#trabalho

#malremunerado

#lembranças

Alguns anos atrás,não numa galáxia muito distante,no mesmo continente lavava calcinhas de madrugada depois de 12…ou enfim,algumas horas trabalhando.

Cuidado com as empresas de intercâmbio!Você pode acabar lavando calcinhas de madrugada na Terra do Mickey Mouse.

#fikadica

My title is in reference to my last post, when I mentioned rain. It is funny how things like that work, not seeing something happen for awhile and then it happening conveniently when you ask for it. It’s almost as if God dropped it solely because I asked, and I can’t complain if that were the case. These last days have been filled quite nicely with productivity.

Online classes began this week and I have maintained a positive outlook on them and made sure to stay ahead in both classes. Along with classes being online, I have my whole day freed up to allow myself to do whatever I please. I make it sound so heavenly, but it isn’t being abused. I spent roughly an hour yesterday at the Winter Park Court House so that I could void one of my two “traffic citations.” Going to something like this is never a convenience for anyone and no one here looked happy. Sometime you just have to pick yourself up and demand that you go and get it out of the way. Now that I have done that, I am glad I can look on and forget.

On a different note, I made my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich with added Whopper candy bites. We had some extra Whoppers lying around and I thought to myself what better way to get them out of the way, but still be used. The sandwich was quite delicious, as expected. What I didn’t expect was how quickly my body tore that sandwich apart, used what it needed, and disposed of it. I found myself driving home and speeding so I could make it to the toilet. Needless to say the sandwich was worth all I went through.

Lastly, I felt compelled to get on my bike and ride today, despite the drizzle. The rain had stopped for the most part, sporadic raindrops here and there, and so I went to rode around the surrounding neighborhood that I lived in. On the ride, I discovered very nicely built houses and several ponds/lakes that were surrounded by these houses. I stopped to sit at a bench and have a talk with the big man upstairs. He has been good to me, all my life, and more specifically these past two months that I’ve lived.

I hope everyone has the opportunity to an incredible Thanksgiving Day that can be spent with friends, family, and loved ones. I made the decision to stay here in Orlando for this holiday and hope that my family back in Oklahoma has a great time . So many babies have come into this world and into the Friend family these past few years, it’s incredible! Be thankful for that which you don’t think of on a daily basis and know that everyone is blessed and that there is more to be thankful for than one can imagine.

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It’s Thanksgiving time!
A time for giving thanks for the blessings in our lives. Since this is a Commercial Real Estate (CRE) blog, I will focus my thanks on that and save the personal stuff for the dinner table Thursday night. So let me share a little bit of what I’m thankful for in the CRE industry as if you own or occupy space, this relates to you too.

I’m thankful for:

• Making it through the 2008 banking meltdown.
o I compare 2008 to someone shaking up a snow globe on the financial markets. That in turn effected every aspect of real estate. Lenders, owners & brokers couldn’t tell you which direction was up and everything froze.

• Surviving the 2009 market correction and bottoming out of CRE values.
o Values dropped like a stone all year as capital for purchases was/is non-existent and job losses mounted at a record pace. Some positive economic indicators are starting to spike which shows us that we have hopefully bottomed out.

• A 2010 recovery.
o Although it will be a long slow road, it is already starting to happen. Small businesses are starting to show signs of life & banks are slowly starting to sell off their toxic assets. With bad debt gone, they should be able to start lending again. Time heals all wounds.

• Our team of Advisors & staff at SVN/Paradigm.
o Like Thanksgiving Day we will all likely thank our family for supporting us through the good times and the not so good times. If any of you reading this have ever been to an SVN function or even to our office, you’ll see that we are a (growing) family. I am blessed to be surrounded by such a professional, well educated, morally centric and caring group of people.

In closing, I would like to also say thank you to our clients, colleagues, friends and a special thank you to OUR TROOPS who continue to fight for our liberties everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas & have a Happy New Year,

Miguel de Arcos
Managing Director

Florida, we’re coming!! Don’t go anywhere!!

