One Hit Wonders of the 90s (Part 29)

Hello, dear reader. I have a favour to ask you. The original post begins after all of the asterisks, if you want to skip this.

Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.

Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.

Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!

Thank you.

**************************

It's a lazy Sunday morning here in the Roy household, and I don't want to be doing this. The thought of sitting here for almost 2 hours, listening to bad music and trying (and usually failing) to be funny.

No, there's something else I'd rather be doing...



Ahhhhh, now I feel rugged!

Though I don't think I'll ever be as rugged as these guys.

But I can try!

It's time for this week's installment of the one-hit wonders of the 90s. We're approaching the pearl anniversary of this weekly show, and you can make out your million dollar gifts to "Dave Roy" at the Money-Hiding Bank, Wengen, Switzerland.

Or you can, oh, I don't know, leave a comment if you're so inclined. That could work too. And hey, if you stumble upon these posts and spend an hour or two reading them all, how about letting me know what you think? Did you find them funny? Or were you just watching the videos?

A guy's gotta eat, you know.

As usual, you can find the list I'm taking these from here. But don't you dare look before I'm done! Otherwise, this might get you:

Whoops! That's me when I've been out of the sun too long. I thought I had trashed that picture.

I meant this might get you:

And here we go!

1) B-Rock & the Bizz: "MyBabyDaddy" (#10)

Ok, I'm already scared...



Oh my God, it's even worse that imagined!!! Not only is it rap, but it's supremely bad rap! How the hell did this make it to #10? Yeah, the video's trying to be funny, but it fails miserably. I want to sue somebody to get the four minutes of my life back, because they were totally wasted on this song.

You know what this makes me want to do?

This makes me want to go for a drive...

Toonces, no!!!!!!

2) White Town: "Your Woman" (#23)


White Town - Your Woman
Uploaded by EMI_Music. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

(Damn you, EMI!!!!)

That opening music is certainly memorable! I don't really remember the song that well, but definitely that intro. I love the effect this video has of pretending like you're looking through a telescope at everybody. In fact, the whole video is awesome, if a bit silly. I love the signposts and the general silent-film style camp of the thing.

The song is pretty good too. Oh, it's not for everyone, but neither is peanut-butter and butter sandwiches, and we still get by!

3) Duncan Sheik: "Barely Breathing" (#16)



(Won't let me embed the official video...damn you EMI! If you want to see it, you can go here)

This song is easily recognizable, and one of the more well-known ones of the late 90s.

It's actually quite a good song, though I remember it being way-overplayed in 1997 (which is funny since it wasn't a #1 hit). In fact, I got so tired of it that I went postal a couple of times.

What? You didn't think I meant...wow, the song's not *that* bad!

4) Freak Nasty: "Da' Dip" (#15)

Oh no.....



Ok, it's not as bad as it seemed at first. The rap itself is rather stupid, but I guess it probably sparked a dance craze (I wasn't paying attention at the time). But at least the music and beat is pretty good. I've got my foot tapping (though that could be the fact that it's freezing in here).

On the other hand, I may feel that way because I'm Zenning...

Whoops! The Zen Master's in the house!

5) Kenny Lattimore: "For You" (#33)



(Yay, Vevo!!!!)

Uh oh...it's a sultry male love song!!! Haven't had one of those in a while. Lattimore had a couple of R&B hits (and this one went to #6 on the R&B charts), but this is his only entry on the Pop charts. Wonder why? He's got the voice for it.

He's got the looks. I wonder why this guy would get pushed to the side like that?

Oh yeah. This might have something to do with it.

(Yes, I know this guy was 13 years later...deal with it)

6) Mark Morrison: "Return of the Mack" (#2)



Ummmmmm, what is with that voice? I can't understand a word this guy is saying. Or singing. Or intoning. Or anything else, really.

He certainly looks tough! Then he talks. I haven't heard a difference between look and voice like this since...well, I can't remember, that's how far back it goes.

This made it to #2? I'm having to scrub my ears out.

7) The Verve Pipe: "The Freshman" (#5)



I didn't remember this song until I heard it. Now that I have heard of it? I remember really hating this song. It's just so annoying and pretentious. I also remember turning the radio to another station whenever I heard this song.

So I heard the beginning of it a lot.

This time, though, I've sat through all of it. Just for you. Because I like you and I would do anything for you. (This offer void if you're a tax collector...or Celine Dion).

So there you have it! The year 1997 isn't turning out too bad, is it?

Ok, ok. It's not turning out *quite* like I would like. But it can only get better, right?

So I'm off to enjoy my Sunday. Places to be, things to do.



And when I find the guy, he's dead meat!!!! I guess I should have made sure there were no cameras around, though.



One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40

The death of handwriting?

I've blogged about handwriting in the computer age before, but this story on Breitbart.com just reinforced it: handwriting is going the way of the dodo.

I never really thought about it before. Yes, we westerners, with our relatively easy alphabet, have been getting away from actual handwriting over the last few years. But the alphabet's so easy that there's no way we would actually forget the characters.

What about more complex written languages, like Chinese?

As you know, Chinese writing (and many other Asian languages) uses a lot of different figures and shapes to represent words, and writing each of those shapes can be a laborious process. I'm not a language scholar or expert, and I don't know any other languages like this, so I can only go by what I've seen, but it looks labor-intensive (any of my Chinese readers care to comment?).

So I guess in this age of computers, texting, typing, and the like, it's no surprise that people are not only writing less, but actually forgetting how to do some of the characters!

"Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.

Yet aged just 21 and now a university student in Hong Kong, Li already finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as simple as "embarrassed" have slipped from her mind.

"I can remember the shape, but I can't remember the strokes that you need to write it," she says. "It's a bit of a problem.""

