Archive for July, 2007 Page 2 of 5



Undergraduate Summer 2007 Grades - University of Massachusetts at Amherst

The final grade for the Business and Its Environment undergraduate course at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was published to the SPIRE web-site last week.

Business and Its Environment Final Grade

My A grade continues the trend from my classes during the Spring and Winter sessions, a trend that will hopefully continue through the graduate class, Perspectives on Leadership, I’m still enrolled in and through the other ten classes I need to graduate. Look for updates on the final grade for the graduate course in a few weeks (class ends July 30th). For those keeping track at home, after four undergraduate courses at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, as of the end (for me, as I will not participate in the second session) of the undergraduate summer 2007 session, my GPA is a 4.0!

Best Political Candidate Ever: None of the Above

Instead of a post tonight, please check out this article in today’s Boston Globe by Andrew Ryan. The article describes a proposal by William H. White of East Dennis, MA which:

would add the line “none of the above: for a new election” on ballots to the choices for each elective office. If the none-of-the-above wins the most votes, another election would be held in 60 to 80 days.

In our “lesser of two evils” political system, this initiative is a welcome relief to voters everywhere. The measure would also include a similar option for presidential elections, however, as the US Constitution dictates how a president is elected, the none of the above vote would be non-binding. But, voters could choose both an actual candidate and the none of the above option, which would show the percentage of voters who voted for the candidate on the “lesser of two evils” method, rather than actually approving that candidate.

You can read more information about this movement on their official web-site, nota.org. Huge props go out to William H. White for the idea, and his senator, Robert A. O’Leary of Barnstable, MA for sponsoring the proposal. Let’s push this democratic improvement through and make it law. Contact your representatives and urge them to adopt this measure.

State Street Tears Up Wall Street

Normally, I try to avoid talking about my employer on this site to avoid getting “dooced“, but today marked a great day for State Street. We announced our earnings for the past quarter and reported a 61% increase in profits from a year ago, up to $366 million! We also reported record revenue of $1.921 billion, which represents a 16.4% jump over second quarter 2006.

We also recently [two weeks ago] completed the the purchase of our Boston-based rival, Investors Financial Services Corp. [a.k.a. IBT]. What does Ron, Chief Executive Officer of State Street, Logue have to say about IBT?

The results of Investors Financial in the second quarter were strong, like State Street’s, and so we are revising our financial goals for 2007: We now expect that revenue growth will be between 20 percent and 22 percent; up from 16 percent to 18 percent we forecast in February when we announced the deal.

Wall Street obviously enjoyed all of this news, as trading on State Street stock ended up 2.1% at 71.87 per share. To prevent “doocing”, I will limit my words to the above, but want to send a question out to our rival, the world’s biggest custodial bank, Bank of New York Mellon.

How do you like them apples?

Disclaimer:

My personal portfolio does contain State Street corporation holdings. In no way does any of the above text represent financial advice, nor am I responsible for any actions you take as a result of the above text. Further, the above text does not represent an official statement by State Street Corporation nor any of its subsidiaries, except the one quote by Ron Logue.

Our Wicked Cute Dog, Misia

It seems the internet is obsessed with cats, and just how freaking cute they are. Well my humble opinion is dogs are a much better pet, animal, and friend for several reasons, not the least of which is that they are able to be vicious and cute. So to counter the internet’s cute cat bias, here’s a few pictures of our dog Misia.

Misia's Ball
“I might look cute, but if you touch my ball I’ll kill you.”
Helper Misia
“I wanna help!”
Quitter Misia
“Screw it, that’s hard work. Time to go back to looking cute.”
Misia Playing Football
A cute girl who likes football? Could it really be…the perfect girl?
Big Tongue
“I’ll lick you”

If you wanna see more pics of Misia, check out my Misia flickr set here or let me know by commenting below!






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