|
28 Apr |
One Day Dogs Will Rise Up And Kill Us All Not Twilight Related, Random
|
|
23 Apr |
One Million Hits Not Twilight Related, The Blog
|
I’m not sure how I missed it, but sometime within the last few hours, we had our official one millionth visitor. I wish I had paid more attention so I could have gone through our web stats and figured out who it was, but I was in the middle of teaching at the local college. Anyway, this is a bit of a cool thing for us. I’ve been operating my own personal web site over at SchadeBlog.com for the last several years, and I haven’t even begun to see that kind of traffic. Hooray for us! Here’s to our second million in the next six months!
|
21 Apr |
Back To The Usual Grind Not Twilight Related, The Blog
|
I have arrived home safe and sound and reunited with my family again. Here I am in my office with Scooter (not his real name).
Today was my first day back to work since my trip. Let me tell you what today’s agenda was:
- Wake up at 7:00 AM
- Nap from 7:00 – 9:00 AM
- Answer a few e-mails
- Run to neighbor’s house to get the season 9 of Stargate SG-1 on DVD
- Run to bank to sign loan letter
- Stop by at store for lunch meat and potato salad
- From noon to 4:00 pm – Stargate SG-1 marathon
- 5:00 PM blog entry
That’s been my work day so far. I think I might get a chance to work on some actual work tonight. We’ll see. Gotta love being the boss.
-Brian
|
19 Apr |
Homeward Bound The Blog
|
I am currently sitting in a little cafe in the San Jose International Airport (motto: Openly confusing the heck out of our customers since 1965). Getting here was a might bit confusing thanks to certain technologies (GPS) not having completely up to date maps of the airport. The confusion didn’t subside once I got in, either. I thought I was flying United, but I am actually flying US Airways. I thought I was supposed to go to gate B, but there is no such thing as Gate B here at San Jose. But once I completely stripped down and went through security then got dressed again (just kidding) (not really), I was okay. I found a nice place to eat (Burger King) and am now sitting in this nice cafe using this free (just kidding again) wireless Internet access point. But it’s worth it so that I can get the latest and greatest Twilight Teez news to you, our faithful customers.
There’s not much to report, so I will take this opportunity to post some photos I took in Monterey, CA yesterday.
Me on Fisherman’s Warf, Monterey
My parents have a painting of this exact scene in their home. It was cool to see the inspiration for the painting in real life.
Bill, one of 15 bajillion official Monterey Bay Spokesbirds
I call this shot “Two Guys Looking At A Statue” because it’s basically two guys looking at a statue.
This is a boat. In the Water. So I call this shot “Boat In The Water”
This is a bunch of boats in the harbor. I will let you guess what the title is.
Here are some boats at sea. So I call this “Cloudy Sky”.
Finally, because it is ludicrous to go to all the way to the coast and not actually go to the beach, here I am on a beach. If you look closely enough, you can see part of my extremely vast seashell collection.
Well, that’s all for now. It’s time for me to get to my gate.
Update – To answer a question posted by Lauren, I am here at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport awaiting my connecting flight to my final destination in Tucson, AZ. The photo below shows me stuffing my face with a bowl of Carvel chocolate ice cream. I leave here in about 50 minutes from the time I post this update. From Tucson, I have another hour long drive to my home in Sunny Sierra Vista. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to being home with my wife and children.
Mmmm! Chocolate Ice Cream!
Here’s a question – although Phoenix Sky Harbor is not a small airport, it is smaller than Los Angeles International. Tucson is even smaller than Phoenix. Yet both Tucson and Phoenix offer free wireless Internet access while I had to pay $10.00 or so for a few minutes of access in both California airports I was in. What’s up with that? Why are the smaller airports able to offer free Internet while the considerably larger (and more profitable) airports do?
-Brian
|
18 Apr |
San Francisco The Blog
|
Yesterday (17-April) was the last day of the conference that I have been attending, and I found myself with some time to take in some sites. I decided that it was a good day to try to get thrown off the Pixar lot (as I had not had time to do so earlier). The Pixar Animation Studios are located in the San Francisco area, though for the life of me I couldn’t tell you exactly which city. In case you aren’t aware, the bay area is made up of a number of small cities all meshed together to form one giant city molecule. Since I used my GPS which came with my rental car, and it doesn’t ever tell you when you’re entering a new city, I can only assume I was in one of these smaller city fragments. I’ll never know because I just followed the “turn here” and “turn there” instructions.
