Google Analytics

I've just recently tagged all my relevant sites to begin testing varying seo initiatives. I'm going to leave all sites alone and get a base line for the second half of November (kind of a crappy month thanks to the potential 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving). I have additional content for 89c4.com, 66912.com, slant32.com, flawlessphoto.com that will need to wait to be updated first part of December. And I need to get off my ass and get southwestproject.com up and running. Lets not forget about the actual relevent client websites that will benefit from the research and testing - cause they will. You'll see...

Listen...you smell something?

ScentAir is a cool little Flash site. ScentAir has a cool little concept - bring custom scent experiences to retailers to help them sell more crap. I dig it. I want to have my shopping experience enhanced by the smell of gunpowder when buying my UZI. I'd also like that when I'm buying tobacco the store smells like, well, tobacco...but doesn't it already? You know, that might work for all the KC Bars and Restaurants: pump in the smell of cigarettes to make you feel at home, but not the second hand ill effects...will we start finding second hand smell is killing us faster then cigarette smoke?

Know your neighbors

So I'm up early the other morning (Wednesday, I believe) about to hop in the shower. From my bathroom window, I can see out to the rest of the streets (we live on a corner, so I can see 2 streets from my front lawn). I look out and see a person I don't recognize. Not a big deal, I don't know all my neighbors, so I don't think much of it...till it hits me - it's kind of cold for a walk, the person has a parka on with the hood up, and their not jogging but shuffling up the street. Then I get concerned when this person start talking to my house from across the street. Not at me, not at someone on my lawn, just the general direction of my home. Huh. So I continue to watch this person start looking into people's windows, looking into cars on the street, picking up things off the ground and putting them into their pocket...

I call the local police and report a suspicious person walking around my home. I give them my name, my address, and my phone number. I tell them I don't need an officer to come to my house, but that I would like a drive by to see what this person is doing.

My wife wakes up and listens to my conversation with the local police and looks outside. She sees the person. She turns to me and says "I bet that's *BLANK*'s mom...she's Bi-Polar, had issues with the police before, I bet that's her". Great. I just called the police on my neighbor.

Let's back up a little bit here. We have a young man by the name of *BLANK*. He roams the streets at all hours of the day and night. There is something wrong with this young man. He's had control issues, impulse issues, rage issues, and possibly some slight retardation. Nice enough, but annoying at times, and as a father who has witnessed him interacting with other kids in the neighborhood, I like him to keep his distance from my family. His mother, supposedly has her own problems. Alcohol, Bi-Polar, depression...so I have been told.

Last night, after my wife and I had a lovely evening out, while she is dropping off the babysitter, the doorbell rings. It's 9:45pm. I assume it my wife because the garage door opener must be broken. It's a little, almost confused woman who begins to introduce herself - "Hi, my name is *BLANK*. I live down the street. You have a lovely home. This is a nice neighborhood. What a beautiful daughter, what's her name? Have we met? My name is *BLANK*. I just wanted to introduce myself. I won't bother you again".

So, lets recap shall we: I see a "stranger". I call the police. My wife and I determine it might be *BLANK*'s mom from down the street. *BLANK* comes to my door to not mention a single THING about the cops, but to introduce herself. Even if I had known who she was, she was so bundled up I wouldn't have recognized her.

Crazy.

CCD

Let it be known that when asked "...and what are you thankful for Chloe...", my daughter responded:

"ummm...my daddy..."

Much to the horror of my lovely wife, I will forever remember this day as Daddy's Little Girl Day.

Carry on.

So, my headache could get me a bloody mouth?

From WashingtonPost.com:

"A major manufacturer of store-brand acetaminophen recalled 11 million bottles of the pain-relieving pills Thursday after discovering some were contaminated with metal fragments. There were no immediate reports of injuries or illness."

The article goes on to say:

"Consumers who swallow any of the contaminated pills could suffer minor stomach discomfort or possible cuts to the mouth and throat, the FDA said, adding that the risk of serious injury was remote. Anyone who suspects they have been injured should contact their doctor, the agency said."

So doc, I had this back ache, but you don't know the half of it - I take some over the counter pills and I start bleeding from my mouth! Should I be worried? Is this, dare I ask, a normal side effect that I just missed on the warning lable?

How the hell do you get "metal fragments" into your pills? What's next, feces in our burgers - of yeah, too late.

Dove | Evolution

The other video clip we talked about on todays show - the Dove Evolution spot. 1.7 MM views since it launch on YouTube.

Paxil | YouTube

I talked about this on todays radio show - I do not know why, but I find it hysterical. Enjoy.

Testing From Email | Posting 2

lets try something other then a .png

Nope, doesn't support image attachment display. Ok, back to researching what the hell is wrong with the setup I did for my mobile image posting...

