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Reading and writing as a child
I was the youngest of three children and I was always left kind of to myself, and that always kind of gave me time to just be by myself and to just fall into daydreaming and following a story in my mind, and I think that really helped influence just that whole idea of being a writer and telling myself a story.
I started writing in kindergarten writing stories, giving myself a publisher's page, a copyright page, and all of that. My publisher was GI, Government Issue, because my father was in the Army. So yeah, I've been writing for a long time. By the time I was 12, I was writing 500 words every night just because I had so much — well, I had so much story to tell and I just couldn't stop and so I've been writing ever since.
Growing up in an Army family
Oh, I had a wonderful childhood in so many different ways. I was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. We lived in public housing that was called the projects, but my father was in the Army and so when I was very little like two or three years old, we packed up and we drove across the country to Arizona where I got to see Native Americans for the first time and a whole bunch of stars.
So I lived a military life, you know, just a whole lot of kickball, dodge ball, brownies, camping, and all that good stuff and so very outdoorsy and just always on the go. It was a very suburban kind of Army life.
I grew up in Seaside, California. I lived there from about the age of 3 to about 12 and then when my father came home from Vietnam, we moved across the country to Georgia for a little while and then we returned to New York. And by that time I was 12 years old. And I was so used to being outdoors and running around and playing with kids and all of that that New York became something of a culture shock for me because we couldn't run outside.
There were no kickball games in the street, no gangs of kids to play with in that sense. And so it was grandma's house, school, and the library, which was around the corner from Grandma's house. So that all kind of worked out well for me.
My early days as a writer
So, I had ideals about what writing was going to be like, especially after I got out of college. I had a novel that had been read by Richard Price and Sonya Pilcer. I took master classes with them at Hofstra University. And I pretty much felt like I had a novel that I was going to sell and make a million dollars and then get a cabin in the woods like Stephen King and just, you know, and do nothing else but write.
And none of those things happened. I did get an agent right away, and my agent really worked with me, but we had — I didn't understand children's literature and which meant I did not read enough children's books, especially the age category that I wanted to write for.
So it was very painful and I was very headstrong, and my idea of revision was finding a better word for something. I didn't have the concept of revision. So I had a long, long way to go in terms of really understanding what a writer's life is like.
My first book
Oh, that first novel had to be rewritten so many times and finally it took about a good eight years, but finally I sold it. And when I did, I thought I have arrived, that's it, but I had to then do the real work of real writers.
When I wrote that first novel and finally sold it, that was when I learned the work of real writers. That's when I learned about thoughtful, deep thoughtful revision and but also how to take care of my craft and to start looking at some of the habits that can really detract a reader from following the story. So there were so many different levels of just becoming a writer that I had to learn, and that's what that first novel did for me.
That first novel is Blue Tights. The original title was Blue Tights, Big Butt. I can't believe we had to take off the big butt, but there it is. It has been around for almost like 25 years and now it is out of print, but it was a good way for me to start and to learn how to be a writer.
Getting started on a new book
Well, the way that I go from the idea stage to that final, final here it is, it's near perfect, it always just starts with a burst of something, something small that just becomes bigger. It's usually for me there's an image. There's a picture in my mind and then that picture can just spark so many things that have something to do with the character.
I usually don't know what that is right away. For example, with One Crazy Summer there was the Timex watch. And every time I thought of that Timex watch tick, tick, ticking, I thought that that poor child wearing that watch had something they had to do. And so that just got bigger and bigger. It became a part of her character. It became part of some of the things that she had to overcome.
And then it kind of really helped to become that ticking time of the 1960s where everything was kind of a ticking time bomb or timeclock. So it usually starts with something small, generally an image or it might be a few words like a slogan or something and then that becomes just bigger in my mind.
The story behind One Crazy Summer
I always wanted to write about the Black Panther period. I thought I would write about it for older readers, but the more that I thought about how I knew it and how I knew it as a young person because I had had a breakfast or two courtesy of the Black Panthers so it just made sense to come at it from the point of view of a child.
But, you know, I didn't really know how I was going to do that, but once all the smaller pieces started to come together, those very small pieces that start to make the characters, a little doll for the youngest sister and that sense of wanting and crying from the middle sister, then I began to really feel what the story was from the inside out. And so the Black Panther movement became the backdrop and kind of a force, but it was really all about the sisters and their relationship with each other and trying to form one with their mother.
One Crazy Summer and the Black Panthers
One Crazy Summer tells a story of three sisters. They're young in age, 7, 9, and 11, and they've been raised without their mother.
And one day when they come home from school, their father announces that they are getting on a plane to go to Oakland, California to spend the summer with their mother. And what makes this unique is that their mother left them when they were very young.
And so this is a journey for them, it's full of excitement, but they're also nervous. They don't quite know their mother. Delphine only knows her, has these few hazy memories of her. And when they get to Oakland — and it's just the girls traveling by themselves, they find that she is not exactly enthused to see them and they learn that she's involved with the Black Panther Party.
So this is 1968 and there's a whole lot of change going on in the country, a lot of revolution. It's not just the Black Panthers, but there's a whole youth movement, an antiwar movement, women's movement. There's so many things going on, but this is the drama that they are walking into.
Writing about a mother who left her kids behind
Well, one of the reasons why I wanted to talk about mothers disappearing as opposed to fathers disappearing is because I think we've become very dulled by that expectation that the father would eventually disappear. And for a lot of kids that's not their experience. They experience kind of this kind of ungroundedness or freefall because they don't have a very strong support.
And so oftentimes that's because the mother isn't in the picture in the same way or isn't in the picture at all. And so I thought about that. What must that be like to not have that person who we take for granted is there to give you just so much of your character and your rules for operating, when that person isn't there, what is that like and what does that mean to a five-year-old, seven-year-old, eight‑year-old child when everybody else around them at the very least has a mother and you don't and it's her choice to be gone?
It's not that she was taken away; she left you. So that is a whole coping mechanism all its own. And I could see an older sibling kind of really stepping into the role and trying to make it all right for the younger siblings.
Making the past come alive for young readers
I had a fun time just putting together this time period that is really ancient history prehistoric for these kids because this is 50 years ago. And so one of the things that I thought I would do is made sure that I would include things contextually. Yes, it might be a record player or a record to Delphine, but records don't exist now.
So if I put something in like a phone booth, oh, I've seen one of those before. Yes, there's one downtown. There's one. We've seen it, you know. So a lot of these things become kind of like Easter egg hunts just whether you're googling them or you've seen them or someone has told you about it, someone in your family, and I think kids are having fun kind of discovering that recent history.
So it's just that — kind of creating that balance of not overloading it with so much that I it just becomes about the remember when and this is how we used to do that. You have to move things along so that you feel like you're in the day of Delphine's life doing what Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are doing and not that they're going hey, kids, welcome back to 1968, you know, like that.
Telling a story from a child's point of view
So, one of the challenges of telling a story from a child's point of view is kind of thinking about how much perspective they actually have. And it's very cute to give this kid a very worldly kind of point of view and give them all of this language and all of that and then they become a special person in a certain way; whereas, you want them to be a relatable person.
And so with Delphine, you know, I let her have some sense of retrospect but not fully understanding everything that she's recalling because I think that's how we process things that have happened to us in the past. We've lived through them, we've taken those little snapshots of them, and it's only when you look back at them, you might not know what everything means, but you start to put it together.
And every year as you progressively go on, you have a clearer picture of what has happened in the past. And so it's just kind of managing how much of her perception, you know, does she really get and owning up that half of this she doesn't really know. She's just going to try to make it up, you know, as she goes along because she's got to keep her sisters in line and she's got to make everything all right for everybody.
The other thing with a character like that is that she's finding out — and so as she's finding out, the reader is finding out as well. And sometimes they're a little ahead of her and so they're kind of whispering to her as she goes along or they're experiencing it with her. So it's kind of good when she can be caught off-guard when she doesn't know everything, but she's telling things as truthfully as she knows how to tell it.
How I write
I spend a couple of months just imagining my story and doing the research of the story, just pulling together what is going to be in the story or the pool of information that might be in the story.
Then I start to write a lot of scenes and dialogue and then I stop doing that and I write a draft. After I write that draft, I write another and yet another and yet another. I can write about maybe five to seven drafts, and each one I'm looking to accomplish something different. The first one I am dealing with the very big issues of what is going to be in the story and what is going to be thrown out.
And then I start to deal with shaping the story and all of that and then refining and then language is the very last thing and the very last thing is all the housekeeping and then just double checking all of my references, just making sure that they're correct. And even with all the double checking I will miss something, but that's the reason why I have an editor and a copy editor thereafter.
The legwork behind every novel
These days a good deal of research goes into my work and so it might even be things that I will not even use or go into detail with the story, but it helps me to really feel the weight of the things that the characters wrestle with. For example, in the third book of One Crazy Summer series, which is Gone Crazy in Alabama, one of the characters milks a cow.
Well, in order for me to understand how important it was for him to be home in time to milk that cow, I had to really see a really full cow's udder, you know, the milk sack and the udders and all of that and to know oh, he better get home, you know. So just the whole learning how to milk, how to approach the cow and just all of those different things I learned so much.
But and even though, trust me, only maybe a tenth of it went into the story, I had to know it in order to get to that one tenth and to do it right. And to my satisfaction, someone who actually grew up on a dairy farm said hey, how did you know all of that, and I didn't even put in like half of what I knew. So research, it really does count.
So, my most recent novel, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground is about a boy who plays the blues harmonica with his grandfather. What do I know about the harmonica, let alone the blues harmonica? Nothing. So I had to get a harmonica and take lessons and start to learn, at least just learn the fundamentals and listen to a lot of harmonica playing.
But it didn't really make sense to me until I had to start drawing and blowing and, you know, spitting up all over that harmonica in order to get it to play. So, you know, a lot of those things that writers do, you know, it's a lot of fun. You get your hands dirty, you get in there, and you do some of it and it's fun.
Connecting with your readers
What is it about writing that makes you want to just do something over and over and over again until you get it right? Well, eventually you meet your readers. And you know when you have done a good job or when you have left something undone because there is nothing like a child audience, a child reader. They will hold your feet to the fire and ask you why did you let this happen, you know, or if heaven forbid if you make a mistake that got by editing or what have you and they know about it because they will tell you.
But I think for the most part for me the most satisfying part of having written a novel and knowing that people are reading it is when people connect and they let you know in ways that really just blow your own mind. You can never anticipate how your book is going to connect with someone or who it's going to connect with. That's always a surprise.
One reader I'll never forget is a girl who came to us. After the program is over, you give your presentation and you answer questions. But, you know, she had to linger behind and she said she read One Crazy Summer and during that time, you know, her father had been away and she had not met him. And so all of a sudden she heard that she was going to meet her father.
And so she thought that the book brought her father to her just like the story brought Delphine and her sisters to finally meet their mother. So she was identifying with the story and just the whole magic of storytelling, that it could have something to do with her life. And so she just truly believed that because she read the book, that that's what brought her father to her.
Why I write for young people
So, with topics like teen pregnancy, female genital mutilation and what have you, why write for young people, why not write for adults? You know, I've read those topics as written by adult writers, and I'm drawn into those stories, but for me, I think once a young person walks that path, I know that that means that's a green light for me to follow them, for me to write that story, that I don't have to wait for that person to mature in order to write that story for them.
They're going through it now so why don't I write that story now and try to write it in terms that maybe someone who is totally underexposed can grapple with it a little and to not write for shock value but to write something that I think that person who's going through the experience can recognize some truth in it and someone who has no idea can start to see something that they've never seen before.
Talking with middle schoolers about sensitive subjects
I did write a book that talks about the custom of female genital mutilation, and I've received so many letters from young girls, young men also but a lot from young girls ages 11, 12, 13.
And I'll never forget getting an email from a girl in the eighth grade who said you have to come to my school. I have had this done to me. And you have to come to my school to talk about it. And I said well, well, well, let's get your teacher involved. I can't just show up at your school.
And so the teacher invited me. I came and I spoke and we shared the book. And so I thought that this would be a session where the girl would talk, and she did talk, and that girls would talk, but it was — it really surprised me that it was the young men in the classroom who really spoke on behalf of FGM, female genital mutilation. It just really amazed me.
With such maturity. These were eighth-grade boys and they talked about — one boy was from Yemen and he talked about how his family as now in this country because the family did not want their sisters to undergo that. So, you know, young people are aware of things. And if you give them the language to talk about things in mature ways, they can do it. They can do it. We have to trust them.
The writer's life
I used to not know what real writers did and now that I know, gee like my life will never be the same. There's so much to do. There is so much. You want to answer all your emails. You want to make sure you have a presence on social media. You're trying to keep up with, you know, with the fact that people actually read your books and then you want to make sure that you're getting your writing done.
And so, you know, just trying to have that balance and do all of those things because this is writing in the 21st century and you do have to let your readers know that you are there. You're a real writer writing every day or writing every other day and that you, you know, that you are connecting with them and appreciative that they are reading your books.
I think the other thing that's so hard about the writing is the actual writing. Don't let anybody tell you any different. Like even when I have really great productive days, I make sure I don't read what I have written because chances are it might not be all that useful or good, but, you know, just the kind of — just keep writing even when the writing is really bad or just not ready.
Writing even when the story just isn't there. You still write. And I think that's the hard thing. It's a hard thing that gets every writer I think because we've written it and we've seen it and we go oh my goodness. But, you know, it's always thank goodness for the revision. Thank goodness for that time to get back to rewriting it to kind of figuring out what really is the story and to making it better and to, you know, making it that book that someone can read and will want to read.
Draw on your own life… or use your imagination?
Oh, the misconceptions people have about writing. I think especially where I'm concerned is that my work is autobiographical. And there's nothing wrong with writing from your own experiences. I mean those are some of the really good stuff. But I spend so much time noodling around in my head that, A, yes, I'm flattered that people think that yes, this is my story or yes, this is my grandmother or my mother or what have you.
But no, no, I've made that all up in my little noggin, you know. So that's kind of hard, you know. And also I want to encourage young people to imagine, you know, to really just go as far as they can go and not feel that you have to mine your own story. You can make it up. I do it all the time.
Seeing the world with a fresh eye
How do you become 14 again and write from that point of view without kind of winking or betraying that 14-year-old with your cynicism or your whatever you have, your experience?
I think it — I think yes, I think every time that you drop into a character that isn't you, that isn't your experience, I think there's always challenge, but I think it is especially hard to be — to write in the heart of a young person, especially from a generation that is so removed from where you were at 14.
So, sometimes I think you have to think about what are the essentials and then make them more catered toward that particular character and what it is that's going on in their life. I don't even begin to try to mimic the speech patterns of young people. It changes too fast.
I think it's hard. I just think it's very hard. And I think once I begin to like something in that young character or not like something in that character, then I have something that I can hold onto and that can help pull me through.
I think there is something in me that has not quite grown up yet that is still looking out at the world waiting for something to happen. I do look up. I do look at things. I do notice things in the way that you would notice something if you're seeing it for the very first time.
And I think that's the way that I am. I think that I can be delighted and surprised and intrigued by things and I am not afraid to show it.
I mean I think so much is wasted on cool and being a certain fixed age or an expectation.
You've got the rest of your life to be mature. Be silly and enjoy. Enjoy whatever magic is in front of you because sooner or later you're not going to look at leaves the same. That's too bad.
Getting a story out to the world
Ever since I was a kid in a playpen, I just wanted to tell a story. And I'm still the same person. I remember when I was just breaking in, I wanted to write these stories in these voices for these kids of color because they didn't get to see themselves in books. And I still feel that way.
But there's something in me that once I hook onto a story it becomes my toy. It becomes oh, I can't wait to get to this part or oh, I can't wait to do that or oh, how am I going to do this.
So I think that first and foremost I have to give as much excellence as I can give into the craft and into the story and to then push that out into the world because I think what's happening for me is that the world is coming back and it's coming back to me in ways that I could not have imagined.
So it's kind of better for me to not try to craft what that is but to make my offering and hopefully, you know, other people can experience the stories in ways that I could never imagine but wow, really, oh, yeah, I knew that. No, I didn't. But, you know. So I think just being my natural self and writing these stories and, you know, maybe opening possibility to so many kids.
I think if that's something that I can do and tell stories that maybe they've never heard before or not heard quite like that, then I think I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
Advice for young writers
If a teenager said that they were very much interested in writing and if I had advice, I would say do what you are doing right now. I suspect you are reading. Continue to read, but read beyond what you know. Sometimes just kind of spin the dial and pick something you would not pick.
Eat food you've never eaten. Go to a part of town — be careful but go to a part of town that you've never been to. Make sure that you're looking out at the world as if you've never seen it and then take a little bit of time each and every day and write something, even if it's just for yourself. Make sure you are writing for yourself and then write something that you might want someone to see.
And for each I say do no more than a hundred words. And then when you find yourself being too confined by that one hundred word, start pushing past those boundaries, start breaking those rules, just start writing.
Dealing with writers' block? I box!
To people who talk about the writer's block and, you know, all those kinds of frustrations, I shake their hands and I say welcome, be one of us. You have found your people. Now this is what you're going to do. You will take whatever it is that's not working and put it aside and do something else, write something else.
If you are writing prose right now, write a poem. If you are writing a poem, write some dialogue for a play. But get out of the structure of what it is you're writing and do something else. Make your brain rewire itself and then kind of take to bed with you what you think is working or not working and then wake up and start writing. But you have to write.
There's no other way around it. For me, I go to the gym and I hit the body bag. When I'm having problems, I tend to have I feel like they're the weight of the world. So I put on my boxing gloves and I start to hit the body bag and that helps me a lot. It gives me a lot of clarity. And then I start to put things in perspective.
I go to the gym a lot when I'm going through those rounds of editing with my editor. I go to the gym and hit the bag a whole lot. I'm hitting the bag. Not a person, the bag. And then I start to see something. I see something that I haven't seen before. It's like coming out of a fever.
Dealing with rejection
What would life be without rejection? We wouldn't understand the value of our work without rejection, although I wish I could have done without so much rejection. Well, you know, I was lucky. I got rejection letters when I was 12 years old. And so I kind of took those as a badge of honor. There were too many badges accumulating in my desk.
But when I started sending out my manuscript or when my agent started sending out that first manuscript and I was getting a lot of rejection, oh, it didn't feel so great because my identity was tied toward my manuscript. I was working for a software company, a marketing media software company and so it wasn't a great job. It was very low-level pay. And so my writing was my identity. And so every time I got that rejection, I knew that I was going to be that office worker bee for the rest of my life. And so it meant a lot to me to be able to sell that book.
Rejection is — it's hard but it's a fact of a writer's life.
But for the most part, you just really have to believe and push and you have to keep writing.
You have to convince the writing world that you belong, and you convince them that you belong by having other work to write. We lose so many people because they stay so tied to the one work. And if you can't put that aside and then write something else, what will you do? You know, what will you do as a writer?
So you have to really dig down and believe in yourself. You have to believe that you have stories to tell, not just story.
What I'd do if I wasn't writing
So if I wasn't writing, I would love to have a dance school where I taught like octogenarians and kindergarteners or pre-Ks. That's one thing I would like to do.
I'd love to have a boxing gym. That would be another thing or I'd be a promoter and — yeah, yeah, and — Yeah, I'd be a good Don King. I'd be a good Rita Queen. What else? I love — I love food. So I think I would have to have like an eatery of some kind and, hmm, and come up with different dishes and have people try them and stuff like that.
I love food. I love food. I love boxing. I love dancing. There we go. Somehow to get all those things combined, that would make me very happy.


