Italian Woman in Texas

2010-01-06T19:18:00.001-08:00

for you

2008-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

For you Bubblin'

2008-04-23T18:45:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0719DxMOUY

A TEAM

2008-04-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

…the world’s worsening economic outlook and the recent turbulance in the financial markets, according to one person who took notes at the discussions.

This is a job for an Economist.

Not just any economist; it turns out a ufologist/economist is better equipped to handle this labor intensive subject. To put a broader perspective we will enlist Rupert Murdoch, PhD UFO, who specializes in ufo-ology, and btw also is a shade tree economist.

Okay an extra-terrestrial enters earth in hopes of finding:
1) a food source
2) a fuel source
3) a market share of each

–Mr Murdoch, do you think the ET is going to find what he/she/it needs here?

M: Yes, I have proof that our visitor is going to have something to eat first. To do this he/she/it will corral a good source into an area that most fits its non-confrontational rules of economic takeover.

–Like what Rupe?

M: Well, ET will likely herd groups of humans into holding pens and do their freaknobs on them. As in Kansas, contentment will be pervasive. Which is the prime motivation for living beings: Greed and avarice, to insure future food sources.

–Is this from personal experience?

M: Yes I have always said that economics throughout the universe is contingent on a scale. One end of the scale is greed, and the other extreme end is fear. Between those two limits is food and transport. Therefore the ET will become a more frequent visitor, and bring with factors of fear and greed.

–Okay, I think… we turn now to the field of commentators: J has this to post — “Makes me wanna start raising Spanish milk goats some days just so I can fit in…” Do you Rupert Murdoch advocate a similar trading of corn for humans?

M: If you refer to the balancing act supposedly advocated by the Birkenstock and Sock gang, no. There is no balance, rather a mad prophet in the cornfields who subsists on corn tassel whey, and dung beetle larvae. He will tell of the eventual outcome of the axe men who cometh to chop through humanity, starting at Bushton, Kansas, ending near Booger Hollow, Arkansas. Spanish goat milk is as much a profitable commodity as Reddenbacher’s microwaveable fuel oil…

–I think J is referring to getting paid to not raise alfalfa and Spanish Goats..

M: Yes, I get it… anything you can get paid to do , I say Do it!

But back to the metaphor we are stretching out to incredulous null probabilist-elasticity… “See how the waters rise in the North? They will become an overflowing torrent, and will overflow the land and everything in it, including the towns and those living in them.”

–Huh?

M: Jeremiah 47:2… “O remnant on the plain how long will you cut yourselves?”

–Are you daft, Rupert? We aren’t talking about those things…

M: Oh, but we are. It turns out, we must address bullfrogs, and the flooded valleys, and ruined plateaus, you see, because Jeremiah was a bullfrog. And the end time will be a harvest, with ET in charge. And the fear of the human roasters will feed the greed of the ET’s.

–Oh. So this is all about fresh water, is it?

M: Murdoch phone home; beep, beep, n’ re-beep… yeah!

Italian Radio

2008-03-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

We recently caught up with some of our old long lost friends. One guy we haven't heard from for a long time, is a musician. He lives at the foot of the Ozarks in Missouri. He has us all thinking about music -- music that is remote and hard to get.

Marinell likes to listen to Italian radio. We have been toying around with Windows Media Player for a decade trying to get a good connection to international radio. But only until lately with a new resell P-4 and a ghz of Rambo, we get some uninterrupted listening. It is always buffering, blah, blah.

I think she should have the chance to listen to Italian Radio as much as others get to listen to their shi(*&(*&t. If you have a solution to the quality continuity situation, here we are.

Discrimination: if you haven't tried it, don't start now!

2008-02-04T16:40:00.000-08:00

"Hiring: The Hidden Risks of Using Google, Facebook, MySpace, and Other Websites to Scope Out New and Prospective Hires; What You Need to Watch Out For"
retrieved here today -- (http://tr.subscribermail.com/cc.cfm?sendto=http%3A%2F%2Farchives%2Esubscribermail%2Ecom%2Fmsg%2F93247bcf75ff41609996e5ce4695fe78%2Ehtm&tempid=93247bcf75ff41609996e5ce4695fe78&mailid=4ea274610da34e909f4987e96237120b )
Just hours after you've faxed an offer letter to your top-choice candidate for that open supervisor position, you decide on a lark to Google his name - and you discover his personal website plastered with racy photos from his recent New Year's party.

Or, you receive an anonymous tip to visit the MySpace page of a brand-new employee, and you find screen after screen of negative rantings about how much she hates her job - including possibly defamatory comments about her boss and co-workers.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Is it a good idea to surf the Web looking for information about your employees and applicants? And, if so, can you legally use what you find to hire (or fire) those workers?

In today's tech-savvy business world, those are tough questions. On the one hand, it's your job to pick the most qualified candidates to fill openings in your workplace. If you make a mistake using information pulled from the Internet, however, you could face legal problems ranging from discrimination and harassment claims to Fair Credit Reporting Act violations.

During this 90-minute audio conference on February 26, our expert will give you the legal pros and cons of relying upon online data when you screen potential and current employees - with a special emphasis on information found via Google, Facebook, MySpace, and other "social networking" sites. You'll learn when you can use these sites for HR purposes, how to gauge whether what you learn about your workers is true or false, and the types of online material you should never search for.

YOU'LL LEARN:
* The most common mistakes employers make when they check applicants and current employees on the Web

* Which online sites pose the greatest legal threats for employers when used for HR purposes

* When it's legal to use information found online to evaluate applicants and workers - and what types of online details you must never use or keep (no matter how damaging or relevant they may seem)

* How you can decide whether the information you've found online is accurate

* The steps you should take if an applicant or employee claims that your online searches constitute an illegal invasion of privacy

* When your Facebook, MySpace, or Google searches may cross the line into discrimination

* The red flags that you may have violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act hen surfing the Web to learn more about applicants or employees - and how to protect yourself

eh, what's up Doc? >pd/draft

Be Careful What you Order from Online

2008-01-24T06:30:00.001-08:00

DUREX Extra Large --

I went for a walk at the beach recently and decided it was enough! I will not be ordering any more funny pills from email solicitations.

Italian man in Michigan.xxl

So you want to be an American...

2008-01-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

Ostentatious Italians in Austin Texas
Refer to:
Contact Bob Calvisi at membership@AustinItalians.org for more information retrieved today at http://www.austinitalians.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=2&MMN_position=4:4

Dear Mr. Calvisi:
Good Morning. What do I need to do to Charter the Bryan/College Station Italian Cultural Association? Will you help me?

Though I am as Texan as it gets my wife Marinell A. Ruggiero Darnell is the first in her family to come to the USA. She is from Foggia, Italia, and we go there to reunite the family every two or three years. Your published reasons to join are exactly why I am writing you this morning.

Reasons You Should Participate in the ICA
1. To meet and be with other Italian Americans to share old country and family traditions.

2. To participate in ongoing social and cultural activities in and around Austin.

3. To share and learn information about "things" Italian.

4. To receive an informative newsletter to let you know about ICA members and planned activities.

5. To participate in the Italian Festival – enjoy great food, great friendship and meet the families of other members.

6. To share the joy of Christmas with other ICA members at the dinner and dance party
We are looking forward to your response. Hopefully, you can guide us in our task.
With warmest regards,
Patrick Darnell
>>MooPigWisdom.blogspot.com
Italianwomanintexas.blogspot.com
______*_______________________*_______
Patrick:

I just recently received your email so please use this email to respond: rjcaustin@aol.com

This is going to be short story, but hopefully you will find it informative and useful.

Our group is relatively small (about 80 active members) and we are very independent. There are supposedly about 5,000 Italian-Americans living in the tri-county area, but the most we've ever had in membership is about 135 about 5 years ago, economy slowed down lot of transfers out of state and the membership has never grown. Our by-laws restrict members to a 50-mile area surrounding Austin, otherwise there is little participation.

Here is how our group started in the mid-80s. There were six gentlemen that worked at IBM - all from the NY area - and like many others who transferred to Austin from IBM they were Italian. The gathered on occasion at a local Italian restaurant, owned by an NY Italian, and decided one year to have a weekend get together inviting anyone Italian that they worked with or knew from the restaurant. Everyone contributed food and wine and they had a great time. They did it a second year and it was a great success again. One of the members had been involved with the Sons of Italy Italian Organization in NY, but this organization kept the women separate and with no voting privileges -- that wasn't going to happen in Austin -- so they decided to just start a social group with members paying $8.00 per month into a checking account. The asked all of the people who attended the two Family Festa's to join and they got a total of 14 members (7 couples) our of about 50-60 who had attended the event.

My wife and I were invited to join the ICA in 1986. It was by coincidence that our oldest daughter's best friend in high school was the daughter of one of the original members. We became friends with the restaurant owner and his wife separately, and met some other Italians at the restaurant. To our amazement when these acquaintances attended our daughter's graduation open house they all knew each other, but we were not aware of the ICA connection. So they asked us to join.

Over the next 6 - 7 years we social things together and every October we would have a Family Festa with all the members providing they food and beverages. Our children would attend, parents, close friends -- but they all had to be Italian. We used our dues money to reimburse ourselves for the Family Festa expenses.

We would meet 9 - 10 times per year at someone's house and have a meeting. I thing we debated expanding the club for three years before we took a vote. Once we approved potential expansion of the ICA we decided we needed By-laws so we got a copy from some other organization and created our own - it was still a social club and at lease one member of a couple had to have an Italian blood-line of some sort to become a member. We of course took someone's word they were Italian because we had no way to prove a blood line other than a good family heritage story.

In about 1993, most of the original members began to retire from IBM and they developed other priorities. My wife and I, as the youngest members and the only ones not from NY, decided we loved out Italian friends and if we didn't expand the ICA it would fade away because interest was declining -- the friendships were very strong, but everyone but us working folk were traveling and it was difficult to get events planned.

Much to our surprise in the summer of 1994, there was an article in the local paper about someone trying to get Italians together, then there we a few that started to meet at our friend's restaurant so we visited with both groups in the fall of 1994 and found a lot of common interest. In December 1994 we hosted an open house and invited every Italian we knew or had met. The result, we ended up with about 50 people who all brought food and drink and it was a wonderful atmosphere and we met some new friends with Italian background.

In 1995, after a few more gallons of wine and conversation, it was decided that these new Italians would be invited to join the ICA since we already had an infrastructure. Over the next 3 -4 years we went from 16 members to about 70 members - there is a definite learning curve on how to get members involved and how to find places to meet without a facility. We even developed a Strategic Planning Committee that made suggestions for growth and the needs we would require. That was a great experience to participate an overall other than not finding a way to get "our own ICA home" much of what we planned has been accomplished.

In 2001, we held a widely promoted Festa Italiana! Of which we had about 2,500 attendees. It was a great event, but a lot of hard work and great financial exposure if it was rained out. In 2002, we expanded the Festa to two-day event - partial rain - lots of work and expenses, and we broke even financially at best.

In 2003 we decided to become a non-profit 501 (c) (3) charitable organization in order to expand the club, concentrate on developing some charitable ties, moving more towards a cultural organization, and making it easier to have sponsors deduct any contributions they made to the ICA. We had to change the by-laws, open membership to anyone who wanted to join and reshuffled dues so not all events (social or cultural) were fully funded by the ICA.

In 2004, we did another Festa Italiana! (One day at a new location in downtown Austin. Great location, great entertainment, great food from local Italian restaurants, and lots of beer and wine; but lots of set-up expenses since stages, tents, lighting all needed to be rented. Not promoted heavy enough and with less than 2,000 attendees we lost $2,500. The members eventually decided the financial exposure, the long hours of volunteer work, and the inability of the contracted promoters to deliver what they promised was not worth the effort so we went back to having family gatherings every August.

What we found out about these public Festa's was people who came loved them; it attracted new members, but the members typically didn't attend anything else, never volunteered, and basically were gone in about 9 months when their dues lapsed.

Over the last 3 years the executive boards, of which I have been involved in as an officer or a committee chairperson for 16 years, along with concurrence of the membership has focused a cultural/social, calendar that is comprised of:
(1) a few major events for the members and friend such as Carnivale Dinner Dance, Family Festa, and a Christmas Dinner Dance;
(2) Two Spaghetti Night events when the ICA men cook and serve an extensive buffet dinner
(3) two to three Italian Classic Movie nights - these are movies in Italian language with English subtitles for those of us who were never taught Italian by our parents.
(4) three to four wine tasting events at a restaurant or a member's home
(5) cultural day trips - Olive Oil tasting, Italian artist visit etc.
(6) Italian card games, Bocce Ball competition, and other social events
All of these events are member paid and some are subsidized by the ICA.

The average age of members is probably 60 - 62. Less than 20% of our members are under 40. Our children, most in their late 30s to early 40s have way too much on their plate with work and family to be active. They attend events and know the other member's children, but they have no desire to take an active role.

My recommendation before you move forward with trying to create your own Italian group would be to first check out some of the other Italian groups in Texas such as
(1) The Italian Federation of Houston -- there are a number of chapters that reach out beyond Houston proper - http://www.houstonitaliancenter.com/
(2) There is also The Italian Club of Dallas - www.itcd.org
(3) Check out the National Italian American Foundation - there is a local Vice President in Houston http://www.niaf.org/
(4) Check out the Son's of Italy - http://www.osia.org/
(5) There is another Italian group in Austin called "A Taste of Italy" - it is operated by a single person who sponsors cooking, language classes, and other events for a fee. This is her business.

I have included a membership packet as an example of how we have members join.

Patrick, I hope this helps you. Should you have any specific questions email me or you can reach me on my cell phone.

Bob Calvisi
ICA Cultural/Membership Committee
email: rjcaustin@aol.com
http://www.austinitalians.org/
_________*_____________________*____________
Dear Bob:
We are digesting all you have written. We admire your tenacity, and want to duplicate it. I promise to get back to you soon with a plan for the "Lost Italians of Brazos Valley." We will definitely base it on your successes. Dozens of ideas are bubbling up even at this very moment.

Yours, with warmest regards,
Pat Darnell, the other half of Marinella

ps. Can't thank you enough for your heartfelt response.

Let's Talk about the Elephant: do you want it shipped to the Moon or to Saturn?

2008-01-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

...sent via email by Jewels, who is still trying to figure out how to post to this blogger: You know I loves ya Jwls

This Tale of Woe has reached me twice in two years. I think that is the idea, sort of a nudge to awaken the sleeping giant Public Opinion. Maybe, just maybe Georges W and H and Barbara will see it through our eyes, and unplug Washington, DC -- and move it to Salt Lake City.

Following blurbs are thought- provoking... pretty horrible how they are not funny.

Too scary to be funny! This humor ain’t.

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases:

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1976, and Jan 10, Howlin’ Wolf, blues singer aka Chester Arthur Burnett born 1910, died. In 2004 James Segrest and Mark Hoffman authored “Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf.”

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus would have been 106 years old, had he not infuriated Pharisees leading to his final trial as a human around 30 AD.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age, 110,000 BC. Small stone tools found in Gaojia near Fengdu on the banks of the Yangtze indicate a tool workshop. More than a 1,000 tools have been found and were probably used to collect roots.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. Although around 2.7 Million BC: A major change in global climate occurred about this time that may have forced the hominid line to develop rapidly.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

F. A billion dollar bills end to end reaches to the moon. Takes a billion more to get back... it’s about a dollar every six inches.

NEW ORLEANS – [recently asking for $4 Quadrillion in reparations...]
While these comparisons are still spanking new in our brains, let's take a look at New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

AP Updated 11:40 a.m. CT, Wed., Jan. 9, 2008
NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina's victims have put a price tag on their suffering and it is staggering — including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion.
The total number — $3,014,170,389,176,410 — is the dollar figure so far sought from some 489,000 claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. Of the total number of claims, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it has received 247 for at least $1 billion apiece, including the one for $3 quadrillion. (AP Associated Press)
"That's the mother of all high numbers," said Loren Scott, a Baton Rouge-based economist.

For the sake of perspective: A mere $1 quadrillion would dwarf the U.S. gross domestic product, which Scott said was $13.2 trillion in 2007. A stack of one quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.

The following seems like a bargain, but still a 21st century mind blower -- Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (Dem), came up with asking Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.

B. If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

C. If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C., HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken?? Or, do your calculators work, just greed has you mind-swiped?

I sincerely think Congress sings this song every year:
Tax land, Tax wage, Tax bed in which they lay
Tax tractor, Tax mule, Teach taxes are the rule.
Tax cow, Tax goat, Tax pants,
Tax their coat.

Tax ties, Tax shirts, Tax work, Tax dirt.

Tax tobacco, Tax drink, Tax if one tries to think.
Tax booze, Tax beers, if one cries, Tax the tears.

Tax bills, Tax gas,
Tax notes, Tax cash.

Tax ‘em good and let ‘em know
That after tax, they have no dough

If they holler, Tax them more,
Tax them ‘til their good and sore.

Tax coffin, Tax grave, Tax the sod where we lay.
Put these words upon the tomb,

'Taxes drove me to my doom!'

And when they're gone, don't lwt them relax,
There’s still be inheritance TAX!!

Is this humorous?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world,
And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened? Can you spell ‘politicians??’

And I still have to 'press 1' for English.

I hope this goes around the USA at least 100 times!

What the heck happened?????

from Jewels / final draft/ edited by MPW >pd

What Economic Slowdown? Let me see: .0001 x $200 billion is ...oh my gosh... $20 million

2007-11-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

Pd: the following retrieved today from What Economic Slowdown?By Lawrence WalshNovember 6, 2007 at http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2212280,00.asp?kc=CIOMINEPNL110607

Top 20 SMB Technologies and Purchasing Trends
November 2, 2007 By Lawrence Walsh
Quick Reference: SMB IT Spending Trends

Small and midsized businesses in the United States spent $200 billion on technology, with the lion's share going to support and integration services, computing platforms and Internet access, as these organizations increasingly look to technology to help fuel their growth and increase productivity.

According to a new SMB IT spending survey conducted by CompTIA and AMI-Partners, SMBs are being deterred by economic downturns caused by rising energy costs and the subprime mortgage woes. Rather, they're looking at significant expansion. Nearly two-thirds plan to add between 1 and 5 employees in the coming year, and one-quarter will add more than six employees.

Staffing plans are spurred by a rather optimistic outlook for revenue performance in 2008. Nearly half (45 percent) are forecasting revenue growth of 10 percent or better; while one-fifth say their revenues will grow 20 percent or more.

Fueling growth, in part, is investments in new technologies and upgrades to existing infrastructure. According to the survey, SMBs are heavily invested in key technologies that were once previously reserved for enterprises or have plans to invest in new, advanced technologies.

The following are the top technologies that SMBs have either deployed or plan to purchase in the next 12 months:

1. Desktop PCs 98%
2. Laptops/Notebooks 93%
3. Productivity Software Suites 90%
4. Firewalls 79%
5. Single-function Laser Printers 76%
6. Accounting/Tax Software 69%
7. LAN-based Servers 67%
8. Fax Machines 67%
9. Routers and Switches 65%
10. Color Multifunction Printers 64%
11. Full-function Copiers 59%
12. Desktop Publishing Software 57%
13. Color Laser Printers 57%
14. Remote Access/VPN 49%
15. VPNs 47%
16. Secure Backup/Disaster Recovery 47%
17. Time Management Software 47%
18. Wireless/Wi-Fi LAN 44%
19. Word Processing software 39%
20. Spreadsheet Software 37%

According to the survey, 64 percent of SMBs characterize themselves as "value adopters," or companies that will wait until technology is proven before purchasing it but not waiting so long that they become laggards.

The survey found several technologies previously reserved for the enterprise are gaining traction in the SMB market. These technologies include:

1. Custom Software 31%
2. Web Services and applications 28%
3. CRM/Sales Force Automation 23%
4. Software as a service (SaaS) 20%
5. IP Telephony 19%
6. Storage Area Networks 19%
7. ERP/Supply Chain Software 18%
8. Open Source/Linux Applications 18%

While SMBs see technology as a means for growing their businesses and gaining operational efficiencies, they are also challenged by management and maintenance costs, scalability and integration issues. Pervasive among the more than 700 survey participants is the need for value; most are willing to pay for the technologies they need so long as they can justify and contain the total cost of ownership.

Brand leadership and brand loyalty play little difference in purchasing decisions, while competitive pricing ranked among their chief purchasing criteria. Competitive pricing is also the area where SMBs say vendors need the most improvement. This shows SMBs will go with technology providers that deliver the best value for their businesses.

NEXT: SMB Spending

SMB IT spending in 2007

Small and midsized businesses spent nearly $195 billion on IT goods and services in 2007. The following is a breakdown of their spending:

IT services $72 billion
Computing $51 billion
Internet $27 billion
Software $24 billion
Storage $11 billion
Security $7 billion
Networking $3 billion
Total $195 billion

Small and mid-size companies spent an average of $78,400 in 2007 on IT goods and services, and plan to spend upward of $81,400 in 2008.

NEXT: Key IT Business Challenges

Key Business IT Challenges

Controlling IT spending and maintenance costs, as well as leveraging IT to increase productivity are SMBs' chief IT challenges, the survey show.

Controlling IT spending 37%
High IT maintenance costs 26%
Using IT to increase user productivity 23%
Extending life of legacy systems 20%
Integration issues 18%
Finding vendors that understand business 15%
Leveraging IT to enhance customer service 14%
Upgrading to Vista 14%
Finding and retaining IT talent 12%

NEXT: Top SMB IT Purchasing Criteria

Top SMB IT Purchasing Criteria

According to the survey, the total cost and long-term value (scalability and integration) are the chief criteria for purchasing IT products and services.

Total Cost of Ownership 76%
Scalability 69%
Future Integration Capabilities 64%
Brand Leadership 57%
Vertical Expertise of vendors 55%
Price 44%
Stability (mature technology) 42%
Brand Loyalty 40%
Vendor Recommendations 34%

NEXT: Top SMB IT Purchasing Criteria by Vertical

Top SMB IT Purchasing Criteria by Vertical

The following are the IT purchasing considerations by vertical industry.

Manufacturing
Product realiability 87%
Total Cost of Ownership 65%
Scalability 59%
Finance & Insurance
Vendor Understands Business 83%
Total Cost of Ownership 78%
Scalability 67%
Health Care
Product reliability 84%
Total Cost of Ownership 60%
Integration Capabilities 59%
Government
Total cost of ownership 55%
Integration capabilities 52%
Brand loyalty 50%
All Other Verticals
Product reliability 76%
Total cost of ownership 66%
Scalability 64%

NEXT: SMBs Criteria for Selecting Vendors

SMBs Criteria for Selecting Vendors

The following is how SMBs rank the criteria for selecting technology vendors and how they rate those vendors on meeting these criteria.

Selecting vendors Selection Criteria Improvement Needed
Competitive pricing 94% 67%
Delivers as promised 91% 47%
Quality installation 87% 48%
Knowledgeable personnel 81% 48%
Post-sales support 79% 47%
Scalable products 78% 42%
Understands SMB needs 74% 49%
Pricing flexibility 68% 45%
Offers variety of solutions 64% 37%
Offers variety of solutions 64% 37%
Custom solutions 63% 41%
Proactive support 59% 38%
Provides training 57% 35%
Known brand/market leader 56% n/a
Recommended by colleagues 53% n/a

Copyright (c) 2007Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Calling Lori Davis

2007-10-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

Okay Mrs. Davis:

You need some home cooking. You too skinny!

Saddles up and bring the kids over for some real Italian food, BeeeAcccch!!!!

<<< >>>Italian Woaman in Texas

Fly ball; Easy out!

2007-09-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there is a man on base."
— Dave Barry —

RiskStorm, by Patrick Darnell

2007-09-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

RiskStorming for the SMB -- Small / Medium Business: Managing Project Risk and Opportunities

Project Management
According to Kotter and Cohen, “Sending clear, credible, and heartfelt messages about the direction of change [is].... Establishing genuine gut-level buy-in that shows up in how people act. Use of words, deeds, and new technologies to unclog communication channels [will have prevailed to] overcome confusion and distrust” (2002).

Project management is a liaison career, where the Project Manager is collecting information from stakeholders in the company he represents, and translating that into tasks to assign his subordinates and contractors to execute and take a project to completion. As projects roll along, the informed Project Manager, PM, is responsible to inform his customer who hired his company in first place of how things are going.

Customers will have suggestions, and upgrades, and second thoughts for projects to drop and parts to add. Hey! Essentially, all stakeholders will have last word input as to what fits core competency of their own companies.

There is complexity to measure. It is implicit value our Project Manager adds as leader in his or her ability to handle divergence of strategies and risks. All core focus topics, including risk, are augmented by weighing and learning of the Project Manager. Thereby, the endorsed role, of Project Manager in charge of reserves of information to be doled out to various involved groups, is well defined.

Even when the Project Manager “brings up risk management and sees questioning looks in [the] eyes” of his project team members; his project knowledge intuition tells him that “all will soon realize that risk management means different things to different people” (Task Detail; 2006).

This discussion paper tries to pull together several layers of very comprehensive and lengthy bodies of information, to summarize the blending of many secondary resources for reason of illuminating some of the thinking behind management of risk.

Anticipating Risks
George Jucan in his review of PMBOK Third Edition “provides a comprehensive classification through knowledge area definitions.” This is useful because “...One of the main reasons to estimate project complexity is to be able to compare projects” (Jucan; June 21, 2006). For example:
In some cases, maybe the human resources aspect of the project needs special attention because of high turnover or labor unrest in the specific department. For fixed-price projects, maybe the cost dimension is more important, while the first project for a new customer might have an increased focus on scope management to fully satisfy the client (Jucan; June 21, 2006).

Project Manager’s role in defined terms is; he will be able to “summarize the above considerations, and apply [to] project complexity ...as project integration management [using] indicators that:”
• Consolidate indicators of other eight knowledge areas: scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, and procurement.
• Ask: Is it objective at organization level, to be valid for any undertaken project?
• Ask: Is it subjective at project level, to account for the unique characteristics of each project? (Jucan; June 21, 2006)

Chapter Eleven of the Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMBOK, identifies risk management as one of the nine most important awareness structures. Using simple scales with three choices each for “probability and for impact” we can turn the confused facial expressions to concentration on responses to early warnings of risky business (PMBOK, 2004).

Risk Management is not the act of going through the proposals and pointing out why every task has a high potential to fail. No, that is not the higher purpose for understanding risk. Truer intention rises above this single-minded intuition; rather risk identification means to remove masks of risks inherent in all projects. A risk managed is a resource conserved.

Risk is Iterative
Risk management fits the iterative processes of project management like keys unlocking closed doors to opportunities that have doors to other opportunities. “Many processes are fashioned in response to critical cost areas, and to redundancy” that indicate and rectify risk (Krajewski, L J, & Ritzman, L P; 2005). A template for qualitative risk analysis might take a form like the one in Dick Billows article:

Achievement-Driven Project Management
Risk Event Probability of Occurrence Magnitude of Impact Risk Response
Name Medium High Low Medium High No Action Type of Action

From this survey, the bias of risk is in two areas: 1. the probability of occurrence, and 2. the magnitude of impact.

The language of Project Management is “intensely combed through for every project in iterative trials of cause and effect to cleanse to acknowledge best practices for each project. The work is amazingly correlated as simply:

Realization >> Strategic Choice >> Tactical Contingency...

Moreover, sub-processes today also employ sophisticated feedback tools developed to help in cost control;” the major indicator of risks: cost overruns (Bredillet, Christophe N; 2002).
Risk is beat down by frequent reporting, and auditing of changes in iterative vernacular. A risk identified and scoring high in both “probably will occur, with high magnitude of impact” is a risk that needs further study. And to make sure the additional study will be done with controlled experiments that provide quantitative results.

Conflict is an unavoidable pretext in project context, as each entity has unique and differing thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Therefore, it is important to learn ways to minimize and manage this difficulty, in order to ensure “efficient and harmonious iterative interactions during the project’s life-cycle” (CTUOnline, Live Chat; Nov 2006).

Risk Management
Dick Billows, PMP, GCA of 4PM says, “We can do a few minutes of risk management on even the smallest project and get good return for the effort. Dealing with risk does not have to be a paperwork jungle.” Project managers run the risk of “fighting fires for the rest of the project... [When] even a small project can under-take a simple risk assessment process,” at the first team meetings, says Billows. “Because the sponsor wants to start quickly without wasting time on things like risk management, Project Managers often skip the risk assessment process” (Billows, Dick, 2006).

The handiest way to “prioritize our risks in terms of their significance” (Billows) for the project -- “Automated Mobile Defense System, AMDS,” -- is to use qualitative techniques like the survey template above to pre-qualify certain risk areas for higher costing quantitative techniques of risk analysis. This team and project manager have been assigned to “lead Project X, which will design, develop, test, demonstrate and deploy 10 AMDS units to a location to be determined by the DOD assuming a successful demonstration” (CTUOnline, Task Detail; 2006).

The PMBoK framework provides the fundamentals of project management in respect to the type of project to be completed and is structured around 5 basic progression placeholders. Those progressive process groups are Initiate, Plan, Execute, Control, and Close.

George Jucan in his article Complexity Matters describes time savings is “at the start... Taking your time to measure before you cut is always good advice. In a Project Manager's world, spending the time to plan the project and open up probable risks is proven to dramatically increase the chances of success” in:
• Planning: defining the scope of the project risk and putting a value to it makes the necessary campaign to carry it out.
• Executing: Now that we have identified our project risk and planned for its purpose, our next step is to put our plan into action by adjusting and...
• Controlling: we monitor all aspects of the project risk. We review and check the integrity of all inputs and outputs in respect to the project threats.
• Closing: we make sure the final product has the quality and completion that was originally planned and that all risks are conserved in documentation and covered monetarily.

Therefore, the project starts with half a day of teams “risk-storming” to identify, and qualify risks in each of the sub-processes. After that they will determine the risks most impacting the life-cycle and put some heavier tools of quantitative analysis to work. This will have unlocked potential for increased probability and impact of events positive to the project.

Conclusion
The beauty of project management is that with knowledge and learning, the wheel doesn’t have to be re-invented each time a project begins. Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMBoK, is a compilation of processes and knowledge areas generally accepted as best practices in context of Project Management discipline (pmi org, 2006).

Each new project gives rise to opportunity to re-visit honesty and integrity. In a lifetime of projects, a little reliability goes a long way to mitigate and take the edge off all risks in projects. >>pd

References
Billows, Dick; (2006) Risk management & analysis prevention not lots of paperwork, 4PM Project management training and certification, Denver, CO, The Hampton Group

Bredillet, Christophe N; (2002) PMI July 14 2002, Seattle, International Educational Network, PPT, founding principles for the development of a value added network for global education
CTUOnline (November 2006) Live Chat, MPM450 03 0604B Managing Project Risk and Opportunities

CTUOnline (November 2006) Task Detail, MPM450 03 0604B Managing Project Risk and Opportunities

Encarta MSN online dictionary; (2003) English: American 2003

Jucan George, MSc, PMP, OCP, SSGB (June 21, 2006) Complexity Matters, [Gantt head]>home>departments>Project Portfolio Management, retrieved 10/10/06

Kotter, John P and Cohen, Dan S; (2002) the Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations (Hardcover) HBS Press Book, Pub. Date: June 17, 2002, 208p

Krajewski, L. J., & Ritzman, L. P. (2005) Operations Management Processes and Value Chains, 7th ed, Upper Saddle River, NJ, AK: Pearson Prentice Hall

PMBOK; (2004) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMBOK Guide, third edition, 2004 project management Institute, 4 Campus Blvd, Newton Square, PA 19073 USA
Pmi org (2006) retrieved from web, Nov 15 2006 Project Management Institute (PMI) The Largest Project Management Association. Retrieved October 19, 2006, from pmi org info default asp

Italy, Texas

2007-08-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Ellis County, Central Texas

NorthI-35EHwy 77 and Hwy 34FM 66744 miles S of Dallas17 miles S of Waxahachie Population: 1,993 (2000)

Italy, Texas Forum

I was born in Milford Texas and was familiar with Italy. I used to go to the movie in Italy on the interurban (because we had no movie). My brother (Dick Murray) ran a radio repair shop in earl shives drug store. if anyone remembers me - please write. - Flora Murray (Henderson), Milford, Ellis, Texas. Email: flo_h_2001@yahoo.com retrieved Aug 13, 2007

The name:
Italy bears no cultural ties to the "Old Country"and if there are citizens of Italian heritage - it's merely coincidental. The name was contributed by the postmaster of 1880 who imagined the climate of Texas comparable to that of Italy.

History in a Pecan shell

A timeline of significant events in Italy, Texas:

1860: Scattered settlement begins

1879: the brothers Aycock built the first house and use it as a combination of house, store and post office. The town was split over what the name should be - some wanting Egypt and others Italy. Gabriel J. Penn, the Waxahachie postmaster settled the matter for them by filling in the blank on the application with the name Italy. The postal authorities gladly accepted Italy (there was already an Egypt in Wharton County).

1890: The population reaches 500 Italians (not really Italians, but what else are you going to call them?)

1891: A big year for Italy. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad arrived (actually in December 1890), the first newspaper was published, and the town was officially incorporated.

1900: population is 1,061

1901: The International-Great Northern Railroad reaches Italy

1913: The Electric Interurban between Waco and Dallas comes through Italy (Electricity for the city was provided by Waco)

1920s: Italy had five gins, a compress, and a cottonseed oil mill.

1925: The population reaches 1,500 and the Italy Independent School District was established.

1930: Italy starts the Great Depression with a population of 1,230 people and 45 businesses.

1960: Italy's population remains nearly the same with only 1,183 people and half the businesses.

Where they used to keep the Lira photo, Decm. 2000

(Website Content Copyright ©1998-2007. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. All Rights Reserved page last modified: July 9, 2007)http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/ItalyTexas/ItalyTexas.htm

Us Dorks in Italy... continued

2007-07-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

I also learned the language well... for a thirteen year old. Therefore, being able to carry broken conversations of the Italian language with my family, usually horsing around with them... ;D

With all the laughs and kisses,this has definitely been the best time spent for me...

xoxo... D£Z iZ OuTTT

Dez you are a joy to travel with, and I love you. >>Daddy (\'{~

Us Dorks in Foggia

2007-07-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

So far... these two months in Italia have been the best in my life. Now I understand why I am the way I am... Ever since being here, there have been endless parties with my DeyGo family, to beautiful scenery's in the not so distant mountains, touching the salty Adriadic sea. Since I have been visiting the beach here every weekend, (and also swallowing the gagging water in gulps...) I have learned how to hit a ball without getting knocked upside the head by it.

Look Again!

2007-06-27T06:09:00.001-07:00

Psalm 23 – Says J. Silva:
This opened my eyes ... Some may have never thought nor looked at this Psalm in this way... even though we have all heard it and read it over and over again.

The Lord is my Shepherd
That's Relationship!

I shall not want
That's Supply!

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
That's Rest!

He leadeth me beside the still waters.
That's Refreshment!

He restoreth my soul
That's Healing!

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.
That's Guidance!

For His name sake
That's Purpose!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
That's Testing!

I will fear no evil.
That's Protection!

For Thou art with me
That's Faithfulness!

Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me,
That's Discipline!

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
That's Hope!

Thou anointest my head with oil,
That's Consecration!

My cup runneth over.
That's Abundance!

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
That's Blessing!

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord.
That's Security!

Forever
That's Eternity! >>>J. Silva

Small to Medium Business

2007-06-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

By Patrick Darnell
Business Strategy and Strategic Management

May 5, 2007
Sales as best Statistic Builder

Internet usage has revolutionized how we do business. In the quest for statistical support for strategy that shows growth or helps dramatically turn-around a business, especially helpful is the web. I looked at the dynamics of functional web sites that gather and measure and report on the type of statistics needed in our managed strategic transformation of AbleCo. (Red Carpet; 2000-2007, paraphrased)
We as strategists are responsible for every aspect of the business. We can capture most function, valuation, business and corporate facets in form of statistics. But, which statistics best describe our mission? Do we know how we can apply statistic knowledge to our business and cause it to grow? With statistics we can move from the general to more specific, but what is the best unambiguous detail?
For instance: the most obvious statistic for many businesses is sales. That is because sales represent a window into companies. Sales are direct results of implicit and explicit aspects of the company and industry. Here two pertinent questions are part of every business function:

How many sales do you make per day/month/year?
How much profit do you make per sale?

If we are to follow the logic of the parent company Walden Corp, our statistics will have been broken down into all three categories: per day, month, and year. As Walden is a quarterly returns company, adoption of this simple facet could simplify our communications in future discussions of managed strategies.
For it is likely, from the number of sales made per month, we can easily figure out our gross sales amount. Then we take our expenses per sale into account and figure out profits. Remember, only cost of sale expenses should be deducted and not something likes one-time expenses of overhead, and the like.
Other typical statistical knowledge bubbles up from complexity of our competitors, but is captured in several themes, that all revolve around sales:
· Gross Profit per sale
· Traffic counting
· Daily and Unique opportunities
· Inquirer conversion
· Analysis: how many to make how much?
All the above have much variance for different markets. It turns out, some firms would need a conversion rate of around 5%, while other companies need a conversion rate of 80%. Therefore it is imperative to make a model of the blend of statistics that will have first good, then better, and then best impact for Walden-AbleCo.
Most of the important comparative information is available from public corporations. They all publish their financial reports for scrutiny. Most of the statistical knowledge is from forecasted events that the corporation made last season. How that strategy worked out is what we read about in the financial statement. It is a documentation of the past in that regards.
In context of what is to be a good/better/best result for W-A Co’s future, I suggest we follow the best practices for analysis. Three contexts continue to pop up, as we look further at our analogy in sales statistics. At this point in our analysis, we can now see that there are three ways in which to improve the company’s performance:

Increase profit margin
Increase conversions
Increase traffic

Increasing profit margins often means raising prices or lowering costs. Improving conversion rates is a functional item, in that it means overall optimizing the business. Total Strategy Management in other words will improve end-user interface with Walden-AbleCo and all its products. Increasing traffic is no less improving associations and relations, developing referrers, and using statistics. (Nielson, J and all; 1995-2007, paraphrased)
This previous is submitted as a compendium of the use of statistics to cover the mission of making a plausible business plan. I am enthused about the many additional values supported with statistics that my colleagues will come up with as we move forward in our race achieve mutually assured Success.

References

Nielsen, Dr. Jakob, Hwang, Luice, Provo, Darcy, (1995-2007) Discussion of usability, targeting, and counting especially in web technologies, Nielsen Norman Group, 48105 Warm Springs Blvd., Fremont, CA 94539, USA retrieved at: useit com

2000-2007 Red Carpet Web Promotion (May 5, 2007)
Red Carpet Web Promotion has gathered statistics relating to the Internet, e-commerce and online marketing to keep a realistic perspective of the market. Note: Because these sources often offer conflicting opinions, it's important that you read the reports and draw your own conclusions. The statistics below are a good start. All statistics are from third parties, and are linked from this page for your convenience. Use your browser's "back" button to return to this page, retrieved from red carpet web

2007-06-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

Descry

Dangling at the end
Of the food chain

Was a soldier.

Who lost his wife
His gun, his son,
And nearly his life.

When then he found a clarinet
That upon it had his name,
A honed woodwind,
primed him in
breathing easier,
until one day,
He wrestled a tree
Finally fell
His body went
To pieces, which
All the creatures ate.
A happy feast that day,
At heaven’s gate.

His soul escaped
Not devoured
In final hour

A hand reached out
To catch him,
Put the young soul on a cloud,
At about half past two,

The soul of the soldier
Said, “Thank you.”
The one with the hand
Told the soldier’s soul
his new name --

“Metronome.”

And the cloud’s address
is 12, a matchless home.

The clarinet re-toned
with scales of delightful scores,
Notes uniform, and impossible
For human ears to hone.
On that same day
Upon earth fell
Twins, borne ‘neath
A channel, in gale,
whereupon two games
Will be played.

Each would owe life
To the soldier’s demise
While shepherds
Pastured their sheep, ‘neath birds
In their freedom flight,
To the river to drink

Their blood is from
The river flowing
To the iodine sea
They fly above
the living pleasure
as rocking waves knead
the banks, fertile with seed

As naught has ever
Been seen froward
Nor in reverse, evinced
In famish, nor, glory ward,

Obscurity, nor lucidity,
Neither scheme, schism, nor worry,

Beheld the brilliance in life
as a dread vantage of rough
High-spirited games
Dangled by threads above gulf
Just below cloud twelve
Stirred at soldier’s end, just
A gnash ahead in the food chain.

1991

Managment of Materialism

2007-05-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

This past Wed, Mar. 17, 2004 The burden of materialism roils and boils...

Middle-class Americans live better than most of the world's population -- now and throughout the ages. So why aren't we happy?
By Tim Madigan Star-Telegram Staff Writer

For the past half-century, author Gregg Easterbrook says, Americans and Western Europeans have unwittingly engaged in a grand social engineering experiment, one seeking to answer this question: Does prosperity bring happiness?

"And the answer, unequivocally," he says, "is no."

"The men and women at middle-class standards or above in the United States and the European Union now live better than 99.4 percent of the human beings who have ever existed," Easterbrook writes in Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse. So why, he asks, "don't Americans behave as though they believe this? Why do so many walk around scowling rather than smiling at their good fortune?"

And scowl we do. We live in McMansions, drive SUVs, snap up the latest plasma television sets, travel anywhere relatively cheaply, think and do pretty much what we choose. And yet research indicates that more of us felt happier in the 1940s, when a third of the population used outhouses, says David Myers, a sociologist at Hope College in Michigan.

The reason, says Myers, is obvious: "By the end of the 1990s, we were excelling at making a living but too often failing to make a life."

It turns out that we should have listened to those who said money (or a $60,000 Hummer) can't buy happiness. Yes, it is significantly more difficult to be happy when you don't have enough to eat or a roof over your head. But once a person reaches the lower middle class, studies show, money and happiness have very little to do with each other. Happiness, it turns out, is all in your head, or in your heart, as the case may be.

"You would think that people who have 20 times the income might have 20 times the happiness, and they don't have anything close to it," says Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan. "The paradox exists because everyone knows that getting rich makes you happy. In the short term that is true. What people are not aware of is that it's a transient phenomenon."

The problem, says anti-consumerism activist Kalle Lasn, is that we've been conditioned not to believe in its transience. Amid the nonstop advertising blitz that is our society, yesterday's luxuries become the necessities of today. Into the average North American brain flows 3,000 marketing messages a day, says Lasn, author of Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge and Why We Must.

"And every one of those 3,000 messages, except for the odd 'anti' ad, says the same thing," says Lasn, who also edits Adbusters Magazine. "It says you can be happy by buying something.

"This has really distorted our personalities, our sense of what happiness is," Lasn continues. "Many agree that this daily onslaught, this aggressive clutter, has something to do with the fact that we're losing our minds."

So we become more isolated, more disconnected from family, friends, the PTA and other social activities. At the end of the day, we collapse in front of our TVs, communing with TiVo, exhausted and lonely on top of everything else. And at the end of life, to paraphrase Thoreau, many of us are discovering that we have not lived.

The Cleveland-based organization's name is the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which would be easy to dismiss as another set of New Age crystal gazers. Even the institute's president, Stephen Post, agrees that the "unlimited love" part sounds rather corny.

But there's a scientific edge to the Unlimited Love Institute, which has awarded grants totaling $1.7 million for 21 research projects at places like Stanford University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In one way or another, those projects and scores of others headed by psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, economists and physicians around the world increasingly seek to answer the existential question heretofore the province of clerics and philosophers: If money and material abundance doesn't make us happy, what does?

"We're trying to take it off of the touchy-feely paradigm," says Post, a medical ethicist at Case Western University in Cleveland. "What we're trying to do is create a whole new field of significantly hard research on this topic."

In other words, to prove empirically what the sages and prophets have been saying all along.

"The bottom line is that people who live these warm, generous, palpably kind lives and engage in helping behaviors are happier and live longer," Post says. "Just to get that out [scientifically] that something has merit with regard to health and longevity, maybe people will take it more seriously."

Social scientists say research is more and more conclusive that people with many close friends and those in committed relationships are much more likely to be happy.

Tim Madigan, (817) 390-7544 tmadigan@star-telegram.com
http://www.altruists.org/static/files/Star%20Telegram%20%2003-17-2004%20%20The%20burden%20of%20materialism.htmPosted

In the Land of Sandra Dee

2007-05-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

THE LAND OF SANDRA DEE Long ago and far away,
In a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan
Or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents,
And they were you and me,
Long ago and far away
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
Oh, there was truth and goodness
In that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges,
And Peyton Place was porn.
For Ike was in the White House,
And Hoss was on TV,
And God was in his heaven
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
We longed for love and romance,
And waited for the prince,
And Eddie Fisher married Liz,
And no one's seen him since.
We danced to "Little Darlin'",
And sang to "Stagger Lee"
And cried for Buddy Holly
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
Only girls wore earrings then,
And three was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts,
Except for Jean McKinney.
And only in our wildest dreams
Did we expect to see
A boy named George with Lipstick
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
We fell for Frankie Avalon,
Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie,
They never made it twice.
We didn't have a Star Trek Five,
Or Psycho Two and Three,
Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
Miss Kitty had a heart of gold,

And Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a Democrat
Whose co-star was a chimp.
We had a Mr. Wizard,
But not a Mr T,
And Oprah couldn't talk yet
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
We had our share of heroes,
We never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin,
Or Marilyn Monroe.
For youth was still eternal,
And life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever,
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
We'd never heard of Microwaves,
Or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed,
But they weren't grown in jars.
And pumping iron got wrinkles out,
And "gay" meant fancy-free,
And dorms were never coed
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
We hadn't seen enough of jets
To talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at
The bottom of the bag.
And Hardware was a box of nails,
And bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
Buicks came with portholes,
And side shows came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough
To cover both your cheeks.
And Coke came just in bottles,
And skirts came to the knee,
And Castro came to power
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
We had no Crest with Fluoride,
We had no Hill Street Blues,
We all wore superstructure bras
Designed by Howard Hughes.
We had no patterned pantyhose
Or Lipton herbal tea
Or prime-time ads for condoms
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
And middle-aged was thirty-five
And old was forty-three,
And ancient were our parents
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
But all things have a season,
Or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline
We swear by Retin-A.
And they send us invitations
To join AARP,
We've come a long way, baby,
From the Land of Sandra Dee.
So now we face a brave new world
In slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why they're using
Smaller print in magazines.
And we tell our children's children
Of the way it used to be,
Long ago and far away
In the Land of Sandra Dee.
Baby Boomers' Anthem, don't know who wrote it.

2007-04-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

Report from the Middle
Freddie: favorites and faculties

By Patrick Darnell
April 24, 2007
Bryan, TX
Introduction
A report from my typewriter is bound to cause some varied reaction, as most things I write are not simple. Therefore, I write so that as each reads the anecdotes of this report, he and she will emphasize different aspects, according to their relation with Freddie. Those who have had the rare pleasure of taking care of Freddie will certainly find some certainty in this kind of report, along with some curiosity prompts.

This is not a scientific report by any stretch. It refers to observed behaviors by me of Freddie in his domicile over the last few years. And, no conclusion is offered to guide clarification. Rather I present some goals that I set. Evidence of Freddie’s illness is left to the medical professions. This is about my relation with Freddie as his night-time care-giver.
Discussion
As care-giver I have spent about as much time with Freddie as I spend with myself. We are together every night and all weekend for the past three years. Freddie is part of my growing family each evening as he is dropped off at 5:30 to be included in our busy schedules of homework and dinner. Then, later around 8 we drive to his house and Freddie settles in for a good night’s sleep.

This was the first goal I had in taking care of Freddie. He seemed to have a problem distinguishing night from day when we first began our journey together. I could not figure it out at first, but I realized that his previous night caregivers stayed up all night and it caused Freddie to also stay up. With some regular training we have made it across that hurdle.

For the past three years Freddie takes several pills spread out during the day and night to help him cope with the loss of certain perceptions functions. Those dosages are coupled with regular meals, adequate hydration, and good sleep. In those three years, with individual care, Freddie has maintained almost all of his motor skills: playing catch, swimming, his ability to go to bathroom, shave and brush teeth with only a little supervision, and many other life skills. Freddie now in his fifties is healthy as a horse, as we still say in College Station.
He trusts us, caregivers and family members to help him and remind him if he is about to drop something or spill. Otherwise when left alone in a room, I observe from remote spot, he will remain playful, kind of gleeful, and be very animated with things in his reach. He will turn on his CD player, toss a ball in the air, and fill his cup with faucet water, and walk around the different rooms.

We, Bobby and I, keep his surroundings more or less Spartan, because he has had a history of getting confused when too many things are around him. Also, I keep lighting low, because it is better for his temperament to be in a cool, darkened house after the sun goes down. He enjoys television in the evenings late before he gets drowsy and nods off to sleep.

I have noticed Freddie is a little apprehensive in thunderstorms that come barreling into Brazos Valley. At night as lightning and wind blow a gale he will not sleep as soundly. I have thought maybe he likes the ionization of the air that comes with thunder storms. He likes to look out his bedroom window during the midnight lightning storms. He won’t venture out into the storm, but likes the air afterwards. He also likes to walk through puddles.

I have yet to get him to wear pajamas every night to bed, but have witnessed him drawing down to his shorts for the night. Previously, he slept in his clothes. I think he had kept his jeans on all night because he previously had female caregivers in the evenings. He is too modest to be unclothed around females.

Freddie even though very shy does exercise some flirtation, and tends to be a little feisty when outsiders come in to visit us; more so if the visitors are females. So, Freddie is all male that way.

I give him bed-check on two hour intervals, and he is usually snoring, wrapped up tightly in his blankets. He does not like the cold, and shivers at anything less than about 68 Degrees F.
Freddie wakes up early on most mornings. He is extremely fit, with no weight gain in the last few years, and steady vital signs. Freddie sees his general practitioner MD every month, and gets regular nurse visits at home in the day for Eye/Ears/Nose /Throat BP and temp. His appetite is always healthy, and likes to drink coffee on Sunday. During the week he is a tea sipper. Freddy is fifty-one.
Here is an unordered list of what Freddie likes in Audio/Visual
He likes his various nicknames – such as Freddie the Freeloader, Frederick’o, Ricci, and sundry others... But likes his Italo/Spanish derivative best: Alfredo Bermejo Izuierdo Derecho de’Lanier (kids will be kids). I brought that with me since I used to play with Freddie back when we were eight or so, and his mother teased with those names when I was around. The last is from my kids.

He enjoys music from the 60’s – Bob Dylan, Loving’ Spoonful, Beatles and any music from era 1960’s as long as it has a tune. Strong bass beats and distinct melody appeal to Freddie, as he has a very good sense of rhythm.

I have supplied a guitar for him and he plays melodies from those 60’s songs when he is in his music mode. He also works out holiday melodies. Sometimes over at our house we go into music madness, and he joins in our impromptu jam sessions. He carries his guitar around with him wherever he goes in his house. He sometimes wakes at mid morning, around 2:30 am for a drink of water, then plinks a few melodies before returning to sleep.

He likes paintings and gazes at them for “hours,” and likes to identify some of the subject matter in the paintings with things in his memory. Freddie does not express those impressions, but in his own language does tell stories about the images in the paintings, sort of whispering to himself, like a self-speak.

Freddie has key words and phrases that can easily bring him out of any derisive state: Mullie Grant; Grandma; the Beatles, the Coliseum, Lilly; Gus; Bob (could be any of four Bob’s in his life) and usually grows somber when I mention the words dad or mom. Therefore I stick to Liz and Bob Lanier. Following are some of the playful key phrases that Freddie always responds to:
· That’s the last pair of boots I’ll ever have to buy...
· I have a horse but no saddle...
· How much is a ticket to see the Beatles
· Tea sippers are number one in the nation...
· Any referral to Evel Kneival
· Short word pictures about a night time car accident in the rain
· Money in his wallet
· Signs his name Robert Lanier
· Anything about the Alamo, and many others
Painting: an activity I have used to get to know Freddie better
I was curious how long Freddie could concentrate on a subject, so I set up a painting situation on several occasions. He sits on a chair in front of the easel, outdoors and I would ask him to put certain colors on the canvas. He followed the instructions very well for about fifteen minutes. Freddie then would act silly, or think of something funny, and put aside the brushes.

The next step was to get him to try some shapes and lines, like lightning zaps, or circles. He was, I think, a little put-off that I would ask such a simple thing, and he did not do it at first.

Later, about a week after the painting session, I found lightning bolts drawn in pink on his guitar: the symbolic attribute is apparent to me, but that is me. Others can draw their own conclusions. Some would for instance be upset that he drew on his guitar; I do not argue that point. Rather he is telling me in his own time and space he is willing to draw the lightning zaps.

So, you see with a little coaxing Freddie is not limited in his brain dysfunction; rather he is functioning at a level that can be tapped, and tracked. Some call this “good brain/ wrong planet,” as when we dealt with autistic children in public schools. Determining the level of his need to achieve accomplishment and how long it might take is answered for me in this second activity.
Freddie at the Pool
My third goal is as yet un-commissioned. I tried taking Freddie to the health club at Aero-Fit for a few weeks. He very much enjoyed the swimming, as they have indoor and outdoor Olympic pools. He does pushups and sit-ups, but had difficulty following instructor’s directions for other exercises.

He was okay for awhile going evenings. But due some self-conscious attribute, he began freezing up. I deduced because evenings are busting out with activity and exercisers in mass, Freddie becomes over-loaded with stimulus. So the ideal time to take Freddie to the gym is during the mornings after 8 am. I go to the gym in the mornings, and see those who are limited in mobility’s and functions attend most often in the morning quiet hours from 8 to 11.
So far that has been a logistics problem since Freddie usually has other things going with Bobby those hours. We are still thinking it over. Freddie has a membership at the club on hold as it is. He is welcome there anytime he wants to renew. Aero-Fit facilities are family based operations.

This concludes this report from the middle -- where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are all above average. PD

Takin' it to the Streets

2007-04-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Story of Lil’ Bialetti

The Search...
Lil’ Bialetti was a small Tutto Creme
lost somewhere in Italy. He was a fine
machine, with lots of foam and a pleasant
disposition.
A nice American family was asked
to find Lil’ Bialette on their vacation trip
to Firenze and Siena. They were unsure
of where to look for the little fellow and
not speaking the language well... they
made some signs to help in the search
Lots of signs...
Department stores
were searched. “Lil’
Bialetti...Lil’ Bialetti!”
was the cry. Lil’ Bialetti...Lil’ Bialetti!!!!!!
No Lil’ Bialetti...
They tried
another shop...No
Lil’ Bialetti. While
the sales clerk was
pleasant she didn’t
know Lil’ Bialetti.
Nope.
Sorry.
Scuzze...
Even the
Policia were
no help. Now
they had to get
serious.
They plastered Reward signs everywhere.
They put so many up that
Italians designers started using the
poster for the spring fashions, grafitti
artists copped the work, and people
wore it on their backs. Still no Lil’
Bialetti...
People were puzzeled.
??
Restaurants displayed
the sign...
Graffitti and time
started to overtake the
message.
Trains
displayed the
message with
a covering of
paint.
Lil’ Bialetti...Lil’ Bialetti!!
Musicians composed contattas.
Even the
Gypsys tried
using it.
People became
complacent to the
search.
Haute Couture
stold the image.
Money eclipsed the
mission. Concentration
became difficult.
A . POGGI?
MIGNONE?
al MANIA?
The questions came fast and often.
Is Lil’ Bialetti in the Braschi Departmant store....
nooooo.
Is Lil’ Bialetti in the town market...
nooooo
Is Lil’ Bialetti in the hardware store...
nooooo
Is Lil’ Bialetti in the grocery store...
nooooo
Is Lil’ Bialetti in the hotel...
nooooo
Is Lil’ Bialetti in the Corona Cafe...
nooooo
Is Lil’ Bialetti never to be found???
Alas.

Culture & Structure in Races to Mature

2007-04-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

By Patrick Darnell, Guest Blogger
July 28, 2006

MNC Organizational/Structural Abstracts: What are we thinking?

Large Public corporations give the best empirical information for study, because they are usually long lived. Without the 400 years of boom/bust cycles of markets documented in the annals of economic world history, there would be no measure to use today for the management of assets. Today the markets’ activities are reported in the following distributions and publications:

Press releases, annual reports and proxies
Critical analysis, educated guesses, and applied reasoning
Foundation, nuts and bolts, and backbone of the company
Abstracts: Failure and success depending on what has been abstracted
Web Sites with secondary sources
Primary research if you can find it

“The approach to the Past always revolves around the same question: 'How did mankind in another time under other circumstances solve certain problems, and what were the [problems]?'” (Gideon, Pp. 670)

Organizational structure, therefore, is the evolution of the formal system of “task and reporting relationships that control, coordinate, and motivate employees so they cooperate and work together in achieving the firm's goals.” Good definition. In context of human nature and differing cultures, each company is very different in how it is structured. The differences are so vastly apart, it becomes impossible to compare the means and ends of the MNC's.

“Factors in the environment” helps to develop the structure. “These can include all sorts of factors from the changes in social, cultural and global environment around them.” (George & Jones, 2005, p. 505)

How do they do it?

Following are two Multinational Corporations I looked into. For a glimpse of their potential success due to their structures, I followed threads of their activities on the international scene. The time period of the changes in their structures covers from about 1990 to present, 2006.

ENRON: the other Crooked E Company

"One has only to open one's eyes to see that the triumphs of Industry, which have enriched so many practical men, would never have seen the light of day if only these practical men had existed, and if they had not been preceded by disinterested fools who died poor, who never thought of the useful, and who were not guided by caprice." -Henri Poincare, Science and Method

My Dad, just 83 years young himself, was at another’s “eightieth” birthday party last year. It was a republican affair, on behalf of his long time friend, retired Mayor of Houston. At the party Dad chatted with Tom DeLay, Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas (1985-2005) and the [former] House majority leader. Dad, who has been eyewitness of extreme groups from Nazi-aeopia to Enron-ics, summed it up this way:

“He said he [Tom DeLay] got so wrapped up in the fast growing business, and responsibilities, that he became... well ... lost in trying to control all of it. He [DeLay]had no preparation in the [magnitude] of the tough decisions he had to make.”

Others say: “Ruling the House: How did an exterminator from Sugar Land transform himself into ‘the Hammer,’ a master vote-counter who consistently ekes out slim majorities on conservative bills? [He did it] ...by blending threats (withdrawing support in the next primary), rewards (committee assignments) and cold, hard cash. Through his PAC, DeLay donates more to his party's candidates than any other member of Congress.” (Andrew, Romano, 2005)
- And -
“...Controlling the Corporate Cash: With his kitchen-cabinet culture firmly in place, DeLay has focused much of his energy--especially since 2002, when he was elected majority leader--on fund-raising. In 1994, the Hammer launched his first PAC, Americans for a Republican Majority--with a $280,000 check from Enron. Since then, the Texas Assn. of Business has been indicted for misusing corporate funds, and watchdogs suspect his children's charity (assets: $4 million) of soliciting donations for political purpose. (Andrew, Romano, 2005)

The “Kitchen Cabinet Structure” referred to is a modern testament to operations out-distancing technology. “Enron-variety ” structures in the future may actually be a legitimate business structure, but today it failed to keep track of the “6500+ business partnerships [reported] worldwide, that it had in its ‘kitchen cabinets’ when its lid was put down, to the tune of $67 billion bankruptcy, largest ever.”

“The ...argument stems from the observation, made earlier, that much perception is dependent on processes of analogy. People are constantly interpreting new situations in terms of old ones. Whenever they do this, they are using the analogical process to build up richer representations of various situations.” (Hofstadter, Pp. 186)

Italy: The Piaggio Group -- less dramatic

Ambitions for the company despite “tepid investor” interest include plans to “boost Piaggio presence in emerging markets, especially India and China.” (Business; Pp 64 the Economist; July 15, 2006)
In 2003 decisions were made to get out of debt. This would make the Italian company able to negotiate from a position of strength. Piaggio’s head on bid to take on “Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha... Japanese firms that dominate the scooter market” became the next goal after the cure. In 2003 the firm’s debts were 60% of the sales. Today it “seems to be working... as last year reported a profit of E38 million in E1.5 billion sales.” (Business; Pp 59 the Economist; July 15, 2006)

“The consolidated net profit was € 10.2 million, compared with a loss of € 10.9 million in the first quarter of 2005, and consolidated net debt decreased to € 397.7 million. As of July 11th, 2006, Piaggio & C. S.p.A.’s ordinary shares are listed at the Milan Stock Exchange.”

A company with a product: taking on the Japanese and succeeding, the firm was “Established in 1884 by Rinaldo Piaggio, and based in Pontedera, Pisa, Italy, the Piaggio Group operates globally in the light mobility vehicles industry, and is a leading manufacturer in the development, production and sale of two-wheeled vehicles.” (Piaggio & C. S.p.A... 2006)

The Group is “controlled by Immsi S.p.A., an industrial and services holding listed on the Milan Stock Exchange and headed by Roberto Colaninno, who is Piaggio Chairman. Including Aprilia and Moto Guzzi, acquired by Piaggio on December 30th 2004, and the Spanish manufacturer Derbi acquired in 2001.”

The annual production capacity is more than 610,000 vehicles in the two- and three-wheel segments and in four-wheel commercial vehicles:

7 production facilities, 4 in Italy and 3 abroad in Spain, India, and People’s Republic of China
5 R&D centers and
total of more than 6,300 employees
operations in over 50 countries

Piaggio product range feature scooters with engine sizes ranging from 50cc up to 500cc and motorcycles from 50cc up to 1.100cc with Piaggio, Vespa, Gilera, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Derbi and Scarabeo brands... The Group also manufactures three and four-wheel light commercial vehicles for utility and personal mobility, with the Ape, Porter and Quargo ranges. (Piaggio & C. S.p.A.; 2006)

Summary

The structure model-shifting going on in MNC's business is generating buzz, even if it is old news. Huge Multi-National Corporations move into exotic markets, and bring swift two-wheeled transport, and micro breweries, and debt forms that only corporate structures can produce when their eccentricity is more advanced than their technology.

"Global arena design” of Enron has led to the debacle witnessed. It had the idea it could shove its “multi-domestic US” corporate philosophy into all countries, mainly because all countries need energy. The Enron Chief Financial Officer became the leader most dumped on because the other branches acted without financial advice. And therefore the Kitchen Cabinets were stuffed with unreported activities. If no audit trail, then there is no corporation. Enron turned out to not be McDonald’s; unable to distinguish its desire to be “polycentric” energy for its business partners.

It turns out; while MNC’s make a way into emerging global markets they bring with them: air-conditioning to sweltering factories, new deals with labor unions, and supply chain sourcing for local cheaper parts from host countries’ existing core competency companies.

Piaggio is a Global Product Design global company, with an “h-form structure,” at present. The firm is reported very active in acquiring many enterprises in each host country it moves into. It is owned by the Immsi Holding Company, and there is little interdependence at present. The disadvantage of this structure is the possible significant duplication of efforts in the various divisions. For future considerations, the company may merge facilities and streamline its supply chains, leading to a less decentralized corporation. As it is now each division must develop its own ostensible operations around its own hot country’s cultural, legal, and political environments.

Mergers they have developed may be some of the most customer related mergers in the history of business. That is because the mergers are in context of completely differing cultures externally forcing decisions on C-Staff's that they would not encounter in their home towns. It is a prime example of an adage: “beware when an idea’s time comes.” I hope this introduces some to the future. Fin. (Patrick Darnell; Aug 2006)

References

Aguayo, Rafael, (1991) Dr. Deming, the American who taught the Japanese about Quality, 1991, Simon and Schuster, New York Foreword by W Edwards Deming

George, Jennifer M., and Jones Gareth R., (2006) Understanding & Managing Organizational Behavior, Prentice, Boston, MA, 2006

Economist, Business Section; the , pp 59-66, (July 15, 2006); South African business; Going Global, South Africa’s big companies have spread their wings abroad

Piaggio & C. S.p.A retrieved (July 2006) from www.piaggiogroup.com/copyright_en.htm"> This web-site is the sole property of ... TRADEMARK: ALBATROS, APE, APE MAX, APEPOKER, APRILIA, BEVERLY, CIAO, CELLA ESAGONALE NUOVO LOGO, COGUAR, DERBI, DNA, VESPA ET4, FREE, GILERA, HEXAGON, LIBERTY, MOTO GUZZI, NRG, PIAGGIO, PIAGGIO VTL, P DI PIAGGIO IN SCUDO E FIGURA, PORTER, RUNNER, SCARABEO, STALKER, TYPHOON, VESPA, VESPA CLUB, VESPA PX, X9, ZIP are registered trademarks and are exclusive property of Piaggio & C. S.p.A.

Article; SABMiller to boost Chinese production with acquisitions The Business Journal of Milwaukee July 24, 2006 retrieved from washington.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2006/07/24/daily2

Gislason, Stephen Adapted from Existence and the Human Mind , posted by alphaproject at philosophy2100.blogspot.com/2006/01/group-dynamics July 2006 Poincare, Henri; Science and Method

Romano, Andrew, (2005) Title: DELAY'S WHEELING AND DEALING, By: Newsweek, 00289604, 10/10/2005, Vol. 146, Issue 15 Database: Business Source

Darnell, Robert D.; (May/2006); interview; July 2006 paraphrased

Hofstadter, Douglas, and the Fluid analogies research Group, (1995) Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies, computer models of the fundamental mechanisms of thought, Basic Books: Harper Collins, New York, 1995

Giedion, Sigfried; Space time and Architecture, (1961) book, Space, Time and Architecture The Growth of a New Tradition, Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition Sigfried Giedion

Self-employed? Who controls your Financial Freedom...

2006-11-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

Marinella Elegant Jewelry
I have found that accounting has become a bad word in business due to ENRON and other incidents. Why is that? I think it is because there simply aren't enough accountants. Born with a head for numbers, it is clear to me that any success I have with Marinella Elegant Jewelry is due my unique trait.
Positions and Responsibilities of the Management Accountant At MEJ, Inc. & beyond
Managerial Accounting Practices: Accounting in the Organization

MEJ's most sensitive business mission is keeping a chronicle of the status of its cash. For all organizations, big or small, the same is worry number one: and on list of importance, cash flow is the top item of concern. The breakdown is that when one speaks of Cash, the other listening considers Accounting as one and the same.
The new century unfolds, 2006 introduces “business” to “new roles” for accountants. For professional accounting practitioners, Job Designs have broadened in the structurally flattened organizations today. The stove pipe structured corporation of yesteryear hired accounting majors to control one pipe of production as the company grew. One finds accounting roles in departments such as Human Resources, Operations, Costing, Benefits, and Information Technology (IT) in the structure of business that correlates people and resources in “function and product.”

