John Ratcliff's Weblog

Note to John Oberschelp . This is the specific video link I was talking about. Here is the last Andy Milonakis video I will leave you with before I head out for my 4 day weekend. In my opinion this is Andy's funniest video, though it does end somewhat abruptly. Andy, you need a big finish on this one. In this video Andy demonstrates his amazing talent for mimicry by performing a variety of accents from various world cultures. Here's the link. I realize that only my friends with a truly warped and sick sense of humour find any of this funny, so I completely understand if you skip any future Andy links.

My close, dear, and personal friend Andy Milonakis , has made this video to satirize us all. I spent a little time downloading all of the little 'comedy' bits on on Andee's site. A couple of dozen, I then watched each and copied a select few to a folder on my desktop called 'funny'. Not many made it to that folder, but the few that did were worth the effort. Andee has had an interesting week. His "Superbowl is Gay" video has become an internet phenomenon and is spreading across the world like an insane brush fire. Andee has a chat room on his website and I dropped in and spoke to him briefly. I found it more than slightly amusing to give him a link to Johnny's website so he could read Johnny's 'Perspective' post. Imagine a 27 year old aspiring comedian reading a blog post about how he is a tortured teenage boy struggling with issues of his sexuality. With that in mind, I offer you this link to Andee's take on the likes of...

Orange Juice Raped My Father I just had to type that into my blog. I expect that phrase to show up on search engines, bumper stickers, you name it. The 'kid' who made " The Superbowl is Gay " video is apparently a lot older than the 12 years old he looks like. Rumours abound he is in his late twenties! He claims 27 to be exact. Click on the link above to follow interviews and t-shirt orders. I wonder what Johnny's perspective is when he finds out that the 'kid' is a 27 year old college student and aspiring comedien, rather than a tortured young boy struggling with his sexuality. Here is a link to a website that has his latest video, "Chunky Peanut Butter Boy", which isn't nearly as funny as "The Superbowl Is Gay", but it has it's moments. In a couple of years when this kid on on Saturday Night Live (and let's admit it, he's better than Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon), we can all say we knew him when.

My friend John Miles and I both have a gambling addiction. Some people call it Ebay, but I don't sugar coat it, it's gambling pure and simple. I'm trying a new experiment this week. Recently I purchased several films off of Ebay that ended up having faded color. I hate faded color, however, I"m probably too picky. IB Technicolor prints go for thousands of dollars. I end up bidding on films that don't have a complete or detailed description hoping to find that hidden gem. Somebody selling something they have no idea what it's worth. Don't get me wrong, overall I'm breaking even on 16mm, but I do get discouraged when the poor quality prints start piling up. See, the problem is, that I'm trying to establish a reputation on Ebay is an honest seller. So, I buy a print that doesn't have a very detailed description, but if I sell the same print, I feel obligated to describe every flaw in the print in exacting detail. That's fine. M...

I just impulse spent 3 grand. Why? Because my job said we could take a four day weekend. I'm not supposed to talk about my job on this blog, so I won't. But those of you who know me can probably guess the implication of this statement. A 2 day weekend is something that has been an alien concept to me for some time. The notion of having a four day weekend, unrevokable, is a staggering concept. What to do, what to do? Staying at home hardly seems a viable option. Going somewhere warm, some place far, far, far, away from internet access. That would definitely fit the bill. So, can you impulse purchase your way out of this problem? Sure, rack up a credit card and anything is possible. So, this Friday morning, we will be flying to Miami to board one of those Carnival Cruise ships, this one is called "Fascination", and taking a 3 day cruise that will get us back home late on Monday. It has one stop, Nassau in the Bahama's. It will be myself, Terry, an...

