Finally, FINALLY, after all the hullabaloo about Blu-ray versus HD-DVD, I have caved and bought a new VCR.
My old VCR crapped out probably about three years ago and I've got a lot of old VHS tapes sitting on my shelves. I just gave my DVD player to my sister and went and got a new VHS/DVD combo player. Pretty good deal, if anyone's asking(no one is asking).
I bet you're wondering, "Jeff, why don't you just buy all those old, crappy movies* on DVD which now are sure to come loaded with special features and commentaries?" I'll tell you- besides the nostalgic quality, the fact that my friends and I almost primarily watch VHS movies, I also have quite a few old blank tapes of the videos I made with my friends, stuff taped from TV, and a couple of dirty movies on videotape.
ANYWAY- I had spent a long time with my old DVD player and had gotten pretty used to its remote control. With its tiny buttons and awkward cheap-o layout, I had gotten to a point where I could work with it really fast.
Now I've got this "new" piece of technology and a whole new remote and I have to learn how to use it. The layout is different, even more cheap-o, and JUST different enough that I have to pause and squint my eyes everytime I'm watching a movie or TV show. Like, the DVD Menu button is on the opposite side of the remote, the Pause button is inverted than it's previous position, and the Play button, the button one uses THE LEAST, is the largest, most prominent molded rubber switch on the whole damn thing.
So now, I sit here watching my Pan&Scan copy of Sylvester Stallone's "The Specialist" and it has been so long, it's like watching a new movie. Oh the joys of a new format. Thank you, science!
*Highlights from my VHS collection include: Demolition Man, Speed, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Executive Decision, and The Peacemaker.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Why We’re Protecting Marriage
Here's a preface:
Many people know, or at least they will now, I'm not the most political person in the world. I get intimidated, annoyed, and frustrated by all the lobbying, spinning, twisting, and lying. Not to mention I don't pay attention to political news further than whatever is in bold at HuffingtonPost(although I suppose that's still more than a lot of people.) I was in political science in college during the 2000 election and I think that I am definitely one of those people that was numbed to politics by the horror that unfurled. That's probably when I stopped trying to be involved because…well, gee, there are so many reasons.
Anyhow, my girl and I have the same Valentine's Day tradition every year- eat fried chicken and go to the drive-in movie theater to see a horror movie. This year, traffic was bad and we got to dinner late and ended up missing our movie. Boo. So we headed over to a friend's house who was having a "couples only" Valentine's Day party.
The party was fun, lots of friends, about eight couples total. At one point, Jen, our host decided we would play The Newlywed game and significant others went back into the bedroom, with a list of questions and drew up answers that we would have to match. (It took, like, a million years, it seemed like for them to finish.)
I have to say, as a guy who has both the best and the worst memory for things, and like a lot of other men, I was worried that I wouldn't know anything about the woman that I had talked to everyday for the last six years and would look foolish. There were all sorts of questions, about favorite movies, favorite parts of each other's body, do you have a song, etc. etc.
There's nothing more I would like to do than reiterate one couples pet names, but what happens at a Valentine's Day Newlywed game party, stays at a you-get-the-idea. The only thing that made their pet names better was that they were (awesomely, amazingly) wrong! (Granted, I think he had written down "baby" and "baby" to protect them…)
Ok, Ok, I'm getting to the point of all this- There were eight couples, seven straight and one lesbian couple. After an hour and half of laughing and wincing and weird looks and almost-fights, the game was over and the lesbian couple took home the prize(a soda machine- it's hard to explain).
These two women, not allowed to be married legally, knew EVERYTHING about each other. Question after question there was no hesitation whatsoever. The smiled and laughed and knew exactly what turned each other on and what animal the other would be and generally, as casual as they might have been about it, loved each other endlessly.
I'm not trying to start a political dialogue about this subject, I know that one already exists. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, I just thought everyone should hear this story. I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day, this year or for next.
