It's been a little while since my last post, because I have been busy outlining my business for 2008 as well as preparing my home for a new arrival in February. The Winter months are usually pretty slow regarding area real estate sales, but the end of 2007 was full of surprises for me. First, I had more simultaneous listings than ever before. I don't know whether to contribute this to the changing market or the gradual expansion of my pool of potential referrals or SOI (sphere of influence). Unfortunately, selling these listings has been more difficult than months past. Buyers are taking more time to decide before purchasing- they are also worried about lending and are not as motivated as they were previously. Some clients understand, others blame the agents.

Secondly comes my efforts to find a new place in the real estate world altogether. I have decided 2008 will be a year where I break free from "conventional wisdom" in the business and follow my gut instincts fully. I have done all of the tried-and-true methods of building a real estate business and have got to say almost none of these things work as well as they probably did for the dinosaurs spewing the advice. The market and marketing have changed; good technology in a brokerage is hard to find and the general public is numb to the generally lame methods a hungry agent will use to attract more business. I have never cold-called, for instance, and the current environment does not indicate I should start doing this. I rarely mail market, because I have *never* had a transaction come to fruition from this method...no matter how great or weird or "purple cow" my methodology in creating said mailing piece. Basically, any and all of the business I get is from the people I know and not the people I am *trying* to know. With this in mind, I am simplifying my practice to only handle these referrals and produce more of this kind of business. I LOVE referrals!
Third, I am no one's fool. I recently got myself out of a situation where I supported leads from my company through Yahoo! Real Estate. The idea is that in exchange for these great leads (you know, people just entering in information so they can see a listing...not exactly what I would call leads), I would give a referral fee and a huge split just for the opportunity. Essentially, I worked as an unpaid employee with the expectation I would follow-up with people that didn't exist or didn't want to hear from me. Occasionally the system worked as designed, but not as often as they would like to believe. You might not realize this, but most agents aren't as successful as you might think. Many have to pay ridiculous fees, inequitable splits and a host of expenses just to call themselves agents. I haven't been in the business that long (just over two years), but I can't tell you how many agents have come and gone from my office alone since I have been there. Brokerages seem more interested in making money from their struggling agents while giving breaks in fees and services to their top producers. This practice creates an environment where the folks actually paying to keep the doors open in a brokerage are the least successful and the brokerages NEED unsuccessful agents to make it work. The good thing about the recent cool-down in the market is that these brokerages are going to have to try harder to obtain and retain good talent. Any office that has a split instead of a flat desk fee should look at their model with a microscope- we are on to you! Why give a brokerage a split when the total sum of that split on an average sale is more than what you would pay for an entire year of desk fees at a smaller brokerage?
Basically, I am trying to find a happy medium between the flexibility of the life I have come to enjoy as an agent and a relative consistency of pay. I am staying in sales but presently looking for other options in the field to further expand my knowledge. Active Rain real estate network is a place I have recently interviewed for example. I'm looking to the Zillows of the world despite the animosity many old-school agents harbor towards such ventures. Not to toot my own horn, but I possess a set of skills beyond those of the typical agent and so it only makes sense that I try to immerse myself in an environment where I can utilize each and every one of those abilities. If you are in the business and know of such opportunities- get in touch! ;)

I've been playing bass guitar for over twenty years. I've been in several bands, toured, put records out, blah blah blah many years ago, but the demands of road life weren't for me. I'll go into detail about this in another post later. Much later.
I've decided to get back into it however after a long hiatus. But playing guitar. It's sonic mayhem really, because I don't play like a guitar player generally does. We aren't trying to go at this with the intent to make it our day jobs or anything- we all just have a lot of fun. The band: 3 Way Switch (http://www.myspace.com/threewayswitch)

It's hard to say what we sound like from the recording there...it was done on my laptop, live, with a handful of mics. Think Mission of Burma all dark and dissonant. More songs to come...

