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Archive for the ‘Maintenance’ Category

Tension is running as high as ever as I try to scramble Banana Scoop to the glory it once was.  I may be self obsessed with this idea of my need for validation, but I consider this more than a hobby, so it’s important to me that I continue to release these maintenance notes as a possible solution.  It has come to my attention that many of my followers before the change are no longer receiving my updates in their readers.  This is heart breaking news to me, seeing as I worked very hard to get the 350+ followers I currently have and am unable to give them the news they followed me for in the first place.

So it’s time for drastic action.  Starting this weekend, I’m going to begin visiting each and every one of my followers and leaving a polite message regarding if they wish to continue following me, that they resubscribe by hitting ‘unfollow’ and ‘follow’.  This is a proven methodology and I advise any of those who are reading that haven’t done so already, to please make their mouses way to the follow screen above.

We’re still in transition mode and we’re trying to get things running back 100%.  With Universidaze and my tablet on the fritz, this stressful page load shift, and real life beyond this computer, it’s getting tougher and tougher to hold on.  But you’re all worth it!  So hang tight with us as we wade our way through this thick mud.  I still have lots of events planned for you guys, so thanks for all the support.

-Banana Feed Team

Thanks to Victors Movie Reviews for point this out!

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It’s probably more poor planning that it is the excuse I’m going to give.  But I wasn’t able to finish this week’s comic primarily because my Bamboo Tablet is on the fritz and when the tablet is on the fritz, then no new comics can be made.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience.  Sure I tried to do it the night before, and simply giving up is a lot worse than trying to at least troubleshoot it, but I said, what the heck, readers can stand one break.

As a poorly kept promise, I’ll try to come up with two comics next week or release this week’s would be comic to be this Sunday’s Sketch.  Thanks for hanging together with us.

-Banana Feed Team and Mile Langdon

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I’m almost positive you guys don’t know this unless you’ve gone out of your way to check how this website is doing on a day-to-day basis, but since the big name change, we’ve gone from 600-700 views a day to barely 30.  Naturally this is upsetting because I’ve worked so hard to get to that place, but I’m not losing heart.  I’m thinking of it as a chance to start fresh and truly see if people love this site or not.  In response, I’ve decided to try even harder than before in making this site all it can be.  That means more dedicated posts, more interaction with fellow blogs, and more capitalizing on what’s trending to have heartfelt discussions.

As a preview, here’s a couple of ideas I’m going to start implementing soon:

  1. Finish the About Us Page/Illustration so people can see what we’re all about here on Banana Feed.  I’ve since then taken down the History and Mission Statement to further revamp.  We’ll also include two biographies of our authors here and hopefully maybe even try to bring in another or two to help revamp this site.
  2. The inclusion of a Maintenance Widgit on the right hand menu so anyone can read what’s happening lately and how they can get involved in some really cool stuff.
  3. In addition to the 4 posts a day [and possible punch up to 5], I’ll double the amount of posts on the weekend from 2 to 4.  The two additional posts will cover the following points in bullets 4 and 5
  4. On Saturday, in addition to the weekend funnies, I’ll be doing a Saturday Reblog.  The Saturday Reblog is essentially me reblogging any of my fellow bloggers of an article of interest.  While getting reblogged on a site that averages 30 hits isn’t the most awesome thing in the world, but I think it’ll promote interblog communication which is always good.  There are a set of rules when it comes to the reblog though.  To enter the chance to be reblogged, you must comment on at least one article between the Saturdays of the reblog.  The comment must be somewhat insightful to generate a response comment.  By doing so, I’ll visit your blog and check your most recent posts to see if anything would work well on Banana Scoop.  I wouldn’t only include movie/television/video games posts, but if I see anything interesting, I’ll be sure to bookmark it and revisit it come Saturday.  On that I’ll choose my favorite to be featured here.
  5. The next thing which will be featured on Sunday in addition to the Sunday Sketch [something I didn’t have time for this week], will be the Weekly Preview.  As many of you know, Banana Scoop features 4 articles a day.  In order to organize such mayhem, I plan all of these articles on a Google Calender, so I know what’s going to post every day.  The Weekly Preview will be a short post, highlighting some of my favorite posts this week and their corresponding days.  The Weekly Preview will likely be also a Page above the site which will hyperlink the articles as they come by, as well as a time table that has ALL of the posts in the week.  This post is more experimental, and is subject to change!

