Bound and Gagged

By Dana Summers

Perez says: Boycott Facebook!

The queen of online gossip and fellow blogger Perez Hilton has a very important message for all of us, check out out his blog at www.perezhilton.com

Just so you know, Perez is one of the most influential bloggers on the planet...so let's see what Mark Zuckerberg and his legal team at Facebook can shift the legal gears.

Facebook Photo Controversy

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg is losing friends lately.  It seems that the legal fine print that we all have no time to read, gives Zuckerberg and his lawyers the power to take our images from the web and do what they please with those images.  So let's say an ad campaign for Facebook.  Zero dollars for you and me...but a lot of more bagels for Mark!  I smell royalty infringement, perhaps intellectual property theft too?  

Basically a license to do whatever Facebook wants...you can delete your photos, but they remain permanently on the Facebook social networking system.

Is this about trust?  People trusted Bernard Madoff and look what happened!  Everyone needs to copyright protect their images...users beware!

Linked in

We are officially 'linked-in' with another online social networking utility!  This one is for the corporate guy's and gal's.

Thanks Dan!

joey!

Demo-your-life!

I watched David Chilton the other night, author of 'The Wealthy Barber' talk on CBC's The Hour. It brought back some memories because I bought my dad that book years ago. I read most of it and David had a really cool way with his characters in the book, the format of the book was just pretty easy going, almost an RRSP for dummies kind of format. Anyhow David talks about the economic state of North America and the rest of the world. A couple of years ago he was with a friend in Florida and they both saw this crisis coming! People were driving big cars and buying big home with credit they didn't really have. And the banks were giving credit to people with no jobs etc. In a nut shell, David expressed that we are all living beyond our means, 3,000-4,000 sq. ft. homes for some people, the big screen tv's and other big priced items. He explains that this is going to take 10-15 years to clear up...America is in the worst condition and that Canada is going to feel a lot of pain too. With all the negative buzz in the media, people are beginning to clamp down on spending and spend more time at home, which ironically makes things even worse for economic growth! Economies prevail when be spend the money we earn, but when we spend money that we don't have, this really set's us back as a nation. So what do we do? Well according to some experts, we are to balance life and become frugal, rather than frivilous. And Chilton apparently expressed that budgeting doesn't work, that the people he knew that did, where just boring and miserable people who just number crunched. We need to save! The idea behind savings is a form of condition, we need to physically apply a portion of our incomes to savings and make it a routine. Most people are applying all their earnings into debts on credit cards or delinquent lines of credits and they become slaves to the credit system...which is a growing problem in the Western world! That seems to be the current economic plague we are hearing about everyday.

Chilton jokes about how he still lives in a tiny house with no garage and that his Mother still does his laundry! Strange..considering his success?

Anyhow student's ask me about being a starving artist in today's economy, and I tell them to seek refuge in other opportunities that will bring wealth management. Perhaps taking on another job in a different field or industry, and continue with your passion? The above photo was taken for a company that specializes in demolitions and it defines a visual message. I thought about today's current environment, the restructuring of our economies and the changes that take place in peoples lives. There is so much syndication taking place on all of this depressing news lately, that it's leaving us drained. People are left with no energy, no interest, no care, we forget about what's important to us and ignorant to the things around us.

I think it's time we all re-think, re-structure and re-gain focus on what's true to us...so maybe 'demo' some of the things in your life and start rebuilding back from ground up! A sort of lifestyle cleansing kind of regime.

Change is good!

joey!

Closer to your subject...

Every once in awhile, the little ones fall asleep on that long car drive.  I couldn't resist the moment of opportunity.  This little guy absolutely adores his Tonka fire truck, and insists on having it with him everywhere he goes!  I had my Nikon 105mm Macro lense and wanted substance...so I went nuts.  I captured the following product style shots...the truck, the eyelashes, the lips and nose.  I didn't bother using any flash since the ambient light in the car was nice and soft.  I kept all my exposures pretty neutral and just focused on the composition shots for my children's photography collection.  I must reiterate that the Nikon D3 camera is the best camera I have ever owned, next to my old Hasselblad's.

A child's illustration...

This one comes from some teachers at the Durham District School Board...thank's ladies...

Why parent's should always check their children's homework before they hand it in:

A first grade girl handed in the above drawing for a homework assignment.  After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis.

I want to be very clear on my child's illustration.  It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint.  I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm.  This photo is of me selling a shovel!