i like food

So a typical Sunday for me here in Seattle.

9am - Wake up (thanks, Alissa!)
11am - Play basketball with the interns
2pm - Go to the market and buy some mix of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, and bread. Then go home and eat half of it and save the remainder for the rest of the week.

So I love the market. Aside from the throngs of tourists who want to take photos of everything, it rocks. Huge head of good quality romaine lettuce for 99 cents. Fresh french bread for under $3 a loaf. Huge quality apples for 99 cents/pound. And always an awesome selection of fancy fruit like cherries, strawberries, and even lychee. The meat there is pretty good too. Got a special of Angus NY Strip steak for $8.99 a pound. Plus I got some sausage there. The first time I've ever had sausage that isn't bursting with oil and fat. Good stuff. And of course, the fish there is excellent, although a bit on the pricey side.

Now that I'm finishing up with my late lunch, I'm going to see if I can do some random shopping downtown at a drugstore, and maybe Old Navy. Hopefully they'll have some good long sleeve tees.

After that, game 2 of the NBA finals. Go Cavs!

live from seattle

The long awaited rambling update... I promise that it will be disjoint and random. If the paragraph bores you, skip it and move on to the next one.

So right now I'm at work. I arrived in Seattle on Sunday, May 27 and I spent a few days hanging out in Seattle before starting work on Wednesday.

Working in my office is kind of like working in the Hall of Mirrors at SOM. I share the office with someone, which is fine with me, considering that at Progressive I didn't have much personal space to myself, though I do admit that I enjoyed hanging out with Steve and Colleen for many hours each day. The reason my office reminds me of the Hall of Mirrors is that usually it's relatively quiet, but there is a fair amount of traffic. Then about once or twice a day there's a loud gathering somewhere near here that's loud as hell. But it's OK. I'm used to working in the Hall of Mirrors. Only issue is that I am still in the habit of leaving my iPod in the car. I need to change my ways... especially with the amount of research that I'm doing.

So what am I doing? I'm trying to come up with a vision for a product. Right now it's a lot of competitive analysis - going and looking at different competitors' offerings and capabilities. I'll also be looking into trends both from a user standpoint as well as from a technology standpoint. It's very much like the sort of thing I did when I was doing research for my Comp Strat paper, so I feel like I'm pretty prepared for it. The only "issue" is that there is so much material internally to review that it's a bit overwhelming. I think I'm getting a pretty good handle on it though. I'm going to spend the next day digesting what's here, creating my own stuff, and then I'll reach out to a few more people to get some more brain dumps from people involved in two other affiliated projects. Good times.

So my apartment. Yes, I promised I would jump around a bit. My apartment is sweet. I'm sharing a 2BR with another intern in downtown Seattle. Heavily subsidized by Microsoft. We get a fantastic view of Elliot Bay and downtown Seattle. On a clear day I can see Mt. Rainier from my bedroom. Awesome. I'll put up some photos shortly so you can see for yourself. Better yet, drop by for a visit. We have a couch and plenty of floorspace. The other great thing about the apartment is that it's close to a bunch of stuff. I'm within a 5 minute walk of the Pike Place Market, which is a great place to pick up groceries (and flowers). I can get everything from produce, meats, milk, cheese, fresh bread, to asian and latino groceries. There are also a ton of little eateries around the market, from oysters to russian to chinese to greek to turkish. Good stuff!

The only two drawbacks to where I live: it's far from good greenspace and the commute kind of sucks. It takes 8 minutes to get to the highway in the morning. It can take over an hour to get home in the evening if there is a Mariners home game. I'll need to figure something out. Maybe I'll take the bus those days.

Oh yes. We get free bus passes for working here. I like.

You know another thing I like? The cafeteria here. Today I had Indian food and sushi. Granted, it's not the best quality I've ever had, but it's passable. Plus it offers variety. The only problem is that it seems like I want the Indian food every day. I have this bad feeling that I'm going to overdo it like we did Aladdin at SOM. Wish me luck. I intentionally got something else yesterday just for a break. The good thing is that they mix up what dishes they have each day. So is it really repeating?

So social stuff. It's been cool hanging out with the mix of people that I know here. High school people, b-school people, and Microsoft people. Give me a few weeks and I'll mix in some other peeps that I know here (from CMU and other).

My car. Ross and I have formed an alliance. An alliance to work on our cars. We both own 4th generation Honda Accords. He has the local knowledge. I have the tools and experience doing random stuff with my car. It will be fun. We will save enormous amounts of money. I'll probably save $300+ doing the radiator by myself. $100+ for the oxygen sensor. Driveshaft I may wait till I'm back in Cleveland. Ross will likely save a ton on his car as well. I like.

So what did I miss.... Photos! I just got internet access yesterday at home. I'll try to start uploading some stuff in the next few days. Not just so that you all can see pics from the cross country trip, but also so I can take more photos. I think I almost managed to completely fill 12GB worth of memory cards.

Oh yeah... I got invited to a party at Bill Gates' place. I hear he has a nice house.

So so far:
7 sunny days
2 rainy days
Had Japanese, Russian, Mediterranean, Mexican food.

we have reached the west coast!

Late last night, we reached San Francisco, finishing the "coast-to-coast" part of the journey. But, the trip isn't over yet. Tomorrow morning we go for yet another hike (on top of the 40 miles of hiking already done in Zion, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks) in Redwoods National Park. Then, a drive up the Oregon coast, and then finally arriving in Seattle.

Oh... and the stat of the day: 29.5 miles per gallon so far with the car.

Now, time for some sleep... or something.

zion rocks

Zion has definitely made it onto my list of favorite national parks, joining Jasper (Canada), Mt. Rainier, and Olympic.

Since the last time, we have hit up Houston for an Astros game with Scott and Jenn, BBQ in Austin with Ly Ann, and Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon National Parks. Good times. Probably about 30 miles of hiking over the last three days, with a combined 7000 feet in vertical climb.

Unfortunately, I left the cable for my "good" camera packed deep in my car, so no photos yet. )-: Don't worry though. I think I've taken well over 400 so far, and I'm not even sure how.

The car is still holding up, although I think I need a new radiator, new oxygen sensor, new front-right driveshaft, and maybe something in my rear-left suspension. Radiator is under control (leaks at the top periodically when in heat), O2 sensor flakes out periodically (which then screws with the ECM which I then need to reset), driveshaft has been holding up great despite the escaped grease, and the rear-left suspension just makes noise. In other words, things are under control, but I'd love to take a day and retool my car at some point. It's all stuff I can do myself assuming that I have a garage. Damn.

and i would drive 1,000 miles...

Hello from New Orleans. Yep. Safely made our way down here from Cleveland yesterday after 15 hours on the road. Left at 7am, arrived at around 10pm in the evening, thanks to the gift of time, courtesy of time zones.

It's been a great trip so far. Explored DC, where we got to play with guns, rocket launchers, and pose by tanks and Apache helicopters. Explored Pittsburgh, and then took a great 55 minute run through Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights in Cleveland.

