I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t, and die to find out there is!


Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A Review of "Historic Photos of the Chinese in California"

******************************************************************************
Text and Captions by Hannah Clayborn – Copyright (c) 2009 – Turner Publishing Company, Nashville, TN 37219
******************************************************************************

The book "Historic Photos of the Chinese in California" recently came into my possession. It looked like the standard coffee table book of photos. However, there was something about the picture on the cover that caused me to examine it carefully. I was then compelled to turn it over and look at the nine photos reproduced on the back cover. Each one commanded a bit of my time to study it fully. I was drawn to each photo.

I found the same thing happened when I opened the book. I was not able to put it down and, in fact went completely through it twice, and no doubt will visit it again.

Being a California native, I have a modicum of knowledge about how the Chinese fit into the development of California. I think most of us know there was a significant Chinese contribution to the establishment of the railroads, at least in the west, but the enormous offering made to railroad construction overshadowed some of their other contributions to California. Having lived in northern California, I was also aware of the hundreds of miles of rock walls built by the Chinese as fences for the ranchers marking the boundaries of their lands. Beyond that, I knew very little of California Chinese history.

Hannah Clayborn has done a stellar job of bringing some of the other Chinese contributions to light by way of an excellent photographic journal, combined with on-target comments and captions. Like many others, the Chinese were attracted to California in part as a result of the Gold Rush. However, because they were unable to own land or file gold claims they mostly ended up working for others for very low laborer’s wages. Their dreams of riches by way of gold were pretty much wiped away.

In 1850 there were 25,000 Chinese in California as recorded in California’s 1852 census. Many left the gold fields to seek employment and income elsewhere. As Chinese women were somewhat restricted from immigrating, this was a largely male population and a very able work force. By 1870 Chinese made up ten percent of California’s population, but accounted for almost 25 percent of the unskilled labor force. Chinese laborers were active in farming, fishing, sharecropping resulting in vegetable sales and other menial labor-intensive tasks as well as working the gold fields. In addition they proved to be very adept as cooks and shopkeepers.

While I am able to relay a bit of Chinese history here, I want to credit Hannah Clayborn, as this book is the only reference I used as a source of information. If you have found what I have written interesting, I must tell you it pales in comparison to Hannah’s book. The book "Historic Photos of the Chinese in California" is a must see. From beginning to end, with hundreds of photos and comments, the history unfolds. If you are at all like me you will be spellbound.

I understand this review may seem more like a promotional piece for the book rather than an objective review, but there was just no other way I could write it. This book is an exciting piece of work.


Be blessed,
Wayne

Love all – Trust some – Harm none

Link to me at: www.LinkedIn.com/in/wcweeks
Follow me at: http://twitter.com/wcweeks
Be a friend at: http://www.facebook.com/

.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Scams are Rampant in the Foreclosure Prevention / Loan Modification Business.

===========================================================
No doubt you know by now that there are a lot of low-life scammers out there who are looking to take advantage of homeowners who are at risk of losing their homes via foreclosure. It is really a shame but it seems that mankind will always try to take advantage of others when they are down on their luck or facing trouble. It’s really the opposite of what it should be.

There are several types of scams you should be on the lookout for. One that is fairly common is where the scammer offers to make you a new loan. However, in that large stack of documents you are asked to sign is a document actually transferring the ownership of your home to the person or company. Don’t sign any documents unless you know exactly what they are. Don’t take anyone’s word for what they are except a trusted advisor or your attorney. Don’t let this be an attorney the scammer has referred you to.

Another common scam is the person or company who is coming to your rescue. They profess to take over all communication and negotiations with your lender or loan servicer. Typically, they will want a fairly large fee up front, and often an additional smaller fee when a successful agreement is reached. You may be instructed to not talk with your lender yourself as you may just get in the way of the negotiation process. Often, once the scammer has received your fee they do nothing. They don’t even contact the lender but because you have been instructed to not discuss your loan with the lender yourself, you won’t know they are doing nothing until some time further down the road. Now you are in a worse position because you are further delinquent and also out the money paid the scammer.

One of the newer schemes that is growing in popularity is attorneys who offer to file a lawsuit against your mortgage lender or servicer to stop the foreclosure process. The lawsuits are filed on the basis of an error in the loan documents causing a RESPA or TILA violation or filed on the basis that no legal promissory note exists. Often because of the loans being sold in the secondary market, no one knows where the note is. I am not suggesting that attorneys going down either of these avenues are working a scam. I would think they are not, at least the vast majority are not. They are providing a legitimate legal service. What I have seen though is that the cost to the homeowner for this legal service is very steep.

