Voicemail Tutorial.

So you'll notice that on the right column is a new-fangled voice mailbox. I've decided to try out the free service and see if I can find an actual use for it. Here's how it works:

If for some reason you'd like to leave me an audio comment on any of my posts, or just leave me a nice message, go ahead and click on the link below the message box and you'll be taking to a Javascript page that will let you record up to a two minute message. If I had paid $45 annually I could have gotten up to 30 minute service, but why would I do that, seriously? When you get to the MyChingo Audio Recorder Page either put your name, or whatever you want the message to be called in for Your Name, and then an Email address. It needs a valid one, but if your weird about it I'm sure you can just use dumpas.p.willenburger@schmumpty.net or the like. Also write in the Optional Text block whether you'd like the message to be PUBLIC or PRIVATE. If it's public it will appear in the inbox on my blog, if private I'll still be able to download it to my iPod and listen to it repeat over and over, so that I can have your sweet nothings whispered into my ear all night long.

So once you've perfected your message and sent it to me I'll be able to listen to it, make it public (as they all default to private at first), download it or delete it. So here's the deal: The only reasons I'd think you should leave a message here rather than on my cell phone are either, if I hate you and you don't have my number, or you leave a message so humorous that I want to keep it forever. It's a heck of alot easier to keep these messages as mp3s than it is to some how get them off my cell phone. Just think of all the nice messages I can play for the media and discredit you during your future presidential race.

You can get to the post again easily by click on the Need an Explanation link, so if you forget how to do this, as thick as that would make you, even after it falls off the main page this post will be waiting. Also if your interested in getting one of these for your own page check out MyChingo.com which will soon be taken over by Mobasoft.com

Subliminal NBC Advertising.

Okay, so tonight I was watching my usual NBC Thursday comedy line-up, My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock. I happened to notice at one point during a shampoo commercial that randomly an NBC logo suddenly flashed by, in one of the actress' hair as she was doing the whole, Whoosh! Look at how shiny my hair is now, routine. As someone who has seen that black and white horror movie that was banned because it had pictures of monkey skulls and old men with cigars flash across the screen during the tense moments, my eyes easily picked the obviously flashing of the logo throughout the night's programming, usually appearing over the main actor's face. I've tried looking into this, but as of yet I've seen no mention of an explanation of this practice and why, so I suppose I'll keep looking. As NBC already has come out that they often displace their shows by two minutes or so in order to mess up DVRs, I don't trust them as far as I could throw them, which you can imagine, regardless of whether or not you've ever tried to throw a corporation, isn't very far. I'm especially outraged because I've done so well to not watch 30 Rock until tonight. I really don't need another TV show that I have to watch, but I kept the show on tonight because they mentioned TV product integration. I was under the impression that maybe some genius somewhere had placed the logo in throughout the whole night, just so Tina Fey could say something like, "What'll you do next, subliminally advertise the network?" only to have the logo hilariously pop up on her face. No dice... and now, I think that the show's hilarious and I plan to watch it next week. Sigh..

On another note, when making my lengthly list of Latin vocabulary to learn from my reading this week, I stumpled upon the most ridiculous looking word: succussussu. More s's than Mississippi! From my extensive research (or rather looking closer at the text) I appeared to be a corrupt text and that the word should really be succussu, still humorous but actually in the Oxford Latin Dictionary, of course I am always excited when a word doesn't appear in my 2000 page behemoth. Anyway it seems to mean something like shaking below the waist, I'm assuming like weak in the knees, I'll figure that out closer to my assignment's due date. For now I shall continue watching Entourage. I fucking hate California.

Finally as Podcasts slowly consume my many 'audio moments' throughout the day, I thought I'd point out some good ones. They've all made my bus rides, grocery shopping, and flights much more enjoyable. So whether you're for Podcasting or against it, I'd still recommend at least checking out their websites:

NPR: Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - From Chicago Public Radio, it's the weekly news quiz! Awesome. I highly recommend it if you're interested in the news, but would rather laugh about it.

Penny-Arcade Podcast - Like comics about videogames? Then you'll love hearing two guys talk about maybe writing a comic about videogames.

The Onion Radio News - Close to daily snip-its from the fictional headlines

National Geographic Video Shorts - Like foreign animals and culture? Neither do I, but they sometimes have those aboriginal nude shots, I think.

DS: Life Podcast - Everything you could ever want to know about Nintendo's hand-held, also the guy says 'about' all Canadian like!

