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November 29, 2007

Uh... Wow

Warning!!! The following commercial is insanely graphic, powerful and (like JJ says) puts the Safe Happens stuff to shame. If you want to see more, then you're weird.

Posted by Seth at 08:54 PM | Comments (5)

November 27, 2007

Dear Houston Nutt

Houston Nutt resignsYesterday you resigned as head coach of the football team at the University of Arkansas. While many feel, including myself, that this was two-years in the making, I think we need to remember what you’ve done for the program in the last 10 years:

The bigger problem that I (and others) see, is that during the same 10 years, you also accomplished:

It’s tough in Razorback country. It’s a good-ol’ boys network. The truth of it, though, is that we (the fans) want better results. It seemed that your ego came in the way of trusting your coaches to do their jobs. When you finally seemed to, we got our biggest win of the season – but it was a little too late.

For the record, I thought you were a great coach and a masterful motivator. It was just the last three years that doomed you and half of it was off the field.

You’ll do well wherever you land and I hope you find success there, too.

Thanks for coaching the Razorbacks back into the competitive landscape of college football. We appreciate most of what you’ve accomplished.

Hog Callingly Yours,
Seth Gunderson

PS - Do you REALLY think you should take $3M+ for quitting a job? If you leave most of that in your office once you’re gone, we’d completely understand.

Posted by Seth at 08:01 AM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2007

Going Beyond Batman Begins

Heath Ledger as The JokerI remember thinking, “this is one of the best comic book adaptations ever,” when the credits were rolling for “Batman Begins.” I was even more excited about “The Dark Knight” coming out next summer when trailers started appearing for it. The cool thing is that the marketing team didn’t stop there. In fact, they’ve been quite busy.

I Believe in Harvey Dent
The first effort was a simple vanity URL – IBelieveInHarveyDent.com – that was just a political poster for the soon-to-be villain/anti-hero Two-Face. But right on the heels of that site came IBelieveInHarveyDentToo.com, which featured an email sign-up form. The cool part was that every time someone signed up to receive news, one pixel was removed from the bigger photo to reveal the first public photo of the Joker. Now when you go to the site, it says, “Page not found.” Instead, just hit cntl-a (to select all the text). Coolness.

Why So Serious?
The second effort was WhySoSerious.com, which was an encrypted message that invited users to upload photos from around the US to reveal clues. Don’t bother trying to play it, because it has been solved already and it again revealed another official photo from the upcoming movie. Instead, read all about it at FirstShowing.net. As a follow up, users were invited to send in photos of themselves dressed up as The Joker at Rory’s Death Kiss.

The Gotham Times
For us at home, we’ve now been invited to read headline news at TheGothamTimes.com. Here are some of the articles you can read:

If that’s not cool enough, then they went on and made The Ha Ha Ha Times, as well.

But Wait... There’s MORE!
I won’t even go into all of them, but here are SIX more sites just for the next Batman movie:

Someone’s real busy turning up the hype machine... and we all thought the Lost people were cool.

Posted by Seth at 07:55 AM | Comments (1)

November 25, 2007

Holiday Edition BMN: Fred Claus

Fred Claus, the latest in crap holiday movies.When you’re packing up and heading to eat turkey with the family, it must be holiday season. Unfortunately, it must be tradition season as well. And in my family, at least for Thanksgiving, it’s quickly becoming tradition to go see a bad movie after we’re stuffed to the gills (case in point 2005, case in point 2006).

This year’s stinker was something that I predicted we would be seeing, two weeks before Thanksgiving. Ashlee didn’t believe me. She’s extremely sad that I wasn’t wrong, because we saw one of her favorite actors in a truly bad movie – “Fred Claus,”

Vince Vaughn in a bad movie? Can it be true? As Rotten Tomatoes puts it:

“A slew of talent is wasted in this contrived Christmas film.”

It’s very true. Just look at the cast:

But really, how can you lose with that cast? Here’s how.

Vince Vaughn doesn’t equal PG-family comedy gold
Vaughn was his usual rambling self, but needed to be his usual cussing rambling self. He was the focal point here and as Santa’s brother, had a lot of pent up anger. Vaughn is funniest when he’s a sarcastic cussing a-hole. Don’t censor him.

Fish outta water jokes only go so far
Raise your hand if you’ve seen a tall person in a small bed? Or how about the one where a tall man has to pee in a small yernal? Been there, done that. How else can you be lame?

Sound effects
When your movie is lacking in over-the-top kid humor, the one thing that should magically fix it is crappy sound effects used very sparingly. To see what kind of sound effects I refer to, check out the main movie page.

