*Heart Melts*

How adorable is the Halloween-themed 1-800-PET-MEDS interactive flash banner? I could tease that puppy with a treat all damn day.

Yippie Hooray

The Phillies were the very first team I became a fan of as a young boy living in South Jersey. Many of my most vivid childhood memories are related to the Phillies in some way. My dad took me to my first baseball game at the Vet on April 16, 1989, where they lost to the Cubs 5-3. I remember making a “Cubs Stink!” sign before the game, but my mom took it away from me before we left. I guess she didn’t want me to become an angry, bitter Philly fan just yet. I remember having a picture taken of me on the playground in my kindergarten class wearing a Phillies jacket and the first picture I drew in kindergarten was of my favorite player at the time, Von Hayes. And on July 9, 1993, my Cub Scout pack sang the national anthem at the Vet before the Phillies played Barry Bonds and the Giants.

MTV Music: Half-Assin’ It (For Now)

This week MTV debuted an online video archive to remind us they used to dabble in music before they decided ratings and subsequent ad dollars could be found in “reality” programming. MTV Music (that’s Music Television Music, for those who care for redundancy) gives us 16,000 music videos, concert performances, and interviews from the MTV vault. 16,000 videos, yet the site still finds a way to lack content.

One of the great challenges of the internet is you can have a site with a lot of “stuff” but you still need to find a way to use that “stuff” to its full capacity to make the site more interesting, engaging, and worthwhile. MTV Music has a shit load of music videos, but that’s about it. There is no editorial content. There are featured videos, but no explanation why they are featured. There is nothing promoting new artists or the discovery of new music. Most of the bios and similar artist recommendations are lifted verbatim from All Music Guide.

Ultimately the site is an archive, and you can use it as you wish. Unfortunately you don’t have too many options when you sign up for a profile. You have the ability to comment and add videos to a favorites list. You can share videos on your social networking profiles and blogs (although it looks like you can only do that on Blogger not WordPress, unfortunately). You can upload your own photos into a photo album, for what reason I don’t know. Where is the ability to make your own video playlists? Why isn’t there any option to randomly play videos from different genres, musical eras, or based on what you like and have already watched like you can with Pandora and net radio stations? These options would be far more useful than a photo album.

To be fair, the site is still in beta, so there may be some more tweaks and options on the way. It’s still worth checking out, and you might be surprised what videos you can find on there. And lastly, the videos are ad-free, so there is no waiting to watch, which is a huge plus.

Thanks to Certain Events, America Wins Free, Shitty Meal

Yesterday, Axl Rose confirmed a November 23, 2008 release date of Chinese Democracy, the Guns ‘N’ Roses album that has been 17 years in the making. This means Dr Pepper will go through with their previously announced promise to give everyone in America a free Dr Pepper as a reward for their patience with Mr. Rose. I still don’t like this move, but whatever, free Dr Pepper. I also don’t like the fact that you register for the coupon online (you have 24 hours to do so on November 23), but the coupon is mailed to you in four to six weeks. Maybe that’s their way of deterring people from getting the coupons, but they’re still wasting a lot of money on printing and postage. Bad move.

In other fatty goodness news, America wins a free taco from Taco Bell because Jason Bartlett stole a base in Game 1 of the World Series. This is part of Taco Bell’s Steal a Base, Steal a Taco promotion, and it’s the second year they’ve done this. All you have to do is go to Taco Bell on October 28 and claim your free taco between the hours of 2pm and 6pm. That’s too late for lunch, and too early for dinner. If “Fourth Meal” is late at night, what is this meal then? Two and Half Meal?

In Honor of Tonight

John Kruk on Letterman.

Go Phils!