It was the one weekend of the year where fans of every single team come together and celebrate the superstars of the first half of the season in Major League Baseball, and in 2011, it happened to be right in my own backyard.

A night after the celebrity all-star game and the home run derby, and a few hours prior to the first pitch of the 2011 All-Star game, I went around and interviewed a few fans about their excitement, their expectations, and their experience during MLB All-Star weekend.

I first interviewed a local couple on the light rail ride towards downtown Phoenix a few hours before the game began. It turned out to be my favorite interview of them all, for they were a very classy couple who answered my questions very uniquely compared to others.

Matt Milmine, a middle-aged guy, and his girlfriend grew up in Detroit as Tigers fans but have transitioned to the D’Backs bandwagon after living in Phoenix for five years. Their favorite players were Stephen Drew and Justin Upton of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Upton seemed to be the fan favorite, being the local hero and participant of All-Star weekend. Matt seemed to be more into the events as he spoke for both him and his girlfriend most of the time. He really wanted to see a National League victory and Upton to win the M.V.P. of the game. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to see both, however, I’m sure he enjoyed the N.L. defeating the A.L.

When asked what the importance of the All-Star game was, Matt replied “the common courtesy amongst large groups of various fans. Every now and then you have fans get after each other, especially when you put seamheads of every team in one city at the same time. But this weekend has been pretty good for the most part, I have seen a lot of class.” I liked this answer because it was different from the expected answer- that the importance of the game was that the league who won would claim home-field advantage in the world series. This ended up being the answer that I received from my other interviews.

Matt and his girlfriend also attended the Home Run Derby on Monday night, and said they enjoyed every long ball. They enjoyed watching Robinson Cano hit bombs, and the fact that they weren’t rooting for someone in particular, made the event much more enjoyable. Matt Milmine did mention however, that he was a little disappointed in the ovation Ricky Weeks received. I think a lot of fans were disappointed that his teamate, Prince Fielder, had selected him to be part of the HR Derby and it showed throughout the boo’s when he stepped up to the plate. “He (Weeks) looked nervous and unappreciative of the fans reaction to when his name was called out, and it showed in his performance,” said Matt.

I also interviewed two other college students, and received very similar answers as they both wore jerseys representing their hometown teams.

Billy Getz-

Favorite Team: San Francisco Giants
Favorite Player: Brian Wilson
Expectations of the All-Star game: N.L. victory and a close game
Importance of the All-Star game: League winner is granted home-advantage during the world series.

Mike Collins-
Favorite Player: Grady Sizemore
Favorite Team: Cleveland Indians
Expectations of the All-Star game: Wants to see an offensive shootout because last year’s game was all about pitching.
Importance of the All-Star game: Home-advantage goes to the league championship series winner.

Mike Collins said he was recently here from June 27-29 to watch his Cleveland Indians take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in inter-league play.

Despite receiving some trash-talk for my Texas Rangers t-shirt that I was wearing, I had a good time being around the atmosphere and interviewing some fans before the game. Unfortunately, I had to work during the entire game, but after reading up on it and watching some highlights, it doesn’t look like I missed anything that went down for the ages. The game seemed to be a bit on the disappointing end and dull for the television viewers to watch.

The Eagles never trailed in the game at the TD Garden in front of 14,571 screaming fans.

Cam Atkinson was named the Bill Flynn MVP scoring two goals within five minutes of each other in the third period.

Eagles goalie John Muse stopped 36 shots. He’s headed to the NCAA tournament with a 21-1 career postseason record. Merrimack’s Joe Cannata stopped 30 shots in the losing effort.

This is BC’s tenth Hockey East title in 15 appearances. It was Merrimack College’s first appearance in the finals.

Boston College started the scoring when Pat Mullane scored in the first period. Merrimack College’s Ryan Flanigan scored 30 seconds later. Brian Gibbons then scored for Boston College and Mike Collins got a power play goal for Merrimack tying things at two going into the first intermission. That tie held for most of the game until BC pulled ahead by two late in the third period.

After the game BC coach Jerry York said he thinks one of the keys to his team’s win was that they’ve been there before. He said the noise can be difficult, and just physically inside the TD Garden during the game, but also the “noise” of stories in the newspaper, talking with roommates and all of the excitement that surrounds Merrimack’s inaugural trip to the finals.

“Merrimack played very, very well,” said York. “This was good for Hockey East. It was good for college hockey.”

Atkinson said Merrimack had four strong lines, but so does BC. “Their first line is as good as any other line in the league. We knew we had to come out hard and play our game. Like I said, they have four lines, but we also had four lines. We played hard and got the job done.”

York said the last few minutes of the game was tough for his squad. At the 9:41 mark of the third period Atkinson scored his first goal of the game. Merrimack’s Flanigan answered just less than four minutes later. A minute and 11 second after that, at the 14:49 mark, Atkinson scored his second of the game. Brian Dumouth sealed the win with another goal at 18:24.