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The Maui Closet Company paired an amazing closet with a beautiful mirror door. This closet is a lock owner walk-in closet in sapele. The mirror door is a sliding door and has a sapele trim on the edge and face of the mirror.
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More foodie attention from the New York Times.
Last Sunday's New York Times Magazine gave more credibility to the area and Durham as a great place for foodies. The spread tells the story of Coon Rock Farm near Hillsborough and the efforts of partners Richard Holcomb, Jamie DeMent and chef Marco Shaw to create a loop from farm to table in the Eno Restaurant and Market that is scheduled to open early this summer in Downtown Durham in the old historic fire station.
The article is just one more indication of how the rest of the world is beginning to see Durham as a progressive and interesting place to live while some of our nearby neighbors cling to images of decay that was never as bad as it was often portrayed.
The article also has a good recipe for roasted port and red chili cornbread that makes your mouth water.
This is all part of the "product" that we are selling…not just houses…ours are as good as anywhere…but combined with a community on the upswing and affordability makes this a great place to come and live.
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Joey Yap
About Author
JOEY YAP is the world's #1 authority in Feng Shui & Chinese Metaphysics. He's the bestselling author of 169 books and speaks to 50,000 people every year at his live events. He sold more than 4.6million copies of his books in 7 different languages.
He is well known for his results-oriented, real world approach to Feng Shui, BaZi, Face Reading, Yi Jing and Qi Men Dun Jia. He has brought success to thousands of people including prominent world figures, iconic business leaders as well as the ordinary folks.
Joey is also the CEO of a multimillion dollar and fast growth businesses. He's the chief Feng Shui and Chinese Metaphysics consultant to some of the world's most iconic buildings and his work has been featured on CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg.
For the last 20 years, Joey has transformed the world's understanding and acceptance of Chinese Metaphysics into mainstream applications. Embodying both brilliance and tenacity that inspires, his legion of clientele and family of follows (1.8 million at time of writing) relentlessly scale greater heights with his teachings too.


