grindmonkeh

Wanta Fanta...Don't You WANTA!?!?
How did these bitches (I don't use that term lightly) find their way into theater pre-movie commercials and when will they please die? And whoever pioneered that concept of commercials in the cinema is a genius and a pigfucker.


Bonus Boredomkill of the day: Avoider.

To-Do List update:

Clean the Maple tree ranch out of the roof gutters.
Dig up the ugly-ass Holly bushes in the back yard.
Pour sidewalk through butterfly garden.
Build a firepit.
Requisition chainsaw and ladder and finish cutting back branches on the tree over the patio.
Install ceiling fan on front porch.
Plant Orange Jasmine and Chinese Juniper seeds and attempt Bonsai trees.
Trim hedges and shrubs.
Build a model train set that runs the perimeter of the porch's eaves.
Mail XBox to Oki.
Rewire guitar hardware.

My record collection is heavy, hard to box up, and one of those things that I'll probably never use again. I don't even have a functioning turntable since I gave mine away, but I'm indecisive on whether I should sell, donate, give them to friends, or put them back in a closet. Beastie Boys License to Ill...Pink Floyd The Final Cut....Megadeth Peace Sells, But Who's Buying?...Kenny Rogers The Gambler...an expanse of (personal) classics. I can acquire any of the music I have on vinyl in digital format, but sometimes it's nice to just pick up a record and look at the artwork at that scale and be reminded of how big those black discs seemed when you were a kid - when everything else in the world was even bigger.

Then there are books, cassettes, magazines, VHS tapes, nintendo cartridges, software, and other obscure or forgotten items of past interests to contend with. Hopefully this will be the last time that I move. I'll take pictures of my house as soon as I get settled. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off from work to start moving in.

I watched Episode III again yesterday morning while taking a break from packing. I liked it just as much as I did the first time, even taking into consideration all the criticisms that I've read of it. I'm usually pretty critical of most movies too. I dunno. suicideking4766 was right though, the book does reveal a lot that the movie either excluded or failed to purvey through character development. The latter is why a book is always better than a film in any case, but in this case I would almost say that the scene depicting Kitt Fisto's smiling decapitated head lying on Palpatine's desk was enough on its own.

the SUCK!!!!!...........it's DEAFENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bowmaster - an addictive flash game to occupy time at work. Your browser will auto-save your progress. I'm at level 31.

Book thing taken from JellyLee and Arty...

1)Total number of books owned?
Hundreds.

2) The last book I bought?
Star Wars - Labyrinth of Evil

3) The last book I read?
Star Wars - Labyrinth of Evil

4) 5 books that mean a lot to me?
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien - These were the first really challenging books I ever read. I still have the set my mom bought me for Christmas when I was ten years old.
2. The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King - It took King over 20 years to complete the series, so every few years with the release of each book I've continued reading a tale I began as a kid.
3. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - This book taught me that literary rules are imaginary.
4. 7 Tattoos - Peter Trachtenberg
5. Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King - It reminds me of my childhood with my brothers and our infatuation with anything horror. It offers little as far as literary importance, but it's still entertaining.

5) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out on their ljs.
Nah.

I have pink eye so I had to call in sick to work both last night and tonight, and will have to continue to until it clears up. I called in at the golf course too, much to my boss's disliking. To put it simply though...fuck him. I'm going to put in my two-weeks notice there on any day now for several reasons. Firstly, I bought a house and will be closing with the bank this coming Friday. I'm not going to make the 40 mile commute to Terre Haute twice a day so that I can work the part-time job. The minimal secondary income isn't necessary since Bran is moving in with me and has a decent income to contribute. The second reason I'm quitting the golf course job is because my new boss has the personality of a bovine and the business sensibility of a 3rd grader. He has roundaboutedly accused me of stealing from him twice. In both cases I had to explain why either the money or product (fucking Snickers candy bars, how thou dost tempt me) weren't there since his aforementioned lack of business sensibility could produce neither a fucking clue how to account for them by himself nor any managerial tact for approaching me in an uninsinuating and non-interrogational manner in each incident. He started acting like my buddy for a while, but has recently stopped...most likely due to my conspicuous disinterest. But, "just a couple more weeks" I've been repeatedly telling myself. It's easier to deal with when you cease giving a shit and desist putting forth any extra effort. His assistant just put in his two weeks notice as well, so he is losing the only two people that have experience in running the place. Good luck, fucker.

Life is good. But I have pink eye and I'm bored out of my gourd so I thought I'd fill in a few blanks.

About two weeks prior to the event, I attempted to order tickets for Star Wars Celebration III that took place in Indianapolis last weekend and received a message indicating that online purchasing was closed. I thought this a bad sign but attempted to get in by buying tickets at the door on the day of Saturday. It was immediately sold out, so I suppressed my disappointment and took my mom, Jim, and Bran out to eat at Don Pablo's instead. We thought about going to see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and then realized it wasn't out yet so Bran and I gave up on doing anything fun or productive and decided to drive back to Terre Haute. En route she convinced me to go back to the RCA Dome to get tickets for Sunday's Celebration III since they were still available, and then we would drive back the next day to attend. While standing in a mile long line, two guys approached with three extra tickets and I jumped at the opportunity to pay $10 dollars over the cost of each ticket to get in. Approximately 30,000 people were in Indianapolis from all over the world in attendance for all things Star Wars, and luckily for me they happened to have it right next door. I think my pictures would be just as interesting as any narrative of what took place...to anyone who gives a rat's ass.

Selling DVDs Next to Pirates
-Wired news report-
Taking its battle against rampant piracy of films and music to the front lines, Warner Home Video said it will sell cut-rate DVDs in China in a bid to compete on the counterfeiters' home turf.

Basic DVDs, to be available shortly after a film's theatrical release, will sell in China for as little as 22 yuan ($2.65), the company said. That's still more than the pirated versions readily available in China for 8 yuan ($1).
Warner's basic versions will not carry any DVD extras such as directors' interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, the company said. But versions with more features will be available a bit later for 28 yuan ($3.38).

According to the industry, theft in China of copyrights and patents cost Western companies an estimated $16 billion in lost sales each year. Despite sporadic arrests, counterfeit books, DVDs and music are easily available on almost every city street and even in shops.
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Given that you have a decent dvd-burner and computer...

$20/month - unlimited rentals (and no late fees) @BlockBuster
$.75/disc - 4.7GB DVD+R (16x speed...8x discs are cheaper)
free - dvd-shrink software
free - dvd-decrypter software
5 minutes of your time per movie (considering you don't sit and watch your computer decode, encode, and burn)
=
10 movies/month = $2.75/movie
15 movies/month = $2.08/movie

OR...

I know a certain bastard who would probably cut a pretty good deal if you rubbed him the right way.

Hey Star Wars Geeks...this is too fucking funny.

I've got a Palm m130 pda up for auction here. LJ pals get either a 10% discount taken from their winning bid or a "grab bag" of extras. The pda is perfect, but I don't use it anymore and I figured I might as well sell it to help finance the new cpu and mobo that I've ordered.

I have a video card for sale. It's a MSI Geforce 4 TI4800SE-TD8X 128mb AGP. It'll probably go cheap, so here's a good chance to upgrade. If you are interested, then looky here.

If one of my friends wins the auction, then I'll give the option of either a 5% discount or a grab-bag of extra goodies.