a little bit of irony to lighten your day...or not

Tired as I am, I spell-checked that last post...but in doing so, the word "blogging" came up as mis-spelled. "Blogging" as in what I was doing, using software called "blogger", the operators of the spellcheck. Interesting, eh? Yeah, probably not...

flashback:1933

Given that there's not a damn thing going on in the news worth blogging about (as if I had the time), I'll point you to the Memin Pinguin flap down in ol' Mexico. Just months after Vicente Fox ate his foot with his 'Mexicans take the jobs that "not even blacks" want' comment, the Mexican government puts out a series of stamps that is blackface-level offensive...commemerating a comic book character that is still published.

Later this year, watch for the Mexican government's commemorative Ted Danson stamp series.

we will not negotiate with terrorists

Well...okay...maybe...sometimes. Yeah, fuck it:

US Officials Held Talks With Terrorists

me and my big mouth

The other night I was at the bar, completely drunk, and this girl came up to our table to say something to my brother or one his friends or something and she mentioned how her life sucks...that her roommate is largely at the center of the issue. The generic rant about roommates starts moving up my throat and about to come out when I realize that the only roommate I've ever had is sitting next to me. Luckily, I stopped after giving a familiar "ahhhhhh..." but my God man, why do I not know when to shut up?

I'm a smart guy, I really am, but I am stupid when it comes to this shit. Hell, one could say that I'm bloody brilliant as hell at saying the exactly wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. What gives? Fuck.

Anyway...

movies in the mail: a product review

The Skivvy:

1. Netflix -- Plans start at $9.99 for the one-at-a-time plan and $17.99 for three at a time -- FREE Trial -- 50,000 titles to choose from!
2. Blockbuster -- $9.99 for the first month, $17.99 a month thereafter for the three-at-a-time plan -- Two FREE in-store rentals per month are included -- 40,000 titles to choose from!
3. Intelliflix -- Several plans to choose from, $16.95 for the three-at-a-time plan -- Frequent specials -- 40,000 titles to choose from -- also rent games and mature content
4. DVD Avenue -- $19.99 a month for the three-at-a-time plan -- located in the Washington DC Metro Area

The Reviews:

I don't know about everyone else, but renting movies can be a pain. It's not hard, mind you, but when I want to sit at home and watch a movie, it's because I don't want to go out...but the video store requires just that. Besides, at $4 a movie it can be pretty expensive. It's in that mindset that I took to exploring the internet DVD rental market starting last year and I want to share with you my findings.

The first service I tried was WalMart's. Now defunct, or rather merged with Netflix, it was decent. WalMart's stingey "family values" kept some movies off the list and the location of their warehouse several hundred miles away meant it took two days each way for my movies to make their circuit (WalMart, like all others required reciept of of a returned movie before shipping another). It was, however, the cheapest program...I didn't stick around after the free trial though anyway.

Blockbuster

I then moved on to Blockbuster. Also allowing me a two week trial to check things out, I found the selection to be better than that on WalMart's site as well as better than that found in any brick and mortar Blockbuster store I had ever been in. Finding titles was a snap and soon my queue was lengthy enough to keep me in a business for awhile. Blockbuster has many more shipping warehouses than WalMart did and so it was no suprise that there was one located sixty miles away; which means I could recieve a movie, watch it that night, send it out the next day and receive my next movie two days later. Much quicker than WalMart, and therefore much better. I was happy, but I wanted to check out the competition a little more.

NetFlix

So I signed up with NetFlix. Like the previous two, I was able to sign up for a free two weeks. Looking through the available movies, I found titles that hadn't been in either of the previous' listings. When I say that, I don't mean "adult", but rather the extensive availability of foreign movies, as well as documentaries, indie films, and television shows -- the staples, really, of my DVD renting habit. The interface was much the same of the other two sites, and like Blockbuster NetFlix has a shipping address close to home, but the selection just felt better. I've stuck with them now for a year.

DVD Avenue

There are other options, however. DVD Avenue works exactly the same way as all three listed above, but is largely East Coast related (shipping from Maryland).

Intelliflix

Intelliflix is another company tryng to compete with the "big boys" (in fact, it seems they're willing to give you a month free if you forward your cancellation from their services to intelliflix -- see site for details). They are running frequent specials as well as offer game and adult movie services (which both cost more).