“That exchange of goals was tough,” said York. “I can really see Merrimack-St. Paul,” he said, citing the potential match up in the NCAA tournament. Merrimack is all but assured an at large bid with its record; BC earned an automatic bid by winning the Hockey East tournament. They are also reigning national champions. The selection show is Sunday morning.

“It would be nice to meet them in the Frozen Four,” said Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy, a 1991 graduate of Boston College. He says his team did everything it needed to do except win. “I’m very proud of our team. They are very resilient.”

He said Saturday night’s game was a great learning lesson and the good news is he gets to get out and coach them next week.

Adam Ross, a senior defenseman, said they continued to remind each other on the bench that they weren’t going to let one goal get them down.

“We kept going until the end of the game,” he said. “This was big for the team, good for the program and school. We’re happy we got to this point.”

Despite the loss Flanigan, a junior forward who in addition to scoring in the third, also scored Merrimack’s first goal, was still looking ahead saying they need to focus on what they could have done better.

“We need to do whatever it takes to win games,” he said.

BC has won eight games in a row at the TD Garden, but senior forward Joe Whitney said getting there is something they have to earn and they don’t take it for granted. “We work hard when we get here and try to win a trophy,” he said.

Dennehy is in his fifth year at Merrimack. Entering the season he had a 46-108-19 record with the team. Merrimack has won 26 games this season. He said in regards to building his team, “You can change the players; you can change the coaches, but until you change the culture of the program you’re not going to have that type of success.” He went on to say they went after players who have played in big games and have had success in the past.

Continuation of yesterday’s lunch at Café Vermilionville

Chef Mike Collins

Crème brûlée topped with strawberries.

Having played in 30 of the team’s 36 games, Pereira is a force to be reckoned with. The West Haven, Conn. native has hockey in his blood. Older brother, Joe, is a senior at Boston University and is currently serving as team captain. In 2010, after Pereira received high marks in several categories at the NHL Entry Draft Combine, Central Scouting Services named him the 63^rd best skater in North America.

The former All-New England, All-Conference, and Team MVP during his senior year at Avon Old Farms, Pereira has not disappointed during his short time so far at Massachusetts. Often a starting Forward, Pereira came into this weekend’s series with Maine tied with Merrimack College’s Mike Collins with 23 points. The two are competing for the title of lead rookie point scorer in the Hockey East division.

During the first game of the set against Maine, the Minutemen seemed all but finished as late as the middle of the third period. However with 11 minutes remaining, it looked as though a completely different team came onto the ice for Massachusetts. After scoring two goals only a minute apart, Pereira stepped up. With 12:13 remaining, only seven seconds after junior Danny Hobbs’s goal, the team’s second, Pereira really put the Minutemen back in the game.

While the team was still unable to come back from the early deficit and sloppy play, it was Pereira who brought the team back to a final score of 4-3. With his latest goal, Pereira’s season total has increased to 11, giving him the title of leading rookie goal scorer in the Hockey East division.

During Merrimack’s 6-1 win over Providence, Collins had three assists bringing his season points total to 26. With one regular season game remaining, Pereira is now only two points behind Collins for the title of Hockey East’s rookie point scorer. Each have one last opportunity to take the title tomorrow night as they repeat tonight’s matchups against Providence and Maine, respectively.

One thing is for sure, regardless of this season’s outcome, Massachusetts can be confident in their young stars. If this season is any indicator of seasons to come, Pereira is bound to be a force not only in the Hockey East division but as he moves forward in his career.

Coming very soon....

Below is the cover for the CICE 2011 exclusive launch of 10thology.

I’m very pleased with the design, I wanted it to break away from conventional comic book cover design and present something a bit more graphic and as always I have fun playing with ‘white space’.

The 10thology site is now live so stay tuned for more 10thology news as the promotional machine kicks in in February.

10thology cover design by Stu.Art

So, what are some common mistakes investors make and how can we avoid them? I have compiled a small list of ten. There are more mistakes, believe me, but these are the most common that I encounter. The order of is of no relevance.

1.       Overpaying for a house. Way too common. This generally happens because the buyer has no real idea of the true Fair Market Value (FMV) and the After Repair Value (ARV). Just because an agent says, “this house will sell for $200,000!” Doesn’t mean it will. Learn how to run comps and repairs and you will never have this problem.

2.       Underestimating the cost, scale, and time for repairs. If you are not familiar with CURRENT costs of labor and materials, you NEED to get the opinion of a professional, preferably more than one. Once you are familiar with this process it becomes fairly easy to run the hard numbers in a matter of minutes. Thoroughly inspect the property before you purchase. You are in the money making business, not the “Oh crap I just opened up a giant Can-O-Worms” industry.

3.       Not properly insuring the property. Remember that example about the bums breaking in and burning the house down? What if that was your property and your insurer didn’t cover your damages after you bought the property for $60,000 and already put $20,000 into it? That would suck. Don’t let it be you. Yes, it’s an extreme example but there are many things that can go wrong during the rehab process. Know what your policy does and doesn’t cover.

4.       Living in the property while remodeling it. Sounds like a good idea, “I won’t have to pay rent. Someone will always be there. I will have more time to get things done.” But in actuality here is what happens; because you are waking up and falling asleep there every day, it starts to feel like home and you begin to get emotionally attached. Now you start to overdo your repairs and updates because you want the house to be up to par with your living standards. You end up putting more money into the project than you need to because your emotions have clouded the reality that not every “sizzle feature” raises a property’s value. Don’t do it.

5.       Over pricing your finished work. This pretty much falls in line with number one. Know your market and the scale of the project. If you don’t catch anything from this blog, at least remember this; Value is not how much money YOU want, value is how much SOMEONE ELSE is willing to pay you. If other remodeled houses in your neighborhood are selling for $100,000, there is a pretty slim chance you are going to get $150,000. Now I just wish all sellers understood this.

6.       No Financial/time plan. Time wasted is money lost. Why take six months to finish a house and only sell two in one year when you could do four or five with the same amount of money? Plan, plan, plan. Don’t get in over your head (number 2).s

7.       Investing with emotion. I hear too many people who want to invest in certain areas or cities because “they have good schools.” Shut up. Remove your emotion, this is a numbers game. You have to understand that in certain areas, you will pay a premium for a property and the resell may not be much better than what you bought it for. People who live in highly desirable areas know it and they (usually) won’t allow their house to walk away for pennies on the dollar.

8.       Cold feet. Again, this is a numbers game. If everything looks good and is in line with your objectives, go for it. Don’t wait to hear “I made a killing off that property you were too scared to buy.” Emotional investing, yet again…

9.       Spending money and time on education but never putting it to use. Don’t be a spectator; get in while it’s hot. Even when it’s not hot, there is always money to be made. You are not getting any younger.

10.   Jumping in without understanding Real Estate. The last nine mistakes fall right under this one. Know what you are doing. Period. If you truly know what you are doing you shouldn’t have those problems. Get the right education. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars in education and seminars, I learned through a $10 book and A LOT of free stuff on the internet, and I am doing great!!!

What other mistakes have you made or heard of?

Cover by Clint Langley

Judge Dredd : The Convert

Script by Simon Spurrier

Art by Mike Collins

Click below for review with possible spoilers by Nick Roberts, Mark O’Neill and Greg Meldrum

A man joins a religious cult and is fitted with a chip which stops him from sinning. But when his wife dies he decides the only way the chip will let him kill himself is via “Suicide by Dredd”…

Nick –

Cover
Another striking cover by the wrap around king Clint Langley, Slaine’s looking particularly blood thirsty in this red drenched cover that bears more than a striking resemblance or homage to the brilliant 1975 classic film Rollerball. The back cover, with a rouges gallery of Murderball players is also pretty arsom. Cracking cover.
Dredd
Dredd deals with the thorny issue of religion in this week’s one shot thrill by Simon Spurrier. When a recently converted for love member of the Kaltik Mission of Grud, life goes to shit, he hits upon a novel way of getting out of the whole suicide is sin conundrum, he opts for suicide by Dredd.  This was an excellent story by Spurrier that managed to have a few digs at organised Religion (which is fine by me) and still tell a balanced and provoking story, all within 6 pages, quite an achievement. The art by Mike Collins was superb as were the colours by Peter Doherty. Quality thrill power.

Mark –

Cover: Great effort from Clint Langley. I’m pretty sure it’s a homage to an 80s movie, but I’m at a loss to identify it. Still, it’s a striking image, and the wraparound nature adds another enhances the effect of the front. I particularly like the ‘Ball’ gag. It’s a pity Dandridge never got a cover, but what can you do, eh?

Judge Dredd: Simon Spurrier is fast becoming the go-to robot for one-off Dredd stories, and we all say thankya. Here, he crafts another polished, tightly plotted script brimming with satire and clever ideas. Josef’s suicide attempts are laugh-out-loud funny, and his suicide-by-Dredd attempt is marvellously done.

One misstep, however, is that Dredd is shown conducting traffic. While his escapades over the previous months could be overlooked as the actions of a man who wants to stay on the street at least some of the time, putting someone in Dredd’s current position on traffic duty is a bit much. However, that’s just one flaw in an otherwise sparkling strip.

Collins and Doherty on turn out very competant artwork, which hits the sweet spot between realistic and cartoony that is perfect for a strip like this one.

Greg –

Cover: As I sit typing this, I glance occasionally up at my wall, and my gaze falls upon a framed original Rollerball poster, vinyl soundtrack album, Japanese program and various wall-mounted lobby cards. It’s pretty safe to say that given my aesthetic devotion to Rollerball, if I didn’t like this cover, something would have gone seriously amiss. As it stands, I love it – a wonderful bloody homage, striking, savage and sneery. But the back cover is even better, a roll-call of the major players in ‘The Mercenary’, which ends hilariously on ‘Ball’, the expression on whose face needs to be seen to be believed. So while the Slaine strip itself remains a bit past its sell-by date, the cover gets two thumbs up and a rousing chorus of approval from the benches.

