You only hurt the ones you love...

I love my camera. I have a Nikon D50 DSLR camera and I mean, I LOVE this camera. Generally, whenever I buy something, I get at least some sort of buyer's remorse for it. If I don't get buyer's remorse, I at least see something a couple of months later that I wish I had bought instead. I've never had either with this camera and I've had it for well over a year now.

So, after taking some great pictures of my adorable children, I decided to clean the camera. I got out my little microfiber cloth and air spray can. I put the battery on the charger and then started cleaning the camera. I wiped all of the LCD screens, eye piece, and lenses. I took off the UV filter and cleaned the actual lens and both sides of the filter. At this point, I'm not sure exactly happened. It's like I can see what happened in my memory, but it runs simliar to watching someone do something stupid in a horror movie. You're yelling at him not to walk into the basement, but he just doesn't hear you and then something bad happens to him. That's how my memory runs in my head. I'm yelling at myself because of the stupidity, but I just don't stop. Well, what happens next is that I remove the lens from the body of the camera and give the interior glass a quick wipe with the cloth. No big deal. Then, for some reason, I look inside the body of the camera at the mirror and apparently hallucinate a smudge, so I give it a quick wipe down with the cloth. First of all, nothing ever touches that mirror, why would there be a smudge. Second, you NEVER touch the inside of the camera. It's like the first two rules of fight club apply. 1. You never touch the mirror or sensor in the camera body. 2. You NEVER touch the mirror or sensor in the camera body.

It was sort of like I snapped back to reality just after I did it, and I thought to myself..."OH CRAP!!!" And I immediately snapped the lens back on and checked the picture. Yep...spots. Well, I've already screwed it up, perhaps I can fix it. So, I snapped the lens back off and gave it another wipe. Checked it again and I apparently just moved the spots around a bit. So, I busted out the canned air and give it a healty dose of spraying. I checked again...still spots. So, I got out some Q-Tips and give it a once over. Checked...spots AND fibers. Great!!!

I noticed something else as well this time. My focus brackets were bleeding a line off the screen. CRAP!!! What else!?! Apparently in my cleaning, I'd pressed too hard and cracked something somehow. I don't know what it was, but my LCD brackets were bleeding off the screen. Now, it wasn't horrible...barely noticeable really. For me though, it's those barely noticeable things that drive me nuts. I generally require perfection from my equipment, and especially equipment that I use and love as much as this one. I was screwed.

At this point, it was time to throw in the towel. I looked up the number and called the store I bought it from, Creve Coeur Camera. I know I had purchased an extended warrenty, and I had hoped that it covered cleanings, as most extended warrenty purchases do. So, I gave them a call and as my luck would have it, the warrenty does NOT cover cleanings...Nor do they cover damage by botched cleaning jobs by idiot owners. It's going to cost me around $80 for a cleaning and who knows how much to get the LCD fixed. She assured me that it would probably not cost over $150. Great. Just what I need. The camera worked perfectly this morning and now I'm an estimated $230 in the hole for this thing. The best part is that when they send it off, it takes 6 to 8 weeks to get it back. Just in time to miss Easter! Fantastic!!!

This was a huge bonehead move on my part and I was so upset and angry with myself a short while after it happened that I was litterally shaking. I couldn't believe how stupid I was. It was definitely a rookie mistake and I most definitely knew better. I guess this will just serve as a reminder for my next cleaning. A very expensive and costly reminder, that is.

What? Is he wearing goggles?

A buddy of mine came into town, so we went out for drinks with the fellas last night. We went to a local sports bar called Hot Shots. Well, it used to be a sports bar anyway. When I told my wife where I was going, she gave me an odd look and said "You're going to a meat factory?" I said "What? No, it's a sports bar." She replied with "That's like saying that Hooters is a family restaurant." Apparently I was out of the loop, because we used to live just behind this particular Hot Shots and I've even had a drink or two in there before, granted it was a few years ago, but still.

So, apparently I AM out of the loop. It was definitely a meat factory. The only thing it was missing was a dance floor. I was shocked. The guys outnumbered the ladies by at least 3 to 1, and nobody was watching sports on the TVs there. Also, if you were a woman at this bar, and you weren't wearing some really tight clothing and not much else, you apparently had no business being there.

