Who would have thought that a story revolving around the last surviving panda in a post-apocalyptic world would be so epic? Apparently, the appropriately named Epic Films did.
Wastelander Panda is a television series in development, and if this prologue is any indication of what the final product will be, I can’t wait to see it!
One by one, sites across the whole internet are going dark in protest of two US Bills, PIPA and SOPA, which will essentially give the US entertainment industry the power to censor entire websites, remove them from search engines, and cripple their revenue for hosting copyrighted content (even the music playing in the background of your latest vacation video) or just not doing a good enough of job at blocking copyrighted content (say goodbye to YouTube). If you think that’s good for us, ask yourself what “a good enough of job at blocking copyrighted content” means to you, then ask if you think a judge would feel the same way. Can’t guarantee an answer? That’s the problem with PIPA and SOPA. They put the wrong power in the wrong hands.
This blog will be going dark along with many other sites from 8am to 8pm EST in what should hopefully be a powerful representation of what the future of the censored web could look like. If you want a taste now, head on over to Wikipedia, WordPress.com, or WordPress.org.
Take a minute to tell Congress that you won’t stand for such ridiculous actions. There are better ways to stop piracy than censoring one of the largest venues to freedom of speech that the world has ever known. If you have a WordPress.com blog, you can easily join the protest, and self-hosted WordPress.org bloggers can grab a plugin to join in as well.
If you want to know more about PIPA and SOPA, watch the video below.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 16,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
My postman noticed this next to my door today. Very cool. 
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the environment and nature, so every year I like to split up the bulk of my charitable donations between two conservation charities; The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy. This year, however, I am dumping all of that into The Conservation Fund and bypassing The Nature Conservancy. The answer to why is one simple question. How is your charity spending your money?
Last year, I made an honest mistake and forgot to donate to both charities. Since then, I have received one mailer, gift, and/or magazine each week from The Nature Conservancy asking me to donate again. By my calculations, the costs of printing, labor, and mailing this year have far exceeded what I donated in the past. In short, everything that I have donated to The Nature Conservancy has been spend trying to get me to donate again. Why should I donate to an organization that spends so much on something other than its core purpose?
To put it plainly, The Conservation Fund does not do that. All I have ever received from them has been a donation receipt at the end of the tax year with a nice little letter about the fund’s progress, and a biannual brochure about some of the fund’s ongoing projects. When I forgot to donate last year, I simply received nothing. In fact, The Conservation Fund only devotes 1% of their budget to fundraising and 2% to administration and other costs. That leaves 97% of their budget to the core purpose that you really care about. This is no doubt why Charity Navigator has awarded The Conservation Fund its top rating for the past 6 years, a rating held by only 4% of the charities they track.
From now on, I’ll make sure that my money only goes to charities that will ensure the majority of my donation is used towards the programs that I intended to fund in the first place.
So, last night I was doing research into bands that perform in character and stumbled across The Protomen. Long story short, I found my new favorite group.
To quote lead vocalist Panther, “At the time, we noticed a void in rock and roll. A hole that could only really be filled with grown men and women painting up like robots and playing some fierce and furious rock music based on a 1980s video game. We were fairly certain no one else was going to fill that hole. But, by god, it’s filled now. You can thank us later.”
Basically, they do rock operas based on the Mega Man series. Their style is very diverse, but somehow seems to meet every style that I like. This is The State vs. Thomas Light from Act 2: The Father of Death, which chronicles Dr. Wily’s rise to power. Excerpts from their latest album and a free download can be found at their site, and it can be purchased from iTunes and Amazon.
I’m really starting to like Vimeo. It has significantly less content than YouTube, but it’s like this little treasure trove for some of the best videos on the web without all of that junk you see everywhere else.
Along those lines, here’s Address is Approximate, a Google Street View stop motion adventure from Tom Jenkins.
