Wenatchee Figure Skating Club - Videos from Christmas 2008

Click on video to go to YouTube for HD version!

Deadline Looming and We're Not There Yet

eMail Our Military





Deadline Looming and We're Not There Yet

Tomorrow is our deadline to meet the goal we set. We aimed for the stars this year since we received $1,115 last year from our Postage Patriots.

It is hard to believe the our deadline is tomorrow and we are not even half way to reaching our goal.

$954 is honorable and we absolutely appreciate it. Every penny will go directly to supporting the troops this holiday season with holiday cards and care packages.

However, we have not given up yet. You can still send in your checks, money orders, or use ChipIn and PayPal to get us to our goal. Every single dollar counts.

It doesn't matter if you can't do $5 do what you can. If you want to do more, please do!

We'll be snapping photos of our packages incoming and outgoing just like we did last year and we know you will enjoy the hardwork we put into this project that YOU made possible. (Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emom/sets/72157603422810438/ )

We will not let you down and we will not let our troops down.

Please help us reach our goal!

Please send your holiday mail and or payments to:

eMail Our Military
"Holiday Love"
8004 NW 154 Street, Suite 344
Miami Lakes, FL 33016

The Angels in Indiana all hang out at the Big Wheel truck stop

Just a cool story, my Auntie Ruthie sent me today.

Hi! Just a note to say I'm thinking of you with appreciation.

I trust that this story will encourage you and lift up your spirit today.


In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry children and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two.

Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds.

He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.

If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.

I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.

The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck.

The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job.

Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel.

An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids.

She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.

I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night.

She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.

That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.

When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night.

As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.

The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.

One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires!

There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered.

I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.

I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough.

Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.

I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning.

Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys’ pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.

A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine.

The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes.

I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans.

Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.

And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude.

And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.



THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:

1. 'Yes!'
2. 'Not yet.'
3. 'Wait, and keep trusting. I have something better in mind.'

God still sits on the throne.

You maybe going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.

This prayer is powerful, and prayer is one of the best gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of rewards.

Let's continue to pray for one another. Here is the prayer:

Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives, and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Amen.

DESERT STORM DIARIES - LETTERS FROM HOME

DESERT STORM DIARIES - LETTERS FROM HOME

Forward...

This is based in part on a diary I kept during Desert Shield, and then Desert Storm. This is also based largely on the correspondence I received from numerous people "back home", which started with the "Any serviceperson" mail we were receiving so much of. We were receiving more mail than we were able to reply to, so since I had brought my computer, I made up a form letter, answering 20 of the most common questions everyone was asking, and then I tried to answer as many personal questions as I had time for.

For the rest of the entry, take a look at the link above.


Thanks for reading!
Carlin
follow me on Twitter for updates
@carlincomm

Digital vs. Analog Stuff

Digital vs. Analog Stuff

Before we had DVD, or CD for that matter, most of us only knew the Analog world. When I think of Analog, I am reminded of the real world around us. There is no pure black or white, no exact absolutes. Video was the same way in the analog world. Let me start with some over simplication ok? In fact, in most of my articles here, I'm going to do my best to keep things simple. There is no shortage of extremely technical information on the internet already, so if you want more information, after you read this, feel free to Google any of my terms here, ok?

Ok, lets start by taking a step back. Think of a dial, like the speedometer in your car. Say it goes from 0 to 100 miles per hour, for example. If you look at it very careful while you're driving (which I don't recommend!) you will notice it move around a little, it might be somewhere between 54 and 55 mph, lets say. In fact, if you were to hold a magifiying glass over the needle, you could maybe even decide it was between 54 1/2 and 54 3/4. Then if you looked even closer, you could get more percise even. Now, follow with me a little bit, because this will be the base for the rest of the descussion, ok?

Lets say you look at it, and decide to just call it 54 1/2 mph. But someone else looks at it and says its more like 54 3/4. A third person might look really close and call it 54 5/8. Who cares, right?

Now lets look at the same thing on a Digital speedometer. Glowing green segments clearly show 54 mph. Anyone who looks can see that. Genius, right? But is it actually correct? Or is it rounding the number to the nearest whole number? Hmmm...

This is the good thing about something Digital, not just video, but music, or data, or anything else we care to count. 54 is always 54. There's no "static" or snow or bouncing needles, its just 54. If I make a digital copy of 54, then you copy 54, and on down the line for 1000 people, the end answer should still be 54. Compare this to the old school game, where you whisper a secret to someone next to you, then the next person passes it on, and by the end of the line, its not even close to what you said!

If I have a digital video clip, and I post it on the internet, and you copy it, you could repost it, and it would be exactly identical. That is why the Recording Industry is so worried about people who post videos or songs online. The copy is so perfect, there is no practical reason to buy the song, when the copy is just as good.

So, with that covered, here's a little brain teaser for you... Digital isn't exactly Better than Analog. But Digital is easier to make copies of an have the same quality from start to finish. If you start analog, and then make copies of the copies, you quickly go through "generation loss" and the finished product is not as good as the original.

Digital Compression
I'm sure you know about MP3 audio, at least you've heard of it, right? Apple's iPod brought MP3 into the main stream, but the MP3 audios have been around for a few years before then.

Let's start with a quick over view again, and then we'll have something useful to build on. The specific numbers aren't really important, but it gives you some theory. Lets start with a normal Music CD. Normally a CD can hold 80 minutes of audio (a 700 MB CD... the original 650 MB CD could hold 74 minutes, but we're trying to keep it simple right?)

Ok, lets say we buy a CD and want to listen to it on our iPod or other portable player. Until recently, the iPods and other players didn't have enough storage space to hold a whole CD, so we needed to find a different way. Enter the world of Compression.

In video, movies and animations, there is a phrase called Frames per Second. Normally video is 30 Frames per Second (fps). Movies are shot at 24 fps. Some animations are drawn at 12 fps. What does this mean, and what does it have to do with my MP3 audio? Wow, we're sure jumping around here! Hang on, we'll get there, I promise! There is a phrase "persistance of vision", maybe you've heard of it? It is loosely related to the phrase "the hand is quicker than the eye". If you were to look at a strip of movie film, you'd see the pictures, or frames. If you looked closely, you could see that some things moved from one frame to the next. But when we watch the movie, its just fast enough, and smooth enough, that we ignore the "jumps" between one frame and the next, and we see a smooth motion.

Ok, that's great, but we are talking about audio... I think :) Let me see if I can show you how a lossy compression scheme can work to save space in an audio file, and still make it sound pretty good. Imagine a series of values, from 1 to 10... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 10. Now if we were in analog, there would be an infinite number of fractional values between 1 and 2, right? Because we're in digital we could say that anything beyond .001 would be ignored. So we could have 1.001, 1.002, 1.003. or 1000 segments between 1 and 2. Now lets say we didn't need it to be that perfect, we're just going to listen to this song for entertainment while we're jogging, we're not trying to fool someone into believing we're actually at the symphony, ok? Well in that case, maybe we could cut down to 10 segments between 1 and 2... like 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc... Wow, we've gone from 1000 down to 10. Because we don't need that percision, we've saved a lot of work and storage space. You could do the same thing in your check register, too! Say you know you'll never have more than $9,999.99 dollars in your account, you could narrow that last column, or write a little bit bigger. By slightly reducing your precision, you've saved some space. That's kind of how compression works. Or one way it works.

There's other ways as well. I alluded to the frames per second of video earlier. In Audio, or any other data for that matter, you can choose to sample at different intervals. I'm not going to go into quantum physics here ok? But it does make sense, if you measure something less often, you would need less room to write it down, right? CD audio is sampled at 44,100 times per second. If you drop that to 22,000 times a second, it still sounds pretty good, some people can tell there is a reduction in quality, but its not to bad. 11,000 times a second is a bit worse again. But 44 to 22 saves you half the space.

A few things to keep in mind there, once you eliminate the precision, you can't get it back. So from our 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 example, even if you add the zero back on, you only get 1.10, 1.20, 1.30, and there are no steps between. That's why a camera that can record directly to DVD can't make a movie as nice as a camera that shoots to a lower compressed format, even if everything else is equal.

If you really want to get into some details, places like Wikipedia.org are good places to start. Heres a link to their page about MP3, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3

Theres so much more, but this will give you some things to think about! Or not, right?

This article ©2000 - 2008 BlueStar Productions

Reprinting on your blog or website allowed as long as this entire resource box is included.
Article by Carlin Comm
Photography and Video for YOUR Life!
http://www.Seattle-HotShotz.com
carlin@seattle-hotshotz.com

Follow Me on Twitter!
@carlincomm

How to plan a Wedding Day time line

... Or how to make it to the church on time!

The running joke is a wedding always starts on time, what ever time the bride gets there! We call that "wedding time". To me, as a photographer, its always fun to see how people deal with getting ready for a wedding. You start out early, you have the best intentions, you are probably even a very organized punctual person. So what happens?

It seems that all the forces of nature are against you! Maybe its part of the test... if you can actually make it through a wedding, then the universe decides that you are qualified to be married.

Anyway...

Starting with some broad observations, then we can get down to specific details as we go.

Everything takes longer than you can ever imagine.

I'm a video person, and a photographer. Sometimes both even. But when I shoot video of the bride and her ladies getting ready, I have physical documented proof of how long it really takes. A tape is an hour long. I've seen many times when they say something like, "Ok, we're ready, lets load up into the cars", so I swap a tape, so I'll be ready to catch them getting into the cars. An hour goes by, and I swap the tape in the camera again, because we have 55 minutes of trying to get everyone out the door, with all their make up bags packed. Its quite a sight to see!

Another point is "mob mentality". usually this is a bad thing. Think riots, as the population goes up, the IQ goes down. Weddings aren't quite that bad, exactly! But what seems to happen is everyone is trying to help. You know how long it takes you to get ready on a normal day. Most people get ready by them selves, in their own bathroom, with a minimum of outside interference.

Now picture how long it takes you and a group of your friends to do something together, like order dinner when you go out for a girls night. Simple, right? Except everyone is talking, at the same time, and then you have to weigh the options, and then if someone else wants what you have, you negotiate, etc.

And then take that group mentality up 20 notches, with the emotions of a wedding. Sure, your friends are having fun, but to you, this is IT. This is the big event, what you've been thinking of since you were like 4 years old. So you want it to be just right, perfect.

Well, there you are, doing your hair and make up. What you can probably do on your own in 30 minutes ( yeah right! ) now takes 2 hours because everyone is "helping"!

Plus, besides you getting ready, and your brides maids getting ready, and then the flower girls, and your mother, and some aunts who "just want to stop by to see how its going"... Plus all that, you're also on the cell phone, making sure the church is getting decorated, the flowers are getting delivered, the cake lady isn't lost, the DJ isn't double booked, some darn photographer keeps taking "Just one more picture" (and they always want to show you the picture, because its just so pretty!), plus... OMG! Enough already!

Best advice? Practice! Do a real run through. If you're going to get ready in a hotel room somewhere, at least try getting ready in someone else's house. Make a list of all the things you forget. See how long it will take when you're pulling things out of a bag, instead of your normally organized bathroom. Talk to 20 people while you're getting ready. Stop and redo your make up because you started crying for no reason. You could have someone pepper spray you, but that might be a bit extreme...

Actually drive from one place to another, like from your home to the church, at the time of day and on the same day of week as your wedding, maybe 2 weeks before your wedding. How is the traffic? Where will you park? Any new construction signs? Do you know a back way to go, just in case?

No joke, I went to shoot video of a wedding once, in Leavenworth, WA, and had to park 2 miles from the wedding chapel, because there was a Parade that day. 2 cameras, 2 tripods, lots of batteries, tapes, microphones, back up sound recorder... none of which was in a handy back pack yet, because usually I can park right off the side of the chapel. oops! Yes, it was a nice warm day for a walk, too! About 90 if I remember right. That's why I get paid the big bucks, right? :)

So, give your self an extra hour. Then another extra hour! Its ok if you're a bit early, its nice to sit down, relax, and gather what wits you have left just before walking down the aisle!

Theres so much more, but this will give you some things to think about! I plan to write more articles as I have time, so check back often. Remember to smile for your photos!


This article ©2000 - 2008 BlueStar Productions

Reprinting on your blog or website allowed as long as this entire resource box is included.
Article by Carlin Comm
Photography and Video for YOUR Life!
http://www.Seattle-HotShotz.com
carlin@seattle-hotshotz.com

Follow Me on Twitter!
@carlincomm

25 Page Custom Ghostwritten Ebook….For FREE??

Ok, go here first:
http:/tinamcallister.com/25-page-custom-ghostwritten-ebookfor-free/

Ok, if you're reading this post, you should probably know that I'm already going to win this contest, but still, thanks for reading :)

No, seriously!

Tina Mcallister is holding a contest. I met her recently on Twitter, you can follow her here:
TWITTER: @TinaMc
http://twitter.com/TinaMc

Tina is a Ghost writer. While she may at times write about haunted houses, that's not really what Ghost Writers do. From what I have learned, a Ghost Writer is someone who "helps" someone else write their book or article. Say you're a very busy successful person who would like to write a book. Great, right? Oh, wow, you can't really just walk away from your business for the next 3 months while you write your book. Plus, you're probably not very good at writing, are you? :) Well, say hello to Tina, your awesome new Ghost Writer! She will write your book for you, and it will be as if you wrote it yourself, in your "voice". How cool is that?

Ok, that's about all I know about this, go talk to Tina. But don't take up too much of her time, she's going to be writing my new book pretty soon, ok? Really!

Go ahead and ask me about my book sometime.

Later!

Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/carlincomm
@carlincomm

The LOST Art of Editing

I wrote this as a comment to my good friend Christine Taylor, @mousewords http://twitter.com/mousewords . She's an amazing writer, and has been kind enough to bring us along for the ride. Go follow her on Twitter, ok?

Anyway, it won't make sense out of context, so go read her post first, by clicking http://writing.mousewords.net/the-lost-art-of-editing/.

You'll see my same comment on that page, so I guess it doesn't even matter if you come back.. unless she deleted it :)
---
Hey Chris

Welcome to my world :)
Every time I come back from a shoot, and see my raw footage, or raw photos, its that same range of emotions, its exciting, because you know its going to be awesome when its done, but its nerve racking, because you hate to cut something up, that's... alive. Sure, sometimes you see something that just has to be cut. Then it becomes a slasher movie, so many cuts, its hard to recognize what it was before. Slowly, you lay the knife down, wipe off your hands, pull back, look around, and then move things around. The real magic, like your video clip (very cool!) is when something new comes out, that didn't exist before. It comes alive, its... magic.

Hmmm that was kind of graphic. Sorry, feel free to delete it :) I think I'll go back to some more editing now :)

Then again, I kind of liked it... think I'll go post this on my blog :)

@carlincomm
http://twitter.com/carlincomm

Whitney Hahn - Fashion Model Shoot

The essence of being Canadian

British newspaper article which captures the essence of being Canadian.
Remembrance Day is less than a month away, but I thought I'd share this e-mail with virtually everyone in my contacts list because it's very much worth reading. It made me proud to be Canadian, although quietly so ... maybe a little more pride would do this country well.

Lest we forget!
British newspaper article - re Canada

British news paper salutes Canada . It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words... Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires:Salute to a brave and modest nation - Kevin Myers, 'The Sunday Telegraph' LONDON:

Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region.
And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.. It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.

Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts.

For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet it's purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle. Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular memory as somehow or other the work of the 'British.'

The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world. The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time.

Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.
Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia. Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan?
Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honorable things for honorable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honor comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families know that cost all to tragically well.
Lest we forget
Please send this to anyone who is proud to be a Canadian. It is a wonderful tribute to those who choose to serve their country and the world in our quiet Canadian way.

Do you want to take better pictures?

Hi, thanks for reading this post, this blog.

Those of you who know me, know I shoot weddings professionally, either photo or video. Those of you who don't know me, well, if you are reading this, now you know, too :)

I'll be taking pictures at a wedding, or somewhere else, for that matter, and I'll see someone else also snapping some shots. I'm totally ok with that, unlike some other photographers who don't like to share the bride with everyone else who is there :)

I'll see the person with the camera, they're smiling, they see the "perfect photo" in their eyes. You know they're excited to get this shot. This will be the shot that justifies why they bought this new camera. The one that's better than the one they bought last year, right?

"SNAP"

Then they look at the digital display on the back of their camera, and they get that sad look. They're confused, bummed maybe. Its not exactly what they saw. Might not even be close to what they saw! Maybe they'll look at the camera a bit, consider pressing some buttons or fiddling with some dials, or more often they'll take exactly the same picture again, thinking some how, magically, it will work this time. Usually not, right? So they wander off, put the camera on the table next to their purse or sunglasses, grab a beer, or go dancing or what ever else you do at a wedding when you're not blinding someone with a flash :) Don't ask me, I hardly ever put my camera down at a wedding, so I have no idea what else there is to do, and I almost never dance :)

So, ok, that maybe was a bit long winded. Here's the reason for the post, ok? Would it be worth an hour of your time, to learn how to get more of your pictures to turn out better?

Here's my plan, and I'm hoping to get some feedback. I know stuff about getting cameras to take the picture you see, before your camera blows it for you. I think I can help you. I know there are probably as many courses on the internet, as there are cameras sitting on tables at receptions, and frustrated "photographers" who are dancing and drinking instead of taking great pictures!

Lets say you spent $100, or $200, or "gasp" $1500 on a digital camera. Wouldn't it make sense to spend $19.95 to get a DVD that could teach you how to take better pictures? I'm not saying you'll go out and start shooting weddings...

So either email me, at carlin.comm@gmail.com (there's probably a link somewhere here to do that for you) or post a comment here on this blog. Tell me if you'd be interested in learning how to take better pics. And also tell me what camera you have. If you're thinking of buying a new camera, let me know what you'd be willing to spend, I might be able to help you pick a new camera out that would suit you. Deal?

Thanks for reading :)
Carlin in Seattle

The cure for despair by: Joe Vitale

The Cure for Despair by: Joe Vitale 11:08am

During dinner the other night, one of the
people in our group looked at me and
asked the question I didn't want to hear --

"How did you become homeless?"

By now most people have heard my story
of being on the streets of Dallas in the late
1970s and struggling in poverty in Houston
for many years after that.

But I had never explained exactly *how*
I ended up in such dire circumstances.

When I answered the question at dinner,
everyone at the table stared at me.

The woman who asked the question sat there
with her mouth open and eyes un-blinking.

She asked, "Why have you never said this?"

Mark Ryan was sitting there, also staring,
and said, "As long as I've known you,
you've never told this story before. It's
riveting. This changes everything."

Changes everything?

Riveting?

They all said I had to tell the story now.

"Given the current financial crisis and
with people losing their homes and their
jobs, this story needs to be told more than
ever before," Mark said.

I heard them and realized I agreed.

So here's the story... (You can also read
this on my blog at http://blog.mrfire.com )...

I knew I wanted to be an author when I was
a teenager. I wanted to write books and
plays that made people happy. Everywhere
I looked I saw un-happy people. I believed
I could help them with humor and stories.

During that time of the mid-1970s, I watched
sports. I don't today but back then the Dallas
Cowboys were the rage. Roger Staubach and
Tom Landry were heroes. I got caught up in
the excitement and felt the place for me to
make my name was in Dallas, Texas.

I lived in Ohio at the time. Born and raised
there. I worked on the railroad as a trackman,
doing heavy labor all day long, working
weekends and summers. I saved my money,
packed up my bag, and took a bus to Dallas.
It took three days to get there.

I was lost in the big city, of course. Being born
in a small town in Ohio didn't prep me for the
hustle and bustle of a city the size of Dallas.

Before long, I wanted out.

But I still wanted to be an author.

Well, major companies were building oil and
gas pipelines in Alaska and the Middle East,
and offering to pay big bucks if you were
willing to go to either place.

I wasn't keen on going to a foreign country
and doing more labor, but I saw a chance to
make money, save it, and then go on a
sabbatical where I could write for a few
months or even a year.

It seemed like a brilliant strategy.

I answered one of the newspaper ads that
promised to get me pipeline work at a
extraordinary hourly wage. I went in their
office, met an upbeat sales person, and
ended up giving him all of my money --
my entire savings -- about a thousand dollars
at the time -- based on his promise that
I'd have overseas pipeline work in a week
or two.

You might guess part of what happened
next - but you won't guess all of it.

Within a week or so, the company that
took all of my money went out of business.

Their doors were closed, no one answered
the phone, and no forwarding addresses
could be found.

Shortly after that, the company went bankrupt.

And not long after that, the owner of the company
committed suicide.

There was no one left to try to get my money back.

I was alone.

I was broke.

I was in Dallas.

I confess that my ego got in the way here. My
family back in Ohio would have taken me
back in and welcomed me back home. But
I was head strong and determined to somehow
survive.

Well, I did survive -- by sleeping in church pews,
on the steps of a post office, in a bus station.

It wasn't an easy time, as you can imagine,
and I never used to talk about it. It was too
embarrassing.

When I told this story at dinner, everyone agreed
I had to share it with you.

They said that people are finding themselves in
the same situation -- they trusted a government,
or a corporation, or a person, and now they are
losing their homes and their jobs.

Hearing that I went through the same thing three
decades ago and not only survived but prospered
to a level that the Joe Vitale of thirty years ago could
hardly imagine, ought to be inspiring to you, too.

I got off the streets and out of poverty by
constantly working on myself -- reading self-help
books, taking action, scrambling at times by
taking whatever work I could find, but always
always always focusing on my vision: to one
day be an author of books that helped people
be happy and stay inspired.

If you're in a place right now that doesn't feel
so good, I urge you to remind yourself that
this is only temporary.

This is the cure for despair.

As I say in my book, The Attractor Factor, this
is simply current reality, and current reality can
change.

You can help it along by doing what you know
and need to do.

But remember, the sun will shine again.

It always does.

Your job right now is to focus on what you want
and keep it in sight. Yes, keep taking action;
yes, stay positive and surround yourself with
positive people; yes, be of support to others.

But remember, if I or anyone else can survive
homelessness, poverty, job loss, or any other
hard time, then *you* can survive it, too.

Please hang in there.

One last thing:

I admit that there were times I wanted to throw
in the towel and get myself out of this life.

Thank God I stuck around. Had I left early,
I would have missed a life of magic and wonder,
success and fame I never dreamed of before,
priceless relationships and experiences, and more.

I have no idea what wonderful good is headed
your way -- and neither do you.

What you have to do is stay the course and
follow your heart.

And remember --

Expect Miracles.

Love,

Joe

Dr. Joe Vitale
Founder of the movement to end homelessness
http://www.operationyes.com

Note: If you've found this story valuable,
please forward it to family, friends, and
coworkers; post it on news groups and
blogs, and in any way you feel appropriate,
share it with others. Thank you.

*************************************************
Dr. Joe Vitale
"Aude aliquid dignum" *

A Star in the movies "The Secret", "The Opus"
and "Try It On Everything"

Author of way too many books to mention,
including the bestsellers "The Attractor Factor,"
"Life's Missing Instruction Manual" and ooohhh
so many more, including the head spinner,
"Zero Limits" and the mega-hit, "The Key."

His latest book is, "Expect Miracles"

Latest audio program is, "The Awakening Course"

See it all at http://www.JoeVitale.com

Member BBB 2003 - 2008

* 16th century Latin: "Dare something worthy"

Updates and ramblings

Ok, this will be some what spastic probably. I've not yet really gotten into the habit of posting anything to a blog, but I want to :)

For anyone who is following me on Twitter, you can now see my last 10 Twitter posts on the side bar of this blog, and also on several of my other blogs (which are also linked on the side bar here I think)..

To anyone from FaceBook, welcome. If you're not following me on Facebook, I'm there, too, you can find me either by searching my name, or going to this link:


The last year, and specifically the last couple months have been noteworthy.

This year I've been to Detroit twice, to shoot Put's aircraft maintenance video, which is still in work.

I got to work with Glen Hopkins, shot an internet marketing workshop with him in Seattle.

At Glen's workshop, I met Bob Jenkins, who is another internet marketer. I got to fly out to D.C. to shoot another workshop with Bob, and Glen was also there.

In other news, I've sort of lost track of how many weddings I shot this year, but its been a busy year, to be sure.

I'm going through a divorce, and have moved from Seattle down to Tacoma.

So, here's a pondering question, since my business website is Seattle-HotShotz.com, if I don't live in Seattle, should I be thinking about changing my website / business name? I've grown accustomed to signing web posts as "Carlin in Seattle"... its kind of a branding I guess. While I'm sure people know where Tacoma is, it seems weird to change ;)

Ok, I guess that's it for now.

Stay tuned!
Carlin

Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/carlincomm

Hey cool :) I added a side bar that lists all my Twitter Tweets. Great how this internet thingy works :)

Carlin

Just a quick post to see if this works...

Carlin Comm
Sent from my smart phone
http://www.seattle-hotshotz.com