Ok, so it looks as though things are finally falling into place the way they need to. I got pulled aside by Walgreens the other night, and they told me that I'm finally being hired. I'll be working full time, making $11.65 an hour. That was just what I needed to hear. Because Walgreens is committing to me now, I can afford to leave my other job with the cleaning company, and focus on just Walgreens. I'm going to have to work hard at it, and try to keep my numbers up, because my supervisor says I haven't been so hot lately. Now that I've adjusted to working nights though, I think I can do this. The position I was hired for is 3rd shift, around 9pm to 7am...what they have had us working at lately.

Very happy about this, and taking the opportunity to splurge a little, although I still need to pay off my bills and set aside funds for an automobile. Here's one book that I want. It's so Badass that it even has its own trailor!


Probably just going to get three books and possibly three albums this month. Next month I might look into a new gaming system or something a little more spendy.

I wrote a review for "The Holmes-Dracula File" by Fred Saberhagen.

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Now playing: Heart - Stranded
via FoxyTunes    

So the LT. Governer of South Carolina recently expressed his true feelings about the state's poor and underpriveledged: Don't feed them, they'll breed.

So with the recent global recession and the giant national debt threatening the value of the American Dollar, many people have turned to gold as their standard of fiscal safety. Prominent company Cash4Gold is one of many, and they work by evaluating the market value of what your gold is worth and then paying you equivalent monies for it. For example, they estimated that the Laker's Championship Trophy would net you $3,500.

So cute! Young raccoons get stuck inside a vending machine.

Sorry for the delay, but I have indeed pledged support of your book, so make it a good one. ;3

taken from explorer_fam :

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it."

1. I cannot and will not eat with my left hand. It doesn't "feel" right, even when I am dealing with two handed foods, such as sub-sandwitches. I've been that way ever since I was a little kid.
2. I'm one of those people who have music playing in my head constantly, and cannot "switch it off". I can, however, change what is playing with some concentration.
3. My hearing tends to fluctuate. One week I might be better able to hear than another. Sometimes it changes over the course of a day. I used to be able to hear without my hearing aids, but ever since getting out of high school I haven't been able to.
4. I sometimes forget "obvious" information, such as where I left something I was just handling, what I was doing at the moment, names, ect. I am especially bad at remembering numbers, and could not tell you what my own phone number is without reference. There are exceptions to this, but for the most part it is true.
5. I used to hate music.
6. I treat things such as video games, movies, and books with the utmost care.
7. I love to collect stuff. I obsessively seek out  physical versions of objects I could get for free or cheaper in digital format. I maintain collections of various sports and collectible cards, comic books, video games, action figures, books, movies, ect.

I tag everyone on my friends list who hasn't done this one already.

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Now playing: Men at Work - Down Under
via FoxyTunes    

Gamers unite! The first political party in the world dedicated to gamers has been established in Australia. Aside from being in favor of expanding Australia's restrictive game ratings, they are also against Internet censorship and have a number of other common-sense ideas that you typically don't find in government. At stake is a single seat in lower parliament. Good luck guys!

This story is fairly typical of the American education system, unfortunately. This is why, if I ever have any, I'm probably going to home-school my kids.

A 99 year old woman saw her water bill jump 4,000% inexplicably. Despite having two different plumbers check her house and repudiating the possibility of this absurdity, the water company is still insisting that she pay.

Yeah, it turns out that works of amateur press absolutely are not allowed, even when the source material is created by the author. I don't necessarily agree with their decision not to review published works of amateur press, but I respect it. And I can always publish here what reviews their rules exclude. This review is for a book written by goldfur , and is the 2007 winner of an Ursa Major award! It is called "Life's Dream".

( Life's Dream )
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Now playing: Faster Pussycat - House of Pain
via FoxyTunes    

<Uub> Be Into Chocolate! <Bebi Vegeta> No! I will never be into chocolate by  you!
Ahh, the joys of fanslation. When you absolutely cannot wait for an official English translation, you can always count on the fans to butcher dialog in amusing ways. These screens, however, take the cake.

