Sorry I haven't written lately, I've been fighting my way through a crap-storm, first with my credit union, then with my computer, and work's been hitting me. All I can say is I'll get back to this when I get back to this, until then watch the skies.

Each week, I look at the weekly shipping lists to determine if there's anything worth making a 20-some mile trip to pick up. If there's at least one thing, I go.
This week, the DC Superhero 100 Page Spectacular reprint (there should be more fun packages like this, more new stuff. Hey Marvel and DC: How about bringing back the annuals and making them great?), Liberty Meadows, and volume 1 of The Complete Peanuts.

I've been reading and pondering about Micah Wright, who lied about his military service, before I said anything here. Unfortunately, Steven Grant pretty much said it all.

I just received an e-mail from Michael Moore that Disney is stopping Miramax from distributing his latest film Fahrenheit 911 in North America. The film details the Bush family's history dealings with Saudi Arabia, and the President's actions before and after September 11th.
Meanwhile, you can get some of this information from his book Dude, Where's My Country?

Got my refund last week, and made some purchases I had planned:
-Finally got my washer and dryer replaced that went out a while ago. Got it on Saturday, been doing great.
-Bought a new car stereo. AM/FM/CD with a detachable face plate.
Said it was XM compatible. Let me backtrack, there were some promotions offering a free Sirius tuner w/some stereos. I've been looking into getting satellite radio since there are currently no Air America affiliates over the air available to me. Whichever one I sign up for, I would like to be able to listen to it at work and at home in addition to the car. Okay, let's continue: the Sirius tuner doesn't include installation, and isn't a plug and play to other units, so I'd have to buy another tuner (plus both services charge additional for additional radio/tuners on the service). Also, to plug into work/home involves either connecting to a stereo with red/white audio cables (which my boombox at work doesn't have, and I am unable to locate another one with that capability under $100 or would take up a big chunk of cubicle space) or with one of their boomboxes, tuner not included (again, both systems). So after all is said and done, I'm looking at $200-300 to get the equipment and installation, plus the monthly subscription fees. So it looks like a pass for now.
-My cell phone never turned up, so I called Sprint prepared to pay through the nose. However, since I was a customer in good standing, all I had to do was go to the Sprint Store and pick out a new one, get the rebates and everything. Ended up getting a better phone that's only $50 after rebate.
-Saved some money on the phone and the washer/dryer thanks to my employee discount, so I had some mad money. Bought some CDs, Comic Party Vol. 1 DVD, The Monster Legacy Collection (Frankenstein / Dracula / The Wolf Man) DVD set with the mini-busts, and the new Fox Trot book Am I A Mutant, Or What!.
-Rest is going toward the down payment on the vehicle, tax, title and insurance for same.

Paul Harris has taken a different approach to recommending movies. Rather than recommend ones most people know about, he suggests ones you might not be immediately familiar with.
Based on his recommendation, I rented Lost in America from NetFlix, got it and watched it last night. It was enjoyable. It was about a married couple (Albert Brooks and Julie Haggerty) who decide to chuck it all and travel cross-country in an RV. However, they hit a snag in their first stop Las Vegas. Rent it, or if you trust me, click on the Amazon store link in the upper right hand corner to buy it.
Next from his list that I also got is The Stunt Man. Also, I'd like to second his recommendations for The Freshman, Double Indemnity, Tin Men, and Living in Oblivion.
A couple I'd like to recommend are:

• Raising Arizona: early Coen brothers comedy. Nicolas Cage is a convenience store robber gone straight and Holly Hunter is policewoman he marries. When they are unable to have children, they see the news about the Arizona quintuplets birth and decide they have more than they need.
  
• Going South Jack Nicholson is an outlaw spared from the gallows by a law that allows that if he marries a property owning female (Mary Steenburgen's debut), who is facing removal from that property from the railroad.
  

More to be added as I think of them.

Students for an Orwellian Society: Because 2004 is 20 years too late.
On a related note, the Secret Service was contacted about anti-Bush drawings done by a 15 year old.

The Onion AV Club has started a new feature Commentary Tracks of the Damned. Interesting to read such comments that Wrong Turn had fewer production problems "once we cut the necrophilia out of the script."