Thursday, October 30, 2014

Can't say just yet plus Halloween mini-update

...what it is that I'm doing, but I have done a lot.  (If you haven't figured it out by now, check out the update about the flash mob)

In the meantime, there's a message I found on Facebook that's worth sharing because it applies in so many ways.


Traffic to this blog has really skyrocketed, too. Welcome to all my new readers!
I still see somebody in France gathering the images from this blog, so if that's you, Yatoula--RAZPBERRIES! You're still PWNED!  And I'm still gloating. Up yours.





MiniUPDATE: somebody I'm working with on the stuff I can't speak about yet just said I did effin' awesome work.  That, folks, made my day.  I am now officially feeling awesome.  And now---I shall commence being insufferably smug and a half for the rest of the day.

Samhain UPDATE: Despite hell, high water, and a corrupt commissioner, there WAS a scare on the square on Halloween.

In the flash mob at the downtown post office, raven boogies with timelord to the tune of Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Suck it, City--you emptied the downtown area while a few people stuck around to promote it. FAIL.

More stuff happened on Halloween including footage of a squad of crazies running Hallowenid at Meadowlake. Stay tuned.

Note to the peanut gallery driving my hit stats up: It's Sunday and I still haven't posted that video. Y'all come back now, y'hear? :D

By the way, you guys have a YouTube channel to check, too, and that's where it's posted now, also shared on Twitter and G+, and, via a few friends who are still on Facebook...it's up on Facebook as a Share, too (check the bottom of each of my blog posts and you'll find buttons to click on for the purpose of Sharing across social media platforms).

 Nice try to censor that YouTube video, Tammy, but it's public record, at the Enid Police Department, report number 201413272. You can thank your business partners for that.  As a public figure, neither you nor your business partners have the same right to privacy as us regular folk.  You made the call, sweetie--you gotta live with it.  You also forget, my dear, that YouTube isn't the only website that circulates videos. It has stiff competition.


Also, by the way, I have avid fans in the Chinese government (and in the Russian government) who follow every move of everyone clicking on this blog. I'm sure they love you too. Thanks for dropping by.

Well, how about that. It took 'em long enough to visit this blog, but I'm finally getting a bit of traffic from the TARDIS Wikia. Hi guys--I *told* you I'm a TARDIS navigator, and nobody is as painfully aware of that as the scholars who go to Enid Chautauqua.  As for Sharon, well--even if she did recognize Hilda's TARDIS when she saw it, she wouldn't know what to do with it.  It's in better hands in MY hands, you can bet on that.




Tuesday UPDATE, Enid Commission Edition:  If you're in Enid and you have cable, and if you didn't catch the Diane & Bob Show on the City Commission this evening, make a point of catching it on the replay. You'll thank yourself for that.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Great news about a long-standing bone of contention today



There's been a a new discovery of an old silent film about somebody thatI've been a long time fan of and it's the same somebody who was the celebrity recruiter for the 369th regiment--not the least bit obscure at the time.

Bert Williams' Wiki page





#SHOWUSYOURPEANUTS



Late Breaking News UPDATE on the Mysterious Lab: Usually I'd put this update where I posted "Is This A Great State Or What", but I'm posting on the fly here, just getting in from a second installment of a lecture series on Oklahoma history (theme is water) and I've just barely sat myself down at the pooter. KFOR did another segment as an update to that old footage, and here's the LINK to that segment.  As a Fiend of Fear zombie, I feel like more than just the walking dead--looks like a resurrection is imminent. WOOT!

It's nice to know that at least one smart guy appreciates questions.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Congrats, ISIS--you're bringing the vermin out of hiding. Thank you.

It's about time you did some good for us in the west, and you're bringing all the psychopaths out of the woodwork so that we can get our constabulary out after 'em.  I'm sure an army of undisciplined psychopaths is exactly what you were looking for, right?

You were  looking for hand-to-hand combat with our great military and all you ever get is our great police. I can live with that, but can you, you silly ignoramuses?

It's no laughing matter that you butcher people who can't fight back, but it's laughable that the only people you think you look brave in killing are people who can't fight back while whining about going up against our military, you yellow bellied clowns.  Nobody but raving lunatics find you attractive...but still, thank you for identifying for our police the ones to lock up.  You're next.  No military for you.

May all your new "wives" bear nothing but daughters.

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In other news today--it was with considerable delight that I discovered that I had a long time fan at one of Enid's major radio broadcasting companies.  WOOT!

