And now, a brief commercial break.  I just want to take some time to promote my career Q&A site for college students, Find My Path (www.findmypath.com).  Over the holidays, I'm really going to ramp up promotion now that I've got a little buildup of content to hit the ground running with.  I'll be mass mailing to lots of career counseling professionals and talking about it wherever I can. 

I would appreciate it if you could help spread the word.  College students have lots of career questions, and those that don't would benefit from hearing the questions being asked by their peers.  This is a great forum to get questions answered and I'm very proud of it.  Please pass this site on to teachers, students, anyone you can think of. 

Thanks,

Charlie

Last night was yet another Fordham Young Alumni Third Thursday Happy Hour.  This one was a benefit organized by the Young Alumni Committee (see left) for Toys for Tots.  We didn't get the same kind of turnout we did last year, but it was still a blast.  I think a lot of people don't show because they don't know who else might be coming, but for the people that went, we were at O'Flahertys from about 6:30 to midnight.  Some of us partied harder than others...   I think the highlight of the night was introducing Jillian to Kristin Naz.  They're both going to be in the same teaching in Hungary program next year, and they hit it off tremendously.  Its funny, because Amanda was upset that the turnout was less than expected, but I think that seeing just this one connection was worth everyone's participation for the entire night.  Its about the quality, not the quantity.  Plus, I was glad to see Kristin there, because I hadn't seen her in a while and her work schedule is usually pretty ridiculous.

Me, Samara, Trevor and Ryan shot some rounds of pool as well. 

And, better late than never, Kat Bride graced us with her presence after work.  I think this is an interesting shot...  perhaps its the combo of the colors and the art behind her...

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I'm listening to Anil from Six Apart and Jim Coudal on the Blogging for Business conference call among some others.  There are 163 people on the call at this moment.   The number of curious people on the sidelines is enormous (maybe good tailwind for my Learning Annex class on Blogging for Success... which is on March 16th, btw... details to come soon, but save the date!).

Its interesting to see businesses feel out exactly how they are going to use blogs...   since this medium originally developed around individuals and bubbled up as oppossed to trickling down from the big guys.

"... Blogs are an opportunity to demonstrate authority on a subject in a very personal way... blogs have personality." - Jim

Anil made a good point about blogs are transparency and how transparency helps build brand...

What really strikes me, as Anil is discussing it, is how positive a medium blogging is turning out to be.  Instances of positive commentary, trading links, creating interesting discussion, etc. seems to completely dwarf negative instances of commentary, personal criticism, content spamming, etc.   I think part of that comes from the fact that the medium tends to focus more on bringing like minded people together.  Chances are, if you're reading a blog, you're already interested in a topic and have a similar perspective as the writer. 

Content is definately king...   "Blogs without good content are like a guitar in the hands of someone who can't play."  - Jim

I got my RSS analogy into the meeting comments...  "If web content is pizza, then HTML is like sitting down to eat it in the pizzeria, and RSS is like getting a pie "to go".  "That's gold, Jerry...   GOLD!"

Thanks guys...     Great job.

I haven't posted in a few days, but no worries, I'm still here...

I'm reading the Bhagavad Gita right now...  its a book I learned about when I took a class at the School of Practical Philosophy last year.  I just started, but even the introduction is thought provoking.  The gita is one of the central texts in Hindu literature, and without going into lots of detail, which I'm sure to follow up with during the course of my reading, it offers up a unique insight into the religion and its teachings about philosophy.

Anyway, the introduction answers the question "What kind of yoga (teachings) does the Gita teach?" with the following:

jnana yoga - the yoga of knowledge   An aspirant uses his will and discrimination to disidentify himself from his body, mind, and senses until he knows he is nothing but the Self.

bhakti yoga - the yoga of devotion   The follower achieves the same goal by identifying himself completely with the Lord in love.  By and large, this is the path taken by most of the mystics of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

karma yoga - the yoga of selfless action   The aspirant dissolves his identification with body and mind by identifying with the whole of life, forgetting his finite self in the service of others.

raja yoga - the yoga of meditation   The follower of raga yoga disciplines his mind and senses until the mind-process is suspended in a healing stillness and he merges in the Self. 

So the question is, what kind of spiritual aspirant am I?  Do I seek the Self, which is really a conception of a higher power, through knowledge, devotion, service, or discipline? 

hmm...    I'll have to think about that.  The tough part is, its not necessarily as easy as "What kind of person are you?"  Its more like "When do you feel you are your truest inner self?" 

Link: CNN.com - Marine sacrifices finger to save wedding ring - Dec 12, 2004.

I can't believe this story...  this guy chooses losing a finger so they can save his wedding ring, and then the doctors go and LOSE THE RING!!

If I were him, I'd make sure I gave the doctor the finger after that.

