The Ciba Vision Clear Care product is the only, repeat only, contact solution that ghostfinger enjoys, recommends, and uses without qualification. Unfortunately, we can’t find it in the stores around here.
Luckily for us, there’s this intertube thing:
Seriously, she loves this Clear Care stuff. And if it’s ghostfinger-recommended, you know it has got to be good.
My multimillion dollar patent idea… has already been worked out.
US researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires.
The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many metres, the researchers said.
Figures that would happen 2 weeks after I think of it. Boo.
Interesting… and a bad investment
Stocks, bonds or Steen? That’s a question that 19-year-old Ron Steen of Anaheim Hills,Calif., hopes investors will wrestle with.
In August, Steen put himself on eBay (Charts) to pay for his college education, offering 2 percent of all future earnings to the highest bidder, with a minimum $100,000 bid.
What with Steen having to average 1.5M/year until age 65 to match a 6% investment, I’m thinking he’s not going to have any takers. Bonus points for audacity, though.
Ghostfinger’s doing this project about violence and computer games, which got me thinking… man, I love games! And when I buy games, I go to GoGamer (all the way back to the day when it used to be called CompuExpert).
Being forced to use a laptop as my primary machine has really killed off a lot of my favorite games. Well, that and having all my free time sucked up elsewhere, that is. In any event, I recommend GoGamer highly if you’re in the market for some games.
… if I was shopping for myself, I’d get Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2 DVD
(since they’re apparently never going to freaking release Jade Empire). If you’ve got to play on a console, you can’t go wrong with a Madden Football (consoles are the only time football is acceptable)
During my 7 hour, yes 7 hour (6:30p to 1:30a), 30 mile trip from my home to ghostfinger’s last night, I had the following thoughts:
1) Fun! What a remarkably enjoyable experience! I was especially enjoying the part where I neither went to the bathroom nor ate before I left.
2) I freaking love my car. I will not trade it, I will not sell it, not for all the diamonds in the world. The boomoblile not only never slipped (in a way that would be her fault - there was a point where we were caught on an elevated cloverleaf freeway entrance and all the cars started sliding to the guard rail. From a dead stop. FUN!), but she was the only car that seemed to make it through everything OK. If you’ve got the Boomobile on your side, then you’re in good hands.
3) FUN!
out of town, working. You know, that stuff.
Anyway, I missed making more gift recommendations for Black Friday. Which is OK, since I’m more into the Dont’ Buy Anything Today Friday aspect of things. Besides, it’s easy to find a deal for Black Friday. What’s hard is finding one on the third Tuesday in November with a red bow and zombie repellent throwins.
I can’t think of a better consumer guide to top notch cameras than Flickr’s new Camera Finder utility.
Looks like the Canon EOS Rebel XT is the hands-down winner. The others are the Nikon D50, Canon EOS 20D, Nikon D70, and the Canon Digital Rebel (non XT version).
Guess where I’m looking first when I get my digital SLR camera?
Following Henry’s following of Jim Henley’s following of Adrienne Aldredge’s meme:
What authors have you given up on for good? And why?
Now, we’ve got two people saying Dan Simmons so I can’t use him. Which is unfortunate, since he certainly deserves to be on the list, both because of the GWOT malarkey and his horrible second-novels in each series he’s done. So… here’s my list of authors that started off great. Our relationship was perfect and my love for them burned brighter than two suns … only to fizzle when they kept publishing past their expiration date. These authors are dead to me, our love a dry, barren, scorched earth of place where only the unlikeliest of seeds may take root henceforth:
Chuck Palahniuk. Invisible Monsters, Fight Club, and Survivor were fantastic. Choke was good. But Diary, Lullaby, and Haunted were all empty nothings that lacked the energy, vision, and genius of his earlier work. I was pretty sure I was done after Diary, but I’m certain I’m done after Haunted.
Neal Stephenson. There, I’ve said it. Quicksilver was such an awful book that it overwhelmed the truly awe-inspiring works of Snow Crash and Diamond Age. and I liked the Big U, Zodiac, and Cryptonomicron as well. Interface… not so much (it was a long way to go just to get a black woman as president). Visionary, meth-and-death-metal fueled genius… toppled under it’s own weight and affectation of writing three massive tomes longhand.
Orson Scott Card. Three of his works were fantastic - Ender’s Game, Seventh Son, and Red Prophet. Some were pretty good (like the first two in the Homecoming series), but every book after the second in each of his series was just awful. The returning to former glories with Ender’s Shadow and the like is just pathetic. The well is dry, Orson. That and the freaking incessant pounding of the Mormon mythology drums just gets tiresome.
