Zondra Hughes: Free at Last! Leaving a Bad Job to Launch a New Business

Life is a dream when you love your job and it's a nightmare when you hate it.

So what can you do if you are living a nightmare? Leave that job behind, according to two young entrepreneurs who found their passions in their second careers.

Shatoia Starks left her job as a pharmaceutical sales exec to operate a food truck, Mama Green's Gourmet Goodies. Shatoia's cookies are sold in Whole Foods and she now plans to open a bakery.

Jeremiah Bishop was the general manager at a bill collection agency in his former life. However, "When the economy crashed and tanked, nobody was paying bills, so I had to find something else to do." Five years later, Bishop is an in-demand fashion photographer and owner of Phinally Phocused Photography.

Here Shatoia and Jeremiah discuss three ways they've mentally prepared to leave bad job situations and launch profitable new businesses.

1. Be open to explore new possibilities -- or old passions.

"Inspiration can come at any time; you must be open to receive it," says Shatoia. "I was in pharmaceutical sales for about 10 years, and I really started to dislike it a lot."

While visiting her mother for the holidays, "I started organizing my great -- grandmother's recipes, and as I sat there, a lot of memories were coming back. And I always loved food a lot and I enjoyed serving food. I always loved sales, so I combined those two and started a food truck. I am 100 percent happier now than ever before."

2. Find a mentor and educate yourself.

"My friend, Charan Ingram, is a great Web designer, and he had gotten into photography, and Adobe Photoshop," says Jeremiah Bishop. "Charan took me under his wing, and... I studied lighting techniques, makeup techniques, the kind of photography that I wanted to do, which is mostly high fashion."

You must also do the research to find needed resources.

"Try to use as much of the free help that's out there as possible," Shatoia states. "SCORE, the Small Business Association, here in Chicago, the Women's Business Development Center; try to use as much free info as the city offers, because these people are former executives and they've done this before."

3. Get a solid support system.

Having a solid support system will also help you to keep the faith when launching your business, advises Shatoia.

"The challenging part has been just taking the leap," Shatoia says. "Believing in myself and saying, OK, I'm going to do this, and the support that I got from my husband and my mom really encouraged me to believe that I can do it and not turn back."

Last, but not least, you should never give up, adds Jeremiah.

"You only can be knocked down for so long; nobody gives up permanently," Jeremiah states. "As long as you have a great work ethic and you're willing to work hard at it, I believe anybody can be successful in this country."

Your turn, if you've left a bad job situation to launch a business, how did you mentally prepare to strike out on your own?

?

Follow Zondra Hughes on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ZondraHughes

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zondra-hughes/career-change-advice_b_1208025.html

christmas island antonio gates antonio gates challah oxford comma oxford comma elisabetta canalis

Public Enemy Block Party In Skid Row Makes A Statement On MLK Jr. Day (VIDEO)

As home to the largest homeless population in the country, Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles really is the most appropriate venue for hip-hop artists to make some noise about inequality.

And that's just what they did on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the free music festival organized by Chuck D, lead man of the political eighties hip-hop group Public Enemy.

In addition to Public Enemy, performing old-school and new-school hip-hop heads included Kurupt, Ronnie Hudson, Freestyle Fellowship, Lady of Rage, King Tee, Kid Frost, Yo-Yo, Egyptian Lover, L.A. Possee and others. With a couple hundred attendees, the 1 p.m. show continued into the dark, lasting almost five hours.

Public Enemy spit OG hits "Fight the Power," "Shut 'Em Down" and "Can't Truss It," and, according to the Los Angeles Times, Chuck D walked through the audience after his performance for about 15 minutes, posing with and hugging fans.

In between each two to three-song set, social activists and poets filled interludes with discussion of economic and racial justice, police profiling and brutality, immigration reform and other issues.

Only a handful of attendees were actual Skid Row residents, according to KPCC, with more having driven in from Oakland, Santa Monica and elsewhere. Christine Petit of LA CAN, which was one of the organizations handing out free food and goods at the event, told KPCC, "I mean, it's a festival for the residents [of Skid Row]. We were sort of hoping to keep it, you know, down. But word gets out."

