I think that this is awesome and am very proud that my friend has made it available for a re-blog. Thank you, Missy.

When you cross the 59th Street Bridge from Queens County into Manhattan, sometimes you get to see the tram arriving and departing for Roosevelt Island. My kids like to ride it for the view. Spanking-A eye candy, too! :-)

We like to park by the hotels and take a buggy ride through Mid-Manhattan. You can pick a carriage up along 59th St in front of Central Park.

Some of the horse drawn buggies can be found lined up along Central Park near this statue.

Here's a little eye candy from our Thanksgiving carriage ride. Stay tuned for tomorrow night's turtle run so you can see some spanking Christmas lights. They are starting to go up all over New York City. Turns out we were too early for the decorating of the giant evergreen tree in the last shot. The kids were waiting patiently but it was getting cold. It went from 44 to 37 degrees and I had to protect my little people from freezing. I hope to take them back into New York County over the week-end, which is why I'm jogging tomorrow night to scope out some decorations. I want to plan a nice route to keep the little minions busy with lots of eye candy to enjoy. 

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. May God bless and each and every one of you and your families. Regards, C.

In case you haven't done the Wiki, now may be a very good time for me to introduce you to the various levels of Minions. Although there are more, I am going to quote my favorite three British points of order using the Queen's English. Are you ready? I Quote: Minion is a term for favorites or protégés, especially those of a monarch or prince at a royal court. Unlike a henchman or lackey, although of subordinate rank to his patron, a minion is likely to be of noble birth or to be raised to the nobility, and is more of a companion and confidant to him than a servant or bodyguard. Minion may refer to a fictional role: see henchman. Minion may refer to a constraint solver: see Minion (solver). End Quote. BTW, Minion may refer to a couple of other things so when I use the term as a term of endearment, it turns out it can quite nicely cover my little people when they are being both good and naughty (LOL).

I gotta tell ya' every so often my little minions live up to their collective nick name in every facet of every detail one may define a little minion to be. Most of the time they are really quite sweet in their self-directed ways, but every so often, once in a while, the gremlin in them comes out and we adults suffer a brain fart because my boys can render you quite speechless in the blink of an eye or in a heartbeat... Take Stephen's latest Sunday escapades... (I must pause at this point in my narrative to bring to your attention the significant fact that there is an "s" at the end of escapades.) He has managed to do quite a bit of mischief today, but we were saved from a few of the minion blur's terrible-two post toddler campaign by (a) the grace of God, (b) our collective stupidity and (c) serendipity.

My confession regarding of our collective stupidity is a significant statement, and I shall tell you why:

It is a well establish fact known to my relatives (on-line, and brick and mortar friends) that in the realm of Good and Naughty, Sir Stephen the Blur Minion is the Prince of Audacity. Afflicted with PDD-NOS, his terrible twos have been enhanced with the spice of (a) self-direction, (b) a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain and (c) the "they think I'm cute, let's see what I can get away with today," behavior virus. BTW, I know it's a potent virus because he gets away with quite a lot, especially if there is a woman involved. Being aware of all of the PDD-NOS clinical clues that were and continue to be a cause of concern for us, you would think that we, the adults of the home, would have learned by now that Stephen the Blur Minion is not to be trusted when it comes to appliances or any form of electronics.

May I take a moment to refresh your recollection of the recently failed scientific experiments of my 2.7 year old? If I were pretending to be one of my brilliant therapist friends I would pause to explain, "He appears to be compensating for his limited comprehension and vocabulary by attempting to expand his communicative gestures," which would be a true statement. However, he is quite a spontaneous little fellow who has a gift for leaving a lasting first impression on the equipment, electronics and appliances in my apartment. Something deep in my mommy souls thinks there is more to it than that...

After all, who could forget: (a) sinking both our cell phones in the toilet, (b) sinking four expensive scientific notation calculators in the toilet, (c) shredding money, inclusive of coins (which I must admit I was a bit impressed with because I didn't know my shredder could do that - LOL), (d) flushing my Nikon's SD card down the toilet (with a thousand photographs embedded on the drive, BTW - sigh), (e) the assortment of disappearing remote controls and (f) feeding peanut butter and jelly to the DVD player...

I could go through the entire alphabet listing minion blur events, but it appears that somehow we, the adults did manage to forget. It was such a lovely, quiet Sunday and he could be so cute and cuddly when he wants to that when he innocently pointed to my cell phone and chirped, "that one?" How could I resist? He's my baby. It was the smile that did me in, the twinkle in those gleaming, gorgeous, chocolate brown eyes. I'm his favorite girl. He's my guy pie. How could I, his Mom, resist the wiles of such a handsome little man asking so nicely in such a calm, charming, innocent little voice?

Stupid, stupid, stupid mommy! What was I thinking? (NOT!)

He calmly climbed off my lap, flipped it open and said, "hello," and I was thrilled. The spontaneous appropriate use of a cell phone. My little pookie was engaged in imaginary play, chatting on my red cell phone (vocalization without verbalization). Little did I realize he soon tired of the game and promptly speed dialed someone so he could babble with a live voice. Then, in true minion style, he refused to hang up, resulting in them not being able to use their home phone for 32 minutes. I am in Twitter. He's playing nicely. I am oblivious to the new development (LOL).