So, let me get to the point of my story. There was a guy there, a guy that both myself and my friend could not stop staring at all night. We were fascinated by him. Let me describe his entrance first. He arrived just as we were arriving, and while walking into the bar, he yelled at some woman who was leaving the bar. I did not appear as though he knew this woman, and he yelled some pretty vile things to her. Vile enough to turn our heads in shock, we thought it was about to go down or something. That's when we really took notice of this guy.

Let me give you a description of the guy. He was wearing a Nike Air t-shirt, a pair of Heather gray sweatpants, and what we thought for sure were racquetball goggles. Upon closer inspection, it appears that they were some sort of Gargoyle glasses with clear lenses. It was very odd. I mean...sweatpants. Seriously? Sweatpants?

He was like a train wreck, we just couldn't take our eyes off of him. We wanted to know who he was, why he was there, and most importantly, what was he thinking. Later in the night, we saw something odd happen to him. He raised his beer to the friends he was with and offered a toast. His toast was left hanging, his beer bottle clank was left unreturned. Out of nowhere, my out of town friend jumps to his feet and starts walking over to him. He just walks right up to him and offers him the beer bottle clank his friends didn't give him. He clanked bottles with him and then walked away. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. It was funny how he reacted too. He took it as though it was a common event. He looked at my friend, clanked bottles, then went on with his conversation with his friends. It was like this sort of thing happened all the time and it was no big deal. Amazing.

Grillin'

I used my new Char-Broil grill from Lowe's against last night. That was the second use of the grill so far. I have to say, I am pleased with it's performance. It heats up fast and it cooks evenly. There is also a wide range of heat levels, so it's easy to get the right temp. I'm very happy with it.

If you're in the market for a grill, I would recommend you head over to Lowe's and pick up one of the Char-Broil Commercial Series grills. They're stainless steel and very nice. I have one of the less expensive models and it performs great, so I can only assume that the bigger, beefier grills work equally as great or better.

300 Revolutionary?

I wanted to share an interesting article on the movie 300. The article talks about how it's use of CGI will revolutionize how CGI is being used in film today. Essentially, in the past, CGI has been used to create effects or objects that could not be physically created otherwise, either because it would be too costly or because a physical model would not do the vision justice. Similar to the latest Star Wars movies, the actors did almost all of their acting against a blue screen and the backgrounds were filled in later.

What makes it different from Star Wars is the purpose of those backgrounds. In Star Wars, the backgrounds were created to be as realistic as possible as a replacement for building sets. You weren't supposed to notice that the background was not really there. In 300, the background and landscapre are almost an additional character in the movie. It's feel and tone changes with the scene. Not in a trippy, Waking Life sort of way, but in a realistic way.

Well, I don't want to recreate the entire article, go and read it for yourself. It's very interesting.

Spending money like I have it!

I spent a lot of money today. At least to me, it seemed like I...no, to anyone, I spent a lot of money today. Well, OK, maybe to Paris Hilton, I didn't spend a lot of money today. Anyway, we've established that for me, and for most people, I spent a lot of money today. I bought a new sofa sleeper for my living room, a chair sleeper (that's an extra wide chair that pulls out to a twin bed), a new grill, and various little odds and ends. The total was well over 2 grand. Now, I made a little extra money on this last paycheck from OT, but it was closer to $300, not $2000. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

Well, the sofa sleeper and chair, we had been planning on getting, so I wasn't surprised at that. We had actually waited until today to get sofa because it was going on sale. It's funny about that too, last week we went to look at the sofa and the sales person told me about the sale they were having next week. They hadn't announced it yet, but it was 15% off on everything before noon on Saturday only. She suggested we wait. So, we waited. While I was waiting, I did some math and shopped around a bit. It was a great deal on the sofa. Anyway, we went in this morning to buy it. We didn't see anything announcing the sale though. I assumed there would be more of a fuss. As it turns out, they changed the sale at the last minute. They changed it in a way that rendered it completely useless to us. Luckily, our salesperson told me that while they didn't actually have that sale going on, they would honor it because she told me to come back. So, I got my 15% off on everything. I was happy. Now I just have to wait 8 weeks for the sofa.

