Hilarity ensues on the Internet!

No, no... this isn't a video of a cat who trips out or a laughing baby... although those are pretty funny regardless :).

I noticed that I'm actually getting some page views! In total, I've amassed about 65 views!
I am registered under Monetise, some weird way to make money via this blog. It pretty much just multiplies some number by the amount of page views I get and I make the end result. So far... I've made $0.01! MAN, I'M LIVING HIGH ON THE HOG!

But out of all seriousness, for all of those who are human and reading my stuff, thanks a lot!

So, I took a look at my sources. Obviously, one of them is Newsclip. Every time I post a new article, I post it there, so I get a little bit of traffic that way.

However, this is this one source called http://ow.ly/7uZRF

What... is... that??? Some sort of virus? Some crazy conspiracy website where they see hidden messages in my words of "wisdom"?

Nope. It's some sort of advertising website. What happens is that it transfers you some other website called http://commissioncommando.com/go/. Here, we see a large-scale web advertisement. No biggy. It's just another big annoyance.

So, I tried to close it, as you would if you saw this. However, this website said, "NO. NO U CANT LEEV. I WAWNT U 2 GIV ME CREDT CARD NUMBR!" and one of those infamous "Wait! Don't leave!" messages. However, this one... really took the cake.

"W A I T - You DO NOT Want My Free Course Worth $197?" it said, advertising some product called Assassination or something. I guess it really IS some sort of conspiracy website :P.

"Ok, How about something REALLY Special"

How about, I said. How about it?

"I want to give you a HUGE Discount of 25% OFF!"

OH BOY! 25% OFF OF A FREE PRODUCT! NOW I'M TOTALLY EXCITED! 

After I closed the website, I noticed about half of my views are coming from Russia, which more or less come from this... site. YAY...

I hope you guys and girls found this entertaining, because I found it friggin' hilarious. 

Again, for all those humans from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, India and Netherlands who are actually reading this, thanks again for the support! 

Grievance List - Modern Appliances

You know what is absolutely awful? When you find some sort of awesome looking appliance at your local kitchen-decor store that speaks to you, saying ,"BBBUUUUYYYY MMMMMEEEEE"...

In Hamilton, we have one major shopping mall: Limeridge Mall. It is pretty damn large with something like 200 stores. Anybody could go there and buy something they'd like. From what I noticed, there is usually at least two stores that generally offer the same thing, like how there's a Sears and They Bay on opposite sides, or how there's two video game places (EB Games and Gamestop), which are strangely owned by the same company...

It is a great shopping destination, and I can tell you that it will become busy around the months to come up to Christmas.

So, during the summer, I went into the HomeSense they have there. I usually like going inside there because it has a pleasant smell and there are a lot of cool appliances there. Today, I found myself one of those, "I want it, I want it!" things: a Popcorn Machine. It was painted red, and had a small set of wheels attached that gave me a feeling of retro nostalgia (not that I've ever seen one on the street). It cost about $50, because it was on some sort of sale.

I bought it without a doubt. "Man, I am the worst manager of money" i told myself, "Maybe i should stop spending money on things like this and video games and Magic cards"... HA! If only I cared about that. I had a summer job and had no use for money other than that and gifts for other people.

Anyway, I brought the machine home, and it worked alright. We already had a popcorn-making machine, but it was kind of old, and has that over-hydrated-pee-yellow colour.

 This colour

Therefore, I felt like a North-American and said, "Screw it! Out with the old, in with the new!".

After a week of using it, I noticed the efficiency percentage of well-done popped corn versus popping corn placed in heating tub was slowly dwindling... ever so slowly... until it became a lot worse... and I may as well have popped to corn with my own breath.

So, after maybe a month of usage, the popper became obsolete. It'd sometimes jam, and... it got very messy very quickly. I now am wondering why Jumbo Video used to offer free popcorn from a machine like this, knowing the trouble one has to go through... but maybe that's why they went out of business <:(

Well, here's where the grievance comes into the light: I despise the poor quality of current-day appliances.

