Happy Humpday BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! For those of you who don’t know, today is more than just another Wednesday. One this day, BaddaBing BaddaBlog is officially 1 week old! I would like to thank everyone who helped me get here and inspired me to keep writing. We did it everybody!!! If you’re new to the Blog and have no idea what’s going on, don’t worry about it. Just know that the blog is growing older and that you should keep coming back if you want to watch it grow from infancy to adolescents to it’s awkward teenage phase and finally adulthood. If we’re going by internet time this should take around 5 to 6 months, so stay tuned for that.

Today’s Pop-Culture Wednesday! Sorry I don’t have a punny title for this segment…………yet. In this segment I’m going to be taking about recent events that have occurred in the word of media. Since this is a particularly vast industry, I’m going to be focusing on news and properties that I find particularly interesting or that I feel are extremely relevant or mentionable. Today, I’m going to be writing about the upcoming television series, “Fear The Walking Dead”, the abysmal new Fantastic Four (for some reason advertised as Fant4stic), and Adult Swim’s newest breakout hit “Rick and Morty”.

Fear The Walking Dead

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the people over at AMC, the television network that produces and broadcasts The Walking Dead would want to cash in on this franchise even more. So they decided to create a spin-off. Fear The Walking Dead is going to feature an entirely new cast of characters and will take place just as the zombie outbreak is starting. Which could potentially be a great idea. I would love to see a Steven King-esq drama set in The Walking Dead universe. It could potentially be extremely entertaining to see the blood and violence dialed back, in favor of examining who characters and societies change as the world drastically changes around them.

However, I’m going to go into this skeptically and with low expectations. AMC is pretty notorious for mishandling their programs and mistreating their creative personal. For example, they fired the director of the first season of TWD, who played a large roll in making the show popular, which caused the second season to be, with the exception of a few break-out moments, easily the worst season of the show thus far. Also spin-offs in the television industry are pretty notorious for sucking. *cough* Joey, *cough* Dragon Ball (Giant Turd) GT, *cough* AfterMASH. I very much want this show to do well, but at this point I know better than to go in with high expectations. For those interested, FTWD will premiere this Sunday at 9/8 central.

Fantastic Four (Fant4stic)

This is bar none the worst movie of the summer. It currently has a rating of 8% on Rotten Tomatoes and is projected to loose millions of dollars for the studio that produced it, Fox. I have not seen the movie, but that’s because I prefer not to willing subject myself to things that make me feel sad and angry. This movie is so bad that people have been forced to ask the question, “why was this even made?”. Well, the answer is Fox basically had to or else they would no longer own the rights to make Fantastic Four movies.

You see, waaaaaaay back in the 90s, the comic publisher Marvel wasn’t doing so well. Actually the comic industry as a whole was not doing well, but that’s a whole post in and of itself and I may write about that another time if enough interest is expressed by you guys reading this. Anyways, long story short, due to being called out for some long standing business practices, comics not selling as well as what they had been, and competitors like DC comics and the newly founded Image comics doing well, Marvel had to sell some of its properties to avoid bankruptcy. They  went bankrupt anyway (yeah, the guys who are singlehandedly changing the film industry right now nearly went out of business, weird), and the X-men and Fantastic Four IPs wound up being owned by Fox. However, a clause in the contract of these purchases stated that Fox has to make a movie with these characters every few years, otherwise ownership reverts back to Marvel. So basically Fox has to make a Fantast Four movie every few years otherwise they don’t get to make any Fantastic Four movies, ever.

That’s how a movie that is as bad and expensive as this one came to be, despite Hollywood and the film industry going to great lengths to create a climate where this type of movie should not exist. It has also caused a petty and hateful relationship to form between Fox studios and Marvel. If you get a somewhat dark kick out of very public downward spirals and adult businessmen acting lick children, congratulations, because this is going to be the gift that keeps on giving. Fox and Marvel are showing no signs of kissing and making up and I would bet money that we hear about a very low budget Fant4stic sequel.

Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty is, in my humble yet completely accurate opinion, the best show on television right now. It may even be the greatest show to come out in the past decade. The show was created by the fantastic (actually fantastic and in no way fant4stic) duo of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. The show revolves around eccentric, alcoholic genius Rick Sanchez and his good-hearted, but distressed and naive grandson, Morty Smith. Each episode usually feature Rick and Morty going off on some high-concept science fiction misadventure, and as the show progress the rest of Morty’s family is slowly integrated into these debacles.

The show is amazing because it is the perfect combination of comedy, science-fiction, dark humor, satire, and, most importantly, it is firmly grounded in reality. While the show tackles the most outrageous sci-fi concepts, it goes to great lengths to make sure these stories unfold as they would if they happened in real life. There are no consequence free happy endings in this show, all victories are pyrrhic. No character is completely good or evil and each person’s actions are mostly derived from a need to pad their ego. Even when a character goes out of their way to do something nice fore someone else, there are almost always unintended consequences.

The best thing about Rick and Morty is that it follows their ideas and storylines out to their most likely conclusion. The show is not afraid to be dark and weird. For example, in one episode Rick, Morty, and Morty’s sister, Summer stumble onto a planet that has each of it’s inhabitants being controlled by a hive mind entity (that Rick just happened to have dated at one point). Summer finds it despicable that so many people have been robbed of their free will and tries to free them, while Rick is lapsing into a relationship with her old flame, and Morty is just jaded and knowledgeable enough at this point to know how a situation like is this likely to play out. Summer is somewhat, and some of the aliens regain there autonomy…..and the first thing they do is start a race war. While this is awful and hilarious at the same time, it demonstrates the show’s commitment to being realistic, if a bunch of people are allowed to act however they please, of course they are inevitably going to do something shitty.

If I have not convinced you to watch this show yet, here’s a clip and one of my favorite quotes from the show.

Morty: Can I show you something?

Summer: Morty, no offence, but a drawing of me you made when you were eight isn’t gonna make me feel like less of an accident!

Morty: [points outside] THAT, out there? That’s my grave.

Summer: ..Wait, what?

Morty: On one of our adventures, Rick and I basically destroyed the whole world, so we bailed on that reality and we came to this one. Because in this one, the world wasn’t destroyed. And in this one, we were dead. So we came here, a-an-an-and we buried ourselves and we took their place. And every morning, Summer, I eat breakfast 20 yards away from my own rotting corpse!

Summer: So… you’re not my brother?

Morty: I’m better than your brother. I’m a version of your brother you can trust when he says, “Don’t run.” Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. …Come watch TV?

Season two of the show is currently airing on Cartoon Network on Sundays at 11:30/10:30c. Episodes have also been posted to watch for free on Youtube and on Adult Swim’s website.

Alright guys, that’s some of what’s going on in Pop Culture and my opinions about them. If you enjoyed this post, like it and leave a comment down below. If you want to get up to notifications whenever I post something new, subscribe via email in the dropdown area on the upper right side. You could also follow and like BaddaBing BaddaBlog’s Facebook, conveniently linked to right here. Also, follow me on Twitter, I’m @LucasDeRuyter, I promise I only use it to make jokes and promote this blog. Thanks for reading and good luck getting through the rest of the week.

BaddBing BaddaBye

Happy Monday! Congratulations on getting out of bed, pulling yourself out of a fun or alcohol educed stupor, going to work, and using this blog as a means to slack off at work. This is BaddaBing BaddaBlog and today I’m going to be writhing about anime and manga. For those of you who do not know, anime and manga are, in the most basic terms, Japanese comics and cartoons. Now, because I know that not very many people who read this blog are familiar with anime and manga (let alone heard of it until reading this), this post is mostly going to be dedicated to making recommendations for good jumping on series for the genre. Also I’m going to try to make this post a little more joke heavy, so enjoy that.

Anime and manga are a form of Japanese media that, depending on who you ask, began in either the 12th or 18th century. However, today’s version of the industry would not begin to take shape until after World War Two when Japan tried to reinvent it’s world and cultural identity. In the process, many international art and animation styles were examined and studied. The Walt Disney company in particular was studied during the process of Japanese artists and film makers learning about the process of animation. Ultimately though, animators realized that they could not thrive in the industry by following Disney’s model, and decided to make their productions more story and character focused.  Suck on that Walt.

