Going Out Of Business Sale
When I was young there were all these stores in New York City that had huge "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" sings on them.
"EVERYTHING MUST GO!"
"TOTAL LIQUIDATION SALE!"
"UP TO 90% OFF"
These stores stayed in business for years while they were going out of business. I guess that had lot to liquidate...
I guess you could say that BackingIn.com has been in a similar situation for the past few months as well. It's sort of been "Going out of business" but never goes away...
I’m Back?
I think I'm back. We'll see how it goes, but this is my first post it over two months? Where have I been? Too tell the truth, I was trapped under something heavy, and I couldn't quite reach the keyboard. Actually, I'm still struggling to find my 'voice', but my attitude is that I'm going to try to just write and let my 'voice' find me.
I've been house hunting lately, and I came across a beautiful little house in a great neighborhood that fits my needs (and my wallet) perfectly. I contacted a realtor and found out that the house was owned by the County and was being sold via a federal program called, "Neighborhood Stability Program" or "NSP". I was informed that you had to qualify to purchase the home and one of the qualifications was to make under a certain salary. As it turns out, to my surprise, I'm really rich! At least the NSP program thinks so. Just once, ONCE, I want to get a break from the government. I guess the mayor of Orange County saw me driving around in my 2009 Rabbit with the 15 inch steel rims and guessed that a guy with a whip like that must be a player! Maybe it was my Wal-Mart shirt or my Sketchers that really clued him in on my gansta bankroll. I know, it was when he saw me at Olive Garden eating all the salad and bread sticks that gave him the impression that I lived so large, but the salad and bread sticks at the Garden are unlimited damn it. UNLIMITED!
Lost
It's been a while since I last posted on BackingIn.com. Quite frankly, I feel a little lost on where to take this thing. Should I keep writing whatever is on my mind or narrow the focus to technology or pop culture or something else? Lately, I feel like anything that I have to say has or will be said a thousand times on other blogs so why bother writing at all. Perhaps I'm just going through a bit of 'writer's block'. My good friend and founder of TheOther46.com suggested that I write from the heart, even if it is just a couple of sentences, almost every day. He has advised me that I don't have to craft a long article every time. I think I will take his advice and give it shot. Stay tuned...
LIVE: Citi Field Impressions
Update: Long beer and food lines, no vendors, no love for the nose bleeders.
Like a shopping mall in Great Neck, Citi Field is clean and sterile. It could be in any generic park in the U.S. Nothing about it says Mets or New York.
On the positive side, I'm in the last row of Section 504, and I have to admit that the view is not bad at all. That's the positive of a tiny stadium.
Braves vs. Mets
Here we go! It's 9:30am, and I'm trying to get my brother's family, including a teenager and two tweens, corralled into the minivan. We have to drop one kid and the dog at the grandparents the make our way to Queens to drop off the girls and pick up the last member 'guys day out' gang. Then it's just a quick jaunt over to Citi Field to meet more friends and see the game. We'll never make it in time. Getting from Central Jersey to TWO destinations in Queens with only three and half hours to spare...not gonna happen, but we'll try.
I will be live blogging from my phone today, so wish me luck. I hope my Moto Droid is beer (and tears) proof. It is a Mets game after all. There will be beer and tears. My prediction: Mets 4, Braves 3.
Can I Post From Droid?
I'm sitting here waiting for my Weight Watchers meeting to start, and trying to see if I can post using the WordPress app for Android. There must be something wrong with the scale here. This morning I was down 2 lbs, but during my weigh-in it was only 1.4! What a rip! My scale and the WW scale has always been 4 pounds different...today it is 4.6. I know I shouldn't scale watch too much, but damn I wanted my 2 pounds. I knew I should have purged before the meeting...KIDDING!!! It's a joke, relax! It may be water weight due to the fact that I worked out yesterday, and I'm sore. Right now I'm dreaming of a glass of red...only 2 weight watchers points. I wonder how many points for the bottle I wonder? KIDDING. It's a joke. Gotta go now, class is about to begin.
Adverts Dilemma
One of my biggest pet peeves is animated advertisements on the web. I'm talking about Flash ads that you can find on almost any popular website. The less annoying ones animate some text or logo upon load and then stop moving. More annoying are the ads that continue to animate as long as the web page is displayed. The most annoying animated ads have rapid movement or flashing animations.
Advertising pays the bills, and I have little problem with it as long as the reader understands that the website has sponsors, and their sponsors can apply editorial pressure on the content. The same can be said of BackingIn.com.
Week In Review
It has been a week since I launched this blog on Christmas day, and I'm still enjoying it. Yes, an entire week, and I haven't lost interest yet. :-)
I have already accomplished one goal...launching the blog. Believe it or not, just getting going is the toughest part. Inertia is a powerful force. After one week, I have learned the following:
- Thomas Edison was quoted as saying: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." This can be applied to writing. It is easy to be inspired to write a post about something for which you feel passion, but actually writing it is the hard part. I think my posts to date are good, but they are not what I envisioned in my mind. I hope to continue to get better as I create more content for BackingIn.
Greed Is Good?
A good friend of mine who runs his own successful blog, advised me to include ads on my blog as soon as possible, if I planned to do so at all. The theory is that your audience will accuse you of 'selling out' if you try to make money on your site after it is launched and has a following. Like I do often, I agreed with his assessment, but failed to execute on time. I will be adding paid ads on BackingIn.com soon.
I am a capitalist. Based on my bank account, I'm not a very good capitalist, but a capitalist just the same. I have no qualms about wanting to make a profit on BackingIn.com. I look forward to the challenge of balancing the integrity of the content without being influenced by advertisers and sponsors. I pledge to always be honest in my writing (at least until I can sell the site to Gawker and move to Reno to open my frogurt shop).
