well th trick to anything new is the second and third post and so on. hope this one lives up to the faith shown by all my friends. thanks, max Blind Student and Teacher: The story begins

Blind Student and Teacher: The story begins: my story begins Hello again; With any big venture, its never how you start but how you finish. You have to continue to show up and give y...

hello; this is a new blog started by my friend chelsea stark to celebrate blind and visually impaired people all over the world who do their part to inspire and motivate others just by being who they are. I hope you will visit the blog, read a post, share an article, leave a comment, etc. and if you are blind, then I highly recommend your participating by submitting a bio and at least one article about your life. thanks and take care, Max Blind All Around the World: My name is Maxwell Ivey Jr and I am a totally bli...

Blind All Around the World: My name is Maxwell Ivey Jr and I am a totally bli...: Hello; My name is  Maxwell Ivey Jr  and I am a totally blind gentleman sharing my stories.  I have two blogs now one about the amusemen...

nofears: Think I'm ready to be an inspiration

nofears: Think I'm ready to be an inspiration: think I'm ready to b an inspiration Hello; Today, I am writing the first post for my new blog, and I'll admit that I'm scared...

Six steps to a safe bounce house party

Hello again; Today, I want to address the recent story about three kids in New York who were injured when the bounce house they were playing in took flight. I want to use this occasion to instruct people on the safe operation of a bounce house. A children's party should be a happy event.

Some facts

The bounce house in question was a little tyke's toy model purchased by one of the parents living in the apartment complex where it had ben set up. They had used the unit several times with no incidents. However, the unit appears to have ben staked down with six inch plastic stakes that were insufficient for the weather conditions they had on that day. Th stakes generally used for a commercial inflatable are 18 inches long and made out of strong metal. They are routinely driven at least half way into the ground, but the freak winds experienced on that day may have still resulted in the moonwalk becoming airborne.

Types of rental companies

There are two basic types of inflatable rental companies. There are full service and self service. In general the self service bounce house rentals are operated out of a party planning store and offer only bounce houses. They will let you pick up the inflatable and trust you to operate it safely and then return it when you are through. The other full service party rental companies will generally offer all kinds of inflatables such as obstacle courses, competitive games, and slides both wet and dry. They will insist on delivering the units to your location or an approved park location, setting them up, and instructing you on the proper use of their equipment. They may even insist on leaving at least one person to supervise the party. Obviously having the items delivered to your home means they will be more expensive to rent. I know in this tight economy everyone is trying to save money wherever they can, but I would strongly encourage you to rent from professionals who will know how to avoid most potential problems.

Should you own a bounce house

Many of you have probably thought about how you could save a lot of money if you just bought your own bounce house. I'm sure that often families or groups of neighbors have thought about pooling their money and buying one to share. I'm not going to tell you not to. I'm just going to give you a few things to think about. And later I'll give you a safety check list. If you are going to buy one, then first check with your home owner's association or land lord to make sure that it will not violate any contractual agreements. Next, check to see what your insurance policy says about injuries that occur on your property or at your residence. Then, be sure to purchase a commercial grade inflatable to provide the maximum level of safety and enjoyment. You can often purchase these from local bounce house companies who are often eager to sell older units as they are under constant pressure to have the latest themed bouncers. You may also purchase a new one from any of the many inflatable manufacturers. But be sure to purchase items made or sold by companies in your state or province. Companies that sell in your hom country will be more able to insure that your item conforms with all the latest safety regulations. I would be happy to consult with you on the purchase of new or used inflatables.

Safety check list

Hi; this video is from my friend sebasteon. He is a body builder and fitness rock star. I think you will enjoy his take on whether or not there are good and bad foods. thanks for watching his video, max Is Nutella Bad? | Shots Of Insight

weekly meet up may 28 2014 new rides, indiegogo rewards and a special guest

Hello again; Last night we had another of my weekly video chats concerning the amusement industry and topics related to my efforts to help people sell their equipment. We discussed new additions to the website along with my plans for the upcoming Indiegogo campaign to fund taking the youtube show out on the road. And thanks to my friend Adrienne Smith stopping by, it was one of our best events so far.

Where to find the hangout videos

If you want to see last night's show, then you can click either of the links below.

http://youtu.be/7_E6-oo7N3o

I want to remember to thank Mitchell Walker for continuing to help out by moderating the hangouts. And I want to include a link to his crowd sourcing campaign. He is raising money to start an internet radio station. You can get the details by going to his site www.roguegeeks.com or to the campaign page at http://www.gofundme.com/94fpl8 Mitchell is one of the good guys. I'm not going to say I couldn't do the hangouts without him, but I know I wouldn't want to.

Indiegogo rewards for contributions

updating hangouts, a new logo, +planning for Indiegogo campaign

Hello again; I wanted to update you on the progress of my google hangouts the creation of a new logo, and the launch of an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for taking the youtube show on the road.

 

Google Hangouts Status

 

The one thing I have learned about google hangouts is that I am still learning. For the past month I had been struggling with the process of starting the hangout and inviting the people on my list who have asked to participate. At first, I thought this was solely caused by a change in the screen you use when logging into a hangout. After three weeks I discovered that I was responsible or at least partly so. I heard an alert from my screen reader about drop box. It reminded me that I use a plug in on my site that routinely backs up my website to drop box. It does this at a pre determined time every week. And yes you guessed it, I had accidentally set the time for this back up to the same time as the hangouts. My computer just couldn't handle the combined strains of a video call, system back up, and a screen reader. After reseting the back up to midnight like it should be, last week's show started much more smoothly. It only took me about two minutes to have the session live and the guests invited. I am just happy I figured it out.

 

Sharing Images And Videos

 

I do have some good news to share. Thanks to help from my friend and hangout regular Chelsea Stark I learned how to share my screen with people during a hangout. This means that I can now share images and even videos from my computer with the audience and have them become part of the video call. They are then included when the hangout is backed up to youtube for later viewing. The instructions were pretty straight forward, but given my experience with Google; I didn't want to try it without practicing first. So Chelsea joined me in a regular hangout to practice. In addition to telling me what she was seeing on her end, she also made suggestions as to what files were good enough to share online. She also explained to me about making sure videos were set to play in full screen. It didn't work perfectly when i did it online, but it did work. And now I feel confident I can share media during the hangouts. I plan to use this to discuss equipment or share interviews with the audience. In the next section I'll tell you how we used this in the process of coming up with a new site logo.