Since then, manga and anime have grown into a worldwide industries with fan bases that continue to grow. Since these are both vary broad and diverse fields, there are varying levels of weirdness and, let’s say Japaneseness, to each individual series. In the rest of this post, I’m going to be pitching several anime series that I feel a Westerner could pick up and enjoy easily, without much confusion or culture shock. For time and convenience, I’ll only be making anime recommendations today, I’ll probably cover some Japanese comics you ought to read next week, but it depends on how this post is received and whether or not there’s something else going on in the industry that I want to cover. Anyway, here’s some awesome anime.

Dragonball

Or Dragon Ball Z

Chances are, if you were alive in the 90’s and weren’t suck in traffic, hiding in a Y2K shelter, or being stung to death by Africanized Bees, you’ve heard of either of these shows. These are the shows that introduced many western audiences to anime and have arguably transcended the anime moniker to become their own cultural institution. Seriously, I’ve talked to people who love DBZ and have never watched or heard of any other kind of anime. I personally like the original Dragon Ball better, as it focused more on world building and adventuring, but if you like crazy amounts of action and badassery, Z is probably for you. The plot of both is pretty straight foreword and the characters are pretty typical, but these shows are considered by many to be the Grandfather of the anime industry, and they are loved and respected as such. Don’t watch the third version of the series though, it sucks. That show is what happens when a production company wants to keep making money, but the author of the series wants to stop making episodes. It’s called Dragon Ball GT, and while we don’t ever find out what “GT” stands for, I can only assume that it was “Giant Turd”.

Gangsta

This is probably going to be the most recent recommendation I make, as it has just been released this summer. This series is great for people just getting into anime, because it does not have many of the tropes, character archetypes or common storylines, that typically turn a new viewer off from anime. This story focuses on two “handymen”, Nick and Worrwick, who live in a fictional crime riddled city. The characters in the show are extremely compelling and, as such, the plot mostly revolves around how these characters arrived in their unique situation and how the developed their distinct personalities. There are enough events going on otherwise to keep the plot moving and I can safely say that no episode so far has ever felt too slow paced or boring. If you are a fan of mafia movies, character driven stories, or fantastic use of storytelling devices like foreshadowing and flashbacks, I would highly recommend checking this series out. Also, episodes in English have recently started airing, so if you’re not a fan of subtitles, congrats you lucky duck.

Sword Art Online

In terms of tropes and clichés, this show is the complete opposite of Gansta. This show is a hot Japanese mess, and it owns it. This show is filled with harems, main characters who cannot die simply because they are main characters, victories through the power of friendship, and characters that fit WELL within previously established models. This show is the “Friends” of the anime industry. It’s not well known because it takes a genre into new territory, but because it creates an enjoyable story out of standard, time tested character types. The plot of this program is that thousands people get trapped in a virtual reality video game and have to beat  the game to get back to the real world. If that sounds cliché to you, that’s because it’s meant to be. If you want to find out what “anime” anime is all about, this is the show to watch.

Attack on Titan

If you were to ask someone: “Why do you like game of thrones?”, they would probably tell you that it’s because GoT is filled with great characters, a compelling story, awesome action, and tons of unpredictable character death. All of these elements can be found in “Attack on Titan”. The story follows a group of teens who join the military of humanities’ last society so that they can fight the monsters that forced humans to build massive walls around their last city to keep them out. These monsters are called Titans, and they are vaguely human looking creatures that stand anywhere from 5 to 50 meters tall. Yeah, it’s pretty trippy, but once you get a few episodes into it you’ll be totally on board. It’s a great show that goes out of its way to break traditional aspects of shows that are similar to it, which have caused anime fans to praise the show as being fresh and innovative. Also, the humans fight the titans with grappling guns and swords that essentially make them a more badass, steampunk version of spider man. If that’s not awesome, I don’t known what is. My only gripe with this show is that the English version is not very good, so I would suggest watching it in Japanese, with English subtitles.

Durarara!!

