thumbs up

While I was listening to Pandora, AFI's Fall Children came on. Awesome, right? Yes, but something's strange... can you spot what's wrong with this picture?



Yes, that's the album art for Winning London starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I assure you that AFI is not on that soundtrack. PANDORA FAIL!

(... still got the thumbs up from me though)

Remembering products without commercials

I started my day (like usual) by going to hulu and watching last night's Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And shows on hulu always begin with "The following program is brought to you with limited commercial interruption by _____." But this time it said "...with NO commercial interruption by VISA." Excellent! And that got me thinking (and blogging) that VISA chose to not waste my time with ineffective, throwaway commercials, but rather just proposed the slogan "Let's go commercial-free." Is this not admirable? But with a giant company like VISA, they are taking little risk that they won't be remembered. Similar to how Radiohead took little risk in letting the buyer choose the price of their most recent album "In Rainbows". I doubt that other companies (like Fred Savage Sausage) would have the cohones to waste their advertising dollars on a 10 second uncommercial. But long commercials don't always work either. In fact, I saw the full frickin' trailer for Taken for about 2 weeks straight and I still had absolutely no urge to see Liam Neeson's "very particular set of skills".

Obviously, no commercials has been done before in some capacity. I remember some sponsors constantly on screen during the World Cup, for example. And they usually brag "without commercial interruption by ____". But what if more and more TV shows started going "commercial-free" or with purely product placement. Would it still be special? Will they reach a point where they overdo it and we actually don't even notice the companies that are making our lives commercial-free? I doubt we will ever get that far, but I still find it interesting to talk about... and I'm talking because VISA didn't show me a commercial this morning.

By the way, for those of you who didn't see Jon Stewart's interview with Jim Cramer last week, I highly recommend watching it.

provocative dog grooming (Dayton, OH)

ds2, originally uploaded by beekface.

The NHT has an official logo

(Now Hear This)

ice cube stalagmites!

Check it out! I found some stalagmites on my ice cubes! No drips from the ceiling or anything, so I was really creeped out. Apparently this phenomenon is known as ice spikes. I use bottled water for ice cubes, because my sink is absolutely disgusting. So I guess that was part of the reason. crazy crazy.

cable guy (c. 2003)

(courtesy of halogoggles)

fav 5: "healthy" cereals

1. Honey Bunches of Oats with Peaches
2. Special K Fruit & Yogurt
3. Special K Red Berries
4. Raisin Bran Crunch
5. Honey Nut Cheerios

That's a freakin' solid list! I don't care if I have Special K on there twice... don't look at me like that! And I could live off of HBO with Peaches. It's immaculate.

What are your cereals of choice?

Amazon jobs

Amazon bottle, originally uploaded by beekface.

OK... this is really just a test post from flickr. I got a new BlackBerry and flickr is a lot slickr than Picasa on the phone, so I'll do phone uploads there. I'll provide the link later.

The other point I was going to make was that I was surprised to see Amazon at the Penn Sate Career Fair I went to last week. Surprised because it's a company that I've never seen physically represented, so that was neat. I just talked to them briefly, but it seemed like they only had jobs for Computer Science majors and some warehousing/distribution stuff (amazon.com/careers). I'm sure it's neat technical junk, but they said the only research facility they have is in Seattle, and I'm not looking to go there unless it's for Boeing. But I did snag a sweet water bottle, as seen in the pic. (Also, check out that geeky Valentine's robot I got! Its got a rad tie.)

Pittsburgh Tunnel Traffic

Kinder Lips

Probably my favorite Kinder Egg toy. Looks a little like A-Rod if he was a magician with 'roid rage, no?

A Reader Omen

It seems that I'm a little behind on my Metal Underground feed. Note taken!... please leave my soul alone.
Also, this is a good chance to share my "top" feeds (the ones I read every day). They're all highly recommended and let me know if you are curious about any.
What are your "top" feeds?

Green Man

One of my favorite birthday gifts ever from a friend in my early college years. He's fully poseable and equipped with a variety of weapons. They're called Stikfas and you can get yourself one here. It definitely looks like their product line has increased.



This picture turned out intimidating and haunting too. Love it!