Archive for February, 2012

So I’ve had an account on plenty of Fish for God only knows how long now…whenever I would start seeing somebody I used to delete my account, but after creating a new account from scratch 3 or 4 times, I finally said fuck it and started hiding it when I’d see someone new and when things didn’t work out, I’d unhide it and continue where I left off (much easier than rewriting my stupid profile). I’ve begun to notice some trends though…and I will now bitch about them.

1.) I can be shallow I admit it…but the fat girls are deceiving so I say we’re even. The fat girls rely on “the angles” to make themselves look hot in their pics. You will never see a full body shot unless it’s from a crazy angle that makes their gut hard to notice until you look closer and then go, “WHOA!” Seriously…I’m not into bigger girls, but there are a lot of guys who prefer it. You owe it to anyone who may be interested in dating you to be honest with how you look. They’re going to find out as soon as they meet you! Make the first date less awkward and just post some normal body shots for Christ’s sake!

2.) Your baby is your world. I get it. Every fucking girl with a kid/kids has to state that. “I have a son and he is my world!” No fucking shit. While you’re at it, Captain Obvious, maybe you should let anyone reading your profile know that you’re female too. I’m not THAT experienced with dating girls with kids and even I fully understand that when you have a child, they are your world just like they should be. What I’d rather know about is if you DON’T give two shits about your kid…so I know to stay the fuck away.

3a.) “Where are all the good guys at?!”

I’M RIGHT FUCKING HERE! CHECK YOUR GOD DAMNED INBOX! I MESSAGED YOU BUT YOU IGNORED IT!

3b.) “I’m so sick of all these little boys…I need a real man!”

See above. While you’re at it, spend a few fucking minutes reading the profiles of the guys you message or who message you rather than gawk at their pictures and you can probably see their true colors. These girls on this website are SO desperate to find Prince Charming, they ignore the profile information and just go straight to, “Hey you’re sexy…let’s hang out (read: watch a movie and fuck).”

I had a girl message me one day…I’ll give her credit, she tried to strike up a conversation…

“Hi, I’m __________…you seem interesting. What kind of movies do you like?”

*facepalm*

First thing I do is click “Viewed Me” and I see that she hasn’t viewed my profile…but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out anyway considering in my profile it said, “I like to sit and watch movies quite a bit…usually scary movies and action movies.” Yep. So, I seem interesting, yet you don’t know a God-damned thing about me. Cool…we’re gonna get along great!

4.) “Don’t message me if you’re ugly!”

Great, I’ll keep that in mind…I don’t have high self-confidence so it’s easy for me to decide whether I’m ugly or not, but ugliness is an opinion right??? So how exactly do people with high self-confidence determine whether they’re ugly or not?

5.) This is a good one too…one word answers. Had a girl click that she wanted to meet me…she was pretty, seemed interesting based on her profile information WHICH I READ, so I strike up a conversation with her. All she did was answer every question straight and to the point and didn’t give anything whatsoever to build off of. That wasn’t a survey I sent you to fill out, it was meant to help start a conversation. Thanks for making sure THAT didn’t happen. Next time I’ll just get right to the point…

“Hello,

Sincerely,
Josh”

Dating sites suck. Plain and simple.

Okay, so lately I’ve been talking about being busy…getting pretty pumped up because of a variety of things and so on. This has confused a lot of you so I’m going to go ahead and explain things…as soon as I reboot…fucking computer.

*saving draft*

I really need to clean this computer up…I’ve got 8 gigs of RAM and a 2.5 GHz 6 core processor…this thing should not lag with only Youtube, Facebook, WordPress, and Thunderbird open. GEEZE!

Anyway, most of you know I run a website…I don’t hide it, I just don’t usually bother folks with the details. Most people aren’t interested. I guess I should say I actively run two websites…kinda forgot this is one of them…*duh*. For the record, when I say I was up all night working on my website, I am NOT referring to this site. This site is actually here to utilize a wasted domain name. When I switched hosts, I got a free domain name…so I chose the name “blackshireserver.net” and figured I’d just set it up as a portal page with links to all my websites and all the sites I host for people (at one time I probably owned half a dozen sites and hosted half a dozen more–now I think I’m down to 5 1/2 total including this one. The half is one I’m somewhat working on for a local business but currently have shelved). I got sick of trying to remember to keep my portal page updated so I figured, “Hey…Wordpress is free. I’ll install it on my server and start a blog.” Voila! And here this blog was was born!

