Best. Comic. Today.
I used to to sneak out of my room to try to watch Dukes of Hazzard. It was on way past my bedtime, so I’d have to hide under a chair right outside the tv room so my parents wouldn’t see me. I usually ended up falling asleep under that chair.

Not cold, and not quite July… but close enough, right? 4:00 and it’s 72 degrees out – love this weather. Would love it more if I wasn’t working so damn much.

Anyway… haven’t put anything on here in awhile, and probably won’t for some time. Between work, school, and buying a house – I’m pretty much spent. You can still pat me on the back though – I automated one person’s job, got 3 “A”s, and might even close early on the house.

Haven’t had much time for movies either… most of my sitting in front of the TV was used catching up on shows I’ve missed – I love Tivo. Nothing that spectacular even comes to mind… Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself was different/decent… Salton Sea was worth watching (I thought.. many people disagree) Be Cool was disappointing. I Heart Huckabees and Aviator I could suggest to most people they watch. I think I’m one of the minority that actually thought Closer was a good movie. I’m not sure I liked it, but it was a good movie… if that makes sense.

Don’t have time to elaborate any more than that. Wish I could, because this is really more for me than it is for you.

C’mon people.. help me out here… I need more expensive gadgets for free.
Free PSP – most of the offers are crap, but I highly recommend blockbuster online. And there’s two other offers on there that give you free stuff for doing a trial – an MP3 player or a $25 card to Kmart. So, more free stuff. I like free stuff. I was called ‘cheap’ last night – ‘… but in a good way.’ I guess that’s ok. I like fancy, useless gadgets – I just don’t want to pay for them 😀

Here’s a few pictures from Vegas:

One of my favorites – this is east of hoover damn on whatever road that is. There’s literally nothing for 100 miles

The Insanity Ride I talked about

View from atop Hoover Dam (away from Lake Mead, obviously)

Is it sad that on the road approaching the dam from the west, I said “Dam… this looks just like Grand Theft Auto”

A few tips if you’re going to do it:

Don’t be in a hurry. Everything with these people takes forever. If they say “…normally takes 3-5 days” plan on 10-15. I think it was almost 2 months ago I first submitted my account for review/order, that took a week, they put me on hold for what they thought was fraudulent activity, took a week to clear that, they reviewed again, finally placed order. Yes, they review your account. So, don’t try to sign up for multiple offers yourself… And if someone else in your household is going to sign up, have them use their work address or something.
I wasn’t trying real hard, I think it was 8 or 9 months ago I first signed up… if you’re really in a hurry for this free thing, just go buy it.

Get a new email account. Whatever email address you sign up with will start getting spam. Start a new hotmail account or something.

When you send someone the link/email to sign up, tell them to check their junk mail if they didn’t get it. Also, ask them to tell you they’ve signed up and wait for your “ok” to complete an offer. I missed out on 2 people doing something because of whatever reason, it didn’t give me credit for referring them. Have them sign up first, then check your referals to make sure they’re there.

Do offers you’re actually interested in. I can’t say enough good things about the blockbuster online dvd rental, so I’ve been telling people to try that one. The rest… eh… I wouldn’t suggest doing something and trying to remember to cancel it later (and don’t cancel right after signing up, that’s part of their “review for fraudulent activity) If there’s not an offer there that interests you, check back later – they change. Actually, I was planning on doing the Napster trial, but it’s not there anymore. Frown So if there is one there you’re interested in, hop on it. Most of the offers really are free, but some might require you to pay something to join, or if you forget to cancel during the trail they charge you, or you have to buy more stuff later… read the print carefully to figure out exactly what they expect you to do to get credit.

Make sure you allow pop-ups for the site and read exactly what you have to do – there’s one or two that you don’t get credit for the offer if you don’t go beyond the free trial. Most of them it doesn’t matter though. Heck, I even got a $10 gift certificate to amazon.com with the offer I did!

