A three movie day and coffee

Yesterday was another three movie day for me.  I started the day watching Diggnation, then I watched Freedom Downtime.

I have been itchin to see Freedom Downtime for about a year, but I never got around to it.  It’s a documentary about Kevin Mitnick and the Free Kevin movement.  Mitnick was a computer cracker/hacker and social engineer who was on the run from the FBI in the 90′s and then spent five years in a maximum security federal prison without bail and he never was convicted of a crime or saw a trial.  Freedom Downtime is a bunch of hackers who drove all over the country trying disprove the myths surrounding Mitnick (like the myth that he could whistle into a phone and launch a nuclear missile).  The documentary doesn’t resolve anything, but I think it’s a pretty honest look at the controversy surrounding Mitnick and how computer crimes are prosecuted in the court room. 

The documentary Freedom Downtime also tried to shut down a Miramax film about Kevin Mitnick called Takedown.  So after I watched Freedom Downtime I decided to watch Takedown.  It wasn’t a bad little action technology movie!  Skeet Ulrich plays Kevin Mitnick who is on the run from the FBI.  Technology was portrayed fairly accurately.  But with typical Hollywood fashion the story is highly fictionalized.  Oh well, it was still fun to watch.

The third move that I watched was Flirting with Disaster.  It’s a 1996 comedy from director David O. Russell who also made the Gulf War movie Three Kings and the brilliant existential comedy I ♥ Huckabees.  I really enjoy the films by Russell who not only directs but also writes the films making him one of the only modern day auteur’s.  But the real reason I wanted to see Flirting with Disaster was because Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda play characters with the last name “Schlichting”!  How cool is that?  The only other movie that I have seen that used my last name was Matchstick Men and was only one line.  Flirting with Disaster constantly mispronounces the name Schlichting, just like people do in real life.  My favorite one was “Shitkings”, which people have said to me before.  The strange thing is that even Tomlin and Alda pronounced it wrong!  They pronounced it “Schleekting” and it should be “Schlickting”.  Flirting with Disaster ended up being a really good movie too, I’d recommend it.

I also broke out the ole coffee roaster yesterday.  After a little websearching I found a good article on Sweet Maria’s about programming the iRoast 2 for different types of beans.  The article contains better documentation about the iRoast 2 than actually came with the product.  I roasted up a good half pound of coffee and I can’t wait to try it.  The last two successful roasts that I have done resulted in a great smelling coffee, but burnt and weak tasting.

Then last night we went to a party at Doug’s house.  There were a lot of people there and both Lindsay and I are wallflowers, so we left early.  But I’m glad that we went out.

Today we have a new realtor and five more houses to look at.  I’ll tell you how it goes when I get back.

-Josh

Yo-Yo Wiki and iTunes feed

The 301 redirect that I mentioned the other day seems to be working perfectly.  You should now be seeing all 17 episodes on the feed and ready to download.  Hopefully this will be the end to my RSS trouble.

-Josh

PSA: Guns

PSA: Guns

This is the most true video I have ever seen. Most true.

Real Estate Update

And now our realtor quit on us.  She offered to introduce us to another realtor that she recommends, but I’m not sure if we are gonna go that way.  I just thought you might like to know.

-Josh

Reporters, Folders, and Houses

Damn with the looking for houses.  I am so crestfallen since losing that house.  We just are not going to find that much house for that little money.  I would have been willing to up our bid another five thousand… but we didn’t.  I keep searching the mls listing hopping that some magical property will jump out and sell itself to me, but it hasn’t.

A reporter from the local paper did an interview with me about yo-yos today.  I’m not sure what his angle is, but I think he just thinks it an interesting topic.

I just started reading a the blog over at 43 folders.  And it’s all about productivity and organization and stuff.  How do you stay organized?  Personally?  Professionally?  I’m kinda struggling with that right now.  I have never been very good at organization, that’s kind of why I like gmail so much, you just stick it all in one folder and use the search feature when you’re looking for something.  I wish my desk had a “search” feature.

-Josh

Customer for life, or Caribou Coffee FTW

Yesterday morning I pulled into the drive through for Caribou Coffee on highway 96 in Vadnais Heights.  Just before it was my turn to talk to the order box I reached for my back pocket and discovered that I had forgotten my wallet at home, just as I discovered my missing money a car pulled into the drive through behind me and I was trapped.  I got up to the order box and a friendly female voice said “Welcome to Caribou Coffee, what can I get for you today?”  I innocently replied “Nothing”.  The friendly female voice was obviously perplexed “okay” she said “what can I do for you?”  “Nothing” I replied “I’m just going to wait patiently until I can get back to the road.  I just realized I forgot my wallet”.  “Okay” she said “I’m sorry to hear that”.  I rolled my window back up and went back to listening to the latest episode of This American Life.  When I got to the front of the line I started driving right past the window when a hand popped out from the window and motioned for me to stop, so I did and I rolled down my window.  “We’ll give you a free one today, what can I get for you?”  Overjoyed I ordered my regular drink.  I told the cashier at the window “You just made a customer for life” and then I drove off with my coffee in hand.  That’s good business.

-Josh