Secret Service-like ninja elves
Do I need to say more?

So yes, another year, another tradition fulfilled. Here’s looking to Christmas.

Posted by Seth at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2007

Run DMaC, Run

WHAT!?! Are you kidding me!?! Those Hogs beat the #1 ranked team in the country? They ran for over 300 yards against the #4 ranked rushing defense in the country? DMac boosted his Heisman chances (which some say was a wasted cause) with over 200 yards on the ground, 3 rushing TDs and another TD passing?

Why couldn't we do that all year?

Who cares!!! We won and that's all there is to it.

What a game. Three overtimes. Who'd a thunk. Maybe next time Les Miles won't call our state “are-kansas.”

Posted by Seth at 08:36 AM | Comments (1)

November 23, 2007

Last Chance for DMac

DMac's RideToday is the last chance that Darren McFadden, one of the best running backs I’ve ever seen play college football, has to influence voters and hopefully place better than he did last year in the Heisman race. The Hogs take on #1 ranked LSU, in Baton Rogue, which will likely be the last SEC game for DMac – and, if we’re lucky, for Houston Nutt as well.

This year has been a huge disappointment, to say the least. After finishing last season 10-4 (and losing our last three games of the season), we had a pretty soap opera-filled offseason when Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn left for... wait for it... Tulsa, and several of our highly recruited Freshmen transferred to others schools as well. Not only that, but then there was the whole freedom of information thing when fans requested transcripts of Nutt’s cell phone.

No one could wait for the new season to start because DMac was primed and rated head-and-shoulders the man to beat in the Heisman race. It’s too bad we couldn’t capitalize on that, because as the HeismanPundit points out, it’s hard for players to win the Heisman if their team loses more than four games.

Basically, the cards are stacked against him, even though he is one of the better players out there.

The good news is that he’s already been named a Maxwell Award finalist, which goes to the nation’s best all-around player. If anything, that should weigh in on his Heisman hopes.

Aside from wishing DMac well, I also hope Nutt doesn’t return next season... as do a great many other people.

Go Hogs!

Posted by Seth at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2007

Turkey Day Truths

someecards.jpg

I grabbed this from the amazingly funny ecard site called someecards. Many of the cards you can send speak the truth, sometimes to an all-to-realistic degree. Whatever the situation, you can find something there that will make you laugh.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone.

Posted by Seth at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2007

Stalling Calling

Drop it!I’ve gone bowling twice in the past five days – one for fun and one for my league (both times showing a nice improvement from my bowling scores as of late). On both occasions, while using the restroom, I encountered what has to be one of the grossest things ever... someone talking on their cell phone while pooping.

What the hell!?! Please, people, if you’re ever going to call me, DON’T do it while sitting on the john. That’s just sick. And if you do, I kinda hope you drop the phone in the toilet.

Posted by Seth at 08:14 AM | Comments (3)

November 20, 2007

PLUG It

As I’ve said before, I’m a musical idiot – which means that I only know what I like and have complete disregard for who plays it or what band that guy that once played in that other band is in now. In any case, a while back I posted an entry on Fairtilizer, which is best described as a mix between Digg and MySpace. Anywho, the latest playlist on Fairtilizer (also embedded below) features musical nominations from the 2008 PLUG Awards.

The Fairtilizer blog has this to say about the PLUG Awards:
The PLUG Awards have become one of the most significant events for the independent music community, a well-organized effort which allows artists who live and flourish in the margins of mainstream culture to get the recognition they deserve.

How does it work? Very easy. Each fall, the PLUG Cartel (advisory board of 250-300 people who select the nominees) gathers, and after collecting/tallying the votes, the official nominees are announced in the form of an online ballot. Fans from around the world then logon to vote the winners who are announced at the PLUG Independent Music Awards Ceremony and Concert in March.

I’m sure a lot of you already know some, or most, of these bands – I just may know a song here and there. In any case, if you feel compelled, go to the PLUG Awards web site and vote for your favorite bands/songs. If anything, enjoy the music below. Oh, and I still have a few invites left at Fairtilizer if you want to see what the hype is all about.

Posted by Seth at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2007

No Mo NaBloPoMo

I had every intention of writing a post every day this month. In preparation, I had even written a few ahead of schedule, just in case I ran out of time on certain days. Not only that, but I had a list of things I could write about when in a pinch. Unfortunately, that pinch happened last week and it was so bad that I didn’t even check my personal emails for three days. Not only that, but I missed bowling and may miss more of it, too.