And in case you didn’t read on the site what you were signing up for, you do need to get 5 other people to do the same thing you just did. It’s not really all that hard – especially with something you might actually want to try like blockbuster online. Some of the other offers seem like a ripoff though. But keep checking back, the offers change from time to time.

If you’re trying for a free iPod, feel free to put your referal link on the comments – I can’t get another iPod. I am however going to start with the Free PSP site now, and give that one a shot. So, if you want to try, click that and sign up, and let me know you did.

My free ipod is here!!!
More later….

I’ve been writing bits of this for the last week… so forgive me if it jumps around a bit.

So I went to Vegas for the first time – weeee! 🙂 I wasn’t all that devious (this time) so the “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” will not apply here.

The trip didn’t start out so hot. I dislike Delta, and I hate Atlanta. I woke up around 4am to get to my 6:25am flight (I know, those of you who know me are calling BS that I woke up at 4am) and that was all fine and dandy. About 60 miles out from ATL, weather moved over the airport. ATL doesn’t handle any kind of weather well. They shut down the airport, we diverted to Huntsville, AL. By the time we got into ATL, my connecting flight to Las Vegas had already left. The following flight started getting delayed.
Now I’m annoyed.
I check with the gate agent for a seat assignment, and she says “You’re not on this flight” What?! The Delta person announced as we were getting off the plane that those of us on flight 1492 had been moved to flight 200. Well, I guess we weren’t actually. So back to the other side of the airport I go to talk with a booking agent on the phone. She was going to put me on a 2:30 flight until I said “Uh, no, flight 200 is still here, put me on that” Of course the flight was packed, but I got on. The flight to Vegas following that one was scheduled to leave a few minutes after my flight (my new one kept getting delayed) so I thought about just getting on that one – but then it started getting delayed too. Sigh. At least I got a great aerial view of Hoover Dam on the way in.
Finally got into Vegas around 4pm (was supposed to be there at 10am) – my bad luck stopped there.

Vegas is a town like no other. I felt like I was walking through Disney World or something. Ok, Disney world but dirtier… and less kids. I’ll get some pictures up later. It really does just feel like an adult amusement park though. Wild stuff. Didn’t get much accomplished Saturday, just wandered around the strip looking at all the Casinos. New York New York has to be my favorite from the outside – the hotel looks like the NYC skyline. Someone spent a LOT of time designing that one. The Luxor and MGM are impressive as well. The Bellagio easily wins the award for “Most Awesome Interior” – very impressive. You also need to catch the fountain show out front. NYNY has to be a close second though. Actually, I didn’t actually go in a lot of them. We stayed at the Boardwalk – it’s cheap, right in the middle of the strip, and has a 24-hour inexpensive buffet. Other than that, I can’t strongly suggest staying there if you’re planning on spending lots of time in your hotel. It served its purpose though, and had one of the greatest blackjack dealers ever.

Sunday we made use of the Las Vegas Monorail to check out the other end of the strip. If I remember correctly, there’s 3 monorails in Vegas – two of them run a short distance between a couple of the Casinos. Those are free, and come in handy if it’s hot out and you’ve been walking too much. Doesn’t save you a ton of time or walking, but give you a chance to sit down and cool off. The third is the LV Monorail which runs the east side of the strip from the MGM Grand to the Sahara. It can cover that distance pretty quick, but it seems a little expensive – $3/person no matter how far you’re going. They have day passes and 3 day passes and whatnot, but it still gets up there. And it seems to break down a lot – we got screwed on that one time and had to walk back. Another tip: wear comfortable shoes. We also didn’t use up all the rides on a 10-ride pass (they let you share that one) Funny side note: I tried to give the rest of the rides away as we were leaving. I asked these people walking past “You guys leaving or will you be here awhile?” They kept walking and the guy mumbled something about leaving today until I said “Oh! No! I’m not trying to sell you anything!” Then they stopped, said they were leaving but not until late at night. I gave them the monorail ticket and explained what it was if they could just have it if they’d use it. I can understand the preprogrammed response though – everywhere you go people ask how long you’re in town for, if you’re married, would you like free show tickets. I mean everywhere – on the street, in parts of the casinos… it’s annoying. I think they’re selling some time-share BS, and you have to go listen to their pitch, but you get free stuff. I guess if you have time to kill and can resist a hard sell. These people are more annoying than the “stripper leaflets people”
Speaking of getting around – unless you’re there by yourself, the shuttle from the airport doesn’t make much sense. If there’s 2 or more of you, just take a cab. It’ll cost you about the same and it’ll be quicker.

