You Just Know Somebody Has Thought of Doing This....

I know I don't post here much because of other blogs I have going on but, I do like to throw down a funny video or random piece of crap now and then.

I think this video qualifies...

Near Useless Request for Information

Today I received an email from the Idaho Department of Labor with a request for information from one of my State Senators. My Senator is collecting Veteran's stories regarding interaction with the Veteran's Administration.

While the focus was obviously on medical issues, the survey being used to collect information was about the VA in general, so I had to relay my only real interaction with the VA, which would be my "fun" with the VRAP program.

I won't go too much into detail since you can always search "VRAP" on this blog, but to sum it up in a sentence: I took on debt for a worthless Associates Degree because I was promised special employment assistance once I completed my degree, but there is no special assistance.

Of course, wouldn't you know, after typing the much longer version out and hitting "submit" the survey database errors out. Seriously?! I guess the information wasn't really that important.

Fortunately, and I'm probably pushing things using that term, I half-expected this and did a little Ctrl+A & Ctrl+C on that form field before hitting submit. I just pasted it into an email for the good Senator, but I doubt I'll get anything more than a form letter from some intern.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

On several levels, things have taken a turn for the worst for me lately. I'm not divorced, homeless, or dying, so "worst" is a completely relative term. A double-whammy of bad job news yesterday either hasn't fully hit me, or the news, again relatively speaking, isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be.

Right now I'm waiting for my wife to wake up so I can try and make her breakfast with some fresh eggs our friends with chickens gave us. I'm looking forward to some French Toast and trying not to eat before then....and I'm hungry.

Now this isn't a bad problem to be having and I realize that.

To fill the time I'm going through my normal "daily" interwebs file and reading another list post from Dave at Blogography. Now I'm a complete sucker for these things and when he posted these 50 questions from Liz from the Internet, well....Monkey See Monkey Do....

Waste of my Time Job Interview

Today I had a job "interview", normally a source of eager anticipation, possibly even excitement. This "interview" did little more than piss me off because it was largely a waste of my time.

Halfway through this "interview" I'm told that I don't meet the basic requirements for the job I applied for......

....wait...what?

I'm not 100% sure what pisses me off more, the fact I wasted time applying for a job that didn't bother to put their required minimum qualifications in the job posting, or the fact they called me in for a interview when they knew I wasn't what they wanted.

Now to be "fair" the interview was being held by a staffing agency and they just wanted to add me to their list of people available for work. Now this doesn't take the edge off any.

Another thing to add to the list is the fact that this position required HR experience in a manufacturing start-up. Holy crap is that specific or what? Now that would have been helpful to know before I spent all the time applying for the job, must less driving across town for nothing.

Click-Bait

I've been seeing far too many posts that are little more than click-bait, trying to get you to "like" or otherwise comment on some inane drivel. I figured I'd just cut out the middle-man....

Funny Homage to a Stupid Meme Song

I fondly remember...way back in the day...that staying up "late" on a Saturday night was measured by if you managed to watch Saturday Night Live. My curfew in High School was before the ending of SNL, so getting to watch the whole show was really being up late.

Of course, like so many things, it seems that the SNL of my youth was better than it is now, but I think that is just as much on me as it is on them.

One thing I've always enjoyed were the SNL shorts. These filmed bits started creeping into the "live" show decades ago. I fondly remember Mr. Bill at a time when kids my age would say, "Mr. Who?" Of course these same kids didn't have a clue who Dr. Who was, but that is a different issue for a different post.

I didn't stay up to watch SNL....I'm getting too old, it isn't "live" in my time zone anyway, and it's unfair to my wife who has to get up early AM to go to work. Luckily for me NBC likes to put the shorts online so I can see some/all of the show later.

Awesome YouTube Commercial

It has been forever since I've laughed so hard at a commercial, which is surprising only because I'm inundated with commercials these days.

Usually I just skip by the commercials on places like YouTube, but this commercial......even at a couple of minutes, made me laugh so hard in such a juvenile way that I had to find it online and share it with all of my male friends. Most of my female friends may actually be interested in this product, but would never enjoy this video to the extent that my 12 year-old self does.

Please.....enjoy with my compliments.

iOS 7 Music All Kinds of FUBAR

I went ahead an updated my iPad to the new iOS7 and to say that I'l less than thrilled is rather.....polite.

Overall it seems like a cosmetic upgrade, but truth be told I haven't really been playing with my assorted apps much. I do like my notifications showing up prominently when I turn on my iPad, but I'd gladly go back to the earlier OS, and may try to downgrade (I hope it is possible) just to get back the music player.

Seriously...the new player is all kinds of FUBAR. You get one basic layout and can cycle through the various ways that one layout can be organized. Now on the old OS I usually used the album layout so I could see a lot of album cover art and quickly choose which album I want to listen to. Now I have to scroll through a long list of albums, sorted by artist, to find what I want because most of the screen is wasted white-space. I looked at the settings and there isn't a way to get a decent album view.

To top it all off, all of a sudden I have a bunch of new music on my iPad that I never put there! If I wanted to listen to new artists I could use the fricken new Radio feature. Dumping a bunch of albums/songs in my iPad is over the line. It leads to longer downloads and now I have to connect my iPad to my computer and manually delete this crap. By "crap" I mean music I never asked to be exposed to. Some of these groups might be something I'd listen to, but not if it is forced onto me. I don't have one sing Country song or artist on my iPad....or at least I didn't until today.

I just checked....they didn't change my layouts on the laptop with the new iTunes update....

Thank you Apple for making your products less user-friendly....and just less friendly in general.

EDIT/UPDATE: I cannot remove these unwanted songs from my device. Not only is there no button or gesture to delete them, they don't show up in iTunes either. To make matters interesting, my wife's iPad doesn't do the same thing. I've tried unsyncing all of my music and then re-establishing the sync to the songs I want, but that doesn't work.

What a PITA.

What Should We Buy?

For those of you thinking about maybe....possibly....kind of getting a next generation console this year, no doubt you've been pondering the great PS4 vs. XBONE debate.

Hopefully this NSFW Bert & Ernie Mashup will help you decide....

....ok, it won't help with anything, but I found it amusing all the same.

Two Geeky Video Game Shorts

Today was a rich video-game video day thanks to the fine folks at Kotaku.

They featured two videos today, one was a cool fan-film making fun of the venerable Resident Evil franchise. It basically makes fun of some of the absurdity of the video games, but I think it is largely still approachable for those that haven't played any of the games.

The other is actually part of a series (ok, episode two of a two-part series) that looks like it could have been made by the creators of Portal. It it really well done, but if you aren't familiar with the game this short is probably lost on you. The animation is good though. I'll post the vid for the 1st episode instead of the one released today.

Enjoy....

BOHICA

Right now I don't know if I'm more disappointed or outraged, but seeing how one emotion is essentially a depressant and the other a stimulant I'm guessing that I'm close to an even keel between the two extremes.

It isn't a secret that I've been pretty much unemployed for a couple of years now. During this time I managed to finish my Human Resources Degree, get the appropriate level of certification, and I went back to a local community college to earn an Associate's Degree in Library and Information Science.

Now this brings me to a total of four degrees: 2 Associate's (Information Systems Management & Library and Information Science) as well as 2 Bachelor's (General Business Management and Human Resources Management). A reasonably smart person would wonder why I would be dumb enough to go back for a fricken Associate's degree when I already had two more (relatively) advanced degrees. If you've already got a BA and a BS, the normal next step is to work on a Master's, not an Associate's.

Something for Nothing...

In going through my Twitter feed I was reminded about what I found to be a humorous, if not pathetic, attempt by someone to get some free work out of me.

Randall Milholland (@choochoobear) is a webcomic I have been following for years. At times he seems a bit "out there", but I think most of us are, some just do a worse job of hiding this fact.

This morning he went on a bit of a rant about what people expect regarding artists contributions:

Major Munchkin Reporting for Duty at Monsters University

A couple years ago at GenCon I was helping out at the KenzerCo Booth  tearing it down after the show was over. Across the way the guys from Steve Jackson Games were tearing down their booth and they hadn't put away the Munchkin costume yet. A good buddy of mine is one of the Men In Black and demos a lot of Munchking(he actually introduced us to the game). I so wanted to have a picture of me wearing the Munchkin head.

