Hotlanta

03.12.2007

I'm in Atlanta taking part in some 3DS Max training for my new job. I've never had any 3DS Max training. I've only been to Atlanta 1 other time, not counting airport layovers. It's like the workd is a whole new adventure for me.

Unfortunately I'm going to miss Raw at Evil Matt's tonight. And I'll have to delay my weekly Amazon order to make sure I'm there when it arrives. Plus, I won't be going to Movie Stop to trade in some VHS tapes on Wedensday.

I'm old and am set in my ways. This training is really shaking things up.

Permalink road trip

UPS Tracking

03.07.2007

Today my weekly parcel from Amazon arrived via UPS. I've always thought that the Amazon/UPS package tracking feature was one of the best things ever made for the internet. There's been many a time when I went to view the tracking progress only to find that I should go look outside on the porch.

Today I was home when the UPS truck drove up, so I thought I would try to find out how long it would take the tracking information to update. My package arrived at 3:44PM. I went to the website to check the status. 3:45, still out for delivery. 3:48, the same. 3:58, still not showing up on my porch, even though I can see it on the porch!

I guess they don't have real time tracking. I checked at 5:00 and the status had been updated to delivered (at 3:44). I'm not sure how of the delay showing up was due to the data going from the truck to whatever magical place it updates, or from the magical place to the website, or the combination of that and more.

Still, any type of tracking update accurate to within 2 hours rates pretty high in my book.

Permalink Amazon

Happy Birthday, Foo!

03.01.2007

Waaaay back in 1983, I had a Rocky birthday. I had gotten Rocky Super Action Boxing for the ColecoVision, the coolest part being that it used the Super Action Controller, which at the time had more buttons than anything else ever made!

Even though I was turning 14, I still liked action figures (not dolls). I still wanted to be a kid (some things never change) so I asked Mom to get me an action figure. She managed to get me a Mr T Clubber Lang figure (not doll) from Rocky 3, making it a Rocky themed birthday (I also got Michael Jackson's Thriller on cassette to play in my bargain, off-brand walkman from Sears, but that would just ruin the Rocky theme if I mentioned it).

For whatever reason, I've kept up with that Mr. T action figure since 1983. I've lost his boxing trunks along the way. I don't know how, but he has. He's managed to finagle a spare wrestling singlet from Kurt Angle, as can be seen in the classic camtoons. I had his boxing gloves for the longest time, but they've disappeared too over the past couple of years.

With the last Rocky movie coming out at Christmas, the toy marketing department decided to release figures from all the Rocky movies. In that batch was Clubber Lang. Mr. T. 24 years later, made from a different mold, but still Mr T. I think that I should get a new Mr T action figure (not doll) for my birthday this Sunday. At that point the challenge will be to see if I can keep them for another 24 years.

Permalink action figures/toys

Monster.com Certificated Utility

02.27.2007

This showed up in my inbox (past the various filters keeping me from finding sex partners in my area and the promise of a larger penis):

Monster.com company greets you Russ Spears.

We are happy to inform you that we had succesfully upgraded our

site. Because of our system has great changes, you

have to install Monster.com certificated utility (click here) to be able

to use monster.com database. If you don’t setup this tool

until March, 1st, 2007, you will not be able to use your account

You don’t have to answer this letter - it’s just a newsletter.

Thanks for cooperation.

I wish I had been able to "click here" just to see what would have happened, but alas it was just plain old text instead of a link.

I bet this has something to do with those millions waiting for me from Nigeria.

Permalink random

800

02.23.2007

Thanks to the bargain bin at Wal Mart and my unexplainable like of bad action movies, I now have 800 DVD titles.

I would just say "800 DVDs", but that's not true. While the majority of them are movies, I've collected a lot of multi-disc sets, especially tv shows - like my 27 years worth of Star Trek. If there were an easy way to figure out the number of hours of DVD watching I've got, it would probably be scary. Luckily, I don't have the spare time (or at least I don't want to acknowledge that I have the spare time) to figure that one out.

I've been picking up a lot of older titles lately. I think it's because I've actually been going back and watching some of the older movies I've gotten, then I get in the mood to watch something similar. I don't think this is bad - a lot of movies that may be 10 or 15 years old are still good today.

I doubt Navy Seals is one those.

Weekend Update: I just finished watching Navy Seals. Although forth the 5 bucks I spent on it, I bet it's another 3 or 5 years before I even try to watch it again. I'd forgotten how some action movies from the 80's just through random scenes in to try to get more action into the movie (case in point: Charlie Sheen & the guys are off playing golf, a tow truck starts to ferry away Charlie's car, so he hops on a bicycle, gives chase, gets into his car, and escapes from the tow truck while narrowly avoiding the 80-wheeler that was following).

Permalink movies/tv/dvd