J.D. Roth should host The Price is Right
Should J.D. Roth be the next host of The Price is Right?

If you believe so, I encourage you to sign this petition.
Here are my opinions regarding J.D. Roth and The Price is Right:
- Bob Barker is one of the best game show hosts ever to grace our televisions. He is the Michael Jordon of game shows. Look how awesome he is.
- As far as I’m concerned, no one can even come close to filling Bob’s shoes on The Price is Right.
- However, the show must go on, and a replacement must be found. The Price is Right will never be the same, of course, but Bob’s legacy will live on.
- A replacement for the show must be someone who has respect for the long traditions of game shows and not merely some B- or C-list celebrity who has never been involved with the game show business. Rosie is (thankfully) not going to be the next host. George Hamilton would not be a good fit.
- J.D. Roth is one of America’s most prominent game show personalities, having been involved with production and starring in a number of successful and beloved game shows including: Fun House, Endurance, The Biggest Loser, Double Up, Beauty and the Geek, and Unan1mous.
- I think J.D. Roth should be given the role of the host of The Price is Right. He would bring a youthful, high energy approach to the show, something that Barker was always able to do, even as a senior. He would respect the institution of the show, and also appeal to an audience who has grown up watching his work. He also would not be “too big” for the show, like certain celebrities would be.
If you believe like I believe, sign the petition for J.D. Roth as the new host of The Price is Right. We can make a difference!
Special thanks to mgroves.com reader Andrew Elfe for inspiring this petition.
So I watched the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie…
I didn’t like it.
ATHF is a fifteen minute show, and if you go see the movie, you’ll see why it should always remain that way.
It wasn’t a “bad” movie in the “Phenomenon starring John Travolta” sense, but “bad” in a “my favorite comedian had a bad show” sense.
That being said, I really enjoyed the “new” theme song:
There were some really funny parts, and some great fan service…but it all could have been accomplished in a 30-minute special or something.
Office Language Lexicon
In many cases, we spend more waking hours with our coworkers than we do with our spouses. Grueling cubicle hours can form camaraderie not unlike soldiers at war; and in the trenches we form our own vocabulary.
In a little web development shop in Columbus, Ohio, this vocabulary became vast and impenetrable to new employees. This is our glossary of terms; our office language lexicon:
General Terms
- Seeing How It Is
When one is unable to join the group for lunch. As, in “Oh, I see how it is. You’re too good to come to lunch with us.”
“Sorry guys, my wife is meeting me for lunch. I’m gonna have to see how it is.” - 5th Floor
When the group goes on a 3:30 snack break in our new one floor office kitchen. Our old office had many floors, including the 5th Floor which had the vending machines.
“Time for a little 5th Floor action?” - Future Taco Bell
A relatively new Taco Bell establishment with interior architecture resembling the bridge on the Enterprise (TNG not TOS).
“Future Taco Bell is good to go.”
Misogyny Terms
When your office group is comprised exclusively of men, political correctness is apparently thrown out the window.
- Level 5 Beating
A rating system which determines the severity of a spousal beating (Level 1, Level 2, etc).
“My wife spent $300 on Tupperware so I gave her a Level 5 Beating.” - Ham
An objectification of attractive women as pieces of succulent meat.
“Man, warm weather seems to bring out the ham.” - Hammy McHam
An attractive female.
“Hammy McHam’s gonna get it!” - Spray-ons
Pants that are so tight, they look as if they were applied with spray paint.
“Did you see those spray-ons Hammy McHam was wearing?” - Tank Commander
If a woman’s breasts are particularly large, the breasts are tanks, and she herself is the tank commander.
“That waitress at Applebees is a real tank commander!” - 12-Year-Olds
Nubile young woman, almost boyish in their development of mature sexual characteristics (hips, breasts, etc.).
“Forget that tank commander, did you see that 12-year-old sitting at the booth behind us? Quality.”
7-Eleven Terms
- Cracky McCrack’s
The questionable 7-Eleven near our office.
“Let’s go to Cracky McCrack’s to get some Slurpees!”
Sometimes also referred to as Gangsta 7-Eleven or Ghetto 7-Eleven. - Crack Lady
The clerk who works at Cracky McCrack’s (and thus its namesake) who accused us of leaving a Slurpee spigot on and causing a mess (although we were totally innocent).
“Dude, the Crack Lady just called the Spiderman cups Superman cups.” - Slurp
What the Crack Lady calls Slurpees when she rings them up.
” Slurp… One…Twenty…Eight…” - Pry Bay
