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Decimating the list.
Did a few tiny things to Rawrb.com here. Biggest one you'll notice is that I can now set some blogs to private, which is something I'm very glad I did after going through a few of my past posts. Heh. Perhaps someday I'll allow registration that will give access to hand-picked people to read those private blogs. Perhaps.
I did a TON of stuff to TheDumb.org, most of which won't be noticed by your average interweb going guy. El Duderino will be able to administer TheDumb much easier now. Hell yeah!
Psychostick.com got a little facelift as well as a lot of front-end feature additions, such as an Advice Column and an Articles section. After I blog like an awesomeface here, I'm gonna head there and add a few more SEO tricks and optimizations. Time for more Mod rewrite magic! Don't you find this FASCINATING?!
I gotta get all this nerd out of my system before I hit the road in 2.5 weeks. Rawr.
After all this I'll be attacking the Psychostick DVD and finally, Pluh.com. I'll finally get to see what AJAX is capable of. From what I've seen on Facebook and Myspace, it's very versatile if you know how to use it properly.
Oh, tons of Psychostick merch is being manufactured as we speak. Yay!
Not that fancy, but whatever.
I just updated Evacuate Chicago's site design to reflect the upcoming CD that we're recording right now. Nothing fancy, just kinda pretty. Much of the old content is garbled and crap, so I'll need to work that out. Gonna try to get that wrapped up tonight. Yeah!
Probably gonna record vocals too tonight for EC. Sweet.
Hmm what else. I gotta sort out all the "crap to do" in my head. There's a lot of it and if I don't get it in some sort of organize format, I'll get nothing done. Wow!
And what a blog I posted early last night. Errr, early this morning. Whatever.
RSS Feed now available.
Yes indeed. Rawrb.com RSS feeds are now up and running. If you have one of those RSS readers, all you gotta do is pop this guy in there. Firefox has an RSS reader built in (add it by clicking on the 
next to the URL), and I think the new Safari does too in the same place as Firefox does. IE 7 probably does as well, but IE is stupid. Opera, I dunno. Rawr.
Anyway, enjoy it so good. Now I gotta add it to my other sites since I'm behind on this technollololgy nonsense.
The woes of Mysql and Leopard.
Wow, how shocking was this. Right now I'm downloading PHP 5 for Leopard.
"But Rawrb, it comes installed with PHP 5!"
Shut up. It does. But it doesn't have the GD library! WHAT?! Yes, that's right. It's NOT ON THERE. Why would you exclude that? WHY?! So here I am. What a pain. Just for those who don't know, the GD library is an awesome feature that allows you to autothumbnail images on your websites. I use it like crazy.
But no, that php thing is not my beef for today. No, my beef is MySql for Leopard.
Now at first I read that mysql comes pre-installed with Leopard. Incorrect. It's NOT pre-installed. So yes, I went to download and install it. Ok, cool, it's installed. I install the MySql Admin utility they offer at Mysql's website. It shows it as running. Oh, but wait! The mysql.sock file needs an alias created in the /var/mysql or the /tmp directory. What? Okay... sure. I dig around on the net, and I end up created two aliases without even knowing it, seemingly removing the original mysql.sock file. Ugh.
So I attempt to reinstall mysql, but it doesn't install a new mysql.sock file. Nope. It has a blank my.cnf file that I had to... create? Erase? I don't remember anymore. Blah.
I'm at my wit's end by this time. PHP works (no GD unbeknownst to me). Mysql is not working. After several attempts to find a solution, and posting on Apple's support site, I install the mysql.prefpane thingie that came with the Mysql dmg file downloaded with MySql itself.
Boom, it works! I reboot to make sure, and sure enough - it's working!
So in the migration to Leopard, somehow they decided to move the mysql.sock location? Why would you do that? Maybe I'm just confused. I'm happy now that I have it working.
Now to reinstall PHP 5. Not something I'm looking forward to. Maybe this time I'll get mod-rewrite to work on my local machine this time without breaking Apache or something. Fuck.
Rant OVAR!
RSS time approaches.
Being behind in some techie stuff is... well, hard to avoid with touring and whatnot. I've caught up with a lot of technology related stuff, and RSS is one I'm about to tackle.
For starters, the RSS feature in the new Apple Mail program is simple yet cool. I get updates without going to the site. Love it. So I'm gonna pop that in Psychostick and Rawrb.com here. I figure it'll help with the traffic thing, plus many people would appreciate updated. Well, one or two here and hopefully many more on Psychostick.com. Yes.
Finally, something I like!
Wow, I like this. Although I have to test it in other browsers, I'm thinking this is something I'm gonna stick with for a while. I did some tweaking with the mod-rewrite stuff, plus the obvious redesign. (Refresh this page if it looks funky and has a black background).
Next up, photos. I really want to post awesome photos. Most everything you see me in is band photos, and that's not all I'm about. I'd like to take pictures of awesome food I try, this new 500 GB drive I just bought, etc. Yeah, don't ask I guess.
You'll also notice the ton of new categories. I'll take a moment and post some stuff in a few of the new categories. My blogs will be a bit less general and more on topic with the category in mind. I don't want to select more than 2 categories per blog. It'll just look better.
Reality again, but this time...
There's that turmoil feeling again. *rolls eyes*
I tell you one thing though, I ain't gonna whine about super personal stuff publicly anymore. When I do I look like, and feel like, some tool who's crying for attention that isn't necessary. It's just stuff I have to deal with in my profession. Gotta get over it.
So anyway, still busy. I'm oh-so-close to finishing this huge project that I started a couple weeks back. I really hope to have it done this week, then I'll post the results of my handiwork. Feels like I'm getting better at this web stuff. I was always hard on myself for that due to lack of clear direction, but now I have a much better grasp on the technology and results-driven mindset that was lacking in the past. Owning your own business, not just SAYING you own your own business, makes a huge difference. Does that make sense? Actually living off of your own business rather than starting a business and not living off of it is completely different. Drastically different. It seems painfully obvious, but to actually experience the difference is an entirely different... experience.
Yeah.
Pluh.com X (version 10 - how clever of me, no?) is slowly moving forward. Database design looks done, now I'm working on integrating it with vbulletin. Fun. Their code is so... hieroglyphical. Not only that, but I had to dig like crazy to find out how they used a simple insert query to add a user. It shows that 1) I have a lot to learn and 2) there's more to just a simple task when you have an enterprise sized application. I guess they want it that way to make it harder to hack? Probably not, I suspect. I'm sure it's all about being object oriented and super efficient. Looks like I'll have to learn more about OOP. AAAAND... I'm attacking AJAX too. I shall be KNOWLEDGE MAYUNN!
Josh picked me up from the airport yesterday. He talked about this zip code based e-mail app that I wrote for Psychostick's e-mail list. He called it "brilliant" and said I should "package it up and sell it." Hmm! Tempting. I forsee one minor detail, but I really think I could do this. Who knows. The app isn't that complicated, but then again, many awesome apps aren't at all complicated. They're USABLE. That's the secret to a good app: Usability! I are learned.
Also, we talked about the drastically changing music industry. Turns out that many artists are leaving their labels and working directly with distributors to release their music. The need for a record label is diminishing? How nuts is that! Madonna, Prince, and a few other big names are releasing their upcoming stuff for free. FREE. Itunes is about to change their distribution too; something about DRM being cheaper. I dunno the details, but the industry is changing. The old business model is failing; label bred stars like Britney Spears and Ashlee Simpson are no longer "cool." Radio generally sucks. MTV has nothing to do with music anymore. I'm just glad we, Psychostick, are in the position we're in. We have so much freedom it's nuts, and we plan on keeping it that way... goddamnit!
And... it's about fucking time the industry started changing. Things were WAY too label favoring.
In addition, CDs are becoming more of a hassle to me. Having all my music on one, 80 gig iPod is so much more preferred that hauling a case of CDs everywhere. I really look forward to movies being the same way; no more DVDs. Hell, games are moving in that direction too via apps like Steam. It'll save money, time, and use less materials overall. How awesome is that?
Anyway, I picked up Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion Wars for the PSP. Good conversion with some slowdown issues. Stil fun as hell. So I'm gonna go play that now.
Shut up.
Any awesome recommendations for an iPod classic 80 gig case? I can't find one I like. They're all either lame looking or non-functional. Reply in comments with a link!
Business and it's funky curves.
Hey hey. Another blog! I finally got around to scripting part of the backed to this bad boy, so adding blogs is about 67.5% easier now. That's a significant improvement. Once it's done I'll try to package it up and sell it. Hey, money is good, right? Lots of people out there don't have their own blog site with domain name. I imagine they'd like to have something like a standalone application for their own uses. Hmmmm. Cash moneys!
Speaking of, I'm fairly certain that I'll be launching some new t-shirt designs for Pluh.com and maybe some other sites as well. Tons of hilarious shirts I want to make, and I found Printfection to help out with that 'till I get some startup moneys. I'll have to mark the shirts up more than I normally would, but... it's for a good cause, jerk! Once I get some decent dough rolling in I'll order a bunch in bulk and bring those prices down. May as well, right?
Pluh.com - I really, REALLY need to put more time into it. Grrr! *punches solar system*
The Web Geekdom Explodes.
Whoooska.
So yeah, I've been working on sites like crazy lately. There's one I'm building completely from the ground up - control panel, shopping cart, the whole nine yards. This is something I've never been fully accustom to doing very frequently, so it's a tremendous amount of work that caught me off guard.
In retrospect, the rebuild of Pluh.com is coming along... gradually. I've finally documented everything that the new site is going to do. Funny thing is, it's starting off fairly simple but, thanks to the input of some friends, it's rather ingenious. I really can't wait to get that going. The project planning is done, now the "hard" part: the programming end. I have no idea how long this is going ot take me since it's something I'm doing when I'm NOT scrambling for income. I do have to put some priority into it though because it will (eventually) generate some serious revenue if it's presented right.
And I really think it can be... I just can't take any shortcuts and have to be EXTREMELY thorough. It'll be a whole new level of web application programming and design for me. Plus, I'll be throwing in a TON of Ajax. I was really floored by Facebook's Ajax implementation when I posted something on a friend's whiteboard thing. I put in a link, then it went to the site and allowed you to select an image FROM THAT SITE to use to represent the link. All Ajax. I picked up some material on it and I'm looking forward to doing some crazy stuff.
I'm forseeing a very fun and interactive site that'll generate some crazy awesome revenue. Then I'll hire programmers/designers far better than me to make it shine even more, and then... I'll go buy a Wii. :p
Anyway.
Some big Psychostick stuff going on. Our new CD hit the stores, and once again, it's in limited locations. *sigh* We're thinking that there HAS to be a better way to reach everyone than our current methods, so we're exploring some options. If only you KNEW what we have in the works. Plus some big changes are about to hit as well, which will all be revealed soon.
In a little over a week I'm gonna fly up to Cincinnati to see my girl, which'll be a welcome change of scenery from the mundane stuff lately. I'll still be working, which is nice to be able to do with what I do, so you'll no doubt see more from me on my site.
And will someone PLEASE buy Collective Underground?
Werd.
Chocolate Milk at 12:30 AM
I erased the vast majority of my last blog from a couple days ago. Or was it yesterday. Blah. I'll try NOT to talk about that kind of thing again; it's really something I'd rather not make public. Heh!
So if you haven't noticed, I did some stuff to this here site if you've been here before. For starters, the menu has been touched up with some additions. Wows. Obviously the css is updated. I'm not really that happy with how some of it is at the moment, but I'll tweak it some more later. I also added a comment system, which means you can now comment on any of my blogs. This was mostly just for me to get some coding practice in. I've been really striving to stick to object-oriented PHP, and while the objects are still a bit confusing to me, I'm starting to get a good grasp on how it all works.
I also added a portfolio for those who MIGHT be curious about my work. Some of you will probably wonder what the hell is going though my mind, but you know what? I couldn't give you a straight answer if I wanted. Yay!
Hopefully after I wrap up a couple of projects, one of which is HUGE (and well paying, heh), I'll finally be able to put some love into Pluh.com's new direction. I'm extremely excited to get started on it. My brain is constantly coming up with ideas that I think are pretty innovative. I think I'm nearing that one HUGE breakthrough, and when that hits, well... it hits. Or something.
*ahem*
(Had to get one. Thank you birthday money and my stupid impulsive nature.)
I think I'll be adding a photo album to this site next... then I'll mess with RSS feeds, and then maybe AJAX? So many things to learn.
Psychostick's next tour is almost booked completely. Gonna be a fun one!
And I hope to get out to visit my girl for a week or so soon. At this rate it's likely, hopefully by mid-October. I'll try to post some pictures here once that Photo album is up and running. We keep forgetting to take some dumb pictures together for some reason. She's hot. Not quite as hot as I am, but pretty close. Haha. :P
Ok, need sleep.
Time off, normal work days, taking a breather!
I've been off the road for a couple weeks now, and things that I've been a bit... ignorant about have caught up with me. Bills mostly. I'm currently doing some freelance work to get things squared away, and hopefully before the end of this month I'll have the vast majority of it at LEAST under control.
I also got some extra nice vacation time with my girl. Movies, video games, swimming; it was nice getting away from the computer a bit. She also got me a couple of nerdy shirts, which I'll most likely sport on stage. Hell yeah!
Oh, check this picture out. So awesome:
Let's see. Some questions came in in the Ask Rawrb section. Here they are!
Name: Brandon
Subj: How Do I...Question: I have a website (www.yayzorz.com) and I want to put up a form to let users subscribe to the blog & trivia sections via email. How would I go about doing that?
Also, got any ideas on what could improve the website?
Setting up a form required a couple of things, the front and back end. When people submit the form, something must happen with the data. If you want to store their e-mail address to notify them of stuff, try looking into e-mail list scripts on hotscripts.com and such.
Also... I noticed ya stole a couple of quotes from Pluh.com, heh. I also noticed your comic style resembles another I've seen somewhere. I'd focus a bit on originality. It's cool to have influences, but try finding your own style to set yourself apart. Otherwise people will label you as a copycat or something much worse.
Name: Aaron
Subject: Starting a band.Question: Hey Rawrb, love your band! My favrite song is Two Ton Paperweight! Anyway, I'm learning how to play a Bass Guitar and I'm thinking of starting a Metal band. How should I begin?
Ahh, the subject of starting a band. Can't be that hard, can it? Well, depending on the style you're going for, there are many different approaches. Two very important factors I think are CRUCIAL:
1. Finding the right bandmates. Anyone can start a band with anyone else, but finding the other bandmates you gel with the best is where most bands fail. I've seen so many great local bands in Phoenix just fall apart because they can't get along with each other.
2. Musicians that can challenge you and each other. Since you're learning bass right now, I'd try finding other bandmates that are close to the same skill level you are, or a bit more experienced. That way you can work together, eye to eye.
There's much more to tackle, such as style, the business aspect, tacos, etc. I'd focus on those first two credentials first, then go from there.
There ya have it.
I uploaded a new Psychostick design a couple of days ago. Gotta tweak it a bit and do some programmin', but I love the new look.
I go now. Sheeit!
Coding is fun and nerdy.
I almost forgot how fun it was to code. Whee?
I'm doing a lot of work on Psychostick's gameplan. For starters, I'm almost done with a new feature that allows us to e-mail people on our e-mail list to notify them when we're gonna be in their area again. Basically if they're within 60 miles of the venue, they'll get an e-mail about the show at THAT particular venue. Cool eh?
So if you want to be notified when we are playing in your area, sign up here. Yay.
I also did a little work on Pluh.com. Josh and I thought that the biggest part of it's failure was that we tried to do EVERYTHING at once instead of starting with a few features and going from there. So, to start with something funny, I tweaked and started the advice column back up. We have a few really funny ones on there, and I have a feeling we'll have tons more once we get more questions coming in.
I've got a few other things to do for Psychostick before I can add anything else to Pluh.com. There's a EP video log I need to get together, then some graphic stuff... lots of BIG marketing coming up. :)
Off I go. Jerks!
Crazy Ohio Girls.
It snowed today. It's June. IT SNOWED TODAY. All day yesterday the wind was fierce slowed our journey down from Omaha, Nebraska to Wyoming where it... SNOWED.
