I’m not paranoid, but DAMN!!!

My buddy Dan sent me a link to a site where a guy did an experiment. He received a credit card application in the mail. He opened it, tore up the application, taped it back together and then use his real information but asked for the card to be shipped to a different house and used his cell phone number as the contact number…. Basically, every red flag you could possibly send up for the credit card company to deny the application (and maybe even call the FBI to report the likely fraud)… But, a few short weeks later and his card arrived at the alternate address without any question. He used his cell to activate the card and he was off and running….

If this doesn’t scare you into purchasing a shredder immediately (or using the one you already bought but don’t use (guilty here)), then I don’t want to hear any complaining when your credit is jacked up by somebody who swipes your trash!

New found respect

So many times people go out and spout off about something they are pissed off about but then, when called to task, they backpeddle, retract or come out with some spin where they were taken out of context… What a bunch of bullshit. If you got a beef and feel like going public with it, have the balls to stand behind it when somebody pushes back. I promise, no matter what you say in public, not everybody is going to agree.

If you remember a couple years back, the Dixie Chicks pissed off a ton of people by some comments they made about George Bush at a London concert. If you didn’t hear about it, she said:

“Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.”

You can read a whole bunch of the back story here.

Well, there was a big ‘ol backlash and people were boycotting the Chicks and all that crap…

Fast forward a couple years. The Dixie Chicks have a new album out and have released a new single titled Not Ready To Make Nice.

You can find the complete lyrics on dixiechicks.com, but my favorite parts are:

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

So, like what she said or think she’s the devil, you have to respect somebody who comes right out and says, “Yeah, I said it. I’d say it again, too!”

An evening with the Beastie Boys

Last night we got to check out a Big Screen Concert of the new Beastie Boys concert movie called, “Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That“. If you aren’t familiar with Big Sceen Concerts, basically they shoot a live concert and then show it in movie theaters around the country. I have wanted to go check one out in the past but it hasn’t worked out. But, when it was the Beastie Boys, I bought tickets early. (Turns out that wasn’t needed since there were like 40-50 people in the entire theater…) The only difference from this and a normal BigScreenConcert is that the movie is actually coming out in theaters nationwide on March 31st.

The movie is from a Beastie Boys concert shot at Madison Square Gardens back in 2004. It was shot by 50 fans holding Hi-8 video cameras (plus some pro footage thrown in from time to time). If you get motion sickness, this movie is NOT for you! My wife had to leave the theater after about 20 minutes. It’s quite bouncy and by the end I was starting to feel a little woozy myself. But, the concert itself is damn good. At one point they bring out Doug E Fresh and he does beat box for one of the songs. Man that guy is good! The way he performs is quite impressive!

At the show they played all sorts of old school tunes like Brass Monkey, Time to Get Ill, Hello Brooklyn & Paul Revere. The crowd does most of the singing on Paul Revere.
It’s definitely worth seeing, but I don’t think I’d be able to watch it too many times. The camera work just makes it a bit too difficult to fully enjoy.

Need to replace my caffeine!

I’ve cut out drinking regular Pepsi and/or Coke and have switched to drinking Diet Dr. Pepper or water. All this in an effort to drop 20-30 pounds this year without going on some crazy crash diet that I know I’ll just ditch in a month anyway… This has had some good and some bad side effects. Since I’m not a huge fan of diet sodas, I’ve notice I drink a HELL of a lot less soda than I did before. So that’s a good thing. But, I’m finding that around 1:30 in the afternoon, I’m freakin’ tired! I don’t have nearly the same level of caffeine going in to my body that I had before and I think it’s affecting me in a bad way!

Well, I think I may have found the answer. BUZZWATER!! It comes with either 100mg or 200mg of caffeine, no carbs, no sugar, no calories… nada! I may have to order a case of this just to check it out. If I can pop one or two of these in the morning, I may have just solved my dilema. And, it may be the end of the Diet Dr. Pepper for me, too! I’ll let you know how it goes!

Monty Python Bobble Heads

We are the knights that say Nee!

Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of Monty Python. I like some bits of the movies, but sitting down to watch an entire MP movie is NOT on my list of things to do…

However, these bobbleheads are pretty darn funny looking. If anybody I knows buys them, bring ‘em by so I can check ‘em out. Thanks.

Funnies blonde joke I’ve ever seen

Ya know, most of the time, blonde jokes are just silly. But this one is pretty damn funny!

hey Brian, can ya spare some change?

Each year for Brian’s birthday, I like to get him just a little something. Last year we got him a gift certificate and then wrapped his entire cube at the office and filled it with balloons. This year, we left a note on his door that read:

They were all out of gift certificates, so we got you cash instead. Above is a photo of his desk covered in $20.00 worth of brand spankin’ new 2006 pennies. Another $5.00 worth is spread around his office. In the fridge, drawers, keyboard, phone, window sills, etc…

Happy Birthday, Brian!

:)

I’m a DVD Junky!

If I’m at the store and see a DVD of a movie I even remotely want to see, it’s all I can do to stop myself from buying it… In the past week or so I’ve purchased the following:

The Aristocrats (no, NOT the Disney movie)
Saw II
Final Destination
Final Destination 2
My Blue Heaven/Man With 2 Brains (both on one DVD. Score!)

I’ll be following that up with buying Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Walk The Line.

Over the weekend I watched Final Destination (which I had never seen before) and really enjoyed it. It’s a silly basis for a movie, but, I enjoyed the inventive ways that the people got killed off. Tonight, I watched Final Destination 2. Even more inventive ways to kill off the cast.

There’s a silly story about trying to buy the Final Destination movies… I was at Best Buy and couldn’t find either movie in the Horror section. So, finally I asked an employee. They looked them up on the computer and said they were both listed as Sci-Fi. These movies have next to no business being in Sci-Fi. Any movie that kills off 75% or more of the main cast has got to be listed as a horror movie. I’m sure that’s a law somewhere…

I Hate Being Ignored!

I keep myself pretty busy with projects which you most likely already know. I stay up late, wake up early and try to cram as much in to each day as I absolutely can. My mom said I was the exact same way growing up. It’s like I wanted to be awake all the time just so I didn’t miss anything. 30 years later, not much has changed. Hell, I started writing this post at 11:53 PM even though I need to get up in 6 hours for work…

Well, I have been working on an idea that would involve a couple buddies who would all do some writing for a web based project I’ve had rattling around in my brain. But, rather than do a half-assed job (like I do on so many other projects), I wanted the site to have a certain look. To get that look I felt it would be best to buy professional pictures from a place like getty images or wire images (names written with no links on purpose). So, I went to both of their sites and looked around and found that they both had plenty of what I was looking for. Since my plan was to take some of their images, chop them up and put them on a different website, AND the fact that I’d be using new images most every day, I thought it best to contact them and find out what my price for doing such a thing would be. Mind you, I understand that it’s going to be expensive. After visiting both sites, I ended up emailing the sales staff at both sites. It has now been about 2 weeks and neither of them have responded. Not even a letter telling me to go screw myself. Or, a condecending message telling me to come back when I have an esablished site to put their work on… Man that pisses me off!

Here’s what it boils down to. I want something that they have for sale. I have money to pay for the items I want. However, with pre-sales customer service like this, it only makes me wonder what would happen if I ever needed support AFTER becoming a customer… so, ya know what, screw them both. I am no longer interested in using your photos. There are plenty of places to purchase photos on the web. Sure, you may have a larger selection, but, at the end of the day, I’ll be happy to know that my money is going to a company that is willing to at least respond to an email asking how best to send them money.