Explore What's Next

The Panasci Entrepreneurship Competition!

Western New York should know more about this unique event that supports start-up businesses in our area.  It's been going on every year since 2000.  The 2002 winner was JoAnn Johnson, DVM, owner of Frontier Equine Veterinary Practice who today happens to be Annie's vet.   The competition final will be held tomorrow, April 23rd, at the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Butler Mansion.  If you are a business person, student, teacher, or a potential investor, you would find the presentations eye-opening as to the energy and ingenuity we have right here in WNY.

The Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition 

An Afternoon at the Museum

When I lived in Manhattan it always seemed silly to me that people who grew up in the City took a perverse pride in never having visited the Statue of Liberty off of Battery Park or the Cloisters in Fort Tryon or many of the fascinating spots in between.   God forbid they should be mistaken for a tourist.  In Buffalo we too often suffer from a variation of the same malaise.  We have an exceptional gallery of modern and contemporary art at our fingertips and do we attend regularly?  Maybe I should speak for myself...not enough.  Living and working out in the 'burbs it's easy to take for granted the treasure at our doorstep. 

The Albright Knox Art Gallery in Delaware Park is exciting and alive with provocative new acquisitions and an enthralling exhibition that will be in Buffalo until June 28th.  Jennifer Steinkamp's installations fit the Gallery's rooms like a glove and bring an entirely new perspective to the spaces.  One of my favorites was the The Wreck of the Dumaru.  If you happen to be in LA, Steinkamp has a piece in The Getty's California Video exhibition until June 8th.

Venture out of whatever limits you find yourself in, the limit of 'not-enough-time', the limit of 'but-I-live-in-the-suburbs', or the limit of 'you-call-that-art?'  By exploring outside our comfort zone we find unlimited rewards!

The Devil Invented Low Fat Ice Cream-Part II

Late last night, trying to read a mystery novel, voices fill my head:

Devil:    There's still a piece of that Ultimate Chocolate Cake on the kitchen counter.
Angel:   You already had a nice piece of cake earlier...
Devil:    Exactly!  All you need is a spoonful, maybe two.  What's the harm?
Angel:  One spoonful of that cake is a gazillion calories.
Devil:    Calories, schmalories!  It's your birthday!
Angel:   Hmmm...Yeah, you know, it is your birthday...
Devil:    And after you have some cake, there are those Italian cookies your husband brought home from the bakery.
Angel:   You had to push it!  No!  No cake, no cookies!
Devil:    Aw, come ooon!  You are really huuuungry!  Feel that emptiness in your belly...gnawing, gnawing...
Angel:   That's not hunger, that's a healthy stomach at rest.  The gnawing is from being tired and your too stubborn to go to bed. 
Devil:    OK, forget the cake, eat an orange, an orange is healthy and low in calories.
Angel:   Go to bed!  It's....Holy Cow!  It's almost midnight!  You can have an orange in the morning.  That's a good girl.  Say your prayers...close your eyes...Nighty-night.  (Whew!...That was close.)

The Devil Invented Low Fat Ice Cream-Part One

The Real Deal: Confused in Connecticut

Look for The Real Deal: Advice for Tweens and Moms every Thursday!

Dear Real Deal,

My best friend is awesome... and just so happens to be a boy. We hang out all the time and have a blast each time, but everyone keeps thinking we're dating when really we're just really, really good friends. It drives me insane when the other girls in my grade come up to me and ask me if we've kissed yet! But I'm also completely and utterly confused, because if people think we're going out does that mean we should go out? Please help me!

Signed,
Confused in Connecticut   

~*~Vanessa's Take~*~

Dear Confused in Connecticut,

Let me just start out by saying good for you.  A lot of girls wouldn't have the guts to have a best friend who is a boy for this exact reason.  Secondly, don't listen to anything these girls say, whether it be "Oh, have you kissed him yet?" or "You guys are going out! Oh my gosh!" because really it's none of their business.  They apparently have no "love life" and to extinguish the urge to have a "love life" they insist on shoving their noses in someone else's business.  Also just because people are thinking your going out with someone doesn't mean you should be.  Remember: NEVER do something for somebody else's reasons, only go out with this boy if it is what YOU want!

-Vanessa <3


Mom's POV.....

Dear Confused in Connecticut,

There's not a lot I can add to what Vanessa advises.   It's all good.  You give me the impression that you are  the kind of independent person  who  generally makes her own decisions and that's a very good thing.   The topic of boys, however, does tend to  mess up our judgment at times no matter what our age!   And when the very people who are supposed to be our friends don't understand it can hurt as well as confuse.  Going back to basics, and asking yourself, "What do I want?" leaving out the noise of other people's voices, and listening for that voice in your heart, helps me and maybe it will help you.

Yours,
Dr. A :)

Entrepeneurs Are Sexy

We all wear lots of hats.  Women in particular have quite a collection going on.  Parent, spouse, caregiver to our parents, sibling, domestic goddess, office superhero, we do it all.  Last year I added a new hat to my collection.  I became an Entrepreneur. 

You could say anyone who is self-employed is an entrepreneur so I considered myself one ever since I became devoted to Explore What's Next full time.  But for whatever reason I was a lower case entrepreneur (boy, that's hard to spell!), now I'm Upper Case Entrepreneur.  Bear with me while I explain...

