2008

Every time we go up to New York or New Jersey we stop at some truck stop on the New Jersey Turnpike and I always see those machines where you put a penny in and it comes out looking like an elongated coin. I got a few of them in the past, but I don’t have them anymore. I like to use a hand cranked penny machine instead of an electrical one because it makes me feel like I made it and not a machine. I usually get one every few years or so just as a novelty. I add it to my collection of other novelty items that seem to disappear after a few months like my name on rice.

I am watching the Pacifier with Vin Diesel and it is better than I would have ever thought. It has a plot very similar to Mr. Nanny with Hulk Hogan, but it is enjoyable. I didn’t think that Vin could be a comedic actor, but this proves me wrong. It’s just too bad that this movie probably ruined his career. Maybe he will be in Fast and Furious 4 to get his career started up again.

Little by little I have been learning how to do simple things to my car. I can now change the oil (although paying such a small fee to get that done isn’t much of a loss), change my brake pads, and a few other things. For the most part the auto parts are pretty cheap, when you take it to a mechanic, it is the labor that will kill you. If you look on the bill, car parts are usually around half or less than half of the bill, while labor takes up the most. So by learning on my Chevy how to do things, I can do things on other American cars like Fords and Dodges. Since their domestic, ford auto parts cost around the same as Chevy’s so if I get a Ford as my next car I will know what to expect.

After September 11th I think iot was easy for everyone to be an American. You had American flags out in full force and everyone really showed their pride, September 11th showed the world that this country was great and that when you need it, everyone comes together. After that things started to dwindle.

There are a lot less flags nowadays and we have a president who broke many laws of the Geneva Convention for his war on Iraq. The war that started over WMD’s. The same WMD’s that Saddam had stated were just supposed to draw away from other countries that did have them, namely Iran. The healthcare prices in America skyrocketed and the economy went to Hell. Americans forgot to be proud.

In recent weeks I believe that America is learning to be proud again. Less and less people are looking at the republican party, and more and more are looking at what this country could be. There is no doubt in my mind that we will have a Democratic president next. Bush messed it up for the Republicans and I think that they have no chance of winning the election short of rigging it.

Hillary Clinton, a smart well rounded woman who probably can get the job done. I know I have said that if looked at quickly resembles a man, but what man wears lipstick? A man of change, a woman wears lipstick. Hillary, who the media is calling Billary due to her husband, represent something that was once good in the 1990’s, something that people want it to be again.

Barrack Obama, a half black, half white man who at quick glance doesn’t resemble anything that we have seen before. He is much younger than most presidents and also not from a rich family. Voting for Barrack would mean change in a different way, change for something that isn’t like the 90’s at all, it might be a change for something better than that.

While the Republicans also have the non norm presidential candidates, like a Mormon, deep inside, just like on the outside, they are all the same. There is no difference between McCain and Romney, there is no difference between Bush and Romney or Bush and McCain. They wouldn’t do anything that Bush hasn’t already done. I don’t believe that I am the only one who sees this though, I believe America sees this.

Democrats had more of a turnout for the primaries than in previous years, why? Because of choice. It isn’t anymore a series of which white guy will win, it is a choice of is it going to be a woman or is it going to be a black man? Which one will win for President? I am Sorry John Edwards supporters, but let’s face it, this time it isn’t a white man’s race, this time people will have a choice, and I believe that people will choose someone who is different in most aspects as a person, outside and inside than deal with the bullshit of the white man as President.

For the first time since John F Kennedy (He was the closest to a minority president we have had so far with him being Catholic), America will be voting for a minority. That is definitely something to be proud of.

Obama has won South Carolina. Clinton won second place. There’s still no clear winner for the Democratic Party, but my thoughts and vote will go for Obama because I believe he is the man who can make this country a proud place to live once again. Hopefully the rest of America will agree with me.

Krissy and I sat down tonight and talked about our future together.We’ve been together over a year and I think we are both frustrated that things haven’t moved farther along with a new place and with our relationship. Don’t get me wrong, our relationship is great, but there are some things that if we were in a new place would be better. We also talked about the possibility of us getting married.

Now if we were to get married, and that is a big if right now considering everything we have going on in our lives, we would want a small ceremony with few extravagant things, one of those things would be 1st Class Wedding Invitations. Now I know you are probably wondering why we would spend money on 1st Class Wedding Invitations and not something just as or equally more important, like wedding cake. To be honest with you, the wedding invitation is something that is held on to for years. It might even be framed so we have something besides pictures to remind us of that day. While we wouldn’t be spending $100 a plate on food, we would be spending money where it counts the most. Afterall, who is going to remember what they ate at your wedding? Will you remember in 20 years? I didn’t think so.

I am tired and cold and just want to go curl up in my nice warm bed with Krissy. I can’t though, I am finishing up some things for the evening and then I will be heading to bed.I am trying to figure out the best way to do the video posts, I have a few ideas, but I am unsure of how they will pan out. We will have to wait and see. In the mean time I am trying to come up with topics on what I can post about. I think video posting is different than just blogging because you need to have a set goal in mind and stick with it. We’ll see what happens.

