Rich's Blog

The Knoxville Expo, A Great Place To Meet And Greet!

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:43:25 -0700

If you click on the image you will go to the post that explains it. I have found this to be a wonderful venue to meet lots of people. Perhaps there is a venue like this in your town or city.

What To Do With All The Extra

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:42:31 -0700

Didn't Alice Eat These?

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:52:09 -0700

Squash Blossom

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:11:14 -0700

Wildflower

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:37:37 -0700

Summer Means Sports!

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:21:29 -0700

Okay so all the other seasons mean sports as well but summer is most associated in my mind with sports, i.e. the Boys of Summer. I look forward to the occasional afternoon baseball game or a weekend trip to see my favorite team play in person. In addition to the big league sports there are the numerous minor league and college teams to see. I also enjoy the T-Ball the my nieces and nephew play. So whether you are taking in your favorite major league team, minor league team, college team, or children's team, the warmth of summer beckons many of us to the ball field.

As an active blogger, I find that writing about various subjects that I know and enjoy help the words to flow more freely from my brain to the keyboard. I have been actively writing sports posts since my beginning days as a blogger. I am of the opinion that sports is one of those culturally unifying constructs. This can work on a micro to macro level.

I am also one of those writers who likes to receive feedback on what I write. There is a certain level of acknowledgemnt of one's effort when the number of visitors increase, and especially when there are numerous comments. For this reason, I started the Athletic Alley Blog carnival about ten months ago. The impetus behind this carnival was to allow other sports writers to submit links to their sports and fitness related articles and then I would present them in a sensible fashion in a weekly post on Athletic Alley. This not only gives the submitter link love, it directly exposes their posts to a wider audience. I am happy to report that the blog carnival has been consistently growing and regularly gets several hundred to a thousand viewers each week. If you enjoy sports and writing sports related articles, I invite you to submit your sports related articles to the Athletic Alley Blog Carnival.

Container Gardening - Strawberries!

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:52:05 -0700

Early Garden Image

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:16:12 -0700

Wordless Wednesday

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:44:09 -0700

Time To Plant The Garden!

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:18:25 -0700

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Knoxville with temperatures in the mid 70's. I, with the help of friends and family, took advantage of this and put numerous plants into the ground for this year's vegetable garden. While some veggies, most notably eggplant, are not quite ready for planting, many varieties of numerous other garden favorites, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. made their way into the compost rich east Tennessee soil. Either click the title below or the photo to read the complete post:

Time To Plant The Garden!

Stream In The Great Smoky Mountains

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:42:00 -0700

New Garden, New Home

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:45:51 -0700

After a lot of thought I have decided to chronicle my garden this year on my Knoxville Local Expert blog on the Neighborhood Expert Online network. I felt that moving this series to my local blog was a better fit than AR. I intend on posting small lead-ins on AR to the full posts so those who have enjoyed my past garden posts will still be able to read them by following the link to my local blog.

I apologize in advance to those who may be put off by this move but I feel it is the best thing for me. My local expert blog generates a lot of local interest which is definitely a contributing factor in my decision. In a similar move my sports posts have been absent from AR for many months now as they have found a home on the sports centered Athletic Alley website. I am also now posting almost daily on Rich's Pics which is my photo blog on The Wordless Blog. I have every intention of continuing to post in the Wordless Wednesday group that I started and really enjoy. I hope to continue to enjoy your posts on AR and maybe on one of the other, more targeted, networks as well.

Just The Beginning...

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:43:07 -0700

Post Anonymously

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:44:00 -0700

Today I came across a wonderful, albeit unsettling post written by the ladies who run the 2 Witches Blog. Apparently volcanoes are not the only things that can shake the frozen ground of Alaska with consequences for Americans everywhere. The question is one's right to remain anonymous when writing a blog or commenting on a post.