This is one of my personal favorite anime and I’m suggesting it to first time viewers simply because it is an fantastic show that masterfully uses storytelling and literary devices. The story is difficult to explain as it is complicated and because the show features an ensemble cast and the majority of the plot is based off of their interactions with each other. Imagine the movie “Dazed and Confused” combined with the high concept and over the topness of “Kill Bill” and you more or less have this show. This show has gang wars, monsters, demons, philosophical musings, and is completely self-aware of it’s strangeness. It’s so beautifully self aware of its weirdness that its title is a nonsense word. “Durarara!!” is not a word or phrase in Japanese, its just a collection of sounds that the author felt fitted the story. I would recommend checking this program in English as the staff that translated and dubbed it did a great job. Seriously, watch this shit.

If you do want to watch any of these anime, there are several places for you to do it. Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu have these shows in with subtitles or in English between the three of them. All of these have been out long enough that you should not have to pay for a subscription or open an account, but you will have to watch some ads. I know that’s a bummer, but this is the internet and someone is always trying to sell you something. If this article has inspired anyone to check out these or any other anime, I have a couple free 30 day subscriptions on Crunchyroll to give away. If you are interested, leave a comment either down below or on the Facebook page and you may be the recipient.

Alrighty, that’s all I’ve got for today. Just as a reminder, there will not be a post tomorrow, but I will be presenting you with some Pop Culture goodness on Wednesday. In the meantime, you can like and leave a comment on this post, witness the majesty of the BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook page and like and follow us there for notifications on posts, subscribe via email for notifications in the right side drop down menu of this page, and follow me on twitter, I’m @LucasDeRuyter. Also, recommend this blog to your friends, it would be awesome to break 50 views in a single day, before this blog became a month old. Thanks guys, see you on Wednesday.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye

Happy Sunday! Welcome to Politics, Politalks, a weekly segment dedicated to talking about noteworthy events that are occurring in the political field. Before I begin, I need to make a few things blatantly clear. I have worked as an intern for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. I have also worked, and will work in the future, as an intern for Sen. Mark Miller. Any views or opinions I express in this piece are entirely my own and should in no way be thought of as a representation of either of these entities. Alright, with that out of the way, here is what’s going on in the political world and my thoughts on them.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! This is an awful time to write about politics!!! Seriously, go onto CNN.com and click on the politics section. It’s all crap either about the primaries or Donald Trump! Both of which I despise for a medley of reasons. I would have liked for today’s post to be about some of the great things that are happening in politics, how we are growing as a society and how great institutional strides have been made in the last few years, but this is the real world and sometimes shit pisses you off. With that in mind, here’s what sucks about the primary system  and Trump.

Before the primary election system came to exist, presidential candidates were determined by the Republican and Democratic parties. Each party would select a representative and those two individuals would run for president against each other. This system was problematic for several reasons, the most obvious being that voters had a very limited influence regarding who became president.

However, in the process of developing a primary system, several new, arguably more detrimental problems emerged, thanks Oregon (the first state to adopt a primary election). One of the biggest problems of a primary election is that it gives more power and influence to state’s that hold their primary election earlier. You know how during the primaries candidates are notorious for changing their positions on issues, this is because that if it becomes apparent that a candidate will not win in a particular state, they will change their view to match the popular opinion of the next state to hold a primary election, in the hopes of winning that election.

Another issue with the primary election system is that it is far to long. The voting date for the 2016 election is November 18th, 2016. That is still well over a year away. It is impossible to sustain a meaningful conversation about policies or opinions over that long of a period of time, so candidates are reduced to the most basic of buzzwords and personalities. The president should be more than just a collection of buzzwords and something vaguely resembling an identity.

Speaking of buzzwords and crumby personalities, I loath the fact that Donald Trump is running for president. I DESPERATELY hope that this is just some ill advised advertising stunt and in a moth we find out that this was just a big gimmick to get people excited for a new “The Apprentice” season.

