Okay, I’ll admit it. I am very impressed. I normally use fireworks for my graphic design and slight image touch ups I do. I used some basic photoshop tools on this recent photo I took and I am pretty happy with the results this far.

Remember, this is only about 10 or 20 minutes into editing. There are a lot of small details that need to be polished. I am happy so far though!

Before:

After:

You can view full versions to get a better idea of the changes on my flickr located here: http://flickr.com/photos/matthewkammerer/

Thank you to David at Tutorial9 and this tutorial for a little inspiration!

Comments welcomed!

This morning I got an email from FastWeb with the title ‘FastWeb Alert’. At first I wondered if I had finally been awarded one of the many scholarships I had applied for. As suspected, that was not the case.

The first paragraph of the email was as follows:

Recently, a column appeared in Newsweek (full article can be found here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/135371) analyzing FastWeb, how we operate, and the services we offer. While we were disheartened to read this criticism of FastWeb - as we feel we truly provide a valuable service in matching you with the right opportunities to obtain free money to help you pay for school - we were also inspired by the students and educators who responded to us, (and some even to Newsweek editors!) referencing their dissatisfaction with the column.

The news article is very interesting and reveals a lot of points my friends and I have discussed. It goes into detail how FastWeb is being used by corporate sponsors for cheap promotion.

An instance is brought up about a Chuck E. Cheese scholarship. It suggested singing up to its newsletter when applying for the scholarship. This is a simple way to harvest many emails to use in promotions later on.

According to Chuck E. Cheese spokesperson Brenda Holloway, more than 1.6 million contestants signed up for the contest, which ended last week. She doesn’t specify how many of those joined the club (typically in contests, the majority of entrants take the suggested path), but did say that the club’s population rose. That’s hundreds of thousands of new Chuck E. members, at a cost of to the company of a few pennies each. And only one got a scholarship.

I agree very much so with this article. FastWeb is a lottery of sorts.

Now, in their defense.. I do think it would be awfully hard to try to offer scholarships to this many people. It just just the whole website seems to be over monetized and the initial goal seems to have been forgotten.

Many apologies for not posting lately. I would like to blame it on my constant and continuous studying for school but I just can not. I hope to make a come back to blogging very soon.

Last night a friend of mine gave me an amazing complement. She said “You have already done so much for the [reptile] community at your age” and she went on to say “I wish I had such direction in my life at your age.” Now, I thought at 19 I would stop getting these complements but I really do enjoy them. She was referring to my most recent project, www.ReptileNetwork.net. I have never felt that my websites I have created, be it reptile related or not, have really given much back. I am an entrepreneur and I am not sure if my goals have been set right. I always look for ideas that will be popular and possibly profitable. This opens a new door for me though, what if giving back makes things better for people in general? I feel like this would be better for myself, and the visitor. It could quite possibly end up being more successful than I had originally hoped for as well. In writting this I feel like it would be a good idea to open up to other people’s ideas, asking what they would like to see added to their community. I originally started with the phrase “It’s your community, make it what you want.” I feel like going back to the roots of things, and keeping this as my most important idea.

One of my biggest problems as an online entrepreneur is that I am always brimming with ideas, but it is rare that I follow through with them all, or even a few. I honestly need to start an idea notebook because I feel like a lot of them could be very profitable.

About a week ago my brother, dad, and I were on our way to Ikea. My brother, Chandler, had a thought process that closely resembles one that I commonly have and it left me in deep thought. His idea was to start a company that folds cranes (the bird) out of napkins and sell them. This seemed utterly ridiculous to me, but my dad helped him try to develop it further. My brother was so very convinced that it was his future, and would be his career when he was old enough to own his own company. My dad said, if you find the right market it may be successful.

Most of my friends know, I often have ideas that I am passionate about. I feel like these ideas are gold mines, and absolutely must be followed through. Let me give you a few examples. Second semester of my senior year I had it set in my mind that I needed an office. From this office I would go out and find clients for web design, and probably only break even. For some reason I felt like I really needed to do this. Thankfully, I never did. I do still think it would be a fun and positive experience but I know it would have probably put me in the negative or only broken even. Another one I have had in the past few months is to open a laser tag location with my dad. These ideas, thinking back over the ones I have had, need to be followed through. If I could only have a 1 to 5 follow through rate I think I could be successful.

Tonight I talked with a few friends about death. If I could live to be 80 years old, I could have 61 years more of life. Roughly 3 times the amount of time I have lived this far. I think I can accomplish what I want by then, travel where I want as well. Money is the issue. The goal for myself is to never be strapped down to a corporate job that controls my life more than I do. I hope to be a successful business owner that will be able to do as I wish with my life without worries. Long shot, but how amazing would that be.

By the way, I love Bret Dennen.

I wanted to take the time to wish all my friends a Happy New Year’s! I hope 2008 is happy and prosperous for everyone. I look forward to proceeding with projects and learning more over the next year. I hope to meet many more wonderful people and continue relationships with friends I am in contact with now. Resolutions? I have never been a big one for those, but I’d love to write here more.

Happy New Year

I really wanted to start this entry with this picture, but couldn’t get it to fit. It’s Christmas time but it feels very different this year. I know I should be thinking of the reason for the season but this time around isn’t quite the same. This year Dad has had a hard time keeping business and is struggling to meet his end of the year quota. Knowing these kinds of things makes me miss childhood but I know it is part of growing up. He informed me this year we were to go shopping for Christmas together because he hasn’t gotten anyone a thing. Now normally it is a big deal that Dad buys super awesome presents and tries his best to keep them from him. This year, after dealing with health issues and work, Dad just hasn’t been the same. While we were shopping he asked if I wanted this or that, and I said yes please. He said it would be a surprise when I opened it. I thought that was just going to be one or two things, but I picked out all of my presents from him! My mom of course bought me a few things, but she buys the oddest things. Last year I got a humidifier from her, and she is always a big fan of stocking stuffers. Those little things that make no sense to be in a Christmas gift lineup, or are useless. She mailed me a pack of hot coco she got for free I am sure just a few weeks ago.Outside of this, it is the first year I have helped wrap the presents from Santa. Dad just kept telling me how burnt out he was. I think the stress of work, his recent diagnosis of high cholesterol and dealing with my mom is just a combination that has resulted in a need for a break. His reasoning today when I told him things don’t feel the same was “This happens every few years.” He went on to say that Christmas should just be a gift or two, look around — it’s ridiculous he said. Growing up is weird.

Over the Winter break I have been spending a lot of time online looking for ways to produce a steady income with little work. Isn’t this everyone’s dream? I have put considerable consideration in opening up a proxy network but I am worried. It is a big investment, sounds like a good amount of work (3-4 hours a day) and will be hard to break $1,000 per month. I think developing a good website in the field of reptiles will be my solution. I am working with a friend to develop a new site that will serve as a portal to my other reptile sites, as well as hopefully be useful to reptile keepers. I currently run a few websites relating to reptiles. One is Gecko Topsites, averaging between 90 and 100 unique visits a day. Bearded Dragon Topsites was my next venture, but is not near as successful, only getting 10 to 20 unique visits a day. Finally, is Reptile Wallpapers which is still under development but will be a good site if I ever get the code sorted out. My new site, called Reptile Network will be a portal to all these sites, as well as a link database, free image hosting, chat, and topsite. Wish me luck!

I think my strength is that I develop many ideas, my weakness is ability to keep them sorted out and follow through with them. When writing essays to apply to colleges last year this was always a question, maybe I have finally answered it. Dad told me I should list something I could turn around into an advantage, but I am not sure how I can use this to my advantage.

Well, this is my hodge-podge of what is going on lately. I have so much more to say but feel like if you’re reading this you’re overwhelmed enough as it is. Find any of this interesting? Leave me a comment saying hi or asking a question… it’d be some real motivation to write a little more.

Happy Holidays

Today was a pleasant change to say the least. After going to Wendy’s for dinner a few nights ago after exams I was disappointed by employee’s care for any client.

I stopped by StarBucks on the way home from college today and asked for just regular coffee. I had never ordered anything of the such and she kindly guided me through the process. I ended up getting Columbian coffee and found a happy medium when I loaded it with sugar. I then stopped by PetCo to get some crickets for my last remaining gecko. Normally the people are put out to get these for you, but she was very kind and even called me sweety! When she rung me out, she charged me for 12, when I bought 24. I doubt she intended this, but I like to think my manners and charm paid off.

I then drove home and unloaded my car, I was on a mission to find a car wash that could shampoo a terrible smell that was in my carpet for an unfortunate chemical reaction that happened in my “hatch” of my car, or the sort of trunk I have in my jeep. I stopped by Hurricane Bay car wash in Loganville, but they did not offer such a service. He kindly guided me to another car wash in Grayson that would offer what I was looking for. I went there, and explained to the service lady what happened and what I was looking for. After discussing prices with her I chose to get my back seat, back carpet, and trunk shampooed/steam cleaned. It was only $5 or so more to do the back seat, so I was happy to have it added on. She was distressed by the smell almost as much as I was and offered free “odor eliminating” spray. I gladly took the offer. Well, it turned out to be a $50 cleaning but so far it has been well worth it. When I got my keys and got in my car the man who I talked to second came up and spoke with me. I noticed my front mats from the car were gone and it looked like they had shampooed the front carpets as well. He told me he thought he had taken care of the smell for me, and he shook my hand and thanked me for my business. Why can’t more establishments take pride in their work, preform above the standard, and be thankful? I guess at that point I should have tipped by but I was so blow away by the service I forgot. I paid $50 though.

Next I preceded to Home Depot to get some potting soil and mulch to clean out my red foot tortoise pen. I chose some organic potting soil, only about a dollar a bag, and cypress mulch that was marketed towards playgrounds for kids. I brought it up to the cashier and she immediately insisted that I go with the cheaper brand, due to it being softer when she walked bear foot on it. At first I wasn’t sure what to think but when she offered to come guide me to it, I followed along to see where the journey would go. She took me over to the row past what I had chosen and explained to me why cypress is a good choice, in durability, and that it is the best ground cover they sell. I then told her it was for tortoises and we had an in depth conversation about reptiles, including her past Burmese python and my gecko breeding experience. After she checked me out we talked about my future, and she asked if I was studying reptiles in college. I explained how I was going the route of getting a business degree, and how it seemed to be a catch all I could use to start whatever I’d like to in life. It really made me happy to be able to talk reptiles and educate her co employee about them, that is something I miss greatly from the pet store. After that I made my way to Ingles. I will not go into detail about what I got, but when I was checking out the teller was impressively polite and carried a good conversation of “How are you’s” and so on. Even if it was small talk, it’s much better than the blank stares you get from most cashiers now-a-days.

On the ride home, before any of this happened, I was dreading going to the store. Christmas season means chaos I thought, but I was delighted to find just the opposite.