Claire's blog

Not a real expedition.

After cooking mishaps that started fires and filled our kitchen with smoke, we decided to go out for fast food breakfast.

It was really late. We went out driving by 12:30PM.

But we got distracted by a detour — a yard sale sign on the way there (too terrible to even stop at–10 minutes / 2.2mi @ 12.3mpg) …

… and a yard sale sign on the way back (with a racist dog that hated whit epeople–12 minutes / .4mi @ 10.7mpg).
Only got two things — a pare of square wicker baskets, 10″x9″x9″. Carolyn talked the dude down from $6 to $2.
Total time: 22 minutes.

Spent $2.00 plus ~$0.82 gas (based on car computer measurements above @ $3.81/G), for a total cost of $2.82.
We bought 2 items for a total estimated value of $14, leading to a profit of $11.18.

To earn that much after taxes you’d really have to earn $16; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration.

Anyway, this works out to a “wage” of $30.49/hr as a couple or $15.25/hr per person.

• $2.00: 2 wicker baskets (cube shaped, not basket shaped) (EV:$14)

ours is in a superior perfect cube shape. more structurally sound and space-efficient, beeyotches! This is to have more places for Carolyn to put her socks she likes to throw on the ground.

Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings.

* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. For example, I estimate books at the cover value. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person). (more…)

• WAR ON DRUGS: NYPD Ordered to Stop [more obvious] Marijuana Possession Arrests
  Pretty big news for New Yorkers.
  (tags: politics WarOnDrugs drugs war government freedom NewYorkCity NewYork StopTheDrugWar DRCNet news articles RayKelly NYPD publicView)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] [Official site] Still not available via Netflix as of the writing of this review (11/2009), but it finally aired on TV in Norway in May of 2009 and has aired on HBO. Tammy Kirkham supposedly sued to hold back release of this.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Crackhead journalist loses family, everything.

PEOPLE: Rick Kirkham and his family. That’s what this whole movie is about.

QUIRKS: This is a self-made video documentary. Rick Kirkham photographed and videotaped his entire life, and this documentary was created by searching through his over 3,000 hours of recordings, specifically during the 7 years that he had major crack cocaine abuse issues.

As a journalist, he once interviewed George H.W. Bush about drug abuse — while high on crack.

This movie is about how his crack cocaine addiction caused him to flush his career AND family down the toilet. He’s sober now, but the damage was done.

VISUALS: Camcorder-quality, non-widescreen video. There’s no production values because this wasn’t produced. It’s all home video.

MORALS: Drugs are bad, mmm’kay?

BAD STUFF: It’s a bit painful to watch some of these moments, like when he’s arguing with his wife and the children are present and crying. These aren’t actors; these are real people.

Also, the ending is quite rushed, as he stops making video diaries, depriving the film editors from having any footage available to cover that period of time. This “ruined” the movie for some pessimists, but that’s just a stupid view to take. This movie was about the bad, not the good.

CONCLUSION: An incredibly depressing and utterly true look into one minor celebrity’s descent into drug addiction. Like watching a trainwreck unfold, it is impossible not to be sucked into such a sad, riveting movie.

And a major follow-up on Rick’s life was posted, by Rick, to a blog reviewing this movie. You can read what he wrote here (originally posted as a comment to this review of the movie).

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. “It was very intense and really captured the insanity of his drug addiction. He knew he was addicted and it was bad for him, but he couldn’t stop. Ricky Jr’s childhood was no better than his own childhood. Why couldn’t he see what he was doing to that kid?”

The native public rating for this movie is Netflix: 3.9/5 stars, IMDB: 7.3/10.

RECOMMENDATION: If you don’t mind watching a depressing home-camcorder-quality movie documenting someone ruining their life, then this is a great documentary.

SIMILAR MOVIES: A select few people missed the whole point of Requiem For A Dream, unable to understand its message because it was too fictitious, fantastical, and “out there”. For those people, I would recommend TV Junkie. It’s a REAL movie that has a very similar message and effect.
(more…)

Overdid it a bit Friday, and Carolyn is always tired anyway, so somehow we ended up going to sleep on our foofsac at 10:30PM Friday night, expecting to get up more later. It never happened, and was the earliest we’ve gone to bed in our house in the past year (or several). Clint woke up at 3:30AM, slept more. Eventually he got up around 5:30AM.

Around 7:30AM, he decided to wake Carolyn up and make her go yard saling!

We actually drove out of the house around 8:00AM sharp, and ended up taking some alternate routes around due to realizing our traditional circuit isn’t the most opportunistic path we could be taking. Thus, we actually had good enough coverage that we stopped pretty early — 11:32AM.

The first sale we hit was a big church one RIGHT be our house. We had to take 4 trips of stuff to our car! So much stuff we decided to stop back home (because it was RIGHT by our house) and dump it back off. Then we ate breakfast at Burger King (only took 17 minutes).

