As I have grown older, I have become obsessed with preservation...
well... that's not actually true. I've been like this for a long time. When I say I'm obsessed as well, I mean to the point of compulsion.
I have something akin to 200 or so VHS tapes filled with tv programs from the nineties. Stacks and stacks of DVDs, but my DVD burner has died and the DRM that a lot of broadcasts are laced with also has done a fair job of killing my ability to hold onto that.

If you have a VCR, you could probably still use its record feature, and then digitize that.

At this stage, it's a lot less of an issue. Things are being released on DVD pretty regularly. It's all the junk from the 90's that is the problem since very few people are bothering to try to release stuff from back then.

Sadly, the DVD releases are not always pure, though. My parents recently bought a DVD set of the 70s show WKRP in Cincinnati, and the show was apparently hacked to pieces because of various music copyright issues. I think they even said the theme song wasn't in it, which was by far the best part of that show.

They did the same with the Northern Exposure DVDs - ripped out all the licensed music cues, replaced them with generic music. It's surprising how much of an effect it can have.




Success!




This is one of my few irreconcilable differences with Mrs. OL. I like to keep my books looking as pristine as possible - no scuffs, nice dust jacket, clean pages, etc.

The first thing Mrs. OL does when she gets a book is break its spine so that it will lie flat when she's reading it.

I can't bear to watch it.

Wow. I knew a lot of people here felt similarly to me on archiving but I never realized quite how similar we were.

Incidentally, I still would love to use this project as a way to preserve otherwise endangered and mostly lost Storyline material. God knows there's plenty of stuff that falls into that category. >_>

@Barinellos: It's good that you have that stuff from the 90s honestly, since a lot of it is probably almost impossible to find now, and you might be the only vector for preservation in some cases.

AGH!...
I never ever even open the book all the way up so as not to damage the spine.
The cover gets a little curved, but getting put on the shelf will flatten that back out.

I've made others buy me new books for having broken the spine of things I've leant them!


I know this to be absolutely true of several things recorded.
But recently not true of other things, like Digimon which FINALLY got a DvD release.

Since I'm in an open sourcey mood I thought I'd quickly drop a post here with the list of the open source programs that I used to assemble Seasons of Dusk.

The epub file was created in Sigil: https://github.com/user-none/Sigil
The PDF was created in LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/

Barinellos and I used Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign for the graphics but it looks like there are comparable open source alternatives in the form of
GIMP (analogous to Photoshop): http://www.gimp.org/
Krita (analogous to Corel Draw): http://krita.org/
Scribus (analogous to InDesign; I haven't tried this yet): http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus
Inkscape (analogous to Illustrator; again, I haven't tried this yet): http://www.inkscape.org/en/

I highly recommend trying out LibreOffice and Sigil (if you know HTML and CSS) since they're powerful tools and it'd be great for folks that uh... aren't me to be able to put together anthologies in the future. I'd be glad to do some tutorials for how I produced Seasons of Dusk if people are interested. It'd be great if we could actually run multiple anthology projects concurrently, and I think if we want that to be successful it'd be good to broaden the knowledge base where production is concerned.

(In closed source news, though, I DID manage to get CS4 reinstalled today. It still works, thank goodness. So thankfully I can still open all the CS4 files that have M:EM content--they didn't get lost in the crash.)

I am swamped with guilt over the fact that I have read so little of the material everyone else has been producing.
The only defense I have for myself is just that the processing power involved in producing tends to wipe me out.

The weird thing is that it only applies to online works. Holding a paper book, no problems, but the screen ends up tying up all my mental run-times.

... I'm starting to think the comparison of my brain to a computer is both too appropriate and damaging to my psyche.

@ Barinellos - You don't need the computer comparison, or to feel guilty. What you're describing, it happens. Our brains get worn out, and things which are similar enough to the things we're tired of can be the victims of splash damage.

Bad example: I once spent about six months listening to "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi about 27 times a day. After that, I did not much want to hear "Living on a Prayer." Just the mere sound of the "woompa-woompa" intro made me shudder. Nor, for that matter, did I much want to hear anything else by Bon Jovi. But I still got up and danced like an idiot any time, say, "Rio" or "Tainted Love" came on.

(Fortunately, I have since recovered, and can now enjoy "Living on a Prayer" again. Harmony is restored to the universe.)

Yeah, I wouldn't feel super stressed about it. You can always catch up. I mean, I still haven't read the final section of Legacies so...

Oh hey speaking of things I haven't read, how many Ultimatums do you have now? Didn't you have anthology plans for those?

But yeah, point is, there's plenty of people here who prioritize producing over consuming material, and you're also a producer in the sense that you seem to be guiding a number of folks in the creation of their work, so don't stress too much.

Plus, the whole point of this is for everyone involved to have fun and feel creatively fulfilled. Guilt ain't on the menu.

Okay, I'm not very sure how to go about this here, but I'll give it a go.

Hi, I'm Planechaser. I got into Magic the Gathering around the end of the Innistrad block, and have liked it ever since, eventually becoming the Johnny Vorthos that I am today. While I have yet to make much evident progress, when I get into a fandom, I almost always look for a gap where I can make my own characters and make my own spin on it. I hope to add a few characters to the M:EM in time. Thanks go to Barinellos for talking to me and showing me to the site. I'll take any advice or guidance about the site anyone's willing to give. Thank you, the M:EM looks like a lot of fun, I hope to be a part of it eventually. I don't know what else to say now.

Welcome to the site, Planechaser! It's great to see a new face around here! There's a lot to see so let us know if you need help getting acclimated.

Man your name is familiar. No idea why but it's nagging at the back of my mind.

The only way I imagine I would be familiar to you is if you frequent the MTGSalvation forums. While UCP makes sense, I'm still not sure how exactly to go about making a signature.

Howdy, Planeschaser! Allow me to join Keeper on the welcome wagon, provided there's room.

(I'll sit in the middle seat, if need be.)

Hi! Barinellos pretty much gave me the heads up from MTGSalvation Forums that my OC endeavors were better fitted here, so I've been checking it out ever so slowly. Just not sure how everything works and goes together.

I was going to link you to the wiki faq but then I realized that the wiki doesn't officially exist yet so here's the Tumblr faq: http://magicexpandedmultiverse.tumblr.com/FAQ

What have you been working on OC wise?

*wrings hands together*

Welcome, Planechaser. I hope you catch it. O_O

*nearly inaudible whine escapes parched, cloying throat*

I HOPE YOU CATCH IT.

Hi, Planechaser! My name is RavenoftheBlack and I'm an al...chemist? Anyway, welcome, and have fun!