Covered under warranty

Went to go see a movie with a friend on Monday (The Black Dahlia, I didn't like it) and the temperature light came on in the car. Checked around, and found the coolant reservoir really low. Bought some distilled water and filled it up. Light didn't come back on.

I took a closer look at the engine and saw pools of coolant on top of the transmission. Made an appointment, got it in today, and when I showed it to the service advisor and we actually saw a drip come from a hose. Turns out a coolant flange was faulty. They replaced it. Under warranty.

Woo, didn't have to pay a thing. Woo.

Saw Jackass 2 tonight. Much better. Very funny.

Netflix friends list is da boom!

http://www.hackingnetflix.com/netflix/2005/01/friends_list_fe.html

If you're a Netflix subscriber, invite me to be on your friend's list (my email address isn't listed, but it shouldn't be hard to guess from my homepage URL). I've already got a few friends up there, and it's interesting to see what they're watching. It's giving me some good ideas of new movies to add to my 265-movie strong queue.

Fahrenheit 9/11

Yup. Went to see it. Loved it. Walked away very angry. I know I'll need to see it again in order to wrap my head around it. So much going on in it that one viewing wasn't enough.

I'd highly recommend it, even if you're a neocon dipshit who's written "I love Bush!" all over your Sean Hannity Trapper Keeper.

Paycheck

I don't usually review movies, but I feel I need to warn people away from this awful piece of crap. You've been warned. Keep reading for my feelings on this abomination.

First, I haven't read the Philip K. Dick story. I'm sure it was a lot better than the movie.

So anyway, Paycheck is John Woo's latest attempt at a blockbuster action flick. The concept is very interesting, but let's never let John Woo direct another flick that should've relied more on sci-fi rather than action. I really wanted to know more about the tech behind the story rather than watching cars explode.

Speaking of lame action effects, why do we put up with it? I mean, why can't Hollywood leave the lame-ass 1985 action movie effects in 1985? Really... cars do NOT just explode when they run into things. If I hit you really hard on the chest with a broomstick, I doubt you'll go flying 15 feet through the air. It'd take a lot of force to do that. Seriously.

Oh, and the movie's set in Seattle, but obviously filmed in Vancouver, B.C. For those that see the movie, let me clarify some things - Seattle does not have a subway system (Vancouver, B.C. does); Seattle police cars aren't nearly as futuristic looking as the ones in the movie (they did get the police uniform right, though); and 6th and Pine in Seattle is not an industrial area - it's downtown! Oh, and Seattle's downtown core is not as dense as Vancouver's.

So, if you want a decent John Woo action flick, go see M:I 2.

I wish I would've seen The Last Samurai instead.

Movie suggestions: post-apocalyptic society-rebuilding films

Okay, so I'm in the middle of watching Things to Come, a film somewhat based on an H.G. Wells novel, and it leaves me wanting more movies of the same general theme: humankind goes through some sort of apocalypse that forces it to rebuild itself into a different society, for better or worse. I can already think of a few movies - The Matrix series, Waterworld (blech), The Postman (blech, again), The Road Warrior, Red Dawn, Battlefield Earth (ha!), and The Terminator series.

What other movies follow this similar pattern? I prefer movies that show the apocalypse at the beginning and then the rebuilding throughout, but I'm not picky. Give me a good "the world's going to blow up" movie any day. I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff.

Oh, and I'm not partial to to TV shows either. Star Trek is a perfect example of this: After the mythical World War III, humankind somehow manages to reform itself into a utopia and meet interesting aliens in the process after breaking the light-speed barrier. Good stuff...

The Matrix Revieweded.

From the review of the Matrix Reloaded:

Even if you disagree with everything bad I've said about this movie, there's one point I think everyone can agree on: Keanu Reeves' ass does not need to be seen, ever.

Funny stuff.

15 items. Do you get it? Do you?!?!

Fucking A.

I went to see X2 this afternoon. It was great. Afterwards, I needed to do some grocery shopping for Nicole. I go to the local Fred Meyer to do all of my shopping, and I like to use the U-Scan after I'm done gathering my loot.

There's a big sign above each unit, which I'm sure nobody reads, that says 15 item limit. And, these units require a little bit of manual dexterity, as you have to scan the barcodes, and then place them into a bag (gasp!). There was this 20-something blonde having difficulty with the machine.... okay, no biggie, happens all the time. The problem however was that she had at least 20 items to scan, perhaps more, and she'd already scanned at least 10. I'm number three in line waiting for people to finish up, and she's holding everybody up because she's got so much to scan, and because she can't follow simple fucking instructions on the machine. Argh!

