Actor Arjun and his daughter Aishwarya displays displays the creation of designer Sanjana Jon.

Carnatic Singer Vijay Yesudas and his wife Darshana displays the creation of designer Sanjana Jon on the 4th day of Chennai International Fashion Week.

Bollywood Actress Jacqueline Fernandez displays the creation of designer Satya Paul on the last day of Chennai International Fashion Week.

Actress Snega displays the creation of designer Sanjana Jon on the 4th day of Chennai International Fashion Week.

Bollywood actors Neetu Chandra and Shriya Saran along with model displaying the creation of designer Neeta Lulla on the last day of Chennai International Fashion Week.

It’s holiday time and time to make those New Year’s Resolution. So what to do in 2010 to make your small business prosper.

1. Take a look at your website. Is it up-to-date? Websites should be updated at least twice a month. Your customers want to know what you’ve been up to and the website is the first place they go. Make sure they have something new to see.
2. Have you changed your phone number or address? Keep your business card updated and avoid the scratch and insert business cards.
3. Did you ever make that contact? So you got a business card and never did anything with it. The holidays is the perfect time to send a holiday greeting to a “ghost” contact. You never know that contact may be thinking about you.
4. Dust off your business suit. Get your 2010 networking calendar full. Position yourself to meet new people who may need your assistance or vice versa.
5. Get it organized. Yup holiday season = tax time and every year you claim you will organize and file your receipts, mileage, etc. Well make this year the year you actually do it. Set aside one day a week to keep track of your records and stay organize.

I hope these resolution ideas can assist you, they will definitely assist me. I’m definitely guilty of number 5, but I promise to get organize and remain that way throughout the new year.

Get Organized for 2010

Vivid Designs Inc. wishes you a prosperous 2010!

Embarassed as I’m of what happened, I can’t help but write about the incident and the revelation. I broke a “u-turn” rule recently near Koramangala in Bangalore in order to avoid a huge traffic jam and got caught by the traffic police. Well, as notorious as they are for taking bribes they are there at all the places, you can’t really escape as much as you wish!

Anyway, coming back to the point, as I approached the officer to pay my fine I noticed that he had a blackberry with him and a small printer (like the ones that print credit card slips at retail stores). He asked for my license and I gave it to him, still puzzled at the hi-tech gadgetry and sophistication around him. He asked me for a few details, took a picture of my license and printed me a receipt for the fine! I was shocked, to say the least!!!

When I probed further, he told me that they have been using this for the past 2 years and that the blackberry application was indigenously developed by the Bangalore Traffic Police department. The photo of the license and the details get uploaded via satellite link to their server and it gets recorded as a transacion in his account. He felt pride in explaining this to me and I was literally dumbstruck!

What can I say, if they keep a tab on that account the corruption levels can definitely be monitored and controlled to a large extent and as to the technology adoption hats off to the department.

Looking back on my blogs, I can see it has been over six weeks since my last entry. What have I been doing that I didn’t take time out to blog? Well, at least two of those weekends I wasn’t in Queensland and as I don’t have a laptop (yet), I find it means having to work in longhand on paper. So I stick to editing or dreaming up new ideas when I’m away.

I must admit that I prefer dreaming up new ideas to editing. I love the excitement of not knowing what is going to end up on the page. Editing seems like hard work to me, I know that it can be as creative as the original writing and the end product makes it worthwhile, but it just doesn’t give me the same buzz.

The rest of the time I have been busy with finishing a Creative Writing unit and Christmas shopping. And this is where I wish you all a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year before heading off for the night.

Merry Christmas.

Looking back on my blogs, I can see it has been over six weeks since my last entry. What have I been doing that I didn’t take time out to blog? Well, at least two of those weekends I wasn’t in Queensland and as I don’t have a laptop (yet), I find it means having to work in longhand on paper. So I stick to editing or dreaming up new ideas when I’m away.

I must admit that I prefer dreaming up new ideas to editing. I love the excitement of not knowing what is going to end up on the page. Editing seems like hard work to me, I know that it can be as creative as the original writing and the end product makes it worthwhile, but it just doesn’t give me the same buzz.

The rest of the time I have been busy with finishing a Creative Writing unit and Christmas shopping. And this is where I wish you all a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year before heading off for the night.

