How to become a successful freelance

Outsourcing and social media mean there's never been a better time to freelance. Check our top tips to see if freelancing can work for you

Freelancing from home does not suit everyone. Photograph: Lehtikuva Oy/Rex FeaturesI'm typing this a few feet from my kitchen, wearing baggy pants and trainers, listening to my iPlayer. My commute from the bedroom took seconds; I've no one telling me what to do. Jealous yet? Or are you "between jobs", aware you're just one brilliant idea away from becoming an internet billionaire? Maybe you should go freelance.
I've been freelancing for 28 years, and apparently have a natural aptitude for it – or total inability to cope with offices, depending how you look at it. I still remember that day in August '83 when, having failed my journalist training exams, my boss said, without a trace of irony: "I'll see that you never work in newspapers again." And his surprise when I replied: "Thanks."
Although here I am 28 years later, proving him wrong. Having spent most of my working life as a standup comedy writer, I never imagined I'd be writing articles for the Guardian. Being freelance really can take you anywhere.
"It's not for everyone," says Jon Norris, who runs Freelanceadvisor.co.uk, "but more and more it's becoming an option you should consider." John Brazier, who runs PCG, the nearest thing freelances have to a trade union, agrees. "Employers are looking more to outsource their work, there are more opportunities, and great tax benefits when working from home."
After nearly 20 years in the banking sector, John Davis left his post as product and marketing director for Barclays Business and went freelance in January. "I knew I wasn't interested in climbing further up the corporate ladder," he says, "and saw an opportunity to build a business. The work I do isn't much different, just less big-business politics and fewer pointless meetings."
All evidence points to a huge increase in freelance work throughout the economy, and the world. "The business is flying," says Matt Barrie, CEO of freelancer.com, who describes the internet as delivering "a tectonic shift to society by disrupting the global labour market". Freelancer.com is like eBay for freelances: employer offers work, freelances bid for the job, and they have become one of biggest websites in the world. Some 930,000 projects have been outsourced to date, for $80m (£50m) of earnings. "One freelancer in India makes close to $1m a year building $65 websites. He now has 80 people working in three design facilities, thanks to building his reputation as one of our top freelancers."
Some criticise freelancer.com for dragging pay rates down. Norris says: "They reward low-quality, quick-turnaround work and completely forego the freelancer/client relationship." But freelance musician/photographer/lecturer/designer Danny Fontaine is a fan. "Since joining freelancer.com my workload has rapidly increased. My rates are competitive but the majority of successful bids don't go to the cheapest bidder. Employers want a good job done so they do look at the quality of your work."
Are you ready to freelance? Here are my top 10 tips:

1 Don't.

If you're currently working, are you happy to give up the weekly wage packet, pension, company of workmates and paid holiday leave? "Are you suited to freelancing?" asks Brazier, "is your skillset marketable?" Even if you're desperate to try it, you might find becoming part-time a gentler way of easing into freelance.
"I love it," says Davis, "though I'm more emotionally involved now. And it's harder to let go at the end of the day."

2 Is there a market for what you do?

"Are you one of many doing what you do, or one of a few?" asks John Brazier. According to Norris, high-end freelance web designers are in big demand. "Competition is so fierce for the best people at Google, Apple and Facebook, that there's no incentive for the top few to go freelance."
On the other hand, social media is massively over-subscribed. "It's a boom market and there is a low barrier to entry," says Norris. "We have to actively seek out technical people when we need website development, but are approached by social media 'gurus' on an almost daily basis."
"Everyone should be thinking about creating a business," says Barrie. "Create a job, rather than take a job. There's never been a better time, you can literally now do it off the back of a credit card."

3 Join your union/PCG

Call me an old-fashioned out-of-the-loop lefty, but even in the cut-throat world of freelance you could use the kind of security offered by a trade union. They'll help with advice and contracts, plus it's lonely working on your own, and you can meet fellow strugglers. If there's no obvious union for you then join PCG. "We exist solely to look out for freelancers," says Brazier, "to protect and assist you, to guide you through the rules and regulations." Also: get a pension. (I'm sounding like a dinosaur now.)

4 Beware the computer

You can run your entire business on a laptop now. Unfortunately it's the same place where you can read funny articles from The Onion, tell your Facebook mates what you ate for lunch, and become an expert at Texas Hold 'Em. Don't kid yourself that googling your name and looking up your competitors on Wikipedia is research.

5 You are the company

Barrie says you can outsource everything you're no good at, but whatever you do you need to understand basic accounts, marketing, publicity and all the other tedious admin that you now have to deal with. With customers, sort out how much you're being paid at the start. Make sure they remember they owe you money. You are your own invoice department as well.

6 Learn to be American

Now you're no longer working for Giant Conglomerate International, you are almost certainly competing with Giant Conglomerate International, and many others, for work. So you have to do whatever it takes to get your name and business out there. Facebook, Twitter and a website are your starting points. This is no time to come over all Hugh Grant.
Moose Allain was an architect before becoming a full-time artist and illustrator in 2007. He produces a wide range of work which he sells via his website, art fairs, and an increasingly high profile on Twitter.
"I don't want to slip into marketing speak," says Allain, "but in a sense we're all 'marketing' ourselves all the time." To find out more about never missing an opportunity for self-publicity, start following me on Twitter @cohendave.

7 Don't get ill

You're no longer working for The Man, you are now He (or She). The Man never liked you taking the day off for that hangover from hell, and now you're Him, a day off is a day's lost pay. Seriously, if absenteeism is an important part of your work life, don't go freelance.

8 Bad day at the office?

Now that you're in charge, every bad day feels much worse. Learn to accept that we all have times like this, and tomorrow is another day, which brings me to...

9 Cliche Corner

Cliches are cliches because they're usually true. Every job is your calling card, every day is a new beginning, you're only as good as your last job.

10 Plan, plan, plan

Never mind work-life balance, first you must get the work-work balance right. You need to make money now, ideally you're spending two to three days a week doing that. But you also need to know where the work is coming from in six months, and a year's time. So you need to be aiming towards getting more work then. If the next few months are full of gaps where paid work should be, plan what to do with that time. Plan today, tomorrow, next week, month and year...

11 … But be flexible

See what happened there? I was going to make this a 10-point plan but realised halfway through that there are more than 10 key points. So I changed my mind. Which as a freelance I am able to do. This is one of the great advantages you have over people who work in offices. You can change your mind on the spot, and not have to report back through a chain of command.

12 Have a life

Manage your time well; know when you're going to finish work today, and stop. As a freelance it's easy to be "on" all day and night, and it's especially annoying when you wake up at 3am composing that fairly dull email reply you meant to send the previous day. Switch off and do something completely unrelated to work. You'll arrive a lot fresher the next day.

Moose Allain's tweet advice

I started tweeting as an experiment, I tried to be original and entertaining and occasionally posted pictures. My following increased when one or two people with good followings began recommending me. Before long people were asking if they could buy the work I was putting online.
It's important not to be constantly selling. I give a lot of original material to my "audience" and they don't mind me plugging my work occasionally. If they do, they don't tell me, or they just unfollow! Your audience is self-regulating in that sense, which is one of the things which makes twitter a powerful marketing tool.
It's an incredibly useful vehicle for trialling ideas and products. We recently launched a range of mugs. I posted some early designs and got some great feedback, and started to build anticipation from people who wanted to buy them. When we went into production we sold out our first batch just through twitter. So for me it has become a creative medium as well as a social networking tool.

Apple, Walmart, and you: Making money in mobile

By Matt Asay • Get more from this author
Open...and Shut Mobile is top-of-mind for every developer and every business, but it's not yet reaching stuffing-of-wallet for much of anyone.
The problem, as one friend described it to me yesterday, is that mobile users have the attention span of goldfish. When users are in and out of an app or website in few-second snatches, the chances to actually make money from them are fleeting, whether you're selling web services or apps.

What to do?

