Pete

I don’t need to tell you who said that or what the context was. The Internet reviews so far have been savage; I have no choice but to find out for myself. On the other hand, multiple relaible sources have vouched for Iron Man and I feel compelled to see what the inimitable RDJ is bringing to the table here.

This is the last official post that I have to write during this academic year. It may not be the last post I end up writing depending on whether the mood strikes me or not.

You know what still stinks about higher education at any age? Selling your books back….apparently a $145 textbook can only fetch $5.50 two months after being purchased. That’s an incredible rate of depreciation specific to only academia. Can you imagine if cars or houses depreciated in that fashion? The economy would be even worse off than it presently is (as hard as that might be to imagine for most of us, notably excepting those who survived the Great Depression). Hey, I get it - it’s the whole DisneyWorld idea of “Since we’re already ripping you off to come here, once you’re inside our walls and captive, we’re going to rip you off further with $8 hamburgers and $5 lemonade that your screaming kids are clamoring for.” Essentially, it’s bad business not to pick off available profit, but it still drives me crazy. You have to think of business school as the long-term investment it is - you really have no choice - because the short-term economics of it can make you sick to your stomach.

Then there’s Xanedu, which takes the art of scamming students even further. Some evil genius figured out to make people pay too much for electronic readings and case studies, give them no option to sell the materials back, and put on a expiration date on the materials themselves. So even though you’ve overpaid for the materials, in the Xanedu system you don’t even have the right to keep them or to make money off their resale. That’s capitalism, baby…I alternately hate the founder of Xanedu and commend his ability to find an untapped profit stream (one with minimal overhead costs at that).

But the one thing that is still enjoyable about academia after all these years is the last day of school, which is today. I’m writing this blog instead of studying for my Operations Management, and while that may not exactly be the best use of my time four hours before the last thing I have to do for this semester, it is more enjoyable. I feel studied out at this time - my grade is more less fixed at this point and only a performance that would be classified as an extreme outlier (a perfect test score or a complete, utter failure) can really impact me now.

I feel like I should impart some sort of life lessons, but I don’t really have terribly much to parcel out. The best advice I can come up with is that if you want something to happen, make it happen for yourself. I don’t believe in luck or fate - those are just silly titles people assign to random events after the fact. But I do believe people make their own luck. Sure, sometimes you get a bad draw in life…but it’s not the draw you get that matters as much as what you do with it.

The last year of my life has been a extremely eventful one - personally, professionally and academically - and I am a better person for it. Sometimes I’m just grateful to live in America in the 21st century and to have the opportunity to go back to school for a graduate degree in business. I’d like to think I’m making the most of it, but I always have a sense that I could do more. That’s what keeps me going.

I really enjoyed this link, this kind of stuff is endlessly fascinating to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

In fact, credit should be given accordingly. I found this link on Stuff White People Like, a side-splitting blog that V steered me to and is now bookmarked for weekly visits. Some of these posts hit way too close for home: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Song(s):

Vampire Weekend, “Oxford Comma”

Bell Biv Devoe “Poison.” I still know every word to it. And presumably to “Do Me” as well. The three former members of New Edition that comprised BBD (Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe) wrote many a hysterical lyric in their prime. Here are two of my favorites:

 ”The time was 6 o’clock on the Swatch watch / No time to chill / Got a date / Can’t be late / The girl is going to do me” 

“That girl is poison / Never trust a big butt and smile”

It’s far from Oscar Wilde, but ridiculous things such as this are ingrained in me from my adolescent years.

We can’t really end it on the above lyrical note, so let’s go with this one:

Quote: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

The Kentucky Derby took place on Saturday. Some people got all dressed up to enjoy all the paegantry and splendor of a day at the races, washed down with the sweet aftertaste of bourbon and mint. Some people didn’t.

There’s only a week and a half left in the semester, which is a bit stunning to me. I should be more motivated than I am, but I find myself lagging down the final backturn. I used to run cross country and track in high school and I was actually fairly good (the people who knew me in these days can - and hopefully will? - vouch).  No matter the distance, the idea was always to keep something in the tank for the final push to the finish line. To reach down deep and find something - anything - you didn’t know you had in you. An untapped reserve.

Because there’s a lot to do right now…to the point where reviewing the list you’ve written out makes you take a deep breath. There are group presentations and case studies to writeup and a 10 page social audit and a pretty daunting final exam (the idea of the first test in a given class being your final is always a scary proposition, regardless of your level of comfort with the material). I will find a way through it. It means functioning on less sleep and being more productive with the time you have…but once you find your way to operating in that mindset, it can sometimes be pretty enjoyable.

Plus, all sorts of fun enedeavors lie ahead in Presque Isle, Greenville, Old City, and the PA Grand Canyon, with people whose company I truly enjoy and value above all else. I have a lot to look forward to.  I’ll be looking ahead to the rewards that come with finishing this school year strongly…there’s no point being in the race if you’re not in it to win.

In some aspects of my life, I’ve made my own luck. But in others, luck has shined upon me. One of the main things I’ve learned is that it’s not the magnitude of what you get hit with, it’s how you respond. That’s how character is built in my mind.

OK, I’ve used enough metaphors, vaguery, and platitudes for one blog entry.

Song: “Run Like Hell,” Pink Floyd

Quote: “I was just guessing at numbers and figures, pulling the puzzles apart. Questions of science, science and progress, don’t speak as loud as my heart.” - Chris Martin

I was enjoying the Cavaliers’ destruction of the Wizards (it’s never a good idea to call out Lebron) and my conversation with V simultaneously last night when something very strange and unexpected occurred. An ad came up that declared TBS’ show “Tyler Perry’s House of Pain” to be “the #1 rated cable show of all time.” This is mystifying to me….can this really be? What are the statistics that back up such an audacious claim? Those numbers - as faulty as they may be - had to have come from somewhere other than thin air. In my mind, it’s yet another example of how you can twist statistics and numbers to fit the context of whatever hypothesis you’re trying to prove, no matter how absurd or inane. As utterly inconcievable as it seems, there more than likely is some database somewhere that is spitting out numbers that are being interpreted and manipulated to validate “House of Payne” as the “#1 rated cable show of all time.” OF ALL TIME. Maybe it’s just easier for me to believe that there has to be some Time Warner media wonk somewhere in Atlanta or Manhattan skewering disjointed data into effusive praise. I mean, the alternative - that “House of Payne” is actually “the #1 rated cable show of all time” - is just too frightening for words. High School Musical #2 was the top-selling album for the majority of last year until a Josh Groban Christmas album supplanted it at the last second. Somebody keeps restaurants like Chili, TGI Friday’s, Applebee’s, and the Olive Garden in business….I don’t know who these people are, but there are a lot of them out there, easily millions. (Aside: I once dated this girl N, who infamously believed that TGI Friday was the absolute pinnacle of American cuisine. This point was belabored to me endlessly, countless expensive dinners were wasted on food that paled in comparison to N’s wistful, mystifying yearning for Loaded Potato Skins, Pot Stickers, and $10 32-ounce Margaritas that had the alcohol content of a Shirley Temple, causing me to finally capitulate by only taking her to TGI Friday’s, the one true dining experience that made her ridiculously happy.)

But at the end of the day, I suppose the people who center their weeks around the latest brand new episode of ”House of Payne”, rack up TGI Friday’s reward points (I believe spending $100 scores you the illustrious bounty of one free desert, if memory serves), and purchase the seemingly endless iterations of High School Musical are the ones we’re all going to be relying on to help us spend our way out of this deepening recession. So spend away, good people…the economy needs you now more than ever.

