epitaph for a spider...

I had a couple books that I bought at Goodwill thinking maybe I could get some store credit or cash from my local media retailer (books movies music & games, both new and used) but my local media store (Hastings aka GoHastings dot com) wouldn't take a couple of 'em and only gave $0.50 total for the other two (I bought four (4)).  So I sold the other two to The Book Rack (used book store) thinking I would need to sell my store credit ($4.50) to someone (hopefully my mom...), but as it turns out I not only found a book that I can resell in itself (maybe even to Hastings! for a dollar at least, maybe $2+) but I had actually been interested in buying it for a couple months...the book, FYI, was called SPIDER by Patrick McGrath.
  There was this other book I tried/started reading like, idk, five years (?) ago, and had to return it to the library and couldn't for the life of me think of who wrote it!!!  Or even the name for that matter...the cover I remembered, and the little I read I remembered, that was all.  THAT book was titled EPITAPH, by James Siegel, who ALSO wrote a book that I ALSO tried to re-sell to Hastings from the Goodwill titled DERAILED, which I was only familiar with b/c it became a well publicized movie.  For some retarded reason, EPITAPH was criticized for being "too slow", which I kinda thought was the selling point...
  So I have two books I can read, and another to buy/read at a later time.  Yay!  that DERAILED book has been collecting dust for at least almost a month...

Oh, and I have no money now.  But i'm Ok.  That gift card my sister sent me for my b-day really paid off(!).

across five aprils...er, january/februarys...

wow.  this isn't that big of a deal to a lot (most?) audio connsuiers (sp??), but with a monthly budget of $674, the future seems rather long; this set-up, if it stays the same price it is now, would be apprx $500.  I do get an annual partial-refund on my rent, but last year it was only like $360.  I guess if I didn't have so many bills and responsibilities, I'd have enough in my monthly check to make up the other $140...but at least I can get a shelf system onnathese days, pretty soon actually...I should be getting (I hope) at least (?) $360 again in about a month and a half, so I can at least get a nice stereo bookshelf system.  Onkyo makes one for $280 - the typical $80+ Amazon competitiveness...(who'd wanna pay the list price if they have to wait for it in the mail??).  And thank goodness all the bullheads of the world haven't hogged up all the electricity so I can at least listen to most any music I want...yeah.  It could be A LOT worse...but it could be so much better...sigh...dreeeam...

Aah, the power of DENON

Ok, I think I'm going to get the Denon AVR-391 (see ad) instead of the Onkyo TX-8255.  Surround sound may not be a big concern to me, but it would be nice to have unlocked sound vs. the caged sound of regular CD.  Although it may never be the case that plain ol' everyday good++ music will be routinely put on SACD or DVD-Audio or Blu-ray audio discs, it would be nice to be able to have that capability in my home (so far the only blu-ray audio disc I've seen is that Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album, MOJO I think was the name of it, and I totally didn't like that CD, although i can't say I've ever been flat out in love with any of TP&HB's music, although they do have a large handful of pleasantries on any of their hits discs).  BTW, if any record execs are reading this, please quit wasting your time, er, I mean, PLEASE stop releasing SACD versions of albums and then taking them off the market two years afterward.  SACD should not be a "collector's" item.
 
I finally have a debit card!  BigCrumbs, a cashback service, offered to put my cashback on a "pre-paid" Mastercard, AND they automatically put $5 on the card just 'cause I activated it right away (!!).  So I finally was able to use one of those DVD rental kiosks, since a convenience store located a bit up the street from my house did install one of them a month or so ago.  i don't have hardly any cashback incoming, and i got hardly any purchase power in December (it's all going to Xmas gifts and clothing), it'll probably be March or April b4 I see anymore $ on the thing.  But as I mentioned, I will be buying the Denon AVR391 in January, or early February, unless the "tax assistance" program is canceled by 2011...I plan to buy that and some bookshelf speakers, all together totaling over $300, and BigCrumbs offers 4% via J&R Electronics' website, so that's $12 in cashback I should be expecting.  BigCrumbs does expect you to wait almost 2 months for the money to be dispensed, but that'll significantly increase my purchase power in March or April (depending on how long the "tax assistance" check takes to get here). 

