How to Make California Maki

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgbrh_2xU-4&hl=en

Jo's Kitchen 101 : California Maki

I wanted to do something new for the New Year since I felt I was being lazy during the holidays. Made this video especially for Mars, so dear if you're watching this haha then watch. To the people out there, this is the first time in a long time that I made California Maki, and as evidenced, my knife was either not sharp enough or the rice was just too sticky.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbKHpCyUdrI&hl=en

Roll Up Trade Show Displays Are Great For Board Meetings

Ever gone into a board meeting, not quite sure what or how to get you're point across? Or knowing fully well, you weren't quite sure how to capture your vision and sell your marketing strategy. Ever felt that sinking feeling, after getting rejected by the board members? Don't you feel there should have been a better representation of your ideas; something to show for all those hours you spent pondering over ad campaigns and marketing plans? Role up trade show displays are the answer to all those problems.

Wouldn't it be great having a streamer image in front of you to illustrate and showoff your next ingenious and money making idea? Here at the San Diego Graphics Company, we offer all kinds of roll up displays, whether they are for trade shows, comic book conventions, presentations, shops, buildings, hotels or even travel agencies.

Roll up displays are easy to carry, portable and light weight. This means, you won't have to hire freight carriers or moving vans to transport your business projects from place to place. You can just carry your roll up banner along with you wherever you go, saving money on all those unnecessary transport charges.

They're extremely simple to use. They don't require any sort of tools or setting up gear. It takes hardly a minute to set them up and they're ready to roll. We at the San Diego Graphics Company will also provide you with a handy carry case for transporting it wherever you would like to.

If you're not sure about what kind of style you would like, we provide a wide range of graphic designs to choose from. We make your custom designs, just the way you want them, not compromising on quality. Our service will always deliver you your roll up display on time.

Another great feature about our roll up trade show displays is that you can change the graphics but use the same hardware required for the banner. This is a good cost cutting method of using roll up displays for multiple meetings.

Here at the San Diego Graphics Company, we make Roll Up trade show displays on low priced, cheap rates but at the same time making sure we're not compromising on quality. The billed amount will include, charges for the hardware involved, the printed artwork done. Roll up banners come in three different types. The regular single sided roll up banners cost around $550 dollars, with the hardware priced at $200 and the rest charged for printing. The double sided roll up banners which are more frequently used these days, if you really want to impress your boss and fellow board members, are priced at around $750, of which $500 charged for the printing. The San Diego Graphics Company brings to you an extra large roll up banner for those really important life changing board meetings. They cost an estimate of $725, cheaper than the double sized roll up banners. These banners come in sizes, 33.5" x 80", 33.5" x 78" and 47" x 80" respectively.

So the next time you have an important board meeting, the San Diego Graphics Company is at your service.

All You Can Eat Sushi Buffet at Tomokazu Japanese Restaurant (Vancouver, Canada)

Tomokazu Japanese Restaurant 201-1128 West Broadway Vancouver, BC, Canada phone 604-677-0426 As featured on dineouthere.com: www.dineouthere.com "all you can eat" sushi buffet Here are the dishes and items featured in the video: wasabi (Japanese horseradish) green tea chopsticks ebi sunomono (shrimp and vermicelli salad) tuna tataki (cooked on outside) spinach gomae (with sesame paste) miso soup raw oysters (kaki pon) assorted sashimi (raw fish) tuna and salmon spicy salmon sashimi salmon teriyaki agedashi tofu oyster motoyaki (baked) prawn tempura nigiri sushi maki sushi (rolls) Alaska roll California roll (very popular) BC Roll (salmon + skin) futomaki + seafood cones yam tempura roll chopped scallop cones Abalone sushi (rare) Cost of meal was around $22 CAD per person. Video and editing by Geoff Peters Closing music by Geoff Peters Band (Live Jazz band in Vancouver, BC, Canada). Jazz band web site: www.gpeters.com



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlyVX0AMQ9s&hl=en

Market Concept Testing - Guerrilla Style

Marketing of new products and services is vital to most businesses. Many companies are unaware that fast, cost-insurgency techniques to test market concept can be easily replaced laborious research, saves time and money in the process.