Dredd: The problem with spending a few years not reading 2000AD is that you miss out on a hell of a lot of good stuff. But on the other hand, it does give you an interesting opportunity to reappraise a writer or artist as you see how much they’ve developed. So it is with Si Spurrier. I’ll be honest , I really did not enjoy his early work, particularly the likes of ‘Bec and Kawl’ (afraid this was a story in which I could find little to appeal me – to me, comic-book students are not likeable unless they’re Peter Parker or D.R. and Quinch). Now, many years later, it’s clear that his work is more to my taste and that he’s developed greatly as a writer (hey, they don’t give out Dredd gigs to any old pleb these days, y’know.) Indeed, his previous Dredd story with the big fish was great, apart from the inevitable nob gag. This one… it’s all right, but it lacks a bit of clarity and doesn’t quite have the impact I suspect it was going for.

In essence, I think Si Spurrier is trying to do something in the style of ‘Cityblock’ here. Y’know, ‘Cityblock’, the Ron Smith story in which a guy loses his job, his temper, and nearly his sanity, going into ‘crazed sniper’ mode but not actually managing to kill anyone until Dredd bursts in on him and sentences him to hard labour. As the weeping gunman thanks Dredd profusely for the chance to do meaningful work, Dredd muses that it’s not his job to be kind, but that sometimes the law can make exceptions and be merciful. (Alternately – it’s ‘They Shoot DJs, Don’t They?’ in which Dredd takes pity on a man who tries to kill inane DJ Cool Johnny Cool because a surgical procedure has left him constantly picking up Johnny’s idiot banter. Dredd points out the cubes block radio signals.)

The problem is that Spurrier’s taken a story that sees Dredd take a kind of pity on a poor, weak, misguided citizen, and combined it with a fairly direct shot at the Catholic Church that, to be honest, is a bit too simplistic and one-sided to really work in the context of the story. I can’t help feeling he’d have done better to have gone for a more generic or ridiculous take on Citizen’s Ratz’s beliefs, to better counterpoint the strip’s more touching moments. These include the last panel, which is absolutely lovely and shows what the story was trying to achieve – the expression on the protagonist’s face is expertly depicted by Collins and adds a great little emotional touch. And indeed, the art in general is excellent, the characters being particularly expressive and the action showing some great shifts in tone and mood. Overall though… the story doesn’t quite hang together as well as it might, but there’s promise in there.

Good enough then, good enough now.

The Tuition Fees battle continues to rage, with a petition signed by 104 PPCs from last May’s Westminster Election having been sent to all 57 Liberal Democrat MPs.

Personally*, I hope that if the MPs vote against Party Policy – that is, for the increase in tuition fees – they are challenged by their local parties for the right to stand again as Liberal Democrats.

Perhaps it is time for the Leadership to be challenged publicly at Lib Dem Spring Conference in Sheffield. Would a vote of no confidence in the Party Leader in his home city be in order?

A petition, calling on all Liberal Democrat MPs to vote against the proposed rise in tuition fees when this is debated in Parliament before Christmas, has been sent to all the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs.

This petition has been established in opposition to the coalition government’s current proposed policy on tuition fees and has been signed by 104 of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidates at the 2010 General Election (over 15% of the total Lib Dem candidates).

The petition was conceived and produced by Craig Bichard, with the support of Derek Deedman, the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Arundel & South Downs at the 2010 General Election. Craig is a 19-year-old student and passionate member of the Arundel & South Downs Liberal Democrats, and it is his ambition to become a Liberal Democrat MP in the future.

Both Craig and Derek feel very strongly that unlike manifesto policies, which are aspirations to be delivered by an overall majority government or used as a basis for a compromise agreement in a coalition situation, the unconditional pledge made by Liberal Democrat Candidates to vote against any rise in tuition fees is a promise which must be kept – and 103 other Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidates at the 2010 General Election agree and have signed the petition. All agree that this is a red line issue and the provision in the Coalition Agreement for Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain is not sufficient.

Derek Deedman‘s blog

The petition in full is reproduced below:

During the General Election campaign many of our MP’s (and now government ministers) signed a pledge with the National Union of Students that they would vote against any tuition fee rises during the course of the next Parliament. The wording of this pledge clearly indicated that this would be unconditional; regardless of whether the party was in government or in opposition. The party has been very clear for many years about its view on tuition fees and that we feel they should be abolished.

However after the recent publication of the Browne review into university funding it now seems entirely likely that although tuition fees will be capped this will be done to an unacceptable level of somewhere between £9000-£9500 per year with almost all courses costing at least £6000 per year.