Now, my penmanship has always been horrible, but at least I know *how* to do it! I can't imagine what it would be like trying to write a language that is that intricate, and one that I don't use that often because I'm on a computer all the time.

They call it "character amnesia," and it's basically the forgetting of how to form language characters in your writing. Now that so many Chinese and Japanese young people are using devices and programs to translate their characters into a Roman alphabet, they are learning to recognize characters but not necessarily how to draw them for themselves.

"Character amnesia matters because memorisation is so crucial to character-based written languages, says Siok Wai Ting, assistant professor of linguistics at Hong Kong University. Forgetting how to write could eventually affect reading ability.

"There is no way we can learn the writing systematically because the writing itself is not systematic -- we have to memorise, we have to rote learn," she says.

"Through writing, we memorise the characters. Reading and writing are more closely connected in Chinese.""

We think it's bad in the West? We think that grammar and spelling has become atrocious because too many people these days speak in text-speak? (Have you ever said "LOL" rather than actually laughed?). We have nothing on these character-based languages, languages that might disappear as more and more young people use electronic devices that end up using a Roman alphabet to communicate.

But do many people see it as a problem?

"A survey by the southern Chinese news portal Dayang Net, found that 80 percent of respondents had forgotten how to write some characters -- but 43 percent said they used handwritten characters only for signatures and forms.

"The idea that China is a country full of people who write beautiful, fluid literature in characters without a second thought is a romantic fantasy," wrote the blogger and translator C. Custer on his Chinageeks blog.

"Given the social and financial pressures that exist for most people in China... (and) given that nearly everyone has a cellphone, it really isn't a problem at all.""

So what do you think? Again, if I have any Chinese readers (and I know of at least one), I'd love your input on this. But everybody else too. Is handwriting dying? And are Asian character-based languages the canary in the coal mine for it?

Rizzoli & Isles - From Books to TV

Long-time readers of this blog know I've been a fan of Tess Gerritsen for a long time now, ever since getting the first five books of her Rizzoli & Isles series for review from Curled Up With a Good Book. The series is about Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, and they are extremely well-written. If you like the "bloody knife" genre of detective thrillers, this series is definitely for you. I took a chance asking for all five books, because I would have been obligated to review them all even if I hated the first book, The Surgeon.

Thankfully, I fell in love with them, and they just continued to get better and better. The characters are wonderful, with Rizzoli's hard edge which has been tempered somewhat by more recent events in her personal life. Isles has been having a lot of relationship issues lately, with the forbidden love she's had with a priest dragging her down even further. I love Gerritsen's mastery of her characters, making them both fascinating and bringing them all to life. Even as it's been taking me long stretches of time to read books that I've enjoyed, I still race through the next Gerritsen book when it presents itself (I still have to do a review of her latest, Ice Cold).

So imagine my pleasure when I heard that some of my favourite characters were coming to TV!

TNT optioned a television series starring Angie Harmon (Law & Order) as Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander (NCIS) as Isles.

(From the TNT web site)

I was sad to see that it hadn't been picked up in Canada yet, but I have managed to watch the first five episodes now, and I have some thoughts about it.

The good news is that it is an awesome series. Yet it's also different.

The first episode is based on the first two Rizzoli & Isles books (The Surgeon and The Apprentice), and understandably, a lot of it is dropped (2 books into one 45 minute episode?). That's ok, though, as the producers do a pretty good job of making the case interesting anyway.

After this episode, the producers go completely their own way, and that's both good and bad.

I love the show, and once readers of Gerritsen's books get past the fact that things are pretty different from Gerritsen's work, they will learn to love it too. But it is definitely off-putting at first.

The series is quite light-hearted compared to Gerritsen's books. Rizzoli & Isles have a nice, comfortable, teasing relationship. People are cracking jokes all the time. They're in-character jokes, as this is not a comedy or anything. But the tones of the book series and the TV series definitely do not match.

Angie Harmon *is* Rizzoli, though. She nails the character, and she is much like she is in the books, except that they've softened the edges. They've also changed some of the personal stuff (she gets married and has a kid in the book series, and her husband is in only one episode of the series, which obviously means they don't get married on TV). The relationship with her mother (wonderfully played by Lorraine Bracco) is much the same, with Mom being overbearing but just wanting to look after her daughter.

(From TNT)

The biggest change, and the one that could be considered the most objectionable, is Maura. In the books, she's a loner, called "The Queen of the Dead" because she's more comfortable with dead bodies than living bodies. She's quite comfortable in that role because she is uncomfortable around people. Her relationship with the priest has made her seem even more morose, for lack of a better word.

In other words, she's not really a "fun" character. Fascinating, definitely. But fun? Uh uh.

In the television show, she's still a loner (other than Rizzoli) and also more comfortable with the dead than the living, but it's played much more for laughs. On a date, she finds herself pointing out that the guy she's with has some obscure disease that he might want to get checked out. She is definitely from the upper crust, having been to boarding school overseas, and she wears designer gear (her reduced-friction baseball suit in the second episode is hilarious) and high-end purses with satisfaction.

While she may be a loner, she's often played for laughs (though not at the expense of her character, as she's often shown as being extremely intelligent and competent) and she's a much lighter character. The conflicted nature she shows in the book doesn't exist, or at least not so far.

Yet once you get over that little nugget, the show is just as brilliant as the books. Just different. I do find myself having to stop myself from comparing the two occasionally, but when you're not doing that, you can enjoy both of them on their own terms.

I love the interaction between Harmon and Alexander, the easy camaraderie that they have.

You can see the basis of each character in Gerritsen's books. But they breathe new life into them as different people. Enjoyable people to watch.

And definitely a lighter tone. This series is both funny and serious, while the books are mainly serious (though Gerritsen has added some of the normal "cop humour" that these types of books usually have).

