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BlackChampagne Home Buy Crap! I get 5%. Direct donations to cover hosting expenses are also accepted. Site Information --What is Black Champagne? --Cast of Characters & Things --Your First Time. --Design Notes --Quote of the Day Archive --Phrase of the Moment Archive --Site Feedback --Contact/Copyright Info Blog Archives --Blogger Archives: June 2005- --Old Monthly Archives: Jan 2002-May 2005 Reviews Section Movie Reviews (153) Ten Most Recent Film Reviews: --Infernal Affairs -- 5.5 --The Protector/Tom Yum Goong -- 6 --The Limey -- 8 --The Descent -- 6 --Oldboy -- 9.5 --Shaolin Deadly Kicks -- 7 --Mission Impossible III -- 7.5 --V for Vendetta -- 8.5 --Ghost in the Shell 2 -- 8 --Night Watch -- 7.5 Book Reviews (76) Five Most Recent Book Reviews: --Cat People -- 4 --Attack Poodles -- 5 --Caught Stealing -- 6 --The Dirt, by Motley Crue -- 7.5 --Harry Potter #6 -- 7 Photos Section --Flux Photos --Pet Photos (7 pages) --Home Decor Photos --Plant Photos --Vacation Photos (12 pages) Articles See all 234 articles here. Fiction Original horror and fantasy short stories. Mail Bags Index Page Features --Links --Slang: Internet --Slang: Dirty --Slang: Wankisms --Slang: Sex Acts --Slang: Fulldeckisms --Hot or Not? --Truths in Advertising Band Name Ratings (350 Rock Bands Listed) FAQ -- Feedback A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z Hellgate: London --The Unofficial HGL Site --The Hellgate Wiki Diablo II --The Unofficial Site --Flux's Decahedron --Middle Earth Mod
	BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: Weekend Ramblings. With video. Saturday, November 10, 2007 Weekend Ramblings. With video. I'm not sure from whence came the burst of blog posts last weekend, but I hope it didn't lead you guys to expect that sort of thing to continue. Not for a while yet, anyway. It usually feels, in my mind, like I last blogged two of three days ago, so when it's the 10th and I check my blog and notice the last post was made the 1st, it's kind of a shock. Lately I've been so busy with college and other things that the weeks are a blur. My routine is to water my indoor jungle on weekends, and every time I find myself with the watering can in my hands I think, "Has it really been a week? Did I forget and water them on Wednesday? Since it can't have been six days since last time..." Anyway, to post something while I'm thinking about it, I saw this link on a few blogs recently, and was amused by it. It's apparently a TV commercial by the Australian Secular Party, though I do not know if it's actually appeared on TV in Oz, or if it's just something they put together for online/viral promotion. Needless to say (to anyone who lives in the US), there is no amount of money that would get this commercial on any major US network, and I doubt you'd have much luck on cable either. For all the sex and violence their enemies allege they show, the US broadcast media is profoundly conservative in their social leanings. Things that insult any particular religion (other than cheesy terrorist shows like 24 with evil Islamic bad guys) or especially all religions, are not kosher. So to speak. Thankfully, we've got the internet to amuse us with "What if..." videos. I'm not even taking an opinion on whether this is a good video, or truthful, or well-produced. I just think how interesting it would be if this kind of discourse were permitted in the major media in the US, aside from very occasional Christopher Hitchens' interviews. All of the major networks in the US shows religious programming every Sunday morning, there are constant late night infomercials from various fringe churches, and public access channels are infested with wacky spokesmen from cults of every flavor. Yet I don't believe I've ever seen any atheist, or anti-theist, programming. Someday, perhaps. While I'm on the subject of YouTube, did you know they have a listing of their most viewed videos ever? Last week I found myself wondering if there was such a thing, and a few clicks took me there. It's not a real proud list. It's rather infested with tween/teen skewing music videos, for bands like Avril Lavigne and My Chemical Romance, and even one by Linkin Park. Who knew they were still around? The number one video of all time on You Tube, with over 64m views, is not a teenie-bopper music video, though. At least not explicitly. It's got a bunch of hit pop songs, and it's got dancing, but it's also quite clever and funny. I have no idea how this one got 64m views. It's a good movie, and I enjoyed watching it, but there's obviously some pretty intensive viral promotion required to get even 1m views, much less 64x that many. Perhaps it was heavily-plugged in the mainstream? It's odd, since I'm "plugged into" various demographics and fringe interests popular on the internet; politics, gaming, sports, atheism, technology, and a few others, but I tend to be largely oblivious to mainstream fads and cults. So I never get jokes or references to new TV shows, or anything to do with Mtv or pop music, and something like this video, which might have been a huge hit on "mainstream" websites, is entirely off my radar. Lastly, here's a pic I shot of my desk a couple of days ago. Work is going on with all of those books, and there are six or eight more stacked up in the bedroom, where I often retreat to sit propped up on pillows and read/take notes. And I've got 3 other research projects I'm not going to start until I finish my ongoing papers on Rousseau's educational theories, French Revolution politics, Italian Renaissance armor/weapons, Burma's culture, my gigantic senior project on storytelling in computer games, and studying for the College Math CLEP exam. Better yet, I had far higher stacks of books the last two semesters; just not all at once. I've not felt challenged by any individual class during this return to college, but 20 units this term, and 8 research papers due in a 2 week period, is becoming a challenge just by sheer weight. And with that, I must get dressed and run some errands in the rainy Saturday afternoon, before returning to try and finish up a couple of these projects, so I can start others not yet begun. Whee! Labels: college, you tube Posted by: Flux # 12:08 PM Comments: South Park has had some very anti-religious things in it, such as a statue of the virgin mary squirting menstrual blood in a priests (the popes?) face. I guess that's not really any kind of an intelligent debate on the topic, but there is criticism of religions present, usually in your comedy channels (stand-up comedians etc). Also see Da Vinci Code movie for an example of a heretical take on religion. In NZ, we don't really have any kind of anti-religious programming that I'm aware of, but at the same token we don't really have any religious programming either (we do have church services on TV on Sunday mornings, but that's it). #: 1:27 PM posted by Anonymous The History of dance video confused me too. I'd never heard it mentioned anywhere, and yet it's gotten 64 million views? It doesn't seem like something with a broad appeal either. #: 2:01 PM posted by Anonymous It occurs to me that if one "dramatic chipmunk" video had emerged initially and drawn all the links, instead of spawning dozens of reposts and remixes, it would surely be in the top 10 all time on You Tube. There look to be at least half a dozen versions with more than 2m views, and I've seen that movie on every other video site on the internet at least once. #: 2:33 AM posted by Flux Yeah that history of dance video was linked everywhere about a year ago. Rousseau and French revolution politics... It's been a while since I get to write a paper about anything so interesting. :( Did you know bioware was looking for writers by the way? Seems like your kind of job. #: 5:47 AM posted by Anonymous Post a Comment << Home Archives May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2012

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