You might be wondering why on earth one would want to remain anonymous when writing a post or commenting on a blog, especially if they have nothing to hide. This is the classic argument used to imply that those wanting to remain anonymous must want to do so because they are doing something nefarious. Though this could be the case for some people, I believe that the majority of writers who want to remain anonymous do so for no devious reason at all. Possible innocuous reasons one might want to remain anonymous could be that they are reporting on the misdeeds or illegal actions of their employer and fear punitive action, they don't want to expose loved ones to retribution or harm, and many people use blogs as a cathartic tool to help them recover from domestic abuse, drug addiction, and any number of other personal issues that might prompt them to want to write a blog while remaining anonymous.

The issue of being able to remain anonymous is important because it is federally protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Furthermore, because U.S. Representative Mike Doogan (D) - Alaska, divulged the identity of the author of The Mudflats using government resources, he has committed a "state action" which could be grounds for a section 1983 Civil Rights claim. Below is the verbatim 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871):

A person states a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 if he alleges that the defendant deprived him of a constitutional right while acting "under color" of state law. Specifically, § 1983 provides that:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.

In order to state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege a violation of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and that such violation was committed by a person acting under the color of state law. (source:E.L. Infonet)

Coming to the defense of the author of The Mudflats are some pretty liberal blogs, including Palingates and SHANNYN MOORE: JUST A GIRL FROM HOMER. I think the support The Mudflats is getting for her demonstrates that this issue transcends conservative and liberal politics. HERE is a direct link from Palingates that allows you to fight back against Congressman Doogan's violation of the U.S. Constitution. And here is an eloguent post by the Electronic Frontier Foundation entitled Why Join The Fight? which explains the need to protect anonymous blogging.

Acknowledging The Good Information And Refuting Misinformation

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:03:20 -0700

Last week there was a blog (that was subsequently re-blogged) that I read which I felt both hit the nail on the head and also completely missed the mark to the point of misinformation. I will not out of simple respect name the person who wrote the post nor the person who re-blogged it. What I would like to do is give kudos for what I see as the high point of that post while also pointing out the bad information that it incorrectly relayed as fact.

First the good information regards the role of someone who not only designs websites/blogsites as a living but their role as an educator in the use and maintenance of the designed site. In my opinion it is the role of the designer to work with their client to achieve a finished product that satisfies their wishes as far as appearance and functionality. The second part of the designer's role is to educate their client on how the site works, both front end and backend. This would definitely include explaining and educating the client on how to use and maintain the site on their own if that is what they wish. There are of course instances where a client, for whatever reason, does not wish to learn nor be responsible for their site's maintenance and functionality. This is of course the decision of the client. This is the part of that original blog that I whole heartedly agree with.

That original blog and the perpetuating re-blog goes further than this positive explanation of the role of a web designer. I take issue with what I believe to be the bad information in that post. The original post went on to lambast web designers who the author felt were selling a type of snake oil in the guise of known ways to optimize websites/blogsites. In its attack on those web designers who actually take the time to educate themselves on the "magic recipe" it made overreaching generalizations and assertions that were passed off as indisputable fact. I can only surmise that the real information this blog was referring to were the generally proprietary algorithms that are in constant use on the world wide web.

If you consider that at its basic core, everything on the internet is a series of 1 and 0 then the arrangement of them form the basic binary code that governs everything on the internet. The point behind that statement is that this binary code allows for the use of algorithms to govern everything from granting a Google page rank to the popularity of an article in a particular social media. An example of an algorithm and how it can materially affect your website/blogsite can be seen with Reddit.com. Between 2 and 4 weeks ago, Reddit.com made a small but significant change to its algorithm. Previously you did not have to even go into a particular post in order to "upvote" or endorse it. You could basically endorse and article, which helps to increase it popularity and searchability, from the article's title alone. This meant that many of the articles that were becoming popular had never even been read, and Reddit.com ran the risk of being marginalized as a popularity site rather than a content site. Reddit.com recognized this and changed its algorithm. Those wanting to upvote an article now have to go into the article and then back out of it in order to upvote it; an upvote from the title itself now results in the opposite effect, a downvote. This particular change became apparent to regular users of Reddit.com within a matter of days and regular users made the adjustment.

My point in bringing up this change to this particular system is that there are changes such as this one that responsible web designers take the time and make the effort to learn and understand as they do affect web optimization. There is more to optimizing a website than creating a pretty layout and learning the basics about keywords. In the spirit of full disclosure, I do want to let it be know that I co-own and operate R & D Art, a design, hosting, and support service for the way the world communicates today. The real information is the magic recipe that one can only learn from time, effort, and hard work.

Wordless Wednesday

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:09:38 -0700

Say It With Pictures

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:12:48 -0700

Today in Knoxville is a beautiful day. I woke with the crisp morning air, the windows have been open all week, and could actually hear the birds that have returned, and some that are migrating further north, chirping happily outside. I knew that today would be a good day and looked forward to it as I made my pot of coffee and let the dogs out. As per my usual routine, once my coffee was brewed, I turned on the computer to see what was happening on Active Rain.

On my homepage I noticed Contact from Danny Thornton: You Have Been Tagged by the Picture MeMe. My immediate reaction was, "Oh great, the return of the Meme's!" but then I realized this was a very negative response to something that is meant to be both informative and fun. With that slight hiccup to my morning recognized and dealt with, I present my fun photo Meme.

Here are the rules (there are always rules):

1) Type out all the Questions below and answer them with a picture.

2) Tag 5 people and spread the love out. That is it.

1) Age at my next birthday:

2) Favorite Movie or TV Character:

3) Place I want to travel:

4) Favorite Food:

5) Favorite Place:

6) Nickname:

7) Favorite color:

8) Favorite Sports Team:

9) My favorite hobby: I Paint!

10) Bad Habit--

Now I will be passing this Meme tag on to 5 people. Be sure you come back here and leave a link to your Meme in the comment section and let the people you tag know they have been tagged!

Bradford Pear In Bloom

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:07:25 -0700

The Garden Is Started

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:20:59 -0700

I am so anxious for this year's garden that when we had two exceptionally nice days this week, I had to make my move. With last weekend seeing the signs of spring approach thanks to warming temperatures, I searched for someone to till my garden. Last year, one of my neighbors used his full size tractor to plow the new garden space. This year however, the garden had to be tilled using a small tiller as I had built a permanent structure, including the chicken pen and wildflower garden after that initial plowing.

Happily I found Stephen Hicks from his Craig's List advertisement. To the right is Stephen tilling the garden. If you are in the Knoxville area, I would definitely recommend him. He not only tilled the garden but also delivered a pick-up truck load of his organic compost all for a very reasonable price. Tuesday being a record setting 79 degrees Fahrenheit and Wednesday being 71 it was the perfect time to have the garden tilled. Stephen arrived on the Wednesday near the agreed upon time and had the job completed very quickly. Before he tilled the garden, I removed the strawberry plants that had overwintered, with no protection, in the center of the garden. Then while he tilled the garden, I planted the strawberries in hanging basket and other pots.

It is still a bit early to plant anything but early season veggies. This week I hope to lay down the landscaping cloth and set the broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus from my local co-op. The chickens, now numbering 10, I found one dead for now apparent reason about a month or two ago, are in their plastic wrapped pen where they spent all winter. The plastic is the same that is used on greenhouses and was perfect for absorbing the sun's warmth during the cold days. I also supplemented this warmth with a single heat lamp, the same one they used to keep warm when they were chicks. Within the next month, their plastic wrapping will be removed and their shade tarp put back on. This type of chickens, Buff Orpingtons, can stand temperatures as low as 17 degrees Fahrenheit so there are no worries there. Did I mention they are producing enough eggs to supply my family and neighbors and still have excess. I get about 50-60 organic eggs per week!

As the garden moves forward, I will keep you updated! Remember last year's garden...

