New Idea

Well maybe not. Video blogs will become a new thing very soon. Instead of writing you can show your thoughts, feelings, and/or whatever. There is no question that at one point everyone can consider themselves a cinematographer/producer/director/actor/screen writer/editor. It's right around the corner. Sites like www.metacafe.com are pioneers with more streaming video content sent up than no other site. But the market is still very new and open for expoitation. I believe partnering up will be key but in the end it'll be who ya know!

E5's new communities will be able to host all content and will provide consumers and businesses a unique, totally fresh, and eye opening means to how fun and business will be done.

Count down.

Vodafone

I heard the other day that the conglomerate Vodafone isn't making any money. I was like, huh? Some newspaper suggested that VOD was not positioned to make any money going forward or something to that nature. I have been analyzing and discovering strengths and weaknesses in company's for over 13 years now, before as a broker and today as an interested capitalist. I decided to take a look at VOD and brush up on it. Firstly, VOD isn't well known here in the U.S. that's because it's primary presence is in the form of Verizon (it owns 45% of VZ). Secondly, VOD is a European play known for owning one of Europe's largest cell carrier in Orange.

What I want to do is focus on VZ first. VOD, as mentioned earlier is a 45% owner in VZ. VZ made over $7.1 billion and reported eps of $2.54 (click report above). Analysts expect that VZ will beat last years numbers by $500 million and $.02/share this year. As of August 1st VZ had a market capitalization of close to $94 billion. In essence this company isn't a tadpole looking to grow a tail. It's a beast already, a mature one at that.

Now VOD. This company has a market cap of $134 billion and has completed it's 2006 year with net income of $6.3 billion and eps of $10.11/share. Analysts predict that VOD will report net income of $5.7 billion (down from 06) and eps of $10.41 (an increase). Looks like the increase is based on a fewer amount of shares available (maybe from a company stock buyback).

Altogether, it's was an interesting exercise. It's been a while since I have looked at research in this space and I must say it's still intriguing to me. To really get down and dirty with what the future VOD potentially has will take me a few days to analyze and compare analysts opinions. There is one thing I will say, however, VOD is a very capable and formidable company with an impressive growth rate considering the size ($134 billion market cap). Albeit net income is expected to decrease for VOD eps is expected to rise nicely.

Ah the market...great money, never a full days work, and the money (said that already)!

By the way this blog wasn't written to intentionally discredit and/or upset anyone. Just wanted to see for myself if VOD was not slated to make money in the future...that's the case...SHORT! Maybe not.

Another Long Gap Between Posts

Well what have I been doing that I haven't posted in such a long time? Nothing too out of the ordinary. Let' s see...what has happened since the last post? Working on a joint venture with two business partners, put Paparazzi as the new focus for E5, fought with Ron, found out that our partnership with Exclaim can yield us more than 72 million users to market to, Jiren loves the tips idea, working on a consultation contract, moved into our new offices in HB, met with the company powering our product, met with Google, found out some people just don't understand, filmed twice for the 2 minute spot, reworked the cover, changed the dvd price twice (up then down), spoke with CBS radio, and for the first time in over a year I played golf...I still suck. Sounds like a lot happened, huh? A lot did but it probably only took all but a couple days to do if that. So why such the long gap? Dunno!

Not Just Your Everyday printing Company

This company is very interesting. It's an online lab that prints your pictures. Nothing new right? I mean there are tons of online labs and b&m labs also. What's so different? The direction they want to go in!

This company is making every aggressive move they can possibly make to set themselves up so that they are ahead of the game in the next 12 months. This is no ordinary printing company. I mention dotPhoto because we are doing business with them and are excited about what they have and what we can bring to the game. I wont let the cat outta the bag but I will say it's extremely exciting and fun to be involved in the company's we have.

Too early to declare war on the target but the gauntlet has been made and ready to be thrown.

Purchase a Sureshot System DVD from www.sureshotsystem.com and get free prints from dotPhoto. www.dotphoto.com

www.sureshotsystem.com

Our Sureshot infomercial airs today and we'll soon get the test results we need to find out where we should spend our money. This day was set up 7 months ago. And we are crossing our fingers. It's still very interesting to see who has come across our order pages. All I will say is thank you to all of you who have stepped up and supported our efforts with a purchase. We have put a lot of time and resources into this project and we will remember you when the time comes where we need to support you.

So stay tuned to Discovery, Travel, National Geographic. There are more but these are the large National carriers that will have the infomercial. Very exciting times in the land of Big Picture Enterprises. It's about to get more exciting elsewhere.

