There's a Bear Outside

I had a dream last night that there was a grizzly bear in my backyard. My yard wasn't the little box that it is in real life. It was much larger and was landscaped. The bear saw me through the window and began pawing around, trying to get in. So I hid.

Eventually, something outside caught its attention. I took the opportunity to come out of hiding to turn the lights out and close the blinds, hoping that it would forget and leave. It saw me through the window, however, before I could close the blinds over the sliding door. It swung it's arm back, gearing to break the glass, so I ran over to the front door on the other side of the house. Fortunately, its back-swing took a long time. Maybe it was charging up its power or something.

When I got to the front door, I suddenly found myself in a house that I lived in as a child, though I was still an adult. I opened up the door, but decided to wait for the bear to break the glass and bound inside. I would slip out and shut the door just before it could get to me. With the bear inside, it would buy me more time to get away from the house and to safety. But the glass never broke.

I saw the bear walk around the house and up to a neighbors house across the street. Somehow, I zoomed in as if I were looking through a camera, and saw that both their front door and inner garage door were open. I was worried that the bear would get inside and get them. But then it turned around and headed back toward my house. That's when I realized that I still had the door open. I slammed it shut, but it was too late. I already got the bears attention. So I deadbolted the door and ran upstairs. For some reason my mom was there all of a sudden, and she ran into a room and closed the door behind her.

The upstairs was open to the outside with no walls. Just beams which supported the roof. I did not find this to be odd. I looked over at the ladder, which ascended to the upstairs from the backyard, and saw that a completely unrelated blackbear was climbing up. I found this to be an odd coincidence. I went over to push the ladder down so that the blackbear couldn't get up, but the ladder was fastened to the side. I managed to knock the bear off by pushing on the ladder. I then went to unfasten it. Two of the ties came off easily, but the third wouldn't budge, so I got out my pocket knife. The black bear began ascending the ladder again at this point.

My knife wasn't sharp enough to cut the tie, so I called for my mom to get a sharp knife. The bear was nearly to the top now, so I started bucking the ladder again. But this time it wasn't falling off. Just then, around the corner of the upstairs, came the grizzly bear from before. I had no idea how it got there. There was nowhere to run from either bear.

I shouted, "Oh come on!" before realizing that I had just woken up from a dream. I felt kind of frustrated as I lay there. It was like the dream had cheated or something.

Starbuck Remembers All Along the Watchtower

One of my favorite scenes from BSG. The look on Tigh's face is priceless.

Tommy Westphall's Universe

Are your favorite television shows merely the dream of an autistic boy?
Listening to the Rick Emerson show this morning, I learned of a show from the 80's that I had not heard of before, called St. Elsewhere. I checked out the pilot episode on Hulu, and it turned out to be pretty descent. It's basically an early hospital drama who's cast includes up and coming actors such as Denzel Washington, Howie Mandel, and David Morse of The Green Mile and Twelve Monkeys.

One thing they mentioned on the Rick Emmerson show, was the series finale, which ended with the implication that the entire series was merely the daydream of a boy with autism named Tommy Westphall. By implication, this could mean that other shows which have tied into St. Elsewhere are also part of this dream. For example, the bar and characters from Cheers not only appeared in an episode of St. Elsewhere, but St. Elsewhere characters also appeared in Cheers. But it goes further; the show, Homicide: Life on the Street included characters from St. Elsewhere, and Law and Order has included characters from Homicide. So, according to this hypothesis, that would make the Law and Order series a part of Tommy Westphall's dream.

But it doesn't stop there. Researchers of the "Westphall Hypothesis" have dug around and created grids, charting all the shows which tie into St. Elsewhere, either directly or indirectly. This grid includes almost every show you've ever heard of, from Buffy to Boston Legal to Dr. Who. There is also a key which explains each crossover. Even if you don't buy the hypothesis, it's interesting to see how each show links to another with crossovers.

