In case you're not familiar with Heroes (the first series ends in the UK with a double bill on Wednesday, so it's going to be one of those switch-the-phones-off-and-don't-even-think-of-answering-the-door occasions here), there's a character called Peter Petrelli who finds he automatically takes on the characteristics of those around him – and as most of those around him have special powers, he has some very strange experiences.
The close of this week's episode had him standing right next to a man who spontaneously produces radiation – and, sure enough, Peter's hands began to glow, and he became convinced that he's the person who's about to unleash a nuclear explosion on New York (yes, I know that if you've not been watching it that sounds ridiculous, but in the context of the drama it's believable. Honestly.).
Each episode comes equipped with its own special little behind-the-scenes interviews and snippets, and there was one earlier in the series that really appealed to me. Someone remarked that Peter Petrelli is one of the most important people in the show.
"He's a kind of Everyman," he said. "The audience can identify with him."
I think that's probably quite true... because whether most people realize it or not, everyone has a bit of the Petrelli character within them.
However much you might like the other characters, it's a bit hard to imagine how it feels to walk through solid walls, or melt metal objects when you look at them (though Micah's ability to mend malfunctioning appliances just by touching them could be very useful!), but we all share Peter Petrelli's experience every day.
The truth is that every one of us is unconsciously affected by the behavior and attitudes of those around us – and unless we're aware of what's happening and determined to prevent it, they can really drag us down.
If the person you're talking to is upbeat, with a positive attitude and a lot of energy, it's inspirational – but that's generally not the case. A lot of people seem to see the negative side of everything,.. and to do their best to make sure that's all you can see, as well.
There are even some who do it so regularly (and so effectively!) that your heart sinks at the very sight of them. Your inner mind reminds you of all the miserable things they've said before, and your good mood evaporates before they've said a word.
What can you do about it? Conventional wisdom says you should avoid them, but that's rarely practical. The reason why they've depressed you so many times already is usually because you can't avoid them – they're family members, work colleagues, or someone else you haven't really any choice but interact with.
The only thing that you can do is become mentally stronger than they are. Just as when two pebbles are thrown into a pond at the same time, the ripples from the one that's made the bigger splash will overcome the ripples from the other, you have to make your own positive attitude so strong that nothing can disturb it.
If you stay focused on the things that make you feel good, you can prevent yourself from being affected by anything the other person says.
Make no mistake about it, if someone who's habitually miserable doesn't see the tell-tale signs that they're depressing you, they're unlikely to cheer up and start laughing with you. They're more likely to try still harder to destroy your cheerful mood, or even make you lose your temper.
Don't let them succeed. Letting yourself be provoked is of no help to anyone. It just demotivates you, saps your energy, wrecks your concentration and makes entirely sure you won't achieve a thing all day. It isn't worth it.
The best antidote to the poison of other people's negativity is a powerful sense of purpose. If you can keep your own mind firmly on the things you're planning to achieve, it will be easier to endure the grumbling till you can reasonably get away from it.
If you find this difficult, the audio track you get as part of the Supreme Success package can help you raise your mind above the level of petty irritations and promote a feeling of serenity and calm that will re-energize and motivate you.
You can check it out here.
Friday, November 30, 2007
The Petrelli Factor
Thursday, November 29, 2007
What to Expect at the Closing Table
I'll be closing on my home next month and, I think, I have everything under control. But I'm still getting anxious about the whole deal. So, what am I anxious about ?
- Buying a house. The biggest investment I have ever made.
- 20% down payment. A very large chunk of my savings is going to vanish from savings account.
- The closing table, where there will be attorneys, Realtor, builder etc. who have done this quite a few times.
So I thought I'll get some more information about the whole closing process and what really happens at the closing table.
(Motley Fool Information)
Who will be present?
You, the buyer, will be present, along with your team, which likely includes your real estate agent and your settlement attorney. If you have an especially amiable and service-oriented mortgage broker, he may be there on your behalf as well, though that is unlikely.
On the other side of the table will be the seller(s), the seller's agent, and possibly an attorney for their team.
When the referee blows the whistle, the ball will be tossed straight up into the air. Generally, the tallest person on your team will want to do the jumping.
No, wait! That's something else. Never mind.
How long will this take?
This depends on how smoothly things go. It's likely to take about one hour for you to sign all the paperwork. (This is another reason that you do not want to go into something like this without some help. If you've bought the house without a real estate agent, you definitely want a good settlement attorney to be with you before and during closing.)
You're probably working with an agent, so she will be of help here. You'll need to have in hand your new home owner's insurance policy, showing that you have, indeed, insured the house, and a cashiers check.