The problem isn't that people don't spend enough time with their mobile devices. They do. Ever since the CrackBerry hit the market, people have been gorging themselves on mobile communications.
The problem, it seems, is that this "gorging" comes in snack-sized bites for which few seem willing to pay. This is confirmed by new Ofcom research data from the UK market, which shows vastly increased mobile activity combined with stagnant mobile revenue growth over the past 10 years.
Carriers make money providing the data services, but see razor-thin profit margins. App developers, for their parts, make even less money, and negative margins. Apple has relegated the carriers to the role of infrastructure providers: they sell network time and little else, despite their best efforts.
App developers, for their parts, have been sucked into the Apple reality distortion field, wherein they sell apps for $0.99 each (or whatever the price), Apple takes 30 per cent, and ... that's it. This is not a great business model – and not only because the app sale model is in decline, by some metrics.
As Google's Tim Bray suggests, "Selling anything on a one-time basis at a price below $10 is historically the kind of business that's been owned by companies like Walmart." Walmart is obviously a big company, but there aren't many like it.
And in the case of mobile, Apple is more akin to Walmart than anyone else, because it's Apple that owns the relationship with mobile users, not the actual app developers.
But this isn't really a question of app sale versus in-app purchasing versus something else. It's about how to engage users over a long enough period of time that they're willing to pay. While the web has traditionally excelled at fueling discovery of brands/services/etcetera, apps have been champions at driving user engagement.
The trick, however, is to convince someone that it's worthwhile to buy an app in the first place, or simply download it. This turns out to be non-trivial.
So now people are shifting the conversation from app downloads to app engagement, as Urban Airship's Scott Kveton does. However a user finds their way to the app – be it via an app store's "Top 25" list, a news-article mention, a "click-to-add-to-home-screen" web-app function, etcetera – the trick is to engage the user in a meaningful, if quick, manner.
And while few are currently doing this, it strikes me that a key way to motivate user engagement is to make the app experience extend beyond any single device.
My attention is increasingly split between the various screens (smartphone, tablet, laptop) I carry, so an app that allows me to start reading a story about how Arsenal has failed to sign yet another player, for example, should continue with me once I shut off my smartphone and open my tablet. I may have the attention span of a goldfish, but if an app can stitch together my truncated mobile experiences, the more likely I'll be to recognize the aggregated value of the app.
Which is, of course, just a guess. The thing that is increasingly clear to me in mobile is that no one has yet to figure it out. The development methodology. The business model. Everything is up in the air.
What do you think is the key to a winning mobile experience? And, perhaps more telling, which apps do you find yourself paying for, versus "snacking on"? ®

Lobster-season 'circus' starts Saturday

last week's lobster mini-season is any indication, opening day of the regular seaso
Rough seas in the Keys kept many lobster hunters off the water during the July 28 and 29 mini-season, but those who went out were glad they did.
"We had 20- to 22-knot winds with gusts to 25 and dirty water," said Jon Hazelbaker of Fort Myers Beach. "Nobody was out there - I loved it.
"But we we got plenty of lobster, and they were bigger than I've seen before. We got several 3-pounders."
Recreational lobster hunting in Florida is a big deal: Between July 1, 2010, and June 30, the state sold more than 140,000 recreational lobster licenses, including 13,678 to nonresidents.
But something is happening to the state's lobster population.
From 1990 to 2001, commercial fishermen landed an average of 6.5 million pounds of lobster a year, with a high of 7.8 million pounds in 1996. From 2000 through 2010, the average was 4.5 million pounds, with a low of 3.3 million pounds in 2005.
Lower landings indicate
fewer lobsters, and John Hunt, a research administrator at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute's Marathon Laboratory, believes the problem is PaV1, a fatal virus that infects juvenile lobsters.
"For all we can tell, the virus was historically part of the spiny lobster," Hunt said. "My personal theory is that in the late 1990s or early 2000s, something changed that allowed PaV1 to become more virulent.
"Either lobsters became more susceptible, or the virus mutated. We don't really know why or what changed."
Southwest Florida is not an important commercial or recreational lobster fishery because few lobsters are found here.
That's because lobster larvae from the Caribbean enter the Gulf of Mexico on the Loop Current, which flows north, loops around and flows south to the Keys.
But the Loop Current is beyond the continental shelf, so not many larvae settle off Southwest Florida.
Where they do settle is in the Keys, and that's where thousands of lobster hunters will be Saturday.
"It's like opening day at Coney Island," long-time Key West resident Pat Clyne said. "We get so many people coming down that U.S. 1 is one big parking lot.
"A lot of locals stay away from those people. Most of us have our own little spots we go to where there are tons and hundreds of lobsters."
All those people pouring into the Keys is good for the economy, said Sally Billiter, co-owner of Tilden's Scuba Center in Marathon.
"This year, the opening of lobster season is on a weekend, which is good for us," Billiter said. "The mini-season gauges what the regular season is going to be, and people who went out got lobster, and the lobster were big. The mini-season was rough, so there should be plenty of lobster left."
Florida's east coast gets plenty of lobster hunters, too, said John Ippolito, owner of Hypnautical Dive Charters in Riviera Beach.
"It's a circus, pure chaos," he said. "If I didn't make money at it, I wouldn't even go. This time of year, you get people who dive once or twice a year, people who have no business out on the water."
Diving conditions on the east coast are different from those in the Keys, Ippolito said.
"We have a lot more current," he said. "In the Keys, the bugs are tiny. We can get 7- to 8-pound bugs. But bugs are more frequent in the Keys."
Part-time Fort Myers resident Tom O'Brien will be making his first lobster dives Saturday.
Hazelbaker and Clyne have filled him in on the art of tickling lobsters into his net with a tickle stick.
"We're going to go down 20 or 30 feet and make them swim backward into our nets, that's what I figure," O'Brien said. "The first day, I'll be trying to figure out which way is backward. Everybody says it's as simple as one, two, three. Just tickle them, and they'll jump into the net."
Source http://www.news-press.com/

After arson acquittal, teen tied to R.C. Soles faces more charges

By Shelby Sebens
Kevin.Maurer@StarNewsOnline.com

Allen Strickland's drive to make money started with a lawn mower and a will to work.

As a boy, he'd ride around Tabor City on his mower working for neighbors and friends. Family members who remembered seeing him said they admired his work ethic and his inquisitive nature.

And Strickland was always hustling to make a dollar, clearing tables at Todd House restaurant on Live Oak Street when he wasn't out landscaping.

Family members recalled Strickland having at least $200 from mowing lawns when he was 11 years old. The family members said they thought Strickland's initiative for making money was his way of compensating for not having a father or any close family. His mother gave birth to him while she was in prison, family members said, and he was then raised by aunts and uncles.

After meeting former State Sen. R.C. Soles at the Todd House when he was 14 years old, Strickland traded mowing for easy money. Now he has a Mercedes, a house in Tabor City purchased by Soles, and at least one newly purchased mobile home and land nearby.

It's unclear exactly how much money Soles has given Strickland over the years, but both the former senator and Strickland have admitted the money changes hands.

Strickland's lifestyle offers a glimpse of what it means to have a relationship with Soles. The 19-year-old is one of several men associated with Soles who face charges that often get dismissed or dropped and who spend money extravagantly despite having no apparent job or income.

No. 1 cable operator loses 238,000 video subscribers; Universal ups second quarter cash flow

By: Erik Gruenwedel
Don’t expect Comcast Corp. to launch a subscription video-on-demand service similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime anytime soon.
Speaking Aug. 3 to analysts, CEO Brian Roberts said Comcast remained focused on delivering content to cable subscribers through various channels, including its TV Everywhere app, Xfinity TV.
Roberts had been asked if Comcast would attempt to offer streaming to non-subscribers or consumers outside of its service areas, which one analyst pegged at 50 million homes.
“I don't think there's yet a business model that we've seen that … [allows us to] make money,” Roberts said of streaming to non-subscribers, adding that attempts to offer free on-demand programming via Fancast.com proved unprofitable. “… I think it's better when you already have a relationship with the customer to add these services on.”
Roberts wouldn’t rule out wholesaling internal platforms to third parties as it has done with a digital media center in Denver.
“We might be able to do that to other distributors in a way that takes some of this investment and lays it off nationally,” he said. “But I think it's better when you already have a relationship with the customer to add these services on.”
Meanwhile, subsidiary Universal Pictures Aug. 3 reported an increase in quarterly cash flow driven by theatrical revenue from Fast Five and Bridesmaids, and partially offset by lower content licensing and home entertainment revenue.
The studio reported pro forma operating cash flow of $27 million, compared with pro forma operating cash flow of $4 million during the previous-year period. Pro forma results are an accounting formula that reflects fiscal results as if Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal had occurred Jan. 1, 2010, instead of the actual date Jan. 28, 2011.
Universal Pictures, which includes Universal Studios Home Entertainment, is part of NBC Universal, which is owned by Comcast Corp. Comcast does not report operating income for its separate business units.
Studio revenue increased 21% to more than $1.2 billion, compared with $1 billion last year.
NBC Universal reported quarterly operating cash flow of $1 billion, compared with $952 million last year. Revenue increased 17%, to $5.1 billion from $4.4 billion last year.
Separately, Comcast said it lost 238,000 video subscribers in the quarter, underscoring ongoing challenges cable operators face maintaining subscribers during an ongoing recession and due to comptetition from video sources such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and rental kiosks, among others.
The subscriber loss was an improvement over the same period in 2010 when Comcast shed 265,000 video members. Year-to-date, Comcast has lost 277,000 video subs, compared with losing 347,000 in 2010.

