Q:What is paq-land.com? A: The entire reason Paq-Land (PL) exists is to provide keep people between the ages of 14 to 25 (or those older and still frickin' care about such matters) in the loop on popular topics in entertainment and digital lifestyle with a satrical spin on things... you know, just to keep things interesting.
I have a big passion for pop culture anyways, so I don't really mind working on the page. You could say I have no life, but I don't give a shit, atleast I have something to show for it, lol. Anyways, if it's entertainment related, it will most likely be talked about or open for discussion at some point.
PL takes what I like about blog sites and combines it with what I like about "actual sites" like IGN. I'm not in a blog format like the rest of the world because I can't stand the way it's presented -- it's one big page of posts. I tried it; hated it. Besides, I love writing and pride myself on the quality of the content put on the site -- so the format I'm using works because I get the best of both worlds.
Demographically, the page aims more towards the urban crowd, due to the constant coverage of hip-hop music and it's culture in today's society. However, I do cover pop and rock music to a degree in an attempt to balance things out more. I'm INCREDIBLY eclectic in terms of tastes in music, movies, and television so I try to get that across in the content from time to time.
To my knowledge, more females visit the site than male, but I would say that it's some of equal at some points during the month and depending on what article is up and hot at the moment. I try to stay in the loop with most trends, but I am not in high school anymore lol. The page will mostly lean towards people my age, but still, the appeal is for 14-25 year olds.
In a nutshell though, PL is an extension of my personality. I put my soul into this web page and what you get here is pretty much me in real life... Minus the pink and purple color scheme, lmao.
Q: Why the name "paq-land.com" ? A: I get asked this A LOT, so the name is here because my online name has been "PaqMan" for years and I run the site, basically. Yeah, I'm aware the name of the page has nothing to do with the content these days, but back when I got it the site was a lot more personal and, er, bloggish. I would change the name to something else more fitting, but that's too much work (and money) at this point lol.
Besides, most people are used to the name now and I refer to it as the more ambiguous "PL" most of the time anyways.
Q: Dude, the site hasn't been updated for a MONTH! WHAT GIVES?! A: There are only 24 hours in a day, and as awesome as I am, I don't get any more than you do. Sadly, I do have a job. And, as much as it sucks, I have a life outside of this site. Usually when I don't update the page for a good bit, I'm either reorganizing something, writing new material, dealing with girl/life issues, playing my Xbox 360 or PS3, working, or simply taking a break from the page.
Sometimes, I could have all the time in the world, but there isn't a damned thing to talk about in the news that I could give a hoot about. I'm not a blog site that posts something everytime Kim Kardashian farts (although I'm sure anything that comes out that great ass smells like roses). If I don't care about the topic, I'm not going to waste my time posting about it. Come scoop my cat's litter box for me if you desperately need some Jerome in your life. In the mean time, eat a dick because I'm probably working on an update.
Q: How can I contact the staff? A: If by "staff" you mean ME, you can hit me up at my e-mail address which is at the bottom of every article I write. You can also hit me up on Myspace and Facebook. Check the "Interactive" tab at the top of the page for a full drop down menu of how to get at me on Twitter and other social networks. I do check all of my social networking sites, but honestly, Facebook and Gmail are the fastest methods.
Q: What's your Xbox 360 gamertag? A: paqman3D. I'm currently playing Gears of War 2, GTA IV, Resident Evil 5, and Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. I'm currently not on Xbox Live, but go ahead and add me :)
A: Erm, I'm Jerome. You might know me by my first name, Curtis though. I obviously run this operation with an iron fist I have to get checked at air ports. I'm a 23-year-old Black male who lives in Columbia, SC and fancies himself as a pop culture buff (with a strong point being the 90s). I have a dorky and equally twisted sense of humor people seem to enjoy and a brain that works at 3 million miles per hour. I'm kind of a big deal.
Q: Why do you complain so much? A: That's funny. I don't really see myself as "complaining". I did in the past maybe, but these days I see it as offering an editorial opinion on something. How can I make a review of shitty album or movie sound great? Exactly, I can't. You couldn't either, so shut up.
Additionally, last time I checked this was my site. If you think I whine too much then make your own or don't visit mine. I don't have time to deal with you idiots.
Q: When did the site first start? A: Back in October of 1998. It was mostly a pokémon fanfic page, but slowly evolved into this over time. I was hosted for free on Xoom and Geocities in 1998, then on Tripod from 1999 until I made the move to paid hosting for paq-land in late 2005. Paq-Land officially opened on January 6th, 2006, but there is still enough of the older content and design elements floating around that I don't consider it a totally new site and more of a substantial upgrade.
Q: What happened to "The Gripe Files" section? A: For those unaware or new to my site, "The Gripe FIles" was my personal bitch space on the page for 7 years (2000 - 2007) with a cult following that actually enjoyed my complaints on pop culture, school, and life in general. However, I took it down for various reasons that need explaining.
