Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 16:23:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Larry Moss <moss@fooledya.com>
To: bhqnews@balloonhq.com
Subject: Balloon HQ News February 1999
Balloon HQ news for February 1999
My rambling about current happenings on BHQ last month generated a lot
of positive feedback to my e-mail box, so I'll do my best to make this
a monthly posting with updates, pointers, current discussions,
industry announcements, and generally anything that looks useful to
share with the balloon industry. I'm still working on when the best
time to make this posting is, but the exact timing on sending this out
will vary depending on my workload each month. - LM
The latest article in this series will always be available at
http://www.balloonhq.com/bhqnews.
This "issue" of Balloon HQ News contains the following topics:
* BHQ's new look - A much needed overhaul of the home page and an
ongoing project to make BHQ easier to navigate.
* Industry spotlight - With the creation of a new look, we will be
highlighting the best the industry has to offer right on the home
page of BHQ. Maybe your work will be chosen.
* The NASA balloon car contest - Interesting things happen at NASA
all the time. Finding new ways of using balloons happens to be one
of them.
* Searching tips for Balloon HQ - As BHQ grows, finding things
because a skill. These tips should help you out.
* Balloon HQ directory - Giving and getting job referrals. We do our
best at BHQ. Maybe you can help.
* Upcoming events - As usual, we list the events that are coming up
in the near future.
* Balloon fabric creations - This chapter in the Guide discussing
what most people refer to as weaving has been so popular that it
has received an incredible overhaul, including online video
instruction.
* The ever popular and ongoing BHQ photo contest - We have a winner
of the last photo contest and a new contest starting now. There's
also a big contest coming up later in the year.
* This month's additions to the photo collection - Once again,
additions have been made to the BHQ photo album.
* Recent twister discussions - Some of the hot topics of the past
month on the twister list.
* Recent decorator discussions - The talk of the balloondeco list
this last month.
* New products or other announcements from outside of BHQ.
* This news letter brought to you by ...
BHQ's new look
Ever since Balloon HQ acquired its own domain, we've wanted to give it
a new look. We've been hard at work behind the scenes improving the
less noticeable areas to help things run smoothly and make sure the
information we had available could be found. While we've always
believed in the adage that you can't judge a book by its cover, or a
web site by its home page, we also believe that an improved site needs
to look the part.
The new cover of BHQ is notable in several respects. It's more
streamlined so it will load faster, look cleaner, and be easier to use
as a jumping off point on your web surfing. This improved navigation
is something that you'll be seeing over the coming months and years
throughout the site. (But please bare with us. Aesthetic changes will
happen very slowly. We're sticking with our old beliefs that content
is the most important thing we have to offer and we're concentrating
our efforts there.)
Most importantly, we want the home page to reflect the ever changing
nature of BHQ. The insides are always changing, but that isn't always
obvious to people just perusing it every so often. Magazines change
regularly and always show new cover art. We're going to extend that
idea to our web site and offer new feature photographs each month.
As always, see the BHQ home page at http://www.balloonhq.com
Industry spotlight
If a picture paints a thousand words than there must be a story behind
each picture found on our new and changing cover. That's what we hope
anyway. With that in mind, we're hoping to highlight a new piece of
artwork from different people in the industry each month. If all goes
well, we'll have a new twister creation as well as a new decor photo
with every home page update. If you have a photo that you think would
make a good welcome to the site, send it in. If you can tell us a bit
about it too, that would be even better. A few lines, a recipe to
reproduce it, or a complete story about the photo you send in will be
greatly appreciated.
Current spotlight photos at http://www.balloonhq.com
The NASA balloon car contest
It takes a rocket scientist to do cool things with balloons. At least
these cool things. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab hosted this contest. The
idea was to build a model car that used two nine-inch balloons as
their only power source. Photos and descriptions of all of the cars,
along with descriptions of the event are on the 'net exclusively on
BHQ.
http://www.balloonhq.com/balloon_car/balloon_car.html
Searching tips for Balloon HQ
We often see questions on the balloon lists and our personal mailboxes
that go something like this: "I need help with this problem. I know
it's been discussed before, but I can't find the information when I
look through the Guide and the list archive." Whenever we receive
requests like that, we do our best to help people locate the
information they want. But lately we've been getting more requests
than we can handle. With that in mind, we thought it best to provide
some searching tips. This article starts with the basic searching
information that everyone should know. Some of the more complex stuff
is really intended for those brave souls that want to really explore
the power of BHQ searching. If some of the information presented here
gets more complicated than you care to deal with, that's fine. Come
back to it later when you're ready to do an advanced search.
There are three distinct areas of BHQ that can be searched
independently. These are the Guide to Balloons and Ballooning
(http://www.balloonhq.com/faq/), the balloon twister archive
(http://www.balloonhq.com/twistmail), and the balloon decorator
archive (http://www.balloonhq.com/deco). On each of those pages,
you'll see options to search those areas. In addition, you can now
search all three of those sections at once from
http://www.balloonhq.com/search.html.
Searching Balloon HQ is as simple as filling out a form and pressing a
button. If you have a Macintosh running OS version 8.5 or later, you
can use Sherlock to search BHQ directly from your Mac without having
to go to the links above. A Sherlock plug-in is available at
http://www.balloonhq.com/sherlock/.
For some time, I've been experimenting with search engines that we can
use on BHQ. That's not to say that the one in use on BHQ is bad.
Actually, I've heard from many people that have said they find it to
be far better than the search capabilities found on many other sites.
It is quite powerful and usually more than sufficient for the kinds of
searches the average person wants to do. There are, however, some
limitations which I will describe shortly.
First, let's look at what the BHQ search engine offers. When you enter
a word or phrase to search for, the default behavior is to exactly
match what has been entered. For example, entering "latex" will find
all documents that contain that word, and also list all of the places
within that file that the word has been found. On a site about
balloons, that's going to be far more documents than you care to read
in any particular session.
We can narrow that search by entering the phrase "latex allergy". That
will look for all occurrences of that complete phrase. The terms
"latex" and "allergy" need to be next to each other on the same line
of text for the search software to report a match. For example, that
search might locate the line:
A client of mine recently developed a latex allergy.
However, it would not find:
My client wanted to know how to identify an allergy to latex.
We can slightly modify the search term entered above to
"latex;allergy". This would look for the terms "latex" and "allergy"
anywhere they occurred on a single line of text within a document.
This form of the search would find both of the above lines of text.
What's more, the search page allows you to enter a number of errors
allowed in your search. That refers to the number of mistyped
characters. Or, you might choose "best match" for number of errors. By
selecting "best match", you might find a page that contains "latex
allergies", rather than just "latex allergy".
Only two major limitations still exist in this kind of searching. All
reported matches will be found completely on one line of text within a
document. So, using the above search term, a dcoument containing the
following will not be found.
A recent paper in the JAMA discussed the rash of latex
allergies that have been encountered in hospitals.
In this case, the two words in our search term are divided over a
couple of lines and will therefore not be found.
The remaining limitation is that you can't use the BHQ search engine
to locate numerical terms. For example, to find discussions about uses
for 130 balloons, searching for "130" would prove useless. Altavista,
one of my favorite Internet search engines, can be used to search for
particular terms within a site rather than locate the proper site for
some information as most people do. The search capabilities of
Altavista are rather impressive and highly configurable, but being an
all purpose engine on the 'net won't necessarily be up to date on a
daily basis with material on BHQ. I use both Altavista and the
internal BHQ engine depending on what I'm looking for. Further
discussion about doing detailed searches on Altavista is beyond the
scope of this article, but may be covered in greater detail in the
future if there's interest.
Balloon HQ directory
A number of people have recently posted to the BHQ mailing lists
looking for others to fill in on jobs or to give referrals. While
sharing work is a great idea, and one that we support, posting to find
a person in particular location is like posting to find a needle in a
haystack. You can expect that a couple thousand people will read your
message, while only one or two may be eligible for the position you're
offering. We ask that rather than posting to find a person in some
area of the world, you use the BHQ directory to find those people.
The directory can be found at http://www.balloonhq.com/dbindex. Go
check out the directory. See if you're listed. If you aren't, there's
a link to click on to submit your information. Searches through the
directory are as easy to do as searches for other information on the
site. However, unlike other things on BHQ, additions and changes to
the directory are not fully automated. I go through each entry by hand
and verify that the email address is valid and that other things make
sense. I'll never change an entry without first discussing it with the
person that submitted it, but I do my best to verify things. If I am
unable to verify the supplied e-mail address, the entry is not made to
the directory.
Over the last year, several attempts have been made to expand the
directory and add new features. I do have some things in the works
right now that will make updating your entry easier.
Upcoming events
International Balloon Arts Convention
March 10-14, 1999.
Chicago, IL USA
National Halloween and Party Show
March 12-16, 1999
Chicago, IL, USA
Australasian Balloon Convention
April 12th-16th, 1999
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Southern Ontario Spring Clown Conference
April 23-25, 1999
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
More information about each of these events and an updated listing can
always be found at http://www.balloonhq.com/events.html.
Balloon fabric creations
For some time there has been a balloon fabric tutorial on BHQ. What we
refer to as balloon fabrics are what others have been calling
"weaving". The reason for the name change, aside from being more
technically accurate (we have a discussion of the meaning of "weaving"
online), is that balloon fabrics cover a more broad range of
creations. "Woven" sculptures really only apply to a particular type
of balloon fabric creations.
In connection with Larry's new CD-ROM on the subject, the balloon
fabric tutorial has been completely revamped. We now have video online
as well as other cool stuff to help those of you that want to explore
that area of balloon art.
http://www.balloonhq.com/faq/weave
The ever popular and ongoing BHQ photo contest
The great thing about the Balloon HQ photo contest is that the winner
isn't determined by a set of judges that have preconceived ideas of
the types of sculptures that should win. Instead, everyone on the 'net
can vote. To win means that random people in the world, both your
peers and the folks likely to hire you, are the ones selecting the
work they like most.
The latest contest was for sculptures resembling humans. This was open
to wide interpretation. Some people sent in photos of very small
creations. Others large scale designs.
The winner of this contest was Otis M Baker, Jr. He will receive a
Balloon Pro prize package consisting of:
* BalloonsAway Drop Kit
* BalloonPro Net - 14x50 foot net and hardware, holds 1,300 #9
balloons.
* Heart Sculpture Drop (7 foot) - 1 net and hardware
* Star Sculpture Drop (7 foot) - 1 net and hardware
* BalloonPro Drop Bag for Low Ceilings - 42x120 inch net, holds 100
#9 balloons
* Economy Pack Metal Ceiling Clips - 2 bags of 100 clips and a
Utility box
Thanks to Balloon Pro for providing the prize. Learn more about
Balloon Pro drop kits by visiting http://www.balloonpro.com.
Check out all of the submissions to this last contest by visiting
http://www.balloonhq.com/photos/olddec1998.html
We are currently accepting submissions for the deflated balloon
sculpture contest. See http://www.balloonhq.com/contest/contest.htm
for more info on the current contest and the contest rules.
Coming soon, a contest for wedding centerpieces. Decorators, get your
photos ready.
This month's additions to the photo collection
There are far too many new photos this month to list them all here.
Check out the latest pictures in the BHQ photo section at
http://www.balloonhq.com/photos/newmonth.html
Recent twister list highlights
Twisters want light brown and Agate 260's, 280's, and most of all,
ANYTHING that glows in the dark! The twisters who gotta have every
shape and size in the full gamut of colors satisfy their cravings by
combining balloons from every manufacturer. Even the variation in
standard colors provides a wonderful contrast... for example, the
different greens available make fantastic looking stem and leaf
combinations. Wanna make your own balloons in your own balloon
factory? Latex Engineering B.V. will build it for you!
Balloons twisted by our very own Pat-in-the-Hat made an appearance in
the Robin Williams movie "Patch Adams." Meanwhile, on TV, it was
reported that Pinky of "Pinky and the Brain" fame tried his hand at
twisting but didn't have the lungs for it... all he could make was a
worm.
