Cartman Sings “Poker Face”

This week’s episode of South Park had a moment here some of the characters were playing Rock Band, with Cartman doing the vocals for Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.  It was so entertaining that I tracked down a full version of the song.  You can download the mp3 from this Rapishare link, or  try downloading the file directly from here (this second link will probably be slower).

Best West Pet Foods Scams Its Customers

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s shopkeepers scamming their customers.

Yesterday I stopped by a local Best West Pet Foods store to pick up some rabbit food.  They had about three or four different kinds/sizes, so I compared them all for price and quality, then picked a 10 lb bag of Kaytee Forti-Diet ProHealth rabbit food.

The price on the shelf under the bags of food said it was $13.99, but when I got the stuff rung up at the counter, the total was over $20 after taxes.  That didn’t sound right, so I asked the cashier to double check the price, and she responded that the price was $17.99.  I told her I thought the tag on the shelf said $13.99, so I went back to check.  Sure enough, the shelf said it was the lesser of the two prices.

As it happened, another employee — who looked like she might be the manager, so that’s what I’ll call her from now on — came around and the cashier explained the issue.  The first thing she said was that the sticker on the bag was the correct price.  I hadn’t noticed any price tag sticker on the bag, but after some searching, I managed to find it, and it did have the higher price.

I went with the manager to check out the shelf tag again.  She took it out, look at it, looked at the bags on the shelf, then told me the tag was for a different brand. I pointed out the product code says “KT”, which I guessed could mean “Kaytee” brand.  She explicitly said no, it was a different brand.  Then I posted out the “FD” could mean “Forti-Diet”, and “PH” could mean ProHealth.  She consistenly refused to admit the tag was for the very bag of rabbit food I picked up as she looked back and forth between the tag and the bag.

After a bit, I insisted that this was the tag for the very item I was buying, but she denied it again.   After she decided she had investigated enough, she put the tag with the incorrect price back on the shelf under the items she insisted were a higher price!  I told her not to do that because the price was wrong.  She replied that it was probably for something that was out of stock at the moment.  The shelves were all completely full and it was clear that nothing was out of stock.

I mumbled “[t]hen I guess I know never to shop here again” just loud enough for her to hear as the left to return to the back room, then returned to the cashier in disgust at her behavior.  Upon reaching the cashier counter, I noticed that the bag of food I had picked had been pierced and taped over with clear tape.  I asked the cashier if it was okay to grab another bag instead and she said “yes”.  Seizing the opportunity, I also liberated the errant shelf tag as well so as to prevent any future customers from being tricked into buying higher priced food.

Incorrect shelf tags on items in stores really pisses me off.  But what really makes me angry is shopkeepers actively condoning the practice.  It’s not always easy to catch this sort of thing when you are buying multiple items.

Jay and Silent Bob

About two years ago I came across director Kevin Smith’s recount of his friend, Jason Mewes’, struggle with drug addiction.  It was a very interesting read.  For a time, these blog posts appeared to have been taken down (presumably because the content appeared in a recent book by Mr. Smith), but I recently tried searching for them again and they were available.

So, if you’re a fan of Jay & Silent Bob, or are interested in reading a heart-wrenching story of a young man fighting his demons, here are all nine parts of the story from Kevin Smith’s blog, My Boring Ass Life:

• Me and My Shadow – Part 1
• Me and My Shadow – Part 2
• Me and My Shadow – Part 3
• Me and My Shadow – Part 4
• Me and My Shadow – Part 5
• Me and My Shadow – Part 6
• Me and My Shadow – Part 7
• Me and My Shadow – Part 8
• Me and My Shadow – Part 9 (Conclusion)

DVD Ripping Made Simple

I read a comment somewhere today that made mention of a video encoder called Handbrake.  Curious, I decided to try it out on one of my Twilight Zone DVDs since my player conked out (again, *sigh*).

I also had to install another program called DVD43 in order to get Handbrake to read copy-restricted DVDs, but with those two programs together, making backups of DVD videos is a breeze!  With the default settings I was able to rip an episode off of my DVD in torrent-ready quality.

The ease-of-use and noob-friendliness of Handbrake prompts me to give the program (along with DVD43) five pirated DVDs out of five:

V

A remake of the 80s TV mini-series/show V is coming to ABC — likely in November.  The pilot episode was screened at this year’s San Diego Comic Con (read a review here).  Also, VisitorSite.net has lost of information and pictures, if you’re hungry for more.  Last, but not least, there’s the promo video.

The promo looks great, and there are some good casting choices.  This one could very well be a winner.  Hopefully the writers have an overall story arc planned out so that the show doesn’t end up dragging on and on if it gets popular.

Tron: Legacy

A high def trailer is out for the upcoming Tron: Legacy movie (formerly known as Tr2n and Tron 2).  This is the same trailer that was shown at the 2008 Sandiego Comic Con, and a poor quality bootleg of it has been floating around the web since then, but now the same trailer is available in crisp 1080p quality.  There are also some photos and concept art available now.  Oh man, does this movie ever look sweet!

My Lego Collection

I finally got around to going through manuals of all the Lego sets I own and recorded them onto brickset.com.  The link to my collection list is on my new Lego Collection page.

As of today, I have approximately 200 sets, over 32,000 pieces, and over 420 minifigs (not counting other pieces and minifigs I’ve purchased via eBay or from sets which I may have lost the instructions for).

Furry Bunny!

I gave my bunny Marty a good brushing tonight.  I am astounded at how much fur came out of him:

In fact, there was so much fur I was able to create a second rabbit:

I don’t think Marty was as impressed as I was.  Maybe he was intimidated because the new fur-rabbit was bigger than him:

And I could have easily brushed more out of him!  What’s worse is that I just gave him a good brushing two months ago.  I wish he really wouldn’t grow so much fur. :-\

General Veers, Prepare Your Men!

The Lego AT-AT I ordered from Lego.com came in the mail today!

The coolest ground assault vehicle ever to be put to film, the AT-AT Lego model weighs in at over eleven hundred pieces!  It’s gonna take me some time to put this bad boy together.  And I finally got a snowtrooper mini-fig!  Sweet.

Interestingly enough, this model comes with a motor and battery pack.  The model is actually supposed to be able to walk!  I can’t wait to check that out.

The Lego company also gave me a free golden mini-fig from ordering this set directly from them (the AT-AT Lego model is not available in stores):

Not too shabby.

Man, I thought I was done collecting Lego a few years back, but, nooooo, they had to come out with the Space Police series this year, which sucked me back in.  Damn you, Space Police!!!

A Challenge to Website Hackers

I am proposing a challenge to all website hackers out there: create a program to automate the registration of phone numbers into the Canadian National Do Not Call List.  I’m sure there must be someone out there with the OCR programming skills to get around the relatively simple captcha on the registration screen:

Sadly, even with my phone number on the list I still get at least one unsolicited phone call per day.  There really should be a way for victims of telemarketers, newspapers, survey companies, and political parties to charge said entities for unwanted, unsolicited calls.  If only people cared about happiness and well-being rather than money.  Still, at least the token effort of this list is something.

So, if you have the skills, why not use them for good instead of evil?  Get every valid phone number entered into the Canadian National Do Not Call List.