I'm a bit all over this place this tour. It's going much better than the last, but we're still hitting a few limits with our current setup. Not gonna talk much about it because it's all very secretive and such. However, we ARE releasing the Xmas EP later this year. Sounds EVIL and DUMB. You'll love it.
I met someone recently, which wasn't at all expected. Isn't how that happens though? You know, you don't actually CARE about meeting someone and then bam, it happens? Yup, that's how it works. There's not much to tell other than so far so good; she's been really cool and likes my dumb humor. It's a duct tape marriage, what can I say? Love 'em inside jokes.
Other than that, we didn't get to fish like I wanted to today, but next time we're through here (August I think), we're SO fishing. We're gonna build a fire, make some smores, FISH, talk about things like fishing, making smores, making fires, fighting an army of ninjas, etc. I want to do some dirt bike riding too next time we're here.
But I have some work to do. This is the first more-than-one-day-off moment we've had since about 3 weeks ago. So yes, I still have to do some work. Aww!
Yaarrgh. Gonna go now. I smell spaghetti. Lame update, but whatever - you'll take 'em no matter what. RIIIIGHT?!
You may ask. What?
Guess what? I did something. I was out of the coding world for a while, but I got back into it. Haha. I added a new feature to this site. It's not much, but it's a nice SPAM FREE step forward, something that I've always struggled with.
Yes, you can now Ask Rawrb. Don't use it, because HATE
Impressive, yes?
Well, Psychostick's 2nd tour is starting on Friday. I'm so ready to go... I did some contract work for a good friend for about a week, so money is good. Although something was definitely confirmed; I'm not into working for someone anymore. Granted I'm very appreciative of all the opportunities I've had since I was eighteen years old with the web jobs, I just ain't into the routine lifestyle anymore. You know: get up, go to job, come home, sleep.
And with the crazy no-day-is-the-same thing going on, who the hell can go back to the grind?
Some guy named Jim, maybe.
There's a lot going on in my personal life right now, but I don't think I want to talk about it. It's a bittersweet, I guess. I want what I can't have, over and over again. It's a lot of fun though, that much I'll say. It's just...
Bah, nevermind. I already know what I'm gonna do, so I'm done with that.
I'm off to bed to play some Final Fantasy V, jerks.
This blog contains pelvic thrusts.
Why am I listening to Jewel? Because she needs the RawrbRod.
First off, I do apologize to the millions upon millions of you Rawrb blog readers for the lack of updates. Life has been like this lately:
- Wake up after not getting enough sleep due to excitement of touring, being in stores, etc.
- Force myself to focus at work to make sure they're squared away when I leave.
- Come home, mentally exhausted, usually taking a nap.
- Wake up, attack list of to-dos that must be done before we tour.
- Go to hot tub.
- Get really sleepy, try to sleep.
Of course, somewhere in there you gotta throw in this newfangled sore throat of death, NOT from singing, but from consuming too much beer after a rehearsal. Get this: alchohol is bad for your throat and/or voice! So this'll limit my beer consumption on this tour. That's cool though, because I'll make up for that with pelvic thrusts.
Aside from playing tons of shows, I'm really excited to redirect my energies to projects I've had practically NO time for in the past. Pluh.com is the first one I'm really gonna hit hard. I've got tons of articles I want to write, plus many other horrendously stupid movies I want to make. It's going to be really, REALLY nice to do what I want with my time.
But, I think I'll spend that first week sleeping.
There's so much I want to talk about, but I'm so damn sleepy. Next time!?
Get in "shape?!"
I know I just typed out a huge blog like 2 days ago. It's late and I'm not sleepy!
So I've decided that I'm gonna start back up on my physical fitness training thing (again). This time around I'm taking a slightly different approach. The last few times I literally forced myself to do it. I dunno about any of you, but if I force myself to do something, I end up resenting the very thing I'm doing. After about a week I start giving up, and I end up in this downward spiral.
After all the positive affirmations that have been entering in my life lately, I think now is the best time to get this going. Since we'll be touring in less than a month, I figure being in a bit of better physical shape will help my overall performance. I'm a bit overweight for my height and stature, so why not start now? I'll go running in the morning, do some weight training, ride my bike to work, etc. I think tomorrow morning I'll try swimming some laps for a good 20 minutes. That I think I'll enjoy a LOT. I'm also gonna take my bike on tour with us so that I can go riding around.
I mean... I don't do ANYTHING aerobic. AT ALL. That's bad.
I'm gonna add a commenting system to this page soon enough. I have to make sure I have a strong filtering system in place. I have some code written for this, so we'll see what I can do. Yay!
I just read my last blog, and... hah, wow. Puts a smile on my face. RAWR
Okay, NOW I'm sleepy.
Ohhh, more changes!
Wow, it's starting to look like a website now!
Got the mod-rewrite and database backend working now. Gonna do more later, but I'm gonna go play FEAR instead. HAR HAR
Programmer's Pride, bitch.
Funny things. So funny.
Alright, there are a few people I know of that are into the same stuff I am. Some are legit, win/win types that actually are helping people become better at their craft. Then the flip side; the individuals who are more concerned with showing off and beating their chest to fill that insecure void in their life. Pride, pride, pride.
Guess what? Nobody cares. More people care about those who are contributing. Are you contributing, or are you just trying to make yourself look good? There's a huge difference.
Here's a strange fact: Of all the truly successful people I've ever met, there wasn't a single one that was trying to "prove something" or anything like that. Cool huh? I recommend blacklisting shady, win/lose types forever. Surround yourself with win/win friends, family, etc. I mean, if you're always "in it" just for yourself, people aren't going to want to work with you!
Anyway.
I've learned a bit about mod-rewrite these past couple of weeks. I'm going to apply it here to Rawrb.com once I get the scripts finished (hurray for testbeds). I've already started applying to Pluh.com with the articles, and the rest should be done in a few days. My goal is to completely remove all querystrings in ALL my websites and pop in keywords in a directory format.
You know, this: http://pluh.com/articles/pluhbabes/stacy-keibler
Instead of: http://pluh.com/r.php?ID=269
Looks so much better, huh? (Yes, both links work. There are tons of search engines out there that still have the ID=XXX indexed, and I don't want broken links.)
From there I plan converting all my sites to a template based system. Currently all of my scripts are set up where my PHP and HTML are all in one PHP script. Yeah, it works, but it's messy and... really hard to upgrade and add features. Instead, I will store all the HTML elsewhere and simply replace variables in the HTML file with PHP output. This gives you more control overall. Not only that, but all the PHP is COMPLETELY separate from the HTML, so editing and adding features is far less annoying.
Keeping anything stress-free helps productivity... but that's a no-brainer for anyone who has worked on anything, EVER.
*scans current blog to make sure I'm not a hypocrite* Doesn't look like chestbeating to me. Hurray!
On a more personal note, I spent about 30 minutes on myspace the other day and found a TON of people I knew in high school. It was... interesting. I saw some old friends, exchanged a few messages with them, and so forth. Many that I saw I couldn't help but laugh, because they haven't changed at all. Most got married and had kids, some ended up gay, and others are just... there. I saw a chick I used to have a thing for a long time ago, and she looks 10 years older than her actual age. Scary.
Alright, gotta goes!
Greeen, green. GREEN?!
Changes! Gonna turn this into a really cool web portal. While it's not a huge priority, it'll be a great time to expand my abilities as a programmer. I guess you could say I was inspired by that one guy I linked to below.
Rawr. I'm actually killing some time waiting for some server maintenance to finish.
One thing at a time, RAWRB! Jeez!
I've decided that every website/domain name I own or participate in has unlimited potential.
Take Pluh.com for example. Every super popular website out there has a weird name. Google, Yahoo, AltaVista - you know what I mean. The exceptions, like myspace or msn, tend to have had their popularity "bought" or something like that. Marketing 101: Love me, hate me, but do not forget me. I've decided to take a more, I dunno, "outside the box" approach with Pluh.com to figure out WHAT exactly it can do. The presentation is there, the concept is there, what's lacking is consistent original content. I alone can't do this, and the editors are all busy with other stuff.
When you step back and take a good look at what really matters about a project, which is like a "big picture" approach, you start to understand what's being done and what isn't. There are tons and TONS of humor sites on the internet. Hell, there are tons of websites about any subject you can think of. Is there a topic for COW LAUNCHING? Who knows. I bet there is! So what can Pluh.com do that is different from all the other humor-based websites?
Things came into perspective when I took a good look at Matt Cutts's's's site. This guy is a software developer at Google, and his approach to the WWW seems very genuine. He's a spam-fighter. He's a win-win "hey, let's all prosper!" type of dude. Just the way his site is set up, I get a good sense of purpose and direction that he takes. That alone launched my brain into a, "What's MY purpose?" type of scenario.
The question now shifts to: "What can Pluh.com do to create a no-competition presence?"
There is one project I am involved in that has this question answered and is practicing it fully. You might have heard of it if you found your way here through that particular project. :p
If you have a website, or a project, that is struggling... ask yourself, "What can my project do to create a no-competition presence?"
Marketing myself is fun
Rawrb.com is officially part of the Pluh.network. Amazing!
So one of my best friends is having a really hard time with a very common annoyance (he's doing better today), and I think all of us can relate to it.
Remember summer vacation? 3 months or so of pure fun and relaxation. Obviously the parentals will have you do chores, but most of the time (at least for me) it wasn't such a huge deal. Then you get to play until as late as you want, do whatever you wanted to do (that wasn't something "bad"), etc. Then it would all end and you would have to go to school.
Then you finish school and you never get a real summer vacation again. You always have to support yourself (or others) by maintaining income of SOME kind, and every now and then you get some time off. But never a full, really long summer vacation ONCE A YEAR. Hell no! Now you're thrown into this never ending loop of work. Work, work, work. Get organize, put together a "to-do" list. WORK WORK WORK!
There is work that can be fun, of course. After a while through, it seems that it transitions into normal bland work rather than fun work. Then what?
The struggle is here: How do you get your summer vacations back? The answer: Financial freedom.
The only "down side" is that you have to create your freedom through something that usually involves a lot of work. This something can quite possibly be work you do NOT enjoy.
And this something rarely makes you rich overnight; often times you have to endure several years of this work to attain your financial freedom. So what's the point? Why bother? If it's work, it'll definately suck, right?
The piece that is missing here is that there is an end to it. I'm not talking about retirement. I'm talking about the END OF BAD WORK. Bad work is work you do not enjoy. Do the bad work, make tons of money, and walk away rich. Then you can take all the summer vacations you want.
But does it always have to be Bad Work that makes you rich? Of course not. Work will always be there in some form or fashion, and it's important to accept this. Ideally we all never want to WORK on something. It's very easy to think that there is a world where you never have to work; maybe for those who are born rich and are pampered all their lives (even they have to work sometimes, believe it or not).
I personally believe that the focus should not be ON the work, but ON the results you create. CREATE that financial freedom, don't CREATE work. Then you can go on vacation and have hot supermodels make you breakfast and give you happy finishes or whatever. Sounds nice to me!
It's hard for some to accept the reality of work (like my friend). Once you accept it, AND you change your focus towards the results and not the work, you are guarunteed success. Right?
Right.
Anyway, things are crazy as usual. I picked up another DeAngelo course. This particular subject I've tried before, but it always failed for some reason. It wasn't so much how *I* was as a person, but how I would present myself. Most of his stuff I understand very well, but this one ought to open a few more doors for me. Looking forward to it.
AND, for those who read my rants, I got both of my computers working. The server is awesome; it's so small and quiet you can't even tell it's on. The big bad machine is great. Quake 4 runs silky smooth and I started drawing some comics last night with that digital sketchpad. It's harder than I thought it would be. I might just use Flash for that since I like how it renders vectors (Illustrator is kind of frustrating). We'll see.
I also have huge plans for Collective Underground, which has been a bit of a wounded puppy sort of thing. Lots of patching up I need to do, and new features I want to pop in there. That will be sweet. Once I have the whole system programmed, I'll have a staff of folks that will maintain the constantly updated content. So many plans! ARRRGH!
Every Thug Needs a Lady.
Computers sometimes suck.
Working on a setup here. Before I had two computers, one a laptop and one a regular PC. The video card on the PC is on it's last legs, so I got the idea of making that one a server! It worked, I had a nice php/mysql thing going with that. Anyway, turns out we need a badass media editing machine for some reason for DVD for some band I deal with vocally. :p
So I goes, "Okay, need a new video card, RAM, and some serious storage." Boom, got a new vid card (a NICE one), 2 gigs of RAM, and 2 360 gig drives.
On top of that, I decide to tranfer older hardware to a barebones ASUS machine. CHEAP! Got it all in the other day, and I was very happy.
Worked on them all evening, got NEITHER of them working. Had PC guts all over the place and a sour attitude exploding from my face. Nice lyrical nonsense, yes?
Anyway, after some more troubleshooting I got the little barebones system here working now (it's formatting the drive). The big bad PC is my next one. That guy just isn't booting, and I can't figure out why. Oh well, this is what I do. This is what makes me one of those guys.
What, you were expecting me to get philosophical or some shit? Well I will. Hang on.
So much going on that I can't think straight. I bought even MORE domain names. Now I'm at 16, and I think I'll stop for a while. Gonna get crazy with them too.
Speaking of business, here's a tidbit for you that is VITAL to keep in mind when you want to create success.
Just the other day I was having a chat with my boss about this and that, and the topic of myspace came up. So then I say:
"Myspace has everything I want in a business. Business, exposure, tons of profit. Drives me crazy. I HATE that guy who owns it. HATE HATE HATE!"
My boss, being Mr. Successful Entrepreneur guy, stops me.
"Woa, stop that. Don't hate that guy because he's successful. Be that guy. He accomplished something great, and you can to. But you can't do that if you hate him."
Basically, whenever you bash someone that is successful, you are saying that "They should be as miserable as me!" What kind of fucked up logic is that? Well it's true. Think about it. Then, in a way, you prevent yourself from becoming successful because you certainly don't wanna be that guy who people say, "I hate that guy!" Right? Right.
I also must vent about one more little thing that I've vented to my friends already.
Why must every party I go to SUCK? This isn't something I intentionally walk into either, nor is this a result of negativity (I'm generally very positive). But FUCK! Every party I've gone to for the past 5 years (with the exception of my birthday party from 2004) have been rather boring. Some are funner than others, but 90% of them are lame. Why?
- Nobody really shows up.
- The girl to guy ratio is horrendous.
For example. One party I went to recently was about 10 - 15 people. Out of those 15, 2 were chicks. These 2 chicks were both married or engaged to select guys at the party. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love hanging out with my friends and shootin' the shit, but it's ALSO be nice to have a female population where I could, I dunno... "expand my horizons!" Where the fuck are the good parties? Or better yet, GATHERING SPOTS? I hang out with my friends all the time already, so let's add some spice to the stew, ya know?
GRRAQAWAERAWRWRR!
It's just annoying, but I love my friends and wouldn't trade any of them for the hottest chick to ever exist.
Tonight, some of my friends went to this chick's birthday party. I know her (she's married to a really cool feller), and she's pretty cool, but not only did I want to get this computer stuff working, I knew that it was going to be boring. No offense to her, of course. It was that I knew I would go up there, have a couple beers, get really bored, and feel like I'm doing nothing for no reason. I know that sounds mean, but I really am tired of that feeling and don't want it anymore. I'd rather take a risk and go to a party where I don't know anyone than go to one I KNOW I'll be bored at. Does that make sense? Yes.
Har har, 98% done formatting this drive. I go now.
My nerdiness knows no bounds.
Gotta go into work tomorrow... BOO! But it'll be a good thing.
So I bought another domain name and decided to do something cool with it. I don't have enough websites apparantly! I get made fun of by a friend of mine who thinks I have too many. Well that may be true, but she makes too many fruit slushie things. Ha, you get that!
