Farewell Netflix!

This makes the trip to the mailbox sooo worth it.

Today was a sad day, I cancelled my netflix membership (mere minutes before they could bill me for another month) and also mere minutes before they shipped me out 2 more DVDs that were in my que that I now have 7 days to return :)

It was doubly sad because I associate Netflix with summer vacation...a time when the rental of videos is an integral part of finding relatively low-cost ways to stay amused and catch up on all those things you miss doing 60+ hours a week of school work. Netflix is hands-down one of the best ways to rent videos as long as you have the patience to wait a day to get the video you want instead of going for instant gratification. It also pays for a month of service within 5 videos, which if you're like me can be achieved easily inside of a week. You'll really never want to go back to spending $4 a pop at a video store and getting some scratched up DVD that you have to return in a couple of days and deal with running into ex's or people you frankly just don't want to see. Call it one more step to complete societal isolation, but I think it's something that is helping to keep the near-monopoly of the video rental business in a much-needed check.

iMac on your mom...

Not much going on today, it's a tad hot here & all I can say is thank god for air conditioning. Who knows how cavepeople survived...except of course for living in caves...hmmm...

Don't wanna get too techy for people today, but Apple is coming out with a new iMac at the end of this month to replace the alien-looking one that's been around for a few years. A bunch of people have made mockups of what they think it will look like, but some dude from Germany made a really cool one that's kind of like a TV gone computer. Here's a picture:


I know I worry about falling in love with backs often.

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Also if you're interested in reading that Playboy interview with the creators of Google (it's not all geeky trust me) this site put up a copy of it because it's technically public property now that Google is an IPO. A nice little snippet from the interview comes in the form of a uncomforting quote from co-creator Sergey Brin: "Our ads aren’t distracting; they’re helpful."

Here's your picture of the day...a little taste of summer if you catch my drift.

Where's your entourage?

There's nothing quite like premium cable. Only one thing could tear me away from 4 hours of Olympic montages and anorexic female gymnists and that was HBO's entourage. The show is so enjoyable I thought I'd give you five reasons why it's worth 30 minutes of your Sunday night and undoubtably $30 of your monthly cable bill for HBO:

Five reasons why kicks ass:

1. Good actors from movies and TV. Every character is spot-on and delivers with wit and realism.

2. An idea that's never ending. The plotlines and character expansion are endless. The show can cover the star's life from fame to burnout and even revival...each episode just builds more depth.



3. Jeremy Piven. He was the cool guy in "PCU", the cool friend in "Grosse Point Blank" and the incredible asshole in "Old School" His character in the show is hilarious and either makes you cringe or bust out laughing...sometimes both. He's the guy we love to hate, but secretly look forward to seeing implode.


4. It's Marky Mark's brainchild--what could go wrong? HBO's even announced a second season for the show.


5. Celebrity cameos. It's like in "Sex in the City" without all that unnecessary SJP voice-over stuff.

Thank goodness this isn't single elimination...

Lets get serious here for a minute. USA Basketball was a disgrace today in Athens. There are a bunch of reasons why, let me spell them out for Larry Brown & the rest of the NBA in case they weren't sure after getting spanked by Italy & now Puerto Rico:

Lamar Odom looks for his skill.

1. Where's Shaq? I hate the Lakers as much as anybody, but now that Shaq's chillin in Miami the U.S. is missing one of the best big players the game's ever had. Tim Duncan, Odom & Boozer are good big men, but there's no reason why Boozer should be there instead of Shaq--I don't care if he declined.

2. Where's Tracy Mcgrady? Don't tell me he's going back to college (again)...T-Mac delivers...better than that Wade guy.


3. Leaving Carmelo Anthony on the bench for pretty much the entire game while LeBron James plays pretty much the whole game. Guess what Larry, 'Melo is better than King James & you don't know it.



4. Letting Stoudamire sit the entire game after not getting hot while on the floor.
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Orange Juice & free Wi-Fi...

In other news, T-mobile is giving Floridians (people from Florida) free Wi-Fi access, which is cool since hurricaine Charley took out a reported 280-800,000 acres of citrus growing area. The only catch is that most of those hotspots are in Starbucks coffee shops.

If anybody is unemployed and looking for a job here in Portland you might be able to get this from Oregonlive.com :



And speaking of pictures (oh sorry were we?) here's a shot I took a couple weeks ago of an iPod...