It Is About Time That Lee Got a Blog: June 2007


It Is About Time That Lee Got a Blog

This blog contains snippets from all of the useless information stored in my head. While mostly made up of links to things that caught my interest, there may also be some original thoughts once in a while

Friday, June 08, 2007

What's a 46 Year Old Woman Doing with a 22 Year Old Man?

Melinda took the "What's Your New York Age?" quiz and found that she was 46 in "New York years." I took it and found that I was 22. I'm not sure what this says, but you can find out what your New York age is by taking the quiz online.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Wainwright: Banking on Values

I met a friend of a friend the other day who told me about Wainwright Bank, which is based in Massachussets (where I am right now). The bank is a national leader in socially progressive banking. Since 1992, Wainwright has provided $570 million in loans to services for progressive causes, including women’s rights, homelessness, affordable housing, environmental protection, and gay and lesbian issues.

Based on some quick reading I've done, I found that co-founder Bob Glassman was the visionary behind the bank’s social agenda: he wanted to create a new model for the banking industry by demonstrating that "you can be profitable, you can be publicly traded, and you can make money for shareholders at the same time you are allocating capital to underserved communities." They offer largely the same products and services as all banks (online banking and bill pay, credit cards, debit cards, mortgages, etc.) with two differences: their people are excited and enthusiastic about what they’re doing and their branch offices are unique (their first cyber café branch opened in 2001 with Internet kiosks anyone can use, soft seating, a fireplace, free coffee and donuts, a TV, newspapers, etc.). Additionally, they provide a number of nonprofit services and are extremely active in the community.

I need to read more about Wainwright, but I'm excited to learn more about other organizations that, like kasina, are experimenting with a mix of profitable business, fun work environment, and social responsibility.

O's Got a Star Catcher (one day...hopefully)

Not much has worked out well for the Baltimore Orioles in the last decade (although they are slightly ahead of the Yankees in the standings right now), but today the Orioles managed to draft Matt Wieters, a catcher out of Georgia Tech, with the fifth pick. Wieters was ranked by Keith Law of ESPN as the #1 overall prospect and gives me some hope for the future.

Wieters is described as an "outstanding offensive and defensive catcher. At the plate, he has an easy, fluid swing; sprays the field with line drives, but can really put a charge into balls, especially from the LH side. Behind the plate, he's got a laser arm, gets up out of the crouch quickly on pop-ups, looks comfortable. Biggest question is whether a guy his size (listed at 6-6) can handle catching long-term. Easily the best college bat in this draft."

Friday, June 01, 2007

LeBron: Staying Alive

After LeBron James' amazing effort last night (photo below from Deadspin.com), I thought I'd link to this video from a few weeks back of LeBron singing along and dancing to the Bee Gees for an "American Idol" promotion, just to remind us that he is actually human.

lebronwinninghoop.jpg