Another Way to Effortlessly Make Money on the Internet

A way to effortlessly make money on the Internet? Freddy is using the term, "effortlessly" with a few qualifications here. Search all you like, you will probably never find a (legal) way to effortlessly make money on the Internet. Even the illegal ways to make money often require more effort, and are more risky than the legal ways. Still, if you take a certain point of view, some things you may already be doing anyhow could bring in some extra income without requiring you to do any extra work (or very little, at least).

Freddy is talking about Google Adsense. If you are already blogging, it is not that difficult to set up an Adsense account and add a few ads to your page. Just a few on the side, maybe at the bottom (like you see on Freddy's blog, here). Keep adding regular postings to your blogs and if you're lucky, you may start to see to pennies start trickling in. All it took you was a few minutes to set up an Adsense account and adding it to your page.

If you think you're going to start see checks in the mail the first month after setting up Adsense, and starting a blog, you may be disappointed, though. Unless you're blog is very popular, meaning you have a high amount of traffic, those ad clicks will probably be few and far between.
Freddy has been blogging for about a year and a half now. He set up Adsense around February of this year, that's about 10 months ago. Freddy's blogs get steady traffic of around 15 to 20 views a day. Still, only recently has Freddy begun to see an increase in clicks on Adsense ads. It has taken a lot of dedication and patience to get this far.

Freddy would share with you more details about his Adsense statistics, but Google is very strict about following their guidelines, and the slightest infringement can get you banned for life. So Freddy is not allowed to share with you any specifics. Sorry.

At first, Freddy tried to create a blog that would show ads of the type that people are more likely to click on, but he gave up long ago on that. Freddy is not passionate about that kind of thing and did not have the motivation to continue writing posts on issues he wasn't really interested in. That's why it's much better (in Freddy's opinion, at least) to use Adsense as a sort of afterthought to something you're already doing. Creating a website, or a blog just for the purpose of attracting Google Ad clickers is boring, and it might even be against the guidelines set out by Google.

Is Google Adsense effortless? Well, it need not take much effort. One can easily add it to their web page or blog, continue doing what they've been doing all along and there is a good chance you will see some success. On the other hand, you can also put in quite a bit of effort, experimenting with different color schemes, ad formats, ad placement and so on. At any rate, Google Adsense is another legitimate way of making a bit of extra cash on the Internet.

Making Money Online With What You Already Have

Have you ever heard of the "30 Day Challenge"? Freddy thinks he heard of it sometime in the last year. He doesn't know much more about it than what it says on their home page, which is that "The Thirty Day Challenge is about making your first $10 online." The other thing Freddy knows about it is that he didn't discover it until after he had made much more than his first $10 online. Freddy does not intend to endorse the "30 Day Challenge". He has not been past their home page and has no idea about the quality of their program and training (it is free, though, so if you're curious...) But he is in agreement with the idea that you no not need to spend or invest anything in order to start earning money on the Internet. This is assuming, of course, that you have your own computer, some basic software and access to the Internet. These days it is safe to assume that most people already have these things, and therefore, probably do not need to spend any extra money.

Today, Freddy is going to tell you how he completed the 30 Day Challenge, without even knowing it. Meaning, he was neither aware of the existence of the 30 Day Challenge, nor did he know that he was earning money until a check came in the mail. Freddy used to do a little bit of photography, and he occasionally sold greeting cards, prints and calendars to his friends and colleagues. Having some success at this, he decided to try to sell some of his work online, but having limited website designing experience, he could not design a site which could handle taking orders and processing credit cards and so on. Furthermore, he was not aware of all the work it takes to promote your site and get traffic. At any rate, the photography stuff never panned out much for Freddy. A couple years later, though, Freddy had an idea for a silly t-shirt. Several friends were interested in ordering it, but not enough to make it worthwhile to have a large amount screen printed. It was then that Freddy discovered the on-demand printing world of Cafepress! Upload your designs, create your own "store", mark up your designs if you want to earn money, and they take care of the rest. Freddy uploaded his design and after his friends had a chance to order it, he marked up the price a little bit (what the heck!), uploaded a couple more designs that he had thought of and then forgot about them. ... Until a few months later when he got a check for $22! He saw that the check was from Cafepress, and logged back into his account to find that people were actually buying his quirky designs. Oh the joy!

With the $22 Freddy had completed two 30 day challenges without even trying. All he needed was a little creativity, a simple image editing program (there are free ones available out there if you search for them) and a computer with an Internet connection. Voila, Freddy was in business and EntropicTees was born! Now Freddy gives himself a 30 Day Challenge every month.

If you'd like to see how EntropicTees has grown since then, please visit the shop at CafePress to see the full line up of funny and weird t-shirt designs.

Find out if Freddy really knows how to make money online!

Freddy spends a significant amount of time on the Internet these days. You see, Freddy is trying to take advantage of the various money making opportunities out there on the Internet. There are a lot of companies and sites that will promise you large amounts of money fairly quickly. Just do a google search for "make money online" and see what ads come up. There are ads promising you $300 a day, $3000 a week, $300 just for "Clicking your mouse" (whatever that means), and most of them claim to be "easy" or "idiot proof". In fact, Freddy has recently been seeing a junk email in his spam folder with the subject heading, "Dumb and Poor? We can help." Freddy wonders what kind of idiot would actually open that email... probably someone who is dumb and poor, he guesses. Too bad they'll probably stay that way.

