Lazy Uni Student

Sorry about shouting in the title. But my computer chair broke. Broke. And I'm broke. Hows that for poetry/symmetry/irony?

Dammit. No chair. I want to swear.

No fear.

A quick stroll

To the uni library

Is in what I need to indulge

Until

I can afford

A new chair

Damn

I still want to swear

Enough with the high fulutin' social responsibility stuff. It's time for me to get something intimatly personal off my chest.

Why is it so freakin' motherf***en bloody hard to find some things in the supermarket?

Theres two things that are invaribly difficult to find in any given supermarket in NZ.

1) Coconut Cream/Milk
2) Pizza Bases

Sort it out please.

You know who you are.

I saw the 20/20 'current affairs' program earlier tonight, and one of the stories is about how we should implement nuclear power in New Zealand. I have long since been converted into nuclear believer. Forget Chenobyl. Accidents happen. Chances of that kind of disaster happening ever again are very slim. New Zealand needs nuclear power. It makes sense really. Us kiwis get all smug about our Hydro dams and Natural gas, which is all supposed to be environmentally friendly. Bullshit. Damming rivers killing all the plants/trees/birds/bees, dislocating entire towns, and building dams not capable of holding back the waters in a major downpour does not seem justified to enable me to sit at home and watch TV.

So if we get N. power we might lose our 'clean green' image. So friggan what. We burn shitloads of coal, we all drive cars, (Auckland is something like third in the world for carbon monoxide gas). New Zealand is the only country in the OECD that has no emissions screening program. That means you don't have to tune your cars folks. You can cruise around with black soot pouring out the exhaust and our government won't care. We do all this, and more, and somehow we've managed to maintain a clean green image. My guess is Saatchi & Saatchi have a lot to do with it.

Nuclear power is inevitable in New Zealand. It's just not gonna happen though until we have a Prime Minister brave enough to put his/her foot down. Helen Clarke won't ever do it. She's all about PR. Don Brash might, but we shall see. Until some visionary PM steps up and aknowledges the situation, us kiwis are just going to have to put up with blackouts and 'save power' campaigns. Gay.

I've decided to set some pre-New Years resolutions. Rather than making the usual resolutions on New Years, in a drunken haze, usually whilst hooking into some random that I have no intention of calling back the next day. "No, no i'll write down your number, and I'll definatly call in a day or two."

So I'm turning the tide, setting a new trend. I'm gonna make some bold statements/goals right here and I intend to implement each one before the New Year rolls around, and stick to them for the rest of next year. Feel free to pester me on the progress of these goals.

#1 - Watch 'Super Size Me' and stop eating Mc'Donalds/Burger King/Kentucky Fried Chicken. (Not takeaways in general, just big corporate ones)

#2 - Get Fit. I wanna be doing 30mins of excercise 3x a week. Minimum.

#3 - Getting up at 7am. Everyday. Probably the hardest of the bunch. Means no late night blogging. Might have to start early morning blogging.

I think thats enough for one year.

Google, in its infinite wisdom, has granted me a grand total of 6 gmail invites to give away. Email me, the address is in my profile.

Edit: 5 Gmail Invites
Edit: 4
Edit: 3

Morning Sam

I don't know how it is I do these things to myself. I'm a living conundrum I'm the guy that does the exact opposite of what I say. The worst thing is, I'm sincere in what I say. I mean, when I say it I believe in what I'm saying.

So what contradictory things am I saying? Well. Usual guy stuff really; "I think I need to find a girlfriend", "I need to stop hooking up with randoms at the pub","I should take university more seriously", "I should do that essay that's already two days overdue", and my favorite: "I should really try to get out of bed before 11am". I mean if I wanna be a functioning, contributing member of society, I'm gonna have to get out of bed by at least 8am.

Thing is, right, I go out on Sat nite. Good, I think, I'll mingle with the commoners. Maybe chat up a few ladies and if I'm lucky I'll charm some wonderful lady into giving me her phone number. Visions of snobby clubs with ladies in cocktail dresses making intelligent conversation about the latest in global politics and its effect on the world economy, laughing at jokes about the tennis, whilst swilling my gin martini and commenting on how the diamond necklace shes wearing complements her eyes. My James Bond like manner causing all the ladies in the room to wish they weren't married or engaged.

Cue the Outback. Shatter illusion. Hundreds of first/second year students all looking to score. Meat Market. Every town has one. Hamilton has three. The Outback, however, is lowest common denominator. So my expectations are very low. I do find some gold in the rubble though. One girl I know from Whakatane, and I liked her back there, she was always nice, nice smile etc. So I do the whole 'How do I know you' game. She's cool, we get on. I'm not sure what happened then, maybe I got bored or something. Next thing I know I'm in Monkeyfeather, and I meet another nice girl that I know from Uni. Cool. Shes just broken up with her boyfriend. Even better. We dance a bit, and then she takes me (or maybe I just tagged along) to the outback. Again. Start dancing again, but its like me and 4 guys I've never met and the girl from uni. I'm not good at math but I know when the odds aren't in my favor. Then next thing I remember, (This is the killer bit folks) I'm hooking up with the girl from the dairy down the road from where I live. How? Not sure. Regret? Oh yes.