Stopping this from happening is vitally important. Not just for the benefit of students but also for the Liberal Democrats. There is one thing that sets the Liberal Democrats apart from other political parties; this is that when we say we will do something during election campaigns we then do it in government. This can be seen in how the income tax threshold will rise to £10,000 by the end of this Parliament, the AV referendum on 5th May 2011, the reduction of MP’s to 600, the Pupil Premium and the delay over the replacement of Trident. We have achieved this and more despite the compromises of being in a coalition.

Nick Clegg emphasised this best of all during the televised leadership debates when he said that the Labour and Conservative Parties have given us “Nothing but broken promises”, he also emphasised that “The Liberal Democrats are different”. Finally and crucially he announced how he wanted to create a “New politics” and part of this vision was for parties to do in government as they claim they will in opposition.

It is time for us to remind him of these important values. The rise in tuition fees is designed to fill in the £2.9 billion black hole that will be left in the teaching funds for universities after the announcement of cuts of 40% in the spending review. However in the context of reducing the deficit this is a drop in the ocean and these savings could surely be better achieved elsewhere. For example during much of Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister the top rate of tax for the highest earners was 60% and yet today in harder financial times it is 50%. Yet it is students (hardly the richest people in our society) who will be paying for the last generations mistakes. This may be a hard time economically but this is a battle we must win.

We are different and must show that we are; especially now that we are in a position to do so.  Otherwise this party will rightly face many more years back in the political wilderness having been labelled as ‘just like the other lot’.

So are these savings of £2.9 billion worth it? Is this price worth the loss of our party’s integrity and our values? If not then we must let the leadership know how we feel and stop these fees from rising while we still can.

We, the undersigned Parliamentary Liberal Democrat Candidates at the 2010 General Election, call on Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and all the Liberal Democrat MPs to vote against any increase in tuition fees, as pledged to the National Union of Students and publicised as such during the 2010 General Election campaign.

There must be better alternatives and we must find the right one; or the else the party and the next generation of students will rightly feel let down for the next Parliament and beyond.

Thank you all for your time, we will all be watching the results of the vote very closely.

Signatures

Derek Deedman (Arundel and South Downs)

Godfrey Newman (Horsham)

Simon McDougall (Littlehampton and Bognor)

Martin Lury (Chichester)

5. Bernadette Millam (Brighton Pavilion)

Andrew Falconer (Runnymede and Weybridge)

Paul Elgood (Hove)

James Blanchard (Huddersfield)

Jon Underwood (Tiverton and Honiton)

10. Mark Chapman (Spelthorne)

Andrew Aalders (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Wendy Taylor (Newcastle upon Tyne East)

Nick Perry (Hastings and Rye)

Peter Carroll (Maidstone and the Weald)

15. Alan Bullion (Sevenoaks)

Roger Barlow (Macclesfield)

Richard Baum (Bury North)

Nigel Quinton (Hitchin and Harpenden)

Nigel Bennett (South Suffolk)

20. Chris Nelson (Kettering)

Chris Bramall (Stourbridge)

Sam Boote (Nottingham East)

Adam Carew (East Hampshire)

David Ord (North Tyneside)

25. Adrian Collet (Aldershot)

Gareth Epps (Reading East)

Chris Foote Wood (Middlesbrough)

John Dixon (Cardiff North)

Philip Eades (Poole)

30. Steven Lambert (Aylesbury)

Philip Latham (Stockton North)

Lynne Beaumont (Folkestone and Hythe)

Michael Mullaney (Bosworth)

Brendan D’Cruz (Castle Point)

35. Jamie Matthews (Pudsey)

Helen Flynn (Skipton and Ripon)

Edward Fordham (Hampstead and Kilburn)§

Alex Berhanu (Ilford North)

Richard Grayson (Hemel Hempstead)

40. Howard Keal (Thirsk and Malton)

Iarla Kilbane-Dawe (Edmonton)

Paula Keaveney (Garston and Halewood)

Steve Guy (Wycombe)

Rob Hylands (Gosport)

45. Martin Pierce (West Ham)

Tim McKay (Edinburgh South West)

Elizabeth Jewkes (City of Chester)

Daniel Roper (Broadland)

Stephen Glenn (Linlithgow and East Falkirk)

50. Chris Tucker (Slough)

Dave Raval (Hackney South and Shoreditch)

Margaret Rowley (Mid-Worcestershire)

Mike Willis (Loughborough)

Andrew Simpson (Northampton North)

55. Colin Ross (Wolverhampton North East)

Fiona Hornby (Devizes)

Paul Smith (Enfield North)

Tom Snowdon (Amber Valley)

Anna Pascoe (South West Devon)

60. Denis Healy (Hull North)

Tony Hill (Maidenhead)

Jane Lock (North Swindon)

Les Jones (Morecambe and Lunesdale)

Paul Brighton (Alyn and Deeside)

65. Ian Robertson (Rutherglen and Hamilton West)

David Harding-Price (Sleaford and North Hykeham)

David Rendel (Newbury)

John Loughton (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)