So I saw some people from high school on my friend's blog page. That was weeeeeird. High school and anytime before I moved away from Odessa seems like a dream (or rather, a nightmare, heh). Most of the folks I did see looked completely different, and some the same. A select few I saw invoked insane rage! I started remembering how they just were in general: PRICKS. Not so much to everyone, just to me (at the time). I laugh at them now; most of them following the boring "template of life." You know: "Go to school, get a degree, get married, explode with babies." I don't get it! I'm not opposed to the previously mentioned activities, but TRY SOME VARIETY WHILE YOU'RE YOUNG! Har har, whatever.
So these pricks I mentioned. Yeah, they were pricks. This mostly occured in 10th grade when I was in high school band (I played trombone, har). Probably the worst year of my schooling I ever encountered. For starters, I never WANTED to play trombone. What made this even more annoying was that I was very good at it and I didn't give two shits about the outcome of my playing or competing against anyone else. I didn't even practice. Ever. Everyone else did. So I did well without practicing; better than most. They hated me for it. Haha, jerks!
So in turn they acted like pricks to me. There were only a select few people that were actually cool to me, and one of them is Joshy, our lovable Psychostick guitarist! The messed up thing was that I never (intentionally) rubbed my playing in anyone's face. I guess it was my carefree attitude that pissed them off. Oh well, go enjoy babies and marriage!
And don't even get me started about that goddamn band director. He's probably like 238641234876 years old now or some crap. FUCK that guy. Yeah, great way to teach; yell, scream, spit, and make your students feel as shitty as possible! Oh, if I could go back... so many people would get a punch in the face.
One thing I learned thoughout that shitty experience was to stand up for myself. When someone was a prick to me, I would sit and take it. When I got screamed at by my jerkface band director, I just sat there and rolled with the punches. Now, heh... fuck no.
But all that has long since passed. Felt really good to vent though. Haha... babies and marriage. I slay me.
Time for bed.
Sluts! All of you!
Updating this page will not happen as much as I'd like at this point. Psychostick and Pluh.com have become my life! But no worries though, I can't work on the ALL the time.
Sooo... deal with it for now.
Oh yeah
I have a lot to talk about, such as plans with this site and other sites, and more epiphanies. I'm just busy right now, but watch for it anyway!Today will destroy you!
Man, I need to get this WYSISYG editor installed here.
Today is my 2nd interview at this place, and things are really looking good so far. I'm pretty sure I'll get the jarb, but we'll see what happens.
Got a lot to do today, so I must go. KILL!
Interesting...
...mostly!Rather than code my own blog software (why re-invent the wheel?), I downloaded this one and decided to use it.
I'll definately be doing some modifications, like this bland color scheme and adding a WYSIWYG editor (still have to type out HTML), but this makes updating a little easier. Mostly. For now.
I'm going home now.
2005 = much better.
(Actually posted on 12-28-05 at 10:04 AM)This year was probably 7.6 million times better than 2004.
There is a nice phrase that I can use to describe the entire year of 2004: Gut-wrenching suckiness. I won't go into mundane detail, but I spent that year getting over someone, being on the rebound (which I still feel weird about), and waking up from that nightmare of a year in general. There were good things, but they were dwarfed by the mack truck embedded in my sternum throughout that horrible year.
This year, 2005, has been absolutely enthtralling for me. For starters, Psychostick started really taking off about July-ish. I can't tell you how amazing it is to get tons of fanmail, CD orders, shirt orders, XM radio play, radio interviews, label interest, touring offers, and all that. Indescribeable.
Personally I had the whole year to myself. I was able to focus on just me, and it was something I really needed. So here I am now, all happy and stuff, highly anticipating what's to come from 2006. I really think that Psychostick will definately start blowing up, exponentially, over 2005. And me personally? Who knows! I have a job interview coming up that will (hopefully) help me escape from this current job that I just flat out do not enjoy. I mean, if you can't enjoy what you're doing, WHY DO IT?! What's crazy is that this job is like half a block from where I live. I could WALK there in 5 minutes. Ohh, the money I would save! And make. Yes.
Of course, all that is null and void when I go tour, heh heh.
Anyway, my vacation was pretty sweet. The 13 hour drive to there (and back) wasn't even that bad. A couple of things did suck - I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before I drove there, so I had to do everything I could to make sure I was not groggy. I mostly listened to talk radio and the occasional CD. The drive back was much better because my dad got me XM Radio. I pretty much listened to the comedy stations the whole time. Note: Chris Rock and Dave Chappel are funny.
Hmm, what else. Blah, I should go. I'll probably make this page easier to update for me in a few weeks or so. Right now it's not so bad. I added a contact form on the right, so contact me through there is ya want.
So tired!
Actually posted on 12-22-05 at 9:18 AM)12 hour drive. No, wait - 13 hour. Still tired. Want to do stuff. Family is great.
12-20-05 (12:53 AM): You get sauce.
The novelty of this site will soon wear off for me, and my updates will be less frequent! I'd rather post something on Pluh.com, but my energies are going towards that new design... AFTER I finish my friend's site.
This vacation to Colorado is long overdue for me. Not only will I get to see my family (the side that is a positive influence, har har), but I'll get a lot of time to myself while I drive to there and back. Aside from music, I'm going to listen to a couple of different thingies.
The first will be this Perfect Pitch course that I've procrastinated on listening to for the longest time. The whole purpose behind this will be to, of course, attain perfect pitch. I think it'd be really nice for me to be able to hear a note and name it, just from hearing it. It's entirely possible, and with a skill like that it could seriously help my singing. My live singing isn't bad or horrible, but it could definately use some work. If this is something that interests you, you can contact me and I'll get you the info later (I don't have it with me). I think this course is like 8 CDs or something. Crazy!
