bennybox

Man I’ve had to reject half a dozen or so of my schemes because they didn’t meet some of the criteria I mentioned in my the first post. If I remember them a week from now, they’ll make for a good blooper/outtakes post.

19) There’s something inherrently evil when a hot fad is a product of careful mathematical analysis and is brewed somewhere in a marketing department somwhere. Someone actually said somewhere, “We stand to make a killing if we somehow convince America that those ugly-ass trucker hats are cool.” And thus, the most embarrassingly unfashionable novelty was re-released onto the masses something of a year ago. What the consuming population needs is a non-profit watchdog organization that will spot - and stop- such fashion faux pas from ever seeing the light of day. Maybe one day, we can live in a world without men’s thongs, low rise jeans for waists larger than 27 inches, fur where the animal’s head is still attached, and anything and everything gothic. But this public interest organization is extensible beyond the world of fashion. Imagine if companies weren’t allowed to make food, videogames, books, magazines, music, etc. if they were deemed to be too shitty to be exposed to the mass public?

20) Toronto is a pretty poorly planned city. Of course, the planners who carved the footprint of our urban nightmare couldn’t have imagined the growth we’ve experienced just over the past 30 years. The problem lies with the increasing number of infrastructure networks that need to coexist: public transit, roads, highways, power and information lines, waterways, radio and cellular to pick some off my brain. Could an elastic metropolis for a few million be designed from scratch, from the ground up? Various groups, planners, government, architechts, corporations, could come together and design the “City the Works”. Public transit, whether subways, streetcars, buses and even webs of moving platforms, could almost eliminate the heavy reliance on personal transportation. Wireless internet could be available from your bedroom, sidewalks, parks or even on the subway, all accessed and billed to one user account. Urban sprawl and bland comcrete skylines could be avoided. A city where no one smokes, drives fossil fuel powered cars, or operates polluting industry would keep air quality high, and heck, even designated HT Segway lanes could be added to major roads. Sometimes I hate everything wrong with urban living so much that it makes me want to move into the country and run a farm. I think we know enough about the cause of all our city problems that, done right, the next city that springs up can be the best place to live on earth.

21) All these ideas are just too much work and require too much planning/know how. Franchising is the easy ticket for the he who must work for himself, but still wants others to do most of the work for them. I’m thinking running a Pizza Pizza or KFC would help me gain those extra pounds I’ve been looking for, not to mention accelerating the wait for my first heart attack… which I don’t think is too far off however. Oh, and you know how there’s a completely unfullfilled gap in the fast food industry.

[1][2][3][4] This shows exactly the kind of self-serving, shallow and completely ridiculus attitude I now love to loathe from the typical North American-Asian youth. Then again, most Asians have been having problems trying to demonstrate any sort of intelligence on the internet, so it’s nO dOUbt dAt deY haF 2 dIlUTe dA xPIRIeNzE 4 dA rESt oF uZ. If Asians can’t find a way to turn a website into some sort of popularity contest, like how they’ve culled Asian Avenue, Friendster, Xanga, Gunbound, Hot or Not, eh wot, then those are the sites you should bookmark today. The rest can drift away into electronic oblivion for all I care.

I’m surprisingly still tolerant of kiddy l33t sp33k though, or even extremist Republicans. Something about annoying Asians that are just _that_ much more infuriating to me than governments who want to ruin the planet for everyone.

Damn, this is hard. Half done though!

13) Ever notice really a unique business model? When you have a very successful company, it’s expected for copycat startups or subsidaries to popup and emulate the business as steal market share. But sometimes you get those interesting anomolies that seem to carve their way out of a field of me-too businesses and hold on to their niche. I think MEC is a good example. Started by some UBC grads a couple decades ago, the MEC backpack logo is as synonomous with Canadians travellers as the sewn flag or even *cringe* the tim hortons cup (owned by the very American, and very Dave Thomas-less Wendy’s). I don’t really have an way to tap into the “hip-esque Canadian patriot” market without selling beer or coffee of donuts, but should a novel idea pop into my head… it’ll be worth considering. Sometimes in marketing, you know how you’re going to market the product before you know what the product is.

