Archive for the ‘the Dunya’ Category

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Breaking News: Spider-Man hooks up with Tinkerbell

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

marvel-heroes-scaled

OK, I am making a joke to cover my concern about the news that Disney is purchasing Marvel for $4 billion.  Sure, it means that we will probably see an X-Men theme park in the future.  And yes, Disney has an impressive history of not injecting their own products into their subsidiaries (i.e. we haven’t seen Miley Cyrus giving commentary on SportsCenter — as far as I know).

Still, it just seems like Marvel has lost some of its innocence in a weird, twisted kind of way.  Yes, Disney is supposed to be the juvenile innocent one, but Marvel’s purity was its humble beginning and its fanboy attraction.

My one and only fear is that Marvel will become more of a commodity than it already has.  Disney is all about pushing merchandise.  The cash register goes cha-ching for Disney like every millisecond (note: I have no actual proof of this, but you get the point).  My hope is that Marvel does not become too commercialized.  I shutter at the thought of Disney characters dominating Comic-Con, but technically it could happen.

I’m just going to keep hoping that all will turn out for the best.  After all, our favorite superheroes have faced greater odds, more sinister plots, and villains with bigger speech impediments than Donald Duck.  We will live to fight another day.

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Employers and Social Media

Monday, August 24th, 2009

top-secret-scaled

There have been numerous reports lately about employers checking up on employees or potential employees on Facebook, MySpace, and other forms of social media.  I do not have a problem with this in principle.  I am one who has always believed that you should be real wherever you are.  If the real you is a crazy, backbiting, vendetta-seeking drunk, it is going to catch up with you.

Being denied employment because someone found out ahead of time instead of firing you later might actually do you a favor.  It might just give a person the motivation he needs to get his life together.  What bothers me more than extreme cases like that is, in most instances, the information that people provide about themselves on Facebook and other social media sites is personal information.

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Rapper, The Game to play B.A. Baracus?

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Rapper The GameAccording to Blackfilm.com, the new A-Team film will feature The Game playing B.A. Baracus. I actually feel kind of sorry for The Game. Maybe he is a good actor. Maybe he will even get the attitude down and have the perfect mohawk and over-the-top jewelry. Maybe he will drive the van like he was made for the job. But the bottom line is I PITTY THE FOO WHO THINKS HE CAN PLAY B.A. BETTER THAN MR. T!

Sorry I had to say it. The full story is here.

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Pay for websites? That’s so 1990’s

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Rupert Murdoch has once again made headlines (pun intended) by telling CNN that visitors to the web sites belonging to some of the numerous newspapers that his News Corporation owns will soon have to pay to access certain content. Instead of having free access to the Wall Street Journal or the New York Post, a visitor would have to “pay handsomely”, according Murdoch.

I know the man is old, but is he really that out of touch with technology and the development of new media?  Does he really believe that people cannot live without his newspapers?

When a news organization is failing, as many newspapers are, why would it benefit them to make it more difficult to get news to people who could use it?  Their goal should be to gain readers, not drive away the few they have left.

If a person has to pay to find out a piece of information on one site, they will simply find it on another site for free.  Instead of arrogantly thinking that they can just muscle people into giving them money, they should try earning it.  Give people a real reason to come to your web site.  Come up with something innovative that makes your site worth their time.

We live in an age where media is interactive, collaborative, and, most importantly, open to all.  If News Corporation or any other mega-news conglomerate fails to realize that, it might very well be the last mistake they make.  And maybe the world will be a better, more truthful place without them.

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More Stargate Universe News

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

The producers of the new SGU series have opened up a little more and revealed some of their thinking on the new show.  I should preface this by saying how skeptical I am about the potential success of this show.  I was an avid SG-1 watcher, but I was skeptical when Stargate Atlantis came out.  To my surprise SGA was actually good.  The “lost in space” premise of SGU, however, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.  Hopefully, I will be pleasantly surprised.

“The style is very different from what we’ve done in the past,” Cooper said. “It’s far more mobile than we’ve done in the past on SG-1. The concept is that we wanted to shoot this a little bit like a documentary crew would shoot a ride-along to a space ship out in the universe — that maybe we could get audiences to embrace the science fiction elements and the characters in a realistic way if we shot the show using the ‘language’ of documentary and reality.

What the flip?  OK, my skepticism just escalated.  Please tell this does not mean a wobbly camera running through the forest chasing aliens.  Please, tell me that.  Please?

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So many things going on

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

Here is a quick rundown of all of the things going right now:

1. The semester is closing, and I have two big projects to complete: one cataloging final project and an annotated bibliography for my reference class.

2. In the next few days, I am expecting to receive a contract from the publishing company that is commissioning me to write a book. I will give more detail on that when it is signed and sealed.

3. I am looking for freelance writing jobs and might have found a long-term gig. Again, I will provide more information on that when available.

4. Summer classes start in May. I have already planned out the rest of my master’s program, which concludes a year from May (2010).

5. My kids are growing like weeds and eating like bottomless pits. I will post pictures soon.

6. We are about to push the TV show online in a big way; more on that as it develops.

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Poor Wolverine

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

From the Register:

“Hugh Jackman has described himself as “heartbroken” by the leak of X-Men Origins: Wolverine which saw an incomplete version appear on several BitTorrent websites ahead of the official 1 May US release date…”

What the flip?  Heartbroken?  Come on Wolverine!  Man up!

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Jim Brown’s new job

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

The following is only my poor attempt at humor.

Jim Brown and Abdul Mahmoud Mohammed

We always knew that Jim Brown had multiple talents: playing football, acting, er…um… diplomacy?  Apparently he has been masquerading as Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations.  Take a look at the photos.

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I hate flashback episodes

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

You know what I’m talking about.  You sit down thinking you’re about to see a new episode of a show, only to hear one of the actors say, “Remember when…” and suddenly the screen fades into an episode you’ve already seen, albeit chopped into little clips that probably would not make sense to someone who has not seen the show anyway.

In what is being called the final season of Stargate Atlantis, how dare they toss in a flashback episode!  The latest episode, “Inquisition”, is perhaps aptly named.  Watching it was almost like being tortured in the Spanish Inquisition.  Naturally, they did develop a little story around the flashbacks, but it was not worth remembering, unlike the flashbacks themselves, of which I didn’t need a reminder.

If you don’t have the manhood to make a full episode, just show a rerun.  Don’t tease into thinking we’re getting a new show, only to see a rerun in disguise.  That’s just wrong.

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Real Winners

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Have you ever played to win?  When you were a kid, did you ever buy a cereal box, a soda bottle, or a piece of candy with the hopes of winning a lifetime supply of something (anything), a trip to a theme park, or spend a day with a superstar kid singer or actor?

I’m sure the majority of people would answer yes, but what I’ve also found is that everyone says, “Oh, I never win those things.”  So, my question is, does anyone really win?  If you’ve ever won anything, any of those contests that say “no purchase necessary” as if they’re daring you to not buy the product and see if you can actually still win just by mailing in your entry, then please post a comment here telling us about your experience.

I want to meet some real winners, real people who have actually opened a bottle cap and seen something other than “We’re sorry.  Please try again.”

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