David Hall Matthews (Bradford West)

70. David Smith (Wakefield)

Jerry Evans (Birmingham Hall Green)

Carol Woods (City of Durham)

Denise Hawksworth (Bolsover)

Mark Blackburn (Westminster North)

75. Jonathan Bramall (Dudley South)

Jane Brophy (Altrincham and Sale West)

Peter Reisdorf (Wirral West)

Jill Wareham (Isle of Wight)

Jane Kulka (Reigate)

80. Paul Dixon (Sunderland Central)

Susan Gaszczak (Rayleigh and Wickford)

Sally FitzHarris (Kingswood)

Simon Partridge (Great Yarmouth)

David Rundle (Banbury)

85. Mike Collins (The Cotswolds)

Margaret Phelps (Witham)

Stephen Martin (North Warwickshire)

Graham Oakes (Exeter)

Nigel Jones (Newcastle under Lyme)

90. Trevor Carbin (South West Wiltshire)

Farooq Qureshi (Leyton and Wanstead)

John McClintock (Chatham and Aylesford)

Nigel Rock (Kinelworth and Southam)

Christian Vassie (York Central)

95. Linda Jack (Mid Bedfordshire)

Kevin Ward (Glasgow East)

James Monaghan (Morley and Outwood)

David Goodall (Southampton Itchen)

Joe Naitta (Derbyshire Dales)

100. Robin Lawrence (Wolverhampton South West)

Lucy Care (Derby North)

Richard Nixon (Brigg and Goole)

Sally McIntosh (Mid Derbyshire)

Alan Beddow (Warwick and Leamington)

*This post is purely my personal opinion, not that of the Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats.

§ (deleted) as was included originally in error. (updated 30 November 2010)

In a back and forth game, an extra 4:48 was needed for the Blugolds women’s hockey team to defeat their opponent Bethel University (Minn.) 3-2 Tuesday night in overtime.

The non-conference win improves the Blugold’s record to 3-2.

Senior Christine Dickinson scored the unassisted game winner and sent Bethel home with just 12 seconds remaining in the extra period while on the power play.

“We have a plan on the power play,” Dickinson said. “Just get the puck to the net and get the rebound. I was fortunate enough to get the goal.”

The team got into the overtime period in similar dramatic fashion. The team took a risk at the end of the third by pulling their goalie. Fortunately, that risk paid off as captain Kristin Faber was able to score a game-tying goal with just 43 seconds left.

Though the team was able to pull off the victory, head coach Mike Collins feels that they didn’t play terrifically throughout the game.

“Sometimes the body of work and the result don’t always match … (I’m) not thrilled with the effort for two-thirds of the game, but very happy with the result at the end.”

He thought they suffered from poor communication and bad movement.

Collins was pleased with how they fought back to tie the game in regulation and then win it in overtime. It showed character, he said.

Dickinson concurred with the game assessment that Collins gave.

“Let’s go back to the drawing board and hopefully work for a full 60 minutes instead of 25.”

Bethel had a myriad of great opportunities in the second period with several pucks sliding across the crease in front of the goalie and one shot that hit the bottom of the cross bar. However, they were only able to add one as time expired in the second period, which tied the game at 1-1.

The Blugolds scored that first goal with a nifty little flick by sophomore Emily Haluska that went right above the goalie’s head.

Overall, UW-Eau Claire outshot the Royals 25-22

Freshman Ally Derthick got her first start in net of her college career. She stopped 20 of 22 shots.

“Aly Derthick made a major difference tonight,” Collins said. “I thought she was probably our best player from start to finish.”

He said that the team is still feeling out who the number one goalie will be and hopes to have all three goalies get playing time this weekend.

Next weekend, the team hits the road for their first conference away matches against Marian University on Friday and Saturday. Friday’s game time is 7:00 p.m. and Saturday’s is 4:00 pm in Fond Du Lac.

Despite her thought that the team didn’t do as well as they could have, Dickinson feels that the team — specifically the defense — will make this season a good one.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty special year with the D that we have,” she said. “There’s always things we can work on, but I think we’re doing pretty well right now.”

I had no idea the article was about growth from the title.  The article started out:

Top line growth will require a different kind of plan that should be developed in parallel with any process improvement projects. If not, the company will get to the end of its lean journey with plenty of new capacity and no new sales.

This right on.  As a company improves and becomes more efficient, then space, people, and equipment start to free up.  A company practicing good lean thinking does not lay off people due to improvements.  The company asks the question, “What value added things can I do with the freed up equipment, space, and people?”

This is a growth question.  It allows the company to produce more product which will generate more revenue using the same amount of people, equipment, and space.

More from Mike:

Several years ago I was doing a seminar in Orlando on growth planning. The audience was comprised mostly of consultants who sold lean manufacturing and Six Sigma services to manufacturing companies. At the end of the seminar, I asked them what measurements they used to tell if their clients had become lean. They told me that they were lean if the manufacturing company had excess capacity for more sales.