Friday mini-UPDATE: getting into more clandestine mischief. Hell, I'm *always* in trouble. Deal with it.

Oh dear, yet another school shooting (Seattle). America, make note of politicians who think than an NRA endorsement is something to brag about, and vote them the hell out.

Saturday mini UPDATE:  Looks like I'm going as a banshee this year, not the time traveler. Hell, I do time traveler the rest of the year.


Friday, October 17, 2014

Halloween looms large once again and I've been SUPER busy

My goodness, time flies when you're in the thick of shenanigans. I'm in it deep, people.  Lots of stuff going on, and one of the things I said to a guy I encountered at a bank downtown was that yes, I blog, and my readers are mainly Chinese so now you know that China is kept up to date on everything going on in Enid.

I'm basically an opportunist, too, and a number of opportunities have been opening up during the course of the week past and you can bet your sweet bippy I've been taking maximum advantage of those.  When I sit down long enough to catch my breath and process videos and pics, you can bet I'll post 'em here as time permits.

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Surprise surprise surprise.  After I hit the submit button on the above post, I checked the stats and instantly there were 3 hits on it.  I expected those to be from Google Plus cuz that's where it circulates immediately upon posting, but that's not what the stat counter told me this time.  I got 1 immediate  hit from www.simplemachines.org.  Hello, fellow coders, but in case you haven't noticed, I dropped Simple Machines like eons ago...unless one of you three is Ardd.  Hey Ardd, I thought you died or something. Say hi to Apple for me...no, wait...SCREAM. :D

I got a truckload of catching up to do with blogging and I don't know if I can manage this late in this day.  By all means stay tuned though.  The tricks of this week have turned out to be rare treats.

In the meantime, enjoy the dueling banks, each of which have pumpkin decorating competitions...and note that some pumpkin themes appear in both banks.  CNB first--







....and now, for SNB's pumpkins....





















Are you laughing? When you consider the high male mortality in heavy industry, you shouldn't be. Men stubbornly think it's "manly" to go without adequate safety equipment especially in construction, and yes--they do die, actually, from stubbornness.  Those that don't die manage to suffer significant lifelong disability, and that includes doing stupid things with their back because they fancy themselves strong enough to avoid back injury. If you still think that women aren't strong enough to do man's work, look at all the women on farms and ranches that have had to take over operation of same because the man developed a  bad back.

Christians, the next time you feel like bitching about Islam, remember St. Augustine, among other "Fathers of Christianity".


Fathers of Christianity and of Judaism were the MoFos that Islam learned that shit from.

Men agree, too, because they say, "the difference between men and boys is the size of their toys." There ya go, gals--they admit it.



Friday, October 10, 2014

Congrats, Malala! --plus mini-updates

I've been pretty busy getting into mischief with regards to City affairs (and I can't divulge what just yet, although with my previous post about the Open Meeting Act in Oklahoma, you can get a hint about just a part of that), I do think I at least should post congratulations to Malala for being awarded the Peace Prize. No one deserves it more.

When it comes to the City, union negotiations with management, and a whole slew of other matters,  I've been an army of one, and can attest to the fact of Malala's statement.




Sunday UPDATE: In other international news (sort of), PAMBE Ghana of Oklahoma City has announced that their Fair Trade Global Market marketing festival is from November 4 thru December 23(I'm sure they have Christmas in mind), and I don't mind putting in a plug for that, having shopped there last year myself, noting just how definitely international they are, and keeping in mind the ebola crisis this year and how much stuff needs funding over there, generally speaking. Yes, corruption plays a huge part in why things are the way they are over there, so it's not smart to be as generous as your heart tells you to be with a lot of charities begging for relief for anywhere in Africa as we close in on the major holidays, but PAMBE Ghana is a good one.  



Monday-Tuesday UPDATE: I was going to write a blog entry about a TIME magazine article written by Mark Bittman in which he encourages cooking at home, from scratch...and I was gonna rip him for sounding like a man that never did the dishes after he cooks at home...BUT!...more opportunities for more mischief came up, and I went with the mischief.  Can't reveal what it is even yet, but you can bet I'll blog about it when the outcome becomes known. Heheheheheheheheh....


Wednesday UPDATE: CURSE YOU, JOHN OLIVER!!! edition

Just when I thought I could slide by Columbus Day, Oliver pipes up on Last Week Today and says, in other words, what I said last year except for the part where he suggests better Italians for Italian Americans to celebrate...


