I don’t know what he does for a living now, but years ago he sold Movies in CD format, in front of some of the open air bars in the Barrio. They were cheap about 25 pesos each, and the quality was fair to terrible, we never got angry because that was his rice bowl and he was feeding his family with the profits. Most of us with Satellite TV Systems partook of his services because with the slightest rain the TV went off. This is just part of the adventure that is life on these tropical islands. Living in the Philippines harkens back to an old Navy expression; “If you can’t stand the roar of the big guns, remove your arse from main deck.
We could only assume that all the CD’s he sold were legal because he has such an honest smile. I would also burn copies of the CD’s both movies and music to bring to work on the ships with me. If you took the originals bought on the street there might or could be a small conflict with the customs agent in the country you were entering. The rule used to be, we could tell the agents that we burned them for our own use, from our legally purchased copyrighted CD’s at home. Now the ball is in his court to prove that we were not speaking the truth.
Time has moved on to a new millennium, CD’s have faded into history along with 8-Tracks cassettes and the reverberation machine hooked to my AM Radio in my 1964 Galaxy 500 Convertable. Now because we still have a rainy season, we downloaded off the World Wide Webby onto a USB format. Proving the more things change it still remains pretty much the same. (Of course they are legal too!)So as the rain pours down, and the satellite TV cuts out over and over, and sometimes the electric follows close behind. Some days I’ll forgo the generator, grab my E-reader with over 3000 books to chose from (All garnered legally of course) and read until a nap overtakes me. It’s just not that hot during the rain so even a fan is not required up on my mountain.
Other seasons of the year, I tend to go outside and visit friends and use the TV a lot less. Please don’t assume that I’m anti-TV as some people claim to be, I don’t really believe them either. But it sounds nice to hear them say it.
So that is a small part of the Rainy Season on the Big Island of Luzon, the other two regions will be vastly different than here. There are 7,700 (Depending on the Tide) Islands in the Archipelagoes of the Philippines. All are great, but the weather is different.
My favorite rainy day USB
I have copies of some of the US NEWS media channels recorded the day after the November 2016 elections, which I play when I get sick of hearing about Russia. So I play them a lot. Also there is a new program from CNN about those nice people from Mastodonia who cheated one candidate out of the presidency. How hated, that poor little country must be. Damn them!!!
I’ll enclose a map to Mastodonia as most people can’t find it. (Go to Greece and take a left). Alexander the great was from there and he stomped butt on all of Europe, (There was no United States during the reign of Alexander the Grape). Yes he owned vineyards too.
True enough Paul… I recon that I pay a fee to get cable tv in Barrio. Now I never watch telly… Only my asawa and our son watch Aktion TV, or GMA, or whatever… Mainly soap movies with terrible moumous, lots of cries… And usually quite badly interpreted !
Me… over the net, I watch my documentaries on european channels (swiss tv mainly, as I am from there…). I even don’t watch tv over the net, as quality has become more and more crappy, with “reality shows” where reality is just a fantasy… No more nice movies… Less and less good documentaries… And one-sided mainstream informations… So, like you, i load my USB keys with series, old movies… And my e-reader is loaded with classic fantasy/sci-fi novels, which I enjoy to read a bit before my afternoon nap… Luckily I don’t suffer much from brown-outs, as I installed a big generator, so even when our local power provider goes dark, I still can browse the Wild Wild Web ! Now if PLDT chooses to go dark too… I’m done….
Tripack;
In the 1960’s when I was in the US Navy, I took a Europe-rail trip around Europe by train that was my first and only time to visit Switzerland. The train pulled into a tiny village and I got off and spent two days there. I might have been the first sailor they met, but a wonderful time was had. My generator is 18 years old (Honda) and still fires on the first pull. Like you I watch what I want to vice what they tell me to.
Um, shouldn’t that be ”Macedonia”?
rblevy
Very true if one is a member of the spelling police, And wouldn’t it follow that your name should start with a capital letter? Let he who has’t no sin…………………….
I’m so busted. Mea culpa. But about your double negative….
If you start out being negative, then I revert to double negative so as not to be out done!.I’ll submit everything to you from now on so you may check it then forward it to Bob. máxima culpa (Former Altar Boy from Boston) (LOL)
Paul the [movie] pirate? Who would have thunk it?
gc165;
Whoa Nellie! I clearly stated we were pretty sure that all royalties had been paid by the Philippines distributor. I would feel bad cheating an actor out of his money He only earned $20,000,000 and had to work 3-4 months that year.. (LOL) Any way,my salesman didn’t say Aye mate at any time or go Arrrrr when talking to us! (LOL)
Yeah but the distributors may say things like what will be coming out next month! HEHE! Evolution! It’s the 21rst century!
I do have regular cable TV with a few premium channels. I would rather watch from there than downloading and streaming to a TV all the time. I do know about the rain fade on your Sat TV. That is the deal breaker for me.
