(formerly)tangentmind.org

http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wa/hidero-i/HowTo/howto.html

Nothing better than engrish and illustrations made with ms paint.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4890324024926378754&q=little+rock

Bye-bye 'Malcolm,' 'That '70s Show'
'Arrested' return 'highly unlikely'; 'Hill' may come back


I was wondering how tv ratings are recorded because I have been watching a lot of shows that I download, instead of watching on tv because...either I forget, or I'm busy. Two of the shows I like to watch each week , my name is earl and everybody hates chris, are during one of my classes. So, I have no choice but download them if I want to watch them.

However, these days, a lot of good tv shows get cancelled because of low viewership. So, does that mean that my favorite tv shows, struggly by with only 4 million(that is few, for sindicated tv shows in prime time) viewers only has 3,999,999 because of me?

The answer in short, is no. My viewership doesn't count...even less than voting. Seriously.

Here is [url=http://www.nielsenmedia.com/whatratingsmean/]why[/url]. The Neilsen Media company takes what they believe is a good representation of the total population and finds out what they are watching. They claim that the results are as accurate and possible, and they probably know enough about statistics that that claim is statistically sound...but what you have to realise is that they can only take statistics from the people who participate, and the people who participate may not be totally representative of the total population that watches tv. I mean, how are you going to find out? The people who won't participate are not going to tell you because they're not participating.

I beleive this is probably why good shows get cancelled...or just because the people who watch tv suck...which is what I used to believe. Now, however I can only find out exactly how many people they polled, find out how many people they said watched the show and then say that that many people suck. For example, lets say that there are 99 million tvs in the US. There are 5,000 people participating the polls. Nielsen says that My Name is Earl only recieves 3 million viewers. 3 out of 99 is about 3 percent and 3 percent of 5,000 is 150. Therefore 4,850 of our viewing representatives suck. Isn't math great? (Statistics suck.)

So, I can download tv episodes to my hearts content and feel no moral shame. The only people I'm cheating are those companies who create those insulting commercials that make me hate and avoid their products(I avoided taco bell for months once for that reason, and still avoid mcdonalds). On that subject, they decide which commercials to play by using the same are similar statistics. Probably the same thing with radio.

The only moral obligation I have is to buy the dvds of the shows I like when they come out...which I have not been doing since I'm broke. Some day.

Knowing all this, I can't help but feel totally helpless to stop a good tv show getting cancelled...but I feel better knowing that I can just download the latest syndicated tv show episode and watch it without the commercials. It might not be totally legal, but I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

There still is one day, to try to save a good show: contact the tv station or start a campaign. For example, http://the-op.com/saveourbluths/. Also, buying the dvds probably helps, if they are out.

Due to some government program, the big 3 credit reporting agencies made a website called www.annualcreditreport.com where anyone in the US can get a free credit report once every 12 months from the three companies. No credit score, just the report.

Well, I decided to check mine a few minutes ago and apparently I have a credit account with citi(which I didn't know I had), my names are Art B Martin, Stewart J Martin, and B Martin Art and my Date of Birth is 1985(it's 1984)...oh and I had a State Tax Lien which I paid back in November. All I can say is...what the fuck? I mean seriously.

I see this as being a major source of frustration in the next few days or possibly weeks. Needless to say, I've got some people to talk to.

In respect to my earlier posts about Heroes of Might and Magic V, I forgot to mention that I finally got a serial number. I received it curtesy of Jolt.co.uk. I sent them an e-mail and they sent me a number.

It's kind of disapointing. Being a beta, there's still a number of problems...it may be more like an Alpha really. I got into one game with a guy who didn't know how to play, and it lagged very badly but I wasn't sure if it was from my detail settings or internet lag. Then I downloaded and installed a menu mod so that I could create a hot seat game with a non-working AI player. After playing that for a little while the whole thing crashed. Whoo.

