I’ll be honest, my only real exposure to Dance Dance Revolution was watching some kids hop around on a display version at the Toys R Us in Times Square.  I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but it seemed vaguely Japanese and people seemed to be enjoying it.

Anyways, that being said, this video warrants one viewing as Ronald McDonald’s attempts at Dance Dance Revolution are humorous and deeply disturbing.  Watch it more than once though, and you risk permanent damage to your good taste and sensibility.

In our never-ending quest to take over the universe we have scoured the Internet to come up with as many viable marketing options as we can.  What we’ve discovered is that there are many, many dodgy things out there, really to the surprise of no one.  People promising you they can make your website #1 in Google searches, programs that will let you post multiple ads to Craigslist, while masking your IP address and changing the wording just enough to get past their filters.  Marketing by itself makes me feel dirty enough, but I felt like I needed a shower after reading some of these suggestions.

One thing that did show genuine promise was the idea of setting up a company page on Facebook.  Now, most of you have heard of Facebook, the other (as opposed to Myspace) social networking site where you can create a profile and set up a network of friends who will then have visibility to the updates you make to your profile. 

I was never a big fan of Myspace, couldn’t really get into it, the search sucked and there were too many pictures of 14 year-olds getting drunk.  I am a big fan of Facebook though.  I wasn’t at first, but the wife dragged me into it and so far I’ve managed to reconnect with a bunch of friends from high school and college, which is super-cool.  My only complaint is that not enough of my friends are on there yet so I’m close to becoming that annoying prat that sends out the automated invitation emails just to get a couple more of them to join.

So how does all of this tie to marketing the Geek Bouteek, you might ask.  Well, as of November Facebook now allows you to create pages for your business and then promote them to your friends and apparently buy advertising that will direct people to your business’s Facebook page/website.  Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot you can do on the pages yet, but it is a good way to get the word out and increase the visibility of your site.  At least, we hope it is.

So today we set up the official Facebook page for the Geek Bouteek, you can check it out here.  There’s not a whole lot there yet, but come back often, as we will be working on sprucing it up a bit with some photos and other stuff.  Oh, and please become a fan of the Geek Bouteek, because we need fans.

And if you don’t have your own Facebook account yet, stop reading this blog and create one.  Seriously, there are people looking for you and they can’t find you.  And they’re very worried.    

I know, I know, the movie came out over a year and a half ago, so why on earth am I’m writing anything about it (unless, of course, it’s to start another rumor about whether Brandon Routh will/will not continue on as the Man of Steel). Well, the short answer is, it’s my blog and that’s what I feel like doing. Sorry.

So back in 2005 I was out at the San Diego ComicCon and sat in on a panel in which Bryan Singer premiered footage from the new Superman movie that he was filming. Now, I’m not at all a Superman fan, the character just doesn’t do it for me. But when I got a glimpse of the movie that Singer was putting together, maybe it was the buzz from getting to see something before anyone else, but I couldn’t wait for the movie to come out. Unfortunately, there was an entire year until it actually did come out, and by then my buzz had worn off and I just wasn’t that excited to see it, especially when the reaction from all of my geek friends ranged from anger to apathy.

And now that I’ve seen the movie I can totally understand their reaction (I’m also happy I didn’t spend the $30 it would have cost to take the family to see it). But that being said, I think I actually enjoyed the movie. Brandon Routh is an excellent Superman, he totally nails the part, but I couldn’t really buy Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. The whole story revolving around Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor was often amusing, although not intentionally so, as his plans for creating a new continent from crystals he stole from the Fortress of Solitude were absolutely absurd.

(Possible spoilers ahead for the two people who haven’t seen this movie yet).

Now there are a whole lot of things in the movie that really push how far you’ll suspend your disbelief, but it’s a comic book movie and that’s what it’s supposed to do. Unfortunately it’s not really an action movie in that Superman doesn’t really do much more than fly around and either catch people who are falling or prevent things from falling on people. And then he throws Kevin Spacey’s newly built continent into space. Seriously. Oh, and apparently he’s the father of Lois Lane’s kid, which sets up a wonderful plotline for the next movie where Superman gets to tear Lois’ family apart.

Now, that might sound overly negative, but I actually liked the movie. Not enough to watch it again, mind you, but enough to actually watch the whole thing the first time.

Which is saying something for a movie based on a DC franchise.

Seeing that we’re trying to launch an online t-shirt store, I’ve been researching ways to market the Bouteek online, and one of the things that I came across (well, was actually suggested to me) was to create something called a ”lens” on a site called Squidoo.

Now, getting past the ridiculous name, I went ahead and did just that (you can check it out here).  Threw some stuff up, pulled in the RSS feed from this blog, nothing too fancy.

Now I have no idea what this is going to get me in terms of hits or visitors, I have no gauge of how many people actually go to that site and poke around looking for other sites (isn’t that what Google is for?), but it can’t hurt, or at least I hope it can’t hurt.

