tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49117694253218152592012-01-31T22:34:28.942-08:00Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-40763846063205550722012-01-31T22:26:00.000-08:002012-01-31T22:34:28.963-08:00

Ok this may be a little geeky of me, but I wanted to know what were the best movies of the 2012 Sundance festival were since I wasn't able to make it this year and I want to make sure I use my time wisely when I go to SIFF later this year. So I started looking a few top-10 lists that various festival goers had posted and it was pretty obvious that opinions differed widely and not everyone had

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-21080736289145705012012-01-26T22:19:00.000-08:002012-01-26T23:12:10.091-08:00

Late to the party as usual, but here are my top 20 movies of 2011. There are so many movies that I haven't seen yet that this is almost a joke, most notably: We Need to Talk about Kevin, Like Crazy, Hannah, The Skin I Live In, The Beginners, Win Win, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Guard, Fast Five, Last Night, Another Earth, Margaret, The Tree of Life, Hugo, Descendants, and I could go on. So obviously

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-38210166340337267292011-05-05T10:18:00.000-07:002011-05-05T11:54:14.188-07:00

So I’ve been reading a never ending stream of news articles, analyses, and opinion pieces centered on the jobs crisis in America, but I feel that without fail, none of these articles truly grasp what we are seeing happen to the economy. Most recently, I was reading this opinion piece in the Financial Times by Richard Florida and out of everyone he comes the closest to actually grasping the

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-713997648273479282011-02-28T11:08:00.001-08:002011-02-28T11:30:09.022-08:00

This month is looking to be a great one for new movies! Here are 4 movies opening this month that I can't wait to see:The Adjustment Bureau - March 4thBattle: Los Angeles - March 11thLimitless - March 18thSucker Punch - March 25th

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-85184903582208148562011-02-10T18:50:00.001-08:002011-02-10T20:37:48.755-08:00

Sundance is always a blast and 2011, my third time round, was no exception. With a week of friends and enemies as well as relative strangers all huddled together against the blistering cold plotting movie time tables, bartering tickets, and swapping stories about improbable celebrity sightings there were an endless stream of great memories. One of my favorite parts about the festival is how it

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-46813443883963981992010-09-17T14:23:00.000-07:002010-09-17T14:44:57.261-07:00

I just finished reading Richard Florida's latest book "The Great Reset." This book lays out his vision for how the US and global economies are going through a process called the great reset as it shifts from one economic paradigm to another. This kind of reset has happened twice before in the late 1800s, as the economy shifted first from agriculture to one based on steel and railroads, and again

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-7126609455878999742009-02-09T19:31:00.000-08:002009-02-09T19:53:42.095-08:00

Starbucks announced today the launch of their new value meal program where consumers will be able to purchase a discounted combination of a coffee drink and breakfast food. They are also training their baristas to emphasize the value of Starbuck's drinks including the fact that "90% of Starbucks drinks cost under $4." By refocusing the brand as a "value" product in the consumers mind the chain

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-90093635602177635802009-02-05T16:49:00.000-08:002009-02-05T17:36:52.841-08:00

BusinessWeek is running another article this week about the sudden collapse the major movie studios are witnessing in the DVD business model. Citing a 32% decline in DVD sales for the 4th quarter of 2008, the article claims that these studios are desperately looking for ways to boost revenue.In a way it makes perfect sense that DVD revenue would be declining for studios. Just a few years ago

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-82803275666370206352009-02-02T23:06:00.000-08:002009-02-02T23:34:22.635-08:00

BusinessWeek ran a story recently on the Apple Application Store business model and specifically wondered if applications will ever become profitable for developers. Interestingly, the story doesn't actually state anything concrete about how much money application developers are making, except to suggest that since most apps are priced at $0.99 or free, it must not be much. While it is

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-17750121085640460542009-01-30T09:36:00.001-08:002009-01-30T09:47:53.639-08:00

The Economist this week is running an interesting article on how companies are handling their downsizing and the potential future impact of these actions. As more and more firms jump in and use the recession as an opportunity to do some restructuring, the question becomes are these firms planning sufficiently for the eventual rebound. According to the article: "As a rule of thumb, a careful

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-58410867071155711582009-01-29T19:08:00.000-08:002009-01-29T19:33:32.698-08:00

Well it is always great to find a bit of good news amongst all the notifications of further layoffs. Bucking economic trends, Amazon.com released 4th quarter results today with 9% increase in net income and 18% increase in sales. They also projected continue growth in the first quarter of 2009, citing their prime shipping program as a key strength. It seems especially reassuring that, you can