A simple model of strategic thinking

In order to test a new concept to market, you need one, right? Use this simple drag, intuitive model approach to understand the market dynamics that will be considered.At first you simply work through the model applying what you already know or strongly suspect is true about the market. Then you go back and support each and every assumption you're holding with market data.

- What are the trends in my industry?
- What's driving these trends?
- What are we currently doing about the trends?
- What are our competitors doing about the trends?
- What could we be doing about the trends to increase our profits?

During this process you're squarely in the analytical phase of marketing. You're creating ties between your idea and a market that will welcome or reject it. Do your work carefully at this stage or you'll wind up with every marketer's nightmare...a product or service that's an answer to a question nobody's asked!

Collecting Unbiased Customer Data
There are a couple of ways to approach this task. It's recommended that you use both methods so that your information will be balanced between primary (straight from the client) and secondary (Expert Opinion). The goal here is to understand clearly your WOW! and how do you prove it.

The first thing to understand what (and many marketers) is that enterprise is a social process. This means that to do so successfully, you will spend most of the time dialogue with people ... not noodling around on the Internet. If the thought of you this fear resulted in good company. Most people do not taste, but conversations with strangersbite successful people in almost all professions only the bullet and do it in any way.

Step 1: The Internet section
For a bridgehead, and not a double effort, spend about 10% of the time you have allocated for this research project the Internet. The goal is to provide a basic understanding of available information on the latest offers and replaced in gaining market space. We want to understand the marketing and sales channels. In particular, you should knowsubstitute choices your prospects could make instead of buying your product. It's good to look at the whole chessboard, not just the squares immediately surrounding your next-move.

At this stage we're looking for available industry reports and similar expert analysis of:

• What are the trends in my industry?
• What's driving these trends?
• What are our competitors doing about the trends?

You'll find out what's available by doing these searches:

1. [industry name] or [product/service] or [major competitor], financial analysts
2. [industry name] or [product/service] or [major competitor], market research
3. [industry name] or [product/service] or [major competitor], Hoover's
4. [industry name] or [product/service] or [major competitor], [name of local newspaper]
5. [industry name] or [product/service] or [major competitor], business news
6. [industry name] or [product/service] or [major competitor], Industry News
Seventh [] The name of the industrial product or [/] services and [] main competitor, industry experts
8th Query were similar to your favorite social media where such information is not received by search engines.

If something has been written on, pod casts, YouTube'd, tweeted, blogs or discussion at a conference, you can find with this research. Viewpoints, to find and put each piece of key information in the model's five-point strategy planning, weusing. Now you'll see a shape starting to form around your strategy model.

Step 2: Create A Discussion Guideline
This is what you will use as a guideline in talking with potential purchasers of your market concept. In essence this is the heart and soul of your project. The care and accuracy you put into this step will determine whether your market concept test results are accurate.

These are the objectives:

1. Understand whether your WOW! is really a WOW!
2. Understand Industry trends and purchasing related to your concept of market ... and what is driving these trends.
Ask a third view on growth opportunities for your company or department.

We recommend structuring your guide so that the results in a discussion. People tend to relax and talk more freely about your approach to the market, and alternatives if you're not reading the questions in the letter as a market study. Sketch of five key areas of information. Thiscould include:

• What do you think of the concept I presented?
• them to steer in the direction of their thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages.
• Ask them what is even better.
• What are the substitutes or alternatives to do-it-yourself-and in-house solution?
• How, when and where you'd like to receive information on new products and services like these?
• Digital
• traditional (print ads, trade shows, sales,etc.)
• Colleagues, Friends & Family
• Where and how you'd like something like this concept acquire market?
• Steer them toward what is now the perfect place for them, not only when alternatives are available.
• Check any competitive advantage they can get you're looking for.
• concepts would influence how funding for their purchase decision?
• Who is the final decision maker and who else is involved in a purchase decision? Refer to noteson complex sales and remember that large consumer purchases can often involve multiple decision makers and influencers.