Last night we arrived in New Orleans, after a 1,000+ plus drive from Cleveland. On the way, we didn't do that much, although we did stop by an authentic Skyline Chili experience in Kentucky, right across the river from downtown Cincinnati. Good times. Driving game winner from yesterday, FedEx, with 31 trucks, with an impressive race between UPS, Wal-Mart, and Swift Transport for second. UPS had an early lead, building starting with trucks in OH and continuing through the end. Wal-Mart got a slow start, but caught up with UPS in Alabama. Swift, a late entrant, didn't enter the race until Alabama, but quickly caught up to make it a three-way race on I-59 after we passed Birmingham.

bowling

Last night the Student Government went bowling with the Dean. It was a good time, and I actually managed to bowl relatively well. Bowled a 122 (I think) and a 99. I then bowled a 111 lefty after starting with I think a total of 4 through the first two frames. New lefty personal best!

Photos? Miriam has the photos. I need to get them from her. (-:

And yes, I have bowled lefty before. I think it started when my shoulder was screwed up from playing ultimate. Now it seems like I may bowl better lefty than I do righty. Definitely more consistent. Even the Dean noticed how inconsistent my right arm was. Hrm...

when recommended isn't recommended

So I took my car to the dealership... second time since I got the car in 2001. I figured that I would ask them to do a few of the recommended maintenance things that I never bother to do. Basically adjust the valve clearance, replace the ABS high pressure hose, replace the ABS fluid, and inspect the SRS. Of these things the only thing that is still recommended is the valve clearance. No maintenance required for the ABS or SRS unless there's a problem. Great!

Why the discrepancy? The only thing I can think of is that my car was built before they knew how long things like the ABS or SRS would work before breaking. Now they advise to stay away from those things. Leave it alone unless there is something wrong. I guess it's good enough that I already fixed my ABS thice (replaced three sensors).

So why bother bringing it in? The valves haven't been adjusted in AT LEAST 70,000 miles (although they seem fine), they're fixing my A/C (which I don't have the time or the facilities to deal with), adjusting the rear caliper (because I'm lazy), and they can check out why my car has no power on a warm start on a hot day. But I didn't ask them to fix it. Just tell me the issue and I'll deal with that myself if needed, or do nothing. Not worth paying labour to fix that.

My car should have 170,000 miles on it by the end of the summer. Nice.

i love maps

The companion map to the road trip.

more info about where i'll be living

I will be living here:
http://www.equitycorporatehousing.com/market/propertymarketing.asp?PropID=2238

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.

summer travel

Rough map

I need to get my a/c fixed.

boo silverstar - update

For those who checked this blog a year ago, you may remember my post about replacement headlamps. You can find the original post here:
http://paulip88.blogspot.com/2006/04/boo-silverstar.html

My dad and I had a similar discussion today. Why? One of his Silverstar headlamps has died. Predictably. About one year after installation. Dud.

it's been great knowing you

First Internet Bank and I go way back. We were first introduced to each other during my lucrative internship at Progressive Insurance after my sophomore year in college. There, I had about one week's worth of work to do in about 14 weeks. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time browsing the Web and doing all sorts of "research," most of which was in no way related to work (ok... so it was related in how I was going to spend on the money I was making).

Aside from doing tons of research on computer components, which catapulted me to the Top 10 internet users at the 30,000+ employee company (and got me a nice chat with my manager about how I did download this large manual on the programming language I was supposed to be learning), I explored banking options. After all, I needed some good place to stash away all the money I was getting for my supposed "work" that I was "doing." This is where we first met up.

The rest of that is history. It's been a good 6 years. However, I have to say that our relationship just isn't as passionate as it used to be. It's still nice how you treat me to free ATM usage wherever I want, but sometimes it's the little things that count. Like being there when I need you the most. It's OK for some other bank's Web site to be down, but it's really starting to bother me when you're unavailable on occasion without any real reason. Why?

Then today I found out that maybe there are better banks out there. Read this:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/commmm.asp?fedid=2758613

Maybe it's really time to move on... I have been seeing someone else. You know about this other bank. We've done stuff together before. ING Direct is a bit stingy though. I can only use sketchy budget ATMs. You let me go wherever I want. I guess that counts for something. But really, I could use a little bit more love over here.

hell week

I'm taking a little break. Basically, I've already put in a 44 hour week. And no, that's not including the 15+ hours today. I guess if that's included, then I've done about 59 hours of stuff so far this week. Over the hump.

So why? I've been spending a ton of time on Student Government this week. We're transitioning to the next year's officers these weeks, and we also had some preparation work to do for a meeting with Yale SOM's Board of Advisors. I've also been putting in about 3 hours a day working on the Yearbook, which should be completed within the next day. On top of that, I've also got a simulation to work on for one of my classes and two cases to write up for this week. In other words, I've been busy. The good thing is that I'm still being social... that is, I'm still talking to people.

crappy blogs

So like you, I read other people's blogs. Mostly those of friends that I like to keep tabs on. However, I have a little problem with one of them. The content that's being put up is just total crap. It's one thing to create a blog and then neglect it. That used to be more of a problem when there wasn't RSS and I would need to do work to see if there are any updates. My current problem is something else. This one individual had been updating their blog, but the updates are just total crap. Apparently this person's life now focusing on a few things that I'm just not interested in.

So... should I just stop reading the blog? Should I have a little chat with this person to let them know how I feel about the quality and diversity of the content? Or should I suck it up and continue reading this blog with the hope that eventually the tide will turn and the topics will return to something that's even marginally interesting or informative? Choices...

good times

April looks like it will be a good month.

We had three parties this weekend (of which I went to one). Tons of sports going on. I played Bocce at happy hour on Thursday, and I’m about to head over to the fields for the first football/soccer game of the spring. Plus there was an ultimate frisbee game yesterday that I missed plus a softball game today which I’ll also miss. Plus, April Foolery is upon us - activities for every day of the month. Check out what’s in store for the month here.

Good times.

Overall, people are pretty laid back now too, which is a plus. I’ve still been spending a ton of time at school, but it’s mostly been split between working on the Yearbook and spending time with friends doing nothing. Not too bad.

And Spring Break was fantastic. You can check out my Morocco photos on flickr.

best trip ever

Yep. I'm back, and I had a fantastic trip. Apologies to Maia and my family, whose Japan trip and ultimate US road-trip previously shared the top position. Those trips kicked ass, but Morocco is awesome. You should go there.

Granted, if you're the type who likes resorts, classy hotels, shopping, or the like, then stay far far away. You shouldn't be talking to me anyway. I like my trips to be cheap, dirty, and authentic. Resorts and touristy places seriously bother me.

So what made the trip so great?

• Tons of interesting stuff to see
  Medieval city centers (medinas), complete with life and real people. Kids run around the narrow streets. Vendors sell everything from food, shampoo, clothes, to the fantastic "fob-bags." Venice is a medieval city, but it's dead. No one lives there. Sienna is a medieval city that still has life, but only because of all the hot chicks that go to school at the university there. If you want to get a feel of how people really live in such places, Morocco is the place to be.
  
• Good food
  Sure, the tajines get old after a while, but overall the food was decent and plentiful. Plenty of lamb, chicken, and fruit (especially oranges). Plus, all of it's fresh. Sure, it might not be the cleanest of places to get food, but they do a decent job preparing it. Ever try eating in Venice? It sucks. Plus, if you stay away from the touristy areas and are willing to take a gamble with diarrhea, there's plenty of interesting things to try (though admittedly, after about a week, it gets tough trying to find something new).
  