We need $2,000 a month, pre tax, beyond what we make on the farm to break even. That means somebody has to work off the farm.

By Courtney Lowery Cowgill

When we set out to start our farm, that laundry list of challenges facing beginning farmers we'd been hearing so much about became our reality. After years of studying and planning this life in theory, we got to live it.
Access to land was our first hurdle. But we found a landowner willing to give us an affordable lease and we leapt.
Land: Check.
Access to capital was a tricky one, too. But, we found a group of investors willing to put their faith in us and lend us a small amount of money to get us going. And in general, there are many programs, federal and otherwise, built just for farmers like us. Also we've been delighted with how eager our local Farm Services Agency and our local lenders have been in working with us.
So, capital: Check.
Two hurdles we're still working on are equipment and knowledge, but both have been relatively easy to manage. It's still mighty hard to find small-scale equipment, but it's there. And we've been lucky to set up shop on a place where the landowners and the neighbors are generous with teaching us both the ins and outs of farming in general and the nuances of farming this particular piece of ground, both of which are invaluable. (It doesn't hurt, either, that I grew up on a farm and my dad, former farmer and a jack-of-all-trades, lives 15 miles away.)
Also, getting a loan for a new tractor or even a grant for new seed-cleaning equipment is within our reach.
So, on the equipment and knowledge question: Still working on them, but let's put them in the check column.
I don't mean to make it sound like any of this has been easy to overcome. These are formidable obstacles to be sure. But, we've been able to find support for them, mostly because they are on the forefront of the national discussion of how to get more farmers on the land and more food in our communities.
Our real challenge has been perhaps a bit more subtle. It's also one that is often ignored in the conversation about how to encourage beginning farmers.
It's what we call the time/labor continuum.
Like so many farmers, we aren't able to live off the farm income alone (Yet). We need about $2,000 (pre-tax) each month outside farm income to keep us afloat. Health insurance alone for the three of us is $500 a month.
This means finding off-farm work for one, or both, of us.
After our first year of farming, when I worked part-time to float us while Jacob devoted all his time to the farm, it was abundantly clear that we weren't going to survive another year like that. So, when Jacob was offered a great full-time job, with a steady salary and benefits, we jumped.
I kept my part-time editing work, but devoted more time to the farm and Jacob found a balance between farming and working off the farm.
But as we expanded both our farm and our family (we welcomed a new farmhand last fall), that balance became trickier. Until finally, it became unsustainable.
Jacob's job was an inspiring, all-consuming kind of job. Mix that with the inspiring, all-consuming job of farming and things start to fall apart.
Although financially, the job gave us the breathing room to farm, it took away our most valuable asset: time.
This winter, it became clear that with a tiny baby in my arms, my farm time was going be more limited than we expected and with Jacob's 10-hour days and two-hour daily commute, his farm time would be nearly nonexistent.
When the farm started suffering and the family started suffering, we knew we had to make a change.
So, we began looking for other options. There were plenty of avenues for us to get money for land. Plenty of options for us to finance equipment. Even though our other challenges were just that, challenging (marketing, business planning, etc.), we were finding ample support for them.
But, when it came to the never-ending dance between bringing in enough income to live on and still having enough time to build our business, we were, and continue to be, stymied.
It's not like we can take out a loan so we can pay our rent or apply for a grant to pay for our groceries or health insurance.
One of us had to work. The other had to farm. That was the only way to do it.
It just so happened that just about when the wheels looked like they were about to come off, I stumbled across the perfect part-time, work-from-home, fulfilling editing job with PBS MediaShift.
We're now two months into this arrangement and, so far, we're managing. Money is tight and health insurance is astronomically expensive. But, lucky us, we grow food so our grocery bill (hypothetically, anyway) is lower than the average American's. And, we have a lot of help on the childcare side. (It pays to live close to grandparents, let me tell you.)
But, it's scary. And, these next few years — before we're able to sustain ourselves solely off the farm — are going to get even scarier.
With two and a half seasons under our belts, we can say with surety now that we know we can farm. We also know we can make money farming.
But the big, looming question is: if we're raising a family and needing to work off the farm, will we have enough time to farm?
The USDA's Economic Research Service reports that in 2009 almost 45 percent of American farmers and their spouses work off the farm. Almost 45 percent of farmers claim farm or ranch work as their primary job. But, only about 15 percent of farm spouses make the same claim.
So, it's no surprise that when we get together with other young farm couples and we go around the room introducing ourselves, nearly everyone's story sounds like this:
“We are the X's. We run Y head of cattle, have about Z acres of grain and my wife/husband works in town.”
I can't assume to know why these families find themselves in this predicament, but I know for us, it's partially me wanting to keep my off-farm career and partially us needing an income stream to, in essence, subsidize our farming. I would guess for many other farm families, that scenario sounds familiar.
For us, finding how the off-farm jobs and the farm fit together is nearly a full-time job in itself. Add to that the daily chores of a modern life and the care and feeding of a family — and it all starts to seem impossible.
I'm often struck by this irony: There is nothing more basic than growing food for a living. But, the complexity that farm families have to navigate to make that “simple” life a possibility is staggering.
I'm not saying it's anyone's responsibility but our own to figure this out. The whole point of our operation is to find out how to build a farm that can sustain a modern (but very frugal) family. By mixing in diversification and direct markets and high-value crops, we have hopes we'll get there.
But, in all this, I've learned a simple truth: The modern American life is just unbalanced enough that either our version of “a living” is too expensive or our food system is too broken to give farmers enough money for the food they grow to sustain themselves. Or, more likely, it's a little of both.
So, when we're working on clearing the way for new farmers, we have to continue hammering away at the big hurdles: access to land, access to capital, access to knowledge, access to markets and the like. But, we need to look at not only how farm families sustain their farms, but also how they sustain themselves.
Courtney Lowery Cowgill is a writer, editor and farmer. She and her husband run Prairie Heritage Farm, a small farm in Central Montana where they raise vegetables, turkeys and ancient and heritage grains. Her monthly column, Home Again, is about her journey home to rural central Montana, where she is starting over, starting a family and starting a farm.

BBQ, Crawfish, Gumbo and Soul

Chef Anne heads home from her culinary journey with stops at some of the best food dives in the south. 

