Today while at the gym, I was thinking of all the random bills I had to pay that all seemed to be due at the same time. This included things like my car insurance, a recent doctor visit bill, the final payment on my credit card bill, some domain name renewals, and the hosting package for my podcast. I cringed as I paid all of them. However, I got to thinking a bit about how much having a website costs me personally and what I get in return from it. A reasonable person, especially in this economy, would look at the numbers and make cuts as needed.

So the facts:

I own 25 domains from various sites over the years. These include midwestpodcast.com (which was podcast convention that never got off the ground), adamantinearts.org (my old non-profit that closed a few years ago),  as well as a handful of domains I am managing for other people… free of charge apparently. This list also includes the important ones I am using for projects or will be using shortly. Given Godaddy charges around $11 per domain name, I have $275 per year in domain name fees.

I have Dreamhost hosting for my podcast, Krapp’s Last Cast. I use this mainly for their unlimited bandwidth, although, we have been on a year plus hiatus so the bandwidth usage is minimal now. However, we’re planning on starting again soon as well as launching a new podcast strictly for Dim Media. This costs me $7 per month (by paying for 3 years in advance). This costs me $84 per year.

I have Linode hosting for all my other other non-GAE projects. I use this to run the Dim Media site, this site, as well as a handful of other blogs for others. This is also, the cdn for one of my upcoming projects. I kinda need this. However, it is pricey and costs $330 per year.

So, that brings us to $689 annually to run all these sites.

Now, I make just less than $100 per year on Google ads – mostly from domain parking interestingly enough. The site that has the most non-monetary return is probably the Dim Media site. We refer a lot of our potential buyers to it and do a lot of marketing through it for our events. It is far harder to gauge if the money spent is made up for in the returns. However, Dim is its own business anyway, so it might be unfair to include it. Otherwise, it appears that I am in the whole nearly $600 per year in internet costs. Yikes.

I think my goal this year is to make that number at least break even through a combination of cutting out some things and trying to monetize more.

Is American Apparel really trying to sell Yoga clothes?

I ran across the following animated ad for American Apparel’s  “YOGA” line today featuring a girl doing arguably pornographic poses rather than yoga.

I’m not going to go as far as to say it is disgusting or indecent (I’ll let others form those opinions). However, I think it is just stupid. You wouldn’t take this ad to be a source for yoga instruction, so why would you think it would be a good ad for yoga clothing? Also, I’d like to know how many people that shop at American Apparel and buy yoga gear are going actually do yoga and not just wear it to the club is some ironicy fashion statement… like those skinny dorks that wear GOLD’S GYM shirts.

I don’t normally get too upset over advertising anymore since there are probably more important things to get upset over. However, a part of me gets irate every time I read a story of some guy raping his wife because they are married or advertising that is just offensive (like the Peta ads). That said, I wouldn’t say I am “feminist”, but I do have a mom, and sister-in-laws, nieces, and aunts, and have done youth mentoring. So when I see advertising like this, I get irritated.

I’m not trying to sound like a prude. I’m ok with “sexy” advertising and erotic art, etc etc. However, this girl might as well be , naked, spread eagle, on a yoga mat and it would be about the same level of marketing. Sadly, yes, both are probably fairly effective in their target market.

As an aside, I checked out the source code for the blog this was being displayed on and saw that it was part of the the MediaPlex ad network. Their handle is “Intelligent Technology for Digital Marketing”. I’m sure they mean “intelligent” in the data-mining/machine-learning sense, but the irony is not lost on me. This ad, like most advertising in general, is not going to win any awards for “smart advertising”. I don’t know for a fact that these are not actual yoga moves but I don’t think you do yoga on a couch. Otherwise, this could pass as screen shots of a porn where the yoga instructor seduces one of her students.

End rant. The rest of the animation cells are below. Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

So, I called up my BFF Nicole and discussed logistics of using her super hip-crazy-cool printer. I scanned in a few of my more classic drawings and ran over to her house yesterday. After she demonstrated her excellent cooking skills making me breakfast, we printed off a couple proofs. I have to say WOW. The quality was amazing. Since I use india ink for my wash drawings, I always worry that duplicated versions wouldn’t have the crisp pen lines or the nice gradients of the washes. However, it was honestly hard to tell the difference between the originals and the proofs. On the contrary, the prints may look better because they are on better paper and are not as warped from the washes. Anywho, I am stoked.

I set up an Etsy store, and after a few more logistical bits, I hope to be selling prints in a week or two.
Interested in buying one?

I am pretty sure the HUDFORECLOSED.NET is that company advertised to death on 93x here in the Twin Cities where the girl is telling her friend how she bought a house for less than she pays per month in rent. AP9* is a scammy operation that apparently runs a whole network of sites  (The Bargain Network) that you are often tricked into signing up for after making a purchase at a legitimate site who has some devious partnerships. There are some complaints on these companies here, here, and here.

I got sucked in last May when I was looking at buying a house and was enticed by their “Free Trial” which turned into $40 per month charges each. I got busy with the house buying process and also forgot to cancel the accounts once I was aware of the charges. I did try to cancel in Sept when first discovering the charges, but got the run around. I decided to try again on lunch today.

I don’t know if they are the same company, but they had separate means of cancelling their accounts.

How to cancel  your HUDFORECLOSED.NET or HUDFORECLOSED.COM account :

• Go to HUDFORECLOSED.COM
  
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Cancel Account”. This is a popup so make sure you can see it. Otherwise, you can try to directly go to http://www.hudforeclosed.com/cancel.do
• Enter the email address and telephone number you signed up with and click “Cancel Membership”
• You should receive a confirmation screen and a confirmation email at the email address on file.
• Awesome, no more bills for this site however, you will have access to the site until the end of the billing cycle.

