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June 28th, 2008 marks the next annual Ride for Roswell. I will be participating for the first time, along with a couple of co-workers from Algonquin Studios.

This annual ride is held to help raise funds for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, an organization dedicated to the eradication of cancer. The donations raised at The Ride For Roswell support research, education, and treatment programs at Roswell Park Cancer Institute such as:

• Providing supplemental funds for RPCI studies approved by the National Institutes of Health as the best cancer research in the nation;
• Purchasing or maintaining state-of-the-art medical equipment and laboratory core resources for patient treatment and diagnosis, and for research;
• Funding programs that help transfer research outcomes into new treatments and/or prevention approaches;
• Enhancing Roswell Park’s compassionate care programs through Quality of Life initiatives to help patients and families at their time of need.

To read more about how the funds raise are used, click here.

I have had several family members fall prey to cancer including my mother, who so far remains in remission.

If you would like to help me raise money for cancer research please consider donating online. Any amount you can give is graciously appreciated.

Donations can also be sent to:

Timothy J. Finucane
P.O. Box 229
Depew, NY 14043

If your from the Buffalo, NY area the name in the title of this post will be very familiar to you. You’ve probably been hearing it in the news from time to time. For those of you not from the area, Jonathan Cote was kidnapped in Iraq in November of 2006 by a group of rebels posing as police officers. Jonathan was part of a private security group who was escorting a convoy.

I met Jonathan when I started working for Algonquin Studios in July of 2001. He was only there for a short time after I started, because he was shipping off to join the military. I did not get to know him very well, but I did have the opportunity to converse with him. He was a very energetic and lively individual. I wish I could have had the opportunity to get to know him better.

A few days ago it was announced that the body of Jonathan Cote was found. This was very disappointing news, though not unexpected; weeks earlier they had found the bodies of his fellow contractors. Still, those who knew him held onto hope, myself included.

I may not have had the opportunity to know Jonathan well, and I can’t imagine what this is like for his family, but my heart goes out to those who will miss him.

May you rest in peace Jonathan.

Something happened the other day that really bothered me. At first it made me extremely angry, so I let it stew for a couple of days, simmering in my mind. This gave me some time to absorb the lesson before just coming out and writing an angry post. So here goes…

I work for an exceptional company, Algonquin Studios. Every day is full of lessons on leadership and what being a real leader means. My CEO is a man to look up to, to view as a mentor. And the other people around him are also to be looked up to. So when I see people in the business community doing very crappy things, I take notice. They become my anti-mentors.

The other day my wife had to go to a funeral for a co-worker, an unfortunate victim of cancer. It has been an extremely rough time for this persons friends and family.

Now here’s where I get mad. The direct supervisor of the person who passed away and the CEO of my wifes organization could not be bothered to show up to the funeral. The supervisor even gave a lame excuse that she does not believe in stepping into any church other than a Catholic one. Ridiculous. Unacceptable. Shame on you. I don’t care what your belief system, you should show compassion for people in pain. You should be there for them. Anything less is pitiful.

And people within the organization who know damn well this is wrong, refuse to call them out on it.

Real leaders are there for their people when they need them. They don’t even think twice about reaching out to help.

How do organizations like this, that clearly have a lack of leadership, continue to survive? These people run in the same circles as some real leaders in Buffalo. Why aren’t those leaders of business calling them out on the carpet for their indiscretions? And mentoring them on why they need to care about their people.

It is a shame that some people just don’t understand how to run a winning organization; that they don’t understand having a core set of values, and holding everyone in the organization to them, is essential to create a vibrate, thriving community around you.

And this issue I have highlighted here is just one of many such examples in my wife’s company. And it’s always the same few people at the top. These anti-mentors are creating tremendous lessons for those paying attention and being critical of them. Because of this I have strongly recommended to my wife that she find a new job, and to be very critical when asking questions in interviews

Leadership matters; caring about your people matters. Are you a leader? Or are you my anti-mentor?

Here we are in the new year. Happy New Year to everyone.

We started out our new year a bit rough. Shaun seems to have caught another bug and has thrown up twice this morning. Mostly flem and juice since he is not eating food well. So far little Teagan doesn’t seem to have caught it, but the last time this happened it went through everyone in the family. So, I’m bracing myself for the inevitable. But while I wait for that I’ll just have to keep comforting a sick little boy. He even went down for his nap without a fuss. That NEVER happens.

With the new year Teagan has really taken to standing, a lot. I’ll give it no more than a couple of months before she is running around this house. She is just absolutely determined to catch up with Shaun. And getting her fair share of bumps and bruises to prove it. She’s also improving her dad’s eyesight. I getting much better at spotting all the things she’s going to put in her mouth before she does.

