Doggy poop is a huge problem, especially if you live next to my neighbors who do not pick up the poop out of their yard. It is horrible walking out to the car past that crap. I do not look forward to the summer months, not one bit. I was a good neighbor and instead of just complaining (or posting to my blog at the time), I bought them a really good pooper scooper last year one where they would never have to touch the doggy waste. I thought the gift would give them the hint that they needed to pick up after the dog every time she went potty not once a month or less. Well they not only did not get the hint they regifted the pooper scooper saying it was too small to pick up their dog’s poop. Not if you used it on a regular basis! Yeah it was too small to handle all that poop at once, but the idea was for you to use it daily people!
I came across Poop-Freeze (via the goat at backcountry.com) and thought at first what an idiotic idea. Then I remember my problem and thought on a hot summer day if the poop was frozen maybe the stench coming from the yard two feet away from me would not be so bad. (We cannot even have our living room window open in warm weather because of the smell from next door.) Even with that possible use Poop-Freeze really is a stupid idea (proven by the post on the company website that the company is insolvent, folks aren’t buying it).
TreeHugger.com touts the supposed environmentally friendly aspects of this product. There are no CFCs and it claims not to harm the grass but freezing it to 60 degrees below zero has to harm the grass. Really how environmentally responsible is it to offer a product that has no real use (how hard is it to pick up that poop any way)? You will still be left with a can to dispose of making even more waste. My guess is that TreeHugger is pointing out the un-treehugger-like properties of this particular product.
Now here is the only use for the product that even makes sense… (taken directly from the homepage of PoopFreeze.com) “POOP-FREEZE™ is an emergency pet product that every pet owner should have. Just keep it under the sink for those occasions in which your pet has diarrhea or loose stool.” While I would never refer to it as an emergency pet product it would be very helpful in picking up messes from a sick puppy.
Now if someone could come up with the product from the movie Envy (the Ben Stiller / Jack Black unfunny flick about jealousy). I believe that product was called Va-poo-rize. When that becomes available the pet industry will explode. I do believe that eventually someone some where will come up with something that works until that time you’ll just have to pick up that poop!
Fellow blogger AlyCat posted a question asking what movies you watched over and over while growing up that wore out your VCR. Good question. Unfortunately, being a child of the seventies we did not have a VCR. In fact we did not have a VCR until I was almost out of High School and then it was because I bought it! It loaded VHS tapes in the front like the VCRs of today instead of a pop up top like some of the older styles. I’ll bet not too many of you out there remember those. Don’t get me wrong mine wasn’t overly modern as it still had a wired remote.
So my list of watched and rewatched movies while growing up is short as it was really only the films that were aired every year on regular TV like Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz, etc. Once I got the VCR my true tastes in films came out. I repeatedly watch horror and sci-fi movies like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Aliens, Ghost Busters, Star Wars, ET, etc.
Now that I have onDemand and a DVR I find myself with repeated viewings of even more. Most recently I am stuck in a V for Vendetta phase.
I signed up for this new service called SocialSpark about a week ago. To some degree it is a cross between MySpace and PayPerPost. You get to meet up with merchants and other bloggers on a more personal level. Signing up is easy and free.
Just know you either have to be using FireFox or MSIE 7 (I hate internet explorer 7) or you won’t be able to access the site at all, which is a big draw back since about 50-60 percent of the folks coming to my sites are still using MSIE 6. I assume you folks are like me and don’t like the way the new internet explorer handles webpages and how Microsoft appears to be pushing us all into redeveloping our previously working websites. Enough about them, back to SocialSpark.
Head on over and sign up. You’ll be able to find opportunities to make money with your posts (like PPP and other services), make new blogging buddies, find ideas and topics for you to write about and one of the best features get and request blog backs. That last one is so important in improving your page ranks that it alone is worth signing up. But I am sure you will find other reasons to stick with them.
While your there stop by whataslacker’s SocialSpark profile and give me some props, request to be my friend or just let me know you posted a blog about my site and I’ll be sure to do the same. I am always looking to increase those links back to my blog.
In the vast blogosphere it is easy to get lost. Sometimes you just need a helpful friend to point you in the right direction. Or at the very least help suggest some good places to start.
A really good jumping off place is Roxiticus Best Blogs. This is pretty much a blog about blogs and sometimes blogging too. RBB has some helpful tips on how to increase your blog traffic in the mix of reviews. Head on over there to see what I mean.
Some how I wound up on Rosie O’Donnell’s website last night which reminded me about her blog. Why reminded me? For some unknown reason I was watching some celebrity expose (I never watch biographies let alone tabloid TV so I am not quite sure why I was watching that show), any who, she said something about how a news show or magazine (not sure which) had quoted her from her blog. Well the quote happened to be lyrics from a song and not an actual quote from her. That’s what I had remembered while poking around her site.
I was just about to click on the blog link to see if I could find anything of interest when I scrolled down the homepage and saw a little blurb about a movie I had seen a trailer for one night while watching a DVD. The movie is called Vier Minuten (or Four Minutes in English) it is a German film about a very talented and troubled piano player. The trailer floored me and I had written the name of the film down to remember it when it finally comes to DVD. That was month’s ago. The only information I can find on the web for it is the art film scene last year and the original German release in 2006. When is it coming to the USA? I really want to see this film. Of course Rosie.com while telling us it is a good film does not say how or where we can see it. In fact when you click on the ‘more’ link it only takes you to another listing of films and Vier Minuten is not even listed! Rosie help a girl out and tell me how to find this film. I realize that being a star you most likely were sent a screener (I get them too for my ScifiSlacker.com site, but since this is not a sci-fi film I can’t see them sending me one). I just need details when or if this will be available.
Andy’s Film World has a great write up on Vier Minuten and also posts the YouTube video trailer for the film. Head on over and check it out.
Any one with info on Vier Minuten / Four Minutes coming to DVD or where I can see this film please post it here in the comments. Thanks!
Well another April Fools Day has come and gone without anything significant happening to me. I never pull anything off myself, but I usually get hit. Or the very least someone tries something.
I don’t watch the news or read the paper [not even a blog on a daily basis] so I was in the dark on any attempts by the media too.
Only thing I did see was Pat Sajak’s little joke he pulled on Vanna White. He told her that he was coming clean and that he wears a hair piece and had her pull his wig off. They did a good job with the makeup [of course it is Hollywood]. But that’s the only joke I even heard about this year. Post your comments if you heard of or even better pulled of a good one.
Okay, so I have had lost of fun with YouTube [even though I generally hate the idea of uploading everything and anything to the web]. Some of the stuff is just great. As you can see by all my recent posts I like Chad Vader.
But now to return to normal, okay, somewhat normal. Or at least as normal as I get.
When I first heard the term pay-per-play I thought it had to do with online videos or games. It doesn’t. It has everything to do with making money from your website.
If you are like me you are not making enough money off those Google ads you have all over your website are you? People just don’t seem to be clicking through on those any more, do they? What would you do if I told you that you could get paid for every visitor to your site and not just the few who actually click through and leave your site? Most people wouldn’t believe it. I didn’t until I checked out Net Audio Ads.
What’s that? Well, it is pretty much what it says it is audio ads on your website and you get paid every time one of them plays for one of your visitors. The ads are short, only five seconds long and each visitor only gets one ad so they don’t hate you while they are on your site. Five seconds is hardly enough time to annoy anyone. You see or should I say hear them all over the place these days so why shouldn’t you benefit from them too? Like those Google ads everyone is ignoring these days the pay-per-play ads are related to the content on your website by spidering your site. I see this as a great opportunity for publishers and advertisers a like.
User generated television is the primary goal of YawpBox.com, but unlike AcceptibleTV they are not asking you to create mini television series they want your life story. You get to tell your story to a world wide audience via the website and to a TV audience based in Texas. I am not sure if the television series is or will be going national. In any case you get to have your fifteen minutes of fame thanks to YawpBox TV.
Unlike other online video sharing sites YawpBox offers up its content in categories. You choose which story you want to submit then upload original videos, photos, audio, and blog content then community members vote on your submissions. If you rate high enough from fellow Yawpers your story just might find its way to the YawpBox TV show. According to their website the magazine style TV show is filmed live in front of a television audience in Dallas, Texas using your content, your stories. Not simply reposting a clip from your local news shows without their consent.
The key to this site and I assume the television show too is to use community members stories, photos and video not to be a dumping ground for other people’s copyright material. Thus far it looks as if YawpBox.com needs help in that area as all I could find were photoshopped images, pictures from other sources and video commercials. The best video on the site that I could find was of a couple doing a dance routine at their own wedding. Heck Lex and Terry give you some great homework assignments via the national radio show and TV program so come on folks put on those thinking caps and take up their challenge. YawpBox needs your original content so get to posting. This idea has potential but from what I can see the users are not living up to it at this time.
When I think of Spock my mind Immediate goes to Star Trek’s most famous of Vulcans, Mr. Spock played by the venerable actor Leonard Nimoy. From there my mind wonders to the Star Trek themed pop bank called S.P.O.C.K. (their music is pretty good by the way). I don’t think I would ever think search engine, but that’s exactly what Spock.com is, a search engine. It is a people and information search engine. You can search for your friends, co-workers, models, singers, or even your favorite Star Trek actors like Mr. Nimoy.
Spock says they are not a social networking site yet it certainly acts like one. You can use the site to make your searches without signing up, but if you join you get to contribute to the site and hopefully help improve those search results. You do that by inviting friends to “trust” you and then vote on your tags, any one can add tags to any profile so there is the potential of misguided results due to abuse by the users. I can only hope that people that do sign up and claim their profiles have control over the content people add to their profiles. I would hate to come up in the top results for some thing I am not like republican. The site is still in beta so hopefully all the concerns people have will be addressed. Until then enjoy the new search engine and behave yourself.
The hope is that Spock could become the Google of people searches. But do you think you will be hearing the term “have you Spocked yourself” in place of the now familiar “did you Google yourself” any time soon? I don’t think so. Personally, I have not Googled myself in a long time, but felt the need to see if the Spock results were similar to theirs. And they are pretty darned close especially since the web result portion of Spock.com is pulled directly from Google. So head on over to the site and run a search or two on Spock.com to see where you and your friends stand.
I came across Poop-Freeze (via the goat at backcountry.com) and thought at first what an idiotic idea. Then I remember my problem and thought on a hot summer day if the poop was frozen maybe the stench coming from the yard two feet away from me would not be so bad. (We cannot even have our living room window open in warm weather because of the smell from next door.) Even with that possible use Poop-Freeze really is a stupid idea (proven by the post on the company website that the company is insolvent, folks aren’t buying it).
