Wednesday, September 22, 2004
I'm your father, I'm your father, I'm your father...
Here's a funny Star Wars rap. Check it out:http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/afassets/flash/gangsta_rap_se.swf
The Wayback Machine!!
So there is this website that has archives of a bunch of other websites from 1996. It's kind of interesting.
Wayback Machine
If you look up Hotmail.com and Yahoo.com or Apple.com, it's actually kind of funny.
Wayback Machine
If you look up Hotmail.com and Yahoo.com or Apple.com, it's actually kind of funny.
Monday, September 20, 2004
Great minds think alike...
So it turns out the Ken Jennings!, the million dollar winner from Jeopardy!, who had won 44 shows at the time that this was written, has a dog named Banjo! (I've decided to punctuation every proper noun that has anything to do with Ken! with an exclamation mark, since he's so special).My little puppy, may he rest in puppy-heaven peace, was also named Banjo (no exclamation since I'm referring to my dog and not his). Could this mean that there is Jeopardy! greatness sometime in my future? I also have a love of trivia just as Ken! does - anyone who knows me can probably at least one time when I tried to force a game of Trivial Pursuit on them. And I'm going to be a software engineer, which is his current occupation. It's all there in the cards, my friends. It's all there in the cards.
Friday, September 17, 2004
The Game of TRUMP!
Now I love reality TV and I know that some people don't. But I think that everyone can agree about one good thing that has resulted from reality TV shows, the Apprentice in particular: the return of Trump: The Game or as I like to more formally refer to as The Game of Trump! This is indeed a most brilliant board game with images of the Donald's pretty face splashed on every piece of the game: on the box, the instruction booklet, the center of the board itself, and also on every card from this deck of cards which are used frequently during game play. As a child, I loved this game and my love for it translated into adoration for the iconic figure whose name and face were branded all over it. I loved Trump and his fantastic board game before it was a fad, but I can say without any bias, that this game is amazing and all should play it. If you don't believe me, check out these reviews from board game aficionados:www.boardgamegeek.com - "a surprisingly fun game"
www.gamecabinet.com - "an excellent little game"
Apparently the new version has a few modifications, like being able to say "You're fired" to opponents, but the old version is still quite amazing, so if anyone wants to play, let me know. Or if any of you want to buy it, I highly recommend it.
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Proves one Oprah point..
I found this article about Oprah and Pontiac is a marketing ploy:
The show is seen in 212 U.S. markets and 109 other markets.Said Mark-Hans Richter, Pontiac's director of marketing: "It's incalculable. The power of this is not in how many minutes of airtime we received. It's the power of Oprah. The buzz and validity is priceless, especially among women. There will be a lot of women talking about the G6 tonight over dinner."
Generous? Ha!
The show is seen in 212 U.S. markets and 109 other markets.Said Mark-Hans Richter, Pontiac's director of marketing: "It's incalculable. The power of this is not in how many minutes of airtime we received. It's the power of Oprah. The buzz and validity is priceless, especially among women. There will be a lot of women talking about the G6 tonight over dinner."
Generous? Ha!
The English Language
So I'm taking Tamil and I'm learning each day more and more about how inconsistent the English language is. At least in terms of punctuation. Of course, I knew this before but now I'm trying to view it from the perspective of an immigrant who is trying to learn the language. And I could only imagine that the experience would be hellish. Anyway, here is something that my Tamil instructor showed us in class:
Note the pronunciation of the underlined parts:
cough
nation
women
Now with these sounds I'm going to create another English word. Say it outloud and you'll understand:
ghoti
What word is that? Hint hint: It lives underwater. Get it?
Note the pronunciation of the underlined parts:
cough
nation
women
Now with these sounds I'm going to create another English word. Say it outloud and you'll understand:
ghoti
What word is that? Hint hint: It lives underwater. Get it?
Monday, September 13, 2004
Rant about Oprah
Ok, so I promised myself that I would not rant about Oprah on here, but Miss Mary Haynes just LOVES to push my buttons. I saw this article earlier:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/13/people.oprahs.surprise.ap/index.html and I restrained myself from making a comment to anyone. But then both Mary and Christine had to bring it up.
Mary asks "How can you hate Oprah when she gave away all those cars?"