He then wanders into the kitchen, stands on his little red chair (which he takes everywhere so he can see what he's messing with on the shelves) and promptly drops my phone into the toaster because Daddy's phone is next to it on the re-charge. Oooo... new toy! Silver! Shiny! He tries to make off with the new phone but it is tethered to the outlet. Frustrated, he drops it into the other slot of the toaster. I am oblivious to this new development. He's playing nicely. It's quiet. I am in ActiveRain and Twitter (LOL).

Hmm... the toaster has a lever... so he pushes it down and walks away because the bell has rung. Mommy ordered pizza through her on-line account. Cheesy bread is a foodie paradise item for the boys. They will pick a spot, chill and not move when they see Domino's is in the house. Stephen climbs in the silver chair to try and unlock the front door. Hubby comes out of the shower and starts putting his uniform on. Hmm... we can't find his BJ card. Strange. It was in his wallet... Stephen has been in his jacket and gone pick pocketing again. Bummer. Hope he didn't chuck it out the window. He likes slipping things onto the ledge to feed the pigeons. Hmm... we can't find his cell phone. No problem, "I'll call yours from mine," I say, except we can't find my cell phone either. Damn... Mike is late for work and needs his cell phone. We try the fax. The handset is disconnected from the cradle. WTF? The cordless phone is not in the base either. We can't find the house phones. STEPHEN STOLE ALL THE FRIGGIN' PHONES!!!

OMG - My last resource is Skype! I call my phone and it immediately goes to voice mail because my boy never hung up from the speed dial. I call the house phone and get a busy signal. It's on open-mike and we can't figure out where his hiding place is. I call my husband's phone. It starts ringing and there is this strange grinding noise coming from my kitchen. I start yelling for my two year old to come out while I head in and discover Mike's phone vibrating and ringing in the toaster, which would have been toasting it except we unplugged it to use the Inferred Cooker and forgot to plug the toaster back in (Thank you, God!!!). New rule: When you have minions, unplug everything in the kitchen.

While we are running around like chickens with our head cut off (before I remember the Skype option), little dude is seated on the futon eating all the pizza watching us like we are his favorite cartoon on television. BTW, I'm still looking for the other phones... Seriously! It's been hours since I tweeted this. Little Dude sure knows how to hide things. So now you know what lunch time is like in my home on a lazy Sunday afternoon. (LMAO)

I gotta plan a holiday dinner. If you are thinking of ever inviting the little minions over, go check out this Autism resource for "Holiday Dinners GFCF Style" for some ideas if you feel PB&J is too thin for the menu (LOL). BTW, @autismfamily writes for BellaOnline.com. Go follow the tweets of my tweet peep Bonnie Sayers, the BellaOnline's Autism Spectrum Disorders Editor if you want to learn more about what Moms with special kids go through. We could use all the help we can get. :-)

Stephen I. Starr at EIP pre-school

Got some very interesting e-mail from my AR and Twitter peeps. Rather than answer you each individually, I've decided to write a blog post to give you all some insight into what my life is like as a Realtor battling with my kids learning disabilities. So go get comfy 'cause this is gonna' be a looooong post (LOL). Got a question? You can comment, e-mail, or tweet me (@CTannStarr).

No one really knows what anyone else is going through. We look at the surface and make assumptions because we process information based upon what we know and/or what we think or understand to be true. We all have "typical behaviors." When you are a parent with a learning disabled child (or in my case two of them) your life becomes "atypical." Your behavior and mannerisms adjust to accommodate your loved ones to the point where you don't have a lot of time to adhere to the usual games of cat and mouse regarding tact and diplomacy. You become more blunt and direct, especially when you discover that your atypical children have no guile. They do not understand gray. They understand black and white. Yes or no. True or false. On and off. Likes and dislikes. Right and wrong. They are very honest with their emotions. Sometimes brutally honest. When you become friends (or are a parent) to someone who is brutally honest, your emotions are going to be taken for one hell of a ride.

When you deal with Autism and PDD-NOS issues, one can not approach it with the attitude of "being a little bit pregnant." You are either prego, or you are not. You are either in it to win a educational milestone victory, or not. I can not speak for all parents. I can only speak for myself and I must say that the process of evaluating my children, the activities, tools and commitments to appointments I must keep in order for professionals to measure their level of functioning has been exhausting. It never ends, which means that my time is very precious and valuable to me. I can't stand when people waste my time because it usually means that something very important to me and my family was put off to make time for a no-show.

Any developmental disability is a condition that significantly interferes with a child's ability to function. Children are already a handful, so imagine them with peculiar quirks far off the beaten path of mainstream child like behavior. Language and speech are not the same thing. Unfortunately, a lot of people take that fact for granted. I did until I had to deal with this issue with my little people, who I love dearly. The funny thing is, now that I am dealing with it, I have been blessed to discover how rich the five fold aspects of non-linguistic, verbal, paralinguistic, language and speech really are. I now say exactly what I mean, even if it is not articulated to the best of my ability, because I live with kids who take me literally. Don't read into this something that I didn't say. I have the prerogative of changing my mind and this option is at my disposal every single minute of the day. I will use it (LOL). But I digress... getting back to the little minions:

The curious thing about taking Stephen to a specialized pre-school to help him overcome his disabilities is the fact that he has a pre-school personality for the event. Being 2.7 years old in an Early Intervention Program I'm sure he has no idea that he is doing it, but I can tell because of his patterns of stimming. Stimming = Self-Stimulatory Behavior. In his specific case, he has a series of very interesting "tells" and gets very excited about the fact that I have his back-pack or that we are going to see Susana for Special Instruction and/or go to Personal Touch for his speech and occupational therapy.

For that matter, so does his older brother Noah, but his "tells" are far more subtle and sophisticated. I believe it is  because he is only moderately Autistic. The PDD-NOS in Step is more severe, which is unusual because I was taught and under the assumption that it would be relatively mild compared to Autism. I guess that's why they describe it as being on a spectrum. The range can be wide... In sum and substance, I usually joke that my children should never play poker or be introduced to any type of gambling game. They are both very obsessive and transparent little people, so I have to be very careful with them  (LOL).

Because of their openness and honesty-by-default mindset I am learning a lot about myself and others through the eyes of my children. I have also discovered that they are very good at reading adults so I find that I never go wrong when I take my cues from them. If my kids don't like someone I instantly pass on associating with them. I wont hesitate and I wont think twice about it. I have walked away from doing business with people my kids instantly withdrew from. They rarely withdraw from anyone, so when they do it is time for me to go.

What I love most about my little Mini-Realtors in training is the fact that their communication delays have made me more aware of the power of communication. My 2 year old rarely speaks, so they are teaching hm sign language with his speech therapy. Little dude has two speech therapists. Very cool. That means I am learning sign language by default from two professionals. My 6 year old engages in echolalia. He's a mimic. We refer to him as the two legged recorder. He has no idea what more than half of the words mean, but if something catches his attention, he internalizes it and can repeat it back word for word and with perfect diction. We don't know if he has total recall because my son can not answer a compound question, however he can sing songs from The Lion King in five different languages. Perfectly. In a beautiful singing voice... How crazy is that?

Trying to understand Autism is not easy. I am mentally exhausted, emotionally drained and tired most nights. Blogging relaxes me. Jogging relaxes me. Creating music and art makes me happy. Joking with my friends is priceless because my life is very serious more often than not. The funny thing is, my habits are becoming my kids habits. They now have an expectation to help me create work because this is what they have been exposed to: my constant working. They sincerely believe they are supposed to be doing exactly what they see I and my hubby do. They insist upon it, in fact - quite forcefully at times. My life is always very interesting because of it (LOL).

Lets take a moment to Wiki two points of order because I really want you to understand exactly what I mean. I quote: Echolalia is the repetition of vocalizations made by another person. Echolalia can be present in Autism, Tourette syndrome, Aphasia, Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, Developmental Disability, Schizophrenia, Asperger syndrome and, occasionally, other forms of psychopathology. It is also frequently found in blind visually impaired children, although most will outgrow this behavior. When done involuntarily, echolalia may be considered a tic. The word "echolalia" is derived from the Greek ἠχώ meaning "echo" or "to repeat" and λαλιά (laliá) meaning "babbling meaningless talk" (of onomatopoeic origin from the verb λαλέω (laléo) meaning "to talk").

Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is one of the pervasive developmental disorders and Autism spectrum disorders. PDD-NOS is a diagnosis for people who are well-described by the "PDD" label, but can't be categorized by any other disorder. It is usually milder than autism and has similar symptoms to autism, with some symptoms present, and others absent. The boundaries between PDD-NOS and non-autistic conditions are not fully resolved. End quote.

I wish Stephen's condition was more mild than Noah's but it is not. His manifestations require twice as much therapy plus the government originally authorized a shadow at school for him just to help supervise Step and guard against the storm of self-destructive behavior that periodically erupts (e.g. head banging, kicks, slaps, scratching and an occasional bite or two). He loves school and is quite a flirt there, so they let the state shadow go (for now) because he is doing very well.

Having two speech delayed kids is a challenge. When I take my kids to work with me, they are not just learning a profession, they are learning how to apply language in a socially appropriate manner in a variety of settings. When I take my kids to work with me, they are being introduced into a world they have an expectation to be functioning in. Because of the obsessiveness inherent in both of their learning disorders, I do not have the luxury of waiting until they are teenagers to start asking them what they want to be. I have to show them different professions now. I have to make them aware of what is going on in the world now because my kids are anal retentive in their disorders and obsess about patterns and details. They function in an extreme environment of habits and schedules. They do not tolerate a break in their routines unless they are on a field trip or carefully planned adventure where the destination is fun.  