So I got to Pixar and approached the security guard at the gate. He said that only “expected guests” are allowed in. I knew I wasn’t expected, even though Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple and Pixar) and I are, like, Best Friends Forever and such (not really), but I decided I didn’t want to cause a ruckus. Besides, I still had a lot of site seeing to do and I didn’t want to get dirty. So I settled for shooting a shot of me standing outside the Pixar gate. Here it is.
My next stop was at one of the coolest structures on earth – The Golden Gate Bridge. However, prior to getting there, a brief but delightful glitch in my GPS allowed me to get a glimpse of Downtown San Francisco. I am using the term “glitch” in the sense of “I messed up”. There were hearts all over the place, left behind by others, but they were easily avoided. Among a number of very cool things was this impressive mural on the side of a building.
Driving in Downtown San Francisco is fun, but you need to pay very close attention and not let yourself get distracted by anything as there are a huge number of cars and native San Franciscans milling about. So naturally I was talking on my cell phone to my dad. The drive had reminded me of the time that he and I were frantically pacing up and down the streets of this little burg desperately trying to find a gas station because we were driving a very large van that was quite nearly empty of fuel. The streets of San Francisco do not lend themselves well to pushing a van. I had never been so happy to see a Shell station in my life. I felt that driving was just about as good a time as any to call him and reminisce.
I finally made it to the bridge without killing anybody and stopped at what is known as the Golden Gate Vista Point lookout area. I was alone except for the 5,500 other people that were there as well. It was cold. The fog was constant. Despite the fact that it was 3:00 in the afternoon, the fog was rolling around the bridge and surrounding hills like some giant ethereal ghost of death. The funny thing was that as soon as it got past the bridge, the fog would dissipate altogether. The following set of photos are, as you may have guessed, from the bridge.
Schadeboy and the Golden Gate Bridge
(an excellent name for a rock band if I ever heard one)
This is my favorite shot of the bridge.
Looking up through one of the groups of four support cables.
These are the cables that hang from the main suspension cable and support the bridge itself.
Another great shot
The San Francisco skyline as seen from the bridge
Special Driving?
Justin, the official Golden Gate Bridge Spokespigeon
After my trip to the bridge, I discovered that I was only about 20 miles from one of the most important places on the planet; Skywalker Ranch. The very place where Mr. George Lucas created the Star Wars movies, and is busily producing the latest Indiana Jones film and the new Star Wars television shows. I decided I just had to go there. But, like Pixar, Skywalker Ranch is a closed studio and the best I could do was get a picture of the security gate. But hey, at least I got on the propetry and talked to an official Skywalker Ranch security guard.
Through these gates, some of the most important films in history are made
So that was my day. I had a great time and saw a lot of great things. And as you can see, I took some absolutely fantastic photographs. Today’s plans are to go to Monterey and get some more absolutely fantastic photographs that involve maybe some water. I certainly hope they don’t involve more fog.
-Brian
|
15 Apr |
Of Geeks And Rabbits Geek, The Blog
|
Today was the first day of the tradeshow aspect of the MySQL conference that I am attending in Santa Clara, CA. There are all kinds of vendors here, all dealing in some way with MySQL. Most of them are here to get you (yes, you) to buy their stuff. Most offer products that are geared towards making a database administrator’s life easier. Other products are designed to improve the overall efficiency of your applications. Some are here to give administrators reporting capabilities. There was even one vendor who’s product was promoted by a rabbit.
The conference is just packed with geeks of all shapes, sizes, colors, and genders. IT folks from all kinds of countries are represented here; Asia, Europe, India, South Dakota, etc. And all of the vendors are giving out free stuff. I don’t have to go clothes shopping for a while because of all the t-shirts I have received here.
The trade show floor was not nearly as big as I had hoped expected it to be. Compared to what I am used to with computer trade shows – we’re talking massive shows held in Las Vegas with broadway-quality stage productions – this was a sideshow carnival.
I’m not complaining, though. There is a ton of useful information here and I fully expect that after all is said an done, it will be well worth coming out here to sunny California and having to suffer through staying in a posh hotel suite and be only minutes away from beaches, amusement parks and all kinds of opportunities to spend unspeakable amounts of money for a soda.
Speaking of tourists, I decided to play one today. After my day at the conference, I found that I was only minutes away from a famous company’s campus. Here I am outside Building 41 of the Google complex.
What’s funny is, it turns out Google’s facility is what is known as a “closed campus”, which means that the public isn’t allowed on site without an appointment. I didn’t have an appointment. Shortly after taking this photo, I was attacked by the crack Google Police Force (starring Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox) and summarily thrown out on my little geek butt. But that’s okay. Tomorrow I plan to be thrown out by the crack Pixar Police Force (starring Lightning McQueen).
-Brian
|
13 Apr |
Travel Advisory The Blog, Twilight Images
|
This is a Travel Advisory to advise you that I am travelling today. I’m headed to Santa Clara, CA for a conference on MySQL (the database system that keeps track of all of your orders). Here I am at Tucson International Airport (located, believe it or not, in Tucson, AZ), in an exclusive Web Crapcam photo, stuffing my face with what is lovingly known as a "Breakfast Pizza". I’m almost positive the original Pizza Engineers (PE) that devised this wonderful food had absolutely no intention of ever having their creation used in this manner.
This stuff was edible, so long as you define the word "edible" as meaning "something you can put in your mouth".
I’m wearing my Bella Swan fan club shirt. During the trip, I was sitting amongst a clot of girls who were members of a choir of some kind. They were on their way to sing at Disneyland. Before we got off the plane, two of the girls mentioned how much they loved Twilight. It was very cool to mention that I was the one who sold Stephenie’s shirts.
I’m posting this from LAX and I think someone messed up on my itinerary. Somehow I managed to have my arriving flight and my departing flight both come out of the same gate, and I have a three-hour layover. I don’t have to rush, O.J. Simpson style (before his murderer phase), to my next gate. Which is good because in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly O.J. Simpson.
Here I am with my officially licensed LAX: Starbucks water bottle. I paid a whole $3.49 for the honor of being able to drink it, and that’s actually pretty cheap. Here at LAX, there are only two Starbucks’s on this wing (can you imagine?!). Fortunately, they are less than 200 yards apart.
Update: I have arrived at my hotel here in Sunny Sunnyvale, CA. I am now in my hotel room, as the picture below indicates. It’s a great place, and I have already managed to watch two episodes of Stargate SG-1. I will be here all week and I will make every attempt to blog the interesting parts of my trip. Until tomorrow, y’all have a nice one.
-Brian
|
7 Apr |
Last Time We Checked, This Was Near Impossible Not Twilight Related, Random
|
However, some people are apparently a lot more flexible than us.
|
1 Apr |
The Goings On At Twilight Teez The Store
|
This post has been a long time in coming. I meant to post this last week, but a lot of things happened that prevented me from writing. So I’ll see if I can sum up the latest happenings.
Breaking Dawn
Okay, first thing’s first. The latest news about Breaking Dawn, as you may have heard, is that the book has been cancelled.
…Okay, April Fool’s! Ha ha! Got ya, and all that other crazy stuff. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get on with the real news.
The Ring
There’s been some speculation as to whether or not a ring is being made. I alluded to something in my previous posts, a tease that some have accused of being unfair. The point is, though, that teasing is exactly what gets you all going. Teasers for products, even movies, are like appetizers. They get your appetite ready for the final product.
We’re not ready to announce anything yet, but I can tell you that we are in the process of making Bella’s Engagement Ring (current working title). We’ve got some details to iron out but a prototype has been approved by Stephenie. We do not have a production-quality version of the ring, yet. When it is released, we do not plan to have a pre-order period. We expect to be able to start shipping of the ring immediately. That is all the information I am able to give out now. We do not have a release date so please do not e-mail us asking when the ring will be available. When we are ready to make further announcements, we will do so. Until then, all questions relating to Bella’s Engagement Ring will not receive responses (but they will also not be ignored). Please don’t take this as a personal affront. We just know that we will be inundated with questions, especially of the type that says “When will the ring be available?”. The answer is, “we don’t know, yet.” You will be informed when more details are available.