It is critical that you not approach this exercise with pre-conceived notions of what your company can or can't do. You simply want to visualize the best possible purchasing scenario for your new market concept. You can parse internal strengths and weaknesses later. Do not base a go/no-go decision on your weaknesses!

You may think of many other categories of Questions. Remember that most people have limited time with them for 15-30 minutes so as to maintain the low number of categories, and focus on going deep in each category. You can always change in different categories of subsequent discussions with various people. Even after three or four calls, you have a much clearer idea of which categories of information are most suitable for your purposes.

Step 3: Create a list of potential customers
The next one will interact directly with your market.This is a hugely valuable exercise for product managers, marketing managers and marketing leaders. You'll learn more about your market concept in a day of doing this than just about anything else you might choose to do, including conjoint analysis and focus groups.

The objectives for this stage are:

• understand who holds the knowledge you need
• understand the role each influencer will play in a complex sale
• understand where, when, how and from whom they get their Decision-influencing information

People should keep talking to one or more of the following roles:

• Decision makers
• Influence
• Approver
• User
• Deal Killer

Some products and services, including consumer goods and B2B products cost less than $ 1,000, you'll just talk to decision makers. For most other products and services to decision-makers and one or more other types of buyers will speak. IfYou do not know the mechanics of a complex sale you need a pause up to reach the project. Just do a search on a "complex sale" and you'll find what you need to know. This is critical for B2B and high-end or more consumer goods and complex services.

Your goal is to at least 100 people who have a direct influence on the purchase of this speech for you free market approach. If you try an approach to consumption (eg tax software are preparing to start)Speaking with people in your circle of influence even friends, family, colleagues and professional contacts. Qualify your research participants, who prepares his taxes and, if a product based software is used. Once the list and their phone numbers you're ready to go to Step 3.

If you test a concept of a B2B market directly to companies that are selling your products or services. Might have some contactthese companies, but spends most of his time talking to people who do not know. Be careful on your mission and never dressed like a student seeking a thesis or project. Just be yourself and describe what you do, honest.

If you start to "cold call" a society where you can get a foothold. If your market approach is a desire new and better alternative to traditional enterprise resource planning systems in manufacturing companies of medium size, most likelytalking to people in logistics, purchasing, operations and accounting. Go to the company's website and list the names of key people in those functions if they're identified. Then call the main number or department number, if listed, and ask to speak to that person. You may get through or you may not. Regardless of whom you talk with, even if it's the main switchboard operator, just give him/her your 25 word elevator pitch on what you're doing and ask who they'd recommend speaking with.

You will find that after calling three or four companies your comfort level will rise dramatically and you'll start getting through more often to people who have the information you need.

Summary
This sounds like odd work for marketing people doesn't it? However the advantages of this approach are many.

First, it gets marketing people immersed in the marketplace. This is far better than the superficial practice of having marketing people shadow a sales person for a day or two once a year.

Secondly, there are marketing people have an affinity for the role of the sales team. It helps you understand your own, so that in turn can work with vendors to develop strategies to overcome resistance and denial.

Thirdly, there are people still trust marketing and much more enthusiasm for the introduction of new concepts if they found the market dynamics and customer habits and practices. This confidence is spreading to other sectors of society,giving the marketing and product teams more support than they would have otherwise.

So yes, it's a truly different approach but it's highly effective and takes a lot less time and money than traditional market research.

Case Study
A startup company in California has a new market concept for virus protection solutions for iApp (applets for Apple's iPhones) vendors. This startup is reluctant to spend $50-100K on formal market research so they've decided to do the project in-house.

