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?
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Friday, December 01, 2006
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.
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.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
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.
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.
Friday, November 10, 2006
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...
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...
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
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!
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.
"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.
Monday, November 06, 2006
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?
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?
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
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.
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.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
still up after two years
Don't know why I was looking at my old blog entries, but what's up with this?
Friday, October 27, 2006
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 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!
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!
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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. (-:
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. (-:
Monday, October 23, 2006
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/
Photos are being uploaded as I type:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulip88/
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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!
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!
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