ah, yes, and the weather is actually nice today.  It's been cloudy/foggy/gray-for-whatever-reason-Mr.-Weather-Man-might-have-said for almost a week.  Now we can eat...
  Hopefully my Gramma will feel up to making dinner Friday.  She signed up to work Thursday, although she doesn't know if she's going to be needed, they'll let her know prolly tomorrow or that day...but anyway, she was in the hospital yesterday, I guess she still is, she should be getting out today.
  Oh, yeah.  My birthday was Saturday.  I didn't get anything ON that day, I was hoping my Gramma would remember and stop by with $10+, so me and my mom could go to Starbucks.  They were having a BOGO sale on their holiday drinks from 2-5.  Sunday was the last day.  I still have a free drink from Starbucks, all I had to do was tell them my email address and all that...and of course load money onto a gift card...so b/c they have my email address etc. I not only got a free "birthday" drink (they sent me that earlier in the month and it expires in late December), but i was made aware of the BOGO offer via a promotional email.  SEE???  YOU'RE ALL DUMB FOR NOT JUMPING ON THIS!  Well, to each his (or her...ah-hem) own...i guess...
  Anyway, my mom got me a GHOSTBUSTERS II figurine, part of a Toys 'R' Us exclusive collector's boxed set w/ all 4 of the 'Busters; someone was selling it by itself on eBay.  I bid on it, my mom paid for it.  She said "can this be your birthday present?" and I said "yeah, that'd be perfect!".  And I think I already posted about the $25 whole ones that my sister presented to me in the form of an Amazon gift card.  Already got 3 of the items  I bought w/ it, still waiting on the other two.  One of them was just shipped yesterday and the other one is coming from England, may take awhile...

my $25 birthday gift - circa Nov. 17th

My sister sent me a $25 Amazon gift card somewhere around 8pm on Wednesday, although I didn't get it 'til after 1am on Thursday...but yeah.  I was shopping on Amazon from then 'til about 6am.  She sent it to me early b/c I asked her to loan me a $5 apprx Amazon gift card to pay for an Out Of Print DVD edition of THE EXORCIST.  I had placed the order, but it wouldn't go through b/c I didn't have any valid form of payment...I had a debit card that my bank deactivated, but Amazon doesn't know that b/c my bank is legally obligated not to tell them (isn't privacy great?).  But anyway, my sister sent me the gift card early so that wouldn't be canceled.  Turned out the seller didn't have it after all...not sure how/why...kinda rude of him not to send an apology or something more along the lines of an explanation at least...
  Anyway; I also bought THE SOUND OF THE SMITHS: THE VERY BEST OF THE SMITHS (that's almost like two titles isn't it?) by The Smiths, a remastered compilation released in 2008.  And Michael Jackson's DANGEROUS, Martin Scorsese's 1999 film BRINGING OUT THE DEAD on DVD and Cartel's Sony re-release edition of CHROMA.
  I almost bought Jawbreaker's DEAR YOU, been wanting that awhile, but Barnes & Noble dot com has that for over $1 cheaper and I get UPS 3day delivery w/o added cost if my mom buys it on my behalf (she has the membership in her name, I paid for half of it...) and B&N keeps sending me and/or my mom coupons, so if I had the $ b4 X coupon xpired, I'd save at least $2 off Amazon (Marketplace)'s mnm price.

Been listening to Grooveshark the last couple days.  MySpace Music's service has been filled with bugs that last couple weeks or more.  AVG Anti-virus software told me I had two somethingorother bad thingies on my computer and didn't tell me what I should do about it.  I clicked "remove all unhealed" and they told me "forceful removal may cause instability or crash", but I didn't know what else I was supposed to do.  Now every time I load a program or window, a warning of a "bad image" loads up.  I can ignore it or I can click "OK" and it'll go away.  It doesn't seem to interfere with the operation of my computer.  Really annoying tho.  But while I was trying to perhaps find the source of that b.s., I removed almost 20 programs from my computer including Opera browser and of course I got sick beyond comprehension of Internet Explorer, but I didn't like the way Opera doesn't gel with a lot of websites too well (mainly Amazon, also a few others) so I went back to Firefox after almost a year or more of absence from my computer.

Don't really know what else to say...OH!  I got sick for about a day, something that's been going around.  My mom's housekeeper seemed to have caught it too and the last time she was here was at least a week ago.  I got sick on Monday, the housekeeper was here either Thursday or Friday...my Mom got sick on Friday or Saturday i think...I guess the housekeeper might have caught it from Mom, but I don't think my mom would have been so careless.  She called the housekeeper after she found out I was sick and told her not to come b/c of that.  But anyway...I think I heard of at least a couple other people who had whatever that was I had.  Don't remember what exactly I heard or where, but anyway...
  I've been going way too long w/o showers.  I finally took one last night and the time before that was either Monday or Tuesday - not the one that just passed, but the one BEFORE that.  I mean, I admit, a week w/o a shower isn't healthy or pleasant, although I'm hesitant to take one more often than that just 'cause the act of taking off my clothes, picking new ones out, drying off, and taking the shower itself is a bit of a chore to me.  I'd rather just listen to music or talk or drink coffee or read or whatever...but a week and a half is just nonsense.  I mean, if this is how long I'm gonna be in between showers in the winter...this past summer the average time between showers was at least 5 days.  And that's being generous towards myself.  I shouldn't go more than 3 days, if that, and i know there were at least a few times I went over a week w/o one.  Of course in Sept, it was way hotter than normal, so I didn't take hardly any showers then.  Then toward the end of the month I suddenly realized 'oh, I guess summer's decided to stay a bit longer...'...

