“Concentrated Wisdom” just a click away :)
July 21st, 2008 categories: Edits, Responsible Living
Another of Brian Johnson’s brilliant ideas has been recently realized in a form of : “PhilosophersNotes”.
Perhaps you see “free time” as luxury, but your main focus is always to move FORWARD in all areas of your life. Looking at a long shelve with self-development books, you just know, it will take too long to read all books you crave.
Brian thought of people like you:
“In less than 15 minutes a week, we’ll get you thru the Big Ideas of 25 of the best self-development books ever written—you’ll get a 6-page PDF and ~20-minute MP3 for each title so you can decide if you’d prefer to read over a cup of tea or listen on your way to work, on a hike, at the gym, doing errands or whatever’s best for you!”
And he continues:
“We’ll gain mastery in spiritual economics (we MUST learn how to integrate our spirituality/self-actualizing with our bank accounts, no?), health and fitness (how can we possibly live at our highest potential if we have a hard time getting out of bed?), and relationship skills (love, love, love!!). We’ll learn a bunch of ways to discover our purpose/dharma, how to follow our bliss, how to feel the fear… and do it anyway and how to live the 7 habits of highly effective people. And, we’ll study the science of getting rich and the magic of thinking big. And all kinds of other goodness.”
I have to say: I do like it.
In some cases- before you finish a second cup of morning coffee (or green tea : ) you read one Summary, (sometimes it takes longer) you mood is set, you are energized - that is how Brian writes, and you just learned something very practical that you will be able to apply immediately to many situations throughout the day.
Click on the icon here in the post, and start reading and enjoying!
(What I have read this morning: a Summary of ” Self -Actualizing People” A. Maslow)
Get a 6-page PDF and >< 20-Minute Mp3 for each title. Click on the icon or here.
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Who will watch your recycling bins?
July 8th, 2008 categories: Responsible Living
Allied Waste Industries, Inc. will!
Previously we could implant chips in our dogs, now we can chip the recycling bins. But not for the purpose of tracking them, if they get lost (what happened yesterday to the greatest astonishment of my clients in Palm Valley) but to monitor weight of the recycled items.
Allied Waste and RecycleBank are launching a program that will encourage people to recycle.
“Participating customers in communities served by Allied Waste will have radio frequency identification codes imbedded in their recycling bins. RecycleBank Points are then awarded to the community for each pound of recyclable material, with the total amount evenly divided among participating customers.
Households can redeem RecycleBank points for gift cards and discounts to more than 400 brand name national and local retailers. Recipients also can convert rewards into donations for select charitable organizations. ” Source: Phoenix Business Journal, July 8th, 2008
The program will start in 2008 in just 3 metropolies and will expand in 2009.
Isn’t it nice to be rewarded for something that.. we should do anyway?
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The Importance of Getting Ourselves Familiar with the Pancake Prickly Pear Cactus
June 16th, 2008 categories: Historic Neighborhoods, Responsible Living
I often see homes for sale, even new or remodeled Phoenix homes that just are missing something, and you don’t know what it is unless you are one who never underestimates the importance of good landscaping.
(Central Phoenix home without landscaping)
It is clear to me, when I show homes and I see what kind of excitement a home with a great landscaping can create or when quite decent homes with not a single thing planted in the front yard (or a dying king palm) creates just an undecided.. ehhmmm. Of course it is easy to see when the emptiness is amor vacui, contemporary, minimalistic landscaping, and when it is simply overlooked.
(Central Phoenix Home With Landscaping)
A few reasons why I would encourage some plants, strategically placed and maintained:
1. We live in the desert- so landscaping improvement can be really easy, affordable and low maintenance, and with right shrubs and trees chosen- our water expense will not increase. Quite contrary- when changing from grass to desert landscaping- this expense will decrease.
2. It adds value. In “101 ways to Massively Increase the Value of your Real Estate without Spending Much Money”, Dolf de Roos writes in the first 10 chapters:
“Mow the lawns, for heaven’s sake! I am always delighted to inspect real estate where the grass comes up to my waist, as I know that I can deduct thousands of dollars off the price, even though the cost of cutting the grass may only be a couple of hundred dollars”
“What I am suggesting is that you pay to have mature trees delivered and ‘installed’ on your property. naturally this will cost a bit more , but if spending $2,000 on trees can increase the value by $10,000, than this is a good trade off”
It also has been noticed: there are more trees in affluent neighborhoods.
If you plan on living in a house for a while you can buy a very young desert tree for about $35.00. In 3 years this tree will be large enough to make a positive financial impact on the value of the home.
3. It will make you feel better. There is a difference between walking to your home between a heated to 170 degrees driveway slab and not much cooler rock front yard embellished with 2 cacti, while spending just few seconds close to a shade giving tree and a quick glimpse at violet or orange blooming shrubs can only relieve stress and put us in a calmer mood.
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Phoenix Photo Fashion Sunday
June 15th, 2008 categories: Local Color, Photography, Responsible Living
This has nothing to do with real estate, but I guess it may have something to do with the rising art scene in downtown and midtown Phoenix. Seeing so many creative people and the multitude of galleries stirred up the creativity in me, which had been forcefully muted once the rat race began.
I really enjoy photography. One thing I noticed years ago is that I enjoy the process of photogrphy more so then the results. Good result are a satisfying by product of the process and I kinda like the results of the fashion photo above.
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