The Juice Bar

The Netflix Vs Blockbuster thing

2007-02-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

So, I cancelled my Blockbuster account.

Why you ask? Well, hands down Blockbuster won the shipping game. In the short time I used them, I got double the amount of DVDs. But here is where Netflix shines - selection.

The story is rather amusing to my wife. It goes like this: I get all stoned and start looking to add more Trailer Park Boys episodes. One might say I got a little obsessed. My desktop image, searches, everything were Trailer Park Boys for about 24hrs. In my defense, I hadn't slept but a few hours. An affliction I suffer from quite frequently. I couldn't figure out why Amazon had a TPB movie, a christmas special and a whole season (5) that Netflix didn't offer. So I searched Blockbuster and found that not only did they not have season 5, but they didn't even have TPB!!! I abruptly cancelled my subscription.

I have heard, in their defense it was many years ago, that Blockbuster was some sort of weird religious cult thing and that they only carried approved movies or whatever. Well, not carrying TPB is a sin in my book and I smite them with what little power I had over them, my dollars.

And thus ends this episode.

Fucking doctors.

2007-02-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

So about two weeks ago I go to the doctors because I had something in my eye for a few days and it really sucked. She does all sorts of tests and finds nothing in my eye and decides "you've got conjunctivitis" aka pink eye. Based I might add on nothing more than me telling her I had been around several 3-5 yr old kids a couple days before (and the fact that she couldn't find anything lodged in my eye)...

She gives me a script for a "strong sulfur based antibiotic", with no instructions other than "two drops every four hours", and sends me on my way.

Its now two weeks and two days later, my eyes are still fucked up so I go see a specialist. He does all sorts of tests and says "well, I'm not surprised you've been having problems... you've been using the medicine she gave you for more than twice as long as you should have. The reason your eyes are bothering you so much, is you are clearly allergic to the medicine she prescribed. This medicine is quote powerful and often does more harm than good. As far as I can tell, you were just suffering from seasonal allergies and she misdiagnosed it as conjunctivitis."

Although not nearly as dangerous, this reminds me of the time I told the doctor I was allergic to percosets, and he prescribed me Oxycontin instead (which is percoset on crack, basically). I didn't sleep for 3 days. I think the mental images my wife has of me sitting, exhausted, scratching myself like a lunatic 24 hours a day for about 4 days, are enough to land us a million dollar lawsuit...

The scary part is both of these medical woopsies are from the same practice.

Do you listen?

2007-02-19T15:02:00.000-05:00

Am I doing this for nothing?

2007-02-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

Quote from Netflix Hacks

"In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service," Netflix's revised policy now reads. The statement specifically warns that heavy renters are more likely to encounter shipping delays and less likely to immediately be sent their top choices.

All I have to say is...........................................................................................

That should seriously be illegal. Its like some sort of weird DVD rental welfare.

Saturday and the battle of big video cont'd

2007-02-17T14:56:00.000-05:00

So its Saturday. I'm walking out to the mailbox expecting the netflix video that was shipped on Wednesday to arrive. Guess what? Its not here. So what does that mean for my rentals this week?
I got two videos in an entire week. One video shipped back Friday - two shipped back Saturday. I got one disc on Tuesday (The Departed) and another on Friday (Trailer Park Boys). Thats horrible service.

I sent the first video back to Blockbuster today (Empire Falls Disc 1 - saturday 2/17) - lets see how quickly they get one back to me.

One last note - I put The Departed in Wednesday's mail and it has yet to be received by Netflix. It was going to Worcester - a 45 min drive.

Netflix you just got PWNED

2007-02-16T15:04:00.000-05:00

I am happy to announce that Blockbuster, the devil incarnate, has outperformed Netflix this week. 48 hours later and I am holding three titles from Blockbuster.

Today as expected, my single Netflix DVD came. It was shipped on Tuesday 2/13.

Blockbuster got me three videos in that time. Not to mention they had to process my application as a user, wait on me to update my queue etc.

So far, Netflix, Blockbuster is mopping the floor with you. Over the next months we shall see. I plan on holding all three videos from each company, and shipping them all at the same time (on a monday, to be fair) and doing a months long review. I will ship one video per day from each company and see how many videos we end up with after a months time. I wont cheat and use the instore rentals that come with the Blockbuster subscription.

