The 500th episode of The Simpsons ended in classic Simpsons style.
Are Taking Away TV and Internet Privileges Synonymous Punishments Now Days?
December 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
According to a new survey by the Center for the Digital Future, at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California 57 percent of parents say they limit their kids internet access as a form of punishment.
Researchers at the Center report parents are now limiting their children’s Internet access and television use in nearly identical ways. Three in five American households restrict television use as a punishment, a figure that’s hardly budged over the past decade. Restricting children’s Internet use as a form of punishment has steadily increased over the years and is now a practice in 57 percent of the nation’s homes with children under 18.
The statistic I found a little more shocking was that “only 28 percent thought their children spent too much time on the Internet, against 41 percent who thought television time was excessive.” I would have guessed the internet percentage to be much higher.
My daughter is only 2 1/2 so neither of these really apply to her. I am curious to hear from you moms and dads out there on how you handle restricting TV and internet as forms of punishment. If you do use it, do the punishments run concurrently or is it a one or the other sort of thing? Let us know in the comments how you deal with these sorts of issues.
How to Tune Out the Droning of the Vuvuzelas on Your Samsung TV
June 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
How to adjust the equalizer on your Samsung TV to drown out some of the incessant vuvuzela noise.
Samsung Vuvuzela Killer
- Press the menu button
- Scroll down to Sound > Equalizer option
- 100Hz all the way up
- 300Hz all the way down
- 1K all the way up
This is what I found works best for me. You may need to play around and tweak to find something that works better for you. It doesn’t completely tune out the vuvuzelas all together but it definitely helps drown them out a bit, especially when the commentators are speaking.
If you give it a shot let us know how it worked in the comments.
Also, while I have Samsung tvs, I presume that the basic equalizer options are the same on most tvs that actually have an equalizer so go ahead and give it a shot. Look at it this way, it’s not like the sound could actually get more annoying so what do you have to lose?
Sneak Preview: The Simpsons’ new main title
February 15, 2009 By 6 Comments
The Simpsons in HD tomorrow night! For the first time ever The Simpsons will broadcast in HD and, for the first time since the series’ premiere, the show will feature a new main title. Can’t wait until tomorrow night? Me either.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZGz1Ajg7QU&feature=player_embedded
The Simpson’s Set to Make HD Debut
January 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Mark your calendars for February 15, because that’s when The Simpson’s will air it’s first hi-def show on Fox.
The episode will also feature the first new main title sequence since the series premiered.
HOMER GETS A GLIMPSE OF WHAT HIS LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE IF HE HAD BEEN ELECTED CLASS PRESIDENT IN HIGH SCHOOL ON AN ALL-NEW “THE SIMPSONS” SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, ON FOX
First Episode of Series to Air in High Definition
Episode to Feature First New Main Titles Since Series’ Premiere
When Mayor Quimby inducts Vance Connor into the Springfield Walk of Fame, Homer recounts how he ran against Vance for class president in high school and lost. After a little digging, Homer learns that the election had been rigged, and he wonders what course his life would have taken if only fate had smiled on him. Homer soon meets an old Italian cook at Luigi’s Italian Restaurant whose magical tomato sauce, when stirred in just the right way, reveals what Homer’s life would have been like had he won the election. However, when Homer gets a chance to see what his life could have been, he wonders if fate was actually been on his side all along in the all-new “Take My Life, Please” episode of THE SIMPSONS airing Sunday, Feb. 15 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (SI-2001) (TV-PG D)
Woohoo!
Sarah Palin and Mark Wahlberg on SNL
October 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment
After watching SNL tonight I have a couple of apologies to make. To be clear, I didn’t watch the entire episode but I did watch the Palin/Wahlberg parts which were pretty much the only ones I was interested in.
First, I’d like to apoligize to Mark Wahlberg for calling him a mary. He actually managed to show up to SNL and make light of the Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals sketch, contrary to his reaction on the Jimmy Kimmel show.
Apparently he does have sense of humor and ended up doing a pretty funny, self-depricating bit with Andy Samberg. Kudos. I underestimated you Mr. Wahlberg, it shant happen again (I’m also sorry because I’m not sure if “shant” should be a contraction).
Now on to Sarah Palin. I was pretty nonplussed when I heard about Palin being on SNL tonight because I thought it was some sort of attempt to take an apologetic stance for the brilliance of Tina Fey Palin these last few weeks. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Palin’s appearance actually seemed to perpetuate Tina Fey’s portrayal of her rather than refute it.
Palin was pure vanilla on the show. She didn’t say anything other than what was on the script nor did she make any attempt to discredit any of the so called misconceptions of her. They even managed to work in Alec Baldwin making fun of Palin to her face.
Granted this was all scripted and was probably supposed to show how good a sport Palin was for taking all this in stride. But to me, it just came off the same way it would have if Britney Spears would have showed up on the show after being lambasted for the past three weeks. Which doesn’t have a very Vice Presidentially ring to it.
So my apologies to SNL, Mark Wahlberg and Sarah Palin. In one episode you managed to reaffirm my belief in the current mediocrity of SNL (aside from Tina Fey), you managed to give me a new found respect for Mark Wahlberg and you managed drive home Tina Fey’s point that Palin is a mindless dolt that is riding this wave of attention like a Paris Hilton at a nightclub. Nobody’s quite sure why she’s there, or why she’s famous or how the hell she gets all the attention but she keeps that idiotic smile and keeps saying stuff that makes even the dumbest among us feel good about themselves.
