Category: Random Nonsense

Sometimes I just feel compelled to share nonsense, random thoughts, and sometimes just stuff I want to save

Dear Movie Studios… would you like to borrow my glasses?

…’cause you are apparently as nearsighted as I am.

I netflix’d the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. The World a few weeks ago.  It was pretty entertaining.  I don’t often check out the “special” features on movies, but I went to that menu option after watching the movie.  In doing so the DVD notified me that the disc contained only the movie itself – but that I should purchase the DVD myself to watch the extras.

Here’s the thing.  I don’t want to buy your movie.  I’m never going to want to buy your movie.  It was good, not great.  But, really, that’s why I have Netflix.  I’m not going out to invest $20 in your movie and then have another DVD case clutter my life.  I’ve already paid for the privilege of watching your movie – I’m not going to run out and pay $20 (or more) on top of that to watch 15 minutes of people screwing up their lines.

Let’s look at this from a wider perspective.  The sorts of people who are willing to pirate a movie don’t really care overmuch about the DVD extras – they’re content to watch the main movie.  So, now you’ve created a system where the people who are actually paying for the privilege of watching your movie are getting the same content they’d see if they pirated the movie??  Shouldn’t you be doing the opposite?!  Doesn’t it make more sense to add more content to DVD’s, not less?  Why not make the actual DVD so incredibly enticing with extra features that those people who would normally pirate a film want to either (a) Netflix it or (b) buy it?  I mean, it’s not like the Netflix business model is going anywhere.  They’ve only gotten bigger in the last ten years and basically put brick-and-mortar movie rentals out of business.

Anyhow, for all you film execs who closely hang all over my every word – if the film industry wants my $20 directly, here’s what they have to do:  Make a movie so freaking awesome I’m going to want to watch it again – and soon.

Google, what the hell?!

Apparently I can’t access Google Groups.  Which sucks.  I have several different Gmail accounts and I can’t use any of them with Google Groups.  As a result, I can only read what’s going on in the Google Groups on my RSS feed – and not respond to anything.

Google, this may not be evil…  But it is just plain mean.  Cut this out, please, and restore access to Google Groups to Gmail users.

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A friend of mine was talking about homeopathy…

… the other day and how he liked natural solutions and remedies.  I asked him if he knew what homeopathy is.  He thought about it and said, “You know, natural stuff.”  I told him that homeopathy is the belief that exposing yourself to very small doses, parts per million, of a harmful or toxic substance will in some way provide you with a resistance against such compounds.

Astonishingly to me, this did not appear to phase him at all.

I just don’t get it.  How in the world is a small shark bite supposed to protect you from a big shark bite?

@giseburt, if you hated the circus…

…then don’t go to Disney On Ice.

It’s hard to say which would be worse.  I’m not sure if I hate clowns because I fear them so, or because I fear them because of my deep and abiding hatred for them. 1  On the other hand, Disney On Ice is miserable, miserable, miserable.

  1. That said, I like balloon animals.  And red noses.  Face paint?  Not so much. [↩]

Flobots?!! Heck yes!

Pandora just suggested this band and I heard their song “Handlebars.”  It sounds like CAKE making sweet sweet love to Beck.

Oh, and the name of the band is Flobots?!  I love robots!

I’m sold.

Update: They also are reminiscent of Maroon 5, Fugees…   but mostly CAKE.  Seriously, it’s like accidentally finding a CAKE album I didn’t know existed.  Yay for horns!

Still got it

I just helped my wife start her own blog.  She wanted to include a license for some of things she’ll be publishing, so I whipped up a little WordPress plugin that will insert some creative commons license language with a small shortcode.  Although I haven’t tinkered with one of my plugins for a while now (five or six months?) I uploaded the plugin, activated it, and it “just worked.”  That’s a good feeling – writing a piece of code and having it work straight off with no bugs.

I wish I could say the same for my 3D design skills. 1

  1. Wakka wakka! [↩]

Yay for March!

So, yesterday someone who works for one of my competitors told my boss that I was a “feisty one.”

This made my day for two reasons.

  1. This guy is a jerk and it really came across in his letters.  I ignored every single one of his snarky and caustic comments and never responded to a thing he did.  Instead, I just got to work.  It’s nice to know my efforts made an impression.
  2. If he thought I was feisty before, now I’m going to double my efforts.  Seriously.  I’m totally bringing it now, baby.

February Recap

  1. It sucked.
  2. I uploaded 25 things to Thingiverse, but not even close to the “thing-a-day” schedule.
  3. I think there was a day in there where I uploaded five or six things.
  4. There were two items in particular where I started working on a mashup within an hour of the original thing being uploaded.  One was the Stargate Iris Box and the other was the Thomas track bridge kit adapter.
  5. I uploaded a practical joke to Thingiverse.
  6. I worked/played with my Unicorn pen plotter, reinstalled the optoendstops in my Cupcake, and wrote some autohoming code for the same Cupcake.

March!  My old friend!  I bid you welcome!  It has been far too long!  Come!  Let us go and leave the dust of February but a faded memory!1

  1. And use excessive exclamation marks! [↩]