The world famous unmoderated thread

What's crappy to me is buying the same thing over and over again. As I get older I look back and realize that I've paid over $100 for some movies. I bought the ticket in the theater. I bought the VHS tape. I paid HBO to watch it. I bought the DVD. Now there's blu-ray.

Next will be streaming which will make all of those obsolete which means I'll once again have to pay to watch Star Wars...heh.

 

If you always start from new that's something to be pissed about, yes. But I also know some people who just settled with Laserdisc and DVD and are fine with that. They still continue buying movies on BluRay, but not the same ones. Some of them aren't available in better quality anyway. If you have a nice remastered edition of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre or some random Italian/German (s)exploit film, I don't believe watching the BluRay releast would have an impact on the experience.

But I "totally" get your point - I have stopped collecting DVD's when BluRay finally got popular in 2008-2009. DVD's are so worthless nowadays, it's just no fun collecting them any more for the biggest part. And the same will happen to BluRay, I'm 120% certain about that.

 

I used to be a pack-a-day smoker when I was younger, then I quit for a long time.
I would smoke one or two cigarettes if someone gave them to me or if I found really good ones (I like Vendetta, for example, and I really used to like Djarum, like "Black") - but yeah, I kept it under one cigarette a month for many years.

Then about two years ago, when my father got really sick, I started smoking again, and I realised I was, once again, smoking more than a pack a day.

So I quit. (The fact that I'm working in a place where allergies are killing me did make the quitting pretty much permanent).

I only smoke if a friend offers me a drag of her cigarette, but I really can't even smoke complete ones anymore.

in shorter words: I used to smoke a lot, now I practically don't smoke anymore, other than a tiny bit in special occasions. I used to enjoy smoking, and now I don't so much.

 

One thing I've noticed is that with so much access to so many movies nowadays I really don't ever watch the same movie twice. Maybe I'm not the typical buyer but I just can't see myself buying a blu-ray copy of Casino Royale and watching it more than once or twice. Now I have Netflix with an IP blocker so I can stream in Japan and it makes collecting DVDs or any physical media seem pointless. When you only have the ability to watch physical media that you own it makes some sense, but when you have access to thousands of movies for $8 a month the thought of spending $30-$40 on a Japanese DVD just sounds stupid. I'd rather watch something new.

Except LOST....heh. I've watched that 3 times now from beginning to end....

 

I just found out today, that my uncle (my mothers brother) died of lung cancer yesterday. After I had seen X-men first class, and my sister and mother had known about my uncle being sick , since New years (on my mothers birthday). I am in a bit of a sad WTF mood right now.

 

Wish they'd actually get Netflix to work in Europe, since now there's no streaming movie service here that has reasonable prices (paying like 5 euros to rent a movie is not reasonable). However, the difference between DVD/Blu-Ray and BD/streaming is that streaming doesn't improve on the picture quality so BDs don't go obsolete in that sense unlike DVDs...

I've bought a ton of Blu-Ray movies in the past 6 months or so, but can't see the format lasting for that long, honestly. When they finally get HD streaming off the ground everywhere, that'll be the future.

 

Nah, Blu-ray will last for a good while. People like my folks like to own a physical thing. Obviously It'll peak at some point, probably never be as big as DVD, but it'll exist for a long time to come. Mainly because there's a desire from the content holders to charge $20 per unit rather than have people pay $5 per viewing. Psychologically people resent paying for something that disappears, it's only a good model for new movies.

 

My mom just stopped smoking last sunday. Sunday was her first day as an official NON SMOKER. She's been taking Wellbutrin for a couple of months now, and her doctor says she should still be on the medication for at least three more months.

I hope she musters the will power to keep at it, since she relies on cigarretes as an easy cheap fix for feeling better whenever the environment throws some shit at her (which in the past couple of years has been almost constant, at least in her viewpoint, since my dad got sick, and then died, and then she was alone... etc).

I'm a bit worried because I really dont want her to relapse in her smoking habits, but there are some harsh times coming our way since we have a pseudo-diagnosis of Alzheimers for my grandmother, and my grandpa is not doing so well either.

How do you do it now to deal with stressful situations without resorting to smoking?

On a side note, maybe one of you smokers can illuminate me. I cannot for the life of me understand why is it that smokers generally turn to smoking a cigarrette when they are under stress. I've never smoked, so I don't even know if it has a soothing effect on the nerves. Could someone please explain to me how does it feel physically to smoke a cigarrette?

 

Breath in. Roll your head back. Look up at the ceiling, exhale. That feeling of satisfaction? A cigarette gives you that, but better.

Don't know how else to explain it, really.

Out of all the drugs in this world, cigs are definitely the least exciting.

 

I used to love smoking. I smoked 30+ a day for 23 years and loved every single ciggie, roll-up and cigar that I had during those years.

It's difficult to explain the whole range of emotions you share with that cigarette on a day to day basis. She's your best friend, a confidante. She never judges you, never bawls or shouts at you and never makes you feel like shit or puts you down. Whenever things looked at there bleakest - and man, during my marriage there were some bleak times - she was always there for me with that reassuring 'hug' that you get you the second you spark up and from that one simple action alone you know things can only get better. It might sound a bit wanky but without cigarettes I'd have gone under years ago. A crutch? Definitely. But that crutch was the thing that kept me on my feet and for that I thank her and will always continue to do so :nod:

 

anyone have any particular recommendations on a source for 2032 batteries?

 

Old motherboards.

 

The reason I asked is because my brands (Djarum Splash and Bali Hai) got banned here and I was wondering if they still sold them in Mexico or anywhere else for that matter. They sell this filtered cigar substitute here but it just isn't the same. If anyone has seen the cigarettes for sale lately I’d really like to know since it will give me a starting country to try and import some from.

 

AAah, now I understand why all sort of Djarum like Jet and Black suddenly became much more expensive and hard to come by...

I know a guy who sells "imported" (probably smuggled) cigarettes. I'll see what I can find out.

 

It's because when you get the nicotine rush it triggers a flood of endorphins. If you are stressed, frustrated, angry, etc, you immediately feel better. For your Mom, the best thing to do is to get that endorphin rush in a healthy way. Tell her to exercise or something when the stress gets to be too much.

It is hard to quit smoking, no doubt about that. I quit in 2007, haven't had one since. Like anything, you just have to want it bad enough.

 

modern use for the cannabis plant

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5141/1257210420251.jpg

 

Vancouver Riots

 

the retro game master dub on kotaku is horrible

 

It's a great photo. Shame some Canadians had to go and embarrass themselves over a sporting loss, though. Kind of pathetic. The only encouraging aspect of the whole affair was how quickly and decisively the community outed all the thugs and vandals, by all accounts. Amazing what mob mentality can do to some people, though. I guess Canada has its share of arseholes like anywhere else.

 

Can't get it to play, there's a disclaimer saying something about it being unviewable outside of the US due to licensing or some such bollocks