I’m watching Hard Candy. I remember this movie being a dialog-driven situational mindf–k, and it’s getting that way as this is being typed in another window on the same screen ’cause the JW199D pwnz.

I’ve been doing more relaxing than usual these past couple weeks, but that only means I’ve only left slightly bigger gaps in the whole to-do. I look forward to the next learning phase in the Fall, the second to the last, the heart of what I need to move forward along in my career path (and hopefully some better weather alongside).

The point in my life where I have an idea of what I’m going to do with myself is closer than ever. That happier repetition is just around the corner. A little more mini-golf, a continued indulgence in Texas BBQ and chicken wings, the growth of what has already been going on for decades now: my abstract? Ellen Page’s teenage character in Hard Candy has gone berserk on the guy tied to the chair, and he’s screaming for help.

When I punch the keys, I’m working. Makin’ it rain… peanuts. Actually, it’s much better than I expected ’cause the 4th anniversary of this psyche rummage is next week. Ha! Peace out.

The usual cheap DVD recordable discs store a 4.7GB. The usual standard BD-R media store 25GB. The surfaces of DVDs have a tendency to scratch. Blu-ray discs have a protective coating to prevent scratching. 100 DVDs take up more physical space that 19 Blu-ray discs. That’s more than 5x more space for a similar amount of storage.

Sure, 25 Blu-rays will get only get you 375GB and TB hard drives are becoming more and more affordable. Quality 1TB hard drives hover in the $100 price range. 1TB worth of BD-R media will only cost less than a third. That means 3x the space for the sale price.

Blu-rays can hold multiple DVD ISO files and other gigantic files. BD-R media can also be easily sent in envelopes whereas hard drives are usually packaged in larger boxes. 1 BD-R transports a little more than the space of 5 DVD+R’s.

Time to upgrade your optical drive hardware. You need a BD-R media writer. It’s time to consolidate. It’s time to enjoy larger storage solutions. A more durable, portable backup solution awaits its acceptance.

Western Digital’s popular line of Caviar hard drives has added energy-efficient models within the past few years. They use less power while performing as well as the others. The 1.5TB hard drive is priced at ~$100 right now which is an irresistible deal.

1.5TB may seem like too much space for the average user, but if you knew what you could do with that much space, then you would probably want to own one around this size. Back up your entire DVD collection and stream the ISOs over your network to your Xbox 360 or PS3 and save time not having to rummage through physical discs and keep them organized. Convert all your home movies to video files and preserve them forever.

The Blu-ray revolution is in full force now, and the technology is now available to allow home users to burn their own Blu-ray discs. The average recordable Blu-ray discs hold 25GB, and a 50GB capacity is also available. Keeping that in mind and knowing that one terabyte is ~1000GB, you’d only be able to store ~60 25GB Blu-ray discs on a 1.5TB hard drive. That makes a 320GB hard drive seem tiny now, doesn’t it?

Mondays thru Fridays from 7am to 3pm at my day job that pays the bills, I am a drone that completes the connection. I am a robot that sees a check every two weeks. My days are mostly the same. The routine is comforting. That is my work life.

I’m keeping in mind that one of my resolutions was to update this at least a couple times a week, and I’m going to do my best. Don’t let me let you down.

Mare also got her new Lenovo IdeaPad Y450, and it’s pretty sweet. She digs it and so do I. I have no plans in the near future for a new computer system of any sort. I’m content with the five I already use on a regular basis.

I picked up a copy of I, Robot on Blu-ray at Wally World yesterday for ten bucks. They also had Boondock Saints and 28 Days Later, but I went with the one that I like the most and would look spectacular in 1080p. This is why I always have to pass by the electronics section whenever I feel like saving money and living better. =P

Here’s a picture of one of the baby mollies that I took yesterday or the day before:

I haven’t been able to locate the other baby molly. Maybe it died.

Mare & I will be moving at the end of next month. We’re really excited and looking forward to it. I’m also going back to school once again for some necessary certification. I’m doing something that I should have done years ago. These next couple months will be a much-needed breath of fresh air.

American Idol is back. I’ll probably end up watching it like I did last season ’cause I’m a sucker. A new episode of Bones airs tonight. The news about Conan and Leno is interesting. I wonder how that’s going to pan out.

These days will fly by, and I look forward to them doing that. Everything is falling into place nicely, and I hope they continue to do so. Peace out.

If you haven’t seen this movie & <3 cheesy flicks, then this is a must-see.

[mosotube]

As you can probably tell, I haven’t been updating you via this channel at all this month. Let’s just say my schedule hasn’t allowed me to spend as much time with this as usual, but I hope to change that in June.

