NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Bought a 2003 Aprilia Scarabeo 50 Scooter

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I wanted a cheap, quick and easily parkable form of transportation, so I bought a 2003 Aprilia Scarabeo 50cc last weekend.

I’ve been looking to buy a used one for quite some time now, but they are very hard to come by. I was ONLY interested in buying the Scarabeo because:

  • I wanted a big wheel scooter for more stability.
  • I wanted something quick enough to handle traffic, yet not fast enough to get me into much trouble.
  • Gas mileage. This is the only 50cc scooter in the world that gets 122 MPG.
  • 1.9 gallon tank x 122 MPG = 230 miles for every $5 of gas.
  • I can park anywhere. 2-foot wide parking spaces.
  • I can use sidewalks or small spaces to avoid stand-still traffic.

After some negotiating I got the scooter + tax + title for exactly $2,000 out the door. If I bought the same scooter out the door brand new, it would have been about $3,600.

Just like a car, the real cost of ownership is much higher. However, gas, maintenance and insurance are extremely cheap for the scooter unlike a car. The larger costs came in the form of safety equipment. In the end, this is what I spent:

  • $2,000 – Scooter out the door
  • $50 – Matching helmet found on Craigslist
  • $55 – Battery trickle charger
  • $13 – Chain lock
  • $40 – Motorcycle gloves from Craigslist

Commuting to campus or around Downtown during rush hour is a cinch now. I am doing everything I can to be safe and always take low-traffic roads to avoid cars. Small trips are much quicker since there is no concern about parking and they are definitely much more fun!

Gary Kusin – CEO of FedEx Kinkos

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I just saw and met Gary Kusin, the CEO of Fedex Kinkos. He was giving a speech here at UT and drew in quit a large crowd. He called himself a “Forest Gump” of business because his success was simply the result of hard work. In a nutshell he stressed the trick to getting ahead was outworking the next guy.

He is a UT alumnus who graduated one December with a degree in Government…..that description will also fit me this December. It was very interesting hearing him speak about some of his friends and mentors such as Ross Perot, Jack Welch and Bill Gates. I breifly talked to him after the speech and got a picture:

The reason I am wearing a nametag is because of an idea I stole from “The Guy with the Nametag” Scott. He’s a motivational speaker who has been wearing a nametag for three years. I like the simplicity and effectiveness of the nametag. Now when I attend an event I make my own nametag. It helps people learn and remember your name and is great for starting conversations.

So far it has worked quite well. I usually forget I am wearing it and get thrown off when strangers call me by name! I bought a pack of 25 nametags for less than a dollar. It’s one of the easiest and cheapest ways to aid in meeting people.

-Nev

Make a Cheap Photo Studio

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When starting any small business it’s best to bootstrap and avoid large costs. If you sell products online and need professional pictures taken of the products, skip that step and do it yourself. I’ve done this for a while by making a Cheap Photo Studio:

INGREDIENTS:
-2 pieces of white poster board (Regular white paper works too)
-Swivel Lamp
-Regular digital camera
-Basic Photoshop skills

Depending on what you are photographing, setup the poster board(s) accordingly. The goal is to take a picture with a clean, white backdrop without lines or interruption. Blemishes or lines can always be removed by Photoshop later.

For Example:
I took a picture of an old playing card.

With Photoshop I brightened the picture and removed all the red and white blemishes.

Playing around with Photoshop yielded this picture which looks nothing like the original. Point is: digital enhancements can make even bad pictures look good.

You can also do the same thing with less 2-dimensional objects such as this lock:

<-- before Photoshop

After Photoshop:

Just 2 magic eraser clicks in Photoshop and some cropping made this clean picture. The already white background makes Photoshopping very easy.

Pictures like this can also be used to enhance Ebay auctions or Craigslist postings. This is just one way to save money when running or starting an online biz, especially if running on a low budget.

Quotes, HoR, The Godfather, Scarabeo

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This is my new dry erase board with a push-pin section. I keep a few inspirational Post-It’s right above my desk. My favorite is:

“Dig the well before you’re thirsty”

I like the Post-It note quotes because they draw more attention than the dry-erase writing.
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My House Of Rave goals were mostly met, although some of the stipulations changed. My main concern is finding a better customer service system. I currently use a basic webmail program for email, and an answering machine through Vonage. This system doesn’t allow me to organize emails or easily track problem resolutions. I’m THIS close to signing up for an exchange server. This will allow me to use an Outlook interface, but from any computer in the world.

