...they asked, to the hardcore Anti who at one point visited TwilightSucks.com frequently and wanted to register. That is, until his favorite user, AnnaLeeJones3 abandoned her YouTube account because her Asian stereotype parents forced her to over something really stupid!!! (LOL, another Asian girl. I swear to you guys, I so totally don't have yellow fever! Remember, I said in the previous journal about iJustine that I stuck to Let's Plays and YT Poops, and last I checked, SMW Central and related communities are Caucasian-dominated! D:) Oh, there was also ShmeiliaRockie and her "You are Bella" series, but I don't like her hairstyle in newer videos. ._.

Keep in mind that I have never read a single Twilight book or seen a single Twilight movie. So how, then, can I be a hardcore Anti? The fanbase. Simply put, Twilight has the most violent fanbase since European soccer fans at the 2006 World Cup!!! As noted at TwilightSucks.com's "Fangirl Encounters" forum, fans have been known to beat the shit out of people even if they didn't voice a dissenting opinion!!! Even if the opinion was NEUTRAL. Even if the opinion was SUPPORTIVE of the books and of Stephenie Meyer, but still had criticisms (i.e. "I like this book, but..."). If they hear you say anything other than "ZOMG Stephenie Meyer is the best EVAR!!!111!!!111!!!1" or if you don't agree with this video, you won't live to see tomorrow, simply put!

Also, Stephenie Meyer herself is like these fans, reminding me of Snapesnogger in the process.

While that in and of itself does little to endear the Twilight series to me, there's also the bad reviews on Amazon.com to consider. The general consensus is that the series bitch slaps feminism in the face by making Bella Swan completely dependent on Edward Cullen, and Edward being an abusive boyfriend. Both characters are also Mary Sues, and Steffy (or "SMeyer", if you insist) spends way, way, WAY too many pages describing Edward. Yay, purple prose! D:

So, yeah. Technically, I didn't answer the Writer's Block question, but oh well. If you want me to answer it, you'd better un-fuck up those fantards and help Steffy get her shit together. That, and help her drop 100 pounds; DAMN, she's fat!!! D:

It's more likely than you think! On the show's ceremonial 7,000^th episode on November 5^th, this popular YouTube user was a contestant! She blogged about the experience here.

iJustine was the first contestant called of the First Four. She was almost banished to the so-called "First Four Breakfast Club", but escaped! She won a $1,499 spa, played Double Prices for a Rolex watch worth $6,775 and won, went to the Showcase on 90¢, and won her Showcase!

She's one of the "YouTube Celebrities" that you often see on the "Featured Videos" section at the bottom of the "Related Videos" section of most videos. Most people dismiss those people as cheap, overrated, egotistical bitches, likely due to a bad first impression that LonelyGirl15 left in 2006. I don't hold contempt for ALL YT Celebrities; I have been known to watch CommunityChannel and Michelle Phan on occasion. (LOL, I think I have yellow fever! xD) But I tend to stick to Let's Plays and YT Poops, and I also dismissed iJustine as a Macfag. Maybe, after this, I should give iJustine a second chance; I might gain a new respect for her! ;)

Other highlights:

• Lucky Seven being played with $7,000 instead of $7
• The last three games being the first three games ever played.
• Double Prices on the stage and a video screen being used as a backdrop (and that weird music cue!).
• The black dude in the first Showcase Showdown staying on 30¢
• Both Showcases being based on the first episode's Showcases
• Drew acknowledging that this was Rich's 1,001^st episode, and the graphics guys even putting up a "1,001" graphic at the bottom of the screen!

It really says something about our society today when an Internet celebrity wins on a game show that existed long before the Internet. I bet there will be some people on Golden Road.net throwing a hissy about it...as usual! Either way, happy 7,000^th, and here's to 14,000! ^^

Abby Sciuto, of NCIS.