Both are good in their own way.

And it is safe to love both.

Give them both a try! You'll like them, but perhaps for different reasons.

One Hit Wonders of the 90s (Part 28)

Hello, dear reader. I have a favour to ask you. The original post begins after all of the asterisks, if you want to skip this.

Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.

Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.

Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!

Thank you.

**************************

I had a dream last night. No, it wasn't that S.E. Cupp and Lauren Sivan were both sitting in the "Legs Chair" and smiling at me, slowly unbuttoning their blouses while they were pontificating on the news of the day (though that would be a pleasant dream, but I won't continue down that road due to the readership of this blog).

Instead, it was that every artist that I've made fun of in one of my one-hit wonders posts decided to band together like some super-villain group in a comic book.

They all banded together and were going to do dastardly things to me (as opposed to truly evil things, because super-villains are always dastardly). But then the Justice League burst into the building just as the creeping laser beam was almost to my crotch ("Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Roy, I expect you to DIE! Or, you know, just be seriously inconvenienced.") (Yes, even in my nightmares, people are kind of nice to me). They made short work of these horrible villains (Spider-Man started making puns about their bad singing, and did I mention he was there too?).

Then, to top it all off, we went camping and had S'Mores!

What could be better than that?

How about this week's one-hit wonders post? Yeah, that might do it! (This week's segueway brought to you by the letter "Q" and this doofus)

Yes, the weekly post that's more regular than something that's regular (and you know that's really regular, if you think about it). We're heading into 1997 now, the home stretch, you might say!

Or....you could say that we probably have at least 15 more weeks of this shit.

As usual, you can find the list I'm taking these from here. I'm too bored to tell you not to go look.

Here we go!

1) The Dogg Pound: "Nuthin' But the Cavi Hit" (#38)

Why does this not bode well?



Ohhhh, that's why. What a horrible way to start!!!!

Well, I kind of like a little bit of the music involved. But otherwise?

Ok, let's start over.



2) Amber: "This is Your Night" (#24)



(This is a 2008 version of the video)

Dance music! That's better, and I speak as not a general fan of the genre.

But I like to get my butt moving in my seat, especially when it's not because I've been sitting down for 8 hours (you know, these ropes kind of chafe).

As with most dance music, the lyrics don't really seem to mean much, but that's ok. It keeps the partiers dancing, and that's all that matters.

It's a pretty cool video, too. Very wet, of course...symbolic?

3) Gina G.: "Ooh Ahh...Just a Little Bit" (#12)



Not exactly subtle, is it? Ah well, it gets the toes tapping, so that's the main thing. That's not much of a dance club they're in, though, is it? It looks *really* constricting. Unless that's the idea...ooooo, lots of close dancing!

And I've had dreams like that, where you're walking (ok, dancing) down a never-ending corridor, and it only ends when the bad music stops. Of course, if you don't get a seat when the music stops, they come at you with knives!!

Oh, sorry. Elementary school Music class flashbacks. Won't happen again.

4) The BlackOut All-Stars: "I Like It" (#25)



Whew!!! A hot start. I love horns almost as much as I love sax.

From the movie I Like it Like That, this song has a glorious Latin beat that just really gets you moving (are you noticing a trend here?)

Ok, it does get *really* old really quickly, though. The middle part of the song is truly annoying, in an ear-splitting way similar to something that's ear-splitting, but it gets better again.

Is it wrong to say that 3:50 is too long for this song, though? I'm back to thinking it's getting really old. Should an opinion change so quickly in that short amount a time?

Holy Whiplash, Batman!

5) The Cardigans: "Lovefool" (#2)



Wow, how did I know this band was Swedish without looking first? Gee, not sure...

She's cute as a button, isn't she?

This band was pretty big in Europe, though this is the only song that really made it over here. And boy, did it make it! Number 2? And then they fell away again.

It's not a bad song; in fact, it's quite pleasant. Nothing to write home about, though, and nothing that really makes you sit up and take notice.

Kind of like some Swedish hockey players.

6) The Prodigy: "Firestarter" (#30)



Good Lord. This made it into the Top 40? Why?????

I honestly don't know what to say.

Yeah, that about says it all, doesn't it?

7) DJ Kool: "Let Me Clear My Throat" (#30)



Clowns!!!!! Anything's better with clowns!!!

Oh, wait. That's everything's more creepy with clowns. And this is plenty creepy. Nice to see that Biz Markie was still working, though.

Guess he found love.

Too bad I haven't found it with this song.

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

8) Luscious Jackson: "Naked Eye" (#36)


Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
Uploaded by EMI_Music. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

(Damn EMI for their "embedding disabled"! Go Vevo!)

What a truly strange video! The song's kind of cool, in a "yeah, that's ok" kind of way (what a ringing endorsement!). But the video?

They're all acting *really* suspiciously.

I wonder if they're smuggling clocks?



Hmmmmm...look familiar?

And there you have it! The first week of 1997, and it's...well, "doozy" is not really the right word. What could it be? I'm not really sure, but it's on the tip of my tongue.

Oh yeah, here it is.

Shit.

But hopefully next week will be better!

Now I'm off to enjoy my day.



After I put my airbag away, that is...



One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40

How much gaming is too much?

Is it bad to play games for...3 hours a night? Ten hours a week?

How about 20,000 hours in 5 years?

A gamer is suing NCsoft, makers of Lineage II, because he became so hopelessly addicted to the game that he couldn't function.

Craig Smallwood claims that NCsoft never warned him that it could be that bad, and that they should pay him for it.

"Hawaii-resident Smallwood played Lineage II for more than 20,000 hours between 2004 and 2009, during which time he became 'psychologically dependent and addicted' to the game, according to court filings posted by Wired.

