October 31, 2007
I'm no Greenspan, but it seems to me that the stock market has been a little too happy lately. For example, every stock on my watch list has appreciated significantly in value, including the banks that were hammered by the subprime mortgage fallout. Greenspan said recently that the Chinese stock market is in a state of 'irrational exuberance' (cue the days before the Internet bubble burst in 2000). If there is a fallout in Asian markets, then there will be some effect to everything, I think. This past month, the level of foreign investment in U.S. stocks has tanked.
Last fall, the same exuberance seemed to be occurring in the markets, and there was a gradual correction that led to a bottoming out in the late spring, then things started picking up again slowly.
I secretly hope for an overall market correction because I want to buy on a dip. Patience is not one of my virtues, so it is hard to sit here and wait.
Most pundits think that the housing situation won't recover until 2010. In the news today: the number of houses on the market is currently at a 9-year high. So it's in most people's best interest not to sell a house unless you are going bankrupt, transferring to another city, or dead. Wanting to move to another part of town or wanting an additional bathroom doesn't seem like justification for taking a $20-30K cut, but what do I know. I'm conservative.
Posted by megabeth at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2007I like reading magazines. Since eBay sells subscriptions for a lot less than the rates advertised by the little postcards that fall out of new magazines, it becomes easy to rationalize a bunch of subscriptions. And you can get free subs with airline miles, too. In short, I get a lot of magazines and paid like, ten bucks for all of them.
When I started b-school I was involuntarily subscribed to BusinessWeek, and I actually enjoy reading it. And I read Time (hey, I didn't claim that any of these magazines I subscribe to are targeted to those above 7th grade reading level). Then there's Bicycling (of course) and Runner's World even though I don't run much, it has a lot of advice that transfers over to cycling. This year I got a free sub to Smart Money and it's really boring. And also to Marie Claire because I bought some make-up at Clinique. Even though I'm not a girly-girl, I think Marie Claire is a fun read and it provides me with an hour of getting in touch with my inner girly-girl each month, which is about all I need.
Last year I received Wall Street Journal for school and it's also delivered to work everyday. I liked it, but don't have time to read it every day and felt overwhelmed by the large quantity of quality news that ended up in the recycling bin.
I get a quarterly publication from Tulane as an alum, the Tulanian, which is always full of beautiful photos and articles on New Orleans culture or something related to New Orleans or Tulane. It's always a great read.
What's next? My grandmother used to read People and Reader's Digest, but I'll pass on those. And I don't want to read PlayBoy for the 'articles'.
I find local magazines like Birmingham and Portico mildly amusing, since 80% of each magazine is plastic surgery ads and the articles are all about fancy expensive real estate in Mountain Brook. (What would this say to an outsider about Birmingham? It's a huge misrepresentation of the majority of residents.) And what happened to Black and White? The people who work there got pissed off at some other people, and the bi-weekly has become a conduit for them to 'get back' at the people who made them mad. So it's now a complete waste of newsprint.
What periodicals do you read and why?
Posted by megabeth at 09:55 PM | Comments (6)
Four papers, three assignments, and one group project/presentation left before I finish school. To be completed in six weeks. This entire semester has been paper after paper, and I hope I never have to write another paper again as long as I live. I have never hated writing papers so much as I do right now.
People have been asking me what I am going to do with this MBA. I have already changed my career from the IT industry to the fossil fuel industry. I'm not planning to do anything else with it other than use my knowledge to manage my investment portfolio. The reward for completing this degree is simply the sheer joy of knowing that I will have more free time and will never go back to school again.
Posted by megabeth at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2007There is a lot of discussion surrounding Louisiana's governor-elect, Bobby Jindal (an Indian-American). This particular article criticizes Jindal of downplaying his race in order to get elected. Now, why is it that every single time a minority gets elected, he is accused by people of the same race (or similar ethnicity) of downplaying his ethnicity? Boo,hoo. Some people can't appreciate anything.
I think the real triumph is not Jindal being the first Indian American governor in the U.S. (Not to mention he will also be the youngest governor, at 36.) It's that someone who is highly intelligent has been elected in the state of Louisiana. I specifically chose the word intelligent over educated, because being educated does not equate to being intelligent. Louisiana has long been known for corrupt government, and public officials not really getting elected based on their qualifications. So, it's nice to see a change.
Posted by megabeth at 05:21 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2007The thing that never ceases to amaze me about NYC is how so many people go through its transit system (bus, subway, car, taxi, plane, boat, etc) and it doesn't get terribly clogged up to the point of being impotent. Unless there's something like a blackout.
The other interesting observation I had this time is that if you do not have a specific place in mind to eat, then you will never find one. Wandering around will not find you much of anything other than hot dogs and day-old pizza.
Oh! This must be new, also. I don't remember this the last times I have been there. I started buying clothes and found no sales tax on the receipt. What's up with that? Any clothing item under $110 is tax free. Woooo! This is an instant 10% discount compared to shopping in Alabama.
Thursday night, Barclays had a client dinner at Sparks. One of the guys I talked to said that anyone who makes over $60K inside the city pays an occupational tax (city) of around 4%. So I was complaining about 1/2%? It still sucks, but not THAT bad. So, that's who is paying the taxes not being collected on clothing sales.
Sparks: Apparently still a Mafia hangout. Lots of Italian men kissing each other on both cheeks. Not much was good there, other than the steak, which was very good. I ate most of a huge filet mignon, cooked medium, with no fat on it anywhere, and about 2 inches thick.
We sought out good ethnic food. I didn't do good research on Thai, since the place we ate was mediocre. The Indian food was exceptionally good, though. Vietnamese was same as what I get at home, though even cheaper. Two people: dinner in NYC: $14 check.
Every time I saw a Dean and Deluca, I had to go in there and gawk at the food. So that was around 4 or 5 times. Their sushi was very good, and the creme brulee was to die for.
We found this bakery called Sugar Sweet Sunshine (Lower East Side, I think?) that sells delicious cupcakes for $1.50 each. We bought six to take home and they made it, though a bit weary looking after so much travel.
Another thing that causes me to be jealous and pissed off: Pomegranates in Chinatown: $1.50 each. Asian pears: $1.25 each. You people suck. I pay $2+ for a tiny little Asian pear, and there are no pomegranates in Birmingham. I've looked. Everywhere. Including Whole Foods. For three months, I've looked, and found none.
Ice cream. We had some at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and I wasn't impressed. But also we had some in Brooklyn (also Ice Cream Factory) and it was very good.
Pizza. We went to Coney Island for a few hours, taking the subway above ground until we reached the coast. After walking around for a while, we found Totonno's Pizzeria Napolitano. Coney Island Beach is for the general public, so we saw some interesting folks, like one man walking around in his too-large, stained tightie whities. It reminds me a bit of the beach at Gulfport, MS next to the Grand Casino, which is littered with garbage, both literal and living. It disgusts me. But Coney Island was more endearing. I suppose because I appreciated getting away from city noise for a while and hearing the sound of the waves. And it was a bit surreal, with the high rise apartment buildings (which reminded me of communist Moscow), Cyclones baseball field, and numerous carnival rides and the Wonder Wheel, which are now shut down for winter and possibly forever.
The boardwalk was interesting as well, and still lively with people milling about. It's hard to fathom such a close merge between urban and coastal for someone who has spent her beach days on the Florida panhandle.
Back to the Pizza Straight from God. This Totonno's had a small menu. Two sizes of pie with 6-8 toppings. We ordered a pepperoni and watched the dude make it. They cook it in a coal-fired brick oven, which is clearly the Secret to good pizza, and there is no such thing in Birmingham. It's a thin crust pizza with crispy edges and hand-cut pepperoni. And it was delicious (did I mention that?)
The other discovery I made was Jamba Juice. I had heard all this hooplah about it so I stopped in and paid for my $5 smoothie. Yeah, okay. It was really freaking good. I wanted another the next day but we couldn't find one (of course). So a couple of days later we stumbled on one, then waited 30 minutes for a Razzmatazz.
Hairspray: The Broadway play was fantastic and a lot better than I was expecting. So much talent. Even Lance Bass. But maybe not that ditzy blonde chick who tried out on TV for Sandy in Grease and somehow unfortunately was cast in Hairspray.
One thing about NYC: you will wait in many lines. I am usually not interested in such a thing in B'ham, but there is no other option in NYC. Generally, people did things quickly and lines moved quickly. Not so at home, where lines usually form due to someone being a stupid idiot, instead of mass quantities of people existing in one place.
Subway: I have always liked trains. Some tourists are scared of other people, weird people, dirty places, dark places, things they can't control, and crowded places. But I like the subway. I wish I could ride the subway at home, so that I could read while in transit instead of sitting in a car at a red light. We rode the subway around 1 am one night, and it was just as safe as 1 pm.
Taxis: This one car driver managed to get us to Brooklyn at Friday rush hour in less than an hour. The amount of car traffic is amazing. Cars everywhere, honking all the time and getting about 2 inches from each other when changing lanes. People don't seem to be bothered by their cars having a lot of exterior damage, which is a nice respite from home, where people freak out if they hit a bug and GASP it might mess up the paint job!!!! FOR THE LOVE!!! Hey, it's just a car. New Yorkers know that.
Please and thank you: There are no pleasantries exchanged, and it is refreshing not to have to say thank you all the time. Why should I thank someone who rang up my purchase? Isn't that their job to ring up purchases? Did they do some kind of special favor for me by ringing up my purchase? No, not unless they decided to give me the purchase for free. So, I didn't have to thank anyone, and they didn't have to thank me, either.
Hills: Riding a bike in NYC would suck. There are no hills. Well, Brooklyn has some "slopes". It would be hard to train for bike racing without loving your trainer very, very much.
Stores that sell fancy dog clothing: Why?
Weather: 75 degrees in NYC = 85 degrees. I planned for 65 degrees when packing. I went to H&M and bought some short sleeved tops to wear the rest of the weekend. I fried, I was so hot.
Clothing: People in NYC are all about breaking every fashion rule in the book. If you are wearing a dull brown shirt, by all means, accessorize with a red and white polka dot scarf and royal blue hat.
The thing that baffled me, though, was how people were wearing WINTER COATS in 75 degree weather (which felt like 85 degree weather). If not coats, then long sleeve sweaters and scarves. Yo people, it's hot outside. I don't care if it's October. It's 95 in the subway. It sucks to be unnecessarily hot.
Chinatown: Skinned ducks cooking in the window are disgusting. Also, I do not want to buy a DVD.
People: Are nice. Several offered us directions voluntarily. Only two people were asshats and one of them was at the airport so he probably isn't from NYC.
Cell phones: In NY, you don't have problems with cell phone drivers so much as cell phone walkers. These people speed up and slow down at random intervals while talking or typing out text messages. They are clueless about their surroundings but can't find it within themselves to pull off the sidewalk and finish their business, then join the traffic flow once they've joined reality again.
Brooklyn: Park Slope is a nice little hood. We stayed with a friend on a street that was almost as quiet, if not quieter, then the street I live on in B'ham. It was one of those 2.5 story brownstones like you see in Sesame Street.
Smoking: It was exciting and wonderful when smoking was banned indoors. Then everyone went out on the street and smoked twice as much. Throw the secondhand smoke in with massive quantities of exhaust fumes, and midtown manhattan stinks. My observation: NYC must have the largest percentage of smokers in the U.S. It isn't that common in B'ham.
I am sure there are a million other things I forgot to talk about, but this is what came to mind tonight.
Posted by megabeth at 09:22 PM | Comments (8)
October 23, 2007I am back from NYC, but very busy with catch-up stuff. I have a midterm tomorrow. So I'll write a long post when things slow down, whenever that happens.
Posted by megabeth at 03:03 PM | Comments (1)
October 15, 2007Monkey Butt is one of Ruby's many nicknames. To my joyous surprise, there is a product called Anti Monkey Butt, for the purpose of powdering your bottom to prevent chafing and redness. You know you've gotta have some.
Posted by megabeth at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2007I've been mapping out the places I'm interested in visiting while in NYC next week, and they have one thing in common: There's nothing like it in Birmingham, and probably nothing like it in Atlanta, either. (No Applebee's. ha.)
In my business strategy class, so far we've done case studies of four companies that have a focused strategy and have been very successful with that strategy.
The population density and diverse ethnic populations allow NYC to support businesses with an extremely narrow focus. For example: An ice cream shop in Chinatown that serves only Chinese/Asian ice cream flavors, a bagel store that serves nothing but bagels (no cream cheese, drinks, etc), a bike shop that sells only fixed gear bikes and accessories, an Indian restaurant that focuses on one region of Indian cuisine, a cupcake bakery (yum!), and of course, the infamous restaurant owned by the Soup Nazi. If you do one thing and do it insanely, amazingly, incredibly well, then your business can survive.
I've always been fascinated by things that are unusual or that I haven't seen before, so I've enjoyed every trip I've made to NYC. I would have rather gone somewhere I haven't been before, but this is an employer-sponsored trip so I didn't have a choice. I'm glad it's NYC and not a power plant in the middle of nowhere. There are other nat gas and oil conferences in places like Amsterdam and Sydney, but I couldn't convince my manager that we NEED to send some people to those. Heh.
Posted by megabeth at 10:32 AM | Comments (5)
October 11, 2007Like anywhere else in the world, at work there are the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. When I changed jobs, I moved to the 'haves', and this is in terms of little perks such as drinks, free meals, and snacks. In this work area, it's Halloween here every day. There are several candy jars full of every candy I can think of - chocolate bars, m and ms, tangy/fruity candy, chewing gum, peanuts, almonds, snack bars, and the like. Two drink refrigerators full of water, powerade, juice, milk and sodas. And gourmet coffee.
The kind of willpower I have is removal of self from the temptation. If I'm in the grocery store, if I refrain from buying candy or junk food, then I go home and don't eat candy or junk food since there isn't any in the house. But this kind of willpower I do not have, the kind where something is stuck in front of my face and I have to say NO to it.
So I've been eating a lot of candy. No weight gain (YET... ha ha). Maybe a pound. I'll be exercising a lot this winter.
Posted by megabeth at 12:25 PM | Comments (2)
October 09, 2007Next week I'll be in NYC, and after my business related responsibilities are done, we'll have the weekend to play. We'll be staying in Brooklyn, which got me thinking about Coney Island. I've never been there and would like to hit something I haven't seen before. So, off we go, to the Creep show at the freak show! Halloween seems like a good time to visit, although the rides will be closed. (Except maybe the ferris wheel. I'm not sure yet.) And it's also a good time to visit, before the developer who has been buying up the land in the area tears it all down and rebuilds something bland and corporate in its place.
Posted by megabeth at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2007
It isn't the most beautiful bike in the world, but it is really cool to ride. (I've never been a fan of obnoxiously loud branding, and Bianchi oughta pay me to ride this thing. You can see the logo from an airplane in the sky, two miles above the ground.)
I've designated Sundays as Pista riding day, this fall and winter. I started switching out components already; the handlebars, brake hoods and front brake were switched out with the track handlebar so that I can ride the bike on the road.
I like the "NO BRAKES" sticker on the top tube. On the track, brakes aren't allowed. It seems a bit scary to ride a bike with no brakes, but the track is banked, so you can slow down by riding up the bank (in a desperate situation), or pull back on the pedals to slow the bike down. I don't use the brakes on the road at slower speeds - I learned how to use the pdeals as brakes. However, going down a hill at 30+ mph, I discovered that the front brake is not entirely effective and when the pedals are forcing my cadence at 120+ rpm, it's not possible to pull back on the pedals. So, going down hills is a bit scary and exciting, and induces many laughs. Going up hills, on the other hand, induces many grunts. I nearly fell over yesterday riding up a steep incline. Needless to say, my legs are sore today.
Posted by megabeth at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2007I'm getting ready for my NYC trip by writing a bunch of papers in advance so I don't have to worry about that for a week. I'm remaining sane about school this semester, although I've had to cut down on my bike riding considerably. Have I said a hundred times that school sucks? One more time. It sucks.
I also went shopping in an attempt to find some dressy clothes at a reasonable price that are more feminine than a business suit, but that was like asking for a trip to the moon.
So I'll wear suits.
We're planning on visiting some bike shops in the city (of course). I've been to New York enough times that I've lost count. So I've seen a lot of the touristy stuff, and now I'm mainly interested in things that aren't available at home. I'm eyeing a few fixed gear specialty shops, as well as planning to eat ethnic food until I develop a strong craving for a hamburger. And cupcakes. There is some cupcake place that's famous and I've had a cupcake there before, but I can't remember the name of it.
As part of my work responsibilities I'll be going to one or two dinners with the banks that we do business with at work. I chose Barclays, because of all the industry analysis I read at work, whoever writes their publications has a wicked sense of humor. Maybe they'll be funny at dinner.
Posted by megabeth at 02:51 PM | Comments (2)
October 04, 2007On Tuesday night, I gave my speech in front of the class of around 60 people and the chairman of the board of Energen Corporation. I spoke without using any cue cards and created my visuals so that I could not fall victim to the ultimate cardinal sin of presentation: reading of text directly from powerpoint slides. I think I did an okay job, but I became really nervous the very second I opened my mouth. Was cool and calm before then. I forgot to mention a couple of things that I had practiced. The challenge was to adjust what I planned to say in the ten minutes before saying it, in response to the preceding presentation by the board chairman. I was a bit nervous about that, since I had something memorized and had so much going through my mind as to what last-minute changes I should make.
I don't get a lot of opportunities for public speaking since my job requires only occasional speaking responsibilities. I asked my manager for permission to take a public speaking course, and could not find a single offering in the city of Birmingham. It looks like one must travel to a large city such as Atlanta or Chicago for such training. So I decided that I'll join my company's Toastmasters club when I'm done with school this semester. I think that public speaking is something that could be fun if I could just get up and speak in a relaxed manner like I would when talking to friends. I don't think a class is going to help that much, anyhow. This is a skill that improves with lots of practice.
Posted by megabeth at 11:20 AM | Comments (2)
October 01, 2007I went to the Sidewalk Film Festival opening night at the Alabama Theatre to see The Ten. I love the Ala. Theatre, and it is a rare place where sitting on the balcony is better than ground level. The ceiling is amazing.
That had to be the dirtiest movie ever shown at the Alabama. I'm not particularly sensitive to raunch, but crassness does not equate to being funny.
The weather for riding has been wonderful lately. I am exploring some new routes in an effort to map out winter training rides for my team. Riding in traffic has been getting on my nerves lately, and what I've discovered is that 30 to 40 miles outside of Birmingham, there is still quite a bit of traffic. There is nowhere to hide any longer. There is no place where loads and loads of people are not driving around, at least in the state of Alabama. Guess I'll have to travel to Wyoming to avoid cars, or wait until gasoline is $7 a gallon before people stay home en masse.
Yesterday I came down with a fever and felt like I had the flu. Not sure what is going on, but I am giving a presentation to a class of 60 on Tuesday, including the former CEO of Energen. I'll be practicing this thing today and tomorrow until I can say this speech in my sleep. One thing I learned this time around when writing a speech is not to use the powerpoint slides for anything. I want to look at the slides only to change to the next one. NO LOOKING AT SLIDES ALLOWED.
Posted by megabeth at 10:58 AM | Comments (2)