June 16

Webshoo.com is here!

Since my last post about KuyaPress.com – I’ve changed the name of the company.  Funny thing is, the name has eluded me since 2003.  I’ll explain.  In the midst of the dot.com craze, (working for eGreetings.com and later, eScalate.com), I wanted to create an internet service.  I came up with the name Webshoo.com.  Well, back then, it wasn’t as easy to start an online venture.  Pricing was out of reach, web design was ridiculously expensive, and I had DIAL UP!!!  LOL.  So I kept the domain name.

In 2003, the name expired and I think it was because the company I bought it from was gone or bankrupt or bought out.  I lost the domain.  By 2003, GoDaddy.com was in full swing, offering tools to manage domain names, so I proceeded to their site to re-purchase my domain.  Lo and behold, it had not been more than a week, someone bought my domain, webshoo.com!!!!  I kept checking on it and finally a webpage was built.  The domain was for sale!  I contacted the new company that owned my domain and guess what?!?  It was for sale for $8,0000 dollars.  Ahem, I was flabbergasted.  I asked them how can they charge me for my own name?  They replied this is America and if you didn’t protect your trademark, then it’s all on me.  True, but ethically it was just wrong.

The domain name, remained for sale for about 5 years.  The pricing had fluctuated from $8k to $3k.  About 3 weeks ago, I decided that Kuyapress.com is a bit weird looking (graphically the letters just didn’t give a good vibe) and needed a new name.  I thought it was RASolved.com, but something was missing.  I felt it in my bones.  Plus, my freelance services on RASolved.com was evolving.  I saw a need, an opportunity, a niche for me to provide managed hosting for WordPress.  While I kept my RASolved.com focused on freelance services (web development & applications), the hosting side started to appeal to me. 

I offered a service to manage people’s website on my servers, then decided to dial in on WordPress, since, to me at least, that is the perfect solution for small businesses.  WordPress is affordable, easy to use and flexible.  (See webshoo.com for more info).  As I started to define and develop my managed hosting services, I began see there was a need.  Most business owners, needed to set up and develop their sites, but after that, it was really more about content.  From time to time, they would pay big bucks to customize, optimize or integrate something for their website.  Well, if you run a small business, you understand that every penny out, impacts your bottom line, and the one time fixes or customizations aren’t cheap.

As for me, I enjoy setting up technology, optimizing it and making sure things run.  As for web design, it is a very challenging business, not so much because of the competition, it’s the design itself.  You can design the prettiest or most beautiful website in the world, but it is all subjective.  Your client will say, “yeah looks good, but what if we did this…and this…. and this…” – pretty much most designers I know agree.  Or before the site launches, despite the established rules and agreement, you are still going to have changes or new graphics to upload (hopefully it matches the site), or they’ve talked to more people and want a slight re-design.  Crazy.  Now you know why cars, houses or computers come pre-built.  Custom work is tough for anyone. 

After much prayer, thought, and scoping out the competition, I decided to form my own web hosting company.

I went to GoDaddy and just happen to type in “webshoo”, like I do about 3 times a year.  And you guessed it.  It was available!!!  Talk about destiny, fate and a gift from God, I was ecstatic to find it available.  So from $8,000, I got it for $10 per year!  Hahahahaha… yes!  The whole concept was coming together, and I’ve got a vision in place.

Webshoo.com provides WordPress managed hosting and services for Google Apps.  We’ve recently became a partner of Phone.com to offer their virtual office PBX, so that will be incorporated into the mix.  Right now, I’m trying to redefine the core services to be just about WordPress.  I figure, if I can build upon that in this first phase of Webshoo’s launch (July 1st), I can do a great job for my clients and maintain a higher quality of service.

