THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS......AND BEYOND

It's the day before Christmas and I sit just thinking. I am not sure what I think about more, the past or the future.

The past Christmases flood my head. How fast time flies and all the good memories I had of Christmas as a kid. I remember waiting in our bedrooms until dad had coffee and mom had the polaroid camera. The excitement was more than I could bare. I never forgot entering the living room frantically looking for that special gift from Santa and the overflowing stockings on the mantel. The one thing I remember most is the burning of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls because we forgot they were in the oven. it happened every year and we would laugh every time. You'd think we would have bought mom a timer for Christmas.

The future Christmases come to mind as to how my excitement has shifted now that I am older. The days before Christmas seem to be the most exciting. Helping people this year gives me greater joy than I could have imagined. Watching others be excited and happy and knowing that you had a part in it. I now think how can I do even more for people in the coming years. The possibilities are endless.

The big day comes so fast and seems to end so abruptly that you almost have to fight to not be sad moments after the last package has been ripped open.

So, to keep my engine running, to keep my excitement high I literally make plans. I make goals for the new year. I don't call them resolutions, but more like motivations. The things you can do in the new year are endless in today's times. Here are some of my exciting ideas for the new year.

1. Merchandise: Do I want more hats. Do I want different shirts. How can i market them better and should I give away most of them as prizes.
2. Cooking Show: How can I cook dishes that are more related to the times of the year. Do I do a picnic food summer series where it's everything from cold fried chicken to potato salad. How about doing another Romantic Dinner for Valentines.
3. Health: how can I stay motivated to walk, do a sport, stay active. Do I start playing tennis with Jack jr. Should Tammy and I start bowling again. How about just walking while listening to audiobooks.
4. Eating Better: I need to continue researching foods and eating habits. I can't wait until February so I can see my cholesterol results from abstaining from all meat but poultry and fish. Should I abstain from starch for 4 months and see how that affects me?
5. Family: I should implement Sunday dinners. Every Sunday night the family sits at the table (not TV trays) and eats a traditional dinner with no music or TV in the background. We just share stories and enjoy each other's company.
6. Outdoors: Should I commit to a gardening video series and seriously do a garden. Do I just do a bunch of tomato plants to start? some cucumbers? maybe lettuce?
7. Others: Do I start working closer with a food facility in feeding the hungry?

These are just a few things that get me excited about the new year and keeps me going. It keeps the January blues away. Think about learning how to do stuff off of Youtube videos. Think about
learning a new language. Make a goal or two and try something new. That is what keeps life exciting.

So what are your thoughts this day before Christmas? What does 2014 have in store for you?

HOW TO SWITCH FROM IPHONE TO ANDROID

You might want to read this, since on Black Friday Best Buy is giving away Samsung Galaxy S4 phones for $0 with 2 year contract, and Walmart is selling them for $99 and you get a $100 walmart gift card. Both great deals.

so there are a few things you must do to leave the iPhone and I have listed the steps I took to do just that.

First thing you do is ALWAYS Back up your iphone.


PHOTOS
Export all photos and videos. Even though you backed it up, send it all to iPhoto just for a second copy. If you have Google+ then make sure you switch on the auto upload of photos and video. G+ will always make a copy for you on your G+ account. photos and videos all done.

APPS
write down or take screenshots of all your apps on the iPhone.

MUSIC
Open up a google play account under your google login (also your gmail login).  Then upload all your itunes music to google play music player. This is free. They let you upload 20,000 songs for free unlike iTunes. You can also set up google play to upload anything new added to iTunes in the future. So buy through iTunes and it's copied to Google Play automatically.  Music done.

CONTACTS
Export Apple Contacts. There is a program that will export your apple contacts to a .CSV file. here is the link: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26427/a-to-g
Then go to Gmail and import file. Contacts done.

EMAIL
If you're already using gmail then you're fine. If you're using apple email like .me or .mac or .icloud just set it up to be forward to Gmail account. You can still keep your emails address, just access it via Gmail. Email done.

CALENDAR
Now your calendar. This will have to be transferred over by hand from Apple Calendar to Google Calendar. I went through the year and it took me about 30 minutes. Most stuff was recurring and I only had to enter in once, like bible study or pay rent. With Google Calendar I can share my calendar with my wife even though she's on an iphone. She can add to it and I can add to it. Calendar done.

NEW PHONE SETUP
Now when you get your new Android phone, setup up all your important stuff first, wifi network key, associate Gmail account to the phone and it will always sync.

NEW APPS
The beauty of most apps that we use, your info travels with you because they are all web based. No need to copy files over to new phone. Apps like Evernote, Dropbox, Redbox, Netflix, Pandora, Feedly, Facebook, candy crush, etc. Apps done.

BENEFITS OF ANDROID OVER IOS

1. you get to choose which programs open which links. For example, I don't want samsung internet but I want Chrome to open all web links. I want Youtube to open youtube links. I want my own video player to play my videos, etc. Apple forced you to use Safari and it sucks.

2. Since you get to pick your programs, I choose google maps to open all map links. You can also choose WAZE or other map programs of your choice. Apple made you use theirs.

3. Music storage is free on Google Play up to 20,000 songs. Apple charged you for iTunes Match.

4. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, Google Drive and Google Newsstand are all free and sync in the cloud with all your devices. Apple charged for iCloud.

5. I can backup my phone, upload pics and videos all wirelessly without being plugged into a charger. Apple requires being plugged in.

6. I can unlock my phone via a pattern, face recognition, voice recognition or pin number. I never want my fingerprint stored on my phone or anywhere else. 

7. The camera films frame in frame using both cameras and can film 3 speeds in slow motion and 3 speeds in fast motion. Apple has one slow motion speed and they just got this. 

8. I can replace my battery and I can double the memory size of my phone by buying a larger sim card. Apple doesn't give you any of these features.

9. love the bigger screen. Apple should have went to the bigger screen on the iPhone 5. Still can't read an iPhone worth a darn.

Sorry Apple. 5 years of loyalty got me the same phone each year for the past 2 years. At this point there is no need to be dragged around by Apple who still is playing catch up with android phones. Make the switch!

Xbox One vs. PS4 - Decisions, Decisions.

I struggle where to spend my $500.

Here are the reasons to buy each machine.

Xbox One:

1. Xbox Live is far superior to PS Plus. Sony had always had trouble creating environments that are social and easy for everyone to move around in. Things like xbox avatars, inviting to parties, and just game updates are much more attractive than how Sony does things. Finding things in the PS3 menu environment is painful and ugly and just not well put together. I don't know how much faith I have that the PS4 will be comparable to Xbox Live.

2. Xbox controllers have always felt better in my hand. The headsets hook up easier and the mics just plug right into the handset that you're playing on. I remember it was painful hooking up the headset to the PS3. It required more time and wiring.

3. My son is on Xbox and he will probably go to Xbox One because all his friends will go there. Socializing with his friends and playing games with them is what sells him on it. Playing with my son from room to room is a plus.

4. The app. Xbox has an app that lets you access your account from the road. You can still message your friends and see what they are playing and change your avatar. There is no app for the PS3. I don't expect one for the future from Sony. Which means I can't use my phone to enter in these long email and passwords. Nothing is more painful than typing with a game controller.

5. Xbox gets DLC's first on games and sometimes exclusively. PS3 was unable to get the Skyrim DLC. Also, PS3 was unable to play my Disney Infinity. Then the patch came out for PS3 and it still could not play the game. So I exchanged it for xbox and was playing immediately. Having glitches and no playing games is why I left PC gaming. PS3 has given me reason to worry.

PS4:
1. It all comes down to games. PS4 has better exclusives. I love Killzone, Resistance, Uncharted, Beyond Two Souls, etc.  I play more of the PS4 exclusive titles than I do the xbox exclusive titles.

2. PS Plus give you new whole games for free. Once a month I believe. You just download it and play.

3. My brother will be on PS4 and we can play more together. The problem is that he has more time to play than I so there still will be limitations to this advantage.

4. PS4 is $100 less than Xbox One. Price is everything. I can get a PS4 and 1.5 games for the price of Xbox One. Not sure why Xbox priced it so high.

5. Sony is not trying to control your used game market, or monitor you. I am not a fan of the kinect being connected all the time with the NSA using any means possible to spy on Americans. That device needs to be disconnectable.

So as you can see my decision is a tough one. If money wasn't an issue, I'd buy both. But I don't want to spend that much money and I need to decide.

What are your Pros and Cons for each machine? Leave in the comments below. Thanks for assisting me on this big decision.

How To Launch Your Own Food Products

"Can you please tell me how to get my food products to the public?"

I get asked this question about 30 times a year, so I am now making a list of how to do this. It works with any food product. If you're not in the USA or are in rural USA, these steps can be more difficult.

Here are my credentials:
Sauces: http://TheBestSauces.com
Cooking With Jack: http://Youtube.com/jakatak69
Jack on The go Show: http://Youtube.com/jackonthego
Feel free to share this with anyone. It's the steps I do and have learned in my experience.

1. Find a food technician. Have her sign a NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT (NDA) which protects your recipe.  A food tech will bring you into a controlled environment and watch you make your recipe. She/he will measure and document each ingredient. Then will create your formula and give you nutritions list and ingredients list for your label. $200 - $500 an hour. should only take about 4-5 hours.

2. Find a Manufacturer. The term to search for is co-packers. These are the guys that make, label and box your product. Have them sign an NDA, then give them the formula and tell them the packaging you desire. Look through catalogs and pick something that is readily available to your co-packer so cost will be low for packaging.

3. Find Customers. Once you have a per unit price on your product you then need to go home and make a big batch of your product. Go store to store and sample it to the buyers of the store. Ask them if they would carry your product once it's made. MAKE SURE YOU SAMPLE TO THE PERSON WHO HAS THE POWER TO SAY YES AND NO  ONE ELSE. NEVER GIVE/LEAVE WHOLE BOTTLES.

4. Get Product Liability Insurance on your food product. If you can afford to Incorporate then do so. You want to protect yourself from someone dying from your product. (worst case scenario) My insurance is about $1000 a year.

5. Do the smallest manufacturing run you can once you have at least 5 committed stores. You should not make more than 70-100 cases. The shorter the shelf life the less you want to make.

6. Deliver to stores.

Here are a few more tips to marketing your product.

• Get more stores to carry you. Start with small independent stores and small chain stores (between 4-5 locations)
• Sell at the local flea market, swap meet or farmers market. We moved about 200 jars of sauce on a Sunday afternoon.
• Sell on a website. 
• Launch social media pages for your products.
• Get magazines, newspaper food reviewers to write about your product. Send them a sample.
• Get food bloggers to write about your product. Send them a sample.
• Never stop marketing your sauce. Wear hats, shirts and talk about it all the time.
• Best Tip: Wrap your car to advertise your product. No one really does this still and I get 8000 views a month on my wrap job. Cost of wrap: $1500. 8000 views X 12 months X 5 years live span = 480,000 views of your product. Worth every penny. I've sold enough product out of my wrapped car to pay for the wrap 3 times already.

I hope this helps someone. I am very blessed to be where I am at and I want to help as many people as possible. God bless!