Deck Begone, Day One

07.15.2008

The grand fixing up of the house has begun. Phase One: Get Rid of the Damned Deck started today. And for anyone that doesn't know me well enough, I've gotten a contractor to take care of all of this. I'd end up tearing down the house if I tried any of this.

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Before:

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After Day One:

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Permalink renovation/remodelling

Canuck Stoop Watch... ENGAGED!

07.05.2008

The Canadian Dollar is worth 98 US cents right now. Good for Canada, bad for anyone looking for deals north of the border. There are a couple of things I've been waiting to pop up on my Amazon radar: Bret Harts autobiography and season 2 of Joey (Don't judge me!). The Bret Hart book has been available in Canada for a while, and I've just been assuming sales for the first season of Joey were so poor that the studio didn't think it was worth the effort to release the 2nd season.

I found myself cruising some message boards and noticed a thread titled "Joey Season 2 UK DVD Release". Huh? After digging through a couple of threads, it seemed that not only was Joey coming out in England, but season 2 had been available in Canada for a few months via Canadian Amazon. Canada and the US share DVD region encoding, so it should all be compatible. I took this opportunity to fill up my cart with Joey and Bret Hart. Unfortunately, Canadian Amazon is treated as a separate business than normal Amazon, so my free shipping upgrade account didn't apply. Even worse, there was a $12 shipping charge due to changing countries, or something like that. But I think of this as one of those times I found what I wanted, so it's worth paying a little bit of a premium to get it.

After placing my order, I thought of checking out eBay to see if I could pick up the Bret Hart book and Joey DVD. Even with the international shipping charge, I still saved about $20 via Canadian Amazon from what eBay sellers were charging.

Permalink Amazon wrestling

The Floburg Cineplex

06.30.2008

This past weekend I took Mom to her parents in Florence for a little visit. I've taken, it seems, to calling Florence "Floburg" of late. I figure if people call Huntsville "Hunts Vegas", Florence deserves its own name. That's how I roll.

Totally unrelated to Floburg, except by how non-white I sound when saying it, are two more movies that popped into my head after my little review session last week that appeal to my non-whiteness. These two movies are not titles I'm exactly proud to say I enjoy, but enjoy them I do. They're both fairly stupid, but they make me laugh. If you can keep an open mind, you may want to give them a try and see if they make you laugh too.

Pootie Tang (2001) - This one is a satire, I think, of blaxploitation movies form the 70's. I've never seen any blaxploitation movies from the 70's. Much like O Brother Where Art Thou, I thought it was just a stupid movie while I was watching, but found myself laughing about scenes 3 days later. When Pootie talks, I laugh. When Biggie Shorty (Wanda Sykes) dances, I laugh. I watch the movie and go around saying "lamatai tebby chai!" I have no idea what it means, but it's fun to say.

Malibu's Most Wanted (2003) - I don't care for Jamie Kennedy. In most of the things I've seen him in, especially his little Candid Camera/Punk'd show, he just came across as too much of a smart-ass. With that said, The 'Bu is full of moments that make me laugh because I get caught up that somebody could actually be as stupid as Kennedy managed to pull off in this movie. Like Pootie Tang, all kinds of quotes pop up in my head after watching a few days later.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

I'm Mr Movie Phone!

06.26.2008

Jim has taken to giving his movie reviews. I cannot let him run amuck! Here's a smattering of what I've seen lately. Some of them Jim's seen too. I wonder if out views will differ?

	Fools Gold: McConaughey is one of 2 actors with southern accents I actually like. As unmanly as it is to admit, I actually like McConaughey in most of the roles in which I've seen him. I didn't hold out much hope for Fools Gold, thinking it would primarily be a chick flick, but I was pleasantly surprised when they threw in a dab of action to keep it from being too formulaic. Overall, a nice flick to watch with your lady friend. Or mom. I've watched it once with each.
	Jumper: The previews looked cool with lots of action. The premise - being able to teleport anywhere would appeal to most. And then on top of that it's got Samuel M-F'n Jackson. But then I found out it had Anikin Skywalker, who isn't the best actor. At that point my expectations not just fell, they plummeted. I still watched the movie, and luckily I was shocked and found myself liking it. Maybe it was my low expectations, maybe it was Hayden Christiansen acting more... human? I got sucked into the story and the action and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
	Burn Notice, Season 1: Ok, this one's not a movie, but if you haven't caught this USA series and are looking for A-Team/MacGuyver/Some other show I can't think of right now, give this one a shot. The main characters have a nice chemistry.
	Superbad: A teenage sex comedy, but lacking the sex. More crude than anything, but I found myself laughing out loud. There's this part of me that can still relate to being 18 and trying to fit in while knowing that I didn't, or at elast as not as much as I wanted. Plus, McLovin reminds me of Gina's son.
	Sunshine: I wanted to like this one, but it was just too... boring for me. Sorry Jim!

Those are what I've been watching of late. Right now I'm waiting on some summer-DVD releases. Doomsday, which will be fun to watch but have a horrible story (kind of like Ultraviolet, I'm betting). The Birds of Prey TV series is being released after 5 years. Also on the TV front are the latest seasons of Dexter, Smallville, and the new Terminator series. The Bank Job is another Jason Statham movie coming out, and he's another actor I'll watch in anything. I got burned on Revolver though - that was one of those movies that I got completely lost by the end.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

Tow Wheeze

06.19.2008

Not too long ago, Lord Ford asked if I had any pics of my wrestling figures accessable via the itnerweb. When I told him I didn't he seemed a bit put off. I had tried to fake a panoramic pic to get all the figs into 1 picture, but the results were always... off. Well, professionality be damned, I don't want to dissapoint Lord Ford!

As best as I can tell, I have around 300 figures. I'm not bored enough to count them all, but they average 5 figures deep and I counted roughly 60 on the front row. I thought I would have 120, maybe 150, but 300?!?!?

The figures go back years and years, and cover more than just Vince's WWF/E. There's some WCW figures, some TNA, even some of the original ECW figures. The worse of the lot, quality wise, were the early WCW figures. Chris "erased from the history books" Benoit had a horrible figure. In fact, it has the same body as Dean Malenko.

I still pick up the odd figure now and then, but I try not to duplicate wrestlers I already have. That's hard enough, and taken to limiting most of what I look at to the WWE Legends figures. That's probably good as I'm running out of shelf space.

Permalink action figures/toys