Alexander's Info Fandango

Exploring the Russian Tokarev pistol.

2011-06-03T14:10:00.001-04:00

Check out this informative video (much like my previous Glock video) on the TT-33.

Yahoo Domains - A cheap alternative to GoDaddy

2011-06-02T22:53:00.002-04:00

The fact that I've been becoming more consumed by this blogging business means I'm going to have to step up my game. That's right, I'll be shopping for my own domain. Because my expenses are piling up and I've turned to this blog for supplemental income, I'll need something cheap. That's where Yahoo comes in. Yahoo is now offering cheap domains and web hosting services.

Their bundles are definitely economical and worth it; for around $7 a month, you can have your custom domain and web hosting, which includes email accounts, a starter website template, customer support, and other tools.

I'll be purchasing this tomorrow morning and I'll inform you of how it is. I will be the first one to report any problems, but I hope this goes well.

Featured Followers of the Day

2011-06-02T14:34:00.007-04:00

Hey all,

A quick post to show my appreciation for 3 of my followers and a little about their blogs!

Random Thoughts of Crystal

A new blogger to our little community, she shares tips on being a mother, funny pictures and useful advice. Please follow her and click around as you do for me :)

Mattitudes wonderful telling of HIMYM in song

This blogger probably has one of the most pure, niche-less blogs out there. Purely about his thoughts, experiences, and interests, his posts are always an interesting read. Help him out by following his blog and clicking around.

CuteGeekyGirls

Probably my most awaited visit of the day is CuteGeekyGirls. I have a soft spot for these glasses-wearing, tattoo sporting redheads. Quality pictures of beautiful nerdy girls, everyday. Indulge in some eyecandy and follow my buddy.

redgage.com -- "monetize" your blog and develop suicidal thoughts, simultaneously

2011-06-02T08:22:00.008-04:00

Whether your motive behind daily blogging is for monetary gain, or just sharing your world with others, it's always nice to see some extra cash flow. Especially in these times, where gas in my area (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) is almost $4.00 a gallon, any kind of supplemental income is always welcome.

In addition to monetizing my blog with Google Adsense, I decided to look around for other alternatives. I didn't want to abandon Google Adsense, but I thought I could augment my supplemental earnings using the content that I originate here, on Blogger.

Snooping around for a while brought me to this internet startup -- Redgage.com. On paper, this is the perfect business model. Unlike AdSense, you really don't have to worry about CPC, what your CTR ratio is, etc. The model is simple; you upload content, such as photos and blogs, and you are paid based on the amount of times your content is viewed. At first, I thought this was a great idea, but it took me less than 60 seconds to discover how user-unfriendly this website is.

To give you an idea of how frustratingly confusing this website is, I can only describe the layout as being designed by a 14 year old's Angelfire while reading his CSS for dummies. Be warned though, there is no styling or cascading here. The color scheme is horrible. I'm beginning to wonder why people think white and red to together; it's a major ocular of

fender. Several epileptic seizures later, I was on the verge of a stroke.

Keep in mind, I set up my Redgage account late last year, added a blog, and did nothing else. When I came back a year later, I was infuriated to find that the website had one major change -- and it was for the worst. Advertisements everywhere. It seems as though this company is having revenue problems, and are turning to Google for a stimulus. The ads are strategically placed to annoy the hell out of you, and if that's not enough, the only way to access your profile and blogs is to click a navigation button at the EXTREME top right of the page.

That's the worst part. Hitting home does not take you to your profile/landing page like anyone else's; instead you are plunged into a feed full of Adsense ads, buttons, widgets, APIs, and a while bunch of cluttering nonsense.

Now, to the part that made me lose my stuff. After an entire year passing, with a properly tagged post, I managed to rack up 83 unique views. Not bad for 10 minute's work. Now here's the worst part.

For 83 views of the span of a year, I managed to rack up a whopping $0.04! I don't think that even covered the cost on my internet bill of connecting to their site, and uploading content. Now, I am aware that this is only one blog post, but if you were to scale it properly, ten blog posts with 100 views each would net you around $.60. On a good day, with just two blog posts, I net around $4 USD.

So there's my review on this site. If you're looking to further monetize your online content; keep looking. This is certainly not the place for it. The ugly combo of a horrible user experience and an even worse payout for your hard work make this website not even worth the cookies on your computer. Stick to Adsense, and even if your CPC plummets, you'd still be making more in a day than this e-sweatshop.

411 fandango takes its talents to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube - AP

2011-06-02T00:37:00.005-04:00

Hey all,

First, I would like to thank everyone who has blown up my page. I really enjoy all of your content and I make it a point to really engage myself in your content twice, daily. Aside from spreading my love all over your pages on Blogspot, I have decided to take my talent (lol) to Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

What you can expect:

2-3 posts a day, which will be broadcast on the above-mentioned social media outlets.
A youtube video a day, with random content; I am also up to requests.
Featuring my follower's pages on my outlets - twice a day, I will blast two of my followers (random) on my outlets, thereby increasing traffic ;)
Tweets informing you of my newest blog posts in case you miss it.

