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I like movies. I love movies, but in my own peculiar way. I only go to see the movies with big stars in them. I go to the theater only if the movie had a considerable budget to spend on the special effects. Otherwise I wait until it's out on DVD, most of the time i don't even watch the movie I wanted to watch(For example Michael Clayton, No Country For Old man are still waiting somewhere, and there's a whole bunch of them I don't even remember of wanting to see). Of course, I have my rating for the movie and about 90% of them I skip based solely on the previews and ads available. I bestow myself with a superpower of knowing when the movie is going to suck just by the description of it and a two-minute preview available. Ninety-five percent of the time I am not wrong. But here is the problem. Am I lacking understanding of why a movie is appreciated? Some of the higher acclaimed ones: 1. Adaption - comedy? Boring, couldn't watch the 20 minutes of it. 2. Sideways - com

After much deliberation and wondering (I can't believe i spend so much time on it, never before I had to spend so much time thinking about what computer to get) I have decided to build a computer myself, again. I've looked at prebuild desktops by Dell and HP, i've looked at laptops, and I realized that they don't really give you enough of value for the amount you pay. Sure, a lot of them look nice, and would be OK for the things I do, but I was never sure if it was enough. Here are some of the thigns I need in a computer. Good processing power - I play an occasional video-game and do a lot of graphic, 3D, and movie editing. Quietness - I tend to leave the computer on for days, for downloads or renderings. Small size - I am trying to take as little space now as possible. While most of the desktops provided prebuild offer decent power and good RAM sizes the video cards in them SUCK!!! Big time. For the laptops the same, plus for leaving the computer on and connecting it t

Happy Birthday little one! I hope that your sunny disposition and ability to make friends instantly never goes away! She was a bit confused yesterday about when her birthday is, exactly. Is it today, or after she sleeps, or at night, or after her party which is a week and a half away. Fun 15 minutes it was yesterday, when we layed that heavy information on her.

I am going to shamelessly steal my brothers (at least until he copyrights it) topic title and post some of the music clips I have always enjoyed. This little number was sung by a russian group Agata Kristi(Agatha Christie) , formed by borthers Samoylov, and it always instilled a sense of nostalgia in me. I have never, of course been, to Siberia or Tundra or Taiga , but something about this song almost makes me want to go there. The video-clip itself involves the cast for an extremely popular Soviet music-comedy "Ivan Vasil'evich Menyaet Professiyu" (Ivan Vasil'evich's new Job) in their old age, and the clips from that movie. I think that some of them have already passed on. Enjoy.

There is a meme I came accross on Jason's website . The link gives you an option to see the number-one songs on your date of birth. Here is my list. THE 2000s 2008 ... "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain 2007 ... "Irreplaceable" by Beyoncé 2006 ... "Don't Forget About Us" by Mariah Carey 2005 ... "Let Me Love You" by Mario 2004 ... "Hey Ya!" by OutKast 2003 ... "Lose Yourself" by Eminem 2002 ... "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback 2001 ... "Independent Women Part I" by Destiny's Child 2000 ... "Smooth" by Santana featuring Rob Thomas THE 1990s 1999 ... "I'm Your Angel" by R. Kelly & Celine Dion 1998 ... "Something About the Way You Look Tonight/ Candle in the Wind 1997" by Elton John 1997 ... "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton 1996 ... "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men 1995 ... "On Bended Knee" by Boyz II Men 1994

Yesterday I've purchased a laptop after a long deliberation about the computer I need. Today, after even longer deliberation, I realized that I don't need a laptop. I have decided to return the one I purchased. The store(store A) that I purchased it from is located at a location not very convenient for my daily drive. I called to the store(store B) that is closer to me. Much to my surprize they have an "older" system, and can not process the return. I called A asking them, "What The Hell?" They tell me that B should not have a problem. Called B they said they can't do a full refund only store credit. I call A again asking, "WHAT THE HELL!" Couple more times back and forth, A told me that they will talk to B themselves and figure it out. Here comes the Karma part. My plans for the evening suddenly turned out, that I will make it to the A for a return. I think I'll send my wife :)

Thanks to Ilyuha for this test. Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test... NBPS - The Idealist Nature, Background, Big Picture, and Shape You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on the hidden treasures of life (the background) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the shapes around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to ponder ideas and imagine the many possibilities of your life without worrying about the details or specifics. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You prefer a structured environment within which to live and you like things to be predictable. The Perception Personality Types: Take The Perception Personality Image Test at H ello Q uizzy This could be me, always thinking about possibilities. Specifics-schme

Looking for the GPS system for my mother-in-law. She is technologically challenged to the highest degree. Trying either the same Magellan Maestro 4000 that I have or Garmin Nuvi 360. When looking for firmware update for mine unit found the following update. > Coffee moved to top of POI list --- LOVE IT!!! Why man never get depressed (something send to me by my wife) These are the excerpts i like Men know stuff about tanks! Yes I do, and I am very happy about it. Man can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. Man can wear NO shirt to a water park. The same hairstyle lasts for years .... maybe decades. You can play with toys all your life. mmmmmm toys... drooling

When visiting a doctor's office my little one said "Mommy are we going to ride the alligator? (elevator)" Before take-off in the airplane "Daddy when are we blastoffing?" After a safari ride in Jersey, showing her a picture of an ostrich "That's a cactus!" (in Russian ostrich is straus, the -au- pronounced like 'ou' in house) Back to work today, after a wonderfull stay in NY-NJ area for a week. No down time between vacation and work sucks though.

