I thought the reply was something that anyone can benefit from, regardless of age or occupation, so I’m posting it on my blog.  I suggest you share this- someone will appreciate it.

It’s a patented multi-step process that took me years to perfect, but I’ll share it with you, ’cause you seem cool.

Step 1: Wake up

Step 2: Stretch

Step 3: Look in the mirror (optional) – and ask yourself “What do I feel like doing today?”

Step 4: Do that

Step 5: Did you like it?

Step 6: If yes, figure out how to make money off of it.

The bottom line is that people are full of shit. The people that say you’re supposed to go to school, get a degree, then have a career for 40 years doing that… are all miserable. Most people hate their life. They go to work, go home, watch TV, go to sleep. *vomit*

You can make money doing ANYTHING. If you’ve studied marketing, then that’s wonderful… now apply it to something other than “how to make money online” — you can help a local business get traffic, help improve their copy and design, and voila… now they make more $ than before. Get testimonial & get percentages. Or take friends that make stuff, and help them sell it online. MLM’s a biatch… I despise it… but I know many multi-millionaires from it… I’m just pouty ’cause I didn’t make money when I tried it before knowing marketing.

Think about branding. Think about marketing. Think about PR. It’s all about spin. how do you position something.

Perfect example- http://www.littlemissmatched.com/

What happens?

Little girls start going to school and showing off their mismatched socks… it becomes cool. Now everyone wants mismatched socks. They have hundreds of prints. You buy… you get what they send you… you show it off to your friends, and y’all compare.

Show me someone else (other than Hanes or Gold-Toe) that’s made millions off of socks… and at $9 per sale.

Get it? THAT is marketing. Not just making sales letters.

Great skill to have… but it’s just a tool… like a pencil. You can do anything with it. You can draw, you can stab someone, you can keep a door open, you can use it as a hole-puncher, you can set it on fire, you can play pencil-peg (a game where you keep hitting each other’s pencil until one of them breaks — lame… but as more interesting than my 7th grade science teacher).

Using Copywriting you can increase someone’s sales, control people’s behavior, make yourself seem more personable, make someone’s day, make someone out to be the bad guy, help a cause… the possibilities are endless.

When people talk of “Hackers” they generally are misusing the term. I think a hacker is someone that understands how something- or pieces of something – works, and then find other uses for it. In this regard, I am a hacker. So… learn skills, combine them, and do what other people aren’t doing.

Might I point out something? You asked “how you knew what you wanted to do with your life?” and then went on to speak about having no idea what you want to do career wise. Are the two the same?

So often when I ask people about who they are, they tell me what they do.

Sad.

You are so much more. You are your hobbies, your passions, your interests, your friends, your experiences, your hopes, your dreams, your failures, your successes, and so much more.

If someone asks me what I do, I say that I travel the world completely based on who’s couch I’m crashing on next… meeting incredible people, seeing incredible sights, learning about myself and the world, taking great pictures, helping people, solving problems, and telling many bad jokes.

Their response is usually a small delay, followed by “Uhhh… how do you pay traveling like that?” “Oh.. that… well, it depends on what I’m in the mood for, but… I do business coaching, business consulting, life coaching, photography, videography, video editing, motion graphics, 3d animation, print design, copywriting, pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, and a bunch of other things… how much time do you have? Or… better yet, why don’t you tell me what the biggest challenge you have in your business or life is, and I’ll come up with the proper solution for you?” (For a few references check out http://CouchSurfingOri.com/services)

Did you notice the difference between who I am, and what I do?

The two overlap… sure… helping people requires skills… photography’s in both. Both depend on my creativity and voracious appetite for learning… but… we are so much more than our jobs!

Now then… As a child, what did you want to be when you grow up? What are the things that when you do them, the entire day flies by, and people have to remind you to take breaks and eat? What are the things that when you watch them on Television (or Youtube/Hulu / movies / etc) you are on the edge of your seat, and find your pupils slightly dilating, perhaps you are slightly licking your lips?

One last tip- meet as many people as you can. Ask them about what they are passionate about, and ask WHY they are interested in those things. What do they enjoy the most. What sucks. Why did they end up doing this, as compared to the things they’ve done before. What is involved in doing this thing? Can you watch? — Maybe Google / Youtube it when you get home…. You’ll quickly find out what fascinates you.

Remember… money is just a means to keep on living… the more you have, the more you can do, sure… but… people who work at McDonald’s are in it because they need money. I doubt they are really THAT passionate about feeding Type 2 Diabetes to the people, while inhaling grease particles, or that they love the uniform that much. Then you got your millionaires in high stress jobs that hate themselves, and have no time with their significant others.

Then… you got the people that don’t make that much money, but do what they love…let’s call them artists. Read the book Flow, and watch the movie or read the book The Peaceful Warrior.

I think I’m going to repurpose this answer into a blog post, because I think many people can benefit from the answer.

Silly, right? Crappy acting, and the concept– “Yeah… like someone’s going to break into my house and set up a computer store in my living room just so I can pick out which one I want. Are they going to clean up afterwards?”

But I thought I realized I had to share it, because the concept is NOT that ridiculous! In fact, it’s important for your business.

No, I don’t mean you should get a Windows 7 PC, it’s not about that at all.

There are three sides to this:
1)If Erika came home, and found a PC store in her living room, and a camera crew, she’d probably freak out. If her boyfriend wasn’t home, then she’d probably have kicked the commercial host in the nuts, maced him, and then called the cops.

When someone approaches you at a party, or event, and says hi, and then asks what you do, and you then start shoving your product or services down their throat, you are doing just this. You are alienating them.

I’ve noticed that so many people when asked about who they are, always start off with what they do… sometimes that’s all they talk about. Trust me, there’s more to you than your job or your business.

If you can’t think of stuff to say to people, I recommend going to Amazon or Google and looking up ways to start a conversation. There are tons of books that give you thousands of topics.

That is also another reason to pursue the things that make you happy. If you talk about volunteering, music you like, places you’ve traveled, interesting individuals you’ve met, crazy adventures, people will want to hear more, and eventually they’ll ask about your business. Trust me on this one…. with all my crazy adventure stories, I get peoples’ attention, and despite their curiosity, I make sure to ask plenty of questions about them. Eventually they always want to know what I do.

When you ask questions about them, make sure they are not the same questions that everyone else asked. My good friend David Gonzalez asks a question that really makes people think: What makes you happy?

2) If you follow Gary Vaynerchuk (and if you don’t, you should — his insights on business are really refreshing), you’ll realize that this is the direction that things are going.

In a few years, you’ll say on Twitter that you’re thinking of some new running shoes, and 10 packages will show up at your door, with companies hoping that you choose their shoes.

In the future, you’re going to have to engage people on their own turf. You’re going to have to make it so easy for them to buy that they don’t even need to go to your store, or website. You’ll have to chase them, not the other way around.

Start thinking about that. What are some things you can do with your business right now to make it so that the service makes them fall in love with you, and not want to go elsewhere– even if you’re not the cheapest.

I highly recommend you study Tony Hsieh (one of my couches) and what he’s done with Zappos

3) How’s your website laid out? When this girl walked in, there was no mistaking that she walked into a computer store.

Also, all the makes and models were within a small area, so she didn’t have to get lost walking around. She could play with all of them, and compare them next to each other.

Does your website make it easy to know right away what it is for? Do you make it easy to understand what you do? If you have multiple products or services, do you make it easy to know which one is right for your visitor? Do you have live chat, or at least very fast support so that people can know that they are getting the perfect product for them… as compared to having to guess?

Is the person who’s handling the support or chat knowledgable?

I used to work at CompUSA back in the day… and I kind of hated it. While I had been building computers since 6th grade from scratch, and knew everything about what made a computer awesome for what tasks…. most of the staff were total idiots when it came to computers. They would recommend a computer completely based on which manufacturer’s rep came in and offered the biggest bonuses and incentives for selling theirs.

When I go into a store to pick out a computer (or any product), and so many of them are so similar, and the sales person is just reading the same descriptions that I was… rather than knowing something about…. I get pissed off!

I can read, thank you.

This brings us to another point that I can not emphasize enough– feature versus benefits.

You need to know who your audience is, and you need to tell them why your product is good for them. This is the benefit, not the feature.

They don’t care how many transistors and capacitors and wires it has.. they care that it solves their problem.

The best example to date is the Apple Ipod. They didn’t talk about Fraunhofer compression, or MP3, or what was metal, or how many cables and software you needed…. they just said “A thousand songs in the palm of your hand!” THAT is something that people can understand.

So, don’t break into peoples’ homes. I don’t think it’s a good marketing tool. However, do be interesting and interested, do provide the best service possible, do make it easy to choose, and do use benefits instead of features.

One minute I’m being reminded that I said I’d run in an obstacle race, and have not taken any action on it (i.e. flaked out), and 2 hours later, I get a text out of the blue asking if I can run in an obstacle race to cover for my friend who already bought the ticket.

Yup.  I love serendipity.

What I don’t love however, is people not delivering on their promises. And Hell Run certainly did not do that!

You see, on their website, they have photos of people covered in mud… yet nobody got anything more than their ankles muddy… and even that was weak.

I’ll tell you the things they did, but when I get to the last one, you’ll see why I bothered to  write this post!

The “Raging River” — that was more of “The Stangnant Cesspool”!  It was a very smelly pond… nothing about it resembled a river, and the only thing about Rage was my nose’s reaction to the stench… or the thought that all these people paid $90 to run in this overhyped race.

Even the KISS tribute band sucked… and only played about 3 songs again and again.

The “Titan Tunnel” which looks on the website to be a concrete tube, was actually a few boxes made from cheap wood, that had a circular hole cut in the front and back.

There were fewer obstacles than they made it out to sound like.  The obstacles were quite lame.  I could have walked over the fire.

The "Real" photo- not nearly as cool as the photoshopped one

You get a drink ticket… they had 2 drinks: Michelob Ultra, and Budweiser.  Your drink ticket only gets you a Michelob Ultra… if you chose a Budweiser for your drink, then you get to pay $5.

Many people complained that there were not enough water stations along the way.

Now, I did have 2.5 weeks to train to get ready for this… and I was running on flat ground at about 11:40 per mile… which I was all right with.  It’s not an 8 minute mile, but that’s ok…. it as better than my 15 minute miles.

So I run this race, and it is not flat ground.  It is hot.  It is humid.  There are lots of rocks….

This is not at all like what I was training on, and to top it off, I launched fast out of the gate, to beat other people from the get-go.

The end result was that I ended up doing a bunch of walking.  Additional time was spent by going through the obstacles…

You can imagine my surprise when after this race which was in no way hellacious or scary or anything like what they promoted… that my run time was reported to me as 11 minute miles.

How the heck could I have walked, and climbed obstacles, and been running hills instead of flat ground, and still beat my best time by 40 seconds?

Something reeked of brimstone (get it? a hell joke)!

I mentioned this to my friends that ran, and they too mentioned that their time seemed way too generous.  Additionally, they informed me that they went onto the HellRun fanpage, and saw that many people were complaining about misrepresentation, and crappy obstacles.

What’s worse, is that the Hell Run people then deleted all the comments up until before (people got to experience the underwhelming obstacles) the race… and changed the page settings to disallow comments.

So… if you are looking for a good race, I hear good things about Tough Mudder, and Warrior Dash.  Hell Run is not one that I would recommend.  It’s weak, and I believe they should give people their money back.

One last gripe… I’ve been meaning to get a nice cape… with all the helping of people that I’m doing lately, there’s been a lot of superhero jokes.  So… when I saw that they give us a cape for participating, I was excited.

