The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 17 (The Fever)

Franklin Gibbs isn’t too big on gambling.  He sees it as an immoral activity.  Still, he’s apparently not one to pass up an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas.  Rather than try his luck a little, he seems to spend most of his time telling his wife, Flora, how horrible gambling is.  Why, look at all of these people just throwing their money away.

Flora is not as judgmental when it comes to the activity.  She puts a nickel in a slot, but Franklin admonishes her.  Since the nickel is already in the machine, she pulls the lever and loses.  It’s not until a passing drunk puts a dollar in a machine and puts Franklin’s hand on the slot machine that Franklin has a taste of excitement.  His turn at the machine wins several dollars, which he’s initially content to take his winnings back to his room and save it.

Later, Franklin decides that he can’t keep dirty money, so he goes back down to the floor to give it back to the casino.  The next thing we know, Franklin’s lost a significant amount of his own money.  One pull may give him a few dollars, but he gives it all back.  He’s become obsessed with winning the $10,000 jackpot.

When the machine breaks on his last dollar, he accuses the machine of denying him the jackpot.  It’s not a machine any more; it’s a force that’s taken all his money.  He’s driven to the point of hallucinating.  He sees the machine following him, prompting him to jump out a window.

The episode is unusual for me in that I don’t really see it as a twist ending.  It seems like the natural progression of a story, even if it is extreme.  Franklin will either learn his lesson or he won’t.  He could have walked away any time.  Flora even tried to warn him that the next spin probably wouldn’t have been the big winner.

The episode would seem to come off as a morality play.  There doesn’t seem to be much of a counterargument.  We don’t see people staying within a set budget or doing anything else.  In fact, the entire episode takes place in the hotel and casino; Franklin and Flora don’t seem to leave the building until Franklin jumps out the window.

I have to wonder if this is the view most people have of a gambler.  Is it meant to warn off everyone that wants to go to a casino or is it simply meant as a warning of what might happen if you don’t moderate your impulses?  Franklin comes across as a very unsympathetic protagonist.  He’s very rigid in his view on gambling and would not seem to be the friendliest of personalities.  He’s exactly the kind of guy who would lecture you on the evils of something.  (If not gambling, then drinking or pornography.)  When he finally did meet his end, my sympathy was more with Flora, who didn’t deserve any of this.

IMDb page

Area 51 (2015)

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if my mother’s being serious.  She’ll make something with broccoli and swear that I love it.  I suspect she may be trying to use some psychological trick to get me to eat it.  It may also be that because she’s seen me eat it before that she honestly thinks that I like it.  I keep telling her that not complaining isn’t the same thing as liking.  Netflix seems to have a similar problem.  They seem to think that sitting through a movie is the same thing as liking it.  Just because I didn’t set my computer on fire while watching one movie doesn’t mean that I’ll like other similar movies.

Take the movie called Area 51.  It’s a found-footage movie about a guy named Reid who wants to break in to, of all places, Groom Lake.  (Groom Lake is commonly referred to as Area 51.)  Reid brings along two friends, Darren and Ben.  Darren is eager to go while Ben doesn’t think that Reid will go through with it.  They’re a little hesitant to meet Jelena, but her father worked in Groom Lake until he started asking questions.  She has information that could be useful.

Well, she gets Darren, Reid and herself in while Ben waits for them in the car.  Amazingly, they just run past security and manage to get all sorts of shaky footage of top-secret stuff, including a UFO.  It all comes to an end when they trip an alarm and have to run out while being chased by armed guards and what I assume is a tall, thin alien.  As you might guess from the found-footage status, things don’t end well for the four main characters.

The Blair Witch Project seems to be the go-to movie for found footage and for good reason.  When it came out in 1999, it was all new and edgy and people were so scared and everything.  While movies before it had used the plot device, The Blair Witch Project was the first to get some attention.   Area 51 came out in 2015.  It doesn’t seem to have contributed much to the idea.  It’s the same concept of someone finding footage and presenting it to the public.

Lunopolis, which I liked, dressed it up as a documentary.  With Trollhunter, we at least had people making a documentary when they stumble upon the truth.  Europa Report was about a scientific mission.  Here, there’s no compelling story.  The characters aren’t really that likable.  There’s nothing special about the movie other than the topic.  You have three guys that manage to luck their way into a secure facility only to meet an ambiguous ending and I didn’t even care.

Most of it is the lack of a real story.  The first third of the movie is pure filler.  The next third is suspense.  The last third is a bunch of shaky camerawork and some somewhat interesting special effects.  I feel like we could have cut out the first half of the movie and used some minor exposition to explain how we got to Las Vegas.  (“What’s whith him?”  “Oh, he was abducted by aliens and now he’s obsessed.”)

