Welcome To The Layer Cake

Blooger Run-Around

2007-04-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

Bloggers Unite! You've gotta admit, Bloogers have it really nice right now. Hailed as the "new media," they can do anything from launch new products, like the Nikon D80 campaign, to ruin them, like with the Microsoft laptop scandal. Current media powerhouses have created entire wings devoted to understanding and shaping the blogosphere. Countless new hires have found jobs an new media specialists, when in essence, all they do is send messages to their friends (OK, so that's not really true, but its sorta-kinda true). But I wonder how different from the "old guard" (which I will use for traditional media from here on) are these new cyber-journalists?

Lets consider this. From a brief and entirely unscientific survey, I have deciphered that the vast majority of bloggers get their information from the old guard. That is to say, google alerts and the like. Now if traditional media can control these things, how can we not say that they are somewhat controlling bloogers? If you control the flow of water, you can determine, with reliable results, how the firefighters will put out the fire. The exception to this rule is that certain bloggers are able to sniff out their own information and report it, sometimes before traditional media can. These people, however, must have either a great situation, or contacts into the old guard world. Again, they tie into the system that we are trying to circumvent. Does this bother anyone else?

Of course, the main benefit of blogging is the discussion. The ability for anyone in the country (who has Internet access) to immediately react and respond to any topic of their choice. See a story that impacts you? Write a scorching review or rave about it to your wit's end. But the old guard are fast approaching this level of interaction. It started with call-in polls about the reactions to stories, now you can leave a message on message boards for most up-to-date media outlets from anywhere in the world.

I don't know, maybe this is unfounded skepticism on my part, but I just cant shake the fact that all this hype is really not to much to talk about. But hey, millions and millions of bloggers can't be wrong, can we?

What did I miss?

2007-04-20T13:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess Sanjaya finally got voted off of American Idol last night. I say "I guess" because I don't really know. I've maybe watched a total of 3 hours of the entire series, and those were just bits and peices. I never really got into it. The whole idea that you can "create" a music star seems strange to me. Music is about taking personal experiences and making them trasferable and meaningful to others. Sure, they have great voices, but it seems that lots of people have great voices. Just didnt make sence to me.

It’s getting to the end of this school semester, and that can only mean one thing – ROAD TRIP. It’s time to go to your friends schools and destroy their place and try to hook up with their attractive friends. However, when visiting other places of academia, one must adhere to a code of conduct in order to maximize fun for all parties involved – so I give to you the GUIDE TO COLLEGE VISITS

First order of business, and probably the most talked about, it is not your friend’s responsibility to get you laid. Relaxed introductions are all that is required. Your pal didn’t spend all this time making friends so you could come in and give them all herpes one weekend. Sex with friends of friends is encouraged, but you need to spit your own game at those bitches and not have your friend do all the work. Your host is allowed and encouraged to get a little sucky-sucky of his own, but he must end up at the place where the guest is to sleep. If the host leaves his guest locked outside of his place for a night cause he’s at some chick’s house, there will be severe punishment. As for who is off limits, anyone that the host himself could not get with for moral reasons, (buddies ex’s, ect…) so also shall the guest refrain from poking his dick where it does not belong. The name of the game is leaving a pleasant taste in the mouths of all your host’s friends so a return trip will be good for both sides.

As for drinking, “When in Rome…” The visiting party must drink the choice of the host. I don’t care if you only drink Bud or if you think all other beers are gross, if your friend says that u are drinking pig jizz, you do it. However, the host must drink the same thing as you.

Example:“here man, have a pint of ale. It’s a local favorite.”
“sorry dude, I only drink miller high life light. It’s the Champaign of Beers.”
“fuck you and drink it or I will castrate you while you sleep.”
“fair enough.”

You can drink your ass-sweat juice when you get back to your shitty college. When you are out with friends in their element, you need to experience their culture. Try new things. Hell who knows, you just might like it…As for money, keep in mind that without your friend to shelter you, your ass would be under a black trash bag in the streets trying to get heat from the sewer vent and being prodded by homeless guys’ dicks. Or paying $30 bucks a night in a motel, whichever you choose. As this is the case, you need to not be shy with the dollars. You should appreciate the fact that these people are putting you up for the night and react accordingly.