And I've neglected this blog obviously.  I hope to get this back on a more steady path...maybe make reading it less of a chore...ha!

what's it to me?

I keep thinking about reading J.G. Ballard's CRASH. And then I wonder "why?". I didn't even read the whole thing, but that was only b/c I got hung up on a slightly inserted lame social commentary. I think I got 20 pages into it...maybe there's something more the book has to offer aside from what I already read...which was pretty powerful stuff, from what I remember...I guess I might as well buy it and read it. It's such a short book as it is, it's not like it'll rob me of my time or anything...
Sux that Elliot Perlman's SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY is only in print in softcover! An oversized tome such as that looks its best in hardcover. It looks rather tacky in softcover, not to mention it's easier to damage. I don't know if they use plastic to form the softcovers, but hardcovers just don't look as fake. I know plastic and similar substances are not literally "fake", but to me they seem that way...hard to explain why...I want to read that book, but I'm so darn tired right now, I should be in bed. I have to return it to the library the day after tomorrow, or renew it. I've already renewed it once, one more time is all I've got. Seriously doubt I'll finish it by 23 days from now...maybe I'll get far enough through it to decide if it's worth buying...it's 700 pages, so...if I can get 200-275 pages of the way through it, I'll check it out again and see if I can stick with it to page 400. If I can get 400+ pages through it, I'll prolly buy it. I haven't even got to page 100 yet and I've had it for over a month. I guess anything's possible, but I really doubt I'll be able/willing to get to page 400 w/o having to check it out again...

the taste of yell in bloom...

Nirvana's NEVERMIND's reputation is one of many things that proves how dumb people are. The record throughout just proves that A) Kurt Cobain had a lust for life and had no reason to kill himself and B) that regardless of its influence and how common it sounds today, it's still a cut above the rest; Kurt Cobain didn't just whine about his problems. He 'wined' about much bigger topics. The record doesn't have much in the way of profound lyrics, but the passion with which he sings is explosive. Also, it wasn't as popular as it was in its day b/c of some misplaced idea that Nirvana invented grunge or anything like that. Nirvana wasn't the most 'original' sounding grunge band, nor did they invent grunge. However, they had a much broader appeal than most grunge bands. NEVERMIND's indie predecessor BLEACH still doesn't get the sales it deserves, but that's only b/c the common folk doesn't have enough time and will to dig through piles of records to find something they like. They're fine with what the radio has to offer. If BLEACH were advertised properly, it might have been the NEVERMIND before there was NEVERMIND. Of course, it does have a little of that murkiness that indie records are plauged with, which wasn't an issue with NEVERMIND, which the band decried as being "too polished" or whatever (rolls eyes). I think the band's complaints about NEVERMIND sounding too polished or whatever is rather ironic, considering IN UTERO was just as polished as NEVERMIND. Sure, it's more noisy and chaotic, but that doesn't make it a better record or any less polished. The production techniques of Geffen's mad scientists were in full effect all throughout Nirvana's major label stint. Even BLEACH had amazing sheen considering the amount of money spent on it (less than $1,000). I mean, it doesn't make sense that Nirvana wrote pop songs but didn't want the pop production. If he had kept making murky sounding records, the public would never have caught on and thus college rock/alternative/modern rock would have stayed obscure like it was in the 1980s and Kurt Cobain would still be talking about how much better his music was than Michael Jackson's and nobody would care except maybe some Kurt Cobain stalker, i.e.: someone who was "lucky" enough to live or travel close enough to Kurt Cobain's places of existence to hear what he was saying and couldn't help but be intoxicated by his words and want to feel them from inside...
Not that radio is any better than it was. Less than five years after Kurt Cobain's band disbanded N'Sync won a Grammy for Best New Band. Of course, marketing to spoiled children kind of back fired on the major labels in general - The Get Up Kids, Saves The Day, Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday........none of those bands sell tons and tons of records, but their overall sales have replaced a big chunk of the major leagues' MVPs' sales. In other words, radio may still suck, but people aren't just accepting it. The internet probably keeps that going, but if it weren't for Nirvana, would anyone know something was fundamentally wrong? I mean, Milie Vanilli (sp?) was fraud, OK, but does that mean EVERY pop band is rotten to the core? And no, I'm not saying pop is evil; Mariah Carey and Celine Dion do tend to sing w/o conviction, but at least they can pretend to have passion. Backstreet Boys & N'Sync were so obviously in it for the money and nothing more. But the real proof that pop music isn't inherently evil is the phenominal talent of Michael Jackson. Quincy Jones first said this, or at least he was the first person I heard say this (in the bonus materials on the special edition of BAD from 2001), and I find it to be true: no matter what he sang, it always came out sounding personal to him. And then of course, the fact that Nirvana was basically a pop band with guitars instead of drum machines and synthesisers...but anyway, what I was trying to say with my "pop bashing" or whatever supplemental phrase you would have used, is that pop music USUALLY sucks, or, at least, it isn't as honest and pure as rock music in the majority of cases.
So yeah; Nirvana, I think, made people aware that you can listen to pop without sacrificing integrity and honesty. The internet simply provides a myriad of ways of helping people find pop music containing the often-times elusive honesty & integrity.
In the end, it does sound trite, it gets boring quick, very quick, heck, I feel stupid saying this, but it's true: NEVERMIND, now almost 20 years old, has yet to be equaled in its influence on popular culture. If I hadn't bought the album five+ times already and sold it just as many times just get a quick $1-$4, I'd go out and buy it right now...even albums that I have a personal connection to (I was 7 at the time of NEVERMIND's release and wasn't listening to the radio or watching MTV or VH1) tend to slip my hands too easily, after all, you can go back and re-buy them...if I wasn't two feet away from being dirt poor, it wouldn't be an issue prolly, but...anyway...

