Family and friends will be received
from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the JOSEPH J. CARDARO FUNERAL HOME, a service oriented funeral home, 1125 Kenneth
Ave., New Kensington, PA. Work clothes are welcomed. A funeral service will be held immediately following
visitation at 8 p.m. in the funeral home with the Rev. Al Petrill officiating. Burial will be private. In lieu
of flowers, donations may be made in loving memory of Richard to the Community Library of Allegheny Valley, 1522
Broadview Blvd., Natrona Heights, PA 15065. To leave an online condolence for the family, please go to
www.cardarofuneralhome.com.
Richard was in episodes 15, 16, 39, 63, 64, 69, 99, 105, and 117.
7/29/10 -- The economy is making things tough for a lot of people, fortunately I've been finding new and
creative ways to make money. Not a lot, but enough to get by on. I like being presented with new challenges
now and then, and thinking up solutions to the problem, but after all these years, it sure would be nice to
finally win millions of dollars in the lottery and retire from this whole "no money" thing! I think I've
earned it!
5/30/09 -- I'm out in Los Angeles, and things are going okay, but I have to wonder where these people get their
driver's licenses. You can be driving down a freeway 5 or 6 lanes wide, and the traffic will come to a stop
or nearly a stop for no apparent reason. No wreck, no cop car, etc. Then after a mile or 2 people will speed
up again. I'll have to make an episode about it sometime.
12/31/08 -- The site is coming along fine, considering that I do it all myself with no actual cash,
or with the assistance of anyone with any actual on-camera skill or experience. The people who have
been on the show are just messing around and it usually turns out pretty good, but there's not
much potential for anything more than what we do now. I'm hoping to change that once I make the jump to L.A.!
11/22/6 -- Here's a song & video of some foreign dork singing his version of the Numa Numa song,
and goofing around, doing all kinds of strange stuff for the camera. He speaks a foriegn
language, but his shirt is printed in english!
If it gets too dumb for you to watch it all, then at least watch the last 25 seconds of the
video!
Numa Numa Idiot
1/31/06 -- Here's a video for you to watch. A guy in a Star Wars stormtrooper outfit, with a
guitar, singing a song. It's moderately amusing, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it here. But
it's a Quicktime file, so you need iTunes or Quicktime for Windows 6 or 7 to view it. No big
deal if you know a little bit about computers, they're free to download.
UPDATE - 4/1/23 - this guy in the video, Herbert Midgely, maintains a youtube channel called
"The Internet Legend". The videos there for the most part get less views than those on my
YouTube chanel, but he uploads a video every day or nearly so. That's a LoudMouthTim level
of persistence that I can respect.
"I'm a nerd" song and video
12/31/05 -- It's the end of 2005, and soon it will be 2006. New year, new start, fresh
beginnings, everything is reset to zero, etc. But some of the more pessimistic people out
there say "it's just another day". I hope I never get to the point of being like that.
Happy New Year!
9/12/05 -- Long time since my last update here. The biggest news on this site lately is that
it has become the longest running in production webshow in internet history. When I started this
show, that goal seemed so far away, but it is here now.
Future plans for the show are to continue production. I've put out some casting notices to get new
people on the show, but who knows if anyone with anything worthwhile to contribute will answer.
We'll see.
4/27/05 -- Here's a shooting contest video. I think it'd take a lot of practice to get this
good!
Speed Shooter
3/8/05 -- Here's a short cartoon to watch. This is what I'd probably be like if I ever worked
at a fast food place, but it's going to be a LONG time before that ever happens, if at all.
French Fry Cartoon
2/28/5 -- It's the end of February. I haven't gotten a call from CBS to be on Survivor yet. I'm
getting a little concerned that they might not call. They better call. I'm such the perfect
person to go on Survivor that it isn't even funny. I've seen the people who are on this season
of the show, and I can't believe that they were picked over ME.
11/1/04 -- Here's a short video to watch. This guy should have been killed for being this
stupid!