The pinch was work and it’s still got a grasp on me. I’d tell you what was going on, but I can’t. Just know that I was really looking forward to whooping NaBloPoMo’s ass, but now it’s not going to happen.

It doesn’t appear that much has happened during my off time... well, some things have happened. It looks like Houston Nutt might be out of a job in Arkansas (and there was much rejoicing). I feel like I did when Nolan was about to get the axe, I just want a fresh start for our football program. Nutt, while finally turning our program in a good direction, has done a LOT more to hurt it in the past few years. It’s time for a change and that time is now.

Have a good Thanksgiving week/weekend if I don’t get back on here. Travel safe and eat a lot.

Posted by Seth at 07:24 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2007

Robert Zemeckis is Lame (Sometimes)

Beowulf is lame. Raise your hand if you’ve seen one of the trailers/commercials for that piece of crap movie “Beowulf”? If any of you have watched five seconds of television lately, then I’m sure you have since it’s on every other second. My real question is does ANYONE really want to see this?

When I first heard that Beowulf was being made into a movie, I was excited. I mean, when you take one of the oldest pieces of literature and modernize it, that’s a feat. Unfortunately, someone decided that Robert Zemeckis should be the one to bring this to life.

And by “bring to life,” I mean, “film it once and then make everyone into a digital character.” In actuality, he’s making two movies. And really, the second version will inevitably be worse visually than the first one. Seriously, it looks like a video game... and not a very good one at that. I guess we need more amazing effects since “The Polar Express” is a few years removed. Or maybe Zemeckis just thought he should bank off of “300’s” success.

Either way, I’m very un-impressed with this movie – can’t we have more Back to the Future-type stuff!?! Who wants to see this, and why?

Posted by Seth at 06:02 PM | Comments (5)

November 11, 2007

It Sucks To Be Me

Avenue QDon’t let the blog title fool you. Not that I’m overly egotistical and think you SHOULD be me, but my life isn’t half bad. What I AM referring to, however, is the Broadway play “Avenue Q,” which is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a very long time and also playing in Kansas City right now (actually, today is the last day, I believe).

The idea behind the show is a modern day, realistic and raunchy Seasme Street. Which easily becomse one of those, why in the hell hasn’t this been done before and, more importantly, why didn’t I think of that, ideas.

Seriously, this show is hilarious. Not only is the play hilarious and well-written, the cast was incredible and how the actors acted with the puppets was amazing.

I don’t want to spoil too much about the show, but my favorite parts included the Bad Idea Bears – two adorable and sinister bears who try to convince people to do irresponsible things. They were two cute bears who talked in high-pitched voices and were trying to get the other puppets to buy more beer/drinks and to have sex. When the puppets wouldn’t agree, the bears would threaten suicide... all in a cute voice.

Hilarious.

If any of you ever get the chance in New York to see the show, please do. That is, if you want to hear songs like:

If not, then maybe this show isn’t for you.

Posted by Seth at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2007

“10 Days” Down

So do you really want to protect the children... or not?The title to this post says it all – today marks us being a third-of-the-way through NaBloPoMo. It's proving to be a little bit tougher than I anticipated, but I'm confident that I can make it through. It's all about determination and having guts.

I put todays title in quotes for a “reason.” I've recently discovered a hilarious web site that shows tons and tons of “photos” where people have used quotes unnecessarily. The blog is aptly titled, THE “BLOG” OF “UNNECESSARY” QUOTATION MARKS.

It's always funny to see where “people” have used quotes to say something, because when something is in quotes, are they being specific or sarcastic. Case in point:

So I went to this “party” the other night.

Was the party something more than just a party? Was the party lame? Or was the party just a regular party and that wasn't the emphasis of your story?

You gotta be careful with your quoting, people. The delicate “balance of society” may depend on it.

Posted by Seth at 09:43 AM | Comments (4)

November 09, 2007

You Can't Say These Words Today

Elmo says, Happy Birthday!It's Ashlee's birthday today, so please refrain from saying the following words:

There are many more. In fact, Bruno has an on-going list and hopefully he can augment.

Happy Birthday, Ash, hopefully no one says these words to you... I warned them.

Posted by Seth at 06:29 AM | Comments (2)

November 08, 2007

Because Motels are Gross

They were here.Situation: You’re a teenager, just barely old enough to drive – but have raging hormones. Where do you go with your girlfriend/boyfriend when you both want to “get jiggy with it?”

As said teenager, you don’t have too many options. Let’s see, you can risk being caught at home or at whatever local make-out point. You could go to a movie theater, but that’s tacky. The car down some back-road always works and is very romantic. Or, if you’re ballsy enough, you could go get a motel room – which is the epitome of class.