Knuckle Dragger

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:43:49 -0700

Gorilla Haven -- An Urgent Message

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:44:24 -0700

Kim Southern of Blue Ridge Real Estate is an unquestioned professional. One thing you may not have realized was that she has a thing for gorillas. Yep, hairy, knuckle dragging gorillas; lucky gorillas! No, seriously, they are lucky to have someone as caring and compassionate as Kim to give voice to their plight. You see Kim wrote a post entitled

Gorillas in Our Midst -- Gorillas Find Sanctuary in the North Georgia Mountains

If you missed that post, I would definitely suggest reading it now as it gives some great background information on why this current post is so important. As you read her newest post keep in mind the gorillas she introduced in the previous post. This is an urgent plea for help that could easily be lost among all the pleas for help that many of us hear. From the other knuckle draggers, Thank You.

COMMENTS ON THIS POST ARE DISABLED SO THAT YOU CAN COMMENT ON KIM'S POST DIRECTLY.

Via Kim Southern - Blue Ridge Real Estate (Century 21 Professional Realty Group):

North Georgia mountain's Gorilla Haven -- the only privately-owned gorilla sanctuary approved by the National Association of Zoos & Aquariums -- is in great financial need right now.

The above video shows one of Gorilla Haven's residents -- Oliver -- thoughtfully eating his apple snacks.

This amazing facilty, built and maintained by Jane & Steuart Dewar, offers a home to gorillas that were born and raised in zoos, but who were ultimately labeled 'misfits.' You can read more about Gorilla Haven in this great article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A Misfit's Sanctuary."

Please read this poignant letter from Jane Dewar and consider helping in some way:

Dear Gorilla Haven Friends and Supporters,

THANK YOU for your support after our first email appeal in December. We sincerely appreciate everyone who donated and even the supportive emails from people who couldn't afford to donate funds, but offered kind words. Both Steuart and I are working 7 days a week to make sure Gorilla Haven succeeds and we need your help now more than ever.

While we negotiate with the zoo world, which is struggling with their own economic crisis, our costs continue to rise as our income declines. Fund-raising is now a necessity if Gorilla Haven is to continue. We're asking for your help - whether you live locally or internationally, there's something you can do, if you're willing....

Here are some ideas:

Perhaps you can donate again? Every donation helps, and 100% goes straight into operating costs, which we have stripped down to the essentials.

Perhaps you can spread the word about the fund-raising tours and/or our website?

Perhaps you can hold a bake sale or garage sale to benefit Gorilla Haven?

Perhaps you can offer to find grant money or help us find sources of grants? Grant writing is a full time job, and we simply don't have the time or the experience!

Perhaps you can try to raise funds or awareness for Gorilla Haven on Facebook, Twitter or other internet sites? I already have a Facebook account, as well as a Facebook group "Friends of Gorilla Haven" - but we need help getting the word out!

Perhaps you can contact the media to see if they'd be willing to do a story about Gorilla Haven? We have some stories coming out, but media like PEOPLE magazine don't think we're worthy of a story, since we only have "two gorillas." A producer from the Ellen Degeneres Show called, but never called back, and even Animal Planet has expressed an interest, but nothing has happened. The more people who inquire about us, the better.

Whatever you can do, it will be put to the best use here. With the world struggling, it may not seem that important to care about a couple of gorillas in North Georgia. But Gorilla Haven is so much more than that. With your help, we can continue to help save an endangered species, while showing the Power of One Person to make a difference.

Thank you!

Jane Dewar, Founder of Gorilla Haven

For more information, please visit: Gorilla-Haven.org

Have You Seen These In Your Area?

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:39:16 -0700

I first saw the Peapod yesterday during a bout of web surfing. I thought these vehicles were very intriguing as the tag line on the manufacturer's page said:

no gas. no emissions. lots of love. (and there is a green heart where the "o" is in love)

This tag line is enough to drive many people to read about the vehicle; so that is exactly what I did. At first glance these vehicles remind me of the Smart Car and other autos we are seeing in the move towards greener cars (and products in general). Though I consider myself an environmentalist I do not jump on every bandwagon. I make a conscious effort to try to determine the carbon emissions used by a traditional vehicle of comparable size versus the carbon emissions generated by the power plant to supply the electricity necessary to recharge the power supply of electric vehicles.

