Costco.com is now carrying the 4.0 mega-pixel EX-Z4U Casio Exilim for around $340, a good price from a great semi-wholesaler. Costco doesn't usually carry items for very long, so I am not sure how long that little link is going to work.

I said Casio might be the answer, but that doesn't mean this exact model is the answer! Though a decent deal, the new EX-Z40 is set to be released by the end of April 2004 for around $400 MSRP. Boasting 2.5x longer battery life and a faster "boot-up" process, this new model looks like it will be the one to get. I'd keep my eye on Costco.com over the coming months. If this current model sells well, I am sure the new model will be on the site soon enough.

There is a DJ known as Dangermouse and he sure knows how to live up to his name. He has put himself in a lot of danger by playing a cat and mouse game with a few big record companies and their artists. Namely, Jay-Z and the Beatles. Big enough.

Dangermouse mixed and combined Jay-Z's "The Black Album" with the Beatles' "The White Album", creating a hybrid album he has dubbed "The Grey Album". He only got about 3,000 promo copies out before getting the smack laid down upon him by EMI, etc. Fortunately for you, there are many people who are trying to get this music out. You can download it directly from the folks at Illegal-Art.org or use your file sharing program of choice (use Bittorrent if you have it).

I'm concurrently downloading the album to my mobile phone and my laptop from the Illegal-Art.org site. Yep, it is just that good. Wanted some good music to walk with this morning.

It is 6:16AM and I am already busy typing away and transferring files, yay. In other news, I have stumbled across two very good (in my humble opnion) articles regarding health.

One was about a study done on how drinking around three to six cups of regular coffee a day can decrease your chances of a heart attack by 50%, plus the benefit of the normal effects of caffiene in your daily routine. Nothing like waking up with a ... etc.

The second was an article I read just this morning at CNN.com (link to article), although I think I have seen it posted there before (perhaps they just recycle news every few months... wouldn't suprise me), regarding a study with mice on a calorie-restricted diet of sorts. Basically, if the mice are any indication, humans may be able to extend their lifespan by eating less. Eat less food, live longer. Fair trade-off. Eating less doesn't mean eating crap. I think it turns out to be just the reverse. When you deliberately eat less, you start to realize that the majority of food you may be eating is complete crap and not worthy of being consumed anyway.

Happy Tuesday morning to you. Time to brew some coffee. It is good for you.

I just caught wind of this Japanese film, titled Casshern, that is about to be released in Japan's theaters. After watching the trailer, in Japanese - with no subtitles, I am already convinced this will be an absolute buy for DVD.

Check out the trailer at Apple's site, in Quicktime.

For the last several months I have not posted anything. There are a lot of good and bad reasons why. No point going into them, I'll just try to start posting more often.

I started to post reviews of movies we have seen in the last year, around thirty in total, in the Movies section. A few interesting insights: one, I am amazed how many films I saw during 2003, two, I am astonished how difficult it is to review so many films at one time (as opposed to reviewing as soon as I saw 'em) and three, I will no longer attend theater releases of films as it almost costs just as much to own the actual DVD.

President Bush is speaking on television at the moment. He realizes that the majority of jobs in the United States are provided by small businesses. We lost 1,000,000 jobs because of "the enemy" and that, to me, means more than a bunch of small businesses shuttered their doors. He also just stated that Death Tax is unfair and we should "be able to pass assests to whoever we want" -- whoops, I doubt that's what his teleprompter said. It yielded a nice laugh from the audience, though.

As of a day or two ago, the weather here in Marin and Sonoma counties has improved by leaps and bounds. Springtime (well, almost Summer-like) skies and temperature makes you want to head straight to the beach. Hopefully this weather will continue for at least a few weeks.