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Banana Scoop & Fig-TV: My Contributions to the Internet

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , on July 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Screen Shot 2013-07-24 at 10.52.51 PM

If you haven’t already noticed, this blog has been limping in content over the past half year.  I’ve declared its death, I’ve announced its revival, I’ve promised content, I’ve barely delivered.  Life isn’t as concrete as the words one can say and I’ve always been a fan of ‘do, don’t speak’, but here I am speaking once again, hoping the ‘do-ing’ part follows suit.

So for the bazillionth time, Banana Scoop is being put back into regular programming with the promise [that can hopefully be fulfilled] of two articles a week, Tuesday and Thursday.  These articles will cover the many things I’m experiencing that will almost 99.9% of the time will revolve around geek culture: video games (See my Last of Us Review), movies, television, fan-art, and books.

I want to thank all of my long time Banana Scoop supporters: On Life and Stuff, Victor’s Movie Reviews, 2 Dollar Cinema, and Sidekick Reviews.  You were there in the beginning and I’m glad to still have you guys now.  Check out their stuff when you get the chance.

Overall this isn’t the only announcement, continue to read on for the general ‘What’s up with Patrick these days’ summary.

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A Farewell Letter to Banana Scoop

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 18, 2013| 4 Comments »

Banana Scoop hasn’t updated in over a month.  We’re not on one of our many famous hiatus or breaks.  It turns out I’ve kind of stopped the wheels on the machine after 150,000 views and nearly 900 posts.  All to say a nearly heartbreaking farewell.

It’s been a blast.

Bananapost.tumblr.com, Bananafeed.wordpress.com, Bananascoop.com.  All three of these things have had such a profound effect on me.  I’ve dumped hours upon hours upon hours into these mediums as a form of expressing myself and my passion about movies, television, and video games.  I’ve learned an insurmountable amount of knowledge regarding how to entertain and run a successful blog over the past 2 years.  I had an idea that this blog would be something I had with me for the rest of my life.  One does not simply walk away from something that has been so important to them in their life.

Bananapost started as a tumblr that was merely dedicated to writing novel reviews and posting geeky images of cool things I found on the internet.  When I found the interface tools too constricting for what I wanted, I went to WordPress for a full blogging experience.  There I built a small but dedicated audience whom I have shared a loving amount of time with.  I found people that shared a similar passion and had joyous times discussing and geeking out about our favorite tv shows and movies.  I had dumped so much of my time into this blog that I was single handedly posting nearly 25 posts a week combining original content and sharing the original content of others.  When I decided to go pro, I upgraded the domain within WordPress to lose the tag and get the feel of a legitimate site.  From there, I even recruited up to 3 contributors who I thank immensely for donating their precious time to help my blog be the absolute best it could be.

I had one of the most unique experiences managing, writing, editing, and formatting this blog. I learned basic HTML, what maximizes viewership, how to properly deal with commenters, spammers, and others.  I was blessed to be Freshly Pressed by WordPress, twice.  I forsaked homework, responsibilities, and lectures to work on this blog and it won’t be something I will ever forget.

But now I turn to another medium.  One that doesn’t have Banana in the name.  One that doesn’t use WordPress as a medium, but a full blown website, built from the ground up by myself.  I am no CS major.  I have never taken a web design class.  I don’t know what HTMLX or what CSS style sheets are or even how to read stats from a website that’s not based on Blogger or WordPress.  I took upon myself to learn the basics and build a website on my own.  I’ve truly never been prouder of myself, if that’s not too vain to say.

This new site isn’t going to be a carbon copy of this site.  If you know me, I have an intense affinity for art and drawing and I intend to make that website solely centered my art and creative works.  The site is launching today and I advise you to drop by to support me.  Thank you for so much Friends, Families, WordPress bloggers, WordPress.com, and everyone else who has supported me in the past.

I look to the future.  Hopefully my new site will be as successful as this one.

New site: Fig-tv.com

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Where Have I Been? Let Me Show You!

Posted in Fig Art, Maintenance, tagged , , , , , on November 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Yikes, I might’ve skipped last week in terms of articles.  Primarily because I’ve been working on a new project that has been taking a lot of time.  I’ve included the video introduction below.  The video is essentially about me starting up a new site sometime in the future that focuses on something a little bit different from this blog.  Check out the video below.