Yes, if you're looking to make money online, there is a lot of junk out there. No, really, a lot, a whole bunch, like one out of every 10,000 "opportunities" is genuine. Freddy is serious, here. The Internet is not a place where you can get rich quick, unless you like gambling, because following up on most of these "incredible money making opportunities" is, more or less, like pulling the lever on a slot machine. And while occasionally someone hits the jackpot, most of the time, people walk away from those machines taking a loss.

A few weeks ago, Freddy found an article that claimed to have the "secret to success online!" It was from a legitimate source, so Freddy went ahead and read it. Do you know what the secret was? Don't give up! Work hard and don't give up! Probably not the type of "secret" that most people who are looking for online success hope to learn. Freddy thinks that when most people see the word, "secret" they are expecting an insider tip on how to make loads of money quickly. They most be disappointed to see that they might have to work. Well, hard work and never giving up is a strategy that Freddy has been aware of since he was wee, so this wasn't necessarily a secret to him either.

Freddy has been working hard and not giving up at online success for, what, nearly three years now. The progress is slow, but the progress is there and Freddy has gone from making $0 a month, to sometimes as much as $150 a month online. (and nearly all of this income comes from sites that are free for anyone to set up) It's not paying the rent, but it's $150 Freddy didn't have before. And if Freddy keeps working hard and never giving up, maybe someday it will pay the rent.

So, although Freddy started this blog with the hopes of selling more t-shirts, he is going to take a short break from that and share with any readers, who happen to stumble upon this page with Freddy's insights on getting started making money online.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com

Failblog is sooo much better than Engrish.com

Once again Freddy finds himself in a position where he needs to apologize for a long absence. Freddy is just trying to wear too many hats right now. One hat he is wearing is that of a squidoo lensmaker. Freddy just published his second squidoo lens, this time on flying on Japanese airlines. That brings Freddy's Squidoo lens total to two:

Everything you never wanted to know about Sumo Wrestling
and
Why you should pay more to fly on a Japanese airline

Freddy would just be ecstatic if you would stop by his lenses, give them a rating, participate in the surveys and leave him a comment. Please have a look.

In any case, he's back today with a new blog entry to help you pass a little time and put a smile on your face (especially if you're the type that enjoys Schadenfreude). Freddy also sometimes is looking for ways to "pass" the time at work and one of his favorite reading sites is slate.com. Yesterday, Freddy read this article from slate on FAIL.

Freddy was most recently exposed to the "FAIL" phenomenon when he came across this excellent Halloween costume:But it was only through the slate article that Freddy learned of the existence of failblog.org. Failblog is a blog filled with pictures and videos of people failing. Failing in sports, fashion, academics ... life in general. So, as Freddy said earlier, if you enjoy Schadenfreude, this is definitely a site for you. In many ways, failblog reminds Freddy of engrish.com, in that it is making fun of the inability of others (hence the Schadenfreude). After reading the Slate article, Freddy learned that the term/phrase "FAIL" actually has it's roots in engrish. So far, Freddy is much more impressed with failblog than Engrish.com. What's more, Failblog seems to have it's own Engrish branch engrishfunny.com Why is this better than engrish.com (the original Engrish site?) Mainly because of the comments. Of course, this is Freddy's personal preference. Whoever is running the Engrish.com site feels a need to post his own (mostly unfunny) commentary to all the pictures submitted. He claims that his visitors prefer that his comments stay, yet Freddy thinks he is living in his own little dream world. If you write to him suggesting that he post pictures without the comments (most of the pictures are more than funny on their own), he responds by pointing you to one of his FAQ addressing this issue. If so many people are suggesting that you remove your comments that you need to post a FAQ about it, maybe there aren't so many people who enjoy them as you think. (Mr. Engrish.com - Objectivity FAIL) Freddy is pleased that the Failblog engrish site is satisfied to post the pictures without their own comments. Of course, they allow users to post comments, but that is not the same as posting your own comments.

Enough ranting by Freddy. Here are some failblog posts Freddy has enjoyed in the last 24 hours:

Mens Accessories FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Archie FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Three-handed FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Packaging FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

and there are many more.

There are thousands of pictures and videos posted on failblog. Freddy, of course, has some of his own favorites. He wonders if they have been submitted or not. Maybe he will get around to submitting them someday, but for now, instead of making you search around for them, Freddy will post his own favorite FAIL vids right here.

Freddy thought he posted this clip in an earlier post, but he can't find it, so here it is.

Aerobics class FAIL:


Kelsey Grammar FAIL:


Modeling FAIL: (talk about Schadenfreude, these newscaster have it down)


Foreign Policy FAIL:


Foreign Policy FAIL (2):


There are just too many Sarah Palin FAILs to post here. Freddy doesn't have time.

And now it's time for Freddy to go. Don't forget to come back to check for more fun updates from Freddy. And don't forget to visit Freddy's T-shirt shop for lots of humorous, funny, weird, strange and cool t-shirts. Entropic Tees

Breasts, Butts and Controversy

Freddy enjoys watching Sumo Wrestling (hence the "breasts" and "butts" in the title. Not what you were expecting?) and has spent some time over the past year or so enjoying the tournaments and writing articles about the various controversies that have popped up this year. Not to break tradition, the the sumo world came up with a fresh controversy for the fall tournament when three Russian sumo wrestlers were banned (that means fired) from sumo wrestling for life. That is something that has never happened before in the history of sumo wrestling. Why, you ask? They were either in possession of, or tested positive for marijuana use. Not only did this result in the banning of these three wrestlers, but also the demotion of their stable master, and the resignation of the Sumo Association Chairman, Kitanoumi.

If you are wondering what a "stable master" is, then you should check out the project Freddy worked on this summer. Being a growing sumo fan, Freddy has been trying to learn more about the sport. In fact, he has written several articles on the Sumo world in the last year or so

The Sumo Problem and Japanese Sportsmanship
Kotoshu - Sumo's first European Champion
Asashoryu and Hakuho Vent Their Frustrations on One Another

In the process of attempting to learn about sumo and writing these articles, he found that there is very little good info on the sport written in English, so he decided to write up his own Sumo primer and put it up at a site called Squidoo. Freddy is just starting to learn about Squidoo and it's kind of interesting.

Whether you're interested in sumo or not, Freddy invites you to stop by his Sumo Wrestling page at Squidoo and give it a rating, leave a comment, broaden your horizons, etc.

Freddy's Sumo Wrestling Primer

Don't forget to check back in a week or so for another update and visit Freddy's store
Entropic Tees - The Internet's most puzzling t-shirt designs

What If Napoleon Dynamite Sketched Pictures of John McCain and Sarah Palin?

Freddy is not usually very political, but like the rest of the country, he is fairly intrigued by Republican, John McCain's VP pick, Sarah Palin. Intrigued and confused. Personally, Freddy thinks that McCain is taking a big gamble with Sarah Palin, but so far the gamble has worked pretty well. Freddy wonders how long it will last. At any rate, not only is Sarah Palin the first female on a Republican presidential ticket, but she is probably also the most attractive VP nominee ever. And the fact that she seems to be slightly "bitchy" just makes her even more so, for some reason. For the record, Freddy was not at all impressed how she ruthlessly acted Obama after he showed restraint and respect by not commenting on her knocked up daughter. Granted, opposing political parties are going to attack each other, but Ms. Palin did so without any acknowledgement whatsoever of Obama's respect for her family's privacy.
Anyhow, as Freddy mentioned, he is not very political and doesn't want to make this a political blog. Still, Freddy could not resist taking up pencil and paper and drawing pictures of John McCain and Sarah Palin. And then proceed to place them on T-shirts. Be warned that Freddy is not much of an artist, so he new his drawing would be of a low quality when he set out to make them. His drawing of Sarah Palin reminded him of the drawing Napoleon Dynamite makes for his crush. Don't you remember? "I spent like 45 minutes on the shading on your upper lip." Or something like that. Anyway, Freddy humbly offers you his 2008 McCain - Palin presidential campaign series t-shirt designs. Are these pro-Republican, pro-McCain, pro-Palin t-shirts? Or are they anti-Republican, anti-McCain, anti-Palin t-shirts? Freddy thinks it's up to you to decide.

Please feel free to visit Freddy's store for many more t-shirts (mostly non-political, but certainly entertaining). Visit the Entropictees Website, or Freddy's online t-shirt store for a lot more fun!
And don't forget to visit again soon to get more EntropicTees updates. And oh yes, please stop by t-shirt countdown to vote for EntropicTees, "Deers is Mammals" t-shirt design!

This is Just So Weird! (2 things)

Freddy's good friend, HallaMeat used to have a blog called "the Magistrate" where on occasion he would post interesting dreams he had. He called it "The M's Dream TV". Freddy was even able to contribute one time with one of his own strange dreams. Since Freddy's dreams were a bit strange last night, he would like to continue in the magistrate's tradition and post his own "Dream TV".

Why was Arnold Schwarzenegger in Japan? Freddy has no idea, but in his dream, he was. (perhaps he was working on more commercials) Anyhow, for some reason, Freddy and Arnold were also friends, so Arnold invited Freddy to fly back to his house in CA on his private jet. Freddy was glad to get away for a weekend, and he also thought he would have a chance to practice some German with Arnold. Although Freddy's family was not on Arnold's jet with him, when they arrived (and pulled into the driveway, in a private jet) suddenly, Freddy's wife and children were by his side. Upon getting out of the "plane", Freddy noticed that it was nothing more than a Jeep Wrangler with turbine engines attached to the sides and a wing fastened to the roof. (It was literally a Jeep Wrangler, a red one) Weird. It seemed bigger inside. Anyhow, Arnold showed Freddy and his family inside and introduced his wife, Maria and his two children (does he have children?) who turned out to be around the same ages as Freddy's own. The house was nice, but fairly messy and the back yard was actually a horse pasture. The Schwarzeneggers had about 20 horses, it looked like. The whole time Freddy wanted to ask questions about politics, (especially their opinion on Sarah Palin) but thought it was unwise. After all, we'd only just met. So instead of asking about politics, Freddy started talking to Arnold about world economics, in German. He asked Arnold if he realized that Austria (Arnold is from Austria) had the 4th largest economy in the world, after the US, Japan and Germany. Arnold said, "really?" and that was the end of that conversation. A phone rings, Maria answers it, sudden scene change. Now everyone is on a couch and for some reason, Freddy's parents have joined in out of the blue. Freddy only recalls two things from this scene: First, someone was saying, "You should never discuss politics, religion or sex when you're with friends." Secondly, Arnold was talking to his children in Japanese! Where did he learn that? and why is he talking to his children in Japanese? Finally, fast-foward 10 years or so. For some reason the part of Freddy is now being played by Tom Arnold. Freddy's and Arnold's (Schwarzenegger) families have become good friends over the years and visit each other every so often. But Freddy has a slight competitive tendency and feels a need to prove something to Arnold. So on this occasion, Freddy has brought along a small, remote control platform, about two feet by one foot, which rests on wheels. It is meant for carrying luggage, but is rather unstable. Freddy is using the remote to guide it up the walk to the front door, carrying more luggage than it probably should and several bags tumble onto the sidewalk in the process. Still, Freddy (which is now being played by Tom Arnold, don't forget) is hoping to impress the Schwarzeneggers.

And that is as much as Freddy remembers at this point.

The other weird thing that Freddy experienced yesterday might as well have been a dream. It all started with the YouTube video "Charlie Bit My Finger". Actually, that's where it ended. Freddy hadn't seen the original before. He admits, it's pretty cute. Anyway, Freddy found this video first, where a couple of strange TV show hosts interview the family of the "Charlie Bit My Finger" video fame. Here it is:

Now tell Freddy that this isn't extremely weird. What is going on here? Honestly, it is like a screen test out of a Christopher Guest movie or something. Don't you think so? Self absorbed hosts, disinterested guests, awkward moments. What do you do when one of the hosts starts biting the other host's finger? Just sit there and smile perhaps?

There you go. Freddy hopes you have enjoyed a dose of strangeness for the day. If you haven't gotten quite enough, Freddy invites you to stop by his Cafepress store, Entropic Tees, where you can peruse through numerous styles of apparel with Japanese, German, random, weird and even Christopher Guest inspired designs. And don't forget to come back to check for updates soon. (Freddy will soon be doing his best to trash an online company for deceitful business practices. Don't miss it, it should be fun)

Love Freddy.

Is Crispin Glover Brilliant? or Just Plain Crazy?

Freddy recently finished up using "Back to the Future" to teach English to one of his high school classes. Crispin Glover, as the nerdy dad, George McFly, is always one of the favorite characters of the students. (As well as one of Freddy's all time favorites) When Freddy was in high school, he used to imitate Crispin Glover's attempt to ask out Lorraine Baines at the soda stand: "Yes, I'm George, George McFly, and I'm your density!... err uh, I mean destiny." This is one of Hollywood's all time greatest pick up lines.

Although Freddy was always a big fan of Crispin Glover, it wasn't until college that he discovered Glover's wide range of artistic endeavors. Soon after meeting his college roommate, Freddy was introduced to Crispin Glover's music album, "The Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution. The Solution = Let it Be." Freddy was immediately enthralled with tracks like "The New Clean Song", Crispin Glover's interpretation of "These Boots are Made For Walkin'", "Clowny Clown Clown" (of which Freddy once did an interpretive
reading and dance backed up by an impromptu band) and of course, "Auto Manipulator". In fact, the Auto Manipulator song even inspired of Freddy's Auto Manipulator T-shirt design, which Crispin Glover has seen himself, and autographed. If you're not familiar with the album or the music, please enjoy this video of Glover's "Clowny Clown Clown" available on YouTube:


Freddy hadn't watched this video in quite some time and was just noticing that "Mr. Farr" actually appears to be Glover's character from one of his own films, "Rubin and Ed". Unfortunately Freddy has never had the opportunity to see this film, other than some of the clips that are available on YouTube. Here is Freddy's favorite YouTube clip from Glover's "Rubin and Ed"...



Perhaps one of Crispin Glover's most well-known appearances (aside from Back to the Future) is his 1987 appearance on Letterman, which is also all over YouTube. There are a lot of rumors out there that Glover did the appearance while he was on an acid trip. Based on his behavior, it would be easy to believe. Freddy"s personal opinion is that he was in the character of Rubin Farr (From his movie, "Rubin and Ed") Once you watch the clip, you'll also notice that the Rubin Farr character also appears in the Clownly Clown Clown video. In my opinion, Glover appeared "in character" for the interview. I do not believe he was on LSD. Crispin Glover's 1987 Letterman appearance:



About three years later, Crispin Glover appeared on Letterman again, this time as himself. He attempts to explain what happened back in '87, but the story takes too long and Letterman cuts him off before he can finish. From what Freddy can guess, it seems that Glover was trying to say that it was not actually him that appeared on the show back in 1987. He says that he was tired from doing several appearances in a row, and asked an acquaintance, who looked very much like him, Rubin Farr, to do the interview in his place. (Freddy apologizes for the low quality of the clip, it is the only one he could find of this interview)



Crispin Glover, himself, will not confirm or deny any rumors about his 1987 appearance on Letterman. He says he prefers to just let the incidents have a life of their own and let people think what they want.




Mr. Glover elaborates more on why he likes to let his work stand on its own, and why he sometimes likes to make people feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable (David Letterman?) in this interview with Tom Green:

Freddy is not surprised that Crispin Glover and Werner Herzog get along well. Freddy is also a Herzog fan, and even evaluated three of Herzog's films in a research paper for graduate school in Germany. Freddy would categorize both Werner Herzog and Crispin Glover in that weird genius category. Some other time, Freddy will probably write up a blog entry about Herzog as well.

Anyhow, one reason Freddy is a fan of Crispin Glover relates to what he talks about in one of the interviews. Glover mentions how he sort of enjoys the audience reactions to some of his quirky antics. (Freddy wonders if Borat is a Glover fan...) You see, in case you didn't know, Freddy designs weird t-shirts (mostly weird, at least). Freddy also enjoys watching the reactions from people on the street, who "don't get" the t-shirts. But that is an article for another day. Freddy doesn't want to get off topic. This is supposed to be about Crispin Glover. Well, the post has gotten too long anyhow, so perhaps he should close it up.

