Dream Trips
Ok …it’s that time of the week where the grind of the job (or looking for a job) is wearing you down. What could be better than to think of the coolest trips you would want to take. Here at EGO we came up with our top 5!
Surf Trip – Even if you don’t surf who wouldn’t want to go to a beautiful beach and drink cervezas? If you have surf and camping gear this can also be a super cheap get away. If you have access to coastline and surf you can put together a recession friendly trip.
Vegas – When is it not a good time to go to Vegas? The perfect place to blow off steam. Who knows…you many even win big and compensate that unemployment check.
NYC – Like Vegas there’s not a bad time to go to New York City. Ok…maybe in the dead of winter…but other than that a weekend in the big apple can be a great escape.
Comic Con – This summer San Diego will once again be over-ridden with nerds. If you haven’t been and you’re a fan of comic books, video games or super heroes in general this is a must see. Plus San Diego is a cool city so when you’ve achieved geek overload you can venture out to the San Diego Zoo or hit the beach.
Video Game Nirvana
For all of you hard-core gamers this week in San Fran is the GDC (Game Developers Conference). 5 days of heaven for those who dream of a job where all you do is create and play video games. The video game industry is lucrative business with sales of more than 21 billion last year. Although it seems that the recession is hitting this market (where is it not) it does appear that the world of video games is robust enough to weather as seen by the 18,000 convention attendees.
The GDC this year has some cool highlights. Hideo Kojima (i.e. Metal-Gear-Solid) is a keynote speaker and sharing the spotlight with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Another anticipated feature is the Independent Games Festival, where alt, new games get their moment in the sun. Also a buzz in the gamer circles is the rumor that Playstation will announce a price drop for the PS3. Of course there’s always the convention floor where new products will be hawked like a high tech carnival. So if you geeked out over the Battle Star Galactica’s finale and need to feed your inner nerd…news from the GDC might do just the trick.
Who Doesn’t Twitter?
This last week at SXSW the conference was all a twitter. If you aren’t one of the users swept up in Twitter mania you might be soon enough. According to TechCrunch in February, 4 million people in the U.S. visited the site, up from 2.6 million the month before. That’s a big growth rate and shows that micro-blogging may not be just a trend. Something the many “Tweets” from Austin are evidence of.
Everyone seems to be posting “Tweets” from Lance Armstrong to Rain Wilson. Celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon and letting fans get a glimpse into their personal life. This month when Jimmy Fallon entered the late night television arena his Twitter account was right there with him. He even challenged his audience to a Twitter experiment by seeing if an audience member could get more followers than Barack Obama. Currently the tally is 34,000 for audience member Bryan Brinkman and 517,000 for our President.
If you’ve never posted a “Tweet” maybe its time to join the legions of fans who update their 140 characters daily. Whether commenting backstage from the Oscars or from your kids soccer game…it’s become clear that the masses are intrigued by these personal musings. Time will show us how this technology will shift cultural behavior, but for now we can be entertained and informed by these quick bursts of communication.
The Job Hustle
In honor of the launch of our new series, “The Hustle with Mike Malin” today at Ego we take a look at tips to land that new job. We know how tough it is in today’s economy but there’s some practical advice that will help you land that new gig. We believe that no matter how intense it gets, hard work and determination will lead you to that next step.
1. Treat Your Hunt Like a Full Time Job – Nothing’s coming easy these days so you have to put the work in to see results.
2. Get Digital! Work on your online social networking to research jobs and connect with potential employers.
3. Part Time It – Katy Piotrowski a career counselor and author stated in a recent CNN article “Rather than one job, think in terms of multiple positions. Breaking in may be easier if you aim for part-time work within a company. Line up multiple part-time positions and you’ll benefit from more job security; if one position evaporates, you have the others to fall back on.”
4. Be Flexible – The market is changing so it’s important to be open to a variety of opportunities.
5. Determination is Key - Remember to persevere…this isn’t a time to slack or send a resume off and think that it’s enough. Keep a good attitude and push forward….and remember…it’s all about “the hustle”.
Top 5 NFL Jobs (without being an athlete)
With the NFL combine coming to a close last weekend many talented athletes took their first step towards the dream of playingprofessional football. Since the rest of us are not freaks of nature when itcomes to the athletics department, here are the Top 5 ways to work for the NFLwithout playing.
5. Work at a stadium-Not really a career and about as far away from the NFL as you can get buttechnically you are an employee. This is definitely not the most glamorous ofthe options but it is the easiest to get into. There are multiple stadiums andthey require large number of staff members. Also as an added bonus, most of thejobs do not require rocket science so a lack of education won’t hurt you. So even though you are slinging peanutsor tossing drunks out, you are still being paid to watch football so it isn’tall bad.
