Facebook & all it’s glory. Branding!

Written by Siotha on September 26, 2010 – 10:26 am -

So there have been numorus studies and ways to make facebook and twitter viable social media recommendations. For example this website highly recommends it with a distant reference to a study done. Great. I’m on board. It’s free, it’s easy, it’s minimally time consuming. It creates brand loyalty and recommendations…. and then we did it… and then…. ghost town…. even the most exciting PR, announcements, info, education couldn’t keep it alive. So. Then I got to re thinking – why do people use these mediums. Yes, it’s to get a snippit of news. No it’s not to learn every priority detail about a brand… it’s to get that 1 on 1 interaction they cannot get via TV, PRINT or RADIO… PPC or Blogs don’t give them that interaction. Uh oh. Hrm. So, after months of re-tweaking writing styles and performance estimates… yeah… magic… get people talking and ask open ended questions to get response. Uh oh. now my time is spent 75% dealing with the issues that come up over these lines of communication. Wait.. I’m the overpaid marketing person… why am I babysitting again? Oh right, because customer service only does email and phone support. Not anymore you don’t. Welcome to the generation of I want I want I need – last minute yesturday, make me happy instant gratification because I have a computer cell phone pda wireless mobile device. NOW button alert! So all these marketing people are touting Facebook and Twitter as great branding tools. Great. I’m on board. But honestly. It’s more of a strategy for customer service to handle. Cus what I’m finding, is 80% of these tools are allowing customers to enjoy engaging conversations with my Evangelist teams and customer service issues. So, for all of you who think – oh great- free marketing – easy marketing – who actually get the formula right…. yes, the return on investment is brand loyalty… but don’t forget to add in your customer care and evangelists cost to your investment. Because ultimately these tools are costing you way more time than the touted FREE facebook fan pages and Twitter Tweet twits. <- sorry, but I call twits the dumb side effects of a tweet.


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Yes Yes!

Written by Siotha on September 22, 2010 – 3:29 am -

So recently, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of interviews. I’ve even had jobs offered, and said offers recended within hours. I’ve had proposals accepted, declined, work praised and unpaid and everything in between. But tonight I write about 1 thing. The yes I can attitude it takes to go through all of those rollercoasters. Recently, I went on a great series of interviews, then bombed when it came to the final. I question what happened in my mind – over and over again. Ultimately, it boils down to this. My Yes- I can – I will – I’ll try – I’ll do attitude, didn’t help me so much when in a meeting – someone asked – are you a Cheif or an Indian. I’m both. I tried to say that, and it came out a bunch of nervous garbage. Now, I sit back and go – Yes I blew it, Yes, it didn’t go my way, Yes it’s probably for the best.

Except at the end of the day, my high standards say – “no, I don’t accept defeat yet”

And that is how I choose to look at things these days. There’s lots of no’s out there. However, unless someone says flat out NO WAY and say we won’t pay. I will always feel there is a chance. And if there’s a chance. I will continue to try. I will try until – at last there is nothing left, and the reality is set in place as a no go.

I watched the news tonight. I can’t imagine being 55+ with the harsh reality of a 40 week job seeking time. I can however understand how people feel to be overqualified, and lacking an interview because of that “problem”. Really?

We go through life, willing and able to work. Young people strive to go to college, then work, put in the years as the underdog, with the hope of growing into a job. Then they grow into said jobs and excel…. we go into our older, mature, and great experience years only to find out – we’re now cut back because cheaper and more advanced labor is available. We morph, we try again and we continue looking. At 65 we wont’ be able to retire, and we will barely be able to make our house note/rent. What a blow to our life’s story. Can this be changed? yes – maybe. The sad reality is the laborforce we’re creating will be worse as we get older. How do we change our circumstances?


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Oh Pick Me Me! Me! I’m your gal! The funny cycle of selling oneself.