What they gave us may be good for a rag… I would not wear it to save anyone.  *sigh*

In summary (and the reason that this is marked in the business category) – Do not misrepresent.  If you promise the world, and not even deliver a block, people will be upset.  If I didn’t do well on the race, I would’ve been ok with that… but them lying on the race times is a lie…. it doesn’t make me feel better about my run times, it makes me upset that I do not know how long it really took me.  If you screw up, and underdeliver, let people vent, do not delete their posts…. give them a ticket to the next race for free.  Do right by people.  Do not lie, and try to cover it up…..  Doing that is what causes blog posts like this that let the whole world know that you are not to be trusted.

Have you ever been held against your will? Your only choices being to keep suffering, or to walk away from what you’ve worked hard for? Sometimes, if we want another solution – the one that works for you – you have to do what it takes. My troubles began over a decade ago…

The year was 1996, many people did not know what this “Internet” thing is (we were still in Web 1.0 then) . A 19 year old Ori had just finished studying Softimage 3D in Burbank, and was about to buy his first ever “Domain”, i.e. web address. The possibilities were endless.

What to name this thing?  It seemed like fun to have the domain be an acronym of ORI… the final contestants were Obscure Reality Interactive, Omnivorous Rhinoceros Interactive.  Considering that Ori was doing photoshop, 3D Animation, and compositing… i.e. being able to create his own versions of reality, Obscure Reality won.

ObscureReality.com was a cool and appropriate name for young Ori.

When I think back to the days when I was 19, life was so different.  I was going to make movies, commercials, and special effects (A perfect example of a modern version is Freddie W ).  Even then I knew that I can make a website change to whatever it is that I’m doing.

In 1997 I got a job at this studio called Top Dog Studio, doing 3D Animation, and when their editor moved for love, I took over video editing.  I became very close friends with Tim, the head of IT.  The neighboring company, was an ISP, and TIm was in charge of that as well, thus I was given free hosting (which back then was a big deal).

While these days I can diagnose web problems in seconds, 15 years ago, I didn’t know shit! Proof: I was using Microsoft Front Page to create my first sites (yuck!).  Thus, I was thrilled at Tim’s offer to help do the admin stuff. So, I gave him my Network Solutions password, and he made himself admin.

Since prices were so expensive from Network Solutions (and still are), I took them up on an offer to save some funds by renewing my domain for 10 years at once.  In 2009 those years were expiring…. and Network Solutions still wanted $32 a year for a domain, even though standard pricing was already at $10 a year everywhere else.  I didn’t notice this until my domain was about to expire, of course.

Guess it’s time to sell internal body parts to raise the bribe money.  Or… maybe I should just transfer my domain to another registrar?  Well, that sounds like a great idea.. I’ll just log in here, and…

What the hell????

I can’t!  Network Solutions’ site said that I am not the Primary Contact for the domain, thus I can’t make any changes other than give them money, or change where the hosting is.

I was outraged!  After pressing every button, and going through every menu, I called them.  They said that Tim is the primary contact, and I have to  have him fix this.  I hadn’t spoken to Tim in a while, and I didn’t want to call him just to talk business… Since I did not want to lose my domain, I paid them.

A year later, the extortion letters came in again.  It was cutting it close again, but this time I was going to take action. I called people, and got Tim’s new number, and after catching up, I mentioned the whole Network Solutions thing, and “so… can you help?”

“Fuck Network Solutions!  They wouldn’t let me access my domain, my NIC password doesn’t work on there anymore, I lost the domain that my wife and I had for all these years, and they wouldn’t help me out on anything! I’ll try to get in, but… I”m not promising anything.”

This was followed 2 days later by a “They wouldn’t let me in.”

Great… I can’t get in,  ’cause I’m not the primary contact… but the primary contact can’t get in either.

I called them up, and told them my situation.  They basically said I’m screwed… but I can pay them… and they’ll even be so nice as to let me have my renewal at a discount rate of only $20 (Only double the rate of other companies).

My patience expired.. I snapped.  I got mean… that approach didn’t work either… so I hung up, and called back, and spoke to another person (this time trying to keep my cool)… this time I made some progress.

Network Solutions said that I can fax in a Primary Contact Change Form.  Sounds simple, hooray!

Well… when I got it, it said that I need to send them a current utility bill from the address they have on file.  Sounds simple, but Obscure Reality, Inc. doesn’t exist anymore, and I sure as hell am not doing business at the same address that I was 14 years prior.

The good thing is that I still had access to utility bills from that address, because the address I used 14 years prior was my parents’.  ”Mom, Dad, can you scan and send me your latest electric bill?”

They did, but I was getting twitchy about losing my domain, so I paid them “the discounted price” and figured I’d photoshop the document my folks say to look like it was from my company, at a later time.

Well, here we are, 2011…. and one day I just think of it as I jog… “Wonder when domain renewal is?”   Now I actually was doing something with the domain, this time as Obscure Reality, LLC., so the domain was very important to me.

Turns out that it was going to expire in a week. I tried everything on their website, and again, had no luck.  I called again, and here’s the frustrating thing:  Every time I call, and tell them that I want to move my domain to another registrar, they say “Sure.. I can help you with that” and then proceed to try to convince me to stay with them.

It always begins with “Sure.. I can help you with that… if you don’t mind me asking, why are you looking to move your domain?”  ”’cause you guys charge 3 to 4 times what everyone else charges, and I have no control over my site other than being able to pay you, or change name servers” , and this is where there is some variation.

The first person I spoke to for my 2011 attempt said “What if we let you renew for $9.50?”  ”Wow… that’s actually a decent rate… but, nah… I don’t want to have a site that I’m not primary contact of… I’ll think about it.  ”  and I got the form from them.

I went over it multiple times to make sure that I’m following directions properly.  I then took the previous years’ utility bill from my parents’ house, and photoshopped it to be from 2011, and be addressed to me, instead of my dad.  Yes, I had to resort to forgery to get  my domain back.  Ethically, I have issue with this, except that if I’m stealing from anyone, it’s from myself.

I am just enraged at thinking about “What if I didn’t have the skills to do this?”  This was the day before the domain expires.  And… to make things even more frustrating, I noticed that the setting had been to not notify me about expiration!  So.. if the thought to check my domain hadn’t popped into my head, I’d be screwed.

