Month: February 2009

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What’s a Movie Lover to Do?

I’m a movie buff and have, over the years since I got my first DVD player, amassed a collection that comprises a couple hundred movies and several complete sets of television shows.  When I knew I was going to hit the road in an RV, the thought that I would probably have to downsize my collection scared the heebie jeebies out of me. I’d already reduced my library of books down to its barest essentials, but was having a difficult time doing the same to the movies. Finally, I wondered why I was agonizing so much. DVDs themselves don’t take up that much space; it’s the packaging that fills up most of a carton. So, I decided to invest in a way to store just the discs. My first thought was binders, but research told me that store DVDs in binders has proven to lead to warp. The best way to store them for longevity, besides in their jewel cases, of course, is to use a hard case with sleeves in it:

DVD storage case, available at Walmart

DVD storage case, available at Walmart

This model of case can hold 200 discs, but there are bigger ones that can hold 500. I decided to go with several of the smaller model for maximum storage flexibility.

I was able to fit all my movies and tv shows into just over one and a half cases, meaning that I had just over 300 discs. To put this into a bit of context, picture a paper box, the kind that holds reams of paper for photocopiers or printers. Last time I moved, I filled ten of those with my DVD collection and now I had it squeezed into just two of these teeny boxes!

I did decide to keep the DVD jackets, so I bought some inexpensive binders and stored the jackets in there, slipped into plastic sleeves. Three binders were plenty and left me room to grow my collection. When I was done, this is what my collection looked like:

Insurance against a rainy day!

Insurance against a rainy day!

I catalogued the collection on my computer so that I don’t have to constantly realphabetize the discs within their sleeves. At some point, I might note right on the jacket where a movie’s disc is located, but that hasn’t proven necessary so far. Since I watch movies on my computer, accessing the database isn’t a hassle, the way it would be if I had to boot up the computer just for that.

So, now I have reduced my collection to a size that doesn’t even take up one full upper cabinet in the study and I have plenty of room to grow within it. That’s great news because how else am I going to see new movies but by buying them. And what if I like them enough to keep them instead of giving them away?

What?! you say. You buy movies and just give them away?!

The answer to this is yes. Renting movies stopped being cost effective years ago when Walmart started offering incredible deals on recent titles. I could go to Blockbuster and rent a movie for 5.50$ or buy it at Walmart for the same price. If I didn’t like the movie enough to keep it, I’d add it to a pile and then sell the pile on eBay, where I always ended up making a profit! Nowadays, I leave movies I didn’t like much in the laundry or guest area of the RV parks I go to. I don’t see how this is any different than leaving a book (and I often help myself to books!). Thanks to Walmart, I haven’t paid more than 5$ for a movie for so many years I can’t remember when was the last time I paid more! They also have even better deals than that; I recently scored a sci-fi triple feature for 10$. The selection at Walmart is excellent and I always end up getting my latest favourites for 5$ or less in a remarkably short span of time. The best deal I ever got was a collection of 50+ Hitchcock movies for… 2.50$. So, even if I occasionally get a dud, I don’t care.

Really, I have no idea why anyone would pay to rent a movie these days, not when movies go from the main theatres to the Walmart bargain bin in such a short amount of time and space doesn’t have to be an issue. I have friends who use the Netflix system, which I’m told works very well for them, but a full-time RVer’s mobility doesn’t make using Netflix possible. I’m told that the US also has vending-machines that rent out DVDs for just a couple of dollars, but even for that price I’d rather buy.

As a final note, someone criticized me for sending all that DVD packaging to the dump. I didn’t. There was a bit of a war over my Craiglist ad offering the empty cases at no charge and I made 50$ off the lot. 🙂

Now, if only the Amazon Kindle would come to Canada, I wouldn’t have to worry about any of my vices taking over Miranda…

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Duck Shoes, Redux

This picture is for my friend Dee who wanted to see what my duck shoes look like. The PJs are a bonus. 🙂

(It only took me two hours to get this picture online with our internet connection here. Which explains why I haven’t been posting much lately and have been slow to approve and respond to comments. Yes, I’m fed up.)

Sometimes practically trumps style!

Sometimes practicality trumps style!

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Well, That Was Close

The past few Friday evenings, since a couple of weeks before I started my new job, I’ve been going to dinner and then seeing a movie. I always go to the Colossus in Langley because there is a Montana’s restaurant just across the parking lot and Montana’s is my favourite place to go when I want cheap and delicious food I didn’t cook myself.

I’ve been coming down with a cold all week and it hit overnight, so I felt increasingly worn down as the afternoon progressed. I argued back and forth with myself about whether or not to go out and I finally decided to just go home.

