Not my uncanny mental powers (unfortunately I don't seem to have any) but Derren Brown's. He's from England and is a "mentalist", sort of like "The Amazing Kreskin". I just watched these amazing videos on YouTube of him performing his "mental suggestions" on people. In the first video, he pays for items using blank pieces of paper as 'money'. In the second one, he convinces a man on the street to give him his watch, phone, and house keys.
There are more videos of YouTube of him as well, if you like this two.
Boy, do I need to learn how to perform this kind of hypnosis !
It sure would beat working for a living !
Monday, April 23, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Is It Finally Spring?
I think Spring has finally arrived here! The past three days have been sunny and warm...so I can get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air. And I'll be headed outside soon. But this morning I was websurfing (big surprise, there!) and found some old Muppets videos. The "Muppets Show" was a great TV show, but I didn't see all the episodes so I watched a few segments on Youtube.
Here are a couple that I enjoyed:
Well, gonna get out of this apartment and enjoy the Spring weather...hope everyone else is having nice weather this weekend too !
Monday, April 09, 2007
Back To The GRINDHOUSE !
So yesterday I'm sitting at home...bored out of my mind...but it's too cold and windy to go out for a walk or anything. So I think "why not take a ride up to the mall?" I figured I'd grab a slice of pizza there and just hang around, check out a few of my favorite stores. Just to get out of the house and kill some time.
The bus is pulling into the mall parking lot where I notice there are very few cars. It's then that I remember it's Easter Sunday and all the stores are closed ! D'oh ! Now what do I do? I go into the mall anyway and see that the movie theater at least is open. Not much playing that sounds interesting...but "GRINDHOUSE" is set to start in just about 20 minutes. Got a ticket and headed in--but still haven't eaten and I know that this movie runs for 3 hours ! I hate to pay the ridiculous prices at the movie snack bar, but need something to hold me 'til I get home. I settle for a hot dog and medium Coke, which ends up costing $8.75 ! Ouch! And the so-called "medium" Coke is at least a quart of soda (free refills too, who needs that much to drink?) I hate to think what a large must be. They probably just hook you up directly to the soda machine and pump the soda to you through a tube.
Anyway, it turned out to be worth it ! GRINDHOUSE is a surprisingly entertaining double feature consisting of "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof", along with several fake movie trailers. Planet Terror is a very gory zombie movie so if exploding zombies and flying body parts is not your thing, you would not want to see this movie. Death Proof has it's share of gore too, but to a lesser extent, but has plenty of action and explosions as well.
This type of low-budget horror action films were shown a lot during the 1970's at drive-in theaters. But what I was reminded of was when I bought my first VCR (a Sanyo Betamax format) back in 1985. At that time the major movie studios would not allow their films to be put out on videotape as they thought it would keep people from going to theaters to see them. So about the only movies you could rent (other than porn) were old horror/sci-fi flicks or these type of "grindhouse" movies. A friend and I rented a number of these types of movies at the time--I was the only one with a VCR. Most of them had very little in the way of plots, just lots of action, violence and gory scenes. "Grindhouse" fits that bill perfectly.
While this double feature is not for everyone, I found them to be a mindless, entertaining fun time and the 3 hours went by so quickly I barely noticed. The violence and gore is so over-the-top that it becomes comical--sort of like an "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoon from "The Simpsons". And the audience in the theater responded with plenty of laughter throughout the movie.
By the way, that poster at the top--I designed it at the GRINDHOUSE website. It's a pretty cool site, check it out if this movie sounds good to you.
And speaking of grinds, tomorrow it's back to the grind for me as I have to return to work after Spring Break week.
Talk about HORROR !!!
Saturday, April 07, 2007
A Moving Experience
Well, as I reported here almost a week ago, I moved from the basement apartment in my building to the top floor. Finally finished getting everything up here this past Tuesday, the last item to make the move being my laptop computer. That's because my internet connection was changed over on Wednesday. So Tuesday night I sat in my old, now empty apartment with just my computer, eating some McDonald's food, playing games, and surfing the web. The rest of this week was spent organizing things and re-connecting various electronics, such as the VCR, DVD player, Playstation, etc. It's a bit more cramped than the old place, but with a little more organization, everything will have a place.
One good thing is that it's definitely warmer up here than down in the basement. And since I hate being cold, that's great! We had one nice warm day this week before winter made a comeback appearance and the temperature dropped back to mid-winter levels. Brrr....
Two more days before Spring Break ends and its back to work. The week after next, I may have jury duty as I got a Jury Summons last week. Have to call in each evening to see if I have to report the following day. I don't mind because frankly, I'd rather sit there all day than run around at work trying to do three things at once. I served as an alternate Juror several years ago, and found it to be rather interesting. That time it just happened to be what they called "Juror Appreciation Week"--an annual event the court held to show it's appreciation (of course) for the work the jurors did. Every day the Jurors were given a free lunch, including one day when they ordered pizza in for everyone. That's not likely to happen again, but it's still not a bad experience. I wonder why so many people go out of their way to avoid jury service.
Gonna go now have some of the Friendly's "Banana Split" ice cream I bought earlier today, with some whipped cream on top. Hey, now that I'm climbing two flights of stairs to get to my apartment the extra exercise I'm getting should offset any extra calories from the ice cream. At least that's my theory and it takes experiments to prove a theory. So in the name of science, I will conduct this tasty experiment !
MySpace Comments at GlitterBell.com
One good thing is that it's definitely warmer up here than down in the basement. And since I hate being cold, that's great! We had one nice warm day this week before winter made a comeback appearance and the temperature dropped back to mid-winter levels. Brrr....
Two more days before Spring Break ends and its back to work. The week after next, I may have jury duty as I got a Jury Summons last week. Have to call in each evening to see if I have to report the following day. I don't mind because frankly, I'd rather sit there all day than run around at work trying to do three things at once. I served as an alternate Juror several years ago, and found it to be rather interesting. That time it just happened to be what they called "Juror Appreciation Week"--an annual event the court held to show it's appreciation (of course) for the work the jurors did. Every day the Jurors were given a free lunch, including one day when they ordered pizza in for everyone. That's not likely to happen again, but it's still not a bad experience. I wonder why so many people go out of their way to avoid jury service.
Gonna go now have some of the Friendly's "Banana Split" ice cream I bought earlier today, with some whipped cream on top. Hey, now that I'm climbing two flights of stairs to get to my apartment the extra exercise I'm getting should offset any extra calories from the ice cream. At least that's my theory and it takes experiments to prove a theory. So in the name of science, I will conduct this tasty experiment !
MySpace Comments at GlitterBell.com
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Just An April Fool Am I !
Happy 2nd Blogiversary To Me !
That's right--it's been two years since I started this blog. Well, technically, I started it on March 31st 2005 and the second post was April 2nd, but I like the idea that it began on April Fool's Day. So, unofficially that's my start date. I've never had a consistent theme to the blog and tend to go off in whatever crazy direction strikes me at the time I sit down to write a post. Or whatever topic I happen to be interested in at that moment.
Lately I've kind of been neglecting my poor little blog and haven't been posting very consistently. Not sure myself exactly why that is--it's not because I don't enjoy doing it--I do. But if I had to list some reasons why I've been slacking off--well, here's a few:
1- Too tired....by the time I get home from work I just don't have the energy.
1- Bored....by my job, the sameness of every day, and sometimes just by life in general.
3- Maybe a little depressed....see above reasons.
4- Procrastination....keep putting off posting even when I think of something I want to put up.
5- And finally....I've been busy moving this past week.
Not a faraway move --just up two floors in the same building I currently live in. The owners want more money for the 1 bedroom apartment I rent now and I really can't afford the increase. So they offered to let me move upstairs for the same rent I'm paying into the studio apartment on the top floor. Now to be fair, they did give me a discount on the rent for the 1-bedroom, so I can't complain as I've been here for the past 2 1/2 years at that lower rate. But it's been a bit of a hassle lugging everything upstairs. A friend and his nephew came by today to move my TV and it's stand, which I could never do by myself. It's a 32-inch set and very heavy. But other than that, I've been moving the rest of my crap little by little. Most of it is up there now, but I still have quite a bit of stuff to sort through and decide what I want to keep and throw out some of the junk I don't want. Hopefully I can finish most of that tomorrow.
As for the blog, I had hoped to redesign it in time for my 2nd anniversary, but that didn't get done. Right now it's too cluttered looking and I want a cleaner look. Also would like to organize my archives into categories, but that means going back and labeling each one which will take some time. Hopefully I'll work up the energy to do all that soon. But who knows?
