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Real Estate Services by Jon Griffith

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How do YOU manage your photos?

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I’m curious to know your point of view.  For years, I have dumped the photos that I’ve taken with my digital devices into folders organized by some sort of common theme or location or time-frame and I’m finding it nearly impossible to properly categorize the pictures.  I mean, how do you sort them properly?  One picture has my mom in it, but it’s of her in her 20’s, and it’s in California.  I’ve traveled to California and I have pictures of me in Long Beach, but those are Beach pictures AND California pictures, and my mom happens to be in some of them too.  So is my dad.  I’m wearing red swim trunks, so not only am I swimming in the pictures in California with my mom, but my shorts are red, and they’re shorts, which I’ve worn to other places that I have photos of, which don’t have my mom, nor my dad, nor a beach in them.  What folder do they go in?

It’s a mess.  There’s no way to easily sort your pictures using file folders to make them effective.

Enter Picasa.

Tonight I am on the precipice of attempting something new.  Google does it with e-mail.  Why shouldn’t I do it with my images?  I mean, the new iOS7 is going to change the way our mobile photos are organized.  What implications will that have?!

What I’m thinking about doing is dumping ALL of my digital images into one folder on my computer, and create one other folder from which to draw on the best of those pictures.  One library of images, one library of favorites.  That’s it.  Do you think that makes sense?

This was all prompted by the fact that setting my MAC to change desktop backgrounds every 15 minutes or every 5 minutes caused the most retarded images that I have in one folder to be displayed.  Icons, logos, half-baked photoshopped crap, and anything you can imagine were becoming my desktop background.  How stupid.

My theory is this.  If I make a general rule of behavior that states, “All photos shall be managed through Picasa,” then ultimately, it doesn’t matter where the photos are stored.  It only matters that I properly tag and describe photos in Picasa.  But what if Picasa gets shut down some day?  They shut other things down.  (By they I mean the Google.)

Ugh…so frustrating.

How do you store and sort and file your digital images and why?

Movies Will Never Be The Same, “In a world…”

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I wondered if this day would ever come, and it has. I love the movies. I especially love watching the previews so I can see the next movie that’ I’m going to see.  Of course, the trailers paint a much different picture than the final product, but they’re almost their own little short film.  The sound of those trailers will live on forever in my mind, but we won’t be hearing trailers the same way we used to.  That mysterious deep voice rumbling beneath the action, mystery and horror of the movie preview has been extinguished with the death of Don Lafontaine.  Ironically, he died when his lung collapsed.  Who’s going to sell Hollywood now?

Oh, and thanks a lot Channel 12 for stealing the Geico advertisement campaign during the Olympic games with that really lame voice-over parody…or was that supposed to be serious?  Nice try.

“In a world where Don LaFontaine no longer chills us to the bone comes the hilarious comedy by the people who brought you…”

It’s Not All About Business

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Watching this video this morning reminded me that even though we live in a small world most of the time, there is a vast expanse of culture out there to discover and experience. After you’ve settled into your new home, consider taking time away from your busy schedule to discover a new and exciting place.

Oh, and don’t take life so seriously. Let loose and have some fun, no matter how stupid you think they think you look. We’re here one time, make the most of it.

Triathlon Challenges for the Average Joe

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Deuces Wild Triathlon Olympic Distance Leaving T1In the time honored tradition of posting non-real estate related material on a real estate website, I thought I’d join in by offering a “Random Musing” as Jay Thompson of the Phoenix Real Estate Guy calls it, of my own.

May 31st was a difficult day.

Unlike any other normal day of the year, I found myself in the cool pines of Show Low enjoying near perfect weather in anticipation of a short, but difficult day ahead of me. You see, I had entered the 5th Annual Deuces Wild Triathlon to test my skills away from the negotiating table. A triathlon is a 3-discipline event which starts with a swim, followed by cycling, then by running. I do not excel at any of them, but I do enjoy it. Working out is a great way to burn off emotional steam and signing up for a race is a great motivator.

The night before the race, we had arrived to find an available hook-up overlooking Fool Hollow Lake, one of the most beautiful camping grounds I have seen in a while. We enjoyed the pre-race gathering and attended a small service put on by Fellowship of Christian Athletes where JR Rosania (pictured to the right) gave his testimony. What a stud.

After the athlete dinner, we crashed at the campsite. I slept in my car, which was surprisingly comfortable.

Negotiating an open water swim is far more difficult than negotiating a purchase contract for a new home. The swim is the first leg of the race. The water was somewhere around 53 degrees. Entering the water was actually easy because of the wet suit, and I even thought that I might perform. I tested my stroke, got a feel for the water, and prepared for what was the most difficult swim I had ever experienced.

Within 200 meters of the start line, I was already anaerobic, gasping for air, and certain I would have to call it quits. I was so ready to end it, but something unexplainable pushed me forward. I just couldn’t give up. I had traveled 3 hours, paid an entry fee, and trained for 5 weeks (perhaps the cause of the trouble.) There was no way I’d quit. Thankfully, I finally made it out of the water, nearly in last place.

After making it through the hardest part of the race, the rest wasn’t so bad. I completed the cycling portion and moved on to the run. I felt great during both, but unfortunately cramped my right calf 2.5 miles into the run. It slowed me down considerably, but I made it.

Challenging myself in disciplines that I have never excelled at has made me stronger. It has fueled my desire to continue to improve both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If you have never pushed yourself to complete something that you thought was otherwise impossible, you have not yet lived. Consider doing something above and beyond what you ever dreamed you could do!