Merry Christmas.

Designer: Versace Pre-Fall Spring 2010

Inspiration: Japanese Techno

Top Looks: Long-sleeved Japanese printed mini-dress with power shoulders; Jean-blue suit, with skin-tight front lace-up jeans; Laminated aqua mini-dress with lace inset; Black bodice cocktail dress with asymmetrical pleated skirt

Accessories: Platform round toe pumps, lace-ups and slouch boots. All in either black, navy, electric blue, red, or a combo there of. Colorful handbags, including a graphic printed snake skin carry-all. In the jewelry department, a graphic necklace and colorful stacked bangles.

What we thought: Though this collection was only 17 looks long, Donatella Versace made each one of them count. The body conscious silhouettes were young and edgy, like Versace’s Spring collection. (Perhaps the influence of the Versus designer, Christopher Kane?)

The palette consisted of sherbert and pure colors (both trends for Pre-Fall 2010) and Japanese prints. Hemlines were asymmetrical, often half-pleated. Fabrics were shiny and laminated. True to the inspiration, there was a hard technichal quality to the clothes-with little softness. But the most beautiful looks mixed both-namely the bustier goddess dresses with pleated chiffon skirts.

WrapMail for Business is now part of the Google Solutions Marketplace.

I’m kinda adoring this. Simple to make and practical in every way. What is there not to love?

Check out the vid on Youtube!

This one’s super cool, too. And, let me just affirm that duct tape is surprisingly effective at creating smooth and pretty chic surfaces. So never fear, go on…make your bag.

Check out the vid on Youtube!

Building a brand and marketing your invention is key for maximising the value of intellectual property.   A logo is important because it is a visual representation of everything your company stands for.   A good logo enhances the first impression of your business and your products, establishing a brand identity and providing a more professional look for your company.  Think of McDonald’s golden arches or the Nike swoosh

Basically there are 3 different types of logos.

1. Font-based logo- Sony, IBM
   
2. Illustrated logo- Logos that literally illustrate what a company does.
   For example, Lost Key uses an illustration of a key in its logo.  More examples of Illustrated Logos- TeaTool, Coolzee 4-in-1 , Lost Bag
   
   
3. Iconic symbols linking to a company’s brand- ODM’s Mascot

Before you begin sketching, first articulate the message you want your logo to convey. Try writing a one-sentence mission statement and sketch the product/function to help focus your efforts. Stay true to this statement while creating your logo. But that may not be enough to get you started.

Here are some additional tips that will help you create an appropriate company logo:

• Look at the logos of other businesses in your industry.
  Are your competitors using bold colours or flashy colours and type. Consider how you want the audience to perceive your product and try to differentiate your logo from fellow competitors

• Make it clean and functional.
  A good logo should be scalable, easy to reproduce, memorable and distinctive. Icons are better than photographs, which may be indecipherable if enlarged or reduced significantly. And be sure to create a logo that can be reproduced in black and white so that it can be faxed, photocopied or used in a black-and-white ad as effectively as in color.

• Use your logo to illustrate your business’s key benefit.
  The best logos make an immediate statement with a picture or illustration, not words. The “Lightning Bolt” logo, for example, may need to convey the benefit of “ultra-fast, guaranteed printing services.” The lightning bolt image could be manipulated to suggest speed and assurance.

• Don’t use clip art.
  It can be copied too easily. Not only will original art make a more impressive statement about your company, but it’ll set your product apart from others.

Once you’ve produced a logo that embodies your company’s mission at a glance, you may trademark it to protect it from use by other companies.  The cheapest way to secure a de facto trademark is to register the URL website domain.

Then, once it’s protected, use it everywhere you can – on business cards, stationery, letterhead, brochures, products, website, e-mail and any other place where you mention your company name. This will help build your image, raise your company’s visibility and, ideally, lead to more business.

Just remember to keep your customers and the nature of your business in mind when you put it all together. In time, you’ll have succeeded in building equity in your trademark, and it will become a positive and recognizable symbol of your product.    ODM provides all these services in-house.

I should have posted this eons ago.  Not only is the artwork amazing, but so is the reminder and the movement.  Praise God for this.  Loverly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkTyPzRzuwc

Have a very Merry Christmas.

Blue Skies Ahead!

Everyone that knows me, knows I don’t believe in “fortune-telling” about the FUTURE.  Well, maybe a few TRENDS that may be pointing a Potential way Into or Towards the FUTURE, and maybe a bit of Clarity about the Past, but that’s as far as I’ll go!  (the rest is up to You!)

Fortune-Telling Parakeet in Shiraz (www.flickr.com/photos/birdfarm

 HOWEVER, here’s a FUN way (And, I do believe in FUN!) several Asian countries are changing the way consumers recycle their chopsticks.  Yes, they recycle chopsticks the way we recycle soda cans…

(Gathered from The Fun Theory website)  

 Fortune-telling Machine for Recycling Chopsticks!

Fortunetelling machine for chopsticks recycling. In many Asian countries usual habit is to use single use chopsticks which are thrown away after single use. Numbers indicate: Just in Japan about 90 000 tons of used chopsticks finish in rubbish. It is amount of 25 billons chopsticks which connected make three times distance from earth to moon. In China 25.000.000 trees are being cut just for production of chopsticks. China produces about 45 billions chopsticks per year. Chopsticks export to Japan is large as 4 billions cubic meters of wood. Main problem with recycling is that restaurants owners don’t want extra duties. Other problem is that collecting bents for chopstick doesn’t exist.

According to fun theory people will recycle theirs chopsticks after a meal by themselves if it is fun. Thing that can help and we have it after a meal in “Chinese” restaurant in Europe and USA is fortune cookies. Combining these three things we can make “Chopsticks recycling fortunetelling machine”. Solution is container about 170 cm height with hole for inserting used chopsticks, LCD, print button and small printout hole.
After inserting chopsticks one by one machine calculate time between dropping 1st and 2nd stick and choose fortune cookie message for LCD. After chopsticks are inserted message appear on LCD: “Thank you for taking care for our mother Earth” Your fortune for today: Grand adventures await those who are willing to turn the corner For printout of this cookie as souvenir press PRINT.

In case of printout: Please consider your environmental responsibility before printing this souvenir. On the top of printout is a logo of the restaurant with basic info (as a motivation to owners for putting chopstick recycler in to the restaurant. fortune cookie saying time and GPS position.

Submitted by Mislav Sabolic

http://www.thefuntheory.com/2009/12/15/fortunetelling-machine-recycling-chopsticks  (there are lots and lots of ideas. Actually there are 1000s of ideas on the site. Sometimes it’s hard to find them with the original link. If the one above gives you a hard time, then just go to www.thefuntheory.com and you’ll have to search for it. But you’ll have FUN while you search!  Most of the entries look like lots of FUN and will make you LAUGH!

FUN IS GOOD!

 

   The Fun Theory

 

Finally design and javasceript found a way to communicate
and the result can be amazing
have a look

I recently listened to a talk by a Buddhist monk that included an interesting technique for developing new habits (or breaking old ones).  He called it “programming mindfulness”, and you can use it to gently alter your actions and reactions.  The idea is to wait until you are in a relatively calm state of mind…maybe when you’re driving, or cleaning house, or something, then mentally state the habit you are trying to develop three times, then forget about it.  Try to do this at least once a day. 

I decided to use this technique to try to be less critical of myself.  During my morning commute, I repeated the phrase “The next time I start to berate myself (e.g. “I’m so stupid”, “I’m such a loser”, etc. ), I will replace that thought with “I am kind.”   I chose “I am kind.” because it’s something that I sort of believe about myself.  Of course, even as I’m writing this, I catch myself thinking “You’re not kind.  Sometimes you’re downright unkind.  Oh, you might be kind of stupid, kind of dumpy, kind of fat, but not just kind...”   

I’m thinking, this might take a while….

 The concept behind this technique is that most behavior is conditioned from an early age–we react in a certain way because we have always reacted in that way.  By reminding yourself of alternative behaviors on a regular basis, you do two things:  You begin to remember, in the moment, that your reaction to the situation is a choice, and you have already memorized your best possible reaction!  Even if you can’t bring yourself to implement the change right away, you will know how you want to react, and be aware that you are making a choice.  Eventually, these new behaviors will eventually become automatic–they become your new normal.  

