Lose some, win some. Karma works in mysterious ways.

Saturday started on an up note, with the arrival of my bi-weekly check and my state tax refund.
However, the downswing would soon follow. Checking my bank balance online showed some bad stuff.
I had lost $100 to bank fees the day before. 4 items got paid against insufficient funds. The first item was my check to the
storage unit, and it minused my balance because it exceeded it. So when the 3 smaller amounts showed up, they all bounced.
If the check had been the last thing to process, I would have lost only $25. I thought I had time to cover the storage check,
since it took them 2 weeks to deposit the check last month. It cleared the very next day, before I could deposit the money.
Son of a bitch.
I was planning to buy some computer parts and build a newer machine with bits provided by coyoteseven and salvaged from
my own machine. Or buy a desk chair, or a new futon mattress.
Forget it. Grrrrrrrr...

I was pretty pissed about this. Also, my buddy Warren (no LJ) wasn't due to show up for another 2 hours, so I decided to
get comfortable and watch "The Chronicles Of Riddick" with the sibling. I enjoyed it. See review at bottom.
Warren arrived just as the end credits were rolling. I showed him around the place, grabbed a few needed things, then we
headed out the door. He had spilled his drink on his shirt on his way over, so he wanted to stop at Target and get a new one.
He already knew what he wanted: the "Protect Your Nuts" t-shirt. It's pretty funny!
We also checked out the toy section, for Hot Wheels (nothing new) and for Lego sets (see below).
I only found one 2003 Lego set, the first "Star Wars: Episode III" set I've seen in the flesh:
7256, aka Jedi Starfighter And Vulture Droid. So I grabbed it like a rabbit!
It includes the new version of the Jedi Starfighter (grey and yellow) and the updated version of the old Trade Federation
Fighter Droid, the Separatist Vulture Droid. It's pretty close to the old design, except for a few changes.
The Jedi Starfighter comes with an Anakin Skywalker mini-figure with a gloved right hand. Thanks Count Dooku!
It has a retractable landing gear system, adjustable wings and a nifty canopy.
It cost $20 and I'm pretty pleased with it. Yeah, that's a little steep, but you know, Legos last forever.
We paid for our stuff and left. Warren put his new t-shirt on in the parking lot. Thank goodness it was dark out :-D
We headed South and stopped at an ATM so I could make a deposit to cover my ass.
Then we shot straight down to Garden (Garbage) Grove to attend the final Rick's Café Terrestrienne party.

A lot of people showed up, people I had never seen before. Some of the furniture was already gone, so there was more room
to circulate. But the sofas were gone, so the comfy places to sit in where few and far between. There was more food than usual,
including a decent chili and a seafood dip, but there was a distinct lack of sweet stuff: no cookies, no chocolate.
And the drinks ran out fairly quickly.
Some new people showed up, which is kinda too bad since this was the last party. I wonder where they'll go afterwards.
One new person was almost my height, thanks to her platform boots. Her name's Caitlin (not sure of the spelling) and
I hope I see her again. It's not every day that I can be eye-to-eye with a girl and not have to look down.
"Kung Fu Hustle" was playing on the TV, and I caught a glimpse of it. It seems even more over the top than "Shaolin Soccer".
I must rent it and watch it!
Then somebody put in this long and annoying and badly letterboxed thing called "Red VS. Blue" which consisted entirely of
Halo (the game) characters standing around with guns drawn and saying mostly not funny stuff. It was toooorrrchaaaaarr!!!
Then somebody put in "Pirates Of The Caribbean", thank goodness. Boy, that movie is too much fun.
And then 2am came around and it was time to bail. I got home at 3am and pretty much went straight to bed.



Sunday has been pretty slow so far. Well, except for one thing.
Somebody who wishes to remain anonymous gifted me with a brand new 2005 Lego set today.
It's set 7264, aka Imperial Inspection. I am very happy and stoked about getting this, for several reasons.
Firstly, I never got around to getting the original Imperial Shuttle set Lego released, and that's what this set contains.
Secondly, this set also comes with tons of mini-figures: Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, 2 royal guards, 2 officers, and 4 stormtroopers.
Like, wow, dude! I'm on my way to creating my own Imperial army! I already have 2 TIE Fighters, which come with a stormtrooper each.
It's not built yet. I want to get some work done before I build it.
So I'm typing up this LJ entry. That counts as work! No, really!!


Netflixing!
Yes, the Netflix is back online, so the useless reviews shall flow once more!
Let us begin!

"The Day After Tomorrow": written, directed, produced, and shat out by Roland Emmerich.
It's about as original as you would expect a Centropolis film to be, ie: not at all.
(I liked "Stargate" and "The 13th Floor", but everything else by Centropolis is crap)
The special effects are really cool but the script is a derivative predictable cliché-ridden mess.
People do dumb things because the script tells them to.
You know, I enjoy a good disaster movie as much as the next person, maybe even a little bit more.
I really dug "Volcano" because it clearly knew it was hokey and completely went with it.
And I also liked "Deep Impact" because it was very sober and it had a large emotional impact on me (pun not intended).
"The Day After Tomorrow" is neither of those two. It's not funny (except the L.A. bit) and it's not involving.
Rent it for the amusing sight of L.A. being clobbered by multiple tornadoes and other assorted CGI devastation.
Just don't expect anything good.

"The Chronicles Of Riddick" (Unrated Director's Cut): starring Vin Diesel, professional bad-ass.
What do you get when you mix the De Laurentis "Flash Gordon" with the David Lynch "Dune"?
Something that would look a lot like "Riddick". The conceptual design is indeed quite nifty: gothic, baroque, roman...
It's definitely something to see on a large screen with a good sound system. I'm sorry I missed it in the theaters.
This is good comicbook action fare with a decent script and some marvellous visuals.

Movies not seen yet:
"King Arthur" (the Keira Knightly version), "Mystic River" (it flows slowly), "Nausicaa" (oh boy oh boy!).