The Halting Point

Twirl-A-Squirrel

2007-03-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

Ever have a problem with squirrels eating all the bird seed out of your bird feeder? Me neither, but I might buy one of these just to laugh my ass off. The product, sold on Birdquest uses a battery to rotate the feeder. Birds don't mind being spun at a certain RPM but squirrels do. I'm not quite sure how it detects the difference (probably by weight) but this thing is freaking hilarious to watch.

T-Mobile Lies to Customers Part 4

2007-01-04T20:28:00.000-06:00

Read Part 1 of this article

Read Part 2 of this article

Read Part 3 of this article

Shane also shared some interesting info on T-Mobiles customer service workings...I've learned the following:

There is a difference between Account Specialists and Advanced Care Specialists. The Advanced Care Specialists are the ones who can actually DO something for you.

There most certainly IS someone above the rank of supervisor to speak to and under no circumstances should Tom have told me otherwise.

In certain circumstances T-Mobile can indeed guarantee a pricepoint will be good and valid at a later date. The company policy is 72 hours but there can be exceptions like in my case.

T-Mobile does not use scripts, so when Tom sounded like he was reading a script, it was just him getting tired of the conversation and sounding like a robot.

So all in all I feel much better about T-Mobile than I did a few days ago although I'm still going to shop around and see if anybody has any better rates since my current contract with them is expired. If I don't find anybody, then I will probably end up getting another 2 year contract and a brand new V3T for $29.99. Not a bad deal at all. Shane also assured me that my piss poor experience with Tom would be looked into and dealt with.

So remember, don't stop pushing until you are a satisfied customer. Despite what some companies may try to tell you these days, the customer is always right or else the customer will no longer be your customer. Vote with your wallets, and it doesn't hurt to mention that the incident will likely be seen by the entire internet if it gets posted on Consumerist.com

T-Mobile Lies to Customers Part 3

2007-01-04T19:46:00.000-06:00

Read Part 1 of this article

Read Part 2 of this article

After holding for a bit, a polite sounding man named Shane gets on the phone. I bring him up to speed and he agrees that I definitely have every reason to be pissed off. He then makes me an offer.

Shane: "I can certainly offer you the V3 for $29.99 with no rebate."

Now, that would be fantastic...if the rep who transfered me to him hadn't just told me that their current price on the Razr was $29.99 with no rebate having just come down in price from the $49.99 price Tom has given me. At this point I was not going to accept JUST being given the price I was quoted. That should have been the first thing Tom should have offered me initially.

But now I had been:

Been lied to by T-Mobile by one of THEIR representatives, the face of T-Mobile that the customer deals with.

Been treated poorly by a customer care supervisor.

Been lied to by said supervisor about there not being Executive Customer Service and being refused an escalation of my case.

Been lied to by said supervisor again since according to Shane Ryan DID have the authority to lock in that price till after the holidays while Tom kept telling me Ryan did not have that authority.

I wanted more than just my originally quoted price, they needed to make things better, not equal so to speak. I explained the situation nicely to Shane.

Me: "So one of my big issue now is that the main reason I have been with T-Mobile all these years is because of your great customer service, and now I am unsatisfied with the customer service I have received and am likely to cancel my service."

After a bit more discussion Shane offers me 200 free minutes to appease me. Not only is that not a lot of minutes (nor do I use a lot to begin with) but it really has nothing to do with the cause of the issue....me wanting a Razr V3. I explain this to Shane and say that a free V3 would do it. I mean, they were going to give it to me for $29.99, but what is $29.99 compared to keeping a customer happy and paying for service for 2 more years?

At this point Shane asks to put me on hold to speak to whoever has the authority to grant special requests. He comes back on and says that they can offer me the V3 Limited Edition which has a fancy (dumb) dragon design on it and is about $20 more and they will extend that offer for 2 weeks. I explain that I don't really care for the Limited Edition one and mention the brand new Razr V3T which has a MUCH better camera than the V3 and they currently list it on their site for $99.99. He explains that that is a different model and at a higher price, etc.

