A new Seven Samurai DVD set hit the streets yesterday!

Including....

A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create

My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima produced by the Directors Guild of Japan

and a booklet of essays including an interview with Toshiro Mifune!

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=2

(Criterion also released a new Brazil set. It looks like they cleaned up the sound track and maybe included some add'l stuff, but it doesn't look significantly different from the 3-disc set that I already have.)

Turning the table on telemarketers

This is a flow chart of a series of questions to ask telemarketers. Basically, telemarketers have a very carefully developed script to be able to handle and control any conversation, unless, of course, you hang up. This script gives you a leg up on switching the roles! (it's also quite amusing)

http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eegbg/counterscript.html

Personality test

Eh. Some accurate, others inaccurate.


My Personality

Neuroticism	88
Extraversion	80
Openness To Experience	93
Agreeableness	72
Conscientiousness	17

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report Bebo, MySpace Layouts and hi5 by Pulseware Survey Software

Whee! I finished two assignments!

I completed my Photoshop assignment in class today, so that's done for Monday. And I developed my first roll of color slide film today! We have a machine that handles the water bath and temperature regulation (ideally you want all chemicals and water washes to be at 100f), you time each step and add/dump chemicals as needed. That assignment is due Thursday, so it's nice to have it done early. Basically I need to print my summary sheet and turn it in.

It will be so nice having a weekend with no assignments hanging over me, though I should do a LOT of reading. It would be great if I had a free weekend, but I've got ten hours to make up since I was out last Friday and with Monday's holiday, so I'll be working both Saturday and Sunday.

Something to watch when you get your oil changed

Russet and I get our oil changed at a little shop in Alamogordo. This sort of shop usually gives your car a once-over: check fluid levels, pump up the tires, etc. It's the tires that you need to watch out for.

On the vehicle plate mounted on the frame of the driver's door there is a specification for proper tire inflation from the factory's perspective. On my car I should be running 35 psi on my front, 32 psi on my rear. Last weekend of August, I checked the inflation on Russet's Subaru as she'd be driving to Albuquerque (where the towels are oh so fluffy!) to catch a flight to Ohio (much cheaper to drive to Albuquerque than to fly out of El Paso), so I also checked my tires while I was doing hers. Thus, all my tire pressures were pretty much spot-on.

Friday, before I headed to Phoenix, I had to get my oil changed. I'm sitting there watching out of the corner of my eye, and somebody walks up and pumps air into my left rear tire. In all fairness, 32 psi does look a little low, but it's what the factory says to do. A few minutes later, someone else puts MORE air into it! Finally all is done and I leave, hitting Checker Auto for a new air filter and a voltage inverter to power my laptop for my travels. I replace the air filter and double-check my tires. No surprise, the left rear is over-inflated, so I take it back to its proper level. Here's the kicker: they didn't touch the right rear! It was inflated to the same (original) level, thus would appear to have the same level of flatness, yet they didn't touch it.

*sigh*

SO, check your tires when you get your oil changed! It's probably not a problem if you get it done at a dealership, but you never know.


We bought a voltage inverter last year for one of Russet's long drives, it's something like this one. Big, bulky, generates a lot of heat. Russ took it with her to Albuquerque so that she could have her laptop read fic to her all the way and she'd still have a full battery charge on the plane, which left me needing one. So, as mentioned above, while I was at Checker I bought one, just like this. It's definitely inspired by the iPod design motiff, not that there's a huge problem with it. It performed flawlessly though it still got a little warm on the drive, but my surprise came the next day. Saturday afternoon I took off to get photo supplies. It was over 100f (or close to it), and my car had the windows rolled up as rain had been kind of unpredictable, so it was 5-10 degrees or more hotter in the car. As soon as I started the car, the fan on the inverter kicked on.

Let me clarify: eight solid hours of use driving to Phoenix, and I didn't know the little bugger had a fan! I was quite pleased. Not only that, but the one now in Russet's car generated a lot of electrical noise (i.e. 60hz hum) when powering my laptop into my stereo in the Toyota. This new one doesn't produce said noise.


Wayne is a happy camper.