The Strangers. At no point did it have anything resembling a plot. You can’t just go around killing people without reason. Even the worst and cheesiest horror flicks have a reasons for its killers. Lame.

2/10

I watch a lot of movies. Too many, actually.

I can never remember which movies I’ve watched, and I frequently start a movie only to find it looking vaguely familiar.

So I created a category to track the movies I watch, and what I thought of them; a sort of mini review and a rating from 1 to 10.

My recalled Canon Powershot A70 came back yesterday. The CCD censor was indeed the issue, because it has a bill for $0. Took a phew photos with it to test, works great.

This is a pretty neat little camera, I’m sure Kessa will get good use of it.

I’ve been with Comcast for about a year and a half. At no point during my term was I happy with the price or speed. I pay $56.18/month (including $5/month for Cable modem rental) which gives me 3Mbit down and 384Kbit up. This equates to

3121/357 wired, or

1545/359 wireless (across the house).

It happens to be pretty consistent with what they say it should be, unless of course I’m on a throttled protocol, like FTP, SSH or Bittorrent.

So I decided to try out an alternative, and the only other option in my area seems to be Qwest. I signed up for their “Premium” package, which boasts 7Mbit/896Kbit for $46.99/month. I set it up, popped in the CD and let it auto configure. On the control panel, it says “CONNECTED 1568 / 512 Kbps”… bandwidth tests suggest roughly that advertised speed, not the boasted speed.

1261/416 wired, or

1280/415 wireless.

Uploaded some pics to Flickr, played a game of CoD4, both felt about the same. So worst case I get $10/month cheaper for the same service — or at least that’s the idea. We’ll see when the bill actually comes.

It’s effectively the same as Comcast! Bleh… why can’t FiOS come to my area already? I can’t believe I actually considered using my [free] tethered cell phone internet plan for my house’s internet, that would be a HUGE hassle.

So I guess I hold onto this and wait. I’ll probably switch back to Comcast once either my Qwest price goes up, my Qwest service level goes down, or Comcast runs a sweet deal for which I’m eligible.

Edit: Called customer support, apparently I had the phone filter on the cable modem uplink.

Removed it and reconnected, now it at least connects at the advertised speed, “7168 / 896 Kbps”. Bandwidth tests don’t indicate that entirely.

3716/590 wired, or

1607/586 wireless.

This makes me wonder if I have only 10mbit connection on wireless.

Oh well, I’m satisfied for now.

Sunday, started looking for a bike.
Monday, bought a bike. Pretty impressed, I go for a certain quality per price ratio, and this seemed high.
Monday on the way home, bought a bike lock and helmet.
The bike lock was a Schwinn 12MM Cable Combo Bicycle Lock, ~$20 at Target.
Monday night, set the combination on the bike lock to my favorite four digit Fibonacci prime number.
Tuesday, Wednesday, rode the bike to work, locking it up in front. Unlocked it before coming home.
Thursday I rode it into work, only I can’t get the lock off the bike. Frustrated, I take the bike to my office with me.

I can’t figure this out. Why would a bike lock combination just change? I can’t really find info about this, but the reviews on this lock are horrible. I really should have looked at them before buying it. I think I’ll make my next one a “Hands Off Bike” U-Lock w/key…