Cures for Boredom Caused by the Writer's Strike

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past couple months you know how reduced the amount of quality written television coming out of the USA. Our favourite shows have been stopped in their tracks, some even forever (Scrubs for example) and it doesn't seem like coming to a conclusion any time soon. Salvation for me will come on January 29th when Lost returns but that only fills so much of a gap. I miss my shows and I got sick of reality television years ago so that doesn't help much. I support what the writers are doing and some of the striking writer's blogs make an entertaining point in the process. They even convinced me to send some pencils to evil studio executives. The coverage of the writers strike has been a sort of entertainment for me. It just seems interesting to me. All this talk of residuals and where the future of entertainment is and whether the internet will be a part of it keeps me glued to Google Reader.

So that brings me to my next paragraph. Alternatives to quality scripted television that has nothing to do with reality based programming;

Movies
There are some great movies coming out over the Australian Summer or American Winter depending on where you are. And here are some of my picks that are coming out at the cinemas.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
No Country For Old Men
Juno
I Am Legend
American Gangster
Cloverfield
Be Kind Rewind
Jumper
Semi-Pro
The Other Boleyn Girl

All movies I really am looking forward to and the good thing is they are spread out over the next couple of months so you get an even distribution of entertainment. Otherwise you can check out your local Video Store for the latest release DVD's. Or as many are these days searching for the desired movie followed by DVDrip into one of the many fine Bittorrent search engines out there. Here are some recommendations for DVD's released this year:

300
Knocked Up
The Simpsons Movie
Superbad
Ocean's 13
Transformers
Ratatouille
Futurama: Bender's Big Score
Sicko

For many more selections visit IMDb's Top 100 movies of the year by votes for ideas.

Games
Depending on whether you are into them or not games can provide hours of entertainment or limited batches of general interest. Here is a casual gamers guide to how to get some entertainment out of your television when there isn't any decent TV coming out of it. The computer you are using right now is a trojan horse for entertainment depending on it's power but most can be used to play flash based games through the internet. Console gaming is another way to interact with virtual worlds and the current players on the market for your dollar are Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3. Gamespot or IGN are excellent websites to come to terms with choosing one of these to take your mind off the writer's strike. And there there are the latest handhelds which are really nifty. Nintendo's DS or Sony's PSP. Both really cool in there own way but a matter of choice as usual.

Music
See Bittorrent

And of course than there is the internet where most of the boredom by the writer's strike can be cured. An endless sea of human procrastination the internet seems to never stop giving. With it's vast array of blogs and hydra of Bittorrent trackers where else do you really need to go? Social networking to Social bookmarking, Web 2.0 really bought us all together.

So until the writers get back on their typoewriters, A4, Macbooks, PC's or whatever the hell they use to get the ball re-rolling on the US TV juggernaut try and be entertained with what I have served you. I realize I did it in the most patronizing way possible but what do you expect writer's all over the world are in solidarity not to produce quality and who am I to buck that trend.

So until next time have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And let us pray that greedy studio execs get what they want for Christmas so they can give the writers what they want for the sake of TV-Viewerkind.

Ant out.

'Summer Heights' finishes on a high

Summer Heights High, the brainchild of Chris Lilley finished strongly tonight. In other news the Chaser's War on Everything didn't do so bad itself nearly hanging itself after a gag regarding David Hookes. I've gotta be honest, I've got nothing else to say. Completely uninspired this post I am. Goodbye.

Listen to What's Getting Airtime on JJJ

I've updated the Triple J playlist so it has all the freshest hits according to Triple J and it's listeners I suppose. So enjoy some great new tracks from all the alternative rockers out there who bring us so much joy and these days get so little in return for their efforts compared to what they used to. It's accurate as of the 5th July 2007.

Playlist is here.

Just as an added note for international readers or Aussies just getting acquainted to JJJ, check out the program guide on their website. I recommend Hack for current affairs and Myf, Jay & The Doctor. It's nice to wake up to some nice tunes and interesting and lighthearted commentary of a morning not forgetting the occasional swear here and there.

A Beta TV called Joost

Finally received an invite to participate in a little Joost up TV. Subsequently I've been watching a beta Joost. This thing is not only the future of TV but the future of Entertainment. I didn't get the invite from Joost though, I was referred using e-beg. Simliar to eBay except you wander forums begging for an invite and the more creative you are with your posting the better chance of receiving an invite via email which is kind of like a wormhole to the future in a referral link. The future of TV that is.

Enjoy this promotional video for Joost to get your tongues wagging and just hope that you have a techy friend in the know to send an invite your way. Otherwise you can use e-beg on a forum. I went to this one: Joost Forums and posted this poem:

I am thirsty for Joost.
I need vitamin TV please.
Certainly a Boost.
Beta than Full Release.

