Mr. Positive

((Note, posting early this week as internet access could be an issue on Sunday... Yikes!))

In what could be considered a really ironic twist, I have been getting beat up lately for being too positive. It’s funny because I used to be seriously negative, but I guess time and circumstance has mellowed me. The latest dust up is when I talked about the fact that most people at last week’s industry get together were trying to stay positive. I was taken to task by a few folks because they said it’s basically not true, the majority of our industry is not seeing what I am seeing and so on. And while I think I am more positive than most and am looking for bright spots I am not alone. This week a few items came riding to my rescue. First off on the residential side of things the CEO of Toll Brothers, a major US homebuilder said he “sees improvement everywhere” and on the always excellent WDWeekly, Senior Editor Christina Lewellen had a great piece about the housing industry showing signs of life. Lastly, the AIA ABI continued in positive territory for the 4th straight month. These are just a few of the factors I believe are part of bigger push forward. So I think my optimism is in the right place. And I am not overboard like the people I had talked about a few weeks ago here (“the economy roaring back post”) but I am staying on that positive side of the street.

Elsewhere…

-- Major omission from my BEC post and that was getting to see the best barrister in the entire land, Mr. Kim Mann. He looks so much calmer now that he doesn’t have to worry about what I may say or do!

-- Really interesting read with the owner of the Empire State Building here. His stance on LEED is absolutely refreshing and in my opinion completely correct.

-- You may have seen the interesting story about the lawsuit involving Apple and the person who walked into the glass wall. Well thanks to the awesome Katy Devlin (she does more than write and sing, she finds great stories too!) we have this great piece on the history of people suing after they run into walls. Amazing.

-- Several weeks ago I asked for Twitter recommendations and I have gathered a few and next week, we’ll share with all, so if you have any that should be added to the list, feel free to drop me a line.

-- Baseball starts up in full this week… and so I’ll go on record with my official (wrong) pick. I think the Battling Bucs will win it all…. Go Pirates… oh wait that is an April Fools Day joke (a dream though really). We’ll go Yanks over an upstart Washington Nationals team in the World Series.

-- Last this week, yet another link… but very appropriate for the audience. This time a video… Guardian Industries was featured in a very nice piece about “Made in Michigan” on a local TV station here in Michigan. Was very cool to see it and was fun to hear people talking about glass the next day while I was out and about. Here’s the piece, excellent stuff…


LINKS of the WEEK

To be added when I get internet access, hopefully Monday.

VIDEO of the WEEK

Good friend and industry consultant extraordinaire Rich Porayko was involved in this video that seriously went viral. Almost a million views and will be seen soon on the Travel Channel. Great stuff Rich… beware the nasty Llama chasing your pals away.