VHS is still alive and well in the film/tv production industry. Too many of our clients can't work with DVD screeners, much as we'd prefer them to.

ION, Nature is funny.

Birdwatchers who gathered to see a rare swallow on the Angus coast were horrified when they saw it being snatched and eaten by a hungry hawk.

Twitchers headed for Lunan Bay as word spread that enthusiasts had discovered a bird so unusual that it was last seen in the area 20 years ago.

However, the red-rumped swallow, which is usually to be found in the southern Mediterranean, did not last long.

A sparrowhawk swooped and snatched the swallow from the roof of a building.

Mike Sawyer, a member of a Dundee group comprising RSPB members, said: "We were absolutely horrified. That's life I suppose."

An RSPB spokesman added: "It's very unfortunate that it was devoured after such a short space of time, and before more people had seen it.

"Sparrowhawks do feed on small birds, and this one was probably not a great student of what is rare and what is not.

"Sadly, it is just one of those things."

That's just..... really horrifically great.

Watch, a sparrow's going to shit on me on my way out of the door.

Still.at.work. Bah. But I think I just unravelled my loop. Yay!

My husband was just telling me about that.

For god's sake, can someone do my laundry?

Ok. Bright shiny spot in my day so far?

I went to order 2 books from Amazon for a total of $32.something. It wound up at $20.something because I had leftover gift certificate. I'll take it!

I have a birthday party tonight, so things may get better.

ita, I can't even do my own. If I had to fight with your neighbors over machines, and have to deal with them calling the manager when I was three minutes late getting my stuff out of the dryer (and it wasn't the only dryer), I'd have to kill them, and frame you for the crime, because I'm not tough enough to make it in prison.

Well, the first two loads are in. I just sat there and stared at the dirty laundry, wanting clean clothes and thought: "It's just an action. Just a thing I have to do, and I'll get what I want."

In the face of the things I want over which I feel completely powerless, a very small deal.

So the first two loads are in, and I will fuck up anyone who gets in the way of my action.

Yeah, the VHS Obit came up in today's meeting about digital media collections... the consensus seemed to be "the machine at home collects dust most of the time but professionally, it's not going away anytime soon."

As for commercial TV collections, I remember the BtVS ones but never bought them. Hub bought a bunch of anime series back in the day that were quite expensive by comparison to US series; we're haphazardly replacing them with DVDs, and the space savings over 8 or 10 tapes is a new and exciting wonder every time.

The VCR gets used most for taping unexpectedly cool TV shows on Discovery and History and the like that we're not going to pay $20 bucks for.