First of all, I don't hate Oprah. I can't say that I have the greatest respect for her obsessed fans. Oprah is fine. I'm sure that in person she is a lovely woman. But do I think she is generous for giving away stuff all the time? No, of course not. Do I think Pontiac is generous for donating all those cars to the Oprah show? No, not really. It is a nice gesture, sure, but I'm sure that the marketing payoff for presenting their car on a show that is seen in over 40 countries will greatly outweigh the cost of giving away 200 cars. Not to mention the nationwide coverage Pontiac is getting for this right now. It was on the front webpage of CNN all day long. You can't buy that kind of publicity! Only Oprah can provide it.
But I most certainly don't think Oprah is wonderful for giving away things all the time which she gets for free, simply by asking for it. Everyone says that she is so good and generous. Well, she does try to do good things. I'll credit her that. I'm glad that she is getting people to read. But why do people like her so much? Is she easy to relate to? Is she generous? Yes, she did prevent some sandwich shop from going out of business by sending a check from her personal bank account. But the woman has tons of money. She has 9 homes. Does she really need 9 homes? Some might say that it is a real estate investment. There was one home that she loved so much, she made an offer to the homeowner when it wasn't even on the market. She told the owner that money was no object. Keep in mind that she already had 8 lavish homes. She paid 35 million over the asking price. That doesn't sound like the most saavy real estate investment to me. She also flies out to California every 10 days on her jet to have her eyebrows plucked by the eyebrow plucker of the Stars. It costs something like $5,000 to make the trip. It's a waste of money and fuel. How bout instead of spending money on lots of homes and eyebrow plucking that she doesn't need, she donate all that money to her Angel Network!
I'm not saying that she is a bad person for doing these things. For owning so many homes or flying a thousand miles to get her eyebrows done. That's fine and dandy. But these things don't make her a generous woman. They don't make her someone that a regular person can relate to. But besides these things, I personally don't understand why she is so rich or influential. All of her influence and wealth came from what I consider to be a terrible talk show. But that's another rant for another post.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/13/people.oprahs.surprise.ap/index.html and I restrained myself from making a comment to anyone. But then both Mary and Christine had to bring it up.
Mary asks "How can you hate Oprah when she gave away all those cars?"
First of all, I don't hate Oprah. I can't say that I have the greatest respect for her obsessed fans. Oprah is fine. I'm sure that in person she is a lovely woman. But do I think she is generous for giving away stuff all the time? No, of course not. Do I think Pontiac is generous for donating all those cars to the Oprah show? No, not really. It is a nice gesture, sure, but I'm sure that the marketing payoff for presenting their car on a show that is seen in over 40 countries will greatly outweigh the cost of giving away 200 cars. Not to mention the nationwide coverage Pontiac is getting for this right now. It was on the front webpage of CNN all day long. You can't buy that kind of publicity! Only Oprah can provide it.
But I most certainly don't think Oprah is wonderful for giving away things all the time which she gets for free, simply by asking for it. Everyone says that she is so good and generous. Well, she does try to do good things. I'll credit her that. I'm glad that she is getting people to read. But why do people like her so much? Is she easy to relate to? Is she generous? Yes, she did prevent some sandwich shop from going out of business by sending a check from her personal bank account. But the woman has tons of money. She has 9 homes. Does she really need 9 homes? Some might say that it is a real estate investment. There was one home that she loved so much, she made an offer to the homeowner when it wasn't even on the market. She told the owner that money was no object. Keep in mind that she already had 8 lavish homes. She paid 35 million over the asking price. That doesn't sound like the most saavy real estate investment to me. She also flies out to California every 10 days on her jet to have her eyebrows plucked by the eyebrow plucker of the Stars. It costs something like $5,000 to make the trip. It's a waste of money and fuel. How bout instead of spending money on lots of homes and eyebrow plucking that she doesn't need, she donate all that money to her Angel Network!
I'm not saying that she is a bad person for doing these things. For owning so many homes or flying a thousand miles to get her eyebrows done. That's fine and dandy. But these things don't make her a generous woman. They don't make her someone that a regular person can relate to. But besides these things, I personally don't understand why she is so rich or influential. All of her influence and wealth came from what I consider to be a terrible talk show. But that's another rant for another post.
