MsKitka.com

Recalling that it was not the makers of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas who programmed the sex scene into the game, why is the City of Los Angeles suing the game’s programmers?

The game’s ratings have already gone from “Mature 17+” to “Adults Only 18+”, but for some reason people are still up in arms about the whole thing.

It may be true that the game is based on Los Angeles, but why is the City of Los Angeles suing GTA manufacturers for a sex scene? Don’t people have sex in Los Angeles? Funny, I was under the assumption that people had sex in every city.

I truly hope the City of Los Angeles is humiliated in court as badly as intelligent design advocates.

I’ve been in talks recently with advertisers interested in placing advertising on Kitkast. While one of the things people love about videoblogs is the fact that they don’t contain any advertisements (yet), people also have to understand how difficult it is to make a free programme of this magnitude voluntarily.

Many vloggers, themselves, even oppose advertising on their videoblogs since they believe that vlogging is a creative medium that should not submit to the same guidelines as television programming. While I understand their fears, not everyone feels the same way.

When it comes to Kitkast, it’s undoubtably a full time job. I work about 35 hours a week at my day job and Kitkast takes up another 25 hours a week (not counting the time it takes to respond to individual e-mails). As a result, I don’t have a lot of time for the simple things in life like doing my laundry, grocery shopping, watching television and going to the bank (I have two monthly paychecks in my wallet yet to be deposited and any other cash I have is money lent to me by my boyfriend!).

If this isn’t a good reason to incorporate and sell short adspace on Kitkast, I don’t know what is.

Although I never posted it here, my New Year’s resolution was to quit my job. I haven’t done this yet, however, because I am a level-headed individual and recognize the importance of a regular paycheck. In order to quit my job, I have decided that I need to be making enough money from Kitkast to live by, but how can I take the time to set up advertising when I don’t even have enough time in my day to go to the bank? [What came first, the chicken or the egg?]

Over the past few weeks I’ve been bursting with great ideas for a money-making side project related to videoblogging… something that would not only benefit Kitkast, but also my other compadres who also have their own videoblogs. Unfortunately, Zod discovered last night that Plan A was already being set up by someone else.

Plan B was a much simpler idea. After reading about the success of the Million Dollar Homepage and the quirky ebay auctions that I’ve seen recently (ie. Rocket Scientist seeking employment), I thought about how easy it is to create publicity by selling something different on eBay. As a result, I realized that selling Kitkast adspace on eBay would not only provide me with some well-needed money to quit my job and start devoting myself to working full time on Kitkast, but it would also be a publicity stunt that would not go unnoticed by the mainstream media.

However, after being reminded of my problems with eBay’s affiliated payment company and of the adult business that was removed from the auction site, I realized that it would be an uphill battle to try and sell Kitkast’s sexy adspace there. Another reason I hesitated on Plan B was because I wanted to tell my parents about Kitkast before landing myself on the cover of any major newspaper or magazine.

Well, it looks like I’ve missed the boat on Plan B as well. This morning when I got in to work I checked the Yahoo Videoblogging Group, as usual, and noticed that the vlogging moguls at Rocketboom have decided to auction advertising time for their show on eBay. [Link to auction.]

Well, I guess it’s onto Plan C then…

Canada’s next Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has vowed to revisited the issue of same-sex marriage:

OTTAWA (CP) — Stephen Harper says he wants to move quickly as leader of a fractious new Parliament to reopen the same-sex marriage debate.

The makeup of the new House of Commons suggests the prime minister-designate knows there’s a good chance such a motion will be rejected.

It would not be a total loss, however. In fact, an honourable defeat on equal marriage would satisfy obligations to Harper’s most right-wing supporters while defusing a politically explosive issue. [More]

Funny, I used to be a Conservative and was heavily involved with the party for about a year until I attended the annual CPC Convention held in Montreal in March 2005. At that time, I was able to see that Harper’s true ambitions had nothing to do with the party members’ views. Even before the vote on whether the CPC would support a re-definition of marriage to be “between a man and a woman”, Harper swore in a speech to the delegates that he would outlaw same-sex marriage if he won the election.

Well, check it out. He’s won the election.

Harper is a threat to the rights of the people. Sure he may have sugar-coated his platform by saying he would reduce taxes, but the CPC likes to sneak policy in through the back door (not unlike the current Bush administration).

Although our government voted for same-sex marriage last year, we’re going to have to communicate with our local representatives to try and urge them to keep the law into force by voting against the re-definition of marriage this year. What a waste of time, money and human rights.

On Sunday night I was looking through the news and found an interesting article on a new burlesque show starring Canadian war-time comic hero Johnny Canuck. The show starts tonight at Mainline Theatre in Montreal, Canada, and is part of the winter Fringe Festival.

Since they’re based in Montreal, I thought this was a great opportunity to interview the producer for Kitkast and promote their show, so I called the theatre on Monday morning to see if I could set it up. To my great pleasure, not only did I score an interview with the producer, but I also got two tickets for a preview performance last night.

The show was magnificent, blending the naive patriotic comic book hero Johnny Canuck with empowered women of sin. This naiveté was amplified by his fights scenes which were choreographed like the 1960s Batman TV series, while the singing burlesque vixens’ scenes were choreographed to highlight their confidence.

The story was classic (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back), but everything in between was new and entertaining. Every character in the production had his/her own distinct personality and served a purpose in the storyline …well, except for the fact that I think the Marx Brothers were just in there for the fun of it!

Over all, this is a really fun musical play and I urge anyone who will be in Montreal from now to February 12th to check it out.

Tune in on Saturday, 28 January 2006, for my interview with co-writers Patrick Goddard and Jeremy Hechtman.

Steve Garfield is to Rocketboom as Parker is to Kitkast…

Good news Kitkast viewers, field correspondent Parker has started his own blog and videoblog. His first entry shows him and his cameraman Rich in the background of G4 TV, when they were filming interview footage with Naughty America at the AVN Expo (see Kitkast #1.13 for the interview).

Parker’s video-podcast is available on iTunes and can be found in the Podcast section by entering “parker kuncl” in the search field. I know I’ve subscribed…