Many people know, or at least they will now, I'm not the most political person in the world. I get intimidated, annoyed, and frustrated by all the lobbying, spinning, twisting, and lying. Not to mention I don't pay attention to political news further than whatever is in bold at HuffingtonPost(although I suppose that's still more than a lot of people.) I was in political science in college during the 2000 election and I think that I am definitely one of those people that was numbed to politics by the horror that unfurled. That's probably when I stopped trying to be involved because…well, gee, there are so many reasons.
Anyhow, my girl and I have the same Valentine's Day tradition every year- eat fried chicken and go to the drive-in movie theater to see a horror movie. This year, traffic was bad and we got to dinner late and ended up missing our movie. Boo. So we headed over to a friend's house who was having a "couples only" Valentine's Day party.
The party was fun, lots of friends, about eight couples total. At one point, Jen, our host decided we would play The Newlywed game and significant others went back into the bedroom, with a list of questions and drew up answers that we would have to match. (It took, like, a million years, it seemed like for them to finish.)
I have to say, as a guy who has both the best and the worst memory for things, and like a lot of other men, I was worried that I wouldn't know anything about the woman that I had talked to everyday for the last six years and would look foolish. There were all sorts of questions, about favorite movies, favorite parts of each other's body, do you have a song, etc. etc.
There's nothing more I would like to do than reiterate one couples pet names, but what happens at a Valentine's Day Newlywed game party, stays at a you-get-the-idea. The only thing that made their pet names better was that they were (awesomely, amazingly) wrong! (Granted, I think he had written down "baby" and "baby" to protect them…)
Ok, Ok, I'm getting to the point of all this- There were eight couples, seven straight and one lesbian couple. After an hour and half of laughing and wincing and weird looks and almost-fights, the game was over and the lesbian couple took home the prize(a soda machine- it's hard to explain).
These two women, not allowed to be married legally, knew EVERYTHING about each other. Question after question there was no hesitation whatsoever. The smiled and laughed and knew exactly what turned each other on and what animal the other would be and generally, as casual as they might have been about it, loved each other endlessly.
I'm not trying to start a political dialogue about this subject, I know that one already exists. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, I just thought everyone should hear this story. I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day, this year or for next.
Friday, February 1, 2008
My favorite Magic: The Gathering cards
Pearled Unicorn: If teenage boys ever yell at girls for playing with horses, I give you exhibit 'A' and-
Mesa Pegasus: …exhibit 'B.'
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident: Oh yeah- exhibit C. I don't remember being a kid and proclaiming to my opponent, "Oh you're fucked now, Barrett. I summon the Merfolk of the Pearl Trident."
Howl From Beyond: Meanwhile in Hell, Big Brother watches as a husky dog shoots green lightning out of it's mouth. Obviously.
Wall of Pine Needles: What is scarier? A wall of pine needles killing you, or finding out that a sabertoothed human was killed by your wall of pine needles?
Captain Needa: whoops. This is from the Star Wars card game.
Heroism: Someone turned in the art for the Heroism card, and their boss saw a crazy Norwegian guy, wearing a winged helemt and carrying a broadsword, running through a fog of demons. And that boss looked at it and said, "Hmmm...we need something more...something that DEFINES heroism...."
Veteran Bodyguard: WHOA! Remember how people were upset that Magic cards were teaching kids witchcraft and shit like that? Right.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Crumble Cat Cookie in Porridge
I just did something that I thought I would never do in my entire life:
I beat King's Quest 3.
When I was a kid I used to go to my friend's house and load 5.75" floppy disks into the computer and we would attempt to play the game, but we couldn't do anything right. The wizard would always find us and disintegrate our little hero.
Recently I found an emulator for old Lucasarts and Sierra games, downloaded the data files for Kings Quest 3 and then found a walkthough online.
Yeah, I know using a walkthough is cheating and thank god for it because that game is stupid and impossible if you don't know what you're doing. How are you supposed to know that you need to "move books," "pull lever," "grab cat," "get cat hair," "get toad spittle," "get cup of ocean water," the list goes on and on.
