So this past Monday was fun. I had to take the day off work to go downtown and pay a speeding ticket I got a while back. All that went well and good, although the clerk at the court house was an extremely rude bitch. Anyway, I'm on the interstate making my way home when I look down and my check engine light (CEL) is on. As if I needed another problem. So my first thought it is there is a problem with the CAI (cold air intake). Maybe a hose came lose, or the filter or MAFS (mass air flow sensor) needs to be cleaned. So when I get off the interstate, I stop at walmart and pop the hood. I look around the CAI and everything looks good. Then I remember that Autozone diagnoses CEL. So I go to the autozone right around the corner. I walk in autozone and it's 9:45. The only people working there are two women behind the counter. So, I ask them, "Do you diagnose Check Engine Lights?" They say, "Yeah, but the guy who can do it won't be here until 12." Thanks for nothing, Autozone! So then I'm left with no other choice but to take it to the dealership. Of course, I'm skeptical of my dealership -not that my dealership is different that any other; you should really be skeptical of any car dealership. You see, I had my oil changed there only a week before and now all of a sudden I've got a check engine light? It just seems fishy. So anyway, I go to the dealership and wait. Then I wait some more, and eventually the guy from the service dept comes by and he asks me if I've ever run nitrous on my car because what they're seeing looks like it could have been caused by nitrous. Of course I've never run nitrous on my car. If for no other reasons than I can't afford to and if I did have nitrous I'd probably use it on myself rather than the car. Yea, so I just flat out told the guy "No, the only performance modification I've made to the car is the CAI." Anyway, it turns out the catalytic converter is "burnt up" which actually means it's just reading below spec. and one or two of my O2 sensors will need to be replaced. Then he tells me the "expensive part," the Cat., will be covered under warranty, but the O2 sensors won't and if both O2 sensors have to be replaced it'll be over $500. Yeah... like I've got $500. So, since the car is actually in my mother's name, I call her up and tell her what's going on and I let her speak to the service guy. Well, one temper tantrum later, the service guy talks to his boss and they decide to warranty the O2 sensors. However, I'll still have to pay for labor. So now, if both O2 sensors are bad, we're talking $150 which is a hell of a lot better. Just goes to show that sometimes getting angry pays off. I don't know that I'll ever master that skill -cause i'm just too easy going, but it definitely works. So anyway, the parts are on order and as soon as they come in, I'll probably have to take another day off work to get the repairs made. What's really funny to me, is that since I took the car in and had them look at it, the CEL hasn't come back on. So if the CEL is gone, why should I even bother with the repairs? The car runs fine. I mean, all I really wanted was for the CEL to go away anyway, right? There's a good chance it's all just a big scam, but I'll get the repairs anyway. I just hope they don't fuck something else up in the process.       

Glenn's Guide to building a killer DVD Collection.

You will need:
A PC w/ DVD burner, CloneDVD & AnyDVD apps, lots of blank DVD+/-R discs, and a Blockbuster membership. (Optional: disc labels, DVD cases, and photo paper for case covers)

Step 1
Get the Moviepass from Blockbuster & rent 2 ($25) or 3 ($30) movies, depending on which plan you choose.

Step 2
Go home and copy the DVDs using the apps mentioned above. (If you need case covers, check out www.cdcovers.cc)

Step 3
Take movies back and exchange for new ones. Repeat steps 1-3 as needed.

I swear it's almost like Blockbuster created the whole moviepass plan just for people who want to steal movies. Sure, there's some cost involved in the whole plan. The DVD burner, the blank discs... not to mention optional things like disc labels, DVD cases, and photo paper for case covers. But to be able to get all the original media needed for copying for just $25~$30 a month, that's a hell of a deal. Hell, I may cancel my moviepass before it's time to renew if I get all the movies copied that I really want before then.

Do it!

Ok, so I have a few minutes right now, and I figured I'd use them to throw some words on this page. In a nutshell everything is pretty good in my life at the moment. I saw two really good movies recently. Farenheit 9/11 and Spiderman 2. Farenheit 9/11 was ... well... it was exactly what I thought it would be. A few laughs, and a whole lot of "if you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention" type material. I really liked the way it shed light on Bush & Cheney's business dealings and how their former companies benefited from both the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. Also interesting to note is how much influence Saudi Arabia has in the U.S. Economy, not to mention that one of W's very first business ventures was funded by the Bin Laden family. *sings* It's a small world, afterall... Seriously, everything about the current administration and it's foreign policy smells really really fishy. There were a few things in the film that didn't add anything to the point Moore was trying to make, and for that I give Farenheit 9/11 a 4 our of 5 stars.

The second movie I mentioned, which I actually saw last night was Spiderman 2. In my opinion, it was way better than the first one. This movie, unlike other comic movies, has the same spirit as the comic and that makes a big difference. The only thing that could have made it better would be not having to watch it in the same theatre with the woman in the corner with the sub-zero IQ who feels the need to cheer for Spiderman during the big actions scenes. The movie really was great, but I couldn't help but be destracted, and I don't know if it was really the woman yelling at the screen that destracted me or the thought that this woman was there with a husband and child. You really would have had to be there to appreciate how *special* this entire family was. The whole thing makes me really want to go into a rant on breeding laws, but I'll save that for another time. So yeah, Spiderman 2 ... really good movie. 5 out of 5 stars.