A misspelled sign, carefully crafted in Microsoft Word, taped to the gas pumps outside Cracky McCrack’s. It was supposed to say, “Pre-pay After Dark.” Instead it said, “Pry Bay After Dark.”
“Forget eBay. It’s all about Pry Bay.” - One Dollar O’clock
Cracky McCrack’s misspelled sale sign for 8 month old Easter candy. It read: “$1:00″ - Full Thruttle
Another misspelling, this one adorning the new Full Throttle Slurpee sign.
Entertainment Terms
- Nuggets
Revealing moments in otherwise uneventful television series.
“How about those nuggets on LOST last night?” - Scandalgasm
A exuberant amount of scandalous content.
“Woah. On Nip/Tuck, some guy asked to have his penis cut off because it had distinguishing marks that would incriminate him.” - Rape Room
A trend in suspense movies whereby a secret room is discovered used for the purpose rape, torture, and video-taping. Think “Silence of the Lambs” or “Gothica”.
“Matt Groves owns a rape room. Tell the cops. No seriously. Tell the cops.”
Tuesday Tube: 6 degrees of Hootie
Missed the last Tuesday Tube? Head over to the tag search for ‘tuesday tube’ and browse through the archives.
Hootie is the Kevin Bacon of music–the nexus point of all people. Go with me on a journey from Keith Olberman to myself through the power of Hootie.
First up, dopey Keith Olberman and annoying Chris Berman both appeared in the fantastic music video for “Only Wanna be With You” (my favorite Hootie song, by the way).
Next, Hootie appears with the Burger King in the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch sandwich. The breasts? They grow on trees.
Next, the Burger King appears in the BK Western Whopper commericial with everyone’s favorite OU alumni, Michael Busch.
And as well all know, Michael Busch and I both graduated from Ohio University. Viola!
I feel like I’m stalking Michael Busch involuntarily.
You don’t know jack about web browsers
Here’s a quiz to help determine how versed you are in the world wide web, and it’s key component: the browser.
- Do you know the history of your favorite web browser? When it was first released? What “parents” it had?
- Can you name more than three web browsers?
- How many browsers do you have installed on your PC right now?
Most people who use the internet, the “schlubs” or “marks”, as they might be known by carnies, only use one browser, and might not even understand that a browser is a separate thing from the actual WWW. “The blue e” brings up “the internet.” Yeah, that’s how a lot of people understand it, but that’s not exactly how it works.
But even you, the savvy blog reader, may not understand the rich history and complexities that begat whatever web browser you are using right now.
Did you know that the first web browser as you now know it was called NCSA Mosaic? Browsers have improved since then, but for the most part they are still very much like the world’s first popular graphic browser.
Can you name more than 3 web browsers? IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari and the ‘big 4′, but can you name any more? Netscape, Konqueror, Lynx (text-based) are slightly more obscure ones that you may have heard of. But even I, the great webmaster hasn’t even heard of OmniWeb or Shiira before. And that historical timeline above doesn’t come close to listing every web browser that has ever existed.
How many browsers do you have installed on your PC right now? If you are a web professional, the answer better be at least two! With the recent release of Apple’s Safari for Windows XP, I would recommend that a web designer or developer carry at least 4 browsers (IE,Firefox,Opera,Safari), even if you only use Firefox and IE for 99% of your work. What? It’s not like they cost anything…
Code Monkeys
I don’t watch G4 much. There used to be some watchable shows, but now…the only time I watch G4 is when I watch DVR’ed Star Trek episodes.
One of the annoying things about G4 is how they practically cover the entire program you are watching with advertisements for other shows, worthless news tickers, and plain old advertisements (sometimes). Of course, G4 is probably more likely to be DVR’ed than, say, the Hallmark channel because of the audience its targeting. It’s still annoying.
However, it worked on me because it got me interested in a new show called “Code Monkeys“.
This is an animated show, done with original pixel art. I don’t know much about it yet, but based on the name it’s likely about junior programmers at a software company, which is an interesting premise.
What’s even more interesting is that it was created by Adam de la Pena (Spanish translation: Adam of the Pena) from such shows as “I’m With Busey” (hilarious) and “Minoriteam” (mostly stupid with annoying artwork).
I’m hoping it’s better than Minoriteam.
Here’s a couple of quick promos for the show:
Desktop Tower Defense 1.5 is out
The new version is out! What else needs to be said?

