A new approach to on-line marketing

It's time. John's Photography needs to grow. After hours of bookreading and internet jockeying, I'm ready to build a website.

A few months ago, I made my first attempt at putting my biz on the web by creating johnsphotographysd.blogspot.com. Yes, that's (John's Photography - ' + sd.) It's a tough domain even for me to remember, it's a free blog based on a free template and it's what I like to call a "one-page wonder." If professional photography sites are Cadillacs, this thing is a tricycle. I'm gonna do something about it.

Like any aspiring amateur, I've got ideas. Where do they come from? They derive mostly from caffienated daydreams or from frequent wanderings of the internet. Today, I was in the middle of one of those random internet wanderings and I found a goldmine of inspiration for my future website. This is gonna happen.

Many books on photo business say that many photographers fail because they focus on the wrong things (pardon the pun). I know it sounds cliche, but the most successful photographers run customer-centric businesses that actually give a rip about who buys their stuff. John's Photography is focused on the customers in every way.

Sure, I could create the flashiest, intricately-designed, most interactive theme-park of a web experience for my potential clients, or I could simply and elegantly communicate to them exactly what they want to know.

What questions does the customer silently ask while visiting my website? (my best guesses):

- Does John actually take good photos? (portfolio)

- Who/how/where/what is John? (biography page)

- How does John offer his business? (packages, prices, business model)

- Why should I choose John to take my photos?

- What do I want from my photography? (from the customer's perspective)

- Is John going to be a pain to work with? (a well-designed page of text summed up as "No.")

- How do I pick a photographer in the Brookings area? (I'm gonna help the customer help themselves. Yes, I might actually link to my fellow photogs' websites to give my prospective customers some flavors to taste. This is an (possibly crazy) idea I have to keep me on my toes.)

I want to communicate the above things in a seriously convenient and easy way. I don't want to miss the point with this thing. Getting carried away on my website would create an unwanted effect on the nature and attitude of my photography career. One thing I really don't want my website to refect is the mild narcisism which I've developed through the use of this blog, Facebook and Twitter. After all, unlike those three things, my photography is about the person on the other side of the camera, not me.

By the end of the summer, I hope to have a clean, scalable, simple, effective, informative, satisfying, slick, impressive website for you and your friends to enjoy and re-visit often.

Please feel free to share any ideas, examples, links or comments as I go about renovating the online presence of John's Photography. I can definitely use the help.

Thanks!
John

On the steps of the Campanile

Twenty-two days ago, I asked the most important question I've ever asked to the most important person I will ever meet. Here's how it went down:

So there I was, it was a typical Wednesday afternoon in Brookings. As I walked out of Daktronics at the end of the workday, Stacy walked into Subway for the workevening. I guided my car into the yellow lines in front of my apartment and paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and told my self, "Yep. This is the night. Let's do this."

I immediately put the Green Machine into rewind and headed for the place to which I unconciously head the most whenever I need something: Wal-Mart.

Before I spill the rest of the story, I should provide a little background for you, my valued readers: I'd had a burning diamond in my pocket for over three months beforehand. I knew the style/cut/size she wanted, so I went and got it (by the way, don't go to a jewelry store if you're not sure what you're looking for. Jewelry salespeople are worse than used car salesmen.) The time was finally right, and I was ready.

So, there I was, wandering the toy aisles of good ole' Wally World searching for the last thing that I thought I would ever need: purple sidewalk chalk. Why? Because Stacy likes purple, and John's got something to write.

They didn't have purple, so I settled for a set (box?) with blue and red pieces. (The best $1.05 I've ever spent.)

Stacy had to work until 9, and it was about 8:30, so I scooted over to the Campanile to scribble a question on the eastern steps.

Stacy was done at 9, changed/cleaned up a little, and we went for a typical hey-it's-nice-outside-so-we-should-go-for-a-walk walk. We chatted and giggled about dorky things as usual while I inconspicuously herded Stacy across campus towards the Campanile green. Needless to say, my chest was pounding, and I was f-ing excited.

We eventually started walking counter-clockwise around the Campanile while Stacy was giggling and giving me crap about something. Eventually, she was walking between me and the eastern side of the Campanile. She was not seeing what I brought her there to see, so I stopped.

"What's wrong?" she said as I paused.

"(Cough) umm (cough) there's, uh, there's something over there," I nervously pointed at the steps.

"What?"

"Umm... there's.... something on the.... (cough)...."

(Looks around the Campanile towards Medary.) "I don't get it."

"Uh.... What's on the steps right there?" I made an obvious point directly at what I had written 30 minutes earlier.

She finally shed her confusion as she spotted the red and blue writing on three steps of the Campanile:


Stacy, Will you marry me? (heart) John

As she internalized the message, I fumbled and struggled to get the ring out of my jacket pocket and nearly lost my (very loseable) balance as I got down on one knee.

She turned around with her hand over her mouth, repeating "Oh my gosh... Oh my gosh... This is happening." Her suprised eyes met my nervous/tearing eyes.

"Will you marry me?" (Voice cracking with emotion.)

Before I could say "me," she blurted out a hearty "Yes!" and I proceeded to try and put the ring on her right hand.

"No, it's supposed to go on the left," and then she let out a small but cute I'm-smarter-than-my-struggling-boyfriend giggle (I had heard it many times before, but it really melted my heart this time). I finally managed to wiggle the ring onto her finger, and we hugged the hug of hugs.

I then produced the red chunk of sidewalk chalk from my other jacket pocket (I didn't want it to get all over the ring) and wrote "She said YES!!!" below the message to inform any curious passers-by of the outcome.

We basked for about 30 minutes sitting on top of my sidewalk-chalked message in the most memorable moment either of us has ever experienced. Neither of us could stop smiling.

As our butts began to get numb from pressure of the limestone step beneath them, we decided to call the moms and the grandmas to spill the news.

That's how it happened. I'm ready to spend more than the rest of my life with this girl, who is also my best friend, and the most talented giggler I've ever met.

Thanks for reading,

John

I'm back.

Life afforded me the motivation and time to do this, so I'm blogging for the first time in about six weeks. It feels good to be back.

Well, since my last post, I've come up with a lot of ideas and topics to talk about, so I'll just do a quick overview of thoughts for this post. I don't want to bore the crap out of everybody. These will all be their own posts:

1. I'm engaged. I asked Stacy to marry me on May 20, and she said yes. Yes. This is cause for a nice long blog post in the near future. Stay tuned.

2. I've been tweeting. A lot. Follow me: http://www.twitter.com/johnnelson1

3. I moved into a new apartment. I'm flying solo. It's delicious. Pics to come soon.

4. I made Stacy a blog for her birthday. (I think she likes it!) http://stacykiecker.blogspot.com/

5. The development of and news from John's Photography.

6. How to get the camera out of the bag. A personal story.

Thanks for reading!
John

Do you worry about crap?

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." - Charles R. Swindoll

I work in a very large and grey-walled office amongst a sea of cubicles. People email me, call me and occasionally visit me in person to give me crap to do.

Sometimes, this pile of crap gets really big. It happened the other day, and I got stressed. It sucked. Instead of simply focusing on my work, I became angry at my situation. My ears turned red, my eyes itched and I couldn't think about anything but the fact that I had a lot of crap to do.

Then, I remembered something.

As long as I would just do what I had to do, I would be fine. I didn't really know what I was worrying about. I get paid to deal with crap, so I dealt with it, and everything turned out fine.

Humans are interesting creatures. Not only because we live around habits, but we constantly measure ourselves and our lives and then we worry about those measurements. We judge things (even when our religion tells us not to), we see things and react to them.

So, when there's a pile of work to do in front of us, we tend to fret about it before doing it. In the face of challenges, we worry that we won't measure up, we worry about what other people will think of us if we fail.

When I first heard "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." - I didn't agree with it, but that was when my life revolved around measuring myself to others' standards. Today, most of my friends would probably tell you that I'm a generally laid-back person. I don't appear to be excited when I actually am (which can be a bad thing), and I don't worry about a lot of the things that people measure themselves with. I relax a lot. The truth is, I'm not a normal person, but who is?

So, what do I believe about worrying? I think it's the only way that most people can confront their challenges in life, but I believe worrying blows things out of proportion and causes unneeded stress. Worrying skews our perception of our challenges. I don't need to worry to get stuff done, but I still do it because I'm human.

As a photographer, I'm familiar with people and how they see things. When I'm behind the camera, I get to see a lot of expressions and reactions. I notice little things, little quirks, and I learn from them. Sometimes, when I'm photographing nervous, despairing subjects, I help them relax by simply talking to them to get their minds off of themselves, to get them to stop measuring themselves for a moment. I've discovered that the reason people don't like being photographed is because they think that the camera is measuring them. They worry about being too pasty or too chubby. If you're one of these people, you need to understand that people will appreciate a photo of you just as much as they appreciate seeing you in person. Trust your photographer to bring out the best in you. The memories and feelings that people get when they see the photo are what really matters (this is another future blog post topic).

I'm definitely not an over-achiever by any means, but I do know that the only thing between where you are now and where you want to be is in yourself. Getting stuff done can be difficult, but only because we preconceive that it is going to be difficult. If you expect something to suck, it's gonna suck. But if you expect something to get done, you have to stop, recognize what's in front of you, relax and do it.

Thanks for reading.

-John

The Martin Schoeller close-up portrait

In the last few months, I've found several pieces of literature, ads, magazine articles/covers and even books with these interesting close-up facial portraits in them. I picked up an edition of Esquire the other day at Hy-Vee (home of the greatest Chinese food in SD) and found an interesting article containing more of these close-up, slightly creepy yet not-quite-a-mugshot facial portraits. The photos are the work of a professional photographer named Martin Schoeller.

Mr. Schoeller has photographed thousands of celebrities using this same technique with two strobe lights and a shallow depth of field.

So, after closely studying a few of Shoeller's famous faces, I decided to take a crack at the method. I talked my roommates into letting me get uncomfortably close to their mugs with my 50mm. The main challenge of making this style of portrait is to create an interesting facial closeup without letting it look like a mugshot in a poorly-lit hallway. After about 10 minutes of shooting, and a few minor touch-ups in PhotoShop, I came up with these two portraits (click for full-size view):










































I photographed Matthew (top) first and Brett second. You might notice that the white balance has been slightly adjusted in each photo. Although they are identical in composition, they each have a unique feel because of the difference in white balance. I used a wider aperture in the first photo, which gave it a shallower depth of field and a slightly overexposed look. You can spot this difference by looking at the blurriness of their ears. The second challenge was to get the strobes in just the right position. Too far outside and I had too much shadow, too close to center and they would blow out the facial definition. I also wanted to get the circular catch-lights on each side of their pupils.

Overall, I had a lot of fun trying out my new studio equipment with my roommates. It was nice to try something new. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Links:

Martin Schoeller on Wikipedia
Martin Shoeller on/in Esquire
www.martinshoeller.com (a very cool website)

Twitter is my friend.

About a month ago, a sudden impulse compelled me to start using my previously-neglected Twitter account. Maybe it was my friends talking about it, maybe it was all the media attention, whatever. I started, and now I cant stop.

I think many people avoid Twitter because they don't understand it. Besides gambling, people only buy into things when they know what to expect in return. Twitter and the concept behind it can be overwhelming, but the difficult part of the learning curve is surprisingly short.

After about a month of tweeting, I've realized that the two most exciting things about Twitter, for me, are it's inherent functionality and it's casual concept.

I'm growing up. Work currently confines me to gray-walled cubicles for 40+ hours per week. I don't make the daily journey to campus anymore. I don't see nearly as many people in one day as I did when I was a student. It's not that I purposefully isolate myself - I'm just physically separated from my old environment. Anyway, my friends are still my friends, and Twitter helps me stay connected with them.

I currently follow 51 peeps, and they're all different. They all have taken at least slightly different approaches to the "Big T." Some describe what they are eating, some post useful links, some post funny links, some complain about their hangovers, some promote themselves or their business. My point here is that I love the variety, and I hope the Tweets on my homepage stay as diverse as they are today.

My current Twitter research involves its role in my photo business. I'm not sure how I'm going to pull it off, but like any small business owner/capitalist pig, I want to take advantage of Twitter to market and sell my photography service.

My advice for people who are where I was about a month ago: the only way you're going to understand Twitter is to sign up and start using it. Dive in.

Follow me: @johnnelson1

Thanks for reading!
John

John's Photography = Authentic

My parents blessed me with an extremely normal name - Johnathon Roger Nelson. It makes eyes glaze over and induces yawns.

Lucky for me, the name doesn't make the person.

When I started John's Photography, I wasn't worried about what I would name it. Nor was I concerned with making myself into someone I'm not.

I created John's Photography because I was meant to do so. It is my path.

When I sat down to fill out my tax license application, my heart skipped when I read "Doing business as:" I strolled through several unique and fun names in my head. These names might have worked. I have several talented and passionate photographer friends who started successful businesses with very interesting and fitting names.

I, however, chose my own mundane moniker.

Why? Because I want to prove that the name doesn't matter. The name doesn't press the shutter button or Photoshop zits off of faces. The name doesn't earn $1000 just to turn around and spend it on a new lens. The name doesn't trudge through a blizzard to take photos of the Campanile. The name doesn't read textbooks about wedding photography in it's free time. The name doesn't make things work. The name is a name, but I can make it more than that. I want to make my name signify authenticity and noteriety. I want to be my own brand.

Oh brother.

This is Jeff. My unfortunate younger sibling. Blessed with the better Nelson genes, he excels in basketball, MSN Messenger and attracting the ladies with his strawberry blonde hair.

I'm proud to say that he will be joining the Jackrabbit family in the fall of '09. Look out ladies.

One of those moments:

Like most people, I love traveling. I love seeing far-away places. I love the feeling.

Fifteen months ago, a wonderful journey brought me to this spot on Huntington Beach in Southern California. It was the first time I had ever seen the Pacific Ocean.

When I look at this photo, I remember how the first sweeping wave of water surprised my pasty South Dakotan feet, and then traced my heels on its way back into the dark blue abyss.

I don't remember exactly what was going through my mind. Maybe nothing. Sometimes your own thoughts just aren't important. Sometimes you just need to shut up and take it in.

This was one of those moments.

Life... it's like drinking from a fire hose

My Saturdays are relatively dull, so I watch TV and I blog. In the other 6 days, I encounter ideas to blog about. The problem is that I don't write down these ideas, and they escape me.

Every time I sit down at my computer, I ask myself, "What is worth writing about?" or "What would be the most meaningful post today?"

These are impossible questions to answer, so I'll stop trying. There's no need to beat myself up over picking a topic. Blogging should be fun, right?

Now. I've got my frame of mind, and there's some good, wholesome Fighting Swine posts in the near future.

Have a good day,

John

Drink beer? Yes we can.

This one is for all of my crazy, bitter, neo-conservative friends.

I knew that, even before I inked out that little oval on the ballot in November, I had already made the right choice.

This story affirms it.

Amongst the practical qualities of the new President: a likable personality. You gotta love it.

Have a good day,
John

Why reading is good.

In writing my last post, I found some other points in my brainage that I want to throw at you:

One of the many reasons for my love of photography is that it can tell a story without words. As a photographer, I'm a visual person telling visual stories. Photography helps me move and learn ideas and concepts better than I can with a keyboard or pencil. But the written word is still amazingly important.

I often credit Stacy for teaching me to read in college. I've twice learned to read. I'm a slower reader, but she really inspired me to explore reading for my own enjoyment. Her addiction to James Patterson became my own. She's my inspiration in more ways than one.

Advice from John:

1. If you want to learn and develop yourself, read stuff. It takes time, but it's easy. I've realized that, at some point, you have to stop giving excuses and just do it.

2. Public education doesn't always do what it is supposed to do. If you make babies, teach them to read a.s.a.p. so they don't end up with a third-grade reading level in college (I was seriously a slow reader until about 4 years ago. It wasn't fun.). If what I've observed is true, your kids will be much more intelligent, caring, understanding and respected in the long run. It's no news that knowledge is powerful, especially when it is voluntarily learned. By hearing others communicate, your kids will also be able to communicate much more effectively. (One of my ~30-year-old coworkers unknowingly spelled "do" as "due" in an email message to me today, and I've already forgot what the message was about.)

You know what I just realized? You're already reading. Perhaps I'm preaching to the choir. I need to go to bed.

Thanks for reading, in general.

John

What the heck am I doing?

Hey people. Sorry for the absence of posts lately. I've been busy doing nothing. No excuses here. I'm a lazy SOB sometimes.

Although I haven't been writing for a while, I have been reading.

What kind of sick and twisted stuff have I been reading? Here's the master list:

(in order from longest to shortest page count)

1. The Holy Bible: That's right kids. I actually read it. It's good.

2. Digital Wedding Photography by Glen Johnson: Yes, I'm getting into the biz. (Legally, btw.)

3. The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge: This is some seriously deep stuff. I know what you're thinking. I'm not turning into a lush fruitcake. In this case, "romance" stands for the meaningful connection between a person and his/her creator, not "romance" as in mushy Danielle Steel novels. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand and appreciate their connection to God without having to deal with awkward religious confrontations. Very personal, very wholesome.

4. TIME (magazine): I majored in Journalism, so I am one amongst the shrinking number of people who appreciate the hard copy. I read it once a week on Tuesday nights. For those of you who have never read time before, subscribe for $20 a year here. I know you're probably already moving on to number 5, but seriously, you should just suck it up and subscribe to something good and worth reading. If you don't subscribe to TIME, at least get Google Reader. I promise that you won't be disappointed.

5. Popular Photography (magazine): I would guesstimate that every issue has, on average, about 40 tips and tricks for photographers, and ends with about 10 pages of ads which make me drool for equipment I can't afford.

6. Outdoor Photographer (magazine): When I'm not taking photos of people, I'm taking photos that don't put money in my pocket, yet inspire me to subscribe to this magazine. Outdoor, nature, landscape and wildlife photography feed the hobby half of my inner photographer. Sorry for the verbal train wreck in that last sentence.

7. Usually a novel of some sort. I'm currently between Tom Sawyer and about to start Huckleberry Finn. I also read a lot of James Patterson and Dan Brown. By the way: Dan Brown, if you're reading this (he's not), you seriously need to write some more books, man.

That's it folks. I hope you enjoyed this journey through my current literary world.

Thanks for reading,
John

Want to be cool? Get Google Reader.

One of the biggest things I learned about in college, besides journalism itself, but how to understand it and follow it. Here is an awesome way to stay current with your world.

First of all: If you don't know what an RSS feed is, you should. It's a simple thing. Study this.

Second: If you want to be cool, subscribe to RSS feeds. If you want to be especially cool, do it with Google Reader. I personally guarantee that it will make your world much more simple and fun.

Check it out.

If you already use Google Reader, I apologize for my unnecessary preachyness. Here is the official Google Reader Blog.

Have a good day!

When stupid things ruin great moments...

This Rick Warren controversy really bothers me. Lesbians and gays were offended that President Obama chose Warren to pray at the inauguration. Wow. Is the world really ending?

Firstly - Did gays really believe that Obama would pick a gay clergyman to give a prayer during the inaugural celebration? They did? Oh wait, he did do that.

Secondly - Just because we have a new common-sense president doesn't mean that we should become so sensitive again. Things aren't changing that fast. Our country has spent the last eight years in toleration of questionable decisions.

Thirdly - Homosexuals are offended by Warren? Guess what people - those who aren't offended by Warren are probably occaisionally offended by the new President. Get over it.

Fourthly - As far as I know, church and state are still separate, and gay's can rejoice that Rick Warren was not the man with his hand on the Bible that day.

Everybody relax.

What makes an idiot an idiot?

If you don't want to be an idiot, be considerate of others. It's a good rule.

Roommates, coworkers, friends, people in Wal-Mart and even your relatives can be idiots. But I've learned that the first person you don't want to be an idiot is you. Many things can make you an idiot. Being American might make you an idiot- depending on the perception. From every point of view, we're all idiots.

Here is a list of things that might make you look like an idiot to me:

DISCLAIMER: At one time or another, I have been guilty of almost every one of the following.

1. You stop and talk right in the middle of a busy walkway - anywhere. Period.

2. You let your dishes pile up because you "don't feel like doing them right away." When does anybody ever feel like doing dishes?

3. You write all of your emails without subjects or comprehensible sentence structure. Example: (This is an actual direct quote from an email I received from a manager at work.) "thinking about doing article for newsletter for to get service employees into line for the new system structure in the next week." And then the author of this massacre expects you to completely understand. This one makes me fume.

4. You compulsively show up late to every meeting. Social or work-related.

5. You don't read books because you "don't have time."

6. You condescend people not because they aren't correct, but because you have nothing better to do.

7. You complain about the cold weather in South Dakota.

8. You complain about the hot weather in South Dakota.

9. You take video games more seriously than girls.

10. You say "Wow, you're tall!" to a tall guy and expect him to think it's the funniest thing he's ever heard.

11. You think you are always right.

12. You drink 22 beers and complain about being hung over the next day.

13. You like to hear yourself talk about insanely irrelevant and boring things.

14. You don't care about things that don't affect you.

15. You regularly react negatively to new ideas.

16. You play music very loudly and think everybody else likes it.

17. You drive a huge truck not because you haul bags of seed corn or chase cows, but because you think you do those things, and because you think it impresses everybody.

18. You contribute nothing to things that contribute to you.

19. You never ask anybody how they feel.

20. You never give a sincere response when somebody asks you how you feel.

21. You blog about idiocy.

22. You think you aren't affected by the economy.

23. You think global warming is hype.

24. You don't subscribe to or read any periodical or publication of any sort.

25. You think careers in journalism are easy.


Maybe I'm feeling just a bit cynical today, but I do feel very strongly that simple consideration is the cure for idiocy. If you're an idiot, you should know that although you probably have irritated the crap out of me at one time or another, I don't hate you. Nobody should hate. Ever.

Thanks for letting me rant. I feel better now.

-John

Soothing My German Side

Now that I'm done blabbing about Las Vegas, I would like to switch gears and let you know a little more about me and what I like.

Like most of us in the upper Midwest, I'm part German. A modest 20% to be more accurate. Unfortunately, the most German part of my body is my stomach. I scarf bratwursts like a fat kid pops Cheetos - and rarely without sauerkraut. And let's not forget the all-time best German food group: beer. Beer beer beer beer beer. Beer. Mmmm yes.

On Saturday, February 21, fellow beer lovers and I will make a pilgrimage to New Ulm, Minnesota to attend one of the holiest Minnesotan holidays: Bock Fest.

This one-day drunken homage to German beer takes place at the 149-year-old Schell's Brewery, home to the best beer in the upper Midwest. Complete with lederhosen and deer-antler helmets, this outdoor celebration provides a very comfortable place for those whose dreams are made of malt and hops.

I know what you're thinking and, yes... you should be jealous.

The Las Vegas Story, Part 2

Every time I go on a vacation, the real-life experience destroys my expectations and preconceptions in both positive and negative ways. I often do not realize the inaccuracy of my expectations until I am back at home where they were formed. Of course, while I am there, I am caught up in observation. Not thinking, but observing. Who wants to think while on vacation? What are vacations for?

Just in case you were wondering, our vacation to Las Vegas was awesome. Freaking amazingly and spectacularly awesome in every sense of the expletive. But before I start glazing your eyes with stories of which you have no interest, I want to get to the point of this post.

Keep in mind that Stacy and I were only there for three days, which probably isn't long enough to develop an accurate feel for the city. These expecations and real life observances are only from our point of view. If you've been to Vegas recently, you are more than welcome to comment with your experience, if you would agree with me or not. I should also point out that the opinions and observations below are my own.

Expectation:
Las Vegas is very bright, literally.
Real life:
Yes. Very much so. The Strip is not so much classic "neon glitz" bright, more like "huge f-ing video screen on every surface" bright. Downtown was the opposite. By the way, if you wanna see lights, I would highly recommend the Fremont Street Experience downtown. Google it.

Expectation:
There are cheap buffets in Vegas.
Real life:
There are buffets everywhere, but they are not typically cheap. Stacy and I ate the Champagne Brunch Buffet at Mandalay Bay. Sure $27 is plenty to pay for any meal, but this was the single biggest, highest quality and most elegant buffet I will probably ever see. In fact, I would bet that it is on the top-ten buffets in the world. Anyway, as the price of buffets went up, the price of rooms did the opposite. Vegas knows how to work it.

Expectation:
Las Vegas is what the common midwesterner would describe as "hustle and bustle."
Real life:
Yes, but the hustling and bustling crowd is more middle/working class than I expected. High rollers lay low at the table games (We saw a dude playing $200/bet blackjack in the Wynn with the same demeanor as my roommate playing PS3). From what I can tell, middle class people walk around and attempt to see everything. Another interesting observation, for me, was the amount of foreign tourists. I wish I knew how many different languages we heard walking past people.

Expectation:
Getting around in Vegas is tough.
Real life:
Not nearly as difficult as expected. There are plenty of taxis everywhere plus other available and easily accessible forms of public transportation. I suspect that any rookie Vegas vacationer finds themselves walking much more than they anticipated, especially on their first visit.

Expectation:
The city never sleeps.
Real life:
The city never sleeps, but about 85% of the crowd does at some time before daylight.

Expectation:
Vegas vacations are spendy.
Real life:
If you get the right place on the right nights and the right flights on the right days, your trip can be very affordable for any budget. It seems as if the hotel casinos typically offer cheap rooms ($39/night and up) to encourage people to play their saved money in the casino. It's cheap to get there and stay, but visitors should understand that the Vegas economy knows how to milk it out of you. What you don't spend in one place, you will spend in another.

If you made it this far in my post, I thank and congratulate you on your dedication. As I said before, I hope that this and the last post will be useful for anybody considering a trip to Vegas. If you would like to see more photos of our trip, check em out on Facebook.

Thanks for reading,
John

The Vegas Story, Part 1

About 9 or 10 months ago, Stacy and I spent most of our spring break in Yuma, Arizona, with my grandma and two aunts. In a nutshell, the trip was awesome and we're definitely going back asap. Anyway, on the way home, we decided that our next big adventure would happen again in about a year.

About 2 or 3 months ago, I found a good deal on airfare to Las Vegas. "Vegas, yes," I thought. It made perfect sense. Dice and neon lights began to congregate in my mind. I told Stacy about Allegiant Air's two-for-one deal and a week later we had tickets and reservations at the Excalibur. And so the excitement began.

In the slowing time before we went, I visited every Vegas website I could find. My obsession led me to watch all three Ocean's movies in one day, and I even ordered free tourism magazines from the Las Vegas tourism department thingy. I also spent an average of one hour a day gawking at the 3-D buildings on the Strip on Google Earth.

Needless to say, my expectations and preconceptions were well developed before our plane left Sioux Falls. I'll let you know how those expectations and perceptions played out in the next post.

The reason I am telling you this is because I want to put a few lists on here which might be useful for those who are interested in Las Vegas. In short, I want to share what I've learned with you.

Here we go.

Top 3 Las Vegas websites:
1. www.goingtovegas.com is a very useful tool for anybody going to Vegas. Great tips on every aspect of a Vegas vacation. Well organized.

2. www.thevegascabbie.com is a blog by a Vegas cab driver. He serves up some golden information and tips. This guy is the man. He also has a very interesting and useful podcast.

3. www.vegas.com is another good site for information on venues and shows. This site is probably the largest and most developed of the three.


Top 3 useful things to do before you go to Vegas:
1. Study a map of the Strip. Google Earth it. Know where you're going.

2. Check and study show reviews. LV is the entertainment capital of the world for a reason, but sometimes new shows suck bad. Do yourself a favor and Google "Cirque du Soleil." Apparently tickets to "O" and "Ka" are worth every penny. If it is your first trip to Vegas, don't be a sucker for the advertisements - do some reasearch. Don't go to Criss Angel at the Luxor.

3. Make sure you have some good walking shoes that don't squish your pinky toes. You're gonna have some major walking to do. I know this sounds obvious, but both Stacy and I got blisters on our toes. Basketball shoes are not the best for Vegas.


Top 3 things to carefully consider:
1. Where are you staying? Almost anywhere you stay will be fantastic, but the location of your room will greatly influence your LV experience. The Strip is very big, bustling, showy and glamourous. Downtown is smaller, neon, classic and has better blackjack. Every resort/casino is unique. If you don't like bratty screaming kids, don't stay at the Excalibur or Circus Circus. Spend the extra bucks and get a better place to crash.

2. With whom are you going? Take your kids to Excalibur. Better yet - don't take them at all. By including your offspring in your Vegas vacation, everybody there will both hate you and question your parenting skills. A group of college kids should stay at either the MGM Grand or New York New York because they are both relatively affordable and have good clubs and shows.

3. What is your budget? Gambling is fun. Nobody goes to Vegas and doesn't leave at least a few bucks. Set a limit, and stick with that limit. Expect to lose your money and realize that the odds are always against you. Slot machines are a waste of money. Gambling is entertainment.


Whew - we made it!

If you have no interest in LV at all, thank you for tolerating this and the next post.


-John

So what's new with John?

It's been too long since I last took the time to sit down, center myself and write. It feels good.

Well, what can I say? Things have been pretty good in the last few months or so. I'm kinda just taking it a day at a time. My work/life routine has been steady since the holiday season ended.

Stacy (my gorgeous girlfriend) and I spend as much time together as we can. I work 8-5 on weekdays and she works mostly evenings and weekends, so we have learned to value the time we get to spend with each other. Just to bring everybody up to speed, Stacy and I have been dating for 3 years and 1 month as of last Tuesday. We recently returned from a kick-ass vacation to Las Vegas, of which I will blog in the near future.

Anyway, besides not being able to see Stacy as much as I would like, things have been good for me. I spend most of non-work time at the SDSU Wellness Center and in my apartment in Brookings. I read books of all types, I typically eat too many calories, I watch movies and play video games. What more can I say? On a scale of 1-10, 1 being absolutely neutral and normal and 10 being the most outrageous and crazy thing you have ever seen, I am a 2.5 right now. (I will probably use this scale again in the future). I want to make it clear that I am not a crazy philosophical and over-analytical nut job who needs a blog to preach and glorify myself. I'm a normal dude, and I want to simply give people a little window into my life. Communication is good, right?

(Image: Stacy and I at an SDSU football game just after I finished performing in the half-time show. 2007)

Please, please, please link to The Fighting Swine

Here is my pleading and pathetic attempt at gaining some initial readership:

You are here. The hard part is over.

So far, chances are that you've probably creeped to this page from my Facebook profile, or I blabbed to you about it at work. You should feel good because, by actually visiting this site, you've taken the first and hardest step of following my blog.

Before you close this browser and lose interest in The Fighting Swine forever, bookmark it, subscribe to the RSS feed, add it to your Google Reader, save the link on your desktop, or write yourself a post-it note to remind yourself that you need to come back. I personally guarantee that you will not regret it. (If you do regret it, I would like to give you my most sincere "my bad.")

Keep reading!
- John

(Image: This wonderful and perplexing peice of art from 2005 includes my younger brother Jeff (left) and me at a marching band festival in Chester, S.D. He played for the PHS band and I was in my second year with the Pride of the Dakotas of SDSU. Thanks mom.)

What's with the name?

When I was around six or seven years old, I was helping my dad and grandpa on the farm. It was a typical sunny/hot/windy South Dakota day and we spent it sorting hogs. Not Harleys - pigs. Big pigs.

For the first time that I could remember, dad entrusted me to the main gate of the pig pen while he went to get the trailer so we could bring them to town. After about five minutes of distracting myself by playing in the dirt, I looked up from my kneeling position to watch two stressed-out sows squeal and attack eachother. This proceeded for a few long moments before they broke into a very cumbersome gallop in my direction. I reeled in horror as I realized that I had forgotten to close the gate. The gate! I was immediately nothing. Two dusty 500 lb. bodies flew past me on both sides, and I froze in terror. For a very juvenile farm boy, this was a nightmare, and I still dream about it.

After my heart started about 5 seconds later, I sprinted to the house to notify grandma as the two sows toured the farm. What followed that was a blur of men chasing pigs with profanity and red faces. I cried very hard that day while realizing two important things:

1. I was not going to be a farmer when I grew up. and
2. I have the most loving and forgiving family in the world.

Thanks for reading.
- John

Your eyes aren't fooling you - John just started a blog

Hello and welcome to whoever might read this.

This is the first official post of my first official personal blog - The Fighting Swine.

I have many ideas and perceptions which sometimes clog the already shallow flow of my brain, so this is the depository for those things. Hopefully you will find something interesting here.

The plan, for now, is to post reactions, ideas and stories on this page for the eyes of the world. I've wanted to do this for a very long time, and now I finally got bored enough to do it. Can you believe it?

I don't want this to be short-lived, and my goal is to not leave my readers hanging. I have seen hundreds of blogs, and I have also seen several of them fail. How do they fail? One or both of two things: 1. The author gets bored with blogging or 2. The author gets too busy to blog.

In the coming days, I am going to regurgitate (sorry for the gross verb) every idea on my brain which I feel needs to be on this page. You will see photos, stories, reviews, tips, ideas and news herein.

Who is my audience? Anybody that cares about my view.

The truth: it is hard to follow blogs. Especially blabbering and unfocused blogs. My blog might be "that blog" or it might be just a page you saw once. I hope that you will stick with me on this adventure.

Thanks for reading.

- John