Photobucket.com was once a reputable image hosting service, established way back in 2003. Now, some 12 years later, Photobucket is one of the worst websites I have ever had to use.
Not only is this website flooded with bandwidth-draining ads that use up more resources than a room-mate using your router to torrent bestiality, but it's clunky interface and horrible tendency to crash your web browser is why this website isn't just bad: it's dangerous.
It's slow.
Photobucket.com loads about as quickly as Darwin's theory of evolution. There are glaciers melting in Alaska faster than this website can finish loading a page. This shitty website struggles so much just opening the log-in drop-down menu, you'd think it was busy deciphering the human genome.
The interface sucks.
Go ahead. Try to find your photo albums. I dare you. Between trying to figure out where the hell your photos are, and dodging two or three loud video and pop-up ads, Adobe Flash would have crashed twice, your web browser would have locked up for 6 minutes, and your web browser will have unexpectedly quit before you even get that far.
If you do manage to get through that with your web browser intact, good luck trying to find a way to share the pic on anything other than a social network, because you won't even see those options unless you click on a pic, and load yet another page slower than a dead snail with Polio.
Too many ads.
Photobucket has more ads than the fucking PirateBay back in 2013. If you want to log in to Photobucket, be prepared to be gang-raped by pop-ups, loud videos about household cleaning products, and countless banners trying to convince you to buy a printed mug of whatever image you recently uploaded. Logging into Photobucket is like a malware attack on steroids holding a bag of shrooms.
I joined Photobucket back in 2004, and I had the misfortune of having to watch as this once useful website slowly became an enormous piece of elephant shit carrying the Ebola virus. I still (try to) use it, if only just to retrieve over a decade's worth of images I've collected and uploaded over the years, but every timer I go there, it's like running butt-naked through a mine field.
I really miss what Photobucket was 10 years ago, before making a cheap profit was more important than having a decent service with a good product. There was even a time when Photobucket was one of the most useful tools on the web.
I could only pray for the original photobucket's return, but until then, this website sucks.
If you've never heard of Lenny B. Robinson, You definitely should read this story of the Baltimore Batman.
Robinson had become world famous in 2012 after a police dash cam recorded a traffic stop of him in a Michel Keaton Batman costume driving a custom Lamborghini Galliardo with Bat-license-plates.
As you can see from the video, the cops are ecstatic about the whole thing. They were even taking pictures with the guy, and even shaking his hand when he got out of the car.
Robinson was heading to Baltimore Sinai hospital to visit some sick children: many of whom were fighting cancer. He's been doing this for years: spending tens of thousands of dollars donating schools supplies to children, and cheering up terminally ill kids.
It started in 2007. After Robinson sold his hugely successful cleaning business he started when he was still in high school. He decided to take the money he got from selling the business to become Batman full time. He bought authentic costumes, and even bought one of Bruce Wayne's Lambos and turned it into a totally legit Batmobile.
So you could imagine the shock and despair many of us experienced when we discovered that the Baltimore Batman is dead. Robinson died in a tragic car accident as he tried to repair that Lamborghini after it broke down on the side of the road; being struck by a car in the process. He was 51 years old.
Many of those very sick children he visited in the hospital are well now, and visited him at his funeral. He leaves behind his son (Robin) and his wife.
I think in order to truly understand the magnitude of this tragedy, we need to understand what Batman; as a character in modern mythology; truly represents. To do that, we need to understand the events that lead to the Batman in the first place.
Most of us already know about Bruce Wayne; how he was afraid of bats, how his parents were shot dead in front of him by a mugger in an alley on the way back from a movie theater, and the fact that he devoted his life to fighting crime, but the legend of Batman was never about just beating up bad guys.
Bruce wanted to leave the theater that night because he was afraid of the bats in the film, which ultimately lead to his parent's deaths. Those bats Bruce feared as a child were just something that creeped him out when he was little, but after that night, bats became the personification of Bruce's fear of death. Batman wears the cape, the cowl and the Bat symbolism, not just to scare the crap out of muggers and crime lords, but because they represent what Bruce Wayne has overcome: Fear. Batman doesn't use guns because he has overcome the fear of guns. Batman doesn't kill because he has overcome the fear of being killed. Batman becomes something scary-looking because Bruce Wayne isn't afraid anymore.