As for the grill, it's a funny thing that happened. It's funny because my wife denies that it works this way, but she did the exact same thing to me when we got our TV. Let me explain. What happens is that I mention that I want a new grill and I don't like our grill. I mention this casually and in conversation when it comes up. I'm not dropping hints or anything like that. Honestly. I say that someday I want to get a new grill when we can afford it. Well, today, we go to Lowe's to get some paint so my wife can paint the back splash to our kitchen. Well, while we're walking by the grills, she just stops and start looking them over. Of course, this kind of thing catches the attention of the sales people and they come over. She then starts asking them questions and stirring up interest in a new grill. This is out of the blue, you see. I hadn't mentioned anything about the grill in weeks. So, she stirs up all this stuff about a grill, and then when it comes time to buy it, she looks at me and backs out of the deal. She says "Oh, it's whatever you want to do. I have nothing to do with this." After stirring all of this up, I buy the grill. Then later I hear "I can't believe you bought a grill." Yeah, she said that. I said that she instigated the whole thing, which she denies and says that she was "just looking".

She did the same thing with the TV, only that was worse because I hadn't mentioned ANYTHING about a new TV. That was ALL her. She just starts looking at TVs when we're at Best Buy one day and she just wanders over there. I asked why she was looking at TVs and she says that we need a new one, so she just wanted to see what was out there. Well, I'm a guy. Technology is like porn to guys. The only thing more porn-like to guys is actual porn. Anyway, once she started me down the new TV path, there was no stopping me. I was like an 18 wheeler sliding down a snow covered road after my brake lines had been cut. There was only one thing that was going to stop me at the end of my path and that was a new TV. So, that's how we ended up with the 42 inch LCD HDTV we have now. I have to say though...it's a damn fine TV and I thoroughly enjoy it.

Movie Review: 300

I went and saw the movie 300 the other night. I have to say, it was fantastic. There were a couple of semi-sappy parts near the end, but nothing I would qualify as a deal breaker when classifying this movie as one that rocks.

If you've seen any of the commercials, you know that this movie is very stylized. It's an adaption of Frank Miller's comic and they tried to portrait the way that Frank Miller stylized it in the comic form. The same thing was done to the movie version of Sin City. It works very well for the movie and the almost cartoony violence make the obscene amount of violence in the movie very easy to tolerate.

**On a similar note, but slightly off topic, have you read anything that Frank Miller has done in the past few years? Don't get me wrong, I loved Sin City (the comic and the movie), I loved 300, and I'm a big fan of his Dark Knight Returns comic. The sequel to Dark Knight Returns and just everything he's been doing lately (besides the movies) is utter crap. I just wanted to make mention. **

I happen to have an interest in ancient history, especially of the mythological or legendary status, so I was already familiar with the story of the battle of Thermopylae. I was familiar with several of the legendary battles and several of the legendary quotes. My favorite quote, which was done extremely well in the movie, is when the Persians tell the Spartans that they will fire so many arrows that they will block out the sun. The Spartans respond by saying "Then we shall fight in the shade". It was well delivered in the movie, which made me happy.

The fight scenes were fantastic. Now, they run into two classifications though. The first fight scene needs to be mentioned separately because it is unlike any of the others. It is not different in it's violence or style, but in HOW the battle was fought. In that first battle, they actually showed how the Spartans would have actually fought. They packed themselves tight and formed a wall of shields. Each soldiers shield is not to protect himself, but it is to protect the man beside you. They not only mention this fact, but they show it done well. The men behind that front line thrust spears above and below the wall of shields, just eviscerating the soldiers of the opposing army. They do this and move forward, rinse and repeat. They showed this extremely well in this movie. Once the soldiers ahead of them were nearly depleted, they break rank to finish them off. Now, you also have to remember that the Persian army was almost entirely made of slaves and peasants. None of these people had much, if any battle experience or training. This would be the equivalent of giving some random office worker some garden tools and asking him to go fight to the death with our most elite military commandos, who are fully armed and ready to rock and roll. The fight would be over so quickly, it almost wouldn't even be fun to watch.