Well, if you went to the Comedy Forum to see Mike Green , let me know. By the way, the Comedy Forum is hosting " Bobcat Goldthwait ", on April 11 and 12. I'll be sure to catch that show! Some interesting Blogger news. Blogger was just bought by Google. I don't know what that really means, but it's interesting I suppose. An awful lot of people are blogging these days including, of all people, Dave Barry ! The whole family went to the movies tonight. I don't know what I was thinking, because I went to the Clarkson 6. I walked into the movie theatre and was like...what!?? I've got a bigger movie screen in my living room. Of course, that's a ridiculous exageration, but these miniscule screening rooms that barely hold a hundred people and have a relatively tiny screen, seem very dissapointing. For the price of a movie ticket these days I expect stadium seating, THX sound, and a huge screen that lets me count the pores on people's noses. The movie we saw...

If anybody would enjoy going out this evening and just have a really good time laughing your ass off, I strongly recommend going to the "Comedy Forum" to see Mike Green preform. I went last night with some friends and I've never laughed so hard at a comedian in my life. There are three acts, the first guy is prettty funny with a very polished delivery. The second act is painfully bad. Boo off the stage bad. However, it's worth the torture to hear Mike Green when he gets on stage. The comedy forum is located just off the south outer road at Cave Springs exit. Behind the Red Lobster. Reservations recommended, shows at 8 and 10. Their website is: Comedy Clubs are a hit and miss affair, but when a fantastic act like "Mike Green" shows up, they can be an awful lot of fun.

Just in time for spring storms, I am now 'off the grid'. Today I purchased my first personal power generation system. I decided to go solar, mostly because of what I consider my primary use for the system. It's really nothing more than a large 70lb 100amp deep-cell battery. It will deliver 5amps for 20 hours. Not bad. Enough to run a movie projector and a variety of small electrical devices. I also purchased a 40amp solar panel, cost about $250. I considered getting a conventional gasoline or diesel powered generator, but a decent one is fairly pricey. And, even though they can have fairly silent operation these days, nothing is more silent than a solar panel and a battery; and no messy, smelly, gasoline, sparkplugs, moving parts, etc. to worry about. I see the primary application for the system is to dock the solar panel to my boat, soaking up energy all week long and trickle charging the battery, so that on the weekends we have lots of availalbe power for ...

I should post something new on my blog site, but I have nothing new to post. Simply nothing at all. I am wondering why Bruce has had nothing to say for over a week. Maybe he has nothing to say at all either?

Happy Valentines Day! I received my first TV print today and man, what a fantastic seller. It's amazing quality, and my 16mm friend was right, watching a classic like "I Love Lucy" on film is a wonderful experience. I'm really thrilled. So thrilled I just bought 3 more "I Love Lucy" episodes and one "Mary Tyler Moore". The seller was offering "Buy it Now" and, to be honest, offering the prints at about half the price I have normally seen them close on Ebay. Now, I'm not quite John Miles yet, but I do make my little Ebay investments. Meanwhile, John buys and sells equipment like this item for more money than my entire 16mm film collection cost! John is some kind of whizkid electronics genius or something, so he buys obscure electronics equipment none of us have ever heard of, fixes it up, uses his surprisingly superior marketing skills, and sells them at a huge profit. Heck, I believe he's going to retire from game programming an...

The chat room is permanently closed. Why? Because it's stupid. Now that I have a dedicated internet connection, I thought it would be cute to keep a chat client up all of the time so people visiting the website could talk to me. However, I have just discovered that if I launch the chat client it times out after some period of time. Which makes it rather useless in my opinion. So, if you want to chat, face your fears and install Yahoo Messenger and add me to your 'buddy' list. jratcliff63367 is my Yahoo Messenger ID. jratcliff, obviously standing for John Ratcliff, and 63367 is my zip code. So, feel free to yahoo me if you get a chance.

Here is my new email address: jratcliff@infiniplex.net I will be cancelling my AT&T email address in 60 days, once every place I visit on the internet has been notified. But...how can I keep the bulk emailers from following me?

