Claire's blog

The nerve of these fucking 80-year-old drivers. They back into your car at a gas station, and then refuse to give you their information!

That’s not how the system works, buddy!

It’s nice when the police can actually do something for you! This is the 2nd accident in a row where a whitehead refused to give me his information.  The entitled Baby Boomer generation seems to think that if you are younger than them, that they get to make up their own rules for governance of society. The rate of people giving me information after a car accident is now 100% for those under 50 yrs of age, and 0% for those over 50 yrs of age.  

I’ve now had 7 accidents: 4 while driving [1 of which was my fault: age 16], 2 where I was parked and someone hit me, and 1 where someone else was driving a car of mine.  So since age 17, I’ve had to deal with 6 accidents in 21 years. None my fault. One every 3.5 yrs on average.

Yea, I’m tired of it. In the mid-1990s, someone backed into my Pontiac 6000STE. I let them go without getting their information. Turned out I had internal damage. My horn stopped working. I failed inspection. I had to pay $100+ to get it repaired.  That was when I vowed that I would call the police for ANY accident, even one that seems to have 0 damage. But you know what? I wasn’t going to go through with my vow. It was such a small bump, that I decided I would just trade insurance information with them. I would then file a claim if something came up. These people would have nothing of it!

I wasn’t even in the car. I saw it move and looked over just in time to see their car kinda bouncing away from mine, and seeing both cars bounce in opposite directions (probably only a few inches). I also felt like I saw my front bumper bump back into proper shape, but it happened so quickly. . So I knocked on the window… and then the resistance began. Between then and me calling 911 was probably 3 minutes.

I said something along the lines of: “You just hit my car. I don’t think there’s any damage, but I’d like to get your information in case there turns out to be some damage.”  // “But there’s no damage! Look!” // “Yes, I know. I agree there’s probably no damage. But I’ve been in this exact situation before, and was screwed because I didn’t get the information. So I want the information. And the law is: You have to give it to me.”

They were well-dressed, in a nice car, newer than mine.

He told me he wasn’t going to give me his information because there was no damage. I told him that’s not how the law works. He refused again. He started to get into his car. I quickly ran in grabbed a pen (usually have one in my car, wtf!) and wrote his plate number on my hand, in case they dashed off.

I went back out and told him one more time: Give me your information, or I’ll call the police. If you leave, you will be guilty of hit and run. Still unfazed, the man refused once more to give me his information. I went into the gas station and called 911. The poor gas station had long lines and most definitely lost business due to us blocking 2 pumps for 40 minutes.

So stubborn.

At one point the guy tried to tell me that a car was coming toward him. So you’re saying you reversed into me on purpose in response to another car? Or are you just lying and making up an excuse? C’mon now. Don’t make yourself look stupider.

The cop came, was moderately easy to deal with, and dealt with me first (probably because I was waving my arms around signaling him), then them.

He made them give the information they were legally required to give. That is, after he found the driver. His wife was in the passenger seat, but the driver left. Maybe he just went to the bathroom, but I don’t know. The guy basically left his wife to deal with the cop. Not cool, dude. I heard the cop lecture him that you can’t leave the scene of a crime. Haha. He got lectured by the cop and I didn’t. Haha.

He also told me he was putting on the report that there was no visible damage. Fair enough! I agree with that! I mentioned the car-horn scenario and he made me check my car horn. It worked. Good for him for making me do that, erasing all doubt.

I almost couldn’t find my proof-of-insurance, and was going to be kicking myself if I got another ticket after my recent $150 and $500 redlight/parking tickets (parked where parking attendant told me to park: got $500 ticket: Baltimore court date forthcoming). Fortunately I found it. That would have sucked.

Watching him deal with the old people was funny. They resisted and resisted. He kept explaining and explaining. It’s not a ticket, it’s just an exchange of information. The elderly man — born in 1930, age 82 — wrote very, very poorly. He did not make an effort to write legibly. The cop made him (both of us actually) get out our ID/insurance to double-check that things were filled out properly.

Anyway, the guy wrote his license plate down so poorly that the cop had to over-write it, but he wrote it wrong, changing a 9 into a 0. GOOD THING I WROTE THE LICENSE PLATE NUMBER ON MY HAND EARLIER, or I’d have an inaccurate report. At least they double check now when they didn’t in the 90’s, but this doesn’t mean there’s any less burden to double-check the information yourself. Remember that.