And if you’re feeling adventurous, check it out and let me know what you think. 

Oh, and we sold our second shirt, woohoo! 

At this rate I can retire right before the Sun explodes.

Which was really all about figuring out the triplets in Knights of Cydonia, I actually pretty much breezed through the rest of the songs.  Which made me feel pretty good, until…

Then my eight year old reminded me that he had beaten medium about a week earlier…

And then I saw this video of some nine year old shredding the hell out of the last song of the game on expert, which is disturbing for all sorts of reasons.  I mean, seriously, I can’t even remember what I was doing when I was nine, but it sure as hell wasn’t anything that coordinated.

Just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and even though this book’s been around for almost a year and a half, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and has even been selected for Oprah’s book club (prompting the famously-reclusive McCarthy to give his first ever TV interview), I just wanted to share my thoughts on it before the residue from the experience of reading it leaves me.

This is a powerful, bleak and ultimately beautiful book that, if you really let the words reach you, it will stay with you for some time after you’ve turn the last page.  McCarthy’s prose, always sparse, here transforms into poetry as he describes the barren and lifeless landscapes and the trials faced by the protagonists.

For those who don’t know the plot, it’s the story of a journey taken by a man and his son across a post-apocalyptic America where there’s no life left outside the roving band of cannibals and occasional refugee.  The cause of the devastation is never revealed, and it’s really not important to the story.  What is important is the bond shared by the father and son in spite of the absolute hopelessness of their situation.  Throughout their miserable trek the father does everything and anything he can to protect his son and keep him alive against all odds, evading capture, scavenging for food and shelter and always pushing onwards.  Having a young son myself, I was particularly touched by this and could not help but identify with the father’s plight as he struggled to provide for his son.

This is not a long book and if you can stand reading something that is brutal and hopeless yet ultimately beautiful, then I can’t recommend it enough.  It is one of those things that you won’t be able to easily get out of your head.

So when I finally convinced the wife to allow me to get a Playstation 3, it was largely under the premise that it was also an High-Def DVD player to go along with our shiny new LCD TV.  Of course, we were smack dab in the middle of the format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and no one really knew which way it was going to go, so it made me a little nervous that the whole thing would blow up in six months.

There have been some big developments recently in the whole Format War between Toshiba (HD-DVD) and Sony (Blu-Ray), with it looking like Sony might actually pull it out, which in turn will make the Playstation 3 all the more popular because you’ll be getting an HD DVD player and a kick-ass video game system.  Which makes me even happier that I got one.

Check out this article on Gizmodo if you want more details on the whole situation, but it’s looking pretty good for Sony right now. 

I like Brett Favre, I really do.  I hope he comes back next year, and if the Giants (God forbid) regress a little, I’ll be rooting for him to make it back to the Super Bowl one last time before he retires.

That being said, there was no measure of how badly I wanted to the Giants to knock out the Packers last night in Lambeau field.  And in sub-zero temperatures the Giants continued to prove their mettle as the ultimate road warriors and won in absolutely dramatic fashion to advance to the Super Bowl.  A fantastic game, second aor third greatest Giants game I’ve ever seen. 

And now we move on to Glendale, Arizona.

To face the juggernaut of the Patriots.

In two weeks.

I still can’t believe it’s true.  I honestly can’t.

When the winning field finally cleared the uprights, me and the kid were jumping up and down, hugging in celebration, proudly wearing our Giants jerseys.  I told him “Don’t forget this game, they don’t happen very often” and he promised me he wouldn’t.

And so somehow, after Tiki Barber took his ball and went home and Jeremy Shockey broke his leg, the Giants, led by Eli Manning, have come together and have won three straight road playoff games, avenging two early season losses, to advance to the Super Bowl, where they will be the last obstacle to the Patriots completing a perfect season.

If you’re a sports fan, you know how few and far between these sorts of moments are, when your team comes out of nowhere and goes on one of those magical runs in the playoffs.  And all you can do is hold on and enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts.

GO GIANTS!

Alright, I stumbled across this while looking at some t-shirt-related blogs, one link led to another and the next thing I know I’m answering questions regarding my geekiness.  Figured it might be a good way to justify why I’m spending so much time and energy trying to sell these damn geeky tees.

Check it out, though, it’s worth a good 4-5 minutes diversion, especially if you’re at work and really don’t feel like doing anything.

81% Geek

Here’s some news that we’ve all been waiting for (although, for some of us older gamers, it’s a bit too late), but WIRED magazine reports that playing the Wii can make you a better surgeon.

You know what this means, right?

The next time anyone gives you guff for playing so many games, you just tell them you’re studying to be a doctor.

Although, I might have to question the credibility of this information in this article, since it specifically mentions Super Monkey Ball as one of the games the surgeons played, and in all honesty, if you are voluntarily playing that game you must not have been a very good surgeon to begin with.