Timewaster's Guide Archive

Well, "What are you reading part 2" is three pages back so I'm going to start a new  one.

I just finished "The Gate to Women's Country" by Sheri S. Tepper. This also fits into my "what classics should I be reading" question from ages ago, as post-apocolyptic feminist dystopias are not really my favorite thing in the world.  But I decided that since I'd never read any of her books I should try a few.  Got two more on my night stand and am going to give them a try.  "Gate" was pretty good, but obviously, depressing, and I'm just not into depressing right now.

I'd have enjoyed it more if I were reading it for a class, instead of for fun. It seems like the kind of book that's much better if you're reading it for analysis.

So since my husband actually updated his livejournal about this weekend, I figure I can do no less than post the story here.

Tuesday was our anniversary.  We decided to head up to Detroit last weekend and spend the weekend there. There were a couple arcades up there that had BEMANI machines J.T. wanted to play, and a surprising amount of Japanese import stores up there.  And a zoo, for me.  So to Detroit we went.

Meanwhile, he's bidding on a Beatmania arcade machine on eBay, that's still at a ridiculously low price. It's pickup only and the monitor is not working so it's not getting a whole lot of bids.  J.T. figures, hey if he wins it we can swing by Milwaukee on our way out of Detroit and pick it up and take it home.  Little did I know.

Since no one in the family owns a pickup truck any longer, we take his mom's Dodge Grand Caravan, with all the back seats taken off. On paper it should fit.  Then, surprise of surprises, he actually wins the auction for the arcade machine, for about $400, and only about $75 worth of gas.  So we take off early Monday morning and head up to Wisconsin. We get there and find out that yes - you can fit a 750 lb. Beatmania machine in the back of a Grand Caravan.  Very carefully.  Oh, and only if you take off the control panel first. The guy with the forklift who helped us get it in the van was laughing so hard - he'd never had anyone try to pick up an arcade machine in a minivan before and had to take pictures to show his friends.

The cabinet actually fit in with about a foot to spare, but then we had to fit the control panel in the back, which meant we couldn't close the hatch.  So we had to lash it down and drive 8 hours back home in 20 degree weather with the back open.  Then yesterday we enlisted some help and got it out of the van into the barn.  Unfortunately none of the doors in the house is wide enough to get the machine into the house, so it will be staying in the barn until further  notice.  We now are the proud (?) owners of a Beatmania machine with a monitor that doesn't work.  Again - fortunately, J.T. has a friend in Columbus who fixes arcade machines for a living, and doesn't think it will be too hard or expensive to fix.

Anyway, he's going to (apparently) be documenting this on his website for other Beatmania affecionados, so if you like you can take a look at it.

http://blog.jtkauffman.com/mediagallery/album.php?aid=3&page=1

The things you find the Wal-Mart DVD dump bin...

Ok, so this was one of them.  A 1982 movie called "Mazes and Monsters", starring Tom Hanks.  Tom Hanks??  Yeah, that's what I thought too.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084314/

The back of the case reads: "Bound by a desire to play the fantasy game "Mazes and Monsters" Robbie and his three college classmates decide to move the board game into the local legendary cavern.  But when the game gets out of hand, Robbie begins to have visions and the line between fantasy and reality fuse into a harrowing adventure!"

I talked J.T. into it by saying we should buy it, MST3K it, and then mail it out to Brenna and her husband so they can do the same.  

I'm going to review as I watch and post to my LJ.  You can read it here.

http://zellion.livejournal.com/409946.html

The moral of the movie seems to be that if you have a traumatic childhood and you're a borderline schizophrenic, you shouldn't play Dungeons and Dragons.

Hey I get to start the thread, with the Forbes Fictional Fifteen!

http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/13/400fictional.html

I didn' t know Forbes had a list of the richest fictional characters, until my husband started researching the biography of Scrooge McDuck. (Don't ask.)

Anyone in California, or who knows anyone, my husband's company, Temple Games, wants to hire someone in the bay area to be their store liason.  They need someone who is already familiar with games, game stores, ccgs, etc who can travel around and demo to local game stores who sell their product.  PM me if interested.

I'm grumpy because my previous landlords have STOLEN our deposit and we are on the other side of the country and have no idea what to do about it.

We paid a full month's rent deposit when we moved in - $650.  The other couple who rented the other half of the house also gave a full month's rent deposit.  We have not gotten our deposit back and the landlord is not returning our calls.  The other couple says they did not get ANY of theirs back either but the landlords said all the money was used to clean the carpets when they moved out.  $650 to clean the carpets?  I don't think so.  They could replace the carpets in the apartment we lived in at least TWICE for that amount.

What, if any, statute of limitations exists on movie and books spoilers?
This has been an issue lately because my husband never read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  We bought the book when it was released. We even got an audio version of the book that he could listen to while at work if he wanted.  He still insists that he never had time to read it, and gets really mad whenever the rest of the family want to talk about it, and then finally last night his mom flat out said the ending in front of him.

I sympathize with him, and I went out of my way never to spoil for him, but it really makes me angry that he's so self-righteous about it but never made an attempt to read the book.  He'd rather play his video games than pick up a book, which is FINE by me - but does he then have the right to complain?

That's the first example, here's a different one.  I never saw the movie 'Psycho' until my second year of college. I sat down and watched it by myself all day, and when it was finished I realized that no one had ever spoiled the ending for me.  Which was pretty cool, but considering how old the movie is, is rather unexpected.  Who, for example, doesn't know the spoiler to the end of Citizen Kane?

So there you go; what is a reasonable statute of limitations on spoilers for books and for movies (since I'm assuming they're different).  With something like Harry Potter, especially - can you consider it invalid once the movie for a particular book comes out?  Before that?  Is there a year limit on movies?

Does anyone in Utah have a dentist that they would recommend?