Month: April 2007

As April Winds Down…

Posted on by Chewbode

I heard from the dealership yesterday and my car is currently getting painted. They tell me I should have it back anytime from Monday to Wednesday at the latest. That’s gonna rock.

Last Saturday night I went to Target with Shauna as we needed to pick up a few things from the store. She went to look at girl-things and I headed to the electronics department to window shop. Lo and behold, sitting quietly, all nestled among its brethren, were several Nintendo Wiis. Holy shit. Wiis. A bunch of them. About 30 thoughts raced through my mind instantly: Can I afford one? Will they be here for a few days? Is this something I really want?… I summed it up, sucked in my gut and confidently marched over to the cashier who was this big-boned, six-foot five-inch high school kid that looked like he loved playing games. I told him I wanted a Wii and he immediately grabbed his keys for the case and began saying how much he wanted one too. We talked, he got the console and a copy of Wii Play, which also comes with a Wiimote. I bought them and strode happily back to Shauna to show her my catch like some crazy caveman that just clubbed a saber-toothed tiger for his family. She was marginally impressed.

It dawned on me that I needed a memory card to save the games, etc. I knew the Wii used SD cards, so I figured I’d go get one. Returning to the electronics department, I see the official Wii memory card (SD) for $49.99 for a 1GB card! Yikes! I promptly call Nintendo and ask if I have to use a licensed SD card or if I can get away with using any SD card, and they tell me any card will work. I find a Kodak 1GB card for $27.00 and snatch it.

I got home, hooked up the console and started probing around. I love it. I played Wii Sports and Wii Play until about 3:00am that night. And I was exhausted, but it felt great.

The next morning, my arms were really sore. I got into the shower, squirted a blob of shampoo into my hand, and as I went to flip the lid shut, a huge glob of ‘poo shot straight into my eye. It was, by far, the single most painful thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I tried my best to rinse it out, but the soap was already lodged between my delicate eyeball and the lid. It took me about 20 minutes before I could even open my eye, and when I did, I saw it was completely red. Like, so red there was no white. Really red. It was so bad that I had to stay home from work Monday because there was nasty gunk in my eye, like mucous, so it was tough to see. I figured I’ve had enough trouble lately keeping cars in one piece with two eyes, so I’d better stay home.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that last Saturday Shauna and I went to the Sarasota film Festival and saw a screening of Ransom Rigg’s Spaceboy. I own the DVD, but let me tell you – the DVD pales in comparison to seeing it on the big screen. It’s not just the epic-ness of it, but the richness of color and the fidelity of the audio. Wow. Jared was there too, unbeknownst to me, and he, Ransom and I talked a bit after the showing.

So, this week I committed to my company’s CEO that I would move up to Tampa by July 1st. That gives us about two months to get things packed and get up there. We’ve already got an apartment and just need to hire the movers. We’re both very excited about the move, as it’ll afford us an opportunity to live in a big city, which we’ve really never done before.

The other night Shauna and I finally watched The Usual Suspects, courtesy of NetFlix. Great movie. Spacey was awesome. Long live Kaiser Soze!

I’m going to be updating the Comics in the Digital Archive tonight too.

Sick Thought of the Day: High up on her inner-thigh, the smell of a recently spent lumberjack wafted freely. The mixture of fat-man sweat and pine needles rose like an afterthought.

Getting Fixed or Totaled?

Posted on by Chewbode

Spring is in the air. Some rain showers have been moving through the area lately, the birds seem to be singing a little louder, and the greenery is coming back.

My life has been — guess! — really, really hectic lately. I went to battle with my auto insurance company and the collision center over my car a couple of weeks ago. I even called Ford who sicced their collision people on them. At that point it had been three weeks and I hadn’t heard anything about the car. Was it going to be totaled? Were they going to fix it? There’s no way it should take three weeks to decide that. So, I got irritated and started making the nasty phone calls. The end result: Two days after I started making a stink, I hear from the insurance company that they’re gonna fix the car. I called the dealership and the collision center tells me “one week to get the parts in, three weeks to rebuild the car.” So, I’m still stuck with the rental car (PT Cruiser) until then, although I’m thinking of taking it back Monday for a smaller, cheaper car now that the rental car is coming out of my own pocket. I should get the Mustang back around the end of the month.

Shauna’s niece, Misti, and her family came down from Atlanta last week and stayed with us for a few days. It was nice to see the kids. They used our apartment as a base of operations and went out every day to Orlando, etc. to have fun.

I got a “creatively acquired” copy of 300 on DVD. Wow. I hope to see Grindhouse this weekend of next.

This is the first day I’ve had off for two weeks. There’s been a massive project at work that has involved me working nearly 80-hour weeks. Thankfully, I hired an assistant and he’s doing the last little bit of work for me this weekend so I can chill out and not resort to bringing in a shotgun to the office Monday.

There’s been very little progress on my behalf on the project, but that will turn around this weekend. This morning I’m going to catch up on paying bills, and then I’m getting together with Jeff for the day to discuss ideas and work on building more sets.

Sick Thought of the Day: Rip the retina.