So I hear there is a new video game for Twilight: New Moon.

Did you know that Todd McFarlane, comic book creator of Spawn and head of a company that produces top quality action figures, is apparently big enough to have his own store? I didn't either.

That's right folks, it's been axed. Whatever Marvel was doing with Spider-Man 4 up to this point is being thrown out in favor of a series reboot. Sam Raimi and Tobey Macguire have been fired.

Just for that, I'm not gonna watch it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_%28film_series%29#Spider-Man_4

http://au.movies.yahoo.com/news/article/-/6671621/tobey-maguire-out-as-spider-man-4-moving-ahead/

Whoo, have I ever been busy lately! These past two nights have been difficult, but rewarding, as Walgreens had me stay on the job until 5am to cover for some folks who were out sick. Haven't been able to go in to my job at the warehouse because of that, but I'll make up for it by working on Saturday.

So, it's time for the final part of my end-of-the-decade review. I wanted it to be a little drawn out, because I knew there would be things that I would miss in the other sections and sure enough, there are! But that's all right. They can stand. Instead, let's talk about music, primarily, the albums that I discovered in the past decade and how they rank in greatness. Everyone's list is going to be different from mine, because this is all me. Also, some albums are pretty dang old, but the key factor is my discovering them. So let's see here...
( Best albums of the Two-Thousands )I wonder what new bands I'll discover in the next decade?

While I'm here, I wrote a book review for President Kennedy's "Profiles In Courage". Check it out!

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Now playing: Linkin Park - In Between
via FoxyTunes   

So you know that old adage bandied about by corporate, how "The Customer Is Always Right"? It's wrong.

The periodic table is due to get a new element, the super-heavy 112.

Check out this absolutely amazing jump rope routine.

Last but not least, as we begin the first week of 2010, I felt it important to list the notable achievements that I've made myself this past decade, as well as a shortlist of some notable persons.
( More New Years Lists )And there we have it! The last of these posts will be Part 4, in which I list the best albums I discovered in the last decade.

Until then, you can always read my review for the video game Dreamkiller.

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Now playing: Extreme - More than Words
via FoxyTunes 
Wow...Those Republicans just can't seem to stop eating their feet. Rachel Maddow is able to completely rip apart Dick Cheney's recent political attacks against President Obama with only some rudimentary research. How's that for reporting?

Want to see what everyone thought the best movies of the decade were?

GM's Junk Heap: The cars that didn't make it.

Here we have Part Two of my look back on the last decade. Things looked kind of grim every time you turned on the news. It got to the point where even Billy of Family Circus said the world had gone to hell. As bad as things seemed though, there were some shining points to uplift our spirits, all spurred on by a Cultural Renaissance unlike any we've had in the past. Part of what led into the renaissance of pop-culture was the immediate legacy of the Internet, which went public during the 90's and became a global store during the dot-com bubble. Well, that's in the past. In this decade things really took off...Here are some of the highlights.

Disclaimer: Again, I can only list this retrospective of the situation during the past decade as it appeared to me. This means that some statements I make here might not be entirely accurate or that you, the reader, may disagree with them. My intention is not to stir up resentments but to look back at the causes and effects of what made the decade, as I saw them.

( A pop culture renaissance )

So here we are, at the end of the first decade of the New Millenium. Coming into the turn of the century with high hopes, it seems strange to look back and see most of them shattered. There can be no doubt that this past decade was one of the worst, if not the worst in American history. From 2000 to 2009, we have seen a lot of pradagim shifts over a relatively short period of time, all influenced by  a worsening condition in the state of the world.

Each decade has it's flavor, and the past one was one of unparalleled challenges balanced out by a cultural renaissance the likes of which we haven't seen since the 80's. It truly was the Best Of Times and the Worst Of Times. I never would have understood Charles Dicken's statement, if I hadn't lived through the Two-Thousands. So let's look back at some of the highlights, shall we?