Blockbuster Video day 2

2007-02-15T17:07:00.000-05:00

Apparently they've processed me now, because my first two videos shipped today. Its been about 24hrs since I signed up. Why'd they ship two and not three though? Thats what I'm wondering...

The Netflix return that was processed and shipped on Tuesday, hasn't arrived as of 2/15.

An amusing? sidenote - I ordered a package from BC, Canada on Saturday, and it arrived today via USPS. It amazes me that a product from Canada only took Mon->Thurs to arrive and yet I sent Netflix a video on Saturday that arrived on Wednesday. It takes the same amount of time to ship a package via parcel post from BC Canada to Massachusetts as it does to ship a letter via first class mail to Worcester Massachusetts - 45 minutes down the road.... Somehow I don't think my video actually arrived on Wednesday. *wink wink*

Blockbuster shipping update

2007-02-16T01:03:00.000-05:00

They did in fact ship the third video today too. The email came surprisingly late though, around 11pm.

So, I want to believe that in one day I will see 3 movies in the mailbox. However, given my crappy past with Netflix, I'm betting on 2 one day, and one the next (the 11pm email = it didn't make it in today's mail, which would be another way of keeping a leash on rental volume)

We shall see...

Taking Blockbuster for a Spin

2007-02-15T09:06:00.000-05:00

So yesterday, 2/14, I signed up for Blockbuster Online. I will of course come back here to report on my experiences and compare them to our scamming friends, Netflix.

Imagine that... (Netlfix scam cont'd)

2007-02-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

So its now Wednesday and low and behold:

The third video is posted as received on the third day. Netflix is a scam. If you read my last two posts you'll see the whole story.

I don't understand how they are getting away with this. I'd love to know if anyone has any insight on what we as consumers can do to make Netflix pay for this disservice. Feel free to contact me.

More Netflix...

2007-02-13T11:33:00.000-05:00

And here we have it, the proof in the pudding.

It goes like this. On Friday, I mailed a disc out. On Saturday I mailed two discs out. As I said in my last post, Netflix purposely does not receive one of two discs if they are shipped together and voila it happened again only with a twist:

Trailer Park Boys were shipped together, the other disc (not shown) on Friday. Notice how it is now Tuesday and they have received two of my three discs. The thing is, shipping on Friday and Saturday means - they all arrived there on Monday. So they shipped one on Monday, now they ship the second on Tuesday and who wants to bet a quarter that the third disc "arrives" on Wednesday and ships then?

Netflix is purposely spacing out their receiving and shipping in a calculated attempt to control how many videos we get access too in one week. This has to be my twentieth experiment with them and so far in the past few months only one time did two ship at once - but never three. (oddly, it was right after I posted the blog post... Murphy's Law)

Why I Hate Netflix

2007-01-31T20:16:00.000-05:00

Its Monday morning and I'm off to mail the two movies my wife and I watched over the weekend. See, its important to get out there before the maillady comes. Why? Because I want to get some new movies quick. None of this waiting around crap. Thats why we use Netflix. Maybe I should say "used", because I'm very close to cancelling the account and swapping to Blockbuster. And believe me, thats not my first choice. I've been giving Netflix chance after chance to get better, yet they only get worse.

So its Wednesday night as I write this. How many movies have they received? One. Odd... I sent them at the same time, yet they only receive one. Now here's the real kicker. This has happened like this every single time for months. I've gotten to the point where, in my mind, I guess which one they'll choose to have received. Why do they only receive one at a time? Well, if you do the math, it starts to add up over the course of a year. Spread this same phenomenon to every one of their users, and suddenly its a really large amount of money they are effectively skimming off the top. They have at their disposal the greatest excuse of all time - the mail.

Another interesting phenomenon, is what happens if I mail all three back at once. The returns still get spread out over two days, except without fail the first day has two returns. You'd think "well, thats not bad" but it is and here's why. The day they ship, I get a notice saying they shipped me ONE movie. Not two. But they received two (although you and I know they actually received all three). So now the shipping is spread across three days, for three movies. All of which should have been mailed on the first day.

Do the math involved with that last example. Pretend you watch all three movies in one day, mail them back and count the days required to receive them. Again, account for non-shipment/receipt on weekends, add this up over a year and you'll quickly see why Netflix is actually cheating you out of rentals.

