www.iPedro.com

Fun Deconstruction

iPedro — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:30:00 +0000

Tonight my buddy Rob who's opening a new Krav Maga martial arts school on Dundas + Dovercourt invited me over to the location where he's setting up his school.

I showed up and he was tearing down some walls, meticulously unscrewing screws, hammering out drywall.
I was looking for an outlet for all my built up nervous energy so I took a different approach: Running into walls, side kicking, ramming 2x4's into them. Anything went, just as long as it was noisy and involved flying dry wall shrapnel.

The most fun I've had in a while!

I'm committed to training at the school at least three times a week starting in mid March when it officially opens for business. I've been meaning to train in martial arts since I was a child and the opportunity finally presented itself.

Pedro, martial artist... I can get used to the idea.

Obama for President ... of the World

iPedro — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:58:00 +0000

This man is going to change the world. In an era of partisan politics where a President represents only those who voted for him, Barack Obama is a refreshing candidate. (The spell checker doesn't recognize either "Barack" or "Obama"... that'll change after November 2008).

Here's a video put together by Hollywood, inspired enough to give a damn in the upcoming election.

In Canada we're living through the same: our Prime Minister represents the conservative elite who voted for him and blatantly ignores the remaining 49% of the electorate. Where's our Barack Obama?

Blue Mountain Escape

iPedro — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:08:00 +0000

I'm on the slopes of Blue Mountain overlooking the village from high up on a hill. The sun is barely piercing through the light blizzard. One moment it's sunny, the next it's gloomy.

I find my mood changing with it. I came here to de-stress but all I can think about are those four major stories currently playing out in my life.
I can see a very successful professional life just ahead but somehow I feel that the wrong decision might steer me away from it.
I'm facing decisions now and who knows which is wrong or which is right. Which way to go?

I guess all I can do is put on my amber coloured goggles, point my board down hill and make decisions as I go along. We'll see where the mountain takes me.
Pedro Marques
Marqx Creative Communications

This e-mail was sent via BlackBerry

Need to Unwind

iPedro — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:41:00 +0000

It's nearly 3am and I'm wide awake, full of energy and having an unusual desire to snow board.

This week has been a non stop cerebral thunderstorm. I'm pumping out ideas faster than wheety O's at a Cheerios factory.

With so many potential money makers and career advancers hanging out right in front of me, it's difficult to not be in a constant state of epiphany.

I'm giving in to my desire to go snowboarding. It'll be good to burn off all this energy in the morning. I booked my car and off I go on the 3 hours trek to Blue Mountain tomorrow.

Back to Blogging

iPedro — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:32:00 +0000

So I'm back to blogging. I need an outlet for all the heat that I've been generating through burning all this creative and productive energy in the last year.

Four major developments have occurred in my life:

1 - I've finally moved on to 100% self employment. My company has gotten off to a good start and things are really ramping up lately. Marqx Creative Communications has spawned off an entertainment photography company: TdotSPOT. More to come later on...

2 - I discovered that my high expectations in finding the woman I want to be with can indeed be met! My ideal woman does exist and just like exoplanets which were initially thought to be rare, these are in fact plentiful. I found her but as it turns out, women are really as complicated as legend has it.
I found a woman who shares similar goals, who's independently ambitious, who's optimistic and who lives a positive life.
We instantly connected which led to a rapid series of events that took us full circle from being crazy for one another to realizing that the exact same recipe of ingredients that attracted us to one another also made us incompatible (for now). Dedicating time to another person interferes with our ambitious and goal oriented nature.

3 - I found the perfect loft! However, I'm not prepared just yet to make the big move. Luckily, the characteristics that I love so much in this loft can be found throughout the city in other lofts.
I'm now looking to move into a loft in 2008 and make it both my home and my photo studio. Within the coming months, I'll be setting the conditions for home ownership and then putting down an offer on a loft by June '08.