I Am too bloody old. On friday night my cousin has taken us on the romp across several Manhattan boroghs for a full nighter. We've started at a nice Spanish restaurant called Casamono. Interesting food, fairly nice. After that we hopped on over to the bar, Solex, i think it was called. A great conversation accompanied by several shots of vine and conqac. One of the great thing when bar hoppin with my cousing, is that his lovely wife understands wines. Very very useful :) After that, we went over to NuBlu. This is a tight litle place, that indtroduces new bands to the public. Great music, very Brasilian scat salsa style. The only problem is, that there are a lot of people and they all talk, you can't hear the music. The night was finished with artichoke pizza :) Yes! We have actually finished the very delisicous pizza, at about 2 o'clock midnight. The nice gentleman at the hotel wished us a good morning when we got back. I am too old. Yesterday night was no better. We were a

So, here I am gazing out of the Millenium UN Plaza Hotel out to the Metlife building and the beautiful midtown below and thinking. I have lived in NY for about 8 years, but I have never visited it as a tourist. Oh, sure enough me and my brother visited a place or two and walked around a bit, museums and such, but I have never came back to Manhattan to look through a strangers eyes. For example, I have never visited the Grand Central. Today, coming back from the broadway show, I have convinced my wife to take a stroll down the 44th from Broadway all the way to the 1st. Grand Central is truly awe inspiring on the inside. We just stood there gazing on the ceiling. I have never noticed that Manhattan is so dirty. Part of it was all of the garbage bags lying right there on the street. Thinking of why its not so obvious in Chicago, my wife helped me by reminding that all over the city there are back ways where all of the garbage is stored. However, i have never seen so much cigarette butts a

Today is the second day we are in Jersey. But later today we are moving into a Hotel in Midtown, for three days. What's in plan? I don't have a clue. Today is theater night, as we are going to see Spamalot. We are planning to see afriend or two and a cousin. Lots of walking around, and visiting museums. Yesterday we went to a nice little safari in Jersey's Six Flags. Very nicely done, great animals (if a bit lazy). Very enjoyable for the little one, as well as the kids inside of most of the adults. One question though. What's up will all the ostriches? They are like Canadian geese for us down in the mid-west. I have to put a site up here for reading. A great book, written by Nathan. No Crying In The War Room

I watched the opening ceremony over the weekend (after all these years i still rave about TiVo). Am I the only one who is intimidated by the sheer amount of human power involved in the theatrics? I was impressed and a little scared at the same time. Paranoia kicking-in. Did they do that on purpose, to show how much cheap labor they can employ, to pull almost anything off?

I don't really remember Saturday, but we took our friends to a playground with our 3-year-olds. Good lazy day. On Sunday we went to Chicago Botanic Gardens, and accidentely caught a Kite Festival. The things that those guys do with their kites are amazing. I've made a video but it would have to wait until I get to that tape. Then in the evening we went to catch RATT. I am not uploading the video, it's too big But the real reason we went to that concert were these guys. The concert was absolutely awesome. I apologize for the quality, but my camera can only store three minutes of higher quality video. I opted for longer recording time to quality. It's enough to see who they were and what they were doing.

The classes are over till the 25th of August. The next one is online course in Stats. The School calls it Quantative Analysis. I actually remember doing really REALY bad in statistics and probability analysis in my undergraduate years. I was embarrassed to no end, considering the fact that my dad was a math professor. Both of the classes were excellent workshops. My writing has improved. I am a much better presenter now. I have proof. We taped each presentation in class, and I can see improvement in my movement, opening statements, and general structure. I think practice does make better. What's next? Nothing much. A weekend with the family. I don't usually write on the weekend. Hell, I don't even touch the computer on the weekend. Next week, we fly to Jersey, with a stay in the City for couple of days.

I don't really have anything more to say. I am glad he's not going to the Vikings this season. The Packs gave him up under very strict conditions. Jets would loose all sorts of important picks next draft if they sell him. And there's also a limit to the amount of games he can play, again affecting the picks. Very drakonian of the Packs. Oh, well. We'll see. The season starts in a month. I wonder if that's going to be enough for Brett to adjust to the new gamebook.

Love this! StarWars Store

I love dogs. I am big dog person. I have a dog, and I love my dog. But this story makes me sad. It also makes me want to come to that woman's house and yell, "ARE YOU F^&*NG CRAZY! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" To sell a house, and pay for five cloned dogs $50,000. Has anybody explained to that stupid stupid old lady, that despite the genetic makeup, IT'S NOT THE SAME DOG! IT WILL NEVER BE THE SAME DOG! God, almighty. There are so many dogs in the world that need a shelter, and a loving owner. But no, we can not have the usual tried and true, we need to have a sensation. I can understand growing dogs with selective genetic makeup, we've been selecting plants and animals for their traits since the caves. Building a dog for its likeness to the pooch you used to have, is wrong. Find a breeder, there must be plenty of similar pooches ready for a new home. Or maybe it was a scam. Or a joke. I hope this was a joke. Pardon the rant.

Thanks to Nathan for a great link! Doom This is the one I loved the most.

Every year my backyard is visited by one! of these little guys. I see it grow from about about 1cm long to about 1 inch long every year. But I've never seen the adult form. I think it's a grasshopper. Any insectologists out there?

Yesterday was one of the more interesting sessions in the class. The assignment was Take a topic that you feel strongly about Prepare a 4 minute presentation, proving you point of view on the topic Twist: decide with your partner, which point of view is more important, and present the opposite point There are not that many topics that I feel strongly about. Global Warming is one, but I’ve milked that one dry already. We've settled on Violence on TV and Video Games topic. Again, I don't feel strongly about it, I believe that it's parents’ responsibility to control what children see, but that's about it. My partner had more or less the same stance. We've decided to play on the stereotype that me being a man I would not be against violence on TV and she would be. We switched. I got compliments on my part, making it very believable, yelling several times. Although in my opinion I completely screwed up the closing. Oh well, we'll see. I think overall we were the most