three times a seller...

Amazing. I finally have THREE buyer feedbacks on my Amazon seller profile. And so far I've had no unfair buyers leaving me feedback. So I'm still 100% positive. I guess I shouldn't say "so...", 'cause I'm fairly lucky that I've been able to ship all of the items I have/had in a timely fashion. A recent Amazon website update has really helped me out a lot; they allow me to pay for postage on their website and print a mailing label. I don't need to pay for it seperately either, it just comes out of the funds that result from the purchase. Sweeeet!!

Dear Leon, if you had the time and inclination to read this, I would have sent it in an email...

Was going to write this in reply to an email I received from a seller on Amazon (which was written in response to an email I sent to him first...)

...I hardly ever went to Barnes & Noble until they relocated to the mall in my town. And even then I hardly ever bought books there, I just ate at the cafe'. Then I started seeing how pointless that was and don't do that much anymore...if I want food, Starbucks or some local establishment is enough. Window shopping makes me feel unfulfilled, which detracts from the joy of food. In a nutshell, I know firsthand that some people dont' have enough money to spend $12++ on a book and I also know that the bigname brick/mortar stores aren't for everyone. I, for one, wish I could shop at a less disposable book store, but there's only one small book store in town and they sell used books, which is cool but the selection is rather limited. They seem focused on selling the current bestsellers and the like to the folks who can't afford to buy them brand new. Current bestsellers are usually either lighthearted girly books or over-the-top thrillers. Stephen King comes out with some good stuff every now and again, but not often. I think the last good book Michael Crichton came out with was RISING SUN (1992), or maybe DISCLOSURE (1993). I haven't read DISCLOSURE, so I can't say anything too good about it, but I did enjoy the film. I'd imagine the book would be at least good. And Jodi Picoult stopped writing quality books a looooong time ago. John Grisham I'm not very familiar with. I tried reading A TIME TO KILL and the style of writing just seemed cartoonish. The rest of his books I haven't tried reading b/c the premises are boring, IMO. And ever since John Grisham became a household name, the crime drama/thriller genere has exploded with half a dozen "masters" of the genre. But I guess Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler were doing it long before Grisham and of course there's tons of no-name books, many of which curiously stand on the shelves of my local library to this day, that are written in that tradition.

A FREE FLOATING FULL TORSO VAPOROUS APPIRATION!!!!!

HHHHOK!! I was at Toys "R" Us today and SAW - WITH MY OWN EYES - the TRU Exclusive GHOSTBUSTERS II 4 6" Figure + 2" Slimer accessory boxed set (made by Mattel). Yes, it's still $60 + 8% tax (making it more like $65). But if I order a couple $25 TRU gift cards via Complete Savings, I get 20% off of $50, making the set more like $55 ('cause the gift cards are 20% off AT COMPLEte Savings...seriously everybody, what's stopping you??).