4 - Ever since moving out on my own, I've been dealing with a pestering procrastination problem which has grown into an outright health disorder. My childhood Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has been resurfacing as Compulsive Avoidance (chronic procrastination).
I've seen health professionals and have even been coerced into taking medication, but my true diagnosis came as a result of many years of self examination and getting to know myself.
I've realized that by avoiding certain states of mind, I can avert my compulsive avoidance.
• Hunger
• Tiredness
• Anger
• Loneliness
Either one of these four, with a large emphasis on the last, trigger an almost zombie like state of mind impeding me from being productive. In fact, I can spend an entire day thinking of doing something but getting nothing done at all.
The next step is learning how to automatically change direction after falling into one of those states. It won't be easy, but at least I know what I need to do.

Each of these points deserve a blog post of their own and they'll probably be addressed again in upcoming posts.

In a single post though, that's what's been going on in my life for the last year or so. I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts here more frequently from now on.

Marqx Full Time

iPedro — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:36:00 +0000

I did it... I finally did it. I took the scary step of dumping my life of working for others and have now begun a new life of working for myself.

I'm now on Marqx Creative Communications full time.

I'd love to hear from you all if you have any suggestions as to clients that may want to reach me.

To give you a bird's eye view of my business and what work I'm looking for, I bunch up my job description in one simple term:

Creative Communications

That can be broken down into:

Photography - I currently shoot nightlife (clubs, bars, concerts), weddings/birthdays/other family events, model/actor head shots, fashion photography.

Who do you know? Do you know a clothing designer that needs photos to promote their fashion? Anybody getting married? Somebody who's had a baby and wants cool creative photos of the parents with the baby? Know somebody having a big birthday party and would want it photographed? How 'bout Real Estate agents that need professional photographs of spaces that they're selling/renting/leasing?

Graphic Design - I provide print services such as: business cards, flyers, posters, picture books, publishing, vehicle signage, and so on... If it's printed, I can most likely do it...
I also design web pages and company/personal identities (logos). Because I'm also a photographer, I can shoot your product or location and transform it into a truly "built from scratch to fit you" website.

Who do you know? Do you or somebody you know need business cards? I have a kick ass rate that beats anything out there for quality vs price. Give me a rate and I'll beat it.
Do you know event promoters looking to get posters or flyers printed? Perhaps you have a business and would like to get the word out. I can arrange that as well. Do you know somebody who wants a design printed on their car for business or simple coolness? I've got it covered too.

Event Design & Public Speaking - I design creative concepts for events promoting products, services or people and execute those events in stores, malls or any other location for that matter. I supply the equipment, the knowhow and if necessary, a team to help your event be noticed and become successful.
I've been working in the industry for 7 years promoting for such large brands as Calvin Klein, Max Azria, Vera Wang, Hugo Boss and Lacoste and have upcoming work for Gwen Stefani's LAMB, Sarah Jessica Parker's Covet and some of the new Calvin Klein and Vera Wang brands.

Who do you know? - Anybody with a product or service can use me to promote them. Do you know somebody with a local store that could use some sidewalk action or something in store to create excitement and drive sales? Do you know product Representatives that may want to use me to design and host events for them in stores or malls? I'm also open to MC'ing shows at conventions or parties.

Creative Writing - I'm also known for my capacity as a writer. I'm currently writing two books, but I'm also capable of coming up with a company name and slogan. I'm also available to help you write an amazing Resumé. If there is one skill out of them all that I could pick that stands out, that is selling people. I've written resumés and cover letters that have not only gotten people in the door, but have lead them to a job.

So now that you know what I do, please let me know if you know of anybody who could use my services. I can supply you with samples of my work as I'm sure you'll be very confident of what I'm capable of doing once you see them.

You can reach me at pedro@marqx.com or on my BlackBerry @ 416 854 9499

Thanks everybody... and remember: You never have to work a day in your life if you love what you do.. I love what I do!

Pedro meets achitect Will Alsop

iPedro — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 23:58:00 +0000

Pedro with Will Alsop
Originally uploaded by iPedro

As I casually walked on Queen St in Toronto, I thought of going by the new concept store UMBRA.

An event was ongoing and the speaker was none other than Sharp Centre for Design (OCAD) architect Will Alsop.

I listened to his speech and later bought a couple of his books which he signed.

This photo was taken after he signed. Alsop is holding a set of "tools" (kitchen silverware) which he launched @ UMBRA that day.

Nutrition Revolution

iPedro — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:28:00 +0000

It's been a long time coming, but it seems to be arriving.

Several years ago, after having moved out on my own, I began to lose the vitality that is so characteristic of my personality. It seems that I was missing grandma's cooking. I figured that in my fast paced life, spending hours in the kitchen wasn't an option so in order to pursue the healthy happy lifestyle that I wanted for myself, I needed to find out a group of nutritious foods that I could easily cook.

I found them. On my recent trip to New York, I dined with friends @ Buddha Bar in the Meat Packing District. Ironically, it would be here that I would learn my long sought recipe to break free of my unhealthy western meat eating habits. I discovered asparagus.

Asparagus is considered one of the most ideal foods in nature since it contains plenty of nutrients but contains no fat or bad cholesterol.
I learned how to steam it and eureka! It can be done in less than 10 minutes: it's the quick nutritious meal I've been looking for.

Of course I don't plan on eating only asparagus every day so I added to that other nutritious vegetables such as broccoli, potatoes, carrots and peas. I'll probably be adding more veggies as I discover them.

I'll usually add tuna (a huge source of protein) or another fish and will occasionally still eat a steak. I'm not a strict vegetarian or pescatarian nor do I intend to be. My next step will be to learn how to prepare sushi, one of my favorite foods.

After having followed this diet for just a few days, I'm feeling much more energetic and aware and my memory has improved.

This new found diet is complimentary to a lifestyle that researchers have found in locations on the Earth where health and longevity are much higher than the average. This lifestyle includes:

• Mostly Plant based diet
• Non intensive regular excercise
• Investing in family/friends

I'm working on the first and last one but have yet to begin my frequent morning runs. That'll come once my diet is up to par.

2007

iPedro — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:36:00 +0000

Welcome to 2007!

My favorite part of the year is the dawn of a new one. It's a time to look back at my achievements of the previous year and define new goals for the year to come.

On the final days leading up to the end of the year, I looked at my goal list for 2006 and determined the balance of goals still left to complete. I mounted a frantic effort on a procrastination free week to complete some of my important goals.

In one fell swoop, I finished the post production on the Sweet Graffiti photo shoot, earned my Ontario driver's license (I've been holding a Portuguese license since I arrived in Canada), made a photo DVD to send to my family in Portugal, bought new furniture to organize my growing business documents and stationary, I registered my company, Marqx and won photography contracts to end 2006 on a very high note.

2006 started off with me hitting the ground running. I was determined to travel to several of my must see cities right from the entry into the year. I packed my bags and was off to San Francisco to see a Steve Jobs Apple keynote and tour the city I've many times considered living in. I went on a dream road trip down the California coast through mountains, 17 Mile drive, through Carmel valley, visiting One Infinity Loop (Apple HQ) in Cupertino, Monteray (and visiting the famous aquarium) to Santa Barbara and finally to L.A.
The dream ended in a nightmare when my car was broken into, my documents and computer stolen and thus began a frantic race to leave the country.

This event knocked the wind out of me for some time, pushed my goals back indefinitely and I went into crisis management mode. Soon, however, I was back on track but running into a chaotic stream of taking on challenges that despite the lack of planning, I could see were a key to the direction I wanted to take myself in.

It was only recently that I could take a breath and look back to notice that I had completed so much. I became an overnight event photographer and here I found my niche. It's something I love to do, that pays well and allows me to mold my schedule to do the other things that I love... that involves travelling. Despite the problems in L.A., I returned to the USA the same year, this time to tour another one of my favorite cities: Chicago.

Now that the year is complete, it's becoming clear to me that networking is the key to success in life. You make friends through networking, you make professional connections through networking and you may potentially meet your better half through networking. These three items are important to me so I intend to become an expert networker.

2007 will be a year that I want to look back on and remember as the year when I became professionally independent. I want to rely solely on myself in my professional life. I want to control what I do and how I do it. I want to ensure that I love what I do. Marqx C3 is the key to that. Creative Communications is what I want to do in life and the knowledge of that is in itself an achievement. Knowing what you want to do is no easy task, but I know that I want to spend my professional life with photography, graphic design and creative writing.