Total yard saling time of 3 hours, 15 minutes. A short run for being up at the crack of dawn — yet more effective than most of our longer runs!

Spent $35.30 plus ~$9.41 gas for 35.0 miles of driving (13.8 mpg @ 3.71$/G) (the computer on the Chrysler car is so handy for giving us resettable MPG so we can calculate our gas expenditures so much more precisely now), for a total cost of $44.71.

We bought 28 items (maybe 30 if you count each ice tray and vacuum bag) – including some stuff we REALLY needed – for a total estimated value of $589.45, leading to a profit of $544.75. To earn that much after taxes you’d really have to earn $778; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration.

Anyway, this works out to a “wage” of $167.62/hr as a couple or $83.81/hr per person.

most of our booty--at least, all we could fit into a single photograph

• $5.00: camping backpack, Kelty + large ziplock bag of various nylon rope inside one pocket – this is the best camping backpack in the house, and Clint’s has been heled together by super-duct-tape-reinforced sewing for some time now, and has a broken strap (and it’s original body fell apart, the current one was cannibalized from a $3 camping backpack). It’s time for an upgrade, and this one is it. Very awesome! (EV:$65, based on some comps:1, 2, 3 (several))

comparable to this

• $4.00: skillet, *cast-iron*, 8″ x 1.75″ deep, slightly rusty but unlike the foodies I don’t see how that really makes much of a difference (EV:apparently only worth $8, which was the original estate sale price, now marked to half price. So basically, full price would have been worse then retail, due to the condition. In fact, I’ll bring this down to 6 for the condition it’s in.)

like this, but rusty

• $2.50: bowling ball, blue, sparkly, orange Scooby Doo, engraved with the name Nicole, with Scooby Doo bag, KPO4061, Brunswick (EV:bag alone is $13, cartoon network bowling balls in general are $100 … this exact ball out of stock here, so we’ll go with an INSANE total value of $112. I won’t take off for them being engraved; someone else’s name really makes the ball better, not worse, because you know some Dad got fancy balls and engraved him hoping to get his kids into bowling, but they weren’t interested and didn’t like it, so he had to sell them at a yard sale for $5. Any object that is a manifestation of disappointed parenting just makes us feel that much better for not having kids, haha.)
• $2.50: bowling ball, purple, Dexter’s Laboratory, engraved with the name Steven, with Cartoon Network Bowling Club bag (EV:$112, same as above)
• 

this. exactly.

• $2.00: Make Your Own Beer home brewing kit, Item#61078, makes 1 case (6 bottles included, ingredients to make 24 bottles of Pilsner,Amber Beer — so ultimately it will cost 8 cents a beer) (EV:$25)
• $2.00: Make Your Own Beer refill, Item#61060 (Australian Lager, European Dark, Irish Stout Beer) (makes 36 beers, so 6 cents a beer) (EV:guessing about $18)

this

• $2.00: shelf, wooden, Platform-Plus Deluxe Monitor Stand, stores 6 CD/DVDs, item jb3493 upc#017874134939 (EV:$35.50)

this

• $2.00: cake dome (glass/crystal bottom, metal cover) (for Tabbitha) (EV:about $10)

ours doesn't say 'cake' on it

• $1.50: napkins, cloth, mauve, set of 6 (EV:$5)

• $1.00: scanner, HP Scanjet 4470c, C9880A, S/N#CN1BEAB0B2 – let’s see if THIS one works (EV:$50 if it works, 10 otherwise for the power adapter) — This thing works, physically, and we’ve even gotten image previews on our computer. But getting a scanner to actually SUCCEED always seems to be such a friggin’ challenge!

• $1.00: quesadilla maker, Salton Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker, Model QM2SFRCB – the same one we regretted not buying for $5 at one yard sale, then later saw at another for $5, got, and we’re happy. Then we discovered the pain of waiting for the 2nd quesadilla when the other person’s quesadilla is ready. Obviously we need two. *Especially* for $1. (EV:$20, though some are trying to sell this for $50 or even $60)

yes, we needed TWO of these

• $1.00: towel racks, Donner porcelain collection 9399w 24″ towel bar, towel ring (hand towel rack), TP holder, robe hook, lot no. 215782 – too bad we broke the towel rack when trying to install it. The robe hook we actually put above the ceramic tile top in our unused 2nd shower that holds our camping gear, so that at least one backpack can be hung instead of thrown on the pile of gear. Don’t think well ever use the TP holder (EV:$8.47 for towel rack alone, so we’ll say 4 for towel ring, 6 for TP holder, 2 for robe hook, for a total EV of $20.47)

EV of $20.47, but we only used $5-$6 of that value for 1 of the 4 parts, other 3 are going to trash probably (we broke the towel rack part)

