How to Get Autographs through the Mail TTM

There are 4 simple steps to getting an autograph through the mail. These steps work for movie stars, TV personalities, sports athletes, etc. If you aren't able to go to TV Show Live Tapings, Fan Days, conventions, etc, to meet your favorite entertainer. Then getting an autograph through the mail is a nice alternative, and its fairly easy. Lets use my most recent success as an example.

Step 1) Decide who you want an autograph from and find their fan mail address

• There are several online databases that have celebrity fan mail addresses. Some require a monthly fee but I prefer not to pay. The best FREE celebrity address database is Fanmail.biz, and is the one I use. No sign up is required.

• If you don't mind receiving a pre-printed autograph, there is a great little fan mail organization called Studio Fan Mail. Celebrities supply them with pre-printed autographs to be sent out to fans. Unfortunetly they don't supply a list of available photos, so you may have to search around the web for a list from other people who have used the service. To receive a pre-printed autographed photo of your favorite celebrity, just send a short email message with your request and mailing address to celebrityname@studiofanmail.com. (example-- kaleycuoco@studiofanmail.com) 

• If writing to a sports team you aren't sending a trading card or specific photo to be autographed, you may find it easier to send your autograph request via email. Most sports teams have a well maintained fan mail and email accounts. To write to a sports team, find their home page online, got to their Fan page or Contact Page. You'll often find a couple addresses to choose from, an email for general fan letters and a snail mail for special autograph requests.

I wrote to the Milwaukee bucks in this example. I used there email address which is found in the contact section of their home page

Step 2) What to write:

• How you write a request is far more important than what you write. A short request letter or email written with sincerity is far more likely to get a reply than a long drawn out letter about how much you "love" them.

• The best request letter or email will include these: Let them know your a fan, tell them your favorite movie, TVshow or game AND why its your favorite. Make your request for an autograph, photo, or if writing a sports team you can request a Fan Pack (Fan Packs are usually team logo'd items like buttons, fridge magnets, schedules, posters and in some rare instances t-shirts.

• If you are writing a snail mail letter and sending photos to be autographed, I strongly suggest two things. First, only send photos you are willing to never see again. Mail gets lost, and when you're a celebrity and receiving hundreds of letters a day, somethings bound to get lost or ignored. Secondly, of all those hundreds of letters they receive daily, most are asking for autographs. That's a lot of signing! So don't send more than 2 photos, more than that would appear greedy and will most likely NOT get signed. 

My email to the Milwaukee Bucks was simple and to the point. I wrote that I had enjoyed a game while passing through town, and mentioned that I especially enjoyed the performance of the 'dance team', and requested an autograph

Step 3) What to mail:

• If sending them a photo to be autographed, also include a stamped self addressed envelope to return the photos to you. Why should the celebrity pay to return it to you? Be sure to put enough postage on the return envelope, and put your address in the return address section too. That way if the envelope doesn't have enough postage on it, it'll still get back to you... and you'll be able to give your postage carrier any postage due.

• NEVER send something you cherish, what ever you send, expect to never see again. Its not the celebrities responsibility to care for your cherished photos, memorabilia, etc. Though celebrities and there authorized agents will obviously show your items care, accidents do happen... coffee spills, fan mail gets lost, crushed.. etc. Save those cherished items for conventions when you can personally hand the item to them for an autograph. 

Step 4) The Waiting Game:

• Now the hard part.. you've sent  your request and now you just have to wait. Be patient, it can take months to get a reply. Depending on the celebrity or team you've written to, it can take up to a year to get a response... after a year has passed, I would just consider it a failure and try again. With some celebrities you have to try several times before getting your autograph, remember most do this in their off time and signing autographs isn't a job requirement. Its just something nice they do for some of there fans. So if they want to send you an autograph they will, if they don't they won't. It shouldn't change your view of them, they have lives too, and we should all respect that. 

I waited only a few weeks, and received this from the Milwaukee Bucks Dance Team.. Cool! Thank you!

Read More

Lego Minifigures Simpsons Dot Bump Code Series 13

I wanted to make sure everyone has a chance at getting the figure they want, so start feeling those packs and look closely at the bump dot code. Hopefully this will help

I love the the Simpsons and am hopeful they will do more minifigure series with licensed TV & Movie characters. I'd like some Futurama minifigures.. what kind would you like Lego to make?