The worst thing is, well actually there's multiple bad things about this, but the worst is that I can never go to that dairy again. Ever. Now consider that I do not own a car and that it's the closest dairy. My whole life is changed. I now have to make nice with a whole new dairy, get used to a different store layout, learn a new variation of the english language that the owner has declared all the staff use. Not only that but because I hooked up with Dairy Girl in full view of everyone at the outback I've at least ruined my chances with Uni girl and Whakatane Girl.

So the next morning I awake with a hangover. Considerable. But its not really dehydration. No. It's conscience.

The Intro:

Well I finally got there. I slaved away for the three people that read this site. Tirelessly watching movies. Just so you can make informed desicions. This is how I spent my friday nights. For you reader, yes you.

So sad.

Enough lament you say! I wanna see where my hard borrowed dollars are best directed for DVD convenience you say! Read on, I say.

The Guts:

Fatso

Very nice site. Easy to navigate. Groovy features like the ability to write user reviews and group management function, so if more than one person is using the service, you can individually select movies and Fatso will allocate the movies out fairly. Great for flats. The site also employs some sort of intuitive software that present you with recommendations based on what rating you give to movies. Fatso provides a return envelope for each DVD they provide. This means you can return just one dvd, or two or all three. Depends on your appetite.

My only criticism's with Fatso are; the dvds arrive in a mail friendly custom case with no documentation whatsoever, and the turnaround for delivery seemed maybe a day longer than Movieshack. I'm the kind of geek who like to read the back covers of movies while I'm watching them to glean as much useless information as I can. A complete lack of reading material was, well, disappointing.

Add the fact that long-time Bfm movie reviewer Stephen Grey provides reviews for the site, and you have yourself a winner.

Movieshack

Very similar website to Fatso's, perhaps a little simpler with no ability to search by director (a must for film geeks). The service is almost the same except the selection does not seem to be as comprehensive as Fatso's. The dvds come in a custom Movieshack cover, with a printout of the websites synopsis provided on the back cover. This also includes vital info like the runtime of the movie, so you can make those crucial 'should I wait till the movie finishes or should I pause now and go to the toilet' decisions which can be a blessing for those of us without Superman bladders. Like Fatso, Movieshack provides a return post paid envelope for each dvd.


DvdUnltd

Funny choice of URL for these people. Especially since they were first on to the New Zealand market. It's not like there is a shortage of .co.nz names is there? First time I plugged the name into my browser, I was greeted with the evil '404 File Not Found...' screen. Eventually I found the right URL. The one thing that really sets DVDUnltd apart is that it just doesn't come across as professional as the other two. The website seemed cluttered and slow to load. DVDUnltd Only provided two return envelopes, so you have to be strategic with when and how many dvd's you send back. But this never seemed to be a real problem.

However, the service is cheaper, at $35 per month for 3 dvds at a time. The selection is impressive, with more of the obscure movies turning up than on Movieshack, and nearly as good as Fatso's. DVDUnltd have taken a novel approach to the dvd packaging issue, by laminating the paper inserts from the original dvd packaging and attaching sleeves to the inside. So what you end up receiving is the original dvd cover squashed flat. Cool. Geeks like me appreciate this sort of thing. We can read the cover and acquire those important nuggets of trivia that otherwise we might miss out on.

The thing I liked most about DVDUnltd though, is the fact that they send out both dvd's of two disc sets as ONE disc. I received the E.T. special edition 2 disc set as one dvd. Nice. Fatso and Movieshack would treat them as two separate discs, taxing your three disc maximum.

The End:

Fatso has the best selection, and the nicest site. Movieshack has the lesser selection of the three but does have a nicer site than DVDUnltd. DVDUnltd has a very good selection, is cheaper, provides bonus discs without taxing your maximum discs, and supplies the dvd's with the original packaging, albeit laminated and squashed flat for the mail. So for me, DVDUnltd wins. Being a poor student, it works out to be the best DVD/Dollar ratio. Surprised me that's for sure. I had my money on Fatso, but I guess that's what slick marketing does to ya.

I can't Think. Maybe I don't want too. Maybe the holidays/teaching recess fried my brain. Actually thinking is not my problem. Composing is. I need to write this review on the dvd rentals, and it is coming, I promise. But there are more pressing things to attend to. Like getting my brain working again.

On a brighter note, my buddy has hooked me up with a gmail account.

Now you have to understand that I have been lusting after one of these bad boys ever since I first heard about them. I think quite seriously that i've had more lust energy devoted to finding a gmail, than I have devoted to women. sad. so sad. In saying that however, if you were to look at an investment of energy:payoff ratio, you would find women are a better return on my attentions.

What was that? See I'm just not able to compose my thoughts lately.

Anyway, if any of ya are dying to get a hold of me you can send an email to -(edit: check my profile)