MBCG3AM Update 4

Envelopes sent: 548

Envelopes received: 153

Best Buy Bucks: 260

MBCG3AM Update 3

Envelopes Sent: 440

Envelopes Received: 131

Best Buy Bucks received: $231

50 of the 131 were $3 tickets and 79 were $1 so I'm a bit ahead of the 2:1 ratio mentioned in the rules.

Additionally Dee had an absolute BLAST making trips back and forth putting the empty envelopes into the recycle bin as Terri and I were removing the game pieces.

A Week Vacation

Took last week off from work. I was planning on working on the Living & Dying set for a few days but as luck would have it I got freaking sick!

So, in order not to make any of Jon's crew sick, I stayed away from the set. This really pissed me off, but it was the right thing to do. They've still got another week of shooting and didn't need me there taking out crew with my germs of contagiousness.

On the other hand, it gave me a chance to relax (if somewhat forced) and a opportunity to get a few things done around the house that have really been needing it.

I started off with some simple stuff. We hadn't been able to use the spa tub in the master bath because it wasn't on a GFCI and the motor wasn't grounded. The previous owners had probably been using it without any problems, but I didn't want to risk it. Anyway I put in a GFCI outlet and ran a ground line from the motor to the cold water pipe.

I also took the opportunity to add GFCI outlets to the kitchen. Two GFCI outlets were able to protect all of the outlets in the kitchen with the exception of the garbage disposal and the refrigerator.

I also took the opportunity to sniff out all of the outlets and make a complete electrical map of the house. Later I'll use that to re-balance the circuits and more evenly distribute the loads.

I had also noticed a few weeks back an unidentified motor noise when I was in the garage. The motor noise would come on and whine but would always shut off before I could find out what it was. While I was in the garage snooping the outlets, I heard it come on again. This time I was able to determine that it was the vent fan in the attic. The reason it was so loud is that the motor had seized up.

I took this opportunity to make my first foray into solar power. I purchased a DC attic fan and a 10W solar panel from Home Depot and got it installed. It works beautifully. Any time the sun's up, the fan runs. Free power! Gotta love it!

I also replaced the toilet seat in the front bathroom. The old seat had a hard edge on the inside ring making it very uncomfortable to sit on for any length of time. The new seat is padded. Woo Hoo!

Other than that, I watched a bunch of TV and gave the mess I had to my daughter. Fortunately it didn't seem to affect her as much as it did me.

Oh, one other thing we did is Terri and I went to see Serenity. It was a very cool movie and I'm very glad that we went to see it in the theater. Although, the hot dogs I had at the theater have got to be the absolute worst hot dogs I've even eaten.

Update & L&D Set Visit

Currently I have sent out right at 350 envelopes for the MBCG3AM.

Going to to the Living & Dying set today. They've been shooting for just over a week now and am interested in seeing how things are going. I'll post an update when I get back.

MBCG3AM Update

I've now sent out some 260 Envelopes!

Haven't gotten anything back yet, but hopefully next week they'll start rolling in.

Also, John desn't like seeing my mug repeated all the way down the page. Can't say I really blame him. So, I'll probably do something a little different, but I haven't decided what.

MBCG3AM update and Book Offer

MBCG3AM envelopes sent out: 123

I received an offer in the mail earlier this week for a book called The Truth About Money 3rd Edition. The offer had several pieces of paper talking about how great this book was and all the cool things that it'd teach you about managing your money. It sounds like a really good book. The price for this wonderful book that the advert was convinced that I couldn't live without was just four payments of $6.99. That's right, $27.96. So I went out to Amazon.com and checked the price.

Amazon.com shows full list price of The Truth About Money 3rd Edition as $19.95. $8.01 cheaper than the advert price. However, the sale price is only $13.57. That's a whopping $14.39 cheaper than the advert! Of course you can also buy them used on Amazon for even cheaper than that.

I'm thinking that the first chapter in this book should tell you to always shop aroundto get the best price. It should then use itself as an example. "How much did you pay for this book? Did you pay more than $15? More than $20? More than $25??? If so, it's a good thing you bought this book!

Like a kid again

I haven't done this since I was a kid. John Hattan told me how last year he got a bunch of the McDonald's Monopoly game pieces by sending off a bunch of SASE's and getting back a bunch of the Best Buy Bucks. I was so impressed I figured I'd give it a try this year.

So far I've sent out 75 envelopes.

I'll keep posting updates here. Be sure to check out John's journal for updates on his progress as well.

Saved by Saved!

Watched Saved! this weekend. While it was a decent flick, I was a bit disappointed. There were some good zingers at the xtians, and it really showed up the whole "I'm a better xtian than you" attitude that's very prevalent among the younger xtian set.

I was probably hoping for too much to begin with. The best part of the movie for me was Macaulay Culkin saying "I'm not a christian."

Of course, there's this exchange from the same scene:

Cassandra: There's only one reason Christian girls come down to the Planned Parenthood.

Roland: She's planting a pipe bomb?

Cassandra: Okay, two reasons.

All-in-all it's a decent portrayal of the messed up attitudes a lot of xtians have and how they get completely fucked in the head by their religion. For example when the principal, Pastor Skip, tells Mary's mother that her being pregnant is God's way of punishing THEM for THEIR sins.

As a social commentary, the movie holds up well, but as I understand it, earlier versions of the script were a lot more edgy. But these things tend to get a bit watered down. I guess it's a minor miracle that the movie got made at all.