Geckos and DVDs

Sunday, October 2, 2022 Permalink

Given my lack of non-bookish blog posting I’m going to try to attempt random posts about stuff on my mind. I’ve mentioned before that I miss the old style blogging that was akin to a journal or keeping a diary. I realise it’s often of interest to no one but me, although I do dip in and out of others who blog daily (such as House Goes Home) and enjoy it. I often tend to jot ideas into my phone and never do anything with them. Or I start a blog post but realise either: I can’t sustain a whole post on such an inconsequential subject; and/or my topic is entirely pointless or of no interest to anyone other than me.

But… I need to get back into the habit of writing, so here I go…

When did geckos arrive and where did they come from?

My verandah, well my whole house, is often resplendent with gecko poo. It seems worse here than anywhere else I’ve lived. My house is very white. Perhaps they like light colours? Either way, I was thinking about them (ie. geckos) the other day and really only remember them coming into my consciousness when I lived in Cambodia in 1997. They were everywhere and there was even a police blotter page in the local English newspaper named after them. I also recall someone telling me they sometimes fell from the ceiling if they were mating. I’m not sure if that’s true however, and am reminded I was once told toads turn into rocks during the day, which was something I actually believed until I was in high school. 🙄

But back to geckos. I don’t remember them when I was a kid. I don’t even remember them being around in my early 20s. We didn’t have outdoor verandahs when I grew up, so maybe they were lurking but not obvious or able to get inside. Although now they scurry around my house having made their way in through tiny cracks in screen doors and airconditioners.

Maybe they were introduced accidentally at some point. Like cane toads. Or TikTok?

how to watch DVDs

How do you play DVDs in 2022?

I decided the other day I was in the mood to binge-watch some TV on DVD. I picked through my collection – which now hides away in a cupboard given the arrival of streaming services – and decided on Deadwood. It’s a loooong time since I watched the amazingly-written very sweary show (2010 according to that blog post!). But then it occurred to me I didn’t know ‘how’ to watch it. I still have my old DVD player, packed away with my non-working TiVo. But I figured surely technology has advanced since then. My laptops no longer have diskdrives. (And most don’t of course.) So I found my external disk drive and plugged it into my television.

It whirred and a light came on but nothing happened. I couldn’t connect to it as a ‘source’. So what’s a girl to do? I mean, do I need to pull out my old big cumbersome DVD player, or is there another option I’m missing?

Please feel free to comment. Advice is appreciated and most welcome. 

8 Comments
  • Vanessa
    October 2, 2022

    We have an Xbox in the lounge for games and it does dvd/blue ray/4K discs too. Have an old (non smart) tv in the bedroom & I have a blue ray player (some $10 second hand one) so I can watch tv shows in bed on my bad days.

    • Debbish
      October 7, 2022

      I should just pull my old DVD player out but it’s so bulky.

  • Denyse Whelan
    October 3, 2022

    The DVD player we have for me cost under $100 & it’s ideal. Also, you have a blog post to link up on Wednesday!! Go Deb!

    • Debbish
      October 7, 2022

      Oh… I missed the Wednesday cut-off. Sorry!!! I’ve been in Melbourne for work though home now.

      I should look for a DVD player – something small and unobtrusive as I don’t really have a proper TV cabinet or stand at the moment.

  • Susanne
    October 3, 2022

    I love your life ramblings! I actually follow your “life” category RSS on my Reeder app. I’ve found RSS feeds very useful lately.
    Watching DVDs in the 2020s is difficult! We have an external CD/DVD player that we use sometimes if we’ve bought CDs from local musicians or like recently when we watched a movie a friend had given us. This is the way to go, I guess. But I have no idea how to use one with a TV anymore unless you take out that old thing. We don’t even have a TV anymore, we use a large-screen laptop that we bought solely for watching movies.

    • Debbish
      October 7, 2022

      Does your laptop have a disk drive? Though I guess the external disk drive must work for laptops or computers, perhaps just not for my Smart TV? Very confusing.

      My mum likes listening to CDs still and though she has a DVD player and could use that for CDs, she likes to have it in the bedroom so we recently bought a small portable radio/CD player that wasn’t very expensive.

      Oh and thank you for your comment about my ramblings Susanne. I miss just blithering out my thoughts sometimes.

  • Susanne
    October 7, 2022

    No, there’s no disk drive… it’s been a long time since I’ve seen disk drives in MacBooks. And the one we use as a TV doesn’t have one either. We mostly use it for streaming movies and the likes.

    • Debbish
      October 8, 2022

      Ah yes I have Macbooks as well. I have the external disk drive but can’t even remember the last time I used / needed that.

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