Even then, they tried to leave fields blank! The officer had to tell them repeatedly that they had to put their phone number on it. They resisted, citing that I would start harassing them. Old people and their fucking fear of technology. My grandparents (RIP) would not get on the internet because they believed if you posted one thing one person didn’t like, they could make your life miserable. I’d be dead by now if there was any truth to that. (Indeed, the only death threats I received via persona phone call in response to my online activities were back in the BBS days before the internet.)

So now I have the guy’s full information (born in 1930!), insurance company, policy #, birthday, address. More info than I would have gotten if he’d just cooperated with my initial, civil request.

So you know what? I called his insurance company and reported it. If he had just given me his information, I wouldn’t have done this. But because he made us all wait there 30-40 minutes to deal with this, I am now driven by SPITE.

USAA too. So he’s probably a veteran who feels that because he served in the military, he somehow has greater rights than the rest of us. That might explain his entitled attitude. I’m admittedly prejudiced against ex-military due to multiple ex-military murderers fucking up my social life with their senseless violence, including murdering Dirk and attacking my friends.

So yeah, I called USAA and filed a claim. They have a process for my situation: I am now scheduled for a 15 minute inspection at a local body shop, to make sure there’s no “internal damage” (insurance term). I am going to pick up taco bell first, because car inspections while eating tacos are better than car inspections without tacos. Basically: (x + taco) > x.

I don’t think they’ll find anything. But now there’s a blip on his insurance record. I did mention that to them. “Now that you’ve made me call the police, there will be a report, your insurance company will know about it, and your insurance will go up.” I wanted to let Mr.Oldboy know that he was stabbing himself in the foot.

This all segues into a recent conversation I had with my dad about old drivers.  He had a misconception that old drivers were better drivers, but then I brought a bunch of government statistics in. Elderly drivers have less fatalities because they drive fewer miles. Per-mile, when you get up to the age of 80, you’re actually worse than a teenager.  The difference being that a lot of teenager accidents are when they are purposely driving shittily and taking risks, while with the old people, they should know better and have a lifetime of experience, are not risktaking, and STILL crash at the same rate. That’s far worse in my book.

If this guy’s handwriting is any indication, he should not be eligible to pass the vision test to get his license.

And yes, I’ve bumped people that hard, and had them not report me. And I was thankful. Some would say this makes me a hypocrite. But I disagree. I’m me. I have my own set of experiences and rules that are different from others. It has been demonstrated to me that it is a mistake not to exchange information. That is a lesson I took to heart. That is not everybody’s lesson. If someone wants to let me off in a situation that I wouldn’t — let them. They are free to not assert their rights as much as I do. We all live our lives different ways.

That one accident that was really my fault, at age 16? The guy was a reverend driving his purple limo. I was a 16 year old kid with ripped jeans driving my parents’ shitty station wagon. He didn’t report the damage. Does this mean I owe someone else an equal let-off? Not to me, it doesn’t. But I did give someone the let-off in the 1990s, and it came back to bite me. At this point, nobody’s ever getting let-off again. Ever. You ding my car, I get your information. I may not call, BUT I GET YOUR INFORMATION. And if you don’t like it, I’m calling the police. And it doesn’t matter if you are elderly, black, white, young, old, in a suit, in ripped jeans — you’re going to be treated equally by me. Information. Police. 100% of the time.

(more…)

MUSIC: Ween breaks up – Stereogum

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

But can’t say I didn’t see this coming – it’s been longer since a proper Ween release than at any point in their 25 year career.

I’m glad I got to see them live 7 times (10 of you count Gene Ween band and Gene Ween solo shows).

It looks like of my 3 favorite bands even (The Misfits, Atari Teenage Riot, Ween) — there is still 1 left: Atari Teenage Riot who recently reformed. (No, the new Misfits don’t count.)

This is the saddest music news since the death of Type O Negative singer Peter Steele.

LINK URL: http://stereogum.com/1045982/ween-break-up/news/

• CARTOONS: Researchers strive to understand brony culture

  best headline ever!

  also, “bronyologist” is not a word. hahahah

  tags: media video TV shows cartoons MyLittlePony MyLittlePony:FriendshipIsMagic bronies brony research researchers science scientists sociology DailyDot news articles

  • After getting over his initial shock,
  • tattoo
  • tattoo
  • no because I have to keep my objectivity
  • the Fox people even mentioned drug use
  • bronyologists.

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: John Carter (2012)

  Clint/Carolyn: 5/5 stars, 9/10. Clint is considering upgrading to 10/10.
  Native ratings: 3.8/5 stars (Netflix’s better guess for us=4.3), 6.9/10. 

  Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs books, this movie entered development in 1931, and was almost the first animated movie in America. But things got held up for (puts pinky to corner of mouth) ***79 YEARS***. It finally left development-hell in 2010, and they’re already working on a sequel.

  I’m glad once the studios finally move (a literal lifetime later), that they are rushing to do as many of these as possible.

  BECAUSE THIS WAS EXCELLENT!!!!!!

  Would have been nice to see in 3-D, but completely unnecessary. It is a great story, and a long movie that properly fleshes out characters and plots. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but simply: Science fiction done right, with an epic story and an epic budget. I’m still trying to figure out if I should really be rating this movie 10/10, because there’s not really any flaw.

  (BTW, You may recognize the main couple in this movie as Gambit and Silverfox from X-Men Origins.)

  tags: media video movies reviews JohnCarter JohnCarterOfMars sci-fi 2012 Clint Carolyn IMDb Mars EdgarRiceBurroughs

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

  Clint/Carolyn: 8/10.
  Clint: 5/5 stars, Carolyn: 4/5 stars.
  Native ratings: 3.5/5 Netflix (guess for us=3.4), 6.2/10 IMDB.

  What a delightful sequel to Jumanji! And nobody knows about this, because they didn’t call it Jumanji 2! However, it’s basically the exact same movie, but with SPACE instead of JUNGLE. It’s not as dark as Jumanji; a little more lighthearted. But the EXACT SAME FORMULA. This is truly a sequel.

   All the Kristen Stewart haters have really missed out on a gem of exploitable screenshots from this movie: Stewart is LITERALLY frozen during a lot of the movie. These could be memes, if someone would just screenshot and capture them.

  Directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf).
  With Dax Sheppart from Without A Paddle, and Tim Robbins as the dad.
  And oh, the younger brother in this movie was the kid in the recent Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) movie, and the older brother was in Journey To The Center Of The Earth (2008) as well as Peeta in The Hunger Games (2012), and Bridge To Terabithia (2007).

  tags: media video movies sequels Zathura ASpaceAdventure Zathura:ASpaceAdventure Jumanji Jumanji2 IMDB Clint Carolyn reviews

• VIDEO: Epic – Slinky on a Treadmill

  The music, especially, makes this video! I can’t think of a video that’s made me this happy in awhile.

  tags: media video reality toys slinky treadmills YouTube comedy epic

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

SUMMARY:

Got up around 8:10AM, ate breakfast at home for once, and made it out driving by 8:43AM, out yard saleing until 2:25PM.

There was a 20 minute Burger King break when our route took us right by it, so the total yard saleing time was 5 hours, 22 minutes!!!! Damn that’s a long time! 3hr 15min driving; 2hr 7min shopping.

Spent $59.20 plus ~$17.95 gas for 56.3 miles of driving (12.2 mpg @ $3.89/G), for a total cost of $77.15.

We bought 52 items – 99 if you count separate hooks/pillows/gift bags – for a total estimated value of $680.69, leading to a profit/savings of $603.54.

So in essence, we multiplied our $77.15 investment by 8.82X. (We have to earn $663 on the job to get $603 in cash!)

Anyway, this works out to a *post-tax* “wage” of $112.46/hr as a couple or $56.23/hrper person. That’s about as high as we can ever get on the “wage scale”!

COMMENTARY:

What a weekend!

We pre-planned via CraigsList and DrivingRoutePlanner, with an extra Freecycle pickup stop thrown in (and that was probably the least profitable leg of the trip, as it was a mistake). The thing is, of the 9 pre-planned stops we had, several of them were FULL COMMUNITY sales that had their own maps.

Twice we had to get a community map, trace out a path, and visit ~10 sales just to get to the next item on our itinery. Plus there were at least 2-3 “bonus sales” not on our route, including one that turned out to be 5 houses having a sale at once.

This was a LONG LONG LONG expedition. Not the most miles we’ve driven at once — we’ve broken 70 — but close.

It was near the beginning that we felt this woman was hitting on me at her own yard sale in front of her husband and my wife. First she comments on my Misfits shirt. Second, I try to round $9.50 to $10 and she says pay $8 — why the random discount? Then she asks where we live. Then we commented on some tech thing, and she was like, “oh, i need a techie to come and show me all my stuff”… yea… i’ll show you all your stuff all right. ;) Then asks me/us to come back later. Plus she’s blonde, even tho she’s in her 50s {wink wink}. But more than all that was the vibe of actually experiencing it. Carolyn agrees. It was weird. We circled her address on the map haha. Very odd. Something similar happened once about 10 years ago, but the attention seemed to be on both of us then, not just me.

No cars broke down this week! Yay! First time in 3 expeditions that we haven’t had to get towed!

