15 posts tagged “birdman”

Birdman is dead.

Well to be more accurate part of my digital persona has died on me, that's right my XBOX 360 died on me. Now I am surprised by this, sat down to play some Guitar Hero 2 and then it goes all green screen with stripes, we reset and then nothing and then the death screen pops up and then the anger begins. Slowly at first and then to a full blown rage by the time I am through dealing with Microsoft's tech support.

I swear to God, or whatever higher power exists that I must have dealt with the most something....I lack words right now.... people on Earth, and then to top of it all off, I can barely understand a word being said to me.So now BOTH of our 360's are going in for repair and that means a production slow down, yeah right before the Holiday season. Of course I have a plan, we'll see how this plan works out in the end for me, but suffice to say, it'll be a slice into the wallet.

Just you cannot believe the amount of frustration and this drove me absolutely nuts and now it feels like a part of me is gone and it cuts deeper then I thought.

It's funny how sometimes things like that can hurt or make you angry. I was actually browsing thru some blog sites and how people how have been treated in an incident like this and it makes me sad that my story is not unique and is entirely too common.
So now I wait to see what will happen and it really sucks and I don't know what to do.

I don't get mad often but when I did, I wailed a wall and hard....not a good thing for me or the wall but after an hour of AVGN swearing and some lunch, I calmed down....

So now ON THIS WEEK IN GEEK, we begin the XBOX countdown starting as soon as I receive my XBOX 360's back.

Might as well have some fun with this right? Good natured and all.
I am still an XBOX Fan boy, but I do feel slightly let down.
Maybe we'll make a pool out of it and see how quickly I get it back or something?

Actually if you have a tech support horror story or a red rings story, I'd LOVE to hear it
feedback@thisweekingeek.net

Full rant tomorrow @ 2:30 EST on CRNC 90.1 FM
Actually Double D has his input on it as well, hopefully we'll have a YOUTUBE video to follow soon.....

Birdman cries for the falling XBOX 360.......

Please come home.....

Hey everyone, Birdman checking from his last bit of vacation time before school starts.

 

Last night (Friday) I had the disadvantage of going out with Blaire to see BALLS OF Fury. I say disadvantage because Bliare and I like to have a good time and even a few stupid laughs but this movie was going to prove to be something much much worse then we had expected.

We have all seen trailers for this for the past month or longer in the theatre and I think it's safe to assume that BALLS OF Fury would be like say DODGEBALL, but no....God was cruel and someone sold thier soul to rush this Piece of crap to theatres

 

What did I expect coming in this movie?

A few cheap laughs, some visual gags and some token lines from Christopher Walken.....Well I got that....and not much else. I am sincerely sure that I maybe laughed like 4 times or less and it's not acceptable for 90 minutes. Now before I blast this crapfest into something totally unrecognizeable allow me to set the scene using Pop culture references as best I can.

 

So the story starts with the T-1000 IRobert Patrick)'s son Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) being a Ping pong uber champ and he is the hope of america and blah, blah, you get the idea.  So Randy gets beaten some German guy who could basically be any stereotypical type you can think of, bad accent, crazy blonde hair and the german jersey. So eventually see his career  decline and get made fun of and he banished to be a vegas entertainer. Some how Geogre Lopez shows up and convinces Randy that he needs to be a help to the US government and break some underground ping pong ring and find the guy who killed his father. oh yea...

 

I forgot to mention that Shang Tsung (Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa) shows up and kills the T-1000 because of some gambling debt. So continuing along in this lame tale, things progress and Randy trains under James Hong (The chinese guy you ALWAYS see) and his unusually hot daughter or niece...Not sure (Maggie Q) and he becomes some kind of an uber champ again. He beats some little girl who is some awesome player and gets invited to this top secret tournament Geogre lopez tried to get into and so they take off. Shang Tsung leads to some part in south america and this is where it truly gets brain damaged.

So the evil bitch goddess Marianne(Aisha Taylor) from Season 5 of 24 shows up with Christopher Walken ( he doesn't  get a nickname cause he's that cool) and explain the rules of the tournament and in an attempt for a cheap laugh, Shang Tsung dies by Bitch goddesss.  Some how Dietrach Bader aka OSWALD from Drew Cary shows up and is some sex slave and they end up playing Boggle.....

 

Now here comes the BEST part of the movie.....

 

I left the theatre to go take care some of business, basically...well I won't go into details of what I did but you can fill in the blanks. So here I am going to imagine what happens, they go outside and have a huge ping pong table on the back of a dinosaur and then Randy teams up with Jack Bauer and kills all the bad guys before the final show down. So while Jack and Randy end up fighting a giant ninja panda and Jack is mauled to death and Randy breaks his arm and this is where I came back into the theatre. 

