Home office is now complete

After a few months of procrastinating, I finally finished my home office.

1893 Golding Pearl Printing Press

For the past year I've been wanting an old printing press. My life is surrounded by technology and I needed something more analog to occupy my time so I figured this would be a neat project. The problem however was actually finding a working printing press since most got destroyed when computers started taking over. I researched a lot of presses and got it narrowed down to a few models I'd settle for but like I said, it's not like there's an abundance of them around. I tracked down a guy that collected printing presses and had a few of the ones that I really liked so I emailed him to see if he'd want to sell off some of his collection. I was actually surprised to find out that he was just about to start downsizing. He was located 7hrs away in St. Louis so I made the trip over Thanksgiving weekend. The press was a mess, covered in 100+ years of oil/grease/dust/funk but it worked and it was complete so that was the main thing.

The press weighs around 500lbs and is an absolute bitch to take apart. I spent the last month cleaning and getting it presentable. I wanted it to be the focal point in my home office so I totally redid the room as well to really set the press off. Now I just have to learn how to use it.

Watch my inspiration on Linotype:

How I was the target of a Craigslist iPhone scam

Jer and I decided to upgrade to the new iPhone 4s about a month ago. The deal was we would sell our old 3GS ones and break even on the new ones. All our friends were having success selling theirs on Craigslist within hours of posting so we figured there shouldn't be any problems. I posted the 16GB for $299 & the 32GB for $399. I had a response from a guy who said he was interested in the "product" I was selling. Since I didn't know which phone he was referring too, I responded telling him that I had two and which one was he interested in.

A day later, I got a call from the guy who told me that he was interested in both phones since he also wanted to buy one for his girlfriend. We agreed to meet the next morning to do the exchange. That following morning he called right on time and told me he forgot he had to take his son to softball practice and if we could meet later in the day, which I said wouldn't be a problem. He called back at 3:30 and asked if we could meet at McDonalds since his girlfriend was the manager there and he wanted to show her the iPhone before he bought it. I figured this was fine since it was a public place. When I got to the McDonalds, a hugh black man about 6'5" & 350lbs was sitting in a booth who smiled and said "you must be Bob?" I went and sat down and we talked for about 10-15 minutes. He talked about how he wanted to unlock the phones to put them on the Sprint network and how he was going to give his old iPhone to his daughter. He seemed like a nice guy who was a good father since he had taken his son to softball and his daughter was going to inherent his old iPhone. He mentioned that we just had to wait till his girlfriend got a 5min break to come out and take a look at the phones, which was fine. About five minutes later, he seemed to get frustrated with her and told me to wait a second while he went and showed her the phones.

Now, I've always thought of myself as a good judge of character and tend to trust people. I sat in the booth waiting for about 10 minutes (completely out of eyesight from where he had walked) and I start thinking to myself, "I bet that asshole isn't coming back." I sat a few minutes longer dreading what was about to happen. I went over to the cashier and asked where the guy with the iPhones was. The girl looked at me and said "what guy?" I told her the story and she told me I got scammed and that the guy had walked out the front door awhile ago. He was on foot, so I hopped in my car and drove around the neighborhood, which I realized was actually a bad part of town.

I was having a minor breakdown in the car. I had never been scammed before and I didn't care for this feeling of being violated. I managed to calm down and go back to the McDonalds and call the cops to file a police report. The cop was there within 10min and spent about an hour with me taking notes and running a trace on the number that the guy had used to call me. I was a mess the rest of the weekend.

The kicker:

The day before all this happened, I called up my insurance company (Allstate) and added a $1,200 mobile communications policy with $100 deductible that would cover theft/damage since I was paranoid about these new iPhones I had just gotten.

When I called Allstate to report my old iPhones stolen, I figured they would investigate me for insurance fraud. However, I had a police report, the original boxes with the serial numbers, both Craigslist ads that I had posted, a witness statement, and so on. I had amazing customer service with Allstate back in April when my BMW was totaled, now it was time to test how well their other insurance policies would work. The waiting game began and I was guessing it would take months before there was a conclusion.