We took the monorail up to Sahara and walked the rest of the way to the Stratosphere. This is a great place to get a good view of the strip. They also have some fun rides – I did the High Roller, Big Shot, and Insanity. If you followed the previous link, you can read about the thrill rides and check out the webcams. The High Roller is a good way to see the city 😀 I wasn’t ready for the Big Shot – I thought we were going to drop, not get shot upwards at 45mph. Insanity was neat, scary, and made me dizzy – seriously, don’t eat before you get on that thing.

From there it was on to see Mystere. This was my second Cirque show – I’ve seen Varekai as well. They’re both great shows, I’d recommend them to anyone. I liked the theater better for Mystere (the other one was a touring one though) but I think I liked some of the acts better in Varekai. Both great though.

Surprisingly, I didn’t actually do a ton of gambling. The few times I did though, it just seemed like I couldn’t lose. I played slot for a little while at NYNY and won like $130 (I normally don’t play slots) and again played slots at the airport waiting for my flight and won about $80 (I just wanted to spin!!!) These we all just quarter slots too – maybe I should have been playing dollars!! The only time I sat down at a table was the blackjack table at our hotel. In about an hour or so I won $300 there. I did have help from the dealer though – he was the greatest dealer ever. He was a riot, he was helping people (maybe more than he should have) and he was making fun of the stupid people – including the crappy singers we could hear in the lounge and the guy who split twos! (maybe he was feeling lucky??) The only money I lost was $5 playing Keno once. Lesson here is to not play a game you have no understanding of. I still don’t get it… it’s like a cross between bingo and the lottery.

Monday we made a last minute decision to ditch the dam tour finding effort in favor of renting a bike and riding out to the dam. The first person that actually answered the phone and said “Come on over” got my business – it was Eagle Rider (link goes to main site – they have locations all over) – picked up a Road King for 24 hours. Talk about a good time! Rode out to the dam, then up north around Lake Mead National Recreational Area – I was planning on going through the Valley of Fire, but there was a nasty storm in the way. If you’ve never been on a bike, in the middle of the desert, with no place to hide, in the middle of a storm – don’t. A tad scary when I was expecting the wind to blow that bike right off the road. Not to mention the lightning strikes. Anyway, it was a good time, and we ‘cruised the strip’ (ok, went down it once) Good way to see the area, I highly recommend.

Trip back was uneventful and on time. Well, for the most part. The first flight I had all 3 seats to myself (yay!!) and got in 25 minutes early. The second flight left 10 minutes late, but made most of it up in flight. From wheels up to touch down it was literally 14 minutes – seems like a waste doesn’t it? And yes, flight time was supposed to be 20.

Anyway, pictures eventually will be up here…

If you came to this site because you got some junk email with the ‘reply to’ address set to some random letters@wildbluesky.com – it wasn’t me. However, since you’re already curious and looking, I will offer a reward if you find out who actually sent it. Yes, I’m placing a bounty on a spammer’s head 🙂 I’m not sure what the reward will be… fame, money, surplus computer equipment… I don’t know. I saw one copy of one of the variations, and it looked to come from magic.fr – and that does seem to be some service provider. So, maybe you have something similar? Good place to start.

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?