Ebay update>
Well, I thought it was all resolved, but now I'm still awaiting his confirmation of his last name. I don't want it to not get there due to a mail problem. But... I've emailed him twice asking him to confirm the spelling, and he's yet to reply. So at this point I'm considering the thing done. If he responds great, if not... oh well.

Austin Powers>
Well we went to see it. I had one requirement to see it, which was to have at least 2 beers in me. (I actually had a shot of tequilla too, and I'm not much of a drinker anymore, so it went right to my head). As it turns out, the movie was funny up until the effects of the alcohol wore off. I mean you know it's a stupid movie to begin with, so there isn't much to complain about, and I did laugh a few times at "mini-me", but wow, what crude low-brow humor. But like i said there were some funny parts I'll admit to laughing at. All in all, wait for video unless you've see Austin 1 and 2... then it's a mandate to see 3 in the theatre.

Signs>
I can't wait! this movie starts this weekend, and I've been looking forward to it for months now. I hope the director does the subject well (I'm sure he will), I've been wanting to do some internet research on crop circles (which is what this movies about), but have only done some preliminary searching. I don't want to find anything out that will ruin the movie. But I suspect once I see the movie, I'll have a lot more questions and start looking into it more. Yes, I DO believe that most of the crop circles reported are fakes.... But there is some very compelling evidence that the few "originals" are really mysteries... I'll post some links here later.

Have a good weekend
cyen out
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Well it's been a busy week, regarding a problem with an item i "bought" on Ebay.
I've been doing an on-going experiment where i try to remember the earliest possible thoughts. If you can't remember the first three-five years of your life, how are they the most important in developing who you are? (at least that's what the professionals claim).
Anyway, it's an interesting thought experiement, and i encourage everyone to give it a try. There's two parts to it really, one is of course recalling the memory, but the second more important, is to put it in a time frame. In otherwords, you may remember going to a candy store when you a small child, but how little? 3? 5? 7? etc...
Well, I've hit upon a memory that's stuck with me over all these years, and I've been able to nail it down precisely when it happened. (I wish blogger had a spell checker). I can recall seeing a movie when i was a small child. I was sick, and my parents let me stay up late past my bedtime to see this movie. At the time All I knew for sure was a song that was in the movie. "Me and my arrow". I tried going to a few animation websites, but didn't know the title of the movie. I asked a friend how he would go about finding the title of this movie (he's another movie fanatic), and he said he'd start with the name of the song first!. So that's what I did, and thanks to him it led me on the right path... The movie was called "The point"... Based on a story by Harry Nilsson, who was one of the Beatles inspirations.
The original movie was narrated by "dustin hoffman" and i think, from what i can gather from the internet, was re-dubbed with "ringo star" doing the fathers voice/naration. the main character "oblio" was played by "bobby brady!".
ok, so I'm dying to see this movie again, and see why it was something that really stuck in my mind after all these years.
I found it on ebay. prices ranging from $20 up to over $100! (i think because it's a beatles collectible). Well, I tried bidding on the lower priced auctions, but very quickly the prices were boosted up. Then I found one auction that had a feature that lets you "buy" it for a set price. in otherwords, eliminating the bidding process. I went for it. I felt it was a high, but fair price, and didn't have the patience to wait for the bidding wars. So I bought it. I paid for it through an online service called 'paypal" which basically lets you use your credit card to transfer funds over the internet (without having to give out your credit card number to the final user). So, that all went smoothly, and i got the video on monday! Very fast shipping. BUT!!!! it was an obvious bogus copy! It had a color copy paper sleeve that was inserted into a plastic video box. the lables on the tape itself were also printed on a inkjet printer, and a few "fake" stickers thrown on to make it look like it came from a video rental store! A lot of work really to make it look real. Well... I was not about to pay $33 for bogus copy! so I emailed the seller up, and complained. He first told me to send it back and he'd refund my money. I said "That was unacceptable" I went on to explain that i didn't know if i could trust him... I didn't accuse him of making the copy, but i also had no way of knowing if he did make the copy. So I said, if i didn't recieve a refund in 2 day's I'd report him to anyone and everyone (ebay, paypal, and even the federal authorities if i had to). In order to get my money back.
Well, he complained a bit, and accused me of making "hollow threats" which trust me, they were not hollow! But he finally did refund my money.
So at this point, I thought what revenge to scam a scammer... I could now keep the tape, and he'd be out the $33. But, I kept my word. I'm sending it back to him as he's claiming it's is distributor who made the copy, and he was unaware of it.
So as soon as I get his address i'll be shipping it back.
now one more thing before i sign off :) sorry this is such a long post....
I've had fun in playing "detective" I've tried finding out as much as possible about this guy in the event that i'd have to go to the authorities. I've don'e a pretty good job in my opinion :) - I know his name, (that's all i had to go on, but i didnt know if it was a bogus name). I know his age, his town, his middle name, his sisters name. I know the company that sent it is a fake name, located out of a different state. I know what companies do exist with the address given (a subway deli, and a hair salon, and a cigarette store). I suspect the cigarette store is a front for this movie company.
So, It's been a lot of work tracing this down but fun to see how much i can find out about him.

