Just writing for the sake of writing. A little "hello," to anyone whose still bothering to read this page. A little update as to what I've been up to this past week. Who knows, I might post every week from now on... (^_^)

I've been on a ridiculous Ebay shopping spree, lately. My addiction to online auctions is coming to a close, though. My attitude towards it has been soured somewhat, after unintentionally buying some bootleg dvds. 

I hate bootleggers; they're nothing short of demon spawn. They leech off of the hard work of artists who slaved away towards creating a movie or animation that they really believed in (or, that's how it's supposed to be, anyways). And what do bootleggers do? They sell these inferior and unlicensed rips of the original material, in order to make a profit. The picture quality isn't generally as good, and, in the case of foreign movies, the subtitling is usually abhorrent. What's worse, is they often fool buyers into thinking that they're buying the real deal. It's basically a lose-lose situation for everyone involved, except the bootlegger. 

I understand that there's a market for that sort of thing. If you're into that, then fine... that's your choice. But to deceive people who are trying to buy the real product is just low. 

I've been lucky to some degree; most of the DVDs I've bought just happened to be the authentic versions (albeit a little used). I'm going to get out of the Ebay game while I'm still ahead.

I reported the guy that sold me the counterfeits to Ebay. I know it's not really going to deter him in any way, but I hope it causes him some inconvenience. I'm just wondering how Ebay got so saturated with so many counterfeiters and bootleggers. In relation to media, there's practically no form of quality control on that site. It's a bit sad, because it really takes away from what Ebay could be. Of course, it's not really fair to point the finger solely at the Ebay staff. I'm sure they try to do whatever they can to minimize the amount of illegal activity that goes on. I just feel that there needs to be some higher level of regulation. I feel that when someone claims to be selling the authentic and original version... he/she shouldn't be able to get away with short-changing the buyer. 

Overall, I'm happy with my purchases from Ebay, though. I was able to get my hands on "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" at a really cheap price (under $10), and they were both real! I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson; I love how he shot the two movies. He really has a talent for cinematography. The music isn't half bad either. You guys should check out the soundtrack to Life Aquatic. It was so well received, that they released a spin-off album by Seu Jorge called "The Life Aquatic Sessions." If you don't know who Seu Jorge is, he's the guy who was always strumming his guitar throughout the movie. He barely had any lines at all... in fact, I think he sang more than he talked. Here's a picture of the album cover:

It's basically a cover of David Bowie songs, sung in Portugese (I think?). I can't understand a damn thing he's saying, but the whole CD has a nice sound to it.  

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll try to check in next week, with some more interesting topics.

By the way, if you haven't already, you should really go on Youtube.com and search for "Paul Potts." He's a contestant who showed up on Simon Cowell's new reality contestant show "Britain's Got Talent." He blew the crowd away with some real class act opera singing.