Dangermond.org

My hairstylist thinks that I should keep my grey sideburns and not try to color them. He said they are my signature. I’ve been pretty tepid about this idea. The thought of grey hair on a woman has always sent me into a full flinch. I’m more like Vidal Sassoon when it comes to older women – if you don’t look good, we don’t look good. And grey hair except for on a rare occasion rarely looks good.

But here it is my grey, my blonde, my red, my brown, my every color hair you can imagine sitting on top of my head and suddenly WALA, friends are stopping me to say they really like my hair. A guy was ringing the doorbell on a house on Moss and said, “Pretty smile. Pretty girl.” My fellow walker who likes to call me Red even though I’ve changed my color said my I was looking good this morning.

So here it is – I’m squinting my eyes on the grey and trying to accept it as a matter of course.

So here we are at week three of Lent which is actually only supposed to be 40 days but from Ash Wednesday to Easter it is actually 46 days. I think the extra days are there so you can go off Lent on Fridays or some such thing like that but I’ve only fallen off once and that was to eat a piece of my son’s first year birthday cake.

I’ve lost four pounds and an inch in my bust, waist and hips. Not bad if you consider that all I did was give up drinking and sweets. And it’s not as if I am a sweet eater to begin with but during the holidays and Mardi Gras there seemed to be an inordinate of occasions to eat a sweet.

I thought about it this morning how I gained eight happy pounds the first year T and I got together and then I gained eight sad pounds while mom was in the hospital. 16 pounds and what do you get – almost two dress sizes higher is what. I envy those people who lose weight when big things happen to them, not me, I was a fat bride three times, I gained weight after my father died, and while my mom was in the hospital – it’s like I’m suiting up, putting on my armor to deal with the battle.

Well now I want to rest by the bayou banks lounging in a pair of shorts that I can actually fit in instead of the stretch pants that have become my wardrobe staple over the past year. 12 pounds to go. Woo hoo!

I was walking Loca this morning around the lagoon in City Park and it was another humid still day with still a hint of cool in the air. I thought about the fact that I have been in almost a relatively stressless state of mind lately and how good it feels for a change. Then I thought about my cyber friend who just received a diagnosis with cancer who is waiting to find out what stage, what level, what next and I thought how difficult her life must be right now because it is all in the waiting for what’s around the corner and is it foolish to believe it will all be good or is it more foolish to believe it will all be bad?

You are in my thoughts dear friend.

Yesterday, I walked downstairs and saw my little boy sitting on the couch reading his Goodnight Moon and I thought OMG he looks like a little boy, not an infant. Last night, we took a nice long bath together and I washed and conditioned his hair and it now forms these little ringlet curls all over and when I went to lift him up to T so that she could dry and grease him up, I thought OMG he is so heavy I can barely lift him like this. Then this morning I had early calls and was up at my desk and engaged in a call when T brought him up for a quick kiss since I didn’t get to see him wake up, and I looked at him and thought OMG he’s aged in just 24 hours!

Turn around and he’s a young boy, turn around and he is a school kid, turn around and he’s a college grad, turn around and I’m dead if I make it that far. Good Lord!

FASTCOMPANY: Why You Should Start a Company In New Orleans

March 4, 2010

By Laura Rich

What do entrepreneurs do? They find an itch that needs to be scratched and go at it. After the devastating hurricane of 2005, New Orleans definitely had a lot of itches.

Years of effort to attract entrepreneurs and encourage locals to start something as an alternative to the corporate jobs that were lost are paying off. The city now boasts entrepreneurial enclaves like Entrepreneur’s Row, Idea Village and Entergy Innovation Center, all of which is basically real estate housing startup efforts. And the Big Easy also counts several groups and events that have sparked a vibrant community, such as Net2NO, BarCamp, Social Media Club, Startup School, WordCamp, and TribeCon. Though New Orleans lacks an abundance of local capital, the state helps out with a 25% tax break for digital media companies, plus 10% on human capital costs.

It’s still early days for this nascent hub, but one startup may put it on the map: Receivables Exchange. Started by a transplanted New Yorker, the company’s product is a market for companies’ receivable accounts. It recently closed a $17 million Series C round from Bain Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Prism Ventureworks.

Chris Schultz, president of Internet firm Voodoo Ventures, spoke with Fastcompany.com about what makes New Orleans’ startup scene unique.

What makes New Orleans a great place for startups?

Well, I think New Orleans is a fantastic place for startups, and the city as you know has reinvented itself post Katrina, but some incredible things have happened and that starts with the people that have moved to New Orleans since Katrina. We have this incredible influx of young people, energetic people, people that wanted to be here and want to kind of be part of the recovery. And a lot of folks realized that the best way to do that was through creating jobs by starting companies, so a lot of interesting entrepreneurs moved down. The community in general I think became a lot more open.

More specifically, I’d say the bullet points would be it’s the type of place that I think is right for our times right now from a cultural standpoint. It’s an incredibly creative and historic city with a rich quality of life.

But why should anyone choose New Orleans?

Startups can be anywhere and obviously we recognize that we’re not Silicon Valley or New York, but I think that the virtualization of business as a whole is really benefiting us down here. And so, people can choose to be here because of the quality of life and, significantly, the lower cost of living.

You can build a business for much less down here. So that’s an important factor too. Finally, I’d say that one of the things that has been very significant down here is the organizational and governmental support for the startup community. The state government has a number of tax credit programs. They’re geared at digital media and specifically modeled after one in the film industry. Six years ago they launched this, a 25% tax credit on money you spend in Louisiana. It vaulted Louisiana to the third largest production in the country after New York and California.

And they’ve just done the same thing with digital media–the same tax credit, up to 35% of what you spend on building a tech company. So they’re very curious about it and providing credible support.

Are there particular types of startups that do better in New Orleans than others?

I think that we’re honing in on our identity as a community. One thing we are seeing is purpose-driven companies. I don’t want to give the impression [that it’s] non-profits or purely cause-driven companies. But companies that, you know, sort of the triple bottom line. The idea of doing well while doing good. We’re seeing a lot of those companies down here and I think that that really [matters to] the people that moved here after Katrina, wanting to build companies that are kind of purpose driven.

How would you say that New Orleans is better or different for entrepreneurs than other cities?

Well, that’s a good question. I moved here from L.A. in 2002, above all for the quality of life and I mean by that, the people that are here. I was searching for authenticity and, you know, soulful people and people with character and strong character and that’s a lot of what you find down here.

And I think that’s sort of what attracts a lot of people here. In October, we did the first Tribe Conference, which is a conference about leveraging power of community to create change. And three of the speakers that came to the conference–one is from L.A., another from Virginia, and another guy–all moved down here after that conference. Literally, moved to New Orleans because of the connections they’ve made, and the power and the spirit of community down here.

In a lot of ways, New Orleans is the city for our times, it fits the post-financial-crisis world. We dealt with our knockout blow in 2005 and the people here literally have rebuilt and re-imagined the city. We are ahead of the rest of the country that is just now dealing with the financial crisis. We’re already well into recovery and growth mode, so it’s an exciting time.

There’s something kind of magical that’s going on right now and it’s that gelling at the very beginning of an uprising where things really become a movement.

Are there any companies that are sort of representative of where New Orleans is headed?

Yeah, absolutely. One that I think is at the top of everybody’s list is a company called Receivables Exchange. Through the downturn, through the recession, they’ve had tremendous success as some of the banks and some of the companies with real problems turn to them. They literally created a market where there wasn’t one for helping companies with their financing.

Is there much in the way of local capital?

Right now, there’s not enough startup capital and I think that’s one of the biggest gaps down here. But I do think that there is capital coming. There’s a new fund that actually has just put their funding together and is looking to hire a CEO. Leapfrog Ventures is opening up. There’s a venture capital fund called VCE Capital that is here, but we don’t have as much as we need.

What kind of a talent base is there?

I think there’s a very strong talent base that’s both homegrown and also [comes from] people moving here. A lot of people are moving back. A lot of people left New Orleans at some point and now are finding the opportunity, the time to move back.

From a marketing and branding standpoint, New Orleans has always been a creative place and has had a lot of ad agencies. A lot of those ad agencies are moving into the startup scene. Specifically, Trumpet Advertising has launched a division called Trumpet Ventures and they’re working with a startup called Naked Pizza that has just raised some financing from Mark Cuban.

One of the things that’s happening more and more is: I’m seeing a lot more of the actual techies, the developers, the UI designers, the coders that are actually building software, moving in and there’s been a lot of activity in the grassroots coders groups and that type of stuff that is sort of prospering and nurturing that environment.

What’s happening in the ecosystem there that will make it sustainable?

I think one of the biggest assets that we have in New Orleans right now is the entrepreneurial spirit driven by collaboration. There’s a tremendous amount of collaboration over competitiveness with each other and everybody is looking to offer a hand, make an introduction, offer an idea, help you get your idea out there in a way that I think only New Orleanians kind of have because of what we went through.

There’s a big sense that this is something that’s real, it’s happening and it’s going to be the economic driver going forward for the City of New Orleans.

I was walking out the door with Tin in pouch and Loca when I ran into three neighborhood mommies with their Ergo Baby pouches locked and loaded, so I joined them for a neighborhood stroll. Conversations about daycare vs nanny, about moms and inlaws coming to visit for extended periods (everyone seems to have an upcoming visit scheduled) as well as vocalizing anti duck, anti Disney, and anti this or that sentiments but when there is a kid in your pouch laughing at the air nothing we said took on a serious tone and was diffused as polite chit chat.

We walked by two men who were talking by a truck and they stared real hard at the four mommies with toddlers riding on them – “looky here, a bunch of mommies” one said.

And as Tin and I turned from the group to come home, I told him that he had made me a mom and how lucky am I? He said, “Moo, moo, moo.”

Marc Pagani just sent us some photos he took at Tin’s birthday as his present – not bad having someone as talented as Marc documenting your life:

Then there are the photos I snapped like this one with Evan Christopher who offered to play for free for Tin’s birthday – lucky boy:

And though we asked that people not bring gifts, some people felt that Tin needed something to unwrap after all.

My brother gave Tin a small blue baseball glove and baseball – which is good since that’s probably the only sport I wouldn’t mind him playing (read: no football)

And of course the artists brought art books – this one he is reading takes you through a day of classic paintings but it is a touch book too:

The suction cup bowl with the giraffe spoon has been his favorite though – he is loving having a his own equipment on his tray.

I got my earnings record in the mail from Social Security and it was interesting because I was looking at updating my resume just because it has gotten so rusty. When I was looking at my old resume and putting together my work history I was shocked to see that I’ve been doing this same work for 15 years (time flies). But then as I was going through my Social Security earnings record I started pegging each time period with what I was doing then. 1975 I earned $338 and was a Sophomore in High School. In 1977 when I graduated from High School I earned $3,159. Then 1983, I earned $16,144 and had just gotten married. In 1987 and 1988 there is no amount because I was working for my brother and the young woman doing the payroll was depositing our taxes into her personal account. We found out only after she wrapped her car around a tree and died and her entire mystery unraveled – like why she always had new clothes, new car, and would order out anything she wanted for lunch while we ate leftovers and that mansion she said she lived in across the lake, not – she lived in a trailer with a shoe box full of money as she had been embezzling her whole life – from her parents through every job she had ever had. So she was buried with two years of my taxes. 1990 I earned $23,541 and had just moved to San Francisco and was married to husband #2. 1991 was husband #3 and $23,730. Then in 1995, I started my current career – my annual salary was ascending until we got to 2007 and then it started ticking down and has been descending ever since.

To think that this record contained so many touchstones to my personal history is amazing.

Waiting in the Social Security office for Tin’s number (which I never got because the wait was horrendous) I heard a familiar name called to the window and looked up to see an ex in-law moving very slowly towards the window – yikes! – the years have not been kind and there was something downright scary looking in their eyes.

The lagoon in City Park was so glassy this morning it was a mirror reflecting the white cotton ball clouds overhead. A coot was be bopping along and suddenly took flight and sped it’s way to nowhere but the other side. The white swan circled the small islands towards Carrollton Avenue – my fellow walker tells me she is looking for a nesting place. Before Katrina, the swans regularly used the first island for nests and there were some hatchlings right before the storm hit. For now a Black-Crowned Night-Heron sat peacefully guarding the island, which might be why the swan hasn’t made her nest there. As I rounded the end of the park near Marconi, a flock of white ibis cruised across the green grass looking like poetry in motion and to my right a log lined with dark green turtles shell to shell sported a Tricolored Heron sitting at the tip creating a fabulous sculpture in the water.

Everywhere I looked moss covered oaks, waxy leafed magnolias, palm trees and pines, I felt a sense of how lucky we are to live so close to this park and to be part of its tapestry. When I got to my office, and looked out to the bayou, there were two birds on the wire snuggling and preening each other. Yesterday my neighbor shouted at me from the bayou, “Those ducks are getting it on,” she yelled.

Spring is in the air.