Not bad for an hour and a half episode that I fast forwarded through in 15 minutes.
Sarah Palin on SNL Tonight: Smartest Move Yet by Republicans?
October 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment
If you haven’t yet, you may want to set your DVR to record SNL tonight as Sarah Palin is scheduled to make an appearance on the sketch comedy show. This of course follows on the heels of the spectacular success of Tina Fey’s hysterical spoofs of Palin in the first three episodes of SNL this season (you can check out the videos after the jump).
It’s no secret that although SNL is notoriously left leaning, producer Lorne Michaels is in fact a McCain supporter. One has to wonder if bringing Palin on the show is his way of sort of leveling the playing field after Fey has completely knocked it out of the park the past few weeks.
I realize that since I just started this blog a week or so ago, adding a poll to it is sort of like adding Closed Captioning to Stevie Wonder’s television but that doesn’t mean I can’t try dammit. I want to know what you think…even if it literally is only you, the one person that actually reads this blog. Please for the love of god vote.
[poll id="2"]
Don’t forget to check after the jump for some of the Tina Fey Palin videos that you really can’t get enough of.
Ganga Queen – Schapelle Corby
July 1, 2008 By 14 Comments
Just watched the Ganga Queen documentary on HBO. I have to say it was pretty fascinating. While I feel 20 years is a completely insane sentence for any amount of marijuana, watching the documentary you definitely get the feeling that neither Schapelle Corby, her family or supporters helped her case in any way.
That fact is even more apparent if you take a look at some of the info on her Wikipedia entry.
Mercedes Corby, Schapelle’s sister, doesn’t come across as the most sympathetic character, at least not in this documentary. Not to mention her Balinese husband who wouldn’t stop talking about how great pot was and how “we” call it God’s weed.
All of that’s neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.
What I found incredibly hard to believe, and what no one seemed to mention, is that neither Corby nor her brother, who were the only ones who actually lifted the boogie board bag, didn’t notice that the bag was 10lbs heavier than when they dropped it off. The bag contained a boogie board and some fins, you would think that an extra 10lbs out of nowhere would have been pretty easy to notice. Don’t think so? Take your bag that you carry everyday, drop a 10 pound weight in there and then pick it up after a bit and see if you notice a difference. I bet you do.
The criminologist who was meeting with her lawyers kept claiming that in all of his experience Corby doesn’t seem to fit the profile of someone who would smuggle drugs. Has this guy ever seen Locked Up Abroad? She’s exactly the kind of person who would get caught smuggling drugs.
Another thing that doesn’t look good is the fact that Corby’s Australian lawyer did an interview this month with an Australian television station and admitted that he fabricated the story about the baggage handlers possibly being involved and issued a public apology to them.
According to a new survey by the Sydney Morning Herald, more than half of the people polled believed that Corby was guilty with 3/4 of those people believing she should serve out her full 20 year sentence.
One thing you can say definitively about Schapelle Corby is that she’s not a rat. It seems hard to believe that if she is in fact guilty (and yes I believe she is), that no one else in her family was in on it somehow. I don’t think it’s possible that she could have, or would have attempted this on on her own.
Did you see the show? If so, what are you thoughts on her guilt or innocence or her insane prison term?
America’s First Family: The Simpsons
April 1, 2004 By Leave a Comment
Considering today’s date, when I first heard about this story it seemed like it may just be an elaborate April Fool’s joke. That idea was shot down when I spoke with Steve Melnick at FOX Studios who said, “The story as we understand it is accurate…it’s not an April Fool’s Gag.” FOX is declining any official comment as of now though other than to say it’s legit. D’oh!
The actors who provide the voices for the cartoon characters on the long-running TV show ‘The Simpsons’ have stopped work in a bid to force a settlement of lengthy contract renewal talks, Daily Variety reported in its April 1, 2004 edition. The Hollywood trade paper said the six actors have not shown up for two script readings in the past few weeks, holding up production on the hit satire’s upcoming 16th season. (FOX/Reuters)
The Simpsons are everything that is great about this country. The Simpsons are America’s “everyman”. For the past 16 years people have been able to identify someone that may be worth talking to at a party by whether or not they were a Simpsons fan. I know that I have immediately decided not to give someone the time of day if they told me they didn’t like the Simpsons, and I have heard many other similar tales.
In this era of cable news networks, big business politics, heightened terror alerts, misleading information, environmental decay and the common man getting more of the shaft, we NEED the Simpsons, maybe now more than ever. I mean for Christ’s sake, Homer works at a nuclear plant and he never has to worry about an al-Qaida attack.
Bart’s mischief, Lisa’s inquisitiveness, Marge’s love for her family and Maggie just being Maggie. We need that. The Simpsons make us laugh about our problems. They make us forget about our problems and they make us remember what’s good about our family and friends. If you don’t believe that the Simpsons do all of that, then you’re missing out.
The Simpsons aren’t just a cartoon, they’re an escape. Even on supposedly “regular” sitcoms about “regular” families, you can bet that the house they have and the cars they drive are better than anything your “regular” family is going to be driving or living in anytime soon. It’s like it’s some kind of sin to show poor people on TV anymore.
The Simpsons are the last remnants of the working class family, and now more than ever, we need that.
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