Like many people I set some pretty lofty goals for last year, and failed to meet most of them. Primarily due to a new family member. But, even though I hadn’t listed it as a goal, my wife and I managed to raise a very happy, very healthy little girl. That was hands down the biggest priority for 2007.

Going forward for 2008 we have some new and old goals to accomplish. The kids obviously continue to be a priority. But my wife and I have become determined to work harder toward financial freedom. This year we are both starting new business ventures and I am learning a great deal about real estate. We already have one rental unit and I hope to find a couple of new duplexes before the years end. I have begun a network marketing business with Bookwise and started up a blog to follow my first experience with network marketing. I’ll give you my honest opinion on how it proceeds, good and bad. And I’m also going to try and bring back the Grape Soda Records business I wanted to start a couple of years ago. I’m going to start with a couple of local bands and branch out from there. Eventually I’ll probably start a blog for this as well. All in all, I expect this building of businesses to take at least 2-3 years before it improves our cashflow. The bottom line for us is that we can’t keep doing 9-5 for someone else. We need more flexibility with our new family.

And, while I’m not sure where I’m going to find the time I am also hoping to resurrect Radio.Speljamr this year. We’ll see how it goes. It takes a good deal of time.

We end our 1^st day of the new year by watching the NHL’s Winter Classic hockey game between the Sabres and the Penguins. The Sabres lost in the final shootout, but it was still a very exciting hockey game. The players were like a bunch of kids on a frozen pond in the first period, and the aerial shots were one of a kind. I hope they try to do this next year.

Well, it wasn’t a perfect day, but I still think we’re heading down the right path. 2008, here we come!

Introducing the newest member of the Finucane family:

So here we are, another new year. I still can’t remember to write 2007 on my checks. And I’m still stuck in holiday mode,wanting to stay home instead of going to work. Still, I was thinking that maybe it was time to lay out some new goals for this new year. So here goes:

Move to a New House: we are in the process of buying a new house and will hopefully close in the next couple of weeks, so this goal should be reached soon. It’s going to have a lot of work to go along with it, including getting the current house ready to rent. The new house is almost 2000 sq. ft. of room and 5.5 acres of land. I’m already picturing the mountain bike tournament on that 5.5 acres. And I already know we will have several home improvement projects to get started on.

Get Grape Soda Records Up and Running: I got part way through the setup of this new business venture, but some attorney problems stalled things and then I got caught up in holidays and house buying. Well, this is a really important goal for me to meet, so action items have already been started to make this move again. I’ve had a flury of book buying to learn more about everything, from accounting to music industry stuff. I’m really hoping to get something up and running by march/april 2007, especially since I missed my initial goal of November/December 2006. The largest amount of work is going to be writing the web site to manage sales and licensing of the artists I sign. Plus a lot of reading to learn some new skills required to run a company.

Bike More: I really feel the need to get out biking more this year. Once we’re in the new house maybe I’ll have enough space to setup my trainer and get prepped for the new season. Plus, Shaun can now ride along with me in our niffty kid cart. And, the new house will be just minutes from the Clarence bike trail.

Well, that’s only three for now, but number two on that list will probably take up the majority of my time anyway. Especially since we have another little one due in April, who, along with Shaun, will get the greatest amount of our time. I’ll be happy if I can pull off just these three goals.

You are Hulk

Hulk 75% Green Lantern 75% Robin 68% Spider-Man 65% Superman 60% Catwoman 55% Supergirl 53% Iron Man 50% The Flash 40% Wonder Woman 38% Batman 35%

You are a wanderer with amazing strength.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

You are Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor 76% Mr. Freeze 75% Dr. Doom 74% The Joker 67% Apocalypse 57% Kingpin 57% Magneto 56% Venom 56% Green Goblin 54% Dark Phoenix 51% Catwoman 51% Juggernaut 46% Riddler 43% Mystique 34% Poison Ivy 32% Two-Face 30%

A brilliant businessman on a quest for world domination and the self-proclaimed greatest criminal mind of our time!

Click here to take the “Which Super Villain am I?” quiz…

I came across Librarything.com in a posting on slashdot and I’ve been addicted ever since. It’s a fantastic online application that lets you catalog your entire inventory of books. So if your an avid reader like myself and have a huge library, this is a good way to keep track of what you own. Below are a few of the book widgets you can create at the site.

The fact that more people would rather watch the drivel called American Idol, than watch the Olympics goes to show that the public are just sheep…