MH4H

Mike Hart for Heisman. Just thought I'd throw some school spirit in this morning. Show him some love and visit Hart4Heisman.



17 Seconds in. Made for TV run.

MH4H. Repping NY hard.

Enough Said.

That is all

-y

Myspacification

Once considered to be a passing fad among the likes of Pogs, trick yo-yo's and pet rocks, the internet startup has once again retaken and stirred public interest. Piggybacking on the hype of buzzwords such as Web 2.0 and "social networking," sites such as MySpace and Facebook have received many new devoted users, created a new form of online procrastination and have drawn the interest of potential investors. The Wall Street Journal recently valued Facebook at 15 billion dollars based largely in part to the number of people who are exposed to Facebook and the number of people who will eventually be exposed to Facebook.

This is an interesting turn of events because while MySpace has already been bought out by Rupert Murdoch for what now seems like a bargain at $580 million dollars, Facebook has yet to be overtaken by a larger entity. An interesting dissertation by Danah Boyd (2007), "Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace" which can be read here states how Facebook and Myspace creates a dichotomy of users with MySpace dominating younger and lower income individuals and Facebook dominating the college aged and higher income individuals. She uses the tools of ethnography and social anthropology to gather her research:

For example, I have analyzed over 10,000 MySpace profiles, clocked over 2000 hours surfing and observing what happens on MySpace, and formally interviewed 90 teens in 7 states with a variety of different backgrounds and demographics. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. I ride buses to observe teens; I hang out at fast food joints and malls. I talk to parents, teachers, marketers, politicians, pastors, and technology creators. I read, I observe, I document.

I for one have not logged nearly as much research and do not have a MySpace page but am partial to believing her thesis and her theory. Nearly every musician whether up and coming, established, or a bona fide superstar promotes and advertises themselves through a MySpace page. Politicians are much more likely to create a Facebook page before they are to venture into MySpace's domain. The advertisements that grace the homepage of Facebook usually have more to do with credit cards, student loans, and car advertisements than they do with music, pop culture, and celebrity gossip.

I do believe however, that even though Facebook has not been bought out by a larger corporate interest yet, that Facebook is going down the slippery slope that MySpace has already traversed. Whether or not this perpetuates or debunks Boyd's theory on class division among social networking users, it will, if it has not already, create a lowest denominator product that will result in much less networking and will devalue the utility of social networking sites. I am not saying that Facebook should be elitist, far from it, but there are certain boundaries that restrict the usefulness and usability of MySpace and Facebook that allows them to be where they are today.

In general as many teachers have said before: KISS (keep it simple stupid).

MySpace has always allowed for users to add their own pictures, music, videos, and anything other code that their users could cut and paste from others' sites and embed into their own. Although this grants much freedom of expression, autonomy and creativity, it also creates pages where users have to scroll over four pages because the user did not know how to scale his image correctly and white font on yellow backgrounds.

Although user generated content is great and adding new applications to Facebook was a cool and fun new thing to experiment with, the unnecessary cluttering of what was once a clean and minimalistic approach is more a detriment than a benefit. I do not need to know who your "Top Friends", "Where You've Been", your "Political Compass", "Who Sent you a Drink" and "What Level Ninja or Pirate" you are because to be honest, it shouldn't matter. Is it necessary to start the Myspacification of Facebook just because in order to be "innovative" you must continue to add stuff to your site? I just really hope Facebook remembers that it is a social networking site, and should remain so.

That is all
-y

Q & A

Since it's almost time for those exams that we all love and anticipate, I decided that I'd post some potential answers to some thought provoking questions to get us all in the test taking mood. Enjoy. I will actually post something that doesn't require just posting images in the future once I get better ideas and actually take time to update this blog.


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That is all
-y

Some Cartoons I Drew

So for various reasons I haven't really updated this thing in a while so I decided to just upload a few of the cartoons that I have recently drawn for the Michigan Daily (most of which have been published or will soon be). I hope you enjoy and if not give me better ideas. I'll give you credit too.

-y

WYMAN KHUU!!! Crank Dat Soulja Boy

So if you have spent any time anywhere near my new ring tone, listened to any hip hop and R&B station, or have watched multiple grown and not so grown folk break out into synchronized chanting and a dance step that involves breast stroking and pretending to be the man of steel, then you have probably heard the song, "Crank Dat," by Soulja Boy. The chorus goes something like this:

Soulja Boy Off In This Hoe
Watch Me Crank It
Watch Me Roll
Watch Me Crank Dat Soulja Boy
Then Super Man Dat Hoe
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja Boy)
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja Boy)
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja Boy)
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja Boy)

Now, how does this song warrant a blog post you ask? Well first off, since Soulja Boy slurs his words to the point of incomprehension, the line "Now Watch Me Do!" sounds like "Wyman Khuu!" which because it is my name makes it an awesome song. Secondly, the song has triggered a series of YouTube spinoffs that only add to the entertainment value of the song. Lastly, it comes packaged with a dance that is longer than one repeated gesture, ala the "Making it Rain" move, or the "Young Joc it's going down move."

I ignore the fact that the song makes no sense, probably took 10 minutes to record, is basically 4 lines repeated on loop as you all should as well. Now peep the videos below and laugh and Barney's gangster and CRANK DAT SOULJA BOY!!!