Disclaimer: I can only list the events as I see them, looking back on it in hindsight. What this means is that I might not be entirely accurate or that I might make a statement about something that you, the reader, will disagree with. My intention in doing this is not to stir up resentments, but to look back on the causes and the effects of what made the decade, all as I see it.

( Decade in Review ~part one~ )

more to come tomorrow :)

I found this a while back. It's really nice to see the fandom getting balanced press, especially considering that the article stems from a court case in which two furs are charged for murder:

"Furry Fandom, furrydom, furdom - it's called many things - has momentarily found itself in the spotlight in the UK, due to a court case where the two defendants met on a furry website.
It is a largely unknown scene and participants have been happy to keep it that way, feeling they are often misunderstood. So what is a furry?
No standard definition exists but generally furries are people who have a fascination with anthropomorphic animals. These are animals that are given human traits, like walking and talking. They can be anything from cartoons characters like Bugs Bunny to computer game personalities like Pokemon.

The scene has its own art, animation, comic books and literature, but activities are largely conducted online - where furries adopt "fursonas" for role playing.

Furries say the scene is about creativity, freedom and community; being who you want to be among like-minded people.

"You get to choose what and who you are. Imagination is OK, no matter what your age," says Mark Merlino, a founding member of the furry culture in the US and known as Sylys Sable on the scene.

But, inevitably perhaps, there's a sexual element too. In a recent court case in the UK, two men who met on a furry website, and shared sexual role-playing fantasies, were convicted of plotting to kill one of the pair's adoptive parents. Christopher Monks, from Lancashire, and Shaun Skarnes, from Cheshire, were found guilty of meticulously preparing the killings via the internet. They are currently awaiting sentence.
Furries will not thank the pair for casting their hobby in a negative light, and tend to argue the sexual side is hugely overplayed.
"I think the problem is that sex sells," says Ian Wolf (his furry pseudonym), who is editor of the British furry news website, FurteanTimes.com. "It is not surprising that less scrupulous journalists like to print stories about people having sex dressed as foxes."

Full article can be found here.

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Now playing: Guns N' Roses - Paradise city
via FoxyTunes   

2009's weirdest wonders. What did we discover in 2009 that made us go "wut?"

Screw the nutrition information. Here's a guide detailing exactly what fast food favorites will cost you in terms of exercise.

Tired of earning minimum wage? Scope out some of the hottest jobs that will earn you $40 an hour.

Happy Holidays to everyone who comes by here. I had an uneventful Christmas with my family.

I got Tenacious D's first album, Guns N Roses Greatest Hits, the first of Micheal Bay's Transformers films on DVD, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 on the PS2, among other things. I got lots of money which I plan on putting towards a car. I think I will spend some of that on myself though, perhaps on some books and maybe another video game. It depends.

Anyhow, I hope everyone has had a safe and happy holiday season, no matter what you celebrate. Right now I'm trying to fix Internet Explorer...my computer was recently attacked by the most dastardly malware I've ever seen. It was one of those self-installing fake antivirus alerts. This one was a lot more virulent than the last one I dealt with, as it completely locked down my computer and made it so that I couldn't open anything without a message saying that run.dll was infected. Fortunately, Firefox remained operational, and I was able to pull a solution out of Google. I found the appropriate removal tool and got rid of it, but now neither my mail client nor Internet Explorer works. Anything relying on Explorer to connect to the Internet no longer connects either. So after some more googling, I think the problem might be with the registry. Going to try fixing it with some tools I have on my computer and see if that helps. If not, I can always get by with FireFox and Hotmail. It's not like I use IE for anything in the first place, although it will be inconvenient to have other programs lose their connectivity with the Internet, particularly Winamp.

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Now playing: Dokken - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
via FoxyTunes   

What will happen to the Internet in 2010? Here are some of the top 10 tech predictions.