GameFly

Similarly, GameFly.com offers the same sort of rent over the internet thing that all the above companies do, but with video games. Not being much of a gamer myself, I don't know what to say, but I wanted to put the info out there for anyone that might be interested.

There it is then, all I really know about the internet movie rental scene. I do like it, it's about the best entertainment value that I've come across. Well planned, it's quite possible to rent 15 movies a month -- or barely over a buck a piece. You can't ask for much better than that. Cheaper than cable, easier than the video store, I'm hooked.

Hope that all helps.

 

 

 

this is just great

The Supreme Court ruled today that a city can claim eminient domain -- and therefore force people to sell their homes and businesses -- for development projects "if they are for the public good". In other words, if the edonomy's down and some major multi-national wants to "bring in jobs" by putting in an office/factory/store -- the city can go and force people to sell at "fair market value" so that the office/factory/store can be built...thereby "helping the community". In still other words, cities can kick you out if they can bring in higher-tax-producing business that's proably already made some huge financial donations to people and institutions in order to grease the wheels -- money that you, I, and most people don't have; money that the Supreme Court has said is a form of free speech.

Life in the handbasket gets hotter every day...

never been happier to be so wrong...

I made a bad call about someone I care about, someone that I really thought the world of. I fell victim to a wicked combination of hearsay and speculation, allowing myself to be swayed against my better judgement about a good soul that I had never thought a horrible thought about before. I allowed myself to doubt my intuition, to question my instincts and let my hopelessness beat up on my heart and it hurt...a lot...and for nothing.

A phonecall, an angry phonecall, and expressed hurt feelings -- making me feel like the hugest bag of shit -- and it leaves me with confused emotions. Angry that I felt so mad, pissed off that I doubted my heart, and at the same time relieved that I was so. fucking. wrong.

I need to sleep on this.

Good night.

life in slow motion

I love these little spats of my life, when things have ended and other things yet to begin. Times of no responsibilities, no fears, no rushing, no regrets. All the time in the world with nothing to fill it but sunny days and movie-filled nights. It is glorious.

..but Monday I begin work again, as well as my class in Lansing. Car rentals twice a week to drive 120 miles to get some credit and keep my student loan money pouring in. Sigh. Four more days of quiet...I hope to enjoy them.

join the revolution!

T. Boone Pickens, oilman, is predicting that gasoline is going to hit $3 per gallon within the next year as crude oil reaches $60 a barrel. Of course, I don't give a rat's ass having not owned a car in almost two years now...you wouldn't care either if you ditched your car. Trust me. Just do it. It's better for everyone, especially your pocketbook.

movie night

I just got back from seeing Batman Begins. Wow. No spoilers, no nothing, but it was a great movie. Being a Tim Burtonite and all (I refuse to concede that Planet of the Apes sucked for cryin' out all) it hurts me to say this...but I think it's better than his Batman movies. Definitely better than Batman Returns, but as good or better than Batman. Ouch.

mood swings

It's odd. Sometimes when I read stories like this, where a boy accidentally hanged himself trying to prank his family, and I think to myself how appropriate it was for the idiot to take himself out of the genepool. But with this story, and this one (about a girl who drowned in a local creek) are really hitting me as tragic right now. I vacilate that way -- when bad things happen to stupid people (even kids) doing stupid things. It's weird. Maybe it is just because they're kids, maybe because I'm somewhat pining for my childhood lately, maybe because it just seems unfair right now...I don't know. I don't really get it.

where were you?

June 13th will no longer be just the day before Flag Day. Michael Jackson's official site opens with a flash intro that includes the date of his acquittal with those of the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the release of Nelson Mandela -- all "dates to remember".

...at least Michael Jackson's getting off on himself without the exploitation of little boys.

hail victory

how cute

I hate celebrity news, but this pisses me off...Katie Holmes is converting to Scientology. Now I won't go into a cult ranting about this "religion" which just happened to be invented by a fairly horrible science fiction writer, but the fact that she is making a decision like swapping religions for a guy...

Are we so insecure a human race that we will so readily embrace the religious beliefs of those around us for love? And is it love if the one we love requires us to adopt their faith (presumption there, though given Tom Cruise's insane evangelization lately, I strongly suspect that that may just be the case)? Ugh. People are pissing me off...

stars of david and rainbows, oh my!

