Author: Logan Lo

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business personal

Dean Martin and the Street Where You Live

Eve: Sing it to me.
Adam: (softly, saying it as much as singing it) “All at once am I several stories high knowing I’m on the street where you live.” It’s about a young man who is overjoyed just to be standing in front of the house of the person he loves.

Everybody likes Frank Sinatra. Not me; much preferred Dean Martin. Gotta say that his version of On the Street Where You Live is my favourite. Thought about it today after running all over the city.

Got home first, from a pretty busy day. Was up at 4AM. Dashed out to a breakfast at the Benjamin Steak House with a buncha lawyers. Nice group save for one fella who just seemed like he was in a sour mood. Found him annoying; he was the only one.

In any case, had the Eggs Benedict before hoofing it to the office. Caught a train out to Queens to another office, a haircut, lunch at the rents, another appointment at the old NY Sun offices before catching another train.

Made it back home just in time to hear her unlock the door.

———-

Like Eggs Benedicts cause my egg poaching’s not worth a damn and my Hollandaise sauce breaks enough times for me to just want someone to do it for me.

If I get enough time, gonna try and make Chicken and 40 Cloves of Garlic. Love fall. Get to cook again.

Sculpture in NYC

Location: getting ready for another busy day
Mood: weary
Music: People stop and state; they don’t bother me.
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That the North Americans speak English

The little things we do have big impact in our lives

View of New York City's City Hall from Chinatown NYC

Him: I’m unemployed and live at home again. How’s this good?
Me: You have a college education, speak English, live in New York City, and were lucky enough to be born here. (gently) You’re doing better than mosta the world.

A quote that’s stayed with me my entire life’s from Otto von Bismark towards the end of his life. He was asked what he felt would be the most significant shaping event of the 20th century.

Rather than replying that it would be electricity, or firepower, or any of that, he said simply, That the North Americans speak English.

Speaking of which, there’s this interesting theory that part of why English, not French, is the world’s dominant language is because of barnacles on ships.

See, the English plated the hulls of their ships with copper, which stopped barnacles from growing. This meant they could move just slightly faster than French ships that had none.

The French lost control of the seas,  England became the a superpower by the 19th century, and I’m more Bugs Bunny than Pepe le Pew.

A fella recently asked me how I get so much done in my life. Thought immediately about the barnacle story. Cause big things happen with slight changes in trajectory. What’s a small change today can make a huge difference later on.

As a fat 13 year-old, decided to drink a cup of water before each meal. A slight change. Lost like 10 pounds that year. Then changed over to skim milk, lost another few pounds. Always tell people that I look young because of a combo of Asian genes and constant maintenance.

Anywho, back to my friend. He wants to know how to get things done. Told him that it’s all about fighting the inertia. He’s super talented but he’s held hostage by the fact he’s good enough. And good enough is enemy of great.

There’s no one huge leap from good enough to great, just lots of little steps – your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to take those little steps.

On that note, it’s a busy week for me. Nuthin big. Just lots of little things. Let’s see what happens.

 

Location: apartment, getting ready for the week
Mood: cheerful
Music: thinking about the good things to come and I believe it could be
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business personal

A Lecture then Drinks in the Down Town Association

Outside of the DTA in NYC

Gave a long presentation on an aspect of the law called Trademark Dilution last night. The actual speaking went fine – the problem was the forum (a) didn’t have a clock and (b) didn’t have a referee. So I had no idea how much time I had until some guy popped up and mouthed “five minutes.”

Looked down and I still had six slides to go through with the real meat of the lecture. So ran through that the best I could. The thing with letting go of control of something is that y’gotta have faith that the people that’re then in charge of that thing  do what they need to on their end. It was good, not great.

Afterward, met up with two of my friends at this place called the Down Town Association. It’s a oak paneled club that members get to show up at and relax in old leather chairs and glasses of whiskey.

The thing about NYC’s that every nice place, you’re shoulder-to-shoulder with another 1,000 people cause it’s a nice place. So that’s why it occasionally worth it to join things like the DTA – to get some civilization and some space.

No aged rum though, so I had an Old Fashioned. Two actually – before dashing off to my fencing class late.

There’s nuthin like waving around sharp objects with cheese and alcohol in your belly and annoyance in your soul.

Inside of the Down Town Association in NYC

Location: back to work
Mood: mildly annoyed
Music: 3 versions of this story: mine and yours and then the truth
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personal

Mussels in a white-wine reduction > Powerpoint presentation

Mussels in white wine sauce

Wrote this long thing about my 9/11/2001 but I’m not in the mood yet to post it. Maybe next year?

That’s all I’ll say on the topic to spare you the 9/11 overload.

———-

Been prepping for another lecture; this one I’m giving downtown in front of a lotta US attorneys tomorrow. Should really post somea the videos when I’m done but then I figured it’d just put you to sleep.

HG and I went on two dates recently, both at nice local taverns – PJ Clarke’s and PD O’Hurley’s. No particular reason, the weather’s just cooled down enough so that going outside is bearable. Reminded us of when we were still dating. New York City’s a bit wasted on us since we’re so blase to it. Trying to fight that.

Dunno if I ever told you, but I don’t cook in the summertime. Almost not at all. Too hot.

But the weather’s cooled down lots so I made some mussels in a white wine reduction – was trying to recreate a dish we both had and enjoyed on onea our dates.

It was good, not great. Too much alcohol left in the pot gave it a bit too much sting in the backa the throat. Did reduce down the sauce after we had all of the mussels the next day; poured it on some angel hair pasta and it was killer.

Will have to make more soon. For now, though, gotta make a Powerpoint presentation. Not nearly as much fun.

 

Location: the desk, working
Mood: hopeful
Music: just different faces, different names, get me out of here
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It’s been a decade since 9/11

Midtown West of New York City from the river

Causea the vacation last month, plus the hurricane and Labor Day, things have been slow. Actually, all of summer’s traditionally slow for me so it’s when I map out my trajectory for following year.

As I said, all businesses are comprised of three parts so I like the use the downtime to concentrate on the other two (sales/marketing & research/development). More on that some other time.

Yesterday, though, was running around Staten Island for work. Stopped by the Brooklyn Ikea on the way home to pick up some cabinets; HG’s a lot neater than me so I feel I’ve got to step up and get my stuff in order. Spent far more time yesterday pounding together funny flat boxes than reasonable.

Evidently, there’s this theory that obesity is contagious, which I could have told you – your friends’re mirrors to yourself so if you’ve got friends that love to pound food, chances are you do as well, or will. Think that HG’s a good influence on me in a number of aspects, neatness being just onea of those things.

Part of the reason you cut friends is to make room for the one’s that’re better for you.

Other friends you keep around for years, decades, even.

Speakinga decades, Sunday’s September 11th. Ten years, it’s been. There’re all these memorials and constant news clips whatnot. Which I understand, especially for those that were too young to not know what happened.

Thing is that I remember every goddamned minute of that goddamned morning. Suspect mosta my fellow New Yorkers do as well.

Ten years. Man, it feels like it was yesterday.

This video was shot on 9/7/2011.

Location: getting dressed for a meeting
Mood: pensive
Music: I’ll always love you though New York, New York, New York
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Stupid on different subjects

Street lamp in Byrant Park, in NYC

Me: Niggardly is a Scottish word meaning “cheap.”
Him: Nope, it’s Scandinavian. (gets dictionary)
Me: Dammit! I hate being wrong…

The weather’s been great in the city since Irene. Calm, cool, dry – it actually feels a lot more like early fall than anything else. Suppose I should enjoy it.

No time to do that today, though. Gotta be in court – although this time it’s not for me but a client. When it comes to court cases and clients, I usually play a supporting role behind the scenes. This time, though, sitting front and center. For a guy that doesn’t litigate, this’s always interesting.

Dunno how people get anything done in hot climates; always feel lethargic and slow in the summertime. But the second it feels like fall, it’s like the year’s begun.

Like to teach myself something every year. Twain said that we are all stupid, just on different subjects. That’s true – I hate not knowing something.

Dunno if I told you but this year, I decided to learn calculus. No real reason except I never did. But then I thought I should do something a bit more practical so I turned back doing  my Mission real estate courses.

Funny isn’t it? The whole time I was in school, dreamed of being outta it. Now that I’m outta it, dream of being in it (especially in the fall). It’s the human condition to blunt the sharp points of our memories.

Enough armchair philosophy, got an important date with an adult in a robe.

Ed note: Niggardly is completely unrelated to the racial slur – which it merely sounds like – the pejorative comes from Spanish/Portuguese noun negro.

Location: heading downtown
Mood: busy
Music: hell ya blew trial and tha judge gave you 25 with an L
YASYCTAI: What are you learning this year? (two semesters/1.5 pts)
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personal

Me, Myself and Irene (and the wife)

NYC Broadway, right before Hurricane Irene

Tenant: Hi! I think I left my window open.
Me: You’re kidding me.

So Hurricane Irene came and went. Cause I live on the ground floor and manage my building, spent almost mosta Friday securing all the vacant apartments, helping clear the roof, checking the terraces, and directing all of the tenants on what to do. Some are brighter than others. Was exhausting.

My pad’s flooded in the past so I was filling out sandbags for my back yard  like I was living in Boise, Idaho. Actually, every place in NYC was outta sandbags but another tenant was throwing out potted plants and there was just enough dirt that I could fill several bags up and block off my door.

In the end, mosta the storm ended up being a whole lotta nuthin around me. Which is not to say it wouldn’t have been a whole lotta nuthin if people didn’t take the precautions they did.

Him: You filled up your bathtub? (smugly) Why don’t you buy bottled water like normal people?
Me: OK, you do realize that pre-1994 toilets require 13 gallons of water to flush and that most post-1994 toilets require six, yes? And that, should we lose clean drinking water, that also means that water likely isn’t clean enough to bathe in. So, while you’re stinky and backed-up, I’ll be fresh smelling and regular.
Him: (laughing) Good point. I only have a shower stall though.

When I was a kid, there was this massive blackout. My dad had candles, batteries, ice, and a tub fulla water. It was back during the Son of Sam days so I think my dad also had a baseball bat. Funny, I was only like four at the time, but I remember it. He told me not to play with the tub water cause we were gonna need it. Made me think that, while emergencies’re never fun, it was nice going through something like it with HG.

Surprised at how many people have a zero ability to properly prepare for stuff. Most times, thing end up fine, like it did this time. But some times it doesn’t. Figure that being prepped for that random chance is a good thing, regardless of outcome.

It’s the stuff that y’don’t see coming that should wreck you; at least there you got an excuse.

Ventured outside for just a bit before the storm. Was weird to see everything so quiet. According to FB, the local Chinese restaurant and Korean nail salon were open. We Asians’re nuthin if not industrious. Mosta the garbage bins had been overturned so they wouldn’t fill up with debris and rainwater. No buses, some taxis and a hand-full of delivery bikes along the roadways. Eerie.

The next day, HG and I woke up and took a walk where we met this chain-smoking blond whose boss said she had to come in and work. Also ran into two people from my church. Made me think of that quote, Fear is forward. No one is afraid of yesterday.

The sun’s out now and the air smells like fall.

Doesn’t matter what befalls the City. She just gets up, dust herself off and gets back to work. People live for predictability, and NYC’s nuthin if not crawling with people, so that makes sense.

 

Location: back at work
Mood: relieved
Music: the sun can come back another day, rain please stay
YASYCTAI: Get back to work. (8 hours/0.5 pt)
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business

Why I bought the HP Touchpad; Doing the Opposite Thing

HP Touchpad review pictures

Spent the last couple of days trying to land the HP Touchpad. In fact, immediately upon returning from my trip, started the process – that’s how we dorks roll. For those of you that don’t know/have a real life, HP spent $1.8 billion to buy the operating system for the Touchpad, started selling it like three months ago, and then abruptly dropped the whole thing.

Ended up ordering like 18 of them knowing that most would get cancelled, which they did; right now, I’m scheduled to get about three of them and this may change.

The question, of course, is Why would I buy the HP Touchpad when I already have an iPad?

The answer is that, as a $599 iPad competitor, there’s no question that it’s simply not as good and not worth the money. As a $150 colour eBook reader, that’s a completely different story. Since I use my iPad 99.9999% of the time as a PDF and ebook reader, most of it’s functionality is wasted.

So I’m thinking of just selling the iPad and using the HP Touchpad as a stopgap device until the iPad 3, or even the iPad 4, comes out.

The other reason to get it, however, is to hack it to run the Android operating system in a year or so. From everything I’ve read the OS on the tablet (webOS) is excellent. The problem is that there just aren’t enough apps for it. For the next year, the built in Kindle App and Facebook app – the only tablet Facebook app from what I’ve read – coupled with the built in ebook reader and 50GB of cloud storage for life, should make it a worthwhile stopgap device for me for the next 18 and by then, a stable Android os hack should be floating around.

It’s coming in a week or so, so I’ll post details as it comes about.

End unabashed dweeb.

Red plastic down near Canal Street, NYC

Me: OK, I’m ready.
Her: Do you have your swim trunks?
Me: No.
Her: Do you have your hat?
Me: No.
Her: Do you have your sunglasses?
Me: No.
Her: (Shakes head)
Me: I’ll go pack those right now.

Now that the vacation’s over, it’s back to work.

Met up with my old business buddy for some good Irish stout. He owns Cruisedirect.com, which just got listed in the Inc 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in America. That puts his biz in the top 1% of all businesses in the country.

Did y’know that the Empire State Building was built in the middle of the great depression? There’s this saying that Any company can be good in good times, only great companies can be good in bad times. Sometimes, doing the opposite thing of the rest of the world’s the way to go.

Getting itch to start something up again and I’ve got a few ideas percolating.

We’ll see how it goes.

———-

Just for laughs, Google the words “Intellectual Property NYC” and then click “videos” on the left-hand side.

What do you see where you are?

Location: prepping for some business
Mood: ambitious
Music: don’t you worry, it could be so sweet
YASYCTAI: Be brave when others are wary; wary when others are brave. (lifetime/3 pts)
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personal

Bermuda 2011

Cloudy day in Bermuda

Me: Do you wanna…?
Her: It’s Monday, Logan.
Me: Television it is.

Went with the wife for a quick trip to Bermuda last week. Normally when I go someplace, there’s usually some travelogue to go with it.

This time, however, the entirety of the excursion can be summed up as follows:

      • sleep
      • eat
      • beach
      • read
      • watch Dexter
      • watch Game of Thrones
      • rum

Repeat. It was pretty cloudy and rainy the whole time but that was fine with me as it gave me an excuse to just sit inside with a drink and read.

Parta what makes the trip so relaxing is the forced lack of net access. Have to remember that.

Going to the Caribbean is like going to the Mecca of rum. Came back with almost half a suitcase worth of the stuff. Gonna need it with the way the economy’s heading.

Piña colada in Bermuda

A few days before going, met up with Hazel and Gio for some drinks – it was like back when we were all single. To prep for my trip, ordered a Piña colada and the bartender insisted on putting a pink umbrella in it.

Him: That’s a manly pink umbrella.
Me: It’s not complete until I drink it with my pinky out.

Now it’s Monday and I’m back to work. Still got sand in my bag. Dunno if that’s a good or bad thing.

Beach sand in Bermuda
Logan Lo

 

Location: back in my apartment
Mood: content
Music: don’t have time I’ve still got sand in my shoes
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Good salesmanship is the conveyance of enthusiasm

Singer sewing machine parts

Salespeople get a bad rap. Which sucks cause every business has three parts:

  1. Research and development
  2. Operations
  3. Sales and marketing

Two outta three of those spend money but only one of them makes money. That’s why its so important. The other two can slide at times but sales can never slide.

Did I ever tell you that I taught sales? Did it for a while at the Fortune 500 company where I learned that good salesmanship is the conveyance of enthusiasm.

Take my Mac computer.

Was against the mac for years until my brother and Rain – neither of whom worked for Apple nor owned Apple stock – each individually spent days (days!) espousing all the benefits of the mac. They were excited. They got me excited. Next thing you know, I’m plunking down twice what I’d spend on a PC for some shiny.

That’s good salesmanship. That’s the kinda salesman my dad was. That’s the kinda salesman I am at heart. Those are the kinds that don’t need to lie or puff, they just get you hyped up about how this product or service can make your life better cause it actually can.

When you truly believe that your product/service will make people’s lives better, you cannot stop that.

So I went to see Rain with an idea I have for a show.

Him: Man, the best thing you and I did were those commercials.
Me: I know. We should do something else.

Admin note: No posts next week. Got a thingy to do and my injuries are driving me up the wall. See you in a week?

 

Location: still sitting with an ice pack
Mood: still in pain
Music: bring me home to Hadestown way down to Hadestown
YASYCTAI: Do something artistic, it’s good for the soul. (7 days/1 pt)
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