OK, Harry Potter may not be in this book, but with the December release of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, JK Rowling is set to make a few more dollars off the Harry Potter universe. This book was referred to (and played somewhat of a big role) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so if you want to read these actual purported fairy tales for wizards, you can pre-order today!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard should be an interesting read by my estimation, but it won’t be quite as long as the Harry Potter books. Nevertheless, this isn’t stopping Amazon from offering the volume in an Amazon-exclusive The Tales of Beedle the Bard Collector’s Edition for a mind-boggling $100! (The Standard Edition can be pre-ordered for $7.79)

At any rate, either one is a steal if you consider the fact that Rowling published a mere seven copies of this book back in 2007, and Amazon bought one of those copies at an auction last December for nearly $4 million. Well then…what are you waiting for? Go preorder yours today!

So, Apple currently doesn’t offer an (easily) upgradable PC (as in “personal computer”, not “Windows Computer”) that’s affordable to the mainstream. To upgrade a Mac Mini requires a few putty knives, a lot of determination, acute care, and nerves of steel. To upgrade anything else they make (Besides the $2800+ Mac Pro) is pretty much impossible.

Some people don’t like this: after all, why should I have to buy a whole new computer every time I want to add another Hard Drive, or get a faster graphics card? And speaking of graphics cards…why should I have to buy a computer with a built-in monitor (iMac) or shell out nearly $3000 (Mac Pro) if I want to play a 3D shooter or two? Select any $800 windows box, spend $140 on a GFX card, and you’re rocking some decent fun!

Yet, because the EULA on OSX does not allow for installation on hardware that isn’t “Apple-labeled” (whatever that means), no one else can sell computers to install OSX on. And yes, OSX is worth installing.

All of that is (possibly) about to change.

Actually, it most probably will not change, but Psystar is going to try to sell non-Apple computers with OSX Preinstalled. Wait for it, wait for it…

Lawsuit.

Personally, I think this is awesome. Allow other people to enjoy the goodness of OSX without being constrained to a chioce between 5 or 6 different computer models. Let competition do its thing. But, alas, Apple will probably throw a ton of money at the justice system and just out-litigate Psystar. <sigh> As usual, the whole situation can be aptly summed up by Dumb and Dumber:

Lloyd: What do you think the chances are of a guy like you and a girl like me…ending up together?

Mary: Not good.

Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?

Mary: I’d say more like one out of a million.

Lloyd: So you’re telling me there’s a chance. Yeah!

So if you haven’t gotten a letter yet, you will. You’re getting some free money from the Government if you pay your taxes this year. That’s right, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. I read some guy’s blog who claimed that this was similiar to 2001, when people got their next years’ tax refunds a year in advance (and were thus pretty mad), so I did some looking, and found the IRS Webpage ESP FAQs.

Q. Will the payment I receive in 2008 reduce my 2008 refund or increase the amount I owe for 2008?

A. No, the stimulus payment will not reduce your refund or increase the amount you owe when you file your 2008 return.

Rock on! So Lisa and I should be getting a check for $1,200 back of that $2,400 we paid extra to Uncle Sam this spring. As a good boy, I intend to blow it all per the Government’s instructions! (well, OK, maybe I’ll only blow some of my half, because I’m too much of a tightwad to blow $600.) Let’s see, I can get…

• BDAG Greek Lexicon ($120)
• 171 Gallons of Gas (at $3.50/gal)
• 0.97 credit hours of tuition at Trinity ($615/hr)
• 20 days’ rent
• Nintendo Wii ($250) (impossible to find…)
• Some more Ibex clothes ($ ? - this is actually possible…)
• A new Graphics card for my computer ($100?)
• An HDTV tuner for my mac, so I can record Lost in HD ($150)

How about you? Are you going to be a good citizen and try to revive our economy with your extra cash? Just make sure it has a Made in USA sticker on it! (Sorry, shameless plug.)

Oh, yeah, and you better enjoy having cash, because rumor has it that the Government may just raise taxes by 4 times as much as they dole out in rebates. I hope those rich suckers are the ones that have to pick up the extra tab, ‘cuz I can’t afford more taxes!

I’m so proud of IndyStar.com, and yet, at the same point…it’s kind of sad that this actually needed to be said. Shouldn’t people already know this?

Spoiling your kids is a bad thing.

Tonight, Season 4 begins, in High Definition :-D. I’ve been waiting for this moment for SOOO long! Will you be watching?

2 Hours of action! If you haven’t been keeping up with the “intermediate” story, head on over to find815.com and work your way through it quickly. Also, over on the LOST webpage there’s a quick recap (8:15 long!) of seasons 1-3 if you’re a little bit fuzzy. (Click on “Lost recap in 8 min 15 seconds”)

Some lady wrote a review of the Fifth Harry Potter movie, and the people over at Gospelcom linked to it, so I read it. I had to shake my head and laugh. (here it is)

Regardless of her opinion on the entertainment value of the movie, she makes two comments that are quite revealing about her familiarity with the Harry Potter saga:

1. “I think the film could have been stronger, more entertaining, and less bleak, and still remained very true to the original story.”
2. “And Quidditch—what is a Harry Potter story without Quidditch?!?”

As anyone who actually read the book would know (and she implies that she has in the first comment), Harry was banned from Quidditch that year, and thus it didn’t even appear in the book. How can she comment on it’s faithfulness to the book when she obviously hasn’t even read it?!? And if she knew anything about Quidditch, she would know that it’s a quite simple game, we’ve seen enough of it, and putting it into any future Harry Potter books and/or movies would be, quite simply, boring.

Don’t try to be an expert on stuff you know nothing about.