Daily Bits

Funny Stuff

Predator: The Musical

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The other day, I arrived at home to hear songs from Sweeney Todd blaring over the surround sound system. I have only seen the movie in bits and pieces, but the soundtrack got me thinking about musicals. Imagine my reaction when I saw a video of Predator: The Musical!

Predator may not be the most brilliant movie you’ll ever see, but there is something to be said about Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially in his glory days.

No, we are unlikely to see the California governor on Broadway anytime soon. It is also unlikely that we’ll see a full-blown movie musical with Arnie in it. Still, this video should give you something to chuckle about on this Monday. Forget Monday Blues – “If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It” is all you need today.

The people behind the production:

Music and lyrics by Jon Kaplan and Al Kaplan (Conan the Barbarian: The Musical, Silence! The Musical)
Contains variations on Alan Silvestri’s landmark “Predator” score.

Dutch, Billy, Dillon, Predator: Al Kaplan
Mac and Ramirez: Jon Kaplan
Anna: Sharmila Guha

If you are a die-hard Arnie fan and you want your own copy of this, buy the video from the iTunes store.

Are You a File Sharer? Hand Over $1000!

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file-sharing
Some people just do not think – or they are too easily intimidated. Now, don’t get me wrong – I am not advocating illegal downloading or file sharing, but this piece of news that I just read boggles the mind!

So what happened? Movie studio Liberty Media decided to issue a statement that they are going to sue people who have illegally download files that belong to them. Take note – they have not taken any action towards filing a lawsuit. They only announced their intention of doing so. They went one step further, though, and boldly stated that if people who have been involved in downloading content that belong to the movie studio want to avoid being sued, they should just turn themselves in and pay $1000.

Say what? Yes, you read that right. But it does not end there! In response to the announcement, people actually turned themselves in!!! Ten people have come clean and coughed up $1000 to avoid the potential lawsuit.

If you are shaking your head in disbelief, there is more that might just make your eyeballs pop out of their sockets. Liberty Media, apparently encouraged by the $10,000 that easily came in, courtesy of the announcement, has issued another statement. This time, they say that they are already preparing lawsuits against 36,000 BitTorrent users. Of course, it cannot be said that the movie studio is a heartless b#st#rd – there will be another amnesty program that will prevent users from being sued – to the tune of $1,900.

Is it just me or is there an emerging pattern here?

Source: Torrent Freak
Photo via Sure Articles

Darth Vader Does the Blues

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We all feel the blues sometimes. There is no need to be embarrassed or ashamed when you don’t feel 100 percent. Heck, apparently, even the supposedly indomitable Darth Vader felt the blues! I guess that with a life story like that of Darth Vader’s, one really will feel down every now and then.

What do you think the father of Luke Skywalker does when he is down? He plays the harmonica like you may never have heard before! (What? You didn’t know that Darth Vader can play the harmonica?) This is a perfect example of how music spans cultures. 😉

Here’s a funny video that can get you through the mid-week slump. It’s several years old, but it should still do the trick for those who live in 2011. 😉

Where Do You Update Your Facebook Status?

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facebook addict
At work? In the living room while watching TV? In bed?

I don’t know about you, but I am online pretty much throughout my waking hours. I have a convenient excuse reason, too: I work online! I am not addicted to the Internet. Neither am I addicted to Facebook. It just so happens that I need these tools for work. Just because I update my status all the time does not mean anything. I’m not like those people who update their Facebook status from – you guessed it – the loo!

Where is this coming from? I just read a press release from AIS Media, a digital agency that recently conducted a survey on where people usually update their status on Facebook; that is, where they are physically located when the access their Facebook accounts.

I don’t know what they were thinking, but they did ask a very personal question in the survey: “Do you ever use Facebook on your mobile device while you’re in the bathroom?”

I suppose the survey was anonymous as, according to AIS, 27 percent of their respondents answered yes. Of those who answered yes, 54.4 percent were women while 45.6 percent were men. More so, those who do use their mobile devices in the bathroom to update their Facebook status mostly fell in the 30 to 49 age category.

AIS, being focused on social media marketing, had some pretty important-sounding conclusions:

While it may seem humorous to survey people about their Facebook usage while in the bathroom, the results underscore the proliferation of consumer social media usage and their strong need to stay connected. For businesses and brands, social media offers an opportunity to engage potential customers like never before.

They’re probably right, but I think it means one thing: we need to get a life. (Ooops, did I just say we?)

Get Ready for Blue Monday

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Blue Monday
Did you know that there is such a thing as Blue Monday? I am NOT talking about having the blues on Monday, but a special Monday of the year that is characterized as statistically being the most depressing day – ever. No one really knows just how true this is, especially since the idea started as a publicity campaign by Sky Travel. (You can never really tell when it comes to these kinds of campaigns.)

However, it is not without some sort of scientific support. Psychologist Cliff Arnall is attributed with the formula that calculates just how depressing this day is. See if you can make the formula out:

[W + (D-d)] x TQ
M x Na

where weather=W, debt=d, time since Christmas=T, time since failing our new year’s resolutions=Q, low motivational levels=M and the feeling of a need to take action=Na. ‘D’ is not defined in the release, nor are units. (Wikipedia)

There is no doubt that a lot of people experience the Monday Blues, and that the period immediately after the holidays can be quite difficult, but does Arnall’s premise hold water? Not surprisingly, he has had his critics. It seems that even the exact Monday is unclear – is it the third or the fourth Monday of January? Wikipedia says it’s the fourth, while other sources (MNN) say it’s the third.

I have an idea. Whether or not Blue Monday exists, why don’t we just gear up for the weekend and start having fun early on a Friday? What do you say? 😉

Photo via Softpedia

Color Me – Julian

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Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame has graced the front pages of newspapers (the traditional kind), news web sites, blogs, and practically every other kind of web site you can find. Whether you admire him or you detest him, you cannot deny that he does attract attention. How can he not?

Here’s another web site that places Julian Assange in focus – in a different way. The Julian Assange Coloring Book may not be on your list of gifts for your children, but it might give you something to do if you do not feel like working. More so, if you are particularly interested in expressing your creative side, you will find the site a nice distraction.

The concept is the same as that of any other coloring book’s concept: you get pages with sketches that need to be filled with colored. The difference is that you get eight pages – all of them virtual – of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks-related images. You also have a color palette from which you can pick colors. As long as you have a computer, you will be able to color your heart out. Now all you need is a teeny weeny spark of artistic sense in you.

Here’s a sample image that needs some work.
Assange Plain

This one is a work in progress.
Assange Colored

As you can probably see, I did not spend much time with coloring books when I was a kid. This web site is not bound to change anything for me.