This is only a short summary of things to come, I absolutely love editing and revamping this blog so it’s a pleasure for me to try to make this blog the best it can be.  Be sure to comment below on your thoughts/support/concerns and get your name in the reblog pool today!  And also be sure to let me know what else I can do to make your time here on Banana Scoop the best it can be.

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Banana Scoop has taken a major blow since its major change.  By changing our domain name, we lost a lot of the incoming traffic we usually get, simply because many of our articles and image sources are no longer directed to our website.  So it’s been very disappointing to be only be getting less than a tenth than what we usually be getting in terms of page views, after we’ve worked so hard to get to how far we’ve come.  But I’m not letting it discourage me.  Banana Scoop will be continuing as normal with it’s 4 post a day format and weekend treats.  And maybe we can return to our former glory and perhaps surpass it.

But enough of that, let’s celebrate some honors I’ve received in the past while.  Apparently there seems to be a chain award ceremony running around regarding ‘versatile bloggers’, as of late, I’ve received two award nominations from fellow bloggers, the first from Random and UnNewsworthy and On Life and Stuff.  I would like to say thanks to both very generous bloggers.

The next idea is to also nominate 15 other bloggers for the same reward.  Now I won’t exactly be calling upon 15 other bloggers, but I’ll definitely link several of my favorites.  These followers have been with me forever and I’m glad to promote them.

On Life and Stuff – Linked above, On Life and Stuff has been one of the longest supporters of this blog.  She’s a loving mother who has fantastic taste in movies, books, and television.

Discoveries of Past and Present – Finding profound things in philosophy, film, television, and culture,  one of my longtime friends wished to find a creative outlet and founded this blog as a solid form of escapism.

Remote Access – George has an excellent taste in movies.  He’s bold enough, given his young age, to dive into films as old as decades old.  He reviews a very large spectrum of movies with excellent insight.

Two Dollar Cinema – M. Brown combines his very distinct sense of humor with a large spectrum of review of movies new and old.  He’s one of my favorite bloggers outside of WordPress circle.

Well, it’s about time I get to continue preparing for the rest of this week’s articles.  Everyone take care!

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Ladies and gentlemen, there are several reasons why I’ve gathered you all here today.  I’ve started this website a long time ago when it was only a Tumblr page, Banana Post, that was originally dedicated to being a creative outlet for my writing.  As I started writing less and posting more about videos and images, I began to get upset with the limited options available to Tumblr.  So I decided to make this WordPress, Banana Feed [Post was taken] as a means of giving myself more creative freedom.  Since then, I’ve weathered the harsh critique and disappointing obstacles most bloggers face: low views, consistent spam, meaningless hours spent on something no one is reading, etc, etc.  As this website finally gathered strength [Banana Feed has recently been averaging 750 page loads a day and nearly about 500 unique viewers a day] nearly a year later, and dedicating at minimum 6-8 hours a week writing articles, compiling galleries, and drawing comics and illustrations, I realized that it was time to make another step forward and buy the domain name.

Seeing as how BananaFeed.com was taken and I didn’t want to go through the bureaucratic obstacle course into getting the name, I’ve decided that a close synonym to Feed, Scoop would serve good enough to fill in the shoes.  So as we evolve one more step, I ask all of my readers to move along with me and support my most recent endeavor in spending $18 for a year’s worth of Banana Scoop.  Over the next few days, I’ll be integrating banners, images, and other things so there isn’t a lack of consistency.  I’m also trying to add/integrate some new features like next buttons for our super long articles and an ‘About Us’ page, so stay in touch with the new upgrades coming soon.  But enough of that, I’m off to go celebrate!