As for the Peapod, it is a fully electric vehicle. It comes in several variations, the Peapod which seats four, the Twinpod which seats two, and the Utility pod which is some type of SUV version. Further reading indicates that they can reach top speeds of 25 mph and is an approved NEV. Wait, a what? In the advertising these vehicles are shown on regular streets with yellow cabs in the background. What is this about not being approved for regular streets? I get it; these "N"eighborhood "E"lectric "V"ehicles are like tricked out golf carts that cost between $10k and $12k. Slick marketers, I thought these were environmentally conscious cars!

So I ask again, have you seen these in your area? Apparently 60,000 of these have been sold mainly in self-contained neighborhoods, retirement and golf communities. I understand vehicles such as these to help people who have difficulties with mobility. Are these NEVs are an example of a manufacturer taking advantage of the eco-consciousness that has arisen in the past few years? Wouldn't it be more eco-friendly to simply walk around your neighborhood or participate in the walking aspect of golf? These vehicles may not directly have carbon emissions but they require power that comes from a power plant that produces carbon emissions.

HERE is a review with lots of information on the Peapod and the future of NEVs by Edmunds.com, and independent auto industry consumer advisor.

Thanks Experts!

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:39:19 -0700

I have always appreciated a good comedian for their use of levity to make serious points. Jon Stewart, whether you agree with his particular point of view or not, is one of the sharpest wits around. His The Daily Show has been entertaining viewers and aggravating pundits, politicians, and anyone in the publi eye for years. Last week he had a particularly relevant and entertaining commentary on the current economic situation and whether the self-annointed experts are really so expert. This is an 8+ minute video but it is worth watching, so sit back enjoy...

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Wordless Wednesday

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:59:49 -0800

Big Brother, A Benefit?

Rich Dansereau (Positive Real Estate Professionals) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:26:52 -0800

The use of video in our business and personal lives has exploded in the past decade. From videotaping the children's recital to video blogging cameras seem to be everywhere. Many cities have even taken to placing cameras on streets, in police cars, and in holding cells. These are ostensibly to reduce crime, protect law enforcement officials, and suspects. There are the cries of big brother and the loss of privacy but apparently the benefit have outweighed this objections. I would hasten to guess that the video released late Friday afternoon will further protect law enforcement and suspects.

Here is the video. *BE WARNED THIS VIDEO IS GRAPHIC* After the video, I will give the explanation of the circumstances and the incident as related in statements from the police involved and the suspect.

The suspect who is in custody is a 15 year old female who was apprehended in a stolen car with another minor female. There have been no indications that the teenager resisted arrest at the scene nor at the Sea Tac City Hall (Seattle). There have been no accusations that the suspect was under the influence of any drugs.

The King's County Sheriff's deputy that assaulted the suspect is a 31 year old, eight year veteran of law enforcement. He has plead not guilty of a fourth degree assault for kicking her, slamming her to the floor, striking her, and pulling her hair in violence. Deputy Paul Schene could face a maximum of 1 year in jail if he is found guilty.

Unfortunately these types of videos are becoming much more commonplace on YouTube and other video sites. Aside from the violence being disturbing, the fact that a person in a position of control and authority can so loose control and abuse the authority entrusted to them is unsettling. I understand that law enforcement work in one of the most stressful professions one could possibly have. The added stress would be much too difficult for most ordinary people to cope with but law officers have training to deal with this stress. If the training is insufficient then that too must be addressed. Law enforcement officials are also aware of the stress that such a position holds before they choose to pursue that career. All of these reasons that can be given must pale in comparison to the overall negative impact such uncontrolled behavior, as that in the video, has upon law enforcement across the board.

And what of this 15 year old girl? We have civil rights, we have habeous corpus. Her guilt of the crime is irrelevant; she had not been found guilty and had not even seen a lawyer. Again, she was 15 years old and had been taken to Sea Tac City Hall to be booked.