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...the many things that you remember as a kid or teenager...

I still have a VCR. It hasn't been used in years, but I have the old family archive of VHS. Home movies from when I was a kid. At some point, I think I archived them all on a hard drive somewhere. Yet it was one of those situations where I did it without actually sorting any of it through. So I have a hard drive somewhere with large files of videos.

I still have the VHS. I still have the VCR. I have some box I bought years ago to put them on PC, which cleared up video issues but it only connects via a firewire port, which my current PCs don't have.

Some years ago I did convert quite a few old tv commercials and some tv shows to upload to a youtube channel. But you have to be very careful about copyright issue's it only took me one single song upload before I got some official warning and my video was taken down. Then I thought well bugger this and I just removed all my video's and closed the youtube channel.

I just did all of my conversions using a basic internal PCI slot TV tuner card which I have in my old PC which is not far away as I know I can always go back to this old system if I ever want to convert any VHS tapes into digital format for uploading. My old PC also has a firewire port like yours but I have never used this port at all.

That filter box you mention sounds pretty good I never had one of those when I did my VHS conversions years ago.

You mention how VHS tapes degrade over time but all I can say it don't put all your eggs in one basket and just rely on storing everything in a digital format on a hard drive etc. I actually have a couple of those external back up hard drives and one of them has failed on me but luckily I always back up onto 2 hard drives. But even still you can't guarantee that a hard drive will one day just cark it and you can't retrieve anything from it.

So I guess what I am saying is don't throw away any of those old original VHS tapes or whatever other media your memories are stored on. Try and look after them as best you can you'd be amazed just how many years a good old VHS tape can survive it would probably even outlast the converted video's on a hard drive!

Cheers!
 
Some years ago I did convert quite a few old tv commercials and some tv shows to upload to a youtube channel. But you have to be very careful about copyright issue's it only took me one single song upload before I got some official warning and my video was taken down. Then I thought well bugger this and I just removed all my video's and closed the youtube channel.

I just did all of my conversions using a basic internal PCI slot TV tuner card which I have in my old PC which is not far away as I know I can always go back to this old system if I ever want to convert any VHS tapes into digital format for uploading. My old PC also has a firewire port like yours but I have never used this port at all.

That filter box you mention sounds pretty good I never had one of those when I did my VHS conversions years ago.

You mention how VHS tapes degrade over time but all I can say it don't put all your eggs in one basket and just rely on storing everything in a digital format on a hard drive etc. I actually have a couple of those external back up hard drives and one of them has failed on me but luckily I always back up onto 2 hard drives. But even still you can't guarantee that a hard drive will one day just cark it and you can't retrieve anything from it.

So I guess what I am saying is don't throw away any of those old original VHS tapes or whatever other media your memories are stored on. Try and look after them as best you can you'd be amazed just how many years a good old VHS tape can survive it would probably even outlast the converted video's on a hard drive!

Cheers!

…that’s a good point Converse… whenever I back up anything on my computer now I always back it up on my PC hard drive and also an external hard drve and have also for good measure in the past on CD discs too… I’ve been caught out too many times with dying hard drives… never again… so good advice my friend… good advice… cheers.
 
You mention how VHS tapes degrade over time but all I can say it don't put all your eggs in one basket and just rely on storing everything in a digital format on a hard drive etc. I actually have a couple of those external back up hard drives and one of them has failed on me but luckily I always back up onto 2 hard drives. But even still you can't guarantee that a hard drive will one day just cark it and you can't retrieve anything from it.

So I guess what I am saying is don't throw away any of those old original VHS tapes or whatever other media your memories are stored on. Try and look after them as best you can you'd be amazed just how many years a good old VHS tape can survive it would probably even outlast the converted video's on a hard drive!

I have stuff spread across and duplicated on so many hard drives. I still have my VCR and the tapes.

I'm actually very wasteful with this stuff. I don't re-use memory cards from my overseas trips, so they're another backup. I will buy a hard drive, to create a new central archive of everything. Copy a bunch of stuff but then never thoroughly organise it. A few years later see a bigger HDD on sale in Officeworks. Buy it, repeat.

So I'll be fine as long as the house doesn't burn down. I do keep meaning to stick at least one copy at another place.

I really need to thoroughly organise and edit a lot of my material though. Mainly my photos and videos. A lot of the time while travelling I was doing long trips without much time to do detailed editing and organising. So I would do a little while travelling. Post some on the socials. Then come home with tens of thousands of photos and it never get around to it. Then do another trip and it builds.