No, the main site I run is called HerpFamily.com. I often joke about it being a genital herpes support group, but in reality it is a community of reptile and amphibian (herp) enthusiasts with the main focus being around my vBulletin forums. I’ve been involved in the herp forum scene since I was 13 years old. I registered on a website called AnimalNetwork.com when I was in the 8th grade under the username Gecko_Boy_2000 as I was a big gecko fanatic back then. As I got more involved in posting, I shortened the name to GeckoBoy2000 and finally to GB2000 (or as I occasionally used for shits and giggles GB2K) because it got annoying having to type “Gecko_Boy_2000″ at the end of every post. 12 years later I am still posting under that name and on my website alone I have 10,100 posts since January of ’06. AnimalNetwork.com was owned by Reptiles Magazine (yes, the monthly reptile magazines you see on the shelves in pet stores). I posted on there daily aside from when I was grounded…through multiple software changes, staff changes (at one point, their main editor was a member and got to be good friends with us on there) until they decided to add moderators who decided they didn’t like the way we policed ourselves (we were such a tight-knit group that we could often resolve our own fights with limited moderation–which if you’ve ever been on a message board, you’ll know is EXTREMELY rare for people to be able to do). The new moderator would randomly delete any posts they saw fit…and if members spoke out against the deletions, they were banned without warning.

For a while we just gritted our teeth but one day my buddy and I received an email from a good friend and fellow member. She had been banned for no reason whatsoever and that was the straw the broke the camel’s back. We both had been discussing how cool it would be to start up our own website and at that point I decided to take that idea and run with it. I created a free web-forum (yes, one of those cheesy ad-supported free forums) and named it Herp Family Forums. We private messaged every member from Animal Network (then named Reptiles Magazine Community) and recruited them to join our new forums. We figured most people would join and leave…but within the first week, we had a few dozen members and we were doing really good. Reptiles Magazine Community pretty much died out at that point (we continued to steal their members via private messages over the years…until they disabled their private message system to stop us. Funnier yet, they actually came over to my site and compared my members list with theirs, banning every user who was a member of both sites…LOL). Ironically, before all this had gone down…I had been offered a position on the forum staff on Reptiles Magazine Community’s forums. I was basically going to be a moderator without the power to delete posts (I was asked to help keep conversations peaceful…but the moderators would have to do any actual police work due to “liability reasons”). So that was when I emailed them and told them to take that offer and shove it up their ass.

With the success of our free web-based forums, we’d started getting sick of the ads on proboards as well as the reliability (server was always overloaded) so we downloaded phpBB forum software and I purchased a hosting plan.  I also purchased the domain name “HerpFamily.com”. That was somewhere around 2005. Our members were happy to migrate over and we continued growing. Later that year, a few of us decided to have a group gathering in southern IL. This is when our annual “Snake Road” trips began. That year, it was me and a friend from Piqua, my co-founder, and another good friend/member as well as his son. Yep, it was a small gathering.

The following year, I believe was the year we ended up with 19 people showing up from all over the country…I told you we were doing well! The following year had about the same amount of people (a few less), but a fight had broken out ahead of time and my co-founder and I ended up having a huge falling out during the trip. We ended up camping at two separate campgrounds which kinda killed the “family” aspect of the website for a while. I also stripped him of his administrator status as I came to learn he could no longer be trusted when he began telling lies about me stealing his ideas and the website from him (which I later was able to prove were untrue via chat logs which I automatically saved with my AOL instant messenger client). This really broke the site up as many people felt they needed to choose one side or the other. I ended up banning my co-founder after I repeatedly warned him to keep the drama off the forums and every time he chose to blow up on me publicly. The majority of my staff agreed it was the best thing to do.

So fast forward a little further…we continued to slowly grow but our member retention rates were low so I decided it was time for a website overhaul. I also had gotten one of my best friends and moderators to agree to become my co-administrator. The current site was cheesy and due to software versions changing with my forum software, I could no longer make any big changes without completely redesigning my website. I figured if I was going to do that, I would do it right…so I purchased vBulletin forum software. I also installed a mod that allowed me to build an entire website around my forums and utilize the same theme. I was able to import my member database over and aside from a few minor hiccups, the transition went pretty smoothly. Essentially that’s where I’m at today…I changed themes a couple of times and have added/removed various features, but it’s basically the same site. Things have been steadily slow the past year or two…but every time I start thinking it’s about to die and I should just call it quits and shut things down, suddenly it starts picking back up.

