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SantaMails, Storesonline, and Schemes of Becoming Pedro Penduko
August 7, 2008Startups fascinate me because they evolve around - and are built on - just about anything from luxury items to the dumbest ideas that shouldn’t have made the people who thought of them filthy rich but did. Take SantaMail, for example.
Byron Reese got a postal address at North Pole, Alaska, made believe he is Santa, and charged parents $10 for every letter he sent to their wide-eyed, Santa-crazed kids. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Only, Reese has sent over 200,000 letters since 2001, and that makes him not just one prolific Santa but a couple of hohos and million dollars richer as well.
How does one go about creating a startup these days? I did my research, and found out you could do the way of the ninja and rough it on your own or you could hire professionals to build your store online. One such site, Storesonline Website Builder, offers help to would-be entrepreneurs and small business owners at a price. Unlike most web host providers, they’ve expanded their services to include features like statistical monitoring, e-commerce administration, and product and customer management. What this translates to is easy and convenient shopping experience for online customers. Oh, and they give you regular backups and technical support, too. What a stark contrast to the host I’m currently using for my dotcom! Each time I ask my webhost for help, I receive an email that goes, “We are sorry to say assistance of that nature is not free at this point. Add $____ and…”
What’s a girl to do but clench her teeth and go learn how to use html the trial and error way? If I ever decide to pull a Byron Reese, pretend to be Pedro Penduko and write kids letters, too, you can bet your week’s salary I now know which webhosting to shun and which one to sign up for!
Gone Jelly Bean-Mad
Do you like jelly beans? I do. Jelly beans are the closest I could come to candy sans the cavity. What’s more, they’re the most entertaining nibble this side of the equator. They bounce ever so slightly upon first bite, and they come in such bright colors - popping greens, brilliant blues, feisty reds - I feel like I’m eating rainbows each time I pop one into my mouth. And because I’m pregnant, and only too eager to go whoopity-whoop over a snack, I toyed with the idea of buying jelly beans online. I found this site called ohnuts.com which sells jelly beans in bulk, and by bulk I mean a hulking, not-the-kind-you’d-want-to-be-seen-lugging-around bulk. Think 50 pounds of jelly beans going for $4 a pound, with a 20% discount on top. Thankfully, I came to my senses just before I placed the order. What on earth would I do with 50 pounds of jelly beans? Eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next 10 years?
Still, these look lovely, and they look like they want me to eat them.
On a not entirely unrelated segue, it turns out people have gone gung-ho over jelly beans for years. Ronald Reagen was said to have kept a jar of Jelly Belly jelly beans on his desk. Then, there was William Schrafft who, during the American Civil War, sent jelly beans to the Union Army. This craving and this jelly bean-mad blimp is in good company, I tell you!
Different Loves
July 24, 2008For someone born in the 80s, I’m amazingly technophobic. I’d rather use a mouse than a touch pad, a desktop over a computer, Nokia over any other mobile model. This isn’t paid advertising from Nokia, by the way. I’m just pointing out the obvious. Nokia is so much more user-friendly, from its keypad and icons to its interface.
Last year, the hub gave me a Samsung phone for a birthday present. Thin, maroon, and pretty, the phone seemed perfect. The moment I started pecking away on the keys, however, it quickly turned from new BFF to foe. How could it not? It was far too complex for my low-resolution, old-processor-run brain. A full year had to pass before I started using the Samsung unit; and even at that, it was only because my old Nokia unit conked out.
This abiding love for all things low-tech spills onto my choice of games as well. I’d pick cards and scrabbles over computer games any time of day, the lone exemptions being Sid Meier’s Civilization series and the Sims - before it got too complex. The hub could not be more different. A techie since spermhood, he likes to take things apart to see how they work. He tinkers with computers and putters about with gadgets. He downloads all sorts of things, too. If there’s one thing he and the little girl have in common aside from the nose, it’s this love for all things high-tech and electronic. A loves logging in to NickJr. and playing games online.More recently, all the hub ever talks about is playing diamond poker at a place near The Forum. He’s been googling top online casinos, too, and studying how to brush up on his game. I find this recent behavior scary - very, very scary. I know W well, and I’m sure it won’t be long before he asks me to go play a round of Blackjack with him.
1:06 Brown
July 2, 2008No one should play drama queen at 1:06 a.m, but I was awake, and he was waking up, and I truly wanted to learn how he would answer. So, I popped the question. “What color are my eyes?”
“What a weird question! You should go to sleep.”
“What color are my eyes?”
“Brown.”
I poked him with a banana, and scowled.
He looks annoyed. “Is there a wrong and correct answer to that question? Because really, your eyes are brown.”
“You could have said ‘Well, at first glance your eyes are brown. But when the light hits them, they change to amber. And if you look really close around the iris, the color is pure honey. But when you look into the sun, they almost look green. That’s my favorite.’ But that’s a line out of a movie, and I’m sure there’s no way my eyes would ever look almost green. So I’ll give you another chance, and ask you the same question tomorrow.”
He looks amused. “Okay, but next time, can we leave questions like that for when I’m fully awake in the daytime?”
Black, Not Rid
July 1, 2008When I found out several pages of the little girl’s workbooks have already been answered even when she was supposed to do these at home, the hub and I came up with two theories:
1. the teacher had them do the activity in school, and turned it into homework because a few were not able to finish;
2. the teacher explained how homework should be done, thus giving Alex a clue how to do hers once she reaches home.
The second theory does not explain how she got the page number right, though. She could not recognize the number 46 even if it slapped her in the face.
Today, the hub finally solved the mystery of the answered pages. Alex has been letting the yaya read out loud the day’s Assignment Notebook content, flip to the book pages concerned, and read activity directions.
“But wait! The yaya doesn’t understand English.”
“No, but Alex does. What Alex cannot do is read, so she has the yaya do it for her.”
Given the yaya’s atrocious pronounciation and my daughter’s limited English, it’s no wonder that in one activity, Alex correctly encircled all “Spot the Not” items, but ended up using the wrong crayon color - red instead of black. Sneaky, sneaky; but I’m impressed. I can’t wait until she’s old enough to play Sid Meier’s Civilization.