Being a boy who likes to cook and bake, I'm used to using mixers and blenders and all kinds of that good... stuff. We have 3 different mixers: onw large base-supported mixer from my parents marriage (26 years +), one small hand mixer, purchased about 9 years ago, and one of those KitchenAid mixers that does all the mixing for you, about 3 years old.

This one, except the bowl is connected to the base

Guess which one has no had a problem yet.

Done?

Hopefully my point was clear enough that you could guess the 26 year-old mixer is still the best-operating appliance of those three. The hand mixer is ok, but it was kind of cheap and the blades are now bent (don't know why), and the KitchenAid mixer is an absolute joke. It mixes everything in the centre and not on the sides, which would be ok, if only you could stick you spatula in the bowl while it's mixing! It infuriates me that I can do a better job mixing with just my hands!

Now, who knows how the 26 year old mixer operates. Maybe it is working on depleted uranium and/or lead, but it does the job extremely well without any problems. Obviously, you have to use the spatula to scrape the sides, but at least you can stick your hand in without getting hurt or... well, not being able to get your hand in there!

I've also noticed the same with blenders. We have a brand-new blender, and our 12 year old thing can out-perform it any day. The only thing that could beat it is the Magic Bullet, which although I'd have to give it credit, it can only blend so much as one time.

Lawnmowers are the same. My Grandma purchased a new electric mower this summer (and involved me in this 3 day fiasco to get it :P) and it can't cut for s**t. Her 50 year old gas-powered thing can literally mow down that grass in a few minutes, while this thing needs a few seconds on each patch... and then needs a 10 minute break after 1 minute of work... and then runs out of battery quickly :(.

Printers? Don't get me or pretty much anybody started... But now that I've thought of it, I'm going to start anyway.
My dad was replacing the printers he had at his office with new models. I asked if I could use one of the older ones. They were about 4 years old and printed only in black-and-white, but It was good enough for me. It also had a photocopier, which was an added bonus. So I took one of them. It worked fine until one day, the Hewlett-Packard toolbox software kept having error messages... 4 months after use. Do note that before this, it printed extremely well and the photocopier worked like a charm. 

After the error-message, the printer kept flashing red and green, and the lightbulb for copying always stayed on. It printed well, however.
So, i attempted customer service, which told me that I needed to pay $60 to renew my warranty. "Screw that" I said.
So, after some fiddling, the blinking stopped and it can photocopy well... except now it can't print.
It is currently gathering dust next to my 7 year old computer.

One of the more obvious things I've noticed are game consoles.

Tell me, how many times have you heard an Xbox 360 or a Nintendo Wii have problems?
Now, tell me how many times you've heard a Nintendo 64 having problems?

Yes, of course, the Nintendo 64 had the whole "Dust" and "Blowing" situation with the cartridges, but it would always work eventually. Not only that, but the situation didn't have anything to do with the console, just the games. 

That being said, I can see why older systems never had problems (besides being hit by a hammer or something like that). Today, we have to rely so much on software inside the hardware. We all know the "dashboards" consoles have now. but did the older systems have that? No. They didn't need a means of organizing their data or profiles or savefiles. All they needed to do was play the game and the game did the rest.

I think consoles now have so much stuffed in their circuit boards that the slightest misstep can lead into absolute catastrophe. Not only that, but CD and DVD drives are so fragile that if you ever touch them, it could lead to all kinds of problems.

Regardless of that last point, I think the world has become too "throw-away"-based. 

What happens when your Apple product breaks? Get a new thing. 

What happens when your Computer Screen burns out? Replace it with something else. 

What happens when your popcorn maker breaks after the warranty is expired? You throw it out a window and attempt to blow it up by placing an aerosol can in the remains and shooting the can with an air-rifle...
Or maybe you just throw it out. 

Regardless of your disposal tactics, you have to throw it out one way or another, and that becomes a waste of materials.

If companies only increased the cost of appliances, made their products from local locations and high-quality materials, then we would not only not have a lack of high-quality appliances, but a reduction of garbage and pollution.

Thanks for reading.

Movement Video Games - A Fight for the Entire Consumer Base

Wow! Everybody was amazed with the Nintendo Wii! They didn't need to sit down and press buttons anymore! Now, you stand up and press buttons while waving a white wand around! Revolutionary!

