27th of Blaugust - W - With Blackjack and Hookers!

It's felt like its been a while since I did a cloud-yelling rant that I feel long overdue for one. So if you don't want to read about me complaining then go and watch this video of a hamster eating a tiny burritos. For those that choose to stick around I wish to go on about what I call the "With Blackjack and Hookers," effect.

Named after a running gag from the second ever Futurama episode, the Blackjack and Hookers effect is when someone becomes so enraged with an event, community or group that they decide to take them on at their own game with a rival event, community or group. The concept isn't new but has been happening all the time. One Michel's Patisserie franchise told me that Michel's Patisserie originally started because an employee didn't like how The Cheesecake Shop ran their business. Most of the time it happens because of a falling out between people who do not see things the same way. Steve Jobs had a falling out with Apple in 1985 so he went and started NeXT. Eventually Apple ended up buying NeXT in 1996 and Steve Jobs came back to eventually run the company as he wished.

In business it happens all the time and is completely fine. In a community however, when it happens it's something that can be damaging to everyone. Especially in a small place like Adelaide. This sort of "chew-up-and-spit-out" behaviour happens all the time at AVCon where people rage quit and fortunately I've never heard the phase, "Well I'm going to start MY OWN Convention," recently. But it has happened. Back in 2008 I heard this at an EVAC meeting where some people didn't feel they were treated well enough. That was the first time I ever heard of Evacuation being brought up.

They were different times back then. The relationship between EVAC and AVCon VG were much much closer. EVAC and AVCon VG were basically one and the same as there were very few non-EVAC people on the AVCon VG team. But there seemed to be a bit on an anti-VG thing going on in AVCon at the time. I won't bother you with it because I don't even know all the details to be honest. So people at AVCon'y people at EVAC were complaining and so they thought they would start Evacuation, walk away from AVCon and watch and laugh while everyone else in AVCon failed to run the VG area properly. This never happened in the end (fortunately) and those that were complaining aren't even around. Some still support AVCon. Evacuation never happened but it is something that gets thrown around as something EVAC could still do in aid to the community. I was that latest person to try and make it happen.

Well I say enough! Evacuation MUST DIE! It was started for the wrong reasons and a major gaming event by EVAC will never get off the ground if it is to have the name Evacuation. Even the name was based on Evacuating from AVCon to do try to challenge AVCon. I'm not saying EVAC can't hold a major event but it can't be called Evacuation. Not even as a working title.

Even Bender his proposal to build his own Lunar Lander to "screw the whole thing," as he couldn't be bothered. Now we have to say the same thing about Evacuation for once and for all.

I am putting a ban on the word Evacuation at EVAC. Let's never speak of it again.

26th of Blaugust - V - Vegemite

So few V words to choose from. So many of them inappropriate too. But I thought I'd rattle on about spread you all know but only some of you love.

That's right, it put a rose in every Australian's cheek. It makes Americans gag when they try it. It's Vegemite!

It all started back in 1919 when Marmite (a similar product from the UK) imports were being disrupted due to the end of World War I. However there was a lot of Yeast Extract from Australian Brewery's that was just being thrown out. Cyril P. Castiller was given a task by Fred Walker & Co. to make use of it and create an Australian product to fill the void. That product became Vegemite and was released in 1923. The product didn't sell very well.

An attempt to boost sales was to rename the product Parwill in 1928. This was so they could take market share from Marmite by using the saying "Mamite but Parwill." Turs out, using puns didn't help either so they changed the name back to Vegemite in 1935.

In the meantime Fred Walker had established a partnership with American company Kraft foods to create the Kraft Walker Cheese Co. and got successful at selling processed cheese. From 1935 they used that success to promote the failing product. They gave Vegemite away for free with Kraft Walker cheese products. Eventually the British medical Association officially endorsed Vegemite as a source of vitamin B. When World War II hit it was included in Australian Army Rations and this was when product sales really took of. It's been a national icon ever since.

There are equivilent products in other countries. For example Marmite is popular in the UK and New Zealand. But it should be noted that New Zealand Marmite (which is what is sold in only Australia and New Zealand) is not the same as UK Marmite which is the original product. There is also a similar product in Switzerland called Cenovis (not the brand of vitamins). We also have our local compettitors such as Promite (made by Masterfoods and I quite like), Ozemite (made by Dick Smith) and Aussiemite (made by a small Adelaide company). Not to be out done, food chain Aldi also made their own supermarket brand version called Brekkie Mite.

But lets not forget about that other Vegemite variant that was released by Kraft in 2009. I don't even care that it's called now. I will always know it as this.

The aim was to make a lighter tasting product that was not so apparently gag-worthy and the product was released without a name. Instead it said "Name Me".

There was a competition and the judges decided to go with iSnack 2.0. Turned out the public thought it was a shit name. So Kraft announced they would let the public vote on a better name. So, "Vegemite Cheesybite," the new name was the most popular name followed closely by "These names all suck and so does this product!" I'm not loking. No confidence only just lost to the winning title.

I never bothered trying iSnack 2.0 as Vegemite is good enough for me. I like making hot beverages out of it by putting a teaspoon of Vegemite in a cup of boiling water. Tasty!

25th of Blaugust - U - Unboxing Videos

You know when you've been waiting for a long time to get something and you just want to show off your latest purchase It's apparently "über cool" to film taking your purchase out of the box. These are referred as Unboxing Videos and I thought I'd have a crack at it to see what the fuss is all about.

Link to my video.

I think I managed to cover all the essentials of an Unboxing Video. Complete with the shaky camera, the obligatory, "Hey Guys," opening, the eternal struggle of only having one hand free to work wth and the heavy nasal breathing.

Seriously though. What the hell is with these things? Most of these videos are of a really bad quality. yet they seem to amass a huge number of views. If you want to show of a product, then show how it works and performs. Not the packaging it came in.

24th of Blaugust - Alphabet Free Sunday - Weekly Beats 2012

I'm having one of those mental blank days today really. When you realise that you've got only a small ammount of time left and you really don't know what you're going to do. I experienced this a lot during 2012 when I was doing something like this for an entire year.

Weekly Beats is a website with a very significant challenge. The aim is to publish a song every week for  an entire year. I didn't decide to do it this year. This was partly because I didn't know it was a thing this year and partly because I had already done it a few years ago and know how hard it actually was.

All my 2012 tracks are still up on the website here.

Quite a few of them I am proud of. Other's not so much. But I managed to do 52 tracks within the time constraints. It was never a competition but I still managed to do it. Which was made all the more harder because I started living at home, moved to the UK jumping from place to place before finding somewhere to rent, discovering living in London was a bad idea. Moved back to Adelaide (managing to upload a song on the remnants of mu UK phone credit with 5 minutes to spare), moving to the Barossa Valley and trying to find somewhere to rent while staying at a caravan park, getting a place, not having internet at that place for a month, getting a job in the Riverland and staying in a caravan park until I got given my house from the government (while still still going back to the Barossa on weekends), returning to the Barossa after that contract was done to finish the year then moving to another house in the Barossa in late December. It was a CRAZY year! But the music kept constant. I remember being up at 3AM on a  Monday morning at my place in Berri trying to get songs in before the 9:30 AM cutoff time and surviving Mondays on very minimal sleep.

So one blog post day for only a month when I'm staying in the same place for me is childs play in comparison.

Hard to believe that after today there's just seven posts left in Blaugust. Some awkward letters coming but it will still be a lot of fun.