When I was home for Christmas break in my freshman year at Fordham I remember reading a Time essay about this guy who kept these lists... books and books of all of these random lists.  They were just things he noticed, of no particular value individually, but strung together the lists were fascinating.  Words on the back of a truck on the highway.  Items in a garage sale.  Letters skywritten above.  It inspired me and I went out and bought a little notebook to jot down random records, snippets of my life.  At first, they were all over the place and like my blog, I had to feel out what I was doing with them.  But, also like my blog, every now and then you get a gem, I think, and I managed to say something interesting.

Once, I accidently washed one of these books in a pair of shorts in the laundry.  When I first discovered what I had done, I nearly cried.  Some of the pages were washed out, but most of the writing survived.  That let me to start scanning these pages so they wouldn't be lost.  But that was a while ago and it was a clumsy process and I couldn't quite figure out what I was going to do with these scanned pages, so I stopped.  Now, I think my blog is actually a very appropriate place for them.  So, beginning today, whenever I get a chance, I'm going to scan a few pages from my "little books" and post them.  I'll start with the ones I already had done.

I guess, in a sense, these were like little blogs, but I just wasn't tapped into the medium to promote it at the time.  Also, some of the stuff was a bit too personal for posting.  You can tell if you read my blog that I have a definate line when it comes to posting very personal things, but I think what's written in these little books has passed the statute of limitations, since they're about seven years old. 

I'll pick out my own personal highlights.  The rest might not always make sense or seem silly.  I love the little pool diagram.  The most meaningful, though, is my post about Patti.  Patti was my high school girlfriend for two years, and we broke up in August right before I went to Fordham (I was a year older).  I literally recorded the very moment that I could bear to hear about her with other guys and be reasonable about it... five months later.  Now, granted that was just hearing about it... I didn't have to see it, but that was a big thing for me.  I have no recollection at all who Mike Melia is, but apparently, I thought she was dating him.  That was a big step in the healing process there... red letter day. 

So my computer decided to mysteriously restart in the middle of my previous attempt at this post....  very frustrating.  I'll try not to make any sudden movements this time around.   I think the worst thing you can do when you're retyping something like this is to attempt to recreate what you just did.  It will never come out flowing as nice as it did the first time, because you're bound to leave out one clause  that sets the whole paragraph off.  Better to just start all over again.

So, last night I went to the Union Square Ventures "Holiday" party.  It was really interesting to be surrounded by so many people tied to the New York venture scene.  The tone of the conversations was very different than those I've had in California.  People in New York are much more directly focused on the deal at hand.  There's definitively less smalltalk and people always have a deal on their mind.  Conversations tend to stray a lot more on the West Coast.

I have this bad habit of asking people where they're from at these things and expecting a certain type of answer.  At GP meetings or ILPA, you're always "from" somewhere... representing an institution like Case Western or the Alaska State Pension Fund.  Last night, my, "So where are you from?" questions got answers like, "Westchester"...  or...  "I know Brad."  Not everyone there was so "institutional."  No one seemed to care where I was from either, which is nice, because anytime I go to the Private Equity Analyst conference, whenever I answer General Motors, I might as well paint a big bullseye on my face.  "Hey everyone... look... its a big LP that puts out lots of money.  Get him!!" 

The funny thing at this party was that I'm sure that a good number of the people there were probably writing blogs that I read.  I got into a conversation with Matt, the CEO of Return Path, who is a really personable guy, and I couldn't remember whether or not I read his blog.  Turns out that I did... he writes OnlyOnce.  It was also great to meet the GothamGal (Fred's Wife) although she chose to show up as her alter ego, Joanne, so there was no cape involved.  I think that anytime a significant number of people in a room are invited by Fred, they should be required to wear, "Hello, My blog is..." nametags, so we can match the person to the postings.  I'm sure they do that kind of thing at BloggerCon.

I support the interesting.  I also support the thoughtful, and those who challenge others as much as they challenge themselves.  I couldn't really care less what color, shape, gender, sexual persuasion, etc., etc., etc. that they come in.  Therefore, I'm tracking back and linking to this post.  I could have just left a comment, but I feel like if you're really going to be supportive of someone, you'll publicly identify with someone.  So, this post is my really boring straight guy attempt at support for this really fascinating woman.

Link: woot_detail.

You know... when I was young, we had to pedal our own Big Wheels!   No motor!  I had to pedal six miles uphill down my street and then six miles uphill back...  and we didn't have wheels either...   just two frisbees and a brick.

So now I get to find out how few people are reading my site... or how few of those people are are technically savvy enough to be reading it through an RSS reader.  :)   The little orange button on the left is my new feedburner feed.  Or, if you don't read the site through an RSS reader, you can always subscribe by e-mail on the right.

