TUCOS - The United Clans of Shump

A Random Documentary You Should Watch

SO, here we are again. Don has pretty much fallen off the face of the earth, since apparently it takes some kind of planetary alignment for him to write anything (seriously, I’ve listened to him talk about writing Geekdad posts, it sounds akin to waxing unpleasant places). In my own news, I’ve been on a search for all things interesting. This has meant starting up a weekly bowling night with the family (oh I thought you said interesting Frank, ha HA!), taking archery lessons, and hitting up the paintball fields. We’ve also been constantly at the hives. I haven’t been stung just yet, but it’s kept me busy along with the usual work/freelance gigs. It also means planning to travel.

The recession provides some unique opportunities for travel options, since when no one has any money, they tend to take luxury travel off the list. There have also been those that choose to make travel more of a long term committment, and in that vein I have to recommend the travel documentary A Map For Saturday. If you’ve ever thought about long term travel and what it’d be like to have nothing on your itinerary but…well whatever you want! Definitely worth a look.

-Frank

April 29th, 2009

The Bees Have Landed

Yep, it is official, we installed the bees over this past weekend! I’ll tell you what, they were surprisingly cooperative throughout the whole process. While Don took a few hits from some agitated bees that thought they were going to be squished, I came out unscathed. Unfortunately, I don’t this trend will continue. See the bees are all fine and docile and happy right now because we sprayed them with sugar water and the don’t have a hive to protect yet.

Once that hive is all built out and we open it up? I imagine they will not be as pleased. Either way the whole experience was a blast and I’m excited to get back to it in the coming weeks.

Now, in terms of an actual business? Who knows, it’s going to be awhile before we see any honey, so for the time being we’re just going to focus on keeping the bees healthy and happy. As always, scheming for additional opportunities continues.

-Frank

April 6th, 2009

Return on Investment of Over 9000!!!!!

All too often it’s easy to manipulate numbers, and as an example look no farther than our current Adsense empire. Technically speaking, if you took the amount of money we’ve invested into the business and calculated how much we’ve made on a percentage basis, you get some kind of stupidly large number that’s in the thousands of percentage points. Hilarity ensues when we actually refer to this as such, since we’re actually looking to officially organizing it into a legitimate business. This means that we get to choose our titles when filing the documention. Don’s looking to be Co-President and Supreme Swarm Overlord Don Shump. Be sure to cast your vote.

Now, if I told you “Invest in our business and we can give you a 9000 percent return!” you’d probably think I was completely insane. As a matter of comparison if you put your money into a savings account right now you’d probably get 2-3% annually. If you could put in $10,000 and earn 9000 percent, that means you’d be a gazillionaire in a few years. WOO HOO! We’re rich right?

Not exactly. See the costs of our site building efforts are so low in terms of overhead that even if one of our little sites makes a modest profit, we’re making out like bandits. The question becomes a matter of scale. Sure we may have one site that we can build and earn a 9000% return on our massive investment of $10.00, but we can build 50? 100? 1,000?

We’re going to find out.

(Disclaimer: This isn’t investment advice…I’d say no one could possibly construe it as such but..you just never know these days.)

-Frank

1 comment February 24th, 2009

Wii Fit - Fact and Fiction

I’m not a fan of “fitness fads.” The whole slew of exercise products or worse, “nutritional supplements” that claim to burn fat right off your body without any work or exercise, just flat out disgusts me. Not only are the results questionable, but they can also be dangerous. Everyone claims to know there’s no magic bullet for being fit and healthy, but these things fly off the shelves. With that in mind when they first announced the wii fit, my first reaction was “ugh..really?”

My basic belief when it comes to exercise and nutrition is this: put the work in, be patient, and you’ll get results. I’m not perfect either,, slip ups and holidays and all associated nonsense does happen, and as long as you hit it hard the next week and keep your caloric intake moderated on a long term basis, you’ll be fine and slowly but surely the pounds come off. On the other hand, you can’t go to the Cheesecake Factory every week (I don’t care how much you workout) and expect to come out of there slimmer. The Wii Fit attempts to bridge the gap between fun and exercise (let’s face it, while working out does provide a level of satisfaction, I wouldn’t go so far to call it fun on most weeknights) and in large part it succeeds.

Now that I’m again gainfully employed (yet still retaining my freelance work..yes, it’s been very very busy) ,I’ve picked up again on a gym membership and cart my ass over there 3-4 times a week. I needed something to do on the other days for a short workout, however, and here is where the Wii Fit shines. Want to do some strength training? You got it. Cardio? Sure! Even some Yoga, if that’s up your alley. The balance games are undoubtedly the most fun but provide the least caloric burning bang for your buck. It also serves as an accurate weight scale, but prepare to take a blow to your pride if you’re a bit overweight, as it uses the BMI index to decide if you’re a fatty or not. At the very least it’s very cheerful when it points out “That’s obese!” and your mii promptly blows up like he just ate the cheesecake factory…all of it.

To summarize, the Wii Fit can help you lose weight if you’re willing to push yourself and actually burn calories and do exercises that you know to make you work. Is it a replacement for your gym membership? No. Could it help you lose weight on your own if you’re too skittish about actually going to the gym? Maybe.

-Frank

1 comment February 6th, 2009

Don Stole My Bee Thunder

So obviously, as per the post below, Don has pointed out that yes, we will have our very own bee army. Also thanks to Don’s generous friend Sam and his parents, we will also have somewhere to put them! I’m excited, he’s excited, and hopefully our little bee minions will thrive and grow without being devoured by skunks or by some kind of microscopic mite plague. These things happen, you know.

The cost up front is a little high, but thanks to our wonderful Adsense empire, we’re able to offset much (if not all) of that with that. At this rate, we’ll have about 34958249854 businesses by next year.

All hail the Thunderpigs.

-Frank

1 comment January 29th, 2009

TUCOS - The United Clans of Shump

A Random Documentary You Should Watch

The Bees Have Landed

Return on Investment of Over 9000!!!!!

Wii Fit - Fact and Fiction

Don Stole My Bee Thunder

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