MBA In A Page

Guy Kawasaki hit a nerve with his "MBA in a Page" post.

Check the comments. Some pretty funny stuff. My favorite:

I was in an investment bank office one day - a $10 million check on the table. It was pulled away because the CEO of my main competitor was a Harvard MBA. The investor thought that was a more important qualification than my Caltech PhD and significantly greater understanding of the issue both companies addressed. Kleiner Perkins felt the same way.


So Guy, are telling me that you would have given us the money? Are you saying that you don't invest when too many MBAs are involved?

I see this as kind of hypocritical. You speak disdain for the MBA but your herd gives it more weight than almost any other criteria.

**************

Roger,

Let me be subtle. All things being equal, any VC who picks a Harvard MBA over a CalTech PhD for a tech company is someone you don't want money from.

Guy

Zing!

For the record, I'm an MBA student and I agree with Guy's sentiment in the post:

MBA trons suck.

(My classmates that will soon be falling all over themselves to get 30 seconds of face time with the McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc. recruiters only to ask an asinine question "company culture" may have different opinions.)

If I'm the CEO of an early-stage venture, an MBA student would probably be the last person I would seek to hire for a very early position.*  Despite our eagerness and ambition, we're expensive, 2 years gone from reality, and, by the time we graduate, we will have been told how great we are about 129,384 times.  Not the right mix for an important early hire if you ask me.

*Unless the MBA student were me.

Dress Blues

I should probably be working on the statistics homework I have to turn in on the first day of class, but I'm not. (Yes - I have to complete real homework before class even starts. This is not an encouraging sign of what I suspect is to come.)

Instead, I'll observe my final fleeting moments on "The Summer of Eric Gravy Train Extravaganza" by telling you about the best song to be released on record in a long time - "Dress Blues" by Jason Isbell from his debut album "Sirens of the Ditch".

(The album title comes from a great lyric from the song "Grown" - "Last night I heard the sirens' song and I followed it in the ditch".)

When I got back from China and reconnected with reality, I was shocked to learn that Jason Isbell had left the Drive-By Truckers to strike out on a solo career. (He actually made the move in April - not sure how I didn't catch the news then.) I was at once disappointed and excited - disappointed because DBT will never be the same and excited because Jason has the chops to make a serious splash as a solo artist. Plus - I figured that his first record would feature "Dress Blues", a haunting anti-war song he's been performing with DBT for the past couple years or so.

Sure enough, the song made the record and, in my opinion, makes the record. He sings about Matt Connelly, a high school friend from Green Hill, AL, that enlisted in the Marines, was shipped to the Middle East, and never came home.

Check out a video of Jason singing "Dress Blues" solo on YouTube.

The songs lyrics are a knife in the heart:

Your wife said this all would be funny
when you came back home in a week.
You'd turn twenty-two and we'd celebrate you
in a bar or a tent by the creek.
Your baby would just about be here.
Your very last tour would be up
but you won't be back. They're all dressed in black
drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups.

Mamas and grandmamas love you
'cause that's all they know how to do.
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.

Like everything else he sings, Jason delivers the lyrics in a smoky, Southern twang that drips with authenticity. The simple symbols in the song - scripture on grocery store signs, a funeral held in a high school gymnasium, sweet tea in Styrofoam cups, silent old men from the Corps - paint a sobering picture of how the costs of war extend deeply into our families and communities.

Most of all, I love that the anti-war statement isn't a zealous rant, a list of mistakes and misjudgments, or an impassioned plea to "bring home the troops". Instead, it's a simple question of risk vs. reward:

But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters
and there's silent old men from the corps.
What did they say when they shipped you away
to fight somebody's Hollywood war?

Such a simple shift in perspective poses a powerful question regarding the outcomes we're seeking and the significant sacrifices we continue to make.

I actually wrote a post a year or so ago about another Isbell song that I love dearly, "Outfit" by the Drive-By Truckers. I still think that "Outfit" is Jason's finest song, but recognize that "Dress Blues" is by far his most significant.

A Big/Small Kenan-Flagler World

First day of orientation was great. Good times, good programming, good food, and, of course, GREAT people. People from all parts of the globe with all kinds of backgrounds, work experiences, and personalities.

Funny thing, though. Of all the different people from all over the world, the following happen to be my classmates:

Troy - my backyard neighbor.

Dan - a former pharma rep that serviced my Aunt Rhonda and Father-in-Law Carl's clinic.

Michael - my 2nd cousin and childhood friend.

Small world, huh?

First Day of School!

Orientation starts today.

My pencils are sharpened.  My snappy new lunchbox is packed.  I've donned my "first day of school" attire, as selected by Kelly and as displayed over night by the little man I fashioned out of the clothes in the floor beside my bed.

I'm ready to ask lots of questions.  I'm ready to have a locker again.  I'm a little bit nervous.  I'm wishing that Kelly would hurry up so that we could leave already.  Heck - I'm even drinking coffee from a Kenan-Flagler mug!

Game on!

How To Build A Garden Arbor

Considering the enormous success of my "How to Install a Dishwasher" series (unfortunately no longer a 1st page Google result), I thought I'd share the scoop on my latest (somewhat significant) home improvement project - building an arbor over the gate to our backyard.

Here's the before photo:


Note the mature jasmine vines on either side of the gate. We planted these in Fall 2004 with plans to add an arbor so that they'd have somewhere to grow and also so that they would get more sun, which would in turn give us more lovely yellow blooms.

3 years later, I finally had so little to do that I actually built it.

I thought about taking down the gate, removing the posts, and adding new ones for a 4 post arbor. I opted not to because it would be hard to do so without killing my plants and because I had zero confidence in my carpentry ability. If I dug up the posts and then screwed up the new construction, then I would have been f'ed. Instead, I took a safer approach that left me an easy "put it back together" fall back plan, as I often do.

I went to Home Depot to buy the lumber for the project - 1 6X6, 2 2X6, and 2 2X2 - all 8 feet. I hoped that they could cut the 6X6 to size for me. No dice. Thus I was left with this:


Yes - I made 2 cuts on a 6X6 post with a 12 inch Stanley hand saw.

(Good thing I'm a beast with a 12 Stanley hand saw.)

As expected, the cuts took forever and ended up incredibly sloppy. Luckily, however, I'm not just a beast with a hand saw, but I'm also a genius. I cut the post on either end, thus leaving me the flat factory cuts for the joint. BAM!

Here's one of my posts balancing on the existing gate post:


So you can kinda see the easy way out if/when I muck it all up. I just plunk the caps back on the gate posts, clean up the sawdust, hide the lumber, and tell Kelly that I've been watching TV all day. The project never happened and my man ego remains intact.


17 hours later and 3 gallons of sweat later, I finished the other cut and braced the pieces together:



I was a little worried about the stability of the posts, but these metal thingies did the job. The pieces didn't match up perfectly, but close enough. I used wooden shims to balance the posts until they were level and added numerous screws to each brace.

Once the posts were up, I started working on the overhead piece. I borrowed Kelly's dad's jig saw make fancy cuts on either end of the 2X6 and used the lid from a jar of peanut butter to draw the curves.

If you look closely in the photo, you can see my practice cut on the end of the board, the pattern I traced on the board for the actual cut, and the lid from the peanut butter jar. (Choosy wanna-be carpenters choose JIF.)


Surprisingly, I didn't suck at this and, more surprisingly, I didn't sever my arm and bleed to death in my yard. In fact, I actually enjoyed it - despite the fact that it brought back memories of 8th grade shop class when I actually broke a jig saw in class. Scarring memories re-repressed, I made the cuts, cleaned up the edges with a file and some sandpaper, and attached the pieces.

While hanging them, I had to do a little math in my head to make sure that the facing boards centered on the posts. The simple subtraction should be a good warm up for the linear regressions and bond pricing problems in my near future.

Once the pieces were up, I cut the slats out of the 2X2s. After a little more math and a few more cuts with the hand saw, I screwed the slats in place and - BING! - I built an arbor:


For added effect, here is the dramatic view:


The project cost about ~$50 for the lumber and braces and about 5 hours of my afternoon, counting the trip to Home Depot and a lunch/Sun Drop break. We'll train the jasmine to grow up the posts and next spring we should have a lovely arch of green leaves and yellow blooms to welcome visitors to our backyard.

The Calm Before The Storm

I'm so excited/nervous to be so close to officially becoming a Kenan-Flalger MBA student. I have a "Welcome Session" tomorrow, a week's worth of orientation next week, and then classes kick off the next Monday.

I'm excited because I know that I'm going to have a great time as a student again. I'll make tons of new friends, play lots of basketball, and - of course - learn a lot about business and hopefully more about myself.

I'm nervous because I don't think I've ever been so unprepared for something. I'm not the world's greatest "preparer" as it is - however - I've really outdone myself this time. Instead of ASW - Kenan-Flagler's accounting/finance/statistics pre-term tune-up - I opted to travel to Italy with Kelly and to China with John and Ben. (More blog posts coming for each trip...promise.) Plus, I've spent the last ~2 weeks since I've been home reading, watching movies, playing basketball, doing chores, and catching up with friends when I probably should have been re-learning accounting and statistics. (Which I started doing today, by the way.  Ugh.)

My summer of travel and lazing about the house, while undoubtedly an enjoyable experience and much needed time to recharge, essentially means that I'm WELL behind my classmates that attended ASW and nowhere close to being ready for the impending deluge of very difficult MBA coursework. It also means that I get to suck it up and accomplish something very challenging, which in its own strange way is an exciting reward. (At least that's what I'm telling myself.)

Game on very soon. Can't wait.

Cinque Terre

After Rome, we made our way north to Riomaggiore, the southernmost village of the Cinque Terre. We only stayed 2 nights here, but managed to stretch out our time by taking the early train from Rome to get there early and then staying late our last day.

If we had it do to over again, we would have stayed longer. Not because the other places weren't amazing, but instead because the Cinque Terre was the most beautiful, enchanting place I've ever been in my life. Check out some of our photos to see for yourself.

Without a doubt, we could have spent our entire time there, eating well, soaking in the sun, and swimming in the clear, cool water.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at Locanda della Compagnia, a boutique hotel run by a lovely, helpful lady whose name we never caught. (She spoke just enough English to get by.) Lodging options are pretty sparse in Cinque Terre and, consequently, the prices are a little inflated. At 100 Euros per night, Locanda was the cheapest we could find that seemed inhabitable.

Upon arrival, we were actually surprised to find the hotel to be bright and charming. Our room was fairly large and comfortable. The reception area had several tables with chairs, arm chairs, and an aquarium. Breakfast - which was included in the price - was the best we had in Italy. Typically, breakfast is a non-event in Italy and usually entails an espresso and a pastry. The Locanda breakfast offered espresso, cappuccino, fresh bread with butter and jam, yogurt, and fruit. Again, a pleasant surprise.

Location was the hotel's only downside. The village is essentially one main road - Via Cristoforo Colombo - that goes straight up the hill. Locanda perches atop said hill in a tiny courtyard beside an old church. The hike wasn't a problem in the cool evening, but was a pain in the midday heat, especially when lugging suitcases.

Where We Ate

Similar to lodging, there weren't many dining options in Riomaggiore. Luckily, they were all superb - though I can't recall any of the names. I had a huge swordfish steak with marinara one evening and pasta tossed with olive oil, basil, and anchovies the next.

My favorite eating activities in Cinque Terre were the snacks at sundown.  Both nights we were there, we bought a cheap bottle of wine, fresh cheese, and crackers and found a place to sit and watch the sunset - one especially lazy evening from the marina in Riomaggiore, the other from the village's hilltop castle.

What We Did

There really isn't much to do in Cinque Terre - which is precisely what makes the place so great.  When we weren't eating at meal or eating/sleeping while enjoying a sunset, we were hiking/swimming/sleeping along the numerous trails that creep through the villages and the surrounding hillsides.

Our first day there, we hiked up the hill from Riomaggiore.  Such a steep climb!  The sites along the way were breathtaking.  Orchards with lemons, limes, cherries, grapes, and olives, backyard gardens, a cemetery, and an endless sea of wildflowers lined our trail.  After stopping for a few breaks - both to drink water and to soak in the scenery - we made it to the road at the (almost) top of the hill for a great view of the village.  We wimped out and took the bus back down to the village.

The next day we hiked from Riomaggiore to Vernazza, city number quattro of the cinque.  Looking back, this was probably my favorite day of the entire trip.

The trail from Riomaggiore to Manorola - also known as Via Dell Amore - was quick and easy, but a little crowded because it is the only trail in the area that is paved and kid/elderly/disabled friendly.  For the short hike and easy terrain, there were some amazing views.  I think we stopped in Manorola just long enough to take a photo of the main drag.

The party started between Manorola and Corniglia.  The people thinned out significantly, thus making it easier for us to take our time and enjoy the sites.  We made a stop to swim in one of the small grottoes along the way.  You can't really see it in this photo, but there was a lovely spot about 50 yards to the right of Kelly.  Basically, we shuffled down a series steps cut into the mountainside and came out on a small "beach" comprised of stones large and small and clear, blue, COLD water.

We stopped in Corniglia for lunch and for more swimming.  The village streets were lined with fresh cut flowers, making for a remarkable stroll through town.  We eventually found a small sign pointing the way to the beach and walked down the ~334 steps (Kelly counted) to the waterfront.  While the long steps were a pain, they also were a deterrent.  Kelly and I shared the area with only a handful of locals, one of which was a young lady that was topless and...ahem...gorgeous.  (Yes - I looked.  Repeatedly.)

After a couple hours of swimming and sleeping, we climbed the steps back up to Corniglia and headed towards Vernazza, where we ended our day with lemon gelato and a 5 minute train ride back to Riomaggiore.

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

The new Spoon record, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, isn't terrible, as the buzz around town has intimated.  (By "buzz around town", I mean what my friend Ben has told me that his hipster friends have told him about the record upon hearing an advance copy a few weeks prior to release.)

In fact, I would goes so far as to say that not only is the record not terrible, it is actually quite good.  It is eerie how much Britt Daniels sounds like John Lennon on a few of the tracks...

Check out the record at MergeRecords.com or just buy it from iTunes.

When In Rome

Editor's Note - In order to catch up on previous travels, I'm putting together reviews of our travels to Italy. This is the stuff that I wanted to know before we left, so I suspect that someone will find it useful.

Eric
---

We spent a total of 6 days in Rome - 3 at the beginning of our trip and 3 more at the end. This turned out to be the perfect amount of time in the city. We saw/did everything we wanted and didn't have to rush.

Where We Stayed

We spent our 2 separate stints in Rome in 2 different apartments offered by The Beehive, a quaint hostel/hotel just east of the train station. Kelly and I cannot say enough great things about The Beehive or their apartments.

The Beehive itself had a cute basement cafe, a friendly staff, a fat cat named Ingmar, a small shaded courtyard, and a 4 Euro happy hour deal that Kelly and I enjoyed twice. Plus, they provide a handy "Beehive Recommends" guide that directs their guests to the best restaurants and activities in Rome. For cheap travelers such as ourselves, the price was reasonable at 70 Euros per night.

The apartments were just west of the train station, a 10/15 minute walk from The Beehive. The nearby neighborhood didn't have much to offer, but that wasn't really a problem - we were just a few minutes away from a Metro stop and a 15 minute walk from the Colosseum.

Each apartment had 3 private rooms with a shared kitchen, bathroom, and common room - with a free web-enabled iMac! The bedrooms were perfectly clean and nattily decorated. Kelly was blown away that they provided homemade organic soaps (as opposed to the normal budget hotel sliver of Borax) and a hair-dryer with a diffuser.

We would stay there again without question.

Where We Ate

We dined at two places of note in Rome, both of which came recommended by the BeeHive guide:

Hosteria Isadoro is on a back street near the Colosseum. We actually ate their twice - on our 2nd night of the trip and again on the last night of our trip. Both times we ordered the "eat pasta until you can't eat anymore" option. The waiters served small plates of pasta that Kelly and I shared and kept bringing them until we said "basta", which means "enough"...which I was only able to remember because it rhymes with "pasta"...and because I knew that I was eating more than "basta pasta".

da Alfredo e Ada not far from the pedestrian bridge south of Castel St. Angelo. It is a true trattoria in the sense that it felt like we were eating in someone's kitchen, in this case my grandmother's kitchen. Ada shuffled around rubbing shoulders and pinching cheeks and her son kept bringing us food and REALLY sweet white wine, made in their vineyard. We both had rotini for primi piata. For 2nd course, Kelly had the beef and potatoes, I had the veal, peas, and spinach. Ada served us sugar cookies to dip in our wine for desert. The food was good, not great - but the experience was definitely pretty amazing.

We also drank tons of water from the public fountains sprinkled throughout the city. We saved a lot of money by refilling our water bottles for free...

What We Did

The obvious stuff - toured the Colosseum and the surrounding sites such as the Forum and Palantine Hill, the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's (one of the best photos of the trip) and numerous other massive cathedrals, Museo Capitolini, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, etc.

Of the tried and true tourist options, I particularly enjoyed Museo Capitolini. It was small and not at all crowded. Plus, it has cool ruins from a huge Constantine statue that reminded me of myself. (I kid!)

The Vatican Museum was an enormous hassle and borderline miserable for the most part. It was so crowded with tour groups that one could hardly move, though the audio guide made it a little easier to momentarily escape from my surroundings. The irritation was all worth it though to see the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel.

Kelly and I were shocked that so many people were able to stand in a sacred and mind-blowingly beautiful site such as the Sistine Chapel and blather on and on as if they were standing on the street corner. I wanted to scream "People! This is the Sistine Effing Chapel! Shut the #$%@ up!", but instead I just stood silently and alternated my reflections on the beauty of the art and all that it symbolizes and the stupid people around me and how much I hate them.

The most non-touristy thing we did in Rome occurred sheerly through a stroke of luck. We were on our way to dinner and came upon a barricaded street with nuns swarming all around. Upon asking someone, we learned that the Pope was about to roll through as a part of the Corpus Christi observance.  We hung around and watched the crowd grow around us.

45 minutes or so later, the procession started.  15 or so minutes after that, the Pope-mobile rolled by 10 feet in front of us.  After the pope rolled by, a swarm of people followed him. In the photo, you can see the church where he performed the blessing in the distance. People were shoulder to shoulder all the way up the street to the piazza and several blocks behind Kelly and me.

We were lucky to stumble upon such memorable experience.

Home Again

I'm back from 3 weeks in China - the land of screeching brakes, oppressive heat, staring people, dirty streets, deranged taxi drivers, $3 feasts, over-zealous street hawkers, sprawling modernity, ubiquitous poverty, and other varied cultural expressions the likes of which I've never seen.

Oh yeah, and there's the Great Wall and some other stuff, too.

Unfortunately, the People's Internet would not allow reliable access to Wordpress.com, so I (obviously) could not update my blog while I was away. Thus, we've got a lot of catching up to do here at The Boggs Blog, including:

- Long overdue recaps from my and Kelly's travels through Italy, by far the highlight of my summer.
- Posts from my travels through China, which will most likely be excerpts from my journal.
- Thoughts on my impending matriculation to Kenan-Flagler.
- Catching up on the usual meaningless tripe that I somehow allow myself to publish here.

More on the way soon.

We're Back...

...and I'm tired.

I just uploaded some of the best photos from our trip. Take a look when you have a few minutes. You can start here and follow the trip chronologically or you can browse at your leisure.

All in all, the trip was the best I've ever taken. It was all at once adventurous, educational, inspiring, and relaxing. (Well, it was relaxing except for returning our rental car in pedestrian and scooter infested downtown Florence and the 3AM cell phone calls from my friends that didn't know that we were in Italy.)

I plan to highlight some of the photos and write more about our adventures over the next few days, so stay tuned.

Prego!

Apologies for the lull in Boggs Blog action.  As much of my constituency already knows, Kelly and I are in the midst of a 17 day jaunt through Italy. 

Because I'm paying 2.7 Euros per hour here, I'll keep it quick and list some of the highlights:

- Jet lag worked in our favor on our first morning.  Both Kelly and I awoke at the crack of down and decided to just start our day at 6AM local time.  We took the metro to Vatican City and enjoyed a fairly empty St. Peter's square and Basillica.  Lots of good photos.

The place was PACKED a few hours later.

- Our 2nd night in Rome, we walked up on a barricaded street.  One of the many nuns wandering around the street that evening told Kelly that the Holy Father would soon make his way up the street as a part of the Corpus Christi tradition. 

Sure enough - 30 minutes or so later, the massive papal procession rolls up with the Pope bringing up the rear, riding on a platform built into the bed of what looked like a 70s model Chevrolet pick up truck.  (Not joking.)  He rolled by about 10 feet in front of Kelly and me. 

Sadly - he wasn't wearing a funny hat.

- 3 days in the Cinque Terre.  Google Image Search results will have to suffice until I can post my photos.  Best scenery and best food of the trip so far.

- On our first night in Florence, Kelly and I stumbled upon the BeBop Music Club for America Rock Tribute night.  Good times - no cover, decent beer, and the surreal experience of watching a band of 5 Italianos blast GNR and Bon Jovi covers.  "You give low-ve a bad name." and "Reminds me of childhood mammaries." were a few of the lyrics hilariously lost in translation.  Interestingly, the song lyrics and our conversation with Giovanni, one of the managers, were the only words I heard spoken in English the entire night.

- Unlike the US, cheap wine it Italy is actually pretty good - especially when consumed heavily, with cheese, in public squares or scenic vistas.

- I've grown an Italian beard and both Kelly and I have tried to dress so as to blend in.  (No fanny packs, tennis shoes, or baseball caps here.)  As such, locals have greeted us speaking Italian on numerous occassions - at the train station, in shops, etc. We're so cool!

Sadly - we quickly blow our cover when we just smile politely and say "Non parlo Italiano."

That'll have to do for now.  We're in Florence for 3 more days - including day trips to Pisa and Siena (via rental car) and a tour of the Uffizzi Gallery.  Then we're off to Venice and then back to Rome to wrap up our trip.

Ciao!

Eric

Pig Pickin' At Lee's

My dear friend and former college roommate Lee Bidgood married Emily Behler in Charlottesville, VA this weekend. I've never attended a wedding that so perfectly and beautifully reflected the personalities and passions of the bride and groom.

Lee - who once said "There is nothing I'd rather eat than food." - hosted a rehearsal dinner pig pickin' (see below) at his house Saturday night that featured a 120lb pig, homemade fixin's, a keg of Starr Hill brew, and good bluegrass music. The wedding took place in the beautiful Albemarle County countryside, though the rain unfortunately moved us indoors. The ceremony itself began not with a formal processional, but with Lee and Emily walking toward the altar and toward one another from opposite sides of the room while singing beautifully to one another. Lastly, the reception featured more bluegrass and - not joking - a thoroughly entertaining juggling routine from Lee's little sister Grace.

While the music, socializing, Starr Hill keg, juggling, and ceremony were all great fun, the best part of the weekend was without a doubt this:


Kelly upon seeing me eat the meat that I pulled directly from between the pig's ribs:

That is enough to make me want to become a vegetarian.


More photos from Lee's wedding at my/Kelly's Flickr page

.

Take Your Unemployed Husband To Work Week

Now that I'm temporarily unemployed, I've come to work with Kelly the past couple days. She has thusly coined this to be "Take Your Unemployed Husband To Work" week.

Aside from her ongoing "I'm the breadwinner!" taunting and "Hurry up, Eric - you're going to be late for school!" faux-mothering, it has been an enjoyable experience. I'm about a third of the way through "Atlas Shrugged", I'm almost done with my pre-Italy planning, I've caught up with some old friends, and plan to catch up with more. Heck, I've even sent a "get the ball rolling" message to my high school classmates regarding our 10 year reunion which is over a year away. (Numerous people have asked me about it over the past few months, but - yes - I'm that bored.)

What's more, I have done all of this in what has to be one of the coolest offices on the UNC campus. Kelly shares the entire 3rd floor of the recently renovated Campus Y building with one other person. Her window overlooks the main quad, the South Building, and Old Playmakers and I have my own desk with a window that overlooks Gerrard Hall and Memorial Hall. The 1st floor has a study room with huge windows, hardwood floors, and leather chairs and the basement has a small cafe that brews good coffee. For the time that I'm not in Italy and China this summer, I suspect I'll be sitting here, doing my best to stay productive.

The "going to work with someone" experience has caused me to think back to the excitement of going to work with my mom or dad when I was a kid.

Going to work with my Mom as a youngster wasn't much fun. She's always worked in a doctor's office or hospital - BORING! When I was in high school, she actually "hired" me to match medical records from her office to those kept in a 150 degree storage building 15 minutes away. Not a bad deal, except that I had to take my 8 year old brother along. The $8/hour was not worth the time I spent shuffling medical records and wrestling Evan in an God-forsaken storage room oven on Franklin Blvd.

Going to work with my Dad, on the other hand, was a rare treat. He is in the NC Air National Guard and works on a super cool military base in Charlotte. My memories of visiting his office as a child include:

- The salute from soldiers armed with M16s as we entered the front gate.
- Touring the base in a golf cart and riding it up a REALLY steep hill.
- Playing Minesweeper for the first time.
- Playing ping pong and shooting hoops in the hangar.
- Firing blanks with an M16 on Family Day.
- Sitting in the cockpit of a C130.
- Watching a C130 dump thousands of gallons of water on a runway in a demonstration of the Guard's forest fire fighting capabilities.
- Visiting the top of the air traffic control tower at Charlotte-Douglas airport.

Aside from the stench of stale coffee everywhere, a trip to Dad's office was like a trip to Disney World. Plus, he never gave me a hard time about not having a job.

The Leap of Destiny

Today is my last day as a Bronto. I suppose it is fitting then that I spend my last minutes at my desk detailing my last official act of business on behalf of Bronto Software.

Our downtown Durham office at The American Tobacco Historic District has a "river" that runs through the middle of our courtyard. After we moved our offices here in 2004, the mystery and intrigue of said river brought about countless "meaning of life" type questions, including:

  • How does the water get from the bottom of the river back to the top?

  • Why are those poor guys cleaning the river every single day?

  • Do you think any dead bodies have been dumped in the American Tobacco river?

  • Would I get arrested if I skinny dipped in the river on a 90 degree Friday afternoon?

  • Do you think that I could make the jump across?


Today - after some encouragement trash talk from Carolyn - I put the latter question to rest. Here are the videos to prove it:

'Twas truly my proudest moment with the company. The legend of the leap will live long in Bronto lore.

Giving Blood

Read an article about Kelly's dad and Kelly's involvement in the upcoming UNC Blood Drive:
Donating blood did not get personal for (Kelly Stowe) Boggs (my wife) until March 29, 2006, the morning a woman fell asleep at the wheel of the SUV that crossed the centerline and crashed head-on into the SUV driven by her father, Carl Stowe.

I finally donated for the first time ever yesterday.

My First Phone Call As A Bronto

Back in the day, Bronto wasn't very good with new employee orientations. Most of the hires came on board during the salad days recieved the "Here's your laptop, here's your phone, bathroom's down the hall, sodas are in the fridge, let's make it happen." orientation - especially the new employees that worked with or for me.

(Nowadays, we actually have an orientation program that eases our noobs into the organization through a series of planned activities. Yes - this makes me a little jealous.)

I don't recall the specifics of my orientation to the company, except that I started on a Monday and Chaz declared that I would be on the phone trying to do deals that Friday morning. So I spent my first week learning our product, shadowing both Joe and Chaz, and doing my best to not look like an idiot.

When Friday came around, I was feeling pretty good. I had watched Joe and Chaz make calls and felt like I could replicate what they were doing. Plus, I knew that I would start out by calling through a massive list of companies that have already said that they didn't want to buy Bronto, so I didn't really have anything to lose.

That Friday morning, I milled around for a bit trying to find reasons to not make that dreaded first cold call, just like countless sales professionals before me. After piddling around for a while to identify my first target - which ended up being a local golf course - I finally manned up and made the call. It went down as follows:
Golf Course - (Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.) Hello - you have reached Blah Blah Golf Course, blah blah...

Eric - (Sweet! I'll just leave a message.)

Golf course - ....after the beep. (Beep!)

Eric - Hello. This is Eric Boggs, calling from BrontoMail - a local email marketing software company. Blah blah blah. You can return my phone call at... ...

(Covers mouthpiece)

Joe! What's our phone number?!

(Joe looks at me like I'm an idiot, smiles, and writes our phone number on the whiteboard.)

Our number is 919.806.4421. Thanks.

(Hangs up.)

Obviously - they didn't call me back and I got better with time.