My middle name should be "It might come in handy one day"
I'm a terrible, inveterate hoarder, of anything which might be useful for DIY / repairs / creative projects. I do actually use the stuff, too; I have a shit memory in general, but if I need to find that bit of odd-shaped spring steel I found in the gutter in 1993, I can probably locate it.

Also like others here, I can't bear to see working tech thrown away. Now, I used to be very interested in home video (steady on), back in the 80s and 90s. Around 1993 I started to get given old VCRs - Betamax and the like - by friends who knew I liked them. Lovely old machines, built like battleships and full of grinding gears and twanging springs. I began to notice more, in junk shops, skips and even dumped in the street. It seemed that, about ten years after VHS had won the Great Format War, the nation was finally having a clear out. I couldn't stand to see these wonderful old dinosaurs ending up in landfill.

My flat started to fill up, especially once I started to try to hunt down the earliest or weirdest ones. And eBay didn't help. These days I don't tend to acquire them, mainly because I've got all the ones that I think are important to make a meaningful collection. I have around 80 of the damn things -- in a dedicated shed, as they're banned from the house!

Due to my website I've also accidentally become an expert - the go-to guy when the media want to know about early video. I've been countless newspapers, magazines, appeared on radio, TV and even been referenced by the government and consulted on feature films. All the old video tech in "Son Of Rambow" was from my shed, for example.

I've debated posting this, because a) I don't want to sound like a complete nerd (anoraknophobia), and b) it's now fairly easy to track me down on the web. Ah well.

I do have a life, really. With real women in it, too.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 4 May 2012, 16:45, 6 replies)

Nice one.
Sounds like your hoarding has been put to good use (apart from Son of Rambow! :P).
( Evil Bastardo, Fri 4 May 2012, 16:58, closed)

Son Of Rambow was great!
And MM has gone up in my estimation just for being a part of it.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Fri 4 May 2012, 17:19, closed)

Please,
leave me out of this.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 4 May 2012, 18:47, closed)

I'm sure
if we were going to stalk you, we'd already have done it . . . :D This one rigns a bell.
(username failed moderation, Fri 4 May 2012, 17:23, closed)

I think you did
At least you said you did
www.b3ta.com/questions/performance/post1329100
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 4 May 2012, 17:27, closed)

Hahaha, yeah I figured that out last time you posted about this
But I kept your secret *taps nose*
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 4 May 2012, 17:24, closed)