more thinking…

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Just out of curiosity, I pulled up the payment site for one of our old advertisers with Just Laugh. The only thing we ever really ran through them (or anybody, for that matter – most of our advertising was strictly internal) was banners for the Joke Database, and I had set the payment threshold so high that they never even cut us a check…

…but now we’re mighty close…

…nonetheless, I bumped it up to their highest level because if I don’t have the money in hand, I don’t have to worry about my spending it – it could prove useful to have around some day, too. I am, however, impressed to see the stats that they’ve been reporting for the database over the past months, or even year, considering that we were pretty much shut down when I moved here during the fall of 2003. With absolutely no updates or promotions, I’d have thought that the place would be abandoned by now. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trying to bring the site back online in smaller sections – all pending how much free time I can rustle up, of course – but it makes me wonder all the more that if I could find a new partner or three who was really dedicated to making it go somewhere, what could happen???

Hmmm…

“Don’t call me Shirley…”

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The new site is coming along good – thanks for asking! With any luck, it should be ready just in time to be late for my birthday… 😛

Kidding…it does look nice, though, simply taking longer than expected – I’ve got a lot going on right now, ok?! Today I’ve been making some good progress with one of the more enduring sections, so if this motivation keeps up…maybe by Easter??? I still don’t know where I’m going to get a new logo, though… 🙁

I came across this nifty link while doofing around on the AFI website:
AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 MOVIE QUOTES (2004)

Birthday Fun in a BIG Way…

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Last night was very well, indeed.

Leslie’s birthday took us to dinner for some Crazy Buffet, and then a movie at the Channelside IMAX Theater, and let’s just say that although it was a terrific evening, I’m not all that crazy about the Crazy Buffet. I had relatively high expectations of the place because pretty much everyone I know speaks of them as Buffet Gods – both the service received and the food consumed certainly did not live up to that standard! There’s just something about a place that charges $18 / piece for the buffet and then has such lousy table service because they know that the buffet will sell itself…we’ve experienced the Crazy Buffet and that’s something to be said…but for that kind of price in the future, we’ll either eat at Channelside in Tampa or of course, somewhere on the Disney property when in Rome / Orlando.

On the other hand, the movie was fantastic!!! We saw Robots on the massive IMAX screen by the bay and simply put, “Wow!” I’m going to put up something more of an actual review on the new website, so I won’t go into much further detail here, but needless to say, this was the film to prove to me that the Disney / Pixar relationship isn’t the only production company capable of cranking out such a stellar movie experience of the computer-animated form. It’ll definitely be on the shelf when released on DVD, and honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if we end up seeing it again sometime in the future. I was impressed and I do believe that Leslie had quite the ball with the entire evening hands down, so rack ’em up and knock ’em down – I’ve done my job!

It must’ve been a pretty good night all around because hey, it’s 6:25 in the AM and you’re watching Perspectives…err, I mean, I’m blogging! (Does anybody know if those classic Tim Meadows sketches from SNL are available on a DVD somewhere, because I loved those…)

Well, I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go…man something’s wrong with me. With any luck, one of the first big sections of the new website will be completed and ready for your approval this evening…and maybe I can catch-up on some photo galleries, too. Happy Wednesday!!!

number portability

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I’ve done the stuff myself for the past year and a half – who would’ve thought that it could be so painful?!

I just finished sending another e-mail to Vonage’s customer care group, urging them to recheck their validation systems because it should be plain as day that my home telephone number is most definitely portable…we’ll see if it actually gets through to them this time! I hate to say it, but the bitchy woman from Verizon that I talked to had a good point – if they can’t even tell that the number is portable, then maybe I shouldn’t be switching to them. 🙁 Let’s see…

Verizon: $50 / month
Vonage: $15 / month

As it’s just not an option to drop the home phone and solely use my cell, I’d say that saving $35 / month seems like a good plan to me. Believe you me, I’d love to switch to a VoIP plan from Verizon or AT&T or one of the bigger guns if they’d let off on the price, but for only $10 / month savings, it just seems like a slap in the face to me. In the meantime, this would bring my entertainment savings total to $65 / month between phone, cable & internet … gotta save that house down payment somehow!

a unique business opportunity…

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Every once in a while, I’ll get an e-mail in my box asking about Just Laugh’s Joke Database and if I can help other sites establish something similar as well. I’ve pretty much blown them off in the past, but I got another the day before last and it makes me wonder if maybe I should take them more seriously and give ’em a shot. I would assume that it wouldn’t be too difficult to put together a template interface to sell, feeding off of our original database, and then slap a monthly charge or something for usage on-top of that.

Would it be considered in poor taste to be profiting off of jokes that I didn’t technically write, or just smart management because everybody pretty much steals from each other to build their own repositories anyways?

Maybe not right this second, but I would like to get to a point where I could start actively updating that baby once again…perhaps even kick the total up over the 1,000 mark!!! Hmmm, now the gears are spinning and I wish that I had the time to run a full-size production like Just Laugh again… 😛

“The March ’05 Update” (…part 1, hopefully)

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Wow – long time, no postings…so you know what that means – bullet points!!!

