We have a first today at the site...   Someone random linked to me. 

I was looking at my referring sites and noticed a site a didn't recognize.  I have no idea who this person is, but he linked to my post regarding "the big red middle."  I'm not going to defend my opinion for two reasons:

1)  I shouldn't have to.  I posted my feelings and I wasn't knocking anyone else's feelings.

2)  The comment obviously wasn't meant to be serious political analysis and commentary.  Anytime I end a post with "warm, fuzzy feelings" and "Go Rudy" you should be intuitive enough to realize I'm not being serious.  Truthfully, that's how I feel, but it was a silly, offhand comment.  If I was posting a more serious assessment on the reasons why I think Rudy Giuliani would make a better President than Hilary Clinton you'd be able to tell the difference.

Obviously, people's opinions differ from my own, and I respect that.  What I can't stand is people who will personally attack those whose opinions differ from their own.  The random guy who linked to me went on to describe the Midwest, which supported Bush in large numbers (4-8% in a controversial and highly contested presidential election is a pretty solid margin as far as I'm concerned... ), in the following manner:

"That big red middle you got your mandate from, a lot of that "red" is sand, dirt, rocks, water, and three guys with AK-47s!  Do you really think every square mile of this great country has the same population density? Dear Lord no, you can't be that stupid, can you."

I'm sorry, but that's just really offensive.  My best friend is from Wyoming and she's a lovely human being.  I understand the nature of population density and we can debate this all we want, but the bottom line is that Bush won and Kerry lost, no matter how you slice it.  What's not necessary is to rip on anyone's personal opinion.  I don't think anyone was stupid for voting for John Kerry.  In fact, I was a Kerry voter, just barely, for a good part of this election, and it wasn't until the debates that I ran out of patience with him.  I don't think anyone would be stupid to vote for Hilary Clinton if she ever ran either.  I personally dislike her (greatly) but the best part about our country is that we're all free to express our opinion.  There's no need to characterize people in Middle America as three guys with AK-47s.  That's just offensive and disrespectful, and there's nothing that can justify that.  We're one country, and while we don't always agree, we should respect each other and take each other seriously.

Also, there's no need to characterize me as Republican.  I'm a registered independent and I'm pretty liberal on a number of issues.  Frankly, I think political parties should be banned and I'd like to just choose based on each candidates individual criteria, rather than their ability to tow a party line.  That's why I like Bloomberg.  Let's be clear, now.  Mayor Mike is a Democrat.  He switched parties to run in the mayoral election and avoid a very crowded Democratic slate of hopefuls.  He could care less about political parties, because he's rich enough to care less.  He says what he feels and does what he feels is right.  I respect that.

Anyway... I will give the random linker credit for an amusing headline to his post.

"This is going to be stupid.  I can feel it."  Highly amusing.

I wonder how he found my blog.  Perhaps now that I've posted this, he'll come out of the woodwork and post a comment on my site as opposed to just talking behind my blog.  :)

I'm in the newspaper!  (I'm not sure if that link will always work, but the article is written by Patricia Kitchen and its in today's Newsday.)

The article is about young people and their careers.  Here's my part:

"New York, especially, can be a breeding ground for a who's-in-the-lead mentality, says Charlie O'Donnell, 24, an analyst in a New York City private equity group. A graduate of Fordham University, he's set up a young alumni mentoring program there for students and finds that some are "very focused on getting a job as opposed to getting the best job for them," which would call for slowing down and doing some self-assessment.

Young people also can "pay too much attention to what they perceive as the pace around them. Others get jobs and move up and it's easy to feel like you're falling behind."

While he's no advocate of staying stuck in a going-nowhere situation, he does say there's value to finding some kind of fulfillment in the job you're in for as long as you're there. He addresses such career issues on his Web site www.findmypath.com."

Ok, how cool is that?!  The story behind it is funny.  I e-mailed her months and months ago when I was trying to generate interest in my book, and she literally just called me last Monday for this article.  She even featured the Find My Path site!  haha... wooooo   I'm going to get to work on advertising the site more now that its been featured in a major newspaper.  wooooooo

Ugly Sign Misses the Mark in NYC Subway

Leave it to idiocy to bring out idiotic comments from people.  So someone hacked into the transit message system in the subway and made the signs say, "Pretty Girls Don't Ride the Subway". 

So a reporter goes around asking people about this, as if this is real news that we should be wasting brain cells on. 

The responses?

"It's a vicious lie," said Rachel Russell, 37, an East Village arts-program coordinator, mostly in jest. "I think someone is trying to be clever."  (Someone... not you, but someone...)

Another woman...

"That's horrible," she said of the sign. "I'm pretty, and I take the subway every day."

(Horrible?  Horrible is a curious puppy getting his nose snipped off by a weed wacker.  This falls slightly short of horrible, ma'am.)

Nick Bello, 57, a technical representative from Brooklyn, said he has seen proof that the message is wrong. "It's very strange," he said. "I see a lot of pretty girls on the subway."   

(Good to know that 57 year old Nick is ogling pretty girls on the subway on his way home.  I'm sure his wife will have something to say about that.)

Actress Katharyn Bond, 33, of the upper West Side, who was wearing a little black dress with heels and a pink shawl, was taking the subway to a theater to see a play. "Pretty women," she said, "take the subway so we can go spend money on more important things - like alcohol."

(Clearly she already had a few in her when she gave the reporter the spelling of her name.)

So after I walked out of the Starbucks this morning, I walked down this street with a sign to "Coit Tower".  There was a long set of steep stairs up this hill and a spire at the top of the hill... looked like an interesting place to go, plus I wondered with the view might look like from up there.

The sun kind of washed out the second and third level of stairs above this....  its such a curious setup, right up from the end of this side street.

At the top of this set of stairs, halfway up the hill, there's a really great view.  PS... this post is now a race against my laptop battery.  Can't find a plug in this Starbucks.

Odd pink castle up the hill...

You gotta be kiddin' me...   

"Hey, where do these stairs go?

They go up..."   

- Ghostbusters  (One of the most well written comedies ever.)

Who says people in California are strange?  This woman appears to be completely normal.  Of course, I'm not sure I can say the same thing for the owner of this house.

Well, maybe I do have some photographic talent.  Although, a untrained monkey probably could have taken a good shot from this spot given this fantastic scenery.  Obviously, that's the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.  Perhaps New York should start painting some of its bridges.  How about painting the Verrazano bridge yellow?

I'm here.... literally.  The little black asterisk on the top left of the map marks my spot...   but I'm also right there in the reflection.  Cool, no?  My tat my reflect my inner badass, but this picture definately reflects the inner dork.  Check out the panorama of photos at the top of this hill by the Coit Tower below...

Sweet.

You know what, I'm not even going to include a picture of the tower itself, because its not nearly as cool as the view.

But you know what is cool?  This guy's door...

I took that on the walk back down the hill.

The rest of the day I spent mostly driving.  I drove down to Palo Alto to have lunch with Valarie from CM Capital at Zibbibo.  I had a puttenesca pizza... good stuff. 

I did visit Stanford, but I didn't take any pictures.  I don't want to jinx it, because then I'll feel like a goofball.  After Stanford, I drove around University Avenue...  there are some great houses down on the other end.  I love looking at houses.  I took an architecture course in Regis and every time I look at an interesting design, I mentally add it to the list of stuff I'd like in my own house one day.  I think it would be great to design my own house--with someone special of course. 

A really special architect.  ;)

Oh, Holian will appreciate this.  On the drive back into the city, I snapped off a quick photo on the highway..

   How sweet is that Vette?  Its like a '70 or so.  I also saw a new Mustang at Stanford.  I can't decide whether or not I want a new Mustang or an older car like this.  I guess it depends on whether or not I'll be driving to Greenwich everyday.

I wish more people would post comments on my blog.  It would be nice if it was a bit more interactive.

