Aside from my continuing QOTD posts, I haven’t blogged shit in months.
I have always maintained the stance that I only get to writing when the inspiration hits. Something really interesting happening; a great synthesis of random thoughts forming a whole; something in the news that I have a crazy, unique angle on.
For the most part, I have transferred a lot of my great thoughts and words of wisdom to video form — check out my YouTube channel for those. A lot of what I would’ve written about, I speak on now.
Any who, think of the following scenario. I know many of us have had this play out in our lives from time to time…
There is some change, long overdue, some move we need to make in life. But our laziness, lack of urgency, plus the fact that the status quo — though not great — is not hurting or causing us more discomfort than we can handle, prevents one from getting off our collective asses.
That one was me. This was the relationship I had with my HP laptop, over the last 6 or so months.
Alas, the motherboard (defined in layman’s terms: an expensive piece of a laptop that usually costs you more than a new laptop would) of my old laptop got fried somehow, and that was that. When I asked that repair shop guy why/ how this happened, he replied: “Why do people die from heart attacks or cancer at age 30?”
One thing that showed me is that things can end at any time — only change is guaranteed in this life, nothing more. Personal relationships, business deals, fortuitous situations that make things easy for us, life itself — any and all of these can end any day, and we find ourselves behaving as if we have eternity to do the things we want to accomplish.
So now I’m back, new laptop in lap, and it’s time to go to work.
And a funny thing has taken place in this no-computer-having time — really about the last 60 days or so: I have a helluva following out there, and demand for my name is at an all-time high, and rising.
That’s somewhat crazy, and somewhat not.
Crazy because I haven’t even had my signature on a professional basketball contract in 18 months. In my visions back in 2003, I’d always figured that playing — in actual pro games — would be the way my name would ring out.
Not crazy, on the other hand, because shit — I’m connected to my people and they know where to find me. Simple as that. I made it that way, and it will remain that way.
DreAllDay.com has set high-water marks in readership/ site visitors every month in 2010 so far, even with me not able to check the stats for the final 2 weeks of May. That makes me feel good. As for YouTube… Well if you’ve been to my YouTube channel, you know what it is.
So, enough talking. I’m on the verge of reaching critical mass on this here Internet, and I gotta make it before the next motherboard fries. There is no Plan B.
For those not up on my YouTube exploits (I’ll be hitting the 1 Million Video Views mark in about 72 hours), I have been doing a weekly VLog in which I answer whatever questions My people wanna ask. Here’s Volume 5, split into 4 parts:
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago at 4:31 PM. Add a comment
So we have made it another year. I am very thankful for that. I can still walk, talk, run and jump, and I’m thankful for that.
As I go through the course of day-to-day activities, it gets easy to get so used to what I have that things can be taken for granted, which is why a day like Thanksgiving is a perfect time to think and reflect on just how good we all have it.
I am thankful for having the opportunity to do the things I’ve always wanted to do, and thankful for knowing there is a lot more to come. And I’m thankful for all of the great people — family, friends, business associates — that have an effect on my life.
I’m thankful for everybody who has ever come across DreAllDay.com or Dre himself; everything that has happened in my life up to this very moment has made me who I am. And I wouldn’t change a thing. So if I don’t say it enough, Thank You to you all.
Now back to the program.
Posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago at 12:17 PM. Add a comment
Dre Baldwin has not always been a superstar, on his personal website he writes interesting stories about how he used to spend countless of hours on the playground, practicing all parts of his game. As we all can see his hard work has paid off. Dre has played in many of the best leagues in Europe: and yet he is still trying to take his game to the next level – the NBA.
We caught up with the Dre and if he makes it, he promises he won’t let his online fans down..
1) Where are you going to play this season?
I am going to play wherever the best overall situation is going to be. I have not signed yet.
2) We have all seen your many NBA workout videos on YouTube. When is your plan to play there and what team would you prefer to play for?
I want to play in the NBA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! I feel I can step on a practice floor and compete right now at that level. Of course we all know the business does not work that way so in the meantime I’ll be working hard and keeping my eyes and ears open.
3) What kicks will you be rocking this season and why?
I grabbed a couple pairs of the Nike Hyperdunks as soon as they dropped back in Summer 2008 and I have played in Hyperdunks every day since. I think I’ll be sticking with them for the time being, unless I come across a pair of Nike Shox BB4s (the Vince Carter “Boings”) or Nike Flightposites. Both are older, out of production kicks that I had in the early 2000s so I’m not holding my breath. The Hyperdunks are great for me.
4) Will you keep your website then/if you make it to the NBA, will it affect your activity there?
Good question! I’ve seen a couple professional athletes fall back on their online activity and social networking over the past year or so. A few times it has been after they posted something that drew unwated attention and some just stay away completely out of fear that teams may think the player is not dedicated to their full-time work. Neither of the above is the case with me, however, and let’s face it — most people KNOW me because of / from my online activity, not the other way around. So to answer your question, I will NEVER stop my social networking/ website activity because I have reached a new level in my profession. My Internet fan base/ following is very important to me and I wouldn’t isolate myself from those people to appease an employer. I would, however, not be as ‘wide-open’ as I am now in terms of my choice of words and commenting on certain other NBA players’ situations/ actions. Employees are subject to rules.
5) Who is your favorite player besides yourself and what do you especially like about him?
My favorite all-time player would be Mike Jordan because of his competitive spirit, winning attitude and leadership. Not to mention all the highlights! Also Scottie Pippen because of his all-around game and that my playing style has been favorably compared to Scottie. Another forgotten player I’ve always liked is Steve Francis, I would really want to work out with him sometime.
I had a vision of having my own website as far back as 2003. I wasn’t sure of what I would name it, or how I would design it, or what type of content it would contain, but I know I wanted it. My vision grew as the Internet and its capabilities grew, and I finally set about obtaining a domain name almost a year before the site ever saw the light of laptop screens. I started out with a do-it-yourself 100% HTML site that was way more work than it should have been. Thanks to some good tips from some very smart people, I changed over to some much more user-friendly hosting, and the rest, as they say, is history. And history is still being written.
Now, it’s been 365 days, over 100,000 page views, and numerous design changes, and we’ve made it- the first birthday of DreAllDay.com!!! Special thanks to Phu for all the support and behind-the scenes grind work; GoDaddy.com and WordPress for their well-made infrastructure; and anyone who has ever come across this site — even if only for 1 second — because every one counts.
And make sure you tell a friend about the fantastic things going on at this site. The best is yet to come!
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 11:59 PM. 2 comments
The good ‘ol MySpace salute photo, back when you know, we actually used MySpace. Needed this to have the admin team over at Tom’s place shut down some copycat profiles. Those were the days.
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 11:50 AM. Add a comment
So lots of us are using Twitter now in place of good ‘ol MySpace. And I’m enjoying the new social network. I network, share/ hear interesting stories, and get information thru word-of-mouth that I otherwise may not have known about. And I feel I should voice my opinion on some annoying things that the otherwise good, wholesome people of Twamerica are (wrongly) doing over there…
1. If 50% or more of what you tweet is/are re-tweets of other folks, I gotta drop ya, friend. I follow you to hear (read?) YOU, not them.
2. If you are having a long-running twit-convo with someone else, please, please, PLEASE do not re-tweet the whole convo to all of your followers. If any of your followers gives a damn about yall’s convo, they’re likely gonna be following you both.
3. Lots of Twitter users have websites or blogs that they will plug from time to time, which is great- people gotta know your business is open, right? Right. However, when you post a new blog entry/ business plan/ video, you are hereby asked to limit your plugs/link twits to 2 per day. Anyone who doesn’t read your shit after you linked to it twice just aint interested.
4. Most smart people get this, but a string of twits that read,”Just waking up;” “Driving to work;” “Making dinner…” will not draw a follow from me. Everybody goddamn wakes up (God willing), and goes places and does things over the course of their day. Twit about what makes your day unique and different from others’ experience.
5. Write something in the Bio section. If you can’t think of anything to say about yourself, your twits damn sure won’t be worth reading.
I’ll stop there.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 5:23 PM. Add a comment
