There's a bullet in the heart tonight in the heart of Texas
Kendra reminded me that today is the anniversary of the Waco Siege. I've been looking for an excuse to post "Lone Star Song" by Grant Lee Buffalo. (It doesn't qualify for "Video Friday", because while it's an great song, the video is nothing special.)
And in fact, this Anna Nicole related entry was suggested by me. That's right, in my own small way, I've officially contributed to the Anna Nicole media circus.
This President's Day, I spent the day doing my taxes and building a Nixie Tube clock kit. It's totally sweet. The clock kit, not my taxes--those kind of suck.
I ordered the clock kit a few months ago from Peter L. Jensen's website. The kit itself is fairly easy to put together, assuming you can solder. I made one giant mistake: I misoriented one of the surface mount drivers. Desoldering that was a pain, and resulted in bent pins. Even after correcting that mistake, the first time I powered on the clock, many of the digits went bonkers: But with a little debugging, some rebending of pins, and a few more solder/desolder cycles, I ended up with a working kit. Plugging the clock in and watching the tubes cycle through all the digits was an amazing feeling. It worked, it actually worked!
It's also kind of a miracle that I didn't electrocute myself, which makes it that much sweeter. Thanks, Peter!
What would you do if you won a million bucks: Donate it to charity? Buy a fancy car? Take a trip around the world? Crikey, that's boring! On the other hand, hiring an entourage of dancing models and bunnymen to follow you down the street--now you're on to something.
P.S. For a song that has the lyrics "Everyone you know some day will die", this song is surprisingly uplifting.
Once again, it's time to summarize my Netflix viewing habits for the year. I watched 144 movies, which makes the math easy: 12 movies a month, almost three a week. That sure sounds like a lot of movies! Each movie cost me about $1.50 to watch. Compare to 2005, where I watched 114 DVDs, at $1.90 each.
I managed to catch up on HBO series like The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Rome. I learned I didn't much care for Farscape after the initial novelty wore off. I watched terrible movies like The Brothers Grimm and Fantastic Four. I enjoyed fascinating documentaries like A State of Mind and Long Way Round. Thanks, Netflix!
I'm getting closer to finishing off the IMDB Top 250 list: I'm up to 185. I am getting a little burnt out, so I'm going to take it easy with the Netflix for a while, content that I got my money's worth last year.
But with a little debugging, some rebending of pins, and a few more solder/desolder cycles, I ended up with a working kit. Plugging the clock in and watching the tubes cycle through all the digits was an amazing feeling. It worked, it actually worked!
Once again, it's time to summarize my Netflix viewing habits for the year. I watched 144 movies, which makes the math easy: 12 movies a month, almost three a week. That sure sounds like a lot of movies! Each movie cost me about $1.50 to watch. Compare to 2005, where I watched 114 DVDs, at $1.90 each.
