Day 9: Piracy

As a thirty-something I try to obtain all my media legally. Since I consume a lot of media and I don't have an unlimited cash-flow the Public Library system helps a lot. Of course there is no Public Library anymore. There is one thing that I have found harder to consume legally- a kid's TV show called Peppa Pig. Roland's favorite show.

It's not that it is hard for us to watch Peppa Pig. The show has its own Youtube Channel, Roland has an App with a bunch of episodes, and we also have all the American DVDs. But because the episodes are only 5-minutes long we have seen them dozens of times. Roland even has the order of the episodes memorized. So it's nice to have some new ones every once in a while.

Usually when a new episode releases it only releases in the United Kingdom and then maybe if you wait a couple years, it will eventually make its way to the US, but it might not. Basically there is no legal way for me to own or watch these episodes. If there were a legal way I would pay for it, but there isn't any way. So I have to cheat a little bit.

Here is what I do:
Step 1- Turn on my VPN and give my computer a British IP address
Step 2- Play desired Peppa Pig episode as if I were in jolly old London
Step 3- Use Quicktime to make a Screen Recording and an Audio Recording
Step 4- Bring said Screen Recording and Audio Recording into iMovie
Step 5- Make sure the Video and Audio are perfectly synced
Step 6- Fix any lags or errors
Step 7- Render Video
Step 8- Repeat steps for every desired episode

These steps take a long time, but I now live in a world where I have a lot of time, so today I acquired 10 brand new episodes for my son. A few years ago this would have made him visibly happy, but these days he seems a little more wary of new things, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. When I sat him down to watch them he was a little tired and a little grumpy, but his eyes were glued to the screen a little more than normal, so I think overall it was a success.

We all cuddled on the couch for a while as we consumed new episodes of Peppa Pig. Cathy and I laughed a lot, it is genuinely a funny show and there is plenty for adults to appreciate. I'm not sure if Roland enjoyed the new episodes as much as us, but I think they will grow on him. 

In other news, Cathy and I have been playing a board game every day and today's board game was Settlers of Catan: Crop Trust. When Cathy saw that Catan was set up she swore a little bit. She does not appreciate that game as much as I do. But the Crop Trust scenario is actually really fantastic. You can automatically lose the game is players overfarm or there is not enough diversity among the crops. Players have to work together to make sure that all of the building of new settlements and new cities does not stress the food supply. Seeds can even be stored in a seed vault and then eventually replenished back onto the farms.


At the end of the day we watched Star Trek: Picard and drank Earl Grey Tea. To me it kind of tasted like Potpourri which was really nice.

Cathy goes back to work tomorrow, which means I have to think of something interesting that Roland and I can do together. I think being creative is key to surviving self-isolation. Lucky for me.

Board Game of the Day: 
Catan Crop Trust

TV Shows Watched: 
Picard Season 1 Episode 3 "The End is the Beginning"

Golden Grahams, Bananas & Peanut Butter for Breakfast

Cuddled Up