Monday, October 27, 2008

you can vote however you like



He showed this to me yesterday and, due to an unfortunate set of circumstances which led to a drained iPod battery, this has been stuck in my head all day. These kids are absolutely adorable and their energy has me so hyped I want to early vote again! Seriously though, if you haven' voted yet get out there soon. Early voting end 10/31 and why wait in that line next Tuesday if you don't have to?! You can vote however you liiiiike....

My bad on the blog slippage. I have a million and one fantastic things going on that keep me from sitting around blogging- which you probably know all of if you are following my Twitter - but I'll get back to some sort of regular update one day!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

by the time you're 30...


Today I'm obviously sifting through old emails while at work with some downtime. Another of my best girlfriends sent me a faaabulous poem by Maya Angelou entitled "A Woman Should Have." I googled it and found that it's not from Ms. Angelou but rather Pamela Redmond Satran from an article she published in Glamour in 1997. Here's the updated version:


By 30, you should have:

  1. One old boyfriend you can imagine going back to and one who reminds you of how far you’ve come.
  2. A decent piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in your family.
  3. Something perfect to wear if the employer or man of your dreams wants to see you in an hour.
  4. A purse, a suitcase and an umbrella you’re not ashamed to be seen carrying.
  5. A youth you’re content to move beyond.
  6. A past juicy enough that you’re looking forward to retelling it in your old age.
  7. The realization that you are actually going to have an old age—and some money set aside to help fund it.
  8. An e-mail address, a voice mailbox and a bank account—all of which nobody has access to but you.
  9. A résumé that is not even the slightest bit padded.
  10. One friend who always makes you laugh and one who lets you cry.
  11. A set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill and a black lace bra.
  12. Something ridiculously expensive that you bought for yourself, just because you deserve it.
  13. The belief that you deserve it.
  14. A skin-care regimen, an exercise routine and a plan for dealing with those few other facets of life that don’t get better after 30.
  15. A solid start on a satisfying career, a satisfying relationship and all those other facets of life that do get better.

By 30, you should know:

  1. How to fall in love without losing yourself.
  2. How you feel about having kids.
  3. How to quit a job, break up with a man and confront a friend without ruining the friendship.
  4. When to try harder and when to walk away.
  5. How to kiss in a way that communicates perfectly what you would and wouldn’t like to happen next.
  6. The names of: the secretary of state, your great-grandmother and the best tailor in town.
  7. How to live alone, even if you don’t like to.
  8. How to take control of your own birthday.
  9. That you can’t change the length of your calves, the width of your hips or the nature of your parents.
  10. That your childhood may not have been perfect, but it’s over.
  11. What you would and wouldn’t do for money or love.
  12. That nobody gets away with smoking, drinking, doing drugs or not flossing for very long.
  13. Who you can trust, who you can’t and why you shouldn’t take it personally.
  14. Not to apologize for something that isn’t your fault.
  15. Why they say life begins at 30.

did you know? 2.0


From the ShiftHappens Wiki
Did You Know? originally started out as a PowerPoint presentation for a faculty meeting in August 2006 at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, United States. The presentation "went viral" on the Web in February 2007 and, as of June 2007, had been seen by at least 5 million online viewers. Today the old and new versions of the online presentation have been seen by at least 15 million people, not including the countless others who have seen it at conferences, workshops, training institutes, and other venues.

I had this phenomenal video sent to me by one of my girls and think its especially appropriate as we venture into this world of newfound financial and economic volatility and overarching uncertainty. As young people we should be asking, where can we be most effective and make the most difference? Should we help impart our wisdom on the children with Teach for America? Should we go into I-banking and show them what integrity and honest success looks like? Should we consult and gain the most experience in the least amount of time? Should we (most likely) scrounge for a job and spend time giving back to our communities - local, regional, and global? 


“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I must admit it helped a little bit...

Ms. Sullivan dropped a new video for her single, "Bust Your Windows." As this blog is a model of my self and all its different glorious facets I thought it appropriate to post up a song that I've rocked harder than most since I heard it despite the fact that I try to abstain from that post-every-new-video-for-filler blog format. Jazmine looks different every time I see her but nonetheless its such a refreshing concept - yeah I said refreshing. We all gotta deal with that trash and those plain people with no aspirations or motivations other than to bring everyone down with them. Might as well bust some windows to relieve the stress on your way to rising above - right? Her album is absolutely fierce from beginning to end (minus "Switch" I don't know what's going on there...) - go out and cop.


Tuesday, October 7, 2008

can't keep my cool, so I keep it true


'Ye debuted the "Love Lockdown" video on Ellen today. I haven't seen it posted much yet but I think it's cool he premiered it on Ellen. The song has grown on me and I think the remixes will be endless on this one but its nothing that I'm just bumping all the time. The video concept is different and I think it reflects a growing movement to not just put big cars and big thangs in your video but put some thought into the development of your art as it is, take it or leave it. I'll take some more, thank you.







Monday, October 6, 2008

addams family groove


It's all October and fall and stuff now... so I'm posting a throw back video as suggested by my best friend (who called me talking about it and knows every word). I don't really celebrate Halloween anymore for various reasons but when I was little my brothers and I had a Halloween music tape with this on it that we would rock tough. I'm fairly sure I've choreographed a gymnastics routine to this...