• Great people
  The people there are the friendliest people that I've met. Sure, they're trying to make a few bucks off of you, but they generally won't outright try to take advantage of you. If you ask a guy to give you a lift to a museum that's literally around the corner, he'll tell you. People will go out of their way to help you out. Granted, you can't just lay there and assume that good things will happen. They'll overcharge you like crazy if you don't bargain, but that's because they know you can afford it. And it's true. You can... which leads to the next point...
  
  
• It's cheap!
  Unless you get sent to a tourist restaurant, you can get a decent sit-down meal for less than $10. Want to step down even further (my style), you can get really really cheap. Yugita and Swadeep got some nice sandwiches in Fes by some auto shops for about $1 each. In Marrakech, Swadeep, Fay and I decided to go to the stall where only locals sat (perhaps it had something to do with the lamb heads lined up at the front, or the fact that no one there spoke English). We had two orders of lamb and a order of fresh lamb brains. $6.50 total for the three of us. Three cinnamon teas? $0.50. Mmm... Cinnamon tea...
  
  
• People don't speak English, but I can communicate with them
  The biggest challenge of communicating with people is figuring out which language people know. Everyone knows Arabic and French. A few people here and there know English, and the same with Spanish. But even so, most people know a little of some other language (like a Moroccan Salad, they would joke... a little of everything). Eventually, with a combination of English, Spanish, gestures, smiles, and perhaps a couple random French words, you can get what you need. It was also great to be able to practice my Spanish again.

Some other interesting considerations... For example, what race am I?
I'm becoming more and more ambiguous as the years go by it seems. It can be a bit annoying that Chinese people don't know that I'm Chinese, but at the same time, I can pretend to be whatever I want to be. In Morocco many people thought I was Japanese (maybe it's my camera, or maybe it's how Japanese people love to travel), one person guessed that I was Indian (like three of my travel partners), then guessed that I was Latin American. Another guessed Malaysian (the joke). It's amusing. So why does this all matter? In certain places (meaning food markets like in Marrakech or Essaouira), people will harass you (in a nice way) to try to get your business. It's cool at first, but gets tiring, especially since there are usually over 10 stalls. So one thing for next time is to pick a race with some language that they won't know. Like Thai or something, and then pretend not to know any other languages. We'll see how that works.

Anyway, after that aside, some things you shouldn't expect from a trip to Morocco:

• Wild nights partying
  Bars are basically for men and hookers. Either that or hang out at a western hotel. If you're planning on doing that, then you should just stay home you creep.
  
  
• Perfect health
  We all managed to get a little bit sick during the trip, and we're a pretty hardy bunch. Yugita gets the top prize for being least sick. Let's just say that they have different standards for cleanliness when it comes to food preparation. My solution was looking at the food situation as another dimension for "adventure" and seeing how far I could reasonable push it without getting the runs. I won. (-: I still have my cipro for another day.
  
  
• A perfectly packaged experience
  If you can't tolerate people who don't speak English, or you can't tolerate some mild inconveniences or filth, then stay at home or go somewhere else. Go to Costa Rica where you can use your US dollars at English speaking establishments and look over the beautiful beach from the safety of your chlorinated pool. Yes, I'm bitching.
  

So maybe I should cover some of the practicalities. Like where we went. You should really just be looking at the photos which I'm uploading right now. There are over 500 of them. We were there for about 12 days. Arrived in Casablanca where we spent a day. That was already too much time. The city has one site, the Mosque Hassan II, and a railway station that you can use to get to your next destination. We took the train from Casa to Fes. Train travel is fairly cheap (around 100dH per ticket) and efficient. Only problem was that we were there at a time when the busses were on strike, so the train was a bit crowded.

Fes is awesome. We were only there for a day and we got a guide to show us through the medina. Definitely worth it. It has a massive medina that would be cool to explore on your own. Another day or two there would have been fine if you want to make a 3+ week trip.
Chefchaouen was our next destination, which is north of Fes in the mountains. We got a grand taxi (grand in latin languages means big. it's no limo) to take us there and back for about 1500dH. We dropped by Volubilis (Roman ruins) and Moulay-Idriss on the way. Chefchaouen is neat town. All the walls in the medina are painted blue, which is neat. It's also a neat medina to wander in (aren't they all?).
After Chefchaouen, we returned to Fes and took a train to Marrakech. We had a day train. A night train would have been a better use of our time, but we already made other bookings so the night train didn't make any sense for us anymore. Marrakech is another really neat city. Another nice medina, but this time with a huge square with lots of cheap food. The square also has a lot of entertainers, but also a lot of creeps who like to grab people's asses. Also people who shake your hand so they can hold on to it when they whip out their snake. We stayed away from there, although it is one of the main attractions.
From Marrakech, we took a four day road trip out east, crossing the Atlas mountains to visit the Dades and Todra Gorges, and eventually arriving at Merzouga to visit the sand dunes. The sand dunes were probably the neatest part of the trip, even though I love wandering the medinas. The photos speak for themselves.

After the excursion into the wilderness, we wrapped up our trip by going to Essaouira, a "small fishing town" that allegedly is a "secret." Secret's out. They're building resorts there, which is damn annoying. The good part is that it looks like the ignorant tourists going there are doing that they do best, being ignorant tourists. That means that I suspect that they're staying in the safe resort environment, maybe going to the beach, but not bothering to visit the medina. Essaouira has a really interesting medina. Unlike the other ones, this one actually has a grid layout. How Progressive. The other highlight? The seafood. Swadeep, Fay and I gorged ourselves on shrimp, prawns (or crayfish... whatever), fish, and 2kg of crab. Good stuff. Good final destination. Chill town, good views, good food, and good souvenir shopping.
After Essaouira, we took the ghetto-fabulous bus back to Casablanca for our return flight. CTM is the national bus line that's a bit pricier, a bit nicer, and a bit more reliable. We took a private bus, which featured a luggage guy who climbed the side of the bus while moving to get to/from the luggage rack on top, doubled as a bouncer, and also helped keep the bus clean. We also got to see the magic of irregular stops. People would get dropped off in front of their houses, get picked up at random places, and the like. Some guy even got a shipment of vegetables (he walked emptyhanded to the bus as it stopped, and as we pulled away he walked back to his house with a bag of stuff and a bundle of greens). We also got to see how beggars and salesmen make rounds on busses whenever it makes a longer stop. Good times. (-:
So practicalities... what to bring...

• Someone who's good with languages
• A good bargainer
• Clothes for all conditions

Somehow I wore the same outfit for virtually the entire trip. I need to give it a nice wash. No need to worry about ATMs. They are everywhere. Morocco has some amazing infrastructure. Mobiles work virtually anywhere. Our driver kept getting calls out in the middle of nowhere. There are also cybercafes in all but the smallest towns (same with ATMs). Credit cards are occassionally accepted. They may even take AMEX if you're lucky (or unlucky... since you're probably in some mad tourist trap). If you want to use your Discover card, stay at home, or go to Costa Rica (the only foreign country where I have seen places take Discover regularly).

