Author: grid

This afternoon I’ve been trying to find a resource that may or may not exist. I recently purchased a Daewoo 5800 (slightly modified) on ebay. This baby plays everything, region free, macrovision free, and so many formats that I’m salivating just thinking about it.

I’ve heard that there are lots of DVDs only released in other regions. Buffy the vampire slayer, for example, is only on season 2 here, but in the UK they’re up to season 6 or something! I have no interest in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I did find out that Delicatessen has only been released on DVD in region 2. Anyway, I’m looking for a guide to cross-region DVD releases.

I’ve found a couple of sites that compare various DVD releases, but these sites wouldn’t even list Delicatessen, because it’s only been released once! (Well, one of them lists it, because technically there is a French release, and a UK release.)

I’ve also been really jonsing for an x-box. I don’t want to give any money Microsoft… so getting one new is out, and buying a refurb too. Unfortunately, used x-boxes are kinda rare. I’d actually have thought they’d be more common, just because they’re not selling as well, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Ebay may just be the only real option out there.

Of course, I really shouldn’t be buying anything. I did just buy a house.

Today I feel like vomiting. Everything is particularly sickening, and everything is dramatic. I don’t want to do anything, and I don’t want to pretend to do anything.

They replaced my phone at work, and the headset is AGAIN one of the filthiest things I’ve ever seen.

I’m depressed, and I’m unproductive, two insufferable qualities that leave me wanting to throw myself out a window. Plus, I’m fishing for pity, which is fucking pathetic.

I played a game of darts, and I came in last.

I’m leaving early. Fuck it.

Life is about rich and satisfying experiences.

I think you have to balance the fullness of your moments against those moments you save up to be more full. Obviously I’m talking about vacations and things (purchases that supposedly enhance those moments when you can use them), but I’m talking about other stuff too. Big things, life changing things. Choices about jobs and relationships, and compromises of all sorts.

Life is, arguably, compromise after compromise. It is the degree of compromise that helps determine your satisfaction.

…

I don’t know why. But why is important.

To be listed in the category “things everyone should know”:

Where do “Work from Home” signs come from?

It’s a long read, and you may want to skip to the conclusion once you get the gist of it.

Personally, I feel much wiser having read it. Recently, I was doing some postering for the National Poetry Slam, and I (naturally, I thought) put posters up on all the telephone poles in the neighborhood. Less than a day later I got a call telling me that it was illegal. I’d always assumed it wasn’t, since there are always those annoying “loose weight in 40 days” signs everywhere. I’ve always wondered where those and the “work from home” signs came from… and now I know they’re from the same place.

The world is small, but I am insignificant.

Yami linked this CSS related Haiku Contest.

Here we are. Friday. Nice day for a blog entry.

The move was chaos and disorder. Borderline disaster. I’ve owned a house now for more than a week. Already I’ve had to call a plumber. He gave me a free estimate, and I sent him on his way (the problem will doubtless occur again, but wasn’t happening while he was here, so whatever…)

Otherwise, the process has been all sweat and no tears.

I walk around at night… (after a week without work, I’m again waking up at 1:00pm, and going to bed around 4:00am) …and I think about how all the windows are on the ground level… and how we keep them open so it’s cooler. I can’t see outside, and I freak myself out thinking someone could be in the yard, ready to break in. I never imagined I’d be so freaked out by the thought of a burglar. I don’t know why it bugs me.

Maybe because we don’t know whether to pay the $30/month to have our home security system monitored. (We have no idea how to use it right now, I should figure that out, even if we’re not going to have it monitored.)

Perhaps there is some malicious burglar reading this, even now…

I’m a candy-smitten smidgen of pig latin lovin’.

Don’t ask me where that came from. I really need to automate the updating of my “mindblurbs” page.. seeing as how I never log into the system anymore, I often find myself thinking, is it worth it to log in and just add one line of text to one file that hardly anybody reads? Maybe that’ll be part of next week’s project.

Today I signed a check for my home insurance. My agent even stopped by my work to pick it up and get me to sign some papers. He’s this really nice old guy who always seems to me should be a doctor making house calls. (He’s always come to me when I have to sign something.) He also gave me a litle care package with a fire detector in it. I guess that’s part of his insurance.

There are other ways to do this. Try some of them.
    –http://www.boredinsomniac.com/hmltcmplx/

I am not trying nearly enough new things. Hell, I am not really trying anything new here. This is all pretty standard. My life, some of it, my reactions to various things, my experiences, some of them. Throw in the occasional poem, and there you have it, boring as fuck.

I’ve got to get off blogger, and create my own contraption. I like blogger, I love blogger, but I want more control, and I want to do things differently. Hell, I’ve been meaning to experiment with “pure” css layout for months now, and the only things I’ve done have all been for WORK. I have all next week off, but I’m going to be moving. Spending most of the time in the new house. I have no idea if I’ll get around to it, but I’d really like to tackle a blogger-like application. Or rather, a movable type type application, since I will not be allowing others to use my services. I will however, if anyone should eventually care, allow them to use my code.

I also need to take more literary license. This prose stuff is just too boring.

So last night I went to see MUM at the Women’s Theater. In case you’re one of the few people I haven’t already told about MUM, they’re this band I’ve only recently heard one or two songs by. I went so far as to buy a couple of their CDs (new off ebay, of all places), which I have yet to receive in the mail, and the first song I heard of theirs, (which I downloaded from a link on victory shag), I’ve had stuck in my head for about two weeks straight. I described their music today to a friend as complex minimalistic melodies from female Icelandic twin vocalists.

It was MUM’s first show in the United States, and I’m affraid they’re going to turn around and leave after what happened last night. The sound crew (which I presume was the theater’s staff) was just awful, and their first 2 or 3 songs were riddled with feedback and poor mixing. Their Moog never worked, despite various idiots swapping out cords (on stage!) for the duration of at least two songs in the middle of their set.

I felt horribly for the poor lead singers who were both visibly frustrated by the technical difficulties. At one point, one of them was actually wiping tears from under her eyes. (And yet she kept singing and playing!)

Over all, the band’s potential was clear. Their drummer was amazing, the twins played accordion and cello quite well (when we could hear the cello), and all five performers switched instruments between nearly every song. I would even go so far as to say the show was “worth it” despite all the technical problems.

I also enjoyed the fact that most of the beats and “programmed” portions of the music were done on Mac laptops–including one of those new “wide” iBooks that I secretly covet.