Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Greatest Prank Ever

Some kids hacked a road sign to say some pretty awsome stuff. Here's the link to the full story (http://kotaku.com/5143640/sage-advice-but-not-viral-marketing) , enjoy the picture



Thursday, January 29, 2009

A look back at the internet stone age

O how times have changed! Let's all  together at the prescient narration and sadly ironic commentary like, "that won't be much competition for the $.20 street edition." DOH!!!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The problem with x-games big air

As most of you know I'm an avid skier, and followed last weeks x-games with an eagle like eye. However, the one problem I had was with the big air competition. PK Hunder one of the best skiers in the world was robbed by Simon Dumont. For this fiasco you cant blame the judgeing or the venue, you can only blame yourselves. This year espn let the audience vote for the winner of the big air competition, and this was one of the biggest mistakes in skiing in recent memory. Simon Dumont was clearly outdone by PK, and only won because he is American. Yes, the American audience did vote for the American even though he clearly was the lesser of the two. So next year espn higher some judges for big air.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The funny of the day.


is like school on saturday: no class

Monday, January 26, 2009

The Power of Music

Sorry, it's been a long time since I last posted, it's just i'v been swamped with school and swimming. I thought since I dont really have anything new to talk about, I'll list three musicicans that inspire on an everyday basis, and I just hope that one day my music can be mentioned in the same conversation as theirs.



Glen Hansard - Go see the movie Once, or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIdXRq2PUvw&feature=related

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The End Of An Era, And The Birth Of New Hope

I know alot has already been said about the inauguration today, but I just thought I would toss in my 2 cents...Today we all witnessed history. Say what you will about the huge ceremoney, and the judge messing up on the words during the swearing in...today marked a turning point for the country. So many hisotrical touchstones were reached today such as minority being inaugurated as president. Today also demonstrated that great hope can shine through the state our country is currently in. Yes, the economy has gone to shit, we are fighting a pointless war, and we are viewed as power hungry enforcers around the world, however for the first time in 8 years I felt optimistic and hopeful about our countries future. Naysayers be damned, their is no person in this country who was not emotionley moved when they saw all the different people, from all different walks of life, united under a common sense of unity and hope. To quote the speech

 "Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."


Im not saying the next four years are going to be easy, the country faces a pileing number of issues. Yet, today I felt that if we have the right man leading us, and we all need join in unity and do our part, we can pull through these tough times, and emerge a stronger country on the other side.

For the first time in 8 years, I was proud to be an American.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4






 





Wednesday, January 7, 2009

R.I.P. my old friend

I am extreamly sad by what happened at 1up, as you can see in my previouse blog. However, I feel that lyrcis form this song exemplify what all 1up community members are feeling right now.

so sgt. pepper took you by
surprise
you better see right through that
mother's eyes
those freaks was right when they
said you was you was dead
the one mistake you made was
in your head
how do you sleep?
ah how do you sleep at night?
you live with straights who tell
you you was king
jum when your mamma tell
you anything
the only thing you done was
yesterday
and since you've gone it's just
another day
how do you sleep?
ah how do you sleep at night?
a pretty face may last a year
or two
but pretty soon they'll see
what you can do
the sound you make is muzak
to my ears
you must have learned
something all those years
how do you sleep?
ah how do you sleep at night?



also this post on philip kollar's blog speaks volumes

To close things off, I wanted to share an excerpt from one of my favorite books of all time, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. Hopefully it's not too pretentious, but one of my closest friends sent me this excerpt today totally independently of the bad news, and it seemed to fit my feelings shockingly well. I hope you all enjoy it and get something out of it, and I hope you'll be following me and continuing to give me your feedback on my future work for a long time to come. I love you all.

"Let me share this. I can do it any way you want, too -- I can do it funny, or maudlin, or just straight, uninflected -- anything. You tell me. I can do it sad, or isnpirational, or angry. It's all there, all these things at once, so it's up to you -- you choose, you pick. Give me something. Quid pro quo. I promise I will be good. I will be sad and hopeful. I will be the conduit. I will be the beating heart. Please see this! I am the common multiplier for 47 million! I am the perfect amalgam! I was born of both stability and chaos. I have seen nothing and everything. I am twenty-four but feel ten thousand years old. I am emboldened by youth, unfettered and hopeful, though inextricably tied to the past and future by my beautiful brother, who is part of both. Can you not see that we're extraordinary? That we were meant for something else, something more? All this did not happen to us for naught, I can assure you -- there is no logic to that, there is logic only in assuming that we suffered for a reason. Just give us our due. I am bursting with the hopes of a generation, their hopes surge through me, threaten to burst my hardened heart! Can you not see this? I am at once pitiful and monstrous, I know, and this is all my own making, I know -- not the fault of my parents but all my own creation, yes, but I am the product of my environment, and thus representative, must be exhibited, as inspiration and cautionary tale. Can you not see what I represent? I am both a) martyred moralizer and b) amoral omnivor born of the suburban vacuum + idleness + television + Catholicism + alcoholism + violence; I am a freak in secondhand velour, a leper who uses L'Oreal Anti-sticky Mega Gel. I am rootless, ripped from all foundations, an orphan raisingan orphan and wanting to take away everything there is and replace it with stuff I've made. I have nothing but my friends and what's left of my little family. I need community, I need feedback, I need love, connection, give-and-take -- I will bleed if they will love. Let me try. Let me prove. I will pluck my hair, will remove my skin, I will stand before you feeble and shivering. I will open a vein, an artery. Pass over me at your peril! I could die soon. I probably already have AIDS. Or cancer. Something bad will hapen to me, I know, I know this because I have seen it so many times. I will be shot in an elevator. I will be swallowed in a sinkhole, will drown, so I need to bring this message now; I only have so much time, I know that sounds ridiculous, I seem young, healthy, strong, but things happen, I know you may not think so, but things happen to those around me, they truly do, you'll see, so I need to grab this while I can, because I could go at any minute, Laura, Mother, Father, God -- Oh please let me show this to millions. Let me be the lattice, the center of the lattice. Let me be the conduit. There are all these hearts, and mine is strong, if there are -- there are! -- capillaries that bring blood to millions, that we are all of one body and that I am -- Oh, I want to be the heart pumping blood to everyone, blood is what I know, I feel so warm in blood, can swim in blood, oh let me be the strong-beating heart that brings blood to everyone! I want --"


PS. Fuck the man


Today i lost a good friend

As many people in the videogame world know, today 1up/egm died. It's not that they no longer exist, but they are now former shells of their former selves. Jeff Green says it best with his quote "

R.I.P. 1up.com. They may keep your URL, there, but we all know better.

I will post Jeff's post below because he does a better job of articulating everybodys sadness, then I ever will.

No, You're not the same 1up.

So, soon after posting my last entry, I decided that the best way to show my support and love for the dozens of my co-workers laid off yesterday was not to scribble on my blog, but to actually be there with them. 

I rode my bike from EA up to San Francisco, where a lively and active and drunken wake was in progress at Steff's Bar, the dive bar next to the (now former) Ziff Davis offices that has served as the go-to watering hole for years now. Some of those fired--like my good friends Ryan and Anthony--were not there, and knowing both those guys, I'm sure that hanging at a bar was about the last thing they felt like doing, knowing that they no longer held the jobs that they loved so dearly. But mostly everyone was there--both the fired (who were unceremoniously shoved out the door, with security guards present) and the "saved"--as well as a bevy of alumni who also came to show their support: Karen Chu, John Davison, Dana Jongewaard, Demian Linn, and many more. It's the one thing about Ziff Davis. No matter how fucked up and ill-managed of a company it was---and, boy, was it--they always managed to hire great people who stick together even years after their departure. Alumni of that company always feel the same bond. Maybe because it was so fucked up and ill-managed. Those who get out are kind of like ex-convicts--survivors who laugh and shake their heads at their former incarceration and feel for those left behind. Or maybe that's too dramatic and unfair. It's hard to say when it comes to something like layoffs. Emotions run high.

Which is why, after getting home from the wake, I got extremely upset when I read Sam Kennedy's "1up is Now Part of UGO" blog entry--which I'm not going to link to here because it doesn't deserve any more clicks. Now, Sam is an incredibly nice guy, one of those guys who never, ever has a bad word to say about anyone. He'd never write, for example, what I'm about to write. And there is no doubt in my mind that he's as bummed out as everyone else. He's in a horrid position here, having to put a brave face on what is an unequivocally ugly mess. So I wish no ill-will on the guy, and, more important, those following this story need to know that none of this is his "fault". All this shit happened way above him. He's just trying to make the best of a bad situation. And to that I offer him a heartfelt and sincere good luck.

