February 23rd, 2010
The other night I was driving up the I-710 from Long Beach back to my residence in the valley and I happened to notice something very interesting. Twenty Two (22) 1-800-GET-SLIM/1-800-GET-THIN bill board ads on my drive up the I-710.
Either the I-710 corridor has an inordinate number of overweight obese people, or the company is basing it on the fact that its in an environmental and social justice area and the bill board viewing clients are most likely poor Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County who don’t know any better.
It does seem a bit excessive, since many of the signs are right next to each other. In fact I saw more than one instance where there were more than 2 on either side of the road in the same location. Gone are the days when bill boards had something interesting to inform the passing motorist, today the I-710 corridor seems to inform that you are a fat lazy bastard and you need to get slim by getting the lap band surgery.
I for one don’t condone it for people who are overweight and have failed in every diet to give something like this a chance, but this is Los Angeles folks, the place that started the trend called Size Zero (0). Are we going for the negative numbers now? I think this company is being irresponsible with their ad campaign. I hear their ad’s on the radio, tv and now on two sides of a freeway. Thank god it is not one of those fancy flashing electronic billboards.
Tags: Billboards, I-710, Lap band
Posted in General, Random Musings | No Comments »
February 9th, 2010
GRE, whats that? They call it “Graduate Records Examination” but in reality its more like relive your High School and SAT all over again. I am preparing for the GRE partly because I am not sure which school I am going to go to. Its a pain in the butt, but it has to be done. Ugh! Perhaps this is more of a rant than a witty blog, but why in this day and age do we have to take an exam to prove our proficiency in mastering the word list when we all know that 95% of those words will never be used in real life nor in our thesis papers. Yet we are forced to know them and use them correctly.
More thoughts, when I think of more.
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January 20th, 2010
This year I once again went to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. I took my lovely friend Vanessa as my date for the 3 days I was there. It was SO much fun. I don think she quite well knew what to expect. Needless to say Vanessa went hog wild!
The highlights of the 2010 CES was the fact that 3D TV’s are getting more standardized than what prototypes we saw last year. Still there is a lot of flux. The active/passive camp is going to fight it out for quite a bit. Samsung had some interesting demonstrations and I think their technology will prevail. Still the CEA group is expecting to raise the sales of new plasma/lcd tvs with 3D technology to continue capturing the market in the coming years.
I also was quite fascinated by the new wireless HDMI and wireless power transfer prototypes. I think they are quite fanciful that the bumbling village idiot will call it black magic!
On the Green Technology side, the stuff was just the same load of usual crap. However I was quite excited to see a T-8 LED fixture. I think that is has a lot of potential in the commercial energy conservation arena. I also found Ultralast with their new Green Power batteries (similar to Sanyo’s Enloop) and I look forward to testing them soon.
This years CES did not seem to have a lot of the prior years players. Not sure if the economy had something to do with it or not. Regardless it was a successful trade show and I look forward to following up with my contacts.
Tags: CES 2010, Environment, Las Vegas, Technology
Posted in Environment, General, Random Musings, Technology | No Comments »
December 22nd, 2009
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the LA Auto Show Press Day by Mazda USA for their unveiling of the new Mazda 2. It was a lovely unveiling and I had a great time. However I thought I’d write in on my Press Day Experience.
I’ve been a car nut since ummm.. 1988 or so when Jeremy Clarkson came on to Top Gear and said ‘Powwerrr’ all the while doing donuts. I fell in love with Top Gear. I still consider Jeremy Clarkson, Tiff Needles and Quentin Wilson as the dads who taught me how to buy, drive and power slide cars.
Needless to say 20 or odd so years later, I get my first opportunity to go to a Press Day event at the LA Auto Show. It was quite fun. I think its the ONLY way to see an auto show, with no crowds to fight over other than camera geeks and and press geeks. Its still better since we are much more well behaved.
Press day has its fun things. Jaguar had free alcohol and coffee for the press folks and Mercedes allowed people up close and personal look into the new SLS. Too bad the exotics were missing except for Aston Martin which Galpin Motors brought to the show (didnt see them but I heard later on).
Over all it was a wonderful experience. I totally enjoyed it. I look forward to doing it again if I could again next year.
