Byron is…
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I keep trying to write things for this blog, but i seem to continually fail. I have a list of things that i can cover that i think would be interesting to write about, but i am just having lots of trouble finding the inspiration or the drive to write. Regardless, keep an eye out on this space for some interesting new material.
Additionally, does anyone want to blog/have a blog but doesn’t post often on it? Interested in writing here? I’m thinking that since I don’t write often (and you don’t write often) with the combined lack of posts, hopefully there will be more activity on here than nil. Thus, let me know and we can talk. It would be nice to work on a project with someone.
Just a quick life update – have just finished BASE at Berkeley and will be starting an internship at Aruba tomorrow. Met up with Steph for lunch yesterday, Kenny and Carrie for breakfast today, and Eric for dinner today. I would love to see some old friends this summer, since it really is one of my first where I am actually here. Give me a call!
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Summer: Phase 2 (pt 1)
UC Berkeley
Wait, was that four or five beats?
It’s still lots of work.
Well, I’ve just finished up my first week of class at BASE. For those who are unaware, it’s a six week program held by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. It’s a pretty intense program where I take three classes and also have some other seminars and similar things.
One of the class I’m taking is in Accounting. The professor is a nice guy that often cracks terrible jokes (as in they are not funny, and therefore are funny because of how unfunny they are). The accounting class itself is pretty difficult. We’re rocketing along at a pretty rapid pace (yay for assets=liabilities+owners equity). Done some stuff with simple spreadsheets (on paper), T-Accounts, Trial Balances, Journal Entries, and other stuff that people who don’t know/don’t care about accounting would probably not be interested in reading.
My second class is Marketing. So far we’ve just been doing a lot of discussion and reading. We’ve done a case study on Euro Disney, and how Disney’s eagerness to have a really successful product probably led to the downfall of the project. Apparently, it’s doing better (but it did change its name to Disneyland Paris in order to try and repair the image). We’ve got a marketing project also, where we need to pick some product and then throughout the course, work on a presentation to market the product. Should be interesting (and a lot of work)
Finally I’ve got my Organizational Behavior class. Now this is probably the most intriguing class of them all. My professor is a Kellogg Alum (or something related to the school) and she’s apparently one of the best lecturers on negotiators. So since OB is a lot of psychology and figuring out people’s mentality, she always brings up a lot of interesting points about how to get people to do what you want. It’s a little creepy. This weeks seminar was about negotiations, and so she was lecturing about it. We learned about good ways to negotiate contracts (it’s not a win lose situation, you want the best for both parties so they will be willing to work together again) and also salary negotiations (know what you’re worth do some research in advance). Again, boring stuff if you don’t have any interest in it, but i figure it will be useful in the future.
(Aside: I’ve developed an addiction to Freecell. It is too much fun! And its not as boring as regular solitaire is. It is also frustrating because you can actually lose.)
Berkeley is a very different place from Northwestern. For one thing, it feels way bigger. I walked from my apartment (Channing, North end of campus) to downtown (Shattuck, South of campus) and it took me about 20 mins. I think it takes either same or a bit more to get to downtown Evanston. So it might be possible that my estimate is wrong. However, one thing I can say with certainty is that Berkeley buildings are much more dense than buildings are at Northwestern
(Aside: Did you know? During the course of writing this entry I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, played 2 games of Freecell, and made/ate dinner? Yeah, this writing is taking place over a long period of time.)
I’ll make this into a 2 part entry, since it’s rather long. Look forward to a Part 2!
Home for Summer
I’m back in the bay
Sleeping in to eleven
Summer life, I love!
Some story time! Senior week was good fun, did a lot of various activities. Just a quick rundown…
- Going to the lakefill and burning stuff. So I suppose that was probably not the wisest thing to do, but it was quite fun. A few of us went to the lake fill with – what else – string, matches, isopropyl alcohol, old spice, a lighter, and a camera to document. Obviously, a few of the best things you could pick to burn. Made some pretty pictures,
- Somehow managing to segue that into a CCI visit, where a robot suit was discovered (documented on film!) Unfortunately, it was not decorated as such, and became used as a table to be used for a rousing game of Citadels (in which one member fell asleep). This led to a 5:30 AM journey to see the sun rise! Which was unfortunately, missed.
- A day of tearful goodbyes! People moved out, boxes were moved, parents were met! And scavenging abounded. My team was able to relieve CCI of several extraneous lamps and boxes, while the CCI residents made a run on the Slivka food box.
- Random shopping run! Always useful. Bought fun things, like consumables and a BBQ which was used for…
- Impromptu barbeque session in front of Lisa’s Cafe! An enjoyable night where Chicken, Salmon, Broccoli, Corn, and Peaches were all given a turn on the mini BBQ grill that had recently been purchased
- Nina’s Birthday Celebration @ Chenfei/Lizhou/DChoi’s new place! It is a really nice place that i would love to visit another time. Some craziness (Nina! You are an amusing partier =P) Got to catch up with some old friends, talk to some acquaintances, which was nice. The view from the roof of the building is amazing! Fun night.
- And of course, various playing during senior week, which involved things like Watertower Place, Portillo’s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cooking, Set+Dutch Blitz+Killer Bunnies, Packing, Moving
So just a quick overview of senior week at NU. This was Then appended by my own moving out, which was eventful. Think: getting the keys to the apartment for which the lease starts in July, leaving the stuff in the living room at 2AM, and collapsing into sleep. The next day was convocation early in the morning (no food! oh well) Saying goodbye to friends and then getting on a bus. The bus was only 5 minutes late! Unfortunately, driver of said bus decided to go to Dunkin’ Donuts and get an icy coffee drink so bus was more than 5 minutes late. Sitting on the bus, I realized that I was in fact too late for my plane, and thus missed my flight.
Damn.
Well, gate agent put my on standby for the next flight to SFO (I was originally headed for SJC) and I headed over to the gate. I was first on the standby list, but for some reason, everyone behind me on the list got on the plane, and I was the last to board as i waited for someone to not show up for the final boarding call. (Aside: that ass who cut in front of me multiple times for standby and got on the plane just before I did was given a business class seat. Drat.) An uneventful flight in general, read Blue Like Jazz, snoozed, read some more, and repeated the previous two actions until descent into SFO. The landing was quite violent (think rolling 10-15 degrees left and right), but I managed to make it back home.
This is rather long, and not much else interesting has happened since, so anything post Evanston will be noted in another post. Expect a book review, another journal entry, and perhaps some thoughts on various things in the near future.