After a little bit of further negotiations, he is nice enough to offer me the more expensive V3T for $29.99 and will extend (and note in my account) the offer for 2 weeks.

Finally...THIS is the type of customer service that can repair a damaged customer relationship. Especially when that relationship was one of the main reasons the customer is a customer in the first place.

I thank him and explain that I still need some time to consider keeping my service with T-Mobile, but 2 weeks should give me some time to do that.

I explain then that I will still be submitting my article to Consumerist.com but that I would make sure to note how helpful Shane had been.

So Shane, if you read this, thank you again for an exemplary job of customer service. You recognized the bigger issue of the customer relationship at hand and were willing to negotiate a way for me to get a good deal to smooth things over, while still giving T-Mobile some money and maintaining the company's legal position on price changes.

CONTINUED IN PART 4

T-Mobile Lies to Customers Part 2

2007-01-04T19:29:00.000-06:00

Read Part 1 of this article

I decide to bring up the Verizon dollars/cents issue that Consumerist covered not too long.

After asking if Tom was familiar with the incident (he was)...
Me: "So what happened is that a Verizon rep quoted one thing and then the company later told the customer another thing, very much like this"

Tom: "Yes but that was a billing issue and this is a product sales issue."

Me: "I understand that, however that is completely irrelevant since my point was that the company told the customer one thing, and later went back on it and refused to satisfy the customer until a story reached Consumerist.com and was picked up by the news."

After going back and forth a bit more it seems Tom is getting annoyed with repeating the company line over and over again and proceeds to start saying what sounded like a "Sorry you're screwed but get off the phone" script (I later find out they don't use scripts and that was just him being rude). I try to interject but he speaks over me. Guess he only likes the interruptions going one way.

Being completely fed up at this point I ask to speak to Executive Customer Service.

Tom: "There is no Executive Customer Service."

I know when I'm being lied to, and now I'm even more pissed. I decide to try a little name-dropping.

Me: "I have to say I'm pretty unhappy with the service I've received and if there's nothing you can do to satisfy me then I will be writing an article on this experience and submitting it to the Consumerist.com website since they likely will be able to get me the contact info for Executive Customer Service."

Tom: "You are more than welcome to post that story sir."

After exchanging some final pleasantries I get off the phone angry as hell.

A little later in the week (tonight, 1/4/07) I decide to call again since I just wanted to be sure of the prices I was going to cite in my article I was writing. I spoke to a nice cute-sounding rep who helped me out, and then, for the hell of it I asked to please be transferred to someone to cancel my account. My logic was that maybe I might get somewhere with a retention rep (T-Mobile calls them Advanced Care Specialists) since part of the game with customer service is to try speaking to different people if you don't get your way the first time.

CONTINUED IN PART 3

T-Mobile Lies to Customers Part 1

2007-01-04T18:13:00.000-06:00

T-Mobile needs to take a lesson from Verizon and take care of customers who they've made and subsequently broken promises to. My ordeal with T-Mobile began right before the holidays on 11/22. I was shopping around for better rates on my plan, and unable to find any better competitive rates I decided to give T-Mobile a call to see what new things they had available. My discussion with the rep, a certain Ryan F., turns to phones since I have an older Motorola V330 and was interested in the possibility of upgrading. We whittle it down to a Motorola Razr V3 for a price of $29.99 after a mail-in rebate with a 2 year agreement.

I then explain to the rep that I don't really want to spend the money on a new phone right now since not only do I have to buy holiday gifts, but I will likely either get a new phone for the holidays or use gift money to buy it. He says that he can put a note in my account for that price and that I can call back right after the holidays and get the phone at the price he quoted me. Fantastic! This customer service is the reason I have been with T-Mobile all these years.

Fast-forward to shortly after Christmas. I call T-Mobile and have another rep (Mary, extension #413736) check that the note is still in my account which of course it is. I then ask to order the phone for that price and the rep proceeds to tell me that the price has changed. It is now $49.99 with no mail-in rebate and a 2 year contract. I say that the no rebate incentive really isn't that important to me since I'm used to dealing with rebates and would rather have the lower, originally quoted price of $29.99.