Which is good because just about the time I would have been pulling into the parking lot at the theatre, there was a gang shooting. Twenty plus shots fired, one person gravely wounded.

Oookay, I think I’m going to start going to the theatre in White Rock instead.

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Touching a Dream

Who says that you should only fulfill one dream at a time? Sometimes living one dream can help you make another come true.

I acted on impulse tonight, did something without thinking it through at all. It might seem to some that this is how I make all my decisions, but that’s only an impression, because I don’t share all the behind-the-scenes planning. But this thing I did, I did without any reasoning. It was foolish and brave and on this second February 5th without my father, it was just the sort of thing my wounded heart needed. I truly think he had a hand at it.

Let’s start at the beginning.

For years, I have dreamt of visiting the Canadian north. I looked for jobs in Dawson City, Whitehorse, Inuvik, Yellowknife… Applied for positions in such far off places as Hay River and Paulatuk… Yearned especially to to take a ferry up the inside passage to Skagway and hike the Chilkoot pass to the Yukon…

Jobs were hard to find from the Outside and I didn’t have the means to get up there on my own. I did come very close to a summer job in Dawson City, but I didn’t have my degree yet, so the job slipped through my fingers. Then a friend and I were going to max out our credit and savings and go spend three weeks hiking in the Yukon. Several financial crises came up that spring and I had to cancel the trip. My father’s one final wish for his life was to take an Alaskan cruise. When we realised that he didn’t have much time left, I scrambled to find the necessary money to take him on such a trip. But it was too late; his doctor would not allow him to go.

Finally, I decided that the north was a dream I had to abandon. I never had any intention of settling there permanently and my financial situation wasn’t stable enough to give up everything to relocate there for a year or two and then come back. I also didn’t really want to see the north in winter. Been there, done that, after spending almost a full month in arctic Quebec in my youth.

So, there was no doubt in my mind, when I set off on my great big adventure last fall, that I would find my way to the Yukon. I dreamt of the Chilkoot, but felt that was still beyond my grasp. It’s just not something a smart solo hiker would do and the logistics of joining an organized group were daunting. I still researched options last June, to convince myself that even if I got as far as Whitehorse, the Chilkoot would not be doable, and ended up finding a tour group that departs from Whitehorse and returns you to Whitehorse. It offered the best itinerary, bang for the buck, and an easier(ish) seven day tour schedule. That’s the tour I would have done, if doing such a tour was possible.

I think my dad was speaking to me tonight because without any sort of prompting, I found myself on Google typing in “Chilkoot Pass”, and one of the first links that came up was for that tour company. They were still offering the hike, including one in mid-July, the date I wanted, and there was space for just one more person….

A lot can happen between now and mid-July, I have to figure out what to do with Miranda and the cats for a week, I need to come up with 1,500$ by the beginning of May, and I have to whip my ass back into shape, but I just put a non-refundable 500$ deposit on a dream.

All I can say is that fulfilling dreams is addictive.

How then am I so different from
The first men through this way?
Like them I left a settled life,
I threw it all away,
To seek a northwest passage
At the call of many men,
To find there but the road back home again. (Stan Rogers, ‘Northwest Passage’)

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Living in a Gangsta’s Paradise

Since moving to Surrey, there has been almost daily news about new gang-related violence and mayhem and more murders than I am accustomed to hearing about in a whole year!

I was warned before moving here that Surrey is renown for its crime rate. As I expected, the violence is pretty much localized to a particular part of town. I am glad that I made the decision to remain in the southernmost part of Surrey and do not believe I would feel quite as safe in a ‘mid-town’ RV park such as Peace Arch, but I don’t feel threatened. That said, I am very aware of where I travel and at what time, and I have to confess that one of the reasons why I’ve decided to stop taking public transit is that the Skytrain Station is located in gangland and waiting for a bus in the dark made me nervous. Petty crime is also a major problem all through the GVR, so I am doubly cautious when parking the car, taking the GPS with me and leaving the trunk cover (I have a hatchback) open to make it obvious that I’m not trying to ‘hide’ anything. A BC politician recently stashed all her personal gear (passport, Blackberry, wallet, etc.) in her trunk and lost it all, so I’m not being overly cautious!

What is sad is to listen to how hopeless people feel about the violence in their city. Neighbouring Abbotsford is facing a similar challenge the police have admitted their powerlessness to deal with this growing problem. There is also the concern that the perpetrators are getting younger and younger. A boy of 13 was arrested this week after stabbing a man on the Skytrain!

Despite all of this, I am getting less and less timid about this place that scared me so much. The next nice weekend (definitely not this one 🙁 ), I am going to downtown Vancouver! I’ll just make sure I stay on the west side of Hastings!