  • Life, in general, is going quite well, indeed…
  • Leslie is still around, starring in the role of my girlfriend, and from a relationship stand-point I’ve never been happier. We’ll be going on two months here shortly, but it seems like we’ve been together much longer already.
  • Work, in most respects, is still good also, even though it is becoming quite cumbersome – hopefully the entire ordeal will be over soon and I can get settled into a normal routine again. Also, last week they announced that we’ll be moving out of the Tampa City Center downtown and into a corporate campus up in New Tampa at the end of the year – it’ll take some getting used to, but should be a nice change.
  • Along those same lines, I’m also looking for a house up in the New Tampa area which is kind of exciting…if not simply because I’m ready to go somewhere else. I do still like the Town ‘N Country area and kind of wish that I could stick around this area, but between the lousy neighbors and the commute that I have to deal with everyday…and the new commute that I would have from here to New Tampa, maybe it’s all for the best. We’ll see! 🙂
  • I know I’m always way behind in the times with these things, but I started played Hitman 2 over the weekend on the PS2 – very addictive game! I’m normally not too sharp when it comes to the stealth-like games (i.e. Splinter Cell), but any game that allows me to whip out the guns and just charge in full throttle when I continuously blow my cover is still ok in my book!
  • The writing is still progressing along ok…I just don’t seem to have the time or motivation to get everything online as I’d like. I’ve written a number of editorial pieces on the current events that have been getting on my nerves lately, so maybe I’ll get a chance to put them online over the weekend. Last weekend I wasn’t exactly as productive as I was supposed to…with any luck I’ll get another shot and actually take care of business this time around!
  • Thursday Night TV Update: Kim got voted off Survivor, John got fired on The Apprentice – all in all, a quality night of reality television
  • “The Problem with Popplers episode of Futurama is on tonight – quite possibly the funniest episode ever! “They’re tasty, right – let’s call them Taste-ti-cles!“I am sooooo looking forward to sleeping in Saturday morning! Man, do I need a vacation…

Good Day! x3

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Woo-hoo – should be a fun weekend!!! Little sister is flying into town tonight, going to Disney for the second time in a seven-day span tomorrow, state fair on Saturday with sister and girlfriend, and “quality time” with nearly the whole family on Sunday – visitors are fun! 🙂

Weekend Update – the bad points

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So I had to call the cops on my neighbors the other night.

Believe me, I really didn’t want to, but it was three o’clock in the morning, we’d had a long day and were trying to sleep, and I just have a very low tolerance for rudeness at that hour. The stereo was blasting so loud that you’d think they had a rave going on, but the breaking point was when they situated outside my bedroom window and proceeded to argue at full volume about how much beer they had left and who got to fuck who after the roofies kicked in…

It’s sad because I used to love where I live – the highlights really shined and the only bad parts involved tripping over the mutant ducks that guard over our sidewalks…but I just realized today that I haven’t even seen the crazy bird lady in the longest time. I don’t know what happened, but it seems like the place has started catering to a different kind of people and now we have college-aged kids wandering around at all hours of the night with cups of beer in hand, shouting to each other across the complex. I’d be curious to see what kinds of rates these people are giving away now because before the cost alone was enough to keep out the riff-raff – apparently they’re renting to damn near anybody now, but come the end of my current lease, I certainly won’t be one of them.

When the cops finally did show up, apparently they made such a scene that the culprits turned everything off and went inside before they could be found, resulting in the guy pounding on my door at 3:30 AM wanting to know what the problem was. It scares me to think that these are the folks out there protecting us because during our conversation, some guy drunk as shit stumbled right by him…at 3:30 AM…and apparently he didn’t find anything odd about that. The other officer – a lady cop – did have slightly better deductive skills and managed to find them all huddled inside a nearby apartment (hint: it was the only one with lights on at 3:30 AM!), and thusly sent everybody in directions after threatening to check for drugs, but I’ll give it two days before they’re back at it again…

So I’m now even moreso in the market to find myself a house this year, folks! My lease here ends on November 13th and I’m already saving my pennies, but in the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for me – I’m gonna need all of the patience that I can get…

Weekend Update – the good points

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Well, that was fun!

Quite the busy weekend, indeed. I took Friday off in an effort to celebrate an early Valentine’s Day with the woman I love, and I’d like to say that it ended up being a success, in my humble opinion! The afternoon was spent over at Disney World – a la the Magic Kingdom – and if anything, it was certainly magical…and a bit goofy, I might add (no pun intended). Had dinner at O’Hana inside the Polynesian Resort, which served up some of the best buffet foods that I’ve ever eaten – strongly recommended to anyone looking to stuff themselves silly! For those out of the loop, it’s a Hawaiian-themed restaurant where they bring everything straight to your table, so when you’re ready for more shrimp, they simply unload another skewer of shrimp onto your waiting plate – genius, I tell ya. Also, the chicken wings were to die for and needless to say, we will be going back…

Oh yeah, and Mickey’s PhilharMagic was definitely cool, too. Saw it for the first time, loved it, and got a special kick out of hearing not only all of the kids, but also the girl next to me singing along with all of her favorite Disney songs… 😉

Saturday was eventful two-fold because it proved to be full of family from both sides of the spectrum. Leslie took me home to meet the parents in the AM and I’m told that things went rather well, which is mighty cool on my part! The entire family seems very down to earth and possesses one unique quality alone that made me feel very much so at home – they all rag on each other constantly – and I don’t think that I’ve laughed as much in the past week as I did during those few hours. Looking back at the grand history of all relationships, it could’ve gone horribly wrong, but thankfully it didn’t.

And last but not least, I received a phone call Saturday evening and discovered that my Dad is in town, so I’ve spent an excess of probably ten hours in the past day or so catching up with him. I’m not quite sure how long he’ll be here, and neither is he – I guess, but it’s certainly good to see him and I hope to spend as much time with him as I can while he is. It’s amazing how easily you forget about the important stuff when you’ve been gone for a year and a half…

All in all, probably the best weekend so far this year…can’t wait to see this one topped!