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February 17, 2008
Gigantor Wins Slam Dunk Contest
My friends, gone are the days of Dominique Wilkins vs. Michael Jordan and 5'7" Spud Webb (which is STILL amazing). In fact, in direct contrast to Webb, this year's slam dunk contest winner is none other than 6'11" Dwight Howard.
You read that correctly. Howard is a full foot taller than the shortest winner ever and, while wearing shoes, stands at over 7'. He can literally kiss the rim. When he hangs from the rim, his feet are less than a foot off the ground. That means he only has to jump about 1.5 feet to slam the basketball.
But that doesn't mean he's the next Shaq. Actually, he's far from it. The reason why – athleticism. This guy isn't just a big tree that moves slowly and only when he wants to. No, this guy can fly. And jump. And apparently can dunk on a 12-foot goal (not too many people can make that claim and back it up).
So before you pass judgement on allowing a super tall dude win a dunk contest, check out the video (courtesy ESPN's new video embedding service) and see why.
Posted by Seth at 01:09 PM | Comments (5)
February 14, 2008
Sick on The VDay
I hate being sick. I hate being sick and missing work. I hate being sick, missing work and missing out on Valentine's Day. So today, since I was sick with acute bronchitis, I was made to stay home and nurse myself back to health.
Back in the day, staying home was horrible. You see, my family didn't have cable, we had antenna – which only gave us CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS. If you think I hate staying home now, imagine being a kid and staying home with those four channels. Watching tv during the day gave you a healthy dose of Good Morning America, Today, soap operas, and countless educational shows on PBS (of which, me and my loyal readers have finally concluded that the fabled "gooseneck secret" was from a show called "Kellie" and only aired in Arkansas).
Honestly, being home sick these days isn't that much better than when I was growing up. I've got over 70 channels to watch and there's hardly anything interesting to watch during the day. It reminds me of a stat I read that says 10 years ago, consumers had on average 24 channels to choose from and only frequented 10. The numbers today? We now have more than 80 to choose from and only frequent around 15. Choices go up, capacity to care doesn't increase to match.
While the full day wasn't so great, I did manage to catch an episode of Scrubs, X-Files and watched the new Indiana Jones teaser trailer. Good stuff.
Posted by Seth at 04:11 PM | Comments (1)
February 13, 2008
Welcome Back TV
The Writers Strike is over! The Writers Strike is over! Long live the Queen TV!
I know you're just getting back to work and all, but really, let's hustle this process up because I'm done with “reality television.”
Posted by Seth at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)
February 08, 2008
Limelight Networks is My Biggest Fan
While perusing my site's visitor stats the other day, I noticed that I've had one visitor coming to the site over and over and over for the past several weeks. It was someone in Tempe, Arizona. Usually, I can discern who it is that's visiting my site, but this one was perplexing. I'm pretty sure I don't have friends or family in Tempe, so maybe it was just a curious reader.
But then looking at the paths this visitor was taking through my site, it was clear that it wasn't a person at all, but more than likely a robot. I googled it and this is what I found as a result.
So yes, it appears to be a spider for a new search engine called SearchMe. I wouldn't suggest blocking the IP addresses if you're noticing it on your site. That is, unless, you don't want your internet web site home page and sub pages to be indexed in as many places as possible.
Posted by Seth at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2008
Super Bowl Thoughts
What a game. What a classy losing coach. What a better variety of commercials than last year.
And with that, football is over until the fall and we only have two more months of good basketball left and then somewhere after that will be the entirely too long NBA playoffs. Then, after that, baseball. Ugh.
As an ad guy, the Super Bowl is the apex of the year for commercials. This year was better than last year, but there were still some head-scratchers. Here are my votes for best and worst:
The Best
#7 – Toyota Corolla (Badgers)
A truly unique way of selling how quiet a car is on the inside.
#6 – Doritos (Mouse Trap)
Wasn't expecting the giant mouse to crash through the wall. Or beat the man mercilessly.
#5 – Bud Light (Will Ferrell)
Usually you can't go wrong with Ferrell... the only problem is that the Bud Light bottle could've easily been anything else.
#4 – Coca Cola (It's Mine)
Fantastic spot. Great concept, effects and execution.
#3 – FedEx (Carrier Pigeons)
FedEx continues to impress me with their off-the-wall campaigns.
#2 – Bridgestone (Screaming Animals)
Who doesn't love screaming animals?
#1 – Tide To Go (Interview)
Hands down the best spot this year.
The Worst
#7 – Planters Nuts
The prat falls weren't even that good. Yawn.
#6 – Dell (RED)
I thought Gap had essentially killed the whole RED thing. And isn't being Green cooler now anyway?
#5 – GoDaddy.com
Time to give up the schtick, guys. How about you attack Network Solutions instead?
#4 – Bud Light (Mencia and Cavemen)
I'm done with cavemen and the joke thief.
#3 – AMP (Nipples)
WTF?
#2 – E*TRADE (Banking Baby and Trading Baby)
Another talking baby spot? Where has our creativity gone?
#1 – Sales Genie (Indian Guy and Pandas)
What would cause more fuss produce more sales than undertones of racism?
There were a few more here and there that made no sense, but aren't worth talking about. What were your thoughts?
Additionally, here are three pointless things to report when a football game is played in a dome:
- The blimp flying around outside the dome.
- A fighter jet fly-by before the game.
- What the weather conditions are.
Posted by Seth at 01:28 PM | Comments (3)
February 03, 2008
I Am Author 5597
Reading things here on occasion, I'm sure you'll come to find that I'm a watcher of bad movies. But if you weren't aware, there are rules for seeing said bad movies. The crux of those rules rely on the aggregation of reviews by a wonderful site called RottenTomatoes.com.
If you've never been there, I think it's a great starting point to see if a movie is good or bad. RT takes all internet-based reviews and assigns them a Fresh or Rotten rating. It doesn't mean that all Fresh movies are good, nor does it mean that all Rotten movies are bad... but it's a good starting point.
A few years ago, I used to write for an entertainment-based blog called The-Trades.com. Amongst the things I'd write about were television shows, DVD reviews and the occasional sneak peak movies – I'd show you some of my previous work there, but it appears to have since been removed (nice).
One day, while googling “seth gunderson”, a funny result appeared – I had a author's page on Rotten Tomatoes. I didn't think it was me. But sure enough, some of my reviews from The-Trades.com had appeared on their site and were accounting for some of the Fresh, or Rotten, ratings.
I didn't think anything of it again until a few months ago. I googled my name (which we all should from time to time) and rediscovered my RT author page. I thought about how cool it would be if my Bad Movie Night reviews were ALSO on there. So I contacted RT and they helped me get everything set up.
After taking some time yesterday morning, I'm proud to announce that Seth Gunderson's RottenTomatoes.com author page is all up to date!
So once again, I'm published. Sorta. Oh, and the picture above is when I had a mustache for a day. Sexy eh?
Posted by Seth at 09:34 AM | Comments (1)