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Disc-based media backup question (2 Viewers)

jcroy

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(Another rant).
(This is getting really really dumb dumb dumb).

Last night I couldn't get to sleep and ended up waking up really early before sunrise. I ended up driving a half hour to the closest casino, and flushing several hundred $$$$ down the toilet on blackjack, while chugging down coffee after coffee (and also several red bulls).

By the time I had enough and drove home, I just happened to pass by a computer store on the main boulevard and dropped in. Another dumb "impulse buy", where I ended up buying three Samsung dvdr drives which were on sale. When I got home, I decided to give these new Samsung dvdr drives a dry run, by checking through several dvd sets I've been thinking of watching again. (Stuff like The Outer Limits, Covert Affairs, etc ...).

In my experience, Samsung dvdr drives are good for dealing with some problematic dvd discs which the LiteOn, LG, Sony, etc ... drives can't handle very well.


(More generally).

Back in 2011 I was looking for another activity which doesn't involve gambling. It just happened that dvds and blurays was something convenient to take my mind off of casinos. My thinking at the time was that it was better to be a degenerate couch potato, than being a degenerate gambler.

I now know that any extreme degenerate activity is very bad all around. :(
 
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Carabimero

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I went through a period of extreme DVD buying a few years back. Granted I don't buy DVDs and BDs like I used to, but I still need to tighten up my buying and spend more time watching what I have.

I have found I can overcome my extreme habits by taking stock of what I have and being grateful for it. Expressing gratitude (either to others or in my journal) for the things I have truly saved my life. For me (and everyone is different) the trick is to make gratitude a habit and express it every day. Giving to others and being grateful for what I have (instead of spending money) turned my life around from insane obsessive-compulsive behavior that, had it continued, would have put me in massive debt, to say the least. And probably wrecked my personal life, too.
 
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jcroy

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... had it continued, would have put me in massive debt, to say the least. And probably wrecked my personal life, too.

My ex-wife and I were both degenerate gamblers. Shortly before I started buying a lot of dvds and blurays in 2011, we went through a divorce. It was the only way I knew at the time, to get away from my problems. (She continued on with gambling for many years thereafter).

At the time (circa 2010 -> early-2011), she thought I was becoming a "complete nerd" when I was spending more time watching superhero movies, than at the casino.

In hindsight, I was just "trading" one bad behavior (gambling) for another bad behavior (buying a lot of dvds./blurays + computer equipment).
 

jcroy

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I have found I can overcome my extreme habits by taking stock of what I have and being grateful for it. Expressing gratitude (either to others or in my journal) for the things I have truly saved my life.

I'm guessing everyone has different strategies at dealing with particular bad/annoying habits + behavior. What works for one person, may be completely ineffective for another person.

I tried the gratitude thing in the past for other previous bad behaviors. The only few cases where gratitude has worked somewhat for me, is when it comes to booze related issues. For non-booze issues, I've found that gratitude is simply not enough to change my behavior.

So far the only semi-effective solution for squelching such bad behavior in myself, is complete abstinence if it is possible. For example, such as: gambling, spending a lot of money on useless stuff, driving really fast, etc ....


At this point I don't have any effective solutions at dealing with lousy behavior, where complete abstinence is not really possible. For example, such as: eating too much, watching television/movies, etc ... Currently, I can only deal with these particular annoying behaviors with selective restrictions. (For example, such as: restricting my bluray purchases to Star Wars movies, not buying pizza every day, etc ... with varying degrees of success/ineffectiveness).
 
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DaveF

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You gotta know yourself. Some folks, moderation works. Some folks for some things, abstinence is the only way to be healthy. Do what you need to be healthy.

As I told a friend recently, don't be embarrassed about doing what you need to take care of yourself.
 

Carabimero

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The big thing being a husband taught me was that to take care of someone else, I first had to learn to take care of myself.
 
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Carabimero

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I am resisting UHD. It is superior the difference to my eyes doesn't justify the cost in new equipment and rebuying all my discs. Blu-Ray is good enough for me and better than I ever dreamed I'd have.

I have bought a couple of BDs made from UHD masters and those are a treat.
 

jcroy

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My main resistance has very little to do with things like picture quality, previous investment in dvd/bluray, etc ....

For me, it is to close off an avenue to jumping back onto the ocd treadmill.
 

jcroy

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For me, it is to close off an avenue to jumping back onto the ocd treadmill.

I recently just jumped off of TWO ocd treadmills at about the same time: dvd/bluray and another one (unrelated to dvd/bluray + computer equipment).

It is a very strange unsettling feeling, not being on any treadmills. It is as if my ocd wants to grab on to the nearest treadmill in sight.

For lack of a better description, it is similar to a hardcore alcoholic not drinking any booze for several weeks, and jonesing for a drink constantly. That feeling never quite goes away, even years or decades later.
 

jcroy

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(Going offtopic).

