All the Great stuff that comes with your glasses

Hello,

The other day I received an e-mail from Clearly Contacts saying they were giving away 5000 pairs of glasses for free. No catch (just pay the shipping) all you had to do is like the Clearly Contacts Facebook Group and they will give you the coupon code.
In my case the Coupon Code was: TORONTO5K and on the day of the giveaway find a pair of glasses you like and they are Free, that includes Frames, lenses, glasses case, contact case, key chain glasses tool and a microfiber cleaning cloth. The only thing is you had to pay for shipping, in Canada it has set at $14.95 for shipping which is an amazing price for a pair of glasses.This was so popular that they sold out in close to 3 hours.
The sale was last Friday January 14th and I already received my glasses January 20th. So in less then one week I ordered brand new glasses and they were delivered for under $20.

3 tips for your glasses purchase to go smoothly are as follows:

1) Have your optometrist prescription ready ( this includes axis, sphere, and cylinder)
2) Look a day or two before the sale at different types of glasses and write them down, not all glasses are included in the sale so it is wise to have a second or even third choice ready
3) If the sale starts at 12pm then be on the website and ready to enter the code right at 12, that way you do not have to wait for the page to load (due to high visitor traffic.)

Box the Glasses came in

Rearview of glasses

Great Pair of Glasses

I have also purchased contact lens from Clearly Contacts in the past and they are great I have had no problems at all and they are reasonably priced too.
I highly recommend Clearly Contacts for anyone looking to purchase new glasses or contacts.

- Chris

Hello,

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are revved up for an amazing New Years! I have been really busy lately with Christmas and family things, but I had a few minutes so I figured I would post a blog.
Christmas seems to come and go quicker every year, this year was no exception I mean it is almost 2011.

I had a wonderful Christmas with tons of great freinds and family as well as got some pretty sweet gifts such as; Printer/Copier and scanner, Sweaters, clothes, glove,s ATV parts, ATV riding gear and much more.

Here is a picture of just a few of the items I received this Christmas.

New Years

I am going up North for New Years like I have for the past few years, and every time it is amazing. Skating, snowboarding, partying, relaxing, snowmobiling, sledding and much more.

So stay tuned as I am sure I will have some wonderful Pictures Videos and stories to tell when I return from 2010 New Years.

-Chris

Hey,

I have just made being a fan of my blog site that much easier, not sure when Chrismaeder.ca will update or post something new? With the new subscribe feature we have made it much easier to find out the latest news from Chrismaeder.ca

Simply enter your e-mail address into the box on the left side of the page, once a new post or latest video has been added you will be instantly email notified so you don’t miss any of the exciting news from Chrismaeder.ca

Thank-you for Subscribing.

- Chris

Hello,

I recently purchased a new computer, and I am currently waiting for all the parts to be delivered. Hopefully with in the next week or so I will have it together and ready for many more blog entries as well as spend many hours searching the internet for sustaining a viable income online.

New computer Specs:

- ICORE 3 CPU
- 4 gigs DDR3 Ram
- 24x DVD Burner
- Windows 7
- 1 TB Harddrive

New Computer in parts

So check back shortly and see if my new computer has really paid off or if it was a waste of money.

- Chris

Hey,

I have been working on a logo/image for my blog site, but I haven’t really figured out what I want to use. So I have included a few examples of what I was thinking of using for a logo. After looking at my theme and the logo’s they don’t really match so it might be back to the drawing board. the first and second image are similar but are slightly different. I will have to think of a few more logos/images before I can decide on which one I will use.

Picture of myself turned into cartoon form

Picture of myself turned into cartoon form

Picture of myself turned into cartoon form

So for now I will leave the website the same and when I have a bit more time I will work on a few new idea’s/ concepts that I think will fit well with my current theme and hopefully I will have the new logo/image up in a few weeks.

- Chris

It has been over a month since I have done the one week Twitter experiment, and I am pleased with the results. If you look below you can see the original stats and then the One week later stats.

ChrisMaeder Twitter Stats:

Start of the week

Following – 16
Followers – 5
# of tweets – 22

End of the week
Following – 20
Followers – 7
# of tweets – 44

As you can tell from the above stats not a lot has changed, I ended up following 4 new people and gained two new followers as well as tweeted 22 times in 7 days. In that week I learned tons about twitter and Hash tags as well as if you tweet about celebrities/politics or something popular you are more likely to get followers.

I have had a few questions regarding this experiment one of them being “Do you still use Twitter?”

The answer is yes, since this experiment I have one new follower and have tweeted 26 more times.

Overall I can see twitter being useful for communicating with other people from around the world. A word of advice is, do not swear or be racist or twitter will ban/suspend your account or will restrict it to 18+ years of age. Also I like to tweet and include either a link or a photo of what it is I am tweeting about. I tweet a few times a week and if you have not yet signed up to twitter.com I would suggest it as almost all Celebrities/ singers/ anyone famous is using it and it will keep you up to date with what they are doing when they are not preforming or acting.

- Chris

Before and After Hot Tub Cover

Parts:
2 x 4′x8′ plywood ½ “                              $34
2 x 4′x8′ Styrofoam 2”                            $44
1 gallon Outdoor Primer                      $9 on sale
1 tube of PL300 caulking                     $4
4 x door hinges                                           $8
Total                                                                   $99

Tools:
- Exacto/Utility knife – Scissors
- Pencil / Marker – Paint Brush
- Jigsaw – Caulking gun
- Drill

Step 1:
Take the 2 pieces of ½ “ plywood and place them on top of the hot tub centered and even on both sides. Then trace the hot tub shape onto the plywood with a marker. Remove the plywood from the hot tub and flip the wood over. Get the jig saw and cut out the hot tub shape you just traced onto the plywood.