For those of you who are perhaps only familiar with Crispin Glover as George McFly from "Back to the Future", or as just some weirdo, Freddy hopes that he has been able to open your eyes to a different, more thought-provoking, intellectual side of his acting. There are all kinds of clips on YouTube with Crispin, from one of his very early roles on Happy days, to some weird Latina girl interviewing him. Freddy doesn't have time to post them all here, but if you want to know more about Crispin, please look for him on YouTube and visit his own website, perhaps he is coming to your town for a presentation of his slide show and film.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. If you enjoyed the post, perhaps you would like to visit my store:
Entropic Tees
If you like the t-shirts, don't forget to vote for the Deers is Mammals Tee at T-shirt countdown.
Vote for Deers is Mammals

And of course, don't forget to visit again...

If You Like Bluegrass Music..

... then you may be interested to keep reading. Well, it's nothing big, but Freddy was taken down memory lane a few days ago by some old, bluegrass-lovin' college buddies. For about two years when Freddy was in college, his Saturday nights were always reserved for the Old Man Roscoe Jamboree. Freddy and his friends would get together and play hot, passionate bluegrass for 2 hours or more, till the neighbors complained. It was a group of friends, ranging from as few as 4 or 5, sometimes up to 20 or more, who would crowd into Freddy's little college apartment, bringing guitars, banjos, violins, stand-up basses, flutes, percussion, anything you could play music on. Those who didn't have an instrument brought their voices. Old Man Roscoe was our founder, who only a few privileged members had actually met. Those who had met Roscoe were sometimes lucky enough to have convinced Roscoe to teach them a song. Some of the favorites were: "Where do Babies Come From? (I don't know, I don't know)", "Skinny Dippin'", and "'59 Chevy". Some of Freddy's favorite old standbys were "Drill ye Tarriers, Drill", "Rocky Top", "Old Joe Clark" and many more. Those were good times.

Most of the members of Roscoe have spread out across the Midwest, but occasionally several will find themselves in close proximity and happen to have their instruments with them. When that happens, it is likely that there will be an Old Man Roscoe Revial meetin'. About a year ago, Freddy had the chance to have one at his house. It was good times. Just a few days ago (well, it was June, actually) it seems that there was a jamboree in Chicago with a few of the old members. They were nice enough to put it up on YouTube, so Freddy's gonna share it with you!


Purely through coincidence, shortly after watching this video, Freddy saw a "crazy Japanese T-shirt" as he was walking down the street in Japan. (Freddy likes crazy Japanese stuff) Anyhow, the T-shirt Freddy saw had a guitar and banjo on the front, with the text, "Let's Go Crazy" over the top of the image. Well, since Freddy like it so much, he made his own design.


This is Freddy's own Bluegrass T-shirt design. If you like it, please consider purchasing one. Or perhaps you don't like it, but you know someone who might? Freddy would be very grateful if you passed it on to them. You may see the full range of products with this design at the following link:

Let's Go Crazy - Bluegrass T-shirt

And now Freddy just spilled coffee all over his desk (#$%*!) and no, that is not a euphemism! So He must go and clean it up. Great way to start the day!

You Could Never Show This on American TV!

Freddy read a week or so ago that Japanese game shows were starting to make their way into the US TV market. Freddy wonders if they will be showing original Japanese game shows, or trying to make their own shows to be like Japanese game shows. If it is the latter, Freddy thinks they will never get close to producing the same ...er... quality of game shows. Besides, some of them would never make it past the censors. They are just to crude or violent, or both. Freddy will share a crude and violent game show with you, but first let him tell you about a fun and creative one.

Freddy doesn't have time to watch TV as much as he used to, but when he last lived in Japan, about ten years ago, he still remembers some of his favorite game shows. One was more of a reality TV show. (The Japanese were doing "reality TV" long before Americans ever heard the term). Anyway, it was quite entertaining. Two non-Japanese were shown a 5000 yen note. On the back of the note is a famous view of Mt. Fuji. There is a certain spot where this picture was taken and many tourists will stop there to take pictures. The two contestants were told that they had to find their way to this spot and the first one there was the winner. I believe they started off somewhere in Osaka/Kobe. Of course, neither spoke Japanese and they didn't even give them a 5000 yen note to help them out. They had to get there completely on their own. Freddy remembers one of them made it to Kyoto, and was just wandering around Kyoto station asking in a loud voice, "Does anyone speak English?" "Does anyone have a 5000 yen bill?" It was an entertaining program and eventually, they both made it to the goal.

Sometimes, though, Japanese TV producers just go for the lowest common denominator (which is usually sex, violence, or ... well, poop and farts) In this case, they went for the farts. Now, those who know Freddy will know that Freddy loves a well-timed fart, and the more embarrassing, the better it is. Like in this YouTube Clip, for example (it disappeared for awhile, but Freddy is glad to see that it is back)

Ha ha ha, that never gets old.

Anyhow, the Japanese game show was again a traveling show. Two contestants (this time, Japanese) were given a goal to reach. They were given no money, so unless they could get some, they had to walk there (not impossible, but would have taken more than a day to walk all the way.) They were actually given a way to earn money, though. Every time one of them farted, they would get 50 yen or something like that. Freddy thinks it actually depended on the volume and the length of the fart. So if they farted enough, they could earn enough for the bus fare for part of the way, or to buy a drink or snacks or something like that. So the whole show was following these two fellows on their journey and watching them as they rejoiced every time one of them tooted his trouser trumpet.

Well, the traveling trouser trumpet show is a bit crude, but Freddy thinks it still might make it onto the US networks. But this final game show likely goes a bit too far (and this is not the worst, by the way.) Freddy found this by mistake a year or so ago while searching for clips of a different game show. The contestants here are given a tongue twister, and a time limit. If they fail to say the tongue twister without any mistakes, or they go over the time limit, they are ... physically harmed. (The ladies will likely enjoy this more than the men)


Funny Japanese Tshirts

A Nerd's Wet Dream - Monty Python Juxtaposed with Star Trek

Someone Freddy follows at twitter posted a link where Freddy found this video. The nerd radiation levels are simply incredible. Be careful if you are a hard core nerd. The combination of Monty Python and Star Trek might just overload your pleasure circuits. Watch with caution.



I hope you enjoyed and please pass it on to your friends.

Several foreign language videos sure to make you laugh.

Freddy is a lingophile. He loves to learn and speak languages. Freddy learns German and Freddy learns Japanese. Freddy even learned Spanish for a bit one summer. Of course, Freddy's love for foreign languages serves as an inspiration for some of his t-shirt designs. But Freddy is not writing to advertise today. Nor is he even writing to pass on Jennifer Laycock's latest SEO tips. Freddy is just going to provide some enjoyment for you today.

Freddy forgets how he found this video, but it made him chuckle the first time he saw it. It's in English, but there's a bit of German at the end.



Then there are the Berlitz ads. Freddy found this one a few years ago, and when he was teaching German, his students used to love it. (Unfortunately, though, some of them just said, "I don't get it")



Since Freddy is on the topic of German, here are some more. A few years ago, Freddy had the privilege of attending, and then hosting several concerts by Uwe Kind. Uwe is wonderful advocate for learning German and it is amazing how he can motivate even an auditorium full of very reluctant, self-conscious teenagers. Uwe is also quite a funny fellow and because of him, Freddy discovered clips of "Verstehen Sie Spass", which is a German Candid Camera type of program. Uwe first sent me this clip:



There are many more, and here are a few of my favorites:




and this one is maybe not quite as good, unless you can understand German:


So learn German.
Freddy could endlessly embed "Verstehen Sie Spass" videos, but if you are enjoying these, it is probably better for you to just search for "Verstehen Sie Spass" at YouTube on your own.

Oh, Freddy forgot his favorite one:


Of course, the Japanese spots are a whole different monster, but Freddy will save those for next time. Enjoy the German, and don't forget to come back in a week or so for more.

Freddy

Two things you should be aware of ... ok, at least one

Freddy has been away for a bit. He hasn't been out of town, but he has been learning about Search Engine Optimization and web promotion. Today Freddy wants to pass on to you a fun tip and a valuable person, if you are also someone who has a website, blog, business, or whatever, to promote.

The first thing is actually a person. Her name is Jennifer Laycock. She writes for Search Engine Guide. In fact, she is the editor of the whole site, it would seem. Freddy discovered her wonderful article series, Zero Cash, a little talent and thirty days while looking for ways to promote his Cafepress shop, Entropic Tees. Jennifer gave herself the challenge to start an online business with virtually no money and turn a profit within thirty days. In the article series she documents her successes and failures every day. In the end, she was highly successful and turned a profit of nearly $327. Many readers of her series have called the experiment somewhat unrealistic because of her already established base of readers and broad networking capabilities. Nevertheless, she attempted not to use those advantages and keep things as average as possible. Unless you already have connections like her, you probably won't see $300 + in the first month. Still, the series is full of helpful hints and common sense SEO stuff that you might not think of, especially if you are new to online marketing.

A friend of mine (who already is webmaster for several highly ranked websites) even found the series helpful. He said, "Freddy, thanks for sending me the link to the boob lady, I read the whole series through once, and now I'm reading it again and taking notes." As you can see, it was even helpful for an experienced web marketer. Ah, now Freddy knows you are more interested in why he called her the boob lady. Don't get too excited. It is merely because the CafePress store she set up for the experiment featured designs promoting breast feeding. She has lots of humorous designs, Freddy suggests that you have a look.

Jennifer's usefulness goes beyond this one article series. She writes an update nearly every day on web marketing and SEO and Freddy has been slowly reading his way through all her articles. She is sooooo easy to read. She doesn't use jargon or complicated computer lingo. Of course, there is some web specific language, but if you are somewhat familiar with the Internet, it really isn't so bad. What's more, she writes in a way so that you feel like she is a close friend, so even if you don't understand exactly what she is talking about, you can still enjoy the article.

This brings Freddy to the second thing he wants to tell you about. On a tip from Jennifer, he signed up for Twitter. Now Freddy first heard about Twitter a long time ago, and he checked it out, but didn't do much more than that with it. Freddy does have accounts at other social networking websites like myspace and facebook, but Freddy couldn't really understand what the deal with twitter was. (not that he is any good at using Myspace or Facebook either) That is, until he read another article series by Ms. Laycock. Freddy has learned to trust and respect Jennifer from the other articles he's read by her, so he figured if she endorsed it, he ought to give it a try. (She does more than just endorse it, in fact, she calls it one of the two social networking sites you cannot do without) Freddy is still working to build up his following and his friends on Twitter, but he will admit, that he finds a lot more fun than Myspace or Facebook.

Well, Freddy has done enough writing for today. Please check out Ms. Laycock, Please look for Freddy on Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and of course, please stop by and browse the T-shirts at Entropic Tees. There were several new philosophy designs added just last week.