So, the date of my Learning Annex class is March 16th.  Don't worry...  you will all be getting advanced warning as soon as it goes live on their website.  I'm anxious to see how many people show up and I think it will be a larger group than they expect.

By March 16th, my life may be entirely different.  I may be working in a different place (Greenwich or somewhere else).  I will know whether I've made Stanford or not.  Hopefully, I will have closed on an apartment to buy.  Softball will be starting soon... but not GM Softball, which I haven't decided if I'm playing yet, but Fordham Alumni softball.   I will have played a season of dodgeball.  By March, I might have a deal for a book...  just not the one I originally intended to write.  By March, I will be more than halfway through my 25th year... without feeling a day over 17.  Somewhere along the line I used to think that I'd be married at 28.  That seems awfully close, with marriage seeming awfully far away. 

Everyday I feel closer to what I should be doing, without knowing quite what that is yet...  from interning to writing the paper to teaching a class to mentoring, and seperately from interning to being an analyst to working on business development and perhaps to getting closer to markets and companies right in the thick of it.  This is all leading somewhere...

"In the soft darkness that hides the future from the over-curious, I content myself with this; that where I will be will not be where I am."- Jeanette Winterson

Posted on the Fordham Alumni website:

"Dear Alumni,

Due to a clerical error Annemarie Germano DiCola, FCO '80 was mistakenly listed as deceased in the Fall issue of Fordham Magazine. Please know that Annemarie is alive and well, living in New York. If you would like to contact Annemarie we would be happy to forward any correspondence to her through our office. Please accept our sincere apologies for any upset or confusion this incorrect information may have caused."

Here's a disturbing trend... people are finding my side by Googling "What matters to you most and why," which is one of the Stanford MBA essays.  I posted my essay because I thought it was an interesting question.

What purpose might it serve someone esle to check out my essay?  Your answer is in you, people...  I don't have it.  Think for yourself... there are no Crib Notes for personal essays.

Link: Six Apart Professional Network: Helping your career with blogs.

When I was a senior at Fordham, me and my roommates played on an intramural softball team with half of the varsity basketball team.  One game, I hit a walkoff homer to win a game, and the whole team, including the guys from the varsity basketball team lined up along the thirdbaseline to slap me five.  Jason Harris, TJ... they were lined up to congratulate me... after all those games I showed up with my face painted to cheer them on.  Ok, so they were linking b/c their founder was featured in the article, and I'm not wearing facepaint, but nonetheless, the fact that the article was linked to on the Six Apart (the company that hosts this very blog) website... well...   it leaves me stupidly giddy, that's all.  In fact, I'm in such a good mood because of everything...  the article, the picture, the invite to the Learning Annex, the fact that the ubercool folks who are right at the heart of blogging are reading articles from a Long Island newspaper on some goofball blogging analyst...  I hardly even noticed the jury duty questionaire that came in the mail.  In fact, I'm more than happy to fill it out.  Call me for jury duty.  Sequestor me.  Give it your best shot.  You're not wiping the smile off my face, punks.  I think I'm going to go eat a pomegranate. 

Link: DrWeb's Domain: Newsday.com - Blogging Bluepoint.

I think this guy was just pointing out what blogs were and their growing popularity... but my favorite part is that he identifies himself as a "guybrarian."  (male librarian)   That's hilarious.

Cover of the Careers section of today's Newsday. 

This is going to be big.

Its an ok picture... I'm not particularly photogenic.  The setting is a bit random...  I mean, like, why am I walking around Madison Avenue with my laptop?  :)    In hindsight, I probably should have had the Find My Path site up on the laptop, not my site.  Already, two people have sought out my site by typeing in "This is going to be big.  I can feel it" in Google.  Now that's interesting.

Tomorrow is the day my 2nd Newsday appearence gets published...   the website was supposed to be up today, but it hasn't been updated yet.   I'm DYING to see it...   Very exciting stuff.

Link: News from The Roanoke Times -'Blog' wins place of note in lexicon and consciousness.

Nicely written article...   "The word of the year is "blog."

Link: CNN.com - Record 'Jeopardy' run ends - Dec 1, 2004.

Well, its about time.  Now I can go back to watching Jeopardy without having to watch this goofball anymore.  I'm sure Trebeck is relieved, as well. 

Ken Jennings, your 15 minutes of fame is up. 

I'll tell you one thing.  If it was me who beat him, I definately would have been obnoxious.  I would have probably jumped up on the podium and screamed, "In your face, Kenny boy.   Wooooooooooooooooo."   Then, I would have sung a little "Sha na-na na...."

Link: CNN.com - Publisher: 'Blog' No. 1 word of the year - Nov 30, 2004.

Jeez... this is all moving very quickly.   I think I need to write the proposal for my  new book before other people start jumping on this bandwagon.  I'll do it this weekend.