Clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in the email takes me to what Rogers considers an adequate form for unsubscribing.

Note the required fields for account numbers. I am not now, nor have I been in the past decade, a customer of Rogers in any way.

I am on their newsletter list, but I can’t leave it. There’s no Reply-to-Unsubscribe on the email – I get a bounce telling me to go away.

I send an email through their system, and they send me a DIFFERENT link, eventually

Thank you for taking the time to write to us. In response to your request “To opt out of future newsletters, we ask that you please visit www.rogers.com/wp and complete the marketing permission opt out form. This will allow you to select the content that you do not wish to receive. Please allow us three weeks to update our email records. “

I tried that, and this different form only wants my full name and postal code. Well, I don’t think that they need that to unsub, so I try just with the email address. Nope.

You’ll note that nothing there is marked as required, but it appears that the checkboxes are required. I tried with a bogus name and postal code, and still received this error. Guess what shows up if you click either of those boxes?

If you guessed “The hidden, required, fields for your Rogers account number and phone number” you would be correct.

Further email to Rogers received this response:

In regards to your inquiry in order to not receive further Rogers newsletters you will need to visit the link previously provided and complete the marketing permission opt out form. As mentioned previously you are not a Rogers customer therefore we are unable to complete this for you.

I’ve visited the link, and it won’t remove me as I’m not a Rogers customer. I’m being refused service by CSRs as I’m not a Rogers customer.

This is fucked up.

Ambulance driver falls under the spell of a vampire race car.
Vampire car’s previous driver dies.
Ambulance driver becomes vampire car’s new driver.
Her former co-worker and random Guy Who Knows The Secret Of Vampire Engine try to rescue her.
Dead driver’s sister shows up and has sex with new driver’s former co-worker for some reason I’m unclear on.
Creepy mother in wheel chair watches….

It felt a bit like there was a missing reel at the end of the film, too… it just ended at a seemingly arbitrary spot.

I think I need to watch it again… here’s the whole thing on Youtube (without subtitles) – searching for the Czech name ‘Upír z Feratu’ seems more successful than searching for its English name.

THE IDES OF MARCH – An interesting look at Stephen Meyers, a political campaign worker (Gosling), and his move from naive idealism to jaded self-interest. He tries to cover up the questionable actions of his boss, who is running for the Democratic Presidential nomination, and ends up paying dearly for his actions. Not much of a re-watch potential, but it’s a good film.

50/50 – Cancer sucks, but any role that allows for the use of marijuana, for Seth Rogen, I suppose. There are black comedic elements, and serious drama, especially as Adam’s (Gordon-Levitt) last chance surgery approaches. Kyle (Rogen) is the best friend who seems to not be treating Adam’s diagnosis seriously, but he’s there where others aren’t. Some of the most touching elements come as Adam says goodbye to his small circle; especially his father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s and hardly ever recognizes him.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III – Retired from the spy trade, Ethan Hunt is now training IMF recruits. Of course, he’s called up for one last mission. At least, he doesn’t say “I’m getting too old for this shit.” This is a better over-all film than the previous two; partly due to the villain (Philip Seymour Hoffman) being a more believable version of the ruthless bastard. Hunt is in more real danger here, and there’s more tension between character.

I go to the page for a film; say PINA at http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffbelllightbox/2012/3600000411

I want to buy a ticket, and now they have super handy “add to cart” buttons right there!

I’d like to see it at 12:45 on Tuesday please!

I thought I clicked on 12:45 on Tuesday for PINA. I didn’t say anything about CARNAGE…

I hope that this is just an oversight, as I would like to be able to buy tickets directly from the front page without having to click through the show and time twice.

Layout issues in commonly used browsers (Chrome, IE 8, Firefox on Windows all behave similarly) – maybe I need to access from a Blackberry due to some unusual new sponsorship agreement?

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS – One of my favorite things about this film only happened as a result of the death of Heath Ledger. The actor died, with a fair amount of filming yet to be done, and with a bit of re-writing, other actors openly filled in for him in the fantasy portions.

PATRIOT GAMES – The second of the Jack Ryan films, I think that this one’s more interesting that THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER with Harrison Ford in the lead role. There’s more direct action here, with Ryan more participant than observer. I prefer HUNT as a film, but the change in lead actor really helped to develop the franchise.

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS – The character Red (Danny McBride) is a nice surprise, as a non-typical drug dealer character with Scarface style powers of near-invincibility.

STALKER – Lots happens, but not a lot HAPPENS. Russian post-apocalyptic sci-fi about an abandoned Zone where the Room exists. The Room is widely known to grant the desires of those that manage to get past many obstacles and traps. Any access to the Zone is prohibited, I assume because the Soviet authorities didn’t want anyone’s dreams coming true. Plenty of abstract scenes and dialogue with nothing really straight-forward occuring.

MONEYBALL – Nothing really amazing here. It’s a good film, and I enjoyed watching it, but there’s nothing all that surprising with the story or the acting. It’s okay, but I don’t think this should really be a Best Picture Oscar nominee.

Documentary

BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD – I really had no idea about Bobby Fischer’s story – I figured he just won some chess games against the Russians. Turns out he was a bit of a kook with some pretty vivid conspiracy theories involving Chess Altering Commie Rays (my term, not his).

It’s not like in the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE films where technology is obviously little more than a science fiction means to an end where you just suspend disbelief. They’re saying this all with a straight face here – “Oh yeah, kids with Nokia phones take down satellites all the time – don’t you watch the news?!”

Still, I liked the geeks, and I liked the Kevin Smith cameo, and the film overall was pretty good if you could ignore the tech.