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Yes I Make Money Online

I’m really not big on paid apps, but if there is one that I think is worth the money I will buy it and check it out. I was looking through my friends Flickr page and noticed a few photos titled ColorSplash and they were black and white with single objects colored in. I noticed that the photos were taken with an iPhone so I decided to lookup ColorSplash. After reading some reviews it seemed like a cool app. I found it on the iTunes store for $1.99, I figured what the hell and I bought it.

What ColorSpash allows you to do is take any of your stored photos and converts them to black and white. Then you can easily select sections of the photo to go back into color. This is really cool and makes some great photos. The interface is really easy to use, just open the app and select a photo. At the bottom of the interface you can select between color and gray. If you select color you can go ahead and start reclaiming sections of the photo you like by drawing with your finger. If you mess up there is an undo button at the top or you can just select grey at the bottom and you can fix the problem.

One thing I noticed when I first started using the app was that my brush size was way too big. To change this you need to exit the app and go into the iPhone settings. Towards the bottom you will find a ColorSpash menu. Once inside there you can change the brush size and change a few other settings. Here are some of the photos I’ve used ColorSplash on.

Most of these only took about 5 minutes to make. As you keep on using the app you will get better at it too. If you want to see the full size versions of these photos check out my Flickr page. For $1.99 this app is definitely worth it!

Well St. Patty’s day really isn’t until tomorrow, but the celebrations went on this weekend in Pittsburgh. There were events going on all over the city. We had planned to go to the parade, but we just went to Market Square instead. Market Square is at the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Market Street in downtown Pittsburgh. They have it closed off for the celebrations. My friends and I took the bus down because there was no way we were going to be sober enough to drive back home. We got down there about 10AM and it was already pretty crowded. This was my first time down at Market Square for St. Patty day so I did not know what to expect.

All of the bars that are in the square had green beer and all kinds of specials. Within an hour or so of being there the entire square was packed with people and everyone was having a good time. I ended up seeing a lot of people that I haven’t seen in a long time. We stayed at Market Square for a few hours then walked across the bridge to Mcfadden’s, which is a bar on the North Shore. They had a lunch buffet, which was much needed after drinking all morning. We stayed there ate, watched the jello wrestling and drank some more. From there we made it home and I took a nap before going back out to BarRoom to party the rest of the night. It was a crazy weekend for sure, but I had a great time! I made a short video of Market Square, thanks to my friend Brian for being the host!

If you follow me on Twitter you might have noticed that the past few Friday’s I’ve been telling you who I think you should follow on Twitter. Follow Friday started when someone thought it would be a good idea to give a shoutout to the people that they thought were interesting and other people would like to follow. You can read this post about how follow Friday got started. I decided to make this post because I wanted to do a lot of shoutouts in many different categories and why I actually follow these people. Twitter is not only a networking tool it is a great way to gain information and meet new people. So here are some people I think you should follow…

Motivational People
@iamdiddy – Ah, P. Diddy! He is always pumped no matter what he is doing! Everytime I read one of his tweets I am pumped to get back to work.
@garyvee – Gary Vaynerchuk, he always has interesting posts and always talks about making the most of things, definitely follow him!
@tedmurphy – Ted Murphy, founder and CEO of IZEA, always talking about good stuff…WOOOOOO!

Bloggers
@johnchow – If you run a blog and don’t know who John is then you need to get out from under that rock!
@tyleringram – Tyler is a Vancouver based blogger and he always has interesting things to talk about.
@ianternet – Ian Fernando, friend and great guy who is doing his thing on the internet.
@michaelkwan – Michael Kwan, another friend and blogger who always has something interesting to post or talk about

Tech
@iphoneincanada – iPhoneinCanada.ca, great iPhone blog even if you are not in Canada!
@gizmodo – Where I get all of my gadget news.
@thinkcomps – ThinkComputers newly created twitter account!

Celebs
@rainnwilson – Rainn Wilson, we all know him as Dwight from the office.
@aplusk – Ashton Kutcher, Surprisingly more interesting then I thought he would be.
@kevinrose – Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com and host of Diggnation.
@JasonCalacanis – Founder of Mahalo, he always has something interesting to talk about.

Pittsburgh Based
@carley – My good friend Carley, she just got into blogging and is always on Twitter!
@colindean – Colin Dean, ThinkComputers staff write and all around good guy!
@wpxi – Yes, WPXI has twitter…and actually knows how to use it!

I’m not sure how often I will do a post like this but it is always good to point out interesting people. Remember when doing a follow friday tweet use the #followfriday hash tag. Make sure you are following me on Twitter!

Is seems that I talk a lot about motivation on this blog, and that is probably because I do! Motivation is a key thing when you are running your own business. If there is no motivation you tend to not get as much done and you definitely are not as happy. On the other hand when you are motivated you are most likely going to be in a good mood and tend to get a lot more done. Being motivated is one thing, but let’s take it to the next level! Let’s get pumped!! I have been motivated before and then I have been pumped! Being pumped like I said is taking the motivation to the next level and really kicking ass at whatever you are doing. Some good examples of me being pumped is the week at CES where I’m working like crazy, getting 3-4 hours a sleep and going hard each day, also the times where I stay up all night to get work done, that’s not motivation, that’s being pumped!

So what triggers that next level of motivation? Well there are a few things, but usually for me its when I listen to someone who is just as pumped talking about what they do. A perfect example of that is Gary Vaynerchuk, whether he is talking about wine or the internet he is always very passionate about it and loves to encourage people to do the same with whatever they are doing. Check out this video I found of him talking at a rally in NYC, he is just talking to a group of people, but look how excited he is.

Watching stuff like this really makes me want to get up and do something! No only does it give me motivation it gets me pumped to go out there and kill it! When I was in Vegas I was always pumped to go to my meetings and tell different companies about ThinkComputers and what we do. If you can reach that next level of motivation you can really get a lot done and if you cannot get pumped about your business then you might be doing the wrong thing!

I have talked about working from Starbucks before and some other coffee shops, but nowhere else really. The main reason for that is that I usually want coffee when I’m working and in Pittsburgh there really are not that many places you can go, bring a laptop, and get on the internet unless you have an EVDO card. Also so many places do not give you a real relaxed atmosphere to work in. I have really never been to a Panera Bread before going to one with my friend Brittany a few months ago. After going there for the first time I realized it is the perfect place to work at. Since moving back home I have been going to the Panera Bread on Mcknight road. It is one of the biggest Panera’s that I’ve been to! It has a ton of seating, booths, nice chairs, a fireplace, and even a conference room!

As I said I have been at the Panera on McKnight a lot mainly because I have been meeting with my friend Carley to help her out with her blog. She just got into blogging so I have been helping her out getting her blog setup and showing some tips and tricks that I know. It is always good to teach people new things and get them into blogging. Panera is great because it offers free WiFi, you don’t even have to buy anything, but I normally grab at least a coffee. At Starbucks I am only limited to the 2 hours I get with my Starbucks card, so having unlimited times is nice, especially if I need to get out of the “office” for a day and work from somewhere else. Another great thing I like about Panera is the food. As I said I have been trying to eat healthier and Panera offers food that is much better for me than stopping at some fast food place.

With the relaxed atmosphere, free WiFi, and healthy food Panera bread is a great place to work from.