As I start my journey back home to Florida, I shoot over to Memphis to partake of some great BBQ. When it comes to barbeque, there’s four distinct types: North Carolina, Texas, Kansas City and Memphis.
I stopped in at a little shop in Memphis that’s been serving up a great Memphis-style menu for 60 years.
Some locals told me I had to try The Bar-B-Q Shop, Home of the Dancing Pigs. It’s not on the main tourist drag of Beale Street but right in the heart of a residential area and is definitely a local favorite. That’s the type of place I always look for when traveling — a great restaurant known only to the locals.
The Bar-B-Q Shop's glazed ribs, topped with a dry rub, won first place this year at Memphis in May, one of the largest BBQ competitions in the country.
It sounded so good, I had to order my pork ribs glazed. Along with the ribs, I tried their beef brisket and pulled pork sandwich. I must confess that I’m not that much a fan of BBQ, but I ate until I couldn’t hold another bite. The food was everything I was told it would be. If you’re a BBQ fan, or even if you think you’re not, stop here next time you’re in Memphis and be prepared to pig out on some pig!
Next I drove down to Lafayette, LA, for some southern soul food cooked up by Dwyer’s Café.
This place has been serving up great home cooked foods for decades, and it’s definitely a favorite among locals. You’ll find students, attorneys, judges and construction workers all sitting side by side at lunch enjoying the food here.
I opted for the “Meat and 3” buffet. You’ll find this in many southern home cooking places. You choose your main meat, plus three sides from a large selection. I tried the fried catfish, cornbread dressing, navy beans and yams. Again, the locals knew what they were talking about. The food was great home cooking. If you want a meal like mom or grandma used to make, then this is where you come in Lafayette.
My final stop, and definitely one of my favorites, was at a true “hole in the wall” along a road that cuts right through the industrial area.
It’s a concrete block building that you would zoom right by and never even notice if you weren’t looking for it. But I was looking for it, and even though my GPS had a hard time locating it, I got there just minutes before they opened their doors for lunch at 11 a.m. There was already a line waiting for those doors to open — a very good sign of a great place.
Bon Creole Lunch Counter was food nirvana. It was a food junkie’s paradise. You walk up to the counter and order your food. The entire kitchen is wide open and laid out behind the counter so you can see everything being made fresh to order.
I ordered the chicken and sausage gumbo and a fried seafood combo po’ boy sandwich with shrimp, crawfish, catfish and oysters on an entire loaf of French bread!
The gumbo was delicious, with big chunks of chicken and andouille sausage in a spicy broth served over white rice.
But the big hit was the po’ boy. Overflowing with the freshest seafood, this was a sandwich that any five-star restaurant could proudly serve. This was no ordinary sandwich, but one that you will remember for a long time. And I, for one, will make it my mission to get back to New Iberia, LA, to get my hands on another one as soon as possible.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the past few weeks as I’ve shared my culinary road trip with you. Next week I’ll be back and will be sharing some great recipes and tips with you that you can recreate in your home kitchens.
I want to thank all of you who emailed me these past few weeks to tell me of your trips to these same great restaurants I visited. A big shout out to a reader from Maine who wrote me as he was at the same lobster pound I wrote about, eating his lobster and reading the article.
Looking for BBQ around Gulfport? Try Smokin J's Real Texas BBQ on Gulfport Blvd.
Source http://gulfport.patch.com/

Can you live without home insurance?

As the cost of living continues to rise, it may seem tempting to cut out anything that doesn’t appear to be absolutely essential. However, when it comes to cutting back on your household expenditure, home insurance should never be considered an optional extra.

The average household has seen their bills continue to rise, a trend that is showing no sign of slowing. British Gas recently announced an 18 per cent hike in gas and a 16 per cent increase in electricity prices; this is on top of the rise which occurred just eight months ago.

On average, a household’s dual fuel bill has increased by 50 per cent since 2007. Food prices are also spiralling upwards. The cost of many basic food staples is rising faster than it has for two years, with the Guardian reporting that a simple loaf of bread is costing 75 per cent more this April than it did last September.

Unfortunately, on top of all these increases, home insurance costs also rose by nine per cent in 2010, according to the AA. Although there are ways to bring these basic costs down (a broker, for example, can find you the cheapest possible deal on your insurance) insurance can still seem to some like a waste of money, particularly as many homeowners pay premiums for years without making a claim.

However, when you consider the alternative, it becomes clear that the cost of home insurance is worth it for the peace of mind that it allows; it’s an essential safety net.

Imagine being burgled and not having home insurance in place. When you consider that the average claim on house insurance after a burglary is £1,200 you realise that you could literally lose thousands of pounds of household goods that will need to be replaced.

These figures become even more worrying when you consider the fact that the amount of burglaries rose by 14 per cent last year, hitting a seven year high, according to The British Crime Survey.

Should the fabric of your home be damaged by fire, flood or other disaster then the cost could be far higher. You could literally lose everything that you have worked hard for over the years.

Research from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank shows that one in four households in the UK have no home contents insurance in place, and approximately one in three possess no buildings cover.

When you forfeit home insurance to save money you are playing a very risky game. Far preferable to living with the worry of becoming one of the 745,000 homes targeted by thieves annually in Britain is to focus on finding the best possible value home insurance to meet your needs.

Simple measures, such as having window locks fitted or joining your local neighbourhood watch group, could reduce your premiums, as could paying in a lump sum rather than splitting the cost between the 12 months of the year.

You should also take steps to reduce your other household bills by using utilities comparison websites to ensure that you are getting the best possible deal on your gas and electricity. By reducing your outgoings as much as possible, you will ensure that you have room in the budget for all of your essential household bills, including home insurance.

While it may seem tempting to save Pounds by scrimping on the house insurance, the potential cost of doing this is devastating. It’s a risk that is simply not worth taking, so make sure that you have good value home insurance in place to protect your property at all times.

Source http://www.propertywire.com/

Behold the fan that muffles itself

By: Rafe Needleman
I like working at home. It's quieter than the office. It'd be near silent if were not for this noisy computer under my desk; the fans make a racket. But a new line of fans using technology from the Swedish company RotoSub could cut down on the noise a lot, and for not much additional money.
All fans make noise, and there are many solutions to damping that down. There are low-noise fan blades, there are muffled enclosures, and there's active noise cancellation, in which a sound signal that's the exact opposite of the offensive noise is generated to cancel out the sound waves. Noise cancellation could, theoretically, be the most effective sound-killing technology, except if you don't put the reverse-wave sound generator at the exact location of where the sound is created, you don't have perfect cancellation everywhere, and you hear noise as you move in relation to the fan.

Rotosub has a noise-canceling technology that solves the noise problem at the source. It makes the rotating fan blades themselves into the anti-noise speakers. RotoSub CEO Lars Stromback told me by modulating the angle of attack of the blades very slightly, the RotoSub generates sound with "the same phase structure as the noise, the same position, and radiation pattern." The power draw is minimal: the RotoSub electronics take very little juice, nor does quickly bending the blades in the fan motor.
I'd like to see RotoSub fans in my desktop computers. Or at the office in the ventilation system. Strombac says the technology could even scale up to turbofans, and an aircraft engine manufacturer is interested in it. RotoSub is a pure technology play, and plans to make money by licensing its intellectual property.

Going home is for wimps

As City firms announce huge job losses, bankers are taking more risks and working longer hours to justify their existence - is the macho culture back?