Lockdowns would have been a good opportunity but it didn't seem conducive to good mental health to lock myself away meticulously going over photos and videos from when I was having the best experiences of my life. Although, maybe it would have been good.
 
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While we are on the subject of saving and long term storage of files etc, maybe i'm just really unlucky but I have had about 4 of those USB memory sticks stop working on me over the years. They were all different brands and I just thought i'd mention this as the failure rate of these new modern dodgy little devices is unbelievable!

I will not store anything I want to save for a long time on any USB stick, I have had too many stop working on me and I will never trust them with any files you want to save for a very long time.

Cheers!
 
…I was talking with family members today and we were talking about how we always used to go to pubs in our area to hear the local Sydney bands doing the rounds until they became famous… one of those bands were the ‘Zarsoff Brothers’… there was…
  • Izzy Foreal – Vocals and Bass.
  • Smokey Zarsoff – Guitar.
  • Shaggy Zarsoff – Guitar, Mandolin and Vocals.
  • Bologne Zarsoff – Drums.
  • Bernie Zarsoff – Keys.
  • Bluey Zarsoff – Guitar and Sax.
  • Rory Zarsoff – Guitar.
  • Lefty Zarsoff – Drums
…they were always so crude… nearly every song was rude and dirty… they were hilarious… we saw them quite a few times… some of their songs were…
  1. Bumsweat (crusty bits and spangers)
  2. Shit bugger bum (bitch piss cock fart)
  3. They won’t let us show it at the beach
  4. Nose pickin boogie
  5. Dicks don’t grow on trees
…just to name a few lol!… they were sensational!… geez they were good… they had a cult following because they were so irreverent lol!… here’s ‘Bumsweat’… cheers.

 
…yesterday while rummaging through a drawer in my computer desk in my garage I found an old ‘kazoo’ that we confiscated from one of the kids about …(wow! … it must’ve been about 35-40 years ago methinks)… (I hid it in an old glasses case and totally forgot about it lol!)… anyhow… we confiscated it because he kept blowing it all the time because he thought at that age that it sounded like a ‘musical fart’… it always cracked him up way back then… it was driving us mad so hence the confiscation…

…well… me being a teenager at heart (my sweet darling wife thinks that I’m going through my 6th childhood)… I couldn’t resist it… I kept blowing it until Mrs Sticky told me to “stop that racket… the neighbours will complain!“… well… me being me I kept doing small bursts of the kazoo as if I were farting every time Mrs Sticky thought that I had put it away… after a few times of me being a child she calmly said to me in a low quiet voice… “if you don’t stop blowing that bloody thing I’m going to shove it where it sounds like it comes from… you won’t enjoy it so much anymore… throw it away… I‘ve always told you that you’re a hoarder!”… lol!… god bless her heart!…

…anyway… moving on… I told her that how about I just put it back in the drawer until we see him again and when he’s comfortable that I get it out and started blasting away on it to annoy the shit out of him and then give it back to HIS grandkids to annoy the hell out of him?… surprisingly Mrs Sticky said… “great idea… that’ll be sweet revenge,”… (she’s not usually like that so colour me ‘impressed’)… so… we now have a plan… muhwahahahahaha! (evil laugh) 👹🎃👺👻🤡😈… I can’t wait lol!… cheers.
 
…I posted this in the thread ‘Space… The Final Frontier’ in ‘The Rabbit Ears‘… I meant to post it here too… afterall… it is a childhood memory… anyway… here it is…

...haha!... this article (in the other thread)… reminds me of when I was at High School in the early 70's when I was in a 'Science' class one day... 'Black Holes' were a newly discussed topic with our rather 'enthused' Science teacher because it was the talk of the Scientific world at the time... so there he was prattling on and on and on and bloody on about 'Black Holes'... and because I was such a little shit of a kid at the time I grew bored with him blah blah blahhing on about them so I chose the right time when he paused and then asked if we had any questions... of course... because I was that little shit of a kid I put my hand up and the conversation went something like this from memory...

Me:... "Sir!... can I ask you a question?"...
Sir:... "yes Peter"...
Me:... "you're telling us that Black Holes are swirling around the Universe and are devouring everything that they encounter right?"...
Sir:... "yes... that's right Peter"...
Me:... "so not even Light can escape being sucked into it?"... (I take it a step further)... so it sucks in EVERY SINGLE THING in it's path no matter what it is... right?"...
Sir:... "yes that's right too"...
Me:... "okay... so what if two Black Holes swirl towards each other and finally meet each other... do they suck each other off?"...

