text:
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-177350882016-03-05T10:05:20.308-06:00Chris Strout: In the Gutter"BLASTED BY BOMBOGENESIS" The Providence Journal · Life, love and endurance racing in the trenchesChrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-6667731283486895172014-07-18T20:01:00.002-05:002014-07-18T20:01:55.207-05:00Weeks 24, 25, and 26: Oh! The Places You'll Go!

And just like that, everything changes.

I'm certain when they told us during orientation, "look left, look right -- these folks just may be your path to a new future," they didn't mean right then, and certainly not during the most intense week of the most intense semester of the program.

But that's just the way it goes. Sometimes you just gotta' grab the chance and jump right in.

In the past few weeks, we've had an exam for Econ, developed a presentation and a paper, and experienced our first taste of a died-in-the-wool, old-school case study method professor ...

... and meanwhile I've gotten a new job, found a new home, and started a new life for myself and my family. The wild ride just got crazy.

It's hard to believe we're at Week 26 -- halfway through the first year, 25% through the program as the calendar reads. We're closer to 30% or more complete by credit hours, and in a few weeks we'll be over a third. Funny, but there is not the sense of accomplishment we felt at the end of last semester -- for better or worse, the late nights feel normal, and the prep we're doing for our team presentation tomorrow feels routine. Yes, we can check off another class and 3 credits, but we know already what's next, and the time that lays ahead of us. Having a full week off for July 4 was a minor hiccup, but now it's full on, adjusting to the new realities of the lives we're meant to lead.

Just like that, everything changes.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-54257551741884640552014-06-26T00:11:00.000-05:002014-06-26T00:11:04.395-05:00Week 23: Choose Your Own Adventure

As you've probably heard, there's a lot of talk these days about Millennials in the workforce -- that "next generation" which will either save the world (because they don't drive cars) or will overrun everything with reckless abandon (because they're large in number and horribly narcissistic). One interesting prediction I've seen is that this group will experience up to 20 different careers in their working lifetime. Not jobs, careers.

As it stands, the "average" worker spends 4.4 years in a job. Millenials are averaging 2.6 years. With working lives now extending past 50 years, Millenials are on track to have 25 different jobs ... but what's even more interesting is that those jobs are very likely to be in radically different fields.

By contrast, my cohort, Gen X, was predicted to take on something like 8 or 9 different careers. I'm sure when that was predicted it was attributed to our "slacker" mentality as we left our "McJobs," but the reality is that we were kind of stuck in the middle to begin with, emerging as we did to a radically changing labor market already top-heavy with Boomers. So we did what we do best: We learned. We adapted. We survived.

I bring this up because I'm about to embark on "Career" No. 7 (or 8 if you count all those years of food service). Truth be told, it's an extension of "Career" No. 3, which I traded out of a decade ago to try spreading my wings a bit. They got summarily clipped, but without that experience I sure wouldn't be where I am today.

And that's the funny thing about these transitions, at least for me: I'm doing what I love, I'm learning as I go, and even through some unpleasantness, I've built a portfolio of skills that finally, amazingly!, has a home. And all the while, I'm following my passions.

I remember sitting in my car maybe 6 or 7 years ago, "living the dream" while working at WBR and racing full-time, hearing an NPR story about some sort of massive data mining. And I remember saying to myself, "Self, that's where you want to be."

And I filed it away, not sure what to do with it, more than happy to take on the nonprofit world and the bike industry, sometimes at the same time. But despite the B-school mentality that a "Poet" can't be a "Quant," I kept finding myself drawn to stories of information management, "Big Data," and the types of crazy analyses that give us unique predictive odds on who is going to win their Group in Brazil this week. The nadir had to be the 2012 Presidential campaign, and the work of Nate Silver (now of web site FiveThirtyEight) -- all of a sudden data was cool, and I wasn't doing enough of it. So I started to explore with the opportunities I had ...

... and now here I am. "Career" No. 7. Senior Client Data Analyst. For a Fortune 100 company, no less. It's not the first time I've set out to follow a dream, and for sure not the first time I've taken a risk to do so. I'm nervous, and a bit scared, but in the 10 years since Career No. 3, information management tools have come a long way, and I have to admit, I'm geeking out more than a little as I gear up for the next chapter ...

So bring it on. Changing "careers" is not a bad thing. In fact, I'd argue that the skills you learn filling steam tables translate to breaking down data cubes exploring customer behavior. (OK, that one's a stretch, but you get what I mean.) Giving yourself the opportunity to explore can be really, really hard ... but if you keep your mind open, you just might have a "driveway moment" that leads to your Next Big Adventure.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-52366967319293840722014-06-23T10:44:00.000-05:002014-06-23T10:44:08.978-05:00Week 23: Piling it on

They warned us about this.

Working professionals have a couple of choices at Wake Forest, coming down to attending classes on evenings or on Saturdays. Regardless of the program, everyone I've spoken with in 2nd year says the same thing: 1st-year summer is tough. Really tough.

Well, we're in it now, and they were right. Which is why it was kind of silly for me to decide to take on a massive yard beautification project last week, involving 13 cubic yards of mulch. It was delivered on Thursday, and I set my mind to having it gone by Friday, which I'm happy to report I accomplished, with Kim's help on Friday afternoon. And along the way, a funny thing happened: I calculated.

I think it's a measure of how far I've come this year. Instead of just mindlessly slinging mulch (yes, there was plenty of that too), I actually figured out what I was doing. First strategically: How the h*ll was I going to get all this in place? And then tactically: If a cubic yard of mulch is 27 cubic feet, and my new wheelbarrow holds 6 cubic feet, how many wheelbarrow loads does it take to do a cubic yard? And how many shovel fulls does it take to fill a wheelbarrow?

I was totally geeking out.

However, at the end of the day, I still had homework to do, a final exam to study for. And I was whipped -- hand-moving 4.5 tons of mulch (or so -- 600-800 lbs. /cubic yd) does a body good, real good. Things have ratcheted up, and having Kim's help to allow me to focus has been huge. I managed to pull it together for the test, and for Sunday's study session, and now am focused on getting the assignments for Quant and Econ done so I can do the "heavy workload" case reading for Accounting. We have a mid-term in Econ on Saturday, along with our first encounter of an old-school-style B-school prof ... and I have a yard to mow.

They warned us about this.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-64350702782997694902014-06-15T22:12:00.001-05:002014-06-15T22:12:44.628-05:00Week 22: God Save the Queen

I never really felt the kinship of St. Elmo's Fire.

Yes, I "got" the movie. Though I was, what? 12 when it came out?, I'm certain Andrew McCarthy's Kevin became the blueprint of the early part of my life. (Yes, complete with my own "Leslie," though I never kept secret photos, I swear!) That moment when he slaps the paper on the windshield, his first major byline? I know that moment. It was incredible.

And I absolutely had friends like that growing up. Especially in high school -- there was a crowd that morphed and changed over time. But not so much during college, at least as defined by where we hung out -- I was spending too much time at the newspaper (where we had our own group, but no hang out other than the basement of Johnston Hall), or later going back and forth to Minneapolis to see Kim. So I never had a "St. Elmo's" -- they razed Giuliani's after my sophomore year, the 'Lanch was too much of a dive, and I just never was one for Hegarty's or Murph's. So that scene at the end of the movie, when the gang looks in the window and realizes they have all grown up ... well, it never happened for me.

Things are different now.

In the past, what? six months, I have watched more horse racing, baseball, golf, hoops, and now (finally!) soccer, than at any point in my life. See, we have a "St. Elmo's" -- there, tucked in the right corner of the photo above. Only ours is called "Fitzgerald's," and it's a sure bet that on any given Saturday afternoon, starting right about 5 p.m., you'll find a bunch of really smart people sitting at the bar, or around tables outside, enjoying a pint or two as they unwind from a long day of study. And I am proud to count myself among them.

Yesterday was centered around England's World Cup match with Italy, which I enjoyed in the company of classmates from Nigeria, Venezuela, St. Vincent, and many different parts of the U.S. (not to mention the poor tourists from Frankfurt who had been diverted to Charlotte on their way home from San Francisco, and were stuck in the Queen City for several days). It was an eclectic mix of people and ideas, and our conversations ranged from the joy of the equalizer in the 37th minute, to risk optimization and uncertainty,
to the plight of the Brazilian slums and the possible explicit and implicit economic and social benefits Brazil hopes to reap from a successful Cup. I am honored to share a classroom with these folks, and I find myself each week looking forward to a few minutes at Fitz's -- this is what St. Elmo's was; this is how they came to mean so much to each other.

Obviously, It's not about the bar -- though the staff at Fitz's is pretty great. It's the people, who barely 6 months ago were complete strangers. I am lucky to have found a group so intelligent, so open, and so honest, that in the short time we've been together we have really found a way to come together. I'm certain, 2-3 years from now, I won't have the opportunity to speak to some of these folks on a regular basis. We won't see each other at Fitzgerald's any longer.

But for some others, I will see them regularly; and I also know that even if I don't talk to one of them for a year or more, all I'd have to do is pick up the phone, tell them I'm locked in an empty apartment with no heat, and they'd be there in a heartbeat with hairspray and a Bic lighter. 'Cause that's just what you do.

You know what it is? It's St. Elmo's Fire. Electric flashes of light that appear in dark skies out of nowhere. Sailors would guide entire journeys by it, but the joke was on them... there was no fire. There wasn't even a St. Elmo. They made it up. They made it up because they thought they needed it to keep them going when times got tough, just like you're making up all of this. We're all going through this. It's our time at the edge.

Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-74485899801665797072014-06-08T08:55:00.003-05:002014-06-08T08:55:39.844-05:00Week 21: Experimentus Optimus

Screen shot of a fractal programmed in Java by our Quant professor

There's this really weird feeling I'm beginning to get about our class: We're all part of some really whacked-out experiment beset upon us by the faculty.

We had a sneaking suspicion last semester in our Organizational Behavior class. The professor was up front with us from day one, telling us that her area of research had to do with decision making under stress, and if I remember correctly, with sub-optimal information. Or maybe I'm making that up, and just remember what happened in the first few months -- specifically, that we were thrown into a crazy, unknown world with minimal information inputs, and had to find a path that let us be successful. And damned if it wasn't difficult, especially when it felt like she was watching over our shoulders. Sure she was supposed to "grade" us, but was she also "observing" us in a research sense?

And now this half-semester, our Quantitative Analysis professor has us concentrating on Management Science, and specifically program modeling and optimization. It's super interesting stuff, especially given my recent time in manufacturing, but then when he cops to being a researcher in the field, all of a sudden our homework assignment takes on the feel of some sort of test, an experiment of some sort to see if Management Science will survive this next crop of MBAs ... And in the meantime there's the fractals. Programmed in Java and set to music on YouTube. Our Quant prof is one very interesting dude.

Of course I'm kidding about the experiments. It is pretty interesting being in somewhat of a research-oriented school, though, and for the first time in my life I'm understanding what an absolute gift it is to study with folks like these. I mean, yes, we had fantastic professors at Marquette, and some very "famous" ones, but as an undergrad your exposure is limited. Now, however, there are these incredible application opportunities -- literally, on Saturday you're working through a question with one of the foremost researchers in the field (in the pub, natch), only to turn around and use it in your professional life on Monday. It's pretty great.

On a personal note, my dad is cleaning house, and came across a stash of report cards that my Mom had kept from when I was a kid. Years of them, and many with class photos still in their envelopes. Technology is an amazing thing -- I snapped a photo of one of our classes, and tagged a bunch of folks on Facebook ... how weird is it that here, 1,200 miles away, I'm still connected to five or six kids I knew in first grade?

More importantly, I also finally learned the first name of my second-grade teacher -- the first educator who had a profound affect on the path of my life. Tucked in among the 7th-grade failure notices and "needs to learn to be quiet" notations was a Buck Rogers and the 21st Century notebook, filled each day of the school year with guided assignments, free writing, and drawings (mostly of dinosaurs). In the course of 9 short months, I could see my writing progress, to the point that by April and May I was serializing a mystery story and writing commentary on then-current events. Mrs. Zander's encouragement was sprinkled throughout, carving a place in my heart for written expression that continues today.

I've always wanted to thank her, and tried to find her a few years ago. But I always got stuck -- I never knew her first name, and she left the school after only a year. But in that stack my Mom had kept for so long were my progress reports from that year, with Mrs. Zander's first name ... again, thanks to technology, it only took a few short minutes to track her down. In a week in which the nation lost such a profound, guiding voice, I finally got to thank one of those who influenced me so deeply. And maybe she was just being kind, but she told me our class was one of her favorites; it had to be one of her first, and even after all these years she still has our class photo. (I guess we were all just unforgettable.) I was pretty proud to tell her of all the things I've done since we saw her last, several decades ago.

Though I never did find out if she likes fractals.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-44641007119669182322014-05-31T23:01:00.001-05:002014-06-02T09:11:15.621-05:00Weeks 19 & 20: Legacies

These past several weeks have been an opportunity for deep reflection. Receiving the news via our Wake Forest email that Maya Angelou had died this week was the third such moment I've had recently: Twice now in the past month, I've found out via social media that a former professor of mine from Marquette had also passed.

We are blessed on this earth when we have even a fleeting chance to share just a moment with a luminary who truly makes the world a better place. Often they are teachers, but so too are they open to be taught. They may be put on a pedestal, but the most gifted find the ladder and climb down.

I never met Dr. Angelou, but through the wonders of radio had most of two days to spend with her as I drove to Louisville and back this week. She strikes me as a person who found a way to come down off the pedestal of fame, and through the strength of who she was, used her considerable stature to overshadow any platform upon which she might have been placed. It was incredible to listen to her powerful voice echo through the ages, transporting me to memories long forgotten.

Reading the life stories of my professors had a similar effect -- these were two men whose paths crossed mine only briefly, but who both helped build the person I was to become. The newspaper articles gave context to them, filled in some of the back stories I never knew, and in the process recalled days long ago in Milwaukee trying to find a way forward.

It is the highest compliment you can pay to say that someone has changed you for the better. Reflecting on these three lasting lights, I can't help but be reminded that it is up to us, the living, to carry the legacy of folks such as them who change those around them in a lasting, positive way. We must be up to the challenge.

All my work, my life, everything I do is about survival, not just bare, awful, plodding survival, but survival with grace and faith. While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated. - Maya Angelou

Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-52944579250403844932014-05-17T17:41:00.001-05:002014-05-17T17:46:31.942-05:00Week 18: The Doorknob

I have this doorknob.

I'm not sure where it came from -- Pier One or World Market or somewhere. But I do know when I got it, in November 2003. Actually, I bought two -- one for me, and one for my boss.

My boss at the time, Kevin, had "sponsored" me through a 9-month, intensive leadership program. By "intensive," I mean intense -- in 9 months, we had to read something like 56 books. We covered everything from Old Man in the Sea to Finding Your Own North Star to Good to Great, and every 5-6 weeks we'd get together and hash out what it meant to be the kind of leaders we wanted to be.

And it was incredible.

That year was the start of some very difficult times for me. I enjoyed a milestone birthday with a sort-of surprise party in Evanston, and then that summer Kim and I followed the Tour around France. But when we got home -- July 28, 2003 -- everything changed. My world was turned upside down. And damned if at that very moment, I was expected to read Jonathan Livingston Seagull for class. It was the first time I read it in something like 10 years. If ever I doubted it before, that time confirmed it: There is no such thing as coincidence.

Lewis Carroll would surely have something to say about my reaction: When the program ended, I needed to thank Kevin in some way. And I found these doorknobs. Or rather, they found me. Ever since, the one I got for myself has hung in a prominent place in my life -- for a long time, on the wall in our place in E-town, and for the past several years above the doorway in my office at Cane Creek.

Now it's home again.

On Monday I begin a new chapter in my life. I've had a fantastic run chasing my childhood dreams, and am blessed that I've exceeded expectations I never even knew I had. When I said at 7 years old that "I want to be a bike racer," I had no idea where that would take me, nor what it really meant. Now I know, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

See, that was one of the other outcomes of that leadership program. For the duration of the time we met, we were driven to find our authentic selves. What we wanted out of life. Because it's only through understanding yourself that you can really grow into becoming a leader. And what I realized as my life was changing rapidly around me was that I only have one chance to live my dreams. So that's what I do.

I have another, post-bike life to lead, one that I put on hold right about the time this doorknob found me. That's what drove the decision to find one of the top working professional MBA programs in the country. That's what pushes me at midnight when Chi-squared calculations aren't quite working out. That's what wakes me up before dawn every Saturday to chase the sunlight into Charlotte.

It's time to get after it. Game on.

Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-15710476509681808452014-05-10T21:15:00.000-05:002014-05-10T21:16:13.490-05:00Week 17: Some Days You're Peter ...

Since this is mostly about life and bikes and family and school and making the most of it, I guess the simplest explanation is this: I'm driving in a new direction.

There was a time, a little more than a year ago, when my efforts were centered around the impact I could have in the bike industry, and the sea change that is already underway. And make no doubt about it, that still fascinates me. When I interviewed at Wake Forest, that was my story: We don't have enough business sense in the industry. We need more diversity of thought. We need leaders who realize that Lycra and carbon fiber are tools, not ends unto themselves.

Then sometime last summer, I had the opportunity to see the dean of the school speak to a first-year MBA class. Here was a man who literally helped shape CPGs and the world as we know it, describing leadership challenges and giving us the answer to the question that drives us: Why would anyone want to get an MBA? To solve problems. The classroom work we are undertaking is building a skill set, the same as if we were in med school, or pursuing a JD, or learning a trade.

A question from the audience that night really struck home. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but I remember his answer: "If you find yourself asking that question, you have probably reached the point where you have outgrown your organization." I spent the 2-hour drive back to Asheville contemplating what he said, and realizing that I was again approaching another fork in my journey. I had been asking that same question for quite a while already.

Now, I know this sounds presumptuous. I've "outgrown" the industry? "Outgrown" Cane Creek? Not exactly. Let me explain: There are certain things I love to do. That I am really good at, if I do say so myself. That keep me up until all hours of the night, that let me get lost in the tasks themselves, bending time and consuming my whole person. That I have been doing since I was 5 years old, if not before. That I see replicated in the actions and thought processes of my children (especially Kate). If we're lucky, we all have something like this in our lives, and if we're really lucky, we can turn it into a career.