If only America were a little more like our Southern counterpart. As Bruno has explained to me before, in countries like Brazil and Argentina, it’s very common to live at home during/past your college years until you’re ready to marry. Therefore, you have a slew of awkward years in the household where you need to “take care of bidness.”

According to Bruno, not only are there make-out points aplenty, but there are also rooms people can rent per the hour. In Argentina, they’re called Telos, or transit hotels. According to a BBC article about them:

Telos have only one purpose... to provide a safe, comfortable place in which to have sex.

So it’s a little less-tacky than a Motel room, I think, simply because they acknowledge what they are. But at the same time, ew.

On the nerd side of things, this puts an interesting spin on the planet named Telos in the Doctor Who realm.

Posted by Seth at 04:19 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2007

Instead? How About as a Last Resort?

Hmmm. I’m not a woman. Nor do I claim to know anything of what women go through. But something tells me that using this instead of this (or this) would be much grosser.

I don’t really know what else to say here except that maybe I’m not alone. This product only has one shelf space at Target.

Ladies?

Posted by Seth at 07:05 AM | Comments (2)

November 06, 2007

Talk About Writers Block

Writers Guild of America ContractYesterday the Writers Guild of America went on strike. They say they deserve more money since there are new ways that television shows and movies are being sold – ie, iTunes and DVDs. I tend to agree.

This means that if their contract isn’t worked out soon, we, the audiences of America, will start to feel the pain. Already, some shows (like Heroes), are re-shooting some of their current season in case the strike lasts longer than anyone would like. Other shows are just crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.

What’s worse, is that next July the contracts of the Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild of America are set to expire – and you better believe that they’ll have the same issues as the Writers. If those two unions strike, Hollywood would basically be at a standstill. In preparation for said possible strike, studios are frantically trying to finish some 300 films before July.

We can only hope that this will be resolved soon. And maybe that when it’s all back and running smoothly, we won’t have any more crappy movies/tv shows to watch. Just good stuff.

Maybe I’m wishing for too much.

Posted by Seth at 07:57 AM | Comments (1)

November 05, 2007

Everyone Loves Bac(o)n

Mmmmm, bacon sammich.I subscribe to two magazines: Readymade and Wired. The former allows me to dream about projects that I would love to do, but will rarely find the time. The later lets me try and stay on top of what's what in the technology world – and also introduce me to a slew of cool gadgets and web sites to check out. When reading this month's issue of Wired, I came across an interesting word in Jargon Watch:

Bacn n.
Spam by request. Bacn (pronounced "bacon") is a byproduct of legitimate email lists and feeds – bulk messages for which the recipient has signed up yet never has time to read.

So there's finally a word for all those damn emails I “thought” I would want to read whenever sent. When in reality, they're starting to piss me off more than spam. Honestly, do I need three Williams Sonoma emails a week? More importantly, why in the hell did I sign up for that!?!

What bugs me worse than that is the choice of name for this new nuisance. Let's do a straw poll real quick:

What would you rather eat, spam or bacon?

I would guess that 99% of people asked that question would choose bacon – it's that awesome of a food item. I even know vegetarians who miss the smell (if not the taste) of bacon. And raise your hand if you would, even though you're full, force down another piece of bacon. Bacon is good on sandwiches. For breakfast. On burgers (even ones with peanut butter). In baked beans. Or, just by itself.

You can all put your hand down now.

My point is this – whoever thought “email you want, but just not right now,” should be called “Bacn,” is wrong. Bacon isn't something you'd like to eat, just not right now. It's the food you want to eat pretty much all the time, but isn't good for you.

In it's purist form, we're really talking about something you want to read, just not at the present time. Therefore, from this day forth, I think Bacn should be replaced by “Lotr,” (pronounced Loter). Think about it, tons of us would like to read The Lord of the Rings, but just not right now.

Posted by Seth at 07:10 AM | Comments (2)

November 04, 2007

Get Lost! (in February)

February 2008 will be a very fun month for me as it embarks the return of Lost. I was searching around for different upcoming TV shows today and quickly found the official teaser trailer for season four on ABC.com.

After watching that, I did a little bit of research on Wikipedia (aka, spoiler-hunting) just to see what we know of the upcoming season. To my surprise... no spoilers. The execs are being extremely quiet as opposed to previous seasons.

I’m excited about season four, but also sad that it’s the beginning of the end of Lost (technically). There are only three seasons left, but what’s worse is that each season only has 16 episodes each. That’s 48 more hours of Lost and then it’s over. Hopefully, we’ll have all this crap figured out by then.

