I was watching 24 last night when Jack (the main character in the show, for those of you not watching) gave some other guy his cell number. He didn’t “555…” it, so I called the number he gave. I’m a dork, I know. It gave a ‘mailbox full’ message. Instead of a person’s name, it said “Nextel phone for 24” New trend in advertising for cell phone companies? It’s even better than product placement because it requires the viewers to actually do something. I wonder if anyone actually got a real message before the mailbox filled up. I should Google that…

Speaking of Google, it looks like it’s crawled a few pages but the site search still doesn’t work worth a crap. I found a page the other day that ranks Adsense keywords and how much they’re worth. “Yahoo domains” was at the top of the list. So was a bunch of stuff for laser hair removal. Strange.

Not a lot else exciting going on… it’s warm again, so the skydiving season has started (yay!) Finally jumped my new Wings… don’t really like it that much. Still want a G4 (sorry Treeboy!)

I guess I haven’t written much about movies lately… here’s the ones I’ve seen lately:

Flight of the Phoenix – I realize we all have different perceptions and expectations and likes/dislikes… but I’m really not sure how anyone liked this movie. I gave it 1/2 star. Some people on blockbuster.com actually rated it high. Maybe they were. Here’s what I wrote on there:
“Easily on the Top 10 list of worst movies ever. It was horrible – so many plot holes, no character development. They try to take you on a rollercoaster ride and just fail miserably. It’s one ‘climax’ after another, with no real substance . Unbelievable situations get thrown in just to create action. Complete waste of time.” F-

Y Tu Mama Tambien – Back to the foreign films for a moment. It translates to “And your mother too” No dubbing, you have to read subtitles. The director, Alfonso Cuarón, went on to direct one of the Harry Potter movies after this one. That’s a pretty big swing, considering some of this film could qualify as soft-porn. There’s not a whole lot to the story, but it’s still interesting and seems very real. I’d give it a “B”

After the Sunset – I was supposed to watch “Before the Sunset” (and of course, “Before the Sunrise”) but I got distracted by this one. I mean, hello? Salma Hayek? Fun movie, that’s about it. C+

Paparazzi – Another generic ‘fun’ movie. Nothing great about it… your typical revenge story. C-

True Romance Now here’s a good movie! Written by Quentin Tarantino – actually the first screen play he ever finished. This was long ago, so it’s more “Reservoir Dogs” and less “Kill Bill” – thank god. And the all-star cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Chistopher Walken, Val Kilmer. The fight between Arquette and James Gandolfini (Tony from HBO’s Sopranos) has to be one of the most brutal ones I’ve ever seen. And the whole scene with Hopper and Walken ranks as one of the best scenes ever. Go watch this one. A-

Get Shorty I had never actually seen this one all the way through, and I want to see Be Cool which is the sequel. Good one-liners, good story, almost perfect casting… all around decent flick. B+

Ray Go watch this movie. Jamie Foxx is flawless as Ray. It’s amazing. He, and the movie, deserve every award they won. I was really amazed – I wasn’t expecting to really like the movie, but I loved it. I can’t really say anything else about it, you just have to see it to understand. A

Incredibles I’m a big Pixar fan. I see most of these for the laughs as much as to marvel at the technology that goes into it. I’ve always been fascinated by 3D animation – you almost forget that’s what this is. It’s good for the kids, the ‘grown-ups’ will be laughing at a lot of things the kids will miss… which is fairly normal with these. B-

Ok… I guess I’ve wasted enough time today…

A few weeks ago I got a ticket for jaywalking. Yes, evidently the Sinclair Community College Gestapo has nothing better to do. Granted, they’re probably pissed off with their life: They ride around on bicycles, have about 3 blocks they can ‘patrol’, never get to use their guns, never get into high-speed chases, couldn’t make it as a real cop, and spend all day having to watch people that are doing something useful with their lives. They should just put on bright orange vests and hold up a stop-sign for all the helpless adults crossing the street. The night I got one, they must have handed out 30 of them. At $70 each, that’s a healthy revenue. Oh, but that’s right, “It’s not about revenue” Bullshit. If it’s about ‘protecting the people’ and ‘teaching them a lesson’ then try handing out a few warnings here and there. Especially the first week of classes. Or better yet, if you’re standing right there, instead of watching them cross then handing out a ticket, how about saying something before someone ends up a super-dangerous situation…. like crossing a deserted street. Or would that just stamp the ‘Glorified Crossing Guard’ title on a little too much?

To top it all off, I don’t even think I was jaywalking.

I crossed the street using the crosswalk. I’ve worked downtown for 8 years, so I know that cars don’t pay much attention to the crosswalk so I’m usually looking down the street for traffic. There was none. So I can’t with 100% certainty that the light was in my favor when I actually stepped into the crosswalk, but it was when I was about 10 feet from it. It might have changed while I was crossing, but I assume that it works like traffic lights do for cars – as long as you’re in the intersection before the light turns red, you’re fine.

Who knows… the cop was a prick too. There were dozens of people walking all over the place, he probably saw me as he was writing someone else a ticket. I don’t even know where he was, but he had another officer stop me and ask me to wait for him – I guess he has a quota or a rep to create, she didn’t. I just assumed it was a warning and ‘don’t do that again’ thing. When he pulled up a few minutes later on his tricked-out Schwinn, he just started writing a ticket. At least you’re moving up Mike – they probably don’t let you carry a gun at your job as library security guard. (No really, that’s his previous or other job, library security guard) You’ve already got the makings of a great OSP officer.

