Having seen my post about a Fig Newton anomaly awhile back, my friend recently happened upon a similar situation and sent me a picture (Figure 1). Excuse the quality of the photo as it was taken with a cell phone camera.

Figure 1 - So amazing that I can't come up with a better caption than this one.

Notice the lower left pizza bagel is flipped upside down? Amazing, huh?  Well, it’s not, but his contribution to reliving the spirit of my original post is appreciated.  If this post is anything like the other one, I expect plenty of comments regarding how easy it would be to fake this by manually flipping a pizza bagel in the loose packaging, whereas Fig Newtons come in a vacuum sealed wrapper.  I also expect comments on how I “Photoshopped” the image.

I also hope, that one day, everyone is able to successfully locate their sense of humor.

I’m really dumbfounded at how the internet community decides what succeeds. My most popular post on this site is one about an oversight in food packaging.  I sure am glad I do this mostly for fun. Otherwise, I probably could not afford pizza bagels, and I think they’re just freaking delicious.

Figure 1 - "This is the worst kind of discrimination. The kind against me."

In my excitement for Futurama’s triumphant return to television, I was browsing the internet to see if any new information had been posted regarding the return, such as production schedules and future air dates.  To my horror, I stumbled on a post over at the blog Forces Of Geek stating that a casting notice has gone out seeking to recast several notable voices for Futurama, namely John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Billy West, and Katey Sagal.

FOX continues to prove my theories true.  In resurrecting a show that has done well after initial cancellation in syndication and DVD sales, FOX is only interested in pushing something out that will make a buck, with quality as an afterthought. I understand this is a business, but if you’re going to push out crap, people won’t watch it for more than the short term, thus, less money to be had.  1980’s guy probably said it best when he said, “Blank?  BLANK???  You’re not looking at the big picture!”

To better understand the magnitude of this potential change, I’ll fill the uninformed on some of the voices these talented folks do for the show.  John DiMaggio voices the lovable robot rascal Bender (Figure 1) among various other characters. Maurice LaMarche is responsible for many secondary characters in the show, most notably Leiutenant Kif Kroker, Calculon, Morbo the news monster, and Lrr of Omicron Persei 8. Katey Sagal, from Married … With Children fame as Peggy Bundy, voices the one-eyed love interest of our dim-witted protagonist, Turanga Leela.  With no disrespect to the other actors, the greatest loss would be Billy West. Futurama’s main character, Philip J. Fry, isn’t the only character West has brought to life with his talented voice.  Here are some of the many characters Billy West has voiced over the years:

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My girlfriend is on a streak, or she just knows me really well.  It’s pretty hard to top gifts like a leather Lord of the Rings beer mug and a Dremel, but she manages to do so. For Christmas this past year, she got me a Sony PlayStation Portable (Model PSP-2001, otherwise known as the “slim”).  Given my tinkering nature, there was just one problem.  My PSP, being one of the later slim models, contained a motherboard that, to this point, had been found to be…[Insert ominous music here]…unhackable.

…sigh…

Figure 1 - My PSP, ready for its new motherboard from the dark side.

What was a warranty voider to do?  After some research, I had found out how to tell if a PSP is hackable. There is a great forum post over on pspmod.com containing a guide on how to determine the hackability of your PSP.  I confirmed that my PSP contained the thus far unhackable TA-88v3 motherboard. I decided the simplest route would be to purchase a PSP identified as hackable from eBay, and swap out the motherboard with mine.  Upon completion, I would sell the eBay purchased PSP back on eBay with the disclaimer that the motherboard had been replaced.  It was a flawless plan, except that the aforementioned guide required knowing a lot of information about the PSP before purchasing it. I was not looking forward to Q & A sessions with many sellers asking for serial numbers and box codes.

There was, however, a simpler solution.  The guide also mentioned confirmed motherboards in certain limited edition PSPs:

Daxter Limited Edition Pack (TA-85v2/3.80 OFW)(CONFIRMED)
God of War Limited Edition Pack (TA-88v2/3.95 OFW)(CONFIRMED)
Madden 09 Limited Edition Pack (TA-88v2/3.95 OFW & TA-88v3/4.01 OFW)(CONFIRMED)
Star Wars Darth Vader Edition Pack(TA-85v2)
*Note – OFW stands for “Official Firmware”

I decided to go with the TA-85v2 motherboard. Why?  No technical reason.  I just felt that my PSP could use a little dark side with the Star Wars Darth Vader Edition PSP.  I was victorious in my online auction and was ready to swap motherboards.

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There are rumblings in the legislative branch about possibly extending and expanding the first-time home buyer tax credit.

Figure 1 - Home owner smiling Bob is all for extension and expansion.

This post’s title originated from an odd and unintentionally humorous commercial my friend heard on the radio advertising male enhancement drugs. The commercial claimed the advertised product would make you thicker and wider. Unless your parts are shaped like a spatula, this does not make a whole lot of sense.  I was thinking about writing a post on this, but decided that I didn’t want to write about wang pills.  I decided the metaphor was appropriate to apply to the housing market, given that we’re all pretty much boned.

Speaking of dick measuring, representatives in both the House and the Senate have proposed among them five different bills affecting the current $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, all trying to take some credit of their own as saviors of the housing market.  I applied the “popularity contest” principle to these because, despite slight variations, they all propose pretty much the same thing.

The common theme among the five bills is extension of the current credit. I can most certainly agree with this being the forefront of any initiative to modify the current credit.  Like others trying to weather an unsure economic climate, I had already made other financial plans and goals when I heard about the credit earlier this year. The prospect of getting $8,000 in return for purchasing a first home probably got many thinking about buying their first home, but it also left them scrambling.

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Figure 1 - Comedy Central instead of FOX? This may be the case, only no longer just in syndication

“Huzzahs are in order! Huzzah!!!”

Cable television has once again resurrected an animated show that was given its pink slip far too early–except this time they’re taking matters into their own hands. The first lucky recipient of reanimated life was Family Guy, which had its canceling network, FOX, order new episodes after seeing the show’s reruns post impressive ratings on Cartoon Network’s late night programming block, Adult Swim.  Now, after six long years of waiting, a spokesperson for 20th Century FOX Television has confirmed that Comedy Central has ordered 26 brand-spankin’ new episodes of Futurama. While the FOX Network executives have had brain slugs on their heads for some time now, Comedy Central realized the potential of the Planet Express crew and made a lot of fans of the show extremely happy.  Huzzah!!!

“If anyone needs me I’ll be in the Angry Dome.”

According to the Futurama Wikipedia page, the show had 6.4 million viewers at the time of its cancellation.  So why was Futurama canceled in the first place?  Futurama was a show with fantastic writing, superb character development, and as creator Matt Groening had envisioned, a goofy comedy that would have underlying “legitimate literary science fiction concepts.” At the conclusion of its first season, Futurama had posted higher ratings than South Park, Family Guy, and King Of the Hill.  The writers of Futurama saw their impending doom coming placing hints throughout (Figure 1) and using obvious insinuation such as when Bender said, “Another classic science fiction show canceled before its time” in the episode Where No Fan Has Gone Before when referring to Star Trek.  So what in Sega Genesis happened?

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