(This article was not written by me and can be found @ http://www.healthfreedomusa.org)

Here is the story which gives more details on the harrowing attempt by the State of California to impose the will of the cancer industry on a young man who does not have cancer. The story was blogged on October 3, 2007, before a court hearing on the case but has just surfaced today.
It was originally posted by angryscientist in Bad Science, Whistleblower Corner.

An unholy alliance of California Child Protective Services (CPS) with a hostile doctor and judge is attempting to railroad Laurie Jessop, framed as a threat to her son and the establishment for finding a way to cure him of malignant melanoma. She is now on trial, under a gag order, since she had gone to the press. When she was arrested, she was put in maximum security, solitary confinement, in the Orange County, CA jail. They claim that everything about. her says anti-Establishment, so she was told, as she was considered a threat in starting a riot.

On the morning of Sept. 12, Gary Null read on KPFK, a Pacifica station in Los Angeles, an e-mail from Ron Miller, who had met Ms. Jessop at the Cancer Control Society annual convention during the Labor Day weekend. They had discussed this persecution by Big Brother in the guise of saving her son from this evil mother who has failed to protect him! She disobeyed doctor’s orders and found a natural way to cure her son. These forces arrayed against her and insisted he must have the cancer removed surgically and attacked with the standard chemical fare. The cancer is gone, but nobody in authority will accept that because her doctor doesn’t believe that’s possible.

The initial biopsy of the mole was done in February. Their regular doctor was on leave when test results came in. A nurse informed them of the bad news. On May 8, Chad Jessop had a follow up appointment with a medical group doctor, by the name of Dr. Masciana, who insisted he needed surgery to excise the site within a week, or he could die any day now! This doctor is a general practitioner, not an oncologist or qualified to do cancer diagnosis or surgery. Chad and his mom decided to pursue holistic treatment for him. Incensed, the doctor reported her to Child Protective Services on the grounds of gross negligent child endangerment. She yelled at Laurie “all of you Jehovah’s Witnesses are all the same,” never mind Laurie and Chad are not Jehovah’s witnesses. Dr. Masciana also told Laurie, with her son present, that his death was imminent. At the close of the appointment, Dr. Masciana informed Laurie that she was referring the case to Social Services. In further investigation, Child Protective Social Services is a misnamed government agency whose employees get paid bonuses every time they take children away from their parents.

That evening Laurie called an attorney who advised her that she had 48 hours or less before Social Services showed up. If she could not prove she was following doctor’s orders, they’d take her son. Since Dr. Masciana had created such a traumatic experience for Chad, he feared the doctors and threatened to run away. In honoring Chad’s wishes for continued holistic care, Laurie took her son to San Diego to continue holistic care using a number of various alternative treatments such as: ozone, hyperbaric oxygen chamber, hydrogen peroxide, energy work, Rife, nutritional supplements, and deep emotional work. Laurie also used “black salve” that she purchased from Canada to remove the mole tissue. Black salve was developed by Native American Indians more than 200 years ago, and used in the treatment of skin lesions, cancers, warts, and moles. Figures our FDA banned it, because it works.

When Chad insisted on hitting the road to continue alternative therapies and getting further diagnostics, that left a question as to where Laurie’s daughter Crystal would go. A close friend of the family and Crystal’s best friend agreed, and this felt like a perfect fit under the circumstances, so Laurie legally signed Crystal over to the family and gave them all the necessary medical insurance information. On May 22, the local sheriff and CPS had taken her daughter out of class, interrogating her mercilessly, telling her lies about her mother, trying to force her to reveal where Laurie and Chad had gone, and then forced her to go on a police joy ride and show them where they reside. All of this was done against her will and carried on for six hours!

They applied “Black Salve” directly to the area in question, thus giving Chad a holistic version of a large border excision. It took about two and a half weeks for the wound to heal. When it was healed Laurie took Chad to a Del Mar dermatologist for a biopsy. The test results were negative of any signs of melanoma! The next two weeks were concentrated on once again healing the tissue to get another biopsy. Upon the wound site being healed, a melanoma specialist did a punch biopsy and a complete lab analysis on Friday, June 15. Again, no sign of cancer could be found in the biopsy and the blood work was in healthy ranges with no distinguishing markers that would otherwise be present in a patient that would have advanced stage four melanoma, as had been previously reported! Was it a miracle, or an activated immune system in a healthy young man, with some useful help, that healed the melanoma?