The settlement sheet is a document which lists all of the closing costs and the particulars of your loan. If you'd like a preview of a settlement sheet, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has conveniently put one online. You'll find it by clicking here (and you'll need the Adobe Acrobat reader, available free online, to view it.)
The Passing of the Baton
The seller is advised not to cancel home owner's insurance until recordation has occurred, which is to say, the sale of the house has officially been recorded at city hall. This usually takes place within 24 hours of the sale.
The buyer, meanwhile, is advised that he should have his homeowners policy activated immediately (but you already arranged this, didn't you?) and he "takes possession" upon the completion of closing. What does "take possession" mean? It means the house is yours. It means that, after you've signed all these documents, the seller (or someone from the seller's team) is going to place the keys to the house in your hands.
At this point, the seller (or builder, if it's a new house) gives you whatever package of information he may have on equipment at the house. This includes things like the instruction booklet for the washing machine; information on how that timer-light above the front door works; how you re-code the automatic garage door opener; how-to manuals for the refrigerator and the food disposal. You get the idea -- everything you need to work and service and understand all of the major appliances of the house.
The good news is that an overwhelming majority of closings occur without a problem.
However, be sure to take the responsibility to examine the paperwork and examine it well. Ask whomever is handling the closing to explain it to you. You should be as prepared as possible for this transaction. Now is not the time to be shy or afraid of "looking stupid" by asking a question.Related Links
Buying a New Construction Home: Do I need a Realtor ?
Mortgage Escrow: To Do Or Not To Do
Save Money on Home owner's Insurance
Features that "DECREASE" the resale value of your home
Features that add "Resale Value" to a Home
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Squid... Who?
I've a confession to make - I've only just now made my first lens on Squidoo.
Till now I've kept away from social networking sites on principle, because I believed they were just that - social. It's not that I don't like being social, but there are more than enough distractions when you work online, and I'd heard all sorts of tales of how much time people can spend exploring them, so I thought I was being very virtuous in keeping well away.
Well, now I've found a perfect excuse. One of the very few people whose advice on Internet marketing I actually trust sent me an e-mail recently that gently told me off for having so far failed to recognize how good a social network site can be for getting your message out to the world.
(His name's Paul Myers, by the way, and if you have any interest whatsoever in marketing online his TalkBiz News e-zine is the place to be.)
So, I checked out networking... and found myself lens-building on Squidoo.
In case there's anyone else who hasn't tried this, it's great fun. A lens is just another name for a web page that's actually hosted on Squidoo itself. You start off with a template and add the modules that you want to use - and the words you want to say.
You can make as many lenses as there are subjects that you have an interest in, and you can link them all together so that in effect you have an extra website.
You can make a lens for pleasure or for profit, to raise awareness or to highlight a good cause. You can link it to your website. You can link it to your blog. You can link it up with Amazon, or show a video from YouTube. You can use it to get traffic - you can use it to make friends.
The folks at Squidoo even give you loads of advice on how to set it up to get the best results from it, and free tools to help you to promote it.
Well, my first lens is now up there with the others. It's about success, of course - what it really is, why it's so important to you, the process that you need to follow to achieve it, and the skills you need to make Supreme Success your own. If you'd like to take a look, it's at http://www.squidoo.com/supreme-success/ - hope you enjoy it.
Making Squidoo lenses is addictive. I'm looking forward very much to making more of them... and, of course, I can always tell myself I'm really working.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Pounding The Punch-Bag
Staff at the UK's Department of Revenue and Customs (the equivalent of the IRS - the tax people) are reportedly stressed-out.
This isn't only because their work doesn't make them popular with the public. It isn't even just because they believe they're overworked and underpaid - although they do, and they very likely are.
It's because they're being blamed for personal information on 25.4 million people in the UK going missing.
The Government has blamed the junior member of staff who sent the CDs with the information to another Government Department, which insists it never got them.
Others claim the transfer was sanctioned by senior officers, who allegedly refused to take out sensitive information that didn't need be sent, or even to encrypt it, because doing so would cost too much.
Either way, the missing information includes things like names addresses, dates of birth, and full bank details - an ID thief's version of Aladdin's Cave.
What's more, it also has the name and date of birth of every child under 16 in the entire country - surely a paedophile's idea of Paradise.
One Government Minister has written to the parents of those children, reassuring them that the information is probably just misplaced somewhere in the offices of one or other of the Government Departments involved.
Granted, that would be far better that it being in the hands of criminals - but what does it tell you about the way that Government Departments are run if something that important to so many people can just drop out of sight?
Even so, that's not the only reason Revenue and Customs staff are stressed.
They've been blamed for not spotting fraudulent Tax Credit claims.
They've been blamed for backlogs of work they say they haven't got the staff to deal with.
