Another Year

So, the winter months came and went. We flew over spring and into summer. Then, just as quickly as the leaves grew back on the trees, they began falling off again. Halloween came and went, then Thanksgiving, and finally, Christmas.

It's funny, earlier this month, I went to eat at an Arbys. They were playing Christmas music and I enjoyed it. Normally I talk about abhorring Christmas music, I guess in the past I tended to prefer a darker image. But I enjoyed it as I sat there, eating my Philly steak sub, which I found is very good, btw. Anyways, I guess as I get older, and years begin to feel the way months used to, these traditions that have been there my whole life are kind of nice. It's like all those moments become connected and time freezes for a bit.

Well, now another Christmas has passed and we're about to move into the next year. This time it will be called 2008. So, tomorrow will be January again, and I can expect that month to pretty much fade into oblivion, along with the following several months. It's funny, these last few years, by the end of the year, it seems like I really only remember July through December. Maybe it's because I'm busier during the months that precede the summer, so I don't really notice them.

Anyways, happy new year.

Here's a fittingly melancholy video about the fall:

Hate Smart

Here is J-Dubb's Theatre's latest video. A cheesy instructional video for all aspiring "haters" so that they don't end up embarassing themselves.

Todays Icon

So I've decided that Mario is the next Mickey Mouse. Sure he's not as big as Mickey or Bugs, but they both have a bit of time over Mario. My claim is based on observations in the development of Mario over the last 20 years that show all the characteristics of a pop-culture icon.

First, we have the iconic disembodied face. It's simple, easily recognizable, and isn't disturbing when detached from the body in this manner.

Second, we have a history of designs, leading up to the recognizable one.

Throw in a cast of equally iconic supporting characters.


Then, span the character over multiple generations.

Now all we need is a Nintendo themed amusement park.

Superstar of the Week is Bill Smith

That's right, this guy actually has the generic name, Bill Smith. I do not know this person, nor have I heard of him before running a Google search on the name a few minutes prior to making this post.

http://webs.wichita.edu/dt/insidewsu/show/article.asp?619

Superstar of the Week is Kelsey Grammar

Normally there is no rational explanation for the Superstar of the Week, but today, I pretty much had Kelsey Grammar on my subconscious as I was thinking of a video idea which included a Kelsey Grammar/Sideshow Bob-esque character.

85 Posts

As of this post, I officially have more posts for the year of 2007 than I did for 2006. weeee

The Good ol' Days

Earlier this evening, a memory came back to me of a cartoon I saw a couple times when I was a kid about a boy who was raised by a duck. The kids at school made fun of him and called him "Ducky". I was curious to see if I could find anything out about this cartoon on the internet, but cyber space seems to carry no records of this occurrence. I did, however, run across this site, where a bunch of people reminisce about being a child in the 80's. So I thought I'd post my own, "I remember" 80's blog post...

I remember having an E.T. themed birthday, yet strangely, I barely remember watching E.T. prior to that.

I remember listening to the Ghostbusters song for the first time ever on headphones that were as big as my head, and then watching the movie shortly thereafter.

I remember how the cartoon for the Ghost Busters had to be called The Real Ghostbusters, because there was already a Ghostbusters cartoon that had nothing to do with the movie. The song for that one was, "Let's go Ghostbusters, Let's go" and then an echoing voice... "Let's go! Let's go!"

I remember watching the pilot episode of the Transformers.

And I remember how cool the toys looked in the commercials for Transformers and Voltron. I used to drool over those posters that came with the Transformers toys that showed all the other Transformers and hope my parents would get me every single one. The marketing was so effective that now as an adult I want to collect all the ones I never had. Anybody out there selling a Starscream?

I remember learning that Sgt. Slaughter from GI Joe was a real person.

I remember being disappointed when all the characters and plotlines were changed in Robotech, and again the second time.

I remember when Teddy Ruxpin, the cassette playing bear was the coolest thing since sliced Garbagepail Kids.

I remember my brown 80's shorts that my mom attached fur to so I could pretend I was He-Man.

I remember sitting there bored, stretching my socks to see how far up I could get them to go and they'd cover my knees.

I remember wanting a red mohawk so I could be a punker.

I remember seeing Back to the Future in the theater.

I remember my older sister listening to the Petshop Boys and the Bangles.

I remember my sister pinning buttons all over her denim jacket.

I remember when Michael Jackson was cool.

I remember laughing at school singing, "because I'm fat, I'm fat, you know it I'm fat"

And then talking like Pee-wee Herman.

I remember My friends mom picking us up after school and telling us that a spaceship blew up. (the Challenger).

I remember when saying "man" after a sentence was something cool that surfers did, as opposed to something that everyone does.

As well, I remember when "cool" as synonymous to "good", was teenage lingo instead of an everyday word.

And of course the words "rad" and "tubular".

I remember when Tony Hawk was a punk kid instead of a guy in his forties that EA Sports is trying to market as a punk kid.

I remember Mr. Miyagi teaching Danielson how to kick ass.

And I remember Johnny Five declaring himself to be alive.

I remember watching the Macellis followed by the Seavers, and then the Huxtables on another night.

And I remember not wanting ALF to eat my cats.

I remember loading up my toothbrush from the Aquafresh pump.

I remember wanting to see the spot jump off of my 7up can and dance around.

And wishing my clay California Raisins would animate themselves.

Oh yeah, and the reason the Noid couldn't destroy the Domino's pizza is because it was made of cardboard to begin with.

I remember getting a VCR with a remote control.

And I remember wanting a TV that had one.

I remember when rich people had carphones, which looked just like housephones only in a car. And I remember wondering why someone would want to talk on a phone in the car.

I remember climbing inside a giant metal Grimace on the playground behind McDonald's.

And when, "It's a good time for a great taste" was replaced with, "Good time, great taste, that's why this is our place."

I remember when Coke had the bright idea to change it's formula. I never even realized they changed it back until a future decade.

And then there's ol' Max Hedroom.

And finally, I remember Karate Kid 3 coming out in 1990, and laughing when Danielson declares to Mr. Miyagi, "Come on, it's the 80's!"

Superstar of the Week is The Todd

SLAP "Face five!"

Personality Test

Superstar of the Week is Jack Black Mii

The above me was created by Brandon Erickson. You can find some of his other Mii designs on his celebrity Mii page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandonerickson/

See comment for more information.

Legend of the Week

Jenkem - Drug Warning
Forwarded bulletin from Collier County Sheriff's Office in Naples, Florida warns that a new homemade intoxicant called Jenkem, consisting of the gases emitted by fermenting human feces, is now 'a popular drug in American schools'

-False

source: urbanlegends.about.com

Un-Factoid of the Week

So, you may remember a little ways back, I posted a Factoid of the Week, taken from snopes.com, claiming that a nursery rhyme was once used to recruit pirates. This story was marked as "True", on the site.

For those who don't know, Snopes is a website, whose operators take urban legends and research them in order to debunk them, or prove them true. A green dot indicates a true legend, a red indicates a false one, and then there's indeterminable and half-truths and what not.

Well, I recently ran into these two headlines, also marked true one Snopes:

Urban legends TV show falls for joke about Blackbeard's using a nursery rhyme to recruit fellow pirates.

and,

Urban Myth board game falls for joke about Blackbeard's using a nursery rhyme to recruit fellow pirates.

These two articles basically explain how that story is BS, manufactured by Snopes themselves, in order to catch people falling for "false authority syndrome". So they created several stories, intended to be so absurd as to raise suspicion and have the reader doubt it. In my defense, however, I just picked one involving pirates that had a green dot next to it.

At the time that I found this story, it was in a "pirates" category, which is now non-existent. It now resides in a section marked, "The Repository of Lost Legends", or TRoLL. In this section, I found another story; this one involving the Titanic and a silent version of the film, The Poseidon Adventure. This particular story was also featured in a Factoid of the Week.

That one did raise some flags in my mind as to the validity of an onboard movie on the Titanic. The immersion of information surrounding it, however, created the illusion of research and fact, such as the showing times of the film, how it was fifteen minutes in length, and only showed to the middle class, etc.

I just did some research while writing the above paragraph, and found that it is possible that they showed couple minute silent films aboard the Titanic, as this type of film has been available since the late 1800's, however, no information concerning whether they did infact show these films onboard.

Anyways, I've decided that Factoid of the Week, from now on, will be an urban legend segment, as opposed to a true fact segment. I'll do further research than Snopes and deem the legend true or false.

OTube?

So, yesterday, while browsing YouTube videos, I began to wonder if YouTube hired graphic designers for their YouTube partners. So I decided to click on the partner channels link and take a look at different partner channels. Well, after weeding through page after page of network-sponsored partner channels, which would have their own designers, I finally found the regular YouTube-user partners. After looking at a few of these channels, I decided that they must design their own stuff. During this search, however, I found something else kind of interesting.

Apparently, Oprah has her own YouTube partner channel now. It had been up for 5 days, at the time I found it, and was already a partner channel with 19,000 subscribers and two videos featured on the home page. Many people are angry about this, that this mega-celebrity with constant media attention would encroach on the common folks territory, including YouTube's infamous "pot-stirrer", Renetto, who's video on the subject has received 39 video responses.

Interestingly, the videos have been taken off of the featured videos list, perhaps in response to irate YouTubers.

As for myself, I'm not particularly angry, like I get when I look at pictures of clowns. Infact, I'm pretty much emotionally impartial to this situation. I am, however, interested in the moral implications. Here we've got the "broadcast yourself" site, where the common person can seek attention. People even labor and compete to find a spot on the coveted most subscribed list, the homepage featured list, and nowadays, to have partnership offered to them by YouTube. Some people have been at this for a couple years. Then, somebody who's name demands attention signs up and receives instant partnership, most subscribed list placement, and two featured videos.

Other people feel that she isn't being a real participant in the YouTube community. This video expresses several users opinions on that issue.


I guess I can't really blame people for being uncomfortable with this. Then again, it's not exactly the same situation as Paris Hilton. Oprah's fame came from actual effort, for one.

KCCI-TV BLOOPERS

Silly Sprint

So, I went to pay my phone bill over the phone, as usual. I dialed *3 and started to put in the barrage of security information, when suddenly, they asked me to enter my passcode. This was a first. Not only had the automated system never asked this of me before, but I had never received any information regarding even having a passcode. I went through old bills, making sure I hadn't overlooked any notices that might have mentioned this. Nothing. So I called up customer service to find out what my passcode is, or how to get one. When the lady on the other end asked how she could help me, I explained to her that I was trying to pay my bill over the phone, and they asked me for a passcode, which has never happened before. Her response was to inform me that they added this function for security, blah blah blah. She then asked:

"Have you tried putting in your passcode?"

Another interesting thing, as I was shuffling through my old bills, I found a notice informing me that, whatever information that was normally in my bills would now be found online, instead of in my statement, for my convenience, so that "I wouldn't have to deal with all that paper." Wait a tic, more convenient for who now? Why not just say, "We decided to put this information online to save on paper costs."

I once had a similar, yet more frustrating situation with a Sports Illustrated subscription. I went to Best Buy, where the cashier offered me a free trial subscription. I specifically asked if it would be an automatic renewal at the end of the free 30 days, which I would have to stop before they began charging me. After the cashier assured me that I'd receive a statement asking me to renew, I signed up for the subscription (which I never even read). Shortly after, I got a notice in the mail saying:

"Guess what, you don't have to log on to renew your subscription. We'll renew it automatically at the end of the 30 days."

Well, I learned a lesson from that.

Seriously though, do these people realize that they're insulting their customers by placating us like to their children?

We know you're reducing the paper costs for the company, not for our convenience. Most of us don't care.

We know you're automatically renewing so that lazy people won't log on to unsubscribe. That is not convenient to us. If you just say, "You're subscription will be renewed automatically", without all the "for your convenience" bullshit, it will annoy us, but it won't insult us. Insulting us just assures that we will go the extra mile to log on and unsubscribe.

Off topic; interesting thing I realized, while looking for images to make that photoshopped picture at the top of this post, looking at pictures of clowns pisses me off.

Superstar of the Week is Molly Shannon

Factoid of the Week

A 'Dear Abby' advice column was pulled because it included a letter taken from an episode of The Simpsons.