Oh yes, school….less than four weeks are left in this semester. My mom has noticed that I’m not as stressed out this semester and I think that’s a very astute observation. The quantitative work was pretty intense in the fall and that has never been my strong suit. Plus, I think you eventually adjust to the constant weekly workload to the point where you develop a rhythm for it. Once you concede that you have no choice other than to get up early on a Tuesday morning and do several hours of work, things can end up settling into a somewhat comfortable routine. So you set your Classical Music library on iTunes to shuffle, put Sportscenter on mute, and hammer down. In a little more than a year, I’m heading back to work. And when that happens, there aren’t any going to be any more two-year vacations…this is going to be for the next 30-35 years or so, just like everyone else. The MBA will give me an advantage out of the gate, but after that, it’s ultimately up to me make things happen for myself. And it’s all on me to enjoy the business school experience while I’m here at Smith, because it’s somewhat stunning to reflect on the fact that one school year has already gone by. I’m not going to be doing homework in a bathrobe at 10am on a Tuesday morning 13 months from now…I’m going to be back in a corporate environment and the margin of error will be much more narrow. You have to absolutely enjoy things you do - school, work, family, relationships - and the path you’re on as much as you can, because the only constant in life is change. That’s as cliched and existential as I get on a Tuesday morning.

Looking ahead to the weekend:

- Friday involves an activity that is slightly irresponsible in light of everything I have going on, but figures to be immensely fun, and I know I would regret it if I didn’t go do it. Activities like this and weekends in Philadelphia are why I work hard during the week.

- Speaking of which, on Saturday, V meets the parents. The occassion is my cousin E’s 1st communion, numerous family members will be in attendance at my uncle’s, and my dad’s advice to her is simply ”to keep the car running.”

Song: “The Headmaster Ritual,” The Smiths. What, did you really think I was going to go a whole year without recommending a Smiths song? I could and just may start recommending entire Smiths albums.

Quote:       “I’m not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I’m not looking for the secret to life…. I just go on from day to day, taking what comes.”  - Frank Sinatra

Indiana Jones 4 comes out next month and I’m really hoping it’s not Godfather Part 3. I have no choice but to go see it in the theater, but not without some trepidation.

Yet another beloved uncle of mine - Uncle S. - has gotten in the act of posting to this blog. However, I have apparently lost “favored nephew” status with him for not quoting or referencing him as yet. Uncle S. recently retired from the highly regarded Erie Police Force, which he proudly served for many years, and currently splits his time between Erie and “Del Boca Vista” in Florida. As he writes:

“Being one of the most quoted members of the Erie Police Department for many years. I feel I deserve a mention in this blog.”

So let’s pause for a moment to recognize a true connoisseur of the arts and a great humanitarian…

Uncle S. also has inquired as to why I don’t discuss my “acting class” in this blog. That is a topic I will continue to refrain from getting into here, as nothing positive can come of it. I will respond to anyone who wishes to contact me independently in regards to what I think about a required theatre class within a business school curriculum costing me a chance to attend the Kentucky Derby. But in this blog itself, I shall stick to “no comment.”

I have three group projects due Wednesday and I’ve not really started any work here aside from independently reading the cases.  Frankly, I’m not even sure who is in my group for Ops Managment….I’m thinking we’re carrying over the same group from Strategic Managment, but this may not actually be the case. As such, that’s something that needs established first thing this morning. It’s a term-long project for Market Strategy, so that is a continuation of prior work, and we have all class today to work on it. The work sounds (and seems) daunting en toto, but all are short writeups and should be manageable. 

Artie Lange may be off the Howard Stern show for good; no one will know for sure until everyone is back form vacation next week. It is one of the great radio cliffhangers of all-time…and I hope that there’s a way they can still work everything out.

This coming weekend, I get the true pleasure of taking V up to Penn State for Blue-White weekend…it’s going to be very special.