I’ve been keeping busy lately. I got some dough from my insurance company intended to fix the hail damage in my old ’97 Accord. I decided to put that money toward replacing the tint and shocks instead. I also got my cracked windshield fixed after three years or so. Apart from the sun damage on the exterior paint, the car is looking and feeling good for a 13-year-old vehicle.

The job is going well. I still manage to get up way too early in the morning and make it to the office by 5. After I leave a little after 1, I run my errands set for the day which I’m sure I’ve outlined on a previous post or two but I might as run through it all real quick since I haven’t updated you in a while.

With the exception of the past couple weeks when a decent amount of work was being done to my car, I hit the gym after work on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I usually go after Rachael Ray is halfway done, the fishies have been fed, the ISOs have been made if necessary, and the F@h systems have been checked to be up and running smoothly.

Somewhat sad news: The golden dojo loach passed away recently. Time has been flying by quickly this month, but I’d say it died a week and a half ago. The Hex-5 is kind of boring right now, but I gave it a deep cleaning this past Sunday. Mare and I will be searching for a pair of loaches soon, but we’ve both been relatively busy. Now back to our scheduled programming:

On Tuesdays, I stop by the library to check out DVDs and the occasional book. They have a great system online where you can place holds on whatever media they have from any branch, and they’ll bring it to the branch of your choice. This is convenient for me, since the library is right down the street. Public libraries are one of the best incentives that an American taxpayer has in my opinion.

Wednesdays are new comic days. I like going right after work since the selection is at its best it’s going to be for the most part. Popular titles get snatched up pretty quick, but I haven’t had any issues getting my issues. Last week, a new issue of Hulk, Wolverine: Weapon X, and Young Liars was released. Due to Memorial Day, new comics come out tomorrow instead of today. The only issue coming out tomorrow that I read religiously is the new issue of X-Force. I think the Messiah War concludes in this issue. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Also on Wednesdays, Mare and I have been dining out around 2 or 3. Since the semester is over, it’ll probably change up a bit. She doesn’t have to work today, so we’ll be going to Casino El Camino after Wheel this evening to stuff ourselves with their famous ginormous burgers. I haven’t had it yet, but I know it’s gonna rock my gut in a good way. On a related note, we’ll be compiling info on a piece that I’ll be publishing here about our favorite  burger joints in Austin once we’ve completed our follow-up rounds. Stay tuned for that.

Also in future news, a design update for this Soapbox has been planned for this summer. This update should be deployed around late July so also look forward to that. Let’s wrap up the week’s routine and Wheel should be on in a bit.

That’s right. 6:30pm CST on NBC DTV is one of my all-time favorite shows Wheel of Fortune. I don’t like missing it. In related television news, how about Danny on Hell’s Kitchen schooling Paula?! I was rooting for him since the beginning, and I’m glad he won. He did the best out and had the right attitude to win it.

Also, I’m glad Adam didn’t win American Idol. I was rooting for Danny, but he got third place unfortunately. Well, it can be seen as a good thing since Danny’s votes probably shifted to Kris which then outnumbered Adam’s. I don’t care much at all about the future of the Idols, but I started watching the show between day jobs so I was into it ’til the end this season.

Since most of the fall seasons have ended, I’m watching the first season of Mad Men which I’m really enjoying and recently finished watch the first season of Eastbound and Down which was well done as well. I look forward to the next seasons of those two shows.

On Fridays, I like to go out to the Hideout and chat with my posse. GMN and DDF are in Cali right now. I’m envious that they got to have Double Doubles from In-N-Out! I’ll visit Cali again some day, and I will sink my teeth into a Double Double before I die.

Five minutes ’til Wheel. I’m gonna end this here so I can proofread it real quick then publish. This was fun. I’m glad you missed me. Maybe I’ll write some more tomorrow. We’ll see. Peace out.

After seeing the introduction sequence over twenty times and hearing the catchy Jane’s Addiction tune over and over again, I spotted something odd with the fast-paced footage of the boys driving down the street. The clip where Adrian Grenier’s name is superimposed on the lit sign of a convenience store is flipped horizontally. Check it out:

You can easily notice that the word ‘PIZZA’ on the sign is flipped. Then you notice that the ‘ATM’ neon sign in the window is flipped, the two other instances of the ‘PIZZA’ in the neons are flipped, and the Pepsi logo used by the pizzeria’s sign is flipped.

The editor thought he could pull a fast one, but my eyes were a little faster. Although this is something trivial, it belongs on IMDb’s fun facts or one of those sites that catalogues this kind of nonsense.

OK… so I just checked IMDb and it’s already on the Goofs section. Oh well… I’m not deleting this post.