Thursday, December 25, 2008

Mele Kalikimaka

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

YouTube Bulletins vs Recent Activity Box

Removing YouTube Bulletins was a Mistake

So, the other day I logged onto YouTube and noticed that the bulletin box was missing on my profile. I went into my account settings to turn it back on, when I found that there were no settings for a bulletin. I went to several other profiles that I knew displayed bulletins, only to find that theirs were missing as well. I thought that maybe one of my Firefox addons were keeping the bulletins from being displayed, so I logged on to my Wii. Sure enough, bulletins are gone.

Now, every major website who's been in the biz for a while knows that anytime they make changes, they're going to get complaints and opposition. It happens to YouTube every time they make a minor cosmetic change. My concern is that YouTube may grow numb to user feedback. You see, the thing about the decision to remove bulletins is that it wasn't a minor change; they have taken away a major function of their website.

The bulletin system was the only way to get word out to large groups of people without spamming their accounts. Vice-versa, it was the only way to see what other people were up to short of going to every single profile to find out. You see, the bulletin board was... well... a bulletin board. An establishment puts up a bulletin board as a non-invasive way to communicate with people. Somebody who wishes to share a message can pin it to the bulletin board without taking the time to go around and harrass people. When somebody takes an interest in what is going on in their community, they can check the bulletin board rather than hoping to catch something by word of mouth. Without the bulletin system on YouTube, not only is it now more difficult to participate in the community, but it's sure to increase spam as well, as the alternative has been taken away.

YouTube posted this, reguarding bulletins, on December 3:

Regarding bulletins, we've listened to you, and most of you didn't see the value in bulletins as they are today. So, we're taking a first step to make bulletins more useful. Although the bulletin box will be going away, now you can broadcast a bulletin directly to your channel visitors in your Recent Activity box. This not only provides a fun place to shout out personal updates and news, but also provides an additional way to communicate and engage with your channel's fans.


Most of us? Can you elaborate on that? What was the sample group whom you decided represented the majority? One thing about that; anybody who didn't "see much use" in the bulletins had the option to turn them off in their profile anyway. So why take them away from THE REST OF US who were actually using them?

And what's the alternative? I can now post a bulletin to MYSELF in the new recent activity box that MIGHT be seen by a few other people. In fact, they've pretty much made the YouTube freinds feature pointless. The whole point of having a freinds list was the abiltity to communicate with and see what your freinds are up to without having to go profile to profile. Now all that the freinds list is, is a list.

One drawback of the bulletins was spam, ie people posting several of one message, chain letters, ect. But the cool thing about bulletins was if somebody violated them, all you had to do was remove them from your freinds list and never hear from them again, unlike profile and video comments which can be spammed by anyone.

As for the recent activity box; I don't really see a problem with it. It's really only a consolidation of things that YouTube already had like recent comments, recent ratings, that kind of thing. Privacy settings can be adjusted to allow only what you want to display. It is a bit redundant; showing things like recently favorited videos, which already show on your channel anyway. But it doesn't interfere with regular YouTube activity. The problem with the removal of the bulletins is that it does interfere with regular YouTube activity.

Now, mixed in with the irate masses, there are a few people saying things like, "it's time for a change", and "you'll get used to it like all the other changes." Now I agree that changes are normal and natural and that it's okay for YouTube to change their site. But, as I have previously stated, this particular change is not just a mere annoyance, but a major drawback for many users.

YouTube's blog post

Bulletins Gone - How to Contact YouTube vid

Does God Love Your Bulletins? vid

I Want My Bulletin Box Back vid

YouTube Bulletins - Where Did They Go? vid


Dissapointing YouTube Site Update vid

No More Bulletins? What is YouTube Trying to Pull? vid

YouTube search results for "YouTube Bulletins"

Monday, December 08, 2008

Monday, December 01, 2008

Who Are These People?

YouTube: most subscribed and changes
Wow; I've been incredibly busy these last several months and haven't been able to do a lot of the things that I normally do, like spending time on YouTube. Today I took a look at the most subscribed lists. A lot's changed.

