember clearing out the kids' bedrooms and bagging up all the soft toys they'd (I'd) collected over the years - not the really precious ones (Ziggy and Little Ted still very much part of the family!) but all still had memories attached. I took them to a local charity shop and a while later, I happened to walk past and saw some of them sitting outside on top of old tables. My heart flipped and it was all I could do not to rush over and buy them all back. Couldn't walk past that shop for a very long time afterwards! I helped out in a charity shop for a few months. Do you know the main customers for second hand soft toys ? Dog owners who give them to their dogs to play with.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 16:38:31 GMT
I think the anthropomorphisation of toys is the worst thing we can possibly do to children Do WE do it to them? Don't the children do it themselves, at least to a significant extent? The little idiots.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 17:18:10 GMT
Of course children do it themselves, but it's amazing how stories like The Velveteen Rabbit and Rumer Godden's The Doll's House can legitimise it.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 18:03:57 GMT
Of course children do it themselves, but it's amazing how stories like The Velveteen Rabbit and Rumer Godden's The Doll's House can legitimise it. True. It's not the WORST thing we do to children though.
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Post by glossie on Jan 21, 2019 18:07:34 GMT
Well, my boys were in their 30s when I cleared out the 'teds' so I don't think they have been too traumatised...oh, wait...could explain a few things...hmmm... I seem to remember that Forgotten Toys programme. I know I used to watch more kids' TV than them. Foxy Fables - one of my absolute favourites. Oh, and Treacle People! Brilliant! Thanks Backdrifter or @time4t now I'm traumatised
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 18:21:01 GMT
Of course children do it themselves, but it's amazing how stories like The Velveteen Rabbit and Rumer Godden's The Doll's House can legitimise it. True. It's not the WORST thing we do to children though. I think it's at least top ten of the most benign worst things we do. Beating a child is obviously worse, and most parents won't do it, but surely every parent plays along with the idea that your toys have feelings and it shouldn't be harmful and yet it causes weird anguish decades later.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 18:22:20 GMT
Ah, sorry glossie. Treacle People?! That one I don't know. Did kids of the 80s & 90s get similar creepy drama series to what we got in the 70s? I'm thinking back to stuff I remember like The Changes, Carrie's War, the one based on Marianne Dreams and the one where the standing stones started moving. God those shows unnerved me. Excellent! To bring it back on topic, I couldn't resist adding to my "clutter" by buying The Changes on dvd when it was released a couple of years ago.
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Post by glossie on Jan 21, 2019 18:59:07 GMT
Children of the Stones? I can remember catching it sometimes but only when I was home from work. I think the most scary childrens TV when I were a lass was Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy!!
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 21, 2019 20:29:25 GMT
I'm now guiltily looking at the cuddly toys, sitting on top of the book shelves just in front of me, which I'd can't bear to throw away. The Barbies are in a drawer under my bed. I'm theoretically 33.
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Post by sf on Jan 21, 2019 20:42:43 GMT
I honestly thought this thread was going to be about Marie Kondo when I saw the subject, I was all ready to come in swinging with a "she isn't saying you have to get rid of all your books, stop misrepresenting her!".
Well... her methods do appear to be a little on the draconian side:
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2019 8:27:58 GMT
Currently having a bit of a purge - going through a box of old letters and cards that has been in a cupboard for years and wondering why on earth I saved most of it. Highlights include several wedding invitations that have outlasted the marriages in question.
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Post by showgirl on Jan 22, 2019 9:11:06 GMT
Not the point you were making, @xanderl, but dispensing of your spouse/partner could be considered an extreme form of decluttering! And re the marriages: my former employer used to give staff an extra week's leave on marriage - though of course nothing for those who chose instead to live together, as OH and I did. I had colleagues who benefited twice from this concession as they divorced and remarried, which made it seem doubly inequitable. The extra leave allowance has long gone but 32 years on, OH and I are still together...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2019 12:48:33 GMT
What I've found really interesting going through this box (which I've probably not looked in for at least 20 years ...) is how many people I was corresponding in handwritten letters when I was at University back in the pre-email and social media days of the mid 80s. At least I assume I was writing to them as they were writing to me on a regular basis. Mostly people I've now completely lost touch with.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 22, 2019 13:15:51 GMT
I've just seen a headline alleging that charity shops are falling to their knees in thanks to Kondo.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 22, 2019 15:09:23 GMT
In fact the piece on the BBC site quotes one charity shop worker saying a man was so inspired by seeing Kondo's show, "he cleared out his mother's whole house." I've got this image of his mum's house completely gutted, its entire contents piled up in this shop including the mum herself gloomily sitting there and sighing, with a price tag dangling from her ear.
This woman must be stopped!
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