Some of the crossovers are a bit sketchy, however. For instance, one episode of the whimsical British sci-fi show, Red Dwarf, featured a spaceship graveyard which included the Firefly ship and a Klingon ship from the Star Trek series. I take something like this to be more of a humorous reference, rather than a canonical crossover. Besides, Firefly and Star Trek can't exist in the same universe anyway; the entire premises of the two shows conflict. Also, if two characters from two shows smoke the same fictitious brand of cigarettes, is that a crossover which ties them into the same universe? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Wouldn't it be the same to say that all shows that use the telephone prefix, 555, part of the same universe?

It's important to distinguish a crossover from a reference, for instance, a character from one show appearing in another is a crossover. A spinoff, such as Frasier is a crossover. A character on a show mentioning another show, such as a character from Heroes watching Seinfeld would be a reference, not a crossover. Mentioning a name as a tribute to another show, such as the hospital from House having a Doogie Howser wing, would be a reference, not a crossover. On the other hand, if House were intentionally set in the same hospital as Doogie Howser, or if a character made a mention of having worked with Doogie Howser, those would be a crossovers.

There are a lot of arguments against this hypothesis. I haven't found most of them to be conclusive. For instance, one argument is; saying that the appearance of a character in two shows means that those shows take place in the same universe is like saying that two shows set in the same city take place in the same universe. I disagree in that a writer whose show is set in Chicago may not intend for their show to exist in the same world and another show in Chicago, however, if two writers decide to include the same character in both of their shows, that pretty much implies the intent that their shows exist in the same world.

On that note however, say that the writers of Heroes intends for their show to exist in the same world as Las Vegas, but they never intended to be a part of Tommy Westphall's dream? Do they have to be a part of Tommy Westphall's dream for continuity? And if all these shows are related, how come I never see people with super powers on Boston Legal? (Denny Crane's grandeur doesn't count.)

I suppose the main thing is; it's fiction and involves multiple disjointed writers, therefore each show is dependent on the canon of that specific writer. From the St. Elsewhere canon, perhaps Heroes is a part of Tommy Westphall's dream, but from the Heroes canon it isn't. Hell, from the Seinfeld canon, Seinfeld happens in real life, however many other shows reference it as a television show. So it really depends on the point of view of the show; if you watch Seinfeld it's real life. If you watch Bones, and somebody is watching Seinfeld on TV, now it's a TV show. That's how fiction works. Christ, Tommy Westphall could be having different dreams with crossover characters. But then on that note, isn't that really what we're doing when we watch these shows?

So in conclusion, I guess my stance is that it depends on:

1. the specific canon of the show: do the writers want it to be a dream or real?
2. where no specific canon is established by the writer, it becomes dependent on the viewer.

J-Dubb's Theatre Upgrade

J-Dubb's Theatre has been upgraded. Watch the video for details.

Seth MacFarlane on YouTube

Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy and American Dad has a channel on YouTube now called, SethComedy. This channel features cartoon shorts which are basically the same type of cartoons you would see as flashbacks in Family Guy or American Dad. Since I enjoy Family Guy, I subscribed.

Widescreen Videos Screw up my Blog

If you saw the previous post that was up for like three minutes and 24 seconds and 17 miliseconds, I took it down because it included an embedded video in YouTube's widescreen format. It seems the widescreen videos break out of my blogs div and look like sh** on my blog. That sucks.

I Wanna Be Part of the Grind.

Call me crazy. Everybody else seems to be wanting to get out of this, but I want to get in. I want to wake up while it's still dark, wishing that I could stay in bed a little longer. Take a nice hot shower as I become lucid, get dressed, and head out. I want to see red tail lights in front of me and white headlights going in the opposite direction in the dark of the early morning as I ease my way to work.

I want to get a cup of joe, a comforting aroma to start the day. I want to walk underneath florescent lights, say hi to Jim and hey to Lorene. I want to sit at my desk, getting up a few times to use the copier, until noon, then spend an hour eating lunch and hangin out. Then I want to go back to work for a few hours, until that sweet relief at the end of the day. I want to sit in traffic again as I head home. Walk in and change into casual clothes, and sigh in relief as I sink into the chair in front of the TV. Me time.