Tags: LA Auto Show, Press Days
Posted in General, Random Musings, Transportation | No Comments »
December 17th, 2009
Zoom Zoom. That’s what Mazda say about their cars. I must agree ever since I’ve experienced the new Zoom-Zoom Mazda 2. I was fortunate enough to be invited by Mazda Motors US to be part of the unveiling of the 2011 Mazda 2 at the Los Angeles International Auto Show. The LA Auto Show ran from December 4th to the 13th, but my day was not with the general public. I was invited to the LA Auto Show’s press day which was December 2, 2009.
I’ve never been to a press day and that itself is a story to itself. However this is about the new Mazda 2. As sweet as the car is, the car is only going to be even sweeter when more details come out and when we eventually get to test drive it.
The Mazda 2 is well placed with its other subcompact “C” segment cars. However I think among its rivals it is quite the ravishing hunk. Sure it shares some of its innards with the Ford Fiesta, but its still different enough to say that Mazda has a winner on its hands.
The press day event did not reveal its engine size or interior, however Mazda promised it would reveal those as the days go by. I look forward to it.
I must thank David Harris of Mazda US for inviting me and Lisa Negri for being such a sweet heart even though I arrived a bit late. I also must thank Mazda for providing the sweet Flip Mino HD camera for us to help commemorate the birth of their new child. I must also thank Mazda for the sweeet Zoom Zoom Concentrated drink they had for us. I took one home to keep it in my fridge to remind me of the good times. I also must thank Jenna Britten from Rebel Industries for setting up the sweet luncheon at the ESPN Lounge @ LA Live. I really enjoyed it. I just wish I could remember who else was there. I am sorry if I forgot to thank you.
Tags: LA Auto Show, Mazda 2, Subcompact
Posted in Random Musings, Transportation | No Comments »
September 3rd, 2009
Living in Los Angeles has its benefits. It is the media capital of the world. Its a trend setter of sorts for mass media, what happens here is followed else where. The downside of living in Los Angeles is that if you listen to any sort of media especially the Radio, you are exposed to the same commercial music that has made the Grammy’s predictable since 1984.
Case and Point: Listen to AMP 97.1 and KIIS 102.7 FM any point of any day and you are bound to run into the same song playing on two stations. When 97.1 went from all talk to music, the press were told that the AMP format was to revolutionize commercial top 40 radio in the Los Angeles market. I am sorry to say those PR Folks, Industry Folks and CEO’s were wrong. It is just another manufactured crap station.
Give me back Adam Carolla & Tom Leykis. Give me back Indie103.1, give me something more than Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, or any of the American Idol Stars. I miss good ole music from creative people. I am not asking for the next Bach or Pagadini. I am asking for the LA market radio station to play more variety of music.
You probably are asking, why all this resentment. You rarely listen to the radio, you have a hard drive filled with music in your car. Yes I do, and I have it because I cant stand the same songs playing over and over again on my midday drive down the 5 to Orange County.
I’ve been a Radio DJ for 3 years. I know what I am talking about. I had a pretty popular on-demand variety show called the “Whatchamacallit Show” on KSSU AM 1580. Yes its a college radio station but it gave me quite a bit of insight into what users want. What LA needs is an Indie Radio Station and a person to fund it without questions and give me and a few more people the reins. I understand its a commercial business, but if you want to save the music, stop playing the same manufactured shit and give some airtime to bands that really have talent and deserve to be heard.
Posted in General, Random Musings | No Comments »
December 6th, 2008
So I have been involved with the guys at eInfoPro forever, some of us used to work at another place before they started their own company. They are the coolest guys and they know what they do and they do a darn good job at it. I had to write a blog to praise them on their abilities and how it has helped me garner a bigger slice of business for my start up.
eInfoPro is a daily data compiler of new business, commercial, real estate, mortgage and consumer data leads. They are a daily aggregator and they are one of very few companies out there that collect data from scratch. Its their data that many other companies resell for a profit. So why would one go elsewhere when you can get the freshest leads (eggs) straight from the source (farm). Nobody else I know has their leads as fresh as eInfoPro’s leads. Without sounding like a bad late night infomercial, I have to say that because their leads are gathered daily, you have a jump on the competition who sometimes are lagging anywhere from a few days to weeks behind. So you get first dibs in this very competitive market.
