If you hadn’t heard already, I am a huge fan of High-Definition video, and everyday my 480p resolution DVDs stare and taunt me with their low resolution!!!!

It’s not actually that bad, but I’m having a firesale. All the DVDs must go! I have this cabinet full of DVDs from when I used to actually buy them, but we never watch any of them. There are some movies that I actually want to own like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Matrix, but by and large I don’t need movies like Weekend at Bernie, Outbreak, and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

I’ve put all 100 or so on Half.com, and already I’ve sold 12! Granted I priced them very competitively because I don’t want to still be selling these things 6 months from now. On average I should be able to get between $1-$3 for each of them, and then with that money I can buy some of the truly good movies in Blu-Ray!

In case you want to buy some of my DVDs, go visit The Blarg’s Store!

My wife is gone at Girl Scout Camp. I chose to stay home and keep the puppy company (she’s almost 3 years old, but she will forever be a puppy, weird). As this monumental weekend of aloneness approached, I began to brainstorm different activities I could partake in without the wife. While she loves to do things with me, there are certain things that would be lower on her list, yet high on mine. These are the types of activities I have focused on for today.

Last night I went over to Chris Luna’s new pad and hung out. We watched Ferris Bueller, random SNL dvds, and played Karaoke Revolution (cool game!). I ate Little Ceasar’s pizza and KFC chicken, mmmm.

Today I have decided to embark on a Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Marathon. The running time of all three extended editions is 11 hours and 22 minutes (not including disc changes). My original idea was to watch all 3 films including extras, but that might be a little long. It is now 11 am, and if I start soon, that has me finishing about 11:00 pm tonight, not including bathroom breaks and eating. There are easily 2 hours of extras per film, so those might have to wait. Here is a rough schedule of my day:

11:30 am – 3:00 pm : Fellowship of the Ring
3:00 pm – 7:00 pm : Two Towers
7:00 pm – 11:00 pm : Return of the King

UCLA plays Memphis at 4:05 pm, so I may switch to that for the duration of that game. I watched the game on Thursday against Gonzaga, and it was amazing. While I didn’t attend UCLA, I did look into going there in High School…so it’s behind CSULA and CSULB for schools I actually care about.

If you want to watch a LOTR film or watch UCLA in HD, you know where I’ll be.

Stacie and I have begun to throw around the idea of taking a big trip this summer. Since we’re young and don’t have kids, now seems like the best time if any to see the world. We’ve started to throw around some ideas, but I’d love to hear other people’s opinions either from personal experience or what you’ve heard.

Stacie would like to see Spain because her Grandfather was born there. I’ve heard good things about Rome. I’m also open to New Zealand and Australia (could see the Lord of the Rings sets!). So where have people been, or your parents, or friends? The only things that scare me are driving in a foreign country and not being able to speak the native language. Otherwise I think it’d be great to see and do somethings we might not have the opportunity to do until we’re old and retired. Any ideas?

Last night we saw The Chronicles of Narnia with Sarah and Andrew. I’m not sure what my expectations were heading into the movie, but I think they were a little high. I will keep my review spoiler free, and perhaps I will help you decide if this is a good movie for you.

I read all seven books in elementary school, so my memory of them is not very good. As an adult, I prefer watching "adult" movies, and I expected such from The Chronicles of Narnia. Perhaps I have been spoiled by Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings series, but I expected something on par from Narnia in both epic scale and quality. Unfortunately, as the PG rating should give away, Narnia is targeted more at the elementary crowd than Harry Potter and LOTR. That is not a bad thing, but I like "adult" movies more. There is no blood, dumbed down action sequences, very bad child actors, and some really awkward dialogue between certain characters (i.e. Tumnus and Lucy, the Witch and Edmund). Also, every time that Peter is holding his sword he looks laughable, not inspiring. The computer effects were very well done, but the acting and dialogue were really bad.

So is the movie a waste of time? No, but I think it could have been better, even as a PG movie. In the hands of a better director the movie really could have shined. Go to a matinee showing.

I’m halfway done with George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Fire and Ice! I just finished book 3, A Storm of Swords, and it’s still great. I’ve read about some other series that start to falter part way through, but this one is staying strong. If you missed my other warnings, this book series is definitly rated R with a lot of violence and a fair amount of sex…but it’s so enthralling. The next book comes out on July 26th, so I have to keep myself entertained until then. I’ve got a couple Michael Crichton books I haven’t read, so they should do. Time to find another good fantasy series. I should actually read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, since I haven’t quite finished them before. Then I can call myself a true fan of fantasy.

I just finished the first book in George R.R. Martin’s series, A Song of Fire and Ice, called A Game of Thrones, and it was amazing. Start to finish it was a great read, and very difficult to put down. I think there is a certain stigma attached to the entire fantasy genre, like it’s all dorky elves and crystall balls and stuff only nerds can like. The book is really quite accessible though to non-fantasy lovers. It’s very medieval with Kings, Queens, Knights, succession to the various thrones, battles between families and nations. I think the only aspect that makes it fantasy is that it’s a made up world in a made up time, much like The Lord of the Rings. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Now I can start the next book in the series, A Clash of Kings, which is even longer than the first at 768 pages (A Game of Thrones is just over 700). There are many unanswered questions and potential plot twists, it should be interesting. Then I have book 3 to read, A Storm of Swords, which is a whopping 992 pages! Then book 4 should be out sometime this year, which will easily be over 1000 pages. A good book is like a good movie…as long as it’s made up of good stuff, it can be as long as it wants!

I started reading this book recently, and so far it’s awesome. The idea of a huge epics series sounded fun, sort of in the spirit of Lord of the Rings. This is book one in an epic six book series, of which the fourth book is to be released in July. So far it appears to be a great fantasy story full of action, betrayl, love, and war. The first 50 pages were daunting as character after character was introduced, but now that I am familiar with them, I’ve become engrossed in the story. It might have been wise of me to not start reading until all six books were out. Take a look over at amazon to read more about A Game of Thrones.