What sucked was that there were so many yard sales that we could not get to them all during prime time. In the morning, the selections are great, and the prices good. In the afternoon, the selections are way worse, but the prices are way better. We’ve even swung back to the same yard sale twice to re-make an offer that was accepted the 2nd time but refused the 1st time. By noon, a lot of people are just giving things away for free, becuase they are hot and want to go back inside, but don’t want to lug their stuff back in. This is great if you have use for things nobody else wants, but if you are picky, you really want to get there early.

Half the sales we went to, we could not even get to until 1PM. So we were denied some selection. But we were supplied some cheap prices – a lot of our stuff was FREE: The Best Price.

THE BOOTY:

• $10.00: digital picture frame, 8.25″ screen (6.5×5), 800×600, HP, serial#K01010055570, model#df840a1-16 (EV:$45 for recertified,but 70 if new, and this is brand new. The list price is 80, but I’ll count it as 70 since that’s what I could find it for. Some are trying to sell this for $100. Buyer beware!) – of course, we did have to buy a 16G USB drive to fit our 16,000+ pictures on (even after shrinking them all to 800×600, they were 5G). But i don’t count that in the cost for this item, becuase when the frame eventually brakes, we’ll still have a kickass 16G USB/thumbdrive – big enough to bring 8-gig movies to friends’ houses without having to spend 25 cents + 35 minutes burning a dvd-r :)

• $6.00: hooks (7), HIGH-END ceiling hooks, swivel, Dr. Iler, white (6@$1/ea+1 free), 122415 (EV:7*5.79/ea=$40.53) – I’ve totally spent $18-$24 buying 3-4 of these hooks in the past! I broke one, and it was such a mental blow to lose $6 over it. I even called their 1-800 number to get help with installing it. It’s a weird hook. But now that I have 7 of these for the price of 1, I think my hook needs will never be so worrysome again.

• $5.00: VCR, Mitsubishi HS-U51 (hard to estimate a value for this. people are trying to sell BROKEN ones on Ebay for $52 for parts — good luck with that, it’s not going to work. New VCRs are more expensive than they should be. Used VCRs are posted for $20, but no clue if they’re selling for that. And that’s if they work. This isn’t tested as working. We’ll just call it worth what we paid for it: $5.) – Ever since the TV-out died on our downstairs computer, along with the X-Box harddrive — the downstairs 36″ tv doesn’t do much. Playstation, and that’s it. It sure would be nice to have SOMEthing hooked up to it that can play video. Like… a VCR.  Some of our old $5-yardsale VCRs and inherited VCRs finally broke. The only 2 that are still working well are the ones me & Carolyn bought full-price brand-new in the 1990s. So at this point, I get VCRs if they are $5. Automatically. Note to self: Lower to $4 for future purchases.

• $5.00: chair, camping, DOUBLE, blue (EV:$33.52, but ours is without cupholders, so we’ll say $25) – a bit heavy for our usual camping spot, as it’s twice as heavy as a normal chair, and neither of us want to bear that burden. But for drive-car-up-to-site camping, this is the best camping chair we’ve ever owned.

• $5.00: shelves, modular, metal, black (EV:$32.98) – perfect. I’d cover every wall in the house with these, if I could afford it. We have ours in a horizontal tower to the ceiling, with one 2-square-high spot for our blacklight lamp. Good stuff.

Here they are once they were assembled.

• $4.00: pan, Thomas Rosenthal Group, M262S3 skillet with lid, new with manual, diameter 11″, deepness 3.5″ ($40) – Probably the best pan in the house now! Plus: Brand new! Oven safe, even.

• $3.00: pillows, Pier 1 Imports, red w/gold ribbon (EV:$40 based on most of their fancy pillows being $20 each) – christmas present

• $3.00: game, Rummikub, new in shrink-wrap (EV:$14.95) – another present, since we already own this

• $3.00: throw, electric, 59×51″, Sunbeam, E23623 (EV:$20.00) – no such thing as too many electric blankets: We already have an electric throw AND a king-size 2-outlet-taking electric blanket. At $3/each, I’d buy 10 more if I could. Just because.
• $2.00: table/shelf, white, cube, 16x16x16″ (EV:$24.99) – stuck this under our new cat tree! This reclaims some of the space the cat tree stole, PLUS the cats’ top-level perch is now high enough that they can touch the ceiling. Life tetris win.

• $2.00: power strip, 6 plugs, SnapIt2, 15A 125V (EV:$8) – can’t believe I finally used all of mine! I wasn’t sure if we needed this: The guy was selling like 10. But we bought it because his yard sale was SOOOO far off the beaten path that I didn’t want the gas to be a total waste.

