Stolen Car in Calgary Turns into Great Story

Instead of paraphrasing the entire posting on this forum I’ll just give you the link as I won’t be able to do it justice.  It is somewhat of a long read but I really enjoyed it.  Here it is.

“Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer”

  Wow, my last posts have been on articles that I have seen at Wired.com.  For some reason they have interested me.  Apparently some people used some javascript code on a message board for epilepsy support that had used “flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users”.  At first I thought this was an April Fools joke but then I realized it isn’t April Fools yet.  Maybe I’m wrong but this might be the first physical attack someone has done by the Internet.  Unless of course you include some children watching Pokemon online.

 The article is here.

Anti-Emo Riots?!

 

Headline from Wired.com: Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico

While I don’t agree with the violence against the emo kids maybe an agreement can be reached.  Maybe the violence will stop if they quit listening to Morrissey?  That reminds me of an essay from Chuck Klosterman’s IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas  where he talks of the popularity of Morrisey amongst Latinos. 

Why would anyone be violent because of the music someone listens to?  I don’t and cannot understand that.

Kristin Davis Sextape and Publicity

Apparently there is a “leaked” Kristin Davis sextape according to WWTDD.com.  It seems like so many celebrities have these tapes and for some reason they are found right before something is released to garner publicity.  In this case it’s the Sex and the City movie.  I don’t think many guys are going to see it and if they do it is with their girlfriend.  I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch this show because my girlfriend at the time was obsessed with it.  I personally thought nothing could get more painful to watch than the show “Friends” but I was wrong.

It seems like celebrities are using sex tapes to get their washed up careers back into the spotlight (or to get into the spotlight).  For examples, see Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, China, etc…  It just seems like a “coincidence” that this video suddenly emerges right before the release of the bound to be shitty Sex in the City movie.  Or maybe I am just too much of a pessimist.

Tent Cities Spring Up in Los Angeles

 I was sent this short clip yesterday and it really shocked me.  Although at times I believe some people make bad decisions which lead to situations like this, when 60,000+ homes are repossessed in a month something more is going on.  Maybe the economy is falling again?

Sex Sells and Sensationalism

It is a well known fact that sex sells.  I posted earlier today about Lindsay Lohan and other celebrities in regards to Playboy Magazine without putting much thought into how many hits I would get.  While my hits aren’t through the roof, I would say that 90-95% of the traffic I have got in the past 7-8 hours has been from searches dealing with “lindsay lohan playboy pictures”.  As a side note, I once got a hit from someone searching for “two girls one cup full video” which gave them the post I did on YouTube and 15 Minutes of Fame.  I wonder if they were disappointed.

I don’t know if I have said the before but I am doing this blog for a class on Sociology and Cyberspace.  Hopefully I will continue it after the class is done as I enjoy doing it.  In class on Wednesday we were talking about ways of increasing “hits” to our sites as there is a 5% bonus to the top 5 blogs in terms of hits.  This would be a nice bonus but I’m not trying to actively seek such traffic by writing on top 10 lists, sex, celebrities or current events.  I find it more enjoyable and a bigger a challenge to write on things that are interest to me.  

This isn’t to say that I am attacking people who do these things.  In fact, more power to them for knowing what people want and being able to write on it.  Instead I find that I like to write on topics that I enjoy and they quite often aren’t the most popular things.  The writing of this blog is enjoyable and challenging.  I have written two other blogs and my style on those blogs are quite different.  To be blunt they consist[ed] of offensive writing often laced with profanities.  With this blog I am trying not to swear as much.

Sensationalism sells and I think this idea can be transferred over to some blogs.  I don’t watch a lot of tv news anymore and don’t read the newspaper as much as I should.  The last few times I’ve watched it I can’t tell if it is news or Entertainment Tonight or a bastardization of both. 

Lindsay Lohan, Playboy Magazine and Other Celebrities

 

According to a New York Post gossip columnist (which we all know is a reliable source for information) Playboy has offered Lindsay Lohan to pose for its magazine.  Apparently she appeared in some magazine doing a famous Marilyn Monroe piece where she posed nude.  Obviously I’m not going to post these pictures or links to them but if you are so inclined to find them a simple Google search will probably show them up.

