Monday, October 31, 2011

the bad mood to-do list

What makes you feel better when you are in a bad mood?

-this is the question that inspired me to write this particular blog.

Let me get one thing straight; I almost never am in a bad mood. Although I am a true cynic, I am very very optimistic about everything. Dunno how, dunno why, do not ask.

But yeah, okay. A bad mood can and will hit you. What to do, other than moan and cry? Here is my top five list of things TO DO when in a bad mood:

I. Listenare ad Musica

We all love music, and I personally adore it. And, when moody -whatever mood that is, I choose one site: Musicovery. There are other sites I would choose first, but this nifty radio site allows you to choose music depending on your mood. Look at the pic:

musicovery

II. Findire funnia sitas

I love google. And I love the fact that "google" is also a verb. So, I googled about brands that slowly became names (no, I do not search for brand names when I'm in a bad mood, I just google). So, I discovered these:

hoover to hoover [v] - to clean with a vacuum cleaner

FedEx to fedex [v]

to send or ship (esp. by Federal Express)

xerox to xerox [v]

to print or reproduce by xerography


google to google [v]

to search the internet (esp. with a search engine)

skype to skype [v]

to communicate or try to communicate with an online internet service that enables voice and video phone calls.

twitter to tweet [v]

to post a message on Twitter (applied only on Twitter, though. Yes, Twitter copyrighted it)

I don't know any other brand becoming a verb. If you do, please inform me. There are other genericized brands, and I shall write them all -all that wikipedia has, that is- because I'm pretty bored. This will be a list of once-copyrighted-but-no-more trademarks.

Aspirin
Still a Bayer trademark name for acetylsalicylic acid in about 80 countries, including Canada and many countries in Europe, but declared generic in the U.S.
Catseye
Originally a trademark for a specific type of retroreflective road safety installation.
Cellophane
Still a registered trademark of Innovia Films Ltd in Europe and many other jurisdictions. Originally a trademark of DuPont.
Dry ice
Trademarked by the Dry Ice Corporation of America in 1925.
Escalator
Originally a trademark of Otis Elevator Company.
Heroin
Trademarked by Friedrich Bayer & Co in 1898.
Kerosene
First used around 1852.
Lanolin
Trademarked as the term for a preparation of water and the wax from sheeps' wool.
Laundromat
coin laundry shop.
Linoleum
Floor covering, originally coined by Frederick Walton in 1864, and ruled as generic following a lawsuit for trademark infringement in 1878; probably the first product name to become a generic term.
Mimeograph
Originally trademarked by Albert Dick.
Petrol
Carless, Capel and Leonard invented the trade name "Petrol" for refined petroleum spirit.
Primal Therapy
A psychotherapy. Registered by Arthur Janov in 1970. Cancelled in 1978.
Thermos
Originally a Thermos GmbH trademark name for a vacuum flask; declared generic in the U.S. in 1963.[20]
Touch-tone
Dual tone multi-frequency telephone signaling; AT&T states "formerly a trademark of AT&T".[21]
Videotape
Originally trademarked by Ampex Corporation, an early manufacturer of audio and video tape recorders.
Webster's Dictionary
The publishers with the strongest link to the original are Merriam-Webster, but they have a trademark only on "Merriam-Webster", and other dictionaries are legally published as "Webster's Dictionary".[23]
Windbreaker
Originally trademarked by John Rissman & Sons of Chicago.
Yo-Yo
Still a Papa's Toy Co. Ltd. trademark name for a spinning toy in Canada, but declared generic in the U.S. in 1965.[24]
ZIP code
Originally registered as a servicemark but has since expired.
Zipper
Originally a trademark of B.F. Goodrich.

See? It works. Googling can be fun. No? Okay...

III. Readire Jocum (read jokes...?)

Okay, that title was hard even for me. So, I read jokes. The weirder the better. I like "challenging" jokes. Like the one I found on this site:

game

The procedure is simple. Think of any three-digit number; then select the corresponding buzzword from each column. For instance, number 257 produces "systematized logistical projection", a phrase that can be dropped into virtually any report with that ring of decisive knowledgeable authority. No one will have the remotest idea of what you're talking about, but the important thing is that THEY ARE NOT ABOUT TO ADMIT IT.

Yes, cute, I know.

IV. Takere unus penus or typere et writere

Take a pen or type and write. Write on your blog about what happened and you feel in a bad mood, write it in your diary, write it in a piece of letter and then burn it. Or do not write about it at all. Write about other things, like things that make you happy. Or make a 5 list of useless things [like mine]. Or paint. Do something creative. Draw. Just get a pen and let your moodiness get out of your system through ink on blank file.

One site that is utterly fun and you can write every single random shit about your moodiness is hatebook, the anti facebook service. If facebook is about the likes,hatebook is about the hates.