I remember when it was a big deal that Smosh had over 100,000 subscribers. Now everybody on the first three pages have at least that many and Smosh has 6 times that. Not to mention that Smosh has moved down to the 3rd most subscribed channel after dominating 1st the most subscribed spot throughout the majority of YouTube's life.

Now, a kid calling himself Fred is in the number 1 spot. I first learned of Fred a few months ago after Nalts made a response to one of his videos. I watched one of his videos, and had no desire to see any more. Fred is a young guy who speeds up his voice in chipmunk fashion in order to portray a 6 year old character. He had a feature spot during YouTube Live, but I had no idea until today that he had sprung up to the number 1 most subscribed spot.

There's a few people on the front page who have kind of always been there, like Smosh and JamesNintendoNerd. HappySlip and sxephil are up there now. They've been on the list for quite a while, but I don't recall seeing them on the front page before. Then there's people I've never even heard of like, nigahiga and therealdemilovato.

People who were once prominent, like Boh3m3, Renetto, and Blunty3000, are now nowhere near the most subscribed all time list (although they are still on the most sbscribed directors list if you navigate back a few pages.) Makes me wonder if most people even know who they are anymore.

I remember, when I first started out on YouTube; actually I started out watching videos towards the beginning, but when I first started getting into the whole YouTube community thingy, the talk all over YouTube was the whole Lonelygirl15 scandal thing. Then the talk moved to "is DaxFlame for real", then the LisaNova spamming incident, then Renetto and his "revolution", then Magibon. I have no idea what it is now, but I wonder how many people on there nowadays even know who Lonlygirl15 is.

Superstar of the Week is Ron Perlman

Friday, November 28, 2008

The Network - Requiem

It's been awhile since we've heard from Belphegor, the Network Executive. What's he been up to during this time? And how about J-Dubb? Where is he and how is he faring?

Here is the backstory if you haven't seen it yet: The Network - Darkness Rising


Monday, November 17, 2008

Snuggie - The Blanket with Sleeves and Spam




















So, I recently got a Spam in my INBOX for a product called Snuggie; a blanket with sleeves.

Now, I saw this product on one of those stupid "As Seen on TV" commercials, and it may have been one of the dumbest of that type of commercial that I've ever seen. They started off showing people trying to use regular blankets. You know how these commercials always start out showing ridiculous depictions of clumsy people having a hard time using a regular product. Well, this commercial showed people having a hard time USING A BLANKET. People would be sitting there, struggling in frustration with their blanket.

This commercial portrayed people struggling to use A FREAKING BLANKET for chrissake!!

So what's their answer to this "problem"? A backwards robe... er... a blanket with sleeves.

Pretty much the main perk that they showed was that you could get up and walk around with it, you know, like a robe... only backwards.

Needless to say, I had quite a time digging into this commercial while it was on. But then, days later, I find a spam in my inbox for this very product. I don't know how this message got past my spam filters; GMail is usually pretty good about that. But regardless, there it was.

So I decided to reply:

Hello, I don't know if this message will reach a human being or not, but I figured it was worth a try. Now, I just wanted to say that normally, I would automatically click the spam button for an e-mail like this, but I thought before I sick the spam-hounds on this message, I should let you know that I've seen this product advertised on TV before, and quite frankly, this is THE dumbest product I have ever seen. It's a backwards robe being advertised as superior to those "inconvenient" blankets. A backwards robe is a pretty stupid idea by the way. No control. It's gonna keep slipping when you're standing, and if it's cold in the house, your back's gonna get cold. Who ever came up with this might wanna do some actual market research instead of just guessing.

Now, normally, I try to be a little more polite than this, but since you f**kwads took it upon yourself to spam my account, I figured politeness is out the window. Have a nice day. See you in hell.

J

Then, not more than two seconds later, I received a failed delivery notice. I figured that would be the case, but as I said in the E-Mail, it was worth a try.

So here's to Snuggie, the blanket with $&@^%*$ @^$^% @$%^ sleeves!


Edit: It seems the Snuggie is a knockoff of another product called a Slanket.

