Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: October 2008

Several agents are transfering to my office in the next few days.

If you are like me, you use the California Department of Real Estate eLicensing system so infrequently that you forget how to navigate the system from one time to the next.

Here's how to transfer a salesperson license to a new employing broker in California DRE's eLicsensing system:

Go to http://www.dre.ca.gov/

Under eLicensing online system, click License Services

Click Salesperson requests to change employing broker

Read through the Tutorial if you want, then click use eLicensing now

Sign in (I am presuming  you have already registered at some point in the past, if not, you will need to register)

Under license options, click Change Employer

At the next screen, by Would you like to change your employing broker or corporation? Click YES.

Enter the new employing broker license number.  Then click Save Employer Information.

After the salesperson completes this process, the new employing broker needs to log into the system and certify the change.

I made this comment on Rich Jacobson's post here 

I think the next venue for REBarCamp should be a live web conference;  The sponsor's contributions would go to funding the conference Webinar host account and maybe providing webcams at low cost to participants.  Sponsors' ads could be displayed in a side panel or banner during the conference.

GoToWebinar cost is $948 annual for unlimited Webinars with up to 1,000 attendees each.  (In fact, I'm feeling kind of tempted to set up a GoToWebinar account for my office.....)

And the more I think about it, the more interested I become.  

Anyone else using some type of online webinar software for office meetings?  What do you think of it?

What about meetings for community service groups?  Kiwanis, Rotary, whatever?  Imagine if some nice business person volunteered making their webinar account available for hosting their local school's parent meetings...

OK... here it is ... now to start playing around

http://activerain.com/blogsview/759848/Listing-Router-Whiteboard-Explanation 

http://activerain.com/blogsview/755457/The-ActiveRain-Listing-Router

UPDATE:  Sooooooo,  I set up a couple campaigns:  Easy.  I logged out, and ran a test  search, and clicked on through to my IDX site.  Yep, works great.

Then I realized I just cost myself a couple bucks.

Note to self:  One test run is enough.   :-)

We lost a very bright, and very capable assistant recently.   (Believe me, you just don't know how capable they are until they're gone, and you try to handle filing and data entry yourself  :-)  )

Sophie left us to return to a full time college schedule.  She plans to become an educator.

While clearing out old stuff, and preparing in general for our upcoming expansion, I came across this on Sophie's desk calendar:

It made me smile.

Sophie, honey, you just wait four or five or six decades!! :-)

I know many Active Rain members read, follow and admire Seth Godin.

And many Active Rain members know Mary McKnight from right here in the rain; and they read, follow, and admire Mary as well.

Mary has started a new marketing info blog Sacrilicious Marketing ... That's Sacrilicious as in Delicious.

It seems Mary and Seth got into a little "exchange" over Mary posting some opinions about SEO in Seth's new Triibes community.  Here is Mary's post that started it.

What do I think? 

I think Seth is very bright and very good, in fact he's so bright and so good, it gets a little tiresome.   Sorry, Seth.  :-)

In the past, I have had mixed feelings about some of the SEO techniques that Mary employs.

But the girl's got attitude.  I gotta love attitude.   You go, Mary!!

Well, here's a project I started fiddling around with about a year ago, so I guess I can't blame the delay on the lack of a DSL connection for over a week.  :-)

But I finally got a few of my friend Lilian's jewelry pieces set up in an Etsy shop.  You can check it out at http://abovetherainbow.etsy.com

Over the last few days (my unplugged days) I got a few other pieces photographed.  Now I just need to get those photos edited and uploaded.  :-)

On Tuesday, October 28th WE TELL STORIES - LA's multi-ethnic children's storytelling theatre company - presents The 3rd Annual **Haunted Harvest Storytelling Festival** from 3-8 pm at the Old LA Farmer's Market in Highland Park at Avenue 58 & Figueroa, 90042.

This FREE outdoor festival is a great way for families to enjoy Halloween in a comfortable, lively setting with fun for the whole family.

We Tell Stories will perform three 30-minute story-plays filled with the spirit of the season. Performances begin when three actors arrive with a trunk full of costumes and props. Audience participation is encouraged as kids are selected to wear costumes and play an integral role in every performance.

This year's guest artist, The Alley Cats, America's Premier Doo-Wop Group, will perform two 30-minute shows. The Alley Cats perform in schools and venues throughout the country, often opening for Jay Leno. (www.thealleycats.com) Famed stiltwalking team Gumplestiltskin, who have performed in festivals all over Southern California and the world, will also participating. (www.gumplestiltskin.com)

A Carved Pumpkin Contest is a new addition to this year's program. Participants are encouraged to enter their already-carved pumpkin for judging by 4 pm. The Festival features additional attractions including a Costume Contest sponsored by the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, face painting courtesy of Rock Rose Gallery, and a free raffle.

Metro provides transportation via Gold Line to Highland Park Station. (www.metro.net) Parking lot and street parking available. This festival is made possible by a grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and supported by Councilmembers Ed P. Reyes and Jose Huizar and the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council.

Since 1981, We Tell Stories has entertained and educated more than four million youngsters and families at schools and venues throughout Southern California. For more information, visit us at: http://www.wetellstories.org or call us at 323.256.2336.

I'm Back in the Saddle Again. This one's for Mike Jones...

Or if you prefer the Poltergeist version .....

I'm baaaaack...

So far, so good. Bundled phone, cable tv, and cable internet working good. Took the poor installer a little over three hours to do the job (I live in a turn of the 20th century house.) But All OK Now.

Just don't expect a lot from me just yet, I have a mountain of stuff to catch up on.

And the reason it will be so interesting is that the DSL went down at my home on Thursday .... it's still down.... and instead of dealing with the insanely annoying offshore tech support of my current provider, I decided to ditch it and  try one of those cable/phone/internet bundled together deals from Time Warner.  And I know TW doesn't have the greatest reputation either......

First available date for installation next Saturday 10/25.

So a whole week without an internet connection at home will be very interesting.

So will a new adventure with TW.

I've taken Moon Shots before, but always with a monster lens on a dSLR, on a tripod. 

This shot was hand-held (well, I propped the side of the camera against the post of my patio cover) and it was taken with a little compact superzoom, the Panasonic DMC-FZ18.  With an 28mm to 480mm zoom lens, that camera fits the bill nicely as a "do-everything" camera.  (It is small, but it doesn't fit in a pocket, though.)

I just wanted to say, I was very surprised and pleased with the image quality.

Camera mode:  IA  (Intelligent Auto)  No manual settings involved.

The only post processing:

Cropped

Bumped up contrast just a couple ticks

Sharpened