There are also many legitimate Loan Modification and Foreclosure Prevention firms in business that will provide an honest service to homeowners in trouble. The issue is how do you find a good one among so many dishonest ones? And if you do find one, they are normally very expensive, but at least you will get something for your money.

If you should decide to hire a firm to help you, be sure and do your homework. Check with the Better Business Bureau and licensing agencies. This is one of those times where a referral from someone you trust has real value.

Don’t forget that the federal government is now offering some help to homeowners in jeopardy of losing their homes. You might want to consider starting with HUD who offers a state-by-state listing of counselors who are approved by the housing department and offer their services free or at a low cost.


Be blessed,
Wayne

Love all – Trust some – Harm none

Link to me at: www.LinkedIn.com/in/wcweeks
Follow me at: http://twitter.com/wcweeks
Be a friend at: www.Facebook.com

.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Staying in Twitter’s Good Graces While Building Followers Fast

***********************************************************************
If you are fairly new to Twitter, there are probably some things about it you don’t yet know, but that you need to know. Where Twitter is concerned ignorance is NOT bliss. In fact, break a rule or two and you can get your Twitter account suspended. I have not personally experienced this, but have seen many suspended accounts in a few short months of tweeting. Just from that casual observation I can tell you I don’t want to experience it!

OK… so your Twitter account is open and you have a few followers but you would like to have a lot more. As you look around on Twitter you see people with thousands of followers. In fact, about mid-month April 2009, one Ashton Kutcher became the first member of Twitter to have over one million followers. How did he do that? I haven’t a clue, but how to get one million followers is not what this article is about. I just wanted to point out that having a lot of followers is possible, if you do it right.

There are some guidelines at Twitter that you will need to observe. The first one is to realize that Twitter forces you to start slow. You need to try to balance your followers with those you are following. I’m not talking about the need to follow who is following you, but that the number of followers and those you are following stay fairly close. This is most important while those following you total less than 2000. Until you get to that number you will not normally be able to follow more than 2000 yourself.

Start by following people you know. Follow all of them as they are likely to follow you back. Then start to add others, that you don’t know, but might like to know. You can use Twitter’s search feature to find people with interests similar to yours. Follow them, but don’t follow too many each day. You will probably be ok to follow 50 new each day, or 10% above the number of your followers, whichever is larger. Once you get past the 2000 block imposed by Twitter you will be able to step this up a bit, but in any event you probably won’t want to follow more than 15% above the number of people following you. Twitter has some sort of stop in place, but they don’t let that out. Let’s assume you get to 5000 followers. That means you can follow around 5750. Since about 1/3 of the new people you follow will follow you back, that means of the 750 above 5000 about 250 will follow you back. Having a few over 10,000 following me, I am following a little over 11,000

I don’t use any sort of qualifying to select who I will follow, except I follow people following interesting people. I make the assumption there will be common ground. I try and follow all the new people I am going to follow on Friday, and stop following all who are not following me back each Thursday. That way I am covering the weekend users and giving the weekday users several days to follow me back.

OK… time for some personal bias. I don’t follow anyone who does not have a picture posted to their Twitter profile. It does not necessarily have to be a picture of them, but there must be some picture posted. My reasoning here is that if they won’t even take the time to put up a picture, they probably are not serious about Twitter and probably won’t be around very long. Most of the time I won’t follow those who don’t have a person’s name. I like to avoid the strange ones out there. I also won’t follow any one with evidence of any sexual overtones. If I see any profanity in their posts I immediately un-follow. I don’t follow anyone with any sort of title in their name line, especially Dr. or PHD. The reason is simple… my experience has been that they don’t follow back.

All you really need to do is set a regular somewhat conservative routine of following and un-following and you will be into the big numbers before you know it. Happy Tweeting!


If you want a lot of Twitter followers fast, check this out: http://bit.ly/sOlA1


Be blessed,
Wayne

Love all – Trust some – Harm none
http://www.capstone-ministries.org/

.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: All products and/or services advertised/promoted on this blog are either owned by myself, or I am an affiliate marketer for. Should you make a purchase I MAY EARN A COMMISSION or receive revenue. Don't let that stop you.