Special offer

My Media Meme or How I Tune In, Turn On, Tune Out

By
Real Estate Agent with Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office

radio for media memeBonnie Erickson meme'd me and I can never turn her down (ssshhh, don't tell her). Thankfully, this is a meme about the kinds of media that has played a part in my life...and I how I got into all this tekkie stuff- at least that is how I am chosing to interpret it. So here goes.

I had an Apple II-e.I loved that machine! It was like a Jetson's phenomenon to me. This was back in the 80s of course. I wasn't on the Internet then of course but it stayed useful until I got another version of it in the mid 90s from some friends...and then moved on to a raspberry iMAC in 1997. Yes, I was one of those loyal Apple folk (you know, the rabid kind similar to those of us who had various VW Bugs throughout our early lives). The iMAC served me very well until our MLS decided to stop supporting it! I was forced to become a Benedict Arnold and bought (two years ago) a Dell Dimension 3000 system with a flat screen yada yada and I am quite happy with it...even if I am a traitor. I loved Netscape; was PO'd that Gates was continuing to try to invade my life with IE taknig over the way VHS did. I finally had to give up and switch. I still use IE but still think if Microsoft wasn't such a monopoly, most people would be happily using Netscape or some other system (yes I know I could try Firefox) (Maybe someday).

In the mid 90s I lived in Greenbelt Maryland and one of my condo neighbors worked for the government. He had The World Wide Web at home and he showed me (once) what it was all about. I was agog. The Internet seemed like the most fascinating and top secret thing in the world.  I finally got an Internet connection when Pearl Jam did a live conference call with fans (yes I admit to this) and it motivated me to get a dial up connection. Once you get HS Internet though, it's impossible to go backwards.

1997: First email, through Yahoo! and free. I still have it. All in all, Yahoo! does a good job with spam and they have always had a decent email system. Now I have three emails with over 400 emails in each in box and some day I am going to clean them out. It's all I can do to keep the numbers under 500, really!

IMs.  I use Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. I've had a friend in Nebraska since 2000. We've been communicating through IM every day for seven years. I have another friend in Tennessee; she and I have been communicating through IM for about two years. I met both gals on line. The Internet is a fab place.

Email: The best thing since sliced bread. I do most of my client communication that way and they wouldn't have it any other way. I had two clients this year (including one referral from fellow Rainer Jeff Dowler) whom I never saw in person more than twice -- most of our communicating was carried onvia email.

What I love: Squidooand Trulia. And a local Forum on Urban Ohio that is chock full of information, opinion and dialogue on almost anything NE Ohio.

Radio:My life blood. WHFS Two which streams alternative music; ESPN radio for my at least once weekly fix of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan and whatever baseball game they are hosting; I have an off and on again XM radio subscription so that I can catch Theme Time Radio with Bob Dylan. And too much more to fit in here.

Started blogging on Realtown a year ago...came to AR last September (I think!) and now I have an outside blog as well. Who knows what is in store for the future :-)

Print Media: If I was independently wealthy I would subscribe to  The Economist, WSJ, but since I'm not, I limit myself currently to Rolling Stone. My home page is the Washington Post.

Books: way too many to name; the last one I read was A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion. Before that it was The Gentleman From New York (bio of Daniel Patrick Moynihan). I am looking forward to starting the second in a series (Pepper Martin) of mysteries written by local author Casey Daniels.

My next purchase? An all in one phone. Next to learn? The list is long; but it's a fun journey.  Peace Out - 3C

I meme Jeff Dowler, Eileen Landau and Leanne Paynter.

 

Eileen has her meme full of great tekkie history HERE

Elaine Reese, REALTOR® in central Ohio
Real Living HER, Powell Ohio - Powell, OH

What an interesting read. I've never used a MAC because the first computers I used belonged to the corporation and were DOS based, then we switched to Windows in the late 80's-early 90's. My first ISP at that time was CompuServe.

However, we DID have a Beetle! A brand new 1967 cherry red one that cost $1695! Oh, those were the days!

Jul 04, 2007 05:06 AM
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO

Moni:  I still have my iMAC sitting near my desk! You will have to let us know how you feel about the blog on Realtor.com; I did not know they offered that service until today. Cool!

Elaine: A cherry red Beetle now I am completely jealous! I had a powder blue Bug but cherry red, that is up town baby! lol

I was thinking about working for a non profit group in DC in 1979 and 1980 and how excited the staff was that an Olivetti word processor was purchased. We could not believe the LCD scroll, the ease of changing the words! LOLOL We have come a long way.

Jul 04, 2007 05:16 AM
Linda Davis
RE/MAX Home Team - Gales Ferry, CT

I had a Texas Instruments Tandy 2000.  Who could have ever foreseen all this cool stuff.  I agree, I like Squidoo too.  I have a lot of lenses in my head.

Jul 04, 2007 06:38 AM
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO

Linda, hi. Is Texas Instruments around anymore? I bet they got bought out and scooped up. Good, I can't wait to see your lenses :-)

Jul 04, 2007 07:20 AM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 FHA, CHFA, VA Mortgages - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert
Carole, I waited in line for the store to open and then had to out run several people to the part of the store that they where holding that computer at that time.  They had just gotten four of them in and I was able to get one of them.  I only had to knock down an old lady and a baby on my way to grabbing the computer :)
Jul 04, 2007 10:48 AM
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO
Hi George! That's the George we read about in one of YOUR meme's LOLOL 
Jul 04, 2007 10:53 AM
Bonnie Erickson
Tangletown Realty - Saint Paul, MN

A "morphed" meme is so much more fun than the 5 secrets that I've had to do before.  I can't wait to see the next "morph"! 