• $1.00: dish drying rack – awesome, it’s slightly larger than ours, with better silverware holders, plus it’s not broken and dirty! (EV:$10, though ours is better than this one) — Update: Turns out that this rack is so big our old rack fits inside of it. So now we have twice the place to put silverware, a tiny gap all around the inner/smaller one to put tupperware tops, plus the ability to, if we had a LOT of dishes, remove the inner/smaller/old rack from the inside of the outer/larger/new rack, and have 2 racks. but no real exact space taken up. I thought we’d be throwing away the old one after this, but no. Now they are in synergy with each other. I’m easily impressed.

comparable, but ours is better

• $1.00: Etch-A-Sketch Freestyle – wow, Etch-A-Sketch with a single joystick, not separate horizontal/vertical?! Weird. (EV:$15.40)

shit just got REAL

• $1.00: Scientific Explorer, Soda Pop Kit – make your own flavored soda, sounds fun to do once (original price tag:$22) (can be gotten for $10 though, but for some reason I like to use the price tag over internet low price if there is one, because generally the person I got it from paid that price… so I’m calling this $22 not $10)

i'm totally doing this one weekend

• $1.00: vacuum bags, HomeCare Hoover, type A (2 in an unopened package), No 3317 – the type Carolyn uses! Karma for someone finding THEIR vaccuum bag type on our “free stuff desk” :) (EV:$1.19)

• $1.00: jar, 74oz (2.15L), plastic, interlocking top, MainStays acrylic large canister #1409081 (EV:$5 based on it being 1 of 4 jars in a $20 kit)

I guess the previous owners didn't want the largest one, or maybe other yard salers bought the others. But large is best. Put one week's worth of chopped onions in one and not have to chop every day!

• $1.00: tie, silk, light blue/grey kinda 2-toned, Geoffrey Beene – too bad about the wrinkle, but dry cleaning/pressing it will be way cheaper than buying a new tie (EV:$10 – $4 for dry clean/press = $6)

like this, but light blue/grey

• $0.75: tobacco pipe, traditional — since Nicole lost mine :P (EV:$5)

like this, but with a square (instead of flat) mouthpiece

• $0.75: ladle, black plastic, pretty big, like 6oz (EV:$0.95)

like this but deeper instead of wider spoon part -- maybe not 6oz.. but definitely at least 3oz

• $0.50: sleeping mat, foam, camping, RidgeRest just like the 2 we already have!, but this is purple on 1 side & green on the other, for some reason (held together by 2 bungee cords) (EV:$19.27 + $0.20 for the bungee cords)

like this, but in cool colors

• $0.25: light bulb, red, pointy soft plastic tops all over (“holiday light”), Target item#5808 – we already use one of these! and it will break someday. And be replaced with this one. (original price: $4.00)
• $0.20: ice trays, white, (2 @ $0.10 each) (EV:$1)

gradually learning what makes an ice tray good, and what makes an ice tray bad (pictured tray is probably more on the bed side)

• $0.15: spatula, black plastic (EV:$1)

dramatization

• $0.10: wrapping paper, 50sq ft (orig price: $4.00)
• $0.10: The Beatles – Yellow Submarine metal box (originally a puzzle containing box) — I bet you could convert this to a lunch box and pass it off as one of these Beatles lunchboxes selling for $350 or even $1200… if you were a dick (EV:$15, though I can’t for sure say that link [which I forgot to save, to an ebay auction for $15] is the same thing as this)

• $FREE: screw-in light socket – lightsocket+2outlet adapter, no pull thing, thrown in with estate sale (EV:$1 but since the pull is broken we’ll say $0.50)

but with the pull ripped off :/

• $FREE: thumbtacks, about 100 (EV:$0.17)

Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings.

* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. For example, I estimate books at the cover value. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person).

2011 STATS SO FAR:
TOTAL EXPEDITIONS: 12
TOTAL TIME CLINT & CAROLYN: 27:33
TOTAL TIME CLINT ALONE:      1:15
TOTAL MILES DRIVEN: 313.3
TOTAL MONEY SPENT: $405.63
TOTAL ITEMS BOUGHT: 209-266 (depending on how you count them)
TOTAL ESTIMATED VALUE: $2,568.30
—————————–
TOTAL PROFIT: $2,162.67 (avg discount: 84%)
AVG HOURLY WAGE PER PERSON: $38.38/hr

Mood:hurty
Music: Moistboyz – Date Rape

• GAMES: BOARD GAMES: Puerto Rico: new buildings explanation
  Useful if you play the game Puerto Rico, with the new/extra building cards.
  (tags: games boardGames PuertoRico buildings new explanation reference list BrettSpielWelt)

• WAR ON TERROR: TORTURE: Welcome to Boston, Mr. Rumsfeld. You Are Under Arrest. | War Is A Crime .org
  Whether you're a Bush-voter who caused this to happen — or an Obama-supporter de facto supporting Obama's clampdown on whistleblowers (such as wikileaks) who release facts "they" dont' want "us" to know — The answer to stopping shit like this does not like in either of the 2 major political parties vying for global and domestic dominance.
  (tags: politics WarOnTerror war government torture AbuseOfAuthority BushAdministration AbuGhraib Guantanamo DonaldRumsfeld WarIsACrime news articles 7thCircuitCourtOfAppeals legal rulings beatings injuries deaths murders YourTaxDollarsAtWork)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Cop & ex-cop assault woman for stealing "their" table at restaurant – caught on video – Stephen Devotti is a fucking pig
  Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy Stephen Devotti is a fucking pig. Just watch the video. He pushes over a tiny woman for taking "his" table at a restaurant? 30 minutes later? What. A. Fucking. Piece. Of. Shit.