One being a lot of the stuff was just way too old to be even that interesting anymore. My writing about pop culture topics (like Family Matters/Steve Urkel, TechTV shows, Britney Spears, etc.) were still pretty funny to read over again and actually aged well in most cases, but the main problems were with my gripes concerning school and my personal life. Most of that stuff I wrote when I was between the ages of 14 and 17. Considering I'm well into my 20s now, it should be understandable that I'm slightly more grown up than what the gripes were portraying me to be to new visitors.
YES, I know I updated almost every old gripe saying what changed about the situation or whatever, but nobody (other than my friends) EVER read those. If people paid my updates attention, I would probably still have the section up right now lol. I was just sick of people taking 2 sentences out of a gripe and trying to blow it up like I'm Satan on earth without reading the rest. It was extremely annoying because the haters acted like they knew what I wrote better than I do. Skimming/selective reading doesn't make you an expert, sorry. I may have cussed a lot, but I did have a good, solid argument buried within every single article I wrote.
The other reason is my mom and sister were all up in my business, albeit my OLD business, by purposely snooping on my site. I say "snooping" because they go to my site with the sole intent of reading my gripes. I even asked my sister if she went anywhere else on the page, like the editorials, music, or audio reviews sections, and she said she didn't even know those were on the site! Then she'd run and tattle every little thing from that section to my mom.
You know, that's fine, but the fact remains I didn't write that material with my mother in mind. Plus, my mom thought I'd get thrown in jail over saying a few cuss words online or something stupid. The fact I had to put up with snide remarks from them about the oldest shit that's new to them, but I've long gotten over, was annoying as hell after awhile. I guess nobody cared to read the fucking dates on the articles, either since they missed the part that said something took place in 2001 and not two days ago....
So, given the negative press it was giving paq-land and the headaches I got from trying to keep it updated and relevant, I had to junk it. Some of the ideas of that section will live on in the "Pop Blender" section which is up and running right now.
Q: What happened to Nathena's section on the page? Are you two still friends? A: Short answer, um yes? Just because I took her section down doesn't mean we hate each other lol. We mutually agreed to take it down.
Long answer, I took it down for a few reasons. Number one, after the huge fiasco caused between her and the geeks who attended USC (University of South Carolina) that flooded my old message boards in 2006, I decided it would be best if the site laid off the personal blogging stuff. I actually had the exact same issues with my Gripe Files section (see above); people got offended way too easy and it just wasn't worth the trouble keeping it up for rebelious reasons no matter how hilarious I think her stuff is.
She's still welcome to contribute to the page and we're still pretty good friends. Her articles either got moved to the review sections or editorials, so her stuff is still floating around here for the most part.
Q: What happened to Dragon's section on the page? A: I love Jon's (now performing under the name IllaStrayte) music, but it just ended up being a casualty of my site's reconstruction topic wise. I also removed all dedicated original audio sections because they felt like two different sites. I just had to chose my/my friend's music or pop culture topics and you know which one won that battle. Plus I was worried about people stealing our original content, so the entire audio wing of the page had to get cut. A few of his tracks will be in the downloads section whenever I get that done.. which is probably never since it's been in development hell since 2006 lmao.
Q: How much does it cost to run this site? A: It's actually less than you'd think. The domain is about 12 bucks a year while hosting is 4 dollars a month. It's extremely cheap for anyone to run a big web page these days.. I really don't understand why more people don't do it. I'm hosted on Godaddy.com (since 2005) and it's been a smooth experience so far. I would suggest getting hosted by them before any other company out there as they have proven to be reliable, have great customer service, and be inexpensive.
There aren't many other "mandatory" fees involved, though. I paid $25 to get the mp3 player thing, as well as $30 for the flash video player, and plan on doing other extra things like getting a professional photo shoot done with the staff for promo images, setting up a new forum, paying for t-shirts to get made, new audio equipment, etc.... That's just icing on the cake that'll cost me a pretty penny and is not needed for YOU to run a page.
Q: What tools do you use to make the site? A: For those budding webmasters out there, let me tell you that even if you get all of these programs I'm about to name, you're going to SUCK. There's no easy way or short cut around it. Read tutorials online and buy books to help you. I've been doing this for almost 10 years now and I'm still not the greatest. Just have patience and see what works for you.
ATI HDTV Wonder 650 PCI Express Edition (TV Tuner, screen caps, video capture)
You can find most of these programs online for free, preferrably via Bit Torrent. If you live near me and I know you fairly well, I might consider burning you some copies. Of course, if you have upwards of $5,000 to spend, you can buy it all legally ;)
Do not use Limewire or any other P2P program to get these as they are most likely FAKES or simply viruses. Do NOT come to me asking for help looking for them, installing them, or finding a serial number/crack for them. I'll be saying this a lot through out this F.A.Q., but if I can do it all myself then you certainly can.
Q: What kind of computer do you use? A: I use two computers... I switch back and forth between my desktop and laptop depending on what I'm doing or where I'm at.
Desktop Specs & Gear (Named "Xeus-III"):
I put it together back in August of '08 after saving my pennies and maxing out two credit cards (lol). Still got some work to do with it, but I'm more than pleased with it. I should also point out that I do not see the need to use a Mac when using a PC is a lot cheaper and easier to upgrade (not to mention use), so I'd appreciate it if you Mac heads would shut the fuck up already lol. Will I eventually buy a Mac? I'm sure I will with my music career down the road, but for web design and gaming, I'll stick with PC.
Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4 GHz (This is getting switched out to a Quad Core soon)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit w/ Media Center remote
4GB RAM (Four 1 GB DDR2, 800 MHz sticks.. looking to upgrade to six or eight ASAP)
160GB, 750GB, 500GB, 80GB hard drives
ASUS EAH4850 Video Card
VisionTek ATI TV Wonder HD 650
ASUS P5Q Deluxe Motherboard (this is the 2nd mobo I've installed on Xeus, the original Intel board I had on here failed after a power outage and they wouldn't value my warranty, which was supposedly 3 years, and I had only had the product for one. After 3 months of getting the run around, I just bought a new one)
HP 22" LCD Monitor (x2; HP w2207, HP w2207h)
Logitech z-2300 2.1 THX Certified speakers
Logitech Wave keyboard
Logitech MX Revolution mouse
Sony Blu-ray Playback drive (BDU-X10S)
DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe (x2)
Ultra m998 Mid-Tower ATX Case
Notebook Specs & Gear (Named "Chronos"):
I prefer using a desktop over a notebook just due to the amount of power I need, however, I did recently purchase a Toshiba Satellite T135D in February 2010 that is basically a scaled down version of my desktop because I'm out and about a lot more. It's really light and thin, so it has no DVD drive built-in, but with me not needing to optical media in the age of external hdd's and flash media, it wasn't a big deal. I didn't need anything too ridiculous in terms of specs because all I needed to do was run Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and I also wasn't trying to break the bank, either. It ran for $600, but it's most likely cheaper or has a new model by now depending on when you read this, lol. I enjoy it.
AMD Turion Neo X2 Dual Core L625 1.60 GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
4GB DDR2 RAM (Looking to bump this up to 6GB soon, Photoshop CS5 uses more memory than I thought, lol)
320GB Hard drive (I barely use it, all my site data is on a 4GB SD and most of my other files are on an 8GB flash drive due to me going back and forth between computers)
Integrated ATI Radeon 3200 Graphics
13.3" LED Display (1366x768)
3.9lbs
Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 (this is actually my 2nd mouse, my first one shat it's pants and I had to get a new one shipped to me. First my Xbox 360, then my mouse? C'mon, Microsoft!)
Q: Can you give me some help with my web site? A: First of all, define "help". If you mean me giving you constructive criticism on your page, if I have the time, then sure -- why not? If you mean do something for you because you're too lazy to learn it yourself, then forget it. Nobody helped me -- I taught myself this shit. It's not rocket science, it just takes a long time to learn it. Well, maybe not.. I see 12 year olds with better looking sites than this lol.
The only things I can tell you are the following tips: A. Know your audience. Figuring this out will help everything B. Design the page's navigation with the world's most idiotic n00b in mind. Doing so will ensure your design is retard proof. C. Finally, content is king. You can have the shittiest looking page on the web, but if your articles or whatever are on point, nobody will care. People want value. Going back to "A," Find out what people are into and something you feel passionate enough about making a site about.
And one more quick tip, if you want to make serious money off of this, do not do a personal site with pictures of your cats and shit. Personal blogging is fine with other content other people you don't know will actually give a damn about mixed in with it. Well, unless you're already famous then you can do whatever I guess..
Q: Can I pay you to design a graphic or web page for me? A: A graphic? Sure. I do flyers, CD covers, Twitter/Myspace backgrounds, and mostly anything related to your photoshop needs. My prices start at $35 and I prefer PayPal for payment. Drop me a line either on Facebook or use my e-mail to get in contact with me for a quote.
That being said, I will NOT make a web page for you. Sorry, but I'm beyond too busy with this site to worry about another. My suggestion is to get a domain with hosting and install Wordpress on your server. You can blog about shit that way and it's actually easier than maintaining an entire web site since posts are automatically categorized by year, month, and by subject. Google it.
Q: How can I contribute to the site? A: People always want to help with the site, which is cool, but understand I'm the only person who does the site upkeep and it can take a hot minute for me to put your article up unless it's extremely funny or covers a very hot topic I have yet to talk about in detail anywhere lol. So with that said, I'll be more than happy to accept any editorials or whatever you might have. Just send 'em my way and we'll talk out the details.
Of course, I don't pay anything, but you're the one who wanted to volunteer, so there you go lmao.
You can also donate to the page via PayPal. PL isn't ad supported anymore, so I'd be more than happy to take a donation to cover costs of upkeep and future expansion. You can check the donate page here for more information.
But perhaps the most important thing I ask of you is to tell your friends about the site if you enjoy it. Share the articles I post on Facebook or make bulletin posts on Myspace about the page. Everything will help.
Q: Can I get hooked up with *insert female friend here*? A: 'Tis true, I know a lot of sexy women. What can I say, I'm a cool guy! But, no, I'm not Cupid... and leave my female friends alone lol. Stalker ass. And here's a novel idea, how about you ask THEM? I could use some entertainment watching you get shot down.