On the game front, I'm addicted to Animal Crossing and I finally started playing Broken Sword 3. I like it. I think it might have crashed on me too, but I can't remember exactly. Maybe I just quit playing without any game failure. Any fan of Adventure games or stories or non-twitch gaming should definately pick it up. The console versions might be better for the sole fact that the pc version installs the dreaded starforce protection software(which I now have 3 copies of for Trackmania Nations, BS3, and the HoMMV beta). It doesn't have one of those wiz bang graphic engines, but it looks pretty nice. The animations are pretty good. The voice acting is superb. The characters are believable. The story is pretty engaging. I haven't played it very long though.

I need to get a big "Buy Psychonauts" banner, because everyone should. Psychonauts finally made it to Europe, all localized and stuff, so hopefully that will boost the sales and Doublefine will get huge cash for mega games.

Oh No! I'm rambling again. (I slept about an hour...)

My brother currently owns a 1984 Toyota. It has seen it's share of miles and has a broken radiator, a problem that drains the battery, serious problems with the emission system, and a number of other small issues. There's chipping paint, rust, cobwebs in the engine, and a great deal of the plastic interior is faded or sun damaged.

I grew up in this car. To me it's like an old friend. It was bought the year I was born and was the first Camry ever made, in the first year that Toyota sold cars in the US. It's a brown hatch back and the shape always reminded me of a turtle. I probably locked myself in the trunk area a number of times because the back seats folded down. I think I may have known I way to get back out again though. A lot of the faded interior was that way for a great deal of the time that I can remember.

The engine was replaced once. I don't know what happened there. I wrecked it once when I was 3 or 4, because I was impatient while waiting in the church parking lot and I grabbed the gear shifter, which was between the two bucket seats, and pulled back.

Some of my first driving lessons were in that car. My brother has had the car for a long time. He could use a new car; a more family friendly car. I was thinking about whether or not it would be cost effective for me to try to fix it. I would be willing to make all the repairs I could myself. My current car is a gas guzzler, so the benefit would be double the efficiency, give or take. Also, ever since I got my Jeep Cherokee I have wanted a smaller car. I wanted a small car to begin with but a cherokee was kind of one of the cars I idolised as a child. The Toyota isn't a manual, like a would prefer, but that's ok.

Sitting in the car today, it kind of reminded me of going to my elementary school Everything seemed so much smaller and more worn and there was funny smell. Unrelated, they have since remodelled and made it look like a prison.

I don't know where I'm going with this, and I should have gone to sleep 6 hours ago, so I think I'll just leave this subject open ended and incomplete for now.

Once again, I'm playing the who owns/makes you game with brands and companies. This time it's cars.

Ford Owns:
Ford
Lincoln
Mercury
Mazda
Volvo
Jaguar
Land Rover
Aston Martin

GM Owns:
GMC
Buick
Cadillac
Chevrolet
HUMMER
Oldsmoble
Pontiac
Saturn
Saab
Holden
Opel
Vauxhall

DaimlerChrysler Owns:
(Mercedes Car Group)
Maybach
Mercedes-Benz
Smart
(Chrysler Group)
Dodge
Chrysler
Jeep
(Commerical Vehicles Division)
Mercedes-Benz
Freightliner
Fuso(through an alliance with Mitsubishi)
Sterling Truck
Western Star Trucks
Setra
Thomas
Orion

There are a lot of other car makers and brands out there, so I might look at hose later. There may be more brands from these conglomerates in other countries because I checked the US sites mostly. One interesting thing about DaimlerChrysler and Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi has been struggling with debt for years and DaimlerChrylser bought 37% market share in the company and had plans to aquire Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi stacked up more debt though, and instead DaimlerChrysler is looking for a buyer for it's stock.

Another interesting thing. Smart, one of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes Car Group brands is kind of interesting, if not weird. There are already selling in Europe since 2004.

Edit: 2:49 pm And now Volkswagen AG
Audi
Bentley
Bugatti
Lamborghini
SEAT
Škoda
Volkswagen

If anyone has Mario Kart or Animal Crossing for the Nintendo DS, leave a comment or send me an e-mail or an IM and we can exchange friend codes.