Sometimes, I’d like to flog the guy that came up with blog meme’s…

My cyber pal Maureen posted her favorite posts of 2006 (which you should all go read right now – good stuff). Having read my 2007 Blogolutions, and knowing me well enough to realize I’d need help with them (as already evidenced by my lack of posting over the weekend), Mo decided to tag me, meme me (meme me?), whatever it’s called. Waves of bad luck are promised if I break the chain. Given that no one needs any extra bad luck, and more importantly given that I really like Ms. Francis, here you have my choices for favorite posts of 2006 on this blog:

New Home Builders Suck Up to Phoenix Realtors!: Posted March 2006. I’ve never really been shy about expressing my opinions on the real estate industry. Heck, some have even comented here with things like “you insult all Realtors” and other such nonsense. This post was made back when I only posted a few times a month and had a readership of about 4 people, myself included. The builder incentives for agents really ticked me off, especially back in March when just a few months before that, builders cut agent commissions to ZERO and basically shunned us. Now they grovel at our feet. Well, go grovel somewhere else.

The Real Reason for Memorial Day: Only 20 words. The pictures tell the story.

The ActiveRain Real Estate “Social Network”: Posted June 2006. Looking back, it’s really not that great a post. But note the date. It was posted not long after ActiveRain was “born”. Check the comment by one Matt Heaton, AR CEO… there were 288 ActiveRain profiles then. They are pushing 13,000 now. It’s a wonderful resource, and full of amazing people.

Hey Realtors, Answer The Phone!: Posted August 2006. Still my main source of irritation.

A Tribute to Harry Ramos: Posted September 11, 2006. Researching and writing this was so incredibly painful. Even today I can’t read it without weeping like a baby. (Hell, I’m misting up writing this…) “Project 2,996” was a group of bloggers writing individual tributes to all of the victims of 9-11. As painful as it was, participating in 2,996 was an honor. It’s my all time favorite post, and will probably always be so. Please, don’t ever forget.

On Chicken Little, Booming & Crashing, Insanity and Herd-minded Snakes: Posted October 2006. Born from a bubbler’s comments. My favorite title. And the comments are great (and show, somewhat surprisingly, that a tacful and reasonable exchange can be made with “bubbleheads”.)

Zillow This, Zillow That: Or, For the Love of Pete, Enough Already!: Posted December 2006. A “non-post”. I wasn’t going to talk about Zillow. Again, Maureen made me do it (apparently she has a habit of this). The first comment by “Anonymous” may be my all time favorite comment.

So there you have it. Some of my favorite posts of 2006. Don’t ask me what “criteria” I used to pick them. I just scrolled through the archives and found some favorites.

Now I get to tag someone else. Hang on while I try to find someone that hasn’t already done this….  Let’s tag Jonathan Dalton. He’s got a shiny new WordPress blog so here’s his excuse to link back to some posts on his old blog. And trust me, there are some real gems there…

[tags]Maureen Francis, Memorial Day, Harry Ramos, 9/11, Zillow, Active Rain[/tags]