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September 26, 2010

Myspace promotes a movie that is basically a commercial for its biggest Competitor

Filed under: Observations — Tyler @ 6:57 pm
hilarious

The Social Network Myspace Blunder - click to enlarge

This is hilarious. Myspace is right now, actually promoting a movie called, “The Social Network” that is basically one big commercial for its biggest competitor, Facebook. Now, Facebook may say officially that this is not an official movie. But that does not matter. People are watching a movie that is about the origins of Facebook. The Social Network could be completely fictitious and the mere subject matter that it is about will no doubt work as a form of inadvertent advertising for Facebook. The ridiculous part is that Myspace, a company that has lost tremendous amounts of Social Network market share to Facebook over the past few years, is promoting a movie that will basically drive a stake through Myspace’s heart by drawing even more attention to Facebook. I got the idea of writing this article when I was checking my Myspace Music account and I saw an ad for “The Social Network.” I was thinking to myself, “Um, what genius-patrol advertising executive allowed Myspace to self-sabotage themselves. Fired much?”

This entire situation is a joke. This is like Microsoft at MSNBC.com doing a special report on how much Apple is the best company and how everybody should buy a mac instead of windows based computers. Why doesn’t Microsoft do that? Because that would be dumb.

Myspace is the sick man of the social network scene. By Myspace promoting a move called, “The Social Network.” It is tantamount to long term business suicide. The logic is simple. The movie isn’t called, “A good social network,” it’s not even called, “Facebook The Movie,” the movie is called, “The Social Network,” As in: The ONLY Social Network – OR – The SUBSTANTIAL Social Network. This film is about Facebook and its origins. Therefore it is subconsciously branding Facebook as THE Social Network over all other social network sites in existence. Words and phrasing are extremely powerful and important, and it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to realize that this is EXTREMELY potent branding.

This situation might make more sense if Facebook was about to purchase Myspace, but I haven’t heard anything like that. What the Myspace promotion of The Social Network probably is: A paid advertising campaign that was extremely lucrative for Myspace to endorse in the short term – that will invariably destroy an already crippled company in the long term.

If I was the owners of Facebook right now, I would be laughing all the way to the bank. And would be writing a long thank you note in my best cursive writing to be attached to the fruit basket I’d send to the owners of Myspace.

Honestly, I am a little upset that Myspace allowed themselves to do this to themselves. Even though I don’t go on Myspace all the time. I still really like their Myspace Music and all the cool artists that promote themselves on their. It is a great community for music artists and even though the sites generally load pretty slow, they at least look good, and they’re free to set up. This movie is going to cause a tremendous amount of hype and buzz about Facebook and will invariably make more people switch to Facebook and ignore their Myspace accounts. I can’t tell you how many times on Myspace I’ve gotten messages or status updates from people that say that they are moving their online presence from Myspace to Facebook. This goes for artists and individuals as well. This movie sure isn’t going to help the situation.

I know companies to short-sighted things all the time with the hopes of gaining short-term profits. But this is a total whirladerp that the owners of Myspace are going to regret for the rest of their lives.

The funniest part about this “The Social Network” advertising and promotion campaign on Myspace, is that I seriously doubt the owners who have the most to lose from this campaign even had a hand in it. This stunt was probably perpetrated by “clever” Masters of Business Executives that thought they would get a big bonus by landing such a big advertising deal.

Whoops!

-Tyler

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85 Degrees at Diamond Jamboree is a fun bakery coffee shop and hang out spot

Filed under: Reviews — Tyler @ 2:51 pm
85 Degrees at Diamond Jamboree

85 Degrees at Diamond Jamboree

Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center
2700 Alton Pkwy
Ste 123
Irvine, CA 92606
(949) 553-8585

Diamond Jamboree is a large strip-mall shopping center in Irvine. It is a home to several Asian restaurants and an Asian Market. But the real gem of Diamond Jamboree would have to be 85 Degrees. It is a coffee shop and bakery that creates items at reasonable prices with extremely high quality. I’ve tried several of the bakery bread snacks and prepared desserts. Their menu is extensive but there are a few items that I’ve tried that are really worth talking about. Before I go into too much detail into that, it must be said that 85 Degrees is a fun place to go with your friends because it is usually buzzing with activity. There is something really enjoyable about going to a bustling place with tons of people all ordering delicious things and enjoying themselves. Oftentimes the lines are long, but they move quickly. And waiting in line and talking with your friends is good times. Also the people watching is great too.

My favorite unsweetened beverage at 85 Degrees would have to be their medium unsweetened hot black tea. This may sound like a boring drink but it is great. The quality and temperature of the tea is perfect and you don’t have to worry about a teabag. The tea is ready to go, already brewed and seeped. It makes an excellent pairing to any pastry item you may purchase because it has a clean relaxed flavor. But it doesn’t taste watery at all, and it is nice and strong. But the strength of the tea isn’t overwhelming. It takes the middle road. I love sipping the tea for extended periods of time and talking with my good friend. I can’t tell you how many enjoyable conversations I’ve had at 85 Degrees. It really takes the cake.

Speaking of cake, they serve high quality desserts at 85 Degrees. My favorite of which, is the Tiramisu. The price I pay for a Tiramisu slice yesterday is $2.80 and it is well worth it. The slice is triangular and small. But it is perfect with my black tea. The flavor is light and although it isn’t the best tiramisu I’ve had in my entire life, it is still very good. And the price is undeniable. They have other great desserts too. One that I had before was the Creme Brulee, they do a great job on the flavor of the custard. Although they don’t make the top of the dessert crispy, which is a bummer. The caramel is liquid form but it tastes great. The custard is the real prize of that dessert. It is creamy and slightly buttery.

A real winner of the cold sweet drinks at 85 Degrees is their Cold Iced Green Milk Tea. It is slightly sweet and it has a subtle flavor with little aftertaste. I love this drink, but when I order it, I need to get it in a large size because I tend to drink it very fast. The Green Milk Tea tastes different from a regular green tea. It is almost a mix between the flavor of milk, with medium strength green tea, with a hint of green tea ice cream flavor. Those tastes combined make a beverage that doesn’t last very long, regardless of size. So I only order that drink when I know I’m not going to stay and hang out very long.

A huge aspect of 85 Degrees is their Bakery Goods. These bread based items are extremely high quality and they make them all the time, and they get snatched up very quickly, so they are generally fresh. Many people have different tastes, and some of the bakery goods that have been recommended to me were way too flavorful for my specific palate. But some stick out as being tasty in particular. The first one that comes to mind in their Green Onion Bread. That is a snackable bread that has a slight onion flavor to it. It gives you onion breath tho, so watch out! Don’t forget their Milk Custard Ball, that thing is so good. The custard inside it is an ivory color and it tastes like nothing I’ve had before. The dough is amazingly soft and pliable. I’ve eaten their blueberry danish and that was out of sight! It had very fresh tasting real blueberries in it and they were in a circle. The danish itself was square shaped. That one tasted great when I brought it home and let it hang out in the fridge for a while and then ate it chilled. I once tried their “Ceasar” something bread but that had too much flavor in it and I couldn’t handle it. There was cabbage and onions and cheese on the thing. And I had to throw it out because I didn’t want to hurl. My friend that I was nuts for not liking it but I didn’t want to risk the upset stomach. You got to know your limits when eating food at an Asian Bakery, some of the snacks are hard-core.  Like their Hot Dog bakery items…NO THANKS. I’m 30 years old, I don’t need to risk my life with hot dogs mixed with breaded whatever they got going on.So basically, you need to know your own limits and flavor preferences, as well as your digestive constitution before walking into the longer bakery line.

Speaking of lines, the lines at 85 Degrees are massive. So if you are afraid of people, then this place may not be for you. But if you don’t mind a little social interaction it is very fun. One thing to note is that there is a primary line where you get Bakery Items and then can order drinks. This line is in the front of the store and it is usually very long. But there is a secondary drink and desert line. Here you can order any beverage, but you can only order items from their desert case. So you won’t be able to get any bread-goods from this line. The good news is that the secondary line is at the alternate entrance to 85 Degrees at the side. This line is much much shorter.

One thing to realize is that the parking for Diamond Jamboree is usually very full. So be prepared to drive around for a space for a few minutes. This isn’t a wham-bam grab your snacks and go kind of place. This is more of an experience. Also the drivers in this lot aren’t Nascar quality so you need to stay on guard and be very careful.

85 Degrees in Diamond Jamboree in Irvine is a place that I like to go to every couple weeks or so. If I don’t go there in a couple weeks I start to miss the place. The menu is so huge that I doubt I’ll ever have enough time to try everything. People that visit 85 Degrees are of all ages, but their biggest demographic is young people. It is a hip place to go to and maybe I’ll see you there soon!

