Well, you know that contest idea I had up in my poll? I went ahead with it & put it up in my Mini-DDs 3rd Anniversary Special...Along with a second contest, in fact. You can see them both here: [link]

And I heartily encourage you to...Eh, you know what, after my last disappointing contest, I'm just going to f*** subtlety here. ENTER THESE CONTESTS. PROMOTE THEM. ANYTHING. SOMETHING. PLEASE.

...But I'm getting off topic there. This journal entry is meant to give some honor to one of my new best friends...

Hotspot Shield.

What is it, you may ask? Basically, it's a computer program you can get (from here, in fact: [link]) that will provide you with an alternate IP address so that when you're in public wireless hotspots, people can't spy on you, get your info, etc.

Okay, so I don't fully understand what it can do. basically, I just got it for it's lovely side effect: Because Hotspot Shield essentially "masks" your IP address as being located in America, thus allowing you to get content from American sites unavailable to other regions!! That means the content on Hulu, Last.fm, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, MTV...All available to anyone in the world!!

So the first thing I did was go to Hulu, & what did I find? That Hulu is...Kind of overrated, actually. o_O

I mean, at least 70% of the featured content just seemed to be clips from The Simpsons, Family Guy, & Saturday Night Live. All damn good clips, mind you, but it's kind of annoying to always see them front & center. And they don't even offer the full episodes they're from; Last time I checked, they only offered 5 full Simpsons episodes online. Really, it's not so much an evil plot to take over world as it is one just to kind of distract the world.

Nonetheless, I still have a lot to check out there...Particularly that '90s revival of The Outer Limits I remember watching a lot when I was a kid...

As for Cartoon Network & Adult Swim? That was a mixed bag. I went to watch full episodes of Chowder online...But there was only one episode there!! Heck, it wasn't even a full two-story episode, just one.

So then I go to Adult Swim to see all the episodes we haven't gotten up here yet. And go figure: When it's a show like Chowder, which has no central plot, only one episode is available. But for a show like Frisky Dingo, which does have a central plot, they put up every Season 2 episode except for the one that sets everything up & explains what's going on. Yeesh. Ah well, still enough sweet videos, episodes, & content in general (particularly their Amateur Surgeon game, although that may not have been region-specific...).

MTV (or as I prefer, MTV2 & MTVu)? Not much to say. Nice selection of videos, definitely, & nice to see more legit ones in high resolution & whatnot...I just wish browsing wasn't awkward at times (why have L7 listed as an artist in your Video section if you don't actually have any of their videos???).

Ahh, now Last.fm...That alone makes it all worth it. Piles & piles of free music to stream & download...I wasn't even interested in it until one the people using Hotspot Shield mentioned it. Now I doubt I can stay away from it!

So I guess looking at all, all the sites really didn't make up the land of milk & honey I had imagined. But nonetheless, Hotspot Shield does still kick ass indeed, & I shall indeed file in in with my best friends (at least until all those sites get wise to it). Here's to you, Hotspot Shield! *raises glass* ^_^

See the newest Mini-DDs here: [link]

And check out the Mini-DD Archive here: [link]