I did a little research and found out that the handful of people (out of the billion jaywalking cases) that knew enough to plead ‘no contest’ got off with a $25 fine. I really wanted to be a prick right back and make him have to show up for court, but he’s one of those hardons that probably enjoys that crap. I’ll pay $25 to save myself the trip. That, and I didn’t want anyone to steal a book while he was in court.

Google Wants Your Homemade Porn Videos

In case you haven’t seen Google’s video search, you can find it here – it’s actually pretty cool.

How cool would it be to search through programs I have recorded on my Tivo?

Nasty cheap vodka? Filter it!

Some people have entirely too much time on their hands…..

Seriously… I’m tired of dealing with stupid people. Basic computer concepts – it should be a mandatory class for anyone who is planning on interacting with computers in this office. I should bring that up at the next meeting…

“Uh, yeah, I’d like to send everyone here to a remedial computer class at the local community college. They’ll teach them things like: the difference between files and folders; what a ‘left click’ does as opposed to a ‘right click’; how to navigate with Windows Explorer, and what you can do with that instead of trying to open EVERYTHING through Word; and more advanced topics such as definitions of Operating Systems and Applications. I’m sure if there’s time, they’ll cover how to move, copy, rename, and delete files… and the differences between those.”

That’d go over well. People normally enjoy being told they need to go a remedial anything. I think that’s a problem Microsoft has created. “Windows is so easy to use, a 4 year old can use it!” So if you try to tell someone they don’t have basic computer skills that a 4 year old already has, they’re insulted. Not my fault you landed in the shallow end of the gene pool. Really, you’re trying to open an executable file through Word, and you swear this is how you’ve always done it before. You swear you just edited this in Word… no… you didn’t and you never have.

What did these people do when all we had was DOS? “Where’s the ‘Any key’??” How did they ever survive when the copier had a paper jam and didn’t give them step-by-step instructions on a cute little LCD display?

When I start my own company, there’s going to be a basic IQ test required for employment. No drug test – I don’t care if you’re addicted to crack as long as you know the difference between a computer and a monitor, and that turning the monitor off and on does nothing.

Click some ads over there, or do a search or something. Please?

The site search function doesn’t work yet…. I’m hoping that just works itself out. And the Adsense stuff doesn’t really seem to give much relevent info on the home page…. if you click through specific posts it does though. Probably something about the way the page is actually built – pretty much, none of the contect is “here” it’s all pulled from blogger’s server or flickr.

Blockbuster is falling behind again – a bunch of movies in my queue are listed as ‘short wait’ or ‘long wait’ I’ve still been watching a ton of movies though. Hopefully they follow in Netflix’s footsteps and let you share your queue and movie ratings.

And I now think that Tivo is one of the greatest inventions ever.

There’s been crap for movies coming out lately, so I actually picked up a few TV series season DVDs. Greg the Bunny for one – I loved that show when it was on Fox. Please bring it back! C’mon, if they can bring back Family Guy, they can bring back Greg the Bunny! Penn & Teller: BS! is on some premium cable channel that I obviously don’t get. It’s like Myth Busters with a lot less science and a lot more cussing. Not something I’d make a point of watching if I had cable, but I’d stop and watch if I was flipping channels and it was on.

Speaking of TV – my ghetto ‘speaker-wire antenna’ does a much better job of getting a good picture in than the $50 amplified antenna I bought the other day. The amplified one can pull in stations from far away that my speaker wire has no chance of, but I get a much better picture for the local stations out of my home-brew antenna. I’m pretty sure using extra speaker wire is actually a step down from using a clothes hanger and foil, but it works rather well.

Watched a ton of movies, and I don’t feel like typing about all of them, so I’ll just list them, and if you really care you can ask my opinion about one (or more) of them:

Troy
K-19 – The Widowmaker
Rushmore
Great Escape
Soylent Green
Final Destination
Saw

I will say you should watch Saw – it’s one of the better thrillers I’ve seen in a long time. I’m still conflicted about the ended, but the movie as a whole I thought was great. Reminded me a lot of Seven. And Great Escape is a great Sunday afternoon movie. Based on a true story set in World War II. I put it in my queue because I caught something on TV where they went back to the site and were looking for artifacts and the tunnels and whatnot. And really, with James Garner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and more – how can you go wrong!?

I’m also going to write a list of Things Everyone Should Know. It will include items such as:

• Turn signals were a free option on your car, and bulbs are cheap to replace. Feel free to put some wear on them.
• When driving on the highway and about to miss your exit, just go to the next exit and turn around. Slamming on your brakes and diving through 3 lanes of traffic to exit is just not a good idea
• Your gas pedal is not binary – it has an infinite number of states. Feel free to use them as circumstances dictate
• When waiting on vehicle or pedestrian traffic to make a turn, you do not need to wait until they’ve cleared the intersection by 50 feet to start your turn

We’ll get to more later… TTFN.

Just hanging out in the dentist office. Just realized my phone can take black and white pictures. I can do sepia too. Aren’t you thrilled?

Ok, well I guess it was time to change stuff up a little anyway. This isn’t really as clean as I’d like it, but what can you do?

I’ll get the rest of the stuff (pictures, movies, etc) back on as I can… just hang out….

Then: Now:

Not bad eh?

And in case you ever thought “Huh… I wonder why a valentine heart looks nothing like an actual heart” I give you The Straight Dope‘s answer…

While I appreciate the action, this is still funny

Those Brits are a bunch of thieves… But Tivo is making it easy for people with their “TivoToGo” You don’t even have to hack your Tivo to transfer shows to your PC