Take advantage of our introductory offer at www.sureshotsystem.com

View the trailer by clicking on the image.

Break Up

I saw this guy with his girlfriend at Sunset Beach the other day. I was there taking some pictures of the kids and noticed an argument between them. They started something pretty fierce with his girlfriend ( I think it was a girlfriend) yelling some profanity at him while he walked away. Ofcourse everyone else minded their own business and ofcourse I kept shooting. A little while later as I was taking a picture of the kids I noticed this guy in the background. He had his head tucked away between his arms and legs. He would every so often lookup and I could tell he was welling up in his eyes. I was 200mm away and it was quite obvious he wasn't happy.

I am always intrigued with people. I have found that you don't necessarily have to pose people to get the shots that evokes who they really are or what they are really feeling at a given moment. I guess this is why I love taking candid pictures. They're real and to the heart.

In this case I decided to take a picture of the poor guy not because I thought it would be a good picture but because it reached in and reminded me of how sad anyone could be at any given time. Just an hour ago this poor guy probably decided to go to the beach with his girlfriend to watch the sunset. They were happy and for some reason their world flipped upside down.

There's a story behind every person.

Shutter: 1/500.............F-stop: 2.8
Flash not fired.............Matrix Metering
ISO: 400.....................Aperture Priority
200 mm

Happy Birthday Brooke!

The dynamic duo as we were going out of Toys R Us.

Brooke: You can't buy one cuz it's not your Birthday! Na Na!

Skylar: Are you gonna do something about this girl Daddy, she's on my nerves!

Going To The Heat

I'll be leaving for Phoenix tomorrow morning to meet up with Inpulse, our call center. My understanding is that it's 105 degrees with humidity at 16 degrees. Pretty hot man. I'd be interested in bringing my clubs for a round but I think I would be stupid to play in that kinda heat just for the fun of it. Anyways, afterwards we have a meeting with someone quite influential in the world of international business. If you need to meet someone or get an idea accepted in say...China, he can do it. Speaking of China we are looking to bring a few of the companies we have over there. Hey they've got the worlds largest population! If it hits it will hit big there.

I'll catch everyone later on.

Haven't gotten around to finishing the Papparazi blog. I've been trying to get these pictures finally fully processed and getting these nutty ideas out of my head and on to paper.

BBQ...Gas or Charcoal?

Yes I know, people nowadays would prefer a gas grill for convenience and efficiency. But do you remember the days when your Dad (or Mom) would struggle to start a fire with charcoal and lighter fluid? They would work on making the heat just right by fanning the briquets with a piece of cardboard ripped from a box. It was quite some work but for some reason I do recall that the food my Dad cooked back then was always better than the food I cook over a gas grill today.

Maybe it's just me being a bit nostalgic. But I seem to miss the times where you had to "work on" starting a BBQ as opposed to just flipping a switch or pressing a button for fire. Just the mere facet of having to wait for 10-15 minutes just to see if the charcoal is that nice color would be fun to do again. Sure you can run into the problems of running out of charcoal in the middle of BBQ'n. And the mess afterwards??? Charcoal grilling is definately a lot more work....but the taste!

I am sure the debate over which method of grillin will yield better taste will prove that it's a draw and that the comparisons would even indicate that in some cases grillin over gas would taste better. Why they say? Because it has nothing to do with the fire but the juices and spices from the meat that is being grilled they say. The argument for charcoal grilling is that you can get a much more intense and hotter fire. Which by the way stimulates the juices and spices in the meat. The hotter the fire the better tasting...so they say. There is also the traditional arguments such as gas can't replicate the "smoke" flavor that can be found in charcoal grillin.

Whatever the arguments I am conviced that my Dad's BBQ was better than mine is today. Not that he's better at BBQ'n but because he had a charcoal grill. I also remeber that food at the park seem to taste better as well. Rarely have I ever attended a park function where either it was a pot luck or food off the grill. The grilled food was a lot better than your conventional gas grilled food I recall.

Why this blog? I figured I would go out and get me a grill. Do I stay within the confines of efficiency and the one click start? Or do I get dirty and go the route that would yield me the taste that I remembered when I was kid?

Benefits of Gas and Charcoal Grills

Gas

Push button convenience
No messy charcoal to deal with
Easy to start
Control temperature with a dial
Control temperatures for longer periods of time
Can still use wood for smoky flavor
Wind is not a factor

Charcoal

More heat
Hotter grill
Flavor from charcoal
More intense smells
More hands-on experience

The Adventures Of Ching and Chong Continue

Here they are, hamming it up for the camera once again. Click on the picture to see their movie.