I want to do this five times a week until Friday, when I get that big relief at the end of the day. Five o'clock, and everything seems to sing. I want to sleep in on Saturday, just because I can, and spend the day kicked back. Maybe go see a movie, or hike, or hang out with friends and family. I want Sunday night to be bittersweet, as I feel the weekend coming to a close. And I want to wake up on Monday and do it all again.

Maybe I'm crazy. I'm not supposed to want to be in the grind. Everybody wants to get out; to "transcend" it. But I want in. I guess I just want to feel like I'm a part of things.

Six years ago I got out of the military, still practically a kid at 23. Like everyone else, I wanted to be out of the grind. At the time I wanted to feel special. Not a part of everything, but extraordinary; standing out amongst the civilians. And I did feel that way.

After six months of unemployment, however, I began to go stir crazy. I needed something to do, people to talk to, and most of all, I needed to meet women. I finally got a job working security. I had romantic aspirations involving this job. I wanted to chase down bad guys and protect the innocent. Be a hero. Reality turned out to be much different.

I didn't get to be a part of the employees of the company. I could chat, but I wasn't allowed to fraternize, and I couldn't date any of the female employees (although that didn't stop me ;D). This didn't bother me in the beginning. That was what I wanted; not to commingle, but to stand out. I wanted to be the one who allows the others to commingle in safety.

For two years, I worked swing shift, 4 to midnight. And my weekend was Wednesday and Thursday. In the beginning it was pretty convenient to be able to do my errands when everybody else was working, but when my friends and family were off, I was working. It was a rare opportunity to spend time with someone I knew away from work. People would make big plans for the holidays while I sat in a big empty building. Employees would leave on Friday to go out and party, and I got to watch them leave.

After the first few months, I started school part time, as I had planned to do. It was nice as a student; to get to be just one of the students. But it still felt so part time, like I wasn't fully one of them. I yearned for the old days in school when I was one student among many. Of course I have to take responsibility for this situation, however, as I did still have this attitude of wanting to stand apart from everyone else. I wasn't one of these civilians. I had been in the military. I was experienced. (ha)

That attitude left during the two years I worked there. I quit my job to go to school full time, just wanting to be a part of things again. Ironically, this move took me further in the opposite direction. I would sit in class for two hours as the teacher lectured, then move to a different class with different people. Then, after three months, I would have all new classes, never really getting acquainted with anyone. I did get to spend some time with friends and family, which was a plus, but most of my free time was pent up in my room doing homework. When I wasn't doing homework, my activities were limited by my finances, or lack thereof.

During this time, I would listen to new agey types tell me I need to "transcend the rat race" and "be my own boss" etc. Corporations and anybody with power were out to use and manipulate me. Down with the man. So I would spend my time trying to figure out how not to be a part of things.

I switched my major to graphic design, which assuaged this feeling for a while. I got to go to classes with the same group of people for a year, getting to know them and being a part. But then after a year, I switched to web design. Classes were pretty much like they were before graphic design. No solid group of people; just fleeting faces. Things were better than before, however. My primary goal was to do well in school. Having a mission helped. When I was off, I would make time as much as possible to get to know the people I knew again. Plus I was wiser with my money, enabling more reserves and more opportunities. Things were much better than before. Still, I would leave school each day with this melancholy feeling of wanting to be a part of things.

Now I'm done with school and looking for work. I could go all for freelance, be my own boss and make my own hours, if I want to. But I don't. Six years after my term in the military has ended, I just want to be part of the grind. At least for now. Maybe a time will come when I just need to transcend it all. But not now.

When I get up in the morning miserable, everybody else is miserable with me. When I'm stuck in traffic, everyone else is stuck in traffic with me. Counting down the hours, so does everyone else. Feeling that sweet relief at the end of the day with everyone else. And then I want to do it all again with everyone else.

