Facebook Photo Contest

Calling all shutterbugs!!!

We're hosting a photo contest on our Facebook page. We're looking for photos of Rhode Island to be used on our affiliate website, www.MayfairInternationalRealty.com

Grand prize winner will have their photo featured on the Mayfair International Realty website and will also receive a $100 Gift Card to the restaurant of their choice.

All photos must be available in high resolution. For more information, visit our Facebook Page. The rules are posted on the left side of the page, under "Photo Contest".

Good Luck!

Time To Slow Down with the Slow Movement

I would say that as Realtors we always tend to be busy. But at this time of year things can take on the air of frantic.

Annie recently wrote about misplacing her Blackberry and the stress that causes. I have also fallen victim to the ‘disconnect’ and experienced the same high anxiety. What a world – rush, rush, rush and information keeps coming faster and faster.

Did you know that there is an actual movement called The Slow Movement? Their issue is to address the time poverty we all seem to be experiencing. Dian Duchin Reed is a writer and poet who loves to garden and take time to enjoy the experience of being alive.

Here are 10 things, in a condensed version, she suggests you do to slow down in the present so you can enjoy it and make future memories to savor.

1. Say No to Fast Food and join the Slow Food movement instead. Fast Food cares nothing for the health of your body.

2. Slow down to the speed limit of 55 mph. This saves gas, is safer and reduces road rage.

3. Slow down your conversation. Don’t cut people off in your haste to get your 2 cents in! Listen – really listen. Stop and think before saying, posting or texting something you may regret.

4. Be slow to judge. Honor diversity.

5. Tune in, not out. Instead of seeing 7 billion different people on earth, look inside and discover that we are all the same species, all in the same boat.

6. Not so fast – do you really need a new (fill in the blank)? There will always be something bigger, better, newer than what you already have. Stop making our world a garbage dump for unwanted but still very useful items.

7. Meditate rather than medicate. Enough said.

8. Read poetry every day. ‘And I shall have some peace, for peace comes dropping slow’ William Butler Yeats.

9. How does your next action affect your children? Notice what you are actually doing and make the decision if you really want to do that. No need to follow the crowd.

10. Don’t rush through life. Remember that these are the good old days you will look back on fondly someday.

Try to enjoy the holiday season and keep stress to a minimum. I feel better already!

Where would I be without my cell phone?

Where would I be without my cell phone? Nowhere. High and dry. Waving in the breeze. Questioning my existence. If no one can communicate with you, do you exist? OK, starting to panic…

Now really, I am capable of putting the phone aside for a day or living life with no service for a few days in Maine. But it’s all different when you CHOOSE to do that!

I love my Blackberry. It’s one of the best tools I’ve ever owned. It makes life easier and connects me to the world. Yesterday it was gone. I thought I knew where it was, left in an office I’d visited, but could I call them to verify that? No. I found a land line, called them, and eventually (3 hours later) it was returned to me, but I’m not forgetting that brief feeling of utter disconnectedness. And what would be the consequences if it wasn’t found?

First there’s inconvenience…the missed calls, email, texts, the clock, the camera, the calendar, the contacts. I used the backup function a few months ago. Better than nothing? The true loss would be the contacts. And then the hassle of getting a new phone and figuring out how to restore what you so heavily rely on. What if I’d been travelling? How many phone numbers do I know?

Lesson learned.

I’m now checking out Smtr Guard and Blackberry Protect. Apple has MobileMe. These apps allow you to backup your phone, restore or transfer the data to a new phone, track the device if it’s stolen, wipe out all the data and apps before you’re a victim of identity theft, etc., etc. What’s the first thing you do when you lose the phone…call the number? My phone is usually on vibrate, but these apps will make the phone do a “loud ring” no matter how you have it set. And yes, sometimes these little treasures do break down. A little money for a lot of security and peace of mind.

I feel better already.

Kiva.org Review: A Great Idea

I have an idea for you.

A few months ago, I came across the idea of microeconomics and an organization called Kiva. Kiva gives ordinary people like us the opportunity to help others, who may live just about anywhere in the world, get their subsistence businesses up and running or improve the small businesses they already have. Instead of donations, though, they are asking for loans.

The organization itself is the conduit through which individual people like you and me are given the opportunity to help individual people like Claudia in Bolivia, Immaculate in Uganda or Maximo in Peru. These people have applied for a loan to improve their businesses and thus their livlihoods and family situations. Most of the loans are in the hundreds of dollars, not thousands.

For as little as a $25 loan, you can help change someone’s life for the better. I personally have lent money to Claudia in Bolivia. She sells food at her own small, roadside stand. She cooks the food at home early in the morning, sets out before breakfast with her goods, sets up her table by the side of the road and hopes for a good day. She has asked for a $300 loan to make improvements in her kitchen so that she can improve her menu. About 10 of us microlenders pitched in and made the loan to Claudia. I certainly plan to do it again.

Please look at the Kiva website. Mbwana in Kenya needs $300 to improve his tailoring business. We, the microbankers, can loan as little as $25 to Mbwana. Collectively, we loan until the goal number is reached. Kiva promotes dignity, accountability and transparency. As of November 2009, Kiva had facilitated over $100,000,000 in micro loans. Big, greedy banks, who needs ‘em? We can do it ourselves.

The loans are repaid back directly to you, with interest. The default rate is minimal – to date the repayment rate is 98.99%!

Here’s my idea for you - a lot of us will soon be thinking about a Christmas or Hannukah gift for a loved one who probably already has everything. How about this – a Kiva gift card and let them loan it to a person they choose who is just barely getting by. One of the mission statements of Kiva is that ‘people are by nature generous and will help others if given the opportunity.’ Isn’t that great? Isn’t that true?

What a great idea! Make the world a better place, one person at a time.