NCsoft, however, 'never gave [Smallwood] any notice or warning of the danger of psychological dependence or addiction from continued play,' according to the case. 

A Hawaii judge recently threw out some of Smallwood's claims, but refused to dismiss the entire case, and let it proceed on claims of negligence, gross negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress."

Can you believe this? Twenty thousand hours in 5 years? That amounts to almost eleven hours a day of gaming...in the same game. Does this guy work? Eat? Sleep? Or does he fit the common gaming stereotype of being in Mom's basement, just gaming away?



Smallwood was evidently banned from Lineage in 2009 for allegedly taking part in an elaborate "real-money transfer" scheme (which I guess is a no-no in the game). When he was banned, he claims he was "unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing, or communicating with family and friends." Did he do any of that anyway?

This judge is an idiot. Smallwood wants $3 million, and the judge lets this go ahead?

But wait, it gets better!

Do you know why Smallwood claims he was really banned? It's not for trying to make money off of the game. Oh no!!!!

Smallwood says that "NCsoft's real motive was to get users locked out of Lineage II so they would upgrade to its new release, Aion."

Yep, it's all a marketing ploy!

Have you heard reports of mass Lineage banning? I know I haven't.

Is it just me, or is this insane? If you have an addictive personality, you will get addicted to games like this. It's not the game's responsibility that you can't control yourself! It would happen with any game, not just Lineage. How many people are addicted to World of Warcraft? Even if they are, I doubt they spend 11 hours a day playing it. Ok, they may do an eleven hour session of the game, but to average eleven hours a day?

That's your obsessive issue, not NCsoft's.

Who's the bigger idiot: Smallwood or the judge? Personally, I'd say the judge. Smallwood sounds sick (I'm not denying his need for therapy and his emotional disturbance based on being addicted to the game; I'm just denying that NCsoft has any obligation to warn people about it), but the judge is supposed to be sane and he still came up with this ruling.

Are we going to start getting warnings similar to the ones that are on games now about seizures?

"Warning: play this game at your own risk. We don't know what risks those may be, but anything can happen when you play this game. So watch out."


Has it come down to this?

Guys like this just give us gamers a bad name. There have been so many posts on Game Informer Online lately complaining about being insulted and teased by other people because we game (just read at least one today!).

It's hard to fight it when guys like Smallwood are out there trying to make money off of it.

(h/t: Fox News' Red Eye show)

What a pleasantly disturbed human being

I think we're all disturbed in our own way. Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. Bad disturbance is pretty obvious (known any serial killers, anybody?). But good disturbance?

I live with that whenever I do a blog post. Or try to think, hanging out in my own mind and discovering just what kind of insanity might be hiding in there. I like to think it's more like Steven Wright than it is the Joker. But can we ever tell?

Ah, the Joker. Heath Ledger left us too soon, didn't he?


The Joker was always an interesting Batman villain, though he was never my favourite. I was always partial to Two-Face, because it represented the inner conflict that we all face at one time or another. Most of us make the moral choices though we're tempted to go the other route, but Two-Face left his up to the flip of a coin. I always found that intriguing.

The Riddler I just always found annoying, which is why I'm not totally happy that he's rumored to be one of the villains in the new Batman movie. Then again, Christopher Nolan can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned, so maybe he can make the Riddler palatable? We'll see.

I always loved the sleek lines of the 70s and 80s Batman to the kind of clunky look of the 60s Batman.

What do you think?

(60s Batman)

(My favourite Batman)










Of course, it depended on the artist, but I always thought the latter just looked cooler. Less silly.

While I always enjoyed Batman, though, my main favourite was the Teen Titans (from 1980, not the older ones or the newer ones, as there have been many incarnations).

I didn't exactly grow out of comics, though. They grew out of me. And I mean that almost literally. I just got tired of trying to make room for them, and there's no way I was going to be throwing them out like any other magazines. So I stopped buying them.

Now that you can get comics on the iPhone/iPad, I may start again. If they ever start doing new subscriptions rather than the old stuff that they keep adding right now. Don't get me wrong. The old stuff is cool. But it's not what I want to pay for right now.

Isn't that a cool thing? Magazines on your iPhone/iPad? More and more of them are doing it. Wired, Time, People (if they can get past the objections of the photographers). All of that stuff in the palm of your hand. The news, photos, features, writing that you love to read, ready and waiting for you to turn the machine on. And no worries about recycling! There are no landfills for electronic bits and bytes!

Hmmmm...what would a data landfill look like? Something out of the Matrix? Or a product of an insane mind?

Or a pleasantly disturbed one?

This is part of Duane Scott's brilliant weekly series called "Pleasantly Disturbed Thursdays." See some other participants on his site here!

I hope you enjoyed.

Tweeting while driving - biggest no-no yet?

For those of you who haven't heard, celebrity plastic surgeon Frank Ryan supposedly was sending a tweet while he was driving when he lost control of his car and went over a cliff, killing him (his dog, who was with him, managed to survive).

I have to say that I don't understand this at all. Neither do I understand texting while driving (or putting make-up on, shaving, or any of that stuff). It's dangerous enough being distracted while driving, but also keeping your hand (or hands, even) busy? How is it not obvious that this would be dangerous? Yet it happens all the time.

"A recent report from Pew’s Internet and American Life Project found that 47% of adult drivers admitted to sending or reading text messages while driving."

WTF?

It just boggles my mind how people think sometimes. Your hand is busy typing those tiny little buttons. Your eyes are watching your screen to make sure you don't mis-type something because those buttons are so damned small. Your eyes are *not* on the road.

How do you not see the problem with this?

Cell phone use while driving is bad enough, because while your hand is busy (hopefully you've got voice-activated dialing), you can still pay attention to the world around you while you're talking (though more and more people *don't* do that, judging by the idiots I see driving around me on their phones all the time). But for texting/tweeting/whatever?

According to that survey, 47% of adult drivers are idiots. (Ok, given my driving experience, it's more than that, but you see what I mean). How anybody with even a shred of intelligence (not to mention sentience) can't see that driving when you're not looking at the road is a horrible idea, I have no idea.

I don't really follow celebrity gossip, so I have no idea who Frank Ryan is, other than what the stories are saying. He's obviously famous enough for his death to make the news. One would hope that a high-profile incident like this would jar some sense into some of these idiots.

Sadly, it probably won't, and Ryan will end up being just another statistic, though this time one with a reputation.

As society continues to head toward that same cliff...

Classmates.com

Hello to the Davenport West High class of 1988!

I joined Classmates.com a few years ago, but first sprang for a paying membership last year. It's a great way to keep in touch with your old classmates, whether it's high school or college (or any other schooling, actually, at least older than high school). You can post pictures (old and new), keep people up to date on what you've been doing since graduation, all of that good stuff.

Well, it is if people actually use it.

That's the funny thing, though. There are currently 397 members listed for the class of 1988. I think we had 535 graduates in that class. That's a pretty hefty percentage! (66% for you math geeks).

So why is nobody actually there?

My last guestbook signature was in December 2009, the message forums are almost dead. I know the 2008 reunion was handled largely through the site (I think, but somebody who knows better can correct me if I'm wrong).

So what's the deal? Is the site as popular as it's supposed to be? Or do people go there to "register" themselves but then pay no attention to it whatsoever?

Has Facebook taken over this function for people? I know I'm Facebook friends with a lot of my old classmates.

Guess what?

It's poll time!






I'd love to know what you think. Especially those classmates of mine who might be stopping by this blog (or regular readers that I don't know about).

A shoutout to Vevo

Long-time followers of this blog know that every Sunday there is a "one-hit wonders" post. I don't think I've missed a week in a *very* long time (I don't even remember if there was a break between the 80s and 90s posts).

With the second batch of 80s one-hit wonders posts, I started embedding the videos on the page rather than just posting links to them. That way, I can always tell if something has happened to the video (or picture, or whatever) in question. It makes things a lot easier because I can see if they're gone and I can replace them as necessary.

There are three types of music videos on Youtube right now (leaving aside the "there isn't one at all" possibility).

1) Something posted by somebody in general, which technically is a copyright violation and is subject to removal by Youtube (which does often happen)

2) Something posted officially (or seemingly so, anyway), but which has embedding disabled

3) Something posted officially that does allow embedding.

Most of the videos I find in the third category are posted on Vevo (which is owned by three music companies, including Sony). Looking at the site right now, there is a *lot* of cool stuff there, especially if you're into modern music. Eminem is on there right now, Arcade Fire, Enrique Iglesias (and I won't name anymore, to avoid accusations of traffic-whoring by including famous names).

What's even better about Vevo, however, is that it allows you to share the content on their site in a lot of ways, including embedding on your web site or blog.

Is this cool, or what? No worries about whether the video's going to disappear one day and leave your post barren (and truly, how many people go back to their old blog posts and see if stuff is still there? I only do it because I'm adding this week's entry to all previous one-hit wonders posts).

No worries about copyright violation. This is an official site.



The people behind Vevo get it, unlike some of the other music companies. When I find a video that just says "Official Video" for a song, but isn't under the Vevo name (especially if it says "EMI Music Group" or whatever the official name is), I click on "Embed" knowing that it's likely going to say "Embedding has been disabled by request."

What's the point? You want people to listen to your music, don't you? You want to get your name known? Or, in the case of the ones I use, get your name back out there because you've disappeared? So why would you disable embedding?

When you go to a web site or blog and somebody says "check out this cool video!" and then gives you a link, how likely are you to click on the link? But if that same video is embedded on the page? You're much more likely to click on it, aren't you? (Assuming you're remotely interested in the content, anyway).

There is a way that you can see who has played your video, even if it's embedded on somebody else's site. So why would you not want that to happen? Do you not want to be listened to?

When I'm searching for a song for my one-hit wonder post and I see in the Youtube list that the song is on Vevo, I almost let out a cheer (though I don't, because I don't want to wake the wife).

So kudos to you, Vevo. Yes, I know it's an advertising-driven site and it is a business that you're making money on, and in fact I know that music companies are evil, etc. But not this time. You could have disabled embedding your videos like everybody else does.

Strangely enough, I guess you want people to actually watch your videos, no matter where they are on the web.

What a novel concept.

One Hit Wonders of the 90s (Part 27)

Hello, dear reader. I have a favour to ask you. The original post begins after all of the asterisks, if you want to skip this.

Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.

Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.

Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!

Thank you.

**************************

It's Sunday! And you know what that means. No, it's not time to retire this really lame joke that I've used way too many times before. Though I really should, you know. Give it a retirement party and everything.

I know! I'll call all of its friends, making sure I include those joke emails that have been sent around again and again and again until everybody in the world except somebody living in remote Indonesia has seen them. But I'm not going to call the knock-knock jokes. We have standards, and I don't care whether this joke wants them there. I'm just not going to do it. It can call them itself if it really wants them there.

But there will be cake.

Where was I?

Oh yeah! It's time for this week's edition of the weekly One-Hit Wonders of the 90s! That mainstay of your Sunday morning (or afternoon, considering the only fans of this one who read it on the day it's posted are out East). That bedrock in your life. More dependable than your loving husband or wife! (But it doesn't do windows or gutters). The show that has lasted longer than some TV series, faithfully showing up week after week like a druggie that needs his hit.

Is this where I tell you I'm going to miss a week in September? Well.....maybe not. We'll see.

