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Pooch Cafe (Paperback) $9.39 Follows the adventures of Poncho, who takes refuge in the Pooch CafBe with his canine pals, after his beloved master Chazz marries cat lover Carmen and they all move in together.

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How The Internet Destroyed The Ol’ Boy Network

Whether we realize it or not, we have just gotten past, successfully, without pitting our country, north and south against each other, as we did in the Civil War, another “Industrial Revolution”. No, not exactly like the experience of our forefathers and mothers, but we have gotten through and are right “in the thick” of the Technology (Especially IT…Internet Technology) Revolution. Remember, that paper thing thrown at your door? Oh, sure. It was called a newspaper. Most of us still subscribe (out of habit) but mainly to see hometown “goings-on”, and compare it to the REAL news on our Internet. But do we sit down in our recliner and read it anymore? I don’t think so. “Skim quickly” is a more appropriate term.

Remember the ol’ boy network that divided towns into the rich and the poor, popular and unpopular? They dictated with whom we should do business, and who not? Sure, they still exist, but what happened to all their power? Gone with the wind. If they don’t like your business idea, big deal. You put it on the Internet. The power structure has turned 360 degrees, and the social structure as well. We may not have all realized it, but that was the *real* paradigm shift of our lifetime. And we did it without a war. Sure, some hurt feelings and egos, but, ciest la vie. Everyone has equal opportunity to information now and it is up to all of us to use it wisely and appropriately.

As a cartoonist, who uses the Internet for most of my business (I also manufacture licensed gifts and collectibles bearing my cartoon images), I have had the opportunity to have some “unique doors” opened to me that would have, otherwise stayed tightly locked.

One of those doors was from The Father Of The Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf who, happens to be a fan of my cartoons. We got to know each other via the Internet about eight years ago and he is a very fascinating man. He invented a protocol called TCP-IP in 1969 while at Stanford University. This hardware later became the driving force behind Arapnet. But only those in high positions at federal governmental organizations and The White House had access to this speed of light communication.

Later (and this is where Al Gore comes in…yes he really did have much to do with the Internet), Cerf, now a PhD, approached him. He was still a young congressman (not yet even a senator) from Tn and asked him if he felt it could be brought public. There was much controversy and much of Congress felt it was just “too much information for the general public to be privy to. Gore worked hard on it and it finally passed. The Internet was born. Gore, in fact, also (according to Dr. Cerf) came up with the idea of domain parking, named the net “The Information Superhighway” So the “Al Gore Internet joke, is really no joke at all”. Like him or hate him, he actually did just what he said, “I created the incentive to invent the Internet”. (In political terms, that means “got a bill passed to make it happen”).

Dr. Cerf is a very nice man. He was, at the time, a senior executive at MCI in Northern Virginia, but is now head of the creative department at Google. Though we’ve lost touch, I’ll never forget some of the incredible thoughts he shared.

He was young when he invented it; I believe a sophomore, and quite altruistic. He imagined information, especially important business information that was for so long held close to the chest by the large captains of business and industry, to be available to all, in other words, a more democratic society. Little did he know, that, even though we certainly do not live in a utopia, it is much more so and his dream very much came true.

It was further developed when an MIT professor named Tim Berners-Lee in 1984, invented a software called the World Wide Web which made the Internet much more advanced and flexible.

I grew up in a small southern town, and was considered a “slow learner”, a middle child of two
very good students, and, as often happens in small towns, I fell through the cracks, and stayed there for many years. I took odd jobs, saved, and left that hamlet as soon as I could. I took odd jobs in New York, Miami, Washington, and Los Angeles. During that tenure of stumbling around, I did manage to learn a few “street smarts” and landed some nice paying jobs with impressive-sounding positions. But I was not happy with them. I sought information, and, ultimately education. It was not until I was 43 years old that I returned to college to learn Internet technology and online business.

Since that time, my cartoon site has grown into the largest and most visited offbeat humor site on the Internet. I have over 8500 cartoons that lure over 3 million annual visitors. I say this not for bragging rights, but to show what someone can do on a shoestring, hell, I had half a shoestring, but with a dial up phone line, a beat up computer, and a little space to work (I started in an abandoned rural warehouse).

My intelligence level is fairly average. My emotional intelligence, is way above average, but that can be learned, regular IQ has more to do with genes, etc.

When I started the Internet was Google-less, Social Network-less, Blog-less, Bookmark-less, and looking back, it was a bit more than archaic. It was just a bit better than telephones only because Yahoo!, Hotbot, Alta Vista, and a few forums existed. Oh and the rather useless banner-exchanges and webrings. But that was it. The phone was still my major tool for marketing for the first few years.

I was able to get a very good education from an accredited school on the Internet. The ol’ boy network of my small hometown had already given up on me by the time I was twenty, and there was no encouragement, and, when I was there, I had no idea why.

Today, I own eight Internet stores with over 100,000 products from wall clocks to aprons to tees to
mouse pads to key chains to water bottles to yes, the world’s first offbeat cartoon gourmet coffee gift basket and the world’s first offbeat real U.S. Postage stamps.

Now, through social networking, I have ventured into some completely new businesses, with a phenomenal Florida associate and we did it through the leverage of the Internet, article marketing, blogging, PPC advertising, focus, and finally branding. Yet another venture that could not have been done by either of us without the fascinating equal-opportunity of the Internet. These are several ventures that I can already see are going to be profitable, and they cost us virtually nothing but time and knowledge.

Could I have done that without the Internet and willingness to learn? I would still be selling
ads at a small radio station in my hometown, most likely.

A little secret. Be guru-free. There are a lot of people out there who have good information, and bill themselves as gurus, and sell you their e-books or build-your-own turnkey websites, etc. They make it look enticing. My suggestion: Look at it as the flock of locusts that it is. The information may be good, but it is ALL available free, and even more is free, with a bit of research and persistence. I started this business, now worth way into the millions with less than $300 and was virtually homeless.

I studied. I asked questions of those who had done similar things successfully before me, I made calls, I got rejected, I tried again, more rejection, and finally some breaks. Persistence is the key. Sure talent and some intelligence is great, but persistence and a positive frame of mind wins at the end of the day. Keep your mind, body, and soul healthy. Sleep, eat healthily, exercise, and work. And work harder. And then harder. You will make mistakes. You will discover talents you never knew you had.

Somewhere in the back of your mind is a business dream that you have shoved aside for many years. Maybe a well-intentioned parent or friend or professor talked you out of it, saying it was impossible. Maybe the ol’ boy network in your hamlet dropped you too, or never accepted you. None of that matters anymore. That information is history.

Think about it. What was smart years ago, might not be so smart today. If Einstein reincarnated today and moved to your town, do you think he would be successful? First he’d have to have a 6th grader show him what the Internet was, then a fifth grader to show him what a computer was, then how it worked etc. So just what you know of reading this, is more than Einstein knew of computers.

Time to be your own guru. Your own Einstein. There are no more excuses. The Internet has leveled the playing field.

About the Author

Rick London’s #1 Google Ranked offbeat cartoon has held that position since 2005. He also has many funny gifts, tees and collectibles, many featuring his favorite (computer/Internet cartoons) at some of his stores such as at the Rick London Collection which feature (many some of his favorite computer cartoons) at some of his stores such as at the Rick London Collection which feature, gifts, and collectibles. London is also a professional web designer and performs white hat SEO at America’s premiere full service web firm Pen And Ink Inc.

The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker $22.87 Showcases the work of hundreds of artists who have contributed to the magazine throughout its eighty-year history, in a richly illustrated volume containing 2,500 black-and-white cartoons by Peter Arno, Charles Addams, Jack Ziegler, Roz Chast, and other notables, along with essays on the evolution of the magazine`s humor and style, and a fully searchable DVD-ROM. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

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Coffee Candy Chews Bag 13.2 Ounces (376 Grams) $9.95 Between cups of brewed gourmet coffee, you can enjoy the essence of our premium beans with our coffee candy chews. While the majority of coffee candies are artificially flavored, we use only the

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