Noah is crazy about computers, buildings, cars, construction trucks, music and dance. He loves art. He loves photography. He thinks he is Bob-The-Builder-Realtor-Man-Of-Action and is Open House crazy. Noah glows with happiness around new construction. Sometimes we sit and watch new construction activity like some people watch television. I let him have the Nikon all of the time. Little dude can take some pretty good pictures. He becomes very serious if you give him a camera, almost as anal retentive with detail as his Mama. I even used one of his photographs on a post once in AR (giving him the credit). He was thrilled to see his picture posted on-line. My boy is a YouTube / Disney fan. He knows his work and will walk around with his paintings and photographs reminding me that they belong to him. He will Google his name, or the Lion King and play in YouTube for hours. Very cool to see him so proud and happy. CTS10866 is my YouTube channel and he knows how to find it. He enjoys seeing his family and our little real estate outings on-line.

Stephen is crazy about Handy Mandy and Hannah Montana. He walks around with screw drivers and Allen-keys trying to take apart my apartment and has a HM Toolbox. My boys have thrown away the toy tools and have taken to filling it with my computer tools. I have to buy Hannah Montana yogurt cups when we go shopping. I refuse to buy him a Hannah tee shirt, but I have thought about it more than once. He really does love her. Maybe as a PJ, but then I balk because I know one day some stupid relative or friend will take a picture of him in it and he'll be embarrassed when he gets older. I am number one on the list as a stupid relative who would do so (LOL).

When the boys observe me creating blog posts they come right over and put their collective two cents in. Noah tells me not to use a picture and starts insisting which one should go where. If I give Stephen a turn at it he points and states either "this one" or "that one." Little dude also fights me for the mouse and skype headset while I'm working all the time. He thinks blogging is a family sport where participants must wrestle to gain possession of the keyboard, mouse and headset. I don't mind the nightly ritual of fighting over the computers because real estate has taught my child to select between two objects. My 2 year old has learned how to compare and decide what he wants...

Real Estate is not just my profession, it is a tool that I use to help my children overcome their disabilities and learn. The best bonus is their love for YouTibe, Disney and scrolling through the photographs on AcriveRain.  

http://www.classymommy.com/wii_giveaway/entry.php

@GeekMommy was tweeting about this so of course I had to take a peek. Wow! This looks like it could be fun. Only thing is, the contest is over on 11/30/2008.

You AR ladies need to get in on the fun! Check out the link, enter your names and e-mail and start using your sphere of influence to get your peeps to vote for you. After all, there are 120K+ members here. Time for the creative moms to leverage the power of social networking and attempt to get your household that free Wii. Your kids will love you extra for it (LOL).

Let us know if you enter so we can find you and vote! ;-)

Melody Botting's Link:

http://www.classymommy.com/wii_giveaway/vote.php?contest=wii&name=Melody+Botting

AKA: Six Useless Facts You Don't Want To Know About Me

Fact#1: I am a Donald Trump fan. When it comes to Donald, I am like a Real Estate junkie trying to get her fix on (LOL). When people e-mail and make negative comments about my loving to read DT and other Trump University endorsed works, it flips my b*tch switch. My reading habits are my reading habits. I like to share them. Matter of fact, check this out:

I love DT's work so much, I made my own electronic post card to send to my friends today (LOL). How fan club is that? Very!

Fact #2: I love Melodious, Kathy, Paddy, Amanda, Lizette, Elizabeth, Richard and Susan (and a host of other CC members) just like they were born into my own family. When people mess with my virtual family, or any one of my CC bay-bays, it flips my b*tch switch. Don't mess with my bay-bays and play nice in the electronic sandbox, people.

Fact #3: I am wild about Hagen Daz and foodie paradise spots. You can get a lot out of me if you promise to feed me really good food. Telling me you are a good cook and feeding me crap flips my b*tch switch. Don't mess with the gourmet belly, people. You'd do better to invite me over for peanut butter and jelly than lie about your cooking skills (LOL). BTW, I happen to adore PB&J. It's little minion food! You make it, we will come over to play and eat with you! Seriously!

Fact #4: I am a video game junkie and love playing on-line with my friends. If you cheat with codes to get ahead without sharing those same codes with everyone on the quest or in the competition, that flips my b*tch switch. I will not play with you anymore and I will tell everyone what a bad puppy you are. I may even blog about you... (LOL)

Fact #5: I am obsessed about learning everything I can regarding Autism and PDD-NOS. My kids are cute, but learning disabled. They are the best thing that has ever happened to me and a unique gift from God. I blog about my little minions when ever I feel like sharing our lives. When people call me unprofessional because I take my kids with me to work, write about them, film them, blog, tweet, play with them at an open house, etc that flips my b*tch switch. Un-follow me you dumb sh%t. Find a new blog to read. Don't attack me for loving my family and being proud of my kids. I will take them with me anytime I want. My kids come first. (BTW, they have a larger social media following than I do - LOL. My kids have gotten me more referrals than my market reports. They think they are Realtors. I'm grooming them for the family business. So there!)

Fact #6: I am not tagging anyone else with this 6 Useless Facts MeMe. Translated: I break rules when it suits me. BTW, so do you. When a person is being hypocritical about situations like they are perfect and have never done anything wrong, or broken a rule, that lie by omission and annoying trivial habit they have flips my b*tch switch. No one alive today is perfect. I know I'm not. I'm waiting for Messiah to come kick some evil butts. (It's a Judeo-Christian thing: IMHO only the Messiah is perfect... )

I love jogging under the Triborough Bridge. You get a great water view of the residential cityscape of upper Manhattan and Harlem. They have a very well maintained track, not to mention a spanking set of tennis courts. I am plotting a new project with my girlfriends and the hubby. I decided to give you a sneak preview of the photographs to come. I'm doing some research on the area in the hopes of making the presentation useful as a hyper-local post. I may even squeeze in a market report (LOL). Stay tuned for a very interesting turtle run post later on tonight.

