How many of you have taken a look through the BFTB Apparel store recently? Go ahead, raise your hands. "One, two, three, four" ... wait, why am I counting? The store tells me how many of you have visited.

Anyway, since launching the store last week and putting out a call for ideas, we've loaded a few new items to the store in the last few days:

• We now have apparel sporting Bolts From The Blue's masterfully-crafted logos, thanks to QuesaDiaz. When looking at the logo apparel, be sure to check the front and back of all items as there are items on both sides.
• We have workout gear (running gear) emblazoned with "RUN MOAR" thanks to aesimpleton's suggestion. There are plans to expand the line and have a whole slew of running and workout gear with the RUN MOAR tagline. Our fearless leader plans to represent Bolts from the Blue with the RUN MOAR apparel in the Chargers 5K this summer - no doubt in an effort to burn all the calories he'll consume once he eats his hat - you should join him.
• We have a "Faith and Arrogance shirt", as well as a customizable "AJ's Ego" shirt where you can type up your own tag-lines and have it made. There's other stuff, but you'll have to go look for yourself.
• The shop is up to 11 distinct items for your perusal; with plenty more on the way. I'm still awaiting approval for some of the graphics I uploaded to the store. Expect more BFTB Logo apparel to show up once those graphics are approved.

In the previous thread, we were overwhelmed with your suggestions and ideas. You guys really are creative and I got a kick out of your suggestions. Just because you may not see your idea in the shop doesn't mean I didn't like it, I may not have had a chance to add it to the store yet, or figure out the best way to implement your idea.

That said, we're still open to suggestions or ideas. If you have an idea, throw it up in the comments below or post it to Twitter (making sure to address it to @BFTB_Chargers). If we like your idea, of course, you'll still get a commission. One thing I should point out though: something as simple as "you should put the logo on a polo shirt" won't warrant a commission. While we appreciate the suggestion, if a phrase/graphic/logo is already in the shop, then it's no longer subject to commission. We're looking for your original creative ideas.

So go ahead, take a look around at what we've added. I've also added a sidebar widget with a link to the store, now you'll always be able to get to it. It's kind of hard to miss since it's just a solid yellow "Faith and Arrogance" shirt. Keep sending us your ideas and you may end up with some cold hard cash.

Also, you can get free shipping on any order over $50, just use coupon code SHIPFREEUS at checkout.

So, some of you may know this has been in the works for about a year and a half now. I was put in charge of getting BFTB apparel - namely: shirts - designed and up for sale. Well, I have this incredibly bad habit of over-extending myself and volunteering myself for too many things at once. Usually in that case, something suffers and gets back-burnered. In this instance, it was the apparel store.

Well, you'll be happy to know I finally got off my butt and opened the Bolts From The Blue Apparel Store!

Right now, I'm working on getting the designs made and put into the store. As it is now, we have two (competing) shirts and I'm working on getting a hat into the store. Some of you may have already seen the hat idea, you can expect to see that in the store soon once Spreadshirt gets back to me answering my questions.

John and I have brainstormed and come up with a few designs we think are clever and you'd like. I'm still working on getting them down on (digital) paper, but they will be made and the products populated into the store just as soon as I get the designs made.

Did you read the title to this post? Wondering where your help is needed? Well, make the jump to find out how you can help us, and even make a little money for yourself in the process.

Continue reading this post »

There's been a lot of bitching and complaining each week about Richard Wade's "Two Minutes of Hate" weekly post that run on Fridays. He has been heavily criticized for them, as have I for allowing him to post "such garbage". To those people, I want to say "Stop trying to ruin a good thing, you mouth-breathers*."

Richard's posts are the highlight of my week, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a couple of humorless jerks take that beacon of light away from me. I gave up smoking recently because I want to live longer but, if I give in to the soccer moms and deny myself a guaranteed Friday afternoon chuckle, what's the point of living longer? I'd just go back to smoking, but that would mean everyone is a few years closer to Zach running BFTB. You do not want Zach running BFTB.

After the jump, I will show you haters the error of your ways. I present, for the first and probably last time, Things That Made Me Laugh: The Two Minutes of Hate Edition.

Continue reading this post »

It's been a while since I've done one of these, so bear with me.

There are lots and lots and lots of you that read Bolts from the Blue on a regular basis and have never, ever commented or even joined our little community of die-hard San Diego Chargers fans. Just to give you an idea, we get about 200,000 visits to our site each month......and we have a little less than 4,000 members of the site.

This isn't rare, most communities are like this. I can't tell you how many times I've bumped into old classmates or meet new people or even talk to members of my extended family and hear them tell me that they check the site every day, only to respond "I don't have one" when I ask what their name on the site it.

There are so many reasons to join BFTB, and I'll run through a handful of them after the break, but the two most important ones are these:

1. It makes visiting BFTB about 10x more fun. Seriously. Suddenly, instead of just reading and thinking things over, you're conversing and trying to back up your opinions with stats to win a debate in the comments. It turns you into an expert on the team, even if that's not what you were aiming for.
2. It is totally, completely and 100% free. Your experience is made 10x better, and you don't get charged a nickel. How can you say no to that?

Continue reading this post »

A site news post? Yeah, those are always fun. Thank you in advance, readers, for taking a moment to respond to our poll asking how you found your way to Bolts from the Blue. We're trying to evaluate the different means we use to reach San Diego Chargers fans and your responses will help us to do so.

Also, if you wouldn't mind letting us know how you find your way to our humble blog on a regular basis in the comments, that too would be most appreciated. Have you bookmarked us and made it part of your regular rotation, or do you pick and choose articles as you see them promoted on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, etc.?

Without readers, the blog serves no purpose other than to make John Gennaro feel important, so thank you again for helping us to reach more of you. Anyways, back to our regular programming tomorrow. Go Chargers!