Jones soda (of which I do own a few shares of) is offering the feature of creating your personalized label on a flavor of choice. As of this writing the feature is offered for 29.99 + S&H.
The order process is pretty simple really. Sign up for an account, upload an image, and pay the bill. The image to upload can be anything you like really. You can upload from a url, or from a local file on your computer. The image needs to be 2.25″ wide by 1.875″ tall at 300dpi (or 675 x 563 pixels at 300dpi). If you are unsure of what those sizes are, Jones provides sample templates of jpeg, TIF, and bitmat formats to measure up. They also give additional helps by providing image resizing instructions for Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, and Macromedia Fireworks.
After you have your image uploaded, you also have the option to add some text to an area just above the nutrition panel on the back. It’s plain text and allows up to 7 lines of 50 characters each (including carriage returns).
After your customisation you are sent to a page to finish adding the billing options, and to choose your flavor. The flavors are limited but the FAQ states “We rotate the flavors regularly, so check the site often to see if your favorite flavor is available.” One of the more questionable flavors this month (Nov) is Turkey + Gravy?? No thanks. I’ll pass.
You can’t mix flavors, or images. 1 flavor and 1 image per case. It’s supposed to take 3-4 weeks for delivery. We’ll have to do an update on that. I ordered mine on Nov 15.
If your interested Jones provides a photo gallery page where you can view labels of already submitted images. It’s not entirely clear but it appears as if there is a photo/label contest going on. The winners photo will make it to officially released cases to retailers.
Comments (0) Posted by ^Lestat on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
The rush is just around the corner. I found a bunch of sites that list places and prices of ‘hot’ Black Friday deals. Most of which include links to many major stores:
One thing I thought I would look forward to as a home owner was the satisfaction of household manual labor. This is our first home and we’ve now been in it for 3 years. I’m not mr. fixit by any means but I’m learning as I go. I’ve repaired toilets, replaced ceiling fans, repaired mailboxes, replaced sump pumps, repaired dishwashers, replaced garbage disposals, re-routed heat placement by adjusting ventilation doors, minor landscaping, and the usual duties like mowing the lawn and shoveling snow. If I’ve got the time to learn I’m willing to take on most things. (Although I try to steer clear of electrical and plumbing duties).
I’ve found the novelty really wears off after about 2 minutes when it comes to shoveling snow and raking leaves (we live on a corner lot). The lot is a size thats small enough that it doesn’t really require a tractor mower. We have 3 silver maples that tend to hang on to their leaves until early December depending on the weather, and that is rarely predictable in Wisconsin. The trees are large and provide wonderful shade in the summer for the entire house, and they are nice to look at. In the spring they litter the yard and the gutters with helicopters. In the fall the leaves cover the land but not all at once. Some are from neighboring parcels.
It’s hard to get a nice weekend to rake where I’m home, and most of the leaves have fallen. Often if the maples haven’t lost their leaves it’s futile to get out there. Not knowing if it will snow soon (never know in WI) this Saturday seemed like the time to get out there. The best thing about the project is the family time.
(The day after raking)
Of course not all the leaves fell. So on Sunday we ended up re-raking a lot of it. If you don’t get the majority of them they get wet in spring and your entire lawn smells of decomposing leaves. I managed to get up on the roof to clean out the gutters too. Not cleaning them out often results in waterfalls over them. Which is neat, but bad for a home. Water is one of a homes worst enemies. It’s best to direct it away from the home.
A few years ago I invested in some ‘lattice’ type covers for about $0.98/foot. I tried it out on one section because if they didn’t work well, I didn’t want to remove the entire length of the house. They worked fine for the first season. But now in the spring the helicopters fall into the slots and stick there from the sap. It looks like I’m growing a garden of helicopters in my gutters. They keep larger leaves out, but twigs and smaller debris gets gummed up in there from the sap and I have to remove them, clean it out and replace them again. My advice: don’t bother. It’s just easier to get up there 3 times a year for about 2 hours cleaning them out.
I’m too cheap to opt for the ‘leaf guard‘ or ‘gutter topper’ type devices. Have any of you had experiences with these? Do they truly work as promised? I’ve heard some pretty pricey quotes on them, and I just don’t trust them.
In this day and age one sometimes wonders who is behind what media is pushed for success. Who are the ‘experts’ that push and market a movie that flops? What are they thinking that we will like? Enter MediaPredict. MediaPredict is a site that allows people to predict the success of new media.
The site is basically a media rating game. After registering you are given $5,000 play money. You use the money to invest in media you think will succeed or fail. It’s played much like a stock market where you can even short sell. The value of the stock(media) is a value based upon others buying and selling the commodity. This represents it’s probability of succeeding out in the world.
(Dashboard - My first purchase)
In the screenshot above I was able to buy shares of a book that I thought would be successful.
It appears that MediaPredict is relatively new. The choices available to work with currently seems limited to new publishers, books, music artists, and a few television sit-com pilots.
The media can be just about anything ranging from books, movies, music and television. Up and coming, and mainstream media is included in the system. Here is an example of a music artist;
New music artist
- Will the artist get a record deal?
- If the artist has a deal what are it’s chances of success?
- Will a single reach the top 5/10/100?
There is a deadline or time limit for each ‘project’. Obviously there are dates for record releases and such.
The goal I’m sure is to add this source to the portfolio of marketing gurus around the world. I’m not sure of how much data MediaPredict has to offer now other than the popularity of it’s net savvy users. Of course the demographics are a bit different as well. So I suppose it could be a worthwhile added resource.
Features I’d like to see
I couldn’t find a way to add another source of media to the site. So for now it seems that only MediaPredict has the power to add/remove new media. I hope this can be changed in the future.
I would like to see MMORPG category added to the list or tag cloud of choices.
Another feature that would be nice to have is current media, and the prediction of it’s future from now. There is a lot of media and sites out there that started of well, and began to stink after a few episodes or albums. One hit wonders.
Features I don’t want to see
Social networking within MediaPredict. There is already no value to any positive gains you get from playing the game. You win fake money that can’t be used for anything other than bragging rights or just feeling nice about participating. The game itself is interesting. But to add social networking with equally useless winnings and badges is a total turn off for me.
I’d like to see MediaPredict stick to what it is. I think they’ve got something here. Maybe MediaPredict should add themselves to their own market
Comments (0) Posted by ^Lestat on Thursday, May 31st, 2007
In a nutshell it’s a story of a little girl in Russia who had an accident that maimed her face. The Russian hospitals are either corrupt, or rediculously expensive. I’ve spoken personally with Mert and Katya who are undertaking the task of getting her assistance.
They have already brought the girl to the states once for plastic surgery donated by a local doctor here in my home state of WI. She needs to have more. I set up a page on this site dedicated to helping her. If you are interested, Angel’s page is here.
I haven’t done any donation or charity campaigns except for when I went to help Katrina victims a few years ago. I’m actually a bit curious how much I can help through this. It’s worth a try because I believe it’s a worthwhile cause!
Comments (2) Posted by ^Lestat on Thursday, May 24th, 2007
A few years ago I invested in some ‘lattice’ type covers for about $0.98/foot. I tried it out on one section because if they didn’t work well, I didn’t want to remove the entire length of the house. They worked fine for the first season. But now in the spring the helicopters fall into the slots and stick there from the sap. It looks like I’m growing a garden of helicopters in my gutters. They keep larger leaves out, but twigs and smaller debris gets gummed up in there from the sap and I have to remove them, clean it out and replace them again. My advice: don’t bother. It’s just easier to get up there 3 times a year for about 2 hours cleaning them out.
