It's About Bloody Time Al

Well hey there people, I would apologize for not writing in my blog for so long, however stats say that no one ever reads this blog anyway. That's ok, I really don't care. So what the heck has happened since I last wrote? Well, a heck of a lot... I have taken my photography to a higher level and I am having so much fun with it. I have now specialized on Fine Art Nude photography and I think that I have some talent there. So many beautiful women want to work with me and I am so happy with how the photos are turning out. If anyone does read this and wants to check out my work, you can go to Aduro Photography Fine Art Nude Gallery and have a look. The images are in chronological order so if you want to see the newest stuff, go to the last page.

I have also been working pretty regularly on a podcast. It is for Photographers, Makeup Artists, and Models and it is called "I Am Aduro". You can check it out at http://podcast.aduro.ca. We just recorded episode 51 on Friday evening and every episode has turned out to be very informative and interesting. The feedback has been very positive so I have been very motivated to keep going. My co-host and the producer of the show is my photographer friend, Andrew Bolton. I think we are a good team.

Look forward to lots of exciting new things from me in the near future. I hope that I am not too busy so that I can blog about it regularly.

Cheers,
Al

For The Future - Life's Answers Contained In a Science Fiction TV Series.

I just love science fiction. One of my all time favorite series is Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski. I remember way back in 1994 when the show first aired. My soon-to-be wife and I began watching and although the sets and some of the acting were a little "low budget", the computer generated special effects were way ahead of their time. I remember thinking YES! finally a science fiction show that had realistic flight characteristics in the space ships. Something that always really bothered me about Star Wars and Star Trek. Except for some of the more advanced races of aliens, the humans even needed to have rotating sections of their ships and space stations to maintain artificial gravity. Now I am not physicist, but it was way more believable that most of the other stuff I had seen in the past. At least Straczynski gave it some thought. Oh and the design of the Star Fury fighter craft was outstanding. I have a scale model that I built a long time ago and it still sits in my office. One of "MY THINGS" that the kids are not allowed to touch. Much later in the the fourth season of the show they introduced the "White Star" ships that were built by the Mimbari with some Vorlon technology. By far the coolest ships out of any science fiction show ever.

Anyways, this post is not about space ships. It is about the show in general that had such an intricate story line and characters that fans who watched every episode felt like they were a part of it. As you watched each episode, you could see a mirror into reality. The show dealt with religion, poverty, corruption, racism, death, love, and compassion. It showed how love and friendship can stand over anything that challenged it. It made you realize that humans squabble and fight over the most petty little things. How literally stupid we must look to an outsider when we complain and cry about the things that don't really matter. How precious life really is and how short it can be. In the second last episode of the final season of the show, President John Sheridan wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about his own mortality. He decides to record a message to his un-born son to be played back to him on his 21st birthday. If you had seen the series you would know that John Sheridan only had 19 more years to live, so he would never see his son's 21st birthday.

This speech moved me to tears and it touches so many points about life and the way things are and the way things need to be. I don't know for sure if Straczynski wrote this himself, or if it was another writer, but one day I would love to find out and shake the hand of that person. By the way, Sheridan's wife's name is Delenn.

Londo's visit got me thinking about the day my child comes of age. On Earth, that's 21. If Lorien's prediction holds, I only have 19 years left. I won't be there to see you come into your own. Whoever you are, Whoever you will be. Not that either of those things matter. Because site unseen, I know that I will love you because you are my child, and the child of the woman I love more than life itself. I will give you that love, as best I can, for as long as I'm here. But a day like this, your 21st birthday, requires something more. So, I give you what little wisdom I have.

Delenn is the greatest ally you will ever have. Her depths of courage and compassion are unmatched in my experience. Look to her for wisdom and fire in equal measure, and if you ever have any doubt, talk to her. She will never judge you, she will only love you. From time to time, you will make mistakes, there inevitable. Sometimes those mistakes will be huge. What matters is that you learn from them. There's nothing wrong with falling down as long as you end up just two inches taller when you pick yourself up off the floor. At times you may end up far away from home. You may not be sure of where you belong anymore, but home is always there. Because home is not a place, its wherever your passion takes you. As you continue on your path, you will lose some friends and gain new ones. The process is painful, but often necessary. They will change, and you will change because life is change. From time to time they must find their own way and that way may not be yours. Enjoy them for what they are, and remember them for what they were. There's not much left, except I believe, I really do believe that sooner or later no matter what happens, things do work out. We have hard times, we suffer, we lose loved ones, the road is never easy. It was never meant to be easy, but in the long run if you stay true to what you believe, things do work out. Always be willing to fight for what you believe in. It doesn't matter if a thousand people agree with you, or one person agrees with you. It doesn't matter if you stand completely alone. Fight for what you believe. Which brings me to the first piece of advice my dad ever gave me and now I am giving it to you.