~ RAS

12:49 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

April 24

Netshoo to KuyaPress

   
So many things have happened this year.  Business wise, I’ve had to make some big changes to my business industry, model and now it’s an everyday thing to re-focus.  Some of you may know that working in the internet industry involves constant changing, shifting and tightening up.  Think of it like the dog years concept, an internet year is equal to several years.  In the midst of all these changes there are some notable consistencies and the future is in small business.  Having been “in” the internet world for quite some time now, I’ve come to learn there is a small movement of people leaving the corporate world to create a freelance business.  Hmmm…another great blog topic I’ll have to expand on in the future.  My own business model has become a freelance, virtual, home-based, on the cloud, social media, and online small business.  It just seems like the smartest thing to do if you really want a balanced life.

How has my business evolved?  I left the real estate world at the top of my game.  I had just sold 10 homes in a month, leads were pouring in, and earned my biggest commission check ever.  Having moved to Hawaii, where the real estate market was like every where else in the US, slow, but deals were getting closed, I thought I’d continue real estate.   The costs involved to start again was not justifiable.  With the market as slow as it is and the costs of $3k-$5k, with a monthly desk fee ($200-$300), would have been too much of a strain.  So instead, I took my sideline business I started in 2009, Biztel.com to the next level.

Biztel was mainly an agency for telecommunications technology like networks, wireless broadband, digital VoIP, and mobile.  It proved to be not so fruitful as I was clearly in an oversaturated market with the vendors/carriers themselves as my competition.  I was hopeful to slim down my offerings to mobile training, implementation and set up of wireless services for a small business.  As I continued my training, I quickly was out of date by the time I completed it!  Everything was shifting to bigger, broader, faster technology every few months.  Well at least I had the concepts down, so that helped.  Coming to Hawaii, Biztel services didn’t make sense anymore, because most of the carriers/vendors didn’t work or provide out here on the islands.  Most didn’t have that kind of budget to connect hardwire from the mainland to the islands or beam down data from a space satellite.  The few carries on the island took care of the business (Time Warner) and they were proficient.

So what to do?  I quickly knew I had to do something outside of the technology framework, so the internet solutions, in my mind seemed like a logical next step.  If I couldn’t offer networks, wireless equipment, or VoIP competitively, might as well work on the software side of things.  Enter the cloud!  Today, the technologies are shifting towards a no server model.  The internet access bandwidth, computer stations, and software has reached the point where speed or performance isn’t much of a concern anymore.  As a result the big companies like Microsoft, Google and others are putting software on their own servers located in their own datacenters.  These servers with the software are now accessible to us, the consumers via the internet.

Netshoo is born!  Netshoo is the evolutionary step of Biztel.   Netshoo provides internet based solutions for small business.  Everything from website, e-commerce, web hosting, application development, storage, email and any web application that can help a small business.  But the Netshoo team’s specialty is Microsoft products, especially Office Live Small Business and Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS),  See www.netshoo.com for more and see pasts posts related to Netshoo.

With that, I had an itch…I felt a natural urge to do some freelance projects that are outside of the spectrum of Netshoo.  Prior to developing Netshoo, I was really getting into the WordPress (WP) community.  I was impressed by the mom and pop feel of the WP people.  They seemed to be helping each other, exchanging ideas and by doing so advanced the WP market to higher levels, with out sacrificing the values founded by the WP community.  I was really intrigued that you can make income in several ways:

1.  Internet Marketing Blog – Blogging to make an income – selling your own or other products.
2.  WordPress Development – Make an income setting up, customizing and/or hosting the WordPress site
3.  WordPress Consulting & Maintenance – Managing, copywriting, SEO or technical support for WordPress is a nice income bearer.

Those are just a few ways to make money but the 3 above seem to be the main income streams.  You can be part-time or full-time.  You can have multiple blogs and offer services, the opportunities are endless.  The WP business model has been set previously and you simply have to follow it and adapt with the times.  Now I do realize I’m sounding very optimistic and almost naive.  As a business man for the last decade, I know there are some ins and outs to learn or a business still to build.  But I don’t focus on the challenges or cons, I look past it or find a solution through it.  Others have, why not me?

