Internet Church Sunday

Spending time with the family, with COVID-19, pretty much means immediate family. You'd likely need FaceTime, Skype, Hangouts, or some such method to "visit" with other family.

Church is problematic, too. You've got the danger of being infected by others. In Georgia, most of the areas with large outbreaks came from gatherings such as church and funerals.

We're suggesting that you attend church services online. My local church offers online services on YouTube, and I fire up the Roku when it's time for services. Other churches use another service for streaming. Others stream solely from their Website.

Whatever the case, search for services in your area and see what's available, if your church doesn't offer online services. For example, if you were in Savannah, GA, you could go to Google and search for "church services online Savannah GA"[new tab] and see what results you get. Do that for your area, and see what's available.

Don't let the virus keep you from experiencing your local church, or at least as close to your local church as you can. And be safe.

Easter Sunday 2020

The Empty Tomb

Luke 24: 1-9

1. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
6. He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7. Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
8. And they remembered his words,
9. And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.

Isolation

Me, probably.

So, sitting alone at home. Not afraid to go out, just not having to.

The good news is, I haven’t bought gas in … heck, I don’t remember when I last bought gas. Because workplace is all scared of the virus thing and has me working remote, I don’t need to go outside for anything. Well, to get the mail.

I do get the mail, because even though it’s mostly junk that goes straight to the trash, if my car is under the carport, and the mail starts building up, the postal worker might tell someone to go check on me, so I clean out the USPS trash can and put everything in my trash can. So, I have a purpose in life, it seems.

Shower. Shave. (Yes, still shaving.) Eat. Work. Sleep. Watch some movies. Occasional run to the grocery store.

Is this what it’s like being retired? If so, I will only need something to fill the time that I’m currently spending on work and I’m set.

I could spend that time watching the news, I suppose. Well, no I can’t since I dropped cable ten years ago. Which I still don’t miss. And don’t want to go back to. Ever.

Well, I still got some time to figure all that out. Unless during one of my trips to the grocery store, some virus-infected person shares with me and none of this really matters. We’ll cross that bridge if the road goes that way.

I don’t know what may come down the road, but for now, I really need a haircut.

Movie Library Rebuild Completed

I mentioned around first of the year that I had accidentally deleted my entire movie library. It was over 1.500 at the time I went stupid. I've been working on rebuilding it for some time.

Well, I'm done.

It's not exactly the same. Previously, I was using iTunes running on a Windows 10 machine to serve up my local files. I downloaded all my iTunes purchases, and played them through iTunes on my Apple TV. And I ripped all my DVDs out and imported them into iTunes as MP4 files.

At the time, the total movie count was 1,525 of which 1,259 were iTunes purchases.

I decided to move everything to Plex, allowing me to stream to more devices. I could have left my Apple purchases in iTunes, and put the non-Apple content in Plex, but that would mean switching apps depending on what I wanted to watch. I didn't want that. I wanted everything in one app, and I wanted more than iTunes offered. So, I installed Plex and began moving everything over.

Along the way, I screwed up and while intending to delete the iTunes content I had already moved over, I instead deleted the iTunes content I hadn't moved over. The total opposite of what I wanted to do.

So began the long process of rebuilding a fairly large movie library.

One thing I didn't like about iTunes was that they had two categories of content: TV Shows and Movies. (I'm not counting music videos, which went into the Music category. Music is another story entirely.)

Of the things that iTunes called "Movies" were things like short films, such as some old Buster Keaton two-reelers. You can make the case that they're movies. But they also listed Disney shorts -- think Mickey and the Beanstalk -- as movies.

And MST3K episodes were movies. Of the movies riffed, around 150 were available through iTunes, and I had them. But, really, I think of those as TV episodes, not movies.

Some Warner Brothers shorts were listed in iTunes as "TV Shows" even though they were just collections of shorts.

With Plex, I had complete control over how I categorized the content. I created three main categories: Movies, Shorts, and TV Shows.

I finished up my last import of iTunes content into Plex. Yes, I had to rip it out because of Apple's copy protection. Yes, I know they don't like it. No, I really don't care, because I'm using it as my own personal use, not for distribution.

Anyway, it's done. I now have 1,587 movies. Real movies. The number is up because I've continued to build my library as I restored it.

I have 568 short films. That's individual Bugs Bunny or Donald Duck cartoons, along with the Buster Keaton and other similar shorts. I have them tagged with ways that are useful to me, for when I want to watch certain things: Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Bugs Bunny, Frisky Puppy, Road Runner, Sylverster, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, etc.

