CrazyFox Home Business is Herbal Life

So - I'm sitting at home and I see this commercial about working from home. I know it's probably nothing but a bunch of worthless hype, but... I figured I'd at least see what the business is out of curiosity.

So I go to 29path . com as it said in the commercial, and what do I get? Thefoxisright.com - CrazyFox Home Business. A crammed page filled with testimonials of people who make thousands of dollars after just a few weeks, and after a year are buying vacation homes and making 6 figures just with this home based business. Of course, there's the typical disclaimer at the bottom that these results are not typical, blah, blah, blah.

Ok - I'm skeptical, but still curious as to what exactly this business is. There's a form to fill in for "free" information. It requires a phone number - and knows if you try and fake it. So I gave my old number from a different town I moved out of 5 years ago. Thinking that when I click the submit button, I would have a package sent. Right? Nope! Another page of hype and claims and impressive figures and sales pitches, but still no idea whatsoever what the business it. Not an inkling. And, to top it off, they want me to pay for this information package. They make no money off of it - so they claim.

Well, needless to say, I decided to get out of there. But - a window pops up trying to get you to stay by putting a live chat up. Natalie, the allegedly helpful chat person, came on and proceeded to copy and paste several paragraphs of sales pitches and "click here now to take advantage of this special offer!" BS. Meanwhile, I'm typing in between, asking questions - all of which are completely ignored. Finally, I ask if there is even a real person there. That she answers - but when I ask what type of business it is, she starts posting the cookie cutter sales pitches over again.

In the meantime, I opened another window and did a search for CrazyFox - and guess what? It's Herbal Life! The weight loss suppliments. So - I type that to Miss Natalie and ask why she couldn't just tell me that. She closed the window on me. Yup - she "hung up" on me. So, I try to leave the site again - and up pops Natalie again! Copying and pasting her little fingers off without reading a single thing I was typing. Didn't even realize I was the same person she just cut off. Never did get an answer out of her about anything at all, well, except that she was a real person.

So, here's my question. Why hide? What's the big secret? And if they don't make money off of charging for those packages, then why don't they tell people who they are? I think it's because if they said who they are, damn few people would pay for that package. They'd do what I did - leave.

Now, I'm not knocking Herbal Life. Obviously it works for some people or it wouldn't have been around so long, and I'm certainly not knocking anyone who sells it. But selling weight loss suppliments is not something a lot of people would care to take on as a new job.

I just can't understand why a company like that needs to hide who they are? Their behavior and tactics would not endear me to them and give me confidence in going in to business with them. Any business that can't admit up front to who they are, what type of business it is and what they sell has serious problems in my book.

Oh well! Anyway - if you or someone you know is tempted to go tp that website or call that number - I hope you read this first before anyone shells out cold hard cash to find out it's just Herbal Life. And if you decide you'd like to give Herbal Life a try - don't spend your money on that website. Just check your local classified ads. There's always someone advertising it in there.

Why Is This Funny?

Someone explain to me why Ben Stiller is funny? I never got the big deal of "There's Something About Mary". I thought it was just one cheep crotch shot joke after another. Every scene designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

I couldn't even stand the look of Ben Stiller. Now, I know he may be the nicest guy you could ever meet, but from the first time I saw him I though "This guy has serial killer written across his forehead". Ok - so I don't mean I literally think he's going to kill people, but with his face he should be doing Ted Bundy biopics.

Instead he does a movie like "Zoolander" where he's supposed to be "really, really, incredibly good looking". In what reality is he good looking? He's creepy! Of course, look at his dad, great comedian but homely! I guess he's lucky he turned out as he did. But on his best day - not good looking - at all.

But the bigger mystery is why in the world does anyone find this guy funny? Twice now I have attempted to watch "Zoolander" when nothing else was on because they give it such a high rating and I know Premier Magazine rated it as one of the 50 funniest movies of all time.