The following Monday, June 18th, Laurie and Chad turned themselves in to the San Diego Social Services office, with all of their documentation. They were detained for 4 hours, then told that arrest warrants for Laurie and Chad were issued from Orange County. Chad was locked up at the Palenskie Center in San Diego for one night. He had 2 guards watching him around the clock, since he was considered a flight risk. When Laurie went to visit Chad they could not have any privacy, as both guards listened to every word that was said. Laurie spent over nine thousand bucks in San Diego for the treatments done over the five week period of time, and has all the receipts as proof. A new social worker, David Harper, was put on the case. He picked Chad up in San Diego transporting him to Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange County for the next two weeks, where he got fed spaghetti and meat balls, food not fitting one healing from cancer. One aspect of Chad’s treatment was a healthy diet of living foods, but Ms. Jessop’s requests of this social worker that Chad get proper food fell on deaf ears. He did tell her she was allowed to see her daughter graduate from Junior High School. She told him nobody could keep her away without a court order, and that she would be there! The social worker informed Laurie that he completed the paper work to lift the warrant order on her.

After her daughter’s graduation, on June 21st Laurie went to make academic arrangements for her son, having missed five weeks of school. Laurie showed the documentation to the principal and vice principal. The Vice Principal knew Chad well, as Chad did his Eagle Scout project for him at the high school. Chad is now an advanced Eagle Scout. No matter, the VP called police to arrest Laurie at the school and haul her off to the county jail. The arresting deputy harassed her. When Laurie protested, the officer told her she didn’t have to like her or be nice to her. After arriving at the county jail, her first telephone call had been to the social worker, David Harper, although he did nothing to get her out of jail, nor was he willing to help correct the record. Laurie was physically abused, they spread her legs twisting her knee, when she complained they called out “Resisting…Resisting” then they pushed her violently to a cell wall (behind the cameras) causing her to twist her neck, shoulder and arm. After being worked over, they took away her jacket, shoes, socks, and toilet paper, and locked her up. Her holding cell was extremely cold and she was deliberately denied toilet paper. She asked for toilet paper, only to be answered it must have been taken for good reason and she was not getting any. She was denied toilet paper from approximately 3:30pm until 11:00pm. One has to wonder, what was she going to do with the toilet paper, hang herself? By 11:00 pm Laurie got taken to be assessed. She asked “is this a madhouse run by animals, who is running this place?” Laurie told this officer her story for half an hour. He let her talk, then said he sees all kinds of characters, his job is to ascertain threats. He told her she has the fire, the spirit and the power to overturn the system and create a riot. He informed her she’d be put in solitary confinement, but she might get a roommate, probably a drug offender. She was forced to take a chest X-ray against her will, without any explanation and ridicule from the officers. Laurie and her two children have never been in any type of trouble with the law, but were treated like hardened criminals. She was shocked to learn women taking showers have no privacy, that male guards are watching. The next night she got a 58-year old roommate charged with kidnapping her children from her husband 20 years ago, after being extradited from Tennessee on outdated bogus charges tagged with 200 thousand bail. It would appear that Orange County is desperately trying to maintain job security at the expense of the innocent!

Laurie was released on the streets of Santa Ana after midnight, in an unsafe area of Southern California for a woman, after five days of incarceration. Upon Laurie’s arrest, officers impounded her van and turned it upside down looking for drugs. She had to pay over 300 dollars in impound fees to get the van back.