I’ve been researching, quietly blog stalking, subscribing to every free thing there is about the WP community and business.  I’m finally done.  How did I know?  I was discussing business with friends and I was able to articulate the WP business model.  It was concise and coherent.  In doing so, a light bulb went on in my head and I thought, “What am I waiting for?”.  KuyaPress is born!!! 

I fully intend to implement my past experiences, the technologies I support and the ideas in the KuyaPress WP services.  My certifications in IT, Web security, and Inbound Marketing is perfect for KuyaPress.  My computer science background gives me the added edge I need to continue to understand and work with today’s software as well as the future.  Lastly, my dot.com experience in service and e-commerce will add an extra value to my offerings.  I’m ready, right?  LOL.

I’ll be opening KuyaPress.com soon and you’ll be able to read more about my WP Entrepreneurial Venture.  KuyaPress will be featuring the Genesis Framework by StudioPress/Brian Gardner, and soon Thesis by the Chris Pearson/Brian Clark.  Stay tuned!

~RAS

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About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  Personally, he is a Catholic family man with six children.  He has high hopes to become a Catholic Catechist and complete his degree in Theology in the future.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced and holy life.

Phone: (808)953-9558 | www.netshoo.com | rasolis<at>netshoo dot.com | Hawaii | www.ranthonysolis.com

1:27 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

April 13

Boys Are Growing Up

There’s so much I want to share with the boys (older pre-teens) but some it, they won’t understand or I can’t express it properly.  The world seems so big to them and I don’t want to shrink it.  My responsibility is to equip them for the world and Heaven.  Either one of those preparations,  is tough enough.  But I know it’s the right thing to do and by the grace of God, things will work out.

At the early stages of their lives, I really impressed upon them the importance of character.  “Do you what you say” and “Your Actions speak louder than words…”.  It’s pretty cliché I know.  It works though!  Going deeper into this, I apply the Catholic teachings of what is really important in life.  It is integrated into what I instruct, teach and catechize in every lesson.  Going even deeper, they are taught the ultimate meaning of life is to Love, Serve and to Know God.

What does that exactly mean?

- To Love God – Is to pray and worship Him
- To Know God – Study Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition in the light of Catholic Teaching
- To Serve God – Only 3 choices for vocations

      1.  Singlehood – Be single as a religious or community member; making positive contributions to society
      2.  Holy Orders – One of the Sacraments; join the Priesthood or become a Lay Deacon
      3.  Marriage – Another Sacrament; To marry and raise a family

Surprising to know that it’s really not all about your profession, career choice, or business.  Life in the ancient times was more about what you did for your family, community and God.  Today, we place a special emphasis on a profession and in most countries spend a majority of our lives preparing for it.  Now wouldn’t it make more sense to prepare for marriage or how to live in a society with other people, rather than how to make money?  Don’t get me wrong, a profession is a sacred thing as it allows us to participate and contribute to society.  But in the eyes of the Catholic spirituality it is a subset of the bigger vocation which is the relationship between people and the community.

Back to the boys.  After the foundation is set about having character, substance and charity, I move on to excellence and action.  I have been teaching them to do things with passion and to produce at their best, despite the results.  Sincere effort must be put into their work.  Under my roof, that’s all we care about.  To me this is excellence.  I won’t accept any half way or lazy results.  I admit it is difficult to discern when the results are poor or just plain awful.  Then you have to really know your child to figure out what happened. 

I almost forgot this one, knowledge.  From experience, I was not equipped to go into the world.  Sure I knew textbook things and had a few social interactions.  But nothing really prepared me for the life essentials:

-  How to Manage Money
-  How to Build Worth While Relationships
-  How to Plan, Set Goals

I’ve been sharing with my kids, especially the older boys, my failures, triumphs and flat out embarrassing, shameful blunders.  The more serious adults situations, I’m saving until they can understand better. 

