the best of times, the worst of times

The worst day this week - Monday:
8:30 - Wake up
9:30 -10:30 - Start preparing for 10:30 Negotiations meeting
10:30 -11:30 - Negotiations meeting
11:30 - 1:00 - Student Government meeting
1:00 - 2:20 - Class - Behavioral Perspectives on Management
2:40 - 4:00 - Class - Consumer Behavior
4:10 - 7:10 - Class - Negotiations
7:30 - 2:00 - Yearbook
and an 8:15 class the following morning!

Best day this week - Thursday:
7:45 - Wake up
8:15 - 9:35 - Class - Product Planning and Development
10:00 - 11:00 - Gym
11:00 - 1:30 - Football, frisbee, then more football in the courtyard, bid on items in the Internship Fund Auction
1:30 - 2:20 - Free good Indian food in the Hall of Mirrors
2:40 - 6:00 - Class - Strategic Leadership Across Sectors with CEOs from Blackstone, MBIA, and Webster Bank, plus others from Charlesbank, Credit Suisse, and ex-SEC chairman/SOM Dean Donaldson
6:00 - Haircut and change of clothes for the Internship Fund Auction
7:00 - Hang out with the guys in our apartment building's courtyard
7:30 - Show up at the auction
2:00 - Go home
and I needed to be at SOM at 9am today!

And now, I'm off to the FOURTH Study Group Celebratory dinner, a late celebration for Mamoun's offer at American Express!

update from cleveland

Back in Cleveland:
Cleveland as I remember it in the winter. A few inches of snow, salt everywhere. Yup. So far this break has been a bit different, but it's also been a good break so far. I've been able to meet up with a bunch of people at work, have found excuses to drive around all my old 'hoods, met up with the Wongs, and even had breakfast at the Inn on Coventry for the first time (and now I feel like I missed out by not going there during the 2+ years I lived a 10 minute walk away).

I'm actually pretty happy to see that I still know my way around all sorts of weird side streets in Cleveland Hts and East Cleveland. Yes, I know my way around East Cleveland - the trick is to avoid Euclid Ave because the lights on that road are totally screwed up. I just hate being in the middle of one of the worst neighborhoods in the U.S. sitting at an intersection for several minutes while the lights are red for both streets. Yes, it's that amazing. I was surprised to find that they barricaded Coit. I used to cut through there to get to E 152nd. No, not smart. It's dark, goes under a bridge, and literally every house on it is boarded up. I suppose that's their way of dealing with crime - putting in a few dead potted plants in the middle of the road.

I also got to drive around my old haunts in Willoughby. Yeah, I've lived there too. Went to my trusty Murray's on Vine and also did the regular weekend drive from place to my parents' place.

In case you didn't notice, I like to reminisce and have attachment to some pretty weird things - like roads... and inanimate objects... like my car or my eraser. Anyway... that's another deeper more boring discussion, perhaps never to be had. OK... I will talk about the roads. I drive a lot. I've driven on a lot of roads. There are also certain roads that are really familar (the road to DC, the road to Pittsburgh, the road to Toronto, the road to New Haven) that I've drove a lot on and I realize that I'll probably never drive on those roads again (unless I move back to the east coast - hah!). For example, my drive back to New Haven in a few days will probably be the last time I'll ever drive that insanely boring stretch of I-80 in Pennsylvania (featuring the spot near the highest point on I-80 east of the Mississippi where I had a bathroom emergency on the side of the road in the snow (-; ). In June I'll probably do the drive from DC to Cleveland for the final time, and perhaps also the final drive from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and Toronto to Cleveland.

That said, I'm got plenty of new roads to explore out in the Northwest - ones with much more rewarding scenery. It's also a great excuse to drive across the country for a third time in my trust 1993 Honda Accord. It's at a youthful 177k miles. I'm changing the oil, checking the left-rear brake clip, and probably changing the oxygen sensor (no more cheap-ass Bosch crap!) on Sunday. Good times. I was going to write about something else...

Site of the Day: Expenseview.com
Let's face it. I can be anal. What's better than a site that makes it easier to be both anal and a cheap bastard? Before Yale SOM, I used to keep detailed track of my expenses - not that I really spent money on anything. Since then, I've found I haven't found the effort to do this. This site makes it a bit easier - mostly through good placement. I can enter stuff from my iPhone (yes... I've got one... just like everyone else and their mom) as well as from my iGoogle page. Yes, I continue to do competitive intelligence for Microsoft!

Challenge of the day:
Can someone figure out the lyrics to Conner's song Window Shopping? You can listen to it here: http://www.sonicboomrecordings.com/cataloginfo.php?catid=49 Great album, btw.