Perhaps one of the most powerful moments, depicted in the video below, was when rapper Flava Flav shared that he started smoking cigarettes when he was just 6, drinking at 8, smoking marijuana at 10 and smoking crack and cocaine at 23 years-old. He was proud to say that he's been off crack and cocaine for six years now, and this year he's completely sober except for cigarettes. He had the audience repeat after him, "I am!" ("I am!"), "Somebody!" ("Somebody!")

"Hip-hop has to make a statement," Chuck D told the Ventura County Reporter. Even though the event had no official Occupy connection, he continued, "We cannot have Skid Row be obscured. We have a moral obligation down there. This statement marks our [Public Enemy's] 25th year. Occupy Skid Row is a peaceful protest of power, and hip-hop is trying to make the situation better."

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/public-enemy-skid-row_n_1211214.html

2011 election results 11/11/11 11 11 11 activision blizzard acrylamide advent calendar adobe air

All About PIPA and SOPA, the Bills That Wants to Censor Your Internet [Video]

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are two bills that sound like they have a mildly positive aim but, in reality, have serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it. While the Obama administration has come out against SOPA, effectively shelving it indefinitely, the very similar PIPA bill is still alive and well. Both SOPA and PIPA put power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This language is vague enough to target sites you use every day, like Facebook and Google, making these bills a serious problem. Here's what you need to know about the bills and what you can do about them.

Due to the recent opposition of the Obama administration and focus changing to PIPA, we decided to make an update to this post to make it a bit more relevant. While SOPA is likely dead, we're explaining both bills as they're very similar.

What Are SOPA and PIPA All ABout, and Why Should I Care?

The idea behind these bills sounds reasonable. They came about in order to try and snuff out piracy online, as the entertainment industry is obviously not excited that many people are downloading their products without payment or permission. The issue is, however, that it doesn't really matter whether you're in support of piracy, against it, or just don't care. The methods are ineffective. Here's what they are and why they're problematic.

SOPA and PIPA were initially designed to do two things. The first was to make it possible for companies to block the domain names of web sites that are simply capable of, or seem to encourage copyright infringement. This would have been bad for everyone because such a measure doesn't actually prevent piracy. The reason that blocking a domain name isn't effective is because any blocked site can still be accessed via its numeric IP address. For example, if lifehacker.com were blocked, you could still find it by visiting a number-based address. In fact, before the bills were even supposed to come to a vote, tools were created to automatically route domain names to their IP addresses to completely render this measure of SOPA and PIPA useless. As a result, the IP-blocking provisions have been removed from both bills.

The other, still-active measure present in the SOPA and PIPA bills would allow rights holders to cut of the source of funding of any potentially infringing web site. This means any other companies doing business with this site would have to stop. Whether that means advertising, links in search engines, or any other listings would have to be removed.

There is, however, an important difference between SOPA and PIPA. SOPA targeted any site that contributed to copyright infringement, even if it was simply facilitating the act by providing a tool that could be used for illegal purposes (regardless of intention). PIPA, on the other hand, requires the targeted site to have no significant use beyond copyright infringement. Basically, PIPA can only be used to censor a site if it's more likely to be a source of illegal content than not. This is still problematic because a tool designed to accept user-generated content is, to some extent, at the whims of its users. If infringing content is found, rights holders already have the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) to help them request the legal removal of that content. They also have the ability to sue infringers for damages, as we've previously seen with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) when they, for example, sued a 12-year-old for downloading music. SOPA and PIPA provide a means to censor the tool that provided a means for the infringing content to exist on the internet rather than the content itself. This puts a lot of power in the hands of rights holders and has significant potential for abuse.

This is, of course, our interpretation of these bills. Because we love the internet and oppose censorship, we have an obvious bias. While we believe the right thing to do is to oppose these bills, you should make an informed decision on your own. For more information, please read the exact content of both the SOPA and PIPA bills.

What Can I Do About SOPA and PIPA?

Currently Twitter, Google, Reddit, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, eBay, Zynga, Facebook, and several other sites have spoken out in opposition of SOPA and PIPA. In fact, many sites are censoring their logos (e.g. Google) or completely taking down their sites (e.g. Wikipedia) in protest on January 18th, 2012. There is incredible opposition to these bills because they don't just affect users like you, or small startups, but even very large companies with a large stake in the great things the internet and modern technology have to offer. If you'd like to join in your protest, there are a few things you can do.