And I'm at the point in my life where I get to do just that.

My years in the bike industry have been great. And I can't wait to see where the leaders who are beginning to emerge take it. But I also realize that I am not one of them. My deeper interests, what really drives me, lies elsewhere, focused more on the information that we create, the data breadcrumbs we leave behind as we make our way through life, and telling its stories. I was close to making a go of it 15 years ago, and again 10 years ago, but put it on the back burner to race my bike and try my hand at some other passions. I don't regret a moment, but the flame has never died, and now it's time to pour some gas on the pyre.

The opportunity is there, and I need to seize it.

So the end of this coming week is also the end of my time at Cane Creek. It's been a good run, and we've done some pretty amazing things in the past few years. If I had to pick just one legacy, it's this: I was part of a team that simultaneously successfully managed a company through a key product patent expiration while at the same time set it up for explosive growth. That's something we can hang our hats on. And truth be told, the best is probably yet to come.

This week is also my birthday. I don't know what's next, but who knows? Maybe I'll be rocking the cuff links and suspenders too pretty soon. I mean, Lumbergh probably had an MBA, right?

Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-6483649068892424392014-05-04T19:49:00.002-05:002014-05-04T19:59:52.292-05:00Week 16: That was ... Hard

And just like that, Round One is done.

The score? Wake Forest School of Business: 1. Erstwhile MBA candidate: 0.

I am beat.

A few months ago, the school put up these banners around our office suite. There are two in particular that I really value: One from Arnold Palmer, which I posted a few months ago, that says "Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you." The other is from Maya Angelou, "When you know better, you do better."

Why do these two stand out? Arnold Palmer graduated from Wake Forest in 1954, and since 1982, Maya Angelou has been a professor there.

I posted the Palmer quote the day after our first quiz in Financial Accounting. All of a sudden, school was in session, and that Super Bowl weekend was our first taste of just what we had gotten ourselves into. The kum ba yah of Orientation was over, but we hadn't yet gotten our sea legs -- and we were beginning to understand what we had been warned about. But doggone it, if I was going to flame out, I was going to make a total effort while I did it.

I post the Angelou quote today amidst much of the same circumstance. The semester has ended, and just before our Financial Accounting exam last Saturday (which was cumulative since January, I might add), I made some big life decisions, and then yesterday was a 20-page paper, 10-page PowerPoint and 15-minute team presentation for Org Behavior, and a team paper and final exam in Quantitative Analysis I. And I was reminded of a very valuable lesson last night:

Even when you know better, and even when you do better, you still make mistakes.

OB went well. Our team really came together for this one, putting in a massive effort to get across the finish line, and absolutely killing it in our presentation. I got down to Charlotte on Thursday afternoon, and didn't leave until tonight, Sunday -- I spent more time on campus than in my hotel! Despite a mean number of hours of sleep of about 3.5 for two nights prior between the five of us, and despite being dead last in presenting following the other nine teams, once the clock started we were on, and it was awesome. I was so proud of my teammates.

For the most part, the Quant exam went well too. Or, at least I thought it did. There wasn't a question I couldn't figure out (there was one on the first exam that might as well have been written in Greek ... oh, wait -- it's quant. It was written in Greek!), and I felt confident enough to jam through it, take a break, and then circle back for a second run-through of my calculations. I had one decision to make that I thought could break either way, but I felt confident enough in my approach that I was good. I turned in my paper and chilled out with a glass of sweet tea.

And then the doubts crept in.

Turns out, my one decision was flawed. I could have taken 2 minutes and run an extra analysis to aid in my decision making, but instead I just went with what I had. Oh, and I misread a different question. So right off the bat, I'm looking at minus 18 points or so. Oh, shit.

See, a funny thing happened this semester. I learned that for me, success begets success. I went into the program with a "just wanna make it" attitude (after all, what do you call the guy who graduated last in med school? Doctor), but as I stepped forward I started to do better, and coming into this weekend all of a sudden I didn't want to disappoint myself. I was super-motivated, I had the Quant stuff down cold, I even was able to help other classmates get a handle on it ... and I screwed it up. I can't even call it overconfidence -- I just made a bad choice for a big question, and on the other I just completely misread it.

Damn.

So here I am, contemplating Ms. Angelou. We have a solid 3 weeks off, until after Memorial Day, and a lot of things are going to be different by then. I'm sure "it's not as bad as I think," and grades will turn out OK, but dang if I'm not already staring at this big Quant book sitting on my desk that I know I'll have to crack open in a few weeks. There are a few things I'd like to learn how to do, and I've found that for me it works better to at least skim the materials before class ...

Time for Round Two.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-8353235285373623512014-04-27T21:15:00.003-05:002014-04-27T21:15:43.283-05:00Week 15: When It's Time to Change

I had a panicked moment this week. I was preparing for our Financial Accounting final exam, which was cumulative dating back to January, was to be taken without notes, and included concepts I had never seen before this semester. I whipped through studying the later half of the semester pretty easily, recalling most (but definitely not all!) of the stuff from after Spring Break or so. But then I cracked open Chapter 1. Dear Barbara.

It's not that I didn't recognize it. It wasn't the most fresh in my mind, but it didn't look completely foreign either. Instead, it was somewhere in between -- hidden in the recesses, but not sitting in the frontal lobe. It was a weird feeling, knowing that we had learned it just a few weeks ago, as winter turned to spring -- our first FA class was the last week of January. But I didn't feel like I knew it.

That's kind of how I feel overall right now.

More than what we've learned in our three courses this semester, what I've come to realize is that in the past 14 weeks, it's me who's different -- it's not that I don't recognize me, but I'm not sure I feel like I know myself right now. Or rather, I do -- but at a much deeper level than I ever have before. In just a few short months, everything has changed.

Way back in January, I asked a graduate of the program -- who was my age when he started -- what was it he got out of the program. Was it worth it, especially mid-career. His answer was an unequivocal yes. And what he took from it was not the technical skills he had learned; the first thing he called out was the confidence he built over his time at Wake Forest. And you know what? He's right. Sure, the FA stuff has been valuable. Yes, I've already used forecasting in "the real world." But as the semester draws to a close, what I find myself returning to, time and again, is how I have changed, and how different I am. The confidence wavers at times, but it's still there. Enough so that I could work through Chapter 1, 2, and finally feel good about where I was at, just in time for the test. It wasn't perfect, but I think I'll do OK.

Because every once in a while, you've got to turn who you are into what you're gonna be.

Sha na na na na na na na na. Sha na na na na!

Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-17149363133360794282014-04-19T10:52:00.000-05:002014-04-19T10:52:13.357-05:00Week 14: Like, what are my skills?

My first encounter with a "backwards calculator" was 20 years ago, give or take. And I'll admit, I was intimidated.

I'd used scientific calculators in high school. Graphing calculators, even. In fact, I think I killed three or four of them -- remember how the screen used to pop off? -- but this was different. You did your inputs backwards, punched a few buttons, and only then did the answer reveal itself. These were financial or engineering calculators: ugly, inelegant, squat, sideways, brown, backwards calculators -- and I was a journalism student. We didn't use calculators in J-school.

My, how things change.

The calculator above isn't quite the same -- it's the slightly better-looking cousin of the HPs that used to scare the heck out of me. But the principles are the same, and as our first final exam approaches, I'm taking on a dual-study program: Teaching myself how to use it while trying to remember the past 13 weeks of Financial Accounting. And you know what? I realized a funny thing.

Technology makes us dumb.

All these years, I've judged myself inadequate next to the financial "whiz kids" wielding the ubiquitous HP-12c. But now that I have an HP of my own, an interesting thing has happened: While teaching myself "how" to do certain things, I have forgotten just how to do them.

Let me explain: This calculator takes the formulas out of the equation. Now, this is a good thing -- it speeds up calculations, and lets us concentrate on interpretation vs. mechanics -- but it's also kind of bad. For example, I think it would be an interesting experiment to round up a room full of financial types, take away their calculators, and ask them to write down the equation for double declining balance depreciation. Without their backwards calculator buttons of PV, FV (salvage), N and I/YR, how many of them would know (Cost-A/D) x 2/Y ? I mean, I started using that equation regularly just before getting this calculator, and even I've already put it out of my mind.

I'm no longer intimidated.

If anything, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. We're 7 days out from our Accounting exam, I have 8 chapters to study, and I'm feeling good in a not-cocky-but-sort-of-confident way. I'm looking forward to knocking out some journal entries, lease tables, and the like. I'm enjoying punching buttons and getting the right answer (most times). In fact, having this tool in hand makes things go so much more smoothly, I'm thinking I'll have a decent shot at finishing early on Saturday. And that will be a good thing.

After all, technology shouldn't be intimidating, right?

Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-12759137303147820552014-04-14T22:20:00.001-05:002014-04-14T22:20:11.034-05:00Weeks 12 & 13: Change

This has been my life for the better part of the past 2 weeks.

Our team assignment for Financial Accounting included financial ratio analysis of a public company -- we eschewed mass-market food for the super-competitive retail space. We don't know yet the results of our work, but if re-reading the last sentence is any indication, the assimilation has begun. I'm actually beginning to make sense of it all.

