I should slap myself on the hand and then bury my credit cards in the backyard for the squirrels to find. I just ordered a DVD player, even though we currently have two in the house. Why do we need a third? Neither of the ones currently in residence play foreign DVDs. The whole region code thing has been a frustration (and probably a boon to my wallet) for years now. If a movie gets released overseas, it is usually not playable in most american DVD players. It's all so companies can make more money, of course... Exclusive distribution rights, etc. An american company wouldn't be able to make any money from a DVD if everybody had already bought/rented the european version that came out six months ago. The problem is, not everything that hits the shelves in europe gets an american release. I just solved that problem. Thanks to M., who had also been struggling with these same frustrations and who also ordered a region free DVD player, for supplying the link to the site. Now we can happily watch whatever our little hearts desire. That is, if the kids are sleeping.

Happy birthday to my dad, who turned 68 yesterday.

cds I listened to while being thankful that they don't have region codes: all various artists - "MFTEQ Ghafran" (Music From the Empty Quarter magazine compilation), "Volume 4" (Peaceville compilation), "Cool Beans #13 - eviction compilation", "Awakening", and "The Wire Tapper 6" (The Wire magazine compilation)