Obviously, Nintendo isn't the only company who's trying to get people to move a little bit more: Microsoft and Sony, and we all should know, have made their own movement attachments!

As a young teen, I got suckered into buying a Wii because not only did it sound like a barrel of fun, but my best friend had one and... I'm kind of a giant sheep when it comes to things he does.
For example, once he sold his Wii, he got an Xbox 360. Shortly after, I did the same (because Rock Band 2 was so gosh-darned cool). He played Magic: The Gathering and introduced it to me, and now I think I've spent a whole island-nations economic worth on cards in the last few years.

Anyway, for the next 3 years, I had some fun with it, but it didn't come from the physical-motion games: I lost Wii Sports after two years, and the rest looked gimmicky. So I mostly spent my money on GameCube games, a few token Wii games (like Super Smash Bros. Brawl), and a lot of Virtual Console games, since they were so friggin' convenient. I mostly played either one of the two Super Smash Bros., Super Mario Strikers, or some kind of old Nintendo 64 or Sega Genesis game (Pokémon Snap, Shining Force, Kid Chameleon, Kirby: Crystal Shards, games I didn't have).

However, I lost a lot of interest very quickly, because all of the games I played were made for other console except two of them. I felt like I should play these games on their own console and just sell the Wii. Well, that is exactly what I did... kind of.

So, I got an Xbox 360 because of my best friend example, but it seemed to have the best games to purchase. Sure, the online feature costs money, but I never had any Playstation games before, so why should've I started now?

Well, that introduction paragraph turned into an essay quickly... just so you know, that wasn't my purpose of this post.

What I want to know is what Microsoft and Sony are on, drug-wise. I ask this because this attempt to jump on the bandwagon is so late that Nintendo has already finished their bands round tour and are attempting to recapture the "hardcore" consumer base with the Wii-U, which the more I say it, sounds friggin' stupid. Maybe I should ask Nintendo what drugs they're on as well.

Why do they need to appease the younger/older consumer bases? They've worked well enough without touching on that, and now they think it's a good idea to fight a giant ogre with twigs and stones?

I am extremely bitter about this situation, whether you can tell or not. I really, REALLY hate the Kinect and the Move. The Move is a sad rip-off of the Wii Nunchuk, and the Kinect is just... awful. When I thought I couldn't look any stupider with the Nunchuk, Microsoft says, "How about we just take the whole physical apparatus out so people are confused whether you are playing a game or having a seizure... or both?"

Not only that, but... I... I don't want to admit it... but I have a Kinect.

Why? No, I had no part in this purchase, I can assure you.

For the 2010 Christmas, I asked for the newer Xbox 360 Christmas combo pack at EB games.

Something like this

This was because I had a 20 GB memory unit that was quickly filling up, and I would like to get a wireless internet adapter, because we have wireless internet as well. Not only that, but I also was going to ask for a second game controller, so getting the second console would've saved a lot of money. I even added it together: The system combo pack, including a game (I think Assassin's Creed 2 and/or Alan Wake), a controller, about 120GB of internal memory, and wireless capabilities, was to cost about $300. Buying the controller alone, ($60), the memory ($80), the wireless adapter ($80) was to cost only $80 less, and I'd also get a sleeker, new system with one game.

I thought this all through, waiting for the day.

Oh. Before I go on, just note that my Christmas occurs 11 months early on January 7th instead of December 25th, because of Religious differences.

Anyway, the day came, and I certainly got my console! I was very happy... until I saw the "added features"

"KINECT VERSION", it said. "4GB MEMORY" it said. "NO CONECTABILITY TO PREVIOUS MEMORY UNITS" it said.

The middle finger itself

I asked my mom, "Hey uhh... Mom? What... what happened?" I didn't want to show my frustration, because there are billions of kids everywhere else who'd kill for an Xbox.