Of course, that isn't all I've been up to. Quant has had us examining demo- and geographic data and OB is teaching us to examine ourselves and step up to owning our behaviors. It's all really come together, as ethical considerations in OB make their appearance in Financial Accounting, and statistical analysis like the one here help make better sense of personal choices. OK, maybe not that exact analysis, but you get the idea.

I snuck away to Illinois last weekend for a covert mission: My "second mom" had a big-time birthday. It was fantastic to see everyone, and I really enjoyed catching up on some ancient history. It was also bittersweet: Change is in the air, and for the first time Illinois felt very foreign to me. It was unsettling really, but I also think it's a sign of where we're at in life, and the things to come.

Next week is Easter, so I'll be catching up on what I missed, and then it's a full weekend down in Charlotte each of the next two. Finals, prep sessions, workshops -- it's one last push before we get three weeks off, and I'm determined to make the most of it. I'm breaking it down, piece by piece, to try to keep from becoming overwhelmed -- but yeah, there are moments.

Then again, after a weekend shopping at Kohl's, at least I look the part. Nevermind that their share price may be artificially inflated due to an overly aggressive stock buyback program, yadda yadda yadda ...
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-74909232230968571542014-03-31T22:15:00.003-05:002014-03-31T22:15:50.547-05:00Week 11: The Plague

This is what a sick day looks like in our house: Elton John meets SpongeBob Squarepants.

This has been our life the past 10 days or so. Ear infections, fevers, crying, all the other not-so-fun stuff you get when you're sick ... it's all here. But then we get moments like this.

Classes are going alright. Org Behavior has been tough; good readings that really probe where I'm at in life. Quant is getting fun, what with multivariate regression analysis on tap. And Financial Accounting is kind of kicking my butt -- I'm bogged down on leases and bonds, while also pulling together a financial analysis brief comparing two retail giants in the midst of the Great Recession.

And did I mention the sicknesses? Plural?

All of a sudden there's a light at the end of the tunnel -- Final classes for this semester are in 32 days. It's a weird feeling, considering where we started. I'm already a different person, approaching things in very different ways than just 3 months ago. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what the next 3 months will bring.

For now, though, we just need to make it day by day; sometimes, hour by hour, or minute by minute. "One step at a time" as Mom used to say. Because for sure, there's no shortage of steps to take!
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-89460360688808585172014-03-23T20:21:00.003-05:002014-03-23T20:21:57.625-05:00Weeks 9 & 10: March Madness

This is sort of how I feel this week.

After the high of last week, when KATE RODE HER BIKE!, I spent all day last Sunday trying -- desperately -- to get back into the swing of things. As in, I spent nearly 10 hours trying to make sense of Financial Accounting -- a subject I hadn't touched since February 15, a full month before.

Uncle.

So I kinda', sorta' got a handle on it, only to wake up Monday staring at 5 readings and two papers due by yesterday. Personal papers -- "who I want to be when I grow up" type stuff. Team dynamics stuff. Navel gazing at its best, after not navel gazing for a month. And then Mars Hill went and screened The Armstrong Lie at Asheville Pizza & Brewing on Thursday night. How could I pass that up? (It was hard to watch -- maybe the Leadership & Org Behavior stuff is really getting to me?!)

So it wasn't with a completely clear head that I went down to Charlotte on Saturday. Daniel got sick on Friday, Kate was on her way, and I spent all last week on a razor-thin edge, subsisting on a fitful 4-5 hours of sleep each night. Our first class went alright, since navel gazing (LOB) is always better with coffee. We crammed during lunch for our Financial Accounting quiz, and then ...

... I tanked it. I had a choice to make, right off the bat. Red pill or blue pill. Either way, I could execute on either one correctly. Blue pill equaled a perfect score. Red pill equaled a C at best -- but really, probably a D. And I chose the stinkin' red pill. I spent the entire 2-hour drive home looking like that poor KU fan in St. Louis.

Things are getting interesting, as our classes are beginning to converge. But that doesn't make them any easier -- we have 2 individual assignments left, a couple of quizzes and two exams, and a full run of team-based projects. With only 1 free weekend between now and finals, the Madness is on -- I'm definitely hoping for an upset of inspiration. It's the last best chance I have left.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-76552134183384659962014-03-15T20:47:00.001-05:002014-03-15T20:47:16.152-05:00Weeks 7 & 8: Taking Flight

Thank goodness for spring break.

I mean, SB14TPE was ... well, everything I thought it would be ... and more ...

'cause you know, instead of Florida, or Myrtle Beach, or New Orleans, where there may have been 1,600 coeds scantily clad in their swimsuits, I got to see 1,600 panda statues scantily clad in their raincoats. Which, by the way, was really cool. And I finally got to go to the 101.

Spring break this year happened to coincide with my trip to Taiwan for the Taipei Bicycle Show. I had every intention of studying on each of the 24-hour journeys, plus catching up during the many hours spent after waking at 3 a.m., unable to sleep, but a funny thing happened this year: China Air had every single one of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture on demand at my seat, and for some reason I slept through the night, every single night, and on the double red-eye flights home. I even got in some solid runs, despite the ever-present rain, and really enjoyed myself at our many vendor dinners. We even had McDonald's delivered to the booth one day!

But, I didn't study. At all. Once I settled in on the outbound leg, sleeping just enough to stay sane but staying awake enough to reset my clock, things just sort of rolled. The whole week. And into the next. Until today: Saturday, March 15. When we decided to have a family day. At the Swamp Rabbit trail in Traveler's Rest, SC.

And ... KATE RODE HER BIKE!

It's been building, but today it was official -- Kate can pedal! I'm so proud of her. She wore out pretty quick, but she was a trooper, rolling over bumps, through the grass, and along the path like a pro. It was awesome. Things will never be the same.

So that's where I'm at. This week promises to be pretty nuts at work and in life, and I'm staring down the barrel of a chapter and a half of Financial Accounting, watching a 4-hour class recording that's been sitting since I was in Minnesota, a bunch of FA ratio assessments, plus two individual and one team assignment for Org Behavior. Spring Break: No regrets, but dang this re-entry is going to be painful.

Better get to work!
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-92142618803679875222014-02-26T20:59:00.000-06:002014-02-26T20:59:22.713-06:00Week 6: Leaving on a jet plane

This, quite clearly, is not North Carolina.

I mean, it gets cold here. It snows. But when the rain came last Thursday to Minneapolis and the temps plunged and the snow started, it was a righteous blizzard as only the Midwest can serve up ... and I was there, thankfully holed up in my hotel. It never got above 18 degrees after that, and even five days later the freeways had hardpack on them. Ford Focus with traction control? Game on.

My annual pilgrimage to Frostbike obviously had a bit of a twist to it this year -- while rocking the stationary recumbent in the hotel, I was also plowing through Org Behavior articles and Financial Accounting. I turned in a paper just before I left, I took a quiz in my hotel, and despite my best intentions I didn't get near as much done as I wanted to on the flight back -- sleep caught up, and I just. couldn't. highlight. any. more.

When I landed Monday I drove straight to Charlotte -- our team put together our plan for the rest of the semester. I think we're all looking for the bit of reprieve we get in the next 2 weeks, but in the back of my mind I also know I need to keep the pressure on a bit -- it would be too easy to fall out of practice. I mean, seriously, there are too many distractions -- Kim and I somehow binge/crammed the entire season of House of Cards before I left (mark it: Four days, including two episodes after class AND a quant workshop on Saturday! Or was it three?!), and two full weeks off could be dangerous to my focus.

Still, it could be worse. I leave for Taiwan on Sunday, and the only thing between me and the departure gate is a few documents for work, a quantitative analysis paper and an exam. And then ... spring break! In Taiwan! Gonna' get rowdy, yes sir!

OK, not really. It's another trade show. And we have a team assignment and a quiz on March 22, our next day back in class. And an M&A workshop the next day. And then things start getting intense.

And maybe it won't be snowing.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-8417200572880235322014-02-16T18:23:00.003-06:002014-02-16T18:25:54.841-06:00Week 5: Code Black

This was almost the week that wasn't.

We finally got a bit of a reprieve, with a take-home exam early in the week and no assignments due on the weekend. Which was a good thing, since early Wednesday the snow started, and by the time it was done that night we had 7" at the house. So of course we did what every redneck Southern family would do -- neighborhood sledding right down the middle of the street!

Kim was on standby at the hospital in case they called a "Code Black" -- I've been through enough of them to know that meant she would have been on lockdown until they lifted the code. Thankfully they never called it, so we got ready to spend a couple of days at home together, which was really nice.

And then the internet died.

We get fairly steady service, except when there's any sort of weather. Or if the wind blows the wrong way (not really, but that's what it feels like). Or when I sneeze. It's sort of maddening, and when working from home and trying to get things accomplished, it's pretty frustrating.

So I shoveled. And shoveled. And shoveled some more. Stephen inspired me with a photo of the igloo he built, so I built an ice house for the kids with the driveway snow. It was perfect -- warm-ish and with wet snow -- and by the time I was done nearly 7 hours later, the kids had a 4-foot-tall house complete with chairs and a "television." I was so tired I couldn't lift the blocks for the entryway, bed or bathroom that Kate asked for, but it sure made for some fun times over the past few days. I figure this chance will only come along a few times in the kids' lives, so I just had to grab it!

