An Exposed Bin

Freddy was visiting a friend the other day. He had some trash that he wanted to throw away, but could not find where the rubbish bin had been placed. So he asked, "Where can I throw this away?" And his friend replied, "Oh, just open the cupboard , it's in there. I don't like having an exposed bin." Freddy, of course, replied, "Is that a euphemism?"

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.

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