Here's how bad things are: bankers are quoting Hamlet. Asked to describe his mood, one slumps over a chair in a City bar and offers this: "How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable."
Translation: everything sucks. Clients aren't doing deals. They are "risk-off" rather than "risk-on", in the jargon. So profits are falling - and a fresh bunch of whippersnappers without family commitments who are willing to work till dawn have just been hired. Thousands of people across town have never felt under more pressure in what was always a high-pressure game.
Translation: everything sucks. Clients aren't doing deals. They are "risk-off" rather than "risk-on", in the jargon. So profits are falling - and a fresh bunch of whippersnappers without family commitments who are willing to work till dawn have just been hired. Thousands of people across town have never felt under more pressure in what was always a high-pressure game.
The banker, 42, who doesn't want to be named, has three kids in private school, and is by his own account "very" married. He's knackered. He wants to go home. He wants another drink. He works a foreign bank with a big City presence, that, like the rest of the industry, has just announced swingeing job cuts.
HSBC says 30,000 people must go. Royal Bank of Scotland has already done away with 28,000 - more will follow. UBS, Credit Suisse, most of the rest, are sharpening axes.
Three years ago, after Lehman Brothers was exposed as a house of cards rather than a paragon of financial virtue, he was one of those who said he would no longer allow his employer to so totally control his life.
Never again would he let the vice tighten on him in return for perpetual insecurity and money that still never seemed like enough. He had gained perspective - work/life balance was the future.
And here he is again doing the same old things: looking busy when he's not, cosying up to the boss, attending endless drinks dos to make sure his face still fits, that he is still seen as one of the boys.
Firms are so desperate to keep clients that they are entertaining with a vengeance. Not showing up is not an option.
"My wife doesn't understand. She can't see why I am still under pressure after all these years. She thinks the drinks with people I don't like is me on a jolly - I'm sure she thinks I'm having an affair. Three nights last week I was home at 10-ish, a bit pissed. She keeps saying, 'If you haven't got that much to do, how come you are working so much?'"
The latest banking slowdown is hitting hard. Banks that ramped up staff levels, in some cases as recently as six months ago, in expectation that the financial crises were over and that a boom could be coming, are suddenly scaling back.
Some say the effect of all this has been to reinforce old working practices: "presenteeism" in particular is again regarded as an essential survival tactic, especially for the well-paid over-40s who are under pressure from a younger, cheaper crowd.
Those who hoped that they were entering a time of life when their experience would be regarded as so valuable that they could ease off once in a while are instead nervously looking around the office and doing the maths. "I'm in serious trouble here," some are thinking, and with reason.
Bankers say the shift away from bonuses to higher basic salaries has exacerbated the problem. The banker on £150,000 who got the same as a bonus in a good year is now on a flat £225,000, no matter how the bank performs. So when there is a downturn he is a high fixed cost that the company wants to be rid of, unless he's really coming up with the goods.
So changes to pay that were supposed to make banks safer are in fact making it harder for people to justify their existence, which in turn encourages them to take risks, to be gung-ho.
Saying "yes" to a deal when the prudent answer is "no" might be the only way to get through the slump, to stay employed and, perhaps, married.
For a few years, with varying degrees of success, the City has been trying to reinvent itself as a more reasonable place, as less of a casino, and with a better understanding of why women (or men) with childcare issues might in many cases be preferable employees to jack-the-lads with short attention spans and a permanent adrenaline deficit.
When times get tight, the City reverts to type, it seems. Every man for himself. Women and children last.
One bank insider said: "The new pay rules have forced us to put on fixed costs. A chief executive faced with uncertain markets is asking, 'What levers do I need to pull?' So the
45-year-old banker who is under the cosh is now thinking: 'I wish my salary hadn't risen.' It's a direct consequence of doing away with the old bonus culture."
Asked if the bank keeps a record of which sort of people it fires - how many family men and women, how many above 50, how many below 25 - an HSBC spokesman blocks: "We are at the start of the process. We will let our people know first."
Not everyone is upset by the developments. A trader who has been around the block more than once says: "The current quiet period is allowing a few of us old boys to meet a few clients, have longer lunches. You don't have to worry about fat-fingering a trade [selling 10,000 stocks when you mean to buy 1,000] if business is virtually non-existent. It's during the lulls that you cement relationships which should stand you in good stead when the upturn comes. But then there's a new breed of younger kids coming into the game. They accept the longer hours, the tougher environment and are cheaper. I can't say I'm not concerned."
The economy aside, who is to blame for all this? Bankers point to mid-level bosses rather than chief executives.
One says: "It's certainly true that the hellish hours are back in the City, largely promulgated by layers of grasping middle management, eager to please senior bosses in the hope of promotion, by working their underlings to the core and expecting 16-hour days."
These things become endemic. Anyone not putting the hours in is rounded upon as a "part-timer" or a "half-day Johnny".
"It's a culture that serves little purpose and merely breeds the urge for good employees to quit and 'do something' with their lives," says the same banker. "It's a great shame. Many talented individuals burn out early and leave, when they should have been nurtured."
A lawyer at a City firm who has just pulled an all-nighter says she was told to wait around for the chief executive to make a final decision on something.
In fact, the boss had gone to dinner, had 40 winks and strolled back into the office at 4am to complete a deal before the markets opened. He sent her home and carpeted her middle managers for keeping her there. The guys at the top don't usually expect this sort of kamikaze career posturing, it seems.
If you feel a sense of schadenfreude at all this, and think that bankers and traders deserve what's coming to them, remember that very few are the millionaire playboys of legend. Most people who work in the City don't actually feel the need for a Ferrari and a private jet loyalty card to be fulfilled. Their concerns are the same as anyone's.
Some firms claim to be fighting back against all this. One is Charles Stanley, a mid-size stockbroking house. A spokesman says: "Clearly in stockbroking there are times when staff are required to work later than prescribed contractual hours in order to get the job done. But working longer than contracted hours for the sake of it is not in the DNA of the firm and Charles Stanley is happier and more productive because of it."
This could even be true. For those at less enlightened firms, there's a sickening feeling rising: here we go again.

Present tense: A banker's tale

"It took me three months of not doing the drinks, of going home at 4pm because my wife was depressed, to be ostracised from the team. Three months later, I was sacked.
"Not being seen at the desk when others are there is a big no no. Realistically, if you come in at 7am in the morning all your useful work is done by lunch. Post-lunch you're pretty useless and bloody tired. The sense of stress and pressure at hanging around for four hours for no reason, and then perhaps another two hours on drinks, is overwhelming.
"The office atmosphere is extremely sterile, with all the PCs buzzing and people pretending to work while doing internet searches. It's depressing and often causes illness, such as headaches and depression. Being there for the sake of being there is a horrible condition of working, the modern Anglo-Saxon work-slavery culture. At my former employer HSBC Investment Bank there were several cases of cancer in staff in their thirties. I think this sort of stress can bring about severe ill health.
"The City is such an inefficient culture in terms of measuring real value. The common denominator is always time spent at your desk - big bank, small bank, US bank, European bank, UK bank, all of them - unless you are some sort of super-rainmaker, in which case you come in and out in your Chelsea tractor and do what you like. For the rest of us, it's never been worse."
Source http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/

Tips to cope with rising home loan EMIs

In an online chat with readers on August 3, home loan expert Harsh Roongta provided answers to how home loan borrowers should cope with their rising equated monthly installments.
Here's the unedited transcript:
sand asked, I have taken Loan of Rs.25 lac last year and with interest rate increased to 11% I have pre paid 50% without penalty , my loan tenure reduced to 3 years from 10 years ,pl note I was sitting on cash balance , is this right decision or should I have placed the cash deposit in FD
Harsh Roongta answers,  at 2011-08-03 16:09:22No bank fixed deposit could have given you a post tax interest rate that would be better than the post tax cost on the home loan. So you absolutely did the right thing if the alternative investment you were comfortable with was only a fixed deposit. The answer could have been different if you had been willing to take more risk with your investment and invest for the long term in equity related intruments. The other thing that people like you must keep in mind is that you should first pay off the costlier debt (if any) such as credit card,personal loan, car loan etc. before paying off the Home loan. Also please make sure that you have some amount of money available to you as contingency fund (around 3-4 moths of expenses).  bab asked, my salary is 50000rs/month and i want loan of amount 2000000 so how much extra amount i have to pay within 15 years
Harsh Roongta answers, You will be eligible for a 15 year loan of Rs. 20 lakhs based on your net take home salary of Rs. 50,000 per month assuming you have no other loans and have a good credit repayment history on any past loans and credit cards. The EMI for 15 year loan of rs. 20 lakhs for 15 years assuming interest rate of 10.75% will be around 22,400 per month. The total payment for 180 months will be Rs. 40 lakhs 35 thousand assuming interest rates stay at 10.75%. Actual interest may go up or down based on interest rate movements in the market. piyush asked, I have taken a home loan last year and now my father has sold a property,so can i take money from him and close my home loan.will they charge me prepayment penalty.
Harsh Roongta answers, It will depend on your contract. If your home loan agreement provides that pre-payment made from own sources (and you can ask your father to gift you the money rather than take it as a loan from him - you can repay by gifting it back to him when you have the money) can be made without pre-payment charges than there will be no pre-payment charges else i am afraid there will be pre-payment charges as per your specific home loan agreement terms. sdfsdf asked, Hello Sir, I am planning for a home loan .. My current CTC is 8 lakhs per annum and my dream home costs 32 L.. wats the right amt to take loan and wats the duration I should go for.. I dont have any debts till now..
Harsh Roongta answers, assuming you are less than 40 years old you can easily get the Rs. 32 lakhs loan sanctioned based on your income assuming interest rate of 10.75%. Off course the loan amount cannot exceed 80% of the property value. You should go in for a 20 year tenure but choose a lender that allows partial pre-payments without any charge (Axis,ICICI, SBI, etc. ) so that you get the flexibility of lower EMIs and at the same time you can pre-pay the loan without any chrage if you have a surplus left over.
Source http://www.rediff.com/

In Spite Of Falling Home Prices, Young Buyers Entering Real Estate Market

By Roger Mares, KTXS NewsABILENE,

Texas -- Despite a drop in home prices, young home buyers have not been deterred from entering the real estate market.The National Association of Realtors reports that nationwide, more than one third of home buyers are between the age of 25 to 34, many of whom are first time home buyers."We looked at the options and it just seemed to make sense to buy a house rather than to have to keep paying rent and not seeing any of that money again," says second time home buyer Andrew Huddleston.Huddleston and his wife, bought their first home when they were in their mid-twenties and now, with a three year old and in their mid-thirties, they have decided to purchase their second here in Abilene.Buying young can come with its obstacles, especially for those just out of college looking to own a home."They've kind of had a wild side, they've gotten into it, and they have maybe abused their credit slightly, then they may not be able to buy initially, they may have to work through some of those credit issues," says real estate agent Kay Spiva.Over the past 5 years, the percentage of first time buyers has risen from 36 percent, to 50 percent of all home buyers.Spiva, with Stovall Realtors, says buying young can have a benefit when it comes to making money off your investment."If they buy early," she says, "and they can start building equity, then that can help them if they are ready to make a step into a bigger home they'll have some equity built up to use in order help them get into that second home.Spiva adds that young buyers must be realistic about their first purchase, especially when considering price as well as condition.Here are the facts on home prices:In May of this year, home sales prices in Abilene dropped 2 percent compared to may of last year.June didn't fare any better from 2010 to 2011 where prices fell 2.7 percent.Nationally prices have fallen 6.8 percent in a one year.