First, call your congressperson on the phone. This is especially important if you live in a state with SOPA and/or PIPA supports or sponsors. Nonetheless, if your congresspeople do not support these bills you should still contact them to voice your support for their position.

Second, get the word out. Post this article, the American Censorship Day web site, or any other information about SOPA/PIPA on your social media accounts. Send emails to friends and family. If you oppose the bill, help others to understand why you believe they should oppose and encourage them to read more so they can make an informed choice.

Let's End the Fight and Start a Discussion

Finally, if you know a supporter or person in favor of SOPA and/or PIPA, have an open discussion. Myself and many others believe that the root of this problem stems from a lack of communication on both sides. Despite what my articles may suggest, I'm not a supporter of piracy. I do believe there is a compromise that both sides can reach with enough discussion, education, and understanding. It's important to remember that both the supporters and opposers of SOPA and PIPA have legitimate concerns. This should not be a fight but rather a cooperative discussion to find a solution. Whichever side you're on, please encourage a conversation that will move us towards change that is good for everyone rather than extreme measures that won't help anyone.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/J3bhMduQXK0/all-about-sopa-the-bill-thats-going-to-cripple-your-internet

oakland general strike houshmandzadeh houshmandzadeh bieber baby justin beiber dia de los muertos dia de los muertos

Still Hunting for a Straight Answer (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/187748634?client_source=feed&format=rss

doritos confederate flag confederate flag kim delaney kim delaney dead sea scrolls new jersey nets

'Twilight: The Musical' Vamps In New York

Harry, Ron and Hermione make 'Twilight' debut in the off-Broadway parody.
By Amy Wilkinson

The cast of "Twilight: The Musical"
Photo: Dreamcatcher Entertainment

NEW YORK — When "Dreamgirls" helmer Bill Condon took over direction of "The Twilight Saga," more than a few cheeky journalists wondered if he'd treat fans to a bloodsucking song-and-dance extravaganza. Alas, vogueing Volturi weren't meant to be — at least on the big screen. They have, however, found a temporary home on the New York City stage in the form of "Twilight: The Musical." The off-Broadway parody production premiered Monday night at the New World Stages, raising money for the charity Blessings in a Backpack.

Written by Ashley Griffin and directed by Gabriel Barre, "Twilight: The Musical" is, for now, staged as a concert reading, meaning that the actors hold scripts throughout the show. But the cheat sheets did little to diminish the enthusiasm of the oft-hilarious production.

A group of eight actors play more than 30 roles, with some pulling quadruple and even quintuple duty (such as standouts Lauren Lopez and Jenna Leigh Green). With her bobbing ponytail, zip-up hoodie, skinny jeans and sullen expression, Meghann Fahy ("Next to Normal") is a dead ringer for Bella Swan (or, at the very least, Kristen Stewart's portrayal of Bella Swan), while "Wicked" actor Colin Hanlon looks perfectly pained as Edward Cullen. Jared Zirilli ("Wicked") spends the entire second act shirtless, portraying Jacob with the kind of earnestness that's made Taylor Lautner the object of many a teen's fever dreams.

The show opens much as the "Twilight" movie does, with Bella's monologue about her impending death followed by the cafeteria scene and the upbeat track "Looking for Something." (Sample lyrics: "I think I see a Fork stuck in my road," "We're standing on the twilight of something good.") The first act hems closely with its source material, including all the requisite scenes: Edward's biology class freak-out, Bella's car accident and the bookstore gang-up. Much of the dialogue comes straight from screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg's script, too, albeit with much-welcomed embellishments. (Charlie to Bella: "I know it's awkward starting in the middle of a semester, so I got you a truck!")

But things take a canon-twisting turn about two-thirds of the way through the first act when Hermione, Ron and Harry show up. Yes, someone got "Harry Potter" in our "Twilight." Instead of Victoria, James and Laurent, Hogwarts' finest play the villains here. The meta levels reach 11 when the wizards mistakes Edward for Cedric Diggory. And so it is that Ron tracks Bella down in her old ballet studio and is done in by the Cullen coven, leaving Hermione to avenge the death of her beloved. The first act closes on Bella's birthday — the surprisingly bloody scene from "New Moon."

The second act opens with a freshly shorn Jacob (his wig somehow even mangier than Lautner's) singing with his pack. From there, the production speeds through the last three books of Meyer's series, compressing much of the story in favor of cramming it all in. Despite the odd pacing, the production sang thanks to details only a true fanatic could relish. Edward's sparkling-in-the-sun effect is achieved with a glittery bodysuit hidden underneath the actor's button-down like Superman's spandex. The iconic apple from the book's cover hangs limply (and obviously) from a springing wire gizmo as Edward tries to suavely hand it to Bella. Not to mention the actors muster plenty of fourth-wall-breaking furtive glances, letting the audience know they are in on the joke.

But the tongue-in-cheek vibe is abandoned late in the second act for a sobering bit of moralizing from Harry, who comes to Bella in a dream sequence asking if it was all worth it. "You were willing to sacrifice everything to get a boyfriend," he says. "In the end, you destroyed yourself." Point taken, Harry Potter. But what a buzzkill.

If you weren't able to make the one-night-only charity benefit, don't fret: Work is being done to bring the production to the New York stage for good.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677398/twilight-the-musical.jhtml

do a barrel roll jimmy kimmel tilt do a barrel roll. fsu football fsu football do a barrelroll

INTERACTIVE CHART: The Rise Of The European Government Debt

My wise beyond her years webmaster just told me about Google Public Data Explorer, which allows you to build interactive charts of public data. This is no doubt going to be my new favorite toy.

Check out the below graphic which shows General Goverment Deficit/Surplus as % of GDP on the Y axis, Goverment Debt as % of GDP on the X axis, and the Goverment Debt in Euros as the size of the bubble. Pretty cool!

Read more posts on Marc to Market ?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/great-graphic-government-debt-in-europe-2012-1

ama awards 2011 uekman uekman music awards music awards giants eagles bcs rankings week 13

Black church in South Carolina declared landlord of KKK gift shop

A judge in South Carolina has declared a black church to be the lawful owner of a building that is home to a store that peddles Ku Klux Klan paraphernalia -- although it isn't quite clear if the ruling will impede the sale of the racist stuff anytime soon.

The latest chapter in this long, weird and disturbing tale out of Laurens, S.C. -- about an hour northwest of the capital city of Columbia -- comes courtesy of Meg Kinnard of the Associated Press, who reports that Rev. David Kennedy and his New Beginnings church have been declared the rightful owners of an old theater building that houses the Redneck Shop, which trades in Klan robes, T-shirts with ethnic slurs and, according to its website, "bumperstickers, belts, mens and womens [sic] swimsuits, one or two piece, cotton or nylon flags, bird houses, and you name it..."

The ruling will apparently allow Kennedy to inspect the building, something he had been unable to do for years. But Kinnard reports that it isn't clear if the judge's ruling means the shop will be closed.

If it remains open, it will be difficult to imagine a more awkward landlord-tenant relationship.

Kennedy and his church had ownership of the building transferred to them in 1997 after the previous owner, a Klansman, quarreled with his fellow Klan members, particularly the store proprietor. The Klansman gave the building to?Kennedy's church after the two developed a "spiritual relationship," according to the judge in the case.

The intra-Klan argument did not concern the more esoteric points of Southern nationalism, nor whether keeping bird houses in stock at a racist tchotchke shop fit with the overall theme. Rather, it was a dispute over a woman.

ALSO:

Don't disrespect?the national anthem in Indiana?

Alleged 'Handsome Guy' bandit not looking?good in Mississippi

New York firebomb attacks: Man admits hurling Molotov cocktails

-- Richard Fausset in Atlanta

Photo: The Rev. David Kennedy, pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church, stands outside the Redneck Shop in Laurens, S.C., in 2008. Credit: Patrick Collard / Associated Press

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/racist_gift_store.html

vanessa bryant kurt busch kurt busch nfl mock draft 2012 adam lambert incendiary floyd mayweather