The truly sad part, is A: we can't afford to pay for our movie habit via local rentals, B: Blockbuster is basically the devil and C: we have the basic cable, so we rely upon Netflix's dodgy service as "better than the alternative." A very unfortunate situation.

Some new tracks and a MySpace

2007-01-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

Yeap... There are a few new tracks over on the mp3 page here and we've started using MySpace.

School is finally finished!

2006-12-23T01:30:00.000-05:00

Damn straight! Now that I have no school to go to, I think its time to start blogging. What about? Well... I ain't gonna lie, I have no idea yet.

What I'm listening to ---->

2006-04-04T15:09:00.000-05:00

Costa Rica!

2006-04-02T16:53:00.000-05:00

We've just returned from our Costa Rican adventure and I will be adding a rather detailed story/how-to in the very near future. Watch this space.

In other news, this vacation sort of knocked some sense into me... No more WoW and a whole lotta college and music making from here on out - as a very wise man said "Focus"

I've been a bad boy

2004-09-13T16:48:00.000-05:00

So I finally got tired of waiting on Merv Pepler and Will White's collaboration under the moniker The Flexitones and decided to do a search on Soulseek for it. Strangely, it hasn't been released yet according to Twisted Records, but it can be had on Soulseek with a quick search for Flexitones.

First off, I am in no way whatsoever condoning the pirating of music. I in fact find it appalling. With that said, when an album that has been finished for awhile now fails to be released, I feel no shame in grabbing it (until the cd comes out of course - at which point, like all good albums, I shall buy it directly from the artist). Well, what can I say? Its a bit dated, but I half blame this on Twisted for not releasing it when it was actually complete and half blame Will White for being stuck in this big beat Propellerheads style. Aside from that small complaint, it is one hell of an album. The influences on Joyrider are abundant. Fans of Eat Static will definitely find something for them in here. The synths of Merv Pepler are all over the place. Fans of the Propellerheads style are going to be absolutely floored. Thats the beauty of a collaboration with a member of Eat Static. Its a guarantee that your tracks will reach a new level and the Flexitones are no exception.

If dancing and chilling out suit your tastes, this CD comes highly recommended.

****************************************

In other news, school has begun and boy does it ever SUCK. I have however played guinea pig and have a lesson for all of you to use in your lives: Never, I repeat NEVER, skip your gen eds and do the fun stuff first. I am now waiting on a degree because I didn't want to do the crappy one level biology and math classes. This makes for one boring college experience. Especially for someone who has been doing grad courses... Uggh. Basically, get the crap out of the way first and then enjoy yourself taking courses on all the things that interest you. The reverse is not pretty.

- Dex

The Passion of Christ

2004-09-03T21:32:00.000-05:00

Big thumbs down. Its one thing to drive a point home, and its another thing altogether to make a 2hr piece of trash movie that gives the viewer no insight into who Jesus is/was (let alone the Jews and the Romans) yet spends the entire time showing us how many times he was hit, kicked, spit on and whipped.

If I could, I'd personally shove a cross up Mel Gibson's ass and demand he repay me $4.20 for the rental and $20 an hour reparations for time lost. Unless you are into absolutely useless and more importantly endless gore, go rent something else.

Crazy Days

2004-08-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

This weekend we were headed off to a nice family picnic and birthday party. The sun was shining, the temperature was the hottest day all summer. It was a great day. We were driving into Holyoke eating Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwiches and sipping our iced coffee when I notice an agitated-in-a-rush-to-go SUV sitting at a stop sign we were about to pass. You know the kind, they keep jumping as if they are about to pull out in front of you but don't because it would surely cause an accident.

Well, he pulls out and immediately begins tailgating us and swerving left and right as if he wants to pass. Now, its one thing to be in a rush, but we are driving down a one-way street, with cars parked on both sides of it AND in a line of traffic at least 6-7 cars long (in front of us). Meanwhile, I just keep eating my sandwich and listening to Hi-Fi Companions and the wife is pleasantly sipping her iced coffee and dealing with my hippie music - a day like any other. Well, now he begins to try and pass us. He's not just looking crazy, he is now acting crazy. So, like all egotistical men, I decide "screw you man, you've already endangered us 100 times, honked at us back at that intersection - you can wait like the rest of us" so I proceed to pull to the left (which is all of 6 feet on a one way street) and stop him from passing us. He tries again on the other side and I patiently move over toward that side and block him again. Realize now, that this is a one way street. I to this day cannot figure out what the hell he was trying to accomplish because he would've had to mow down a line of parked cars to get past the car/cars in front of us. Anyway, he is obviously agitated (and clearly crazy) and we finally reach the stop light that is at the foot of the hill which has the on-ramp to Rte 91.

