Subway, Dave Matthews Band CD, Next Gen Consoles

I went to Subway for lunch today. Megan had told me that they are doing away with stamps, and sure enough, they had a sign posted saying what discount you will get for giving up your stamps. In August, you will no longer be able to use them. That's pretty disappointing, because there was a stretch of college where I ate Pizza Subs almost exclusively. Also, they have switched to Coca-Cola products (at least in Waverly), so I can no longer enjoy a nice, cold Mountain Dew with my meal. Yes, they do have Mello Yello, but that's like Nintendo saying, "we've decided to adopt Crash Bandicoot as our new mascot, because he's so X-TREME and IN YOUR FACE!" The Crash games may be decent games, but you simply can't replace Mario.

Saturday, Megan and I went with my brother (Josh) and his girlfriend (Breanna) to Olive Garden and the Huntington Mall. Our waiter was your typical artsy stoner who will never rise above entry-level anything, anywhere. I bought some shirts for work at J.C. Penney, since most of my dress shirts are long-sleeved.

While we were waiting to be seated, Josh and I walked over to Best Buy so I could purchase Stand Up, the new DMB CD, as I mentioned last time. In my opinion, this CD is alright, but it is far from my favorite DMB release. In fact, I liked Everyday better, which is an album that many others list as one of their least favorites. This album is a strange amalgam of love songs and thinly-veiled political jabs at our current administration. Aside: Most people probably don't know this about me, but my general beliefs don't fall in line with those of most of my peers, nor the beliefs of some of my favorite musicians. It's hard to reconcile sometimes, so that's why you won't hear me talk politics very often. It's generally a waste of time; you won't convince me to change, and I can't convince you to change, so why argue about it all the time?

Anyway, I also bought the bargain-priced 80's gem, The Toy. If you don't know what the movie is about, here are the Tagline and Plot Summary from IMDB:

Tagline: When Jackie Gleason told his son he could have any present he wanted, he picked the most outrageous gift of all... Richard Pryor.

Summary: On one of his bratty son Eric's annual visits, the plutocrat U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason) takes him to his department store and offers him anything in it as a gift. Eric chooses a black janitor (Richard Pryor) who has made him laugh with his antics. At first the man suffers many indignities as Eric's "toy", but gradually teaches the lonely boy what it is like to have and to be a friend.

You couldn't get away with a premise like that today, I would guess. An interesting note about this movie: the child star, Scott Schwartz somehow worked his way into the porn industry as a manager, then appeared in such hits as 1996's Scotty's X-Rated Adventure, and 1997's Dirty Bob's Xcellent Adventures 35 and 36. In a word, "Xcellent."

E3 coverage is coming in already, with pictures of all three next-generation systems hitting the Internet. Here's the general description: smaller, more horsepower, some curves (except Nintendo), more online features (damn you infernal dial-up service), wireless controllers, backwards compatibility, and the ability to stand on their sides. We'll see more details this week, I guess.