What an uneventful and frustrating end to the search for Robocop. I just got off the phone with Jessica K. who I asked to call Robocop's mom for me, and it looks like Robocop is still out on the east coast and will not be back for spring break.
Robocop is with his cousins and checking out their small business because he wants a change.
As for why his phone has been off, his mom suspects that there is a problem with his charger.
Thanks Robocop for being a complete bitch and making everyone wonder where you are. Not to mention the fact that none us have talked to you yet.
-muffinman
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Robocop, where the fuck are you?!
Two weeks ago, I was looking on Robocop's facebook wall and saw Jennie's wall post:
"...your phone has been off for the past week. i sense a relapse into old Robocop. i'm planning spring break plans and i'm thinking of going home, but all my returning flights to boston are around 11:30PM. The commuter rail back to providence stops so i'm kinda stranded. can you take me in sat night?"
Interested and somewhat concerned, I called Robocop and sure enough his phone was off. I kept trying for the next week and every single time I went straight to voice mail.
Flash forward now to today, my first day of spring break. At noon I called Robocop's house phone but I just got the beep every time and after just one ring. I vaguely remembered that this was normal so I did not think much of it.
Later, I decide to head over to his house, because nothing solves a missing person case like a surprise visit to their home. Imagine my surprise when I pull up to Robocop's house and see a sold sign on his lawn. The feeling of WHAT THE FUCK only increased when I called his house phone again and this time listened to the message past the beep, "the number you have called has been disconnected." After hearing that I could not help but yell out a loud "WHAT" in disbelief.
A group of neighbors were on the sidewalk and I approached them trying to make sense of what was going on. Turns out the house was sold last month, which was even more of a shocker. One of the neighbors offered to give Robocop's father a call to find out where he was, so I gave the neighbor my number and left.
Terribly confused and trying to wrap my mind around the situation, I went over to my friend Eric's house. He was chatting with Emoinacloset when I arrived. After hearing from me on facebook that Robocop's house had been sold, Emoinacloset immediately stalked out Robocop's sister's facebook and from the posts that he read, it looks like Robocop is moving to Saratoga, a town 15 minutes away. Thank god for social networks.
Robocop, where ever the fuck you are hurry up and contact me because I am getting tired of tracking your ass down. The longer and more effort this search takes, the more I am going to beat the shit out of you. You cannot just drop off the face of the earth for 3 plus weeks and move without telling any of your friends.
-muffinman
"...your phone has been off for the past week. i sense a relapse into old Robocop. i'm planning spring break plans and i'm thinking of going home, but all my returning flights to boston are around 11:30PM. The commuter rail back to providence stops so i'm kinda stranded. can you take me in sat night?"
Interested and somewhat concerned, I called Robocop and sure enough his phone was off. I kept trying for the next week and every single time I went straight to voice mail.
Flash forward now to today, my first day of spring break. At noon I called Robocop's house phone but I just got the beep every time and after just one ring. I vaguely remembered that this was normal so I did not think much of it.
Later, I decide to head over to his house, because nothing solves a missing person case like a surprise visit to their home. Imagine my surprise when I pull up to Robocop's house and see a sold sign on his lawn. The feeling of WHAT THE FUCK only increased when I called his house phone again and this time listened to the message past the beep, "the number you have called has been disconnected." After hearing that I could not help but yell out a loud "WHAT" in disbelief.
A group of neighbors were on the sidewalk and I approached them trying to make sense of what was going on. Turns out the house was sold last month, which was even more of a shocker. One of the neighbors offered to give Robocop's father a call to find out where he was, so I gave the neighbor my number and left.
Terribly confused and trying to wrap my mind around the situation, I went over to my friend Eric's house. He was chatting with Emoinacloset when I arrived. After hearing from me on facebook that Robocop's house had been sold, Emoinacloset immediately stalked out Robocop's sister's facebook and from the posts that he read, it looks like Robocop is moving to Saratoga, a town 15 minutes away. Thank god for social networks.
Robocop, where ever the fuck you are hurry up and contact me because I am getting tired of tracking your ass down. The longer and more effort this search takes, the more I am going to beat the shit out of you. You cannot just drop off the face of the earth for 3 plus weeks and move without telling any of your friends.
-muffinman
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I feel vindicated!
The last three weeks of work has been anything but fun. A lack of actual marketing projects and a realization that I really suck at secretarial work has made me dread going to work. Things only got worse when thing I got blamed for things that were out of my control.
Due to a database error, entries that I have been entering in have been disappearing. This created the illusion that I was fucking up really badly and also not doing my work. Since I already sucked at secretary work, the matter of disappearing DVD orders prompted the secretary to tell my boss that I was not doing my job. Despite my explanation that it was the databases fault and that I had indeed entered in those records, the secretary still insisted it was my fault. She reasoned that I had too many windows open and that was why my computer was messing up. As you can imagined, that was not a good day at work.
Things only got worse when my boss asked me for those youtube video comments that I was supposed to be logging. She asked me why there were so few, and well I could not really answer her because all of them disappeared. I could see that she was giving me the benefit of the doubt about whether I was doing my job, but after half an hour of trying to find them and failing, I was beginning to believe her too.
