Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or playing outside, same difference) you’ve known that after 4 years off the air, Toonami is back. On April 1, 2012, Adult Swim surprised us all by reviving Toonami for one night. The response was overwhelming: for nearly two months, the #bringbacktoonami movement swept the internet. On May 26, 2012, the viewers were given what they had asked for. The block is from 12am-3am and at this point SARA is absent from the Absolution because they don’t have the budget to animate her. Even with the network being so cautious, this is a major milestone for both the internet and the television industry.

Why is this so important? Thanks to a fan campaign, a 15 year-old programming block was brought back after nearly half a decade. You know how television networks are always doing stupid stuff and you wished that they would just listen to the fans? Well, that. Totally. Just. Happened.  They even aired two fan made songs by Richie Branson.Think of the kind of precedent this could set. Which shows get green-lit and aired could one day be the decision of the viewing audience. Maybe we’ll even have programming come straight from your mouth to the TV. Think Vodo.net, but with a top-notch production budget. Then maybe we won’t have disasters like how Sym-Bionic Titan was shut down because it was thought to have a weak potential for a toy line. 

Do you want this future, where the audience gets what they want? Then support Toonami. The only way it will survive is if it keeps getting high ratings. Tune in every Saturday night at midnight (or midnight Sunday morning. I know, it’s confusing). This is very important. Pan Pizza said it best in his Toonami Retrospect Review:

Leave every TV on in your house as you sleep, whatever. If this fails, it’ll only prove that listening to fans isn’t beneficial to the network. They’re rewarding viewers with a second chance. Do not waste this opportunity.

XKCD

I just recently realized why Amazon’s tablet is called the Kindle Fire. It’s amazing what conclusions you come to after flushing the toilet. Anyway… I’m really loving the Kindle I got for Christmas last year. I used to read all the time, and the Kindle brought back that habit. I’ve been interested in ereaders ever since the first Kindle, and it seems that nothing can compete with it. Nope, not even the Fire.

Let me get something straight: the Kindle Fire is not an ereader. Neither is the iPad. Those are tablets. Sure they can read ebooks, but no one buys them for that. They buy them for the games and social networks. I find it hard to imagine many people doing much serious reading on them. The Kindle (I’m referring to the $79 model) is pretty bare bones: no games worth mentioning, internet browsing is functional yet annoying, and no audio capabilities. But these are all good things.

When you read a physical book, you don’t need a touchscreen. The experience doesn’t feel empty without music apps. If someone is complaining about the lack of flash support they should be promptly banned from public. The point is, even though the Kindle isn’t on the same level as a full-functioned tablet, it does it’s job best. The purpose of an ereader is to read. If you want everything a tablet can do, then I suggest you get a tablet. But please, don’t give me any crap about getting an iPad because “it’s so great for books”. Just be honest, you illiterate monkey.

Pictured: The New York Times’ target demographic.

It’s not often that an idea for an article comes to me so easily. But then a couple days ago Rob DenBleyker shared this on Facebook. It was just too perfect to not write about. The New York Times does some hard-hitting journalism on (drum roll please)… Rage Comics. Now as a self-respecting blogger (hehe, as if those exist) I decided to critique this article. Let’s do this.

The best way to understand rage comics is to read a couple of dozen of them. The best place to do that is a section of Reddit, known as “f7u12.”… The full URL is long, so just Google “f7u12.”

The full URL is long, so just Google “f7u12.”

I can’t believe I just read that.

I can’t believe he really said that. Well Mr. Boutin, let me give you a quick lesson in the internet. Since no one wants to read those long, ugly URLs, we have these nifty things called hyperlinks. It isn’t hard. LOOK AT ALL THESE HYPERLINKS! SO EASY! THERE’S EVEN TWO IN YOUR ARTICLE! Let’s move on.

Boutin later says that “Reddit’s f7u12 readers have set a high bar for both originality — within the genre’s limits — and for cruel funniness that rewards making fun of oneself instead of others”. Hate to burst your bubble, but the only reason anyone has high standards for Rage Comics is because we’ve seen so many that 95% of them annoy us. Like everything else on the internet Rage Comics have been overdone so much that only a select few gems can make us smile.

Reading a few comics will familiarize you with the genre’s verbal conventions. Refer to yourself as “le moi.” Male characters are named Herp and Derp; women are Herpina and Derpina. Chain restaurants and stores in your strip should likewise be renamed McDerp’s, Derp Buy and so on.

I would like to reply to this with the following video: This isn’t a terrible article, but I think that it’s sad to see these media outlets struggle to be relevant. I mean seriously, rage comics? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that anyone who spends enough time on the internet to care isn’t reading the Times. Don’t try to convert your reading audience of 40-somethings to our internet culture. Stick to the real news, pal.

In Tyler we trust.

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of Fight Club, the book and the movie. It has a captivating plot and characters that you will remember for the rest of your life. So why haven’t they made a video game of it? Why not make Fight Club into a holy trinity of novel, movie and game? The answer is that there is a Fight Club game, and it sucks. Following the tradition of crappy movie tie-ins, Fight Club: The Game was a cookie-cutter arcade fighting game. I think that now, almost 10 years later, we’re ready to give Fight Club another chance.

My idea for a game would push the actual “Fight Club” to the back. The story focuses on a new character, one never mentioned in the book or movie. Let’s call him Mark for now. Mark has a traumatic life experience which leads him into getting profusely drunk at a bar. Tyler sees him and decides to take him to Club, which is being held that night. Like everyone else Mark is sucked in to the cult mentality and joins Project Mayhem. After a while Mark begins to doubt Tyler and attempts to stop Tyler (but ultimately fails).

The game will be in an open world in the unnamed city that Fight Club takes place in. At first your missions will be assignments from Tyler. They will be different depending on what committee (assault, arson, mischief, or misinformation) you choose. Once you complete the first playthrough you may take missions from any of these committees. If you are in Assault, you might kidnap a politician. If you are in Arson, you might tamper with a firetruck while your comrades set a building ablaze.  Once Mark makes his change of heart, your missions will be mostly focused on sabotaging your former companions and collecting information so you can put a stop to it all.

Well, at least you tried.

One of the biggest things that I need in this game is for Chuck Pahlaniuk to be the writer. Letting him have all the creative control over the story, characters, and dialogue is crucial to making this game a masterpiece. I really want to see this game get made. If you’re with me, share this article, spread the word. Oh, and one last thing to remember this week:

This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.