Randomn3ss

Um… I just saw this on Sunday night for the first time. It is the next in a series of bizarre but semi-brilliant advertisements for Emerald Nuts. These commercials get the brand stuck in your mind for nothing to do with its nuttiness, but for its “What the fuck?!?” factor.

Example:

Discuss.

So I know that some of you read me on this site and I really dig that.

But I also write for Recapist.com on the Famesters network. I recap three television shows: CSI: Miami, Law & Order: CI, and Miss America: Reality Check. Obviously, I only recap shows with colons in the title.

Anyway, I just finished a double recap for the first two Miss America episodes and although it’s really long and sometimes I got a bit bored with the narrative… I think it’s kinda funny.

To please my ego… click here.

While showing a friend OPENhulu last night, the glorious service that streams TV shows to your computer, I noticed a new feature, FULL SCREEN MODE! I was initially a bit iffy on the site before this, as the size of the streaming video was fairly small and the site has a ton of ads. Now, with full screen mode, I won’t need to rely on bittorrent sites to acquire shows I’ve missed.

Additionally, the list of shows is growing, rapidly. OPENhulu also seems to be pretty proud at the announcement of their forums being open, but I’d avoid them for now. Nearly every post is some form of spam and they have, what appears to be, no form of moderation yet. Hopefully the can get that issue worked out soon.

I am the product of divorced parents, I was a latchkey kid, I grew up in the late 80s addicted to TV, it was my entire world. I love TV, in fact, I could spend weeks doing nothing but channel surfing. I am now an adult, I still love TV but I also really enjoy a lot more that life has to offer. TV is no longer a priority, however I do enjoy it, but it has a time and place.

That place is not at my dentists office. For serious. OK, the idea is cool, I like having a TV to watch when you clean my teeth over staring at the ceiling or into your pretty eyes. Great, OK, so maybe I do like the idea.

What I don’t like is when you, the dental hygienist stop cleaning my teeth because you are too interested in Good Morning America. Seriously, you get paid a lot of money to do your job and you do a very good one at that, I appreciate it, I pay my health insurance premiums so you can drive around in a BMW and I enjoy the extra luxury of being able to watch TV, but, it is for me, not you. You are paid to do your job, do it!

As I grow older I watch less TV and enjoy life and friends more and more, however there are a few shows I enjoy and try to follow. I’ve already showed you how to watch TV shows on your time, not the networks, however this requires the use of bittorrent software and some time to allow for downloads. This poses a problem if you are at work on a lunch hour and just want to watch some TV or stuck at an airport for an hour. An hour is enough time to download a show, usually, but not enough to watch it. Streaming TV comes into play now.

Hulu.com offers free streaming TV and aims,

to provide you with the web’s most comprehensive selection of premium programming across all genres and formats – television shows, feature films, clips, and more.

That sounds great! Especially since they have some premium shows available now, there is no software to download and plays in nearly every web browser, only an internet connection is needed. One problem, it is private beta only and who knows when you may actually get approved for it. Not to fret, there is a solution.

OPENhulu.com has somehow found a way to exploit Hulu and streams nearly every show that is available from Hulu using the embed feature (thanks for clarifying Brandon), no software to download and install, nothing special needed to play the shows, just a high-speed internet connection and a web browser. There is a downside to this goodness though, but I don’t really view it all as so negative that it detracts from the fact that this is free. Ads, lots and lots of ads. They need to make money, I’m OK with that and understand it, there is also a five second ad before the show starts. Currently there is no way to make it go full screen [that I am aware of] and there is no way to save or export the videos to save locally to watch later or put onto a video iPod or similar device.

So if you missed your favorite show and don’t want to bother learning how to acquire shows via bittorrent, OPENhulu is a great second solution to watch your favorite shows without waiting for them to come out on DVD.

Celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D recently did a collaboration with legendary Dogtown skater, surfer and skateboard designer Wes “Bulldog” Humpston on a deck with the intention of selling it and giving all the money to charity. This just aired on Von D’s TV show, LA Ink, YouTube clips are below. 100% of the sale will go to the Tony Hawk Foundation, a nice twist to see that all the money will be going to charity, not just some of it. The auction can be seen here on eBay, it is already over $3,000 and still has 6 days to go.

Kat Meets Wes

They start to draw the deck

Greetings, again, friends of Randomn3ss!

Let’s put it this way…. when you receive a text from Mike Panic wondering if you’re dead, you know it’s been too long since your last post!

Been keeping busy here in the Illadelph… but now I’ve finally got my act together and will be writing more frequently.  Be on the look-out for more local band coverage, my typical rants (and ohhhh boy, are there a lot coming), and a review of tomorrow’s WMMR*B*Q all-day rock concert at the Tweeter center!!

In other blogging news, I’ve also recently joined the Recapist to cover a new hit reality show (Kid Nation) and a favorite crime drama (CSI: Miami).  Be sure to check the site for my posts and check out my pathetic Famester page (name: Adrienne Saia).  I don’t know how it works or what it is really, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon.

Good to be back and writing!

My name is Adrienne and I am addicted to reality TV. It can be on MTV, Discovery (mmm Bear Grylls), or Bravo (umm… next season of Project Runway please!). But recently, the craptacular offerings of VH1’s (MTV’s hipster wannabe cousin who has been known to play videos from 3am-6am) “Celebreality” shows has been the truest example of the proverbial car wreck that you can’t quite tear your eyes from.

One of the newest offerings is The Incredible Douche… wait, no… I mean, The Pick-Up Artist. I don’t quite know if this show falls into VH1’s “Celebreality” category, because none of the characters on it are really bonafide celebrities (then again… is Bret Michael’s still considered a “celebrity”? Weird). The premise is that VH1 takes a bunch of dorks/virgins, puts them in a house (without ceilings, undoubtedly), and introduces them to “Mystery,” Queen of the Douches and his two friends, Tweedle Douche and Tweedle Douche-ier. These guys are masters of picking up women… allegedly. In between laughing at the socially-awkward dorks/virgins as they attempt to score chicks in a “nightclub” (again, the apparent lack of ceiling and front door makes scenario even less believable), they teach the dorks/virgins the subtle art of frosted tips, black fingernail polish, and how to demean chicks into thinking you are the shit. It’s great.

At first, I was annoyed by the show, but I’ve learned to embrace it’s douchey-ness. Not only has it killed this last half-hour before season 3 premiere of The Hills (ahhhhh I’m totally on team LC!!), but it’s made me laugh, even when I’m sober. I’m quite intrigued by this Mystery character, mostly because, contrary to what VH1 would have me believe, I don’t want his penis anywhere near me. Despite not having gotten laid in a loooooooong time (no comment), there is a firm, “No Mystery Penis” zone around my vag. Allow me to break down the elements of douchebaggery on display here:

• Big, fluffy pimp hat, worn un-ironically.
• Black fingernails. Is that from the scurvy?
• Jared Leto called and he wants his guy-liner back; Pete Wentz needs to borrow it, then cut himself.
• Mystery is rocking the douchiest of soul patches… it’s a piercing WITHIN a soul patch.
• Crushed velvet, which probably smells like Aerosmith, circa 1978.
• In conclusion, Mystery is what would happen if Keith Richards and Johnny Depp fucked the talent out of each other.

More disturbing than the rampant douchebaggary is the way they teach guys to pick up chicks. Basically, they teach virgins to treat girls like garbage then ask them to buy their cheap asses a drink. And sadly, it seems to work (at least for Enigma and his roving band of man-whores). But I encourage guys who want to date me (if you exist) to leave the nail polish and eyeliner to me and to please get the next round of shots. Even if you have a soul patch, you’ll undoubtedly be cuter once I’m drunk.

SPOILER ALERT: Mystery and his roving band of douches just got down to the first elimination… they picked the 45-year-old virgin (WHAT?? How is that possible? Didn’t they have Rohypnol in the 70s?) over the weepy Asian dork. Seriously. This dude is crying. Uncontrollably. It’s probably because he saw the FAKE TATTOO OF LIPS on Mystery’s neck. Vomit.

For those of you who can’t use Google, a picture of the Mystery man himself, flanked by his Wingmen… I’d probably let the blonde one hit it though, courtesy of VH1:

Growing older I find myself watching a lot less television than I used to, however I still enjoy a few shows here and there that I try to keep up with. Being that I don’t live and die by the TV and am more often out at the park with the dog or with friends, it becomes somewhat challenging to watch certain shows that come on at certain times. Additionally, I don’t pay the bloated price for premium channels like HBO, but they have some shows I’d still like to watch.

What are my options?

• Wait until the full season comes out on DVD, hopefully
• Use an old school VHS player to tape the shows
• Buy a newer DVD recorder which is expensive and I’d have to remember to set it and buy blank disks
• Build a home media computer (DVR, digital video recorder), can be done cheaply but I’m not ready for that leap yet
• Get a Tivo or similar service, yet another monthly bill I don’t want to deal with.

What if there was another, cheaper option? One that let you see the shows you wanted the day after they were on air, and for free? There is. tvRSS.net is the solution.

The site scrapes data from bittorrent websites and sorts the shows by name, making it extremely easy to find whatever you are looking for. There are never duplicates and nearly every show is in HD. To top it off, network shows on basic cable usually have all commercials clipped out of them!

Ok so downloading shows via bittorrent is nothing new, there are hundred of sites out there you could search and find the same info, what makes this special? For me, super easy to use, always quality torrents and subscription via RSS feed.

Yes, you can subscribe to any TV Show via RSS into your favorite reader, like iGoogle, Google Reader, NetVibes, Thunderbird, whatever. Get updated as soon as the new episodes come online. No more worrying about what day and time the show comes on, look for it in your RSS feeds.

There are a few downsides you need to accept in order to do this.

• You won’t be watching in real-time
• This may or may not be legal
• Unless your DVD player or TV has a USB port that will accept playback of movies (usually AVI) that are feeding it from a flash drive or external hard drive, you will need to burn a CD-R or DVD-R for each show to play in your DVD player.

For me, I now have the ability to enjoy the shows when and where I want, even on my video iPod.

There are ways to automate this process and have your torrent client parse the RSS feed and start downloading as soon as it is available, but I have not yet arrived at that step. When I do, I’ll work on putting a tutorial together. Until then, start enjoying your favorite TV shows on your terms, not the networks.

Since I’m still reeling from my 15 minutes of Bear Grylls-inspired fame, I’ve been too crazed in the head to write something new and creative.  I’m working on a couple things, hopefully getting in some concerts and reviews this week, and am still trying to figure out how I’m going to write about my Bonnaroo experience (or if I should just keep that one to myself).

Anyway, here is a link to a nature guy from the National Geographic Channel getting his face attacked by a big snake.  The show airs in the UK tonight and hopefully afterward YouTube will have a higher-resolution version up soon.

Some people should stop trying to be Bear or Steve Irwin (god rest his soul).  Brady Barr might be one of them.

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