If you like the Funny Pages...

Yesterday afternoon I got the chance to do a telephone interview with Richard Stevens for the WMCX News Magazine show, X-Factor. The webcomic/ newspaper cartoonist took time out of his day to have a half-hour chat with me about his work, comics, music, and video games.

It was a rather fun day until after I did the interview and I realized, "Oh great, now I have to edit this 30 minutes into at least 5ish."

So instead I went to see my friend and shirked my responsibilities, though for some reason I didn't have much fun away from my work. It was just an awkward feeling of I'm not supposed to be here with them, so I went back to work. Thanks to no part of his own my partner in crime as WMCX News Director is out, so I'm left holding the bag, and I tell you that bag is harder to hold than a ton anvil! I'm not a news guy, I just play one on TV, so it's hard to do the news alone when I honestly could just live without it. The 7 classes, News Director, DJ, brother, son, and friend status is getting annoying. I think I have to cut ties with everything and go away for a week to be able to continue doing all these things.

If you want to smile, go to dieselsweeties.com. No link because I can't use a Mac.

Winter Blues

These days it's just so dim and cold outside so it's hard not to get depressed and want to lay about and just stare at something without thoughts in your mind at all. It makes it harder when you have so much fun at one point, then less than 6 hours later, can't even recall what fun means. It's a real downer and this is probably one of those horrible winters people have at least once in their life where they just can't wait for spring. Maybe it's just the fact it's been so warm and I keep missing out on being out in the snow that gets to me.

Hopefully next time it snows I can be out in it, even if it is another short one that doesn't leave anything behind for long.

Cnn.com v. MSNBC.com

From first appearence I find MSNBC much better than CNN. First of all, the tabs that go to general topics are on the left side and when you sroll over them on MSNBC they create a new menu on the screen to find stories from this topic. CNN has their tabs as links at the top of the page, meaning I have to spend more time wasted on them.

MSNBC also uses a banner as the first photo you see with links and description on it, whereas CNN has some bland photo that has headlines next to it. MSNBC puts the headlines and the photo separate, which is a good move. Less confusing.

Aside from that, MSNBC is basically the same as what I said about CNN down below aside from the fact that MSNBC clearly has a message board, which trumps CNN's lack of one. It definately increase interactivity, at least with other readers.

MSNBC also includes the time the site was last updated right at the top clearly, while I don't recall seeing one on CNN.

MSNBC does seem to lack a RSS feed, so that's disappointing when it comes to interactivity.

So, in conclusion, if I judged based on appearence and not content I would have to go with MSNBC.

Snowed In 2007

Last night I went to the WMCX 2007 Snowed In concert which is hosted of course by Monmouth University's radio station and was taking place in Asbury which is basically just down the road. I was there to see the band The King Left, as well as just go to see my friends in WMCX's staff that told me I should come. Looking back on my life, it was probably the gayest night of my life being that I somehow had a boy-crush on the band, The King Left. I'm not embarrassed by that. I like music, so you have to like the band who makes it as well.

Later this Monday, I'll be interviewing Richard Stevens, cartoonist, for the X-Factor News Magazine show for WMCX which I am part in control of. I am looking forward to this.

My Five Favorite Movies by Category

Favorite Black and White Movie: Citizen Kane
(Why? Because why not? Even if you know what "Rosebud" is from the beginning, getting to the answer is always interesting.)

Favorite Animated Feature: Transformers the Movie (1986)
(Because of a great soundtrack and Optimus Prime as well as Unicron)

Favorite Colour Movie: The Life Aquatic
(I like it for the music and the script. Plus it's Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, William DaFoe and many other great actors and actresses.)

Favorite Superhero Movie: Spider-Man 2
(Because it combines the drama, action and a bit of humour nicely.)

Favorite WTF? Movie: Requiem for a Dream
(Because I still have no idea what was going on in this movie.)

Snow, 52, and Ultimate Spidey

It snowed this weekend! The first real snow of this season. We finally have a decent snow and this season actually makes an inch of sense, just like the white precipitation that hit the ground.