Now I won't spoil the ending for you, simply because I want you to waste your money and go and see this movie, yes The Birdman wants you to do something stupid.

Now if someone can fill in the ending of this review, email us @ feedback@thisweekingeek.net and win a prize :)

 

   

Birdman dropping in from places unknown, well not so much as I am sitting at my desk and this time I am working on EST for a change and up early.....this is strange since I was up late last night filling out media forms and what not.

So I decided just before I get into writing scripts for the day and doing all sorts of media stuff, I would write a blog...what do I have to say? Well that's the thing, I am not entirely sure

Recently we got mentioned on Stan Bush's website
http://www.stanbush.com/news.html
Pretty cool stuff actually, we had an icon call US....epic
How the hell cool is that?

So that is pretty cool and all things considered another step on the way to true awesomeness.....and that is what I aspire to....awesome epic-ness in the end

However as much as of a random thought just hit me, I think I found the source of this blog entry.....have you ever heard of the show....COAST TO COAST AM?

It's been around since the mid 80's and it is carried by over 500+ stations and it's a paranormal syndicated talk show...and it's an awesome experience

I usually listen to it via AM 640's website beginning at 1am EST

So anyway, I was listening to it a few nights ago and the topic was about time travel and how one man is determined to go back in time and visit his father or something.
Now the guest is a physicist and has some interesting ideas
Infact, here is a link
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2007/08/08.html#t

So Isn't that cool as hell?
I mean Time Travel by the end of the century?
Assuming the Time curves theory works and we can establish a working set of principles to work by.

Coast to Coast AM has always interested in me and some of their guests have been on my radar for quite sometime and really did peak my interest in radio broadcasting. I suppose it would be cool to be a guest host or even a guest on that show. I have called in a few times and even spoken to Art Bell when he hosted and talked about the collective power of something or another and then another time talked about EVP with another guest.

Para-science has always been an interest of mine and will continue to be so as long as it reminds interesting and the possibility of becoming real science at the same time.

Hey boys and girls
Birdman swooping in from vacation for a second!

As you may have seen from our recent video blog of sorts, TWIG made an appearance for the Canadian Cancer Society for the first ever Cape Croker Relay for life for the Canadian Cancer Society.

My girlfriend Blaire and I drove down from near North Bay to Niagara Falls to come and grab the ever infamous Snowball and bring him back to the area into which we both used to call home at one point. We did however hit WALLS of traffic but that did not dampen our spirits as we trudged northward.

We made it home and just kinda planned out what was going to happen at Cape Croker and how we would handle the event as this was our second MC'ing gig since our C'est What appearance at Podcamp 2007. However we knew in the end we would do fine.....but as always we had a plan for how the evening would go...kick ass as always.

Now I will let the video blog stand for itself and how the event actually went down but I'll share some of my thoughts.

Being at one of these events really does bring out alot in people and especially when you see how this disease has affected people. I know that cancer does bring out some real sources of inner strength in people and it's really inspiring.

I myself have had my life touched by cancer,I lost one of my best teachers pass away due to a brain tumor when I was in grade 4. His name was Dave Dinkel and he was an awesome teacher and I think some of his lessons and kindness survived in me and perhaps my sense of imagination still remembers those books he used to read to us.

However, I'll keep this short and sweet and I'll say that the Relay for Life is truly inspiring and I recommend listening to the survivor stories...and I'll always remember this from the event
When life kicks you....kick back.

I'll remember that for quite some time.

Birdman
out!

Hey guys
Birdman reporting with some decent good news :)
Today at Mt Bellies we were able to raise about 200 bucks for littlegeeks.org :)

We had our live show and our video stream go over extremely well!
ALSO, we STILL have one Sony Ericcson CELL PHONE TO GIVE AWAY!
Check our website for details
www.thisweekingeek.net
It's SO easy, it's criminal !
So check us out and WIN a phone from THIS WEEK IN GEEK!

Birdman
OUT!
Thanks to our many sponsors

Hey boys and girls

Birdman once again reporting in!
So now, I have some MORE good news to report from the front .
I have received MORE confirmation of prizes for our Fundraiser so that means more prizes and more chances to raise money for a great charity like www.littlegeeks.org

So far we have prizes from
Lexmark
Motorola
Adobe
TechSmith
McAfee
Sony Ericsson
Andy Walker
Mt Bellies Restaurant

Anyway, potential prizes on the way as well as the date draws closer.

Birdman
out!

Greetings mortals and autobots alike!

Birdman as always reporting in from the Birdman Blog and as you can see by the time stamp, it's late and if it's late...it means I am up working and doing some sort of production work or I am doing some ludacris amount of show research or emails...man I work ALOT.

Anyway, as things have been progressing here at TWIG at a breakneck pace..........actually Steve and I have recently done an interview on Tv Cogeco for thier show "In Touch" and it was fun experience. Actually alot of things were discussed in the green room and one of them was....pitching TWIG as a TV show...so whose to say that we won't bring TWIG into your home. However, we went out there and recorded our set with the host and it went really well. So watch our Interview to be playing this week on Tv Cogeco in the Niagara region and it will certainly NOT be the last you see of us on TV.

So the fundraiser is starting to come up on the weekend and I personally will be thankful for the end of the stress but I have made ALOT of really cool contacts from this and even have made some interesting things happen for TWIG for the summer. I really have to make a particular shout out to Betsy Weber and the group at TechSmith and to all our other sponsors like Motorola and Lexmark who have really gone above and beyond and stayed in constant contact with me and been amazingly friendly.

I have finally got a list of the prizes confirmed and there sitting in the studio and thier presence will be missed as mostly they make a nice place to put stuff on when I walk into the studio. So it has really been a smashing good time going around and doing what I can for littlegeeks.org and has even spun into several new oppourtunities for myself and my fundraising skills.

So now as the time has wound down, I wonder what TWIG will be headed into the new season as the summer moves forward, well we have some ideas. I have been working with some ideas and actually will have some cool stuff for the summer and will include specials on the Transformers and actually have press kits from Hasbro and Paramount and will even do shows on Ghost Hunting and space sciences and so much more.

However, the Birdman will be flying the coop for a few weeks on a much deserved vacation and Steve "Snowball" Saylor will be having various guest hosts during that time. However you all know me by now. you know I'll end up doing some work doing . Which reminds me....

 

Steve and I will be MC'ing a Canadian Cancer event for the Cape Croker Relay for life on June 22nd from 7pm till 7am...that's right, Steve and I will be on the air for 12 hours. So this will be our third MC event in as many months more or less, so we will have done the Podcamp C'est what event, and our Littlegeeks.org Fundraiser and now this. This is a great event and many like them are held in communties across this country. However, I'll post a brief link here but this will be as best as I can do

http://www.thehealthline.ca/eventdetails.asp?eventid=1629

and here

http://www.cancer.ca/ccs/internet/standard/0,3182,3543_354813_1753836594_langId-en,00.html

In closing, we have an Interview with the composer of Battlestar Galactica and his name is Bear McCreary and his website can be found at http://www.bearmccreary.com/

We are recording this tommorow and hopefully should be up ASAP but we'll be LIVE this week at 1pm from Mt Bellies here in Welland as first remote on location

I'll post our talkshoe stuff as soon as I know it.

Anyway, folks

Birdman

OUT!

 

 

Hey guys

This is Mike "Birdman" Dodd of This Week In Geek and I decided I finally better crawl out of the rock I have been hiding under and playing XBOX live and come out and advertise our podcast here on Vox!

Also doing what I can to bring our little podcast and radio show some real attention .

Also, to promote our season 1.5 primere and Charity fund raiser for littlegeeks.org and to post our Press release :)

On Thursday I'll be interviewed on a local TV Station regarding our event :)

So anyway......

I'll post the link to the LIVE show as soon as we get active :)

 

Birdman

OUT!

*Media Advisory: Interview and photo opportunity*

 

In a celebration of geekdom, This Week in Geek hosts Steve "Snowball"
Saylor and Mike "Birdman" Dodd, will kick-start summer with a
fundraiser to support up-and-coming geeks.

With the duo's off-the-wall humour and enthusiasm, the event promises
to be filled with non-stop entertainment.

Saylor and Dodd created a cult-like following of "Big Geeks" through
Niagara College's radio station after their first episode in January.

Interest soon spilled over to the much larger Internet audience as

podcasts of episodes and special features were made available on the
show's website, thisweekingeek.net <http://thisweekingeek.net>. To

date the site has had more than 75,000 hits and more than 3,000
downloads from those interested in what's going on in the wide world
of geek.

This Week in Geek's popularity was further displayed when the
first-year students' show was awarded Best Specialty Show during

April's Graffiti Awards – the Niagara College broadcasting awards. The

show beat out nominees from second- and third-year programs and was
the only first-year show to be nominated in the category.

To celebrate the show's popularity and the beginning of a new season,

a party will be held on Saturday, June 9 from 1-4pm at M.T. Bellies
restaurant in Welland.

Attendees will have the opportunity to walk away with prizes donated
from companies including Lexmark, Motorola, TechSmith and Andy Walker

of labrats.tv <http://labrats.tv>.

All proceeds from the show will go to support Walker's Little Geeks
foundation, which provides financially disadvantaged children with
computers and one year of Internet service free of charge.

Fellow broadcasting students Pierce Derks and Brandon Chambers, hosts

of the show Punk the Dial, will MC the event. In true This Week in
Geek fashion, the event will also be broadcasted live on the website.

