Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: June 2009

My plan was to spiff up the business page before I went trolling for more fans.

But I didn't quite get to that yet. :-(

So here I am, hours after the carriage turned into a pumpkin, the page in its skivvies, begging for fans to push me over the 100 mark. I need 70 more. Please.

Click here:

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/#/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/Bob-Taylor-Properties-Inc/7694836362

Then click, "Become a Fan".

Thanks.  Just ask if you need me to return the favor. 

Background info:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/grab-you-facebook-fan-pages-vanity-urls-tonight/11481/

http://mashable.com/2009/06/28/facebook-url-pages/

Here's an idea:  If you have a VFlyer account, did you know you can turn your VFlyer gallery into an RSS feed?

From the VFlyer Flyer tab, click View Account Profile

That will take you to screen displaying a gallery view of all your active listings.  Select and Copy the URL (web address). (It will look something like this http://www.vflyer.com/home/Listing.jsp?acctId=1077084 --that's the gallery view for Above The Rainbow Jewelry, one of my pro bono** web site clients :-)  )

Go to FeedBurner and paste that URL into Feedburner's "Burn a feed right this instant" box.

Click through Feedburner's steps, then copy FeedBurner's newly assigned feed address.  It will look something like this:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/AbovetherainbowsListings

Using a plugin such as FeedWordPress or WP-o-Matic, you can plug that feed into an existing WordPress blog.  Then each time you add a new listing to your VFLyer account, a post with a link to the VFlyer will automatically show up in your WordPress blog.

(P.S. Now that I've updated FeedWordPress to the 2009.0618 version, I've returned to using it over WP-o-Matic.  WP-o-Matic wasn't displaying embedded videos...)

**  I've been helping Lilian get started with an online presence for her jewelry-making.  What I've learned about product photography, building an etsy shop, etc., etc., has been more valuable than charging her money.  :-)  )

Representatives Childers (D-MS) and Miller (R-CA) introduced HR 3044 on June 26,  which calls for an 18 month moratorium on HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct)
 
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortgage_rates/blog/87536.aspx
 
http://www.mortgagegrapevine.com/thread/?thread=567033
 
Petition:  http://www.hvccpetition.com/
 

 Bert Witt and the late Ellen Witt were avid collectors of Native American as well as Indigenous arts and crafts from countries they visited all over the world.
 
For the first time, more than 100 items from their extensive and distinguished collection will be offered for sale.  Among the vintage baskets there are several Inuit, Navajo, Hopi and African baskets. Other collector's items such as clay pots, mortars, figurines and paintings on cloth will also be available.

Proceeds will benefit the Pho Lai kindergarten in Vietnam, a school dedicated to Ellen Witt, as well as help support operations of the Avenue 50 Studio.

Saturday, July 4, 2009 from 2:00 - 5:00 pm

RSVP:  323/258-1435 to Kathy Gallegos

Avenue 50 Studio, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit art gallery
131 North Avenue 50
Highland Park, CA  90042
http://www.avenue50studio.com

I think I could do a lot with this, from transaction management to an office intranet. 

The video is long, about an hour and twenty minutes ... so don't fire it up unless you have some time to spare.

Google explains Wave basics here:  http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

Developers can request a sandbox account here  https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignupfordev/

Ordinary folks can enlist to be bug finders here (this is what I did) https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/

 I just signed up to play on PyGo's test wave.  Will report back.

http://code.google.com/p/pygowave-server/

Do you get comments from bozos like these on your WordPress blogs?

Since I have a comment captcha plugin installed, I can only imagine these are real live people, locked in a room, chained to a keyboard, paid a few cents per every comments.

The $300 a Day guys seems to show up on all my WP blogs.

Sharing one of my Lummis Day Videos:

Carlos Guitarlos

 Almost five thousand people representing the rainbow of cultures in Northeast L.A gathered for Lummis Day 2009, the 4th celebration of the annual multi-cultural festival, presented by the Autry National Center, the Annenberg Foundation and the neighborhood councils of Northeast L.A.

The Lummis Day Festival was created to celebrate the patchwork of cultures that enriches the city. Artists represented Latino, Tagalog, Native American, Anglo and African-American traditions. Music included blues, rock, banda, salsa, jazz and country. Dance troupes represented Philippine, Mexican, Pacific Island and jazz dance traditions. Poets, painters and culinary artists, all with local connections, added to the Festival's collection of cultures.

Lummis Day takes its name from Charles Fletcher Lummis, who joined the L.A. Times as the newspaper's first city editor in 1876. A prolific writer and photographer, Lummis was also one of the city's first librarians, founded the Southwest Museum and helped introduce the concept of multi-culturalism to Southern California.

If you want to read tweets from the streets of Iran, the Stimulist says these are the hashtags you want:

#iranelection

#gr88

The article's author also suggests:

Help
 cover
 Iranian 
bloggers. Change 
your 
Twitter
 settings 
so 
that
 your 
location 
is
 TEHRAN 
and 
your 
time 
zone 
is 
GMT
+3.30. 

Security 
forces 
are 
hunting 
for
 bloggers 
using 
location 
and 
timezone 
searches.
 
If 
we 
all 
become
 ‘Iranians,' 
it
 becomes impossible to find them.

Here's a link to the full article:  http://thestimulist.com/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-protest-twitterers/

So, for now, my location is Tehran.  Hyper-localism can wait.

While browsing through Google Books the other day, I came across this Real Estate Law Book from the year 1901. 

http://books.google.com/books?id=UEU9AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=law+of+real+property&ei=8qQ7Su2UBI_ElQTBmJC6BQ

Here's another from 1910.

http://books.google.com/books?id=AxA9AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=law+of+real+property&ei=BKc7SoDlEIOmkASS4bS6BQ

These are too good not to share.

Browse through the table of contents, and you'll chuckle over how many issues sound familiar. 

Sometimes the simple things are the hardest.  :-)

If you run Google AdWords campaigns, you probably want to know where your ads appear.

Google says create a Placement Performance Report, yadayada, "Select Level of Detail", yadayada.

Well, I wasn't seeing the "Level of Detail" drop down menu, and I was banging my head on the monitor for several days, until I realized that I had the "Placement/Keyword Performance" report selected, when I should have selected the "Placement Performance" report.  Sheesh.