On the bubble: Neil Gaiman, Greg Bear, George R. R. Martin, Jim Butcher, Stephen King
Definitely on the list, but too trite to mention: J.K. Rowling, Robert Jordan, Michael Moore, Anne Rice
I just saw the teaser poster for Hot Fuzz:
The guy on the left? That’s Simon Pegg. You know, that hilarious guy from Spaced and Shaun of the Dead? I’m psyched for Hot Fuzz just based on Pegg’s involvement, though I really think they need to get working on Day of the Ed.
Newegg is currently carrying a smoking hot deal for a 19″ widescreen LCD (4ms refresh rate) for $190. If I was using anything besides my laptop, I’d jump all over that. Maybe two and dual-screen it. That would be awesome.
I can’t link directly to the product with Newegg’s aff links, but it’s the top deal o’ the day today. If it’s not there when you click, search for “SAMSUNG 941BW“. $229.99 - $40 mail in rebate.
I have two DVD-specific rants. One, concerning the technology itself, where the designers have prohibited you from going directly to the menu and you can’t reauthor the DVD because of that egregious violation of our fair use rights known as the DMCA.
But today… today we’re going to talk about something else: DVDs for television series that do not place their chapter marks right after the opening credits. Yeah, I’m talking to you Stargate SG-1 and The Wire (and the early seasons of The Sopranos). After you’ve seen the credits once, do you really need to keep on seeing the menus the next 12-21 times you watch the series? And you can’t even find out that the chapter points are set at ass-random times until after it’s too late.
So here’s to you, underthinking DVD designers! Give us freakin’ appropriately-placed chapter points.
Hey, did you know that Terry Pratchett as a new book out? Because he does. It’s called Wintersmith. And the Nac Mac Feegle are in it too!
FSM, I love the Nac Mac Feegle (what are they good for? Drinkin’! Drinkin’ and what? Drinkin’ and fightin’! Drinkin and fightin and what? Drinkin’ and fightin’ and stealin’!). Don’t know who Terry Pratchett is? Why, he’s only the wittiest, funniest, satirical writer in like… ever. His most famous and successful construct is a fictional universe called Discworld. It’s a flat planet that sits on top of four giant elephants who stand on the shell of the great space turtle A’Tuin. The series is inspired storytelling and genius disguised as satire. I’m such a fanboi, I’ve even reviewed and provided capsule summaries of all 30-something Discworld books, feel free to peruse at your leisure. But comment so I can feel some lurve.
Anyway, books are always cool gifts and Pratchett is good fun for the whole family. So he’s going on my wishlist as well as the Deals n’ Gifts list. Pratchett and Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Gracie Adieu are the books I’m most looking forward to these days. Well, that and the next 3 from Steven Erikson.
Here’s a new idea (for me) for gift giving this year - wine! Now, I’m no oenophile or even a connoisseur, but in the under-$20 reds category, I’ve got some decent experience. Interestingly enough, wine.com has a category just for that (though they include whites too. Apparently, some people like it sweet), which makes my choices a lot easier.
We’re generally a shiraz/syrah house, but I’ve heard good things about the Folie à Deux Ménage à Trois Red ($9) and the Cantena Malbec ($18, 90 rating). Of shiraz’ I know and like, they have the Fat Bastard Shiraz for $11, though I can’t seem to find my favorite cheap deal find of the year, the Lindeman Padthaway shiraz 2003 (they don’t appear to carry Lindeman at all. Oh well) and that screwtop Pinot Noir $11 thing that was awesome but who’s name escapes me at the moment. Sigh.
Wine.com also offers glassware, of course, and they have their own most popular gift suggestion ideas as well.
Coming from what is essentially a teetotaler family, the idea of gifting alcohol on the holidays is new ground to me, yet appealing. This year, at least. And remember - a glass of red a day keeps the heart healthy!
Well, the BoSox are paying $51.1M to talk to the best free agent pitcher available this offseason. Is he worth the 80-90 million he’s going to cost? Quite possibly. When you add together that his translated stats are better than Clemens’ over the past 3 years and the increase in money from Japanese marketing and that he’s only 26 and can still improve… I could see the deal working out. It’s possible that he tanks or gets hurt, of course, but I think from a business standpoint, he’s at least a break even proposition (and that’s not even getting to the marginal monetary value of the wins that he brings to the table).
A Matsuzaka-Schilling-Beckett front three would be pretty impressive (if flyball heavy), especially for a team that has poor OF defense. We don’t know who the Sox are going to put in the corners, but let’s assume Manny and a slugger leaving mediocre+ Crisp in center. That’s… somewhat troublesome, but not overly so for such a K-heavy top three.
Anyway, who cares about that. Let’s see how he pitches!
Slider:
The infamous gyroball:
If you’re in a fantasy league next year, I recommend trash talking and comparing him to Irabu. Then picking him up on the cheap.