Well, Premier must have been picking from a VERY limited list of comedies. The first 2 times, I couldn't make it past the first 15 minutes, it was just so painfully bad. Now I am forcing myself to sit through it, hoping that there will be at least one redeeming moment. With about half an hour to go - I'm beginning to lose hope.

It's all so horribly, horribly stupid. A gas fight? Coal mining in southern New Jersey. Seriously - did anyone over the age of 8 laugh at that? The ridiculous "blue steel". His constant butchery of the English language. Oh God! The part where he asks if the building model is supposed to be for ants. Come on - even someone as dim as he's supposed to be couldn't have thought that was supposed to be the real facility.

The only bright spot was David Bowie's cameo - which wasn't much but it was a momentary oasis in a complete waste of a movie. And all the other cameos... are all these celebrities just so desperate to get their faces in front of the camera or what? Ben Stiller must know where some bodies are buried in Hollywood because I cannot understand any studio putting out the cash for his crappy, crappy movies. And I don't know how else to explain some of the people who agree to appear in his movies. All right, Will Ferrel will be in anything, which is censure enough for me when it comes to a movie. He's a bigger mystery to me than Stiller - but that's a story for another blog post.

Ok - David Duchovny's cameo is a bit of a grinner for those who are X-Files fans, but not enough to redeem the movie, or even cause a full fledged smile.

What happened to clever comedy? What happened to jokes that have nothing to do with human anatomy or bodily functions. Why do we keep getting movies that could have been better written by the average elementary school student?

The standard for good comedy gets lower and lower all the time, and it's just sad. Really, really incredibly sad.

Design Your Own Doc Martens Boots

Doc Martens is having a great contest where you can design your own boot.

Below is my entry - Pagan Grunge.

I'd appreciate any votes - you can vote once per day.

Are you creative? Go ahead - give it a try. Design one of your own.



http://www.dmbootdesign.com/view/krw

Make a Profit by Looking for Unique Items to Resell on eBay

It's a fact: inexpensive items sell on eBay. They also drive traffic to your eBay listings and eBay Store.

Sure, you may make a larger profit margin on expensive electronics, or hard to find antiques. But don't discount the appeal of magnets and buttons.

eBay shoppers want things they don't see in their local stores, so offering unique designs created by on-line artists is a sure route to success.

Think of the possibilities: Items for party favors, wedding favors, Save the Date magnets for the Bride to Be, buttons for upcoming elections, baby showers and bridal showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, fun items for holidays - less expensive and just as fun that t-shirts. Plus - one size fits all!

There are many Print on Demand sites on the internet. Artists create items and publish them for sale. Now, in most cases, there really isn't any room for you to buy it and increase the price for resale. However, when you buy inbulk, you can save a substantial amount of money. And with the help of Print on Demand sites, you don't have to buy hundreds or thousands of items to get a discount.

For example: You can buy 100 of these Black Lab magnets for $0.92 each. I sell them for $1.44 individually in this particular shop, but magnets easily sell for as much as $3.99 on eBay. If you sell them for $3.50 on eBay (not an unreasonable price), that's $2.58 of profit, more than a 300% mark up.

But that's just one example. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of designs out there for you to choose from.

The really great part of buying magnets and buttons on Zazzle is, you can get a bulk discount no matter how many different designs you choose, or which gallery you choose them from. Think of that - unlike Cafe Press where you have to buy 100 of the exact same magnet in order to get the bulk discount, you can mix and match any magnets within the whole entire Zazzle site to make up your 100. In fact, you don't even have to buy an entire 100 in order to get bulk discounts. If you buy 10 - 49 magnets or buttons, you get 17% off. If you by 50 - 99 magnets or buttons, you get 29% off. If you buy 100+ magnets or buttons, you get 36% off.

Then you can resell them on eBay. And don't limit yourself to offering them as individual items. Remember, you've got a bulk lot of them. Offer them as single, in a group of 5 and a group of 10. Market them for party favors, wedding favors or any and all situations that the specific design will fit.


Remember, buttons can be fun way to celebrate something - even if it's just your individuality. And magnets are not just for keeping things stuck to the fridge.

Get customers interested and excited by marketing buttons and magnets to specific occasions and groups.

Such as:

Birthday Party Favors
Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties
Wedding Parties/Attendants
New Baby/New Parents
Art Enthusiasts
Animal Lovers
Holidays - market as an inexpensive alternative to celebrating a holiday or occasion with a t-shirt or cap.

And don't underestimate your ability to sell for resale yourself. Owners of brick and mortar shops may love to have some fun and unique items in their shops too.

Be creative - be successful.

You can find lots of fabulous magnets HERE

Breast Cancer Walks

It's that time of year when a lot of people participate in walks to raise money for Breast Cancer treatments and research.


I'd like to invite people to reply to this post and include any links they may have to contribute donations to their particular group, or memorial fund.


You can find pins, stickers, shirts and caps that you can easily customize to include your group name, or the name of the person you are walking for at KRW Breast Cancer Awareness Items

Gov Bill will Hurt Artists and Protect Theives

Hi everyone -
I am aksing people to please take a moment to sign the petition for Orphaned Works Bill. If this bill should pass, it would make it virtually impossible for an artist to prove that someone knowingly stole their artwork, even if they have gone to the effort and cost of registereing their art with the US Copyight Office.

If this bill passes, all a theif will have to do is claim "good faith", which is the claim that they made an effort to find the original artist and obtain permission. I already know several artists who have had to fight for years in court to prove that their signature and/or contact info was removed from a piece of their work and used by others for profit. In fact, here is a link to an artists site where her piece was stolen and used for ads for Camel cigarettes! If this law passes, cases like this will never see a courtroom because a lawyer would not bother to take a case where the defendant has all the cards.
http://www.michiko.com/illustratorspartnership/bluegirl/ (click download letter to read the description of what happened with this case)

For me, what this means is, that anyone can copy my artwork and use it any way they please and I will be powerless to do anything about it because all they have to do is claim they got it from some place that said it could be used or that there was no signature or other artist info and they couldn't find out who the creator was. This will apply to all works, art, written word and even your family photos!


To read more about this bill got to: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605&page=3

TO SIGN THE PETITION GO TO: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-orphan-works-act.html

To contact your State Reps and Senators, go to: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtmlPlease feel free to pass this on.
Thanks
Kerry

Shoulda Been There - New John Lennon Biography

I have had the pleasure of recently making the acquaintance of Jude Southerland Kessler and her husband, Rande Kessler. Jude has written a new, documented, biography about the early life of former Beatle, John Lennon called, Shoulda Been There.

Being a Beatlemaniac myself, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my copy. Once I've had a chance to read this book, I will be posting a review here for everyone to see, but in the meantime, I do have the following information about this wonderful biography.

"Here comes a book that breathes life into the [Lennon] story...and I say, 'Hey Jude, carry on!'"Bill Harry, noted Beatle expert and Founder of Mersey Beat

The Only Documented Historical Novel on Lennon

Literally hundreds of non-fiction books have been written about The Beatles and about the man who formed The Beatles, John Lennon. And quite a few fictional books about Lennon have been created to amuse fans. But Jude Southerland Kessler's Shoulda Been There is the first book ever to tell the Lennon saga with carefully researched footnotes and detailed, informational endnotes, while using a fiction format to keep the reader turning the page. Researched for over 20 years with 7 trips to Liverpool and countless interviews with John Lennon's friends, early band members, first manager, and club D.J.'s, Shoulda Been There traces Lennon's life from 1940 to December 1961 (when The Beatles signed with Brian Epstein). But it is not just a story about the birth of a band. It is the tale of a lost child whose parents, for one reason or another, pushed him aside for other pursuits. It is the story of all children for whom someone "shoulda been there."