So how has eInfoPro helped me in increasing Global Tree Enterprises’s bottom line. Well I gave the boys at eInfoPro specific instructions looking for upcoming new business in the field of green technology and the environment. Using specific keywords they were able to target businesses that had just registered a new business with the State, County or City anywhere in the United States. Once we got that information, I followed up to see if they were interested in what we offered. 90% of the time, people were interested. 10% of the time people were too shocked to know that we found them already, knowing that they had just filed their new business. However once the shock wore off, they were more ready to listen to what we had to offer. In the end I have seen a 60% increase in profits and potentially another 40% of new businesses that could be tapped in the future.
That being said I am very happy with the results. If you are interested in increasing exposure and gathering more clients (even in this economy) – you should definitely give eInfoPro a call.
eInfoPro is located right in the middle of beautiful old town Pasadena, CA. Their website is www.einfopro.net
DISCLAIMER!
eInfoPro has not paid me for this endorsement. My endorsement is simply based on results that I got. Your results may vary. My involvement with eInfoPro has to do with me being their personal technology consultant. I help answer their numerous IT challenges, and I have been here from the beginning.
Tags: Business Leads, eInfoPro, Freshest Leads, Global Tree Enterprises
Posted in Corporate | 2 Comments »
November 3rd, 2008
In May 2008 my beloved 2000 Ford Focus LX finally bit the dust. I really did love that car. She never complained once until she reached 120,000 miles. That’s when it slowly started to have problems. Even so at 160,000 miles my beloved focus was a complete trooper. It even made a trip up to central California wine country with a sticking valve.
With her final breath at the Chevron Gas Station on Corner of Tampa & Nordhoff (incidentally the same place where I got into my motorcycle accident a week before) I had to go out there and look for new transportation (remember bike was in the shop).
So in this series, I will dictate on how I went about buying my new car.
Tags: New Car, Test Drive
Posted in Random Musings, Transportation | No Comments »
October 3rd, 2008
These days everybody wants to “Go Green”. No longer is “Green” a symbol of money and the all mighty dollar, but it has also known to be associated with greed and environmentalism.
Well what do you get when you put those three together? Well corporate America’s next big cash cow. Why do I say corporate America’s next big cash cow. With the increasing awareness of environmental problems and Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” fresh on the minds of the public, hearing the word ‘green’ and are being bombarded from every direction to be green and earth friendly has made the public more aware of what their impact to this world is.
So it comes to me as a surprise that corporate america suddenly can start producing “green” products in such short time. Products with labels & marketing that leaves good vibes and a feeling of elation that you have done something good for planet earth.
I ask, how green are these products. The answer is probably not as green as they would like you to think. A case and point “Earth Day 2008″. Retailers were in high gear promoting everything “Green”. I was walking in Walmart (yes not so green of me) and I noticed “tee shirts” that were on sale for a rather cheap price with a sign “Go Green in Style”. I was hey, finallWy almart is doing something good. However something looked funny, it did not feel like organic cotton and the price was way too cheap to be considered to be an organic cotton sourced material. Further more I do not believe they used “soy dye” for the printing either. In any case I had to snap a picture of the box that those tee shirts were put out on the sales floor.
The caption if you cant read it says “This product makes a difference. By using cotton from fields that are transitioning to Organic”. I dont know how that is going to be. From what I understand its not something you can transition to right away. Fields that have been used to grow commerical cotton cannot transition the next season to organic.
People who were buying these tee’s where all exicted that walmart is going green. I doubt this would be considered green under the eyes of the die hard environmentalists.
[Picture taken April 23, 2008]
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October 3rd, 2008
So the other day I was on my way to LAX to pickup a relative flying in from the midwest. As I was waiting at the light at the end of the ramp of 105W exiting sepulveda, what did I see….
Airforce One, well its not called Airforce One when the president is not on board but still, the plane was sitting at a remote bay. I had to do a double take on it. I did not have my camera with me but I did manage to snap a hazy picture of the plane with my iPhone.
Just to let you know that is NOT the current Boeing 747 based aircraft but the previous generation. They would not leave the current aircraft to be that accessible.
Interesting things you see when you least expect it.
[Picture taken September 23, 2008]
Posted in Random Musings | No Comments »