• $2.00: book, I Am Ozzy, 2009 ($26.99 Borders price) – I’d never pay $27 for this, and I’d probably never read it on a PDA either. But in the bathroom? Sure. I wonder how many poops will this take.

• $2.00: bags (gift bags), HUGE MY LITTLE PONY GIFT BAG full of other gift bags: 27 total various plus some misc gift card holders, wrapping paper, adhesive notes, gift box, tissue paper, magnets, bows, which brings total to 39 (most had prices:we calculated the average price of those that did, extrapolating out a total price of $124.02) – This last christmas in particular, relatives took presents home instead of opening them, so we didn’t get to reclaim as many gift bags. It’s always my goal to use gift bags instead of wrapping paper. We’re set for next christmas!

• $1.00: towel, beach, sunset palm trees, Sherry Mfg. (EV:$8.50: cheapest beach towel of similar size on Amazon) – to replace Carolyn’s other beach towel that was washed into the ocean ;)
• $1.00: game, Jumanji (EV:$16.99) – we JUST watched the movie this week! My first time! 5/5 stars for me! I did not know this exists, but what were the odds of running into it right after watching the movie?

• $1.00: game, Cranium Turbo Edition (EV:$12.00 used) – after finding out some versions of Cranium sell for $90 on Ebay, I always snatch cheap Cranium variants

• $1.00: container, plastic, 3.4L/3.6qt, ClickClack 2030, pinchable-lid-sealing-device for extra freshness – now the largest sealable container in the house! JAR WIN! (EV:$15)

• $0.50: ball, Powerpuff Girls, MMondo, ~4″, barcode#81033051719 (EV:It’s a rubber ball! Can’t be that much! But it’s also licensed. So we’ll go with $3.) – can never get enough licensed cartoon junk ;)

• $0.50: basket, wicker, w/lid, 15x10x12″ picnic basket (EV:$30! WTF! I got to about here before I even got to wicker baskets with lids. Who is paying that for these?!?!?!? Even on Amazon… Same thing. Get up to baskets that have lids and we’re in $30 territory!) – was maybe going to use this for Carolyn’s shoes and such, tho lately it’s just been a mini-dirty-clothes-hamper / caddy for large objects between floors
• $0.50: game, Cranium Cadoo For Kids (EV:$6.99)

• $0.50: toy, plush, Mario Brothers, Wario, BD&A, 6″ (EV:$20, though ours has red coveralls and brown shoes) – It’s a you a-Wario!

• $0.50: mask, skull, silver & black (EV:$6.90 similar to this one, but ours has 10 smaller horns) – too evil to pass up!

• $0.10: action figure, G.I. Joe, Cobra, 4″, bendable (EV:really old, could be G1 even, but the joints are so loose it can’t stand up, so: $0.50)

• $0.10: action figure, X-Men, Wolverine, McDonald’s 2010, 4″, extendable claws, turnable head, worst Wolverine figure ever though (EV:$2 because $2.50 auctions are running out with no bidders.)

• $0.10: action figure, Batgirl, 3.5″, twistable waist, bendable arms, blue gloves/boots/cape (already have one of these) (EV:$1 cause I’ve found this twice so it can’t be that rare)

• $0.10: action figure, Batman, JLA edition, 4″, twistable waist, bendable arms (EV:$7 on Ebay, tho you can get it new in the box for $10 at Newegg?!?! WTF?)
• $0.10: action figure, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow, 3.25″ (EV:$2 random estimate, there are so many PotC figures out there, and I can’t find this one)

• $0.10: action figure, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Appa, 6″x2.5″, mystery button probably means other parts missing – NOT the $30 Deluxe one (EV:$2 random estimate)

• $0.10: action figure/toy, screaming ghost with purple troll hair and light-up eyes, 4.5″ (EV:$3) – this thing is horrifying, like a troll doll and a horrible scream wrapped up together

• $FREE: scanner, Acer, model#6687-01A, manufactured 4/1998 with external parallel port card for newer computers (EV:$2 – i used to count old scanners as $5, but after buying 2 or 3 and having them not work, I’m downgrading the value of old scanners to $2!)
• $FREE: monitor, viewable area 16″, KDS [Freecycle item that we drove almost 10 extra miles for, only to find out 19″ was the monitor dimension, not the viewable area dimension! DOH!] (EV:CRT monitors are scarecely being manufactured nowadays, but when they were, they were all over $100. But I have paid $10 for a monitor SOOOO many times at yard sales, that I will just call this $10)
• $FREE: movies: VHS: The Breakfast Club, Poltergeist, Gremlins (EV:$1.50 + $1.25 $0.25 = $3.00)

• $FREE: Kaz inhalant steam medication (for bedroom vapomist vaporizer that Carolyn uses, which is a $30-40 vaporizer/humidifier we got for $2 at another sale years ago), 6oz, with 1tsp Kaiser-Permanente plastic dropper (EV:$5.61) – Carolyn has made her own vapor solution using camphor oil and such, but it’s nice to get some pre-made for FREE

• $FREE: planets & stars, glow-in-the-dark, Zany Brainy 7955500092 (EV:$2) – for our blacklights/ceilings!

