Prison Break Shocker
Spoiler Alert.
I love this show. The first season was pretty good and would have been better if Scofield had been allowed to show some emotion. I realize that a lot of people prefer the first season but for me Prison Break became really exciting in the second season and through the third season. Thanks mostly to Theodore ‘T-Bag’ Bagwell who is easily the best character on the show and one of the most scary individuals to (dis)grace our TV screens. He is at his best when trying to charm others but his sinister charm is unfortunately wasted a little in Season 3.
Anyway, back to the point. When Sarah was killed and had her head put in a box to make a grizzly point it was shocking. It was very shocking but not as shocking as her coming back from the dead one season later. I really don’t see why they have to bring her back. For one, it doesn’t make sense. Lincoln saw her head in the box! He’s not going to mistake it for someone else. And even though they claim he only looked at it for a second, I think in reality, he would have double checked. Also, where are the bad guys going to find a Sarah lookalike and it had to be a lookalike because they are professionals. They are not going to risk Lincoln checking the head more carefully and there is no way that they could guess he wouldn’t.
Another argument is that she was decapitated in the same room as LJ, Lincolns son. And while he claimed to have shut his eyes while it happened, the bad guys had no way of knowing he would so how are they going to pull off a fake decapitation in the same room.
The one great thing about this show though, is the way that it plays with our emotions and makes us sympathize with bad men such as Alex (another great performance) and Bellick. I think if they had to bring back a character though it should have been Haywire. He brought a lot of laugh out loud moments. Sarah is just a love interest.
New Cafepress Packaging
Quality control is an important issue at PODs and Cafepress is no exception. There have been countless tales of wrong/missing orders and such like but I think one of the things that rankled shopkeepers the most is knowing from personal experience that their shirts and stickers and things are sometimes haphazardly stuffed into a bag and sent out. To be fair though, all the items I received from Cafepress were in good condition and folded fairly neatly.
Cafepress has decided to address some of these quality issues which can be seen in the recent upgrading of the way they send the receipts and now they have also upgraded the way they pack the shirts. It is the result of shopkeeper feedback and the recently implemented Cafepress Voice. To all who say otherwise, here is evidence that Cafepress does indeed listen to the shopkeepers. “Starting this week, all apparel in orders will be rolled and wrapped in a recycled paper band, held together with a sticker.” From their announcement it seems there will be more improvements to come.
I have to admit though, that when I received the notification of the new packaging I had expected something more like the new Zazzle.com packaging that was introduced recently. Cafepress items come in a white plastic bag with the trademark green and black logo while Zazzle items come in a very sleek futuristic package. They say it is “technomatic, electrostatic, and polyethylene-omatic” but I say that it is awesom-atic.
Competition: Threadless.com
Threadless is one of the more famous online t-shirt sites. Sometimes people confuse it with a P.O.D. but it is quite different. In most of the PODs you retain ownership of your design and to a certain extent you can decide how much profit to make on each t-shirt. Threadless is more of a competition. You submit your designs for approval and if they are chosen you will be awarded cash and other benefits in exchange for your design. (See site for technical details).
Of course that is the interesting part. How much money you may ask. Here is what it says on their web site: If your idea is selected for print you will receive
- 2,000 in cash
- $500 Threadless Gift Certificate (can be redeemed for $200 cash)
- $500 in cash each time your design is reprinted
- Up to $10,000 more if you win a “Bestee” in the Threadless Awards
Alumni Club membership including a Medal of Honor and other goodies
If you are not sure about the quality of your design you can also submit it for Critique, where people will tell you whether you should submit it or not, or possibly that it needs some work. They may also give you some pointers on how to improve it. For my first submission for Critique I have been told not to submit it by one person who chose not to give his reasons and then ignored but it has only been a few hours.
If you are a member of Threadless please go over and give your opinion on my submission and if you are not a member why not join?
Barack Obama T-Shirts
Obama Obama Obama. People are getting sick of hearing about this guy. Or are they really? At the moment Barack Obama T-Shirt sales are skyrocketing and here is a great selection of Barack Obama Tee Shirts that can be found at Zazzle.com. There is a huge selection and it is growing fast.