And after somebody sent me an invite I added this:

I just got an invite
But not of this board
I'll leave you to fight
Until you become bored.

Sorry for teasing you with all this but I really think it has loads of promise.



The Best Way to Get a Joost Invite

It's called Google for a reason but that's not relevant right now. What you wanna do is search in Google or I'm not obliged to say but search engine of your choice for a Joost related forum.

Try keywords like these Joost, Joost Invite, Joost Forum, Joost Beta Invite, Joost Invite Community, The Future is Joost and stuff along those lines.

Find one that looks decent and has been active and trawl for invites by putting your email [quenchyourthirst] [at] [joost.com] and if you trust the forum your First and Last name. You can use an alias because you can change your full name after you are registered and have it on your computer.

Or if you are a member of a forum just start a thread in a relevant topic and fish for people.

The other rarer option is that one of your friends has Joost. Which would be a lot easier.



Have a nice time finding an invite. I'll be watching the future on Joost, not the content just the program. First three people to leave an amusing comment will get a Joost Invite emailed to them as I gain them from using the programme. Leave email and First and Last Name.

What's on the Triple J Rotational Now

Listen to the following songs marked with the Entertainment Fiend logo on the Triple J Finetune player on the top right of this site!

Frank Zappa Defending Words circa. 1986

This is a video I came across a couple of years ago but it's always good for repeat viewings. Check it out. It's a long one so you might have to press play, pause it and let it load. 21 minutes long but worth the investment of your time.

Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer

You can check out the below video but it doesn't really do it justice. Head here for a better trailer experience.

Listen to Triple J's Hitlist

I've added a little Triple J hitlist radio widget/gadget in my sidebar. It is a Finetune play list that behaves like a radio. It's the songs that were available on Finetune's database today from the rotation list on Triple J's website. Enjoy! And credit to Triple J for being such a fine radio station.

Well Designed MySpace and other Oxymorons

What does it take to make a nice looking


These days just enter "Design MySpace for Me" into Google and you will come up with a myriad of sites offering the sweetest designs but for the ill educated Web User they will most likely have a "Free Kick Ass Mutha-Truckin MySpace Layouts" Banner on the top right of their page linking to the very reason their MySpace sucks.

There are a few tools around to make your MySpace look sweet enough to bite without having to many of those crappy and annoying "Which past Big Brother contestant's toenails are most like yours?" Gadget which you wouldn't have on there unless you were like a person that you adore or think other people do.

So here is my MySpace Designer School

Images

It's called Photobucket and you probably would have contributed to their server load at some point if you use MySpace or frequent blogs. If you wanna put your own images up there you have to register. Once registered you will be assigned a photo album to put all your images into once uploaded. The editing of size and other properties is limited once you upload your image so best do that beforehand.

Uploading is very straight forward. You just browse and locate the image, preferably JPG or GIF but they do allow for a few other formats depending on your needs.

Once your picture is in you photo album you are going to want to click the yellow box next HTML Tag. This will copy the code ready for you to place it where it is needed.



From here it's just a matter of choosing which section you want to place the image. One of the below sections is a good place to start:

About Me | Who I'd Like To Meet | Interests | Music | Movies | Books | Heroes

The html code which will look something like this:



It's just a matter of changing the URL in the brackets after href and the =

If you want no link on your image delete the code above.

Photos in a bucket.


Videos

It's pretty straightforward with Veoh. Register an account and you are on your way. Videos are on the site as soon as you upload them and they look sweet without all that crappy branding that YouTube does. Just embed your video onto MySpace and change the dimensions to suit which part of your page you are on.

Use the Calculator on your computer to do this.

A better uploading experience than YouTube


Music

If you want to entertain your visitors with a radio station of your own making than Finetune is just for you. Just look in the top right of this page to see it in action. The Finetune playlist was made by selecting songs from a generous song catalogue and they play back for you and the world to hear.

You need to select a minimum of 45 songs for each playlist you create and from there the song selection's the limit. I created a few different lists.

I created a personalised playlist to listen to on my desktop with the new Finetune Desktop Beta as well as in my MySpace music section. You can also listen to it on the Wii if you have one. They have a part of their site dedicated to it. You could probably use it on the Playstation 3 come to think of it.

I also created a Film Scores playlist comprising my favourite film scores which is nice to set the mood when you are having dinner or something.

And than I created a playlist based on my favourite radio station's most played songs on rotation hitlist of the moment.

You gotta be creative and good things will happen.

Tune into yourself today

I hope you were schooled in the finer arts of using other people's ideas and knowledge to make a killer looking MySpace page to show off to all of your friends.

Till next time.

Finetune: The Mixtape Evolved

OK, to get this out I wanted to post it on Digg. But someone already beaten me to the punch with a less than desirable headline. "The Best of SXSW 2007 Playlist".

So this is what was to explain Finetune, one of the greatest new inventions on the internet for social networking and making your Wii into a damn fine bedside, partyside and b-side music player for a while. Plus it is just damn cool and so well designed.

So this is a custom playlist made my some guy that I picked that was on the front page in the playlists section.

Ipod's Shuffle Feature for Free Online
It's pretty much Apple iPod's shuffle feature except you don't have to buy the songs. Probably not much of a change for most of you but nonetheless a little guilty. Shuffle on your compy and Wii and I'm pretty sure a portable device somehow. Anything's possible these days with sites like Lifehacker and the sort.

Send Your Friend's Playlists Without Sending Them The Songs
But you can make a playlist for yourself. Minimum 45 songs than it plays on random. Put it on your Social Network page of choice (It lets you embed wherever it's possible, including this post hopefully) and Hey Presto! You can share your tastes with people you know as well as the whole world.


Wi/i Like/s Listening to Fine Tunes
Another great use is for your Wii. It looks great on your TV and it sounds great if you have a good stereo system. You are probably saying that is what my iPod or mp3 player of choice hooked up to a Hi-Fi system is for. But if you have your Wii connected to the net or probably any device that can connect to the net with sound you can listen to playlists made my friends, family and people from all over the world.

So give it a go and tell your friends. I don't know the benefit of telling people because it will probably just make it slower but it's just such a nifty and handy thing. Better than Pandora and less restrictive than Last.fm as I remember them.

So have fun. The site again is www.finetune.com

If God Doesn't Watch Over Us Who Does?

My 2 Cents: How to Get Free Petrol

This method of getting free petrol is as far as I know legal but I'm sure very annoying for the service station attendants. So that's my 2 cents anyway. Be sure to share and we can (very) slowly put a dent however small into the oil industry's bottom line.

How Do You Compare on Speed Test?

The folks over at SpeedTest have really outdone themselves with their great new. Do yourself a faour and check out how fast the speed of your internet is compared to your fellow countryman as well as the rest of the world. It's great fun to toy around with the new design and vast array of features. See if your line speed matches what you paid for.

I've Got That Digging Feeling

After joining the social bookmark site Digg in September 2006 it suddenly became a lot easier to find cool stuff on the web. Sure you can use Google and search for your chosen topic and you'll be on your way, than YouTube came and finding music videos and in some cases TV shows and Movies were split up into ten parts. This made life inconvenient if you set up a couch in your computer room and got comfortable watching the latest episode of than suddenly you'd have to get off your buttocks and click Part 2 and repeat process 3 through 10. (Now there's QuickList so it doesn't apply as much.)

OK, whoa! Went a bit off topic there. What I'm trying to say is Digg in it's latest rendition has made life a whole lot easier when wanting to catch up with current events, whacky news, humorous videos, the latest celebrity caught on tape doing somthing they will later regret and now podcasts of which Diggnation is unsurprisingly the most popular amongst Digg members.

I've been using it fairly frequently for about a month now and there are some topics that seem to come up more often than others. Apple Inc, Atheism as well as people being PWNED (see Wikipedia, although if you are reading this I'd say you are familiar) are common topics. Which suits me fine because I enjoy Apple's products and would probably change to Mac if I could afford it. But I like the odd play around and until PC games are playable on Mac I will likely not be changing. And atheism is great to hear about, especially Dawkins who pretty much PWNS (see above) the people he debates.

So I decided i would try my hand at scouting the internet for something that might go popular and make the front page of Digg. My first attempt about a month ago didn't go so well. It was a satire of Michael Moore's corporate headquarter confrontation tactics and it's currentlt sitting on 2 diggs which includes my initial Digg submission point. I was quite discouraged.

Than it came to me that you need something either really interesting, something that hasn't been done or something universal. So I scoured YouTube for the comedians of my homeland: John Safran, The Chaser Boys and Shaun Micallef. I found some material from the first two but it had already been submitted to Digg and become quite popular. Well I finally found a clip that might be of interest and hadn't already been submitted before. It was an old Micallef sketch from his great television series.

So here is the result. My submitted Digg article. As of submission it had 175 diggs. Click below to see how many it has now. It feels pretty good to make the front page.

The Unspoken Rules of Holding the Door for someone

And here's the video direct that got me on the front page.