Mr. Zagnut

Reflections on making a blog - LIS 724

2009-09-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog. I created this thing about a year and a half ago when I wanted to make a comment on another person's blog. This person's blog did not allow anonymous comments, so I had to create a Blogger account to post. So I created my Blogger account and decided I'd put one together myself.

The title "Mr. Zagnut" comes from a Christmas present I got a couple years ago. In the movie Beetlejuice, the title character offers the two new ghosts a Zagnut bar. When I viewed the movie as a kid, I had no idea that it was a real candy bar because it sounded ridiculous. Several years later, I saw one at a gas station and I had to buy it. I was skeptical to the taste because I don't really like coconut and the outside of the candy bar is toasted coconut. But it was really good and I started buying them pretty regularly after that. The availability of these candy bars diminished over the years until they were nowhere to be seen. I gave up on finding them because no stores carried them anymore. Then one day I was browsing Amazon and saw a section that had candy so I searched "Zagnut" and was amazed to see that a vendor sold them in bulk. This was around Christmas time and my older brother had recently asked me what I wanted, so I told him I wanted a box of Zagnut bars. He thought it was a joke, but he bought them anyway. I brought one to work every day and a coworker noticed this and quipped that I was "Mr. Zagnut." Iliked the name and put it on my blog.

When I put the blog together, I didn't want to use a stock template with a stock header, so I experimented with the blog for a little while and figured out how to post an image as a title header. Otherwise, the blog is pretty much somebody else's template.

After a few posts in a row, I didn't really touch the thing very often. Every now and again a thought would get my attention and I'd open up the blog to jot it down. The content is pretty silly, but then again, so is the content in a lot of blogs.

In my LIS 701 class, I had to create an online pathfinder for an assignment. I used that assignment to see how much flexibility one could get out of a Blogger template, so I spent a lot of time looking at the coding and how the things were put together and used it to make my pathfinder. I wanted it to operate kind of like a regular web site, but with the posting style of a blog and was able to get the site almost exactly how I wanted it. There were some limitations, but I can't remember exactly what those were. Here is my 701 pathfinder.

So, it's a useful tool to have. The librarian at my school just informed me that she wants me to keep a blog of what I'm reading to post on the library's web site. It should be a fun exercise and good practice for when I have to do book talks. I think a reading blog is great and something that is worthwhile. Personal blogs, like this one, are kind of useless and a tad narcissistic, but they can be fun as well if you just want a place to collect your dumb thoughts and re-read them later like a digital diary.

TWILIGHTZONE! Blog Review - LIS 724

2009-09-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I frequent is called TWILIGHTZONE! http://twilightzone-rideyourpony.blogspot.com/

TWILIGHTZONE! is not a blog about the old sci/fi television show. It's actually an mp3 blog that focuses on surf and garage rock music. It also throws in a little soul and honky tonk for good measure. An mp3 blog, like its name suggests, is a blog in which the author shares music with his/her readers. The legality of this type of sharing is sketchy. The site's author offers a disclaimer that the reader should either purchase the recordings or delete them, but there is no real way to enforce this guideline. To make it even more complicated, many of these recordings are old or limited-run presses, so purchase is not really an option.

Some of the mp3 blogs I have read in the past have been shut down because artists have threatened legal action. They have every right to do so. If I were an artist trying to make a living selling CDs from show to show, I'd probably be upset if somebody were giving my music away for free.

However, there is something to be said for the positive side of these blogs for the artists; promotion. Thanks to the Internet, word-of-mouth moves a great deal faster than it used to. The concept of an "underground" band is fading fast. For somebody like myself who doesn't listen to much radio, an mp3 blog is one of the main ways I learn about new music. In the case of TWILIGHTZONE! the music is usually a bit older, but there are several links to other mp3 (and general music) blogs that help me catch up with all sorts of different music.

Lies that make no sense

2009-03-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

So I got a book in the mail today from Bookmooch, well not from Bookmooch, but through the service. Anyway, the person sending the book marked "sent" way back in December. However, the post mark on the package was more than a month after that. Why mark the thing "sent" before it is sent? I'm not really complaining, I'm just curious.
Bookmooch, for those who aren't in the know, is a site where you can trade books through the mail. Nifty.

Here's my current inventory. Not much, I know, but I've got a few I'll be throwing on there soonish.

Joe Biden is my homeboy

2008-10-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

G.I. Joe

2008-08-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

more graph humor and song chart memes

So there's a new G.I. Joe movie coming out sometime soon. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the Transformers movie. I actually did enjoy the Transformers movie, as it was, however it did leave me wondering why they had to screw with the established story/characters so much. Bumblebee was a Bug, not a freakin' Camaro, and the old Camaro they used was way better than the new one that they were trying to sell for Chevy. Oh well. Now back to G.I. Joe for a moment. The publicity still that I saw for Destro has me worried.