  This pig should be fired.

  And Robert Washburn Jr.? Can we say impersonating an officer? You're too much of a poser to even be a real pig!

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority PoliceBrutality off-duty police brutality FranchescaWhite table stolenTable assaults shoved pushed injured CaughtOnVideo RobertWashburnJr. RobertWashburn StephenDevotti pigs KOB.com news articles Arizona)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PLOT SUMMARY: Ace Ventura goes to Africa. The alternate title of the movie pretty much sums up the entire plot.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Raccoon-killing, car-destroying, Buddhist-annoying crazy man saves albino bat and foils rich assholes, yet still fails to win the hearts of violent savages.

PEOPLE: Jim Carrey (of course). Ian McNeice (From Hell). Smaller parts by Simon Callow, Bob Gunton (the warden in Shawshank Redemption, Greg The Bunny, 24), Sophie Okonedo (Sithandra in the live-action Aeon Flux movie), and Bruce Spence (who I instantly recognized as The Gyro Captain/Jebediah from Mad Max 2 and Mad Max 3, and who later played the mouth of Sauron in the Lord Of The Rings movies).

QUIRKS: Africa, Africa, Africa.

SOUNDTRACK: Did not notice that White Zombie was in the soundtrack…

MORALS: The rich suck.

BAD STUFF: It’s just not as funny as the first one.

CONCLUSION: Certainly an entertaining movie with a few laughs, but it definitely doesn’t live up to the original… And feels a bit dated as well.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 6/10. Generic pass. Really, I’d rate this 5.75/10 if I could.
Carolyn: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 6/10. She initially wanted to rate it 7/10, but said the 1st one was funny. Then I informed her she only rated the 1st one 6/10, so she downgraded.
The native public rating for this movie is Netflix: 3.4/5 stars (3.2/5 stars for people who rate like me), IMDB: 5.5/10.

RECOMMENDATION: If you saw Ace Ventura 1 and want more… Here’s more. It’s not as good. But that’s true for most sequels.

SIMILAR MOVIES: We will NOT be attempting to watch Ace Ventura Jr. (2009).

MOVIE QUOTE: Ace: “Yes, [I ascertained that you are] a workaholic: The urine stain on your pants would signify that you’re a single shake man, far too busy for a follow up jiggle.”

Ace: “If you were me, then I’d be you, and I’d use *your* body to get to the top. You can’t stop me no matter who you are!”

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Benj liked it.
(more…)

• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Officer Kenneth Thomas seemingly roughs disabled black woman up for sitting on a chair
  She got an injury, an arrest, and a disorderly conduct charge — for daring to sit on a chair. In America, if you want to sit on a fucking chair, you better to do in the privacy of your own home.

  Isn't it amazing how the journalism community shares the victim's name in the article, but not the taxpayer-funded cop's name? It's Kenneth Thomas. They linked to a PDF with his name, but deliberately didn't put it in the article. How's that for bias, WSBTV?

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority disabled PoliceBrutality brutality bullshit charges disorderlyConduct arrests IceCreamMan Atlanta ShequitaWalker WSBTV news articles KennethThomas)
• THIN BLUE LINE: If a cop rapes you, expect him to serve only 1 year, at home, without registering as a sex offender
  Bryan Benson is a scumbag pig. Amazing that there are comments in here saying that it was the victim's fault, despite the fact that she was under arrest at the time. What the fuck is wrong with people?

  Imagine if "cop" had been substituted with "black man" and the victim had been substituted with a white woman — This would be death row material then.

  His Dad is a cop – how much you want to bet he had DaddyPiggy pull some strings? How much you want to bet Benson's perceived attitude that he can just take what he wants is based on growing up with a Pig as a father?

  (tags: politics UnderlyHarshPunishments PoliceBrutality brutality police AbuseOfAuthority ThinBlueLine WillNotHaveToRegisterAsASexOffender sexOffenders sex rape rapes rapists pleaded noContest AssaultByAPublicOfficer SolicitingALewdAct Redding news articles womens'rights prisoners prisoners'Rights loopholes)

Clint was about to go up on the ladder today to do hours of work repairing our gutters, and the first sale we went to was this guy (who left to get his first beer–this was proably 11:20AM) who had all these tools, and was moving.

