The American version of SKINS.... and my opinion.

Before I start my lovely rant, just you go ahead and watch the trailer for the American version:

MTV Shows

Starting rant........ now:

Dear MTV,

Thanks for trying to create the American version of Skins. As a big fan of the original series in the UK, I was excited to hear about this new series coming to USA televisions.

However, after watching your preview, I have a few comments for you.

First of all, I was really disappointed to hear that you replaced the gay male character, Maxxie, with a female lesbian character, because Americans just wouldnt be too comfortable with a gay male character on TV. I mean, its not like America's youth are DYING due to lack of happy and positive gay male role models in the media. Oh wait....

Second, I noticed that you decided to do a line-by-line remake of the original. Which would have been splendid if you had chosen actors who could..... act. I mean seriously, I think me and my friends could have made a better remake using the original lines. You have an entire studio at your disposal, and this is what you come up with?  Now that I have iMovie '11, just watch. I'll make a better trailer than the one you just made. Hell, Ill film the whole thing with my iPod.

Third. What kind of American remake are you making? Its not enough to replace accents and throw in cheerleading. The reason Skins was so amazing is because we were getting an exaggerated look at what British kids do for fun. An amazing American version would take an exaggerated look at what American kids do for fun, NOT what American kids look like when trying to reenact what British kids do for fun. Thats just dumb.

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly: By putting this on cable television, you are instantly cutting out half of what made Skins so damn amazing. Let me just show you an example of what Skins SHOULD look like:



And you think you can even bring a quarter of this energy to American televisions without the Parental Television Control groups breathing down your necks? Please.

Im not sure what you are trying to do by creating an American version of this show, but right now its just an utter embarrassment. And I hope to whatever that you dont think the whole series can go like this and get any kind of solid ratings.

Because seriously, if THIS is the shit you are trying to sell us, we might as well just buy the UK Skins DVD.

Cheers.

It Aint all Peaches and Cream

So today was a great day. I rolled out of bed at 10am PST, turned on my computer, and started watching the live feed of today’s Apple event on my big screen TV at the foot of my bed. With surround sound, of course. And I had a high quality feed coming in too. The entire event I was simply enjoying myself instead of listening to fuzzy audio and a poor connection from a webcam from someone in the audience.

And it gave me a bit of time to reflect on the announcements today. I wont cover Apple TV, simply because this item still wont be much impact on people’s lives.

However. Apple updated three items… make that FOUR items, that people use everyday and are a part of their daily lives. And I'm just not sure everyone is getting what they really want.

Lets start with the Shuffle. Ok, now this update I get. People like being able to reach for the buttons. So they moves back to a Shuffle that had buttons on it instead of only relying on the headphones remote/mic switch. My dad actually runs with his Shuffle all the time, and had to put heavy layers of masking tape over the buttons on the headphones because sweat kept dripping down into the buttons and then cranking the volume without warning.

Photo Courtesy of Apple

Yea. So, my Dad will be going out and getting the new Shuffle for sure. People just like to have the buttons on their iPod. ESPECIALLY an iPod that is really just for music!

So heres where I get confused. Lets see if we can follow this logic. People. Like Buttons. Ok, Ok, so another words – People like Buttons….. on their iPods…. That are for music. Ok, whoa whoa whoa. We are going too fast now. Lets back up.

People. Buttons. iPods. Music.

And because people like buttons on their iPods…. then why did Apple GET RID OF THEM on the Nano??????

I have been just puzzled all day by this. We are now on the 6th generation of Nano. Last year, Apple outdid themselves and release a LARGE screen Nano that could view VIDEO and also SHOOT VIDEO while till having BUTTONS.

5th Generation of iPod Nano (Last Year's Model)

And then this year, its like…… What???? You decided to do what? Get rid of the buttons, get rid of the camera, get rid of being able to look at videos, get rid of the bigger screen?

Photo Courtesy of Apple

Didn’t you just bring back buttons to a device where people missed the buttons?????? Are you even allowed to contradict yourself on the same day?

I'm just speechless. Am I crazy? Can anyone actually see Apple’s BRILLIANT idea behind this move for their Nano????

Ok, lets move on. The day wasn’t horrible. Actually, for me, it was AWESOME. I prayed for an iPod Touch with a camera, 720p recording, microphone, retina display and faster processor, and I GOT IT ALL! Its like they heard my prayers from last year and finally got with it.

Photo Courtesy of Apple

This is how awesome it is. Are you ready? …..I might not sell my iPod come next September. Why would I need to? I literally now have EVERYTHING I want in an iPod.

