Survey: 1 in 10 boomers borrowing for each day expenses - Atlanta Journal Constitution
New York — The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses and to seek help from family, friends or charities, according to a survey

Detectives probe whether ‘cult’ took woman’s money - Chicago Tribune
MAUSTON, Wis. - Someone continued to write checks on an account belonging to a 90-year-old woman whose remains were found on the toilet in a Necedah home two months after she died, according to court documents released Monday. Prosecutors say Tammy

Gates: ‘Next-War-itis’ plagues military - MSNBC
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - The Defense Department must focus on current war demands, even if it means straining the U.S. armed forces and devoting less time and money to future threats, Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated Tuesday. Meeting the war

Woman mistaken for man wins suit - News.com.au
A WOMAN kicked out of a women’s toilet after a New York City restaurant mistook her for a man has settled her discrimination lawsuit for $US35,000 ($37,116). Khadijah Farmer , a 28-year-old lesbian, ate at the Caliente Cab Restaurant Co. last July

RBA ‘won’t like Budget’ - News.com.au
THE Reserve Bank of Australia won’t be impressed by the Rudd Government’s first Budget, Opposition treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says. The Budget was a high-taxing, high-spending, old-fashioned Labor Budget despite Treasurer Wayne Swans’s

Maintaining growth hard, but only, option - Xinhua News Bureau
BEIJING, Might 14 — For quite some time, “overheating” has been taken as one of the biggest potential threats to China’s economic soundness. And the figures about the investment in fixed assets in the first three months of the year were taken as a

53 illegal immigrants held against will in Phoenix - USA This day
PHOENIX (AP) — Fifty-three illegal immigrants were held against their will in a fortified home by suspected smugglers demanding more money, authorities stated. Eds: PMs. AP Pic NY130 The group of rescued immigrants included two 13-year-old girls

Tax package ‘may break debt rule’ - MSN UK News
Economic experts are questioning the impact of Chancellor Alistair Darling’s surprise announcement of £2.7 billion to compensate people who lost out from the abolition of the 10p income tax rate. Some commentators suggested that the extra borrowing

US Virgin Islands Daily News finds buyer - CNN Money
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - A buyer has been found for The Virgin Islands Daily News, the paper reported Tuesday, but the new owner and other details will not be announced until the sale is approved by a bankruptcy court judge. The paper, the

NCAA president has ‘new information’ on USC’s Mayo - Los Angeles Times
HOUSTON — Saying the NCAA has “new information,” president Myles Brand promised to investigate former Southern California basketball star O.J. Mayo, who allegedly received thousands of dollars in gifts from money given to an event promoter by a

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Filed under: Estates

Usually we find the European style grand homes on the East Coast but Stonebrook Court is located in Los Altos Hills, CA. The home was built in 1914 and restored by its owner during the last seven years. This mansion is approximately 30,000 square feet and is on 7.5 acres. The English English Tudor and Jacobean revival style exterior is bisected by a porte cochere separating the living quarters and a grand ballroom. The interior is done in modernized Renaissance Italian style with 12-foot wood ceilings, a an antique carved marble fireplace, a ballroom with 16th Century gilded Venetian ceiling paintings said to be from the Palazzo Grimani. The library has mahogany bookcases and a secret room with wet bar and beer taps and the breakfast room features new Gothic arch windows. The main residences has seven bedrooms and there is also a gym, garden building, a caretaker’s house, and a 3 automobile garage.

The home is now wired for state-of-the-art security, audio, phone, world wide web and all other modern features including a heating system covering 16 zones. The garden which includes follies, rolling lawns, knot garden, boxwood parterres and long perennial borders filled with roses. The pool features a stone fountain/spa surmounted by an antique bronze statue of Neptune. No wonder this has mansion has been host to many weddings.

A 2005 article in the Los Altos Crier reveals more details on this home including that it was formerly known as Morgan Manor (it was the home of Percy and Daisy Morgan) and has serves as both a popular brothel and an elite day school at different times in its past. It took a team that numbered in the thousands and a lot of money from owners Kelly and Christina Porter to restore the home back to its former glory. It is simply one of the most stunning homes available on the West Coast. It is listed at $45 million.

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PimpYourWork.com

“The 4 Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss has been all over the blogosphere and mainstream media for the past year. The title sounds like a scam or a gimmick, and you half-expect that the official website will be a lengthy one-page sales letter that starts with “Dear Friend”. Thankfully, the reality is different: the official blog has an active community and has some additional ideas that aren’t discussed at length in the book.

