GeekShowInk

UPDATE:THIS HAS BEEN SITTING OPEN ON MY BROWSER SINCE YESTERDAY NIGHT, SEEMS I FORGOT TO HIT UPDATE JOURNAL...

So I went book shopping at a local bookstore (the bookhive) the other day and found a couple Conan books. The problem was that I didnt have any cash on me, and the total for the books was only a couple dollars. In order to be able to get the Conan books I went looking for some more books to buy. I figured since I was enjoying the Conan stuff so much that maybe I would give some Tarzan a try. So I went looking for the Edgar Rice Burroughs section, and man did they have a lot of his books. I ended up adding a stack of books to my purchase. amongst them were The Monster Men, Tarzan at the Earth's Core, the People that Time Forgot, Out of Times Abyss... and a couple others that escape me right now.

Anyway So for a change of pace I started to read Out of Times Abyss. The first thing that really struck me about this book (and alot of the books by ERB that I picked up) was the size of it. Even my Wife commented on how thin it was and not the normal size of books that I read. This is part of what appealed to me though. Short books make for quick reads which when you have a little one to take care of is a nice thing...

Anyway, Out of Times Abyss is a good old fashioned adventure yarn, as I found out later, it is actually the Third part of a trilogy that started with The Land that Time Forgot and continued in The People that Time Forgot. In the book we follow Bradly as he explores the new prehistoric land that they have found themselves in. From traveling with his friends to being captured and wisked away by the Wieroos to their Island home of Oo-Oh where he meets the girl Co-Tan and rescues her from the horrible creatures.

This book was a good read. Not high literature by any means but it is good for what it is. PULP FICTION.

Well, of the shows that I try to watch in a given week the only one I actually managed to see last week was Eureka on SCIFI. I started watching this show because they were pushing it so hard on SCIFI, I swear every third commercial was about it in the weeks leading up to its premire.

I m glad I did start watching it. They have created a good blend of humor with the bizzare scifi type storylines... Blah blah blah enough typing no one is reading this anyway...

( Read more... )

So I was inspired by destroyerzooey's post here and the On My Desk blog, which was actually the first website I sort of reviewed on my other blog.

( So here is where I work at: )

I love seeing the working enviorments of other artist. This morning I stumbled onto a blog where artist show off their desks. On My Desk showcases the desks of various art professionals. I enjoyed being able to look around the archives and see the various styles of the people who have posted. From the ultra Clean to the cluttered and messy .

This is a blog that has been added to my favorites and will be visited often in hope of updates. For now though my favorite is Collin David's for the simple reason that his set up strikes me as what mine would look like if I had more room to work with and no 14 month old child to worry about. At the same time I am very envious of Rick Lovell's set up, very clean and sleak and cool looking.

One of the other places I found cool set ups is this thread here...

I have four movies to review this week. Three being Netflix rentals, one being a DVD I bought (aee the previous post about Borders.) and one is a movie I actually saw in the Theater.

Lets start with the theater.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Starring
Keira Knightley
Orlando Bloom
Johnny Depp

The Second part of the Trilogy of Pirate movies. I heard a lot of complaints from people that this one wasnt as good as the first and that there wasnt enough Depp in it. I have to disagree with that myself. I thought that there was a fair amount of all three of the main charecters and really enjoyed it. Yes, the ending as a lot of people grumbled about was nothing more then a set up for the third movie, but come on what did you expect? I went to this movie expecting nothing and came out having enjoyed myself. I think that this movie is more then worth catching a matinee of on the big screen.

Now on to the DVD purchased...


Night of the Living Dead 1990

Starring
No one I recognized...

For some reason this is one zombie movie I had never managed to see. So on a whim I picked it up when I was out DVD shopping for some B-grade entertainment. The remaked was endorsed and produced by George Romero, but directed by long time Romero sidekick Tom Savini. I can not say that I liked this one better then the original but I can say that they did a good job with it. Where the first one is a classic for being a original this one is just a good zombie romp. I really liked how they took Barbara and made her more of a hero in this film instead of the whimpering body in the background. If you are a zombie junkie like me this flick should really be in your collection, If you are just a casual zombie fan then just rent it some dark night when you dont know what else to get.

Now on to the Netflix movies...


16 Blocks

Starring
Mos Def
Bruce Willis

Ok I had a couple complaints about this movie... One I could only understand about half of what Mos Def said which I found really annoying. The second thing is the whole concept. First off why didnt the DA get the FBI involved when she found out the witness was being hunted by the bad guys I mean come on witness tampering is a federal offense if I am not mistaken... and second of all when she found out that they where being hindered like that she could have gotten everything put on hold right there...

