I am a moron. A total and complete moron. I truly lower the collective IQ of the world by around 70 points or so. Single Celled organisms could complete a page of arithmetic problems faster than I could recognize what the “+” sign meant.
The drool that escapes from my mouth as I sit here incoherently typing has a more fundamental intelligence than I have garnered in my 24 years of life.
I’m studying tonight. I’ve been studying most of the day. I want to reward myself by watching Alias and The Practice. “But” says I “if I tape it, I can watch 2 hours of programming in an hour and a half. That will save time.”
So I tape the programs as I go off to work on a class outline for those two hours.
I come back at 10 o clock, ready to sit down and watch the shows. I press the rewind button and it whirs for a second and then stops. Huh? I press it again. It stops a second later.
“Strange…” I think, “the only reason it would be at the beginning of the tape after recording all this time is if it rewound itself. But why would it do that unless…OH CRAP!”
The tape can hold 8 hours of programming. 8 freaking hours! And, instead of bothering to rewind it when I started recording, I decided to leave it be. Because heaven forbid I record over that Just Shoot Me that comes before ER, or perhaps two hours of pure crap programming that I recorded when I left the VCR running too long. No no! I must keep those in the interest of national security.
Apparently I decided that, because the laws of physics and the space time continuum cease to apply in a 2 foot square radius around my VCR, it’s quite possible to fit 2 full hours of programming into 36 minutes of tape.
That sucks, Ender. You need to get a VCR that rewinds when it gets to the end of the tape and continues recording. This is what mine does. You miss a few minutes during the rewind, but overall, it’s preferable to missing the entire show.
(Super secret Ender-only BTW message: book #4 is coming out in paper in May of next year, as far as I can tell. I know, it’s absurd and possibly an error.)
I usually tape Family Guy for my SO (I have cable and he doesn’t so the picture on my tv is clearer). I’ve been putting them all on one tape, one right after the other. Two weeks ago it didn’t occur to me that I had a few of them on the 6 hour tape. I just popped it in, knowing it was at the end of the most recent episode. When I went back to look at it and “cue it up”, I noticed that the tape had popped out of the vcr. My mind said, “Oh no. It only does that when it gets to the end of the tape.” Then it desperately said, “Maybe it caught all but the commercials at the end…”
No such luck. I felt so much worse because I wasn’t taping it for myself, but for someone else. UGH!\
First you need to understand - the tuner on out TV is a little off. If you go past channel 48 (VH1) the reception is a kinda crappy. No problem - we use the tuner on the VCR. Fine.
Last night my wife sets up the VCR to record a movie she wants to see that’s showing late at night on one of the Classic Movie stations. I know all about it. I watch her set it up. She turns off the VCR.
Later in the evening I decide to check the Weather Channel for tomorrow’s weather. I turn on the VCR. I think to myself “I had better remember to turn this off.” Do I remember to turn it off?
I should chime in here, i tried to record the sopranos, because i had to work that sunday, and becuse i kept missing the encores. I set up my vcr to record and all i got was the local FOX affiliate.
I wonder if i can hack using a DVD player. I can use this computer, right?!
THE SETUP
A friend of mine is a resident alien from London. She’s been in the US for several years. She misses many of the programs she used to watch back home. Some member of her family kindly sent her a tape of one of the shows, Manor Born, I think. Insisting that these shows are wonderful, she loans me the tape.
FORESHADOWING:
The kindly relative did not break off the little tab on the back of the tape that prevents recording.
PLOT DEVELOPMENT:
After viewing a portion of the tape, I conclude that these shows are not wonderful and press stop, absent mindedly leaving the tape in the VCR. It is Wednesday. My VCR is programed to record a certain show that comes on Wednesday evenings, whilst I am typically asleep. Incidently this show features copious amounts of nudity (the stars are Julie and Tiffany for anyone who wants to know).
CLIMAX:
I awaken approximately 45 minutes after the start of the aforementioned program with a panic. I dash to the den where I discover that the VCR has dutifully been recording.
CONCLUSION:
The next day I rewind to the proper point and record 45 minutes of Nick Jr. I then go to Barnes & Noble and find a copy of the program in the BBC section and sheepishly apologize for the error. (Of course I did not tell her about the first overdub.)
BTW, she accepted the apology and did not seem to be too upset by the loss of a couple of episodes.