Social Services approved the foster families that Laurie had arranged for Chad and Crystal. Now Laurie is on trial, forbidden to speak under a gag order, by the very judge that had issued the bench warrant for her arrest, because she refused to go along with orthodox medicine. The dermatologist, appointed by Social Services, testified in court that the melanoma is playing hide and go seek, that they’d have to subject Chad to unnecessary and dangerous further biopsies and medical procedures to find where it migrated to. The dermatologist further stated that the melanoma had become even more deadly, claiming it has now traveled to different organs. The prescription for surgery is a large border excision to the skullbone. Chad says he is old enough to defend this country’s freedoms, but he is denied that same freedom of choice when it comes to his own health and he is also under gag order. Ms. Jessop intends to sue anyone who touches her son against their wishes. All Chad’s blood tests are consistent with a healthy 17 year old 6'2" young man. They refuse to tolerate anyone trying to clear their conscience at his expense. Laurie says her record stands, she will not back down, and she wants parents to know they do not have to be intimidated by this system! The judge has stated twice that she doesn’t want Chad to die while she is on the bench; which sounds like she has bias in the case! Surgery and chemotherapy had been intended for the following week. The doctor is still of the mind Chad could die any day now. When giving testimony, the dermatologist was asked if he could perform surgery on Chad, knowing that Chad would not cooperate with any Western medical butchery. His answer was emphatic No, he could not perform an operation on anyone against their will.

What Big Brother has been doing to Ms. Jessop and her children is unconscionable, beyond outrageous, a gross miscarriage of justice and an abuse of authority. Many families have been torn apart by lesser abuses of CPS and modern medicine. The Jessop family is very united and strong in their convictions, very aware of their constitutional rights, and will not give up to our corrupt system. Being a single parent for the last 11 years, Laurie has done herself proud raising her children and is extremely close to both of them. Laurie and her children have stood the test and this hellish ordeal has brought them closer together as a family. She said at the press conference, “I am a mama bear and no one is messing with my cubs!”

Laurie’s deadbeat ex-husband, Marcus, has never voluntarily paid for child support or any of the children’s medical bills, even though he is legally bound to pay for half according to their divorce agreement. She has had to drag him into court to get a judgment and garnish his wages in order to collect on past due medical bills. It so happens Marcus is in agreement with the state, he wants his son, (having had no contact for the last 10 years) to be butchered and drugged to eliminate this incredible cancer, that refuses to carry out its death sentence and is too clever to show up on tests. Marcus is in court with his own public defender, pushing for this even though he has no legal or physical custody, not even any visitation rights. If he was in agreement with Laurie’s medical beliefs, this court probably wouldn’t allow him in the courtroom. Our tax dollars, hard at work!

In the state of Virginia, a brilliant 17 year old young man went through a very similar ordeal, but won his battle with CPS. Once his case was over, he was instrumental in passing a new law in the state of Virginia. Abraham’s Law, that gives a minor the right to make their own medical decisions when they are bright and understand their choices. Laurie wants to get her story out and push through a similar bill in California, called “Chad’s Law,” so that other families do not have to go through the abusive nature of a department that is supposed to be protecting our children. As “Roy of Hollywood” stated on KPFK recently, who is protecting us from the Child Protective Social Services Department? Pushing through a bill like this may be very expensive, but once Laurie makes up her mind that she is doing something, she is all steel, determined, and will persevere to find a way to make this happen. ….

Orthodox medicine is unwilling to admit it does not know everything, and it hates competition. Its methods of treating cancer are not the only ways that can work. Ms. Jessop believed she could find another way, and her son, given a diagnosis of imminent death, is now free of cancer. Never mind, the doctor is sure it’s still there, so Big Brother intends to make an example of her as an unfit mother for disobeying her doctor, putting her son in mortal danger. That’s not happening, but truth often doesn’t matter to Big Brother, as is apparent in most government policy. If Chad were actually endangered by not getting conventional treatment, the authorities might have a leg to stand on, but in this case, it’s not his mother putting him in jeopardy, it’s the system! The doctor has egg on her face, because she was sure Chad would die quickly without aggressive conventional treatment, and she has been proven wrong! Instead of learning from her error, she wants to make Ms. Jessop and her son pay for showing her up!

I’m helping her get her story out. One newspaper did a story, but in general, very little has been reported so far. I tried to find the story online, but no luck. A press conference was held on Sept. 6th, just before court. Two of the major TV news stations and one of the largest AM radio all news stations showed up. KFWB radio ran the story immediately that day. As soon as court started the judge announced that there was a gag order on this case and threatened jail time and contempt of court to anyone (including the minor in question), that spoke to the press or anyone else for that matter. One of the TV news stations didn’t want to run the story without interviewing Chad and getting his viewpoints. The judge denied a continuance six different times, ignoring all six times valid reasons for the requests. The judge also denied Laurie the right to hire her own attorney! She retained a law firm with her own money, but the judge insisted she has to keep her Public Defender, presumably as a public servant easier to control than a private attorney not so dependent on the system.

The final outcome of the Jessop saga is unfolding now. Stay tuned

Seriously...this is cheap. My friends who are renting- you need to consider this! Your mortgage payment could be lower than what you pay in rent.

This super affordable unit is in South Seattle/Skyway, close to I-5 and on a quiet block. The upstairs bedroom in this top-floor unit is generous and open to the lower interior space. New washer and dryer. Newly replaced windows and sliding door to deck. Wood fireplace on main floor, bath on second floor attached to master. A few minor upgrades could make this unit truly something special. Great potential as home, rental or investment.

Megan and I are expecting another baby in late February. 2008 is a leap year, so I'm mildly concerned about a 2/29 birthday. It wouldn't be the end of the world or anything, but could you imagine having an ambiguous birthday? Would you celebrate 2/28 or 3/1 on non-leap years? Anyway, despite the mild anxiety I feel in the middle of the night that reminds me of all of the things I need to do at home in preparation; I honestly can't wait to meet the little *troublemaker. :-)

Here we see the profile. Notice the influence of Megan's button nose and my gigantic head:




Here's a shot of the baby hiding in the darkness ("boo!"):


Look at those feet! I'm guessing those are mine as well:


*Here we see the baby chanting "fight the power!":

Mid-century modern rambler with daylight basement and Sound/Olympic views. Glass-paneled, ironwood deck and two wood burning fireplaces inside the home. French doors and a large corner window warmly illuminate the interior living spaces. Efficient kitchen design with stainless work surfaces and metal cabinets. Basement garage and utility room with built-in storage. An unfinished attic space with stairwell offers many possibilities. Large lot and location may appeal to developers/investors.

This stylishly remodeled rambler is move-in ready! Updated electrical, new furnace, new windows, freshly painted inside and out with new gutters and roof. All new stainless kitchen appliances with granite countertops and subway tile backsplash. Tile and hardwood floors throughout. Large, fully fenced and landscaped yard with patio. Conveniently located blocks from 509- a must see!

This listing of mine is in need of an offer. The banks want to see ANY offer...don't be shy.

I found out last night through an obscure TV joke that Abe Vigoda is alive and well. I remember back in the 80's when someone told me that "Fish" from Barney Miller died. Being a fan of the show (and a strange kid) I was pretty sad about it. Have I noticed all of his weird cameos on Letterman and elsewhere? No. Did I read the retracted article in People declaring his death? No. Turns out SEVERAL sources have falsely claimed that Abe was dead over the past twenty years. His old appearance on Letterman was as a cameo where during a séance to contact Abe Vigoda he interrupts Dave by walking in and saying: "I'm not dead, you idiot."

I suppose next someone is gonna tell me the tooth fairy doesn't exist. What a blow that would be.

I had a final appointment with Sears this morning for a delivery of a new washer. I say final appointment, because for the last six weeks they have been screwing with me by scheduling appointments... and then not doing anything, and then scheduling another appointment. After visit three we discover the washer we had, less than five years old, needed to be replaced. It's a H.E. type front loader that's supposed to be "environmentally friendly." Long story short they took their sweet time giving us credit for a new one and getting it delivered. In between all of this was a series of uncomfortable calls to customer service where I slowly unraveled over the course of weeks.
I decided to leave them a gift at the South Seattle store on 1st...
(p.s. In addition to what I wrote on the note I left, I have just discovered I now have a leak in my waste pipe that's dripping in my basement thanks to these people)