Never start a fight, but always finish it.

My wife and I have two boys, one is 6 and the other is 7. I own a box set of the Babylon 5 series and one evening I decided that we should watch it with the kids. We started, and nearly every night we watched at least one episode. My kids really got into the show and it was wonderful family time for us that I looked forward to every night. Earlier tonight we watched the final two episodes and that is why I am creating this post. I am still moved by the show and my kids want to watch some of the spin-off series including Crusades that I also have on DVD. As well there are some two-hour made-for-tv movies that Straczynski made throughout the 5 years of the show. If you ever have the opportunity to pick up the full five seasons of Babylon 5 (they have them at Costco now) make sure you do it. Watch them with your family from beginning to end. This is a very intricate story that must be seen. So many good morals and life lessons to be learned.

There are a lot of amazing stories that have been created in the world, but I think you will find that Babylon 5 was right up there as one of the best.

That was a short chapter

It has been almost a week now since I got lay'd off. The first job I have ever lost in my entire life. It was very quick and clean, the way things should be. I didn't screw up or anything, they just decided that we were going down a different road than they intended when they hired me. Besides, I was expensive and they needed to keep things tight and lean. Although I was taken by surprise, it barely phased me. I was not happy there anyways.

The truth is that I am an entrepreneur at heart and working for someone else is just not my thing. This is the universe telling me to give my head a shake and stop expecting someone else to look after me. After all, I have been looking after myself for most of my life and I just need to get off my ass and grab the bull by the horns and whatever other metaphor you can think of for getting it done myself.

With that short chapter closed now, I find myself realizing where I belong and what I need to do. I am much happier now than I have been in a very long time. I am back at the helm of my own destiny and each decision I make and every path I take is up to me. The way it should be.

I currently have numerous exciting things on the go. I have a successful photography business, not to mention my "day job" as President & CEO of a software company. On top of that I have a podcast with a significant and quickly growing fan base and I am about to start another podcast very soon. I have a wonderful family with two amazing kids, and so many incredible friends that I adore.

Yup, sometimes you just need a kick in the ass to open up your eyes and see what is right in front of you. My advice to anyone reading this is to listen carefully to these words by Joseph Campbel. He once said "Follow your bliss, and invisible hands will guide you." Words to live by for sure.

Yet Another New Chapter In My Life

My life has, so far, been a simple one from my perspective. I pretty much fly along whatever path life takes while making minor course corrections as I go and think it is necessary. It’s kind of funny because I often go through life like I am having one long 39-year out-of-body experience. I see things happening as though I am watching them happen to someone else. I have always lead my life as honest and kind to others as I could be. Not because I am religious, I am far from that, but because it just feels right.

Unfortunately I get taken advantage of a lot and that is too bad. I don’t lie to people because, first of all it’s not fair, and also because I have a crappy memory and I don’t want to waste my brain cells trying to remember what I said to whom. It is much easier just to tell the truth all the time and not worry about it. That said, I am not going to say things that will hurt other people. Sometimes you can leave out details and let people jump to their own conclusions without actually having to say anything.

That is another thing, I listen a lot. Some people talk WAY too much. It’s like they just want to hear themselves talk. I can’t even count the number of times I almost said something and decided not to and it turned out that I was very glad I kept my mouth shut.

In business I have found that being a good listener is one of the most valuable traits you could ever have. I sit in meetings all the time where two people are talking and they are both saying the exact same thing but arguing right and left about it because they don’t listen to what each other is saying.

Anyways, I’m rambling on but the point is that things just happen to me. It’s like the laws of attraction operate in my favor because I generally always have positive energy. Take work, which is basically the main topic of this post. When I was going to college I was working with my dad in construction during the summer and with a computer store during the winter. I put myself through college, books, tuition, everything. It was hard, and it took a long time to pay back the student loans, but I did it. When I got out of college and started the other half of my university transfer program at U of C, I was literally out of money and starving. I was only able to get about a year and a half into my two year program before I had to get a “real job” and neglect to finish my degree.

My first IT job was at a computer store as a technician. It came naturally to me and I enjoyed working with computers and dealing with the public. After a few months I was promoted to “Saturday Manager” which didn’t sit will with some of the other people that were there for a lot longer than me. Still, I took on the responsibility with gusto and did a very good job of it. When I had any spare time I was cleaning up the place and organizing things so we could be more efficient. Well all good things must come to an end and we found out that we were going to be bought out by a big US company.