Mary's Reponse: "We're sorry, but prices are subject to change and the previous price given is no longer valid."

Me: "But that is why he put the note in my account, so I could get that lower price even if prices went up immediately after the holidays."

Mary: "He was not authorized to do that, prices are subject to change."

I can clearly see I will be getting nowhere with this 1st level rep, being no stranger to dealing with customer care, so I kindly thank her for her help but ask for her supervisor. Her supervisor, Tom S. (extension #8661) gets on and proceeds to feed me the same company line as Mary. After calmly arguing the situation a bit, I start getting annoyed and ask the following:

Me: "I'm curious what reason I could possibly have for having Ryan make the note in my account other than to receive the quoted price at the later date. Do you think I wanted a keepsake or something of that conversation?"

He then gives me the same runaround about how Ryan was not authorized to do that, prices are subject to change, but he will contact Ryan's supervisor and have him deal with Ryan.

Me: "Great, and while I would expect that, you still have an unsatisfied and unhappy customer on your hands."

We then start discussing other phones since maybe there is a comparable one at the price I was quoted. After interrupting me several times during the conversation and proceeding to essentially tell me that my needs for a cellphone and the way I currently use multiple devices (camera, iPod, phone, etc) are bad because they are not his needs (having an all-in-one device), we determine that there is no comparable phone for $29.99.

At this point I'm fairly annoyed, and since I didn't expect this to be a big issue (what's $20 on a phone when I'm signing up for a 2 year contract?) I decide that before I go further, I need to get some employee names and numbers. He proceeds to give me his info and Mary's info and Ryan's name however apparently Ryan did not have an extension, since apparently they do not all have rep ID numbers but rather just phone extensions.

Me: "So just curious here...if you don't have Ryan's extension, how will you know which Ryan's supervisor to contact, surely T-Mobile has plenty of Ryan's working for them?"

Tom: "Our system has ways for us to do that."

Fine, I can understand that although I feel like I'm getting the brush off. I then decide to switch tactics.

CONTINUED IN PART 2

Spike Video Game Awards. Makes your ears puke.

2006-12-14T10:02:00.000-06:00

As I was sitting at home playing World of Warcraft last night someone told me to turn on Spike TV for their Video Game Awards (VGAs). Why pray tell? Oh...they're showing the new WoW: Burning Crusade trailer, cool, I'll watch. BIG mistake. You see, the reason they showed the trailer at the END of the VGAs was because otherwise they would lose 99% of their audience who was only watching it for that since there really was no other reason to watch it.

First, you have Samuel L. Jackson hosting it. It was obvious after only 5 minutes of watching him that he was hired SOLELY to swear a lot. A few of the things he said were actually funny, but I'm convinced that he was making those parts up as he went along since all of the scripted material for both him and the rest of the presenters was painfully boring and dumb. The World of Warcraft chatrooms, filled with what could be argued as a fair representation of "true" game geeks across America (and other countries) were ablaze with people mocking the lines that the talent was forced to read. Even witty people like Seth Green were dumbed down to old internet cliches. At one point Tony Hawk started talking about Zero and made All Your Base references to which his female co-presenter gave the most awkward look in the history of award shows. It was clearly obvious that many of the presenters had not even read their script until they got up on stage. You can see a video clip of that fiasco here. Apologies for the quality...it appears to be a cam recording of a TV, but the audio is fine.

But hey, if I was being paid as much as they must have been to get up there and read a few lines and then head to the crazy Hollywood afterparties I wouldn't mind reading something dumb either.

The level of product placement was also extremely intrusive. I didn't think you could get more pointless sponsorships than what they have in professional sports but thank you Spike TV for proving me wrong.

You can check out the SpikeTV VGAs website at Spiketv.com and then you must navigate through their crappy Flash navigation to get to the VGAs online coverage. Totally not worth it.

At least the WoW:BC trailer was awesome. Blizzard really knows how to make their CG intros and this is no exception. The attention to detail is amazing and the focus in this trailer (as opposed to the original one) was to show off all the cool new stuff while still adding plenty of tidbits that fans will go nuts over (such as the sheeping).

