Twitter has a feature that I really like that is sorely lacking in both Facebook and Google+, and that is the “favorites” feature. It’s simple. Click the little star next to a post, and it is added to your “favorites” list. Then you can look at your list and see all of the posts to which you’ve ever added a star.

It’s exactly like the star system that Google already uses in Gmail, which is why it’s so mystifying to me that it isn’t in Google+. When you click that “+1” button on someone’s Google+ post, it seems to vanish into the ether; there’s no way to see a list of Google+ posts to which you’ve given a +1. Facebook’s “likes” have the exact same problem. I needs me a page that lists out everything I’ve ever “liked” in chronological order.

So Twitter wins this round!

Here’s how I personally use the Twitter favorites feature: When I see a post that has a link that looks interesting and that I might want to watch/read/listen to but for some reason I am unable to do so at that time (I’m in a hurry; I’m in the car (as a passenger); I’m on the john; I’m at work; It doesn’t work right on my phone; etc), then I just click the star. Later when I’m in a better position to look at it (i.e., I’m at home on my laptop), I’ll go into my list of favorites and peruse the links at my leisure.

So here are all of the tweets that I favorited in the month of August. What do they say about me? I have no idea. They are presented without comment:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Mike_Eagle/status/98615008438652931″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Mike_Eagle/status/100053582237286400″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/godlessgirl/status/100984566298320897″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/CityofTacoma/status/101044995854827520″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/NatheLawver/status/101782209601609729″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/edgarwright/status/101930945636081666″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/SethGreen/status/102604352845398016″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/feliciaday/status/102756442477563904″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Andy_Richter/status/102795548574220288″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/BoingBoing/status/103163053318742016″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ebertchicago/status/103492524827611136″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ebertchicago/status/103515135301259264″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/leenirama/status/103903017622970368″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ebertchicago/status/105765004711694336″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Three_Ninjas/status/105837389980762115″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/MinkCarCover/status/105849321236332544″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ebertchicago/status/105872046310957056″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mariancall/status/105888680912228352″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mariancall/status/105909705179799552″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Molly23/status/105967949956911104″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Mike_Eagle/status/107559492216037378″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/tangentbot/status/108018627806113792″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ebertchicago/status/108165779748433920″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mariancall/status/108319743823462400″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/jonathancoulton/status/109001954532917248″]

There. I thought that was kinda interesting. That was my August in tweets.

Since you’re on the internets, you’ve probably heard of this “unboxing” thing that’s been happening the past few years. Basically, you film yourself opening the box of some piece of technology (like an iPad2 or Nintendo 3DS) and removing and cataloging all of the pieces in the box. The whole entire process. Yes, it’s ridiculous. Don’t believe me? Just search for unboxing on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=unboxing&aq=0

See? So of course I thought I’d try it.

BUT I’m not going to unbox a piece of technology, because that’s been done. I’m going to “unbox” a CD: Open Mike Eagle’s Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes. Because it’s awesome.

My apologies to Mr. Eagle:

 

---

By the way, those turkey burgers WERE pretty awesome.

Okay, okay, I did have a bit of fun with the video. But in all seriousness now: because the video is of such crappy quality, I also took photos of everything and present them here (click any of them for a larger version).

Here’s the CD as-is, in the jewel case and everything:

The back cover features the ghostly head of the homie Mike Eagle over a cityscape:

Here’s the inside of the insert, with a track list and a very cool illustration of the homie Mike Eagle:

Here in this two-spread inside of the insert is a technical illustration of the Mustang coffin, which is, by the way, completely badass:

Now the CD. Here we have a full-color illustration of three white people on a subway blatantly ignoring a black person lying on the floor of the subway, either passed out or dead. No way to tell. The illustration seems rather tongue-in-cheek with its faux-technical/instructional style:

Let’s pull that out of the case and take a look at it… There on the right you see Open Mike Eagle’s stylized double-arrow logo, which I think is a fantastic piece of graphic design:

The interior of the back-cover, what’s usually hidden behind the CD. It’s kinda hard to see it all while it’s still in the case…

So let’s pull it out and take a closer look–I can do that with two hands!

We see that the album is dedicated to the memory of Gil Scott-Heron, who was a musician who really and truly laid the foundations for hip hop as far back as the the early 1970s. He died just this May, likely from natural causes linked to his HIV infection. If you don’t know about Gil Scott-Heron, you’re truly missing out on one of the single most important musicians of the past 50 years. Read his Wikipedia article to get you started, but by all means do not stop there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Scott_Heron

Anway, the rest of the interior back panel consists of more credits about the artists who contributed to the CD:

Produced by James McCall and Michael Eagle
Cover at by Nate James
Credit panel painting by Andrew Michael
CD art by Chris Harris
Mastering by Jim the Cleaner
mikeeagle.net

Yeah, I had an ulterior motive for writing this article. I wanted to show off. I created the art for the CD of the subway scene. It’s based on an illustration that was in an educational pamphlet (from some Scandinavian country or the Netherlands or something) from a long, long time ago.

This is a big deal for me. Mike Eagle isn’t just some podunk musician who nobody has ever heard of; he’s one of the luminaries of hip-hop along with the likes of Busdriver, Dumbfoundead, and Blue Scholars. And if you haven’t heard of any of those, then why the fuck are you readin my website? Go get their music (preferably in a way that will actually put some coin in the musicians’ pockets) and listen to it! This album got up to at least #77 on the hip-hop chart on iTunes when it was released, beating albums by such superstars as 50 cent and Li’l Wayne. (of course, those people who got it from iTunes are unable to see my artwork on the CD since there is no CD involved in digital downloads…). It was the #3 selling album at access hip-hop. (http://www.accesshiphop.com)

So I am inordinately honored to be a part of something so completely awexome. Yes, that’s right: so awesome that it’s awesome with an x: awexome.

So there you have it. An article about making fun of a ridiculous internet trend, an exploration of an excellent CD, and a bit of self-aggrandizing self-promotion all at the same time.

What do you think, Ocean Shores Pirate?

So you may have noticed (unless you’re reading this via a feed reader) that there are two gigantic ads on this website now. Like this one:

Don’t be alarmed; earlier today I went to a Google Adwords seminar and learned all about the crazy/cool algorithms that Google uses to read a website and then match it up with appropriate ads.

That got me thinking: What the heck would Google think of my website? What ads would it match to my content?

So I decided to carve out two spaces on my website to show Google ads. I’m going to be taking periodic, random screenshots of the ads that are running there, and in a few weeks I’d like to write an Article about what Google thinks of me. I think this will be a fun experiment.

So don’t worry; I haven’t sold out or anything. But I won’t complain if someone clicks on an ad and sends a couple of cents my way.

Well, folks, here it is, my (aka Saucecore‘s) first-ever finished song, with vocals and everything!

It’s a cover of Trevor Peach’s classic “Glasses or Bottles of Port.” Partake and enjoy! FREE DOWNLOAD!

Link of the Month:
Project Rooftop
As Project Runway is to fashion, Project Rooftop is to Superhero fashion. This site is dedicated to imagining redesigns of comic book uniforms and outfits. It has news on all new costumes worn by comic book superheroes, and it also takes submissions come from all over (you can submit stuff yourself if you want). It’s shockingly engaging to read and look at.

Album of the Month:
Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount: Is There Room For Me?
*Contented sigh* The 2nd album from the Seattle superstars is every bit the masterpiece that their first one was. Another album funded through a grassroots Kickstarter campaign that exceeded what it asked for, this album is destined to be my album of the year. Just like their last album.

Game of the Month:
The Humble Indie Bundle
Not just one game, the Humble Indie Bundle is a periodic release of a handful of the best video games from independent game makers. You can get some games that are really unique, and best of all it’s name your price for the whole set! Pay what you think they’re worth or what you can afford. This is a great way to get exposed to some games you wouldn’t otherwise ever know about.

Carrie & I will be there! We hope you can be there, too. If not, though, Julia has said that she’s planning on doing another CD Release Party in Tacoma sometime later…

The Black Lodge is some semi-secret venue at the corner of Eastlake & Republican in Seattle. Try and find it if you can!

You may have noticed that I haven’t updated this site in almost a month! Let’s see… I’m three movies behind on my movie reviews. I haven’t written an article for more than three months. Well, now that I have a big-boy job I have much less free time than I used to. So now I have to decide what I want to do with this here blog-type website.

I wonder what kinds of things I should post on this blog. It seems that posting things like videos and links here is a li’l redundant because I post so much of them on Twitter and Google+ now. So should I concentrate more on musings, ruminations, and autobiographical happenings that don’t easily fit in a 140-character format? But then, when will I find time to type such thoughts even if they occur to me?

Well, first off, does anybody actually read this blog? That might help me decide how much effort I wanna put into it. Those of you who do read it, what do you like to read the most? For reals, I wants to know! Comments, please!

While you think about it, here’s a funny video with NSFW audio!