After almost a month to the day I filed the claim, I got a call from Allstate that they had come to a settlement. My agent, Shana, started off telling me about depreciation and how they don't make the 16 or 32GB models anymore, I was bracing myself for a huge let down. She said that after the $100 deductible, I was going to receive a check for $732! That was exactly the outcome I wanted and I didn't even have to haggle with her!!!

Moral of the story

Be very cautious of Craiglist ads and meeting people. Also, Allstate is a fantastic insurance company and I highly recommend any type of insurance with them.

What’s the greatest gift your mother ever gave you?

Rarely do I use my blog to post personal things but I felt the need to share this with you. The other day I stumbled across a website that really got to me that asked the reader to submit the greatest gift their mother ever gave them. I’m very fortunate to have my mother with me as many of my friends have lost a parent. Life always seems to get in the way and I never have really told my mother how much she means to me (other then the standard “I love you”). When I read some excerpts from the story, I felt compelled to let my mother know what her greatest gift to me has been. I hear a lot of stories in the office where I work from clients whose parents are in a nursing home and suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's and it makes me think that you can never know what the future will hold and how important it is to make time for a loved one no mater how hectic life may get. So with that I share with you what I wrote my mother and if you're fortunate enough to still have your parents around, you should do the same.

I wanted you to know the greatest gift you ever gave me was a sense of humor. Looking back on my childhood, the thing that really stands out is how much you made me laugh. I never realized it till now but all my close friends have to meet the requirement of making me laugh otherwise I don't want them around. As I move through life and things change, it's the one thing about myself that will always remain consistent and I'm so grateful for it. Even though we don't talk all the time and sometimes weeks go by with out contacting you, each time I laugh, you're with me.

2010 Camaro RS

After waiting 9 weeks for the Camaro to arrive, I finally got it last week. At the time it had only 6 miles on the odometer & within 3 days I've racked up over 600. Out of all the cars I've owned, this is by far the most fun.

How Allstate gave me a great settlement on my totaled BMW

On March 12th, my beautiful BMW 128i was totaled. I had the car almost a year to the day before it was taken away. Everyone involved walked away fine, no one was cited because it couldn't be determined who was at fault and the witnesses were no help. This was my first time ever filing an insurance claim and I was preparing myself for disaster. I have Allstate for auto and home insurance and I bought into their "accident forgiveness" and lower deductible for every year I wasn't in an accident so I was about to see how much of a gimmick it was/wasn't. Since the BMW was only a year old and was a custom order, it took them a little longer then normal to determine what to do.

As you can see nothing remains of the front of the car and the body took such an impact that it bent the roof in 6 spots and cracked the trunk lid. The first time I talked to the adjuster after he saw the damage, it sounded like they may try to repair it. For a few days I was very nervous wondering if I was going to have to remain making a $610 payment on a car that no one would ever want to buy. I finally got the call from a very nice guy who talked me through all the damage and how he was going to consider it a total loss. I felt relieved that I got out of the $610 payment (that was starting to be a burden after a year) but then I braced myself for what he was about to tell me, which is how much we're they going to value the car at.

I still owed 27K on it and from all the blue book sites, the car was being valued at only 32K and that was for a certified pre owned one. I was in disbelief that they we're giving me 36K for it!!!! That is over Kelly Blue Book by a few thousand! From everything I've found on the web, I couldn't find any stories that had a "beyond expectations" result.

After almost a month, I finally received a check for the remainder of $9,200 that will go towards a dawn payment on a new car (the car in choice is now a 2010 Camaro). My insurance also included a rental car for 30 days so I wasn't without a ride.

I did go back to get a pair of Oakleys out of the BMW that I had forgotten, but oddly enough they weren't there, along with some extra money that was taken, only pennies were left. I tried to add this to the claim but anything in the car goes under home owners insurance and since I had a $500 deductible on that, the Oakleys were a total loss.

So moral of the story, Allstate is more then fair with accidents and it's well worth the money for their add-on packages (I'm a gold member) and if you're ever in an accident, make sure you take EVERYTHING before it gets towed away because it's unlikely it will still be in the car when you return to see it.

Breakfast Night

My Dwelling

I waste spend a lot of my free time on websites such as Desire To Inspire, Arch Daily & Apartment Therapy dreaming up ideas of how I want my future house to be styled. I often forget that my current dwelling isn't too shabby.

Blogger vs iWeb vs Wordpress vs Tumblr

Today I'm going to share with you my pros and cons of a few popular blogging platforms. To give you a little background; I started back in 2005 with this blog hosted on the blogger platform as more of a hobby and to see what I could create with html. As new services come along, I'll usually create a free account to see how it compares with the others. I currently manage 4 different websites, each on one of the above platforms.

Blogger (example: this site)

Maybe I'm just a little biased because blogger was the first platform that I coded on, but I've always had good luck using it and customizing the templates isn't too hard. I can usually change & customize a new design in a few hours.

Pros:

• Has been around for a while so there is a large collection of templates available
• Easy customization, provided you're not intimidated by HTML
• Probably one of the biggest blog platforms out there, which means tons of help if you need it

Cons:

• Html code in the templates can be a little buggy and outdated
• not ment for anything other then basic blogging

iWeb (example: IdeaAttic.com)

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know I'm a total Mac fan, so when Apple launched iWeb a few years back, I immediately jumped on the bandwagon and started creating websites left and right. At one point I had 7 iWeb sites, each with proper domain names. I was having too much fun creating sites and could create a site with 20+ pages in an afternoon. The application is very easy to use and any design I could come up with in my head, I could easily recreate it in iWeb. One of the problems however, is with all these great looking sites, Google has a very hard time indexing them so not too many people are finding you via search engines.

Pros:

• Total drag/drop program
• You don't need to know a single thing about HTML to make an amazing site
• Great for a site that needs galleries

Cons:

• SEO (search engine optimization) is basically non existent, even with programs like iWeb SEO Tool
• If you want to add flash or some advanced HTML customization, you usually have to jump through hoops (providing you wanted to do something that the webwidgets can't handle)
• Limited templates
• Proprietary, unlike the other services, iWeb is an actual application that runs on newer macs and is intended to be updated with a single computer unlike web based blogging services.

Tumblr (example: i-got-sidetracked.tumblr.com)

I personally feel tumblr is more about sharing interesting images/photography then anything else. Sure it has features to "blog" or write something witty, but the main purpose is to see something cool, retumble it (repost it), and move on. Now you might be thinking, why the hell would anyone care to do this? It has majorly boosted traffic to my portfolio. How? I'll submit some of my photography to a few "best photo" type tumblrs every few days (example) and hopefully they will post my image along with any contact information I provide. When other people see that image, they may retumble it and so on...so my photography spreads like wiled fire along with my contact info linking back to my portfolio, which then in turn drives new traffic to my portfolio, boosting my rankings in google. More traffic means more potential clients that might hire me to do photo shoots. (it's all about networking for $$$)

Pros:

• Super easy to use
• Some of the best looking templates
• works great on mobile devices

Cons:

• most templates lack basic services such as comments or tag searching
• can be a pain to extensively modify the templates
• still too new for most people to grasp full potential

Wordpress.org (example: RejectedMemories.com)

I was first exposed to wordpress at work when I was given the task to redo our law firms website. I figured I had a fresh start so I wanted to choose the correct platform. Our site was to have 50+ static pages that wouldn't be updated often, but in order to keep the site "fresh" the attorneys wanted to do weekly blogs. Wordpress.org mixes static and blog pages quite nicely, not to mention that it is major in helping natural SEO. Like all the other platforms, templates are plentiful, however I went with a paid version called headway which is a mix between the WYSIWYG iWeb editor & blogger. Plus the headway theme adds TONS of options for SEO way beyond the basic free templates. In two weeks after redesigning the firms site in wordpress with headway, our site traffic has more then tripled with just the basic built in SEO.