V. Pretendere tu es someunus alius.

I personally love doing this. I grab a friend (or a couple of them! the more the merrier) and pretend you're someone else. I personally prefer pretending to be a tourist. I speak gibberish with my friend(s) or another language, if my current folk does speak one I do speak fluently. What I do is this: pack my backbag with all the stuffed animals I still have from when I was a boy, take the most weird clothes, a bottle of water in my hand, a city map in the other one, sunglasses, a camera around my neck and I'm ready to go. Speak only in your gibberish/foreign language. Mispronounce every simple word a tourist could know (like "verr iz deez moozeoom?" instead of "where is this museum" or "cun yee-oo took mi un peektour" instead of... find out yourself :P), take loads of photos, make the peace sign to everyone, speak loudly and do things a normal towner wouldn't do and a townee would only think about it. Tip: don't do things that may get you to the officer's barred backyard, kay?

6th special tip if you managed to go this far: Read my blog :)

How to find New Music

I love music and I’m pretty sure most people do. But after listening billiards of times out top favorite artists, we do need something new. If you, too, need something new, last.fm logo is for you.

With new, drastic features, it will turn your music world around. It will be your eargasm. The only bummer is that, unless you live in the US, UK or Germany, free features shall be blocked, pretty soon and you’ll have to pay. If you do live in one of these countries, you are free as free can be!

But let’s not bother ourselves with payments and whatnot. Let’s bother with its music experience.

Radio Stations

The most fun part about Last.fm is Radio stations. Not just fun, but the best way to find new artists you will probably like. You just input the name of your favorite band or your favorite genre, and the radio will start playing music from that artist, and a great gamme (yes, that is french for “range”) of related music and artists. That is probably the best way to find new music on this site, since it has a vast library (probably the biggest one on the internet*).

last.fm radio

The Last.fm Scrobbler

last.fm scrobbler logo

This is an application you have to download. Imh opinion, it’s not the best option if you don’t use last.fm really frequently. But if you do, the Scrobbler is the best option. It simply does what the Radio Station does, but only that you don’t have to get on your browser, open the Last.fm site, log on, etc. You just do it from your desktop application.

“So, yeah… whatever…”

Well, that’s not all. It does another amazing thing… It connects with your music player you have installed. Yeah, you heard me; it searches all the music you’ve been listening forever and searches for new artists depending on your music preferences.

It’s compatible on a PC [Windows XP, Vista (but it does work well on Windows 7 too], a Mac (OS X Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard/Lion) as well as on Linux.

The media players it supports via plugins are:

For Windows:

Winamp, version 5.5xWindows Media Player, versions 9, 10, 11iTunes, 7 and 8Foobar2000, versions 0.9.2, 0.9.4, 0.9.5

For Mac it supports only iTunes. There are no plugins for Linux.


Profiles

Another feature that can be awesome is profiles. Yes, this site offers a profile account, just like facebook or myspace. You can talk to people, your friends and it has a large community and blahblahblah. But that’s not the fun part. The fun part is that you can see what your friends liked, listened and it enables you to listen to their tracks and so on. With more than 30 million active users and uncountable social networking features, Last.fm will blow your mind.

Overall

An amazing musical experience that will lead you to new and undiscovered valleys of music. If I had to rate this site, it would be 9/10. Although amazing in its musical experience, it does lose a point for making it a subscribers-only for other countries. But still, worth paying.

*Correct me if I’m wrong.

O Captain, My Captain!

Too many films based on comics… That’s not what it’s weird, since comic books aren’t geeky anymore and have hit the road to the mainstream. Even my ex girlfriend -a Black Eyed Peas and Christina Aguilera fanatic- started quoting me Hellboy.

So, yes. That is not weird. What is weird is that these movies actually rock! They are far from the Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin” movie, and they have also surpassed the Tim Burton’s Batman movies.

Let’s start alphabetically about the marvelous thing that comics do with Hollywood:

300

Batman Begins (probably one of the best comic to film made)

The Dark Knight (see above)

Blade Trilogy (excluding the last one. It was a potato)

Captain America

Constantine

The Crow (just the first movie)

Daredevil (not that good, but I loved the comic)

From Hell (yes, yes, the Jack the Ripper movie with Johnny Depp)

Hellboy (pretty amazing indeed)

A History of Violence (have you read the novel? I haven’t, but I lobed the film)

The Incredible Hulk (the “Hulk” 2003 movie was okay, but not as good as this one)

Iron Man 1 + 2 (okay, the first one is better, we all saw that)

Kick-Ass (wasn’t Hit-Girl absolutely adorable?)

The Mask (yup. The Jim Carey movie)

Men In Black (MIB II was a disappointment. We have to wait for MIB III)

Red

Road to Perdition

Sin City

Spiderman I, II and III (with the critically acclaimed two firsts)

Superman Returns (although it was a little bit boring, methinks)

Thor

V for Vendetta

Wanted

Watchmen (my absolute fave)

X-Men (all five movies)

And after all this, all I have to do is this comment:

Captain America wasn’t one of my favorite Marvel Superheroes. His stories were long and boring, he didn’t have super powers etc. But the movie was shocking! Even a good-but-could-be-better comic is made into a baddass movie to the same style with Watchmen. Hollywood has gone mad, that’s all I know…