The darker cat, Smudge, still will not go outside.
From the owner and creator of Club Pony Pals, where anyone can ride the pony they always wanted.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Solstice slow food
Every day here is another item getting bigger. These long days of intense sunlight make things grow so fast. Here in the desert it is a trick to keep them wet enough.
Boysenberries are in.
They take a half hour to pick.
Every day.
Beans are up, they need to be dusted with diatomaceous earth every evening. You can see a slug in this picture, chowing down before the sun hits the plants.
Then there is the tomato garden below,
These tomatoes are doubling in size every day. Likely first ones will be ripe in a couple weeks. Why were there no Early Girls this year? These are Better Boy plants.
The potato garden was slow to start this year but looks good, the sunniest area is just about ready to replant with new seeds.
If potatoes were not so common, they would be a gourmet expensive food. As it is, they are a staple.
Oh, and school is out. Our site traffic has doubled. Welcome to summer!
Boysenberries are in.
They take a half hour to pick.
Every day.
Beans are up, they need to be dusted with diatomaceous earth every evening. You can see a slug in this picture, chowing down before the sun hits the plants.
Then there is the tomato garden below, with eggplants and onions...and a gopher that I am trying to trap -- unsuccessfully so far. 
These tomatoes are doubling in size every day. Likely first ones will be ripe in a couple weeks. Why were there no Early Girls this year? These are Better Boy plants.
The potato garden was slow to start this year but looks good, the sunniest area is just about ready to replant with new seeds.
If potatoes were not so common, they would be a gourmet expensive food. As it is, they are a staple.
Oh, and school is out. Our site traffic has doubled. Welcome to summer!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Pony Pals Magazine
We published our first issue of our new Pony Pals Magazine today.
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/190091
You can download a copy for free or buy a printed copy.
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/190091
You can download a copy for free or buy a printed copy.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Photoshop atrocity
And I have been guilty of photoshopping in items into a photo where they did not exist before. But....Why did they only put in ONE shoe? The other is a red shoe.
Now maybe if she was making a fashion statement -- like a guy wearing one red sneaker and one blue. But I suspect the photomaniupulation came down to they only had one angle on the shoe that matched, so they threw that one in and figured no one would notice.
Or that bloggers would post how bad it looked. LOL
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Slow Food in a Fast World
When I work on our site and game I am always on the run. There is more work than the day can hold, so I'm in a constant state of picking and choosing today's most important tasks.
That rush-rush carries over to my cooking sometimes too. "What's fast?" I think.
But on the other hand I also do not eat "fast food." No burgers. No fries. No take out. No pizza.
Plus, I grow vegetables in my gardens and there is usually something ready.
This week there is lettuce (wonderful, fresh tender spring heads). Fresh green spring onions. And there are peas. Not snap peas, English podded peas.
Every few days there is about a quart of pods ready to pick.
Now English peas are delicious. The fresh ones are divine, sweet when lightly cooked and they take no time to cook.
But you have to shuck them out of the pods.
As I open each pod, marveling at the peas lined up, my mind goes a mile a minute. What am I doing here?
Don't I have to get back to WORK?!!
Can I afford this time away from the computer?
Is this bowl of peas going to be the reason I don't get everything done?!!!
But I keep shucking them.
I think of English peas as the original slow food.
They really are. To prepare them you must SLOW DOWN.
And that is why I grow them.
That rush-rush carries over to my cooking sometimes too. "What's fast?" I think.
But on the other hand I also do not eat "fast food." No burgers. No fries. No take out. No pizza.
Plus, I grow vegetables in my gardens and there is usually something ready.
This week there is lettuce (wonderful, fresh tender spring heads). Fresh green spring onions. And there are peas. Not snap peas, English podded peas.
Every few days there is about a quart of pods ready to pick.
Now English peas are delicious. The fresh ones are divine, sweet when lightly cooked and they take no time to cook.
But you have to shuck them out of the pods.
As I open each pod, marveling at the peas lined up, my mind goes a mile a minute. What am I doing here?
Don't I have to get back to WORK?!!
Can I afford this time away from the computer?
Is this bowl of peas going to be the reason I don't get everything done?!!!
But I keep shucking them.
I think of English peas as the original slow food.
They really are. To prepare them you must SLOW DOWN.
And that is why I grow them.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Life is what happens while you are making plans....
John Lennon said it (probably quoting someone else) but it is true.
I started to write this blog entry. Then the unexpected came to visit. And things changed.
Smudge, the darker of my two adopted cats ran away for two nights. She simply vanished without a trace. Around my neighborhood, that usually means an owl, coyote, bobcat or mountain lion had been to visit. I spent a day mourning. But an old story was about to repeat itself.
--- Meanwhile ----
The dog I adopted from the pound a month ago has been looking a bit unkempt.
Then, yesterday his hair began to come off of him in handfuls. Uh-oh. Was he sick? A thorough brushing revealed no, he was getting his long summer coat.
What I thought was a short haired dog appears to be getting "feathers" the long hair of a ruff and tail that is typical of a border collie. Who knows why he'd been clipped, but it is beginning to look like what I thought was a border collie cross may end up having the long hair typical of a border collie. That makes me happy.
While 3D's fur lengthens, we continue to work on our Pony Pals game.
Launching Club Pony Pals took a lot of hard work and patient negotiation. We got the rights to a best selling book series and launched an internet site to promote its brand.
I've been acting on well honed instincts. My dad was an entrepreneur in the classic mold. He built a company in Minnesota and was bought out. Then he moved to California and built a company there and was bought out by a different big company.
So I've got the spirit in my genes.
But that alone may not be enough these days.
Pundits love to pound out persistent, lurid, dire warnings of ruin and failure for the venturesome:
TechCrunch published an article that said if you are over 25 you can forget getting VC.
Then there is the "known lack of VC going to women entrepreneurs."
But was Arrington's (acquired) magazine quoting fact or fancy? Here are his charts about who gets venture money
Looking at the graphs, it is clear that men get a lot of angel investments.
But judging from the amount of money invested, the winners are teams who are over 35, mixed gender, and have two founders. Like, say, for instance....US!
We have great member retention. Of our members who completed registration, better than half return monthly, many several times a day. A whole wagon load of better funded competitors of ours do not do anywhere near as well as we do, either.
So we look good. We have revenue. Our members are not into gore, violence, killing or shooting. There is no combat in our club. Yet a legendary warrior had a sage insight:
Club Pony Pals offers riding.
We offer a respite from armchair warfare.
We reward compassion and caring for others.
In short, we have created an online destination where members are rewarded for being -- well, nice.
So far, all of our site's growth has been via word of mouth. That tells us that there is a global, underserved market that desperately wants a place where members and their parents don't have to worry about being bullied or hassled.
So we have worldwide demand, our members stick around, we have revenue. We are now ready to scale.
But we aren't just a passenger on this wild ride.
Now we are publishing a magazine, too.
As it turns out, the world is watching us rather closely. As always, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Another publisher apparently is trying draft our marketing of the Pony Pals brand.
One article said
But originality, boldness, daring and nerve are on our side.
We have created an entertaining, sticky online game, and have a suite of rights that includes online, mobile, an existing Facebook game, console game rights, feature film rights and television. And merchandise.
And sometimes, even small things make a big difference:
this week we started sending a follow up letter to people who tried to register for our site but did not succeed, almost all the time due to the ubiquitous Spam filter.
Our percentage of completed registrations has promptly risen by 10%.
Cats come back, persistence pays off and not all sensational headlines are true. To paraphrase the late IF Stone, ".....the secret is not to mope and to get out of bed in the morning."
I started to write this blog entry. Then the unexpected came to visit. And things changed.
 |
| smudge being groomed by scout |
In our case, three days. 35 feet up in a neighbor's tree, we saw ravens croaking and diving at something. It was Smudge. We coaxed her down from her treetop. Since then, it has been like having a ghost share our house. A changed ghost. Always hard to catch outdoors at twilight, she would run away and play "chase me" in the gathering dark, sometimes with coyotes starting to howl not so far away. We'll never know what happened. But she is quiet proof that hope is a durable thing, that faith has a place in our lives, that courage and self reliance can outlast, outwait and outlive overwhelming odds with sharp teeth.But the cat came back, she couldn't stay no long-er, Yes the cat came back de very next day, the cat came back—thought she were a goner, But the cat came back for it wouldn't stay away.
(Traditional - Harry S. Miller, 1924)
--- Meanwhile ----
The dog I adopted from the pound a month ago has been looking a bit unkempt.
 |
| day he arrived from the pound. this is one worried pup |
Then, yesterday his hair began to come off of him in handfuls. Uh-oh. Was he sick? A thorough brushing revealed no, he was getting his long summer coat.
 |
| at 2 weeks after adoption |
 |
| at one month after adoption |
What I thought was a short haired dog appears to be getting "feathers" the long hair of a ruff and tail that is typical of a border collie. Who knows why he'd been clipped, but it is beginning to look like what I thought was a border collie cross may end up having the long hair typical of a border collie. That makes me happy.
While 3D's fur lengthens, we continue to work on our Pony Pals game.
Launching Club Pony Pals took a lot of hard work and patient negotiation. We got the rights to a best selling book series and launched an internet site to promote its brand.
I've been acting on well honed instincts. My dad was an entrepreneur in the classic mold. He built a company in Minnesota and was bought out. Then he moved to California and built a company there and was bought out by a different big company.
So I've got the spirit in my genes.
But that alone may not be enough these days.
Pundits love to pound out persistent, lurid, dire warnings of ruin and failure for the venturesome:
TechCrunch published an article that said if you are over 25 you can forget getting VC.
Then there is the "known lack of VC going to women entrepreneurs."
But was Arrington's (acquired) magazine quoting fact or fancy? Here are his charts about who gets venture money
Looking at the graphs, it is clear that men get a lot of angel investments.
But judging from the amount of money invested, the winners are teams who are over 35, mixed gender, and have two founders. Like, say, for instance....US!
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. Lucille Ball
An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity. Sir Winston Churchill
We have great member retention. Of our members who completed registration, better than half return monthly, many several times a day. A whole wagon load of better funded competitors of ours do not do anywhere near as well as we do, either.
So we look good. We have revenue. Our members are not into gore, violence, killing or shooting. There is no combat in our club. Yet a legendary warrior had a sage insight:
No time is wasted that is spent in the saddle. Winston Churchill
Club Pony Pals offers riding.
We offer a respite from armchair warfare.
We reward compassion and caring for others.
In short, we have created an online destination where members are rewarded for being -- well, nice.
So far, all of our site's growth has been via word of mouth. That tells us that there is a global, underserved market that desperately wants a place where members and their parents don't have to worry about being bullied or hassled.
So we have worldwide demand, our members stick around, we have revenue. We are now ready to scale.
But we aren't just a passenger on this wild ride.
Now we are publishing a magazine, too.
As it turns out, the world is watching us rather closely. As always, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Another publisher apparently is trying draft our marketing of the Pony Pals brand.
One article said
...a lot of the dollars currently spent on traditional advertising are migrating to gaming. Businesses are beginning to understand keeping customers engaged on their website is easier if something entertaining is being offered.
But originality, boldness, daring and nerve are on our side.
We have created an entertaining, sticky online game, and have a suite of rights that includes online, mobile, an existing Facebook game, console game rights, feature film rights and television. And merchandise.
And sometimes, even small things make a big difference:
this week we started sending a follow up letter to people who tried to register for our site but did not succeed, almost all the time due to the ubiquitous Spam filter.
Our percentage of completed registrations has promptly risen by 10%.
Cats come back, persistence pays off and not all sensational headlines are true. To paraphrase the late IF Stone, ".....the secret is not to mope and to get out of bed in the morning."
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Another week
Each Thursday night we publish an online newsletter. It starts with a list of who is pals with the members you know. Since I have 8500 friends on the site, the list is LONG. But below we include a little text about what is going on at our club.
So here is the Wiggins Weekly for today
-----------------------------------------------------------
HAPPY EASTER PALS!
First, there's an animated card from all of us here in Wiggins to you. To view it, click here
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/Easter2011.html
---------------
SCAVENGER HUNT HINT
To complete the current scavenger hunt you need a
New Pony Pal Bonus Certificate
To get one, you have to become Pals with a new member. You can go to the Pals Please page by clicking on the words " See who wants Pals " on your home page. The link is
http://www.clubponypals.com/pals_please.php
Pretty much anybody there who is a new member (member number over 185,000) is someone you could send a wmail to that says NEW PONY PAL BONUS and each of you would get 100 Wbucks and the certificate. If that member does not have a cabin, then you need to make them your Pal before you can send that message.
----------------
GIVE A GIFT GET A GIFT CLUB
Speaking of quests and gifts, if you need something to finish a quest or scavenger hunt, we have a new club that is going to be real handy. CPP member Columbinestables wrote this about how it works:
"Give a gift, Get a gift Club" It would be a club where people could give and get gifts, make new friends, and just chat about CPP, and of course real ponies!
We focus on being generous and friendly to all and making new members feel welcome by sending them gifts and maybe wmails.
Members post in club forums a message like "I give and get." to let other members know that they will return a gift of equalish value to you.
So say you need lilacs for a quest....this new club is the place to get them!
---------------
SPECIAL "EASTER EGG" COUPON IN OUR ONLINE NEWSLETTER
Can you find a special 100 Wiggins Bucks offer in our online edition of the Wiggins bi Weekly? Hint: the first is an Easter card. Check our online newsletter through April 30 for a new ca! rd that can be redeemed for 100 WB. It's that easy!
Message changes, follow directions to get a prize. One prize per member account for this contest. Void where prohibited. Wbucks awarded daily until April 30, 2011.
---------------
GET YOUR COMPETITOR RIBBONS AT NEXT WEEK'S
LIVE MODERATED CHAT AND LESSONS
Jane Crandal's online riding lessons and mini show will be in our chat room's virtual riding arena. Stop by and say hi on
TUESDAY APRIL 26 (or Wednesday if you are past the date line)
10 pm - midnight London time
11pm - 1 am Continental time
6 - 8 pm Eastern USA time
3 - 5 pm Pacific USA Time
7 - 9 am Wednesday in Malaysia
8 - 10 am Wednesday in Perth, Australia
9:30 - 11:30 am Wednesday in Adelade Australia
10 - noon Wednesday in Sydney Australia
Noon - 2pm Wednesday in New Zealand
FRIDAY, APRIL 29th (or Saturday the 30th if you are a kiwi or aussie)
Live Moderated Chat
11 pm - 1 am London time
midnight - 2 am Continental time
6 - 8 pm Eastern USA time
3 - 5 pm Pacific USA Time
7 - 9 am Saturday in Malaysia
6 - 8 am Saturday in Perth, Australia
7:30 - 9:30 am Saturday in Adelade Australia
8 - 10 am Saturday in Sydney Australia
10 am - Noon Saturday in New Zealand
Lessons and Live Moderated Chats are a great way to make new pals! Just look for our "live link" on your personal page at the times above. Click on it and come on in!
---------------
CONTEST NEWS
Email your art, stories and poems to contests@clubponypals.com
We need lots more cartoon entries. Send your black and white drawings to us and earn 500 Wbucks when your cartoon is used.
Vote for your favorite coloring contest #23
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/MyCPP/2-11CC23/CC23voteforentries.html
Vote for the March story contest entries here
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/MyCPP/3-11STORY/3-11StoryContest.html
Choose art for Coloring Contest #24
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/MyCPP/3-11CC24/CC24chooseart.html
Vote for entries in the cabin contest here
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/cabincontest4-27.php
Vote for what you want to say in the Pal Corral
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/4-27PalCorralsayings.html
So here is the Wiggins Weekly for today
-----------------------------------------------------------
HAPPY EASTER PALS!
First, there's an animated card from all of us here in Wiggins to you. To view it, click here
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/Easter2011.html
---------------
SCAVENGER HUNT HINT
To complete the current scavenger hunt you need a
New Pony Pal Bonus Certificate
To get one, you have to become Pals with a new member. You can go to the Pals Please page by clicking on the words " See who wants Pals " on your home page. The link is
http://www.clubponypals.com/pals_please.php
Pretty much anybody there who is a new member (member number over 185,000) is someone you could send a wmail to that says NEW PONY PAL BONUS and each of you would get 100 Wbucks and the certificate. If that member does not have a cabin, then you need to make them your Pal before you can send that message.
----------------
GIVE A GIFT GET A GIFT CLUB
Speaking of quests and gifts, if you need something to finish a quest or scavenger hunt, we have a new club that is going to be real handy. CPP member Columbinestables wrote this about how it works:
"Give a gift, Get a gift Club" It would be a club where people could give and get gifts, make new friends, and just chat about CPP, and of course real ponies!
We focus on being generous and friendly to all and making new members feel welcome by sending them gifts and maybe wmails.
Members post in club forums a message like "I give and get." to let other members know that they will return a gift of equalish value to you.
So say you need lilacs for a quest....this new club is the place to get them!
---------------
SPECIAL "EASTER EGG" COUPON IN OUR ONLINE NEWSLETTER
Can you find a special 100 Wiggins Bucks offer in our online edition of the Wiggins bi Weekly? Hint: the first is an Easter card. Check our online newsletter through April 30 for a new ca! rd that can be redeemed for 100 WB. It's that easy!
Message changes, follow directions to get a prize. One prize per member account for this contest. Void where prohibited. Wbucks awarded daily until April 30, 2011.
---------------
GET YOUR COMPETITOR RIBBONS AT NEXT WEEK'S
LIVE MODERATED CHAT AND LESSONS
Jane Crandal's online riding lessons and mini show will be in our chat room's virtual riding arena. Stop by and say hi on
TUESDAY APRIL 26 (or Wednesday if you are past the date line)
10 pm - midnight London time
11pm - 1 am Continental time
6 - 8 pm Eastern USA time
3 - 5 pm Pacific USA Time
7 - 9 am Wednesday in Malaysia
8 - 10 am Wednesday in Perth, Australia
9:30 - 11:30 am Wednesday in Adelade Australia
10 - noon Wednesday in Sydney Australia
Noon - 2pm Wednesday in New Zealand
FRIDAY, APRIL 29th (or Saturday the 30th if you are a kiwi or aussie)
Live Moderated Chat
11 pm - 1 am London time
midnight - 2 am Continental time
6 - 8 pm Eastern USA time
3 - 5 pm Pacific USA Time
7 - 9 am Saturday in Malaysia
6 - 8 am Saturday in Perth, Australia
7:30 - 9:30 am Saturday in Adelade Australia
8 - 10 am Saturday in Sydney Australia
10 am - Noon Saturday in New Zealand
Lessons and Live Moderated Chats are a great way to make new pals! Just look for our "live link" on your personal page at the times above. Click on it and come on in!
---------------
CONTEST NEWS
Email your art, stories and poems to contests@clubponypals.com
We need lots more cartoon entries. Send your black and white drawings to us and earn 500 Wbucks when your cartoon is used.
Vote for your favorite coloring contest #23
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/MyCPP/2-11CC23/CC23voteforentries.html
Vote for the March story contest entries here
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/MyCPP/3-11STORY/3-11StoryContest.html
Choose art for Coloring Contest #24
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/MyCPP/3-11CC24/CC24chooseart.html
Vote for entries in the cabin contest here
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/cabincontest4-27.php
Vote for what you want to say in the Pal Corral
http://phplist.clubponypals.com/wigweekly/4-27PalCorralsayings.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)