I finally added some custom templates which allowed me to integrate the frame of the main page onto every page, including the shopping cart and checkout pages. This makes the whole site look much more congruent.

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I recently checked the webstats for Neville1.com, and found it gets 500+ unique page views a day. I was surprised to find that it wasn’t all traffic from NevBlog, but from the “Wallpapers” section under “Stuff”

When someone types in “The Godfather” into Google Image Search, one of the first results is a wallpaper on Neville1. Also, the image searches for “Kawasaki”, “Yamaha R1” and “Henry Ford” also bring in several thousand visits per month.

I decided to test what would happen if I put an Adsense banner on the Wallpapers page about 4 days ago. So far it’s only made about $0.45 a day. Ehh.

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I spoke about the change in libraries too soon. After that post, the PCL library added some outside tables for the coffee shop inside. I’m curious how much money the university gets from the coffee shop.

The local coffee shops must hate this new cafe!
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After visiting the Aprilia dealership, I found a few leads for used Aprilia Scarabeo 50 scooters. This is the one I’m hoping to get a deal on:

A brand new one runs $2,700 + tax, title & insurance = $3,400
The time I spend waiting for and riding the bus is getting ridiculous, especially since I live so close to campus. Parking in Downtown is also crazy during the day, so a scooter would be especially helpful.
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One business venture under a non-disclosure agreement is really coming together now. The original creator of the business and I will hopefully have it up and running within the next month. Exciting stuff!

Random Observations and Trends

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I like to randomly observe what is going on around me to spot new trends or changes. Changes = Opportunity.
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I tried to sell bottled water, this Real Estate Investment Club just gives it away to attract visitors to their booth:

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I have seen this truck around Austin more than once, and I was intrigued by their unique way of advertising on the streets for free. This moving billboard can go to any high-traffic area and park, allowing their sponsors to target specific demographics and locations (e.g. Night time at 6th Street = Beer advertisement).

I read more about the company and found out they are using a loophole in the Austin advertising ordinance to stay in business. They use 100% green-biodiesel to power the truck, or people get mad they are unneccessarily polluting by aimlessly driving around town.

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I noticed that this bulletin board in the Student Union used to be more crowded when I was a freshman at UT. I’m guessing most of these “For Sale” ads are replaced with CraigsList posts.

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I enjoy seeing huge changes happen in front of me, and one thing I’ve seen taking a dramatic change is the function of libraries. The largest library at UT recently opened a coffee shop inside! College students + Studying + Coffee Shop…needless to say it is doing quite well.

An even more interesting phenomenon with libraries is no more books!
The UGL (A popluar undergraduate library) used to be a 3-storey library filled with books, a small computer lab and some desks. Now they have completely removed all the books and made the entire thing into a giant study lounge.

The 1st floor outside area is a loud, group-study area:

The 1st floor inside area is now void of books and transformed into a giant study lounge with IKEA furniture:

Nowadays, there aren’t as many people going to books for their research. The libraries are instead catering more towards computers and laptop users. Instead of finding something using an encyclopedia, you can tell someone to JustFuckingGoogleIt.

I find it facinating this LIBRARY doesn’t have a single book. I’ve also heard they are currently adding a coffee shop to this library also. The library is now becoming a much cooler place to go!

Selling Pixel Squares on NevBlog

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I’m selling the boxes on the top-right of NevBlog to anyone wishing to advertise. This idea has been done in the U.K., and now I will try it in the U.S.

Product: Squares in the boxes on the top-right of the blog. You can add an image or text to these boxes. Each square can be linked to the destination of choice.

Price: $50 per square.

Space: 20 squares wide, 30 squares long.

Advantages:
Reach a large audience on a widely-read personal finance blog which has been featured in Business Week, New York Times, Yahoo Finance, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. No other advertisments are present on the site. Site offers draw-back appeal and high PageRanking unlike other pixel-advertising sites. New and unique way of advertising!

