saddleblasters I WISH I COULD! But my time at the Ewaste warehouse ended (the place shut down) right as this forum kicked off again. So that is 3 years ago now. And 3 years in which my memory has been demolished. My fear is that everything I do remember is completely out of date with the way things work now.
What I will say is this. I volunteered there for 4 years and enjoyed it the whole time. I was working only on the video game stuff and everything I taught myself there about getting consoles up and running again has served me well in working for Video Games New York (where I have continued to push myself - I learned how to region mod Gamecubes yesterday!). It felt good making sure so much of the stuff we love did not end up in a landfill.
And that is my larger point. The volume of stuff that flowed through that place was staggering. The amount of CRTS, computer parts, iPods, digital cameras, DVDs. It just hurts my soul to know all that potential entertainment was being junked because it was “too old.” I feel like, people on this forum know that fun is where you find it. And maybe enough of us are former poor kids who will never not know how much getting one extra game meant. How much finding you first tv by the side of the road meant. I certainly cannot shake it.
It was frustrating when people would come into the warehouse hoping to find Stadium Events for $5 and finding mostly 360 games. I mean, I was there so that if we ever did find a Stadium Events the warehouse (a non profit) could get the money. But also like, Bioshock for $5, Assassin’s Creed 2 for $5. If you don’t already have them, just impulse buy them and have a fun weekend. Grab an iPod (I still use one daily) so you don’t run your phone battery down listening to music. Grab a second 360, set up a lan session. But so many customers could not see how if you were creative you could have A LOT of fun on the cheap. I still always hit up thrift stores for $1 DVD and rip them and now have a huge digital library that I can stream watch with a friend.
Maybe I have touched on the core of a potential thread. There is sometimes a tendency to show of big purchases now that we are all adults with decent incomes, but I am always down to hear about how people are getting the most out of old “junk” tech, either for fun or for work. A message I am typing on a 2013 Macbook Air I salvaged from E-waste.
