I stumbled across Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, an NPR show recently one Saturday morning. Few shows makes me laugh outloud but this one does and I highly recommend it. It's actually pretty informative since they take news items of the day and make fun of them. I've subcribed to the weekly podcasts in iTunes
Andy entered a short movie titled MEAT in the All Hallows Fest at DVXUSER, an online community for filmmakers. The Kleymeyers have a cameo appearance at the end. The story is about a guy that starts eating himself. It's not graphic but the images are disturbing, PG-13 at least. I think he has a good shot at placing in the contest.
Check out this music video he shot recently. The song is pretty good (Wait in the Water by A.L.T.) and the video very professionally in my opinion.
I'm usually a little late to the game. I was with my new XBOX and DVR. I don't have HDTV. I'd like it, just haven't been motivated to research it. Robert offers a reason to stay away from HDTV, though posted I'm sure tongue-in-cheek, I'm using it as an excuse to wait a little longer. After all, I recently canceled my cable. Still, all those Netflix movies we get...
Whew! Asking to speak to a supervisor can often be the beginning of a stressfull conversation. Fortunately tonight turned out well.
I got an email from XBOX Live today. It began:
Dear Customer,
Your subscription to Yearly subscription to Xbox Live is scheduled to be automatically renewed on Friday, April 14, 2006...For this subscription you will be charged $49.99 per year, plus applicable taxes. Unless you cancel your subscription before it ends, you will automatically renew to the currently selected renewal subscription type at the then current price...
I bought my XBOX, Christmas of 2004. I signed up for a free trial to XBOX Live but canceled it at the end of the trial. Don't you hate it when a credit card is required to get something "Free"? They don't charge you but they just put the onus on you to cancel and if you forget, you know what happens. You don't want to give them your credit card number but if it's something you really want to try, you don't have a choice so you take a chance and give them your number. You know how excited you are when you first get your XBOX, of course you want to check out the online service.
Okay, so someone screwed up at XBOX Live. When I called this evening they had a record that my account was viewed the day before the 1-year subscription started, but no record of a cancellation. I never thought about it again until I received the email today. So I called. They don't let you cancel through the web or email.
The person I spoke to was pleasant and said upfront she wouldn't be able to refund my $50 when I asked but that she could go ahead and cancel the subscription (again) and put me through to a supervisor afterward. OK. After canceling, again she was very up front and told me I may have to wait but that she would be on hold with me and would check back in 5 minutes.
Well I only held for about 2 minutes and when she came back on she said "Good news. I've been authorized to refund you your money." Sweet.
I really didn't want to be upset at Microsoft. I still have an XBOX 360 to buy and the new XBOX Live service to try. The main reason I'm not an XBOX subscribe is that David is only 7 and he doesn't need more reason to play the XBOX more than he already does. I hear great things about the new service, the free downloads the game matching system and now there isn't a bad experience with XBOX Live to give me pause about trying the service again one day.
Way to go Microsoft. I still think it's cheesy that you require a credit card for a trial but the fact you send out an email prior to "automatically" renewing the service shows you're not too evil and do care about your customers.
This is an interesting site that will upload any image and output an HTML page displaying the image using only colored 0 and 1 characters.
Again from "Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln":
Aristotle once wrote, "The essence of humor is surprise"
This brings to mind one of my all time favorite comedians. I love Emo Phillips, though an odd bird, his humor is simply smart!
Like books and music, your DVD collection says something about you
Drama
Close Enounters of the Third Kind
Dead Poets Society
One Hour Photo
Seabiscuit
Shawshank Redemption
Stepmom
The Boxer
Thelma and Louise
Top Gun
Romance
13 Going on Thirty
Chocolat
Little Women
Sixteen Candles
West Side Story
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Action
Batman
BraveHeart
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park III
Last Of The Mohicans
Lord Of The Rings
Shanghai Knights
Spider-Man
Six Days Seven Nights
The Patriot
The Sum of All Fears
Western
The Good The Bad and the Ugly
Unforgiven
Comedy
Big
City Slickers
Elf
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Parenthood
Kids
A Bug's Life
A Christmas Story
A Cinderella Story
All Dogs Go To Heaven
Agent Cody Banks
Cheaper By The Dozen (Steve Martin)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Finding Nemo
Freaky Friday
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Animated)
(The Second) Jungle Book
Lilo & Stitch
Monster's Inc
National Velvet
Nightmare Before Christmas
Shrek
Spy Kids
Say Anything
Tarzan
The Cat In The Hat
The Lizzy McGuire Movie
The Princess Bride
The Princess Diaries
The Incredibles
The Wizard of Oz
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
What a Girl Wants
Small Kids
Barney's Night Before Christmas
Charlie Brown Christmas
Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Charlie Brown Halloween
Dora's Christmas
Dora's Fairytale Adventure
Dora's Pirate Adventure
Pippi Longstockings - Pippi's Adventure on the South Seas (Animated)
Trevor Romain - Being a kid (Animated)
Veggie Tales - An Easter Carol
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
