custody battles are like cancer, says alec baldwin

"A black lady walking by said to me, 'Alec Baldwin, you got to get hold of yourself.' So I have."

Click here for more!

cancer? no. crusty skin? yes.

A report by some scientist people says that weed may not, in fact, cause cancer. Beyond that I mostly just liked the photo. WEEEEEEEEEED HEEEEAAAAAAD!!!!!!!

best buy sucks

My computer dates back to July 2001. The brand is VPR Matrix, a Best Buy test brand that failed. Now they build the same computers but call them Insignia. Anyways, it was an open box item that had been returned a few days before. Included was the tower (original specs: P4 2.0 GHz 256MB DDR RAM, Soundblaster 5.1 sound card 128MB Nvidia graphics, firewire and a 100GB hard drive), 17" Samsung Flat CRT, Canon printer, keyboard etc. The open box price was $1050 for the whole thing. In 2001 that was one hell of a deal.

It was such a deal in fact, that Best Buy wouldn't let me buy it without the goddamn extended service plan. After refusing to purchase the warranty I ended up dealing with 5 (!) different sales-assholes and a manager before they finally let me leave. And they were sneaky fuckers. They brought out every piece of the bundle one piece at a time. And everytime it was a different person bringing it out. "Hey, are you familiar with our extended service plan?" Yeah asshole, pretty familiar.

At the register my friend Aaron (who was purchasing a fridge) asked why the salesmen were so pushy with the service plan. Immediately the checkout girl went into a scripted speech about the value of the Best Buy service plan.

My take on the whole deal is that the VPR Matrix brand was probably already a loss leader so that they could sell you $30 USB cables and service plans. For someone to buy *only* the computer actually costs the company money. At an open box price it was like raping them blind.

It took me a good long time to make another purchase at Best Buy. But like a sheep I can't ignore the bright yellow price tag looming over the interstate. Before our trip to Europe we needed a last minute digital photo solution. I ended up walking right into Best Buy and purchasing a 30GB iPod photo. I had to go to the Apple store the next day to buy the photo connector anyways, but the immediate gratification of my local Best Buy was too strong to resist.

For the record the VPR Matrix is one kickass computer. It still runs great and has survived several hard drive, RAM and DVD burner upgrades. It's my main work computer for video editing jobs and runs almost anything I can throw at it.

BUT THEIR SERVICE STILL SUCKS!

So why tell this really old story? No big reason. I just read this thread about a guy who's experiencing hassles with Best Buy and it made me nostalgic for the WORST BUYING EXPERIENCE I EVER HAD.

darth vader reads your mind

He guessed Minotaur!

http://sithsense.com/flash.htm

the rise and fall of lara croft

There's an interesting article at 1UP.com on the crash of the Tomb Raider series. Turns out Lara Croft creator Toby Gard left the series after Eidos turned her into a sex symbol (!) "I wasn't happy with the marketing of Lara as a piece of meat." Wasn't that the idea in the first place? You don't draw a half-naked girl with enormous hooters and expect the marketing department to keep it clean.

Several game design handoffs and the simultaneous release of a crappy game (Angel of Darkness) and crappy movie (Cradle of Life) has all but killed any leftover Tomb Raider hype. There's a new game in development and Gard is back on doing his best to save the franchise.

On a side note, the article also timelines the development of Tomb Raider in relation to the Prince of Persia and Indiana Jones games (Infernal Machine is one of my all time favorites).

you’re the man now dog

One of my favorite quotes ever from a movie I've never seen. I probably use this line every other day, usually to myself after achieving some small personal victory, like making cereal or watering the yard. Anyways, I am pleased to learn of the really old but really funny YTMND internet revolution.

I realize I'm the last person to ever see this, but so what? In my book, this is genius.

Go here for the original "You're The Man Now Dog" website.

Go here for the Jean-Luc Picard YTMND site.

Go here for the Wikipedia entry.

UPDATE! Go here for every YTMND ever made.

UPDATE 2! Go here for another of my favorites.

contest: name a tv show, win prizes!

So my good pal Josh (of 15 minute show fame) and a couple of homies are shooting a sketch comedy TV pilot. I’ve read the script and it’s frikkin’ hilarious. although technically it’s a self financed project, they’re using industry hookups to shoot with high end production gear (big-time hd cameras, etc). They’re blogging their way through the whole project here.

Right now they have a contest out for name submissions. Actually two contests, one for the show and one for their blog. The rules are pretty simple, if you can come up with a genius killer superstar name for either the show or the blog, they’ll send you $25 via Amazon, iTunes or your choice of online cashola, plus a credit on the show. Name ‘em both you get $50. Easy money.

Email submissions to patrick.hollon@gmail.com

The contest blog entry and rules are here.