And that’s where I’m at now…we were at a low point and over the past few months, things are beginning to pick up again. We’ve been getting more and more new user registrations, I’ve implemented a few new features to hopefully retain some of those members. On top of that, recently I decided I was going to donate $50 toward a couple small contests (giving away a $25 gift card for each contest winner). One contest being a simple recruitment contest…recruit members, get an entry into the contest. The entries would be placed in a box and a winner would be drawn at random.  The winner would then be posted in the thread and would have 24 hours to message me and claim their prize. If nobody claimed their prize, a new winner would be drawn, and so on.

The other contest is a more interactive and fun contest. That is where things get interesting…if you’re a member of my website and you’re reading this, keep this off of the public forums please. I’m in the process of finalizing the details and am about to begin obtaining sponsors. Originally the idea was just to get the members to have a little fun while helping the reptile community out. In light of the events in southeast Ohio where a man keeping a large number of dangerous exotic animals released them all from their cages and then killed himself, exotic animal bans are popping up all over the place now. I would estimate one to two proposed bans PER WEEK. Yeah, it’s THAT bad. They also just passed the python ban due to the pythons being released in southern Florida. Even though the problem is ONLY a problem in southern Florida due to it not getting cold enough in the winter months to kill off the snakes…they have passed a NATIONWIDE ban adding 4 species of pythons to the Lacey Act and banning the importation of those pythons into our country as well as banning them from being transported against state lines. People who’s snake breeding businesses revolve around any of those species have now had their business completely DESTROYED because they’re now stuck with hundreds, if not thousands, of pythons (some worth $20,000 or more PER SNAKE) that they can no longer sell outside of their state.

The contest idea was to get members to make a fun little video/mini-commercial with them and their pet reptile(s) explaining why they should be allowed to keep their pets and not have them outlawed. The entries would be placed in a poll and voted upon. The winner would get the gift certificate. Yesterday it hit me…this could be HUGE! Why should I limit this to only members of my website when it has the potential to benefit the entire reptile community. So I decided that instead of just doing a small contest…I’m going to organize the contest so it will run nice and smooth. In order to enter, they will need to be members of my website…but aside from registering which is quick and pain-free, there is no catch to enter. From there, they will upload their video to youtube and post the link to the video in the contest thread. The contest will be open for one month and then we will shut it down and choose the top 10 finalists (or so). Then we will choose the top “x” amount of winners where “x” = the number of prizes available.

Now for the prizes…instead of just making it a $25 gift certificate, I decided to double my own donation and make it a $50 gift certificate. But it gets better yet. This contest has the potential to draw in hundreds of entries if we get enough breeders, organizations, forums, etc to make an announcement about it. So once I have the main contest details finalized, I’m going to send off letter to 10-20 herp supply companies asking for gift card donations. I’ve done this in the past with a photo contest and even though it was a small contest, still managed to get a couple hundred bucks worth of donations. Provided I play my cards right…I think we should get enough donations to make this contest a HUGE success and in the process, put out TONS of positive herp videos on youtube in response to the proposed/current exotic animal bans, and possibly double or even triple my member’s list (which is currently sitting at somewhere over 400 people). It’s a win/win for everyone involved!

The other things that are keeping me pretty pumped…I’ll keep this part super short….

1.) I’ve decided I’m going to purchase a second vehicle in the near future. I’m trying to figure out how to get around $3000 together…as much as I’d love the second vehicle to be a project car like a Mustang GT or a motorcycle or something, I need to be smart about it. I’m going to look for something decent on gas and utilize it to help reduce my gas expenses, especially if I am going to be bottle raising a deer fawn this year which will mean 50+ miles of driving to/from work each weekend and 30+ on weekends. Running my numbers…I think I can actually trade my Jeep in and buy a brand NEW Dodge Caliber (I work for a Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge dealership…so that’s what I would go with if I bought new) loaded with the options I want for about the same monthly payment. But since I love my Jeep and have a lot invested in it…and Jeep Wranglers are the #1 vehicle for holding it’s resell value, I’d really like to just hang onto it. If I buy a beater car…I’ll save money on gas, spend a tad more on insurance, and I’ll have my Jeep paid off in about 2 1/2 more years. At which point if I decide to sell it, it’ll still be worth plenty.

