My name is Mike Davis, and I am in love. No, this is not an online posting where I propose to some woman about how I would like to spend the rest of my life with her, and wobble on one knee while she swoons over how romantic I am. Let’s face it, there are a lot of prerequisites that need to be met before that happens. Not to mention the most important one, having a girlfriend. But I digress.

I have a new love. Well, more like a reliable friend that has never let me down, my friend’s name is the Bloomberg terminal. Instead of making this a rambling post of all the reasons why I love this bad boy, I thought I would make a list. One, to ease readability. Two, to increase the likelihood that someone would click on this article (don’t ask me, it’s proven that <insert number> reasons why <something crazy> formula increases click rate).

So here we go….

6. It makes me sound smart. Whether looking or facts on a company, stalking researching a industry contact, or reading about what the meltdown in Greece means to me. After spending some time with this terminal, I sound smarter.

5. Fancy keyboard. I’m not sure if that image up there does this keyboard justice, but there are something like 2094385350 keys on this keyboard. (I might be exaggerating, but man, I don’t even have to type the word “equity”, I just hit F8. Now don’t get me wrong, I think the Optimus keyboard is pretty amazing, with it’s LED keys and totally programmable keys, but the feel of this keyboard is just so OLD school… CLACK CLACK CLACK, yeah, you hear that sound? That’s ME. That’s me RESEARCHING baby… come over here and let’s have a conversation, I’m going to slow play all this K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E like Jesus at World Series of Poker.

4. Dual screens of death. The only thing that would make me feel more like Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street was if I got on my phone and started some rant about how everyone should short some arbitrary something or other instrument of financial wizardry. I mean, I have charts, news, management bios, common-sized statements all on the screen, AT THE SAME TIME. You want to know what’s going on with <insert company name>, come over here to my dual screens, give me 10 seconds, I will give you a snapshot.

3. Amazing suggestions. Just when I thought there was no other way to slice, dice, and analyze this data, BAM, my trusty friend comes up with a suggestion. Want to chart economic indicators next to company fundamentals? (ask me why that’s important… go ahead, I DARE you to ask me why that is important) Well, here is the abbreviation you can type up in the command bar area to do that. Been spending too much time in the dark pit that is called “independent research”, want to know what’s going on in New York City, type TNYC. BAM. KNOWLEDGE.

2. Orange is my favorite color. You know what is critical when you are spending 34583457 hours behind the computer researching? A font, and a color that reduces eye strain. (coincidentally, it also makes for some very cool looking charts and graphs). Get four windows across the Dual Screens of death (see above) do some comparisons, read the news, get some awesomeness going on the tickers… then leave and go get a soda or something… trust me, try it. It’s like a venus fly trap for curious minds…. Hey Mike, what are you doing? Oh me, I’m just, you know, looking at some betas across different financial instruments to hedge the exposure in my portfolio… you know, as you do on a Sunday afternoon (though you can’t trade on it, because the markets are not open, but who’s getting technical here?).

1. Live help. You heard that right people. LIVE freaking’ HELP!!! On anything you want. Literally. ANYTHING. Press help twice, and it’s like rubbing the genie lamp. BAM. Here is an example conversation.

THEM: Hey, how may I help you?

ME: Oh, you know, I’m trying to hedge the exposure in my portfolio, is there some way I can see the price of beans in china?

THEM: Certainly, type P BEANS CHINA in the command bar, you’re get the price of beans in china.

ME: Cool, thanks, can I export that so that I can run Gaussian-Fibonacci-Madonna-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince distribution on the data set?

THEM: Absolutely, that’s the GFMAFKAP export, you can access that on the little drop down or if you are a fan of keyboard only action, because every second counts when you are doing research, you can just type 96 and hit enter.

Seriously, I just had this conversation   If you’re curious about the output, I’ve included it.

Next order of business. Send this love note to someone at Bloomberg, and beg them some sort of discounted pricing so that I can feed my addiction.

Hope you all have having amazing days (that’s AMZ DAY GO – if you must know)

What is green, steamy, and chalked full of nuts?

Well, if you’re a decendent of the Hakkas ethnic group, this riddle is not much of a challenge for you. But for the rest of you, let me introduce you to Thunder Tea Rice.

What is it? Check it out.. I’m paraphrasing from various sources… but the story goes something like this…

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there were these people (known as the Hakkas). War and strife was rampant in Northern China and the Hakkas were not having ANY of it. So they packed up their stuff, and hit the road. (Author’s note: I wonder if any of them were named Jack, because then they could sing “hit the road, jack.. and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more…” – but sadly that song wasn’t written yet)

Anyway, so the legend goes, these people got hungry. And, you know, when you’re an entire ethnic group on the road, you’re not exactly pulling the bus into McDonalds. They INVENTED food. Can you believe that? I mean, they opened up the ancient pantry, and INVENTED SOMETHING!

Here’s pretty much an exact recount of how that whole thing went down…

Tribal guy #1: I’m starving. Do we have anything to eat around here?
Tribal guy #2: Umm… well, we got some grains here.
Tribal guy #3: Yeah, I see some soybeans and nuts here too.
Tribal guy #4: Ooo ooo, I think I see some lentils here.
Tribal guy #1: Well, mash it up, and let’s go already!

And thus was born Lei Cha.

Since the people found it impossible to heat water, Lei Cha became a tailor-made product for the tribe-on-the-go. These guys ended up loving this stuff so much, that when they finally got to where they were going, they heated up water, made green tea, and poured it into a bowl with the mashed up contents and yumminess found it’s roots.

FAST FORWARD TO A FEW DAYS AGO

I have had this dish, and it is yummy.

Global Citizen here…

What a blast it was on Friday, being involved with SM4SC in New York City! Just an amazing group of people coming together for an amazing cause, City Harvest!

As many of you might know, I have a video series called Notion to Motion, where I talk about starting a business based on something you’re passionate about. And rather than write article after article about it, I have actually DONE it… ON THE SHOW! I created a photography business, and as part of the donations to SM4SC, I donated photography and videography services for the event that SM4SC NYC hosted at the Roger Smith Hotel.

Here are the photos. Please let me know if you are interested in having a copy of the original of any of the photos, and I will make sure that we work it out!

Global Citizen… OUT!

So I’ve been tagged in a meme, actually this is the second one that I’ve been tagged in, Shelley Greenberg’s blog post is the other one… but here we go.

7 random things about me.

1. I _despise_ anything grape flavored. No grape flavored jam, bubble gum, jolly rancher, popsicle. NOTHING. Can’t do it. This is much longer story as to why. But can’t do it. But I can drink wine. Ironic? No Random and Weird.

2. I tried to teach myself to be ambidextrous – not to be cool, not because want to learn to do something cool at a party, but because I needed a faster way to take notes on a whiteboard, because I am a visual thinker. I brainstorm a lot more effectively when I can draw it out, and “see” the problem. Yet I am a horrible artist.

3. Let’s see, I can not take people who say “supposebly” seriously. I mean, I can’t even listen to any other words after “supposebly”. I don’t know why that is. I just shut down.

4. I used to sleep with my eyes half-open. Used to freak my college roommate out. 

5. I can not draw a straight line without a straight edge. and I call it a straight edge, not a ruler. 

6. I can not make a list, without drawing a little box in front of the item, for when I actually accomplish the tasks, so that I can check it off.

7. You can keep your moleskin, your this thing and your that thing, I use index cards. One index card per task, that way I can take notes, just long enough to get the task done, and then I toss it.

Now, in accordance with the 7-Random-and-Weird-Things-About-Me meme, I must tag 7 more people to participate in the next round.

I’m tagging:

Shelley Greenberg

Matthew Knell

Gradon Tripp

Meg Fowler

Whitney Hess

Orian Marx

and last but not least, Sharin with an i

Here are the rules I followed as established by Shannon:

Here are the rules for my fellow bloggers:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Global Citizen here….

There are volumes written about what to get a guy who has everything. I have said many times, in person, online, and on the show, that I consider myself very fortunate. I have a lot of people in my life who love me very much, who care about me, and who would go to great lengths for me.

I started out this project, Notion to Motion, with the intention of illustrating that it is possible to start a business based on passion, even in times like this “so-called” recession. *ducking my head to dodge all the economists*.

Here is an example of impact that you can have. Give someone the gift of hope. Here is a video by a devoted viewer and now, friend.

Being an Enabler / Merry Christmas from Seth Nenstiel on Vimeo.

Seth and I had a little gift exchange just there. He gave me the gift of appreciation, I gave him the gift of hope. Much better than a gift card, huh?

He went on to thank a lot of people in his life, and wrote a great article as well… check it out.

Lost of love, hope, and happiness this year for you all… 

Global Citizen… OUT.

Global Citizen here….

Wanted to take a moment and ask you to cast your vote for 2 organizations that I think are awesome!

Empressr: www.empressr.com

SM4SC: www.sm4sc.com

Short and sweet, 2 clicks… thank you so much for taking the time to help recognize 2 rockstar organizations!

Global Citizen… OUT.

Global citizen here….

Loving it. In this episode, I have to thank Flight of the Conchords for the theme song. MUCH LOVE. You guys rock! Check out the theme song.

Well, we’ve done it, we’re dreamt, we’ve written, now we’re going to cement the idea.

I am including my ideas document for you all to use. Just quick little paragraphs that I put together. Feel free and use it.

Enough reading, more viewing.. on with the show!

As promised, you can download my Ideas paragraph here….
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And remember, there is no recession on passion.

Global citizen…. OUT