NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Neville

Giant Sticky Note Pads

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I got a sample of these “Genius Pads” and it’s actually a product with some potential….basically a giant sticky note pad. Dan Sherman took the idea and started distributing them to the U.S. with his own website which has a much better name: Mega Sticky.

I thought this was a very neat and simple product, and I’ve been using them to draw out plans and sometimes detailed to-do lists:

It’s obviously a hell of a lot bigger than a regular sticky note, so it’s good for drawing out plans etc for review.

This is a product which has the potential to be sold in places like Staples and Wal-Mart, but their packaging is absolutely hideous. I say they don’t copy Post-It packaging, but at least make it slightly more professional like theirs.

I would also recommend the proprietors to encourage usage of these giant sticky pads in the office environment rather than aiming them towards kids. It seems big corporate contracts for these would be more lucrative than individuals or schools.

I can just imagine someone like a car designer, architect or engineer drawing out ideas on these then posting them on a wall to look at “The big picture.”

Neat little product. Good luck with it Arash & Kelly!

Poor Man Meal

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I try not to charge fast food on a card, so I always use cash. If I don’t have enough cash and I feel like being a cheap, I’ll be forced to simply eat very little.

If I only have $1 and some change, I can get something from the value menu at most fast food places. This generally isn’t enough for a dinner…but if you’ve only got a dollar to spare, it’s the best way to fill your stomach on the cheap!

1.) Get the biggest thing with the most nutritional value for your money.
My last poor man meal was at Taco Bell where I got the 1/2 pound Beef Burrito because it contains lots of satisfying meat and costs $1.40 after tax.

2.) Get water.

3.) Slow down the entire eating process.
This is the trickiest part. When hungry it’s hard to slow down eating, but there are a couple of simple tricks to it. Make sure to put the burrito (or whatever) down after each bite, this stops the temptation of taking your next bite too quickly. Take sips of water, read a book etc.. Overall, it should take between 15-20 minutes to finish the whole thing. I have no scientific proof behind it, but it’s the only way to get myself full from a single value menu item.

In the U.S. we’re so used to eating such large quantities, that sometimes we forget it only takes relatively little to fill a stomach. Simply slowing down the eating process makes you feel much more full!

For example, to kill the time between bites I’ll bring stuff to occupy myself.

Of course if you’ve got the means to cook, Ramen is still cheaper, but for me it doesn’t satisfy hunger because it lacks almost any nutritional value.

Bon appetite!

Back from Bawwston

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I went to Boston for a week to check the place out, maybe see if I’d like to live there. I had a great time there, flawless weather throughout the trip and a great place to stay. Check out the full panoramic view I had!

After visiting Boston for a week, cruising around, meeting friends, seeing businesses and partying….I found out that Boston is gorgeous in the summer, well educated, well established, but not the place for me.

My main complaints with Boston was the population was too young and there was a complete lack of flavor. Especially trying to go out. You can go to a very large selection of pub-style Irish places, but not much else. I was in the middle of New England, so I kind of expected that.

For partying, everything was relatively spread apart, and the whole place kind of goes dead before 2am, which I didn’t expect from an area with such a dense college population. I did however like the whole MIT/Harvard/BU/Downtown area with the Charles River nearby. It was gorgeous while I was there, although it’ll get cold as hell pretty soon (Something else I don’t particularly like).

So my comparison between Austin and Boston is done, and in my opinion Austin is the winner. Austin has a large amount of diversity in not only race, but also age. It also has different “flavors” around the city. Austin is also FRESH. It has an enormous upside potential, and it will be fun to watch as this city grows and changes. Boston will be pretty much stay the same even after 20+ years.

So based on my three places I could possibly live, Austin is my final choice.

I think my favorite part of getting back to Austin was seeing my Scarabeo in my living room. For some reason I got a kick big from seeing it indoors!

This was actually a very cheap trip overall. I spent $260 on the plane ticket and only $250 the whole time I was there….Not bad!

Boston Visit

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I was toying around with the idea of moving, but Austin is just such a great place to be. My potential criteria matched three places, and before I knock it out of contention, I want to visit Boston for a while to see how it feels. So this Wednesday I’m going for about a week.

