General Accounting

This is pretty much an odds-and-ends entry, covering a bunch of small topics I've been saving up.

Since I figured out last month how to play DVDs on my Powerbook and how to hook it up to my television, I've decided to start buying DVDs. Well, I've only bought one, The Shawshank Redemption, but I received three more as gifts over the holidays, and now own four of my favorite films. The other three are Silverado, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

I don't feel strongly wedded to DVDs in their current form. Their quality is slightly better than videotape's, but the medium had been severely crippled by manufacturers' hokey pseudo-protection schemes like region encoding. Plus, at this point HDTV isn't a viable option for most people, and the screen quality of standard televisions is, frankly, mediocre at best. But there are more cool items coming out on DVD than on video these days, so I figured it was time to upgrade.

Tonight at gaming we played Chrononauts, which we found plays fast, doesn't have too much randomness to make us feel helpless, and is actually rather clever. Clearly I need to go buy the expansion pack.

I made another stab at dismantling the desk I inherited with my place. I figured maybe I could hammer a screwdriver into the space between boards to dislodge the glue holding the boards together. No luck, though. Some of the boards are just too tightly bonded. Additionally, it seems some of the metal widgets holding the boards together are not inclined to let go. So it looks like power tools are my only option.

Gaming buddy Chad says he has a hand circular saw I can borrow to do the deed. The desk is made of pressboard (a.k.a. particle board; you know, the stuff IKEA book cases are made out of), none of the boards more than about 1-1/2" think, so hopefully that will do the job.

One of my cow-orkers suggested renting something called a "reciprocating saw", saying it might work better. That seems like additional hassle. I might try borrowing Chad's saw first. Anyone have any other suggestions?

I should mention that the desk is too big to get even out of the room it's in without taking it apart. And since dismantling it isn't possible, destruction seems to be the only option.

On a more upbeat note, I received the other two window shades I ordered from Costco (which, I've been informed, is not spelled "CostCo"!). I put them up yesterday, the day I received them; amazing how much easier it is to do that sort of work once you know what you're doing!

Anyway, they look nice. I took down one of the vertical hanging blinds left by the previous owners, and my bedroom looks (I think) nicer because of it. I've now covered five of my seven large windows; all I have left are my two sliding glass doors, and I'm going to get curtains on a pull-rod for those. Then I think my place will be all set up!

One last thing, which I find a bit puzzling. I've been using my Amazon wish list for my Christmas and birthday wish lists among my friends and family. As I receive items, I remove them from my list. And I've received all of the items which were bought from it... except for one.

If you've used an Amazon list, you know that it tells other people who browse the list which items have already been purchased. And if you've owned an Amazon list, you know it only tells you how many have been purchased, not which ones. Of course, it's easy to see which ones have been bought for you. I didn't want to spoil my surprises, so I didn't look until I opened the items. Except for this one item, which is Medium Rare by Jadis. Obviously I looked because as far as I know everything I expected to receive has been received.

So I'm wondering who bought this item, and what happened to it? I wonder if someone ordered it from my wish list, but shipped it to themselves and kept it for themselves. I don't suppose anyone reading this knows anything about this? Maybe it's just back ordered...?

Anyway, this is stuck in my craw because, you see, I received an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas and I wanted to use it to buy the two Jadis albums I'm missing...