On the school front, I managed to get a little ahead again, especially with my reading, and we got some good work completed on our first team assignment, which is due Tuesday. It was a bit of a rough week for me, even so, but by the weekend things had settled down and I was back in the groove. Saturday's classes were weird -- there was a palpable change in the air as we have finally settled into our routines, and it's not so "new" anymore. As a class, we're entering into the conflict/"storming" phase, and a few fissures have arisen -- mainly we're just trying to figure out what our three very different professors are looking for, and are trying to deliver on it. I did well on my accounting exam, and alright on my first stats paper, but Org Behavior is kicking my butt -- ironic, given that it's the one area I actually have studied before.

We've got spring break on the horizon now, but a few big stage gates to get through first -- I'm just gonna' keep on shoveling and hope for the best!
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-84218481897400820232014-02-09T13:09:00.000-06:002014-02-09T13:09:16.771-06:00Week 4: Tempered Expectations

Reality is setting in.

There has been a lot of talk about grades among my classmates in the past few days. Many of them are only a few years removed from undergrad, and probably did pretty well while they were there. And all of us, to be sure, are overachievers. They even warned us during orientation: In a program like this, not everyone can be top of the class. An 'A' student was more or less equal to a 'B' student in terms of whether they graduate. The day would come when our results would not meet our aspirations.

I just don't think we expected it so soon.

This isn't Harvard. WFU's MBA program is not The Paper Chase. But the academic rigor is pretty intense, the standards high, and as we're getting our first grades back, there are a good number of us coming to grips with less-than-stellar feedback. We're maybe not in danger of failing, but neither are we knocking on the door of Beta Gamma Sigma, the business school honor society. So far we've had an accounting quiz, a quantitative analysis paper, and an optional org behavior brief, and our first full-on accounting exam is posted right now.

We've lost a couple of folks along the way, citing workload or other obligations. The attrition is to be expected, but I think it'll calm down here now. We have a relative reprieve this week, which is especially good for one of my teammates, who was sick for the first couple of weeks and is a bit behind the 8-ball. We're helping her dig out, but I can't imagine trying to catch up at school and work, and take care of a sick family -- she stayed up for 36 hours straight Friday-Saturday, so she could finish her paper, attend classes, and put in a solid study session for our exam. And she's trying to get healthy. Yikes.

(As for me, I spent a lot of time on the other side of 11 p.m. in the last 2 weeks -- so much so that I became grammar blind while writing my quant paper. It was only on the last run through, after a solid night of sleep, that I noticed an important missing word [or three] and forgotten punctuation. Time to get some sleep!)

Despite the defections, the class has come together really well. There are 50 of us, give or take, in teams of 4-5 each. I'm the geographic outlier for my team (that's a quant term, see what I did there?), which is a bit of a strain, but we make up for our Wednesday WebEx calls with some solid team time on Saturdays. The class is a mix of skills, ages, and abilities, which makes for some pretty awesome sessions so far. What's funny is I think we've all been through some sort of leadership training or other, and so while our leadership and org behavior class certainly invites the most participation, I'm not sure it's the highlight so far. Instead, our quant class is turning out to be pretty awesome -- the prof is a hoot, and despite his dour visage and parsimonious style, he's been voted favorite professor by several graduating classes. Good thing, too -- we have him through mid-summer a this point.

So that's where we're at. The honeymoon has worn off a bit, and the rock is starting to get kind of heavy. It hasn't quite rolled backward on us yet, but we're going to have to keep pushing to get it up that hill ... especially with few bumps along the way.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-75911857869769614322014-02-02T09:28:00.001-06:002014-02-02T09:35:37.717-06:00Week 3: Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, ...

I'm at school again.

This is a bit strange, since it's Sunday. In fact, it's Groundhog Day. Phil has already seen his shadow, and I'm at school again.

I've gotten into a good groove these past few weeks, making sure to do what needs to be done and even working a bit ahead when I can. I know there will be weeks when that won't be possible, and with some long travel days coming up, I'm trying to bank some for the future.

In the meantime, though, here I am. And for a good reason.

We had our first quiz yesterday. Truth be told, my first quiz in nearly two decades. Sh*t just got real, and in what has become a nasty theme the past 12 months, I was only mostly prepared. What do I mean by that? It means I got all the hard stuff right. It was the obvious, easy questions I missed. Crap.

So I stayed overnight last night, since we have our first test next week. We have a review session today, which also happens to be Super Bowl Sunday, and Kim and I thought it best that I remain here to prepare. I wasn't so sure, to be honest, until the prof set down the quiz in front of me yesterday ... and I realized that yes, indeed, I need to review. Badly. (For the record, this is Financial Accounting. I feel like I get the concepts; it's the mechanics of it that I'm lacking. And it's a very mechanical process with, oddly, room for interpretation -- remind me again how WorldCom and Enron ended up?)

It's been a while since I've had such a focused weekend, and it's kind of nice in a way. I miss the kids, but Kim's at church, so I'd only see them after nap anyway -- which is about the time I'll get home. So that's good. Kate has taken to asking me for papers from school, so she can binder clip them together and pretend she's studying too. It is so super-cute ... but also bittersweet, as I fully realize why she's doing it. Her reflection of me is straight out of a fairy tale mirror.

The banner in the photo went up this past week; WFU opened a new business building last fall, and they created all these pull-ups to scatter around. Apparently the Board was here this week in Charlotte, so they transported the signs down from Winston-Salem -- all sorts of inspiration from sports figures, world leaders, writers. It's pretty cool -- the more I learn about WFU, the more impressed I've become: Did you know Maya Angelou is a professor? And Arnold Palmer -- the quote above -- graduated in 1951? Kim pushed me to take a chance on this program, and I'm glad she did -- Sometimes the odds are against me, but I'm making a total effort.

After all, it's Sunday. And I'm at school again.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-30569285640896511562014-01-26T19:55:00.002-06:002014-01-26T19:55:21.844-06:00Week 2: Here Comes the FloodIt won't be the homework that get's me; it'll be everything else.

I did a pretty good job of clearing the decks before things really got rolling this year. We still have a huge pile of leaves at the base of our driveway, a few minor fixer-upper things in the main house, and a bit of a bike-fueled mess in the basement, but all in all, there aren't too many priorities right now other than work, school, study, and kids.

So I was pretty optimistic this week, and managed to get through both my Financial Accounting and Quantitative Analysis homework in good order. Both were essentially reviews of the "MBA Math" online module I completed in the spring as a prerequisite, and of the awesome videos on Khan Academy that I've been using to catch up on everything I ignored during high school and undergrad. I even got ahead -- just a bit -- knowing that as things get rolling, it's going to be harder and harder to keep up.

We took a vendor out to dinner on Tuesday, and yes, I stayed up too late every night. But all was well, until Friday afternoon ... Kim called me at work.

"We have a flood in the basement."

This is the fourth time we've had standing water in the basement -- twice from the utility sink, once from the water heater, and now in the very back, from the water line to the fridge. Several small holes got punched in the line, and sure enough, we had a river running through it. My bike stuff bore the brunt; thankfully most was in plastic bins, but I lost three nice cardboard boxes and had to air out a few fork lowers.

Very rapidly, this became the bane of my existence:

I managed to turn off the water, though the old valve was pretty roached. We pulled everything out, wasting 45 minutes or so on the night before classes really kicked off. It was an auspicious omen, though we were able to get everything to a stopping point before I went to bed with alarm set for 4:30 the next morning.

Classes went well, the drive to/from wasn't bad (BBC History and news in the morning; shuffling the dial on the way home), and we even managed a few minutes of quiet time when I got home. Kim cooked pancakes for breakfast, and we loaded the family to hit Home Depot. We got everything together, I put in the compression fittings (tons of experience there from Avid!), turned on the water, and ... drip. Drip. Drip.

The project got a whole lot more complicated.

Instead of just replacing the hose, here I was replacing the Whole Darn Thing. Mechanically it wasn't too difficult; it was more the time involved to move furniture and turn off the water to the whole house, and then reverse the procedure. All told, this fire drill took up a couple of hours -- valuable time that "could" have been spent with family, or doing a million other little things. Too many of these, and it'll be tough to catch up.

Like I said, it won't be the homework; it'll be everything else.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-10963451574009633632014-01-19T15:14:00.000-06:002014-01-19T15:14:35.158-06:00Week 1: One-oh-Four

My "home" for the next 2 years,
the Wake Forest Charlotte Center

It has begun.

It's been a while since I did any writing, but as I gazed at my navel yesterday during our final orientation session, I realized that writing, being a writer, is a core piece of who I am. For sure, I have a lot of writing ahead of me in the next 2 years, but dissecting the marketing options of a multinational conglomerate or arguing the differences between GAAP and IFRS just isn't the same as taking a bit of perspective on the whirlwind of school, work and family flying around me.

So to that end, I'm going to make an effort to post up once a week (or so) my experiences as a new-old grad student. This won't be nearly as in-depth as I've gone in past entries (I do have three chapters of Financial Accounting and one of Quantitative Analysis [descriptive statistics] waiting for me ...), but I'll try to give a flavor of what we're doing, and provide a baseline for retrospection at points long in the future.

Which explains the subject of this post.

We graduate in 104 weeks.

