Favorite Q & A sites

When wanting to ask questions of me or anybody else, there are 3 places that I use and to some extent recommend.  However each of them have their caveats as I will discuss here.

 

First up is formspring.me .

 

This is one of the oldest of the Q & A websites out there.  Recently it was almost shut down, but it was saved by a new owner who claims they want to improve it.  However, I have seen really no improvement in the last month.  Occasionally, I will get a question in my inbox, but it is extremely rare now.  This site doesn’t seem to get as much action as it used to, but is occasionally fun.  You can follow me at http://www.formspring.me/louisbrownusa

 

Next is youreply.net

 

This site claims to be the new Formspring; at least that was their original slogan.  While this site is not nearly as pretty as Formspring, it is functional to an extent.  Instead of asking questions on a more private level, this site allows for public questions.  Unfortunately, this list of questions is long with a long list of answers following each one.  It would be best if the questions were somehow grouped together by a date lookup.  Only plus side to this is that if somebody replies to your answer, you get a notification.  Since signing up, I am following about 2 people and have really no followers of my own.  However if you want to change that go to http://youreply.net/user/LouisBrown and follow me.  I really would appreciate it.

 

Lastly is meetme.com

 

This site was originally called the less meaningful name of myyearbook.com.  It should be obvious that this was not in any way a yearbook site.  However, this site seems to be home to more creepiness than any of the other sites.  While this site has a Q & A section where I have received some of the oddest questions, it also has a secret admirer section and even creepier profile viewer section that others can view your profile and then you receive an email showing you the person.  So far, it seems that the only thing I have attracted here are older women and gay men, neither of which I am interested in becoming socially intimate with.  Certainly this site has a lot to offer, but like Facebook has some very dangerous parts as well if one is not careful.  You can follow me here at http://www.meetme.com/member/30320477

 

So how do I rate all of these sites?  Unfortunately none are perfect and all have serious flaws.  I will give each of them a grade of 7 with a caution as all of them have serious issues that keep them from being perfect.

 

Stay safe on these sites and have fun.

When Nick Stars and Late Night Clash

Last week, two of Nickelodeon’s cast members clashed with late night programming.  One had a less than desirable result, the other was barely palatable.  Let’s start with the better of the two first.

iCarly

Last Saturday night, Nick ran the premiere episode of the fifth and final shortened season of iCarly.  The episode titled “iShook America” was full of flaws, not just the desired one.  First thing to point out was that this show focused on the gang going to appear on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon“.  If your child doesn’t know who he is, then I would recommend not bothering watching this episode as it won’t be understood very well by the intended audience.  Since the show runs after midnight, it is unexpected that the core audience of iCarly would even know who he is.

This was only the beginning of the problems with this episode.  Among other flaws include:

• Late night shows are NEVER aired live so Gibby’s wardrobe malfunction would have been edited out.  The dancing sequence wasn’t even funny anyway.  A funnier one would have been the gang do the beer pong segment.  Nothing would have been funnier than seeing a drunken Gibby stumble throughout New York City.
• Seattle, hometown of the iCarly gang, would have been dark because the show is on late at night and even being on the west coast it would still be dark outside.
• The solicitation of money was used in an earlier episode from 4 years ago (“iOwe You“) and the solicitation was illegal then.  How did it all of a sudden get to be legal?  Sounds like a lack of knowing your previous story lines and the lack of writers checking their facts from the older episodes.

Sadly, this episode was so full of holes and inconsistencies that the show really wasn’t all that enjoyable or funny.  It appears that as the show heads to its quick exit, it wants guest stars on it as opposed to getting the facts right.

I am giving this show 3 ratings:

Rating for children: 4.  Might be enjoyable, but many jokes will fall silent on those under 16.

Rating for adults/general public:  7.  Adults may get the jokes, but will find inconsistencies in the show.

Raring for Jimmy Fallon fans: 9.  Fans will get the jokes and in-studio humor, but be irritated by the inconsistencies.

 

Victoria Justice on Chelsea Lately

What happens when the sweetest girl meets up with Ms. Late Night Potty-mouth?  A cringe-worthy performance that would make any Victoria fan even look away.

One would think that this show would lighten up the sexual humor for one episode.  Not so.  The opening act included the cast reading from Cosmopolitan magazine about female breasts.  Not only was this not funny, but it was sort of disgusting as well.

Let me say that I don’t watch Chelsea Lately with any consistency and it is quite obvious why.  Just one episode can be enough cringe-worthy material to keep anybody from watching more than occasionally.

Needless to say that the interview with Victoria Justice went no better.  It started with a giggly segment discussing parts of the female breast and went pretty much downhill from there.  If you have ever seen one Victoria interview, you have all ready seen everything that this one had to offer.  To make matters worse for poor Victoria was that she was wearing a nearly see-through top that made me wonder if something X-rated was going to happen after the show ended.  After all, Victoria is 19 and certainly free to do what she wants now in life.

Sadly these two appear in the forthcoming movie “Fun Size” as mother and daughter.  This movie, which comes out at the end of the month, does not yet have a rating as of this writing.  I predict that the rating will be PG-13 as opposed to the more family friendly PG.  The reason I am believing this is that Potty-Mouth Chelsea is in the movie and some movies get ratings based upon who is in it as opposed to its content.  If you don’t believe that, just check some actors and see their consistency with certain ratings.  It could be that the MPAA is lazy or just overwhelmed by the number of movies it has to rate.

This half hour show could not end soon enough as my appreciation of Victoria dropped a notch at least temporarily after this appearance.  I can still feel my eyes and ears bleeding after this show even after a week.  It took me that long to get over this horrible episode.

My Rating:  1. (2 if you are a daredevil).  The “eww-factor” is way too great to sit through this horrible episode no matter what.

 

Bottom Line

Neither show is worth watching and just proves you cannot mix a kid’s network with late night programming.  It just doesn’t work at all.    Now excuse me as I continue to flush out my eyes and ears of everything Chelsea.