So, I haven’t played it much yet, but here’s the scoop:
- New towers: Ink, Snap & Boost (Snap & Boost only in Hard mode?)
- New creeps: Morph & Dark
- New Trickle, Random, 15 Tower & Splash/No Splash modes
- 10K mode is now 100 levels
- Bash tower improved
- Improved Interface
- Sound and graphics updates
What are you waitin for? Go play!
Marmaduke is stupid
You should Joe Mathlete Explains Today’s Marmaduke to your RSS feeds.
It is a daily critique of the worst newspaper comic of all time: Marmaduke.
I use the word “critique” even though Marmaduke has no artisitic or entertainment value at all. Joe Mathlete is actually doing a service to to old fogey cartoonist Brad Anderson by creating a meta-caption that makes Marmaduke worth looking at.
Today’s Marmaduke is a rare exception in the history of Marmaduke: it was actually kind of funny. Behold:

Because you eat money, you drooling beast! Now beat it!
For an example of the incredibly unfunny that Marmaduke normally is, see The American Idol incident. Identical “jokes”, less than 1 year apart.
Tuesday Tube: Nerd culture
Missed the last Tuesday Tube? Head over to the tag search for ‘tuesday tube’ and browse through the archives.
Know your roots! Let’s look at some nerd culture on this week’s Tuesday Tube.
Here’s a quick refresher on every NES game ever released:
What would you expect a bunch of nerds to do for a living? Go to a comic con and ask!
I really like this song and the video.
Not sure that counts as nerdy, but a lot of nerds like Queen. And hey, I make the Tuesday Tube rules, buddy!
Gameboy as PDA
Let’s pretend for a second that the only PDA you can afford is a Gameboy. Not a Gameboy Advance or even a DS, and old-school Gameboy. Could you use it as a functioning PDA?
No, you can’t use a Gameboy as a cell phone, and there’s no keyboard attachment, but there are a lot of “applications” available for the Gameboy/Gameboy Color. And since I have GB emulation built into my Game King-II, why not put some ROMs on there that are useful instead of just games?
Berlitz Translators – French and Spanish: Typing in words is cumbersome, but maybe if you’re traveling, it would be useful to have a convenient lookup of a few words. There’s also the Xidian: Chinese to English Dictionary.
Frommer’s Personal Organizer (Infotek): Probably the handy index of 1-800 numbers is long outdated, but this app comes with a notepad, calendar, phone directory, and calculator.

Frommer’s Travel Guide (Infotek) : Probably way out of date and not worth it.
Houghton Mifflin Spell Checker and Calculator (Infotek): Forget about this one. Just use the calculator from the Organizer above. Typing in a word to spellcheck is slow, yes, but even slower is the dictionary search time. It’s faster to drive to the library. Plus it sounds like a paper company in Jersey.

Gameboy Book Reader (by Pat Crowe): This one isn’t quite in the “PDA” realm, because it takes a little bit of hacking to get it to work, but the idea is that you can program and read books on the Gameboy (including illustrations). There are probably a lot of books already created, but each one is its own ROM.

Gameboy Camera and Gameboy Printer: These will only work on an actual Gameboy, not an emulator, so that kinda reduces their flexibility. Both are suprisingly cool and functional.

Gameboy Stop Watch (PD): A fine homebrew stop watch program. It functions well.

GB Clock: A talking clock. This will also only work on a real Gameboy.
GB GPS project: Yep, GPS for your GB.
GB PDA: None of this stuff doing it for you? Well how about one self-contained PDA ROM with many of the features listed above, plus additional ones, plus cell-phone connectivity? That’s the GB PDA project. I don’t know too much about it, other than it’s by Team Knox.

GB Basic: If all else fails, this is a BASIC interpreter that allows you to create your own applications (up to 7.4k in size).
Where can I find these wonderful ROMs, you might ask? I would start with Gameboy Dev’rs, but for the commercial ROMs (Infotek, etc), you’re on your own with Google, torrents, etc.
