awesomefied news, although a bit bizarre

[Jonathan]

My aunt in London has been a fan of my websites, videos, photos, etc for a while. I don't really think any of them are that great, but I guess it's the only way she can connect with me from across the ocean, so she's really supportive of it. Well, early this morning (*really* early this morning; she forgets the time difference sometimes), she called me and gave me quite a shock. She informed me that she is giving me $2,000! Yes, she is fairly wealthy, although I didn't really think she had enough money to be giving it away like that. The thing is, she is making me sign an agreement that I will only use the money for working on my websites, and I have to spend it within a year! So, needless to say, I guess I'd better get to work. If anyone has any big budget ideas for websites, I'm willing to listen.

[radial]

whootah congrats!!!!

Hmmm with that kind of money, maybe buy a new video camera? Purchase additional bandwidth.. hire some hot models to promote the site... have a contest with the members of carowindsconnection and use some of it as a prize? maybe make them send something in, like a good story about Carowinds. Or pictures or something.

Good luck, I cant seem to get anyone to submit anything to whootah. Ive just put up another request a few days ago, and so far no responses.

*sigh*

[bgwfreak777]

I'm thinking of bandwith as well.

More videos and such like that.

How much does a server cost?

[radial]

Well I'm not sure about Carowinds Connections, but i can tell you about whootah costs.

Each month we are alloted a specific amount of storage space and bandwidth. When people download our videos, it eats up that bandwidth. Of course the videos take up storage space, thats why we have to compress them to a smaller size to save on space. I'd really like to be able to put larger videos on the site, but the space limitations prevent that. When we put out new videos it seems everyone in the world just has to have them, our bandwidth explodes! Especially this month. We have put about 7 or so new videos on the site this month alone! We have to pay per megabyte that we transfer over our allotment. You can imagine all these factors end up not being cheap at all.

It's really starting to eat at my personal financial situation. With all the videos we're working on and plan to add very soon, we may have to remove some of the older videos from the site. I really hate to do that... but we'll see

[JamminJ]

^Just do what everyone else does and sell a DVD.. weren't yall going to do that eventually anyway?

Congrats on the good news Jon.. I don't have any ideas though.. maybe hire someone actually willing to do your work for you since procrastination is too much to overcome. I know thats the case for my website.. perhaps even better.. use the money to go to more parks to take pictures and video and thus add them to your already large jonathan-hawkins.net collection.

[AMartin777]

Na Jay. I don't ever want to get into the DVD thing! Whew, PIA! But, like Phil said, it can get pricey at times to deal with the bandwith each month.

I just wish that people would send more interactive stuff (songs, videos, poems, whatever) instead of just watching the videos. Although, that is fine and I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from doing so.

Jon, maybe you should consider using the money to expand your site into new areas. Like, maybe set up another domain specifically related to your coaster videos or something like that?

[Barbara554]

Pretty wild news about your Aunt. Maybe you could use the cash to get a new camera, or expand your website.