A few days ago I was contacted in regards to whether or not I would be interested in joining Forbes’ upcoming financial and business blog network. I honestly thought this was just some spam mail at first. It did prove to be a real offer though.

After reading through the proposed plan, I felt that it sounded like a great opportunity that could possibly provide some new experiences while opening up new doors. Generally speaking, they are going to publish snippets from my blog on their site and I will incorporate some materials here as see fit.

It basically sounded like they are trying to facilitate a network of individuals to establish a broad range of different voices and opinions when it comes to business and financial issues. Sounded like fun to me. On top of that, I don’t really have to change anything in terms of what I am already doing. The blog design will be adjusted a little for aesthetic sakes to accommodate some new things.

So, I did end up signing an agreement with them. It will take me awhile to plan and organize everything at this time, but this should be an interesting journey.

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Earlier this week it was revealed on what the 2010 Olympic mascots here in Vancouver will look like as you can see below:

Its names are Quatchi, Miga and Sumi. From what I read, the initial goal was to make the mascots neutral so that both a child and adult could easily recognize or relate to. I personally feel the design leans more towards a playful direction that is more catered to a young spirited audience as oppose to something that is more neutral. Just for the record, in general I personally don’t mind designs that are stylized and playful.

I know the more conservative crowd here seem to be more critical with comments such as how they don’t believe these mascots do anything in terms of representing the city symbolically or that the style is “hideous”. That is sure not stopping anything from a business end though from what I see as people are already buying merchandises for memorabilia sakes.

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When it comes to financial and materialistic gains in business, it still surprises me on how one can constantly take things from others without giving back in some way. There was one conversation I had with a person who wanted help for commercial reasons without having to pay anything as according to him it should be a very easy thing to do anyways.

From my experience, it never turns out too well when a person keeps asking you to do things for them knowing well that you lose money in the process. Of course that is not to say that you should always expect something in return if you are doing a good deed. Generally speaking though, anyone that constantly asks for something without giving back are usually the first ones to look the other way if the situation was reversed too.

With that in mind, sometimes it just makes more sense not to excessively surround yourself with those types of personalities both from a business and personal stance. There is a difference between doing a good deed and being taken advantage of.

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When I arrived at home yesterday I noticed that there was this piece of mail addressed to me and the return address indicated that it was from Donald Trump from New York City. No, I did not think it was written from him directly at first as the obvious giveaway was that the postage stamp was a Canadian one. It was kind of interesting that my name and address looked like it was manually written with a pen though as you can see here if this was simply a mass solicitation. Then again, upon closer inspection it could have been from a printer:

Upon opening the envelope, it appears that there is some kind of event happening here in Vancouver on December 1st where Donald Trump and a few other famous names will be conducting some kind of financial conference to teach people on how to make and manage money. The event is called the Learning Annex, which I think was referenced in one of The Apprentice episodes before.

The contents indicated that this was a special invite. It’s kind of hard not to be a little skeptical over this as I’m sure a lot of other people probably got the exact same piece of mail. This is what the special guest tickets looked like:

It goes on to say how this is suppose to be a VIP type of ticket that normally costs money and that sort of deal. At the same time, it says that I would get a free copy of one of Trump’s book titled “Trump – Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life” and that the event runs from about 8am to 6:30pm.

As crazy as it may sound, I think I’ll attend mainly for the experience. I’m fully aware too of the possibilities that it could end up as basically some kind of event to get people to buy various tools and books as well. Could be an interesting thing to blog about after and I’ll probably take some pictures and videos of the event. All I can say for now is that the event organizers must be paying Trump a lot of money to make appearances like this. For a little fine print too, it does say “Donald will be here recorded live” which can mean different things depending on how you look at it.

Now let’s see if I can find anyone to go with.

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Today I received a $20 off coupon in the mail from Staples for purchases of $200 or more. The coupon expires on December 11 of this year and I personally don’t have any need to spend $200 in order to save $20.

It usually does feel like a wasteful thing though to not use it. What I usually try to do as well is give it away to people and vice versa they would do the same for any discount offers that they won’t be using. May as well help someone else to save money. If anyone has a need for this coupon, simply contact me and I’ll give you the code for it. There is only one coupon code just for the record.

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