As captive accountant, as I will be responsible directly to MEJ's Antiques, I am not retained for objective analysis of the business at MEJ's, like external auditors are. However I will have fiduciary responsibility to engage in taxation, financial reporting, and forming financial ratios. These reports and ratios are used by every department to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the various business arenas of MEJ's processes.

New century innovation is challenging the business organizers to strike a delicate balance while putting into service high-tech change. Business units and their accountants collaborate as never before in changes that are dramatic enough to make a difference, but not so dramatic as to be disruptive or unrealistic ‘pie-in-the-sky’ solutions. Today accounting management is called on to partner up with operations, IT departments, enterprise acquisition, long-range product development, and business-driven solutions to improve process.

Auditing was first internalized in organizations, as they sought to control cash, and might have been left that way if there wasn’t constant grotesque abuse of the flow of cash. Therefore, government had to step in with legislation to ratify business accounting and auditing in legal terms. Government has the ultimate auditing rights. “According to the US Department of Labor, the employing of accountants and auditors is expected to grow faster than average for all occupations for the next seven years, or until 2014.” (US Department of Labor, 2006)

The sharp growth of accounting jobs appears to follow closely the rate of growth in IT jobs. This is mainly because “Largely, paperless audits are a fact of life. Meetings with administrators and boards of trustees used to be opportunities to build client relations, but the Internet and other technologies are reshaping the profession by reducing face-to-face contact with clients.” (Hayes, Michael, Apr2006)

Also, statement on auditing standards (SAS) is no longer a document that organizations can pass over. Ignorance of the audit rules can bring the Department of Labor in with authority to levy fines. “If a firm without sufficient knowledge fails to properly perform the audit, the DOL can assess fines on the plan administrator or sponsor.” (Hayes, Michael, Apr2006)

Pensions
MEJ's is additionally looking to protect itself and its workers by hiring accountants who can be part of the administration of benefits and pensions. This is a very hot subject today in the legislation and courts; maybe you have seen recent developments.
“Labor Department Announces Final Rules to Help Workers in Abandoned 401(k) Plans Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the publication of final rules and a class exemption that allow financial institutions to take responsibility for abandoned 401(k) plans and distribute the plans’ assets to covered workers and their families. The department estimates that 1,650 ‘401(k)’ plans, covering 33,000 workers, are abandoned by their sponsors each year.” (James, David, April 20, 2006)

Risk and Responsibility
Recent business closings and bankruptcy, such as the debacle of Enron, has fetched one of the most recent developments in government auditing controls, called the “employee benefit plan (EBP) audit.”
“Another plus is that an EBP niche can provide a firm with steady work from as early as March to October, depending on client extensions. Clients aren't fickle, either. A company's human resources, corporate accounting and treasury departments are the most affected during an EBP audit--so once launched, EBP practices remain relatively intact because companies don't like to disrupt those areas, Clifford says.” (Hayes, Michael, Apr2006)
In your letter you have curiosity about the newer roles of accountants in today’s business. It turns out that: “More than 75,000 EBP audits are conducted each year, and the market is good and growing.” (Hayes, Michael, Apr2006) At MEJ we will call upon those experts auditors of employee benefit plan, EBP, to objectify our “golden parachutes” and annuities.
The future is rosy for accountants: "Once the boom ends, the survivors will be those firms that operate their EBP practices efficiently and offer plan sponsors high-quality audits, reasonable fees and minimal disruption of their daily routines." (Hayes, Michael, Apr2006, Wasser, Diane M., CPA)

Accountant and Client As MEJ's captive accountant, I am wise to maintain objectivity of client / accountant relationship. The managerial roles I will be asked will include several of our departments. So you see I have to sit in meetings with stockholders, as well as Departmental Managers.
The financial information I divulge is sometimes proprietary, and unsuitable to impart to stockholders. The manner in which I report cash flow is utmost to the stakeholders as well, who are anticipating growth and return on assets (ROA).
In accounting, there is no problem with treating all your co-workers as if they are clients. Minnihan agrees. "You get to know the ...professionals in your community," she says. "Do excellent work and they'll seek you out... Here are some practitioners' tips on how to do just that.” (Hayes, Michael, Apr2006)

Provide a timeline that tells clients what you need and when
Alert clients about compliance issues as soon as possible
Ask record keepers for reports and access to databases that will assist in obtaining audit evidence
Network with lawyers who specialize in what you are auditing and related benefit plan issues, and keep in touch with other CPAs
Both are great [business] referral sources
Stay on top of DOL requirements. The earlier you tell clients about coming changes, the easier they will find it to comply
Solicit feedback from clients to learn where you can improve
Develop your audit process from the client's perspective, not yours
Perform annual internal inspections to get operational feedback
Use good co-worker review reports as a detailer tool (Hayes, Michael, Apr2006)

References / Notes / Persistent Links / Resources
ARTHUR Andersen LLP Source: Not guilty after all Economists; 6/4/2005, Vol. 375 Issue 8429, p70-71, 2p, 1c Article REHNQUIST, William Full Text Word Count: 819 ISSN: 0013-0613 17233600 Business Source Elite
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&an=17233600&loginpage=Login.asp

O' Sullivan, Kate, Uncle Sam Wants Accountants. CFO; Jul2005, Vol. 21 Issue 10, p16-16, 1/2p, 1c, Article, Accession Number: 17981850
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&an=17981850&loginpage=Login.asp

Hayes, Michael, Best Practices in EBP Audits Journal of Accountancy, 00218448, Apr2006, Vol. 201, Issue 4 Database: Business Source Elite

James, David; Della, Gloria; Newsroom, April 20, 2006: 06-717-NAT: Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, www.dol.gov/ebsa.U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20210

Hayes, Michael, Apr2006 MINNIHAN, BERTHA, CPA; Mohler, Nixon & Williams Campbell, Calif. Journal of Accountancy, Apr2006, Vol. 201 Issue 4, p43, 5p.

Schmitt, Christopher H.; Barnett, Megan; Barnes, Julian E.; Roane, Kit R. Man on the Hot Seat. Source: U.S. News & World Report; 1/28/2002, Vol. 132 Issue 3, p20, 3p, 5c, 1bw Article Subject Terms: *BUSINESS enterprises *CHIEF financial officers

Sloan, Allan, Company/Entity: ENRON Corp. DUNS Number: 006970404 Ticker: ENE, FASTOW, Andrew, Full Text Word Count: 1862 ISSN: 0041-5537
Accession Number: 5917523 Business Source Elite
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&an=5917523&loginpage=Login.asp

Allan, Sloan, HOW ARTHUR ANDERSEN BEGS FOR BUSINESS, Newsweek, 00289604, 3/18/2002, Vol. 139, Issue 11, Business Source Elite, Section: PERISCOPE

National Center for State Courts 300 Newport Avenue Williamsburg, VA 23185-4147 Phone (800) 616-6164 Fax (757) 564-2022 Questions or Comments - email knowledge@ncsc.dni.us
http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/jobdeda/main.htm

Vaknin, Sam, PhD, the Inferno of the Finance Director. Write to me: palma@unet.com.mk or narcissisticabuse-owner@yahoogroups.com

Thorby, James1 jthorby@clarkslegal.com , Onus issue, Financial Management (Caspian Publishing); Jul/Aug2005, p61-62, 2p Article 522291 Consumer Lending, Abstract: Explains why a financial director should think very carefully before accepting a position on the board. Duties of directorship; Guidance for non-executive directors; Understanding of the company's rules on directors' interests and personal profit; Compliance with all of statutory obligations; Responsibility to keep up to date with the financial affairs of the company. Author Affiliations: 1Associate, Database: Business Source Elite
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&an=18500589&loginpag

Living in Houston

2006-11-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

It has been about nine years this November since we pulled into Houston after living in Chicago-land for 18 years. It was a journey of tears, as we left our older kids behind to carve out their own lives.
Once we arrived here, there was a whole group of new relations to meet and get to know. Believe me the time goes fast when there is family around.
Several cycles later some have had dread things happening, with miracles righting things; some have had breakthroughs. But of course several have managed to proliferate and make new lives out of themselves; Nephews, brothers, nieces and sisters, and the cycle of life goes on.
In this group shown their have been two new babies and two new marriages in those seven years I have been a part of the Houston branch. Today I proudly send my warmest gratitude to those who have laid down their lives for the USA, my home. Without the bravery of the Americans, photos like this would never be possible.

HWKTK

2006-11-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

We, the Darnell's, were one of the first of thirteen families to be part of the experiment, that I and my husband are calling a "Divine Intervention."
I met the TLC group at Trader's Village in Houston, and they liked me. Then they met the kids, and liked them. We were flown to New York for the studio portions of the show. Details of which set in motion a major health change in the kids and I. I am afraid I still have to bitch out my husband, but he is working very hard to get healthier, and we all are supportive of his efforts.
The other kids are all grown and living in Illinois and Texas, doing their best to remember what we taught them. So far so good.
Sometimes I just have to put my foot down and kick some %$&*... you get the idea. If you are looking to sign up for a reality based living channel event, please write to me today.

Communicate Your Health

2006-06-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

I long to share some of my health-filled experiences with people who are willing to learn a few tricks from a Healthy Bitch.