An Open Letter to Dunkin Donuts

Dear Dunkin Donuts,

Please just stick to doughnuts. It's been some time now, and I've yet to have a single beverage from your establishment that didn't taste like a hobo's butt crack. I've tried everything. Lattes, cappuccinos, sweet tea, iced coffees and plain coffee. And the other day I tried a "Coffee Coollatta", which I assumed to be something of an iced coffee. In reality, it was more like a Slushi and tasted like a mixture of root beer, coffee, and something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Lemon Pledge, perhaps?

Just stop this.

It's not like i haven't tried. Goodness knows I've tried. I kept thinking, surely they make some kind of beverage I don't want to immediately throw into traffic. Surely someday the sugar will be dissolved or I won't have to pull over to put in my own packets of Splenda. Surely the sweet tea I get today won't taste like it's been filtered through Snooki's pantyhose and left out for five days. And every single time, I'm disappointed. 

I honestly don't know why I keep trying. It's likely just because you're so conveniently located to where I work and the easiest drive-thru on the way home. I can only assume most people continue to order your "drinks" simply because it's quick, convenient and cheaper than Starbucks. It's probably for those reasons that I keep stopping and will drink what you give me, no matter how utterly revolting it is. Caffeine is caffeine after all.

At least for now, I'm going to pass you by, opting instead for either Burger King or McDonalds' offerings, which are surprisingly much tastier and also relatively cheap.

America may run on Dunkin, but it's probably not for the reasons you think.

Just keep makin' the doughnuts and leave the drinks to the professionals.

Sincerely,

AJ

My Online Identity Crisis

I have many identities. I am an artist, a web developer, a writer, a daddy and an all-around geek. I have something to say about all these things, and multiple (too many) places to post them. Lately, this is becoming a problem. 

For some background, here are all the sites/services I have set up:

• atlantajones.com: My personal blog. For the most part, this is where I’ve posted about development and geeky stuff like movies and books. Currently, this is hosted on Squarespace.
• andrewjonesdraws.com: This is a Tumblr blog that’s reserved for posting my artwork and random art-related stuff.
• andrewwesleyjones.com: A separate, custom one-page site that just serves as my online resume.
• happyaccidentscomic.com: My webcomic, which has been largely dormant for a while, but will hopefully be resurrected in the next year. Self-hosted in Wordpress.
• Instagram: I’ve started using Instagram only recently, and use it mostly to post art-related photos. I like it’s ability to post to multiple accounts at once (when it works).
• DeviantArt: All my artwork is posted here, and has been for about four years. I also post journal entries here, many of which are duplicates from the Tumblr blog.
• Etsy: All my original art that’s for sale is listed here.
• avatomics.com: This is a “product” site, where I take orders for cartoon avatar commissions. Self-hosted, custom-built app.
• andrewandbrenda.com: Our “family” site, which as of today, hasn’t been updated in a year. Most family stuff is handled through Facebook now anyway.
• The Daily Katie: A blog on Posterous where I had been posting photos of my daughter. As I write this, it’s October 22nd and the last update was on Labor Day. This is partly due to Posterous’s post-by-email functionality being broken a lot of the time.
• Facebook: I have both a personal page, which is only open to friends and family, and a “fan page”, which is pretty much reserved for artwork-related posts
• Flickr: I actually have a paid Flickr account and used to use it heavily. I haven’t logged into it in at least six months. Not even really sure why.
• Twitter: I have one main Twitter account where I post about all topics, dev, art, movies, comics or just general thoughts and ramblings.

So if you’ve made it through that whole list, you can imagine why I sometimes can’t decide where to put anything. I have so many potential containers for my work and thoughts, that I often just don’t bother at all. 

I decided to write about this and get some feedback when I saw an artist on Instagram post about a similar problem. He noticed a lot of people “un-following” him lately and wondered if it was due to posting too many photos not related to his art. You know, cats and stuff. He was wondering if he should cut out personal stuff completely or just start a separate account for it.

I’ve battled this demon a few times before, and every time, I feel like I’ve solved the problem. But looking over that list again, it’s clear my internet identity (I can’t say “personal brand” with a straight face) is stretching too thin. Trying to slice up the different facets of my life like a deli ham is simply resulting in a kind of paralysis. I never know what to focus on or where to put it when I do.

So what’s the answer? For starters, Twitter and Facebook will have to stay. They’re inescapable, and they serve a very different purpose. They’re basically just chat and announcement tools. No real content is really stored there, but they’re good vehicles for delivering people to the actual content you do want them to see.

Etsy and the Avatomics site also serve very specific purposes, and I simply have too much time (and money) invested in DeviantArt to even consider leaving. Besides, there is something to be said about the “discoverability” factor for services like DA. You never know when someone will stumble on your artwork and then buy something. This probably goes for Flickr as well. I’ve got over 2,600 photos on there now and have had a paid account for years. Wouldn’t make sense to pull the plug, although I don’t know when I would upload a photo to Flickr instead of my personal Facebook gallery.

The more I think about it, the more likely scenario in the short-term is that I’d combine my personal blog and the Tumblr art blog into one. I’ve already done a test-import, and Squarespace handled it quite well. It would actually exist as its own separate blog, but share the same site and theme. So everything from Tumblr would then be accessible via atlantajones.com/art. 

The webcomic could similarly be imported from Wordpress, but it’s complicated by the fact that it’s being run with the ComicPress plugin for hosting comics and archives. However, once the Squarespace Developer program is out of beta, making templates comic-friendly should be much easier. 

Then there is the dilemma of fans and followers. I’d feel confident saying most people who follow me do so for one main topic. They’re probably interested in either content about web development, or my artwork. Some people might like both, but it’s probably rare. And it’s probably skewed towards people who follow me for my art and could care less about development.