• $FREE: lighter, pipe, Nimrod Pipeliter (EV:$9.99) – no fluid, unfortunately

• $FREE: bucket, 22lb, Brill White Drizzle Icing (EV:$2) – can never have too many buckets, I’ve been discovering
• $FREE: book, Toy Story: The Essential Guide ($14.95 cover price) – future Sagan gift?

• $FREE: duster, Static Charged Poly Duster, yellow (EV:$4.98) – free cat toy is what we we’re thinking

• $FREE: lanyard, lionambassadors.com (EV:$0.59) – free camera-strap is what we’re thinking

• $FREE: containers (2), plastic, rectangular, 5.375×4.625×3.875″, white, used to hold cheese says one of the lables (EV:$0.10)  – ALL THESE FREE CONTAINERS were JUST what we’re looking for after ordering 50 lbs of diatomaceous earth and not realizing it was A WHOLE CRATE FULL. I filled up every one of these containers, every one of our spaghetti jars from the last 1.5 yrs of cooking spaghetti, a popcorn tin (metal cylinder) from a previous yardsale … and STILL haven’t managed to package all my diatomaceous earth! But at least we have a good start.
• $FREE: container, plastic, circular, Ziploc, Twist ‘N’ Loc 32oz, ~3.875×6″, clear (EV:$2.13 because that is a pack of 2)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, rectangular, 7×4.875×7″, house-themed, roof-shaped protruding lid ($4.00 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, rectangular, 3.5×3.5×2.75″, blue (EV:$0.50)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 9.8×1.9″, Christmas poinsetta/candle-themed (store price tag ruined, but probably $3.00 judging by others from this lot)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 7.125×3.375″, Rainforest Crunch Chocolate Chip & Brazil Nut Cookies ($2.50 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 7×2.65″, African Elephant-themed ($2.50 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 6.5×3.125″, fleur-de-lis-ish-themed (EV:$1)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 5.25×1.875″ ($0.50 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 8.5×1.5″, red top, white-red stripes sides, Swiss Colony Nut Shop ($1.20 price tag, EV:$0, because it was bent and unusable)

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…)

CARTOONS: Researchers strive to understand brony culture

best headline ever!

LINK URL: http://www.dailydot.com/society/bronies-brony-my-little-pony-study/

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PLOT SUMMARY: Dictator’s son goes to college, without realizing how evil his dad is.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Dictator’s blood money pays for college kids to party.

PEOPLE: Savage Steve Holland made this movie?! We ***loved*** the Eek! The Cat cartoon, and liked his movies How I Got Into College, One Crazy Summer, and of course his best-known classic Better Off Dead…! (“Where’s my two dollars?!?!?!?!?”) He didn’t write this like he wrote all the others, though. He just directed it. Glad to see him doing something for adults again.

Starring Efren Ramirez as Ratko (Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, Kaylo from Crank 1, Venus from Crank 2:High Voltage, DJ from the movie Gamer), and Katrina Bowden (Ms. Tasty from Sex Drive, Cerie from 30 Rock) as the girl.

With Curtis Armstrong as a foreign bodyguard (Revenge Of The Nerds, Moonlighting, American Dad, Pucked, Van Wilder 1, American Pie:The Book Of Love); Jeffrey Ballard as Ratko’s roommate (he had bit parts in John Tucker Must Die and Mission To Mars).

And Adam West as Ratko’s dictator father! He’s always hilarious.

The 2 wives that showed up midway in the movie were very small plot points. However, we concluded that Ildiko Ferenczi was definitely hotter than Lucia Oskerova. I guess Hollywood agrees, since Ildiko has had several eye candy roles – 3 different minor characters in Smallville, Bride #3 in Stan Helsing, Goat Mans Girl in Reefer Madness:The Musical, and latex girl in a deleted scene from The Lost Boys 2 (haha).

They also cast 3 porn stars (including Lucious Lopez) as the sexy mexican maids at the hotel.

QUIRKS: A college comedy-romance. A bit better than your average National Lampoon college movie.

Lots of comedic devices that are the same as Borat: Talking about your weird country and its weird traditions. Being clueless about American social situations. In a sense, this is a “rip off” — not to imply that “make fun of foreigners” is a unique concept pioneered by Borat.

The “you’re so skanky” / “do you think Mario’s dick grows when he gets the mushroom?” scene between the 3 girls was a 5-star scene if I’ve ever seen one.

At first, there didn’t seem to be a very cohesive plot. For instance, they have multiple scenes with characters who don’t relate at all to the rest of the movie (which reminds me of American Pie 6, if I recall correctly). But then the plot eventually rears its head. Really, this movie is a framework for jokes. And there were indeed some howling-out-loud moment sof laughter — which was all I wanted!!!

SOUNDTRACK: Lots of Spanish songs. Even though Ratko is from Europe. This movie purposely makes no sense at times :)

MORALS: Dictator’s sons don’t always realize the sins of their fathers.

POLITICS: Dictator-funded blood money isn’t so bad when you’re spending it on booze and partying :)

BAD STUFF: Using an obviously Hispanic character (Pedro!) with an exaggerated South American accent is a bit weird, when his fictitious country of Handjobia is in Europe. But since it was a fictitious country — like Elbonia from Dilbert — I will allow a mixture of accents and appearances that wouldn’t make sense in the *real* world.

There’s also one scene in particular that is so poorly edited that I had to play it three times just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. It made no visual sense. But it was just a dialog scene, so we’ll just chalk that up to sloppy directing. But I’d expect more from Savage Steve Holland, after so many decades of directing.

CONCLUSION: A bit funnier than your average modern-day National Lampoon college movie. This was a bit like Borat meets Coming To America. Glad to see Savage Steve Holland working on something for adults again.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10.
The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 4.2/10 (ouch!), Netflix: 3.0/5 stars (This was based on *ONE* rating. Never seen that before! Guess it will be 3.5 now.).

RECOMMENDATION: It’s better than the summary makes it sound. Not a great movie, but I think it’s still worth seeing. Especially if you already have a long track record of seeing National Lampoon movies.

SIMILAR MOVIES: Borat. Coming To America. National Lampoon college movies.
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VIDEO: Epic – Slinky on a Treadmill

The music, especially, makes this video! I can’t think of a video that’s made me this happy in awhile.

LINK URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=711bZ_pLusQ

• FREEDOM: Police Preemptively Raid Apartment & Arrest Activists Ahead of NATO Summit

  USA likes to espouse itself as being the freest country in the world, defender of life and liberty.

  Yet people are pre-emptively arrested for wanting to exercise their first amendment rights, 25% of all prisoners on planet earth are in our jail system, we have the highest imprisonment rate, and have killed tons of civilians in our various oil wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya).

  America’s dead. Perhaps a better use of everyone’s energy is to figure out how to get the fuck out of America, because our “freedom” is mostly based on economics, not principles of actual liberty.

  Fuck Chicago Police (for the 10,000th time).

  But fuck america for allowing this to happen, and fuck americans for voting in leaders like Bush and Obama who only decrease total freedom, and for having no backbone to fight this bullshit.

  tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority government Freedom police pre-emptive raids MinorityReport Chicago ChicagoPoliceDepartment Illinois NATO summits warrantless Constitutionalrights rights 1stAmendment FirstAmendment FreedomOfAssembly protesters

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Hostel 3 aka Hostel: Part III (2011) (direct to video)

  5/5 stars, 8/10 from Clint.
  3/5 stars, 7/10 from Carolyn.
  Major disparity here.

  Native rating: 4.7/10 (vs 5.8,5.4 for first 2 movies), 3.1/5 stars (vs 3.2,3.2).
  Netflix guessed 3.9/5 for us. Considering I rated the first 2 Hostel movies 5/5 stars, Netflix really should know better.

  I thought this was one of the more sinister Hostel movies. The major spoiler of the movie is WAY more evil than anything that was done in the first two Hostel movies.

  I actually think the franchise has been improving with each release, which is contrary to most popular opinion and common sense.

  Hostel 2 > Hostel 1, because after seeing the 1, watching 2 is an exercise in extreme paranoia. But after going that route, Hostel 3 is more of an experience in “living large” and making the franchise more grandiouse, with the hell on earth no longer in a 3rd world eastern European country, but in Las Fucking Vegas.

  This is also the most unique of the 3 films (due to large similarities between Hostel 1 and Hostel 2).

