Friday, May 28, 2010

Out Of Room

I've been doing this blog for over four years now and I can't believe this happened, I ran out of room for pictures. If you ever wonder how I put pictures on here, I usually scour the web for something silly, save it to my computer then upload it to Blogger. Blogger has a place holder and I am allowed a certain amount of space. For the last few post I ran into an error and come to find out that my Picasa account was full. When I was trying to do a home video business I thought it would be great to put all my video on Google video and that would be a great place to store them and use that to link them to websites. I bought a couple Gigabyte of space and all was good.Well, Google bought YouTube and that ended that fun so I started put all of Logan's photos there so we could have them and not lose them with another computer crash.

With money being tight and the addition of a Terrabyte hard drive the extra Picasa space was not needed. I'm now trying to go through and delete unwanted photos on Picasa Web. I'll have more room, but it feels weird deleting pictures of Logan. I know I have them saved on the main computer, two external drives, on my iPod and on a Shutterfly account. What's more important, a sixth place to store his photos or a folder full of random pictures.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Next Fad

I do a little bit of work with the kids at my church. It's me mostly acting stupid and trying to get the other host to break character. The kids usually come up to me before and after the show and talk. A couple of weeks ago a kid named Owen showed me his arm and he had what appeared to be those gel bands that were popular in the 80s and then a few years ago started to have "meaning" and then schools band them.

I thought it was odd that a third grader had all these bands, but he explained that they were silly bandz. If you do not have kids or are not hip to the trends of middle schoolers, they are gel bands that have shapes. The first one Owen showed me was a baseball. I looked around the theater (I should let you know the church is in a movie theater) and two-thirds of the kids had a wrist full of these bands. I'm a nice guy so last week I was comic host again and so I thought I'd go to the local chain drug store and I ask for "those stupid bands the kids love." Before I finished the woman walked over with a container of these silly bandz. She told me they can't keep them on the selves and gets calls daily asking if they have them in. That should have been the first clue. I bought three packs of ten for about $9.

I walk into the theater before the show and the kids were wondering what's in the bag. I told a couple of the older kids and I was almost attacked and ripped limb for limb as the kids wanted these bands. I kept telling everyone that they were the prizes for the games and I heard 15 voices in unison shouting "pick me!" I give in a little and let some of the kids trade for the bands. After 15 minutes I had a completely different set of bandz than I walked in with. I finally break free and we start. We get to the game show part and by that time EVERY kid knew what I had and I almost had them rush the stage to be contestants. I pick my kids and others gave me "you said you pick me." After the show I still had a couple left and then I was attacked again. I had kids who were normally the good quite onces grasping at the bag. I felt like the kids were zombies and these bandz were human brains. I was finally out and still the kids were upset, I learned my lesson that day, why didn't I think of this idea!

It was probably a mistake, someone at the jelly wristband factory made a batch that was deformed and instead of throwing them all out the manager gave a few to his kid. One looked like a star or something and the other kids thought it was awesome. The kid comes home and asks for more. The manager parent gets the idea to sell them and try and make other shapes, and a fad is born. The company is making money hand over fist and then comes the competitors and all is great but like all fads by the time we hit September the fad will be over.

Look at all the stupid kid trends, Beanie Babies, pet rocks, mood rings, garbage pail kids, zhu-zhu pets and countless others. Why can't I get one of these ideas, sure it would be a firework type ride but at least I could make something off of it. Start the fad, sell to a larger company and see it fall to ruins. Isn't that the new American dream? Create something worthless that will make money? Now I just need that idea.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Social Media

I've had a year and a half problem trying to write on this blog, I don't want to be depressive and to be honest I have had a form of writers block as well. The words have not flowed as much as I liked. We few new things have helped out, what became a free laptop, Wireless connection in the house and some hope has started to get me wanting to write. It's a whole lot easier to sit on the couch and watch a TV in front of me instead of at a desktop where I had to turn around to watch a movie.

Also I started a new blog and I think the creative juices flowing. I'm writing about music in my life. It's not going to be about reviews or even what music I like. It's going to be about when I hear a song it can take me to a place in time. The first post is about the song The Power by Snap. After that I have created three other post that will be released of the next few days.

I did post the first link on Facebook and I had someone tell me it was an interesting concept and wanted to know if I wanted help getting exposure. I responded any help will be appreciated but to be honest, I'm not doing this to make any kind of money or have any real kind of fame. I just want to create the creativity flowing and this has been a great stress reliever.

I understand social media is the new thing but at times I think we are putting way too much into it. People are making careers out of tweeting and blogging. How, I have no idea but it just seems to be a glorified networking thing. Most of the time I see people trying to use Facebook or Twitter for a means to an end it comes across as annoying and pushy. "Hey I've got some new stuff you will want." "I just read an article that will improve your business."

I am the worst at networking, I'm so bad I lost a card to a connection that could have possible gotten me a little work. For me this is a hobby that eats up time and forces me to try and use skills I am lacking... typing and getting a message across. Would I like to make money doing this? Sure, but I'd rather not turn this hobby into a faux career. I already have a hard time trying to do freelance video.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

When Did I Walk Into A Sit-Com

Yesterday was one of those days where I keep looking around for the studio audience. I just felt like I was in a bad sit-com and could not get out. It started and pretty much ended with Logan. The Wife was getting him ready for a bath and handed of a naked Logan to me. Guess what happened next, my stomach started to feel warm and wet, I got pee-ed on. Then I felt like I was changing shirts and pants all day. I got pee-ed on again this time it was on my pants and underwear and no I did not pee myself and blamed Logan.

Logan also is dealing with a nasty allergy cold that turned into an infection. He is stuffy and full of mucus and I ended up changing three more shirts that were covered in snot. Also he has a bacteria that could lead to pink eye. I've been without insurance since December 08 and have become a little bit of a hypochondriac. With my allergies and now this new development I keep checking my eye seeing if I have pink eye. "Oh no, I have watery eyes and they are sore!" I run to the bathroom and wash my hands every ten minutes and then look at my eye, rewash my hands and start to worry again. I should work my day up into a script and try to sell it to one of those bad parent sit-com's on ABC or CBS.