The next day I spoke to someone else, and the speech was the same until “What if we offered you a renewal at $15?”  – I’m supposed to be happy at this?  It’s nearly $6 more than the offer I got the day before!  I was actually calling to see that they got the fax form– which they hadn’t. I was already unhappy enough about having to print something.

They kept trying to sell me, despite me saying that I have 0 interest in staying with them… that they could pay me money for the next 10 years, and I still wouldn’t want to stay with them… they still kept trying (Yes, this is not an exaggeration, I literally said this)!

So, they gave me an additional email address to send my counterfeit documents to.  I sent there, and to the fax number and email again.  They said they will extend my domain by a week, so I don’t have to worry about it expiring.

I kept checking my inbox, and after 4 days I was primary contact again.  In case you’re not familiar with the process of transferring a domain:

1)Unlock domain
2)Request transfer authorization code (known as:  auth code, a transfer key, a transfer secret, an EPP code, EPP authentication code, or EPP authorization code).
3)Fill out transfer form at new registrar- which will then request that auth code.
4)The new registrar will send an email to the primary contact, which will have another code to be entered.
5)Once that admin puts the code in, the transfer should proceed.

Usually Auth Codes are generated instantly– at least whenever I’ve transferred domain names with other registrars.  With Network Solutions I had to wait a day before I got the email.

I only yesterday (5/1/2011) got confirmation that the transfer was successful… from a process that I started on 4/19/2011, and is usually fairly instantaneous.

Will I ever recommend Network Solutions to anyone?  No way.  However, I will take responsibility and boil this down to lessons learned:

1) If you buy a domain, don’t make someone else the primary contact… don’t give someone else your login for your registrar.  If someone else will be a primary contact, then you add them as tech contact… don’t let them do it.

2)If you are renewing something for 10 years at a time, make sure all your contact info is correct.  Heck, make sure even if you renew it for a year.  Make sure that your information is correct.

At the time I registered my domain, Network Solutions was the only registrar I knew of, and prices were high.  These days, their prices are still higher than most other registrars’  - They want $12.99 a year, and they have a floating “Questions? Talk to us live” window that does a great job of hiding the “Proceed without hosting, and get just registration” button.

If you want reliable hosting and registration, I recommend you go through http://WordpressBlogFactory.com – which charge $9.50 a year for domain, and have a free 30 days of hosting, and they preinstall WordPress for you, and even give you a $85 premium theme for free, as well as that they are the only place I know of that does WordPress support.   They are the company I recommend to my students.

As for me, I really do feel free after all these years of having my domain held captive.  It’s good to be able to move on with my life, and have one less thing to worry about.

Jason  is funny, and fearless, and smart (He has experience in selling magic tricks at bars, he was a PI, he is a marketer and copywriter… many of these things combined let him be confident, and know how to read people, and know what to say…. plus he has more street smart than most people I know– and that’s a lot of people), so he was a natural at this. Here is his first show!

I was lucky enough to get to be there in person to show support for a friend. There’s not much better than being able to show support for your friends in their big dreams. Jason is also the only other person I’ve ever met who’s taken shrooms and gone to a stripper club (his experience sounded way more painful than mine).

Anyways….not only was he funny, but his marketing superpowers are able to help these comedians– Louie Anderson and Kyle Cease. Jason has been out to Vegas a few times since to hang with Louie. How cool is that?

So… as I started this post with, Jason gave up the peace, quiet, and beauty of La Jolla to go to LA to work on comedy with Kyle Cease. I know he’s going to crush it!

The other day Jmo posts “Check out this spoof that we just filmed for Rebecca Black’s Music Video, Friday” –And he posted this video.

Ok… cute… funny…. but I didn’t see the original, so… I googled it, and here’s what I found…. Good luck watching the whole thing- *shiver*

I couldn’t watch the whole thing.. But heck, I’m not her demographic, right? I think it’s intended for teenagers. This girl is in 8th grade after all.
Well, at the time of writing this blog post (Saturday the 19th, 11AM CST), she is approaching 22 million views!

I watched it all the way through at a later attempt. Now, I’d tell you what I thought, but someone already said it word for word, so I’ll embed that! (Language warning)

I think Kingsley said it all, but how did I find his video? Well… People on facebook were commenting about Jmo & Kyle’s spoof, “have you seen this guy?”

His video – at the time of this writing – has over 2 million views!

So, here’s the point of my article:
We all know by now what a Meme is. An idea that explodes into popularity and takes on a life of its own, being adopted into popular culture…. for example, the Budweiser Wazzzzup (which actually didn’t do that much for selling beer… it is considered a failed campaign), currently Charlie Sheen is a meme, Starwars Kid, Double Rainbow (And I can never get enough of the Double Rainbow Autotune remix)….

Oh heck… speaking of Charlie Sheen being a meme, I just posted this video the other day on Facebook, ’cause my friend Espree Devora gave me a bag of Tiger’s Blood. – which goes right with the point of this article.

Rebecca Black has become an instant Meme. Her song begot spoofs, covers, and spoof images. This took the 80′s/90′s bands years to do…. The technology just wasn’t there to spread ideas like wildfire.

So now because of all the infrastructure that got laid down due to the dot com boom, everyone has wireless and broadband internet. Because of the human desire for the latest and greatest, and corporation’s desires to capitalize on that, we now have broadband internet on our cell phones, and tablet devices. This is what makes it possible for people to take a photo, video, or soundbite and turn it into a worldwide sensation…. while we’re sitting on the crapper!

Additionally, there is a braid made of multiple threads that is what really amazes me. Computers have gotten so small, fast, and efficient… information can spread so fast…. this combination has allowed for massive growth in education and jobs for programmers of all sorts. So now a booming market is in programs to do anything you can think of. Notable here – record, remix, and edit music and video.

Also, since the internet now gives us such a massive selection in any product that we want, user interface and elegant design are now standard parts of a product’s design… or at least are largely responsible for a product’s success or demise. You can learn a lot about this trend in Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind”

Just look at Apple for example. Everything they do is so elegant. I just got to unbox an Imac… it was sleek, only had 1 cable, barely took up any room…. There’s a reason that people wait in line for 8 hours to get the latest iPhone or iPad.