"Oh. Well, I went to Best Buy..." mistake #1, "... and the guy there said to me..." mistake #2: get help from people who want your money, "...that the Kinect was next best thing, and will revolutionize the way we game..." mistake #3: getting sucked in by sales gimmicks, "...Also, it cost $100 dollars more, so I thought it was better..." mistake #4: not following instructions, "... So that is why I got it"

A day later, I told her, "Mom, this is not at all what I asked for..." stating my reasons for the purchase. I also made a 3-paragraph essay revolving around why I hate the Kinect.

Her reply was, "Oh Stevan, stop complaining. It will probably be better for you that you move around while playing video games instead of sitting on your butt all day.” the iron defense of parents and motion video games. "I think it will be revolutionary and you should keep it... BUT if you REALLY want to return it, then do It.", another of her sneaky tactics to get her way: giving me grief. I can see that she thought that the whole family could play the thing, since it is based for families, but when I'm the youngest member of the family at age 17 at the time, who REALLY wants to dance around to "Walking on Sunshine"?

I stupidly, didn't return it, and I really regret doing that.

So, I have this piece of s**t stashed away, hopefully rusting from it's absolute uselessness, while I'm still using my used 2007 Xbox 360 arcade which still works like a charm: No red rings, no problems, no nothing. Not only that, but I found a way to hard-wire the console to the internet, so the whole wireless situation could've been evaded if I had only known about the layout of our electrical wiring in the house... Oops, my fault there.

So, what is your take on the Kinect/Move?
Do you have one? Do you like it? Do you now hate me for my hateful words?
Share you opinion!

Republican Candidates!... What Fun!...

So, I'll keep this brief (unlike any of my posts :P).

I was looking at some of the Republican Candidates for 2012 after hearing this whole debacle with Rick Perry. After looking at them, there are only really two people I can see winning the chance:

Mitt Romney or Rudy Guliani

I have absolutely no idea what their campaign would be, nor what how competent they actually are, but by simply watching the news a few times a month, and listening to what they have to say, those two seem the most qualified for... well, anything!

Please, PLEASE don't try to convince me Sarah Palin is in anyway right for the job. Sure, she represents the common person, but that's not what a president should be. They should be staunch businessmen who have real-world experience with things like economics and politics, two things Romney and Guliani seem to represent (at least in their image).

What's you opinion on this? Who do you think will be the next president next republican candidate? Because if it's going to be another John McCain, then it'd be time for me to jump on the Obamand Wagon.

Greivance List - Microsoft Word 2010 Starter and some BS I can't understand

So much for new technology: Why couldn't Microsoft emulate the ease of Office 2003 into Office 2010?

So, a few months ago, in June, I got a brand-new laptop. It is a Sony VAIO... something… something laptop, and it uses Windows 7 as its Operating System.

Personally, I love Windows XP much better than Vista or 7, and I could tell you I'm not the only one: the look of the desktop/toolbars, the ease of getting for point A to point B, the fact that most games still work on it, and the fact that some older games don't work on the later OS's are just a few reasons why.

Not only that, but the laptop is kind of built for Sony products, something’s I don't really have (such as a Playstaion 3).

So, you can tell where this is going.
I started using it when school started and so far, it's had about 4 problems. Allow me to list them off:

1. I've been attempting to get all of my "School-Worthy" Computer Games on the laptop. These games are older and can easily be played without a CD. That would include Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, Warcraft 3, Age of Empires 2, The Sims 1, etc. Unfortunately, this computer is made without any regard to the past, and they don't work... or at least, very well. Most of the time, the problem is solved by changing the compatibility to Windows XP Service Package. However, sometimes, the games just won't operate. Halo 1, for instance, just... isn't... working. The problem could easily be caused by the No-CD patches I get, but right now, I'm blaming Windows 7.

2. My trackpad is the worst thing ever. Every single thing about it spells "C-R-A-P". There is not one positive thing I can say.

Ok, so you have you trackpad, right? Where is it, basically?

Right in the middle of the entire laptop, right?

Well, some genius at Sony thought, "Derrr... let's... umm... put the trackpad all the way to the left, right under D and those letters. It's not like anyone uses those keys for anything Her Der!"
So, anytime I'd be typing, my wrist would touch the pad, move the cursor, magically click without telling me, highlight my work, and delete most of it while I continue to type. Great, eh?