-Tyler

You are the Master in Actraiser

Filed under: Gaming — Tyler @ 12:33 am
Actraiser Death

Getting Slain in Actraiser by the Level 1 Boss

Have you ever wanted to be the mayor, savior, city planner, statue, and sword wielding avatar of an entire planet? If so, Actraiser for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a game for you. It turns out that you play the character called, “The Master.” And you are some kind of benevolent urban planning, magic wielding, warrior god. The game is ridiculously awesome and it gets better stage after stage. The main things that make Actraiser a must play are: The music, gameplay, graphics, replayability, learning curve, challenge and interactivity. Actraiser starts you out in a sky fortress then switches to a Two-Dimension (2D) Side Scrolling action game. The gameplay is very intuitive, you can jump and slash with your sword. You can also duck which is a plus. An awesome thing about the beginning of the 2D part of the game, is that you are a glowing orb of energy coming from the sky. And then you enter into a statue and the statue comes to life. I love games that start bombastically like that.

The action in the first stage is similar to that of Strider for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). You jump around and either avoid or kill monsters. One thing to remember is that if you don’t necessarily walk in a straight line and explore a little bit, you may find statues that you can open by slashing them and inside you may find powerups like apples that give you health, or gems that give you points, or ammunition for your magic. But the most fun part of the stage is when you get to the boss. My suggestion to beating the boss is to observe the patterns of the boss. Then get in tight and slash like crazy. Also make sure that you have a good amount of health before fighting the boss because they can take a lot of damage.

After you beat the first stage you then get redirected to your Sky Fortress and you are told by your assistant who is a little cherub that you can go to the surface of the planet, to where you purified the land from monsters. This is where the urban planning comes into play. This part of the game turns into a 2D Top View (Bird’s Eye Perspective) City Simulation Game. This is almost like a very simplified version of Sim City. But instead of doing zoning, you direct the flow of how the people will build. The problem is that there are monsters flying around and they can abduct people or sometimes cast lightning on people and it is very unfortunate. But the cool thing is that during this part of the game you control the Cherub. And he is equipped with a bow and arrow and can shoot the monsters. When this happens the Master gets magic points which you are able to use towards creating impressive natural weather and seismic miracles. These miracles include, rain, lightning, earthquakes and others. These become more important as the game progresses and you need to do them in order to solve certain problems for your people.

Speaking of your people, when the citizens of a town need to tell you something they pray at the temple. This is a really beautiful part of the game because you start to have empathy for the citizens for the towns and cities you protect. And some of the interactions that happen in the game are really emotional and heart wrenching. As the game continues, you free other towns from monsters and then direct the growth there. But sometimes the people have problems that you cannot immediately solve. For example, there was this one town that was doing very well and was growing nicely. But for some reason there was unrest in the town and the people became violent and started to fight with each other. I was unable to help then and they wouldn’t stop fighting even if I caused earthquakes or rained on them. They were upset. So I decided to help another town and eventually there was a person who went looking for some strange ruins in the desert. The people of this town were really worried for this man because they loved him very much. After much searching I was able to find the person. So when I directed the flow of growth in that town to spread forth and rescue the man, they rushed him to the temple to help him. But they were too late at the man died. But even though it was very sad the people of this town coped with their suffering by composing a piece of lamentation music for the man. At this point in the game you can actually hear the song that they created and it is such a touching and beautiful song. And they offered the gift of “Harmonious Music” to the Master so you can use it at a later time. So what I did next was to give the Harmonious Music to the town that was engaged in fighting and unrest, and the music calmed the hearts of the people. They were able to feel the emotions of the composer and it brought peace. That is just one of the many deep experiences you will have while playing this game.

After you help a few towns become cities the people may find new magical powers that you can use when you are in the 2D Side Scrolling action mode. These spells are very visually impressive but there is one in particular that does insane amounts of damage. It’s called, “Star Fall.” When activated Star Fall will rain down tiny meteors on your enemies, hitting everything on the screen. The reason why this spell is great is because each meteor counts as a hit of damage. So if you use it on a boss, you can hurt them bad. Other spells require you to line up the shot or be really close in order to get a hit. But Star Fall just requires that you stand there for a minute. It is easily the best spell in the game.

Another great thing about Actraiser is that as your towns grow in size, you actually become more physically powerful in your avatar form. So if you have enough healthy citizens in your towns you will end up having more hit points when you play the 2D Side Scrolling stages. This becomes increasingly important as you enter more difficult stages and fight more challenging bosses. By the time you get to the last stage you will need all the health you can get. One thing that you might encounter in the game is the fact that technology and civilization levels change as towns become cities and people become more advanced in their dwellings. Some town have homes that can hold more people and are more efficient. But since you want the most amount of Hit Points when you play the game you will probably want people to be living in an efficient of dwellings as possible. So one way to “Encourage” people to upgrade their towns and houses is by intentionally destroying homes and citizens and then letting them build more advanced ones. People get killed in the processes. But destruction is a fitting punishment for sloth. If you are a kind god then you won’t resort to such drastic measures. I guess it all depends on your personality type.