Either that or I just like coffee and pretty traffic lights.

LisaNova; Out to Pasture

Well, that does it. After her latest video, LisaNova is now over as far as I'm concerned. Lisa's new video, titled "Subscriptions Are AMAZING!!!", is a video that she put out for YouTube's Adopt a Feature contest. Google has started this contest to encourage content providers to make videos explaining how to use certain YouTube features that users might not know about. LisaNova chose to make a video touching on subscribing to channels, creating an account, and the new freind activity feature. (See my rants on YouTube's new features.)

This video begins with a neanderthal like person, grunting in frustration, as he seems to have some desire to touch the people in their videos. The good fairy, played by LisaNova, then takes the ape man to some magical realm type place, where he is now shirtless and wearing star shaped nipple pasties, for whatever reason. Obnoxious tirades ensue, as LisaNova uses the computer which dominates this place to explain the afore mentioned features to her simple compatriot; perhaps her way of saying, "so easy a caveman could do it."

Now, I lost interest in LisaNova quite some time ago. Her last video that I enjoyed was "LisaNova Does YouTube", in the summer of 2007. I was trying to still like her prior to that when she did her 300 parody, her obnoxious Affirmation Girl series, and that Pirates series where she expresses her bizaare annoyance with Kiera Knightly. But then, LisaNova Does YouTube was refreshingly fun (though many people would disagree with me). After that, however, it was all down hill and I eventually just stopped watching. I kept my subscription out of courtesy. This latest video was the final straw, and judging from the bulk of comments, I'm not alone. As far as I'm concerned, LisaNova is gone, and has been replaced by an impersonator played by a chimpanzee.

As far as something constructive that I would advise LisaNova on, all I can really say is; it happens. I know this happens to people all the time. People pass their prime, and they really don't know what to do about it. Perhaps in her fame, she has lost the charm of being an independant video maker. Perhaps she knows this and is trying too hard to get this charm back. She has certainly tried to play the "I'm with the little guy" card.

One thing I would have to say, about LisaNova now in contrast with LisaNova then, is that her videos used to have a more contemplative feel. She was never really that funny; she was more interesting. She kind of had an artistic apeal. Now it seems she is going all for funny and has lost her charm. Whereas I used to see LisaNova as being pensive and witty, I now associate her with high pitched squealing and flailing limbs. Perhaps what she needs is to move on from being the small time video maker she once was, while at the same time, stop trying so hard to be funny and recapture the contemplateiveness she once had.

Now, I will by no means imply that she should quit. Instead I would encourage her to keep doing it untill she finds something new that works. Maybe when that happens, I'll start watching her again.

And finally, I will not post or link to the offending video. You can find it if you really want to torture yourself. Instead, I will conclude by posting a LisaNova classic.

The Network - A Third Option part 2 of 2

Finally! The second season of my summer series, The Network, has finally reached it's conclusion...

at the beginning of March.

Anyways, I think it was worth the wait for this video, the most dramatic of the series.

J-Dubb, possessed by Belphegor, has figured out how to see into the real world. Consequently, he can also interact with the parasitic executive, and is driving him quite mad. How will Belphegor respond? Will J-Dubb regain control of his body?

Watch The Network - A Third Option part 2 of 2
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Absentee Blogger Disabled

Absentee Blogger has been deactivated by an authorized user. This blog will now proceed as normal, as it has been doing anyway due to the activation of absentee blogger.

Sweet Irony

J-Dubb does LisaNova does YouTube has been Muted.










So, YouTube recently muted my video, J-Dubb does LisaNova does YouTube because of copyright issues with a certain audio track. So now, one of my most popular videos has been turned into a silent film due to a rather small part in which this track is played.

I was meaning to blog about this earlier, but I literally ran upstairs in the middle of making breakfast when I realized something quite ironic...

