Might as well party like it's 2029

Because it's not 1999; back then Hotmail was a relatively new thing (to me anyway).  The operating system of choice back then has changed like 3 times already (would have been 4 if Windows Vista wasn't such an abomination to technology).

And not only is Windows '98 officially outdated by well over the 5 year mark, but Hotmail is on its way with it.  Microsoft is now transitioning to Outlook.com, which is almost identical to Hotmail, but somehow is aimed at Windows 8 (a tablet OS, I think) users.

Weird.

I saw this once or twice on TV...looong ago...

The End

Kate Bush - The Whole Story
Genesis - Live/The Way We Walk Vol. 2: The Longs
Oingo Boingo - Skeletons In The Closet: The Best Of
Starship - Knee Deep In The Hoopla
Various - Ghostbusters OST

Every time I thought about saying goodbye, it didn't feel right.  I always discarded these things, after all, why would it be wrong to keep a CD that I don't listen to?  I think I figured out the answer a few days ago - the CD format itself is useless.  I don't need it.  I like it b/c it brings me back to the warm comfort of my early childhood (age 0-5).  I remember being mesmerized by the tray sliding out of my father's CD player and seeing the GHOSTBUSTERS soundtrack inside it.

I'm used to listening to songs in an album format.  I think part of that is because of habit, but a lot of that has more to do with me being lazy.  Creating a playlist that I only listen to once seems like a lot of work for nothing.  Lately I've been trying to envision how a play list would flow, and to aid in that endeavor, I click "play" on a song in my Amazon Cloud player, intending to click "play" on another song that I think would flow easily into that one.  But the more I don't get to the "ideal" following song's "play" button in time to avoid hearing some other song (they're laid out in alphabetical order by song title), the more I realize I don't need a playlist.  Hearing random songs is just as orderly as hearing songs on the radio.  I used to think the radio station song choosers (which are now computers) had a very meticulous way of choosing songs, based on the weather and an uncanny knack for knowing which songs flow into each other.  I think I got it all wrong though.  The only way two songs wouldn't flow into one another is if one sucks and one doesn't.

I'll keep the 5 CDs mentioned above, but I don't see the point in buying anything on CD unless it's A) REALLY good B) cheaper than the MP3 version.  And if A) outdoes B) I might buy the mp3 version anyway, simply b/c I know I don't need a bunch of CDs laying around and will get rid of the CD on those grounds, which will put me in the position of not having the music I want when I want it.

Naturally the next logical step would be buying an mp3 player.  I don't think I need one.  Even if I DID have a job, I don't see where the mp3 player would service me.  "May I take your order?  Wait, let me take off my earbuds...".  A USB stick will probably do just fine.

Purchases wanted

If it weren't for my poor dental health - I owe the dentist $39 and I have an upcoming appointment that's gonna cost me $51 - I would be totally devoid of any reason to have $ next month & the month after.  Luckily in October, E.T. comes out on home video for the first time in 10 years WITHOUT all the "enhancements"...and the gov't (welfare) forbids it, but I'm probably going to be buying Xmas gifts for my peeps anyway, 'cause theyze close to my hart & they should know I appreciate them.  WORd!

Hopefully in January, I'll think of SOMETHING to spend my $ on that the gov't doesn't frown upon....

pests of a different feather

Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on something: killing is OK.

The specifics get a little fuzzy though.  Democrats say Republicans have no respect for human life b/c Republicans support the death penalty.  Republicans say that Democrats have no respect for life because Democrats insist it's OK to kill babies.

I think Republicans have a valid point on the abortion issue.  When abortion became legal, Democrats' arguments may have held more weight, but there comes a point when "interpretation" of scientific data verges on religious fanaticism, which can't POSSIBLY be what pro-choice supporters are doing, since there's no written text that specifies what a Democrat should or shouldn't think...However, I think pro-choicers' whacked interpretation of the scientific evidence that suggests pro-lifers are in the right has less to do with the data itself than it does with the possibility that said data could be grounds for the courts to make abortion illegal.  The pro-choice attitude, from what I can see, says that a fetus is not finalized until it comes out of the womb.  Even though it may for all practical purposes be the exact same thing as as a newborn baby, it doesn't count.  And I can sorta see the Dems' point on that one; after all, there is certainly a difference between a grandparent visiting their fetus and visiting their grandchild.  Visiting a fetus means visiting the keeper of the fetus, and for all anyone knows, there could be no fetus in that woman's womb.  Or, if she keeps a secret, there's still no knowledge, at least not in the first 1-4 months.

