Got home today and had to do some research on a software and was browsing around and came across this article in Yahoo.Com – It was about the UFC 104 which I failed to order via Pay Per View because I fell asleep on a Saturday. (Lame I know)

This article was about the UFC 104 winner Pat Barry or as his paycheck would say….Patrick Barry – This guy was a very hard working athlete, from 0 – 120,000 is what I call it….

A week before the fight he was literally going to happen, he was about to get evicted from his apartment, and with his willingness and his determination, he battled through….(of course hoping that the fight will not ran into any complications and get canceled for any reason)

Did the most logical thing, concentrate, train, work and show up for the fight and the most important part…WIN it!

After winning the UFC 104 tittle, bagged $120,000 cash prize money headed to the bank and cashed it in…..and yes…he did get to keep his apartment.

The full story can be read through Yahoo.Com’s Sports UFC section

I just loved this classic story of pure hard work and determination.  In today’s time especially with this bad economy a lot of people are just tied up with different challenges, it’s always this domino effect, when the economy starts heading for the down slope it’s just a chain effect, jobs are lost, cost of living goes up, everything just get’s a little harder to accomplish and that hoping to hit that big break becomes more distant, the mentality of We Live To Work becomes We Work To Live.  Times may get rough sometimes, but we always have to think that it’s another challenge we have to face and to face with an attitude of “yes let’s do this”, no matter how tough it can be for us, we always have to remember there is someone out there battling even harder challenges than what we are facing and solutions and options always fall through, the key is just to always push forward, give it your all and always be prepared to fail along the way, it just gives you more reason to push forward even harder and work harder for your goal and as I said………It will…..It will pay off in the end, this Pat Barry just proved it to me, and I hope you read his story.  It’s really cool!

Time is our gauge, it’s just a matter of time as we always say it is….

Hi people of the world!  I am currently moving all my blogs from BLOGGER to my very own BLOG – Took me some time to really do it.  Been so busy lately.

This would obviously be my first post.  Check me out often as this time I got tons of new topics to talk about!

Another one bites the dust, it is just unbelievable how easily each and every one of us can be violated no matter how careful we all can be, we are all at risk. After my robbery incident in one of my jobs in Las Vegas last January of 2007 which is in one of my blogs (LINK) . A good friend of mine and a fellow photographer Jeremy Clover had his equipment stolen inside his own vehicle just like mine, but the only difference is they did not break is card like they did mine. Several weeks later a fellow creative/photographer and a good friend Henry Salari was robbed as well, both friends were robbed of their main tools of livelihood, this are the tools that create us, this are the tools that feed us, how dare this robbers/crooks violate us so easily.

We all know that this kind of people are people who do not think like normal people should think, I consider them the scum of society, the law may see it as a petty theft or another theft case, but this is grand theft to me, they have not robbed us of our equipment, but they have robbed us of our jobs, they took away all the hard work you put into building your equipment that acts as part of your job and the sad part is, they took it away in minutes while it took you months and years to put as much as you can together.

I am not saying this is the end of us nor this will stop us from doing what we love. I have gained it all and I have recovered from the mark those robbers have left in me, I can be paranoid all I want but still I am still very vulnerable just like each and every one of you are. All we can do is be extra careful and just be watchful for others.

If I see someone in forget to lock their doors in a parking lot I always inform them, I see someone in the train get up for a second to do their thing I always try to watch for the items. (it doesn’t hurt to glance around and be cautious)

I just totally feel for those who have gone through this, it is totally a bad experience, it is just like your favorite thing being lost or stolen no matter how small nor big it is, once its gone it does, it does crush you.

But as human beings we do adapt, we do learn and we do survive. Move on.

Wow! It’s now 2008 and it has been 27 days since I wrote my last blog, oh well, as I always say to myself, keep it updated on a daily basis, wow, 27 days is one long shot! Well things are about to change, with all the mobile blogging available and my new blackberry, I have not excuse not to update my blog as often as possible.

CUB 2008 – Catching Up with Business 2008 Part 1

This is my little journal in the business side of Creative work to see how fast I can catch up with my own business and produce a better year. If you have read my past blog for 2007, my start was a little rough, losing $75,000 worth of my gear was the biggest obstacle I had encountered. I survived and still trying to cope up with the loss.

As of 2008 I have started my new production company, ARO Media Productions, with new partners and crew, this project of mine really gets me pumped up for 2008, it has always been my dream to start my own creative production company, so now I have the chance and opportunity to do so.

Speaking to photographers/creative people who run there own businesses know it is not easy to joggle a lot of stuff and we all know not all succeed on a 1 shot try. Running / starting our own business can sound easy, but when you get down to details thats where all the headaches start to unfold.

We all know business is not just all about getting a DBA (Doing Business As) or just getting a business account, it is so much more than just that. It’s about setting up what you want to be and where you want to be.

Once you got all the legalities done, its down to your business ethics, your standard contracts, and standard business practices, once you get past through those, one of the important aspects of it all is the $$$ side…accounting issues, making sure everything is well accounted for, cause us creatives it is very easy to come up with a number, a price or a fee, but when we are asked to explain or breakdown those fees what do we get in our faces. Yup you got it… duh…

So from time to time what ever I experience or whatever I go through I will make sure I post it up here for anyone who may benefit from it and maybe get some pointers and help them improve or go the right way.

I also welcome comments and suggestions, who wouldn’t even huge fortune 100 companies take advice, so send them over, email them directly to me! Let’s trade ideas if you got some!

Finally the new year is in! I wish everyone had a good 2007 and all the best for 2008. We all get excited when the new year comes, we always want a good year, well who wants a bad one anyway. Every year we all have our goals, we all have our resolutions, no matter what it is it is to make our year better than the last.

Things do happen, things do change, all we can do is to make sure we do make the best of it. Positiveness will always get you good results, so I wish all of you the best for 2008 and the years to come!

Happy New Year!

Wedding Day is here !!!

Wow! I am getting married today!  It’s like 8am and everyone is up and about, slept well last night, but the excitement is really catching up fast.  I am so excited and for some reason I am not on edge or not even scared.

You know when they talk about getting married, men have this feeling of getting scared or even just having this weird thoughts, and they always say you never know until it happens to you.  Well for me all I am feeling right now is excitement and in the next couple of hours I will be marrying the most amazing woman in the world.

So all I can do now is stop this blog and finish getting ready and just push forward to the future and just do the best we can.

The “Wedding Day” count down

Wow! It’s like 2 more days until I get married to my lovely wife to be “Amber”.

It’s amazing how time can fly…..  This may be my shortest blog ever, I am kind of lost for words, trying to comprehend all the stuff that is going on for our wedding, excitement, joy and tons of emotions running through….

In general I am so happy and excited!

I am finally back after a couple of months break and trying to get everything back together.

Wow! It took me some time to finally finish this blog, I keep on drafting it, drafting it and drafting it. It’s just been so busy for me catching up with personal life, work and trying to finish my book for the first quarter of 2008.

I am just happy to say I am back in business, up in my feet, got some of my equipment back, I know it was a hard start up since the loss in January 2007, if you look at my previous post.

But I truly believe if you have the drive, the faith and the proper encouragement to do what you love to do. It may be rough but it is totally doable. We all have experienced ups and downs, this was definitely one of my downs this year, but knowing me, I always think positive and make every negative situation into a positive outlook.

I always said to myself the best is yet to come, I re-built everything from scratch, so I totally know how it feels to be totally violated, but what else can we do? Move on, learn from it and leave it behind where it belongs – - THE PAST.

So now, we are back in business……continuing to do what I love to do most…..