Source: www.snopes.com

Nosferatu III

In the last episode of Nosferatu, I talked about the viscous life sucking creature known as Bank of America. I explained how Bank of America, and banks in general, drain your energy by trying to make you believe that you are dependant on them, and then convincing you to give them your money, calling it, "fees."

In this episode, I will talk about another large life sucking entity, which is growing more and more similar to banks, called college. College is an entity which charges large amounts of tuition, leaving it's attendees virtually destitute for the years which they attend, yet it doesn't stop there. Students also have to pay sky high prices for textbooks, like my $127.00 softcover marketing book. But it doesn't stop there. On top of the visible expenses, are many fees, much like with banks. Each class will have fees for each class, depending on the amount of credits, like lab fees. Then there's parking fees, and library computer fees. And if you're thinking of taking classes online, there's a fee for online video streaming. These institutions can charge all kinds of fees, because, like banks, they have no fear. Colleges are seen as the road to success, thus everybody wants in and will pay any price.

Beware the fees

Ghost Hunters

Happy Halloween. Here's my latest video, Ghost Hunters.

Superstar of the Week is Igor

Factoid of the Week

The ghost of a disappointed lover haunts the Toys 'R' Us in Sunnyvale, California.

Source: www.snopes.com

Superstar of the Week is Tim Burton

Factoid of the Week

A bank issued a credit card to a tree.

Source: www.snopes.com

Another Moment in Natural Selection

Thought I'd post this for old times sake. Think they're having fun now?

Superstar of the Week is George Foreman

Two Years of J-Dubb's Theatre

Note: This post conatins many links. You may want to just skim their content.

J-Dubb's Theatre has now officially been around for two years. So now I will recap the second year of J-Dubb's Theatre. I know how you love a good anniversary recounting. Don't deny it, I know you do.

The second year began by recounting the first year of J-Dubb's Theatre.

Then, after Moral of the Week was set back on track, I posted the first of the new Crack Kills series. The second still has yet to be posted. Granpa Munster then paid a visit for Halloween.

In November, I featured Gerald Ford as Superstar of the Week, eerily, a few days before he died. Then I pissed people off with a controversial topic. And I made sure to practice my democratic rights.

December almost came and went with no account, until the Drumming Fat Kid showed up again.

In January, I uncovered the evil plot set by the devious Burger King and the villainous X-Box.

February was a big month; after the victory of Indianapolis, I made my YouTube de vue. After this, my videos pretty much took over as the main focus of J-Dubb's Theatre.

March was mostly posts about new videos.

The first post in April was a big deal, since I went the whole month, the previous year, without posting.

In May, I went to Newport, and got a prank phonecall from an old fashioned gent.

Then in June, I made plans to get the blog rolling again as I did the previous summer.

In July, I ran into several famous Youtubers, including the infamous spammer, Lisa Nova.

In the month of August, I went missing. First, I was kidnapped by the secret society, The Order, from the world of YouTubes, Lonelygirl15. They took over my blog and posted a video on my YouTube channel. Then a member of La Rezisto, took over my channel and began posting updates on the search for me. This ended with the disappearances of me, The Order, LaRezisto, and many other YouTube personalities, and finally, yet another takeover of my blog, by the Television Networks.

In September, I returned, and posted the videos chronicling my adventures, saving YouTube from The Network. Then I added the "Best of" feature to this blog.

And finally, in the month of October, I've featured Peyton Manning as Superstar of the Year, and made the second anniversary post, recounting the second year of J-Dubb's Theatre.

Sony WTF

So, Sony's been making a lot of bonehead moves lately, at least in the Playstation department. Well, it looks like they're well on their way to the last nail in the coffin.

It seems that Sony has come out with a new version of the highly unsuccessful PS3, the 40GB Playstation 3, which has already been released in Europe and Japan. It seems, however, that the Sony geniuses have left out the "one" advantage that the Playstation has against the X-Box: backwards compatibility. Before the PS3 and the X-Box 360 hit the market, the major issue was that the 360 had only limited backwards compatibility, whereas the PS3 was fully backwards compatible. Well, X-box is looking pretty good next to Sony now. (No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. I actually made a positive remark about X-Box. That's pretty bad for Sony).

