{"id":2267,"date":"2007-11-27T12:02:57","date_gmt":"2007-11-27T19:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2267"},"modified":"2007-11-27T12:02:57","modified_gmt":"2007-11-27T19:02:57","slug":"serendipity-straight-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2267\/serendipity-straight-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Serendipity, straight up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upon self-examination I’ve concluded;\u00a0were it not\u00a0for a dash of serendipity on all the right occasions, sprinkled at\u00a0just the proper times, I wouldn’t amount to very much in this world. The fact that I was born here in America and not under a bridge in Lagos is, in itself, <\/em>a divine intervention of sorts. And if you don’t know of that particular Nigerian slum then let me just\u00a0add that not being born at all<\/em> would be a a\u00a0more\u00a0desirable\u00a0volition\u00a0in this writer’s mind.<\/p>\n

what I could have received…\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"lagos2\"\"lagos3\"\"lagos4\"\"lagos5\" \"lagos6\"
\n<\/strong>
\nwhat I got instead…
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"what\"my\"mini\"\"bmwx3\"\"Elvis\"\"home\"\u00a0
\n<\/strong>
\nAnd still, it’s not enough. In comparison to the Bill Gateses<\/em>, the Mark Cubans<\/em> and even the Flavor Flavs<\/em> of this world…I am but a speck. Dust doesn’t even know I exist. Okay, maybe I’ve got\u00a0more going on than\u00a0perennial homeboy\u00a0Flav…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"flav\"<\/p>\n

…but I’m sure there are\u00a0many in this world who would argue agin. (On my own behalf though,\u00a0if the ‘picture’s worth…’<\/em>\u00a0 cliche holds any water at all, I just saved the Recycle Bins 15,000 words.) I’m trying<\/em> to be a greener man, thus the whole\u00a0self-examination exercise in the first place. I’m just\u00a0not a big fan of\u00a0the color, I guess.<\/p>\n

I calculated the amount of trees I saved by not succumbing to print advertising or mass mailings this year–and to honest, it wasn’t that much. In fact, I probably saved more of the rain forest by simply making half of what I made last year but even I<\/em> can’t put enough spin on that<\/em> reality to feel that I’m a better man for it. It kind of makes me sick, actually….<\/p>\n

Until I hear about a place like Lagos, Nigeria and\u00a0learn of\u00a0the pure misery there. Now without getting into personal idealogical bents I will simply say that I listen to National Public Radio<\/em>\u00a0all the time, if for no other reason than to get my blood pumping and to know I have an opinion on a thing or two in this world, all specks of dust aside.\u00a0Politically, I don’t like anybody<\/em> and since, (according to those who profess their love for me), I’m wrong almost half the time anyway, I can\u00a0safely go on record to say that there’s always a Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon self-examination I’ve concluded;\u00a0were it not\u00a0for a dash of serendipity on all the right occasions, sprinkled at\u00a0just the proper times, I wouldn’t amount to very much in this world. The fact that I was born here in America and not under a bridge in Lagos is, in itself, a divine intervention of sorts. And if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17000,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17000\/overnight-news-like-serendipity-utopia-is-where-you-find-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":2267,"position":0},"title":"Overnight News: Like serendipity, Utopia is where you find it.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"CNN: America itself is a Utopian experiment. 19 families buy nearly 97 acres of land in Georgia to create a city safe for Black people. Utopia is a Greek neologism that literally means \"no place.\" Dystopia, alas, abounds... Jason Rantz: Amazon takes another major step to abandon Seattle. ProPublica: They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2307,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2307\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-9\/","url_meta":{"origin":2267,"position":1},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A baker's dozen this week. Vote for the People's Choice Award here. You can use the voting interface to see each nominated post, so comparison is easy. Voting runs through to 12 Noon MST Monday. I'll announce the winners of this week's awards soon thereafter. Here is this week's short-list\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18230,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18230\/overnight-news-if-youre-looking-for-some-privilege-to-leverage-arrange-to-be-born-a-native-speaker-of-english\/","url_meta":{"origin":2267,"position":2},"title":"Overnight News: If you\u2019re looking for some privilege to leverage, arrange to be born a native speaker of\u00a0English.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Even now, tho' we are not the America that was, it is the very luckiest of fates to have been born here. We wax and wane as pretend friends of liberty, but it remains that someone like me is unpersecuted, at least so far, which would be true in no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/434\/blogoff-post-57-weblog-review-altos-research-blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":2267,"position":3},"title":"Blogoff Post #57: Weblog Review: Altos Research Blog . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have nothing to say about the Altos Research Blog except, \"Bring these folks to Arizona!\" They are utterly the apogee of analytical real estate weblogging. Without a perfectly telling chart, they're completely tongue-tied. That's not really true, but if you feel an urge to challenge their conclusions, sharpen your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8241,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8241\/reflecting-very-briefly-on-the-phoenix-real-estate-market-i-got-my-job-through-the-new-york-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":2267,"position":4},"title":"Reflecting (very) briefly on the Phoenix real estate market: “I got my job through the New York Times”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Tuesday, while racing around doing real estate work and preparing for BloodhoundBlog Unchained, I was interviewed by the New York Times about the Phoenix real estate market. I've been interviewed a zillion times before, and it's cool and fun and it means absolutely nothing. I got picked because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/147\/truzillow-and-the-dis-form-ation-of-real-estate-web-sites\/","url_meta":{"origin":2267,"position":5},"title":"TruZillow and the dis-form-ation of real estate web sites . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Color me grateful, but one benefit of the Trulia\/Zillow free APIs for Realtor web sites is that we should see the end of the sleazy practice of making dewy-eyed anonymous-by-preference Google-borne immigrants fill out a form to search the MLS listings. This crap is straight out of Dan Gooder, but,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}