Crasymaker

And by “taking a breather” I mean writing here instead of here, here, here, here and here.

In other words, things have been a little busy to say the least. How’s about some updates? OK. You asked for it:

Life at home
Things are hectic around the house with me being so busy but with three wonderful girls surrounding me, I certainly can’t complain. Ok, so two of those girls aren’t humans but still, they’re great. Not as great as this one, though. Not even close.

Wonderstate Media
Things are chugging along smoothly for the company Dustin and I started a few months ago. We’ve both been creating content for our two sites with the help of a handful of incredibly talented contributors. On top of that, Dustin has been running all over town learning the ropes of a salesman while I’ve been acting as bookkeeper and admin for both sites. Running a business is no easy task, folks. At all.

Fayetteville Flyer
The Flyer has been getting bigger and better with each passing day. As mentioned above, we’ve got a team of contributors who graciously donate their talents and passion for Fayetteville on a daily basis. But that’s not all. The Flyer has also managed to round up nearly a thousand unique daily visitors who, according to our analytics, check in 3 to 4 times per day.We could not do it without them.

Besides surpassing the 1000 post mark a few weeks ago, we finally settled on a logo and have begun the process of branding everything that was, to this point, pretty faceless.

We had our first writer meetup last night and we’re very excited about our team.

Local540 Marketplace
The Flyer isn’t the only thing on a roll lately. Our county-wide business directory, Local540 is picking up steam and really starting to make a name for itself in terms of traffic and adoption by many of our local businesses. By creating a tool that is useful to both the consumer and business communities, we’ve found ourselves in a truly unique situation where when asked “What’s your demographic?” we can honestly say “Pretty much everyone.”

The Good Fear
There’s not a whole lot to report by way of the band. We’ve been pretty quiet lately. We did manage to nab a couple of NAMA nominations but weren’t the least bit surprised to find that we didn’t win. Those who did were much more deserving this year.

The Flowers
Our front yard is starting to bloom again. This time of year is pretty bittersweet. It’s so beautiful outside but in about a month, it’ll be two years since my mother’s death. I planted some lilies from her funeral in the front yard but they were kinda cheap and they’re mostly gone by now. We do, however, have some much fancier lilies planted by the door and they’re coming on strong this year. Needless to say, lilies make me think of my mom and probably always will.

We hired our first employee here at Wonderstate Media. She’s in charge of security and her name’s Sadie Pup. Unfortunately, she takes really, really long lunch breaks and ends up sleeping most of the day. I suppose it all equals out in the end since we don’t pay her anything.

The project I have been working on at my new company for the last six months or so went live this week and so far, it’s being received really well. It was even the “Top Story” on the local news and aired at 5pm, 6pm and 10pm. If interested, you can watch it here.

The idea for Local540 initially came out of this tug of responsibility we were feeling to do something about the fact that many of the local businesses in our area don’t have any sort of web presence at all, whether that be because of financial reasons or because they don’t understand the importance of being in the one place where nearly everyone is already looking for them.

We often joked back in the summer of building everyone a very basic Web site so consumers in our area didn’t have to wait for them all to finally get around to doing it themselves. The joke quickly turned to reality once we realized that the technology already exists to make something like this that seems so impossible for a team of just a few people a reality. The only issue was that something on this scale would need some kind of revenue model in order to be sustainable. That’s when the idea of an upgraded site that would allow businesses to take their basic page to the next level by creating a fully integrated marketing platform came about.

And that’s what Local540 is.

For consumers, there is finally a place to go for real local information that is accurate and up to date and includes every business in the area, not just those with deep pockets. For businesses, at the very least, everyone has a Web site that they can log in to and update for free any time they’d like. And if they wish to stand out amongst the crowd and offer more to their customers (and potential customers), upgrading is only a fraction of the expected cost for something like this.

Whereas banner ads on local news sites can run as high as $1000/month, Local540 offers an entire Web site that is already categorized into a county directory at a cost that has been leaving some of our partners with their jaws wide open. To say we’re offering more bang for their buck is a tremendous understatement here.

If you live here in Washington County, Arkansas, please check out Local540. If you don’t, have a look anyway. Just click on “Restaurants” in the left column there to see all the restaurants in our area. Or search for “shoes.” It’s all there. All of it.

I’m drinking this Mimosa out of this plastic cup in celebration of something that I can’t tell you about just yet. I’ll get to that part later. No, we’re not having a baby. It’s work-related.
NOTE: I did not transpose this photo. I took it using Photo Booth and the camera on my iMac. I need to click the “AUTO FLIP NEW PHOTOS” button so future photos don’t make it seem like I wear my wedding ring on the wrong hand. Sorry for the confusion.

The storm is over but the full extent of the mess is now in plain sight. Our front yard tree was completely devastated. The pine tree in our back yard is also torn apart. There are limbs on the ground, on the shed, hanging from other limbs, etc.

We were fortunate to not have any branches land on our house but most of our neighbors weren’t so lucky. We still may see some leftovers hit the roof before this is over.

For more photos of our neighborhood and from around town, head over to The Fayetteville Flyer Flickr set.

I’m on a different computer this morning so I can’t add any photos to this post but trust me, things are getting bad here in Fayetteville. We’re in the middle of a pretty crazy ice storm.

Surprisingly the roads seem to have thawed a bit overnight instead of freezing over but the ice in the trees and on the power lines is getting thicker by the minute.

We just lost a limb from our pine tree that destroyed both of our sheds out back. There are about 50 more limbs where that one came from. I’d hate to think what one would do to our roof if it fell just right.

It’s a wonder we still have power here at the house. We’re usually the first neighborhood to go during bad weather. There are others that aren’t so lucky.

