Things from the braaiiin

Hilarious PSA for digital conversion

This is hilarious. Just imagine your Gramma trying to figure out how to work her digitial conversion box and/or get info on it from the web.

Glorious.

wa wa wa period.

A curiosity indeed

Mudge brought this movie to my attention yesterday. It's a true curiosity.

It's a new film called "JCVD." Oddly enough it stands for "Jean-Claude Van Damme." That's right. It's a Jean-Claude movie... but it's not your ordinary Jean-Claude movie.

Slate wrote an article about it. Here's a snippet to try to help explain:

"The once-impressive "Muscles from Brussels" is a direct-to-video joke nowadays, churning out ever-cheaper flicks, each less entertaining than the last. But JCVD is different from Jean-Claude's recent movies in two major ways. Unlike In Hell, Derailed, Wake of Death, Until Death, The Hard Corps, or The Shepherd: Border Patrol, JCVD is actually getting a theatrical release. Also, in JCVD, Jean-Claude doesn't play an Iraq war vet named Phillip Sauvage, or a border patrol agent named Jack Robideaux, or even a NATO operative named Jacques Kristoff. Instead, he plays a washed-up, B-list action-movie star named Jean-Claude Van Damme."

We watched the trailer last night. It's so very odd yet compelling. I don't think we'll see it in the theater but we might actually add it to our Netflix queue.

Family historian in the new age

Over the last week or so I've been diligently scanning photos from old albums. You know... photo albums... they're like books you make with pictures. It's ancient technology. ;)

Anyway, I recently realized that some of my albums wasn't faring too well and a few pictures were horribly discolored. So, I decided that permanent "backup" storage of the photos in digital form was required.

Of course, that meant sitting and scanning each and every photo I wanted to save for posterity out of the 5 + albums I treasure. With one album I was meticulous and scanned every photo. Those were photos from my mom's childhood - lovely black and whites and "colorized" portraits that are irreplaceable. I scanned more of a "best of" for some of the albums from college and law school eras. That was still a hell of a lot of photos.

Overall, I know I scanned more than 200. I'm super happy that I did this. Now I can feel like I've preserved some very important moments in time forever. Naturally, I'll be backing these up on my external storage drive AND burning them to disk (which will go in our fire safe). What's the point of scanning them if I don't make sure the digital versions are protected. Right?

Below is a scan of probably the only remaining copy of my parents' at their wedding. I'm sure my mom burned any copies she had long ago. This was my grandmother's. She collected the family photos before me. Now I'm the torchbearer - a job I am proud to undertake.

Some Halloween Fun

On a fun note, Mudge found a few very wrong Halloween costumes that I thought I'd share.

Here's 20 Costumes that Will Earn You a Halloween Beating and then there's 35 Most Insane Halloween Costumes From Round the World.

Here are two of my favorites. What makes them even better is the commentary from the blogger. Awesome.:

Fake noses are a pain in the ass for costumes, given their propensity to fall off while drinking or engaging in certain sex acts, but we don't think this is the answer. These guys look like they're about to hold up a Hallmark store.

When Japan was six-years old, Christmas murdered his parents, and ever since then he's been kind of weird about it.

It's hard to say goodbye.

I know most of you who read this blog also read my baby blog, but for those of you stragglers who haven't made it over there recently, I thought I'd send along a link to my post there on sweet Oscarr kitty. He passed away last night. Here's the post.

I've also uploaded some of my favorite pictures to Flickr. You can see the set here. They should be in chronological order from 1994 through today. (I don't post links to my flickr page from that site since it's a public website and this is relatively more private)

If you have a picture of Oscarr in one of your collections, please send it along. It's been a hard day and the pictures help. A little.

Tshirt made for us?

If you've come to visit Mudge and me, you know that we always have our little gnome standing guard at our front door. You might also know that we always take a pink flamingo with us to the Burn.

Saw this Threadl3ss Tshirt today and had to laugh. We're in frugal mode these days, but if I were to buy something frivolous, this would be it!

Ooh! New show to watch

J4mes Gunn is at it again (the guy who just put out "PG P0rn" and directed some of my fav horror films). He's co-hosting a new series on VHOne called "Scr3am Queens" where lovely ladies compete to win a role on the upcoming "S4w 6" movie (I can't believe there's gonna be yet ANOTHER one... the fifth installment comes out this month).

Here's the info on the series:

"Scr3am Queens" will gather 10 unknown actresses who will vie for an unprecedented prize -- a break-out role in "S4w VI" from Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures. With the "S4w" franchise nearing 700 million dollars in worldwide revenue, this is a chance at stardom on an infinite stage.

The contestants will compete in a series of exacting challenges designed to prove they have the smarts, talent and strength to succeed. From working with bugs, gore and stunts to acting across from A-list talent, the girls will be put through an intense horror-acting boot camp.

The cast will be schooled and judged by a team of 3. J4mes Gunn, writer/director/producer of such horror films as "D4wn of the Dead" and "S1ither," will direct the girls during the show's many acting challenges; Sh4wnee Smith, star of the "S4w" franchise, will mentor them from the perspective of a real Scr3am Queen; and Hollywood's toughest acting coach, John Homa, will employ his ass-kicking style to force the women to fight their inner demons before they fight their on-screen demons.

Over the course of the series' eight one-hour episodes, those skilled and sexy enough to command the screen survive. Those who don't will "get the axe" until only one strong, seductive and stellar actress remains, earning the break-out role in "S4w VI" and the title of Scream Queen.

Since I'm a shameless whore for so many reality shows (ok, not as many as *some* of you out there), I will definitely be TiV0ing this. I mean come on! It's reality plus horror movies! A dream come true! I'm sure Mudge will be thrilled. ;)