Oh yeah, and the Snuggie comes with a free booklight. Funny how these commercials always adverrtise a free unrelated accessory. Doesn't that sound a bit familiar? :)

Superstar of the Week is Steve Jobs

Monday, November 10, 2008

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Don't Trust Belphegor

It seems that David of No Nonsense Life has some interesting alliances. He appears to have some insight on The Network, as he gives his advice in this video.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

President Obama

Congratulations to Barack Obama, first African American president of the United States.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Wacky Politician Mugs

So you've probably noticed that campaign parties, when creating ads to bash their opponents, have a knack for finding images of the opposing politician making the most precarious facial expressions. Here is my archive of politicians making goofy faces.


John McCain: Republican presidential candidate, U.S.


Michael Marsh: Constitutional candidate for state treasurer, Oregon


Ross Perot: former presidential candidate, U.S.


Ralph Nader: Peace Party candidate for president, U.S.


Jeff Merkley: Democratic candidate for State Senate, Oregon


Barack Obama: Democratic candidate for president, U.S.


Gordon Smith: Republican candidate for state senate, Oregon


Kim Jung Ill: Dictator, North Korea


Hillary Clinton: Democratic senator, New York


Hillary Clinton 2


Bill Clinton: Democratic former president, U.S.
(This was the only goofy picture of him. The Guy's always posing, even when he's speaking. He probably poses while he sleeps, too.)


George "Chimpo" Bush: Republican former president, U.S.

Animal of the Week is the Politician

Note: This is a generic politician, not representative of any specific politician.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

Nosferatu IV














Greetings. In past editions of Nosferatu, I have talked about various entities that drain your life energy, such as banks and community college. This time, however, I will be discussing a real monster...

El Chupacabra

Now, in the past, we have known Chupacabra as the pesky little bat creature that slaughters our goats at night. I know we're all tired of our goats being slaughtered. Now days, however, we are witnessing a new phenomenon; the Urban Chupacabra.

That's right, the Chupacabras have been migrating north in the last 20 or so years, into the Northern United States and Canada in search of cooler climates. Some are now even going over seas into the UK and East Asia, thanks to Orbitz new Chupacabra rates.

This migration phenomenon has lead to Chupacabras moving into the cities and getting office jobs. And due to the lack of goats in the cities, they have moved on to other targets; us.

Now it was bad enough when these guys' activities were limited to devouring the goats of Hispanic farmers. But, quite frankly, I'm getting sick and tired of these little buggers jumping out of the bushes at me and trying to suck my blood. Really, can't a Chupacabra who's an accountant afford to buy blood at the store?

There's one Chupacabra who's always trying to buy my shoes for some reason. I think he needs them for some sort of time travel experiment he's conducting.

So I'm like, "Why don't you use your own shoes?"

And he's like, "I only have two pairs. These, and another pair that I use for jogging."

So I go, "Why don't you buy your own pair?"

And he says, "I never think about it while I'm at the store."

So anyway, I didn't sell him my shoes beacause I was freakin wearing them. Then, later on, he shows up at my house asking to buy my shoes now that I was home and could change into another pair.

I'm like, "Uh, why didn't you just go to the store?"

And he looks at me all confused, like, "Oh, I didn't even think about that."

And what's the deal with shoe laces, by the way? Those things are always coming untied. I'm constantly having to re-tie them. Usually I can feel when they're starting to get loose and then tighten them. But seriously, how come after 28 years I still can't keep my shoes tied? Am I the only one?

Well, that's all for today. Tune in next time for another spine tingling edition of Nosferatu.


Ghost Stories - Vol. 1

Since I don't have a Halloween video this year, this will have to suffice.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

This Week's Urban Legend

Claim: A suicide by hanging was mistaken for a Halloween decoration.



Status: True

See the full story.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Monday, October 27, 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

McCain/ Obama Bracelet Battle


Nalts:
Last nights McCain and Obama debate included this interesting discussion about their bracelets. I have great respect for the military and those that died serving this country. But to see politicians trying to "one up" each other by wearing these bracelets. Oy...

Thursday, October 23, 2008

This Week's Urban Legend

Claim: Barack Obama does not qualify as a natural-born citizen of the U.S. because his mother was too young.



Status: False

See the full story.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Monday, October 20, 2008

J-Dubb's Law

When I take over the world, one rule I'm gonna have to have is that any company who tries to purchase more than one commercial spot per television program will be shut down.

