Downloading video from FC2 the hard way

In this age of streaming video, some websites make it easy to grab clips off the website. Bless those websites who make it easy. However, a curse of pox to those who go out of their way to make it difficult.

FC2 is one of those make it difficult websites. There is no download option. And online webpage utilities are mostly useless. They do have their uses.

First off, all websites claiming to offer tools for grabbing FC2 video LIE. None of the ones I tried were able to grab anything. 1 however DID grab something which ultimately proved useful. A Playlist. And not just any playlist. FC2 makes it difficult to download videos by breaking them up into smaller segments. The playlist I got for the video I wanted was 148 smaller ".ts" files. .ts stands for Transport Stream. When I looked at it, it's essentially an MP4 h264 encoded file without an index.

Looking at the play list, it was a list of URLs for all the smaller parts. I grabbed the 1st 3 and used DOS' Binary Concatenate Copy feature to test them. And as hopefully expected, it played in VLC where it was able to confirm the compressor and resolution.

About an hour and 148 segments later and a couple batch files run, I had my video file! Though one more thing was necessary. I used an older version of Media Coder which I like and copied the raw streams directly into an MP4 container file which displayed the duration and let me seek around without issues.

There's an opportunity for someone to make a program for either Desktop or Android which opens a target file, finds that segment play list, and then sequentially access and download each piece and saves it as 1 file. Can anyone do that without f^cking things up? No viruses or malware??

First time making Miso soup

I have never made miso soup before from a recipe. I have made it from instant soup packets loaded with sodium but for some reason, I decided I would try making it from a recipe to hopefully make it as low sodium as possible.

I have 4 different books with 4 different but ultimately similar recipes. Only 1 required the use of instant dashi granules. I really don't have the patience (or other means) to boil several cups of water, add Bonito flakes for Hondashi, drain and strain, soak dried wakame for 30 minutes, boil and strain again... No, this will take too long. I'm going to starve from that.

This ultimately started with me finding Aldi's sold Extra Firm tofu and I ordered it via InstaFart. Then after I got it, I'm asking myself, "What do I do now?" Salads, cookies? I had the last of the baggie of scallions in the fridge so Miso soup it is! I just needed miso paste. I got some sort of 5 ounce "Sweet" Light Miso packet off Amazon and after paying $6 in shipping and pulling the product out of the bag did I realize I should have bought 2 squeeze packets. But how often do I think I'll make miso soup anyway? Are those few remaining scallions in the fridge still good?

Extra firm tofu, 4 cups of water, scallions, mushrooms, mirin - all that is sodium free or naturally low sodium. The real question was the sodium in the dashi granules and the Miso paste. I don't have the package for the Hondashi and I didn't examine the konbu dashi package closely yet, but their uses were 1 teaspoon per 2 cups of water with 1 teaspoon for the konbu. I used 4 tablespoons (60 g) of miso paste, 1 tablespoon per cup of water. That had 450mg of sodium per tablespoon but remember, it is diluted in water. I could have reduced it to 3 tablespoons.

The recipe I ended up following is in Step by Step Asian. Very easy.

Boil water, add dashi granules. Reduce heat, add mushrooms and cubed tofu. Simmer 3 minutes. Add miso (and mirin), simmer another 3 minutes and stir to dissolve it throughout. Shut off heat, add sliced / chopped scallions. Serve hot / heated. Serves up to 4.

How did it taste? I don't have any comparison but I liked it. The other recipes claim the drain and strain Dashi is better, but why would the instant non drain versions exist then? I got it made quickly, tasted fine, and was edible.

I didn't have any wakame, so I took a sheet of nori and cut it up into pieces and added that instead. I think it helped the experience and flavor. I have some unopened hijiki, but it needs a 30 minute cold water soak as well.

I put the extra soup in containers and in the fridge. I'll try this stuff cold later in the week.

I really did own a Defender coin op upright game

Story time if you'll indulge me.

A lot of people don't believe me when I say I used to own a Defender upright cabinet. Then I show them this.

Background : While I tried to go to DeVry Institute of Technology in the mid 1980s in Columbus Ohio, there was this company called The Game Exchange across the street. Somehow one of my roommates learned they dealt with coin up arcade games and in late 1986 was having a warehouse sale. And we all thought "Oh Boy!" But being poor college students, we couldn't afford much. I wanted a working Qbert upright. One roommate scored a complete Star Trek vectorscan game which needed work (he later got it fully working) and I... bought this incomplete Defender (no monitor and parts pilfered power supply but had complete documents) for $50.

We managed to get the things back to the apartment, quickly determined what we needed just to get things to turn on, and next week returned to the business to see if I could at least buy 2 parts - a rectifying bridge and a huge pop can capacitor. Cost was $21. That got the power supply working and verified the board at least worked because of the self test sound from the speaker. No display. We tried going back again but the owner was a jerk and chased us out and refused to let us buy anything more because we were "bothering his employees." I'm not sorry to know that business is long gone.

Being DeVry students, we tried rigging up a circuit to convert the signals to be usable through an RF modulator and it almost worked. Never quite finished that doohickey.