For a one-weekend stay, you are required to buy one lunch for everyone who lives in the apartment you are staying. If you are in a large building like a house or a frat, this only applies to the people that you have actually shared a room with. When at the bar, usual patterns of random drink-buying are acceptable, as drinking is already far to expensive. The guest never buys the first round though.

What’s drinking with out a little drugs as well! Guests must come prepared, as it is not the hosts’ responsibility to “hook him up” when he rolls into town. If host has some on hand, share the wealth, but finding a dealer is out of the question. Buy your crank at home, but bring enough to share. Guests must offer to their host and their host’s roommates, however, roommates need not offer to guests. If an offer from a roommate is on the table, polite refusal is acceptable, but in no way can you say anything to the effect of, “that drug makes me uncomfortable, will you do it elsewhere.” That’s more wrong than watching your hot cousin change clothes (but not as fun!).

When having a friend accompany you to visit another school, it’s a good idea to switch drivers to avoid boredom and discomfort on those long rides. It also allows that nasty beer-fart smell to exit the car on the return trip. When you get to the campus, if you go out for any reason in the afternoon, it’s good to have the guest drive to the liquor store/restaurant/where ever the fuck you go to get a general sense of direction about the town. From personal experience, SIU is a big place if you’ve never been there before and you are all alone and lost at 3 in the AM. I wish I had known my way around, or I wouldn’t have been lost.

Cho Seung-Hui

2007-04-19T14:13:00.000-04:00

Wow. This guy is uber messed up. I just finished watching his "multi-media manifesto," and I have to take a step back. (on a side note, don't you love how the media creates fun little catch terms for even the most horrible things in existence? So do I.) So you wanted to fight back? You wanted to show us that we are a horrible society? That's what Blogs are for. I can call out everyone under the sun here, actually get some semblance of results, and not kill anyone. And the coward that you are, you killed yourself. You freakin' killed yourself. Wow. In the manifesto, Cho compared himself to Jesus. Yes, Jesus did die for his beliefs, as you also did. However, the key difference between you two is that Jesus did not take his own life. He was killed by other people, remember? You talked the talk buddy, but you sure as hell didn't walk the walk. Killing people like that does not make you a man or powerful, it makes you a coward.

Ok. Rant complete.

So I was searching for some sweet G.I. Joe comic books on the Internet the other day, and I came across yojoe.com. Basically, this is a search engine for the smaller G.I. Joe figures that we all used to have as kids. It was a real trip down memory lane to try to look up all the old toys I had. Post in the comments with your figures; my list wasn't very impressive (I was a sheltered child)

Sneak Peak

Low-Light

Lifeline

Cobra Commander

Techno-Viper

Heat-Viper (My favorite)

Zanzibar (with the sled)

Heli-Viper (with the battle chopper)

Flint

Destro

Mirage

I think that's it. Its loads of fun to go on the site and when you see the pictures, you'll go "Oh yea!" and recall all your old childhood memories. I wish I would have held on to a few of those toys, they might be worth some cash today.

2007-04-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

Well, now that I have cubicle-itus, i suppose that I should start posting on here more. After taking a refreshing blog media 101 with my co-workers Chris Thilk, I'm getting back into the swing of things. His famous movie marketing Blog has inspired me to start a regular posting schedule. If I annoy you, you can thank him.

One thing I'm frantically engaging in right now is comic books. I've used my new found big-city-money to buy the old issues of G.I.Joe, Spider Man, and Transformers that used to entertain me for hours as a little kid. And today is a relatively big day for comic books. Sega has bought itself a mini-avengers pool of rights and licenses for several new characters; namely Thor, Hulk and everyones favorite, Capt. America. New games will come out alongside expected movies over the course of the next few years. Today's deal is a "multi-year global licensing agreement" that gives Sega exclusive rights to make Thor, Hulk, and Captain America games for consoles, handhelds, and the PC. In a statement, Simon Jeffery, Sega of America's president and COO, said, "As Sega continues to create games that are built from the ground up to appeal to Western audiences it makes perfect sense to work with a powerhouse like Marvel."

Its good to see that the old guard is still alive and kickin. There is no way in hell I'm going to let my future children watch the epileptic seizure-inducing asian cartoons like Super-robot-monkey-force-hyper-team-go.