I also found a phone number buried in their site : 1-800-422-6021 that might help if the web cancellation doesn’t work or you don’t even remember signing up.

How to cancel your AP9* Bargain Homes, AP9*ATHOMEREWARDS+, AP9*SAVINGSMART.COM account

I did this over the phone. You will need to call 1800-333-1915. However, in their site FAQs, they also list 1-800-788-5648 as the number for cancelling. All they needed was my phone number I signed up with and my name. I wasn’t even on hold for very long.

Anywho, I hope that helps some people who may have gotten sucked into these things and want to get out. While googling for this same info, it seemed like a lot of people were trying, but couldn’t figure out how, which is why I am posting this. I wish FF had a site review type plugin to show feedback on domains you are at. Civic Duty Man – up up and away.

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

I started off the morning having coffee with Alexia Prichard, one of Propellers video personnel. Alexia and I have spoken quite a bit over AIM since the LA trip in November 2006. We spent some time catching up and talking about my new found interest in film. It was a great little chat. It really helped get my day going as I was pretty exhausted, dehydrated, and hung over from last night.

Shortly after, the rest of the dev and anchor team came down for breakfast and Tom decided to take us on a boat trip on the Lady Bird Lake. While we were waiting for the boat to arrive, we saw Stiffler running around again. Also, the 70s porno guy from last night came back over and chilled for a bit with us. While out smoking, that guy hopped into a cab with some girls and rolled out. I asked the valet if he know who it was and he had no idea, but thought that one of the girls was Josh Brolin’s wife. The Frag Dolls came stumbling out of the hotel too to catch a cab and I chatted it up a bit with them. They had some good stories from last night’s adventures that I won’t post for the sake of not being some paparazzi type dude. I’m glossing over most of my adventures too… which mostly involve stupid shit I say and copious amounts of booze.

Anywho, we finally got on our boat trip around 12:30. The guy running the boat was a local kid around my age and totally hilarious. He sorta half narrated. He forgot what landmarks and buildings were called and was very relaxed about the presentation of the details. He told us where to go swimming should we want to do so illegally. It was pretty damn funny, but then again we didn’t go for the historical side of things. Lady Bird Lake is pretty interesting. Look it up on wikipedia.

Once we got back, we all hoofed it over to the convention center for the panels. Mike, Budke, Tom, and I went into the Screen Burn deal and right away we ran into the Frag Dolls. They were playing Rainbow 6 against a bunch of little dorky kids and shouting out all these military commands and such. It was pretty funny. I think the kids just wanted to see the girls shake their boobles when they flinched when their character got shot. As an aside, there was a teen girl standing behind the frag dolls looking in aww. I think she knows what she wants to be when she grows up. To each their own.

Mike and I then went up to one of the interactive ballrooms and checked out a bunch of vendors. I’m going to be reviewing some of sites of card I grabbed later. I don’t want to give any undue publicity for shitty products or services. hint.

I was somewhat appreciative of having twitter today actually.  After Mike and I got out of the interactive rooms, I used twitter to ask where people where and caught up with the group for the trail end of the “20 ways to wow a crowd panel”.

On the way to that panel I ran into Leah Culver. It was very awkward. Granted, I had long hair back then and people otherwise claim I am a chameleon, but she barely remembered who I was. We had classes together and worked together at CSOM. We even both got invited to lunch with the DRM speaker and started giving him shit about how traditional channels of marketing in the techworld were ignoring social media. Ironically, her and I both went into social media. Also ironically, we ran into each other at SXSW, which is very social media focused this year. Either way, even after she remembered who I was, she seemed indifferent – so whatever.

After the “20 ways” panel, most everyone on the team went to the LOL Cats panel and learned how stupid ideas can generate a lot of money. Honestly, I think the whole meme is stupid, but once you look past the surface, you see a sort of self evolving success story in the Web 2.0 world. They gave out free hamburgers too.

We then went to Iron Cactus in downtown for food. Nothing too crazy went down save for the fact it started raining on us, the waiter was a douche bag, and some cat on stilts painted like a mime put a flyer under my hat for circ de sole. George told me about his classmate from school that works for the orchestra in St. Paul that he apparently is trying to fix me up with and who reads my blog apparently? So, hey, if you are reading this, I am taken, BUT, I’ll buy you coffee since you know George and he saves my butt on a daily basis at work

Anywho, I am about to head down now to see what everyone else is up to. We skipped the awards deal since we were at Iron Cactus too long. I wasn’t looking forward to that much anywho. Tonite might be another night of smelling up the hotel lounge area or I might venture off and hit some of the bars on this side of the lake. The hot tub is calling too. We’ll see. Word.

Whenever I get all confused about this thing called love, I just refer to Devin Townsend and his minstrels.

UPDATE – 2008-11-21:
The atomic bomb version that I actually prefer. watch me first

p.s. I have never seen this video before, so I don’t know what is up with the Evil Dead theme going on. funny.
p.p.s. I looked up the lyrics and they are not what i thought nor really match the feeling I get from the vid. Damn angry metal guys.

Now if photosynth were more publicly available, I could work some magic!

I was listening to Podcaust, Sarah’s friend Rob’s Podcast about dork shit. I love it. Anyway, the last episode, they mentioned whysoserious.com and the viral marketing for the new Batman movie. I have heard Heath Ledger is to play The Joker. The pictures on the site and some from google images make me really excited to see this movie.

I really liked the Batman Begins movie, and I think this is going to be rad. In other news I am excited for the Wolverine movie!!