realweenie

A True Geek

Jeff Turner. @respres, the President of Real Estate Shows, arrived at Re-blog world wearing his #FFFFFF shirt.   Turner gave an excellent presentation on social media tools.  We all knew that he would  amaze us , and he did. 

Small "T"

I can't help but notice that some of my friends on twitter have decided to use their high school pictures as avatars.  There is even a group on Flickr for yearbook pictures.  I was invited to the group, which is nice, but I have decided not to play.

High school really sucked.  For some it did not, but the last time I was dragged kicking and screaming to a high school reunion I couldn't help but notice that people had changed.  Who they were in high school just doesn't seem relevant any more.

The cute boy I sat next to in my science class with the think curly hair, doesn't have any hair.  The girl who was so popular and so pretty has accumulated 40 pounds and 3 divorce decrees, and managed to drink more during my last reunion than I could handle in a month.

Life is a journey and high school is just one short stop along the way.  Most of the important things in life come after high school, like credit scores and being able to drink a glass of wine without being arrested.

**note:  Dad, ask mom how old I was when this was taken. Think I was 2 but I don't remember.

More than you wanted to know . . .

By Todd Carpenter

This post is so ridiculous, that if I published it anywhere on RE.net EXCEPT here on the Weenie, I would half expect Teresa to roast me for it.
It seems like recently, I spend most of my time chatting it up on twitter, or pimping my blog conference in Vegas (yes, you should go, Teresa will be speaking, along with lots of other top bloggers and... oh snap, there I go again). Occasionally I do actually blog about real estate. Well sort of. I'm a mortgage blogger.

Three and a half years ago, I set about to build the industry's first B2B mortgage blog. A normal person would have called it The Mortgage Reports, but I called it lenderama. Yep, that's how I roll.

Lenderama has had many looks, logos and color schemes. But what most people never notice, is all the half hidden, silly crap  I've always included with every new theme. Up until last week, one little Easter egg I had on my site, was an avatar of myself that was color matched to lenderama's logo. Every time I saw that avatar, it made me laugh.

Nobody else seemed to get it, and that made it even funnier to me. Lots of people told me it was scary looking. Almost everyone refers to it as "the mug shot". Teresa was no fan of my avatar, and even organized a contest to replace it. Well, it seems like half a million people entered the damn contest, but nobody actually voted.

Getting back to lenderama, I finally gave the site some new web digs. It's looking all grown up now, without any silliness. My old avatar was looking out of place. Time for a new one.

I decided that all those pictures from San Francisco would be a good place to start. I also considered my favorite from all the birthday greetings I received. If Jeff Corbett and I ever collaborate on a post, I have a perfect shot. Same goes for Ginger Wilcox. I considered some sombrero picks, but they just don't work at 38px X 55px

Teresa took some pretty some pretty good pics of me (I like this one). As did Kristal Kraft. But Jeff Turner took the winner. Thanks to everyone who took my picture. Now, let's do it to Teresa in Vegas.

Editors Note: Lets not do it to Teresa in Vegas

In Memory of my mind

I lost my mind.  All the words are gone.  I have scattered them all over the internet and I can't get them back.  I have uploaded the contents of my brain and now it is empty.  I  lose things all the time and I didn't think I would miss my mind but I do.  If you find it please send it back.

How Often do you Google Yourself?

I have neglected this blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand for too long.   I post when I can which isn't very often these days, and I am concerned that I will lose both of my readers.

Many of the re-bloggers out there spend time googling themselves and sometimes they even publish the results. It seems to be a big deal.  I get it when it comes to certain widely used searches and keywords but I don't get it when it comes to the title of a post, or a sentance in the post.

I decided to do some googling of my own.  Is googling a word?  Of course not but here on the weenie anything goes.  I come up number one, and two on page one of google, when I type in "cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand".   Isn't that amazing?  I am going to share my secret with you. "cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand" is a unique set of words that I have used many times in my posts.  When I run the search the pages that come up after mine all have the phrase "cleverly disguised" in them but not the words "hot dog stand".  I feel very special.

Now I can tell the world that I come up number one on the search "cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand".  I guess this bad old blog has really made it.   Just think, all those people out there searching for "cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand" will find me first.

Now that I am number one in google for the "cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand", what will happen next?  Will I be rich beyond my wildest dreams?  Will I be famous?  Probably not but like everyone else out there who comes up number one in google under some blog post headline or obscure phrase in a blog post, my search engine position gives me something to write about and makes me look really smart. 

Obeoman blogs

Real estate is crazy, according to Obeoman, AKA Steven Stearns.  The guy leads a charmed life and somehow managed to write his blog for an entire year with out a write up on the weenie.

