Hello everyone! I come to you in my time of contest voting need once again. See that little widget to the right of this blog entry that says “Vote for Me”? Well I would be ever so grateful if you’d go ahead and click on that once today and once tomorrow….you can vote for me once a day till the end of October I believe.

What are you voting for me for, you may ask? It is for a competition for home-based businesses, in the category of “most glamorous” home based business. I think wedding photography totally qualifies, don’t you?

So thank you thank you in advance!

Time to announce the winner of my contest for Seth Godin’s new book, “Tribes”. And the winner is……*drumroll*

Greg Coats of Tres Bebe! Congrats Greg! Send me your address so I can get your prize in the mail. (alyssa@hybrid-photography.com)

- This Nike Commercial

How awesome is this commercial? Okay, maybe I’m slightly biased because I love LT, but really, it’s very well-done and I really enjoy it every time it comes on. And man oh man, that hit almost hurts every time I see it. lol

- The Tampa Bay Rays

Okay so really I don’t care one little bit about baseball, but I DO love an underdog, and really who is more of an underdog than the Rays? The Rays in the world series? Really? I think it’s fantastic and just goes to show that you don’t always have to be the biggest or most successful to win. The little guys really do have a chance.

Hello everyone! For this week’s Things I Love Thursday I will be sharing with you all something I love, and read every day, and that is Seth Godin’s blog. If you’re in business for yourself…and even if you’re not, I highly recommend reading he blog daily. It’s absolutely a wealth of marketing information.

And now for the contest! A few months ago, Seth announced his new book “Tribes” was going on presale and I ordered one right away.

Well Seth was so kind as to send a free early bird copy out last week to the early adopters in addition to the one we ordered. Yup, a free book to give to someone. Isn’t Seth the coolest? So here’s where the contest comes in.

Leave a comment below saying why you think you should get a free copy of Seth’s book and I will draw from everyone who responds. (No family allowed this time lol) I will announce the winner on next week’s Things I Love Thursdays, so make sure you get your comment in by midnight next Wednesday!

- Ryan Longwell

I would like to thank the Viking’s kicker Ryan Longwell for helping me win in my fantasy football league this week. I was 7.5 points behind going into Monday night’s game and I honestly wasn’t sure he could pull it off for me. But lo and behold, the Saints played REALLY badly and Longwell kicked me a 52 yarder that all but secured the victory for me. So thank you Ryan Longwell. You’re now my second favorite kicker behind Nate Kaeding. lol

- Wordle

This incredibly cool site called Wordle lets you input words or link to your blog or any website and it will make you some sweet word art. I made a really cool one by linking it to my blog the other day but I forgot to save it…I did print it out though and it’s hanging on my wall. Here’s another example from my blog verbiage:

title=”Wordle: sample”> src=”http://wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/235593/sample”
style=”padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd”>

- Pro Photo Thursdays

Pro Photo Thursdays (PPT) is a group I belong to of local photographers that gets together once a month (on Thursdays, obviously ) to talk shop, network, hang out, eat and share. Tonight’s time again for PPT and I’m very excited! I love this bunch of photographers and have a blast every time we all hang out. If you’re in the San Diego/So Cal area and not a member of PPT, contact me for the info and I’ll get it to you. It’s really been an invaluable resource for creative ideas and new relationships in photography. As Tim Sanders says in “Love is the Killer App”, “Your network is your net worth.”

- Chargers beating the Raiders

This is ALWAYS a good thing…I can’t even begin to describe my disdain for the Raiders. Phil had me worried for a bit there….but he got his game face back on and the 4th quarter ruled. Nate gave me quite a scare too….the best kicker (IMO) in the league missing two in one game? Totally ridiculous. I guess everyone has their off days though!

- My friends the Baxters of Ohana Photography

Really I love all of my photographer friends but the Baxters have been so kind to me letting me second shoot with them (really I like to just watch them do what they do!) so much this year so they get a super great awesome friends award. Every time I go shoot with them I’m in hysterics and have vast amounts of fun. Not to mention they are AMAZING at what they do. Really. Go look at their blog. Go ahead, I’ll wait…….see? What’d I tell you? So thank you dudes very much for being so rad to me. I love you guys!

- Sigur Ros – in concert!

Yeah! The day has finally come! Last night I got to see one of my all-time favorite bands live and in person. I can not even begin to describe how amazing they are. Seeing them live was probably the best experience of my life thus far. No kidding! There’s no way I can get across to you how amazing they were and the total experience of it all. In fact I was so enamored by them, I only took this one photo from my iPhone. lol

And I was only 5 rows back. WOW. If they ever come back, you KNOW I am so there, and I advise you to be also! Here’s a tiny sampling of what they are like live, but it totally doesn’t do them justice…