C Tann-Starr

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The fun thing about taking your kids to work with you is they have a way of bringing a new perspective to what might otherwise be a routine day. My little Realtors-in-training are both coping with learning disabilities so I try to include them in as many life activities as possible to give them real world perspective. I guess all kids can do strange things.

Remember the Blur Minion's attempt at toasting our cell phones? Boys being boys, Hubby has been hooking them up with some interesting Manly-man projects to keep them busy. Now it seems that my kids aren't happy unless I pop the hood so they can "fix the car" before we leave for school in the mornings (LOL). The popping of the hood usually is requested after the weekend. Noah always starts by announcing with great authority that, "the car is broken. Fix it Mommy?" :-)

The men have also been cooking together. Chef of the future stuff in infrared. Remember our first "members only" infrared moment? (It really is a members only post. Sorry for the restricted link, my dear public.) Sometimes I get an excellent meal. Other times the resulting eye candy has me wondering if there's a hot wheel car hidden somewhere in that lumpy mass that appears to be meatloaf. That, in itself, is a whole other blog post. I shall make that one public so my readers can partake of the virtual meal (LOL). Alas, I digress... back to the Spring Fresh Tour. :-)

The cool thing about our quirky, talented children is that they are very hands on, self-directed and curious little people. When they are as young as my pookies and you want to keep them with you, you have to figure out how to make "work" a game. I have collected all types of parenting tricks to keep them interested in taking a road trip and enjoying the industry. Snackage is a must have. Getting them "hooked on photography" is a plus. (You can thank "Hooked on Phonics" for that idea - LOL. What a catchy little phrase, eh? Very useful, indeed.) Teaching them to love the details and adventure of a renovation works wonders as well. Letting them paint a door or nail the crap out of a piece of wood makes them feel very strong, self sufficient and important. Real tools will do that. Can you say Jelly Telly, Handy Manny and Bob The Builder? Gets them working every single time with big cool aid grins. :-)

Turns out they both are predominately visual rather than audio learners, so when I started handing over my Sony and Nikon, I wasn't sure what I'd get. You can get a lot from little kids if you put the cameras on a tripod an let them take aim, then push a button. They catch on very quickly if you turn it into a game. Stephen currently works for M&Ms (must have peanuts), however, Noah has negotiated a raise: miniature toys replicating animals from The Lion King and dinosaurs (LOL).

Working for food and toys seems to agree with everyone. It lends itself to another life lesson: how to shop. Can you say, "Minion Happy Dance?" They love to work. Trust me. Incentive is leverage (LOL) Don't get huffy. It's not like my pookies are working hard. After all, auto-focus makes their life very easy and going completely digital means there's no film to waste. As a result, I have a lot of quirky pics and funky, funny video to share (and toys everywhere). We can take our time playing on location because we control our schedule and the two year old is the boss (LOL). Sometimes, I get a real gem of a shot and people refuse to believe that my learning disabled kids are capable of pulling it off. Fact of the matter is, they do. A lot. Did I mention AUTO-FOCUS? (LMAO) I think I did, but I may need to remind a few of you that means that a two year old can pretend to be A Adams if he wants to. We can also crop what we don't want out - like a finger along the bottom (LMAO).

Sometimes, you can't tell where we, the adults, left off and Noah, our seven year old, picks up. When it comes to video, everyone knows where Stephen starts. He always turns the camera around to look at himself (LOL). At least he's smart enough to check and see if it's on (LOL). Makes us all very proud and gives us a goal to keep trying to improve the family's multimedia craft. The baby likes to sit in my lap while I blog.:-)

We take the kids out with us a lot and I treat them like partners. My boys are each a member of my road crew and I ask a lot of questions that never get answered but they give me very interesting looks, so I keep talking about what we are doing, where we are going and what's about to happen next.

The first time we let them run amuck was with some of the Shea Stadium footage. I drove around in figure eights and let the kids shoot through the car windows. Sometimes, we'd walk up to a fence and take pictures through it. Other times, I'd just let 'em run loose and see what we'd get. Although we haven't posted them all yet, we have a lot of footage and photographs to share. The kids have been going hyper-local with their Mama for quite a while.

Some days, editing with an Autistic and a PDD-NOS partner can make one fantasize about wanting to take a Valium. I've never had one, but I hear they can be a blessing when someone really needs to calm down. Other days, I laugh until I can't breathe and wonder if I should or shouldn't post the footage. Did I mention that my kids are crazy? Love 'em, but they're very unique and brilliantly peculiar, each in their own specific way (LOL). I think that makes my entire family a little crazy. We all seem to fall under that particular definition in various degrees, but I digress...

Stephen, the Minion Blur is prone to clicking on all of the delete buttons at least once. It appears he likes stuff marked in red so I have to make a dupe file so he can destroy actively participate. Other days, it's a real pleasure to have them on board because they can get very serious about which pictures they do and don't like. The cutest thing is when Noah repeatedly asks Stephen if he wants a particular item and the wee one says, "no" 99 times, only to say,"yes" once, making his big brother's day. Of course, insanity is repeating the process so we can get around to adding another photograph into the line-up. :-) Yes, this process can go on for days... The things we do for our children (LOL).

That bit of insanity that I previously mentioned usually means I have to sit in the same spot for over an hour per photograph watching them click, drag and drop files all over the electronic editing decks. When my eyes start rolling up into my head I sometimes turn on iTunes and sing along to Hillsong United or practice my language lessons.

It's Spring, so I figured we do a new thing. We'd take a ride and ask Stephen where he wants to go today (instead of me picking the spot and selecting the eye candy). Dude likes pointing, so we put Mr. Non-Verbal to work by shutting off the navigational system and pulling over near the major intersections to ask him, "which way?" Dude never misses a chance to say, "that way?" He will wake you up in the middle of the night to navigate your bleary eyed self into the kitchen for a snack. Mind you now, it's a very small apartment, but little man will insist that you have to pick him up so he can point you in the direction he wants you to carry him. He also likes to drag you along by the hand. Assertive or bossy? I don't know. Cute? Hell yeah! ;-)

We couldn't wait to see where Stephen would take us. Turns out my soon to be three year old has excellent taste. I think he was trying to find the park. We came close a couple of times, but he sent us in the wrong direction (LOL).

Here's where we wandered off to in Queens County, New York for the last couple of days. The boys were my virtual supervisors for the tour of home joy rides and I am happy to report we collected some very nice eye candy for you. I hope you enjoy the Little Minions Spring Fresh Tour of Homes. We strolled, skipped, ran and rode from Fresh Meadows to Jamaica Estates (LOL).

The tone is a little gray because it has been cloudy and raining off and on. I wonder where we'll turn up tomorrow and what type of lighting effects we'll have to work with. I hear it's going to rain again. It's raining now. Stephen is in his fave window checking out the weather with glee. Ya' think my kids would be sleeping, but noooooooooo. Spring is in the air. "April showers bring May flowers..." Did I mention they were minions? Yup. They are (LOL). I enjoy the wee companionship and the curiosity in their make up... but late nights with the Blur Minion can be a bit much (LOL). Shorty is very demanding and affectionate. He enjoys community walks and loves dancing in the Spring rain. Puddle stumping is mad fun to both of my minions (and their daddy). I'm looking forward to seeing my family play in the rain... Wonder what kind of eye candy we'll get tomorrow. :-)

Stephen, The Minion Blur replaced my TomTom today. I loved every minute of it.

Noah has the Captain Seat tomorrow.

Might be doing a part two...

See ya' in cyberspace. :-)

Spring is here and I'm doing a lot of running around with my friends and clients. Gotta go show some homes and do another open house at one of my listings. I shall be filming in Parkway Village today. Things have changed over there so I want to go see how the flower beds are coming along. The neighbors are always planting something, that's why I like to jog there. They have lots of nice places to play for the kids as well.

Ooo. It's lunchtime! I've got to get my foodie paradise spot on and distribute some RSVP open house fliers. :-)

BTW, this is a 2 Bedroom Co-Op; Attached; Unit Floor #1; Development: Parkway Village Model: Garden Apt; 5.0 rooms, 2 Bedrooms , 1 Full Bath, School Community District 28, Year Built: 1946, Construction: Brick. Maint: $1030 (includes the taxes, landscaping, upkeep, cooking and heating).

I've got the keys if you want to take a peek at it. All you have to do is let me know. :-)

http://www.TannStarr.com

Here is an interesting quote: "Virus writers are also creating fake profiles of celebrities, real friends or business associates hoping people will link with them. Users can be tricked into linking to the fake profile, which can be loaded with various forms of malicious software." You can read all about it here.

Here's another: "Social media sites generate revenue with targeted advertising, based on personal information. As such, they encourage registered users to provide as much information as possible. With limited government oversight, industry standards or incentives to educate users on security, privacy and protecting your identity, users are exposed to identity theft and fraud." You can read all about it here.

