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Shop the Arkansas Dream Center Mall

December 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I have had several people ask me how they can get involved w/ helping needy Children in Central Arkansas have a Merry Christmas. Of course I always point everyone to our website at The One, Inc., where we are currently helping roundup coats for several hundred kids that need them. Something else Donna and I are very active in helping with is the Arkansas Dream Center, we’re hoping to touch the lives of thousands of families in Arkansas this Christmas season by providing those in need with a holiday experience they can enjoy. This requires the help of everyone at New Life, along with churches and organizations across the state partnering together to gather gifts and donations for those in need. Please take a few minutes to browse the gift options below and pick out which gifts you would like to provide for a family who would enjoy it. Place that gift in your cart and check out and we’ll take care of the rest. Thanks for participating in making the lives of thousands of people statewide just a bit brighter this holiday season.

Payment is handled through Paypal, which uses industry-standard encryption on all purchases. You may pay with credit card or through your own paypal account. If you prefer, you may also text ARDC to 85944 to donate $10 which will be deducted from your next phone bill. Standard messaging rates may apply.  If you have problem viewing the website below, please visit: http://ardcmall.com

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Current Projects, Faith / Family, Homelessness Tagged With: , , , ,

Wimpy’s Combos – Photoshoot

December 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I met our manager, Greg, at Wimpy’s this morning to take some high-resolution photos for use on our new menuboards. I was a bit concerned how everything was going to turn out because a) it was 7am and I’m not alert until 11am or so, and b) I haven’t shot anything w/ my Pentax K100d in so long that I was afraid I might forget how to use it.

Well, long story short, we managed to get some great shots of our combo’s that include the sandwich, fries, and drink. I literally can’t wait until Wimpy’s Jonesboro opens up over the next few weeks. I just hope all of my Jonesboro peeps have gym memberships lined out because I promise you this is not diet food by any means…

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Current Projects Tagged With:

Support the Arkansas Dream Center

December 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I have people ask me all the time how they can get involved or support our non-profit, The One, Inc., or The Arkansas Dream Center. The truth is that there are hundreds of ways you can help out, the best way is to visit both of the websites for these organizations because they both have updated lists of current needs for anyone looking to help out. If you are familiar w/ The One and ARDreamCenter, you probably already know that both of these organizations do a lot of great work! This time of year we could really use your support financially in order to make an impact in our community.

My good friend, Neil Greathouse, sent me a note earlier this week about a cool fund-raising program the Dream Center has going w/ Q-Pon Revolution, an electronic coupon solution, that will donate a dollar to the Dream Center anytime someone uses their app at a participating location in our area. The money generated from this fund-raiser will go directly toward feeding a kid at the Dream Center.

If you are interested in helping out, just visit the Q-Pon Revolution website and download their app and use it at the following locations:

  • Tropical Smoothie Maumelle
  • Tropical Smoothie Rivermarket
  • Shake’s Conway
  • Oak St. Bistro
  • Stromboli’s
  • Cherry Berry Conway
  • Pitza 42
  • JJ’s Grill
  • Hair Mechanics

Not only will you save money when you take part in this promotion but you will also be helping out The Arkansas Dream Center in a big way!!!

About The Arkansas Dream Center

The Arkansas Dream Center is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to helping Arkansans. We provide hope by meeting both tangible and spiritual needs. It is very simple. We are going out into the communities of Arkansas, we are seeking out the hurting and the hopeless; then we are doing whatever it is we can to meet those needs and to make life better. We reach out to hurting and needy children, families and adults across all races and cultures each week. The Arkansas Dream Center strives to help solve moral decay, crime, drugs, gangs, homelessness and poverty epidemics that exist throughout Arkansas. The vision of the Arkansas Dream Center is to see thousands of hurting people come to know a new life through the efforts of our staff, volunteers, and recently rehabilitated individuals whose lives have been dramatically changed. The Arkansas Dream Center works to partner with people all around Arkansas to reach the lost and help meet the community’s most basic and greatest needs.

About Q-Pon Revolution

Qpon Revolution is an advertising business based out of Little Rock. One of our core values at Qpon Revolution is Social Responsibility, and we do this through our QR gives back program. We sponsor local non-profit organizations in our community, such as christian organizations and charities. The QR gives back program rewards these local non-profits every time a Qpon is redeemed using the Qpon app. Each organization will be partnered with a local business(es) for a certain duration of time.  For example, NLC could be partnered with Tropical Smoothie Maumelle, Shake’s Conway, Pitza 42, Oak St. Bistro just to name a few. For each Qpon redeemed at these places of business, NLC will receive 50 cents to $1 per Qpon Redeemed. Typically the partnership duration will be a 1 month term. After this term has ended, the organization may have an opportunity to partner with a different local business. Through the mutual success of this partnership, both business and organization benefit.
In addition to these sponsorships, Qpon Revolution faithfully gives 10% of its profits to B.I.G Love Cancer Care, an organization that serves kids with cancer and their families in Arkansas and Texas.

 

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Homelessness Tagged With: , , , ,

Movie Review: Courageous

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The other night for “date night” I took my wife to see ‘Courageous‘ after a close friend, Lynn Wheeler, recommended we see it. I’m just going to say it now, this was probably the most moving film I have seen in a long time. The entire theater was packed w/ people who by the end of the movie would all be moved to tears (just like me). I’m not going to give away the plot of the movie or anything like that other than to say that if you are a father, soon to be father, even a husband or boyfriend, you need to see this movie. I can’t wait until it comes out on DVD because I’m giving them away as gifts to everyone I know…

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends Tagged With: ,

My Ongoing Battle w/ ADHD

October 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

In honor of ADHD awareness week (more)I thought I would do this post for those that may know very little about Attention Deficit Disorder. Over the years I have been very public about the fact that I have ADHD. This is something we didn’t discover until I was in my late 20′s / early thirties after I decided to be tested because I knew my reading comprehension was sub-par at best. Come to find out, most of what I read my entire life in school was never retained. While getting this diagnosis may have been a disappointment for some people, it was actually a relief to me in a lot of ways. It helped explain a lot that I had struggled with internally for a number of years.

Most people think of children when they hear the term ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. But 30%-70% of kids with ADHD continue having symptoms when they grow up. People with ADHD have an imbalance of neurotransmitter activity in areas of the brain that control attention. In adults, the inability to stay focused can derail careers, ambitions, and relationships. Many adults don’t realize they have the disorder, leaving them mystified about why their goals always seem to slip out of reach.

ADHD in adults follows a slightly different pattern than in children. Adults may be chronically late to work or important events. They may be disorganized, restless, and have difficulty relaxing. Some people with ADHD have trouble concentrating while reading. Mood swings, low self-esteem, and poor anger management are also common problems.

Coping with the symptoms of adult ADHD can be frustrating in itself. Additionally, many adults with ADHD have coexisting conditions such as depression, anxiety, or obsessive compulsive disorder. People with ADHD can limit these problems by seeking proper treatment. Personally, I happen to have a touch of OCD as well, not to the point of weirdness or anything but I can tell immediately if someone has been sitting at my desk and moving things around.

Once I was diagnosed w/ ADHD my doctor at the time prescribed a couple of different medications until we arrived upon one that actually worked for me, Adderall. Over time I have been able to have a productive life and accomplish a lot of things both on a personal and professional level so I consider myself extremely fortunate and blessed in that regard. In addition to medication, which has been updated and tweaked over time, I have also picked up some things that help me stay focused when it comes to projects that I might be working on. I am a freaking computer programmer / designer for crying out loud, the least little distraction for me at the most inopportune moment could cost me an entire day.  In addition to medication there are a couple of other things that I have implemented recently that I can already tell are going make a difference in my everyday life.  Here’s what I am implementing…

  1. Controlled Exposure to Social Media
    By controlled exposure, I am only going to check my Facebook & Twitter 3 times a day, and those will fall at times allocated in my daily calendar.  (Excerpt from WebMD: Whether you’re living with ADHD or just have trouble focusing from time to time, today’s world is full of concentration killers. Psychologist Lucy Jo Palladino, PhD offers a few tips to manage distractions, starting with social media. It’s easy to connect with friends — and disconnect from work — many times an hour. Every status update zaps your train of thought, forcing you to backtrack when you resume your work.)
  2. Allocated Times for Email Correspondence:
    I have always tried to respond to every email that hit my inbox as quickly as possible. This is really bad for a couple of reasons for me. In the future I plan on responding to emails 3 times daily, once in the morning, once at lunchtime, and once in the evening as I am shutting down for the day. (Excerpt from WebMD: There’s something about an email — it shoots into your inbox and itches to be answered immediately. Although many emails are work-related, they still count as distractions from your current project. You won’t make much progress if you constantly stop what you’re doing to reply to every message.)
  3. Organizational Tools / Calendars / Tasks / Notes / Reminders / etc.
    This is something I am currently struggling with since moving to the Mac from a Windows environment where every detail of my entire life was recorded in Microsoft Outlook. I am still fighting this battle but I think a solution might be in the near future regarding this area. As soon as I can get this streamlined, I can have a better idea as to where I stand on projects, etc.

For some more tips on staying focused, I highly recommend this article on battling distractions for people w/ ADHD…

Also, if you think that you might have ADHD, ask your family doctor to send you somewhere to be tested. Just finding out about ADHD made a huge difference in my life and it can yours too! If you have any questions about my ongoing battle, please feel free to drop me a note privately, or leave me a comment…

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Miscellaneous Tagged With: , ,

Fox16 – Operation Delta Blues (Updated)

October 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

The other night I couldn’t sleep because of a neck injury so I wandered into my office in the middle of the night and started reading some of the news stories from earlier in the day where Operation Delta Blues went down in my hometown was one of the largest drug and racketeering cases ever pursued by the US Attorney General. If you are unfamiliar w/ what all went down, there are several news stories available from media outlets across the region. Click here for a running list courtesy of Google News.

Once I had gotten caught up on the story and was able to digest the magnitude of what all had gone on I got to thinking and decided to create a t-shirt that could be sold online to help raise money for some non-profits that I wanted to support. The next thing I did was to design a quick graphic that could go onto the t-shirts, that didn’t take me too long to do since I already had an idea in my head based on the events that had taken place w/ all of the helicopters and federal law enforcement agents that were involved. You can see my design by clicking on the links below to place your orders.

Fox16 News Story: Click here for entire post…

Updated: 10/13 11:25 pm  Published: 10/13 5:57 pm

The historic drug and public corruption round-up in Helena / West Helena is already taking on a marketing life of its own with “Operation Delta Blues” merchandise. What better way to commemorate a massive federal raid on your hometown than with a teddy bear or what about an “Operation Delta Blues” tank-top.

Cotton Rohrscheib sees the federal raid on his childhood hometown of Helena-West Helena as an end to corruption in the Arkansas delta. “Everyone you talk to down there, yes they are upset that they are in the news again because of something bad,” Rohrscheib says. “But I’m looking at this like the mayor (Arnell Willis) and other people have said, this is going to be a turning point, things are finally going to get turned around down there.”

So the Conway based software developer says he came up with the idea for the “King Cotton Thread Company” on-line store at 2am earlier this week. “The thing everyone was talking about was the helicopters that they saw so I was originally envisioning the state of Arkansas, the Delta with helicopters, so that’s where the idea came from,” Rohrscheib says.

The t-shirts, mugs, and teddy bears are already on sale and he hopes “Operation Delta Blues” is remembered as a positive moment. “The town has some of the best people you will ever meet in your life, some of the hardest working people, but over the last few years that area has been taking a hit every time you turn around,” Rohrscheib says.

Rohrscheib says the proceeds from his on-line store will go to help building an animal shelter in Phillips County and for caring for the homeless population in central Arkansas through the non-profit “The Van”, as long as the FBI or DEA don’t come calling for using their likeness on the website.

“I think I’m ok, I hope I’m ok, if not we’ll take it down,” Rohrscheib says. FOX16 News placed calls to both the Little Rock office of the DEA and FBI about the “Operation Delta Blues” themed store.

FBI spokesman Steve Frazier says the public is not free to use FBI seals or lettering without FBI permission. The DEA did not return our call. In response, artwork on the website was modified Thursday evening to eliminate direct references to either agency.

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Current Projects, Homelessness Tagged With: ,

Memphis Heat: The Story of Memphis Wrasslin’

September 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ron Hall Autographed a Poster for the Wall in My Office!

