Saving the Church In Springfield, Massachusetts, there is an effort under way to create two new historic districts with the intent of saving two churches which are scheduled for closure by the diocese. Another church in the region, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was demolished.  Apparently being within a Historic District will provide more protection. More on the story can be read in the article below: Diocese opposes historic districts But, let me step back a moment.  I was raised as a Roman Catholic.  In my younger years, the church would have several services (masses) on Sunday and a couple on Saturday.  All of them were crowded and I am talking about every weekend, not just Christmas and Easter.  Many of the parishes, also, had schools.  The school at ... 12/24/2009

Gamble for Wealth The State of Maryland has legalized gambling.  It has allowed betting on horse racing for years and it has had some form of lottery for several years, as well. The newest entry into Maryland's array of gambling opportunities will be slot machines.  Since the neighboring state of Delaware has slots and table gambling games and Pennsylvania is not far behind, it is likely that Maryland will eventually have the same. A large percentage of the gambling proceeds will go to the State, so large, that it has actually made it difficult to find an experienced casino company to come in and implement this new business. Maryland went forth and legalized slots because it believed that it was losing too much money to its neighboring states and because it wanted to use the gambling pr... 12/23/2009

Who in the @#$%$(^ Are These People? I turn on the news and what do I hear? Congress sets artificial deadline to pass Health Care legislation; Republicans excluded from discussions; deals are cut to "buy" votes for bill passage; Democrats push for Health Care reform to keep Obama in office; After several months and copious debate, Obama finally decides on sending troops to Afghanistan; stated withdrawal deadline defeats the purpose; Global warming is a hoax; scientists falsify data; emission standards are designed to make Wall Street richer; Cap and Trade, or cap and "tax" will bankrupt the country; it's an enormous tax on the middle class; Man pulls balloon stunt to get on reality television; couple crashes White House party. The list continues, but the people involved with these stori... 12/23/2009

Think Inside The Box Some people talk about thinking outside the box.  Of course, if they have a good idea, then everyone copies them and the new idea soon goes into the box. There are many people who are so busy trying to think of a new idea, that they forget to look into the box in the first place.  They should take a look, there are some good ideas that have been stored away in the box.  If they were not good ideas, then they would have been thrown away long ago. A while back, I was at the ticket booth at a dinner theater with my daughter.  Behind the counter was a cute little puppy in a big box.  It was a Yorkshire Terrier.  They let my daughter hold and pet the tiny pooch and she was thrilled, even more so than she was impressed by the actual show.  When she graduated from her eigh... 12/22/2009

I Am Still Running It has been around five years and my new recreational activity of running has become thoroughly a part of my lifestyle.  My body has never felt better and my mind has never been clearer. All of my running is done outside, so I may be missing some of the benefits of the gym, but I keep pounding the pavement anyway. Now in today's world of fitness minded maniacs, going to the gym could possibly have an impact on an evolutionary change in humans, which I think would be beneficial.  Many of the machines are designed to give a good cardiovascular workout, but in a manner that will reduce the stress on joints that would happen in old style exercise, such as running and its pounding on the leg joints.  With the new equipment, we may start to replace our lower body joints wit... 12/22/2009

I Have Run into Health When I was in college and on the baseball team, they had us run sprints (tons of them and tons more for pitchers).  This made my knees start to swell and took me from being somebody who was kind of fast to someone who could barely move.  I eventually got into shape to get past that problem.  I am sure that it made the coach wonder though, from "We'll be runnin' wild this year.", thinking that I might steal a lot of bases, to "What in the hell happened to our speedster". After college, I went for several years with my main exercise being the playing of softball, but the older one gets the more one aches, until . . . I found running again, in the form of distance running.  I can credit my daughter, who is seriously into running, but nonetheless, it has done wonders ... 12/22/2009

Be Positive Real quickly, I'll get the negative part out of the way.  Yes, negative, but all the same, I consider it funny.  Typical sayings that you may hear from the naysayers."You'll never make it.""It's a hard way to make a living.""They just don't understand.""They didn't give you a chance.""We never did it that way.""Things have really changed.""He took advantage of you.""They don't care.""They only want your money.""You really got nothing out of that.""I don't think that's right."The list can continue, but that's not the point. You will frequently come across people who say such things.  What should you do? Change the subject to a positive view of things. For example: It's cold outside. But, it's a bright and sunny day!   Looks like it's going to rain out there. Great, I can get ... 12/22/2009

How Do You Choose a Real Estate Agent? Preconceptions Many people have preconceptions about certain things.  For instance, my Mother sold real estate for about 9 months after she retired from her previous career job and she sold one house.  She is like 95% of the people who get into real estate.  Within 1 year, they give up and move onto something else.  Now, her favorite line about working in the business is "It's a hard way to make a living."  Yes, for her it was hard, but for many of that 5% who stay in the business, it is not as hard because they love what they are doing. Use a friend? If you had a friend who was six feet tall who had a horse that he occassionally rode, you would probably not ask that person to ride your thoroughbred horse in the Kentucky Derby, mainly because they ... 12/22/2009

Some Thoughts on the U. N. Climate Conference If the largest economies, such as China and the United States produce the most greenhouse gas emissions, then they have the biggest expense in reducing those emissions.  The money that they spend in that endeavor would far outweigh any other nation and would by far have a greater impact than any other nation.  Question: Why then should they contribute to the efforts of other nations? The poorer countries are, also, the least developed nations, and, hence, produce the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions.  Although, their economies are smaller than the developed nations, because of this fact, their need is smaller for emission abatement and, hence requires a smaller outlay of funds.  It is likely that their economy can support on its own ... 12/18/2009

Maryland Colleges are Ready for BRAC Maryland is a beneficiary of the military base realignment, BRAC, whereby tens of thousands of jobs will be relocating to Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County and to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County. Much of the work which will be conducted at these bases will be of a high technology nature, and hence, will require strong support from the local college systems. In response to this need Governor Martin O'Malley has included in the fiscal year 2009 budget a provision for nearly two million dollars for the BRAC Higher Education Investment Fund. The following colleges have received grants from the program: Baltimore City Community College, Bowie State University, Cecil Community College, the Community College of Baltimore County, Hagerstown Communi... 12/18/2009

  SIX MARYLAND SCHOOLS AWARDED "BLUE RIBBON" STATUS   And the Schools are: Eastern Technology High in Baltimore County; Ellicott Mills Middle in Howard County; New Market Elementary in Frederick County; Northern Middle School in Calvert County; Northwestern Elementary in Wicomico County; and Snow Hill Middle School in Worcester County.       State Superintendent of Schools, Nancy S. Grasmick, along with members of the Maryland State Board of Education and Educators from Six Maryland Schools announced the winners. Schools from Baltimore County, Calvert County, Frederick County, Howard County, Wicomico County, and Worcester County were as recipients of Maryland's 2009 Blue Ribbon School Awards. This took place at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, December 15 at the State Board Room, Seventh Floor, Mary... 12/18/2009

Economic Predictions and The Real Estate Market We will see inflation.  The amount of money in the economy has been significantly increased.  Through the theory of supply and demand, when the supply of an item increases, then its value decreases, simply because there is more of it.  Because of the increase in money, the value of the dollar will decrease.  Basically, this means that it will take more dollars, or money, to purchase the same item.  This is inflation.   Interest rates will rise.  Interest rates are supported by the bond market.  Bonds provide a fixed interest return.  When inflation occurs, bonds are not as good an investment because their return is fixed, while the cost of goods is increasing.  In this situation, investors will take their money out of bonds and put it into... 12/17/2009

Electric Car; The Way of The Future? General Motors, through its Chevrolet Division, will be launching its electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, by the end of 2010 and Toyota plans to introduce its latest model Prius electric vehicle in 2012.       Basically, the fully charged Volt will be able to go about 40 miles maximum on its charge before having a gas supply kick in to continue to run the car, electrically, for several more hundred miles, or about the same range that most gas powered vehicles currently can go on a tank of gas. The fully charged Toyota Prius will be able to go about 15 miles.  Toyota has made no further statements as to how it will increase the range, but indicates that its price tag, which may be nearly $32,000, although $8,000 less than the Chevy Volt, should stil... 12/16/2009

