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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
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1:31 pm - Downgrading
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Anybody have a good sollution to the probelm of downgrading from an illegal copy of Windows XP to a completely legal version of Win2k?
Here's the deal...
Bought a computer for my Mom two Christmases ago. It cam with Windows XP on it, but since it was a decomissioned DMV computer, the license on XP had expired. As soon as Mom clicke don the "Click Here to get Validated" pop-up, she's been getting the "Your computer may be at risk, not legit Microsoft Product, you are a bad person, yadda yadda yadda" message. $150 to get a legit license from Microsoft. So my Mom has just been living with the inconvenience all this time of losing her personal settings every time she shuts down and not getting any updates and the constant "Click here to resolve this problem" pop-ups.
BUT! At a garage sale a few weeks ago I found a legit, sealed retail copy of Windows 2000! Verified with the dude selling it that it was indeed a legit, unused, unregistered license for Windows 2000. He confirmed all this and explained that he was a developer who won it at a trade show years and years ago, never installed it because he's a Mac Guy.
So I paid a dollar for it.
Unfortunately, when i go to install it on my Mother's computer? It says "You already have a newer operating system on this computer so you couldn't POSSIBLY be trying to Downgrade, right?" and it cancels itself out.
Am i really going to have to back-up all my Mom's pictures and music files to whipe the hard drive and then re-install from scratch?
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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12:20 pm - Molly Madness
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The other morning I was lying in bed, minding my own business, when Molly came in and stood very close to the bed right at the foot of it so that all I could see was her head and shoulders. She was smiling... odd. Big, wide eyes and a forced "Joker Rigormortis" open-mouthed bared-teeth grin. Really creepy. And she just stood there, grinning at me.
i said "Hey, Punkin'... whatcha doin'?"
She didn't move, but I heard a "Whiiiir, WHIIIrrrr" come from whatever she was holding just below my line of site.
"Whatcha got there, Punkin'?"
Whiiir whiir WEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Keeping her face in that gruesome wide-eyed death-grin, she jerked her toy CHAINSAW up right parallel next to her face with both hands and started to giggle as a screamed in terror.
Then she cut my feet off.
I can't help but think that i should be worried. Not about the missing feet - it was just pretend. i still have my feet. Worried about *her*. But also impressed and kinda proud?
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, June 29th, 2009
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10:36 am - The Hits just keep on coming!
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Comedian/songwriter Fred Travalena DEAD!
You're asking yourself "Who in the fornication is Fred Travalena?"
He was THE impressionist in the 70's and 80's that wasn't Rich Little. If you remember seeing a stand-up comedian on TV doing impressions of a President or a Celebrity in the 70's or 80's and it wasn't Rich Little? IT WAS FRED TRAVALENA.
Is it just me, or does today's Celebrity Death seem kinda lacking?
You remember in the Old Days of Wheel of Fortune, when they'd have the winner "spend" his or her winnings on variety of prizes that were set-up on a spinning display? "I'll take the Pair of Motor Bikes for $800, the Trip To The Bahamas for $950... the year of Maid Service for $600... the Giant Ceramic Dog for $300... and the rest of it on a Gift Certificate".
Fred Travalena is definitely the Giant Ceramic Dog of this current Death March. Not enough to get the Pinball Machine, too much to put the rest on a gift certificate... guess I'll get The Fred Travalena.
Death is really grasping now.
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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7:34 am - Why didn't I think of this?
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| Sunday, June 28th, 2009
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8:51 pm - Who is YOUR Doctor?
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8:35 pm - Sometimes, Alton Brown ISN'T smoking all the crak!
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Watched an episode of Good Eats recently where Alton Brown made "American Classic Spaghetti" using a list of ingredients that I had never and WOULD never have though of going in to my spaghetti; White Wine and Evaporated Milk.
Tonight I made a Spaghetti Sauce with White Wine and Evaporated Milk.
The creamy pink color turned me off at first, but that mellowed out quite a bit as the sauce simmered.
WOW WAS THAT GOOD SPAGHETTI!!!
A problem that I usually have is that the sauce doesn't really want to stick to the noodles; this sauce was almost like a GRAVY or STEW it was so thick and rich! And the evaporated milk (NOT Sweetened Condensed milk) added an almost cheese-like flavor and texture to the sauce.
I may never make spaghetti sauce without white wine and evaporated milk ever again! It's like a Dead-Head sticker on a Cadillac! Can't go back no you can never go back!
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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10:09 am - The Celebrity Killing Spree goes on, and on, and on...
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Television Spokesman Billy Mays, DEAD!
You may remember him as "The shouty Middle-of-The-Night OxyClean Guy", or "The Anti-Vince-Offer".