He proceeds to open his door (he is on the right side of us) and begin screaming at us and then reaches over and grabs a BAT from the passenger seat and starts waving it at my wife in the seat next to me. My wife begins screaming "JUST GET OUT OF HERE" over and over again and I am simply staring at him awaiting my next move. A little trick to others out there - in situations like this, maintain your cool and allow them to make a first move. Always calculate you possibilities while waiting - they are not thinking, if you are, you'll almost always walk away from these things much better off. At this point I had already mapped the only available escape route and was hoping the light would change so we could simply pull away. Well, after more yelling at bat waving, he decides he is going to go around the back of the car. Now I'm thinking he is going to smash out our taillights or a back window. I still have no clue what was up this guys ass. Remember that his road rage began before we even got to him (refer back to the jumping forward at the stop sign). We have inherited the wrath of someones anger, for no apparent reason. Don't get me wrong, not letting him pass surely upset him, but as I said, he was clearly agitated long before he began tailgating us. Anyway... So what do I do now? There is a man walking around the back of the car with a bat. I slam it into reverse, hear the bat hit the back of the car with a bang, and come to a stop about 20-30 feet back, with him standing on the side of his SUV taunting me to come forward (oh how I would've loved to Grand Theft Auto his ass) so I sat there, with my wife screaming "GET US OUT OF HERE" awaiting his next move and mapping out the two new escape routes that this had opened up for us and half-eyeing a jeep full of 4 women whose mouths were dragging on the pavement over the spectacle they were getting to observe. Luckily BTW, the people behind us saw it start happening and they had already backed up. Whomever you are in the blue buick, I thank you for opening the hole for us to stay safe, well done.

So, you'd think it'd all be over by now. But no, he goes into his truck and starts rummaging for something. All I can think is "gun", cuz this guy was clearly not well. Anyone who keeps a bat on their passenger seat is surely the same person that would A: use it on every given occasion and B: carry a gun. An aside to all this, is I gave my wife a weapon (a mag light) for these very situations (and poorly lit ones). Neither of us even knew where it was, nor ever thought to grab it until we were 25 miles away from the incident. As opposed to SUV jackass who keeps his at the ready...

Anyway, she is REALLY screaming now "JUST GO!!!!" Yelling at me to jump over the curb, to cut through the parking lot etc. But I am just watching, awaiting his next dumb move so I can trump it again like the last one. FINALLY after what felt like an hour, the light changed. He is still outside the car on his side rummaging for something inside. I nail it, jump over the intersection (its one of those fun raised ones) and proceed up the hill at about 75 mph. We fly onto the highway and off we go.... I'm doing a solid 90 and I look in the rear view and here he comes again. He drives right up to our rear end and stays there about 5 feet away talking on a cell. All I could think was "this guy is calling in OUR plate to the Police! WHAT A FREAKIN NUTJOB!" Then, he pulls into the right lane to pull up alongside us and I slam the brakes on and bring the car down to 65 and we lose him, finally.

After all this, we never thought to get his plate so we could have him arrested. It was so unnerving that we got into an argument about the way it was handled, over whether to call the cops, over my "ego" etc etc. It was absolutely horrible. I was so hopped up on adrenaline (as opposed to the CRACK this asshole was hopped up on) that I didn't even begin to feel fear or anything of that nature until we hit 691 in CT, about an hour away.

So, we call the cops in both Holyoke and our home town. She was very nervous that having our plate # would somehow give him access to our home address and she was afraid to go home. Me, I was afraid that for some perverted reason, he was gonna claim I tried to run him over in the car and then fled the scene. The sound of the bat hitting the back of the car played over and over again in my head and I convinced myself that I maybe had hit him too. She however confirmed that she saw the whole thing and I didn't even come close to hitting him (which didn't make me feel better for some reason) Anyway, I was nervous, not that he'd be at the house, but a trooper would be there ready to ask me questions and possibly put me in a cell for the night (which SUCKS). Luckily my sister-in-law said to me later in the day "even if you did hit him, which my sister clearly says you did not, he would have to explain why he was behind your car and holding a bat at a busy intersection" which was very true and suddenly made me feel much better.

So our beautiful day had been destroyed. We were so happy to go see the kids, the family etc. We love these days... It instead was ruined by some asshole that thought it right to ruin everyone else's day because his life clearly sucked. Ya know what else sucks? I now keep a 1.5" bar alongside our bed just in case this asshole does manage to track us down and break into the house. How sad is that?

Come to think of it, I've just realized something even sadder. Our friends came over last night and one, who will remain unnamed, tried to pin the blame on us!!! Then she decided to downplay the scenario anyway because "my dad had a knife pulled on him in a subway once" Its always nice to have good friends in a time of crisis... It was 24hrs+ later and we still weren't well and our friend is eating our homemade corn chowder and blaming us... Thanks! I loved the other comment too. A quick aside: about two weeks ago my parents house was vandalized by some local kids. Our car is for sale and just happened to be parked there too, but luckily was untouched. The vandals really did a number on them too. Both cars had an entire roll of priority mail tape wrapped around them, aside from all the broken things, the stolen pain killers and everything in their cars spread out all over the lawn. Anyway, to shorten the story, our "friends" response to this was "thats what they get for leaving their cars unlocked." For a fleeting moment I embarked on an angry daydream where I went upstairs and pulled a bat on her just to see the reaction and look on her face. I was floored... Somehow it was my parents fault???? They live in a town where noone locks the doors on their HOUSE! Nevermind car doors. A town so small and so pleasant that there is probably 4 crimes a year, literally. Somehow it was their fault, just like this bat incident was somehow our fault. Huh... Okay.

Funny, this started out as a way to get some stress off my chest regarding that fateful afternoon and now I literally loathe one of our best friends. Come to think of it, she never said thank you for her birthday present! I'm quite sure thats our fault too, right?

I don't understand this world.

Its sad

2004-08-25T12:49:00.000-05:00

When our election issues revolve around a candidates military service over 30 years ago. What is wrong with the media? What is wrong with the people that actually buy these mags and newspapers?

This country is a scary place. A scary place indeed.

-D3X

Got Art?

2004-08-13T13:16:00.000-05:00

Rarely, and I mean VERY rarely do I find art something worth passing on. This character has got to be one of the most amazing and in my opinion, revolutionary, artists I have ever seen.

Banksy

Make sure you check every page, because each one is outstanding.

"people who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine" - Banksy

Does anyone else think we...

2004-08-06T16:14:00.000-05:00

...seriously need a new president?

-D3X

A perspective that mirrors a recent post

2004-08-05T12:48:00.000-05:00

Ditch the Distraction in Chief mirrors, somewhat, what I had been saying about the "lesser of two evils" vote for this coming election. I can't say as though I agree 100%, but I think Naomi Klein is almost dead on with this piece.

-D3X

Kill Em All

2004-08-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

I'm officially a man

2004-08-03T20:47:00.000-05:00

Yeap, you read it here first. Today, I replaced our bathroom sink, faucet and all of the associated plumbing. Admittedly it took me awhile to get it right, but once I did... What a feeling. I've worked on alot of stuff in the house of course (my cousin, father, wife and I completely gutted, designed and remodeled our kitchen after-all) but this was my first real solo job to my knowledge. To top it off, I think I got rather stoned from the PVC glue and cleaner... WOOEEE was I dizzy. Simply put, it explains why plumbers are always such absolute weirdos. Indirectly sniff this stuff for 30 min and you'll finally understand every plumber across the globe. Its been a few hours now and it STILL smells in there.

Seriously though, it is a great feeling to accomplish something like this "solo". Tomorrow we start staining all the wood in the house (which is pretty much the whole house - its a post and beam with about 10x as many beams as the "norm") and the next day I am off to Home Depot to buy the same sink etc, to replace the one in our master bathroom. Hundred bucks says I can do it, start to finish, in one hour. Any takers?

-D3X