http://mypictr.com/ Easy, intuitive…what more could you want!  Great job, btw, how do they make money?

Just to be clear — I think daylight savings time is a bad thing.  It messes with my internal clock (which is already a little screwed up).  And after about 6 months when I am finally getting used to it — they change it again.  I have now joined several groups on Facebook (they really make it so you can sort by size of groups (many of these groups only have 10-20 people)).  In any event — I started last week changing my clocks, and asking close friends and family when we set a meeting if they were talking their time (pre-daylight savings time), or my time (post daylight savings time) since I changed my clocks days ahead.  In a perfect world, I would schedule travel to the west coast the week before.  I would even accept a gradual change – say 5 minutes a day for 12 days, or 1 minute a day for 60 days.   Best would be we just stop doing it — I have theories that this is some sort of a commie plot or government conspiracy, but let’s not go there or this post would be too long.  Have a happy day, and it is now 734 AM in NYC.

Last night just before midnight www.dimestore.com went live with a new site design.  It still is my goal not to have the site say a lot about what we do, but it does provide a bit of information and the ability to contact us.  This week has been a busy week with meetings with publishers and agencies.   The deck for both is looking good.  I also am close to finalizing a deal with a couple international markets.  Last, I’m thinking about a market research plan that could provide excellent metrics and some good PR.  Anyone that may read this – please visit www.dimestore.com — Thanks for your support.

I am doing a deal with a few people around the world and found a great site:  http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html It shows when people are "working", early day, late eve, and sleep.  My challenge was a confr call with Dubai, Sydney, and NY. BTW< the only "reasonable time" is 3 PM in Dubai, 9 PM in Sydney, and 7 AM in NYC.  Go figure!

Working on selecting 4 quotes for 2013 Wish-Sticks we gift at Burning Man for people to write down their goals, wishes, dreams, and desires. Below are some of the top choices for this year. Welcome your thoughts or opinions. Love, skeeter “Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames” ~ Rumi “If we magnified our success as much as we magnify our disappointments we’d all be much happier” ~ Abraham Lincoln “People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.” ~ Dalai Lama “As you travel through life, your dreams will guide you, determination will get you there, and love will provide the greatest scenery of all”. ~ Michelle C. Ustaszeski “Don’t follow your dreams, chase them!” ~ Kellie Elmore Everything is impossible until someone did it” ~ unknown “Your life has a PURPOSE. Your story is IMPORTANT. Your dreams COUNT. Your voice MATTERS. You were born to make an IMPACT.” ~ unknown “The distance between your dreams and reality is called action” ~ unknown “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson #thelifecubeprojectlifecubeproject

Life Cube, a Burning Man art piece, is burned at the 2013 festival. By Joe Schoenmann Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013 | 6 p.m. THE LIFE CUBE It worked like some preternatural magic trick.  As a kid, when Scott Cohen had a dream, a wish or simply a goal, he’d write it down on a piece of paper and tape it up to a mirror. He’d do that, and the wishes or dreams or goal would happen.   Now he wants to burn all those wishes in a giant wooden cube in a downtown parking lot. Huh? First, back to Cohen’s sense of why it works. The act of writing creates a mental imprint and a constant reminder, working as a persistent nudge toward that endpoint. “If you write down what you want to accomplish, the probability of it happening increases significantly,” says Cohen, a 56-year-old with the infectious happiness of a child who will hug a complete stranger with the zeal of an old friend. “A lot of people don’t write, in this digital age,” he goes on. “They text or talk among friends, but few take the time to write out what they want to accomplish. But once we write it down, then you start thinking what it’s going to take to accomplish it.” Cohen grew up and went to business school in upstate New York, where he was raised. For 35 years, he was involved in business. His LinkedIn profile shows a lengthy background in media, from founder/CEO of Dimestore Media and president of Game Trust Inc. to marketing executive for New World Television. Then, as the kids in the app-world say, he pivoted. “I didn’t get burned out, I just got to a point in my life where I’m madly in love with my wife, I have a great kid and I’d been working since I was a teenager,” he says, sitting in The Beat coffeehouse downtown. “I said it’s enough. Let’s refocus my priorities. I’m in good health and I have a desire to get into an artistic endeavor.” So he sat down and wrote a play and started The Life Cube Project. The first Life Cube, an 8-foot-by-8-foot box, was burned at Northern Nevada’s Burning Man celebration in 2011. The next year, it was 16-by-16. This year, it was 24-by-24 feet, three stories tall. It will be that size, too, when it burns in a parking lot on Fremont Street, between 9th and 10th streets, in March. Inside the cube will hopefully be several smaller 4-by-4 “satellite” cubes. Those cubes will have come from businesses and any school that wants one; they’ll be filled with the “wish sticks” of men, women and children who wrote down a goal, dream or wish. Then on March 21 — pending city approvals, of course — they will all go up in flames. At Burning Man in September, some 10,000 people put their wishes into The Life Cube. “People would take pictures of the moment they were dropping the wish in, just to make sure that moment in life was captured,” Cohen says, beaming that infectious smile. Burning the wishes is important, he adds, because it adds an almost “sacred aspect to it.” “The burning is a ceremony almost and that speaks to a lot of people.” To some, there’s something magic, real magic, going on. Cohen tells the story of two “burners” who put their wishes into the 2011 Burning Man Life Cube. “Then I get this call months later: ‘Skeeter (his nickname), the Cube works! Things happened that are major in our life.There are super powers here!’” Cohen recalls. So powerful was the experience, the two were engaged at The Life Cube at the next Burning Man; then they were married at The Life Cube this year. Cohen says he isn’t making money with The Life Cube — you won’t see a banner touting “Life Cube by Coca-Cola” or some other multinational corporation at the event. He said he will have to do some fundraising and will need hundreds of volunteers for painting, creating murals, carpentry work, to organize volunteers and more. You won’t even see a Zappos or Downtown Project banner around the thing, even though the parking lot where the event is to take place is owned by Downtown Project. “This isn’t a money-making thing,” Cohen says. “It’s about the fact that I want to convince people that they can accomplish things in their life to make their lives better. “So I have two missions. One, to get people to write down what they want to accomplish in their life. And two, to involve as many people in the community as possible. The more people, the more successful it will be.” Anyone who wants to get involved can send an email to TheLifeCube@gmail.com. Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts building. #JoeDowntown #thelifecubeproject #JoeDowntown #downtownlasvegas #LasVegas #lifecubeproject #dtlv #lifecubeproject #wishcube #skeeter #blackrockcity #lifecube #artburningman #lifecube #LasVegasSun #scottcohen #TheLifeCube #BurningMan

After pouring through over 1000 quotes, I came up with a short list of 500.  Of the 500, I narrowed it down to the following 24.  Some did not make the final design, but all are close to my heart and have relevancy to my life. TRAVEL – DISTANCE – THE ROAD “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a ride!'” – Hunter S. Thompson “If you only walk on sunny days, you will never reach your destination.” – Paulo Coelho “Just ’cause you’re following a well-marked trail don’t mean that whoever made it knew where they were goin’.” – Texas Bix Bender “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” – T. S. Eliot “I chose the road less traveled.  Now, where the hell am I?” – Unknown “Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.” –­ Christopher Columbus MADNESS “We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” – Dr. Seuss (“… or call it friendship” — skeeter) “Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad.” – Unknown “The only difference between me and the madman is that I’m not mad.” – Salvador Dali “You’re only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn’t lose it.” – Robin Williams “Madness takes its toll.  Please have exact change.” – Unknown MARK TWAIN “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” – Mark Twain “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” – Mark Twain CREATIVITY & IMAGINATION “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein. “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein “Life is a great big canvas; you should throw all the paint on it you can.” – Danny Kaye “It takes a long time to become young.” – Pablo Picasso “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsh DREAMS & HAPPINESS “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss “Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” – Guillaume Apollinaire “A dream you dream alone is only a dream.  A dream you dream together is reality.” – John Lennon “Dream as if you’ll live forever.  Live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” – Unknown #burningmanart #TheLifeCube #Burningman #bm2012 #skeeter #BM2012 #artartatburningmanartatburningmanbm2011bm2012BM2012BurningManburningman2011BurningMan2011artburningman2012burningmanartburningmanburningmanlifecubeskeeterTheLifeCubeThe #blackrockcity #burningman2012 #artburningman #TLCV2 #BurningMan

SpotWinner™ Delivers Guaranteed Commercial Views. Targets Below-the-Line Marketing Budgets for Traditional Media Companies post by Jack Myers Media Business Report.    What it does not address is do advertisers really want to pay people to watch ads?  What CPM if you have to pay prizes?  Is the target audiance really people that spend 20 or 30 minutes watching ads for $20?  I think the Brandport biz model is flawed.  

Life Cube Las Vegas Life Cube launches campaign to raise $15,000 We are SO excited to create a Life Cube installation for Downtown Las Vegas in February/March 2014. The success of The Life Cube over the last four years could not have happened without the hundreds of supporters, contributors, volunteers, and an ever-growing community of “Cube-ists”. Visit new website for info, video, to volunteer, donate, or checkout what The Life Cube Project is about.  http://www.lifecubeproject.com http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/life-cube-project-downtown-las-vegas #downtownlasvegas #scottcohen #lasvegas #Burningman #brc #ephemeralart #dtlv #lifecubeproject #LV #fireart #lifecube

Going a little crazy.  Approved for tickets (they have to be purchased by tomorrow) for The Life Cube Team.  I have a plan for review with the Fire Safety Team (FAST) at Burning Man.  I am coordinating lots of friends, supporters, and people who have offered to help in constructing TLC V2.  We are working on creating a video for Kickstarter to raise money for the project.  Working on a MAC with iMovie, I am creating a video and still need to select background music and decide if I do a voice over or add text. Though very excited, I am a little worried about all the moving pieces.  Is this what being an artist is all about?  Oh yes, and The Life Cube now is active on Facebook.  Feel free to “like” us on FB at http://www.facebook.com/TheLifeCube That’s all for now…wish me luck with the call today and meeting all the deadlines. #art #fire #TheLifeCube #Cubelifecubelifecubeprojectlifecubelifecubeproject #Burningman #artatburningman #bm2012 #skeeter #TLCV2 #TheLifeCube #TheLifeCubeV2 #BurningMan

Natasha pinged me on IM this morning to ask why I would add an album when just adding a single photo.  Though she is not willing to accept her dad as a "full friend", we are linked and I guess she saw that I posted the photo of Steven, Kevin, and Madeleine.  I guess that my answer I only had 1 picture was not acceptable – she told me to add it to another album.  Natasha has also indicated that business people (that’s me) will ruin Facebook.  The fact is Natasha does not look at social sites as a networking tool, but as a community.  An example was that I have been asked to add friends by people I don’t know, where she has not.  I asked Matt at Facebook a couple months ago about this, and he said when they expanded Facebook from Harvard to 3 Ivy League schools, people thought is was bad and would die, and when they expanded it to all colleges, again people said "this is was bad and Facebook would die", and again when they expanded to high schools, and now that it is open to everyone.  But it keeps growing.  I think the challenge is keeping up with all these communities.  I use LinkedIn to keep my contact data current and let people know how to find me, I started a facebook page after being invited by a number of business contacts and realizing when speaking at conferences, I need to be current and understand the experience.  And yes Natasha, I sometimes mess up and don’t do it right (smile).

by Tameka Kee, Thursday, Feb 7, 2008 7:00 AM ET (Source:  Mediapost) NEW RESEARCH FROM REALNETWORKS SHOWS that video ads may be an ideal monetization model for downloadable casual games. The digital entertainment company surveyed 1,500 gamers across its family of RealGames sites (including RealArcade.com and GameHouse.com), and found that nearly 90% of respondents said they would watch video ads before and during natural breaks in the games in exchange for free play. The 12-question survey was conducted over a four-week period in the fourth quarter of 2008, and the respondents skewed heavily female and between the ages of 35-64 (65%)–demographics that fall right into the sweet-spot range for casual games. Just over one-third of the casual gamers surveyed said that they take further action and click on in-game ads to learn more about the featured product or service, while 31% said that they actually "like" watching the video ads for various reasons, with RealNetworks pegging some of those reasons as "the relevance of the ads to their needs" and the "short break from game play that the ads provide." According to Chris Houtzer, senior director of new media at RealGames, the company was confident that the video ad format was successful, but wanted some concrete evidence that they could present to advertisers (aside from CTRs and impressions). "We knew that our users were adapting to this new model, but all the metrics, from game-play times, to additional downloads, to acceptance of the ads were elevated compared to our expectations," Houtzer said. Over half (55%) of respondents said that they would watch any ad, regardless of the topic, while about a third said they would prefer to watch ads that were relevant to their needs. Out of roughly 10 different categories, entertainment activities, hair and skin care products, and home cleaning products were the top three types of products or services the gamers preferred to see. While the survey did not provide data on metrics like brand affinity, intent to purchase or ad recall, Houtzer said that RealGames would be working with specific clients to develop studies that related more specifically to their ad objectives. "But this data proves that casual games are a legitimate advertising medium, especially for video," Houtzer said. "With pre-roll and video between game levels, advertisers are seeing higher-than-average metrics and game developers are seeing more revenue. We’re extremely happy with what we’re seeing now–especially the ad sales team." Tameka Kee can be reached at tameka@mediapost.com