Two Crazy Japanese T-shirts

Living in Japan, Freddy sure sees his share of crazy Japanese t-shirts. He first became aware of the Japanese fetish for non-sensical English while reading Dave Barry's "Dave Barry Does Japan" about 13 years ago. Mr. Barry mentions several T-shirts he observed while spending a Sunday afternoon in Harajuku's Yoyogi Koen area, where bands line the street a play bad music. Some of the shirts Freddy remembers said things like "Nurse Mentality", "Circuit Beaver", "King Fucker Chicken". Then, several years later, Freddy discovered a site called engrish.com, where there is a treasure trove of funny Japanese English submitted by people mostly living in Japan. One particular T-shirt from this website that Freddy remembers was submitted by a user who saw a 13 year old boy walking around wearing a shirt that said "Future F.A.G" Although engrish.com is an amusing site, the owner, unfortunately feels that some of the "engrish" needs further explanation and he always adds his own commentary beneath the pictures. More often than not, the picture was funnier before he said anything. Freddy once even wrote to him to suggest that he let the "engrish" stand on it's own and it didn't need further explanation. Now Freddy took a friendly, non-confrontational tone in his message, a sort of, "Why don't you..." or "Have you considered ..." type of suggestion. Yet, the owner took on a very defensive mood in his response, explaining to me that everyone loves his comments and they were not going anywhere. He even directed me to a FAQ regarding this topic, where he says "a clear majority of the site visitors prefer that the commentary stays. Freddy just wonders if so many people enjoy the commentary, why he needs to post a FAQ addressing the issue. Well, clearly, there is a significant amount of people who don't enjoy the commentary as well. Anyhow, Freddy is becoming distracted. He will just let the Engrish.com website owner continue to live in his own special world, where he is the funniest guy around.

He meant to tell you all about two or three fun Japanese T-shirts he has recently seen. Two of them belong(ed) to his son. The first one, he has grown out of, but it was one of Freddy's favorites. It was a shirt for a 1 year old, with a picture of a little bird on it and the text which said, "It is a shameful thing, the bird which soils it's own nest." What a perfect, uplifting message for a baby. Actually, Freddy thinks the most impressive thing about this shirt is that there is actually no grammar mistakes on it. Perhaps someday, Freddy will get around to making his own version of this desgin for EntropicTees. The other Tee also belongs to his son and he just got it the other day. It has a lady bug on the front, and the text says, "I am a justice". Freddy thinks it would be a bit better if it just said, "I am justice", but it's not bad. Freddy thinks this is a great shirt for a two year old. See below.

The other shirt Freddy saw was worn by another father at his daughter's kindergarten and it illustrated that Japanese sometimes have no idea what they are actually wearing. In fact, Freddy was close to being shocked at seeing this t-shirt, especially since it was at church, on a Sunday morning, worn by a member of the church. (Freddy's daughter's Kindergarten is run by the church). Anyhow, the shirt had a picture of a gang member holding a cop in a headlock from behind and the text said, "Make me come, faggot!" This desgin is not likely to ever make it into Freddy's store.

Freddy did add two new designs to his store this week. Visit the new products section to have a look.

Elimination Woes - A Day of Discomfort

Freddy was a little late for work the other day, so he didn't have time to eliminate before he left. It is unlikely that he will make that mistake again. Although he did not feel the need to eliminate at the time, around lunch time, a storm began a brewin'. As a result, Freddy spent most of the afternoon in discomfort as his stomach and intenstines churned while he tried to wait until he returned home that evening.

Now some of Freddy's readers might be saying, "What's the big deal. Why didn't you just eliminate at work?" This might be an easy solution for some, but Freddy is a bit particular about where he eliminates. "Wait a second," say Freddy's friends, "I've never known you to be picky about where you eliminate. What about that time you eliminated in front of Sandburg's Store for Men? or behind the Wheaton Eye Clinic's sign?" Well, yes, Freddy, on occassion has thrown caution to the wind and chosen a few unique, less-than-discrete spots for the ritual, but for the most part, Freddy only eliminates where he feels comfortable.

There is a famous story amoung Freddy's family members about how he held back his elimination for nearly a week during summer camp when he was 8 year old. The reason? He didn't wanted to eliminate in the rooms with plumbing, not in some stinky hole in the ground. His counselor told him they could only use the nice elimination rooms at the cafeteria if it was an absolute emergency. Freddy figured, if he held it long enough, it would eventually be a true emergency and he could honestly ask for permission to use the cafeteria elimination rooms.

You see, Freddy's preffered Elimination area is kind of like that Ernest Hemmingway short story, "A Clean, Well-lighted Place." That's what Freddy likes when he eliminates, clean, not stinky and well-lighted. "Wide stances" from the next stall are not welcome either. Freddy's first choice is always his own elimination room in his home. He keeps it clean, it's comfortable, and there are plenty of books around to pass the time. Should nature beckon when Freddy is not at home, however, he is very careful about which facility he chooses. Sadly, Freddy's current place of employment does not offer an elimination room that is up to his standards, and therefore, never eliminates at work. It was the same in high school. Freddy did not like the rooms provided at school, so for four years, he limited his elimination to his home. In college, there were only two other rooms on campus, besides his apartment, where Freddy would eliminate, should an emergency arise. Those were the fourth floor rooms on BGC near the elevator, or the third floor elimination rooms in Blanchard hall. If Freddy had an urgent need to eliminate on campus, and he was, say, in the library, he would pack up and leave the library to and utilize the Blanchard rooms (assuming that was closer than his own apartment) and then return to the library after elimination had completed.