As for having a more consistent theme on the blog that probably won't happen because my mind leaps from one thing to another and that is reflected on the blog. I know I don't have a lot of readers and that is most likely due to the fact that I don't visit many other blogs and when I do don't comment very often. So not many people are aware this blog even exists. Which is OK, I guess. I've never been a very sociable person or much of a talker, so therefore have never made many friends. And I guess that applies to the internet as well. But I am very loyal to those friends I do have.
See--I don't post at all for a long while, then I ramble on and on.
OK--one more thing and then I'll shut up. In one of my first few posts, I talked about upgrading my old computer. Last week I went to a computer show and got a 1-Gigabyte upgrade for my laptop, giving me 1.5 GB total. And it has made a great difference. It runs much faster now, even with several programs running together. Also got a nice little webcam that clips to the laptop. Along with my other recent purchase of a 250 GB external hard drive, my computer should be set for some time. Which is good since it will be a long time before I can afford a new one.
Now it's time I went to sleep so I can get up early and finish my moving. At least I don't have to go to work tomorrow or the rest of the week because it's Spring Break !! Yay !!
Happy April Fool's Day, everyone, from this April Fool !
That's right--it's been two years since I started this blog. Well, technically, I started it on March 31st 2005 and the second post was April 2nd, but I like the idea that it began on April Fool's Day. So, unofficially that's my start date. I've never had a consistent theme to the blog and tend to go off in whatever crazy direction strikes me at the time I sit down to write a post. Or whatever topic I happen to be interested in at that moment.
Lately I've kind of been neglecting my poor little blog and haven't been posting very consistently. Not sure myself exactly why that is--it's not because I don't enjoy doing it--I do. But if I had to list some reasons why I've been slacking off--well, here's a few:
1- Too tired....by the time I get home from work I just don't have the energy.
1- Bored....by my job, the sameness of every day, and sometimes just by life in general.
3- Maybe a little depressed....see above reasons.
4- Procrastination....keep putting off posting even when I think of something I want to put up.
5- And finally....I've been busy moving this past week.
Not a faraway move --just up two floors in the same building I currently live in. The owners want more money for the 1 bedroom apartment I rent now and I really can't afford the increase. So they offered to let me move upstairs for the same rent I'm paying into the studio apartment on the top floor. Now to be fair, they did give me a discount on the rent for the 1-bedroom, so I can't complain as I've been here for the past 2 1/2 years at that lower rate. But it's been a bit of a hassle lugging everything upstairs. A friend and his nephew came by today to move my TV and it's stand, which I could never do by myself. It's a 32-inch set and very heavy. But other than that, I've been moving the rest of my crap little by little. Most of it is up there now, but I still have quite a bit of stuff to sort through and decide what I want to keep and throw out some of the junk I don't want. Hopefully I can finish most of that tomorrow.
As for the blog, I had hoped to redesign it in time for my 2nd anniversary, but that didn't get done. Right now it's too cluttered looking and I want a cleaner look. Also would like to organize my archives into categories, but that means going back and labeling each one which will take some time. Hopefully I'll work up the energy to do all that soon. But who knows?
As for having a more consistent theme on the blog that probably won't happen because my mind leaps from one thing to another and that is reflected on the blog. I know I don't have a lot of readers and that is most likely due to the fact that I don't visit many other blogs and when I do don't comment very often. So not many people are aware this blog even exists. Which is OK, I guess. I've never been a very sociable person or much of a talker, so therefore have never made many friends. And I guess that applies to the internet as well. But I am very loyal to those friends I do have.
See--I don't post at all for a long while, then I ramble on and on.
OK--one more thing and then I'll shut up. In one of my first few posts, I talked about upgrading my old computer. Last week I went to a computer show and got a 1-Gigabyte upgrade for my laptop, giving me 1.5 GB total. And it has made a great difference. It runs much faster now, even with several programs running together. Also got a nice little webcam that clips to the laptop. Along with my other recent purchase of a 250 GB external hard drive, my computer should be set for some time. Which is good since it will be a long time before I can afford a new one.
Now it's time I went to sleep so I can get up early and finish my moving. At least I don't have to go to work tomorrow or the rest of the week because it's Spring Break !! Yay !!
Happy April Fool's Day, everyone, from this April Fool !
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Survey Says....