4. Become an announcer- Obviously this will not be an over night task but if you reallyenjoy football and talking about football, out loud, to people, then this isthe perfect job for you anyway. Most broadcasting schools are only two-yearprograms and then you can start working your way up to the big show. Sure ifmight take a while but once you reach your goal, your sole responsibility is totravel around with a team and talk about them on the T.V and/or radio. Plus youusually get paid enough money that you only need to work for the season, soeven if you count all of training camp and the playoffs, you still are gettinga seven month vacation a year.
3. Become a coach-This is another path that will take some time but if you are committed to it,you are going to be spending the rest of your life on a football field teachinga game. There are two paths you can go to get to the NFL as a coach. You caneither start very young as the lowest of the lows in the NFL and slowly workyour way up from assistant to the assistant video technician to head coach.However this path is usually reserved for those who played college football andhave some kind of in. The second path is one where you start as a high schoolcoach and work your way up through the ranks until you get to the NFL. Both areviable if you are willing and interested in making a career out of coaching.The catch to this job is there is no off-season and the hours are nearly unbearableso proceed with caution.
2. Join a player’sentourage- This one may be difficult if you did not grow up with someonewho is now an NFL star but it is not impossible. If you are not in the lifelong friend category then one way to get in is to become friends with someonewho is already in an entourage. If you are finding that to be too difficult youmight have to step it up a notch and go extreme. One example of that is findingout where the players hang out and staging some kind of scenario where you savetheir life, just a thought.
1. Purchase a team-This will require either you winning the lottery or receive some largeinheritance so that you can bank roll that kind of purchase. If you have norich family members and are not really the gambling type then the other optionwould be to become very successful in another business and once you areextremely wealthy, purchase the team that is in the worst financial state. Thenyou can relocate that team to Los Angeles, where fans are dying for a team, whichwill in turn bring you even more financial success.
If any of these options seem either too far fetched or tootime consuming then your final option is to go to https://nfl.apply2jobs.com/ and seewhere the skills you already have fit into any of the available jobs.
Dream Jobs to Die For!
Sitting in the office staring at your screen in a nine to five job? Projects piling up and deadlines to be made.. If this sounds like you then take a load off for a few minutes and think about some of the most exciting jobs people actually get paid to do! We here at Whats 4 Family have come up with the Top 5 dream jobs around the world.
1. National Geographic Journalist - Who doesn’t want to travel and work in some of the most remote environments and write about their experiences.
2. Rock Star - If music floats your boat, imagine touring around the world having fans scream your name in delight as you perform in front of thousands living the life of a rock and roll diva!
3. Filmmaker - As mentioned below, the legendary Howard Hall has the perfect set up. He gets to film around gorgeous beaches, scuba dive and capture some of the most beautiful sea creatures with photography and other cool equipment to make an entertaining masterpiece.
4. Movie Animal Trainer - Have a love for animals? How fun would it be to train these guys to learn the fun tricks that you see on our big screens. Work with monkeys, pigs, even friendly bears. One word - Awww.
5. Video Game Designer - I mean, who doesn’t like video games. Come on! Can you imagine spending your days coming up with the next “Call Of Duty”!!
Ego Goes Eco!
Here at Whats 4 Family we think its important to live an eco-friendly life. Now...we understand that it’s not easy to know exactly how to do that so today we’ve list a few tips that will guide you in the right direction
1. Bag It!
Get rid of those plastic bag. Carry a reusable bag and start to reduce your carbon footprint. If you really want to take it a step further you can use reusable containers for your coffee at Starbucks or when you bring your lunch to work.
2. Drink Tap Water
According to TheDailyGreen.Com barely 20% of plastic bottles get recycled. Use filters and drink from the tap instead!
3. Bike It!
Let’s face it biking has many benefits beyond just being green. But the truth is every gallon of gas burns 190 pounds of carbon dioxide. So lets get in shape, save money and the world at the same time.
Rock History
In honor of today’s Rockstar piece, we have decided to rank the Top 5 Greatest Metal Guitarists of all time. Luckily metal hasn’t been around too long so most of these guys are pretty well known. So here we go:
5. Dimebag Darrell- Pantera
4. Randy Rhoads- Ozzy/Quiet Riot
3. Angus Young- AC/DC
2. James Hetfield- Metallica
1.Tony Iommi- Black Sabbath
Agree or disagree on the order, it’s up to you, however you cannot deny that all of these dudes rocked.
To take a look at some of the latest guitars that rock go to: http://www.dbzguitars.com
It's All About The Ads
Ok…We all know by now that it was a great Super Bowl with a fantastic finish. By now we’ve seen every sports anchor debating its merits so here at EGO we’re moving onto other insightful debates. How were the commercials? According to the AP this year was a record financial year
“NBC said on the eve of Sunday's Super Bowl that it has sold the last two of the 69 advertising spots for the game, pushing total ad revenue for the event to a record $206 million”
It was also the first year that you could Twitter your thoughts on the ads while you watched them. For a round up on the best and worst ads of the Super Bowl check out the following links:
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2009/02/the-4-worst-sup.html
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/02/super-bowl-ads-biz-media_0202_superbowl.html
Super Bowl Snacking
With the Super Bowl now only days away it has become critical that you decide what exactly you will be eating on the greatest Sunday of the year. Sure you could stick to the old classics of nachos, Buffalo wings, and the occasional chip with dip but I say it is time to step up your game. Why not try the Bacon Explosion, a weave of bacon filled with sausage, rolled up, grilled, and then covered in BBQ sauce. Or maybe you want to go with something more tied into football. For that we have the “The Greatest Snack Food Stadium Ever Built”. The ingredients are too many to list here but trust me you will not be disappointed. Finally if none of this sounds at all like something you are interested in then go with the all-liquid diet. Go buy as much cheap beer as you can and drowned out the fact that you bet way too much money on the 9-7 Cardinals. Recipes (with pictures!) can be found on the links below.
http://www.bbqaddicts.com/bacon-explosion.html
http://www.holytaco.com/ultimate-super-bowl-snack-stadium
Facebook Appeal
In the last few weeks it seems as if the Facebook revolution has hit a crescendo. From long lost camp friends to college roommates it seems as if everyone is “adding a friend”. The International press is even reporting that Prince Harry was dumped on Facebook when his girlfriend of five years changed her status to: "Relationship: Not in One." According to Techcrunch in November 2008 Facebook drew 200 million unique worldwide visitors; more than 1 in 5 people who accessed the Internet that month visited the site. That’s pretty amazing. So if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t pinged a long lost friend , check it out.
http://www.brash.com/articles/detail/facebooks_big_question/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4830589a1860.html
The above painting of Zach Klein by artist Peter Stichbury was the picture Zach had on his Facebook profile. To read more about Stichbury's Facebook portraits click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stichbury
Save Your Money
With the economy going down the tubes and unemployment at it’s highest in decades, here are some money saving tips to get you through these trying times. 1. Instead of wasting money on a gym membership, just jog to Starbucks in the morning. 2. When eating out at an expensive restaurant, don’t leave a tip. 3. Save money on gas by carpooling in your Hummer. These tips should get you through this rough patch, but in case you need more here are some money savers.
http://www.kctv5.com/money/18567895/detail.html#-
http://www.finance-weblog.com/50226711/7_more_ways_to_save_money.php
The X Games!
This weekend we saw the close of the Winter X Games 13. This extreme sports competition has been growing in popularity since its launch in 1997 and did not disappoint last night with the Men’s Snowboard Superpipe. This year the pipe was extended by an additional 4 feet bringing the vertical to 22 feet. Shawn White reigned but there were some stellar performances with Stanley Hayer and Sarah Burke winning gold. If you didn’t catch it check out these highlights!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfJt5hHQwrg
http://www.shaunwhite.com/news/
It's That Time of Year Again!
Every year Hollywood’s elite gather together to eagerly await the announcement of who made the list. The Oscar Nominations, announced this morning, include some of the most exciting talent in the business today.
Over 2,300 Oscars have been presented since the very first Oscar awards show in 1929.
Read more about Oscar’s history here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award
This year’s list of Oscar nods includes Heath Ledger, Sean Penn, Mickey Rourke and Brad Pitt.
For the complete list go to:
http://www.oscar.com/
Jan. 20 - It’s a Beautiful Day!
Today marks a fresh start….a new chapter for America. In a time where we’re inundated with news of foreclosures, unemployment and economic strife today we take a breath.
It’s a new day where hope and optimism thrives and anything is possible.
Good Luck Mr. President!!!
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/candidates/barack.obama.html
If you didn’t catch the speech this morning.
Jan. 19 - Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
In honor of MLK …today EGO.TV celebrates his words and ideals.
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. “
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
If you haven’t seen the inspiring “I Have A Dream Speech” here it is in its entirety. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk
For other info and background on the man and his legacy http://www.thekingcenter.org/
Jan. 16 - Setting Goals To Succeed
"The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break." - Rick Hansen, CEO of the Rick Hansen Foundation for Spinal Cord Injury Research
It's always important to set goals and to reach for those goals no matter what it takes! Don't miss Fashion Host, LJ, as he tries to reach his goals in looking stylish.
Check out his latest video - "The Challenge!"
Jan. 15 - A Calculated Risk Can Lead To Success
Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.” Andre Malraux quotes (French Historian, Novelist and Statesman, 1901-1976)
Sometime success all depends on taking a risk! No one knows that more than Mike Malin, who owns 13 of L.A.'s hottest restaurants.
Check out Mike's video blog to learn about this successful man who took a calculated risk!
Jan. 14 - Success Depends On What You Want
“Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more.” A. Lou Vickery quotes (American business author)
Do a little bit more with a little bit less - Watch episodes of So Fresh and So Cheap to help you find fashion that works!