You may have read my prior blogs regarding running my life as a business. In my January 2005 post Pedro Marques Life Enterprises®, I proposed running my life as a corporation would run their operations. Defining goals at the beginning of each year, and attributing each of them into digestible Quarters has proven to be a resounding success. I have moved myself forward dramatically and have completed many of my life goals since then.

This year, I'm taking it a step forward and defining a title for each year that encompasses the priority for that year.

I'm looking forward to 2007, and declare it

2007: The Year of Networking & Professional Independence

2007 is shaping up to be a great year. Happy New Year!

I LOVE this video! HA!

iPedro — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 05:00:00 +0000

It's up for a Grammy and totally deserves it. Most creative music video I've seen in a long time. I love the "virtual skating".

Miller Wins, Jane Pitfield told LIVE that she loses

iPedro — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:30:00 +0000

Ha! Ha! Ha! That was a good laugh. I lost? Really? Huh?

Well, Miller gets to take advantage of his hard fought City of Toronto Act. He's built an excellent foundation upon which he'll lead Toronto to the goals that he set during his first term. I look forward to 4 years of Miller Time!

Nearly One Year Later

iPedro — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 03:23:00 +0000

It's approaching the one year anniversary of my very unfortunate trip to LA. In quick summary: I was robbed, passport, plane ticket and PowerBook stolen. I barely made it back.

Here's a quick recap from my blog:

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Those of you wondering why the frequent journaling of my trip to the USA abruptly ceased will find an answer in these next lines.

After my bad lucked final night in SF (being physically kicked out of a club), it went on to get worse.

My drive to L.A. went great as I followed the Pacific Coast after passing through San Jose, Cupertino, spending a night in Monteray, driving through the mountains of Carmel, on to Santa Barbara and finally to L.A.

My first day there started off with a drive along Santa Monica Blvd. in search of the Hollywood sign. I easily found it and left my car at the bottom of the Hollywood Hills. I climbed up to get a good view of the sign and finally reached it after 1 hour of hiking.

When I returned to my car ... the passenger window had been shattered. My car had been broken into and all my stuff was stolen ... including my computer, my passport, birth certificate and plane tickets.

The 3 days that ensued were from hell. The cops were very unhelpful as was the Canadian consulate in L.A. I had no ID or plane tickets to return home and I spent 3 entire days driving around L.A. in search of a solution, skipping meals and missing sleep trying to get things done.

More bad luck followed: I lost my car a couple of times (stress, little sleep and not eating was affecting my memory), the car at some points refused to start and as a pedestrian, I got stopped by cops and nearly charged for jaywalking. I was desperate to get out of there as soon as I could.

On the final day, I was unable to get the necessary papers to return to Canada but decided to go to the airport nonetheless. Ironically, after so much bad luck, essential good luck came my way: I found that I had my Portuguese Passport in my back pocket all along so I attempted to enter Canada as a Portuguese tourist. It worked and I'm now typing this e-mail from my desk at home in Toronto.

In some good news, today I received notice that my insurance will cover my losses so this will all be reduced to just a really bad experience and not so much a huge financial loss as I had feared.

As much as I've lived, this will serve as a new lesson to me, and one mistake I don't think I'll soon repeat.

... well, I'm about to reverse that decision. I'm going back. The mistakes made in LA that lead to me being robbed can be avoided without writing off traveling to LA or any other crime ridden location on earth.

It's curious how my nightmare in LA continued to haunt me later in the year when I travelled to Chicago. The sense of flying back into the "snake's nest" completely put me on edge and prevented me from enjoying that vacation fully.
Repressing memories is a natural defense of the brain, but when you find yourself in a situation similar to the one repressed, you go into "fight or flight" mode. I experienced that in a bad way. I felt extremely anxious, even in situations where I should have been very relaxed like sitting in Millenium Park for example. I was feeling off, unaware of my surroundings and extremely tired, regardless of how much I ate or slept.

I plan on fixing that. The cure: Confronting your repressed memories and reliving them, this time without the bad parts. It's equivalent to showing a scared kitty that you're a nice human, unlike humans that may have made the cat afraid to begin with. You can learn human psychology simply by watching animals.

So now that nearly one year's past, I'm beginning to stand back and look at what I'm left with. I've replaced everything that's been stolen and I'm beginning to find courage and -- funny enough -- enthusiasm to return to San Francisco and travel the US Pacific coast once again.

My annual post Christmas trip, one that I like to do in January to start off each new year hitting the ground running, will be a reprise of USA 2006.

I'm doing things a little different though.
• I'm not bringing my laptop. I don't really need it as I realized on my last trip.
• I'm spending as little time in LA as possible. Most of my trip will consist of MacWorld in San Francisco, driving again down the coast and a quick one day stop (no sleep over) in LA simply to confront my repressed memories.
• Flying to Hawaii to spend a few days relaxing and celebrating my confrontation of those memories.

This will be photography travel for me. I'm planning on shooting beautiful pictures in San Francisco, Monteray, the Pacific Coast, Santa Barbara and of course the main event: Hawaii.

Let the journey (re)begin...

Could You Please Tear My School Down?

iPedro — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:53:00 +0000

This has got to be the smartest 8 year old in Dooooooblin. :-)

nike+ workout

iPedro — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 02:31:00 +0000

so... I'm 27. I realize that's no age to be out of shape, yet tonight I went running and could barely hold a consistent run for more than 3 minutes without breaking down with no energy left in the tank.

My birthday gift to myself this year was an iPod Nano & a Nike+ running kit. Nike + iPod consists of a sensor and a pair of Nike running shoes that can track your runs.

It's both a motivational tool as well as a method to increase efficiency in my progress. I run with my iPod which tells me through a voice in my headphones how fast I'm running, how far I'm going and how much time and/or distance is remaining in my workout. When I arrive home, I sync my iPod which uploads the run info to NikePlus.com.

The data on Nike+ can then be used to set goals or even to challenge other people around the world to virtual races.

Back to my run tonight: considering it was my first run in a while, I guess it could have been worse. However, it's a disappointing realization that I'm completely out of shape. I have no endurance.

Here's my pathetic 1st performance:

That graphic should show a relatively straight line. A straight line would signify that I've been jogging at a consistent speed throughout my workout. The above graphic shows that I ran in spurts, got tired and walked, sprinted a bit, got tired and walked .... and walked... and walked the rest of the workout.

Despite the sombre first run, I feel that this is a reality check that will only motivate me further.

I know that I need to get better sleep and a better diet and that I need to run every morning or evening or at best 3 times a week.

I'll keep this blog posted on my progress. :-)

My First Wedding

iPedro — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 04:10:00 +0000

I'm living photography in dog years ... things have been moving at a vertigo inducing pace!

On October 7, I photographed my first wedding. Aside from a failing speedlight (stopped working just before the ceremony!!! oh SHIT!!), the day was a success. I'm very proud of the results.

You can view some of my favorite Jaramillo Wedding photos by clicking the photo below.

Pedro & Cindys TIME MACHINE Birthday Party

iPedro — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 07:35:00 +0000

Going a little nuts this year and creating a themed birthday party. Hey! My birthday is so close to Halloween, I gotta start exploiting that!

Terra Feminina

iPedro — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 05:50:00 +0000

Tonight I completed another milestone in my rapid dizzying ascension into photography.

I've been invited by Coty Prestige - one of the companies I work for - to display my photography at a "Look Good, Feel Better" cancer charity fundraiser.

The theme for this shoot was "the feminine landscape", of which derived the name of the piece: "Terra Feminina". This photo shoot involves close crops of curves of my model's body.

This is an exciting development but a nerve wracking one as well. Not only will this be the first display of my work at a show, but it'll be with a type of photography I basically just learned in the past few hours. A little frightening but definitely worth the stimulating rush I'll have of having my work shown off in public.

The model left my studio a few hours ago and I've had a chance to review the photos and tweak them to a point where I laid back and was awed at how they came out.

I can't share them with you just yet, as I still need to have the model's approval before making any photo public, but stay tuned as they'll be on here real soon.

iPedro v4.0

iPedro — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 05:12:00 +0000

At the beginning of the new millennium, the dawn of my introduction to the Internet, I was inspired one night to figure out how to put myself online.
At the time, few people (or perhaps nobody) I knew had their own website and I thought it would be an interesting outlet to have my own online presence.

On that July 2000 evening, I wrote:

Finally I got my own homepage! Believe it or not, in just one night (I spent all night - July 28 to 29) learning HTML language, writing my page, finding how to upload it, creating an account on Yahoo Geocities and finally uploading it. When I was done I opened the curtain and it was already day. Well, not too bad for a beginner. The site has information about myself, photos, some of my work, links to some of my favorite sites and regular newsletters

Six years have gone by and I now make a part of my living by designing websites for other people, artists, companies.
Somehow, I haven't been able to keep iPedro.com up to par with my skills. It's like the plumber's house who's pipes are leaky.
At its peak, my blog @ iPedro.com was being updated on a daily basis but somewhere down the road, I stopped having time for personal webdesign.

Tonight, I'm feeling Deja-vu...Earlier, I picked up a bunch of creative photos I had taken of myself and laid them out in Photoshop. Suddenly, I began seeing a new iPedro.com emerge before my eyes. I frantically worked on capturing this vision fearing that I'd lose the moment and leave this new website on the sidelines like I have before.

Well, it's not quite an all night project like on that fateful evening in 2000, but a few hours later, a new iPedro.com, a homepage that I can be proud of once again is now online.

I'll be adding improvements such as a more in-depth Profile and a feedback/guestbook system but the new iPedro.com is finally here.

iPedro — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:57:00 +0000

iPedro v4.0 above. Any content below this line may be outdated and contain broken links

Alina & Nisha s Birthday Party @ M Lounge

iPedro — Mon, 08 May 2006 01:33:00 +0000

Alina and Nisha hosted their birthday parties @ Toronto newest hotspot: M Lounge.

Although the club took a while to fill, we had our own party in the VIP area of the club. Lot's of fun!

View the pictures here

Apple Store Opens @ The Toronto Eaton Centre

iPedro — Sat, 06 May 2006 21:01:00 +0000

Originally uploaded by iPedro.

The Apple Store @ The Toronto Eaton Centre opened Saturday morning.

Hundreds of Apple fans were waiting in line for the most anticipated store openining at The Eaton Centre in recent memory. The first 1000 received the much coveted limited edition Apple T-Shirt.

This is the second Apple Store in Canada (the other one also in Toronto @ Yorkdale Mall) and will be another boost to Apple's share of the market in Canada.

Since I first purchased my PowerBook last year, I've directly influenced the decision of more than 10 people in switching as well. If this trend continues, we're going to have quite a few people getting Macs this year.

Check my photos of the store opening @ Flickr. Click Here

Women Can Parallel Park Too ...

iPedro — Tue, 02 May 2006 06:52:00 +0000

View this.

New iPedro

iPedro — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 06:04:00 +0000

As you can see, I've finally gotten on to building a new iPedro.com

I'm experimenting with different looks and simplicity and easy maintenance will be key with whatever comes out in the end.

The link to my profile won't yet work, but I'm getting to that.

Look for a final website by next week.

Old Lady Punchout!

iPedro — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 05:44:00 +0000

What a knockout!

Marcio & Trish Birthday Party @ Arizonas

iPedro — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 02:08:00 +0000

Hey all,
last night my brother and I hung out with Marcio and friends for his and Trish's birthday. The incredibly delicious food and excellent service @ Arizona's Bar & Grill were the cherry on the cake of a fun and funny night. Marcio got plastered so that is always good ... to capture on camera!

Pictures can be seen @ this link.

On a side note, I bumped into my childhood buddy Marcio, who I hadn't seen for 15 years! It was hard to believe it but once calculations were done, it's true. When I left Canada at the age of 11, I left many good friends behind. It's nice to be seeing them again.