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Home > Products > Playground Designs > Arlington
Model Number: C14-23
Along with climbing and sliding events, wee ones will enjoy accessible ground level play on this well-rounded structure. Transfer station and accessible stair ensure easy access to the fun for all.
Recommended Ages: 2-5 years
Format Shown: ImpPlay
Area Required: 8.8m x 10.8m (29' x 36')


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The 2013 General Assembly Session began Wednesday with what hopefully is the start of a new tradition- the Richmond Symphony Chorus singing a beautiful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.
Wednesday evening, Governor McDonnell delivered his annual State of the Commonwealth address.
The Governor began his speech by reminding us how far the Commonwealth has come over the past three years. Our unemployment rate is now the lowest in the southeast at 5.6%. Additionally, we have created 150,500 net new private-sector jobs. Our public schools continue to rank among the nation's best, and we have balanced our budget without any tax increases on Virginia's families or businesses. This is clear evidence that under Governor McDonnell, we are on the right track.
In his speech, Governor McDonnell laid out a bold agenda for his final legislative session that focuses on the issues that matter most to Virginians. The Governor's legislative priorities are to improve our schools, create new opportunities for small businesses, and help ensure that we are able to find a long term solution to improve and maintain our roads. My House Republican colleagues and I share Governor McDonnell's commitment to finding solutions to these key issues, and I look forward to working across the aisle to ensure that this gets done.
I encourage you to read the full text of Governor McDonnell's speech online here.
I am honored to be carrying one of the Governor's education bills that he has made a top priority for this Session. As Governor McDonnell mentioned during his annual State of the Commonwealth address, I am carrying House Bill 2151. This legislation is much improved over the Teacher Contract legislation that I carried last year.
In addition to a 2% raise for all teachers, House Bill 2151 makes several changes to the processes by which teachers and certain administrators are evaluated and to the grievance procedure process. The bill requires teachers, assistant principals, and principals to be evaluated every year, either formally or informally, and such evaluations will include student academic progress as a significant component and an overall summative rating. The bill increases from three years to five years the term of probationary service required for a teacher before becoming eligible for a continuing contract, and requires local school boards to provide a new principal with a mentor. The bill does not eliminate the contuinuing contract.
The bill also changes the grievance procedure for teachers. It gives local school boards the option to assign a grievance hearing to be heard by a hearing officer designated by the local school board. The option for a grievance to be heard in front of a fact-finding panel would no longer be available.
I am honored to be carrying this important part of the Governor's Education package, and I look forward to the conversation we will have with teachers, administrators, and school boards regarding these improvements.
My Legislation
In addition to House Bill 2151, I am carrying 11 other bills and one house joint resolution. You can see my entire slate of legislation online here.
Of this legislation, there are a couple of pieces that I would like to highlight.
House Bill 1344 requires local school divisions to ensure that Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams consider the specific communication needs of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and address those needs as appropriate in the child's IEP. This is an important piece that was brought to me by a constituent who sits on the Board of Visitors at VSDB. It is to help ensure that students who are deaf and hard of hearing can get the best education possible in Virginia.
House Bill 1370 creates an individual and corporate income tax credit beginning January 1, 2013, for small businesses creating new full-time jobs in the Commonwealth. I believe this is a great incentive for job creation in the Commonwealth.
House Bill 1406 requires each school board to annually provide parent educational information or screen public school students from 5th to 10th grade for eating disorders. Eating disorders are a growing problem among teens, and are often undetected for far too long. My hope is that this legislation will allow for earlier detection of eating disorders and result in more lives saved.
House Bill 1469 directs the State Inspector General to conduct a comprehensive financial audit of Virginia's four-year public institutions of higher education, to be completed by July 1, 2015, and report the findings to the General Assembly. My hope is that this audit will reveal areas of cost savings, and help our institutions get the most for their money.
House Bill 1555 will establish the Virginia Statewide Virtual School and establish a Board of Visitors for the Virginia Statewide Virtual School. We established virtual education in Virginia in 2010, and this will help solve the funding questions that local school divisions have. There are many parents across Virginia that find that the traditional classroom is not meeting their needs. Our hope is that through allowing students to take virtual classes, public schools will be more able to meet the needs of those students.
House Joint Resolution 536 is an amendment to the Virginia Constitution establishing the Right to Work laws as part of our constitution. Right now Virginia has great right to work laws on the books. Making these laws a part of the constitution will make it much more difficult for a future legislature to remove them from our code. Once the right to work amendment becomes part of the constitution, the only way to change it would be by referendum of the voters of Virginia.
As you are likely already aware, this week Governor McDonnell unveiled his transportation plan. The key feature of his proposal is a plan to eliminate the 17.5 cents gas tax and replace it with a 0.8 cent increase to the Sales and Use Tax (SUT) dedicated to transportation.
I encourage you to check out the components of the transportation plan online here.
I would like to get as much feedback as possible from my constituents regarding this bill before it is brought before me for a vote. If you could please email me your comments at email@example.com, I would very much appreciate it.
I also welcome any suggestions that you may have on how to improve the proposal.
Weekly Visitors
It was a short week but we still were able to see a few friendly faces from home. Thursday was "Banker's Day" in the Capitol, and I was pleased to see Greg Godsey drop by to share with me the concerns of bankers in Virginia.
Contact Me
My staff and I are here in Richmond to serve you. We would love to hear from you regarding legislation before the House, or if there's anything we can do to help you in dealing with a state government agency.
If you are planning to visit Richmond during Session, I encourage you to visit me in Room 517. We certainly do not require appointments, but if you know ahead of time that you're planning a visit, appointments are encouraged.
In addition to email and phone, we also encourage you to track us throughout this Session on social media. You can find me on facebook, or follow me on twitter at @DelDickieBell.


