Archive for April 13th, 2008

We’re less than a week away from the deadline for entries for the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” contest.  If you haven’t joined yet, join now.  The prize for the ultimate winner (chosen from Pimp Your Work and other participating blogs) is a $25 Gift Certificate from Barnes and Noble.

Read the contest post for more details.  Join now!

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Our motivation to work reveals a lot of things about us: our priorities, our goals, and our obligations.

A friend came over for lunch yesterday and asked me about my work. I explained to her that most of my work is done via telecommuting - that I don’t need to leave home to do it.

She told me that this is something she could never do, as it would be difficult to find motivation when no one is keeping an eye on her.

She asked me “What’s your motivation for working?”

Without thinking, I just said this:

“I love doing it.”

I was both surprised and glad at my answer.

How about you? What motivates you to work?

Photo Credit: Image by Rore D from sxc.hu

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Recently I have seen a number of TV shows and articles concerning physical fitness and longevity of Boomers and the retired.  I’ve been thinking that it is all very good to live longer and be healthier during that time, but to what purpose?  My chances to live a healthy life well into my 90’s is highly probable, but what are you going to do with the time?  Certainly, the U.S. economy cannot support a high population of retired people.

Barbara Walters had a show on recently where scientists predicted astonishing progress with stem cells to preserve our bodies well past a hundred years.  They were predicting steady progress in this direction over the next 30 years.  If I’m going to live for another 60 years I need to get back to school and find a new job.  On the other hand the U.S. economy is not tuned properly for all those extra workers.

So, I ask the question again.  If you anticipate to live 12 or 15 decades, what are you going to contribute to the world in those last 80 years or so? 

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Actress Jane Sibbett often gets cast in the role of the glacial blonde but her home in the Topanga area is warm and inviting. She first put her Trust Ranch on the market last fall for $7 million. The 17-acre property in the hills is a horse ranch with a four-bedroom home that was renovated according to the mathematical proportion known as the golden ratio and features “blessings” such as fun and laughter embedded in the walls. Sibbett and her husband writer/producer Karl Fink are buying a farm in Hawaii but that sale is contingent on this one as reported in the Wall Street Journal. And so, the couple has cut the price of the ranch to $5.2 million. The pair bought the property for just $750,000 ten years ago but have made significant improvements and expansions to the home. The home will appeal to those with a love of nature. There is a vegetable garden, a six-horse barn and plenty of hilly land. It doesn’t have a pool or the requisite big deck for pleasing so it won’t meet the needs of many L.A. shoppers but it is great home for those who want to feel like they are away from Los Angeles.

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Continue reading Trust Ranch, Estate of the Day

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From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–Real-estate developer Rodney Propp, who was reported as the buyer of “Old Trees” estate in Southampton listed at $48 million, didn’t take possession of the property. He switched his his executed sales contract to hedge-fund manager John Paulson for approximately $39 million. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties, John Paulson has put his Southampton home on the market for $19.5 million. The listing for the home which has a year-round pool is here.
–Leonardo DiCaprio who last year picked up a penthouse apartment at the Hudson Blue condominium project in the West Village for just under $3 million is now reported to be buying a pad in an environmentally friendly building, The Riverhouse in Battery Park City. Hudson Blue developer Michael Yanko, the CEO of Horizen Global, will be selling the entire 12-story, 24-foot-wide building in one fell swoop. He states he has a buyer but has listed the building, shown above, for $21 million with Sotheby’s as a back-up.
–Gisele Bundchen has just pulled her West Village penthouse apartment off the market. She isted the two-bedroom condo in September for $10.9 million and eventually dropped the price to $7.9 million but still found no takers.
–It looks like the co-op board members at the River Home apartment building gave the thumbs down for Elyse Kroll as buyer for Marty Richard’s splendid duplex residence. The “in contract” banner on the Brown Harris Stevens Web site has been replaced with the words “new listing.” The old price remains, it is listed at $22.7 million.