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A couple of days ago, I posted a routine 11:00 EST article regarding the Spring TV Wrap Up Ceremony.  Little did I know, I would get freshly pressed which is every bloggers wet dream because it allows us to live out the dream of people actually giving a sh!t about what we’re talking about.  Naturally, a massive influx of commenters arrived ranging in variety and domain names.  Today, I’m going to take a break from the norm of talking about movies, television or video games, and kinda go meta here.  Obviously there must be some sort of motivation that forces a user to take the time to comment on an article.  Replies range from single sentences to well written anecdotes.  Each have their own sense of opinion and style and I found rather humorous.  This article is designed to make fun of user cliches and norms.  I’m sorry if you get caught in the crossfire, but remember I’m making fun of the social norm and not you.  But when it comes to blogging, all press is good press.  Wordpress.  [LOL]

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We’re gonna break standard code today and post a quick thank you.  I guarantee you, the rest of the posts will be up as usual, but I had to include one more as a little shout out to my lovely followers.  January 11, 2012 was a very special day for me.  It was the day I was freshly pressed for an article about my favorite television characters of 2011 and the day I reached a new high of 5,000+ views in one day.  To most of you other bloggers, days where the stats site has a towering date over the other tiny days are ones that are always remembered.  Never did I actually believe I would be honored again yesterday for my article on the Spring Television Wrap Up.

This blog started roughly one year ago and has gone through a number of immense changes to cater to anyone who loves movies and television.  The dream that this would one day be a successful site in terms of popularity and value never occurred to me until January 11 and I was reinvigorated only yesterday.  As many of you know, we post sporadically 4 times a day 5 days a week, and include a weekend picture compilation and custom art by myself on Sundays.  I’ve measured that it takes about 6-8 hours total taking care of a week’s worth of material and although that time could be spent studying for my degree in engineering, working out to better my physical shape, or hanging out with friends, it’s days like yesterday that make it all worth it and it’s all thanks you guys.

The dream is for this website’s slogan #MyLifefortheFeed to be a trend someday, and I’m going to work everyday for the rest of my life working at it for you.  I’ll need your help and I know your help will come at the cost of me entertaining you all, a time sacrifice I’m more than willing to make.  I had an absolute delight responding to comments yesterday because it’s always a pleasure to talk with people with similar interests to my own.  You’ve fueled my fire to continue working on this website to make it the best it can be.  And I thank you all for it.

-Banana Feed Team

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Today was a really bad day on Banana Feed. I published unfinished articles, description-less videos, and a lack for luster visual gallery. This was primarily because I started my first day of real work today at my internship and was unable to edit today’s posts. I apologize for the lack of effort and promise that this won’t happen again. Thank you for understanding.

-The Banana Feed Team

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As of late, Banana Feed has been having serious leak issues.  Such as articles getting posted at random times that aren’t completed, days of complete lack of articles, or a general lack of enthusiasm in posts.  This is largely because of finals and other stressful times.  But as summer approaches, I plan on bringing Banana Feed to 100%.  And as I finally have a well paid internship this summer, we’ll be making some serious time and financial implementations [as far as getting our own domain!].  Mind you that Banana Feed is not exactly 100% as my bookmarks folder was accidentally deleted so I lost about 90% of what I had bookmarked lol.  So now I’m trying to transition into a new era.  Please bear with us as we try and organize our lives and this site.  In my case it’s the same thing.

-Banana Feed Team

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It’s finals weeks for my college and I can say that I’m more stressed than usual and am finding less and less time to do Banana Feed stuff.  This is the primary reason there have been more simple morning links and videos compared to full blown articles lately.  This also accounts for the lack of Universidaze and Sunday Sketch for the past 2 weeks now.  As far as I’m concerned, come next Tuesday when my finals are over, I’ll be free of this semester’s heavy burden to write, draw, and inspire debate with the internet.  Please bear with us.

-Banana Feed Team

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From now on Sundays will have one more additional post, concerning what the Weekly Feature is.  The Weekly Feature is a new feature [redundancy] that I’ll be including in incorporate lost articles written months ago.  I know it’s Monday now, but I ran a little bit behind.    Anyways, the weekly features will have links within Banana Feed regarding past articles based on the theme.  This week’s theme is Game of Thrones in honor of Game of Thrones Week a couple of weeks ago.  I link you to the page here, or simply click the tab at the top of the screen.

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I had a dream that this blog would expand to just more than little ol’ me writing, editing, drawing, and formatting up a storm.  And now it has come to life with the addition of a new contributer, SoGoCJE, who has graciously agreed to be a video game correspondent now that Bananafeed has gone full dork, now covering movie, television, and video games.   I’ve decided to start him as a weekly Thursday contributor, bringing his thoughts on the newest and greatest news on the video game industry.  Please welcome him when he has his first post this Thursday at 12:00 EST.

There’s a lot of excitement in expanding Banana Feed, only a year ago was I mucking around 4-8 views a day, and here I am adding new contributors. A long way I’ve come.  And I hope SoGoCJE and I continue to entertain you guys with our thoughts, opinions, and musings.

In terms of maintenance, our site is going under a series of changes.  The About Us page and Weekly Feature are two new things I’m trying to implement.  Be sure to hang on as we undergo multiple page constructions.

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If you’ve been reading my blog for the past couple of months, every once in a while I’ll mention that ‘we’re not a video game blog/I’m trying to get into writing about video gaming’ rants.  Well today is the announcement that I’ll be writing and posting video game related items more often and I’ve officially added it as a category.  Soon enough I’ll add it to the list of banners as well as it’s own icon on the right.  I think at this point, I’ve fully engulfed the ‘geek site’ mantra/persona as now I’m covering movies, television, and now video games.You can now expect video game morning banana oatmeals, full blown articles about games I’ve picked up on, and other gamer related culture.  Read more regarding a little background on my own video game experience.

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After 14 straight posts, I can honestly say that I am tired to the bone of writing about Game of Thrones.  I truly can’t wait to get back into regular broadcasting, but I don’t regret that I did this week either.  And there wasn’t exactly a lot of traffic this week, but I’m hoping as more and more people get into Game of Thrones, they start peaking their curiosities and stumble upon this website.  I’ve talked about book differences, video games, parodies, and letters to the uninitiated, but it’s finally time to close out the very hard week.  But we’re not completely donee with it yet either.  Seeing as Game of Thrones season 2 starts this weekend April 1st, I’ll try and have a review posted for Tuesday’s main article for the next 10 weeks the show runs.  So if you have been visiting my blog for the pure Game of Thrones reasons, be sure to stick around and visit next Tuesday for my take on each episode.  Otherwise, if you’re a regular viewer, not into Game of Thrones, I refer you to here to change your mind, other wise, Weekend Funnies tomorrow will start us off for to the regular broadcasting.

-Banana Feed Team

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There is one week from Game of Thrones Season 2, what I believe is likely to be the BIGGEST thing to hit television this year. If you haven’t gotten your hands on this fantastic HBO series, you’re missing out on something as expansive [if not more, but an argument for another day] as Lord of the Rings and as deep as the 5 book 700+ novel series that acts as the source material.  As you know, there will be no drawings or Universidaze this week, and I plan on committing EVERY post from Monday-Friday this week to be about Game of Thrones.  We’re talking Game of Thrones Week people [GOTW for short].  From morning links to the afternoon quips three times a day, it will all be Game of Thrones related.  If you’re not into the series, this website will likely not cater to your interests, but I highly suggest you buy the DVD series, pirate it, or even reading the book series will bring you to a world you won’t likley regret.

Here’s a summary of the universe at the beginning of the first book and season, Game of Thrones.  It doesn’t even begin to touch the complexity, but hopefully my writing can at least peak your interest.

The land of Westeros.  Also known as the 7 Kingdoms, ruled by the man who sits on the Iron Throne, King Robert Baratheon.  After his high consultant John Arryn, Hand of the King, dies mysteriously, King Robert Baratheon goes to an old friend and war buddy, Eddard ‘Ned’ Stark, Lord of Winterfell, to proclaim him as his new Hand of the King bidding him to travel hundred miles south of his homeland.  Ned Stark, a family man who is tired of war and politics is hesitant to leave his family and go, but Robert persuades him to take leave.  A tale of corruption, lust, and deception unfolds as Ned Stark and his family leave their home and get woven into war over family, duties, and honor.  Robert Baratheon’s cunning wife plots against Ned, old family rivalries escalate into full blown wars, and more even war stirs in the east and north that threatens the land of Westeros.  And as Ned Stark gets tangled into multiple people trying to grab the Iron Throne for themselves, he learns one important rule: when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

Here’s all the related posts to Game of Thrones in the past:

Internal debate to Song of Ice and Fire [spoiler filled]

Praising the Beautiful Opening Sequence [spoiler free]

Tyrion Lannister Making the Number 3 Slot on Favorite TV Characters [relatively spoiler free]

Funny Game of Thrones Memes [spoiler filled]

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This week will not have a Sunday Sketch or Universidaze comic due to my own stupidity.  This week is my University’s Spring Break, and I’ve decided to go home.  I was really happy at the idea that I could spend an entire week drawing, but alas, I brought the tablet and pen…but not the cord that connects the tablet to my computer.  Stupidity.  Anywho, I apologize for the inconvenience.  Articles will continue as usual.  There’s a very big chance that next week’s Sunday will lack a sketch, but I promise to make it up to you all.  My drawings will more likely return March 28th with the week’s Universidaze sketch.

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[Update: replaced the video player with a youtube video so hopefully it has stopped being stupid.  Please let me know if there are still problems.]

It has come to my attention that if you’re currently following me under via the wordpress blog roll, you might be getting continuous updates with my most recent blog post regarding Community.  I think it has to do with the unnatural video player that I used.  Wordpress isn’t kind to video players that aren’t Youtube, so I tried to get creative with it.  Unfortunately this doesn’t look like it worked.  I’m currently trying to remedy the situation and I’m sorry my posts are blowing up your news feeds.  Please bear with me and don’t unsubscribe.  I’m aware and trying to fix the problem.

Thanks for hanging tight.

-Banana Feed Team

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Maintenance note below***

The Black Circus 

The Black Circus Series is a fictional carnival imagined by me that hosts a number of exiles, freaks, and undesirables. Old Ben, the manager of this traveling circus is responsible for providing a home to this varied collection of individuals. When Old Ben dies in a mysterious accident, his estranged grandson, Benjamin Jr., is brought in to settle his affairs. There he meets the colorful group of people that accompanied Old Ben in his final hours while he tries to solve the mystery of the one who is responsible for his grandfather’s death.

Bethesda the Clown

Name:
Arthur White

Alias:
Bethesda the Clown

History:
A smile never leaves Bethesda’s face. Long before he donned the clown outfit and the name Bethesda the Clown, his name was Arthur White and was always found with a smile on his face due to a genetic disorder. Talented with a dagger, he spent majority of his boyhood in the woods hunting and skinning animals. After witnessing his parents’ murder, the police sent him to an asylum after deeming him responsible on the basis he was found at the crime scene, knee deep in their blood with a smile and tears on his face. Unjust incarceration, cruel isolation, and unethical experimentation led him to mistrust people in their entirety. The only friend he had was a small boy by the name of Bethesda in the cell adjacent to them. One day Bethesda didn’t return to his cell and White went berserk. Rumor has it he left 20+ dead and no survivors, and found Bethesda in a morgue with a dozen more children. After this series of events, White wandered forever scarred emotionally and physically with a distrust in everyone. The day he stumbled into Ben’s Black Circus would change him forever.

