SnarkyTeen

Happy Birthday Gabrielle Christian!

2011-07-30T08:04:00.003-04:00

Today is Gabrielle Christian's (a.k.a. Spencer Carlin from South of Nowhere) Birthday!
Use your favorite Spencer secret avi or dress up your avatar like Spencer.
Bonus points - add a quote from Spencer to your Siggy for the day.
Also a good excuse to re-watch so old SoN episodes.

Happy Canada Day!

2011-07-01T07:59:00.000-04:00

Celebrate Canada Day - and all the good TV that we've seen because of Canada and it's people. Shoot off some fireworks, wave a Canadian flag, and maybe watch some Degrassi or listen to some Canadian artists (the odds are pretty good that someone on your ipod is from Canada.)
Viewing Suggestions:
The Canadian Thanksgiving Episode of The Best Years
Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian

Bonus points - Go to Canada to celebrate Canada Day.

Happy Birthday Jake Goldsbie!

2010-08-08T08:32:00.000-04:00

Today is Jake Goldsbie's (a.k.a. Toby from Degrassi) Use your favorite Toby Secret Avatar - or Dress up your avi like Toby today!

Happy Birthday Valery Ortiz!

2010-08-01T08:08:00.001-04:00

Today is Valery Ortiz's (a.k.a. Madison from South of Nowhere) Birthday!
To celebrate use your favorite Madison Secret Avi, or dress up your avatar in the South of Nowhere cheer uniform.

Bonus points - Madison (and therefore Valery) is a pretty kick ass dancer - dance today.

Instant Star is Back in iTunes!

2010-02-20T13:49:00.000-05:00

Find all four seasons in iTunes here. Or if you're more of a DVD person you can find seasons 1-3 on amazon. (Season 4 should be out on DVD later this year.)

In other releases:
Veronica Mars Season 1 is in iTunes in Standard Definition and High Definition. (Probably one of my all-time favorite seasons of any show.)
There's also a collection of 10 Degrassi episodes you can get as "Degrassi Love 101" in iTunes.
They've also got the cover of the complete Daria series (coming out May 11) up on Amazon. (49 5-star reviews and the DVD aren't even out yet, You rock on Daria!)
Here's a long list of CW shows that have been renewed.
And here's an annoyingly cryptic Glee promo.

TeenNick.com Tips, Tricks and Basic Guidelines for the Site

2010-02-18T20:25:00.002-05:00

Message Boards

General Discussion doesn't mean post whatever the hell you want.

There are 4 General Discussions on the site - For for General Discussions about the Website, one for General Discussion about the channel, one for general discussion about the games and quizzes on the site (people post quizzes etc. there) and one that's for everything that doesn't already have a designated board (the truly "general" general discussion.)

Look at the Message Board before starting a new topic

I know, you want to tell everyone about how the site is glitching, or there's new stuff in the Avi mall or how amazing you think Twilight is - but chances are there are 20 other people that have thought the same thing and already made a post about it. (Clearly we have many great minds thinking alike on the site.) And having the General Discussion board clogged with 20 different threads about the exact same thing really annoys people. Same goes on Books, Movies, and Music boards - if you want to talk about Twilight or Micheal Jackson, post your thoughts on a thread someone else has started. If you don't see one or your wanted to have a more specific conversation on the same topic, you can totally start your own thread - we just don't want the board to become dominated by a bunch of threads essentially saying the exact same thing. (And typically the mods will start removing threads at that point.)

Don't post just to get your post count up* - It's pretty easy to tell when users are not interested in the discussion and really just want more posts under their belt. It's annoying as hell and doesn't bring happy thoughts to mind. *However the 4th General Discussion is a place where this is generally OK - the whole board is random questions, not discussions, and threads jump around from being popular or not several times a day - there's not any flow to disrupt by obsessive posting here, unlike other boards.
Attempt proper spelling and grammar. People will not take you seriously on a regular basis otherwise. It's OK to make mistakes, and the message boards are not your English term paper, but things like purposeful blatant misspellings, really only make you look dumb, and annoy people reading your posts. (This is one of the things that irks me the most - I'm awful with spelling, always have been, so I have a spell-checker on my computer and genuinely try to make sure I'm not making mistakes with every post I make. It makes it hard to take someone seriously when they post tAlkinq L1kee dis. People will call you on it.)
Check out the Talk to Teen Nick board from time to time. @M-A occasionally responds to posts here, it's good to keep up with the rules through his posts. Plus, his responses to why some people have had their accounts disabled can be pretty amusing.
The Society and Current Events boards are the major places for debate on the site. When posting here it's good to remember this. Don't be surprised if someone with different opinions responds - generally some kind of discussion or debate is expected on these boards.
Don't post "spectacle"-y kinds of threads - stuff like "Person microwaves 7 turtles" or "Person does something horrible to innocent children" then say - "Isn't this awful!" Yes it is awful - in fact all you're going to get is 5 pages of posts agreeing with you about how awful it is. There's really no point to a thread like that other than to tell sad stories and have a thread full of people agreeing with you. There's no discussion or thought really involved in it, and people usually like coming to the Society and Current Events boards of have discussions or debates and think about the topics. (And it really just makes it seem like you were only looking for attention in the form of many message board responses.)

Avatar Mall Suggestion Box Message Board

Keep copyright laws in mind when requesting things in the Avatar Mall Suggestion Box. The only way we can get Harry Potter scars or Green Day tees is if they're sponsored. There can be ways around this, by describing the item then causally throwing in the copyrighted thing. Ex. I think we should have a yellow T-shirt with a black sqwiggly line across the middle - kind of like the shirt Charlie Brown wears.
Keep pixel sizes in mind - Nose rings would be really cool but our noses are only 1 pixel big, our avi's entire nose would be pierced.
Avoid stereotypes/labels/generalizations/brand names when describing what you want - these kinds of descriptions are waaay subjective - the designers' interpretation of "scene" could be different from yours. Describe specific items you want to see Ex. small bows for our hair, hot pink leg warmers, long straight brown hair with streaks of blue in it etc.

GamePony

If you're confused about a game - don't post something asking for help in the game comments - post it on the game's Message Board
Don't post walk-troughs in game comments - it's essentially a spoiler and can ruin the game for some users. (Plus it'll get reported, your warning level will go up yada yada.)
Don't ask for people to add you send you mail or read your blog - it's off-topic and pretty annoying. You can request these kinds of things on the Newbies Message Board.
Read the directions before playing a multi-player game - it's really not fair to others if they have to teach you what to do.
If you want to contact somewhat at the site to get help with a game having technical issues, do it through the FAQ. Don't post about it in the comments, techies will not see it there.

Other site related tips

Read the @TeenNick blog - occasionally they'll post news about the site and/or channel there that you'll want to know.
Just because you don't see any comments on an article/blog post/picture - doesn't mean that yours will be the first. Comments take time to show up, like Message Board posts, so avoid the whole "OMGeee 1st commmehnt!"stuff - odds are more towards you not having the 1st comment and later looking stupid.

It doesn't actually take 30 minutes for your post to show up on the Message Boards. It can vary from browser to browser or computer to computer, but unless the site is overloadingly busy - message board posts hardly ever take 30 minutes to show up any more. (And complaining about it will usually result in several vets talking about how it used to take up to a day for stuff to be posted because the mods had to read every post before it showed up.) If you arrange to see posts by "Newest First" you can see posts nearly instantly.

Friends

How do I find my friends on TeenNick.com?

Send them a Friend Request from the friends page on your profile by entering their username or email. currently TeenNick.com doesn't have one of those nifty "we'll go through your address book and tell you if any of your friends already have an account on the site" yet, so you'll have to rely on a nice old-fashioned Myspace message or maybe a phone call to ask if they have an account.
If you know a username and you want to see their profile, you can use this link: http://www.teennick.com/pf/index.php?u=SnarkyTeen
Just erase my username and add the one you're looking for after the u=

I tried to go to someone's profile and just got brought back to my own, why is that?

That happens when a user has been disabled.

How do I become "TeenNick.com Famous"?!

Honestly, there's no such thing as being "famous" on TeenNick - and the site isn't really about being famous or having everyone know your name.

However, I'd be lying if I said there aren't some users that are more well-known than others. Typically they're known because they're active users and make a lot of [non-pointless] message board posts. But it can really depend what boards you hang out on. Some users are well known for their Fan Fiction, or being helpful on the Newbies board, or being really into debating things on the Society & Current Events boards. Just post where you want to post, and stay active and people will start to recognize you for your posts and your awesomeness, not because you're desperate to have everyone know your name.

How do I get a ton of friends on TeenNick.com?

There is a population on the website that doesn't want to be a number on a friend list - but there's also a population that doesn't mind. TeenNick isn't quite on the "only add people you know" level as Myspace and Facebook - but it's not always an "add anyone and everyone" environment either. I think most users add people that have similar interests or make posts they really like. But we all know to not give away our personal info to people we only know online, right? I thought so. (If someone asks for this info or is being uber creepy report their ass - let the mods handle them, and you'll get 2 creds, yay!)
The basics of Friend adding:

Check out the Newbies board - most people there are just as interested in getting a bunch of friends there.
Click on the titles of your favorite books, movies, music etc. in the info section of your profile to find other users that like the same things you do.
Sending friend requests results in more friends than waiting for people to add you.
Not sending blank friend requests helps. Many users don't accept blank friend requests.
Be active. If people see you around a lot on the Message Boards, in Screening Parties, playing Role Player etc. they'll want to add you.

Creds

Is there a cheat for creds on Teennick.com?

No, and if one does pop up, using it will probably result in getting your account disabled.

I can't ever seem to claim creds twice in a row, why is that?

A long time ago, people sometimes clicked on the cred box twice and they would get twice the amount of creds (it was a glitch, though some people would do it on purpose, or by accident.) So to prevent this from happening, they attached a timer to creds, you can't claim creds twice within a certain amount of time. I find that counting to 10 before claiming the second cred banner sometimes lets me claim them. It also works the other way around, sometimes if you let creds sit for a long time you can't claim them anymore.

Why can't creds just be automatically added? That'd be so much easier!

True, it'd also make it so much easier for people to cheat the system. They could just set up their computer to keep refreshing the page then go see a movie, go into space etc. and come back with a bunch of creds they didn't really earn.

Why is the cred system set up the way it is?

For Ad money. Users go through pages and see ads, TeenNick gets paid. The more pages you go through, the more ads you see, the more creds you get, and the more money TeenNick gets from advertisers. Kinda clever, isn't it. This is also why reducing the prices in the mall or making everything free won't happen - people would be less active, see less ads and TeenNick would make less money.

TeenNick

How do I get on TeenNick's Shows?!

Not by begging for a part on the message boards. First off, realize that a lot of Teennick's shows are made in Canada, and the actors on these shows have to be Canadian (or have proper visas etc.) for tax purposes. But, every few years The-N/TeenNick has had contests for Americans to win a walk-on role on Degrassi. These contests are always announced in the @TeenNick blog.
For TeenNick's shows that are made in the U.S. - they have had casting calls for them from time to time, but these are usually released on sites that keep track of open casting calls. (Also on Nickelodeon Casting's twitter.) Googling to find some sites that keep track of casting calls for actors is a good start. Bottom line: Don't expect to post something on the message board then be discovered star in a TV show and be the next Miley Cyrus. If you want a career in entertainment (or any other field) you have to work at it. Build a resume. Get an agent. A SAG card. Etc.

How do I work for TeenNick?

Again, not by posting on the Message Boards. First off, you have to be 18. Check the FAQ - if they're looking to hire any moderators they'll tell you where to submit your resume and such. For internships & jobs in other fields check out the MTV Networks Careers website.

Something about TeenNick has made me furious! How do I contact them!!

If it's about the website - through the FAQ.
If it's about the channel or the brand as a whole - through the FAQ or through Viacom's website. (Use the contact link in the lower left-hand corner, make sure to select The-N/TeenNick when submitting your comments.)

Get your free Degrassi!

2010-01-13T13:50:00.000-05:00

You can get the 2 part season premiere of Degrassi High for free on iTunes! (And trust me, this episode is a doozy! Serious go there material.) Plus you get to see all the now-adults with interesting hairstyles.

Glee News!

2010-01-12T17:13:00.000-05:00

Glee did pretty well with it's premiere in the U.K. - So if you ever find yourself in a room with a bunch of English teens, (or Canadian teens,) you can always talk about how Sue C's it.

And the Glee will keep on coming - Glee was picked up for a second season. (Which isn't really surprising, but they announced it surprisingly early - usually show renewals aren't announced until Spring time-ish.)

Also, this is exciting - they're holding casting calls for 3 new characters on the show! As really soon - meaning you can stop reading this, click this link, submit an audition and become a real gleek! (As in "no really I am a gleek - see here's my face in this episode" gleek.) Just remember the little people when you become famous. And send me a T-shirt? [You may have to wait till February when put up the details and start accepting applications, but this just give you time to practice, bookmark it!]

Goodbye Radio Free Roscoe

2010-01-11T14:03:00.000-05:00

According to Nick and More Full House is taking over RFR's time slot on TeenNick and RFR is no longer on the schdule. Caitlin's Way will now only air on weekends.

Dear TeenNick, You can not have it both ways.

2010-01-03T18:32:00.000-05:00

     It seems like TeenNick is in the middle of some kind of identity crisis. On the one hand they have the teenager oriented mature programming that made them: Degrassi, The Best Years, Whistler, Beyond the Break, Instant Star etc. complete with critically acclaimed shows that make them look good (South of Nowhere, Degrassi.) And on the other hand they have the younger oriented programming that they brought in after the 24/7 switch (Ned's Declassified, Zoey 101, Full House etc.) Not an entirely bad direction - becoming cool with the younger crowd - you can get more years of loyalty out of them. Then again it really pisses off all of your older, been-with-you-forever viewers.
     With the re-brand they seem to be stuck - not sure which audience to cater to. They're continuing with Degrassi - which still has some pretty mature story lines, and they've put "Gigantic" into production - a show that was in the works since 2007 and was probably delayed because of the 24/7 switch. The HALO awards - could be considered younger or older teen oriented, I'd think it'd be target towards older teens since the stereotype is that people get more socially conscious/service oriented in their college years. (Then again, it could have been targeted towards everyone, money is money.)
On the other hand the majority of airtime is filled with programming targeted towards tweens and children (or families in the case of Full House.) And Nick Cannon's suggestions of shows like "reality competition to form new Josie and the Pussy Cats band" or the TeenNick acquired "friends in Fashion High School compete in design competition" hardly sound like they're meant for teens.
     Until they make some kind of final decision - they just try to squeeze both types of programming and hope it works out. Here's a section where this doesn't seem to be going too well: (Programming copied from AT&T U-verse TV Guide. All times are Eastern. Programming may change if TeenNick comes to their senses.)

Monday January 4th
4:30PM Ned's Declassified “Guide to: Popularity and Stress”
Student makes a controversial list of the most popular kids in School; Ned has girlfriend troubles, and Moze worries about her future.
5:00PM Degrassi: "Moonlight Desires"
Marco's attempts to clean up Degrassi's image don't work out as well as he hoped; Spinner and Jay seek revenge on the neighborhood for their troubled lives. [AKA The one where Marco can't donate blood because he's gay, Marco and Dylan break up, and Jay and Spinner conspire to burn down the school. Oh and Marco kisses Craig.]

Tuesday January 5th
4:30PM: Ned's Declassified “Guide to: Social Studies and Embarrassment”
The kids work on group projects for Social Studies class and hope to win a trip to the state's capital; Moze get's injured while trying to impress the new guy.
5:00PM: Degrassi "Lexicon of Love, Part 1"
As a movie filmed around the DeGrassi neighborhood premieres, Paige and Alex learn to enjoy hanging out, while Emma makes a surprising discovery. [AKA the one where Paige and Alex get together.]

Wednesday January 6th
4:30PM: Ned's Declassified  “Guide to: Dismissal and The School Play”
"Ned starts to feel crowded when Suzie moves into his locker and throws away some of his tips; Ned doesn't want to kiss another boy in the play."
5:00PM: Degrassi "Eyes Without A Face Pt. 2"
Darcy continues to post racy pictures online but is attacked by a disturbed pervert claiming to be her biggest fan; Spinner and Darcy break up when he objects to her racy pictures; Ellie dates her news editor Jesse. [AKA the one where Darcy posts pictures and then get's stalked by Peter's creepo "friend"]

Thursday January 7th
4:30PM: Ned's Declassified: “Guide to: Hallways and Friends Moving”
Ned takes on the job of hall monitor as cookie writes a Hallway Traffic Report; Ned and Moze learn that Faymen is moving away and try to find a way he can stay.
5:00PM: Degrassi: "Standing in the Dark Part 1"
Toby is upset when Lakehurst moves to Degrassi after a fire burned down their school during winter break; Darcy and Peter go public with their relationship, but when Darcy get's intoxicated, something happens that will change her life forever. [AKA the one where Darcy is raped.]

Can we just come to a decision? Cause the parents of all the tweens are ticked that Degrassi and it's Degrassi-ness is on the channel they believe is aimed at tweens, and the teens are pissed that 80% of airtime is filled with shows they don't like, and that aren't targeted towards them.

Happy Birthday Marc Minardi and Tommy Liotas!

2009-12-18T00:35:00.000-05:00

The guys that bring us Lucas on Degrassi and Rich on The Best Years were born today. Yay! Celebrate by not being a total jerk to your girlfriend. Or you could also be nice to your sister and learn something about global warming.
:]

Gifts that Give Back: Planet Dog

2009-12-14T12:52:00.000-05:00

Planet Dog is a company that makes toys and other useful items for dogs. Including the Glow for Good Ball 100% of the proceeds from the sale go to the Planet Dog Foundation - which supports services dogs (search and rescue dogs, therapy dogs, bomb sniffing dogs etc.) It's like an infinite chain of helping-ness. You give a dog a ball, buying that ball helps service dogs, and service dogs help other people. The Pay It Forward kid would be proud. Even if you don't need a dog toy, but maybe want to get a leash, or travel doggie bowls - a potion of what you spend will go to the Planet Dog Foundation. You also have the option to directly donate a dollar (or five, or however much you like) when you checkout from their online store.

I can personally vouch for the toughness of these dog toys. One Christmas, all three of my step-siblings had recently adopted puppies - so I decided to give everyone dog related things for Christmas. Two of the dogs were apparently big dog toy chewers, they'd shred those doggy newspapers in an hour. I got them both the light bulb toy (which is only a 3 out of 5 on the chew-o-meter, mind you,) Both step-siblings were convinced the toys would be torn up by New Years. It's been 2 years, and both light bulbs are still fully intact.

Planet Dog also has a great selection of items that are made in the USA and/or Eco-friendly.

Ideal for:
Your dog
Anyone with a new dog
Anyone who's crazy about their dog

Nostalgia Alert!

2009-12-13T02:00:00.000-05:00

Remember when The-N came out with a soundtrack? There's a physical copy of it up for grabs on ebay, starting price of $.99!

Gifts That Give Back: World Wildlife Fund

2009-12-12T14:48:00.024-05:00

In the World Wildlife Fund's Gift Center you can "adopt" a huge variety of animals. Depending on how much you donate, you can receive a photo, gift bag, or stuffed plush version of the animal you're adopting. The money you donate goes to conservation efforts and can help preserve the animal you "adopted."

Ideal for:
Younger siblings, cousins, other little kids you know
Friends with a favorite animal environment

Happy Birthday Kate Todd!

2009-12-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

Today is Kate Todd aka Lily Randall from Radio Free Roscoe's Birthday!

If you're lucky enough to have a Lily Secret Avatar - use it today. If not, head over to the RFR Message Boards and reminisce about all of the good times you've had with Radio Free Roscoe and Lily.

Today is Internation Human Rights Day.

2009-12-10T15:16:00.001-05:00

In support - here's my favorite Human Rights Cause:

Invisible Children

You may have noticed me swooning over their awesomeness on twitter lately. The best way to introduce them is through their videos, but I can attempt to summarize the whole thing as well. It started out as the friends going to Africa to film some of the stuff going on in Darfur. By a bizarre twist of fate (seriously almost seems like some kind of destiny, if you remotely believe in destiny,) they ended up in Northern Uganda where they saw thousands of kids night commuting, walking miles from their homes to sleep in abandoned buildings and people living in displacement camps - all in an effort to stay safe from the L.R.A. or Lord's Resistance Army. The L.R.A. used to be a resistance movement against the current Ugandan government, but over the years their tactics fell out of favor with the public - and to keep the movement going, the leader Joseph Kony started kidnapping kids and forcing them to find child soldiers. This shocked the filmmakers. Here's an entire section of the world, where people are being forced into displacement camps, where there's no food, work, clean water or access to education. And children are forced to walk away from their homes at night, to sleep in the streets of a city, to avoid being kidnapped. And hardly anyone knows about it. No one is doing anything to stop it. That was 2003.

When the filmmakers came home, the started telling this story - they released a rough cut of the film they made, and started a non-profit to help the kids they'd met in Northern Uganda. Today they've got several programs to help the people of Northern Uganda
Visible Child Scholarship Program - Puts driven kids in back in School, and will pay for their University - they also get mentors
Schools for Schools - Students at Schools in the U.S. and Canada raise money for partner schools in Uganda. You can literally see where the money is going in real time. It's also a competition, a student from each of the schools that raise the most money in each cluster will win a trip to Uganda to see the change all their fundraising has brought.
The Bracelet Program - IC provides employs adults in the displacement camps to make bracelets, which are sold on IC's website, the profits then go to fund scholarships for kids. The bracelet makers also receive training on managing money and some even start their own businesses after leaving the program. (And when you buy a bracelet you get a DVD with a short film about a child in Uganda.)
Mend - The newest program, and one of the coolest in my opinion - former child soldier make reall kick ass bags in Northern Uganda and when you buy one, not only are you supporting the woman who made you bag, but her name is stiched into the bag, and you can go to IC's website and watch a video about her.
Citizens Arrest Warrant - There's been legislation introduced into Congress (our congress) called the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act - it would require the U.S. to lend intelligence resources to help capture Joseph Kony and to take interest in the recovery of Northern Uganda. The Citizens Arrest Warrant is a petition that will be delivered to Obama this December, urging him to sign on to the bill.

There's a ton more stuff, which you can discover on Invisible Children's website. (Be sure to watch some of the videos - they're the most powerful/inspiring/awesome part.)

Upcoming Stuff

2009-12-06T21:19:00.001-05:00

     So December is upon us, and all of our TV shows are going to be taking a little break soon. What to do? Sure we may have relatives to visit with, food to help make, presents to wrap, and a house to "holiday-ifiy" but what do we do once our realtives are driving us crazy to no end, you've been helping with food so much you've lost your appetite, you've decided the whole 'wrapping things up all pretty so they can be torn apart' idea is stupid, and you just can't take anymore of the holidays!

     My answer to that - some good old fashioned TV. Sure Degrassi may be on hiatus, Glee may not be returning until next April - but there's plenty of awesome shows you can pick up at your local video store, library, or add to your Netflix que, that can cure a case of the holidays. In addition to me reviewing and suggestion some of my favorite shows, I'll also be catching up on some of the shows I've gotten behind on this season, (90210, Vampire Diaries, Melrose Place etc.) AND I want you to sugest a few teen-oriented/teen-related shows to check out. I'll try to take a few suggestions - watch them and review them (good or bad).

     Along with some show suggestions, I'll hopefully be throwing in a few "gifts that give back" ideas - for those of us that still have a little holiday spirit. Gifts that give back are my favorite - they're gifts you give where a portion or all of what you spent went to help a cause or person in need. I'm trying to focus on ones where you still have an item to wrap and put under the tree, but that item also give back in some way. (You'll see more once I get the posts up.)

     There are also a few more The-N/TeenNick stars' birthdays coming up - so we can turn those in some Happy Birthday mini-Spirit Days as well. :]

Black Out Day!

2009-12-06T02:30:00.000-05:00

It's the last day in the Unofficial TeenNick.com Spirit week. Make your avatars as dark as possible today.

Mod Appreciation Day!

2009-12-05T17:12:00.002-05:00

(Sorry, couldn't come up with a banner-type thingy for this one)
Appreciate your Mods on teennick.com today. Well, A mod, since @M-A is really the only one we know about.

Happy Birthday Charity Shea!

2009-12-04T14:25:00.000-05:00

Today is Charity Shea's Birthday! If you're not participating in Degrassi Spirit day on TeenNick.com (or if you are) add the CU Hoodie to your avatar or a Samantha Best quote to your siggy. :]

Degrassi Day!

2009-12-04T02:24:00.000-05:00

It's Degrassi Day! Go Degrassi crazy! Dress your avatar like a character! Use A Secret Avatar! Change your profile background to a Degrassi background (if you have one,) Put Degrassi quotes in your siggy!
Watch some episodes in The-Click! Watch this funny, yet kind of creepy Degrassi spoof! (If you haven't already.)

Unfortunate Avatar Day!

2009-12-03T00:13:00.000-05:00

Today is Unfortunate Avatar Day! Make your avatar look as unfortunate as possible. If you need a little guidance, you can check out some pictures of the winners of the 2006 Unfortunate Avatar contest here & here. Or the April 2007 contest here. (Some made by the "The-"s here. Or the October 2007 contest here. Or the original N'Sider entry here.

How do I transfer things between accounts on TeenNick.com?

2009-12-03T00:06:00.000-05:00

Transferring things between accounts - honestly I disagree with the practice for the most part. It seems like cheating. If you're transferring items to one account from the other - you're essentially getting the items without putting in the effort to earn creds (which in result earns TeenNick money.) 97%* of the users on TeenNick.com earn creds to buy things on their alternate accounts, or saved an outfit for months to have a Halloween skin - you can imagine that they can get ticked when other users forgo the effort (and support of the site though earning them money through looking for creds) and just transfer items to their account. However, I have had a few questions about how the process works so I'm going to explain it. But first let's get a few things straight:

1) NEVER, I repeat, NEVER give your password to someone else to get other items for your avatar. It'll get your account permanently disabled without any warning. This also is a big safety risk - they'll be able to see your personal info, and you don't want a random stranger seeing your personal info. They could also go around and spam the board with rule-breaking stuff on your account - no one wants that to happen.
2) Don't transfer things from your friend's/brother's/boyfriend's/anyone you know in real life's account. Doing so will result in both accounts being disabled. (The compromised account rule is zero tolerance, you may tell the mods that you let your sister on your account and not some random stranger - but they're not going to take the chance.)
3) Don't ask for anyone else's password to transfer things - even to give them your things - your account will be disabled.

The only way this works and doesn't result in people getting into trouble, is if you transfer things from one account that you own (totally yours, registered with your email, no one else uses it) to another account that is totally yours. The process goes like this:
1) Sign in with account that has the item/skin you want to transfer (we'll call it "Account A")
2) Go to your Avatar Closet
3) Open a new window or tab in the same browser - in this window/tab go to Teennick.com, log out of account A and into the account that doesn't have the item (we'll call it account B.) Go to the Avatar Closet on Account B.
4) On account A, customize the avatar to have the item/skin you want
5)Save the avatar - it'll show up on Account B

Things to know about transferring items - items won't show up in Account B's inventory/closet - you may be able to save the transferred avatar as an outfit, but customizing you avatar with items that were transferred and items you already have could be difficult.
Also, if the mods even suspect you shared a password/let someone who is not you on your account you're running the high risk of it being disabled. It might be a misunderstanding - but the mods have to be safe rather than sorry - make sure you're OK with this risk before you try transferring things.
Also Teen Nick may change it's policy at anytime and decide transferring things between your own accounts is against the rules and requires immediate account deletion - be ready to take that risk before transferring items.

As a whole - I think the process is pretty ridiculous - it's really pretty easy to get creds, not putting in the effort and just transferring the items is lazy. Maybe I'm a hypocrite for telling you exactly how to do something then telling you it's a bad idea, but I'm not against the information being out there (especially when it's accompanied with information about why it's a bad idea.) Just use your brain when deciding what to do. This is probably one of the riskiest yet not against the rules things to do on Teennick.com (which sounds really overly-dramatic, but it's kind of true.) I'm trusting you to make the decision.

*Made-up statistic - but probably pretty darn accurate if you ask me. Especially since the majority of users that started transferring things in the first place had their accounts disabled for sharing passwords.

Disclosure: Information is current as of when this entry was posted - please remember teennick.com may change/update at anytime and cause some or all the above information to become inaccurate. I can't control or be responsible for what Teen Nick does. If something changes, feel free to make me aware of it and I'll try to update this entry.

Happy Birthday Cassie Steele!

2009-12-02T16:31:00.000-05:00

Cassie Steele aka Manny from "Degrassi" aka Lucy from "The Best Years" aka Blu from "Instant Star" turns 20 today!
If you're not already participating in Dress like a TeenNick Worker Day (as a part of the Unofficial TeenNick.com Spirit Week,) Use a Cassie Steele Secret Avatar, or some on the Manny themed items in the Avi Mall.

If you are participating in the Unofficial Spirit Week but still want to do something - try adding a Manny quote or lyrics from Cassie's songs to your siggy for the day. :]

Dress as a TeenNick.com Worker Day!

2009-12-02T01:54:00.000-05:00

@Mary, @M-A, @Gina - take your pick, dress up like a Teennick.com employee today!

Who are you dressed up as?

Today is World AIDS Day

2009-12-01T15:45:00.001-05:00

More than 25 million people have died from AIDS since 1981. Take some time today to learn about AIDS. Here's a video from ( RED ) to get you started.

Secret Avatar Day!

2009-12-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

It's Secret Avatar Day! Day 2 in the Unofficial TeenNick Spirit Week! What Secret Avi are you wearing? What's your favorite Secret Avi that you don't have?

Wanna see a list of all the past Secret Avatars? Check on the one at the bottom of the How to get Secret Avatars entry.

Sale's Here!

2009-11-30T14:27:00.002-05:00

Looks like the make up sale has arrived in the Avatar Mall! And things are 45% off instead of 33% Score!

Happy The-N Shirt Day!

2009-11-30T00:00:00.004-05:00

It's The-N Shirt Day on TeenNick.com Wear your The-N shirt all day!

Want the black The-N Tee? Here's how to get it:
While you're logged in to your TeenNick.com account, go to the Avi mall, copy and paste this URL into your browser's URL
http://www.the-n.com/games/avMall/avMall_buy.php?item=780
Then hit the enter key. It may look like the page just refreshes - but go check your Avatar Closet, and you should see it.
*Last I checked the shirt was free, but there's always the chance The-N decides to randomly add prices to items - so beware that you might end up spending a few creds.

The Best Years Season 2 DVD Release Date!

2009-11-29T10:20:00.001-05:00

According to TVShowsOnDVD.com Season 2 of the Best Years is estimated to be released on May 8, 2010.
Exciting!

As for Season 3? There's been no official word. (Despite what random strangers like to edit Wikipedia to say.) Granted, this has been a pretty long hiatus, but I think the whole TeenNick rebrand plays a part in it - they're having to make a lot of decisions about programming, what to keep, continue, get rid of.... personally I think having the show released on DVD is not a bad sign. I'm not sure if it's a good sign, but it would seem to indicate that they believe they can make some money from DVD sales. So everything about the future is speculative at this point, but maybe this means we'll get some more factual-like info soon.

P.S. If you don't know the story behind the long break after Season 1 and why Season 2 was only 8 episodes, here's an article that elaborates.

I might gleek out.

2009-11-28T22:22:00.002-05:00

Some kind of sucky news about Glee - after the December 9th episode they're going on hiatus. For 4 months. If it makes you feel any better, here's a Facebook group where we can all be annoyed/pissed/sad together.
In more glee news - and also in support of my position that Canadians have awesome taste in TV - Glee is doing incredibly well, ratings wise, in Canada.

Where is the Black Friday Sale!?!!!

2009-11-27T13:06:00.001-05:00

Surprise! There's no black Friday Sale in the Avi Mall. What do you do now?

DO NOT SPEND YOUR CREDS ANYWAY

This is what @Mary had to say about it in the @TeenNick blog:

Hey guys... I'm not sure what happened and I don't have the keys to fix it, but I know we intended to make your Friday Black in avi mall... and I don't think anyone's exactly reading their email today so I don't think I can get it fixed. I'm sorry. But I'm SURE we'll have a rain date avi mall sale once everyone is back in the office and all digested and rested and ready to rock.

So on the upside you now have time to save up more creds.

But I already spent a bunch of/all of my creds! Agh! What do I do now?!

Well, you still have a whole weekend at least - maybe longer to make up for it. (Check out the How to get Creds entry to make sure you're doing everything possible to get creds.) Also keep an eye out for cred scams - they have a tendency to pop up around holidays or sales.

But What about Spirit Week? I need stuff for Spirit Week!

Hold off on buying stuff for now. Spirit Week doesn't start until the 30th, but you won't need anything that would potentially cost creds until December 2nd. (The first day is The-N shirt Day - which can be bought for 0 creds, Second Day is Secret Avatar Day - and those are free too.) Hopefully we'll see the sale before December 2nd. If not, try putting off buying stuff until the day that you really need the items.

But how will I know when the make-up sale is?!

It'll probably be posted about in the @TeenNick blog. You can also do the old fashioned check the mall every day trick. Also I'll post about it on here and on Twitter - so if you follow me, or regularly check my blog/twitter you could hopefully catch it. There's also the fact that the General Discussion Message Board will probably get clogged with "OMG Sale's here!" topics.

Unofficial TeenNick Spirit Week

2009-11-26T21:07:00.001-05:00

Long-time users IbehJosheh and auburntygr came up with the brilliant idea for an Unofficial Spirit Week on TeenNick.com! I'm so in, are you?

The Unofficial TeenNick Spirit Week Schedule!
Nov 30- The-N T-shirt day:Every user who is participating where your The-N shirts.
Dec 1- (Why not) Secret Avi Day, wear your fav secret avi
Dec 2- Dress as a TeenNick Worker day. Dress up as your fav TeenNick worker.(Ex:Me dressing up as @M-A)
Dec 3- Unfortunate Avi Day: Dress your avi crazy, wacky, and wierd.
Dec 4- DEGRASSi day. Go Degrassi crazy with your avi
Dec 5- Mod Appreciation Day. If you appreciate your mod, let em know. Send givies, (n)Mail them, GB them, however you wanna express gratitude
Dec 6-BlackOut Day: Make your avi all dark.
Spirit Week is conveniently taking place after the Black Friday Sale at the Avi Mall, so you can easily take advantage of the low prices and pick up a few items for spirit week. Here's a bit of a shopping list:
Shopping List for Spirit Week
The-N T-Shirt Day:
(Last checked the shirt cost 0 creds, but there is a possibility that they've changed the price - buy with caution.)
OR
Old School The-N Tee: 0 creds
The-N Turtleneck: 50 creds

TeenNick Worker Day:
@Mary: Brown/black hair
@M-A: Crazy colored hair - blue or purple.
@Lisa: Pink hair, dog, boots.
@Seth: Glasses, Earth shirt (Since he's on a trip around the world)
@Alison: Short hair, cute accessories
@Emily: Warm accessories: Scarves. hats, coffee etc.

Unfortunate Avatar Day:
Anything that clashes. Items meant for the oppisite sex can be popular when making an avatar unfortunate. Items that glitch can also be popular. Saved Halloween skins can also come in handy.

Degrassi Day: Anything Degrassi. Or keep an eye out for items that aren't in the Degrassi section but could help with a character outfit. Or skip this and use a Secret Avi.

BlackOut Day: Dark items
Cheap ones include:
Eyepatch: 0 Creds
Goth Makeup: 0 creds
Black Mop (Hair): 10 creds
Black w/Straight bangs (Hair): 25 creds
Black Armband: 25 creds
Running Mascara: 25 creds
Black Bedhead (Hair): 25 creds
Black Mohawk (Hair): 25 creds
Black Flip Bop (Hair): 25 creds
Black Curly (Hair): 25 creds
Black Braids (Hair): 25 creds

Items that cover a lot and are also dark colors:
Ninja: 300 creds
Mourning Hat: 100 creds
Scary Outfit: 225 creds
Black Knitted Shawl: 185 creds
Black Dress - Long: 50 creds
Classic Black Tux: 250 creds

Also, to keep the switching between days easy - try saving a few outfits for certain Spirit Days to make changing your avi easier.

News

2009-11-25T00:03:00.000-05:00

Awesome news for Instant Star Fans: "The Instant Star 3 DVD is now confirmed for January 19, IS4 to come in March" confirmed cause it came from Stephen Stohn's twitter. (AKA the Executive Producer for Instant Star & President of Epitome Pictures) Also here's an interview with Laura Vandervoot (aka Sadie Harrison) about her new show "V."

Glee is receiving an award for diversity. Apparently the show is also inspiring Glee clubs to start popping up in high schools across the country. And the soundtrack has hit #4 on Billboard's Top 200 chart.

More episodes have been ordered for The CW's One Tree Hill (They'll have a full 22 episode season,) Melrose Place (5 more episodes ordered, total of 18 so far,) and The Vampire Diaries (9 more episodes, total of 22.) In more Melrose Place news - Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Colin Egglesfield were "dismissed" from the show, reportedly because their characters were too dark. And just in case you were wondering, Jessica Simpson thinks the show is crap (except for the parts with her sister, of course.)

There's been some news about the casting of TeenNick's new show Gigantic. The cast includes some real-life kids of celebrities like Meryl Streep's daughter, Grace Gummer, and Gia Mantegna, daughter of Joe Mantegna (aka that guy from "Criminal Minds" or Fat Tony on "The Simpsons".) We should start seeing the show in early 2010 on TeenNick.

I have to say, I really like the graphics on HALO Awards related stuff - very sleek, modern, shiny.
The HALO Awards have their own page on the site now, (good news - we'll be able to nominate people next year.) Also a Message Board, longer promo, and a quiz (look my HALO is my voice! Which is kind of funny, I guess this means the quiz is pretty accurate?)

Also there's a new blue. I'm sure Blue Man group is totally freaking out right now. And so are the Smurfs. And the people who work on Blue's Clues. And - OK stopping now.

November 13

2009-11-13T00:00:00.004-05:00

Don't you miss spirit days on TeenNick.com? (Or The-N.com?) Remember seeing everyone all decked out in Degrassi gear or using South of Nowhere secret avis?

Well why not make our own Spirit Days? Today happens to be Cory Lee's and Michael Copon's birthdays. The two actors that brought us Vin from "Beyond the Break" and the diva Karma from "Instant Star." In celebration of Michael Copon and Cory Lee, let's deck out our avis in Vin or Karma fashion! Or use a Secret Avatar if you have one.

Not enough spirit for you? Use a quote from Karma (or Vin) as a siggy! Like one of these:

You know, I'd do anything for charity, and I'd hope you would to. Which do you think would make me look more maternal, Africa or South America? -Karma

You have to find my puppy! I will not do the show until I'm sure that he is safe and not forced to eat Kibble. - Karma

Speedykins, this theme song could help launch your solo career. Don't mess this up for me...I mean you. - Karma

If you're all "That's nice, but I soo don't have the time to make a siggy!" Feel free to use this one:

It'll look like that (the colors are a bit brighter) ^^^^^^ When you copy all of this and past it as a signature on TeenNick's Message Boards (use the preview button to make sure it looks OK first)

[size=12][color=#f962d2]I only said [/color][color=#f35bc7] those things [/color][color=#ec54bb]because I [/color][color=#e64db0][b]had[/b] to. [/color][color=#df46a5]He wants [/color][color=#d93f99]us to fight for [/color][color=#d3388e]compel[/color][color=#cc3283]ling [/color][color=#c62b78][b]TV[/b], a[/color][color=#c0246c]nd you refuse t[/color][color=#b91d61]o bicker about yo[/color][color=#b31656]ur [i]shoe[/i] quality![/color][color=#ac0f4a] - Karma[/color][/size]
[color=darkblue]* [size=12][b]*[/b][/size] [b]Happy Birthday Cory Lee![/b] [size=12][i][b]*[/b][/i][/size] *[/color]

Steal it, alter it, whatever - no credit necessary. :]

TeenNicktionary

2009-11-12T01:42:00.005-05:00

There's a lot of Slanguage that can be confusing for new users (and old users) on TeenNick.com. Allow me to define:]

@Dixie/The-Dixie – Editorial Director. Writing a book about Dames, loves vintage stuff, has a chandelier that looks like an octopus.

@Lisa/The-Lisa – Sometimes does movie reviews in the @TeenNick Blog. Likes Robots, rescued a one eyed dog, and really has pink hair.

@M-A - The Senior Moderator of the site, people ask him why their posts were removed or why their accounts were disabled by either mailing him, or posting something on the Talk to Teen Nick board.

@Mary/The-Mary – One of the first bloggers/writers for The-N.com. Lives in Philadelphia, loves puppies and commonly refers to Shia Labeouf as “MyShia”

@TeenNick Blog – Blog that features updates about the channel and website. Also discusses other topics relating to teens.

/me - What to type in Screening Parties to change the color of the talk bubble.

24/7 Switch – When The-N went from being a timeshare on Noggin (airing from 6pm to 6am) to being its own 24/7 channel. The-N took over the Nick GAS: Games and Sports channel. The transition went relatively smooth for most, but there was an issue with Direct TV not having the channel in some TV packages, the issue was resolved a few months later. The switch also resulted in The-N deciding to focus on younger viewers (Which resulted in several of their original shows being canceled) and fill airtime with many shows from Nickelodeon.

AaG – Acronym for About A Girl

About A Girl – One of The-N’s first original comedies – The show was about Amy, a college student who ends up living with 5 guys.

“Accidents Will Happen” - Episode of Degrassi that The-N refused to air for 2 years because it dealt with the controversial topic of abortion.
Account Sharing - Allowing more than one person to use an account. Will get said account disabled.

Avatar/Avi - Pixelated people that are shown next to users' message board posts, comments and on their profiles. Can be customized to look like the user in real life or not.

Avatar High - Game on TeenNick's Gamepony where users control a virtual high school. There are a series of events to complete, like an art show and a big game, before reaching Graduation at the end of the game
Avatar Prom -A Gamepony game where users run their own Prom comittie and try to cheer up a prom full of haters.
Avatar U -Technically the sequel to Avatar High, Gamepony users control students at their own University
Avi Mall/Avatar Mall – Place where users can purchase clothing and accessories for their avatars on TeenNick.com

B

Bang On! - Game in Gamepony where users match two icons to gain points. A lot like the game "memory" only you can see the icons and they switch every few seconds.

Badges - Small pictures that display your result after you take a quiz. You can upload them to your pictures by right clicking on them and saving them to your computer.
Best/"The Best" - Game in Screening Parties where users vote for the "Best Friend" "Funniest" etc. Winner gets 20 creds, 2nd place - 15 creds, 3rd place - 10 creds. It's usually standard to vote the host into 1st place so they can earn back the creds they spent on the game.

Best Friend’s Date – Reality show where a teen would be set up on a date by their best friend.

Best Spam Ever - Monthly newsletter sent to TeenNick subscribers via email. Used to include exclusive avatar items, but many people complained of not recieveing the email, despite being signed up for it. Now the newsletter contains a basic description of happenings on the channel and website.

Beyond the Break – Show revolving around a group of teen surfers in Hawaii. Season 3 was delayed being aired due to the 24/7 switch.

Black Friday Sale –Annual sale at the Avatar Mall occurring on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Typically, everything in the Avi Mall is 33% off.
Box/Boxie/Boxeh - Former default avatar for users on The-N.

BtB – Beyond the Break, one of TeenNick’s shows about a group of surfers in Hawaii.

BUMP - Bring Up My Post (used to "bump" up a thread on the message board so that it'll be seen by more people)

BUTT - Bring Up This Thread (Same as BUMP but for a thread that you didn't start)

Choose – Game commonly played by characters on Radio Free Roscoe, may have inspired the game Rank.
Clueless - TV series based off of the movie about a girl living in Beverly Hills. The-N used to air reruns of the show.
Clueless Name Generator -Generates a name for you that's more suitable for the Clueless TV show's Beverly Hills world.
Codes - Numbers that when place in the proper URL can allow people to buy unreleased or sold out items from the Avatar mall. Sometimes referred to as "cheats" but they're really just item numbers. Also, giving out codes on teennick.com's Message Boards or through a blog post [on teennick.com] is against the rules.
Compatomatic Lovebot 3000 - Quiz-like game that evaluates the compatibility level of your relationship. Also features cute robots.
Cranny - Relationship name for Craig and Manny from Degrassi.

Creds – Currency on Teen Nick

Cred Fairy – being that rewards users for utterly amazing posts on the Message Boards with a “buttload of creds.”

Cred Scam – Message that promises creds if it’s posted a certain number of times. Against the rules. They tend to come in waves particularly around holidays or when new items are released in the Avatar Mall.
CrEllie- Relationship name for Craig & Ellie from Degrassi.

Crystal Cascade - Gamepony game where you move crystals into groups of three before the time runs out. Also has shiny colors and nice sound effects.

DTNG – acronym for Degrassi: The Next Generation

Daily Cred Dispenser - Daily lottery for teennick.com for each person that enters 1 cred is added to the total amount, which is randomly given away at midnight. Occasionally the DCD has a sponsor who doubles the cred amount - therefore the winner would receive 2000 creds if 1000 people entered.

Daria – animated MTV comedy from the late 90s about a cynical & sarcastic teen name Daria. The-N aired reruns a few years ago.

Darco - Relationship name for Dylan and Marco from Degrassi.
Degrassi Mega-Match - Card game in Gamepony where users click on pairs of Degrassi themed cards to clear the board.
Degrassi, Old School – The original Degrassi High and Degrassi Jr. High series’ that debuted in the 80s.

Degrassi Rummy Solitaire - Card game on Gamepony - Rummy Solitare Degrassi style.
Degrassi Sign Generator - Program in Gamepony where users can write their own message on the Degrassi Sign.
Degrassi Soundboard: Spinner -page where users can play different quotes from Spinner on Degrassi.

Degrassi Unscripted - Special on The-N that went behind the scenes of Degrassi and followed some of the stars in their daily activities.

DelPop - Relationship name for Del and Poppi from The Best Years.
Disabled/Account Disablement - Accounts that have broken the rules either too much or they broke a major rule (being underage, sharing password etc.) and the mods have deleted the account. Not something you want to happen, nor something to be proud of. If you are confused as to why your account was disable send something to @M-A or post something on the Talk to TeenNick Message Board.

Drake & Josh Word Search -Word Search game in Gamepony.

E

Ellco - Relationship name for Ellie and Marco from Degrassi.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions page on TeenNick.com where people refer newbies to when they as how to get creds. Read it here.

Feed - the part of your profile that keeps track of where you've posted, commented, or when friends are added. You can change the privacy settings for your feed, or disable it all together in "Settings and Privacy."
Flaming/Flame War - Hostile argument on the Message Boards, usually involves directly insulting the other users in the argument (Usually any and all that have opposing viewpoints.) Sometimes debates end up crossing over into Flame war territory - when this happens posts or even the entire thread is removed by the mods.

Flood Control - Gamepony puzzle game where one tries to build a path for a flood. Complicated, and more interesting than it sounds, when it's working anyway.
Flooding -Action of posting a bunch of messages (typically in Screening Parties) so that no one else can say anything. Message Boards can also be flooded - If one posted 20 new topics on the movies board about the Wizard of Oz they would be flooding the board with their posts, pushing down others'. Flooding is against the rules (not to mention really annoying) and doing it can result in getting warnings, suspended, and/or disabled.

Friday Freebie – A temporary feature on The-N.com in 2009 where one item from the mall would be free each week. Caused controversy when more expensive items (like a 500 cred puppy) were selected to be a freebie.
Full House - Show about a group of guys raising 3 girls, TeenNick airs reruns.

Gamepony – Name of the game site affiliated with TeenNick. When it was launched, some users took issue with “girls games” being in the description of the page. Although girls have been the majority of users on the website for many years – this was one of the first instances where something on the site had a gender label attached to it.

Gift-o-Mat – Application that would appear on The-N around the holidays where users could send each other holiday themed items for their avatars. Assumed to be replaced by givies.

Gigantic -Forthcoming series from TeenNick about the kids of celebrities. Production Company site here.

givie – Small items that can be sent to other users on TeenNick.com and displayed on their profile. Some items cost creds while some seasonal or sponsored items are typically free. Like Gifts or Free Gifts on Facebook.

GvB – Girls vs. Boys, Reality show on The-N where groups of Teens would compete against each other for a thousand dollar prize.

H
Hacked/Being Hacked - When someone who is not you is on your account without your knowlege.

Halo Awards -Event where teens that make a difference in their communities are given awards from celebrities. Set to premiere on TeenNick December 11, 2009.

Hand/The Hand - Old logo for The-N.
Heartpounder -Gamepony game where users try to crush as many hearts as they can. Hearts make squealy noises when they're broken.

Hotshot -Game in Gamepony that involves clearing away shapes before they crush you.

I

Instant Star – Series on The-N that follows 15 year-old singer song writer Jude Harrison after she wins an American Idol-like talent competition.

Jalli - Relationship name for Johnny and Alli form Degrassi

Jemma - Relationship name for Jay and Emma from Degrassi.

Jiberty - Relationship name for J.T. and Liberty from Degrassi

Jommy - Relationship name for Jude and Tommy from Instant Star.

K
Kenan and Kel - Half-hour comedy on Nickelodeon in the '90s, follows the misadventures of friends Kenan and Kel. The-N aired reruns for awhile. Watching may induce cravings for Orange Soda.
Kmart Mix & Mash Dress Up -Gamepony game where users could dress up a "model" in clothing available from Kmart's children's clothing line. The game features some clothing with Hannah Montana on it, which was odd, given that Nickelodeon and Disney are rivals.

M
Mail - TeenNick's messaging system - the sites version of email.

Mods- People who work for @M-A they review posts that have been reported and remove them if the break the rules.
Moesha - Dramedy from the 90s, following Moesha and her family while addressing "teen social issues."
Moesha: Reunited - Puzzel connection game in Gamepony.
Miracle’s Boys – Mini-Series produced and aired on The-N about a group of brothers who’s parents die. Received critical acclaim and had at least one episode directed by Spike Lee.

My So-Called Life – Short-lived 90s drama on ABC following the life of angst ridden Angela. The critically acclaimed show aired re-runs on The-N

N

Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide - Nickelodeon show that airs reruns on TeenNick about a group of friends in middle school who dispense helpful tips.

Newbie - New person.

Nick Cannon – Chairman of TeenNick

Nmail – Orginal name for “Mail” TeenNick’s messaging system.

N00b/Noob -New person that doesn't know the rules, and goes around breaking them and annoying people. A lot like a Troll - but N00b typically refers to someone who participates in annoying/rule-breaking activity out of ignorance rather than purposefully, unlike a troll who is aware they’re breaking the rules. Urban Dictionary definition.

Notes from The N’Sider – Name of the @TeenNick blog before the TeenNick rebrand, The-Mary was the orginal poster. Later The-Seth, The-Lisa became regular contributors, with other The-s, like The-Alison sometimes filling in for them.

O’Grady – Original animated comedy about a town plagued by weird happenings known as “The Weirdness”
O'Grady: Clones Gone Wild - Game based on the "Clones" episode of "O'Grady" users have to clump clones together and avoid getting caught by the fire marshal.
One on One -Show starring Kyla Pratt who moves in with her sportscaster father. TeenNick airs reruns.

OP- Original Poster, the person who started a thread. A handy nickname to use when you want to refer to the person who started a thread, but don’t remember their username.
Outbreak - Gamepony game where you blast through a chain, trying to hit stars to advance to the next round. (Despite this description it's nothing like a Beverly Hills version of Grand Theft Auto.)

PAlex – Relationship name for Paige and Alex on Degrassi.

Parcy - Relationship name for Peter and Darcy from Degrassi.

Perma-banned – Being permanently banned by the site. Happens to users who knowingly continue to break the rules on the site. Perma-banned users can no longer create accounts on the site – they’re essentially “permanently banned.” Rumor has it perma-bans are enforced by IP addresses, but has stated they can go beyond that.@M-A
Photo Hunt - Gamepony game where you look at two pictures from various TeenNick shows
PII - Personally Identifying Information, stuff like full names, AIM, email addresses, myspace info, phone numbers etc. Revealing PII on teennick.com results in your account being automatically and permanently disabled. It's also really unsafe, as evidenced by a few Degrassi episodes.

Pixel Pop - Users in Gamepony type numbers to "pop"floating avatars. Reminiscent of those games that teach you how to type....
Pizza Quest '77 - A Gamepony game based off of "That '70s Show" where one completes a series of tasks in hopes of a reward of sweet pizza.
PMS - Post More Soon! Used on Fan Fiction and Random Story Generator boards, among others. Also the name of the all-girl band on Degrassi, which was short for Paige Michalchuk and the Sex-kittens.

Power House - Game released as part of the Big Green Help, users try to make a virtual house more energy efficient.

Punk Rock Aerobics -Ad champaign run by The-N that gave exercise tips with a Punk Rock Twist Ex. Water bottle torture sit-ups, Air Guitar aerobics etc.

Queen Bees – Reality show on The-N where a group of “mean girls” were essentially taken to mean girl rehab. The girl that changed the most by the end of the competition won a cash prize.

Radio Free Roscoe – Half hour show on The-N about a group of teens that start their own indie radio station.

Rank - Game on the site where users choose between two things (songs, Degrassi episodes, hairstyles etc.) the game is never ending, and also a good way to earn creds because the page refreshes so much.

Report/Reporting - Action of reporting posts, pictures or other comments to the moderators because you suspect said post breaks the rules. Contrary to what some believe, @M-A has stated that the mods read every report that comes through, to see if it really break the rules. If a post you reported was breaking the rules, you're rewarded with 2 creds, if it was actually OK, you lose 1 cred. Continuously reporting things that don't break the rules can result in receiving a warning from @M-A.

RFR – acronym for Radio Free Roscoe.

Role Player -Basically an application for Role Playing Games. Also has items that are unreleased, see how to get them here. Has had a reputation for lots of rule-breaking cybering to go on, it appears TeenNick has fixed a few glitches and is doing a better job at keeping the game a bit cleaner these days.

S
Sabrina the Teenage Witch -TV show following a teen witch, her two aunts and their talking cat. Sometimes airs on TeenNick/The-N.
Samarang -Word game in Gamepony.
Saved by the Bell - Half hour comedy from the late '80s early '90s about a group of high school kids. The-N aired reruns after going 24/7.

Screening Parties – Feature on TeenNick.com where users can watch videos and chat with other users in real time. Screening parties also have games that can be played for creds. They also have a reputation for attracting cybering and flame wars. (Both of which are against site rules.) Screening parties are also only available to users in the United States for legal reasons.

Secret Avatar – Pixelized image of characters from TeenNick/The-N’s shows that can be used in place of a regular avatar.

SEllie - Relationship name for Sean and Ellie from Degrassi.

SEmma – Relationship name for Sean and Emma from Degrassi.

Shirtless Cole - Boy featured in commercials where Nick Cannon answers messages from a user asking for more shirtless guys.
Shrunken Heads - Gamepony game. Skulls pile up, you try to stop it. Has a bit of a Tetris vibe... with skulls.

Siggy/Signature - Something posted at the bottom of every post a user makes. They can include lyrics, quotes, little pictures/designs etc. You can have one made or learn how to make one on the The Lounge Message Board.

Slasher! – Game on the site that might be more known for it’s technical issues than for the game itself. Troubles started when there were so many people playing the game it would overload the server. The-N/TeenNick still runs ads on the channel for Slasher! depite the technical complications the game's been experiencing. More server space was added but people would make multiple games and the server would still get jammed. The game can still be played – if you can get into one before it fills up or manage to make one. A Facebook application version of Slasher has also been created.
Smack-An-Avatar - Game in screening parties where users "smack" avatars, like a virtual wack-a-mole. the top three scores win creds.
Snaggables - Short video clips you can snag for your blog, myspace page, website, whatever.

SoN – acronym for South of Nowhere
South of Nowhere - One of The-N’s first original shows. Received critical acclaim, GLAAD award nominations and a dedicated cult following. The show focused around the Carlin family after they moved to L.A. from Ohio, and deal with issues ranging from sexuality and religion to death and drugs.
South of Nowhere Soundboard- page where users can play/listen to soundbites from the show South of Nowhere.

Spaige - Relationship name for Spinner and Paige from Degrassi.

Sparco - Name for the relationsip of Spinner and Marco from Degrassi. (Though the relationship really only exists in Fan Fic, the two are only friends on the show.)

SpAshley – Relationship name for Spencer and Ashley on South of Nowhere.
Spin Cycle - Users click on groups of like-colored balls to gain points and keep the chutes from clogging. Also really addicting. And - oh come on stop giggling! None of that was meant in a dirty way!
Spoiler – Information that gives away details of episodes that haven’t aired on the channel yet. Can only be posted on the Spoilers Message Board on TeenNick.com

Student Body – Reality show on The-N that focused on overweight tens from rival schools in a weight loss competition.
Suspended/Account Suspension -Happens when a user breaks a bunch of rules within a short time span, their posting privileges may be temporarily revoked or they may be unable to enter screening parties. Suspension is only temporary, typically a user is told how long it will last. Continuing to break the break the rules may result in the account being disabled.

TBY – Acronym for show “The Best Years”

That 70s’ Show – Half-hour comedy following a group of teenagers living in Wisconsin in the 70s. Where Ashton Kutcher became famous.

The-s – former prefixes of employee accounts on The-N. Ex. @Mary used to be The-Mary

The-Bouncer – avatar/robot in every Screening Party. Dishes out wisdom and random information. Doesn't have a profile on TeenNick.com

The-Click – TeenNick.com’s video player

The-Meredith – Former intern turned employee at TeenNick. Sometimes judged the contests in the @TeenNick blog.

The-N – What the channel was called before being rebranded as “TeenNick.”

The-Seth – Former N’Sider blogger and podcaster. Left to travel around the world.

The-Tony - Former top Techie at The-N, left to be a techie at MTV

The Assistants – Sitcom produced by Tom Lynch (the guy behind South of Nowhere) That follows a group of assistants to a Hollywood film producer. Production started in 2007 but the show wasn’t aired until Summer 2009 due to the 24/7 switch.

The Best Years – College drama following Samantha Best’s bumpy ride through Freshman & Sophomore years. Was canceled after the first season for not fitting in with The-N’s “new direction” after going 24/7. Thanks to fan support, the producers negotiated with The-N and an 8 episode second season premiered in April 2009. No official word had been given on the status of a 3^rd Season.
The Hook-Up -Users play the new girl in town as they get into intense conversations and backstab their BFF and steal their guys in this Gamepony game.

Thing du Jour – Daily item posted by an employee of TeenNick.

Thread - a particular topic/post on the Message Board. Like a post about The Wizard of Oz on the movies board ex. "This is the best thread ever! I love talking about cinematography of films made in the 30s!"
Trendetta - Users pick a trend to play for and try to dominate the "world" by connecting their pieces to cover the most space on the board.
Trilly – Relationship name for Travis and Lilly on Radio Free Roscoe

Trolling/Troll - Trying to make trouble/start arguments/cause controversy/etc. for the sole purpose of pissing people off and getting a reaction out of them. Troll is the user, Trolling is the action. Trolling is against the rules, and people who participate in it usually get their accounts disabled. Urban Dictionary definition.

U

Underage User - User that is under the age of 13 but lied about it when they signed up for an account. These accounts are disabled automatically because it's illegal for TeenNick to collect any personal info (email address, zip code etc.) from people under 13 without parents' permission. People under 13 can still have accounts, they just won't be able to participate in interactive parts of the site and TeenNick doesn't collect info from them.
Unverified Account - an account that can't participate in any of the interactive parts of the site because the user hasn't verified their email yet.

V

Vet -Person who's been on the site a while and knows what they're doing. (Short for Veteran.) The black and white qualifications to be a vet are somewhat sketchy - some say it's once you know, understand and follow all the rules, some say it's based on time, others by post count. Just remember, a person could have been on the site for years, and have an account with a low post count. A person could also be a member for a day and have a high post count.

Video Masher - Application on TeenNick.com where you can make your own video mash-up using clips from TeenNick's shows.

Vomment – Video Comment – left on videos in The Click.

Warning/Warning Level – What one receives when they post something on Teennick.com that breaks the rules. Having your warning level over 100% will result in your account being temporarily suspended, or occasionally disabled, depending on the rule that was broken. Warning levels go down 11% each day. If you haven’t received a mail from TeenNick – your warning level is assumed to be at 0%.
Wearing It - Fashion oriented articles in the Trends section of the site.
What Goes On – Originally titled “The Block”, a half hour drama following the lives of several teens living in the suburbs. It was made for The-N and set to premiere in 2007, but never aired due to the 24/7 switch.

What I Like About This Game - Gamepony game based off of the show "What I Like About You" where you do things the "Holly way"
What I Like About You -Half hour comedy starring Amanda Bynes as Holly, a teen girl living with her older sister in New York City.

Whistler – Show following the aftermath of gold medal snowboarder Beck McKay’s suspicious death. The last few episodes were moved to odd late night time slots on The-N, presumably due to low ratings. Season 2 was never shown on The-N.
What's the Deal? Tarot Card Reader - Virtual Tarot Card reader in Gamepony that will predict your future. Accuracy of prediction is debatable.
Who You Gonna Get With? -Gamepony game that will tell you the name of who you'll end up with. (Typically they have a fairly strange name.)

Z
Zoey 101 - Children's TV show following Zoey Brooks and her friends at a boarding school in California. Caused a bit of controversy for TeenNick when the show's star, Jamie Lynn Spears, revealed she was pregnant at the age of 16. Occasionally airs on TeenNick.
Zoey 101 Fill Ins - Gamepony game that's essentially a Zoey 101 version of Mad Libs.
Zoey 101 Hangman - Hangman with a Zoey 101 theme in Gamepony.

Zombie thread – Thread that was on the verge of being deleted, due to no one posting on it for a long time, that has been “brought back to life” by someone posting on it. Can be problematic if the thread involved an argument. Typically created by N00bs.

HALO Awards News

2009-11-01T19:54:00.001-05:00

Celebrities Involved: Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, LeBron James, Hayden Panettiere
Air Date: December 11th 9PM ET/PT
Channel: TeenNick, will also be broadcast on Nick@Nite
Source. and Source.

***************** SPOILER ALERT! ****************

Known Winners:
Bryan Jackson (Described as HALO Award Winner here. Newsday article here.)
Leah Stoltz (Described as HALO Award Winner here. Video from the surprise Pep Rally.)
Darrius Snow (Described as being the recipient of a scholarship as part of the HALO Awards here.)
Megan Kilroy (Described as "One of the four HALO awards recipients" here.)

Official Halo Awards Announcement

2009-10-30T21:09:00.000-04:00

Here.

Have the Halo Awards already happened?

2009-10-25T17:32:00.001-04:00

Magic of Twitter.

Other photos here, here, and here with Nick Cannon.

     When I fist got a google alert about this it looked like the event known as the Halo Awards had already taped. Now it looks as though some of these tweet might be referring to taping a promo (commercial) for the event. Either way, I felt it might be a good time to post an entry about a growing issue I've had with Teen Nick.
     The more I google the more annoying this gets. Turns out, there was a casting call for people to act as red carpet fans for the Halo Awards. Really? A casting call!? It is logical to an extent, they probably do want it to look processional, (and lord knows us normal people suck at screaming at famous people on cue,) but would it kill them to offer some of their fans/viewers in the area to come and be a part of it? I'm sure there are tons of The-N/Teen Nick fans in or near NYC that would love to go stand outside and be a part of a Teen Nick show (or promo.) Instead they hire people to act like fans?! I can't decide if this "Oh, disconnected execs are in charge" messed up or just totally fucked up. Honestly, the latter might be better, given that Nick Cannon (Chairman of the channel, claims to know this generation etc.) is an executive producer for the event.
     I thought the rebrand was pretty ridiculous, but I also thought that they'd take the opportunity to genuinely be more open to fans, listen to their imput more and improve the channel. I feel like this hasn't been the case.
     So I thought I'd sort through the issue Gilmore style - with a nice Pro/Con list about how stuff's been going since the rebrand.
Pro: Talk to Teen Nick message board on the site
Con: Nick Cannon never reponds on the message board
Pro: Nick does sometimes respond to a few select posts in the @TeenNick Blog
Con: The posts he does respond to [in the blog] are usually very basic questions/comments (some of which really don't even need a response.) Nick never responds to the bigger questions like "Will you air shows like South of Nowhere/Instant Star/The Best Years/O'Grady/Beyond the Break that we all love ad that made the channel"
Pro: Nick Cannon has taken some initiative by being involved in new programming like the Halo Awards and Gigantic
Con: He's also been running a record label, directing his first movie, running Teen Nick, working on a show for MTV.... realistically - how can he give 100% to the Teen Nick? Maybe he doesn't really need to - I'm sure he's capable of multitasking, and perhaps I overestimate the amount of power he holds at Teen Nick? Should I be expecting this much from him in the first place? Does this still qualify as a con? Moving on...
Con: They've yet to make an announcement about the Halo Awards on Teen Nick's website, and honestly, I think they made a huge mistake by not asking viewrs/users to nominate people they know for the awards. There's so little viewer interaction with this event, I don't see what's going to draw teenagers in to watch it anymore than they'd be drawn in to watch Oprah's Christmas special. Sure we realize doing good, is awesome and everything, but rarely do these things hold our attention unless we're given a way to directly get involved.
Con: The site's been majorly glitching on a regular basis. It's to be expected with all the changes they've had to make, but I also believe it's kind of sad that it takes them so long to fix them. It's become a matter of days and weeks when it should be hours. Many larger sites have issues and manage to fix them in a timely manner. They also have handy little "We'll be back to 100% soon" messages that keep people from incessantly posting "OMG did you know XY isn't working!" messages.
Pro: @M-A did post a Message about the glitches on the Talk to Teen Nick Message Board
Con: Because of the glitch the Message Boards were getting cut off so that over half of them appeared to be missing - including the Talk to Teen Nick board. Therefore a disturbingly high number of users never even saw his post because they failed to use the drop down box to navigate the boards.
Con: The N'Sider now known as "@TeenNick" has been posting less Goss Up Tuesdays, User Movie Reviews, This Week in Music, user advice army, general news-type entries and has instead been posting what the stars of Degrassi have been Twittering. This is 2009 - if your users want to know what the stars of Degrassi are tweeting about they can look it up on their own. (Chances are most of them are already following them, making these entries kind of redundant.)
Con: In general the channel and site have always kept their "behind the scenes news" well, behind the scenes. Let's compare it to the CW, another channel that's pretty darn Teen-oriented. For anyone of it's shows we can easily access the ratings, interviews with people working on it, commentary on what the channel's been doing for it's shows (marketing wise etc.) and easily find detailed descriptions for what new shows are in development for the channel. Granted more people get the CW channel, it's network TV etc. But is Teen Nick's smaller market really an excuse for being so closed off? Sure, if there's not a whole lot of people complaining, maybe that means there's no problem. Or maybe the lack of direct connection with their audience, letting them know that you're generally interested in having a dialogue with the people who keep you employed, will end up biting them in the ass. Few people know what the hell is going on at Teen Nick - and while it might not be a necessity to stay connected to your audience - I think it's something our generation expects. We can send tweets to Ashton Kutcher or the anchors of CNN - and actually get a response from them. Some networks might be able to get by being all close-lipped and mysterious, but I don't think it'll last to long for those targeting younger generations.

I criticize because I know they can be better. They're totally capable of it, I want them to live up to their potential. (God, does that not sound like it came from an after school special?!)

Halo Awards News

2009-10-17T13:31:00.000-04:00

I found some more news on the Teen Nick Halo Awards: Apparently a girl in Long Island is one of the recipients - Nick Cannon came to her school and presented her with the award and $20,000 ($10,000 for the organization she started called "Curvy Girls" for girls with scoliosis, and $10,000 for college) Apparently The Teen Nick Halo Awards will be a one hour special that'll "air later this year" and recognize teens for "Helping and Leading others."

Free Modern Family Dowload on iTunes!

2009-10-17T02:31:00.002-04:00

I'm totally in love with the new show Modern Family - I actually just watched an episode with my family a few hours ago. It manages to capture lots of realistic drama/comedy that happens in real life and make it incredibly amusing. And now the Pilot episode is free! Yay!

News via Snarkyteen

2009-10-16T18:48:00.002-04:00

So, If you've seen the New York Times interview with Nick Cannon (see it on Nick Cannon's site here,) you might have noticed he's got a briefcase (no word on if it was stolen from Deal or No Deal) with a logo for the Halo Awards - reportedly a special that awards teens that make a difference in their communities/world. The award event ha been rumored to be scheduled for December - perhaps it's the big announcement being made during tonight's new episode of Degrassi?

+ Though that announcement could also be for the TV show "Gigantic," that's been in the works for The-N/Teen Nick for years, but seems to have gotten rolling only recently. Seeing as they had a casting call for it earlier this month.

+ New movie inspired by the music of "School Gyrls" the girl group signed to Nick Cannon's record label. He talks about it to Access Holloywood here.

There's more info on the band's myspace page. They don't have any songs up, but there are plenty of Youtube videos that have snippits various songs. (I'll leave music critiques to you.)

+ The Glee Cast got bumped from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - but their music sales on iTunes have been doing pretty awesome.

+ Disney plans to revamp their stores in to mini-theme park like experiences - and they're getting Steve Jobs & crew to help with it. While I occasionally despise Disney for some of their crappy programming, their interest in building tweeny empires out of their stars/shows, and the whole your-princess-movies-give-girls-unrealistic-expectations-about-love/boys/hair/relationships/animals/the functions of common household objects - these stores do sound pretty cool.

Mini-News

2009-10-12T17:26:00.003-04:00

New York Times article on Nick Cannon & Teen Nick here.

Halloween Skins are officially here!

2009-10-09T18:07:00.000-04:00

Hopefully this settles all the "Swaping Halloween Skins" controversy (at least until it's a subplot on next seasons' Degrassi....) The Halloween Skins are now available to everyone when they go to customize their avatars.

It's always so fun to see what people can come up with on their avatars this time of year. Hopefully we'll get some new Halloween swag in the Avi Mall to play with too. Until then I'll keep trying to make my avi look cross-eyed.

:]

I think I figured out what happened to the computers at TeenNick!

2009-10-04T15:26:00.002-04:00

Those martians are trouble with technology. Let's just hope they didn't call Super Grover for Tech Support.

TV Show Rundown

2009-09-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

Vampire Diaries
Commercial Impressions: Wow, Vampire trend - how original. And the two guys are going to fight over the girl - You know, I'm surprised this plot lines isn't used all the time because this happens to me all the time. I'm sure Seventeen magazine gets thousands of letters from girls asking for help with 2 really attractive guys literally fighting over them. [Insert eyeroll here]
My take: This could be interesting. Elana's parents being dead gives her character some interesting depth. I like her best friend being psychic. I'm still having trouble staying interested in the show, but I kind of want to keep trying. If nothing else I feel obligated to support Degrassi actors when they go off to the big scary Lala land world.
Ratings: Vampire Diaries has the best ratings on The CW, the show's probably safe.

Melrose Place
Commercial Impressions: Ok, dead person. Sex. (Of course) Blackmail. Interesting. Prostitution. Oh, good lord, what dramatic element did they not cover here? [Insert dramatic montage] Ok, that's kind of over the top. Fun!
My take: The show was fun. I want to like it, but I'm really not drawn in to keep caring about it. I don't recall being given a reason to care about the lady that was murdered. It seems like they just showed how bitchy she was then killed her off - probably not the best idea when there's an underlying story line to find her murderer. I get the feeling that just when I start to like a character on this show I will then be shown that they've really done many things that would then make me hate them.
Ratings: Majorly sucking. Especially since the show came on after 90210, it was expected to do better. TV by the Numbers has the show on their "Likely to be canceled by May 2010" list.

90210

My take: I only got to watch about half of the first season (before the CW freaked cause their ratings were majorly sucking and they decided pulling all their episodes off the internet was a good idea. This, obviously backfired on them.) I just wish the show weren't so easy to make fun of. Some of the writing seems sort of realistic, (as in I could see teens saying something similar,) but when it's actually said - it just sounds awkward. For me, I think I'll wait a little while then marathon the episodes when they break in December. I think it'll be more fun that way.
Ratings: Not as good as they were last year, but pretty solid.

America's Next Top Model
My take: Seemed like a typical season. But after seeing 2 episodes, I see why I usually just waited for the marathons on VH1. I've never been super into ANTM, and I don't watch much reality TV, but this season just seems absurdly over the top and badly scripted. (By which I mean, they're editing/scripting cheesy or ridiculously dramatic elements into the show. Particularly when they don't need to.)If I want to see some top model with insane drama I'd watch Australia's Next Top model - they keep getting in trouble for the way the contestants/hosts behave and sometimes their episodes are uncensored. (Bonus, I learned a ton of new insults and can occasionally say something in an Australian accent after watching a few seasons.)
Ratings: Not super great but, they seem to hold on to the ratings with women viewers. ANTM seems to be pretty solid.

Glee
Commercial Impressions:
When I first saw commercials for the Pilot last spring, My first thought was "Oh great, someone new is tying to latch onto the whole high school musical trend of crappy programming to make ridiculous amounts of money. Lame."
My take: It showed up as a free download on iTunes, and who can resist a free download on iTunes? I honestly ended up liking it. (Even though that was kind of annoying because even if the show was good, it probably got picked up in major part because of the would High School Musical trend that I find annoying.) But hating it simply because it's similar to HSM is probably just as bad as loving it solely because it reminds you of HSM. So after all of that, Glee is probably one of the best new teen-oriented shows this season. It's raunchy, hilarious, and has it's moments where the characters are painfully human. I'd give it a gold star.
Ratings: Awesome. It's been pulling in big numbers, critics like it, I've noticed it usually becomes the top trending topic on twitter on Wednesday nights - Glee seems to make everyone happy. (I pun.)

What are these "ratings" and why do that matter? "Ratings:" refers to how many viewers the show has. They're important for companies to keep track of. They can involve specific stuff like age group or sex of the viewers. Figurig this stuff out helps advertises know when and where they want their ads to run. TV Networks always want their ratings to be high so they have not only more viewers - but more companies wanting to buy up ad time. Ratings don't always mean a show will be renewed or canceled, but they play a pretty big part in the question. I recommend a site called TV by the Numbers to keep track of ratings or just check up on how your favorite shows are doing. They do a pretty good job of explaining ratings and what's good/bad for different shows.
:]

Less Beautiful Life, More Glee

2009-09-27T15:11:00.000-04:00

Looks like The Beautiful Life:TBL has been canceled. Sad, but I never really got around to watching it so I'm not too heartbroken about it.

In happier news, Glee is going to have a full season. They originally ordered 13 episodes to be made and are now asking for 9 more.

New show on the CW

2009-09-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

Read about it here.

The CW has announced plans for "Fly Girls," a new reality show that will track five Virgin America stewardesses as they cavort in their "high-flying careers filled with exotic locations and handsome strangers."

What do you think? Would you watch a reality show about flight attendants?

How to Get Secret Avatars on TeenNick.com

2009-09-21T23:50:00.002-04:00

First off, if you have no clue what a Secret Avatar is - I'll direct you to TeenNick's FAQ.

Now, the easiest way to get Secret Avatars -
Play Rank. A Lot. For a while.
Secret Avatars are found the same way creds are, (through activeness on the site) but they usually require more time to get them. (You'll know you've found one when you see the blue box pop up in the same place creds show up). Sometimes this can depend on how rare the Secret Avis are, occasionally you'll get some of the common ones when you're doing regular stuff on TeenNick.com, but unless you regularly spend a ton of time on the site, you might need to put a little more effort into getting some of the more rare ones. (Playing Rank is the easiest & fastest way to do so) If you can manage to set up a laptop where you're sort of doing homework and clicking on Rank with your toe - that can work. Plus it'll exercise your toe. Switch the rank subjects if you start to get bored. (Note: Secret Avatars aren't found in any particular spot, going to a certain page will not make them show up - going though a lot of pages will.)
Keep the volume turned up to hear the Creds chime. Usually you tend to get a ton of creds when all you want is Secret Avatars. Which can be awesome, though you can always occasionally ignore them if you wanted.
If you do find one and it doesn't show up in your collection right away - don't freak. They can usually take a few minutes or even an hour to show up (especially with re-released older Secret Avis,) but they will show up eventually.
That being said, make sure to regularly check your Secret Avatar collection, sometimes we find them and don't realize it. (You can see your avatar collection by going to your main profile page and clicking "View Secret Avatars" under your full body avatar.)

If you get tired of all the Ranking - take a break and take some quizzes. Some have popped up that give away Secret Avatars like this one about Beyond the Break! (You do have to get all of the answers correct, but you can redo it until you do.)

Don't forget - Activeness really just means that you're going through pages on the website, so you can still find Secret Avatars while reading the Message Boards, looking at the @TeenNick blog, playing games, reading articles, checking out peoples' profiles and pretty much anything you'd regularly do.

Here are lists of Secret Avatars as compiled by The-Seth. (Who we still miss.)
Degrassi
South of Nowhere
Instant Star
Beyond the Break
Radio Free Roscoe
Moesha
Girls vs. Boys
Dawson's Creek
Other (Halloween, O'Grady, Daria, Best Friends' Date, Miracles Boys, Whistler)

We kind of kickass

2009-09-17T15:29:00.000-04:00

Here's an article from USA Today about how Millennials (aka people born between 1982 and 2000) are very civic minded. As in, we like volunteering and all around helping other people.

“Other generations were reared to be more individualistic, This civic generation has a willingness to put aside some of their own personal advancement to improve society." - Michael Hais

Read the article here.

:]

Other item codes for TeenNick.com

2009-09-15T14:49:00.015-04:00

Some of the unavailable, or sold out items in the Avatar Mall on TeenNick.com but first:
Codes 101:
-Codes are just item numbers. Every item in the mall has an item number attached to it so that the computers know what to add to your closet, and how much to subtract from your cred amount.
-On some browsers you can see codes in the status bar when your mouse hovers over the buy button. It'll say "javascript:buyAvatarItem(1085);" the number in the parenthesis is the item number aka code.
-Using codes in the URL doesn't make the items free. You can still be charged creds. Expect to pay at least the supposed price (a.k.a. the price displayed on the sold out item in the mall) some items may cost more creds than they say they cost - particularly some of the more recent 200_ glasses.
-Using codes in the URL is essentially the same as buying the item, just without using the javascript in the new mall.
-As with buying anything in the mall, items may not show up instantly when using codes. Give it a little time, log out, then back in, if it's still not showing up make sure nothing was left out of the URL, there were no spaces etc. (You can leave a comment for me, but given that I can't see what happened on your computer, I probably won't be able to be much help.)
-You don't need codes to buy items that can also be bought using the "Buy" button - these items have duplicates in the mall that are still available the regular way. However using codes may be cheaper than "buying" some of these items the normal way, therefore I included them in the list.

Clothing:

Alpha Sorority Shirt - 1023 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
Black The-N logo Tee - 780 (Supposed price: Unknown, assumed to be 0 creds)
Beth Cooper Outfit - 1842 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
Delta Sorority Tank - 1022 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Fuzzy Bikini Top -1121 (Supposed Price: 50 creds) [This item can also be bought using the "Buy" button, for 50 creds]

Gossamer V - 564 (Supposed price: 425)
Marco' s Hamlet Outfit - 480 (Supposed price: 1000 creds)
NIKE USA Game Day Jersey - 764 (Supposed price: 225 creds)
Sexy Nurse Outfit - 1123 (Supposed price: 88 creds)

Accessories:
2006 Glasses - 454 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
2007 Glasses - 647(Supposed price: 0 creds)
2008 Glasses - 826 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
2009 Glasses -1171 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Alien Bursting out of your chest - 1112 (Supposed price: 113 creds) {This item is also available using the "Buy" button, for 275 creds
Blood Splatter #2 - 1114 (Supposed price: 25 creds)

Bloody Bride - 1124 (Supposed price: 99 creds)

Brainiac - 1104 (Supposed price: 66 creds) [This item is also available using the "Buy" button, for 100 creds]
Bridal Veil - 1113 (Supposed price: 55 creds) [This item is also available using the "Buy" Button, for 75 creds]
Bug Out - 1111 (Supposed price: 50 creds) [This item is also available using the "Buy" button, for 150 creds]

Cat Lady Mask - 1117 (Supposed price: 55 creds)

Cleaver in Your Head - 1109 (Supposed price: 50 creds)

Fame Award Statue - 1852 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Fame Leg Warmers - 1851 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Fame Microphone - 1849 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Fame Paint Brush - 1850 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Ghost Sheet - 1106 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Jack-'O-Lantern Head - 1107 (Supposed price: 100 creds)
Lighty McBrighty - 1734 (Supposed price: 0 creds) [This item is also available using the "Buy" button, for 50 creds]
NIKE First2Pro FG Kicks - 770 (Supposed price: 395 creds)
NIKE Zooms - 1024 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
Phone & Bluetooth Headset - 1159 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
Shades of White - 732 (Supposed price: 100 creds) [This item is also available using the "Buy" button, for 100 creds.)
Sploosh! (water balloon hitting your avatar) - 734 (Supposed price: unknown)
Vote Spashley Banner - 760 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
Werewolf Morph - 1108 (Supposed price: 200 creds)
Your Pet Friday - 1172 (Supposed price: 0 creds)
Zombie Jazz Hands - 1110 (supposed price: 66 creds)

Hair:
Au Naturalle (hairstyle) - 693 (Supposed price: 75 creds)
Leading Lady - 923 (Supposed price: Unknown)

Fire for Hair -1102 (supposed price: 66 creds) [This item is also available to buy using the "Buy" button, for 100 creds]

Snakes for Hair - 1101 (Supposed price: 66)

Backgrounds:

Bats Background - 1119 (Supposed price: 0 creds) [This item is also available using the "Buy" button, for 300 creds]

Eerie Full Moon - 1100 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Inferno - 1105 (Supposed price: 0 creds)

Soccer Goal Net Background - 766 (Supposed price: 195)
Trippy Lava Lamp Background - 1037 [Available to purchase using the "Buy" button, for 50 creds, called "Lava Lamp", tagged as "retro"]

What do I do with these number code thingys?

1) While logged into your TeenNick.com account - go to the Avatar Mall (you don't have to do this every time, but humor me.)

2) Copy this URL : http://www.the-n.com/games/avMall/avMall_buy.php?item=
and put the item number (see list below) after the "=" as in;
http://www.the-n.com/games/avMall/avMall_buy.php?item=1038

3) Click the Enter/Return key. It's going to look like the page just refreshes on you, but if you go to your Avatar Closet, the items will be there. (Provided the right code was entered, and you had enough creds to buy the items.)

:]

Twitter Account

2009-09-09T16:54:00.000-04:00

I think my temporary incessant twittering through the Melrose Place premiere annoyed a few of my followers. Haha. (I just realized the lack of emoticons on Blogger....) Anywho, if there is any reader out there that wants to see my incessant twitter-wisdom through tonight's TV (Obama speech, Glee premiere, then DVR-ed Top Model) You can find my Twitter here!

Getting the Role Player items for your avatar on TeenNick.com - Basic

2009-09-07T23:06:00.003-04:00

NOTE: Supposedly The-N/TeenNick will attach prices to these items sometimes - buy with caution.

1) While logged into your TeenNick.com account - go to the Avatar Mall (you don't have to do this every time, but humor me.)

2) Copy this URL : http://www.the-n.com/games/avMall/avMall_buy.php?item=
and put the item number (see list below) after the "=" as in;
http://www.the-n.com/games/avMall/avMall_buy.php?item=1038

3) Click the Enter/Return key. It's going to look like the page just refreshes on you, but if you go to your Avatar Closet, the items will be there. Note that they all will show up in either Accessories or Backgrounds - even if the item is hair or clothing. But this does make layering fun.

Here's a photographic list of the items.

* These items are available in the Avatar Mall currently, and they're formatted to work with the full body avatars. But they most likely cost creds. All of the Role Player items are currently free, but other than the backgrounds, they won't show up correctly on the full body avatars.

This method with the item numbers can be used for items that are marked as "Sold Out!" in the Avatar Mall - but you account will still be charged for the creds the item originally cost.

This info is current as of 9/2/2009 - I can't say that this will always work or that the items will always be free. Basically, I'm saying this works for now, but my crystal ball is broken (That's what he said!) and if you're looking at this a year from now and it's not working - don't blame me. I don't have all the answers, and I don't control what The-N does with it's Avatar Mall. If something changes, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know. I'll try to keep the entry updated.

Potential New TV Series on The-N/Teen Nick

2009-09-05T13:58:00.000-04:00

(Gah! I still have a hard time referring to it by anything but The-N!)
Debroah Gregory - Author of the Cheetah Girls books - her more recent series "The Catwalk" is being "optioned" by Teen Nick for a TV series. (Which I would guess means they're considering it a serious option.)
(Announced on her site here. And in a local news interview.)
Personally, I'm not sure about this. I want new series for the channel, and I haven't read The Catwalk books, but I have a hard time imagining hearing the words "Purrlicious" and "Feline Fatale" on a TV show that's meant to be taken seriously. I'm not seeing how the channel's "depicting real teens" aspect ties in with a bunch of teens in the fashion world that attach feline allusions to fashion terminology. Wouldn't it be better suited for Nickelodeon or the Disney channel?

How do I get Creds on TeenNick.com?

2009-09-04T13:27:00.002-04:00

First off - read the FAQ, there's all kind of info in there that'll answer most of your questions.
Creds are based on activeness. The more pages you go through the more creds you get. (And the more hits Teen Nick gets on their ads - see how it's set up? Spending time on the site, seeing lots of ads = money for the site and = more creds for you)
Rank is a good way to get creds fast, because you're going through a lot of pages fast. (Just make sure you let the page load all the way before you click on the next thing, since creds tend to load last.) You can also keep the volume on your computer turned up - there's a chimey "Ssshhwing!" noise every time creds come up - it's a good way to keep from missing them.
Other ways to get creds include:
+ Games in screening parties (The host has to buy them, look for parties with "games" in the title, don't beg for games though, it annoys people and can get you kicked out by the host. Also, if you play the "The Best" game, where people vote for the best dressed, funniest etc., it's nice to vote for the host first, so that they can earn some of their creds back.) **Screening Parties are only available for users in the U.S. because TeenNick legally can't distribute their videos to viewers outside the U.S. *** Screening Parties have been glitching recently and Not giving users the creds they earn, and sometimes even causing them to lose creds. While they can normally be a good source of creds - it might be best to avoid them till they're fixed.
+ The Daily Cred Dispenser on the Community page, the odd of winning are low, but it's an option
+ Contests in the @TeenNick blog (Try to regularly read the N'Sider, there's a link on the home page they do contests every few weeks)
+ Reporting stuff that breaks the rules (2 creds for every reported post/comment that breaks the rules, but if you report something that doesn't have anything wrong with it, you'll lose 1 cred.)
This can be a really good source of creds - but you have to report responsibly. Reporting stuff that doesn't break the rules too much, can get your account suspended. (I think it's good to start out with stuff that's obviously against the site rules, like cred scams and cybering.) Familiarize yourself with the posting rules (which you should really do anyway,) so that you know what you're doing. There's also a "Should I Report This or What?" quiz that can be helpful.
+ The Cred Fairy - The Cred Fairy gives a "buttload" of creds to users that make really super awesome posts and generally make the site and message boards a cooler place. It's really rare to get visits from the cred fairy - it's best to just try to be a helpful & respectful user and get creds the regular ways. Also begging for creds (from the cred fairy or in general) does not work and really only annoys people.
+ Normal activeness browsing the message boards, taking quizzes, shopping in the Avi mall looking at peoples' profiles all contribute to being active, so you can earn creds while doing any of these things.

How to make your Avatar Invisible on Teennick.com

2009-09-03T13:54:00.001-04:00

It's way easier than you'd think.

1. Go to Edit my Avatar aka your closet.
2. Go to the second page of avi bodies
3. Click on every male body on that page - In order 17.Boy Body to 30.Boy Body
4. Click on 21. Boy Body
5. Choose a hairstyle - now the avi body should disappear
:]

How do I get Role Player items for my Avatar on TeenNick.com?

2009-09-02T13:40:00.005-04:00

***NOTE: It seems that The-N/TeenNick occasionally attaches prices to some of these, if not all of the items. They don't always have prices attached to them, but keep an eye on your cred amount and be prepared to spend some creds to get the items. (Possibly a lot of creds.) It seems like 90% of the time the items are free, just beware that sometimes they're not.****

So there's been this thing on the online community of TeenNick.com. Users have appeared to get some of the unreleased items from Role Player for their avatars. Some of the older users claim it was a glitch when the mall changed (Which I can see as legit.) Then lots of other users surfaced that had the items (many with accounts that were created after the glitch) and lots of them were generally total assholes about how they got the items.
(Cause this is a life and death matter and being a jerk always makes you look cool.)

Anyway - the trick to getting the items has.... come into my knowledge.... and since the whole secrecy thing annoyed the hell out of me, I thought, why not make the method available to everyone? (Or at least everyone that finds my blog and reads this particular entry.)so without further ado - (Ha! Ado!)

1) While logged into your TeenNick.com account - go to the Avatar Mall (you don't have to do this every time, but humor me.)

2) Copy this URL : http://www.the-n.com/games/avMall/avMall_buy.php?item=
and put the item number (see list below) after the "=" as in;
http://www.the-n.com/games/avMall/avMall_buy.php?item=1038

3) Click the Enter/Return key. It's going to look like the page just refreshes on you, but if you go to your Avatar Closet, the items will be there. Note that they may show up in different categories - clothing may show up in the Accessories or Tops section.

Here's a photographic list of the items.

* These items are available in the Avatar Mall currently, and they're formatted to work with the full body avatars. But they most likely cost creds. All of the Role Player items are currently free, but other than the backgrounds, they won't show up correctly on the full body avatars.

This method with the item numbers can be used for items that are marked as "Sold Out!" in the Avatar Mall - but you account will still be charged for the creds the item originally cost.

If something doesn't show up:
Check the URL you used, if that seems OK - it may be that there is a price attached to the item that is higher than the amount of creds you have. Ex. If you have 54 creds and the guitar has a hidden cost of 100 creds - it will not show up in your closet. It will if you have enough creds to buy the item - it will show up and the cost will be subtracted from your total.

This info is current as of 9/2/2009 - I can't say that this will always work or that the items will always be free. Basically, I'm saying this works for now, but my crystal ball is broken (That's what he said!) and if you're looking at this a year from now and it's not working - don't blame me. I don't have all the answers, and I don't control what The-N/Teen Nick does with it's Avatar Mall. If something changes, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know. I'll try to keep the entry updated.

Oh, Nostalgia!

2009-08-30T17:28:00.000-04:00

You know you can still get to the iron-ons that were once on The-N.com?

Here! Hell Hath No Fury Tee, Degrassi Couples (from the Secret avatars), O'Grady and Daria inspired iron-ons
And here! Instant Star, South of Nowhere, more O'Grady, Moesha, Sabrina, and Degrassi (Including Sqwatch wear and "What would Paige do?")

There's a site called the Internet Archive Wayback Machine - where you can basically see what sites looked like years ago. (Here's the page for The-N.com) Not everything works (like some downloadable content, and some interactive stuff) but you can still take a walk down memory lane. Though I think the rate at which the page loads is still tired to the year you're looking at.

Oh, and remember the "Locker Game"? Looky here! (Note: The page loads slow, and you might need to refresh it to get it to work. Don't try entering a combination, skip the step, it's complicates things.)

What is Edgy? - By Daria

2009-08-26T14:15:00.001-04:00

Interesting point.

RFR Links

2009-08-17T19:48:00.000-04:00

It's always a pain to try and find all of the Radio Free Roscoe sites again, so now they're preserved in a nice list.

Radio Free Roscoe on the IMDb
RFR on Decode Entertainment
Official Season 1 Underground Site (By Family Channel CA)
Official Canadian Site
Fansite The Underground - Radio Free Roscoe (Lyrics, song list, personality quiz + other stuff)
Page on The-N.com
Secret Avatars for Radio Free Roscoe on The-N.com
Detailed Song List
Fansite - RFR Quotes
RFR Episodes

Nick Cannon Chairman For Nickelodeon's TeenNick Network

2009-08-15T16:23:00.001-04:00

Interview with Nick Cannon, he talks about why he wanted to be Chairman of Teen Nick and how he got the job.

New Degrassi Promos

2009-08-15T16:16:00.000-04:00

You can see then on The-N in the Click

They're also on youtube.

Promo for The-N's "Rebrand"

2009-08-14T03:22:00.000-04:00

Name change, rebrand - whatever the hell it is, there's a promo for it here.
The-N's ordered 13 episodes of the show "Gigantic" about a bunch of teens with celebrity parents (and strange names.) It's rumored to debut early 2010. You can watch a promo and the pilot on the Stop Following Me Productions website. (Now if they'd only air "What Goes On" ...)
The Degrassi Goes Hollywood Movie premieres... in a few hours.
+Degrassi Freebies in iTunes - an episode of Degrassi Jr. High (look at Joey, in Jr. High, with HAIR!) - Also some behind the scenes stuff from the Degrassi Movie.
+The Degrassi Goes Hollywood Soundtrack is also out - in iTunes and on Amazon
+Alexz Johnson has a new website, with the deets on what's up with her album
+*Probably true rumors* Instant Star Seasons 3 and 4 will be coming out on DVD, possibly as early as this Fall. Instant Star Greatest Hits Album (or Season 4 soundtrack, not sure if they're one in the same) will be coming out this fall - September. All rumors courtesy of what I've heard about Stephen Stohn's Twitter account. From what I've seen of it, most of the rumors seem verified by him (and he would know, he worked on IS and his wife created the show.) I just didn't have the time to go through all of his tweets. (Though if you're a stickler for the truth, feel free to go through them yourself)

In The-N.com world...
+You can get a free Secret Avatar from Beyond the Break by taking a "How Deep is your Knowledge of this Show?" quiz.
+You can make your avatar invisible by clicking on every boy avatar on the 2nd page of body options, then clicking on #21, then choosing a hairstyle and *Poof* Invisible Avatar!
+In honor of the new Degrassi Movie - Spirit week is on and 2 sets of previously retired Secret Avatars have been released. The very first "Degrassi" set aka "Degrassi Season 2" and the more recent "Degrassi Season 8" set. There's a list of what all of the Degrassi Secret Avis look like here.

Eggshells

2009-06-28T23:41:00.000-04:00

I found an interesting article in the Boston Globe comparing ABC Family's Secret Life to MTV's 16 and Pregnant. They debate which one makes the best argument for absitnence. (Cause, you know, if you have teen pregnancy on TV and don't tell kids to not have sex, they'll do it like there's no tomorrow and the world will explode.)

Music from the Best Years Season 1

2009-06-21T19:11:00.000-04:00

This show is lacking in a list of music featured in all the episodes, So I made one! Enjoy!
Note: iTunes refers to the U.S. iTunes Store, for episodes 1-7 songs should be in iTunes unless otherwise noted, I'll update the list when I get a chance for the other episodes. If a song isn't in iTunes you can usually find it elsewhere. I tried to provide links to artist pages where you can either hear the song or be directed to where you can, however, some of the artists used on the show have been a little hard to track down (they're in a different band now, just did production music etc.) so I can't assure that all the links provided will turn up the song used or will still be working/useful after some time. But if you'd like to inform me that one is wrong/not working/whatever feel free to do so in the comments and I'll try to fix the problem.

Season 1- Episode 1 - Vertigo
“Rip the Universe” – Reverie Sound Revue (Sam gets on the bus to go to CU) [Not in iTunes]
“Picture my Face” – Teenage Head (Sam comes out to the floor meeting)
“No Thief” – The Guest Bedroom (Sam & Kat talk to Cynthia in the hall and make plans)
“Sexy Results” – Death from Above 1979 (Dawn shows up at Colony meets Trent & Lee)
“Nightstick” – Jake Fairley (Shannon arrives at the dorm)
“Be My Woman, Be My Man (Instrumental)” – Shinjuku Zulu (The girls leave for Colony)
“Sometimes (She’s So Far In)” - Howie Beck (Devan & Sam Dance)
“Batta Swing” – Cecy B (Trent kicks out the guy taking pics of Dawn while she’s drunk)
“Just Another Ordinary Day” – Patrick Watson [not in iTunes] (Sam watches John’s parents set up a memorial)
“The One Thing” – Candence Grace [not in iTunes] (Sam apologizes to Cynthia)
“I See You (Porter Remix)” – Sissy [Steve Porter Remix in U.S. iTunes] (Sam goes to Colony with Cynthia and Dawn)
“Love Somebody” – The Reflex (Girls Dancing at the end) [not been able to find this song released anywhere]

Season 1 Episode 2 - Notorious
“Donut Kill Self” – Die Mannequin (Song Katherine blasts to annoy Sam while she’s sleeping.)
“Waking Around Waiting Downtown” – Reverie Sound Revue (Sam goes to Colony to get a job.) [Not in iTunes]
“Stop Wasting My Time” - Taras
“Sweet Confusion” –Divine Right [artist listed as “By Divine Right” in iTunes, and possibly everywhere else]
“Are You Feeling Me” – Taras
“Today Is Your Lucky Day” – The Salads [Not in iTunes]
“If I Had That” – Ro [Not in iTunes]
“Throw Ya Belly” –Evren
“Go” – Plumtree (End song)

Season 1 Episode 3 - It Should Happen to You
“On the Line” – The Golden Dogs [Not in iTunes]
“So Good (Blue Mix)” – The Love House Project & DJ Oliver [Blue mix not in itunes, other mixes are]
“Valley Road” – Steve Koven [Not in iTunes]
“Someone To Love Me” – DK Ibomeka
“Safe Haven” – Royal Wood
“Lily” – Steve Koven [Not in iTunes]
“You Turn Me On And On” – Ziem [Not in iTunes]
“Kiss The World (Candence Weapon Good Looks Remix)” – Catlow [Remix not in iTunes]
“The Ride” – Dearly Beloved [Not in iTunes]
“Feels So Good (Junior Jack and Kid Crème Vocal Mix)” – Paradox
“Bitter Beauty” - Jason Collett

Season 1 Episode 4 – From Here to Eternity
“Nice to Meet You” – Yoko Casionos
“I Will Love Again (Original Extended)” – Taras
“Go Go Girl” – Down With Webster
“Beautiful” - Cities In Dust
“Thursday” – Asobi Seksu
“Split Second Time” – Masia One
“Kumming” - DJ Spot
“Romantic Rights (Marczech Makuziak Remix)” – Death From Above 1979
“Lost Without You” – Wayne Petti
“Sportsmanship” – Thrust/Ro [not in itunes]

Season 1 Episode 5 - Secrets & Lies
“This Time (Funky Way Mix)” - Deko-ze ‘n Gavo
“Cup Of Life” – Starry Day [not in iTunes]
“Before We Arrive” – The Meligrove Band
“Keep It Coming” – Swayzak
“Busy Bee” – King Cobb Steelie
“City of Daggers” - Controller.Controller
“Run Danger Boy Run” – The Vampire Beach Babes
“Attn: All Units” - L.A. Williams featuring Paige Ilise as “Louise” [not in iTunes]
“Bang” - Shinjuku Zulu [not in iTunes]
“Push (Extreme Mix)” – Le Peep Show
“Eyeah” – K.I.A.
“A Good Enough Day” - Royal Wood

Season 1 Episode 6 - Girl, Interrupted
“Mutiny Disease” - Sailboats Are White
“Life Is Unbelievable” - John Southworth
“The Slap” – Divine Right
“Just Like That (Original)” – Carl Henry [I think the artist is actually listed as "Nick Fiorucci ft. Carl Henry" in most places, In iTunes as just "Nick Fiorucci"]
“Blue Bobby” – Robert Bartolucci [not in iTunes, I think this might be production music]
“Donkey Punch” – Emjae & Jerome Robins
“Emergency Performance Art Piece” – The Most Serene Republic

Season 1 Episode 7 - Shadow of a Doubt
‘Ain’t No Woman” – DK Ibomeka
“Vallee of Cobras” – The Summerlad
“Jump In The Water” – Uberko [not in iTunes]
“Dance 4” – Kiss Me Deadly
“Skin” – Jiva
“Mi Tierra (Original Mix) – DJ Spot
“Like Lightning” – Matthew Barber [not in iTunes]
“Hustler” – Femme [not in iTunes]
“Lookin’ Out for Number One” – Honeymoon Suite
“Right On” – The Cougars
“Hang the World” – Yoko Casionos
“All My Friends” – Land Of Talk
“Detroit” – The Vagiants
“La Mar” – The Beautiful Girls

Season 1 Episode 8 - All That Heaven Allows
“No Umbrella” – Johanna Stahley
“Blues For You” – Steve Koven [Not in iTunes]
“I Like It A Lot” – Princess Superstar
“Number One” – Catlow
“Superstars (Boris Dlugosh Mix)” – The Loose Cannons [Not in iTunes]
“Lifted” – M1

Season 1 Episode 9 - It Happened One Night
“Citizens Of Tomorrow” – Tokyo Police Club (Devan does sit ups, Noah talks about porn)
“Steep” – Ohbijou (Kat tries to take a show, eveyone’s making fun of her in the hall)
“The Plow” – Champion
“In the Dark” – Sissy [Not in iTunes]
“Full Strings” – Liz Lysinger [Not in iTunes]
“Weigh Me Down” – Royal Wood (Noah & Devan rescue Sam & Trent)
“Time Stands Still” – Holly McNarland (Sam confronts Devan about his voicemail message, she goes to Colony to help clean up) [Not in iTunes]

Season 1 Episode 10 - Cruising
“The Happiest Days of My Life” – My Favorite
“Gotta Make It Hot” – Bre [Song titled “Make It Hot” in iTunes]
“Stop Wasting My Time” – Taras
“Mulato” – Kike Serrano
“Latin Roots” – Jhon Rios
“Girls Are Crazy” –Evren
“You Got That Bomb Thang” - Elika [Not in iTunes]
“Move It” – Trey
“Commerce” – DL Incognito
“Blackwinged Bird” – Emm Gryner
“Get It Right” – Jets Overhead

Season 1 Episode 11 - Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
“Make you Love Me (StoneBridge Remix)” – Fierce & Coppola [Artist listed as Coppola & Fierce in iTunes]
“Emergency Performance Art Piece” – The Most Serene Republic
“Sugar Sugar” – Natalise [Not in iTunes]
“Rashomon” – K.I.A
“Tawoumga” – Champion
“Bo Bo’s Blues” – William Sperandei [Not in iTunes]
“21 Park Rd.” – Bill King [Not in iTunes]
“Muevete (Orginal Mix) – DJ Fadul [Accent mark over the first e in the title]
“Feel the Heat” – The Polarbabies [Listed as “Heated (Feel the Heat)” in iTunes]
“Burning Sunshine (Callea & Rispoli Club)” – Cocobongo
“Mr. DJ (Etienne Ozborne Remix)” – Nick Fiorucci feat. JaQe [Artist just “Nick Fiorucci” in iTunes, Different mix available in iTunes]
“Every Time You Move (Jerome Robins Back 2 Basics)” – Nick Fiorucci feat. Kelly Malbasa [Artist just “Nick Fiorucci” in iTunes]
“What You Want” – Hayley Sales

Season 1 Episode 12 - Five Easy Pieces
“Working Out Words” – Diableros
“Tunnels/Terminals” - Jetplanes of Abraham [Not in iTunes]
“New Love” – Two Hours Traffic
“Back In Me” – Jason Kent [Not in iTunes]
“Breaking Glass” - Uncut
“Valley Road” – Steve Koven [Not in iTunes]
“Lily” – Steve Koven [Not in iTunes]
“Moody On Garnet” – Steve Koven [Not in iTunes]

Season 1 Episode 13 - Mommy Dearest
"Up With The Temp" Stella Pinacci
"So Cool" - Vibrolux
"Don't Hang Your Heart" -Chris and Thomas
"White Lines & Red Lights" - Between the Trees (The shower scene with Trent and Sam)
"Latin Brass (Original Mix)" - Jhon Rios
"Ready to Play (Original Mix)" -Jhon Rios
"El Jarabe Tapatio" - Traditional arrangement performed by Studio musicians, Published by Caravage Music
"New Place (Original Mix)" - DJ Spot
"The Funeral" - Band of Horses (End of the episode Sam and Dawn leave, Noah on plane, Trent in rehab)

The Best Years Season 2 - wtf The-N? WTF Fans!?!

2009-06-20T13:20:00.000-04:00

The elusive show has returned! (A few months ago, but still...) The Best Years kicked ass in Season 1 and after 2 years we finally get a Season 2. Chances are if you've seen any of it, you've noticed the differences.

The-N has probably screwed themselves over with this one. They wanted to reach out to younger viewers, They dropped their funding for The Best Years, they gain more younger viewers from airing crappy reruns, now the show is back with a new tone that pisses off old fans and new younger fans has issues with grasping the content. People want the dark drama back, but apparently The-N thought younger viewers might not latch on to another season like that.

I think younger viewers understand the drama perfectly, they just tend to have more immature of what the characters should do (ex. "Sam shoulda stay wit Trent cuz he's SOOO0OO Hawt!!!") Granted, parents might not think of a dark college drama as being a show tweens would watch, but isn't the desire to wach things/wear things/listen to things meant for teenagers considered "cool" when you're that age? (How much money do you think Seventeen, the CW, MTV, Hollister, Hot Topic, and American Idol make off of tweens? How many of them are totally and completely marketed towards tweens?) And since when do tweens share their parents' taste in TV? (Or even follow their rules about TV? Is Nickelodon really trying streach their "Parental Approved-ness" to their teen oriented channel? Isn't that an Oxymoron?)

However, the general fan response has pissed me off a little. From what I've seen, very few people actually followed the renewal process, and everyone is totally clueless as to why actors didn't return etc.

Seriously guys? Is it that hard to google the show, maybe read the wikipedia page? The explanations are out there, and not that hard to find. If you're really still posting stuff on the message boards about 'Where'd Trent go?' 'What's up with this season?' you're just plain lazy. Take 10 minutes to read some other posts where people have explained this repetitively. Is that not something we all learned in grade school? "See if your question has already been answered somewhere else?" You want to complain about the show, fine, just know what they hell you're talking about.

A common complain in the same realm; "They totally changed season 2!!!" "It's not the saaammme shooow!!!"

Duh.

It was canceled for being too dark and dramatic for The-N's new vision. Expecting the second season to be just as dark and dramatic is pretty moronic. Clearly The-N wasn't going to have an Afterschool-special-on-crack season 2. There's no reason to expect it.

So after we've accepted this fact, let's think about alternatives that'd be OK. Our crazy rocker friend didn't get their visa renewed so they were deported, stop complaining that all your other friends just don't measure up to the level of insanity and entertainment of your deported friend. That gets no one anywhere. Unfortunately a pretty good amount of the fan feedback I've seen is along these lines. I don't know if it's a result of lack of research or the influx of younger teens/tweens to The-N (most of who tend to bring pretty good amounts of immaturity with them.) Either way, season 2 is open to question on many levels, but until people are actually knowlegeavble about the basics, a discussion can't truely be started.

Helpful Links:
The Best Years page on The-N
The Official Best Years Site
Dose.ca Article on the 2nd Season (Where Randal Edwards talks about how you can't expect last season's show to thell this season's story, and a producer mentions the cancellation/renewal process of Season 1)

Good Cheese - Beyond The Break

2009-06-19T01:02:00.000-04:00

Not super Cheesy, but the return of The-N's Beyond the Break for it's last season will definitely keep me entertained. Pretty people, pretty setting, awesome surfing- I'm game! Watch all the episodes on their site, unless you can manage to catch it on the channel, but that's pretty doubtful.

Warning: May induce desire to move to Hawaii

MTV's Undressed

2009-05-16T22:00:00.000-04:00

Cheesy? Probably. Addicting? Yes.

Described as a "sexy late night soap opera," it basically just lets you follow the relationships of a bunch of different people in LA. The characters intertwine in some unexpected ways too, which is always interesting. The show ended it's 6 season run in 2002, and it's not especially clever, but oh so yummy. OK, it's probably more like total guilty pleasure with a few admirable aspects. Still worth a peek.

There's a site with the whole 1st season available. I'm not entirely sure where to find the rest of the series yet, but I'll probably post when I do.

Teen TV - Skins

2009-05-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

I don't know why some of the best TV seems to come from the U.K. but they definitely top the list of Teen TV with the show "Skins." The show follows around a group of friends facing all the crazy drama you'd expect (along with some you might not see coming) in a surprisingly non-cheesy way. Plus it has a kick ass soundtrack.

SKINS trailer from UK series only on MySpace

Skins should really be the standard to compare all other current "real life" teen dramas to. It manages to be pretty realistic without boring or deterring viewers and doesn't follow the usual character has problem then learns valuable life lesson by end of episode formula. It's less about teen drama with controlled boundary pushing (which many U.S. & Canadian teen oriented TV seems to do) and more having the characters stumble, trip, and shag their way through life.

Skins can be seen on BBC America though it's currently showing reruns at 3AM (I know, WTF?)
Though they say Season 3 will be airing this Spring, you can find Seasons 1 & 2 in the U.S. iTunes (all 19 episodes bundled into "Skins Season 1" in the store) They're also on DVD though you might want to rent or do research before buying. Some people have reported the DVD versions being edited to exclude scenes or replace original music. As for free episodes online, that's up to you to find.

More Reasons

2009-04-06T19:41:00.000-04:00

I've been debating how long I could go without posting some sort of "definition" or explanation for this blog. Apparently not very long.

It's complicated. (Surprise.)

Honestly? I just couldn't find a place that was taking about all the "teen" and "tween" labled stuff in the media/world/TV/internet/whatever. Why was a looking for a place like that? Because I feel like a lot of the people putting out all the "teen" and "tween" stuff are total idiots. I'm also wondering if the teen consumers of all their stuff, are really consciously consuming all of their crap.

Teenagers have a pretty bad reputation in the first place. The youth vote never comes out. We're angsty and moody for no apparent reason. We're lazy. Every female teenager is psychotically in love with Edward Cullen. We don't realize how good we have it. We spend too much on clothes. We don't care about anything that doesn't directly affect us. And of course, all of us have sex, do drugs, drink etc. Search for "teen" in google news and nearly every result that comes up has to do with teens either killing or being killed.

Aside from the stereotypes, companies spend millions of dollars trying to figure our what teenagers want and how to market their products/services to us. We're the new gold mine. We don't have to pay taxes and will apparently buy anything churned out by Disney or that comes in pink and black.

SnarkyTeen is the result of me not being able to find a place where other people are annoyed with Disney churning out less than mediocre "family approved" programming for the sole purpose of making money, causing everyone else to have to compete with them, and ending with a pile of crap products. It's ridiculous. I don't want to have a part in it anymore.

Reasons

2009-04-06T15:11:00.000-04:00