Be Back Soon

Hi all, if there is truly anyone out there reading this.

I know it has been six months since I blogged last. I am sorry. Between having to have the basement waterproofed, landscaping, my day job, some side jobs and the fam damily, I have been really really busy.

I am going to take care of a few more things and then will be back. Give me till the July 4th holiday.

In the meantime, please check out my friends over at WeAreMovieGeeks.com to get caught up on the latest and greatest info on movies.

See you in a couple weeks

Nick

Woot Off

What is a Woot Off you may be saying? Well, a Woot Off is only one of the coolest things ever from one of the coolest sites ever.


Woot is....well....I will use their words to better explain it:

What is Woot and who's behind it?
Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it's taken on a life of its own. We anticipate profitability by 2043 – by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices. Until then, we're still the lovable scamps we've always been. But don't take our word for it: see what the online community has to say at this Wikipedia article.
I see only one item, do you sell anything else?
No. We sell one item per day until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central time when it is replaced (see next entry for details). However, each item we sell is in stock and typically ships within 2-3 business days.
What is the schedule for new items?
The short answer: we offer a new item every single day. The details: a new product is released every morning at 12am central time, seven days a week. (If you're not a morning person, this can be described as every night at midnight. Better?) If a product sells out during its run, a new item will not appear until the next release time. You will know if a product is sold out, because the main page says "SOLD OUT" instead of "I want one". (Clever, eh?)
I missed yesterday's item, can I still get one?
No. Each woot.com product is discontinued at 11:59pm central time. That's that. Period. We may get more at a later date if we're lucky, but we offer no guarantees, we allow no backorders, and we have no waiting/notification lists. Too bad.


A Woot Off is Woot on steroids. Rather than list 1 item a day, they list 1 item at an even cheaper price until it is sold out, then they move on to another item. A Woot Off can last as long as 3 days or as little as 12. Ususally they last at least 36 hours. During a Woot Off, you can purchase a lot of the same things offered over the last month or so at even cheaper rates. They also offer items that are extremely limited in quantity (1 to 10) that are exceptional deals. The coup de grace though is the "Bag of Crap". This is a mystery item. You have no idea what you are purchasing, you just know that you will receive at least 3 seperate items in said bag and the value of those items will at least be $5.00. These items can be anything from a set of 4 USB Jump Drives, stress balls, an iPod Nano, a portable DVD Player, etc. It's kind of like a box of chocolates, you never know what you might get.

You can see that I even have a widget on this blog to help you see what is currently for sale. It can't be any easier if you tried.

So, help stimulate the economy by heading over to Woot and spending some money.

You can thank me later,


Nick

It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I have updated the blog. I have been off for the past two weeks and I honestly did not want to look at doing anything that would require anything near work. That includes thinking, deep thoughts, lengthy typing or even thinking about work. You may be thinking that my brain must have turned to goo in that time and while yes, watching that much Elmo, Handy Manny, Catch with Ruf Ruffman and countless other childrens programing did make it somewhat soft and doughy, I did have some pretty interesting thoughts during the course of the past two weeks.

So, here is what I thought about and I would like your input into some of this.

1. Vince Vaughn doesn't really act, he just plays variations on Vince Vaughn. I am convinced that that is how he really is.
2. Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire and Singles should be made into some type of box set. The three movies are really a continuation of the same theme and while the cross over into a different decade, if you watch all three in a row, you could see them as a trilogy.
3. Bill Murray is a true comic genuis. The real question is, what are Bill Murray's top 5 movies. I literally spent a better part of an afternoon thinking about this one. Just off the top of my head I can think of:
1. Groundhog Day
2. What About Bob
3. Ghostbusters
4. Stripes
5. Caddyshack
6. Rushmore
7. Ed Wood
8. Wild Things
9. Scrooged (A Christmas Classic)
4. A Christmas Story is the new It's A Wonderful Life and I believe as does the wife that Elf will be the new Christmas Story.
5. Is there anything better than a fresh turkey sandwich. I mean a turkey sandwich made either the evening of or the day after Thanksgiving is one of the best things ever.
6. Having the flu on Thanksgiving is like being sick on Halloween. You can try and make up for it but it is not the same thing. My poor daughter got sick on Thanksgiving day and had to miss the festivities.
7. Once you become a Blackberry addict, it is really tough to kick that addiction.
8. Walmart site to store pickup is one of the coolest things out there. I ordered a new DVD player on Black Friday and it was at the store the following Wednesday. Does it get better than that.
9. Black Friday this year was not nearly as good as last year's.
10. Going back to work after being off for more than 10 days is going to be really rough and I will be lucky if I remember how to even log in to my computer tomorrow.

Well that is it for now. I promise I will update more often.

Later

Nick

Star Trek and Other Cool Stuff

So, as I mentioned last week, I saw the new James Bond flick. During the previews before the movie they showed Star Trek preview. I must say, I am completely geeked up about this. I like that it is kind of a reboot, but not. I know there are some purists who think the 1960's set should have been reused, but let's be real. The show was based upon what they thought technology would be like while making it still familiar to the audience of then. That audience is different and our expectations for tech in the future is different, therefor a change is needed.