Sigh... The upload for the photos is only half done. It's been 3 hours. I'm going to sleep. With any luck it will be done in the morning when I wake up.

and i'm off

Yesterday I said goodbye to Patrick, who has departed for Brazil. Today, Mamoun heads to Dubai, Emre back to Turkey, and our group head to Morocco. In an hour, we head out on our way to JFK to catch our flights.

I doubt I'll have regular internet access, so till next time!

last exam before break

I'm here sitting in classroom A53, ready to take my last final exam for Spring-1. It's hard to believe that after this, I'll be 3/8 done with my MBA experience.

The last half semester has flown by very quickly, as it seems like only a few weeks ago we came back from winter break. It's been a crazy, but good semester that included the final set of core "perspectives," the crazy job search, and also more of the usual antics that make up life at business school. Although it's been a great semester with a lot of positive developments, it's good to see it come to a close. Next semester should be a good shift for me, with a lighter course-load that would allow me spend more time working out, doing extracurriculars (like Yearbook!), and maybe even catching up on a few things outside of school.

Also, with today being the last exam, it's finally settling in that I'll be leaving for Morocco tomorrow for a spring break trip! It's funny how I seem to have been thinking more of summer in Seattle than spring break in Morocco. Now that it's upon me, I'm definitely looking forward to it. All I need to do is to get this final exam over with... and pack. (-:

rant and rave

Rant
Some jackass in Cleveland keeps putting in real estate listings with my phone number on it. This is the second time it's happened and it's really starting to piss me off. Learn to proofread your classified ads.

Rave
Summer at Microsoft

wtf is up with the ford explorer's door

Those of you who I talked to in Seattle recall how I was bitching about the Ford Explorer that Avis tried to rent me (that I rejected after noticing that there was a warning that the battery charger (aka alternator) wasn't working).

Basically, I had just flown in to Seatac Airport and I wanted to get some rest for my interviews the following morning. Admittedly, I was a bit out of it. I was already disappointed by how I was assigned a ginormous SUV, but I just wanted to get to the hotel. When I got in, I was surprised by how comfy the seats were, and also by how terrible the visibility was. The height of the exaggerated "masculine" hood mass made it impossible to know where the front of the car stopped. The rear view was impeded by the rear headrests so much I thought of going through the trouble of removing them so I wouldn't kill myself while changing lanes. er... I mean kill other people while changing lanes.

Then there was the mechanical problem. I inserted the key and was greeted by a message telling me that this brand-spanking new car already had a mechanical issue with the alternator. WTF? I've had my 1993 Honda since 2001 and I haven't had an issue with my alternator. Why does Ford's have to break within a year? Oh... and my dad's '89 Acura's alternator finally went last summer.

Basically, the Ford Explorer seems like it was designed to be a comfy, spacious lounge, and the whole "car" concept came as an afterthought. No sport, no utility, barely a vehicle.

At this point, I had enough and decided to get another car. I reached for the door handle...

? ? ?

I couldn't find it. I kept searching. Oh... there's a shiny thing. Maybe I can grab that. No dice. There's this handle. It looks like an "oh shit" bar that was put in a weird place. Nothing. Thankfully the window was open, so I reached out and opened the door using the outside door handle. I sure as hell hope that isn't how it's supposed to work.

After getting out I took a closer look. I don't like being baffled by things like this. In better lighting, I failed to figure it out, even after the closer inspection. I wanted to leave, so off I went.

Today for some reason I felt inspired to solve this mystery, so I looked up some photos of the Ford Explorer's door to see if I happened to miss something due to my tiredness and impatience at the time. Sadly, I'm still baffled.

Any ideas? Here are the photos:

stupid seattle activity #2

Tracing the steps of Sir-Mix-A-Lot

Most people don't know that Sir-Mix-A-Lot is from Seattle, but just listen closely to the lyrics of his hit song Posse on Broadway and you'll see the clear path that he took that one night. If that isn't credible enough, consult Wikipedia.

I already traversed a good bit of the path on foot with Ross, but instead of stopping at Dick's for dinner that night, we opted for Ethiopian food instead at Queen Sheba, which was awesome. Next time. (-;

Here's a map I created because I'm being a dork and I don't feel like showering, going outside, buying food, or anything else that I really should be doing.

my plans for the summer = microsoft's plans for the summer

Apologies to those I haven't informed personally about the news. It's been a crazy few weeks.

Quick summary:
Feb 15 - Feb 16: Setting up interviews with Microsoft
Feb 17 - Feb 19: Getting "ahead" with schoolwork, prepping as much as I can
Feb 20 - Feb 23: Travel/Interviews with the Office team and Windows Live team
Feb 24 - Feb 25: Attempting to return to New Haven
Feb 26: Return to New Haven
Feb 27: Attempt to keep up/catch up/work ahead (still not sure where I am)
Feb 27 - today: Get sick, stay sick, rest, drink lots of fluids

But anyway... about the job... I'll be interning with Microsoft as a Product Planner. What does that mean? Instead of writing out something from my perspective, here's a summary from someone who's done it as an intern.

And did I mention that the job is in Seattle?

Not to mention what's right by Seattle (not the girl... she's in Florida d-: )

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?

stranded

My flight was to leave an hour ago, and I'm still in Ross' place entering a blog entry. No, I didn't miss my flight. I was there three hours ahead of schedule. My flight was canceled.

Four hours later, after spending a full two hours on hold with American Express travel services, renting another car from Avis, and driving back to Ross' place, I finally have arrangements to get back to New Haven. It was no easy feat either. I was on hold for about 45 minutes at the airport, which was getting to the limits of my phone's now crappy battery. I should really get a new one. Three times this week I've dropped calls because my phone's battery crapped out on me.

Anyway, thanks to my handy charger, I was able to stay on the line with them for well over an hour, finally getting in touch with someone who was able to get me on a flight to White Plains, NY through Charlotte, NC. Nothing like going through five states on this trip. Awesome.

I'll be back in New Haven at about 1:00pm on Monday.

cross-post, from seattle

This is a post that's going up elsewhere on another blog that I'm doing for the admissions office at Yale. Yes, I will continue to create unique content for this site. Exclusive content will include rants, stuff about my car, random links, and anything else that's either irrelevant, or unrelated to school.

--------------------------------

Today I am writing from a hotel room in Seattle, Washington where I have two days of interviews this week. I arrived here Tuesday evening and I spent most of yesterday (about 6 hours) interviewing for one position at the company. Today I get a day off where I’ll spend most of the time either here in my hotel working, or across the street working in Seattle’s fancy new public library. I’ve visited Seattle the last three summers so I’m OK with spending most of the day as a recluse, and then spending the evenings hanging out with friends of mine who live here. Tomorrow, I have another big day of interviews beginning at 11:00am. I’ll be staying here for until Saturday night when I take the redeye flight back east.

As someone interested in a marketing position, I had most of my interviews in mid-January, and right now I am in the middle of wrapping up this entire operation. I have already received a very good offer from one company, and I am in the process of completing second round interviews for a second.