Obama in Chicago tonight for 50th birthday campaign fundraising events

By Rick Pearson, Kristen Mack and John Byrne Clout Street

President Barack Obama is back in town tonight, doing some birthday fundraising for his 2012 re-election bid at a North Side concert hall.
The president turns 50 on Thursday, and he's spending the last night of his 40s at the Aragon, where OK Go, Herbie Hancock and Jennifer Hudson are performing at a low-dollar event.
Obama addressed the larger group, talking about the economy he inherited upon taking office and the steps he took to try to do address it. "We're not even halfway there yet," Obama said. "We knew this was going to take time. Because we've got this big, messy tough democracy."
"I hope we can avoid another self-inflicted wound like we saw over the last couple weeks," Obama said. "Because we don't have time to play these partisan games...We have too much to do."
Hudson led the other acts in singing "Happy Birthday" as Obama took the stage.
The president joked about turning 50 on Thursday. "By the time I wake up, I'll have a letter from the AARP, telling me to call President Obama and tell him to protect Medicare," he said.
Big-dollar donors get to attend a dinner fundraiser along with the concert at a cost of $35,800 a person. As has been the practice, the money raised will be divided between Obama's re-election fund and the Democratic National Committee.
Along with those events, Obama’s presidential campaign is holding more than 1,100 “house parties” across the country to serve as birthday parties and organizational meetings for the re-elect.
After arriving at the Aragon at about 6:30 p.m., Obama went to a backstage room where he was to speak via the web to the house parties. Herbie Hancock was performing as Obama got to the venue.
Obama came onto the teleconference at 7 pm, noting that he was "beaming in fromChicago."
"You may hear the L train in the background. It's passing right next to us," Obama said as the Red Line could be heard rumbling past the Aragon.
Then he started pushing his supporters to get organized, saying that people working as teams can better get out his re-election message.
"It starts now," he said.
Fighting for working families and creating jobs is somethg that has to take place on the ground level, Obama said, referencing his background as a community organizer. "These bread and butter issues were not going to be settled in Washington," he said.
A North Carolina house party sang him "Happy Birthday" before one of the attendees asked the president how to talk to people about the president's position on taxes and the wars.
"You've got to listen as much as you talk," Obama said, adding that people don't want to listen to intricate platform positions on things like taxes.  "They want to know what we stand for," he said.
Obama made several references to the debt ceiling fight when talking about the challenges of his first term. "This past week was a frustrating week," he said before wrapping up the teleconference.
After his speech to the crowd in the hot ballroom, Obama retired to the much more exclusive  fundraiser on the second floor of the old dance hall. About 100 people dined at tables in a curtained-in section of the balcony.
Obama took off his suit jacket as soon as he entered the room with the high rollers, declaring it "too hot."
Emanuel promptly retrieved Obama's jacket and slung it over his own chair, saying he would keep an eye on it.
"Thank you, now that is service," Obama said to Emanuel. "I still have a pothole in front of my house."
Then Obama talked about pushing for policies that allow America to be competitive into the future while taking care of the less fortunate.
"All of us have a role to play in that kind of America, and all of us have sacrifices to make to deliver that kind of america," he said.
"Slash and burn politics" make it difficult to deliver on that vision, Obama said, but promised to stay focused.
The president was to enjoy a two-layer cake from Eli's, one layer chocolate, the other carrot cake, according to Eli's representatives on hand.
But after about six minutes of remarks by the president, the press pool was ushered out as he got ready to take questions from attendees, before cake was served.
The president landed at O'Hare International Airport shortly before 6 p.m. and was met by new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, his former White House chief of staff. Obama talked to some of two dozen or so assembled supporters, including a baby who was smiling but refused to cooperate and give him a high-five. He shook her small fist instead.
Obama returned toChicago after a day-long exchange of attacks and defenses of his presidency.
Emanuel defended his former boss against heavy Republican criticism.
The chairmen of the national and state GOP ripped Obama for raising campaign cash while national unemployment remains high. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney released a web video featuring empty storefronts and abandoned city streets, an attempt to connectChicago’s struggling economy to the president’s political fortunes.
Emanuel took the opportunity to highlight Romney’s record as governor of Massachusetts.
“I’d just like to note to the governor, in case he needs a rendezvous with his record, when he was governor Massachusetts (lagged behind) in job production,” said Emanuel, who took questions at a news conference about a technology week inChicago.  “In case he forgot that, I’d like to remind him of that.”
During the prolonged debate over raising the debt ceiling, the most important thing for the president was making sure the country did not default, Emanuel said.
“He is willing to do unpopular things, the necessary things to keep this country moving forward. I have great admiration for his determination, his grit, his willingness to not do the politically easy thing, to do the tough things,” Emanuel said. “Sometimes I would advise him to do the politically easier thing and he rejected that advice because it was not good for the country in the long term.”
Emanuel’s comments came after Reince Priebus, who chairs the Republican National Committee, and Illinois GOP chair Pat Brady, also criticized Obama for what they said was a lack of leadership in the debt and deficit-cutting deal. They also resurrected Hillary Clinton’s argument in the 2008 Democratic primary that the “present” votes Obama cast as an Illinois state senator reflected a governing style of indecision.
“After failing to lead during the debt-ceiling debate, I think you can say the fundraiser in chief is back inChicago doing the one thing that he’s really good at—and that’s raising money to save his job,” said Priebus, a former chair of the Wisconsin GOP, on a conference call with reporters.
“Right now our economy’s in the ditch. We’re spending more money than we can afford. We’ve lost 2.5 million jobs since this president’s taken office, yet the only job Barack Obama seems to be concerned with is his own,” he said. “And leaders lead and this president’s leadership has really been non-existent.”
Both Republicans chastised the Democratic president for once again announcing that the administration was pivoting into job-creation mode after making similar vows in the past. The White House announced earlier today that Obama would be conducting a mid-August bus trip in the Midwest to push job creation.
Brady said Illinois' unemployment rate increased since Obama became president.
“Anybody who is actually from here and watched Sen. Obama in both the state Senate and the United States Senate, he did not have a history of leadership. In fact if you recall, (2008 Democratic primary challenger and current Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton raised in one of the debates he voted present 126 times in the Illinois Senate,” Brady said. “I think it’s instructive that the button that you push when you’re voting present is yellow.”
During the 2008 campaign, a Tribune review of Obama's voting record found that he voted present on 129 bills and 11 personnel appointments out of roughly 4,000 votes cast during his nearly eight years in Springfield. Many of Obama’s present votes were cast while Republicans had control of the state Senate.
While they attacked Obama for fundraising, neither Priebus nor Brady would say when they thought an appropriate time existed for a sitting president to engage in fundraising. “It’s not that he’s doing fundraisers,” Priebus said. “It’s that he’s obsessed with it. That’s the news.”
Obama’s Chicago events marks the president’s first money-raising effort in weeks as Washington was bogged down in a partisan dispute over raising the nation’s debt ceiling and deficit cutting efforts. Obama cancelled several fundraising trips during the gridlock that was broken Tuesday, when he signed a compromise measure.
The president’s return to his hometown, the first trip back since April, also was mocked in a web video by Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney. Among the video images is an empty Grant Park, which was the home of Obama’s massive 2008 election night victory rally and statistics about the city’s economic problems.
Romney has faced criticism himself for not conducting an aggressive early presidential campaign as the presumptive Republican frontrunner. Romney’s campaign has indicated the former Massachusetts governor will be stepping up his efforts in the coming weeks.
Across the street from the Aragon, about four dozen people protested against the aggressive deportation policies they said the Obama administration has pursued against illegal immigrants.
Crowded around a cardboard three layer birthday cake on which "Happy birthday, Deportation President" was scrawled, they sang songs, chanted "Si, tu puede stop deportation" and other slogans, and waved signs, some of which read "We hoped for better."
Back in April, Obama was home for the first time since formally announcing his re-election bid. An estimated 2,300 people paid $100 to $250 to hear him speak at Navy Pier's Grand Ballroom.
Last month, the president's re-election effort reported collecting $86 million during the second quarter of the year. That easily outdistanced the amounts raised by his Republican opponents. Obama raised more than $47 million through his presidential campaign and an additional $38 million-plus with the DNC, which can collect much larger sums.
The president is scheduled to depart Chicago on Air Force One late tonight.

