Are you kidding me?

In case you hadn't guessed I spend a LOT of time on my computer. My fiance is always worried about my back and neck because I sit on the couch and work instead of at a desk.

So I'd been shopping around for a desk but couldn't find one I liked. A couple of weeks ago he said to me, "Have you found a desk yet?" I said "No, I haven't found one I like, I'm still looking." Plus I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it.

He said "Well you better hurry up because I just ordered you a monitor and keyboard so you can plug your laptop into it." Guess what he got me? A 30" cinema display flat screen monitor! At first I thought he was just crazy. The Apple website says "Big ideas need a big canvas." And I'm always working on BIG IDEAS! Now that it's here? I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I don't know how I ever lived without it. And that's no lie. It's made my life so much easier. I run Windows on my MacBook Pro so now I can work on my webstes in mac and test in pc all at the same time on my ginormous monitor! What a great surprise from my great fiance. He's a real sweetie who's always looking out for me.

Did you see my TFG ad in the SF Chronicle?

So last week my first The Flirty Guide ad ran in a major publication. It was in the Modern Bride bridal insert in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The insert only went out to select subscription based readers so if you didn't get to see it here it is... Tuh Duh!

According to Google Analytics a lot of people must have seen it and been intrigued because my unique visitor count (first time visitors to the site) went way up over what it normally is both Thursday and Friday! Yay!

Kwik-E-Mart

OK I must confess I watch the Simpsons. Not by choice however. My fiance thinks the show is great. Personally I'm not a fan. But when one of the 7 Elevens in Mountainview California was chosen as one of the twelve stores nationwide to be transformed for one month into a Simpson's "Kwik-E-Mart" to promote the highly anticipated, ok that may be going a bit far I don't think it's really highly anticipated, nor will it be critically acclaimed... I could be wrong but I don't think so, The Simpson's Movie coming out this summer.

I went because I was curious to go see it and be part of the brief, month long, phenomenon that everyone was buzzing about. So they were selling Krusty O's cereal, radio active pink donuts and Buzz cola. Sorry, no Duff beer. By the time I got there all of the Krusty O's were long gone and the donuts were just too scary, so I settled for a 6-pack of Buzz cola. Did I mention I don't even drink cola? I guess I just got caught up in the moment. We're going to serve it at our next BBQ. Here are lots of pictures for those of you who didn't get to go to a Kwik-E-Mart. Enjoy!

Pair.com

You know how it is when you move? You have to pack everything up. Hopefully you throw away the junk you don't need anymore and get a fresh start. Well I did this the other day with a website. I moved to a new server. The last, which shall remain nameless, was not dependable. That's a nice way of saying that the server was down several times a week. Of course being an internet based business it's really quite imperative that The Flirty Guide is online as often as possible. In fact 100% of the time would be ideal.

After asking a friend who knows a lot about things of this nature he recommended Pair.com. He said that a lot of people he knows had been using them for a long time and though their monthly rates are higher then average? So is their reliability. In other words, you get what you pay for. After doing some web based research everything I read backed up these opinions. So I moved TFG over to Pair.com.

Time will tell if I made the right choice but all indicators are that this is a great hosting company. I'm expecting to be as satisfied with their dependability as everyone else is.

What? NO ASIAN BARBIES?

OK so I've never owned a Barbie. My parents got us Weebles and Fisher Price toys when we were kids. But my fabulous fiance wanted to make a funny video for our wedding. And part of the "funny" was going to be that we were going to use a Barbie and Ken Doll to portray us in the video. So we went to Toys R Us yesterday and I just assumed that there were Asian Barbies. Boy was I wrong. When we couldn't find a Barbie I thought, oh well I'll just get a different brand of doll NOT realizing there is a dirth of Asian dolls on the market. Yes, I must admit I felt slighted. Even more so I felt bad for all of the little Asian American girls who probably feel left out as their Caucasian, Black and Latino friends are able to buy Barbie dolls that represent their respective ethnicities.

I came home and began to Google and learned that this is indeed the way things are. That over the years there have been a couple of Asian Barbie dolls dressed in traditional ethnic costumes and one rather disturbing "Lingerie" Barbie who looks more like a call girl then a kids toy. For the record I don't look like her. I don't have bangs.

Honestly in this day and age, with great ad campaigns like Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign, I had figured we had all evolved enough to be inclusive of all ethnicities.

I still remember the first time I saw Asian window mannequins at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco. I was walking down the street and my jaw literally dropped when I saw them. It felt great to be represented. Even if their legs were a LOT longer then mine. LOL.

So back to Barbie. I'm not sure what will happen to our cinematic endeavor. At this point I think we may just print photos of us and cut them out. Heck that would be more cost effective anyways.

My new website The Flirty Guide will be inclusive not only of all ethnicities, but body types and genders as well. All I need is time to develop the illustrations for everyone so that when women and men come to The Flirty Guide they can say... "Hey THAT looks like me" which is one of the ways I'm trying to make all people feel welcome to come participate on the site.

Photo of me by: Craig W. Smith