I am a little worried that “Lean Consultants” had such a narrow definition of whether their clients were “lean” or not.  I really like Mike’s question back to them:

I then asked them: If they had created this excess capacity, how did they ensure there would be more sales?

Mike’s explanation of the importance of a growth strategy was a great one:

My response to these people is that a marketing plan should be part of the CI process. Increasing top line sales and overall growth are not going to automatically happen because you are Six Sigma certified. Top line growth will require a different kind of plan that should be developed in parallel with any process improvement projects. If not, the company will get to the end of its lean journey with plenty of new capacity and no new sales.

I couldn’t agree more with Mike’s view on this.  Improvement and growth should be thought of in parallel.  That is what I talk about with the facilities I am working with.  The improvement part is fantastic, but now what are you going to do with the freed up people, space, and equipment?

I don’t know Mike’s understanding of lean, but when he mentions coming to the end of the lean journey.  I think he is referring to becoming efficient but having nothing to do with the freed up people, space, and equipment.  So now where does the company go?

Mike comes from a perspective of wanting to save American manufacturing.  The rest of the article goes on to explain some growth strategies.

It was a very good article.  The title does not convey the true message and makes me wonder if the person writing the title knew that Lean is about growth.

-Peace

Here’s an Original Doctor Who Pen & Ink page by the fine artists Mike Collins (Pencils) & David A Roach (Inks).

Mike Collins & David Roach did the Original Pen & Ink Artwork for various issues of the DOCTOR WHO Magazine.

This  Full Page original piece of art from the story ” The Betrothal of Sontar ” appeared in print form in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 366 published 1 March 2006 with David Tennant as the tenth Doctor (the page appeared in colour & James Offredi was the colorist).

Magnificent Pen & Ink Art.

This Original Board is in excellent condition.

Size:  12 x 16 inches (30cm x 41cm).

“Educate Yourself”

Now for you readers that are getting started, or even been wholesaling/investing for some time, by reading this post you are already on the right track. Each day you want to educate yourself.

- It’s Gut check Time!

“Knowledge is Power’ and as cliche of a statement that is, it is as true now, as it was the 1st time it was ever muttered. Ignorance(a state of being uninformed) is not an excuse for failure, but will take you down that road fast!

There are a few elements in wholesaling and investing that you need to address and work on daily.

1. Networking – A successful man/women has a successful network, so work on this daily and reach out to people in your area and industry that are doing what you want to do, and align yourself with these people. Ask them questions, and listen to there advice.
2. Resources – This can be anything from Cash Buyers, to Private Money Partners, to even hard money. Find it and grow your list of resources for funding your deals.
3. Negotiation – If you can’t do this, you will not be successful… period! Don’t be discouraged if your not some negotiating ninja, you just need to educate yourself, and practice, we all have to start somewhere. Go to borders, barns & noble, amazon wherever and pick up this book by Herb Cohen called “You Can Negotiate Anything” it will help, I Promise. Negotiation is a skill that needs to be worked on. You must have a strategy in every negotiation in order to get what you want out of the situation.
4. Organization – Without systems of tracking things, and recording information you will fail, I like to create spreadsheets in excel to keep track of everything.
5. Prioritize – Certain tasks must take priority over others, because of time-lines, deadline, and promised response times. Don’t waste your time doing things that will minimize you efficiency. And always due what you say you are going to do, follow up calls ect. You got a rep on the line, remember that you will be know as a one that gets things done, or the chump that doesn’t.
6. Reading – Reading blog post like this are great ways to get inspiration, and find information, but take things to another level, and find books that pertain to Business, Negotiation, Marketing, ect. This way you are not only staying sharp and on the cutting edge. But you will have inspired strategies to implement into the growth of your business.

These are just a few things to consider, and should be worked on daily in your pursuit of financial freedom. Educate your self in these areas of your business daily, these are tools you need to have that would be important in any business, not just real-estate, and will help you on your path to success.

- Sam

p.s. For Questions or comments, hit me up!

Gurus and other people that I have spoke with that have been wholesaling/investing for years typically don’t have one, and respectively don’t need one.  They will even discourage the thought of it, why? Because they are already Rich! They are already established, they get referral business, and have a solid network that solidifies there business in there market. They have mastered there niche and marketing strategies, and have systems in place for doing those things necessary, and have employees they pay to carry out those tasks. As a newbie, how do you compete with that.

The bottom line is that the game has changed, and in order to compete in today’s market you need to be well equipped, to the best of your abilities,  and I mean having the access to all pertinent tools, and the ability to MONETIZE(notice the caps) every lead you get, especially when you are getting started and cant afford to spin your wheels too much. Now some might tell you to find  a Realtor to work with, well if you read the begging of this post then you will realize my own personal frustration with incompetent agents, and I can promise you there are a ton of stupid ones in your area as well.

So here are a few reasons Why you should get one.