Oct. 4th (Wednesday) – Oct. 10th (Tuesday)

If anyone with an interesting story wants to meet up, please contact me. I’d love to visit some local companies, see how things are run etc…

Also, if anyone knows of any big events or high profile parties going down in Boston from Oct. 4th till 10th, I’d appreciate a heads up. A large purpose of this trip is to make new contacts, so if you’ve got any leads, let me know!

Removed the Pixel Sale

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One year ago I got the idea from MillionDollarHomepage.com to sell pixel squares on the site. This was a complete fad, and people were buying pixels to benefit from curious clickers and the search engine benefits of having more links.

I put them in the right hand corner of the site for a year, and so far here’s what happened from this little experiment.

  • A total of $2,300 was made from 46 squares sold.
  • 17 different people bought space on the site for $50 a square.
  • I learned that taking advantage of a fad makes people actually pay $50 for a little square.
  • The more people buy squares, the less value they have. People will only click a few squares out of curiosity.
  • There were 110 comments on the pixel square post, a lot of them along the lines of, “I once thought this guy was legit, but now he is coming off as a slimy used car salesman!”
  • The only person who made A LOT of money from selling little squares was the MillionDollarHomePage.com guy.

A year later, I’m taking these pixel ads down. The last pixel order I got was in May 2006. It was a fun little experiment, and the only real money I’ve ever made from this blog.

So goodbye Pixel Sale! Thanks for the money :-)
-Nev

Worst Purchase EVER – My Phone

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Once in a while we all just “HAVE to Have” something. I do this mainly with electronic stuff, and generally it works out well and I’m happy with the purchase.

However 5 months ago when I got the Treo 700w when it first came out from Verizon Wireless, I had made a terrible mistake. Unlike my “Have to Have” cameras or tablet pc, this phone came with a contract.

I’ve had my phone for about five months now, and here is what I’ve paid so far for the phone and phone bills:

Because I just HAD to have this phone immediately, I irrationally accepted the high monthly fees, high starting costs and the expensive low-end service plan. The high overages were part part Verizon’s fault for screwing up an order for a larger plan, and part my fault for being irresponsible. However in the end I’m paying the (very expensive) price of an emotionally driven purchase.

I went from loving this phone to hating it, as graphically portrayed here:

I don’t actually hate the phone itself, just what it represents. I rank this as my WORST PURCHASE EVER.

LESSON I LEARNED:
“Have to Have” purchases aren’t always bad, but when irrational thinking muddles the details of a contract, beware.

Money Update

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I’m keeping a careful eye on my general accounts because I’ve been (and will be) burning money at a crazy rate:

Currently my general accounts look like:

General Account: $4,002
Spending Account: $194
Spending Account 2: $304
Investment Account: $2,605
Bill Account: $79 <-- !!! At least I don’t have to pay rent.
Permanent Savings: $3,768
Charity Account: $338
Stock Portfolio Value: $11,066
Roth IRA: $6,912
Emigrant Direct: $5,015
Total Liquid Assets: $34,283

Credit Card Balance: $0
Business Holding: $6,657
Total On Hand: $40,940

As the old saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.” Right now it’s pouring expenses:

–New laptop hard drive
–New laptop bootable DVD drive
–New car on the way + Registration + Insurance
-Need new camera (Screen half whited-out after being crushed)
–Traffic tickets
-Unexpected $500 phone bill
-Paying programmers
–Buying sample products for photographing
–Defensive Driving
-Food (I haven’t had a proper meal in about 2 1/2 weeks).
-Incorporation
-Trip to Boston
-Spending money – I still gotta have fun ;-)
-etc. etc. etc.

Luckily these costs are still manageable, but still….lots of expenses!


(I had to make this picture with PaintBrush….no Photoshop on these Law School computers!)

I was checking back to September 2005 in my blog to see what was going on, and I would have completely forgot about this stuff had I not written it down!

Sept 2nd: I tried to make more $$$ from House Of Rave.
Status: HoR is now making about $2,000+ a month. Thanks again Rob for hitting me over the head with the obvious.