14) More on the theme of venues for late night shenanigans. Shouldn’t theme parks be open late? Why do the nightclubs at Disney Land close at 1am? There’s NOTHING to do in Orlando at night. That just doesn’t seem right… I don’t quite think a bubble tea joint would quite kick it… but all night rollercoasters or something would be pretty hype. It’s the kind of thing that could actually fly only in LA or Flo.

15) One of the few jobs that I think i might be able to tolerate not working for myself for a majority of my working career is project manager for videogame development. It’s a damn hard field to get into, especially when I have no interest to work on coding sound, textures, programming, the bulk of all videogame development work. But it sure as heck doesn’t mean I haven’t been looking for opportunities these past few years.

Ug… not looking good.

10) Today my co-worker was explaining to me how he’s part of a start-up engineering consulting firm in his spare time. He plans to do this full time when he graduates next year. Consulting or research is really the only engineering position I can see myself enjoying as a career. However, I have no such experience. Actually my resume is pretty bare and unimpressive. My lack of advantage in this job market is further motivation to get off my butt and actually figure out what else I can do come winter 2006. Freelance home renovation contractor? I’m hoping to renovate my kitchen and flooring myself. I’ll decide on that one if I can do a good job at home.

11) Eugene mentioned a 24 hour car detailing shop in the comments of my last post. This was one of my wild and wacky ideas one late night in the Saugs. It was late, and Eugene’s rice rocket was embarassing too stock to be driven by a spiky-haired asian, and needed some serious laden-with-soup properties. It was very late at night, and our excitment to modify or detail his car was peaked during those wee hours. There simply isn’t anything else to do after 8PM over there, unless you’re in some badminton league or something. So the idea for a 24 hour autoshop was born. Super-asianified of course, with strobe lights, bubble tea, arcades, foosball tables, karaoke to occupy yourselves while your wheels were in the shop. Yes, this is a stupid idea, but wouldn’t it make you cry if you ever saw one? That’s incentive enough for me to lose $100,000 in venture capital.

12) Gigolo? It’s all profit baby. Choose your own hours too. Would I need a pimp mommy? Do pimp mommies give benefits? When you’re part of an employee purchase program, does that mean you own some of the other hoes? The dynamics of pimponomics really makes you wonder.

It’s been longer than I thought since I last placed a finger on the playstation 2. The videogame console that has dominated the family room around the world is slowy growing old, becoming a new home for my dead skin cells and apparently some spiders too. You’re probably feeling sorry for my very unloved playstation. You’re crazy. The graphics are dated, game experience hollow, and no longer a sexy electronic must have. Besides, the newer gamecube is much nicer.

I think I need to play some kingdom hearts though. I love that game, despite whatever Tim Rogers may say.

4) I have several hundred CDs sitting in a box in my house. They’re all useless. Most of them are software that’s long become dated and isn’t even fit for giving away. But they have a lot of mass, and I can’t bring myself to dump them into a garbage can. There are a few companies in the states, where you can mail unwanted CDs, tapes, electronics, and other media that is otherwise hard to dispose of. Rather than throw them into a landfill, they break these things up, process them, and use the materials in plastics. I’ve been waiting a few years for such a service be widely available to Canadians, though the process doesn’t seem lucrative enough to entice investors. I’m sure an investor with the right facilties could get contracts with some municipal governments interested in diverting more waste from landfills.

5) In a lot of industries which were typically focused on mass producing products and services to a large anonymous audience, personalization and personalized products seems to be the next huge innovation. I’m not talking about those pens that say, “Bort” at the souvenir shop. Rather, fully personalized PCs, websearch, clothing, purses, home renovation, tivo, eh wot. These products and services allow the customer to claim ownership to an expereience on a personal and intimate level that the black Lack table at Ikea can’t quite offer (jsut about everyone has that damn thing). Some passing thoughts of markets that haven’t really tapped into a deep level of personalization though could likely benefit (not too niche): a brick and mortar hip clothing store where every item is personalized ala neighbourhoodies, personalized action figures in an individual’s likeness, or legal music mix CDs burned for you on the spot while chilling in a cafe. Some that tried but seemed too stupid: basketball shoes, personalized content on any non-amazon or friendster website, various your name on [rice|poster|dog|left nut], and although they’re never meant to make money those damn internet polls: what [soprano|vegetable|type of rock|FM frequency|gelatnous sweet] are you?

6) A comic book store! There are already a lof of these around town, but nearly all of them are run by tight-ass jerkwads. When the condition grade of your inventory is more important than pleasing customers, you just make me want to run a better comic book store than yours and run you out of town. This would probably be as fun/nerdy as work can get.

Waiting for the bus for forty-five minutes on Friday at McCowan station gave me a lot of opportunity to observe my surroundings. One particular image is still fresh in my mind, even though it’s three days old.

A woman, in her thirties, obviously took care of herself. Well groomed, hot black heels, with a long beige overcoat and matching dress pants. She had arrived at the station to realize that her ride wasn’t there to pick her up yet. It was much too cold and misty to stand around outside, so she patiently waited inside, like the rest of us civilized folk waiting for the bus to arrive.

In anticipation, her long slender fingers pulled out a cigarrette from it’s mint cardboard box. The box was probably half empty, but you would never have known from its pristine condition. Obviously, you can’t smoke inside a TTC station, so she just stood there, cigarette in hand, idly watching for her husband/chauffeur to arrive curbside, a mere five metres away.

A few minutes pass. My bus is nearing half an hour late, but the woman’s ride arrives much closer to its expected time. She rushes out the station door, quickly lights her cigarette with a lighter, takes one puff at the curb and tosses an otherwise fresh cigarette to the ground, adding to the litter on Toronto’s streets.

She hops into the minivan, which promptly takes off to a no doubt more relaxing environment.

I can only presume that the woman at this point has another new cigarette, in her hands, waiting for the car to arrive home so she can take another puff before she steps through her front door.

In the name of personal development, and a small step in trying to figure out what I can do with my life, I’ve decided to catalogue some of my money making ideas here.

For ten days, I’ll come up with three ways to make money, whether it be a main source of income, or just a nice flow of money on the side. The only basic requirements are that it be something within my capabilities, something I can start in the next three years, and it doesn’t oppose any of my ethical beliefs or the law (selling pirated software, for example).

I’d like it for each idea to fill a need that isn’t met in the current marketplace, but some ideas will be basic, like work for a company, or trading commodities.

The guiding principle here is that it only takes one or two good ideas to become very successful financially; so a lot of the ideas can be bad, it’s just part of the process. And although I’m not a big fan of capitalism, and it’s crush the opposition, survival of the fittest mentality, I’m probably still going to want to make some cash. I don’t think I’ve noticed too many social activists affording the coolest high-tech gadgets.

Feel free to drop in your own ideas, it’ll just make it harder for me to come up with some good ones.

1) On the road that I’m on now, I’ve almost secured myself a spot in a mechanical engineering capacity, working for some company, somewhere. Engineers make good money, but I’d be in a do what I’m told position, just applying engineering fundamentals to various situations, and hopefully with the opportunity for advancement somewhere along the line. Personally, I don’t think this really offers much in personal growth opportunities, but this is obviously a pretty safe choice.

2) In the States, there’s NetFlix A .com startup a few years old that rents DVDs online, through a fairly innovative business model, where there are no late fees or shipping costs, and movies on your “Wishlist” get automatically mailed to you when you’ve mailed back one you’ve finished watching. All you pay is a monthly fee, and you can have up to three movies at any one time for $20 USD a month. There’s another similar company around that does the same thing for videogames, and both companies are doing quite well. I think this concept could fly quite well in Canada, as we’re a little more technically proficient on the average up here.

3) Selling on Ebay. I know this is one of the most common, lazy-man self-run type of business, but it’s hard to argue the simplicity of the business model: Drive around town, finding things to buy cheap, and selling them for a profit online. You can’t be stupid about it though. You have to be a pretty smart shopper, i.e. have an abnormal ability to remember prices and product descriptions when out growing your inventory, and you have to know in which categories exist worthwhile profit margins. My expertise include item in the following categories: videogames with a collectible appeal, consumer electronics, sport memorabilia, comic books, and most all other nerdy things. Flea markets would be scoured, garage sales would be pillaged and girl guide cookies would be hoarded, all in the name of the bottom line.

I had a fun weekend, had it been my birthday or otherwise. I’m starting to deviate from my technosexual persona. I now love power tools.

Energy is a commodity, and it doesn’t come cheap. In fact, to produce electrical energy in our homes and businesses and mechanical energy for cars and trucks creates a huge negative impact on the environment, which can’t provide us with resources forever.

Even if you don’t pay for utilities, you can still do your part by helping to reduce our demand, and thus our reliance, on energy. But generally, saving energy means nothing but good things.

Here are some energy saving habits I try to use as much as I can.

• Conserve water! Fix leaky faucets, don’t run water when it’s not being used, even if only for a few seconds! Don’t run water at full pressure; there’s almost never such a need. Love the rain! It saves you from having to water the lawn. Using low flow showerheads and toilets is a real money saver too.
• Recycle! It takes a lot less energy to make a popcan from recycled metal than from raw materials. I’ll always hold on to recyclables, taking them home if neccessary, rather than throwing them away. Recycle paper instead of tossing it! Trees are pretty, and keep us alive. This also reduces the amount of waste going into dumps, a tax cost that will only increase as the years go by.
• Woah there, go easy on the pedal! Highway driving between 80 and 90 KPH is the most fuel efficient for most cars. Only specially designed cars can take advantage of higher octane gasoline; so don’t waste your money if you don’t have a ferrari. You’d be surprised of the impact keeping car tires pumped to the rated pressure will have for your fuel economy too.
• Turn off the lights! Heating and lighting is easily the largest draw of energy in homes. Learn how to use the windows to your advantage to cool your house in the summer and warm it up in the winter. Buy energy saving light bulbs. These can slash your electricity bill. Use a toaster oven instead of a conventional one. A microwave is cheaper to run than the stove. Hang dry your clothes when you can! Also, turn off computers at night, or when you’re away for extended periods of time. Especially in the summer as this is counter-productive for space cooling activities.

Hey, you should get a new furnace for your house too! Today’s furnaces can save you money over the long run over furnaces as little as five years old.

I would also recommend a ground exchanger heat pump if you lived up north, like Winnipeg of Calgary or something. You run pipes deep into the ground in a loop that cycles special antifreeze. It draws heat from the earth’s core in the winter, and you can expel heat to it in the summer. Although they run on electricity, it still saves you money on the whole.

I can’t forget hybrid cars. They’re part electric (for city driving), and a gas engine kicks in at higher speeds. They charge themselves when you slow down (kinetic energy to electric). They’re several times more fuel efficient than even a Honda Civic. And, ironically, Lexus is making a luxury hybrid SUV, well known to guzzle gas, and its due out this year. It’ll might actually work in North America.

These tips can save you lots of money, and it’ll help keep the earth a little greener a little longer.

I’m an enviro-nazi, spreading enviro propaganda. Reduce, reuse, recycle under by iron fist!

Aside: Why are female eco-terrorists so proud of their unshaven armpits? Does that really help anyone? It’s just yuckyness to the max.

A blast from the past (sorta): The Wayback Machine *flashback sequence begins ala Scooby Doo: woobaloobaloo woobaloobaloo*

hiyo.org can come quite a ways since its humble beginnings on the crappiest free sites (we were so asian… read:cheap). I think we have a damn good collection of personal websites here, and the hiyo.org main page (which I admit was only created to make my own surfing easier) has evolved pretty nicely since the old pages you can check on the Wayback Machine (not all the pages quite render without the linked images, but FYI the 2001 layout was Gorillaz themed). Remember that this was back when I thought Dreamweaver was the coolest program in the world. I now realize that it was needlessly complicated, and I like my hard-coded pages a bit better.

I sure don’t complain about our healthy 30 unique hits a day to the main page. Though that’s pretty damn low, it’s more than I would usually expect. considering we used to get 10 or less hits a day not too long ago. Just a couple more before we overtake Yahoo!

It’s only been for the past couple months that hiyo.org has become one of my daily reads, though there’s not always new content. It’s almost become “worth reading” if there is such a thing on the internet.

And just from going through my archived posts just 8 months old, I can really see the difference in my post writing style. And even more from a couple years ago. Sadly, not nearly the same dedication of writing about hotties i see on the street. The rough reality of me growing into my relationship, and the sugar famine that plagues my Steeles bus route to work each day and the Waterloo campus in terms of eye candy. There are hunnies out there somewhere… they may avoid eye contact, but I know you’re there baby.

Here’s to another three years of hiyo.org, and another three years sodomy free for me! Hurrah! Let’s celebrate. What say you to cake?… with twenty-two candles (plus one for good luck)?… this Saturday?…

I spent yesterday evening and this afternoon updating the hiyo.org main page. As i mentioned a few months ago, i’ll change the look and feel of the page every season.

Spring is here! It’s getting warm, most of the snow has melted. I can go outside in a t-shirt when I go out galavanting with the urban squirrels. As such, hiyo.org shouldn’t have that chilly-frosty feel. I think the new colors are a bit warmer, but not too warm.

I like the general layout of the page, but not enough that a few colour changes would satisfy my internal web designer. I think the usability of the page is pretty good, and won’t instantly alienate new visitors, but the look on a whole needed some freshening up.

That’s why I spent the time to create little avatars for each member of the hiyo.org community. I used an online avatar creator that seemed to do exactly what I wanted. Of course, I had to alter simon’s avatar with the winter hat I got him for christmas. Toe’s beard probably isn’t that dramatic. Devin’s hair is a little more stubbly though goes through frequent transformations. Eugene’s hair probably isn’t blue right now (and i don’t think he has ear cuffs). And I looked boring with no distinguishing features, so i gave myself a wacky expression and a goofy borg eye-piece.

Here are large versions of those avatars (bigger versions than the ones on the main page, presented for your web development convenience):

I also made little name images, as the difference between the old large plain text letters and my funky new font i found (i actually knew what the font i wanted should look like, i just needed to surf for a while to find it) is quite dramatic.

Ok, so yeah I know it snowed today, and it’s not officially spring for a few more weeks. To you complainers I say, “Why must you make me cry like this? Can’t you tell from my fruity design that I might be sensitive to such harsh comments?”

geek speak edit: damn, i just realized that the w3c standard doesn’t show alt text in a tag as a tooltip! apparently such info should be in the title attribute instead. alas, i don’t think i’ll crawl through all my html just so i can see my witty comments over images in mozilla… since i’m the only one that uses it. i suppose i shouldn’t complain, with my interest in web standard compliance and all.

I think it’s bad enough that videogames already have such a huge influence over my everyday thoughts. The thing with me is I hardly give myself the time to play any games. I’ll squeeze in a couple hours here and there to remind myself what I love about RPGs, Twitch gameplay, stat boosting, item collecting, dungeon crawling, puzzle solving, or blowing up giant floating eyeballs.

For someone who spends almost every waking, and unwoken moment fantasizing either my life as a videogame, or a controller locked between my cold dead fingers, I find I don’t really play that much. Much less than your typical casual gamer at least. In fact, I spend more time reading about upcoming videogames, opinion pieces on where the industry is going, where it’s been, or recounts of incredibly memorable videogame experiences than I actually spend playing my love and joy.

I’ve read so much on videogames, probably more than any other topic I’ve ever read about, that I don’t think there’s any sort of obscure humourous videogame reference I won’t on some level understand, despite never having played or seen the source of reference. It’s probably what makes every single bloody Penny Arcade comic hilarious to me.

How appropriate now that it is videogames, or rather a loving memory of videogaming days past, that have instilled an interest in creating music that I’ve never seen before. I actually want to be in a rock band today. How odd. Me of all people who’s never had the slightest desire to produce anything musical whatsoever. Now you all know my weakness.

Here’s why: Download, rock out, and enjoy.
The Black Mages