Johns Blog Thoughts

Too many deaths all at once

John — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:52:45 +0000

Wow I’m sitting here going through the deaths of some popular people and feel sad about it. Kind of wakes me up that life is something very important. I’m glad for the friends I have and the ones I got back in contact with. Plenty of changes in my life this year and things are looking up. Getting in contact with some friends from high school and grade school was important to make me feel better about life. I’ve always been a person who put friends and family over anything. I would do anything for my friends.

Watching some of Billy Mays infomercials really brought back some great memories. His new show was actually interesting and good. Reading a letter from his best friend Anthony Sullivan really put friendships in perspective for me. Sorry to see him go. Michael Jackson’s death was a great surprise too and will be missed. Hope the scandals won’t make things worse for his children and family. Was a great artist and changed our lives for the better.

I‘m still listening to all the podcasts which have started up from the demise of 97.1 radio station. Lot of changes there and plenty of drama. I still listen to Frosty, Heidi and Frank’s podcast. I’ve also started to listen to the Pretty Good Podcast which is actually pretty good. Might check out more if I can find some good ones. I want to have fun and laugh while I work. Thanks to all the fun podcasts out there! Check out Fake Leykis Podcast too. One of the funniest impressionist I’ve heard and I love his Rick Dees impression. Best of luck to you, Brian Whitman.

Who is Jade Goody

John — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:58:24 +0000

I‘ve been a Big Brother fan ever since the first season in the UK and the USA. Recently a former contestant from the UK version season 3 has died. She died of cervical cancer at the age of 27 on March 22, 2009. Jade Goody was the most controversial and the most popular of the regular contestants. She became a millionaire from magazine articles, other reality shows, her own perfume and other business ventures. The reason I am bothering posting about her is how she died and the reaction from people in the UK and other places.

Back in 2002 she entered the Big Brother house and made a name for herself. She was made fun of due to her stupid comments and weight in the tabloids. I thought she wasn’t very intelligent but she had a funny personality. I found her and Kate to be my favorites for different reasons. She did have a temper but it didn’t get much attention until after the show. I next saw her on another reality show called Back to Reality where her bully side really came out. She bullied people in that show and I really started to hate her. The next time I saw her I really hated her. She entered the celebrity version of Big Brother in 2007 where she bullied an actress from India named, Shilpa Shetty. The backlash from the UK and Indian public was strong and harsh.

After the show she tried to make amends and apologized for her actions. Shilpa forgave her and they actually became friends. I always found Jade an interesting person for being so strong with all the hatred against her. She became successful with all the publicity. I still disliked her but interested to see what she would do next. I was surprised when I found out she entered the Big Brother in India. Shilpa Shetty was the host of the show and their reunion was interesting. It shows how two people can forgive and leave the hatred behind them. During the show she was told she had cervical cancer and later found out it was terminal. She went through operations and treatment but the cancer spread too fast and she had months to live.

The most important thing she did was getting women to be aware of this cancer at younger ages so they could go for a screening. She stayed in the public view to make people aware of this cancer. She also wanted money for her 2 children after her death. All the publicity got the government health ministers to rethink the practice of not offering screening for young women until age of 25. This also got lot of women to go in for a screening which they might have not done before. If this publicity saved 1 woman it’s a great thing.

LOTRO, Real Life Changes

John — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:50:19 +0000

I used to play a game called Lord of the rings online every day. My friend and I would play together and share stuff in the game with each other for almost a whole year. I really got hooked with the PVP, Player vs Player, where I can play a spider and fight other people. That has changed with the last update. It made the creep side a bit too easy and the freep side is struggling now. Not much fun when there are no fights. Maybe in the future it will get better but I’m taking a break from it.

The PVE side of this game doesn’t give me much hope too. The kinship I am in lost some good friends I had so all I do is log in for the raids so I can help out. I already lost a great friendship to this game and I’ve lost some of my new friends as well. The Kinship I am in just isn’t the same without those people I got to know these past months. I never would believe a virtual game can be so emotional and make things so difficult in real life. A break from it will be good and lot of other people have decided to do the same. I bought a lifetime membership to the game so I’ll be back just hope everything gets better.

