Unboxing My NEW ALBINO BALL PYTHON!!!!

[aaschmitt]

just got back from vacation, so I just started reading these threads...

I have to say, I am so very disappointed. VERY disappointed. This is my first and only pet community and I have learned a lot from ball-pythons.net but you guys can be such a downer.

I have been following DBD's posts and youtube site since the first time he posted his youtube video. I am very interested in kids trying to make something of themselves. I bought my spider from an amazing 12-year-old who runs a buy-and-sell reptile store from his bedroom. His dad has an irrational fear of snakes (the reason why the snakes has to stay in his bedroom) but he supported him so much he found the courage to drive his son to meet me with 3 snakes in the back seat. He says the money he makes from selling snakes is going to his college fund. How many kids have the desire to do that these days???

I hired a 15-year-old babysitter last summer to watch my 2 kids while I work at the home office. On the weekends we paid him money to lay sod in our yard. He has been working odd jobs since he was 12-years-old. I asked him once, don't you ever just want to go out and have some fun? He told me, he enjoys watching my kids, so in a way he is having fun. Besides, if he doesn't work for me, he will have to watch his younger brothers for free, or if he doesn't lay sod on the weekend, his dad will put him to work on cutting their grass and trimming their bushes for free. So, he'd rather work and get paid. Most of his friends are either harassing girls at the mall, getting catatonic infront of the TV, or working themselves in and out of depression.

So, DBD wants to be the next Ralph Davis. AWESOME! If you're going to dream, don't settle for mediocre! His first video, like most typical teen-agers these days, is full of cussing, mis-information, what-have-you. But, he learned and his next video was better, although the comments didn't improve. He has a point when he said ever since his first post in here, he has been written off as a loser with scathing remarks to his posts everytime. He has only been on this for what, 2 months? He is improving in my opinion, although still far from perfect, but he is only going to get better with proper guidance.

You guys need to stop and think about what you are saying to a 15-year-old. I am very glad to see Brandon holding his head up, learning, and not getting discouraged. Any other kid would read your posts, give up altogether, and grow up working 9-6 making 7 bucks an hour on a job he hates at age 45.

To Brandon, I should have sent this to you on a PM, but I want everyone to know you have my support. Between my dad and I - we have over 10 businesses between us, so I know what I'm talking about. Our businesses are thriving partly because we don't let anyone rain on our parade. My advice to you: Don't worry about having to defend yourself over and over on the same issue. You don't have to reply to every single post and don't sink to the bickering level. You learned about quarantining very fast... instead of spending the time repeating to the naysayers about how you are now quarantining, tell us you are quarantining once, thank everyone for the advice, then spend the rest of the time learning everything you can about quarantine methods. Don't bother with this back-and-forth bickering. It's a waste of time and nothing good will come of it. Don't bother defending yourself again about previous posts either. Same thing, it's a step backwards instead of forwards. Nixer et al can belabor the point ad nauseam - responding point by point on it will only highlight the mistakes you made in the past. Learn, improve, and move on. These threads are helpful in that it can pinpoint really fast what you can improve on - e.g. quarantine, cussing, Lord's name, etc. etc. Don't focus on the negativity - just take note of the issue and apply it to your next video or next business step. Also, treat each video like a professional production, just like what you would see as an ad on TV. Look through the ads on TV (or even Snakebytes or 8ballpythons ads, etc.) and take note of your favorites and produce your next video along those lines - notice the words used, the tone of voice, the background music, the environment, etc. Each video is a representation of your business. Maybe even separate the day-to-day videos to a personal account and only post professional videos under your business name. Of course, this is just my suggestion. I've never advertised on youtube, so I can only provide information from my "standard advertising methods" experience. Also, don't limit your learning to this site. Although there is a great sticky up there on quarantine methods, a lot of the forum information are conflicting. My 7-year-old son has 9 reptile encyclopedias. One just on pythons, one just on cobras. He also bugs the reptile store owner and the reptile vet every chance he gets - questions like, how do you give oral medicine to a flowerpot snake? And I can tell you he knows a lot more about these snakes than me whose main source of information is this forum.

In any case, keep on doing what you are doing. Your collection looks great! I'm not a big fan of albinos but even so, I think he is very pretty. YOU ROCK! By the way, that guy Joshua has an amazing collection as well. He seems a little more established, so he must be doing this for a while. Are you friends? You can definitely learn from each other as well...

i can't agree with this more!!! i'm fairly new to this site but have avidly been reading and learning and appreciating this site until this i couldn't even stomach reading some peoples posts after the 3rd or 4th page, repeating yourselves, constantly picking apart a young boy, discouraging him even after he pulled ahead and was ENcouraged and fixed his main issue. is this some sort of who's better than who site, looking down noses at people less experienced than you? i didn't think it was. so he says 'jesus christ' he could be saying much much worse, lol, seriously, and he's keeping his cool as trying to defend himself. kudos to the people pointing him in the right direction in a constructive manner and those who manage to compliment his new addition, i won't personally only complain good luck guy