Ryan Trembath (dot) Information

You may have noticed the make your own Simpson’s character fad courtesy of the the Simpson’s Movie page. Guess who’s on the bandwagon?!

Go give it a try. It’s easy to use and walks you through what to do with the picture once it’s generated.

I saw the movie last night at the cheap seats. Since it’s probably been 6 years since I actively tried to watch an episode of the show it was good to see everyone still kicking.

My friend called it “mediocre” but I thought it was pretty funny. There was quite a few little throwbacks to episodes for the Simpson’s geeks out there. What do you want?!

Yeah, this is normally more tech/music oriented, but lets file this post under “Branding”.

My friend Maria was in town a few weeks ago. It was late, we were hungry and the local 222 line put me on hold.

What to do?

I figured I’d help Maria get the most out her Winnipeg experience and indulge in a Porno Pizza, the latest international pizza phenomena.

I called the number, ordered a 2 topping large pizza, and was told it would get to us around an hour.

Let the waiting begin.

Pizza Arrives

Pizza arrives just over an hour after we order. Not sure how long the pizza actually took, the ringer on the apartment phone was off. An annoyed delivery driver called my cell phone to let us know she was out front.

Hot sauce…check. Ranch dressing (for dipping)…check. Greasy porno? I guess we’ll have to seek it out!

Bring Your Pizza Cutter

Business was so busy they couldn’t cut the pizza enough, or they just don’t care. I put Maria in charge of cutting. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad job after all.

What the hey?

What’s this under the pizza? Maria is confused.

Fluffer!?;

The pizza action was cooling down, so I decided to heat things back up. Burnt my hand pulling it out of the stove. HOT ACTION!

There she is

Finally some porn.

They made up for our vegetarian ways by giving us more meat in the picture. Two guys, one girl, many greasy stains.

The picture itself looks like it was laser printed off the internet. A chemical bond between the printer ink and the wax paper under the pizza has formed making the picture scuzzier then it was initially.

How the pizza sliced - Ratings out of 5

Pizza - 1.5
Price is a big factor here. We could have gotten 2 bigger pizza’s from the hotline and tipped the guy 5 bucks instead of this. Wasn’t sliced, was cold and 3 slices made my hungry tummy turn.

Porno - 2.5
I would give the porno three X’s (XXX). It was pretty hardcore. Grease stains don’t turn me on.

Overall, this is a novelty. It’s staying power is questionable, but it might survive on the fact that Winnipeg is a tits and ass town and they’re open until 5 AM. Personally, I wouldn’t waste $25 bucks again, but it’s off my list of things I didn’t know I wanted to try.

In case you were wondering, Maria and her room mate ate the remaining pizza the next day and felt ill. I’m sure the pizza people would say she was hung over.

I just saw this on Soxiam Wiki. I’m not sure whether this is a genius tongue in cheek video campaign or a complete disaster. I personally couldn’t watch the whole thing, but give it your best.

I went and saw the White Stripes Monday night. I’m unsure who opened the show, a branding battle between two local stations brought the opportunity to see American Flamewhip play on a rooftop across from the arena.

Apparently FREQ 107 wanted to sponsor the show and didn’t get the chance, so they put their own band on and said FREQ 107 into the mic a lot. Sock it to ‘em!

The White Stripes rocked! I surprised how well their songs come off with so little instrumentation. There were microphones all over the stage so Jack to run around and never miss a cue.

Why should you ride the bus when the White Stripes are your town? Check out this clip from right here in Winnipeg, Monday afternoon.

There aren’t too many “big” bands that would take the time to do this. True to how rock shows should be, I’m a bigger fan having seen them play live.

I am a Willie Nelson fan. His laid back, spanish-country guitar style has always impressed me and I truly respect him as a musician and a songwriter.

So, for mother’s day 2007 I got us both a gift; floor seats to yesterday’s Willie & the family show.

It truly was a family affair all around. Willie’s sons (40 points) opened the show and played in his backing band. I, along with other fans and families cheered the band through a steady flow of country favorites.

Admittedly, Willie’s voice isn’t what it used to be, but his personal charm and connection with his guitar made for a memorable musical experience.

As a momento of the night, I paid $25 ($20 of which I borrowed, thanks Mom) for this wonderful bracelet.

But this ain’t no live strong action, it’s a USB device containing a 160kbs mp3 of the show!

The recording was done as a live, 2 track mix off the board by a California company called Aderra. I had a chance to talk with the guy doing the recording and though his business card identified him as Edward, company president, I didn’t get a chance to confirm his identity. The show started while we were talking.

This is an AMAZING concept! Edward told me the biggest problem he’d encountered thus far was having enough bracelets ready at the end of the show & he was right. The line-up was lengthy and one batch was gone before I got to the front of the line.

If you’re still reading think on these:

1. Consumers want a physical product, but is it really a CD?
2. Willie Nelson Rules

My blog looks so bare, where’s all the ads? As a user I’m sure you’re thinking “Am I on the internet?”

Since ads make the world go round, I’ve decided to help keep your online experience consistent and find an ad company to push “relevant contextual advertising” to you, the viewer. The search begins!

You’re welcome

I was looking for an inspiring background using the TPC method:

1. Type keyword.
2. Press ‘images’
3. Choose Killer Background.

Where’s the images button?

Buttons? On the left?

That’s not how it works!

Dear Google,

I am an avid user of your service and now I’m skewing the A/B page test results by blogging instead of searching! The stream is drying up! the ads are getting cold! the design is no good!

oh wait…

Google stock is over $460/share.

This IS NOT a bubble people.

I’m going to go AJAX my mouth for speculating and lay down for a bit.

I’m still trying to get my new soft phone up and running. The firewall built in to my DSL modem causes it to lag, drop calls and, in one instance, call me back 30 minutes later to freeze my computer.

Collin, my tech support friend at the VOIP company established that I need to open a port on my connection for the phone to use. Unfortunately “the instant help pages” MTS supplies are almost completely useless and the information I did finally manage to find didn’t solve my problem.

I tried calling this one in, but the customer service is worse than the ad campaigns.

After waiting 30 minutes on hold I was questioning if my call really was as important as the robot voice kept telling me it was. Of course, it was prime time, and since I’m not a bundled subscriber I was paying for every minute.

On side note: What’s the deal with talking animals pushing wireless service?

Telus - bunny’s and birds
MTS - bison
Fido - Dogs

If anyone can point me to the market report these guys are sharing I’d like to read it.