I just have an...affinity...for the darkness. Plus, her actress is almost 40, and she still looks hot. Gotta love that! xD

Donald Bellisario made a wise choice in casting Pauley Perrette for her role; if you look her up on the Internet Movie Database, you'll find that her prior credits involved lots of dark movies and roles. If she should quit the show or die, it would be hard to replace her. Of course, as we all know from prior seasons, Donald typically tries not to; he instead opts for killing the characters off! D:

It's annoying as shit. -_-;

I was always taught that censorship is wrong, and that this country was supposed to be a censorship-free society. So, naturally, it always pisses me off when someone's face gets fuzzed out on TV, or their voice gets altered, or their name gets changed to "protect the innocent". Similarly, K-92's habit of bleeping out people's names in some segments is why I can't listen to Danny and Zack's Mornin' Thang. Also, I will never use a juvenile and domestic relations court if I can avoid it, and I will never work for my mom's job, or any other "child advocacy center". I feel many of this country's privacy laws go overboard, and that they are at direct odds with the public's right to know, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Constitution's 1^st Amendment.

That's why I have no compunctions about revealing my full name, my age, the city and state where I live, and an approximation of its location. I don't feel that saying that I'm Alex St. Clair, that I'm 21 years old and live in Hardy, Virginia, in the U.S., and that Hardy is located in northeastern Franklin County near Smith Mountain Lake will do me any harm. Likewise, I don't feel that keeping this information private will protect me; the vast majority of rapists and stalkers out there are someone the victim knows, and anyone who is determined enough to do me harm would've already found out my exact home address/Social Security number/whatever without me revealing anything at all!!! And finally, even the toughest privacy laws still will not prevent a total idiot from blatantly posting his password/Social Security number/bank account number/whatever on the Internet. In that case, they're asking for it! xD

Also, friends-only LiveJournals give me the same resentment I felt back in 2005 when Golden Road.net made its previously-public Golden Gallery members only as well as various forums members-only beginning in May 2006. Likewise, friends-only LiveJournals remind me of all those forums on IGN.com that could only be accessed by an IGN Insider subscription. The people behind those dipshitted options said that it provided "incentive" to register or subscribe; however, I feel that it coerced people into registering an account just to continue using what they previously could use without an account. When I registered for GRN in late January 2005, I felt like I was "forced" to register, like Marc and ClockGameJohn held a gun to my head or something!

This is completely different from, say, requiring people to register so they can post in a forum, or write a review, or upload their art. Requiring registration in those aspects is a good thing, because no one wants spam in their forums, and attaching a name to your review/art/post/whatever helps add credibility. But, providing "incentives" to register by requiring someone to register just to view images or see certain forums will probably work against you rather than for you, as the accounts registered could end up being "empty" lurker accounts that do nothing at all.

IMO, making a LiveJournal friends-only is the same thing as a private Golden Gallery. The typical policy on most LiveJournals of this kind is that you have to give the user a comment so they can add you to their friends list. To me, that's pretty much saying, "This is a tiny sliver of incentive for you to suck my cock/lick my pussy!" I mean, we all know how Snapesnogger liked to abuse the closest thing DeviantArt has to privacy features (the comment hiding and user blocking features)...imagine what she would do if she were a user here and this were her main site!!! D: And, making a LiveJournal friends-only makes some of the people feel like I felt when I registered for Golden Road.net: they'll feel coerced into commenting on your journal, and they'll feel like you put a gun to their head.

Coercement is wrong. You should never coerce people into doing things for you; it should always be voluntary. Why do you think there were so damn many draft-dodgers back in the 1960's and 1970's, and why do you think the Selective Service Act is still hated today, by people like me who are too young to remember!?! Why do you think Christianity, the Republicans, and their links to each other are hated? Why do you think that the so-called "Twitards" are hated?

Well, that's why I hate friends-only LiveJournals.

So, don't make yours one of them, dipshit!!!