MC Hammer - Addams Family Groove







Kid S_i_s_t_e_r - Family Renion feat. David B_a_n_n_e_r

Kid Cudi - Day N Nite (Crookers Remix)


I just added RCRD LBL to my Google Reader and saw this:

From your 73 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 5,311 items, starred 129 items, shared 40 items, and emailed 0 items.

Houston, we have a problem. The Information Age has become the Information Overload Age.

do I or don't I? equities edition

These are the times when that one clever investor gets in for some ridiculously low price and in 5 years we hear that if we had invested 7 grand in some obscure stock we too could be raking in the millions. I really feel like I should be devoting more time to seriously looking at getting into the markets but (1) no one knows what's going on - hedge funds are down this week, what's next? and (2) I still got my wonderful school-work mindnumbing grind to tend to so I don't have much time to sit down and look into personal investing. But then, is there a better time? Why devote attention to school when you could be finding crazy arbitrage opportunities and then schooling your professors? One of my professors - in financial statement analysis - asked the class, very seriously, "Can you all fill me in on what I need to know about what's going on in the economy right now? I haven't been following it but I know it's serious." My group in the back row had to suppress our expressions of dismay - why, praytell, are you teaching this course if you don't understand how financial statement analysis is literally smack dab in the international limelight? I don't want to be that guy - so caught up in my daily grind that I miss some fabulous opportunity. That'd be like being Michael Dell's roommate who's just going to class and being a good student while Dell is meanwhile building a personal computer empire.

What incited this post was Jim Cramer's interview this morning on the TODAY show:


“Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week. I do not believe that you should risk those assets in the stock market right now.”

While the animated Cramer is known for telling investors the best prospects for earning money on the stock market, he’s now saying retreat is the best position in the face of some of the worst financial news in decades. The bank lending default crisis that put financial firms around the country on the brink of collapse could bring “as much as a 20 percent decrease in the stock market,” Cramer predicted.

He called the U.S. government’s $700 billion bailout plan, which includes raising the insured rate on bank deposits from $100,000 to $250,000, as a “good one,” assuring bank depositors: “Your money is safe.”

But he warned that the same may not be true for stock market investors.

“I don’t care where stocks have been, I care where they’re going, and I don’t want people to get hurt in the market,” Cramer told Curry. “I’m worried about unemployment, I’m worried about purchases that you may need. I can’t have you at risk in the stock market.”

Still, those with the assets — and the stomach — to ride out the stock market’s ups and down over a five-year period might be best served by holding their nose and holding onto their stocks.

“I think what you have to do, if you can withstand it, is just ride it out,” Cramer said.

Very rarely does someone tell you to pull your money out of the stock market. It adds to volatility and the "I can just put it back in when the market turns around" theory doesn't usually take into account the transaction costs associated with hopping in and out the market. I talked to a classmate about possible action plans for people like us and people like our parents. For us it doesn't really matter, no one really knows if we're going into a recession or a depression and we can afford to experiment a bit with excess fundage - especially with no kids, no spouse, no mortgage, etc. Don't play more than you can afford to lose. However, for our parents it's much more complicated. 5 years to retirement? VERY tough call. Hopefully their retirement plan is diversified enough where the overall loss to the market is only affecting a smaller portion of the portfolio - when nearing retirement you don't want all of your funds in risky assets anyways. What if they do have too much money in equities? Is it time to pull out and take your L's? It's time to make an appointment with your financial planner. If your retirement is closer to a 10 year plan I think its safer to bet you should ride it out and avoid transaction costs, etc. But that's assuming the markets will rebound and I honestly feel like all bets are off in 2008. I was much younger during the last recession but I feel like, with the panic that we're seeing in the media, its safe to say this is unprecedented and we must tread carefully.

Last Friday the McCombs Business School hosted a Dean's Forum on the Financial Crisis. I only made it for the tail end because I still had class (again -- was it worth class to miss it? I was torn.). Luckily they taped the entire thing and posted it up HERE. This was a meeting of some of the most experienced, intelligent, and educated minds that McCombs has to offer and they offered incredibly vivid insight into the situation. This was a talk by business educators to budding business professionals. They referred to concepts we knew, they didn't sensationalize, and they countered hopeful statements with harsh realities. I was disappointed that more of my friends weren't in attendance, but luckily they've started coming to me asking me what exactly is going on and why they have to be worried anyway.




I know we're all busy and preoccupied with our own lives but do yourself a favor and go watch the video on the McCombs site. This is such a valuable opportunity: to get this discussion and decomposition of the situation geared towards intelligent young people, not the general public audience of the nightly news that hasn't been following as closely and just wants the hard and fast conclusion. This is a situation that doesn't lend itself well to a hard and fast conclusion.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

vp debate night!



Let's get ready to rumble people! What exciting news bites are we going to get out of tonight?



To get this party started right play a couple rounds of "Debate Night" - Obama's unofficial video game:
http://www.powerfulrobot.com/games/obama/

and if you got a group together go ahead and break out the Palin Bingo cards - I just printed mine out:
http://palinbingo.com/

In the meantime check Jay Smooth put the economic situation in perspective:



I had more to post but I'm all sleep deprived and I'm on my way out the door to my own movie night aka ya'll thought we were gonna watch a movie but I brought my laptop and we're watching live blogging of the debate -- suckas! http://election.twitter.com/


This has nothing to do with anything I just like the song:
Keane - "Spiralling"