Two years has always sounded do-able, and I've been looking forward to diving in and getting started. I've managed to do enough prework to know the difference between EBIT and ANOVA, and above all to remind myself that I don't know what I don't know. But then yesterday I was setting up our team calendar, and when I pressed "Recurrence" it hit me: I was creating a standing meeting for the next ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR weeks. Not all of those will be "school" weeks, to be sure -- I'm back in the world of spring breaks and lunch recess after all -- but my last final will be on or about the first week of December 2015, with graduation about 24 months from right now.

Wow.

So far it's been wine and roses (well, wine anyway) as I got to know the 49 other folks in my class, and in particular the four others on my immediate team. Our program is a "lock-step cohort," meaning we dive right in and go straight through -- for example, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, we have only two weeks off -- both at the end of August. We've spent the last three weekends getting to know each other, the professional staff at the school, some of our professors, and most of all the expectations -- we're all working professionals, but c'mon ... it's been 18-1/2 years since I last sat in a formal classroom. And now I've got this massive book on data analysis sitting on my desk staring at me, a mute testament to my "commitment."

One-oh-four.

Oh, boy.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-52908649577884614652013-04-11T22:34:00.000-05:002013-04-11T22:36:06.303-05:00Act III

Photo info: Wikipedia

There've been a few things happening lately.

There's this.

And this.

And now, there's this!

Wait, what?!

I've been toying with the idea of going to grad school for the better part of two decades, but always had something else to do first. I was even accepted and ready to go, back in the day -- I remember telling Kim when I started racing: "School will always be there; my physical ability to race a bike will not. I can always go back later."

Well ... it's later.

As of today, I am officially part of the Wake Forest Schools of Business MBA class of 2014. I've been in prep mode since Christmas, got the decision at the end of March, and now it's game on! Needless to say, I was stoked to get in, even moreso when U.S. News released its 2014 rankings the other day ... the WFU part-time program -- MY program -- came in at No. 28 in the nation! Holy moly, am I ready for this?!

I was never the best student. I like learning, but I just don't have any patience -- I lose focus and my ability to process information -- especially numbers -- goes out the window. But I've been doing a lot of thinking in the past couple of years, watching some very interesting trends in the bicycle industry, and I know that I don't have the tools I need -- we need -- to make the most of the challenges and opportunities ahead. I need to backfill nearly 20 years in business with the knowledge and skills afforded by one of the top business programs in the country. And so, starting next in January, I will.

Gulp.

I'm really lucky they looked past a fairly dismal undergrad transcript to see the value of what I'm trying to do. Wish us luck as we get ready to start yet another couple of chapters in this roller coaster ... bring it on ... and go Deacs!

Feed me!
Chrishttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-11205056166311297592013-02-04T18:40:00.000-06:002013-02-04T18:40:21.590-06:00Changing gears

And just like that ... it's over.

I always figured it would be my head that got me. I've had more concussions than I can remember (ha, ha), and the only thing I fear in life is developing CTE -- I'm moody enough as it is, so to have a medical condition contribute to that would likely be more than I can bear. That was a main factor of stepping out of road racing -- every season ended with a hospital visit due to landing on my head. At least with mountain biking I was going slower and didn't hit my head quite as often.

But as scary as that might be, it's never been something to stop me. So I kept at it, kept pushing, spent the last decade of my life pursuing my dreams. Exceeding them. Living the life I'd always wanted.

And now it's time to shift gears.

First, as many of you know, I've taken on increased responsibilities at work. This is a good thing, and is affording me an incredible seat for the next great ride -- the future of the bicycle industry is being written now, and I'm helping to shape it. For a kid who opened his first "bike shop" in his Dad's garage some 33 years ago, this is a pretty incredible opportunity that I can't pass up.

Along with that, I'm studying hard for a graduate school admissions test. I've always said we need to drink less of our own Kool Aid, and to look outside ourselves to figure out how to navigate the coming tide, and so I'm hoping to put my money where my mouth is, starting next year. I take the test in a month, and we'll see how it goes from there.

Then there's the family. When it was just Kim and I, it was hard enough to spend all my time riding, even if it was in pursuit of some sort of personal fulfillment. Once Kate came along, my efforts became more focused, though through Kim's generosity the race preparation was still very much a part of our lives. Now that there's two of them, though, it's that much harder to get out -- all last year, I found myself thinking only of them as I drove to Brevard, or Mills River, or DuPont -- wanting instead to be at home, longing for a tackling hug from Daniel or to be working on a craft project with Kate. At the end of this season, I began to spend more time at home, and now I know more acutely than ever what I've been missing.

Still, I kind of figured I'd have a bit of a go this year, and planned to pick it up once the travel ended this first quarter. "Don't call it a retirement," I said, "just an extended break."

Well, now I'm calling it a retirement.

I've been having trouble with my right wrist and thumb off and on for the last few years, without really taking the time to figure it out. Finally, as the season ended last year, it go so bad that I couldn't even pull up my socks -- the pain was that intense. And it was sudden -- there was no telling when it would start, but once engaged it wouldn't subside. It just friggin' hurt.

Which, sadly, seems to indicate that I've developed arthritis in my wrist and thumb. Which wouldn't be a big deal, except I'm a mountain biker -- I execute rear shifts with that part of my body, and it's sort of important to be able to hold onto the handlebars too. All of which is compromised by pain.

(Yes, I "could" become a single speeder. But I won't. Or at least, not to race. I just have no desire to go down that path, and besides, it doesn't solve the whole hold-onto-the-handlebar thing.)

So I think that's it. I'll try to manage through it, I'll do what I can to ride (and I think I'm OK on the road bike), and I'll get back into running to stay in shape. But I'm calling time on my racing career -- it's been an awesome ride, more fun than I could ever imagine, but I know when to say when. And it's time.

There's this awesome scene in Running Scared, after Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines come back from Key West to bitter, cold, hard Chicago. They go into their Captain's office (brilliantly played by Dan Hedaya, Carla's ex-husband on Cheers), light up cigars, lean back and tell him "We're retired." That's kind of how I'm feeling right now, with a big, sh*t-eating grin on my face, knowing the future is wide open.

It's been a good run, but now ... I'm retired.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-33397923507773278882013-01-15T18:38:00.003-06:002013-01-15T18:38:39.905-06:00Potential energy

I may have mentioned it here before: I spent the better part of my childhood "Not Living Up to Potential." When Mom passed away a few years ago, we found evidence of this, in the form of a box of report cards that she had kept. As I worked my way through this anthropological nightmare, the pattern became clear -- I did just enough to get by, just enough to avoid completely crashing out, nothing more, and sometimes less.

There were flashes of success, sure. Mrs. Wright in fourth and fifth grade was pretty awesome. Mr. Hollister in middle school, along wtih Mr. Higgins and even Mr. Biagioni. Mr. Sharp. In high school, which otherwise was four years of purgatory, there was Mrs. Stubinger above all, and Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Stark. Mr. Paldauf, who wasn't at my school but was my debate team coach. I still remember what she said to me, the day Mrs. Stubinger put me on my life's path, and I am forever grateful.

Despite those bright lights, the few inspirations who got through to me, my academic career was a study in stunning mediocrity. And you know what's funny? You know all those threats about how not doing well in school would affect you for the rest of your life? I didn't believe them. I thought they were bogus. I managed to muddle through just fine, thankyouverymuch.

And now I'm screwed.

It all started a year ago. At Christmastime after Daniel was born, Kim took the last of her maternity leave in Chicago, leaving me for 2 weeks in a big house, all by myself. I'm not really sure how it happened, but all of a sudden I found myself in the midst of a crazy project, blowing through my spending money in two days as I planned and began to build -- what else? -- a bike rack.

And somewhere, deep in the recesses of my mind, I recalled something long forgotten: A-squared-plus-B-squared-equals-C-squared. I wasn't quite sure what it meant, but I somehow remembered that I needed to know it to realize my vision.

And I'll be damned, it worked.

One thing led to another, and although I jacked up the angle cuts on the stringers, my right-triangle of a bike rack came together. And it looked decent. By somehow solving this paltry geometric dilemma, I had managed to build something real, something tangible -- without using a computer. And that was pretty neat.

Something -- I'm still not quite sure what -- was reawakened that day. Fast-forward a year now, and a2+b2=c2 has become part of my everyday waking life. I'm not harboring any illusions of becoming a master carpenter, not by any stretch of the imagination; I have instead decided to put my money where my mouth is, and to return to school.

For years I've been lamenting the state of affairs in the bike industry: That many talented, smart people don't stick around. That our ideas are stagnant. That there is a coming tidal wave of customer-oriented, technology-enabled change headed our way, and we're ill-equipped to capitalize on it. That we need more information, more innovation, more differentiation, and that we need to look outside ourselves to learn and adapt. The "bike industry" as we know it may not survive the decade, and without some serious effort on my part, my role in it won't either.

So I am looking to look outside. There are a number of really fantastic graduate school programs here in North Carolina, and I'm going to find my place in one of them -- or I'm going to blow up trying. See, getting into these programs requires a certain amount of knowledge, which is gauged according to well-known standardized tests. And as you may have guessed, those tests always include a "quantitative" portion, which in non-academic circles means "math." While I may do fairly well on the "verbal" and "written" portions, math isn't exactly my strong suit -- I only just learned (or rather re-learned) that my right-triangle equation came from Pythagoras rather than being labeled a "quadratic" equation. Which it is also, apparently.