Testing From Email | Posting

I've been having issues with mobile postings, so I thought I'd try email posting...lets see if it works.

And it does, except it doesn't display attached images...or perhaps it was the .png file format...lets do another test to see...

Hour and Half Slow??

Attempting to keep current on the daily tech buzz I head over to Wired. A snippet like this just had to grab my attention:

"What better way to let off steam after raking in millions each year than pushing top-shelf Ferrari's to their competitive limits?"

Mr. Capps describes his experience in his lent Ferrari 612 Scaglietti for a rally in CA. Fun article. My favorite part:

"Looking at our time sheet, the checkpoint monitor just shakes his head. "Jesus," he says, peering in the window with disgust. "You guys are almost an hour and a half slow...."

ChatCreator

Not that I have enough people that frequent my site to warrant this, but ChatCreator is a cool service. From the site:

"To create your chatbox which is easily embedded in any web page, type in the desired name of your chatbox which will appear on top. Select the desired color scheme. Write in the desired size in pixels and click GENERATE."

It's simple, clean, easy and sets up in seconds. I originally read about it over at Cnet.

Print your Camera

What a cool idea - the people over at Linatree have created a downloadable paper camera. It's a pinhole camera. Download a PDF, print it, build it, and pop in a roll of 35mm (you remember what that is, don't you digital kids?). Talk about cool.

As part of my final photo project in college I attempted to create a fisheye lens. I wasn't successful in making a fish, but I did make a workable lens out of warped plastic to mount onto my Canon EOS Elan. Images had a, well, plastic optics feel to them - kind of like a Holga.

joinred.com

From the website:

"(RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)^RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)^RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa."

joinred.com

Caught the story on Apple.com of all places (they have a branded Nano).

M Studio

Cool clean site. Flash. Great client list.

Write Chuck Palahnuik

Odds are, if you are reading this then you don't need me to tell you. Now, I'm not a die hard fan of Mr. Palahnuik. In fact, my only exposure to him (like many) has been Fight Club (which I watched, not read). But, he is the author of choice that I mean to start reading.

It seems he opens his mailbox to fans every once and a while. There are strict rules, but for the month of October you can write to Mr. Palahnuik an actual "letter" and he will get back to you (no email). I doubt I'll write him myself, since I have yet to actually read any of his work, but I hope to be part of the masses next time after I get around to his work - which I really want to.

DIY Ghostbusters

So we've started to get in the spirit (get it?) of the season. Pumpkins, monster stories, letting both my 2 & 7 year olds watch the original 75th anniversary edition of Frankenstein. We take this holiday seriously. What better movie to go along with fun and ghouls then Ghostbusters? A family favorite. Don't ask how I can across this link, but man is it cool - Ghotsbusters Prop Archive. Ever want that Proton Pack? Knock yourself out!

Technorati

Technorati Profile

3-1 | GO BULLDOGS

I'm attempting to get back in the habit of posting (mostly due to the fact that 6 months can go by and I have no idea what I've done or seen). As most of you know, I coach my son's soccer team - The BullDogs. We're associated with LSSA. The U7 division. 10 boys. Including me, 5 coaches. We've got a great team of kids. They work hard, the like what they are learning, and hopefully each and every one of them is having fun.

We have our 5th game of the season tomorrow. Against a team that is ranked nearly identical to us. We think we have a set good group for defense and offense. The one game we've lost was a brutal one. We had more shots on goal then could count. I think steroid testing of their goalie is in order - I mean, wow. The kid was a wall.

We'll see how we do tomorrow. GO BULLDOGS.

The Brand Show | It's GO Time

So I've had this new job now for just over seven months. As one of my many duties, I co-host The Brand Show on 1510AM here in Kansas City every Wednesday at 9AM. The show centers around The Dean and his knowledge of Brand image, creation, rise & fall, etc. It's light, it's fun, and hopefully informative.

I love broadcast. When I was working for e.magination I had the opportunity to do a small voice over spot for DuClaw Brewery.

Recently I had the opportunity to do voice over once again for a local Honda TV spot that will air here in the KC market in about a week. I'll post a QT of the spot after it airs here.

Nick Faber

So i love the bread crumb trail you can follow to new and cool stuff online. I hit FWA at least once a week. They have a section on the bottom right hand "classic fwa" which displays cool flash sites of old winners. Today happen to be tokyoplastics old website that still looks great. So they mention the guy who does the audio - Nick Faber. I hit his site and start to listen to his stuff - and i'm digin it - a lot. A freelance music producer who "left school at 16 and trained as a recording engineer at Beatles producer George Martin’s world famous AIR Studios." Good stuff.