Last year it looked like I was gonna go with Joe Doce, but as long as Oliver dragged me back into this thing, this year I nominate Father Guido Sarducci.





Monday, October 06, 2014

I luvz ya, Bill Maher & Sam Harris, but y'all are wrong--& 3 updates

Make no mistake, I'm an atheist who curries no favor for any branch of the ill-begotten Abrahamic religions, and who thinks that all religions are the motherlode of bad ideas, but you guys are all wrong about Islam because you all base your conclusions on the rot sold by non-Islamic religions and you bought it, suckers.  With the crap that you bought into, Bill and Sam, you're no different than Christians.

Really.

Islamophobia is the result of believing the rot that the other two Abrahamic branches preach about it.Sure, it's true that ISIS isn't helping in that regard, but it's also true that ISIS isn't Islamic and anybody who says that it is doesn't know squat about Islam either. Nice of you guys to opine about something you guys clearly don't know anything about outside of propaganda, but quite frankly, you're also believing the crap that ISIS is selling you, too, and that makes you a believer in ISIS as well as what makes you Christian.

Suckers.

Actual Muslims know better than you guys for a change.  They know if the Allah they believe in really willed there to be a Califate Empire, we'd still have the first one.  We don't, do we.  As far as actual Muslims are concerned, there is no Califate Empire because it's God's will, and those attempting to establish one are not insha'allah.

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Oh dear--I just heard Chris Hayes make sense and then go off the rails. He said he was in Afflek's corner but then said that one should listen to a member of "the faith" as if it was monolithic.  Christianity isn't monolithic either, despite what I may have inferred when I said that Christianity sells one story about Islam (all flavors of Christianity do and it dates back to when Christianity was nearly all Orthodox). Sorry, Chris, but a monolithic Islam is not true.

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What is wrong with this picture?

What's wrong with this picture is not that the caption is written in Arabic, nor that the apparent Muslim thinks that this is how a proper woman (hen) is expected to serve her man (rooster) because that's how much she loves him.  What's wrong with this picture is that for centuries, this was what western men believed as a rule, and what abusive western men still believe.


There are Muslims that don't believe this way and there are Christians who do, and NO woman should offer such a thing as this as a token of love...and NO man should expect it, either. Ever.  Bill Maher, it was YOU who complained about "the wussification of America". It's the non-wuss males that are this kind of problem in every religion, and even among atheist men like yourself. FAIL

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UPDATE, Reza Aslan/Sam Harris Edition: Boy, that Real Time story keeps generating a lot of high-level-pundit discussion, and I suppose that's a good thing,  but it remains a topic on which purely dispassionate analysis is a rare to find, and only when you get lucky, with Reza Aslan weighing in now.  As I said before, Aslan is a Sufi apologist. while the remainder, regardless of faith of persuasion, simply believe stuff that other religions preach about Islam without going through the trouble of establishing factual facts first.  Aslan makes the very accurate point that both sides lack sophistication.  

The westerners invariably regard the Quran like it was a Bible even in its translation into English when it is not and never was. Westerners regard the Sunni-Shiite divide as "sectarian" when it isn't, and regard sharia law as uniformly more strict throughout "the Muslim world" when it varies from tribe to tribe, nevermind the variations that occur between Sunnis and Shiites, and all westerners of all western faiths invariably believe the rot about how the 7th century saw Islam spread by the sword when that's not true either.

On The Last Word, Sam Harris kept referring to singular beliefs but according to him, believed in by "the Muslim world" when that's not true. Sophistication is a prerequisite for any meaningful, factual discussion of Islam in the entire range of its varying spectrum while recognizing that the Quran is just a pillar of a wide range of Islamic beliefs that find more foundation among the Hadiths and, in the case of Sunnis, the Sunnah, and find that these things are merely foundations supported by the pillars, and upon  that foundation rests the myriad of disparate sharia laws dependent on the myriad of different tribes that profess to be Muslim. 

To paint Islam with a single tone is wrong; to paint Islam with only two tones is just as wrong, too.  In Aslan's case, to minimize the fact that the Sunni-Shiite divide is something to be glossed over and sugar coated is just as wrong too.