There are a few sappy parts of the movie where the Queen is trying to sway the counsel to send reinforcements to her husband and his 300 troops. They played the sappy card a bit hard there, but they intersperse it in between some heavy action scenes, so all is forgiven.

For those who don't know their Greek history, I won't ruin the ending for you. Overall, the movie is one of the better and more entertaining movies I've seen this year. Everyone does a good job acting in it and the action scenes are unbelievably good. Go see the movie.

Where did the sun go? Oh. I'm in your shadow again...

I spent the majority of my day in meetings. Basically the same meeting with different people, really. I had to give a presentation of what a presentation in a court room would look like using the software we use to present in court rooms. Does that make sense? Anyway, I had to present it to the two attorneys that I have been working with, then I had to make some modifications to their specifications. I made those modification over my lunch, and then informed the attorneys that the changes were made. I then had to make the presentation again for them so they can see the changes and make sure that they knew what they were talking about when they requested the changes. Once everything was good, they then invited the three primary attorneys to view the presentation. One of which, I didn't know this until it was over, was the CEO of the firm. Anyway, I was presenting to them and afterwards, one of them mentions that they've seen this software used in the court room before. It was done by a certain person who I won't name, by a certain law firm that I won't name, and it was done on a specific case that I won't name. Well, it turns out that the person was my old boss, the firm was my old firm, and the case was a case that I had personally worked on. I didn't present the case in trial, but I assisted on it before it went to trial. In all of my trial work that I had done at my previous law firm, every attorney knew my boss's name and wanted him to do their trial. I spent all of my time trying to live up to his reputation in those situations. He also did great work outside of trial, and I had to try to live up to that as well. Well, now I work at a different law firm and i'm STILL having to try and live up to him. How crazy is that? I'm supposed to have lunch with him tomorrow. I'm definitely going to have to give him a hard time about that. What? He's not my boss anymore...I can do that.

Who doesn't have a smartphone these days?

There is some news about smartphones at Wirefly. To me, it’s almost like common knowledge based on observations in my workplace, but it’s interesting to see it nationwide though. Wirefly announced a sharp growth in smartphones. So sharp that in the first quarter of 2007, sales of smartphones grew 70% from the third quarter of 2006. That’s a lot of Treos and Blackberries being sold. I work in the IT oriented legal industry, so everyone has a smartphone. I just recently moved to a new law firm and they actually give almost everyone there a blackberry. Of course, you’re expected to answer email and phone calls at anytime because they’re paying for it, but they give it to you never-the-less. I really like my blackberry and I can see why so many people are switching to them. This is a digital world and I am a digital…well, you know.

Now, about that leather mask...

I used a chainsaw for the first time this weekend. Oh yeah! Fear me! Ok, it was an electric chainsaw, so you only have to fear me if you're within 100' of an electric outlet. Seriously though, I had some downed tree limbs in my back yard from the last ice storm we had. Sure, it was several months ago, but it's been cold. The last thing I want to do in cold, ugly weather is go outside and work in it. So, in the back yard they sat. I attempted to move them one passibly warm afternoon, but they were too heavy. They would have to be cut. My mother just bought a chainsaw and offered to let me borrow it. What my mother is doing with a chainsaw...I don't want to get into it. I'll leave that for another post. So anyway, I borrowed the chainsaw, uncoiled the extention cord, and fired it up. I have to admit, it was pretty cool. That saw cut through those limbs like hot knife through butter. Well, a woody butter that spits dust and woodchips. Regardless, it was fun. Then came the unfun part, picking up all those sticks. And to think, someone went and made a children's game of picking up sticks. Con artists.

Great! Now I have to get new sunglasses!

I’m in the car with my wife the other day, more specifically, her car. It was sunny out and I was having a lot of problems seeing because of the glare. Sure, the sun coming in from outside was pretty bad, but it wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t have had my wife’s car cleaned and why they cleaned, they armorall’d the dashboard. So, now I’ve got the sun coming in from outside AND reflecting off the dashboard. I felt like my eyes were being burned from their sockets. Fortunately, my wife had a pair of sunglasses under her seat. I put them on and then my wife proceeded to laugh at me. I realized that the glasses she had were under her seat for a reason. I then made a comment about how I wish I hadn’t of forgotten my own sunglasses, which she then remarked that “they weren’t much better”. Woah. That was it. I’ve got to get a new pair of sunglasses. So, in my normal fashion, I went to several of the sunglasses huts and shops in the local mall and tried on some new protective specs. I find what I like, and then I hit the web in search of a great deal. In my search for some sun protecting Eyeglasses, I found some good deals at Opticsplanet.net, as usual. What doesn’t that place have?

I watched The Departed

So, I decided to sit down and watch The Departed this weekend. I have to say, I thought it was pretty good overall. I would be lying if I said I wasn't shocked at the ending. I mean, sure, I should have seen it coming with history of the director and all, but I was still shocked. I'm not going to spoil it for everyone who hasn't seen it, so I won't mention what happens. It was a big surprise and I spent the remainder of the movie doing a double take and saying "Woah" ala Keanu Reeves in...well, any of his movies. Near the beginning, there were a couple of spots with some odd editing choices that seemed just kind of jumbled up and confused. Other than that, the movie was very well done. The setup of the movie is basically that you have two state police cadets in the academy around the same time, but not actually in classes together. One was basically raised by the mafia kingpin and the other is pulled early from the academy to go undercover to bring down the mafia kingpin. The only thing is that he'll have to drop from the academy, actually go to jail, and be completely disgraced on paper so that the mafia kingpin guy will believe he is actually a crook. Only two cops know his true identity, everyone else thinks he a common crook. Well, the whole storyline is basically a cat and mouse game between these two moles. One in the mafia who is actually a cop and the other in the police who is actually working for the mafia. They are both trying to figure out who each other are the whole movie. It's pretty good and pretty tense in some spots. Everyone does a supurb job in acting. I recomend this movie to anyone who likes a good undercover cop story, or to anyone who liked Goodfellas and the like.

Let's hope the new Batman costume doesn't have nipples

Of course, everyone expected this. I mean, if they didn't change the Batsuit, how are they going to market new toys? Seriously.
So, Aint It Cool News posted a leak from inside the studio that about half way through the new movie that he would change the costume. Apparently this change will make sense for the plot as he changes it for practical reasons. The word on the street is that it will look like heavy fabric and armor instead of rubber. I thought the Batman Begins costume was pretty good, but I agree that it did look bulky and a little rubbery. I mean, it wasn't AS rubbery as every single other Batman costume from all of the previous movies, but it was still rubbery. Of course, I'm just thankful that it didn't have nipples.

I hope I never need an Intervention

My wife is watching the show Intervention on A&E right now. I generally don’t watch that show with her; it generally doesn’t interest me that much. My wife sure likes it though. I’m not sure if it’s the “I’m glad that’s not me” thoughts or if it’s the watching someone at such a low point in their life get help. I do know this. Those people definitely need help. I’ve watched it a couple of times and they usually go off to a drug rehab facility like this Stone Hawk place. Now, they very rarely if ever show the facility itself, but this Stone Hawk place looks nice. I mean, it looks like a vacation resort. Of course, I don’t mean to trivialize treatment centers and the great work that they do. While I’ve personally never been to drug rehab myself, the website for this Stone Hawk place looks like it has a great program. It looks clean and very nice, like I said, it looks like a resort. I imagine that having a treatment center that looks like a resort can help ease someone into the program. Like I said though, I can only imagine. All I know is that the people in that Intervention show have definitely hit rock bottom and if I was at such a low point in my life, I would want to take my first steps back into my new life at someplace like this. After all, you can always pretend you’re on vacation for the first few days. Of course, this is me thinking. The first few days are probably the worst ones and you probably couldn’t care less what the place looks like at that point. Hopefully I’ll never have to use a facility like Stone Hawk, but I’m sure glad that someone has a place like this just in case I ever do need it.

Newfound inspiration...falling short of expectations

So, I hopped over to my pay to blog site, PayPerPost and there are no posts available that I qualify for. Bummer. I was hoping to post a couple of blog entries and start working my way toward buying something. No dice. They've got nothing I can write about, so you're all stuck with just my complaining.
I thought I might take this time to rework my t-shirt shop Saint Gray or Just Teesin. I stared at them for a few minutes...then closed the browser. Yeah, I'm not up to it. It looks like my lack of inspiration has set back in.
I'd shake my fist or curse at someone, but I'm just not up for that either. blah.

Sometimes, it pays by the minute

You know, what works for some people, doesn’t work for everyone else. I’ve talked about cell phone providers before and how great certain deals were, but you know, some people either can’t commit to a standard 2-year contract or they just plain don’t want to. Sometimes it’s not their decision and their crummy credit rating keeps them from qualifying. In this day in age, you really can’t be without a cell phone. I don’t care if you don’t even have a plan on the phone at all, you need a phone to call for emergency services in…well, an emergency. Of course, 911 is not the only people you should or can call in an emergency, but that’s all they’ll let you call without a plan. For those people, I think that prepaid cell phones are the ideal solution. They’re relatively cheap and you only spend exactly what you want to or what you can afford. You just load it up with as many minutes as you’d like and you’re set. What’s that? You didn’t spend all of your minutes from last month? Well, then you have even less minutes to buy this month, don’t you. Let’s see you do that with a regular cell phone service deal. No doubt about it, there is a definite advantage of the prepaid phone for certain people.

Inspired by pointing out my lack of inspiration

It's funny how things work. I haven't really been blogging as much as I used to as of late. Ever since I started this new job, I've just been uninspired and feeling uncreative. Not only has the public suffered because they can't read any more of my profound thoughts (...right), but my income has suffered as well. I supplement my income a little bit by writing for PayPerPost. If you're interested in doing that as well, there is an affiliate link to your right. Check it out. Anyway, back to my story. I haven't been blogging. I also haven't been working on my shirt shops either. I've been uninspired and unmotivated all around. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not because I hate my job or anything like that. I actually really like my job. I couldn't figure it out, and then it hit me today. I used to sit right accross from this guy who blogged everyday and worked on shirts several times a week. We would discuss blogs or shirts almost on a daily basis. Now...nothing. So, I wrote him an email blaming him for my lack of motivation. I spelled it all out for him. It was undeniable, indellible proof. There was no backing out of it. My failings were his fault. I'm not sure if that's what did it, it had to have been right? I got home and started blogging...and I started thinking about shirts. So, that's why you have a whole bunch of new blog entries to read. I was inspired and just started writing. I didn't have time to actually work on any new shirt ideas or make any of the changes I wanted to make to my shirts shops, but I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. I'm hoping that this new second wind keeps up and I can keep myself motivated without the help of an outside stimulant. I'm hoping that confiding in you (my blog readers) will be all of the stimulation and inspiration I need. How many of you are reading this? Let me check my stats... Wow. I'm doomed.

Who's got time to read anymore...

I love reading books, but I never have the time to do it. I used to read at lunch. I would head out to my car with a sandwich and a soda and read my book for an hour or so. Something changed and I can’t really do that anymore. It’s just not practical anymore. So, I went without for awhile. Then it struck me, I could listen to audiobooks on my 45 minute commute back and forth to work every day. That’s about an hour and a half of quality time with the book, time I would have just wasted listening to music or whatever else to distract me from the fact that I was sitting in traffic. Well, there is only one problem with audio books. They’re expensive. I mean, you generally don’t listen to them more than once, not usually at least. So, they’re sort of a waste of money. You spend $20-$40 on one, it gives you a bit of enjoyment, and then you never listen to it again. I recently borrowed an audiobook of World War Z by Max Brooks from a friend. You can read my thoughts on it in an earlier post. Borrowing is the best way to do it. Well, I found a place that you can borrow audiobooks from for a low monthly fee. The fee is less than you’d pay for an audiobook a month if you were to buy one. The best part is that there are coupons! You can go to Simply Audiobooks and sign up. It seems to be pretty reasonable at $11.95 a month and you can use the previously mentioned coupon to get a free 15 days. Not a bad deal. Of course, I’d prefer to curl up and read…but who’s got time for that these days. It’s much easier to just have someone read it to you.

Are you ready to be entertained?