After that, there's a whole new slew of stuff by this guy named David DeAngelo. In a nutshell, this guy is sort of a Pickup Artist that coaches other guys who have that underlying fear of chicks. You "nice guys" know what I'm talking about. All you feel is fear, intimidation, nervousness, etc. when an opportunity is in your grasp. Well, after years of conditioning from society (and Mom), I also developed that same fear and have been paralyzed by it ever since.
It started with one particular day: I had a great opportunity pass me by. It was right in front of me. All the signals were there, the chemistry was going well, all that stuff, but - I was completely frozen in fear! I got so pissed off when I got home. SO PISSED. "That's it! I've had it!" Punching pillows, stomping feet, etc. I know I'm hot (I told you I started this site to be arrogant, heh heh), I know I'm smart, I know all this. Why was I having problems? So I turned to my brain. I go, "Rob's brain, you've done extremely well with programming, band stuff, and all that - it's time to put your awesome power to a whole new use." I then started my research when I came across David DeAngelo's material.
I watched about 4 or 5 videos from one of this seminars, and it was absolutely astonishing. I laughed, I cried, I hurled. At one point this guy was also extremely frustrated (like me) and put his brain to work. He took a complete Intuitive Thinking approach (which just happens to be my thing) and gathered all the facts in very fine detail, right down to the DNA, and put together his product called "Double Your Dating."
I'm not really interested in becoming a manwhore, but this material still applied. Just from watching those videos, I suddenly understood where I've been "going wrong" and what to do to take control of my problem. Of course, once I started stepping up to the plate, I realized that the fear was still there. However, now I understood it. Veeeery important.
On a somewhat related subject, last week when I was flying back from Chi-town (you could say I was Evacuating Chicago), I found a book in the airport bookstore called, "He's Just Not That Into You." I heard about this book from somewhere before, like on the intarweb or something. I flipped through it and ended up buying it, mostly because I was curious. The book is for females (felt weird buying it, har har), and it basically tells chicks that if a guy isn't responding to a girl or isn't asking her out or whatever, it's his way of saying, "Hey, I'm just not that into you." I read the whole thing on the plane (it's a short book), skipping a few stupid sections, but what I got out of it was, "If I'm interested in a chick, I need to let her know." The simpliciy was staggering. If I don't let her know, she's probably assuming I'm not interested (that happened earlier this year with another girl, and I didn't know why either - now I know!). Pretty crazy!
So there's this redheaded honey at this one place I'm gonna let know. Hurray! I'll still feel the fear, but I'm gonna do it anyway. I rule, so why not?
I seriously need to get going. What a rant! Die.
12-19-05 (10:25 PM): Wheh.
Well, uhh... here I am again. I'm tired, but not tired enough to go on up to bed. Want to work on other sites, but that's a bit too involved for me to get into. So I decided to make a couple of tiny updates here and THEN go to bed. Long drive on Wednesday, and I must pack. Yeah, exciting? Shut up.
Psychostick is getting crazy, crazy busy. I'm mailing out so many CDs a day that I can hardly keep up. I got home from Chicago earlier this week and spent over 3 hours getting orders ready to go. Not just CDs, but shirts too! Good thing our shirts will be restocked here soon, along with new ones, and the new ones will probably sell like crazy. It's just been insane. And I LOVE it. One guy just ordered SIX cds alone today. Just one guy! Fuck yeah. FUCK yeah.
Uhh... okay, I go now. Shut up.
No!
(Actually posted on 12-19-05)Okay, made a few changes. Still far from done, but with all I have going on, I think it's safe to say that this will be a work in progress for quite a while. Oh, look - sidebar!
I am sure some of you are wondering why I don't use myspace. "More people will read your stuff!" they say. For starters, I'm really not all that concerned if a lot of people read my page. Secondly, I did have a personal myspace page for a while... but I felt rather confined there. I didn't have the freedom I wanted. I wanted to put more pictures up, customize the page a bit more, etc. Plus Rawrb.com is a great domain name, so I had to get it. And I rule. Make sense now?
The biggest reason I stepped away from myspace was due to a bunch of personal crap. I would spend countless hours browsing around. Then I start talking to chicks halfway across the world, get wrapped up in that, and blah blah blah. Not good. I dunno, that whole thing seems to be deceiving. I'm all for making friends on there, but I started looking for more than that, and it wasn't a good thing. I mean, half the girls on there spend so much time taking pictures of themselves with the perfect lighting to hide... something. It's just a giant dating site (but great for band promotion)! I'll log onto the Psychostick myspace page here and there (Alex, our drummer, handles most of that though), but other than that - no thanks. I'll leave that all up to you guys. Have fun with that.
Besides, with my own server, the possibilities are limitless.
Anyway, I plan to use this site for:
- Personal blogs
- Professional blogs
- Band related blogs
- My Resume (online portfolio, I think)
- A place to vent!
- A place for Psychostick fans to read up on the happenings of this here singer guy
- Any great place for me to look as conceited as possible.
There ya have it.
On Wednesday (21st), I will be driving up to Colorado to visit some family. Hurray for holidays? I'll probably get bored and update this page. I don't get bored very often, so... plus I have to finish a different web project as soon as possible. BLARGH!
It begins?
(Actually posted on 12-18-05)Hi all, I am Rawrb. I sing in a band called Psychostick, as well as "run" many other websites. You can find links to them below.
Anyway, I just bought this domain name and am throwing this together. This will eventualy become my blog page/resume/whatever for things that I do. I have to get ready for rehearsal and all that. So for now... you get NOTHING!