Woo-hoo, that’s my real voice!  Can you believe it?  Probably not exactly what you expected.  But enough about that, back to the real news.  The shift of focus to art from this movie and television blog will certainly have some repercussions to what I’m prioritizing, but overall I think it’s the right move.  [Ha, be sure to ignore the ‘Banana Scoop is dead in the water quote’, it’s more of a humorous observation than a real statement.]  I’ll still be updating Banana Scoop as often as I am now, with only 1 or 2 passionate articles a week.

The other writers are now more like contributors rather than full time writers, being able to use this blog as a creative outlet medium at their own pace and time.  So I still hope you come by every once in a while to check out what we’re up to.  On a side note,  check below to see a time lapse of an art project I’m working on!

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Banana Scoop Returns from Massive Break with Massive Changes

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , on October 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »


[via]

The unexpected maintenance update definitely warrants something new or crazy here at Banana Scoop.  As a matter of fact, it’s a little bit of both.  As bloggers I’d imagine each and everyone one of you who is reading this [all 4 of you, hi Mom and Dad], might understand the emotional and invigorating feeling you might get when you try to overhaul your blog for the better.  In the past, Banana Scoop made a humungous jump when I first tried to include 15 – 18 posts a week on a regimented schedule and then another big jump when we tried to make that 20-24 posts a week.  Next thing I knew, I had quadrupled the amount of writers on the site [4 x 1 = 4] and we were pumping out so much content weekly.  With so many humungous changes in the past and each as [semi] life changing as the last, we now make another big change, hopefully for the better of the future.   Today’s post is focused on the main point of those changes..And to those I still have on a leash at this point: interwebz points for you.

We’re Reducing Post Frequency by over 80%

Big one.  The number of scheduled posts a week was 24.  Reducing that by 80% brings you to about five posts.  Five posts a week.  That’s a big change and I don’t think we’ve had that since towards the beginning of this blog.  That’s a big change up from 24 and I think it will bring us in the right direction.  The 20 or so posts we’re cutting out are the pictures, videos, and links-related posts that used to litter our site.  Those short posts were essentially the praises of other persons on the internet for their good work and while we liked to praise them for their dedication to pop culture, their promotion made me feel as though Banana Scoop didn’t provide enough of it’s own good work.  So by reducing the numerous posts of others, we’re only doing our original 1000+ word articles.

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Weekly Newsletter: Theme Change Maintenance, Who I am, and Some Bad Piggies

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , , on October 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »


Showtime

A relatively calm week on Banana Scoop.  Nothing too new or crazy.  The biggest news below.

We Tried to Change Our Theme and Failed Miserably

Last Friday, I tried to do something silly by changing themes.  I looked at what the best WordPress themes had to offer and tried to activate and tweak some things.  I tried to Google some things about the best WordPress themes, but many of them were for the WordPress.org themes.  I’ve tried hard into trying a magazine style where we can keep some of the better articles at the top.  A lot of the [free] themes don’t offer enough customization and enough creative freedom, so in my frustration, I reverted back to this old theme.  In the end, I truly mean to migrate to a new site where I can web design and have the customization and creative freedom.

What I’m Watching, Reading, and Drawing This Week

  • Reading: Zombie Survival Guide, Watchmen
  • Watching: Sunday Drama Mayhem [Boardwalk, Dexter], City of God
  • Drawing: Maintenance Banana Scoop Stuff, Adressed Here, hopefully some creepy ghouls and monsters for Halloween

Weekly Preview:


Rovio

  • Joining Another Cult [TV Show]
  • Bad Piggies Review
  • Assassin’s Creed Parkour
  • What Happens When Batman Meets the Avengers

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Weekend Funnies:10.6.2012

Posted in Weekend Funnies, tagged , , , , , on October 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If there’s anything Weekend Funnies have taught me, is that not everyone has the same sense of humor.  But the internet is a generally a collection of everyone and the sheer compilation of the wit and humor that each individual contributes essentially represents the most broadest and generalist appeals to mankind.  So when I choose the 24 images for each Weekend Funny, I know the reason I think it’s funny will be at least funny to some percentage of the world.  And even if the it’s the smallest 1%, 1% of 7 billion is still 700 million.  So I apologize if you’re offended, disgusted, or upset.  Truth be told, if you can’t handle these 24 images, you likely shouldn’t be on the internet anyways.  So stop worrying about racism, sexism, and other means of being upset.  Just keep scrolling, and remember: no one’s looking, it’s okay to smile at something someone would frown upon.

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Weekend Funnies: 9.29.2012

Posted in Weekend Funnies, tagged , , , , on September 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If there’s anything Weekend Funnies have taught me, is that not everyone has the same sense of humor.  But the internet is a generally a collection of everyone and the sheer compilation of the wit and humor that each individual contributes essentially represents the most broadest and generalist appeals to mankind.  So when I choose the 24 images for each Weekend Funny, I know the reason I think it’s funny will be at least funny to some percentage of the world.  And even if the it’s the smallest 1%, 1% of 7 billion is still 700 million.  So I apologize if you’re offended, disgusted, or upset.  Truth be told, if you can’t handle these 24 images, you likely shouldn’t be on the internet anyways.  So stop worrying about racism, sexism, and other means of being upset.  Just keep scrolling, and remember: no one’s looking, it’s okay to smile at something someone would frown upon.

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Sunday Sketch: Borg Romney

Posted in Fig Art, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

By no means are we a political site, nor is this image supposed to send a particular message.  As a favor to a friend, I drew Presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a Borg from Star Trek.  In all honesty, I have never seen the original Star Trek series nor the next series with Patrick Stewart, so I had to Google what it was.  The Resistance is Futile slogan is well known enough in pop culture and I had a blast drawing that awesome optical thingy I put on his head.  What exactly can Borgs do?  Does our boy Mitt have what it takes to be a Borg?

And who in the hell should I vote for come November?  Let me know in the comments and in the poll!

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Weekly Scoops: Banana Scoop Returns This Week

Posted in Articles, Maintenance, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 23, 2012| 2 Comments »


HBO

Banana Scoop has had its break and it’s been absolutely wonderful.  Our writers were given a break and prepared some really great articles with our newfound reinvigoration.  There’s a lot of neat stuff we’ve planned and want to feature in the coming weeks, like a greater About Us section, a DMCA statement, and then some other things we’ve put on the back burner for a while.  The Scoops gonna come back harder than ever.  Buckle in and prep yourselves.

About Us is Also Live

The long awaited About Us Page is up that features a mini biography about each of our authors.  Be sure to visit that page to contact us and get to know us more.  It would be really neat to further expand this section to include a history section about the what this site franchise has been through [it’s not THAT exciting, but I’ll add a few ninjas and damsels and distress to spice things up.]

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Weekend Funnies: 9.14.2012

Posted in Weekend Funnies, tagged , , , , , on September 14, 2012| 1 Comment »

Weekend Funnies on a Friday?  It can’t be!?  To wrap up the last post before our weeklong break, I’ve decided to switch the final announcement to be moved to tomorrow and Saturday’s planned Weekend Funnies to be moved to today.  Enjoy your humor!
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Weekly Newsletter 9.9.2012: New Author Incoming, Scheduled Break, and New Buttons!

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Scheduled Break and Return

Banana Scoop is still scheduled to take a break in the week from September 16th to September 22nd to give us writers a break from school and other things.  In the meantime, our writers will be doing serious business to make Banana Scoop even better…or we’ll likely be playing Borderlands 2.  All four of us are into Borderlands, so it’s very likely that’s what we’ll be doing on our break.  Speaking of our fourth author…

New Author’s First Post this Week!

Earlier, I posted Rachel as a new author as well as her new avatar.  She’s posting her first article this week, so please visit and support her!  I’m not going to give the topic of her first article away, but it’s totally in league with what this site usually posts, so I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.  Rachel will be posting several times a month with no regimented scheudle unlike the other authors.  She’s going to try out what it’s like to publish for us and hopefully we’ll see her more frequently!

What I’m Doing This Week


art by dadonfuga

  • Reading: Mockingjay, Jurassic Park
  • Drawing: Edward Scissorhands, Harley Quinn, Random Page Button
  • Watching: Mad Men, Party Down, Cabin in the Woods

New Buttons

If you haven’t already noticed, we’ve changed the topic buttons as well as Favorite Scoops buttons.  The new topic buttons will reflect some of the things we’ll be reviewing and covering in the future: Borderlands 2, American Horror Story, Dexter, etc.  As always Fig Art subcategory will bring you to my Deviant Art page.