Ryan over at "Boys Are Ugly But So Cute" did this survey a few days ago and in question 26 says I would do this on my blog, so here I go:
1. What time is it? :: 5:30 am
2. What's your full name? :: Martin
3. What are you most afraid of? :: Living an unfulfilled, meaningless life (which is how it feels right now).
4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a Theater? Pan's Labyrinth
5. Place of birth? :: Albany, NY
6. Favorite food? :: Pizza
7. What's your natural hair color? :: Brown
8. Ever been to Alaska? :: No, it would be too cold for me anyway ! Brrr....
9. Ever been toilet paper rolling? :: No
10. Love someone so much it made you cry? :: Yes
11. Been in a car accident? :: Yes,when I was about 12, but it wasn't too serious.
12. Croutons or bacon bits? :: Neither
13. Favorite day of the week? :: Probably Saturday (or any day I don't have to go to work)
14. Favorite restaurant? :: Does McDonald's count? 'Cause I don't go to restaurants (food doesn't interest me that much).
15. Favorite Flower? :: Lilac
16. Favorite sport to watch? :: Don't really watch sports, but I have recently seen a few Nascar races. (because Ryan & Mike talk about it on their blog I got interested)
17. Favorite drink? :: Tea (Hot or Iced)
18. Favorite ice cream? :: Chocolate
19. Disney or Warner Brothers? :: Warner brothers
20. Ever been on a ship? :: Yes, one of those little tour boats ones that sail around Manhattan.
21. What color is your bedroom carpet? :: Dark Blue
22. How many times did you fail your driver's test? :: None, because I've never taken one.
23. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? :: Computer Geeks.com (I generally only get mail from sites I've signed up at or spam)
24. What do you do when you are bored? :: Surf the internet, read, take a walk if the weather's nice.
25. When is Bedtime? :: Varies depending on my mood (usually by 11pm, but sometimes much earlier....last night it was 8:30pm)
26. Who will do this survey on there blog? :: Everyone who reads it, or maybe no one !
27. Favorite TV show :: Smallville
28. Last person you went to dinner with? :: No one--see question 14.
29. What are your favorite colors? :: Purple, blue
30. How many tattoos do you have? :: None
31. How many pets do you have? :: None
32. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? :: The egg
33. What do you want to do before you die? :: Right now I'm honestly not sure, but I do know there are many, many things I haven't done. I've led a pretty boring life so far. Being in love would probably be one thing, but I'm not even sure of that sometimes.
34. Have you ever been to Hawaii? :: No
35. Have you been to countries outside the U.S.? :: Yes, if you count a 5 minute stop for gas in Canada. When I was 17, a couple of friends (one of whom had just gotten a car) and I went on a trip up to Canada. We stopped for gas there and then headed back home. See what an international traveler I am !
36. Time this survey ended? :: 6:18 am
1. What time is it? :: 5:30 am
2. What's your full name? :: Martin
3. What are you most afraid of? :: Living an unfulfilled, meaningless life (which is how it feels right now).
4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a Theater? Pan's Labyrinth
5. Place of birth? :: Albany, NY
6. Favorite food? :: Pizza
7. What's your natural hair color? :: Brown
8. Ever been to Alaska? :: No, it would be too cold for me anyway ! Brrr....
9. Ever been toilet paper rolling? :: No
10. Love someone so much it made you cry? :: Yes
11. Been in a car accident? :: Yes,when I was about 12, but it wasn't too serious.
12. Croutons or bacon bits? :: Neither
13. Favorite day of the week? :: Probably Saturday (or any day I don't have to go to work)
14. Favorite restaurant? :: Does McDonald's count? 'Cause I don't go to restaurants (food doesn't interest me that much).
15. Favorite Flower? :: Lilac
16. Favorite sport to watch? :: Don't really watch sports, but I have recently seen a few Nascar races. (because Ryan & Mike talk about it on their blog I got interested)
17. Favorite drink? :: Tea (Hot or Iced)
18. Favorite ice cream? :: Chocolate
19. Disney or Warner Brothers? :: Warner brothers
20. Ever been on a ship? :: Yes, one of those little tour boats ones that sail around Manhattan.
21. What color is your bedroom carpet? :: Dark Blue
22. How many times did you fail your driver's test? :: None, because I've never taken one.
23. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? :: Computer Geeks.com (I generally only get mail from sites I've signed up at or spam)
24. What do you do when you are bored? :: Surf the internet, read, take a walk if the weather's nice.
25. When is Bedtime? :: Varies depending on my mood (usually by 11pm, but sometimes much earlier....last night it was 8:30pm)
26. Who will do this survey on there blog? :: Everyone who reads it, or maybe no one !
27. Favorite TV show :: Smallville
28. Last person you went to dinner with? :: No one--see question 14.
29. What are your favorite colors? :: Purple, blue
30. How many tattoos do you have? :: None
31. How many pets do you have? :: None
32. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? :: The egg
33. What do you want to do before you die? :: Right now I'm honestly not sure, but I do know there are many, many things I haven't done. I've led a pretty boring life so far. Being in love would probably be one thing, but I'm not even sure of that sometimes.
34. Have you ever been to Hawaii? :: No
35. Have you been to countries outside the U.S.? :: Yes, if you count a 5 minute stop for gas in Canada. When I was 17, a couple of friends (one of whom had just gotten a car) and I went on a trip up to Canada. We stopped for gas there and then headed back home. See what an international traveler I am !
36. Time this survey ended? :: 6:18 am
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Videos Of The Week
Trapped inside by the recent snowstorm and not being able to find anything good to watch on TV, I spent today watching old comedy video clips online. Here are a few of my favorites.
I love Stephen Wright's strange sense of humor and his twisted way of seeing things. Here's an old clip from one of his routines:
One of the greatest stand-up comics was Rodney Dangerfield, as seen in this next video. I once heard Rodney say in an interview, not long before he died, that he wasn't afraid of death even though he really didn't believe in life after death. But wherever you are now, Rodney, I hope you are getting the respect you deserve.
When I was a kid, I loved to watch Abbott and Costello movies on TV. They had the funniest comedy routines I'd ever seen. Here is their most famous bit:
I love Stephen Wright's strange sense of humor and his twisted way of seeing things. Here's an old clip from one of his routines:
One of the greatest stand-up comics was Rodney Dangerfield, as seen in this next video. I once heard Rodney say in an interview, not long before he died, that he wasn't afraid of death even though he really didn't believe in life after death. But wherever you are now, Rodney, I hope you are getting the respect you deserve.
When I was a kid, I loved to watch Abbott and Costello movies on TV. They had the funniest comedy routines I'd ever seen. Here is their most famous bit:
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
In "Turtle Mode"
That's right....I am currently in "Turtle Mode". What's that, you ask?
Well that's what I tend to do whenever I'm feeling stressed out or really tired. And lately I've been a bit of both. So I withdraw into my shell (like a turtle) and wait for better times to poke my head out. Between my job and this seemingly endless winter, both of which I'm really sick of, I just withdraw to a quieter place inside my own little world.
This is the reason I haven't been posting much on the blog--even though I think of stuff, I just can't work up the energy to write it down. I do want to do a little re-design here and become more consistent in posting, but it will probably take me a while to motivate myself to do it.
Unfortunately, I'm running out of time right now (gotta go to work---uggh!) so I'll have to continue my whining & complaining at a later time...hehe!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Blog Readership....Explained
So this explains why I have so few readers. And I thought it was just because I do such a crappy blog !
clipped from blindcopy.blogspot.com
The real reason why no one reads your (my) blog.
Ever wonder why the traffic to your blog is so terrible? I too am concerned about increasing my readership, so I decided to gather some information to help me decipher why my traffic sucks.What I found wasn’t encouraging.Consider the following facts:16% of the world’s population is illiterate, which leaves only 840 million readers.Of that, only 20% of the world’s population speaks English, leaving 168 million readers.Only 30% of internet users read blogs, leaving 50 million readers.50 million people, sounds like a lot right? Wrong!That’s pretty simple math, 50 million blogs for 50 million readers.Therefore, with an average of only 1 reader per blog, then who’s reading your blog?That’s right, just you. Depressing, ain’t it?
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Jupiter Flyby: NASA's Pluto Probe Set for Gas Giant Rendezvous
(Reprinted from Space.com)
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is about to welcome a robotic visitor.
NASA’s New Horizons probe will make its closest pass by the gas giant at about 12:45 a.m. EST (0545 GMT) Wednesday in a sort of cosmic stopover on its long trek to distant Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The planetary flyby comes just 13 months after New Horizons’ launch, with the probe hurtling through space at about 47,000 miles per hour (75,639 kph) on what NASA is billing as its fastest mission to solar system’s edge.
How I wish I could have stowed away on this spacecraft and gone along on its journey
....although it might have been a bit cramped as the New Horizons probe is pretty small.
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