Author Archive
Debra Medina for Governor
Posted by Snowy in Uncategorized on March 1st, 2010
Greetings Texas Readers,
I hope that you know by now that this coming Tuesday, March 2, is the final day of voting in the republican primary. Since I enjoy politics and a good political discussion, I am writing this to formally announce my endorsement of Debra Medina for the next governor of Texas. I ask that you support and vote for Debra this coming Tuesday. You may not be very familiar with Debra Medina if you do not watch the news regularly or if you missed out on the KERA or BELO debates. Please allow me to take a moment of your time to explain to you why I am supporting Debra Medina.
-Debra is for the elimination of property tax. In Texas, you never truly own your property, you merely eternally rent it from the government. Medina is for eliminating property tax and replacing it with a broader based sales tax. With this, we Texans will see a $3 Billion dollar increase in net personal income, and it will create upwards of 100,000 new, REAL, PRIVATE SECTOR jobs.
-We have independent school districts, but Medina questions “independent from what?” I recall her questioning as to why a school from El Paso has to look exactly like a school from Dallas or Rockwall – It shouldn’t! School districts know what they need best and Debra Medina is for restoring more power back to the local level.
-Debra Medina strongly supports state sovereignty and nullifying federal mandates that do not apply to Texas and are not supported by the constitution of the United States.
-I think most importantly, Debra Medina is not a career politician. She is a hard working middle class American like the rest of us. I want to keep this (somewhat) on the short side, so I will end my explination of why to vote for her at that.
Now, why to NOT vote for Rick Perry
-One thing that Rick Perry will tell you is that Texas has a balanced budget. But the thing he won’t tell you is that he used stimulus dollars to balance it, and we’re now facing a $15 billion dollar budget short fall this year.
-Rick Perry signed a piece of legislation a few years ago that allows illegal immigrants, if they’ve been in the US for more than 3 years, to get the in-state tuition price as long as they’re “working toward citizenship”. What he’ll forget to mention is that there is a federal law that does not permit any immigrant, if here longer than three years, to be a valid US citizen.
-Rick’s all for toll roads. Rick supports the Trans Texas Corridor, which is basically like a superhighway toll road. It’ll cost tax payers billions. While Perry will tell you the TTC is “dead”, it has just been renamed numerous times and will threaten private property rights all over the state and cost tax payers billions.
Any further questions I would be happy to answer them in the comments section.
Thank you
Go Facebook, Go
Posted by Snowy in Economy/Business on February 13th, 2010
If you have used Facebook the past year or two like I have, there’s no doubt that you’ve noticed changes to the site’s layout multiple times. It seems like every time Facebook changes their layout out it’s met promptly with criticism. "Why’d they change it", "If it’s not broke, don’t fix it", "I hate this new layout". Those are just some of the comments I hear about the style of Facebook whenever they change. All of them are valid points, Facebook has never really had any show stoppers with their UI (user interface), so why do they always change it? I can say I’ve been a critic myself, while I’ve never seen the layout change so dramatically that I can’t use Facebook, I’ve never really seen the reason to change it in the first place. And that’s exactly why they should continue to change their layout.
Yes, that may sound absurd, but that’s what they need to continue to do. Do we all remember when Myspace reigned king of the social networking websites? And do we all remember the vast UI changes that Myspace went through? Oh, you don’t? Well that’s exactly why Myspace isn’t a social networking dominance anymore. Yeah, some could argue that it’s for other reasons like it’s slow, it has too much ads, etc. and they’re right, but if it’s made well enough, users will put up through those ads - I mean they did, for the 4-some odd years that Myspace was king of the hill, right? Here’s the issue with Myspace… they never changed their UI- whether they needed to or not. This caused a huge lack of innovation. It was always the same with no change and people got tired of that. I can guarantee you that if Myspace would have made changes to their UI, they would have stumbled upon some of the things that people flocked over to Facebook for. But they didn’t.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make here is that Facebook changing their UI is a good thing. With their changes they will continue to innovate and create a better user experience in the long run.
A word about customer service
Posted by Snowy in Economy/Business on February 3rd, 2010
First off, sorry I haven’t posted anything on this blog in months… I really haven’t had a whole ton to write about, but I see that changing in the near future.
I have a little story to tell about how just the way a company can handle a mishap can make your relationship with that company 10 times better. Some of you may know that I like to lift weights. I got into weight lifting over the summer and have really just stuck with it ever since. As every good bodybuilder knows, you need some protein supplements to build good muscle. Well anyway, I needed some more protein so I ordered some protein and creatine off bodybuilding.com. I had ordered it last Friday and was enthusiastic to learn via my tracking number that it was scheduled for delivery on Tuesday. So Tuesday rolls around and I get home from school and look on my front porch… nothing’s there. I figure oh well, it’ll probably come in a few hours and I head back out to go to track practice. So about 6:15 I get home from track practice and look on my front porch again, and still, same result… nothing’s there.
So now I’m at the point in the story where things can really go downhill quick. I’ve never had a package stolen from me, so I’m a bit disconcerted as to what to do. I decide to give bodybuilding.com a call and explain my situation to them. An actual person answered quickly at bodybuilding and assured me that everything was going to be okay and that they would call the shipping company and go from there.
Now, the customer service was great and all at bodybuilding.com, and I was impressed, but what really made me happy was the customer service from FedEx. About an hour after I called BB, I was out getting some food when my phone rang. It was an unrecognized number, but I figured I’d go ahead and answer anyway since I thought it might be bodybuilding. To my surprise however, it was FedEx. I honestly would have never expected a corporation this large to contact me personally in order to help get this straightened out. After all, I’m just one guy, right? So I explain to him my story and he says he’ll contact the driver and see what he thinks. The next morning at about 8:45 as I’m getting ready for school, I receive another telephone call, this time again from FedEx. I again explain my situation and the man on the other end says that the driver believes he just delivered it to the wrong house. Hoping he’s right, I’m already reassured as I had just received a new tracking number from BB for my reshipped order. Anyway, later that day at about 3:45 I hear someone knock on the door, and to my delight, it’s the FedEx man, there with my package! He had sincerely apologized to me about the mishap, but I explained how it was okay and that FedEx had treated me well.
So what exactly is the moral of the story here? What did we learn? Well, FedEx screwed up. They delivered my package to the wrong house. I could have been very easily turned away from ever using FedEx again, but in fact, I think the exact opposite might occur. You see, nobody ever wants to have a packaged mis-delivered or stolen, but the facts of life are that some things like that happen. FedEx or BB could have easily just said "Sorry, your loss", but they didn’t. From the very beginning, both companies let me know that they cared. Even though I hadn’t placed a big order - my order total was sub $40. Now from FedEx’s point of view, they never want this kind of thing to happen. So will I ever ship with FedEx again? Absolutely. Yeah, UPS might have handled the situation the same way, but now I know exactly what I’m getting with FedEx. Customer service on the personal, real, person-to-person level, something often missed with large companies.
Newest T-Shirt Design
Been a while since I’ve posted on here, sorry. Recently I’ve finished up my latest T-shirt design called "Power of Piano". The design was originally for a client, but he wanted something more simple (at the time I presented it to him, it was one color and just the piano). Anyway, I decided to continue the design and well, here I am. The design is up for voting on DesignByHumans.com if you get a chance, register and vote for it! =)
Sorry for not posting on this blog much — I’ve been pretty busy lately. Dodgeball Club is larger than ever, and I have to get working on Breakfast Club (an expanded version of Donut club from last year)
Featured in Beverage Spectrum Magazine
Posted by Snowy in Uncategorized on September 26th, 2009
A while ago I was contacted by Beverage Spectrum magazine regarding my work for BAWLS Guarana, they were doing a story on advertising, and wanted to ask me some questions. Well of course I did the little interview then kinda forgot about it. It wasn’t until recently that I actually decided to ask if my little segment actually made it into the article - and it did! My art is featured on the first page of the article, and below is my little segment:
While these kinds of sites help consumers spend time with the brand, marketers can also use the modern online environment to let consumers participate and feel invested. Energy drink brand BAWLS Guarana has used its page for years to create a “cult-like following,” according to marketing director Sabrina Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said BAWLS, with its core demographic of computer gamers – during all-night networked gaming festivals, BAWLS has been nicknamed “geek beer” and then rolled out a product of the same name — has long been ahead of the technological curve. It was one of the first drink brands to create a web page, Gonzalez said, and it has since engaged in variety of online methods to create a community around the brand – chiefly by letting fans contribute. Bawls.com features a “Fun Stuff” section with videos and images created, not by Bawls, but by its consumers. Whenever a fan submits material that makes it onto BAWLS’ site, the company sends swag to the submitter.
“If they went through all of that work anyway just to support our brand it’s the least that we can do,” Gonzalez said.
The tactic has helped keep fans like Austin “Snowy” Milner engaged. Milner created his first piece of BAWLS artwork in 2006 and later sent an entire portfolio of BAWLS-themed artwork – for free – to the company. BAWLS posted his work on its site, and Milner, now a freelance designer, still makes time to create the occasional BAWLS graphic.
In case you missed it, here’s the link to the article: http://bevspectrum.com/issue/April_2009/Advertisingplugged_In
Pretty cool, eh?
Marilyn Lisa - Printed
Posted by Snowy in Uncategorized on September 21st, 2009
So my last blog post was me promoting my latest (at the time) t-shirt. Well, this past Friday, I finally got it printed. No, it didn’t win, but I still wanted to get it printed, and I think it turned out pretty good. Went to school today, and got a ton of comments on it. Most people didn’t believe me when I told them I made it, but I suppose that’ll come with more printed designs. I hope to have another one of mine printed very soon - "Opportunity Awaits". I got my Marilyn Lisa shirt printed through a place called Nodbod.com. If you ever need any t-shirts printed, I would highly recommend them, great product and fast shipping.
A little bit of shameless self promotion
Posted by Snowy in Uncategorized on July 17th, 2009
Good July all! Sorry I haven’t posted an update in a while, but that’s because I’ve been very busy with some graphic design. I’ve most recently completed work on what I call "Marilyn Lisa", as you might suspect, this is a take on Andy Warhol’s famous Marilyn Monroe painting, and a take on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting. It’s a mix of photo-realism with a mix of pop art, and I think it works pretty well. Below is the actual design, and I’ve put it up for vote on DesignByHumans.com, so if you don’t mind, registering and voting for it, it would be much appreciated.
Here’s the design:
Please register and vote for it.
Thanks!
“Cash for clunkers” is a joke?
There’s a really good article about the new "Cash For Clunkers" program that the government is doing on CarandDriver.com. Cash for clunkers, in case you don’t know, is the program where if you have an old car, the government will give you free money if you trade in that car for a new, more fuel efficient car. All sounds good, right? Well… almost. Check out the article, and let me know what you think. I have to say, while there are some benefits, I’m going to have to agree with Steve Siler, the author. Especially with the quote below:
people driving cheap old beaters are probably doing so because they can’t afford a new car. And $3500 doesn’t go far when the average transaction price of new cars hovers around $24K.
So what do you think? Is the program good, or bad? I don’t think it will help the American auto industry much, seeing as most Americas have the mindset that all the fuel efficient cars are made in Korea or Japan.
Government Motors
Posted by Snowy in Cars, Economy/Business on June 1st, 2009
Yeah, how about that GM? Love me some GM. In fact, I love GM cars so much, I decided to own a piece of them. Oh, and so did you. GM went in for bankruptcy today, and the government has agreed to give some 50 odd billion dollars to keep some 50 thousand jobs. Wait… how many jobs have been lost this recession? 3 Million. So effectively what the government is doing is saying that if you work for a car company, your job is more important than any other job that has not been bailed out. Despicable. If I would have lost my job (which I currently have none), I would be completely outraged by the governments actions. Why bailout a failing automotive company, but not bailout someone that makes an honest living? It just doesn’t make sense. There is no such thing as "too big to fail". That phrase is just an excuse for congress to put their hand in large corporations. Oh, but there’s a bright side right? President Obama has "no interest in running GM"? Yeah right. I wish. You can bet a pretty penny the government is going to have some HEAVY influence on what type of cars GM and Chrysler makes. You don’t think they’re just going to hand them $50 billion on good-will, do you? HA!
I don’t want to sound like some anti-democrat, "this administration is for socialism", kindaguy, but whatever happened to capitalism? People will never learn from their mistakes if you bail them out. Is it not obvious that they’re just going to want another bailout when they run into some more trouble down the line? It’s just preposterous.
Almost done
Posted by Snowy in Uncategorized on May 30th, 2009
I know I haven’t written a blog in a while… not exactly sure why. The good thing is, is that school is almost done, and I’m almost done with Junior year! I’ll be honest; I do get a bit sad when things end, even with school. Life is just so short, and every time something ends I usually like to reflect, and cherish the memories (even if they’re bad). Junior year has been a lot of fun - Dodgeball Club, Donut Club, Ice Hockey, trips to mesquite, breakfast in the mornings. Sure it’s still school and all, but even with school, there’s always something positive in it.