And one final question: What kind of break is this? I have lunch appointments every day, I'm still doing Student Government stuff, I'm knee deep in trip planning, and also doing Technology Club stuff... oh... and a Winter Break Social tonight. I suppose I am getting sleep though - and I am enjoying. A week or two of doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING would be nice though. Maybe later... for now if I get two weeks I'm still traveling. What's for Spring Break?

ow

I wonder when school starts...

update

It feels like it's been forever, but I guess it's only been a week since my last post. An update on things.

School is almost done for the year. It's flown by incredibly quickly, and I'm happy about how I've been able to establish many very close friends here at SOM. While there is the occassional overly dramatic (probably staged) fits of jealously between the two groups, it's good. As I've been saying a lot recently, "I like food." Let's just say that my "work" groups at school have become somewhat food oriented, which is totally cool with me. Only issue is that so far I've only made contributions to one group while offering very little in return to the other. Seriously, things would be different if it wasn't for the vegetarianism. Chinese food isn't exactly vegetarian friendly. I'll think of something...

Despite how awesome school is (weird), I'm really looking forward to the summer. I've got my dream job out in Seattle working for Microsoft, and I'll also be taking advantage of the wonderful excuse to drive across the country... TWICE.

Trip 1: New Haven, CT to Seattle, WA
We'll cover 21 states and DC in this trip - Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington. States I haven't been to before are marked in bold.

Also amazing is that I'll be able to visit a few friends on the way. TC and Darin in DC, some of my Cleveland peeps in Cleveland, Scott in Houston, Ly Ann in Austin, Steven in Arizona. Unfortunately I'll be missing Peter in San Fran. And of course Patrick. He'll be along for the entire ride.

So what will we see? A quick rundown of sights, big and small. The George Washington Bridge, The Garden State Parkway (I hate NJ), Washington DC, Old Town Alexandria, PA Turnpike, Breezewood, Pittsburgh, CMU, Boulevard of the Allies, the mile-long GM plant at Lordstown, the crazy OH highway patrol, Chinese food in Cleveland, the steel mills in the Cuyahoga Valley (which we talked about in Employee class - Mittal Steel), Skyline Chili in Cincinnati maybe?, the red highways of Alabama (if they're still red), New Orleans, French Quarter, Garden District, Houston, Astros game, Austin, West Texas, most of Arizona and New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, maybe Canyon de Chelley, maybe Monument Valley, the Extraterrestrial Highway (at night!), Yosemite, San Francisco, Pacific Coast Highway, Mt. St. Helens, Seattle, In-N-Out burgers at some point, Jack in the Box at some point, Broadway perhaps, Pike Place Market, the original Starbucks, West Seattle. Good times!

Trip 2: Seattle, WA to Boston, MA to New Haven, CT
Why Boston? So that I can drive the entire length of I-90 in one trip. Why? Because I can. I'll start at the western tip by the Alaskan Way, and end by Logan Airport in Boston. I'll probably stop at Billings, MT; Rochester, MN; Cleveland, OH and Boston, MA. I'll be back just in time for Orientation where I'll be an SYA. I'll be visiting states in this trip - Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, maybe Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 31 states for the round trip. At the end of this trip, the only states I would be missing are North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.

We have been through a lot together.

Oh yeah... almost forgot about Welcome Weekend. It was awesome. Beautiful weather, tons of activities. Nothing like going from the club fair to playing sports to studying while having Cava to helping announce a hockey game. Yes. Announce a hockey game. Seriously, the opportunities here at Yale are limitless.

it is done

After a few weeks of drama, I have finalized my plans for the summer. I will be working at Microsoft this summer as a Product Planner for Windows Live. Good stuff.

It's been an interesting few weeks. I'll provide a more detailed summary at a later point when I have some more time. High level, I had an offer from DuPont, which coincidentally came the same day as my invitation for second round interviews with Microsoft. Happy Valentine's day for me! I interviewed last week at Microsoft, and I also spoke to several people at DuPont. Here's a quick summary, cut out from an e-mail I just sent.

Unfortunately, I have decided to work for your sister-in-law instead (funny how these things work). I still think that the DuPont position is an excellent opportunity, and I hope to let others know about what DuPont has to offer. I am a leader of the Marketing Club and the Technology Club here, so I'll be playing a big part in letting them know what types of employment options there are out there.

What are the odds?

first exam done

Yep. First one done. And no, I don't regret going on the bike ride yesterday. If anything, it helped? The only extra prep that would have helped would have been to do some endurance training for my right hand. I haven't written that much with a pencil in years.