I think this is why the character of Batman resonates with a lot of people. Even if many of us can't quite put into words why we think Batman is so cool, I think it all comes down to what Batman represents. You see, batman isn't just some comic book superhero anymore. He isn't just a costume or a lot of money, either. Batman is an ideal; the ideal that anyone -even little kids- can overcome fear.
"It is absolutely clear to those of us in the field that attitude and play therapy and distraction help children overcome illnesses, so this is a big deal for all the kids who are here today." -That's a quote from Dr. Joseph M. Wiley back in 2012 while Batman visited Baltimore Sinai hospital. Yes, that's right; Batman helps kids fight cancer.
I think what makes Robinson so cool is how much of himself he dedicated to this whole thing. Make no mistake about it: this guy was LOADED! This guy could have just sat on his butt and lived off the money he earned from selling the cleaning business for the rest of his life, but he didn't. This guy CHOSE to dedicate his life to this. What would have been something most costumed mascots would have done on the weekends between earning a paycheck, this guy dedicated the rest of his natural life just to make little kids feel better, and he was doing it until the very day he died.
I'm deviating from my usual formula of poking fun at websites and comedic articles because I wanted people to remember Lenny B. Robinson. I felt it was important for people to remember that this wasn't just some guy in a Lambo and a Batman costume: This guy was BATMAN. Period. In every way that counted, Robinson embodied the highest ideals of DC Heroes in every way that mattered, and even managed to get everything about the mythology right. The wealth, the costumes, the car, The fact that he already looks like Bruce Wayne, his positive relationship with law enforcement... Everything was spot on. But he didn't do it to show off, because this guy was a class act. Had it not been for the Police Dashcam footage being uploaded online, no one outside of Baltimore Sinai Hospital would have even known he existed.
"Remember, at the end of the day, ask yourself, 'Self, did I make a difference?' And the answer had better be yes." -Lenny B. Robinson (Batman)
I'm going to just cut to the chase. I've been browsing a lot of blogs lately, looking to make interesting conversation, and I gotta be honest: 90% of the blogs I've seen could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. Not all of them, mind you, just the vast majority of them have at least one problem that sucks harder than a black hole in Einstein's theory of relativity.
Here is a list of things I don't like about most blogs, and how I think they can be fixed.
Don't try to force me to sign up for a news letter just to see your pages.
If you are a web designer, and the only way someone can view your content is to sign up using their Google+, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account, You need to take that off right now. Seriously, go into your control panel and remove that shit ASAP.
As a consumer, there is absolutely no way in a frozen hell with flying pigs I'm going to register for a newsletter from a website I know nothing about, just to see content that I don't even know if I'm going to be interested in. I don't even care if your site has free downloadable hardcore pornography streaming in 4K, there is just no way that's going to happen.
New readers are going to avoid your website like the plague the moment they see a pop up ad they can't close, demanding that they register just to read any of the articles on the site, and this is bottle-necking your site's growth potential in a big way.
This shit is enough to make your site look less like a series of articles and more like a malware attack. This underhanded tactic doesn't work, and it's a great way to make new readers treat your website with more disdain than a hypodermic needle filled with Ebola and fucking smallpox.
Don't tell me about your day.
There couldn't possibly be anything in the universe I could give less of a fuck about than your cat, your kids, where you went this morning, or the fact that you just ate a sandwich at TGI Fridays. If you're going to advertise your blog on Google+ communities or Facebook groups, at least have the humility to talk about something other than yourself once in a while. It's your blog; not your journal, and not your Facebook account.
I've got news for you fellas: Nobody knows you. People don't come to your blog because they want to know about your day, they come to your blog because they want to know what you think, what your opinions are, and perhaps your expertise on a particular topic.
If you're reading this and are still thinking of writing a blog post about your daughter graduating High School, or the fact that you lost your car keys this morning, guess what? Nobody gives a shit. You're not that important, and your dirty laundry is not worth the time wasted reading about it.
Stop reporting the news.
I am sick and tired of going on blogs filled with copy-written stories containing nothing but opinions from "experts", or bloggers just acknowledging the fact that the story exists.
You guys are supposed to be bloggers. You're not a journalist. You're supposed to tell me what you think, not what others think, not what the popular opinions are, and not what experts in the field are saying. Nobody is going to your blog to read the New York Times. You can have all the news stories you want in your blog, but don't bother giving us the story if you're not going to give us your take.
I swear, all the bloggers are writing like journalists these days, and all the journalists are writing like bloggers.What the hell is going on?
Anyway, what do you think? What's your biggest blog pet peeve?