Hitler hated jews so he had them identify themselves with pathes of the Star of David...a couple years deciding that that wasn't good enough, that they had to be exterminated because they were somehow polluting society (that and Hitler was crazy...evil crazy).

Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition, hates homosexuals...so it seems he'd like to make themselves identify themselves to the rest of us:

"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we 'celebrate' a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports,"

Soon we're all gonna be goose-steppin' for Jesus!

is hell this humid?

Ninety-degrees for however many days in a row now with the dewpoint up around 70 degress. Not fun, not fun at all. I'm just locked up in my my apartment with the ar conditioner on full blast...watching the weather incessantly if I think I may go out (I got caught in a pop-up thunderstorm on the way home from the bar the other night...soaked to the bone).

There is one good thing that comes from all of this for all Grand Rapidians however...free rides on the Rapid on Ozone Action days.

...just one more reason to lose the wheels people...

my teenage wet dreams come true...

Winnie Cooper (you know, from the Wonder Years) has a spread in this month's Stuff Magazine. Man I had a crush on that girl back in the day...

ways to die

Being eaten alive by a wild animal (bear, large cat, etc.) has always been my "least favorable way to die" but I'm thinking that this might suck almost as much:

Stowaway's body parts fall from plane approaching JFK..."The body parts, which included the right leg, part of the spine and a hip, struck a garage roof of the home in South Floral Park, New York, before landing in the backyard, police said."

yucky.

this doesn't seem quite right

A 19-year old guy gets his 17-year old girlfriend pregnant, then helps her to perform an abortion by stepping on her stomach (with her consent). He gets life in prison for murder, she's protected by her right to get an abortion...article here.

Retardness, barbarism, and heinousness of the situation aside, I just don't understand how people (i.e. juries) can think this way -- to punish the guy for life for helping his girlfriend do something that she is legally allowed to do (again, questions of why the abortion clinic wasn't visited aside). Yeah, he should probably be punished, but life? While she gets off completely (I'd have to say she is just as bad as her boyfriend)? I don't know.

people...

So I was down at the annual Festival of the Arts downtown today (hey, it's sweet living a quarter-mile away and being able to eat every meal down there), and people, the crowds of people, were pissing me off. Yeah, the usual walking really slow then stopping suddenly to turn 180-degrees for only God knows why stuff, as well as the 12-year-old girls with barely-budding breasts wearing tight belly-baring tank-tops (who the hell let's their young daughter leave the house dressed like a whore? gah!), were all there...but the things people say.

Stupid.

There were bunches of idiotic questions asked and things said that I overheard, but they were all washed away as I stood in line at the Bosnian tent to get some Baklava and Cevap (so good...). There with a huge ass sign that said "TASTE OF BOSNIA" some snobby looking woman asks her husband, "Is that Polish food?" I don't know why it pisses me off so -- probably because it just points to the tendancy of people in our little society to not be able to seek answers for ourselves even when they're right there in front of our face in huge block-ass letters -- but it does. So much.

pques.xxx?

No one wants to see the hardcore version of this site...trust me.

But prOn is getting it's own top domain.

something to make you throw up...

Simon Ng was a blogger just like me and like a lot of you...but he was murdered by some dickheaded asswipe that wanted some money to fly to China. He knew his murderer, he once dated his sister...and he let him into his apartment...and blogged the visitation and how it was irritating him...when his sister got home, both were killed.

Read the post...it's heart-wrenching. This guy, who was taking Japanese to better appretiate the anime films he loved so much, was a good guy. A regular guy.

If it makes things any better, the post led to his killer.

I hope the killer gets his in Rikers...

summer time in the news

So I guess it's officially summer...nothing's happening. Deep Throat came out of the closet (that sounds really dirty, doesn't it?), the EU's having some issues, and the president's not saying anything stupid (mostly because he's been keeping his mouth shut...probably because everytime he says something his approval rating goes down)...there's a lot of violence in the Middle East, but else is new and how much can you beat the "this is what happens when you invade other countries..." horse? Ugh. There's some littler stories, the 9-year-old who stabbed an 11-year-old or the marryin' rapist or Bush whining about Amnesty International...but who the hell cares. It's all the same shit...deja vu all over again.

Blah.

But hey, who's excited about Batman Begins in two weeks? Better yet, Land of the Dead in three or War of the Worlds in four? Booya.