Also, as I believe I said in a previous journal, I feel that Golden Road.net jumped the shark when it made its Golden Gallery members-only. The members on that site who are being made fun of right now, like Steve Gavazzi, FPGWillyT, and WarioBarker, are very egotistical and self-aggrandizing. And I think that's because making the Golden Gallery members-only somehow made them feel like they were special, and that they had a sense of entitlement. A friends-only LiveJournal, IMO, does the same thing, both to the journal owner and the friends who are allowed to see it. The Encyclopedia Dramatica entry on Snapesnogger that I provided in a hyperlink above shows you all the bad things that can happen when someone gets a sense of entitlement...and that's just DeviantArt!!! I can only imagine the awful, awful things that Encyclopedia Dramatica has documented on certain users of THIS site...! O_O;

So do the right thing. Support the 1^st Amendment (or whatever similar laws you might have in your country if you don't live in the U.S.), support decency, and support people friending you for the right reasons. Don't make a friends-only LiveJournal!

This has been a public service announcement from St. Clair Publications. ^^

FINAL NOTE: So, how long will it be before I'm banned from THIS site? -_-; Getting too much into DeviantArt's politics ended up being my downfall from that site...and now here I am talking about THIS site's politics... (sigh) Looks like the time bomb starts ticking now... ;_;

So, I'm currently busy getting my hack ready for the next C³, and hopefully a submission to the site. Part of that cleanup involves upgrading old music in my hack that's been deleted from the site with new music that's still available. One level in the hack, which is a lava level, used a remix of the Super Mario 64 Bowser Levels theme which is now deleted (and, in the future, I plan to make my hack's seventh world a volcano-themed area, so levels there would use the theme, too). So I go to the Custom Music section and find this upgrade by Jimmy52905 (currently known as "SMW's Dreaded @8"). I download it and try to apply it to my hack.

Here's the thing, though: when I went to the level in question, my hack acted like Warner Music Group got YouTube to fuck with it. I find out I need this thing called an "N-SPC patch" as well as a so-called "sample bank" in order to make it work. So, I go to the Patches section, and find two files called "More.ASM" and "More.BIN". Further investigation reveals that my version of AddMusic (Romi's/RevX) already has this file. So I go to apply it.

First I use the addmusic.exe hackname.smc -se option. Nothing happened.

Then I XKAS'ed the patch. Still nothing.

After a while, I just said, "Screw it,", inserted another song, and moved onto the sample bank thingy. Using SMKDan's SMWS, I was able to successfully apply the sample bank. However, applying the sample bank caused pages 0x2 and 0x3 of my Map16 to glitch the fuck up!!! After a little investigating, I went to "File > Uninstall hack" and removed the RATS tag that SMKDan wanted me to insert, as well as the bank itself. Just to be extra sure that I wasn't applying the tag in the wrong place, I went into Translhextion and jumped to the offset. And there was sufficient free space. I inserted the RATS tag at three different spots that I was assured had enough free space, and the same goddamn thing happened!!!

Removing the RATS tag didn't undo SMKDan's damage completely, either. The "blank" Map16 tiles were using palette 0 instead of palette 4. So I have to go to a blank Map16 page, press F2 to make Map16Page/Map16PageG.BIN files, and press F3 to insert them. Since page 0x2 of the Map16 editor is a "tileset-specific" page, this process took quite a while.

Then, earlier this afternoon, I load my hack into ZSNES only to find out that nearly every single level in my hack that uses a No-Yoshi level intro CRASHES AFTER I PRESS B TO ADVANCE THE LEVEL BEYOND THE INTRO!!!

So now, I have to start all over again!!!

As I write this, I've transferred every single level of my hack, as well as the overworld, functioning Map16, and ExGFX into a new ROM, and I've just now finished re-inserting all my custom music, blocks, sprites, and GOOD XKAS patches!!! Thankfully, since I try to be a vanilla hacker, I didn't have much custom stuff to reinsert.

But...here's the grand irony. When I reinserted my custom music, I did the "addmusic romname -se" thingy again...AND THIS TIME, THE N-SPC PATCH ACTUALLY FUCKING WORKED!!! But, SMKDan's SMWS tool STILL fucked my Map16 up.

And the music itself!?! A total fucking piece of shit. The "Bowser'sDomainFAIL" track I got when I loaded up the level for the first time was so loud, I almost thought it would damage my hearing. And when I applied the sample bank file to it to make it work, it still had incredibly dodgy volume and sounds. It definitely didn't sound like the .SPC preview file did in WinAmp. Also, many of my sound effects got overwritten with Super Mario World 2 sounds for some odd reason! Now I have to go look for a new song...

