Do you know about Zach Anner? You probably have heard of him somewhere, but I’ll give you a quick rundown. Mr. Anner is a comedian with cerebral palsy, or, as he calls it, “the sexiest of all the palsys.” He lives in Austin where he does his stand-up routine. He submitted a video to Oprah’s “Who will be the next Oprah?” contest. It was hilarious, it was coherent, and it was a great idea. His Concept? A travel show where he will travel and see the world through the eyes of a disabled person. It wouldn’t be a serious, somber, oh-look-at-me-I’m-cripped-but-still-have-a-lot-of-heart show, but kind of like Anthony Bourdain minus the cooking, since he admitted that when he cooks he usually sets himself on fire.

Zach Anner was winning this contest, with over 9 million votes. Jon Mayer offered to write his show’s theme song. The internet raised him above their collective shoulders and told the world that he was a talent that could not be overlooked. But then the final results came.

Zach Anner ended up in seventh place, with 3 million votes. The vote was rigged. The first place winner was some airheaded bitch who wanted to “have a show with interesting stories.” A superficial, softball, intelligence-insulting program that would most likely involve the same boring tenets of Oprah’s yawn-inducing tearfest of a show. Sure, you can blame this on the producers of the upcoming reality show that the winner of this terrible contest will soon appear on, but the one person who could have made this right didn’t. Oprah Winfrey. She has always portrayed herself as a fair, honest, caring, compassionate individual, yet her show will now perpetuate the prejudice and unfairness that she has claimed to have fought her entire career. She’s no better than the people who treated her wrong in the beginning of her career because of her race and her gender. Her and her cronies probably believe that the airhead they chose will provide a more inspiring show, much like Oprah’s. But what could be more inspiring than a man with a terrible and debilitating disease overcoming his difficulties in order to do something that many able-bodied people dream of doing? I can’t think of anything, but apparently Oprah can.

The Harpo excuse for the vote-rigging is because the public was rigging the vote in favor of Anner. Well, it’s their fault for allowing you to vote as much as you wanted, and the public took advantage of it. We did it because Zach Anner was talented; because his concept worked; because he deserved it.

I never watched Oprah much, but I’ll be sure to never watch her godawful charade again. And I will always remind the people I know of how much of an unfair person she is. But, I do believe she should be nominated for an Emmy this year for her performance as a truly good person. She sure did have all of us fooled.

Now that the trip is over, I’m going to try and make the podcast priority number one. I’m going to pick up a microphone to use as a spare pretty soon, and I’m still waiting for my comrades to come through with their mics. We’ll probably use the spare for the time being and get a short two man show down the pipeline very soon.

For today, though, I’m gonna blow some stuff up. Happy birthday, Amerikuh!

I also want to let you readers, all six of you, that the podcast is still in the works. My chums are running into money problems so they haven’t been able to get their equipment yet. Shortly, though, we hope to get it up and running.

Now to go north and eat some Memorial Day BBQ.

Immediately, you’re catapulted into the captivating western landscape of New Austin. You’re John Marston, a retired outlaw who has been forced back to his old ways after he is threatened with the death of his family if he doesn’t kill all of his old riding buddies. You ride through the excruciatingly detailed hills, valleys, canyons and plains to complete mission after mission, slowly getting closer to your goal of killing those who were once your friends. But, you can throw all of that by the wayside and take part in all of the side quests, if you like, and spend even more time.

The replayability of this game is already apparent, even though I’m not even close to finishing the main campaign. You can hunt and skin animals for money, since pretty much every animal can be shot. You can save a prostitute from being shanked to death by a drunk old man. You can even pick flowers. Yes, seriously. Picking herbs and flowers for profit. I’m not even scratching the surface, though. There are so many things to do, you’ll be spending way more than the estimated twenty hours to finish the main storyline.

I’ve spent a huge amount of time just riding around, soaking in the sights. The graphics in this game are incredible. No detail was left untouched. From the massive red mesas in northern Mexico to the way the grass moves and the dirt clods fly when riding your horse, this game is absolutely stunning. It’s like being the star in a Clint Eastwood film.

All of this praise aside, there are a few flaws in the game. First off are the horses themselves. I always remember in the westerns that the outlaws always had to get fresh horses in order to outrun the marshal. Just to test the longevity of the horses in Redemption, I’ve stayed on the same horse for as long as possible. I’m pretty sure I’ve probably spent a week in game time on the same horse, riding at full speed constantly, and my horse is still as good as the first time I rode on it. Kind of unrealistic. Also, you can be riding at top speed and run head on into a rock, and nothing would happen. It almost seems like Rockstar forgot that horses are living things. All that happens is that the horse stops, changes direction, and keeps going. Just like many other things in the wild west, running your horse into a rock face should have consequences. If cyborg horses don’t exist now, they sure as hell didn’t exist in 1911.

Overall, the horse issues are nothing when put up against a game so deep and rich in both story and gameplay. I’ll definitely be playing this for many months into the future. Me and my cyborg horse will be friends forever.

UNT got another new president today, and his first order of business was commencement. I can only imagine what his first words were:

“Good afternoon! Welcome to…to…um…GRADUATION! Here at…oh…um…YOUR SPLENDID UNIVERSITY! I will now turn the podium over to uh…ummm…this nice gentleman to give the commencement address.”

He then moves around the stage awkwardly looking for his chair.

I can’t think of a more terrifying thing to do on your first day at work. Speaking to and dealing with people you have worked with for probably no more than two hours. But he seems like a nice guy, so I think he’ll do well in the one year he is slated to serve while we look for a long-term replacement.

Over the summer, I hope to finally get a podcast going with my friends. All we lack are more microphones and some content. I also would like to try writing a little more, since it is something I’d like to end up doing. Oh yeah, and relaxing, too. I’ve really needed more of that.

Finals week is inching ever closer, and I can’t wait to finally have some sort of break. I feel that I probably stretched myself a bit too thin this semester, so I’m going to try and take it a bit easier.

Spanish is the only class I still worry about. It’s my last required semester, so I can’t fail it, or else I’ll have to go through the terrifying thing again. As long as I pass, I’m happy. Other than that, all of my classes are going fairly well.

This fall, I’ll be taking all RTVF major courses. I’ll be taking Video Production, TV and Film Analysis, Film History, and hopefully Radio Practicum, where you basically get credit for working at the radio station. Should be a fun as hell semester, since I don’t have any basic bullshit classes to mess with.

An idea popped into my head yesterday as I was perusing Best Buy. I was walking through the photography section, when I found a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Then it hit me. Webcomic! Yes, I’m terrible at drawing, but my favorite webcomic, Toothpaste for Dinner, isn’t exactly the shining example of art on the internet. But, it’s funny as shit, and I think I could pull something like that off. However, I’m holding off at the moment, since I want to get a podcast going first. Hopefully that will materialize in the next couple of weeks.

In other news, the Denton Arts & Jazz fest is coming up on the 23-25, and I’ll be volunteering at the KNTU booth Friday night during the Chick Corea concert and Sunday afternoon during…some other stuff.

Don’t get we wrong, I really want changes made to America’s healthcare system, but I just feel that this bill was rushed and bullied through Congress so quickly that it’s going to end up being a horrible half-baked nightmare. It just seems like the President is foolishly using every drop of his political capital on this one issue. If it fails, it’s curtains for him. Which is sad, since he seemed pretty promising in the beginning.

Politics aside, my Spring break was pretty good. I worked 99% of it, but that just adds up to a nice extra cushion for my Austin trip. On the one afternoon I actually had off I just putted around Frisco and ate Swedish meatballs at Ikea. Boy, I sure know how to party.

A quick update on the Podcast situation. I do have a podcast in the works with a few friends of mine. We’re trying to think of a name, and I also need to buy a mixer board and some other equipment. We would like to get it started by next month.

Spring break is now among us here in Denton, America, and the town will be practically dead come Monday. The only thing keeping people within the confines of the county is the NX35 music conferette, a kind of SXSW Jr that lasts through the weekend. I’ll be covering at least one radio shift at KNTU this next week, and since it’s spring break, I’ll be getting paid! Sure, it’s probably just minimum wage, but anything extra helps greatly.

I’ve been getting back into digital camera shopping mode, since I really can’t find a desirable old Volkswagen within my budget. Still seriously considering the Pentax k-x, but it’s been getting harder and harder to ignore Canon after the announcement of the T2i.

Ugh, not much more to say this week. Hopefully something will reveal itself.