Following Edge

My friends all know that I've refused to acknowledge the existence of DVDs for years. Davis even wrote about it recently.

Up to this point, I haven't been willing to discuss it; feigning a ridiculous ignorance of the existence of DVDs. Actually, my justification was real: there are no advantages of DVD format for the VHS tapes we own (Snow White, Dazed & Confused, The Princess Bride, The Erotic Guide to Oral Sex) and we just haven't bought enough VHS tapes in the last 4 years to justify replacing our existing ones with DVD.

As David might love to hear, this is starting to break down as we are buying more movies now that Lauren has the attention span and tastes to enjoy certain movies. Once one starts buying new tapes, it will make more sense to get DVDs if you acknowledge that they will someday have to be replaced with DVDs. (The old ones aren't the same issue since they have to be replaced in any case.

So, the time came. We shopped very hard for Calphalon cookware (as mentioned recently) and got the best possible prices. We got a Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized (not Teflon, that is) 12-inch Everyday Pan with Lid which Amazon is selling for $19.99. Everyone should buy this unless they have one. Even if all of your other cookware is $8.95 pans from Freddy's, you should get this pan as it is good for tons of stuff, easy to use, will last forever, and will make you a better cook. Then, we spent several times that on a few more pans at Meier & Frank. I maneuvered it so we would get their best sale price, then 10% off for their "After Christmas Sale", then get $10 gift certificates for their "15 hour sale" (which starts after the "After Christmas Sale"). Between the pans and some gifts for Lauren and Anne Marie, we got $40 in gift certificates that we could use today or this weekend. And (coming back to DVDs)...

They have been selling a Coby DVD player for $39.99, so I went in today and got a DVD player for (just about) free. I figure if I get it for free, I can agree to admit that DVDs exist.

Now, I have to think about how to get our 53 VHS tapes to DVD format. Some can be done cheaply enough by selling the VHS tapes used on Amazon and buying used DVD discs for the same titles on Amazon. But, there are some strange and obscure titles that we just can't get on DVD, so we may have to find a way to record those VHS tapes to DVD and, if we do that, we can just do them all that way. Maybe I can get my Mac or my Linux stereo (Ben, I'm still working on the description of the Linux stereo) to digitize the tapes and record them to DVD. Or maybe I can make a friend that has one of those VHS/DVD recorder things I see in the electronics stores. Anyone have experience with either of those options? If so, let me know.

So, now I know that David will be gloating in the New Year. So be it!

Happy New Year!