See Santa Claus from around the world.

Seems Bernard Madoff wasn't the only Ponzi Scheme criminal this decade. Texas billionaire Allen Stanford was indicted on similar charges, but Madoff still had him beat in sheer scope of this theivery.

So, last Tuesday I took my driver's test. I got my license on the first try, after only two weeks of practice. I hadn't been practicing since High School.

Yeah, I know what you are thinking. "WTF mate? Didn't you just turn 26? And you are only just now licensed to drive?" It's true. For the past 10 years I've been getting by on a permit. There are all sorts of complex reasons as to why things turned out like this, and rather than withholding my personal triumph to escape embarrassment, I thought I'd explain to the best of my ability how the situation ended up being what it was.

Way back when I was just a kid, I did not have a very good relationship with my parents. It changed throughout the years as I got older though, and today I enjoy a fantastic relationship with the both of them. However, as a child I was somewhat put upon by my parents. My mother never really believed me to be capable, for example, and often scolded me when I came up short. I never had any chores as a child because every time I tried to do one, they would tell me that I was doing it "wrong" and take the chore away from me. I'm sure they didn't mean any harm by it, but I think that after so many years of this I came to feel the same way about myself; that I couldn't do anything right. It got to the point where I didn't see myself being successful on my own after High School, so I never developed any solid plans for the future. In any case, when it came time to learn how to drive, my parents were especially concerned about my abilities. Mom would repeatedly call the car a "death machine" and berated me often once I got behind the wheel. Sometimes I made mistakes, but it was also trivial things too. One of her character traits is to make a big deal out of nothing. In any case, I became nervous about driving. It wasn't something that I particularly wanted to do. I knew the necessity of it, but in the back of my mind I wanted to look for alternatives.  I voluntarily took Driver's Ed in high school because I knew having it on my record would lower insurance premiums, and I barely passed with a mediocre grade. I never requested to go out practice driving, and this behavior was only enabled by my parent's chronic procrastination; they often didn't want to take me out no more than I really wanted to go out myself.  My fear of driving became largely subconscious. After High School, I didn't bother to learn because I planned on going to college, and I told myself that not having a car would save money.  After college I couldn't do it because I didn't have enough money to get a car. All excuses to avoid actually having to do it. I could have done it at any time.

Basically in order to get driving, I had to convince myself that I didn't care what happened to me; I needed to learn to drive. Adopting this fatalistic approach, I was able to push myself enough to become easier behind the wheel. Once the nervousness was gone I became a better driver. It only took me two weeks to get used to the road and get a handle on everything. I wanted to wait longer before taking my driver's test, but the holiday season turned it into a now or never sort of thing.

So I did it. And I passed!

In other news, I wrote a review for James Cameron's Avatar. It's totally clichéd as far as it's plot goes, but the presentation is absolutely fantastic and makes it the must-see film of 2009, if not the decade.

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Now playing: Elmo & Patsy - Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer
via FoxyTunes    

Santa Tracker! Thanks to the online technology of the Internet, you too can track Santa just like NASA and the local news.

Bizzarely, Pizza Hut has decided to remove "Pizza" from their name, and will now be referred to as The Hut.

Recession? Not in Hollywood! For the first time in film history, the American box office passed $10 Billion this year.

Just some memes to punctuate the holidays. ( Memes )
---------------- Now playing: Freedom Call - The Quest via FoxyTunes   
It's up it's down, it's on again. Censorship, despite its enormous unpopularity, is slated to take effect in Australia next year.

Still having trouble with your job search? Make sure you don't fall into these 25 habits that will sabotage your search.

Here's how to rock your resume no matter what your situation might be.

We want to make this situation better:
( Suffering in Little Rock, Arkansas )

Article provided by DailyKos.

Also, I got a new review up.

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Now playing: Heart - All I Want to Do Is Make Love to You
via FoxyTunes

Blood sausage is a German tradition. However, I'm pretty sure Grandma's recipe does not call for human blood. But that's exactly what got two officers of the German army suspended.