As much as I like to bash Apple, the more I study them, the more I realize that they are absolutely brilliant, and they already have changed the course of humanity, and will continue to do so. I can bitch and moan about them, but they deserve every penny they get.

Daniel Burrus’s must read book, Flash Foresight talks about trends – dematerialization, advances in speed, product intelligence, and more… So, that’s why smart phones these days can do more than a computer could do 10 years ago, but cost less, and can fit in our pocket.

So, now you have tiny devices (iPad) that have massive computing power, a massive selection of software that is designed to be easy and elegant to use, and you can now sit by a lake, edit a video, and post it on to the web. And when I say edit a video, I mean, create a broadcast-quality masterpiece.

Add to that mix that the younger generation take to new technology (Did you know that 80% of children under 5 years old are already using the internet?), and the fact that all these kids are growing up on shows that make singing and dancing a part of their lives (Hanna Montana, iCarly, VicTORIous, and countless others) and you have this incredible tsunami of content creation…. that Rebecca Black was just hit by.

The new generation is ready to express themselves… and unlike any previous generation, today’s teens were raised with the easy-to use technology to let them create, and remix content, and put it out there for the world to see. Justin Bieber is a perfect example… but today’s culture is about remixing.

It’s not just kids… they just help spark fires faster. Kyle Cease and Jason Moffatt are an example of grownups (if you want to call them that) that jumped onto the viral train.

You have to be quick if you want to catch a train. Another week, and nobody’s going to care about Rebecca Black’s song “Friday”. Notice we haven’t heard anything in a while about Baloon Boy (I jumped on that one, and made some Baloon Boy shirts, and even a “top 5 Baloon Boy Tattoos” spoof) — some people do it for fun, some people do it for their grasp at fame.

All in all, it’s just what people do these days…. Is it mean? Well…. she made the song to be famous, and it worked. She’s got her world-wide fame… even if it’s for sucking… and she’s quickly moving up on the charts. On the Itunes top 100, she’s already at 19 (at the time of this writing— I predict #1 in another day or 2) — passing up songs by Katy Perry, Usher, Cee-Lo, Enrique Iglesias, Ke$ha, Bruno Mars, Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Pink.

In Rebecca Black’s Good Morning America Interview (posted at the bottom of this article), she says hat the hurtful comments did make her cry some…. but I predict she’s going to cry all the way to the bank.

Rebecca has talent… this particular song is just auto-tuned, and the lyrics are practically insulting:
Kickin’ in the front seat
Sittin’ in the back seat
Gotta make my mind up
Which seat can I take?
—-
Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin’)
We-we-we so excited
We so excited
We gonna have a ball today
Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes after…wards

So…. I think she has a bright future if she leverages it.

I think this Ted.com talk really explains what’s going on:

I do think that copyright law is going to have to change, otherwise you will not see remixes that have Rebbeca and Ice Cube together, along with clips from the Friday movie. And this is how people express themselves now.

I recently spoke at SXSW (South By South West- a massive event in Austin, TX) and I gave my 7 keys to happiness… I’m not saying what they all are in this post, ’cause I’m sharing my presentation in a few days…. but, I will reveal that point number 5 was to share. Share everything with the world! If you don’t want to share the going-ons in your life, then share your talent or hobby.

I said that what’s the worst that could happen? You get one ass-hat who says you suck? So what? What about all the people that think you’re awesome? What about all the people that wish they had the balls to post as you did? And let’s say you’re epically bad….. and everyone shares it in a viral fashion, like the Double Rainbow guy, or the Sunny D and Rum, Yum Yum lady…. Then you’re famous. You can leverage that and get a book deal, or a recording contract…

While I poke fun at this horrible song, I don’t poke fun at Rebecca… whom I see having a very very bright future. Kudos to her for having the balls to post it, and for keeping it up despite all the nay-sayers…

He who laughs last…. thinks slowest.

Every person that tries to bring her down, is only letting more people know about her song, and thus is growing her notoriety. It’s like back when I was working at One Model Place and we’d have photographer contests. Many photographers would go and vote “1″ on other photographers’ images… thinking that they are bringing down their scores.

In actuality, the contest was not based on average score… but rather the overall score. So every single point helped, and all these guys that were trying to hurt their competitors were actually helping them.

So… in summary….. Share your talent with the world. You’re likely to get remixed and laughed at…. but who the hell hasn’t been mocked when trying to do a great thing? The Wright Brothers were certainly mocked, as was Thomas Edison…

You survived yesterday, you survived today, chances are good you’ll be around tomorrow. Shit happens, and there is often a price to pay to get to greatness.

That aside, here’s some more awesome Rebecca Black spoofs and covers, and her interview…. But I bet by the time this posts, new ones will have already arrived on the web.

Here’s an amazing cover that makes the song not be annoying…. Epic Mullet Guy covers Rebbeca Black’s Friday-

Wow! That’s talent! Poor guy has that much talent, and only 162,000 views in 3 days. Poor thing.

This one was a blast Mashup with Friday the movie AND a mix with Ice Cube

I used to go to Raves– so this Dubstep version caught my attention…. it’s pretty well executed-

Bob Dylan version-

This kid did a cover, and got 146,000 views so far– ’cause RyanSeacrest.com posted his video.

Fried Eggs (more original than many of the others)

Emo-

Heavy Metal-

Using Video editing to make a dance video to match-

BeatBox

One of the better spoofs (audio and video wise) “Saturday”

This guy’s cover is pretty decent– makes it sound like a mix of Pink Floyd, The Cure, and some other bands

Friday– an acting masterclass

Pop Rock- (not bad… think Dashboard Confessional) –

Accoustic and Banjo cover!

This Meatloaf Version is awesome

Another dramatic, but talented cover-

Hitler finds out it’s Friday (This friggin clip gets spoofed for every meme! The one they did of Hitler Finds Out Baloon Boy Is A Hoax was the best!)

