We currently have the next 9 weeks of motivational quote pix in the bag. We'll be putting more of them together soon. We've got enough to last at least through the summer.
Watch for the newest pic with quote to be posted at 10 AM Eastern every Monday. We hope you find them motivational and inspirational, and that they help you on your road to success!
"There is no security on this earth; only opportunity." – Douglas MacArthur
The very last pic from the very end of the evening. This was taken at CNY Karate’s 50th Anniversary banquet on October 6th, 2013. This is one of the musicians, Nikoro-san (his nickname) and I. We became good friends over the previous week. Bonded over a shared (over)use of technology!
What happens when you turn your new camera over to a curious high school student? Sometimes, you get some really good photos. And sometimes the subject of the photo could be better.
I recently accompanied a client to Niagara Falls to shoot stills and video for them. His 15 year old son was curious about my camera, so I turned it over to him for a while. As you might think, some of his photos turned out poorly. And some turned out okay. A couple (out of maybe 50 or so shots) turned out pretty good – surprising for someone who’d never used a DSLR before.
One of the “okay” ones was yours truly, taken near the building on the American side that leads down to the Maid of the Mist boat tour.
Speaking of the tour. . . I had a number of people look at me like I was crazy for taking my DSLR on the boat and into the heavy spray from the falls. The didn’t believe me when I said my Pentax K30 was weather sealed. I’ve been using Pentax cameras for 30 years, and I’m happier with them now than ever before. I highly recommend their DSLRs.
You’ve written your book. It’s published – print, ebook, audio, maybe all three. You wrote a first draft, then a second, third and forth. Then there was the editing. Sometimes you changed a line, or a paragraph. Sometimes it was a word, or just a punctuation mark. But you’re tired of the damned thing, and it doesn’t matter anymore because it’s published. You can forget about it.
Well. . . no. You can’t. Novel or non-fiction, in order for people to stumble on it by chance, loving every word and telling all their friends to buy a copy, the book must be promoted.
Here’s a sad (perhaps) fact for you: all that effort to write your book is just the tip of the iceberg. In order for you to become the next shining literary beacon, the bottom 90% of your iceberg needs to be completed. You need to be interviewed, to be quoted, to do readings for rooms small and even smaller. You need to remain completely upbeat when getting up early and staying up late for phone interviews, saying the same things over and over again. Blogs and magazines won’t go out and find your book on a store shelf, rushing home to read it and gush over it to their myriad readers. It needs to be put into their hands.
Maybe we need some stinkin’ badges.
Man, what I didn’t know about badges! Games offer them & maybe FB too. Guess I’ll have to create some for my on-line learning area. http://bit.ly/161y4A4
I’ll be 50 years old in a few months. Next week, the karate school where I train – CNY Karate – is hosting masters from our home dojo in Okinawa City, Okinawa, Japan. Some of these people have been training in karate longer than I’ve been alive. As I was talking with one of the classes a couple nights ago, they asked me what the Okinawan karate-ka would be going over with us. Advanced techniques? Spinning jump kicks? Breaking boards while flying through the air?
No. They’ll be drilling us on the basics. In karate, that’s a small handful of blocks, punches and kicks. These basic building blocks can be put together in nearly endless combinations to achieve a martial artist’s goals. These can range from simple protection, repelling an opponent, causing limited physical damage, serious damage, or even death. Overall, the practice of the physical aspects of karate are really about learning to control your own body, mind and spirit.
I’m not 110% “full-on marketing” all the time. Most of the time, yes. But not all the time. Recently my wife and I flew across the country to vacation in beautiful downtown San Diego. We spent several days enjoying the sites. The Friday we were there, we drove about 40 minutes north to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, an 1800 acre breeding facility and natural habitat. Between the Zoo itself and the Safari Park, I took a bunch of pics.
These are just a few that I came back with. Click the image to see a larger version. Enjoy!