Pros:

• Great templates provided you pick the right one with good code
• ease of use
• Can mix blog with multiple site pages (about, contact, gallery, etc)
• Search engines tend to find wordpress.org site easier since they aren't on a subdomain like blogger, tumblr, etc.

Cons:

• you have to pay for your own domain/server space (godaddy makes this very easy tho with their wordpress package)

My conclusion; all 4 of the above platforms have a special place in my heart, but if you are just starting out with a serious blog/site for a business or your main focus is on traffic then wordpress.org is hands down the way to go. If you looking for fun and not too much brain power, sign up for tumblr. Want to be totally creative and show off to your fiends, then spend an afternoon in iWeb. And if you want a totally free way that will allow you to be a little creative but reserved (provided you are 0-basic with html) then get yourself a blogger account.

I've love to hear your opinions or experiences with blog type platforms.

When I was a kid...

When I was a kid I would ride my bike all over town with my friends. Usually to the comic book store. I'd be gone all day.

When I was a kid I hated Sunday school. I always got in trouble for talking.

When I was a kid I loved the holidays. Now they're just like every other day.

When I was a kid I loved spending the night over my grandparents house. They would let me get dirty.

When I was a kid my friend and I would remove all of his sisters Barbie heads and hide them.

When I was a kid I would throw fireflies into the air conditioner. Their little lights would stay on for a few seconds after they were chopped up.

When I was a kid I only had 4 Nintendo games.

When I was a kid I would sneak down the hall and listen to what my parents were saying about me when I got in trouble.

When I was a kid I was on a golf league. Wasn't half bad either... for being a par 3 course.

When I was a kid I had a dog named Brandy. When she died, my parents got me another one a few years later just like the first one. She was named Brandy #2.

When I was a kid I would watch American Gladiators in my room with the door shut and reenact the battle scenes.

When I was a kid I my parents kept a paddle on top of the fridge and would threaten me with it when I was bad. I would hide it when I knew something was a brewin.

When I was a kid I was scared to swim in the deep end of our pool when no one was around. Sharks might appear.

When I was a kid I was very spoiled. My father had to build a huge toy box for me in the basement. It couldn't shut because I had so many.

When I was a kid my parents would force me to do yard work for hours. Now I'd do anything to have a yard to take care of.

When I was a kid I would build Lego cities then destroy them with a large rock. Meteor shower.

When I was a kid I I had a crush on Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

When I was a kid I would jump off the second story balcony at a friends house onto a trampoline. Usually a sprinkler was also involved.

When I was a kid I wasn't aloud to miss any school.

When I was a kid I tried to commit suicide. I took 14 sleeping pills. Parents had to rush me to the emergency room.

When I was a kid I use to sleep with a stuffed bear. It was the first toy I ever had. It now lives in a plastic bin in the closet.

When I was a kid I really wanted a sibling. Many lonely times.

When I was a kid I couldn't wait to be a grown up.

When I grew up all I want to be is a kid.

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What did you do when you were a kid?

My home work space

Today I'm finally getting around to a printing project that I've been putting off for months. Back in the spring I did a barter with a artiest friend. The agreement was I would photography, print and mat a series of Tiny Planets of his parents farm in exchange for a custom painting (he sells them for lots of $$$). I'm printing a total of 16 and while loading up my printer I thought to myself what a n amazing printer it's been. About 5 years ago I bought a Canon i9900 large format printer that does 13x19" prints using 8 ink tanks. The quality is perfect, colors are dead on to my computer screen and it's super efficient on the ink.

This also got me think what an kick-ass system I have set up. So I now share with you, my work space:

When I worked at Apple, we had a storage room with old window displays (notice some of the old Apple stuff in the images above). We were given the go ahead to trash everything in the room, so I asked my boss if I could have this light box. It use to have a sign in it that said iTunes 99¢ and my boss said I could have it as long as I got rid of the sign. This light box has two pieces of acrylic, one frosted and the other is clear. The iTunes sign was sandwiched between the two so it came out easy. When I got it home, I masked off an Apple logo and paint splatter and used acrylic paint for the red/orange. At the time, Apple was running an iTunes commercial with Eminem, this is where I got the idea.