T (free hard copy catalog, just ask) Myers gave us some history on why
he made "the first High Volume, Low Pressure, Self Standing, Vertical
Piston, Manual air pump, designed to fully inflate a 260." His pump
turns 14 years old this summer. We love you, man! However, small hand
pumps seem to be preferred at restaurants where room is limited and
electric pump noise is not welcome.
Gold paint markers look great on black balloons, and a brown Sharpie
looks particularly nice on the new gold 260's. We also learned that a
small can of cheap hair spray is good to have in your pack to remove
stray Sharpie ink from your hands.
Teaching balloon twisting garnered a lot of attention this month, and
we've accumulated a lot of new material for the Guide. Pat-in-the-Hat
and Bruce Kalver released new books, and John Holmes shot another
video. But lest we forget, an experienced entertainer pointed out:
"balloons are only part of the big picture. The personality that you
convey, your appearance, and your entertainment value completes the
whole package." Boy, this is a demanding biz!
Recent decorator discussions
Another Valentine's Day came and went. Just like last year, the number
of posts decreased as people worked late for this big day... which
wasn't as big as usual due to its falling on a Sunday. Next year V-Day
comes on a Monday. It's too bad Hallmark can't just take it over and
make it a Wednesday every year :-)
This warning came out again: be careful not to donate yourself out of
business. When corporates or non-profits tell you they will trade you
decor for advertising, beware! Some of these people that call for
donated decorations are professionals at getting free stuff. Don't
give in too easily to a plea for free or discounted decorating...
often when you refuse to donate, money miraculously appears. It's
great to help your community but you're in business - don't forget you
have to help yourself.
Yvonne contributed this slick trick for getting balloons off the
ceiling: just have a big roll of balloon ribbon with a 16"
helium-filled round attached to the end. Add loops of clear packing
tape (sticky side out) and you will be able to get down every single
balloon that goes toward the ceiling. In addition, you'll have a
grateful mall staff, impressed customers, AND you'll probably even
retrieve a few that you didn't sell!
In the new product department we got the INFLATE-a-BUDDY. From AGA
Balloons' "Fur's A Flying" line, INFLATE-a-BUDDY comes in over 20
adorable styles and has a multitude of uses. Next we want the
LINK-O-LOON! (the versatile, round big brothers to the Bee Bodies so
familiar to Twisters ). The boys down under have been using them for 8
years and we still don't have 'em in the USA. Alan Perkins, get
cracking!
Need an attachment point on a round balloon? Don't use glue, use the
"the belly button technique" or what the Twisters call a "Raisin
Twist." Drop a washer or coin into the balloon, inflate and position
the coin where you need an attachment point. Grab the coin thru the
latex wall of the balloon and tie your ribbon or monofilament around
the coin. Voila'. Ohhhh, the possibilities...
Many other subjects got worked over, including how to heat seal (get
that neck flat and seal twice), where to meet clients (at the site!),
bow machines (a good investment if you intend to use it often),
deliveries (make sure the recipient will be there!), centerpiece
rentals (use the "savings" to sell more decor!), and much, much more.
Stay tuned!
New products or other announcements
Pat in the Hat's Alligator Hat Book features the creations made in the
movie Patch Adams. Twisters that want to know what actually went into
the movie may want to check this out.
Attack of the 50 Foot Demon by Larry Moss teaches you how to make
massive creations out of twisty balloons. Featured on this CD-ROM is
text, drawings, and video of balloon fabric creation. Many techniques
are demonstrated and an example of a 15,000 balloon creation is
provided. See http://www.fooledya.com/book/attackof.html
This newsletter brought to you by ...
This BHQ newsletter has been compiled by the Balloon HQ editors.
* Larry Moss(moss@balloonhq.com)
* Mark Balzer(mbalzer@balloonhq.com)
* Sheena Beaverson(sbeavers@balloonhq.com)
The Balloon HQ web site can be found at http://www.balloonhq.com.