And finally, action.  What good is to build character, perform with excellence, gain knowledge. if it is not shared?  This one is tough because at first, you think this means to go out and serve the poor, be a leader in the community, have an important position in a company, and so forth.  I’ve learned to accept one’s state in life and apply it right where you are.  So for example, I’m not out in the streets or active in my parish.  My community is my young family.  Everything I strive for idealistically is applied within my family.  This seems to be overlooked in our era.  Christian fathers tend to over volunteer at church, professional fathers over work and forgetting their duties at home.  I’ll leave it at that and save for another post.

My goal is to have the boys go beyond what I could ever achieve as a person, father, husband, friend, brother, son, and Catholic.  I only pray that it is their goal too. 

~ RAS

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About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  Personally, he is a Catholic family man with six children.  He has high hopes to become a Catholic Catechist and complete his degree in Theology in the future.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced and holy life.

Phone: (808)953-9558 | www.netshoo.com | rasolis<at>netshoo dot.com | Hawaii | www.ranthonysolis.com

6:18 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

March 18

Netshoo Gets Some Soul

Early this week, Timothy Bolden and I reached a mutual agreement to become partners.  I’ve been running solo for awhile now and it’s really difficult to find a good partner.  My last partnership was when I owned In-touch Communications with Ron Saradpon.  Together, we were unstoppable.  We grew the company by word of mouth.  But at the time, telecom companies decided to give away free equipment to grow.  Later, it proved un-profitable as small and larger players shut down.   Luckily, we left just in time.  I actually continued for a year, sold the paging business back to PageNet and PageMart (broke even/settled airtime bills).  I started to focus on cellular and the internet.  I eventually closed the business due to lack of capital and new financial obligations to my first born.  Made a choice to enter back in to the work force.

Tim and I are cut from the same mold.  He has other businesses, as well and his flagship, www.soulhawaii.com, has a loyal following here on the islands.  It’s funny because, we are kind of like serial start up entrepreneurs and as a result, we have thousands of ideas for new companies, and it can get out of hand sometimes.  But we both agreed, in recent years, as age catches up (ahem), the thrill now is to build a solid company that has a meaningful impact in the community.  Bingo! He and I are moving in the same direction, sharing the same mindset.

Our goal is to help out the small businesses that are home-based or mobile, solo professionals, non-profits and startups that have 1 to 5 employees.  With our knowledge of the latest technologies, processes and connections to Microsoft, the Netshoo team can really provide a valuable service and affordable solution.  Our consulting and services, would normally costs companies in the thousands and maybe tens of thousands (we’ve checked the market).  That’s only because the tech companies, tend to provide to bigger small business or medium-sized companies.

The growing trend is smaller is better.  There is a small movement of engineers, project managers, and other professionals, taking their practice back home.  There’s no use of having a big office and all that overhead, when most technologies (hosted solutions) can take care of all their needs.  Working from home or a mobile office has it’s appeal to the professional who wants to run things their way or operate outside of the corporate world.  A side effect of this is corporations are outsourcing to the mobile professionals, which seems to be beneficial to both parties because of the lower costs and the earnings made.

Anyway, back to Mr. Bolden.  He’s a stand up guy, lot of heart, character and tech sense.  His career achievements as a Naval Officer, owner of successful businesses and a caring family man, are enough for me to accept his partnership.  I’m honored to have him and now we can increase our SHOOPRINT…LOL.  Now, onward to conquer the islands and beyond! (Get it? Instead of footprint…forget…)

You can read more about him on our info page - READ MORE.

RAS

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About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced life. 

Phone: (808)953-9558 | www.netshoo.com | rasolis<at>netshoo dot.com | Hawaii | www.ranthonysolis.com

7:11 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

March 23

Praying the Holy Rosary as A Family

Part of the challenge today is to keep together as a family.  Life seems to throw all kinds of crazy situations that are basically, out of our control.  Our family consists of six kids.  Yes, that’s right.  The ages range from a 1 year old to a pre-pubescent teenager.  Thank God, despite our poor parenting skills, our children seem to be okay, know what I mean?

This Easter, after moving to Hawaii, getting a new home, simplifying our lifestyle, and trying to get healthier, our family overcame a lot!  As a Catholic father, I knew we had to refresh somehow and what a perfect time to do so in Easter.  Just so you know, we try really hard to teach our kids the real meaning of the season and not the commercialized version of it.  During our living out the Holy Lenten season, which was created and inspired to remember Jesus Christ’s Passion for us, you won’t see any bunnies, Easter eggs or chocolate things around the house.  We aren’t against them, they simply are not emphasized.  Sure, if the local parish has an egg hunt, we’ll participate.

As part of our spiritual exercise, Annabel and I decided to pray the Holy Rosary.  What an amazing devotion.  Can you imagine, the Holy Virgin Mary gave the Rosary and the prayer to St. Dominic?  He was preaching it to the masses to fight heresy and sin.  You can read more about it at the EWTN site.  Well, this past week, even though our Rosary prayer wasn’t perfect, we could sense the change in the air.  Something was definitely happening and sustaining our desire to be more holy during this Lenten season.  It is such a powerful devotion, it teaches you the scriptures in each mystery (the Gospel), helps establish a relationship with the Virgin Mary, as we pray with her not to her, and of course, being in the presence of our Lord is precious.

Our Rosary prayer has brought some peace, at least at night.  The Rosary pulled us together as a family, even though we struggled to recite, read and keep reverent about things.  I can definitely say that it is changing us inside and out.  I once listened to a audio seminar in which Rosalind Moss, said that a family praying the Rosary will conquer anything.  I really believe that because of the 15 promises of the Virgin Mary intended for those who pray the Rosary.

RAS

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About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  Personally, he is a Catholic family man with six children.  He has high hopes to become a Catholic Catechist and complete his degree in Theology in the future.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced and holy life.

Phone: (808)953-9558 | www.netshoo.com | rasolis<at>netshoo dot.com | Hawaii | www.ranthonysolis.com

2:42 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

March 15

Netshoo.com – Small Makeover

Well, it’s finally done.  I’ve been meaning to change the Netshoo website for awhile now.  Coding wise it was horrible underneath and when ever the site came up I could see the inefficiencies.  I also needed a better WYSIWYG editor to help me manage the site better.  Yes, that’s right a WYSIWYG editor.  I’m a minimalist designer so I don’t need much coding.  And the editor’s already have basic templates in place for me to do my thing. 

I migrated the site to Microsoft’s Office Live platform.  The past year or so they have made significant changes which allows guys like me to tweak the code just enough to make it my own.  I would imagine they’ve learned a lot and have the basic engine from their Frontpage days.  For a free site, MS Officelive has awesome small business features, like contact management, customizable web forms, free email system, workspace and document sharing. 

Check it out my website at www.netshoo.com

RAS

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About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced life. 

Phone: (808)953-9558 | www.netshoo.com | rasolis<at>netshoo dot.com | Hawaii | www.ranthonysolis.com

7:02 PM GMT  |  Read comments(2)

February 04

What’s My Story?

• Ziff-Davis, Information Access (Foster City), Quality Assurance Software Technician
• Electronic Arts (EA), Video Game Tester (FUN JOB!)
• ABS-CBN, The Filipino Channel, Technical Support & Quality Services
• Egreetings.com, Customer Service, E-commerce Support, and Intranet Developer
• Escalate.com, E-commerce Customer Support

Somewhere in between Electronic Arts and the Filipino Channel, I started my own company, called In-touch Communications.  I was a reseller of Paging and Cellular technology.  This company was a result of me reading, Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  I had never thought of starting my own business, I was always taught to get my own job and retire at 65 yrs of age.  Well, my eyes were opened.  I was able to see the bigger opportunity and freedoms of having my own business.  I was hooked.  My serial entrepreneurialism was released.  Eventually, as the technology world changed, I was unable to compete with the big boys.  Pagers were slowly decreasing and cellular giants started giving away free cell phones.  I sold the business back to the carriers and came out even in the process. 

 

About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced life.

6:21 PM GMT  |  Read comments(1)

February 22

Going Barebones with My Business

As much as I would love to have more technology and all this fancy features to help me with my business, I have to be smart.  My business isn’t exactly drawing in a ton of revenue and every small bit I pay out, eats away at my resources.  So I have decided to run my business on as many free or very affordable technology out there.  Microsoft and Google have plenty to offer, so I’ll be sticking with their technology for the most part. 

I’ve cancelled the following:

1. Hosting services
2. Virtual PBX Toll-Free number
3. Blog Services

I’ll be discussing in more detail what I am using and how it all works, so for now, here are the services I’m using to replace those I used to pay for:

1. Microsoft’s OfficeLive
2. Kept my Unlimited Cell Phone Plan
3. Using Live Space Blogs

Hmmm…sounds like this could be a pretty good series for these times.  Funny thing is I haven’t lost an edge technology wise.  I still have the same potential in obtaining business, providing good service and market exposure.  Who wouldn’t want to save and still be able to do the same about of business?  Okay so I’m not doing much right now, but if I was, get what I mean.  =)


As a mobile professional running a virtual company, it’s important to stay lean and use technology to leverage your business.  Free or minimal cost is an effective way to start and continue as you’ll have bigger margins.  After all it’s why we are virtual, right?


Microsoft has done a great job in providing a lot of enterprise technologies for small business.  I’ll be hosting most of my websites, email and marketing on their available platforms. 

Microsoft services:

1. Microsoft OfficeLive – Free Website, Collaboration Workspace and Email
2. Microsoft Online Services – Hosted Exchange, Sharepoint, LiveMeeting and Communications
3. Office Live Essentials – LiveWriter, Blog
   

This post has inspired a new series called “Barebones Technologies” – I’ll be tracking, analyzing and posting about my own reality with the technologies I use.  The technologies themselves will either be free or very affordable costs. 

R. Anthony Solis

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About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced life.

4:07 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

February 04

A Fresh Start (Again)...

After several attempts at building niche websites for my business, I'm shrinking the whole idea to one website.  It proved to be too much work.  My lack of creativity or ability to write witty posts, made it very challenging.  After much thought, deep meditation and a week-end retreat (just kidding folks!), I'm re-habbing my original and oldest site, www.ranthonysolis.com.
     

What's awesome is the OfficeLive Team at Microsoft, have implemented some really cool features.  It makes the WYSIWYG editor more versatile and I also have the ability to get into the website code.  Very nice!  I haven't used OfficeLive for about a year or so, as I started to learn about the WordPress world.  As fascinating the WordPress culture is, I'm comforted by the familiarity of Microsoft.
     

So what's my plan?  Not too sure as of yet, but I want to make ranthonysolis.com, the center of my online presence.  I will be featuring the various technologies I have earned a certification and I feel is of some value.  So far it will definitely be the following:
     

- Top Producer 8i (TP) - Real Estate Business System (Certified Consultant)

- Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) (Authorized Microsoft Partner) 

- Sophos - Data Security & Management (Certified Trusted Sales Advisor)

- Symantec - Security & Data Backup (Certified Sales Expert)

Anyway, have to go back on finish up the website - I'm enjoying the OfficeLive editor - its really come around in just one year!
     

 RAS

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About RAS - R. Anthony Solis is a Small Biz Technologist, consulting in Hawaii and over the internet.  He specializes in internet solutions to help a small business grow, operate more efficiently and work smarter.  The ultimate goal is to achieve a balanced life.

11:25 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)