You can find both a .FLV streaming Flash version of the trailer as well as a higher quality DivX version on the World of Warcraft website's video page.

Wefeelfine.org, discover how the world feels.

2006-12-03T01:17:00.000-06:00

I'm a sucker for nice visualizations so I thought I'd share a cool one I discovered recently. It is called WeFeelFine. They employ a search engine spider that crawls various blogs for certain key phrases indicating emotion. They catalogue this data, and display it in a beautiful interactive visualization and if you click on any of the moving symbols, you can read the phrase of the place it came from. Click on the full phrase that just appeared and be taken to the originating website.

The level of interaction is not to be passed over. It is very thorough and provides a lot of interesting things to look at and different ways to break the data up. I will note however that I wish there were more description of what I was doing/looking at. While a lot of it is very self-explanatory and intuitive, I still couldn't shake the feeling of "I don't really know what this will do but i'll bet it'll be cool". So as a statistical tool I wasn't in love with it, but still very cool nonetheless.

Be sure to note subtle differences in things. For example, while there are an overwhelming number of bouncing circles floating around, look for the squares as well. These have photos attached.

All in all, very cool and nice for those small moments when you're curious what is going on elsewhere in the world.

Amazing pixel art poster of Digg and other Web 2.0 companies

2006-12-01T12:51:00.000-06:00

Eboy, masters of pixel art goodness have released their latest poster, FooBar. Click the image for a larger version. I've always been a huge fan of pixel art as the artists tend to put an INCREDIBLE amount of detail in each piece. Be sure to hunt down all the little fun things going on in this one, there's a bunch that are a lot less obvious than the giant robot arms punching through to the surface from under the street in the middle.

For those interested in getting started with their own pixel art creations, check out these resources;

Pixel Art City Generator - Drag and drop in this Flash app to create your own pixel cities, choose from several starting templates.

DeviantArt Pixel Art Forums - Great discussion area focused on pixel art.

PPP = Internet Paid Off

2006-11-22T23:37:00.000-06:00

I recently tweaked the AdSense arrangement on the site in case some of you noticed. The results have been pretty impressive in terms of performance, however the site still makes jack shit in terms of revenue from AdSense. It seems the people who come here do not click ads that often. While I can't actually ASK them to do it...I would be very happy if they would. In fact, if AdSense revenue increased, I could reduce the number of PPP posts I make on here, such as this one.

The reason I still post about word of mouth marketing through PPP on here is because frankly, they pay better than AdSense right now. Much better. This post alone gets me 10 bones. 5 posts like this a month and I've paid for my internet for the month. 5 posts takes me roughly 1 to complete. Well worth it.

New Steampunk Animated CG Movie

2006-11-21T13:57:00.001-06:00

From the people that brought you "Rock Fish" (link goes to full short) and other great shorts, Blur Studio is set to release their new film "Gentleman's Duel" sometime this year. The film tells the story of a Frenchman and an Englishman who are fighting over a noble woman.

The coolest part of all of this, and the reason why you're likely reading this article is for their weapons of choice for the duel. Giant, steam-powered mechs. As a huge Steampunk fan, I can only say "its about freakin time". Personally I'm dying for a live-action Steampunk movie, but this will definitely make due in the meantime. If you aren't familiar with Blur, I HIGHLY recommend you check out their website and familiarize yourself with their work. It is highly entertaining and some of the best quality CG animation out there.

"Gentleman's Duel" is a first for them in many ways not only in terms of the technology they are using for this but also in terms of the art direction. For this film it seems they are trying to go for more of a "hand-painted" feel to things, despite the fact that it was all created with cutting-edge animation software. There is a much longer and in-depth article available at CGSociety that details the technology used and has many more pretty screenshots. Unfortunately, none of the screenshots have pictures of any of the mechs although you can tell in one of them that the man is sitting in the cockpit of one of the mechs even though you can't see very much of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is short-listed for the Oscars like their last short and can't wait for them to produce more great animation concepts like this.

Richard Dawkins explains why he is hostile towards religion.