As that boat started shaking I got a call from a college buddy that was working for a small software company downtown. They needed a new system administrator and thought I might be interested. Naturally I took the job right away and moved on to the next chapter of my life while the computer store went out of business (the buyout never happened). The new job was not too bad and they had a pretty relaxed environment. Although the pay wasn’t that great there was a lot of room for advancement. Within a year I was talking to my boss letting him know that being a sysadmin was not my main goal in life and that I wanted to take advantage of my education and get into programming. I got the speech about how they don’t pigeon hole people and that as long as I could find someone to fill my position they would be glad to have another good developer on staff.

As my eight and a half year career with the company went on, I quickly grew. People above me left and I climbed up the ranks to where I was doing project management, business analysis and technical sales support with my good friend and co-worker, Bill, who just so happened to be the guy that originally hired me at the computer store when I was going to college. I ended up suggesting to my boss that we hire him when the computer store went under.

My best friend since grade three, Chris, also joined our company after some nagging from me for a couple years. The three of us were an awesome team and we got a lot of work into the company. Again, things don’t last forever and one of the partners that owned the company got cancer and passed away. The remaining partner in the company, my boss, had a lot of legal crap to deal with and the boat started shaking pretty good. Work began to dry up too and we had to let a lot of good people go. That is when I got this crazy idea to start my own software company.

After a lot more nagging I convinced Chris to join me and we started our own software company. It was awesome, we worked hard, treated our clients with respect and did a good job. The company grew over 6 years to 17 people including Chris and I. We were getting a lot of work, but we were not charging enough and our capital and operational costs were way too high. With a tearful goodbye we were forced to close the office, sell off everything and let all our employees go. We were originally going to file for bankruptcy but found out that is more expensive than just paying the debt ourselves. That and I also believe that when you make your bed you need to sleep in it. We got into this mess ourselves and it is our responsibility to get out of it ourselves.

So began another chapter in my life. Down to just the two of us, I raised our rates up to where they should be and we both got a decent amount of work contracting. I was working for the Airport on a contract doing Project Management work and it was really a great job. I got along with everyone and enjoyed all the interesting technology I was involved with. Yet again, it didn’t last. The amount of work they had for me got very slim and due to some major construction projects over the next 10 – 20 years and the recession they were trimming budgets right and left. Turns out I would probably have nothing much to do for the rest of this year and very little if anything next year. With a house and a young family to support, panic was setting in. I had resumes out everywhere and went to a couple interviews, but nothing much came out of it. That is, until one of the vendors that we dealt with at the airport invited me for lunch.

This is getting to be a very long story, but anyway he offered me an incredible opportunity in his company as a Senior Business Analyst. I just finished my first week there and so far I am very impressed. This, I think will be one of the most exciting chapters in my work life. The company produces a Geographic Information System (think Google Maps, but for both outside and inside buildings). Something I am very interested in, and I look forward to learning a lot more about.

For those who are wondering, the software company we started is still fully operational but my time and effort towards the company is much more limited than it was.

Technorati Tags: Enlightenment,Focus,Positive Thinking,Technology,The Secret,Law Of Attraction

The Priceless Value of a Photograph

Here is something that we have all heard before in some form or another, but I feel is important to be reminded of on a regular basis.

I was recently reminded by a good friend’s post on Facebook regarding his grandmother, about how priceless a photograph is.  He posted a series of photographs from when his grandmother was younger.  As I looked through the images I thought to myself how many memories would be completely forgotten if people had not taken pictures.

The first photograph was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce titled “View from the Window at Le Gras”. Since then things have changed, technology has advanced and millions and millions of pictures have been taken.  There are many moments in history that were captured in photographs.  Families all over the world clicked away and took pictures of themselves, their children and families as they grew and experienced life.  Photojournalists took pictures of famous events, politicians, wars, celebrities, celebrations, sports, and local news events.  Without those pictures the only historical records we would have are what people wrote.  Obviously you can’t always trust what people write and the visual reference of a photograph makes a big difference… that is until the invention of Adobe Photoshop. 

Motivated to write this post, I decided to go through some of my own old photographs.  I was just going to grab one or two old shots to stick in this post and the coolest thing happened.  My two young boys (5 and 6) came in to see what I was doing.  They started looking at the old pictures with me and it was really cute.  My oldest son, Tony, saw a picture of me when I had long hair, glasses and a moustache and he said “who is that?”  I laughed and said it was daddy when I was younger.  He gave me a strange look and said “you look like a bad Elvis!”.  My wife and I laughed so hard we were crying.

I hope you all go out and take lots and lots of pictures.  They don’t necessarily have to be good pictures, but capture those moments, those places, those people.  It is so important for the future, for yourself and for your family and those that follow years and years down the road.

Technorati Tags: Artistic Expression,Blogging,Calgary,Creativity,Photography