No sound

I'm returning the sound bar previously written about on my post "So This is Christmas"
I might buy it later.  Sound quality from the TV isn't perfect, but it's definitely serviceable.

My sister's boss...

...gave her $50 to give to me and Mumsy - Each!.

I spent $15 of it on a really dumb music buying choice.  This band, which I previously posted a big gigantic rant regarding, now has TWO CDs, both seemingly heavy hitters on the semi-indie scene (pop-punk/emo/et al).  I bought their 2nd one.  I keep coming back to their first CD thinking maybe I missed something.  Nope.  The opening song "Breaking & Entering" has this heavy dramatic melody, but extremely weak production and arrangement.  Songs like this are meant to get your blood rushing and fist pumping, but this CD just sounds like a 7 year old ordering his parents to stand in the corner.  SCOFF!!!

I can't remember what I spent the rest of it on.  You'd think I could; with $50 I could have bought a bunch of really cool stuff previously thought unattainable...but what would that be anyway?  A two-party meal @ Red Lobster?  Ugh...

So this is christmas...

My New Discretionary spending fund is $181.  This total includes food that my food stamps don't pay for and toiletries that me and my mother don't share.

So:

I bought a TV on 12/31, got my SSI check early b/c New Year's Day is considered a Federal Holiday.

it's 22", generic (Seiki) brand, 

$75!!!!!

oh, yeah, and some change, who cares?  I knew TVs were going down in price, but freapin' mohasis!!!

Of course, I Guess it was a holiday season doorbuster or whatever it's called...the price went up to $150 the day after (1/1)

It's coming monday, UPS (I'll be staying awake frantically 'til 7 or 8pm, probably; UPS takes dang near all 24 hours from the time it's "out for delivery" to the time it's actually delivered...)

I also ordered a soundbar.  It's only 5 watts (2.5 watts per channel); I hope i don't blow it out, I have some oldold-old CDs that on my current arcaic TV I have turn the volume up to almost double that of a new-ish-er CD.

So I've got a few dollars left; I need to buy food, but it's supposed to be freakishly cold tomorrow and snowing.  No telling when the roads will be serviceable...

I have some Freester checks expected sometime soon-ish-y; one has been mailed as of 1/2, the other is still processing...my mom wants to get a pizza hut pizza during their 1/2 off promotion; hopefully I'll be able to chip in like I should - my sis is the one who masterminded the budget, and came to the conclusion that me and my mother's money should stay as far apart as possible; she said if either one of us runs out of money and needs something to call her and ask her for help.

February will be less strenuous, but Windows XP - my operating system running 7 years! - will be excommunicated by Microsoft come April and so I need to get a tablet or something to listen to music that I don't own on CD with -- i.e.: Rdio or MOG etc...I'm hoping this Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 will be aquireable by then...if I put part of Feb, Mar and Apr's $ toward it, I shouldn't have any problems...that's $60 a month I think, although Amazon has it for $140 as of now, if you're willing to order it and wait for it come in stock...

$48/mo would be awesome!  I think I'll send that to my sis next month if she'll agree to put it toward the tablet when enough $ accumulates...

all of a sudden i miss everyone...

I swear, I feel so sad today.  Every good thing is either an attempt to fit in or ground breakingly sad.

Things I'm genuninely interested in buying if/when I have $

THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR: THE BEST OF JACKSON BROWNE
SPITALFIELD - REMEMBER RIGHT NOW
SPITALFIELD - BETTER THAN KNOWING WHERE YOU ARE (*CORRECTION: I actually listened to 4 or 5 songs from this CD and it pretty much sucks, so just pretend I didn't include this on the list)
NEW ORDER - LOW-LIFE
DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL - THE PLACES YOU HAVE COME TO FEAR THE MOST

I don't know, I have a hard time finding anyone to get what I say when I say there's a certain kind of melancholly that's exhilerating.  Listening to Spitalfield is like a celebratory experience, I guess like when normal/happy people go to parades and bask in the traditions of their community(?)
Jackson Browne's "The Next Voice You Hear" is a run-of-the-mill folk rock record that quickly escalates into a deeply personal catalog of sadness, and then "The Barricades Of Heaven" breaks through and it's like the end of some cheesy movie when someone jumps through a waterfall and turns into a bird...idk...hard to explain...weird...(?)

Things I thought about buying for their "cool"-factor:

FORREST GUMP (a really good movie, but I don't remember the last time I watched it...I saw it repeatedly the first couple of years after I got old enough to enjoy serious art of this sort, but how many times can someone with active brain cells watch the same freakin' movie???)
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (Interesting and exciting, but all artfullness has been excavated over the course of 100 viewings)
FIGHT CLUB (a goth chick I wanted to be a part of said it was the best movie, so I think of her and I think of it)
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER reminds me of the aforementioned goth chick
THURSDAY - FULL COLLAPSE - The emo record that started the uptick in signed emo bands circa 2002-2005
THE GET UP KIDS - SOMETHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT - the emo album that got audiences talking about emo

the pre-eminent self absorbed wacko

Semi-recent FILMS I ENJOYED that you can't chalk up to nostalgia or "you had to be there"-ness
(2003-2012)

500 days of summer
mysterious skin
all the real girls
the departed
i'm a cyborg but that's ok
the beaver
the dark knight trilogy
i heart huckabees

Semi-recent FILMS I HATE that you can chalk up to "you just don't like movies, do you?"

man of steel
inception
the conjuring
hot tub time machine
american reunion
avatar
shame
blue valentine

More can prolly be added to both lists...can't think of everything at once...

I don't know about you, but I can see something of a thread in the films I enjoyed...
500 days and all the real girls deal with desperate hearts/the departed and the dk trilogy deal with right vs. wrong/i heart huckabees, i'm a cyborg but that's ok and the beaver both deal with just plain crazy ppl/mysterious skin is also about crazy people - a pedophile, a hyper-sexual rebel, and a troubled soul with buried memories of his victimhood.  The Departed depicts crazy-savory violence.

the movies I hate list consists of movies i was REALLY looking forward to.  IT might be unfair to include MAN OF STEEL since I never was much of a superman fan.  The guy's an alien for pity's sake.  And he's a freakin' goody-goody.  Bruce Wayne was a goody-goody, but you can see he has to struggle to maintain his righteousness.  as for HTTM, it should have been more fun, same w/ AMERICAN REUNION; INCEPTION was too dry; the whole thing was about getting inside ppl's dreams, but the whole thing felt like a giant wad of plastic.  THE CONJURING just wasn't scary.  It's a good film to watch with your 9 year old son(s) (if applicable), but a grown man who has trouble getting to sleep after seeing that film needs therapy or something...I guess if you've been possessed by a demon, you might relate to it; or if you've lived in a super-haunted house...AVATAR was just stupid.  SHAME was boring and it didn't have to be...ditto w/ BLUE VALENTINE.

semi-recent films I don't care about either way

oldboy
the motorcycle diaries (got 4 or 5 mins through it, boring, IMO)
v for vendetta (watched the whole thing, don't have any strong feelings for or against it)
fracture (ditto)
on the road (too much voice-over narration)
the evil dead (enjoyed the first 5 mins, got interrupted or something, thought abour renting it again, haven't)