vintage transformers – bleeds your wallet

so Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is scheduled for release May 24, 2009.  all the hoopla about the movie constantly stems up conversation at work about the old cartoons we used to watch and who was our favorite characters.

so being a photographer and a former owner of some of the original transformer toys –  it got me wondering if i could still find some authentic old school dinobots.  (dinobots were my favorites, next to soundwave of course.)

well i searched and i damn near choked when i found it.  

would you believe me if i told you a LOOSE VINTAGE 1985 G1 Dinobot (Sludge) goes for $149.99?  

HOLY SHIT BATMAN!  thats expensive as hell!  i officiously declare SHENANIGANS!

had i known they’d be worth that much, i’d have tried not to lose the ones i did have.  sheesh!

so much for adding that series of toys to the collection….

sludge - dinobot

dinobot cost

forgot who your favorite was?  search for your favorite transformer characters here.

girl scouts suffer too

we’re getting closer to that time of the year where you walk out of the local grocery store and you’re suddenly surrounded by tons of little girls trying to sell you some girl scout cookies.

each spring we fall victim to saying no, buying a box of cookies, or breaking down like a cheap car buying a ton of boxes to hoard through the year.

this year, the economy has done no one any favors.  and now we see that the economy has made an impact on our famous girl scout cookies.  fortunately the quality of the cookies have not been affected, but quantity on a some flavors have been cut to save on costs.

The Girl Scouts of the USA confirmed Wednesday that it has reduced the number of cookies per box to save money because of rising transportation and baking costs.

Michelle Tompkins, a national Girl Scout spokeswoman, said that “the cost of baking a cookie today is significantly higher than it was even a year ago, and our bakers cannot continue to absorb these rising costs.” She also said transportation costs have increased 30 to 40 percent from a year ago.

The combined cost increase prompted the organization to “lower the net weight of our cookie boxes slightly rather than ask our customers to pay a higher per-package price during these difficult times,” Tompkins said in a written statement.

There will be two to four fewer cookies in boxes of Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Shortbread Cookies, DoSiDos and Trefoils, she said.

CNN

although there will less cookies for us to snack on, it’s not going to stop me from snacking on those mighty tasty Tagalongs.  at least we dont have to worry about bad peanut butter cookies…

JPG Magazine says goodbye

in 3 days one of the coolest photo websites i follow will be going away.  

i opened my email and saw this:

Today is a particularly sad day for all of us at JPG and 8020 Media.

We’ve spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we’ve reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but we just weren’t able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009.

the epson recycling shenanigan

with everyone trying to make a more conscious effort of going green, i was thinking about how i could recycle my stockpile of epson cartridges. seems like no real options are available to be green here with these cartridges. Petsmart, Staples, or any other vendors won’t accept them.

i decided to go directly to epson. i checked out epson’s recycling program info here. but no where did it state that they take back INK CARTRIDGES. so i go researching the web and found some interesting stuff.

flickr-tube, video on flickr. yeckk.

uh huh.  flickr now introduces an option to post video among the great and not so great photographs of the world.

faq’s here.

i’m not too sure how i feel about it.  i’m a pro member and love flickr.  its a clean and simple interface that allows me to do a multitude of things easily.

do i want to see it become littered with useless and stupid videos?

before i could make a decision, i had to look into it a little more.

• only PRO USERS get to post video – so if you were looking to post video for free, forget it.
• videos cannot exceed 90 seconds of play – for now anyways.  no extended videos of the uncle larry’s 70th bday party, sorry.

i wondered, why would flickr do this?  after seeing the following video footage, i understood why  –>

 

watching the clip of ‘playing in the grass at sundown in wyoming’  inspires and shows great creativity.  i see what the flickr folks were trying to do.  if all the videos uploaded carried this attempt at creativity, i would see no problems with it. 

why i refuse to shop at the evil empire.

say what you want. 

walmart is great. 

walmart sucks. 

whatever you think, this story is one of many reasons that i refuse to give my money to the evil empire.

want more reasons?

check out Wake-Up Wal-Mart for more reasons to boycott the evil empire.

death of instant gratification – polaroid calls it quits

i declare shenanigans…

if you think this sucks too, then go here to Request that Fujifilm manufacture Polaroid instant film types. otherwise we’re kinda stuck..

basically i dont think polaroid should be allowed to shut down and discontinue their instamatic toys and film – but i see why they are.

In February 2008, Polaroid announced it would cease production of all instant film; the company will shut down three factories and lay off 450 workers.^[1] Sales of chemical film by all makers have dropped by at least 25% per year in this decade, and the decline is likely to accelerate. Fujifilm is now the only remaining supplier of instant film in the United States.

per wikipedia

get to the point. apologize already.

ok, so you and a buddy are friends for a couple years.  then things go sour over time; not calling each other, not making efforts to keep in touch, blah blah blah… and you come to realize that this person was never really a good friend in the first place cause all they did was inadvertantly use you. 

you realize that they only called to let you know they got a new car.  a new motorcycle.  a new house.  that they won publishers clearing house sweepstakes.  ok, not the last one – but you catch my drift.

but they never called to go hang out.  never ask to grab some grub or just BS over coffee.  only to let you know they got the latest and greatest thing. 

so if that buddy that you havent talked to in eons out of the blue calls you “by mistake”, goes through the efforts of calling back and leaving a message saying that they called you by mistake and say sorry about calling – is that a lame attempt at reaching out and trying to revive a friendship? 

this person’s number hasnt been programmed in your phone in say – forever.  the fact that they still had yours says something right?

maybe i’m wrong.  its’ just how it looks.  maybe they didnt delete the number for whatever reason and really did accidently dial it.  *shrug*  personally i don’t care.  i’ve always been a very open and direct type of person. 

but if it is how it looks and if you want to be friends again – just apologize for being a punk and mean it.  if it means that much to me, i’ll do it.  hell, i’ve already done exactly that.  i’ve apologized, asked for forgiveness and tried to make amends.  she choose not to – but at least i know i tried.

besides, i’ll respect a direct apology way more than any indirect attempts of “reaching out”.   man up and fucking say it.  sheesh.

LOST is FINALLY back on

after what seems like forever – 8 months later – LOST is back on the air TONITE.

so dont call me, dont expect me to return emails tonite, dont show up at my house, dont bother me with the doorbell – i aint moving until the full episode is over. this includes next weeks preview.

the only thing i’m upset about is the stupid writers strike. we’ll only have 8 episodes instead of the 16 we’re suppose to have. damn jerks.

new knight rider is lame.

we live in times where our tv producers and movie directors are lacking creativity. i’m not knocking these peoples jobs.. i’m sure its hard as shit to invent tv shows and story lines.

what i am knocking is how terrible it is to bring back a classic and fuck it up.