I am not really like pets. I have a hard enough time keeping track and taking care of myself, having an animal just seems like its something I’m not ready for or something. Don’t get me wrong I love Bella, and I think all animals are cute, but I couldn’t take care of the dog the way Krissy does. I have to admire pet lovers though, they take care of these animals who poop on floors and try to steal your food without any thanks from them.

There is an online community for pet lovers, Animango, to come together and talk about their pets and get help with their problems and advice. I guess it is a support group of sorts for owners of the fluffers, which is cool. I know even parents need support groups to keep their sanity and I don’t suppose animals are much different than children in some ways. The online community just got started, but it was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It seems to that the launch was a big hit and we might be hearing a lot more about it in the future. If that is the case then it is only a matter of time before celebrities sign up for it.

I want to pick up Burnout Paradise, but I haven’t even downloaded the demo yet so I don’t know. I heard it is different than other Burnouts like that there isn’t a set track, you can go anywhere. Now that sounds interesting and like it could have a lot of potential.

I also want to pick up Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I have wanted it for years, ever since it first came out, but I never got the chance to pick it up. Maybe I can find a good priced used copy on Ebay or in EB Games.

I may want these games, but I don’t have the money right now. I have to save up for tax season because I am going to owe some money.

In my last post I talked about how well the Myspace marketing campaign is going. Well I believe that you can’t win a war with just one type of combat, you need multiple forms of combat, air raids, ground support, naval backup, etc. With marketing it is the same way. I could spend all my time focused on the Myspace aspect, but then I wouldn’t be dividing it up and putting all my eggs in one basket. If I set up numerous marketing strategies then I could have potentially that much more success.

Right now I have bulletins being posted every 30 minutes. They are different bulletins being posted each time, but they are posted and the previous bulletin is deleted so as to not annoy the people I am posting to. That is all fine and dandy, but what about the people who don’t look at bulletins? Well that is where I take the Myspace comments that I have and comment on their Myspace. Granted the ones I have don’t work for people who are already my friend, but the potential is there once I have more up. As you can see you can take one type of marketing idea and spit it up so you could go another direction. In terms of warfare imagine having one set of troops go one way while another goes another way but both end up meeting up and surrounding the enemy, that is what this strategy is like.

Now As I was saying before, putting all the eggs into the Myspace marketing campaign is stupid, I will need other ways to get the word out there, which is where an email marketing campaign comes in handy. Do you know all of those sites that say click here if you don’t want to receive emails from our partners regarding important products? Well that is where an email marketing campaign comes into play. You can sign up to be a partner of that site and if someone doesn’t click that box then you can send them email.

Email marketing is fine and dandy, but sending emails out manually can be a waste of time and money. That is where software projects come in handy. You can buy software to automate the email marketing process, or you could hire a programmer to program one for you. In the end it is probably easier to buy a project that is already done, after all you don’t want to spend the money reinventing the wheel right?

Marketing can be a powerful tool especially if you are just trying to understand the online business world. Take things and try them out, if it doesn’t work for you, then move on. It doesn’t hurt to try something new every once in a while, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The Myspace marketing campaign that I have seems to be coming along better than I had ever expected. I had a projected goal of 200 friends by December 31st, 2007, but I failed that goal horribly. I thought I wouldn’t be able to make a thousand friends a month, but I seem to have been horribly wrong. I had set up a goal for January 31st at 2800 friends. Right now I am close to 3400 friends.

After I had reached the goal of 2800 friends I set a goal for February 29th for 4000 friends. I think I am going to pass that goal. RIght now I have about 10 pending friend requests and over 1000 requests I sent out that haven’t been answered yet. I am trying to get more people to spread the word about Lep’s Lair, and it seems to be working a bit. I know I need more content and I am going to be really trying to get some in the coming weeks (most of my pictures seem to have been deleted on my computer). I will try as hard as I can to get some new stuff soon. The number one priorities right now are the Spiderman 3 synopsis (I need to sit down and watch it again) and a brand new gallery for my stuff using the WordPress engine.

Wintereenmas is the celebration of video games. It is a week long celebration, but the season is the whole month of January, much like Christmas. The celebration can be anything you want, but most choose to celebrate by playing video games. I have been playing Assassin’s Creed since Christmas and I am trying to expand my gameplay this holiday season. I still have Resident Evil 4 to play and Mass Effect, both of which are still unopened. Krissy’s sister also gave me Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 so I want to play that as well (I loved the first one).

It seems that I will have my work cut out for me to get to all these games in the next week, especially since work is going to be picking up either tonight or tomorrow, but I would like to add a new game to the roster, Nitto 1320 Legends – Free Live Online Drag Racing Game. It is a drag racing game so you aren’t controlling the steering wheel, there’s no reason to, you are just controlling the pedals. I guess I would understand how to drive it better if I knew how to drive a stick, you need to control the clutch and the accelerator in order to move in the game.

I have played a few races and lost everytime, only by a few milliseconds though. I guess I need to figure out when the right time to change gears is and how I can go as fast as I can right out of the gate. All in all it is a fun game though and I am sure that I will play it every now and then. Who knows maybe I will be able to meet up with some people to play online if I ever get Burnout Paradise, or maybe even Halo.