every word of it.

Keith Olbermann
Simon Pegg
Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson)
all appearing on The Soup

1. Pussycat Dolls - When I Grow Up
I saw this one when I was in Trinidad and watching TV with my cousin in their shop. When I saw the title, I was like “Oh cool, a Garbage cover“. But it’s not. Not at all. The Pussycat Dolls song is just garbage (lowercase g).

2. Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
I saw this video a while back on mtvU. I was expecting a cover of Jill Sobule’s song from way back when. Now this is a tough one. This may come back to haunt me, but I don’t hate Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl. It’s not something I would put on my iPhone and listen to while at work, but I wouldn’t do that with Jill Sobule’s song either. So in conclusion, they’re both acceptable MOR tracks.

I was in Trinidad for the past 2 weeks. I’ll probably do a post sometime about the actual trip, but for now here’s the grocery bill from the time I was at the beach house.

The exchange rate is about 1 USD = 6 TTD (1 USD = 6.00200 TTD)

My cousin said she could get a job in the mall starting with the minimum pay being at least 9 TTD / hr.

A Large Pizza from Mario’s Pizza will run you 80 TTD.

So the exchange rate holds for most goods, but you aren’t being paid by the same amount. So if you’re working minimum wage, it’ll take you 9 hours to buy that pizza.

Bag Badges Buttons
Originally uploaded by rincewind1013

Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson, in better times, on my bag.

Spaced is finally getting a Region 1 release. And to celebrate, Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) (Shaun of the Dead, Son of Rambow) and director Edgar Wright will travel to New York, Los Angeles, Comic-Con and Austin for special screenings, a marathon, panel sessions and signings for fanboys and fangirls.

It took ‘em long enough. I still have my Livejournal archive, and according to that - I purchased the Region 2 release sometime around December 2004. The series ended in 2001. So yea, no one was in a rush.

You can guess that since I’m writing about it here on raishad.com, I love Spaced. And you’d be right. It’s one of those shows that I get an urge to marathon. And you could probably guess that I’ll be at the Austin event. But unfortunately, I’ll be on vacation. I’ll be out of the country. I’ll be in Trinidad. I’ll be missing Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, and Edgar Wright. I’ll be missing Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright for the 2nd time.

It’s a bit disappointing.

Regarding the upcoming release, it looks like I might have to buy it, though the cover is a bit worse. There will be new commentary tracks and a few new interview bits.

Region 2 Release

Region 1 Release

We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles Dear Raishad, You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are. We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you. -Your friends at Netflix

Yep, my blog is powerful. So far it’s saved 30 Rock, Pushing Daisies, and now Netflix Profiles.

Sadly, I just couldn’t save Arrested Development, or Speed Racer. But I’m ahead though, and that’s what matters.

Speaking of Speed Racer - not one person asked for a ticket refund. This either means that no one reads this OR that everyone who felt compelled to see Speed Racer after my post, loved it. I think it’s the latter.

Sadly, it looks like Speed Racer is out of theatres. Until I’ve seen Hancock and The Dark Knight, Speed Racer remains the Summer Movie of the Summer.

iLiKETRAINS is a band that plays music that is somewhere between Tindersticks and Mogwai.

Just watch this video for TERRANOVA

If that doesn’t scream Tindersticks + Mogwai, I don’t know what does. But that’s not a bad thing at all. I love the Tindersticks. I love Mogwai.

A few days ago, I hit a nice streak of iLiKETRAINS on the iPod on the way to and from work. The song THEBiBLE came on - and it threw me for a loop. It was just so completely different from what I know as the “iLiKETRAINS” sound.

And it makes sense. Since THEBiBLE comes from a rarities compilation called THE iNDiCTMENT.

Enjoy.

Are you excited? I am. Hopefully we’re excited about the same thing.

Today, Eclipse Ganymede was released. Eclipse is a software platform that has an amazing plug-in system that allows it to disguise itself as a Java Development Environment. That’s how it sneaks in. “Don’t mind me, I’m just a Java IDE.” And then all of a sudden you’re using it for reporting.

But, I love Eclipse. Most days, I spend my entire working day staring at Eclipse. So it’s nice that it’s a pleasure to use and continues to improve.

I’ve already mentioned the bread crumbs. Honestly, I haven’t made much use of them in practice. It’s a nice feature to have, but I find it is faster just to use the Package Explorer + Outline to get where I need to be.

A feature of Ganymede that I love and use all the damn time is the enhanced search results.

This is an example search. Notice how the results list the context of where the term was found. It makes scanning a list of matches easy.

One of the features I’m excited about is the Save Actions

I haven’t really used it, since I just found out about it. But it looks to be a nice time saver. Performing a lot of clean up automatically for you.

Also kind of interesting and part of the Ganymede release is the Eclipse Communication Framework. This allows for Collaborative Editing. Collaborative Editing isn’t new, but it could be more useful now that it’s “standard” from within Eclipse. We’ll see.

The “New and Noteworthy” is a mile long. It really is amazing that the Eclipse Foundation can coordinate a release with 23 different projects.

So thanks Eclipse, for making my life easier.

Here’s a tip

At the intersection of I-20 & Great Southwest, gas is amazingly cheap. $3.87 cheap. I’m not sure how it’s possible. But it’s been that way for the past week. I suggest if you’re in the area, take advantage of the situation.

Speaking of gas, I found more evidence that the Toyota engineers’ who designed the RAV4 made a pact with the devil. A co-worker recently purchased a Lexus IS250. That comes with a 2.5L V6 making 204hp mated to a 6 speed transmission. For a car lacking a hatch, it’s very nice. The EPA gives the IS250 21/29. In real life, said co-worker mentions that she gets 24-27mpg. That’s what my RAV4 gets!

Let’s go to the tape

Bigger Engine, More Power, Heavier, Holds More Crap - and stills gets comparable mileage.

Important News Regarding Netflix Profiles

Dear Raishad,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The Netflix Team

I will miss the Profiles. They were a great way of making sure I got my movie, and my mom got her crappy Indian movies every week. No need to manage the queue manually.

Netflix is a customer friendly company. So it’s kind of disappointing they’re removing features (that I use).