This kid deserves to be made fun of even more than Rebecca does:

These guys did a decent acoustic set- and had fun with the video:

Rebecca’s interview on Good Morning America:

If you want to kill time, go look up Rebecca Black Friday on YouTube…. hint– you’ll find a whole other set if you try things like Rebecca Black Friday Piano Cover / Rebecca Black Drum Cover / Rebecca Black Dance Party / Rebecca Black Spoken Word—- each one of these has dozens of covers in that genre.

This girl has started an entire industry! I think it’s amazing. If nothing else, you can make a drinking game out of it

So, when I went to “The Shack” (That’s how they brand themselves now… the ads say “the shack” and they pick the phone up “Thanks for calling The Shack”) in Santa Monica while couchsurfing with the awesome Espree a few months ago, I bought the cheapest replacements I could find, at $14.99, after having just killed a pair of Skull Candy earphones — a brand that brand on someone’s recommendation that they would be more durable… but… bleh, they died like the rest. The salesperson did a great job upselling me on the replacement plan.

He said that I could just walk into any radio shack, no box, no receipt, and get it exchanged.  Well, I thought I’d try that today, ’cause sure enough my new pair has been dying.  Here’s how it went down (as if the title didn’t give it away):

The very helpful sales rep gave me a brochure, and said I needed to call that number.  The person at that number was able to look up the contract based on my phone number.  They asked me a bunch of questions, then authorized me for an exchange credit.  It works like this:

You call, give your trouble, if approved, you get a pre-paid shipping label you can print, and drop off at Fed-Ex.  When your defunct item has been received, you get a credit for it, and the sales tax. The credit is given to you in the form of an electronic gift card.

I stated my disdain for the postal system, and the guy said that the store clerk could ship my item back for me, as the return authorization is in their computer.

It took 30 minutes to do the phone call, and bring it in the store, and have the clerk agree to hold on to the earphones since the authorization would not be valid for 1 hour… and I wasn’t planning on being there another 30-45 minutes.

Am I being bitchy?  Maybe, though I don’t think so. I titled this Radio Shack misrepresentation, because I was told that I could go into any store and get it exchanged.  That is not at all what happened.  Instead I took my time to drive to the store (not included in half an hour, nor is drive back), had to talk to the service plan company, had to wait on the clerk to process the earphones… and now I get to wait a few days to get my credit, which I then have to take to The Shack, or order by phone.

So, perhaps this is worth it on more pricey items, but my hour and a half that it takes to go to Radio Shack twice and back, is not worth the $15 that I get back for my $5 insurance.  My time is worth more than that… even if it was spent on conversations with great friends, or improving clients’ lives.

The customer service was great in each of the 3 transactions (the 2 clerks and the service guy), and the stores were clean and organized… but I would rather the guy tell me that it’s got to be shipped in.  That would’ve been honest, and saved me time.

I guess my friends and family are used to hearing what new goal I am going to go after now, “I’m going to be a 3D animator!  I’m going to be a photographer!  Now I”m running a printshop!  I’m going to design jewelry!  I’m a marketer!  I’m a video editor!  I’m going to play the guitar! I’m writing a book!”  So… Breakdancing may not be a big stretch for them, especially after stunts like Bull Poker, or Cliff Jumping, or Skydiving, or all these other things that I’ve done.  But… this is different, and I’m telling you why so maybe you can find that thing that brings you alive.

My good buddy Craig Allen and I were on a Skype video call, and my good friend, his roommate at the time, Katie Brown jumped in as well.  Apparently, they had just seen a movie on NetFlix called LXD.  Here is part of the call (with some Tiesto music added by me for good measure)

Have I mentioned how much I love my friends

Ok… here’s the official trailer, now that you’ve seen Craig & Katie’s version:

I watched it, and I was on the edge of my seat with that “Holy shit! How do they do that?!” feeling. I watched it, and Jason Sherfey (whom I was couchsurfing with at the time) and I had break-danced our way to breakfast.

It’s not like every movie affects me like that. Sure, you watch Indiana Jones (the original ones) and you want to get a whip. You watch Superman, and you want to get a cape, and fly. But you forget about it after a while. I noticed that after watching that, despite usually being mild on the dance-floor, I would start improvising some breaks… and contrary to my expectations, nobody laughed — except that time in downtown San Diego with Mitch Sanders and Jaime Mintun, when I accidentally kicked some poor girl in the head… but that’s another blog post to be written, about mastery being built up over time… incrementally, and with practice.

I watched The LXD a few times, never tiring of it. But it wasn’t until 2 months ago, when I was in Austin, staying with Craig, and working on a project day and night that I realized I need to learn to breakdance.

Between writing, making the appropriate web design, creating mobile phone ads, facebook ads, and all those fun split testing thingies that we needed to do, we were up and working most of the day… and I would be up at night, since I’m nocturnal. Craig likes to have movies on, though, he’s not even paying attention to which one is on… just that they are on. My attention span is not as forgiving… I pay attention to what movie is on, and what’s going on, despite that I get the work done.

One night Craig was out, and I was in charge of movies for myself. I didn’t care for what Mr. Allen had lined up on the Netflix Que, so I started flipping through, and on a whim I found Planet B-Boy.

This time I noticed that I had dropped all the work I was doing, and watched intently.  I even felt that my pupils were focused, and my heart was beating faster. I was having an adrenaline rush without having to jump out of a plane, wait for a bull to hit me, or travel 140MPH on a motorcycle.  I was doing it out o the comfort of the living room, and the instigator was this movie.

I realized that I can watch this stuff all day long.  I used to study Capoeira (A Brazilian martial art that resembles dancing, with lots of flips, kicks, and is performed to music), but while I wasn’t that great at it, I loved to show up to class, because I could watch those that were great do their thing. Every place I’ve seen breakdancing or Capoeira demos, I’d stop to watch.