Sponge Bob cranking dat soulja boy


Barney cranking dat soulja boy

Take note of the Asian kid yelling over and over again to crank dat soulja boy.

Winnie the Pooh cranking dat soulja boy


Lion King cranking dat soulja boy


Family Guy cranking dat soulja boy


That is all

-ydollar

U S of A

So according to a poll (insert drum roll) 1 out of every 5 Americans is unable to locate the United States on a map. As ludicrous and unbelievable as that statistic may be - and I hope it is - even if the statistic was lets say... 1 out of every 205 Americans is unable to find America on a map, it is still equally embarrassing.

This is what one of the fine young women who has the honor of representing the fine state of South Carolina believes is a possible solution for the geographic catastrophe:



First off. Although it is very very very tempting, so tempting it warrants the three very's that precede it, to use this video as a segue for blond jokes, I will refrain for now.

Secondly this is absolutely brilliant. Not only is she a great social anthropologist and capable of noticing the utterly shocking fact that there is a serious shortage of cartographic images in America, but she is also a wonderful philanthropist who wants to extend her love to both Iraq and South Africa (twice). Not to mention, she also managed to work the phrase "build up our future for the children," into her answer. Brilliance I tell you. She is a both a wonderful representation of the state of South Carolina and of the United States education system.

You know what the scariest thing about this is... as of the time of this post, 9.5 million people have watched this video and 1 in 5... you do the math.

After reviewing all of this, and thinking about the problem at hand I have to ask: Where oh where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Is it a coincidence that ever since Carmen and her entourage, "A Capella" have left the air, that one in five Americans cannot find America on a map let alone a spinning globe? I think not. I am utterly confident that she will be able to fill the void of geographic knowledge that a fifth of America supposedly has. She also has a catchy theme song. There is however, an underlying problem. If Carmen Sandiego is hiding in America, how are the geographically challenged ever going to find her? The world may never know; but they can sure laugh at us while we figure it out.



Once we master this game we can move on to such bigger and better things such as...
"Where in the Universe (gasp!) is Carmen Sandiego"

So... A dumb blond was bragging about her knowledge of the state capitals of the United States. She proudly announced, " go ahead, ask me any of the capitals, I know them all!"

So I ask, "So what's the capital of Wyoming?"

The Blond replies, "Oh, that's easy, 'W'."

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

PS: For those who want a rather obsessive and simple geographic lesson in humility I recommend trying Geo Sense. It's a site that will show just how little you know about Central and South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asian countries that are not China, South Korea, Japan, or India. It's a site that will also conjure up such thoughts as "Madagascar? I know it's an animated movie, and it sounds African."

That is all

-ydollar

T's

Dem Franchize Boyz brought the "White T"along with purposeful misspellings of easy words to the masses. Who doesn't like an over sized clean pressed white t-shirt with the space meant for shoulders reaching down to the middle of your bicep? I sure like them. As long as they're not venturing towards night gown territory, White T's are "A okay" with me. Crisp white T = Class.



The hipsters, the East Village and the Urban Outfitters of the world however, have brought the graphic t-shirt into the forefront of American fashion. If you play the role of social sociologist and engage in enough people watching, you're sure to run into a set of t-shirts that repeat over and over again. MC Escher style. These types of T-shirts usually have novelty, are quite amusing for shorts periods of time and sometimes even invoke some type of response from others. They also fit into a few taxonomic groups and are available at the aforementioned Urban Outfitters or places that are equally "trendy":

Cultural icons that are before your time type of T-shirts: These include but are not exclusive to all the stuff that appears on VH1 specials such as I Love the 90's, I Love the 80's, I Love the 70's.... I Love How VH1 Loves the specials they make on each decade. Things people used to care about, and I guess kind of care about now, eh.... but really probably don't care about. They play to nostalgia, and memories of yesteryear or for some even pre-yesteryear. These include T-shirts that have logos such as Care Bears, Reese's peanut butter cups, Pacman, Nintendo...etc:

The "Everyone loves an [insert ethnic, religious, or racial group] shirts": They usually are worn by people who are of a certain ethnic, religious or racial group and refer to people of the same ethnic, religious or racial group. For example, if an Asian kid wore an "everyone loves an Asian girl" t-shirt, it would go over with people fine. If Kobe decided to wear an "everyone loves a white girl shirt," that would be a bad look.

The shirt that uses a geographic location, usually a state or obscure city name in some type of pun shirt: For example, "Getting lucky in Kentucky." Yes, they may originally be quite amusing, but the amusingness level deteriorates after lets say...3 minutes. These are the shirts that cause eye rolling.


The this shirt has a lot of obscure and abstract diagonals, curves, lines, circles, and intricate patterns that make it look quite expensive type of shirt because it probably is inexplicably expensive shirt: It probably is also very expensive. It also brings a lot of attention to the person wearing it. It usually is one size too small. Sometimes two. Kangol hats and silver chains are also highly recommended if you wear the aforementioned shirt type. It really makes other people ask why anybody would wear a shirt with so much flash, and so much going on. The biggest offenders are probably Armani Exchange and Guess.


Then there is this shirt:


Words cannot really describe this. Some might say this is hilarious, including myself...but I'll let you decide.

That is all.

-y