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-65111135284143061112009-01-28T13:47:00.000-08:002009-01-28T18:59:56.868-08:00

The Motley Fool is running an interesting series of articles on how many of our flagship tech companies are going to look in the year 2012. One of the author's premonitions on the future of local tech giant Amazon.com, had an interesting thought about their Prime shipping service that will be a key advantage for the company. Many of Amazon's competitors are specialized retailer's with a focus

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-50129534984193203692009-01-27T14:44:00.000-08:002009-01-27T14:56:52.715-08:00

We had a fascinating meet the firm today with a local non-profit called Alliance of Angels. They work with local Pacific Northwest entrepreneurs to help connect them with angel investors and find the resources they need to take their business to the next level. Some of the services the Alliance of Angels brings to the community include hosting pitch clinics to educate entrepreneurs on how to

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-1373347695677695812009-01-27T14:27:00.000-08:002009-01-27T15:06:37.014-08:00

Wow, as a nice support to my last post about the future of Netflix and online video distribution, Netflix released quarterly results today with profits up 45%. According to the article in the Wall Street Journal, they raised their projected number of subscribers to 11.3 million for the end of the year. A portion of this huge growth in profits comes from Netflix having relaxed their budget for

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-74108850114414725312009-01-13T13:38:00.000-08:002009-01-13T13:51:17.343-08:00

The Wall Street Journal today is running an interesting article about Netflix and the transition to online video streaming. They article postulates that while Netflix has come to dominate the DVD by Mail business model, they are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to online streaming. They are up against big name competitors such as Amazon and Apple as well as having to deal with companies

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-53750419115613528382008-12-30T12:53:00.000-08:002009-01-29T19:35:04.554-08:00

2008 is fast coming to an end and the web is filled with lists and rankings. Nothing brings a year to an end for the media like ranking the the best and worst of every aspect of the year. Sifting through these lists, I found a couple of surveys relevant to local companies. Rather than produce my own list of best and worst moments, I thought I'd point out some interesting results of other

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-90346067006091432802008-12-27T23:30:00.000-08:002008-12-27T23:54:12.623-08:00

New rankings are out from BusinessWeek and the Foster School of Business debuted at number 27 overall for 2008. However, the article pointed out that the school did quite a bit better in some of the specialty categories. BusinessWeek ranked the UW's MBA program as #10 in both the categories for "Most Improved" and "Innovative Curriculum". According the the article, an "Innovative Curriculum"

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-56326756042440535452008-12-27T18:40:00.000-08:002008-12-27T23:52:14.312-08:00

The New York Times is running a pretty scathing article today about WaMu's leap into the subprime crisis and the company's ultimate collapse. It may be some time before we get a thorough and unbiased account of what actually led to the collapse of WaMu, but if even half of what is in this NYT article is true, then things were really getting out of control near the end.I thought the quote at the

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-11966172921646984032008-12-22T17:16:00.000-08:002008-12-22T17:33:17.344-08:00

The Wall Street Journal is running an opinion piece today stating that rules in Washington are choking off the supply of new entrepreneurial start-ups. The article "Washington is Killing Silicon Valley" by Michael Malone, claims the Sarbanes-Oxley, mark-to-market accounting rules, and new rules about expensing stock options are causing the whole entrepeneurial system to dry up. He cites as

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-75171573435879433612008-12-11T22:38:00.000-08:002008-12-22T17:32:22.217-08:00

One of the classes I took this past quarter was a venture capital elective designed to give us a introduction to the whole VC process. The idea behind the class was to act as a counterpoint to our business plan competitions where we turn the tables around and approach the funding decision from the perspective of the investor. After a few classes by practicing VC's covering everything from

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-28423635962755915832008-12-09T19:14:00.000-08:002008-12-09T21:53:39.009-08:00

With all the grim news of the past few months, its good to hear about a local company who actually seems to be doing well. BusinessWeek is running a story this week about how Amazon.com is weathering the storm. I would be curious about what other strategies companies are following to get through the recession.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-65076937025634344642008-12-09T14:04:00.000-08:002008-12-09T14:24:46.814-08:00

I just finished my last final bringing to an end the first quarter of my MBA program. It has been a whirlwind filled with intense studying, lots of new friends, and group projects galore. If nothing else, this program has forced me to become a master time manager with multiple Google calendars making sure I am not missing anything.Keeping with that theme, I am already filling up my break

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-36485384154678512242008-06-30T21:52:00.000-07:002008-06-30T21:57:06.495-07:00

The NYT Sunday Magazine had a fascinating article this weekend on the pending baby bust confronting Europe over the coming century. They suggest that if current demographic trends continue, the continent will see its working age population decline by 30 million by 2050. Though this article doesn’t go into much detail on it, other articles in the Financial Times and the Economist last week