Why Doesn’t Rosalie Have A Shirt
This one’s easy. Rosalie doesn’t have a shirt because one hasn’t been approved for her, yet. It’s as simple as that. Rosalie wasn’t included in the contest because only five prizes were offered at the time, and no matter what, somebody wasn’t going to get a shirt design. It could just as easily have been Jasper, Emmett, or any of the others. It just so happened to be Rosalie. Don’t worry, she’ll get a shirt.
The Store
We have been running our store since our opening day using an open-source shopping cart software called osCommerce. This software is pretty cool, but it has some limitations. The fact that it’s open-source and not developed by a single company has its advantages and disadvantages. The site has a lot of features that we were able to plug into the software, but there are features we’d like to implement that are simply not available for one reason or another. Mostly because they would require a substantial amount of time to develop because they simply don’t exist. Some of these features include (from a customer’s perspective and in no particular order):
- implementation of other shipping options such as UPS, FedEx, and/or DHL.
- better tracking features (which would coincide with the feature above).
- better product display.
- easier site navigation.
- wish lists.
- the ability to order from our site without creating an account.
From our perspective, we’re looking for better integration into our accounting software as well as a better interface to manage and fulfill customer orders. There are other things, as well, but they don’t necessarily warrant being listed here.
All of this to say that there may be a time in the near future when the store will need to be closed for a short period in order to facilitate the transfer from the old software to the new. Hopefully this won’t have to happen. It would be wonderful if we could have a seamless transition that has absolutely no effect on our customers experience with our site, but that may be a pipe dream. We’ll see, and we will certainly keep you posted on this news as it becomes available.
Other Projects
Aside from the ring, mentioned above, and I think that’s probably our most anticipated project to date, we have other things in the works. Because various components of these projects are still in planning and nothing has been agreed on with the parties involved, I cannot give any further details other than what I’m about to say here. Some of these projects are related to the Twilight series and some of them have absolutely nothing to do with Stephenie Meyer’s works. But we do believe that they all will play a definitive roll in the future of Twilight Teez. We are very excited about these upcoming things, and once we have some things in place to get them rolling, we’ll let you know more about them. Trust me, these things are causing no small amount of anticipation and giddiness around here.
Miscellaneous
Finally, there has been some interesting happenings going on here at the main offices of Twilight Teez. I use the term “main offices” as if we actually have offices. The truth is, this whole enterprise is run from my home here in Sunny Sierra Vista, AZ (USA). Up until recently, Twilight Teez was my second job. I have worked in the Information Technology industry for the past 15 years and have done various types of jobs from computer hardware installation to software maintenance to network administration to communications systems testing. However, it has always been my dream to work for myself, and on March 5, 2008 that dream became a reality. While I have worked on Twilight Teez for the past year, that time had always been in conjunction with my “day job”. Now, Twilight Teez is my day job. I’m pleased to say that I work full time for this wonderful little business, and let me tell you it’s both a fantastic and surreal experience. It’s weird to be able to wake up in the morning and have to go to not work. I have my little office in my back yard (some people call it a shed, I call it an office). I have everything I need including air conditioning, network connections, and a little refrigerator. The only thing I don’t have is a bathroom, but that’s on the list of things to do.
Our growth is all thanks to you, our customers. So I will end this post with one big thank you. If it weren’t for our customers, none of this would be relevant.
THANK YOU!!!
-Brian
-
About
Twilight Teezers is the official blog for Twilight Teez. This is where news and information relating to our web store will be posted. Twilight Teezers, while not necessarily a fan site for the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, will likely include commentary or other articles relating to those books. We will also include content relating to other book series and authors. If you want to discuss more about Twilight, you may visit our forums or the many Twilight fan sites around the Internet (see our links section below).
-
NieNie
Links
- More Twilight Fan Sites - So many fan sites, so little space to list them all…
- SchadeBlog - Brian’s personal blog
- Stephenie Meyer - Stephenie Meyer’s official web site
- Twilight Lexicon - The Twilight Lexicon
- Twilight Teez Forums - The Discussion Forums for Twilight Teez
- Twilight Teez, LLC - Order Stephenie Meyer Twilight Shirts Here!
-
Books -N- Things