The whole recruiting process has been pretty crazy, and I’m looking forward to the end, which is approaching very quickly. Looking for a job is almost a job in itself and it’s been a challenge balancing my job search with academics and extracurricular activities. Granted, I feel that I’ve been able to get everything done and still manage to sleep 4+ hours each night, but I really am looking forward to a lighter load in a few weeks when Spring-2 (the second half of the spring semester starts). Looking forward to a lighter course-load (one less class), not have to worry about my job search, and more opportunities to do things outside.

Until then, I still need to focus on the here and now - meaning classes, and more importantly, my interviews on Friday. Wish me luck!

spring break!

Yes, I'll be traveling again. This time to someplace new (always the best)! New airline, new country, new continent. I'm going to Morocco. What am I doing there? Not exactly sure. Ask me again in a few weeks. (-:

maya

Ah... the international experience at SOM.

good morning, folks

It's 9am on Tuesday morning and I'm waiting for our Operations class to begin.

Just a wrap up on how things are here in New Haven... The second semester is going well. It's been a hectic few weeks with classes, interviews, and various activities, but it seems like I'm over the hump. Most of the job stuff is beginning to wind down, and I should start hearing from companies beginning this week. I'm optimistic, but realistically I shouldn't get to complacent until I have an offer in my hand.

It's great to know that I'll have less to do with the job search stuff, but at the same time I'm pretty sure that something will crop up to take its place. There are a few case writeup, some other activities that I might get pulled into, admissions stuff, more student government stuff. Yep. Nevermind the whole winding down bit. It's just getting started!

I really need to figure out what I'm doing for spring break.

da bears

I was talking with one of my friends about the Bears, which naturally led to the discussion about Rex Grossman. We all know that he can be a bit inconsistent, but then again, is he really?

I took a look at his split stats:

http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/396159/splits/2006

If you go all the way to the bottom of the passing stats, there's a figure that shows how he performs in close games vs. blowouts. Basically, it says that in close games (when the game is within 14 points), he sucks. If the game is a blowout (15+ points), Rex is awesome. It also looks like he loves to throw interceptions when there's pressure (either when the Bears are behind or when the Bears are on their side of the field).

To sum it all up, Rex will self-destruct whenever the team is behind in a game. Something needs to be done about this.

political/social commentary of the day

Recently, there has been a wave of legislation across the country dealing with the "issue" of same-sex marriage. Personally, I think it's the people pushing the legislation who have issues with things that are totally none of their business.

The response in Washington State: link

So would this also mean that older couples should be split after the woman reaches menopause? Or the man has ED (or has TC)?

stupid connecticut

I sure hope the state is happy that they made me fill out six pages of tax forms. What do they get? One dollar. Have fun processing it. I hope it's as profitable for you as it was for me.

a few things

I'm back, and I'm going to ramble.

Impressions from the Costa Rica trip? I hate people.

I say so jokingly, but there is some truth to it. I'm greatly annoyed when people are condescending. It doesn't need to be condescending to me personally, but I do appreciate it when people are generally respectful of people or societies that are different from our own. Yes, the food is different than ours, and Tico food isn't anything special, but that's no reason to continually say how it's crap. American food sucks even more. Cajun and southern food are good, but even then a lot of it is an acquired taste. Pulled pork sandwiches don't seem good at all until you overcome how the thing looks.

Neat odd thing of the trip:
I'm rich! After withdrawing some money from the ATM, I was pleased to discover that I was now a millionaire. A multi-millionaire at that. Available balance of 2,436,973.88. Heck yeah!

So photos...
I took a look at the photos I took on the trip. I think I had about 400 total. I've pruned out about 100 of those so far to eliminate the ones that didn't come out right. Yes, I've gotten to the point where I'll take 2-10 shots of the same thing hoping that some will come out better than others. Photoshop skills can recover a lot, but it's still a hell of a lot easier to just start off with a well-shot photo. Plus, you can't do much of the thing is out of focus or blurry. Short version: I'm love my camera and I'm beginning to appreciate burst mode. Great for taking shots of birds flying and people planting pineapple plants (no joke). I do think that I might treat myself to a new zoom with a bit less distortion at short focal lengths though. The curved horizon thing just isn't cool when you have 300 photos to deal with.

Next random topic: My car
The Check Engine light is on again. Once again, it says that it's the oxygen sensor. I think that's bullshit, or they broke it when fixing my exhaust. The guy did mention that he dumped water on it to cool it off when he was fixing it. Nothing like dousing a hot object with water to cause it to crack, warp, or break. I think I'm going to opt for the easy "fix," resetting the ECM.

Next random topic: Investments
Once I finish tranfering funds between my various accounts (BofA, FirstIB, ING), I'll dump another $4,000 into my Roth IRA. Nothing like using the Roth IRA in a year of low income! (-: Having less than a year of income has a few small perks.

Next random topic: Power generation
After discovering that UI has jacked up our electricity rates, I'm going to switch over to Levco for my power generation. Yes, they use nukes, but to be honest, I'm totally OK with nukes. In fact, I challenge someone to give me a better *practical* alternative. Coal and oil suck (ugly, air pollution, damage from coal mining), hydro ain't all that great either (impacts to waterways), and wind and solar aren't yet practical (perhaps not enough wind). So nukes it is. Minimal pollution (as long as they are responsible), and they produce a crapload of power in comparison to all alternatives aside from hydro.

quick update

So I'm at INCAE right now, which is the business school in Costa Rica. Quick hits:

1. I'm alive
2. I still know Spanish... and it's waaaay better than my Mandarin. Some of it is coming back too, which is nice. Definitely easier with other people here who speak it and use the vocabulary. Wish I had brought a dictionary though. Next time.... (-:

gone

After doing an informational interview, speaking to a prospective student, fixing my car, and sending in a couple of job applications, I'm just about ready to go. Now I just need to fix my hair, take a shower, and I'm off to Costa Rica!

Annoying note: What's up with having to leave here at 3am to make the 7:55am flight from Newark? I know it's cool how Tweed New Haven is such a tiny airport (you can literally throw a rock at the plane from the parking lot.... not suggesting anything here), but it's not much help when all flights go to Philly - The city of brotherly love, where they hate people.

getting ready.... kind of

I should be getting ready for my trip... considering that I leave Friday at 3am. So what have I done? I cleaned my camera equipment and I posted some photos. Enjoy.

More photos!

more data

In case you all haven't seen enough of this, here's an updated graph of my car's gas mileage since I bought it in May of 2001.


So each dot represents a time that I got gas. The pink line is the gas mileage for the most recent tank. The blue line is the average gas mileage since I got the car. The black line is the 6 month running average.

Yes, it's cyclical. Cold weather means bad gas mileage. Going to Yale means that unless I go home, I get gas every two months or so.

credit cards

So, if you've ever wondered which credit card is the best rewards card, this is the blog entry for you.

The candidates:

• Citi Dividend Rewards MasterCard
• Discover Card
• American Express Blue Cash Card

Citi Dividend Rewards MasterCard
This has long been my card of choice. It's a MasterCard, which means that it's accepted anywhere, plus it used to have by far the best rewards program. Until recently, it offered 5% rewards for everything from supermarkets, gas stations, and drugstores. Pretty awesome. It was such a great deal they had to stop doing it. Here's what they offer now:

• 2% back on gas stations, supermarkets, drugstores, convenience stores, and utilities (sans telephone)
• 1% back on everything else
• $300 annual limit
• Can redeem after $50
  

Discover Card
This was my card of choice up till I discovered the Citi Rewards Card. Main drawback is that it isn't accepted at Chipotle (seriously). On the other hand, it's the only card accepted at Sam's Club.

• 0.25% back on the first $1,500
• 0.50% back on the second $1,500
• 1.00% back on everything after $3,000
• 5.00% back on random stuff that's different every 3 months. Now it's travel stuff. Before it was restaurants (which was actually useful).
  
• Exception: 0.25% on warehouse clubs and discount stores
• Can usually get an extra 25% by redeeming gift certificates instead of cash. So $20 becomes $25.
  
• No annual limit
• Can redeem after $20
  

American Express Blue Cash Card
My newest card. One of the reasons I needed to do this analysis. Oh yeah... it's the only card accepted at CostCo.

• 1.0% back at gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores for the first $6,000 in total purchases
  
• 0.5% back everywhere else for the first $6,000 in total purchases
• 5.0% back at gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores after the first $6,000 in total purchases
  
• 1.5% back everywhere else after the first $6,000 in total purchases
• No annual limit
• Redeemed annually

The Verdict
Your optimal card use depends on how much you spend for general purchases, meaning purchased made outside of gas stations, supermarkets, drugstores, convenience stores, and utilities (sans telephone). For these purchases, it will make more sense to always use the Citi MasterCard since it pays 2% back, at least until you have spent over $6,000 on the AMEX card.

The following recommendations are ideal for me, since I don't buy much gas, never shop at supermarkets, and rarely buy from drug stores or convenience stores. If you do make a ton of these purchases, then the thresholds will shift. I haven't bothered to calculate that out since it's a ton more work.

• Less than $12,000 annually in general purchases
  Use the Citi Dividend Rewards Card. It offers the flat 1% back, which is better than the graduated reward offered by Discover and the 0.5% offered by AMEX.
  
• More than $12,000 annually in general purchases
  Use the American Express Blue Cash Card. At the $12,000, the advantage of the 1.5% reward kicks in, making it a better choice than the Citi MasterCard which only offers 1% back.

So what about the Discover Card? It's still good for Sam's Club. Plus if they have a 5% reward deal that is useful, then it's the one to use.

forex

The weak US dollar makes things a bit unpleasant when traveling abroad. However, I do have some consolation. The fact that I never remember to bring my foreign currency with me when traveling means that I've accumulated quite a bit of excess cash... cash that is now worth more and more.

• 330 Canadian Dollars
  
• 125 Euros
• 40 British Pounds
• 9000 Japanese Yen
• 80 Renminbi
• 3120 Hong Kong Dollars

I need to stop doing this... or I need to travel more. Guess which one I'll do. (-;

Then again, I am spending New Year's in New Haven, and then off to Costa Rica which doesn't use any of these. Oh well!

more highways

So after a week in Cleveland, I'm headed off to Toronto for a few days. If you need me, text me. It's cheaper than paying for international roaming.

My stay in Cleveland has been good. Got to meet up with a ton of people, including a bunch of work friends. In fact I'll be meeting some at Skyline today just before heading out to Toronto. Sure, Skyline may not exactly be the best decision for a meal before a road trip, but what the hell. What's the worst thing that could happen?

And Barnaby, I told Aaron that you hated him. I couldn't think of any good reason for it, so I just labeled you a hater. Keep up the drunk dials though, you still haven't caught me while I've been asleep so it really hasn't been an issue. If you want to have a real conversation, I can do that too.

Have a happy new year, everyone.

The Interstate highways that I'll cover over winter break:

• I-84
• I-380
• I-81
• I-80
• I-480
• I-271
• I-90
• I-77
• I-190
• I-390
• I-86
• I-91
• I-95
  

as featured in the international herald tribune

My name is now being published across the world, thanks to the syndicated press and the power of the AP. You don't want to mess with these guys.

I like the International Herald Tribune, you here's a link to it:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/22/business/NA_FIN_US_Yale_Changing_MBAs.php

thoughtful gifts for me

You know how there are people that always get stuff for themselves, and how they are really annoying to find good gifts for? I think I may be one of those people. A few hints:

• Any "luxury" item that the person generally won't buy. This could be a fun gadget, a hobby item, clothes (yes, I said it... but only if the person has no fashion sense or has a clear need... like my dad's shoes or jacket), or tickets to an event. Example, some nice lens filters for my digital camera. I generally use my cheap-ass Sigma 28mm-135mm lens with that takes a 62mm filter. Or oooh... a nice lightweight lens with a wide shutter would be fantastic!
  
• A really nice, durable, utilitarian item that would be used daily. Lame example would be a nice pen. Better examples would be something that would make the person's daily life easier and/or more satisfying. I already have my fancy Staedler pencils, as my study group knows well. A good set of non-stick pans would be useful. Although even though I doubt I'd ever buy these for myself, and I could make good use of them, I'm not sure how'd I react to getting cooking utensils as a gift. It's like giving your maid a new mop.
  
• Something that shows that you understand what they care about, or even addressing a quirk (or quirky goals). If you don't know what these are, then find out. For me, that could be a map of the world mounted on corkboard so I can push pins into all the places I've been. Could be cheap, and effective!
  
• Something that links a common experience. For example, DVDs for Commando, or Death Wish 3 for Darin, TC, and I. Other candidates would be the Resident Evil series, and anything starring Bruce Campbell. Could be cheap and effective!
• Relics from immortals like Elvis, Tupac, or Jesus are creepy, and thus make poor gifts.
  

almost there

5 page paper in 2 hours. I'll proofread tomorrow. Another 5 hours of exams, and I'm off to Cleveland. Wish me luck!

like a good neighbor

So last night I was coming back from a party in East Rock. It was just a few blocks away from my place so I decided to make an "early" exit and walk home. After getting back to my building, I decided to sit down for a bit in the entryway where the mailboxes are. Why? Because I felt like it, and I haven't sat in that chair for a while. After a few minutes, I decided it was time to go upstairs and head to bed.

I go up the steps, stop at the door and get my keys out to unlock the door. Strangely, the key didn't fit. Usually, it goes it pretty easy and I have no problems with it, but for some reason I just couldn't get it to fit. After a while it didn't even seem like it could even possibly fit, much less unlock the door. After a few minutes, I was ready to give up. In a moment of brilliance, I decided to just try to open the door. Magically, the door opened.

Apparently someone forgot to lock the door. Even though I should have been happy about this, I was a bit annoyed because anyone could have just come into our apartment since everyone in the building has a key for the entryway. Anyway, I opened to door. I was ready to step inside and throw some stuff down on the table by the door when I noticed that the table wasn't there. What the hell? What was stranger was the mirror that was on the wall. Weird. I was like someone rearranged our whole apartment while I was out. What the hell. Where was my stuff??? Then I realized... this wasn't my apartment. It was my neighbor downstairs.

So here I was, in standing in front of my neighbor's apartment, door open, confused, at 4 o'clock in the morning. I was just waiting for the guy to jump out of the bedroom and kick my ass. Thankfully that didn't happen. I'm sure it would have taken quite a bit of explanation if that had happened. Some guys fudges with your locks for 5 minutes... loudly I might add, and then opens the door to your apartment... at 4am. I closed the door, went upstairs, and fell asleep. (not before brushing my teeth, setting the alarm, turning off the lights, etc. etc.)

moving forward

So I'm done with classes, and I'm about to turn in the final paper for the competitor class.

My schedule for the upcoming weeks:
12/18 - 12/21 - Exams
12/21 or 12/22 - Return to Cleveland
12/22 - 12/28 - Hang out with Cleveland peeps, watch Rocky Balboa, what will be best feel-good holiday movie EVER!
12/27 - Hang out with prospective students (and Laura) at Great Lakes Brewery
12/28 - Hang out with prospective students at the Irish Embassy in Toronto (it's a bar)
12/31 - New Year's Eve in NYC (exactly where is TBD)
12/5 - Leave for Costa Rica
12/19 - Return from Costa Rica

Other things to do? Research more jobs. Practice interviews. Send Thank You e-mails. Get a suit. Buy Christmas presents. Send out cards? Plan the Costa Rica trip. Send out a job survey to the class. Do other club related stuff. Read the WSJ. Buy a book and read it.

it's september

Right now I'm sitting outside in the courtyard at school in the sun, putting in another blog entry. And yes, I'm writing about the weather. It's a beautiful today. About 60F... sunny... Feel like it's September. I already thought it was weird because the last few days have felt like October.

Maybe that's why it doesn't feel like my first semester here is about to come to a close. And maybe that's why I still haven't gotten anxious about the paper that I have to turn in tomorrow as a final exam for my Competitor class. I haven't started writing anything out, but at least I've read over the materials, analyzed it from several perspectives, and know what I'll be writing about. That's the hard part. The writing part should be relatively easy (or so I say now). Regardless of how painful/painless it is, at least I know that I am comfortable with the material. Better to know what you're doing and have trouble condensing it into 3 pages than not having enough to fill the three pages.

Anyway, I should finish up and get to something else, such as getting back in touch with Cleveland people about my return over the holiday week. And I have this funny suspicion that Progressive's mail filters are blocking my e-mails... hrm.......

admissions rant

I'll keep it brief. Sometimes there are people who ask good questions, like whether it is acceptable to apply with a 3-year degree is a 3-year degree is the norm in your country. Other times, people ask questions that may seem reasonable, but aren't. For example, the "I have a GMAT score of XXX, a GPA of Y.YY, and Z years of work experience. What are my chances of getting in?" Correct response? Apply and see if you get in. If everyone looked at the admission rates and saw that it's 10-20% and turned away, no one would ever go to school.

Of course, there are always the people who go over the top with nonsense. See for yourself (and please, don't post any replies unless it's sane). Next thing you know, we'll be boycotting schools that use SAT scores, followed by boycotting schools that ask you anything at all. Good times!

what are the odds...

That the person on Progressive's Board of Directors that I presented to when I was in Ohio...

Is the same person as the step-mom of the person who hired my friend as an au pair from New Zealand...

Is the same person that I get to watch a video on, and write a paper on for a class' final exam?

All in the same year. As Patrick would say, what are the odds?

update

It's been a while. Here's a lengthy update.

Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving holiday was good. Got to hang out with the fam, hang out with friends, and take a closer look at the two llamas that live next door to my brother. (I'm not kidding. I have photos to prove it). I also used the opportunity to import 36 bottles of Great Lakes beer. I'll be bringing a six-pack of Christmas Ale to Sumana's tomorrow night. It'll be enough for 12. The stuff is about 10% alcohol and is usually served in a sniffer glass, a fact that the bartender at Johnny Malloy's apparently didn't know. He gave me a full pint!

So that's the good side of the trip home. The bad part? I'm getting a bit annoyed at how I always get some crazy car trouble the day that I come back to New Haven. It wasn't as bad as the last time when I first moved here, but still... Saturday night, my muffler falls half off as I'm driving down Monticello and starts dragging on the asphalt, throwing off sparks and prompting my friend Greg to call me to let me know. Thankfully, I had a pretty good idea how to take off the muffler so I chucked it in the trunk before going to Tommy's where I enjoyed a spinach pie and a banana milkshake (and then out-ate Laz). The Sunday morning, right before leaving for New Haven, my exhaust breaks by the catalytic converter, which also started dragging on the ground. WTF!? With no muffler, and another hole closer to the engine, my car was so loud that it was very uncomfortable to be in the car for more than a few minutes. Somehow I had to drive it back to New Haven since I didn't want to leave it with my parents. Insurance issues, etc. etc. (official reason?). Thankfully, I was able to secure the catalytic converter with some wire so I wouldn't drag the thing 500 miles to CT. That would have destroyed the part, which would have costed me an extra thousand dollars or so (would not be cool). I also had some nice in-ear headphones that actually made the noise level tolerable. Eight and a half hours later, I was back in New Haven, and somewhat behind in work.

Work and procrastination:
I got all my work done this week, but not without a but of maneuvering. What I mean is that during the week I was going to bed at 3am-ish each night and getting up at 6:30-is each morning. The worst part is that all this was completely unnecessary. If I didn't watch a random DVD Sunday night, I could have gotten to bed 2 hours earlier. On Monday and Tuesday I think I procrastinated for about 4 hours straight each day (from 8pm to midnight). Nice. I watched a David Chappelle special, so it was nice in a way. Then Wednesday I watched a movie (which I don't regret either). Finally on Thursday, after doing school stuff from 7:30am till 10:00pm, I went out and didn't come back till the bars closed. That night I went to bed at 1:15am. The most sleep I've had all week, even though I had to come in for a 9am meeting with my faculty mentor.

Random applause:
A strange thing happened in class yesterday. It was in our customer class, and I was tired as hell. Thanks to double-fisting Mountain Dews, I was still awake. In the last class I ran out of caffeine 25 minutes in, and spent the remaining 85 minutes struggling to stay awake. I remember at one point I was writing on my paper "I need caffeine!" completely aware that the professor was watching me, and also sensing myself doze off as I was writing and thinking "Neat! I can write neatly while half asleep!" Did I mention that I was out of it?

So back to the customer class. Professor K. Sudhir was going over Conjoint Analysis and was asking the class we couldn't use a single variable for an attribute and need to use separate dummy variables for all the values of the property. I knew the answer so I raised my hand (I try to participate when I'm in the mood, because I know that otherwise I'll just stay silent all semester like I did in undergrad). K. Sudhir called on a few people, who had an idea of why, but couldn't quite find the right words to verbalize it. After calling on three people or so, he finally called on me. I think I said something like "Because it assumes that the marginal utility is linear." For some reason, either because I used a shitload or jargon, or because of the look on Sudhir's face, or some other reason, the whole class fell silent. Then they all started clapping. It was surreal. And no, this does not happen every day.

