Anime Tragedy ...

Well ... haven't updated in a while.  I'm not so sure if that's because nothing "noteworthy" happens in my life, or if it's because I'm too busy living --- going through the minutia of every day --- that I just don't feel I have the time.  Hmmm --- something to think about.

I have felt rather busy.  I have three fanfics in development right now --- two Weiss Kreuz ones, and an Orphen one --- and, I've been working on some orginal writing, too.  So, I have tried to devote a lot of time to those projects.  Plus, I've gotten a lot of new anime images scanned in, so I have been a wallpaper making fool.  New artwork always seems to do that to me, for some reason.

I have suffered a huge anime tragedy, too, which has kept me pretty busy.  I have a huge anime collection --- probably over 300 discs.  I consider it a testament to my mis-spent days of plenty of disposable income, all of which I was more than happy to "dispose" of on anime.  Anyhow, I had my discs stored in multi-media binders, which hold 300 discs each, and I discovered, by accident, that the binder covers had bent from the weight of all the discs stored in there and warped some of my DVDs.  I am really so upset.  I found out this past weekend, and I'm still whining and crying over it.  I guess I will be for some time to come.  It's just so upsetting, when you spend so much time and money putting something together, and when it's so important to you, to see it ruined through no fault of your own.  I guess that'll teach me not to get too attached to material things in the future, eh?  So far, I've gone through about 240 of the discs, to separate out what works from what doesn't, and I've found about 30 that are "broken".  I guess that's pretty good, considering that I have a lot of discs ... I mean, I could have found a lot more that were ruined.  But, each ruined one is like a little needle through my heart: 9 Rurouni Kenshin discs, including some of the best ones in the series --- the fight with Aoshi, the fight with Shishio, the fight with Soujouro; 1 Generator Gawl disc ... the final one, of course, which is the best one; 2 Fushigi Yugi discs, which only come as a box set ... at least, that's the only way I've ever seen them --- lucky for me the two ruined discs were out of the same set; 1 Getter Robo disc --- I hope it's not a box-set only ... I think I purchased it as a box, but I believe I've seen individual discs in the store; 4 Slayers discs --- 2 out of each box set I own; 2 Berserk discs; 1 Vampire Princess Miyu --- and I had just completed that series, too ... and, well, the list goes on and on and on ... each one like a lost friend.  Deep and heavy sigh.

I might be able to fix them.  A friend sent over an article about re-flattening warped CDs, and it seems like it'd work with DVDs, too, since they're basically the same, construction-wise.  I guess it's worth a try ... the discs are ruined, anyhow, so I have nothing to lose.  Failing that, I guess I'm going to have to start digging around on the Internet for cost-effective replacements, since I no longer have the disposable income I once had.  Arg!  The pain!!  The agony!!  The humanity!!

The good news is that I got a new "storage system" for the discs.  I found new binders --- hard plastic outsides, and they hold a lot fewer discs.  I filled one up and then stared at it for hours, trying to make sure the discs were staying flat ... I don't want to have to go through this again!  But, it looks like the new "books" are going to be OK.  I have 4 of them filled so far (80 discs each), and I need to purchase some more for the rest of the collection.  I had two of the "bendy" binders ... but, the second one wasn't nearly full, so I think the discs in there should be OK --- as in, not warped (I hope).  Still, there's no way I'm leaving them in there!