Every now and then a new device comes out that changes the landscape of the computing industry and other industries associated with computers. The GUI, Windows, The MAC, IPhone were all game changers and truly affected how people managed and utilized their information. The IPhone was more of a game changer than anything before it, simply because of the open source nature of it’s apps. Now anyone, as long as they adhered to the API could create, publish and sell apps for whatever they wanted. This made the IPhone much more useful than just a smart phone with e-mail capabilities.

Now you could have e-mail right along with an app that let’s you figure out the correct price to charge for an 8X10 (It’s telling me to price mine at $65 dollars), chat with friends on Yahoo Messenger network, while taking in a round of Vegas slots and setting your goals for the following day. Now I think Apple is gonna change the landscape once again with the IPAD and I think this device will be revolutionary and we’ll probably see it incorporated in a lot of other devices that now would be controlled with the IPAD. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on one and I think with the shortage of supply it will be post tax time before I can sit in my yard, sipping a cup of coffee and read books on the IPAD or surf the web while laying in bed and not have to haul my laptop around..

IPAD from Apple Computers

You know i’m a firm believer that if you let negativity dwell in your mind, there just won’t be any place left in there for creativity… Having said that, lately I’ve been dwelling on a rather negative issue and I think it’s about time I disclose it to the followers of my art and life. This past year I was approached by several local studios in the South Asian community to help them attract higher end clients. Each approached me to introduce them into my market and even offered their services for free (usually video) just so I could entice my clients to hire them.

Now I am a firm believer in the fact that “Good is never cheap and cheap is NEVER good”, that is why I hold myself to a higher standard in all things surrounding my business. I have taken the time to create albums that clients love, even if it has taken a few days or a week longer than expected. In the end the product delivered was of high quality. If a client ever had an issue with me, it was dealt with me personally. I don’t have a front end girl answering the phones and college students shooting the events for me and editing them. When my clients have booked me, I have shown up to shoot the event and delivered the final product.

For one reason or another I didn’t get a good warm fuzzy from these studios.. therefore I declined to help them because I didn’t feel that my clients had anything to gain by me introducing these studios to them. I turned them down and went on my merry way only to discover something later on. Each one of these studios had gone out of their way to copy my work, even go as far as to copy the images from my website and blog and use them in their marketing. A few were confronted and profusely apologized but I don’t believe that the practice has stopped. I was recently approached by a few clients who had booked these studios for their events only to tell me how they were not happy with the images or the product delivered was nothing compared to what was shown to them in the consult.

So back to the point and case in hand… I urge, no implore people to really do their homework when hiring vendors and hire quality vendors and spend a bit more for quality. This is your big day, the day you start your married life and the only thing you will keep will be your husband and your photos and video. I strongly urge you to spend the extra and hire quality and not cheap out in this area. I can’t tell you the number of times I have had a client get married at the Ritz or on a cruise ship and went with a cheaper photographer, only to turn around and wished they had hired me for their event.

Also, as a personal favor, if you have seen my work on this site and see it anywhere else, please do me a favor and let me know.

Sadly, they are not mine… LOL!! They actually belong to a guy who is much smarter than I in financial matters. His name is Bob Brooks and he is the guy that I trust my retirement fund to. He sends out his thoughts and commentary on current financial news on a fairly regular schedule. With his permission I will be posting these newsletters in PDF format here for all my clients and friends to read. Hopefully it will give you some food for thought in these strange times we are going through.

FWIW, his contact info is in the PDF and those that are looking for someone to guide their portfolio through tough times, you owe yourself a meeting with Bob and his staff.

Prudent Financial 10-10-08 Newsletter

You know… I now hate turning on the TV, seriously. It is such a HUGE source of negativity that 10 minutes in front of it makes me wanna beat my head in with bricks of ramen noodles. I mean with the elections, the economy and the mood of people just in general has caused me to stop and think.

Now most of you know that when I stop and think there is a lot of smoke and noise and it takes me a while.. But here is what I came up with…

The Election

Seriously I was hoping that by now I would be a US Citizen so I could vote, but sadly that did not happen (well I could have but I had a wedding commitment on the date when they had the oath ceremony) so now I will have to wait 4 more years before I can be elligible to vote. However, even if I could have voted, I don’t really know who to vote for.. I have no clue exactly what the candidates stand for except they are all promising us a lot of free stuff.

Free health care, free housing, free massages on saturday nights and free lawn care service or god knows what. Look, here is the deal… I don’t want any free stuff, I don’t want you to tell me where I can buy my healthcare (anyone seen the mess in EU countries?) nor do I want you to pay for my house or tell me exactly how much money I can make, how expensive of a car I can drive or how big of a house I can live in.

Seriously… you are the government, of the people, by the people… don’t forget that, your job is to enable the people to strive for greatness and to really do go all out to achieve as much success as they can. One should not be penalized for the amount of success they have achieved as long as they are successful without breaking any laws or hurting others.

The government should get out of the business of fostering increased welfare and enable people to be productive, to get out there and make your life better and in turn make lives of others better. You should foster industries within our country, provide incentives to businesses to keep jobs here, find ways to help factories work more efficiently so better products are created. Help auto factories here create more brand awareness and more consumer loyalty. The government should give incentives for individuals to go to school, learn new things, better their lives via education. We should put a greater emphasis on education by helping universities bring in more kids who want to go to school but can’t afford it. The government should go out and get a body of some of the smartest people in our country and have them form an advisory board of sorts to see how we can create more industry in this country of ours.

The Economy

To secretary Paulson, stop giving these corp idiots more money to squander away, I have worked with way too many Fortune 500 companies to know just how wasteful they are and how much they love to take care of themselves. How about you take the 700 Billion dollars we gave you in charity and use that money to foster industries such as a mass transit system that connects not just the major cities but the suburbs as well. Hey we can create an industry, create jobs and also help global warming.

To those who are in danger of losing their half a million dollar homes… Wanna trade??

This is the time when we should go out and spend money not because it will help the economy but because why not?? What would you rather do? Spend money and buy stuff that you can enjoy and have or money that you put away that will be lost due to the market?

Honestly, you guys should order more photos from your weddings… Seriously, I mean tons and tons of 4X6s and 5X7s and heck even 8X10s. LOL.

To the Politicians

Get over yourselves… You work for us, the average american. You are not sent to Washington to pad your wallets or take care of your friends and then every 4 years fling mud across the aisle. You should be ashamed of yourselves, grow up, stop acting like whiny babies and do your damn job. If you don’t want to or are not capable of looking beyond the party lines and lobbyist loyalty then get out of the way. There are a lot of VERY qualified individuals who are capable of stepping in. There was no need for you guys to tack on stupid crap to the Charity Bill that was passed for Wall Street. Things like incentives to a factory that makes wooden arrows… what were you thinking?

To America

We are sorry… We will work to make you the shining example that you once were. We will work harder to return you to your former glory days, even if it means we have to bust our butts harder, pull ourselves together and make lives better for ourselves and each other.

If you’ve stuck this far, remember your life, your destiny is in your hands. You should not look to a government in debt to bail you out, you should look at your own strengths and your desire to do good and achieve success as motivation to get out there and make life better for yourself and for others.

I leave you with this… 5:26 worth spending to learn from history to make our future secure.

Live one day as a lion than a lifetime as a sheep.. or something like that you know. For me that is HUGE right now since i’m doing a total overhaul of my image, my brand of photography and the clients I take on for next year. This year I am truly blessed that the risks I took last year paid off and I have some of the coolest clients, who trust me to do the thing I do at the most important and the happiest day of their lives.

The awards tonight were pretty cool, I absolutely love Ellen Degenres because she has such a self effacing personality and her giving the script to Marty Scorsese and then having Spielberg take her photo with Clint Eastwood.  I think she’ll be back to host a few more times and IMHO she has been one of the best hosts in recent years.

Now the thing that really got me were the picks for the main categories.   First and foremost, it was Marty’s night with The Departed… 

This movie has STAR POWER…  Damon, Nicholson, Dicaprio, Sheen and Baldwin are some of the biggest names and they are all in here and they are directed by Scorsese.  Marty is a GREAT director and yeah some of his stuff is overrated at times (Ragging Bull) but this one was right on. 

Oh and how can you forget Forest Whittaker, even tough I wanted Will Smith to win it was nice to see Forst Whittaker take the award home.  I loved him in Phenomenon with Travolta but in the Last King Of Scotland he was a notch above.

Then you can’t forget Jennifer Hudson from AI…  So she didn’t make the Idol cut but GOOD LORD does that girl have someone looking out for her?  I doubt she had ANY idea when she was cut from AI that in a few short years I will be accepting the OSCAR for best supporting actress.  Good for her on all counts and quite honestly this should make people think before they vote on AI.

To the person who gave me the flu virus at the workshop 2 days ago….   THANKS A LOT!!!

Was Jerry Jones thinking by hiring Wade Phillips?  I guess he did get someone for his 3-4 Defence he’s been wanting to run for a while and really one with ZERO playoff wins so anything he does in comparison to his prior performance will be a step up.  

I seriously think that Jerry got himself a proxy coach who was looking for yet ONE MORE CHANCE in the big leagues.   Why oh Why didn’t he get Norv Turner or even get Jason Garette to be the new head coach?  Look at what happened to the MAVS when Avery Johnson took over, heck he could have gone and asked Troy Aikman to leave his broadcasting duties and put on a headset…  He would have been a GREAT coach compared to Wade Phillips.

P.S.  Now if they do end up winning a few games in the playoffs, I’ll be the first one to come on here and apologize or delete this post so there is no trace of it..