paulreynolds.me

My Dad told me that my website confuses him. So here's what you're looking at, Dad: The column on the left are entries from my blog. The column on the right is a stream of my online activities on other sites such as sharing links, brief thoughts, and photos.


/blog

A Hybrid Economy: Globally Local - 06/27/2009
3367894928_77a2934655 We’re on the edge of a big change. I can feel it. Capitalism, as it is inherently designed, has taken the Global Economy to the extreme and the Universe, as it has been designed, is about to push the pendulum the other direction to restore the equilibrium. The past few decades we’ve been living in the moment without much thought to the past or future. Progressively making everything faster and cheaper on exponential scales. The Internet just accelerated things like a shot of nitrous into an already turbocharged, fuel injected engine of producing and consuming. While everyone has been enjoying the ride, nobody thought much about checking how much gas was in the tank. "

The Capitalism Conflict - 10/11/2008
Money Money, originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk. Just thinking aloud here. The measurement of money coming into a business versus how much money the business spends (expenses/revenue) is simply expressed as the Efficiency Ratio. A 1.0 ratio is bad because it means you aren’t making any profit. I would estimate most small businesses probably hover between 0.65 and 0.85 because they simply don’t have the resources to monitor and optimize every aspect of their operation. Mega-corporations, on the other hand, have a staggering amount of "

My Podcasting Pipeline - 10/09/2008
I just spent a lot of time getting my first video podcast out the door. (To be honest, I’m still pushing it out the door and writing this article while I wait!) I just wanted to make some notes on what I learned and hopefully save someone else a lot of time in the process. I think a lot of the information here can be applied to audio podcasts as well. Also, I’m sure there’s better ways to do things and I’d love to hear any tips you may have! First off, is the software and services I’m using: QuickTime Pro. Yeah, I know. But go ahead and buy it. It’s easily the best $30 I’ve spent on software all year. iMovie. I’m still resolving my love/hate relationship with it. At the end of the day, it was free, already installed, and gets the job done. But I’m still kicking around getting "

Atalaya Castle - 09/29/2008
Atalaya Castle Exactly one year ago today, I took Tracy on our first date. I picked her up at 11am to attend the Annual Atalaya Arts & Crafts Festival at the Atalaya Castle. Our date didn’t end until 3am. We just couldn’t stop talking and we didn’t want to leave each other. We’ve been extremely close ever since. This year, we attended the festival again along with my parents as a way of honoring our 1 year anniversary. Since the festival appeared to be mostly the same, I took a little extra time to look at the castle itself and understand it’s history. Perhaps it’s just the mushy mood I’m in today, but the little bit I lea"

Be Your Own Reporter - 09/19/2008
T-Rex Photo, originally uploaded by dsalgado. Against my better judgment, I got into a political conversation with someone online tonight that I knew held opposite ideas from me. I have been roped in by these guys before and I just wind up so angry and frustrated. Life’s too short, you know? So I’ve just avoided the conflict altogether. It turns out he actually listened to me and, in return, I actually listened to him. We both had our facts right, we just held different opinions on what we think could resolve this mess we’re in. The conversation drifted off into more pleasant things. Shortly afterward, I saw the trailer for "

Too Nice? - 08/04/2008
Cujo Cujo, originally uploaded by chefranden. I have a hard time saying no to people. I know that this stems from a combination of a deep desire for people to like me and avoiding conflict. Plus I tend to trust people all too easily. I don’t think I’m really gullible. But I do tend to give people the benefit of the doubt most of the time. If my gut tells me you’re a decent enough person to deal with, you’re probably in a great position to screw me over. I know as I’ve gotten older I’ve become more outspoken and stand up for myself. But I really don’t want to be the guy that flys off handle to get his way. I don&#"

A Better FriendFeed Bookmarklet - 07/04/2008
I like the FriendFeed Bookmarklet for sharing links to my stream. I try to select an image to along with the link just to add some visual appeal. The problem with the bookmarklet that FriendFeed provides is it doesn’t handle linked images very well. It looks like the code tried to, but when you click on a linked image, the browser tries to follow the link. So I made a modified version of the bookmarklet that disables the links on the page you’re sharing so you can click on the images. The only downside is the links won’t come back until you reload the page.

Early Defector - 06/29/2008
I’m admittedly a cautious early adopter. I don’t jump on everything that comes my way, but I tend to try things before most of my friends. As I get older and less bullshit tolerant, I’m becoming an early defector. I had mentioned previously how I was moving away from Twitter primarily using FriendFeed. The above graphic shows how I’m using various technologies to do that.

Digital Disparate Conversations - 06/16/2008
End of Semester Bulletin Board End of Semester Bulletin Board, originally uploaded by fredthechicken. 6 months ago, I had an inspired idea to turn my homepage into an aggregation of my online shenanigans. 2 months ago, I was in full Twitter mode and I was really enjoying the new experience. MySpace gave me the initial social experience of seeing what people are up to and interacting with them. Twitter essentially stripped that experience to the conversation. "

Perspiration and Inspiration - 05/18/2008
I’m feeling another big change coming on with Blast Off Inc. This one isn’t quite as cut and dried as the last time I decided to go full time with software contracting. It’s a bit cliché, but it’s really becoming hard to want to work on the stuff I’m getting paid to do and suddenly I’ve found myself incredibly inspired to work on my own ideas. But isn’t the point of this whole “Screw The Man” thing that I can work on whatever I want? I suppose I should catch you up with the current situation. Big Client hired Blast Off to do Xbox 360 development over a year ago. It started out as a 6 month

Hi, my name is Paul Reynolds. I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I was born and raised in Greenville, SC. I have lived in Chicago, San Diego, and Seattle. A few years ago, I gave up working for The Man and I moved back to the Beach to start a new life on my terms. I currently own and operate Blast Off Inc. My primary business is software development that is mostly video game related. But I also operate several other ventures and partnerships to keep things interesting.

On the far left side of the page, you'll find my "Stream". This is pretty much anything and everything I do online on a daily basis. Occasionally, I'll have something I really want to elaborate on and I'll make a blog entry. I don't really have a target audience or any goal for this site. It's just my little corner of the Web. If you find something of interest here, let me know!

-Paul

View Paul Reynolds's profile on LinkedIn        


Paul's Company is blastoffmyrtlebeach.com
Paul owns The Bakers Dog a Pet Bakery in Myrtle Beach

/stream

July 3, 2009

Transcript: Twitter Chat on SEM [link](via )
1 Comments
Paul Reynolds: "I really hate "Twitter Chats""
Dutch Southern May the Best Prequel Win http://www.dutchsouthern.com [link]
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Eric @ CS Techcast Liked It.
Pawleys Island inventor sells better way to bag [link](via )
1 Comments
Paul Reynolds: "It's a bit odd that the daughter of the plastic bag inventor has an "environmental consulting firm". Stores up here are selling shopping bags for about $1, so $20 seems high to me."
City of Myrtle Beach - Check Register [link]
(via )
Andre Pope Liked It. 1 Comments
Paul Reynolds: ""Beginning July 2, 2009, the City of Myrtle Beach is posting its weekly check register here for all to see. The city typically writes checks once a week. Details of those payments are posted below as PDF files. This is in keeping with the South Carolina Comptroller General's Office's desire for improved local government spending transparency.""
11 Yearbook Photos That Musicians Wish We'd Never Seen - 11Points.com [link]
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July 2, 2009

RunPee.com has an iPhone app: brilliant. Entire site is done in a Flash file: lame. [link](via )
City hypes loyal locals [link](via )
duffy+duggan.jpg (image) [link]
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How to Get the Most Out Of Facebook Fan Pages [link](via )
michael Liked It. 1 Comments
Paul Reynolds: "This is the prototypical "social media for business" article: 1) Set Up profile 2) Tell people about it 3) Profit!"
Job Creation Engine Stalls [link](via )
1 Comments
Paul Reynolds: "FTA: "The Fortune 500 went from employing about 20% of all American workers in 1980 to less than 5% by around 2000. Small businesses grew to make up 50% of the GDP and 50% of all employment during this same period. But rather than enact tax cuts, which is the best single stimulus for entrepreneurial activity in an economy, we are now obsessed with propping up the large corporations that have already seen their best days, and to artificially try to stimulate new industries that cannot exist one their own in the market without massive government subsidies (i.e., almost every business with any "green" theme). And we are going to pay for all of this through higher income taxes and a whole new class of taxes created by Cap and Trade.""

July 1, 2009

Paul is getting his game dev chops back. And it feels guuuud. [link](via )
WOM won't wait 'til Monday [link](via )
1 Comments
Paul Reynolds: "Sorry, I don't think anyone should be "brand monitoring" 24/7. In relative terms, the hot spot of buzz is small percentage of people. Just because the mob is quick to pull out the pitch forks doesn't mean someone has to play the role of the witch to satiate them. Amazon did the right thing and I doubt they've permanently lost any appreciable amount of business."
Registered to check out our Chamber of Commerce's "Tourism Report" next Thursday. The new store hours afford me the ability to go. Fully expecting a rainbows and puppies style of presentation. I hope I don't LOL or snicker to the point of embarrassing myself. [link](via )
Two Myrtle Beach area chains affected by beef recall [link](via )
Thanks to the tourist business, the store did double the gross revenue in June as it did in May. Ignoring a a couple big factors like having no payroll and piggybacking off some of Tracy's store expenses, we actually turned a little profit. Which means I can cash one of my July '08 paychecks and I can make the mortgage payment this month. [link](via )
Imabug Liked It. 3 Comments
Paul Reynolds: "I'm going to tick this one in the Win column."
James (@willia4): "This sort of thing is why I'm so confused over Myrtle Beach's war on tourism. Don't you guys like money as much as we do here?"
Paul Reynolds: "Based on Tracy's data, 2009 June is a little over 20% down from 2008 June. If we did 20% more last month, we'd be at legitimate break-even or profitable. Not bad for a 6 month business!"

June 30, 2009

Wee! Turns out my air bag suspension wasn't working due to a mis-crimped wire. Nice to see the old Chevy off the jackstands and dancing in the garage. [link](via )
Andre Pope Liked It.
Focus: The Locomotion System [link](via )
I like Helvetica. But until they fix the gray comment text, I've still got to run Cleaner FriendFeed. [link](via )
MacBook Pro Alternating Current Converter was left at home. Power source is draining! Switching Starship AWESOME to back up Dell Inspiron Network Communications until the Commander can bring the converter in. It's going to be a bumpy ride until then... [link](via )
2 Comments
Imabug: "at least the starboard power coupling is still intact :)"
Paul Reynolds: "Shwew! MagSafe™ power coupling engaged. Primary power systems are back online. Fortunately there were no DRADIS alerts. Now to get my hot chick mechanic to go over the ship and see how much damage this old bird took."
Adobe Flash now widely available to Android device vendors [link](via )
Haggis (Sean Loyless), LPH™ and his dog P™ Liked It. 3 Comments
Paul Reynolds: "This could be big for Android."
James (@willia4): "As long as they avoid the "I'd love to answer my phone, but I just went to YouTube so it'll be a few minutes before my phone unlocks" issues."
Ken Kennedy: "*snort* Good one, James!"
New Hyundai Assurance provision locks gas at $1.49/gal for one year [w/VIDEO] [link](via )