2.) I’m working on a few different plans for debt reduction…right now they’re iffy. I think I’ll still be able to reduce my debt, but if things work out optimally, I could have my tax debt for the last 2 years completely paid off. Credit card debt will stay where it’s at, but it’d be progress in the right direction.

That’s where I’m at currently…hope this reduces some confusion with you folks.

Sorry to disappoint my readers, but I’m still kicking. Actually doing somewhat decent aside from not being able to regulate my sleep schedule if my life depended on it. So, let’s see where I’ve left off…my last couple blogs, yeah, I was seeing somebody. Didn’t work out. Ended up being one huge lie and admittedly I should have seen it coming but refused to believe it even though most of my friends were calling it well in advance and all the signs were there. Fast forward, ended up in a short relationship over New Years. Broke things off with her. Wasn’t working out. Started talking to an “ex” and we kinda talked about trying things again and then she quit speaking to me. Same night another ex texts me and we end up hanging out…just as friends. Kinda odd…I used to damn near have to pay girls to hang out with me (is that considered a form of prostitution????) and now it’s like I’m switching girls every week. Ah well, somebody on my website said there’s probably a good explanation for why suddenly girls are talking to me and I told him to shut up and just accept it…I’m sure there’s an explanation too, but I’d rather just think it’s because I’m awesome. Hahaha! I crack myself up (I’ll be here all night…)!

Work sucks…I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but since I’m still waiting on winter to arrive, my winter projects have basically been put on hold until further notice. It’s hard to clean the woods up when you tear them up more with the tractors trying to pull out the dead trees (leaving huge ruts in the mud) than just letting the dead trees lay there. Sooooo I’ve basically been burning the wood I got out before the recent rains hit and cleaning the barns. YAY.

I’ve got a couple ideas up my sleeves for paying off my taxes this year since I’m up to my neck in debt…if everything pans out, I can have my taxes paid off in full and then some. But something tells me I’m dreaming…never gonna happen. We’ll see. I’ve also decided come spring I’m going to bottle raise a deer fawn….for two reasons:

1.) Debt Reduction — this ensures I put in over 40 hours a week. Anything over 40 hours will go into my savings account and be applied toward taxes.

2.) Schedule Regulation — when I have a deer fawn’s life in my hands, no matter how much I want to sleep in, I can’t. It forces me to be at work early in the morning and late at night to feed, as well as throughout the day on weekends. This will ensure that unlike last year, I will be at work on time daily which I really need to get into the habit of because I’m pretty sure my boss is gonna start cracking down on it if I keep slacking off.

I sold off my main conceal carry gun…my Glock 27 Sub-Compact .40. It was a little too bulky for my liking and not much fun shooting at the range after about 20 rounds or so. I ended up picking up a Bersa Thunder .380…took it shooting and I love it. Out of my first 50 rounds fired through it at 15 yds, 46 of them hit the box I was shooting at. With my Glock, I probably would have been lucky to get 10 in it. I just couldn’t handle the recoil of the Glock so well…it kicked harder than my buddy’s 1911 .45 and .44 special snub-nose revolver.

Overall, things have been going pretty good for me…around Christmas time, I had hit rock bottom. I wasn’t suicidal but I just didn’t give a shit anymore. I made a lot of choices around then that I don’t necessarily regret, but a lot of people were like, “Holy shit.” Choices that were so “not me” it wasn’t even funny…on the bright side, it kept me from getting too drunk. Sometime around then I ended up drunk at my buddy’s place and we took off for the casino on a whim one night…that was pretty cool…first time ever going to the casino. I lost all my money, but we had a blast in the process and it was nice to just get out and forget about life for a bit. Up until Saturday, I hadn’t had a single drink this year…my old roommate was in town possibly for the last time until his fiancee graduates…so we hit the bar up and decided to kick back and have a few drinks. So I got a little buzzed but not because I was depressed or anything…that’s the night I got to hang out with my ex too…so it was just an all-around fun night. A little awkward when my buddy decided to ask her if she knew my other ex and was interested in a threesome (okay, I ain’t gonna lie…REALLY awkward!), but all-in-all, a really fun night.

Oh and I bought a new snake too…I’ve never been bit by any of my 3 snakes in the past 3 years. This new guy is supposed to be one of the most docile of the four species I keep…and yet he’s managed to tag me about 10 times in 2 days. Talk about freaking nippy. lol

So that’s a quick recap…basically life is good, I’m still single but for a change I’m not depressed about it, and I still ain’t dead yet.

The new nippy little bastard…at least he should only reach around 6 feet…