A Poem for 2005.  A Prayer for 2006.

Another year has come and gone. I don’t know how yours went, but mine could have been better….and it could have been worse. But I Thank God it went just the way it did – because it couldn’t have gone any other way. Well maybe it could have. 

Shaq for President

The WNBA.....

Recently I read a thread on the message board, which asked the question, does anyone really care about the WBNA?   

Before I continue, I acknowledge that this issue will garner some criticism but let me clear all misconceptions. I am not against women’s sports -- I am just against the WNBA.  I am not against the existence of the WNBA, but like many others I feel that watching the WNBA is sub-par to watching a junior high boys basketball game, however interest in the game can be elevated if certain accommodations were made (i.e: lowering the rim) 

I chose to write on this topic because shortly after reading that thread on the Message board, I stumbled across a Bill Simmons (ESPN writer) article/editorial. For the most part, the opinions left from readers were largely chauvinistic and belittling, BUT there were SOME good points made:

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Liked your article on the WNBA. I would throw in one more point about the low attendance and miniscule TV ratings: Women do not watch sports. I know plenty of women who talk endlessly of Title IX, but when an opportunity comes to support women's athletics (in Pittsburgh, Pitt & Duquesne women's hoops, as well as the odd U.S. soccer exhibition), they are nowhere to be found. The only time the Pitt women's hoops team "sells out" a home game is when the UConn women come to town and they sell tickets for $1. The U.S. soccer exhibition, which included Hamm, Foudy, and Chastain in one of their final matches, drew less than 5,000 in 65,000-seat Heinz Field. Until women follow sports as fanatically as men, leagues such as the WNBA or WUSA will continue to flounder.

-- John, Pittsburgh 

There was one glaring omission, which I have always felt really sums up the WNBA. Remember a few summers ago when some player rose about 0.1 inches above the rim and threw down the ugliest dunk in the history of roundball? And they STOPPED THE GAME TO CELEBRATE? I mean, think about the fact that they treated this like it was McGwire's 62nd home run. Honestly! And then after the game the coach whose name I don't know, of the team whose name I don't know (who lost, by the way), dropped this gem on us: "People say they don't watch the WNBA because there is no dunking ... well I guess we showed them!" (pause for dramatic effect) IT WAS ONE DUNK! One hideous, poor excuse for an athletic accomplishment. I remember seeing that and wanting more than anything to be at that press conference so I could point out the obvious fact that one ugly dunk will not trigger some floodgate of female dunking to burst open, in turn spawning a nationwide obsession with this "sport."

-- Jonah, N.J. 

You were spot-on in your comments about the long overdue plug-pulling of the WNBA, but you missed one key point that frustrates me to no end. THEY USE A SMALLER BALL!!! Isn't the size ratio of the ball to the hoop a critical aspect of the game. Imagine the scores with a real ball -- "The Lynx win 18-14 shooting a league-high 12 percent from the field."

-- Nick, Minneapolis

I hate the WNBA!

-- Chris George, IPF          

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Now that all the readers think I’m a narrow-minded male egotist, allow me to extract my feelings on the subject from those of John, Jonah, Nick and Chris.  

I mentioned I am for women’s sports and I am – I would encourage all to take a greater interest in athletics. Sports are important – for guys and girls. The confidence discipline and teamwork gained in learning/playing a sport reflect in areas of academics, work, and family. It’s also fun.  

 It’s just disheartening to see these WBNA women work so hard and no one pays attention. 

I agree that Women who play professional sports can beat 99% of men who also play that sport but the WNBA is different. Kevin from Columbus explains it best…. 

A surefire way to pique interest with the WNBA ... change the rules! Stop pretending that it's an NBA game and start realizing that it's a totally different sport. This should all start with lowering the rim. Think about it, what does the NBA offer that the WNBA doesn't? "Above the rim action." Why should women play with the same size rim as men do when they already play with a smaller ball….. 

With all that said, I will admit that I watch an occasional WNBA game here and there, but I’ve never watched a game start to finish and I’ll only watch a game if the following shows are not on ( Any men’s sport except golf, Simpsons, Family Guy and Dog the Bounty Hunter – Just kidding)  

If your view on the subject differs from mine, feel free to post on the MB. In addition, please post, which teams are currently playing in the WNBA finals without searching the internet.   

Choose This NOT That

Here's a segment I call "Choose This NOT That".  Life is all about choices and a wrong decision could have terrible consequences. For instance....

You've just ordered lunch. A Double quarter-pounder with extra cheese and super-sized fries. You need a cold beverage to wash it down with.