I’m a huge believer in buying used things, particularly in areas where immediacy is not an issue and quality does not decline much, if at all.
Yeah, I’m looking at you, books. Textbooks, novels, hardcover, softcover, whatever. Used books markets are the greatest invention in the history of ever. The one I use? Half.com.
This is the least obnoxious banner they have offered (the others are all those lovely animated gifs. Woo.):
I think I saved over $300 last semester on ghostfinger’s textbooks by using half.com for most of the purchases (this was before I knew about Valore., so I’ll definitely comparison shop next semster). Anyway, half.com totally rocks and it’ll save you a bundle of money.
I’m a big believer in giving books away too of course, but iffen I’m going to be buying, the first place I looke is half.com. You can get CDs and DVDs on half.com as well, though I’ve been less successful for those products compared to its competitors (like Amazon marketplace) in terms of savings.
According to Quentin Tarantino, if a rookie screenwriter wants to get their script read by the right people in Hollywood they must first find a way to bypass the script readers. In the director's eyes, a reader will never recommend you since they're frustrated writers themselves and don't want anyone else to succeed. Tarantino was killing me softly with his advice, telling my whole life, with his words, killing me softly. Yes, I do read scripts on occasion for extra cash and I'm also currently writing a script that I know everyone will hate and that I'll never finish anyway. However, I assure you that we readers have nothing but respect for the show-offs who actually complete a script. It's more accurate to say that we're hoping your script is very, very, very bad.
I’m not really tacking with the cut of his motherfuqin jibe, but they’re good tips to keep in mind while you’re-
CMo looks at the camera directly and shrugs.
writing your killer screenplay.
For the next six weeks or so, I’m going to try and post a daily deal or gift idea. This may or may not continue past that time, but for now, let’s window shop!
No, really. And there’s this place that is the leading music shop on the whole of the truck-filled tubular net doohickey, called eye-music. Now, I don’t know why they call it that, since you listen with your ears, but that’s what they call it so that’s what I’m calling it.
Sure, Mondegreen is available for free download … but it’s also on the eye-music even without any videos! Isn’t that cool?
I gave it a look and it’s $1/song and $10/album (roughly). The best part is - you won’t get sued by the RIAA! Sweet!
I spent yesterday ensuring that everyone who came to my assigned precinct who wanted to vote could vote (provisionally, if nothing else). There were no disruptions outside of one crank (my state is not New Jersey, Tennessee, Ohio, or Florida … thankfully enough) and everyone there was quite knowledgable after working elections together for 20 years.
It was safe, boring, and peaceful. Just the way democracy should be.
For an off-year election, turnout was super high. Since there were no wedge issues on our ballot, I took that as a sign people were pissed as hell… which I found out late last night was pretty much true, even if that fucktard Lieberman’s still around in a position of even more possible damage to the republic than ever before.
But let’s not focus on that for the moment. Let’s focus on the zero-loss unprecedented Dem victory in 3 branches of government (house, senate, gubernatorial)!
No blogging for me today, I’ll be out volunteering as part of the Voter Protection program.
Vote!
Don’t shoot anyone in the face while I’m out.
While trying to figure out how I could monetize my “$100 million and climbing” HSX brilliance, I found Intrade. Holy cow is this awesome. Actual money on politics and news events. Of course, given my recent successful predictions (and GOP shenanigans), this is could just be an even easier way to lose money than Lotto.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the things you can trade in (I don’t know precisely what will come up; it’s a dynamically generated frame):
And their banner advertisement looks something like this:
Yet another thing that’s probably more Chartoo’s forte than mine, but I’m kind of excited about day trading in the presidential aspirations of Saint Rudy. I know. I need to get out more.
The biggest problem I had so far was actually getting money into the system - their security is quite a bit more comprehensive than the one-click universe we’ve been inhabiting. This is good in that I’m pretty confident any phishers aren’t going to be going there to take your money, but it can also be a drawback if you spot a sweet market opportunity for the avian flu’s arrival date in the U.S.
If you click the banner ad above, theoretically I get $50 if you both put some money in and do a bunch of trading over the next 90 days. If you just want to go to intrade.com and skip the lurve-giving to me part, I’m totally OK with that. I’ll just give you the puppy dog eyes and maybe sigh a little bit.
Netflix! Unless you’re a sports or talk show junkie, once you subscribe to Netflix, you no longer need to pay for cable. If you cancel your cable and keep a 3-disc Netflix setup, that will save you anywhere from $30 to $85 per month ($360 to $1020/year).
(if you join Netflix, enter m friends network so I can send you Kstrike>inappropriate movies that you’ll hate suggestions that you’ll love and vice versa)
Looks like I figured out at least one way to simul-post. Sweeet.
