Monday, December 31, 2007
Another Year
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Hate Smart
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Todays 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.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Superstar of the Week is Bill Smith
http://webs.wichita.edu/dt/insidewsu/show/article.asp?619
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Superstar of the Week is Kelsey Grammar
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Good ol' Days
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Superstar of the Week is Jack Black Mii
See comment for more information.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Legend of the Week
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'
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Un-Factoid of the Week
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.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
OTube?
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.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Monday, November 05, 2007
Silly Sprint
"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:
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.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Factoid of the Week
Source: www.snopes.com
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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."
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Factoid of the Week
Source: www.snopes.com
Monday, October 22, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Sony WTF
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.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Superstar of the Year is Peyton Manning
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Spanking CBS
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.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Factoid of the Week
source: www.snopes.com