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Fucking seriously. If I could, I would go to Roanoke and sue SMKDan's, Jimmy52905's, SNN's, Romi's, Aika's, and the N-SPC makers' asses off at the federal court there!!! You people are so fucking lucky that the nature of what we do on this site absolves you from any kind of damages or legal liability!!! You fucking TORPEDOED MY GODDAMN HACK in the name of more realistic custom music!!! I sure hope you're happy.

BECAUSE I'M NOT!!!

First off, how in the bloody fuck was I supposed to know that N-SPC could only be applied to a virgin ROM!?! The commentary in the actual patch, as well as AddMusic's instruction manual, the entry for the More.ASM patch in the Patches section, as well as a thread SNN started in Advanced Hacking in which he offers the More.ASM and More.BIN files on his personal site MADE ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION OF THIS!!! Therefore, I am to assume that it can be applied to any ROM regardless of how hacked it is. AND OBVIOUSLY, I WAS WRONG!!!

Second, did SMKDan or anyone near him even so much as BOTHER to open up Lunar Magic to do a simple cursory check to see if anything there glitched up!?! I should be so lucky I don't actually use Map16 pages 0x2 or 0x3 for anything. What if I had!?! As FuSoYa says in that warning at the bottom of the dialog box that appears when you hit the Poison Mushroom button, "If the level makes heavy use of these objects, it may become mangled beyond recognition!"

This was a lot of effort that I had to go through just to get a fucking SONG to work in my hack, and it ended up being all for naught!!! And, as you can clearly tell, it made me mad!!! When you insert something into your hack, you should not expect to have to transfer shit to a new ROM later!!!

So, to Jimmy52905, SMKDan, and possibly others: FUCK YOU AND THE HORSES YOU RODE IN ON!!!

And now, I am done. -_-;

If I had six months to live, I'd immediately grab a knife or a gun and speed the process up.

There's no point in delaying shit. Just get it overwith, I say!

Next question. -_-

Today, Drew Carey will have been hosting The Price is Right for two years!

It's amazing how far he's come in those two years. Go back and look at that first episode from October 15, 2007, and compare it to today's episode. It will likely be no contest as to which one is better!

Here's to Drew! (clink)

Right now, as my dad watches the Baltimore Ravens play the New England Patriots, he sounds like a Brit watching an American watch Manchester United play Real Madrid!!!

Oh, teh irony. D:

This is a tough question for me to answer, as I've never really MADE friends with opinions that are uber-right wing, misandrist, or uber-sympathetic to PETA. I tend to steer clear of those kinds of people. The people who ARE my friends either have opinions that are in line with mine, or are really moderate and/or quiet about their beliefs.

Of course, "politics" is more than just Democrats and Republicans. "Politics" drove me to put an entire Price is Right fansite on Encyclopedia Dramatica! And, after that, the politics of that certain website and the game show it proclaims to be a fan of drove another Alex, as well as a Cory Anotado and even Drew Carey himself to join in the bashing long after I left my mark! D:

You could also say any fandom in general has a political bent among its most radical members.

• The Star Wars fanb01z who hate the Special Editions and prequels...
• Animé fans who have a blanket hatred for dubs...
• People who like Nintendo the way it currently is or hate Sonic the Hedgehog the way HE currently is...
• Supporters of certain DeviantArt users...
• The so-called "Twitards", and possibly Stephenie Meyer herself...
• "Copyright hounds" like Warner Music Group, the RIAA, and the MPAA...
• Many Wikipedia editors, particularly those involved with its "biographies of living persons" policy...
• "Indie" music fans and those who hate radio and mainstream pop...

...sound to me, in general, like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O' Reilly, and Ann Coulter in their litany! And I probably wouldn't want to be friends with those kinds of people.

"Politics" is everywhere, even where you think it isn't! ;)

After a long, restful summer vacation, game show season is now open again! Every major game show has returned for a new season, and there's even a new game show on the way this October (to replace Guiding Light)! Many of them changed something this season, too. Here's what I think of them...

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( Deal...or no deal? )

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( Final answer? )

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( Survey says...! )

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( I'd like to buy a vowel! )

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( Let's make this one a true Daily Double, Alex. )

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And finally... ( Come on down!!! )

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As for that new game show... It's supposed to be a Let's Make a Deal revival hosted by Wayne Brady. There was also talk of Dating Game and Dick Clark-style Pyramid revivals, but none of those have really gotten off the ground. I'll talk about them once I see them. Bye for now! ^^

For whatever odd reason today, perhaps maybe to get us excited for Season 26, the Jeopardy! guys decided to show the very first Alex Trebek episode from way back in 1984!

It's amazing how different, yet similar, the show was back then compared to today.

I've only been watching the show since about 1990, so it was really fascinating for me to see a "before-my-time" episode. Looking at this episode of this show is like looking at Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars I. Among all the differences I saw compared to today...

• The first thing I noticed when watching this rerun is how much slower the game was. They left a LOT of clues unrevealed in each round. Alex Trebek seemed more excited, though, and tried to make the show a lot more fun compared to today.
• Did the studio transition from blue to red for Double Jeopardy! back then? Because I didn't see it... If not, then when did they start doing it?
• Speaking of the studio, it looked kinda ugly. That blue and red scheme really clashed. Did people back in 1984 actually think that that looked good!?! D:
• We always think of Jeopardy! as having a cutting-edge high-tech set, but this set looked really low-tech. Maybe it was high-tech for '84...?
• When Alex introduced each round, they redid the "whoosh" effect from the opening and THEN loaded the dollar values into the board. A little overdone, IMO. Of course, now they don't even load in the clues at all. When Alex introduces each round today, the clues are all pre-loaded.
• The categories were written on cards with little neon light borders. I always remember the show using monitors. When did the transition take place? While I VERY vaguely remember the categories having red text on a white background, I think they switched over to the current practice of them being the same colors as the clues not long after I started watching.
• The camera always zoomed in on the clues. Sometimes, they stayed focused on the TV; other times, they plastered the text on the screen with a graphic after zooming in. I found it weird that, when they did the latter, the text was yellow instead of white. I always remember the show using its current camera techniques of either focusing on the clue right away or superimposing by zooming it out. Did they not have the technology to do that back in 1984? I wonder when they switched?
• They used a "bing" sound to reveal each clue. I imagine that would get annoying after a while. I don't remember ever hearing a "bing" sound. When did they stop using it?
• The standards and practices were a bit more blasé. They didn't seem to have that sound effect for running out of time. Alex just asked if anyone else wanted to answer when one contestant got it wrong.
• I find it really strange that the audience always clapped for right answers and gasped for wrong answers. Did they institute official policies to get to the current practice of the audience being quiet, or did it just gradually happen over time?
• The Daily Double used a different sound from what I've been hearing since 1990.
• They showed the Daily Double on the screen instead of focusing on the contestant and superimposing the clue in the top left corner as it is today. They were definitely doing the current practice when I was watching in 1990. I wonder when they started? Again, did they not have the technology back in '84?
• I wonder what camera effect they used to reveal the contestant's Final Jeopardy! answer? It looked really cheap-ass, whatever it was. You could see a camera zooming on the contestant's answer if you looked hard enough.

^^^^^You may think I'm a hypocrite by mentioning all this nerdy shit, given my rants on Golden Road.net 'n' stuff, but this stuff really did stand out a lot and made the show look really cheap. And look at Jeopardy! today! It's hard to believe that it all started with that crappy first episode.

So, here's to Jeopardy!! (raises wine glass)

Now, then...on a much lighter note...

Drew Carey has started his own blog and Twitter page! It is here that we've learned of some big changes that are coming to The Price is Right for Season 38! Just like last time, I'm not going to comment on any of them until I've seen an episode.