A third possible ocd treadmill that is possibly extinguished for me abruptly, is audio cds.

Today I received in the mail several cds from a band which will remain unnamed. It was this particular band's three best albums and a live album, from their heydays.

Previously I only had a greatest hits cd from this band, which I use to listen to a lot over the past decade or so. Foolishly I thought that if these greatest hits were well written songs, then the original albums with these songs should be just as good. Against my better judgement, I should have known better from numerous past experiences that this is rarely ever the case.

Unfortunately when I listened through these three albums, it turns out the rest of the songs were just mediocre "filler" type crap. In the end, it turns out the only songs from these three albums which were very well written and worthwhile to listen to over and over again, were the exact same songs on the greatest hits cd I had previously!

In the case of the live album, it turns out this band sounded awful live. Even with studio overdubs to "correct" their live mistakes, it still sounded lousy.


A great disappointment indeed!!!!

Gggrrrrrrrrrrr ...... :angry: :chatter: :rolleyes:
 

jcroy

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At this point, I think I'll have to also abstain from walking by any dvd/bluray/cd sections at offline retailers (like WM/BB/etc ... and discount stores), and avoid searching through online sites like amazon, ebay, etc ...

Basically avoid any offline/online retailers which carry any items of interest which are treadmill prone.
 
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Carabimero

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A third possible ocd treadmill that is possibly extinguished for me abruptly, is audio cds.
My wife bought me a Bose CD player for Christmas and it has ignited my love for CDs. I had been playing all my music from my iTunes desktop, but geez, the Bose sounds so much better, especially when I revert to actually using discs. I long ago got rid of most of my jewel cases and kept the discs with their inserts in enormous disc wallets. Now I take them out of the giant wallets and put them in a smaller wallet, listening to 30 or so at a time. I don't find myself buying anymore CDs than normal, just listening to the discs more instead of mp3s.

It's really nice.
 
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jcroy

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My wife bought me a Bose CD player for Christmas and it has ignited my love for CDs. I had been playing all my music from my iTunes desktop, but geez, the Bose sounds so much better, especially when I revert to actually using discs. I long ago got rid of most of my jewel cases and kept the discs with their inserts in enormous disc wallets. Now I take them out of the giant wallets and put them in a smaller wallet, listening to 30 or so at a time. I don't find myself buying anymore CDs than normal, just listening to the discs more instead of mp3s.

Same here.

For most of the stuff I listen to semi-regularly, I prefer to listen to them on the large stereo than on the computer.

Personally, I find listening to music on the computer somewhat annoying. Both sound quality wise, and distracting.

Nowadays I don't even listen to any music (nor the radio) when I'm driving.

(This is coming from someone who was once a musician, back in the day).
 

Carabimero

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Same here.

For most of the stuff I listen to semi-regularly, I prefer to listen to them on the large stereo than on the computer.

Personally, I find listening to music on the computer somewhat annoying. Both sound quality wise, and distracting.

Nowadays I don't even listen to any music (nor the radio) when I'm driving.

(This is coming from someone who was once a musician, back in the day).
I had an external speaker system with a subwoofer attached to my computer, but the Bose blows it away. Sometimes I think the cello player is behind me! It's freaky good.
 

jcroy

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Even worse is the type of music I listen to regularly (which will remain unidentified).

It turns out back in the day, the original producers were either totally incompetent and/or they deliberately made everything sound like shit on the record.

The "classic" albums in this particular genre of music, all sounded really horrible in the first place. Listening to them on the computer just compounds the lousiness even further.

The only way these horrible sounding albums sound bearable to me, is to play them on the large stereo.
 

Carabimero

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I remember when my father built me a little clubhouse in our backyard and I got my own stereo system for it. And I could listen to the music I liked without being picked on by my brother. It was the little things in life. Today, I still listen to soundtracks and concert music and don't really care if no one else respects it :)
 

jcroy

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Since I was a teenager, I didn't pay much attention to what other people listened to. I didn't even pay attention to what were the weekly top-40 hit songs.

I can understand how/why some young people are very "factional" when it comes to stuff like music. But when I see somebody my age (or older) still engaging in such "factionalism", I start to wonder whether their emotional growth was "stunted" at around age 20 or younger.
 

jcroy

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.. it's an OCD path I don't want to start traveling down.

(Going far offtopic).

At this point I have no idea what other niches are treadmill prone for me. Whether known or unknown to me.

Music was a long time obsession for me. So I understood why I was on the vinyl and cd treadmill for a very long time.

On the other hand, I had no inkling that I would ever be on the dvd/bluray treadmill back in early 2011. (Prior to 2011, I had very little to no interest in dvd/bluray). One purchase led to another, and I was up to my eyes on the dvd/bluray treadmill.
 

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