FHF Update with a new podcast

John — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:56:27 +0000

I wrote about Frosty, Heidi and Frank in my last post. They have a new podcast which comes out every monday called FHFU. It is uncensored and they do get a bit raunchy at times so beware of language. Frank needs to put up his microphone volume though because it’s hard to hear him sometimes. They are still funny and I wish I could hear them all the time. I really miss their shows. Their show is only 1 hour and I hope they can do more in the future.

Fm Talk Radio changes in Los Angeles

John — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:37:23 +0000

Only thing I like about radio are the talk shows. Been a big fan of FM talk radio 97.1 and especially of Frosty, Heidi and Frank. Haven’t been listening to them on a regular schedule these past weeks but I download their podcasts every day. Was driving today when I found out the radio station changed to a music format. We don’t need another music station in Los Angeles.

Got home and started to search for news about this change and found some good posts about it: ben tao’s thoughts and mikenopolis with some good links. Such a sad day to find it out when I was driving hoping to have a good day laughing. Oh well.

Now I have to find another station to listen to or wait for the personalities I liked to find another place to talk. The only other station I liked was KFI but I find some stuff a bit too political. KABC is way too political for my taste too. I want a fun relaxing talk show to make me laugh. I remember when Phil Hendrie retired and now he’s back on radio stations again. So I’m hoping for the best but it really got me sad to find out about this. I’m glad I saved a lot of the podcasts so I can continue listen to their shows until they find a new home. Best wishes to them and all the fans.

What’s fun about a bad month?

John — Thu, 03 May 2007 01:27:40 +0000

I always like to see the fun side of things in life. Very rarely will I get offended by a joke made by someone. If I do find it offensive I would rather tell them and move on. In the last month there were plenty of events which were not fun at all. I’d like to address some and end with some fun stuff.

First the Virginia Tech massacre was just a total shock to me. I just have no words to describe how sad that event was. Some think gun control would stop this from happening in America. The problem is that the guns are already out there. People won’t be willing to give them up at any cost especially the criminals. I don’t have an answer to this problem in America. Some people will always think killing is the answer to their problem. Trying to help problem kids at the earliest age would be the best way in my opinion.

There was something very interesting that happened after this event, though. Some bloggers thought they found the killers blog and it started to get talked about throughout the internet. Guess what happened next? The professional TV and radio news people found about it and started to report it as fact. Perfect example why I don’t watch the news anymore! They don’t look for facts anymore. All they want is to be the first at the story for ratings. Now I have this guys blog bookmarked so I can read more about what he has to go through for his beliefs.

Then something else I just read that went in another direction which didn’t even cross my mind. This article about how violence against women have been dismissed throughout the news really made me take notice. In the beginning everyone thought this was just a domestic dispute and wasn’t important to anybody else on the campus. That should change. Violence against women is still violence and should not be tolerated in any circumstances. Now we find out the killer wasn’t even in a relationship with the woman he shot first. Would anything have changed if the school took the stalking reports more seriously? I don’t think it would change his mind. He probably would have done something like this sometime in the future. But it doesn’t mean we should look away from these issues! Maybe if we do address this issue more it will stop the next killer who thinks it’s ok to kill innocent people.

The IMUS thing got me on defensive because I like listening to radio a lot! I never really get offended by a comment someone says. I might find their language a bit rough if used excessively. IMUS deserved a warning or a stern talking to but a firing over something small compare to the other things he has said about other people? I am always for dialogue which will help more people than just trying to stop everything that’s offensive. Let’s find out why words can be offensive. I say boycott the killers, drug dealers and take back some of the gang controlled cities. That would make a HUGE difference rather than forcing a talk show host off the air.

But I must stop and get back to the fun side of life. Recently trying to get away from all the bad news I found a great site which makes me laugh, groan or just think what was that all about. The site funnyordie.com is a place to watch funny videos which are submitted and everyone can vote if it’s funny or not. Of course not everything that I think is funny will be funny to you. We are all different and that is what I love about life. Don’t be offended just move along and we will have a fun time with our lives.