Flash forward to today. After another set of DVD orders disappeared from the database, I finally spoke to our tech woman about it. What we discovered was that my entries were indeed in the database, they were just not being indexed correctly so nobody could find them. I suppressed my urge to yell out "I told you so" to the secretary.
Needless to say, work today was great.
-muffinman
Due to a database error, entries that I have been entering in have been disappearing. This created the illusion that I was fucking up really badly and also not doing my work. Since I already sucked at secretary work, the matter of disappearing DVD orders prompted the secretary to tell my boss that I was not doing my job. Despite my explanation that it was the databases fault and that I had indeed entered in those records, the secretary still insisted it was my fault. She reasoned that I had too many windows open and that was why my computer was messing up. As you can imagined, that was not a good day at work.
Things only got worse when my boss asked me for those youtube video comments that I was supposed to be logging. She asked me why there were so few, and well I could not really answer her because all of them disappeared. I could see that she was giving me the benefit of the doubt about whether I was doing my job, but after half an hour of trying to find them and failing, I was beginning to believe her too.
Flash forward to today. After another set of DVD orders disappeared from the database, I finally spoke to our tech woman about it. What we discovered was that my entries were indeed in the database, they were just not being indexed correctly so nobody could find them. I suppressed my urge to yell out "I told you so" to the secretary.
Needless to say, work today was great.
-muffinman
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Coffee Over... SNSD & Kpop
The context to our conversation was today's release of SNSD's new teaser for their "Black SoShi" song. For those who do not know, SNSD is one of the most popular Korean girl pop groups today. Ask most Asian guys who they are and they will immediately claim their favourite, saying why she is the best member in the group and defending her honour. After all, she is going to be his future girlfriend someday(?).
Muffinman linked me the teaser, after which I got really excited.
Emoinacloset: OWWW
HOT HOT HOT
[after watching the video a couple more times]
ooo shit...
fuck
damn, I am so excited.
Afterwards, we went off into one of our tangential philosophical discussions.
Muffinman: I cannot find [SNSD’s new single] in the Oh! Album.
Emoinacloset: Maybe it will be released as a mini-album or a digital single.
Muffinman: Maybe…
Koreans have such a weird [album] release system.
Emoinacloset: Well, it keeps them in the public longer.
People don't have to wait so long for a new album.
Muffinman: Yeah, but then they are smaller albums.
Emoinacloset: Yeah, but Korea has those live performance stages which the US doesn't have.
Also stars don't get paid as much.
Muffinman: Well yeah stars don't get paid as much because the market is way smaller
And American artists have live performances too?
Emoinacloset: No, but Korea has specific music program shows where artists will go and perform to promote their single and they perform it 4-5 times a week for a month.
Besides, what's wrong with smaller albums?
Muffinman: You get less then what you pay for?
Do you think the mini albums cost half as much as a full album?
Emoinacloset: Yeah, but competition in the industry is so fierce.
If you're out of the spotlight for even a little you're gone.
Think about how many Korean girl groups there are.
Muffinman: Yeah, plus they pretty much all sound the same.
Emoinacloset: Kind of. But yeah, fierce competition.
Muffinman: You think the competition is more than in the US?
Emoinacloset: Yeah. If you think about it, there are always certain industry leaders that come to mind in the US.
Muffinman: Hmm, come to think of it, I think it is easier to get a contract in Korea, but harder to stay relevant or stick around compared to the US.
Definitely a quality over quantity thing in the US.
Emoinacloset: I guess... Or maybe they just invest more in their stars.
Muffinman: Even the selection process is more geared toward quality.
Like think of the way of how US stars get signed and think about how Korean stars are signed.
Emoinacloset: Well, I don't really know how US stars get signed
Muffinman: Like talent scouts? And just overall underground popularity.
Emoinacloset: Ahh I see what you mean.
Muffinman: Like, they have a music career usually before they turn pro.
Emoinacloset: Yeah, Korean stars are more manufactured.
They start training since middle school and then sign on to a label once they pass auditions. Then the label will train them some more until they are ready and fit them into a group
Muffinman: Really? They train for this?
Emoinacloset: Yeah, also because those tutoring schools are a lot cheaper in Korea. Although I'm sure the good ones are expensive too
Muffinman: Interesting. That is why there is so much more variety in the US pop scene
Emoinacloset: Nah, I think the lack of variety in Korean pop music is because Korean society is more homogenous than US society is.
And there is more pressure to conform
Muffinman: That is true.
There is really no other genre of music besides pop in Asian countries
Emoinacloset: Yeah, seriously. In Korea, rap is just taking off barely. Even 5 years ago everything was underground.
Muffinman: But still a small following right? Has it entered mainstream society yet?
Emoinacloset: Yeah, much smaller than normal Kpop.
Epik High is popular and I think Drunken Tiger is getting recognition.
But the market is still not very big.
If anything, Epik High is getting more "pop-ish".
Muffinman: Well, that happens to every band that becomes mainstream right?
Emoinacloset: I suppose.
Any thoughts?
-Emoinacloset
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Addendum: The music video is now out!
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