You know this one.

[aruan]

Student movie ticket plus large popcorn and small lemonade: $13.05 Sky Captain was a mostly unfortunate choice last night, but Jude Law was just as pretty in his bomber jacket with his British accent as we'd hoped, and the movie wasn't awful, and I was already a done deal on the cinematography, so no points lost. walkingshadow gets to pick the next one though.

Coffee and pie: $6.29 We also held our annual Confession Night over a quarter of a pumpkin pie (I'd asked for a slice) and a brownie sundae until five in the morning at Denny's. We have flaws, we have insecurities, we're good people who need hugs and the occasional swift kick in the ass.

Four books and a DVD on amazon.com, plus shipping: $25.46 One of you recommended Zombies of the Gene Pool ages ago, David Thewlis was all the recommendation I needed for Divorcing Jack, Backstory: Inside the Business of News for professional horizon-expansion, The Nanny Diaries constructively sublimates my voyeur kink, and my real treat, The Art of Democracy: A Concise History of Popular Culture in the United States.

Ethernet & LJ subscription: $23/month Joey crashed the Backstreet hurricane benefit show at the House of Blues in Orlando, Britney and Kevvers tied the knot at what was supposed to be their engagement party, and even the official Harry Potter books are considered contraband in some parts (oh, if they only knew.)

Kickboxing class at the Racquet Club: $0 Thank you, state of Florida. However, number of muscles I have in my body is relatively infinite, all of which will be clamoring for attention with equal desperation by tomorrow for the hell that they've been put through.

The most mind-blowingly fantastic songvid I've ever seen, Kirk/Spock set to Nine Inch Nails' Closer, sent over by halimede who so thoughtfully feeds my newest crack addiction? Priceless No, really. If any of you are interested, just hit me up on AIM and we'll make it happen.

There are some things money can buy. For everything else, there are good friends who temper, listen, commiserate, gossip, and enable. *snog*

P.S. Can anyone recommend some region-free DVD players? I've come to accept wanting Ally McBeal badly enough to buy European.

P.P.S. Whoa. A.D.I.D.A.S. and Blue Monday just came up back-to-back on WinAmp, and I think I got a little whiplash.

P.P.P.S. As others have linked, so shall I.

Comments

[madame-d.livejournal.com]

P.S. Can anyone recommend some region-free DVD players? I've come to accept wanting Ally McBeal badly enough to buy European.

When companies make region-free DVD players, all they do is take a regular DVD player and alter a chip to make it region-free (you also want the DVD player to have a built-in code-free converter, because European TV systems are PAL and American are NTSC).

Bottom line: those companies that are considered good in the States (Phillips, JVC, Toshiba) are much more expensive, in region-free version, than others.

DVD Overseas (http://www.dvdoverseas.com/dvd.htm) has a good collection of region-free/code-free DVD players. JVC for $160 and Phillips for $130. I think I got mine at 220-electronics (http://www.220-electronics.com/).

Good luck!

}:)

[halimede.livejournal.com]

(you also want the DVD player to have a built-in code-free converter, because European TV systems are PAL and American are NTSC).

Which isn't so much a problem if you get one to hook up to your computer rather than TV though. And the ones for the computer will usually both play and burn DVDs, which is handy for backing things up. Which one you want to get depends on if you have a good monitor to hook up to said 'puter.

[madame-d.livejournal.com]

Really good point. All DVD-ROMs are region-free/code-free once you download a mini-program to make them that way (I think you still need a program?).

}:)

[halimede.livejournal.com]

(I think you still need a program?).

Yes, it's possible to re-flash the thing itself, but it's easier, less likely to cause problems and more convenient to do it with software.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

What about all the talk of the most inexpensive DVD players being the ones that ended up playing anything? I've heard they either run really expensive or really cheap, but that was a while ago. Is there anything on the packaging that specifies it as region-free?

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Ooh, so I can just make my DVD drive region-free? That would be neat-o keen. Is this something I can find on the Web for download?

[madame-d.livejournal.com]

This place (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks) has instructions on how to turn regular DVD players into region-free. It's easier to do with cheapo players, like Apex or Cyber-something, so it might be worth a look?

}:)

[science-vixen.livejournal.com]

You can flash your DVD player itself to make it region free, however that voids any warranty you have on the thing, and if you do it wrong (because you have misread a serial number for instance) you can't use it at all (until you re-flash correctly).

The problem is that windows also logs your region, so that won't actually help you.

what you can do is use DVD Region+CSS Free Lite which is a type of middle-ware that sits in between you DVD-player and the player-program, and thus conveniently forgets to tell the player that oh yeah, this is region X btw. it has a 30 day trial.