However, I’m also a little grateful for Trump’s presidential bid. Thanks to Trump, it is pretty much guaranteed that Hillary Clinton will win the overall election. Trump is going to drag the Republican party further down in public perception than the Tea Party could ever hope to due. As the election goes one, Trumps actions are going to force other candidates to take stands on issues that will help them win the primary election, but will prove to be extremely detrimental to them in the general election, where the “most conservative” person is not guaranteed a victory. So, while it kills a tiny part of me to say this, I am grateful to Donald Trump for running for president, because it will allow Hillary Clinton to win much more easily. I’m also grateful to Bill Clinton for encouraging Trump to run and, therefore, helping his wife get into the oval office.

Alright, I’m tired of being angry, so I think that is where I’m going to end it for today. If you would like to receive notifications for when new posts are added, you can subscribe via email in the right side drop-down menu.  You cold also like and follow BaddaBing BaddaBlog’s Facebook page, which is right here. You can also follow me on twitter, my handle is @LucasDeRuyter. If you really want to be awesome, you could like this post or leave a comment down below. Also, if you wanted your greatness to echo forever through the halls eternity, you share a link with your friends to BaddaBing BaddaBlog or encourage them in real life to check it out. They won’t regret it. See you guys Monday.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye

Happy Saturday awesome people who visit this blog, spam bots, and foreign hackers who are about to realize that they are totally wasting their time by looking at this. It’s the weekend! That means everyone has more time to spend time with their family, go on outings with their friends, maybe go on a nice date with your significant other, and maybe even give back to the community with some kind of charity work that not only benefits the less fortunate, but also gives you some sense of personal fulfillment. OR, you potentially have 48 uninterrupted hours to play your favorite, or the newest video game! Although, I guess if you wanted to strike some kind of healthy balance between these two options, that would probably be the healthiest choice, buy you do you. Anyway, this is Game Grind! The weekly post where I talk about the vast, wonderful, and beautifully rendered world of video games.

Sadly, not a whole lot happened this week in the gaming industry. Well, at least nothing that I’m super invested in. That’s to be expected, though. Gamescom, an event that is similar to E3 but is more focused on the developers, was last week. This means that all of the juicy stuff and glimpses into the future are old news by now. Actually, as I’m looking at 2015’s release schedule (Game Informer has a handy one right here ), the only game that I find myself getting really excited for is Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which comes out September 1st. Some new footage actually just came out and I can already tell that it is going to be one of my favorite games of the year.

However, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the game because of conflicts between the games developers and director and Konami, the games publisher. These conflicts have become more and more high profile as they have gone on because Metal Gear Solid’s director, Hideo Kojima, is arguably the most well known video game creator, outside of the bigger name at Nintendo, and because Konami has been noteworthy in the video games industry since the 80s.

This conflict first began back in March when it was reported that Kojima had left Konami and that Konami was reportedly hiring people to work on another MGS game, without Kojima being involved. These were quickly labeled as false rumors by Konami and Kojima’s twitter account went inactive for an extended period of time. Konami then made, what I would personally describe as  petty and spiteful, decisions to remove Kojima’s name from MGS5’s box artwork and cancel another highly anticipated game that Kojima was working on, a new Silent Hills game, and remove it’s beloved “Playable Trailer” from purchase on Playstation’s online store. Konami then announced that the company would focus on the development of mobile games, rather than console titles. No announcements have been made regarding what Kojima is going to do career wise after the release of his latest game.

A side effect of this controversy is that many former and current employs of Konami are secretly coming out of the woodwork to describe the borderline tyrannical working conditions they are subjected to by Konami. Some of these working conditions include heavy monitoring of staff through closed circuit camera, lengthy processes to receive a computer and internet access, detailed records being kept of each employee’s browser history, and employees being required to tell Konami security where they going anytime they leave the building. It is being speculated by many that these practices are the reason why Konami has had difficulty finding employees and why the company is shifting to mobile games, as it is easier for inexperienced developers learn the skills to make these types of games quickly.

So that’s where the situation is currently. I personally think that the conflict and tension between Kojima and Konami is extremely unfortunate and I am more inclined to take Kojima’s side in the dispute. His work has helped validate the video game industry and has proved that video games can be used as a medium to express complex and dynamic stories. I have no idea what Kojima is going to do after MGS5 is released. I would personally like him to leave the company and either start his own video game developing and publishing business or go work for a company that treats their creative staff better.

It should be noted, though, that while Konami’s practices regarding their staff may seem excessive, similar practices are somewhat common throughout the video game industry. Employees are working with highly sensitive information in an extremely competitive market and any leaks of business strategies or information on projects could prove extremely detrimental to a company. In fact, earlier this week the video game giant Nintendo fired an employee for going onto a podcast and talking about his job with the company. What’s unusual in this situation is that the employee seemed to be more upset with himself than Nintendo for his termination, and the fact that he expressed that he knew it was wrong of him to appear on a podcast. This leads me to believe that Konami’s treatment of their employees are exceptionally bad, even for the industry, as numerous former and current Konami employees have gone out of their way, and potentially risked their future in the industry, to inform people about Konami’s unseemly practices.

I for one eagerly await Konami solely making video games for mobile platforms. This is because I play few mobile games and I would no longer have to deal with the company’s monthly scandals. It’s really more sad than anything that a company that used to be a huge player in the arcade scene mismanage itself into a company that cannot even keep their highly talented and renowned employees.

That’s all I have to say about this issue for now, at least until the company does something else stupid or morally despicable. If you happen to have an opinion on this matter, go ahead and leave a comment or head over to BaddBing BaddaBlog’s Facebook page and start a discussion over there. While you’re on Facebook, maybe go ahead and like and follow the page so that you can be notified when new posts come out. If you don’t want to go that route, you can also receive notifications by email, by signing up from the right side, dropdown menu. You could also follow me on Twitter, I’m @LucasDeRuyter . Thank you so much for reading and have a kick ass weekend.

Baddabing BaddaBye

Sources:

Kojima/Konami Timeline

Konami Business Practices

Nintendo Employee Termination

Alright, here we go with the first scheduled post! This is a regular post titled “News for the Mighty, News of the Week (yes, you can expect every scheduled post to have a punny title, you’re welcome). In this recurring bit I will be describing and giving my opinion on various news stories that occurred throughout the week, that I found interesting or noteworthy. With that in mind, here we go!

News That Should Surprise No One

This is a segment dedicated to discussing events that somebody felt needed reporting, but in actuality is not all that surprising. The news story that took the cake for this category this week is that William Shakespeare may have smoked weed. I know, I cannot believe it either, who would have thought that an ARTIST would do DRUGS!  Maybe hold off on burning those Shakespeare in the Park tickets in protest, though, as Billy S. technically did not break any laws by smoking weed during the 16th and 17th century and because he’s been dead for nearly 400 years and they only person you would be harming is yourself, by missing out on some of history’s greatest plays, and the actors who are just trying to pay the bills by doing the work they love.

The information that he may have puffed the magic dragon from time to time is coming from South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand, who performed chemical testing on some of Bill’s tobacco pipes. Eight of the twenty-four examined tested positive for weed. That’s about it for this news story, this doesn’t really change anything about the world we live in, but it is a little funny, I’m going to include a link to a USA Today article with more information at the bottom of the post if you would like to read more about this “shocking” discovery. Also, if you are legitimately surprised that someone as renowned and successful as William Shakespeare smoked weed, check out this song, it’ll blow your mind. If you’re not surprised, still check it out, it’s a great song by an awesome artist.

SPORTS!!

I should begin this segment by making it clear that I am not a big sports guy. I love me some Packers, Brewers (although it’s been hard lately), and (depending on who I’m talking to) either the Blackhawks or Knucks. I watch games when I can, but I do not really follow sports news too closely. However, upon the suggestion of some people I know and considering that some sports bloggers make stupid amounts of money, I decided to try to cash in on this topic. So here’s the most interest event that I felt occurred in the wide world of sports this week.

Jets quarterback Geno Smith was sucker punched in the jaw by one of his teammates in the Jets’ lockeroom because Geno owed his teammate, IK Enemkpali, $600. Geno’s jaw was broken in this encounter and he will be missing eight to ten weeks of football. IK was then quickly fired by the Jets, but was shortly picked up by the Buffalo Bills to resume his position of linebacker. The head coach of the Bills, Rex Ryan, was formally the coach of the Jets, until he was fired after the 2014 season.

I really only have two things to say abut this story. The first is that it has got to be really hard to be a Jets fan, and, the second, is that I love it when reality temporarily becomes a sitcom.

Huh?

This section of the weekly news post covers news that I personally have a mixed opinion on. This week, that news came in the form of the incredibly popular television series “Sesame Street” being picked up by HBO. The television giant will feature the next five seasons of the popular children’s show on all of it’s viewing platforms. However, new episodes will continue to air on PBS approximately six months after they premier on HBO. However, episodes currently streaming on platforms like Amazon and Netflix will be taken down shortly and the program will be unavailable to be viewed through those mediums. Apparently, the deciding factor in this decision was money, as Sesame Street had been struggling to make ends meet.

I’m honestly not sure how to feel about this shift. A part of me is happy that more quality, educational programing for kids is going to get made, but another part of me thinks that it is sad that a program meant to educate kids,regardless of background, had to shift to what many see as an elitist network to continue production. And, of course, another part of me desperately hopes that some HBO stars and characters start appearing on the show. I would love to see Omar Little teach kids some nursery rhymes, or Kit Harrington appearing as a regular, since he may or may not have a bunch of free time now (hopefully not, though). Also, if you have no idea what I’m talking about in that last sentence, watch better TV!

Depressing News of the Week

This segment is dedicated to talking about the unfortunate events that occurred during the week. This week, that event was a massive explosion in Tianjin, China. It is currently reported that fifty-six people have died due to the explosion and more than 720 people have been injured because of it. It is unclear what caused the explosion, but it is known that it originated from a warehouse that stored hazardous goods and chemicals. Due to this, the Chinese government has sent hundreds of military personal to the area who are qualified to handle toxic substances. I desperately hope that all those that are injured recover fully and quickly, that all missing persons are found speedily, and that the families of those that perished are able to find some form of comfort in this painful time.

Makes Sense News

This last segment is dedicated to talking about news stories that I personally agree with and support. This week, that news came in the form of Amnesty International coming out in favor of decriminalizing prostitution. The non-governmental, human rights group even adopted a new policy that reinforces their claim.

I agree with their decision to advocate for the decriminalization of prostitution, wholeheartedly. I personally would like to see the industry not only decriminalized, but also have laws put into place to regulate the industry. I personally do not believe I would ever hire a prostitute even if it was legalized, mostly because I’m kind of frugal and porn exists. However, it is abundantly clear that there are people all over the world who would pay for these services and, as such, regulations need to be put into place to make the industry safer for everyone involved. There’s a reason crime increased during prohibition, if people want something, they are going to find a way to get it, and if that thing happens to be illegal, then people are going to abuse the lack of supervision and policies that illegality entails. I would also like to make it clear that a person or government coming out in favor of the decriminalization of prostitution, or CONSENSUAL sexual acts performed between adults for money, is very different than said person or group INCURAGING people to engage in these activities.

Alright, that’s it for this week’s New for the Mighty, News of the Week. A lot of events were brought up and a lot of opinions were mentioned. If you would like, leave a comment if you have any input regarding any of the news stories or any of the points I made. The blog also has a newly set up Facebook page, which can be found here, so if you want to be awesome go ahead and like/follow the page or continue any discussions over there. If you want to be alerted to any new posts on BaddaBing BaddaBlog, you can receive notifications via email in the drop down menu to the right. Also, I have a twitter! So if you enjoy the things I think up and then type, follow me over there. I’m @LucasDeRuyter. Thanks so much for checking out this post and if you want your friends to be wicked awesome like you, have them check this out as well.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye

Links to stories:

Shakespeare

Jet Punch

Sesame Street

Tianjin Explosion

Prostitution

Happy Thursday people on the internet! Today I’m going to be talking about some housekeeping, outing what kind of content can be expected from BaddaBing BaddaBlog, and I’m going to be making some promises that I’m inevitably going to break. With that in mind, here we go with the second ever BaddaBing BaddaBlog post! Trust me when I say that in between typing this my arms are flailing in the air in a fashion similar to Kermit the Frog out of sheer excitement.

Alright, housekeeping, currently I’m working on several ways to improve BaddaBing BaddaBlog that will get it up to the level of quality that I desire. I’m still working on figuring out WordPress’s formatting and editing options. This is one of those things where the more I use the site, the better I will get at using it. For example, apparently I can add photos, videos, and sound bits to my posts. Expect plenty of video clips or pics. in future posts that will be used to embellish whatever point I’m making, or they may be used for comedic effect; sometimes both!

Some other things that I’ll be doing around the blog to spruce thins up are creating a logo for the blog and creating an email account for the blog so that readers can reach out to me more easily. I’ve also created a Facebook page for BaddaBing BaddaBlog, so that readers have more space to communicate and discuss what was posted and because that seemed like the professional thing to do, which is another attempt at me trying to further legitimize my hobby to my friends and family. If you want to go to that page and maybe follow it, no pressure, but come on, you seriously won’t regret it click right here.

Next up is the posting schedule. After narrowing down some of my interests and keeping in mind what would best appeal to blog readers I’ve decided to write about the following topics on the corresponding days:

Monday = Manga/Anime

Wednesday = Pop Culture (usually of a nerdy, or in my opinion awesome, variety)

Friday = News (anything that I feel is interesting or relevant that happened during the week)

Saturday = Video Games

Sunday = Politics (political events not coved in Friday’s News post)

Of course there will also be some random posts thrown in there that will relate to whatever I happen to be pondering or musing. You can expect each post to be more or less an opinionated summary of what has been happening in each field recently, but there will also occasionally be reflections of what has been going on in each industry on a larger scale or my feelings about one specific person, item, or issue. Either way, it’s sure to be an entertaining (and maybe even enlightening) read regardless of what is focused on.

Now for the breaking of promises. I’m going to put a considerable amount of time and effort into making this blog awesome. While I my be a blogger newb, I know that that means posting up to date content on a regular schedule. However, shit happens. As my life changes I’m going to be able to post less or more frequently depending on what’s going on. I’d like to make this blog a major priority in my life and have the aforementioned schedule be a rigid one, but that’s just not going to be practical all of the time. So this is me apologizing in advance for inevitably missing some posts. I will my best to try to let readers know ahead of time if a post won’t be coming out and amend the post schedule accordingly as my life changes.

Alright, with that somewhat dreary thought out of the way, that’s all I’ve got to say for now. You can expect a news of the week post sometime tomorrow and regular posts after that. Thanks so much for reading and have a kickass Thursday.

This is BaddaBing BaddaBlog! I am Lucas DeRuyter, an aspiring Blogger, Writer, Entrepreneur, and Politician. Currently I am a student at the University of Wisconsin Madison and I’m loving every minute of it. I decided to create this blog as a way to discuss topics and create conversations that I have difficulty finding in my everyday life. Most of the stuff I post here will be related to current events in some manor and will be a combination of informing you, the reader, of what is going on and also contain my opinion on the matter to some degree. While many of the posts will relate to my aforementioned aspirations, you can also expect to see a large amount of pop culture, gaming, and generally nerdy subjects posted on this blog as well.

I’m still fine tuning my release schedule, and what type of content I want to post and when, but I should have something mocked up shortly. As soon as I get that together I will post it posthaste. I am currently thinking that I will have that up by tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

I also feel that need to mention that I have never done anything like this before. This is my very first blog and, other than a few articles I read on how to be a successful blogger, I have no clue what I am doing. To me this is both terrifying and exciting. Starting this blog is intimidating because I am not used to expressing my views and thoughts to what could potentially be a very wide audience and because I am unfamiliar with what I need to do for this project of mine to be successful and offer some kind of fulfillment to me. Despite these, in my opinion, valid concerns and worries, I am going to choose to focus on the aspects of starting a blog that excite me. I am looking foreword to learning how to operate a blog on the job. I also eagerly await creating connections with viewers and creating some new relationships. A part of me also hopes that this blog will eventually lead to a situation where somebody pays me to write about the things I enjoy, but that’s more of a down the road concern and I find that little good to fret over something that you have little control over. Well, after typing all of that I am sufficiently pumped to start this blog and seeing if this pet project turns into an adventure. Hopefully I can get a few people to come along for the ride.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye