OK, I have to start by saying that I am a die-hard spongebob fan. With that being said, I have probably not seen any new episodes in 2 years. The last few episodes I watched were not funny. The same tired storyline. Plankton stealing the formula. Well, guess what? This movie has that same tired storyline. I was so stoked to see this in 3D, but even that couldn’t save this extended episode.
Sorry, Nickelodeon.
If they had made this a musical, it might have worked. If they had made it with muppets, it might have worked. If they had come up with a unique story, it might have worked.
I get it, Nickelodeon. Sheeple love repetition. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. As long as someone needs an hour without paying attention to their child, this story will sell.
There was one laugh out loud moment. I don’t remember what it was, but it was probably inappropriate for kids.
I don’t want to totally take this movie down, as the “live action” was done well, even though I don’t like animation and live action mixed, they made the characters very well. They blended into the scenery well.
I usually love the 4th wall being broken, but don’t like self-aware characters. This was full of characters who know who spongebob was. Even on dry land, some baby points out spongebob and says his name.
After seeing the first movie, my expectations for this one was very low. With that, I was still disappointed.
It is time for a new story, spongebob.
Wonder Woman Slot Machine Hollywood Hard Rock
I had almost given up on the new Wonder Woman Wild or Wonder Woman Gold slot machines ever making it to South Florida. I was watching someone play on youtube and thought I would check Hard Rock Hollywood, FL’s website to see if they list all the slot machines they have. Luckily, they list the new machines and at the bottom of the list, there was Wonder Woman! Within 5 minutes, I was dressed and out the door!
When I arrived in the casino, I walked around, seeing if I would see the big sign above the multiple cluster of machines and hear the theme song. No luck. I finally asked an employee at the table games and she needed to call someone, who told her where it would be.
She was nice enough to walk me over to the area, and the clouds parted, angels sang. No one was using it, so I didn’t have to push anyone away. There was only one. I sat down, put my twenty in….
I will have to say that this machine did not have a lot of action. I was worried that I was not even going to get the bonus before I ran out of money. Luckily, Lynda Carter saw my sadness and it forced the bonus, which was even better because it felt like she was “protecting me”. LOL
There are three choices when you get to the bonus on Wonder Woman Wild. 8 spins with 60 more wilds added to the reels, 16 spins with 40 extra wilds and 25 spins with 25 wilds. I chose the middle one this time. It paid out around 15 bucks. Meh. But during the bonus, I found that this was when the theme song was on a loop and, if you’re like me, you LOVE the theme. It is the perfect mix of disco, tv and drama. So the next time I got the bonus, I chose the 25 spins to drag the theme out. When anything hits on a line, of course it goes through showing you what hit, which can drag the theme song out for a while.
The payout was not enough to continue to play for long periods. Had I not been a big fan of WW, I would have given up very soon.
What really paid out was the almost full screen of wilds during regular play. I am a reel stopper, so I attempted that and it was horrible for a while. But a few times, the screen would fill up with wilds and it really paid out then.
Make sure you turn the volume up so you can hear the driving bass during regular play. It really took me back to the 70s!
If you are not a huge fan, after a while, you may become bored with this. It didn’t really have much going on, sorry to say.
Here are directions to where the machine was located on 1/25/2015:
The hallway in front of HardRock Cafe, the machine faces out, the first machine in the corner.
Android Lollipop 5.02 Multiple User Settings Missing FIX
I am trying out android 5.02 lollipop on my SGH-I317 and I could not find the USERS settings. It was missing. Why? I found out that some ROMs only support one user. You can change this if you have “su” access to your rooted phone.
Obviously, back up your device before trying anything.
Check to see if you have just 1 user supported:
Play store.
Terminal Emulator
Type in su
Type in pm get-max-users
If it says 1,then you can do the following:
(Substituting the 8 below with the number of users you want…)
setprop fw.max_users 8
pm create-user usernameyouwanthere
Now users will show up under settings/device. The article that I got this information from mentioned steps to get this to stick, so I will assume that once you reboot, it may go back to 1 user. I rebooted and it kept my user settings.
When you go to settings/user, then press the menu button, there is a check box that says “add users when device…” and I cannot see the rest of the message. I will assume that this means when device reboots? I left it unchecked and it maintained my user settings, so not sure what that check box is for.
[UPDATE: The message supposedly reads “add users when device is locked”. Per google, this means that when you lock the device, you can create a new user to use the device. I don’t think I will be using that feature. ]
If needed, you will have to use adb to get this change to be permanent, as terminal emulator did not work for this on my device.
adb shell
su
mount -o rw,remount /system
echo fw.max_users=4 >> build.prop
exit
exit
adb reboot (or reboot the device however you want)
This info was found on:
How I Saved My SGH-I317 ATT Note 2
I decided that my unlocked SGH-I317 ATT Note 2 running on t-mobile would be great with the t889’s wifi calling feature. Loaded up Odin, used sammobile’s t889 rom and halfway through it failed.
This wasn’t my first rom, so I just thought, oh well, back to the one I was using.
Insert dramatic music here.
Nope. Boot loop. Bootloop. Bootloop.
Ok, so I can just go into philz recovery and wipe it clean. Load again. Nope.
Used Odin’s nand erase. Nope.
At some point during my trials, philz became super slow. Oh no… maybe it was something with the processor. Nope. Loaded philz again and it was faster.
I went back to first stock, then upgraded stock, then another rom… then back to original stock again.
During my wiping with philz, I must have formatted the right thing. It booted up to stock! I thought it was ok. Nope. My I317 would not get a cell signal.
The IMEI was null/null. The baseband was unknown. I didn’t know about efs partition until this moment. So no backup.
I tried to upgrade the stock rom again. While I was in the phone, I did notice that there were several levels of what appeared to be installs of android. The \0\ folder where the newer OS’ reside looked like \0\0\0\0\0 and each one of those had an install of android.
Adb should take care of that. For a day I tried to format eveything so I could start over fresh.
Bootloop again.
More days of inet search for any help. Finally broke down and started looking for someone online who could repair it. Found someone on ebay. They said to contact them via text. I did that and they didn’t respond.
A few more days of playing with it and I found the right combination of steps to flash a rom, but still with no signal. Baseband unknown again. Null IMEI.
When wiping the device with philz, it didn’t seem to be wiping everything automatically (using the option wipe for new rom).
Here’s what worked: (in this order)
1.Wipe davlik cache under advanced (sometimes this was available to wipe, sometimes not. Try it.)
2.go to mounts and format everything that’s listed there (except external sd, which you shouldn’t have inserted anyway if you are in this loop, as that may be one of your issues.)
3. Wipe cache.
4. The last step was to wipe for new rom. This should go quickly since you have formatted everything.
When you then use odin to install a stock rom, click nand erase all.
When you flash the stock rom, everything should be back to factory settings. Still no baseband. Still IMEI null/null.
Up and running, I found that since my phone was a non-blacklisted IMEI and I had the serial, Samsung Kies supposedly took it back to factory settings INCLUDING the efs folder.
Tried for days. Kies 3 recognized the phone once and ignored it after that. Kies 2 never recognized it. Oh, it knew the phone was there. But never wanted to play nice.
That’s ok, from what I read, it would still take the phone back in time. People said you had to be patient. Tried that. It would download the firmware upgrade file to get the rom, but would then sit for hours, blacked out and not responding.
Tried reinstalling Kies, upgrading Kies, upDATING Kies. Bleh.
I was trying to find one of my philz backups on my windows 7 machine and thought, while I am here, I will try kies again. Kies 2, started it, it downloaded the firmware! Would it work? YES!!!!!!!!
Kies did not work on Windows 8.1.
Kies 2.? on windows 7. Do NOT update/upgrade when it pops up.
****While the phone is in download mode and is upgrading, go to windows explorer, type this into the bar at the top:
%TEMP%
And hit enter.
Then, sort by date modified. Find the folder that is the most recent something like
Temp unzipped something…
Look in there and if you see 4 very long filenames and one starting with CSC, go back up to the folder and quickly copy it somewhere else. Once Kies has finished flashing your device, it will delete the original folder.
Supposedly, that CSC file contains your serial/IMEI combination. Looking at ODIN, there is another place to put a CSC file instead of a PDA file.
Steps:
1. Windows 7
2. Samsung Kies 2.(?)
3. Plug in your phone. No need to see if it recognizes it.
4. Firmware upgrade
5. Type in SGH-I317. This HAS to be all uppercase and match the phone’s model to their database!!!
6. It will ask for your serial #.
7. Follow the steps after it downloads the upgrade files. It will ask you to confirm stuff. It will also tell you to put your phone in download mode. Volume DOWN+HOME+POWER.
8. As soon as it starts sending the files to your phone, start windows explorer and type in the bar %TEMP%, find temp unzipped folder by date modified, copy somewhere safe.
Everything is fixed!
If this helped you, please help me out. Any site that is helpful usually has an ad somwhere on it and when you visit that ad, they get credit. You didn’t have to spend any cash, either!
Amazon.com’s New Show Transparent
I had seen a few ads with Jeffrey Tambor and a woman’s hands while surfing the web and eventually read about Transparent. I assumed it was a comedy, and wanted to check it out.
Amazon.com Prime membership allows you to watch the whole season, but they give you a preview of the first episode.
I am hooked.
I kept waiting for Jeffrey’s laugh out loud moments (a la Arrested Development), and while waiting, I was sucked into the storyline, so when the episode was overwith, I wanted more.
The music choices along with excellent acting has made this one of my favorite shows. Most of the time, when someone plays a transgendered person, they go over the top queeny or not enough “gay”. I have known someone who was trans and so I base my opinion of actors on her.
(Just for internet immortality’s sake, I will mention her. She is no longer with us, from what I hear. When I was 19, I met her. Can’t remember what she said her name was right now, but will update this if my brain starts working again. The reason I have a hard time remembering is this: I was at a friend’s house in Henderson, NC and she came over with her mother. The mother stayed in the car while she visited. After about 10 minutes, the horn blows and the mother starts yelling “Jimmy!” I asked who she was calling and my transgendered guest said that Jimmy was her boy name. I asked her if I could question her about the transition and she agreed. She had her surgery at Duke University Hospital. While making her “lady parts”, they pierced her colon, so from that point on, she wore a colostomy bag. Needless to say, the surgery was free. She looked 30s and she was close to 60, I think. She explained that the estrogen treatments reversed her aging. I hope when she passed that she looked like jailbait. She was very sweet.)
Jeffrey plays this role with such believability. I want to believe that I am watching his reality show. The emotion for the kids is set up to make you tolerate them. The acting is great from everyone, but they make you want to cut them out of the will.
Then, from nowhere, Judith Light plays an aging jewish mother to a “T”. It was great to see her again and I would like to explain why she is in this. Judith has been a very good friend to the gay commmunity from way back to the AIDS epidemic beginnings. She rallied with us. She fought for us. Excellent choice to bring her on board! (By the way, thanks, Judith! We never forget our friends!)
If this show doesn’t win every award on earth, I will be surprised.
American Horror Story: Freakshow Review S04E01
I am a huge fan of the show, but the images and small teasers that I have gotten thus far had made me leery of what was to come. So, I tried to hold down my hopes for the season premier.
I felt the show started off very slow and some people are scared of clowns, but I wouldn’t base a whole show around it. I felt there was a little too much in the beginning about the murderclown. I hope that there will be a twist down the line.
One of the things I have loved from past seasons was the digital enhancement to make Jessica Langue younger, and the two-headed woman was done extremely well! There were no glitches in the stitching of the two heads at all. The subtle things such as the passive head leaning over while the aggressive one is upright is such a nice touch. I also applaud the split screen effect they used to separate the two at certain points. It was odd to begin with, but nice to be able to see the dialog actor and the reaction actor at the same time.
About 75% through the first episode, the show started getting my attention. I would attribute this to them finally being at the circus, a plot developing and of course, Jessica’s Life on Mars performance in Marlena Deitrich voice and look. When it first started, I was groaning, but when it was over and she reacted, then explained what her goals were, I was touched and “felt” her. This was what I liked about her performance in previous seasons. In one episode, she elicited a negative response, then in the next, a positive one. If you know my view of “art”, I always say, love or hate something, it is art. If it is forgettable, then it is not art. Jessica produces art.
I do have a gripe with the whispering every line with noise and music and the accent wasn’t really necessary, but I will forgive them because they gave me the last few seconds of the episode, which made me appreciate everything before then.
Kathy Bates. Hmm… We are made to like her character as being the most “grounded”. Looking back on the “bearded lady” acts, I tend to believe that they were either fake or they were drag queens. Kathy’s character came off as a lesbian to begin with, but ended up being more of a rural working woman. She is a caregiver, mother to lobster boy and apparently the bouncer.
The tall woman and the tattooed guy are good actors. They didn’t sound stiff like cameo actors usually do.
As a whole, the show was good. It took a while to kick in, but now I am actually interested in the story.
The story so far:
Freakshow Circus is in town with very little turnout. A local two-headed girl is in hospital. She is force-ably recruited to join the circus. Meanwhile, a murderclown is terrorizing the town. Two headed girl is blamed. Policeman comes to arrest her and is killed by lobsterboy. Sold out show ends up being two people who bought out the seats. Jessica performs a song and then realizes her dream of being discovered is dashed. These two are there to “buy” the two headed girl. She refuses to leave the circus. Jessica reveals that she, too, is a “freak”.
i317 AT&T KitKat 4.4.2 DS-NE5v1
How I got this installed on my i317.
After many attempts with other downloads and ROMs, I finally got KitKat (DS-NE5v1) installed and running on my US version of AT&T’S Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (II) i317.
Here is what you need:
Windows PC and Odin Just to install Philz Touch (below)
Philz Touch ( This is a backup/restore utility and installer. You will wonder how you got along without it.)
After installing Philz Touch, you don’t need anything but your phone.
DS-NE5V1
When I first installed this, everything seemed OK until I checked the camera. It would open but then it would say that the camera failed. I couldn’t live without the camera, so I went back to my last backup. I saw that someone else was having the same issue and suggested the “ne5 back to stock camera” that was on the same page as DS-NE5V1 Rom. So I tried that as well. No luck.
Back to my old OS. Found that someone suggested downloading another camera app from the play store. Installed again, tried that. No go. Back to old OS.
I decided to try this one more time and then try installing GAPPS to see if that would work.
This time, by accident, I didn’t wipe the phone first, so when I booted up, it said “updating apps…”
oops!
But wait… this would mean that all my settings would still be there… hmm
So, I let it finish. Checked the camera… It worked!
One of the things that NE5 said was to wait a few minutes for things to “settle”, but I was anxious. WiFi didn’t work. Texting didn’t work. Ugh..
So went back to old OS.
For some reason, I wanted to give it one more shot.
Installed. Checked camera. Waited a few minutes. Checked text. Did not work. I thought, maybe this new “hangouts” wants me to switch to that instead of messaging. Started it up. I guess by that time, I was about 5 minutes in. The text went through, but WiFi was having issues. So, I turned off WiFi and tried to send a picture via MMS. That worked. Turned WiFi back on, looked like it was connecting… Finally!
Checked inet. Yep. Send MMS. Yep.
I was in business!
So, the thing with this is give it about 10 minutes for everything to be set up properly. Maybe even 20 for your apps to update over WiFi as well. Then test it.
The steps:
Install over your OS (obviously after backing it up)
Boot up
Walk away for 20 minutes.
Culture Club – New Album?!
Over the years, my tastes in music have changed and my passion for “new” music has waned.
One of my biggest musical influences was Culture Club/Boy George. What I really liked from the band was their ability to make every song sound different. That was the 80s mindset. People did not want an album full of clone songs or filler.
I opened youtube today and saw that George had posted a teaser for Culture Club’s “new album”. The last few things George had put out were not to my liking, but the Culture Club album “Don’t Mind If I Do” was amazing. So I pressed play with my hopes not too high.
I actually liked it! I think I really liked the lyrics more so than the song as a whole. But that was the 80s mindset. Write intelligent and interesting lyrics.
So here it is for your listening pleasure. I can’t wait to hear more!
Coffee Maker Wars – Keurig/Tassimo/Nespresso
I love coffee.
I held out for a long time after Keurigs came out to get one. I LOVED it. The convenience of one cup, being able to use my own coffee and the ease of use had me hooked.
Until I found Tassimo.
I wasn’t able to use my own coffee with this machine, but the flavor and the temperature was a Keurig killer. The T-Discs for Tassimo are slightly more expensive, but well worth it. Going back and forth between the two, Keurig has an instant overtone. I was enjoying my Tassimo until it became harder to find the T-Discs in stores.
Uh-oh….
I have mentioned this before – any product that I really like gets taken off the market. Razors, soap, deodorant, cologne. And now, the slow demise of Tassimo.
I was able to regularly get T-Discs from Bed, Bath & Beyond, but growing weary of having to go there just for the discs. I started ordering them from Tassimo online. They have automatic shipments, if you like.
My supervisor bought a Nespresso machine for us to use and, while it makes good espresso, I would still say the Tassimo espresso is superior. Nespresso ONLY does espresso.
I wanted a true espresso maker that would do everything automatically, so I found Mr. Coffee (!) Cafe Barista at Bed Bath & Beyond for $200. (their ever present 20% off coupon made it $160) This machine is GREAT!! It has a removable container for the milk and it AUTOMATICALLY makes cappuccino and lattes. No more manual frothing.
So, my choice (until I find the combo coffee/espresso/cappuccino machine) is Tassimo for regular coffee and Mr. Coffee’s Cafe Barista for espresso drinks.
Wonder Woman Slot Machine With Lynda Carter
I was just speaking with someone a few days ago and said, “if there was a Wonder Woman slot machine, I would be spending all my money on it!” Well, I remembered to look it up tonight, and I just found out that Bally’s is working on one!!!! The great thing is that it actually has Lynda Carter and lots of video from the show. The bad thing is that I am now on a quest to find this machine nearby.
Check it out here: