text:
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16656195637487063492017-03-01T14:59:43.221-08:00The New EnglanderThe New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-66618511653633899212016-06-29T11:35:00.000-07:002016-06-29T11:35:09.112-07:00What I Said Last April...Just More of It
Cliff Krieger has teased me a few times about going "RF cold" over here in Bloggistan. It has, indeed, been a while.

The funny thing is, not much as changed. In fact, I'm able to write today because of a cancellation (but it's a late cancellation, and yes, I'm getting paid for that time as I write this...but I still have to go Boston in a little while for another).

I figured I would write today about why I think adjuncting is actually great, despite some of the popular portrayals and the misleading, clickbaity headlines about "Professors in Poverty" and the like.

But I actually stopped to look at my own site and saw that I'd more or less written this back in April of 15.

It's still true today, though -- once you really get your calculator out and figure out the math, adjuncting is a more than okay way to make a living. Especially if you love to teach. Living in Boston certainly doesn't hurt (I realize geography helps make the adjunct hustle more doable here...though I suppose the Internet sort of wipes away some of that distinction). I supposedly make a lot per hour tutoring but my effective wage, coupled with some of the qualitative factors, reveals to me that adjuncting will be in the cards for me for many years to come, whereas tutoring will not (but, to badly paraphrase that line from Brokeback Mountain, "I just can't quit you.")

I still play in the NFL...that is, the No Fun League. But it's a situation that I've carved out, and as I tell my wife sometimes, it would be just as hard or probably an even harder route if I had done something more traditional post-MBA. As I like to say, people who spend their time vilifying the 1% need to spend more time around the 1%. Then, make fun of them all you want (of course it's your right!) but you might change the way you view their work ethic.

I started a business, and it basically went sideways. I emerged, relatively unscathed, but with some lost time to make up for on a couple fronts. Got my entrepreneur Campaign Ribbon but (thankfully!) no Entrepreneur Purple Heart. To borrow from Gen. MacArthur, "I shall return." But smarter next time.

I have a neat project on the side, and it's income investing. No magic tricks here -- there are companies and funds who will pay you a residual income for buying and holding their shares. Companies with long track records of dividend increases tend to work particularly well here, as they create a sort of 'double compounding' effect when these divs are reinvested. This is all about temperament, and has nothing to with IQ -- if you're someone who gets excited by the idea of a drop becoming a trickle becoming a creek becoming a stream becoming a river becoming an ocean making tidal waves, then it might be up your alley, too.

Oh, and one thing about recent events before I retreat back into my lair -- if you like to opine about the strange habits of other people who supposedly can't help themselves from "voting against their own interests" then I would just wonder how you'd feel about someone saying the same about you.

They wouldn't, though, would they? You're probably too enlightened.
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-12694171934622871912015-04-29T18:00:00.000-07:002015-04-29T18:03:39.945-07:00Privileged? Oh, Let Me Count the Ways!
I am a straight, white, Protestant male.

I didn't choose any of that -- except, sort of, the next-to-last one -- but I benefit from unearned privilege in an immeasurable number of ways, large and small. I could write a lot more about these ways, but here are two specifics for you, for the sake of brevity and for the sake of the students whose exams I need to grade en masse, pronto:

(1) I often walk home late at night from Gallagher terminal to Canal Place. It's a pretty easy jaunt and there's a pretty direct way to do it. Sometimes I'm not the only one taking that walk. Whenever the temperature finds its way above the freezing mark, I wear flip-flops. These flip-flops make a distinct 'clackety-clack' sound as I traipse uphill on Thorndike...err, Dutton...or whatever you call the uphill portion of the sidewalk I'd be on if the South Common were to my immediate right. Sometimes there is someone walking in front of me -- and bear in mind it's VERY late at night and there are very few people out. Sometimes the person hearing that 'clackety-clack' getting closer turns around, sees me, and expresses relief. Why? What is about me that caused that? How might they react to a 'me' that wasn't quite so pale?

(2) Three of my jobs involve some sort of transfer or explanation of technical or mathematical knowledge that I might be qualified to actually present. That's not some awkwardly insincere self-effacement, that's just the truth. With each semester, I get better at CS101. With each seminar on Big Data, Online Tracking, or Trends in Tech, I get stronger on the material. But getting to this point has certainly had a significant 'fake-it-til-you-make-it' component. You think my gender and race helped me do that? I do. I think that when people close their eyes and imagine who might be teaching them GRE combinatorics problems, or who might be teaching them about binary number systems, or demystifying PageRank, they picture someone like me. So how does this help me? It means I start with the benefit of the doubt. If I confuse 'bit' with 'byte', I won't be treated like the female sideline reporter who asked Jerry Rice about his many interceptions and never lived it down...instead, people would just think, "He must be mixed up right now."

And believe me, from where I started to where I am now, I've gotten plenty of benefit of the doubt.

When I see the way people react to the Baltimore riots, I am reminded of two much more important ways that I benefit from unearned privilege:

(1) No one is ever going to pity me or excuse my behavior. Every time I see a well-meaning left-winger write something on Facebook about it being 'understandable' or 'natural' for certain people to throw bricks through windows, or to stomp on windshields, or steal toiletries from CVS, I cringe. And I cringe because I know that MOST people in West Baltimore don't, and won't, do any of those things. A tiny subset of a tiny subset (mostly young males) might commit heinous acts like that, though. And I also cringe because I know the people writing that would NEVER make such apologies for me. If I were to go out and commit seriously antisocial acts of aggression, people would rationalize it in ways that were individualized to me, and to me alone. "He must have gone crazy," or "What a privileged ass-hat." What they're really saying is that I'm accountable for my actions, but some poor kid from West Baltimore is not. And what does that tell me? It tells me that the power structure that currently works in my favor -- and very much AGAINST that kid whose image is on the news -- will remain just as it currently is.

(2) I'm never going to see myself as a victim. Even the one protected class to which I do belong (veterans) is not really something *bad* societally. Yes, there might be isolated instances of anti-veteran statements, like when that CNN reporter implied veterans might be starting violence in cities, but that gets shouted down pretty quickly. But the flip side of the above paragraph is that I believe I'm fully in control of my destiny. That doesn't mean it's all easy street -- just ask my wife, the only other person who really knows about my schedule. But it does mean that I honestly believe tomorrow will be better than today, and the day after will be better than tomorrow, and so on. Why do I think this way? Some of it may just be natural disposition, but my life experiences tell me that hard work is rewarded and that a seed planted today will be worth more in the future. Not everyone who is born and raised in West Baltimore is shaped by similar experiences, to put it mildly. If it means that I don't make excuses, then even my legendarily endless days are just a reflection of that shaping...kinda like the way a privileged kid from San Mateo outworks everyone else in his field, year after year, and still shows up first to camp after ring #4.

But anyway, back to Baltimore for a second. Watching the way various people have reacted just reminds me that anyone who thinks one side of the political spectrum is "Correct" when it comes to issues of racial injustice and poverty, while another side is "Incorrect" needs to look at things a bit more closely.

Even putting aside the issues of the Freddy Gray case, I think all sides can admit that the issues that lead to intergenerational poverty are complex.

The solutions aren't simple either. Just look at how many billions (trillions?) of dollars have been funneled through the Great Society programs intended to 'fix' places like West Baltimore, or East St. Louis, or the South Side of Chicago.

I'm not saying I have the answers, but I do have a strong hunch that any 'solution' that doesn't come with buy-in from the community in question itself is just going to lead to more status quo. If it's simply "give them more stuff" or "we should stop using words that offended a Baltimore City Councilman" or "we should pay urban school administrators more," the problem is that none of those assume efficacy or agency on the part of the people being 'helped.'

The more the solutions can come from within that community, and the more that people can benefit from the privilege that come with high expectations (of oneself and for oneself), the faster we'll be able to fix the structural problems that are on display right now in one of our major East Coast cities.

But the more the American political intelligentsia, or the elite 'leaders' in Baltimore, want to have discussions that de-emphasize the power and responsibility of the people in the community -- who, by the way, can make the choice NOT to throw bricks through windows, or to take Oreos and Pampers from CVS -- the more we'll ensure that people who look like me continue to enjoy their unearned privilege, and that most of the people in West Baltimore will not.

The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-88331906463220291612015-04-17T12:44:00.002-07:002015-04-17T12:44:56.672-07:00Adjuncts, Wages, and Poverty
I've read a few articles lately about adjunct salaries.

Some have quoted adjuncts at various universities who talk about how they earn a poverty wage, how they're on food stamps, how they're considered expendable, etc.

Some of the quotes have been pretty misleading. I won't even try to delve into the bigger-picture issues here about who should -- or shouldn't -- be teaching at universities, but I will say this: I teach six courses a year (two per term, including summers), so I'm familiar with some of the general issues and arguments that are swirling around about this.

In exchange for teaching these courses, I receive what I consider to be a fair supplement to my annual household income.

By itself, it would qualify me as poor. By itself, it would leave me without health insurance.

But I never understood full-time wage and benefits to be part of the deal when I agreed to a part-time job. As it happens, the supplement that teaching gives me helps put me over the hurdle I need to clear each month to get by -- truly, it's a wonderful thing, and I'm quite grateful to have received the opportunity to do it.

Some of the articles I've seen have included quotes that implied that a courseload like this (2 per term) is a full-time job. It isn't. It's demanding, it's important, it's taken seriously...but it's not full-time.

Other models may be far better than the one currently in place. In a perfect world, universities would find ways to hire more adjuncts as full-time teachers -- pay them a *real* wage, and let them *really* teach. Hire and retain only the best teachers. While you're at it, keep fewer six-figure administrators with amorphous job descriptions on staff.

Maybe we'll eventually get there.

In the meantime, anyone who wants to basically write his or her ticket as a full-time adjunct can do so by affiliating himself/herself with several schools, really teaching full-time, and really pulling down a wage that will allow this lifestyle, for all its pros and cons.

I realize how frantic and hectic that would be, as well as the quandary it would still leave people in, benefits-wise. But I also realize there's another, albeit possibly equally unpalatable option to take -- they could always get a day job.
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-50145394711260729192015-04-09T10:31:00.004-07:002015-04-09T10:31:54.244-07:00Hello (Again), World
I'm not sure what motivated me to think about blogging today, but here are three quick bullet points before I head back to grading and preparing for tonight's class:

No Bushes, No Clintons. I don't necessarily support or even *like* any particular candidate who is or who might be running for President in 2016. What I do know, though, is that it honestly worries me a bit that the front-runners, or at least near front-runners, for our two major parties are a Bush and a Clinton. I hope the nomination process brings us someone ELSE for at least one, if not both, parties.

Being slightly more rational. Subscription-based business models are wonderful...if you're the business. For longer than I care to say, I've steadily maintained my "Y" membership despite not having actually used it. Why be so irrational? Well, you see, although I may not use it in practice, I use this membership in theory. Actually cancelling the membership would force me to say that I don't use it in either sense. Well, finally my credit card expired and I thought, "Well, okay, that sort of did it for me." But apparently not. Even after the card expired -- and suffice to say I had not entered the joint since said occurrence -- the Y continued to send me statements w/increasing "amounts due" at the bottom. This got me to FINALLY say, "Okay, the jig's up. Time to stop pretending that I swim there, or whatever it is I think I do, and just cancel this thing." I went in this morning, knocked out all the paperwork, and learned that they have one-day passes for military members for $3. So the story ends quite well -- no more $38/mo charged to my card, and whenever I decide to do the *actual* kind of swimming, as opposed to the theoretical kind, I can do it at a solid 12 times a month before I even hit the break-even point.

Perma-working. Only because I looked, I know this was the last entry I did before this. I still perma-work, and will continue to do so until my passive income hits the right threshold. I sometimes wonder how many people perma-work (I bet it's a sizable chunk of people; I'm not trying to sound special or play a woe-is-me card here). I'm nowhere near a one percenter (believe me, I just filed my return, I know this). But things are trending in the right directions, and I eventually plan to get there. When I do, no one else -- except my wife -- will really know what it was like during this part the climb. I have no idea what I'll be like when I'm on that side of the table -- I hope I don't become a pompous jerk -- but the more I see and learn about the world, the surer I am that very few of those bashing the one-percent would be game for the 4 a.m. wakeups on days that end with the last train home.

The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-91574062167093316572014-12-08T09:33:00.001-08:002014-12-08T09:33:30.427-08:00Perma-Working
Lots of time has elapsed between entries, so thanks for coming back.

Things are good. I'd say things are 'busy' but as I've written about before, the word 'busy' doesn't seem to have much meaning today.

I would say that I exist in a steady state of 'perma-work.' That's not necessarily a good or a bad thing. I'm pursuing an entrepreneurial dream -- and yes, there's some Skunk Work-ish type stuff up the sleeve -- but in the meantime I'm basically 'working to support my entrepreneurial habit.'

When the sideshow stuff crowds out the main effort, it can seem frustrating...but the seasonality to it all is that Labor-to-Turkey is always going to be the nuttiest time of year. So things are easing up a bit now.

In many ways, I've learned as much or more about business in the past few months actually running one than I learned in four semesters of b-school. I've learned that costs tend to be steadier than revenues. I've learned that any business model that relies on the specific effort/time of a particular person or group of people (basically, anything non-scalable) is quite, quite limited.

I've learned that the FICO score of a principal in a business is very important, at least until the business establishes its own credit. Then, in turn, I've learned that I need to retire a great deal of personal debt before I can make the kind of deal that would vault the business to the point where I didn't need to be doing quite so much on the outside. To do so, I've got to put even more of the outside work...which crowds out even more time that would otherwise go towards the main effort.

Sometimes that all makes me think of the kids' story "I Don't Know Why I Swallowed a Fly," in which the protagonist swallows a series of increasingly-large animals to solve her initial problem (swallowing a fly, which in turn needed to be swallowed).

At some point, you might rationally ask, "How does any of this even make any sense? Why not shave, put on a nice suit, and go knock on the door at State St. to see if they'd take you?"

As well-intentioned as that question is, there's an information asymmetry between me and the person asking it. There are some neat trends that have been set in motion, and some (very delayed) payoffs that will result. There are some corporations and institutions involved that you've heard of. But for today, it's dirt-under-the-fingernails and an obscene setting on my alarm clock.

To paraphrase Robert Duvall speaking to Sean Penn in Colors, it's all about the bull walking down the side of the valley to [fraternize with] all of the cows.

There's a seemingly-minor note in Walter Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs, in which he describes a condition Mike Markkula made before writing the first big check that Apple ever received (at the time, the only Apple peeps were Jobs and Wozniak).

To paraphrase, "Woz has to quit H-P" was the demand.

Woz said, "But no, I can just keep doing H-P full time, but do this Apple thing on the side in Steve's garage."

To which Markkula said -- again paraphrasing -- "The hell you will."

Eventually, they had to get Wozniak's Dad involved, but the ultimate result was Woz leaving H-P and then Markkula cutting the check.

Markkula was no dummy.

The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-67601713413784003272014-08-14T19:11:00.001-07:002014-08-14T19:11:08.426-07:00Why Quarterly Goals Matter... A Lot
Yes, it's been quite some time. Thanks for coming back.

I love to write, and I don't care how many times I've said it -- I love the way this blog sort of passively keeps me in touch with a small group of friends I don't see that often. So now back to the blogging...

Here's a quick thought before I turn in for the night: Quarterly goals are hugely important. Without them, any fledgling venture can fall victim to what I'll call the "roadside litter" problem.

Here's what I mean by that: The world is full of shiny objects. It's easy to let them distract you. It's easy to say, "No, no, no THIS is the THING!" and thereby let a shiny object rope you in. It occupies you until you see another, and then you abandon that last thing for the latest thing...so the previous thing becomes a piece of discarded, roadside litter. Rinse, repeat.

So that's why the quarterly goal thing is so critical. Assuming you're on calendar year quarters, this is the halfway point for Q3. Whatever your team said mattered in late June MUST still matter (c'mon, it was practically yesterday), so the important thing to do is execute.

Got good ideas? Save 'em for the review at the end of September. Ice 'em until Q4.

Oh, and to the degree you can, formulate your goals in ways that quantifiable and clearly measurable. If you say, "Do more business development" then it's just too much of a softball to check the box, or turn that part of your spreadsheet green.

Instead, say something like, "Make 200 more cold calls," or "Complete __ % of project," etc. You'll know you either did it, or didn't. At that point, it's not always about meeting everything 100%. If your entire spreadsheet is green, maybe it means you didn't push yourself enough -- supposedly even Google only expects 70 percent completion of its OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).

But more important than the issue of where to set the bar, just be sure to set it in a clearly measurable way. To take it away from business for a second, say "Lose 10 pounds" instead of "take the stairs more." With the former, you might *miss* your goal but still come away better for it...maybe you dropped 7. But with the latter, it's too easy to just sort of shrug your shoulders and say, "Yeah, I guess that happened."
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-13856940517046958482014-05-21T09:00:00.003-07:002014-05-21T09:03:17.119-07:00That 'B' Word
I thoroughly enjoyed this New Yorker article about the role of "busy" in modern American life.

I laughed out loud at a few points along the way, and wasn't shocked to see that a contributing factor to our usage of the term is that "busy" has become a status badge in 21st-century American life. Sure enough, a study cited in the article showed that over the past five decades, Americans' holiday cards have made more and more references to the "busy-ness" of the writer, at the expense of general references to the blessings of the season.

I have a confession to make: At times, over the past five or so months, I've grown to loathe this word -- so much so, in fact, that I've tried to stop using it altogether.
The whole issue of how I came to strongly dislike this 'b' word is hard to even broach, without either a) sounding like a whiner, (which I am, for complaining about events that were largely under my control); or b) sounding like I'm playing the 'busier-than-thou' card (which I probably AM doing, btw), and which the article makes fun of (and rightly so!) I tried to stab at it a couple entries ago; basically, the long and the short of it is that several opportunities came together a la fois. The result was a long string of days that never really started or ended. Lots of LRTA-at-it's-not-quite-six-eh on the front end, tailed in by a jaunt past the Swamp Locks at 2300 and change -- rinse, repeat.

Hence my confession -- I got tired of hearing people talk about how 'busy' they were all the time. I got tired of smiling politely every time someone said 'must be nice' in reference to my laid-back attire on a 'workday.' And somehow, dropping the word entirely seemed like the only way to swim against the cultural tide of 'busy' as default status.

But enough about me -- if you're thinking about dropping this word from your vocabulary, one upshot is this -- when you stop using it as your reflexive response to the question, "How are you?" then you can simultaneously save yourself from a knee-jerk bout of one-upsmanship from someone you suspect might not be quite sustaining the same daily regime.

And that in turn spares you from some inevitable inner-monologue round of 'two-upsmanship.'

...and why is the 'two-upsmanship' so certain to occur? Because unlike the person you're speaking with, you really mean it.

No, really.

The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-84919101281161375002014-05-16T13:55:00.000-07:002014-05-16T14:00:12.557-07:00Two That I'd Avoid
I love working in the Sandbox collaborative space. It's very close to home, I've got 24/7 access, and I'm infinitely more productive in a professional environment than I would be back at the ranch. Plus, being around other entrepreneurs is a good thing...usually. It's a great way to trade stories about things have worked well, or gone badly, and to get truly important information, like knowledge about the all-you-can-eat buffet at Fox Hall.

Even though I'm not an angel investor, it's possible that someday I could be. Much more likely, I'll be in some other sort of position through which I can mentor others along, and at times I'll be able to act as a gatekeeper, or at least a gatekeeper's assistant (recently, I got to help read some of the Summer 2014 Accelerator applications, which I loved doing).

Here are two things I'd advise entrepreneurs to ditch:

(1) Using "I don't pay myself a salary" as a badge of honor. In so many pitch contests, business plans, and other applications, this gets thrown around like it's some sort of noble statement worthy of bragging rights. It's not. If your business doesn't generate enough revenue to allow you to pay yourself, then fine, but that's not a sustainable endstate. If that's the case, you need to be thinking -- urgently -- about how to fix it. Either find an investor, cut your costs, raise your prices, or cut bait.

You might imagine that a statement like that conjures up thoughts of "dedication" and "forbearance" among the people hearing it, but on the other side of the table, people are asking whether you're describing a business or a hobby. Even if it's just a small initial amount that you'll peg as a percentage of top-line revenue, or even if it's a draw on your LOC that you can sustain the interest/principal on via your revenue, or whatever other structure you can cook up, don't neglect the fact that you have personal costs. And if you really can get by for the time being without seeking outside funding (which could trigger a loss of control), or improving bottom line (maybe your prototype is still in development) then your salary-less state is a fact of life. It's not an indefinitely-sustainable one, though, so be careful about framing this as some kind of a positive...it's not.

(2) "I could tell what I do, but then I'd have to..." This really just happened. I really just heard this nonsense. It's like, hey Bro Namath -- if I ask you what your start-up does out of basic, conversational politeness, just be vague: "..We're a B2C app developer.." "We're trying to build anti-spam protection into smart refrigerators." "We use Pinterest to enable predictive analytics for the Mercantile Exchange."

If the questions get too hot and heavy, just demur. Say it's still in development. Say you're still figuring it out. Say you won't know until you beta test in August.

Say ANYTHING. But don't say, "Sorry, Broseph Stalin, but it's totally secret. I can't talk about it, but it's going to be really cool when it launches." You might've muttered something about a non-disclosure agreement, or said something else about the generalities, but honestly, I stopped listening once you dropped the 'secret' bomb.

And guess what, buddy? A real secret squirrel is so secret....that he doesn't tell you he's a secret squirrel.

The cousin at the Thanksgiving table who says "State Department" when your grandmother asks about work, and then follows that with some generalities about overseas postings might really be doing something high-speed. But the one who says, "I do government stuff at Langley...and I can't talk about it," is ANYTHING BUT. Trust me on this one.

The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-57005466404306767082014-05-09T19:46:00.003-07:002014-05-09T19:46:58.289-07:00Godfather Offers

Earlier this week, as I was preparing for a Corporate Finance final exam, I came across the term "Godfather Offer." My eyes unglazed, I got ready to do some underlining, and I perked up to learn what this was all about. (If you really want to know, they're takeover bids that are so good that management can't refuse...otherwise, shareholders might sue).

Anyway, the past few months have been a bit of a blur, to say the least.

Through a connection I made via my start-up (we do online identity/safety awareness...will say LOTS more, but just not right now...other than to say we're funded now and I'm about to become full-time employee #1), I got an unexpected and quite fortuitous teaching offer from BU around Christmastime. Thinking the time horizon had to be the fall of 2014 at the earliest, my jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw the "Can you start in three weeks?" e-mail.
In my head, I quickly ran through the checklist of things on the plate at the time (finishing the MBA, running the business, tutoring side gig, Army Reserves...and of course family). Then, I just reflexively blurted out, "Yes." It was a Godfather Offer and I knew it -- the course material dovetails perfectly with my business, I love teaching, it's another income stream, and it may help open innumerable doors down the road. The "Yes," I thought, gets my foot in the door, helps get me rolling, and positions me well for the real-world re-entry that would come in June. A "No" moves my resume somewhere to the back of the stack.

Besides, it's not every day that someone who thinks an Infinite Loop describes traffic at the Bourne Rotary, and who thinks "Ruby on Rails" is an adult film starlet, gets to join the Computer Science faculty. So "Yes" it was. And 10 minutes ago, I just submitted final semester grades to the registrar...with three committed courses now lined up for future semesters. Earlier this morning, I wrapped up a long-running tutoring gig (also the product of a Godfather Offer, and a Time Vampire of hard-to-even-describe proportions). And on Thursday the 15th, when my pen drops back onto the desk after my "Taxes and Business Strategy" final, I can close the book on the uphill-both-ways-in-the-snow-with-no-shoes commuting-to-a-business-school-where-they-don't-believe-in-Mickey-Mouse-classes. And goodbye case write-ups. And Free Cash Flow to Equity valuations. And having to care about the consequences of really weird stuff, like Compaq buying the shares of a Dutch company, just to resell those shares an hour later at a loss and lower its tax bill.

When I got back from Afghanistan in early 2012, I remember using the phrase "rejoining the world" to describe the feeling of plugging back into something from which I had completely dissociated for 12 months.
This recent process has really drained me at times, but -- at least I'd like to think -- the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold might not be so far off.

For sure, things could be far worse.

The peers of mine who are about to head into the hallowed halls of the McKinseys and the Bains and the Goldmans of the world are now commiserating with each other... "Bro, the party's over, man. We've gotta go from all this hangin' out and drinking on Beacon Hill on Wednesdays to an endless string of 18-hour days." Every time I hear that stuff, I'm reminded of how glad I am that I spurned that whole post-MBA path.

Of course I don't actually say it, but I think: "I'm ditching the 18-hour days, save for the occasional exceptions...and if my daughter wants to hang out at the waterfall by the Boott Mill and be simultaneously fascinated by it and terrified of its decibel output, then that's what I'm going to be doing...and what could be better, really?"

The Gipper used to always say, "I like to throw my golf clubs in the direction I'm heading." I didn't understand what he meant by that when I heard it as a kid -- and I'm still not 100% sure I get it now -- but if it was a reference to positioning, then I'm on on board all the way with that idea.

And hopefully, we can position ourselves together for a cup of coffee soon, whether it's at Wannalancit, or Brew'd, or Mill No. 5, or wherever. I'll ask you what I missed, and then remember not to be surprised when you tell me, "Not much, really."
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-71403485179495649402014-03-30T05:13:00.000-07:002014-03-30T05:16:29.244-07:00Just the Answers, Nothing More
A UML student doing a research project about downtown just e-mailed me a '10 questions about downtown' survey. I pasted in my answers below. With most of the questions, you'll be able to figure out the question through context...with the rest, it's whatever you want it to be...your very own Rohrshach test.

1. I moved to downtown Lowell in March of 2008. When I entered a teacher ed program back in 2002, I was initially planning to go into urban education as a History or Social Studies teacher. I knew I didn't want Boston or Cambridge -- I knew I wouldn't be able to afford those places, and I felt they were already saturated with people like me. I explored all the mid-sized cities outside Boston -- Worcester, Providence, and Lowell in particular -- and found that Lowell had the best mix of affordability and "up-and-coming-ness" [okay, I admit that's not a word]. I decided to move to Lowell and make that my place to put a stake in the ground...but then decided to join the active-duty military. I joined the Navy in 2003, served on active duty for 5 years, and then finally made it back to the city that made such a big impression on me initially.

2. I always felt that once you walk up Merrimack St (towards UML), as soon as you pass the library, something changes. You're not downtown anymore. So I'd say that's a boundary. But I'd also call the baseball stadium and the arena part of 'downtown.' With Market St, it's literally a case of 'the other side of the tracks.' I'd say once you cross the trolley tracks towards Salem St, that whole part of Market St is the Acre. Going up Central/Gorham, I'd say that Bishop Markham is the dividing point between downtown and Back Central.

3. Yes. The beauty of the city really took me in. I absolutely love the library, and I love City Hall (the building more than the politics, though). When my parents come to town, we always take a pic by Page's Clock Tower (no relation).

4. I'd say 200 Market St, because that encompasses Canal Place I, II, and III.

5. The big myth is the idea of the 'downtown yuppie.' Ask people who actually live downtown -- lots of seniors on fixed incomes around here. There are some yuppies, and they probably mostly live in my building (Canal Place I). Technically I'm one of them (young, urban, professional). But the real dirty secret around downtown is that there aren't ENOUGH people spending disposable income in the businesses downtown. We need more people like that here, and no one needs to be pushed out in order for that to happen.

6. Single biggest thing is that there's no *draw* to really bring folks into the downtown, entertainment-wise. A movie theater, bowling alley, or game-based place could do that. The performing arts stuff is way too highbrow and expensive. We're never going to solve the foot traffic problem just by exhorting people to come downtown -- they need a reason to be there in the first place, and then they can grab dinner or whatever else from the shops.

7. Great question. I'd follow up to #6 by saying I hope there's an entrepreneur who sees the possibility for an entertainment draw that appeals to regular people. By that time, I will be long gone (hoping to make it out to the Upper Highlands in 2015 or 2016, before my daughter starts kindergarten).

8. Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association. It's a great group but sometimes just a forum for people to complain about noisy bars. I'd say there's no neighborhood school that residents unify around; in fact, a lot of people don't refer to downtown as a 'neighborhood' -- they say 'downtown AND the neighborhoods.'

9. Kathleen Marcin -- no longer the LDNA leader but she still carries the informal respect/clout both inside and outside of the neighborhood. Also, Franky Descoteaux. A lot of downtowners were proud to have a downtowner city councilor and many admire her for being an entrepreneur.

10. Brew'd Awakenings. Pretty central spot for many downtown residents and appeals to lots of different people for different reasons. Definitely the sort of place that downtowners would expect to bump into one another -- moreso than even a sitdown place like the Club Diner.

The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-87576616965280845242014-03-20T11:19:00.000-07:002014-03-20T11:19:04.839-07:00Hating the Haters? Get Over Yourself
The leader of a notorious hate group passed away today, or yesterday, or sometime in between.

I'm not saying his name here, and I'm not naming his group.

What I will say, though, is that not a single person I know supports his brand of hate.

And I know a lot of people, from a lot of walks of life.

So if you oppose this guy, you're not being courageous, or brave, or profound; in fact, you're being just as quotidian as everyone else I know, myself included.

Find some issue that you can take out and paddle with, against the tide. Then, find some reflective surfaces so you can stop, and admire.

But just opposing something that 99+% of society opposes does NOT make you worthy of that.
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-78755847526932521442014-03-20T07:16:00.000-07:002014-03-20T07:23:24.702-07:00Key Indicators
Something happened to me yesterday that just about never happens -- I was supposed to be somewhere, and I wasn't there. By now, I've already been through all the stages...and I'm comfortable enough about what happened to be able to write about it here. I apologized to the person that I stood up -- while being careful not to overdo it -- and the screw-up has basically been contained.

Business Lesson #1: There's no such thing as error-free baseball, so don't try to play it. When errors DO happen, stay classy, take ownership, dust yourself off, and move on.

A few hours later, one of the students I tutor sent me an e-mail canceling a session for tomorrow due to a bad cold she was experiencing. I shot back a quick "no prob, get well soon" e-mail, but didn't mention in my note that I had no clue that we were slated to meet in the first place! Twice in one day is no coincidence. Things will slow down quite a bit after May 15, when I finish school (for REAL this time).

One thing I want to be a bit more thoughtful about when the post-May 15 era arrives is how to more intelligently account for the way I spend my time to earn money. Here are 8 quick thoughts that speak to that:

1. I am a bootstrapping entrepreneur. ('Bootstrapping' gets defined different ways, but to me it just means 'no outside equity financing').

2. I have de-risked the process by taking on side jobs that bring me over my monthly 'hurdle' rate.

3. This has been so effective that even after graduation -- and even after the loan payments kick in -- I will be able to plow most of the revenue from the business back into the business itself.

4. Some means of revenue generation are far better than others...and the per-hour wage associated with each can be very misleading.

5. Hours that "stack" are worth significantly more than hours that don't. For instance, my tutoring job pays 5x the hourly wage of being an Army Reservist...but if I had to give up one position, it'd be the tutoring, hands down. The Army wage is easier to account for (it's quite predictable), and the consecutive hours swallow up the overhead 'costs' associated with travel and preparation.

6. Making 80 bucks an hour to teach Calculus isn't really what it sounds like. If there's a travel hour on each end, 4 prep hours per session (remember, I was never a true Math guy), and then awkward time gaps built in due to the unusual scheduling, that dollar figure starts to shrink, quickly.

7. Adjuncting is the best gig that I have going...it's 3 hours in a shot, I don't have to do a ton of grading, and the prep time will amortize nicely with each subsequent course iteration. If I can score a couple more simultaneous gigs in this field, I would be able to clear my entire hurdle w/this alone.

8. Cost accounting is incredibly tricky and subjective (I'm actually taking an entire course on the subject right now, and it's a doozy). Revenue accounting gets funky, too.

Have I crossed the line into "Dear Diary" territory here? Maybe. But hopefully some of these entries can be useful someday to some other bootstrapper trying to figure this stuff out.
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-56820625225164434282014-03-19T07:48:00.001-07:002014-03-19T07:48:12.965-07:00Sharking Garage
I get it.

The parking garage is a shared space.

And I get it.

I live in a city, by choice. Sometimes that means sharing tiny spaces with others, and sometimes it even means other things.

Sometimes it means I'm picking up my niece and nephew at school and there's a parent there waiting next to me and he has a teardrop tattooed underneath his eye, and it bothers me. That might not happen in [insert name of tony suburb] but I will choose to love this place, not leave it.

But anyway, back to the parking garage.

Having my own car, with a $48/mo spot at the Roy, means dealing with the all-too-common phenomenon of 'sharking' -- something anyone who has parked in a public garage, or even at a mall during holiday season, is well aware.

I realize that there's a reason for it. Someone pulls in, they need a spot, they see a guy walking towards a car...and it all makes sense.

But at the Roy Garage, there's almost NEVER a vacancy problem. Fine, maybe the first floor spaces fill up midday, but that still leaves a half-empty [insert name of any other level].

And besides the instinctual weirdness of feeling like someone is driving alongside you at 3 mph, stopping and starting in a way that mirrors your moves, there's another problem: Maybe I'm just going to my car to get something.

So if you're sharking me, is there some kind of universal code I can relay back to you to let you know "You are about to be very disappointed?"

If I can't, is it fair when you throw your hands up in exasperation, honk your horn, and speed away when you realize I was just trekking out to the vic in order to pick up my copy of "Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age?"

Because I can assure you, there's a million other spaces around, and there was nothing special about mine.

It almost makes me want to "chum the waters" sometime by walking laps through the Roy for PT while dangling a set of car keys and bopping my head around like I'm lost.
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-2104474066983902462014-03-18T12:35:00.001-07:002014-03-18T12:49:02.936-07:00March Madness at the ICC
* Full Disclosure: I am an enthusiastic supporter of Charlie Baker, and I think he'll be a great Governor. I will write more about this later, but Baker is absolutely the genuine article...and more and more people across Mass. are figuring this out, all the time.

Yesterday I got to breathe the rarefied air of Citizens' Media Group (a shadowy cast of rogues if there ever was one) while attending the City Manager's St. Patrick's Day Breakfast.

And speaking of City Managers, Acting CM Mike Geary was my bracket-buster yesterday. He was sharp on his toes, he was personable, he was funny, and he threw jabs in real-time, referencing material from the event itself (as opposed to the scripted, stilted stuff). He had several memorable lines, including his 'tony suburb' reference that degenerated into 'tiny sunburn' after several run-throughs, his mid-game nap near the podium, and his high-octane sticker-slapping on the city banner. I had Mike as a 10th seed in the Midwest Regional making an exit in the round of 32, but his performance yesterday was Elite Eight-worthy, for sure.

Eileen Donoghue was an okay emcee, but slung a steady round of by-the-book jokes that simply substituted in the names of present company as the protagonists. These are the sort of jokes that at best draw polite laughter (i.e. "Tom said he was really hungry, so he asked Espresso to cut it into 16 slices rather than 8" or "It turned out that the urine sample was Bill's, but the handwriting in the snow was Hillary's"). Taking an old bank robbery joke and just substituting in "George Ramirez" and "Kevin Murphy" is kind of like sliding into the Sweet Sixteen as a high seed and then petering out against a hungrier squad from a mid-major conference.

Mayor Rodney Elliott bombed. His timing wasn't hot, his Photoshop wasn't inspired, and he exuded the charisma of a passport clerk in New Delhi. His presentation was about as memorable as an 8-seed falling to a 9 in East Rutherford -- not that upsetting, and easy to forget.

Attorney General Martha Coakley, however, impressed the holy heck out of me for the second straight year. She threw some on-the-spot Molotov Cocktails towards Mayor Murphy last year, and this year she opened with a Mike Scott screwball about how she didn't understand Elliott's inside Lowell humor, and apparently no one in the crowd did, either. She kept at it with the jokes about the lack of laughter in the crowd, and demonstrated a general ease with the crowd that bodes well for her statewide this year. Final Four material here.

Steve Grossman, however, flamed out almost as fast the Georgetown squad that nearly fell to Pete Carrill's Tigers in the Round of 64. Grossman started out in way-too-serious mode with a panegyric about the delegation that led some people at the CMG table to start making sophomoric jokes about Jergens and kleenex. He then fumbled his way though a Jesus-and-a-guy-named-Finkelstein joke with a punchline of "Lord and Taylor." Much like an early favorite that pulls its head out of its posterior following an inspirational timeout speech, Grossman ALMOST redeemed himself with a "Charlie on the MTA" routine that coulda shoulda woulda been a poke at Baker with some new lyrics. A couple Big Dig jokes, some jabs towards Mr. Weld, and redemption was Grossman's to have. BUT he snatched defeat from the jaws of, well, defeat by just awkwardly singing all of Charlie on the MTA. This is a guy whose only chance at a Regional Final will be a well-timed site visit to StubHub.

Middlesex DA Marian Ryan looked ready to take the Admiral Stockdale Award as she sat on stage. While she didn't score any funny points (though I think I caught myself chuckling at some kind of 'Reilly & Leone' joke), she was genuine and she was brief. Let's call her a 5 seed beating a 12 and then petering out, and call it good from there.

Sheriff Peter Koutoujian started about as strong as Duke against the play-in winner at a fieldhouse in the Southeast, but screeched to an early halt following a history lesson about the Irish Potato Famine Great Starvation. After reminding us of his Irishness, he had a Khruschev's-shoe-on-the-table moment when he reminded us that there wasn't a shortage of food on the Emerald Isle in the mid-1900s, but it was the British colonialists' unwillingness to share said bounty that caused the problem that led so many of our grandparents' grandparents to come this way. It was sort of a band-stopped-playing-and-everyone-stopped-dancing sort of moment.

Former Swampscott Selectman Charlie Baker followed up strong. First, he opened up with a huge bear hug for Mike Geary following the whole 'tony suburb' bit (a lead-in to why it's good that 'Charlie' goes by 'Charlie'). He then came in with a crack about the level of diversity in the room (note: self-effacing humor always goes a long way with me, but it has to be genuine in order to work...this was). He got a bit too serious during a quick detour following an 'Inside of 128/Outside of 128' economy distinction, but then had a nice bit about working for Bill Weld and trying to understand how the guy squeezed governing in between squash games, social events, and more social events. He also had some really classy words for Paul Cellucci, noting that Paul would be glad to see the role of prominent women on the stage. (Oh, I'll also say here that there were several nice Paul Sheehy/Tom McKay references yesterday). Charlie is ready to win 6 straight games and cut the nets down in the Corner Office.

Tom Golden was the Delegation's only saving grace. First, just from a charisma/stage presence point of view, Tipa scores points right off the bat with an infectious smile, a warm tone, and some belly laughs that make you think, "I want a sip of whatever's in that guy's coffee." He did the PowerPoint/Photoshop stuff that was the day's theme, and the most memorable shot he had was the British Royal family (Rourke as the baby and Rita as the Queen stood out the best). He had a Mayoral portrait joke (there were a few yesterday), and he kept it relatively short. Only Sweet 16 rep from among the Delegation here.

Keeping it relatively short is about as much as I can say about Kevin Murphy or David Nangle. Nangle had one nice impromptu moment (he tore down the Mike Geary sticker after Geary made a reference to Nangle 'flooding the zone' with challengers to water down a primary opponent), and he cracked at himself with a Seabrook, NH line (again, self-effacing really works when it's authentic). Murphy had some badly-done Photoshopped images, which seemed unoriginal (mostly due to the batting order, though).

Then in came Bernie Lynch as the sleeper pick. From the backcourt, he called some isolation plays...he splashed a trey in Jim Campanini's eye and ran down the court with his arm fully extended. With a weather joke that tied Elliott's mayoralty with climate change in hell, Bernie scored again on a finger roll, untouched. He threw a final salute toward the delegation following a baseline jumper, and then ambled toward the bench during a change of possession so that Mike McDonald could get on the court.

Mike, by the way, was funnier than everyone else put together.

And then it was time to go on a 28-hour work binge.

Thankfully, this week is SIP (Sloan Innovation Period) which means I'm captive in a classroom that I can't escape (but which has afforded me the opportunity to write this summary)...So in the spirit of Thanks Patrick's Day, thank you for reading, as always.
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-51748159972388128612014-02-17T08:52:00.001-08:002014-02-17T08:52:30.063-08:00Minute Clinic Experience
Yesterday morning, I woke up with one eye basically encrusted (is that a word?) shut. It was very bloodshot the whole day.

Today, that eye was slightly encrusted but my OTHER eye was twice as difficult to open as the first one had been yesterday.

It seemed that this was some viral conjunctivitis, and coupled with some other mild symptoms, I didn't know if it was *just* pink eye, or if I might also have strep throat.

Enter the Minute Clinic.

I drove down 38 to the CVS at 1900 Main. I signed in at a kiosk and was told I had an hour-long wait. No big deal -- I had a few books in the car, and I sort of set up shop at a chair inside CVS while I waited.

Slightly less than an hour later, the Nurse Practitioner called me in. She did a strep culture, which came back negative six minutes later. She took my temperature (fine, no fever) and checked other vitals. She looked at my eyes and was able to say, without any doubt, that it was a case of conjunctivitis. She wrote a prescription for Cipro eye drops (two drops every two hours, per eye, for two days, and two drops every four hours afterwards), which she submitted electronically to a CVS in Lowell (...and was ready by the time I got there).

Everything was very easy. I gave her my insurance info, and she wasn't 100% sure if I would've needed a referral to avoid a bill (regardless, I did not pay anything on the spot).

Either way, I'm on the way to solving the problem, and I avoided the hassle of scheduling a visit with a primary or of spending half the day (or longer) waiting in an ER.
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-74533019335971840262014-02-02T07:30:00.000-08:002014-02-02T07:30:01.854-08:00The Value of an Hour: Reductio Ad Absurdium
I'm working out of the Sandbox collaborative space at Wannalancit this month. This experience presents a lot of natural networking opportunities, and it has allowed me to meet many of the members of the Winter Accelerator class.

One member of the class is a budding commercial filmmaker who is charging a (very) low fee to clients as he gains his footing, grows his network, gets established, etc. When I heard the fee, I said to him, "Let me guess -- you're constantly hearing 'charge more' from everyone around you."

When he confirmed that, I said, "Don't listen to people who say your price signals a lack of confidence in yourself. In fact, the reality may be the complete opposite -- maybe you're so confident in yourself that you are willing to start w/this low fee because you know you're good. You'll do what you have to do to get started, and once your value is clear, you'll be able to command a better fee."

One thing I'm sure he contends with is the whole "What's an hour of your time really worth?" question. I've already done a few blog entries on that particular question -- I think it's a fascinating one that most people probably never stop to fully dissect. While it's important to bear the question in mind, it's also important not to get too carried away with it.

Rather than think in terms of the per-value worth of everything I do, I frame a lot of my work in terms of what I need to make each month. There is a bar I need to clear, and there are five separate means by which I clear it (and I realize there's an uphill-both-ways-in-the-snow quality to that, but I also realize that one person who works one 100-hour-a-week job is actually outworking someone with 5 part-time jobs with fewer total hours, so I think the whole 'here's how many jobs I work' thing is often overdone).

One thing I do to help clear the bar is tutoring. Today, for instance, I'll tutor a high school kid who goes to Lincoln-Sudbury for the SAT before driving to BU to tutor an undergrad taking Introductory Calculus. In theory, I'll make good money for it (3 total hours of work, billing at 50/per). However, more detailed accounting makes that per-hour figure far less sexy. Factor in the driving time, mileage costs, and the downtime (for instance, if I'm 10 minutes early, that's not billed time) and suddenly the per-hour figure falls precipitously. Now, take out the prep time, which was considerable for the second student (it took me a few hours w/Khan Academy, some old textbooks, and some sample tests I found online to get back into Gameday Shape for Calculus). Now that $50 per hour has fallen to something barely better than minimum wage (although, in fairness, the *cost* of that time should be amortized across several sessions, as I'll have the student all semester).

So should that suggest that I reconsider that line of work?

If anything, maybe it means I should try to steer students towards Skype, which is amazingly more efficient than schlepping around from Lowell to Sudbury to Kenmore and back before the Super Bowl.

But if it means dropping this line of work (which I enjoy doing, by the way) how do I snap my fingers and replace the 2k+/month I'm now making for tutoring?

I'm starting to see more and more money coming across the table w/my start-up related work. But y'know what? If you take the paychecks I've been getting, and start adding travel time, travel expense, and prep time into the denominator, that money starts to look less impressive, too.

Same for the Reserves. A drill weekend is great, but prep time + travel + duty day time cuts into the hourly sum quite a bit. So maybe that needs to go, too.

Ditto for teaching CS 101. I get a nice monthly paycheck, but the prep work is intense (mostly b/c it's a first go-around), it's a six-hour commitment when I include travel on top of the three teaching hours, and there are e-mails to answer, papers to grade, homeworks to review, etc. So if I really thought I was such hot stuff that I couldn't work for less than $50/hr, I'd have to drop that too, right?

Dividend investing requires minimal time, and comes out better month-to-month (compounding has a funny way of doing that). So by a strict application of time-to-value, that's the only thing I should keep. Never mind the fact that it doesn't even come close to paying my most major two bills (mortgage and day care).

Of course, I'm being facetious about whether I'd drop ANY of those things. For the short- and even medium-term, I'll happily keep them all, thank you very much.

I will gladly accept, and even embrace, the fact that I'm juggling several balls to make it all work. After all, it's my own choosing -- I forsook the more standard finance/consulting MBA path to pursue an entrepreneurial vision that is slowly but surely gaining traction all the time.

As long as I can get enough time each day for sleep/exercise to stay healthy, and am able to spend some weeknights and weekend days w/family, I'll do whatever else I have to in order to make sure I can keep my neck and ears fully above the waterline while I kick to stay afloat.

The bigger picture is that I'm creating value in ways that's going to pay dividends (figurative or literal) down the road. Narrowly focusing on the short-term, immediate return on each hour of time seems like a good way to stay idle...and broke.
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-28060132795052287372014-01-14T07:18:00.000-08:002014-01-14T09:09:18.356-08:00Transitions
In the active duty military, transition is a constant theme. In fact, it's the backdrop to a lot of what's done -- at every level, in every type of unit, and every day of the year.

Really, really squared away NCOs and Officers often begin working on their "turnover book" or their "turnover binder" as early as the day they start a new position.

Because they realize that no matter how excellently (or terribly) they perform, they'll be through the revolving door in either 24 or 36 months, they think ahead about how to prepare their successor to be, well, successful.

The bad ones don't. They take an "apres moi, le deluge" approach, and sometimes go on leave, or flat out refuse to share information.

Regardless, most people claim to have "had a bad turnover" and vow that they'll give a better turnover to whoever follows them. Yet, most don't follow through...if they did, the cycle would break.

Anyway, last night at Gallagher & Cavanaugh (Michael Gallagher, thank you for organizing and moderating this!), I got to see how a transition is done right. Kathleen Marcin skippered the Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association (LDNA) for ten years, but is no longer able to keep carrying the torch. Instead of just sort of slinking away into the proverbial night, she called for a special LDNA meeting to basically say, "I've been doing this, and I need to hand it off. Let's all get together and talk about how to do this smoothly -- who's going to take on what roles, how should things look going forward, what other organizational issues should we consider, etc.?"

We did.

As with anything, there was some pain involved. There were a couple people who, sans irony, referred to things that LDNA should have done, or should do -- as if LDNA were some outside, separate entity over which they bore no influence or control.

Things may have gone over the top when a woman made mention of the need for better gender balance (at the time, the board was headed by a woman, with three males playing very minor support roles). Big props to erstwhile Lowell blogger Kad Barma, who piped up to say (paraphrased): "I'm going to push you on that a bit...what's stopping you or any other woman from stepping up and playing a role?"

Seeing my opening, I jumped in to cite Gandhi. "Be the change you wish to be," I said, before adding that it was "hard to listen" to people who were so vocal about what LDNA should or shouldn't do, yet were apparently so unwilling to take a turn in the batter's box.

The meeting went a bit long, but things ended on a pretty good note. We now have two interim co-chairs (Jack Moynihan and Sue Purdy), a new Treasurer in Carolyn Mooney (as minimal as my role was, I'm also quite glad to have made a clean, honorable break), and we've retained our excellent Vice Chair/Secretary duo (Stephen Greene and Corey Sciuto, respectively).

A huge, much-deserved "thank you" goes to Kathleen Marcin for running the organization throughout a ten-year period that saw tremendous changes to the downtown. And a second thank you goes to Kathleen for orchestrating a totally graceful and classy exit -- unfortunately, that type of thing is way too rare.

UPDATE: In the original version of the post, I forgot to mention that Caroline Gallagher selflessly volunteered to take a communications/media role for LDNA. She has an extensive media background that includes experience with national outlets...having her on board is a huge coup for the organization -- thank you, Caroline!

The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-76846485806914097632014-01-09T09:59:00.002-08:002014-01-09T19:36:40.698-08:00A Business Lesson: Institutions are Clean, People are Messy
So here's a quick lesson that confirms something I thought when I went into business:  Generally speaking, Institutions are clean, but people are messy.

Here's what I mean -- my experience to date selling things to institutions (in which the person actually handing me the check isn't reaching into his or her own pocket, but is instead using a discretionary budget line) is very "clean."

In other words, there's an expectation. I meet it. A check is handed over. I deposit the check. All parties are happy (or at least seem happy).

Individual clients are not so simple. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but on the whole, I've found that they are much tougher to please, and much less likely to recognize when they've been given a bargain, or when a break has been cut.

That doesn't mean I won't work with individuals, ever. But it might mean I'll heed some advice I've received before, about "firing your worst clients." This is something that everyone from the babysitter next door to the sophisticated white-shoe legal firm downtown has figured out: some clients aren't worth the trouble, and all you can do is break off the business relationship.

And in case anyone formulating a business plan is reading this, I'll end on this lesson: If you have any choice in the matter, put institutions -- not individuals -- in your marketing crosshairs.
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-84154626528832913132014-01-06T10:00:00.000-08:002014-01-06T10:00:01.799-08:00Yes, Everything IS Amazing...Yes

This is one of the greatest bits ever. And to really *get* it, you have to watch or listen to it...you can't just hear about the gist of it from a friend. Louis CK just truly, absolutely, 100% nails so many things about modern society here.

But there's a "but" coming, and here it is: All this connectivity really does become a problem when things go wrong.

I'm shanghai'd, or waylaid, or stranded, or whatever it is for a few days. As fates go, that's not so bad...especially considering I'm in Florida in January. Considering there are people in the world with actual problems -- and considering that even the emperors of Rome and Greece didn't have flush toilets, or warm showers, or BCS bowls to watch -- I should keep that in perspective.

But the suck factor is the expectation on the other end.

Friday? Really?!?! REALLY?!?! Can't you just fly standby? I mean, today is Monday!

Yes, it is.

What about Orlando? Fort Lauderdale? Miami? Nothing into Bradley or Green? What about Manchester?

Got it, got it, got it, and got it. And no. Honestly, no. And JetBlue is terminating the inbound calls to them, not the other way around.

One of the funniest/strangest things I saw last night was the number of "instant logisticians" at the airport. Suddenly, everyone around me knew a lot more about flight operations than JetBlue did, and they also knew more about the jobs of the people at the flight counters than those people did. They were also expert meteorologists.

I knew better than to get upset. I believe that 'upset' has a purpose (just look at how pissed Andrew Luck was in the second half on Saturday) but I also believe that 'upset' is worthless when it's not going to change your on-the-ground reality (pun possibly intended).

But as much as I love Louis CK, being stuck in a beautiful climate with modern amenities and ample chow can actually suck sometimes.

Because there are several employers involved here. There are appointments. There are meetings with clients. There is day care, there are medical appointments, and there are reserve unit duties. There are lots of messy explanations coming, and lots of same-answers-to-the-same-questions-type-stuff coming.

The wonderful modern world provides (which I love), and it also demands. I'm generally okay with the tradeoff, and I wouldn't trade places with even a relatively well-off Roman from 2500 years ago.

But I sure wish I could've made it into Logan last night.
The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-31644081961430622342013-12-28T18:48:00.001-08:002013-12-28T18:48:22.845-08:00The Best Thing I Heard in 2013 About...Public Speaking
During one of our Sandbox Summer Accelerator classes, Todd Frye (Mill Cities Leadership Institute) offered us a class on public speaking.

One thing he said that stood out for me was a break-from-the-crowd opinion about so-called "filler words." His take on them? They're okay.

Of course, he quickly followed that up with "in moderation." Still, I like his point -- in so many classes about communication and public speaking, moderators take the approach of, "Get rid of ums, uhs, y'knows, reallys, and likes -- at all costs."

But guess what? They're natural.

Only when they become a distraction -- like when Caroline Kennedy says 'you know' 163 times in a three-minute TV interview -- are they bad.

Listen to regular speech, though -- the normal, pressure-free, chit-chat type stuff among friends. The phone, the elevator, the bus stop, the coffee breaks, etc. You will hear a few of these 'filler words,' but you'll have to pay attention enough to seek them out...they're subtle and sometimes easy to miss.

When people prepare to speak in public, they should be aware of their nervous tics and blind spots, if possible. They should avoid filler-word repetition that distracts from the ACTUAL purpose of their words. But they should NOT be brought down by a desire to completely eliminate these words...if too much mental energy goes towards THAT purpose, the overall quality of whatever is being said will decrease -- esp. if part of it needs to be extemporaneous, or if it includes Q & A that cannot be scripted.

So, umm...just think about what...uhh...really, like matters...and don't get too bogged down with those, you know, filler words, or uhh...whatever they call them.

Project your voice. Be confident. Know your stuff. Make some eye contact. Those are the biggies.
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-31148297600699675902013-12-23T17:01:00.002-08:002013-12-23T17:03:30.953-08:00The Three Best Things I Heard This Year...About E-mail
Here are three good things I heard about e-mail this year, in order:

(3) Keep them short. People are inundated with e-mails of so many stripes, shapes, varieties, flavors, and colors. Really long e-mails that look intimidating may never be read, or responded to. Sometimes, I have to remind myself of this one when I really get *in the zone* but I know it's good advice.

(2) OHIO Principle. It was love at first sight for me when I heard about this one. OHIO here is an acronym for "Only Handle It Once." It applies phenomenally well to inbox maintenance but is also an awesome principle to remember for cleanliness of your home, car, apartment, etc. With respect to e-mails, the problem many people have (including me) is that we give our inbox a quick-look and we pick the low-hanging fruit first. THEN we notice the actually important stuff, and lamely say something like, "I'll get to those later." And we all know what happens then. OHIO -- live it, love it.

(1) A primary purpose of e-mail should be to set up real-world interactions. Of course, it can't be done w/people who are scattered all over the world, but in can go something like this: "Hey, haven't seen you in a while.. how bout we meet up at the Club Diner?" Maybe there's a quick back-and-forth in which some topics are discussed, but the idea is that you're using e-mail as a medium to push towards an actual encounter -- NOT as an endless, back-and-forth volley about anything and everything you're doing or thinking. I really like this principle when it comes to reaching out to people that you don't already know, but want to add to your network. To me, "Hey, I'm interested in what you're doing, can we get together for coffee" is a winner, but "Hey, I'm interested in what you're doing, can you answer these 9 detailed questions I've crafted for you, with subsections a through c for each?" is a loser.

In 2014, I will be better with e-mails. Too many important ones fermented way too long in my inbox this fall. I have learned that a client might not bat an eye after replying to your missive from three months ago as if you sent it yesterday, but will follow up in an agitated state if 48+ hours passes before he sees a response to his e-mail to you.

Forget the fairness or the unfairness. When it comes to 'rightness,' the client takes it -- seven days a week, and twice on Sunday.
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-52344862886839148862013-12-22T09:32:00.001-08:002013-12-22T09:32:33.462-08:00A Tipping Point?
The intersection of service tips and social media has made it into several prominent news stories this year.

Two particularly noteworthy stories were the Drew Brees story (really a 'no-story' if you ask me) in LA, and the lesbian waitress story in NJ.

For the unfamiliar, a waitress at a Chinese restaurant took to social media to complain about the inadequacy of a tip left by the Saints QB on a takeout order. The lesbian waitress story centers around a woman named Dayna Morales, who fabricated a $0.00 tip receipt with a lengthy explanation for the lack of tip (..'we cannot support your lifestyle...') She took to Facebook to complain, and soon she had received thousands of dollars from around the world, which was supposedly bound for the Wounded Warriors Fund, but somehow never made its way there. Shortly after her story hit the news, the couple that had supposedly written the comment produced proof of the ACTUAL tip, via a credit card statement. It was generous, and they quite calmly pointed out that they had no way of knowing -- let alone caring -- about their server's lifestyle.

Anyway, both the waitress from LA and the waitress from NJ were fired for their actions, one of which just showed bad judgement, and one of which crossed a completely different line.

Locally, I can't help but notice that the baristas at my favorite caffeine-before-the-train haunt are making a habit of posting detailed information about the tips that they do (or don't) receive. Inevitably, those posts are followed by long strings of the 'string 'em up' variety, with each commenter outdoing the last about the cluelessness or evil spirit of the bad tippers. (For those who don't live in Lowell, this is a strictly service-at-the-counter establishment -- not a place where people are paid sub-minimum wage because of an expected pourboire). Some of the best comments are the ones where people complain about "just getting the change." I'm not a math guy, but if your throughput is dozens of people per hour, and you're getting "just the change" on top of your base wage, that ain't so bad.

They may be tipping some customers right off the edge.

Here's why: I already have a hard time justifying a $2.87 habit, as much as I love the iced coffee there (whaddothey put in that stuff...seriously?) Especially when I face down the reality of my own fiscal cliff, coming in about 5+ months, when I lose that 'break-from-reality' status known as 'full-time student,' I'm going to have be more honest about where I can cut some corners. Even if I (correctly) justify my 6:30 a.m. habit by saying I want to get out, stretch my legs, and breathe some outside air, I can do all that with a walk around the block, homemade cup in hand.

The thirteen cents I get back, I could part with. Sure. But if THAT is somehow still not enough, what is? A buck? Again, not a math guy, but that looks like a 35 percent cost increase to a habit that I already know, deep down, to be a guilty pleasure.

The easy answer is to just start putting that fancy-pants Cuisinart coffee maker I got as a wedding gift three years ago to better use.

The New Englanderhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-57450326285224199162013-11-19T07:39:00.000-08:002013-11-19T07:39:50.325-08:00Show Me a Man Who's Angry......and I'll show you a man who cares. It works in nearly any context. The only trick is that by 'angry' I don't mean someone who just gets mad when it's his or her issue (i.e. a dispute about pay, sick days, leave, etc.) I mean show me a person who gets fired up about the job itself and I'll say you've got a quality employee on your hands.

The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-49226933495209358042013-11-18T09:42:00.000-08:002013-11-18T09:42:11.145-08:00The Sorta Counterintuitive Thing About "Free"
I got a letter in the mail the other day with a Salem, NH return address. It looked *real* (in other words, not just another bill or piece of junk mail) so I opened it, thinking it might be a card from a friend whose fiancee lives up that way.

As it happened, there was a $100 gift certificate to a restaurant inside the envelope.

I thought this was pretty interesting -- they're willing to take the risk on printing, stamping, and mailing letters to people nearby, and then include $100 gift certificates as enticements to eat there, as a way to drum up business.

Does that make them desperate? The reality could be that it's quite the opposite. Maybe, in fact, they're so confident in their product that they see the gift certificates as a better form of marketing than local TV and radio spots, AdWords placements, YouTube campaigns, or glossy promos in the local papers. They've run their numbers, and they know that the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) of someone who enjoys their product is high. The tricky thing, perhaps, is making the acquisition.

Giveaways, gimmes, and freebies are well-established ways for businesses to generate buzz, build a brand, gain loyal users, etc. The tricky thing, though, is that they've gotta be done right.

Eventually, a business that just gives things away should stop pretending to be a business, and just call itself a charity. So that restaurant should send me that first gift certificate, but if they made it annual thing, I'd condition myself to just wait for that early-November letter every year, eat there once, and call it good for the next 12 months.

If anyone says they truly, fully understand *free* they're lying. Free is great, and free sucks. I can fill a room full of Ph.Ds who will insist -- loudly -- that no business should EVER give something away free, because that means they're devaluing themselves, creating off-kilter expectations, distorting their market, etc. Then, I could fill an EQUALLY big room with another group of experts who would say the opposite.

Bottom line? It depends.

I am building a business with a heavy dose of initial *free* and yes, sometimes I question my sanity. Whether it is/was the right move, I will only know in retrospect. That's why I sometimes watch the Steve Jobs 2005 commencement speech in which he insists that things DO make sense afterwards...it's a great source of inspiration.

PayPal got going by paying people a significant sum of dough to use its service. Again, were they desperate? Were they out of their minds?

With the ease of retrospect and 20/20 hindsight, the answer there is a resounding, "No." What they did know is that they were on to something. They also knew there could be resistance among early users who did not understand how its service worked. They put a whole bunch of chips down on the felt based on those assumptions, and things have worked out quite well for them since.
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1665619563748706349.post-22764971857289297842013-11-15T08:45:00.001-08:002013-11-15T08:47:37.738-08:00Bernie's Words, Their Words
I'm home today. On the one hand, that's a nice relief. On the other, it's time dedicated to detailed spreadsheets displaying all the flight information for the Salt Lake City Airport (SLC) from 2007 to 2012. It's valuation exercises with Free Cash Flows and Residual Income to prep for a midterm Monday. It's a massive project about Health Care process flows, along with preparation for drilling at Devens all day tomorrow and Sunday, prior to MAG engagements every night next week.

Someone please be sure to let me know when mid-December gets here. Let's celebrate with a Clausthaler.

But, today at least, 'working' means I get to listen to the City Council meeting in the background, not shave, and wear pajamas.

One exchange that I loved came at the very end of the meeting. CC Mercier had introduced a motion about existing lawsuits involving the city. On more than one occasion, she asked CM Lynch, "Whose responsibility is it to make these decisions [in reference to the city's response to the suits]?"

His answer: "That'd be the City Manager's decision."

Her response to that: "Well then that's you -- you're the City Manager."

His comeback: "Yes, I am currently the City Manager. I happen to be the City Manager. But the statutory responsibility for that falls with the City Manager."

Mercier: "Yes, with you."

Lynch: "Well, with the City Manager. I was not the City Manager when this came up in 2002, or when the appeal decision was made in 2006."

CC Elliott jumped in later on and played the same 'who is responsible' word game, which was equally worthy of Abbott & Costello.

Words matter. If you've spent time around large organizations, you should know that responsibility and authority should rest with the holder of a particular position, but not with that specific personality. It may seem like a picayune, nitpicky point...but it's not. Well-designed organizations are not built around personalities. Bernie was completely right to make that word choice distinction, and then to continually emphasize it throughout the exchange.

On a word choice tangent that's not CC-related, listen to the way the people you work with choose their pronouns. Watch how quickly 1st-person pronouns (we, us, our) get thrown around during times of success, and then how quickly they turn to the 2nd-person (you) when things start to go sour.

If I'm driving (figuratively or literally), I want a person in the shotgun seat who says, "We're lost, let's fix this" after a wrong turn. The person who coughs out a "you're lost" without seeing the irony of the statement is the person who can (figuratively or literally) take a hike.

If you're trying to make character assessments, listening to the way people selectively choose their pronouns during good and bad times ain't a bad place to start.
The New Englanderhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Kind of, very intoxicated. You are aware that you are probably above the legal limit and are annoying everyone around you. Your card playing abilities are somewhat limited, but you still play anyway. You plan a lot of things with people and tell a lot of things to people, but forget about them the next day.
Yesterday was a long day. I had my first few beers around 10am and kept drinking all day. By the end of the night we were at the bar playing cards, but I had a "Half a Blower On" and didn't know what was going on!
by Vanilla Thunder 22 April 18, 2010
Intoxicated after a long day of drinking. Drunk, rambling, somewhat loud and obnoxious. Very aware that you are of an altered state. Full Blower status would be completely bombed, stumbling drunk.
I met the guys at the bar for a Bloody Mary around 9am and have been drinking since then. It's now 7pm, I got a half a blower on.
by Vanilla Thunder22 April 18, 2010
The vengeful act of crapping on a lover's chest while they sleep.Buy the plush

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Just hours after news about his role in 'Mission: Blacklist' broke, Rob is circling ANOTHER huge part. We're so excited to see him in action!
Robert Pattinson is on a professional roll! He was just cast as the lead in the new thriller Mission: Blacklist, and now you can get ready for even MORE Rob as he's jumping into another action-packed role!
Rob, 25, has been cast in director David Michod's upcoming thriller Rover, our sister site Deadline reports. Rob will play Reynolds, who chases thieves that stole his car and are now driving it across the Australian outback. He will star opposite Guy Pearce.
Do YOU think this will be Rob's most exciting movie ever, HollywoodLifers?
— William Earl
More Rob:
- Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart's 'Breaking Dawn' Reshoot Chemistry Was Intense
- Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart: Their On-Set PDA Revealed
- Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart Finish 'Breaking Dawn' Reshoots
Copyright © 2017 Hollywoodlife.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
Powered by WordPress.com VIP


text:
Chinkin, Christine (2008) The continuing occupation?: issues of joint and several liability and effective control. In: Shiner, Phil and Williams, Andrew, (eds.) The Iraq War and International Law. Hart Publishing Ltd., Portland, OR, pp. 161-185. ISBN 9781841136691
|Item Type:
|Book Section
|Official URL:
|Additional Information:
|© 2008 The editors and contributors severally
|Library of Congress subject classification:
|K Law > K Law (General)
|Departments > Law
Research centres and groups > Centre for the Study of Human Rights
|Date Deposited:
|01 Jun 2011 14:46
Actions (login required)
|Record administration - authorised staff only


text:
Harris gets two-year deal with Lakers
Sat., July 27, 2013, midnight
The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a deal with former Gonzaga forward Elias Harris.
Harris was not drafted before playing well in the Las Vegas summer league, where he averaged 10.2 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Lakers' entry. The 6-foot-8 forward from Germany scored 17 in the Lakers' final game.
Agent Mark Bartelstein said Friday the deal is for two years, with the second a team option.
A four-year starter at Gonzaga, Harris averaged 14.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game on 50.1 percent shooting from the field in a senior season that saw the Bulldogs reach No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time. In his career, he started 134 of 135 games played, averaging 13.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.


text:
This is a discussion on Traded in for a WRX this morning. within the New Member Hangout forums, part of the Community - Meet other Enthusiasts category; welcome! http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/off-to...am-tumblr.html...
your friendly, neighborhood subaru girl
abbigale : 06 impreza wrx tr: cobb stage II
Welcome! Should have got an '11+.
Wider body FTW
Awesome, thanks xtreme!
And 96accord, would have, but they weren't really available in my price range. Maybe one day I'll put the STI front fenders and matching bumper on it. Those are the most aggressive looking front ends for these IMO.
Yeah I figured that's the reason why you bought the '10. At least you are into a Subaru
Did you get it checked out before purchasing? Compression test?
A guy on IWSTI did a body conversion, but it wasn't cheap. Either enjoy your WRX for what it is, or look for a 11+.


text:
Putting the Home
By Archana Ravi
Although our agility may decline, as we get older, one thing that remains constant throughout our lifetimes is our need for love and respect. Many people fear that we will live out our last years in a nursing home, alone and separate from family and friends.
The Lawrence Nursing Care Center, however, an Eden Alternative nursing home, is changing the face of Long Term care in the Rockaway community. By putting the 'home' back in nursing home, the center has given its maturing residents a new reason for loving life.
In a program called the Eden Alternative, departmental staff gives their residents all of the features of home-life, and more. The program's mission is to eliminate the three plagues of the Long Term Care institution- Loneliness, Helplessness, and Boredom. With well-groomed animals, verdant plants, and visiting children throughout the year, the Lawrence center achieves just that.
In order to ensure that the residents receive optimal care, Lawrence Nursing Center employs 188 staff members for its 200 residents. The staff is clean, dedicated, and friendly to say the least. Community liaison Diane Moore says, "When you have a happy staff, what else can you have but happy residents?" One staff member told The Wave that her work was her 'home' because she is with family all day. "The staff makes themselves family for the patients", says Moore. "I've been here for twenty years and I've seen the changes. We work in families."
A large component of the staff at Lawrence is the animals that reside there. The residents develop a sense of responsibility by walking and feeding the pets. They also regain a sense of self-worth that may have been lost upon entering the center.
Residents are able to maintain an active and fun lifestyle through the center's recreational program. A daily schedule is posted outside of the recreational room, which lists activities throughout the day such as volleyball, puzzles, coloring, mazes, arts & crafts, discussion groups, musical groups, ice cream socials, bird feeding, and knitting to name a few. The center also holds events such as holiday parties, barbeques, and Oreo Cookie Day. The Women's Club at the Center meets weekly for manicures, pedicures, hair styling, jamborees, and other activities. The Men's Club has chess tournaments, sports, and various other leisurely events.
One of the most fulfilling features of Eden Alternative is the Inter-generational Program in which children from local day care and schools visit the center weekly and choose grandparents among the residents. The children play games and make crafts with their chosen grandparents. One of the children in the program stated, "I don't have a Grandma or a Grandpa at home but when I come to the "Nursery Home" I have lots of Grandmas and Grandpas." This program is especially beneficial because it increases community and family involvement.
The center is accredited in Dementia Special Care, Long Term Care, and Subacute Care by the Joint Accreditation of Healthcare Organization. Lawrence recently received a 100 percent score on a recent JCAHO survey.
Additionally, a medical director, on-call physicians, and physician assistants are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with scheduled on-site specialists.
The Lawrence Nursing Care Center " serves to break down the walls of institutionalized nursing homes" says Moore. It gives seniors the security of a hospital and the warmth of a home.


text:
$170,000,000 Acquisition of Casino Queen by Newly Formed Employee Stock Ownership Plan
Successful Casino to Create Long-term Economic Benefits for Employees
27 Dec, 2012, 13:11 ET from Casino Queen, Inc.
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill., Dec. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholders of Casino Queen, Inc. ("Casino Queen" or the "Company"), owner and operator of Casino Queen Hotel & Casino located in East St. Louis, Illinois (the "Property"), have agreed to sell 100% of their equity interests in the Company to a newly formed Employee Stock Ownership Plan ("ESOP") for approximately $170 million, which includes the assumption and refinancing of approximately $31 million in existing indebtedness (collectively, the "Acquisition").
The privately held ESOP will provide the Company's approximate 700 employees with an opportunity to participate in the continued success and growth of the Property via collective ownership in Casino Queen's stock. The ESOP will effectively create an enhanced retirement benefits plan tied to the performance of the Property and provide liquidity for employees when they retire or leave the Company. The private nature of the ESOP permits management to focus on strategies for the long-term benefit of the Company and creation of wealth for its employees.
Management of the ESOP will be led by co-trustees Jeff Watson, current General Manager of the Company, and Bob Barrows, current Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Watson and Mr. Barrows along with the Company's newly formed Board of Directors will provide daily governance and operations oversight. GreatBanc Trust Company acted as independent ESOP trustee during the Acquisition process.
The Acquisition, plus related transaction fees and expenses, was funded by the ESOP primarily through a combination of new debt financing instruments totaling $170 million (collectively, the "Debt Financing").
Wells Fargo Securities, LLC acted as sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner in connection with the Debt Financing. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is serving as Administrative Agent for the First Lien Credit Facility. Wells Fargo Gaming Capital is serving as Administrative Agent for the Second Lien Credit Facility and the Subordinated Credit Facility.
Husch Blackwell LLP acted as lead legal counsel to Casino Queen in connection with the Acquisition. Innovation Capital, LLC served as financial advisor to Casino Queen in connection with the Acquisition. Duff and Phelps Securities, LLC advised the Company with respect to formation of the ESOP.
About Casino Queen Hotel & Casino
Casino Queen Hotel & Casino is a premier locals-oriented casino, hotel and entertainment complex located in East St. Louis, Illinois. The Property is situated along the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, directly across from downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The casino offers a 40,000 square foot gaming floor with over 1,100 slot machines and 27 table games. Amenities include a 157 room hotel, three restaurants, 6,250 square feet of meeting space and 132-space recreational vehicle park. For more information, please visit www.casinoqueen.com.
Jeffrey Watson
Robert Barrows
General Manager & Corporate
Chief Financial Officer
SOURCE Casino Queen, Inc.


text:
Dallas Prior to last Saturday's all-local blow-out at the Granada Theater, my wife and I ducked into Sundown at Granada for a quick spin through the restaurant's menu before showtime. (I had visited the space previously, but its kitchen wasn't up and running until Jan. 13.) Food service currently runs from 4-10 p.m. daily (with a late-night menu for Fridays and Saturdays that starts up at 10 p.m.), while bar service runs from 4 p.m.-2 a.m. daily.
Under the guidance of chef Patrick Stark (who oversees the grub at the Granada), Sundown at Granada packs a lot of options onto its (relatively) compact menu, which is supplemented with an extensive selection of more than 60 beers and a handful of specially created cocktails. We started off with two of the $10 specialty cocktails -- the Jefferson Airplane (a citrus-y gin concoction, laced with lavender) and the Pink Lady (a vivid drink with pisco, lemon, maple syrup and champagne, among other ingredients) -- as we perused the rest of the menu. Broken up into shared plates ("opening acts"), burgers and sandwiches ("between bread"), salads ("the garden") and full-on entrees ("headliners), the menu also offers a hefty array of vegan and vegetarian options, instantly setting it apart from the vast majority of Dallas eateries.
To start, we sampled the Raving Rosemary Glazed meatballs ($10), made of soft, hearty Kobe beef, and topped with bleu cheese crumbles, slivers of fig and a cranberry and red wine au jus. Artfully arranged on the slender plate, it was a terrific start to our meal; the meatballs fairly melted in the mouth. The flat-breads section of the menu yielded the "Mi Amigo" ($12), topped with Kobe beef, black beans, queso fresco and jalapeno slices. Packing quite the kick, somewhat cooled by the black beans and queso fresco, this delicious flat-bread functioned as a hip riff on pizza (a gluten-free version of the flat-bread dough is available for a small surcharge).
My wife and I split the restaurant's namesake burger, the "Sundown" ($13), a six-ounce patty of grass-fed beef from the Chisholm Trail. Cooked to medium perfection and topped with creamy goat cheese and root beer-soaked onions, it was a collision of unlikely flavors that blended to fantastic effect. The sweet potato fries, served on the side with all burgers, had a little spice to them, playing nicely against the expected sweetness. To finish off our meal, we tried the root beer float ($5), topped with rich vanilla ice cream and spiked with agave nectar, and the ill-advised s'mores dessert shot ($6), which consists of slugging a shot of graham cracker-crumb-rimmed chocolate liqueur and devouring a marshmallow toasted table-side by your server. The amount of liquid in the shot is out of proportion to the size of the marshmallow, making the whole thing unbalanced. Perhaps that treat needs to be revisited.
On a night that saw the room fairly packed, our service was quite attentive and speedy (we were racing against the clock to finish eating and make it next door for the show). Reservations are suggested, especially on nights when the Granada has a show scheduled, if only to avoid potentially facing a wait for an open table. If you can't make it before the curtain goes up, there's also a "late night" menu, which reduces the menu to fries, flat-breads, the shared plates (or "bites"), burgers and tacos. That menu is only served Fridays and Saturdays, beginning at 10 p.m.
While there's no dearth of culinary options immediately surrounding the Granada, many are either too upscale or too complicated to simply duck in, grab a bite and leave. Sundown at Granada finds that balance between a slightly more refined dining experience, without forsaking the flexibility to eat a little, drink some and be on your way. That it's next door to where you're likely going anyway is icing on the cake.