2006-11-20T12:07:00.000-06:00

A recent article on BeliefNet (not sure if he wrote this for them or they just picked it up from elsewhere), written by Dawkins himself explains his hatred of religion. It is a fascinating read because while Dawkins usually presents his information through examples and evidence, this piece is more of an opinion piece, providing a few links to back up his points, but mostly just explaining his animosity towards fundamentalists and any who would put religion over science.

He gives two eloquent anecdotes of what happens when one renounces their beliefs and when one chooses to block out the facts in favor of beliefs. He also does an excellent job of explaining the fact that he is not the atheist equivelant of a fundamentalist. There are many differences, the key one being that if he was presented with evidence that disproved current scientific theories of evolution for example, he would change his view overnight, and be overjoyed that science had progressed. He points out that there is not a single fundamentalist alive who would do such a thing. And he is right.

I truly hope for a day when atheists rule the world, perhaps there will be fewer wars, or perhaps people will just be more honest about why they are fighting them without the excuse of their religion. Part of me wonders what life would be like if we had two planets, one for religious people and the other for atheists. What would those societies look like? What would the rate of technological advancement be? One can only wonder...

This is a good follow-up to my previous article on Dawkins that also has links to download his full-length documentary "The Root of All Evil" which explains as only Dawkins can explain it, why religion is bad for us.

Shaolin Monk vs. Tae Kwon Do...Speed vs. Power

2006-11-11T21:16:00.000-06:00

Everybody knows Shaolin monks are good combatants, but what happens when they are up against another martial art specialist, such as say...a Tae Kwon Do master? Shaolin kung-fu is known for its speed whereas Tae Kwon Do is known for its raw power. Watch below and learn for yourself in this completely unscripted tournament fight which is more important. In case you can't figure it out, the Shaolin monk is the yellow robes.

PokerSavvy...or how to dodge the law

2006-11-07T13:23:00.000-06:00

So, first off I will disclose that this post is paid for by PokerSavvy, and Online Poker site. When I saw this opportunity listed on PayPerPost, I was a bit shocked since I know that online poker is now illegal in the U.S. and the primary audience of the bloggers of PPP is in the U.S. In any event, it seems they get around this with a loophole where you sign up for a poker room and win "SavvyPoints", which you can exchange for crap online. I don't see any listing of what you can get with these points, but I assume it is nothing too worthwhile.

In addition, this isn't even an actual poker site, its an affiliate site which for those not in the know...does the legwork of marketing, etc. to get new customers for the sites they are affiliates for, and they receive a commission. At least they were fairly up front about this in their FAQ unlike most online internet businesses that fall into the same category as online poker.

It also seems they have a bevvy of poker articles which may or may not be useful to you. Ah the joy of +/- opportunities on PPP...I get to write whatever the hell I want about something and get paid even if what I write isn't positive.

Election Day Tomorrow

2006-11-06T17:12:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note to remind you all to make sure you get to the polls tomorrow. If you're a little daunted by the amount of names you haven't heard of, there are websites such as http://voteforjudges.org/ that can at least give you a fighting chance.

Richard Dawkins debates science vs. religion with Ted Haggard

2006-11-05T15:51:00.000-06:00

For those not familiar with Richard Dawkins, he is one of the most admired and exalted scientists still alive today. He currently holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University to give you some feel for his credentials. You would be wise to read his full wikipedia entry.

In this video, he debates Ted Haggard, the religious counsel for such people as George Bush, and Tony Blair. Ted was recently caught on video admitting to having bought meth from a gay prostitute.

What do they debate? The very foundations of religion, the essence of science and why the two don't mesh. This is the most confrontational interview I've ever seen Dawkins involved in, and at one point you see his face and you can just see how utterly frustrated the man is at trying to have a logical discussion with Ted. It seems as if he's ready to just reach over, beat the shit out of him and strangle him for the good of humanity. But the kicker comes at the end when Haggard tosses Dawkins out of the church.

Truly one of the most eye opening interviews I have seen in a long time. Mr. Dawkins, through this video you have somehow managed to make me respect you even more.

For those wondering what this is from, this is an excerpt from a series of Dawkins' called "The Root of All Evil." You can watch the entire show at the links below:

Video of "The Root of All Evil" Part 1

Video of "The Root of All Evil" Part 2

Torrent of the high-quality version of "The Root of All Evil"

UPDATE: See a follow-up article on why Richard Dawkins hates religion. Not so much the facts-based presentation as he gives in his documentary, but more of an opinion piece coming straight from his heart, and his brain.

PINKS, not just for Fast & The Furious Posers.

2006-11-03T14:19:00.000-06:00

There's this show PINKS. They race for pink slips like "real live street racers do" in The Fast & The Furious. The video below actually looks kinda interesting and contains a bunch of Drag Racing Clips. I think I saw a Mercedes goin against a Mustang at one point. That's gotta suck to lose. This video is promoting the all-day marathon of PINKS which will be followed by the premiere of PINKS All Out on SpeedTV on November 23rd. Also, FYI, this is a paid post via PPP and SpeedTV requires disclosure, and they require that I put "this post sponsored by SpeedTV.com" in the post somewhere. Kudos to them for requiring disclosure since there's tons of people who wouldn't disclose this, but shame on them for making people do it in the form of plugging their website. If you want us to disclose it, let us do it in language that we see fit.

But anyway, the interesting part of this post is the video below which is actually interesting to watch despite the paid nature of this post.

New Smash Bros. Brawl Trailer!!!

2006-11-03T13:56:00.000-06:00

I am a massive fan of the Smash Bros. series. Although I prefer the original N64 version due to its tighter feeling controls, i'm DEFINITELY looking forward to the Wii version. Now instead of just reaching over and whacking my friends upside the head as we play, I can actually have that make my character attack and kill 2 birds with 1 stone! I'm kind of skeptical as to how accurate the Wii controller will be for this since timing was EVERYTHING in the previous ones and requiring body movement increases delay.

Either way it will be very interesting to actually get my hands on this and play it. I'm glad they kept cheap-ass Pikachu in there. I don't care how cheap he is, he rocks! I'm also pretty geeked to play Snake and he looks like he'll have some pretty sweet moves including what looks like a Raiden-esqe teleport attack.

How much have I made on PPP per hour?

2006-11-03T11:55:00.000-06:00

So by now you've noticed that I post somewhat frequently about PayPerPost (PPP). Those posts are all paid for by PPP. How much? Well, this one post alone is getting me $10. And its going to take all of 10 minutes to write.

They're encouraging us to post our earnings so far so I'll go ahead and flat-out say that from the 9 posts (not including this one) I've made so far, I've made $95.50. The average payment per post comes out to about $10.61. If it takes me roughly 10 minutes for each post (including time spent navigating slow-ass Blogger.com)...that comes out to me making about $63.66/hour.

I'd really love to see what kind of "hourly rates" some of the top posters come out to. Not sure how many blogs they use, but it can indeed be profitable since the top poster clearaed $2600 this month.

Not bad for making a quick buck when you get back home from work at night, or on the weekends. Or depending on where you live and your living expenses...this could even be a full-time job for someone.

I said it before and I'll say it again. I don't mind doing these sponsored posts as long as I can say whatever the hell I want about what I'm posting about, and this is an excellent way for us smaller bloggers to make decent money that we'd never make through AdSense or anything like that.

And FYI, you can always tell which of my posts are paid or not because Blogger does not let you have fully invisible images, so whenever you see that tiny empty box at the end of my post, that is the tracking image for the PPP service to notify them that I've posted this. So if you don't like reading my witty sponsored posts, just ignore ones with that box.

I do plan on starting other blogs to utilize PPP, and hopefully that will let me tone down the amount of opps I post on here, but till then, DEAL WITH IT!

And if you are a small-time blogger and want to make money with them, feel free to use my email address haltingpoint@gmail.com as your referrer. You get to start making money, and I get $5 for having referred you, no skin off your back.

Don't Be Evil?

2006-11-02T12:32:00.000-06:00

It seems that Microsoft have found a way to look like nicer guys than most people think. They're considering pulling out of China because they don't agree with China's oppressive regime.

