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Recycling
#1
Eventually even a pack rat needs to clean his den. Our garage has become a vast storage jungle that can no longer be ignored. Also, we recently had a flurry of technological collapse. My twin 21" CRT behemoths went within the same month (over 20 years old and heavier than anvils). Then my laptop, and Lady Cranefly's, and her desktop monitor. And then we decided to scrap a couple desktops, slower than snails. It's all piled up outside under plastic, soon to be taken to an electronics recycling center.

I decided to tackle something else last weekend: my VHS tapes. I sorted through several big boxes and earmarked 143 tapes for disposal. Many of these tapes have 3 or 4 Kung Fu movies on them. We're talking my whole early history in the martial arts, watching -- and taping -- late-night movies every chance I got. I acquired others by other (sometimes disreputable) means. By my estimates, we're talking around 500 movies. It was painful.

Making matters worse, I soon discovered that VHS tapes cannot be put in your typical recycle bin. The plastic is fine, but the actual tape is a no-no. Theoretically, you can unscrew the VHS housing and then strip out the tape and toss it in regular garbage. But I tried that with one tape and it was a half-hour ordeal. No way I was doing 143 tapes like that. So we took them to a recycling center that charges 25 cents apiece for them. Nothing like having to pay to get rid of your treasures.

I did come across some VHS tapes I kept. Some old martial arts tournaments Lady Cranefly and I might be in, some of weddings, of relatives. And then there's a tape with Chinese characters on it.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/1smun3x03jkry...gnEwvFZqma

I suspect it's a tape by a fellow student (Owen?) of our Chinese trip where we competed in Jinan, but not certain. Perhaps DM can grok it.

Then there's this other tape, likely as degraded by time as it is degrading.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/d3pjgb0ic0xpk...boZ9YKK2Ha

But all of those old movies are gone, and with them a part of my past. But it's time to start letting go.
I'm nobody's pony.
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#2
i'm better set up for translating there - besides it was taking forever to download that dropbox file on my home machine.

I've got a case of WLE VHS that I should just toss. It's surely degraded past watchability now anyways...
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#3
Did something similar when I moved 2 years ago. I don't need to see me take a lesson when I was still thin, nor do I need to watch old tournaments (esp since the rules have changed over the years and the game has evolved). MST3K and other old movies, gone. Since I lived in a crack alley in SOMA, I just put them out with some really scrappy paperbacks and they magically disappeared.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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#4
...can't quite get the rest... sorry.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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