Fast-forward to Sunday, and a Fareed Zacharia GPS UPDATE: Zacharia prefaced his program by weighing in on the Maher spat and proclaimed that Maher was some sort of legit intellectual pundit, forgetting entirely that he's a comedian. FAIL

Fareed made only one accurate comment, and that is that the matter is complex.  More on this later.



A very late Tuesday UPDATE:
Lots of stuff going on this Tuesday, from City study session, Commission meeting, and the Tops In Blue concert.  Prior to that, though, was the antique small engine exposition near the fairgrounds, too.  I tried to upload a small engine primer video that I made with some of the footage from that last event, and Blogger decided it didn't like that, so we're back to the same ole video problems Google pushed on Blogger that was experienced earlier; error message claims that there's a 100MB limit now.  I'm going to have to make an iPhone version before Blogger will take it---AGAIN.  Google, get yer frikkin act together already. This is bollocks.

Ah. Here we go. iPhone size works. Eff U, Google & Blogger! FAIL!!
(Later in the day I tried to view the vid full screen for desktop and the captions are very very very muddled.  But it's all that Blogger permits at this time. Meh and a half)






Friday, October 03, 2014

Local, State issues override inernational at this time: Open Meetings/Records laws

Of course I'm aware of the fact that I've been posting local fru-fru considering all the more dire situations across the globe occurring at this time, but here's a reminder that this blog has Chinese minders, and, more recently, Russian minders and I'm not interested in censorship of any sort.

I spent most of the day yesterday in the Woodward area of Oklahoma because of the following newspaper article:


Notice at the very bottom, the inset referring to "Free Open Records Act seminar".  That's what I went to, and it actually covered both Open Meetings and Open Records, at which a booklet was handed out as well as discussed.  I have videos of that which I will post later.


The newspaper article mentions possible charges against the City of Enid regarding all of the following marked sections in the Table of Contents except the first one, which I'll address later.


The top marked item is what the City violated when it held a regular meeting of the Commission at Roman Nose instead of at city hall like it was supposed to do.

I also spent some quality time at Gloss Mountain, and I'll post pics of that here, but later.  Note to the Chinese and Russians: you don't have t his level of accountability, so don't be surprised when the people you govern don't comply with your forced "harmony". The road to actual true harmony is paved with accountability.


By all means, take a number of other shots.
Quite often, persistence pays off, when it's worth it.
 Never say "never".

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Dear Viacom, Suddenlink....Sincerely, The Audience

UPDATE, correction edition: Since this is a correction not only to this post but a prior post about audience analyses/demographics,  I'm putting this update at the top of this page. I didn't say anything incorrect about audience analysts before, but I did leave one out.  I mentioned Kim Andrew Elliot (shortwave audience analyst for the Voice of America at one time) and Nielson (the time-honored TV audience analyst company) but there's a recent announcement by the Broadcasting Board of Governors employing Gallup for the purpose of analyzing the audience in Pakistan.  Here's a screen shot:

The link HERE

 The Broadcasting Board of Governors governs all media distributed/broadcast abroad, including but not limited to the Voice of America, so mentioning Kim as being in the driver's seat on that would be inaccurate.

And there's the matter of Hatchette tangling with Amazon in which both Hatchette and Amazon are the gatekeepers between content producers (the authors, rather than performers) and their audience, the readers.




Cable carriers dispute Viacom's steep rate hikes for content

Dear Viacom, Suddenlink, and other cable/satellite content providers:

All of you overestimate your audience loyalty. Viacom, your bundled content isn't worth what you intend to charge for the bundle when people watch only Comedy Central and TVLand.  Your bundle sucks.  Cable providers, you overestimate your audience's interest in paying current basic cable rates when you think you're good to go to put QVC and Fox on every stinkin' Viacom channel you've yanked.  You're not worth the money you're paid either.

Both of you have a higher opinion of what you're worth than we do, and when you lose audience eyeballs, Viacom, expect your advertisers to start dropping you, too. Your primary revenue is from advertisers, not cable franchises.

Suddenlink, you had a specific franchise contract with the City of Enid, which you would do well to review because a move like the one you made may have created the necessity for contract re-negotiation.Consider also the contract your customers signed with you to provide cable service--what you're giving them is not what they expected that they contracted for, and even though your contract might cover your ass in terms of liability and breach-of-contract claims, it's not making your customers happy to do business with you.  Considering smart-phone access to the Internet, you're not indispensable as an ISP either.

Sincerely,

The Audience.

