I was supremely frustrated trying to figure out how to change the primary email address on my Google Account in December 2011.  It was difficult but not insurmountable completing this task before I signed up for Google+ and now it seems to be impossible finding the links/pages/buttons to complete this remedial task.

I am ashamed to admit that I spent more than an hour trying to figure this out but thrilled to think I may be able to save a few people that hour+ (no pun intended).  These directions seem simple, and they are, but they can be a lifesaver if trying to change the primary email address for your google account.

1. Visit  https://www.google.com/accounts/Login and log in with your google account username and pw
   - There are numerous links/urls/ways to log into your google account settings, but the link above is the only one I found that works to get to the page to change your primary email address
2. At the bottom of the page, click Visit the previous version of the Google accounts screen »
3. You will find Change Email at the very top of this page.

Ready for Book Club Meeting

I am honored to be able to host our December Book Club Meeting where we get a chance to get to know our spouses and other family members and friends and celebrate our friendship and the time we have spent broadening our horizons through the books we have read this year.

This year’s meeting will be held on December 6th from 6:30 – 8:30 at Jolene’s home.

There could be up to 24 guests.

Here is a list of what you could bring.  Just leave a reply below stating what you would like to share and check out others posts to make sure we get good coverage.  I will provide all plates, glasses, utensils, etc.  Please if you have a favorite dish you want to share feel free to tell us about it and bring it to the gathering.  I will also have ‘Hard Rock Apple Cider’.

List of items needed – Just Leave a Reply below and click on Submit Comment to tell us what you would like to bring:

• Eggnog or any other holiday drink
• Non Alcoholic cold drinks
• Wine (2 bottles of white wine – Esther will bring 2 red)
• Desserts
• Fruit plates
• Warm Finger Food
• Cold Finger Food

Look forward to seeing all of you on December 6th.  If you cannot attend you can also let us know by making a comment below.

After a tough couple of weeks at work, it was great to be home in NYC this weekend.  Even though my apartment is occupied by a friend and I am staying at a hotel, being in NYC for the weekend is still being home in many ways- just not all the way home.  I am staying at the Candlewood Suites on West 39th Street and while I don’t love being near Times Square, they set me up in a room for the weekend with a nice view- particularly at sunset.

I had plans to hang out with a friend on Saturday and it’s bitter cold in the city this weekend so we were brainstorming ideas for a good indoor activity. We ended up with a list that included MoMA, Colin Quinn’s Long Story Short on Broadway, or bowling. We decided to go bowling and found a Bowlmor Lanes on West 44th Street. Bowlmor is a lot like Lucky Strike lanes with its half night club / half bowling alley atmosphere. We were given a lane next to a group of moms and kids- and the little kids were comical. They drop the ball like a rock and watch it trickle down the lane before they go nuts when a few pins get knocked down.

Bowling isn’t something I do often but it was great doing something different today and being active while we all tried to stay indoors. Today’s bowling and the ongoing escalation of cell phones, facebook, and twitter reminded me of a great book by Robert Putnam I read in graduate school. It was a great day and it was nice not to be Bowling Alone today.

People sometimes ask me what is so great about living in New York City. Its the simple little things that we get to enjoy every day, like an amazing violinist playing on the walkway between the 1/2/3 train and the Times Square Shuttle. This woman could surely fill a small concert hall in Omaha or Fresno (both fine towns incidentally), but we get to enjoy talent like this on any given day as we hop a train to work or run a Saturday errand. Only in New York.

Be careful what you wish for. It may have been a day late for those hoping for a white Christmas but what it lacked in timeliness, this storm made up for in drama as we are enjoying a full-fledged New York City blizzard.

I enjoyed the blizzard over some carne asada steak tacos from the warmth and comfort of Cascabel Taqueria at 80th & 2nd Ave (above) but before I got over there, I grabbed this video of the taxis trying to make their way up 3rd Avenue…  

Everyone knows living in NYC is expensive, but you start to accept/ignore how expensive after you’ve lived here for a while.  One of the worst price premiums is on groceries.  While we don’t have grocery superstores like the suburbs, we do have some moderately sized full grocery stores in the neighborhoods like D’Agostino and The Food Emporium.  They aren’t huge, but they aren’t corner bodegas either so you’d expect the prices to be relatively reasonable- keyword being relatively.

In August of 2010, a new shopping center was opened in East Harlem next to the FDR, on 116th Street.  (Map Location, NY Times Article) The new center is a four-story facility dedicated to box box retail and includes a Costco, Super Target, PetSmart, Best Buy, and Bob’s Furniture.  Its not highly convenient getting to the 116th Street shopping center but its the first time we’ve had a Super Target or a Bulk Store like Costco/Sam’s Club.  There is a 6 train local subway stop at 116th Street and Target gives free rides back and forth down 116th Street in a Target shuttle van.  The trip to 116th Street isn’t terrible, but its certainly a lot more work than going around the corner in your own neighborhood.

I set out to compare the grocery prices at the neighborhood grocery stores vs. the Super Target to see if the savings outweighs the inconvenience of going up to 116th St & the FDR.  I expected the prices to be lower at the Super Target but I was stunned at the discount (or markup of the local stores, depending on how you look at it). I understand basic business/economics and economies of scale, but there are hundreds of D’Agostino and Food Emporium grocery stores throughout the city.  Is the purchasing power of Target so much greater that it explains the price differential between the stores?  Or is there a nice profit premium going into the pockets of the owners of the local grocery stores?