I‘m actually having fun playing a MMO game called “Lord of the rings Online” which has take a lot of my free time. It’s a fun game and really keeps me entertained for hours. I also have been playing Command and Conquer 3 which is a really good immersive game. I love the games with a story that makes me believe I am actually in the game. C&C3 is basically an updated C&C generals with better graphics and better equipment. The little videos before each campaign has been great especially with a great actor like Michael Ironside playing in it.

Knott’s Scary Farm Fun

John — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 08:35:49 +0000

This is the best time of the year for me. October has always been a month I wait for. I have always loved scary movies ever since I was around 10. I remember watching the movies on Select TV late at night. Covering my eyes when it got too scary or to explicit. My grandmother and mom used to love watching the movies too so it was totally natural to watch them.
One thing I do in October is go to a local theme park called, Knott’s Berry Farm. During the Halloween season they change their name to Knott’s Scary Farm and decorate the park and rides with cobwebs and spooky stuff. At night they will close the park to regular guests and prepare the park for Halloween. About 7pm to 1am the park is opened to the guests who want to get scared. They have people dressed up in costumes trying to scare people in the park all night. Their are also plenty of spooky mazes in the park where you can walk through looking at gory scenes or monsters walking around with you.
This year was a lot more crowded then previous years. I usually go on Sundays because it’s not as crowded but this time they had a premiere event for the movie “Grudge 2.” They also had a Grudge 2 maze that was closed almost all night so we couldn’t go through it. I hear it’s a good maze. Maybe next year they will have it again so I can see it. We only missed two mazes this time. I rarely get scared when going to this event because I always prepare for someone around the corner. I love watching other people getting scared though.
I hear the best time to go is during the weekdays instead of the weekend. The crowds are less because most of the teens have to go to school the next day. Don’t go on a Columbus weekend because there are schools that have Monday off still. I also must tell you to go the prescare dinner before the park opens because you get a buffet of the best fried chicken and get into the park 30 minutes before everyone else! Sometimes they won’t let you in on time or they let everyone in at the same time but usually the prescare dinner is a lot better!
If you’re interested in this halloween event or others like it you should check out Theme Park Adventure! I also wrote about some things they have in Second life at the VTOR blog I write for also.
[tags]halloween,knotts scary farm, theme park, halloween events, scary fun, johnramirez[/tags]

Heroes: The TV Show

John — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:29:49 +0000

I‘ve recently started watching a show called Heroes on NBC and I find it a very interesting show. I like the whole idea of getting people who find out they have super powers together to save the world. Each one has a strength and a weakness but together they can help each other. There are many similarities with this show and the x-men but It’s more of a psychological story rather than a straight hero movie.
Following all these people with special powers and wondering how they all are going to join together is the best part about this show. The character that I really like is Hiro Nakamura who can manipulate time and space. He gets a bit excited sometimes but that is what’s so funny about him. He doesn’t know much English so he will have a hard time trying to get with the other heroes. At least his friend knows english to help him out.
The other character I like is the cheerleader, Claire Bennet, who is indestructible but she can be stopped. She doesn’t have the strength or power so she will have to depend on other people to do some damage. The most interesting one of all of them is the woman with two personalities, Niki Sanders. Her other personality has a lot of strength and is very dangerous. She doesn’t seem to have complete control over her second personality yet. I wonder how will she use her power if and when she controls it.
The strangest character is Peter Petrelli who can fly only around his brother, Nathan Petrelli. Nathan can fly anytime but not peter. I think Peter’s power is going to be an interesting addition to the rest of them. It will be interesting to see how he plays a part with all the rest of the heroes. It seems like he gains the power of the nearest hero. A very interesting super power In my opinion.
If you aren’t watching this show it’s something you might want to check out. It comes on NBC on mondays and I hear it’s doing good in the ratings.
[tags]heroes,tv show,television,nbc,johnramirez[/tags]

Future Search Engine?

John — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:56:09 +0000

I found a new search engine that uses an interesting idea. When you first go to the website, msdewey.com, you are greeted by a woman avatar. When you search for terms she will say different things according to what you search for. Janina Gavankar is the model who plays the avatar and really makes this project unique and sexy! The search results come from microsoft live and it seems like it’s a test from microsoft to have some fun. This site isn’t very useful but it shows what can be done in the future. I still search with google. If you want to see some of the funnier stuff that this avatar will do then type in the following for your search terms [Updated 10/26/06]:

halo 2
murder
ho
Janina Gavankar
how to fight a ninja
what is your name
how to do the robot
george bush
storm
How old are you
dick cheney
what are you

[tags]microsoft,search,internet,Janina Gavankar[/tags]

American Inventor Worthy?