Jul 04, 2007 05:04 PM
Maggie Dokic /Indialantic | 321-252-8696
Magdalena Dokic - Indialantic, FL
Selling the beach in Florida's space coast
Big LOL to George.  I don't believe he is capable of hurting anyone just to get his hands on the latest gadget.  Are you George?
Jul 05, 2007 06:22 AM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 FHA, CHFA, VA Mortgages - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert
Maggie, I would like to thing that I have matured just a little bit since those days :)
Jul 05, 2007 07:52 AM
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO

Bonnie: I agree this one was way more fun!

Maggie: Ssssh, don't tell George, but I think he likes to pretend he is tough - we know he is a pussycat

Hi George lol

Jul 05, 2007 07:57 AM
Nick M.
Certified Residential Appraiser- West Palm Beach Real Estate - West Palm Beach, FL
Realtor-Appraiser in West Palm-South Florida Real Estate Appraiser
I'm still trying to figure out why an old lady or a baby would want an apple IIe!  i think Carole is right.. say meow George :))   you would never do that!!  right?
Jul 05, 2007 08:39 AM
Mitchell J Hall
Manhattan, NY
Lic Associate RE Broker - Manhattan & Brooklyn

Carole,

I knew you were more of a geek then me. I didn't get my first computer until 1990 a mac powerbook in BW (I still have it it's a classic) then I got an imac too.

When I got into real estate I had to get that horrible windows/dell that I still have and am having computer issues as we speak.

When I started in real estate none of the brokers in NY were connected electronically for listings. Every firm faxed their listings to each other and the agents would enter the listings in our own systems (we got paid listing fees back then. If another agent from my firm sold a listing who ever entered the listing into the system got a fee)

There was an agent at my firm that never sold anything but he would come in Saturday morning entering all the listings from the classified ads in the Sunday NY Times into our system. He made a living. We had to carry a zip disk to and from the office to sync the records. It was so old fashioned and it was only 6 years ago.

I want the iphone, but I hear the phone part is not good.

Jul 06, 2007 04:45 AM
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO

Hi Mitchell. You need to be memed you have good stories; I bet that powerbook is too cool.

When I helped sell my mothers house, 1999, I was not in real estate yet. We had an agent from a large company, and we would go to the realty ofc frequently to look through books of listings. I believe they had computer listings but  I swear it was in DOS. And then every day people printed them out to go in binders, the new listings. This was really only 7 years ago here!  By the time I got into it in 2003 it was all computerized. Thankfully!   A zip disk!  Very high tech at the time! We used zip disks until about two yrs ago (for ads and stuff yes) then we all got flash drives.

I'm sorry you are having so much trouble with y our computer. I remember both Elaine Reese and Kristal Kraft doing posts last Fall about how they just wanted to throw their computers out the window.

Jul 06, 2007 02:20 PM
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO
Nick! lol  The baby probably born with the computer gene like everyone else now! I bet a two year old can do everything but program :-)
Jul 06, 2007 02:21 PM
Nick M.
Certified Residential Appraiser- West Palm Beach Real Estate - West Palm Beach, FL
Realtor-Appraiser in West Palm-South Florida Real Estate Appraiser
hi Carole.. true, true.. but i just don't picture George knocking anyone down to get anything. now, knocking down walls with his singing is another story! :) haha!! GEORGE!!!! :)
Jul 07, 2007 02:20 AM
Mitchell J Hall
Manhattan, NY
Lic Associate RE Broker - Manhattan & Brooklyn
Carole, lol. I'll have to find Kristal and Elaine's posts. I've thought of throwing it out the window but I might kill some innocent by stander lol.  I re-installed XP operating system, lost my outlook, everything was going fine now I'm getting Fan not detected. A computer has a fan? lol
Jul 07, 2007 09:35 AM
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO

Nick: Luckily there are enough computers to go around and we don't have to give anyone a knuckle sandwich just to get one (I've always wanted to say that phrase lol)

Mitchell lol   Yes they have a fan but not the kind that ask you for your autograph lolol  It was hot today so currently my computer fan sounds like a jet engine. Good luck!

Jul 07, 2007 04:42 PM
Anonymous
Dima
Hey!

I am following this "media consumption diet" thread and am trying to suggest an idea of a Commfree Day - one day every month to be spent away from media and information technology.  I have a post with more explanation about it and will be glad to hear what you and others think about it: .

Thanks!
Jul 08, 2007 07:10 AM
#31
Carole Cohen
Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH
Realtor, ePRO
Hi Dima! I read your post, I think it's a good idea that might have to be flexible as far as what day of the week a Realtor® would use it, but you can count me in on the inauguration date of August 4th!
Jul 08, 2007 08:02 AM
Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Alrighty, then. Here's my meme, Carole (yes, I know it took forever!).

My Media Meme: My Oh My

Jeff

Aug 16, 2007 01:46 AM