Total "Eclipse" Tomorrow

The anticipation has been building for all the Twilight Saga fans. I'm a fan as well and have been looking forward to "Eclipse". It starts in theaters tomorrow but I won't catch it until this weekend. From what I've seen in all the trailers this one will have even more action than "New Moon" and I am all about the action! And of course I'm all into the romance. Besides, there's nothing like two hot guys desiring and fighting over you.

Missing Michael

On this day last year we lost a musical genius.  It's hard to believe that it has already been a year since we lost Michael Jackson.  I was watching a program yesterday where I learned that he was in collaboration with several artists like Will I. Am., Lenny Kravitz, and Lady Gaga prior to his death so I look forward to the music that will be released in the near future.  It's sad that Michael is no longer here to create.  I am sure that he must be in heaven singing and performing with all the other great talents that we have lost.  

Missing you Michael.

Unemployed Need Not Apply

It is in the news that there are some employers who are only hiring those who are currently employed.  Yes that's right, CURRENTLY employed.  So what does that mean for the millions of Americans who are out of work?  It's a sad reality.  Today CNN's Jack Cafferty had a segment on this very subject blowing the cover off of this practice.  According to a New Jersey human resources consultant, "employers sometimes think the unemployed have been laid off due to 'performance issues'."

That simply cannot be the case when our country is at 10 percent unemployment.  Another excuse given is that employers are weeding these applicants out due to the huge number of applicants.  Whatever the case, it is an unfair practice but yet there is no law against it.  It is indeed an employers' market where they have a huge pool of talent to choose from.  That is why it is so important to network.  It is up to each individual to do what it takes to stand out in the crowd and showcase your abilities and talents.

Keep networking and branding you!

Discovering the Future of News

Knight Foundation just recently announced the winners of the 2010 News Challenge.  This challenge funds innovative ideas that use digital technology to deliver news and information to specific geographic communities.  These ideas are essential for propelling the industry forward.  The winners will receive $2.74 million as part of the fourth round of the five-year international contest.


Knight News Challenge Winners, In Brief from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

My Review of Flip Video Ultra

This video camera is easy right out of the box!

Oprah's Generosity Continues

At a time when many businesses are laying off, cutting pay, and not rewarding their employees, Oprah is celebrating 10 successful years of her publication O Magazine. She dropped in at Hearst Publishing today and surprised each of her employees regardless of their tenure with a check for $10,000, an iPad, and a leather iPad case personalized with each staffer's initials!   A Hearst spokeswoman confirmed the visit and gifts saying, "These were personal gifts to the staff from Oprah to thank them for their hard work and dedication to the magazine."

Oprah really knows how to reward her staff. Way to go Oprah and congrats to the employees!

Teacher Fired for Fornication

A Florida teacher was fired for having admitted to her employer, a private christian school, that she had premarital sex with her husband.  There's probably little that she can do about it but I can bet no one else at that school will ever admit to having premarital sex. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So what do you think?  Should she have lied?

"Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone." - Jesus Christ

Is the Economy Improving?

More Employees QUIT Their Jobs As Economy Improves

One sign of better economic times is when more people start finding jobs. Another is when they feel confident enough to quit them.

More people quit their jobs in the past three months than were laid off – a sharp reversal after 15 straight months in which layoffs exceeded voluntary departures. The trend suggests the job market is finally thawing.

Some of the quitters are leaving for new jobs. Others have no firm offers. But their newfound confidence about landing work is itself evidence of more hiring and a strengthening economy.

Read the full article at HuffingtonPost.com.

Article originates from HuffingtonPost.com
Image courtesy AP

Backing Up Your Wix Website

I had to learn this the hard way when my first site suddenly disappeared.  I swear I didn't delete my site but in the middle of editing, (and I kept pressing "save" throughout the process) all min-ipages except the homepage poofed when the Wix site crashed.

I contacted the Wix team in hopes that they had a back up feature for this but here was the friendly response I received: 

Hi Sarmora ,

Thank you for contacting Wix support.

I apologize for the inconvenience, however Wix is unable to restore deleted documents of any kind.

It is not possible to retrieve a previous version of your document after you have clicked on "save". Unfortunately after an editor crash, incomplete saving transaction or simply by closing your editor without saving, it is not possible to rollback your document to a previous version.

Tip: We recommend duplicating your document so you have 2 versions of the same site. Simply click on "Save as" and name the second document however you want.

If you require any further assistance please don't hesitate to contact us.

Thanks,
Wix Team

So that "Tip" is exactly what I planned to do after rebuilding my site.  The only thing is, the way that the tip was worded wasn't completely clear to me.  Would I save from my account menu area?  Or would I open up the editor and do it from within?  And of course I was a little scared I'd mess something up with my newly rebuilt site.  I first thought of grouping all of the site's elements to copy and paste over into a new project.  But that wasn't working and to say the least it was a pain in the butt to even think of doing.

Luckily after digging deeper into the Wix forums, I found my answer with a detailed illustration! (click on the image below to see in full size)

 

So if you have a Wix website (or any website) whether it's premium or not, save yourself the headache and back it up to have peace of mind.

Enjoying "The Beyond the Still" Contest

Since January I have been following "The Beyond the Still" Contest and it has been pretty interesting.  If you aren't familiar with it, Canon and Vimeo.com teamed up with Los Angeles and New York based commercial director, DP and photographer Vincent Laforet.  Laforet was given an image and his mission was to make a 3 minute video for a short movie called “The Cabbie".  His short film would end on a still image.  Now it is up to the contest entrants to interpret that image into their own 2-4 minute film which will end on THEIR still image to form a "chapter".  The winner of each chapter starts the process all over again whereby more videos are submitted.  It will collectively become 7 unique chapters threaded together connecting all the still images.

The contest is currently on Round 5.  The videos winners of the first 4 chapters are embedded below.


Chapter 1: The Cabbie from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.



Chapter 2: Job Security from Runner Runner on Vimeo.



Chapter 3: The Beach from M. Keegan Uhl on Vimeo.



Chapter 4: Allison from Jeff Turick on Vimeo.

To follow the contest and view all the previous finalists' videos go to

http://vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill

Many of the video entries are quite impressive so take a peak and vote for your favorites.
Good luck to all the contestants!

Venus Williams Flashes French Open

Venus Williams and her sister Serena are known for their fashion forward styles on the tennis court and at this year's French Open Venus did not disappoint.  I don't have a whole lot to say about this except that in my opinion Venus' choice in undergarment for her um... undergarment was a Fail.  Her flesh toned panties raised plenty of eyebrows for sure.  Talk about a distraction!  What do you think?

BP Drama Continues

Weeks after the disasterous offshore oil rig explosion, BP is still trying to figure out a way to plug millions of gallons of oil spilling gushing into the Gulf if Mexico affecting US coastal states. 




BP's message has gone from this...



To this...

To add insult to injury BP's CEO says "I'd like my life back".
Oh Really?!  

Considering the lives lost and thousands more affected, that rude, utterly insensitive remark should cost him his job!

BP's latest "Top Kill" effort failed so people are frustrated, angry, and fearful that this will drag out and cause even further damage to the environment and the already fragile economy of Gulf states.  One thing is for sure, they will need to reach into their very deep pockets for the massive cleanup effort, pending lawsuits against them, and to rebuild the future of the BP brand which will be tough.  The blinders are now off and people are seeing little truth in their prior "beyond petroleum" advertising campaign.  According to CorpWatch.org,  "BP's claims to be 'the largest producer of solar energy in the world' was achieved by spending $45 million to buy the Solarex solar energy corporation which is just a fraction of the $26.5 billion it spent to buy ARCO in order to increase BP's production capacity for oil.  "BP will spend $5 billion over five years for oil exploration in Alaska alone. "And, according to one group of BP shareholders, BP spent more on their new eco-friendly logo last year than on renewable energy."  Each day the news reports reveal the shoddy management practices that may have very well led to the explosion of the oil rig.  We will have to stay tuned to see whether BP will rise from the depths or fall like Goliath.