WIRELESS ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! As of today I am wireless, and wireless rocks. I spent an absurd amount of money on a high-end notebook computer, an HP with 15" screen, 1600x1200 32 bit resolution, ATI 3d card, 512mb ram, 60gb hard drive, and more. I then spent another absurd amount of money on a wireless highspeed internet connection. All for what? So I can update this blog post sitting on my couch, in front of the television set. This is truly awesome. If I have to work, I hate feeling tied to an internet connection, a computer, or an office. Work can, at least, be where I am at now. Whatever that work might choose to be. In the coming months, my email address will change, and my web servers will shift about. All will be good in the world of broadband internet connections. Anybody recommend a good piece of free childrens's internet blocking software now that all of the household machines are connected 24/7? An interesting google search of the day. As I have me...

What is there to talk about? Apparently not much. I did show my copy of 'ET' to my kids late Saturday night. They enjoyed it, but upon viewing the entire film I realize that it is not nearly as good condition as I originally thought. I don't think I found a single splice in it, but it does have baseline scratches throughout (a little annoying) and the color is slightly faded (very annoying to me). That makes three expensive films I have bought recently all with faded color. I don't know if my expectations are too high or not. I really treasure my prints with perfect color, that's for sure. Most of these films with faded color are perfectly watchable and enjoyable, but as for something to collect as an investment, I think they are a waste of my money. I will sell each of them in the fall and hopefully make a modest profit on each, so long as I describe them accurately and provide lots of high resolution digital photographs. I just won a copy of an "I...

I received my copy of "War of the Worlds" last night. The color is pretty faded, so I'm not quite so thrilled with having paid $300 for it. Nevertheless, it is a pretty clean print other than that and certainly something I can show over the summer. What I will do is put it up for auction at the beginning of October in time for Halloween and probably get most or all of my money back. It will be a hoot to show this year. I'm really looking forward to it getting closer to summer so I can plan out my film festival. I now own 10 feature films. I probably won't show all 10, definitely not "It's a Wonderful Life" which I just showed this past Christmas. I will be showing films at a few different venues. This will include our backyard around the swimming pool, where I hope to build a very large projection screen; on the order of 20 feet or so if at all possible. We will also show films off of our neighbor's dock, Our friends Rob and Lisa who...

Just a small post to bump my last one. I knew if I didn't put a huge ..grin.. marker around the last post at least somebody might take it seriously. No, Terry is neither physically or psychologically addicted to pain medication, she's only been taking it for a week. She is just in a lot of pain and groggy all the time. We are both looking forward to her speedy and full recovery.

What a pathetic blogger I am. I'm only posting because I am shamed to do so because my friends are now blogging with great creativity and wild abandon. Johnny, and David, Steph, Tracy, and Bruce, are all updating their blogs with lots of new content. Their links are on the sidebar. See, I'm even too lazy to hyperlink their great names. I can only post brief missives full of trivia and almost devoid of content. My friend John Oberschelp not only won't create a blog, he is too frightened to install an instant messenger service on his machine because it will destroy his life, not unlike the way D&D, Gemstone, or the SCA has some people he has known in the past. Terry is becoming both physically and psychologically addicted to pain pills and may never fully recover from her operation. My friend David Whatley was generous enough to share some tickets he got for the Fox theatre production of 'Blast', which I have seen and he has not. I have three very m...

Terry is slowly getting better. It was a pretty rough few days for her though. I think Alex had a great birthday. On Saturday he had two friends come over and one spend the night. The Solomons were kind enough to show up with a Birthday cake and a great present. Alex got a snowboarding game for the X-Box that he had a blast playing with his friends. Yesterday was his birthday and I took him out to go shopping for his present. He wanted a personal portable stereo, and some CD's. He got a cool little CD player that also has an AM/FM receiver and can play CD-R. He bought himself a 'Smashmouth" CD and an Al Yankovick comedy album. I then helped Alex get his science fair project wrapped up so he could enjoy the rest of his 10th birthday. In the afternoon I took Alex bowling for three games! Later this summer Alex is going to go to Florida for the rest of his 10th birthday celebration. We had Infiniplex come out to the house, but one look at our roof scared the gu...