Limited immunity: Understanding a tough decision

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Tom Lany

See my story: Limited immunity: Understanding a tough decision that ran in The Gustavian Weekly today.

My Birthday

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Tom Lany

I had a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who made it special. I thought I would share a video of me blowing out the candles on my cake.

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Tom Lany

I didn’t mean to turn tomlany.net into a video blog overnight, but I found a great piece about the way great leaders think that I thought others might enjoy.

The video, produced by TED, talks about how there are three questions “What?”, “How?”, and “Why?” involved when you are deciding what direction to take as a company or group. The speaker discusses how successful people and groups, like Apple and The Wright Brothers first consider why they are doing something, and then figure out what it is they will do, while many less successful people first decide what they are doing and may never eventually figure out why they are doing.

Overall, the piece is inspirational and highly recommended.

Homeless guy wants a job using his voice

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Tom Lany

A friend sent me a link to a video about a homeless guy in Columbus, OH who wants a job doing voice work for radio/TV today. Originally produced by the Columbus Dispatch, I thought the video captured a face of homelessness that many people do not see. The guy clearly has a great voice, is trying to improve his life, and wants to get back to work.

Apparently a local radio station picked up on this and will be interviewing him on-air tomorrow. Let’s hope they hire him! Follow reddit for updates.

UPDATE – Jan. 5: This video has gone viral overnight. The guy was on a local radio station, the CBS Early Show, Yahoo! News, and he was offered a job by The Cleveland Cavaliers. Wow, what a big twenty four hours.

New Years at the Como Zoo

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Tom Lany

I had a pretty full afternoon of exploring downtown yesterday, and as if that wasn’t enough, my family decided they wanted to go to the Como Zoo and Conservatory today. My brother is really into animals and had a great time.

Check out the pictures I took at the zoo.

: Happy New Year from the emperor tamarins.

: Sea lion

: Black footed penguins

: Polar bears

: Bison

: Reticulated giraffes

: More giraffes

: Siberian tiger

: Snow leopard

: The Christmas display in the sunken garden

: Mom’s favorite pointsettia on display

A Journey Downtown

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Tom Lany

I decided that I wanted to go downtown Minneapolis yesterday afternoon. After having been on winter break for a few days, I wanted to get out and enjoy the big city atmosphere that we do not have in southern Minnesota.

So, I hopped in the car with my brother, and we headed downtown. We parked by the Minneapolis Convention Center, and proceeded to walk around town.

Downtown Minneapolis

We didn’t exactly have any big plans; I just wanted to walk around and see the town. We ended up having a great time.

After just a couple block stroll, I spotted WCCO-TV. I haven’t been by their building since they started filming most of their shows with their plaza in the backdrop. It was neat to walk by and see their studios through the window.

WCCO-TV studios

I also thought it was funny to see their old logo carved into their building’s stone. I guess it’s hard to update something you carve in stone.

Old WCCO-TV logo

Next, we went up to the observation deck on the Foshay Tower. I had heard that they had an observation deck, but didn’t know much about it. We thought we would check and see.

The building is an icon on the Minneapolis skyline. It was the tallest building in Minneapolis when it was built in 1929, but has since been surpassed in height.