http://www.massena.com/shaula copyright 2005-2006 Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:35:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en About a year ago I had a bizarre experience where someone I was hoping to connect with in finance finally admitted they were avoiding me because several other folks at a conference had warned this person that I was “a blogger”. I was stunned: I have never slammed anyone or ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/08/17/the-future-is-youtube/ Having spent 10 years in tech and married a fellow programmer, my life is still pretty embedded. For the hubbie’s birthday, I bought him Rockband (http://www.rockband.com/ - and this link is NOT quiet!) for the Xbox 360 and we have been playing for the last several weeks. After ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/07/26/technology-in-my-life/ We spent our 2007 wedding anniversary at Yosemite National Park, viewing giant sequoias and fabulous stone vistas. We had the good fortune of a tour courtesy of a park ranger which included a discussion of how Sequoias reproduce. Each tree produces hundreds of pinecones, and each pinecone produces hundreds ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/07/22/the-ranger-the-author-and-the-business-consultant/ I'm back to reading a book called Manhattan For Rent, 1785-1850, by Elizabeth Blackmar. I overheard intellectual greats Peter Kinder and Joy Anderson discussing their favorite books at a conference a year ago and made notes. This book helps shed important light on gentrification. "Far from fulfilling the egalitarian potential ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/06/29/land-capital-gentrification/ The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance -- and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same by Matt Leighninger (Author) I attended a lecture at Portland city hall, basically book tour for this book, Wed April 30th 6pm. It was great! Matt ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/06/18/participatory-democracy/ Here’s my problem. I need to be “working”, but unfortunately a wide swath of topics fall under my current definition of “work”. I’ve got my school project which is trying to focus on community economic development that makes enough money to be self-sustaining. I’ve got a grant-making ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/05/13/too-many-cool-things/ Bordewich, F.M. (1996). Killing the White Man’s Indian: Reinventing Native Americans as the end of the twentieth century. New York: Doubleday. The “white man’s Indian” in the title of the book refers to archetypes such as “drunk Indian”, “noble savage” and “selfless caretaker of the earth” ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/04/27/book-review-killing-the-white-mans-indian/ Good lending practice caps how much money can be loaned to a small business based on their cash flow, as well as debt-to-asset ratios. Growing simply based on cash flow can result in very slow growth. Some communities have taken the next step and created Community Development Venture Capital ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/04/05/green-community-development-venture-capital/ For Christmas my Mother gave me an interesting book of women’s literary criticism. I flipped through somewhat at random and found fascinating reading about the lives and writings of both Margaret Mitchell (author of Gone with the Wind, published in 1936) and Zora Neale Hurston (who wrote Their Eyes were ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/02/24/a-visit-to-uncle-toms-cabin/ I’ve been thinking of calling my collection of activities “full spectrum capital” (but the domain name is already camped on). Good Capital and Tim Freundlich were really key inspirations for me in their emphasis that it’s a continuum between philanthropy and investing, not buckets. The Heron Foundation also ... http://www.massena.com/shaula/2008/02/13/accountable-compassion/