(this picture has been posted by the Society of "GET TO THE F-ING POINT!")

So sit back and enjoy the last of 1996. We're getting into the home stretch now! Hold on to your hats, because it's gonna be a doozy! (Disclaimer: Said doozy may or may not happen, as the creator of this blog has not actually listened ahead, and thus no guarantee of a "doozy" is actually implied or inferred (or whatever the hell word you use) and thus, the blogger reserves the right to be a loser (not that this is anything different than usual, and why am I using so many parentheses?) and be wrong)

There, now that we've got the legalese out of the way, you can find the list here. And I'm not even going to bother threatening you if you go look ahead. It's not like you listen anyway...

Here we go!

1) Dishwalla: "Counting Blue Cars" (#15)



"Tell me all your thoughts on God?" Well, I'll bet He doesn't drive a blue car! He has more taste than that (not to mention that old "omnipotent" thing, which means He not only doesn't need to own a car, but He probably wouldn't sink so low as to own one.

Oh, and of course they then throw that "God is a Woman!" thing. Ok, whatever.

I remember kind of liking this song back in 1996. It's nothing special, and it's not one I would sing in the car if it came on the radio, but I don't dislike it or anything.

I save that for the *really* bad things, like Satan.

Or Erectile Dysfunction commercials.

2) Donna Lewis: "I Love You Always Forever" (#2)



I had no idea Lewis was Welsh! Now that I know, I can kind of hear the accent.

And I'm immensely turned on.

Ahem, sorry.

Anyway, this was a huge hit in 1996, and I think it's still relatively popular today. I think for the video they decided to spend all of their money on camera angles instead of actual, you know, sets and stuff. They didn't even need to buy clothes! "Ah, just wear what you slept in, Donna," I'm sure the director said.

That being said, the look just adds to her sexiness...

Ahem!!!! Sorry again.

Anyway, I do like this song. It's kind of a pick-me-up, isn't it? Between her voice, her looks, and just the general nature of the song, it's really hard to resist, isn't it? Thankfully, she didn't have any stiff competition at that point of the year.

("Oh, you did NOT just go there, did you?" - The Peanut Gallery)

3) Primitive Radio Gods: "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in my Hand" (#2)



Wow, this is the longest song title I've seen since The Journeymen of Russia put out their #1 hit, "I've Got the Borscht Blues Because My Wife Left Me and Now I Just Have This Guitar to Remember Her By" (It was a major success...in Derbent, Russia).

This song hit #2, less than a month after Donna Lewis did, and I have no memories of this song whatsoever. This is so weird. Of course, this is the month I "met" my wife online, so maybe I was distracted.

The comments section on this video talks about how awesome this song is, making it sound so profound and everything. Me? I kind of like the beat and music, but the song itself really doesn't do anything for me.

I guess this means I'll have to burn my blue "Overrated Philosophers of Music" membership card, but I don't care! I stand by my principles.

Though I will miss the cheese dip at the weekly meetings.

4) Garbage: "Stupid Girl" (#24)



Oh, I've been waiting for this one since I saw it on the list.

I had never heard of Garbage until meeting my wife, who loved the band. She introduced me to the music, and now I love almost every song of theirs that I hear. While this was their only "mainstream" hit, they were on the Rock Alternative charts a *lot*, as well as being successful overseas.

I also remember them getting a lot of video channel (MuchMusic) airplay, though I don't know if that extended to the United States or not.

Anyway, no jokes here, because I love this band. I can think of a few of you who will not share that assessment, though.

To that, I say "oh well!"

As a bonus, here's my favourite song of theirs. "Queer" There's just something surreal and awesome about both the song and the video.



Don't forget to take your Dramamine before you watch!

5) Ghost Town DJs: "My Boo" (#31)



Am I the only one who flashes back to Baldur's Gate ("Don't hurt Boo!!!!!") when I see this title? Um, ok, probably.

Oh, cool! Sexy women washing a car and getting into a water fight! How cliched...yet still so hot.

At least the video isn't too subtle in it's titillation goals, is it? Muuuuuuuust geeeeeet my miiiiiiiind ooooooooooooooffffff oooooooooof booooooooooobs.......

That's not going to work!

Ahhhhh, that's better.

Anyway, this is kind of a fun song. Nothing special, but nothing horrific, either. And it's got a nice beat.

6) Do or Die: "Po Pimp" (#22)



Ok, we couldn't get through a week without one rap song, though at least it's a bit more musical than they usually are. Though I see they follow the trend of naming themselves in the words of the song.

How original.

Anyway, it's the usual thing, so let's move on!

7) Sublime: "What I Got" (#29)



I'm listening to this song, and my main reaction is "eh."

No, that's not the Canadian "eh," as in "Hey, this is great, eh?" More like the "Wow, this song sucks, eh?"

No, not even that. It's more rabid indifference. This song literally does nothing for me.

It doesn't even move me to hit the "next" button.

So I guess that's something, right?

And now, you would think this week's entry would be over, wouldn't you? All the other entries for 1996 have been 7 songs, so this one should be too.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You would be wrong!

See somebody can't do math, and somehow divided 5 into 39 and instead of getting a bunch of entries with 8 songs and then one with 7, he got a bunch of entries with 7 songs. I have 4 extra.

So, instead of doing a really massively short entry, I'm going to give you those extras today! This special is good for today only, so if you don't listen today, you have to stop now and listen to the next 4 songs some other day. That's your punishment for not being punctual.

Are they gone? Ok, now to the good stuff. And when I say "good," I mean that I have no idea what's coming next.

8) eels: "Novocaine for the Soul" (#39)



I know I'm getting a bit seasick watching this video.

I think this song and video would make a good piece of Novocaine for the soul. I know it's deadening me right about now. They could probably do major surgery on me right now and I wouldn't notice.