After years of having to abandon our old cartridge games when the next system came out, backwards compatibility has always been a big deal.

Funny thing is, SCE Worldwide Studios President, Phil Harrison, was actually quoted recently in saying, "Backwards compatibility, as you know from PlayStation One and PlayStation 2, is a core value of what we believe we should offer. And access to the library of content people have created, bought for themselves, and accumulated over the years is necessary to create a format. PlayStation is a format meaning that it transcends many devices -- PSOne, PS2, and now PS3."

Yet, after the development of the new system, SCEE spokesperson, Nick Sharples, was quoted in saying, "We have made clear on many occasions that our priority is on developing innovative new features and services for PS3 and not on backwards compatibility." Notice how he didn't make any mention of the games themselves. These guys just aren't getting it.

As well, Sony marketing has once again displayed complete disregard for timing. Thing is, the PS3 barely even has a library at this point. Most people are still focusing on PS2 games. If they're going to release a PS3 only system, you'd think they'd have the sense to wait until they actually have a game base. But then, it just goes to show, once again, that they are still putting their focus on the features of the system, and missing the very point of a gaming consul: GAMES! Get a clue Sony.

Superstar of the Year is Peyton Manning

Since the beginning of this blog, I have chosen random people to feature for, "Superstar of the Week". Now, it's time for the second "Superstar of the Year". The difference is that the Superstar of the Year is someone who I actually select for a J-Dubb's Theatre tribute, as opposed to just the first name that comes to mind, like with Superstar of the Week. This year, I've decided that there's no one better to represent the year of 2007 than legendary quarterback, Peyton Manning.After the disapointment of the loss of Seattle in the previous superbowl, preceeding a very disappointing year, the victory of the Colts ushered in a much better year in 2007.

Peyton manning has shown to be not only a great quarterback, but also a great personality. And the marketing agencies have caught on to this. Everybody seems to want him for their commercials this year. If the whole football thing falls through, he could always fall back on acting.

Spanking CBS

Well, looks like the Networks are at it again, demonstrating that they don't feel the need to show any respect for the customers because we keep accepting whatever shitty excuse for service they dish out.

A few minutes ago, I was watching a game on CBS between San Diego and Denver. It was an exciting game, as San Diego was pulling a huge lead for the first time this season. Then, as the third quarter ended, they decided to switch us over to a San Francisco game. The final quarter was about to begin, and CBS decided we wouldn't get to finish the game.

Seriously, how are they gonna think this is acceptable? I just found out that San Diego won, 43 to 3. They were in the 20's when the Network took the game away. Sure would have been nice to see what happened.

Anyways, the Networks are showing a blatant disregard for the customer. This is not the first time they've done this. Many times they have given us different games than advertised, or given us an infomercial instead of showing the game that they advertised. But taking away the game we've been watching for three quarters is just low.

But that's not all. Have you ever noticed how a network will play a certain commercial every commercial break, sometimes twice, and during multiple shows, until it grates on your nerves? Or how often, these days, a network will lose the signal right at the pinnacle of a show. That didn't happen when I was a kid. What's the excuse now? Don't tell me it's from upgrading to digital; if the end result is WORSE, it's NOT A FUCKING UPGRADE.

The Television Networks don't provide us a service. Their purpose is no longer to entertain, but to drink in the steady cash flow that they aren't afraid will dry up, because we have allowed them to become arrogant. They believe that they can slap us all in the face and we'll just keep coming back for more.

And they slap us in the face, because it turns a larger profit. Thing is, we have forgotten that; we don't exist so that the Networks can turn a larger profit, they exist to entertain us, while making a profit. If they feel they've transcended the need to provide us with quality services, then there is no more reason for them to be making money.

They will continue this dehumanizing lack of respect until we knock them off their high horse. Somehow, they need to feel accountable for their "services", or they will continue to display this lack of quality.

Factoid of the Week

The nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" originated as a coded message used for recruiting pirates.

source: www.snopes.com

Superstar of the Week is the White Rabbit

Oops! Superstar of the Week is supposed to be Monday. Looks like the White Rabbit is late again.