I was warned, several times in fact, that the inside of the head would be quite nasty because it hadn't been cleaned, but I just had to do it.

Fast-forward a couple of years and I'm looking for a picture to use to make a "fake" ID card. The new Monsters University movie comes out in a couple of weeks and the advertising is up in the theaters. One thing they had was this big blank Monsters University ID card on the window. The idea was you could stand behind it and get your photo taken, but the placement of the window sticker was such that you couldn't actually get a picture taken.

Something tells me he is a PE Teacher

I thought it was a funny idea and assumed there would have to be something online to do the same Monsters University ID maker. It is a simple website and it took me a while of tweaking the Munchkin head photo to make it work, but it came out the way I envisioned it.
thing. Sure enough, they have a

Now to just get it printed and laminated.

Tiny Towers Game Exploit: Free Bucks!

A couple of days ago  I discovered an exploit for one of my games. As far as I can tell I'm the first to write about it. This is not a cheat or a hack, but a bug exploit.

I play a couple games on my iPad  and one of them is Tiny Tower, from NimbleBit. Tiny Tower is one of those free games that makes some money off of advertising and "micro-transactions" for players buying a leg-up in the game. Usually you can spend a buck or two, or more likely $10-$20 if you get hooked on the game, obtaining some valuable resources.

Tiny Tower is a building game where you build a tower, stocking it with people and shops. Your goal is to build the highest tower and get your residents into their dream jobs in your shops. Your workers earn coins you spend on building and stocking and there are in-game "bucks" that you can also spend to boost things along. You get these bucks when you build a new floor, fully stock a shop, complete missions, and when it is a resident's birthday.

Recently NimbleBit introduced another way to get bucks, which is by watching a short 10-15 second video for another game or product. You can usually only watch maybe six to ten of these little short ads before the opportunity for free bucks dries up until the next day.

Before

I discovered a way to get unlimited bucks without having to hack anything whatsoever. After the advertising video plays the game presents a final screen shot of the ad with a close button and a repeat button. On your first free buck ad of the day just keep hitting the repeat button to show the same ad again. You can just keep watching that same ad over and over again as long as you like. As long as your iPad doesn't get shut off, like you forget to hit repeat and it goes to sleep, and you don't hit the close button, you will continue to earn bucks, one per viewing.

Unless NimbleBit gets paid for these ads I expect them to fix this bug in a

After

future game update, but for now it works like a charm. I've been hitting the repeat button over and over while I'm working on this blog post and I earned 142 bucks! (More time was spent on making the intro graphic than the post itself)

I forgot to mention that after you finally close out the ads you'll have to hit the "Thanks for Watching" continue dialogue button about a bazillion time....ok probably just once for every video you had watched. If you mash the hell out of it trying to get them to close eventually you'll finish and end up hitting the button for purchasing some bucks. You can back out of that transaction easily enough, but there is the chance your button mashing locks things up because of the attempt to purchase bucks. A simple re-boot will un-glitch it.

This isn't cheating the game at all because you aren't doing anything other than playing the game as it is presented. heck, I'd barely call it an exploit, but my guess is that the player was only expected to get between five and ten extra bucks a day from watching the videos, so the ability to watch 142 in one setting has to be a bug.

Textastrophe

This falls under both "WTF" and "Awesomesauce" categories because it has me laughing heartily and scratching my head trying to figure out just what kind of moronic genius came up with this idea.

Textastrophe is personalized trolling at its best. This guy/girl/comedic robot finds people's cell number from advertising and then starts a dialogue with them that quickly spirals out of control.

I really don't want to post any spoilers for these dialogues, but you can see them all at the Textastrophe website, just after a short intro from the comedian itself:
"Next time you post your phone number in a public place, think again. This is a collection of text messages I've exchanged with people who have done just that.

textastrophe@gmail.com"

Enjoy...

Stoopid Buddy Studios

I'm about 1/2 way through the fun that is two weeks of finals projects and final exams to finish off this degree. I have one more project and two more exams left. With a bit of luck (having problems scheduling one of the exams) I'll be free and clear by next Tuesday afternoon.

Until then I'm suffering along, more so today than usual. I was up until 3 AM finishing one project and I had to get up at 7:30 AM to go in for an early morning Toastmasters meeting. When I got home I finished a second class project.

Right now I'm trying to stay awake so I don't sleep for the next 16 hours. A good way of doing that is to keep engaged on a mental level. This is where some funny videos come in.

Yes, I realize that I've probably been posting too many videos this last week.  I've been busy.

Busy is good....busy helps pay the bills. Busy also makes me share more awesome videos. Pretty much anything from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios is worth checking out. I'm going to watch some of these again and then maybe get some Robot Chicken action on Netflix.


 Some of the same guys.

Spock Vs. Spock

Even though I should be working on a couple of difficult class projects due Friday, I still start off my morning with a quick hop around the interwebs. At first I thought this video was pretty "meh", but ....well, I should let you discover that on your own, spoiler-free.

I cannot find the site where I came across this this morning, but I was able to find it again on YouTube.

Definitely worth a couple minutes of your time:

Iron Man/Skyrim Mashup

I'm a bit busy this week with most of my final projects for school due this week, but I do like to start off my mornings with a quick trip through the websites in my "daily" folder.

I hadn't been able to go through my subscribed YouTube channels, so I have to give Kotaku some credit for showing me this cool Iron Man/Skyrim mashup today. I might have found it on my own next week...but I might not have.

Odd Twitter Debate About Gun Control

I've been loosely following a little Twitter debate between Adam Baldwin (@adamsbaldwin) and Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey ).  Now, in the interest of fairness (in case you don't usually read my blog) I'm much more in agreement with Adam than Jim.

I've blogged about vaccinations before, and I've blogged about gun control a couple of times. In my opinion some of the biggest issues are that too many people are talking out their ass on the issue of gun control and realistically don't know what they are talking about.

Now, this really isn't a problem for Jim Carrey since he's actually made a living out of talking out his ass.  In watching the unfolding back-and-forth between Adam and Jim, I was introduced to a couple of videos, one from Jim and another from  Remy Munasifi.  I don't know Remy, but after seeing his video I'd like to subscribe to his newsletter.

Part of what amuses me most about this ongoing "exchange" is the fact that it is occurring on Twitter.

I don't know what you see when you compare these two actors, but what I see is one who actually uses Twitter to connect to people and another who simply uses it as a stage.  Seriously......only following one person? Why would anyone use Twitter to follow one person?!

I don't get it......but before I ramble on even more, here are the two videos.  You can pick which one you like the best.  I won't judge.....

Cold Dead Hand with Jim Carrey from Jim Carrey

Jim's Latest Attempt at Another 15'

Edit: I've noticed that Jim has his song available for sale on iTunes.  Since this is available for sale, with no mention of it being a fundraiser for some appropriate charity, it makes me question what is the true purpose of this "debate" and subsequent video & song.

Zombie Combat Club

I have a personal theory....well, actually more of a premise for a short story regarding the glut of zombie-related offerings as of late, but I'm thinking of saving that for NaNoWriMo (much) later this year.

The thing is I'm not a writer.  I can come up with ideas and might be able to get those points across, but not so much in the written form.

Anyway, that will be for much, much later.  Today I bring this about for your amusement: Zombie Combat Club.  This is one of those things that just needs to be experienced, so by all means, poke around their website.  If you just want a highlight I can do no better than to re-post their own explanation from the "About Us" page:


The Zombie Combat Club has a single objective - to educate the public on effective blade, bludgeon, and unarmed combat techniques to eradicate the threat of the living dead. We are not a school, dojo, or military unit. We are an open civilian group dedicated to providing accurate combat theory and education to fight the walking dead without a firearm, and survive.

As the civilian outreach division of IUCS, the Zombie Combat Club is committed to the distribution of accurate, unbiased information to the public on hand-to-hand combat tactics to counter attacks from the living dead.