Page Changes and About Us

We’ll be changing up the Pages on the very top soon.  Universidaze and Weekly Calendar’s and maybe even Live Discussion Pages will be going down in favor of some more productive Pages like About Us.  I’m working on finalizing that so people can find out about Banana Scoop and its writers.

Weekly Preview

  • Minecraft Tips and Tricks
  • Mockingjay Review [Hopefully]
  • Similarities Between Brick and Romney
  • Louis CK Stand Up

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Weekend Funnies: 9.8.2012

Posted in Weekend Funnies, tagged , , , , on September 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

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Weekend Funnies: 9.2.2012

Posted in Weekend Funnies, tagged , , , , , on September 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I forgot to post Weekend Funnies yesterday, so here they are today!

If there’s anything Weekend Funnies have taught me, is that not everyone has the same sense of humor.  But the internet is a generally a collection of everyone and the sheer compilation of the wit and humor that each individual contributes essentially represents the most broadest and generalist appeals to mankind.  So when I choose the 24 images for each Weekend Funny, I know the reason I think it’s funny will be at least funny to some percentage of the world.  And even if the it’s the smallest 1%, 1% of 7 billion is still 700 million.  So I apologize if you’re offended, disgusted, or upset.  Truth be told, if you can’t handle these 24 images, you likely shouldn’t be on the internet anyways.  So stop worrying about racism, sexism, and other means of being upset.  Just keep scrolling, and remember: no one’s looking, it’s okay to smile at something someone would frown upon.

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Weekly Update 9.2.2012

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Another Banana Scoop week with some minor changes here and there.  A new month here and I wish I had more upcoming changes.  There are a couple of major things I’m trying to keep under wraps, but of course, I wanna keep them as surprises.

Scheduled Break September 16th – 22nd

Banana Scoop will have a scheduled break to allow our writers to catch up and relax.  It is regrettable for this to happen, but I feel as though our writers deserve a break for providing such amazing content to our fan base.  There is only strict coincidence that this is the same week that Borderlands 2 comes out…By no means will I be only playing Borderlands 2 and not writing articles to play catch up…that would be unethical XD.

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Weekly Update: Slow Progression, Another Writer, and Borderlands 2 Preparation

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , on August 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Another week on Banana Scoop!  The schedule is going strong despite school trying to muck it up.  And with Ben’s arrival, I’m having an easier time juggling all the maintenance, writing, and drawing.  I may also be scheduling some designated maintenance based on my test schedule that I’ve already written in my calendar.  But otherwise, here’s the rest of this week’s news.

What I’m Watching/Reading/Drawing This Week

  • Watching: Firefly/Serenity Marathon, The Wire Season 5
  • Reading: Mockingjay, Jurassic Park
  • Drawing: SoGoCJE, About Us Drawing

Mockingjay Got Delayed a Week

Mockingjay review was slated to be published last week, but school kinda held me up from reading the book.  And as I’ve found out with the rest of the masses, Mockingjay is a bit of a drag.  The first two were high adrenaline and fast paced, but this particular book is one of the slower ones, and a bit whiney.  A full review hopefully this Friday.

The Possibility of Another New Writer

With Ben getting settled in and possibly taking in more than just his scheduled Wednesday primary article, a new possibility of another writer has arrived!  That would bring our ‘staff’ to 4. This mystery writer would not be a regular poster, but would contribute whenever they could.  We’re very excited at this prospect and we’ll update you all soon again.

Weekly Preview

 

  • Borderlands 2 Preview and Preparation
  • Reasons to Watch The Newsroom
  • Good TV Shows Becoming Video Games
  • Deadpool at Comic-Con

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Sunday Sketch: Bruce 2.0

Posted in Fig Art, tagged , , , , , , , on August 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

User Avatars continue their revamp with Bruce losing his lovable, cartoonish feel for a fierce and hardcore update.  I’ve always been ambiguous if he was an ape or a gorilla and I decided to go with the more fierce one.  Bruce loves movies, television, and video games, but his Macbook Pro is probably his most prized possession   Like me, he finds happiness in the simple things like fruits, Adobe Software, and Mac OS.

SoGoCJE is getting a revamp as well, look forward to it next week.  See Bruce’s old look below.