My husband, John, is a neurobiologist and a smarter than heck guy.    When I met him I fell hard.  The world saw a nerdy, laboratory geek in horn-rimmed glasses.  I saw a sexy scientist.  

Flash forward to the 21st century....John had a twinkle in his eye.  What if we took his patented biochemical discovery (an exciting new technology to identify and commercialize drug and diagnostic candidates) and built a company around it?  When I saw he wasn't kidding I gave him my full support.  Then he asked me to join him as a business partner.  Wow.  I agreed but of course I had no idea what I was agreeing to at the time.  All I knew was that whatever it took we were going to make this new company happen.  Thus, CH3 BioSystems was born.

With intense hard work, we developed a business plan and entered a regional competition for start-up companies.  CH3 BioSystems won the Panasci Competition for 2007 and with it $30,000.00 of seed money and support services! 

Today as the owner of two very different businesses I am learning every day.  At a time when many of my friends and colleagues are retiring, John and I are ramping it up.   It's a lot like being in graduate school again, the good stuff (meeting really cool people) and the bad (information overload hangovers).  In future posts I'll be talking more about this fascinating aspect of life.

The adventure continues...

Let's Face It, We're All Animals

If you were ever tempted to say "Good boy!" to your husband and hand the garbage to your dog to take to the curb, you might want to check out this book.  Don't Shoot the Dog is all about basic animal behavior; how to get your pet to repeat the good things he does and diminish the bad stuff.   But it's really about all of us because, let's face it, we're all animals, right?  Not to be confused with The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, Don't Shoot the Dog is what Dr. Laura wishes her book was.  Read the reviews.  I know the title is a little weird but  it is widely recommended by behaviorists who want to help people enjoy their pets, kids and spouses more.  You can bet the Dog Whisperer has read it many times!

Smiling Spring in Western New York

April can be cruel, especially in Western New York.  It's the muddy season, the rainy season, the cloudy season, anything but what is traditionally thought of as the spring season.  We are lucky that this week, while most of our kids are on Spring Break, it really is spring or at least for what counts for spring around here.  With the sun out, the air clean from last weekend's rains and a warm promise in the air, we are smiling.   

People from outside our part of the world don't understand that the winters here really aren't that bad.  The white snow makes the dark days sparkle.  Winter sports are hot.  Believe it or not, It never really gets that cold.  Real cold is below zero Centigrade or Fahrenheit.  The temperature rarely is lower then 20 here.  So what's so bad about the weather in Buffalo?  It's April and May, when it feels like it's spring everywhere else (except maybe Canada) and it's enough already!  Plus, the pretty snow is gone and mud is in it's place.

Where I grew up, in Eastern Kansas, the daffodils and irises were in full bloom by the time my birthday rolled around in mid April.  Around here that's not likely.  But we do have the green spikes of the early spring flowers spearing up from their beds and the crocuses and, this week, the sun, so we're happy and we are smiling.
 

You go, Joan!

Joan Benoit Samuelson is 50 and running in the Olympic marathon trials.  When asked why she said,  "...because it's an Olympic trials and I qualified."

I love her.  She always came across as being so down to earth yet when running, looked like an angel in motion.  In my thirties I ran through graduate school, through my first job, through my licensing boards and early marriage until illness stopped me.  Eventually I got back to modified running, walk/running, whatever my body can do at the time. (I despise the term jogging, bleh!)  Joan was always an inspiration and she still is.  She says,

"Marathoning is a metaphor for life, so there are a lot of parallels you can draw.  I tell people to follow your dream, follow your heart, follow your passion, run your own race and believe in yourself.  I think anybody who wants to succeed has to have passion."   

Joan invites us to see that at 50 we are all marathoners, that each of us can choose to run our own race with style, hearts pumping, heads up, moving forward with purpose and passion.

Dolce Far Niente

My first introduction to the concept of non-doing as a virtue came from an unexpected source.  Sophia Loren at her peak of gorgeousness, kicking her feet languidly as she fished from the edge of a houseboat.  Cary Grant (equally at his peak of gorgeousness...actually, he never had a peak, he was forever gorgeous) anyway...Cary Grant in an all American tizzy because "there's work to be done!"  Sophia shrugs and says, with Italian accented vowels, "Dolce far niente.  It is sweet to do nothing."  In post-war 1958 that was a joke.  Ha, ha, lazy European; what does she know but how to look outrageously sexy while fishing.  But for me in the 80's, an overworked graduate student at the time, descended from a long line of overworked workaholics, a light went on as if the Dalai Lama had spoken to me.  "It is sweet to do nothing."

French Fries that are Good For You

Anyone with kids under the age of 35 knows the fastest way to their hearts is French fries.  The concept of baking potatoes to imitate the fatty fries without the calories is brilliant.  Whenever I make them I win mommy points good for at least 24 hours.  And I feel totally indulgent, too.  Because they are labor intensive with all the potato cutting, I reserve them as a special treat but the kids appreciate them more that way.  This recipe for oven-baked fries is a good place to start if you've never tried them.  Sometimes instead of paprika I sprinkle other herbs, like thyme or sage.  Also I find in my particular oven 450 degrees is best and I place the pan on the bottom rack closest to the heat element to get a crispier effect in half the baking time.  Yum!