Monthly Archive for December, 2010

Page 3 of 7

Sell Netflix. Don’t Even Rent It.

Published on December 23, 2010 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments Tags: DirecTV, Netflix.

I got an offer of a free month of Netflix.
Free.
Love Free.

Winter. Cold outside. Broadcast TV turning to re-runs and holiday specials. Cable loaded up with holiday specials and sports.

Netflix!

Wrong.

If you have invested in Netflix (NFLX) Sell. And not because some Warren Buffet wannabee says sell. Sell because some cold, couch-potato geezer says…

VOD (Video on Demand) is a bad product. Netflix is the world-wide leader in bad product distribution.

Video on Demand is way over-rated. The stuff that’s available for immediate streaming is old. Unless you really are into the classics and enjoy watching Jaws or The Godfather over and over and over. (Which I do, but I bought the DVDs.)

BTW: The Tivo was unavailable because the cable from the BATV to the satellite receiver was borked. Since the BATV is permanently screwed to the wall, that cable won’t replaced.

(above: BATV screwed to wall)

This has since been remedied with a work-around thanks to St. Todd DeCubbville.

Netflix hit me with the offer when I was vulnerable, cold and lazy.

First, had a hard time filling up my queue for DVD sby mail. I know there were movies out this summer that we said we would wait until they showed up on Showtime or we could rent them. But scrolling and scrolling and scrolling through endless movie titles and descriptions was frustrating. I finally threw in six movies just to move on.

What I really wanted live streaming Video on Demand. I wanted to watch a movie NOW.

Pfffbbbt.

Talk about a bunch of crap. Here, let me show you! Go to Netflix and get your free month.

Available NOW:

Police Academy Special Edition – have never watched any of the series, never will.
Julie and Julia – saw in theater, watched again twice on Showtime.
Lie To Me – it’s a TV show! Had it Tivo’d and ended up deleting it because I lost interest,
Precious – probably should watch it, but I don’t like fatties.
Scooby Doo – Camp Scary. Ruh roh, that’s all I know of Scooby Doo.
Bourne Identity – Theater and probably six times on television.

So there’s the point. VOD has old crap, the new movies are on Showtime BEFORE they are available on Netflix. Showtime is part of our DirecTV satellite package.

OK $7.99 a month vs. $113.49 a month. Yeah, there’s that.

(gulp!)

When our DirecTV satellite and Tivo came back to us, there was the thrill – thrill I tell you - to find four or five episodes each of the television programs that we had missed:

Sons of Anarchy
Dirty Jobs
The Closer
Mythbusters
Dexter

Yeah, as cable and satellite television gets better, and it is, Netflix is a dying business. But $113.49 to watch a few channels? I think I need to think.

NFLX…

Netlfix trades at 60 times this year’s earnings and 50 times next year’s earnings. This is a stock that is priced for perfection.

I think that Netflix investors will be in for a shock if the company’s subscriber growth or Wall Street revenue projections fall short. Investors would be wise to start trimming their position or buy some protection in case Wall Street’s darling tumbles.

This the perfect case of Wall Street touting something they know nothing about.

Netflix.

Buh-bye.

DirecTV, you’re on standby.

I Should Have Been a Brit: Love The Humour. Frozen Blackberry, Apple and Small Dongles.

Published on December 22, 2010 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment Tags: Apple, BBC, dongle, Frozen Blackberry.

Problems with your frozen blackberry or your apple? Dongle too small? Check the British version tech support…
I love this humour.
In honour of this video, I shall write as my prose shall be recognised by the Queen Mum herself.
I hope you enjoy this titbit without offence. If not you are certainly a complete arse.

(Note: Orange is a phone service in the U.K.)

Flash: Boomer Women Kayakers Are Always More Fun – The Mary Ellens

Published on December 21, 2010 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

Technically, one is Mary Ellen and the other is Maryellen. Or as Maryellen says: Mary space Ellen and Mary no-space ellen.

Baby-boomer Maryellen was proud to flash her cold weather gear. Xer Mary Ellen on the other hand was a little mortified.

