Where have all the good pubs gone?

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This is a really frustrating topic. Since moving to Northampton I have been striving to find a local pub. In hindsight, I should have checked before moving but four years ago it wasn’t so much of a priority.

It turns out that I don’t have any “locals”. I did go on a bit of a hunt of the local area a year or two ago, and found that all the pubs nearby have closed, many due to antisocial behaviour.

One had been closed, and turned into a block of flats. On a plus side a barbershop has also opened there, so I no longer have to queue to get my hair cut; you win some – you lose some!

The nicest pub we did find was the Elwes Arms in Little Billing, but at 1.3km away it’s not exactly local and walkable in 10 mins.

Pubs near me
Arrow marks where we are, the faintest of the markers is now a CoOp

I have had a look on WhatPub for the concise list of pubs, that also serve ale (not a real pub otherwise, right?) This is the list

In the village my parents still reside, the olde world pub, The Musgrave Arms has recently closed again after the landlords only spent 6 months there. With high maintenance costs, rent and little help from the brewery (Greene King) sometimes it just can’t be helped but for them to close. The pubs that do survive have to diversify and move into food to maintain good revenues throughout winter.

Where did this year go?

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This seems to happen every year. Christmas and Boxing Day comes round and we’re sat in that limbo between then and New Year where we come to reflect on what has happened over the past year.

Trying to remember everything is quite hard… the year has had some ups and downs, some positives and some negatives.

I’ve made lots of new friends in the car world, the fun and joy I get from tinkering with my ever ongoing project car (see Garage) and the lust for the sound of a spooling turbo is one only people who’re mixed up in the car world will understand (of which there are thousands of like minded guys and girls worldwide.

I’m also attempting to broaden my music knowledge and items on my music wish list are being bought as vinyl – (see Playing some vinyl)

I’m focusing on building my freelance work too, so if you or friends or family have a problem with your computer please get in touch or see my website for that stuff (Frantik/Whitecherry).

Family and friends mean the world to me but unfortunately as the internet strives to bring us closer, it seems that this alone is not enough. If you see me out and about say “hi” and I’ll aim to do the same! 🙂

I’d like to thank my girlfriend for sticking by me and my annoying habits for another year. The longer we’re together the closer we get.

All the best for 2019!

Ripping movies using My Movies software

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I thought I’d write a bit about what I’ve learnt about ripping movies from DVD. The process is a lot more in depth then it first may seem.

Logically, you may think it’s as easy as ripping a CD. Unfortunately, as I have now found, there is more to it.

I first started getting interested in this topic, when I got recommended a very useful movie cataloguing app called “My Movies“. I love stats, and tracking what I watch. I love IMDb, and being able to track actors across films, and genres.

I started looking into how to to import DVDs using the My Movies for Windows app which has an import feature. It works well but this is where I started getting caught up in the DVD encryption issue. So, logically, DVDs have encryption to prevent you from simply copying them with built in software.

Import disclaimer

My Movies works with either DVD Fab Passkey or AnyDVD to decrypt the movie and import it into the My Movies database. Together they work very well but a disclaimer is shown, so check local laws before proceeding (does anyone really check?).

I tested importing some DVDS for as long as trial copies of both import tools worked (around 1 month each). From what I found:

  1. The speed of your PC directly impacts the conversion process.
  2. Ideally, you want the fasted optical disk drive you can get to reduce the copy process to a minimum.
  3. You need plenty of local disk space – the movie is copied from the disk first, and then converted to a format your TV/console/player can deal with before giving you the opportunity to remove the imported version.
  4. If you have foreign language films, dealing with subtitles is the biggest pain in the ass — something which has led me to take a break from the whole test.

For now I will continue to use My Movies for it’s cataloguing and database apps. I have the iOS app and the features on that are great. I love being able to scan the barcode of a film to add it to your collection. You can also mark films out “on loan” so you don’t lose anything! Great product, overall.

I’ve only scraped the surface here but will probably write a followup post somewhere soon.