Nevertheless, the Golden Dipshits are at it once again! One of them actually took his comments a little too far and actually caused Drew to turn off commenting on his blog temporarily (now he's re-enabled it, with moderation on). Drew had this to say about the incident:

What bugs me the most is that it was all spill-over from a TPIR "fan" site that seems, at first glance, to be chock full of people that are metaphorically out on the street with their pants down yelling at a telephone pole. It's not, totally. But like it always happens, a few people start screaming at telephone poles and next thing you know you can't hear yourself talk. And a couple of them were treating my blog like it was nothing more than another thread on their message board, and then the one guy went over what, over there probably isn't even a line, but over here is. I'm trying to have fun here and let fans in on what's happening on the show, okay? Not moderate your arguments. Seriously. You can hate what I do, hate the show, whatever. But let's be civil and have a reasoned discussion. I won't tolerate people pooping in my pool while I'm trying to splash around with my friends and get some sun.

Way to go, Drew! You just earned 300 more cool points in my book for that!

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Seriously, do you know how excited I am that Drew is actually being one of few celebrities to break the stereotype of them having their heads up in the clouds by actually interacting with his fans like a normal person!?! :D That, alone, will automatically make him better than Bob Barker regardless of his hosting skills!

Here's to Drew (and to Season 38)! ^^ (raises wine glass)

Season 37 of The Price is Right ends on June 29^th. Unless your Golden Road.net username is "Nick". He was such a fuckin' Luddite on Golden Road.net last time I checked (fall 2008), being so opposed to the show being in HD, that I bet the series (not season) finale of TPIR was yesterday for him, unless his CBS station went digital early (like our NBC station, WSLS, did) or he isn't a purist and thinks that The Converter Box™, cable, or satellite is still analog TV.

Admittedly, Roger Dobkowitz was fired just three weeks before Season 36 ended, so a lot could still happen in the time we have left for this season. But, the plain truth is: we have successfully made it through another season of The Price is Right without any major problems!!!

The sky didn't fall. "Dismantle" Media didn't "ruin the show", and Roger Dobkowitz is not the almighty god you people seemed to think he is! And the show went on, just as it always does.

I'm still waiting for you guys to apologize to everyone that you shat on, including me. Oh yeah. That's right. I put you guys on Encyclopedia Dramatica. Anonymous NEVER forgives!!! (evil laughter)

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( And now for my overall opinion on Season 37. )

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Oh yeah. One more thing, before I go...

ANALOG TELEVISION SIGNALS

~1949-2009

R.I.P., analog TV! ;_; And hello, digital TV!!! :D :D :D

But that's precisely what I wanted to do while watching The Price is Right today. And I would've done it today via YouTube clips and shit had we not had so many motherfucking TORNADO WARNINGS today!!! >xO

An Australian girl played Lucky Seven and just barely won (she had $1 left at the end). Unfortunately, she got unlucky in the Showcase Showdown. She had a slow start, making a very stupid bid in Round 1 (ending it with "and 50¢", apparently oblivious to the fact that TPIR rounds off its prices to the nearest dollar), but by the time she played L7, she acted as if she were a seasoned veteran of the show, getting two numbers on the nose and hedging her bets by guessing 5 for the last one! Nice job!

This is the second Australian TPIR contestant. (And if I read GRN's FAQ right, this episode is one of two that are actually from March and were pre-empted, with this one intended to air directly after the one with the first contestant.) I wonder what's attracting them here? I know, from myriad bloopers and game show specials that Australia has (or had, at one point) its own version of Price. Are they watching our version over there? Was Lucky Seven a game on their version? Or was this girl just paying a lot of attention? ;)

Either way, I found her voice somewhat erotic. And if the comments on the YouTube videos of any Australian user are any indication (here's a nice starting point), I'm not alone, either. There's just something that Americans like about an Australian accent. =P

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And not to be outdone, someone named Abby Jeanette (sp?) pretty much rocked out the second half of the show. One of the best changes they've made in Season 37 (I think it's this season, anyway) is having musical instruments modeled by people who can actually carry a tune. The way Drew Carey mentions them makes them sound like they're employees of the companies that make the instruments, but are they really? Or are they CEO's or local musicians? I know one IUFB that featured Daisy Rock guitars being modeled by a (presumably) local girl group, and there was that one piano modeled by Mandel Ilagan (probably feeding the stereotype of Asian Americans having strict parents who force their children on the piano in the process). After that, I'm conf00zed. D:

Abby, however, went above and beyond the call of duty, hanging around to shred to the show's main theme for the commerical break and credits, and even do an impromptu number for the Showcase intro. I really liked that! ^^ In a game show full of fans who obsess over its music, sometimes it's nice to give a little bit of fan service every now and then. :D

And there you go. My summary of what was probably the best show in the Drew Carey era so far. Bye for now.

Same Day UPDATE: I just wanted to comment on one thing. Also on YouTube, and other places, every time one of us tries to put on an Australian accent, we get made fun of because we tend to "sound like Steve Irwin, or excessively British", according to the girl in that video. This girl on TPIR sounded like Steve Irwin, I thought! Her accent was pretty strong. So, Australia, how's about a nice hot steaming cup of shut the fuck up? >xD

Seriously, what was with all those different colored slips on today's TPIR episode?

As most of you know, at the end of every IUFB, Drew (previously Bob) holds up a little envelope and pulls out a price tag-shaped card with the actual retail price written on it. He does the same thing for the Showcases and Card Game. Well, today, instead of the plain white (previously yellow) slips that we've all become accustomed to, he instead held up a bunch of slips with different designs on them.

I can't tell for sure, but I think Round 1 had a card with Door #3's design.

Round 2's card looked like the Turntable and had a silver $ on it.

Round 3's slip was plain yellow with a red $.

Round 4 had plain green slips.

Round 5's slips looked like one of the four seats in the front row that the contestants sit in...a yellow $ in a red hexagon with a plain blue background.

And Round 6 had a plain yellow design with red Goodson stars.

The first Showcase had Round 4's design, while the second Showcase had Round 3's.

It was freaky! D:

Oh, and to me, it looked like they were debuting a new pricing game when they played Clock Game. Then, when I saw the game spin around, I thought they were playing it for three prizes. And, is it just me, or did they stop playing it for four-digit prizes?

UPDATE on May 29, 2009: I saw them again. I think this may be a permanent change to the show.

Oh God; what are the Golden Road.net guys gonna say this time!?! >_<

Honestly, that's the only reason I can think of for them issuing a fucking TORNADO WATCH for Franklin County until 6:00 P.M. when there's hardly any rain showers outside, much less a thunderstorm! And, wasn't gradual clearing supposed to be in the forecast? Yeah. :|

This seems to have been a trend for the Blacksburg NWS since April 16, 2007. Pretty coincidental that it's in Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech, huh? xD And, like the university itself, the people there seem to like freaking out over every little thing while still failing to freak out over the big things. Like that Roanoke tornado back in July 2008, for instance. I attend Virginia Western Community College, and the tornado hit Brambleton Ave. (U.S. 221) and went through Towers Mall and down Wonju St. (all areas close to VWCC) before stopping somewhere near Roanoke Memorial Hospital. And no tornado warning was ever issued for that, although tornado warnings were issued for every other county in its trajectory over AN HOUR AFTER THE FACT!!! What a slow, inefficient organization, huh? They're almost like FEMA. xD

As I type this, it's 4:15 P.M., and the watch was issued around 1:30. Also, WSLS's VIPIR doesn't detect much. I don't know about you people, but I think this is gonna be the alert that the NWS got wrong! I know weather forecasting is error-prone, but good God! xD

AUTHOR'S NOTE: For the curious, the watch extends all the way through the southeastern portion of Virginia, including Virginia Beach and possibly including Richmond. You'll have to go to http://www.weather.gov for all of the details. Get it while it's hot! xD

'Bout damn time I found something else to write about! I've been spending the past SIX JOURNALS talking about The Price is Right...sheesh! xD

Anyway, as you might have gathered from the Quote of the Day at the top, this is a special LiveJournal I'm writing: it's in response to a Writer's Block question I found on the front page. And, no, I'm not worried about catching it.

