rolling out the merch
I've been kind of miserable these past few days because, with the onset of this nice warm spring weather, my annual seasonal allergies have also dropped into town to say hi, like a rude, unwelcome guest who eats all your food and leaves your bathroom a mess. I made Joe write me a script for Zyrtec, so we'll see if that helps.
The movie last night was fun. The moral of the story was: don't clone your kid and intersplice the Evil gene. Because as we learned from Greg Kinnear, this could have some seriously bad consequences. Also, don't walk into a haunted-looking tool shed filled with axes and meathooks if you suspect that the aforementioned evil clone child is lurking inside. That's just logic, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (soon to be just Romijn). But these things aside, go see the movie, everyone! Support Andy's brother! And if you should have the urge to yell "Bullshit!" during the credits, as one fine gentleman in the audience did last night, just keep it to yourself. (Maybe he was just mad that it was over?)
In other news, I am learning valuable lessons about bandwidth. See, what I learned is this: bandwidth is the amount of information that I can transmit from my page to your computer. Every time someone looks at something on my page, this chips away at my monthly allotted bandwidth. And with the advent of the recent successes of "Scutmonkey" (thanks, everyone!) I recently had to pay for some more bandwidth--mainly to accomodate the ten to fifteen-fold increase in traffic over what I've been used to for the past three and a half years of keeping The Underwear Drawer. Which is fine, it was just a small upgrade, and I'm glad to pay for it. Except that a week after I upgraded (just a week, mind you), I exceeded my maximum bandwidth again. I exceeded my monthly maximum in a week. Hmm. This is bad news.
I mean, don't get me wrong, it's good news, I'm glad people are enjoying the page and the comics and all that. But after that initial upgrade, it becomes very expensive to support this little hobby of mine. When I started the Underwear Drawer, the webpage service (offered through Homestead) was free. Then, after about a year, the price increased to something like $25 annually. No sweat, even for the med student I was at the time. Then, insidiously, the annual fee was increased to $82. Well, by this point, I had been keeping the page for years, I wasn't just about to scrap it all, so OK. Then, recently, with the debut of "Scutmonkey" and upgrading my package due to increased traffic demands, $135 a year. Still OK. But now, with the bandwidth demands, in order to keep my main page up and running (as opposed to showing an error message "Page Not Found" every time someone tries to access The Underwear Drawer), I'm looking on the order of maybe $400 a year. I may have a job, but I'm just an intern, and I don't get paid terribly well for the hours, so $400 is still a lot of money to me.
So here's the pitch. I already upgraded my package to support additional bandwidth, but I'm looking for some outside sources to help subsidize The Underwear Drawer and it's much more popular younger cousin, "Scutmonkey." I have opened up a store with fun merch through cafepress.com, where you can buy all manner of Scutmonkey gear, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, lunchboxes, messenger bags, what have you. They're fun and relatively non-advertisey, so it's not like you have to walk around with a URL plastered around your chest or anything.
In addition, as a bit of fun for the med student crowd (or their friends), I have created a seperate line of merch just based on the "12 Types of Med Students" comic. You can either get a t-shirt with the whole comic printed on front, or decide which one of the 12 Med Student types you are and get a custom t-shirt just highlighting that type. Decide which one you are and wear it loud and proud! It's fun! And if anyone wants to e-mail me pictures of them wearing their "Scutmonkey" t-shirts, I will happily post it online to utilize the bandwidth towards which you contributed. So please, look around, see what you like, and if there's a design you would like to see on a type of merchandise you don't already see featured in the shop, (frisbee, trucker hat, sticker, travel mug), please let me know, because I am more than open to suggestion. Thanks, everyone, for your help!
And now, just so I don't close on my solicitation for fundage, a little anniversary update. Tonight is our Anniversary Observed (much like how we always celebrate MLK on a Monday, even if his birthday is on a Wednesday or something), so I have to get all gussied up for our Spanish dinner of mystery and romance. Except that I'm really tired and I won't be able to put in my contact lenses because of my allergies, and all my makeup will rub off in the first five minutes of us leaving the house because of me blowing my nose so much. Also, no perfume, and I'll probably fall asleep during the main course because antihistamines and wine do not do a body good. So I guess I won't really be that gussied. But at least I showered.
Currently reading: "Drinking, a Love Story". We got it free from the Addiction Counseling office in med school, and wouldn't you know, it's pretty good.
Support The Underwear Drawer! Shop at The Scutmonkey Store