Last quote: "Creating a social media profile on the site of ‘the big players’ is something we all need to do in order to prevent phishers and scammers to don our personality on-line..." You can read all about it here.

Do you see where I am going with this? Maybe you don't. Let me help you: Everyone is not who they appear to be in social media... You need to protect yourselves by claiming your social media identities. Don't put it off until it's too late.

Want to learn a secret? I spent three hours writing a post that in the end I deleted. Instead, I decided that sometimes the best way to get a point across is to put people in other people's shoes. Read those three articles that I selected for you. I selected them for a reason. They say it better in the aggregate than I could ever say it on my own in one sitting. I think you'll learn something very useful today. You may not think you need this reminder, but you do. Trust me? Then go read those other writers. We can talk about 'em and what they had to say later... :-)

A re-blog is limited permission to syndicate a post on the platform of the writer's choice. In this case, Active Rain allows the syndication to the main dashboard where one can send the work to (1) 5 groups, (2) team blogs and (3) the outside blog.

Re-blogs on ActiveRain can not go to Localism. If the work shows up anywhere other than where the original writer gives it limited permission to be (e.g. on AR) then it is a copyright violation because no one can cut and paste another members work. A re-blog is not permission to cut and paste.

A re-blog is not permission to swipe photographs, videos or artwork. One can not disassemble a post because one sees a re-blog button on the right hand corner. When a re-blog takes place there is an automatic embed back to the original writer's post generated by the software module making the syndication possible. It states where the info comes from (e.g. via Richard Weisser) at the very beginning of the post written by the author. "Site the source" is a very curious phrase for me to hear when one talks about a re-blog because the source is clearly indicated with the automatic, embedded link.

There have been a lot of interesting comments made in the Rain regarding re-blogs. I have no idea of they have a cap on AR. I have no idea if you can do too many or if doing a lot can affect the system. I have no idea if you can "abuse the AR re-blog button..."

What I do know is that you should be careful how you treat another writer's work regardless of your reasons for doing, or not doing a re-blog.

My fave site explaining some of the re-blog software platforms is here: http://www.reblog.org/

I'll leave you with two quotes from the site that I believe are relevant to this conversation:

(1) "What is a reBlog? A reBlog facilitates the process of filtering and republishing relevant content from many RSS feeds. reBloggers subscribe to their favorite feeds, preview the content, and select their favorite posts. These posts are automatically published through their favorite blogging software."

(2) "Why should you reBlog? reBlogs are useful to individuals who want to maintain a weblog but prefer curating content to writing original posts. They can also enable organizations to tap the contributions of their employees, members, and communities-at-large in order to easily redistribute relevant content."

When one decides to republish relevant Active Rain member content by selecting their favorite posts to redistribute to their blog readers, one has the responsibility to respect the host network and original author who granted permission and made it possible to showcase the original work.

Do not steal content from AR and think it is okay to migrate it to another website without the proper permissions being granted from the owner. You do not own the rights to a re-blogged work.

Make no mistake about that... Not your words, not your pictures, not yours to decide to take elsewhere off of this platform. Siting a source will not save you from committing a copyright violation. Siting a source will not absolve you from infringement damages. If I were you, I'd get your permissions in writing with specificity as to what the owner will and will not allow you to do. A person granting you one licensed right is not automatically granting you all rights to their post.

Blogging can be dangerous if you disrespect the host's platform rules and the federal rights of others... Be prepared to take responsibility for your actions in cyberspace. One can not hide behind one's computer from the law.

PR-162-09 is a very interesting press release. Here's a sneak peek of what you'll be reading about:

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert C. Lieber, and Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation Chairman Alan Fishman and President Andrew H. Kimball today opened the Perry Avenue Building, the nation's first multi-story green industrial facility at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Mayor Bloomberg also announced the creation of Duggal Greenhouse, a 60,000-square-foot LEED Platinum certified facility that will be used to manufacture eco-friendly products and will become a laboratory for new sustainable products."

There have been a lot of political debates about going green in NYC and I have to admit I've been very curious to see what the botton line would be regarding this venture. Looks like it's going to be a very interesting set of projects indeed. If you have time, click the link and take a read. You may be surprised at what the NYC government has been up to lately.

Kudos and congrats to Mayor Mikey B. I may have to go over and collect some eye candy for my readers. :-)