Trashy TV Shows

Ever since our family had gotten a dvr unit as part of an upgrade in service (Which actually ends up costing less than C-----t, oddly enough!) I have been recording a few different shows that I hadn't had a chance to watch before.  I started out recordig some shows that I'd see before ad just didn't have dvds for (Sealab 2021, Robot Chicken, etc), but the I decided to check out some ew programs.

The first one I checked out was Pawn Stars, about a pawn shop located in or near Las Vegas.  Much of the entertainment value for me is actually listening to the stories behind some of the items, even if they may be made up.  A lot of the time it seems realistic enough, but there are many times when it's obvious that it's scripted.  A dream sequence is even inserted into the episode, complete with the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire set and cast.  The main characters shown are "The Old Man", Rick, "Big mley"; Three out of four are family, Grandfather, Father and son, with Chumley being the childhood fried of Big Hoss.  Chumley is a source of a lot of comic relief due to bumbling acts, but they are sometimes more painful to watch than you'd like.

These people can sometimes do a somewhat good deed, but greed is common, and they lie about what something will cost to refinish, or how much it's worth.  They also drive down purchase prices to below half of what the 'experts' they have comne in to identify items, and often Rick will claim something is obviously fake, only for it to be authentic, whereas he then makes a 180 turn and says how awesome it is.  Overall, it's a pretty entertaining piece of television, and I'd suggest trying to watch it at least once; you can find it on the History channel of all places, probably citing the iformation about antiques.

Another show worth mentioning is America Pickers, which is actually rather similar to Pawn Stars, except that two middle-aged me go out and buy antiques and interesting pieces of americana,  I haven't watched much of it yet, so I'm not sure if I'll continue watching it, but it would probably be best to give it at least three episodes before dropping it.  This is also on the History Channel, probably under the same pretense of people searching for "antiques".

Tru Tv (Formerly, as I'm sure most of you know, Court TV) has the other two shows I'm following; the first I watched, Bait Car, is actually based off the real bait car concept originally adopted by Canadian police to combat car theft.  The basic premise is that police rig a car with cameras, microphones, a gps tracking beacon, as well as a unit that allows them to remotely shut off the engine and lock the doors from the inside.  The original reason for this was that car thieves were notoriously hard to convict, as getting evidence that a given suspect had actually done anything was hard to prove.  Thankfully, now all they have to do is show the tape in court; as a matter of fact, these tapes became so popular a site was born, Bait Car (DOTCOMMM)

At first, the police were nervous that this would expose their operations, but some disagreed with this assessment; if this was more widely known, car thieves may back off in the belief that any car could be trapped in such a way!   In the beginning, people still made excuses (I need to go see... my,.. nephew's grave), but as the concept was wider known, a look of resigned fear started to appear on thieves' faces as the car they had just gotten away scot-free with was their doom.

Speaking of car theft, the final show I'll talk about is Operation Repo; it is filmed in a manner similar to Cops, but is actually scripted out, all the action supposedly based on real events.  This show, I must admit, is a guilty pleasure for me; seeing people try to lie their way out of being repossessed is a bit like a trainwreck.  I just can't look away; even though I sympathize with people who have financial problems, they wouldn't be in this situation if they hadn't avoided payments.  A lot of time creditors *are* willing to work with you, because they would rather have your payments than have to pay a company to take a vehicle from you.

Until Next Time,

-Joel de Bunchastu

Tying Things Together

Just because I'm in love with seeing my own writing, I have added my twitter updates to my sidebar!  Apparently my very first post is the most popular, according to Blogger; I'm not qutie sure what to make of that, I'm hoping it's positive inn some way of course.

Speakig of positive action, it seems that Failbetter Games is working on the server problem that has been affecting Echo Bazaar for the past day.  I first became aware of it at about midnight tonight, when I got back from work; after trying to log in, I got a server error screen, which is an occasional event in all betas sooner or later.  Unfortunately, when I clicked on the link to go back to the main section, it looped back to the very same error screen; the page said this would signify that '"...somethig has gone very wrong.""

After having sent a email to the developmet team, I clicked the link again and actually arrived at the normal intro screen!  My hopes were dashed when that same error screen popped up; I am still left with the optimistic thought that it may just be normal maintenance, and it's not as if this will slow down progression in the game all that well.

As for Twitter, I am surprised to have as many as Thirty-Two (!!) followers on my account!  It feels strange, even though it is a relatively low number on twitter, it's more people I've had see my writing, not counting forums posts of course.  That site actually gave me inspiration to write more, and in rather increased volume.  It feels good to just let it out, even if it isn't read by anyone, even if it isn't intensely important.  It helps to have any kind of practice n writing, it tends to improve self-confidence after all.

My true hope is to write something that entertains another person; the practice makes me less timid, even if it does expose me to ridicule.  It isn't as if criticism would make my writing worse, after all; it mostly would work the other way, I'd like to think.

Would you like to see through a blogokami's eyes?
-Joel "R" de Bunchastryuuk

Times have changed

Hurrah, my schedule hasn't changed, so I do indeed have more hours this week!  I celebrated by watching the Death Note live action movie I just got from Netflix; it's a lot better than I thought, and have immediately queued up the two sequels, even the one that isn't apparently based on the manga.

I enjoy how some events had been changed; I will not mention specifics, but they tend to streamline the storytelling process, perhaps a bit too much!  When the movie ended, I was not expecting it, to say the least, but I actually was left wanting to see more, which movies rarely do anymore. 

I watched Ichi the Killer as well, which I actually enjoyed also, despite my fears of it being uninteresting, gore aside.  I haven't watched a lot of japanese horror movies, despite my like of anime and such, so maybe its time to expand the genres I watch...

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them!  In the meantime, I'll look on Netflix and local video stores~

Cheers
-Joel de Bunchastu

Browser Games~

One thing I've been into for quite some time now has been several browser based games.  You know the kind, you are limited to a certain amount of actions each day/hour/etc and you're either pitted against other players or the environment.  They are also generally either "Free" to play, or you can just buy whatever macguffin the game is based on, such as Fate for Echo Bazaar or "Notorious Status" in Star Pirates.

Now I generally never pay for such things; occasionally I have (Nationstates, curse you!), and I may even buy some Fate in Echo Bazaar, just to help support the game (It's also required to enter some quests, and can also increase your actions, so I might as well do both~).  Even Star Pirates' special stuff helps out without being a game breaker (You recharge your stats 1.5x as fast as normal!)

However, there are always people who will never buy such things, and see it as cheating to do so!  In another game I dabble in, OGame, those who purchase "Officers" tend to be ganged up on by vigilante players who want to put an end to official 'cheats.  (In this case, I feel they are right; the Officers can do anything from letting you queue build orders, increase your energy supply, or let you get more minerals without building anything!  It'd be one thing if it was earned through some kind of action, but when you can just buy it, the richest tend to get the best).

Personally, I don't feel it's too important to stress over; I hope you found something interesting in this, and if you have any questions about some other games, there are plenty out there!  Even MUDS are still around, which I may go back to sometime soon.

-Joel de Bunchastu

Second day off~

Went out to apply to a few places again, since I wasn't scheduled (big surprise!) at work; I was also able to get a few hours doorhanging, which is actually nice when the weather is warm and not too bright.  It also gives me a chance to get a little exercise and listen to some of my backlog of audio books, which is what I usually do while delivering.

I decided to get the Birdemic Rifftrax, and hope it's as funny as the others I've watched.  I haven't seen it yet, but I have high hopes for the quality of the .gifs!  It probably won't distract from the pumpkin festival action at all, but I will have extra gourds with me just in case Nguyen decides to go light on the squashfests.
 
Having a lot of free time is a problem I'm not used to; even with the job search, there are long hours where I don't really have much to do, so I have been going through my backlog of recorded tv.  Since I had never gotten around to watching TruTV ever since it changed from CourtTv, I tuned in and saw some commercials for Bait Car; that and the Operation Repo show actually look interesting to me, if slightly... seedy (Kind of like Pawn Stars, perhaps?)  

I will have to go grocery shopping in the next day or so, and despite it being quite unhealthy, I have been living off ramen/banquet tv dinners; at least I'm not breaking 1800 calories, and may even lose weight!  It will only cost me my heart what with all the salt, but hey it's not like that kind of thing is important or anything right?

-Joel de Bunchastu