     Thinking about grad school and figuring out where my next challenges are going to come from has made realize just how much of a constant GM has been in my life.  I've been there since February 3, 1997.  Just the idea of not being there is a little strange and just that building itself has become sort of a mental safety beacon.  I walk around midtown with friends or on dates and enivitably I walk by it and point out to anyone who doesn't know yet, "I work here."  Walking around its halls has always felt comfortable and there was never anyone there I felt I had to be careful or timid around, from Allen Reed on down.  Oh, I applied for other internships and jobs in the meantime, but nothing else provided the challenge and the stimulation, so it was never really an issue.  Even when I signed with JP Morgan, my start date was so far away that I'm not sure the realization that I would be leaving GM ever truly hit me.
     And now, leaving in the next year is a realistic possibility--in fact, its a likely occurrence.  Its not necessarily scary...  its just...  different.  Its a lot to think about.  At the same time, its exciting.  The one thing I'm definately not used to is having to convince anyone of my ability.  I was sitting there writing applications and I just wanted to write down what I told Larry--that I would bet any amount of money that, when all is said and done, however you want to measure success, that I would come out in the top quarter of my Stanford class in twenty years.  The trouble is, like investing in venture, is that there isn't a commonly accepted set of predictive criteria on leadership, so you present who you are, and you just leave it up to some admissions counselor to decide whether or not you're a top quartile candidate.  Its very frustrating.  You just want to reach through the computer (the app was online) and grab the counselor and go, "How can you not see that I'm great!?  I'll outhustle any of these goofballs."
And that's what it really comes down to--outhustling your competition, which is difficult to show in a short trial.  That's why I did so well at GM.  I had four years to show them I was worth hiring.  That helped, because I'm not particularly flashy as a candidate for anything. 
     That's what happened to me when I tried out for baseball at Regis.  Its hard to show up with 80 guys trying out for 18 spots and singles hit your way onto the roster.  I remember this one at bat when I was playing for St. Ephrem's...   I must have fouled off about 8 or 9 pitches.  The pitcher was visably frustrated and it just popped into my mind that I was absolutely getting a hit.  I just decided to get a hit.  Now, maybe that's just drinking the Kool Ade, but it was so clear to me in my mind that I was going to get one.  On the next pitch, I smacked an eye level fastball right up through the box on a line drive--nearly decapitated the pitcher.  It was really a laser.  Yet, how can you show people in a short trial that you can do that? 
     So here I am with three or four possible paths that my life could take over the next year, but I'm not exactly holding the cards.  I hate feeling like I cannot affect my life and that I have to depend on outside forces.  I've always believed that your life is what you make out of, and that, to a large extext, you can pretty much brute force your destiny--if only because few others believed you could and no one else was really trying.  I still believe that in the grand scheme, but these little individual decision points that I need to leave in the hands of others are inordinately frustrating for me.  Last night, I saw the Incredibles, which was incredibly entertaining.  There was a preview for Star Wars (which I don't seem to be as big a fan as everyone else's), but it made me think of Obi Wan's ability to influence the decisions of others.  I'd like to just be able to wave my hand and get them to say, "This one has promise, we should take him on."
    I'll tell you though, this is where blogs become interesting.  Someone made a comment the other day about how blogs might change the nature of job interviews.

Deirg (I figured I'd post a picture of her, since I'm going picture crazy lately and she does represent a good third of my social life as one of my two best friends) said last night that she would never feel comfortable with an employer reading her blog.  Personaly, I didn't have an issue with it, and in a way, I welcomed it.  In all honesty, this is as close to a record of who I've been for the past eight months as anything...certainly more fullsome than an interview.  Sure, maybe there are some off color jokes, but if people aren't comfortable with that, then I'm probably not suited to work for them.  Politcal comments?  Yeah, that could hinder me, too.  But, its me.  I'm not apologetic for any of it and I think its a lot of the kind of insight people are looking for in an interview.  To me, interviews have always been more about personality and drive than qualifications.  When I interviewed Jeff the Intern, he had little experience with Access, and no experience dealing with institutional investing.  He knew nothing about private equity either.  But,  what he had was curiousity and drive.  If there was a model to do that he had to learn from scratch, I could count on him to figure his way out of it.  Would I rather have had someone who had created cashflow models for portfolios?  Well, actually, no.  Because, how would I know where their knowledge ends.  Everyone's knowledge ends somewhere... more importantly is where they are going to take it when they reach that point.  Will they strive to learn?  Stay late or wake up early to noodle their way out of a perplexing problem?  I can throw a lot at that kid and I just know enough of it will stick that he'll figure it out, which is how I think of myself.  I can't tell you how many times I've cut Larry off and said, "Just give it to me, I'll figure it out."  That's personality...  that's tough to diligence in an interview.  Yet, I don't think most people would be comfortable with an employer delving into their experiences on such a personal level.  Me?  I say, "Bring it on."

Do you know why I like Google Mail Notifier?   

Because, as I'm rushing out of my apartment to leave work, it lets me know if there are any last minute, potentially career altering, messages I need to mull over on my way into work.

I just got a visit from the Spot Fairy. I was walking up my block and I noticed a spot on the right side of the street for tomorrow. I had planned on waking up a 1/2 hour earlier to park the car in Queens by Deirg's house, as per the usual game of musical cars I play. Now, I get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep, b/c the car is legally parked right across the street from my apartment.

Thank you, Spot Fairy.

Sometimes, I like to think of myself as a badass... at least as badass as an investment analyst can be. I drive a badass car But, admittedly, I have some non-badass fascinations... things I can't help but stop and notice. The last few weeks, its been a voice at DTUT. Like my own personal Enya or Dido, all work comes to a screeching halt when she plays her two songs that combine for under eight minutes, only one of which can be a cover (or so the rules go.) I wonder... people base relationships around looks sometimes... can you base it on voice. What's the audio version of arm candy? Vocal cord candy? I just want her to walk around with me and sing in my ear... She's a voice hottie. That's probably not as badass as my car.

"Every little thing..."

So I got my second review back for the book, and its obvious I need to do some repositioning of the concept. Career counselors are not going to accept, or more importantly, encorporate a book into their program if it comes off as a replacement or replication of what they are already doing--especially not from someone who has a lot more experience than them.

So, if you can't beat them, join them. Basically, I'm going to rewrite it to make it "Make Your Career Counselor's Life Easier From Day One." It will basically have all the same content, but it will be positioned so that its basically meant to prepare you for the regular career education process offerred by a school. The idea is that your career education, like any other education, is all about what you put into it.

The second part of this is that I'm going to try to partner up with a career counselor who might make commentary, introductions--that kind of peripheral content addition that adds credibility, but doens't change my work. So, back to the drawing board.

These photos are from a week and a half ago... Holian came up for the Fordham football game, and coincidently, Brian and Tim, along with their Brooklyn crew came out to the same bar that night. Claire, Suzie, Carlie, and Kathleen came, too. It was more people that I knew at one place than I think I've ever had before.

Ok, so here are some pictures I took from Homecoming... I know it was like over a month ago, but now that I've switched my blog to Typepad, its a lot easier for me to post photos. I'll be more diligent about posting them in real time as soon as I catch up. In addition to hanging out in the parking lot, me, McBride and Liz Werner visited Queens Court, our dorm in freshmen year, to dig up the past. That night, I hung out with Deirg & Co. at the Beer Garden.

So Jeff the Intern says to me today, "I'll bet you Hilary is glad that Bush won, so she can run in 2008."

I just looked at that little map with that huge red section in the middle and said, "Look at this country. Look at how much red there is in the middle. They couldn't get John Kerry elected... there's no way in hell that this country elects Hilary Clinton. No way in hell."

And that gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Go Rudy.

So, kayaking season at the Downtown Boathouse is over, and its quite saddening.  I basically lived there on weekends, spending a good chunk of my Saturdays and Sundays helping people get onto the water, patrolling the embayment, and meeting lots of new people.  I took some trips to the Statue of Liberty, Governor's Island, and up the Hudson to the Intrepid. It was probably the best summer I've ever had. Here are a few pics I took towards the end of the summer. When I get a chance, I'll move these pics from the Graveyard trip over to this site as well. 