Which brings me to my other point: Republicans always bring God into the equation on matters like the death penalty and abortion.  I can totally see a DA, if Republicans got their way, saying that x grandparents should have had a chance to meet their grandchild because that's what God would have wanted.  ERROR:  God WANTS all kinds of things that have not happened.  Did he WANT Adam & Eve to disobey him and get kicked out of Eden?  Did he WANT the world to suffer and endure for all these thousands of years?  NOBODY KNOWS what God wants.  For all anyone knows, the act of abortion of something God DOES want and even went out of his way to make happen.  Why, you ask?  Hell if I know.  You wanna bring "why" into the equation, you may as well get prepared for a book full of questions to answer on WHY God does what he does and doesn't do what he doesn't do.

And as far as I know, The Bible does not talk about abortion.  It DOES however talk about the death penalty and one thing most Republicans overlook is that the death penalty is not approved by God if the accused is not caught in the act.

Personally, I think Democrats are worthless.  People always talk about "getting things done", and Democrats sure do have a ton of ideas on that front.  None of them are for improving the country.  The only reason we ever need to "get things done" is because Democrats keep coming along and screwing things up.  Aside from acquiring a huge deficit and some bad choices in foreign policy, what did George W. Bush do that screwed up this country?  I can't think of anything, really.  Now what did Obama do to IMPROVE this country?  He quadrupled the already shockingly high deficit, and vows to keep adding to it, and I guess his heartwarming speeches helped boost the economy a slight bit for several months, even though it's pretty much stuck the last 2 or 3 months...

I agree that Obama's healthcare plan is a good thing.  But the fact of the matter is it would require raising taxes, and the rich by themselves should not pay for all of that.  The middle class is going to have to pitch in at least 10% of the tax raise, and for that and all the other things Obama wants to do, we would probably need to double taxes on every front and charge back-taxes on Wall Street gurus who make a living off of investments but have only been paying half the taxes on them for all these years.

Would that be bad for the economy?  Probably.  And I certainly don't think making a bad economy worse is a good idea, but most importantly: Obama isn't demanding double taxes and he's still pushing his healthcare reform and who knows what else he has up his sleeve.  We are eventually going to head into trouble if we keep spending money that don't have.

I remember seeing Camel Joe ads at the mall in the late 80s/early 90s.  I liked those ads; they were all neon and prrrty.  The ones that weren't had a nice beachy-earthy tone to 'em.  I don't really like those ones as much, but they're kinda cool... Something about the animation on the cover of FAR SIDE pt II has intrigued me. I guess b/c it's reminiscent of SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK. which aired during the apprx time slot that THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS aired. It's weird, I remember SLIMER & THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS better than THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS. I TOTALLY do not remember the Slimer spinoff. I remember seeing the DiC Productions logo, with that little kid sleeping and the angle of the image zooming outside his(?) window with kind of a glowy nightime sky. Which reminds me... This cover-art reminds me of...something I don't remember. I tried watching the movie and it didn't help. I remember this CD. I remember seeing it and noticing it didn't have Michael Jackson on the cover. I remember hearing the song "Lasagna" and thinking of a popcorn commercial that I really shouldn't remember as well as I do, since it really wasn't very memorable. And I remember passing by this CD, back when CDs came in longboxes, in a music store when me and the rest of my family (incl. my father) and damn near creaming myself over how awesome it looked. They had this, NOTHING TO FEAR and DEAD MAN'S PARTY. I swear, I don't know what I saw in the cover for DEAD MAN'S PARTY. I look at the cover now, and I can barely make out the image(s). But at the time, I was in awe of all three of 'em, the hiearchy being the same as it is now, although spaced apart differently, as indicated already... For some weird reason, I think of this RGB toy when I hear the song "Nothing Bad Ever Happens", from the SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET cd. Although I think it was Fearsome Flush I remember walking out of the back way of the Salinas, CA mall with, wrapped for me in a KB Toys bag. Where the song "Nothing Bad Ever Happens" ties into that memory, I do not know. The Super Fright Features Winston was a New Years present, although my mom had to cut the top part of the packaging off so I wouldn't guess what it was. I think I remember seeing her buy it, seems like it was at a sewing store, or some discount/dollar store...it wasn't the mall...or maybe it was...idk...maybe Fearsome Flush was my "today" item and Winston was for later...sounds more plausible... I remember I was scared to walk by the bathroom, imagining a zombie/corpse-thingy waiting to scare the cripes out of me...so I walked up to my mom and told her she should not have let me see all the video covers for all those horror movies. Thankfully she didn't put too much stalk in that talkin' to..... I feel groovy when I see these things. I guess it beats the LOTR/Harry Potter/Dark Knight mania of late - although I actually like THE DARK KNIGHT movies, I just can't imagine a child growing up in such a dark world...where's the color? Where's the happiness? Between it being way more awesome than the dreary "kid's" movies of late, and the fact that I, for better or worse, grew up with this stuff, it's just...weird to think that I must have had the most sorry asT look on my face when I opened my New Years gifts and it was mostly Beetlejuice toys (no GHOSTBUSTERS). (My mom was kinda upset about it, which is how I conclude - not exactly a memory - that I had a dulled reaction to the gifts). I still can't believe I used to have one of these. But then again, I've never understood the appeal of the POLICE ACADEMY movies. But those worthless 80's comedies did have some memorable cover-art, even though they all looked mostly the same.