Watch All South Park Episodes
Fans of South Park rejoice. You will now be able to watch all episodes for free. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said that they were really sick of having to download our their own show illegally all the time that they gave themselves a legal alternative. You can watch them at South Park Studios, the series’ new online HQ offering free viewing of all 12 seasons of South Park.
These T-Shirts and a great selection of band t-shirts can be found over at Jiggy.com.
Victory for Free Speech
Everybody in the t-shirt business knows that their is a fine line between parody and copyright/trademark infringement but a recent landmark case has sided with the parody camp. Walmart took Cafepress shopkeeper Charles Smith to court over several images they deemed to be infringing on their brand.
Charles Smith opened his store and sold t-shirts more as a protest against Walmarts policies than to make money and the courts upheld his right to freedom of expression. Cafepress CEO, Fred Durham, said “CafePress has been empowering self-expression via merchandise since 1999. We’ve known for years that T-Shirts, bumper stickers and the like are a powerful publishing medium, just like books. The judge recognized that selling T-Shirts for a profit doesn’t weaken their first purpose as a means of self- expression…”.
Zazzle and Cafepress Sales
These two stores frequently hold sales and they like to shake it up a little by making their sales seem unique and purposeful. This time the Cafepress sale is in celebration of Earth Day and what better way to celebrate Earth Day by being a consumer [insert sarcastic smiley here]. Zazzle on the other hand is going for the seemingly less altruistic but perhaps more honest road by encouraging people to purchase t-shirts for Spring Break. I definitely think booze and vulgar t-shirts are more appropriate for Spring Break than the pretty things they are advertising though.
The Zazzle sale is valid from March 24, 2008 at 12:00am PDT through March 28, 2008 at 11:59pm PDT. The coupon code is ZAZZLEBREAK8. Details here.
Wanted Poster on a T-Shirt
I live in Japan so I am very familiar with the story of the Lindsay Hawker murder. It is now one year later and still the murderer has not been found. It is not not because there is no suspect though. In a case of Japanese Police incompetence (of which there are many) the suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi, managed to get through a group of policemen and escape barefoot, never to be seen again.
This week, her family have arrived back in Japan, to see what they can do about finding him. Of course they want justice. There is a lot of support in Japan for this British family and one person has even thought to put the wanted poster on a t-shirt and sell them at cost from Cafepress. Of course if you are not living in Japan, there is very little point in purchasing the shirt for yourself as it is quite unlikely that he has fled the country. On the other hand they do have a system set up where they will give the t-shirts to people living in Japan so if you want to bring a little bit of peace to the family of the victim please purchase a t-shirt.
Threadless T-Shirt Sale Extended
The Threadless t-shirt sale has been extended and to make it even better they are also offering coupons. You can read the details below but it seems there were some server issues and I just went over there to take a look and it seems like it may still be having some issues but be patient and you can get some great t-shirts at a great price. Scroll down to see some more of my favorites from Threadless.
Earlier this week, during your most crucial purchasing moments of our Spring Cleaning sale, we experienced some serious down-time. The frustration that many of you experienced while trying to make purchases is unacceptable and we promise to never ever let this happen again forever ever.
To allow you to make the most of the sale, our friends at Rackspace (the folks that host Threadless) are sponsoring five thousand $5 coupons on orders of $50 or more. The first five thousand people to use the coupon code ’spring08′ during the Spring Cleaning sale will receive $5 off their order on top of the already discounted sale price. Time to go on a shopping spree!!!!
In addition to the $5 coupons and to make up for lost time, we are extending the Spring Cleaning sale until 11:59:59 CST on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008! The new shirts to be released on Monday will also be on sale!
SC Highway Patrol Use Cars to Ram Suspects
There is a scandal brewing up along with a federal investigation into the actions of a few bad eggs in the South Carolina Highway Patrol. There are apparently three videos of Highway Patrol Officers chasing down and hitting suspects with their cruisers. You can check out one of the videos below.
What makes it worse is that this was intentional and he even says so on the video. What an idiot! And that is where this t-shirt design comes from. Police brutality is a serious issue and needs to be dealt with. The more people who are aware of this issue the less likely it is to happen.
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