They've been blamed for paying too much to some Tax Credits claimants, and wrongly stopping payment for those who are entitled.
They've been blamed for relying on call centers, and not letting the public speak to anyone who has the knowledge and experience to help them deal with difficulties - and a couple of years ago their website was hacked into, and the staff's own personal information stolen.
It's not surprising if they aren't very happy in their work.
According to a news report, they've decided to take action. They've used a Revenue and Customs community website to "demand" (the news report's description, not my own) to be given punch-bags, squeeze balls and aromatherapy to help reduce their stress levels (I gladly would have checked the source, but the report went on to say the website's now off-line).
Well, if the news report's correct, all credit to the staff for realizing the importance of doing something about the situation. Being under stress isn't just a miserable experience. It undermines your concentration, and it wrecks relationships. It's damaging to health, and it can kill.
I'm not convinced that pounding a punch-bag is the answer, though. Releasing stress through violence can all too easily become a habit, and it brings with it the risk that someday the punch-bag won't be readily available... and someone else will. Many abusive relationships become that way because one of the partners just can't handle stress.
If you want a high-energy way of releasing pent-up feelings, a more constructive way is taking exercise that doesn't involve violence. A good fast walk is great for that, and so are dancing, jogging, aerobics, or a work-out at the gym.
The problem is that although high-energy exercise is great for working off a blaze of anger, many forms of stress don't actually respond to it at all.
That's because continued stress leaves you exhausted. It's debilitating. You can't take exercise because you haven't got the energy... and you can't recharge your energy because you can't switch off your anxieties enough to get some proper, restful sleep.
That means you need to learn how to release that stress and tension, and relax your mind and body - not just occasionally, but every day, and any time you want to.
For the easiest way that you can free your life from stress, click here.
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[mi compiaccio]
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
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Switch Between Fixed and Variable Rate Mortgage with no Closing Costs
A new product from Washington Mutual lets borrowers shift from fixed to variable and back again on a dime.
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- There's a new kind of mortgage in town - and it's very limber.
Usually, when borrowers want to restructure their mortgages - go from a fixed-rate to a variable rate, for example - they have to refinance, an onerous, expensive process. There are new closing costs, legal fees and title search and insurance fees that could add thousands of dollars to the mortgage principals.
But the new product from Washington Mutual (Charts, Fortune 500) (WaMu), called Mortgage Plus, gives customers the ability to switch the type of loan they have without going through a refinance.
Say that originally, a family is planning to spend only a few years in their new house - they may choose a low, variable rate loan. They plan to sell the home and move before rate resets to higher one.
But if they decide to stay in town longer, they can switch the terms of their variable-rate Mortgage Plus loan to a fixed rate.
Washington Mutual says the process should take no longer than 15 minutes. Basically, all borrowers have to do is call WaMu or stop into their bank and say they want to switch.
The first reset is free and subsequent ones will usually cost $250 (clients pay no fee ever for moving from a fixed to a variable rate). Changes can be made twice a year.
"It allows you to take advantage of opportunities as they arise," said Steve Rotella, WaMu CEO, in a press release.
All this flexibility comes at a price in the form of higher interest rates. But the Washington Mutual said rates will probably be less than a half percentage point above averages.
Foreclosures are surging on subprime woes
With, however, so much focus on the dangers of hybrid ARMs, which are contributing to a big rise in foreclosures this year, can these loans prove problematic?
The bank says it's not likely; consumers should not be able to get into trouble simply by choosing Mortgage Plus. For one thing, it's only available to prime customers, people with solid credit scores. And the company says it will use tough underwriting standards. All approvals will be based on the ability to repay the loans at the highest, fully indexed levels, rather than the lower rates borrowers could be paying.
In addition, there will be no "negative amortization" options - borrowers must at least be paying the interest if not the principal of the loan. And there will be no zero-down payment options.
Don Sprague, a mortgage broker and financial planner whose company, Liberty Financial Services, is in Colorado, believes the loans can be very valuable, especially for fiscally seasoned consumers.
"To be able to switch to a variable rate when they are going down would be very advantageous," he says. "And the more flexibility, the better it is for people ready to enter retirement."
Retiring owners may decide they want to accelerate their mortgage payments, for example, since they will no longer reap tax benefits from mortgage interest.
There also is a home-equity line of credit (HELOC) component. It is accessible any time, although, there has to be a sufficient cushion in the home equity. The loan-to-value ratio - the amount owed compared to actual value of the home - may not exceed 90 percent.
If, for example, a new buyer puts down 20 percent on the house, she would automatically have access to 10 percent of the value of the property as a HELOC. If property values rise, the increase in value is available almost immediately for the owner to draw on.
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