And We have Lift Off!!!... Saturday, January 3

I've been slaving over the YouTube video for our campaign like I'm running for prime minster or something -- Canadian eh.  Members coming for Free Train Friday saw me with my eyes glued to the computer monitor editing it, picking their brains for advice and then emailing random people random questions about it.  Then came the problem with the music.

Whatever happened to the good old days when you could simply pick a tune you love and slap it on a homemade YouTube video?!  It got copyrighted, that's what happened.  Rules got made, then rules evolved, computer programs got smarter with detecting you breaking the rules, and restrictions caused ciaos among those of us who depended on such restricted songs.

I wanted to put Pharrell's song "Happy" in my video because I just thought it was so smack-on appropriate for what the club means to me and how I feel being here at Hulk's.  But Pharrell is a big artist and his song "Happy" is super popular so it's protected by a massive fence of copyright rules and regulations.  Consequently, I couldn't use his song but feel free to sing it right at 2:40 mark when the song I ended up using fads in, I stop talking and the shots of our Hulkies hulking out start.

My boy Ronin E-Ville, a close university buddy of mine, ended up being my saving grace when he sent me some beats he had made up.  He's quite the mix-master God and music is definitely his thing -- he's even got the Ethnomusicology degree from grad school to back up his mad skills.  I was so relieved to hear I could use some of his music and, to tell you the truth, I was pretty proud to write him name in the credits too.  To think that getting lost on campus one day and meeting the cute dj at the Cock & Bull on campus would one day turn into my golden ticket to some sweet beats for my business, that's pretty awesome.  I love how paths cross like that and how old friendships evolve into something else so entirely different but oh so great.

I had made a promise to one particular Hulkie yesterday about my video, I told her I was going to not only finish it but get our campaign launched by the time she came in for Free Train today -- Free Train was 6-8pm.  Our Indiegogo campaign got launched at 6:13pm and she, the Hulkie I made the promise with, arrived at 6:20pm.  

So our Indiegogo campaign is officially launched and out there in Cyberspace for all to see (and all to donate to too).  I know launching it means being both supported and criticised, encouraged and discouraged, helped and hindered, but I expect that and I am perfectly fine with that.  If I had stopped doing what I was doing at the start of people telling me to do else what, I wouldn't have even come to Korea.  I definitely wouldn't have started boxing.  I surely wouldn't have married or even dated Snickers.  And God knows I wouldn't have started my own boxing club.  I've already proven that I do my own thing according to my own rules and my own train of thought.  There's no more proving myself.  Those who know even a smidgen about what our club is about and who know even a fraction of who I am will support us and those who don't won't.  But some WILL and I'll there to say thank you with the biggest smile possible and I'll be ever so grateful for any and all who support our campaign and help us get our new ring.  

 I joked around tonight with how we could raise the money.  Some of my ideas were rather silly and sarcastic, others were just petty and frugal, but here were some of them:

• We'd save about $400-600 a month if we simply had no shower facilities or did club laundry so...
• Members could do like our pups do and lick themselves clean after exercise.  
• Club towels could be for rent only and members would have wash them at their house.
• Use of our showers could be on a pay-by-day use bases.
• We could train by cellphone flashlight (God knows everyone has a cellphone in this country) and that would save us an extra $400 a month in electricity bills.
• Paid parking or, better yet, a paid VIP parking spot for the highest bidder.
• We could abandon our club entirely and situate ourselves on one of the above abandoned floors, thus saving us the monthly rent fee.
• We could refuse to turn on the club heaters and tell members to layer up their clothing.  This would save the $600 in monthly gas needed to fuel them.

[Note that I did mention these were sarcastic and frugal, and note that none of these are in effect at Hulk's because they're exactly that -- nonscense!!!]  

When I first thought about even considering doing a campaign to raise money for a new ring, I figured the worst case scenario, the worst that could happen is we don't get a penny and we have to wait to raise the money through membership fees. But to not even raise one penny, that's highly unlikely,, and even that one penny would push us one penny closer to gaining the needed funds.