John — Wed, 03 May 2006 01:07:04 +0000

Let’s bring in real inventors and wannabe inventors to have a contest! The best invention will win lots of money! The invention has to be new, be something that will be useful and show off how smart and creative Americans can be! Sounds great right? Well the show “American Inventor” missed every part of that! When I heard of this show I was really excited! I love inventions and giving the audience a chance to pick the best invention was fantastic.
The first problem is that it came from the idea of American idol which totally works. The contestant on Idol must actually be able to sing and have some personality to win! Their back story would make sense to know who the person is inside and out. Let’s face it, An invention is an invention! Their back story of the inventor doesn’t matter too much. Sure it’s great to find out why they created the invention. It feels good to know they put in so much of their life into what they believe. But it doesn’t make a good invention. This show is only looking for inventors with good sob stories. I bet they passed on some great inventions from great inventors. I can even point you to a website with some details here from Americaninventorspot.com. Be sure to read the comments on that post to understand further. I would have loved the solar cooler to go further. Makes so much more sense in these fuel problem days!
Another problem is the inventions that have gotten through can be found already on the market or a similar product available! I am not going to talk bad about the inventions or the inventors that have gone through. I just think there must be something better out there. Another problem is letting the judges make the decisions for too long!! Give the audience a chance now! Not at the end when we’ll only have 4 choices I hope. Sure it might come down to popularity at the end but any voting by the public will always come down to that. Also way too much air time of previous inventions. I could care less about them now because your judges already dismissed them. Sure it was fun to see crazy people on TV but I think it lessens the impact of this show. Just makes it a talent show and not the best of the best!
[tags]american inventor, reality tv, johnramirez[/tags]

Yahoo Mail Beta!

John — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:47:20 +0000

Want to try out the new Yahoo Mail Beta? Wasn’t invited to try it out or don’t know how to try it? I found a post on makeyougohmm.com that explains how to do it for anyone outside of the United Kingdom. Just need to change your location to English: United Kingdom and get the invitation. Can always change your location back and still have access. If you don’t like the beta version then you can switch back to the current version. The new beta version is nice. Similar to outlook and can be used with the keyboard easily. Try it out and see what you think!
[tags]yahoo,mail,beta,yahoo mail,johnramirez[/tags]

Doctor Who Season 2

John — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 07:33:45 +0000

Another post which I should have posted weeks ago. I have so many topics on my mind I need to write about. As in previous posts you might know I am a big fan of Dr. Who. It was one of my favorite shows when I was young. As you might know the BBC, in the UK, has started producing new adventures of Dr. who last year. Doctor #9, played by Christopher Eccleston, made his appearance in season 1. (actually season 27 in the full who history)
This year, Season 2 has started on April 15th with all new adventures and enemies! I don’t want to give away anything for the people who are watching season 1 in America so I won’t explain too much about the changes. The first season of Dr. Who will be coming out in DVD on July 4th. Look for it in stores like buy.com! I really hope SciFi will show Season 2 soon because the only way for me to watch it now is downloading off the internet. If it was possible I’d pay for the privilege of downloading it from BBC but still no option for me to do that.
I will write a review on season 2 in another post. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that there is a season 2 being shown in the UK so let’s hope scifi will pick it up this year!!
[tags]Doctor who, dr who, johnramirez[/tags]

Color Mixer

John — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:04:02 +0000

If you ever found yourself trying to make a web page with matching colors then I found something for you. It’s called colorMatch Remix! Sometimes when I am building a web page or doing graphic work I find myself using weird colors together. I don’t have a good eye on what colors go with other colors. I constantly find myself going a bit too crazy with the colors. When I found this site I bookmarked it quickly and figured I should post it here for anyone else who needs this help. You just pick a favorite color and it will give you back 6 other colors that will match the original color. Really nice and I’ll be using it from now on!

Doctor Who In America

John — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 07:58:38 +0000

I haven’t been posting much for a couple of months and I have missed so much so I’ll try to catch up as much as I can. I posted in a previous post last year about the first season of doctor who showing in the UK. Actually season 1 is season 27 if you look at the previous doctor who history. Couple of months ago I heard that the Scifi channel bought the rights to show the first season of doctor who from the UK on their cable channel. They started showing it on March 17th and is showing episodes every Friday at 9pm/8pm central. If you were a fan of Dr. Who before then you really should check this new season out! If you are a scifi fan then you will love this show! It’s all about time travel and such great stories.
[tags]doctor who, scifi, science fiction, TV shows[/tags]

Second Life

John — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:14:53 +0000

These past months I have been playing games in a virtual world called Second Life. It’s not exactly a game because there is no goal. It’s mostly a platform where users can create anything they want with the tools provided. I signed up at the beginning of this year and have been satisfied with it. I am on their free account which allows you to log in as much as you want, use anything in the game except for owning land. If you want land then you must pay for their premium account which is $9.95 per month.

It’s hard to explain how much you can do inside the game unless you try it. Here’s an article from business week about second life. It will explain a lot to the new users. Some of the games I have played inside second life are, Slingo, Tringo, Blackjack, Slot machines, War and Quintzee. All these games have been created from regular users. There are plenty of other games that I haven’t played yet and more are being created all the time. You can also buy cars, planes, clothes, furniture and gadgets for your avatar inside the virtual world. The one thing that makes this world different than others is you can buy Lindens(game money) with real money and you can sell Lindens for real money. This brings in some business minded people. Some ways of making money in the game is creating objects that others would buy, making scripts for games or vehicles, buying lindens at a low price and selling them for a high price, buying land to place games on and making money from them when people play and escorts or stripping. Yes this is a mature platform and can be used for anything that is legal. No one under 18 can sign up and use second life unless they use the teen grid which is not connected to the mature grid at all. InÂ the mature grid there are PG places also so not all of it is adult.

I’ve been using second life for entertainment. There are some singers and musicians who play live in certain places. These aren’t wannabe singers. They are very professional and give a great entertainment value. I also play the games for fun too. I haven’t found a business plan for myself in the game just yet but still thinking all the time. I use the name, JohnnyRS Hoggard, in the game. Join up and have fun for free or pay for some nice privileges.
[tags]second life, games, gaming life, virtual world[/tags]

Magic Link

John — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 18:47:14 +0000

I’ve always been interested in magic since I was a child. I even tried to do some magic tricks I found in some magazines I had but I wasn’t very good and I was too nervous in front of people. I still loved watching magic tricks and try to figure out how to do them. Recently been fascinated by the process of doing card tricks and other fun stuff. I found this magic trick link that has some great magic tricks for anyone to try. I found some videos of really great trick with a coin, disappearing magician, Flying woman and a cool card trick

Big Brother USA

John — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 23:04:03 +0000

With the disappointment I had with UK and Australia versions of big brother I was really hoping the US version would be better. Well It left with mixed emotions. I watch big brother for the social experiment basically. I like to see emotions and what happens with different people trying to live together. The US version is different from the international shows, though, because it brings in more of a strategy with the show. I was totally entertained this year. Left me shocked many times and yelling at the TV throughout the show. So It made me interested in these people just like Big Brother 2 did.

But I was disappointed at the end. My favorite housemate, Janelle, did not win. She came in 3rd and was loved by the fans. Kaysar was loved by the fans too. I thought he was a good player but lost because he was too trusting to Jennifer. Howie was a wild guy in the house who made the show so fun to watch. Rachel was a fun person to watch trying to guide Howie, her secret partner, through the game. Michael was totally wronged by the friendship people. He did nothing wrong but was accused of terrible things. The friendship let these beliefs hold their team together even after they knew the accusations were lies. Wish I could have seen more of Ashlea but what I’ve seen I think she’s a wonderful person. James were hands down the greatest player on big brother since Will Kirby of Big Brother 2. He knew what was needed to win and he tried as hard as possible. The problem with his strategy was the two teams were too solid. He wouldn’t be able to break them apart so he had no chance to get to the end.Sarah was a very sweet person and didn’t deserve to be evicted. I hope good things will happen for her in the future.

This is the part I don’t want to write about. The Friendship had the worst people I’ve ever seen in Big Brother history or another reality series. The Chill town from Big Brother 2 used to be the worst but at least they knew that they weren’t on a moral high ground. I hate hypocrisy and the friendship showed every single type of hypocrisy you can imagine. They thought they were the best, never lied, trustworthy and favorites. Every single thing they thought of themselves were false. They talked bad about every other person and they talked about very superficial things like Janelle having hair extensions. They lied to people and they really thought their lies were pure. They were very trustworthy to Eric and Maggie. They were all Worshiping Eric and Maggie. Shows me how easy it is to follow a cult so fast. I feel very sorry for Ivette because she wouldn’t have liked those people in her group if she was outside. Listening to her now that she’s out of the game she agrees that she would have been friends with the other side. She’s one of the persons this season who will learn the most and be able to change her self for the good. She was terrible in the house but she is growing on me now. Her secret partnerBeau wasn’t a very nice person too. He wasn’t a good player in the house at all. April might be the other person who will learn about herself and change for the good as well. She finally saw that she had done bad things in the house at the end of the game. Her Secret partner,Jennifer, is so delusional I can’t believe it. She is hated by the fans of Big Brother so much. She lied or went back on her word to Kaysar and took him out of the game even after America voted him back inside the house. A very Stupid mistake on her part for the game and outside of the game.

I have written so much about this so I need to stop. Maybe I’ll write about these people again after I learn more about them outside of the house. So at the end I was entertained but still disappointed who won at the end which Was Maggie . I even had to stop watching when my favorites would lose. Once I heard something good happen then I would start watching the shows I missed. Guess I’ll have to wait for next year and hope I can be satisfied next time.

[tags]big brother,reality tv, johnramirez[/tags]

Funny flash movie

John — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 03:08:48 +0000

Sometimes I browse the web and find something really unique. Well Today I found this site which has some re-enactments of some famous movies. The funny thing is all the characters are played by bunnies and all re-enactments are 30 second flash movies. Some of these movies are too funny and thought it would be a great place to visit for some comedy. Check these out and laugh!

[tags]flash,movies,johnramirez[/tags]

Harry Potter Movie Soon

John — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:36:10 +0000

For anyone interested in harry potter. Found a place to see the new trailer for Harry potter and the goblet of fire. It looks really exciting and I can’t wait to see it! I still haven’t finished reading the newest book yet. I read a little bit every day or so. It seems a good start for it but just waiting to see what will happen at the end. I’ve been a big fan of harry potter ever since I read the first book. Just wish I had these books when I was younger. I’d enjoy it a lot more as a child.

[tags]harry potter,johnramirez[/tags]

Radio stuff

John — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 02:15:40 +0000

I just found out something new about a radio program I’ve been listening to for years. The program is Frosty, Heidi and frank show on 97.1 in Los Angeles. I haven’t been listening to them for months because I’m just too busy and don’t have a great way for me to listen. I heard that the program is streaming on the fmtalki.com website. Now I can listen to them live or save it so I can listen to them later. This is a very good thing because they do make me laugh.

I Also listen to other shows on other stations like John and Ken show onKFI. I can listen to them on the internet also! Probably the closest show I listen to which gets political sometimes. Sometimes they get extreme on issues but I do like the fact that they fight for what they believe in. They do it in a way that kind be vicious to some. I like them mostly cause they don’t follow any of the political party lines that the extreme radio personalities usually do.

I also listen to Coast To Coast AM with George Noory and Art Bell. I’ve been listening to art bell for over 10 years now. I love hearing all the weird people out there who might be aliens or vampires. I’m always willing to hear new conspiracies and mystical things. This show is syndicated every day and can be listened to on the internet!

The funniest show I listen to is Phil Hendrie Show which is syndicated across America. Been listening to him for years also and bought some of his cd’s. I even signed up to his website for a couple of months. I try to record his show myself so I can listen to them later. Hard to explain this show without listening to it first. Can be listened to on the internet for free or from his website by paying.

Of course there are Internet radio only shows also but I’ll post about them in another post in the future.

[tags]radio,internet,phil hendrie,art bell,streaming,johnramirez[/tags]