State-Owned Northern Rock PLC Cuts Losses

State-owned mortgage lender Northern Rock PLC reduced its half-year losses to £78.8m in the first six months of 2011, compared with £140m in the same period last year.

Northern Rock, the so-called good side of the business, which holds savings, said it expects to make a profit during next year.
It was split from the 'bad bank', home to Northern Rock's toxic loans, three years ago following its near collapse.
The lender's existing portfolio in the 'bad bank' has continued to make progress.
Northern Rock Asset Management, which later merged with Bradford & Bingley's lending arm, repaid £1bn to the Government in the first half of the year, almost as much as it paid in the whole of 2010.
Ron Sandler, executive chairman of Northern Rock, said: "Northern Rock has made good progress in the first half of 2011.
"The company continued to be loss-making, as expected, but losses are significantly reduced and we are generating momentum."

Northern Rock PLC was formally put up for sale by the chancellor George Osborne earlier this year, but a sell-off could mean that taxpayers lose £400m.
The two main bidders, Virgin Money, Sir Richard Branson’s banking business and JC Flowers, the US private equity investor, have said they could offer between £900m and £1bn.
That is significantly lower than the £1.4bn which the Government spent on the bank when it was nationalised.
It is being sold by Britain's UKFI organization, which was set up to manage the state's holding in banks bailed out during the crisis, including Lloyds and RBS.
Mr Sandler said: "We are working closely with UKFI and our advisers to explore the options for a sale of Northern Rock, at the right time and in the best interest of tax payers.
"We are pleased with the level of interest we have received, and will continue to explore the sale option over the coming months."
Aggressive lending practices caused Northern Rock's near collapse in 2007 and the then Labour Government put in £1.4bn of taxpayers' money to prop it up.
The nationalisation of the bank sparked the first run on a UK bank for 150 years.
Source http://news.sky.com/

Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors make Sandhills home improvements easier

By Jason Hoppin

SCOTTS VALLEY - As regulatory hurdles go, few stand taller than the Endangered Species Act.
But after a decade of talks, Santa Cruz County officials Tuesday put the finishing touches on a plan that should allow thousands of homeowners living in the hills between Scotts Valley and Ben Lomond to make improvements without tripping over the Mount Hermon June beetle and other rare and endangered species.
With a unanimous vote, the county's Board of Supervisors approved a plan that allows the county, rather than the federal government, to green-light construction permits in the region, which was already well developed by the time it began earning recognition as a unique biological habitat.
"There have been some folks who've been legitimately held back from doing some of the things they want to do" on their home, said Board of Supervisors Chair Mark Stone, whose district includes the hills. "This should allow them to do that."
Since 2008, homeowners could offset an encroachment into the territory of endangered species - and that could include everything from planting a garden to installing outdoor floodlights - by buying mitigation credits through a local land bank. But they still had to submit their plans through the federal government for approval, a costly and time-consuming exercise.
Under the plan approved Tuesday, which has taken years to finalize, the county would assume the task of reviewing those plans and make regular reports to the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. The city of Scotts Valley is expected to weigh a similar plan at its meeting Wednesday.
In other business, home health care workers spoke in droves before the county board to plead for a new contract, a scene that's repeated itself countless times since the deal expired in September.
In talks, the two sides have been at loggerheads over the hourly wage home care workers receive to help the elderly and disabled perform daily tasks, and in same cases keep them out of long-term care facilities. Mediation between the two sides broke down last week, with the Service Employees International Union Long-Term Care Workers, which represents about 2,000 county home care workers, asking for $11.50 an hour.
"It's really important that our members and the people that receive these services, low-income seniors and the disabled, have health care professionals that receive a living wage," said Erik Larsen, an SEIU representative.
The county is offering to pay $10.35 an hour, still among the highest in the state for home health care workers, though lower than the county's living wage for contractors. Home health care workers are not considered contractors.
The dispute stems from the loss of federal stimulus money. Home care workers are paid from federal, state and local sources, and for a time the federal government picked up a larger share of each paycheck. Those funds are no longer available, and the county maintaining that the $10.35 an hour offer still amounts to an increase in county spending of $1.4 million.
The gap remaining between the two sides amounts to a little more than $500,000. With the dispute approaching a year, home health care workers have maintained their $11.50 an hour wage.
"For all of us, it's a major issue that we're trying to resolve," Stone said, after the board met in private to discuss the situation. "They're not the highest-paid folks in the county by any stretch." 

A Prodigal farmer returns home

Up in Rougemont, some 178 goats are being pasture-raised on a sustainable farm, with the help of two gutted-out school buses.
Dave Krabbe and fiancé Kathryn Spann were inspired to buy the buses after seeing a bus lying fallow in a nearby field. Goats can be quite the divas, Spann explained, and it's rare to pasture raise them subjected to inclement weather, among other things.
They gutted the interior, and then blocked off the driver's seat - "So they can't drive the bus into town to get ice cream," Krabbe said. "They are sneaky."
Spann and Krabbe's Prodigal Farm embodies what much of the local food movement is about: passion, drive, and at times surprising decisions.
Spann, 43, was an attorney, and Krabbe, 56, built homes for "Wall Streeters," before moving to Durham County. The couple met in New York City seven years ago, and within a few years had both burned out.
Spann grew up in downtown Durham. Krabbe had always wanted to farm. Both were already big foodies, and the 97 acres they bought in 2007 is where Spann has deep family roots.
They are not alone in this path. A quick email sent to the Durham and Carrboro Farmers' Market managers resulted in nearly a dozen examples of local farmers who were not born into this trade, or even born in North Carolina.
When Bon Appétit magazine named Durham-Chapel Hill (yeah, I know they are two different entities) "America's Foodiest Small Town" back in 2008, much of that had to do with our farmers, and how it is as much a calling as any profession that requires a lot of risk, and heart.
Up at Prodigal Farm, within a few months of buying the land they had a few goats given to them by friends to help clear the long-abandoned pastures - but they fell in love with said goats and their initial plan to raise pigs went by the wayside.
Loving the goats led to breeding the goats, and then they managed to rescue a large number from a farm whose owners were getting divorced. For a while they milked about half-dozen by hand, but when the numbers grew Krabbe put his construction experience to work and built a pristine, state-of-the-art milking parlor.
A friend had shown them how to make cheese on their stovetop, and then Spann took a cheese-making class at NCSU. Thanks to a program unique to North Carolina, they were loaned a pasteurizer for their first year - a big money saver, they said.
Spann now makes all sorts of bloomy rind cheeses as well as your basic, and not-so-basic chevre. They were certified by the state last fall, and have since been selling cheese (and bread made from the whey) at The King's Daughters Inn in Durham, as well as the State Farmer's Market in Raleigh.
The Durham Farmers' Market did not accept new applicants this last year, but I am personally hoping to see Prodigal Farm setting up a booth in the very near future. Come on - they LIVE in Durham County!
The couple say they put to use the same skills they needed in law, and construction, on a daily basis. Navigating the state and county agricultural certifications, lobbying for the conservation easement of local farmland, and restoring the numerous out buildings on the aged property (they currently live in a double-wide while restoring the main farmhouse) make them feel like their backgrounds are (finally, perhaps) paying off.
In fact, thanks to Spann's lobbying energies, just last month the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund granted Durham County the money needed to make Prodigal Farm a perpetual conservation easement.
"This farm will never, ever, ever, be turned into a housing development," Krabbe said, which will make the land more affordable for the next generation of farmers. "It was always be a farm."
Their days are long, and they don't get any time off. Stinging nettly weeds and poison ivy are always an issue, and they find themselves having to act as veterinarians to their herd more than they ever imagined.
But the couple seems about as truly happy as any I've ever come across. And they are upgrading to a pasteurizer that is four times as large as their starter in a about two weeks, which will vastly improve their quality of life - not that they were complaining.

