5/21/2009 - Jack in the Box - Mini Sirloin Burgers

I like the White Castle burgers occasionally, but I don't really get the mini-burger phenomenon. I like my burgers big... with multiple beef patties and grease oozing from every pore. But these days, fast food places seem to be downsizing with items like snack wraps and mini burgers. One would think that the restaurant cooks would protest such a trend since it would probably mean more work to them (flipping three patties at a time instead of one).

While I generally don't care for the concept of mini burgers, I really like the Jack in the Box commercial for their version:



Everything from the song, to the midgets (or should i say dwarfs?), to the mini cattle is hilarious. I especially like the expression on the gopher's face.

3/8/2009 - Spoiled Girl

If you're not from Arizona, I couldn't possibly relay how disappointed I was with the last Superbowl. If it wasn't for that interception before halftime, this world would be a different place. And for those who were watching just for the commercials, there wasn't much entertainment to be had either. The only commercial that stood out to me was this one for Cheeto's:



There's just something about the laid-back evilness of Chester the Cat in this commercial that tickles me. I think he should be the next James Bond villain.

1/29/2009 - Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it)

I never watch the entire Star Wars (original) Trilogy until it was re-released in theaters in 1997. Until then, I never "got" why it was so popular. I had always believed it to be a showcase of special effects and puppetry. Although it's more fantasy than science fiction, the original trilogy was imaginative and it spurred imagination at the same time. It set itself up as a timeless mythology with archetypal characters. Above all that, it was just fun. It's ironic then, that the prequel trilogy would largely devolve into a mere showcase of special effects and (computer) puppetry.

But if you were to ask me before 1997 what the original Star Wars trilogy was about, I'd probably have the same kind of explanation as in this video:

1/22/2009 - How to Piss off a Geek

Yes, there's nothing more annoying to a geek than talking to someone who thinks they know tech stuff, but really don't. What else annoys us? Being told to restrict our bandwidth usage. Put both elements into a recorded phone message, and you have one pissed-off geek:



Oh, and his last name is pronounced pi-ri-loh.

12/25/2008 - Santa's helpers disable naughty cameras in Tempe

Merry Christmas everybody! I'm not exactly a speeder when it comes to driving, but I do get paranoid by the red light cameras on the road that takes pictures of your license plate if you go speed through a red light and mails you a ticket. I always wonder what would happen if the cameras malfunctioned and got the wrong car ticketed. How exactly would you fight that in court? Anyway, it looks like some enterprising gentlemen in Tempe took it upon themselves to fight the oppressive local government there. They did so, however, in some very festive costumes:

8/30/2008 - Super Kaizo Mario World part 4 speed up

I've played plenty of difficult games before... the original Ninja Gaiden series comes to mind. And of course there was the scourge known as Battletoads (the fact that some people have actually completed that game still blows my mind). While these games are hard, they were still good games and made losing at them less of a hair-pulling experience.

There are, however, "fan-created" games that are purposely designed to be near impossible to play. There was a PC shooter that was on display at the Iron Man of Gaming where most people couldn't survive the first level. And then there are games like Super Kaizo Mario World based on the SNES platformer that is truly impossible to play through without the use of save states. With save states, you can stop the game at a point where you survived a harrowing obstacle and return to that spot even after you die. Yes, it's basically cheating and would normally diminish the fun of playing the game because there is no consequence of dying if you can just reverse that death with a push of a button.

But with Super Kaizo Mario World, you simply have no choice. Watch any "speed-run" video of this game and you can see that it was created by the devil himself. These videos aren't even possible without recording only the parts facilitated by the save states. Here's one of these recording sessions of the game along with "commentary" from the player. Because it was so long and tedious, the video was sped up, and it's actually funnier that way. Listen carefully and you can still make out the profanity:

8/4/2008 - MIT Bunny Letter Opener

I don't have a pet, but if I did, I would definitely train it to do menial tasks like this:

7/14/2008 - Distracted Kid in Call of Duty 4

Lesson number one in first-person shooter games: do not be distracted by your environment. As this video shows, if you are busy staring at a poster of a topless woman, you will be killed. In the end, it's not worth it:

7/12/2008 - Poopfreeze -- Frost it and toss it!!

God bless infomercials... they've given us so much entertainment. From the kitchen gadgets of Ron Popeil to whatever Billy Mays is hawking at the moment, infomercial products have ranged from being ingenious to totally useless. Even if it is a useless product, though, you can still market it as if were the second coming. But sometimes you only have a minute or two to do that and you have to be creative. And that's why some infomercials are blast to watch, even if you aren't tempted to get the product they're selling. For example, I don't have pets, and yet I am mesmerized by this infomercial:



So instead of "set it and forget it", you have "frost it and toss it". Brilliant. Hmmm... even though I don't have pets, I am tempted to get Poopfreeze (gotta love that name). I mean, how cool would it be to have your own canister of liquid nitrogen?