Song:  ”Guns of Brixton,” The Clash

Quote: “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side.” - Han Solo

The weather is more than a bit dreary this weekend in the District, which is not what I was hoping for, considering that this particular weekend involves cherry blossoms and meeting V’s parents for the first time. But no matter….we will make do. I’m a bit nervous about the proceedings but I’m sure it will ultimately be fine.

April doesn’t just mean crappy weather on the eastern seaboard. It means that baseball is back, (and thus so is fantasy baseball, which is a fantastic way to waste large amounts of time). I plan on hitting Nationals Park as soon as next weekend (regardless of whether or not some of my vagrant friends from Pennsylvania happen to materialize in Silver Spring). And my summer internship will afford me a few opportunities to visit Camden Yards, a park I’ve been to once (the first year it opened). I love baseball and I’ll make a couple games this summer at both parks, but it will pale in comparison to firing up my buddy D’s grill, taking a shot or two at the Clark Bar, and either stumbling into PNC Park or not depending on how badly the Pirates were doing after two innings. That’s how it used to roll in Pittsburgh - to get to PNC Park (my favorite of all baseball stadiums, though granted I haven’t been to them all. It’s far too beautiful a park for the shoddy product that takes the field there for 81 games a season) it was just as easy as taking a ferry or crossing two bridges. Hell, by the end of my time in Pittsburgh, I was splitting season ticket plans with my buddy F and his dad.

I’m actually not even a Pirates fan, but four years in the Steel City did leave with me quite a bit of affinity for them. 15 losing seasons in a row…and number 16 seems like little more than a formality. I’m a Yankees fan…go ahead, bring the hate mail. My standard defense: I started rooting for them in the late ’80s when their teams featured Donnie Baseball, Dave Winfield and Dave Righetti. Many of those teams were really bad….they were in last place at least once and I recall one specific instance where Andy Hawkins threw a no-hitter and lost. Plus, they haven’t won a World Series since I was in college the first time, and Hank Steinbrenner might as well show up at Yankee Stadium in a jester’s outfit. I will make at least a game or two at Yankee Stadium…this is of course the last chance to visit a legendary park that I’ve only been to once before. 

Oh yeah…school. There’s six weeks left and I think the last half of the semester is going to be quite managable. One class is centered around a digital marketing simulation  in which teams compete against each other, and the other two are case-based. We’ll see how they go, but all three play to my strengths.

Song: “Nocturne No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 9, No. 2 ,” Frederic Chopin. Seriously, I love it.

Quote: “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” - Nigel Tufnel

I’m a bit distracted this week….a close friend of mine is going through absolute hell in his personal life. I’m not going to go into any of it here, but nobody deserves what M now has to deal with. It’s quite obviously a fallacy to believe that life is fair, but this is a guy who truly deserves far better. 

Midterms finished up a mere two weeks ago, but it seems like an eternity since I’ve had to do anything even resembling hard work. It’s hard to get a read just yet as to what the second half of the semester will exactly involve. Soon enough, school is going to break for the year, which is both strange and somewhat incomprehensible to me. It was a spring break well spent in Pennsylvania and (briefly) in South Jersey…V and I watched a ton of quality basketball, a couple great movies, a few crappy ones. And as always, we ate really well. 

Of random interest: I’ve been growing a beard the last three weeks partly because I can and partly as some sort of fourth-rate act of defiance. I’ve never really played around with excess facial hair, this despite my affinity for the smooth sounds of 70s Yacht Rock, and I’m rather enjoying it. 

Something else of interest: I’ve signed up for a case competition (my first) with a pretty sharp group of individuals. It’s through the National Society of Hispanic MBA Association and figures to be a highly rewarding experience on the whole - it’s extracurricular activities such as this that make the MBA experience worthwhile. I got involved in a competition earlier this year that ended in a baffling, anticlimatic fashion - this figures to be far different.

Maybe I’ll amend this post later…my heart’s just not in it right now. My thoughts are with my friend M and on how to make a certain someone’s birthday weekend exceptionally special.

