Archive for the ‘Shopping’ Category

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To Be or Not to Be a Kiwi Dad in Emergency Situations

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Sometimes I wonder whether I did well when I decided to move to New Zealand. Occasionally I get a hint. Today I went to get my kid from school and, as he was coming from the indoor swimming pool with all his wet stuff tucked randomly in his backpack, a bright red box fell on the footpath. It was a pocket-size waterproof electronic device which combines radio (including two SW bands), LED torch and USB laptop/cellphone charger, a battery-free dual-powered (dynamo and solar) compact emergency unit. Initially, my Romanian-educated instincts made me believe that my son pinched it somehow and I was ready to take it to the ‘lost and found property’ area, then I realized that every single kiddo had one of them. The NZ Red Cross gave every single school-aged child in Christchurch this survival item in the wake of the terrible earthquake we had earlier this year. Yet sometimes I doubt I’ve made a good decision by coming to this country – in the end of the day I didn’t get a bright red solar radio to listen to my cricket when I have my beer pretending that I’m out fishing, boating or camping. This is age discrimination and I should complain to the authorities!

This is no advert, I really like it!

Oh, it seems that the Americans get a fake version of this device. Watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_10KXcTGV4g

only if you have nothing better to do. Mine (my son gifted it to me: ‘you can have it, Dad’) has better features!

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Posted in Boating, earthquake, Fishing, LIVE MOCKOBLOG, MOCKOPEDIA, Shopping, Travel | Comments Closed

A Different Perspective on the ‘News of the World’ Phone Hacking Scandal

Sunday, July 17th, 2011

This is something everybody seems to agree upon: the evil Murdoch Media Empire played dirty and must now pay the price. This article doesn’t intend in any way to condone the use of bribe, beach of privacy, or support any moral assault on people who are already victims. Yet there is another story behind this story and most media outlets seem to ignore it.

Cameron

Media and Power, Power and Media

More or less controlled by (and not necessarily 100% obedient to) commercial interests, in the free world Media is one of the few ways people can have access to what’s happening behind the closed doors of the various structures of Power. In some cases, journalists use non-orthodox methods to gather information. This information creates the modern panem et circenses. Bred for the journalists themselves and their bosses, yes, but also circus, fun, entertainment and, last but not least, knowledge for the masses.

Partnership between media and financial and/or political interests is common. Many politicians have been on the other side of the pen, microphone or camera not long before becoming who they are now. Normally, politicians and journalists don’t cut each other’s throats. Even less common is for a journalist to attack another.

Surely, there are many other dirty stories of dubious methods used by the media, yet they don’t usually surface. What makes this one special? It’s the timing.

Poor old Rupert looked like a granddad not yet out of his pajamas when the postman called in with the news and it took him days to realize what was actually happening. This proves he had no clue, which, in turn, proves there had been thorough planning into this. If the most powerful media magnate couldn’t get a hint of what was going to come, the information leak had to be sourced inside  circles that not even the many sources of the Murdoch Empire had any access to. This kind of information doesn’t just leak. If it leaks,it stops before hitting the front page.

So timing: why release this bombshell in July 2011, years after the hacking had taken place? The answer is, at a superficial level at least, obvious: the deal over BSkyB had to be prevented at any cost.

Sky TV

Who Is to Benefit?

Just ponder: if BSkyB doesn’t change hands, who is to benefit? Not only economically, but politically. Who so desperately needs the status qvo in British Media? Who’s hiding behind the smoke screen?

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Posted in Art, Conspiracy, Electronics, General, LIVE MOCKOBLOG, Media, Shopping, Travel | Comments Closed

Melissa Theuriau Has Nothing to Do with Mockoblog

Friday, September 17th, 2010

In the wake of the uncovering of the (allegedly) unlawful use of her image on the Net, we wish to re-assure Melissa Theuriau that our site has never used her image to promote anything that she was not related or contracted to.

Melissa Theuriau NOT on Mockoblog

However, various advertisers on this space might have used Melissa’s perfectly proportioned features and dynamic attitude in still pictures to promote products that our site has no direct link to. (Actually, if we click on the active adverts inserted in our site, we get penalized.)

As a sign of recognition for her image being (ab)used in a page hosted apparently by us, Mockoblog is happy to donate to Melissa 100% of its earnings from advertising not only on that page, but for the whole last 12 months. This is no offence. We expect Melissa Theuriau to donate this money back to us, as it wasn’t our fault, either. The sum we gathered from our TOTAL  adverts is around US 0.66 in the past year, in huge contrast to what others WILLINGLY using her image have made.

Please check:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/4138888/The-face-that-launched-a-global-ad-scam

and, Melissa, we are sorry we can’t do much more to put this right. It’s not your fault you look the way you are.

melissa theuriau a few of

Posted in Art, Conspiracy, General, Internet Fun - Joke of the Day, Shopping | Comments Closed

How NOT to Buy – The 2nd Edition

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

A few months back I posted this on mockoblog.com. I thought it would be funny. Now, with the controlled recession around for such a long time, I find it not. Then, I had lots of comments and I deleted them as being superficial. Now, sorry, I have a different feeling about the issue. Please take two minutes of your valuable time and read bellow. You will come to your own conclusions, no doubt.

—


One of the silliest things I can think of is shopping. And I absolutely love it!

I fully accept that shopping is therapy for depression, obesity, measles, catalepsy and many other conditions I claim not to have.  People go shopping even when their account is in red, they get deeper in debt, yet they fell better. If a new pair of slippers could make you fell reborn, a new car will take you straight to Nirvana (I experienced it eight times).

The daily act of shopping is a bit like having sex, maybe with a softer ending, but safer, generally speaking. Sometimes it can involve a little redundancy (daily dairy shopping across the road) but this is like being in a strong matrimonial relationship: loads of fidelity and no surprises. Yet some other times shopping is a heavenly experience: go to Paris or Melbourne, Milan or Tokyo, get a cab and ask the driver to stop as soon as you see a shop with the letter ‘N’ third on its name or just walk on a busy commercial street and pick the seventh shop on the left. Go in and I bet you’ll find something to buy. Now, this is like having a one night stand and waking up with no hangover and the love of your life bringing you breakfast in bed. The only significant difference is that with shopping you can experience this far more often than in real life.

Shopping is power: I can buy; therefore I must have money, which means I’ve got the power.

Shopping is kindness: I can buy something for you; therefore I show you how much I care and how important you really are for me. (And shopping for YOU means even more power: I’m so powerful that I can even afford to  buy it for you, not for ME.)

In a way or another, for many years I sold stuff or I advertised for other people’s stuff so they could sell it better. I know the look in the eyes of a person who wants to buy as well as the expression on the face of somebody who can not afford buying. Shopping is a drug. It is more addictive than nicotine, it is compulsive and unforgiving. Its high is very short lived when compared to how much you spent for achieving it and, what’s worse, shopping is not only legal, but encouraged. In fact shopping is the vital force of our society and one of the few differences between our species and the others.

Having had a lot to do with shopping and selling, I thought I may write a book on how NOT to buy stuff. I’d put really cool little secrets in there, like how not to make eye contact with the salesman and how not to… Forget it! I’m hoping a smart publisher will read this blog and offer me a contract for the printed, podcasted, DVD recorded and the online versions of How Not to Buy. Sorry, this is why I won’t disclose any tricks in here. (Not just yet.) I hope you’ve enjoyed the introduction though.

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Posted in General, Shopping | Comments Closed

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