So what do you do? All I know is that I’m not posting as frequently as I’d like, and that’s mostly due to this mental utility drawer and not knowing where something “fits”.

Right now my thinking is, this is me. I am all these things, and I’m proud of it all. And if you don’t like seeing posts about javascript, keep scrolling until you hit a drawing of Batman. Don’t want to see my sketches? Keep scrolling until you see a post for the new Iron Man trailer. I think as long as I give people a way to clearly see the categories on the site, I’ll be able to put everything in one spot and make everyone happy. Well, at least I’ll be happy.

I’m very interested in any thoughts you might have. Shout ‘em out in the comments.

Ghosts of Marietta

Going through the storage boxes in our garage lately, I came across 11 copies of a book called "Ghosts of Marietta". It's a self-published book by Connie Cartmell that retells tales of hauntings in my hometown of Marietta, Ohio. 

First published in 1996, I believe I came to own so many copies because we were selling them in the haunted house I co-created in 2000. Even though it's black-and-white and was fairly cheaply produced, it's a good read especially if you're familiar with the area and the landmarks it covers. So I figured I'd keep a copy and put the other 10 up for grabs. 

The copies I'm selling are third-edition prints and are signed by the author. 

Here's some additional details:

• Pages: 96
• Author: Connie Cartmell
• Published by: River Press and Connie Cartmell
• Third printing published by: Connie Cartmell and Michael Mullen
• Forward by: Louise Zimmer
• Editor: Mary Alice Casey
• Photos: Mitch Casey
• Page design: Ohlen Cartmell
• Cover design: Scott Long
• Cover photo: Mitch Casey

Locations featured (includes a map on the back cover)

• Lafayette Hotel
• Levee House
• Buckley House
• Players Theatre
• Chamber of Commerce
• The Castle
• Alpha Xi Delta House
• The Establishment
• The Bosworth House
• The Anchorage
• The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon
• …plus two residences and a restaurant that were not identified

Buy now for $7.50 each, plus $2.50 shipping (U.S. orders only)

Been On An 80's Kick

Lately, I've been on an 80's nostalgia kick, with a couple cool finds online. I was recently contacted by a guy on Etsy who has a store dedicated to 80's vintage toys. He was asking about some of my art pieces and possible commissions. I went to his store, and immediately bought some things: a General Kael figure from Willow and 2 unopened packs of Black Hole trading cards. 

He even threw in a free, unopened pack of Garbage Pail Kid cards! Soon afterwards, he listed 2 unopened packs of Raiders of the Lost Ark cards, which I also promptly snapped up. The store owner has been great to deal with, and he's even bought some of my own 80's-themed artwork. 

His store only has about 100 items right now, but the inventory is changing all the time. I highly recommend checking it out.

The other 80's tidbit I wanted to post about was this amazing site called Branded in the 80's. It's one of those sites you can literally lose hours of your life to without even noticing. The site is split into categories for things like "Stickers of the 80's", "Wax Paper Pop Art" (trading card wrapper art), "Vintage TV Guides" and "Soda Pop Culture". If you're a child of the 80's, you'll find a million things to make you say "I remember that!".

Oddly, I must've seen this site before, as I was following it's owner on Twitter. One night, he'd posted that he'd framed one of my favorite Halloween story/sound effect albums. I had this as a kid and LOVED it, but had totally lost track of it. Couldn't even remember its name. We chatted on Twitter a bit, and he pointed me to a post he'd made about it, including links to download every track! The main track is an audio story, that STILL gives me the creeps to this day.

What I didn't know, until he'd pointed it out, was that the voice of the main character was done by Michael Bell, who voiced Duke on GI Joe, and, oddly, Opus on "A Wish for Wings That Work". And the voice of the old gas station attendant is none other than Peter Cullen, who voices Optimus Prime.

At any rate, enjoy these two gems of the 80's!

Update: Got a shout out from "Branded in the 80's", along with an envy-inducing look into his private collection. Thanks, Shawn!

Stupidest Ghost Show Moment Ever

I'll admit it, I have a particular weakness for shows about the paranormal, UFO's and Bigfoot. When channel surfing, when in doubt, I can usually find something crazy on History Channel or Discovery. There's very little of it (if anything) I believe anymore, but I still find it fascinating. It's partially because there are still things that are truly mysterious, and partly it's out of sheer disbelief in some of the crackpot theories they come up with. Sometimes I find myself just yelling back at the screen.

At some point, I'll probably do more in-depth reviews of some of the current crop of shows, but I thought I'd share this tidbit. The other night I was clicking around and landed on "My Ghost Story" on the Biography channel. It didn't seem too compelling to me. A couple people were investigating an old lighthouse, supposedly haunted by the ghost of a little boy and…a cat.

They did some EVP work (electronic voice phenomena), where they set up a recorder and record ambient noise as they ask the "spirits" questions. Usually, any sounds captured are just gibberish, or are so vague you could twist it to make it sound like anything. In this case, they captured what actually does clearly sound like a cat meowing. Whether it was a ghost cat or just a neighborhood stray remains to be seen, but I'll concede it sounded like a cat.

Now, one common technique on these shows is to show a faux computer screen with the audio waveforms of the sound, and a caption at the bottom with the words the investigators think were said by the ghost. It really reinforces their power of suggestion. In this case, even though we clearly hear a cat, the editor still thought it necessary to spell out the word "Meow" on the screen.

I don't know why, but this struck me so damn funny. Just me? Okay, fine.

Click here to jump to the point in the show where they make this amazing discovery.