All of the scholarly, non-fiction ingredients are present in Shoulda Been There: an encyclopedia of real characters complete with bios of each, an index and thorough bibliography, and a glossary of Scouse (Liverpool) terms. Yet the book is a riveting novel. Although it is 795 pages, it is written in short vignettes that can be digested quickly. It is, as David Haber of whatgoeson.com wrote, "something special." Bill Harry called Kessler's unique approach of weaving data into a compelling story "factional."

Now, all you Beatle and John Lennon fans are probably asking yourselves, "Where can I get a copy of this book?" Well, you won't find this at your local Borders or Barnes & Noble. You won't even find it at Amazon.com. However, I am pleased to tell you that you can purchase a copy for $29.95 plus shipping and handling Right Here. This book is available to ship worldwide.

For anyone who does buy a copy of this book, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I hope you will please come and post comments here and let us all know how you enjoyed it. Oh! And as they say on TV - Makes a Great Gift! :)

Kerry

Brushes: Photoshop vs PSP

I am a PSP user. Still use version 7, actually. If it ain't broke don't fix it, right? Not to mention that I'm not going to shell out hard earned coin of the realm for another version of a program that I've already paid for.

I really like my Paint Shop Pro and use it all the time, but from time to time, I get really frustrated when I see all these great brush sets that are out there for Photoshop. Now, I know that Photoshop is great and I'm certainly not going to knock it, but again, it's a question of why spend the money on a new program when you have one that works just fine.

So, after finding a set of Photoshop brushes on a graphics site that I belong to that really wanted, I decided to do some research. It turns out that there is this great little program called ABR Viewer that you can use to convert the brushes to png format.

Hallelujah! The heavens opened, the angels began to sing and my checking account was soon a few dollars lighter as I went and purchased these fabulous brushes.

I downloaded the free ABR Viewer from http://abrviewer.sourceforge.net/ I found it to be a tad temperamental, but I was also trying to open an abr file with more than 300 brushes in it, so that may have been part of the problem. Anyway, I was able to easily convert the files to png format. It did take a few minutes to complete, but it wasn't an unreasonable amount of time.

Now, I had read that you can then go and open Paint Shop Pro and open all the png files and then export them as PSP brushes, but for myself, I actually prefer to use them as png files - but that's just my preference.

My only problem now is to decide what to create first! Some new websets? New graphics for my tube site? New designs for my Zazzle and Cafe Press stores? Oh, decisions, decisions!

Thank you Mr. Luigi Bellanca for this wonderful and free software! I really appreciate it, and I'm sure a great many other PSP users do too.

I'm off to create!

Kerry

Well- Here I am!

I've finally started a blog!

I feel like I'm way behind the curve here, just getting around to having a blog. I've been told by lots of people that having a blog will help promote my artwork and various shops around the internet. But, I never started a blog because, well, what am I supposed to say?


So - here I am! I'll probably be having some eclectic posts. Some will be about my artwork and shops and others will be about my interests - like classic rock!

I have a site dedicated to classic rock - www.rockmaven.com

And here are my various shops:

www.zazzle.com/krwdesigns*

www.zazzle.com/krwoldworld*

www.zazzle.com/krwbaby*

www.zazzle.com/krwwedding*

www.zazzle.com/krwholidays*

www.zazzle.com/krwnamegame*

www.cafepress.com/krwdesigns

www.printfection.com/krw

http://www.redbubble.com/people/krwdesigns


I also have a graphics site that has free images and linkware websets. Soon, hopefully, I will have the membership area of that site up and running and have cds for sale.

www.krwgraphics.com


About Me:

I stay home with my 2 lovely children; one girl, one boy. I am a self-taught artist. I use Paint Shop Pro and Daz Studio for most of my work. I have also done some fractal work and even a few hand drawn items.

I also love classic rock. I've always had a useless gift for remembering things about music and movies. I figure why not put all that useless knowledge to good use? That was where the Rock Maven site came in. www.rockmaven.com

I don't have a site for movies, so, I suppose this blog will come in good for exploring that interest.

Hmm - well - I guess that's it for now.

Check back soon for - well - God only knows what!

Kerry