Song: “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us,” Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Quote: “Have you ever seen a human heart? It looks like a fist wrapped in blood.” - Larry (Clive Owen), Closer

Not too terribly much to report this week. I got my Econ final out of the way last night and I feel pretty good with how it went. It was a lot of writing, but that’s always been a strength of mine. Accounting looms ahead of me omniously though…that’s Friday at 2:30 pm. On the plus side, it is the last that I will ever have to deal with accounting for the rest of my life. As such, I’m anticipating a sense of euphoria similar to that as to when I exited my Finance final a few months ago.

The days are noticeably getting longer and summer is not that far off. I have to say that it wasn’t a bad winter at all in the DC area. Didn’t know how I was going to handle winter again after a bizarre two years in Texas with only two seasons (”Hot” and “Somewhat less hot”). But it was pretty mild - especially being in constant contact with my brother and parents on what NW Pennsylvania continually dishes out weatherwise.

I wish we could discuss Eliot Spitzer in Ethics class tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be something arcane about the theatre that I’ll tune out (theatre students don’t have to take business courses….yet I am required to take a theatre course, which makes a ton of sense) or some boring speaker that I’ll tune out. Besides, why would discuss something relevant and meaningful that has practical application? Usually, Ethics is a great opportunity to catch up on the New Yorker, but tomorrow will be needed for Accounting studying.

This post was really boring…I’m sorry. I can’t believe I sunk to discussing the weather…how very trite. I think I’m somewhat checked out for Spring Break. I like that it involves Atlantic City…it’s going to be a ridiculous little diversion next Tuesday.

Only 2 1/2 weeks until The Best Day Ever….

Song:  “Blue Train (Alternate Take),” John Coltrane

Quote (contributed by V): “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” - George Bernard Shaw

I really think only people who follow and suffer with the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to get the title of this post. A quick Google search will suffice to enlighten others…

It’s time to officially shut down the interviewing junket I’ve been on the last month or so. The internship search is officially over as of 3 pm yesterday. I ended up going with the position I discussed last week and I think it’s going to be a great fit for me. I was actually still interviewing as late as yesterday afternoon. I may yet receive up to two more offers yet or I may not get any more…under any scenario, it is too late to turn back at this point. I had to make a call on the one offer I already had, and I just wasn’t comfortable with rolling the dice on potentially other offers where I had a sure thing with “a global power tools company located north of Baltimore” that I knew I’d be completely happy with. The irony of me marketing something this summer I don’t even have a perfunctory level of competence with is not lost on either myself or my father. But hey….in a time when V has me cooking, let’s run with it.

Something of a odd aside: I had to turn down an interview with PBS. I knew I wouldn’t take it. I love PBS and everything they do and stand for, but I know they wouldn’t be able to pay me what I’m looking for in a summer internship. Quite bluntly, that’s not what I came back to business school for. And thus, the last strands of the idealistic liberalism I once possessed dissipated into a thin air. The faint notion that I would some day do some good for the world has died a quite death, ignored by nearly everyone including myself, and will rest in an unvisited grave.

We had a big presentation the other day in my Digital Markets class about internet television, specifically Joost. It was by far my favorite group experience that I’ve had at Smith yet. That’s not to knock the other groups I was in….I just really liked the minimal amount of time spent in meetings. I find long, pointless meetings insufferable and inexcusable, yet rampant and widespread. When we did meet, it was efficient and to the point. Everybody reliably got their work done on their own. We didn’t start two months before the presentation and we weren’t up until 4 am the night before. We struck a solid balance between these two extremes, which is rare.

Midterms are next week, followed by Spring Break, which inexplicably lasts two weeks for reasons known only to a select administrative few. I’m not complaining and neither is anyone else I know in the program. My spring break will be celebrated in the tropical climate of Pennsylvania (primarily in Philly, to the surprise of no one) and possibly the borough of Manhattan.