The song that caused YouTube to silence my video is Simon and Garfunkle's The Sound of Silence!!

btw, have any of you had frozen oatmeal before? Neither have I, but I'm about to.

The Network - A Third Option part 1of 2

Looks like the season finale for The Network will be uploaded into two parts. Both parts fall under the title, A third Option. Part one has been uploaded now, and part two will be uploaded a day later.

When we last saw J-Dubb, trapped in a virtual forest within his own mind, he managed to gain back his memories. Subsequently, he found a way to see Belphegore's thoughts and finally, saw through his own eyes into the real world.

Happy Oregon Sesquicentennial?

Oregon Sesquicentennial
Wow, time sure does fly. First, you settle your oxen lead wagon trains in the fertile woodsy lands near the Pacific Ocean, and next thing you know, you're celebrating your sesquicentennial.

Wait a tic... what the frack is a sesquicen-whatchuallit? Well, I figured; a centenial is 100 years, so a sesqui-centennial must be about 600 years, right?

What!? The U.S. hasn't been around for 600 years, let alone Oregon.

According to the Oregon Lottery commercial I heard on my clock radio this morning, a sesquicentennial is about 150 years.

So, Feruary 14 marked the sesquicentinnial for Oregon.

Over a century ago, Lewis and Clark's trail ended in a place that would eventually become a state, which would house the "wierdest" city in the union. (Florida may be in dispute for this, however.) Interestingly, Oregon may be one of the most obscure states. I have had people ask me, "Oregon? Where is that?" One person even asked me once, upon answering where I was from, "What is that?"

Quick answer would have been, "the wierdest and most secretive state in the union." Seriously though, we're secretive for a reason. Stay the frack out, will ya? Go populate your New York and LA. If too many people move to Portland, it won't be the coolest... erm.. wierdest city in the union anymore. (My family actually migrated here from California when I was 8. Yup, I'm one of those California migrants.)

So anyways, happy sesquicentennial, Oregon.

The February 2006 Post

This image was the only thing I posted in February of 06. Each year I seem to go into a lull after the year change where I only have a few posts per month, and then I pick back up again in the summer. February 06 was in such a lull, all I could think of to post was this image of the Windows 2000 paperclip:

So I read some of my original posts last night from when I started this blog back in 05. It was interesting. My posts back then were kind of, um... not very good. Maybe it's just the whole "I am my own worst critic" syndrome, but I sincerely hope my posts have improved over the years. I think they have.

I remember back then, in my writing, I tried to imitate the tone of a local DJ, Tim Savage, who had a show on Portland's 101 KUFO at the time. I'm not so sure the tone translates into writing very well. Funny thing is, I don't even listen to 101 anymore, let alone try to convey the tone of a DJ.

EDIT: I actually listen to KUFO again and the link is back in the sidebar. I got tired of their main talent (Marconi) a while back, but I've tuned in more recently and I'm liking the people they have doing the shows now days.

EDIT 2: Nevermind; they fired the people I was listening to and hired a bunch of people whom I don't like, as I covered in a later blog post. I no longer listen to KUFO, again, and have removed the link from my sidebar, again. Wow, this is turning into Monty Python. When will "those responsible for the sackings be sacked?"

EDIT 3: I was reading this old blog post, and decided to re-link the sidebar of this blog to KUFO, for old time sake. Of course, I had to go to archive.org and pull up a capture of KUFO.com from 2009 on the Wayback Machine, as KUFO has not existed for quite some time, and was long ago replaced by a talk radio station. I'm actually writing this edit about 11 years after having written the original blog post. If you keep reading this blog, you'll learn the fate of KUFO.

Another interesting thing I found is that my very first "Nosferatu" Halloween post, from back in 05, has a new comment that someone just wrote this past December. Makes me wonder what other new comments my old posts have recieved over the years.