I'm a smart guy and I like solving puzzles; but playing King's Quest 3 was, and still is, pretty much impossible if you don't know what you're doing. How was I supposed to know that I had to turn into a fly to find the bandit's hideout? Or that I could find the magic teleportion map in the back of the wizards closet? Or that I needed to crumble the cat cookie I made into the porridge I stole from the three bears house(I'm not making this up)?
I beat it and it's kind of weird because the whole story revolve (eventually) around you saving the Princess from a three headed dragon. Oh, did I mention that the Princess is your sister, but you know that and that is why you are on your quest.
It's easier to figure things out after you have made the dough that you put in your ears to understand the language of animals. But first you need to have gotten a thimbleful of dew and a reptile skin from the endless desert, without being turned to stone by Medusa.
Obviously.
I beat King's Quest 3.
When I was a kid I used to go to my friend's house and load 5.75" floppy disks into the computer and we would attempt to play the game, but we couldn't do anything right. The wizard would always find us and disintegrate our little hero.
Recently I found an emulator for old Lucasarts and Sierra games, downloaded the data files for Kings Quest 3 and then found a walkthough online.
Yeah, I know using a walkthough is cheating and thank god for it because that game is stupid and impossible if you don't know what you're doing. How are you supposed to know that you need to "move books," "pull lever," "grab cat," "get cat hair," "get toad spittle," "get cup of ocean water," the list goes on and on.
I'm a smart guy and I like solving puzzles; but playing King's Quest 3 was, and still is, pretty much impossible if you don't know what you're doing. How was I supposed to know that I had to turn into a fly to find the bandit's hideout? Or that I could find the magic teleportion map in the back of the wizards closet? Or that I needed to crumble the cat cookie I made into the porridge I stole from the three bears house(I'm not making this up)?
I beat it and it's kind of weird because the whole story revolve (eventually) around you saving the Princess from a three headed dragon. Oh, did I mention that the Princess is your sister, but you know that and that is why you are on your quest.
It's easier to figure things out after you have made the dough that you put in your ears to understand the language of animals. But first you need to have gotten a thimbleful of dew and a reptile skin from the endless desert, without being turned to stone by Medusa.
Obviously.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Solar Year
It's supposed to rain for the next two days which is fine with me because I feel like we never see any rain in this city. I plan on staying out of all the traffic and most of the rain, heading down to Portfolio's for a cup of coffee to keep me warm while I blog.
I don't really like New Year's resolutions because I think that we've become so cynical that it's easy for us to cast them aside when they become annoyances. Therefore, I never make New Year's resolutions- I make goals for the next three hundred and sixty five days.
Yesterday I started in on my main goal, to lower the energy use from my house. I bought some CFLs and installed them in all the lights in my house, reducing my wattage from 300 watts across five bulbs to 49 across those same five. I'm not sure the energy my microwave or television uses, but they are the next ones to get an overhaul. I can't really do anything about my fridge since it's my landlord's, so that will have to wait.
I also make sure to keep battery chargers unplugged when not in use as they leak energy even when not in use.
And last but not least, I want to install some sort of solar panels to use and abuse the sun's inifinite power for my Playstation and DVD player. I know it's expensive to do, but I just think that it would be worth it if I was making as small an impact on our world as possible.
Any of you have any other good power-saving, green-Earth ideas? Or are the lot of you hummer-driving, leaving-the-fridge-open, all-styrofoam-plates-using, Planet-killers?
I don't really like New Year's resolutions because I think that we've become so cynical that it's easy for us to cast them aside when they become annoyances. Therefore, I never make New Year's resolutions- I make goals for the next three hundred and sixty five days.
Yesterday I started in on my main goal, to lower the energy use from my house. I bought some CFLs and installed them in all the lights in my house, reducing my wattage from 300 watts across five bulbs to 49 across those same five. I'm not sure the energy my microwave or television uses, but they are the next ones to get an overhaul. I can't really do anything about my fridge since it's my landlord's, so that will have to wait.
I also make sure to keep battery chargers unplugged when not in use as they leak energy even when not in use.