Also, Reid manages to break into an employee’s house and steal a badge and a bottle with a fingerprint.  Ok.  I get that you need a fair amount of suspension of disbelief to get them in, but it seems odd to me that it’s possible to steal and use a badge and a fingerprint that easily.  This isn’t even accounting for the fact that they guy who was robbed probably would have reported the missing badge immediately.  (I guess he was too embarrassed that it was stolen so easily.)

And could someone please tell me how three people can walk around a secure facility without being noticed?  It would make more sense to have them caught and use the found footage during interrogation.  The only problem would be explaining how the footage got out at all, but I don’t think it would be that hard to come up with something.

I had wanted to watch the movie all the way through to see if anything interesting happened.  I was sorely disappointed.  I’d recommend skipping this one.  The shame of it is that Netflix has been recommending other similar found-footage movies.  Those, I’ve stopped watching about halfway through.  I can only hope that Netflix doesn’t count that as a like.

IMDb page

Worth the low price (ASUS 7 [8 GB, Intel Celeron M, 900 MHz, 512 MB) Notebook review]

Note:  This is a repost of a review I wrote of the ASUS 7" (8 GB, Intel Celeron M, 900 MHz, 512 MB) Notebook on Epinions, located here. It was originally posted on Jan 24, 2010.  I know it's out of date, but I'm testing a site I just found to automatically post on Facebook and Twitter.



I'm a member of a currency-tracking web site called Where's George.  Last year, I went to Las Vegas and knew that I'd be entering a lot of bills on the site.  Right before I went to Las Vegas, I decided to get a small laptop or netbook.  My primary reason for getting one was that I wanted to be able to enter bills from the comfort and security of my hotel room.  I knew I'd want a computer to take with me on the trip, but I didn't feel like dragging a desktop along for the ride.  (Airport security is strict enough about laptops.)

My primary criterion for purchasing said computer was the price.  I knew that I'd be using it after the trip, but I didn't know how often.  I didn't really want to have to shell out too much money for something I'd be using once or twice per year.  I also needed something that could connect to a network wirelessly since I‘d be using it on the road, so to speak, and most places that have Internet access have the wireless kind.  Size was also a big factor.  I'd need something that could easily fit in my backpack and still leave room for other things.

This was back when I was working for Wolf Camera and we had just brought in the Asus line of netbooks.  (For those that are wondering, a netbook is a smaller version of a laptop.)  The price was about as small as I could expect to pay and still get something that turned on most of the time.  Add to that the fact that I could get an employee discount.

My manager and I both bought one of these.  We didn’t really have the option to upgrade anything through Wolf.  It came with a 7.5 GB hard drive, 504 MB of RAM and a 900 MHz Intel Celeron processor.  My manager has been able to upgrade the RAM, but I don’t know about any of the other features.  The operating system is Windows XP, but I've heard that you can get Linux on it.

I don’t know how easy it is to get at the solid-state hard drive or what’s involved in replacing one.  The comes with one SD card slot and three USB ports.  Given how cheap SD cards and USB drives are, I think these would be my best option for expanding file storage, especially considering that I don’t really store files on here.  All of my files are on my desktop.

When it arrived at the store, I opened it up immediately to make sure it did turn on.  (Which it did, thankfully.)  I didn't really have a chance to try it out until I got home, mostly because we don't have wireless at work.

It didn't come with any major programs outside of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Works.  You do get the standard assortment of games like Freecell and Minesweeper.

Connecting through a wireless network is pretty easy.  For some reason, I've had issues staying connected at home, but I've never had a problem in other places.  (My mother's laptop has never had these problems, so I think it may be some issue unique to this laptop and our router.)  The entire time I spent in Las Vegas, I was able to stay connected using the Asus without problem.  (There’s also a port for connecting through a network using cables.)

That's not to say that I didn't have issues.  The first thing I noticed was that it doesn't have any sort of CD, DVD or floppy drive.  If you want to use a physical device to get information on to or off of the 701SD,. You have to use either a USB drive or an SD card.  If you have software on a CD or DVD that has to be installed through the CD or DVD, you'll have to get an external drive.  I don't know how easy it will be to install.  I can only hope you can get the drivers online.

This is ironic because the netbook comes with a DVD backup of the computer.  I'm told that it's an image of the hard drive when it left the factory, which means that you'd just have to copy it on to the computer.  What this means is that you'd have to have some other computer that has a DVD drive so that you can copy the information onto an SD card or a USB drive to then copy on to the netbook.

Also, the 701SD is small.  Yes, I wanted small, but I didn't expect it to be this small.  The netbook has small keys and I have big fingers, which made typing hard.  I'd often miss keys and end up typing a bunch of other stuff in trying to hit the backspace key.

Add to this that I was trying to enter serial numbers most of the time.  Because of size limitations, there's no 10-digit keypad.  I had to use the numbers at the top of the keyboard.  After checking what I had entered each time I entered a bill, I noticed that I was making a lot of mistakes.  I didn't have a chance to get a separate 10-digit keypad while I was out there, but I knew I'd have to get one eventually.

Fortunately, I had a USB mouse that I had won during some employee training.  If I hadn't had that mouse, I think I would have sought out the nearest Office Max.  Having used laptops before, I knew I wouldn't want to have to use the tracking device.  This one has proven to be especially problematic when trying to click on a small box.  When I raise my finger, the cursor will often move down a little.  The USB mouse, on the other hand, works perfectly.

One issue that cropped up by my next trip was the battery shelf life.  It seems that the battery won't stay charged for more than a week if you leave it off.  This means that you have to remember to charge it up before going out.  Even when you do go out, bring the power cord if at all possible.  The computer's initial estimate seems to be about 3 hours, but it could end up being much less depending on what you're using it for.

Another issue is that the screen size isn't standard.  This isn't really a problem unless you're installing software, which I haven't done a lot of.  (The only two programs I've installed are mIRC and Juno.)  When I went to install a printer recently, I noticed that the two buttons on the print screen fall below the bottom of the screen.  Hitting enter works in this case, but I could see someone running into issues with this.

The sound on the netbook wasn’t that great, but I wasn’t buying it to play music.  (If you are, there’s a headphone jack.)  Immediately after turning the machine on, I disabled the audio and haven’t missed it.  I generally don’t listen to sound while surfing the web.

I wasn’t looking to do much with this netbook and I pretty much got what I wanted out of it.   I'd recommend this netbook for anyone that needs something cheap and small and can handle the small keyboard.  The 701SD is almost small enough that I can fit it in my pocket.

If you buy it, I'd recommend getting the USB mouse and additional 10-digit keypad.  I'd bring it out with me more often if I didn't have to bring all of the additional stuff out with me, but I do bring it on trips where I'm staying in a hotel.  The Asus 701SD has done what I need it to and will hopefully continue to do so.

Lots of hits

You have entered 74,004 Bills worth $218,271
Bills with hits: 6,031 Total hits: 6,851
Hit rate: 8.15% Slugging Percentage: 9.26% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,218.07
Your rank (based on George Score) is #325
(out of 52,031 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 23 out of 7,510 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,118,272 miles.
They have averaged 463.3 miles per hit and 179.05 days between each hit.

I was surprised by a hit I had earlier today. The bill originated in Las Vegas, but was hit in Fort Lauderdale. At first, I thought that the bill had followed me home. I had spent the last of the Las Vegas-entered bills in the Salt Lake City airport. It wasn’t until about an hour ago that I realized that the hit was on a $5 bill, a few of which I had brought back with me.

I did get two hits in foreign countries. One was in Austria; the other was in El Salvador. Purple hits are hard to come by. I guess having spent bills in several airports recently helped.

In other news, I’m almost three-quarters of the way to six figures. I now have just over 74,000 bills entered, fewer than 2,000 of which have been entered this month. I’d have to get almost 200 bills tomorrow to break 2,000 bills this month. (Not an impossible task, mind you.) I’m $424 shy of $10,000, which would mean that I’d have to get at least some of those bills in fives. (Twos would be nice, though.)

My average dollar value so far this month is $5.24. The reason that I have such a high dollar value with so few bills is that I was entering a lot of twenties and hundreds in Las Vegas. (I don’t think I came across a fifty while there, but I did have cause to enter a ten.) I was aiming for smaller bills for a while, but I realized that there was little point since it was so easy to get change.

It’s getting late and I need to get some sleep. I’ll probably have a few more interesting hits in a few days.

Sick Day

You have entered 73,959 Bills worth $217,990
Bills with hits: 5,983 Total hits: 6,799
Hit rate: 8.09% Slugging Percentage: 9.19% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,217.30
Your rank (based on George Score) is #324
(out of 51,753 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 21 out of 7,505 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,071,730 miles.
They have averaged 459.5 miles per hit and 178.21 days between each hit.

I have 1,781 bills entered so far this month. I have a few large bills to break, but with the month ending so soon, it looks like most of the bills I’ve entered this month will be in Las Vegas. The bronchitis has really kept me indoors.

