Beyond the Rhetoric

The heat of the summer may be upon us, but there is still a lot going on in the blogging world as well as the world of entertainment. Let’s have a look at what is up on this Wednesday, July the 11th.

Over the weekend, I caught the Transformers Movie and it was more or less what I expected. As Ed Lau said in his review of the film, the action was very typical of a Michael Bay film, complete with slow motion action sequences, cheesy heroic lines, and a hot chick to act as eye candy for the movie. Although there were certain elements that butchered the “real” Transformers cartoon that I grew up watching in the 80s, there was enough high octane explosiveness to keep me entertained for the over two-hour running time. The script wasn’t the best and the dialogue was about as Velveeta’d as it could get, but you just can’t beat these robots in disguise. Overall, I’d give Transformers: The Movie (not to be confused with this classic) 4 stars out of 5 (if you’re a Transformers fan).

(On a side note, make sure you check out the trailers before Transformers. There’s one in particular that will definitely blow you away. It starts out as a dinner/cocktail party in some guys New York apartment, but that’s not where it ends up. More information on this secret project can be found here and here. Viral websites have been set up here, here, here, and here. As you can tell, I’m pretty excited.)

I’m always on a quest to increase my RSS readership, having posted on strategies that involve exploiting Facebook and increasing RSS subscribers by 60% overnight. Well, the Kedoa blog linked to me in their post listing 24 ways to increase your RSS subscribers. Better still, I’m shown as the reference for the number one strategy! If you want to grow your audience, this article is definitely worth your time.

It’s summer, so many of you will be hosting or attending at least one barbecue over the course of the next couple of months. It can be challenging to find just the right cut of meat, but thankfully for us, The Everyday Weekender has put together a guide to help you pick the perfect steak. He goes through the importance of checking color, grade, knife work, and marbling. Just thinking about a steak has my mouth watering.

There are a lot of blog contests out there, so it really shouldn’t surprise you that I enter one from time to time. Some time back, I visited Steve’s Tech Blog and left a comment discussing a certain media player. That comment gave me an entry into this contest and I can proudly say that I’m the big winner. Woot! Now I just have to decide where I’m going to spend those twenty-five smackeroos.

But why stop at $25? I’m going to go ahead and enter another contest, this time from Pilot John. He’s offering a free t-shirt that encourages you to remove it before flight. Contest Blogger suspects that this is some sort of inside jokes among pilots. In any case, to enter, you just have to post a short review of Pilot John’s blog. I say that Pilot John dot Com features a clean Wordpress template, easy navigation (no pun intended), and some nifty information for people who enjoy taking to the skies. I’m an airplane passenger myself, and I don’t think I’m quite ready to get a pilot’s license. Now gimme that shirt!

Want an even easier contest? Super Affiliate Zac Johnson is returning from Affiliate Summit East and he is bringing home a duffel bag (and more) full of goodies. He’s going to be giving out the bigger stuff in a number of different contests, but to help gear up for the giveaways, he’s dishing out free stuff to anyone who promotes the ultimate Affiliate Summit blog post giveaway. In his own words: “Please link / ping back to this blog post from your blog with a brief description and I will make sure you get a goody from this event.” It doesn’t get any easier than that.

And that’s what’s up on Wednesday.

Filed under Arts and Entertainment, Stuff.