The book captivated me, gave me a lot of hazardous ideas, and made me want to try it on my own. In this series of blog posts called “How I Got to the 9-Hour Workweek”, I tell the story of how I took some of the ideas from the book, used whatever applied, and created my own rules. If you’re a fan of the book or simply curious about it, you might be interested in my personal story. So here’s how I got to the 9-hour workweek:

Step 1: I figured out what my work was supposed to be.

This means the work that I love. I love writing, but I don’t like the marketing, client support, and other stuff that comes with it. At the same time, I don’t love all my writing jobs. I had to list the top writing gigs that I loved (regardless of pay) and I defined those as my work. The rest were nonessentials that I had to deal with indirectly.

Step 2: I became ruthless with my email.

What was the leading time sinker of my workweek? Email. It’s a time sinker because I knew that I didn’t have to spend hours a day on it, but that’s exactly what I did. I already wrote about how I conquered my email, so if you want to read about it, click here. Here are some changes I’ve made to the system since then:

The Inbox Zero approach. This is Merlin Mann’s baby (you know, that guy from 43 Folders). To learn more about inbox zero, click here.

Using Gmail as my sole interface. This only applies to 2 major email accounts that I use for people who are trying to contact me personally - not my company or my business partner, etc. The company-related emails are still handled by a virtual assistant.

Why Gmail? Because the search feature is kickass, and it’s web-based. I had to reformat my personal two-times recently, and restoring the Outlook stuff was a bit stressful. I realized that I needed email that I can access from anywhere at anytime and still have the same, comfortable interface. Switching between Outlook and my webmail (whenever I wasn’t at my home computer) drove me nuts.

Minimized rules. My email rules are now for archiving purposes only - like I label all PayPal notices as “paypal” if I want to read all the PayPal payments I received for a certain time period. Plus, some rules direct non-essential emails straight to the archive instead of my inbox, so I won’t feel pressured to read them ASAP.

These were the first steps I took.  Of course, there’s more.

Watch out for part 2 of this series, where I’ll speak about how I applied the 80/20 principle and used outsourcing.

 Pic Credit: Image by Rendy Aryanto  and lusi from sxc.hu

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Filed under: Decor, Estates, Art

It’s almost time for the 2008 version of the Kips Bay Decorator Show and although it’s as eagerly awaited as always there is something very different about this year’s event: the “Show Houses” aren’t houses at all, they’re a group of high-rise apartments.

The chosen New York address is The Manhattan House at 200 E 66 St. and the month long show will include 6 units and two floors of the building. The extra publicity works out well for both the property (it’s in the middle of being remodeled into luxury condos), the designers (they are only compensated for their efforts with the exposure), and of course the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club which the whole thing benefits. The show runs from April 24th through May 22nd and tickets cost $30.

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Cold shivers may follow hot money - Xinhua

Xinhua

Cold shivers might follow hot money Xinhua, Share This Share This No Comments » 13 05 2008 Readers Answer: Which Book Transformed Your Career? Posted by: in General work pimps PimpYourWork.com In the previous PYW Asks, I asked you readers to name the books that transformed your careers. Here’s what you answered: MarkMcDaniel picked The Bible especially for “ethics and the application of my labors”. He also chose “A Passion for Excellence” by Tom Peters because it was “revolutionary”. I’ve never heard of “A Passion for Excellence”, so I decided to look up its Amazon.com page. It sounds interesting, especially from the reader reviews. Pimp Your Work reader BadAssBilly selected “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Here’s his take on the book: Kiyosaki has since been revealed to be somewhat of a sanke oil merchant, but that book woke me up. It made me realize the 50+ hrs on the treadmill working for ‘the man’ was ultimately only going to enrich ‘the man’. Source: Pimp Your Work Comments Section As for me, my career-changing book list starts with “The 4-hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss (I reviewed it here). Although the title and in some parts the writer’s voice seems a bit sensationalist, it does offer a great wealth of practical advice which I’ve applied to my life. I can say that the 4HWW system, with some personal alterations I made, really worked for me. I’ve reduced my work time to 9 -12 hours per week because of it. “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand is also a book that I have strong feelings about - both positive and negative. It contains the following things that I love: personal integrity, questioning authority, and many of my sentiments about the process of making art. I identify with many passages in the book and often thing about them when I think about my own work. However, “The Fountainhead” also contains many things I loathe, such as rape, weak women characters, and ideas that go against my own beliefs when it comes to capitalism and socialism. I think it’s safe to state that this is the only book that I both love and hate at the same time. If you weren’t able to contribute your career-changing books last time, feel free to tell us about them now. Which books transformed your career? Photo Credit: Image by Ove Tøpfer from sxc.hu Share This Share This Share This No Comments »

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