The movie industry has figured out, pretty much, that the copyright laws need to be updated. Back when we could record a TV show off HBO with a VCR and let our friends view it, there was nothing really said. Now sharing is on a grand scale. Laws need to catch up. As far as I know, it isn’t against the law to share.
I run into those DVD sellers outside of Robinsons every month. I don’t buy because it is way to easy to find on the internet if there is something I want to watch bad enough. My PC doesn’t have any pirating software installed as there is other ways to get it. And I am sure these DVDs helps China more than any other entity involved. I avoid if money changes hands. 😉
gc165
There is cable or landline where I live, its satellite or local channels off an antenna on a 50 foot piece of bamboo is the only deal I have. In 2122 we are told we might even get a landline. Oh Joy!
I don’t think there is any pirated stuff here in the RP; I’d be really shocked if there was! But I don’t buy those CD’s any more either. (LOL)
50 foot? Almost get Sat TV on that!
Yeah, I have been following all your articles. Your crappy internet and such. Where I am now, we don’t have radio. But a few weeks ago PLDT came by and offered me fiber internet and I almost passed out at my door step. But I have 15Mb Globe DSL which has been 99% reliable. I live in a Yolanda area and all the phone lines are new so it is very reliable.
I am not too fond of PLDT. I had a DSL package with Digitel right before PLDT bought them. Then PLDT told me I had to get on there DSL or I might lose my connection. Problem was they simply wanted me to sign a new contract for the same service and spend more money. I told them they bought Digitel and they bought the contracts too. PLDT didn’t like me anymore.
There are many old movies and series released for free public consumption, void now of copyright restrictions. (My kids are enjoying various 1950s and 60s offerings, all truly 100% legal. So much in the public domain these days, and increasingly even excellent new offerings which you can’t ever make an overnight trek to see in any theater, they’re only released for downloading online!. Check before you download. The future is already here now, one just needs to notice.
ED;
Break the law! Who me? The thought makes me shutter. I love the old movies because the actors stayed out of politics and got rich entertaining me and not lecturing me. AS if we need some person who is paid to say what other people thinking they can inform us.
Paul, I notice your pic is of a 4Gb USB flash drive. I purchased a 2Tb (that’s tera-byte vrs giga-byte) thumb recently for way-cheap 760pesos, less than the (now comparatively) tiny capacity cost a dozen years ago. Of course it’s taking forever to copy my 2Tb hard disk contents to it, but better than a cabinet full of aggregately way-more-expensive hand-burned CD’s and DVD’s that kids just love to scratch up till useless. Besides, my DVD burner died a couple or so years ago and I’m in no panic to replace it, no need.
Reminds me of when these little USB thumbs were way-new. Had an Internet Cafe back in my prior life then, and our employee asked how to burn a DVD. Happy to oblige, I brought her outside, handed her an old DVD and showed her how to frizbee it into the can of blazing basura. Burned nicely, though stinky.
ED;
4 Gig on a thumb drive is all I need, slap a couple of TV series and a movie on it and I’m off to the races. The same with music for my car, I’ve yet to turn on a radio and hear any RAP CRAP. (LOL) My tunes or nothing. But I have 4 terabyte removable memory units that I keep my movies, TV series and Music on, and now I need another for more C&W and Classic Rock music that I always legally download!!! (Blue eyes, never lie!)
Exactly Paul, you have 4TB devices and I only have half that capacity. 🙂 One reason I find my old (incidentally my daughter killed it anyway) flash drive insufficient is that sometimes what I need to load just plain wouldn’t fit, and I’m tired of having the kids ask today for something I erased to make room for what they asked me for just prior to that. Better to just have portable capacity sufficient for what’s periodically desired by the family (and oh, a few science offerings for me too now that the last science channel has disappeared from cable service). For me 64Gb is just barely enough for that, but since 2TB is the same price (or less!) I might as well get the much larger capacity when buying today.
ED
I can remember when a 100 Gig was huge, I have friends that like to borrow my music and download it. They also share with me, and know that I also have backed it all up in case some device shit’s the bed! (Yes that happened once, but never twice!) I will donate it all to the VFW when the time comes or I go deaf.
Paul, you’re about my age, so you should also remember when the first 20Mb (that’s megs not gigs or more) “desktop” hard disk drive cost I think it was about $5000 (five thousand Dollars). That was just for the futuristic harddisk drive, never mind anything to plug it into to maybe actually make it do something. We used to pray for a buck-a-meg to happen someday! Within a couple or so years they were a bargain half price, almost way down to 1$ per meg – wow!
That was of course long after my 8″ single-sided FLOPPIES, I don’t remember that early 70’s capacity, maybe 240k *after* they managed to increase the density. The floppy disk drives cost a few thousand $ each and a box of ten 8″ floppies was a special order for a few *hundreds* of $ per box of 10 (plus import duties and various taxes).
