Beyond the Gates

Jan and I powered up the home theater system last night.

Of course the Barrett home theatre system is slightly different from the traditional idea. We use an old digital projector that cost me $0, and I am dreading the day that I have to replace the bulb in it! No $1000 high tech screen for us, no sirree, we got a nice flat $0 wall! In the summer we use the neighbours wall, but last night it was minus way too many degrees for an outside adventure.

Surround sound? Nope we don't need that! There is nothing wrong with the built in mono speakers in the projector!

Normally Jan and I watch movies straight from the computer, so I was a little confused about what to do with something that was actually on a DVD. I was pretty certain that we had a DVD player, and after a little bit of investigating found one attached to the TV in the bedroom.

Of course the problem was how the hell do we go from DVD player to projector without a computer? I solved that by using the cable that goes from the Super Nintendo (Yes we have one, and I like Super Mario) to the TV.

I realised that there were still some obstacles that needed to be resolved before we could enjoy the main feature. The number one problem was to find the remote control for the player. I tore the bedroom apart, and finally located it under the bed! I don't know why I didn't look there first!

Feeling pretty confident I tried to start the movie, the remote though was being un-cooperative. It has 20 gazzilion buttons on it, all I want is the "Play this movie now" button.

After randomly pressing things, and a good deal of cussing the movie finally starts.

Things went swimingly for about 45 minutes, then disaster struck, I needed a beer, a cigarette, and a bathroom break. Jan, being the boss, had taken control of the remote, so I asked her to Pause the movie. With my bladder empty, my lungs polluted, and a full can of Lucky Extra, I was ready for part 2.

Of course there is no "Unpause the movie and watch the rest of it" button on the stinking remote!

We spent 10 minutes trying to Un-Pause the movie, all to no avail. We ended up having to restart from the beginning and watch it at 8x speed until we got to where we wanted to be.

This is technology that is truely frightening!

Oh, incidently it was a really great movie, it is not in theaters yet, but when it gets there, go see it. Beyond the Gates is well worth the price of admission. My review can be found here.

Oh and if you don't beleive this is a true story, just go ask Jan!