CAT | News
We’ve just begun the process of moving our website to a new home. I’m still patching things together so some of the links, videos, etc. might not be working just yet. I’m on it.
24 hours ago we noticed that two checks were processed deducting funds from our account. Neither of these checks were written by us, for places we shop at or even OUR checks.
Thankfully, we (and when I say that, I mean “Johna”) noticed the odd checks representing a check number we had yet to order … or were even close to ordering any time soon. Pulling up the scanned check image (thank you US Bank – great feature) we saw a check with our routing number and bank account however with a different bank, different name on the check and a different address (complete with ALL CAPS street and state info and all-lower-case city name). The checks even had a phone number and drivers license number on them — all of which was fake.
Now that we’ve canceled the account and associated cards, contacted anyone payments were issued to that had not yet cleared and contacted the authorities, we pretty much have this behind us (all but the waiting for new checks, cards, etc.).
I asked our bank how this could have happened — after all, we write checks only for bills we get in the mail, and then mail back in; to our church; and very intermittent other cases. They’re answer was simply that “it happens” because so many people can touch a check between you and it getting to the bank that there is room for foul play. What’s more, the economy seems to be fueling this problem a bit more … infact, the checks that were written were not for frivolous things but “essentials.”
So the grand lesson here is simply: watch out. Balance your check book, watch it carefully and be cautious about whom you give your checks to. The result for us will be more on-line bill paying and probably using cash even in the random cases where we would write a check that wasn’t paying a bill.
If that story compels you to take a closer look at your bank statement – then great! Hopefully you don’t have this problem, but if you do, then hopefully you find it quickly.
One of the blogs I read featured a story about this item below. It appears that even the good old wagon isn’t escaping a major modernization. While I can appreciate the benefit of comfy seats, a cup holder and seat belts, I’m sincerely hoping the full description of this product doesn’t include anything about “WiFi,” “GPS” or “iPod dock.”
And yet something tells me one of those last features will make it in the final design.
I’m not sure how, but my Netcot Podcast has continued to be a featured podcast in iTunes for 2 1/2 years! It amazes me that as many people listen to it each week as they do. It thrills me that people write comments/reviews, stop by the website and message boards or shoot me an email. All of that fuels my drive to keep cranking out new episodes for people to hear.
The other big driver for me to keep it up is seeing it appear randomly throughout the internet. This week that meant seeing it on my own iPhone as I tried out some of the new features of the latest iPhone software update. See for yourself below. 
Johna is officially a CPA now (proof below). It wasn’t until I watched her go through the process that I realized just how much work getting your CPA is. She spent countless hours studying, practice test taking and watching some of the most boring (to me) instructional video lessons I’ve ever seen (imagine the guy who does infomercials for “placing TINY little ads…” teaching a CPA course!).
Congratulations, J on this HUGE accomplishment!
One of my goals with Netcot this year is to really take advantage of the renewed success that its seen in the last couple of years. For those of you who don’t know, it was actually one of the very first Disney fan sites on the internet and for a period of time considered to be one of the Big 5. As more sites came on-line, we tried to differentiate from the rest of them as much as possible.
Netcot quickly became the opposite of everyone else. If other sites put watermarks on pictures to prevent you from re-using them on your own website or computer – we put up twice as many in higher quality without any watermarks. If other sites banned people, we encouraged people to speak their mind and be constructively critical about EXACTLY what they thought of Disney-stuff. The format worked. People found Netcot to be a refreshing change … except other sites, who seemed to see us as an enemy. To this day, I don’t understand why we couldn’t just all get along.
We then hand the brilliant idea to massively redo the site with a new design that was unlike anything else out there. It was an ambitious idea… and it didn’t work. The site eventually launched (on our 4th design concept) 3 years later than expected. We came back on-line and found that only a small group of core fans were still there waiting for us. (There was also a whole “legal” incident related to a misunderstanding of our satirical approach on ride reviews – but I’ll save that for another day).
We regrouped, retooled and restarted.
The latest generation of Netcot started a little over 2 years ago when we launched the Netcot podcast. Since then, Netcot has become bigger than ever! The podcast has been one of the featured iTunes Music Store podcasts (on iTunes & AppleTVs) for 26 months in a row (“Kids & Family” category)! Tens of thousands of people download the show each month. Our first-ever video podcast episode also continues to attract attention over at YouTube.com.
Last June, we launched the newest version of Netcot.com, this time determined to be one of the best sites to find the biggest and most interesting Disney news. In the last 6 months, well over a million people visited Netcot.com and the numbers continue to grow every week. Google’s news site polls Netcot.com frequently and often uses Netcot as a news source in their Google Alerts system. We’ve even been told that some radio station DJ’s have mentioned Netcot as their source of a Disney-related story.
We’ve even attracted the attention (in this case, GOOD attention) of Disney themselves, who recently wrote us to clarify confusion of Netcot visitors over details of a press release we covered. We got advanced notice of these corrections a full day in advance of the press release being corrected and re-issued to the media!
There are a number of people that have also stepped forward and offered to help at Netcot. We have 5 people on “staff” that donate their time to helping out with the site writing editorial articles, covering news stories and publishing original artwork for the site. We have a number of sponsorship deals in the works, including one with an upcoming book publisher. And today, our first full page ad hit a targeted magazine audience…
The site continues to grow in popularity and I continue to be amazed and thankful to everyone who follows it, listens to the weekly podcast and participates in the message boards. Their passion for Netcot fuels my late nights of keeping the site updated and cranking out a podcast. Long after Johna and Kyler have been asleep, I can be found in the “studio” working on last minute editing before that week’s show is launched.
I’m thrilled about where the site is now and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here…
I’m finally catching up on some sleep. I’ve started the process of going through our now 600 picture collection of Kyler’s first week and I’ve posted some from the day we brought him home from the hospital. Click the image for the gallery of all pics.
If you stopped by our blog in the last 2 weeks, you might have noticed some funky things (like the word “array” appearing all over the place or worse, no blog at all).
Longstoryshort: we moved to a new ISP after I (Kevin) screwed up the blog and got extremely poor assistance from the former ISP company.
That was just the last straw I needed to finally make the jump to the same provider I use for my professional blog site. The move is complete and everything is back to normal.
Now … on to our regularly scheduled blogging…
I’ve been a fan of YouTube for a long time. From the time my parents bought their first VHS camcorder (weighing in at the weight of a small toddler), I’ve always been interested in recording stuff to video. When I got to high school, I suddenly had access to equipment where I could edit the videos, which was amazing.
Today, kids have Macs and $100 worth of software that allows them to make videos that look phenomenally better than anything I ever created. What’s more, kids have the ability to send their creations to a world-wide audience via the internet and sites like YouTube.
Its never too late to start taking advantage of that, right?
During our last trip to Disney World, my sister and I decided to do our own version of the in-room TV special on the “Top 7 Must See’s” at Disney World. This is a 30 minute show that plays continuously and features an over-excited host that talks about nearly every attraction on the resort’s property. We set out to do a parody of it and broadcast it as an episode of the Netcot Podcast and also post it on YouTube.
We’ve posted some new pictures from our last trip to Walt Disney World.
We’ve also updated our site to add a pictures link at the top, where we’ll keep a running list of all the photo albums we post on the site. Yes, I am “nesting” in a very “geek” kinda way. This will allow me to more easily update photos on the site without having to update HTML code each time I do it. I have a feeling once we have a baby, that’ll become a handy tool.