For more information, contact:

Michael Dodd, Host/Producer

289-228-1406

mikejdodd@gmail.com , feedback@thisweekingeek.net

Ah yes, the long awaited Birdman Blog of course, you know you died a litle bit waiting for this. Actually I am finding I am using this alot more then I thought I would but with sketchy internet, it's been a bit of a trick but I do like to blog when I get the chance and even occasionally rant.

 

So what is the Birdman yapping about? Well as a pop culture assasin who drops some science on your ass I do have some of those weird thoughts that keep me up at night. So I got to thinking about the various mascots of the past 20 years and some of the ones I grew up with and some invented in recent memory and stuff like and I wonder

"What the hell happened to?"

For Example, I seriously wonder when did McDonald's drop the whole McCrew, like the Grimace, (Such an injoke here, it's sad) and Birdie (infact see this for some of what I mean....(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVBerX6Dzmc )

To be fair, I should warn you, it does have ALOT of swearing but in general I found it funny as hell.

 

So where was I? The Burger King Kids pack....what the hell ever happened? I remember watching TV and seeing them in the early 90's and I always like the animation style they were in. However some of the commericals were just plain stupid....infact that reminds me, in the late 80's McDonald's had a live action commerical where it featured some kids going for a big mac and for some reason that fat kid with the video camera will always remain in my memory. However back to my memories of the Burger King Kids, I wonder when they were taken away from us or have they? I mean in Canada so many of our commericals are filtered due to Similulcating and commericals being changed for canadians

On that note, I can see why Wendys would retire Dave Thomas...i mean being dead does have that perk I suppose. However I did enjoy Dave for what he was and there was something very geniune about him and his advertising and I just liked him for that. So rest in peace in that big Wendy's in the sky my friend.

Other mascots whom seem to have disapeared have been the Taco Bell dog?  Guess the law suit that happened and the guys got 114 million in interest and 30 million kinda killed that eh? While doing this Blog I did some reading and found out some famous people have worked at Taco Bell such as Hulk Hogan and Jenna Jameson...ain't that funny eh?

As well, I also remember some kind of Hostess chips little guys who like monsters who were green and yellow and stuff like that....I think the 90's phased them into nothing but a memory but I do remember they were offered as stuffed animals through a mail away promotion.

Weird to see so many marketing gimmicks used over the years by the various companies and stuff, and McDonald's and Pepsi always seem to have some of the best and memorable ads and spokes people and that just triggered a memory.

Remember when McDonalds used to have theme sandwichs and meals and stuff that were meant for Adults, like the Flintstones, Jurassic Park and Batman Returns and stuff like that? Man I wonder why they stopped doing that, always loved that time year and I am a big sucker for collectable cups...always have been.

Been such a trip down memory lane for me, I will always wonder why the Hamburgler always said "Robble,Robble."

I mean seriously what the hell does that mean?

 

Anyway, it's 7:30 am and I likely should go to bed....I am tired and have the edge of a headache.

Birdman OUT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey guys

Birdman reporting in from the NEWLY moved in TWIG studios and finally getting around to getting the equipment wired and the debts paid off for the new stuff and figuring what wires and cords go where but we are comfortably getting settled into our new surroundings.

So anyway, I am back from the week and change hitaus and it finally feels good get to back on the horse and get back to work. Which means I have a slew of emails and phone calls to return and see what I can to get my charity event moving a bit further along. I have made some progress and gotten some confirmations but I'll have to make some additional follow up emails and phone calls and work with Andy Walker and see what I can find our little geeks fundraiser.

I am excited for this event to happen as I see it as a major step in Steve and I's career as broadcasters. Speaking of that, I have applied for a scholarship from Native Affairs which would outfit us with new media equipment worth 5000 bucks. I am fairly optimistic about being able to receive this and with that, we'll get some snazzy new equipment and really take things up a notch and increase our media presence.

This summer is already shaping up to be fairly busy and already I am thinking of applying for the Canadian Television Fund and seeing if we can take TWIG to a broadcaster like G4 or even someone like City or something like that. It'll be a project that I'll develop as time goes on and who knows it could be something to do after I am done school. I also have been toying with the idea of a TWIG movie....or more like a documentary and have it be Steve and I's evolution from podcast to Broadcast or even something like our trip across North Amercia to the San Diego Comic con or some HUGE geek event and have it be our adventure and see where it goes.

Alot of this depends on luck and happenstance but I am a huge believer in that good things will happen if you work hard enough at time and are persistant. I said to Steve, a few weeks ago, prepare to be famous and I most certainly meant it....i intend to be successful before I have a diploma....I have a grand vision and I believe I already have all the right people in my life to make it happen....