ok.again sorry this was so long :)

cyen out
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ok time for a Government rant...
I first saw it on Tech TV "the screen savers" last night. They talked briefly about a new "system" administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, and several other federal agencies, called "Tips" . Terrorist Information and Prevention System. Basically, this plan will creat a nation of "spies" the whole idea is that they will get everyday working americans to spie on other everyday working american. They plan to target mail carriers, ship captains, train conductors, truckers, utility employees, etc... and then these workers will "report" any suspicious activity they might see during their work day. At first glance this makes common sense, and appears to be a good idea, but... the openings for abuse are there. What if a disgruntled employee, happens to "target" a fellow co-worker, or even a customer who gave them a hard time? They'd report them, and now this american citizen would be under investigation. It goes back to the days of the "macarthy-ism" where hollywood was just about destoyed due to rumours, and acusations. People's lives were ruined. I don't like this idea one bit.
Next...
I saw on Cspan last night two things... one was the hearing to "expel" Senator James Traficant from congress. Apparently he was found guilty back on april 11th, of 8 felonies, such as:bribes, kickbacks, false tax returns, etc... I never heard of this guy before (not sure why) he's quite the "character". He was very in-your-face at this hearing, bragging about wearing a denim suit, and carrying in a large styrofoam glass of "something to drink" (He seemed a little "tipsy" to me). I have no information on if this guy is guilty or not, but it was a circus. He brought up some good points about how he was falsely accused, and most all of the "witnesses" who testified against him were also "criminals" that had their crimes "plea bargined" down for saying what the prosecutors wanted them to say. He also brought up another good point, that with the FBI's technology today, and the abilitt to plant microphones, and cameras they did not present one piece of "hard evidence" against him. This guy will probably go to jail soon, but will also probably serve a short sentence and then make millions off a book deal.

I'll leave with two of his quotes of this "character".... "I love America, But I hate the government" and.... "When the federal judges decided to take the word "God" out of the pledge of alligance, they opened to door to satan"

cyen out
ps> sorry for the mis-spellings.
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ok movie review time!


Men in Black 2>
Although the "critics" didn't really like this movie, I did. I thought it was just a fun movie, with some good jokes, and neat monsters/aliens to look at. I also went in to this show knowing the critics didn't like it, so maybe I had low expectations, and therefore was pleaseantly suprised. It's just a movie where you can leave your brain on the seat next to you, and look at the pictures.

13 conversations about one thing>
I liked this movie overall, but at points felt it was somewhat depressing. I have a hard time liking movies that depress me. One one hand I appreciate them for a good movie, and one that can alter my mood, on the other hand I don't like being depressed. So that said, this was a "good" movie. It had John Turturro in it who played a physics professor, and Alan Arkin who was some sort of Insurance salesman. These two characters were who carried the show. Matthew McConaughey was good, but I was more interested in Alan Arkin's storyline. This is a movie where you need your brain, and will question your definition of "happiness" in life.


