Friday, September 23, 2011

Yoga Class

It is extremely hard for me to think of topics to write about. I have so many things going on in my life, yet finding something interesting to write about is so complicated each week. I think I will write about my Friday mornings yoga class. I had never taken any type of yoga class in the past and didn’t really know what it was like. This semester I decided to try it since I needed the unit anyway. My expectations of this class were way off. I thought that yoga was a relaxation method where the main concentration is your breathing and stretching. I never thought it would be such a complicated process. I have only had that class about four weeks and I have learning so much about it. Let me tell you, it is not the easiest tasks in the world. The different positions are very complex and entail a lot of work. My first three times in the class instead of achieving relaxation, I achieved frustration. The instructor made us do many positions that I didn’t even know my body can do. Instead of slowing down my heart beat, it elevated it as if I were jogging. Luckily, today for the first time I actually fared to control my movements and somewhat regulate my breathing. However, just when I was getting into the yoga routine the instructor incorporated more complex movements that again through me off. Hopefully in the next class I can manage to control the new movements, if not I will never take yoga again in my life!
Fared- Verb: Perform in a specified way in a particular situation or over a particular period of time
Entail- to cause or involve by necessity or as a consequence

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Mortgage Fraud

It is amazing to me how so many individuals are being scammed in the housing market. I work as a loan officer for an independent company and on a daily basis I hear of new stories where families were scammed out of $4000, $ 5000 and even $10000.
After the housing market crashed in 2009 many people became desperate to save their homes and began looking for help. People were willing to pay thousands of dollars in order to stay in their home. As the need for mortgage assistance increased, the amount of people willing to help also increased. Many of these small companies were not looking to help the people; instead they saw a way of taking advantage of their distress. These companies promised people that they would save their home and lower their mortgage payments. Other companies promised to take the bank to court and lower their principle balance to the current market value, which is unreasonable to think of. After hearing all of these promises the people became hopeful and foolish.
People were charged for loan modifications that were never achieved, thus they ended up losing their house. Others were charged for civil law suits against the bank that were never even taken to court. Some companies even disappeared after receiving the money from the clients and did this all throughout the country. After discovering that these companies were doing fraud the government implemented a new law, that companies could not charge upfront fee for loan modification. However, even with this new law people were still being asked to pay and many of them did.
When these *fraught individuals come to me after being scammed 2-3 times, they appear so *despondent. Most of them just want to forget this whole nightmare and short sale their properties. They no longer believe in any company actually helping them, all they want it to be stress free.

*Fraught- Marked by or causing destress; emotional.
*Despondent- Feeling or expressing despondency; dejected

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Introduction

   
     Since this is my first blog entry I will begin by introducing myself. My name is Karen, I am twenty two years old. I was raised in Santa Cruz California, but at the age of seventeen my family and I moved to San Jose. I am a senior at San Jose State University and will be graduation in May 2012 with a major in Political Science and a minor in Psychology. I am in the process of planning my wedding which will take place December 17th.
     My fiancĂ© and I decided to get married through the Catholic Church since both of our parents are devoted Catholics. The experience of planning our wedding has been very exciting but at the same time very frustrating. It has been frustrating because I never imagined the amount of requirements that are needed in order to be married in the Catholic Church. It has been meeting after meeting and class after class.  I understand that certain preparation is needed before marriage but seriously this has gone to an extreme. Today, for example we spent three hours in a couple’s counseling talking about finances and sexuality. The topics we discussed were common sense and extremely superfluous. My finance and I are very overwhelmed with how they have decided to prepare couples for marriage. I asked the priest why the church had implemented all these new requirements and he stated that it was because of the rising divorce rate. He said that according to the Catholic Church all these counseling classes would prepare us and thus, attenuate the chances of divorce. If this is true, we will see.


*1. Attenuate:
        to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value.
*2. Superfluous:
        being more than is sufficient or required; excessive, Unnecessary.