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Photo of the Week: Daisy’s In Balboa Park

Always flowers in bloom in Balboa Park in San Diego, California!

Photo of the Week: Balboa Park

I love going to Balboa Park just about any day of the week just to walk around and take in the sights. Below is picture I took recently.

Summer in Balboa Park

Office Life Etiquette 2010

If you are like me and not lucky enough to work at home or have to work in “cube land”, then I am guessing you could be as frustrated as I am with the people around you. It’s amazing how unprofessional professionals are! I’m a software engineer and it’s worse for me because most of us need a calm, quite atmosphere to concentrate. Very hard to achieve in the big open cube rooms of today. This is why I much prefer to work at home. I estimate I can get as much done in two days at home as I do in five days in the cube farm.

So below are a list of things you can anonymously leave on your co-workers desk to teach them how to be a good cube/ office citizen.

1. Use your quite voice at work! Remember how we were told that as kids and/or we tell that to our kids? Well you need to do that do so others can work instead of being distracted by your conversation. Remember, you are not at a bar or a sporting event!
2. Make or take personal calls in private! Always make your personal calls or answer them outside or somewhere private like a conference room or an empty office. No one wants to hear your calls to your doctor, kids school, arguing with your significant other, talking your mom out of marrying a drunk etc. This just brings in drama into the office and it’s just plain inappropriate. For some reason when people use the phone, their voice goes up 3-4 decibels. Use your cell phone and take it somewhere else. Never use company phones, it’s not your phone and you never know if big brother is listening.
3. Don’t sleep at your desk. If you are that tired or hung over, stay home! If you need to sleep, go to your car. Sleeping at your desk is just plain unprofessional. Not sure why companies put up with it. The guy in the cube next to me where I currently work, not only sleeps but snores!
4. Smokers use breath mints!!! If you are going to blow 10-15 minutes of work time ever hour or so taking time off of your life (smoking) then do us all a favor and pop a few Altoids before you come back into the office. None of us non-smokers what to smell you when you get back into your cube!!
5. Don’t scratch your butt in the hall! I’m not kidding you… I was trying to go to the printer and this guy was standing in my way, hand down his pants scratching his butt. Please! Not good and any public situation!
6. Take care of your personal hygiene at home or in the bathroom! No one wants to hear you clipping your nails etc. at your desk!
7. Make coffee when the pot is almost empty! Okay, this is more office etiquette, but are your hands broken? Is there a reason you leave the pot empty or almost empty? Dang, it takes 10 seconds out of your so important day to make a pot. Come on!
8. Fill the copier with paper! If the copier ran out of paper then put some more in! Just don’t walk away. If I catch you doing this then be prepared for a swift kick in the ass. If there are no more reams of paper, GO FIND SOME! I’m not your paper bitch!

I will be adding more as the torture of working in a large company continues.

Think Before You Post Photo’s To Online Dating Services

This is for all of you women who use online dating services such as Match.com or Yahoo Personals just to name a few. When you join you will of course get more interest if you upload pictures of yourself, but you need to take some time before you do to consider what message you are trying to convey and what man you are trying to attract. I see all too often horrible pictures and even ones that just flat-out disgust me. Now I’m writing this from a man’s point of view and also take into account that I’m also a photographer. I was going to post examples, but figured I would get in trouble, so below I’m going to list what I see wrong with pictures and or the message.

1. Don’t post pictures of your kids! The number one thing that I believe is wrong and actually upsets me since I am also a father is posting pictures of you and your (minor) children or just of them! Really? Have you any idea of how many sick people are out there that might be more interested in kids and will use you to get to them? Come on! I’ve actually had arguments with women about this that just totally blew my mind that she didn’t get this?! It’s your job to protect your kids and my policy is I never post a picture of my minor child online in any way!
2. Smile! I see so many pictures where women are not smiling. I can’t figure out if they are having a bad day or just don’t like to smile. Either way DO NOT POST THEM! I believe that many women are doing that runway model frown or pouty look… well believe me, unless you are a runway model you can’t pull this off! Stop it! We like to see you smiling
3. Show Off Your Eyes! The eyes are the window to the soul, so why do you insist on wearing sunglasses or squinting so we can’t see them? When you do this it seems you have something to hide… we will click on to the next profile.
4. Make Sure We Can See you! So many pictures are too small or you are too small in them. I see pictures taken in the sun when its behind you and we can’t see you at all! Just a silhouette. Pictures of you and your girlfriends makes it hard to find you (especially when you look the same) and you are a minor part of the picture. Just please make sure you take up 70% of the photo or more and are well lighted!
5. Careful On What You Are Wearing! Take note of what you are wearing in the picture. Bathing suites, lingerie, bras, showing as much cleavage as possible might not attract the man you are looking for. As a matter of fact, I will guarantee it will attract the wrong one unless alcoholics, losers, perverts are what you are looking for!
6. Always Post More Than One Picture! When someone has only one, this is a good sign that it’s a scam (someone looking to cheat money out of us or prostitution) or someone grabbed a photo off the internet and is messing with us (a teenager or a 50-year-old pervert pretending to be a hot young chick).
7. Minimize Pictures Of Your Pets! We are not on a dating site to date your pets; we are there to date you! In general we really don’t care about your pets. So, if most of the pictures are you and your pet or just of your pet… then you are just a few short steps away from being a “cat lady”. This screams “runaway” in our minds! Just put in your profile what you have pets, that is enough.
8. No Men In Your Picture! Make sure there aren’t any men in your picture unless you can write a caption to explain who it is (which Match.com doesn’t allow). Sure this might seem insecure, but what would you think if we posted a picture with our arms around a hot blond? Think about it. Also don’t try to cut ex’s out of a pic, it’s too obvious. Babies are a no-no too.
9. Get Your Pictures Professionally Done! If you are serious and online dating and attracting the man of your dreams, then get your pictures done by a professional or someone who knows what they are doing. I don’t mean a place like Glamour Shots either, we all know those pictures are not real and ignore them. One of the best profile pictures I ever saw was from a woman that hired a photographer and shot them in Balboa Park as the sun was going down. No hair and makeup crew, just nice “real” pictures.

I will keep adding to this list. I hope you take my words to heart, if you don’t and for some strange reason you keep getting emails or winks by losers, alcoholics, liars, cheaters and worse, then I warned you!

Boys (Executives) And Their Toys

I’ve noticed a trend recently since the iPad has been released… before it’s release executives, VP’s and managers were running around with net books since they are lighter and have a battery life of up to 8 hours or more. These actually are a great deal with a price around $299 for the person on the go and stuck in meetings a lot. These net books come with Windows 7 installed so all you need is Office and your up and going in no time including doing presentations.

What I don’t understand is why these same people who as recently as less than a year ago were snatching up these net books like crazy are now doing the same with the new iPad? First off, their net books are not even that old (some of us are dealing with five-year old computers). Second off they are pretty much useless in the Microsoft Windows and Office dominated business world! All they can do is surf the web and read email for the whopping cost of $499 to $820 (without accessories and service plans).

If you tell them their iPad is a toy or a waste of money they say that they can “remote desktop” into their office computer to do work. That’s right folks, they can dial into their $1,000+ office computer with their $500+ iPad to get work done! Am I the only one that finds this a total waste of money during a recession?

Keep in mind that they are spending this money on iPad’s when budgets are tight and while the people that really need new computers or updated computer hardware are not getting it.

Boys and their toys.

Photo of the Week: Balboa Park

Took this picture in at Balboa Park, San Diego California in 2009. Always a good source for flower pictures.

Don’t Lie in Your Profile for Online Dating Sites!

You think this would be common sense, but it’s not and as a matter of fact getting worse! I’m not sure why people do this… men and women. Do you think we won’t figure it out when we meet or get to know you? Lately what I have been seeing is women lying about their age. If we have an issue with someone’s chronological age instead of the way they act, beliefs etc., don’t you think we will still have it after your true age is revealed some day down the road? Now we just know you lie on top of it, which to me is worse.

I know men like to lie about their height, amount of money they make and most likely the size of their “tool”. Both sexes lie about their weight! I love it in women profiles when they say they are “curvy” or “a few pounds overweight” when they have obviously not been to their doctor lately so he can inform them they are obese! The funny thing is that I can see this in their picture! Men (and women) beware of head shot only pictures!

I’ve had women tell me she lived with roommates, but forgot to say they were her parents! I’ve had women tell me they had jobs when they didn’t, tell me they didn’t have kids when they did, tell me they were single when they weren’t, tell me they drink but they were really going to AA, tell me they only drank booze while they whipped out their medical marijuana card and more!

So people, the next time you are writing or updating your dating profile, please tell the truth because it will always come out in the end.

Pedestrians Have Right-Of-Way

This is for the UCSD student that tried to run me over near the T.G.I. Fridays in La Jolla today (around 12:45pm)… straight from the DMV handbook:

Respect the right-of-way of pedestrians. Always stop for any pedestrian crossing at corners or other crosswalks, even if the crosswalk is in the middle of the block and at corners with or without traffic lights, whether or not the crosswalks are marked by painted lines.

So the next time you speed up to try to hit me, then honk at me, then roll down your window to yell at me about the “rules of the road” you should think again. I don’t know if you are from this country, your momma did not raise you right or what, but I’m the wrong pedestrian to mess with. I’ve been driving longer then you have been alive!

Local 80’s Band Assassin To Play for One Last Time

If you live in San Diego back in the 80′s then you might have seen the #1 heavy metal band called Assassin. This band played often locally and even opening for some bands like Poison and more. Back then, before everyone could record music on their laptop, they had a 45 record out that was actually funded by one of the players from the Padres. One of their songs that was featured on a metal compilation album in Europe even made it to #3 at one point!

I actually started working for the band as their official photographer (yes I have been doing that for this long). I then started to be the “roadie” for the bass player John and even occasionally did lights and sound and more (better told over a beer). Well, last year the head of their fan club got a hold of some original and live recordings (I was around for both) and released their first CD on Deep Shag Records (click here to purchase).

This is now leading to the very last reunion gig ever of Assassin and other bands from then at 4th & B next Saturday, April 17th at 8pm. All the original members of Assassin will be there along with myself taking pictures (of course). It’s guaranteed to be an awesome throwback to the 80′s and I hope to see everyone there! Please come by and say hi, it won’t hard to find me… I’ll be the 6’4″ guy with all the cameras and all of his hair!

For tickets click here.

Photo of the Week: Sunset on a Cruise Ship

Took this picture last April (2009) while on a Carnival cruise down to Mexico.