To be honest, I'm not really down with the whole super crazy studying thing that's going on here. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be studying, but the amount of studying that's going on just seems a bit excessive. Or maybe it's the review sessions. People attending two accounting review sessions in the same day? Plus doing practice exams? At some point people are going to burn out. My strategy is to review the material, but otherwise take it easy so I don't fizzle out before the exams begin. Seems to be working so far.

I know it may seem odd, but this week has been one of the easiest so far for me. No corporate presentations, no club activities, no assignments to turn in, and no class. That frees up a good bit of time for study. Compared to last week, I save 10 hours of club stuff, 3 hours of job stuff, 15 hours of class, 5 hours of misc SOM stuff (student gov't, admissions), and probably 10-20+ hours of homework. It feels like there's nothing to do. Maybe I'll finally get around to working on my Canada 2006 photos. Sweet. (-:

what am i thinking???

Time management can do wonders, but... three leadership roles?

1. Marketing Club First-Year Leader - because I'm really interested in it and "I'd be doing that sort of thing anything even if I didn't have the title."

2. Student Government Rep - because I love the people at the school (well, with a few commonly recognized exceptions) and I like doing things to help people. Basically, "I'd be doing that sort of thing anything even if I didn't have the title."

3. Technology Club First-Year Leader - because I've already been spending a good bit of my time trying to find people who are interested in technology so that we can try to get more tech companies on campus. A true case where "I'd be doing that sort of thing anything even if I didn't have the title."

This doesn't even go into the stuff I do with Admissions, Yearbook, and potentially (hopefully) Global Social Enterprise and SOM IN-reach. Speaking of... when do I need to send in my info for that?

Oh... and did I mention that prior to coming here I've never had much in terms of formal leadership roles? The secret is out!

what is going on!?!?

No, I'm not freaking out. At least not yet. But what's up with this?

My schedule for Tuesday:
Before class / Read a chapter of accounting
10:00 - 11:20 / Data class
12:00 / Lunch with Nick to talk about working at Tech companies
1:00 - 2:20 / Accounting class
2:40 - 4:00 / Problem Framing class
4:15 - 5:00 / Club meeting
5:30 - 6:50 / Student Government meeting with the Dean (yes, I'm an elected rep!)
7:00 - 9:00 / Dinner with my mentor group at our faculty mentor's house
9:00-ish / Write the remaining 4 pages of my final paper for my Careers course

And to top it all off, I think I melted the rear brakes on my bike. Good work, Paul.

Time to get my 7 hours of sleep.

stuff

I write from my "secret lair" up here where I have a view of virtually the entire School of Management from above. Would be great if I were a sniper.

So a few things have gone on since last time... Let's see...

First, Marcia and I had "the talk." We're still talking, and we're getting together sometime this weekend, but I think we've found that this whole situation sucks from a relationship standpoint. I've got a ton of stuff going on here, and she's only here on weekends. There's a ton more to do, but I'm not going to go into it here. If you want to know, ask. This means in person or on the phone.

School is still going fine. I'm managing to keep up with my work despite being involved. I've been selected as a first-year leader of the Marketing Club here, which is great. I also applied for a post on the Honor Committee and I'll also be running for a seat in the Student Government here. What else... I'm also participating in a case competition this week and I'll be helping with the Innovation in Marketing Conference that will be held here later this month. There are some good speakers so if you're interested in marketing, or innovation, you should sign up! Cheap too!

My leg is still recovering. It feels OK. Doesn't hurt. However, it still definitely feels "funny" but I'm not laughing. I think I'll try jogging in a week or two to see how it feels. At least it's showing continued improvement and I can walk. Definitely a plus.

Oh. Almost forgot. Another thing that I may do is write in another blog for the Admissions Office here. Yes, I already have this one, and sometimes I don't write in it. BUT, I sure beat Greg in this. He gave up after about a year. I'm still going strong! If I do end up doing that, I'll still write here, although I may do some cross-posting. Probably depends on the topic.

I'm also taking part in a Club that Amitabh set up for community service. I have to admit I haven't been able to do as much as I would have liked. I did look into a few things, and (thankfully) came to the conclusion that these things weren't needed or were impractical. The first was to have a Web site created to share random acts of kindness. Such a site already exists, so there is no point. I also thought of using post-it notes to replace the cards for passing along random acts of kindness, but came to the conclusion that although Post-its would be better for the initial act (better portability, can stick to stuff), they are not durable enought to encourage the recipients to pass it on.

Anyway, that's all for now. Time to head down to the basement, hang out with my study group, do some accounting, and then over to Admissions to talk to some prospective students (and bring them to class). Fun. Follow that up with case competition stuff, and a night out at Richter's having half-yards (of beer) with my learning team. Mmm.... learning....