  I am glad that in the IMDB comments I found other people who liked this better than Hostel 1 & 2. It is probably the opinion of a 10% minority, but I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks 3 > 2 > 1.

  FREAK ALERT! John Hensley, the fucking idiot son from Nip/Tuck, plays a handicapped person here. Interesting to see him again, if only to be reminded of how much I hated his character on Nip/Tuck. He also has a kind of weird look to him, which lends itself well to playing someone with a physical malady.

  tags: video movies reviews Hostel Hostel3 sequels horror IMDB Clint Carolyn

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Jumanji (1995)

  8/10 from both of us. 4/5 stars from Carolyn, 5/5 stars from Clint. Carolyn had seenthis before, but Clint had not. Carolyn enjoyed it as much (if not more) as the first time she saw it.

  Native rating: 6.5/10, 3.6/5 (Netflix incorrectly guesse3d 3.1/5 for us, thinking we’d like this worse than average. WRONG!)

   We are both very much into board games, fantasy, imagination, and darkness, and this movie had it all, so it spoke to us.  I really thought it would be more of a “kiddie” movie, but there were actually a lot of dark, fucked up moments. Homicidal gun maniacs and animals that try to kill children? Nightmare insects? Holy fuck. WAS. NOT. EXPECTING.

  I was enthralled. Carolyn adds: “It was more enjoyable watching it with you because you liked it so much.  hehehehe”

  Another weird thing: Seeing Kirsten Dunst so young. Too bad she was TOO young, if you catch my drift. But that was made up for with Bebe Neuwirth (Lillith from Cheers/Frasier). SHE IS HOT AS SHIT. Plus this was 15 years ago. Too bad this is a movie about her kids and not her, or we could have stared at her longer. But I digress.

  This was way better than I expected. I’d been putting off watching this movie for almost a year (17 years, if you want to get pedantic), but apparently I should have watched it much sooner!

  tags: media video movies Jumanji 1995 reviews Clint Carolyn KirstenDunst BebeNeuwirth RobinWilliams

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows (2011)

  MMmmmm, Sherlock Holmes sequel! Yay!

   4/5 stars, 8/10 from both of us (whereas the first movie only got 7.6 from Carolyn).

  Native rating: 7.5/10, 4.1/5 (guess for us=4.2), so for once we’re in line with most people.

  NOOMI RAPACE! THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO! She is in this movie, in an English-speaking role!

  This was actually better than the first Sherlock Holmes movie, but only slightly. I reread what Carolyn said to me about the last one, and she said her attention had faltered some during the first one, and that didn’t happen with the 2nd movie.

  And that is why this movie gets a slightly higher rating (8.0 vs 7.6).

  tags: media video movies reviews SherlockHolmes SherlockHolmes2 sequels AGameOfShadows Clint Carolyn RobertDowneyJr. JudeLaw NoomiRapace

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Event 16 (2006)

  New Zealand low-budget time travel movie not available on Netflix.

   Got a 3.6/10 on IMDB, but Clint gave it 6/10 and Carolyn gave it 7/10.
  We both rated it only 3 stars, but then later Clint changed it to 2.8/3 stars after seeing its rating in comparison to other 3/5 star movies and realizing this is a worse movie.

  The effects were super-cheesy — like someone just did it all on their computer. And the story was confusing. David Lynch-level confusing by the end, with characters actually being other characters. And since  it wasn’t directed well enough, I didn’t even understand which characters were becoming which other characters. It was just hard to follow. And the New Zealand accents sounded really bad.

  But the story was still kind of interesting, and we are such huge time travel fans that we sought out and found this movie despite its rarity and low rating.

  It was still enjoyable.

  Just not really GOOD.

  tags: media video movies reviews Event16 NewZealand TimeTravel IMDB

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

FREEDOM: Police Preemptively Raid Apartment & Arrest Activists Ahead of NATO Summit

USA likes to espouse itself as being the freest country in the world, defender of life and liberty.

Yet people are pre-emptively arrested for wanting to exercise their first amendment rights, 25% of all prisoners on planet earth are in our jail system, we have the highest imprisonment rate, and have killed tons of civilians in our various oil wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya).

America’s dead. Perhaps a better use of everyone’s energy is to figure out how to get the fuck out of America, because our “freedom” is mostly based on economics, not principles of actual liberty.

Fuck Chicago Police (for the 10,000th time).

But fuck america for allowing this to happen, and fuck americans for voting in leaders like Bush and Obama who only decrease total freedom, and for having no backbone to fight this bullshit.

LINK URL: http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/05/17/police-preemptively-raid-apartment-arrest-activists-ahead-of-nato-summit