I was on Fox Business Network yesterday bitching about all the ways the U.S. government has interfered with the residential real estate market, resulting in both our recent boom and our current bust. The topic itself is not new to me, but it’s not something I’ve addressed in a full-blown philosophical argument. Surely that would be Quixotic, but when did that ever stop me? But: I’ve been very busy, and I’m about to get a whole lot busier. So last night I set that idea and everything else aside to bake some Christmas cookies. It was fun, it made the house smell good, and it actually brought Cameron out of his cave for a while. As soon as I can clear the decks today, I think I’m going to make fudge. Here’s the thing, and I have to remind myself every year: It’s Christmas. I don’t ever not work, but there ought to be room for play in the working day — at least some working days.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of stuff I might-could be dealing with, but ain’t:<\/p>\n
Kelman<\/a> had a post on all the crap he was force-fed prior to going on TV. I’m not picking on the man (for a change), this is a segue: I think we’re fools to buy into that crap. First, the mainstream media, to the extent that it clings to its creepy Vaudeville past, is the enemy of truth. Second, weblogging is the best friend the truth has made so far. The conclusion that I draw from these premises is that, even when we are on their turf, we should still behave our way. I hate everything phony, but even allowing for that, I think we damage our own credibility by playing their game their way. There’s no shortage of commercials on TV, but there’s damn little authenticity.<\/p>\n Zillow<\/a> had a software release this week. How important was it? Important enough to be released eight days before Christmas, when no one is paying attention. What it amounts to, as far as I can discern from the effusive PR-speak in the press release, is smarter routines Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was on Fox Business Network yesterday bitching about all the ways the U.S. government has interfered with the residential real estate market, resulting in both our recent boom and our current bust. The topic itself is not new to me, but it’s not something I’ve addressed in a full-blown philosophical argument. Surely that would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4,6,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-disintermediation","category-marketing","category-real-estate","category-technology","no-featured-image"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13515,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13515\/swallow-hard-make-it-happen-or-get-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":0},"title":"Swallow Hard — Make It Happen — Or Get Out","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"November 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"For the most part, it's human nature to have a love\/hate relationship with the results that have our name attached to them. I've failed far more often than I've succeeded. It's not even close. Name a category in which I've endured the ignominy of defeat, and my hand is more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10583,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10583\/next-year-were-going-to-splurge-maybe-starting-with-the-twenty-first-thousand-dollars-for-the-month\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":1},"title":"Next year we’re going to splurge — maybe — starting with the twenty-first thousand dollars for the month","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's my favorite Christmas card this year: I helped Stephen and Suzanne Kranick buy that house in the weeks before Thanksgiving. I think it's cool that they love it so much that they made it the star of their holiday card. I put two houses into escrow today. I've done\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":766,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/766\/everybody-loves-ramen\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":2},"title":"Everybody loves Ramen . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a true fact of life for almost everyone with a real estate license: This job pays really badly. Here's a true fact of life for a favored few people with real estate licenses: This job pays really well. I don't know if we can safely count ourselves among the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12518,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12518\/5-real-estate-marketing-at-fiverr-com\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":3},"title":"$5 Real Estate Marketing At Fiverr.Com!","author":"Ryan Hartman","date":"July 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm giddy. Really giddy. The other day a friend told me about Fiverr.Com. The first thing I noticed on the site was that some dude would be willing to write my URL on his arm and sport it for a week.... for only $5. So, I gave it a shot,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Real Estate Leads","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Picture-236-300x88.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11865,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11865\/pimping-tomato-real-estate-video-class\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":4},"title":"Pimping Tomato Real Estate Video Class…","author":"Ryan Hartman","date":"April 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi All, I just got an email from Jim Cronin, (Tomato Head) asking me if I've pimped the class I'm doing at 2PM East today over at Tomato University. Well Jim, I guess here's your answer: I'm a total procrastinating slacker.... this blog post is part of my last ditch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Video Mamma"","block_context":{"text":"Video Mamma","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/video-mamma\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1900,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1900\/you-can-use-the-no-hassle-iphone-to-hang-up-on-the-nar-but-first-attend-to-those-odysseus-medal-nominations\/","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":5},"title":"You can use the No-Hassle iPhone to hang up on the NAR, but first attend to those Odysseus Medal nominations","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Wanna hear something amazing? Twenty-one months into the downturn, and the NAR is still adding new members. Not much growth, mind you -- not cancerous growth -- but growth is growth. I want to get back to the idea of alternatives to the NAR, but I've been busy -- that's\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7219,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/7219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}