What I hope to accomplish by doing this is to grow our network, feature some of my follower's blogs, and drive traffic to my little community. I really appreciate all your kind comments, feedback, and jokes on all of my work.

Please let me know what you think of my idea.

For now, here's what you can do to help!

Facebook - Simply like the page. Interact if you want, I'm planning to hold contests, etc.
Twitter - Keep an eye on this for broadcasts of my newest posts. Follow me and I'll follow back, helping me comment and click on your blogs faster.
Youtube - subscribe and friend! I'm planning on integrating ads onto my videos since I will be uploading daily.

Thanks again for your support

Glock Weapon System 101

2011-06-01T21:35:00.005-04:00

Hot off the press: A video introducing the Glock weapon system, including safety procedures, education on anatomy, functionality, and how to field strip, clean, and care for a Glock.

Check it out, let me know what you think!

League of Legends - Last Night's Game

2011-05-31T22:17:00.008-04:00

There's nothing wrong with some good ol' League Of Legends. This game, based off the popular Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients (DoTA) is a much more fun, competitive adaptation of it's predecessor.

I encourage anyone who is reading this that is into RTS games, but enjoys a WoW-like character building/leveling system to look this game up.

The way the game works is this: You are a summoner, who can control many different types of characters (champions). Each game, you choose a champion, and you play the game with that champion. While in the game (entered through a matchmaking system with either 5 or 9 other summoners (3v3 & 5v5, respectively)), your character will level up and earn gold as you kill enemy NPCS, towers, and opposing players.

The object of the game is simple, but getting there is hard; you must destroy your enemy's nexus, or power source. Guarded by this are hundreds of NPC minions (who are the easiest to die; they are your main source of experience, gold, and leveling), giant turrets who attack any enemy Champion in range, and the opposing players.

Last night, I played a game with an absolutely horrendous team; all my teammates except for me (Lux) were feeding. Feeding is a cardinal sin in this game, a term that makes any LOL player cringe; to feed is to die repeatedly to a specific champion, especially when the death could have been easily avoided. In League, any time you kill an enemy champion, you get a nominal gold bonus. If your teammate keeps dying to the same enemy champion, the enemy will in turn receive large amounts of gold and experience, which will allow them to buy powerful items very quickly.

Anyway, I had to carry the entire team and after roughly ~10 surrender requests, crying, disconnects, etc, I lead the victory against the enemy team against all odds. I only died once but claimed 15 enemy deaths, which is awesome.

If you're a LOL player, Lux is one of the least played champions in the game, but it's unwarranted. Lux has amazing support, zone control, and pushing abilities.

Hit me up if you guys wanna play, add my summoner name: HeyKalish.

Until later.

Collection: Mosin and Tokarev

2011-05-31T19:16:00.006-04:00

These, the backbone of the Red Army during WWII, a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 and Tokarev TT-33. In the game universe, they are prominent in the older Call of Duty titles, such as 1-3 and more recently, World at War.

Deal of the Day: 30 free days of Indie Movies

2011-05-31T12:16:00.007-04:00

I'm all about saving money -- with gas prices insanely high, my 9-5 becomes even less profitable; but we're not here to talk about necessities. I recently stumbled upon a Netflix-esque movie streaming site, http://www.bigstar.tv. They're like Netflix, but a large portion of their selection are independent films, which is also cool.

The site, however, does what no other video streaming service dares to: stream these videos for a cheap $4.99. Yeah, it's $3.00 cheaper than Netflix, and I'm guessing it's lower because of the film selection.

The cool thing about this site is their "social" aim. They've got Rotten Tomatoes integration, which will let you scope out the rating of a movie before you waste your life watching a baddie.

This website seems to be more oriented toward the viewer, and has a much more mom & pop feel in contrast to Netflix's "big business" impression. I stopped by their Facebook, and what meager following they do have (common for a startup company) is maintained by constant, personal, and caring communication with their customers.

If it's one thing they do well, it's their devices; they support a plethora of gadgets for their indie movies, and this is where the $4.99 price tag shines. From a Roku to an Android phone, you can stream their indie moves on these platforms. I have to admit, the bandwidth necessary to play these videos almost makes using a wifi hotspot a requirement, but you're still mobile!

Top this all off with an adult section, accessible by paying a monthly fee of $9.99 (the $10 a month gets you all normal movies + adult content), I've yet to explore this section.

Now, on to the cons.

Their rental selection is vast, but might seem overpriced; however, for some of these movies, you'd be paying the same amount to stream from Youtube, etc, so it's worth it.

An obvious con would be the lack of more mainstream movies, but, as I've learned from life experience, sometimes the things everyone likes tend to be crappy (Justin Beiber?).

Well, that's my review of this deal website. Let me know if you go for it.

Indie Music Galore

2011-05-30T15:56:00.008-04:00

Music of Choice

There's always debate over which genre is the best, but I don't listen to that jazz; I think music is the purest art of expressing emotion (most music anyway). I don't think you can really express your feelings while "doing the dougie".

With that being said, I'm going to highlight one of the best artists I have ever heard. Hailing from Urbana, IL, American Football was an indie rock band whose sounds are second to none. Imagine an angel copulating with Aphrodite on a unicorn made of marshmellows -- now throw that sound into a suburban, grungy, 1990s small town scene, and you've got yourself some American Football.

Granted, their selection is small, but what they lack in quantity, they double in quality. Many of their songs are somewhat of urban epics; for those of us who drove our first car, dated our first girl, went to small town football games, this song punches us back into the era of Nintendo 64s and POGS. It reminds me of an era reminiscent of Surge, Clinton, and everything that made the 90s great.

Check out one of my favorite songs by them, Honestly. Honestly is a great song, and immerses you in this deep, dark pit of 1990s suburban teenage angst, but in a non-emo way. Check out the youtube video below, and let me know what you think of the song. I also suggest "Never Meant".

A foreword from my 5 month old son

2011-05-29T11:56:00.004-04:00

His words on the current world situation, this blog and more

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About the author

The author of this blog is my 5 month old son, Noah. His qualifications include food critic, sanitation expert, among others.

How to add white lettering into engravings on metal objects

2011-05-28T22:54:00.007-04:00

This technique is most prominent in photos of safe-queen guns, but if you want to give this neat look to your firearm, it's an EXTREMELY cheap and easy setup.

You'll need:

Firearm of Choice. Anything with engraving, but not too deep.
White wax crayon (preferably Crayola)
Hands

Once you've gathered your materials, here's the play by play.

Step 1:

First, take your firearm of choice, and remove the magazine (if inserted), and then unload the firearm by pulling back the slide of the firearm. If there was a round in the chamber, it should have popped out.

Double check your work by sticking your pinky finger into the breech and verify there is no bullet. If your pinky is hitting something round, you did it wrong.

Now, you can safely assume that the firearm is unloaded. The firearm can remain out of battery (cocked back) or in battery, it does not matter. I performed this task on a Glock, with the slide forward.

Step 2:

Next step is to prepare your white crayon. You do not need to unload your crayon, and most often times your crayon will not include a magazine; in most scenarios, a crayon is perfectly safe.

You'll want to locate the engravings on your firearm; take your white crayon, and with a decent amount of pressure, begin on the top corner of the engraving, and rub it in circles, from the beginning of the engraving to the end. You'll need to do several passes until the crevices of the engraving are completely white.

At this point, you'll have your engraving on the slide of your firearm completely filled in with the white crayon. Blow any excess crayon shavings off of the firearm, preferably away from where the slide meets the grip. It will look kind of messy, with some white crayon stuff around the engravings. We'll get rid of this next.

Step 3:

Take a rag (regular paper towel will also do) and lightly wet one corner. Wring it out, so that it's not dripping water. The water won't completely destroy your firearm, nor would the crayon, but let's just use due diligence. In the same motion that you used the crayon, rub the moist rag in a circular motion at first, and this will get rid of most of the white crayon outside of the engraving.

Follow this up by using a dry side of the rag, and horizontally, from left to right. You want to do this quite vigorously, but don't worry, as this won't affect the work you just did. You can repeat this several times until you have the desired look.

Summary

By the end, your firearm should look something like this:

What we just achieved was improving the aesthetics of your firearm by giving an all-black slide a white lettering, making the manufacturer, model, or caliber stand out. The only thing we put on the firearm was wax, so you have not permanently damaged your firearm.

Some things to keep in mind about this modification:

In most cases, this is only temporary, but will last about 2-3 months on average. This, of course, can be affected by wear if you are using this on your EDC firearm.
Wax will not harm the finish on your firearm. You can also safely clean this firearm with solvents, such as Hoppes #9, and lubricate it, as long as you do not constantly scrub the engraving with a rag or other cloth.
This mod will not work on firearms with stamped engravings, such as an importer's mark, as these are only small "dents" in the metal of the firearm and do not have the depth to hold the wax in place.

As soon as I get a chance, I will post a youtube followup. If you have any questions, let me know.

Hey there, traveller!

2011-05-28T22:23:00.000-04:00

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I'm interested in giving it a try and spreading my wisdom. I hope you enjoy my subsequent posts and don't be afraid to comment.