u/snacktivism

Finally got around to getting this gorgeous first-gen player on the workbench for a good going over. Plays like a champ now, and sounds absolutely fantastic.

Posted 2 long form videos in 2018, got about 220 subscribers off 15k views between the two.

Life got in the way, and I finally returned to YouTube about a month ago, just posting shorts while I finish setting up my studio space and get back to making long form content, which should be only a couple of weeks away.

Have had 7 shorts published in the last 28 days, with numbers in the third picture.

I've been posting shorts to "wake up" the channel and get it back into the algorithm, and while I'm getting views and a bit of engagment, it's... A little less than I expected based on what I'd read. Shorts aren't my long term goal for the channel, it'll be almost entirely long form once I'm ready, but the shorts I'm posting are directly related to the long form content I'll be posting, so I figure any audience I gain now will carry over.

About half of my videos are have view counts that are trending upwards, but they aren't big trends, only a couple of hundred views a day max.

I don't use AI at all for any of my content (it's all recorded and edited by hand), and my niche is apparently not oversaturated, but I feel I could be doing better.

Is there something I should be doing differently, or do I just need to keep grinding?

There is nothing quite like the tactile experience of using these older players.

They're big and they're heavy, but using them is like operating a piece of machinery, not like using home entertainment equipment nowadays.

(Also, that demo is so 1970s, it smells of cigarette smoke and wears bell-bottom jeans.)

I adopted Gimli from a shelter almost 3 months ago, and this is the exact face he made the very first time he walked up to me and put his head on my leg.

He stole my heart then, and he’s still stealing my heart now… It’s not my house anymore, it’s our house. 😌

Watched Morgan’s video last night where she showed off her recipe for a vanilla syrup and her method for making an iced vanilla latte.

Realised I had all the ingredients (and a handheld frother), so this morning, I got up, warmed up the espresso machine, made the syrup, and assembled the latte.

Absolutely great if you're a fan of flavoured coffees. I like flavor, but not crippling sweetness, so I dialed back the syrup a little, and the result was perfect.

I'll be keeping the syrup on hand from now on.

Magnavox VH8000 and Pioneer VP-1000, released 1978 and 1980 respectively.

Heroes with Helium-Neon laser tubes.

Getting the Pioneer running was easy, I just had to unjam the laser sled after a previous tech put the wrong screw in the wrong place. It's built like the proverbial tank.

The Magnavox has been an odyssey, pun fully intended. This thing, unlike the Pioneer, would make Rube Goldberg proud.

About 20 hours of work so far, including modelling and 3D printing replacement gears for the laser sled, replacing blown transistors in the high voltage power supply, replacing the capacitors in the rest of the power supply (look ma, no ripple anymore!), replacing all the tantalum capacitors on the main board, fixing the radial and tangential mirror magnets, reattaching the magnet on to the spindle, and a giving it very deep clean. It has gone from almost dead to doing basically what it should, save for actually reading the disc.

My biggest fear was that this player would show up with a broken HeNe tube, because that's about the only the thing in here I can't repair. I feared the worst when I unboxed it and the laser sled was just sliding around freely for the whole international trip over to me, I was relieved when I took the cover off and saw the tube was intact, and absolutely ecstatic when I fixed the HV power supply and the laser fired up for the first time.

Next step is to build a service stand so I can do a complete optical alignment, and after that, it should pretty much work as well as it ever has. Right now all the pieces are there, I just have to assemble the puzzle.

It’s amazing contrasting the quality of these early MCA made discs with those made even a few years later, after Pioneer became the de facto custodian of the format.

This disc was released in 1980, has analog audio without CX noise reduction, the picture is okay if a bit soft considering most of the clips are videotape transfers (probably from either Umatic or 1” Type C masters) but the audio is absolutely terrible.

It’d be a step above TV broadcasts of the time, but was probably outclassed by a decent FM tuner. It sounds flat and compressed, and is prone to sibilance during dynamic peaks.

In comparison, I have a Japanese Pioneer pressing of Motown Returns to the Apollo from 1985, which still only has analog audio, but with CX encoding, and mastered to take advantage of the full dynamic range the format offers.