I buy comics, because I like them, so I was shocked that last week I only bought two. Usually I'm fighting to have 8 or less, but not this day. The two comics I picked up were 52 and Ultimate Spider-Man.

52 came through and told us finally who Supernova was after thirty-seven weeks of reading this weekly run comic book. It also went on to prove that no one had died yet of the main characters despite three of them supposedly dying by now. The rebirth of Booster Gold is, by coincidence of pun, golden. I liked Booster, and I'm glad he still lives.

As for Ultimate Spider-Man, the double-sized issue was worth it as part 8 of the Clone Saga came at full-speed as we got massive story pay-off finally. First, we had the interesting Spider-Woman, a female clone of Peter Parker named Jessica Drew. Then we had her with Peter fighting Doc Oct with new powers to control metal and apparently make only the familiar tentacles we know and love him for. We have the continuation of the reveal that Richard Parker is not really Pete's father, but actually an aged clone of Peter who is slowly growing older and dying. Then we have MJ cured, and in the process we learn that Reed Richards and Dr. Storm have the ability to cure Spidey of his powers. We have yet to see the conclusion which will come in the form of next month's issue where we will see what Peter chooses, as well as what happens now that he has found that he really does love MJ.

Great Ideas Last Five Minutes

Since I like to write stories I tend to imagine a heck of a lot. The problem with having an imagination is that you are always thinking up cool new ideas you want to use. Unfortunately, you cannot always use them. That is when you write them down to use later, but you know you never will. That is a sad fact about life.

The other problem with having too many ideas in such a short period of time is that you don't have the time to use the ideas. Thoughts have a shelf-life of less than a second. By the time I get a pen and paper, or open Notebook or Word on the computer that thought will be gone.

And what if you do get that idea down and pass it along? Well, people are only going to see or hear it for even less time than it took for you to do all of that. This means there is a short shelf-life in production and implementation of the idea.

But to be optimistic, you have to recall that sometimes that idea will get through and stick to someone else like glue, even if just one. Somehow that makes it all worth it.

Things I Learned at CNN.com

1. What does CNN.com do well?
They provide a number of stories of varying interest as quick as they can. New stories are also being provided and updated as well as providing support through media and sources.

2. What does CNN.com not do well?
The design is a bit boring so it would not attract younger audiences due to the "blahness" of it all. Other than that it provides enough. The only other problem is the advertisements. When watching a video I had to see a commercial as well as a delay in the video beginning even at a school computer, which means if I still used the relic dial-up, like I was up until a month ago, I would never be able to see this video which would provide me with interesting back-up information.

3. Can you interact with CNN.com and how far can you interact?
The ability to interact with the majority of the content of the site is decent. There is no forum, or at least no signs of a forum to discuss news stories from a free viewing of the page. It may be possible as a member, but that is something I am unaware of. However, when it comes to weather, business and the occasional poll the site provides ways to personalize your news. You can get weather in terms of your area and not others, and you can get updates about the companies YOU have stock in getting rid of the hassle of looking through all the others first. There are also ways to get the news on your phone, RSS feed, and by podcast, so if this is considered interactivity, then CNN.com is a participant. A final way it allows interactivity is in the fact that you can change the font size to suit your needs.

4. Does it link to other sites?
Yes, CNN.com does link to other sites, but the majority of them are other sites under the same corporation that created CNN, such as Time and Sports Illustrated. There are also links to those who provide ads, and thus, money. There are also links that take you to the news story from main pages as well as full stories from those news articles at times. CNN.com also provides a search bar powered by Yahoo!. There are not many links to other sites beyond that, though they might appear at times.

5. To what extent are multimedia techniques used on CNN.com?
Multimedia is used heavily on CNN.com where they can. They provide video, usually of footage they shot for their TV station, as well as photos. In addition to photos, there are sometimes even galleries of images you can find through links to give more than one view on a scene. CNN also gives video podcasts to be seen with iPods or iTunes.