What the helk happened?

I started out with an $82.75 balance, which was $5 more than what I was depending on.  A few days later that balance went up to $90.88 after a couple items in my Amazon inventory sold.  One of the items I sold was an item I had acquired through my mom re-paying me for a $15 purchase I made with my debit card on her behalf, the same day as the deposit that brought my account balance to $82.75.  From $90.88, the $15 purchase brings me down to $85, and I also bought a $16 book, which, I resold for $10, so, cutting the filler etc. out of the equation, that's $85 - $6 =ing $79.  My mom's b-day gifts cost'd me $27 =ing $52 from $79 and I also bought $11.75 worth of lattes from Cup & Cork and a $9 CD from Amazon, bring me down to $31.  As far as the rest of the money spent goes, here's what my bank account statement tells me:

$2.66 Redbox
$2.55 Hastings
$2.33 Hastings (again!)
$3.19 Starbucks
$0.83 Kidd's
$0.99 Amazon
------
$12.52

You'd think this means I should have a balance of $18.50 apprx, but, seriously, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED???

In any case, my plans for August, since I have a $41 doctor bill (mostly for dentistry, which Medicaid doesn't cover), are as follows:

NO $2.66 redbox
NO $5+ Hastings purchases
NO $3+ Starbucks stuff

Between this and cutting back on the even smaller purchases ($0.83 for Kidd's, for example), I should be A-OK.

The good guy robs a convenience store...

Supposedly the producer of Tonight Alive's WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF went out of his way to make Tonight Alive a star, which you'd think would be an indication that this band is at least good, if not legendary.  This guy produced the breakthrough albums of bands like Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, The Starting Line......
Simply put: this band isn't close to being as good as any of those 3 I mentioned, although I'm not really into TSL and Blink 182 anymore, I consider them to be the reason pop-punk is as good as it is today, although each successive band has outdone its predecessors and it only makes sense that by now The Starting Line and Blink 182 would seem primitive in comparison.

But Tonight Alive's WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF? is definitely NOT The Starting Line - and just to be clear, The Starting Line aren't music I listen to often, or even "once in a while", but I am much more likely to listen to their music with open arms sometime in the future than this album.  The band was so stoked, thinking they must be better than they realized after finding the guy who produced The Starting Line/Jimmy Eat World/Blink 182's breakthrough albums trying to worm his way into their careers.  And if he were simply producing their album, I'd be like "OK, a producer can't exclude less than iconic musicians from his body of work" [they'd be out of a job for most of their life if they did!].  But he didn't simply agree to have his name on their CD, he CALLED THEM, he OFFERED them a production job.  And I can't see why.  The guitars are muffled sounding, as if the producer were trying to hide the fact that they can't play, and the vocalist so obviously cannot switch from one note to the other without them sticking together.  There's a few occasions on the CD you can almost hear her clearing her throat so the previous note will go away.  The worst part is the songwriting - obviously trying to be "epic" & sugar-poppy, but the whole thing just seems to meander without a clear purpose or destination.

Just kinda irritating.  Especially when all these 12 year olds on Amazon are raving about how great they are & I'm always looking for pop-punk music to listen to, and seem unable to find it.  I guess pop-punk on the same par as The Starting Line and Cartel has never been an everyday thing...

Down To The Bone

A good quality "off" brand TV and a good (give or take however much emphasis, depending on what the word means to you) quality allinone stereo costs apprx $300, which still sounds like a boatload of $.  That's 1/3 of the cost of a super-good++ stereo set-up (Polk TSi200 speakers & a Yamaha receiver) & a good size LED internet-TV that isn't an "off" brand.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

NECA should give him back his dignity.  I know, I know; you all think this is a big joke - Well, think how HE feels!  GROW UP - Think about someone other than yourself for a change!  Uhg...ye, I'm done.

TV DESTINO

I'm using my Gramma's 15"(?) Durabrand SD TV.  It gets the job done.  My mouth waters when I see what else TVs have to offer - LED-lit, internet apps and this Samsung I just added to my Amazon wish list even has a web browser(!).