Since Freddy wakes up pretty early these days, and has at least two cups of coffee before he heads off to work, I guess it's pretty important to take care of that elimination before going out the door. That, or at least make sure there is a Sandburg's Store for Men on the way. Happy Eliminating!

Freddy's stores:
EntropicTees
Cafepress

Freddy Takes a Silly Break

Freddy Benstein's head is spinning. After recently deciding to put a bit more effort into his Cafepress store, Freddy has been trying to learn all about promoting websites, blogs, search Engine Optimization and more. Freddy is just overwhelmed at the moment and wants a little break. Luckily, Freddy was reminded by an article in yesterday's newspaper that it is that silly time of year when the Eurovision song contest is held. Freddy thinks he first learned of this event maybe three years ago, when Lordi of Finland took home the top prize. As hard as he tries, Freddy cannot take Eurovision seriously and he questions whether any non-Europeans can at all. Watching the various entries, Freddy feels like he is in the middle of a Christopher Guest mockumentary and is expecting to see Spinal Tap among the names of the entrants. Anyhow, it's obvious from the article Freddy read yesterday that Germany places the song competition at the same level as at least the Olympics. The article was telling about Germany's big disappointment at not get any votes for their entry this year. Nothing, zero! "Why does everyone like us not?" Freddy sees that they even took the "sex sells" angle by entering three attractive young ladies in form fitting outfits. (You know, on a side note, Freddy was once told by a friend that the most effective ads feature sexy pics, dogs or kids.) Here, Freddy is embedding Germany's 2008 Eurovision entry for your enjoyment.

Germany's 2008 Entry

And of course, Freddy must include one of his all-time-favorites, the UK entry from 2007. Scooch performing "Flying the Flag" or something like that. It is a culmination of silliness with the performers dressed in Azure, low-cut flight attendant uniforms, slinking around on stage sliding up and down service carts as they push them around in choreographed dance moves. The climax of the song comes as the male attendants offer you a complimentary drink, or some salted peanuts.
UK entry 2007

And of course, Freddy cannot leave out Lordi, the group that first sparked his interest in this contest:


Anyhow, Freddy enjoyed his silly break and now it's back to selling T-shirts at Cafepress. Should you be interested in bad rock music (or musik) or things European, Please have a look at Freddy's Spinal Tap Tees and German Language Tees at his Cafepress store.

Procrastinating

Seeing as how Freddy Currently resides in Japan, perhaps it is appropriate to write a bit about putting things off. As it turns out, Japanese are some of the best procrastinators in the world. Just check out this article in Slate.com. Anyhow, sometimes Freddy has times when there is actually little to do other than procrastinate and he has found a new way to do that. The answer is Yahoo! Answers. Now Freddy things the whole concept of Yahoo! Answers is rather silly. Freddy was/is not all that impressed with Wikipedia, and Freddy thinks that Answers is likely even more dangerous. Freddy even thinks he remembers reading something about this in Slate.com. Anyhow, for those who are smart enough to not take the Answers community too seriously, it can provide some fairly enjoyable time wasting. Freddy thinks the average age at the Answers community must be around 12. At least based on the answers given and quesitons asked. Freddy would include the bad grammar used in the questions and answers given, but Freddy has spent time working in a high school and is aware that these days, bad grammar does not necessarily indicate any particular age, sadly.

Looking for T-shirt ideas, Freddy found an interesting stereotype about learners of a few European languages. Freddy posted a question asking for funny words in German, French and Spanish. Interestingly, the German words given to Freddy were often long words, having to do with philosophy, history, music and so on. Nearly 70% of the Spanish and French answers were curse words, or insults. Freddy needs to say no more. Still, Freddy is pleased to offer German, Spanish, Latin and Japanese inspired T-shirts at his Cafepress shop. As soon as he finds suitable French, he will add French designs.

In the meantime, Freddy will continue to provide stupid answers to stupid questions in the Yahoo! Answers community. Look for Freddy and become his fan.

Entropic Tees T-shirt Blog

Freddy says good morning to all his readers. Freddy has great pride as he announces the launch of his very own t-shirt blog. Freddy has an interesting history. You can read all about it at his website for his company: EntropicTees. Freddy also has a cafepress shop where you can see the latest designs of Freddy's quirky T-shirts.

Freddy is always scouring the web for new ideas and he often comes across strange websites and people. For example, once Freddy was searching for pictures of bunny rabbits and somehow, he stumbled upon a website dedicated to a Japanese farting fetish. There were just pictures of girls' butts in underwear and underneath were detailed descriptions of their farts, including aspects such as sound, smell, length, loudness and so on. Freddy would post a link for you to follow, but that was many years ago, and contrary to what you might think, Freddy did not immediately add the site to his bookmarks. Furthermore, Freddy does not want to perform a google search for "Japanese farting fetish." However, if any of Freddy's readers feel inclined to do so, and would like to share their findings, Freddy says, "go right ahead."

Freddy has gotten off topic, though. As he was saying, Freddy often comes across strange parts of the Internet, and will share these discoveries with you. You can also watch Freddy's blog for new T-shirt designs, stories about t-shirts, guest writers from Freddy's intellectual friends (or maybe not so intellectual?) and on occasion, Freddy's random streams of consciousness.

For the time being, Freddy bids you farewell. There are some farts that need to be evaluated.