Since
I am becoming a grandparent around the first of June, I
have been investigating nicknames by asking people I
know what they called their grandparents. I've gotten
some interesting replies.
A lot of people here in Alabama, use Meemaw and Papaw.
One of my friends says her grandkids called her Oma and
her husband was Opa (long "o"). Then, there's Granny and
Pappy.
I asked my daughter what her husband's parents are
called (they have grandchildren from his brother). They
are called simply "Grandma and Grandpa." Actually, that
is all I ever called my grandparents, too. So we all
seem to be in accord here, Grandma and Grandpa for both
sides, it is!
Here's a site where you can design and print a
pattern that folds into a box. That is fun enough, but I
died laughing when I read the testimonials under the
diagram here. (Click on box 1*, box 2*, etc. - thanks
again to Pat L). I never realized how much a little box
could enrich my life.
Here's
a great link from Pat L. -
PocketMod, the Disposable Personal Organizer. If
you have no trouble whipping out a sheet on your
printer, this could be very useful. You can design it
right online and print one out, then throw it away the
next day, if desired - all free.
The program is in beta format, but should work fine for
most of us. Once I got the hang of this, it was
fun to design my own minibook. Templates are provided -
just drag and drop them on any blank page.
Here's
a
Google search just for blogs. I have mixed
feelings about this. In a way, I don't like blogs being
excluded from the regular search engine. It will hurt
traffic to blogs and make it too easy to ignore them.
On the other hand, many times I have wanted to search
just blogs to see what others are saying about a
subject. I know Google must have done this because users
complained about hitting too many blog entries in a
"regular" search, but it wasn't that hard to skip
through those -- and the line between a blog and news
report can be confusing. How do they judge which is
which?
It
looked like a good science fiction movie in the
previews. We had not seen the TV show this was based on,
Firefly, although from the chatter we read online, it
was a cool TV show, so we went to see the movie.
It should appeal to Chronicles of Riddick fans. It was
well-made and kept my interest - although my husband was
checking his watch fairly often. (That's how I rate his
interest in a movie. The more time checks he makes, the
more bored he is and this one bored him a bit.)
I
think part of the problem is this one is obviously
geared to the 17-19 year old crowd and we are nearly 50.
(It was a little hard to accept that a petite, 17
year-old, 90-pound girl could beat up an entire room of
strong men. I imagine little teenaged girls loved that,
though.)
Inspite of it, I liked this movie. I was sad to
see so many good people die, but the plot was great, the
story interesting, the characters well-developed and the
special effects were perfect. The last part contained
lots of edge-sitting action and gory violence.
2. It can be a pill, house
cleaner, shoe polish, drink, gasoline additive -
whatever.
3. Give it a unique name.
That way, nobody has heard of it so there won't be any
negative information online for anyone to find. You may
want to also invent names for a major ingredient or two
in the product and claim that the name is based on some
ancient powerful substance or natural herb. Everybody
loves something based on a "natural" herb because they
think it has to be somehow better for them with less
side effects than an "artificial" ingredient. Often the
opposite is true, but that is besides the point.
4. Give it a great story:
"Ancient legends mention this ingredient" or "I was
using this for another purpose and accidentally stumbled
on a new use for it."
5.
Publicize testimonials about the miracle cure or whatever
other aspect about the product you can promote: "My
shoes glowed brighter than ever before and stayed shiny
all day" or "My wrinkles disappeared when I spread this
on my face" or "I feel more energetic after taking this
pill" or just the good ole standby, "I feel better after
taking/using this." Testimonials are a ridiculously
easy way to sell something. They don't require any
scientific backing. TV infomercials thrive on
testimonials and you don't have to reveal the "whole
story." (For example, I read about a certain weight loss
supplement. They found sick or hospitalized athletes
who had gained weight as a result of the illness. As the
athletes recovered their once-trim bodies, they became
great testimonials for the product. Of course, no
mention is made about these people being healthy and
trim before. They are promoted as "average housewives,"
etc.)
6. Next, bring in
convincing sales-type personalities. If someone sounds
convincing enough, the power of suggestion will work
wonders to make people think this product is really
effective no matter if it is or not, and then you can
get some testimonials from it. Build on this until it
gains a life of its own, even if all you are selling is
a piece of cardboard. You can sell anything with a good
sales person, having a good voice and charming
personality behind it. "This cardboard is better than
anything on the market today. Just try it for 30 days and
you, too, will be amazed. If not, you can return it."
(Inspite of occasional publicity otherwise, most people rarely bother to return things
even if they don't like them, so you've made
your money right there.) Religious groups are very easy
to target. They are composed of good, believing people
who have faith -- all ready to believe --making them
easy targets for others of the same faith. If not a
religious group, find a club or group of people who
basically believe as you do on other matters - they will
likely listen to you and be more convincible.
7. Flood the internet with
all kinds of positive information about your product. You
can even fake the appearance of a scientific backing
with some of the ingredients. Take water, for example,
water has all kinds of beneficial scientific studies out
which you can construe for your product if it contains
water. Or post some legends about one or more of the
ingredients. Legends are great because they are hard to
prove or disprove.
8. Post messages
everywhere, get domain names, post in message boards
(especially good if you can get postings on sites that
might relate to this product such as a medical board for
a pill or a respected automobile site for a gas additive
- so the invention appears to be "officially
sanctioned.") That way, if anyone does a search for the
unique name for your product, they will only find good
stuff. (If you get famous enough, the debunkers might
turn an eye on you, but by then, you are
well-established, with countless testimonials - and
you've made your millions so you can go on to invent
another product with another unheard-of name if you are
not yet ready to retire on your countless riches. Devout
followers will gladly ignore any practical advice by
that time.)
9. Use fine print. Some
"inconvenient" laws might require you to post
disclaimers, especially if it is an edible product. Post
these in as small a text as possible, at the bottom of
the webpage as obtuse as you can get away with.
Hopefully, nobody will put much stock in the disclaimer.
10. Now, the big key to
making money is to use a pyramid-type scheme. Get others
to sell the product for you. Better yet, get them to
convince others to convince others to sell this item.
The more people you can convince to sell this product,
the more money will trickle back to you. You will make
your millions. Perhaps the people just under you will
make a million or two. It looks good to the people under
them and more will sign up for the pyramid-type selling
techniques in hopes to make millions, too. Sadly, the
market may be well-saturated by then, but you've sold
enough already to make your millions and you can keep
underlings motivated with conventions, more testimonials
and exciting, salesman-type optimistic talk.
I wrote this blog entry
at the suggestion of someone else after we had a
discussion on the gullibility of people. I feel sad for
people who take their life savings or go into a mountain
of debt for a chance to make lots of money in a
pyramid-type scheme. They are led to believe the field
is ripe, ready for them to make money. I know people
personally who have lost more money than they have made
in such activities or they quit their "steady" job and
wasted much time in an obsessive, unsuccessful pursuit
of riches. Sometimes someone succeeds at this. More often, there is loss. (I
bet you can think of a friend who decided to sell
makeup. They invest funds into getting their "kit"
ready. They sell a few items. They feel successful, but
never make enough money at it and quit. If they are
lucky, they might make back the money they invested, but
they will never get back the time wasted.)
Go
to
Make-a-Flake to get your own pair of scissors
and paper. Guiding the scissors with your mouse, you can
cut up the paper any way you wish to make a snowflake,
then watch as your design unfolds - fascinating.
They have a gallery of past creations. Some snowflakes
are pretty elaborate. You can even download your flake
to keep or send it in e-mail. It took me a try or two to
get the hang of cutting, but almost anything turns out
to be pretty interesting. Here is my first creation.
(After a day like yesterday, this simple site is a
welcome diversion.)
Since
I am becoming a grandparent around the first of June, I
have been investigating nicknames by asking people I
know what they called their grandparents. I've gotten
some interesting replies. 
Here's
a great link from Pat L. -
Here's
a
It
looked like a good science fiction movie in the
previews. We had not seen the TV show this was based on,
Firefly, although from the chatter we read online, it
was a cool TV show, so we went to see the movie.
5.
Publicize testimonials about the miracle cure or whatever
other aspect about the product you can promote: "My
shoes glowed brighter than ever before and stayed shiny
all day" or "My wrinkles disappeared when I spread this
on my face" or "I feel more energetic after taking this
pill" or just the good ole standby, "I feel better after
taking/using this." Testimonials are a ridiculously
easy way to sell something. They don't require any
scientific backing. TV infomercials thrive on
testimonials and you don't have to reveal the "whole
story." (For example, I read about a certain weight loss
supplement. They found sick or hospitalized athletes
who had gained weight as a result of the illness. As the
athletes recovered their once-trim bodies, they became
great testimonials for the product. Of course, no
mention is made about these people being healthy and
trim before. They are promoted as "average housewives,"
etc.)
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