Payment: PayPal or Credit Card.

—–Pay directly via PayPal Here:

—–Pay by Credit Card Here:

All the proceeds from this experiment will go directly into my investment account. I use this account soley for re-investing in other money-making opportunities.

No sex or pharmaceutical sites. Any sites I consider a link farm will also not be considered.

Questions? Email Me.

Happy advertising!

——–UPDATE (9-29-2006)———–

I have taken the pixel squares down after one year, they made me a total of $2,300 (minus about 2.40% for fees).

The pixel sale ended up looking like this:

Saving for Holiday’s, Free School Supplies, Dalai Lama Failure

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The holiday times are expensive. Traveling, gifts, birthdays, special occasions etc… Before every holiday season I try to build up my spending account to at least a few hundred dollars, but this time I am trying something different.

I have opened up a 2nd spending account for big expenses such as Christmas gifts, big purchases and vacations. I will set an automatic, weekly transfer of money into this account like I do with all my other ancillary accounts.

I hate the idea of allocating more money towards spending during the holiday season, so I will start preparing now.

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I decided to go uber-cheap school shopping after an Entrepreneur Society meeting. Basically whenever I need to stock up on pens, pencils or notebooks, I simply go into some of the very large auditorium classrooms around campus and pick up the good pencils and pens that people leave behind. I walked through two adjacent auditoriums at about 9:00pm before they were cleaned, and picked up the following supplies:


Why buy when it’s free?

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The Dalai Lama speech was this past Tuesday. I wanted to take a picture with the Dalai Lama, but it didn’t quite happen. I had some appointments with professors right before the speech at 4:00pm, so I didn’t have the proper preparation time required. My attempt to gain press access was also not granted (and it turns out would have been useless). The speech filled the whole Erwin Events Center:

The security was not nearly tight as they claimed it would be, so I didn’t have many problems snapping a few pictures.

The speech wasn’t anything amazing, but he did have a sense of humor. Here is a funny picture of the Dalai Lama wearing his red visor to better see the audience!

I didn’t get a picture with him, so Operation Lama failed. Oh well.
Just as in business: You win some, you lose some.

NYTimes Article, Progress Update

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An article written by Elizabeth Harris in today’s New York Times mentions me and some other financial bloggers: Psst: Want to Know My Net Worth?

It even has a picture of my………nose, hand and tablet PC.

The main interview was done by Elizabeth Harris about a month ago, and there was a photo shoot done two weeks ago.

Here is a scanned version of the article:


Feel free to copy, steal and use the image.

This NYTimes articles completes one of my goals of being mentioned in 5 major news sources.
On another note….
By September 30th I am planning to upgrade an existing business I own to make more money. So far I have added an SSL security certificate and a added a 1-800 number on my Vonage account.
Some Post I personally like:

Brainstorming Investment Ideas

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I like to brainstorm investment ideas, and I always end up with these two in the pile.

I’ve always liked solar power, as I think it’s the simplest form of free energy. I did a partial post about Austin’s solar incentives a while ago. It explains how Austin will write checks up to $5,000/yr for individual households and $100,000/yr for commercial real estate to utilize solar energy. Not to mention the mass amounts of money saved on electric bills.

The Austin Convention Center has solar panels on one face of the building….

Austin Convention Center Solar Panels

….and they don’t look half bad.

I did some research a while back, and Evergreen Solar (ESLR) seems to be a big, publicly traded player in the solar market. I also want to find some other contestants in the solar game.

I already bought and sold ESLR a few days ago, selling because high oil prices are drawing attention to alternative energy companies. I plan on buying and holding the company again when the price goes down a bit.

Another technology I REALLY like is physical media cards.

SD Card

They can often be boiled in water, survive a plane crash and hold a lot of information. They are the size of postage stamps and can currently hold 4+ gigs, and within two years that number will go up exponentially.

They have no moving parts and require no maintenance or special care-taking. This is the perfect technology for the new, fast and small devices to come. I’m thinking SanDisk (SNDK) will be the biggest player in this market. I’ve bought and sold SanDisk stock in the past with success, hopefully a longterm hold will prove the same.