Action is action so it had that going for it, but the whole flawed concept thing really kind of ruined the movie for me...


Zathura

Tim Robbins
a bunch of kid actors...

Before I even start to say anyhting let me just get this out of the way... I really hate Tim Robbins. Having said that the high point of this movie is that his screen time if very small. Zathura is the space version of Jumanji, the problem being where that one was original funny and entertaining this one was dull boring and predictable with poor acting that could have been done better by CPR dummys. There hasnt been to many movies that I absolutly hated but this one has joined the list.

Deadwood Season 1 disc 1

I m not going to say to much about this one just yet. The first disc only had the first two episodes on it so really dont have much to go on just yet. Hopefully it will improve as it goes.

Due to arrive tomorrow from Netflix are Duma, Lord of War and Death Tunnel. So those are the reviews for next week.

Midnight Mass
By F.Paul Wilson
Vampire Fiction
403 pages

Midnight Mass is a new spin on the vampire tale. In this book the Vamps dont hide in the basement to come out and stalk the living prey. They rule the world having taken over the globe and turning man into their cattle for feeding. The story picks up after man has already been over run and what few that remain hide in fear of their lives, hide from the cowboy humans who stalk the day searching down the last of man to feed the vampire masters and hide from the vampires themselves who stalk them in the night.

I enjoyed this book, I picked it up on a whim at a Walmart when I recognized the authors name from The Keep which I was in the process of reading the IDW adaptation of. Mr. Wilson does a good job of creating a group of charectars that are believable, all flawed in one way or another. You never know if you should feel hope for the fate of man or if this is the tale of Man's last stand.

So I received a reply from Borders today...

Mr #########,

I apologize for the confusion. Weekly, we get a list of prices that have been permanently marked down from the publishers. As the prices are coded in our stickers, it is up to us to locate and place new price stickers on the DVDs. Upon review, it appears the individual in charge of this process is not opening up the cases and sticking them over the previous sticker, they are lining it up on the outside of the case to cover the previous sticker. I have spoken with this employee and we will be going through to rememdy this situation. It appeared the cashier opened the DVD case and scanned the old sticker, not realizing the price was different on the outside of the case. I do apologize for the problem you encountered at the store and hope that you will consider trying Borders in the future. I assure you it was not a deliberate attempt to deceive the public, rather a labor reducing effort on the part of an employee that we are able to rectify. Thank you.

Nowhere in the reply does it address the fact that I have ran into this at two different locations. Guess the employee works at two locations.

Needless to say I wont shop with them anymore. I ll go elsewhere.

So since I just started this whole schedule idea this weekend I really dont have much to review today... So what I ll do is give you my list of shows that I try to catch each week:

Monday
24 reruns on A&E
Dark Angel Reruns on SciFi

Tuesday
Eureka on Scifi

Wednesday
Blade on Spike

Thursday
Noting

Friday
Stargate
Stargate Atlantis

Sat and Sun
DVD's

So next week I should have my thoughts on these shows for anyone who cares to read...

I went to Border Books to make a purchase today since I had a coupon and caught them in what I believe is a price switching scam. Needless to say I m not to happy about it and sent off a email to there customer service center to see what they would have to say about this game that seems to be being played...

To Whom It May Concern,

I m writing to you today out of frustration and disgust at what seems to be a scam taking place at at least two of your stores. I have made purchases of DVD's at your Coon Rapids MN (Once) and Maple Grove MN(twice) locations over the past year. Twice I didnt really pay attention to the price until I was home and realized that the price on the receipt was not what I had remembered seeing on the case when I was looking at it in the store. When I looked at the price on the wrapper it matched the price on the receipt so I figured that I just remembered wrong.

Today I stopped at your Maple Grove location to use the 30% off coupon I received for joining you Rewards program. While ringing up my sale I noticed that the price came up at 24.99 when I knew that it was 19.99 when I looked at it. Looking down at the DVD I saw that the price tag clearly said 24.99 knowing that that was not what I had seen I asked to see the security case that your chain keeps your DVD's in. The clerk showed me the case where there was another one of your price tags with the 19.99 price that I had seen. I would think that this was a accident if there wasnt the previous history of being charged higher then I remembered seeing on the tag and that the price tag on the DVD was at a weird angle and the one on the case was at a matching one to completely hide the second tag.

I did point out the difference to the clerk and the manager did void out my charge and rerun it at the right price, but I am still bothered that this is taking place at your stores. To be perfectly honest if this is how these locations boost their sales I think I might just make my purchases elsewhere from now on.

Thank you for your time.
Charles #########



I ll do a follow up post if they make a response.