Nominations are now open! Who do you think should be the next Celebrity to get "Voted Off the Island" as it were? I vote for either Geraldo Rivera or Courtney Love. Not that I have anything against eithe rone of them, they'r ejust both about ready to go (imho).
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 25th, 2009
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3:11 pm - WOW!
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9:32 am - Survivors
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Do you remember the first part of Stephen King's "The Stand"? The really cool part where 95% of the population gets wiped-out by a flu-like virus? The part BEFORE it got all weird and Good-Versus-Evil-Preachy on us? You know... the GOOD part?
Wouldn't it be cool if somebody would make a TV series based on just that? The world coming to an end and the scraps of society having to first of all find each other and then try to rebuild?
It couldn't be an American TV show because they would try to force romance and sexiness in to it.
It couldn't be Japanese, either, because they would try to make it either spiritual or alien in nature. Maybe even a giant monster or robot would be involved.
Nope, I'm pretty sure it would have to come from the good old BBC. Only "The Beebs" could pull off a show like what I want in a stark, serious way without trying to make it a great big Marketing Tool.
Maybe they could get somebody awesome with plenty of sci-fi and speculative fiction cred like Terry Nation (Doctor Who, Blakes 7) to come up with the idea. Wouldn't that be awesome?
OH WAIT THEY ALREADY DID IT BACK IN 1975 AND THEY CALLED IT "SURVIVORS"!!!
I love it when stuff like this happens! Stumbling around The Internet and PLOP! There it is! EXACTLY what I've been looking for all my life!
I'm only 4 episodes in to the first season right now... 3 seasons to watch. WOW is it a good show! Do yourself favor and search out that torrent!
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
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1:44 pm - Disaster & Parental Failure
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Today I am an absolute failure of a parent. Molly woke up a little bit sicker than she ahd been the past few days (lots of snot, sneezing and coughing), but I had been promising her an awesome day out today. We were going to go to Lynndale Park in Lynnwood for a nifty little juggling show and then playing with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bjorker and Aurelia. She was stoked to do this, and so was I!
First bad sign was that all the roads I knew of to get to Lynndale Park were closed for construction. Spent a half-hour following detour signs that took us further and further away from the park... I eventually cheated and cut through the construction to get to a little-used parking lot that was right on top of the area where the juggling was gonna happen.
Then it started to rain. Not hard, just enough to let you know that it's raining. Just enough to make Molly insist that we take an umbrella with us.
The first ten minutes there were great. We found Aurelia, we sat, she shared her umbrella, they blew bubbles... it was nice.
Then Molly got bored.
She stripped off her coat, shoes and socks. I *think* she beat Aurelia with the umbrella and refused to say she was sorry. And then she decided to give up on the jugglers and head for the playground, shoeless, in the rain.
Every time I tried to play with her or talk to her or even look in her general direction she yelled at me to stop it, even when she was asking me for help.
Once she was nice and dirty, we went back to the jugglers. Molly found a stick and made sure the other girls had them too so they could all swing them around and hit each other with them. Molly refused to stop, I took her stick away, she burst out crying.
Then she became very interested in the jugglers. So did I... they brought out KNIVES.
And then Molly was GONE. She had run off the to the playground on her own in the 7 seconds that I didn't stay 100% completely focused on her, one of my biggest fears.
She played int he playground and continued to tell me to quit it, so I told her that I had had enough of her attitude and in to the car seat we wnet, crying all the way.
On the way home I bought her a Happy Meal just to shut her up for a few minutes. I was THAT FRUSTRATED.
I feel like the worst Father in the world right now :(
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(13 comments | comment on this)
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1:53 am - I think I'll call him Alex...
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Why am I making a post at 1:53 in the morning? Because I'm VERY AWAKE RIGHT NOW.
Since all of us are kinda sick, we've been having problems with our sleep schedules in Casa del Pierce. And then I went and screwed things up even MORE by offering to drive Nani & Freak to the airport, which meant getting up at 3am yesterday.
So tonight Molly and I stayed in the living room to watch movies while Crystal attempts to sleep. It was about 1am the last time I remember being awake, because eventually I woke-up with Molly asleep in my arms and the sound of our stupid cats in the kitchen trying to break in to The Cat Food Bin because I had forgotten to feed them before passing out. Stupid, stupid cats.
I lay Molly down on the couch and I go to feed the Stupid Cats.
Only there aren't any cats in the Kitchen.
What *is* in the kitchen is a great big RACCOON, joyously eating up all the cat food. He wasn't scarred at al; he just looked up at me as if to say "Hey" before going back to the eating.
"Hey there, uhm... Raccoon. Alex. I think I'll call you Alex. Hey, uhm... Alex?"
"Yo?"
"Alex, I don't know how to really bring this up but, uhm, well... that's not your food."
"Oh? I didn't see any name on it so I figured it was for everybody. But if you'd rather that I not..."
"Well see, Alex, the thing is that this isn't your home, either. See, you're kinda what we'd like to call a 'Woodland Creature'"
"Oh, I see... I think I know where this is going..."
"Yeah, so if you wouldn't mind terribly, would you mind making a break for the pet door as if I had startled you or something?"
"Oh, sure, sure! I can totally respect that! Let me just... ugh! Tight fit! But... there. I'm out. Is it okay if I just hang here for a while till you fall asleep again, then come back in and finish eating?"
"NO, ALEX! I would prefer that you stay OUTSIDE from now on! You're a RACCOON! You probably have RABIES or something!"
"Dude, harsh. I never pegged you for a Racist."
And with that, Alex left.
As i hunted for a way to secure the pet door and keep it closed, Alex kept poking his nose in through the little door.
"Dude, we're still Bros, right?"
"ALEX GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW I MEAN IT!!!"
"Okay, i understand. You're tense. I'll come back later."
This was a much more relaxed wildlife encounter than I had ever expected. Back on The Farm, critters knew to be afeared of humans. Just rattling the doorknob was enough to send them scattering to the far corners of the night. But even as I was swatting at Alex with a broom and throwing things at him to get him off our patio, he kept looking at me like I had seriously hurt his feelings. Big, soulful puppydog eyes :(
Now The Cats are pissed that they can't come and go as they please. They are currently digging at my pet door barricade in hopes that I'll just let them come and go as they please once again. Fat chance, at least not tonight. They can go ahead and stay outside with Alex and talk about what a dick of a room mate I am.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
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8:14 pm - Crisis on 196,833 Earths (Pt. 2)
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There was a point to that last post, I just got carried away with it!
As readers know, the result of all this recent Crisis hullabaloo is that there are 52 Alternate Earths.
Between the 80's (when the ORIGINAL Crisis On Infinite Earths happened) and now, there had only been *one* Earth.
But before that, how many Earths were there?
According to THIS WEBSITE (which is days upon days of awesome reading), there are/were 196,833 alternate Earths that we have seen or heard from.
I love that site, and I know there's no way I'll ever read about every single one of the 196,833 worlds. But you gotta love the ambition behind that site!
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(comment on this)
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8:01 pm - Crisis on 196,833 Earths!
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Not too long ago, I had the Comic Collector's Mid-Life Crisis. That's the part of your life when you decide that all the comics being published today are utter crap, and they just don't make comics they way they used to. Usually this crisis makes you (a)Forget about new comics entirely so you can concentrate on ciollecting full runs of everything printed up to that moment that you deem to be "The End", or (b) giving up on comic books altogether and instead focusing on stuff like Travel (see "Comic Book Villains" staring DJ Qualls on DVD for example).
The very last NEW comics I felt compelled to buy were the "Identity Crisis" storyline. After that I started yelling at The Damn Kids to keep off my lawn and swore I would never buy a new comic book again, ever.
So far, so good... but...
The Snohomish and King County Library System is pretty darned awesome. They have TONS of very recent Trade paperbacks and hard-back collections. On accident, I checked-out one of the gazillion "Crisis" event collections and read it.
And WOW is it good! I had heard lots of complaints from reviewers and whatnot about how you REALLY had to know your obscure DC Universe history to understand it, but i was amazed at how well they pulled it all off! I'm reading pretty much everything out of order and it's still making sense to me, so that's good... have to try and find "52" and then I think I'll be close to complete...
...And it's REALLY making me want to get back in to recent comics :(
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(comment on this)
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2:27 pm - No Movie
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Had big plans to go to the Regal Cinemas Free Family Film Festival this morning with Molly, but when we got there we were told that "Horton Hears a Who" was full-up. This caused many, many tears. So we got in to the truck and went across the street to the AMC Theater at The Mall in hopes of seeing something kid-friendly. I was even willing to PAY to see something like "Up" again.
Unfortunately, the closest thing to "Kid Friendly" that they had there was rated PG-13 (Land Of The Lost). GRRRRRRRR!!!
So in to the mall where we bought a few shirts @ The Disney Store and spent an HOUR playing in the playland there.
I know it was a beautiful day and she should have been playing outside, but all the parks that we usually frequent are DEAD during the day. This wasn't really an excuse to get her out and exercise so much as it was a call for some social interaction. SHE LOVES OTHER KIDS. I *need* to get her in with more large groups of kids like that. She loves it!
We may try the movie again tomorrow if we're feeling up to it... Molly's still a bit under the weather and I am fighting it HARD.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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6:37 am - Ed McMahon, DEAD!
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| Sunday, June 21st, 2009
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7:18 pm - What it was!