It was a huge load to lug back home via Uhaul truck when my attempt at a college education ultimately failed. The cabinet lived in the dining room until it was moved to the basement after which I got a rubber mallot and gently coerced the cabinet apart. The game computer was stored in my bedroom. That is until 1997.

WebTV happened. Sailor Moon happened. Anime North was about to happen. I needed money. Could I sell my Defender? There was a Usenet newsgroup for doing that and I posted a message. A fellow from Pittsburgh drove to my house and picked it up in person. Handed me $80 (I was asking $75 for it) and he got everything. Had a great time in Toronto a month or so later.

I redeemed that decision by buying Defender 2000 for my Atari Jaguar. 

The tokens I used to have...?

At one point in my life, I had a decent coin and game token collection. I guess I can say that now, because it got stolen out of my storage unit during 2018. I made the mistake of handing something so important to me to another only to never see it again.

I amassed the token collection from my 18 months at Showbiz Pizza Place in Columbus. I loved doing game pull and going through the coins. I collected a lot of Other tokens during that time. What I forgot I did at one point was write down a list of the unique tokens I had. To wit:

• Abra Kadabra Pizza Magic
• Gallatin Bank parking token
• Aladdin's Castle (picture)
• Putt Putt Plus
• The Palace
• American Amusement
• Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time Theatre
• Showbiz Pizza Place
• Gladieux Corporation
• Buckeye Game Room
• The Wizard Family Arcade
• Malibu Castle & Showboat
• Fun n Games
• Capt. Darrell's Oyster Bar & Game Room on the Boardwalk Daytona Beach, Florida
• Amusement Wampum
• Jupiter and Beyond
• Crazy C.A.T.S.
• Fair Play Pizza Theater
• Big City Game Room
• Station Break Family Amusement Centers
• Lincoln Lane Brunswick 2000
• Funway Freeway Officer Mohair
• Games People Play
• Show Rental
• Olds Pizza Connection
• Silverball Game Room
• Ellwest-Jolar Amusement Centers
• Electric Animal & Screen Door Co.
• Video Vibes
• Rocky's Gamerooms Russell, KY
• Circus Playhouse Food Emporium
• Fun Factory
• Burger King
• Lunar Landing
• Red Roof Inns
• Kings Video Columbus Square Bowling Palace
• Funtasia Family Amusement Centers
• Cedar Point Arcades
• Game Trek
• Arcade City
• Jim's Jukebox Junction
• Smorga Bob's Family Restaurant
• Twilight Zone Family Videogame Centers
• New Tech Amusements
• Kmart  RND Video Game Specialist
• Razz ma Tazz Pizza Palace
• Future Games Inc
• Play Palace Family Amusement Centers
• Fancie Annie's
• Paradise Books (ahem)
• Fantasia Family Electronic Game Centers
• The Game Room
• Six Flags Log Ride
• Major Magic's All Star Pizza Revue
• Red Baron Family Fun Center
• Coca Cola (?)
• Regina's Movies
• Old Town America's Good Time Family Entertainment Center
• Bally's Le Mans Family Fun Centers
• 1984 World's Fair Video Expo which had different designs such as Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Ms. Pac-Man

Here's why we should keep the Daylight Saving Time changes

I understand the Senate has drawn up and proposed legislation to make Daylight Saving Time a permanent thing by Fall 2023. This is a bad idea and here's why.

1. Persons affected by Seasonal Affected Depression are greatly affected by the change in sunlight hours for the daytime hours they are typically awake and active. They are at risk if they experience less sunlight hours during the Winter months. There may be light therapies which try to take the place of sunlight but it's no guarantee to actually work.

2. Who's going to update all the obsolete technology still in use because they still serve a vital role and have the time change hard coded into their systems? How much will that cost? Who's going to force companies to 'fix' all of that? Not everything gets their time from Atomic Clock signals or wireless networks.

3. The time change is also a reminder to check your smoke alarm batteries and replace them. Not all safety alarms make noises when their battery is low. What better reminder could there be?

Nearly everyone who complains about setting their clocks and watches every time are selfish people who don't want to admit they don't know how to set their clocks or watches and don't care who else benefits from Standard Time or Daylight Saving. President George W Bush thought enough of Daylight Saving Time for him to get it extended 2 weeks during his tenure.

Our planet dictates how many sunlight hours we get at any point in its orbit around our sun and while the tilt affects seasonal change, it's not going to straighten up during our time. It's our job to recognize what we're given and make the best of it. Keep the time change practice the law of our land.

A quick and dirty "Chess" program in Atari BASIC

Since firing up my 600XL and archiving my first few floppies, I've been hanging around the AtariAge forums. I ran across one person's post about a small chess program they wrote when they were 8 and over 30 years later they rewrote it from memory. I grabbed the screen captures and in Altirra, revised the code into just 10 lines. They were from Spain methinks so the pieces have different names. 

This is also me testing my Alcatel 4G data connection to send photos and posts to my blog again. For some reason the previous phone lost that ability.

