 My daughter hates me taking pictures of her and she is only 9 months old. How do I know she hates me? She screams at me and then turns her head. However, yesterday I picked up my Canon 7D and said to her who loves you more than daddy? Then I started to think... Yes blonde people think too just not as fast as other people do. ...I started this blog because of her (and my son) and have had some great moments writing for those that read. Here are my 10 favorite blog posts of 2011. 10. Anjali & Jai Day 1 -The day I started the blog.
9. Jaxon wins - Daddy & Anjali lose - My wife dissed my daughter and me so I wrote in the voice of a Newscaster to express my point. 8. You need to F***ing SHARE - I have been told I am selfish from the family. 7. Mother FOCA - A story of the day my son learned the word FOCA. 6. Crime Stoppers - Thank God I didn't get arrested from my son's screaming. 5. Doctor points me in the wrong direction - Bad doctor experience. 4. Colombiana - Colombian woman + attitude means one thing. 3. New Broadway Play - My son's new play called NO NO NO. 2. Occupy Sesame Street - A little fun on Occupy Wall Street. 1. Doritos - Crash The Super Bowl 2012 - My 2012 video submission for the Super bowl. Until 2012 Jai
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There are tons of ways to make money in 2012 and beyond. In fact, keep reading and I will share something I found on 101 ways to make more money. Legal money :) Fortunately, I have not had to work a 9 to 5 for many years because whenever I had a passionate idea about a project I made money with it. Sometimes I made great money and sometimes I made lunch money. Here are 5 ways I have made money and avoided working a 9 to 5 for so many years. 1. Salsa Dancing - Yes I am white and I made a full career of salsa dancing making tons of money. It all started with taking a class and the rest was passion that bordered obsession. Click Jai Catalano to see me in action. 2. Photography - I started training as a photographer (headshots) 4 years ago and 2011 proved to be my best year to date. My Canon 7D and I haven't been able to call it a full time career yet but it has been a great side business. Click Headshots NYC to check out my slideshow. 3. ESPN Commentator - Don't ask me how I got that job. Ok ask me? I went to the NY Salsa Congress and told the producer (Rob Beiner) that I would be the best lead commentator for his show (World Salsa Championships). Ironically, I had no idea what I was saying. 2 weeks later he called and said yes which made me realize I had to take my head out of my you know what and put my commentating where my mouth was. Click World Salsa Championships to hear me in action. 4. Real Estate - Actually landlording. Is that a word? I have been a landlord, either renting out a room or my house for nearly 20 years. When all is good being a landlord is a great and easy way to make money. However, when it is bad you just want to turn off their hot water :).
5. Blogging - Honestly I haven't made a lot of money blogging yet but I hope with hard work, new connections and the Yakezie Challenge that will one day change. Check out the Yakezie Challenge if you ever thought to start blogging. Want to find 101 ways to make more money? After joining the Yakezie Challenge I came acros a blogger named Derek Sall, who has a free ebook that you can download from his site. Yes it is free and a very fun and easy read. Yes I read the ebook even though I have 2 kids and a wife who demand all of my time and attention. And, I have to tell you that 75 out of the 101 ways to make more money I could actually see myself doing. Please check him out at www.lifeandmyfinances.com and tell him Jai sent you. Until tomorrow. Jai  I joined the Yakezie Challenge yesterday (pronounced YA-KAY-ZEE). Huh? I am sorry. Yakezie is the web's largest personal finance and lifestyle blog network. Some of the goals within the 6 month challenge are to achieve an Alexa ranking of 200K and to selflessly promote others while building a network of likeminded people. Personally I am ranking 4,985,251 and look forward to getting down to the 200k mark because it is lonely all the way up here. However, the selflessly promoting others goal is easy for me because after reading just 1 article I realized I found great info. Here is an article by Sandy from yesiamcheap.com that was a good realization for me as a blogger who would like to make more money blogging. If you would like to read more about Yakezie and the 6 month challenge please click the logo above. Think challenges are stupid... Other challenges that have worked for me in the past when I put my all into them.  I did P90X and look at the results. Sorry I only had a cellphone photo. Between me and you I wish I still looked like that. I did Ed Dale's Challenge. This allowed me to create a site called family weekend breaks and get my feet wet with internet marketing.
Well, I hope to give it my all to the Yakezie Challenge and I will check back with you and give you updates from time to time. Especially my Alexa ranking which sucks... 4,985,251 Until tomorrow Jai  10 Best Jai Moments Of 2011 I want to take a few moments to thank all of you who have read, commented and kept up with my fun and crazy blog. Blogging can be a lonely road but you make it all worth it. Plus it doesn't hurt to get paid from Google Adsense from time to time. In any event, here are some of my best moments that happened to me in 2011. 10. Doubling my adsense from 2010. Hold on to your seats. I made a whopping $331 in 2011 from ads. Hey last year I made a little more than $100 so not a bad jump in coffee money over the last 12 months.
9. Photographed the Zeta Tau Alpa initiation group photo. This was the 1st year that this 113 year old sorority joined forces with NYU and yours truly was the photographer. Don't tell my wife it's an all girls sorority. 8. Guest starred in the web-series Sound Advice with J Teddy Garces. This off the wall web-series will be making an appearance at a computer near you soon. 7. Placed 2nd for photo of the week by the Digital Photography School. The theme was fatherhood. Once you see the photo you will see why my tired ass was top 3 of over 70,000 subscribers. 6. Wrote, produced and acted in the film Perfect Excuses. Andre Hereford was the director and Melanie Torres was my co-star. The film will be submitted to several festivals in 2012 without any excuses no matter how perfect they are. 5. Finished The Challenge by Ed Dale. I was able to build a test site called Family Weekend Breaks and increase my Alexa ranking with my personal site www.jaicatalano.com. I am no Maurice Cox from Social Hype but I am pushing the competition over even if they are pushing me back. 4. Photographed Antony Bugg-Levine & Jed Emerson for their book Impact Investing. The book was published and is currently in stores and online now... and guess what??? My photos are on Amazon baby. Ok I am done bragging. 3. Filmed, directed, edited and submitted my Doritos Crash The Super Bowl 2012 video for a chance to win a million dollars and work with the Lonely Island Boys. My brother helped me film it and Vivian didn't yell at me for kicking them all out while I forced my kids to be in the video. 2. Won 1st place and $1000 for the web commercial I created for Secure Denture Adhesive. If my teeth fall out I know where to turn to. and my number one best moment of 2012... 1. The birth of my daughter. I can't say watching it was the best moment but she definitely wins. Until Tomorrow. Jai  On the way home last night my wife said let's take down the tree tomorrow. Wow... Is it all over? Every year it goes faster and faster but I guess that's what happens when you turn 21, 25, 29,... older. Anyway, I realized that times have changed and there are some things I will never buy my kids for Christmas. Below are the 6 Gifts My Kids Will Never Get For Christmas. 6. A typewriter
5. A house phone 4. VHS 3. A film camera 2. A walkman 1. Encyclopedia Notice how there are 6 and I said there were 5. Man I am blonde... and just as a bonus... because of technology my kids might never get another book. Imagine that. Until tomorrow. Jai (headshots nyc)  Click To Enlarge Photo Check out our Creative Family Christmas Cards My wife said yesterday's blog sounded angry. I was far from angry. I was just having a George Carlin moment with the word "think". If you don't know what I mean you can read it here but before you do please read it with a smile on your face and a bit of laughter in your heart. BULLSH*T-It's Not The Thought That Counts. And now... What we have all been waiting for. 10 Dirty Christmas Phrases that were meant to be clean. 10. You are right honey. It's a lot bigger than last year.
9. Those are some big balls. 8. Do you think Santa will come? 7. I wonder what's in Santa's sac. 6. I'll lift the skirt and you put it in. 5. I'll get on the ladder and you give it to me gently. 4. I usually suck the end first to make it pointy. 3. I can't tell if they are fake or real. 2. I love dark meat but I only eat white. And the No.1 Dirty Christmas Phrase that was meant to be clean: 1. To get it to stand up straight, grip it with both hands. Until Tomorrow. Jai  Click To Enlarge Photo I used to subscribe to the theory that it's the thought that counts because I was raised to think that very thought. But, one day I realized that I needed to rethink my thinking.
Let's face it... I don't always agree with people's thoughts. And, if they don't think about me the way I think they should think then who the hell thinks that I should be happy with their thoughtfulness around the holidays? Yes, I agree that some people's thoughts are well thought out BUT, those are the thinkers that think like me and put me in a more thoughtful position to think harder about them around the time of year we should really share our thoughtfulness. But for those who don't think like me and share the thoughts I think can't really think of how to show thoughtfulness to a thoughtful person like myself. And for those people I say BULLS*T. It's not the thought that counts because that thought doesn't coincide with my thoughts which ultimately makes me think to say take your unthoughtful thoughts back and do some rethinking. What do you think? Until tomorrow. Jai (headshots NYC - Family Weekend Breaks)  Saturday morning I found out that I own an American Standard toilet model number C632 2004-1 compliments of a little gift called a stomach virus from my kids. Now for the most part you might think it's all bad news when you have a stomach virus but let me tell you the 5 benefits of being sick when you have kids.
1. You don't have to take care of the kids. 2. You lose 4 to 6 unwanted pounds. 3. You can whine and get away with it. 4. You get waited on hand and foot. and my favorite... 5. You get a rub down. Until tomorrow. Jai headshots nyc family weekend breaks  My son decided to give himself a fever and cancel all of my work plans today so I have embraced the moment by playing mom and caring for my little boy. As I watch him sleep I can't help but be moved by the fact that the troops in Iraq are coming home.
To all of those families who have their loved ones coming home and to all of the families in Iraq that are looking forward to a world without war I am so happy for you. Happy Holidays to you all. Jai Please take a look at Andrea Bruce's portraits of everyday Iraqi people featured in the NY Times.  Although we have decided to not take anymore Family Weekend Breaks this year, we did decide to go through Santaland in Macy's. Boy was that the most fun I have had with the family all year round. There is something about spending $35 for one photo after waiting in a hot 2 hour line with tons of winter clothing on while sardined with hundreds of screaming children that makes me a happier man.
Before you take a look at the results (click the photo to enlarge) let me point out 8 facts or questions so I can enhance your laughter. 1. Santa lost 176lbs. 2. The beard is from Beard club for Santas. 3. Who the hell am I looking at? 4. What the hell am I thinking? 5. Is my wife really that happy in life? 6. Secretly we all wanted to join my son in a good cry. 7. I paid extra to have the photographer take the photo off center. and lastly... 8. Is Santa inappropriately placing his hand on my daughter? I hope you enjoyed as much as we all did. If you want to see more Santa Photos Gone Wrong click the link from the Ellen Show. Jai |
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Jai CatalanoThere are 3 things I can't change... my 2 kids, my 1 wife and my 0 rights. Archives
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JAI CATALANO - Photographer | Videographer | Editor
973.715.0018 | New York, NY | Morristown, NJ
973.715.0018 | New York, NY | Morristown, NJ
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