America's Beach Bum

Time travel

Surfin Sid — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:56:41 +0000

I’m currently trying to get back my care free youth. If only I could find my Flux Capacitor. I found a web site that has Flux Capacitor Electrical Theory so I think I can make the darn thing work…if only I could find it.

The reason all of this has come up is a friend of mine [an old co-worker] is turning 30 pretty quick and he reminded me that I’m not as young an I once was. So now I want to use the space-time continuum to become young again. My early twenties would be just about perfect.

Closer to heading to Michigan

Surfin Sid — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:09:12 +0000

I’ll be leaving pretty soon for Michigan. I can’t wait!

Newish computers

Surfin Sid — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:14:44 +0000

Over the weekend I was given two computers by a photographer friend of mine. He had been using one to host a handfull of websites. The other one I’m not sure how it was used. They are both HP WK 4200 Workstations. They have a lot more power than my current PC so I am very happy with the gifts.

Now I must begin the process of reinstalling the operating system and configuring the hardware. Once the OS is up and running I will begin installing the software that I want to use on it. Then I will take the old computer out of service and begin moving the Firewire and TV cards into the new machine. Once that is complete I will format the hard drive with in the old computer and gift that to someone else. Such is the circle of life freecycling.

After I have both computers up and running I will have a terabyte of storage between the two computers. I’m trying to figure out how a humble beach bum such as myself will utilize that amount of storage.

Heading to Michigan

Surfin Sid — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:30:17 +0000

I received and invitation from my former apprentice to visit him for two weeks. In return for his hospitality I agreed to help him paint his house. Just a couple of days work and we will spend the rest of the time bumming around the west coast of Michigan.

I’ve enjoyed spending time in South Haven and Holland on prior trips to Michigan. They both have great beaches with lots of activity. I can usually find a volleyball game to crash or make friends with a boat owner who might take me out on the lake.

I’m pretty sure that I won’t have to spend more than $100 once I arrive in Michigan. Just a little sweat helping Beach_Guy with his painting project. I’ll be leaving in a couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to it.

Extending the beach bum brand

Surfin Sid — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:05:03 +0000

I have recently decided to extend the beach bum brand to merchandise. The first step is to have an image created that would look good on t-shirts, mugs, board shorts, etc. I’ve talked with an artist who has taken the project on but I’m curious what the beach bum community could come up with.

So if you are artistically gifted and feel the urge to submit a beach bum related digital image to me you will be entered into the 2009 Beach Bum Image Contest. I’m looking for a beachy graphic that might include a surf board, palm trees, hammock or beach chair, volleyball, frisbee….you get the idea.

To win your image must be more appealing to me than all other submitted images including the image prepared by the professional artist. It also must be your own work. The winning image will become the primary image of America’s Beach Bum.

The winner would receive a t-shirt along with several other pieces of beach bum swag and $100.00. The $100.00 is payable upon the sale of the first 100 items of beach bum merchandise.

All submitted images become the property of America’s Beach Bum. If America’s Beach Bum uses a non winning image the creator of the image will be compensated $25.00 upon the the sale of the first 25 items of beach bum merchandise.

Happy 4th of July

Surfin Sid — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:01:20 +0000

Heading to the beach. Then watching fireworks. Going to be chilling most of the day

Be my friend on Swagbucks

Surfin Sid — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:44:40 +0000

I’ve been using SwagBucks for several months now and have earned 255 Swag Bucks from search and 2 Swag Bucks (SB) from friends.

The way that it works is you use the SwagBucks site for searches and occasionally they reward you with Swag Bucks. The most Swag Bucks that I won was 10 on a single search. I was pretty excited.

You can redeem your Swag Bucks for merchandise or gift certificates. Right now I’m saving my Swag Bucks for a big prize…a PS3. It’ll be a while before I reach the 4500 SB needed to “buy” the PS3.

When you join as my friend [by clicking the image above] I earn a SB when you earn a SB. I could use some new friends, so if SwagBucks sounds like your cup of tea click the SwagBucks image and become a friend. Thanks!

Time to Twitter

Surfin Sid — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:10:26 +0000

I’ve decided to join the Twitter community. So far I have 12 followers, not to bad for a Twitter noob. Check me out as I tweet.

I actually found out about the US victory over Spain in soccer while on Twitter. Pretty cool.

Done moving files

Surfin Sid — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:21:43 +0000

The move for my main site has been complete. The final files where FTP’d to the new host. As I worked on the move I made some edits to the site using my vast HTML knowledge. The next two tasks I want to accomplish are adding content and making the site easier to edit on the global level instead of on a per page level.

I’ve got a couple of ideas for content and I am going to talk with an artist about images for the website. I’m also researching JavaScript options for streamlining the editing process of maintaining the website.

Hosting change

Surfin Sid — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:14:01 +0000

….for the main website. This blog stays where it has been. If you have been visiting the main website you would have noticed that there was some advertising that interrupted the header images. The company that had been hosting the site decided to add advertising to the websites that they hosted for free. Although this is pretty common for “free” hosting services to do it was a change that I was not going to accept. So I started to look for a new free host.

I was able to find a new hosting company that offered free hosting without host added advertising. So I signed up to give them a try. I then went to Godaddy to switch the nameservers to those of the new host. While I was waiting for the Internet to reboot [haha] and send traffic to the new host I began to move files from the old host to the new host.

As of right now I have not moved all the files to the new host but the important ones are in place and the website is back to looking great. In case you are interested in a free host here is my affiliate link: http://www.000webhost.com/