Role:
White joined the Crazy Eights and found the entertaining of children to be most rewarding, despite his frightening appearance. He has been with the circus for six years and has since then risen through the ranks to be Ganger’s second in command of the Crazy Eights. His dagger skills have grown exceptionally, being able to nail a target over 30 feet with pinpoint accuracy.

Personality:
Often mute unless in an act or addressed by someone.
Anger issues that lead to violent outbursts.
Has consistent migraines.
Can often be found killing chickens and other small game in his free time
Carries a large bag with a red stain on it and is very protective of it.

Relationships:
Taran the Psychic – one of the few people he willingly talks to. Content unknown.
Ganger – His boss
Crazy Eights – Underlings that fear him more than Ganger

Quote Excerpt
’A rare skin disorder’, the doctor said. ‘A small prick in the skin and it’s all done,’ the psychiatrist said. ‘He’ll be back in a few minutes,’ the orderly said. I looked at all of them, they smiled at me and I smiled back. They all lied to me and all I could do was smile. I couldn’t take my smile away…so I took away theirs.

View more characters from the Black Circus or more of my art at:

http://figfire.deviantart.com/

***Maintenance Note:

I hope you all welcome me back with open arms.  This Sunday Sketch kicks off an uninterrupted month of pure posting.  If you haven’t noticed, we have a new gradiented background, new menu icons, and a fresh selection of editor favorites in the side tool bar.  We’re at 100% people, and I’m really excited to share some awesome stuff with you.  I appreciate all the visitors who have visiting me, even in the down time.  Haven’t hit a day with less than 100 views a day yet….Hoping to double that withing the next month!  Anywho, the final touches remaining is the banner.  I’ve supplemented an old banner, to randomize with change.  Click refresh a couple of times to view it.  But other than that, I don’t have any new banners [I’ve been too busy drawing this crazy clown].  Regardless, the banner is in the queue.  And with only one midterm this week, as soon as I’m done with that, my energy jumps right back into Banana Feed.  Thanks for your support guys.

-Banana Feed Team

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The maintenance and preparation for the next month is going well.  Above is an image of a calender with the plans of what I will be posting over the next month.  Just because you can barely make out my chicken scratch for certain topics, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be visiting my very productive month of March for awesome articles, images, lists, and videos.  It’s all very promising and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

On a greater note, a blog roll, called paperblog has anointed me for ‘blog of the day’ on their website for my ‘posts and their excellent, quality content’.  A weird time to decorate me as I’m break, but I’m glad someone out there appreciates the work I put into this blog.

Anywho, just a little update to you hungry fans out there.  In addition to the reboot on March 4th, new side bar images will be posted and a new banner should stand in where the old one once was.  Look forward to it all and I appreciate your support.  Can’t wait to get back onto the saddle.

-Banana Feed Team

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It’s all caught up to me.  I simply don’t have the  time and energy to be able to keep up with daily posts this week, so I’m taking a holiday to recuperate and simply knock out a months worth of articles, images, lists, etc. in advance.  Oscars are today and I won’t be able to cover them, but thankfully all movie blogs are cliche, so if I’m not covering them, I’m sure some other bloke is.

I apologize for the inconvienence to most, as I do love entertaining you guys, and I hope you guys find me entertaining.  I swear I’ll make it up to you when I get back. I’m just surprised I made it this far into the year without taking one of these breaks.  But seeing as blog writing doesn’t pay the bills [neither does my education yet, but at least that one is more promising], I do have to take things into priority.

I’ll see you all on the other side.

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