Month: July 2007

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PREAIRs are Everywhere!

In the world of online video file trading, a “PREAIR” is a video file of a television show that has yet to air in its home market. Most frequently, PREAIRs are ripped from “screener” DVDs sent out to television critics, although this is not always the case. Some PREAIRs are leaked from production or special effects studios. Sometimes studios even make PREAIRs freely available: the first four episodes of season six of Fox’s thriller 24 were sold as a special “preview DVD”; these were released online as PREAIRs, even though they lacked any sense of cachet, since they were available to anyone with $14.98 and a way to get to Target or Wal Mart.

A veritable flood of PREAIRs began hitting the scene late last week. PREAIRs of the first two episodes of the new seasons of existing Showtime series, like Dexter, Brotherhood and Weeds are available, as well as a PREAIR of the first episode of the new David Duchovny series Californication. ABC’s new show Pushing Daisies, NBC’s new action\comedy Chuck, and Fox’s new The Sarah Connor Chronicles are also available, amongst others.

These PREAIRs are available just about anywhere torrent files are offered. If you have no idea what “Bittorrent” is, or where you might find such files… lemme know and I’ll hook you up!

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Blues Spoil Beckham’s US Debut

David BeckhamTo the surprise of absolutely no one, Chelsea defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy to spoil David Beckham’s American debut. Perhaps the only thing surprising was the score: 1-0… especially since Chelsea actually played most of their first-stringers… a rarity in these “friendly” games.

One thing that was not surprising was the total Beckham wankfest provided by ESPN. Although they never came right out and called it such, they may as well just had a “Beckham Cam”… every time Beckham tied his shoes, shifted in his seat or asked for some water, the Beckham Cam was there! It was obscene, especially since some of the most famous names in British football play for Chelsea. And of course, ESPN just couldn’t resist interviewing all the celebrities that attended the game. So THAT’S what’s been missing from the soccer scene in the US all these years – celebrity endorsements! Now that we all know that Drew Carey and Arnold Schwarzenegger like soccer, the rest of us will jump on the bandwagon like lemmings!

Oh well… the only thing I have to say about the game tonight is:

Blue is the colour, football is the game
We’re all together, and winning is our aim
So cheer us on through the sun and rain
’cause Chelsea, Chelsea is our name!

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New Order is/is not broken up

Back in May, Peter Hook announced that New Order was breaking up during an interview with radio station XFM in the UK. Later that day (or week), he posted the same thing on his MySpace page.

It seems that he might have jumped the gun a bit. This story, posted today on the BBC’s website, says that although Peter Hook may have left the band, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris have every intention of carrying on as New Order without Hook.

Why it took that Sumner and Morris two months to make this information public is a mystery.

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I’m eating the weirdest stuff…

I don’t know what’s up with me lately. Part of me is on a “retro-kick” with my food, going back to the dishes my parents used to enjoy. Another part of me is on a tropical kick, craving pineapples, mangoes, coconut and limes. Yet another part of me simply seems like a stoned teenager, eating just about anything that comes along. Here’s some examples:

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with Banana Creme – I stopped by the convenience store last night to pick up some cigarettes. This store was staffed by two older people that didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to do anything. Seriously… it was as if crossing the threshold of the store took me into some bizarre world where spacetime was completely slowed down. Anyway, while waiting (and waiting, and waiting) in line, I spotted these Reese’s cups… with banana creme! They were announced last year as a tribute to Elvis Presley (who, as you might know, loved fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches). They only started shipping this summer, however.

Reese’s Peanut Butter CupsSo – how are they? Pretty decent, albeit slightly disappointing. The “banana creme” isn’t very creamy, at least in the “runny” sense. It’s as dense as the peanut butter, so when you bite into it, stuff won’t go running everywhere. I should also point out that these are the big “king size” cups (get it? Elvis was THE king – the package even says “THE King Size”). Anyway, the banana creme actually tastes pretty good – like a fresh banana, which is probably due to the “banana flakes” listed on the ingredients label. Sadly, the banana taste is overwhelmed by the peanut butter and chocolate, so that you only get the occasional banana taste. I’d prefer more banana and less peanut butter, but that’s just me. As a limited time only thing, these cups are great though… I think I might go and buy some more a little later on this afternoon!