                  Choose This              NOT That

         "Diet Coke"                        "Regular Coke"

Regular Coke has a 100 calories. Diet Coke: 0   You just shaved 100 calories. Think about it, 2 regular cokes in a day and your up 200 cals. Have 5 diet cokes -- Total Calories: ZERO.  True, you may be get cancer from the artificial sweeteners ,but hey at least your not getting fat.

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Ok, fast forward to the 2008 presidential Elections.  Your in the voting booth and it's time to decide.

Choose This             NOT That

"Rudolf Guiliani"                   "Hillary Clinton"

If Bush doesn't catch Bin Laden by 2008, I can guarantee Giuliani will have NYC cops storming every cave in Pakistan with night sticks in hands ready to deliver blows to the head -- And Al Sharpton won't be far behind preparing his civil suit for police brutality.

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Your in aisle 16 at CVS. Your looking for shampoo. So  many choices. You don't know what to pick

                       Choose This             NOT That

                      "Johnson's baby shampoo"                 "Prell"

Prell is industrial strength shampoo. Use it everyday and I guarantee you will go bald. It's got so many chemicals in there, you'll spend  2 hours in the shower washing it out. Yes, it will get the dirt out of your hair, but it will also take the hair out of your head. Choose a milder, gentler shampoo. 

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Your at work. It's the 3 o'Clock slump. You're feeling down and tired.  Lunch is wearing off -- you're feeling hungry again -- you need a snack to pick you up.

                    Choose This        NOT That

                               "non fat yogurt"       "double fudge sundae"

Choose the sundae and your 3 o'Clock snack will turn into a 4 o'Clock nap in the storage room followed by a 5 o'Clock pink slip with your name on it.

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It's Sunday. You're in church.. The offering plate is coming down your row. You reach into your wallet......

             Choose This               NOT That

                          "twenty dollars"                      "A Quarter"

Give and it shall be given to you : good measure , pressed down , shaken together, and running over....  Luke 6:38

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Ahh yes. You're graduating from college. Finally, YOUR Done. All those grueling tests, all-nighters, 8am labs ...it's all over!  Now its time to start the next phase of your life. Go on and make something of yourself.

           Choose This                       NOT That      

                "A Honest Profession"                            "Selling Crack"

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You are an eligible BACHELOR -- financially stable and responsible. You're ready to settle down and get married.

                        Choose This                   Not That 

                                  "A Woman"                        "A Life Partner"

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You're surfing the web. You decide to check out a personal website or two.

          Choose This                       NOT That

                 "IndaPhatFarm"                                   "BlueRadius"

Hahaha,  Just Kidding. Check them BOTH out. 

Alright I think that's enough choosing for one day. See ya next Time.
 

A Day in the Life of....

Have you ever been at work, sitting there at your desk or with your patient or at the register, or in the studio, or on the phone, thinking to yourself what would it be like if I were a....."Fill in the blank"

Well..."TheVault.com" allows you to envision a day in the life of  an Entry Level Scientist, A Business Development Manager, A Investment Banking Analyst, A Strategy Consulting Associate, A Network News producer and many more. 

Unfortunately you need a paid subscription to  thevault.com to view these profiles but Fortunately I have that subscription! Don't ask me why. Ok fine I'll tell you. The site actually gives you inside advice and company specific interview questions that a particular firm will ask.  Imagine going to an interview knowing or having rehearsed the answers to the most of the questions. Well after $39.95 and one bad interview, I found that this wasn't true. 

Anyway I digress...  Instead of me doing more work and writing the rest of this update, I'll just post a typical day in the life of a  Hedge Fund Investor Relation Specialist. Ok wait that's boring.  How about....hmmm a .....Senior Tax Accountant....nah too many numbers.. Ok fine we'll go with a Fashion Buyer for DKNY. An occupation most Malayalee parents will welcome with open arms. Enjoy.

8:00: Arrive at work. Take a look at the flash sales. (In store one, you sold $5,000 worth of merchandise; in store two, you sold $7,000; etc?) You're concerned with the breakdown of items sold at each store: how many dress shirts, ties, trousers, and so on. "Buyers are constantly asking themselves 'Why did one store sell many more than the other?' The display might be different. Maybe one store did a sale."

In other News...

Ladies and gentlemen, I have some bad news. Many of you may have heard already. Its seems the beloved Cookie Monster from the show Sesame Street, has given up eating cookies. What has the world come to?  Here is a CNN excerpt

"With the rise in childhood obesity, Sesame Street is concentrating on the need to teach children about healthy foods and physical activity."

Now I agree that obesity and general unhealthy eating and fitness habits have crept into the American society over the last decade or so -- especially in kids -- buts that no reason to take it out on Cookie monster -- a staple of the American childhood experience. 

