For the Movie Lover

I didn't know that they did this - but I think it's pretty cool. If you'd like to see the Best Picture nominees prior to the Oscars (so you can make your own fearless predictions), then the folks at AMC theaters have got a deal for you. It's not quite the Butt-Numb-A-Thon that Harry Knowles is so famous for, but it's still a pretty good setup.

For thirty bucks, you can see all five Best Pic nominees in a row with free popcorn, all on February 23rd (the day before the Oscars). If you're a movie lover and a glutton for punishment, you're gonna be in Hog Heaven (at least, if you're Fayetteville).

I will have to post my fearless Oscar predictions sometime soon, as I have a reputation for being miserably wrong, year after year, that I must keep up. Stay tuned, y'all!

How Dry I Am...

I live in a dry county, which means that no package alcohol can be sold (you can order drinks in restaraunts but you can't get a beer from the convenience store).

And there's a few folks that would like to change the law to make it a 'wet' county, which means that we get some downright hilarious articles as our the local new organizations cover the debate.

Enjoy!

I Love Music (Despite the People in Charge of It)

As we get closer to the annual Grammy awards extravaganza (pause for the yawn - there it is!), it's interesting to note two recent items regarding the state of the music industry. From Seth Godin's blog, this good post on lessons on the demise of the music business and this little tidbit from the Motley Fool's Alyce Lomax on why investors should beware of companies involved in the biz.

Oh, and apparently the last of the big companies is maybe kinda gonna go DRM-free.

As long as you still buy a piece of plastic somewhere.

Holiday's over

Been on vacation, but truly inspired by the change in th Iowa caucuses. I've been following the Democrats pretty closely, but also watching Huckabee since he's from my state.

Hope y'all had a good holiday.

helping my Dad exchange a cell phone

My father, who’s 81 and half blind, lost his cell phone sometime during December, so he went to the cell phone store to get a new one. I asked him how he liked his new one and he was non-committal.

That should’ve been my first clue.

Before Christmas Day, I asked Dad to make sure to take the cell phone to the nursing home so I could Merry Christmas my mother, who’s been in the home since earlier this year. I waited for his call all Christmas Day, but it never came. Later, when I spoke to him, he said that he remembered to bring it, but he didn’t know how to use it.

Right about now, you’d hear the Robot from Lost In Space hollering “Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!” And he’d be right.

When I got to Columbia to visit on the Saturday before New Year’s, I was really glad to see my mother and then my dad. I’d been worried about them, especially as Dad had been living alone since Mom went into the nursing home. At some point in during our reunion, Dad bent over to pick up something and his new cell phone fell out of his shirt pocket.

I was aghast that someone had actually sold my father a Motorola Razor. Really, is that the first cell phone that comes to your mind when you think “octogenarian?” Are you frakkin' kidding me?

I proceeded to quiz Dad about his new phone and found that the display was hard to see and he wasn’t sure what numbers he was punching on the keyboard since he couldn’t tell the difference between the different numbers. Ye Gods. At that point, I made a resolution to take him to the cell phone store to exchange for something he can see, like a Samsung Sync (which my wife and I both agree has a better and bigger display and keyboard).

My own bias made me think that some young rookie salesman took advantage of my father, but when I met the salesman, he was probably my age (mid-forties). He really should’ve known better. I almost decided to take his ass out back and beat him to a frakkin' pulp. But... I took Dad on a tour of several cell phones to get his reaction to the screens and the keyboards.

My father wants to please, and there were several times where he wanted to give up on this quest. Especially when he realized we were keeping them past closing. On New Year’s Eve. I did not have such qualms – ‘cause I wasn’t gonna leave the cell phone store until my Dad was happy with his cell phone.

Even if it took all frakkin’ night.

He said the thought he could use the Motorola. He asked me what was the difference between that and the other phones we tried. “Well,” I said, “Your phone has a camera and this one doesn’t.”

He looked at me as if I’d spoken classic French in the middle of a bar-be-que joint. “Why would I need a camera on my cell phone?”

I truly didn’t have an answer for him on that. Even though I've been looking for a Bluetooth/camera/music cellphone. Which would've frakked his head had I attempted to explain it to him.

We finally found a Samsung candybar that had the big numbers and a big enough keyboard to where he could tell the difference between the numbers. It came with a pouch that he could clip onto his belt; so he didn’t have to put it in his shirt pocket to allow it to slide out.

The next day, after charging his new phone, I watched him slip it into his shirt pocket. I as ked him a little later if he had his belt pouch, and he admitted that he didn’t have it. He told me he’d left it by the charger. He’d put it on later.

Right…

getting over a cold

It's the worst feeling to have - head full of liquids, so tight it feels like it really ought to burst, and it weighs double what it normally does, so my neck has trouble holding it up. When the head moves, it sloshes. Thinking is pretty much out of the question. I started to feel it on Wednesday, but it didn't really hit until that evening, when it blew in with hurricane force. Thursday was gone. Even when I tried to go in to work on Friday, my cold wouldn't let me stay, and I had to go back home to be miserable.

I had invites to a couple of holiday parties this weekend, but I didn't go. I hate to miss a party, but I seriously was NOT up to it, and I didn't think anyone wanted to share my cold with me either. My gift to them was to not leave my own house.

Now I'm starting to stir and act like a human again, but I'm not quite there yet. As it is, I probably will skip a couple of more parties unless I start to really feel like myself again. Of course, this cold has put me behind at work and at home, on projects that I'd planned on having done this week. It pisses me off to miss work (and especially parties), but even more pissed off to try to sleep with one nostril working (and not working all that well either, mind you). Being pissed off is a little indication to me that I'm feeling better, so I'm (kinda) happy for the anger.

There's really not much of a point here, I'm just venting, but you gotta take the good with the bad. At least I've not given you my cold.

Revenge of the Nerds

Not the movie, kiddies, this little item explains how the MPAA had to discontinue their malware because it violated the licensing terms of the code it used. As seen on Gizmodo and BoingBoing. And it's all because of the law that the MPAA helped into existence - the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). What wonderful foresight they had!

And someone, somewhere, is playing Alanis Morrissette's "Ironic."