The Flesh Eating Masses Are Hungry!

So coming soon is going to be a huge revamp on Buy Zombie. The BZ is getting a new layout that is going to allow for a lot more flexibility with the website. We’re going to be adding a TON of new features over the next 6 months, be able to easier reward our readers, have it easier to run contests, AND lower the clutter on the website.

How are we doing that? Well a MUCH cleaner layout that’ll allow for easier navigation is what it boils down to. We’re merging a lot of the ‘sections’ of the website into 4 primary categories (everything else will still be in sub categories) but with this centralized interface it’s going to make everything a LOT easier to get to. On top of this we are going to be redoing how reviews can be accessed as they are one of the larger draws on the site so we’re making multiple ways to navigate through them (again from a centralized area.)

New Features

• A brand spanking new layout
• A smaller featured post section to easier get to navigation and content
• Larger content area on individual posts so we can easier show off images/videos
• A video feed of the posts we do on our YouTube channel
• More structured and better laid out navigation
• Regular reader rewards
• More contests and at least 1 monthly contest
• Also, a slew of secret features we aren’t mentioning until they go live!

Fun Facts About Buy Zombie

• We have over 30,000 unique hits on an average month
• We have over 68,000 page views on an average month
• We have over 2,200 Twitter fans
• We have over 1,900 Facebook Likes
• We have over 2600 published posts and average 4 posts a day Monday – Friday
• We are 4 years old this coming Saturday
• We have recently celebrated doing our 200′th review
• We have 12 regular writers on our staff

Brain Overload

I wish the above image was true. I’ve actually got a LOT on my plate right now. Outside of work, Leah having a cold, the car hunt, planning ahead on stuff, I have a LOT on my plate. I have to admit though I love having time at work to decompress a little and actually write a post like this. It’s a nice break from all of the writing I HAVE done today that I needed to do (and you know… the day job.)

Writing

I currently have 1 short story to finish, 5 entries to submit for a writing project I’ve been working on and have fallen behind on, and about 8 reviews to write (and that’s only of what I’ve read and seen lately – that doesn’t include the 10 movies and about 20 books sitting around the house.)

Working

Well I have a lot to write in general but I also have a lot to write for my regular sites such as Buy Zombie and Horror Episodes. On top of this I need to work out some of my project ideas that are almost ready for launch.

Thinking

I have a LOT to think about (but not a lot of time to do it) which includes such things as: getting my finances in order, future short stories, what I want to do with the longer stories I plan on writing by myself or with others, and the projects I have in mind that are not yet launched.

Planning

Speaking of the projects I haven’t launched they need to be fully planned out. Conceptually I need to get the ones that are on auto-pilot or nearly so up first and get some advertising going. Hell I need to get some advertising going for the current sites. Also I need to figure out staffing for the sites that will need more then just me working on them. Again, there is a LOT to do and little time to do it.

Organizing

Aside from all of the planning I have above I have to organize all of that as well as what I currently have in place.

Good Morning… Even Though It Is The Afternoon…

This is going to be a busy week. So busy I can taste it. I’m running a little low on energy from working a 6 day week last week and am currently pushing through work one hour at a time.

There is a LOT in the works right now. As the house is starting to creep closer to being done. So close I can see the finish line (at least of the first major stage of touch ups) it’s as if my mind has gone into overdrive on what I WANT to get completed as well as a slew of new ideas to toss into the mix.

That being said there are 3 projects (blog, searching, shirts) I have had on the back burner that were all just viciously thrown towards the front, a potential new project that came out of no where that sounds very interesting (publishing), content to be created (Buy Zombie, Horror Episodes), features to be added to existing websites (Buy Zombie), and a short story to attempt (a charitable anthology). All of this while still keeping Leah happy, working on the house, planning ahead on other online commitments, working the day job, AND keeping Buy Zombie updated.

I really think I need about 12 artists and 20 writers with a ton of free time to help out with logos and a few other things. I don’t see that happening though.

Did I bite off more then I can chew? Doubtful! It’s all been brewing for quite some time now and a lot of it just clicked the last couple of days. We’ll see how things go and I’ll probably have a few medium to large updates on everything I just mentioned above in the upcoming couple of weeks!

…at least that’s what I take from it

While some, specifically Leah, may argue my intelligence no one can argue my obsession on things that interest me. Hopefully this whole moving process will be fully settled down by the end of the week (feels as if it should be) as I’ve been falling behind on working on the things that I love. I’ve been keeping Buy Zombie updated fortunately but everything I was working towards past that: projects, writing, etc – have been temporarily put on hold.

I hate spending time writing complaining about it when I want to be working on any of them but while I’m at the day job I just don’t have time to right now and at home I’ve been either busy with move related ‘stuff’ or I’ve been needing to rest. Maybe I can go back to giving up on sleep but I think I just need a few more days to stabilize everything so I can kick back into my work groove.

End Of The Week Roundup: 05/21/10

“Anyone can see… nothing really mattress… nothing really mattress… to me…” I really have to get rid of my bed and current mattress soon. It’s the only portion of the move that I don’t have at least a vague idea of how I’m dealing with quite yet. At any rate – project wise I didn’t actually do all that much this week as I’ve been rather busy prepping for the move and just spending time with friends and family.

Life

• Brunch with Leah’s family
• Leah and I Furniture shopping with Brad, and Ana – Couch is decided upon followed by lunch at Goose Island
• Brunch with Brad and Ana
• Cubs game with Leah, Lori, and Paul (4-3 Go Cubs!)
• Started packing for the move *GASP!*
• Dinner with the parents as I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to them this week
• Worked with Ana on getting a few ideas for my office sorted out
• Found out the max speed of U-Verse at my new place is apparently 24meg. Yum!
• Due to a broken update at work I am having 9-10 hour days at work to end out the week!

Projects

• Added a Horror Base Project Listing to iScream Productions.
• Added a iscreamproductions.com/projects/zombie-base/” target=”_blank”>Zombie Base Project Listing to iScream Productions.
• Half done with the new Shiny Swine layout

Media

• Tried to watch The Dark Lurking.It’s rare that a movie is so bad that I can’t give it a half hour, specially when it’s “scifi horror”
• Watched Alice in Wonderland
• Watched The Graves
• Watched The Hamiltons
• Watched I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle
• Watched Live Evil
• Watched The Morgue
• Watched Surviving Evil

And Makes Us All Hate Mondays Once Again

So another week of the work begins though this time I am running a little light on a couple things – what I want to accomplish AND judging by the picture above.. caffeine! While I want to get a few things done project wise I have to at least feign starting on the whole thought process of moving. (Phrasing it that way is going to get me smacked…)

So what DO I want to get going aside from a few plans for moving and general chores? There’s really only two things on my list so we’ll see if they are doable:

• Get Above The Pants going with Byron
• Come out with a new Shiny Swine layout as that got put off last week.

That’s really not a lot. After last week’s list this is profoundly smaller on goals I want to do but the tasks are quite a bit longer so while there is a good chance one of the two above will get knocked out it is highly unlikely both will. I have a few maybes to add to the list as well but realistically they won’t be worked on until next week at this point. I’m a bit sapped on energy for this cold and after a fun and busy weekend the start of the work week is going to go painfully slow.

End Of The Week Roundup: 05/07/10

Today was a week of writing content, working long hours, relaxing due to being woken up early from work, being harassed for missing a film festival, and in general just trying to stay awake. I believe I was woken up early from work every day this last week aside from this morning. One month and a week down, 3 weeks to go!

Life

• Went to see Clash of the Titans with Leah
• Leah and I went out for dinner and drinks with Brad and Ana so Leah and Ana could work out house details
• Found a new Doctor, hopefully this one will cure my disease! (see: permanent stuffy nose)
• Also found Doctor Who Seasons 1-4, probably won’t cure my disease but may help cure boredom
• There is a rumor at work that my shift will soon be changing. I am not sure how I feel about this

Projects

• Fixed how the iScream Productions Projects Page to have the images link properly
• Updated the “History” sections for the two projects currently listed on the iScream Productions Projects Page
• Matt and I have been talking, The Shiny Swine may return
• Byron made a new header logo for Zombie Base which is a side project to show off zombie news from what I consider the major zombie sites. At least the ones that have RSS feeds

Media

• Watched the little known super hero movie – Defendor. Harrelson in one of his best non-Zombie related roles yet
• Watched Class of the Titans with Leah. It was kind of like Clash of the Titans until I made a typo and turned it into an origin movie similar to the upcoming X-Men:First Class
• Watched American Zombie, not as entertaining as I had read it would be
• Watched Tony, for a serial killer flick it had great build up but I felt the end fell flat

End Of The Week Roundup: 04/30/10

Another week and another update of what’s been going on in my life. One thing I would like to add in as it didn’t really fit into any of these categories is a severe lack of sleep. Today I must nap when I get home from work. Somehow I doubt that this will actually happen as I’m sure I’ll get distracted with either working ahead on projects, a movie, or video games.

Life

• Able to spend a few days in a row with Leah
• Dinner with the parents
• A family birthday party for my father and grandfather
• My summer tires are now on the Bimmer. Win.
• New brakes are not yet on the Bimmer and are squeaky as all hell. Fail.