I have a friend who blogs. This friend is the very same person who introduced me to blogging and helped me get started in my online writing journey. Well, I occasionally check out his blog and I just HAD to comment. He is one talented writer. I'm not just saying that because he is a trainer and technical writer. I'm also not saying that because he is also writing a book in his spare time. I'm saying that because when I read his blog entries, he acheives the goal he sets for himself in every sentence he puts together. I am truly entertained. It may not be profound, but he is capable of that, and it may not be poinent, which he sometimes is, but it is always entertaining and well written. He effectively portraits his thoughts in an often humourous manner and he always leaves you wanting more. He never runs on, like I do all the time, and always gives you just the right amount of content. I just wanted to publicly announce my admiration of his entertaining writing. So, there it is. Check it out. You can click the link in this blog, or you can click the Original FB42 blog link to your right.

Finding the POWER to succeed!

I need some power cables, and I've found two things in my search for it. The first is that there are a TON of people offering power cables online. The second is that finding the right power cable is actually fairly difficult. I mostly attribute this to the huge abundance of options out there and lack of a clear vision of what you need. Most people only look for what they've already seen instead of envisioning the perfect tool or product and then searching to see if someone has already made it. I guess this is where truly innovative people start inventing stuff, eh? Occasionally, I find something that I didn't know I needed until I see it. It's one of those scenerios where you always thought some problem you had was annoying, but there was nothing you could do to fix it, so you live with it. Well, I have a lot of different peripherals for my PC requiring a miriad of different cables strung about. Well, I found this universal USB adapter that rocks. I promptly ordered one and moved back on to my power cable search. I happen to find the exact power cable I needed at the same site. Bonus! Happy is me on this day. Check out the USB thingy I bought.

Hollywoodland reviewed

I just finished watching Hollywoodland. In case you're not familiar, it's a movie that just came out on DVD about an investigation into George Reeves' death. George Reeves was the guy who played Superman on the TV series back in the day. His death was ruled a suicide, but there have always been suspicions that there was foul play. This movie doesn't really give you an answer, but it certainly plays to the possibility of a murder or an accident. The movie hops back and forth between the investigation and flashbacks of George Reeves' life. Ben Affleck plays George Reeves, and he does a pretty good job. The big hype about this movie when it first hit the theatres was that this is the movie that is going to revive Ben Affleck's career. They say he's so good in this that it will restore everyone's faith in his acting ability. Well, I don't know about all of that, but he does do a good job. I mean, he still seemed like Ben Affleck, but he was believable as George Reeves. I don't know if it's because they both share the same sadness in their careers or something, but there is a sadness to him that really pulls off the character. It almost makes you wonder if there are moments when you don't see Ben Affleck acting and you're actually seeing him thinking about his own career. Of course, I never thought he was that great, so I never saw a progression of him getting bad. He was never very good to me, so he's always been about the same. I mean, I actually remember seeing him in Chasing Amy and thinking that this guy can't act very well and I'll probably never see him acting in anything else again. Boy was I wrong.
Anyway, Hollywoodland is good. I enjoyed it. It's not action packed and it certainly isn't exciting, but it is interesting. It's slow and methodical, but it's entertaining. If you like that sort of movie, you should check it out. It reminded me a little of The Black Dahlia which came out not too long ago, but it was better than that movie.

Get help in learning

I’m getting close to graduating with my Bachelor’s degree soon, but I’ve still got a few classes to go. One thing that I thought was difficult was finding a tutor in your specific class. So, I’m always having to google this or google that in order to try and find the answers I needed. Sure, you can probably find a math tutor pretty easy, that’s a fairly common subject for tutoring. What about other subjects, though, what about the less obvious subjects? Well, I found a site where you can search for Personal Tutors, or you can list yourself as a tutor. It’s a great concept. They have a whole gaggle of subjects that they offer tutors for.
As for the site itself…it couldn’t be easier to use. Smack dab in the middle of the homepage there is a search window. You just enter your postcode, the subject required, and level required. Click search and you’re on your way to finding the secret weapon to acing your class, your new tutor. They offer book searches as well, which can be really helpful. They also have an educational news section, so you can keep up to date on the happenings in education. The site is well laid out, with no confusing flash animations or distracting ads. It’s well done and driven to one purpose, to find you a tutor. Check it out.