When I was at Fordham, I loved walking around that campus... walking around in my world. I got that same feeling at the Boathouse. Everything was within reach, and you could just reach out and touch it--affect your surroundings, connect to other people. I'm struggling to recreate that feeling in my own life. Sometimes, from my apartment, the world just seems so big... I feel very small when I'm in here. I need to get out of here. If Stanford becomes my ticket out, I'll leave early... maybe not actually leave, but take next summer off... just be free to do whatever I want. Should I quit my job and just work on my book? Seems silly... b/c who would buy a career book from someone out of work? I suppose I could ditch Stanford and just go to grad school here... get my MA in Counseling and work for Fordham in the meantime. If I don't make Stanford, I might do that. I don't know. For almost eight years, my job has been the place I wanted to be, and now, I'm not so sure... I know I can do something great, but I don't want to ruin the chances of that by doing anything stupid.

If I could just wake up, work out, counsel students and run programs all day, kayak on the weekends, and play softball once a week, I'd do that for the rest of my life. There are days this weighs on me more than others. I've started not liking Sunday nights... feeling like I should have accomplished more during the weekend and not feeling like I've accomplished enough to start the week.

Your application has been successfully submitted. The next email you receive will be from the MBA Admissions Office, confirming the application round and status of your application. Thank you for using the Stanford Graduate School of Business' online application process.

It is done.

After they lost their third game in the series against the Yanks, I sent this e-mail to Ryan Roy, who is as diehard a Red Sawks fan as they come...

"My condolences. Your boys let you, and everyone else down, big time.

And why the hell can't you get a manager who knows when to take
pictures out and put them in? Mendoza should have been in there for
three innings. It was obviously going to be one of those games, and
if he gives up a couple of runs, so what. He got yanked early, and
that's what opened up the floodgates."

I may have been a bit premature.

Ok, so I'm at DTUT right now and they have rented out the entire back half for a kiddie party. I think the birthday girl is about 1, so she really has no idea who all of these people are. Call me a cynic, but there's no point to throwing birthdays for kids who have no idea what's going on. Its more for the parents then anything.

Watching this whole scene play out has given me a great idea for a business. Someone could make a killing out in front of this place valet parking all of these strollers. First of all, these things have gotten like SUVs. Some of the wheels are basically regular sized car tires and I could swear that one of them had spinner rims.

This woman just asked one of the bus boys how she'd know which one was hers after they took the stroller from her to put it in the basement or something. ?!? Um... how many of them have purple ducks strapped to the side? If she was really that concerned, she'd leave something in it even more recognizable, like her kid. (Holy shit... ELMO JUST WALKED IN. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. ITS REALLY ELMO... IN THE FUZZ...ELMO ROCKS.)

Of course, this kid has no idea who Elmo is and half of the kids are crying now. You know its more for the parents. I hear they're considering Elmo to replace Pierce as the next 007.

Oh, and how is this for sketchy. I'm sitting here last night and this girl starts talking to me. She goes to a local college and she's studying for exams next week. We start chatting and she breaks out with the "Its so hard meeting people in the city." So we talk about all the things we do in our spare time, like her world travel and my kayaking. We trade numbers and I wind up texting her after she leaves. Here's the text conversation...

Me: This uber-style conscious chic just sat down in your seat. She has this ridiculous fuzzy hat and is not nearly as interesting to watch... and yeah, I was definately watching out of the corner of my eye before you spoke up. I'm glad you did. Have a good night.

Her: Uh oh... You better watch out, u know what they say about women w/ fuzzy hats..! It was great to meet u... Perhaps we will meet up soon?!

So I go home, go to sleep, and then I'm back at DTUT the next day...

Me: Definately... what's your real e-mail btw? You're probably working tonight, but if not, you should come out with my roommates and I. I'll be at DTUT all afternoon, but they have a kiddie party here until 2:15, so I can't guarantee a seat.

Her: I work till 2am- blah! Thanks though! I must admit, i have a bf. Perhaps u dont want 2 hang out anymore b/c of that?

WTF?? I'm sorry, but what are you doing trading numbers with guys at cafes and talking about how hard it is to meet people in the city if you have a boyfriend??? That's just bad news... and I don't want to talk to her, but not because she has a boyfriend, but she's obviously walking a very thin line with being honest and upfront. I certainly wouldn't want to be her boyfriend. Now, if she mentioned it upfront and said, "Yeah it would be cool to get our friends together and hang out because we're so close by," I would have been totally ok with that, but that is seriously sketchy. Am I wrong?

"WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration decided Friday that it will impose a quota on sock imports from China -- the latest round of an increasingly bitter trade dispute with Beijing -- showing a willingness to protect American workers ahead of the election.

Trade has become a hot issue on the campaign trail with President Bush, an unrepentant free trader, accusing his Democratic opponent John Kerry of being an "economic isolationist." Mr. Kerry has countered that Mr. Bush has not done enough to protect American workers from unfair foreign competition."

Besides being amused that we might have a sock shortage or that the price of socks might go up (which really effects me because I wear two pairs of socks at a time), I'm TOTALLY confused. Admittedly, the only thing I remember about our trade policy was the steel tariff--and I extrapolated out of that that Bush was the protectionist. Am I wrong here? I know I've heard Kerry bash outsourcing, but I just assumed that Bush was protection minded as Kerry was. If Bush is the free trader, then that's one more point for Bush in my book. Free trade is good. Outsourcing is good. We all benefit in the long run when things get done more cheaply. We can't offord to "protect" American jobs. We need to make America more competitive and make people want to buy American products. If you don't buy American, don't complain when we have to ship jobs oversees. If you don't drive a GM car, don't blame us for closing plants, because if we don't close them, the whole company goes under and lots more people lose their jobs. Its that simple. I think everyone should be forced to take an economics course so that people understand how capitalism and free trade works.
Its just like the flu shot. First, EVERYONE wants it. Then everyone wants it for FREE. On top of that, then they want to be able to SUE the drug companies if you get sick from it, which is a stated risk. And on top of that, people want MORE life saving drugs to hit the market. Someone explain to me how this is supposed to work without tanking the entire publically traded healthcare sector, dragging down all of our retirement money. It just doesn't add up and neither does protectionism.

Well, I just had one of the most bizzare computer experiences I've ever had. First of all, to put it in context, I'm locked out of my home computer at the moment. Somehow, my password got changed, or I forgot it, which is less likely, because I use the same password or variations of it for just about everything. Anyway, if you don't have an administrator set up on it, you're basically fucked. I have one user account set up, and I can't get into it. There are a few freeware fixes for it, but unfortunately, they're located on sketchy sites that the GM internet won't let me one. I suppose I'll have to get Jeff the intern to download me one of these safecracking programs.

Anyway, that's not even the bizzare thing. I'm sitting at DTUT, and all of the sudden, my computer tells me that its going to shut off, and starts counting down from 60. Now, I'm supposed to be working on my Stanford essays, so this isn't exactly the most opportune time for such an event. And of course, the "why don't you try turning it on and off" method (see "EDS manuever" in the dictionary) didn't work. So it just kept shutting off on me. I tried to connect to the internet to wirelessly e-mail myself my essays, but I couldn't do it quick enough. I had to go back to work, swap my CD drive for the floppy, and see if I could copy my files onto a disk before the countdown ran out. Then, I figured, I'd grab Jeff the intern's computer and type it on there. What was bizzare was that, while I was at work, the countdown never started. It sat there fine. So, I tried to figure out what was different about logging on at work vs logging on at DTUT, even if I'm not actually on the network at work. The only difference is that, at DTUT, the wireless card picks up a network and starts doing stuff. So, after copying my files and lugging BOTH laptops to DTUT, I unplugged the card and restarted. It worked fine. Then, I even went as far as to plug it back in after startup, and, well, I'm obviously blogging now so that works. So, for some strange reason, if I start the laptop with the wireless card plugged in around a live network, a 60 second countdown starts on my PC and it shuts off.

WTF?

What the hell kind of malfunction is this? Dude... whoever designed these things was touched in the head. I'll tell you... Open Source can't be any worse than this.

You know what I realized, though? One of my strengths definately has to be my ability to be methodical and keep a cool head in a bad situation. I didn't get frustrated or annoyed. My pulse barely moved up a hiccup when my computer crashed. I calmly thought about what I needed to do, packed up, walked to the subway, and went back to work and did it. No stress, no nothing. Just effeciency. :)