Actually, cooler still, I could order THREE $25 gift cards and I'd have $75 in gift cards, covering ALL of the boxed set and part of the "Exploding" Stay Puft Marshmallow Man home bank. I'd still have to pay $17 or so for the bank, but I wouldn't have to do that right away...

I'm just gonna go ahead and order the CS gift cards in Nov, 'cause I can always buy something else and re-sell it on Amazon if the desired toppings are all eaten and digested...

it's beginning to look a lot like imeem...

As mentioned in old (oldER - I know I haven't posted in awhile...) post(s), Imeem is, now WAS, the greatest thing since music itself (woah!). MySpace bought Imeem and turned it into "MySpace Music", which was fine w/ me except they killed the ability to just sit back and let an album flow into one's ears. You had to push "play" to start track #1 and then skip track #1 in order to get track #2 to play. Well, it looks like either MySpace Music is having a bug in their system or they fixed this nonsense...
I'm reading Elliot Perlman's SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY, lovin' it, but I'm not even 1/10 of the way through it, so it might change direction unpleasantly like Poppy Z. Brite's LOST SOULS. But so far so good. There's an author by the name of Patrick McGrath who doesn't seem to have any problem churning out great sickly sweet novels and a book titled "The Assault" by Henry (?) Muslich or some similar looking name...I checked out one P. McGrath novel that the library had (they have THREE!) and "The Assault". Just read a page of Patrick McGrath's DR. HAGGARD'S DISEASE and had to close the book and embrace it, enjoying the beauty of having a book to read and enjoy...mmmm...it just flows so perfectly and the type font on that edition (hardcover edition is out of print I think) is beautiful. I hope the in print softcover edition is so splendidly printed. The cover art for the softcover edition is more striking, but, ya know, sux that they have to make everything paper in order to keep from "needing" to charge $10 more...
Been wanting to bask in the air of J.G. Ballard's CRASH (1973). Can't 'cause I'm broke and the library don't got it. That book kinda felt like watching an atrocity occur and not fully understanding it. Then when I did understand it and wrapped my mind around it, it felt like I was walking into a haze, or fog, sprinkled with some sort of subtly unnerving chemical. Yep, that's the 70's for ya. The movie had to wait 23 years to get made b/c there's enough dumb people who think reading a book isn't the same thing as eeing something on a movie screen. Of course, the movie's only virtue was its intense portrayal of sex, which it could have done better at to begin with, but the "plot" (which I never cared much about and barely makes any sense...) would be sacrificed if the sex scenes were any hotter. Some one should make a X-rated sex movie with all the knockout stars they can convince to do it - maybe Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Connolly, or Megan Fox, maybe Avril Lavigne? Heck, they say men prefer blondes, but I know I'm not the only one who would pay good money to see A BEAUTIFUL FACE...I mean, why would Megan Fox be so popular if blondes had all the attention? Maybe someone already thought of it and couldn't get any of 'em to hop on board. You'd think Paul Veerhoven (sp?) could have thought of something...
Spend the last 5 or so hours listening to Funeral For A Friend on MySpace Music. Great band. Love 'em. Mainly been listening to MEMORY AND HUMANITY, surprisingly released on Victory Records. Why did Ferret Records let 'em go?? Maybe they went bankrupt...Victory Records is the home of all those emo bands that either found better homes or aren't any good anyway...well, Silverstein's almost as good as FFAF, well, maybe not almost, but they got about half or a little more of FFAF's greatness. The singer's screaming gets a little annoying pretty quickly. FFAF doesn't scream in their music, they just sorta yell...idk. It's not as unnerving as Silverstein's screaming. The Silverstein singer sure does have a beautiful voice and they got a lot of great songs. A lot of people hated ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES, but I think it's possibly the best of their bunch. Of course, everyone loved DISCOVERING THE WATERFRONT, but hated WHEN BROKEN IS EASILY FIXED, whereas I like DTW, but WHEN BROKEN IS EASILY FIXED beats 'THE WATERFRONT by at least two-fold in my ears. Of course, I probably do have some earwax buildup. I tried clearing them out a week or so ago, and hasn't changed my opinion of Silverstein as far as I know...but I don't think I got everything either...might need a professional (??) to do the job...
GBII 4pk is out now exclusively at Toys "R" Us. Hoping my sister can at least loan me the $ to get it. I'd consider the mere ability to have it w/o draining all my funds gift enough. I don't know if she has that money available tho...I say "gift" 'cause she seems like she might wanna buy me a gift for my b-day coming up in about a month and 4 days...
Welp; that's all for me for now, I think...I think I can always post again if I think of something else...