WiiSpot Podcast - From the people of DS: Life, but I'm assuming about Wii. Coming soon.

El Laberinto del Fauno.

Thesis: It can be difficult seeing a movie out here in Boulder.

There are a number of factors which have led to my self diagnosed theater-delinquency. One is I refuse to go to the pictures by myself, and I have somewhere around the area of two friends out here, and they work 40+ hour weeks, unlike my lazy ass. Another is that the theaters near here are small, and maybe even shut down, so until the new one opens up on 29th, I have to make the trip out to Flatirons, which is in freakin' Broomfield, a short trip those who are automotively inclined, but the proud pedestrian like me is more or less confined to Boulder. There are buses that pass Flatirons on the way to Denver, but as of yet the hour commitment that would entail is beyond my comprehension. Yet another obstacle is the weekly snowstorm that has without fail dumped record amounts of precipitation. The AMC parking lot literally had 15 feet snowpiles, and US-36 was cut down to two lanes with roughly tire sized ditches. Finally, as I don't have cable, I don't see the trailers for these movies and am not subliminally tricked into seeing them.

Long story not quite as long but still beyond what could be considered short: The planets aligned in such a way that I was able to throw away my recent anti-social tendencies and invited myself along with some "close personal acquaintances" to see del Toro's war-torn fairy tale Pan's Labyrinth. This movie was without a doubt the most gory, blood-covered atrocity that I have seen in quite some time. Every solider at some point gets shot, and then shot several extraneous times, faces get bashed in, cut open, the camera is held on dying expressions in grotesquely fashion allowing you to see the life drain from their face as the brain reacts to a hot piece of lead being forced into it suddenly. Also, every mystical creature that appears is like a cross between Dark Crystal and Resident Evil 4. Fairies are no longer tiny Playmates with wings, but rather minature humanoid insectites. And then the Faun (Pan) himself, yeesh, I could never tell if he was going to turn suddenly and disembowel the beloved heroine. And of course there was one creature that will with out a doubt haunt me for the rest of my days.

So, if you were going out to see this movie thinking it would be something like David Bowie's Labyrinth (complete with Muppets), well just don't enter the theater with that impression. Enter the theater, for I do insist that you see this film, but bring with you a strong constitution for you will indeed see a disparaging amount of misfortune, and not quite as many puppets as one would hope for.

Also bring your reading glasses, or learn Spanish. It doesn't happen often that a subtitled picture makes its way into our trashy American cinemas, and if I've learned anything in this life, it's that foreign movies are always superior. It works both ways really. Try watching Ocean's Twelve with French audio. It makes an otherwise humiliating group of clichéd and avaricious performers sound less like goddamn Hollywood sock-puppets and more like fictional characters.

Conclusion: Pan's Labyrinth was worth the effort involved in making it to a theater.

Oh, and I've determined that the secret to good blogging is to only use the word fuck once per entry, so when it comes out, it means something. Aww.. fiddlesticks, I just wasted it.

I appreciate them more.

What, you may ask, do I appreciate more? Why, long-johns and scarfs, of course. I arrived in Boulder to an unfathomable -5 degrees F. As I've said before, you'd think that since this is Colorado this would be no big deal, but apparently it was at least 50 below the average for this time of year. It's now getting warmer, but it's come to the point where I'm looking forward to a balmy 40.

I was spoiled/teased by the unfathomable 70 degrees in Maryland last week, and now I'm all sorts of hot and bothered... err.. cold and bothered.

But, I'm surviving, mainly because of my new found ability to layer, complimented by my new Old Navy layering tees. That's right, I stepped back into an Old Navy for the first time since my resignation. Actually I went to one in Flatiron Crossing at some point, but this was the first time I bought anything at least. So, now I'm trying to figure out how to work a scarf correctly. Up to this point I've just been wrapping it around my neck, but I find it never quite stays put that way. The answer lies upon the internets.

In other news, I just returned from a two hour mandatory work meeting, at a place that I'm starting to think has completely outlived it's usefulness. But to be honest, we did share some things and I think we may have grown as a team tonight.

Sigh... I'm supposed to e-mail my boss my new availability, and I'm wondering if it will be in poor taste to send her an schedule with a giant X through every hour of every day. I'd quit, but I can't really quit one Pharmaca without quitting them all, and I really have no beef with the Pearl street one, and they've even thrown some modest evening hours my way.

Oh, and I have finally returned to Academia. Hmmm... and I think I just found the name for chapter two.