Hey! Where you going with my spleen! Come back!!!!!!!!!

9) Merril Bainbridge: "Mouth" (#4)



I had no idea what this song was when I typed the title, but now I remember it! This song is a lot of fun, and I really like it.

"Would it be my fault if I could turn you on?" Ummmm, yes? You hot thing, you.

Ahem (sorry, don't know what's coming over me today). I want to get the job of generic male molesting the female singer while she's trying to sing in the car.

Where do I go to get that job? And will there be plastic surgery involved? Are you taking applications?

10) Cake: "The Distance" (#35)



Ok, what the heck is with the animal walking into the office? Or the animals on the guy's running route?

Oh no! Santa!!! What did he do with your head?????

This video is just strange. The song is strange, though not in the same way the video is.

I'm just overwhelmed with strangeness right now. In fact, my cat is looking at me funny.

11) dc Talk: "Just Between You and Me" (#29)


DC Talk - Between You and Me
Uploaded by ramus311. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

(sorry for the shitty video quality...I can't embed the Youtube version)

This is a pretty cool song to end the year on, actually. Again, it's not awesome or anything, but it's very listenable (Yay! I make up words!). The video isn't too odd either, which is nice after the last one. Though does anybody get the feeling that the guy with the box was *not* supposed to be in the video and just interrupted them while they were filming?

It's just me?

Ah, well, that's not unusual.

Finally!!!! We've reached the end of 1996, and I hope you've enjoyed this extended version of the one-hit wonders of the 90s. You're just sick with bonus material today, aren't you? Don't feel bad next week when we're back to normal, though. I don't want you to cry or anything.

Now I'm off to make something of the day! It's bright and sunny, so I should probably be productive or something, right?



Or....maybe I should just stay home.



One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40

Is privacy the same as anonymity?

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has recently been quoted as saying that anonymity on the Internet is "dangerous" and that it will soon disappear. In an article on the International Business Times web site (though there are articles about this all over the web), it says:

"Arguing that anonymity on the Internet is dangerous, Schmidt had reportedly said, 'In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you.'

He also said governments may eventually put an end to anonymity. 'We need a (verified) name service for people," he said. "Governments will demand it.'"

He goes on to say that this is different from privacy, and that privacy is crucial on the Net, and that people's private information should be secured. (Given their recent issue with private data, I think he's partially covering his ass there, but who knows?)

I think I see what he's getting at, in regards to the difference between privacy and anonymity, and it's something that I kind of share, at least in an ideal world.

The relative anonymity of the Internet gives a lot of idiots out there the empowerment to be assholes without having to account for what they say. As somebody recently said (I think it was on the Ricochet podcast, actually), it allows them to yell at and insult the 250-pound football player when they wouldn't say any such thing to the guy's face because they know they'd get a beating. Or throw out gratuitous insults, race-baiting, or any other kind of vulgar stuff without having to actually face up to the person they're saying it to.

In that way, anonymity on the Net is really bad.

On the other hand, I think it's a treasured institution for a couple of other reasons.

Of course, there's the old standby of whistle-blowers, damaged and abused people who don't want to be found by their tormentors, and the like. Those people should be protected.

But there are also those people who are doing totally legitimate things but that just "look" bad to other people, like your employer or potential employer.

The recent "RealID" kerfuffle around Blizzard and World of Warcraft, where Blizzard was going to force users to use their RealID names if they wanted to post to the Blizzard forums, is a perfect example. (Blizzard has since backed off on this plan)

In this day and age, potential employers are going to do more than just interview you. They're going to look you up on the Net too. It's one thing if they find that you posted a bunch of racist stuff on the Net somewhere. Of course it's a good thing that they found out before they hired you.

But what if your potential boss just thinks spending all of your non-work hours playing WoW and posting on its forums is a complete waste of time, and he doesn't want to hire anybody who would do that?

Why should you be penalized for that? Yes, it's wrong for a boss to think that. But there's nothing illegal about it. There are laws against not hiring people because they're disabled, but there's no law that says they can't refuse to hire you because you spend 8 hours a night playing World of Warcraft.

This is my roundabout way of saying that yes, there should always be a way for somebody who absolutely needs to (like law enforcement) to find out who's behind activities on the Internet. In that way, anonymity should go away.

But basic anonymity, which would require work or official authorization for somebody to find out who you are, that should be a bedrock of the Internet.

There has to be a better way of dealing with douchebags on the Internet than requiring *everybody* to be totally open about who they are.

As I said. In an ideal world, it would be really nice if people had to be public and had to own up to their words.

But we don't live in a perfect world.

It's the little coincidences that are funny

I've never heard of Waukesha, Wisconsin, even though I'm from Iowa (right next to Wisconsin, for those of you who are geographically-challenged, though I'm sure that doesn't include any of my brilliant regular readers). I'm not sure where in Wisconsin it is, actually. (Yes, I'm aware I can look it up, but that's not the point).

Yet it's now popped up twice for me inside of 6 hours.

First, in my Iowa State dynasty in NCAA Football 11. My very first recruit commitment was a Center from Waukesha. I just did a post today about this on my EA Sports blog (where I'm posting the stories that eventually will show up on the one I'm linking to, so that post will show up in the next couple of days).

Didn't think anything of it.

Just now, I did a check on my blog traffic stats for *this* blog (not the EA one). Lo and behold, there's a visitor from Waukesha, Wisconsin! Totally unrelated to the football post (they wouldn't have been able to access it anyway).

Is that weird, or what?

Aren't the little coincidences in life the stuff that makes you sit back and just wonder at the universe?

Iowa State Football Blog

For those of you who may be interested, I'm going to be blogging my NCAA Football 11 Iowa State Dynasty. The blog is going to be reported as if the team is being covered in the newspaper, so the articles will be game recaps, recruiting news, stats, etc.