They plan to assess the current competitive landscape for iApp virus protection by:
• Conducting a search for iApp virus protection vendors, if any
• Interviewing a small number of current iApp creators
o Do the trends they're seeing suggest a market opportunity for our concept?
o What do they know about current solutions on the market?
o How would our offering solve a current problem or pain point better than other offerings?
o What would they pay to solve that problem or pain point?
o What level of disruption or complexity can the organization handle for installation and testing?

Next, the startup will assess current substitutes for their concept. They'll do this by conducting a search and gathering product specifications, distribution models and other key information for each of their potential competitors. Some of this information they will already have from collecting customer data from the internet and other resources they be used. The rest must go after the same techniques used to collect information. These are some possible results from their efforts:

• The new concept of market adjustments would feature
• The new market-oriented approach would only IAPP Creator
• Do not lean heavily on digital marketing, rather than traditional marketing
• payment of a utility pricing model (as used) that would be a strategic advantage
• Onewould guarantee them a strategic advantage
• acquisitions would not be a source of competitive advantage in the near future

The team now has enough information to make a go or no-go decision. If there is a "go" The next step is to make sure there are a lot of money in the bank or come in to finance the development and marketing. Before software programmers to create in step, but the team has a marketing requirements document and a process for commercial release to ensure that theyrun out of money before sales revenue kicks in.

California cycle (uramaki) formed with easy-sushi

California roll made with easy-sushi, the ultimate sushi machine.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgsUkY9Om-A&hl=en

The Fiscal Crisis in California

California's financial problems have been front and center in the media of late. This month, its credit rating was cut to the low end of investment grade. Facing insolvency, Governor Schwarzenegger and legislators have undertaken drastic action - selling off state assets, cutting the state's university budget by 20 percent and releasing 27,000 inmates from prison. Already the state has given mandatory furloughs of three days a month to its 243,000 state employees. What is the impact on California's crisis on the rest of the nation? What about the state's municipal bondholders? Will Washington DC have to bail out the nation's largest state? This edition of the newsletter will examine these questions and try to provide some helpful guidance.

Current State of Affairs

California now carries the lowest credit rating of the fifty states. In the current fiscal year of 2009-2010, its budget deficit was expected to be $24 to $28 billion. This is what prompted the recent marathon session of the state legislature. The state's general fund budget is about $100 billion. The prospective deficit was large both in absolute and in relative terms.

As recently as Fiscal 1998-99, the state's budget was in balance. A number of reasons have been put forth to explain the state's ensuing misfortune. All have some merit.

The state's tax structure is a contributory factor. Voters approved proposition 13 some 30 years ago placing severe limits on property tax increases. Consequently, the state has come to rely more and more on its rather large income tax. Unlike property taxes, income tax receipts tend to follow a boom and bust cycle along with the economy. During the good times, political pressure is applied by the state's powerful special interests to ramp up benefits. During bad times, there is less wiggle room to reduce expenditures as revenues plummet.

Case in point: California's state legislature passed SB 400 in 1999 that increased the pensions of state police officers by 50%! The same bill substantially upgraded the pensions and survivor benefits of other state employee Now, ten years later, the governor tried unsuccessfully to roll pension benefits to pre 1999 levels back for new hires.

The state's constitution has been an impediment to fiscal responsibility. One problem is the requirement that a two-thirds vote of the California legislature is needed to pass the state's budget and tax increases. There are only a handful of states that require a supermajority. Another problem with California law is the reliance on ballot initiatives to amend its constitution or statutes. These have become ubiquitous in recent years and are typically referred to as "propositions". Not surprisingly, the popular vote has consistently supported an expansion of services without a commensurate increase in taxes. Direct democracy sounds good in theory but its practice invites deficit spending.

On July 20th, lawmakers approved a budget plan that should close the deficit this fiscal year. It includes spending cuts amounting to 60% of the deficit with the balance financed with short term debt. While some of the cuts were accomplished with accounting gimmicks, most of the state's residents will be impacted by either a reduction in services or an increase in user fees.

California's Municipal Bonds

For municipal bondholders, the events of the past several months have raised troubling questions. Could the state of California default on its debt and what would the spillover effects on local California bonds be?

The good news is that California's bondholders are actually senior creditors. Proposition 98, passed in 1988, mandated that the state allocate 40 percent of its general fund to public elementary and high schools as well as community colleges. Roughly another 5% of education spending is also guaranteed by the state's constitution. This commitment is senior to the claims of bondholders. However, the state's bondholders are next in line. Today payments to those bondholders account for another 5% of the general fund as there are about $59 billion outstanding. Below the bondholders contributions. Some very key stakeholders must suffer before the state fails to pay its debt service. Unlike corporations or municipalities, the states cannot file for bankruptcy in an attempt to reorganize their debt obligations. Moreover, California needs continuous unfettered access to the credit markets to fund ongoing infrastructure projects and to cover short term seasonal cash flows.

What about the spillover effect on local issuers of tax-exempt bonds within California? Different local jurisdictions have varying levels of reliance on state funding. School districts and counties are among the most dependent. Most general obligation bonds are secured by local property taxes - a source of revenue that is comparatively stable. While municipalities can declare bankruptcy, they have been loathe to do. The relevant precedents indicate that bondholders are made whole regardless of the financial woe of the local issuer. Orange County CA filed for bankruptcy in 1994 but did not miss any bond payments. The City of Vallejo CA filed for bankruptcy more recently but has thus far continued to service its debt.

In fact, the default rates nationwide for municipal bonds are extremely low. According to Moody's, the default rate has averaged 0.01% per year since 1970. The average recovery rate for defaulted muni bonds was 60% compared to 40% for corporate bonds. And even during the Great Depression, the average annual default rate was 1.8%, with 97% of the defaulted principal eventually recovered.

There are additional risk factors today. Unfunded pension liabilities and infrastructure projects place a greater strain on state and local governments. However, most tax-exempt bonds are fairly senior in the credit structure of the issuer. And access to credit is essential for any public enterprise.

Bond markets have long memories. Any government defaulting on its debt would lose access to the capital markets for years. And, even then, the credit rating of its next issue would be so low that heightened borrowing costs would swamp any short term relief offered by reneging on payments in a time of crisis.

A Federal Bailout?

Governor Schwarzenegger has spent a good deal of time in Washington DC in 2009. There has been speculation that the Federal Government will bail out its largest state. In fact, Washington DC has already gone a long way to shore up the state and local bond markets. Of the nearly $800 billion federal stimulus money authorized in February 2009, about $135 billion was earmarked for the municipal bond issuers. The state of California has received at least $6 billion in direct transfers from Washington under the stimulus.

That same stimulus package authorized municipal issuers to issue "Build America Bonds" (BABs) to repair infrastructure. The federally taxable bonds offer a subsidy to issuers of 35 percent on their interest costs. Effectively, this program opens up municipal finance to potential investors that are already tax-exempt - thereby adding a new set of lenders to troubled local borrowers.

Federal tax dollars are hard at work today in supporting the finances of municipal issuers. But that is different rom an explicit bailout of a sovereign state. No state has defaulted in modern times. It's hard to imagine the consequences of default in today's credit markets.

One major consideration of any effort directed towards California is the potential domino effect on other state governments. California is hardly alone. A report from the National Conference on State Legislatures says that, collectively, states faced $142.6 billion in deficits for the 2009-10 fiscal year and many already are seeing signs that the total could grow.

There is a moral hazard to any federal bailout of California. Where does it stop? Wouldn't every state and municipality cut corners to deliver services to its constituents if it knew that the Federal Reserve would print the money to rescue it? California may facing similar travails a year from now. It will be interesting to see what measures, if any, Washington DC offers.