John And Cindie

Hello future smuggers!

Ok so first let me admit that I’m cross-posting this with my commercial site and this site because I want everyone to get a chance to use this discount code if they are interested (and hey, everytime someone uses this code, I get a little bit back too!).  This was originally posted at http://www.studio602photography.com/blog/2009/02/hello-future-smuggers/.

I have been a member of the smugmug community for quite some time now.  First, I used smugmug as a place to store my personal images and then upgraded to their ‘Pro’ version when I got serious with photography and started picking up clients.  If you are tired of Flickr and really want some place where you can store an unlimited amount of your own photos for a very low price, don’t have to deal with ads for services you don’t want, and don’t want to manage your own web space then take a look at smugmug.  www.smugmug.com.

If you are interested, I even have a discount code for you!  When setting up your account, just enter this code: 5ZrdPCjacjan2 and receive $5 off of your new account. I know in today’s economy every little bit helps! This code does not expire.

Over the past several years, the guys over at SmugMug have made several changes.  If you are a pro member (not sure if this is true for non-pro accounts), you can opt to have your images printed by Bay Photo.  So not only does smugmug eliminate the need for you to run the credit card and collect sales tax (they do that all for you), but they can do direct fulfillment through a very well respected pro lab.  Neat!

One more thing I recently discovered was that there is now a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom 2.0 which can export your finished photos directly to Smugmug.  I find this really helpful, as I now run two export plug-ins: one for Smug and another for Facebook.  I have also recently just started using the iPhone smugmug application, which lets me upload photos directly from my iPhone to my smugmug account.  Like all iPhone apps, it’s a big clunky but it gets the job done.

Ok, enough sales pitching for one day

Nintendo Wii Fit

So yesterday I went out to Chris’ house to help him hang his flat screen tv on the wall in his new townhouse, and what a mess that turned out to be.  First, we needed to drill some anchors into the cinderblock that was behind the wall (fire block between units), then it turned out that the HDTV cable that came with his XBOX360 was a bum cable.  So over to Best Buy we went to get some new cables.

Lo and behold, there was a pallet of Wii Fits sitting in the back room (where we shouldn’t have been able to see, but could nontheless).  So I talk to the sales guy who was right there and studiously ignoring us, and turns out that if we came back at store opening tomorrow (well, today as I write this), we could get one of the 40+ Wii Fit units they had on hand.  I call Cindie to let her know we’ll be waiting in line at the Downingtown Best Buy at 10am on Sunday.  Ecstasy ensues.  So today we went down at… not 10.  not 9.  but 8am.  Yes, 8am because Cindie wanted to make sure that we would get one.  So 9rolls around.  No one.  10 rolls around.  Random people stop by, look like an idiot trying to walk into the locked door and then leave.  Finally 11 rolls around and we got our place in the 5 person line.  Of course you have to understand that we’ve been trying to get one since they came out, including a side trip to Nintendo World in NYC when we were up there a few weeks ago.

Fast forward, get home and get it set up.  Somehow mom, dad, Chris and Jess converge on our house roughly when I get it set up.  What a trip this thing is.  I don’t know if I’ll actually lose weight with it, but I can guarantee that I’ll have fun trying and look like a complete idiot to boot.  Just in case you havn’t seen this, here is the number one reason to buy a Wii if you are married, engaged, or otherwise attached is the hoola hoop game.  A quick YouTube search finds this:

Now after watching that, just imagine how fun it is to watch your whole family (hopefully fully clothed) play this thing.  Entertainment value for onlookers: high.