The Life of Reidy

They are always coming up with some of the greatest services over in the UK. For instance, I recently found out that the Zopa service is now going to finally take it's business overseas to help out us wacky Americans. For those who might be familier with it, it's basically an online loans system that cuts out the need for a bank or some other form of middle man. Much like other peer-to-peer systems, people can sign up and easily lend or borrow money with other members through their secure network. It might put some people off thinking that it isn't a very safe way to do busniess, but they have an extremely well-crafted security system with their identity-checked, credit-checked and risk-assessed members. It's a reveltionary new concept, so I suggest you check out their site at zopa.com and get to know them so you can get instantly involved once they take bring their business here to the U.S.

When browsing through Digg today, I caught an awesome article about the best Lego sculptures out there. When I was a kid, I was totally that dork who would make Legos all the time, and not only follow the instructions but sometimes try to create the stuff they show in the pictures on the back of the boxes because they looked cooler then what you were actually supposed to make. I suppose all that creativity with Legos could eventually lead someone to make one of these: The 10 Coolest Lego Creations. Check out that link, there are some pretty impressive sculptures in there. That is, if you're into building with plastic connecting toys.

In a world conquered by technology and the ease of e-mail, it is always pretty sweet to get a couple of nice greeting cards through the ol' snail mail.

Now I know what you cats are thinking: "Snail mail?!?!? What's that?!?!"

Well back in ancient times, us ol' foagies over the age of twenty didn't have the internet so if we wanted to send someone a thoughtful message we would have to write out seemingly complicated addresses on evelopes, put our loving thoughts inside, and put them in a large blue box after putting the correct amount of "postage" on it. Now I know this all sounds very difficult, but that's just how things were. And now that we have email, it just makes things all the more thoughtful if we go through this process. It is understood that getting email is practically free, it would be nice if we didn't have to pay the cheap postage or if we could get free address labels for those mass sendings. All points considered, the extra effort always feels so much more personable and impressive then just a plain ol' email.

I know when the holiday seasons roll around people always like to send out nifty little cards and invites to their gatherings, just basically showing that they care. I know my family has a party every year, and we get so many people to come just by bothering to take that step beyond email. We always do up neat cards on the computer and get some unique address labels to make everyone feel like they were thought of even more. In the long run, the extra time and effort will not only give you a bit of a hobby for a while but in the end you'll be amazed how much more well thought of your friends will feel.

While I posting today, I've been listening to Sublime's classic self-titled album. It has always been one of those CD's that EVERYONE has and it seems like everyone is constantly playing in their mix rotations or whatever, so I'm not always jumping on the chance to listen to it, but listening to it again today just reminded me of why everyone listens to it in the first place, obviously. Because it's a damn great album, and all the more testament because it is very difficult to make a good Ska album.



I remember being in high school, after Human Error feel through, I was in about four different attempts at Ska bands that I had been in. The problem is when you are so young, it's very hard to focus yourself on actually going through with what you planned out. So what makes you think that you will have any better luck at coordinating ten or so different high school students, each with different musical backgrounds, and arrange them into some sort of feel-good, rythym and horns, rockin' scat guitar vibrations? It's pretty IMPOSSIBLE. But yet we all wanna rock out, so what other options do we have?

That's right, kids... we all gave up and wrote EMO songs about it.

That's what listening to this album made me think of. That and a few crazy nights that I hope I'm much smarter today to never recreate again.

So far, I'm enjoying the busy work that this new job requires me to do. I find my five office hours a week fly by when I busy myself with the minor office-tending details, the only problem is since I came on later then everyone else I am lacking in sufficient office supplies. Hopefully they will supply me some soon, because I have a lot of neat ideas that I could do for the acedemic spectrum but having just plain ol' paper and markers doesn't always do it for me. I love going down to Staples and checking out the new kinds of nifty gadgets and do-dads you can get for all kinds of office tasks, and it would be nice if I could use some of my budget to splurge on these thigns and make some nifty facelifts around the ol' office. Also, since I got this new job I'm going to invest in some sweet designer personal checks to really make my transactions look nice and professional. In the world of office work, sometimes we can only afford to buy cheap checks especially when the office is on a college campus, but I think it will be worth fronting the extra cash to really spiff up my projects and put on as much of a professional front as possible.

Friday night I got to catch The Nightmare Before Christmas rereleased in theaters through the magic of Disney 3D, and I was certainly not disappointed. Granted, the 3D was not overly amazing in terms of advancements in technology, but it was awesome to see that movie on the big screen again, and what more in a slightly cooler format as well. Not only is the music killer but it tells such a timeless, well crafted stroy. And so much care went into the actual filmmaking process itself, just think of all the poor suckers who had to sculpt every different frame of animation and each characters individual expressions while keeping the continuity on key. It's a film that has always impressed me, and it was certainly worth the ten bucks to catch it on the big screen one more time.