Here is a video I made to help you raise $1000 (or more) in 9 days.  It is about 5 minutes long and should give you some great ideas to help you with your fundraising.

Have fun!

If you would like to view a larger version of this video, please visit my account at screencast.com. Just Click Here.

Hi gang, It has been awhile since I have posted to my blog. A lot going on.
I am creating a series of videos to help some of the Aids Life Cycle  Moto Safety
teammembers get their ALC home page up and running. This is video 2 of a series.

This video shows you the basics of how to log in, find your participant center and
simple editing features of your Aids Life Cycle home page. 

Just click the arrow in the middle of the video to start playing it.

If this picture is hard to see what is going on, then you can see a larger version of the
video at screencast. Just click here to be taken there right now.

Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to look out for more videos on how to raise money
for your specific causes.

Make it a great day!

David

Motivation on the Move – Road Block Task – What is your Road Block today?

There is one task in your business that is stopping it from moving forward. It must be completed before anything else can be done. This is your “Road Block Task”

For more motivation to succeed online, visit http://www.kickinthebutt.com

Now go make it happen, and make it happen now!

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If you are running an online business , it is important to leverage your time. Make sure to turn downtime into productive time. This is key to effective time management.

For more information on how to motivate your business to success visit http://kickinthebutt.com

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ITN Road Rally – Two Lane Blacktop

Mark your calendars, Into the Night Road Rally Team is proud to present “Two Lane Blacktop”, a map based Monte Carlo Style Rally in Southern California Area. The start, location not yet disclosed, will be in the Santa Clarita Area on September 12th, 2009.  And the finish near Acton.

Times to remember on September 12th, 2009

Registration opens 9:00am

Orientation for first timers and beginners 11 – 12 noon

First Car Out 1:01 p.m. PST

Here is a link to the flyer:

http://carzero.freeservers.com/2laneflyer1.pdf

Here is a link to the Generals

http://carzero.freeservers.com/general.pdf

This event promises to provide a lot of fun for the automotive enthusiasts.

It is a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys their car and
back roads. All the roads are paved, and the event will run rain or shine.

I guarantee you  will have more fun and better memories with the same amount of cash, or less, than you would going to the movies.

Oh, and the competition is stiff too. I am running this one and not working.

Good Luck!

P.s. Make sure your car is ready to go with new tires from Tire Rack!

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They said I was in a video, However I was so busy during the ride I never got to see the video. Leave it to YouTube for me to see this video. There is a whole series of videos for ALC 8. I have been doing this ride for 6 years now, and I will be there the first part of June until there is a cure! Join me in making a difference!

When I type Unemployable into the Wikipedia search, it automatically reverts to the musical group Pearl Jam’s album Unemployable.  I will have to go to my iTunes and get the album.

However, the reason I consider myself “unemployable” is the fact that I find it near impossible to work for someone else!

I worked for companies and people since the age of 10 to the age of 38. And for the last 10 years, yes I am in my upper 40’s, I have successfully run my own business, set my own rules, set my own hours, and enjoyed many other benefits of working for myself.

The other benefit of working for myself, is I can change direction anytime I want to.  So about a few years ago, I decided it is time to turn to the internet. Wow, talk about information overload!  The internet has grown so much, there is no way I will be able to learn all the tips and tricks of internet marketing in my lifetime.

Being an entrepreneur requires some important personal characteristics. One of the most important is motivation. Unless you are motivated to succeed, or at least pay the bills, it is very easy to get sidetracked and lose site of your initial plan of attack.

I have noticed a lot of people consider themselves “unemployable” because they are too old, or no one is hiring anyone with their particular skill set. To me this is just lack of motivation and self confidence. A Cop Out!

If you want something bad enough, set your mind to it, get organized, and go get it!

Now, when I decided to learn about the internet and marketing on the internet, I was definitely hit with information overload. In the past few years, I have spent 10’s of thousands of dollars buying “internet education”.  The problem is that there is too much information and trying to absorb all the information and stay on track with what you are actually attempting to do becomes very difficult.  Watch your self.

A friend of mine and I became aware of this problem and we are now working on building a website to not only help you start your own internet business, but it will also be designed to help you stay focused and motivated at the same time.  If you would like to follow along while we develop our new site, feel free to visit us at http://www.KickInTheButt.com .

To sum up, to me the word “unemployable” to me is a positive name for someone who is motivated enough to replace the fear of going out on their own, with the faith in themselves to know they can make it work.

Thanks for reading this article.

P.S. To learn about one of the great tools I use to stay on track when working, visit one of my other sites http://www.getitdonenow.info

Now go and do something to make it a great day for you and your loved ones.

The Mac Mechanic is getting this bit of bad press because of their poor customer service.

Here is my side of the story.

On Friday 04/10/2009 I took my 1yr 2mo old 15″  MacBook Pro to the Mac Mechanic in Santa Barbara because it failed to wake up from sleep in the morning. I had used the computer the night before and put it to sleep as I always do. This is one of the great advantages of a mac over a PC.  Long story short, I got on my other computer and searched for solutions from others having the same trouble.  After about an hour of reboots and resets no video at all. I could here is spinning up and I always got the confirmation tone, but no video on either the external screen or the native screen. Bummer! I mean this was the weekend to do the taxes and now I did not have a functioning computer with all the information in it.

Now I have used the Mac Mechanic before and had been somewhat happy with them. Between them and the Mac Shac in Goleta, I could almost always find what I needed with information, hardware or software. They are building our mac store now.

So, I took the computer to the Mac Mechanic in Santa Barbara when they first opened up at 10:00am. I was told they should be able to get a diagnostic on it today. According to their diary of events on my computer, the got to it around 1:15 that afternoon, and by 4:15 had backed up my hard drive and diagnosed the problem to be the logic board. Around 4:30 a voice message was left on my answering service to the tone of:

“We have diagnosed your computer it has a bad logic board and will be about $1500 to repair. We realize this is a lot and wanted you to know we were able to back up your data and can transfer that to any new mac if you decide to buy a new one rather than fix this one. blah blah”

Well, to say I was a little surprised that a computer only 14 months old needed a fifteen hundred dollar repair, was an understatement.

I did not listen to the message until after the Mac Mechanic had closed so, I was unable to call them and ask for more details. I did have enough information to go research the problem though. So on another computer, a pc I might add, I went to the Apple website and searched for answers. I found one too!

According to Apple’s Service article number TS2377 titled MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues, my computer may contain a defective video card and they know about it and are covering the repair for 2 years. Yippee!

Come Saturday morning, I am on the phone with Apple customer care making sure my computer is one of the units listed in the service article. Good News, it is! and there is a test to be performed by the Apple Authorized Service Provider (which Mac Mechanic is) to see if it qualifies for the repair.

Armed with this information, I am a happy camper and visit the Mac Mechanic.  When I get there I speak with their employee Manabu about my woes and ask him for help. He assures me first thing Monday morning he will notify the tech of my findings. In the mean time I drop $800.00 bucks for a new Mac Mini to transfer my hard drive information into so I can finish my taxes in time. Manabu made me spending my money and getting the new unit effortless. Needless to say their customer service when you are spending money is excellent!

Sunday goes by, my mini works great and I get my taxes done. whew.

Now the horror of the story. By Monday afternoon I had not heard anything from the Mac Mechanic of Santa Barbara, so I stopped by. When I got there I asked about my computer and was told that they had rerun the tests, talked to Apple and the repair was not covered. THIS WAS A BLATANT LIE! Disappointed I asked to have my computer back and left quite disgruntled at Apple.

When I got home I read the repair diary of my computer with the MacMechanic, and unlike Friday where they notated everything that was done to the computer, Monday showed nothing except an entry at the exact moment I came in to pick up the computer saying customer came in to pick up computer.

Because of their records, I am positive I was lied to by the staff of the MacMechanic Monday afternoon and that no other work or tests had been performed towards resolving the issue with the Technical article TS2377 from Apple.

Now one of the great things of using a laptop with a second display is two displays. I was spoiled with this and had found out that the new Mac Mini is powerful enough to support two screens, even a 30″ display if so desired. So I went looking for another display. One of my stops was another authorized Apple reseller, Samy’s Camera on Chapala.

I went in, was greeted quickly, and asked how I could be helped. I told him I was looking for a display, preferably an older 20″ cinema display to match the one I already had. Well I guess the stars were shining on me that day, he had a used one on consignment and sold it to me for a very fair price.  Then the conversation got over to my MacBook Pro and how I was disgruntled with MacMechanic because they refused to repair the computer under the Apple Service Article parameters, heck they even refused to look it up!

Anyway that Monday I left the computer with them, and on Thursday I picked it up with a new logic board in it and working beautifully and zero, yes zero cost to me. Come to find out, it was the graphics card on the logic board that had failed and Apple was very willing to repair it under warranty.  I have since reformatted the computer, it is for sale and when I sell it, I will be looking for a MacBook Air for my travels, keeping the mini at home running two displays.

So Mac Mechanic employees, because of your lack of communication with each other, lieing to me because you did not want to check out the information I did the research on (which you should have done) you have lost a customer for life!  and to be truthful I hope you lose a few more because of this blog entry/article.

Hi everyone,

It is that time of year again.  Each year for the past five years I have sent this e-mail out at about the same time every year. You see I am asking for your support in a cause that is very near and dear to me.  The Aids Life Cycle, an event to raise not only money but awareness about AIDs and the HIV virus.  I am very lucky to not have this disease, but I am even more lucky to be healthy enough to help when I can.

So 5 years ago, I decided to become a volunteer on the Aids Life Cycle, where close to 3000 bicyclist and 500 volunteers transport themselves from San Francisco to Los Angeles over a 7 day period.  This will be my 6th year participating, and most definitely not my last since I have promised myself and others that I will help until either there is a cure, or I am unable to.

Let me make this a little more personal, so you can understand why this is so near to my heart.  14 years ago I was a practicing drug addict and alcoholic. On April 16th, 1995 I went to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous because I had hit my personal bottom and really did not want to go on anymore.  What happened at that meeting was amazing. I learned that there were others out there feeling the same thing I was. You see that meeting was a meeting of gay men who were alcoholics, and I had just found a home. To this day, I still take one day at a time and enjoy life being a sober member of society.

The leader of that meeting welcomed me, and made me feel comfortable. A hard task to do I might add.  His name was Andy. Andy was not only gay, and sober but also HIV positive. He had the courage, energy and love to take me under his care to show me how to be a gay man and be sober at the same time.  He helped me build a foundation of sobriety that keeps me clean and drug free each and every day.

A few years after I moved away from Los Angeles Andy passed away because of this horrible disease.  It was then I knew I had to try and help somehow. The Aids Life Cycle is how I help!

I know times are tough, but these events and people can not be forgotten. Even a dollar helps, but $100 helps even more.

Please help me raise a few dollars to help support those living with and those affected and effected by the HIV virus.  It is very simple, just follow this link to my page on the ALC website. http://www.davidbudlong.com/aidslifecycle . There you will find a large orange rectangular button that says “Donate to support David!” . Click on that button and follow the simple step by step instructions.

If I may suggest you do this now instead of waiting. If you are like me, I always forget to go back and take care of things. I find it easier and simpler to just do it now. Please go to http://www.davidbudlong.com/aidslifecycle now and make a donation now. It is tax deductible and really helps a lot of wonderful people.

Thank You.

David Budlong

P.S.  If you are not comfortable making a donation online, do not let that stop you!  Right now get your checkbook and an envelope.  Write the check payable to ALC (or Aids Life Cycle) and send it to me at:

David Budlong
30 Leslie Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93105-4120

Again, Thank you very much for your help and support.

You will make a difference!

David