So… if just watching it gives me a rush, what would being good at it do?  What would it be like to clear out a swatch of dance floor, and do something like this with some friends:

Now, I have my little nagging voices in my head…. I mean, these guys that are competing are all younger than me, way more flexible, and it seems they all have a 6-pack… which I’m sure is a side-effect of dancing so damn much.  But, I’m not looking to compete, I’m looking to have fun, have a new way to play with others, challenge myself, express myself, and like drawing and telling jokes, this is something that comes from the inside… I just want to do it.  Reason need not apply.

So… what is it that when you watch it, you get amped up?  If there is such a thing, maybe you should get involved in it. Yes, people may judge you… but would you rather be unhappy and not judged, or would you rather be free, happy, and have some people think you’re an idiot because they are too scared to chase their own dreams?

Do it!

That dog bed is so comfortable. I started sleeping on it as a joke, because I was protesting the amount of time it took to inflate and deflate Craig’s air mattress, then I realized it’s really comfy, there’s nothing to set up or clean up, and Bentley makes a great pillow anyways.

I’m writing my “Thanksgiving and stuff” blog a few days after Thanksgiving, because I am grateful every day.  I’ve got a great family (regardless of how much we annoy each other after a few days.  You know what they say “Family and garbage.. they both start to stink after a few days.”  ), I’m traveling, I’ve met the most amazing people, I work on projects that engage me intellectually, I eat well, I’ve been gifted so much knowledge by interaction and portable courses (audio books and such), I live in amazing times…. I can make a blog post that goes on for days about the things I’m grateful for…. and I don’t need a special holiday to be thankful.  I do it daily.

A small secret, and I want you to consider it seriously, because it’s one that I’ve discovered and learned to be true…. despite that it sounds new-age-woowoo.  If you spend time every day thinking (even better if you write it) about what you’re grateful for, your life will be amazing!  This is not me being a pompous asshole and bragging about how great my life is…. this is me telling you one of the things that was hard for me to do at first, but that I now do automatically and it’s a life-changer!

I remember in 2006 (I had been listening to audio books for about a year at the time), after my CouchSurfingOri Launch Party, I had dinner with my parents.  Mom and Dad were blown away by what I had put together.  16 lingerie models, great music, free Vodka and Rum drinks for everyone, some giveaways, a Samba Dancer, I featured some artists, and it was all at Pearl’s — the VIP at Nikki Beach Club in South Beach.  My parents had never been to a club so posh in their life. So, were at dinner, and talking, and I said “I think I’ll start my journey, and go around to different cities, like New York, LA, etc, couchsurf, and throw massive parties like that!”

Dad said “Well, I don’t know, New York has some real clubs, and they have so many parties already.”  So, I sat there and recounted that the club they were just at is internationally renowned, that South Beach is quite well known for its parties, and I pulled the party off there.  I mentioned other things, and kept going on and on about why I am qualified for this, until Dad finally ran out of arguments.  Mom looked at me and said “Wow, when did you become such an optimist?”

I guess there are numerous lessons in that story.  One hard one is that you have to follow your own dreams.  Other people often will not understand yours, and will try to protect you from yourself.  Well meaning friends and family are the number one killer of dreams.  People, despite wanting the best for you, often do not want you to succeed at your crazy dream, because then they may have to up their own game, or they may lose you.  It’s a primitive motivator, based on survival and the “Lizard brain”.

On New Year’s, I will have been couchsurfing for a full four years, and will be entering my 5th.  After my 1st year ended, my parents and I had some words.  They thought this was another phase, and that after a year I will have gotten it out of my system.  The exact opposite happened.  The more I couchsurf, the more I love it, and now I finally get to couchsurf outside of the USA, making my dream of being a world-wide adventurer come true… but it wouldn’t couldn’t have happened without me learning to focus on the positive.

I can’t find the quote (just Googled) – but it’s something about “You have to want what you have before you can have what you want.”  Basically, that is happiness.  Thinking that you are great, and the people and things you have are great, and you take personal responsibility for things.  So, don’t go thinking that your life is worthless just because you don’t have the latest iphone 4.  Watching television is a great way to see all sorts of crap you don’t have, and probably don’t need.  Those marketers know more about you than you do.  They use some serious psychotactics to get you to crave their wares.  Again, that’s the beauty of taking those few minutes a day to be grateful for what you have.

Not making excuses is also important in happiness. Make the assumption that everything is your fault.  While this thought may fluster you, hear me out!  This gives you control over your life.  If you’re waiting for so-and-so to finish their piece of the project before you can do you thing, you are giving them control over your life. I’ve had websites that I’ve outsourced, and the contractor, despite me having paid them, did not do a good enough job…. I knew my clients would be pissed off, so… I skipped sleeping for a few days, and did the project myself. End result, happy client, and grumpy Ori (I get grumpy after not sleeping for 2 days).  The point?  People don’t care what happened.  They’ll take your excuses, but if they count on you, they expect the results.  That’s why we love people that overcome difficulties, because they’re not using them as excuses!  Like this guy:

He has no arms, and he still plays the piano better than most people I know!  I guarantee you he didn’t make excuses, like “Awww man, I wanted to play piano, but I have no hands.  *sigh* Guess I won’t ever play!” He found his dream, and stayed with it. Seeing this gives us hope… because if he can learn an instrument so well without hands, then we should be able to do well if we just apply ourselves.  Just remember, every overnight success is 10 years in the making.  ”Dream” can be interchanged with goal/business/plan.

Most of the reasons why we can’t do something are in our heads.  I actually wrote some stuff about that in the report I’m giving away on this project I’m doing in Austin right now.

I’ve been in Austin, and focused.  I teamed up with two of my couches to start a more political blog than this one.  It’s more about your rights being taken away, the coming crash of the US economy, things you can do to grow and protect your wealth, etc…  That blog is http://HowToThinkLikeTheRich.com - there’s even a great report to show you why we believe those things.  I designed our Facebook Page (You guessed it! Facebook.com/HowToThinkLikeTheRich), which required a little bit of learning (See what happens when you hit the Like Button).

It’s the most focused I’ve been in a while.  We had deadlines set because I am leaving to Costa Rica, Rob swung by and hung out with us in Austin – but only for a limited time – and Craig is taking off the day after I am, to go to Arizona and Thailand.

