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I guess it won’t be official until August, but I have now finished my master’s degree. Now I need work!

For the 17th weekend in a row, the Hollywood box office has been down. They were hoping Star Wars would change things, but it didn’t. They were hoping Batman Begins would change things, but it didn’t either.

A poll came out last week showing that most Americans prefer to watch movies at home. Currently, I am one of those people. There are several reasons I like to watch movies at home. I don’t have to worry about obnoxious people. I don’t have to buy expensive movie theater food. I can stop the movie anytime I want to and do whatever I need to do. I hate missing parts of the movie. I bought a Samsung DVD changer with surround sound last year and I really enjoy watching movies on it. I also bought a larger TV, so it’s easier to see what’s going on.

Watching at home can’t beat the movie theater experience. If a really big movie is released, it can be a lot of fun going to see it on opening night. Something about watching a movie with a group of people makes it more fun than watching it alone. I like it when the crowd is rowdy and excited, as long as they know when to be quiet. The crowds at opening night of the Star Wars re-releases were great. I also liked the crowds at the Star Wars prequels and the ones at The Lord of Rings movies.

To get me out to the movies, there has to be something out there that I’m interested in. These days I don’t go to the theater just to go. If I’m really bored, I’d rather pick up a DVD and watch it. There just aren’t that many movies coming out this summer that I’m interested in paying $7 ($5 at midnight) to see. Other than War of the Worlds, The Fantastic Four, and possibly Bewitched, I think everything that I want to see has already been released. Compare that to past summers, when there was something I wanted to see coming out almost every weekend. I’m sure there will be a surprise hit or two, but who knows? Until they start releasing better movies, I’ll just stay at home and watch DVD’s…in 5.1 surround sound.

Mississippi is #1 in another category. We are the top state in terms of corruption among public officials. Does that mean we have that many more corrupt officials or that we do a better job in prosecuting these officials? When I was growing up in Jackson, I remember hearing about officials being investigated and some were even convicted.

I bought a wireless router a couple of months ago. Since I didn’t think I would get much use out of my old wired router, I decided to sell it on eBay. A few days after I sent the router to the guy that won the auction, an email correspondence began.

Him: I just got the router you sold me and it doesn’t work. Can you help?
What I’m thinking: Well that’s not much to go on. I know it works because I tested it before I sent it to him. I better not get a bad rating because this guy can’t follow instructions.
What I tell him: I tell him that I’m not sure what kind of problem he’s having. I guide him through the process of resetting the router and logging onto it. I tell him that then he must configure the router. I point out the instruction manual and setup disk that both guide you through the process of setting up the router. I also give him a link the website which also has instructions.

Him: I plug in the router and can’t access the internet. I already tried to reset it. What else can I do?
What I’m thinking: Is he just plugging it in and expecting it to automatically work? Did he even read my last email? I wonder what kind of connection he has.
What I tell him: I ask him if he has cable or DSL. I ask him if he can log on to the router. I ask him he has another computer he can try to connect with.

Him: I have DSL. Is there something specific I have to do before I can connect to the router?
What I’m thinking: Has he not been paying attention to what I’ve been saying?
What I tell him: I tell him that he can’t just plug it in and expect him to work. I say that he has to log into the router and configure it to work with his DSL connection. I told him that I could probably do it in less than 5 minutes if it was in front of me, but I can’t remember what the screens and menus look like. I once again give him instructions and point him and remind him of the instruction manual.

Him: I think I got it to work. Thanks for the help. It was good doing business with you.
What I’m thinking: It’s about time.
What I tell him: I tell him that I’m glad he got it to work and that I hope he enjoys using the router.

I guess I’m too hard on people that aren’t good with technology. You would think that he would realize that since he has to log into his DSL connection he would realize that he can’t just connect the computer to the router and expect it to work. Maybe he doesn’t have to log into his DSL. Maybe he does log into it and doesn’t realize it. And you would think that he would be able to follow simple instructions designed for people that aren’t technology oriented.

I finally settled on a new RSS reader. I am now using Bloglines. I didn’t want to use an online system because it’s dependent upon being able to access the website. So far I haven’t had any problems with this site being down. And I like the fact that I can access my feeds from anywhere.

I still have some organizing to do, but you can view my subscriptions here.

I told myself I wouldn’t start anymore incomplete series, and so far I’m sticking to it. I was doing some research on my current favorite series and this is what I found. Yes, I was bored.

Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is being released on July 16, 2005. This is book 6 of a 7 book series.

The Wheel of Time
Knife of Dreams is book 11 in a 12 book series. The publication date is currently listed as October 11, 2005. They recently released an image of the cover. That looks like Perrin and some other characters I can’t remember because the series has way too many freaking characters.

A Song of Ice and Fire
A Feast for Crows appears to finally be done. It is book 4 in a 6 or 7 book series. It could be out this fall. I think it’s been about 4.5 years since the last book, so he is very late with this book. The book was becoming very, very long and he still had material left to write. Instead of cutting parts of the story out, he decided to break it into two books. He decided to take half the characters out of this book instead of giving us incomplete stories for all the characters. So some of the storylines will be advanced in the upcoming book, but the rest will have to wait until the following book. He finally gets to release a book and can finish working on his incomplete chapters. I’m not sure I like his solution, but at least he’s finally releasing something. The good news coming from this solution is that book 5, A Dance with Dragons, is about halfway done.

Sword of Truth
Chainfire was release in January 2005, so it’ll probably be another year or more from now before the next book. The next one will be book 10 of an 11 book series. It will be the second part of the series ending Chainfire Trilogy.

I’m still working on The Dark Tower. I’m having trouble staying focused on book 4. I don’t think this will be my favorite one in the series. I may take a break and read The Chronicles of Narnia before the new movie comes out this December.