Not only that, but the trackpad is self-conscience. It knows that I hate it, and it knows that it is in a stupid place. So therefore, it revolts by clicking whenever and wherever it feels like.
If I'd leave the trackpad alone for a moment, it'd click anywhere without warning. While trying to attempt to type ANYTHING, it's says "NOPE!" and just clicks and clicks and clicks. However, when it's not clicking, it thinks that it is holding down the mouse button, constantly dragging items from one point to another without me touching the buttons!
I finally resorted to disabling the trackpad and bringing a mouse to all my classes. This is a little inefficient, but at least this mouse isn't on permanent caffeine high.

3. Why does it have Norton Anti-Virus on it? Why does it expire? Why doesn't it last forever? Why is it such a damned annoyance? Why does it keep sending message after message telling me to spend $100 a week plus a kidney to re-activate it?
So therefore, I said, "Screw you, Norton. You smell, and you are useless. Get out of my face". I then got AVG Full Anti-Virus, and it is working... I think.
So, I should also blame my blind parents for purchasing a computer without any full programs on it, however, I'll blame Windows 7 again. BUT OH! This brings me to my main point here!

4. MICROSOFT FRIGGIN' WORD 2010 STARTER, YOU ARE A MESSENGER OF HELL AND YOUR PROGRAMMING WAS DOCUMENTED IN BRIMSTONE.
It really sucks that once you've paid $2,000 or so on a brand-new laptop which is going to be used for writing documents that you don't have the full Office package.
Not only that, but Microsoft thought it would be a great idea to have to force Office Starter to be continuously connected to the internet. See, I primarily use my laptop at High School, and the wireless server there is extremely restrictive as to what websites you can and cannot go to. Therefore, it sees Microsoft Office Starter as some sort of illegal action and stops it from connecting.
So, what happens is that when I'm going to right click a misspelled word, or when I go to add a chart, the entire program freezes. Not only that, but the auto-save feature freezes the program as well.

Do you know how annoying it is to re-write research notes for the Yakuza after 20 or so minutes of work, only the have the same program fail again?

It's lead me to hate Office 2010, resort to using Notepad, and just do my homework at home on my nice, clean, 7 year old Windows XP computer that has had no Office problems. But the problem is, I get really distracted home and can't fully do much work without resorting to playing some sort of video game. So therefore, my work output for this year has become very poor.

And that is why, mommy and daddy, you have to get me a new computer. No wait, don't do that. Just give me $800 and allow me to do it myself. At least then I'd know what I'm doing and not put the fate of my education lie in the hands of an unproductive, stupid computer.

This has been another Grievance List entry. Thanks for your time.

NFL Standings - Half Time

None of you would've probably guessed, but I kind of like American Football.

I personally like watching CFL more, because not only is it a little bit faster-paced, but the Hamilton Tiger Cats are above-average enough that you can still get tickets for dirt-cheap (I think are sold for about $10 each? I'm unsure). However, I haven't gone to watch a game in about a year, and I am not planning any time soon.

But one thing I love looking at is team standings.
Before I continue, you all have to understand that I write most of my blog entries while I'm working at Bizclip. This is because I'm supposed to scour the internet for blog-posts and put them onto their news website, http://www.newscliptv.com/. Therefore, I asked my manager if I could make my own blog, and the rest is history.

So, while I'm working at Bizclip, I take a little bit of a break to look at NFL standings. I haven't looked at them... well, ever. During the morning, I only have a few minutes to watch SportCenter while eating breakfast, so I don't document the numbers, but I'm highly interested in seeing how some teams are doing.

So, after a quick analysis, I think the world will end in 2012: The Toronto Maple Leafs might win the Stanley Cup this year!

Ha-ha! But seriously, the stats for the NFL are a true mystery.

First of all, Detroit, Buffalo, San Francisco and Houston are in the top-tier. This is a definite surprise, because... well, when was the last time Detroit won 6 games? I think I heard they've won more games than they have in the last 3 years!
Also, Buffalo has always done poorly since the early 2000s, and you'd think a team with no stars wouldn't do well, but NOPE! They're pulling victories out of thin air, and not only that, but they are winning with good scores! They are also in the same division as New England and New York Jets, two teams that, in the past few years, have done well.

The rest of the stats are truthfully unimportant, except for a certain team that seems to be in the playoffs every year: Indianapolis, which seems to be holding onto a strong 0-9. Now, I thought, "Aww, come on, Peyton Manning. You can't be doing this bad!” Well, he hasn't been doing badly, since he hasn't played a game this season! Not only that, but TE Dallas Clark had received a season-ending injury. With such losses as that, one can easily see how a tam could fall apart.

Well, I suppose that ends my NFL analysis. I apologize for my amateur statements and research for any of those who are insulted.

WASD Syndrome

Oh dear, what is this? Some new Super-Virus that plans to kill 90% of the world’s population? A new label for a mental illness?

Well, allow me to demonstrate. All I want you to do is just go crazy on your keyboard and just type as many keys as you can in a short amount of time.

Ok, good? Start!
afaasfwafawgasdwafaswfwg
Stop. Now, what did you get?

If you get something similar to what i just typed above (you have mostly a's, f's, w's, s's, g's, e's or d's), then you've got WASD syndrome.
However, that is usually an inconsistent test. The best way to know is if you play First-Person-Shooters on the Computer.

See, WASD syndrome automatically places your left hand around the four letters, W, A, S, and D, because you've played so many games that use these keys as the movement for the game. Almost all shooter games use this as their default movement keys because it is the most convenient position for your hand to be in: Your hand isn't clustered by the mouse, and you have quick access to other keys used in the game (usually 'E' is used for using items and 'R' is used for reloading, etc.).

Where am I going with this?

Actually, that's all I wanted to say. It's kind of like your fun-fact of the day.

Tell your friends they have WASD syndrome and give them the test.

Plastic: Is anybody worried???

As fossil fuels begin to diminish, I'm surprised people haven't started getting worried about one of the most common products in the world.

Look around you. Now look here. Now allow me to stop copying the Old Spice commercials....

What do you see? It is definitely a varied image, but one thing that is constant is that you have a product somewhere in your line of sight made out of plastic. Maybe your keyboard, of the mouse, or the Computer Screen, or the computer tower, or the case of your laptop, or your desk...

Now consider how many of these items are reliant on plastic. Now imagine that all disappearing in about 50 years. Now also imagine the price of all these items exploding in about 30 or so years.

Am I the only one who's paranoid about this? Shouldn't we be thinking about new ways to create plastic? Shouldn't we be conserving our plastic and using more paper-based products instead? I am very scared right now...

Now, there is probably a whole secret circle of inventors who have already invented new alternatives: those items made out of corn, electric cars, etc. However, with the absence of one product that almost literally holds our society together, there will be problems.

Perhaps I am getting a little bit too frightened, and maybe with the invention of all these alternatives, we'll still have plastic for an extra 50 years or so, but still: it makes you think about all those cheap toys and un-reusable packaging that get thrown out so easily. (Like that hard plastic used around electrical hardware packaging that may as well have been made in hell, and requires scissors and a steady hand to open).

So, when CTV or GLOBAL or FOX or ABC start talking about a shortage on plastic, I called it first... kind of.

Volunteer Hamilton Video Submission

How many of you make videos?

Now, how long does it take you to make these videos?

See, Last week, I was extremely busy making a video for Volunteer Hamilton, a video contest trying to demonstrate the goodness of volunteering. It took me about 21 hours to create the video.

This contest was run by Bizclip, a company that I work for as a Co-Op student. They asked me to make a video, to both see my potential and for a chance to win a prize.

Fortunately for me, my time was not wasted: I won the contest!

if you want to watch the video, please click one of these links:

http://newscliptv.com/videos/infomercial_vh.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uykhn27W8M

If you're wondering, this was near-entirely done by me. I got some assistance from people working at Bizclip (including help with the voice-over, time to work on this, and assistance with some green-screened scenes).

For all of those who voted for me, thanks a lot!