Projects

• Met with Rose‘s boss, Argentina Leyva for some SEO and SMO consultation.
• Updated the iScream Productions Twitter Page.
• Updated the Buy Zombie Twitter Page.
• Updated the Horror Episodes Twitter Page.
• Had Byron update the logo for Horror Episodes so that it blended into the site.
• Had Byron fix the iScream Productions logo at the bottom of Horror Episodes so that it blended into the site.
• Created a Link Page for Horror Episodes.
• Finished the main rough draft of the About Pages for iScream Productions
• Received my business cards for iScream Productions

Media

• Caught up on 24
• Caught up on House

My Writing

• QUOTE: Amazon quoted my Buy Zombie Review for The Zombie Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Living Dead on their Editorial Reviews.

End Of The Week Roundup: 04/16/10

This is the second week in a row I’ve been working on trying to keep part of this blog actually as a journal. I’m hoping to end doing a monthly (or every 2 month) review of what I’ve been up to and try to actually keep this updated. Let’s see how long that lasts! Honestly the main reason I want to keep this up is to is because if I have nothing to post under project updates it means I’ve really done nothing. Nothing at all and this is completely unacceptable.

Life

• Leah bought a house! More details soonish!
• Leah also washed my car and filled up the tank. Yes, I’m Happily Spoiled.
• My new Blackberry came in and I love it.
• I found out Worms 2 was released on the 360?! How the hell did I miss that?

Projects

• Progress was made on the iScream Productions Website. More content written and artwork done. Still needs more content, art, and legal documents to be finalized
• I have sadly not had the time to finish the broken code in Link Zombie to launch it quite yet, I believe a full reinstall may be needed.
• Content is prepped for Horror Episodes and just needs art to finalize.
• I’ve come up with a brilliant new idea for content distribution that I need to look into.
• I have a new contributor for Buy Zombie that lives in the UK (hello easier access to UK based interviews and review copies!)
• Met a new author on Twitter, Robert R. Best , who has a zombie book out called Lakewood Memorial that he is sending in to review.

Media

In theory I’m getting rid of my huge monthly posts and wrapping up everything I do each week now. In theory. So this has a few things that I didn’t just watch but for the most part this is my most recently film/book/gaming consumption.

• MOVIE: The Man from Earth
• MOVIE: Cop Out
• MOVIE: Blood Creek (Scary Movies Review)
• MOVIE: Attack Of The Vegan Zombies (Buy Zombie Review)
• MOVIE: From Paris With Love
• TV: Dead Wood Season 1-2
• Books: The Zombie Combat Manual (Buy Zombie Review)
• 360: Worms
• 360: Modern Warfare 2

My Writing

• REVIEW: BuyZombie: The Zombie Combat Manual
• REVIEW: BuyZombie: ZomBlog
• REVIEW: Scary Movies: Paranormal Activity

…Until Something Interesting Happens

So with being back from the vacation, I’ve been trying to catch up on work, projects, life, the universe, and everything… I don’t have a lot but I can toss you a few random updates to kill time today. Also I figured with the slew of mainly graphical posts I should actually write an update on life for a change. I’m not doing one of my usual updates of covering everything with media just a quick one on life and projects.

Life

• There may soon be big news soon on Leah’s house hunting! Which could mean other news..
• Refinancing my Auto loan is a PITA but I can’t stand Delaware Place Bank’s inability to send me certain forms I’ve requested over 10 times. Bonus: Refinancing looks as if it will save me money as well.
• I have put an order for a Blackberry Bold 9700, 3G baby! (Wish I could change providers and brands.)
• The next two weekends are birthday weekends for my father and grandfather respectively.
• Clothing Sales at Gap and AE are hurting my bank account and closet space. Sadly mostly with new polos for work.
• While the last couple days weren’t great out I’ve had the top down on the Bimmer multiple times which makes me love driving that much more!
• It feels like I have something close to 100 movies to watch and review.
• Thank God, Satan, Fate, Cthulhu, The 7 Day Work Week, who or whatever floats your boat – IT’S FRIDAY!

Projects

• iScream Productions – My central company is almost fully registered AND the website only needs a few graphics before it goes live
• Buy Zombie – Up 2000 unique hits over the past month. Over 18,000 uniques and over 75,000 total page views!
• Buy Zombie – Has broken 1,000 fans on Twitter!
• Buy Zombie – Has broken 300 fans on Facebook!
• Horror Episodes is almost complete. I just need to add more content and change the logo and it’ll officially launch!
• Link Zombie Is Coming! Just needs 1 piece of coding fixed and you will find out more!