Queen of Kludge

Notes to Self: Create Playlist in iTunes and add to iPhone

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:27:13 +0000

To create a Playlist in iTunes, first click the + icon at the bottom of the iTunes window. It does not matter which existing playlist is selected when you do this.

iTunes will create a new untitled playlist.

Type in a name for your new playlist

Select and rag the tunes or audios files into your new playlist.

To add the new playlist to your iPhone.

Connect your iPhone.

Select User’s Phone under Devices.

Click the Music Tab.

Check the Playlists to be “Synced”.

Click Sync.

How to load a staple gun

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:05:31 +0000

Seriously. This post an illustrated lesson of how to load a staple gun.

My staff is great. My associates are great. However, not all of them demonstrate strong mechanical abilities.

After losing a couple hours unjamming a staple gun that had been improperly loaded, I thought maybe creating a post indicating the proper way to load a staple gun would be a useful thing.

The associate in question evidently tried to slide a strip of staples in like this:

NO!

Instead, drop the strip of staples into the open slot at the bottom of the staple gun, here:

With points facing upwards, like this:

After the strip of staples is positioned in the slot, slide the spring tension arm over them.

(And yes, I did go to the hardward store and buy a new staple gun, thinking it really wasn’t worth the amount of time to unjam the old staple gun… Studying the new stapler is how I finally figured out how to fix the spring tension arm of the old one …. )

Southwest Museum: Saving Los Angeles First Museum and the Arroyo Culture

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:19:24 +0000

Charles Fletcher Lummis founded the Southwest Museum to be a comprehensive museum covering the history, science, and art of the American Southwest.

Founded in 1907, the Southwest Museum’s permanent home was specifically chosen atop a hill overlooking the Arroyo Seco Valley and since opening in 1914, the Southwest Museum has remained the iconic symbol of Los Angeles’ architectural and cultural life.

This gorgeous building became, in many ways, a pivot point that swung the city from an agrarian community to an urban metropolis of the first order.

Today, following years of “backroom negotiations” and unkept promises, the museum is permanently closed, and it’s vast collection is unavailable to the public. The architecturally-designed museum structure, now used as a storage warehouse, is void of public life.

The Highland Park Heritage Trust (HPHT) is working hard to re-open the Southwest Museum and to educate the city about all the important treasures of the region’s Arroyo Culture.

Read the enter article and vote here

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has created “This Place Matters Community Challenge” to help non-profit organizations across the country start a conversation about places that matter in our communities.

Each organization that is participating is competing to register the most support for their places, with the winning group receiving a cash award of $25,000 to support their preservation efforts!

Brushes of Fire and Free Form Art Exhibitions Opening at Avenue 50 Studio September 11

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:35:09 +0000

Sonya Fe and Margaret Garcia opening at Avenue 50 Studio in Highpark Park

The Dead Need To Be Fed – Sonya Fe

Woman in Red – Margaret Garcia

The Avenue 50 Studio is proud to present Sonya Fe and Margaret Garcia in an exhibition of recent paintings. We are honored to host two powerful artists as our participation in Latino Heritage Month for the City of Los Angeles and in Northeast LA’s Second Saturday Art Night.

Sonya Fe: Sonya’s large scale works in oil, wax and copal are composed of earth tones, soothing to the eye, yet whose content shakes you out of your normal comfort zone. Fe is an exuberant person with a large personality.

Margaret Garcia: A painter with fiery brush strokes and colors just as aggressive, Garcia’s images are as potent as the artist herself.

Each artist delves into personal struggles matched by tremendous strength of will. This is an exhibition you will not want to miss.
Opening night reception: Saturday, September 11, 7-10 pm

September 11 through October 3, 2010

Avenue 50 Studio, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit art gallery
131 North Avenue 50
Highland Park, CA 90042
323-258-1435
www.avenue50studio.com

Susie Hansen Latin Jazz TONIGHT, THURSDAY AUGUST 26 at Heritage Square Museum

Cheryl Johnson — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:07:35 +0000

Susie Hansen Latin Jazz

TONIGHT, THURSDAY AUGUST 26
at Heritage Square Museum 3800 Homer Street, Los Angeles, CA 90031-1530

Mark this date: Thursday evening, August 26, 5pm to 8pm. Please invite your friends, family and neighbors.

From Heritage Square Museum: On August 26, the Susie Hansen Latin Band returns to us for what promises to be an unforgettable performance. Electric violinist Susie Hansen plays fiery Latin Jazz and Salsa, creating music that brings audiences to their feet, dancing in the aisles. Susie and her Los Angeles-based band have been acclaimed by many critics, such as Phil Elwood from the San Francisco Examiner who describes them this way: “It’s a sizzling, swinging Salsa band. Hansen can solo as if her bow was afire. The whole room was jumpin’ for joy.” Mark Holston wrote in JAZZIZ Magazine that Susie Hansen’s “violin speaks the language of Latin Jazz with total fluency.”

A long-time favorite in Los Angeles, Susie and her band play 175-200 live performances per year, including such events as the Playboy Jazz Festival, Fiesta Broadway, San Jose Jazz Festival, LA Salsa Festival and Newport Beach Jazz Festival. She has toured nationally with her band, and has appeared with such big names as Tito Puente. For more information on Susie Hansen, go to http://www.susiehansen.com/.

Opening for the Susie Hansen Latin Band will be local favorite blues band Blue Metro. Learn all about Blue Metro on their website at http://www.bluemetro.net/.

This video is from the 2009 concert:

Susie Hansen Latin Jazz Returns to Heritage Square THURSDAY August 26

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:48:06 +0000

Mark this date: Thursday evening, August 26, 5pm to 8pm. Please invite your friends, family and neighbors.

From Heritage Square Museum: On August 26, the Susie Hansen Latin Band returns to us for what promises to be an unforgettable performance. Electric violinist Susie Hansen plays fiery Latin Jazz and Salsa, creating music that brings audiences to their feet, dancing in the aisles. Susie and her Los Angeles-based band have been acclaimed by many critics, such as Phil Elwood from the San Francisco Examiner who describes them this way: “It’s a sizzling, swinging Salsa band. Hansen can solo as if her bow was afire. The whole room was jumpin’ for joy.” Mark Holston wrote in JAZZIZ Magazine that Susie Hansen’s “violin speaks the language of Latin Jazz with total fluency.”

A long-time favorite in Los Angeles, Susie and her band play 175-200 live performances per year, including such events as the Playboy Jazz Festival, Fiesta Broadway, San Jose Jazz Festival, LA Salsa Festival and Newport Beach Jazz Festival. She has toured nationally with her band, and has appeared with such big names as Tito Puente. For more information on Susie Hansen, go to http://www.susiehansen.com/.

Opening for the Susie Hansen Latin Band will be local favorite blues band Blue Metro. Learn all about Blue Metro on their website at http://www.bluemetro.net/.

Heritage Square Museum is located at 3800 Homer Street Los Angeles, CA 90031-1530

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The Danger of Being OVER Connected. Facebook Places. Argh!

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:36:11 +0000

Do watch the video…..

Via Bart Wilson (Voyager International):

Here’s the dark side of Facebook PLACES. It just went live on Wednesday last week — so the Bartman decided to give it a whirl.

I was celebrating a killer July sales month so I decided to have a dinner party and I invited some of my younger friends in their 30′s. All of them iPad, iPhone, or Droid toting, digitally connected REALTOR colleagues.

We headed over to Blue Corn Cafe off Jefferson and I-25 for blue margaritas.

The wait staff had arranged a large, long table for all of us. when 90% of our group had arrived I had announced I had checked them in on Facebook Places as they arrived to I could inform the rest of the group.

Foursquare lets you check in and tagging people with GPS like check-in programs like Foursquare and now Facebook Places isn’t a bad thing, right? Well… as I learned today (Sunday) it depends on who you talk to. Because it CAN be a huge violation of your Privacy.

Here’s what happened.

I now have more than 1,000 Friends on Facebook. Combined with my friends and colleagues I invited to dinner on Friday, we probably shared more than 17,000 friends/contacts.

As my friends arrived, I checked them into Facebook places without their permission. Informing the rest of the incoming gang where we were and who showed up.

When I informed the group I had added them — 5 out of the 11 were upset. One of my friends was completely torked. He had told his wife a small white lie. He told his better half that he had work to do.

She is an avid user of Facebook. (whoops, my bad! )

So he imagined his wife waiting at home for him at the front door — holding the frying pan to beat him over the head immediately upon his arrival.

Another problem didn’t surface until the next day. My post on Facebook Places showed up in more than 100 newsfeed websites. I never meant to broadcast this to a ton of websites. What the Hell was I thinking?

Ooops. Here I am reading about my dinner party and who I checked in as the arrived at the door. Why does this have to make the news feeds? I had no clue. Suffice it to say, I got a few upset phone calls this weekend. Fortunately, the newsfeeds dump stuff quickly and I personally wrote 11 of them asking them to please clear the news about my party which was now a train wreck that I wanted to forget.

Who’s responsible for this problem? Marrk Zuckerberg, CEO and jerk at large from Facebook. Apparently he just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. In April, Facebook announced the LIKE button feature which violated a lot of people’s security by openly allowing anyone with the skills to hack your personal calendar online and access content you might not want others to have.

What’s WRONG with Check In Networks like Foursquare and new Facebook Places? Plenty of you’ve been stalked on line by thieves.

My checking my friends into Facebook Places sends the clear message to a whole new crop of smart theft rings, I call; DiHeads ( Digital Housebreakers with Droids or DHD’s )

One of my colleagues told me this is a real problem and he showed me a website, PleaseRobMe showed the darker side of Check in Websites. I invite you to click and visit that site. If you use Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare — this will scare the living daylights out of you. And it needs to wake all of us up — because we have to be careful with what we do online.

Because thieves will watch you and wait for you to leave your home. The process might take weeks or months of stalking. But one day, you go home and you learn sometimes too late, that you need to be more careful with what you post online.

Below is the video on YouTube that shows you how to deactivate the Facebook Places and prevents people from ADDING or letting them Check you in, too.

Tsk. Tsk. I like Facebook.

But it seems that Facebook never really thinks alot about how their new products will affect personal security. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s founder/CEO) blindly spends millions of dollars in new products that can harm you.

They screwed up in April on the privacy issues. And now… here we go again.

Below is the YouTube Video that Facebook Places is now under your control.

Bart Wilson | As seen in Business Week

I help build successful REALTORS. One agent at a time.

Voyager International | Follow me on Twitter

Enabling WordPress Multi-Site

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:23:52 +0000

Most folks know I’ve been in the cheering section for WordPress Mu (mutiple user) since 2008. For me, it has been a great way to create separate sites for staff members, individual properties, particular neighborhoods, etc…. without needing to setup up a separate hosting account for each.

With WordPress 3.0x ALL WordPress installations now have multi-Site capabilities. (Altho enabling the network function does take a little more manual work than a straight old-school Mu install).

Having now converted one older single site install to a multi-site install, here are a couple of my notes…..

1. The existing single site install needs to be in the root directory of your host account.

2. To set up wildcard subdomains in GoDaddy, go to your Domain Manager

(Domains -> My Account -> Domain Management.)

Select the domain name for the site you are converting.

Under “Total DNS”, click “Total DNA Control”

At “A Host” Click “Add a New Record”

In the dialog box, at “Host Name” type in an asterisk ( * )

At “Points To” copy in the same IP address as the @ Record (its right there on the previous screen)

More to follow.

Disclaimer: Read the instructions from the WordPress people

Be sure you are comfortable with changing code in your wp-config.php file and .htaccess file

Here’s a plugin that offers to take most of the manual work out of enabling Multi-Site. I haven’t tried it yet.

Did you read Lesley Lambert’s article on Agent Genius

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:38:31 +0000

Did you read Lesley Lambert’s article on Agent Genius?

Check it out here: http://agentgenius.com/real-estate-technology-new-media/how-long-should-realtors-spend-using-social-media-every-day/

And it got me thinking about our tendency to want to block everything into a time slot.

Maybe we all need a little less “time blocking” and a little more “you do something until you finish it, and that’s the amount of time it takes to do it” kind of thinking …..

Drop on comment on AG, if you are so inspired….

Posterize: A really useful WordPress Plugin

Cheryl Johnson, Bob Taylor Properties, Inc., Los Angeles, CA — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:18:59 +0000

POSTERIZE!!

Do you have a self-hosted WordPress blog? Do you also use Posterous?

You could, of course, post to Posterous first, and have Posterous autopost the article on to your WordPress site.

But, if, for whatever reason, you prefer to work in WordPress first, POSTERIZE is the plugin in for you. It automatically forwards your WordPress posts to Posterous.

And, from Posterous, you could set the posts to go out in several more directions.

Get Posterize

Here: http://statikpulse.com/posterize

Or here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/posterize/