ASDA, March 2009.
Seriously, does no once care? Because, if we just let it go, it will eventually just become accepted.
Is that what you want? 'Cause that's what'll happen...
It makes me want to cry.
Stu :'-(
For heaven's sake, Starbucks!
Stu ;-)
My American wife received the these items in the post this week, two days apart. One is an "economic stimulus cheque", the other a Presidential Election Voting Ballot. Is the timing co-incidence? No? How dare you...
Stu ;-)
"Chips so good they've won an award".
That's not *strictly* accurate...
1. McCain entered their product into the astroturf "Voted Product of the Year" award. A new category which hadn't existed in previous years, "Home Cooking", was created specially for them.
2. When Rustic Oven Chips were shortlisted (78% of all products entered were shortlisted in 2006), they were sent a bill for £4,750.
3. Taylor Nelson Sofres, a market research company who represent the majority of the previous award-winners, conducted a survey with over 12,000 consumers (of which only 60% responded) asking them which of this limited, pre-selected, paid-for-entry shortlist they preferred. Oh, and there was no need for the people surveyed to have even tasted McCain Rustic Oven Chips to vote for them, they could be judged simply from the accompanying blurb and glossy photo in the voting brochure.
4. On winning the category they had between a 1 in 2, or a 1 in 6 chance of winning, McCain were sent another bill for £12,500. Pow, for the next 12 months they can now boast to anyone who will listen about the "Voted Product of the Year" award they bought.
Can I stress, the award wasn't for "best taste" or anything worthwhile - it was for "Best Innovation in Home Cooking". Oven chips. Innovation (maybe in 1957)? Home Cooking ('cause they're so healthy)?
Does this award have any value apart from cynically hoodwinking the public?
FanboyGeek
(précised from a previous post)
I'm on the National Express East Coast train traveling from Edinburgh to London and am delighted to discover that internet access is now free (you had to pay for it on GNER). Calling it "broadband" is a stretch, though - according to BroadbandSpeedchecker it's 136Kpbs Down and 85Kbps Up - but then again I am able to do *this* for free so I shouldn't complain.
Anyway to get the free internet you have to log in with an email address - technically there's no real reason why this is necessary... Once you give your email address you are then offered the usual "can we and some other random people send you spam" tick box. However, it's worded thus:
"If you do not wish to receive ... please untick the box"
For the second time this week such an option has strained my brain trying to figure out whether ticking the box will result in me getting spam or not. Go on, try to figure it out yourself. Methinks the vagueness is intentional...
Stu ;-)
Sorry I've been away for so long... Being a new Daddy, summer holiday, poorly parents and work have all taken their toll..
But I'm back!
I had to come back...
Because Tron 2 is no longer a myth!
It's for real! (And it's called "TR2N").
A shocked ComicCon audience, already reeling from seeing a preview trailer for Terminator Salvation earlier in the week, were shown a "surprise" trailer on Friday - and as you can hear from the audience, as they realised what they were watching, joy broke out. Listen for the heartfelt cheer when Jeff Bridges appears - reprising his role as Kevin Flynn. (Oops, did I spoil it for you?!) Fortunately for the rest of us someone camcorded it...
Joseph Kosinski, commercials director and protégé of David Fincher, is directing, with original Tron creator Steven Lisberger producing for Disney/Pixar. Lost writers Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are penning the script.
As a Tron evangelist I'm so excited it's ridiculous. You can keep your cynical cash-in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Made of Gold, and I will not tire of punching anyone involved in the sacrilege The Day the Earth Stood Still remake (the original is about McCarthyism you idiots, it can't be remade!) - but, this is a sequel that deserves to be made, and the fact that Lisberger (the keeper of Tron) is producing is enough to satisfy me that this will be a film worth seeing, and more importantly worth making.
However. Enjoy this trailer while you can, because Disney are currently issuing writs against anyone hosting this clip. I'm imagining that the Russian site that's hosting this version won't roll over as easy as YouTube, but I have to ask - "why?".
A camcorded trailer spread across the internet by hysterically enthusiastic evangelists is surely better marketing than the Dark Knight black pepper Whopper currently being whored across the country to overweight kids? Film studios are so obsessed with copyright that they don't seem to understand that people like me are spreading the trailer around because we can't wait to hand over our hard-earned cash to them to see the film, and we'd like our friends to be as excited about it as we are. We're doing the marketing for them - for free - and as thanks we get labelled as "pirates". Gee thanks. It's not like I've got this grainy, virtually unwatchable trailer for free so now I won't go and see the film. If a film is shit I won't go and see it, but irrespective of what anyone says about *this* film I'll be breaking down the cinema doors to see it on the big screen.
Anyway, enjoy the trailer, and it's safe to say that I'll be organising a FanboyGeek screening. Hopefully at the London IMAX...
Stu ;-)
Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.
I wish I was smart enough to be able to write something clever and worthy, but I'm not so I can't.
George Carlin was important. He was a voice of dissent for most of his 71 years. The world is now duller and less funny, and the bullshitters will find it easier to get one over on us now.
We know you're not in Heaven, because neither of us believe in Heaven, but I'm going to wish that you Rest in Peace all the same.
Joe Pesci bless you.
Stu :-)
Stu I sympathise and hope this salves a little (hang in there for the dark side)
I've just recently bought the domain name clairejulia.net for my baby daughter. I'm not a big fan of people using .com as it implies they're a corporation, also for individuals a .co.uk suffix suggests they're a UK company. Thus, I prefer .net for individuals (despite it originally being for network infrastructures). To me, clairejulia.net implies "Claire Julia on the Internet". Actually, I think ICANN should release .web for personal URLs, but that's another story.
So, this week I received a SPAM email from a Dan Kagan of Domains Alert Service informing me that his company have "acquired" clairejulia.com for their company's "development plans", but as the owner of clairejulia.net they would allow me the "opportunity to acquire" it from them for $99.
Clearly, this company scours the domain registries searching for domains where there are are other TLD variations available, then snap them up and hold them to ransom.
Well, I don't want to respond to this email and thus encourage his spamming, so in case Daniel Kagan is ever egosurfing, here's my response:
Dear Daniel
Stick clairejulia.com up your f*cking arse you cybersquatting, blackmailing, scum-sucking, bottom-feeding, spamming c*nt.
I hope your low-rent business fails and you lose everything.
Kind regards
The owner of clairejulia.net
Excellent piece of work! It's as if it was custom made for Fanboygeeks!
This is not safe for work, which, by the way, is one of the main reasons I like it.
-Joe
Thought this was worthy of fanboygeek
From the moment I realised that the opening lyrics to Buddy Holly were "what's with these homies dissin' my girl?" I knew that Weezer were something special. This video now takes them in to the upper stratosphere of viral videos. I submit it here on the day of release on YouTube where it has already racked up over a million and a half hits.
Gentlemen, we are witnessing history being made.
-Joe
Yes?
Click this button then...
NSFW.
And this is why it's called FanBOYgeek...
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