Cookie Monster, in my book C will always be for Cookie and that's good enough for me!

In other news... we have a new Pope. Pope Benedict XVI. If you have a question for the new Pope you can reach him at his email address benedictxvi@vatican.va. 

In other news, the NBA playoffs are starting this Sunday and once again the New York Knicks are not in the mix. What a disgrace. New York, arguably the mecca of basketball can't string a team of decent players together but the Memphis Grizzlies an expansion team has made the playoff two years in a row. I would trade the entire Knicks team for Manu Ginobli and a high school player.

In other news the New York International Auto show was 3 weeks ago and I went. Here are some pictures:

In other news, (from CNN) three MIT graduate students set out to show what kind of gobbledygook can pass muster at an academic conference these days, writing a computer program that generates fake, nonsensical papers. And sure enough, a Florida conference took the bait.

The program, developed by students Jeremy Stribling, Max Krohn and Dan Aguayo, generated a paper with the dumbfounding title: "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy." Its introduction begins: "Many scholars would agree that, had it not been for active networks, the simulation of Lamport clocks might never have occurred."

Where was this program when I was in College? Hmm maybe I could use it for my next update.

In other news, this update is over. See yall next week.

Productivity - The Brother of Organization

This week I had the chance to attend a conference in Virginia (for work) and one of the speakers did a 3 hour session on improving Productivity.  Normally these spiels don't phase me -- I'm not one to be easily motivated by the 'Tony Robbins' type speeches but this one really did inspire me. The speaker was actually a high level executive --Vice President of Middle Markets to be exact-- -- so advice coming from him seemed a little more credible. Surprisingly, he didn't just focus on being productive at the workplace or in school, but rather being productive Human Beings -- accountable for all 24 hours of the day, living a meaningful life and having a positive impact on people around us.

Of course being productive in general involves not surfing the net half the day, but that would take away from your IPF browsing, so that's not what I am encouraging. I'm talking about the countless hours we waste doing worthless minutia some of which include and are not limited to the following: Watching an excess amount of  T.V or watching any at all, sleeping too long, going to a Knicks game, sitting on the couch and doing nothing, waiting for the Redskins to win a championship and so on and so forth. 

But productivity doesn't just involve reducing wasted time but being more efficient with the time we have -- doing things faster and better.  As the speaker continued, I was expecting concrete ways to improve productivity and of course he did list those examples towards the end of the session, but the majority of his speech involved laying the foundation to be productive -- an interesting approach that I had never heard before. 

I guess I was really inspired because the man was a Christian and he incorporated his values and principles into his message to an audience of 300.  His foundation to living a productive life involved having a clear set a of values and a vision. As an example he listed his own core Values/Tenets. I wont mention his name, so let's just call him John D for now.  Here is John's Core Tenets

• Fullfill God’s will for my life – using my talents and gifts for his service each day.

• Be an authentic leader – emotionally connect with people – be compassionate and loving.

• Help the people around me achieve their dreams.

• Operate with good humor and joy each and every day.

• Live a balanced life.

• Be a loving husband, father and friend.

• Maintain physical fitness and spiritual well being.

• Passionately pursue my hobbies.

• Nourish my hunger for knowledge and creativity.

• Give back to my community.

• Serve my country.

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart. Out of jail -- richer and more popular than ever with a T.V deal in the works and her stock prices on the rise. Don't you just love the American Justice system.  If this were Saudi Arabia, and Martha was convicted of insider trading she wouldn't get any jail time. Nah, she'd just get her left hand chopped off and that's that. Now go on, make more money and do your show if you want -- you just don't have a left hand. That's my kind of justice. Hah - Just kidding.  (No but seriously that's what they should have done ;) 

Here's a couple of Martha Cartoons from MSN.com

Organization. How good Are you?

If you're like me, you’re neither a neat freak nor a slob but somewhere in between. The reason I write this is because I am looking at my room and it looks like it was run over by Hurricane Francis. It wasn't always like this. In fact, only a couple of days ago my bed was made, clothes were on hangars and it was nicely vacuumed with crisp vacuum lines running up and down the carpet. Now I can barely make it across the room without tiptoeing over worn clothes, loose papers, and whatever else managed to find its way to the floor. They have a name for this. I think its called Entropy, where things go from a natural state of peace and calm to CHAOS.  Eventually everything gets cleaned up and returns to it initial state, but then the cycle begins again.

One of my resolutions this year was to be a little more organized. When I say organized, I mean everything from keeping my room tidy to filing my Taxes with Quicken.

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