Written by Siotha on September 8, 2010 – 4:20 pm -

There’s something amazing about big meetings, interviews, or proposals. Especially when you’re a freelancer, such as myself. Today is one of those days where – I get to shine. Shine my shoes, style my hair, the flooding, the printer not working, the kids almost being late to school, the dog panicking over the weather – don’t matter. I’m selling myself, my brand, my services, and this far into the process, I’m sure they’ll pick me. Emotionally this process takes a toll on everyone. Let’s recap this cycle shall we?

  1. Deciding, I need money. Yep. You don’t go through this process, unless there’s a reward. Most of us have money, paying off bills, affording new shiny tech toys, or travelling as used by that money.
  2. Searching for Money. Hallelujah. The fun begins. Where do I drum up business. Do I submit my resume today? Do I search craigslist, Yahoo, google, indeed? Do I go to companies and fill out hiring applications, do I send out friendly emails reminding everyone that I’m available… and can wrap up that problem project yesterday? You gotta start somewhere. However, with the electronic age as it is, I’ll just send 500 resumes out and hope to get 2 bites 4 months from now.
  3. Ok. I’ve made a hunting plan. Now I must go for the kill. I must write a proposal, also known as a resume, also known as a cold call sales pitch. I’m talking to someone – is anyone listening, I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I aught to re-word my online brochure. Maybe I need to do things that will constructively add to my personal brand. After all, business is all Me2Me now, not B2b, or B2C. Thank you Gen Y. I could alternately do a video resume. Yep. Great thinking. I’ll start that next week, after I go to the mall.
  4. Brrrrrrring! (ok, so at my house, it’s more like some funky “hello MOTO”). “this is Siotha” “oh hi! how are you, sorry bout the noise in the background, after all you’re calling my cell phone…” “yeah, so what I can offer is this…”"great, well now let me ask a few details, what’s your budget? timeframe? (or- I’m willing to take $2/hr, and work 95 hours a week for you -no problemo)” “What do you mean you’re launching today? Well, to help you I need at least a month to get the basics, and well, we need to do this this and this” “good, i’m so glad I could help you… so when can we sit down and go through a detailed plan… (or interview)” “in a few weeks?” ” Great, I look forward to your call”.  Or the decidedly short and sweet version: Brring! “Yes this is her, oh hi, how are you today… yes, I’m still looking… yes, I can drive way out there… oh great… and well I think I can help you this way and that way… great… well, i’m flexible on pay, but I’d like to stick to A million dollars, well yes sir, i’m qualified, experienced, and oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was way out of your budget” click.  The third scenario goes something like either of the above, but then schedules a sit down lunch.
  5. Rain. Great. Lunch date 14, lets do this again. Oh Hi. Oh I didn’t know you were bringing your partner, assistant, and buddy – who also already do this type of work. Sure I’ll order soup. Gab Gab Gab. Um. Are you sure you want to do the business this way? I’ve had great successes if we do this or this or this, but it takes time to build that site that way, and the brand you need…. yes, I’m sure of it… i can cheat the system, but unfortunately that takes money up front. Are you sure you can’t put a little down now on some work that will establish you as a high page ranking, site? Well, yes I’m invested, but really, I know that if I put my money into it, you still have the option to pull out or not pay, and no matter how good my lawyer is, yours is better, after all you have money. Sure, I’ll send a proposal. Yeah, no problem.
  6. 4 hours later. Proposal specifically written, articulate, thoroughly planned, spit polished, sent.
  7. Days go by. Weeks start racking up. Nothing. Finally. After 3 reminders, 2 casual emails, and a phone call. Thanks but no thanks.

