Michael Jordan's Weblog

One of the reasons I purchased Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 is because it had a direct upload feature for sharing photos via Shutterfly. Apparently Adobe discontinued this service for Shutterfly in 3.0 and made the change retroactive to 2.0. Bummer.

Every morning I walk my dog around the lake behind our house. From time to time I'll see a Bald Eagle. This time of year there is a flock of Mergansers hanging out. Today there was a Great Blue Heron up in a tree (see below). Pretty cool.

It was just a matter of time. There I was, watching the inevitable experimental hookup between Marissa and Alex (another girl) on "The O.C." and all of a sudden I get a call from Nicole Ritchie saying I'm going to have to change my phone number because someone got a hold of Paris's address book. (I was mad but couldn't stop watching the show.)

A few phone calls to my peeps confirmed this was true. Paris got hacked and now all us beautiful rich folk are going to get bugged by the masses that we spend millions to avoid. She's like totally ruined my life!...Gosh!

Stop calling me!

Naturally, you'd expect the biggest expense in corporate real estate to be rent, which it is. Expect about 30% of your CRE budget to go rent. The next 30% to depreciation.

But you might be surprised (if you're not in the business) that the next biggest expense category is utility cost at just under 10%, give or take. Property tax is around there, too. All the services required to make a corporate real estate portfolio suitable for 35,000 employees add up to about the same as property tax, historically.

Utility cost! So don't forget to turn off your lights!

Other ways to save money as a real estate tenant: Tenant's Advocate has several tips. Or try a lease audit.

New Website on using Six Sigma for growth, correcting Six Sigma deployment mistakes companies have made in the past. After combing through this site, I was impressed with the business value-add!

This is one of the worst movies to get nominated in a while... My wife and I saw "Sideways" over our New Years Eve vacation in Santa Barbara. She liked it. I did not. Now, the more I hear about it, the more I hate it!

Sure, there were some parts that were amusing (the scene at the golf course, the references to Merlot...) but the rest of the movie tries to put one over on you in a way where I found myself looking around the theater to see if anyone was really buying it!

For example -- and this is my biggest problem with the movie -- the whole premise of the movie is bizarre. (And how can you call "good" a movie based on a premise like this?) The idea is that two men, both in their 40s and at least one wealthy, go wine tasting for a week for a bachelor party (!). This just doesn't happen! The one getting married (played by The Guy from Wings) doesn't even know anything about wine -- he's just going along with his buddy for what I can only assume is some kind of favor. Doesn't make sense!

To try and turn this charade into a story, the groom's angst about getting married plays out in his desire to have an affair with a local woman to whom he keeps referring as "hot", along with another woman he wants his wingman to hit on because she's "hot" too. In what universe are these two women even remotely "hot"?

Besides the "storyline" the acting was just ok. You feel sorry for Giamatti's character but after he keeps piling it on, he just gets annoying (he plays the same character he played in "Duets" which was actually pretty good). And the other guy -- can't remember his name but he doesn't really need one other than "The Guy from Wings" -- speaks with some version of a surfer/stoner accent. I'd be afraid it was the guy's real voice except that it comes and goes a bit and I don't remember him talking like that in Wings. (Only Keanu Reeves in "Devil's Advocate" has a harder time speaking consistently; but don't get me started on Keanu Reeves.)

It will probably win an Oscar.

In case you don't believe me when I say that people mistake the author of this blog for "the real Michael Jordan," attached here are some of the emails I've received that (I'm assuming) were meant for someone else.

• Send equipment?
• Your mom's church?
• Donations?
• Sneaker Idea?
• Thanks for the Christmas Present
• Need Help
• Worried about my Son
• Interview for History Day?
• Disappointed with your shoes
• Inspiration
• Send memorabilia?