I had taken a few sick days before going and am taking one today. I’m not really in any condition to go to the bank and get change. Tomorrow or Saturday, I may go over to the bank or to the casino. (I haven’t been to the casino since getting back from my trip.)

The hits from Las Vegas seem to be waning. I haven’t seen any in the past day or two, but I did get one in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. I don’t get many foreign hits, but my proximity to the Caribbean means that many of my foreign hits will be there. (The single most hit foreign country is Canada with 20 with the Bahamas rank second with 16.)

That’s all for now. At least one good thing came about from being sick: I can catch up on my writing. I may even post a few reviews on Epinions.

More on Las Vegas

You have entered 73,951 Bills worth $217,800
Bills with hits: 5,939 Total hits: 6,743
Hit rate: 8.03% Slugging Percentage: 9.12% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,216.47
Your rank (based on George Score) is #329
(out of 51,627 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 22 out of 7,496 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,045,490 miles.
They have averaged 459.1 miles per hit and 177.65 days between each hit.

I’ve been getting more hits from the Las Vegas trip. Here's another one that seems to have come from the airport. I was going to post links to two hits from the same person until I got another set of hits from the same person, this time four.

I also got a hit from someone in the chat room. He was waiting until 10:30 to tell everyone. (Somehow, I knew it was me.) This is at least the second person in the chat room I’ve gotten a hit from, the other person being my george parent. (For those that don’t know, a george parent is the person who’s bill got you started if that’s how you found out about the site.)

My george parent is also one of at least two regulars in the room whose bills I’ve hit, the other person being Wattsburg Gary, the person with the highest george score and the most bills entered. I have this odd feeling that I’ve hit bills from others in the chat room. I’m sure if they see this, they’ll let me know.

You have entered 73,829 Bills worth $217,575
Bills with hits: 5,919 Total hits: 6,720
Hit rate: 8.02% Slugging Percentage: 9.10% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,216.11
Your rank (based on George Score) is #326
(out of 51,602 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 20 out of 7,495 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,026,305 miles.
They have averaged 457.7 miles per hit and 177.85 days between each hit.

Not two days back and I got three hits from the Vegas trip. This was the first hit. I’m pretty sure it was a direct hit, as I spent a lot of bills in the MGM Grand, but I was staying across the street. It’s entirely possible that someone took it from the Tropicana and walked it over to the MGM.

The second one was indirect. I guess it got to see more of Vegas than I did. I’m not complaining, though.

I’m thinking that the third bill was spent at an airport. It was entered late on my last full day in Vegas and I know that I spent my last bill from the trip in the Salt Lake City airport. (I spent none of my Vegas-entered bills outside of an airport; I ate breakfast at Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport.)

It’s interesting, though, how I got a hit at the MGM and I got a hit on a bill that I got from the MGM so close together. Some might say it’s coincidence, which I’m generally not amazed by. (This is due mostly to a strong belief in math.) I’m hoping that I get many more hits in and from Las Vegas.

Back from Vegas

You have entered 73,707 Bills worth $217,365
Bills with hits: 5,910 Total hits: 6,710
Hit rate: 8.02% Slugging Percentage: 9.10% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,215.93
Your rank (based on George Score) is #327
(out of 51,614 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 21 out of 7,492 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 3,016,311 miles.
They have averaged 456.7 miles per hit and 177.69 days between each hit.

I’m back in Miami. It’s good to be back, but I was just getting used to being in Las Vegas. I actually thought about doing a blog entry in Vegas, but the laptop I had wasn’t really meant for typing. Also, I was too busy getting bills into circulation. (That should be read as gambling.)

I now have 1,265 bills entered in Las Vegas. (1,255 in 89109 and 10 in 89119.) This is more than I have entered in my work ZIP code of 33181. The only two ZIP codes with more bills entered are 33161 (67,517) and 33180 (3,900), which are my home ZIP code and Aventura, respectively.

I did get to meet the fellow georgers that went to Las Vegas. I think I would have been better off staying in the Imperial Palace, mostly out of practicality. (If you do stay at the Tropicana, I found the Garden Café to be better than the buffet. It ended up costing about the same or less and had better food.) I didn’t realize how great the distances were in Vegas.

In Miami, a difference of 100 in house numbers equates to one block, so that 345 N 1 St is between 3rd and 4th Avenues. This isn’t necessarily true in all places. Add to that that one block may be longer or shorter. When I saw that there was a difference of 300 or 400 in the addresses of the two hotels, I incorrectly assumed that the two hotels were much closer than they were.