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Molly and Crystal got me a restaurant-grade Stock Pot for Fathers Day! For the longest time I have had to cook all my soups and stews in one of two different pots; the nice little Dutch Oven (awesome but small) or my Stainless Steel Canning Pot (Giant, but too thin to cook anything other than water without burning). Too many pots of chili have had to be labeled as "Smoke-House" thanks to the tangy tinge of burnt beans.
So nice! Insulated handles, a lid that fits, nice thick bottom... I am going to make a lot of good soups and stews!
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, June 20th, 2009
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1:34 pm - WTF could it be???
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Molly and Crystal are on heir way out to buy me SOMETHING for Fathers Day.
She has no idea how much it costs.
She is unable to research it on-line.
She couldn't comparison-shop to get the best deal.
She called and confirmed that the place she is buying it from is still open today.
WHAT COULD IT BE?!?!?
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(13 comments | comment on this)
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8:16 am - Cookie Dough Recall
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Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough being voluntarily recalled after several cases of deadly salmonella result from people eating the product raw.
SO! All you have to do is take the product THAT SAYS DO NOT EAT RAW RIGHT ON THE PACKAGING back to the store that you bought it at and get a full refund.
Or, alternately, you could NOT EAT THE COOKIE DOUGH RAW and instead follow the instructions on the package, making yourself a delicious batch of warm, delightful cookies that you can still eat and all the salmonella will have been killed by the cleansing fires of your very own oven.
Don't worry - eating a batch of fresh-baked cookies will still make you just as fat as eating a tube of raw cookie dough :)
Also please avoid eating raw Chicken, Pork, Eggs, Pancake Patter, Lighter Fluid and Ready-Light Mesquite Charcoal Briquettes so that we can avoid other such recalls this week. Thanks!
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 18th, 2009
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8:57 am - Cherry Poptart Movie BREAKING NEWS!!!
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Brian Pierce wrote:
> Mr. Welz, I'm sure that you get asked this question a lot and I'm
> sorry to waste your time with it, but in the entirety of all the
> Internet I have not been able to find a definitive answer to my question!
>
> What ever happened to the "Cherry" movie?
>
> Many people claim to know somebody who may have seen it, but no
> first-hand accounts. Others claim that it was sold to Cinemax or
> Showtime and never made it to air. And still others claim that the
> FCC shut it down and destroyed all known copies of it.
>
> Did it ever get made? Did it ever get an official release? Is it
> possible for me to purchase a copy of it anywhere???
>
> Please, any information you can give me will be greatly appreciated
> and I will do my darndest to spread the word so that you're never
> bothered with this question again. Thanks!
>
> Long-Time Fan,
>
> Brian Pierce
Brian,
No it never got made sorry to say, just one of those things in the movie
industry. We also had a animation started on it but that never panned
out either just one of those things. Anyway thanks for the inquiry.
Sharon Welz
So now we know :(
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
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2:42 pm - Perv
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This post is gonna make me seem like a pervert and, well, sure I'm a perv but usually my perv status is well justified. But this time my pervishness is really not the motivation for this quest.
My current semi-obsession is hunting down and downloading rare comicbook-related shows and movies. I've got pretyt much everything done through the 70's like the live-action SHAZAM!, plus rarer things like the Power Pack and Starlord pilot episodes of the late 80's. I've got all the crappy Captain America, Fantastic Four and JLA movies that never made it to theaters. I even have the awesome 1950's "Super Pup" which was like the Superman TV Show, only with midgets dressed like dogs.
Yes, I've got it all... but one thing eludes me. One thing that i can't even confirm or deny the EXISTENCE OF!!!
Starting in 1982 there was an adult underground comic book called "Cherry Poptart". It was a pornographic comic book done in the style of Archie Comics. Think of your average issue of Archie, only Betty is really, REALLY slutty. Over the years I have collected nearly all the issues and I'm not ashamed to admit that Ms. Poptart and her friends helped rocket me through my adolescence.
In the letter column of that comic over the years, the creator would sometimes talk bout how they were making a live-action Cherry Poptart TV Show or Movie or something. It changed back and forth a few times... sometimes it was being made for Showtime or Cinemax, sometimes it was being made as a XXX Porno Flick. The last mention of it in his comics that I can remember he claimed that it was done, it was in the can, and just waiting for FCC approval.
...And that's it. No more.
In my search for every obscure Comic Book related film, I decided to go looking for this film. As far as I can tell it's not available on any free torrent sites, but a few PAY torrent sites claim to have it. I'm just not willing to pay $24.95 to see if they're liars. Google has been unable to tell me if this film even actually EXISTS. Lots of folks out there just like me who had heard about the film, a few who claim to know somebody who's seen it, but no actual first-hand accounts.
This isn't like my searches for films like "The Cocketeer" or "Snatch To The Future" which were just funny because they were parodies... this is a legitimate search for something to complete a collection!
DON'T YOU JUDGE ME!!!
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(10 comments | comment on this)
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