The 2D Side Scrolling Stages are so fun. There are enemies to jump over and attack almost everywhere. And the environments are interactive as well. There sometimes are hills that you can run down and pick up speed when you do. Dangerous bridges cross your path. Traps including pits of spikes lurk in the lairs of some areas. And the enemies you fight are all different in their movement patterns and attack types. So it is a varied and challenging experience. This game isn’t as hard as many other 2D action Side Scrollers but it never loses fun and excitement. The challenge is perfect for someone who wants difficulty, without massive amounts of frustration.

Fortunately, you can download and play Actraiser on the Wii Virtual Console. So if you have a Wii then I really hope you bust out Actraiser. Because it is the kind of game you can beat in a couple sittings over a couple days with little stress or gamer’s thumb. You are able to save your game and you don’t need to use a password system or anything.

Overall, this is one of my favorite games of all time. It is the perfect blend of action, fun, interactivity, story and inspiration.

-Tyler

September 25, 2010

Superman is the Supreme Communist Leader in Red Son

Filed under: Reviews — Tyler @ 4:21 pm
Red Son

buy Red Son from Amazon.com

Red Son is a graphic novel masterpiece by Mark Millar. The premise is that Superman’s spaceship when he was a baby landed in the Ukraine instead of in the United States of America. The end result is that Superman was raised with Communist ideology in his veins. I read this graphic novel a couple years after a friend mentioned it to me in one of my International Relations classes. The important thing to know about Red Son, is that it isn’t just a “Parallel Universe” adventure, that we have come to know in modern media. Red Son is a fully conceived moral dilemma that focuses on very strong themes including: Freedom vs. Protection and Order, Control vs. Free Will, and the human will to resist oppression. A great thing about Red Son, is that you don’t have to be a total Superman expert to thoroughly enjoy the Graphic Novel. The story, art, themes, dialogue, characters and action provide such an entertaining and thought provoking experience that Red Son keeps popping in my mind even though I read it two years ago.

In Red Son, Superman works for Joseph Stalin and is his right hand man. Over time Superman decides that he wants to help people so much that if he was in charge he could solve the world’s problems. Over the years Superman becomes more loved by his people and becomes more powerful and eventually becomes the Supreme Communist Leader for the Warsaw Pact nations.

Meanwhile in the United States of America there are constant problem and civil war. At one point in the book there is even starvation in the USA. Lex Luthor is a good guy and he is constantly trying to figure out a way to beat Superman.

There are many appearances of other DC Superheroes in Red Son. There is a Russian terrorist who fights against Superman in order to save his people from oppression named…Batmankoff. This character is so cool and when you see him you will fall in love with the book. There are other super impressive characters like an entire Military Unit of American soldiers that are powered by the Green Lantern Technology. Bizzaro is in the book and he fights for the USA. The list goes on. But the great thing about the characters in the book is that they aren’t cameos. They are all characters with motivations and goals and are depicted with amazing skill by the artists.

My overall favorite part of Red Son would have to be the excellent execution of the themes and moral questions. There is a recurring symbol of the chessboard throughout the book. The chessboard symbolizes control and competition, as well as anticipating the moves of one’s opponent.

There is a climactic realization for Superman where he knows that the USA will never consensually surrender and join the Warsaw Pact. And at that moment he gleans that it doesn’t matter how powerful he is. One cannot use force to actually shape the mind of another man. People change themselves.

Superman in Red Son is an enthralling character to watch because he is both idealistic and powerful and he takes himself very seriously. On one hand the reader sympathizes for Superman and wants him to be successful bringing order and peace to the world, yet on the other hand the reader is rooting for Lex Luthor to defeat Superman and encourage freedom of choice. There is a lot of decision making in the graphic novel and so I was glued to every page. I read the entire graphic novel in one sitting, like I usually do with books of this type because they are so fun to read. I can’t put them down.

Another cool thing about Red Son is that it spans across a long timeline. So you get to see Lex Luthor develop as a character and become more powerful. There are several US Presidents mentioned in Red Son and it helps root the story in its reality.

Red Son has the basic conflict of Superman vs. his adversaries. But deep inside the graphic novel is a much more intriguing conflict of Superman vs. his own ideologies. He is a man torn by what he thinks is right, what he’s been taught, and what the world is truly asking him to do. Do we really want a society free of problems? Or is there more to existence than having one’s needs met? These issues and many more are delved into through action, dialogue and subtlety.

The current Amazon prices for Red Son ranges from $13 plus tax and shipping for the softcover to just under $20 plus tax and shipping. You can check for the most current prices for Red Son on Amazon.com by clicking HERE. This is the kind of graphic novel that you will probably re-read in your lifetime and will share with your friends. I think it is well worth it.

-Tyler

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