More weird stuff happening in Germany: A 14 year old boy was hit by a meteorite and lived to tell the tale.

So the economy is still in a slump. Have you tried looking at work in public service?

Several years ago, I was tricked into purchasing a bootleg of Linkin Park's album, "Hybrid Theory". While some may have been satisfied with that (it was cheap and the sound quality was good), I was not. When I purchase an album, I typically like to get the real production package, complete with linear notes and the knowledge that the band at least gets some of the money.

Fast forward to about a week ago. I finally picked up a "real" copy of Linkin Park's first album. This leaves me with the unwanted bootleg copy. Rather than throw away a perfectly good cd, I thought I'd try to trade it instead. By trading it, I can give someone the chance to experience Linkin Park if they haven't already (unlikely considering how big they've been in the past decade; but we're talking a full album here, not just a few songs), and at the same time, I get a chance to experience something new to me.

So if any of you happen to have some albums in your collection that you don't want, and wouldn't mind exchanging for my "Hybrid Theory" bootleg, just list them here. After about a week, the offer that most strikes my fancy will get a private notification and we can exchange addresses. If nobody wants to do it though, that's fine too; I can just toss it. Still, I thought I'd put this out there, and see what kind of responses I get.

The basic idea is to trade album for album, no money involved. Anyone interested?

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Now playing: Air Supply - Here I Am
via FoxyTunes

What are the origins of curry? Read up and see how the tasty Indian dish came to be a staple of Britain.

Ah, the holiday season. Neighbors rushing to one-up each other with decorations is often part of the holiday ritual. Well, there's a little-known rule that will help cut down on the hastle: If you can't beat 'em, amusingly underperform.

Weird? It's not an insult.

So it turns out that the problem with the power supply was no fault of any of the equipment or installation, but rather my failure to understand properly how it functions. There's an extra on/off switch that my last power supply didn't have, and I had to guess which toggle was on and which was off. I was guessing incorrectly.

So now everything is installed and is working fine! I was able to watch DVD for the first time since 2006 on this machine last night, playing a segment on the new drive to make sure it worked. This morning I installed the video card, which was a piece of cake. Nothing to plug in except the SATA port. The card apparently draws power from the mobo itself. It came with an extra plug of some sort, but there is nothing anywhere that it could possibly connect to, so I left it alone for now. I'm assuming it is for some kind of extra component on newer machines.

So that should do it. I have yet to try gaming on this thing, to see just how much of an improvement there is. So far I'm just glad that everything is working correctly and that I've made my first successful install of my own machine.

Components installed:

480W 20+4Pin Switching Power Supply (Logisys)
ASUS EN9500 GT 1G Video Card (with NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT)
DVD ROM Drive

Total downtime: 3 Days (but only because I was working)

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Now playing: Journey - Girl Can't Help It
via FoxyTunes

Status: I've been attempting to upgrade my computer since recieving the power supply I ordered in the mail (a day late). Since I've been working, I've only had enough time to install a few components in the morning right before work, and in the evening right before bed. Took out old power supply with minimal difficulty (main lead got stuck). Installed new power supply with some difficulty (main lead didn't want to go in fully. Dad worked it in for me). Installed new DVD drive. Put computer case back together with some difficulty.

Last night before bed I powered it on and nothing happened. No fans or anything. Following advice I read on the Internet this morning, I tried it again on a different volt setting and it still would not run. At this point I am under the assumption that the new power supply I have sequestered is faulty. When my father gets home, we're going to pull out this new one and put the old one back in. Aside from that, the only new component is the optical drive, and I'm pretty sure it isn't causing a problem. Troubleshooting guides involving failure to power don't focus on the ROM drives at all.

If my computer works under the old power supply, I will be sending the one I just got back to whatever website spawned it, and will order the same one or a different (same sized) model from Newegg.

