Officially A 50Cent Fan…

Today, I became a member of www.thisis50.com, and I’m dang-proud of that.

I wasn’t much of a 50cent fan, but I am now.

“The thing that separates Thisis50 from MySpace is we control the e-mail database,” said Chris “Broadway” Romero, director for new media at G-Unit Records.

 All hail the 50.

As of my membership signup, I was member 171,532 (I’m assuming that this number represents the running total of members that have signed up). Given this number, I don’t think that 50Cent is out to compete with MySpace or Facebook just yet, but I am all for the toppling of the cultural hegemony that both of those social networking leaders have produced.

I’m not going out and purchasing every 50Cent record he has made just yet (although, “This Is How We Do” is still one-bangin’ track), and I’m certainly not supporting his gangster past-life. I do think, though, that the most gangster thing that he has ever done is the creation of ThisIs50.com.

Now, 50Cent is fighting the biggest fight of his life. No, not with 9mm “gats” or by taking bullets to his face. Instead, he is up against some of the biggest “gangs” on our cyberplanet: MySpace and Facebook.

For the sake of an online community where every demographic has a voice and a space, I say to 50, “you’ve got my back.”

 

Poli-nomics for the Week Ending March 14, 2008

Let me begin with the, “I Am Nots”:

I am not a democrat. I am not even a fan of ex-Republican presidential nominee Mike Huckabee, but he said something very enlightening this week during an interview in which he announed his interest in not seeming disinterested in a potential VP offer from our next president, Senator John McCain. He beckoned voter sympathy along the topics of “government interference or government intervention.” Forsooth a rally cry.

Democrats next.

Eliot Spitzer. Number 9? Nothing which surfaced to the public this week regarding Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with a call girl, should choke the life out of the many accomplishments this man has attained over the course of his 49-year life. His role in the 2003 mutual-fund scandal was one of paramount importance which reminded the big boys over on Wall Street that law and order still rule their arenas. This was his greatest triumph and one definitely worthy of being noted. We can’t expect an enforcer of financial law to enforce the law across all spectrums. This is why we have many veins within the practice of law, to include medical, corporate, criminal, on and so forth. Let Mr. Spitzer ride out the wave of media attention for another couple of days. All will  be forgotten in the history books except the importance of Mr. Spitzer’s role in the 2003 mutual-fund scandal. Bar none.

Again, I am not a democrat. I would, however like to send a big thank you to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton for stimulating a once-dormant U.S. voter base. It has reminded the blacks, latinos, women, and young people of America of the importance of all percentages.

The voice is once again audible.

Signed,

AuxElmer

auxelmer.wordpress.com

www.syn-biosis.com

Globalized Small Businesses?

  Thank you, FedEx. Thank you, UPS. But above all, thank you to the Internet users that have beckoned the lucrative U.S. and Global consumers.The exact mathematics of the Internet and how we are where we are is a subject beyond this blog. The fact remains, our Internet has opened doors to many new avenues leading down to Main Street, and Cosmo Avenue as well.I know, all that’s been said before. My concern is for small businesses. Many, SBOs (small business owners) have argued  that the high overhead costs involved with stepping into an economy in which Laffer, GDP and other National trends, curves, and statistics are not the only players, are making the SBO model a thing of the past.

[Enter "The World Stage"]

While those very SBO’s arguments are credible, my advise to them is to shift their accounting forecasts to include the higher overhead, yes, but to also invest their Small Business portfolios into what I like to call, “Creative Ventures.” Every Small Business needs to invest time and monetary resources into this ever-demanding account. I’m not exactly sure about the tax benefits of creating such an account within your Liabilities (but I can look into that).In this, and through this creative ventures account, an SBO can begin to hedge his/her higher overhead with the prospect of growing above a break-even point. Above all, if the cost-to-benefit ratio of this creative ventures account is on the side of the consumer, lo and behold the small business model of the past will begin to shift on a macro-national, and international, level.

Signed,

auxElmer

auxelmer.wordpress.com

www.syn-biosis.com

City of San Fernando & Gentrification

Who has been  in the House of Brews and contemplated the decrepit Aztec Theater and wondered “what’s become of the local culture?”  It has become something different from what many of us grew up in, but that’s not to say it’s negative. I’d say gentrification has brought new life to this once dormant, if not stagnant town.

I set up a firm of creative planning and development for small-to-medium sized businesses, in a city of third-fourth-and-fifth generation Latinos. I am not speaking condescendingly upon the past, but attempting to illuminate the vision of the city’s leaders.

The view of the City of San Fernando, of twenty-four-thousand inhabitants is a city on the cusp of gentrification. One among many cities experiencing this introduction of creative assets being bred into the more-established local economy. Ideas becoming brick, yet brick becoming malleable. A new brick. A new idea.

Progress, maybe. Aesthetic improvement, surely.

Neighborhoods of Brick, No More

On the Need to Move Away from Brick and Mortar:

Virtual might be a bit pretentious. The virtual world that was presented to this generation (via vehicles like The Jetsons, and Back to the Future), is a world not in reach. Not because we can’t imagine it. Rather, due to our conceptualization of a world “above” virtual.

[Enter Web 2.0]

Enter web 2.0, with promises of oxymoronical truths parallel to those of blake. “Weep, Weep,” paradigm of old. Thus, we have entered into the ring.

Our neighborhoods are much too crowded. Our world is now far and wide.

,auxelmer