Here is a little eye candy from my run. BTW, I've also selected some very interesting blog posts to refer you to later on. Gotta show my peeps some link love. (LOL) Enjoy!

Astoria Park, Queens County, New York

Criminal Court, Queens County, New York

I was leaving Maple Grove Park when I found myself staring at the Criminal Courthouse thinking, "cityscape sunsets can be lovely. "

I love the play of colors on a sun kissed building and decided I would go hunt some Briarwood / Forest Hills / Kew Gardens sunsets for you. I have been tweeting about my girlfriend Susana and thought it would be a blast to take her on my eye candy hunts so we can blog about it together. We usually do Foodie Paradise review activities while she helps me deal with Autism and PDD-NOS issues. I'm thinking I should give you guys a formal introduction, especially since she spends a lot of time with my little minions.

I think you would love Susana. My girlfriend is a small business owner with a spanking sense of humor who has also introduced me to some very interesting new friends. You will get to know them as we explore our photographic options while going hyper-local in Queens County. I love posting Club Chaos Eye Candy and started working on a new book devoted to the subject three weeks ago. I own thousands of photographs and have my friends helping me select an interesting collection for publication. We plan to feature parts of the project in Localism so you guys can weigh in and be included. Can't do a book on Club Chaos Eye Candy without featuring the Active Rain group Club Chaos (LOL).

I love hanging out with people who are smarter than I am. They inspire me to rise up and do something interesting with my time. Enjoy your morning. Looking forward to teasing you with some new eye candy tonight. New York City is wonderful at sunset. I should start a CC sunset eye candy series. What say you? :-)

I've been tagged for a Book MeMe. The concept is quite simple and here is how it works:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next two to five sentences.

5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the Closest.

6. Tag five people to do the same. BTW, *The one book that this can not be is the Bible*

(Bummer, I love the Bible and the Torah is sitting on my drafting table right now. Oh well...)

Page 56 from "Corporate Fraud Handbook Prevention and Detection," by Joseph T. Wells:

Books of Accounts

There are two types of books of accounts: journals and ledgers. A journal "(derived from the french word jour, meaning day) is a day-by-day, or chronological, record of transactions." Financial information is taken from source documents and recorded in the journals. Most businesses typically have at least four journals: a cash receipts and disbursements journal; a sales or accounts receivable journal, in which all sales made on credit and cash are listed; a purchases (or accounts payable journal) which records all acquisitions of services purchased on credit; and a general journal which reflects transactions not covered by other journals. It is also the journal used to adjust the books.

Hmm... so now you guys know what type of books I like to recreational read (LOL). Did I mention I was trying to collect multiple broker's licenses in four different States? I think I did, but in case I did not do so lately, I am you know... That is not an easy endeavor. FL is currently kicking my butt, however I am getting a lot of help from my on-line and brick and mortar friends who I love dearly. Thank you, bay-bays!

Now for the fun part. Here are my book loving victims I now tag with great interest (and expect a hint of the hilarious - after all Kathy Passarette, Paddy Pizappi and Susan Mangigian have inspired me - not to mention the fact that my gorgrous gal pals tagged my A$$. BTW, Paddy's MeMe page was priceless - LOL. Susan's fascinated me. Kathy is sublime. I shall have to go on-line and buy their books.) I tag:

(1) Melody Botting

(2) Robert Rauf

(3) Jane Grant

(4) Elizabeth Weintraub

(5) Josef Katz

http://www.workingre.com/workingre/altered-reports.html

"Industry’s Dirty Little Secret: Altered Reports" By David Brauner, WRE Editor is a must read.

I was saddened to discover that the intellectual property rights of appraisers are being mangled this way. If I created a PDF Report, I would not be pleased to discover that the work that I was paid for was disassembled and reassembled by corporations to help facilitate a deal by adding their spin on the facts. Is this a lie by omission to a client? I don't know...

Why don't they do their own work from scratch like appraisers do? Appraisers go out into the field and physically stand in specific geographical locations and get their photographs. They comb through the public records, professional databases like the multiple listing service and research very hard to put their valuation reports together. Each report created is unique and born with a copyright. I wonder what the small independents are going to do about this...

What do you think should be done?

Personally, I'd be pissed off if I discovered that I wasn't getting paid for my Broker Price Opinion Reports because a firm decided to disassemble and reassemble my work to save money or make another deal go through...

http://breagrant.com/blog/articles/11/117/

Dilettante, Mother, Wife, ex-Professor, Information Junky, Social Media Devotee @GeekMommy is a very cool peep to follow if you are looking for some interesting tweets. That link will give you the skinny on what's going down. Wanna participate? Feel free. I will be lurking in the background LMAO. See ya later. Wanna find me? Look for @CTannStarr  :-)

Brea Grant, "the Speadster" from "Heroes" can be followed by tweeting @breagrant. Hope you guys enjoy the show. :-)

http://www.ustream.tv/

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/brea-grant

Trump University is helping me shape my five year business plan. I have previously mentioned being a Realtor was part of my two year business model. Since I plan on sticking around for a while I decided I might as well let you guys know what I have been up to. Not all at once and certainly not everything, but a little at a time, especially since my last post generated so much interesting e-mail off forum (LOL).

Everyone knows that I think this market whomps. I have certainly said it enough but there is money to be made if one is shrewd enough to do more than work for a living. I have been working very hard and taking the advice of some very smart professionals in the real estate industry. I am trying to learn proven strategies that work in any market because it really isn't the market that drives the economy. It's people interacting efficiently or inefficiently that makes or breaks the industry trends.

Those of you who know me are aware that I am a recreational reader. When I think something is worth my while, I tend to get excited and share it with my friends. If I really like it, really hate it, or am truly curious about something I usually start a blog post (LOL). If you read my blog you are aware that I have only recommended a few books, a handful of authors and spend most of my turtle run time getting you guys to go read my buddies blog posts that I happen to enjoy ( or new people that I find fascinating). 

Today I am going to recommend a book I haven't read yet. It hasn't been released, but it is about to be and I have been waiting like a little kid for this new book to come out. Commercial Real Estate Investing 101 is my number one title of must have books to read because I love Donald Trump's work and I have every intention of partnering with my hubby to acquire/develop our first commercial property.

We own stock and a few parcels of land, but have yet to buy (or build) a house because we want the most bang for our buck. Times are tough. Every penny counts and every decision matters. I am learning from other Realtors who are investors that when you are land owners (like we are), you have to make decisions regarding the best use of that land in a timely manner. It is my belief that if you are going to create any level of wealth for yourself you should learn what those who went before you discovered. Absorb what is useful and disregard the rest is how I operate. So I need your help. I want your input. (BTW, it would be helpful if I am not the only person who reads this book as the discussion develops - LOL)

When I talked with my gal pal Melody Botting, Melodious suggested my hubby study commercial real estate since I went the residential and mixed use route. Mike is very excited about it and has spent a considerable amount if time looking over Trump U with me, as well as other educational investment sites. We both have a lot of respect for Donald Trump and we can't wait to add his latest book to our small but spanking investment library.

If you have a favorite commercial investment book or author, I would love to hear about it! Please feel free to add the links so I can find them and check 'em out with the hubby. NO COMMENT SPAM! Seriously.

(BTW, I am a big fan of The Donald, so give me a shout out if you read him! Let me know what other D.T. titles you have.)

The wonderful thing about blogging is the connection you develop with people. I love my Realtor friends because of the tenacity they have for overcoming difficult obstacles and sticking it out in a market which is both volatile yet strangely consistent. People will always need a roof over their heads. It doesn't matter whether the market is good or bad, people will always seek shelter.

Blogging lets a potential customer or client find out tid bits about you that may later influence their decision to initiate contact. It's not always about business transactions, by the way... Sometimes, people contact a blogger because they just want to talk...

Real estate is a revolving door of stories. It is a collection of brief interludes where you meet a client or customer who begins to engage Realtors in a conversation about what they want and what they need. You may find out some very interesting facts about people as a Realtor. Once in a while you may even get to make a very good friend. However, the fact of the matter is most contact is transient. Realtors are constantly passing through other people lives. If you are observant, you may learn a lot and become enriched by the gifts these families unwittingly bring to you. The highest compliment a Realtor may receive is when someone thinks enough of them to give them a referral. Better yet, the greatest gift is when a child is positively influenced by your work that they are inspired to pick a profession.

Today, my gift was from a little boy who just turned 13 who reads my blog because he loves baseball. He discovered me because I like to turtle run and did a few posts on Shea Stadium and Citi Field... He likes my pictures. I love when teenagers talk to me about their interest in photography. He wants to be a photo-journalist and e-mailed me with a request to see how Shea Stadium is coming along. It appears my young friend has been keeping up with me just waiting for my next Citi Field post.

How can I resist such a lovely little boy? Today was an excellent day to engage in a turtle run. It's sunny, clear and 46 degrees in Queens County, New York. Being a Mets fan, I also wanted to see how construction was coming along on one of my favorite spots to hang out and jog. The workers are beginning to dismantle Shea Stadium and I guess I will always feel a little sad about that. It was surreal to see some of the lettering removed... Those giant figures of sports stars that I love are now gone from street view. Every time I visit the area I feel as if a little bit of history is escaping the world while new history is being created for a new generation of fans. Citi Field will truly be a spanking place to hang out and enjoy some family time. However, I will miss Shea Stadium.

I've been a bit melancholy all morning, yet as I watched the leaves fall from the trees I found myself enjoying the view because Autumn is truly a magnificent time of the year. Flushing Meadows Park is bursting with color. I managed to get a lot of interesting shots today. It was hard to choose so I let Stephen take over. While my 2.7 year old poked around arbitrarily clicking the mouse I did a little recreational reading on my friend's blogs. If you haven't read Elizabeth Weintraub's bog, I suggest you take a peek. My girlfriend Elizabeth has some very interesting views to share with you today. I was tickled pink by "Anybody Can Be An Expert On Anything." In addition, Josef Katz shares, "9 Reasons Why I Spend Time In ActiveRain." while Nicole Nicolay reveals some very interesting views in "The Real Estate Tweet Plan That Wont Cramp Your Style."

Poppy Dinsey has it going on with her Thoroughly British Blog. Don't forget to stop by AgentGenius.

Here's a little construction eye candy selected by the Minion Blur. Enjoy!

The Official Google Blog is an interesting read. They help track flu trends, provide spanking analytics (like YouTube Insights), and you can even see Ancient Rome reborn there as an animated YouTube video. My fave is their collections of hack attacks. They have these really cool competitions where they sponsor Code Jams. If you are a techno geek virtual junkie like me then you know exactly what I am talking about. If not, let me introduce you:

I quote: "Code Jam is one of our most famous traditions. Programmers compete to hack and solve complex programming challenges in a very short time, and the winners are awarded fame, cash prizes and the opportunity to intern at Google." You can read up on this here (Space Jam), here (It's Jam Time), and here (Code Jam).

Hmm...

At this point in time you may be wondering why a Realtor is talking about hacking.

Well, why not? There is a difference between a good hacker and a bad hacker in more ways than one.

Did you know that some hackers infiltrate social networks to mess around with your e-mail and identity? Did you know that lazy habit some of you have of blindly accepting friend requests on social media sites from total complete strangers who are not your friend may actually be jeopardizing my relationship with you because they now have my information because you let them have it with your lax security habits?

So what if we supposedly have 30 friends in common? 6 degrees of sep is not always a reason to ask to be friends with someone you don't know. It would be so much nicer if people took the time to send an e-mail to their real friends introducing their third party friends so we'd have an idea who was friend or foe.

It would be even nicer if we took the time to figure out who some of these people contacting us, and that we decide to contact, really are. Maybe we shouldn't rush to associate just for association's sake. Maybe we should take the time to go read some tweets, blog posts, check out their other social media accounts or just Google 'em. The cool thing about ActiveRain, Trulia, AgentGenius and Juicy Red Apple is that if you spend enough time in these stellar sites (and others) it is a little more  easy to accept new people as a potential friend on Facebook or MySpace because you've crossed virtual paths with them on a daily basis.

If you are not reading, writing and crossing paths with people, why are you automatically clicking yes in MySpace and Facebook? Some of your bad habits are aggravating me. Yesterday my Google alerts went off. Guess where? Linked to 5 porn sites because one of you let the wrong person in and they started stealing your Google juice by running a real estate RSS feed in the background as a ticker-tape next to a bunch of hoochies. I am not amused or pleased because my innocent comments on your blog dragged my name into a place it should not be. I saved that e-mail because I am still trying to figure out who to complain to. I've already told Google it was not relevant but I'm seething with anger.

Hackers are your foes. Be careful who you let into your social network people. Those nice people entering Google competitions are probably not the same people stealing your friends information while they collect yours because all you care about are the point system numbers or appearing to have hundreds (if not thousands) of friends.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/the-tribes-qa-e.html

I really enjoy Seth Godin's work and now he has published a Q&A inspired by his book Tribes. Click the above link and download your free 75 page PDF today (while it lasts). I was very fortunate to download his free audio book of Tribes and have listened to it three times. That audio is over 3 hours long so I am very happy to now have the Q&A PDF companion to read through. If you are a fan of Tribes go download your Q&A copy today.

Name: Jason Schauer

Company: Geist Connections LLC

URL: http://www.jasonschauer.com/jasonschauer

Description: "An active investor with a creative mindset, the aim is to educate while creating on going relationships with other professionals."

How cool is that? Very cool and absolutely awesome. I want each and every one of you to go over and show this gentleman a big ActiveRain Club Chaos hello. Jason works for Trump University and has posted his first two blog posts.

In "Real Estate Seminar" Jason talks about being back on the road again for Trump University. Jason states he was "once a program coordinator with Trump University, traveling around the country participating in live event seminars." He also goes on to explain that he has "been retired from that position for four months now, and have enjoyed my position as a Client Advisor. Recently, I have been asked to rejoin my old road team and participate in this weekend's seminar in New York City as a Coordinator."

In "First Blog Entry" Jason wonders, "as I enter my first blog post I find myself wondering, who would actually come and read this?" Haaaaa! I did. I'm thinking about going live there tonight to have a little bit of fun. What say you? Wanna give that man a warm welcome? ;-)

Be kind to the blogger newbie and go comment on both of his posts.

P.S. Tell him to upload a picture so we can see who we are talking to. You guys know how much I love my eye candy (LOL).

http://www.visre.com/

I'm always looking for new income opportunities. I love Trump University on-line and they are great for getting students to think outside of the box. So here I am recreational reading in my e-mail and I get this really cool press release about Visre.

Like the Geeky Virtual Junkie I am, I click the embed links. Wow! I am sooooo buying me a video camera mount for my car (LOL). I am not giving up my turtle runs, mind you, but a 2 AM night ride in Manhattan would be lots of fun to share here. It's prime time for night life then and the buildings are already gorgeous and well lit. It would be very colorful and very interesting for my Outside Blog and Localism. What say you? :-)

I'm going to start with a quote from Cynthia Dedier's Zurvita website because I really like the way these people think:

"Winning at every level is more than a saying or slogan. Everyone at Zurvita, including owners, executives, and the type of Marketing Representatives that we attract, has an overriding purpose that is about much more than making money. It’s about helping each other win…professionally, financially, and spiritually. We are one big team of people who want to see you win."

The moment I read that quote it made me immediately think of ActiveRain.com and Club Chaos. Helping each other win... very cool, indeed... I keep thinking that if I expand my business model to include this venture I could actually have a lot of fun with it because I could combine the industry parallels into a lovely electronic newsletter and do the majority of it all on-line.

I am fooling around with the thought of trying this out and have been poking around in this website for a while now (over two hours). I also enjoyed a lovely call conference on the subject with two small business owners and have asked for information on tomorrow's webinar. I am wondering how effective it would be for me to be able to add their Zurvita Choice XMenergy to my R.E. arsenal. I'm on-line most of the time anyway so marketing this product would be a very simple matter of integrating it into my normal routine of marketing real estate (LOL). I bet allowing homeowners to lock in energy prices with up to a three year fixed term rate would make some of my future videos very interesting. I'd have lots of fun too because I've been tickled pink with JellyTelly.com and the drama of inventing a few cute but hilarious Sock-Puppet-Minion-Realtors has been on my mind since yesterday. Did I mention we were really getting into developing Minion TV? (LOL) Mommy and the Little Minions have been very busy. We love creating new content for my Outside Blog and I have some very talented friends you have yet to meet. :-)

BTW, my hubby's brother is a boiler-man running a very cool installation business in Kings County. I see the possibility of a new real estate opportunity knocking with marketing Zurvita Choice XMenergy... What say you?  

My family and I are die hard Veggie Tales fans. The original creator of VT has launched a new on-line project that has been 3 years in the making. JellyTelly.com Little Man is in love and now I've been relegated to the laptop. I can not get Stephen off of my computer (LOL). It's in Beta form right now but you can subscribe. The first month is free and it costs $2.99 per month afterwards. If you have little people with busy fingers who like to giggle and learn you may want to go take a look at this website.

Jellyfish Media, LLC provides an on-line "video subscription service offering shows, clips, games and other content" available on the JellyTelly.com website, affiliate and distribution partner websites ("Distribution Sites"), and other websites where users may embed the Content (these websites, together with the JellyTelly Site and Distribution Sites, are referred to collectively as the "Sites"). Don't YouTube their stuff, people and if you see someone else YouTubing it, let them know. Don't post their stuff here either. It's a commercial business site. You can post your stuff to them if you'd like but make sure that it is original content created by you. If you would like to use their stuff, they are very nice people but you can't take that for granted... you have to ask them...

YOU HAVE TO GET WRITTEN PERMISSION TO EMBED THEIR CLIPS ON NON-COMMERCIAL SITES.

If you post something there that you shouldn't, you may find yourself in lots of trouble. Seriously.

TO QUOTE THEM:

"If you believe that any Content, User Material or other material provided through the JellyTelly Services, including through a link, infringes your copyright, you should notify JellyTelly of your infringement claim in accordance with the procedure set forth below."

"We will process each notice of alleged infringement which JellyTelly receives and take appropriate action in accordance with applicable intellectual property laws. A notification of claimed copyright infringement should be emailed to JellyTelly's Copyright Agent at dmca@jellytelly.com (subject line: "DMCA Takedown Request"). You may also contact us by mail or facsimile at:

Attention: Copyright Agent

Jellyfish Media, LLC

401 S Carlton Ave

Suite 200

Wheaton, IL 60187

Fax: (630) 653-5804

To be effective, the notification must be in writing and contain the following information: (a) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (b) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (c) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the JellyTelly Services that is reasonably sufficient to enable JellyTelly to identify and locate the material; (d) how JellyTelly can contact you, such as your address, telephone number, and email address; (e) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (f) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Emails sent to dmca@jellytelly.com for purposes other than communication about copyright infringement may not be answered."

"JellyTelly has a policy of terminating repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances." END QUOTE.

Okay, now that we have that copyright information out of the way, play nice in the electronic sandbox, go get your kiddies and go have some on-line fun at JellyTelly.com! :-)

VideoAd by Mixpo

Stephen and Noah went on an Autumn run to collect leaves for Jeannette Neerpat. The Minion Blur managed to stomp his way through every puddle he could find. Had to race home to clean him up so we could pick up a client and host an Open House. Wrote the bugger a little theme song to go with the photographs I took while we were playing in the rain. Turns out the little dude thought it was worthy of another table dance in his PJs. Here's his version of a minion two thumbs up. I couldn't resist slipping a real estate ad at the end. Feel free to visit http://www.TannStarr.com for more information on the co-op. Enjoy! :-)

Flushing Meadows Park, Queens County, New York