Its the busiest travel day of the year, and we’re sitting in Minneapolis-St Paul Airport waiting to board our airborne chariot to sunny (rainy?) Florida; by way of Memphis. And what makes me the happiest about our travels on this day?

We don’t have to go thru Atlanta.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Atlanta airport, but it is the absolute last place on this planet that I want to be today. Instead, we get the pleasure of traveling through Memphis, which I came to love the last time I flew. Its nice, clean, well-organized and not Atlanta on the busiest travel day of the year.

Today is also the first time Kara and I have actually flown together. Every time either of us has flown since we met, its been to visit each other; not go somewhere together. Its a strange feeling, but nice at the same time. Flying is fun, so how do you make it more fun?

Fly with your significant other!

We can’t wait to get to Florida. Sun, 70’s, friends, family, rollercoasters and food food food.

Oh, and a pretty big football game on Saturday.

See you all in the Sunshine State!

We're Going to Disney World!...maybe.

Less than two weeks until we learn where we’re going to watch NU try to notch a bowl win for the first time in six decades.  We know it will be warm.  We know it will be a former Spanish territory.

But we need a more in depth geographical understanding to shape our appreciation of where we might be spending our Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/Winter Solstice money.

So without further ado – help me welcome back John C. Hudson and Across This Land to help us get to know Orlando, the host city of the Champs Sports Bowl:

/Old-man throat clearing noise

Regional impacts of growth booms have alternated back and forth across Florida in recent decades….The construction of the Disney World theme park near Orlando started a boom that led to a doubling of population in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. Since the late 1980s, the Orlando region has become the state’s most attractive tourist destination.

According to most projections this is the most likely spot for Fitz’s crew to end up this bowl season.

Upside:

• Plenty of things for visitors to do (when we’re not watching the game).

• For a month you can shout to everyone you know, “I’M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!”

Downside:

• You have to dress like this.

But will this dinosaur place survive?

An underwater themed bar complete with a moving, animatronic octopus overhead

But I was there to eat. One step inside and I felt like a kid– Let me jump on that dino’s neck! It was a correct guess that the owners of T-Rex are also the masterminds behind the Rainforest Cafe. Because of how many families had been lured inside, Dong and I received a small tour of the place as we went to a table near the back. Along the way I could see that the large dining space was divided by themes. The bar was neon blue and had a large octopus hanging above with tentacles that twitched. Near the kitchen were brown boulders and faux fire raging above. There was a jungle… then I saw an ice cavern that glowed.

“Ice! Ice! Ice!” I yelled, grabbed my Chinese man, and pointed. And luck emerged as our hostess seated us there. The ice cavern surrounded our table and even extended above our heads. A soft blue light glowed beneath each ice surface that softly changed colors. However cool that sounds, it got annoying as the hour went by– especially when our food came. I don’t like seeing my food reflect different colors. And being the same creators behind the Rainforest Cafe, naturally, there had to be a show every 20 minutes. In this prehistoric version, no gorillas and elephants sang. Rather, a meteor shower began in the boulder room, the dinosaurs would freak out, and our ice cavern would start rapidly changing colors. Very amusing, but hard to stomach if you sat in our area.

The food? How can a T-Rex restaurant not have something called a “Jurassic Burger?” (Lol) On the other hand, there were enough cutesy dino names in the menu… but nothing cutesy about the price. Come on, this is Downtown Disney after all. Entrees were $12 – 25. I took a fish sandwich that was slightly dry, but the fries were surprisingly juicy and crispy. Dong’s mahi mahi platter with rice tasted much better– moist and seasoned right. I decided to add on a tropical cotton-tini. I wondered how a martini could be made with cotton candy, but then our waitress showed up with a martini glass stuffed with a large cotton candy. Then she shook up my drink, and I watched as the cotton candy magically disolved in my alcohol. Anything with that much sugar had to be yummy– and it was. And I got to keep the shaker!

T-Rex will survive. Any restaurant located near Disney with life-size versions of kids’ toys is bound to do good. Will I return? Not unless I take out my college tuition and use it for food. Then again, it’s not like there’s any food place located within 10 miles of the theme parks with cheaper prices. But I definitely recommend stepping inside, if only to jump on a dino’s neck and watch a meteor shower crash into an ice cave.

1. Splash Mountain: Take a flume ride adventure aboard a hollowed-out log through swamps and bayous within an 87-foot-high mountain as you enjoy the crazy antics of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear from Disney’s 1946 classic movie Song of the South. Along the way, prepare to get soaked as you plunge five free-falling stories at a 45-degree angle into a watery oasis at 40 miles per hour!

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Cruise through secret caves, witness exciting sea battles and view a bustling Caribbean island town that has become overrun with a host of unruly audio-animatronic pirates.

3. Haunted Mansion: Take an approximately eight-minute-long ride in a “Doom Buggy” through the Haunted Mansion courtesy of a state-of-the-art Omnimover ride system, along with some great special effects and amazing audio-animatronics.

4. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: One of Frontierland’s most popular attractions, this thrilling roller coaster (in the form of a runaway train) twists and turns its way through an Old West mining town with loads of surprises along the way.

5. Space Mountain: Blast off into the darkness of outer space as you twist and turn, shooting past stars and satellites during the classic Space Mountain indoor roller coaster ride!

6. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin: Join Buzz Lightyear as a “Junior Space Ranger” and help pilot your Star Cruiser through the galaxy – zapping aliens along the way.

7. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Visit Pooh and all of his friends – including Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, Rabbit, Baby Roo and Owl – and join them on a fun-filled adventure through the Hundred-Acre Wood

8. Jungle Cruise: The approximately 10-minute cruise features a hilarious narrated river tour through various jungle scenarios in three continents: the Nile in Africa, the Mekong in Asia and the Amazon in South America.

9. It’s A Small World: Take a leisurely boat ride that magically transports you through the countries of the world as hundreds of international dolls sing and dance to the favorite childhood song.

10. Hall of Presidents: The attraction begins with a short patriotic film that traces the history of the United States Constitution and early presidential milestones, and ends with a stage full of life-size, audio-animatronic figures of each of the 43 U.S. presidents.

Seeking great deals on spacious and comfortable accommodations that provide convenient access to Walt Disney World Resort? Look no farther than Westgate Resorts! For more information about Westgate Resorts, visit www.westgatedestinations.com.

Aqui encontrará información muy importante de los malls y outlets que estarán abiertos el Viernes Negro en Orlando.

El Orlando Fashion Square Mall  abrirá a las 5 am.  Los primeros 1.000 compradores recibirán bolsas de compras especiales. Habrá refrescos gratis y regalos.

El Orlando Premium Outlets abrirá a la medianoche del Viernes Negro, aunque algunas tiendas abrirán un par de horas antes en la noche del Día de  Acción de Gracias. El outlet center abrirá hasta las 11pm  de ese Viernes. El Sábado 28 de Noviembre estará abierto de 8am a 11pm y Domingo 29 de Noviembre de 9am a 9pm.

El Seminole Towne Center en Sanford  abrirá a las 5 am del Viernes Negro, y los primeros 100 compradores recibirán obsequios en la entrada del food court. Eso incluirá cupones para diversas tiendas, una tarjeta de regalo de $ 5 para Panera y un cupón para reclamar un sandwich gratis en Chick-fil-A.

La mayoría de las tiendas en el Winter Garden Village en Fowler Groves abrirán a las 6 am.

Florida Mall abrirá a las 5 am – pero la Disney Store abrirá a la medianoche.

Mientras tanto, la gente no tendrá que madrugar tanto para ir de compras al lujoso y  sofisticado Mall at Millenia. Abrirá sus puertas a las 7 a.m. el Viernes Negro.

Orlando, Florida Guide, la guía más completa en línea de Orlando, le ofrece información  de tiquetes a Disney World, tiquetes a Universal Orlando, y tiquetes a Sea World Orlando.