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Weekend Funnies: 8.25.2012

Posted in Weekend Funnies, tagged , , , , , , , on August 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If there’s anything Weekend Funnies have taught me, is that not everyone has the same sense of humor.  But the internet is a generally a collection of everyone and the sheer compilation of the wit and humor that each individual contributes essentially represents the most broadest and generalist appeals to mankind.  So when I choose the 24 images for each Weekend Funny, I know the reason I think it’s funny will be at least funny to some percentage of the world.  And even if the it’s the smallest 1%, 1% of 7 billion is still 700 million.  So I apologize if you’re offended, disgusted, or upset.  Truth be told, if you can’t handle these 24 images, you likely shouldn’t be on the internet anyways.  So stop worrying about racism, sexism, and other means of being upset.  Just keep scrolling, and remember: no one’s looking, it’s okay to smile at something someone would frown upon.

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Weekend Funnies: 8.18.2012

Posted in Weekend Funnies, tagged , , , , on August 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If there’s anything Weekend Funnies have taught me, is that not everyone has the same sense of humor.  But the internet is a generally a collection of everyone and the sheer compilation of the wit and humor that each individual contributes essentially represents the most broadest and generalist appeals to mankind.  So when I choose the 24 images for each Weekend Funny, I know the reason I think it’s funny will be at least funny to some percentage of the world.  And even if the it’s the smallest 1%, 1% of 7 billion is still 700 million.  So I apologize if you’re offended, disgusted, or upset.  Truth be told, if you can’t handle these 24 images, you likely shouldn’t be on the internet anyways.  So stop worrying about racism, sexism, and other means of being upset.  Just keep scrolling, and remember: no one’s looking, it’s okay to smile at something someone would frown upon.

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How to Maximize Viewership on Your Blog [The Gritty Way]

Posted in Articles, Maintenance, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 14, 2012| 1 Comment »

There’s a very specific reason I chose this image of Jennifer Lawrence, read below to find out

About a month ago, I was moaning and groaning about how upgrading this blog from Banana Feed to Banana Scoop reset our indexing and essentially sent us to ground zero.  Well I’m more than glad to inform you that we’re back on top getting a healthy 300 – 400 hits a day and growing.  In my opinion, as vain as it is, I see page hits as a measurement of success, and in my eyes, what we’re accomplishing is absolute success.  I’m sure big name blogs and entertainment sites would scoff their heads, but success is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m going to share with you how I got my ‘success’.

This article will talk about how I get the most viewership out of my blog.  Forget the cheesy page on WordPress that tells you how to get traffic or any of those other posts that talk about that, I’m talking the dirty, under the table stuff people tend to overlook.  We do real talk here.  This isn’t for bloggers who write poems, anecdotes and post quotes hoping to get noticed.  Take that shit to Tumblr.  If you legitimately want a successful blog in terms of viewers, take a look at these points.

Adjust Your Target Audience to Maximize Viewership, Talking About Your Feelings Isn’t Something Everyone Wants to Read

From my perspective, the successful blogs are the ones that entertain the most.  And if you don’t have your target audience in mind and understand the numbers that encompass that audience, then you’re going to be very disappointed.  Take the example I pointed out above regarding those who post quotes about life, write poems and colorful anecdotes about their experiences.  Don’t get me wrong, there are probably some of the greatest soulful writers hidden as a gem from some of these blogs.  But in a sea of absolute crap and garbage, who has the time to read every Philosophical Penny and Deep David out there?  And just how many people a day did you think they’d want to read about the ups and downs of someone else’s life?

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Maintenance Update: New Writer, Impending School and Universidaze Withdrawal

Posted in Maintenance, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I’m really starting to like these Maintenance updates primarily because I don’t get to write much creative writing anymore because between school and writing about Youtube videos I found, there isn’t much room for creative flair.  But it turns out I can dish out some personality through these updates.  So instead of the usual straightforward talk as seen in the eighty word descriptions that usually circulate this site, there’s a little bit of sarcasm and wit.  I’m sure as I keep doing these, they’ll get more and more outrageous.  But enough about that, let’s get to the exciting news.

Maintenance Update on a Sunday?  Where’s my Weekly Preview?

I’ve decided to roll a Maintenance update every week by combining it with the Weekly Preview.  So on Sundays, you’ll have an update with everything we’re doing here at Banana Scoop as well as a a look at what we’re cooking up this week.  Granted, the combination of the two means the both will lose some content than they usually would have alone [shorter updates and smaller previews], but combined, I think we’re killing two birds with one stone.  And besides, that just means I can write Tuesday articles again!

Read On Below for More News!

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