Anyway, I am geeked up and will definitely be talking to my friends over at wearemoviegeeks.com to try and see a sneak peek. Otherwise, I will be in line with the rest of us Trek and scifi fans on 5/8/09

Also,

As much as I did not want to, I became a fan of Harry Potter. I was forced to watch the first movie and then read the books. To my surprise, I found the books charming and an overall enjoyable read. I will say that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire are both my favorite book and movie of the series. It really pains me to see the young man who played Cedric Diggery is now in those damn Twilight movies. Oh well, I guess a fella has to make a living. Anyway, back to Harry Potter. One day while searching through You Tube, I stumbled upon this nugget and have to share. It is from a series of videos that just crack me up.

Enjoy.

Quantum of Solace

So Thursday night I was fortunate enough to get in to a sneak peek of the new Bond flick. On a scale of 1 - 5 with 5 being Citizen Kane and 1 being Leonard Part 6, I will give it a 3.5.

The good:

1. I like that the movie started mere minutes after the last scene of Casino Royale. It immediately established continuity and brought you right into the story.
2. The bad guy is not some hulking nemesis or evil supervillian. Worse, he is a businessman who controls the events of the world via a wire transfer and legal contract. He does not have some super weapon, he has money and the power that comes with it.
3. Bond shows that he is human. This is all about revenge. He shows that he is angry, vengeful, remorseful and even depressed. This is a side of Bond we have never seen and the way this all changes him explains the Bond persona.
4. The lack of super high tech gadgets. Other than the super computers at MI6, this was one of the most low tech Bond films in the last 30 years.
5. The cinematography was great and the direction was good. The director brought a nice art house flick feel to the movie, which helped balance the overall feel.
6. There is a nice, small homage to Goldfinger. This was much appreciated.

The not so good:

1. This is going to sound weird, but there were almost too many fight scenes and they were all duplicates of something out of the Bourne movies. To add to that, there were a lot of quick cuts which made them hard to follow.
2. I appreciated where they were going with the storyline, but I really wanted more. It seemed way too simple. The omnipotent shadow company manipulating everything without anyone being the wise. It is plausible, but I need to know more. The TV show Fringe is pulling it off, so this movie should be able to too. Maybe more will come of this in future movies.
3. The human body can only take so much. Admit to that. If you are going to show that Bond is psychologically human, let's see it physically too. A person does not fall through a glass ceiling, bounce around on scaffolding while fist fighting, get jerked around with their leg caught in a rope and walk away without a limp or a broken bone.

I will say, I do not know if there is any way they could have followed up Casino Royale with a better movie. This was a well made movie and worthy of being part of the Bond franchise. I hope they continue on with this path and we see a grittier and more real Bond, but begin to add some of the flavor and pinache that we have come to expect.

The Election

As I write this entry, the outcome of today's election is playing out. Even though it is only 9:52 Central Standard Time, the outcome seems clear and it makes me wonder. Did people really choose a president today based upon the issues or was this due to other things. Was Obama elected because he:

• is black and fellow African Americans felt compelled to vote for him regardless of the issues.
• is black and there is a sense among some white voters that in some way this will repair race tensions.
• is young and will therefor be the voice of the generation x'ers out there
• is not Republican and is a protest against the current administration
• has policies and a record people really understand and really believe in.

Personally, I think the answer is all of the above depending upon who you ask and that dishartens me. Today, at work, I heard people commenting about the man and I heard each and everyone of those opinions. Being management I did not say a thing, but wanted to ask "Why does anything matter but his policies and record?"

I heard things from both black and white employees saying it was "our time" to rule the country. When prompted for more info they either refurred to it was either a race or age reference. This troubles me. I had hoped that we were starting to go beyond race and age when it came to the selection of the proper candidate. I know when I am hiring someone, that is one of the first things I am told. Do not select someone because of race, age or sex, select the best candidate from the pool. Why is electing a president any different?

Obama may be the right person for the job. He may be the centrist that our country needs right now to be a bridge between the non hardcore right and left. He may be the symbol that our country needs right now to help us feel good about ourselves again, no matter the policy or the plan. John F. Kennedy was like that in the 60's. Even though he narrowly beat Nixon, his rhetoric and youth helped lead our nation through some rough times, and maybe, just maybe Obama can do the same.

In this time of layoffs and business closings. In this time of 401k's losing their value, will someone who has publiclly stated that he is going to tax corporations and tax those who make a lot of money be the right person for the job? I do not know.

What I do know is that even though tomorrow morning nearly half of the country will be upset with the outcome, the world will keep on revolving, each and every one of us will still have our friends and family and no one can take that away from us.

Sales Guy vs. Web Dude

I have been talking about some serious stuff lately, so I thought I would lighten the mood with quite possibly some of the best tech/help desk humor out there.