Damn.

My lifelong middle-of-the-road approach is making things tough. I need to score very highly -- like, "Top-Tier" program highly -- in order to even be considered -- that's how narrowly I escaped my time in college. Sure it's been 10+ years, but really, it wasn't pretty. Especially with a C-minus in statistics (which factor heavily in business school, don'tyouknow) and two glaring Fs in logic (which I finally passed with an A-minus, but that's another story) on my undergrad transcripts. And I know full well that a piece of paper conferred upon me in 2 years does not a "Master" make, but I'm hoping that the exposure I gain while working on a degree will directly translate toward building a new future for my industry.

So despite a few hurdles, I think I can do it. No -- I know can do it. I may have sat in the back of Mrs. Tegtmeier's class making race car noises all through sophomore year of high school, but deep down I actually learned something too, while completing all those proofs she made us do. Because, as it turns out, Mom and Dad were right, and whether it's building a bike rack or studying for grad school admissions, all that stuff does matter.

And so maybe now I'll finally live up to my potential.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-17735088.post-86875188505478548482012-12-17T21:40:00.000-06:002012-12-18T06:42:05.859-06:00A great disturbance
Those of you who follow along on my adventures via social media may have noticed a strange -- and possibly disturbing -- trend lately. To wit: Many of my posts have nothing to do with bicycles. In fact, I would say "most" of my posts are not of the two-wheeled variety.

Wait, what?!

I still remember my last mountain bike ride, a quick jaunt around Bent Creek on Thanksgiving Saturday, after wrecking my rack, my cx/road bike and the back of my car in a fit of stupidity that I wish I could say I've only experienced once in my life. It was fantastic, and I made an extra effort to catch air wherever I could, before rolling back to Kim's car, shivvering and satisfied, just before darkness overtook me.

The road is a bit more forgiving, and I think I've ridden twice since then. Mostly, though I've been running -- truth be told, really, even that isn't as consistent as I'd like.

What I've been doing is working. And studying.

Wait, what?!

Sure, I work in the bike industry. And yes, I can sneak out for a lunch ride now and then. Only, for years I've been saying that what our industry needs is more folks who aren't "bike people" -- if companies are going to survive, we need smart, educated folks with experience outside the Sands Convention Center. The funny thing is, though, I am finally coming to grips that I've been ignoring my own Kool-Aid.

Not anymore.

I started to get really inspired when I tore through the biography of Steve Jobs. Isaacson's portrayal reminded me of a few folks I used to know; more importantly, it dawned on me that we have a similar opportunity within the walls of Cane Creek. We're reinventing ourselves and the world around us, and holy crap, WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!

After that came Moneyball. And The Search. The Long Tail. Why We Buy. "Fast Company." I reactivated a neural network I put to rest nearly a decade ago, one that I let get beat out of me by the perceptions of a toxic, misogynistic, egomaniacal environment followed by the self-determination that I would live an idealized lifestyle, not be a -gasp- "middle manager."

The crazy thing is, this time around, I'm having fun.

When I joined Cane Creek, I naturally started to focus more of my attention on the industry. My reading habits became less cyclingnews.com, more "Bicycle Retailer." All the same, on some level I've been holding back for one reason or another, and it wasn't until a few months ago (oddly, about the same time I might have been in Vegas for the annual trade show) that something finally clicked: I actually don't have much bike industry experience. Most of my professional life has been in insurance. Or cars. Or agency work. Consulting.

And I finally realized: That matters. I can use that. It's not a liability. I can help shape the future of this industry by tapping into this knowledge and experience that I never really thought was all that relevant.

Do or do not. There is no try.

Now, for some of you, this may seem pretty elementary. But for me, in this environment, this industry, it was pretty revolutionary, at least to myself. It's the culmination of a lot of angst, feeling the heat and getting burned a few times, and finally realizing that to be an agent of change, you must embrace and become the change yourself fully -- the middle ground is, in retrospect, the too-easy path. And while I like to think I've not been a slouch, neither have I taken on completely my responsibility to myself.

Until now.

On some level, yeah, I'm a bike guy. I always will be. But while my coworkers have been geeking out on the latest products on Bikerumor, I've been watching the developments at Google with a lot of interest -- Once upon a time I built an open-source inference engine to aid in field diagnosis for paramedics, and as we lurch ever-closer to a successful Turing Test, I am fascinated by the possibilities. I say this not to brag, but as an example of a new way of thinking: Computer science, retail theory, statistical baseball -- these are the fields from which we can draw to ensure a future for the bicycle industry. We must escape the gravitational pull that has thus far destroyed the ski and golf industries, and I believe it's only by the grace of our own backwardness that we have survived as long as we have. Thinking outside the bike will be the only way to leapfrog the fate that now faces us. And I want to be right there, taking hold of that future.

May the Force be with us. Always.
Feed me!
Chrishttp://email@example.com


text:
Looking for high quality incense assuring a 100% natural can be very confusing. There are manufacturers that are selling incense yet the ingredients did not meet the needed product. However, if you wish to have incensed that suit for what you are aiming for, you better make your own. But, how about the ingredients, and other necessary things needed to make your own incense?
It is not easy because there are a lot of varieties of incense that are found even in the internet. And it's dangerous if you are not aware that there are incense products that contain prohibited entheogens, chemicals and herbal ingredients resulting in a product that is not legal in your country.
Incense is use for religious ceremonies and rites, and its aroma can give a healing atmosphere at home. But if it only destroys your health due to the ingredients contained on it, you must be careful otherwise you are a victim of fake one.
There are incense shops that split each kind such as in the form of sticks, cones, resins, etc. into their own sections for easier selection. Having this selection may find you easier because they are carefully chosen each and every scent for quality and unique varieties. But don't trust on the way it is displayed or advertise on the net. You must assure that you've gotten the right one that suits and fits what you are looking for.
Through incense reviews that are found on the net, this can help you identify which product and distributor can be relied on. These people giving comments and description of incense they are using through incense review may help you find for quality incense, assuring your 100% satisfaction.
Start reading on some incense reviews in some websites that post comments and suggestions to guide you in acquiring good quality incense

subset: commoncrawl


text:
This encyclopedia contains over 1,900 entries for characters, actors, crew members, plot devices, and facts, as well as film summaries and Charlie's famous aphorisms. Photographs accompany the text and the entries are arranged alphabetically for easy reference and access. Practically anything a fan of these films might want to know is thoroughly analyzed here.
Berlin, Breaks it down to all things relevant and gives you the plots and actors bio's. Plus other films they did. The supporting cast is what makes the films as good as they are, and keep the story moving. This is a good companion book to go with, Charlie Chan at the Movies, and the Cases of the Oriental Sleuths.These three books are great to cross reference with each other, what one author misses the other adds too. I got all three and pick them up and check out a certain plot line and one or another of the books will give me a fact I missed on the first reading. Buy all three.


text:
Hundreds of Airstream trailers gathered for a convention at the Duluth Arena-Auditorium, June 23, 1983. (Bob King / News-Tribune)
2 thoughts on "airstream1"
I remember this. We were on our way back from Ontario from a fishing trip. Came over Miller hill. The sun was literally blinding When it hit the airstream trailers!
I remember this! I was 12 and didn't understand what "airstreamer" meant. Even after it was explained to me, I didn't get it.


text:
|Miriam Lord, The Best of Miriam Lord
|Miriam Lord
|Miriam Lord is a colour writer and columnist with The irish Times.
|Roisin Ingle, Róisín Ingle
|Roisin Ingle
|Roisin Ingle is a journalist for The Irish Times contributing features, news, colour and a weekly column in the Saturday magazine
|Ross, Rock, Ross o carroll kelly, ross o'carroll kelly, ross o carroll, ross o'carroll
|Ross O'Carroll Kelly
|Ross O'Carroll Kelly is a satirical finctional Irish character, a wealthy Dublin 4 rugby union jock created by journalist Paul Howard.
|Conor Pope
|Conor Pope
|Conor Pope is The Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent and edits the Pricewatch Column.
|Fintan O'Toole, fintan otoole, fintan o'toole,25 years of Irish Life through the columns of Fintan O'Toole
|Fintan O'Toole
|Fintan O'Toole is literary editor of The Irish Times and has been an op-ed columnist since 1988.
|Michael Harding
|Michael Harding
|Michael Harding is a playwright and novelist.
|Deaths, death notices, family notices, births deaths & marriages, obituaries
|Family Notices
|Deaths, Weddings, Births and other family notices
|weather forecast
|Irish and International weather forecasts including a five-day forecast, tides and weather warnings
|Letters to the editor
|Readers' Letters to the Editor of The Irish Times
|Pricewatch, Conor Pope
|Consumer advice column written by Conor Pope
|Crossword, crosswords, simplex, crosaire, crossaire, xword
|The Crossword Club
|Play up to 10 years of Irish Times simplex and crosaire crosswords on your computer or iPad
|Featured jobs, jobsearch and career advice
|Property, commercial property
|Commercial Property
|Irish construction and property market news
|Property, Homes, home, new to market
|Homes & Property
|Latest Irish Homes & Property News, Reviews, Tips and Advice
|Property, Homes, home,Myhome,myhome.ie
|Find Thousands of Houses and Apartments for Sales and Rent across Ireland and much more with MyHome.ie, Ireland's Leading Property Portal. .
|Win excellent prizes from The Irish Times and selected partners
|Podcast, Podcasts, Inside Politics, Hugh Linehan
|Inside Politics Podcast
|Weekly politics podcast presented by Hugh Linehan
|Podcast, Podcasts, World View, Denis Staunton
|World View Podcast
|Weekly foreign affairs podcast presented by Denis Staunton
|Podcast, Podcasts, Off Topic Show, Off Topic Podcast
|Off Topic Podcast
|Off Topic is a weekly culture and ideas podcast
|Podcast, Podcasts, Róisín Ingle, Róisín Meets, Roisin Ingle, Roisin Meets
|Róisín Meets Podcast
|Weekly podcast presented by Róisín Ingle
|Podcast, Podcasts, Business Podcast, Ciarán Hancock
|Business Podcast
|Weekly business podcast presented by Ciarán Hancock
|Subscriptions, digital subscriptions, standard digital subscriptions, premium digital subscriptions, premium subscriptions, Gifts
|Gift Subscriptions
|The Irish Times news subscription is available to buy as a gift. Standard and premium digital subscriptions available.
|Podcast, Podcasts, Second Captains
|Second Captains Podacst
|Weekly sports podcast from the Second Captains team
|pagesales, page sales, front page, front page sales, page reprint, reprint, reprints,gifts
|Page Sales
|Commemorate a birthday, christening, anniversary or other special day with a framed page of The Irish Times
|photosales, photo sales, photographs, photographer, photography, buy photos,gifts
|Photo Sales
|Choose from an extensive range of photographs taken by Irish Times photographers
|Ancestors, Irish ancestors
|Irish ancestors
|Use The Irish Times database of family records to trace your Irish ancestry
|Irish Times books, The Irish Times 150 years of influence, Wison on wine, Turner's Taoisigh, The Best of Miriam Lord, More Simplex, The Times we lived in, The Irish Times Book of the year 2014,gifts
|Irish Times books
A selection of some of the best writing from The Irish Times journalists and superb images from our photographers
|You Are What You Read, Irish Times ads
|You Are What You Read
|Our new ad campaign is designed to tell the stories of what makes The Irish Times unique: our writers. Here we want to celebrate the people behind the stories, starting with Harry McGee and Conor Pope.
|Rewarding Times
|Rewarding Times
|Rewarding Times features exclusive weekly offers from selected Irish Times partners
|Reader offers
|Reader offers
|Special offers and discounts for readers of The Irish Times
|Travel offers
|Travel Offers
|From beach holidays and city breaks, to escorted tours and cruises, our travel offers have something for everyone
|Irish Times Dating
|Start your free membership today
|Subscriptions, digital subscriptions, standard digital subscriptions, premium digital subscriptions, premium subscriptions
|Digital subscriptions
|Find the subscription bundle that's right for you
|newspaper, delivery, weekend newspaper, digital subscription, print subscription
|Print + Digital subscriptions
|Subscribe to The Irish Times newspaper and website
|Home delivery, Delivery, newspaper
|News delivery
|Choose from a range of Ireland's most popular newspapers and magazines delivered to your home or office before 7.30am each day. Choose the publications and delivery days that suit your requirements.
|Digital Edition, epaper, replica edition, newspaper
|Read full editions of The Irish Times in true printed format and get all your latest news across multiple devices.
|Newspaper Archive, replica
|Irish Times Newspaper Archive
|Browse full issues from 1859 to present day, see all articles, photos and ads as they originally appeared
|Irish Times eBooks, The Best of Miriam Lord, An Irishman's diary, 25 years of Irish Life through the columns of Fintan O'Toole, Do the think we're eejits?, Ireland and Me: reflections by emigrants, Scotland's Moment - The story of the referendum, Fall of the Wall - 25 years on
|Irish Times eBooks
|The Irish Times eBooks offer a selection of some of the best writing from The Irish Times journalists
|obituaries, deaths
|Obituaries from The Irish Times
|Memorable Moments, Birthday Books, Anniversary Books,gifts
|Memorable Moments
|Commemorate any special date with a beautifully recreated edition of The Irish Times from that day.
|Sports diary 2015, Sports diary, Sports calendar 2015, Sports calendar, Sports events, fixtures
|Sports Diary 2015
|Browse the major sporting events of 2015
Lagan Valley: Jenny Palmer may not be able to stop DUP juggernaut
- Politics
- April 14, 2016, 16:30
If the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) are to replicate its impressive performance in Lagan Valley at the 2011 Assembly election, it means winning fo(...)
Waterfront rally in support of Ashers bakery draws thousands
- Irish News
- March 24, 2015, 20:18
A rally was held in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Tuesday night in support of the Ashers Baking Company ahead of a legal case on Thursday that is (...)
Church group meets DUP, SDLP on freedom of conscience Bill
- Religion & Beliefs
- February 24, 2015, 17:55
The Catholic Church in Northern Ireland has met representatives of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Belfast to discuss legislation which will al(...)
Bid for 'conscience clause' after gay marriage cake row
- Politics
- December 8, 2014, 18:13
A bid to introduce a "conscience clause" into equality laws in Northern Ireland has been launched in the wake of a controversial legal action against (...)
DUP politician calls for 'reasonable accommodation' for religious believers
- Irish News
- December 8, 2014, 15:02
A DUP Assembly member has called for a "reasonable accommodation" between the rights of people not to be discriminated against and the right to freedo(...)
McGuinness calls for all-island sex abuse victims support body
- Irish News
- November 6, 2014, 00:30
The Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, has written to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and DUP First Minister Peter Robinson calling for (...)
NI Chief Justice rejects judge's complaint he was victim of 'bias'
- Crime & Law
- June 4, 2014, 19:31
The North's Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan has told the Assembly justice committee that a complaint by a county court judge that he had been a v(...)
TD urges inquiry into pro-life group seeking €7,000 donations
- Irish News
- January 24, 2014, 16:34
A Fine Gael TD has called for an investigation into a pro-life organisation which brought 13 politicians to New York and Washington last March and is (...)
North's prison officers to be awarded danger money in light of dissident threat
- Crime & Law
- January 10, 2014, 01:00
More than 1,000 Northern Ireland prison officers, mostly recruited since 2002, are to receive extra "danger money" pay in light of the threat from dis(...)
SDLP founder member Eddie McGrady dies
- Politics
- November 11, 2013, 20:51
The former South Down MP and SDLP founder member Eddie McGrady has died aged 78. He had been ill for some time.Mr McGrady spent 50 years as a councill(...)


text:
A proposal to renovate the prison-like Weaver High School building into a light-filled structure with three specialized academies has been delayed as the school system tries to build support for the project.
Under plans presented in December, the low-performing Weaver High in the city's North End would have academies in culinary arts and hospitality, health sciences and possibly architecture -- and would resemble more of a college campus than a penitentiary.
But the overhaul, which the school system had said could be completed by summer 2015, would come at an estimated cost of up to $150 million. Funding would be heavily dependent on the state at a time of fiscal belt-tightening.
The plans were met with deep skepticism and only a small amount of excitement when Christina Kishimoto and other city school administrators detailed them to residents at public forums in the Weaver auditorium.
At a recent city board of education meeting, Superintendent Steven Adamowski said the proposal was "a good starting point." Among the ideas that Kishimoto, an assistant superintendent of secondary schools and the incoming schools chief, had promoted was a potential partnership between Weaver and the neighboring University of Hartford.
However, the school system needs "a strong community consensus that would justify this level of expenditure" before moving ahead with a renovation, Adamowski said.
"Let's assume that it's not even $150 million," said Adamowski. "Let's assume that it's $100 million -- you can't really build a high school for less than $100 million today. That uses up a great deal of the city's bonding capacity. It is a tremendous investment on the part of taxpayers, both state and local."
Read the rest of today's story here.


text:
Gearing up for a busy summer selling season? You may want to take another look at your staging process. Staged homes sell 78 percent faster than non-staged homes, so it's important to do your due diligence if you want to succeed. The following infographic, provided by Point 2, lays out the top tips for summer staging. Stage on!
For more information, visit www.point2.com.
Interested in more details on this topic? Click here!
Copyright© 2016 RISMedia, The Leader in Real Estate Information Systems and Real Estate News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be republished without permission from RISMedia.
Content on this website is copyrighted and may not be redistributed without express written permission from RISMedia. Access to RISMedia archives and thousands of articles like this, as well as consumer real estate videos, are available through RISMedia's REsource Licensed Content Solutions. Offering the industry's most comprehensive and affordable content packages. Click here to learn more! http://resource.rismedia.com


text:
Surfers Paradise, Queensland - Australia
Property ID: 8653
Print Page
The 'Emerald' Surfers is anything but a typical Gold Coast resort that offers the discerning traveler the comfort of a home away from home. Guests can enjoy breathtaking views of the lush tropical backdrop of the Hinterland, and expansive views of the surrounding areas beautiful waterways and coastline. At night the city lights are an amazing sight.Check-in Time: 14:00Check-out Time: 10:00Check-in Days: SaturdayImportant InformationPlease check with resort for smoking policy.A Visa may be required. Determine requirements prior to your visit.