I also learned to stay away from the table games. For my purposes, slots were much better. I got more game play per dollar. I got to play roulette, which I had wanted to do, but you can go through money pretty quickly.

On a related note, if you plan on playing the slots, sign up for the players’ card. I was advised by several people to sign up everywhere I gambled, but this may prove to be a hassle. I actually signed of at Circus Circus and never used the card. At the very least, you should sign up at the hotel where you’re staying.

All things considered, I’d say it went pretty well. It was a bit strange being on my own for a week. Vegas is definitely better with friends. I managed on my own, but it is nice to do things with people, and there are things to do in Vegas other than gambling. I’d definitely want to go back.

You have entered 72,433 Bills worth $209,694
Bills with hits: 5,841 Total hits: 6,628
Hit rate: 8.06% Slugging Percentage: 9.15% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,214.44
Your rank (based on George Score) is #327
(out of 51,409 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 23 out of 7,471 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 2,977,440 miles.
They have averaged 456.0 miles per hit and 176.33 days between each hit.

Well, I won’t be at a hundred percent when I go to Vegas, but I will be going on Wednesday. It looks like everyone else going will be arriving Thursday, which will give me a day to rest. I’ve been managing at work, so I should be able to manage to go out with everyone. I’ll probably need some Dayquil, as I only have a few days’ pills left for the cough. (I’ve been able to manage at night without them.)

I won’t disclose exactly how many singles I’m bringing out, but I’m bringing plenty. I’m also bringing some larger bills for several reasons. One, I don’t want to carry too many singles. Two, I want to be able to enter some bills out in Las Vegas. I will probably change my default ZIP code to that of the hotel to make things easier. The point of having a default ZIP code is to avoid errors in entry. One side effect is that I will be number five in the state of Nevada. The fourth-ranking person has a George Score of 1,214.53, which is just above my score.

And so, in a few days, I head out to the City of Lost Wages.

'Your Bills' Summary Statistics - Hide
You have entered 72,286 Bills worth $208,945
Bills with hits: 5,768 Total hits: 6,546
Hit rate: 7.98% Slugging Percentage: 9.06% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,213.17
Your rank (based on George Score) is #329
(out of 50,843 current users with a George Score. [99.4 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 20 out of 7,449 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 2,926,915 miles.
They have averaged 454.1 miles per hit and 175.08 days between each hit.

This is going to be a short post. I haven’t been feeling well the past few days, but I wanted to at least post something, especially considering that I hit my hundredth bill two days ago. I also entered over 3700 bills last month, valued at $12,278. That’s a record on both counts.

Because of this cold, I had to take the day off from work. I barely have enough energy to stamp the bills I have, let alone go into work. I’ve also been coughing a lot, which makes me pretty much useless. My manager told me to take the day off.

I’m hoping that I’ll be well enough to go to Vegas next week. I should be, considering that I’m getting a little better. I should be ok.

That’s going to be all for now. I’ll have another post when I’m feeling better.

City of Lost Wages

You have entered 69,656 Bills worth $199,920
Bills with hits: 5,572 Total hits: 6,332
Hit rate: 8.00% Slugging Percentage: 9.09% (total hits/total bills)
George Score: 1,209.29
Your rank (based on George Score) is #337
(out of 50,792 current users with a George Score. [99.3 Percentile])
Your State Rank in Florida is: 24 out of 7,401 [99.7]
Your initial entries with hits have traveled a total of 2,810,730 miles.
They have averaged 450.3 miles per hit and 171.77 days between each hit.

I’m actually considering going out to Las Vegas next month. There’s an unofficial gathering out there from the 12th to the 16th. (For those few readers of this blog, if you’re signed up with the site, there’s a post in the forums.) I’ve been to The City of Lost Wages twice in my life. Both times, I was under 21. That meant no gambling. Now, many years later, I’m well of the legal age to enter a casino.

I’ve been looking at the travel sites. For just the hotel and flight, I’m looking at upwards of $400 if I want to stay on the strip. That’s assuming that I arrive on the 11th and leave on the 17th and doesn’t include a rental car or food. Depending on what the plans are, I may just go for a few days. It also depends on how scheduling works out and if I can get the time off. Days off can be a bit tricky where I work considering that I’m the only full-time employee other than the manager.

If I can’t get those days off or if the gathering falls through, I may just go anyway. I’ve never done a major trip like that by myself. I would prefer to have other people to do things with. I’ve heard of people going to Vegas solo and going with friends. Which is preferable often depends on what kind of person you are. I could see doing either.