Something from Nothing I remember from my youth, a wise childhood friend of mine who had reasoned that "BS makes the world go round".  Now, I would prefer to think that the world is more complex than that, but I have never been able to completely dismiss its credence. This is sort of like saying that we can get something from nothing.  And, we all know that something from nothing is a quantum possibility.  Don't believe me?  Just take a look at this mathematical proof. Okay, this guy can't even get the length of his tie right, so I guess we shouldn't listen to his theories about the universe. Let me state another possibility.  The majority of everything is nothing.  Take the atom, for example, of which everything is made.  The center consists of protons and neutrons, while far on the ex... 12/14/2009

ReHab Humor What did the man say to the wall? One more crack outta you and I'll plaster ya.   If you are looking for an investment property to renovate or to rent in the Greater Baltimore Region, give me a call.  The area has plenty of low priced homes in need of repair and many homes which are ready to go as positive cash flow rentals.  Also, the market for resale of these homes has been good and should increase, since Maryland is one of the leading states in the nation in jobs creation. The link below shows some of the homes which are located in Harford County near the Aberdeen Proving Ground. http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?ID=34333970318 Here are a few of these bargain properties.  Check them out.                                12/10/2009

Should I Advertise in More Than One Language? I have been hearing more and more about this marketing concept of advertising in multiple languages. If I actually spoke several languages, I would think that it would be an obvious choice to do exactly that, advertise in each of the languages that I could speak. I have seen many agents form niche markets by being able to speak a certain language such as Korean, Russian, Chinese, and a few others. In many cases, not only could they speak in the tongue of these people, but they, also, could understand their culture, usually, because they originally came from the same countries as these people. Typically, these customers can speak in English, but no where near as well as their native dialect.  It can be especially difficult to learn English, s... 12/08/2009

Are We Products of Our Environments? My mom looks around at some of the bad things happening in some of our more crime-ridden neighborhoods and has formed certain opinions.  She believes that the people committing the crimes were simply not raised properly, were not taught the difference between right and wrong, and were not shown discipline and the meaning of respect.  In fact, this is a very popular opinion among many people. She goes on to say that she raised her children to know right from wrong, and to show respect for others, and to maintain discipline. My mother is correct in regards to how she raised her children, but not in the manner that she thinks.  She would say that she specifically instructed us on these things.  If I challenge her to remember a specific time or topic, sh... 12/07/2009

Chicken or Egg It's an age old question of philosophy. What came first the chicken or the egg? It is cyclic in nature; you can not have one without the other. Although, I did have eggs for breakfast without the chicken and then I had a chicken sandwich for lunch without the eggs. Perhaps the question has more to do with your opinion of creationism versus evolution; I don't know. . . . and then there is Santa Claus . . . myth or reality? Well, I did meet Santa and I have pictures to prove it. That's right; me and my brother sitting on Santa's lap. However, when I was a bit older, I found my brother bringing a friend from down the street, who was dressed like Santa, to see my little sister. I had to wonder. Was there a conspiracy and my brother was in on it? Me and my sister were being in... 11/17/2009

Nottingham, Maryland If you are looking to buy a home, but have not yet decided upon a neighborhood, then you may want to consider Nottingham, Maryland. Here are some reasons why: Great accessibility with I-95, I-695, Bus Routes, and the MARC Commuter Train all conveniently available, making it very easy to get to Downtown Baltimore, BWI International Airport, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Washington DC, and more.   Proximity to major colleges such as Johns Hopkins, Loyola University, Towson University, Goucher College, and several others.   Copious shopping opportunities where one can find almost any major retailer with White Marsh Mall being the anchor location for many of these stores.   Close by entertainment with theaters, movie complexes, major league sports' teams, such as the Baltimo... 11/17/2009

Don't Wait Until January 1 The shorter and colder days of the year have arrived and so has the fattening holiday season. We do not exercise enough, we eat too much, and we sleep way more than we need. Then, January 1 comes around and we make our New Year's Resolutions. I am going to exercise more, stop overeating, and make more of every day. But, why are you waiting?  Would not you like to feel better now? On Thanksgiving, we will visit with family and have the meal of the year and then with our stuffed guts have the family feud of the year. Here is an alternative for you.  Running, or jogging, or even just walking.  Early on Thanksgiving Thursday, there will be parades all around the country, but even earlier than that, there will be people running, especially on Thanksgiving.  Turkey ... 11/13/2009