If my computer does not work under the old power supply, then I will assume that somewhere along the line (most likely when I did the power-on test) I fried my motherboard. I took added precautions by purchasing an anti-static strap, but in the world of computers I know that you can never be certain of anything (unless it works, in which case you can be certain that it works). If this is the case, I will be returning all the parts I ordered back to the websites I ordered them from, pulling out and selling whatever components I can still salvage, and purchasing a new computer this weekend. (Might as well just get a new computer when you have to replace a motherboard. They're expensive as hell and installing one yourself is like walking through a minefield. Unless if you happen to be a computer proffessional or have a lot of money to blow if you make a mistake.) I would put my old HD in my new computer, running two HD's to keep my old data on hand. If whatever problems my upgrade has caused extend to my HD as well, I will have to pay through the nose to have my data professionally salvaged, because there's just too damn much on there to start at square one.

I knew when I started that I would likely fail and that the project would turn into a huge money sink. It just seems typical of how the week has been going. I got my computer in 2006. It's served me well since then with only the occasional hiccup (mostly related to an optical drive everyone has problems with, and the failure of Service Pack 3 causing the automatic update system to malfunction). Still, it's old enough that it is now time to either upgrade or get a new system. When the dust settles, we will see which one it is.

It's funny how things work out. Not only have I gotten back into World of Warcraft after a two year absence, but I've also gotten back into Southern Cross after about as long. Even though everything has changed, I started up a new character there. Seems my old one has been purged. In any case, it's no big deal. I'm having more fun with it now than I ever did with it back then. Anyhow, the reason for my getting back into the game is that I recently read the book written by the game's creator, as background for his rp. I poked around in the game to contact him about writing a review for it...Unfortunately, site policy at FireFox news won't allow me to write reviews for independently published works based off of other franchises (fanfiction). I have yet to learn if I can write reviews for independently published books based on original material though, so we'll see.

In any case, since I can't post the review on FFN, I'm going to be putting it up here for now until I can find some other place for it.
( Southern Cross by David Silver )


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Now playing: RTZ - Until Your Love Comes Back Around
via FoxyTunes

ShamWow! Everyone's seen the video, but is it really all that great? Watch as they put the product up against consumer review.

Could we be heading for another financial crises? After Wall Street's financial meltdown and the ensuing Great Recession, some economists are saying that the devaluation of the US dollar is next.

The switch from analog television signals to digital channels left an estimated 1 million homes stranded without T.V. It's a classic example of why it isn't such a good idea to suddenly change a technology that's been used for years and years, even for something better. A more gradual phase-out would have better served our nation.

So, it seems I'm back in World of Warcraft, after being away from it for nearly two years. Around my birthday, I got a message saying that my account has been selected for a 7 day free credit, as part as their five year anniversary promotion. Hard to believe it has been that long...So I went about reinstalling the game and getting Battle.Net setup, and now I'm back. Seems as though only my two highest level characters survived the conversion, and I was wandering around lost because I couldn't remember what it was I was doing before I had to stop playing. But after this weekend, I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it again.

I don't know yet if I will start paying for the account. It depends on how things pan out with it. I'll be going back to work this week after the holidays, so there is still the issue of whether or not I will have the time to actually play it.

Some things that I forgot to mention in my last post:

For Thanksgiving, I broke out the bottle of Oak Leaf Shiraz that I had been saving since over the summer. I got it for just $3 at Wal-Mart, which was a justified expenditure at the time because I had little money and anticipated that my situation would not have changed by the time Thanksgiving and New Year's rolled around. Well, it turns out that the wine isn't half bad. It was very alchoholic, and about put me right out, but it did not have the oily texture that last year's Shiraz did. Taste was ok, but I'm sure there are better Shiraz out there. Not too bad for the price though; I was expecting worse. One weird thing I noticed is that they don't display the vintage. I guess that's a hallmark of truly cheap wine.