See, I just think that the news media are trying to scare us. They, along with the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control, are trying to make this more of a problem than it actually is.

While you should always assume that there is a general risk of you catching this virus, unless you actually live close to someone who has the virus or in an environment where you have to hang around a lot of sick people, you really don't have much to worry about. And if you do get infected? It's just like normal flu, only there's currently no vaccine for it. So, there's really no problem, then. ^^

Didn't all this bullshit happen with bird flu back in 2006? And what became of that? >xD Finally...between security checkpoints in Roanoke County, inclusive of Roanoke, Salem, and Vinton, WSLS-10's hype of Bryan Lawrence, and that dipshit in Boones Mill who monitors the speed limit on U.S. 220, I get "swine flu" almost every day! xD

So, don't panic, people! It'll all be okay! ^^;

April 16^th was a day the fantards were waiting for. Now, it's our turn.

Tomorrow is a day that REAL Price is Right fans--not those posers at Golden Road.net--have been waiting for: it's Rich Fields's 5^th anniversary as announcer! He became the announcer on April 23, 2004.

A weatherman for KCBS in Los Angeles at the time, Rich first appeared on the show on March 4, 2004 as part of the on-camera tryouts they were doing to replace Rod Roddy. He came in line after fan favorites Burton Richardson and Randy West, as well as the hated Daniel Rosen, who actually trolled Golden Road.net during his run in the auditions. And auditioning with him was Roger Rose, Don Bishop, and Jim Thornton.

At the time, I was favoring Burton Richardson. He seemed to me to be a shoe-in for the job, given the fact that he was seemingly being groomed for the job beginning around Season 30 or so, as well as his stints on the current version of Family Feud and the ill-fated Doug Davidson version of TPIR. So, when Rich got the job, I was all like, "What the fuck!?!"

Fremantle Media made the decision to instate him from completely out of nowhere, which, as evidenced recently with Drew Carey, seems to be a tendency of theirs. And, while I warmed up to him as best as I could, he kinda sorta left a bad taste in my mouth. The fact of the matter is, during his years with Bob Barker, especially during Season 34, he came off as fake to me. He was more like Charlie O' Donnell and Johnny Gilbert. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing on a game show (as those two are pretty good), it's a bad thing on TPIR. Because Rod Roddy (and presumably Johnny Olson, though I've only been watching since 1990 and know nothing of that era) was always shown on camera and even participating in Showcases, he was more of a person. Rich, on the other hand, seemed to be just a voice, like Charlie and Johnny Gilbert.

But now...Rich has gotten better. Although he'll probably never be as good as Rod, he nonetheless is starting to realize his true potential as the third announcer of America's longest-running game show. So, what changed?

The host, that's what. At least, I think so, anyway. As one person on Golden Road.net astutely noted, all three announcers were good at what they did...but, if Johnny and Rich were to switch places, they'd suck major balls! I, personally, just couldn't see Johnny Olson doing the show today, nor could I see Rich doing the show in its early days. Johnny prevailed over a time when the show had a more professional look and a slightly older fanbase. Rich prevails over a more casual atmosphere with energetic college kids (like me). And Rod oversaw both Happy Gilmore and the transition it ensued, which is why I think Rich will never surpass him (and, by extension, yeah, I just implied that Rod > Johnny! xD). Bob Barker, of course, never changed his style to match this. IMO, that made Rich and Bob incompatible with each other. An announcer made for the younger generation was being paired with a host made for the older generation...I don't think that would have gone very well.

But now, now that Drew is the host, and Drew is made for the younger generation, Rich has really blossomed into quite the professional announcer, hasn't he? ^^ The fact that Fremantle Media no longer fears Bob and Roger Dobkowitz and is making changes that wouldn't have flown by them, coupled with R. Brian DiPirro bringing back classic camera shots, doesn't really hurt Rich's case, either. Now, to me, he feels like a person and not just a voice. I bet Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy would've been proud! :D


^^^^^Here's to Rich! (uncorks wine bottle)