Growing up in the mid-south during the 70′s and 80′s, every kid I knew was glued to Memphis Wrestling every Saturday morning at 11am on WMC-TV5. I can vividly remember sitting in the floor with my dad watching Jerry Lawler do battle with bad guys like The Dream Machine, Austin Idol, Handsome Jimmy Valiant or any other bad guy Jimmy Hart had brought in to dethrone the King.  I can even remember my mom loading up a minivan full of my 5th grade buddies early one Saturday morning in December, a long long time ago, to go see studio wrestling in person for my 10th birthday. I also remember getting a typed letter in the mail from Lance Russell a few weeks later wishing me a happy birthday and thanking us for coming to the show, I think I took it to school to show off to my friends the next day because he really signed it…

In the pre-internet early 80′s growing up in the country on the farm w/out cable television we had one of the earliest satellite dishes known to man so I had the opportunity to watch wrestling from all over the country but few things captured my attention and drew me in like Championship Wrestling out of Memphis. I am sure that there were a lot of things going on in the world at the time that I didn’t know about but I can’t imagine anything being more important to me as a kid, even the adults talked about wrestling like it was a real deal, sort of a soap opera like ‘Dallas’ or ‘Falcon Crest’, only difference it was men dressed in leotards and tights beating the crap out of one another. Of course we all knew it was a work, kayfabe or fake, but it was presented in such a manner that it didn’t really matter, much different than “sports entertainment” is presented today. Much different.

Well, this evening I talked my friend Charlie, who was also addicted to Championship Wrestling during the 80′s, to tag along with me to a screening in Little Rock of a documentary called; ‘Memphis Heat: The True Story of Memphis Wrestling‘. This is a documentary I had been waiting on for what seemed like an eternity. I was concerned that I had watched the trailer for this film on YouTube so many times that the film would be a disappointment by the time I got to see it on DVD, boy was I wrong. This documentary was off the hook entertaining and was worth the wait. I even got to hang out w/ Ron Hall, one of the producers of the film and the writer of ‘Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling‘.

The documentary was shown at Market Street Cinema in Little Rock, a theater I had never been and didn’t even know how to find, but the venue could not have been better. There was probably 40 or 50 people in the crowd, mostly all men (imagine that), and every time a wrestler would pop up on the screen that we hadn’t seen or heard about in 20 years we would erupt violently in laughter. Prime example, Tojo Yammamoto! I hadn’t seen or thought about that little guy in ages but when I saw him on that screen karate chopping people I was immediately reminded of a time in my hometown when wrestling came through to do a card at our national guard armory and I was so enamored by this guy that I was scared to go ask him for an autograph for fear that he would throw salt in my eyes or hit me with his kendo stick or wooden flip-flops.

This documentary had so many “high spots” as they put it in the wrestling industry that I could literally sit here all evening trying to list them all. It was so awesome to see guys like Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, Referee Jerry Calhoun, Jackie Fargo, Handsome Jimmy Valiant, and the late Sputnik Monroe talk about their days in the hotbed that was Memphis Wrestling. One highlight that I will share involves Buddy Wayne, a former wrestler back in the 70′s who went on to become a booker for Memphis Wrestling talking about wrestlers actually wrestling a bear, the entire theater was hysterical. I can remember Buddy Wayne chasing a group of us unruly kids out of the wrestling ring one weekend they were in town doing two shows at our national guard armory. About the second time he had to run us off we thought he was going to have a heart attack.

I could literally go on forever talking about how awesome this documentary was forever but I will wrap this up by promising you this, if you grew up in the mid-south and remember Championship Wrestling, and were drawn in like most of us were at the time, you absolutely have to get to a showing of this film when it comes to your town or own the DVD which will be available in time for Christmas. You will not be disappointed. I promise.

The only critique I have for the film was that they didn’t have Dirty Dutch Mantell in the film. I feel like he could have added a lot to the storyline of the movie. His blog is one of the best blogs out there and his books are probably some of the best written, genuine accounts of old school professional wrestling in existence. Dutch did a lot of the booking in the Memphis Territory alongside Jerry Lawler, Jerry Jarrett, and Bill Dundee.

In case you haven’t already seen the trailer to this film, here you go…

If you would like to order the book, ‘Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling’ by Ron Hall, you can click here to order it through Amazon.com. If you would like to order the DVD, you can do that online at http://memphis-heat.com.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Cotton Recommends, Miscellaneous, Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wimpy’s Burgers & Fries on Gowalla…

May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I was going to save the surprise for this weekend’s tweetup at Wimpy’s but couldn’t keep a secret! The new Wimpy’s Burgers & Fries spot stamp is live on Gowalla! I think it looks great, can’t wait to see how it stands out on the iPhone next time I get ready to check-in.  If you are out and about this Sunday in the Conway area be sure to swing by Wimpy’s for our tweetup, you can RSVP on Facebook but it’s not necessary!

Also, stay tuned to Wimpy’s Twitter and Facebook accounts for some awesome announcements coming up in the very near future!!

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , , , ,

Wimpy’s Burgers & Fries

February 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

wmpclogoThis next month Conway will witness the grand opening of Wimpy’s Burgers and Fries in the Towne Centre Shopping Center across the parking lot from the all-new Cinemark Theatre. Wimpy’s will serve an array of American food ranging from our Signature Wimpy Burger to soft serve ice cream, click here to see full menu.

The Conway location is still in the process of being renovated but everything is coming along right on schedule. This past week some of you might have noticed that the new copper roof went on and the new wood floors are actually being put down today. To create a family friendly, entertaining, atmosphere Wimpy’s will also will have flat screen HDTV’s around the dining area as well as free public WI-FI access. As of right now there are also plans to add outdoor patio seating sometime down the road…

If you want to learn more about Wimpy’s you can visit www.wimpysconway.com, that lists the menu, news and information related to the grand opening, and links to download job applications. Also, to build momentum and boost awareness prior to the grand opening, Wimpy’s is using social media to give away free food to random friends on Facebook and Twitter, so if you haven’t already, I recommend following the links to Facebook and Twitter above and connecting with Wimpy’s.

If you are interested in being a part of the Wimpy’s team, please download the Employment Application below and either return it by mail to: Wimpy’s Burgers & Fries, 28 Sutherland Road, Conway, Arkansas 72032, or you can email it here…  (Download Employment Application: Application for Employment (doc) / Application for Employment (pdf))

Click on the gallery below to view photos from the recent renovations at Wimpy’s…

 

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Current Projects, Miscellaneous Tagged With: ,

It’s All About Clean Underwear…

October 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

manpacks_logo-300x100 A few weeks ago my good friend Arlton Lowry and I were talking about a few startups that we had ran across lately and he started telling me about this subscription based website called Manpacks that was geared toward a male audience exclusively and would basically allow them to go online and order new underwear, t-shirts, razors, and socks that would be shipped to their doors every 3 months.  I immediately remembered that my mom used to always tell me to wear clean underwear when I would head out on business trips, etc.  At first I didn’t take Arlton seriously and I had to go to the website to see this for myself.

Talk about pure brilliance.  Their website is clean and easy to navigate, men can setup an account and configure exactly what they want in their manpack and have it shipped to their front door.  Genius.  I also love the way the guys promote the idea,

We created manpacks to give men (and the people who love them) more time to build empires, climb mountains, slay dragons… to achieve the goals they aspire to.

The more I thought about this idea, the more I got to thinking, how old are the boxers I have on right now?  I immediately sent a link out to about a dozen or so of my guy friends and got a ton of positive responses from each and every one of them.  Today I posted on my Facebook a message to all of my followers regarding Manpacks and the feedback there was overwhelmingly positive as well. 

I did a little research on Manpacks and discovered that the startup consisted of two guys, Andrew and Ken.  I immediately sent Ken an email since he is sort of the community manager / promotional guy for the company and asked him if he would be interested in coming on The Cotton Club to discuss their startup and tell us a little bit more about their service.  I hope to hear back from him soon so we can get them on the show to promote the idea in time for the upcoming Christmas holiday.

Manpacks has everything I look for in a startup, a unique product that people need and can relate to, and a simplified process for ordering.  From a business perspective they also have a unique recurring income model w/ their subscription based service.  I can’t help but believe that this is a company that will be around for years to come. 

Filed Under: Cotton Recommends, Miscellaneous Tagged With: ,
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