Since I started this post yesterday, I’ve caught myself several times beating myself up (usually with some version of  “OMG, you are so fat!”).  This morning, I managed once to turn it around one time.  I’ll keep you posted on how I’m doing.

I don’t like crocs, but like this!  Especially in such a vibrant color.  If I had a green thumb, I’d plant a pink croc, indeedly-do.

Idea courtesy of Green Upgrader: http://greenupgrader.com/3492/repurposed-croc-planter/

Found great ideas for repurposed bookshelves at the groovy-riffic Poetic Home website.

1) Adore this!  So, as we know, I don’t have a case…but if I did I’d do this.  Hang this bad boy up on the wall and it’s even cooler…if it can get any cooler.

Idea courtesy of RecycleArt.org. http://www.recyclart.org/2009/10/guitar-case-bookshelf/

2) This reminds me of school, which may not be something we all want.  However, it’s just a cool idea.  Might be fun for a porch deck, you know?  Painted pastel colors or polka-dots or stripes and stuff.  It just beckons creativity and creating tension through contrast and the unexpected. 

Idea courtesy of The Reading In Public Project: http://thereadinginpublicproject.blogspot.com/

3) The first time I tried skateboarding was down a hill at a younger cousin’s house.  I made it about 2 feet before stumbling off the thing in terror.  But, this shelf…I can do.

Idea courtesy of Skate Study House: http://www.skatestudyhouse.com/html/skate_bookshelves.html

As the new year approaches and you might be thinking about how to re-focus/re-think plans for the coming year then you might want to check out a free ebook from Seth Godin and friends called “What Matters now”.  What you get is an eclectic range of ideas and thoughts – one of them might just reasonate

The holidays and holiday travel season is upon us.  This short post is a request for the community to share any great travel tips they have for less stressful travel.  One of the podcasts series I listen to is ManagerTools.  One of their casts discussed great travel tips.  I’ve adapted a couple of their ideas and added some of my own.  Full disclaimer.  I used to try to surf the web and get the best deal on different aggregator websites.  I’m now a BIG believer in using a travel agent.  it just took one flight cancellation out of Portland OR coming back to the East Coast for me to be a believer. If you want a recommendation, I can certainly give a ringing endorsement to my travel agent, Janine.

Here are three tips I have learned:

1-Choose a primary airline. Base your decision on where you fly most frequently and whether the airline has a hub near you.

2-Get and use a travel agent-see above.

3-Enroll in a Frequent Flyer program.  Look especially at those programs that allow you to double dip and use your points for things other than simply flight miles-gives you many more options.

Now what are yours? Please comment below.

All the best,

Chris

The Internet is the most convenient source of information when it comes to searching for and acquiring information in four main categories:

1) news and current events (eg, the latest on Tiger Wood’s interests),
2) facts and figures (eg, how tall Tiger is),
3) how to accomplish specific tasks (eg, how to swing a golf club like Tiger), and
4) what the world thinks about Tiger.

But the Internet has yet to reach the ultimate promise of using all of its implicit data and computing power to help people make smarter decisions and dispensing unbiased personalized advice- what I am calling Phase IV of online information.  Phase I was characterized by search (dominated by Google) and content verticals,  Phase II saw the emergence of online Q&A sites over the past few years, such as Yahoo! Answers, Answers.com,  eHow, followed quickly by Phase III social information, epitomized by Facebook and Twitter.

Now a new crop of Internet companies, such as Aardvark, Hunch, Keas, and my own Cake Financial, are working on Phase IV by combining aggregated data (oftentimes personal information such as health and personal finance) and human inputs with machine-based learning to provide relevant answers to the question: “What should I do?” about a variety of subjects.

The business opportunity is enormous.  As you can see from the chart below, the Phase II Q&A companies collectively serve over 100MM users each month and the verticalized nature of the content makes pages highly trafficked via SEO and targeted to advertisers.  In October, Yahoo Answers crossed the 1 billion questions and answer mark, and the site just celebrated its 4th birthday.  Rather than faltering with the rise of Phase III darling, Twitter, as I had initially suspected, the top three sites have increased their audiences considerably over the past year.

I did some quick analysis to see 1) if there were particular differences across the sites and 2) if particular categories of content are more appropriate than others for online advice.

Yahoo Answers

There are currently 83MM questions spanning 26 different categories on Yahoo Answers.  Anyone can enter a question and various people from the community provide answers, with the best ones voted up by the community.  The top category, by far, is music and entertainment (mostly around celebrities), followed by family & relationships and health.  While upon first blush the site looks mainly for entertainment, people are looking for real answers to their health concerns, fashion and beauty, culture, how to find love and happiness, and how to fix their computers.  Essentially, solutions for everyday tasks around living well, interacting with others and staying on top of pop culture.  It’s all about people on Answers.



It is also interesting to note what people are not using Answers for: food, news, local events, eating out, and environmental issues.  For immediate decisions around what to do in the local area or what to serve for dinner, people are finding alternative sources of information, such as Yelp.

So where are there still opportunities to improve upon Y! Answers?  Check out the content areas where there are the most “unresolved” areas, questions where people have not been satisfied with a proper answer.  Advice on interpersonal relationships, divorce, dating, dealing with ailing parents, and health appear to be verticals where startups can gain traction.

eHow

eHow takes a slightly different approach by curating “how to” pages in 24 categories with 1.3MM entries, by my count.  Compared to Y! Answers, eHow skews more toward home improvement, hobbies, and food preparation, yet, health is similarly a top area of interest.  Since eHow creates its own content, it is better suited for more routinized concepts, and not as helpful for the more interpersonal categories such as relationships, culture, parenting where Y! Answers excels.  Think of eHow as an encyclopedia of practical advice to solve specific household tasks.  It is great when you want to find out how to get permanent marker out of your dining room table, for example.

Answers.com/WikiAnswers

As opposed to Y! Answers and eHow, Answers.com is more of a lite reference site for science, history, and automobiles.  It is designed to quickly find a piece of information that you need to continue on with your research topic at hand- or to settle a bet with your buddies.  Again, health leads the way, further solidifying my thesis that health will be a winner in Phase IV, assuming the player can minimize the privacy risks around sharing personal information.

Phase IV Update

The rumors circulating around the inevitable sale of Aardvark to Google signals to me that the startup may be the first victim of Twitter.   If you are interested in quickly asking your social network a question, Twitter seems to satisfy the majority of those use cases.  Companies like Hunch and Keas are the ones to watch in this emerging space.  Distribution will be the key to winning here as there are clear network effects at work- the more people access and use the site, the better the advice will be.

I was speaking with my brother today when he nailed the topic of innovation leadership in a few words.

He said; You can’t ask the market what they want, you need to invent it, build it and tell them why the future as you conceive it is better.

I really liked his sentiments.

12 Tips for 12 Months: To Remember Every Year
“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” Maya Angelou
“To everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Remember: Autumn in Red by Tone via Pixdaus

In the scheme of things, every holiday season becomes a time for reflection and preparation for the next phase; a New Year, new resolutions, new plans for our lives and our loved ones. We take stock of what we have gained or lost, accomplished or abandoned and make promises to do more or better. Yet, I think we can develop an approach to welcoming each year that is life long, sustainable and attainable; an approach that is fluid, dynamic and not bound by the ticking of a clock or the numerical shift on a calendar.

Recently, I was reading a great guest blog post by James Chartrand of Men with Pens on Brian Clark’s popular blog – Copyblogger. The post titled “Get an Evergreen for Your Blog This Holiday Season,” was about writing content that people return to read again and again because the message remains timeless or “evergreen.” I concur. Each year we live on earth should be seen as a time to add richness and context to our lives – replenish our evergreen tree – as a way to hold the history of what came before. Of course, the operative word is to add to what we already have not toss it all out and start anew. A newer you is feasible if you add to your life story and enrich it…

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” Dr. Napoleon Hill

The World as We See it: Mundo Mandala by Susan Rovo

Let’s imagine then, how much more compelling our efforts to live a fulfilling life would be if we weren’t bogged down by unrealistic goals, deadlines, or wishful thinking triggered by that 12:00AM bubbly induced euphoria on any new year’s day. Quite often, when the guests leave and our fog lifts, we flash back to that now unsettling place/party we left a few hours before; a place littered with our empty promises. So before the guilt sets in, rest, take a leisurely bath, and get back to the business of honoring yourself and your long term commitments. You don’t need a new list of resolutions, goals, gimmicks or what-have-yous. Maintain an evergreen list that you can revisit and replenish as you continue to grow into the Best You!