Once again this may only be a rumor.  I remember when they offered Britney Spears quite a bit of cash and she refused to do it.  Now it seems like every few days there are posts and pictures on celebrity blogs (such as The Superficial and What Would Tyler Durden Do) of her and Lindsay Lohan that involve them wearing minimal, if any clothing.  Some of these posts are more explicit then what would appear if they did agree to pose for Playboy.  However since they are Hollywood celebrities they will probably not agree to do the magazine even though more explicit photos exist of them.  Why?  Most likely they will say because of “integrity” reasons but I think it’s more likely that they are Hollywood numb skulls.  I mean, Lindsay Lohan is on her way to being washed up if she isn’t already.  Want proof?  Watch I Know Who Killed Me.  I’ve seen better acting done in Junior High drama classes.  Who am I kidding, I didn’t even watch the entire movie. 

In my opinion it is someone’s choice to do what they want with their body if they are an adult.  However, it seems like washed up celebrities such as Tiffany and Debbie Gibson agree to do Playboy only when they are trying to revive their career.  Earlier on they refuse to do such things but when they need the career boost they do it.  It seems like everytime they agree to do these shoots they say it’s because Playboy agrees to do shoots that are classy and artful.    Alright, fair enough.  But why didn’t they agree to do them earlier on when they were offered and only decide to pose when their careers are at the same spot Corey Haim’s is? 

Matt Good, Drunken Jackasses and “Freebird”

In November I had the opportunity to work at and see Matt Good perform an acoustic concert in Medicine Hat.  As my friend is a co-owner of a live audio company, I also had the opportunity to see him do his soundcheck in exchange for helping him load out some gear after the show.  It was a great experience to see Matt perform “Born Losers” at soundcheck with only ten people being in the theatre.  It was very intimate.

The actual concert was great as well.  Except of course, there were drunken jackasses yelling out during the show.  This venue seats around 400-500 people and 3 people were booted out during the concert.  A friend of mine saw Matt Good perform at the Jack Singer in Calgary which is much larger and no one was kicked out.  During the show in Medicine Hat one person kept screaming out random remarks or comments between songs until Matt would respond and then the drunken audience member would keep the conversation rolling like it was a Q&A until he was booted.  The other two people who were kicked out were just being obnoxious.

I believe that the audience banter with musicians can partially be blamed on Lynyrd Skynyrd.  On their live album “One More from the Road” the band asks the audience “What song do you want to hear?” and the audience replies “Freebird!“.  This has lead to many drunken audiences screaming out “Freebird” at non-Lynyrd Skynyrd concerts.  It may have been funny the first few times but now it’s about as funny as “Git-R-Done“.  Because of this, Lynyrd Skynyrd has led to audiences thinking that they can and should be allowed to talk with musicians even when they aren’t asked to.

As a side story, a few years ago my friends and I would go to Boston Pizza to drink.  As we were drunken jackasses, we would go to the jukebox and choose songs that were long just to annoy people who were there.  The live version of “Freebird” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and “Moby Dick” from How the West was Won were classics to choose.  After doing this a few times a waitress finally got so pissed off and that she just unplugped the jukebox.  We stopped doing this afterwards.

YouTube and 15 Minutes of Fame

YouTube has became a place where people try to achieve fame.  Much like Andy Warhol’s quote that “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” YouTube helps give people an outlet to try and achieve this.  Some of the times, the videos are so absurd that you don’t know if the person was trying to be serious.

 Here’s an example:

Her other videos are here: http://uk.youtube.com/user/keiko37

For some reason I find her videos cringe worthy.  I am home alone right now and I am embarrassed to even be watching this.  It’s not disgusting in a 2girls1cup way but in the fact that some people are trying so hard to get attention just for a few minutes that they will go to lengths like this.

Castro Resigns

Castro has resigned today as Cuba’s President.  According to MSNBC.COM ”President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition, though he doubts that would come about under the rule of another Castro. The State Department denigrated the change as a “transfer of authority and power from dictator to dictator light.””  So basically the trading embargo will continue.  Also I wonder if anything will happen concerning Guantanamo Bay.

I have a feeling that some people in the Southern United States still believe the Cold War is going on and have a “better dead than red” mentality. 

What interested me most about that MSNBC.com article was the above picture of Castro.  I noticed he’s wearing an Adidas vest which I find odd (although it is red).  I’ll admit that it is pretty sad that this is what got most of my attention in the article but I find it weird that a Socialist leader is wearing clothing made by one of the largest sports manufacturers in the world.