Sept 7th: I tried to Get a picture with the Dalai Lama.
Status: Didn’t happen this time. I did however get to see the Dalai Lama sport a visor.

Sept 18th: I was mentioned in the New York Times.
Status: That was pretty nice to have. I’ve got three copies of the Sunday Times rolled up in my archives. My parents found out about this website after the article (Hi!!). My photo shoot was supposed to be the main image on the article, but apparently Jim is more attractive.

Sept 28th: I sold pixel squares on NevBlog as an experiment.
Status: So far that sale brought in $2,300 (minus 2.40%) in one year. I’m taking them off the site in a few days. That whole pixel thing was the epitome of a fad.

Advertisments on Site?

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Perusing websites, I see ads all over the place. They usually don’t bother me if done tastefully, and provide the site owner with a source of income. Nothing wrong with that.

If free television stations didn’t interrupt their programming with advertisements, they wouldn’t be around. So it’s a bit of a trade off.

Taking a look at some personal finance websites, I noticed everyone has all sorts of cash-generating items on their site, which are relatively un-intrusive. I’m just curious of the average total amount everyone makes from their sites. For example, I was looking at Consumersim Commentary and took a good look around his site to see where cash comes from.

Just looking above the fold (meaning not having to scroll down), I noticed SIX different pieces of cash-generating website real estate.

At the very bottom of the page, I noticed FOUR different cash generating avenues including lots of text links for PageRank purposes. Based on the requests I turn down everyday for these, I’m guessing these go for between $50 and $100 a month.

I won’t even mention if there’s anything in the middle, as there is unlimited potential for that, especially on long blog pages.

Based on the Adsense Experiment I did a little while back, I could probably make about $500/month from a simple banner above the fold on the left side of the page. Not bad.

NevBlog originated late one night whilst working at the easiest job in the world as a way to track financial progress…not as a tool to make money. Now I am more open to the idea of it bringing in money….sort of.

I’m not going to slap a bunch of advertisements up immediately, but I’m stroking my chin thinking about it. A far cry from my previous anti-Adsense stance!

I’m a "student" again

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College courses are extremely expensive, you have to battle to sign up for them…..yet unlike other expensive stuff, no one guards the classes.

I was recommended by someone to take a graduate level management course taught by an extremely prestigious professor who has “been there, done that” in the business world.

Instead of signing up for this class, I just looked up the publicly available class time/location and started going! I told the professor I was not paying for the class, nor was I any longer a student, and he happily agreed to add me to the class. I imagine some professors would PREFER students who WANT to take the class over those taking it as a requirement.

When I was a student I used to sit in on classes where they would talk about subjects I needed more knowledge on (Particularly computer science classes where I wanted to know how something was created). The best part is you can go speak with the professor after class or in their office hours, and they are always more than happy to speak with you.

I never fully realized it when I was a student….but the university is one of the few places where you have world-class authorities on a subject, and you can access all their expertise free of charge.

Hard Drive Crash

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The hard drive crashed on my tablet pc two days ago, stuff happens.

Bought a new hard drive from ebay which after shipping cost me about $100. Now I need to find a proprietary Toshiba external CD drive so I can load the operating system to the new drive. Till then, I am using the University of Texas computers for everything….like back in the day! It reminds me of high school how I started House Of Rave from the school computers because my home computer was too slow.

I haven’t backed up the computer for about a month, so I’ve lost all my work/pictures since then……grrr…..but I’ll live.

LESSON TO LEARN: Backup more often.

On a fun scale of one to ten, this rates about a two. Tinkering with hard drives and electronics is always fun, but not as much when you just lost all your work.

Since almost everything I do is internet based, I thought if my laptop crashed it would be the same as my office burning down….but it really hasn’t been. I can still use the UT computers which have all the necessary software I need (Thanks R) and thankfully I do monthly backups, which I should increase to bi-monthly.

The main thing I miss is my email on Outlook. I’m currently back to using webmail to check all my email accounts.

Luckily, the total cost of this hard drive failure after I get everything fully repaired should be under $150.

-Nev