Now this is where I should insert the… Well, this is how the life goes, you just do this cycle over and over again, until you get a viable client. Sometimes you get great referrals and never have to worry about this cycle. Sometimes, you stumble upon an opportunity that turns out to skip all that hassle and shows you the money immediately. And, as I’ve found out in the last 2 years, the Economy takes a dump. More and more people are offering the same skills, better prices, and are more desperate for crappy clients…. work dwindles…  now Obama can have anyone be a self – employed guru. Health insurance won’t be an issue. Accountants will always have jobs. And.. Well… my client list… they’ve all hired great people – at my recommendation. They’ve all planned their budget, and are sticking to it… as per my recommendation… They’ve all chosen to hire 3 people in house – to do the work I provided. Amazingly. I’ve worked myself into the cycle of bringing in new business, or a new job, or something again. Wow.

So. I’m off. Off to fight the torrential down pours, the printer that guzzles ink, and the shoes that I don’t want wet, but honestly, I’m not getting any other shoes wet either today. I shall win this proposal. Prove how good I am… and then come home and eat steak for dinner. Yum. Ok, Pizza might actually be on the menu just because I don’t want to do anything else but focus on this meeting today.


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Where did August Go?

Written by Siotha on September 7, 2010 – 6:39 pm -

Geesh. After starting 2 new businesses this month, wait… I was supposed to do that this month. Instead. I spent August recovering from a Gall Bladder attach, and surgical removal of the darned thing. In the past I’ve been super fast at recovery, no big deal, all quick easy. Yeah. I guess that went away with my up coming birthday. Mental note: when claiming to be 29, don’t do that claim with regards to health… 23 was definitely by far the most optimum year. With that said, and a job interview that’s taking it’s sweet time (I don’t blame them in this economy), I am cleaning up the inbox, sandbox, and revisiting with my accountant. It’s time to get this party started.


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My Birthday in the Yucatan!

Written by Siotha on December 21, 2009 – 4:02 pm -

Thanks everyone for the well wishes!

I had a great birthday – one filled with family time, and memories for years to come. We kayaked the ocean, played with the kids, went flamingo hunting, mudding, ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant and it was great!

I’m overwhelmed by the community we share here. All the expatriates are warming up to us and it’s like in this place I don’t really know well and am completely foreign to – warms my heart and my 29th birthday a very memorable one.


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moving to the beach brought criticism

Written by Siotha on November 26, 2009 – 4:14 pm -

Doing anything remotely interesting will bring criticism. Attempting to do anything large-scale and interesting will bring armies of detractors and saboteurs. This is fine – if you are willing to take the heat.

I stole that qoute from Tim Ferriss he has an awesome blog about the art of pissing people off. I really took it to heart today, because it seemed like so many people where critisicing us for moving to the beach in a far off and remote location. We love it here, and often forget that people (our friends and family) haven’t experienced the beach life, they’re stuck in life 101 and only have 2 weeks holiday. We have a beautiful life here. For example, the window’s are open to let the wind blow through the house, the waves are crashing new shells on the shoreline, the iguanas are laying out enjoying the sun, and our children are singing along to Disney songs (ok only Alyssa, Bella is oohing and gooing and laughing today)… It’s like the world that we knew (life 101) has now become life 102. I really wish more of our friends and family could come down and experience life on manana time.

I know what life is to work work work, then give 2nds to family, then 3rds and 4ths to myself and body. In Dallas everyone and everything was negative. If Jeremy or I did anything remotely accomplishing we only heard the negative comments, which in turn changed us to only see the negative impacts while doing great things. This is all fine and dandy, just like Tim’s post – about doing great things brings negative emotions, comments, and no matter what we do – we’ll always hear the bad stuff. I hope to grow as a person and step out of that rut, experience the slow life then apply it as our children get older, and of course when we go back to the states to live.

Take a minute to read Tim’s post It really made me feel better about all the people, things, events that have happened over the last few weeks, and months, and years. It helps me understand why I’m so negative and how used to doing good & great things has turned me into miss negative. Winds of change are blowing those old negative emotions away.


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Life living at the beach with the baby….and the 5 year old

Written by Siotha on November 18, 2009 – 4:41 pm -

It’s a beautful day today. I’ve watched the storm roll over with a light sprinkle, the fog roll by, and yet… now it’s as if it never happened. That’s what life’s like at 10am, when you’ve been up since 5 am with the baby. We’re blessed to have 2 kids, a 5yr old who sleeps like a champion, and a 3 month old who, sleeps, the majority of the night. so we’re blessed you never know one night to the next if we’ll go to bed at 8pm and be up at 3 or 5 am… and occasionally we get until 6:30. Life is different here with a baby. We’ve yet to find a pediatrician but there are lots of people talking about the great american style hospital. So for now, we’re only conserned about the well baby checkups. They have formula, and diapers here, they are different than american style, but yet the same. Enfamil Premium (which Bella pukes and pukes) and Nestle good start are sold here. I’ve seen Similac, but for now we’re working with Nestle good start, they have those comfort proteins that i think are easier to digest, hold down and consume than the regular premium enfamil. Both are being used by us and are the best of the best, we thank goodness they have them here in Mexico. Diapers are a whole nother ball game. They don’t have little pampers, and pampers cost like 3x’s as much as they were in the states. They do however have other brands we’re trying different ones to see what we do like. The funny thing is that they don’t have the gel absorbion like we have in the states. So a wet diaper doesn’t weigh as much but it does not keep baby as dry as my good ole pampers. One of these days im going to try huggies supreme, we didn’t like them in the US but anything to keep bella from having bad diaper rash is the goal. We’re trying baby powder on her bottom. If you google baby powder there’s mixed opinions of whether it works or not. Well let me say this, down here we sweat about 4-80% more each day than those 100 degree days in  Dallas. Her little folds get yucky, fast here. But she’s getting plenty of vitamin D here. The baby and I spend a good 10 minutes at the beach each day (usually her naked), and daddy and Alyssa spend 1-4 hours each day playing, fishing, or doing whatever at the beach. Everyone walks the beach here. We meet lots of nice folks walking, but that’s about 1-2 couples each time. We’ve had many compliments about how well behaved our children are and how everyone misses their grand children. There are lots of concerns here, drinking unpurified water, washing our fruits and vegetables properly, and mosquitos…… all of which are manageable, they just require a few extras steps in our day.. like not going outside at dusk without a heavy dose of bug spray, putting the baby in a mosquito net, and clearly communicating what is good to eat, drink, and how to wash dishes. We are lucky, we have city water, it’s not great, but its clean enough we can brush our teeth, and wash dishes without getting the tourista. As far as baby stuff goes here, when we need something special we can go into the major city about 15 minutes away and get just about anything we need at the mall or super walmart. Shopping is a whole different culture here so you go to the specialty store when you need something specific. So, life at the beach with the baby is realatively the same, baby’s cry, poop, eat… it’s all good!


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It’s a beautiful Beach Day for Beer Eggs

Written by Siotha on November 17, 2009 – 7:32 am -

What a beautiful beach day. The sun is shining, the girls are up and playing, Jeremy is working… I’m taking a few minutes to update the blog and get breakfast ready. Today I’m trying Munchego Cheese, with Beer Eggs… A touch of salsa on top, and we’ll see how it goes. This week I’m going to aquire a couch. I need somewhere to sit besides the bed and the dining room table. Between my adventures in breakfast making, and my aquisition of a couch… it’s going to be a great day!


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having a baby 7 years after gastric bypass — update

