Note to self

To be added to my Netflix queue when space permits:

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Why We Fight
On the Outs

These are all documentary/independent films, which means they won't be shown in any of the theaters in this area.

I also want to see Annapolis, but that is showing in the theaters here.

Anyone got any other suggestions for movies releasing in the next few weeks?

Checked Baggage

Well, Memphis is a great town. I would love to go back one day. Next time I just hope my luggage arrives when I do. So, I arrive in Memphis last Tuesday morning to learn that my suitcase was not on the flight. I report it to the baggage claim office and am told it should arrive on a later flight and will be delivered to my hotel. They give me a file number and an 800 number to check the status. And I do check the status, every couple of hours. By 6pm, I still had no suitcase. The only things I had at this point were my wallet, my DS, and my glasses (this proved to be very fortunate). We go to dinner and then find a store where I can at least buy a shirt for the next day (at this point I still have hope that my suitcase will be delivered). Go back to the hotel and continue to call about my file status. Wake up Wednesday morning - still no suitcase. In fact, my suitcase and I were not reunited until Saturday, after I had been back home approximately 24 hours. I had 1 hour on Wednesday to go buy all the clothing I would need for the rest of the week, and a suitcase to take it all home in. As you may have guessed, I did not check anything for the return flight.

But I did enjoy Memphis...And I played a lot of Mario Kart!

Memphis, TN

tomorrow morning at the unnatural hour of 6 am, i'm off to atlanta airport to fly to Memphis for 4 days. It is a work related trip, but i'm looking forward to it since I've never been to Memphis. of course, it would be even better if they hadn't extended the coverage on my pager...and if a couple of our travel companions would get lost on the way to the airport.

and, Bones, i haven't forgotten about Diamond.

the return of the 360

I had to go by my house during lunch today to pick something up. And there on the steps was the box from the repair center, containing a new console and power cord. The unit is already setup, account has been recovered, and arcade games have been downloaded...

I am happy. Very happy.

Update on the update

I intended to update this several days ago, but I do have some slacker tendencies. Oh well, at least I'm updating now.

Two days after my post about not having an xbox360, I got one. A friend was at Target and bought the last one they had on my behalf. It was a premium, too. Unfortunately, it apparently has a bad video card, and so, on January 5th, the unit was shipped to McAllen, TX for repair or replacement. I noticed as soon as I connected the unit to my television that would have to power cycle the unit as many as 4 times before anything would display on the screen. Then on December 31st, I started to get an error message. Called XBox support on Jan. 1, and spoke to a less than helpful CSR who told me to take the unit back to Target and exchange it. So, I called Target, and not so surprisingly, was informed they didn't have any, didn't know when they would be getting any or how many they would get. Called XBox Support back and spoke to a CSR who was not an idiot. He placed a repair order and told me I would be receiving a box for the unit. The unit arrived at the repair facility on Jan. 6th, so I hope to have my unit or a replacement by the end of this week or first of next week.

So, to tide me over in its absence, I've been playing some single and multi player black box games, as well as some Mario Kart and Animal Crossing on the Nintendo DS. I had never owned a handheld gaming system before the DS, and was not sure how much I would really play it, but now I love the DS. Mario Kart is the only racing game I have ever won a race in. For that matter, it is the only racing game I have never crashed within a few yards of the starting line. The DS will definitely be accompanying me on my upcoming trip to Memphis. Maybe by then I'll have worked the other three games (Space Invaders, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and The Nightmare before Xmas: The Pumpkin King) I have for the DS into the rotation.

We got my dad's Christmas present on Xmas eve, but not because it finally arrive on Sears' delivery truck. When I called to check the status on the 24th, the manager told me it had not arrived, they were very sorry, and that they would look at the inventory of the store and see if they could put together a package that would be the equivalent of what I had ordered. About fifteen minutes later they called me back to say that even though it had not shown in the store inventory, they had found the exact item I had ordered hidden behind a display of table saws. True or not, I was made very happy by this, since the only other thing I had gotten my dad was a box of Little Debbie Nutty Bars as a joke. Christmas was saved!