Posted by Seth at 11:21 AM | Comments (3)

November 03, 2007

You Can't Find Me

Bullshit meter is high on this one.While waiting for “Saw IV” (yet another fun flick with a nice a-ha at the end) to begin the other night, the audience was treated to the normal slew of commercials and trailers (when are theaters going to publish the actual start time of the movie, anyway?). One in particular caught my attention and I was laughing the whole way through. The movie is called “Untraceable,” and the plot goes like this (from Wikipedia):

Set in Portland, Oregon, the film is a thriller involving a serial killer who taunts the FBI by using a website to display his gruesome handiwork. [Diane] Lane plays the protagonist, a cybercop named Jennifer Marsh, who pieces the mystery together.

Sounds about normal, yeah? Well, here's the kicker. Go watch the trailer and tell me you don't laugh out loud when the FBI can't find who's hosting the killer's web site because it's untraceable.

UNTRACEABLE!?! That's ridiculous! Of all the absurd plot lines out there in Hollywood today, I'm surprised this piece of crap is going to be loosed on us.

Anything for a buck, right?

Posted by Seth at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)

November 02, 2007

Please Stop Scaring!

sweeny.jpgDressing up and asking for candy on Halloween is SO passé – especially when you can go help one of your employer’s run his family’s annual haunted house. Not wanting to be lame, Ashlee (or Monica), Parc and I decided to dress up as ghouls and work at the Sweeney Family Horror. My goal was to scare the living daylights out of some kids... wish nearly granted.

To say that this annual haunted house is well-known in Kansas City is putting it lightly. By the time we open the gates at 6:00, there was already a few groups of kids waiting.

The kids came in all ages, with our favorite being the ones aged 6-10 (Jr. Highers are just annoying). Some kids were really brave and others, well, not so much. By the time 9:30 rolled around, there were quite a few kids that just couldn’t get past the first door. Some kids, bless their little hearts, were being pushed or dragged in by their parents – screaming the whole time.

One kid in particular barely made it past the first scare (Parc) when he started to become very timid. By the time he inched down the garage ramp and got to me, he was ready to turn around. Naturally, I scared him. On he went to get scared by the motion-detected hand-thing and then the remote controlled ghoul that jumps out at you. That’s when I could sneak up on people and scare them again as they came around the corner.

I actually thought that maybe I shouldn’t do it, but the whole time in there, his dad was coaxing him on and pushing him forward. I basically had no choice but to scare him again.

The kid jumped. Back. Into his dad he went. Unfortunately for the kid, his dad wasn’t acommodating and offered no charity. The kid turned around, eyes welling up and said:

“Please stop scaring!”

As funny as it is to think about it and poke fun of him now (or five seconds after he had left), I feel sorry for him. Especially with his dad just pushing him through the whole time.

I was never made to go through a haunted house and I’m thankful for it. I also chickened out in dueling with Darth Vader at my elementary school’s Halloween Carnival one year... now THAT was scary.

Posted by Seth at 07:45 AM | Comments (3)

November 01, 2007

61 Days Left Until 2008

The title isn’t lying – there are only 61 days left until we welcome 2008. It doesn’t seem right that this year has flown by so quickly, but that’s just the breaks, kids. Deal with it. Then, get a life and deal with it again.

Since there’s only 60ish days left (and the kick-off of NaBloPoMo), I figure it’s a good time to check in on my New Year’s Resolutions

  1. Set up a meeting with a financial planner.
    Last time I said I was going to take this off the list. Consider it gone.
  2. Limit fried potato intake to once a month.
    Since the fries thing was too easy, I changed this to one fried food item per two-week span. Apparently, my mind must have kept thinking about one order of fries per month. I’ve really sucked at this one. Buckling back down.
  3. Visit Kansas City’s museums.
    I suck. Not a single one visited.
  4. Pay off other credit card.
    Still on target to pay off the other card by Christmas.
  5. Walk to work at least twice a week.
    At last check, I was ahead of schedule. Then August happened and I maybe walked once. The good news is that I over-walked in October, so I think I’m getting close to evening out.
  6. Use all of my vacation days.
    On pace..
  7. Go through storage items and purge.
    Bah! This is why we have basements, right?
  8. Boycott shopping at Wal-Mart.
    Still not supporting them.
  9. Limit my soda intake to one a month.
    Easy peasy.

Only 61 days to regroup on my lameness. Has everyone else given up on theirs?

Posted by Seth at 07:04 AM | Comments (1)