And last but not least, I want to install some sort of solar panels to use and abuse the sun's inifinite power for my Playstation and DVD player. I know it's expensive to do, but I just think that it would be worth it if I was making as small an impact on our world as possible.
Any of you have any other good power-saving, green-Earth ideas? Or are the lot of you hummer-driving, leaving-the-fridge-open, all-styrofoam-plates-using, Planet-killers?
Thursday, January 17, 2008
13 Hours Down the California Coast
This past weekend I was up in beautiful Silicon Valley for a birthday celebration. It was such a wonderful good time, not to mention the delicious deep-fried turkey that was procured for the festivities.
As we were packing up to get back to Los Angeles, we decided to look online and find some roadside attractions to stop by; after about an hour and a half of searching, we had mapped out a ridiculous detour along the entire coast of the Golden State. Here, courtesy of Flickr are the highlights.
First stop, the world's largest outdoor monopoly board. OK, I've got a couple questions, actually one's a statement: 1.) We were expecting this to be a bit bigger as it was surprisingly hard to find and 2.) Who wants to play a long, boring game of Monopoly outside for 12 hours? This is just such a bad idea.
Next stop, the world's largest Artichoke in Castroville, CA. Inside is an artichoke restaurant-
Clockwise from Left: Fried Artichoke, Artichoke Soup, and Steamed Artichoke. (Not shown because we didn't order it: gross Artichoke Bread.)
Keepin' on down the coast, we come to Monterey, California, a gorgeous seaside town. I would love to spend a springtime up here someday. Meanwhile, across from the cemetery, is the Dennis the Menace park with this laughably small statue of Dennis the Menace. The park itself (not shown) is pretty awesome- there's an actual old train engine you can climb on, a crazy suspension bridge, a ROCK WALL for kids to climb on, and a hedge maze(!!!). Meanwhile, no kids want to play at the park because they've been scared to death by this:
A lion's head water fountain.
Moving on, we then had a two hour drive along the gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur national park.
We only stopped once because we were racing against the darkness and the fog, both of which engulfed us with sixty some odd miles to go before we reached civilization. This picture was taken right at sunset on an outlook over a sea of clouds. Pretty awesome.
So we powered through so we could get to Morro Bay, where Central California's Largest Outdoor Chessboard is:
LAAAAAAMMMMEEEEE.*
The award for grossest roadside attraction (in San Luis Obeezbo) is Bubblegum Alley, which is exactly what it looks like.
Nooooooo!!!! The Madonna Inn's coffee shop was closed- probably because it was eleven o'clock at night on a Monday in January. I imagine if we had stopped to get coffee and a pastry, we would not have kept going to the last two stops on our little trip. Which may not have been a bad thing…
The picture didn't come out, which is just as well, the website said that there were Front Yard Dinosaur statues which sounded awesome, but after being on the road for twelve hours, a seven foot, wicker, tyrannosaurus rex just doesn't impress.
Annnddd finally, the stupid Pismo Beach, giant stupid clamshells, disguised as stupid butterfly wings.
And that's it- then we went home.
Holy shit- that was so much fun.
*Just how lame could this possibly be? It costs $29 PER PERSON to play on the stupid giant chessboard, which I could build in a parking lot in a weekend. Boooo…Morro Bay is filled with criminals and people with bad taste.
As we were packing up to get back to Los Angeles, we decided to look online and find some roadside attractions to stop by; after about an hour and a half of searching, we had mapped out a ridiculous detour along the entire coast of the Golden State. Here, courtesy of Flickr are the highlights.
First stop, the world's largest outdoor monopoly board. OK, I've got a couple questions, actually one's a statement: 1.) We were expecting this to be a bit bigger as it was surprisingly hard to find and 2.) Who wants to play a long, boring game of Monopoly outside for 12 hours? This is just such a bad idea.
Next stop, the world's largest Artichoke in Castroville, CA. Inside is an artichoke restaurant-
Clockwise from Left: Fried Artichoke, Artichoke Soup, and Steamed Artichoke. (Not shown because we didn't order it: gross Artichoke Bread.)
