Random Thoughts Thread

[o.pwuaioc]

While I agree with you on the "people occasionally want to bulk up" thing, a million times no on the "Transforming it to muscle"... I worked at GNC for 7 years and that always drove me crazy. Fat is fat, muscle is muscle, you cannot and do not transform one to the other. The reason people think that is because some bodybuilders and the like go through "Bulking phases" where they're just trying to get bigger, no matter what, then go through "cutting phases" where they lean out.

So basically, they put on (numbers completely made up!) say 20 lbs total. In that 20 lbs, 10 lbs of it is fat and 10 lbs of it is muscle. They then in their cutting phase will take off that 10 lbs of fat (and probably, because of the way the body works, 2 or 3 lbs of the muscle too)... so they net by going up 7-8 lbs of muscle. But they didn't "transform" any of the fat to muscle, cuuuuz those are 2 completely different cells in the body.

Sorry, </rant>, just one of my pet peeves from waaaaaaay too long spent in that store

I never said they wanted to gain fat. I said they wanted to increase their caloric intake.

It was your use of "transform it to muscle"... call it conditioning, but that's an instant red flag in my mind. No offense intended though, sorry.

None taken. I just didn't want you thinking I meant fat to muscle, but rather calories (somewhat) to muscle!

[flex wood]

Two things: I won't read it because you suggest I won't read it based on where the link is from, and I just get quite aggravated at the guys who complain about being skinny all the time. Girls like skinny guys, the media likes skinny guys, hell, everybody likes skinny guys. Just a tiny bit of gut fat or man boob and I'm a fat slob. At least, according to a decent amount of people.

its from the sticky on /fit/ the health and fitness board on 4chan I figured you wouldn't read it if I said where it was from and if I said that. It is one hell of a tl;dr though so I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting too read it but you won't be able to find anywhere to online to give you a better idea of what you need to do to lose weight if you want to in one place that will answer most of your questions without either trying to sell you tons of useless gnc stuff or be full of bullshit.

If anything just google a calorie calculator and figure out what your daily intake should be to maintain your weight. Subtract five hundred from it and eat that many calories a day for a week and you will lose a pound. If you don't subtract another hundred.

[Luke]

I wonder how long "Going Viral" has actually meant "they paid us to say this video is going viral and post it at the top of our site"?

I've seen a growing trend in "Viral" videos that are nothing but paid advertisements and am thinking about jumping on the bandwagon.

[Hobie-wan]

I wonder how long "Going Viral" has actually meant "they paid us to say this video is going viral and post it at the top of our site"?

I've seen a growing trend in "Viral" videos that are nothing but paid advertisements and am thinking about jumping on the bandwagon.

Indeed.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yup. Most viral videos are just advertising.

[Forlorn Drifter]

If anything just google a calorie calculator and figure out what your daily intake should be to maintain your weight. Subtract five hundred from it and eat that many calories a day for a week and you will lose a pound. If you don't subtract another hundred.

Being from 4chan might have thrown me, but then again, I dislike it and redditt but they do have some pretty damn good stuff on those sites at times.

And I probably won't start trying to get fit, simply because I don't have control over what I eat other than breakfast, so playing the numbers game won't do me much. I could probably look pretty good (well, frat boy who has a good looking chest but a beer gut good) if I started to lift, but I haven't gotten around to it.

[MrPopo]

Yup. Most viral videos are just advertising.

I'm surprised that we don't see many viral videos go viral.

[samsonlonghair]

I've been on the other side of this issue. I had a client ask me to make him a viral video. I explained that it doesn't work that way; viral is an outcome, not a predetermined starting point.

It didn't matter what I said. My client had read some random blog post that convinced him that viral videos are the future of marketing.

Well, my client is always right. So I made him a youtube video and told him it was viral. He seemed happy. Then he sent the video to his colleagues to show off. Then he asked me to make the video private so that noone else can see it.

Facepalm.

He still doesn't know what a viral video is.

[Luke]

I've been on the other side of this issue. I had a client ask me to make him a viral video. I explained that it doesn't work that way; viral is an outcome, not a predetermined starting point.

This scenario plays out all the time. "Why hasn't it gone viral?". Some of my other favorites include:

"Survey Monkey is the future of finding our market base"

"You will probably need a intern to handle any social media campaigns"

"I've heard you lose all visibility if you don't use Google AdWords"

"Do you think your time that you are using to change web addresses is worth it?"

"Why should we spend money on purchasing domains that we don't use?"

They aren't dumb questions, but some execs believe the Internet is Magic and that it doesn't take a lot of smarts and work to get your name out there. Even with internet sales, you still have to put your nose to the grindstone.

Another misconception is that an e-commerce manager is also some programming wizard. "You mean we should outsource SEO?".

But my all time favorite came from the VP of Sales: "You can't have the main site and shopping site be one site. That would piss of the retailers to no end". I still have to fight this nonsense. Take a look at any industry leader. They all have one consolidated site, not a "here's us" site and a "shop" site. That puts e-commerce as an afterthought which it shouldn't be. E-commerce should start as incremental business but grow into THE business. And then you get pushed to put QR Codes on everything, which won't change anything as most knitters don't even know what a QR code is.

It's frustrating. I tripled sales and doubled the on-line bottom line in my first year. You think by now they'd listen, but not having seniority can be a big bummer. This is how businesses fail. Anytime you hear "Well, we've never done that before" it's time to jump ship.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Random Thought:

O Holy Night is the funniest Christmas carol and the best one to sing if: (1) you have had too much to drink; or (2) you are participating in some sort of Christmas-themed karaoke.