Send your local food and dining news to Elizabeth Shestak at eshestak@mac.com

Source  http://www.thedurhamnews.com/

Why the holiday property market is struggling

HILTON TARRANT: John Loos is strategist at FNB Home Loans. John, an interesting report out by FNB last week, looking specifically at the second quarter FNB estate agents survey and some of the findings there, something consistent with what we’ve picked up with a month or two ago with Ewald Kellerman, your colleague at FNB home loans. The percentage growth or rather the demand on the growth of house prices in holiday towns versus the major metros, an interesting comparison to look at at the moment, given the state of the economy, given the point in the cycle, how are you reading the demand and the price increases that we’re seeing in the metros versus the holiday town markets? 
JOHN LOOS: Well, Hilton, what we tend to find is the demand is more cyclical in holiday towns, as one would expect. So, in bad economic times, demand pulls back faster than in the more stable metro areas because holiday buying is non-essential. Primary residential buying, which drives your metro markets overwhelmingly, is much more necessary for many people, so it’s more stable demand in the metros. So, what we saw was from when we started the survey question on the percentage of buyers believed to be holiday buyers throughout the country, that was up at around about 5% in 2007 when we stared the survey. It slowed down to 1% at this stage last year and then this year we’ve just had something of an up tick, it is obviously relatively thin volumes compared to a year ago but as a percentage of total buying this holiday property buying rose by 3%. So, it seems to have improved somewhat in the holiday towns as people come out of their shells after the recession but not enough yet to eliminate our calculated price inflation differential. Major metros still growing, price wise, by 4.4% in our estimates but the holiday towns still substantially weaker at minus 5% year on year. So, still that price differential between the two regions.  
HILTON TARRANT: John, just in terms of the survey, very easy to guess which the six major metros are where you are basing your comparison. Holiday towns – what sort of areas would you include in that definition?
JOHN LOOS: Well, there’s a whole long list of them but we try to…and it is a bit subjective, admittedly, let me start with a place like Umhlanga, which used to be a holiday town, I’ve eliminated that because it’s very much part of the Durban Metro now. When you go out further, it’s debatable, do you still include Ballito or not? We do, we think there’s a significant amount of holiday demand but it is becoming more of a commuter town. Then when you go down the south coast, you get to the Scottburghs and beyond, the Margates being big ones. Down into the southern Cape it would be the likes of Jeffreys Bay, Plettenberg Bay and Hermanus. Then up the west coast, the likes of Langebaan. But not only the coastal ones, we also include Clarens and a couple of the inland ones as well.
HILTON TARRANT: Just in terms of these figures, if you dig into them, are the amounts of stock available in those towns a primary driver of the kind of movement we’ve seen in prices and in metrics such as average days on the market?
JOHN LOOS: Yes, the stock on the market probably differs quite substantially. I think in your older, more established holiday towns where perhaps land availability isn’t so big, you might not have had as big an oversupply. I talk about, for example, Hermanus, which I think is quite limited in terms of land availability, relatively so. But where you did see big oversupplies created, up the west coast, Langebaan seemed to be the case. Towards the Eastern Cape, Jeffreys Bay definitely seemed to be the case. Where big building booms happened during the boom years because of greater land availability, it was more affordable in those towns for the person hoping to get on to that holiday property ladder, to get in there. So, big oversupplies in some of those towns, yes.
HILTON TARRANT: Just looking at the House Price Index out today, acceleration in July but an interesting one to look at, over the past couple of months, given that we had impacts of a number of public holidays in March, April and May, might we see a more normalised figure in the months of, perhaps, June, July August?
JOHN LOOS: When you say normalised, Hilton, what would you mean?
HILTON TARRANT: Just as a figure that wouldn’t be affected as much by the amount of days or the amount of public holidays, the mount of external influences that we saw in April, as well as May.
JOHN LOOS: Well, one must remember, there’s normally around March / April, the public holidays are normally very significant every year. Although this year Easter did move back into April, so it’s possible that our acceleration in the House Price Index growth rate to 4.6% in July reflects something of an increase in demand after an abnormally holiday-ridden April. But I think the driver of this acceleration goes further back into the summer months, we had the two interest rate cuts late last year and I think that just, apart from the normal seasonal summer demand, I think something was added on to that by those rate cuts. Our estate agents survey in the summer quarter was reporting it and that’s the lagged impact of that, I think, coming through into the year on year house price growth now, rather than the public holidays of April.
HILTON TARRANT: We are seeing the impact though of this lower interest rate environment and despite what seems to look good on paper, given that we have interest rates at a multi-decade low, you do point out that there’s still a very firm anti-speculative bias in the market. One would have thought that a number of South Africans who maybe had a little bit more income to invest would maybe be speculating in the property market right now but your research seems to suggest that they aren’t.
JOHN LOOS: Well, I think there probably are a few, there probably always are but what a lot of speculators require…when you’re living off borrowed money, what is nice is when you’ve got strong capital growth, now the boom provided it, the boom got started by economic and interest rate fundamentals and primary residential demand and all the good things. Then it created strong capital growth and then you get a group of speculators that climb in to ride the trend, in other words, they’re bargaining on that they can borrow money, buy a home now and even in six month’s time or a year’s time, a short period of time, can make a handsome profit and repay the loan just purely because of this capital growth that exists. Now, at the moment, prime rate’s at 9%, you might get a loan, if you’re lucky, slightly below that but with house price growth only at 4.6% that is negative in real terms if you use the house price inflation rate to adjust prime. It’s really no good from a short-term speculation point of view if you want to borrow money and make a shot term profit.
HILTON TARRANT: John, just to close off with, that figure of 4.6% year on year growth, does seem a lot better than the figures we saw possibly a few months ago and during last year. But you do point out that the residential market, there will still be a fair amount of pressure on the residential market, given the economic conditions we’re seeing, the higher oil price, administered pricing increases, very slow growth in credit demand at the moment, how are you seeing that play out?
JOHN LOOS: Well, I think at the moment, look, it’s difficult to call a double dip. Although I don’t think the double dip recession for the world economy is off the table yet, some do but I think it’s still a risk. But tough one to call but I think what we’re seeing, if you look at key global leading indicators, most of them seem to be pointing to a slowdown. The world’s biggest economy, the US, leading indicator has been pointing down for a while. They would forget about the debt agreement or the debt ceiling agreement, which has been reached, they have to grapple with the problem of zero percent interest rates, so not much more stimulus to give, a very high level of indebtedness, which they have to work down by cutting their fiscal deficit. Then on top of it, oil prices over the past number of months have been substantially higher and the US is an oil guzzling economy. So, the world’s biggest economy I think is under pressure, already its growth has slowed to pedestrian pace in the first half of the year and this affects the world economy, not to even mention Europe’s problems, which are quite significant. So, it’s looking like slowdown economically in South Africa as well, we’ve seen the leading indicator, over the past few months, declining. The housing market is as much about the economy as it is about interest rates because that puts pressure on household income and the ability to buy houses. So, I’m less concerned about interest rates, I have a feeling that the Reserve Bank may postpone any interest rate hiking for quite some time but it’s more about the weakness in the world economy and signs of weakness in our own economy, which I think could put increased pressure on the housing market in the second half of the year.
HILTON TARRANT: So, very much a buyers market at the moment if at least those buyers can afford it.
JOHN LOOS: Well, it’s always tough to say buyers market. Yes, it’s a relatively weak market and you can drive a hard bargain but, of course, a lot of buyers or would-be buyers under financial pressure themselves and it’s important, I think, in these tough times to buy well within your means. Yes, some do still believe interest rates will go up later this year or early next year and ultimately interest rates always do go up. But it’s not only about that, it’s also about all the costs being heaped on to housing, we know about Eskom and we know about municipalities. So, in these tough economic times, tough financial times, I think it’s always good to buy within one’s means if one is entering the property market. 
HILTON TARRANT: John Loos is strategist at FNB Home Loans.
Source http://www.moneyweb.co.za/