Someone sent me a site with an interestingly appropriate name, but you probably will not believe it.  Once you hear about it you may say, "That is really a very intelligent site."  Of course, you may also respond, "Ron is really weird!"  But either is OK with me…just read on.

First, I need to give you a little history on the "why" of this site.  I, along with many of my readers judging by the emails I receive, like going to movies on occasion.  Since my kids have grown up and left the nest, my wife and I have more time (and very slightly more money) to see movies at the Regal 14.  I won’t give you any more information than you need; however, occasionally when we go to a movie I may need to get up to, ah, you know, go get a popcorn and drink refill.  I never want to run out of the movie because I might miss something important.  Therefore, I wait…

Now enter, Run Pee (runpee.com).  Just as the name suggests, it lets you know when it is safe to run and well, you guessed it; go get a drink and popcorn refill.  Run Pee has a classy mission statement, "- to help you enjoy your movie going experience and relieve your bladder at the same time".  I told you…classy!

Let’s say for instance, you want to go see "The Expendables."  If you go to RunPee.com and look in the listing to the left you can see movie lists by date of release or the movie titles.  All you do is click the link for "The Expendables" and you get a page that loads saying the movie is 1 hour, 43 minutes long.   After that movie’s information loads you will see a timeline at the top of that section.  The timeline shows good times to leave the movie at 26, 48, 65 minutes into the movie.  

It also shares information on each "good time" to leave the movie.  At the 26 minute point it says to leave when, "Barney and Christmas are in the plane heading to scout the island."  It goes on to tell you that you have approximately 4 minutes to get back so you will not miss anything.

Run Pee gives you the option of clicking, "Click to view synopsis" for that time-marker; however, it may give away important details about that part of the movie – so proceed at your own risk.

If you try it out let me know what you think.

Tags: break, exit, leave, movie, movies, popcorn, Run Pee, stallone

Over five years ago I wrote to you about an application that you could use to keep track of your books and DVDs.  I had many of you write back to me and tell me how much you liked it. Over the past year or so I have had several of you write back saying that you could no longer find "Libra" or any updates for it.  I searched the net for it and emailed all of you back telling you what I found, which was that it was no longer in production and I could not even find a forwarding address.  I did find the last version made, but I personally do not like using applications that are no longer in production.

I also told the writers that I could not really find a free replacement anywhere as good and easy to use as Libra was.  Well, now that has all changed…enter Data Crow.

I found this site from a friend who has been using it for the past several months.  Data Crow’s site says, "Data Crow is the ultimate media cataloger and media organiser." (No, that isn’t a typo, the site is registered in the Netherlands and they spell properly.)  I agree with their statement.

Say you have some DVDs or Blue-Ray discs you wish to inventory.  Whether you want this cataloging for insurance, your own personal lists or you are just hyper-organized you should give this software a try.  Data Crow is also free which makes it even easier to try.  By-the-way, the friend who uses it told me that he has over 1,200 music CDs and over 800 DVD movies he has cataloged so it will handle a bunch of data.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well I can just type in my CDs on Word or a spreadsheet program to keep track of them."  That is correct; however, Data Crow can do it much better and supply more information.

For instance, when you start it up you can use the Item Wizard and choose what you want to put in the database.  For instance, I chose DVD then I typed in the movie title I wanted to add to the database.  I entered a movie and in about 5-10 seconds it listed out several that I could choose from.  The items are from different versions of the same movie.   If you type (like I did) the TV show "Alias" it finds each season of that title.  Next, you select the correct version and it enters it into Data Crow.

But not just the name is displayed.  It adds the DVD’s case picture, all of the actors, the date of release, playing time, director, a full description of the title, and a lot more.

I haven’t tried CDs yet since I don’t have that many so I will leave that up to you to test.  If you use this Libra replacement let me know what you think. If you have a bunch of movies to keep track of it may import them from other programs, but I wouldn’t depend on that.  You may just have a lot of typing in titles ahead of you.  But don’t worry, I’m sure it will snow again and you will need something to do after shoveling.

Tags: alias, books, CD, database, datacrow, DVD, media, movie, Ron Doyle