Banking Home a Half-Million Dollar Mortgage
There is an interesting alternate reality to your every day financial life. In this separate dimension, strange voices on telephones promise to send you a blank check. Blank but for the amount, there it says $500,000.
Five hundred thousand dollars.
Have you ever seen that much money? Have you ever held a check for it? I have not, not yet anyway, of those voices on the telephone wait for me to find something to spend it on before they will send me the check.
And not just anything, but a house, a home, a domicile to call my very own. And those voices, whispering in my ears from many sides tell me I should do it. I should take that blank check and buy a home.
Maybe buy a dream home in the Petworth neighbourhood of Washington DC. And a dream it is, perfect for a settled life of domestic bliss. See the video for yourself of what $500,000 buys in my housing market.
Read MoreI’m gonna be on National Public Radio tonight!
That’s right, I’m going to be on National Public Radio talking about a $100 dollar laptop, tonight, Wednesday Feb21 @ 7pm. station list)
Think about it, a $100 dollar laptop. Wouldn’t that be great! You could buy one for everyone you know. Better yet, what about a $100 laptop designed for students?
Imagine a classroom full of children, faces aglow with laptop screens, all learning at Internet speeds; the next Bill Gates, the next Jerry Yang, the next Sergey Bergin. Now imagine all three in the developing world, better known for abject poverty than power computing.
That is the dream of Nicholas Negroponte, a MIT professor and technology futurist, as well as a dream of many in the development community. In a distinct difference, Mr. Negroponte has run with his dream and now his nonprofit, One Laptop Per Child is designing an appropriate-technology laptop, the Children’s Machine XO.
Read MoreFlickr Photo Pools: Hacked or Just Gone Mad?!
This morning I was looking to add a post to Metroblogging DC, the hyper-local view of Washington DC that I love. But when I went to my DC Metroblogger Flickr account to find the transit foamer image I wanted, my web wanderings took an unexpected turn.
When I clicked on my Transit Foamer photo pool, where I have images of public transport options worldwide, I found a whole different kind of foamer staring back at me. Shocked, I refreshed the page, thinking it was a temporary error, but the new “foamer” was still there.
To my relief, when I clicked through, it was my original photo, but back at the photo pool page, the foamer only shifted locations.
Read MoreMy Swiss Miss Advertising Love in Zurich
On my long flight back from Macedonia to Washington DC, I transferred through Zürich International Airport (ZRH) in Kloten, Switzerland. There, as I took the driverless train from one international terminal to another, I fell in love.
Yes, I lost my heart on an underground people mover.
Blowing me a kiss from the other side of moving glass and steel was Heidi, my Swiss love. Calling to me, to my soul, to my tourist dollar, was an advertising beauty you must see to believe:
Read MoreBusiness Tripping With the Boss
With this foray across Macedonia added to our sojourn to Lebanon, I’ve now business tripped twice with my boss, Tarek. And I have to say I like traveling with him. He’s a very relaxed yet organized traveler. He’s flown enough to have his routine down, he gives me space to do my own thing, and maybe best of all, we don’t sit near each other on long flights.
But it’s more than that, for Tarek is amazing to watch in-country. While I may seem to meet people everywhere and make friends easy, I am still junior varsity compared with his professional social skills. He makes connections, business connections, with a practiced skill.
In meetings with local people, be they Lebanese lawyers telling dirty jokes, Macedonians offering ouzo toasts at 10am, or clueless Americans trying to bluff, Tarek never looses his cool. He’s precise, diplomatic, professional. And I love watching him work.
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