We’re trying to keep track of things over at The Fayetteville Flyer but as the power starts to drop, we may be in the dark both on and offline.

Yesterday a friend of mine e-mailed me to ask how old I was going to be this year (today’s my birthday). I looked over at Dustin and said, “Am I going to be 31 or 32?”

It was at that moment that I realized for the first time in my life, I didn’t know how old I was. I had to calculate it. Not kidding.

Now I know that 32 years old ain’t nothin’ to worry about and in fact, I feel like my thirties will be my most defining years. I’m actually looking forward to them. But for crap’s sake, how could I possibly forget how old I was?

It’s been a rough couple of years, I suppose. I’ve been through quite a bit and have stayed incredibly busy throughout it all. But forgetting my age? That’s just weird.

Anyway, I guess it’s the first of many moments like that. Oh well. Bring it.

Most of my friends and family are already aware of my recent big news. But I’m gonna say a few words about it anyway.

I have formed a small business with a couple of friends of mine called Wonderstate Media. Of course, this means I have left my former place of employment and will be living off our small business loan until things get going in terms of revenue.

It’s both exciting and incredibly terrifying to be venturing out like this, especially at the age of 31 but as with any of the many risks I’ve taken in the past, it’s a now-or-never feeling that has taken over me so as usual, I am following my heart here.

The first time I left my job, it was to go to Park City, Utah and work as a ski lift operator. I’m not really sure what I was thinking at the time. I had only been out of college for one year and had a great job as a graphic designer. I think it was a combination of a recent break-up and the fact that I had jumped straight from school into an 8-5 job that pulled me away to such a strange place. My time in Utah didn’t last long, though. I was back in Fayetteville in just a few months. I returned to my job and started a band.

About two years later, I got an offer to tour the country with another great band and I just couldn’t resist. I left my job, my current band and all my friends behind. After the touring was finished, I found myself in Memphis, TN and that’s where I met my wife. We moved to Fayetteville after a year or so and once again, I returned to my same job I had twice left.

After a few more years, most of my team at work was let go and I found myself in a part-time position. I made up for the lack of income by working for myself on the side but after my mother passed away, I found it difficult to juggle the emotional strain I was under and the mental strain of working two jobs. I quit my job for the third time and went to work with a friend of mine who runs his own remodeling business.

After a few months of manual labor, the pull back to graphic design was too much and I found myself applying once again for my old job. I was welcomed back for a fourth time and that’s where I’ve been for the past year or so during the hours of 8am to 5pm.

My nights and weekends have been devoted, however, to the local website that I started in December 2007. What began as a fun hobby that allowed me to utilize not only my degree in journalism but also my love of Fayetteville and graphic/web design turned into a high-traffic local hub for information and opinion. The posts on the site went from bratty complaints to actual content in a matter of months and before I knew it, I was immersed in some serious local mayoral election coverage.

With all the traffic and praise that the site was getting, I began to feel a huge pull of responsibility and I immediately started brainstorming possible ways that would allow me to devote myself entirely to the Fayetteville Flyer. That’s where Wonderstate Media, LLC comes in.

Wonderstate Media will be the company that owns and operates the Fayetteville Flyer as well as the new site we’re working on that will be our main source of revenue.

I’ll be posting more information about the new site when the time comes. For now, all I can say is that I am really excited about what we’re getting ready to offer our community. At a time when many local businesses are being taken advantage of in ways that provide little to no help to either the business owners or consumers in our area, Wonderstate Media is about to make a real impact. I can hardly wait to launch this new site in February, y’all.

As for right now, I am working out of a small office space on Township with my fingers crossed tightly. Wish us luck if you get a chance. Thanks!

This Halloween night (Oct 31), we’re dressing up and playing a cover show at Froggy’s here in Fayetteville along with a couple of other local bands.

We’re going as “Six Tom Petties” and will be playing a handful of Tom Petty tunes. Memphis Pencils are covering the Kinks and Use Curtis will be offering a generous dose of Beatles covers.

Should be a good time. Stop by if you don’t have Halloween plans already. Or change your plans?

If Fayetteville ain’t your thang, you can check out Six Tom Petties at White Water in Little Rock tomorrow evening (Nov 1).

The Fayetteville Flyer has a cool contest running right now. It’s the first one, actually.

It sorta has to do with the plot of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in that you just leave a comment explaining what the grossest thing is you’ve ever found in your food. Doing so gets you automatically entered to win 2 tickets to see the performance at the Walton Arts Center on November 17th.

Check it out, won’tcha?

Blue Kitty passed away last night after 15 long years of life. Blue was unlike any cat I’ve ever been around. She was certainly the smartest, that’s for sure.

I think what I’ll remember most about her is how talkative she was. You could carry on a conversation with Blue for as long as you could keep interest. She’d meow back to nearly every word you said as long as you were looking her in the eyes.

She spent her last few days soaking up the sunshine and napping in the flower bed out front. She laid down in her favorite spot sometime around 10pm last night and said goodbye.

We’ll miss you, Blue.

It’s been nearly a year since I received a new video in my mailbox. I was beginning to think that those days were over. I guess not, though.

As usual, this one’s kinda strange. I can’t tell if “ballseye” is supposed to be “bullseye” or if it’s something entirely different. I suppose it’ll be up to you to decide.

Without further delay, I present to you “Ballseye”.

Getting good tickets to a Razorback game is one of the best feelings in the world. In fact, you don’t even flinch at the price tag on most occasions, even when the Hogs don’t win. This game, however, was an exception. Final score: Alabama 49, Arkansas 14. Ouch.