I’d ask him about something, and he’d alternate between enthusiastically showing me how to use the tool (like how to use a rivet gun, which is actually pretty damn easy), and getting seemingly annoyed and angry that I didn’t already know this stuff. At one point he stops, mid-demonstration, asks me if I went to college, then asked me if I *paid* for the college (I told him nope, though I should have said that I paid for the 5th year haha), then when he finds out I didn’t, just goes off in a tirade and leaves.

But then he comes back and starts to show me stuff again when I’m looking at other stuff. And then get all annoyed that he has better things to do. And George! Go home! You can’t just hang out and ride your bike around this yard all day! Go on, George! Get!
But anyway, it was cool that this guy had some useful tools. I didn’t end up using any of the gutter-specific tools, or the rivet gun… But I am now constantly looking for things that need to be riveted. :)

Got up around 10:30AM, made it out driving by 11:11AM, and went out until 2:15 (minus 40 minutes for Taco Bell lunch) for a total of
2 hours, 23 minutes. Definite extra time driving back to Ravensworth and making a 2nd attempt at the free shelves on the curb that didn’t fit into our car earlier. Definitely worth it, too — these free shelves kick ass.

Spent $26 plus ~$6.79 gas for 25.5 miles of driving (14.3 mpg @ $3.81/G), for a total cost of $32.79. We bought 10 items  – 16 if you count each shelf/bin separately – for a total estimated value of $264, leading to a profit of $231.21. To earn that much after taxes you’d really have to earn $378; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration. Anyway, this works out to a “wage” of $97.01/hr as a couple or $45.51/hr per person.

• $8.00: scissors, “best scissors in the universe” (Malco M12 Andy 3-Inch Cut Capacity 12-Inch Aluminum Handled Snip), large LARGE handle, shorter blades, multiple attachment points (like a full tang sword), blades fully reinforced by frame, high-torque, can cut through metal and such, but in the form of scissors, not snips (EV:$27) – I dub thee The Best Scissors In The Universe! And have already used them to cut through hard-to-cut large plastic gutter drain tubing.

• $5.00: ladder, wood, ~6ft (EV:$43) – after our window-sill painting project, the value of a 2nd, smaller ladder was very much realized, thanks to Matthew’s ladder that he loaned us. But we’ve since given Matthew his ladder back, and shall now never need to borrow one in that situation again.

cept ours is dark, and has personality and obvious use

• $5.00: bins (4) (huge), stacking, blue, 16.5″x14″x7  (EV:looks like these so we’ll say $80, though that seems really high so I’ll knock it to $60) – amazing, these hold my camera box AND 2 jugs of water, with room to spare, really freeing up some table space

4 of these

here's 2 of them in use... holding 4 water jugs, a bunch of cameras, and assorted other junk...yes, i put the bins in an existing basket. Tetris rules.

• $3.00: rivet gun (EV:$6) + boxes of rivets w/about 50 rivets in it (EV:$1.60) – may use this during gutter repair

• $2.00: compound-action snips (aka aviation snips), left-cutting (green) (EV:$4) – not as good as the best scissors in the universe, but possibly better for smaller, harder snipping
• $2.00: compound-action snips (aka aviation snips), right-cutting (yellow) (EV:$4)

• $1.00: bins (small), stacking (3), 6″x5.5″x5.75″  (very approximately like these, so EV=$6) – already stacked these on our main coffee table for our eating-related stuff, level 1=taco bell sauces, 2=napkins/plastic spoons, 3=mustard/pepper/Sriracha

RIP, hotlinked picture

• $0.00: ice scraper, mid-sized (thrown in for free with $15 of tools above) (EV:$5) – if that Bonneville ever gets running again, I may just need 2 ice scrapers, one for each car

• $0.00: crimping tool, for gutters (thrown in for free with $15 of tools above) (EV:$27) – why not? I was planning on working on gutters today! [didn’t end up using them]

• $0.00: screen replacement wheel / spline rolling stool (thrown in for free with $15 of tools above) (EV:$2.40) – dunno if I’ll use this

looks like a double-ended dil^H^H^Hpizza cutter

• $FREE: shelves, book, black (2, on a curb) (36″x28″x12″) (EV:Mahogany shelves this size run $115 new, but this is probably particleboard, and is not new, so we’ll say $40 each=$80) – now situated in our utility room. It’s gonna suck taking my tools off the wall where I hung them there, but it’s a better use of the limited space we have in that room. Plus the 2nd shelf is under the breaker box, where there was previously never any storage ever ever ever. Yay more storage! My toolboxes aren’t on the floor anymore!

but black, cheap, and without the skirt

Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings.

* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. For example, I estimate books at the cover value. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person). (more…)

• MAPS: BatchGeo
  Not quite a traveling salesman solver, but this will put multiple addresses onto a google map. You can paste a column from a spreadsheet (what I did) into it and just go! Pretty handy for fuzzy navigation — I'm using this for a community yard sale tomorrow. Now I won't miss any of the 14 sales.
  (tags: maps multiple addresses GoogleMaps BatchGEO TravelingSalesman CommunityYardSale)

• MUSIC: Ween (Caesar [Quebec] Demos 2001-2003)
  in case you Ween fans missed it – lotsa new ween demos released, including many never before heard songs. This is business as usual (tons of songs not on albums) for Ween (and also the Moistboyz side-project)…. However, it's been 4 years since their last studio release — which is the longest intra-album gap in their career. Hopefully they're not going to stop writing new stuff…
  (tags: media audio music bands Ween demos CaesarDemos Caesar Quebec Bittorrent releases Funkit.Virose.net articles)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Man With Down Syndrome in Clash With Cops
  Cops beat the shit out of a 130lb Down Syndrome kid so bad they ripped his colostomy bag off…. because he had a bulge in his pants (it was the bag).
  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority PoliceBrutality brutality police beatings Miami-Dade DownSyndrome colostomyBag bulge GilbertoPowell witnesses mentallydisabled bodySlammed injuries NBC NBCMiami news articles)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PLOT SUMMARY: An engaged man realizes he doesn’t have any male friends, and goes on a series of “man dates” to try to find a Best Man for his wedding.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Men use each other.

PEOPLE: The main 3 characters are Paul Rudd (Year One, Role Models, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Walk Hard:The Dewey Cox Story, Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Anchorman, Wet Hot American Summer, Clueless), Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, Slackers, SLC Punk!, Can’t Hardly Wait), and Rashida Jones (Jim’s girlfriend when he worked outside of Scranton The Office, Boston Public).

Minor roles by Sarah Burns, Jaime Pressly (Horton Hears A Who!, Not Anther Teen Movie, Can’t Hardly Wait, My Name Is Earl), Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Daredevil, Swingers, Batman Forever, Four Christmases), Jane Curtin (Saturday Night Live, Dr. Mary Albright from 3rd Rock From The Sun, Coneheads), J.K. Simmons (Jennifer’s Body, Juno, J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies, The Ladykillers), Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live), Thomas Lennon (The State, Ned Gold in 17 Again, Hancock, Memento), and Joe Lo Truglio (The State, Role Models, Pineapple Express, Fanboys, Superbad, Wet Hot American Summer).

QUIRKS: Social awkwardness. This is a bromantic comedy.

Also: The cleverest fart joke in cinematic history. I had to rewind because Carolyn wouldn’t stop laughing.

I did not catch the fact that the impatient golfer is the exact same person and outfit from the “Ass Pennies” skit in Upright Citizens Brigade (an ultimately un-funny show with a few shining moments).

MORALS: Even platonic male-male relationships can follow a lot of the pitfalls and formulas of romantic male-female relationships.

BAD STUFF: This is basically a romantic comedy in disguise as a bromantic comedy. Also: Ugliest wedding dress ever.

CONCLUSION: Take a romantic comedy, turn it into a movie about 2 guys instead of a guy and a girl, and you have one fine bromantic comedy worth watching. This movie is filled with hilarious awkwardness. It is formulaic and unique at the same time, because this formula is usually not applied to two dudes. I’m torn between rating this 4 or 5 stars.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4.5/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. Very torn as to whether I should rate this 5/5 stars, but for now have rated it 4 stars on Netflix.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. “It was hilarious!  I liked it a lot, and I almost loved it.”
The native public rating for this movie is Netflix: 3.7/5 stars (4.0/5 stars for people who rate like me), IMDB: 7.4/10.

RECOMMENDATION: It’s better than most romantic comedies because of the male-male awkwardness that doesn’t exist with typical male-female relationships. Thus, this is a [b]romantic comedy that WORKS. See it!

MOVIE QUOTE: Oswald Klaven: Also, you got to understand, Zooey, Peter matured sexually at a very early age. I remember taking him swimming when he was twelve-years-old, kid had a bush like a forty-year-old Serbian.

Sydney Fife: This is the man cave, there’s no women allowed in here. I got a jerk-off station for God’s sake.

Peter Klaven: Why does everything I do sound like a leprechaun?

COINCIDENCES: (Terminator Salvation, I Love You Man) 2 movies in a week that starred actors who played other actors (Schwarzeneggar, Louis Ferrigno) in the movie See Arnold Run.

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Ian & Glen really liked it. Metinee & Benj liked it. (more…)

• Gaza children's images of war censored under pressure from US Israel lobby | The Electronic Intifada
  Yes — the Israel lobby is so strong that they affect what goes on in Children's Museums in Oakland California. Palestine WISHES it had PR Gurus with this much power.
  (tags: politics Israel Palestine religion Judaism Islam Jews Muslims Arabs Gaza GazaStrip WestBank Oakland children'sMuseum children museums lobby censorship WarOnGaza MuseumOfChildren'sArt AChild'sViewOfGaza SanFranciscoChronicle ElectronicIntifada news articles art)
• FREEDOM OF SPEECH: UK Man Jailed 18 Weeks For Being a Jerk On the Internet
  The people who want to shut up Westboro Baptist Church (and the KKK) are the same people who want a world like this – a world where you CAN'T actually say whatever you want if it hurts someone's feelings.