The Dangerous lives of alter boys>
I was really let down by this movie. I think this could have been much better, but it really lacked something, and I'm gonna say "a good story"... The acting by the younger teens was well done, and the incorporation of the animation in with the live action was a great idea, but it was poorly done. It was done by "Todd McFarlane" who is know for creating one of the best selling comic books of this time, and it was just poor. Lacking in detail that McFarlane is known for. The storyline was just slow too, too many dis-jointed sub-plots going at the same time, and the "fantasy" lives of the boy's were not presented well. In addition two well know actors "Jodie foster" and "vincent Donofrio" were good but not in the movie enough to make you like or dislike their characters. Some of the scenes were tough to take too, in regards to the boy's fantasy life of the "Evil nuns" very blasphmous. If it was presented a little better, I think they could have gotten away with it more, but it just left a sour taste.

And Finally...

The Road to Perdition>
I thought this was a good movie, but something was lacking...
Tom Hanks was excellent as usual. Jude Law (who I'm not a big fan of), was very good too. I wish the story focused more on his part too. and the Boy was good too. Paul Newman was not in it too much, but when he was, he was good as well.
I think the two things that influenced me was the predictability of the story line. and the "russian" women behind me who were talking and whispering through-out the entire movie (up until I turned around and asked them to stop talking!). These people REALLY annoy me, and tend to ruin my experience at the movies.As much as I try to ignore them I find myself thinking about them constantly telling myself to ignore them. Until finally I figure it's worth any sort of repercussions to turn around and confront them. Which unfortunately is usually towards the end of the movie.
so OTHER than those idiots, it was an overall good movie, just predictable. The cinematography was really well shot too. the feel for the 1930's and the surrounding countryside was well done.

ok, that should catch the "blog" up-to-date.

Cyen out
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I've a few more movie reviews, but first a spot on what I saw on C-Span last night... Yes, some people actually watch those "boring" senate hearings on C-span. :)
I watched the other night the "hearing" on the Enron fiasco. I admit, I'm not up on all the latest news regarding Enron. All I know is they were a large company, they lied, and the business went under, leaving ALOT of employees without any benefits. I've heard some of the horror stories on the employees, and it really is ashame. The head guy from Enron was on the hot seat last night, along with another big wig. It was almost comical, as it was like a bad TV movie. The congress people would ask them a question and they'd read off a little slip of paper, "under advice of council, I will plead the 5th admendment" or something to that effect. It was amazing. I don't know which was worse, that they would read this each time, or that the senators continued to ask them questions knowing they'd get the same response. I did like the one question though.... "How do you sleep at night" Which he plead the 5th on ;)
The other two people were a high ranking investor advisor, and one of the accountants. They were answering questions, but it was very interestig to see how they dance around the questions. Senator Maxine Waters (walters?) was tough! she grilled em pretty good with her questions. It was a sad thing to watch in a sense to see how our business system could have such a failing, and that this guy along with others, are gonna walk away with MILLIONS of dollars in their pockets, while other employees are in sad shape with no retirement benefits at all now.

I'll get to the movie reviews later.... Men in Black 2, 13 conversations about one things, and The Dangerous lives of alter boys.

Reading: the bourne Identity
CD player: Dan Tyminski
cyen out
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ok, I'm finally getting back to this blog. I had stopped blogging as I thought no-one was reading it, but it appears I have one fan (you know who you are ;)
Saturday after workin all day, (thankfully the computer crash had been resolved). We went to the new movie called "Mr. Deeds" With Adam Sandler. A "Supposed" Comedy. WOW! It was incredible how BAD this movie was! We walked out after about an hour or so. There were maybe 2-3 funny parts with one of my favorite actors "John Turturro" But certainly not enough to save the movie. It just amazes me how bad it was, and that these big name "comedians" will sign on and do a movie like this. The commercials or product placement was absolutely blatant, and in your face. For example, on a helicopter ride back to NYC, they decide to stop at a "wendy's" to have cheeseburgers, and a frosty!
So we walked out. this is only the second movie that we both mutually agreed to walk out on. So that tell's you how bad it was.
Well, Besides putting up with the heat, that's about it. getting ready to enjoy a day off to celebrate the 4th of july.

in my CD: Depeche mode.
book: Redwall

Cyen out
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