1/2

Step 2:
Next take a sheet of 2” thick Styrofoam and get one of the pieces of plywood that has been cut. Trace out the shape of the plywood onto the Styrofoam with a marker.Remove the plywood sheet and get out the Exacto knife, extend the blade all the way out so 2.5″-3″ is sticking out of the top. Start cutting the Styrofoam along the line you made with the marker. Make sure you go all the way through the Styrofoam, next get the second sheet of plywood and repeat this step with the Styrofoam again for the other half of the hot tub cover.

Step 3:
Get the can of outdoor primer and shake it well, lay out the ply wood on the ground. Make sure to read the directions on the can for proper use, start painting the plywood sheets that you cut earlier. Once you do one side you will need to do the other side I used a few bricks to lift the plywood off the ground. I also recommend a minimum of 2 coats of outdoor paint since it will have some contact with water.

Cut plywood being primed

Step 4:
Once the paint is fully dried and you have applied at least two coats of paint, get the Styrofoam that you cut to the shape of the plywood sheets. Get the caulking gun and the tube of PL300 (don’t forget to read the directions on the tube) and cut the tip off, apply a even layer around the perimeter of the Styrofoam as well as in the center in a wave pattern. Press the Styrofoam to the plywood for a minute then pull them apart for another minute to let the caulking activate. Now press the plywood and Styrofoam together and make sure it is all lined up. ( Make sure the Styrofoam is right at the edge where the two halves of the cover will meet, as this is a great place for heat to escape. Repeat this process for the other half of the cover and lay them on top of each other for 24 hrs. I also recommend putting some bricks or stones onto of them to make sure they bond well together.

Step 5:
Once the PL300 (caulking) has cured place the two cover halves on top of the hot tub and make sure everything lines up and creates a good seal where the Styrofoam meets the hot tub. Next make sure the two halves are centered in the middle of the hot tub and get the hinges and mark the location where the hinges can freely move without hitting anything. Get the drill and screws and screw one side of the hinges to the cover and line it all up, next make sure the other side is still lined up and screw the hinge down. Repeat this step with the remaining 3 hinges.

Hot tub cover

Hot tub

Step 6:
Open and close the cover making sure it opens without any rubbing.

You now have a complete Hot tub cover.

Results:

The hottest the hot tub reached in the peak of summer here in Canada is 113 degrees.
The hot tub with the cover on would lose 3 degree’s over night( I have a spill over hot tub so some heat lose is due to the spout not fully sealed).

Results may vary,

-Chris

I have been a member of Twitter.com for a few months now, with very few posts so I decided I would twitter everything I am doing throughout the day for one week ( 7 days) .
This idea came to me one day when I noticed a few people had hundreds if not thousands of followers on Twitter and they are not famous or celebrities, so I thought I would try it for a week and see what happens. Most likely I won’t see any difference other then I will know how Twitter works and be able to manage my Tweets a little bit better then I have in the past.

I started the week of Twitter on Monday September 13th 2010 and will go until Sunday September 19th.

ChrisMaeder Twitter Stats:

Following – 16
Followers – 5
# of tweets – 22

So come back and check back in 7 days and see what I have found out from this experiment.

- Chris

So stick around and see the new posts and changes that are going to happen.

-Chris

I thought I would post about Brands and some information on them. For a while now I have been throwing the idea around of starting a brand i.e. shirts, hats,hoodies etc… but it turns out it is a lot harder then I thought. I have made a few shirts and a couple of them turned out quite well, while others were a waste of time and materials. That is only the start to the problem, coming up with a name is one of the hardest things to do unless you use your last name or a nickname, next is making sure nobody else already had registered the name you have picked. After that is sorted out trying to get your brand established (after of course finding a supplier for the shirts/hats/sweaters and a printing company to print all your products) is one of the toughest things unless a famous person decides to wear it or show it off it can take months if not years to get your brand out in the public. Lots of terrible brands have come and gone but only the smartest ones adapt to style changes and stay fresh and make people want to buy,wear the product.

The next thing to think about is are you good enough to make your own designs or do you have to hire somebody to design your Brand. Most people can come up with a few dozen design idea’s but you literally need thousands of ideas to keep your brand moving forward and stay on top of the latest trends and fashions.

I read an article recently that stated now is the hardest time for a new company to come into any market and sell a product, 20 years ago we didn’t have the internet to flood the market with Chinese knock-offs as well as all the traditional media’s were still in place. Meaning 30 second TV commercials on only a hand full of channels, magazine ad’s, and radio ads, now a days we have over 500 channels to chose so most likely they will not watch your commercial. Back then we didn’t have niche specific magazines only a hand full of magazines for large audiences so advertising in a sports magazine was simple, but now with thousands of magazines to choose from how do you know which one is the best for you. With the introduction of satellite radio many people don’t even have to listen to commercials since it is now commercial free radio. So it is definitely a difficult barrier to pass.

That is just a few of the hurdles someone would have to overcome in order to get their product into the market place. The best thing to do is make a few of them show your friends wear the product and just self promote, create a website to sell the product and start low key, don’t go out and rent retail space buecause most likely you will be closed within a few months.

Hopefully this is helpful information and might inform you about branding. Keep checking back and within a few weeks I should have a few pictures of the shirts I have made in the past as well as some of the new ones I am currently working on.

- Chris