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In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and their justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature.
Toulouse LautrecFollow me on Social Media
Categories: Painting


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Real Estate Strategies To Follow When Buying A Home (Real Estate Buying) – The purchase of a piece of real estate can be a large step in anyone's life, but it is especially so for someone who is a first time buyer. Committing so much money can be a huge stress in your life. Use the advice contained in this article so that you have the most success and ease any of your concerns.
If you are a real estate agent, you should seriously consider sending out cards during the holidays and on anniversaries you share with your clients. Additional contact from you will help them remember how valuable your services were during their real estate experience. After you finish speaking with them, let them know that you would appreciate it if they felt comfortable referring you to their family members and friends.
If you are with kids or are planning on having kids, you need a home that has a lot of space. You should also pay special attention to safety issues, particularly if the house you are viewing has a swimming pool or stairs. If you buy a house from a family who has raised their children in it, it should ensure that the house is relatively safe.
If you are looking to relocate, consider looking into the neighborhood that the house is located in online. You can find a lot of information, even for the smallest cities. To make certain you will have a good future in the town you are considering, be sure to do a little research on such subjects as average salaries, unemployment rates and population growth.
When you are looking into real estate, understand that this could be your home for a long time. While you might not have children yet, you may want some in the future. So you should still look at schools in the surrounding area to make sure that are satisfactory.
Get a checklist from your realtor. Realtors have checklists for everything, from creating a budget to getting a mortgage. You can use the various checklists to make sure you're ready for every contingent as it comes up.
If you are looking at buying real estate as an investment opportunity, it is a good idea to look into properties that will require some work. The value of your property will go up quickly. You may actually increase the value so much that it doubles the property's worth!
You have to have a thorough understanding of the terms of your mortgage whenever you are purchasing a home. Make sure you have a solid grasp of how the terms of a mortgage can affect your mortgage payment and the total price you are going to pay for the home. If these things make sense to you now, it will prevent confusion later.
This is the best time to start investing in real estate. Upsets in the real estate market have resulted in low prices for buyers. This presents a unique and ideal window of opportunity to move out of an apartment and into a place of your own. Over time you can expect the market to go up again, which will turn your investment into profit.
When making an offer on the home you're interested in, ask the seller about financial incentives and closing costs. One common incentive is to request that the seller "buy down" your loan's interest rate for the first one to two years. Adding financial incentives to your offer will make the seller more likely to stick to the selling price.
Decide in advance what you plan to ask a potential real estate agent. Ask all of the important questions, like how many houses they have helped to sell this last year, and what is the number of homes they sold that are in the area you are looking at? The agent should have the answers to all these questions and discuss these issues as a professional.
Prior to purchasing any home out there, you always need to check the property thoroughly. Lots of people dive into the real estate market too fast, and they end up losing much money and time because they made unwise purchases. Make sure you know about the market, local incomes, home values and information on the local schools before you make a purchase on a property.
When looking to purchase a new home, it is very important to avoid the trap of judging a house based on its decor. You should focus your shopping comparisons on the condition that the house is in and whether it has solid construction. If you buy for decor, you may overlook a serious problem that can cost you later.
So, now do you feel prepared to purchase a property? Now that you have read these tips, you should feel more confident in your ability to make wise real estate choices. Use these tips to find out how to be successful and make it easy to live your life. While real estate transactions are complex, they need not be difficult. It is exciting to own a piece of something! Just be sure to keep the cost in mind, and be sure to make the decisions wisely.
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Former Crafar farms bidder May Wang has been charged with corruption in Hong Kong, over business dealings said to have happened here in New Zealand while she was trying to buy the dairy farms.
Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption has charged the bankrupt May Wang with conspiring to bribe officials with two New Zealand properties and money laundering, and has issued a warrant for the arrest of Jack Chen for his role in the scheme.
For full article see: NZ Herald 19 October 2011


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About The Teacher
Emily McBurnie drowned when she was 3 and spent 11 minutes on the other side. When she returned to her physical body she had gifts that enabled her to connect with spirits, heal, and intuitively tune into people in distress.
Born in Outback, Emily comes from a long line of healers and psychics. She grew up wandering the caves of Ayers Rock, the waterfalls of Kakadu National Park and the underground opal mines in Central Australia. She has travelled the world leading workshops, presenting at festivals, hosting retreats and teacher training some of the world's most gifted Yogis.
Emily teaches many lineages including Yin Yoga, Restorative Hot Stone, Kundalini, Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Iyengar. Her teacher's personal mentors were Sri B.K.S Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois and Yogi Bhajan. As a former newsreader and journalist, Emily is a Yoga Writer currently working on two books about her path to Enlightenment, Manifestation and a TEDWomen talk about manifesting a life without heartbreak. Emily is currently based in Ubud, Bali where she trains with local healers and energy workers.


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text: Hi, When I first bought my surface pro (only a week old) I installed Firefox onto it. When I attempted to watch YouTube videos I was told I needed flash player. So I installed it. It worked. However the problem I am experiancing is that when I attempt to go full screen. The Task Bar will not hide. It shows the Flash Player icon and no matter what I do it will not go away. Now, I know this must be something to do with Flash Player because I uninstalled Flash Player and then tried to play a video full screen. Without flash player installed, it for some reason played the You Tube video full screen and the Task Bar was gone. I got the message from the Surface Pro saying it had made it full screen. I thought I'd fixed it. Then the next day I tried to use You Tube again. And I got the message saying I needed to install Flash Player. So I installed Flash Player again hoping that this time everything would be ok.. But no, the Task Bar will not hide. I then thought it maybe a problem with Firefox. So I installed Google Chrome. But the exact same issue happens with this. The only browser that will go full screen is IE. But I do not use this browser. It's driving me round the bend. Can anyone please advise me what I'm doing wrong? Thank you.


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Home for Sale in the "Heart" of St. Matthews 3504 Warner Ave
3504 Warner Ave
Architecturally delightful! Here's an updated family home right in the "Heart of St. Matthews!" 1500 Square Feet of Cape Cod living with an abundance of storage and closet space! Walk into an enormous living room with fireplace with newly refinished hardwood floors on the first floor, new paint. There is also a separate dining room, 2 bedrooms, eat-in kitchen and full bath on the first floor. Upstairs.. a knock your socks off master bedroom with built-in shelves and lots of closet space. In the professionally finished basement a large family/media room, (no crouching needed in this basement). There's a full bath, laundry and storage down here. Out back a 1 car attached garage. Additional updates include newer driveway, landscaping, new carpet in basement and roof on garage, new replacement windows and Kitchen counter-tops.
Bob Sokoler is a former Anchor/Reporter turned Louisville Realtor 7 years ago in Louisville Kentucky. You can learn more about Bob, his Team and Louisville Real Estate at www.WeSellLouisville.com or call (502)376-5483!


text: Made in 1958, and set 10 years earlier, this ripe melodrama has certainly dated, but it's as good a record of postwar America's alcohol-fuelled split personality as anyone has made. The amount people drink and smoke here is staggering, particularly Frank Sinatra, who puts in a sullen performance as a soldier-cum-tortured artist returning to his hometown and stirring up diverse troubles. His Jekyll/Hyde relationship with the bottle presents two alternatives: cultured cosiness with buttoned-up schoolmistress Martha Hyer; or a life of whisky, poker and casual sexism with local gambler Dean Martin and garish floozy Shirley MacLaine. It's an intriguing parallel to Sinatra's real-life Rat Pack destiny. Minnelli orchestrates the lurid plot like a symphony, with rich, widescreen compositions, a swooning Elmer Bernstein score and an assured feel for the anxieties beneath the sunny suburban surface.


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More than 100,000 union members and activists from community groups are in "99% spring training sessions" all over the country this week gearing up, they say, to take back the nation from the 1%.
There first big mobilization is set for Tax Day, April 17.
On that day people will demonstrate all over America demanding that the 1% and the corporations pay their fair share. "The wealthiest Americans, like Mitt Romney, pay a far lower share of their income in taxes than do average working people, and some multibillion-dollar corporations don't pay a cent," said AFL-CIO spokesperson Mike Hall.
Under the Romney-backed House Republican budget, millionaires and corporations would get even more tax breaks. This while programs and services for working families, military service personnel, students, veterans, seniors and the poor would be slashed and thousands of additional workers laid off.
According to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, people earning more than $1 million a year would receive $265,000 apiece in new tax cuts on top of the $129,000 they would receive from the budget's extension of the Bush tax cuts.
Every day this week the coalition of progressive groups including many branches of Occupy Wall Street, MoveOn.org, the United Auto Workers, the Communications Workers of America, Greenpeace, Rebuild the American Dream and others are hosting over 900 training sessions aiming to educate 100,000 participants in direct-action protest techniques.
The coalition says the teach-ins are part of what it is calling the 99 Percent Spring. Some 50,000 are receiving training in person while another 50,000 are being trained online.
In their search to accentuate differences among coalition participants, some in the media have posed the "direct action" techniques of the Occupy movement against what they describe as the more institutional petition campaigns and electoral activity carried out by some of the other members of the coalition.
The reality, of course, is that Occupy does not hold a monopoly on mass action. Unions, for example, may be heavily involved in electoral recall efforts in Wisconsin but it was the union-led physical occupation of the Capitol in Madison that pre-dated the birth of the Occupy movement in New York later that year in September.
Coalition members see the trainings going on now as a way of fostering unity among all the progressive groups participating and a way of building upon the Wisconsin demonstrations led by Labor, the national Internet campaigns led by MoveOn.org and the Occupy movements all across the country.
Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, said the labor movement is clearly in support of the mass action approaches taken by Occupy Wall Street. Pointing to Wisconsin, he said: "We need direct action and our members know it."
One of the things covered in the training sessions is the use of civil disobedience techniques and how to handle arrests. Training sessions last a full day and are broken down into three basics areas: discussion of big economic issues such as income inequality and workers' rights, a section where participants tell their stories of struggle against economic injustice and a section on the actual techniques involved with nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience.
The initial plan, according to organizers, is to come up with dramatic actions for Tax Day on April 17 and for shareholder meetings later in the month at the offices of major corporations. Organizers say that at the Tax Day demonstrations they will shine a light on both tax loopholes and attacks on workers rights.
Coca Cola and Bank of America will be among the corporations singled out later this month for actions at their shareholders meetings. The idea, organizers say, is to build a "corporate accountability movement."
Some "all or nothing" ideologues have urged Occupy to "be on guard" against co-opting by some of the other progressive groups in the coalition. Most supporters of all the groups, however, seem to see the importance of preserving unity.
Tim Franzen, organizer for Occupy Atlanta, told the Huffington Post yesterday that the coalition is a boost to the Occupy movement. "They have an audience that hasn't come out to the park before. This is going to bring a whole new segment of folks that have been on the sidelines."
Justin Rubin, executive director of MoveOn, said, "The Occupy movement has been amazing and transformative. MoveOn members around the country have worked hard to support it, and it is one of the things that inspired the 99% Spring. It's great that some Occupiers are participating in the 99 % Spring and of course many will not – we know and respect that Occupy is a diverse movement with lots of different people with lots of different views."
Photo: Lat year's Philadelphia tax day rally April 18, 2011. Ben Sears/PW


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We gather tomorrow as friends, family, and loved ones to share in a celebration of all we have been given. So what happens Friday (other than Black Friday chaos)? Saturday? How about every day thereafter? Year after year after year?
May we all remember to give thanks to our Lord, and to those around us, daily. My we cultivate an "attitude of gratitude" all year long.
P.S. I love to hear from you!
Leave a comment or e-mail me at melaniesmethodicalmusings at gmail dot com
November 21, 2012
Week of Thanks 2012, Day Three
Thoughts by Melanie
1 comment:
- Mom of 12 said...
I think gratitude is SOO important! I'm always telling my kids that it doesn't cost them anything to be thankful and they feel so much better when they realize that life is all about helping and taking care of others.
- December 2, 2012 at 11:06 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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EPISODE 8: NaNoWriMo Wisdom from Author Ben Dolnick (Click to listen/download.)
This episode features author Ben Dolnick and his real-life advice on completing your novel — even if National Novel Writing Month is not your thing.
BEN DOLNICK is the author of three novels: Zoology, You Know Who You Are, and most recently At the Bottom of Everything. His writing has appeared in the New York Times and on NPR. Ben has led NYWC workshops at Brooklyn Public Library and at the Brownsville Community Justice Center and lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY, plus a special NaNoWriMo workshop at Brooklyn Public Library-Central. Read more about Ben and his work at www.bendolnick.com.
CREDITS: This podcast episode was recorded and produced by NYWC Volunteer Corps member Celeste Kaufman. Celeste is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. She's a food columnist for the Park Slope Reader, and her work has appeared in BUST Magazine, Time Out New York, and elsewhere on the web. Music from this episode comes from "Limbo" by Kimbra.
Subscribe to the NYWC Podcast via RSS or iTunes.


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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its policy interest rate unchanged at a five-year low of 6.50 percent on Tuesday, while signalling the prospect of another cut later this year if monsoon dampens upward pressure on food prices.
Marie Diron, senior vice-president, sovereign risk group, Moody's Investors Service, Singapore:
"Looking forward, we do not expect a significant change in the monetary policy stance. Rather, the transmission of monetary policy will influence India's economic developments and credit profile.
"First, the effectiveness of the monetary policy framework in maintaining inflation at moderate levels could be tested this year. The RBI highlighted today the uncertain trajectory of inflation.
"A renewed sharp depreciation of the rupee, potentially linked to volatility in global financial markets, could also stoke inflationary pressures. Moreover, with details of the implementation of the Pay Commission's recommendation still unclear, the outlook for wage, housing and overall consumer price inflation remains uncertain and subject to upside risks."
Devendra Kumar Pant, chief economist, India Ratings and Research
"It is on expected lines and I think it was one of the rare events when everybody was expecting a status quo.
"As of now this does not change our view on the future rate cuts. We are expecting one more rate cut this fiscal based on the way things are.
"We still hold our view that there may be another 25 basis point rate cut in this fiscal year."
Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES Bank, Mumbai:
"I foresee RBI's cautious stance giving way to accommodative actions in August, on the back of favourable monsoon outcomes and sustained acceleration of government reforms.
"Despite a compelling case to cut interest rates amidst favourable monsoon outlook, CPI inflation in line with RBI's projected path, the government's progressive reforms and fiscal consolidation and the need to nurture growth, RBI has preferred to remain cautious. It appears that the uncertainties on the global horizon with Fed policy overhang and UK Brexit vote tipped RBI's decision in favour of a status quo. With its accommodative stance still in place, I now see high probability of a rate cut in August by at least 50 bps."
Murthy Nagarajan, head fixed income, Quantum AMC, Mumbai:
"The RBI left the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent as was expected. They have highlighted certain upside risks to inflation given the higher food and commodity prices seen in the last three months. Good monsoon need not necessarily bring down food prices and that remains the key factor to track in order to see whether the RBI achieves its 5.0 percent inflation target for March 2017. The RBI remains accommodative and will work towards bringing down market rates and lending rates."
Ravi Gopalakrishnan, head-equities, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund:
"Going by the track record of the RBI, they would perhaps wait for the clarity on monsoons. We still have reasonable control on inflation but another year of bad monsoons would make things difficult. So market was not expecting any sort of move at least in this policy, hence no reaction. Post monsoon, we expect 25 basis points cut and by the end of the year another 25 basis points.
"Tough to say whether Rajan would be reappointed as the governor. At this point there is a hope that he would be continuing but I doubt market has discounted the news to this extent."
Shilan Shah, India economist, Capital Economics:
"While the consensus is expecting further modest loosening later this year, we think that rates will remain unchanged throughout the rest of 2016 and 2017.
"We think that the scope for further loosening is very limited. This is because the central bank faces a difficult task in meeting its inflation target of 5.0 percent for March 2017."
Rupa Rege Nitsure, group chief economist, L&T Finance Holdings, Mumbai:
"Some factors are pointing to upside risks to inflation such as seasonal spikes in vegetable prices, added burden of tax on services inflation, and some factors are creating uncertainty like geopolitical situation on crude oil prices and monsoon. Naturally, it was not a time to take a rate action. But I think what is positive is that they would like to take thorough review of MCLR lending rate regime. Transmission has not happened much on the longer interest rate side. As long as the structural stresses continue in large corporates, provisioning needs for banks will continue on higher side. As long as that continues, there will be limited chance for interest rates to come down on longer tenure loans."
A Prasanna, economist, ICICI Securities, Primary Dealership Ltd, Mumbai:
"Our view is that repo rate has bottomed out, there are no further rate cuts. RBI's commentary on inflation seems to be moving along in that direction.
"Base case is system should be able to manage FCNR redemption, and if there is pressure, RBI has indicated they will be stepping in if there's dollar shortage.
"The timeframe in which liquidity neutrality will be achieved will depend on external conditions. If balance of payments' profile is favourable then it can be in the beginning of next year, else will extend to the next financial year."
Madhavi Arora, chief economist, Kotak Mahindra Bank:
"Though they have raised issues with regard to inflation, overall accommodative stance continues. If and when they get a chance to revisit the rate cut stance, I think there still is a scope for one more policy rate cut, probably not immediately but definitely second half of the year.
"That said, the immediate focus of the central bank would move to liquidity management. I think that is the key policy movement you would see in the next few months."
Abheek Barua, chief economist, HDFC Bank, New Delhi:
"This is the most tepid policy I've come across in many years. I don't think this policy gives us additional information from what the April policy did. One source of comfort is that there is an assurance to manage dollar and rupee liquidity if there is pressure during FCNR outflow. There's also a caveat that people should not take it for granted depending on the level of the rupee whether there will be intervention or not.
"The other thing is statement is couched in many conditions. I think to see the policy as hawkish is a bit premature. There is room for at least one rate cut until December.
"I think the policy is very neutral and tepid in every sense of these two words."
Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.
Updated Date: Jun 07, 2016 13:36:04 IST


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The camp offers comprehensive programs in watersports, riding, land sports, outdoor adventure and the creative arts. Campers design their schedules with guidance from staff members. One of the oldest private girls' camps in the US, Lochearn maintains three divisions: a junior camp for children ages 7-10, a subsenior camp for girls ages 11 and 12, and a senior camp for campers ages 13-15. Fifteen- and 16-year-olds may participate in a four- or eight-week leadership training program, and a one-week minicamp option provides an introduction to camp life.
|Lochearn Camp for Girls
|Post Mills, VT
|Year-round Contacts
|Program Focuses & Features
|Aerobics, Aquatics, Archery, Baseball, Basketball, Canoeing, Community Service, Cooking, Crafts, Creative Writing, Cross-country, Dance, Equestrian, Field Hockey, Fine Arts, Gymnastics, Hiking, Lacrosse, Mountain Trips, Painting, Riding, Sailing, Soccer, Softball, Studio Art, Swimming, Tennis, Theater, Volleyball, Water-skiing, Watersports, Writing/Journalism, Yoga
|Grade Range (rising grades)
|Age Range
|Residential — Girls Ages 7-16
|Application Deadline
|Rich Maxson & Ginny Maxson, Directors
|Residential Fee
|$1300-10,650 (+$20-200), 1-8 weeks.
|Year Established
|Dates & Sessions
|June-Aug; 8 sessions, 1-8 weeks long


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Transitioning to new child care can be difficult for your child and for your family. However, there are many strategies that can make the transition easier. A good way to begin is by looking at what exactly is happening—your behavior, the environment, and your child's behavior, in particular. What can you do to prevent problems and prepare yourself and your child for transitions?
Parents have found the following strategies helpful in preventing problems:
- Give yourself 10 minutes of quiet before you wake up your child or start your day.
- Think about what you know about your child. What will help make the morning more pleasant? The following ideas may work for you:
- Play calming music instead of turning the television on.
- Create a quiet reading area with a basket of your child's favorite books.
- Turn the light on in your child's bedroom five minutes before waking him or her.
- If your child has trouble waking up, plan to give them three wake-up calls.
- Get things ready the night before:
- Put out clothes, shoes, coats, and gloves, for you and your child.
- Set up breakfast.
- Pack backpacks.
- Find your keys.
- Create clear and consistent rituals.
Strategies for successful transitions to your child care program:
- Leave your child with the same caregiver every day.
- Tell your caregiver about significant things happening at home that are important to your child.
- Have a good-bye ritual so your child knows you are leaving. Tell your child when you will be back (for example, after nap time and group play).
- Leave a picture, a scarf that smells like you, or some other "lovey" in your child's cubby so that your child will have it when he or she needs comforting.
Strategies for successful transitions from child care to home:
- Take time to relax before you pick up your child—even 3 to 5 minutes can make a difference.
- Try to arrive about the same time every day.
- Find out from your caregiver what happened during your child's day.
- Plan to have time with your child as soon as you get home.
- Plan calming activities for your child while you prepare dinner. Let your child help you with dinner, read, play with Play-Doh, play in water, color, or listen to relaxing music.
- Encourage everyone in the family to get enough sleep, eat healthy and exercise.


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With technology services changing daily, it is not only difficult, but often impossible for small to medium sized companies to successfully manage an IT infrastructure. Hiring dedicated technicians is often costly and their knowledge is often limited. Let the team at MicroOne Technologies support your daily technology needs for one low monthly cost, no hidden or extra fees, so that you can focus on your business.
At MicroOne, we recognize that every companies needs are different, so we design fully custom service package that best fits your daily IT needs:
Critical operating system and application updates will be applied remotely after normal business hours, or during a predetermined maintenance window that best fits your company's needs.


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It was a stickup, Wall Street style.
With bonus season fast approaching, Jack DiMaio, the top bond trader at Morgan Stanley, wanted more money for his guys. Tens of millions more.
So, as traders had always done, he marched into the boss's office and asked for it. But it was 2010 and times had changed, and this chief executive, James P. Gorman, was adamant: Morgan Stanley was done giving in to demands for big bonuses when earnings were thin, and he didn't bother to soften the rejection with the kind of pep talk managers usually offer when cash can't be found.
Mr. DiMaio soon left the firm — but not that many other traders followed, because on post-crisis Wall Street, there weren't as many places to go. And Mr. Gorman's message that he was more concerned about making the numbers work than simply keeping the troops happy quickly filtered down to the trading floor.
Now, nearly four years after this showdown, the numbers are working very well for Mr. Gorman and Morgan Stanley. But this white-shoe investment bank, which nearly went under in 2008, is now a very different place.
Instead of perennially playing Avis to Goldman Sachs' Hertz in the lucrative but dangerous business of bond trading, Mr. Gorman has focused on safer ways of making money. Morgan Stanley's far-flung stockbrokers, who manage money for individual clients and prefer to be called financial advisers, now contribute almost as much to the bottom line as the bankers and traders who long counted themselves as Wall Street's blue-blooded elite.
This 78-year-old firm has also recovered from its clumsy management of Facebook's initial public offering in 2012 to become the most sought-after underwriter of tech I.P.O.s. It is among the select group of underwriters managing what is expected to be a huge offering this summer by the Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant, and the bank tops the rankings for tech underwriting in 2014.
"The firm is on a positive trajectory after a lot of hard knocks," Mr. Gorman said in an interview this month. "If that means making some hard decisions along the way to get there because I have more information at the top of the house than any individual is going to have by definition, that's fine. I am perfectly comfortable doing that."
In the process, he and Morgan Stanley are becoming the face of what may be Wall Street's future: highly profitable, to be sure, but with fewer of the grand ambitions or larger-than-life personalities that have always characterized the place.
"I'm pretty invisible, and that's just fine," he acknowledged.
Unlike his charismatic predecessor, John J. Mack, Mr. Gorman is not a pillar of the upper-crust New York social scene.
"I'm not that interested in just being around powerful people for the sake of it," said Mr. Gorman, who lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his wife of more than 20 years, Penny, and their two college-age children. "If you want to spend weekends with your family, something's got to give."
Investors don't seem to have any problem with his low profile. Morgan Stanley's share price has doubled in the last two years, mollifying angry investment bankers and traders who received stock in the lean years when cash bonuses shrank.
So while Mr. Gorman, 55, may not command the loyalty or adulation for which his predecessor was famous, or have the outsized profile of rival Wall Street chieftains like Jamie Dimon or Lloyd C. Blankfein, he can live with it. "James has never focused on being liked," said Brian C. Pfeifler, one of Morgan Stanley's top financial advisers. "He just makes sure people respect him. I'm not buddy-buddy with him, but I respect him."
Told of that assessment, Mr. Gorman offers only the mildest of protests. "I think anybody who says they don't care about being liked is lying," he said. "I care if my dog waves its tail when I come home. But you're not going to make everybody happy."
Neither Banker Nor Trader
On Wall Street, chief executives typically come in two flavors. There are bankers like Henry M. Paulson Jr., who earned his stripes advising Fortune 500 clients on mergers and stock offerings at Goldman Sachs before serving as Treasury secretary. And there are traders, including smart (or lucky) ones like Mr. Blankfein, as well as less fortunate ones like Richard S. Fuld Jr. of Lehman and Jon S. Corzine of MF Global, who led their firms down the road to perdition.
Mr. Gorman is neither. Raised in a family of 10 siblings in Melbourne, Australia, he studied law and practiced briefly in Australia before coming to New York to attend Columbia Business School. He joined McKinsey, known for churning out brainy number crunchers but not necessarily charismatic or bold corporate leaders. Tall, well-tailored and fit — he gave up boxing for rowing not long ago — Mr. Gorman still bristles at being described as a consultant and is quick to note that he has spent more time on Wall Street than he did at McKinsey.
In 1999, after more than a decade in consulting, he went to Merrill Lynch, a McKinsey client, as chief marketing officer. Within two years, he was overseeing Merrill's huge brokerage force, the famed "thundering herd," as head of wealth management. Serving all manner of retail customers was what made Merrill a household name, but Mr. Gorman shifted the focus to more upscale clients, with accounts of less than $100,000 going to call centers.
He also took an ax to what had long been affectionately called "Mother Merrill," a place where brokers spent lavishly. With the rise of Charles Schwab and E*Trade, the fat years at Merrill were ending, and Mr. Gorman responded by culling the thundering herd and doing away with the nearly unlimited expense accounts.
Profit margins rose, but the changes did not make Mr. Gorman many friends. "It was a cultural shift, and James is one of the people who put the stake in the heart of Mother Merrill," said Guy Moszkowski, who worked at McKinsey and Merrill with Mr. Gorman and is now a managing partner at Autonomous Research, an independent firm in New York.
And while Mr. Gorman may be Australian by birth, he is hardly Crocodile Dundee, and definitely not the type to go in for the jocular atmosphere of steakhouse dinners and junkets favored by stockbrokers. As Mr. Moszkowski put it, "It would never occur to me to call him anything but James."
Serious with colleagues, even a bit remote, Mr. Gorman can be a very demanding boss. "People looking for a John Mack-style slap on the back are not going to get it with James," said one longtime Wall Streeter. "If you're looking for regular affirmation, it's going to be a lonely existence."
No one doubts that Mr. Gorman has the smarts for his current job. But sometimes, it's important to be lucky as well, as Thomas R. Nides, a Morgan Stanley vice chairman and longtime firm consigliere, puts it. And Mr. Gorman has been able to make the most of some very good fortune.
One of his biggest breaks was being lured to Morgan Stanley in 2006. He left Merrill Lynch well before the firm was crushed by tens of billions in losses in the housing bust, ultimately forcing it into the hands of Bank of America in 2008.
Mr. Mack said he was struck by Mr. Gorman's lack of pretension when he interviewed him in 2005. Although formal personally, Mr. Gorman doesn't go in for the imperial trappings of some of his peers.
"He said, 'I want to join the organization,' " Mr. Mack recalled "He never said, 'I want to report to the C.E.O.' In a business of big egos, I don't come across many people like that." Mr. Gorman's boss at first was not Mr. Mack, but Zoe Cruz, a Morgan Stanley co-president viewed as Mr. Mack's potential successor.
Though not for long. Less than two years after he joined, Morgan Stanley's traders racked up $9.4 billion in losses on a disastrous subprime wager, which not only put Mr. Gorman's more predictable wealth management group in a better light, but also prompted Ms. Cruz's abrupt exit.
Mr. Gorman was elevated to co-president, giving him a broader ambit and a direct reporting line to Mr. Mack. Mr. Gorman used that access to deliver a blunt message: In the wealth management business, Morgan Stanley had to go big or go home. "He said, 'We can't be an in-betweener,' " Mr. Nides said.
Although the financial crisis in the fall of 2008 nearly sank Morgan Stanley, it also made possible its metamorphosis into a wealth-management powerhouse.
After the existential threat to the firm eased — thanks to Washington's controversial Wall Street bailout, as well as a $9 billion lifeline from Japan's largest bank — Mr. Mack and Mr. Gorman dusted off the blueprint to expand wealth management. Before the crisis, Morgan Stanley had looked at buying Smith Barney, the brokerage arm of Citigroup and the jewel in the Citi crown, but could not afford it. But now Citigroup was in dire condition, requiring two bailouts by Washington in the fall of 2008 totaling $45 billion, and Mr. Gorman and Mr. Mack knew that the bank's chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, was desperate to raise capital.
Morgan Stanley could still not afford to swallow all of Smith Barney in one bite, and Citigroup didn't want to immediately give up all the much-needed earnings power the unit possessed. So Mr. Mack and Mr. Gorman proposed a deal that would ultimately prove quite beneficial for the firm: With an initial upfront payment of $2.75 billion, Morgan Stanley acquired 51 percent of Smith Barney, with the right to buy the rest down the road at a price to be determined later.
Initially, the new joint venture suffered from high expenses and required huge investments in technology, all of which pressured profit margins. But those costs were split with Citi, lessening the burden on Morgan Stanley. While a Citigroup spokesman disputes the characterization, executives familiar with the negotiations say that Michael L. Corbat, then a top Citigroup official and now its chief executive, could have raised objections to the big spending going on at the time but was largely silent.
By 2012, with Mr. Gorman now in charge, Morgan Stanley was ready to buy the remaining 49 percent of Smith Barney. But he and Mr. Pandit could not agree on how much it was worth, with Citi asking $22.5 billion and Morgan Stanley offering $9.5 billion. That is a lot of daylight, and Perella Weinberg Partners, the boutique advisory firm, was brought in to arbitrate and make an independent appraisal.
Morgan Stanley would provide financial estimates only for one year, however, forcing Perella Weinberg to rely on past performance, including those initially depressed profit margins in 2010 and 2011. When Perella Weinberg came up with a valuation a bit below $13 billion, jaws dropped at Citi. The two sides settled on a final price of $13.5 billion, so far below Citigroup's estimate that it was forced to take a $4.7 billion pretax write-down after the deal.
"It was James Gorman one, Vikram Pandit zero," said Mike Mayo, a widely followed bank analyst at CLSA in New York.
In 2012, when the sale was negotiated, Morgan Stanley's wealth management unit delivered $1.6 billion in pretax net income, with a profit margin of 12 percent. By 2013, after Morgan Stanley had absorbed all of Smith Barney, the division earned $2.6 billion and margins had soared to 18 percent.
"You create your own luck in this world," said Glenn Schorr, a longtime Wall Street analyst at ISI International Strategy & Investment. "They split the costs, and Morgan Stanley reaped 100 percent of the rewards."
What does Mr. Gorman have to say about his negotiating strategies and Morgan Stanley's refusal to provide long-term projections to Perella Weinberg? "They had all the information they needed," he said dryly. "What drove the margins down actually was the market environment."
Wealth management now delivers higher profits even as new government regulations like the Volcker Rule crimp trading, and it does so without the kind of risk that alarms regulators and investors.
It has also prompted a re-evaluation of Mr. Gorman's retail strategy among Morgan Stanley's old white-shoe types, who traditionally regarded retail brokerage as beneath them, at least when compared with the rarefied world of advising corporate clients on going public or on mergers and acquisitions.
"There are plenty of people taking credit around here and high-fiving themselves now," Mr. Nides said. "But at the time, the same people said he was wrong and was doubling-down on a bad business. Some of the senior investment bankers were naysayers, and he powered through."
Calming the Waters
Wall Streeters are famously unpredictable when it comes to the way they regard their leaders. Philip J. Purcell, Mr. Mack's predecessor as chief executive, stepped down under pressure in 2005, when he angered the firm's old guard by pushing retail while restraining traders from taking on too much risk. That view seems prescient now, but Mr. Purcell remains the only Morgan Stanley chief executive not to have a portrait hanging in the firm's wood-paneled boardroom. Nor did he attend the firm's 75th anniversary gala, held in 2010 at the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mr. Mack quickly increased the size of the firm's trading positions after Mr. Purcell's departure, only to preside over billions in losses in 2007 and 2008. Even after the recent run-up, Morgan Stanley's stock is still down more than 50 percent from where it was before the crash, but Mr. Mack remains a beloved figure at the firm.
Mr. Gorman does not inspire the devotion that Mr. Mack did, but neither has he spawned the enmity that brought down Mr. Purcell. And he has managed to placate the warring tribes in trading, investment banking and wealth management.
While Morgan Stanley has become more of a gatherer of client assets and less of a flashy trader, it still does a fair bit of trading, especially in equities. At nearly $11 billion this year, total trading revenue at Morgan Stanley is expected to be smaller than Goldman's $13.2 billion. But in the first quarter, it was better-than-expected results in fixed-income trading that enabled overall firm profits to beat analyst expectations.
Mr. Gorman has also continued to push traditional investment banking. Amid intense criticism of Morgan Stanley's bumpy handling of the Facebook initial public offering two years ago, he earned applause and loyalty from bankers and traders by going down to the trading floor and mounting a full-throated defense of their performance.
"It wouldn't have been his idea to go, but he was happy he did it," one colleague said. "It went a long way."
Facebook's shares initially plunged after the offering, which was also accompanied by technical problems. Massachusetts regulators fined Morgan Stanley $5 million, saying it had not shared information about Facebook's outlook equally among big and small investors. But just as the run-up in Morgan Stanley's own shares has silenced critics of Mr. Gorman, so has the recent surge in Facebook shares tamped down the embarrassment over whatever missteps took place when the stock made its debut.
Over all, Morgan Stanley is almost the same size as its archrival Goldman Sachs, with just under $33 billion in revenue expected in 2014. Goldman Sachs is much more profitable, however, with analysts expecting it to make $6.8 billion this year, versus Morgan Stanley's $4.5 billion.
With Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers now gone, Morgan Stanley and Goldman are the last two big independent investment banks left on Wall Street, and they face pressures from up-and-coming boutique firms and from giants like JPMorgan Chase. But they are thriving in the niches they dominate, and Morgan Stanley has been edging out Goldman in recent years to rank as No. 1 in global tech I.P.O.s on Wall Street.
To get to this point, Mr. Gorman had to make some difficult calls.
In 2012, when he had to decide between the feuding executives Colm Kelleher and Paul Taubman over who would run the institutional side of the business, Mr. Gorman chose Mr. Kelleher as the better manager. He let Mr. Taubman walk out the door, despite Mr. Taubman's status as a legendary rainmaker. Since he left the firm, in fact, he has advised on $210 billion in deals — on his own.
"I'm not privy to the ins and outs, but I know it was a tough decision," said Lewis W. Bernard, a top Morgan Stanley executive for decades and former board member who helped force out Mr. Purcell. "James makes the hard decisions, knowing full well there are consequences and he's prepared to live with them."
When Mr. Gorman is uncomfortable or has bad news to deliver, he often clears his throat, and as a result, throat-clearing has entered the firm's lexicon as code for trouble, as in:
"How was the meeting with James?"
"There was a lot of throat-clearing."
"Sorry to hear that."
Still, Mr. Gorman has his less-uptight moments. When the head of equity trading, Ted Pick, was late for meetings several times recently, Mr. Gorman put his chair in the corner, prompting a laugh from the group when Mr. Pick eventually arrived.
But niceties and bonhomie are overrated anyway, said Mr. Pfeifler, the Morgan Stanley financial adviser, who joined the firm about 25 years ago and has had a front-row seat for all of its ups and downs. Years ago, after a long weekend spent crunching numbers on deals, Mr. Mack invited Mr. Pfeifler and his fellow analysts to come to his weekend house and enjoy a keg. "James would never do that," Mr. Pfeifler said. "He doesn't care about that kind of stuff."
More important now, he explained, is that after the volatility of the Mack era, including the epic trading losses, and the turf wars between the institutional business and wealth management that forced out Mr. Purcell, something resembling stability reigns at Morgan Stanley.
"A great C.E.O. has four or five important decisions to make," Mr. Pfeifler said. "And James has gotten the big ones right."


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The Toulon flanker Steffon Armitage has been handed hope of an international recall by Stuart Lancaster after the England head coach held talks with the Toulon flanker and brother Delon.
The 28-year-old has been preparing for the French side's Heineken Cup semi-final with Munster on Sunday but met Lancaster in Toulon on Monday and was told that "the door is not wholly closed" regarding his England future. Armitage, who already has five caps, has not represented England since 1999 and may have thought his chance had gone given the Rugby Football Union's policy of not selecting players who play overseas.
However, after his meeting with Lancaster, Armitage and his older brother Delon – who can play in a number of positions in the back line – believe they can force their way into the reckoning.
"Stuart said that the RFU rules are probably not going to change but that the door is not wholly closed," Steffon said.
"England want to put the best team out for the Rugby World Cup and they are just looking into the situation as to what any availability might be for camps and stuff. None of that is up to me. All I can do, and want to do, is keep my head down and play as well as I can.
"Of course I'd love to play for England again. I have never given up on that. I knew what the consequences were when I extended my contract but I knew that I wanted to be the best player I could possibly be and that means staying here. At least I know now that I am not completely out of people's minds."
Lancaster is thought to support the RFU's policy and is reluctant to encourage a change in case it triggers an exodus of players to the lucrative Top 14. But Armitage, who moved to France from London Irish in 2011 and signed a new three-year deal in November, believes he has improved markedly since making the switch.
"I'm definitely a better player than when I won my England caps," he said.
"How could you not be, listening and learning from the likes of [South Africa internationals] Joe van Niekerk, Juan Smith, Bakkies Botha or [Argentina player] Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe? You have to be on your toes every minute of every day here at Toulon. Fifteen people get signed, 15 leave the club.
"You don't know who will be coming through that door next. Richie McCaw? Very possible. It is what drives me. I've got to be right on top of my game."


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Sony World Photography Awards 2009
Communiqué de presse • avr 17, 2009 18:00 CEST
Sony World Photography Awards 2009
14th - 19th April 2009
Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes
The Sony World Photography Awards is a showcase for some of the most amazing photographic talent across the globe. The exhibition showcases more than 330 incredible images compiled from all the shortlisted photographers in each of the 12 professional categories and nine amateur categories.
The PRP award was created to highlight the importance of the rainforests with regard to climate change and to increase awareness of the Prince's Rainforests Project (founded by HRH Prince Charles). The winning professional photographer from this category and has been selected for a fully-funded project to document the rainforest regions of the world.
Click here to see who won the Prince's Rainforest Project Award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2009
The Campaign award was also introduced this year and is aimed at amateur photographers to bring together the global obsession for football (i.e. soccer for you Americans) with the enthusiasm and passion of photography. A single image was chosen that captures the beauty and spirit of football in unexpected places, with this year's winner having the chance of being one of the photographers used in Sony Europe's 2009 digital imaging marketing campaign work.
Click here to see who won the Campaign Award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2009
The highlight of the week, of course, has been the awards ceremony gala dinner where the L'Iris D'Or winner, the Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year, was announced.
Click here to see who won the L'Iris D'Or Award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2009
The full list of the winners and their images can all be viewed online at: www.worldphotographyawards.org
Kind regards,
The Corporate Communications Europe Team
Sony Europe