Movies? hahahahaha, on a computer “?!?, not even something to dream about or so it seemed way back then whereas today we really do live in sci-fi land
If someone had told me that before I die I’d buy a 2TB drive smaller than the tip of my baby-finger for less than $20 and store *movies* on it to move around and watch on my computer or way-big inch-thin flat-screen TV …. dream on, really, even Startrek (TOS) didn’t have anything like that way back when even an “apple” was something we picked off the tree in the backyard and ate.
By our expectations back then, I must be about 500 years old now and the human race has somehow miraculously survived and progressed past the year 2500. Let me check my Cotelco calendar – it is the year 2517(AD) right now, yes?
ED;
As I was leaving the ships in 1999 the Zip drive was the newest buggiest big deal in stowage. If they change again they are leaving me behind, I’m done..
Ed,
I hate to break the new to you my friend, but if you paid 760peso for a 2Tb flash drive…..it’s not really a 2Tb drive. China churns out these hacked USBs all day long that look like 2Tb if you plug them in at look at the capacity; however they are much, much lower capacity, probably closer to the 4Gb that Paul is using. This has been going on many years but just advertised as 2Tb since that was the largest capacity to just come out……and they cost closer to $1500USD right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kix3JKn08OU
Turns out you’re right about that Panama. The way things go these days it _could_ have been the new price point, but seems I may have been expecting a bit too much too fast. The good high-capacity drives will also plummet in price in due course when the next gen again happens. In the interim I suppose I’ll have to buy another (real) HD drive for around 4-ish K-pesos.
One comment, your mention of $1500USD seems more appropriate for an SSD drive, which wasn’t what I was posting about.
The bad flash drive has been received by the supplier with refund from them coming in due course. Lazada is good about such thus far.
Ed,
The same thing happened to me over a decade ago with an SD card from China I purchased on ebay before I found out it was hacked. I don’t buy memory/storage from any Hong Kong vendors anymore. But yeah, the USB is around $1500 now for the 2 TB. Try running a search for Kingston Digital 2TB DataTraveler Ultimate GT USB.
Dennis;
USB A thumb drive, or Memory Stick I posted a picture so we old guys would know what was in my granddaughters hand as she plugged it into her laptop! (LOL) Granddaughters keep me up to date! OH you don’t have to be kind and rewind USB’s!
Good article Paul, very good subject!
While all the experts are gathered around, I wonder if I can get a little input on something I’ve been trying to do for my Wifes, Lolo. On our last visit there he and I were having our afternoon Kopiko and discussing where we live (Rocky Mountain Region) of the States. Somehow our conversation turned to the wild west and his love for John Wayne movies. Ever since that conversation I’ve been trying to figure out how to record some movies for the kids there to play for him. I keep hearing about the problem with recording in one region (Us) and then not being able to play it in another (RP). Oh, and I would like to introduce him to Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns too!
Thanks
SteveC;
There was a time when that was true because of the difference in TV’s and VCR tapes. I really can’t explain what those differences were, but with the new formats I do know they are gone. Anything you digitize in one area will play in another area. As best as I know!
Hi Paul,
Good article! We were in the Philippines once and I decided to take my boys to one of the Transformer movies that had just come out. I forget which one. I think we paid 150 pesos per head because it was in 3-D. The next day a nephew presented me with a DVD copy of the same movie that had just come out that week. He paid 25 pesos for it. Like you said the quality wasn’t the best part of the movie was missing and you could hear people chatting during part of it. I decided not to bring it back with us to the US just in case.
BTW, we just watched Transformer 5 on my son’s birthday. I tried to talk him out of it but he wanted to see it. Wow what a mess! I actually enjoyed some of the other movies. The director made this one really strangely complicated.
Peace
Jay
Jay;
My Granddaughter wanted me to download the latest “The Fate of the Furious” (Fast & Furious 8) (2017) I understand that movie makers in Hollywood have no concept of history, but when Vin Diesel can drive from Miami Florida to Havana Cuba on the Overseas Highway (rt.A1A) which used to end in Key West. Now they are messing with Geography. I seldom watch “Blockbusters” because they are so far fetched. So I understand how you feel about transformer movies, the kids do love them and we do love the kids. Hollywood knows this! (LOL)
Stay well!
Hi Paul,
Are you talking about posting comments or articles?
Peace
Jay
Articles
Hi Paul,
I did submit an article recently. Bob said he would probably run it next week, but I guess he hasn’t had a chance to edit it. So I don’t know. I am almost finished with another article and have another I think I will write and submit. I have other ideas for articles, but I am unsure if I will write them.
After that I don’t know I started writing a science fiction novel, but I am finding it difficult to stay focused on a long writing task sense I grown accustomed to short articles.
Peace
Jay
Jay;
Everyone has a book in them, move at your own speed you are not on any deadline. (Good luck)
Looking forward to your article.