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
–A Tribeca home has become the most costly listing in the neighborhood at $35 million. The home at 2 North Moore Street is pirced at $29,425,000 more than mortgage executive Steve Schnall and wife Sherri paid for the property just three years ago.The Schnalls built a new six-story building on the site, and connected it with a former bar, a two-story landmark building. The listing is here.
–Slim-Fast founder and philanthropist S. Daniel Abraham’s family paid $13.3 million for two apartments at the East 65th Street condo tower Bristol Plaza (one came in April 2005, the other in April 2006), and sold them both off for just $14 million last month. Not much of an investment. The Abrahams’ listing with Corcoran had been for $17.5 million.
– Robert and Cortney Novogratz purchase rundown houses and renovate them. Their latest listing, their house at 5 Centre Market Place, which they bought in June 2004 for $1,512,000, and have now listed for $18 million. 5 Centre, a former gun shop, is a contemporary beauty with one cool feature, an outdoor basketball court encased in a steel mesh dome built in Switzerland. The listing is here.
Bono and his wife Ali Hewson have sold their Central Park West apartment at the El Dorado for $4.9 million. He first purchased the place for $3.4 million, but left it five years ago for Steve Jobs’ old apartment at the San Remo down the block.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–Italian businessman Luigi Zunino, who is in contract to purchase an apartment at New York’s Plaza condominium, is already trying to find someone to pay $100 million for it.
–Two months after listing it at $16.8 million, the owner of Meryl Streep’s former New York City town home has dropped the price to $13.85 million. This makes more sense considering that the investor purchased it last fall for $12.85 million. The listing is here.
–The Key Largo, Fla., home of the General Electric aviation executive Brian Rowe, who died in February at age 75, is on the market for $18.9 million. The listing is here.
–Disgraced art dealer Lawrence Salander is in negotiations to list his Millbrook, N.Y., second home for $6.2 million. Salander, once one of New York’s most prestigious art-world figures, is now said to owe tens of millions of dollars for failing to pay clients for works he sold on consignment and other improprieties. He filed Chapter 11 in November. He has listed his six-story townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $25 million. Check out the listing here.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
–It turns out that last week’s report of Nicole Kidman buying in Brentwood wasn’t true. She’s still home hunting in Los Angeles.
–Musician, songwriter and producer Dr. Luke has paid $4,690,000 for a Spanish-style house in the Hollywood Hills.
–Country singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams has paid $1,512,500 for a home in the Studio City area.
–Country singer Kenny Chesney has paid $7,400,000 for house in Malibu back in February and just two days after it was reported by Large Time Listings, it was back on the market. It is listed at $7.95 million.
–Actress Jane Sibbett has cut the asking price of her 16.96-acre ranch in Los Angeles County’s unincorporated Topanga area from $7 million to $5.2 million. It’s our estate of the day later today.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
A fond farewell and best wishes to Ruth Ryon, the grand dame of Los Angeles real estate gossip who is retiring from the LA Times. She’s the woman who made all this real estate obsession part of our daily life, we wish her many grand adventures and good luck on writing her book. A warm hello to Ann Brenoff who is taking over and who has already started working bringing in the L.A. real estate gossip all week long.
– Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have purchased a 25-acre tract of land in the Rancho Monte Alegre project in Santa Barbara County for around $4.7 million.
–Celebrity hair stylist Ken Paves has purchased a home in Beverly Hills for nearly $2 million.
–Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and his wife Marie have bought a two-bedroom condo in Century City. Christopher’s charming farmhouse-style home in the Beverly Hills Post Office area is listed at $3,259,000. Check out the virtual tour here.
–Angelina Jolie’s body double, Kate Clarke, has put her adorable two-bedroom bungalow in Silver Lake on the market for $724,000. The property website is here.
–Frankie Muniz joins the celebrity crowd at the turquoise Art Deco Eastern Columbia building. He has reserved a two-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot loft at close to $2.9 million. Other celeb buyers in the building include Johnny Depp and John Stamos.
–The listings for the Palm Springs homes of author Sidney Sheldon, one at $6.45 million, one at $3.995 million and one at $1.45 million now have a smattering of photos. Check them out at the site of one of the three listing agents, Brook Astley, here.

From the Real Estalker:
–Matthew Perry has picked up a gorgeous three-bedroom contemporary-style house in the Hollywood Hills that had been on the market for $4,500,000.
–Boston Red Sox player Curt Schilling has listed his Medfield, Massachusetts home for $8 million.

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Most expensive homes have extra built-in features that are meant to make the environment more comfortable, but not the $2 million Bioscleave Home on Long Island. Husband and wife architectural design team Arakawa and Madeline Gins have made sure the “Lifespan Extending Villa” they created is specifically as uncomfortable and unsettling as possible. At the core of their campaign to defeat mortality is the idea that “comfort is the precursor to death.” They believe that they’ve created an environment that keeps people constantly tentative, which in turns helps them stay young and cheat death.

So what makes it so uncomfortable? The floors are severely uneven and bumpy (you have to sign a waiver before you can enter and there are poles to grab onto in various places in case you lose your balance), all the light switches and electric sockets are placed at weird angles, and it’s painted in an array of crazy colors (some walls include as many as 40 different shades).

Interestingly enough the couple doesn’t seem interested in living in it themselves, as it’s currently sitting empty waiting for occupants. That thing cost $2 million and now they aren’t even going to live in it. What, they don’t want to defy death after all?

Can’t say I blame them. I hope to be nice and comfy in my old age, death precursor or not.

Via Engadget
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Tired of getting sidetracked when you have more important things to do? No extra resources for a time management software? Well, fret no more, as RescueTime provides a good substitute.

RescueTime is a web based time management software that collects data from you on how you spend your time on the personal. This data is then transformed into a graph, giving you a birds-eye view of your productivity as well as efficiency. Now, there is no need for guess work as to where your time goes.

Another feature I like is that you can include your productivity goals in RescueTime. As you continue to use the software, you’ll be updated as to whether you’re achieving your goals. With RescueTime, managing your time and productivity is more quantifiable.

RescueTime displays on most browsers, and the data gathering software has downloads for Windows and Mac users.

Click here to learn more about RescueTime.

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A slideshow about innovation and where innovative ideas come from.

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The “Boomer effect” has been noted by Fox Business, who say it’s a great time to buy a business.  Why?  Boomers are ready to retire and sell their businesses (their children aren’t interested in keeping the business), so if you are ready to purchase a second business or a retirement business, this might be the time.  So is it a buyer’s market or a seller’s market?

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