I’m  warning you in advance, this is not your mother’s book review (takes me a tiny bit to get warmed up)! It has a lot of really personal stuff from my life as I reflect on the book, and is discussed in my fun (and language filled) manner.

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse is a book that does not fit in my normal reading list. As with all things in my life, this too has a fascinating story and reflection.

It all started with Jaime. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a really information packed post about the processes, tools, and philosophies that I’ve learned about writing over the last few weeks.  I’m sure they’ll help you whether you’re writing a play, a novel, or a blog post. Please share this post, as it will help a lot of people overcome writer’s block, focus, be productive, and much more.

I admit that I often don’t know what day of the week it is. Couchsurfing takes me around to different people in many places, and I keep growing because of it.  Day of the week… not important most of the time.  But now that I’m actually working with a goal (remember:  Goals are dreams with a deadline) of writing my book, I am racing the clock.

The first lesson is probably the most important, and that is

Read the rest of this entry »

This falls under “Holy shit!” – I don’t know if it’s 100% what happened… but I certainly have my suspicions…. especially after playing with Google for a bit! Stupid brutal honesty.  *sigh* here goes:

1st of all, you should read, or at least Skim “A Sad Post” because that is what I’m talking about in this post.

So today I woke up in a fine mood. I went to brush my teeth, and as I reached inside my toiletries bag to grab the tube of toothpaste by feel, I grabbed something else.  The item I grabbed is a green bottle with the label Read the rest of this entry »

When Microsoft decided to enter the portable mp3 player race, I thought they were insane… now that I have one, I know they were!  Here’s the story (Scroll to the bottom to see a video- I’m even wearing my BurningMan goggles):

During SXSW Interactive, I left the press lounge (all you can eat Zone bars, all you can drink coffee… electricity, silence) to go shoot my next panel, and there’s KBJ (@KateBuckJr).  She’s talking to some people, and she (tosses me under a truck) says “Oh! You guys need to interview….”(grabs my by shoulder, yanks me in front of some dude, and some girl who’s running camera) “Ori… he’s a designer!”

“Uhhhhh….?”

“So.. what do you know about  Microsoft Website Spark?”

“Uhhhh….”  Kate was nowhere to be seen Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of you remember that I lost 28 pounds in 30 days, and everyone kept asking me how.

The answer is…

Click to see the before after

The Daily Juice.  It was at this place that I first sat down to chat with Craig Allen, and we ate and discussed raw food.

I had always been a brat about salads (ask my mom - she’s newly on twitter!).  I would not eat them (most veggies actually).  But that day, I tried the BBQ Coconut Burrito at Daily Juice.  Mmmmmmmm!!!!

Seriously! It was so good, that I was able to not only finish the meal, but also crush my disbelief that veggies can’t taste good without being fried (Tempura veggies aren’t healthy?? what?).  After that, I had gone on a 30 day raw challenge, and lost 28 pounds in 30 days.

I ran into my friend Lyn Graft, and told him about this contest I’m entering called Live Off Groupon (You get $100,000 if you can spend a whole year living off Groupons-  check their site to learn all about ‘em).  Turns out that not only did Lyn know all about Groupons, but his favorite Groupon Deal so far has been for Daily Juice.

I went in and chatted to one of the staff there today about the establishment, and their experience on Groupon. It was a lot of fun- check it out:

Now you know why this place is a healthy Austinite’s favorite hangout.  If you haven’t been, try it out.

Since I like to share marketing ideas, I recommend that you contact Groupon about being a deal on there. It would take you a long time to sell 1,000 smoothies (or whatever your product is)…. Groupon helps you get the word out about your business quickly. It’s tied into social media.  I even spoke about it as the marketing advice for Couchsurfing Radio Episode 9.

I love Shankman's Shirt!

Want free advertising? Want more credibility than you get out of an ad?  You need to listen to Peter Shankman’s interview.

I frequently refer to Peter Shankman as a roll model, ’cause he’s a spaz, funny, adventurous, and successful.  Last night’s call was haunting, because it showed that there were a lot more similarities (even the listeners were commenting on that). We also spoke about many other topics, such as bucket lists, skydiving, flying all over the world, and much more. Have a listen:

Check out the Couchcast

Download the episode for home/car/plane/etc..  listening.

Viralee is a scam

As a business owner, or just someone trying to get a message out, you recognize that there’s a benefit to having large amounts of Facebook Fans.  Scammer Dominic Holland of Viralee realizes that you think that, and is willing to steal your money.

I study what a lot of the marketers are doing.  I use some of these things for myself, and many of these strategies work for my clients as well.  If you have a business, and need more traffic, then getting more fans is a good way of dong it.  Facebook allows you to buy targeted ads that will get you fans (good ad design, writing good copy, using the right images… all still necessary), but Viralee actually claims to sell you the actual fans… not just an ad to bring them over.

I tried them out at $99 (They’ve raised their price to $117 this week), which was supposed to get me 1,000 new fans on Facebook. The blog post I read about the Viralee scammers (back when it was unknown that they were scammers) said that they get the results within 5 days.  I got nothing within a week, so I wrote the main scammer, Dominic, to see what’s up.

Dominic replied: Read the rest of this entry »

CouchSurfingOri surrounded by STUFF at Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX

Stuff!  We all have it! The thing is that it means different things to different people.  Some people think that we are nothing more than what stuff we’ve accumulated.

Have you ever been to soeone’s house that looks like a museum? Shelves upon shelves of little crystal figurines, and nice china, and walls of DVDs, and shelves full of books, and tons of walk-in closets, etc… ?

I wonder if they actually enjoy their stuff.  I wonder if they eat on that fine china… I wonder if they watch every movie.. I wonder if they read all their books.

You see, I have a lot of stuff too.  We all do!  But, do we actually use it after the first few weeks?  It’s a shiny object, and my marketer friends probably made the ad that made you want it…. but after you spent your money, or were gifted it, you probably got bored with it.  Clearly, there’s exceptions– computers, cell phones, televisions, but even those gather dust after we find a shiny new model.  The Ipod got replaced by the Ipod Nano, which got replaced by the Iphone / Touch – which got replaced by the Iphone 3G, which got replaced by the Iphone 3GS.

What’s my point?  I just realized that a lot of my stuff I have because people think I should have it.  What do I mean? I guess I should tell you my big plans first.

(If you’re in a hurry, just scroll to the video at the bottom) Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve come a long way since the rotary phone. Now we have cell phones, and VOIP. Operators are no longer necessary, and neither are secrataries for the use of taking down a message.  You call, you get the beep, you talk, you hang up.  I get the notification that I have an e-mail, I call my voicemail, I listen.  Maybe I take notes about what you said….

and then came Google Voice. Read the rest of this entry »

Sick of stupid questions?

We’re all guilty of asking someone something that would take us less time to look up than it would to dial it. Sometimes though, being asked too many of those obvious questions can lead to frustration.
“When does that e-Book reader go on sale?”

“What does WYSIWYG stand for?”

“Where can I find a cheesecake recipe?”

Come on folks!  Just because a person is a know-it-all, doesn’t mean they have to be a tell-it-all.  And with that, I’d like to bring you my 1st Webcam test and screencap usage tutorial (I make these for people when I build websites for them…. but I haven’t tried it for a product review).  Please let me know what you think… if you like the format, if you like the tool, if you’d like to see more nifty tools (most of the ones I have are more productive, but this one’s fun), or if you have any tools you’d like to see reviewed or explained.  Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »