Fridays go from casual to e-mail-free

USA Today covered a fascinating/frustrating phenomenon: full in-boxes. Employers are encouraging workers to declare email bankruptcy -- deleting or archiving entire in-boxes and starting over.

My favorite fun fact from this story is that " It can take four minutes to refocus on work after checking an e-mail". Moral: don't constantly check for new messages.

Read more here.

Vasectomy: $400. Speechless look on her face: Priceless.

This post is on the "Best of Craig's List". It's among the most popular -- find it here.

Who is Ryan Allis?

I first heard about Ryan in a Business Week magazine article in 2005, and later I found his 20 Most Important Lessons Learned in Business. I love reading that kind of stuff. You can read it here.

He visited Duke last year and I heard him speak -- and this year I met him again at an event he hosted at his house called "The Entrepreneur & Social Entrepreneur Meetup". It's open to all.

I admire his transparency. On his website, he will expose all of his business practices. He genuinely wants to help potential entrepreneurs. Check out his site here. It's helpful for everyone, especially if you are considering incorporating your business or looking for funding.

(Turns out his site is the top search result on Google for "entrepreneurship". Sweet.)

Gardner-Burke Antiques made its first website sale!

We are very excited -- Check out the website here.

Maureen Dowd -- Brilliant NY Times Op-Ed Columnist

In October '05, Maureen Dowd wrote a fantastic article about traditional feminists versus new age women. In the past two years, I've passed this article along many dozen times.

I've never felt compelled to participate in the "feminist" cause. I feel as if acknowledging discrimination limits me -- I don't want to view myself as disadvantaged.

Apparently, I'm not alone; many females in my generation have a similar view. Ironically, by not supporting the feminist cause, we are letting the advances by "old school" feminists atrophy. It's a great article, and it resonates with most people I've shared it with. You can access it here.

On a lighter note, Maureen Dowd let Stephen Colbert pick up her pen for her most recent NY Times column. It made me laugh -- you can find it here.

Colorado View

Coravos Photography

Gardner Burke Antiques is up and running!

Gardner Burke Antiques has come a long way since this summer. The site is now fully organized and includes items ranging from Pickard to American Belleek. The founders Camilla Burke and Kathy Cravedi are among the premier sellers of fine porcelain and crystal in the country. Even if you cannot afford these rare antiques, the artistic pictures worth your time.