Obeoman did not post every day and for that we are all thankful.  Just kidding.  Steve has a wicked sense of humor.  We follow each other on Twitter and one afternoon he had me laughing so hard I had to call him.  You know, on that old fashioned thing with the keypad on it and no mouse. 

He was a delight to talk with.  I find his avatar rather frightening because of the big grin, but when I talked to him i found that the voice did not match the picture, even though he was smiling as we talked.

It is hard to roast Steve on the weenie.  He has always been very kind to Realtors which as we all know is highly unusual, which is one of the many reasons I question his sanity.  Real estate is crazy but I think Obeoman is Crazier.

Go read his blog, and ask him to post more often.

The NAR Pin

I knew I would be writing about this eventually, and what better place than this blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand?

I was contacted by Realtor magazine a couple of months ago and interviewed for the article in this months issue.  Then I was contacted a few weeks later and asked if I would consider being photographed for the cover of the magazine.   I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that, would you say no?   I was told 3 or 4 bloggers would be featured on the cover.

My photo never made it to the cover but is shown inside in a couple of places.  I figure they took one look at me and decided that I am not cover material.  I totally get that.  After all the people from Realtor Magazine don't know what I look like and the photos they had taken were their first glimpse.  The photographer did take some excellent shots, considering what he had to work with, but those were not the photos chosen for the magazine. Since there are no recent pictures of me dressed in a suit, wearing a NAR pin it is nice to have them.

The article has generated some email and phone calls from people all over the country mostly asking questions about the blog. (Many, many phone calls and emails)

Last night I got a comment via facebook that made me smile.  "Did they make you wear that pin".  In the Realtor Magazine photos I am wearing a dark suit, a white blouse and have a NAR pin on my lapel.  That is pretty much how I dress for work every day, especially when I am out showing unheated vacant houses.

Honestly I have worn my NAR pin and I do own one.   A day or so before the photo shoot I was contacted by the people at the magazine and reminded to wear my NAR pin and told which lapel to wear it on.  I searched everywhere for my pin and could not find it.  I was asked for my address and told that one would be sent to me.

On the day that I was supposed to meet with the photographer the pin still had not arrived.  I got on the phone and started calling agents who live near me to see if any had a pin I could borrow.  I struck out on that one.  I called my local Realtors association and they found one for me, and had it waiting at the front desk so that I could swing by and pick it up and still be on time for the appointment with the photographer.  The pin in the picture on this post arrived two days after the photos were taken.

As for the article, it truly is an honor to be mentioned so prominently in such a widely distributed trade magazine. It is a favorable article and I thrilled to be mentioned with so many other prominent bloggers.  A copy arrived in the mail last week so I finally got to see and read it.  My mother says that she wants a copy of it but I have been unable to find a copy of the magazine anywhere. 

No one in my office knows about it or has read it, but many in my market area have.  When I was in the office yesterday I asked our MCA to hang onto a copy of the magazine if it is sent to our office and if she gets any extra copies.  When and if they arrive and she looks at it she will understand why I might want an extra copy.  Today I'll call some other offices around town and see if I can score a copy for my mother, before my moment of fame becomes last months news.  If that doesn't work I'll call the NAR.   If it were one of my children in the magazine I know I would love to have a copy.  It is kind of a universal mom thing.

There was a time when my parents were the only readers of my blog, they really hung in there.

Rhymes With Tomato

Every now and then day, someone gives me a post for the weenie.  I am not talking about the posts other people submit to this blog I am talking about the stuff that I find on the internet that is perfect "weenie" material.  It is as if the author, in this case her name rhymes with Mary McKnight, provided a perfect weenie post.

I am finding so much of the stuff these days that this bad old blog is just writing it self.  The only way I can prevent myself from taking the time to write a post a day is to stay off the internet.  Yah, right, like I can do that and stay in business.   

"As usual, I will not name names but let's just say it rhymes with steal plate clamato."

Where did I find this little tidbit?  on a blog, I don't want to point fingers but it rhymes with RSS pieces, which coincidently rhymes with reeses pieces.

Web 2.0, in the new web 1.0 way? No, Yes?

This just in from David Smith, the guy in the red shirt, Mr. Tucson himself.

Remember RE 1.0 and the push "It is all about selling you are the agent"  Then the battle cry of RE 2.0. "Transparency".

Realtor magazine (for Realtor magazine) does a better than usual take on RE 2.0.  But does the right hand know what the left hand is doing.

How many times do you count "MAX"?

http://www.rdcworkshop.com/video/index.html

The Cover of the Rolling Realtor Magazine

I dedicate this post to the hard working bloggers at the Bloodhound Blog.