About

WELCOME to Insert Funny Name Here! I’m your host, Verlin Henderson, and you’ve stumbled across yet another iteration of my personal homepage, www.verlin.com. This is the “blog” version, as in short for “web log”, which is techie shorthand for “the self-obsessed and link-happy websites that fucked up Google”. Previous versions of my homepage have included “the text-based resume”, “the big page of bookmarks that played a midi of dueling banjos”, the “look ma, I can write CGI code page”, and everyone’s favorite, the “multiple megabyte image-map nightmare of 1997″. I hereby apologize for all the previous versions, especially to those of you who experienced them on dial-up.

Today, I’m an information technology professional and graduate business student splitting my time between Raleigh, NC and Winterville, NC. Although my mother thought I’d be lucky to graduate from hamburger college, I actually managed to earn degrees from the University of Wyoming (a B.S. in Business Administration) and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (M.B.A.). I’m about to start working on a graduate certificate in Finance from East Carolina University. Job-wise, I’m currently the Director of Information Technology for ONLINE Information Services, a provider of collections and credit reporting services based in Winterville.  I’m in my early thirties, married without kids (yet!) to another Fuqua M.B.A., and doggie daddy to Emma and Stella, the two best dogs on the planet.

So what will you be reading about on this blog?

Weight Loss: Just before I began this blog in October of 2007, I was tipping the scales at an eye-popping 435 pounds. I’ve started following the Atkins Diet, and I’m working hard to lose this weight and eventually keep it off. Hopefully, using this blog to record my experience will serve to keep me honest. I lost over 50 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2001, so I know this can work for me. My goal weight is 180 pounds. I literally want to be “half the man I used to be”.

Distance Education: I’m something of a distance education success story. After flunking out of my first attempt at undergraduate studies, I was able to use CLEP and DSST exams in conjunction with an online program at the University of Wyoming to earn my bachelor’s degree and get admitted to several top-50 M.B.A. programs. I’m sure I’ll spend some time in this blog talking about my Wyoming experience, as well as the experience I had in my M.B.A. program and my current certificate program.

Politics: Generally left-leaning, but sometimes I’ll surprise you. I’m something of a political junkie, even if I just end up linking to other people’s postings that I agree with, I’m sure politics will be on here.

Stocks and Finance: I’m studying finance and I work developing credit scoring models. I also play the stock market a bit. Right now, my holdings are weighted heavily towards tech and foreign stocks. I feel like Captain Volatility on some days, but I’m still up roughly 20% for the year! I’ll discuss some specific stocks and why I do or don’t like them, and I’m pretty sure I’ll link to episodes of Wallstrip that I find funny (which is most of them).

Movies: I hold a yearly pass to Ambassador Entertainment movie theaters, so I see a lot of independent film. I’ll try to review what I see.

Life with dogs: Like I said, I have the best dogs in the world. Except when they’re not. Expect funny pictures and stories about my mutts.

And also: whatever else I feel like writing about…

Anyway, that’s Insert Funny Name Here in a nutshell. Enjoy!