It's weird though, b/c even though I've thought about it a few times lately, I haven't watched GHOSTBUSTERS in, like, at least a month, and the last time I spent time with it I only watched less than half of it.  I have THE LAST UNICORN on Blu, b/c it's the only legal format to own it in that isn't bleached out or censored.  The most recent DVD experience I've enjoyed was Genesis - Live At Wembley Stadium (July 1-4, 1987 fka The Invisible Touch Tour, released on VHS in 1988).  I watched about 17 minutes of Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO, and was mildly interested in it.  I'm not sure I'll go back and see the rest.
  The TV I'm using now is mainly just a way to listen to my CDs.  If I kept my computer on all day, I could probably make do w/o that feature, too...but as much time as I spent as a wee lad with GHOSTBUSTERS, and as much as it spends in my head from time to time, I can't bear the thought of NOT HAVING a TV of SOME kind!  And if I didn't have speakers of some kind, thus nullifying the purpose of a Blu-ray and/or CD player, I would probably want an MP3 player...lately my computer's been having trouble streaming...Windows Media Player burned a CD a couple days ago, w/o issue thankfully.  I used to use Media Monkey, which I thought was cool & all, but even after un-installing & re-installing, CD burning hadn't been going well.  The CD-Rs would have cracks & pops throughout.  It happened first right after I bought some Maxell "Pro" CD-Rs, with a scratch-resistant(er) coating and some other feature that isn't coming to mind, or that I can't remember...I got those from J&R, and called them to see how much it would cost to return them, if anything.  They refunded me straight up, w/o a return needed...I thought about that earlier tonight and came to the conclusion that I should probably buy more CD-Rs from them, preferably the same kind...Anyway...If I had the Samsung, it would detract from the time it takes to have the computer on, since I can browse the web from there & most of what I do online is check email.  No need to have the computer on just for that...oh, and shopping on Amazon and price comparing via Google Shopping would be nice too...I think the only things you can't do with a TV's web-browser is use streaming music sites like Rdio or Mog, and watch movies on Amazon or Netflix.  I tried using Amazon VOD on my Mom's Wii and it wouldn't let me.  I don't know WHY, but that's the way it goes, I guess...so if stuff like that isn't available in the App-package, then it isn't usable on it.
  The Samsung TV I'm oggling is $500, but I figure $60 of that is saved by not needing a Roku and $100 is also saved by not needing a wi-fi antenna, which would have come in handy with my Roku LT that I bought earlier this year or late in Dec. 2011; music and movies would cut & stutter, and if it was about to rain it would get worse.  A powerline wall plug in adapter (or whatever they're called) would have presumably improved that.  Someone on Amazon said Blu ray players are not generally good at online streaming & that TVs w/ built-in apps tend to work better for that.  BTW, my blu ray player has 'net apps, but it needs to be plugged in to a router, which, in my household, is upstairs...which I suppose could be changed, but between the fact that neither me nor my mom know jack about how to set-up wi-fi or anything like that, and the fact that I hardly ever used Netflix back when I had my Roku (I know, right?!), AND the fact that users generally don't find anything positive to say about my Panasonic BD75's streaming capabilities...I just ain't doin' it.
  So anyway...it's still a boatload of $.  My sister might (or might not) give me some $ in 2013, or let me get my Circuit Breaker check like I had been doing (she asked me & my mom not to file for it b/c she spends $800 in income tax b/c she has to claim our rent as income, I guess b/c she's paying property tax and isn't living in her property, and her regular income doesn't support apt rent AND a mortgage, and if the gov't put 2&2 together they would figure out: someone's paying her to live in her house & they should get their cut!).  I don't know what's going to happen as far as that goes; the typical $ I get doesn't lend itself to the idea of saving.  There's probably a few months out of the year that I'm scot free to save at least half of my $75/mo, but that's only $40(ish) and the rest of the year I'm either buying gift(s) and I don't have an easy time with the concept of saving $.
  But like I said, I don't really watch movies that much.  A cheap TV would only cost $100 if I need to buy one either b/c my gramma wants her TV back or it dies out while in my care.  My sister probably could do that or me when/if that happens....and then I can just add some computer speakers to it (via a 3.5mm jack) for better sound quality if the TV I buy can't satisfy me requirements for listening to music.  I'm not really too terribly picky about sound quality, but there are limits of course.....if I end up with god-awful speakers in the TV & no headphone jack, that TV will probably need to go back to the seller & replaced with a (slightly?) more expensive TV......but if Heaven landed on earth, it would look a lot like the Samsung TV in my wish list.  I figure it's time to stop dreaming small.