Ham Salad – Recently I committed the sin of going to the grocery store whilst hungry. My penalty for this – ham salad. My penance? Eating it. In case they don’t sell ham salad in your part of the world, ham salad is a sandwich or salad ingredient much like tuna or chicken salad… only made with ham. Perhaps I just bought an “off” brand or something, but this stuff just wasn’t any good. It wasn’t enough that the ham salad had sweet relish in it, the manufacturer put even more sugar in it. All you could really taste were pickles and sugar. If someone can recommend me a savory ham salad, I’d appreciate it.

Continue reading “I’m eating the weirdest stuff…”

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News for 07/20/2007

What a strange world we live in! Lets’ learn more about it… by doing the news!

  • A British teenager bought a PS2 game console off eBay. It came in the “post” a few days later. The game console and all the cables and controllers were there… but not the two games promised by the eBay seller. Instead of the games, the boy found £44,000 (around $90,000) stuffed into the box! The boy and his parents turned the money over to his local police department while the matter is being investigated.
  • A new report by the Carmel Group states that DVR ownership in the United States will surge past 50% of all households by the year 2010. I remember thinking about DVR market saturation a few years ago, and back then I thought that it’d take years for DVRs to get to that point. What happened? Cable companies quickly found out that DVRs are a profitable item. The report states that as recently as 2001, 9 out of 10 cable companies weren’t interested in DVR products; that statistic has almost flip-flopped: nowadays, only 1 out of 10 cable companies (mostly smaller companies) don’t offer DVR service.
  • As of August 4th, 2007, cigarette lighters will be allowed back on airplanes. What’s interesting about this is the “story behind the story” – apparently TSA never wanted to ban lighters in the first place, since it forced screeners to search for mundane things in people’s bags… instead of actual, you know, bombs. Congress disagreed, and forced TSA to add them to their “prohibited items” list. However, pretty much everyone in the security biz has finally admitted that banning lighters was simply “security theatre” and not a genuine safety measure.

Continue reading “News for 07/20/2007”

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You look like…

Back when I was in high school, I wore contacts and had some punk rock lookin’ hair. I guess because of the hair and lack of glasses, I would occasionally be told that I looked like Robert Downey, Jr. This was a compliment at the time, since chicks dug Robert Downey, Jr from his movies like Weird Science and Back To School, plus Robert hadn’t hit the skids with his crazy partying just yet.

Well, time passed. Most of my hair has fallen out. I’ve gained quite a few pounds. My eyes simply can’t handle contact lenses any more. I’m not nearly as pretty as I used to be, and no one tells me I look like Robert Downey, Jr. any more. In fact, no one was said that I looked like anybody… until recently.

We were out at the Breakfast Club a couple of weeks ago, and as I walked down to the end of the bar where my friends were, I noticed Tim looking at me funny. I didn’t think much about it, until he said “you know… you look like Andy Partridge of XTC”. What do you guys think?

Andy Partridge

In any case, I was kind of flattered. Andy Partridge is one of those guys that “brainy chicks” dig. The same kind of girl that would like, say, Elvis Costello, would like Andy Partridge. Which is cool. Not that I’m going to be tramping around anymore in this lifetime, but it’s always nice, you know? Of course, it would have meant more coming from some hot girl rather than Asher, but what the hell… I’ll take a compliment any way I can get it!

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My Site’s Safe!

So I was searching the Internet last night for my own website. It sounds vain, but I was really just seeing if the new WordPress site had made it to Google’s index, and also to see what other sites were saying about this site. At one point, I stumbled upon my site’s results at McAfee’s Site Advisor, a website that analyzes websites for unsafe scripts, malware, viruses and such. And guess what? My site is safe!

McAfee Site Advisor

Woo-Hoo! And speaking of McAfee, they actually have a cool quiz on their site that tests your knowledge of phishing scams by showing you pictures of genuine and phishing sites – you have to guess which one’s authentic and which one’s fake. I got 9 out of 10 (hey, the Chase Bank one is hard!)

Anybody wanna do the test themselves and share their score?

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Ouch! Tooth embedded in head!

How’s this for an “owwwie”? Australian rugby player Ben Czislowski collided with an opponent back in April, getting a gash in the head. He left the match and his head was quickly stitched up. But then Czislowski, who plays for the Brisbane team Wynnumm, started getting headaches. He soon felt lethargic and got a bad eye infection.

Last week, Czislowski decided that he just couldn’t take it any more, so he went to his doctor… who found a tooth of Tweed Heads forward Matt Austin embedded in Czislowski’s skull! Given how filthy with bacteria most mouths are, it’s a wonder that Czislowski didn’t get gangrene or some other serious infection! As it stands though, Czislowski had the tooth removed and is doing fine.

Read all about it on Yahoo! News here.