Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Isn't apartment hunting hard enough?

Okay, I had to post this, because I am utterly annoyed. Shopping for apartments is my specialty. I have moved probably around 8 times in the past 6 years. Why? Well I'm not sure why, so let's leave that out of it. Nevertheless, apartment shopping is a long and grueling process that I don't necessarily enjoy. Howeverrrrrrrr, at the end of it all, there is a new place to look forward to, decorate and invite people over to.

I am apartment hunting with a friend and she comes by a deal.
Ronjini: " You know a lot of times when it looks too good to be true, it usually is!" Now I am generally an optimistic person, but I have found this to be true in many various cases, but ESPECIALLY while apartment hunting. In honor of optimism though, I decided that I would email the person and check it out, get some additional photos, all that crap you do when you're hunting.

This morning...an email came, at 2:22 a.m. Who writes back about an apartment at 2:22 am? That's A. and #2 he claims that he is in Lagos,West Africa and moved there with his wife and 12 year old daughter. My scam radar is on high alert and beeping like crazy right? and then the nail that hit the head in the coffin....

"A good Tenant that have the fear of God." <-- really? That's it!!!! SCAM

But why? Why do I not only have to go through this when I'm looking for jobs, furniture, and just random emails; but do you really have to make my apartment hunting experience more difficult too? for $2400?

Anyway! In case you are looking for an apartment, please be careful of those that say they live out of town (some actually do though), and deals that seem too good to be true (because they probably are).

Bah Humbug on apartment hunting!
Those Bastards!

Monday, September 28, 2009

even Creativity is subject to change!

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Today, Fast Company posted its:

“The Most Creative People In Business: Top 25” Slideshow | Fast Company

What does it mean to be creative? I think I'm creative, however, I noticed that I'm not quite on the list...so maybe I'm not creative enough. Everyone on the list is a successful entrepreneur or the lead in a business unit of a large company, as it should be. So, hmmm... how do I get on the list? There are many things I'd like to accomplish in my lifetime and I think this list could just be one of them. I did not see one Indian female or a PR professional on this list of a pretty diverse range of people.

That kind of bothered me. Isn't PR as a profession supposed to be creative? Why do the writers or marketing people get all the props? Public relations has grown to be a delicate combination of writing, marketing and creativity...Oh and a lot of calling on the phones, but that's just tactics. I think the problem has become that many have come to recognize PR professionals as annoying, ineffective cold-callers. To be honest, I think that many of them have become just that. Many PR plans lack strategy and the ability to change at a moments notice. Instead of thinking on their feet and changing with the wind, they are caught up in corporate documents and contracts. If more PR people acted on passion and end-results, I think the creativity is more likely to emerge and maybe then PR folks would get recognized as creative professionals. Strategy can be creative.

In the past few months, I have spoken to entrepreneurs, individuals and companies that have all had bad experiences with their PR agencies. Their main complaint? Lack of results, too much red tape and rejection of ideas from the client. It seems that large agencies in creative industries have become complacent and lack the creative edge that many growing businesses for branding and awareness. I've always believed in working with a client rather than forcing ideas down their throat just because 'we said so'.

Therefore, henceforth, wherewithall, there to....all that crap; creative bloaks are doing business themselves to break free from the bondage of bad management and dull lives. I guess I can't really argue with them. To be creative in a creative industry, you really have to let go of all of those corproate processes and feel the flow. Thus it begins, my journey to a top 100 list. Mind you, this may take several years but I'm just putting it out there so everyone knows where I'm heading ;). Take a brief look at the thumbnails on the list if you can't read all of them, it's pretty interesting and gives you a brief moment of hope that anything is possible.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Neglect is an awful thing.

Neglect (definition from Wikipedia) - to leave uncared for or to leave undone.

While I pursue every other thing in the book, I've unfortunately neglected my beloved blog. This is how it starts, you start neglecting and then you forget alltogether. Kind of like how I generally start neglecting that I'm on a diet and then BAM! I'm ten pounds heavier in two weeks. Ahhh, the things we choose to remember. Actually, this blog is not just about self-neglect but also my rant about neglect of your social responsibility in the community.


Think about how much time you spend thinking about your personal and professional goals, how much time you spend achieving them and then how much time you spend just screwin' around and not doing very much for anyone (including yourself).

I have been working with United Way (on a professional level) on some of their initiatives to fight homelessness and discovered some heinous truths about homelessness. It costs taxpayers MORE money to keep a homeless man on the street that to help them into a stable living situation!!! Now...when someone starts talking about saving my taxpayer dollars I listen, because they are always trying to milk us for what we're worth. The truth is that homelessness is a huge problem and Los Angeles is ranked #2, there are more than 73,000 people living in homelessness in the Los Angeles County. Can you believe that? All of this makes me very sad, but what can we do as individuals?

It is scary to approach that guy who's screaming out profanities on the corner and ask him "hey do you want some help?", it's likely that he'll follow you home, screaming at you and then stand in front of your building every day waiting for you to come out. You dont' want that.
That's not necessarily the answer anyway.

My suggestion would be to contact local organizations like
LAMP or United Way that specialize in focusing on the homeless issue and find out ways that you can support and help them (I'm talking other than giving up the $$$). Often times, they organize ways (groups and events) to reach out and help the homeless. You can also go to your public library to help out, which is what I did.

I am thinking of also volunteering with United Way, but because my specialty was Journalism in college; I felt that adult literacy is an important issue and the Los Angeles Public Libraries offer free tutoring for anyone that is interested in improving their literacy level and living in the Los Angeles area. While these suggestions are just small pieces of a larger puzzle, it helps when we all do our part to help our community and show tolerance and understanding of others. It takes a while to figure out your place in the world and I feel that now that I have somewhat figured out a plan and my place here on earth, it would be nice to help others, who may not be able to figure out themselves. Face it! Most people don't care about being nice anymore.

I went to a networking event earlier this week, where the program coordinator talked about developing relationships and the time it takes. I think it's the American culture that forces us to want everything now, now, now! The problem is that many things take investment, time and care to develop into something truly profitable or worthwhile. He mentioned that you'll never receive anything worthwhile without giving.

Give, give, give and it is inevitable that you will receive in return. It may come in different forms; money, personal gratification, business leads, friendships, partners, anything really. I also think that being a nice person, you'll likely get screwed once or twice, but that comes with life. So get over it and move on! My new resolution of life is to have a nice balance of doing things for myself and my personal good and doing things to better the world (whether its local, national or at an International level).

If anyone knows how to become an ambassador please contact me! That is something I'd really like to pursue without going back to school for political science, joining the peace corps or becoming a famous celebrity. 'After all, what is it that we all want?......World Peace!'



Thursday, September 17, 2009

Fed Up - Away with the Awards already!

After watching this year's MTV Music Awards, I decided that I am through with awards shows. I realize that MTV and the Grammy's are technically two very different things, but are they really? It seems like nothing really turns out the way people want it to, someone is always getting jipped and of course, hi-jinks are added so that the show is ruined for everyone. I think it's is rigged anyway.

I must say that this year's music awards was much more entertaining than I anticipated but the highlight for me was the very first 10 minutes during the Michael tribute with Janet. Which leads me to another question, where has the art of performance gone?

The generation after mine (Y or Z or whatever) has been raped of true performance art. Where I grew up with Michael, Madonna, Prince, New Kids, Janet, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jame, Rage Against the Machine, (the original) No Doubt, N'Sync and even Britney...who do current youngsters have to look up to and aspire to be? Solider boy? I mean c'mon. He shouldn't even really be singing/rapping some of the stuff that he says. The music industry has been congested with BAD but catchy lines, big egos of people who should retire and lack of recognition of true young talent.

What happened to the artists that could do it all? Sing, dance and play and instrument and really put on a show? Now you just have a group of people on stage either hobbling around with a mic pulling their pants up and wearing sunglasses in a dim lit audatorium or a bunch of head banging kids with one witty line in they entire rock song.

Has anyone listened to the lyrics of these songs? I mean really listen...Here let me give you a sample of a popular song today. These are the first-ish lyrics of the #1 song on the Billboard charts by the Black-Eyed Peas
I gotta feeling... (Woohoo)
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night (Good lang)
Tonight's the night
Let's live it up
I got my money
Let's spend it up
Go out and smash it
Like Oh My God
Jump off that sofa
Let's kick it OFF
I know that we'll have a ball
If we get down
And go out And just lose it all I feel stressed out I wanna let it go Lets go way out spaced out And loosing all control
Fill up my cup
Mazel tov
Look at her dancing
Just take it... OFF
Lets paint the town
We'll shut it down
Let's burn the roof
And then we'll do it again
Lets do it (x4)And do it (2x)Let's live it upAnd do it (3x)Do it, do itLets do it(3x)Cause I gotta feeling... (WoooHooo)That tonight's gonna be a good nightThat tonight's gonna be a good nightThat tonight's gonna be a good good night
Forgive me if I don't really see much sense in any of those lyrics, no wonder America is in a recession following directions like that.
So aside from the bad music the performances are getting even worse. I guess it goes without saying that Michael really knew how to entertain and put on a show, but does that mean that the next generation won't get that experience at all? Instead of waiting by the TV to watch the next MTV video premier or crying dry to get tickets to a concert/show, they are watching a group of guys flail about on stage, posse style with pants that are around their ankles and the other half are cutting off circulation to their upper halves with skinny jeans. Girls are in leotards and no one is putting together classic routines anymore. It's a lot of screaming and repetition.
The more I think about it and see shows like the recent MTV music awards the more I feel that our next generation is being robbed of good entertainment and may fail to understand the enlightened view of entertainment that us 70's and 80's babies had.

When I finally have kids they are going to get a solid dose of what REAL entertainment is like. I guess its off to watching broadway shows, live music and checking out Carnival when I can.