Read More

McDonalds Shakes Up Fries with New Seasoned Fries - Review

Just when you think you've seen all that McDonalds can do with fast food, they prove that they still have a few ideas up their sleeves.  Unfortunetly 'Seasoned Fries' isn't a new idea, as Burger King attempted a similar promotion a few years ago and it never 'took off'.

You get a choice of Buffalo, Ranch or Garlic Parmesan, and as cool as it might sound to have a new seasoned fry on the table, there are a couple things to consider:

1) Convenience: Where are you going to be eating these fries? Oddly enough that's a valid question. You can't just pop these in your mouth when driving home from McDonalds.  Why not you ask? Because they're not ready made.... YOU MAKE THEM.

When I ordered mine, I was looking forward to trying them, when the cashier handed me my tray with a regular fries on it, I also noticed a small seasoning packet and a little paper bag. I of course inquired about the packet and was given a demonstration in how to SEASON MY OWN fries. The employee had obviously been showing a lot of customers how to do this cause he opened up the little paper bag, dumped in the fries and emptied the seasoning packet in... then SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE... and PRESTO! My normally tasty fries are now seasoned fries. Well it looked all fine when the cashier did it, but I'd like to see you do this at work or in the car. When I sat down to enjoy my fries, the woman at the next table was shaking her bag and cussing cause seasoning was coming out of the bag. She spent the next few minutes brushing herself off

2) Price: These new fries aren't cheap, and my guess is that extra money you have to dish out is to pay for the little shaker bags and seasoning packets.  Here's some free marketing advise for the executives at McDonalds - In a down economy like ours is currently, you don't 'jack up' prices on your signature menu item just cause you added a seasoning other than salt. If you want to show you're customers you don't care about them, then you've totally succeeded.

I feel like I've been bitch-slapped by McDonalds. Is it just me or does it feel like they're saying, "Hey here's your fries, we don't have time to sprinkle any seasoning on them.. DO IT YOURSELF!". I worked in a hamburger joint when I was in high school. I know how they fry the fries then toss them under a warmer, shake on some salt, all to be scooped up as needed. In many fast food restaurants there's even a section under the warmer for salt less fries. Well if you're going to have a promotion for seasoned fries, at least show your customers enough respect, to season the fries for them. How hard would it be to place a small baking sheet by the warmer, someone orders seasoned fries, you toss some fries on that baking sheet, you shake on some seasoning and scoop them up. Hmm maybe that's too easy a concept for the executives at McDonalds.

The simple truth about these fries is they are just fries with some seasoning sprinkled on. If you want seasoned fries, don't pay the extra for these. Just go home and pour your fries into a plate and sprinkle on some seasoning of your own. It'll cost less AND be less messy

Oh and to be perfectly fair to McDonalds, according to the signage on the menu board, if you order a value meal, you get the season packet and shaker bag free. So you're only paying the inflated price if you buy the fries separately. BUT you STILL have to SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE em up yourself....

Read More

Why Does a Killer Whales (Orcas) Dorsal Fin Collapse?

Let me first say that I find the Orca to be one of the most beautiful and misrepresented creatures on the planet. We call them 'Killer Whales' which is far from the truth, the Orca is extremely social and has a strong sense of family. Like humans, they are Apex Predators, which means they are prey to none in their natural environment. Their intricate methods of hunting and species vocalizations are passed from generation to generation, often times being specific to a particular group. They are magnificent

Its always bothered me that we as a species feel the need to spend millions of dollars on research to answer a question that can be pieced together with common sense. Its true that a definitive answer can further the health and well being of Orcas, but what about when even with all the research we still just don't know the answer for sure. The reason for the collapse of the Orcas dorsal fin is one of those questions, researched, studied, and hypothesized, and the only real answer 'The Experts' can give is 'its not caused by being unhealthy', and then give a few most likely reasons.... in other words guesses. I wonder how much those 'educated' guesses cost. Since the experts can't answer this question without beakers and test tubes, lets see if common sense can succeed where science has failed.

In the wild, as seen in the photo above, the Orcas dorsal fin is straight up and sturdy. Though some wild Orca do have a very small or slight bend in the tip of there dorsal fin, it is extremely rare if not impossible to encounter a wild Orca with a completely collapsed dorsal fin, unless that particular Orca was once in captivity.

I should point out that the dorsal fin is not bone or cartridge, its a hard collagen not unlike whats in your lips, just much harder or perhaps packed in tighter. Imagine 2 stuffed teddy bears, both stuffed with cotton balls. One bear you stuff til its just full enough to take form, the other bear you pack and pack and pack full of cotton balls til you can't easily add any more. Both bears look roughly the same, yet on closer examination, the 1st teddy bear is loose and floppy, and the 2nd teddy bear is stiff and rigid. Now replace teddy bears with an Orca dorsal fin and cotton balls with collagen.

Now lets look at the dorsal fin of an Orca in captivity. AS seen in the photo below, the dorsal fin is completely collapsed.

Now science has been unable to answer this question, only citing maybes and possible reasons. Well I can do that to, using common sense rather than millions of dollars in research grants. Here are 2 common sense reasons why the dorsal fin collapses on Orcas in captivity

1) Have you ever seen a surf board, you know that 'fin' on the bottom. What is that for? Well I don't surf and a surfer could answer the question as to what it does better than I can, but the basic use of that fin is directional stability. On an Orca, the dorsal fin serves the same purpose, it stabilizes the Orca from rolling over in the powerful currents and allows sharp turns in those currents. An Orca can swim at a top speed of approx 30 mph, an incredible feat when you consider that they are fighting strong ocean currents.

There's an old saying, 'use it or loose it'. Perhaps this is what happens with the Orcas dorsal fin. When an Orca is in captivity, it is in perpetually calm shallow water. It no longer has the ability to swim against raging ocean currents, diving for food, jumping and swimming at top speed for miles at a time. Instead it is place in a 'fishbowl' and the dorsal fin is never really used. When astronauts are in space, they are required to exercise because in a weightless environment they don't use much of they're muscles and would suffer from sever muscle atrophy if they didn't. Though dorsal fins are not muscles, perhaps this is the same situation. With lack of use, the Orcas body tells itself that the dorsal fin no longer needs its normal nutrients, causing the collagen to weaken til eventually the dorsal fin completely collapses.

2) Has anyone ever considered that the diet of an Orca has something to do with it. In captivity an Orca eats about 240 lbs of fish each day. I have to ask myself, are these frozen fish? Does a fishing trawler go out every morning and bring back a varied heaping pile of live fish for there captive Orca? Of course not. Now maybe, just MAYBE, they will feed their captive Orca fresh fish... but LIVE fresh fish daily. I doubt it. So you're asking yourself, so what if its live, fresh or frozen, does it matter? That is a big YES on 2 counts. First, Orca are not HUMAN... there nutritional intake is far more complex than just 'fish'. When an Orca goes hunting for food, perhaps they have a particular fish in mind. But that doesn't mean they always get it, Orca have been known to eat sharks, dolphins, seals, shrimps, tuna, crabs... the list goes on. Their diet is vastly varied, which means the daily nutrients they receive are vastly varied.  Now replace that daily 'buffet' with a daily can of 'pork and beans', do you think that can of 'pork and beans' is going to be sufficient?

Or maybe its as simple as them eating a particular fish type that is high in some nutrient that helps the production of or maintenance of collagen? Something that their trainers aren't feeding them? I'm not saying they are being starved, only that MAYBE they aren't eating what they would eat if they were in the wild.

So this is my final thought on the whole thing: I want to be clear, I'm not an activist, when I was young I loved the Shamu show at Sea World. But we didn't know much about Orca then, we didn't know that by bringing them into captivity we'd be changing them, even unintentionally and unknowingly hurting them. I don't believe we should harp on the past and reopen old wounds. But rather learn from the past and prevent from causing new wounds. Perhaps we shouldn't have Orcas in captivity. Perhaps we should just leave these animals alone to do what they do, live, have families and keep the oceans food chain in balance.

Read More

UFO Sightings: A beginners guide to seeing UFOs

Its a fact that approx 70% of the worlds population doesn't believe in UFOs. And its an educated guess that of that 70%, approx 50% have seen a UFO and just don't realize it. How is that possible you ask, surely if someone sees a UFO, then they would know it. Yet that's not always true, just as many people who claim to have seen a UFO actually didn't. Unless a UFO lands right in front of, you can never take what you see at first glance. That's because your eyes play tricks on you, or more specifically your brain processes what you see in a way that you will understand it.

A good example of this 'mental processing' is ghost images on 35mm film. More than once have I taken a photo with my old 35mm camera, and when the film was developed, I would find a 'ghostly image' in one of the photos. This is especially common when taking photos indoors with or without a flash. Most of the time the 'ghostly image' was from a back flash when the flash bounced off a unseen shiny surface and shot back at the camera or from an unseen light source sometimes as small as someone lighting a cigarette. My point is, when I show those photos to someone who believes in ghosts, 6 out of 10 times, they see a ghost. The same is true of UFO's, if you believe in UFO's, you're bound to see a UFO... even if its not really there. And if you don't believe in UFO's, one could fly right in front of you and your brain would ignore it or re-classify it as a cloud, plane, or trick of light.

If you want to see a UFO, whether you're a believer or not, this method will work. You don't have to go out into the wilderness or some remote location. You'll most definitely see something, its up to you whether you want to believe its from another world. 

1) Equipment needed: There's a few things you'll need, basically the same stuff as if you were bird watching. Binoculars, notebook, pencil, camera or camcorder.

2) Location & what to look for: Its NOT all about location, UFO reports come from all over the world, big cities and rural areas. Keep notes of time, sightings and location you view. Go to UFO sightings sites and compare noted, you may see something from a great distance, that another sky watcher saw more close up. In the end, that's when UFOs become interesting, when you can say, "Hey this guy across town saw the same thing I did at the same exact time"

    A) City: In a place with city lights, do your sky watching during the day or just before dusk. City lights can cause your eyes to get blurry or see 'halos' when you try to look in the dark areas of the night sky. This causes many false UFO reports. What you want to look for during the day is not the UFO, but rather what it leaves behind. We all see vapor trails from airliners and fighter jets that roar high above, those trails stay in the sky for a good amount of time. What your looking for is when something crosses the trail and 'breaks' it, as if a thin pencil wiped across the trail. The same is true of cloud formations & smoke. If you see a vapor trail, smoke, or cloud formation 'break', then keep your eyes in that area, if you have a camera or camcorder then snap a few shots. The likely hood of seeing something right that moment are slim, most UFOs move extremely fast, but if you're lucky you may catch a blur on  you camera or camcorder. Another thing to look for is what I call tin cans. These are flickers of light in day sky, caused by the reflection of the sun. 9 ot of 10 times, what your looking at is a plane or helicopter, but keep your eyes on it... how does it move? Is it too high to be a helicopter, yet it moves like one. Is it too fast or too slow to be a plane? Again take pictures so you can study them later. 

   B) Rural: If you live in a place where there are no ambient lights around, do your sky searching at night. set up a lounge chair and a camera or camcorder on a tripod. With the invention of the digital camera with a preview screen, you have no reason to pick up the camera.. just aim at the UFO using the preview screen, this greatly reduces camera jiggle. At night you are looking for stars that don't fit in the night sky. It greatly helps if you are familiar with constellations. Study the sky carefully, and if you see something that doesn't fit, aim your camera at it. Take occasion pictures of that area of sky. Somethings you might notice, a star where one isn't supposed to be, a single star jiggling slightly (careful though this can also be cause by eye fatigue from staring at the same point of sky for more than a few minutes without a break), a falling star that suddenly changes course (most commonly at a 45 degree angle, though this can also be ice crystals or small meteorites bouncing off the atmosphere, not everything has the speed, size and trajectory to make it through our atmosphere, many things bounce off and appear like a UFO coming in then shooting off into a 45 degree angle), and stars that suddenly shoot off into space. 

Close Encounters are extremely rare, as they need to be within 700 feet and be visibly highly detailed. What you're going to be seeing are UFO 'sightings', which are visual encounters over 700 feet away and most often nondescript shapes & sizes. So good luck to you and I hope this helps you spot that elusive object your searching for

Read More

Should Celebrities Charge for their Autograph?

I have a friend who is into collecting celebrity autographs? She gets a crazy-eyed thrill out of receiving a signed photo or memorabilia item. For years she's tried to get me into the hobby, but to me it just seems pointless. But she was persistent and after years of poking and prodding (yes literally poking me while saying, "Hey you should try to get an autograph"), I finally agreed to give it a try. So I wrote a simple little request letter to a celebrity who I wouldn't mind having in my scrapbook, and about 3 months later I got 2 photos back autographed. Now I wasn't nearly as excited as my friend, who was so eager that she grabbed the envelope from my hand and tore it open like it was the last Hersey bar on the planet. But I suppose it was cool to get something back from a celebrity after all the money I've spent on rising theater & DVD prices.

She and I made our way to Comic Con this year and she was so excited to get an autograph from her favorite Sci Fi celebrity... ugh, sometimes she can be embarrassing at these, one year we dressed up as Jedi knights and she kept trying to do a Jedi Choke Hold on every DC superhero we'd run into. Yet this time it was me who was embarrassing her, as I kept complaining about the long line we were waiting in for this guys autograph, only to find out that she had to pay for it. So when we reached him, I asked this celebrity why he was charging for his autograph, shouldn't it be free? I half expected him to tell me to Bugger Off, but in true Canadian fashion, he was polite and took a moment to explain his reasoning. Which frankly wasn't unreasonable & I found myself agreeing with him.

So what did he say about his charging for his autograph.. well that's between him, me, and the crowd of people standing around us giving me dirty looks. But after chatting with him, I have a definite opinion on the age ole question... should celebrities charge for there autograph? And its an astounding.... depends on the situation. Ha ha, you didn't think it would be easy did you?

This is how I see it, you can get autographs 4 different ways. And this is what I think about whether each one should be charged for.

1) You can literally buy them from Ebay or a Memorabilia shop... and of course they're NOT free, expect to pay through he nose.

2) You run into a celebrity on the street or other public place and ask for an autograph or photo with them. You definitely should not be charged for an autograph in this situation. It would be tacky for a celebrity to ask for money from you in this situation. They either want to give you an autograph or they don't, they are free to say no, for any number of legitimate reasons and SHOULD NOT affect your view of them as an entertainer. Remember, they have lives outside of Hollywood and should be allowed to walk down the street without being bombarded by autograph requests every few feet.. they have places to go and things to do just like you and me.

3) Conventions and public signings. Not all celebrities charge for there autographs, but the one place they all should is at public gatherings such as Comic Cons and signing events. Before you all go ape-shit and leave negative comments, look at it this way. At these type of events, they are there specifically for YOU... the fan. So that YOU can interact with them, even if for only a few moments. In many cases these celebrities are supplying the photo to be signed, willing to write a specific sentiment, happy to speak with you for a few moments or even pose with you in a photo, so you can go bragging to all your Facebook friends that you met this amazing celebrity. To me that's worth $10, $20, $40, even $50 dollars, to get a chance to shake hands with someone who inspires or just really entertains you. Lets face it, politicians have been doing it for decades.. what do you think political fundraisers are. For politicians we'll give them thousands of dollars to sit in the same dining room, shake there hand or have a photo taken with them, yet we whine like unruly children if a celebrity dare charges $30 dollars for there time to sign our photo or DVD cover... and make no mistake, it is there time we're paying for in those situations. Just because you, me and Master Chief like to dress up like our favorite TV/Movie character and trudge around a crowded convention hall on our day off from work, doesn't mean that our favorite celebrity shares that particular interest. To them its part of there job, whether its interacting with fans, being on a panel, or autographs.. so why shouldn't they get a little something for their time.

4) Sending a fan mail autograph request. If you just send a fan mail letter with a request and a couple photos for the celebrity to autograph, then you shouldn't be charged. You also shouldn't expect to EVER see those photos again. In this situation, there are no guarantees, if they have the time they'll do.. or not. I look at it this way, if a celebrity chooses to read your fan mail, then decides to autograph and return your photos, then that's a gift to you. That's the celebrity saying, "Hey thank you for the nice letter, thank you for being a fan, here's my autograph that you requested." Its their choice to read, autograph and reply to you, so money should NEVER be requested in that situation. Also you shouldn't expect them to pay postage... despite what we all believe, celebrities don't wipe there butts with $20 bills. So if you want a photo autographed, you provide the photo and a stamped envelope to return it in.

Exception to #4) Some celebrities will have a special request section on their websites. It'll say something like send your photo, memorabilia item, or what ever to them and they'll autograph it for $10 or some other amount. In this case, if your sending it to a specific address like that, too me its the same as if they were at a convention. They are guaranteeing you a moment of their time to give you an autograph. If you don't want to pay for it, that's your choice...

Well those are my thoughts on the autographs thing.. I'm still not really into this as a hobby, but I have sent out a couple more autograph requests... again at the literal poking of my friend. If I get an autograph back, she'll probably open those too.. LOL!

Read More

35mm Film Cells Review - Collectible or Crap

Ok lets start with what is a film cell? Well you remember those old projectors in school that  your teacher would put the big film reel on and you'd watch some old safety movie. Well that reel of film is made up of thousands of frames of film, sorta like a flip book. Each frame of film is called a 'Film Cell',... several consecutive cells are called a 'Film Strip'.

Its always been a hobby to get a few favorite clips of a film and mount them like a slide or onto a photo frame with a photo from the movie. It started with 8mm then 16mm now with the invention of digital 35mm has joined the fun because so many people, and theaters are selling off the old films they can no longer use. Full length 35mm films can be very expensive, especially if the movie was a hit at the box office. So you may wonder why people are cutting up these pieces of movie history and selling them at a $2 - $20 a piece. Well the truth is, most of them aren't. Unless its damaged in some way, most film collectors would never hack up these prized items. Even a slightly damaged hit movie could go for a nice chunk of cash. So what are being sold on Ebay and Movie Memorabilia sites??

35mm Movie Trailers are just what you see on the big screen, a 1 or 2 minute preview of an upcoming movie. Because they are only a couple minutes long they are rather inexpensive to buy. And because they are previews, they have several action packed scenes in them. 35mm movie trailers are perfect for cutting into pieces and selling to the collector who doesn't have access to hundreds or thousands of dollars for a full film. 90 percent of the time, these are what you will find being sold on Ebay & Memorabilia sites. And in my opinion thats NOT a bad thing.

Keep this in mind, its STILL a piece of authentic 35mm film cell of the movie., who cares if its cut from the trailer or the full length film... they're the same scenes. Also trailers are sometimes made before the final cut of a movie. So you might actually get a rare piece of scene that was never released in or cut out of the full length film. This is of course rare, but it can happen. Film Cells cut from trailers are also usually in pretty good condition, they weren't run through the projector as much a Full length film.

Now there are 2 kinds of 35mm film cells to be aware of... Scope (Cinescope) & Flat. Now some sellers will tell you there is no difference, thats is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. If you plan on buying a film cell or strip and putting it into card and shoving it into a drawer never to be seen again, well then it doesn't matter what kind of film cell you buy. However if you plan on occasionally looking at it, you may have a preference. So let me quickly explain the difference between the two types, which are played in two different types of projector (or more specifically the focal lens of the projector)

Flat - A film cell from a FLAT, is the best choice if you want to see the image as it was seen on the screen. The film strips in the photo above are FLAT. Hold the strip up to the light and thats is the exact image you saw at the movies. These strips and individual cells are great for displays and mounting. The problem I've found with these is that they often have a smaller image on the actual strip... you'll notice the black wide screen appearance of the film strips above.

Scope(Cinescope) -  A film cell from SCOPE  differs because it is elongated. Often times the image will fill the entire cell, but the image will look taller and somewhat distorted. This is because a scope film is played through a Cinescope lens which corrects the image when projected to the screen.

In the end its up to you which kind of film cell or strip you prefer. As far as being collectible, sure they are. They are pieces of film history that is disappearing due to digital technology. Are they valuable? Well thats up to you, I paid $15 dollars for a film cell of Princess Leia from my favorite scene of Star Wars. I would never pay that much for a post 1989 film cell, but $2 - $8 for a film cell or better yet a strip of cells isn't a horrible price, if its from a movie you really are a fan of. I wouldn't buy these as an investment, but for a cool movie memorabilia collectible... can't beat the price or semi rarity.

Read More