Football:
An update on my football season so far. In both Ivan's fantasy league and the work pool from Progressive, I started off terrible. Started 0-6 in the fantasy league, and finished 150th out of 150 in the work pool for the first half of the season. Since my 0-6 start, I've improved to 4-8, meaning I've been 4-2 in the last 6 weeks - one of those losses by a single point. For the football pool, so far I'm 5th out of 150 for the second half. I also managed to finished 4th for last week, winning me $20. In other words, I've only lost $30 on that pool this year. (-; With some luck, I'll try to win some more back. Wish me luck.

mobile phone usage

I got my Cingular bill today, and I saw that I had about $16 in usage charges from going over my minutes. Ugh. Being on a shared plan, it's either my fault, or my mom's fault. Knowing my usage habits, I was pretty sure it was not me. After looking through the minutes used on the statement, I confirmed by suspicion.

But for the sake of fairness, and practicing Pivot Tables and Excel, I decided to dig a little deeper. Here's a summary of what I found. My mom seems to pay attention to when calls are being made. A lot of her calls are made after 9pm. On the other hand, it seems that the few calls made during the day tend to consume a lot of minutes. The other surprise is that I seem to make a ton of short calls around 6pm or so.

Total Calls by Hour (including weekends)

Looking at the number of calls, it's pretty clear that my mom is more conscious about when calls are made, as seen by the spike in the number of calls after 9pm.

Total Calls by Hour (daytime, weekday only)

Looking at the number of calls being made during "peak" hours, it looks like I'm the culprit. I'm in the dark red, making over 30 calls in the 7:00 hour. Eek! My mom, on the other hand, doesn't make a ton of calls during the day.

Total Minutes by Hour

This is a very different picture. Clearly, the issue is the number of minutes being used for each call. While I use aroung 180 minutes between the hours of 6pm - 7pm, my mom used about 400 minutes.

what am i doing here!?

It's 2am on a Saturday morning, and I am here chillin' in Room A-68 at SOM listening to 80's rock.

I'm going home now. But at least I got a bunch of stuff for next week done. I just need to write up a case for Tuesday, and do a crapload of reading for Monday. But aside from that, all is good. In other words, I still think I'm managing to "balance" everything.

The crazy things a two-day student government retreat will do to your Friday...

youtube

Got 10 minutes?

site of the day

best movie ever

more election excitement

Voting here would be much more exciting if we were to vote on the same issues back home.

And yes, that's our ballot. Viewable online! Woohoo!

voting in connecticut

So strange... no lines at all. I was in and out in 5 minutes, and that was mostly because I was so puzzled at how smoothly things went.

"Most people have to work during the day" mentioned the lady next to me. Yes, same in Cleveland, but somehow we manage to make people wait for hours in line to cast their vote. Granted, this was not a presidential election, but it was the race between Lieberman and Lamont.

The voting machines were also a bit strange. You walk in and pull this huge lever (huge like the lever for a 2.5 ton hydraulic jack... yeah... that means nothing to most of you). The lever closes the curtain and strikes this bell *ding!*. Not sure if it does anything else. Then, instead of punch cards, we push down these little tabs for each person that we want to vote for. Each position has a column and each political party has a row, the opposite of what I expected. Makes it real easy to vote all Republican (or Democrat... or Green).

Anyway, it's done. And yes, I'm still appalled by the lack of information about candidates. And neither Lieberman nor Lamont filled out the NPAT, a survey of issues that would have been real nice to have so I can compare the candidates side by sides. It's tough trying to compare people on two sets of issues that don't match up. The NPAT lists all (well, most) of the issues so you can see where the candidates stand everywhere.

Oh... and this who I'm NOT voting for:
Joe Vollano
Official Campaign Site
Vote-Smart Page
NPAT
Basically it seems like his stance on issues are similar to someone who's playing some dictator in a video game. Police-state, heavy military spending, etc. etc. Fantastic. Obviously, the best way to protect our civil liberties is to take them away.

stupid democracy

So tomorrow is election day and nowhere can I find ANY information about the issues that will be on the ballot, the candidates who are running, or what their positions are. Isn't this info kind of important?

I remember when I was in Cleveland I could go to the County Web site and look up our ballots beforehand, and I think the paper also had information that would let you see who all is running for your area and see what their stances are on certain issues. WTF? What do you think this is, Iraq?

good ol cmu

Yeah... bunch of idiots...

useful link of the day

How to unlock a Nokia phone

I will now be able to travel abroad and buy a SIM card and use it in my phone. Thanks, AT&T, for making this another hack that I have to do.

rlotd

Random link of the day

still up after two years

Don't know why I was looking at my old blog entries, but what's up with this?

finals are done! (-:

It's over. All three, done. And like Sharon loved to say, "Two out of three ain't bad."

What makes me think of this? Out of three exams, two went well, one went very poorly. Here are the fun (boring) details.

Exam #1: Economics
From my earlier post:

So in the interests of keeping my brain fresh and ready for finals this week, I decided to go on another bike excursion. This time, solo, to Sleeping Giant State Park.

So did it hurt me at all? I made an argument about the marginal utility of additional studying, arguing that it made no sense to do it, seeing that there is a very good chance that we'll get the same grade either way. In other words, lots of effort, no additional benefit. So I went on a bike ride the day before the exam. It was fun. I enjoyed it. Plus, I still managed to do well on the final. Bonus.

Exam 2: Accounting
This one was a bit crazy. We were initially told that we would be able to use all of our notes and also our laptops for the exam. We were also given the impression that we would be able to submit portions of the exam electronically. I thought this was great since I used Excel to do almost all the homeworks anyway. Easy, right?

Wrong. The morning of the exam we got an e-mail telling us that although we would be able to use our laptops, we wouldn't be able to use the printer or submit answers electronically. We would have to copy everything over by hand. Annoying, but OK, I figured.

Going through the exam, I had completed most of the content within the first hour and a half. I felt pretty good. I would have all day to complete the last part (indirect cash flow statement). At this point, I started copying my answers over. I took my time. After all, how long could it possibly take?

About an hour. This left the indirect cash flow. Not only that, but I also realized at this point that I would need to do it using the weird spreadsheet that Garstka likes to use, but that I never use. Hrm... For whatever reason, I decided to try it using the spreadsheet. Long story short, things didn't really work out. Oh well. As long as I pass the course...

Exam 3: Data and Decision Analysis
After my rant in my previous post about studying too much, I went ahead and worked through a whole stack of practice problems. Probably 20 or so in total. No bike ride. No solace for the brain.

I also decided the night before that since I've been having some problems sleeping recently that I'd just go to bed later. After all, I probably wasn't falling asleep till 2 or 3 in the morning anyway. So I start playing with my bike at around midnight, and stop at around 1:45 or so. I try falling asleep, and fail. I probably didn't sleep that night till 3:30 or so. End result - I slept through my alarm clock, but had enough sense to get up on time. Good thing I know myself well enough to try to wake up a full two hours before the exam starts.

The exam went well. Nothing too crazy, aside from insane rounding errors. With any luck, I'll do as well as I did on the econ exam (which we got back today). If not, then fine. I'll get a "proficient" and be on my way to our next set of classes. I think we already have several hundred pages of reading for the first week. Fun!

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. (-:

study study study

So in the interests of keeping my brain fresh and ready for finals this week, I decided to go on another bike excursion. This time, solo, to Sleeping Giant State Park.

Photos are being uploaded as I type:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulip88/

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!