My list of twelve tips to remember every year is designed to be explored as we reach for the sky. The tips are not rigid or set in a January to December fashion. Choose to honor them in your life in whichever order you fancy. If we view each tip as a positive affirmation, we will act with faith and confidence because a positive affirmation carries the seed of possibility that will attract good things to us.

As you choose a tip and act on its advice, you may ask yourself: What’s the goal here? Is it to learn to cook, run a marathon, conquer stress, stay in touch with friends, finish projects, write a book, learn a language, gain family time, make peace with the body you have, be the phenomenal you, be driven and ambitious, manifest your fairytale life or just simply be…? I would say just get out of your head and follow your heart.

“The journey is the reward.” Chinese Proverb

Each Year of Life: Closer to The Tip of the Iceberg ~ Blue Iceberg

Twelve (12) Tips for Twelve (12) Months:
REFLECT:-
RENOUNCE:-
RESOLVE:-
REORGANIZE:-
REINVENT:-
RELAX:-
REFRESH:-
RE-GIFT:-
REIGNITE:-
REJOICE:-
REJUVENATE:-
REST:-

I will add an explanation for these tips later so do come back… Meanwhile, remember to pause, breathe and trust that we are exactly where our beliefs/thoughts/reactions have led us. Great things can be created by a shift in our thinking. What do you think? What are your feelings about the yearly return to familiar holiday rituals? Do Share. Thank you!

PHOTO CREDITS:
Autumn in Red by Tone ~ via Pixdaus
Mundo Mandala by Susan Rovo ~ via Google Images
Blue Iceberg by National Geographic ~ via Google Images

Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank

Keep journal like Jim Rohn for your success PART-1

Jim Rohn (September 17, 1930 – December 5, 2009), one of the legendary thinkers and experts on how to live our life to the fullest and making it a successful one, and, who has joined hands with other greats in Heaven on December 5^th, 2009, said,

“If you’re serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured and unique individual, keep a journal.”

He recorded all the important insights, lessons in life, important notes he had taken from Church sermons and other meetings, etc., in his life for about more than half a century, till his death last week. He has left a great treasure for his family members and maybe others, through his vast treasure vault of his journals along with his valuable books that he had collected over many years.

He used to say that if one wanted to become a highly successful man or woman then he or she should be a serious student of life and one indication that says that you are a serious student of life is maintaining a journal.

The points that he stressed in keeping a journal are encapsulated so that it could be very well impressed upon our minds. They are as follows:

1.“Don’t trust your memory”, observed Mr.Rohn. Any ideas that are worth examining are worth capturing in the first place and our memory cannot hold ideas infinitely.

2.“I found out that the best way to organize those ideas is to keep a journal.”

After trying to record ideas randomly, he at last found that ideas could be organized in a journal which acts as a central place to hold all those ideas, information and insights that one may come across suddenly.

3.“The discipline makes up a valuable part of my learning, and the journals are a valuable part of my library.”

What a wonderful lesson this is! He said that journals played an important part in his learning process. Learning ultimately leads to success for you become a more valuable person when you keep on learning new things on a consistent basis in every area of your life!!

4.“In fact, future generations will find these three treasures far more valuable than your furniture.”

When you die you’ll leave a library of journals to your future generations who would immensely get help from the thoughts you had recorded in your journals.

You may leave them a lot of money and properties but they cannot really compensate the years of experience that you had recorded in your journals which would guide your successors. You’ll have a fulfillment on your death bed for sure!

5.“The third treasure is your journals”, instructed Jim Rohn.

What he means is that along with the first two treasures which are your photos and personal library, your journals that you leave behind would be the third treasure to leave behind when you die!

You’ll live even after your death in those journals.

So what are journals, what to do with them and why are they so IMPORTANT in your success?

That’s next!

Wish you all the riches to come with God’s blessings

Peter Anand