Thursday, December 31, 2015

Year end 2015 "show"


Though I don’t have a show anymore due to having no computer which to do it, I decided to create a playlist for a best of 2015 show featuring what would get my vote if I had to cast a ballot for the Logan Awards today without any nominations.

Unlike past years, I cannot think of one video which I would feel is worthy of the award. I know there are ones made but I either have not seen them or have forgotten. (Note: I know about the rap battles, epic and princess, and don’t find any of them worthy but since jurors would have to vote for at least one video, I would cast it to the PRB Daenerys vs Maleficent)

As far as songs, 2015 was a down year from my POV. There were a lot of releases in 2014 most notably by Weird Al Yankovic whose Mandatory Fun was the first #1 comedy album in decades. (How nothing from it won a Logan Award is a different post)

Similar to videos, I can’t think of one non FuMP song that would get any consideration. I checked Dr. Demento’s funny 25 and don’t see anything either as the top 25 has many songs from past years and made for tv or video snippets. As far as non FuMP artists, I listened to the title track from the Doubleclicks President Snakes and was not interested and though I respect the music from Schaffer the Darklord, I have aged past the point where I can appreciate it.

As I usually do on my end of year show, I figure out the playlist in reverse order by putting the track I like most at the end to finish the show with it and going backward through the ones that would get my vote and if there is space, other songs. So here is how the show would go:
Opening, I babble about theme then explaining that this first song is how many feel at this time of year

The North Side of the Pole, Part 2: Cardiac Time – Moneyshot Cosmonauts
My Blouse - Carrie Dahlby
Lando (2015 version) – Raymond and Scum
1,000 FuMPs – The FuMP
Dinky McDiddlyboots – Devo Spice
 (Big Damn) Hero – Mikey Mason
Fury Road - Insane Ian

Get on mike, list songs, explain that the following would get my Logan Award vote today. State only one video would get my vote right now but would expect just like as I did when I was a juror, that I would find other things that got my vote from the nominations.
 
Four Things You Need to Know – TV’s Kyle

Urban Dictionary – Dino Mike

If It’s Right – Steve Goodie

Dr. Pepper – Carla Ulbrich

Itchy Song #1543 – Steve Goodie

Put it Away – Devo Spice

Unexpecting the Expected – Dino Mike

The Twilight Zone – Luke Ski
 
Get on mike, list songs, thank people for listening, state one more to close 2015.

Benedict Cumberbatch – Insane Ian

More parodies than I expected and yes, I only find 4 original songs worth a vote which is the exact opposite of what it has been for me recently. Once Logan Awards nominations are accepted, I will make sure the songs that would get my vote are nominated (unlike the ones from  the year I was a juror).

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Pandemic Legacy part 5

Quarantine Specialist Ahmed Klinger log:

With our medic, Dr Erin Hunnicutt, shaken from the ordeal in San Francisco and since containment has become more of an issue than treatment, I was brought into the situation for her as the zombie plague spread from the west coast of South America to South Africa.

We set up quarantines to prevent things from spreading into North Africa and Europe as our researcher, Dr Henry Pierce, was able to provide the scientist info to cure the Martian Fever and get ahead of the anti-vaxxers problem.

Knowing it was required, I acquired funded help to eradicate the Martian Fever but in doing so, the lower 2/3 of Africa and all South America succumbed to the zombie virus as outbreaks and riots happened in the southern extremes and spread north.

After I got the info to cure the Silurian situation, a Madrid epidemic happened and we got word that UNIT was about to shut everything down on the next outbreak. Captain Jack Harness called us from Torchwood stating they are ready. We assigned it to Johannesburg.

The devce floated over the city then shined a beam of light which covered about 1/3 of the area causing the infected in the area to slowly vaporize. Then reports stated that people started trying to get infected so they could ascend into heaven to be with God. Santiago had an outbreak shortly after and UNIT sprung into action to shut down things there.

We did establish a new military base in Hong Kong and now the Martian Fever is easier to cure but the team as a whole has lost confidence after the multiple failures in April.

Date Apr 30

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Pandemic Legacy mini-update 2

Director's Jacob Potter report:

I was not looking for the phone call from Ms. Stewart who along with stating the plague spread to San Francisco shortly after the medic left stated that I should be lucky to still have a job. According to her the Doctor was able to step in to control the faded people outbreak and UNIT was able to remedy the Martian fever with a partial shutdown of the affected areas. I was in no position to recommend making it a full shutdown.

Ms. Stewart also quoted the Doctor who stated that the people we have treated and cured in the middle east and Asia were not turning into zombies but rather Silurians.

I was also told the Madrid military base is now permanent, some funding will be directed our way and that Torchwood is developing something to help with the faded people problem. Heck with that phrase; I'm calling them zombies.

Right after I was done listening to Director Stewart, there was an alert. Everything is back. The partial shutdown was not effective.

April 16

Monday, December 21, 2015

Pandemic Legacy part 4

Researcher Henry Pierce blog:

UNIT is starting to get annoying with their demand of adding military personnel to the team and they even set up a base in Madrid but we are ignoring them as we have handled things with style so far.

Initial reports were not good as Africa, South America, and Mexico City were hit hard. We quarantined the African situation and were able to cure the anti-vaxxer situation in North America and Europe and what we have been calling the zombie plague in the middle east and Asia. Then we got alarming news.

The incurable disease has mutated further and worse. Infected in those areas have become faded and filled with rage starting in Mexico City. We got a warning to avoid those areas. We tried quarantine procedures but due to our inexperience with them we lost control and got reports that cities in the Western Hemisphere ranging from Chicago to Lima are now filling with these mutated people. Fortunately the quarantine barely held in Los Angeles or our medic, Dr. Erin Hunnicutt, would have been scarred.

If we have been keeping control of the zombie plague on the other side of the world, what the hell do we have now?

With this new, scary development, military and financial support will be required all for us to have any chance to keep the world from going into utter chaos.

April 15

Friday, December 11, 2015

Pandemic Legacy part 3

Researcher Henry Pierce log:

Commander Jacob Potter had a heated conversation with the head of UNIT then spoke with us. He stated the military branch will now be supporting us and that UNIT wants military personnel on our team. Our success the previous two months is the only reason they have allowed our group to stay as is.

We were concerned that we would have to start to quarantine areas but found out instead that we are required to eradicate at least one disease after we cure it since the money was redistributed to military assistance. Having done that the previous two months, the challenge did not seem that difficult.

Reports came in and the Martian fever came out strong in Asia and in an effort to show how they can help, UNIT military setup a quarantine in Tokyo. The system upgrade from our home base in Cairo paid off as we were able to discover a cure to it almost immediately and with the medic eradicate it quickly.

The zombie plague and anti-vaxxer problems were also handled rather quickly only having one outbreak in Delhi by the time we cured them.

We developed more info to cure the Martian fever in the future as well as securing better transportation for me.

Right now our team is kicking ass and Commander Potter called UNIT's head Ms. Stewart and told her where she can stick her military assistance.

March 29

Pandemic Legacy mini-update 1


Commander Jacob Potter log:
Not only am I stuck in Cairo for a computer upgrade, I heard rumors that we will be doing more than just treating the ill and curing the current strain of the diseases and that our in-field funding which was in January already reduced from previous years’ standards is being eliminated. I left a message with UNIT's scientific director Kate Stewart about this.

I also want to tell her how fortunate she is to have someone like me now in UNIT and that I deserved to be compensated far more than what I currently am and I don’t care if the finances are not sound within the organization as it would cost far more to replace me than it would to pay me fairly.
Since I have a family at home, I do not want to risk it since there are not many jobs like the one I have and I am well aware Ms. Stewart knows that as well.

March 1

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

This date revisited


Thirty years ago today, the 12-0 Chicago Bears went to the Orange Bowl to play the Miami Dolphins in what turned out to be the most watched regular season game in the history of the NFL.

Recently, I discovered that someone posted to YouTube the entire broadcast of the game including only a few commercials (Miller Lite golf one and one featuring William “the refrigerator” Perry). There were a couple of things I knew about the game and a couple that I discovered upon watching the broadcast like the announcers were Frank Gifford, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson. I know O.J. was in that booth but forgot about Broadway Joe.

The most surprising thing to me was not that Bears QB Steve Fuller was starting his fifth game of the year for the often injured Jim McMahon but in his previous four starts including games which the Bears won 44-0 and 36-0 that he had not at that time thrown a touchdown pass in 1985.

I correctly remembered that in the Bears first two possessions they did not in any of the 8 plays give the ball to Walter Payton who still was an elite player who in that game broke an NFL record by getting over 100 yards of rushing for the 8th straight game but they were only down 10-7 when they first gave Payton the ball on a possession where later a screen pass to him was intercepted.

I did not realize that the Bears tried to cover the Dolphins third wide receiver Nat Moore with either safety Gary Fencik or Dave Duerson (who by diving head first into a pile made me cringe knowing that he killed himself and was discovered with concussion based brain trauma).

I remembered that the Dolphins scored on 2 one yard runs and that their only points of the second half after being up 31-10 at halftime were on a pass that bounced off Bears lineman Dan Hampton’s helmet.

Looking at the box score I noticed two more things I did not know: The Bears had more total yards for the game and that in standard fantasy football, Dolphins QB Dan Marino had only .14 more points that Bears QB Steve Fuller who scored twice on a QB sneak and completed his only touchdown pass of the season to backup WR Ken Margerum. (In one week contests like Draft Kings or Fan Duel, Fuller would have had more points.)

I have said for years that the Dolphins losing the AFC title game that year to New England was the only reason the Bears won Super Bowl XX. After watching the game, looking at the stats, and realizing that Super Bowl XX was in the Louisiana Superdome on AstroTurf which helps the Bears who played its home games on it, I can no longer say that.