Introducing Level 85 Hunter In Real Life -  A series that follows Mandy, an online MMORPG (Massive multiplayer online role-playing game) player who thinks she’s still logged in!

Click Here to watch on MandyMadrox.tv

                          

My issue seems to be pulling them out of my head and putting them on screen. I’ve said it many times, it would be so much easier if I could plug a USB cable into my temple and communicate with the computer directly. But I can’t, can I?

I think I have a solution to my ‘writer’s block’ problem.

Ever heard of The Monkees? Did you know they had a movie, “Head”? One of the cool things about that movie wasn’t the psychedelic trip themed rotation through drama, comedy, action and so on. I think it’s how the movie came to be.

The Monkees, Bob Rafelson, Schnieder, and Jack Nicholson. (Yes, ‘Heeeere’s Johnny!’ Jack Nicholson.) Locked themselves in a hotel room an entire weekend. They did nothing but bounce ideas around and record the conversations. What came of the entire thing was a movies known as “Head”.

I’m taking a page from the band’s history. From April 15 to April 19, I will be locking myself away. No online communications, phone calls, and no World of Warcraft! (Gasp) Nothing outside of business needs will be engaged.

My overall goal is to be filming about mid May. To do that, I need scripts! I’m trying not to think too far ahead. Step one: get it all out of my head!

No more delays.

No more excuses.

This will be done.

                          

Thanks you everyone who helped bring this to life!

                          

Like anyone on Facebook, I’m sure you have seen panic pages and spam about Facebook is going to start charging. I don’t think to many people stop and think when they see this. Well, ok.. they think, but not about the right things. I’m pretty sure they think ‘I’m not paying!’. Well they would be right, you wont. And not because you joined some group or liked a page. Read on to see why Facebook  will never start charging for their service.

Faceboook is a private company, and rather tight lipped about how much money they are making. According to Inside Facebook, revenues likely reached between $600 million and $700 million for 2009. They don’t need a monthly fee from you.

Where did this money come from?

I will start simple. Advertisements. Any time you see an ad, Facebook gets paid. Anytime you click on, Facebook gets paid. That’s the same with any web site that has ads on it. When you see “Steve is a fan of Mandy Madrox” (Shoosh!) Facebook does not get paid for you to view it or click it. (This is when they random in what your friends are fans of for filler.)  How ever they would get paid if someone with a fan page decided to buy advertising to show that ad to all of Facebook.

Virtual goods, where you buy credits to get a ‘virtual gift’ for your friend and send it to them. I never have, have you?

Games. Companies like Zynga pay Facebook to promote and display the games we love to play. Look at this URL carefully. http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/index.php When you load this URL, Farmville loads up. A common assumption is that Facebook has these games on their servers. They don’t. This page has several lines of code that call up the game from Zynga’s servers. So the page you load it self, is on Facebook’s servers, and Zynga paid for it to be set up like this. They pay for the entire integration of their games into the Facebook site. This applies to any games your playing. The developing game company has paid Facebook.

Why do they pay? Ever buy Farmville cash or gold? According to this web site, Zynga made $250 million in gross revenues in 2009.

Any company that has service integrated into Facebook. Paid.

Now before you start to think all this money goes into Facebook’s creator’s pockets. Keep in mind, Facebook has offices in Palo Alto, California, Dublin, Ireland (international headquarters for Europe, Africa, Middle East) Seoul, and South Korea (international headquarters for Asia). They have 1200+ employees. According to , datacenterknowledge.com Facebook has 30,000 servers (As of 2009) supporting its operations. All of this, do I really need to say this? Costs them money.

                          

This is one I’m going to save and remember just in case I ever get invited to a party around Easter. I find this very creative, cute and morbid. I love it!

All you need is:

Rice Krispies Treats
Fruit by the Foot
Peeps, any color

Step by step instructions with pictures can be found here, from serious eats. Happy Easter!

                          

A really good idea, or a really bad one. The librarian’s response? “A temporary one.” However they do hope to try and keep this location open when the main one opens again.

Good idea: What better way to remind kids that theres other forms of entertainment other than video games? The location is known, how much easier can it be than to say “were in the mall”.

Bad idea: “Mom im going to the library” but the kids end up at the mall arcade.

                          

Ah the things you see when you look out your back door. I tell ya. This has inspired me to start a new section. “Yeah, I saw it” will feature pictures of things I see out in the world that may be of interest? Funny? Cool? Enjoy!