Maryellen defends herself:

Okay, so I can’t help it! I was so proud of my new Ultra Farmer Jane wetsuit that I had to show it off. And I forget sometimes that I’m around a bunch of MEN!!!!

This was the second cold-weather kayaking outing for the group. The first was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Twelve hardy (fool-hardy?) souls paddled around a small lake for a few hours to shake off the Turkeyness. In the case of a few, they will never be able to shake the Turkeyness. (Looking at you Kenny.)

Saturday was the second cold-weather outing (ignore the dates stamp on the photo) and it was a four-five hour trip on moving water. The air temperature was below freezing when they put-in and maybe tipped a few degrees above freezing when the sun broke through the overcast around noon.

I happened to be wandering around with Oliver when the sun came out and a very fleeting thought went through my head: It wouldn’t be half-bad to be on the river now.

And for those few minutes I was right. Then reality set in and I remembered that for two hours before noon and for two hours after noon, they were still paddling.

My yak and I are truly fair weather fans. Especially when I learned three yakers took the polar-bear plunge inadvertently.

Flash: I’ll see you in the spring Maryellen, will you recreate the picture?

Geeky Animated Gif Monday

Published on December 20, 2010 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

Sunday Stealing: I Can Whistle Like a Crazy Man

Published on December 19, 2010 in Baby Boomer. 2 Comments

Today we ripped this meme off a blogger named CV Rick from the blog named Ninja Writer. It’s 50 questions so we will do it in two parts. He stated that he grabbed it from Wry Catcher. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft’s thieves might take some time. Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

Sunday Stealing: The Ninja Meme, Part Two

Cheers to all of us thieves!

26. Whose responses to Stealing do you want to read the most? Catch Her in The Wry. She’s turned into quite the humorist.

27. What color shirt are you wearing? Stipes – horizontal! Rugby shirt. AR-AR-AR. It’s off white and burgandy.

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Absolutely. Nekkid.

29. Can you whistle? I have two: my whistle-a-happy-tune pucker whistle and my awesome jam two fingers in my mouth whistle which gets my tinnitus roaring. I used to use it to call the kids when they were roaming the streets. “Listen for my whistle.”

30. Favorite colors(s)? Burgandy – also my favorite movie character and wine.

31. Could you be a pirate? Yes. I already have a peg leg and a silver tooth and a ship (kayak actually).

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? Ava Maria or Baby Got Back or anything by Will.I.Am. I also whistle. And fart. Sometimes during the same song. I am my own Spike Jones.

33. Favorite girls name? Kat Von D.

34. Favorite boy’s name? Clem Kadiddlehopper

35. What’s in your pocket right now? Keys – only half of which I know what they open.

36. Last thing that made you laugh? Probably an episode of Friends.

37. Best bed sheets as a child? We were poor, we only had white. Sheesh, they didn’t have anything but white when I was a kid! Punch line to an old joke: You put sheets on my bed I keel you!

38. Worst injury you’ve ever had? Mushed leg and mushed forehead from car wreck.

39. Do you love where you live? No.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? How many HDTVs? Too many to count because I never throw away a television. I have new TV’s in boxes unopened (black and white that run on batteries) and we now have TWO HDTVs

41. Who is your loudest friend? I don’t know, stupid question.

42. How many dogs do you have? Cuatro.

43. Does anyone have a crush on you? No.

44. What are the most fun things you ever did? Ever? For an extended time, I would say the Windjammer Barefoot Cruise was the most continuous fun. We always have fun at Disney World. I have fun on the river. I have fun in the car driving and whistling.

45. What are your favorite books? None.

47. Favorite Team? None.

48. What songs do you want played at your funeral? I have that written down someplace. I don’t recall and probably would change them now. I don’t care because I can’t hear them. I’m dead, remember? Hell, I can’t hear them half the time when I’m alive.

49. What were you doing at 12 AM? Exactly? Dunno. Approximately? I think I got up to pee.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Dayam. That was a few hours ago. It was probably something like, don’t move too much because Derby will start whining to go outside.