I don’t want to lose our neighborhood grocery stores and be forced to shop at big box national chains, but that sentiment pales in comparison to my need to be a smart shopper.  Considering the 67% premium to shop at the neighborhood D’Agostino, you’ll find me at Super Target for all my grocery shopping except for the most necessary or unplanned purchases.

Simply Orange, Calcium & Vitamin D, Pulp Free, 1.75 L
D’Agostino, Upper East Side: $5.99
116th St Target Superstore: $3.04

Yoplait Original Yogurt, Red Raspberry
D’Agostino, Upper East Side: $1.15
116th St Target Superstore: $0.69

Pantene Shampoo, 12.6 Fl Oz.
D’Agostino, Upper East Side: $6.99
116th St Target Superstore: $4.79

Quilted Northern, Ultra Plush, Double Roles
D’Agostino, Upper East Side: $4.69 per 4 = $1.17 per role
116th St Target Superstore: $6.89 per 12 = $0.57 per role
* D’AG does not sell packages of 12 and Super Target does not sell packages of 4

Mitchum Power Gel, 2.25 oz.
D’Agostino, Upper East Side: $4.59
116th St Target Superstore: $4.24

Total Difference
D’Agostino, Upper East Side: $18.72 + 14.04 (12 roles) = 32.76
116th St Target Superstore: $12.76 + 6.84 (12 roles) = 19.60
* Based on this small sample of basic groceries, it would cost 67% more to purchase the exact same items at D’Agostino than at the Super Target on 116th St.

Informational article about the Financial Services Industry with a focus on New York City.

Financial Services Sectors

• Accounting
• Asset Management
  • Alternative Asset Management – management of investments other than traditional stocks, bonds, cash, and real estate.  Refers to private equity, hedge funds, commodities, and derivatives.  Might also refer to investments in art, wine, antiques.
• Capital Markets
• Corporate Banking
• Hedge Funds
• Insurance
• Investment Banking
• Private Equity/VC
• Real Estate
• Retail Banking
• Risk Management
• Sales & Trading
• Strategy/Corporate Development/M&A
• Tax Accounting
• Wealth Management

Investment Banking

Bulge Bracket

• Goldman Sachs
• JP Morgan
• Morgan Stanley

Middle Market

• Piper Jaffray

Boutique

• Sandler O’Neil

Notable New York Firms

Blackstone Group

Alternative Investment Management and Financial Advisor.  Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwartzman and Peter G. Peterson. 17 global offices, headquartered out of 345 Park Ave, NY, NY 10154 (51st & Park).

Goldman Sachs

The elite of the elite, Goldman is known as the Cadillac of the sector.  An internship or position at Goldman is a highly sought after prize.  This is often an unreachable goal without an Ivy league degree or top 20 MBA, but there are exceptions.

Finance Services General References

• Wikipedia
  • Economy of New York City, Finance
  • Investment Management
  • Alternative Investment
• Careers in Investment Banking

Private Equity

I am currently doing some finance review to refresh some areas from my MBA curriculum three years ago and I’ll share the summaries here in case it is helpful for others.  This article will focus on the Private Equity space within Alternative Asset Management.

Blackstone is recognized as an innovator in the Private Equity segment as it is now recognized as a core component of the finance industry.

Private Equity References

• Cendrowski, Martin, Petro & Wadecki (2008).  Private Equity: History, Governance, and Operations.  John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  Hoboken, NJ.
• Wikipedia
  • Private Equity

Investment Banking

Investment Banking References

• Investment Banking: The big squeeze, The Economist

A couple of months ago, a friend showed me the RSA Animate video for Dan Pink’s talk on what motivates us.  I’ve watched this talk a number of times since I was introduced to it and I’ve showed it to others because its both interesting and insightful.  There are a few different presentations/videos of Dan Pink speaking on this topic and I find the RSAnimate version, at about 11 minutes to be the most succinct and entertaining.  There is an 18 minute version from Dan’s TED speech on the same topic, which is more conversational and slower paced.

There are some interesting points in Dan’s research about the ineffectiveness of monetary rewards when it comes to performance of tasks that require even moderately complex cognitive problem solving.  While not only the ineffectiveness, but the damaging effect, of monetary rewards for tasks involving moderate problem solving is the primary focus of the discussion- there is a key foundation about paying enough to make the issue of pay a non-factor that is slightly glossed over in the talk.

Basics

• Documentation
• Plugins
• Suggest Ideas
• Support Forum
• Themes
• WordPress Blog
• WordPress Planet

Additional Finds

• Good article on highlighting current article or category in WordPress menus
• Customizing your sidebar
• Customizing WordPress user pages

Back Cover

A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. If you miss A Tree Grows In Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience.

Review

This book is everything it claims to be. My first impression of the book was not so much the story but how Ms. Smith told the story. The characters were three dimensional. Her words described the environment, the cramped space, the limited fresh air, the fears, the hopes, the anger, the shame, the love, the commitment, the hope.

Some of my favorite moments:

• Katie’s private thoughts and realization of her relationship with her husband and children
• Johnny’s failed attempts at doing good things: Fishing, fixing window coverings
• Francie’s reaction to an old man’s feet
• Francie making sure she creates a way to remember the day, the moment war was declared
• Francie and Neely’s commitment to get a Christmas Tree for the family
• Francie returning to the junk man
• Francie and Neely’s last conversation in the apartment where they grew up
• Francie’s final reflections as she sees an 11 year old girl sitting on a fire escape reading a book

Ms. Smith provides references to the tree in Brooklyn but I believe that the tree is an allegory for Francie.

My advice for those considering reading this book…. DO IT!