Sleeping with Darwin sounds a little kinky doesn’t it? He’d have to groom that beard before hand for me. Anyway, it was 3 AM and I woke with burden of Origin of the Species (affiliate link) upon my face. This is slightly uncomfortable in the fact it’s a hardcover book and is considerably weighty both in reading and mass. I was reading it (again) for research on some future topics that I want to cover here. Some of which I had planned on covering this month. As is sometimes the case, life gets in the way of our best laid plans. Darwin said it best when he said
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
I am not a religious person, but I do often think somewhere out there, there may be a force guiding things in our lives. I am not here today or any other day to get into a religious debate. If you celebrate Christmas or any other form of holiday where there is a reason for your family and or friends to gather together and enjoy the day, I applaud you. Too many people don’t have that opportunity. There have been a lot of things happening, both here in the Reptile Apartment Group and abroad both in the reptile industry and outside of it. These shall we call them incidents let’s say, will enact the forces for change whether for the better or not remains to be seen. We here at the Reptile Apartment Group have been involved in ‘change’ as well.
This is going to be a ‘personal article’ as we here at the Reptile Apartment Group feel that transparency into who we are has always served us best. If you follow us in the social networks you may have come across some personal announcements that weren’t put out via our sites. I think it’s about time we made some things known to our readers so they can understand why some of the changes have occurred and what we have planned in the new year of 2013.
As of May of 2012 I became unemployed. I now rely on the pittance of unemployment and the revenue generated by reports, subscriptions, and eBook sales of the Reptile Apartment Group. To that end, we have implemented some newer advertising which you will see in the sidebar and content that appears across the Reptile Apartment Group. You will also note or may have seen the bottom footer for social interactions a rewards program which is offered by PunchTab (non-affiliate). Basically what they do is give you free gift cards for visiting, “liking” on FB, and sharing our work via the social networks where you are already doing so. In the coming 2013 year we are going to use PunchTab to give away our own prizes as well. So if you want free stuff, sign up and earn badges and gift cards now!
In order to become a more effective group and provide better insights into the captive care of reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates we implemented the Reptile Apartment Peer Review Group. This is an invite only group which is made of up herpetology and herpetoculture professionals. They’re tasked with reviewing articles regarding the captive care of species that we write as well as the articles that appear within the pages of Herpetoculture House Magazine.
I have also invited Jo Taylor & Jim Shivers on board as Content Managers for three of the four sites within The Reptile Apartment Group. They have both graciously agreed to take on these tasks. For those unfamiliar with what exactly a Content Manager is they are tasked with making sure articles, interviews, and other such content appear on time and as it should. Jo Taylor is heavily responsible for the new and ever evolving look of Herpetoculture House magazine. By the way, on the subject of Jo Taylor she made the Editors Choice of The Reptile Report for her article on Praying Mantids which is no small feat so congratulations to her!
There’s been a lot of tragedy both in the reptile community and outside of it. There was the Pacelle ranting about the legislation, there was Glades Herp being accused of smuggling, Ben Siegel had someone pass away participating in a contest he ran and most recently was the incident with Global Captive Breeders. Newtown, CT was struck with a horrid nightmare that no one should ever experience this incident effected one of our own as it were with the nephew of Carl Barden being one of the victims that had his life taken. Within all of these incidents the points of legislation have arisen and they are rife with proponents and nay sayers for each and every argument.
I am not going to go into at this time, it’s a moot point to do so, my personal views are my own and rather than wax on about them and get into arguments over who is right or wrong. I will instead take action. I have grown weary of those who run their mouth about wanting change and doing nothing about it. As the old adage goes
“Action speaks louder than words”.
In the coming year The Reptile Apartment Group will be creating projects that benefit the reptile industry at large and we have already set some plans into motion that some of the industry will take issue with. However, there are those who will embrace what we do and those individuals will see a large benefit from what we are about to do. Some of these projects will, at first glance, appear on the surface to be similar to some of the other aspects of various other ‘players’ in the industry. For those that look beyond the surface they will immediately see and recognize the depths that have gone into these new aspects of The Reptile Apartment Group. We have conferred with numerous colleagues regarding a very large change we will implement within the industry and they have all agreed upon the project which will launch in January 2013.
One of the changes we will be implementing is showing those interested how to achieve and measure success in the reptile business without breaking the bank to do so. Will be sharing various insights we have learned over the decades we have been doing this as well as sharing the insights, tips, and tricks from the top breeders and product manufacturers that we have worked and spoken with on a level that most people haven’t. If you want to be in on the upcoming projects sign up for our free newsletter which is where we will announce the projects and be asking for further input.
In closing I would like to personally recognize my ‘staff’ publicly they aren’t really staff actually. I cannot call them staff because they do not get paid, yet they stand beside me and listen to my insane and sometimes (ok a lot of the time) monotonous rants about what’s happening in the industry. So to Jo Taylor, Chris Law, Melissa Coakley, Robert Sprackland, Lillie Nyte, Matt Herbert, Jim Shivers, Shelly Cox, Ron Tremper, Dr. McCormack, Dave Johnson, and Kevin Oskow I can never express how much I owe you folks in gratitude for being a part of the Reptile Apartment Group family. Also a shout out to all our contributors in the Great White North who make Reptile Apartment Canada possible.
Lastly, but never least in our books. You, yes you. Our readers and fans who comment, start discussions, share our work, and interact with us in the social networks and in the real world as well. We could have never made any of this possible without your support. To you, we are forever grateful! Why not drop a comment about how you will enact your own changes in the coming year either personally or for the betterment of the reptile industry?