FALLING DOWN

And getting back up

Last month, I was taking a horseback riding lesson with my daughter when I was bucked off my horse. I did not land gracefully. Well maybe gracefully isn’t the point, I was badly hurt and in a lot of pain and to be honest, I was also scared about the extent of my injuries. I was on the couch for several weeks and doing the bare minimum to survive. This did not include writing on my blog. Sorry.

However, I have not really been connected to my blog this winter for several reasons. One is I have been very busy with real estate and there are just so many hours in the day. But I miss writing on my blog and keeping you all in touch with the latest updates and all the many changes going on in real estate. I found working on articles about new legislation, writing my thought processes about property I had been viewing and sharing my experiences in real estate sharpened my senses and helped me fine tune my real estate knowledge.

It’s fun. I love what I do and I like to share my insights and experiences and hope that it helps, adds to the education of a public that has an overload of information without the tools to process them in a practical way that benefits them. That’s my job. To protect you, help you make good decisions and sometimes help you to get out of your own way.

So onward to more blogging, more information and hopefully more courageous (and interesting) reporting.

How to Get Rid of E-Waste

E-Waste Options

Where to drop off those electronic devices that no long serve us? Keep reading!

Cell Phones

· Best Buy and Office Depot in-store recycling kiosks
· Drop off old phones at AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile stores
· Free mail-back programs: Motorola (www.racetorecycle.com), Sprint (www.sprint.com/recycle), Nokia (www.nokiausa.com/recycle), LG (us.lge.com/recycle)
· Wireless Foundation’s Call to Protect donation program (www.wirelessfoundation.org)
Computers and peripherals
· Dell recycling (www.dell.com/recycle), Hewlett-Packard recycling (www.hp.com)
· The National Cristina Foundation donation (www.cristina.org)

iPods and MP3 players

· Apple in-store recycling (iPods only)
· Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation donation program (www.cellphonetradeins.com, iPods only; cell phones also accepted)
· eBay Giving Works, donation to a variety of local charities (givingworks.ebay.com, all MP3 players)

TV, DVD players and stereos

· My Green Electronics, to find local electronics recyclers as well as a data base for environmentally friendly products (www.mygreenelectronics.org)
· Freecycle, to find a local reuse group (www.freecycle.org)
Besides e-waste, you can go to earth911.org and enter the type of “trash” as well as your zip code to find places nearby that either recycle the material or dispose of it safely.

The above information is thanks to an article in this week’s Morgan Hill Times. I thought it was good information and worth spreading the news. Maybe if we make it very easy to recycle, it can become a life style out of choice (while we still have a choice).

Chain Emails and Snopes.com

Chain Emails and Good Intentions!

The following information was sent to me by my good friend, Gretchen Merrick. I am often the recipient of chain emails and have looked for a gracious way to let folks know this isn’t something I want to participate in. Aside from the time element, I have never felt comfortable with the computer safety element in this day and age of computer viruses. So I was very happy to have the following information:

Advice from Snopes.com -

1) Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to '10' of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get bad luck, good luck, or whatever, it almost always has an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' E-Mails to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to other s pam mers.

2) Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and 'cookie' tracking information for telemarketers and spam mers - - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own profitable purposes.

You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them; you will be providing a service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam E-Mails in the future!

If you have been sending out (FORWARDING) the above kinds of E-Mail, now you know why you get so much SPAM! Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listings regardless how inviting they might sound!You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT in the long run. Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later! Plus, we are helping the spam mers get rich! Let's don't make it easy for them!

Also: E-Mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other organization. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition. Read the full story here: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.asp

Let me know if you appreciated this information and any comments you might have!

Got Twitters?

Are you twittering yet?

I don’t know about you but I never thought I would be operating at the level of technology which has become a daily part of our lives. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s that I even started working on a computer. Don’t believe anyone if they tell you it’s going to save you time. It’s not! However, it will connect you to a much bigger world that seems to expand all the time. I just learned about a new website call Twitter.

I’ve heard it referred to as a “micro-blog” or as a post-it note (only it’s posted on the Twitter website as opposed to your refrigerator) that can be shared and responded to. You sign up with a name that you designate. Then you either find people you know and/or are interested in following. Twitter accounts are identified with at @ symbol in front (i.e. @your name). You can view anyone’s notes (or “tweets”) and anyone can sign up to view yours. And you will receive an email letting you know every time someone follows you.

Twittering can be a lot of fun and a good way of building community. You can connect with people totally focused on one thing. However, it can be very addicting and you might find yourself spending a lot of time with literally very little (sorry – couldn’t resist a twitter joke) to show for it.

Try it out! Be playful and have fun and let me know what you think.