Remember when Google got all that heat for moving in to China? When they bent over and censored search results themselves? Remember how they argued that giving the Chinese people some information, no matter how slanted, was ethically better than staying out in protest to the heinous human rights violations of the communist government? Remember how so many people said that it really came down to how much money they were missing out on because they hadn't moved in to China yet?

Google always had their good guy image, and faced with a tough decision, they caught a lot of flak and were really put under a microscope because people tended to have such a positive view of Google. Now Microsoft, which has a much more sinister reputation, stands to look like a bunch of really nice(r) guys because they're going the other way.

I remember an old tactic to making friends and managing expectations in a new social group:
Start off being as discourteous and rude as you can get away with. Then, after everyone expects you to be a jerk, start quietly being nice to people. Generally, they'll really appreciate your courtesy, instead of taking it for granted as they otherwise might.

Battle of the Vinyl Album Art Mashup

2006-10-30T16:38:00.000-06:00

While I recognize most of my music collection by their MP3 file names and the folders I save them in, it appears the older generations were treated to a vast array of iconic vinyl record album covers. The artwork on those albums ranged from mysterious, to pornographic and always seemed to tell a story. Well, it seems someone with incredible video editing and rotoscoping skills feels the same way and has created the video below that mashes up the various album covers in a hilarious blend of violence.

Trivia Anyone?

2006-10-26T19:02:00.000-05:00

So my friend and fellow poster Erik has been trying to wrangle me in to come to Trivia Night every Wednesday at a local Chicago bar. While trivia can be fun, especially when there is wings and beer involved (ie. "Super Trivia" episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force), I just haven't been up to it, mostly because I don't have a vast wealth of knowledge about stupid little facts I would have no need of knowing. But, I've decided to do a little training. Found this handy trivia blog that gives random facts about a certain topic in every post. Pretty useful I guess. I wonder if there are any good free online trivia games that can top You Don't Know Jack. Now THAT was a fun trivia game.

Yoda Stewie and more in the Best Photoshop Contest Evar!

2006-10-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

The Worth1000 Star Wars celeb photoshop contest has to be one of the best I've seen yet on there. Some of the entries are just amazing as you'll see in the first 10 or so top-rated ones. My second favorite (for obvious reasons) is this mashup of Uma Thurman as a Sith Lord. As one of the commenters in that picture points out, there is a little bit of blurring around her arms which was just sloppy Photoshopping, but when she looks that hot, do you honestly care?

The new Audi R8. Drool...

2006-10-12T23:49:00.000-05:00

When I was younger, I used to see myself as a BMW boy. They handle great, and they're fun cars. Then as I got older I thought...well...I could be a Mercedes man. It is a bit more refined...

Then I saw the new Audi R8, and I knew I wanted to run BMWs and Mercedes off the road with it. Audi, I <3 you. As I look at the new luxury cars available, I've always appreciated Audi's extremely refined and modest sense of style, finesse and power. This tosses that all aside and says seems to squint at you as if saying..."let's race." Too bad I could never afford one of these. In the meantime I'll have to set my sights on the Audi S4.

Bono and Oprah and The Gap make fans wait and freeze for nothing.

2006-10-12T09:35:00.000-05:00

As part of The Gap's PRODUCT(RED) campaign, they arranged for Bono and Oprah to make an appearance at The Gap on the corner of Ohio and Michigan Ave. here in Chicago. According to the press release, (RED), the organization founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver, seeks to marry charity with consumer spending power, harnessing many international brands in their fight against AIDS in Africa. Some of the other companies participating in this are Converse, Emporio Armani and Motorola.

The campaign site features the entire range of PRODUCT(RED) albeit in an agonizingly slow slideshow format. Although to be fair it is October 12th right now, and their website says the line will be available October 13th. I saw the crowd of people on the way to work on the 151 this morning, so I stopped by and said that Oprah and Bono should be showing up at 9-9:15....at 9:15 I decided it was too damn cold and went to work. Went out again at 10 and there were even MORE people there. Both sides of the street were packed, as was the median in the road. As you can see from the pictures, there was quite a bit of space between my crowd of people I was standing in and the red carpet. It wasn't initially that bad when I first showed up at 9...we were right at the carpet, but then they kept pushing us back and back and back, and set up blockades.