Keepin' on down the coast, we come to Monterey, California, a gorgeous seaside town. I would love to spend a springtime up here someday. Meanwhile, across from the cemetery, is the Dennis the Menace park with this laughably small statue of Dennis the Menace. The park itself (not shown) is pretty awesome- there's an actual old train engine you can climb on, a crazy suspension bridge, a ROCK WALL for kids to climb on, and a hedge maze(!!!). Meanwhile, no kids want to play at the park because they've been scared to death by this:
A lion's head water fountain.
Moving on, we then had a two hour drive along the gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur national park.
We only stopped once because we were racing against the darkness and the fog, both of which engulfed us with sixty some odd miles to go before we reached civilization. This picture was taken right at sunset on an outlook over a sea of clouds. Pretty awesome.
So we powered through so we could get to Morro Bay, where Central California's Largest Outdoor Chessboard is:
LAAAAAAMMMMEEEEE.*
The award for grossest roadside attraction (in San Luis Obeezbo) is Bubblegum Alley, which is exactly what it looks like.
Nooooooo!!!! The Madonna Inn's coffee shop was closed- probably because it was eleven o'clock at night on a Monday in January. I imagine if we had stopped to get coffee and a pastry, we would not have kept going to the last two stops on our little trip. Which may not have been a bad thing…
The picture didn't come out, which is just as well, the website said that there were Front Yard Dinosaur statues which sounded awesome, but after being on the road for twelve hours, a seven foot, wicker, tyrannosaurus rex just doesn't impress.
Annnddd finally, the stupid Pismo Beach, giant stupid clamshells, disguised as stupid butterfly wings.
And that's it- then we went home.
Holy shit- that was so much fun.
*Just how lame could this possibly be? It costs $29 PER PERSON to play on the stupid giant chessboard, which I could build in a parking lot in a weekend. Boooo…Morro Bay is filled with criminals and people with bad taste.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Nerd Alert!
This is uber-nerdy(not me writing uber-nerdy, what I'm about to say is...):
A MacWorld Rumor website has a list of the possible items and products that Apple is going to annouce at Macworld, in order of their probability.
I am typing this on my favorite computer EVER: the 12-inch Apple Powerbook, probably the last one they sold because I bought it a few weeks before they discontinued selling them new. I love it for it's power in such a small size. It's great for mobile production of all sorts(music, TV) and boasts most of the features that mid-level PowerMacs had at the time.
Sooooo....this website is saying that they MIGHT announce a 12-inch MacBook next week at the MacWorld Expo. I've been afraid about having to buy another laptop in the future because I'm so obsessed with my tiny computer. The only small (and smaller) computers at this point are the sub-notebooks made by Sony or HewlettPackard. But if Apple is going to make an aptly branded MacBook Nano, I'll be secure in staying with Apple computers.
Sigh. I'm going to level up my dwarf priest in World of Warcraft...
EDITED TO ADD: Oh shit. THAT was my first post in 2008? This is going to be YEAR OF THE NERD!
A MacWorld Rumor website has a list of the possible items and products that Apple is going to annouce at Macworld, in order of their probability.
I am typing this on my favorite computer EVER: the 12-inch Apple Powerbook, probably the last one they sold because I bought it a few weeks before they discontinued selling them new. I love it for it's power in such a small size. It's great for mobile production of all sorts(music, TV) and boasts most of the features that mid-level PowerMacs had at the time.
Sooooo....this website is saying that they MIGHT announce a 12-inch MacBook next week at the MacWorld Expo. I've been afraid about having to buy another laptop in the future because I'm so obsessed with my tiny computer. The only small (and smaller) computers at this point are the sub-notebooks made by Sony or HewlettPackard. But if Apple is going to make an aptly branded MacBook Nano, I'll be secure in staying with Apple computers.
Sigh. I'm going to level up my dwarf priest in World of Warcraft...
EDITED TO ADD: Oh shit. THAT was my first post in 2008? This is going to be YEAR OF THE NERD!
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