Really, there's always some commercial that I find myself plagued by. That one commercial that insists on showing up every single commercial break, sometimes twice, sometimes in a row, until it's stuck in your head like a bad song. Right now, that commercial is Toyota's "saved by zero" commercial. I am sick and tired of that stupid "saved by zero" song. Not that it's a horrible commercial jingle; I hate it due to repetition. People talk about how annoying it is when radio stations play the same song over and over again. Imagine that; only for 30 seconds every seven to nine minutes.



And I'm not the only person who is tormented by this. While searching for a video to include in this blog post; I stumbled upon, and consequently joined, this Facebook group:

Get Toyota's "Saved By Zero" commercial off the air before I harm myself


As well, the search results page (saved by zero toyota commercial) seemed to be comprised completely of blogs, articles, and forum comments about how pissed off people are by this commercial.

This type of occurrence shows complete lack of respect for consumers on behalf of Toyota advertising. That is what my laws will be based on; respect. So due to Toyota's disrespectful behavior; in my world, Toyota will be abolished.

Sorry Toyota fans.

And from here on out, every J-Dubb law shall be concluded with:

This is the law. Let it be so.

Superstar of the Week is Tony Martinez



Monday, October 13, 2008

Superstar of the Year is Alizee


This year's superstar is french pop singer Alizee Jacotey. What can I say, she's beautiful and she knows how to move. And she's talented, unlike the typical Amreican pop-singer.
In short, aside from being just a pretty face.. and uh... body, she's good at what she does; entertaining.On top of it all, Alizee is also my future wife. She just... uh... doesn't know who I am yet.

So this year's J-Dubb's Theatre tribute goes to Alizee.




Past Superstar of the Year awards:

2006 - Chuck Norris
2007 - Peyton Manning

Saturday, October 11, 2008

3 Years of J-Dubb











Well, three years have gone by now since that first J-Dubb's Theatre post. This blog has kept going since then, and has even spun off a YouTube channel. I was hoping to break a hundred posts by the end of 2008, but I've had a lot going on since the end of the summer, including setting up an internship, and now it's looking like I may not even have as many posts as last year. Ah well, there's always next year. After all, I am now in my final term of school.

So anyway, without further adieu, let the recounting of year three begin:

As always, year three began with the recounting of the previous year.

Then came the Halloween season. I had a week of Halloween posts, including Nosferatu, and the first Halloween video. It is unsure yet as to whether there will be a Halloween video this year. It could happen, despite being in the middle of The Network series.

In November, Oprah put up a YouTube channel, I "pwned" a slovenly roommate in a video sketch, and I topped my post count from 2006.

December, I took the YouTube "H8orz" to school, and then wrote a melancholy post about the passing of years.

In January, I analyzed a mysterious brain teaser which has been showing up in comments and message boards around the Internet. Then I gave five facts about myself.

In February, I showed YouTube how to get noticed, in a parody of several top YouTube videos and vloggers.

That March, I put a hurting on both Tacobell and Billy Mayes.

In April, I proposed a new reality show and created an advertisement for J-Dubb's Theatre.

Then in May, I revealed the truth about the mysterious vlogger, Magibon.

In June, I decided to put my foot down on spamming contests.

And in July, I did several things, including giving five facts about myself again, questioning the controversy of e-begging, I initiated Dubb 2.0, and I deconstructed the monstrosity known as "Highlander the Source."

In August, Smosh was suspended from YouTube, but reinstated shortly after. I finally broke 166 subscribers after a small subscriber curse. And I introduced the world to Moepickles.

But then, towards the end of the month, the mysterious Network Executive turned up. He imprisoned me (J-Dubb) inside my own mind, and is using my body to reinstate his power. After this happened, absentee blogger activated. That means that this isn't really J-Dubb writing this, but an algorithm that is posting everything exactly as J-Dubb would have written it anyway. Now that end has been tucked in nice and cozy.

In September, the Executive, calling himself Belphegor, made a video proposal to YouTube. Then I posted about a rather eerie incident involving 9-11 and an eye exam that I made... er... I mean that's what would have happened if I weren't trapped inside my own mind, of course.