And I am building my TV Shows library. I didn't really have that done in iTunes, so I didn't lose anything there. But, I have all the MST3K listed as episodes of that TV show. Also, I've done the shows I own full series of: Star Trek (original), Firefly, The Fugitive, The IT Crowd, Men Into Space, The Outer Limits (original), The Twilight Zone (original), and Get Smart. I'm working on Doctor Who right now, and have the first ten seasons. One more Jon Pertwee season, then on to Tom Baker.

So, finally -- fi-nal-ly -- my movie library is rebuilt.

Now, to watch it all. Starting with the unriffed MST3K movies.

Unriffed MSTie Movie Library: Cheating, Just A Little

As I near completion of my Unriffed MSTie Movie Library -- the intact movies that the MST3K crew riffed -- I found I'm having to cheat a little to finish up the library. Well, maybe it's cheating, and maybe it's not.

It is. But only a little.

The KTMA season had a movie called "Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars." It's a feature length film made from four episodes of the 1967-68 British TV show, "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons."



While "Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars" isn't available online, VHS tapes are available, but I'm not paying over $100 for one. So, it's do without, right?

Well, not exactly.

There are videos of the opening and closing credits of the movie available online, because of course there are. It's relatively cheap to get episodes of the series online. The entire series is cheaper than the movie.

I have the KTMA episode, with Joel, Crow, and Servo (he wasn't yet Tom Servo), so I have a rough template of the movie. So, with the four episodes of the show, the movie opening and closing, and a computer to edit them together, I was able to reconstruct the movie. And, I think I did a pretty good job. The original movie was 1:31, and as it turned out, so was my reconstruction.

So, is that cheating? Yeah, it is. But, I'm gonna count it as having the movie, until I can find one reasonably priced.

Same thing with Season 3 movies "Master Ninja I" and "Master Ninja II" which were made from two episodes each of the 1984 TV series "The Master." I can't find the movies anywhere, but I was able to get episodes of the show. So, using the MST3K riffed version as a guide, I was able to reconstruct the movie from the episodes. Yes, still cheating a little, but it's darn close to the original.

The only other movies that were made from TV episodes were in the KTMA season: "Invaders from the Deep," which was from the show "Stingray," and "Cosmic Princess," which was from "Space: 1999." Both of those movies are available, and for a reasonable price, so no reconstruction is necessary.

I'm still looking for the movies to replace my reconstructions, so I won't remain in "cheat" status. But, I'll just look the other way until then.

Unriffed MSTie Movie Library: Nearing Completion

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was about 2/3 way through having a complete collection of the MSTie movies. Not the episodes -- I have all of those except KTMA episode 3 (nobody has that) -- but the actual movies that the crew riffed. Either the original release, or the edited for U.S. audience version that the MST3K crew had when they made the show.

Why would I want to watch, say, "Manos: The Hands of Fate" or "Santa Claus vs The Devil" without Joel/Mike and the Bots? Because I can. Well, when I get all the movies, I can.

I've made some progress since my last update. I've gone from needing 70 movies to needing 15. How in the world did I get 55 movies so quickly? Well, there's bargain bins. And Amazon and eBay have people selling multi-movie DVD packs.

And, if you keep searching, you can find them. I've got a lead on 6 more, but those are individual movies, and I'm hoping to find a multi-pack with the remaining films so I can save some money.

I'm still missing:

KTMA

• Invaders from the Deep
• Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
• The Last Chase

Season 2

• Jungle Goddess

Season 3

• The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent

Season 5

• Village of the Giants

Season 6

• The Dead Talk Back
• Last of the Wild Horses
• San Francisco International
• The Starfighters

Season 8

• Agent for H.A.R.M.

Season 9

• Werewolf (Arizona Werewolf)
• The Projected Man

Season 10

• Hamlet (Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark)

Season 11

• Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II

Of those, I've located on individual DVD (and one VHS tape) the following, but am still looking to find on a multi-movie pack are:

• Invaders from the Deep (on VHS)
• Jungle Goddess
• The Last Chase
• The Projected Man
• The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent
• Village of the Giants
• Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II

If I break down and purchase those individually, that will leave me only 10 shy of a full collection. But, I'm cheap, so I'm holding out.

I can't wait to finish this collection. I really need to watch some of these movies I own.

A Horde of Hoarders

Went grocery shopping last night. Went down my shopping list and saw that paper towels were on the list. Toilet paper, too.

I have a paper towel rack -- one -- in the kitchen. And, I keep one or two paper towel rolls in the cabinet above the stove. When the cabinet is empty, I buy another two-pack. Been that way for years.

Similar with the TP. Four rolls. When I'm down to two, I get another four-pack. Been that way for years.

Now, the horde of idiots that are hoarding paper products have already ransacked the grocery stores. here There were single rolls of store brand paper towels, and I got two, like always.

But no TP.

There will be no follow-up post about that last point. You're welcome.