Is it too much to ask that Destro has a freakin' chrome head? If you aren't going to give Destro a chrome head, then don't include a character named Destro in the movie. Maybe there's going to be some sort of transformation during the movie or perhaps they'll chromize (chromate?) his head in post-production.
And then we come to the Cobra Commander. Hopefully he'll have the mask on the whole time because I don't think I'll ever be able to put the face of Joseph Gordon-Leavitt (of 3rd Rock fame) with the image of the Cobra Commander.

Does that guy look evil to you? Now the Baroness, it looks like they knew what they were doing with that one, and knowing is half the battle.

videos and videos

2008-08-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.vimeo.com/1486557

here's my new video creation for patrick bower's tune "see ya when we see ya." it seems the embed link doesn't work, so there's the direct link under the picture. while you're checking it out, sign up for vimeo. the quality is a whole lot better than youtube. but if you love youtube and would feel like you were cheating if you used another service, here's a youtube link for ya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNsOAsZp7w0

Zagnut in the movies

2008-07-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

the first time i had ever heard of zagnut was in the movie Beetlejuice. today, i watched the will smith movie Hancock and finally the wonderfulness of the zagnut once again returns to the big screen, this time as a weapon that Hancock uses against a would-be convenience store robber. zagnut saves the day, sort of. does this product placement mean that the zagnut bars will once again be visible on store shelves near you? one can only hope.

The Goodness of Jarvis

2008-04-13T19:09:00.000-07:00

I'd like them to play my birthday party.

"Well it happened years ago..."

"If you thought things had changed, friend, you better think again."

Vampires

2008-04-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

So, I watch a lot of Angel and Buffy. I DVR them to catch some of the episodes I never saw during their original broadcasts. So, after seeing how many times a vampire is killed because a wooden chair just happens to be broken during a scuffle, I have to wonder why a vampire would ever keep wooden furniture in his or her home. If/when I become a vampire, I'm strictly going to decorate my lair with metal, glass and plastic.

So I caught this Vampire Weekend band's video the other day on MTV2's Subterranean show. I had heard good things about this group and perhaps, because of the name, I had expectations of rockingness, but holy crap do they suck. Jinky, tinky pop that goes nowhere and says nothing. Not that pop music has to say anything, I guess. And on a side note, is there some requirement that everyone now strap their guitars as high as possible on their bodies?

Chocolate and Orange

2008-03-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

About a decade ago, my boss/Professor, Charles David Higgins, brought me a chocolate orange. I was skeptical. It couldn't possibly taste good, could it? The smash and open technique was nifty and I was impressed that it was actually comprised of individual slices. Once I tasted the thing, I was hooked. Of course! Genius!

Then the movie Zoolander came out and a few of the models raved about Orange Mocha Frappucinos!!! The closest thing I could find to that was the Mocha Valencia at Starbucks. It was pretty damn good, but I didn't care too much for the orange zest shavings, so I declined those and the whipped cream. Last year I was dismayed to learn that Starbucks discontinued the Valencia flavoring, but was relieved later to find that they brought back a different orange flavoring for the past summer season.

So now on to this Easter season. Since I'm prone to overindulging in sweets, I didn't venture into the Easter candy aisle this season except once, early on, to pick up a Cadbury Creme Egg and some M&Ms. It wasn't until Easter Sunday itself that I went into the Walgreens while on a break at work and saw the Orange Creme Egg. What a wondrous sight! Orange, Chocolate and fake egg yolk! I bought a couple at the slightly discounted price of $0.50 and enjoyed them later at work. The following day I was at the grocery store and ventured down the Easter candy aisle, hoping to find a good deal or so and lo and behold! Boxes of Orange Creme Eggs for $0.16 each! I grabbed eight. Apparently, the common folk feared the new egg because there were several boxes of the Orange eggs and zero boxes of the original Creme Egg. Their loss is my gain. Now, I just have to get back and claim some more, before they go back in hiding for next season.

lovely

2008-03-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

you might find me here at Lovely any weekday afternoon. reading a book or generally procrastinating, but always with a blueberry muffin or two and 2.5 cups of coffee. two cups isn't quite enough and three is just a tad too much. they have some of the nicest people working here and none of the pretentiousness of some of the other neighborhood bakery/coffee shops. all right.

1, 2, Like a Duck

2008-03-15T15:45:00.001-07:00

This video is by MC Honky, who I saw open up for Eels a few years back. There's a better song on side 2 of the record called "Three turntables and Two Microphones."
Enjoy.

He Likes to Chop Down Trees

2008-03-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

The following is a film editing exercise I first saw in my Intro to Film class many a year ago. It is both wonderful and scary that you can find nearly anything on this here internet. Enjoy

this is a text, this is only a text

2008-03-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog on this site. In typical Joel fashion, it only takes me about seven or eight years to get in on a trend. I guess I, too, need a "place" to convey my random thoughts and deliver them to an anoymous and likely nonexistant audience. So, enjoy.