Written by Siotha on November 16, 2009 – 12:56 pm -

well its been 7yrs after my gastric bypass, ive had two healthy kids and one miscarriage. Most recently I had baby Bella. Shes awesome. I gained 50lbs with her. Which is very upsetting after 6 yrs of being nearoy thin. Im here at the beach and hope to work off this weight by eatin healthy, walking daily, and doing more than ever. This time around, alot was different, instead of loosing 40lbs, i gained them of course. But it was more critical for me to take my vitamins, get iron infusions, and stay extremely healthy. We now know that I do not absorb Iron, and I am vitamin D defficiant. It was hard because i was puky the whole pregnancy and prenatals made me throw up. I tried every prenatal under the sun, taking them in the moring, during the day and at night to ease the sickness. I hated when i threw up vitamins that settled for about an hour in the tummy. Yuck. But, Bella came out healthy, happy, and about 3 lbs bigger than Alyssa. Which is great because, with this baby, I’ve learned so much that we did wrong, or wasn’t right (I should have been giving Alyssa formual from day 1). I’m thankful this time, that our pediatrician worked with us as I breast feed because I want to give her the best antibodies for the flu possible, but I have to give her formula (she’s 95% formula baby) becaue I don’t produce enough milk, or a well balanced milk. Either way… she’s good, I wish I’d known half of what I know with Bella for Alyssa, but I look at my long and skinny Alyssa and thank God she turned out great. It’s funny because Bella is chunky compared to alyssa, but the thing is, she’s right at average weight, so she’s not fat, nor is she skinny like Alyssa. She’s got a lighter brown hair, and toenails and fingernails that grow like crazy! She looks alot like my dad… and just as social as him! For those of you reading this post before or after you’ve had gastric bypass, and considering having kids please do the following:

  • Take extra prenatal vitamins
  • Take extra Iron
  • Get sunshine, go walking
  • If you’re caloric consumption isn’t 2500 calories, supplement with protein shakes (I loved Dymatize protein shakes, and their cereal line)
  • If you’re doctor hasn’t dealt with a Gastric bypass patient or many of them, let them know that the diabetes test is hell on you (i assure you i was miserable taking that many sugars at once).
  • Maintain your weight by gaining only a moderate amount
  • for those of you trying not to loose more weight (as i struggled the first time, lost weight instead of gaining weight) protein shakes need to be your new best friend. Drink 1/2 then 2 hours later drink the rest. I know you can’t handle the full shake at once with your little tummy, but you gotta take care of that baby.

Just so you also know, the baby will consume vitamins before you do, it will also deplete vitamins you are not getting, during my first preganancy I was 1 yr post up (delivered at 2 yrs post op), She depleted my iron stores. I didn’t know this, so I spent the next few years iron defeicient and anemic. I nearly died 3 yrs later because of this. It was scarey but the simple fact is all I have to do is keep your vitamins in check by taking them, and having your vitamin levels (a complete B panel, plus iron, plus a cbc) checked once during your preganancy and you’ll be fine!

Bellas portrait taken by Jenny

Bella's portrait taken by Jenny


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yucatan state fair in merida

Written by Siotha on November 15, 2009 – 12:54 pm -

On friday we went to the state fair, just outside of Merida Yucatan Mexico. It was awesome. $12 pesos to get in (less than 1 USD), food was $15 pesos or $20 pesos for snacks, rides were $15 pesos — they had over 25 little kid rides, about 15 bigkid ones, including ones that would spin you up and down — they made me nauciuos just looking at them! The animals were gorgeous for their breeds. Its very similar to the Texas state fair, but more afordable. Alyssa loved the animals and the rides! I loved the time with family, trying my little spanish… we ate marqasetettas until we coulddnt handle the sugar! We spent the afternoon with mostly school kids that day, around 5pm lots of people started pooring in. The vendors were cool too. They had juices, painted coconuts, honey, hammock, clothes and furniture. We hope to go again before it closes. We think its only open in Novembre.


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Italiano Thursday’s at El Bull Pen, Chelem, Yucatan MX

Written by Siotha on November 13, 2009 – 12:53 pm -

6pm- Thursdays.. meet us at the Bull Pen. It’s Italiano Thursdays and community meetup night. We all sit together at BIG long tables and enjoy good food, good company and lots of drinks to go around. Infact Alyssa wanted to play waitress so bad she insisted on ordering drinks for us when needed. So if you’re looking for where to eat just outside of Progreso go to Chelem on a thursday – eat at  El Bull Pen!

Thursday Nights hangout in Chelem Yucatan, MX

Thursday Night's hangout in Chelem Yucatan, MX


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Our Move to Mexico! We did it.. we’re just outside of progreso, yucatan, MX!

Written by Siotha on November 11, 2009 – 2:29 pm -

Oh, my….the trip.
Oh the trip. Wow. Could it have been more funny? We had something like 12 bags/stroller/carseat, kids, us… everything. we had the maximum flyable limit and people raising eyebrows at us every turn we made. Mostly they saw us and thought… hey they must be good tippers! Which is ok. We moved out of our house about 2 weeks before the flight. We finally got the house on the market, expected it to sit for a while, and had multiple offers the first week… it was great.. a bidding war ensued, then after all the drama of picking a viable contract… the inspection came. We did need a new roof, even thought 2 years ago there was no hail damage and it was fine. Thank God for homeowner’s insurance. So we lived at my parents apartment and a couple of hotels for 2 weeks before our flight. Jeremy was working day in and day out to meet some deadline all the while working on getting us packed, moved, and happy. Everything is now packed up in storage, minus a carload, and plane full of our baggage… our cars are in storage, oh man that was hard to give up our newest addition to the fleet – our hard earned  BMW… we got a great deal on it, and one of those maintenance plans to boot… anyway. My parents drove the dodge down on a Tuesday. The radiator had to be replaced before they ever left dallas. I couldn’t believe. I was worried about my mom, and their trip because they had 4 long days on dirt roads, cities and places I can’t imagine. Our trip was supposed to be easy. 2 cars to the airport, unload bags, board plane, uh oh… here’s where it got complicated… oh man… we sat in dallas on the runway almost exactly 4 hours… they told us we were going back to the gate.. then within 5 minutes they said great news we’re going to houston… and we took off.. in the mean time my flight had already landed in mexico… so… when we landed we were the last to deboard… the last in line… and of course stuck behind a guy who consumed an hour trying to get to Merida (Merida only gets flights on certain days.. our next available was like 5 days later). So we were told they couldn’t help us at the counter we should speak with a supervisor. We went to the customer service counter to speak with a supervisor, and there he was again. Let me say – Alyssa and Bella were GREAT. Everyone was telling us how amazing our kids were during the whole thing. So we stand in line, wait another hour it’s midnight, we’ve not ate since 2pm… Bella was on her last bit of formula that was premade… We were given 2 options – fly to cancun, while our bags wont make it – in the morning; or fly to merida 5 days later. We went to cancun instead. The hotel they put us in… we over paid for. It was a suite, but good grief, it had rain leaks, and well it wasn’t the nicest of places. I’ve stayed in worse… so anyway… we get to the hotel at 1 am, then turn around and leave at 5am for the cancun flight. The cancun flight was just fine. We arrived with no problems, went through immigracion, and had to fill out a health form (for the flu protection). We went to baggage claim where Alyssa spotted our bags… all of them… everything… We were saddled with ton of bags to go through customs. We got a green light and went to the bus terminal. The bus to the bus station was truely the best option, from there, they handled our bags for us… everything made it we only traveled the UNO bus (a luxury liner worth the $60 tix)… all the way to Merida. It’s in Merida where things got hairy.. it was dark, it was 6pm, we were tired, hungry, unable to call anyone, and prayed we could find mom and dads house. We told them where we were going, and for the price of two taxis ($60USD+ tips) we got into Chelem, found the Bull Pen restaurant and got to mom and dad’s house with no problems. It was here that we left 2 of my bags in the taxis. My meds, and my purse with our passports where accidently left in the taxis. It was dark, they were small bags and… it was my fault.
I was distraught. No meds for my nueropathy, stress from 2 solid days of travel, in a different country, no passports, no way of knowing when parents where coming exactly. It was chaos in my mind. However, the neighbors were great – they helped us out, one took me back to the bus stop to try to contact the taxi driver, mom and dad showed up within an hour of our arrival.. our property manager showed up too… lots of people, lots of great helpful people came to our rescue. We slept at the house mom and dad built. And the next day… I walked around with a huge cloud on my shoulders… about 2pm i heard a commotion in the street… I looked out the front door and there was a hand holding my purse in the gate… I freaked out! My purse came back… it came back with trash, and my passports.. no iphone, no misc store credit cards, no pens.. but our passports and our visas came back! We lucked out! We had a neighbor translate that i still was missing my pill bag… the taxi driver said no problem he’d ask the other guy. After this – a huge weight off my shoulders kicked in. I was excited!
That afternoon we went to see our new house. It’s quite the nice little setup, beach front, office, shells, ocean, ocean… and more sand. I’ll talk more about it in another blog… but… to conclude the trip from chaos to happyness, my medicines came back as well. Another taxi brought it on the following day. It was missing our Alyssa’s Ipod and Leapter. I was just thankful that the thousand dollars in pills were back. The electronics we can replace. (although that leapster has been replaced practically once already – with all it’s games lost and charging station accidently packed). So while you may think that all of this is whining or complaining.. I’ve got two morals of this story… Number 1: We traveled like champions! and Number 2: no other place in the world would a couple of lost bags (purse included) ever come back to your doorsteps. It’s amazing here. The people are so friendly and outgoing. They are really nice. It makes up for the mosquitos, the dirt roads, weird rules, and the sandspurs! ;)


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Sunset photography

Written by Siotha on June 24, 2008 – 2:16 am -

This afternoon we went to the park and took pictures with our new DSLR, it’s not new, but it’s new to us. I was surprised to see after setting the white balance differently how much better my pictures came out. I’m wondering – so how does one get into selling their work as stock photography? I was reading up on Istockphoto.com and saw that they even have a request list of photos they want…. wonder if i can make a few shots pay for my iphone bill?

Any suggestions?


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www.techgirlz.com, blog.techgirlz.com

Written by Siotha on March 2, 2008 – 3:37 pm -

There’s a new project about women who are changing the creative world in one space or another, and I’ve been proudly selected as one of the profiled women! i’m so excited! These are world class women, such as Ijustine, Cali Lewis, Shellie Hall, Alexandra Gebhardt, and many more! You have to check out these amazing women and find out more about the project at techgirlz.


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Online Training Simplified, Organized and Easy Online Videos to Watch!

Written by Siotha on February 29, 2008 – 11:39 am -

Have you noticed how unorganized training sites feel when they have hundreds and thousands of videos. It could take 3 or 4 minutes to get through them. So, Jeremy, my team, and I have been feverishly working on making xTrain better… Just take a look at this quick intro to the site…. (Note: Please login to xTrain before trying the following! It’s free and won’t cost you anything just to sign in and easy to watch the free classes). We’ve worked really hard to make our site logical for the different types of artists – photographer courses are in photography – designer courses are listed in graphic design – internet marketing courses are only in internet marketing sections. How cool is that – we’ve designed the site – so that you choose your training by passion – then by subject – then by topic!


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Posted in Adobe, Adobe CS3, Adobe CS3 InDesign Training, Cintiq illustrtations, Classes, Computer, DSLR, Digital Arts, Digital Photography, Digital Photography Geek, Digital Photography Training, Easy Digital Photography, Easy Photos, Free Online Training, Geeks are Sexy, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Training, Illustration, InDesign, InDesign ACE, InDesign tutorials, LightRoom Training, Lightwave, Live motion graphics, Media Marketing, Online Advertising Training, Online Marketing, Online Marketing Expert, Online Marketing Training, Online Sales Training, Online Training, Orc illustration, Painter X Illustration, Pay Per Click, Photo shop layers, Photoshop CS3 extended, Photoshop Laboratory, Photoshop Model Retouching, Photoshop Playboy, Podcasts, Portfolios, Professional Learning Community, RPG Concept Illusrtation, RPG concept, RPG video games, Rick Sammon, Rob Sheppard, Ron Lemen, Russell Brown, SEO marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Skateboard Deck Design Photoshop, Social Media, Tutuorials, Video Podcasts, Web Design, adobe cs3 classes, catalog design, character drawing, comic book illustration, computer art production, creative training, cute geek, digital arts classes, digital photography classes, exercises, experts, free online classes, free online photoshop, free photoshop, free training, free video training, graphic design classes, hot geek, illustrator, indesign for dummies, indesign for quark users, internet marketing classes, internet skateboard, internet surfers, keywords, learn Adobe CS3, learn indesign, magazine ad design, newsletters, newspaper ad design, organic searches, page production, painter x, photo editing, photography production, photoshop, photoshop CS3, photoshop art, photoshop cs3 crack, photoshop guru, photoshop layers, photoshop layers free, photoshop lessons, photoshop teacher, photoshop techniques, photoshop testimonial, photoshop tips, photoshop trainer, photoshop training, photoshop tutorials free, photoshop tv, portrait retouching, retouching, roll playing game concept art, roll playing game illustration, shellie hall, siotha vest, student pricing, teacher pricing, tutorials, video skateboarding, video training, virginia brodie, vlogging, vlogging training, web design classes, why choose xtrain?, why xTrain?, xPert, xPert Training, xTrain News, xTrain Spokeswoman, xtrain, xtrain geek, xtrain photoshop, xtrain testimonial, yahoo, yahoo answers, you know the type..., youtube | 1 Comment »

why choose xTrain for digital photography, graphic design, online marketing training?

Written by Siotha on January 15, 2008 – 3:54 am -

Look! My first Video!!!

I explain why to choose xTrain!!! Clips of Ron Lemen, Rick Sammon, Rob Sheppard are all included!!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/I0H-tuJo-Js]

xTrain is Simply Better – What do you think?


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Posted in Digital Photography, Graphic Design Training, Online Marketing Training, siotha vest, why choose xtrain?, why xTrain? | 1 Comment »

Adobe CS3 InDesign Training Classes & Tutorials with ACEs

Written by Siotha on December 10, 2007 – 1:12 pm -

Wow! The demand has been huge for InDesign Classes! I’m so excited to give you a sneak peak of our InDesign Classes!

Virginia Brodie introduces InDesign CS3: Simplified and Fun in a well crafted thorough course that will get you up to speed building pages in InDesign Today!

Shellie Hall has created several Advanced Classes for InDesign users… Very inDepth and project oriented!

Myself: I’m so excited to be filming a FREE Indesign Class just for old Skool Quark Designers!!!!

Whew! Now…. We just have to get them online! Check out our Adobe CS3 Track for all of our Adobe Specific Software Training Classes! And Our Graphic Design Trac for Project based training! I’m So excited…

Did I mention I’m an InDesign ACI? an InDesign ACE… an InDesign FaNatic?! These have to be my favorite classes of ALL time on xTrain…. please remember this is a biased opinion!!! As I’m All about some InDesign…. Building Magazine Ads, Newspaper Ads, Marketing Materials, Billboards, Product Labels, Catalogs, Software Packages, Packaging Design, Newsletters, CD Covers, T-shirts, Flyers, Postcards, Letterheads, Envelopes, Business cards, OH MY!!!

These are my passion… and soon you’ll see the exciting announcements about our latest classes and you’ll see just how cool being a designer is!


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Posted in Adobe, Adobe CS3, Adobe CS3 InDesign Training, Classes, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Training, InDesign, InDesign ACE, InDesign ACI, InDesign tutorials, Online Advertising Expert, Online Advertising Training, business cards, catalog design, creative training, direct mail design, envelops, indesign for dummies, indesign for quark users, labels, learn Adobe CS3, learn design, learn indesign, letterheads, magazine ad design, newsletters, newspaper ad design, shellie hall, siotha vest, tutorials, virginia brodie, xPert Training, xTrain News | 2 Comments »