My Holiday Movie Binge

I already had quite a backlog. I've been on a DVD-watching dry spell for a while. Partly because it's a fun way to drive Coyote insane (no, I'll never watch Hot Fuzz). But the pile finally started to call to me. And the post-Christmas DVD sale at Target netted me some sweet sets. I succumbed.

District 9. I wanted to watch this so bad when it was in the theater, but work was insane at the time, and I never managed it. Really fantastic film. Though I do have to wonder why the aliens went through the trouble of developing weaponry that would only respond to their genetic code.

9. Ditto on this one. Was desperate to see it in the theater, but damn work. Advice if you haven't bought it yet: don't buy it at the same time as District 9 like I did. All those 9s confused the register monkey, and she double charged me for this title. I had to go stand in line at customer service to get my money back. The lady at customer service was a bitch. Fucking Best Buy.

I heard pretty ambivalent things about this one. Most of the reviews I saw said it was visually fantastic, but had a weak story. I quite enjoyed the story. And I did find the visuals quite amazing. Learning of the stitchpunks' origins does seem to take a bit of the awe and magic out of the world, but I still loved it. Then again, I'm a sucker for a post-apocalyptic setting.

Paranormal Activity. Holy fucking hell. Our household is divided on the ending (wifezilla prefers the alternate ending, while I found the theatrical ending to be far more hair-raising). We're pretty much united on the "it's goddamn scary" front, though.

True Blood. I knew basically nothing about the show, but a couple people I know have said good things about it. Been thinking about picking it up on Netflix. Target only wanted $17 for season 1 after Christmas, though, so I figured it was can't-lose... if I didn't like it, I could get most of my money back at the used bookstore down the street.

How little I knew of the show was quickly apparent: Didn't realize Anna Paquin was in the show. If I'd known, I probably wouldn't have bought the DVDs. I hated her in the X-Men movies. Fairly impressed with her in this show so far, though. Also, if I'd known it was based on the Charlaine Harris books, I probably wouldn't have checked it out. For some reason, I instinctively hate those books. In truth, I know jack shit about them, so I don't have any rational reason. I just saw them on the shelf and hated them. I'm enjoying the show (though wifezilla informs me there's a lot more sex & violence in the show than the books, so maybe my bookhate/showlove is well-advised... vamps and sex & violence go together like... uh... vamps and sex & violence).

So we'll see. I'm only two eps in. Liking it so far though.

Buffy. More vamps. The binge continues. Half way through season 3. Yay. Love this show. Should've given it a fair shake all those years ago when it was on TV. Who knew it didn't suck like the movie? Gonna have to get Angel when I finish this run.

Big Bang Theory. Love the show, but I'm bad at TV so I miss it all the time. Got seasons 1 and 2, so I can finally catch up on all the episodes I miss. I'm not Sheldon.

Castle. Cap'n Mal. Stana Katic. Yummy.

Stargate SG-1. Yeah, I'm a latecomer to the show. Saw a few episodes during the late, great Sci-fi Friday (why the hell did they dismantle that?) and discovered I really liked it. I got a late birthday card with a gift cert to my favorite used bookstore tucked inside. Promptly ran over to pick up some SG-1, found season 1, got distracted... and accidentally bought season 5. Sigh. At least I have plenty of other stuff to watch.

Tropic Thunder. I've had it from Netflix long enough to have set a new Taco record for sitting on my counter. And if you know me, you know how impressive that is. Almost watched it the other night. But we forgot.

Hot Fuzz. Nevar! (But only because it drives Coyote insane.)

How they find me

Coyote and I talked about posting this info a long time ago, and then I forgot. But now he's called me out, and I must return fire in kind.

Google Analytics is an awesome tool that can tell you a hell of a lot about your website, your traffic, and your users. If you're running a real website that you intend to make money from, it (or something similar) is an absolute must... such tools are invaluable in helping you tailor your site to keep visitors interested, returning, viewing your ads... whatever.

Of course, it's completely useless to me and my blog, since I have no ads and about five friends reading it... but it does have one little feature I can't do without: it'll tell you how people found you.

I've been watching the search strings people find my site with for years, and it never disappoints. Prior to converting to blogspot, someone constantly found my old blog by searching for "groin mustard." Figure that one out. And I doubt anyone will ever top "naked Hitler groin massage" (which became something of a motto on my forums for a while... at one point, we were the #1 google hit for that search string, we said it so much).

So... how does Google Analytics say people are finding my blog? Survey says:

1. "noggin vomit." Far and away the #1. Makes sense. It's the name of my blog. Not sure who the fuck is searching for it, though... "Let's see... where was his blog again? It's called Noggin Vomit, why don't we google for that?"
2. "kidzookie." Again, makes sense. I always refer to my children as kidzookie on my blog (I try damn hard not to use anybody's real names). This one's probably some of my relatives who can't remember the blog's name or address.
3. "logitech replacement dongle." I'm kinda glad I got lots of hits on that one. Fuck Logitech and their lousy fucking customer service.
4. "lump on my tricep." That's... that's not a kind of porn, right?
5. "strippers vs zombies." You see? YOU SEE?! I told you it was high cinema!
6. "zombies zombies zombies." Again. I told you. Mock me for my studies, but you'll be glad I saw this documentary when the Zombie Apocalypse arrives.
7. "brazilian shaved taco." Coyote? I thought you liked my landing strip.
8. "condom noggin show." Is that on Spike TV?
9. "dear life fuck you." My people! Let me show you the way!
10. "deer vomit." Ew.
11. "does styrofoam turn to glass in your stomach." Dude. See a doctor. Seriously.
12. "dr factoid." That's what they call me.
13. "dr. factoid." Grammar Nazis got you, huh? It's okay. No points off for it here. Taco's all about love, baby.
14. "father shaved my head." I'm... sorry?
15. "fucking logitech." Right the fuck on, brother! Fuckin' Logitech.
16. "grimm noggin." I think you're looking for Grimm. His blog doesn't have noggins and is much funnier than mine. He should update more. Punkass.
17. "jerry lewis mc donalds." Uh... what?
18. "let me destroy noggins." I have a list of noggins you can start on if you're interested.
19. "lump tricep." Whew. At least this one's not on my tricep.
20. "mc donalds+vomit." I'm pretty good at algebra. Let's see... if I apply the quadratic equation here... take the square root of Grade D beef... times minimum wage to the fake cheese power... got it. Forty seven? No? Crap.
21. "noggin mcdonald's." Okay.
22. "nogginvomit." Weird that it's so far down the list. Huh.
23. "pocky lips." Indeed. Also, deer.
24. "shit neck." Noplz. Do not want.
25. "smoke and vomit." The fuck?
26. "vomit from deer." That's... specific.
27. "vomitfuck." I almost wish I could see the reaction of the person who googled for that and found my site. Almost. Except that would mean having to meet them.
28. "weirdest urinal." I wouldn't consider myself an authority, but it was pretty weird.
29. "why is my logitech mouse a piece of shit." I think you answered your own question, there, Sparky.

Sadly, most of my strings aren't all that funny for this blog so far. I was really happy to see that I seem to be some kind of swirling vortex of Logitech-hate, though. Perhaps I should start a support group. Who's bringing the beer?

Taco Spends a Day Off From Work

They turned us loose for Memorial Day. Amazing, really... the rule of thumb where I work is "If you have to ask, you don't get the holiday." Oh well.

What a fucking holiday weekend. Good weekend, just... Taco is le tired.

A buddy of mine got a ridiculously nice television a while back and was looking to unload his old only really awesome television for very little money, so we took him up on it. He had the weekend off so he drove it up here on Friday. I've never been a big TV watcher, but the price was too good to pass up, so we upgraded from our 25" college TV to a 46" high definition monstrosity. I could learn to be a TV guy on a television like this. Well... probably not... but my video games look damn good.

Speaking of which, I've put some miles on Dead Rising now that I have a high def TV (the font doesn't render properly on a regular television, so I've been unable to play it until this weekend). You get to run a bunch of zombies down with a lawn mower in the first 20 minutes or so of the game. I'm not sure there's ever been anything better.

We spent the day shopping. Wifezilla usually meets me for lunch on Mondays, and decided she'd still like to do so... by which she tricked me into hitting the sales. I agreed, somewhat reluctantly. She further bribed me by offering to go to a mediterranean place for lunch, so nom nom nom. Double word score: the store she took me to was having a memorial day sale, and I nabbed a Hurricanes jersey for $20. Not one of the super nice ones, but even so, fuck yeah.

We also hit the thrift store, which is usually just painful, but the book section today contained The Picture of Dorian Gray, Robinson Crusoe, and The Catcher in the Rye. Plus I picked up the latest Weird Tales at Barnes & Noble while we were out that way.

We didn't cook out. Wifezilla is trying to lose some weight, and I could stand to lose a bit myself. We ate turkey and salad instead. The Gods of Summer Holidays will undoubtedly enact punitive measures. I did have beer though, so they might let me by on a technicality. We'll see.

Kidzookie found my copy of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the virtual console today and insisted upon playing it. I told him he was too little to play it, and we had an argument over it that ebbed and flowed for a few hours until I finally broke down and let him play under the condition that he not ask me how to do anything. He's gotten farther than I have in the game now. Go figure.

For about 10 years now I've had the Video Game Chair, a blue canvas camping chair that I use whenever I play games. It's lightweight and folds up to a tiny size, so it's easy to place wherever it's most comfortable to play, and easy to get the hell out of the way when I'm not playing so Wifezilla doesn't kill me. It finally died today while Kidzookie was playing Zelda. Truth told, I probably could have fixed the damn thing, but it's on its last leg anyway, and probably would have broken again within a few weeks. So instead, I insisted upon a quest for a new video game chair.

Wifezilla made the mistake of sending us on our own to replace old reliable. I found a kickass canvas chair complete with footrest and cupholder at the store. This chair is a serious contender for most comfortable seating in the house. Kidzookie mentioned that his own usual gaming chair wasn't comfortable any more (and probably isn't very comfortable, given the amount he's grown in the past year), so I bought him one, too. At this very moment, I'm sitting in mine with a beer in the cupholder, and kidzookie is sitting next to me playing
Zelda, a spill-proof cup of chocolate milk in his. Life is good.

And the dirty looks I expected from Wifezilla? Conspicuously absent: while I was taking the garbage out earlier, she snuck a seating on my chair, and upon my return insisted that I buy her one on my way home from work tomorrow :)