+Viacom
+Suddenlink Communications
keeepviacom.com
suddenlinkonyourside.com
Fierce Cable page, which posts other good related links on this matter

Bloomberg article
Multichannel News report

CBS report, and please see the bottom of this post regarding the portion of this report slams directly on the impact that performance has on an audience's willingness to pay for performed content, oh ye who still believe that fans are "fickle".  You're not doing your job.

Trouble with Viacom earlier this year (March)
Cable One's website about Viacom hikes
KFDA report
KETK report

Stars & Stripes article about Asian problems with Viacom

Below is the anti-Suddenlink ad that Viacom had been running right up until Suddenlink pulled the plug.  Note the end of the Viacom ad which shows the name of the advertiser that Viacom over-wrote to display their anti-Suddenlink message.  Note to Viacom stock holders: Viacom clearly doesn't value its advertiser revenue as much as it values service provider revenue, and service provider revenue is exactly what Viacom just lost and not just with only Suddenlink.



From Suddenlink's Facebook page, before it gets censored.



So, +Suddenlink Communications -- how about a locally produced Dr. Fear Channel that doesn't get censored by the City of Enid, hmmm?  How about a Punched Out Judy Channel? You do realize that you're violating the initial terms of your City-issued franchise contract, don't you?

Meanwhile, further down Suddenlink's Facebook page....







The Wizard in the Wizard of Oz may have been a fraud that was overvalued by the residents of Oz, but there is one important thing that he said to the Tin Man when the Wizard gave him a token of affection: it's not as important how much you love, but how well you are loved by others.  That's what your actual market value is, Viacom and Suddenlink. Nobody loves either one of you right now.  It's also true of the current rulers in the City of Enid whose terms dictate to Suddenlink how it does its business and to whom Suddenlink customers don't matter.

I find it interesting that Viacom, on its KeepViacom.com website, seeks to rally what it believes is its loyal fan base.  There it is again: fan loyalty presumed.  I'm sure that Suddenlink presumes that it has loyal customers, but so did DishTV when it previously had problems with a Viacom renewal.  It is from such a presumption that these entities presume that they have a higher value than they actually have. Both entertainers and politicians forge forward on presumptions as to who in that mass of people is actually invariably loyal, pretty much the way the NFL has presumed until its sponsors started cutting their support, because of THEIR fan base, aka loyal customers.  We may very well be seeing conflict of overinflated fictions.

If content fails to draw an audience, that means that the content isn't worth any effort or pay from the audience, and when cable companies and live performance providers see the word "audience", they're seeing the word "market" and, further, "market share".  Demographer Nielson has known this for decades, and so, apparently, does this CBS reporter, in his article I provided a link to earlier in this post:


"Many baseball pundits expect the Phillies to have a dismal season."  The performers always impact the viewer turnout and that's just an unavoidable fact of life.  What the providers can charge for advertising slots depends on the audience the performers draw, and that's an unavoidable fact of life. When a performance fails to draw, nobody provider OR major advertiser wants it--and it all boils down to whether or not a big audience wants it  In playing chicken with provider rates, Viacom cuts its audience and thereby cuts its future advertising revenue.  This, too, is an unavoidable fact of life, but those who refuse to do the math are invariably blind to it.

If Viacom has so much trouble raising advertising revenue that it has to start gouging service providers, this means that advertisers don't think Viacom is worth much, either. What underscores this statement is the fact that the value of Viacom stock dropped. I'm seeing in Viacom the same pattern observed in Motorola just before it divested its entire Government Sector and Semiconductor Sector in Phoenix AZ (see previous post re: Motorola--the robotics update to the Jeep-Studebaker post).

From another anti-Suddenlink Facebook group
Eyecatching comments posted on a Suddenlink webpage:




Late October UPDATE: book audience edition via Mysterious Lab veteran and author,
Facebook Post by Dennis McDonald.

The upshot is that one can't please everybody but note was made that the critic did read the entire book (well, gee, it's not a good idea to critique something you haven't read, hm?)


.....cut to further down the page where Count Gregore (John Ferguson) weighs in....


All this underscores the matter of the "target demographic" in re demographic analysis of any given audience.  If the target demographic is an audience in a specific genre, that's one thing--but if the idea is to attract as large an audience that will contribute hard cash to support the arts, that's quite something different.  A book is purchased on the basis of genre as well as by its cover. A live performance is attractive primarily by genre and an interest in involving as much of the community of the venue as possible.