Did I mention that during this time Chicago was in the midst of receiving its first flakes of snow of the year? Then, to add insult to freezing injury, a group of young too-trendy looking people show up all dressed in red with jackets on. Must be the gap employees. They of course got to line up about a foot away from the entrance and completely blocked any view we would have had. We then got to sit through some rousing fake cheers from the gap employees directed by the Harpo crew. Least we all got a good chuckle out of how fake it was. Although I admit I feel bad for some of those people because Harpo made them remove their jackets to get good footage, even though there were blistering winds.

Then, after about another 45 minutes of waiting, people start cheering as a Mercedes with its hazard lights on comes down the street and stops at the corner. Its Bono. He gets out and walks back to the red Thunderbird right behind him to open the driver's side door and lets out the big O. Although she wasn't that big. I'm not one to follow celebs, but Oprah looked pretty damn thin. The more amazing part of that though was that she was ACTUALLY DRIVING. Although I'm sure her "people" just had her driver get out of the car and swap seats with her at Illinois and Michigan. Can't leave things like that to chance now can we!

There was much cheering and then 5 seconds later it ended as Oprah and Bono promptly walked into the store, leaving the many fans, some of whom had been waiting for 2 hours to see them, standing slack-jawed in the freezing cold and flurries.

Did they need to push the fans back that far? Certainly not. Was it unfair for the Gap people to be right up front completely blocking the views of people who had been waiting for an hour or more? Most definitely.

When I left they were setting up a microphone stand and said that they would be speaking, but it would be a bit later, probably in more than an hour and they had no real idea when.

While I am all in favor of the promotion, which donates 50% of the PRODUCT(RED) proceeds to fight AIDS in Africa, I have to say that Harpo and The Gap really screwed over the fans on this one, making them wait in freezing weather for upwards of 2 hours just in order to get a 5 second glimpse of Bono and Oprah...if their view wasn't completely obstructed by The Gap employees. And for those thinking I should have been on the other side of the street, well, that wouldn't have been any better since there was a wall of news crews and massive camera rigs lining the edge of the sidewalk, preventing any reasonable view at all. The only good spot was on the median which looked like a bunch of castaways clinging to a life raft due to how many people were trying to crowd on there.

I asked if they would be coming back out to speak since there was a mic platform set up with all the news station mics, but they said it probably wouldn't be for another 45 minutes, if not an hour or more. Not really worth sticking around for with the weather like that. What a disappointment.

Us common folk completely distanced and blocked off from the "redshirts" before they were forced to remove their jackets by Harpo.
Shot of the store window with a text board talking about PRODUCT(RED)
Hilarious placard they placed near us on the sidewalk letting us know that Harpo OWNS us, or rather any images and video they take during this promotion.
*Note: All photos were taken by Michael Shostack, copyright 2006

TechCruch's Love/Hate Relationship With PPP

2006-10-05T16:16:00.000-05:00

TechCruch recently posted a story about the PayPerPost blog advertising service that I currently use to fund this site. Of course, this is freely hosted, so what I mean by that is it funds the time I spend writing here and providing you all with content to soak up like the little news sponges you are.

It seems PayPerPost just acquired $3mm in VC funding which definitely goes to show they have a viable business. But TechCrunch seems to take issue with the ethical concerns that come up. I too have concerns about this, particulary for opportunities REQUIRING a positive review. Which is why I opt to only take opportunities marked "+/-" which means I can say whatever the hell I want about things, positive or negative. This allows me to make money...basically by providing them with a "sponsored" post, and giving them the credibility of having my site (with a Google PageRank of 5) link to them, while at the same time allowing me to maintain journalistic integrity.

As I've said before...this sort of service is a godsend to small and medium size blogs unable to monetize through Adsense and other ad programs. I will be paid $10 for this post. Compared with the $11 I've made in the entire time my blog has been active through Adsense. You be the judge whether this is a good thing or not.