It sounds absolutely incredible in comparison.

For some reason my modern(ish) Denon player is unaware of the chapter stops on this disc. The only way to skip tracks is to manually scan through. I’ll have to put this disc in my Pioneer VP-1000 and see if it can read them.

Either way, I’m quite enjoying exploring the genesis of one of my favorite formats. We all have to start somewhere, and Pioneers adoption of LD in late 1981 turned it from a niche product to something considerably more mainstream.

Got my hands on a Pioneer VP-1000, with all the trimmings. It was reassembled improperly at some point (pro tip: remember which screws are short and which are long), and when the seller installed the transport lock, it misaligned the laser sled and caused it to jam.

Took about an hour to pull it apart, take one side of the rails off, free up the sled, realign it, and put it back together.

Plays like a champion now, happily running off a 120V stepdown transformer and not worried about our 50Hz line frequency.

One more Helium-Neon hero saved from the scrap heap.

Next up is the Magnavox VH-8000 currently on its way to me… An early one with a VLP logo instead of LaserVision. Fingers crossed it shows up with an intact HeNe tube.

“Smile buddy, big smile! That’s it!”

This is one v. happy rescued dude. Our couple of months together have just been the start of his forever.

Even though he’s a typical teenager (currently ten months old) he’s still a wonderful loving doggo who wants to be involved in everything I do, and has to sleep next to me every night.

Zero regrets adopting him.

This is a list of some of the 55 posts that DJT posted on Truth Social in a 3 hour period overnight.

Low effort? I don't like the sound of that.

I’ve had my rescue boy (not 100% sure of his breed, but I know he’s a Staffordshire Terrier crossed with something) for a month now, and I noticed that he’s always been very gentle whenever he retrieved his ball, and seems to have the whole soft mouth thing going on.

Yesterday I gave him an egg, just to see what would happen, and he gingerly rolled it around and touched it with his paw a few times, then gently picked it up with his mouth, laid it down, picked it up again, and slowly took it back to his bed.

He was booping it gently with his nose, and rolling it around with his chin, and all was going well until it rolled underneath him.

He stood up, which immediately catapulted the egg off the bed and cracked it, and he looked at me utterly shocked that he’d broken his new toy.

Lucky for him, I broke it open, took away the shell, and he got to have a nice eggo treat. 🥳

I have had my small hardware store woodfire pizza oven for almost two years now, and I’m pretty sure I’ve used more for making things that aren’t pizza in that time.

I’ve made shawarma, souvla, baked bread, roasted meat (great on Christmas), baked potatoes, pretty much anything that can go in a normal oven, I’ll do in my pizza oven given the chance.

Today I bought a decently sized cast iron pot, so I seasoned it this afternoon, and tonight I made a woodfire Beef Rendang in it.

Cooked a small onion with a diced chili, half a teaspoon of ground ginger, and a teaspoon of minced garlic.

Once the onion was soft, I added 500g of diced beef, and browned it off until it became juicy.

I put in the Rendang paste (just a store bought one with good reviews) and fried it off for a minute or two until it was fragrant.

After that, I added two cups of water, turned up the heat and reduced it by half, then transferred the pot to the pizza oven without the lid.

Once it reduced by half again, I added 400ml each of coconut cream and coconut milk, put the lid on, and piled hot coals on it, and left it for an hour.

While it was cooking, I crushed and toasted 1/4 cup of peanuts and 1/4 cup of shredded coconut together, then toasted 1/4 cup of whole peanuts for the garnish.

After an hour in the pizza oven, the lid came off to let it fully reduce.

Half an hour later, I stirred the toasted coconut and peanuts through it, and left it for another half an hour, after which it the meat was super tender and had reduced to the glossy, rich, “dry” Rendang finish.

I stirred through a handful of chopped coriander, served it on coconut jasmine rice, and garnished it with chili slices, whole toasted peanuts, and a wedge of lemon.

I will be making this again… I think the only change would be to cut the beef cubes a bit larger. Other than that, it was fantastic, and if you have a pizza oven, I’d definitely recommend giving it a try.