Archive for September, 2006
My Super Ex-girlfriend (2006)
Who’s in it
Luke Wilson, Uma Thurman, Anna Faris
What was good
The core idea of a guy, who just starts dating a girl that happens to be a superhero. That, and the fact that she is a psycho, so to see what happens when a pyscho girl with powers is dumped. I did like it when she threw the shark at Wilson.
What sucked
This movie is what it is. You know it is going to be silly at times and outlandish. There were parts like the recycled super hero story, and actually the end animated sequence, that come to mind as bad. But, it was a short, entertaining movie at an hour and a half and for .50, it was worth that time.
Who should go see this
I think this movie is probably worth a 2.00 rental, not much more. The time is great, it is fun if you are a younger couple and are aware of the times and just are married or remember dating. I don’t think the older crowd would like this as much, especially anyone who doesn’t like the supernatural hero thing. Those types need to stay away just like you do with the regular drama hero movies like Superman and X-men.
Bought a Dig Dug Marquee
This weekend we went to Chicago for Emily’s 21st birthday. I emailed the Google Group to see if anyone had parts for a Dig Dug machine. I got one email back from a guy named Joe who was really great. He had a pristine Dig Dug Marquee that he sold me for a great price of $20.
Dig Dug restoration progress Aug. 20th-Sept. 25th, 2006
I worked on stripping off the black paints from the side of the cabinet. At first I used simple green, a green scrunchy kitchen pad, and elbow grease. It worked ok, I got the artwork back, and the black paint off, but it was very hard work and extremely slow going. Plus, the artwork would fade with the scrubbing, and the rubbing of the black paint left a grey tint in the white of the artwork.
I had been reading on forums for the best possible substance to remove paint from cabinets, and I kept reading about Goof Off. I talked to Justin about it, because it seemed that he had used it when he worked maintenace at the apartment complex in Lansing, and he also swore by the stuff. I got one can and sprayed it generously on one side of the cabinet that hadn’t been worked on yet. The one side I had sccrubbed down half of it with just Simple Green. My nails were black and my fingers tired and raw. But that was all to change.
The Goof Off bubbled up the paint on the untouched side and it just fell off in most places, or just a brush of the hand could take it off in others. I couldn’t believe it, and the artwork shown underneath was vibrant, colorful, and in great condition. I continued to use the Goof Off throughout the rest of the cabinet, I had to buy a second can, but it really made the whole stripping possible. The reaction worked best on areas where the artwork wasn’t damanged and had a smooth surface. If the surface wasn’t smooth, it didn’t come off as easy.
Like anything, of course, there were a lot of areas of touchup. I used the Goof Off and scrubbed, and in a ton of places, I gently used a scraper to get the paint off once loosened. Note: To a new serious collector who is very anal, I wouldn’t recommend this. In a couple of places, I scraped off tiny milimeters of artwork. But for those of you who would die if this happened, then you might just want to rub to get it off. I didn’t care that much since the game wasn’t for me, I just wanted to finish it up.
On September 25th I finished the cabinet, and it felt good. Little did I know that it would sit there for many more months before I would do much of anything else on it.
Taking off Land, Sea, Air overlay from Dig Dug
After reading something on the forums today, I got an idea. I read that, in many cases, operators would just apply a new overlay to an existing one. So that meant, potentially that the original Dig Dug overlay was still under the “Land, Sea, and Air” one. I went out into the garage, busted off the lexan covering, and ripped off the stuck on overlay. Sure enough, there was the original Dig Dug.
The overlay came off pretty easy, but left a very dense residue on the control panel. I tried to use some paint thinner without any luck. I will have to come back to the control panel I think either way, because the control panel underneath had new holes for different buttons, and other holes that were drilled out but left unplugged, must have been mistakes. I may need to just find a completely new replacement Control Panel.
Clerks II (2006)
Who’s Voice is in it (Who’s Not?)
Rosario Dawson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Jason Lee, Wanda Sykes, Ben Affleck
Should you see this movie?
Unless you are Clerks I fan, no. Vulgarity to offend is the whole point, and I could watch this once so I seemed cool, but I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. Now, I think others who have seen and really enjoyed the first one will love this. The underlying story is pretty simple, one man unsure about what to do with his future, marry because it is easy and seems like what he should do, or pursue the harder life and true love. It is amazing that this much of a story is underneath all of the interactions and the donkey show.