Song: “Streets of Balitmore,” Gram Parsons

Quote: “It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Sammy….and I’m wearing milk bone underwear.” - Norm Peterson

The often-frustrating process of interviewing for a job that lasts a sum total of 12 weeks will conclude tomorrow. Following a full day of interviews yesterday, a major global power tools company located north of Baltimore called me around 5 to offer me a summer internship. The money and the opportunity (in that order) are both very attractive. I have at least one interview with a major CPG company tomorrow morning; if I make the second round, it goes down in the afternoon. I really don’t see how I could turn down the company I presently have the offer from. But you know, sometimes in life we all have to make tough decisions:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5aKniUjce4s

It’s good to know I’m done with interviewing for a while. It takes the pressure of worrying about potentially having to resort to bartending this summer off. Laugh if you must, but that’s where my head was until yesterday. Even better, the position at said company (even though it’s obvious, I will wait until accepting the offer to confirm their identity) is in new product development…it’s essentially exactly the kind of project I was looking for this summer. In fact, I don’t even think I can or should mention what that project is. So obviously, I’m really excited about it.

I watched “The Wicker Man” last night - the original with “The Equalizer” and the great Christopher Lee, not the Nic Cage remake. It’s easily the weirdest movie I’ve seen in some time; some of the scenes and characters are among the most bizarre ever put to film. The plot twists were completely unexpected. For some reason, I’m currently into odd movies where strangers find themselves in seemingly sleepy villages in the pastoral British countryside where “all is not as it seems.” A little Wiki research after the movie revealed that the screenwriter is the same guy who penned “Sleuth” - another timeless classic of ’70s British filmmaking.

Mid-terms are in two weeks - the schedule has been somewhat cracked and in a weird state of flux, but I fully expect everything to be closed out on that front by 3/14. Every class I’m currently in wraps up except Culture, Ethics & Communication, which I can’t even bring myself to discuss in this blog…you have no idea what that class has cost me and how it annoys me. But I digress…I have no choice. Accordingly, I’m heading to V’s for a weekend that will be equal parts relaxing (we have a plethora of Netflix movies to watch) and not relaxing (it’s my friend T’s birthday, and the celebration figures to be problematic knowing the crowd that will be involved).

Song: “Safe From Harm,” Massive Attack

Quote: “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.” - George Orwell

This week, I’ve picked an intentionally ridiculous title (a Manic Street Preachers lyric no less) solely to provide humor for my beloved parents. They seem to think this blog veers into areas a bit more dramatic than someone male, middle class, white and in the first year of business school has license to travese. They may very well have a point.

But I am tired of interviews. No offers yet, but I have the sense that something is going to break soon. Or at least that’s the idea. I interviewed this week with McCormick’s, Chase, Campbell’s and Hershey’s - and that’s less than what some people had. On Wednesday, I’m heading up to Black & Decker’s HQ for a full day of interviews. Friday is Kraft.

(NB: This section removed at the request of a nameless individual who possesses more tact and better judgement than I do.)

Classes are going well, despite all the non-academic distractions swirling around me.  I do need to wrap myself around my Digital Markets presentation this weekend, but that won’t be happening tonight. Presently I’m watching LeBron James and the Cavs (GM Danny Ferry made a bold move yesterday by getting Sczerbiak and Big Ben Wallace. I don’t know if it’s the right move, but he needed to pull the trigger on something. It will be interesting to see what happens here).  I also have a slew of movie recommendations from V and am going to go with “Straw Dogs” later on; it’s from the early ’70s, stars Dustin Hoffman (a figure discussed in previous posts as a suggested lookalike of mine; I disagree on that point, but there’s no questioning his acting skills), and V has described it as similar to “A Clockwork Orange.” It’s hard to believe I’ve never heard of this movie…should be interesting.

Song:  ”Reckoner,” Radiohead

Quote: “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” - Sir Winston Churchill