And finally October. Usually I have a Superstar of the Year before the anniversary post, but I missed it this week. But don't worry, there will be a Superstar of the Year this coming week.

And now the fourth year begins with a recounting of the previous year.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Monday, September 15, 2008

Monday, September 08, 2008

J-Dubb's 9/11 Folklore


Alright, I've got a crazy story for you:

About seven years ago, when I was in the Airforce, I scheduled an eye exam. I didn't get to go to this eye exam, however, after a couple of planes flew into the World Trade Center, toppling the two buildings. I still have the sticky note for the appointment. I found it with a bunch of stuff a few years ago and thought it would be an interesting souvenir. It says
"Appt 24th Sept No Doctor
moves to Sept 11th."

Thing is, since then I have not scheduled another eye exam for various reasons. I had some technical issues trying to schedule an appointment while I was still in the Airforce. After that, I have not scheduled an appointment for reasons including procrastination and no health care as an unemployed student. Point is, since my eye exam was cancelled on 9/11/2001 I have not scheduled another exam between now and then.

So today, seven years later, I have finally scheduled another eye exam which will be this Thursday. Guess what the date is.

Superstar of the Week is Jeff Goldblum

Friday, September 05, 2008

Greetings and a Proposition

The Network Executive who hijacked J-Dubb's body has posted a video. He has a proposition for the internet world. What do you think? Should he be trusted?

Greetings and a Proposition

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Absentee Blogger Activated

J-Dubb has gone missing. Absentee blogger has been activated. Absentee blogger is a powerful algorithm that calculates the exact blog post that J-Dubb would have written, and writes it in his stead. Pretty convenient, huh?

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Network - Darkness Rising

One year has passed since the attempted takeover of YouTube by The Network. The mysterious "Executive" was banished into the abyss...

wasn't he?

The Network - Darkness Rising

Monday, August 25, 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

J-Dubb's Moral of the Week

Have you paid your tithe?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

This Weeks Urban Legend

Claim: Tapping the sides of a soda can will prevent it's insides from spilling over when you open it.


Status: False

See the full story.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Thursday, August 07, 2008

J-Dubb's Moral of the Week

Recycling old Moral of the Weeks from two years ago is tasteless, but hell, it's a funny picture.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Moepickles: A Legend is Born

So, last night I attended The Winekone's live show on BlogTV, and witnessed the creation of a new legend; The Legend of Moepickles. Unfortunately, the show doesn't seem to have been recorded, so I can't link you to it.

Basically, Tony(The Winekone) began addressing a visitor to the room, moepickles69. I don't know exactly what initiated it, whether Tony randomly picked Moepickles out of the group, or if Moepickles wrote a comment, which I didn't see, that Tony responded to. I think it may have been that Moepickles referred to Tony as a legend, or something equivalent, because Tony then began to talk about how Moepickles goes way back in YouTube history, basically describing her as a YouTube matriarch, and how Tony remembers watching Moepickles back when she was just getting started, etc. This was ironic humour, as Tony had never heard of Moepickles up to that point. 

Edit 8/5/2013: Tony was not joking. Shortly after I wrote this post, Moepickles filled me in on the story, and apparently Tony really had known her for years. I'm not sure why I didn't edit this afterward, but years later, Tony has informed me of my error:

"I WAS BEING SERIOUS THAT I KNEW HER SINCE FOREVER. YOU RUINED EVERYTHING."
-Tony Huynh

I apologize to everyone who has been deceived over the years by this blog post.

Edit 2: Um, did anybody notice that this entry was posted on 8/5/08 and this edit was made on 8/5/13? I swear to God, I didn't plan it that way. Weird. 

Edit 8/5/2018: The previous two edits were unintentionally written exactly five years to the day from the original blog post. This edit was intentionally written exactly five years to the day from the previous two edits, and ten years to the day from the original blog post. Happy Moe Pickles day, Tony!

... wherever you are.

-End of Edits-

I then took the opportunity to declare Moepickles to be a YouTube Legend. That's right, Moepickles is now legendary. I tried to find moepickles69 in a YouTube search, but I couldn't find one. I did, however, find a moepickles without the numerical suffix. So head on over to Moepickles channel and give her a legendary shoutout.