All day I have been trying to find a moment to publish a quick post, giving a shout out to Google for another awesome product that's in the works. We already use analytics, webmaster tools, gmail etc and think this is probably one of the most exciting announcements since search. As a company this offers us exciting collaboration options to supplement what we already have, but it's even more exciting when you consider the integration with our wider community. Well done Google ... simply awesome.

Mashable have 4 great articles on Google Wave

http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/ the complete guide. If you don't want to watch the 1 hour 20 min video above, then read this instead.

http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/twave/ a link to a twitter app for google wave

http://mashable.com/2009/05/31/google-wave-test/ a first test ... cool.

http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave/ Could Google Wave Redefine Email and Web Communication? Redefine possibly, replace, I don't think so.

Thanks Mashable for the awesome resources as always.

One of the things I love most about my job working in the wedding industry is the feeling of love, union, and joining together of people, families and our collective story. Sadly some people think that because we are ambitious business people and work hard that, we are all about business and nothing else. The truth is that our connection with humanity is deep and our love of people precious to us, therefore when I came across this website "I Take The Vow" I was moved by the the organisations ambition to have 100 million people take a vow of Non Violence In Their Thoughts, Their Speech and of course Their Actions . Imagine how the world would change, if those people actually did do this ... Will you take the vow?

From the website: On November 7, 2008, at 9:45 am, the 500 people attending the Alliance for a New Humanity Human Forum in Barcelona took a vow for non violence in their thoughts, speech and actions. Each person decided to ask other people in their lives to join them in taking the vow. The goal then became to create a global movement, which would mobilize 100 million people to make the same commitment. We, at the Alliance for a New Humanity believe that if a critical mass of people commit to this vow, the world would be transformed. If you are seriously committed to peace, join us in this global movement and take the vow. Love, Deepak Chopra President and Founder of the Alliance For A New Humanity

For more information click here, better tell me what you think below, and please re-tweet this to twitter.

Ok, it might not be the travel that has improved it, but being stuck on a plane for 12 hours certainly allows time to focus. The task for Day 11 of "31 days to build a better blog" is to prepare 10 blog posts for use in the future, when time or imagination are working against you.

So here is what I did

# 1. First I took the trusty Moleskine notebook that @PJ_Danny gave me for Christmas and at the top left of each opening wrote a blog topic. I set myself the challenge of doing 40 and kept at that one task until I had 40 openings with a blog topic on each.

#2. Next I went through, and on each opening created a basic Mind Map, one for each blog post. I did this on the left hand side. At this stage it was a basically just a Brain Dump and the goal was to keep moving. When I got stuck I went on to the next page, and went back later. I wasn't worried how good the ideas were, I was just creating options for material I could write about later.

#3. Once those were done, I went back to the first page and this time went through, post by post, and reviewed each mind map, decided on a theme for the post and created the blog title. I followed rules I learnt from Problogger : How to Craft Post Titles that Draw Readers Into Your Blog

#4. Finally I went back through each page and wrote out the headings for each section of the post. Having already created the mind map and title, this became pretty easy.

So What did I learn

First, it was hard. Not too hard, but challenging to stay focused on the one task for 2-3 hours without distraction. I had to ignore the in-flight movie system, and most importantly I had to remind myself that I needed to develop the discipline of a professional blogger and know what my goals were. Second, it was extremely satisfying. I now have an outline complete for 40 blog posts. How often do we have a spare 2-3 hours available and just waste it in front of the TV? Just imagine what could be achieved if we spent time totally immersed on other parts of our life ... blog design, writing, goal setting or refining our business plan? Tasks are always easier if you chunk them down, and stay focused, as I did. Don't get bogged down, just make sure you keep moving as energy creates movement, and movement creates energy. Have fun This post was my homework for day 11 (I've jumped ahead a bit) of "31 days to build a better blog"

If I go out for dinner and people ask me what I do, and I say, "We make photo albums", I swear their eyes glaze over and you see them searching for the door. After a little conversation, however, people are often fascinated. Ours is a successful comany in an exciting industry ... we see people on the happiest day of their life ... see what spending $100k on a wedding is like ... see guests at weddings like Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker ... make albums for princes and princesses, sheiks and other famous people. We work with incredibly talented and creative people. I think mine is a family of story tellers. We describe stuff in analogies and love sharing those stories with others. Every time one of my grandparents told a story the other would rush to their albums to point out exactly who was being spoken about. These people are long gone but their memories and images remain. These books are precious, not because we made them, but because of the events and people that are recorded within them. Photo by Johannes van Kan and Jo Grams at Moda Fotografica Here are a few examples (images and albums) by other photographers - Horse and rider - Perfect Canvas - Ends of the Earth

It's been a while since I shared a music video, so yesterday  spent a little time on YouTube and found: How Soon Is Now? by t.A.T.u from their album 200 km/hr In The Wrong Lane It got my attention because a couple of days ago I wrote a post "Be mischievous, Get Noticed", and you can definitely put these singers in that category. Lena & Yulya (aka Lena & Julia) are affectionately open about their relationship, which is great, but I am sure it also helps with publicity. This from their official website ...

Brazenly, after promising not to kiss on the Tonight Show, they engaged in a long, passionate wet one-- much to the alarm of anxious network censors, (and well before Britney and Madonna's little stunt, ahem). And yet, when expected to do the same on Jimmy Kimmel, they deliberately offered not so much as a sweet peck on the cheek.

LOL it's brilliant PR and great for their relationship, so it's good all around. Now I don't want to distract from their love if it's real, but I was curious as to whether it was serious or just a stunt. The amazing thing is, despite lots of images of them kissing and holding each other, it's hard to find anything confirming they actually are a couple. I didn't really look that hard, but all I could find were a few tabloid articles suggesting they were more enemies than friends. I find that hard to believe: there is a real energy and it is lovely to see. Anyway, please enjoy. This one is pretty 'tame', if you want more here is a video mix done by a fant.A.T.u Youtube channel here