I really enjoyed working with a team.  It’s been a real learning experience, and I’m thankful for that too.

Oh yeah, thankful… thanksgiving, that’s what I titled this post.

Craig and I spent the holiday at our friend Rick’s place.  We worked, we showed up there with some healthy deserts (Chia Pudding), and we gorged ourselves.  I passed out immediately.  A bit of conversation, great food, great friends… that’s what holidays are about… but why do you need a holiday to do enjoy your life with great friends?  Try calling someone to wish them a Happy Monday, and send them a picture of you in front of a fire hydrant (since Pines have taken Christmas).  Have a feast and invite some friends (My brother and his friends call it dinner parties).

I was doing some Costa Rica shopping, when I was given yet another reason to be thankful.  Yes, I am thankful that I am out of the country during this part of the year… because I dislike having to hear Christmas Music everywhere when I’m out in public, on every tv commercial that makes me want to buy more gadgets to improve my self worth and feelings of acceptance, when I drive and listen to the radio…. I think it stems from having come from Israel… as a Kid there wasn’t much Hooplah about Hannukah — no Hannukah music playing at the mall.

Adam Sandler is a friggin hero, because finally after all these years there was at least a song you’d hear on the radio about Hannukah!  Anyways– you have have your Christmas music, your Holiday parking fiascos, and your giant feast.  I will be learning to surf, writing my book, and celebrating having my phone off for a month (though I’m sure I’ll skype-call people).

Just in case we don’t talk until I get back (though I doubt I could stay quiet that long!  Recently Brandie challenged me to see if I could “not use sarcasm” for 20 minutes.  I made it 14, then Johnny Diggz joined us, and I couldn’t help myself!), have a happy holiday season.  Treat every day like a holiday, be grateful for what you have, check out my new blog, think of what your dreams are, and ignore it when that little voice (your “reptile brain”) and well meaning friends and family try to protect you.  Keep your eye on the prize. Take time to relax.  Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff

O-

p.s. hopefully by 2011 I’ll be a wave surfer not just a couch surfer.  Should have a lot of updates about my book

Apple thinks you are a tool

Apple is the king of marketing and creating hype.  Their technology has changed the world.  Their style has made technology simple, and pretty.  And now, they think that we are all fools. Me personally, I am waiting for the youtube itunes video of the person who came up with this latest scheme getting executed by firing squad.

Yesterday had all the tech sites wondering what Apple will announce today, as their home page announced with poor grammar that “Tomorrow is just another day.  That you’ll never forget.”  I gotta admit, with all that they’ve done, I too was curious what their announcement will  be.  What will they have people lining up around the block for this time?

Apparently, all the hype was to announce that the Beatles are now on iTunes.  Seriously?  That’s it?  That is worth shutting down the Apple home page for?

For those who were not aware of it, all the Beatles albums have been available for sale at your local record shop for decades.

The entire discography (the whole collection) AND a bunch of rare stuff that you can’t even buy have been floating around the web for ages, and for free, on Torrent Sites, so it’s not like you couldn’t get mp3s of your favorite Beatles song.  In fact, those sites have their content in higher quality than iTunes does.

There was this one site called Oink.Me.Uk – which got shut down (and in January of this year, the owner of the site was declared not guilty), because all the record companies attacked it.  Why were they so afraid of that site? Because the quality was way better than their offerings.  The selection was way better than theirs as well.  Oink had really high standards.  It got the collectors to encode and share their private stash at high quality.

If you’re a huge Beatles fan, and you want the collection, then buy the CD and encode it to FLAC – a lossless compression.  Get Vinyl, now that has a rich sound!  Even play it on CDs… fine.  Whatever.  But, don’t spend your hard earned money on iTunes!  At least if you buy the CDs you have a pretty box!  You have something to show!  With iTunes you have a medium quality mp3…. that’s locked to your computer!  So… you can’t even buy this as a gift!

Yeah… here’s a story for you! This girl took me on a date to this concert, and the next day bought a song on iTunes (Stolen, by Dashboard Confessional) just to send to me (awwwww)…. except that I couldn’t play the damn thing ’cause she bought it on her computer.  Can you imagine how that feels?  To buy someone a present, and they aren’t allowed to open it?  Well…. that’s called DRM – Digital Rights Management- I wrote about DRM and what you can do about it.

I respect an artist’s right to make money.  But guess what?  Most of them don’t!  The reason is not because of people downloading… it’s because the record labels hardly pay them anything.  They make their money on touring, tshirt sales, that kind of stuff… not off of record sales.

This (NOT safe for work / kids — language) hilarious animation came out when Metalica was bashing people for downloading their stuff at the time when Napster came out.  Napster is now another tool for buying music… but back in the day, it was like Limewire– a tool for finding and sharing files.  P2P (Peer to peer) sharing — which is what Torrent Sites are these days.  These tools have many legitimate uses by the way.

So… Yes, I think it is pathetic that Apple fans will wait in line for 12 hours to buy a $600 phone that’s going to be replaced next year… or break the 1st time they drop it.  Actually…. what I have to say about it can’t explain it any better than this incredible video:

Yeah!  That’s right!

So…. Apple, thanks for making the iPod.  It’s really rad!  I appreciate having a stylish player to carry my content with me where ever I go.  I think it’s great that you buy up every 5th billboard in every major city to show people holding ipads.  But damn dudes, why blow your wad on announcing that you have a few more tunes on your music store?  I hope this is a giant flop.  I think it’s insulting, showing how the whole world talks about anything that Apple does, even if it’s something so trivial.

And for the record… my iPod Touch was acting up this morning, completely ruining my jog!  Thankfully the people from Brooks set up small pavilions on the trail, and had people do 1 minute challenges for prizes.  I just wanted to see what it was about, so I tried to eat a spoonful of cinnamon in 1 minute.  That’s harder than it sounds!  That cheered me up

So… yes, I was pre-bitter about Apple before I even saw their misuse of brand power.