What is the Astrid Mascot, anyway?

But one thing is totally bugging me: WHAT THE HECK IS THE ASTRID MASCOT SUPPOSED TO BE?

Yes, I typed that in all caps because the question is SCREAMING in my head.

Is she a little octopus? A melted eraser? A character from Gumby who ended up on the cutting room floor?

I suppose life is pretty cushy when it’s questions like these that are your main source of anxiety.

EDIT: I audaciously tweeted the folks who created Astrid and they got back to me with the definitive answer: Astrid is a SQUID: “Astrid is an adorable little squid. We thought with all those tentacles Astrid would have some major multi-tasking skills!”

Whew! Mystery solved! And kudos to the folks at Todoroo for taking the time to answer even silly questions like mine!

The Sanyo Pedal Juice

HOWEVER, the Sanyo Pedal Juice looked like a quality product that would actually help me solve a real-life problem I was having, so I agreed to have Sanyo’s kind representative send me a unit to evaluate. Here is the info that piqued my interest (bold text my emphasis):

One Pedal Juice battery can provide up to 50 hours of continuous, stable power for a single analog pedal or up to 20 hours of continuous power to three digital pedals. Because the eneloop 9V rechargeable lithium-ion battery eliminates the need for AC power, the output voltage is more stable for longer periods of time without the possibility of AC ground looping noise. The battery can be recharged hundreds of times, thereby eliminating the waste and inconvenience of disposable 9V alkaline batteries. With two DC outputs, Pedal Juice can power multiple devices including pedals, multi-effect units, and portable recorders. Pedal Juice provides portable battery power to a single pedal or can be used to power several pedals at the same time.

So what is this problem I’ve been having? Well, space is at a premium in my practice room because it doubles (quadruples?) as my business office, my computer room, and the headquarters/packing station for the ArjenLucassen.com official store. It’s a pain to keep in any kind of order, particularly when things get busy — like during an album release cycle. So anything that can help me keep my work and practice area tidy is good in my book! As you can see below, I was in dire need of help in that department:

Ugh - Mess!

For me the main appeal of the Pedal Juice was that it might help clean up the demotivating MESS of cables in my practice space by eliminating 2 unwieldy AC adaptors. The Pedal Juice did not disappoint — behold the new pristine tidiness:

Order is restored

The Pedal Juice can be charged hundreds of times (it takes about 3.5 hours for a full charge) and colored LEDs tell you the charging status. It automatically stops charging when the battery is full, so you can just plug it in to charge and then forget about it. With other “non intelligent” chargers I would have to set a timer to remind me to unplug the charger once the charge cycle was complete (lest much badness ensue). I’m happy for any chance to reduce the things I have to remember to do, or that I have to program my phone to remind me not to forget to do. Seriously.

When you’re using the Pedal Juice, its 3-stage LEDs tell you how much power you’ve got left to play with: green at 60 percent power remaining, yellow between 30 and 60 percent, and red at under 30 percent. (I think you clever readers can figure out what happens at 0 percent power remaining.)

The Pedal Juice has an on-off switch — if you just switch it off when you’re done playing, you don’t need to unplug your effects like you do when you use normal 9-volt batteries. This may seem like an inconsequential feature, but when you’re in a massive creative slump (like I have been since 2007) you’re thankful for every little thing that reduces the hassle factor by even a nanosecond.

Another useful feature is that the power level of the Pedal Juice remains consistent at all charge levels. So you never need to throw away batteries that still have life in them because you don’t want them to run out midway through an important playing event. And if you’re one of those tone junkies who think you can hear the difference between a fresh 9-volt battery and a not-so-fresh one, then the Pedal Juice removes at least one source of “tone anxiety.” You can then go back to worrying about how much the solar flares and current barometric pressure are messing with your tone.

The unit is also shockproof and water/coffee/beer/blood-proof, which is a bonus if you’re playing in the kind of environments where your pedals might encounter water, coffee, beer, or blood (the first two are all that apply in my case). It’s got a solid, robust construction that feels decidedly sexy (in a gadgety kind of way, if you’re into that kind of thing). All in all, the Pedal Juice is a well-made piece of gear that does an excellent job at what it’s designed for. At first glance it may seem rather pricey, but if the features appeal to you I would not hesitate to say that it’s money well spent.

Disclosure: I was sent a Pedal Juice free of charge for the purpose of review. However, had I not liked the Pedal Juice and found it useful, I wouldn’t be writing about it.

The good

Qooforum is like any other forum, but with one major difference: it shares its ad revenue with its participants. Once you’ve signed up, all you need is an Adsense account and time to write posts on topics that interest you. After writing 50 posts, you can take part in the revenue share program, earning 50% of the Adsense revenue generated by the topics you start. The forum sections are not limited to music; you’ll find everything from Heavy Metal to HTML. Über-popular forums can get vast amounts of traffic, so if the Qooforum takes off, prolific posters could earn some serious cash.

The potentially not-so-good

Even though the idea of making money by wasting time on the internet has undeniable appeal, I do have some reservations about the QooForum revenue sharing model. Their users have a massively vested interest in generating ad clicks…can you say Click Fraud City? And because QooForum uses your Adsense ID to track your earnings, you could find yourself with a banned Adsense account if Google whacks you for invalid clicks on the Qooforum site.

Additionally, it’s in users’ interests to post as many topics as possible just to increase their potential earnings, which is likely to have detrimental effects on the quality of discussion. However, given the lowest-common-denominator level of discourse on many popular forums, this is somewhat of a moot point.

Cunning time-saving ploy

If you already spend a lot of time writing in online forums (or a blog, for that matter), you’ve got nothing to lose by setting up an alternate Adsense ID and giving Qooforums a try. Simply start topics about things you are already writing about elsewhere, then just copy and paste what you’ve already written. Evil, but efficient!

[This is a sponsored post, but as many readers here probably frequent various forums, I thought you might find it interesting.]