So, you get a new house and you can’t just keep your old RCA, speaker-kit-in-a-box system. So I decide to venture out and try to put together my own set. I searched around for a while and finally stumbled upon a Pioneer 5.1 speaker kit (I’d link that but it’s not on the site anymore) on Overstock. It got to the house relatively quickly and I had it all unboxed on Saturday. Turns out, speakers don’t do much without a receiver though, so it was time to shop. I had considered a Yamaha at Best Buy, but the store didn’t have it in stock and I didn’t want to wait for it to arrive via UPS ground. I wound up going with a Pioneer 7.1 x 100 watts/channel receiver which has 3 digital audio inputs and component video switching abilities (no HDMI at this price range) for $200 at an RC Willey Outlet store (the service was great, maybe we should have used these guys for carpeting). It had to come down from Salt Lake, so I didn’t get it until that evening, but that’s OK.

The beast took me a while to set up, mostly from inexperience and from being unsure how some pre-existing wiring in our house worked (someone had already done some wiring for surround sound, though it turns out it was just the left channel, *sigh*). But, finally, all the speakers were working and it was totally worth it. A-mazing. Seriously. The sub that came with the kit is much larger than the one I’m used to and the whole room vibrates comfortably as a result. So anyway, here are the totals (post shipped and taxed):

Speaker kit from Amazon: $84
Receiver from RC Willey: $212
Being able to understand the dialogue from Casino Royale: Priceless

Goes to show you can get a good system at a good price, but you have to put some elbow grease into the search. I’ll be able to hear the Wiggles like never before.

So Tracy here at work is getting married in one week. In honor, I queued up “One Week” by BNL. Postelwait informed me that Bare Naked Ladies are not cool. I wasn’t so sure, so I contested that they were pretty cool. He challenged me at a ping pong match to decide for sure… and I lost. So, sorry guys. I’m sure you still have tons of fans, but you are officially not cool.

As if my Carpenter’s song wasn’t irritating enough, I done went and made myself a whole new level of irritating ringtones. I now have one that plays the beginning of “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” by Leslie Gore (as featured in the Simpson’s clip below). However, it replaces the word “lollipops” with a clip of the wonderful Michael Caine saying “The Prestige.” Does life get any better?

Download the Ringtone for Yourself!

So I was reading an article the other day about a woman who is suing her abortion doctor for not correctly performing the abortion. The baby was born, and she is suing under “wrongful birth” for the costs of raising the child and it made me think, how can I make the most amount of money fastest?
And then it hit me!
Which is why I am now suing my parents for creating me, and giving birth to me… I never gave them my permission, so they should be paying for me for the rest of my life
-end quote-

So I was at a local business & tech expo at a nearby college for a Utah SEO company I work with on the side and… let me tell you. Those bring out some odd individuals. Among those, of course, were guys that were primarily there to hit on the ‘booth babes’ (lots of companies hire attractive women to draw people into their displays, particularly in the bigger shows). Well, it turns out that we have a couple of legitimate employees who also happen to be quite attractive females. Naturally, they were hit on a few times. Here’s the best we got:

One guy approaches Jen to say “so are you guys a modeling agency?” Wow.

Another guy got Katya’s card and feigned interest in her love of the trucking industry. He saw her later on in the show to say “you really represent your company well.” And then proceeded to ask her out.

OK, I know people write humorous emails, websites, and even books of cheesy pickup lines, but I didn’t know people actually used them!

So there are some benefits of having friends who can trace their lineage back to their primate ancestors. For example, when it came time to paint some hard-to-reach corners in the entryway of our new house, we had our hands tied. Luckily, Jimmy, our half-human-drum-machine, half-monkey, friend came to the rescue. In the pictures below, you’ll notice he’s got his legs wrapped around some railing about 12 feet off the ground. That’s a pretty hard fall if he slips, FYI. So anyway, Jimmy, we thank you (one thing to note about half-monkey friends is that you should always show gratitude for what they do or they’ll start flinging their own feces at your window at 3 AM . . . we need to find another monkey friend to help clean that one up.)

This is one of the homestar-esque flash-animated recurring cartoon series out there. It takes a couple episodes to get into it, but it is pretty entertaining. The series started back in 2003, so it takes a while to catch up on the whole thing, unlike Amy’s Diary. However, if you’re kinda bored, it’s definitely worth looking into.

Check it out.

Making Fiends

A song called “I love this bar.” That’s why. I really was almost ready to give it a shot again. Then I borrowed my cousin’s car for a quick trip to Target. She had the radio set to a local country station. I was OK with it on the way up (playing “Mr. Mom” which I’ve already heard too many times, though I never listen to country).

I got my root beer float bars successfully and exited the store. Then came the drive home. A song comes on which I can only assume is called “I love this bar.” It is the very reason I simply don’t do the country thing. How can I? I mean, lyrics like “we got all kinds of lookers, sometimes hookers” and “I like my girlfriend… but I love this bar.”

Nota Bene - I recognize that there is a lot of “non-I-love-this-bar” Country music and I even like some Rascal Flatts and Lonestar songs, but they need a new genre. Non-redneck country or something. Just think of something.

The Oscars ceremony is merely an Ideological State Apparatus because when you boil it down it is just the people in charge of movies acknowledging their own accomplishments and saying to the nation:
“Movies are important because we give awards for the best movies.”
Thus, the system of Hollywood has created a means of making the public believe that movies should be seen solely on the basis that awards are given to the best films, actors, and actresses.

It would be like me saying, I’m the best looking guy in the world because I said so and I’m validated in saying that because I’m the best looking guy in the world.
-the end-

“My english 316 teacher could tell that most of the class was not paying attention to her, and that we were bored with reviewing the material
so she decided to dismiss the class several minutes early.
I called out ‘Way to read your audience, Breanne!’”