I welcome comments, of course. Whether it's about the results themselves, suggestions, tips, or anything else you might want to leave.

Otherwise, just sit back and watch me take the Cyclones to the National Championship. You know it's going to happen.

It's simply titled "Dave's Iowa State Dynasty" so it should be easy to find.

Hopefully the new blogging features that EA has added to the game will help me keep up with the blog. We'll see how long it lasts.

Let me know what you think!

(and yes, I realize that of my potentially regular readers, there's probably only one person interested in this, but who knows how somebody may find this blog?)

8/15/10: I've taken down the blog, for a number of reasons. First, I'm kind of over-extended, so while it was kind of fun, I was having trouble keeping up with it. Secondly, since nobody's reading it anyway, what's the point when it feels more like a chore to do anyway? If it was being read, then it might be a fun chore. But it wasn't, so it wasn't a fun chore.

Now I can go back to playing the game just for the sake of playing the game.

And yes, that means that this officially lasted about a week or so.

Yay, me!!!

NCAA Football 11 - A Couple of Comments

Go Cyclones!

I just bought EA Sports' NCAA Football 11, and I've got a couple of comments about the game.  I've only played 4 or 5 games so far, so I obviously can't review it (I also haven't played the Road to Glory mode). But there are a few things I want to say about this year's installment. A few annoyances and couple of awesome things.

First, I want to give heartfelt thanks to those people who spend the time and effort to create accurate rosters for this game.  With the players not being professionals, the game can't use their real names. Thus, you can either have the game make up names or the game will just use numbers ("QB #1 falls back, and throws a perfect strike to WR #85!!!! Touchdown!!!"). Or, you can download a roster that somebody's created. I can't remember when EA first put that option in there, but it's a wonderful thing. It's so cool seeing the players' real names on there. Even cooler is when the announcers say the last names. It really helps that feeling of actually playing your team.  I'm using the Pastapadre rosters, but there are a lot of them out there.

Ok, now for the annoyances.



First, EA *really* needs to bring announcers Brad Nessler and Kirk Herbstreit and have them record some new stuff. Ok, I know they had to do some introductory stuff because of the new way that teams are coming onto the field, as well as the minor recap at the end of the game (if you're in Dynasty mode, anyway). But they need some new stuff during the game too! Thankfully, Lee Corso isn't on there anymore, so the lame-ass jokes are gone. But we need more! I honestly didn't hear one bit of in-game commentary that I haven't heard in the last two years. Incidentally, it's funny that, while Corso is gone, the "Weekly Predictions" in your Dynasty have both Herbstreit and Corso making predictions.  Gone, but not forgotten, eh?

My pipe dream is that the announcers actually say things with situational awareness, like the fact that Iowa State hasn't beaten Iowa in 10 years (I have no idea if that's true or not, but that's just an example). It'll never happen, but it would be nice if they made strides toward that. Nessler does say something at the end of each game that basically talks about the teams' records and how they're doing (after winning a game to reach 2-2 after Game 4, he said something about I would still have to do a lot to get past those early losses). It is a nice touch.  I just wish the in-game commentary was new.

The second annoyance is in the play-calling screen. They have revamped it to make it easier for people don't live and breathe football, and overall I do like the new system. However, the screen used to have situational awareness and now it doesn't. When it was 4th and 10, it would pop up on the punt screen and if you wanted to go for it, you had to come out of that screen and choose a play. If you were in field goal range, it would default to a field goal. Now, it just defaults to the last play and you have to hit "Y" for Special Teams. Ok, one more button press, that's not *too* bad, right? Yes, it is bad. Offensively, it *always* defaults to Field Goal! Even if you're on your own 10 yard line. It *will* tell you how long the field goal is (I love that, since it was hard to judge sometimes before), but it's just silly for it to default to "Field Goal (95 yards)."  You then have to cycle through your special teams plays to get to "Punt".

Defensively, it always defaults to Punt Return. Yes, even if the other team is on your 10 yard line. And even if the other team is kicking a PAT! That's just silly.

On the plus side, the graphics look a lot crisper than they have in the past, and I love the gang-tackling. I also love the pre-game where they show the players running out onto the field. I don't play with any of the teams that do this, but they have some team-specific animations for this, like Notre Dame tapping the sign as they come out. That just adds to the immersion.

The best new thing, though, is the ability to do a lot of your online dynasty stuff on the web. You can do your recruiting, set your depth charts, look at stats and schedules, pretty much anything except play the game! I don't know if this is new, but you can also just do one-person online dynasties so you can use these web tools for your own dynasty as well. Stories about your dynasty will be published and you can publish your own as well. This is a great thing for those who like to do a blog about their dynasty, so much so that I'm going to be creating my own.

(That's not my screenshot, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like)

Sadly, unless I'm missing something, there's no way to give a direct link to your dynasty, so I can't just point people there. (If anybody knows how to do this, I'd be greatly appreciative). So what I'm going to do is set up my own blog and copy my stories. I'll post a link to it once I've got it up and running, if anybody's interested.

The cool thing is that all of the text, stats, and all that other crap will already be there! So it will just be a matter of cutting and pasting. Except the pictures, which unfortunately can't be downloaded and saved (they're in a Flash format). You can share individual stories on Facebook and Twitter, though. People can go view an individual story, but there's no way for people to just visit the Dynasty page and look at it. The Facebook share doesn't appear to be working right now (or at least it's not for me), but the Twitter share will create a link for just that story. It's still in Beta mode, though, so hopefully they'll add more functionality.

Overall, I'm greatly enjoying the game, despite the couple of annoyances. I'll do a fuller review once I've spent some time with it.