  If you don't want trolling on your dead person's tribute page, set up comment moderation. That's life. Deal with it. Don't be a pussy and whine to your government that your feelings were hurt. Government is not here to protect your fucking feelings.

  As someone points out, 'It's similar to the Muhammad cartoons: Somebody makes fun about a dead guy, offending people who care deeply about that guy. So if those cartoons are considered Free Speech the same should apply here. Even more so because here we hurt maybe a few dozen people, with Muhammad it was many millions."

  The amazing thing here is that the majority of otherwise-reasonable people will argue that this is a good thing. This is one of those emotional issues that turns most people fascist.

• GAMES: VIDEO GAMES: Atari 7800: Cuttle Cart 2 – every game ever in 1 cartridge
  godDAMNIT if i'd known this was out i would have bought it then! This is just like their ATari-controller-to-USB-adapter: Sold out before I ever hear about it :/

  This lets you put every Atari 2600/7800 game + manual onto an MMC card (only 32M is necessary, and most of that is for the 7800 games) and put that into this "cartridge", which, much like HDLoader for the PS2, gives you a menu of all your games, letting you pick which one you want to play.

  Without having to find a cartridge.

  I still have my 7800. I typically hook up 2600s so as not to wear the 7800 out, but goddamn, if I had one of these it would be hooked up this weekend.

  (tags: AtariAge hardware CuttleCart CuttleCart2 Atari Atari7800 Atari2600 cartridge cartridges homebrew MMC games videoGames HDLoader WANT)

• WAR ON DRUGS: MO College Demands Students Undergo Drug Tests
  Congratulations! First-of-a-kind assholes!
  (tags: politics WarOnDrugs drugs freedom government students college first drugTesting StopTheDrugWar DRCNet news articles ACLU LSTC LinnStateTechnicalCollege Missouri lame students'rights privacy YourTaxDollarsATWork PoliceState)

Got up around 9:45AM or so, made it out driving by 10:22AM, and went out until 1:05PM (minus ~25 minutes for a Burger King stop), for a total of 2 hours, 18 minutes.

Spent $15.70 plus $8.01 gas for 29.8 miles of driving (13.8 mpg @ 3.71$/G), for a total cost of $23.71.

We bought 6 items – 12 if you count each wrapping paper roll separately — for a total estimated value of $137.92, leading to a profit of $114.21. To earn that much after taxes you’d really have to earn $163; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration.

Anyway, this works out to a “wage” of $49.66/hr as a couple or $24.83/hr per person.

this. exact. guitar.

• $10.00: guitar, acoustic, Stella H929 1959 (produced 1945-1970, mine manufactured in 6/1960) [I have 7 guitars now!] … (EV:very hard to say, but it’s not in great condition, this auction has it around $25, but someone sold for $182.50 here!. Mine is dingy, and has cracked wood around the port, so I’d probably put this at more like $30) http://harmony.demont.net/guitars/H929/239.htm# http://harmony.demont.net/images/0/H929_Stella_1959_01.jpg http://scottymoore.net/images/eguitars/movieguitars/jhr/7875-4.jpg [Elvis played an older model of this in Jailhouse Rock]
• $5.00: cutting board, wood, very large, 17.5″x13″x1.5″, hand-made, duck & reeds design etched/burned on it – we haven’t had a cutting board since Thu Tran of Food Party autographed ours (EV:$40, because every 17×13 cutting board I find is like $45-$90 new! I’m being conservative!)

It's huge, and fills an entire drawer under our counter. Which is where we keep it! Retractable cutting board!

• $3.00: costume: vampire cape (priced $7.99)
• $1.00: shelf, 24″x11″x11.5″ (EV:$16 — I added $2 for the fact it was painted black by the owner)

also functions as an earthquake detector! 5.8 will knock over some gargoyles ;)

these types of shelves are great space-savers and knick-knack-holders

• $1.00: flip-flops, black, skull & crossbones with valentine eyes (EV:$5)
• $0.70: wrapping paper, MerryBrite, 7 12.5 sq ft rolls ($0.10/ea). (Priced $1.99 * 7 roles = $13.93)
• $0.00: stool step (2 steps), with build-in drawer, SpongeBob “Party Vault”, 13.5″x11.5″x14.5″ (wooden 2-step stools in general cost about $25, I’ll let the SpongeBob add the same value that it being beat up and damaged subtracts, and call it $25)

Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings.

* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. For example, I estimate books at the cover value. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person). (more…)

• Don't be so quick to forgive!
  Word. Forgiveness empowers wrongdoers. You gotta wonder how much the abstract force of forgiveness has allowed people to get away with wrongdoings. I know I've been asked to "just get along" with people who I don't want to forgive.
  (tags: forgiveness emotions WND.com articles LauraSchlessinger Dr.Laura Dr.LauraSchlessinger)
• CARTOONS/TV SHOWS: Big Ass TV Watching Roundup «
  John The Canadien's reviews of the shows we watched together Saturday night.
  (tags: personal friends reviews media video TV shows JohnTheCanadien blog posts cartoons MulhollandDrive OffTheAir NTSF:SD:SUV TheProblemSolverz PFFR AdultSwim CartoonNetwork HBO ComedyCentral AdventureTime Futurama Thundercarts hangingout)

• 911: Military officials ignored Cheney’s 9/11 shoot-down order | The Raw Story
  Looks like the 911 Truthers were dead right about Cheney ordering the planes shot down. It simply turns out that the military ignored his order because they accepted him as outside the chain of command. But this was the type of thing snubbed as "conspiracy theory" 10 years ago.

  But of course — a lot of the information is still being kept secret. Even info that the 911 commission itself wants released. If you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding it? Yay Obama's promise of transparency!

  (tags: 911 DickCheney military planes orders media audio recordings RutersLawReview RawStory news articles government shoot shootDown ordered 911TruthersWereRight)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] I’m so glad I waited long enough to see this in 720p HD. For reference, even though this is a series of 3 episodes, we watched it as 1 45-minute video, so we are considering this a “short movie”.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Failed super-villian kills one true love.

PEOPLE: Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, etc). Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, Harold & Kumar). Nathan Fillon (Firefly). Felicia Day.

QUIRKS: A super-villain parody in the vein of The Tick or The Venture Bros.… But as a musical. (WTF?!?)

VISUALS: Done with all the dramatic visual flair one would expect from a super-villain musical!

SOUNDTRACK: For a musical, it wasn’t half-bad. The songs could have been annoying — like most musicals — but they weren’t. There was enough humor interjected to keep them interesting, and they were short enough to not be overbearing.

WEIRDNESS: After seeing Felicia Day in the credits — and thinking she was really cute in this — I remembered w00tpwnage’s flickr had a “vs” that involved Felicia Day. So searched for w00tpwnage in flickr. It gave me ONE result, which was THAT image. Out of all the 100s of “vs” images on w00tpwnage’s account, it showed the Felicia Day one. And ONLY that one. Why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I did NOT type her name in. It was just in my head. I didn’t even comment on that picture originally, so I’m not sure why it came up. Eithe rway — I checked the image out again:

The first thing I noticed was that there is a comment by a user named Felicia Day. It turns out to be the real actress’s real flickr account. Whoa! How often do I watch something and then randomly stumble onto a star’s flickr account? It turns out she has a twitter, a blog, and everything. She’s really cool.

CONCLUSION: Quite an entertaining 45 minutes. Superhero parody is one of my favorite things, and doing it as a non-annoying musical? Genius.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 8.4/10. I agree with Carolyn’s rating, but then came back and upgraded to 5/5 stars. As far as musicals go, this is top tier.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
The native public rating for this movie is Netflix: 4.5/5 stars (4.6/5 stars for people who rate like me), IMDB: 9/10. Wow. People really went apeshit over this.

RECOMMENDATION: Even if you hate musicals, you might like this. It’s not your average musical! If you liked Repo! The Genetic Opera, you might like this.

MOVIE QUOTE: Captain Hammer: “The hammer is my penis.”

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Mom & Dad & Eli & Ian & Scott S & Benj loved it. Dad liked it. A lot of people talked about this when it came out…
(more…)

• WAR ON DRUGS: Woman has to pay $1k for forced cavity search based on informant hearsay
  "Land of the free"? A criminal can make up a lie about you, and then YOU will have to pay over $1000 to have YOUR OWN body orifices raped and searched for drugs. Land of the free my ass.

  Hearsay should not represent probable cause to rape a citizen.

  And innocent citizens most certainly should not be required to foot the bills for their own sexual assaults at the hands of the government.

  (tags: politics WarOnDrugs drugs AbuseOfAuthority 4thAmendment FourthAmendment Constitutionalrights rights sexualAssault cavitySearches searches MikeAlba MemorialMedicalCenter billed $1000 war government freedom heroin MetroNarcoticsAgency NewMexico LasCruces informants hearsay Rt.com news articles bullshit)

• MUSIC: Atari Teenage Riot: Review of "Is This Hyperreal?"
  A good song by song review talking about the issues explored in the tracks of Atari Teenage Riot's new album. They're coming to the 9:30 club in just a few days. Check this album out — it's a change, but it's still ATR.
  (tags: media audio music bands AtariTeenageRiot albums IsThisHyperreal? reviews songs politics TechnologyWar technology internet TheQuietus)