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-9859901667690831432008-06-05T23:07:00.000-07:002008-06-05T23:13:37.842-07:00

What a week, the press is abuzz with two new pieces of legislation being introduced to the Senate. The first is the Consumers First Energy Act, but by far the bigger news was the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008. This bill proposes a new cap and trade scheme to regulate carbon emissions. The idea behind cap and trade is that a limited number of permits would be distributed to

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-34727028281648017432007-12-27T20:20:00.000-08:002007-12-27T21:00:04.049-08:00

For Christmas this year, my family and I made the long trek up to Anacortes and while we were there I stopped to check out the progress on the new cabin. It is amazing how quickly the project is coming along. There is no trace of the old cabin left, and the foundation is already finished. With everything flattened though it really doesn't feel like the same beach I remember from growing up,

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-59470674081150505042007-11-25T22:47:00.000-08:002007-12-03T21:20:57.501-08:00

What makes a community? It's an interesting question that urban planners have been grappling with since time immemorial. In the process, they have come up with no end of big new ideas meant to revolutionize the urban landscape and inject a bit of that vibrancy back into our neighborhoods. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that nothing in the vast spectrum of urban planning

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-44303222642075354212007-10-09T20:30:00.000-07:002007-10-09T22:57:30.721-07:00

I read an interesting article on Entrepreneur.com about ten business models it sees becoming extinct in the next ten years. What does it list? Well gay bars, used book stores, and pay phones are just some of the industries the site sees as no longer relevant. All of these business models have been struggling in recent years, this is certainly true, but I think that the article was a little

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-23113669617955939982007-09-01T23:19:00.000-07:002007-09-02T17:49:00.079-07:00

Alex and I were talking earlier this week about the growing problems surrounding the 2008 presidential primary and concluded that the system as it currently stands is flawed. For decades, a handful of states have held the first primaries and gained the lion's share of attention from the candidates. Now some states are saying, "Wait, why can't we be first and get some of that attention" and well

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-5661738497097105022007-08-22T22:46:00.000-07:002007-08-22T23:11:20.571-07:00

Saturday I spent at the Gorge for Warped Tour 2007. While many of our friends decided to skip out this year, Alex, Blake, Chris and I made the brave trek across the mountains to possibly the best concert venue ever created. We kicked the morning off bright and early with a stop at Top Pot for donuts and coffee, 8:30 am sharp. While getting up early on a Saturday can be quite the hassle, this

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-19608388925488686062007-07-23T22:34:00.000-07:002007-07-23T22:56:17.795-07:00

For the second year in a row, our friends from L.A., Guy and Patrick, came up to visit for the week of July 4th. It was a whirlwind of a week with visits to numerous Seattle landmarks, parks and neighborhoods. We caught a showing of Transformers, The Buffy Musical: Once More With Feeling, and celebrated the birthdays of both Leslie and Blake. The whole week was capped by a magnificent Fourth

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-77431985806111674582007-06-12T20:22:00.001-07:002007-06-12T21:06:45.291-07:00

Well Alex and I made it back safely from our trip to Utah and all in all it was a grand time. The two days unfortunately were a bit rainy and put a bit of a damper on everything, but after that the weather got a lot better.We rented a car which was fortunate because we ended up doing a lot of driving. In both Salt Lake and the surrounding suburbs, the automobile is king, though I must admit

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-4196931584933585622007-05-29T20:57:00.000-07:002007-05-29T21:48:44.529-07:00

In rather exciting news, Sound Transit has finally approved the new light rail and transit package, ST2, that will appear on the ballot this November. As you can see from the picture, there will be extensions of the light rail network out to Lynnwood, Tacoma and Bellevue. Plus it includes an expansion of the street car to connect Downtown with the International District, First Hill and Capitol

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-57251586063470106552007-05-22T20:37:00.000-07:002007-05-22T22:18:03.533-07:00

I was just reading in the Seattle PI about how King County is hoping to make the West Seattle-Downtown passenger ferry a year round service. They are also considering expanding the passenger only ferries to new routes such as Vashon Island-West Seattle and Kirkland-University of Washington. It's really exciting to hear that the county is pursuing this rather unconventional form of

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-46835676820811981342007-05-16T21:27:00.000-07:002007-05-16T22:40:52.767-07:00

Alex and I were talking about my last post (the one about banning ads in the city) and we decided that it's probably not really worth it in Seattle. Excessive advertising is just not much of a problem, at least not the billboard variety. But, it did get us thinking and we quickly realized that one problem that does seem to pop up over and over again is litter. In a city of take away coffee

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-43316435973743493292007-05-11T22:49:00.000-07:002007-05-11T23:34:36.884-07:00

I was listening to On The Media this week and they ran a story about how Sao Paulo had decided to take their city ad free as of the new year. According to the The International Herald Tribune, the ban includes not just billboards, neon signs, and electric panels, but also advertisements on buses and taxis. Even some store signage that is deemed to be overly large for the building would have to

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-21034796087747016242007-05-05T00:23:00.000-07:002007-05-05T00:27:59.544-07:00

Yeesh, I got this in my email today and it makes me very depressed about my shopping habits.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-6466762609130062772007-04-24T20:55:00.000-07:002007-04-24T21:26:41.350-07:00

I such had a great time this weekend going up with some friends to visit my grandparent's cabin in Anacortes. I was worried that it would rain and ruin the trip, but the weather actually turned out to be great for April. The lack of electricity and clean beds certainly had their downsides, I think I am still sore from sleeping on that awful mattress, but at the same time it was so refreshing to

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-33133600596240887652007-04-24T20:37:00.001-07:002007-04-24T20:43:39.779-07:00

I just read this in the wikipedia:"alki — (rhymes with "pie) "someday", "whenever", "In the by and by", i.e. the future or near future. Alki is the state motto of Washington and a neighborhood in West Seattle. In ordinary use somewhat equivalent to the Mexican mañana, meaning sometime in the near future, or an indeterminate time away, perhaps never. It can be used as a verb auxiliary indicating

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-16647541276465530272007-04-17T21:04:00.000-07:002007-04-17T22:03:05.344-07:00

Well I must say it has been interesting to watch events surrounding the Goodwill project on Dearborn Street. Basically, Goodwill has agreed to trade their property to the Dearborn Street Developers in exchange for getting a brand new store and a training facility in their new development. The plan is for a huge Redmond Town Center type mixed use project with over 500 apartments (200 of which

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-1480386480612801912007-04-12T18:29:00.000-07:002007-04-13T07:24:04.286-07:00

Well I am returned from my trip to Europe and I had a wonderful time. It all began with an endless 24 hour long day of flying from Seattle to Washington DC to Amsterdam to Copenhagen to Aberdeen. Sadly everytime we touched down in a new country we had to go through customs and security again even though we weren't leaving the airport. At least I got more stamps in my passport out of the deal.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-10453583418676248782007-03-09T21:26:00.000-08:002007-03-09T22:07:19.205-08:00

I just read about the new building being planned for the vacant block between 3rd and 4th Ave at Cherry St, yup big surprise, yet another tower of exclusive luxury condo units where the cheapest will go for over half a million dollars. Other than the fact that the project will fill in an ugly hole in the ground, nothing too exciting about it. But, then I read about the rest of the project.The

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-33847993483106844852007-03-04T00:26:00.000-08:002007-03-04T01:02:19.096-08:00

Well, as the date is quickly approaching, I thought it might be appropriate for me to post my thoughts on the options currently available for replacing the Viaduct. It seems to me that we are being presented with two unacceptable choices on this ballot.On one hand Measure #1 would select an overly expensive and questionably feasible tunnel to replace the viaduct. This initially seemed the ideal

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-75535968379141796022007-02-11T17:30:00.000-08:002007-05-31T22:50:09.594-07:00

My grandparents brought down their boat, the Radiant Star, to visit my parents today. They just tied up to a buoy a ways out on the water and took a dingy in to shore. I got to ride out to see the ship again which was sad because it is currently for sale. I have a lot of memories on the ship from summer trips out with my family.It's an old fishing vessel they bought in Scotland when it was set

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-67847121497310524482006-10-06T16:12:00.000-07:002007-02-27T20:36:33.367-08:00

Please excuse this rant.I am writing to complain about a very deft and guileful campaign to overturn the rule of law in our state. Specifically I mean Initiative 933, a Washington State initiative that will be up for vote in the general election on Tuesday, November 7th. So what is 933? Basically, the so called "Property Fairness Act" will require local and state governments to compensate land

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4911769425321815259.post-53202118386898259172006-06-17T22:02:00.000-07:002007-02-27T20:39:35.416-08:00

Well I just got back from seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" and it was great. A few weeks ago I was at a dinner party with several people who I hadn't met before and they tore the movie apart suggesting that the very thought watching Al Gore on screen was maybe worth a good laugh and little more. I can definitely see where this kind of thinking could come from and even I was a bit hesitant to see

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778067096483434054noreply@blogger.com0