A Productive Night with my Atari 800XL

For the first time in over 18 years I finally hooked my Atari 800XL up to my TV via composite video from a monitor cable and a power supply from The Brewing Academy. The last time it had been powered on was August 2003 when we were moving out of the Euclid Avenue house which my mom lost due to foreclosure from taking out a 2nd mortgage after running up her credit cards while suffering from Bipolar Manic Depression. She had been injured on the job and was waiting for disability to kick in while fending off People's Credit Card filing a lawsuit against her in Alliance Municipal Court over $3,000 she owed them. There's a much longer story to be told, some of it involving an evil sister thief who stole from their own family.

We moved into my grandparents' house to hide / wait things out. It was the last time I had used my Atari 800XL for translating manga and lots of other various tasks which I managed to do with it. It got disconnected and boxed up.  What happened was my mom buying a Windows XP Dell desktop computer. I still used WebTV and then I got the Toshiba Satellite 440CDX Windows 95 laptop to use. 

It was also the last time I got to use an Atari 1040ST which I somehow sold to a friend.

There were things about my 800XL which I forgot about and will hopefully fix like the Joystick ports. They're loose and probably need the solder reflowed. I haven't opened it up since I installed the 256K RAMbo XL upgrade. And after testing a box of software cartridges, I have a cartridge slot to clean out. They all eventually worked, but only after going through them all a couple times. I will likely clean the cartridges, too.

I miss using my Atari 8-bit. Thankfully I also found AtariArtist to go with my Touch Tablet. Hopefully I also have the light pen software. Computereyes became obsolete for capturing images off analog video. I feel bad for ruining our first VCR using it.

At any rate, it was good to see it turn on and work again. Though one of the dome switches I soldered to one joystick PCB will need to be replaced. It got obliterated in testing.

It would also be nice if The Brewing Academy would include a card indicating while the yellow plug is Composite (come POZ zit) Video, Black is audio.

My grandfather wasn't always that great

During the time I worked at Long John Silver's, I learned to be careful with what I told my grandfather over the phone especially after work when I'd come home in pain all tired and exhausted. Mom learned quickly not to tell him all about her suffering because he'd sit there on the other end just chortling away, gleeful at our suffering. I made that mistake once and then Mom would talk to him later and hear him laughing as he talked after hearing from me. That's when she advised me to be careful with how much I told him because as she put it "He's just sitting there being entertained by hearing you saying how much you're tired." 

Rather than tell me (or us) how proud he was (he wasn't) we had jobs and were working hard, his toxic retired ass sat there enjoying his delight over our misery. He put in a lot of years at Minerva Wax Paper and had a good pension in his retirement so he was living rather comfortably. But being supportive and nurturing wasn't something he did. He wanted people dependent on him and our financial independence was a threat to that.

He was at least a toxic father, didn't much appreciate being a grandparent (at least not that I could tell), but somehow embraced being a Great Grandparent when my first niece came along. 

I still remember the one time he left a message on the answering machine (a shame I don't think I still have the tape) calling me a "Goddamn sonuvabitch b@stard." Gee, thanks, Grandpa. Love you, too.

Rurouni Kenshin to get a new anime

I hope this is successful and popular and it pisses people off because those are the ones who need to get a life.

I'm not a fan of Kenshin so I won't be watching and everyone is sick of the vitriol which gets dredged up. You don't like what he did? Go away, don't comment, go on some other forum and spew there. Lots of web space everywhere else. It's like parking too close to the driver's side door of the only a car in a parking lot just to annoy the owner.

Atari 2600 for Christmas: 40 years on

40 years ago, my mom crossed a labor picket line to work the presses at Merit Plastics in East Canton along with her friend Frances R. She did this for several months until she had saved up quite a bit of money, then went to Service Merchandise in Canton, Ohio to buy our first Atari 2600 and 2 games, Combat and Space Invaders. I know these details because I recently came across the sales receipt for that 2600.

It would be awhile before we would get more games. I got Kaboom! for my birthday. Pac-man was bought at Electronic Service with funds kindly provided by some guy she was seeing though he didn't know he was paying. Hehehe!

Finally, the great North American Video Game market Crash happened and the local Fisher's Big Wheel had a container display full of marked down cartridges. $9.99 each! What does a kid do? I went out and collected aluminum cans to recycle. One summer, Hershey had this rebate program where you send in candy bar wrappers and they send you a check for $5. Only thing to it was there was no limit to how many times you could do it. I collected those wrappers out of garbage barrels at the parks, took them home to iron flat, then stuffed envelopes. I read the directions very carefully. I don't remember how much money I earned this way, but judging from the cartridges in my collection, it was quite a lot! I can still tell you which games I got at Fisher's.

We were hard on that 1st 2600. The power supply needed replaced at least once. I remember rebuilding the old one. Then we had to get another 2600 because of the stress of use but by then they were much cheaper. The Atari Club sent their Atari Age magazine and they sold the popular Joystick Repair Kit. We also ordered a few games direct from the club. The Saturday spent playing and solving Raiders of the Lost Ark was a good one!

Mom would later say she regretted buying that 1st Atari 2600 because I stopped going outside to play for the most part. I had enough of the neighborhood bullies and brats. I'm fricking glad I found something I could be good at. Video games made my clumsy child age a lot better.