My Thanksgiving was a good one; my only regret was that I forgot about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I try to make an effort to watch it (or most of it) at least every year. This year I slept in and forgot about it completely. As for what I am thankful for, I can some that up here:

• I'm thankful that I found those jobs when I did, and that they seem stable in a time when most are still struggling to find employment.
• I'm thankful that I have many great friends who stand by me even when I mess up. Even if the majority of those friends are on the Internet.
• I'm thankful that I've been allowed to stay here for twenty six years now; I've known some who haven't been given that chance. If I can make it to 30, I'll consider myself fortunate.
• I'm thankful that my life has been comfortable so far, despite all the turmoil in the world. I don't know if it will last.

So what are you thankful for?

Oh, and I wrote a review for Friday The 13th, Part Two, in which Jason wears an unnerving bag over his head.

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Now playing: Lament - Last Dance Of Summer
via FoxyTunes
Check out the 2010 Mercedes-Benz Stirling Moss. The $1,000,000 car that is only available to previous SLR owners.

He won't fit in the coffin! Here in my home state of SC, a mortuary lost it's license after the director of a funeral home sawed off the feet of a 6' 7 man so that he would fit in the casket provided for him. I don't have the foggiest how anyone could have thought that was a good idea. Unless if maybe the mortician lied about his certifications in the first place. Though even for one who hasn't been through mortuary school, I think having respect for the deceased should be par for the course.

Check out these stunning, professionally made wedding cakes.

My birthday was just yesterday. I've turned 26. I got the original Star-Wars Trilogy on DVD, an X-Men Origins: Wolverine game for the PS2, and Transformers 2 on DVD. Nana and Aunt Lanette both came down for Thanksgiving, so it was nice having them around for my birthday. They were going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Live tonight, though I wasn't included. Mom says that she thought I was going to be working when she bought the tickets, though frankly I'm kind of miffed that she just assumed that I wouldn't have been able to go. I'm also jealous since learning that Jeff Scott-Soto is touring with the Orchestra this year. He's apparently lent his vocals to some tracks on their new album "Night Castle". Grandma and Aunt Lanette got me a copy of the album for my birthday though, so that's cool.

Today I did a ton of Black Friday Shopping. My initial plan for a computer upgrade ballooned out of control, much like I was fearing it would. I settled on getting an NVIDIA GeForce 9xxx video card, which required a power supply of at least 350 watts, when my current supply is only 300. So then I purchased a 400 watt supply, and an anti-static wrist strap so that I can install the components without worry. After that, I went out and bought Fallout 3 for the PC in anticipation of my pending upgrades, and I also ordered "Crystal Empires" by Freedom Call and an 80's Metal Tribute to Journey. When I got back home, I found out that my DVD drive won't read Fallout 3 at all. If you will remember, I had been having problems with it reading video DVD's for a while now. RW DVD's and most games I usually don't have a problem with, though Fallout 3 clocks in at a whopping 5 GB, so the DVD is probably in a non-standard format. I ended up going back to Newegg and purchasing an uber cheap basic DVD optical drive, choosing the cheapest one that had the best user reviews. I'm hoping that it will fit in my HP Pavilion. If not, it's likely I might have to send it back in exchange for an external drive.

Things are quiet now with the folks gone to the concert. I had a nice Thanksgiving and Birthday holiday, and now that the Christmas season is here, my spending is essentially done with (except when it comes to gifts for others!). I already know what I'm going to get the family for Christmas this year. I'm just going to wait until December before I start making those orders though.


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Now playing: Foreigner - Waiting for a Girl like You
via FoxyTunes

Five sets of Star-Wars Facebook status updates. Hilarious!

According to the British diplomat to America, the United States was "hell bent" on starting a war in Iraq. Seems the rumors that even before 2003, the administration was steering in that direction might be true.

Four states have adopted a "no smiles" policy when it comes to making driver's licenses. They say that it helps deter fraud, but I think it is an example of frivolous policy.