Still. That blog post? Not a good call. It reminds me a bit of George Bush, to be honest, in its tin-eared, feel-good myopic offensiveness ("You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie!"). Yeah, he had to say *something*, but this wasn't the way to say it--not in public. I only want to comment on two lines:

"We’re still the same 1UP, and we’ll still be producing the same content...we always have"

Well, no, you're not, and no, you won't. You're not the same 1UP because you just lost a gigantic chunk of what made 1up 1up. It may go on, it may in fact produce great things, but it won't be the same. All that a company ever is is a mix of specific personalities. That's all it is. Period. When you remove people, it may go on, but it's never "the same." Saying it's the same is a disservice to all the people who just got canned. And, no, you won't be "producing the same content" because those responsible for some of the most popular and distinctive content--the 1up Show, the podcasts--no longer work there anymore. So, again, you can't say it's "the same". It's not. (And since everyone on the Copy Desk got canned, too, it won't be as well-edited, either.) Better to just acknowledge that, since we all know it anyway. 

"...having the support of UGO and Hearst is probably the best bit of news we've ever had."

Again, no. If this can be called "the best news", I'd hate to see the bad news. In fact, it 
might be the best bit of news that you and the others who kept their jobs ever had, since you now don't have to be looking for work at the start of a new year, in the worst economic climate this country has been in in the last 80 years. For everyone else--both those who lost their jobs and those who followed their work--it's just about the worst news possible. I'll give you an alternate choice for "the best bit of news" 1up.com ever had: The fact that so many talented, creative, funny, dedicated people busted their ass at that site to produce content they believed in, despite the fact that they were chronically underpaid, chronically under-appreciated and lied to by an incompetent upper management (I mean the New York suits) whose shitty decisions led the company to ruin, and chronically treated--ever since the Ziff family sold the once-great company--like nothing more than numbers on a bleeding-red-ink spreadsheet. That's the best news you ever had. What happened yesterday? Yeah. Not so much.

In the cold light of day, though, another truth remains: All those still at 1up are still great writers and editors, and will, in fact, produce great things. You cannot underestimate the talents of Jeremy Parish, Thierry Nguyen, Scott Sharkey, and everyone else, and they deserve our support. I'm glad for all those who survived the cut, and will continue to read their work. And I wish Sam all the best over this difficult time of transition. 

But since he's obviously hamstrung by having to put a happy face on this bloodbath, I'll just say what would have been nice to read, instead: "Our website is decimated. Our new owners failed to recognize the talent we had, which comes as no surprise since their own website values lowest-common-denominator pandering over quality content. We will do our best to do what we can, despite the fact that they gutted us. This fucking sucks."

/end rant. 

Good luck, all. Those now looking for a job, you know where to find me for references, advice, and beer.

--Jeff

Friday, January 2, 2009

R.I.P. Randy Davis

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Randy Davis was killed skiing at Squaw on Christmas Day. Skiing was Randy's passion in life, and a memorial fund has been set up in his name, and it's goal is to give kids money to go to summer ski camps. Below is the posted e-mail with the link.

Dear Randy's Crew,

As many of you know, CHARITYSMITH has been asked to create a memorial fund celebrating the life of Randy Davis and his love of skiing Squaw Valley.  We are honored to do so.  

Announcing the Randy Davis Memorial Fund  celebrating Randy Davis and his love of life, people, and freestyle skiing.  

Awards from the Randy Davis Memorial fund will be given annually to local Tahoe/Truckee skiers to fund attendance at summer training camps.  Randy himself would have loved such a scholarship, as he spent summers at the Olympic Park in Park City – training to achieve his goal of being a world class aerialist.  Recipients will be selected on annual basis with presentation of the award at the annual end-of-the–season Squaw Valley Freestyle Team Party.  Randy was notorious for attending this event dressed to the nines.  One year, he showed up in a three-piece zoot-suit.

If you have photos for the website, PLEASE email them to Rachel@charitysmith.org   (We are going to build a slide show that runs continuously on his page.)  Also, note the message board on his page, where you can post a remembrance .   

We are all a part of this big freestyle family.  It is so incredibly sad to lose someone who embodied this sport, this team, and this family bond like Randy did, and still does.

Here's to Randy.    www.RIPRandy.org

-Brooks.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

2009

Happy new year everybody, hope it's a good one!