7/1/2008 - Guys backflip into jeans

This one is pretty self-explanatory by the title. What I can really appreciate about these guys is that if they miss, it would REALLY hurt:

4/26/2008 - monkey smells finger

So we are supposed to be 95% similar to chimpanzees according to our DNA. So after watching this video, I'm not sure who is copying who:

3/16/2008 - Elephant Eats Poop

Oh dear... um, here's another YouTube Moment caught on video:



Man, look at that elephant go to town on that other elephant. I would have said that it was some kind of mating routine until I saw what it did at the end of the video. Ugh! How on Earth is that a "natural" act? Yeah, there are dung beetles and flies are attracted to feces, but this is from another animal of the same species! I gotta say this... the food at the zoo must be pretty bad if they have to resort to this.

3/5/2008 - Wrecked Car Still Driving

I bought my Volkswagen New Beetle back in 1999 because at the time it was a real head-turner. I have to say that my car definitely can't compete in that area compared to this one:



Some people have no shame... and in a way, I respect that. After all, if the car still gets you from point A to B, why not continue to drive it?

3/1/2008 - Dramatic Lemur

If you are a regular moviegoer, I'm sure you're familiar with those Dolby or THX intros. You know, it's right after the trailers and right before the movie where the sound system is demonstrated for all the theater to hear. I've seen some more creative variations of the intro where it references movies like Terminator 2 (where Arnie blows away the frozen T-1000) and Back to the Future ("1.21 gigawatts!!!"). I think, though, that they should really have another variation based on this video:

2/28/2008 - Funniest Moment On A Game Show Ever !!

It's amazing how the mind plays tricks on you... take this clip from a British game show, for example:



Now if you were laughing along with the audience, then your mind is in the gutter, too! :)

2/14/2008 - Love Hurts

Cupid... what a bastard:

2/9/2008 - Assassin's Creed Guard Love

It's amazing to see how far artificial intelligence in video games have come. I've heard that in the original Pac-Man, there would be a pattern in the way the ghosts move and that you can play a perfect game by simply knowing the pattern. Obviously, if this was the case, then there was no sophisticated A.I. in that game, even if you thought that the ghosts were scheming against you.

Even in the side-scrolling days of gaming, there would always be a pattern to the enemies and that the way they could beat the human-controlled characters would be to have quicker attacks or programmed with inherent advantages like better weapons. When fighting games came around, this lack of true artificial intelligence meant that the computer-controlled characters would "cheat". I see this prominently in the Street Fighter II games where the computer would immediately respond to one of your attacks with the only attack that could counter it. This may be possible within the design of the game, but the split-second manner in which the counter-attack is pulled off is humanly impossible. The computer would also "cheat" by pulling off charged special moves without charging, something that definitely could not be done by a human.

Despite these advantages, the computer can be beat because eventually you will start to recognize the pattern and take your own advantage. These patterns are actually deliberately programmed into boss characters and it gives you a kind of satisfaction to recognize them and using it to beat the game.

A.I. in video games made its biggest leap when first-person shooters came around. In the more difficult single-player campaigns you'll see the enemy use cover effectively and try to surround you. Perhaps because FPS's take place in a 3-D environment, you are less able to discern any patterns that are programmed into the computer opponents. However, it is a necessity to make the enemy smarter in these games, otherwise the difference between playing against the computer and another human being would be far too great. For a real challenge, nothing will ever beat going online against the hardcore gamers.

Still, with the tremendous processing power of today's consoles it is getting to the point where computer-controlled enemies will be programmed with artificial intelligence that make them more natural and almost human. Take the next-gen video game Assassin's Creed, for example. Your character is in the middle of an entire city packed with computer-controlled characters that are doing "everyday" things like shopping at markets, conversing with one another, and even committing petty theft. They do so in such a naturalistic way that the experience that it all really does seem like real life. In fact, it's a little scary to see how some characters behave:



It just proves that bots have to get off too...

1/21/2008 - The Man of Another 100 Voices

If Frank Caliendo can have his own TV show because he can impersonate people's voices, then this guy should have one too:



Seriously, his impersonations for the most part are uncanny. But what's most amazing is the wide range of characters he can do. From cartoon characters to politicians, he can turn on a dime and go to the next impersonation without pausing a bit. He's more schizophrenic than Robin Williams. Oh wait, he's #89.

10/8/2007 - "after 100 times its still funny!"

If you are a student who dreads school, then I know that Sunday nights probably give you heartburn... you know, that sinking feeling you get knowing that you have to wake up the next morning after a weekend where you were supposed to relax but couldn't because you were probably doing homework instead. Well, I remember those Sunday nights well. What sticks out most in my mind is probably watching America's Funniest Videos when it was on Sunday nights. The concept of the show was simple. Send in your home videos and if it's funny enough, it will be featured on the show, and the audience votes for a winner who wins $10,000. It's definitely not high brow humor, but I could rely on it lifting my down spirits before starting another school week.

America's Funniest Videos was definitely a pre-cursor to what is now YouTube. You don't win any prizes for uploading funny videos, but you do get rated on by your peers, and really good videos can occasionally make it into mainstream media. Here is a YouTube video that would have definitely made it on AFV: