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Photos Archives

Venice Beach Full Of Character And Characters

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 3:19 am

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The last time I told you a little of my time in the States was in my post Sharing Photos Is Best Done With Flickr where I told you about my time at Santa Monica Beach which just happens to be at the end of the famous Route 66. From there we went to another famous beach, Venice Beach which I found very interesting.

As we walked along Venice Boardwalk it was almost like being immersed into one of those Hollywood movies I love to watch on TV. It was full of colourful characters as well as many interesting stalls. Something that literally knocked my socks off was the Kush Doctors of which there were several on the boardwalk. You’re going to love this. Apparently if you go to one of these doctors complaining of a bad back or something they’re quite happy to prescribe some marijuana tom ease the pain. You see, as long as you have a prescription it’s quite legal to use dope.

Muscle Beach Gym was one of the sites I really wanted to see while there, probably because I used to work out in my younger days and some of the Muscle magazines I used to read wrote about some of the famous body builders that used to work out there, specifically Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno. Unfortunately there was only one guy working out and he definitely was no Hulk.

I mentioned the interesting characters, well here is a photo of a couple of musicians that posed with my wife Anna. We bought a CD from each of them and I have to admit although they didn’t look like much the music on them was really quite good.

Probably one of the most interesting character, sorry no photo, was this bloke who was walking around holding this sign saying that for twenty bucks he was willing to let anyone take a swing at him. Perhaps he was looking for an excuse to see those Kush doctors :smile1_ee:

There was actually quite a lot to see as well as a lot of merchandise available for sale including didgeridoos. Now what’s with that, they can’t find enough American souvenirs they had to resort to selling Aussie stuff? My only regret was we didn’t stay there longer so that we could have really soaked up the atmosphere. If you’re ever in California I recommend you do more than just a casual visit to Venice Beach.

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Sharing Photos Is Best Done With Flickr

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 at 12:42 am

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Most of you know that I have two photo blogs, but what you don’t know is that the site I used to host my photos on went broke and I lost all my photos. This created a major problem on those sites because it meant that as soon as that site went offline, with no warning mind you, all my posts lost their photos. I cannot describe the hassles involved in matching the right photos to the right posts. It took ages!

First thing first though, before I could upload the photos I needed to find a new site for them. I didn’t want to host them with my blog host because I didn’t want to use up all that band width. After doing a lot of research I decided that the best site to host my photos was Flickr! I have to admit the fact that Flickr was free did help to sway my choice but once I started using it I was happy that I chose them.

As you would expect having two photo blogs meant that it was only a matter of time before I used up the free portion of my account but once I did I didn’t hesitate to go for the 2 year Flickr Pro account for $2 a month! I haven’t looked back since. The thing is I was so busy uploading photos and displaying them on my blogs that I completely forgot to edit my profile. :doh_tb: I did it late last night linking to my photo blogs and to this one as well. I will definitely have to go back and jazz it up a little, after all, why let all that potential link juice go to waste.

One of the things I like about flickr is you can choose how to classify your photos. You can make them open to the general public, to friends and family or you can make them completely private. The only ones I make private are those that have no photographic value like those where you’ve grabbed a screen to show people how something is done.

Anyway, enough about Flickr, I’m sure you all know how good it is, now to show off a few more photos from when I was in Los Angeles. People if you go to California you have to go down to Santa Monica beach, which is on the end of Route 66. We only spent a short while there as we were on a tour but you could easily spend so much more. I took these few shots while on the Santa Monica Pier. They say that everything in the States is big but I have to admit I was shocked to see an amusement park on the pier itself. It’s even got restaurants, an entertainment and other retail establishments.

This beautifully maintained merry-go-round was housed in one of the buildings.

Naturally you’ll find this ride outside.

What was that I said, everything in the States was big? Well not when it came to buying a hotdog and fries. They were the smallest I’ve ever seen. I could have eaten all these myself but I thought I should share them with the wife.

Just one thing before I go, I feel pretty safe with Flickr because it’s all part of Yahoo and I can’t see them closing their doors anytime soon.

Edit: After reading the comments there seems to be a little confusion as to how the Pro account differs from the Free account and so I thought I would add this to the post.

Unlimited photo uploads (20MB per photo)

Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max, 500MB per video)

The ability to show HD Video

Unlimited storage

Unlimited bandwidth

Archiving of high-resolution original images

The ability to replace a photo

Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools

Ad-free browsing and sharing

View count and referrer statistics

Compare that to what you get with a Free Account:

300 MB monthly photo upload limit (15MB per photo)

2 video uploads each month (90 seconds max, 150MB per video)

Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images

Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools

Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)

More On LA, Las Vegas & Rewarding Your Readers

Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 8:56 pm

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In my last two posts I wrote about my trip to the US and I thought I would continue the thread because so many interesting things happened there and I have a lot to share with you. Those posts talked about tipping and good service and I tied them into how we could improve our blogging.

It would be unreasonable to expect that no matter where you go in the States they would treat you like pure gold. There were a few places where the service was shocking. The first happened to be in the Bank Of America. As there were a few questionable people hanging around the ATM I decided to go into the bank to withdraw some cash. After walking through this weird system, obviously something to do with security, that involved two doors where only one person was allowed to enter at a time.

I approached a female bank teller about withdrawing some cash. Man, what a sour puss, I reckon she must have missed out on getting laid that morning. Anyway, she says she needed to see my passport to which I replied I only had my driver’s licence on me, which happened to be acceptable everywhere else we went whilst there, Nope that wasn’t acceptable but I was welcome to use the ATM outside. I’m sorry but that made no sense to me whatsoever, it’s not like the ATM could check my ID. What really cheesed me off was her condescending attitude.

Another occasion of bad service happened at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Let me set the scene by quoting what Caesars Palace says about the Spanish Steps.

The warmth of the sun and cool desert breezes. Imagine the ambiance of Spanish Steps, where you can enjoy a frozen fruit cocktail amid the outdoor market atmosphere of the Roman Plaza. The Spanish Steps in Rome were completed in 1725 and lead to the Trinita dei Monti. Like the original, the Las Vegas Spanish Steps serve as a vibrant, outdoor meeting place.

Spanish Steps

Yep, it was our last day in Vegas and Anna and I had some time to kill before catching our plane back to LA and then home. We had walked past the Spanish steps the night before and thought it would be great to relax there while sipping a frozen cocktail. We approached the bar where they had two empty containers representing the sizes available. I pointed to the smaller of the two and said, “I will have two that size, one watermelon and one lemon.” He came back with three and I said, ” Sorry mate I only asked for two one of each flavour.” “No,” he replies, “you asked for two watermelon and one lemon!” I argued the point which caused him to pick up the spare frozen cocktail, hold it in the air in front of me and then to drop it in a bin, making it plain that he wasn’t at all happy.

storm trooper

Sorry, that’s no way to treat a paying customer. Firstly you never argue with a customer, that’s why they have the old’ The customer is always right’ saying. Secondly, you never try to make a customer feel small by using actions meant to intimidate him. Needless to say he didn’t get a tip.

There were a few others but they were minor and not enough to spoil our holiday. I only mentioned them to prepare others for when it happens to them. It’s unreasonable to expect everyone in the service American service industry to be perfect, because no matter where you go in this wonderful world of ours you’re always bound to come across some bad apples.

Something else I noticed while over there is that so many place offer their customers an incentive to encourage them to return. It got me to wondering what we as bloggers could do to encourage our readers to do the same. Most of these have been covered in previous posts but I think, especially for the new readers, I will touch briefly on them again.

Go DoFollow: Don’t worry about all those bloggers who tell you it’s wrong to go dofollow because it will increase your spam and it will ruin your PR. There are plugins to deal with spam and I’ve been dofollow since day one and I’ve still managed a PR4.
Install Commentluv: A great way to reward customers is to install the commentluv plugin. Once they learn that commenting will give them a titled link for their last blog post, and if they’re a member they can choose from their last 10 posts, they will continue to return for more.
KeywordLuv: Another great plugin to reward those who comment on your blog. This plugin allows them to leave their name and a keyword and you all know how important keywords are to SEO.
Keep It Simple: By this I mean don’t make it difficult for people to comment. Most people are busy and they do not want to jump through hoops just to leave a comment so forget those stupid captchas and comment systems that require people to be logged in, such as Disqus and Intense Debate, to leave a comment. Rather than those captchas use GASP instead as it’s the simplest way of defeating those damn spam bots.
Return The favour: What better way to reward your commentators than to visit their blog and leave a quality comment in return. I’ve found this to be the best way to build long term relationships.
Subscribe To Comment Plugin: This is one that many bloggers forget and yet it can bring a lot of return traffic. There are a lot around but make sure you select one that only sends out an email when someone replies to a comment directly and not one that sends and email every time someone leaves a comment.

Naturally you also want to provide the best content possible because if they don’t like what you’re putting out there isn’t much incentive to return. I thought about offering a free eBook but then that may be good for getting them to sign up for a list but it’s only a one time offer so it won’t necessarily get them to return on a regular basis and that’s what we really want now isn’t it?

Getting Close To The Surfers Paradise Meter Maids

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 at 3:36 am

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Not all that long ago the family and I went to Queensland for a vacation, first one for a long time, and I did a post about our day at Australia Zoo. As I promised in that post I would be posting of other things that we did and saw while in Queensland, or more importantly, the Gold Coast.

As one would expect when walking down any beach-side resort the one thing you will see plenty of is pretty women and the Gold Coast was no exception. Naturally you all know how I feel about pretty women but it’s pretty damn hard getting a photo next to one when you’re dragging your wife behind you. Sure I could have sneaked one when she and Nadia were off gallivanting in any of the multitude of stores, but I didn’t feel right about doing that. What to do, what to do?

It was while Frank and I were walking down Surfers Paradise that we spotted this simply gorgeous Meter Maid. Her name was Pernilla, she was a beautiful blond and how could Anna deny me this fine memento of Surfers Paradise? Obviously she couldn’t, especially when I brought Frank into the picture. So, while Frank and I posed next to this beautiful piece of womanhood, Nadia snapped several photos.

As you can see from the photo, there is no way you could wipe the grin from my face. Strangely, even though I’ve seen this photo more than once it’s the first time I noticed Frank had his arm around her. Way to go Frank. :thumbup_tb:

In case you were wondering, there was a time in the 60′s when the local council decided to introduce parking meters along the Gold Coast. Naturally there were those who thought this would drive tourists away and so some bright spark thought of Meter Maids. These were pretty women who would put coins into expired parking meters so that people wouldn’t get a ticket. As you would imagine it was a great hit and Meter Maids are, lucky for Frank and I, patrolling the streets of Surfer’s Paradise.

These gals even have their own website, Surfers Paradise Metermaids, complete with photos and a short history. It seems though, because of the advent of the new ticket dispensing machines, that these beautiful women can no longer fulfill their purpose. Luckily for us the fact that they’re such a tourist attraction guarantees their survival.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

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Of Australia Zoo, Steve Irwin & A Magical Experience

Thursday, September 30th, 2010 at 3:47 am

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If you’re an avid reader of this blog, and you really should subscribe if you haven’t already :wink_ee: , you would know that I’ve just come back from holiday. For all those who have been busting at the seems to know where I went you can rest easy because I’m about to tell you. We, the family and I went to sunny Queensland and stayed at Surfers Paradise. Truth be told there wasn’t all that much sun over there at the time, although the daughter did find enough to get burnt one day, but it was a hell of a lot warmer than what the folks were getting at home.

Anyway, while there we decided we would visit Australia Zoo but first we had to make a stop in Brisbane because Nadia, my daughter, wanted to buy some jewelery at Tiffany. She ended up buying a Tiffany & Co. Ring to match her bracelet and a necklace. She also managed to score Tiffany earrings for a Christmas present.

Meanwhile Frank, my son, and I whiled away the time by doing more manly things like walking down the mall perving on all the sheilas of which there was a plentiful supply.

Once the shopping was out the way we drove to Australia Zoo in Beerwah Queensland. While originally a reptile park started by Rob his father, Steve turned it into the wildlife park it is today. Ever since his death in September of 2006 I’ve always wanted to see what he managed to create and I was ecstatic to finally walk through the gates.

One of the first things we saw was this lifelike statue of Steve, Terri, Bindi and his son Bob. The sight of it actually got Anna, the wife, a little teary eyed as she thought of how his family must have felt losing their husband and father. I have to admit that I felt a little sad at the thought myself, a feeling that presented itself on more than one occasion as we walked around this remarkable Zoo.

We walked past a ‘photo wall’ which was filled with hundreds of photos of Steve Irwin and his many accomplishments. I managed to take this shot of one of those photos which was pretty difficult because of the reflections on the plastic that was covering them. It’s of his wife Terri who Steve met while performing at the park in 1991. Apparently it was love at first sight and they married in 1992. It was obvious that the two were very close as Terri was involved in many of Steve’s adventures. She obviously knows more about the man than anyone else and her book Steve & Me may well please many Crocodile Hunter fans.

Talking about crocodiles, we just had to take be a part of the show at the The Crocoseum and while it was thrilling to be a part of the show it was a little sad to know that Steve would never thrill the crowds again.

The show involved more than just showing the crowds how the crocs attack, it was also about educating them as to how they live in the wild. We were also treated to charming staff that walked amongst the crowd whilst holding snakes as well as a cool display of colorful birds as they flew around the stadium.

As we walked around we were amazed at the quality of the Australian Zoo. All the staff were so friendly and the grounds were spotless. Our next stop was to visit the elephants as Nadia has always had a thing for elephant trinkets. We managed to get there during their feeding time where these gracious Asian Elephants, Siam, Sabu and Bimbo were fed by the enthralled crowd. That’s Nadia feeding one and Frank waiting patiently in line behind her for his turn. It must have been quite an experience as they lined up for another go.

Naturally if you’re in Australia you can’t leave without checking out the koalas. I snapped this shot of mother and daughter as the baby koala was reaching around her mother in her efforts to snatch a nice tasty eucalyptus leaf or two.

The koala walk itself was very entertaining as there were heaps of them and you could get very close to them. There was even one that you are allowed to pet, and who wouldn’t want a photo of themselves petting a cute Koala?

While I was loving the walk amongst the Koalas I was kind of thankful that there was a glass wall separating my family and this stunning Tiger. I’ve always loved cats but I just can’t see myself petting this regal specimen. Still he didn’t seem to bother his two handlers that were quite happy to do more than just stroke his fur.

All in all it was a great day and the only drawback was that we didn’t get there earlier because there was so much more to see. I got to admit though that one of the highlights of our time at Australia Zoo was while walking past the wombat enclosure. While I was trying to get a good shot of these slow moving marsupials Nadia’s startled scream got my attention, and I was wondering what could have frightened her. I knew we had left the tiger behind, the emus, she hates those, were nowhere near. So what could it be? It was just this small lizard. Sorry Nadia if Frank and I teased you a little over that. :lol_ee:

I reckon if we ever go back we will make a day of it so we definitely won’t be stopping along the way to do any shopping at Tiffany, that’s for sure.

I would like to finish off the post with a little poem to honor Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter.

Memories of the Wildlife Warrior!

Steve Irwin, Known near and far
Steve Irwin, conservation star
He was an Aussie like no other
He was a real crocodile lover

Steve Irwin, Wildlife Warrior
Steve Irwin, Aussie Ambassador
He was an Aussie, real true blue
Loved his country like me and you

Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter
Steve Irwin, the loving father
Bindi and Bob, the kids he adored
Terri his wife, he loved all the more

Steve Irwin, animals his passion
Steve Irwin, always ready for action
He was a real Aussie type bloke
Would use a snake as a practical joke

Steve Irwin, would jump a wild croc
Steve Irwin really loved to shock
People loved to watch him perform
His action sometimes raising a storm

Steve Irwin, his father’s best mate
Steve Irwin, he never knew his fate
He died doing what he loved
The world has lost their beloved

Steve Irwin, forever in our hearts
Steve Irwin, your memory shall never depart
CRIKEY, your shout to all who were near
A good Aussie bloke, a man with no fear.