Reason #1

As a Wholesaler, your primary objective, is to find Motivated sellers, and put their properties under contract for pennies on the dollar. As an Agent you have the ability to work with the largest motivated seller in the country! THE BANK! You can utilize your buyers list and market your listings to those buyers… Plus you have more time! And trust me if you are an active wholesaler like myself, you now how time, and I am talking about your contingency period in your contract, which is typically 10-14 days can sometimes not be enough time to get that property flipped. The reasons so are a mile long; from the availability to show the property to your investors, too the seller lives out of town, ect. So that can be beneficial.

Reason #2 Generating Leads

This is important to growing any business, if you build a solid reputation with the bank for moving units and helping them recoup quickly because your the guy/girl that gets it done, they will keep plugging you with deals, FOR FREE!

Reason #3 Marketing

I don’t know what kind of response you are getting from your direct mail campaigns but, I would say approximately 60% of our responses are people who are under water, and needing to preform a short sale on their property. That is more then half of the responses we get, meaning we need to work with an agent, because only a licensed Real-Estate agent can preform a short sale. And just so you know it is illegal, at least in California, for a Licensed agent to pay any non-licensed person, involved in a real-estate transaction.

Reason #4 Sellers that want Fair-Market Value

Now some people want Fair-Market Value for their property, and because of the condition of the property, and location they could get it. That’s great if your an agent, it sucks if you are wholesaler. And trust me you will run into that situation more than once. Not everyone that owns rental property needs money so desperately that they will whore off there house to get a few dollars. So what do you do pass it to the idiot that didn’t know what you where doing in the 1st place?  Do you just toss the lead because YOU can’t do anything? Just so you know if you were to list a house for $200,000 and have a buy/sell commish set with the principal(seller) @ 6 %($12,000) if you simply list the house and a buying agent comes in with a buyer. You split the commish 3%($6,000) a piece and after paying your broker probably walk with a little over $4,000 in your pocket.

It’s your decision, these are just a few examples of why we are doing it, I am tired of watching money walk away, and I want to be able to maximize the amount of money I am able to make from real-estate, in all aspects. The end product I think we all want, is to be the investor, and you have to make alot of money to do that. Wholesaling is a great way to generate huge profits, I will not have to stop wholesaling because I get my Real-Estate License; I just have to disclose to everyone involved that I am Licensed Real-Estate agent.

Money isn’t everything, it is just the one thing in between us and all of the the things we want, need, and desire. To become a millionaire now a days is to be more financially sound than most, but to become a BILLIONAIRE. You would be part of the most elite group of people in the world, creating generations of wealth. Personally I want to be like an African-American Donald Trump, but not everyone would like to be that notorious. So to become a billionaire how many houses would you have to wholesale??? At an average of $10,000 profit per house it would take you 100,000 homes wholesaled to reach that mark. Now alot of these wholesaling guru’s out there are quote end quote flipping 200-300 homes a year (which is alot), so at that pace it would take like 500 years! Ouch. I think it’s possible, you are just going to have to do alot more than wholesale houses, your going to have to wholesale jumbo jets and million dollar estates as well!!! lol!

While we are on the topic of becoming a Billionaire, below is this song I am really feelin right now by  Travis McCoy feat. Bruno Mars It is just a little motivation, check it out and pardon the French!

P.$. What would you do with a $1,000,000,000?!?!?!

- Peace

- Peace

Our Whole$ale tip this week is regarding “Bandit Signs” and how important they are to your business. Depending on your market you should have seen a number of these plastic, wooden, or cardboard signs on telephone polls in your area. The Reason why people use these signs is because they work, and our effective for finding what are all looking for, Motivated Sellers! Now If you have read any of our previous posts then you now that bandit signs have been essential to our business, and making us money ever since we could afford to buy them. Bandit signs can be very inexpensive, I mean as little as $1.00 per sign. Now the old saying is true you get what you pay for, a dollar bandit will typically be a plain white piece of corrugated plastic, and you will have to get some sharpies and write on it yourself. This can be very time consuming and depending on the legibility of you writing many not look so hot. When we were getting started that $1.00 bandit sign was a heaven send, it brought us a huge wholesale that after fee’s and everything net us $17,500. If you are balling on a budget like most of us, this is a good solution for getting started. A more open budget can afford you a custom printed sign that will save you a tremendous amount of time. So here are some Photos of signs past and present that we have used and our currently using.

http://www.supercheapsigns.com is where to go and get them. All white plain sign will cost you a dollar per sign, the more elaborate custom printed ones will run you around $2 per sign.  Whatever it takes you to get these signs get them, plus be consistent, there are a bunch of wannabes where I live that come and go, I mean in the past 6 months they already quit putting them up, and I know it wasn’t because they had too much business, and we just got another deal from our signs this last week.  That’s great for us but don’t be like them, don’t quit!

P.$. Sizes Does Matter! we buy 18″x24″ signs

-Peace

This was Gen. 1 lol they worked!

This was Gen.2

These are the latest and greatest!