...yes... the classroom erupted into laughter... and yes... I was in a LOT of trouble for that... I deserved it... as I said... I was a little shit of a kid at the time... true story...

…the follow on part of the story that I never mentioned before was… the Teacher just pointed to the classroom door for me to wait outside… a little later the Science Master was doing his rounds… he asked me… “what have you said or done this time”… (it was a regular thing lol!)… when I told him what I said this time he just rolled his eyes and motioned me to his office to get yet another ‘six of the best’ (a caning on the fingers)… it hurt but boy it was worth it!… (and… I swear he smirked when I told him… I swear he did!)… like I said… a true story… cheers.
 
…bummer!… I posted this in the wrong thread… I meant to post it in this one lol!… oh well… what the hell… here it is again lol!… take 2…



…being colour blind as a kid made me miss out on seeing many glorious things… I could only see the colours red / yellow / black and white… about 5 years ago I saw ‘Enchroma’ glasses for colourblind people… they cost me at the time about $540… well… for only the 2nd time in my life I saw a rainbow in it’s complete glory in full colour today… I was mesmerised… nature in its full glory is such a wonderous thing…

…when I saw rainbows as a kid… I could only see the colours red and yellow in it… all the other kids would be saying all of the colours and I used to pretend that I could see them too so that they wouldn’t tease me… jeez it was good to see it for the second time in full colour today… my mind went straight back to my childhood when I used to lie to the other kids… lol!…

…just as a sidenote;-… I can now see the colour blue without the Enchroma glasses on… I was sitting at the dining room table in my house eating my breakfast with my sweet darling wife and suddenly (after 5 years of wearing the glasses) there were like weird flashes of light for a couple of seconds then suddenly… everything that were the colour blue… I could see them without the Enchroma glasses on!… it hasn’t happened with any of the other colours that I’m colourblind to yet… but here’s hoping that one day those colours will ‘turn on’ like the colour blue did…

…the ‘Enchroma glasses’ are fantastic… I was dubious about buying them at first but they sure as hell work for me… I’ve never looked back… I wear them whenever I leave the house… it’s like getting rid of your black and white TV and buying a colour one I imagine lol!… I’ve realised that green is the most predominant and varied colour with so many varied shades of vegetation (grass / trees and plants etc) and my most favourite colours (now that I can see them lol!)… are blue / orange and rusty objects… but my most favourite colour is… the human skin colour!… I used to see everybody as Zombies before until I got my glasses… but now skin colours are so fascinating believe it or not… when I look at people I can see an ‘aura’ around them… it’s like their skin ‘glows’… it’s incredible!…

…this is the website where you do a colourblind test before buying them… apparently there are a few different version's of colourblindness… https://enchroma.com/ … cheers.
 
Have you been drinking too MrStickeyfingers?

Not referring to your above post but the fact that you posted it in the wrong thread...something that some of us do often.
 
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Have you been drinking too MrStickeyfingers?

Not referring to your above post but the fact that you posted it in the wrong thread...something that some of us do often.
…unfortunately no Sephrenia lol!… I was trying to do a few things at one time and as my sweet darling wife quite often tells me… “men can’t multitask like women!”… the thing that annoys me is… she’s dead right about me being unable to do that lol!… cheers.
 
…this is the website where you do a colourblind test before buying them… apparently there are a few different version's of colourblindness… https://enchroma.com/ … cheers.
That was a bit of fun. Thankfully (for my clients) I passed the test - with flying colours! 😂
I did a similar test as that when I first started hairdressing at college.
Interesting post Sticky. And what a huge change that must be for your life.
 
That was a bit of fun. Thankfully (for my clients) I passed the test - with flying colours! 😂
I did a similar test as that when I first started hairdressing at college.
Interesting post Sticky. And what a huge change that must be for your life.

…I have a confession February… when I first put the glsses on nothing happened… I thought ‘there goes THAT $540’… but after about 20 seconds later when I was looking at the blue sky… suddenly it was like a delayed reaction and all the colours kind of switched on!… suddenly I saw the blue sky and as I looked down I couldn’t believe how many shades of green that I could see… I was so overwhelmed at how much colour I could see!… we had heaps of colourful flowers in our garden…

…so here was my sweet darling wife… our daughter and myself walking around the garden with me asking them like a little kid saying “what’s that colour… what’s that colour” over and over again… anyway… after about 10 minutes of that… my daughter asked me “what colour are mums eyes?”… after saying jokingly (I hadn’t seen her eyes of yet) “bloodshot’… I then looked ito her eyes and burst into tears because after all those years of being with her and finally seeing them… it was so impactful on me… (I know… I’m a big sooky lah lah eh?)… anyway… after about 64 years of not seeing true colour… as you said…”And what a huge change that must be for your life.”… you are so right February…. Cheers.
 
…I have a confession February… when I first put the glsses on nothing happened… I thought ‘there goes THAT $540’… but after about 20 seconds later when I was looking at the blue sky… suddenly it was like a delayed reaction and all the colours kind of switched on!… suddenly I saw the blue sky and as I looked down I couldn’t believe how many shades of green that I could see… I was so overwhelmed at how much colour I could see!… we had heaps of colourful flowers in our garden…

…so here was my sweet darling wife… our daughter and myself walking around the garden with me asking them like a little kid saying “what’s that colour… what’s that colour” over and over again… anyway… after about 10 minutes of that… my daughter asked me “what colour are mums eyes?”… after saying jokingly (I hadn’t seen her eyes of yet) “bloodshot’… I then looked ito her eyes and burst into tears because after all those years of being with her and finally seeing them… it was so impactful on me… (I know… I’m a big sooky lah lah eh?)… anyway… after about 64 years of not seeing true colour… as you said…”And what a huge change that must be for your life.”… you are so right February…. Cheers.
That's beautiful.

I remember my Dad saying after he had cataract surgery that he couldn't believe the colours he'd been missing, and could never really understand how he meant.
I had my right eye done in February, and I could see exactly what he meant. Looking through that eye everything that was white, was brilliant white, and when I looked through just my left eye, everything which is meant to be white has a nasty nicotine stained/yellowy hue to it. SO, although my vision in my left eye is nowhere as hazy as my right eye had become, I'm getting my left one done in September.
 
…yesterday I did a fart in a different room that my sweet darling wife was in and it was soooooo quiet that I thought that she’d never hear it but… from the other room she shouted out… “I heard!”… lol!… then she recited a poem that I haven’t heard since I was about 10 years old in England… it went like this…

there is a little wind
that travels from the heart
and as it travels downwards
it turns into a fart
a fart is very useful
and gives the tummy ease
it warms the bed in Winter
and suffocates the fleas

…wow!… I remember my nan telling me that all those years ago… talk about a trip down memory lane or what?… cheers.
 
I was thinking recently of my school years last century and I can remember there was a public phone out the front of the school yard. If I wanted to go play with a friend after school I had to ring my mum at home first to get her permission... The problem was that it cost 7c to make a phone call... & I mean, like as if I'd have 7c left after school... I would have bought 1/2 a bag of lollies at the tuck shop for 5c at lunch time :roflmao: 1c for a 100 grams of bullets, 1c for 100g of banana lollies, 1c for 100g of teeth lollies ....etc :biggrin:
& I remember that you dialled the phone number and when someone answered you pressed A or B and put the coins in ??? not sure if that's correct, but it was something like that...

I do remember that if you turned the phone backwards and yelled through the ear piece without putting any money in, then the other person could hear you not too bad... :cool: You had to be quick, yell into the ear piece then quickly put it to your ear for the response.. haha...

a.jpg
 
I was thinking recently of my school years last century and I can remember there was a public phone out the front of the school yard. If I wanted to go play with a friend after school I had to ring my mum at home first to get her permission... The problem was that it cost 7c to make a phone call... & I mean, like as if I'd have 7c left after school... I would have bought 1/2 a bag of lollies at the tuck shop for 5c at lunch time :roflmao: 1c for a 100 grams of bullets, 1c for 100g of banana lollies, 1c for 100g of teeth lollies ....etc :biggrin:
& I remember that you dialled the phone number and when someone answered you pressed A or B and put the coins in ??? not sure if that's correct, but it was something like that...

I do remember that if you turned the phone backwards and yelled through the ear piece without putting any money in, then the other person could hear you not too bad... :cool: You had to be quick, yell into the ear piece then quickly put it to your ear for the response.. haha...

View attachment 59128

…when I got my first job my dad used to drop me off at the railway station for me to catch a train to work… when I was on my way home and got to my stop I would then ring him from the phone box to ask him to pick me up from the railway station… this became quite expensive calling him all of the time so what happened was I would ring my dad and immediately hang up… then ring a second time and hang up again… with those two rings he would then pick me up lol!… that saved me heaps of money lol!…

…and… every time that I used to even look at those teeth lollies I used to nearly spew… they creeped me out so much lol!… (a shudder just went through me just then just thinking about them lol!)… they looked so awful to me at the time lol!… cheers.
 
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