While I was at it, I thought I'd conjure up an image of this blog in its very beginning. So here is a picture of pretty much what J-Dubb's Theatre looked like right after it's first post, before it was even called J-Dubb's Theatre. If you click on it, it almost looks like you're viewing the actual webpage in your browser.

J-Dubb's Theatre on Twitter

I'm finally on Twitter now. Don't worry, I don't expect most of my Tweets to be as whiny as my last blog post. :D

http://twitter.com/JDubbsTheatre

No Bulletins No Views

YouTube Bulletins and other YouTube changes

What's the deal? I uploaded my video, The Network - The Elusive Past about three weeks ago and so far it only has 42 views. This is also the first video I've posted since YouTube got rid of channel bulletins. It seems those bulletins weren't so worthless after all. Thanks YouTube for taking another step to make sure the partners and sponsored channels continue to rake in the views while sweeping the rest of your users into the closet and out of sight.

And on that note, is it just me or is YouTube trying to be Facebook? Bulletins have been replaced by this recent activity box, and now we have this homepage which displays the recent activity of all our freinds. Of course, this homepage is generally pretty sparse because most people don't like to have their recent activity displayed. Not to mention, it seems that most people don't even care that it's even there for them to look at. The question is, why does YouTube feel the need to be FaceBook? It's already YouTube for crissake! It's like Coke trying to be more like Old Navy. Come to think of it, Coke learned the lesson of changing it's formula back in the 80's. Is YouTube making the same mistake?

The other problem of YouTube trying to be everyone else, is that it's watering down it's flavor. Don't confuse this with a self help cliche, but basically, YouTube needs to be the best YouTube it can be. It can't compete with Facebook by trying to be more like Facebook, because Facebook isn't trying to be like someone else. They are capitalizing on what makes them Facebook. YouTube will lose against Facebook going that route, because people will choose the higher quality Facebook over the watered down Facebook. If a hammer tries to improve itself by being more like a screwdriver, it will lose out to both screwdrivers and hammers. Focus on being a superior hammer.

And give us back our bulletins for crissake!

J-Dubb out

"I'm Denny Crane!"

William Shatner is Denny Crane

The Network - The Elusive Past

Finally, two months in the making, The first part of the season 2 finale of The Network is ready:

Where is J-Dubb and who is the man known as "The Executive"?

The Network - The Elusive Past

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The Network Update

The season finale for The Network series is back on track now. I've decided to release it in two parts; "The Elusive Past", and "A Third Option". The first part should be done sometime today.

Legend of the Green Dragon

You might remember a post similar to this one back in 2006, assuming you were reading this blog back then. Well, The Green Dragon's Back. Jon has put it up on his server again.

The Legend of the Green Dragon is a text based online game. It's really fun when there's a lot of players. Last time we only got a few regular players, whereas the first time we had masses. Let's see if we can do better this time. Come on over and try it out.

The Legend of the Green Dragon

And Another One

What's going on!? I just wrote a post about the changeover from 2007 to 2008 and how fast it went, and now all of a sudden it's 2009. Really!? I mean seriously, I just wrote that post and waited for the months to fill in under the 2008 archives and now all of a sudden I'm waiting for the months to fill in under the 2009 archives.

Well, sure enough, 2008 did not break 100 posts or even match the amount of posts from 2007. I did, however, tie with 2006 for 84 posts. Let's see if I can break 100 for 2009.

The other thing about 2009 is it's the last year of my twenties. After this year, it's the big ominous Three-Oh for me.

Superstar of the Week is Rusty Nails

Mele Kalikimaka

Superstar of the Week is Charles Dickens

Superstar of the Week is Brooke Shields

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"

Superstar of the Week is Chow Yung Fat

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

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

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

Superstar of the Week is Stephen Spielberg

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.

President Obama

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

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.

Superstar of the Week is Conan; either of them

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.

This Week's Urban Legend

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



Status: True

See the full story.

Animal of the Week is the Black Widow

Superstar of the Week is Count Chocula

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...

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.

Animal of the Week is the McCaw Parrot

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

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