Train Idiot
10/26/04 -- Well, winter is coming to Pennsylvania. The leaves are turning, it's getting
colder, and even though I don't like winter, there's not much I can do about it, except move
to somewhere warmer which requires cash I don't have and can't get without some unforeseen
circumstances working out to my benefit for a change. So I'm going to complain about the cold,
snow, ice, road salt, and all around general misery brought on by the weather until March, when
things finally start getting better again.
8/17/04 -- I just uploaded the second half of "The Ride", my road trip to deliver one of my
cars cross country to its new owner, who bought it for the engine and drivetrain I had in it.
The trip was okay, I got to see a lot of new places, but most of it was in the middle of
NOWHERE!!! I don't know how people can stand to be so far away from anything, which is pretty
much all I saw from the middle of Wisconsin to Idaho on I-90. I just couldn't live like that
myself. During a couple fuel stops, I'd have to get off the highway and drive through some
small town to go to a gas station. St Charles, MN comes to mind. A nice small town, but too
much "nothing" all around it.
While driving through Wyoming and Montana, it wasn't unusual to drive 10 miles and see NO
people, then see 1-6 houses or maybe an RV campground way off the side of the road, then drive
another 10+ miles and see no one. In South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, if you've seen 2
miles, you've pretty much seen the whole state along I-90.
I saw something amusing in Wyoming. Driving along and coming to a town (don't remember which
one), there were several hundred modular homes and trailers in a development on the right side
of the interstate, and on the left side, there were about 20 very expensive homes built on the
higher ground, overlooking the trailer park / modular home area! A clear case of the "haves"
and the "have nots"! I'm going to be one of the "haves" someday.
Music selection was another issue. I'd planned to play Depeche Mode's "Never let me down
again" during part 1, and Level 42's "Something about you" during part 2, but the frequent film
cuts tended to interrupt it. So go and download those songs on Kazaa, and play them in the
background while you watch the videos and see how it feels.
6/9/4 -- Here's an audio clip I found about 3 years ago. It's pretty amusing to me. It
involves a married man and his girlfriend!
This dude is BUSTED!!!
6/8/4 -- Same thing. I see a lot of traffic to the site, but the message board is rarely used.
Only a few people go on it. Same with emails. Let me know about things you want to see on the
show or any ideas you may have!
2/2/4 -- Special Letter To Viewers
Hey everyone, I've noticed something. I watch the log files closely, and I know how many
different viewers come here and see which files on a daily basis. But 2 areas are strangely
low on traffic - Emails to me and the Message Board. We've had ONE new person sign up on the
Message Board in the last 2 months. I find it hard to believe that with so many people coming
here that no one bothers to sign up on the message board and post comments. So do that. Make
your opinions known. But keep it reasonable. I've banned 2 people already for getting out of
line. But contribute to the forum!
1/15/4 -- Today is the first of the multi-part series on Webshows of the Past, chronicling other
webshows that have come and gone before me. In Episode #47, I discussed Jennishow and SnackBoy.
I was actually able to get in touch with Terry Crummitt (SnackBoy), and we had a couple good
telephone conversations. He was very polite and seemed genuinely interested in my offer to
provide a place to host any new SnackBoy episodes if he wanted to resurrect his show. But then
he didn't call back. I called him a couple times and ended up talking to his mother. He's about
30 and still lives with his parents. She said he'd call if he was interested. Apparently he
isn't interested right now unless I pay money for his appearances. Well, if he changes his mind,
he has my name, phone number, email address, and my website address. It's up to him now.
1/5/4 -- I researched it. The added costs and computer hardware requirements are far beyond what
I'm willing to pay for out of my own pocket. And there wouldn't be much interesting stuff on the
webcam anyhow. So we can forget about any idea of a live cam for the time being and the
forseeable future.
12/31/3 -- Since today is supposed to be the last day for Jennicam.com , I had given some thought
to adding a live feed webcam of my own to the site. But I need to research the idea first. More
information on that later if I decide to do it.
12/7/3 -- I was going around to some of the webshow sites on the internet, and I noticed that
www.jennicam.com says they'll be closing at the end of the year. That one has been one of the
longest running webcam / webshow sites out there, even though a new show hasn't been made in two
years at least. But the site has been kept more or less current.
Aside from my site and a couple others like www.purposelessproductions.com and www.alexduffy.com,
most of the original group of webcast / webshow people is leaving the business. And we don't
have enough new ones coming in to replace them. I think it's a big loss to the internet to have
this happening. I can remember back in the mid 90's when all this stuff was new and fascinating
and it was going to change the world. That's when the webshows got started. Now they're
leaving.
It all seems like a huge loss to me. We need more people to keep the webshows coming.
10/4/3 -- Here's a political parody song that was played a lot on Rush Limbaugh's radio show back
in the late 1990's, when Clinton and Gore were grabbing as much cash as they could for any reason
they could think of. Paul Shanklin made it and a lot of other parody songs for Rush Limbaugh.
Unfortunately, it is a low quality file. A 32 Kbps rate. Only 590 KB for a 2 minute 25 second
song. On my Windows XP Home system, it plays in MusicMatch Jukebox, and is a .wma file.
Al Gore Paradise
9/1/3 -- Episode #28, "The Gun War" was a very unorganized movie shoot. We all decided to make
a movie, and did it in less than an hour one nice August afternoon 13 years ago. At that time, The
Blair Witch Project hadn't yet been made, so the shaky camera syndrome wasn't as obvious to me
as it is now. The movie was made at the house where I grew up. It's a nice quiet place.
There's not supposed to be a "W" in the word "Copyright", but I didn't think of it at the moment I
was writing the sign.
"An I.T.S. Production" stands for Ian, Tim, and Susy. We tried it different ways, and I.T.S.
sounded the best when compared to S.T.I., T.I.S., T.S.I. etc.
The guns used in the movie were battery powered water squirt guns that also made a clicking noise
as they shot the water. They were readily available in stores back then. Ian wanted to have
water in the guns for filming, but I said it wouldn't look as real. So we left the water out and
clicked away at each other.
While transferring the movie from VHS tape to Mini-DV for editing on the computer, I pressed a
button on the VCR remote to see the time counter, not knowing it'd also transfer to the Mini-DV
tape. I didn't realize what happened until I was watching the movie on the computer, and by
then I was too lazy to go back and redo it.
During filming, Ian had the idea to recreate Tom Hanks' Laser Tag scene from the movie "Big", but
he kind of overdid it with the jumping around after getting killed each time, don't you think?
At the end of the original movie, the ending song ran for its full length. Because of disk
space and download time considerations, I chopped the ending credit scenes to 10 seconds apiece
for the WebShow episode. Use your imagination to recreate the actual ending.
The credit signs were hastily drawn with a crayon on a rough concrete floor, so that's why the
letters have that light / dark dotted look to them. The camera was on a tripod for the starting
and ending credits.
You can see the tree house, or more accurately, the tree platform that I built back in the
early 80's. Due to about 2 feet of dirt being added all around the base of the tree for ground
reshaping a couple years later, the tree was dying at the time of the movie shoot, and was
dead and cut down several years later. There's nothing left of it now.
An accident happened in the filming that stayed in the movie. In scene 3, where Ian runs down
the hill and jumps across the creek, I'd forgotten to wind the audio cassette past the leader
before we started filming that scene. He saw my arm move, which was his cue to start running,
but the music wasn't playing! I started to say "I didn't play the music", but stopped myself
and let the scene happen. As it turned out, the music started just as he cleared the creek, so
it looks like we planned it that way. Does anyone really care?
I wrote a full and detailed script for "The Gun War 2", but it was never filmed. I still have
it.
8/5/3 -- Today's topic - should this site have a message board? I'm thinking of adding one.
I've gotten a couple emails from people saying that they want it, and with the recent shutting
down of the message board at www.thesync.com for reasons known only to the owners of that board,
there aren't any other Webshow sites with a message board that I know of. I tried making one at
ezboard.com and it didn't go well. I tried making one at bravenet.com and it's also a miserable
POS. They want me to pay $60 a year for the "Pro" version so I can have a template and
background! As it is, the message board is inundated with banner ads all across the top and
down the right hand side. And the "topics"? Each is nothing more than a simple line of text
in the middle of the page! I'd be embarrassed to put that poor excuse for a board on my site.
You can't even go back and edit your messages!
So what should I do here? Pay more money out of my pocket for a board with an unknown number
of interested people? I should take a moment here to mention that my PO Box (which I had to pay
for) has received NO donations of any kind to help the site grow! That's a strong hint to ALL
of you out there!
Well, if you're interested in me putting a message board on here, email me and tell me what you
think. I may put up that stupid looking free board so we have SOMETHING to post on, but just
know that I don't like that board and want to change it.
I just thought to mention this - has anyone noticed my weight loss? From episode #1-15 I was
in the 263-268 lb range. From early June to the filming of #24, my weight dropped to 243 lbs.
I'm 6' tall if that matters. The weight loss continues!
8/3/3 -- I've been wanting to film Episode #24 ever since the site was started. Now it has
been done. The large file size was needed to provide good image quality in this case.
7/14/03 -- Episode 21 - The PowerBall lottery. Playing the PowerBall can be fun, at least if
you win some cash. Every time I play, even if I do win a few dollars, it gets me all hyper
because the numbers I should have played are suddenly SO OBVIOUS! What was I thinking by not
picking them?!?!?!
6/30/03 -- I posted Episode #19 today. Unfortunately, because of the loud sounds in the video,
and all the background movement of tree leaves and branches, the video is not very good in
quality. I tried saving it at higher bit rates of 135 and 145 Kbits per second, but there was
very little difference, so I went with the standard 115 Kbit rate. The high rate version plays
at 2042 Kbits per second, and is of very good quality. It'll be available on the high rate
CD's in the online store section if anyone wants it.
5/26/03 -- My first audition session for bringing other people in front of the camera was held yesterday.
Despite over 3 weeks of ad notices on the Pittsburgh Film Office hotline and website, and a free
ad in the local Arts & Entertainment paper, a grand total of 2 people showed up to the audition!
One of them was a guy who was just coming to the library where the auditions were held to get
some books. But he went home and got his drum and came back and sang a funny song for me. As a
result, he's been given the opportunity to do more on the show. I plan to film him in action next
weekend. The other person who showed up will be given first chance at any parts that may be
available.
My opinion of people is not improving much.
4/27/3 -- If you are studying to be an actor or theater performer and are currently taking
classes, here's a free tip for you. Instead of paying your teacher $200 for an 8 week session
for one 3 hour class a week, think more like this - just be yourself. If you have an idea you
really feel strongly about, it will come across in the end. Episode 7 is a case in point for
me. So far, most of my webshows were filmed in 5 to 8 takes, but #7 was done in only 2. It
may have a few quirks in it, but after playing it back on the camera a few times, I saw no need
to shoot it again. I was happy with the outcome. If the teacher really knew what he was talking
about, he'd be making big cash in Hollywood instead of drawing a few hundred off each of his
students, so don't take them too seriously.
4/6/03 -- I came across an mp3 file today from a Seattle radio station, wherein they were having
a debate. An Iraqi who had come to america long ago was asking some peace loving anti-war girl who
was on the radio show "How will leaving Saddam in power help Iraq?", and she couldn't even answer
him! Made a complete ass out of herself and shows that everyone who's against the war in Iraq
doesn't know what they're talking about.
Iraq Debate
4/5/03 -- Ever encounter someone who thinks that just because they have a little authority they
can boss everyone else around? I recently ran into one of these types, and Online Video #3 is
the result of that encounter. I think it's definitely the best of the first 3 shows. So far,
about 40% of the emails I get are positive, 30% are neutral and / or offer suggestions, and
30% don't like it. You can't please everybody, so I don't try to please anybody. The people
who like the show will return to see more.
4/2/03 -- The site is online! Things have a ways to go yet, but they'll get there. I had a few
people email me saying how boring the first show was, in spite of the fact that I clearly stated in
the show that it was for informational purposes and not entertainment.