geekent's Buy Nothing Year

Just because this is my "Buy Nothing Year" it doesn't mean things aren't coming my way to enjoy or review or whathaveyou. Beneath the cut is what's come my way over the past month and links to any reviews that may have come out of them (next month, I'll have to include the things Aden buys that I read and or consume as well, for proper tracking).

Just because this is my "Buy Nothing Year" it doesn't mean things aren't coming my way to enjoy or review or whathaveyou. Beneath the cut is what's come my way over the past month and links to any reviews that may have come out of them. Anything with an asterisk (*) remains to be reviewed.

Well, March closes up shop for 2008 in a few days, but the purse-strings have been pulled tight, the gift cards laid bare and store credit pared back to nothing. I've acquired all that I'm gong to acquire for this winter-turned-spring (almost) month. We'll see what April has to bring me without forking over das cash.

Below the cut, comics etc. acquisitioned (yes, I know it's not a real word).

Well... five or six years ago I became rather fascinated with other-regional DVDs because some movies/TV shows are (were) only available in Europe or some movies/TV shows only had special features in different countries. Being a bit of a geek and, at the time, rather obsessed with bonus features, as well as harbouring a long-established fear of missing out, I bought some Region 2 DVDs long before I had a player that could play them.

I asked about where I could find a multi-region DVD player, and was guided to Chinatown, where cracked machines are available a-plenty. There I purchased a Shinco DVD player (with karaoke capabilities), and although the first machine I received broke within two weeks, the replacement lasted me for many many years. The only problem with the machine was the region had to be manually changed every time a different region disc was to be played. The change had to be performed using a photocopied code sheet. But hey it worked.
Until I lost the code sheet in the move from the Ronces to BOBTown back in '06. Grrr.
The Shinco was still a solid performing machine for Region 1 discs, but my plethora of Region 2 etc. DVDs were collecting dust. I tried numerous forums and internet sites searching for the code, but as far a I could discover the firmware had been cracked and it wasn't really something that was made publicly available... I don't know how these backroom operations work.

I found an extra cheapo "MAX" brand region free DVD player at a non-big box store (bringing a region 2 DVD with me and ensuring that the player worked, and at the shop they had to go through three machines before they found one that worked). The MAX player played everything without having to do any sort of remote code or region switch, so it was a good little multipurpose player, and surprisingly this $30 unit outperformed the Roomie's name brand player. His JVC would get glitchy on some Region 1 discs but the MAX (and the Shinco) would play them just fine.

After getting hitched (boosh!) and moving in with the wife and stepson, the MAX was relegated to bedroom DVD player status, and since the wife's Region 1 player (a Sanyo) wasn't very functional (its remote had tanked out from being dropped too many times and the cheapo $10 multi-function remote didn't work all that well with it) we replaced it with the Shinco as our main player.

Scant months after the Shinco became our main player it tanked, or rather, when you popped a DVD in it wouldn't load. Taking it down to the dungeon, I cracked it open and realized that the player just has a hard time starting to spin the disc, so I kept it hooked up to the dungeon TV, hidden behind cabinet doors (leaving the top of the player off so I could help start the disc spinning) and still use it, however I don't want an open system where the little guy can stick his hands into it in the main room. And so, the MAX became our main player for a few months, Aden's portable DVD player becoming the bedroom player... until last week.

A while ago Aden's grandfolks gave us their old VCR (us not having one and still having some tapes we theoretically might want to watch) only it didn't have a remote, and so we actually never used it. Last week, returning from Aden's folk's place (a week after they completed a move to a new abode) we had a better VCR with a working remote, so I decided to replace the older, crappier, unused one. With The Venture Bros. playing in the MAX while I was performing the switch, I unplugged the old VCR and - boosh! - the MAX died. The power bar is not a cheap power bar and it's meant for superior electronic performance so I'm not entirely sure how it surged and crapped out the MAX, but that's what it did. Sigh.

With the Shinco unsuitable for upstairs use, the Sanyo made a brief return, until we discovered it won't play any discs without glitching and pixellating... a lot. And so we were down to one useable DVD player, the portable, in the bedroom and we're a little wary of using it too much since we're going to need it for the little guy to entertain himself on the 14 hour car ride up to Thunder Bay this summer (call it a right of passage).

So the new DVD player hunt began but back to the usual suspects and all they had were cheap looking (and sounding and named) DVD players and I would much rather go with a name brand or at least something that looks quality and durable. If our main player had to be a name brand, quality product but stuck in Region 1, so be it. We could always buy another $30 region-free MAX for the bedroom if ever we ever desired to watch our Britcom discs.

But the internet, miracle that it is, presented us with another option, name brand DVD players that were supposed to be Region 1 only, but have weaknesses in the coding that can be exploited for us multi-region users. Using a website that specializes in selling region-free DVD players I began cross checking the model numbers they had with the on-line shops for Best Buy and Future Shop. One of them matched, the Philips DVP5982/37, which was in stock at the two most convenient Best Buys for me.

I then did a search for the model number + "region free" and found the following on an Amazon.com discussion forum:

how do you make the Philips DVP5982/37 DVD player multi-region?

Power Up the unit with NO Disc in the tray.
Open the tray
Press the SETUP Button on the remote control
Navigate to the PREFERENCES page using the Right Arrow Key
Press the DOWN ARROW one time to select
Press the 1 button on your remote control
Press the 3 button on your remote control
Press the 8 button on your remote control
Press the 9 button on your remote control
Press the 3 button on your remote control
Press the 1 button on your remote control
The current Region Code Setting will display
Use the UP/DOWN Arrow Keys to select the region required or '0' for All Regions
Press the PLAY Button on the remote control

So this morning I bolted out of the house early for the Downsview Best Buy and an hour later was home with my new Philips DVD player... waiting for the little guy's cartoon to end first before performing the above, and - boosh! - it worked.

So, we now have a quality, name brand, region-free, untamperedwith DVD player. This excites me so. (Special thanks to Mom for the timely easter money which allowed for the purchase of this player, making our family very happy).

BNY still going strong (fought off a lot of purchasing temptation this week)... doesn't mean I'm not getting anything though (although note April 23rd's New Comic Book Day yielded me no results... crazy!)

Another month of "not buying anything" and another month of still more things piling up in my collections plate. The store credit that Aden and I have at the Silver Snail has dwindled down to next-to-nothingness (thanks to my penchant for picking up trade paperbacks), but a reprieve has been granted since my mother sent me a birthday gift certificate for more store credit (actually, she sent me a cheque which I've somehow equated to store credit in my brain. Hey, I run a comic book review site, I actually have to have some comics to review you know...)

With the month's end another pay period has come and with this bi-weekly pay my debt is at 1999 levels, which is scary good. Thanks to Aden and the government tax returns for extra help at chipping away at it. Essentially I have a little over two more pay periods to go and then that's it. Debt free. I'm thoroughly excited (and a little nervous) to suddenly have money to spend and not going in the hole at all for enjoying my life. It'll be the first time in my adult life (the first time since my university days actually) that I'll be carrying no debt and be firmly in the black (I'm already *technically* firmly in the black with house fund savings and RRSPs, but this will be the first time I'll be fully free and clear of any kind of debt). This week, I cancelled one of my credit cards and the other one I had is now the "household" credit card. Meanwhile Aden has one back-up card, as she had cancelled her other one as well. I have a plan, post-debt, for saving the bulk of my money, which should accumulate rapidly and get us that much closer to our house goal early next year.

Though I may not be fully relieved, I'm breathing a lot easier.

And now, what I didn't buy, but yet somehow still read/saw:

I got a lot of stuff in June... I also paid down my debt to within an inch of it's life. I will slay that dragon in July, once and for all. I got another lung inflammation which are becoming problematic for me and my physique. I drank a lot in june... making some wikkid sangria (3:1 wine, 1:1 fresh squeezed OJ, 1:1 triple sec, 1:1 ginger ale + chopped up fruity bits (apple and grapes and strawberries)). Oh June, so good and so bad.

An exceptionally light month on almost all fronts. Going into August I have about $21 in store credit at the LCS, which will be alleviated post Fan Expo weekend, which should last me then until the end of the year.

July 31st saw me 100% out of debt, although a miscalculation in bills vs. spending money for my first debt-free pay period has caused me to be short a few dollars for paying rent. Thankfully, I only pay rent to my wife who is willing to float me until next pay point. What a peach.

Oh August, bless you for your treasure trove of comedy and comics. My first official month out of debt and I could have went crazy with the spending, and I did, compared to the last 8 months at least, but I kept it fairly in check and the bulk of what was viewed or acquired was not out of my pocket. Getting paid-in-trade from my LCS for working the Toronto Fan Expo was pretty sweet, and if I meter my acquisitions over the next four months I should be able to make it through this entire year without having paid for a single comic book out of pocked (well, except for the one or two breakdowns at BMV books). Working the Fan Expo also afforded me the opportunity to do some immediate trade with the LCS, as on the Friday I recognized that a lot of people were asking for things we didn't have and that I had at home, so I brought them in on Saturday and got some immediate trade, which allowed Aden and myself to pick up some things without even yet dipping into our work-for-trade.

The LCS also had about 60 $0.25 bins filled with comics dating as far back as 1981 through to 1998. I noticed a lot of Legion of Super-Heroes and other curiosities that I've been pondering, and as I dug through my stack just started to grow and grow and grow. I had to stop myself (just before I got to the 40-issue run of Captain Atom) and I wound up with 180 comic books which even at 5/$1 is only $36(!). Of course, for all my hard work, they just let me walk home with them (better than them having to carry them back to the store). Wow... I probably don't need to acquire ANY more comics for the rest of the year. I still will, just, it's going to affect how much I bring home every week, knowing that I have so much to read. Of course, the books I got are runs with some gaps in them, so I'm going to have to dig around to fill in some of them (maybe there's more $0.25 bins to come?).

Finally, Aden, the little guy and I went to the Canadian National Exhibition, a loud and trashy place (where I saw a pregnant woman smoking...nice) which was an interesting experience and none that I need to repeat for a few more years. While there we wandered into one of the convention halls where there was a sales bonanza going on, including one area that was selling DVDs at 5/$20. I wanted to look, but, also knowing I'd be tempted, wanted to walk away. Aden tempted me in saying she'd pay for anything (and at $4 a pop it's cheaper buying the videos than renting). And thus we walked out with 10 +1 DVDs, some favourites (How To Get Ahead In Advertising, A Mighty Wind), some we've been meaning to rent (Munich, United '93), and two TV on DVD that satiate the Python fanatic in me (oh, and Mr. T in DC Cab, weee).

Anyway... a consumptive month after the cut.