The U-Scan is a wonderous device, if you know what you're doing. It's quick, efficient, and you can get in and out of the store quicker than having to go through a normal checkout line. But that efficiency has rules. To all the illiterate idiots out there - read the fucking signs! The U-Scan has a limit of 15 items. The express checkout line has a limit of 10.

Seriously.

Kill your TV ads.

I'm so proud. I didn't watch the Superbowel this year. (Yes, that was a deliberate misspelling). Instead, I spent the morning catching up shows on the TiVo (Junkyard Wars, in particular). I caught two movies this afternoon - the forgettable cult classic The Wild One, and the somewhat interesting The War Room. I'm glad The War Room was only 96 minutes long. I don't know how much more James Carville I could've taken. I spend a lot of time watching TV, but the difference is that I'm watching TV shows, not TV ads. I've had the TiVo for about 13 months now, and in that time I'll admit that I've lost out on a bit of American pop culture. But, I still stop for the VW ads.

Speaking of TiVo, I'm heavily debating getting a TurboNet adapter. I want to get it so that I can dump my phone line once and for all. That's a cool $30 month that I won't have to spend for something I rarely use. Problem is, I've heard varied reports of success over at the AVS Forums. I'm going to have to keep researching. For those interested, I have a Series 1 Philips HDR212 TiVo, which is still stock.

Another exciting work week starts up tomorrow. Woo! At least I have this to keep me entertained until then. :-)

They're baaaaack!

Our landlords are back in the states, after being in Korea for the last three weeks. They came by today and surveyed the damage at the house. They even relit the pilot light on the furnace. We'll see how long that'll last. I wish I would have seen how they did that, so I can do it myself next time it goes out (I'm sure there'll be a next time).

Overall, things are getting better here. Even without the furnace, we used space heaters around the house and they did a great job of heating the place. Sure, it takes a while to get the place heated up, but once it's warm, it's warm. And, the cat loved laying in front of the oil-filled radiator out in the living room.

DCLU came by on Thursday and did their inspection of the electrical work. Now it's only a matter of time before City Light comes out and puts a meter on the house. It sure is nice not to be metered :-)

Nicole and I are looking at getting another cat, a friend of sorts, for Asha. I hope they get along. We saw a couple real cute cats at the shelter today.

Went out to see Two Towers on Friday night. Oh my God. That was incredible.... much better than Fellowship. I still have yet to see Harry Potter, but I hear it's good. I spent this three-day weekend catching up on TV watching, and managed to catch Disc 3 of Band of Brothers, and Bringing Out the Dead. Band of Brothers is great. If you liked Saving Private Ryan, go rent Band of Brothers, or catch it on HBO (if you haven't already). Oh, I also spent a small amount of the weekend working on my friend's XP box, just doing a little preventative maintenance on it - defrag, chkdsk, virus scan, etc.

Phoning above it all...

This weekend wasn't too exciting. Got some housework done with Nicole on Saturday. Managed to watch Heathers on Saturday Night and then watched Conspiracy: Trial of the Chicago 8 Sunday morning. Saturday morning, Nicole and I went and saw the new Jackass movie. It was probably the high point of the weekend.

I do, however, feel like I actually accomplished something this weekend. I volunteered at the Rise Above It All headquarters in Belltown this evening, doing phone banking. In two hours time, I called 100 phone numbers. I ended up leaving more messages than anything, and did get a few freaks in the process, but all in all, I've done a little part to hopefully get monorail passed in this year's election.

I had two calls that got pissed off at me for interrupting the World Series, one woman who admonished me for soliciting on a Sunday (eesh, I'm volunteering for cripes sake!), and one woman who told me her husband was a DOT engineer and thought the monorail proposal was seriously lacking. The one call I got that I could've possibly changed the person's opinion was this guy who said that Seattle/Puget Sound really needed to build some form of rapid transit along the I-5 corridor, and that the monorail didn't do enough. After the call, I was left thinking, "Shit, I could have told him that this initiative is only the beginning of what could be a 58-mile citywide system." And he bitched about how the monorail didn't go to the airport and to the east side and elsewhere, like the transit systems in Chicago (where he used to live).

Well, no, it's not going to go there because it's a Seattle-only system. If you want so-called regional transportation, that's what ST Link is for. Good luck with that. Let me know how that goes, considering it'll only go within a mile of the airport and then you'll have to transfer to a shuttle to get the rest of the way. Sheesh.

So, next Sunday I'm going to volunteer on the phone banks again. It's pretty grueling work, but it's worth it. And although I'll miss the season premiere of the Simpsons, I'll catch it Monday on the TiVo. Oh well, it's worth it to get the word out.

Monorail Yes!