We can end their on the iPod Touch. Just know its now the BEST iPod on the market, and that’s that.

Lets move on to the other stink in the pile today – iTunes 10.

All day, I have been excited to use the new iTunes 10. Then I downloaded it. Ping, their new social networking for music application was fun for about 5 minutes. Ill wait till they add in Facebook connectivity.

Photo Courtesy of Apple

Then I started looking around to see what else they had changed. For starters, THEY TOOK ALL THE COLOR OUT. All of it. Every icon is now GREY GREY GREY. I cant even tell what everything is now, as the colors were my cue! And the icon changed as well for the iTunes application as a whole, I have trouble recognizing the new icon after being with the old one for 6 years!

Photo Courtesy of Apple

The whole iTunes just frustrates me now, and I'm pissed.

So nods for the day for Apple – the iPod Touch, and the Shuffle.

WTF moments – The new Nano, and iTunes 10 color scheme.

You win some, you lose some.

How I Conquered the Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive

Wow, what a wild past couple of days. Ive been cleaning like crazy, trying to get adjusted back to life in Boulder, CO.  But that meant first moving my 19-year old self old OUT of my room before my 23 year old self could move in.

... But thats a different post, with pictures.

Right now I wanna talk about how I am slowly, but surely, conquering the Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive.

The story starts with me being impatient. My room at home doesnt have an Ethernet port for me to plug my current Xbox 360 into.  That means no Netflix Instant Streaming to my HDTV. However, I could go out and buy a wireless adapter for $100 bux that would make it work in my house, since my house has wireless.

Or I could buy the new $300 Xbox 360 Slim edition that has the wireless adapter built in.

Having money in my pocket, I promptly went out and bought the new Xbox 360 with a 250GB hard drive.

Now that I had my new Xbox, I needed to transfer all my old data from the old Xbox onto the new one.

So I went back to the store and bought a $20 transfer cable. (Remember, Im doing all this to avoid paying for the $100 adapter. Im saving money, right?)

So I came home and transferred all the data from my old Xbox to my new one.

Simple enough right?

Well, not quite. The Xboxs got to talking and decided they didnt want to transfer all my installed games from the hard drive, which is about 50GB of data. Well, that didnt sit ok with me. I was pissed.

I was super pissed. Thats dumb, I thought. There must be a way around this.

So I got to researching, and I found a program that will copy ANY data from one Xbox hard drive to a PC, and then back out to another Xbox hard drive.

So I got to work, slowly moving over all the data from the hard drive.  This first part was simple enough, as the cable I bought from the store was a simple connect one end here, and the USB end to the PC.  Done and done.

Then i went to repeat this process for the new Xbox 360 hard drive, the slim model.

Again, I was thrown a curve ball.

The new Xbox 360 slim hard drive uses a standard SATA port, instead of an eSATA port that the transfer cable uses.  Another words, I couldnt just plug in the new hard drive to the cable.

Oh no. It wouldnt be that easy, laughed my new shiny hard drive.

But a thought occurred to me. This is a STANDARD SATA port. Couldnt I just plug in the hard drive to an external hard drive shell and run it through the USB port that the drive shells come with?

So around the house I went, grabbing every custom made external hard drive I could find, and ripping them apart. After ripping apart 3 of them, I finally found one that would work.

My little... contraption... is displayed below:

Left: New Hard Drive. Right: Old Hard Drive

So as you can see, the old hard drive plugged into the cable as didnt need any mess.  The one on the left, however, the new shiny black hard drive, needed some.... tender loving care.

And this, sadly, was only half the battle. Now I am patiently waiting as each file uploads back to the new hard drive, carefully coding each folder to match the 8 hexi-decimal code so that the new Xbox can read it right.

Its been 2 hours, and Im not even done with the first set of files. There are EIGHT sets of files. Oy vey, I dont even know if this will work yet!

But Im proud of myself though. Even when the Xbox said no, I said yes, and I pushed til I got the answer I want.

Side note: My dad will kinda be pissed when he finds out ultimately it was his hard drive shell I had to take apart for my contraption to work.  Oops. Ill put it back together before I go to bed.

More posts to come soon!  Especially one Im excited to write about dealing with parents hosting drinking parties.  It will very much be a Student Affairs post, and Ill be excited for feedback!

Its Real: Shcool Crossing

Source: PerezHilton

Theres really not a whole lot to say about this. Some dude got paid by the state to paint this school crossing, and painted this instead. I dont think he knew he was spelling it wrong.

Wow.