Journalist pursues MBA, blogs

Commencement

2011-05-24T00:39:00.015-04:00

On Sunday, I was rather nervous. My stomach would get in knots whenever I thought about delivering the commencement speech on Monday afternoon. Fortunately, my friend Carla, in town from North Carolina, has been an amazing support and welcome distraction all weekend. We spent a fun (albeit cold) day at Coney Island. I recommend the freak show.

But as I was trying to fall asleep on Sunday night, with lines of my speech and various logistics of graduation day running through my head, I could feel the bed shaking as my heart was thumping and pounding with nerves. I could momentarily calm myself down with reassurances like, "You can do this!" but those were generally fleeting. Overall, I thought, "If I'm this terrified now, in bed, I really might die of an anxiety attack tomorrow."

On Monday morning, I awoke early, and Carla and I watched my favorite episode of "The Golden Girls" ("Bang the Drum Stanley"). Fearing parking problems arising from a usual trip to the gym, I took a jog around my neighborhood (East Rock), which did wonders. I made a well-rounded breakfast but didn't make too much progress eating it.

There was some uncertainty in the morning about whether the folks from Student Academic Services would postpone graduation for rain. This was a call they had to make by 8:30 a.m. The rain plan would mean a new time and venue. Despite being overcast, the regular time and place were kept. I skipped the large morning ceremony, as I'd always intended to do, because I had family members and friends driving into New Haven around that time. In all, I feel really lucky to have had lots of my favorite people in the audience on my behalf -- Carla, Kristin, Dave, Matt, Shiri and her husband Adam and son Josh, and my brothers and parents.

In the moment of the proceedings, I was much calmer than I'd expected. I think the key was having smiling faces of friends around me, joking and enjoying the day. This lifted me out of my fright and made the occasion fun, as of course it should be. We lined up in alphabetical order in front of Steinbach and filed into Caulkins Courtyard, and I broke from the group and took a seat on the side of the stage to await my cue. Dean Oster gave a short, characteristically dry opening, and then Economies of Scale, a four-person male a cappella group consisting of three second-years and my good friend Bryce from the first year, did a funny ditty about SOM. This all went by quickly, and the breeze in the courtyard and misty humidity just made the environment so pleasant, there was no place to be freaking out. I'd considered many mental tricks I was going to play on myself to keep calm, but ended up forgetting them, or not needing them. I just waited and went up when my name was called, and it was fine.

I was thrilled to get through it in one piece, and happy with how it went. People seemed to enjoy it, and I received some kind and encouraging compliments.

This was a very special occasion not just because of graduation but because it was also a family reunion, as well as the first time some of my oldest friends have ever met. It was surreal to be in the classroom where I took things like Accounting, Spreadsheet Modeling and Employee, A74, and see these people who are so important to me eating sandwiches and talking to one another. It was very dream-like.

Afterward, Carla and I drove to my brother's house for snacks, and so I could say hello to my sister-in-law and nephews, and then we all went out to dinner. We talked about many topics, like bridges, Bin Laden and favorite meals -- not much about ourselves, which is typical of my family, who seem to subscribe to Don and Betty Draper's belief that it's rude to talk about oneself. We had a nice time.

Anyway, it was a great day. I'm glad I ran for speaker, because it's something I'll always remember. And I'm glad I decided to get an MBA!

There's one line from my speech about how during school I've learned that becoming my best does not mean changing into someone else, but rather means having confidence in what makes me original. I think that relates to the main question of this blog, which is what it's like for a journalist to get an MBA. I've heard this characterized as a major leap, as if I were a mime who decided to go to medical school.

But I came to realize that a lot of the skills I took for granted in my career are valued, useful and important in business -- things like writing clearly, being accurate and fair, asking probing questions, and making sure I do whatever I have to do to understand something.

It hasn't all been seamless. I had never looked at an income statement before school, nor had I given even a passing thought to stock markets or how one might value a company. So there were vocabulary and conceptual gaps that I'd consider unclosable, although I made some headway. And disposition-wise, I think there's a tendency for journalists to want to stay quietly off to the side, which is at odds with management education that encourages one to make waves. Journalists do make waves, but by observing and communicating, not "leading" in the traditional management sense.

But overall, the transition from newspapers to business wasn't as much of a leap as one might expect. I wanted to get an MBA to have a healthier and faster-moving career, to experience a new environment, and to see how far I could challenge myself, and I did all that and more.

I appreciate all of you who were regular readers, as well as those of you who popped in and out. I hope any of this was interesting or useful. It was to me.

A couple things must go

2011-05-21T11:07:00.000-04:00

One of my dearest and oldest friends, Carla, arrived in New Haven yesterday from North Carolina and is spending the weekend here, in advance of Monday's commencement. It's a real nerve-calming energy to have her here. I gave her a little tour of SOM yesterday, and we had dinner with some friends last night. Two of those friends had wonderful news -- both have been offered jobs that they will be accepting, in New York! I'm really excited for them because the positions are wonderful and a great fit, and of course selfishly I'm delighted they will be in New York.

Carla selflessly insisted on helping me in whatever way she could while she was here, and I'm not one to decline a hand, so given her successful history in selling things online, I've put her to work helping me sell some of the furniture I won't have room for in my new place. We're starting with three items, and two have already had inquiries. I'm sure they will be gone in no time. Someone is coming today, in fact, to (hopefully) haul away a chest of drawers.

Today we will be bopping around New Haven a bit. I'm sort of a terrible local for never having been to Louis' Lunch, the supposed birthplace of the hamburger. We may try our luck there today, although I imagine the city is flooded with kinfolk who are in town for graduations, and others may have my bright idea. We'll see. There aren't many items left on my unofficial New Haven Bucket List, but that's one.

Knot in my stomach and lump in my throat

2011-05-18T21:41:00.003-04:00

I am not going to be able to fit all my furniture into my New York studio, which I'm moving to in less than two weeks. That much is clear. To see what I'm really working with, though, I cut out scaled representations of my furniture and have been arranging the pieces over a floor plan. Nothing makes me too thrilled, but I'll make it work somehow.

I must admit that I am currently emotionally overwhelmed and have knots in my stomach. The impending move and job are what I dreamed of when I was applying to Yale, and I've been lucky enough to see them coming since November, but now that everything's just around the corner I feel like I'm accelerating into a fog. I think what's on the other side will be amazing. But I still have those knots.

You would think that with school officially over -- all my grades are in, and there's nothing academic left to do -- I would be all smiles and relaxation, but between doing paperwork for Deloitte, selling and packing my things, family headed into town, preparing to deliver the commencement speech, figuring out how to unload my car, getting ready for a wedding, and actually moving to New York and getting settled, it seems like an insane mad dash to June 1. I know that after that, I'll be immediately without much to do, and that will be my life for two months. But getting there is not a leisurely walk in the park!

I feel somewhat un-allowed to discuss that, though, because I am fortunate and should be grateful, and I am. But gratitude and good fortune don't pack my stuff, and they don't write and memorize my speech, and they don't plow through my to-do list while I nap.

I got a lot done today, though. A whole lot.

Stop and smell the sea

2011-05-18T10:32:00.001-04:00

My last day in the Caribbean was perhaps my favorite, as I went with two classmates to explore St. John. We hiked to a place called Honeymoon Bay, which is where I shot the video above. The weather and the water were perfect at first, and then a storm started rolling in, so we took refuge at a fancy resort and ate delicious but overpriced salads. We went on another much longer hike and met up with another classmate for a root beer. By the time we returned on the ferry to St. Thomas, we were all totally wiped out. I did have the energy, though, to put one final 25-cent bet on my lucky #11 on roulette, and sure enough it hit! Made $9 in 20 seconds. I think that put me up about $54 overall for the trip, basically covering the day in St. John.

Now I have returned to the unseasonably cold, wet mainland. Overall the trip was worth it. It was relaxing enough to be recharging, and active enough to be fun. It gave me a chance to hang out with some different people, and get a bit of a tan. After two months in New York without any income I may temporarily regret spending $1,500 on this vacation, but if that happens I'll just look back on my pictures and (hopefully) smile.

Firework video bomb

2011-05-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

Last night was an amazing amount of fun, as we had our last group dinner on St. Thomas, accompanied by karaoke. I busted out this number. I came away with several enjoyable clips, but none so much so as this one, thanks to a photo (er, video?) bomb. SOM inspires!

Almost everyone is leaving St. Thomas today, but a couple folks and I are staying on for an extra day (because it was so much cheaper to fly tomorrow).

The creatures of St. Thomas

2011-05-15T10:34:00.006-04:00

Greetings from St. Thomas, where today is Day 5 of my seven-day vacation, and my first time accessing the World Wide Web. I'm here on our Class of 2011 trip, along with several dozen classmates. It's a tradition. Last year, the Class of 2010 went on a cruise. This year, we're stationed at an rather nice all-inclusive resort.

It's been a lot of fun so far, mostly sitting on the beach, taking advantage of free meals, dipping in the pool and fooling around in the casino. I am, so far, up $33.50 at blackjack and down $31.00 on roulette, thus up $2.50 overall, and determined not to play roulette again. The weather has been consistent -- mostly overcast, with one massive downpour per day and a few bursts of sunshine. One actually doesn't want too much sun here because it does fry the skin almost upon contact, so I have no complaints. It's warm and breezy, and that's relaxing.

A couple of my close friends came on the trip, and many didn't, which has been both a bummer and a nice opportunity to reconnect with some classmates whose paths I rarely crossed during school. Last night, I discovered that when one of my classmates was a kid visiting his grandfather in my hometown, he hit a golf ball at the driving range and struck a car parked in front of a house across the street. We lived across the street from that country club, and I think the victim may have been my brother's car. I've sent a message to my mom for verification.

I'm glad I came even though a nontrivial amount of madness awaits me in the two weeks that will follow my return. And per my original plan, this blog will end in one week's time, as I will have completed my MBA and thus will no longer be a journalist pursuing one. I'll probably post some final thoughts on Tuesday the 24th, the day after commencement. No thoughts for now, though. Just the sound of waves and warm breezes.

The falls of Falls Village

2011-05-10T12:10:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow at an absurd hour I leave for a week-long trip to St. Thomas, but yesterday I took a pre-trip mini-trip to visit a friend who lives in a rural area of Northwest Connecticut, in a little town called Falls Village. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day, and we took a walk/hike, some of which is actually the Appalachian Trail. If that trail interests you at all, I highly recommend the very funny book "A Walk in the Woods," by Bill Bryson.

Now I've returned and -- would you believe it -- am still not finished grading those damn Innovator papers, which linger above like a cloud. I have a dozen left, and then my TA duties are complete, which thereby makes my SOM tasks complete, aside from attending and speaking at commencement in two weeks.

I am trying to decide whether to take my laptop to the Virgin Islands so I can blog and work on my speech. Part of me says "No, John, take this opportunity to distance yourself from technology and focus on the moment by enjoying the sunshine and friendhip." And that part of me says, "John, the two aren't mutually exclusive; you can focus on the moment by enjoying the sunshine and friendship, but you'll be frustrated if you come up with some speech ideas and don't have your laptop with you. Plus you'll be eager to edit and post some pictures and stories. Take the damn thing."

We'll see which part of me prevails.

In the meantime, today I absolutely must finish these papers, so I'm off to what I suppose will be my last day ever working in a Yale library. Until I realize school is where it's at, and I come back for my PhD.

Don't burn the toast

2011-05-07T11:33:00.002-04:00

It was fantastic serendipity that our class dinner was on Friday night because I happened to finish everything merely two hours beforehand, leaving me in quite a celebratory mood and more than happy to stay out until 1 in the morning.

Our dinner was at the Lawn Club, a short walk from both SOM and my apartment, and featured a few slideshows, as well as some superlatives and, at the end, a pass-the-microphone toasting segment. Good feelings were abundant, and by my count it looked like there were about 19 tables of 10 people each, meaning that a good 80% of our class was in attendance. Check out my quant skills at work!

There was an after-party at a downtown bar called The Study, which at first was a little jarring because we were packed into a hot room with loud music. But once I escaped into the general bar area, I had some great conversations and really enjoyed myself. It was late before I knew it.

A lot of feelings swirl around all this. One is that I'm still working through the adjustment of being a non-drinker in these situations; everyone was given packets of drink tickets, no less. The interesting thing is that, time and again, I find the beginning of the evening somewhat challenging, but after a short while I really, really prefer being sober. Conversations are much better and more memorable. And, frankly, it's a trip to finally notice how alcohol actually affects people. In the past I didn't observe the changes because I was probably drunker than everyone else. But it's a funny experience to be stone sober while your friends rant, hug, ramble and cry. I like it, actually.

Some people are pretty emotional now, and I'm not totally there yet, even though I know I will be. I loved this experience deeply, and I have a feeling I will be a ball of tears when I'm moving out of my apartment. Until then it doesn't quite seem over yet.

Journalist completes MBA, blogs

2011-05-06T17:22:00.005-04:00

And with one hastily written nine-page paper, followed by an even more hastily written five-page paper, I can now check "Get an MBA" off my to-do list. Holy frijoles, I am done.

Done! Not kinda done, but done-done. Academically, at least. Despite the rush, I think I went out on some pretty solid notes, and I'm proud of the work I've been able to crank out this week. This is one of those times I'm glad I used to write things on deadline for a living; you never know when that'll come in handy.

This is a weird feeling. Graduate school seemed to be a full-speed-ahead train, and now it feels like it just evaporated into the air. I'm looking at a binder and a notebook I no longer need, and evidence strewn around of several days of intensity ... text books, papers, empty glasses, pens, But now I can, you know, take a breath and clean up! This will be an overly dramatic characterization, but it's like in the movies when someone's spouse dies and they have to clean out the closet. I'll be cleaning out my MBA closet this weekend, I suppose -- all the evidence I did this. And I'll be separating what to keep from what to dump.

To extend my last post, where I summarized the three classes I had finished, I'll do the same for the two I wrapped up today. I have time before I need to shower and get ready for our celebratory class dinner at the Lawn Club!

Behavioral Perspectives on Management. This course looked at human behavior and contrasted it with management theory, for the main punchline that we should rely on evidence about how things are as opposed to instincts and theories about how things should be. If that all sounds kind of vague, it's because the content of the class ran a wide spectrum and is a little hard to put in a box. We discussed biases, heuristics, chance, emotions, context, mental accounting, and loads of other things, and ended on happiness. Our professor has a psychology and marketing background and is very interested in controlled studies, so most of the lectures were heavy on the results of those studies. Then it was up to us, through our short papers called "application assignments" as well as through other papers, to apply these studies and academic readings to real life. In a lot of ways, this was my favorite class, and I actually did every reading all semester, which is quite a feat. Our final paper was supposed to be a long application of course concepts to a policy or program we would like to develop or change. I invented a behaviorally focused restaurant with a totally new way of ordering, eating and paying. I would be more detailed, but I actually think it's a billion-dollar idea, so I'm going to keep it for now.

Navigating Organizations. All my classes this spring were a semester long except this one, which was only second quarter. But we covered a lot of material in that short time. The professor, Cade Massey, who also co-taught our Negotiations class in the core, used an enormous variety of materials to teach us about power, networks, influence and stark realities about how companies really operate. His goal was to teach us about tools we could use any way we wanted, so that we could either use them or be aware when others were doing the same. I put it this way because a lot of these "tools" would be considered controversial -- basically ways to rise up the ranks. But he thinks it's better we know these things than not. This was a great course I've highly recommended to friends in the class below me. Especially with me about to enter new waters as a consultant, these are topics I will encounter and be glad to know more about.

3 out of 5 ain't bad

2011-05-05T18:29:00.011-04:00

I am almost done. Three of my five classes are totally finished, with a presentation yesterday and two exams today. When I wrap up a class I like to give some closing thoughts on it, since that's kind of a central goal of this blog -- to share the MBA experience.

Leadership Strategies for Music Presenters. This class was taught by the dean of the music school, Robert Blocker, and was taken by about a dozen Yale School of Music students and five School of Management students, including myself. It was a weekly three-hour class that almost always featured a guest, and we hit on high-level themes (like artistic vision) as well as drilled-down specifics (like how to deal with difficult personalities on a board). In a contest to determine which course during my MBA left me having learned the most stuff, this one would not win, but it was one of my favorite experiences at Yale. I got to know some musicians, as well as the dean and music faculty, and the class was such a pleasure. We visited Steinway & Sons in New York and the City Opera, and almost every week followed class with a delicious and interesting three-course dinner in a private room at the Graduate Club. This was not like an SOM course; it was slow-moving without a lot of concrete takeaways, and it was more about teaching through experiences and relationships as opposed to readings, problem sets and PowerPoints. And I think that's a good approach for certain subjects.

Investment Management. I took this class for a couple reasons. I love math. I loved the Investor course in our core (Fall-2, second quarter of first year). And I think people with an MBA should know about financial things, even if they don't dive into them for a living. These were many of the reasons I took Corporate Finance last semester; that course was tough for me, but I'm glad I took it. Same here. The material in this class ended up being a lot more challenging than I expected -- everytime I blinked there were models with lots of Greek letters or calculus or natural logs or bell curves with shaded areas scribbled all over the board. I had several "Wha?" moments. We covered a shit load of material, including market history, arbitrage pricing theory, factor models, active portfolio management, behavioral finance, portfolio evaluation, private equity, endowments, hedge funds, options, futures, swaps, fixed income, international diversification, ethics ... each of these things could be (and in some cases is) its own class. So it really was an intense overview of this subject. But I've done well and think the final went great. I'm probably not going to get a Distinction, since that would require outperforming 90% of my peers who all seemed to be quite comfortable with all this stuff, but when I inevitably get my Proficient I may choose to believe I was close. This was taught quite well by a new professor named Justin Murfin, who was excellent.

Strategic Leadership Across Sectors. Nobody calls it that, first of all. Everyone just calls it "Sonnenfeld," after the professor. This was in many ways a bizarre class, kind of the School of Management equivalent of my music class. Each week, we met for three hours with an array of amazing guests you wouldn't believe. The details would be fantastic blog fodder, but I've been carefully mum about it because apparently a student a few years ago was expelled for blogging about something that was discussed in the class. So I'm afraid to even mention who our guests were. Just not worth it. Like the music class, it was weak on structure and takeaways, but I bet this is the type of class I'll always remember, if only for the proximity-to-fame factor.

So those are the three I've finished with. I'll give my two cents on the others over the weekend. Just about done! Can't believe it. Just can't believe it ...

An eye for 2,973 eyes

2011-05-02T07:35:00.006-04:00

People don't have crystal-clear memories, I've learned in my Behavioral Perspectives course. We tell and re-tell stories and lose details over time, and eventually our version of the truth is an unintentionally warped collection of details we think we remember.

So it goes with "Where were you on 9/11?" I was in St. Louis, with my boyfriend at the time, Brad. I had graduated from UNC the May prior and had spent the summer editing copy for the Columbus Dispatch. I was taking about a month to unwind in St. Louis, my home town. Brad had been visiting for a few days and was supposed to fly back to Omaha on Sept. 11 (a Tuesday). One of his friends called to tell him to turn on the TV, and so we did, and we watched things unfold from there. I don't remember too much else that day. We went to a seafood restaurant for a late lunch at some point, and my friend Jenny came over and we watched TV for a while. Later in the week, maybe the next day even, Brad rented a car and drove back to Omaha.

Now I may also remember where I was on May 1, 2011, as the news broke that Osama bin Laden had been killed. I was here on the couch taking care of some school-related things on my laptop, when my roommate, stationed in the dining room, shouted that bin Laden had been killed. I think her mom had called to tell her. From there we were scanning the web, although the main story on nytimes.com wouldn't even open (due to immense traffic, I assume). We opened links on cnn.com and nytimes.com to a live stream from the White House, where Obama was scheduled to make an address. We don't have cable. The speech was little awkward. Obama was at a podium (or lectern), in front of microphones, but he wasn't making eye contact with the camera, and there was no audience, so it wasn't clear who he was talking to. It was a sort of off-putting way to deliver the news. Just earlier this week he made headlines by being rather funny at the White House Correspondents Dinner, in the wake of producing his long-form birth certificate. This was an interesting contrast.

So that's where I was, and now I've recorded it to help assist my future self that will twist and delete the details. I have to admit, part of me isn't totally gung-ho to see photos of people dancing in the streets shouting "USA!" after we've killed someone. Not that bin Laden wasn't an SOB, but might we be inciting anger in the Muslim world by reacting this way? Perhaps some decorum is in order?

Maybe I'm just no fun.

Or maybe I'm selfishly thinking about the Manhattan high-rise I'm moving into later this month.

It does have that swing

2011-05-01T13:59:00.004-04:00

I remembered to bring my camera to a swing dance I attended Saturday night, but I neglected to re-insert the memory card. This left me with only an iPhone to take this photo, which looks dark and dreary and does not represent an event that was actually very fun and lively. My friend Erika took me; there was a live band and an hour-long lesson. I sweat a lot and didn't injure anyone too badly. We were learning some moves to show off at her wedding, which is later this month.

I had spent the day, prior to dancing, in a knotted-stomach state, trying to tackle the monster load of work before me. I decided not to cancel, though, and the exercise and laughs were good for me, I think. So was the frozen yogurt beforehand and the fries afterward.

Today I've cranked out a paper that's due tomorrow and taken care of some other odds and ends not worth explaining. I am now going to treat TA-ing like it's my full-time job and attempt to grade 40 papers in the next 8 hours. I'm going to try to spend 10 minutes on each one and then take a 10 minute break each hour. Wish me luck.

A deluxe apartment in the sky

2011-04-29T22:59:00.002-04:00

Today was not relaxing. I went into New York on Thursday evening for dinner with future co-workers, then crashed at my friend Brian's place but didn't get the best night's sleep because I was tossing and turning. I woke up with back pain and spent the day running (seriously, running) around half of Manhattan, looking for an apartment to move into in a month's time.

My broker and I saw lots of different types of places in neighborhoods including the Financial District, the East Village and the West Village, but ultimately I decided to go with a studio in Hell's Kitchen, the last place I saw. I've heard mixed reviews of the neighborhood, but the superiority of the apartment and its building were too glaring to ignore, and ultimately that's what rent is paying for. Compared to the others, it was a bigger place (though still quite small), extremely nice, up on the 36th floor, with views of the river, great amenities in the building, near things to do and near the subway. It's no coincidence that the best place was also the most expensive, but I only went $25/month over my limit, so I think I came out OK.

I have to say that today was a little scary, and I wasn't anticipating that. I think that all throughout graduate school, this move to New York to become a consultant has seemed like a neat story, something interesting to talk about (and blog about). But it's such a huge change that it's almost felt like it was happening to someone else. Over the past 24 hours it's never felt more real. I was actually eating with Deloitte people talking about lots of details about the job, and then I was filling out an application for an apartment in Manhattan. And it became more real, and tangible, that my life is indeed going to be these things. I'm going to wake up in the apartment I selected today, make by way a couple blocks toward a subway, and head off to work as a consultant.

This was both very exciting on one hand but suddenly a little frightening, too. One of my fears is that New York, while exciting, makes me feel a little lonely, and I'm hoping that the friends I have who live there will have time for me, that many of my friends from SOM will end up there, and of course that I'll make new ones. That's one area of my life I've been very lucky; even as I was sometimes frustrated by my career and my financial limitations as a journalist in Texas, I somehow managed to have lots of good friends. I think New York is such a busy and tiring place, with so many strangers swirling around you, that being with friends is there is critical to keeping a level head. (I do already know a couple guys in Hell's Kitchen, so that's fortunate.)

Anyway, it's been exhausting and fun. This weekend will be very work-intensive. I have about 54 papers to grade for the class I TA, as well as my own final projects and exam prep. Gnite.

Square footage

2011-04-28T09:01:00.007-04:00

Quite frankly, I'm a ball of stress, and this will continue for at least 10 days. I can barely process all that's on my plate. But I think I'll feel better once I've secured a place to live in New York, which will be my mission tomorrow. Fortunately, for this task, I have enlisted the assistance of a broker, recommended through a classmate/friend who has a lot of experience in the city. Yesterday, he sent me 18 listings, and tomorrow we're going to look at about 5-8 of them. My hope is to return to New Haven with a place.

I'm really looking forward to living in the city. One adjustment I will have to make is downsizing. I'll be making a good living, but because I am determined to live in Manhattan in a nice place, the trade-off is square footage. Most of the listings I received were for studios, with a few one-bedroom apartments (or "junior one-bedrooms," a term I'd never heard before), with areas no greater than 550 square feet.

I'm trying to imagine that area. My one-bedroom apartment back in Fort Worth was 800 square feet, and there was actually too much space for my stuff. But my apartment in Dallas was 695 (and two stories), and it was barely enough room for my things. So 500 does concern me a little. But this is also an opportunity to unload some pieces I truly don't, or won't, use:

1. My weights and bench, which because I go to the gym a couple time a week I only use about once a week these days. If I take a building with a gym, I'd be happy to sell this.

2. My black leather chair and ottoman, currently used primarily as a receptacle for mail and dirty clothes, and only rarely for reading.

3. My dining room table and chairs, which currently lives in storage and, in four years, has been eaten at only a handful of times.

But these types of concerns still live slightly out on the horizon. When I visit places, I want to concentrate on the feel and emotion of the space, which sounds all new-agey but which I've come to believe is key, after many years at many different addresses. I know I can adapt to even the strangest and most limiting of physical characteristics. I even once lived in a bedroom attached to a garage in an elderly woman's house, without so much as a chair. What matters is charm -- that homey feeling, or that sophisticated aura, the intangible energy that gives a home personality. I once lived in a place like that. It wasn't really special on paper -- just a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment, the bottom floor of a duplex, without a dishwasher or garbage disposal or anything particularly amazing about it. But there was something about the colors, the way trees would sway in the sunshine outside the windows, the way the angles snaked around to make the place look bigger than it was ... the little things that don't show up in a real-estate listing. That's what I'm looking for ... much to my broker's frustration, probably.

What 8 months of winter do

2011-04-26T17:31:00.010-04:00

It's 70 degrees and sunny. Although I barely remember what this is like, or who was president the last time it was this nice in New Haven, I knew enough to realize I should take advantage and try to begin the slow, arduous process of regaining color on my skin. Especially since I'll be in St. Thomas in two weeks, it's important to get a base, or something resembling one.

Today in one of my courses, Navigating Organizations, we discussed status, and how increases in status can come with consequences, such as not being challenged or exposed to new ideas. We watched a funny clip to illustrate the point, from "The Devil Wears Prada," a film I enjoy watching. Note the way Meryl Streep's character, Miranda, disregards common manners, chooses not to bother with mundane tasks (like hanging up her coat) and doesn't seek or consider opposing views. In the movie these things are played for our amusement, but they are also genuinely symptomatic of real-life increases in status.

In this same course, we recently did an activity called a leverage inventory, where we asked former co-workers and supervisors to complete a rather detailed survey about what types of "influence tactics" we tended to use at work. The questions asked for observations about behavior, as opposed to judgments about them, so the idea is to provide students with honest feedback about what they do and don't do, not whether that's good or bad. The behaviors fall into three categories:

1. Relationships (things like allocentrism, networks, team-building, coalitions)
2. Rhetoric (ethos, logos and pathos)
3. Meta-tools (strategies about strategies, like agency, intentionality and situation awareness)

We were then carefully categorized and rated against our peers. Of the 68 categories, my highest z-score (the one where I was most above the class average) was "Uses stories to help make my points," a sign of pathos. My lowest z-score was "Is able to tolerate conflict," which falls under "might." Both of these results make sense to me. I was a journalist, so I indeed like to tell stories. And I was a youngest child with two much older (and not particularly emotionally supportive) brothers, so it's very ingrained in me to do everything in my power to avoid conflict at all costs.

This limitation actually had consequences today. For the class I'm TA-ing this quarter, I ended up being in charge of helping groups of students reschedule their final activity if they had a conflict. I found myself caught between unhappy students and an unresponsive administrator. To avoid conflict, I politely waited for the administrator to say "go," as I kept increasingly impatient students in limbo, trying to appease them with jokes and reassurances that everything would be OK. Finally, with decision time upon us, I had to put my foot down and get answers, so I went over the administrator's head and resolved this issue, which had been brewing for almost a week, in 10 minutes. The moral: My desire to avoid conflict just made things worse, and if I had been mightier from the start, I would have saved myself a lot of headaches.

Sara Bareilles (who shares my birthday) has a beautiful bridge in a song (at 2:02 below) where she sings, "All my life I've tried to make everybody happy while I just hurt and hide, waiting for someone to tell me it's my turn to decide." That's a sentiment more symptomatic of a victim complex than I would like to attribute to myself, but I relate to the phenomenon where the more you try to please everyone, often the more pain you will endure. That's unsustainable, and thus ruins your ability to make everybody happy. So that balance between sternness and appeasement is critical.

So watch out for yourself, and go out and get some sun sometimes.

Problems are a thing of the past

2011-04-25T17:28:00.003-04:00

Today I turned my final problem set, perhaps for the rest of my life. It was for my Investment Management course. The questions were about fixed income and forward markets. I wish I could call it my best work, but with just five more days of class, it's a little hard to give such matters my all. I am far more interested in looking at New York City apartments online!

Another last-of-its-kind event today was my final admissions interview. As I've mentioned previously, this was my favorite of my many school activities. Coincidentally, on my way to the interview, I ran into a prospective student I interviewed a couple months ago who was admitted (in part, no doubt, because of my glowing recommendation) and was on campus visiting, trying to make his final decision about where to go. He has to choose by Friday, from an array of very prestigious programs. But this person's real struggle was one of culture; he loves Yale SOM's culture, but just isn't sure about whether it's the best fit for his particular career goals, given the course offerings (or lack thereof, in his particular niche field of interest).

I naturally can't answer that for him, but I do think a cooperative, friendly culture helps students take risks, connect with one another and gain confidence, and if you're not in a comfortable environment, you won't be successful. To that end, I'd always lean toward the best fit, assuming you're deciding among schools in the same tier. For some people that is Harvard. For others, it's most certainly not. When I attended a Harvard information session back in 2008, I was uncomfortable. I felt like a goofy two-headed alien, in fact. That was a signal to me that I shouldn't apply. I'm probably not the right person for that program, and that's probably not the right program for me. When I visted Yale SOM, I felt much more comfortable, and it made me even more excited and eager to attend.

There will be lots of other "lasts" over the next few days and weeks -- last class, last presentation, last exam, last paper. My mind hasn't really absorbed it at all. I get sniffly just thinking about it. Better get back to work and continue ignoring the inevitable.

Guests keep a house in order

2011-04-23T09:22:00.001-04:00

If ever you feel like your apartment needs tidying up, invite friends over to play games a few days in advance. It will prompt you to pull out the Swiffer and go through your stack of mail.

Lately, I've had two kinds of guests. Friends, as usual, and prospective future tenants, who have been dropping in regularly to see our apartment. I am surprised it wasn't scooped up by the first visitor. Maybe our decoration and cleanliness skills are detracting from the apartment's natural beauty.

Speaking of home-seekers, I'll be looking for apartments in New York with full force next week, in the hopes to have this very important, exciting and somewhat overwhelming task wrapped up. I still keep flipping on my priorities but ultimately feel this unjustifiable need to live alone in Manhattan in a luxurious shrine to my awesomeness, even though that's not a wise use of my money. But I value these living years in terms of new experiences, and that lifestyle is something I want to try. I don't like seeing other people's lives and wondering what they're like. I like to try on lives, like shirts.

I'm more than ready for spring. We had a one-day burst of warmth and beauty a couple weeks ago, but it's been slow-going ever since. It's currently 44 and raining; the high today is 53. Right now in Fort Worth, where I moved from, it's 72, with a high of 91. Ninety-one!

These next two weeks are going to be a shocking disaster as far as work goes. I have long projects and papers in three classes, final exams in the other two, and an immense pile of grading around the corner for the class I TA. But then it all ends with a bang on Friday, May 6. I just have to keep that date in mind. After that, it's warm beaches, friends and family and good times forever.

Sally's does exist after all

2011-04-22T09:15:00.004-04:00

New Haven is famous for pizza, and the two pizzerias with perhaps the largest reputations and longest lines are Pepe's and Sally's. Both are in a lovely area known as Wooster Square. Some friends and I tried Pepe's last fall and since then had made several attempts to eat at Sally's, its nearby rival. But it seemed like each time we went, it was closed. This began a long-running joke that Sally's was an urban legend, and not a real place. I refused to believe it until I saw it.

My urban-legend theory is now officially debunked.

To eat at Sally's, you need to block off considerable time because you're looking at two absurdly long waits, one in the line outside, and one after you've ordered. I think they are playing up to the power of anticipation. All said, we arrived at about 8 and left at maybe 11. And all we ate were four pretty straightforward small pizzas. They were good, though. The most original was the white potato-and-rosemary pizza. Sally's also distinguishes itself by serving its pizzas without cheese unless you request otherwise, so we tried it that way with the meatball. The idea is to emphasize the sauce, which was good.

But especially now that I'm a bit more business-savvy, and marketing-savvy, I do look at a place like Sally's through a skeptical lens. I wonder if equivalent pizzas delivered by Domino's would even be noticed as anything outside average. Far more importantly, though, is that we had fun. Great conversation and laughs. And we can check Sally's off the ol' New Haven Bucket List.

I will not bow! Or will I?

2011-04-19T22:15:00.008-04:00

Tonight I performed three original songs, about 10 minutes of music, as part of an arts advocacy concert organized by a young woman from the music school who I know from a course I'm taking this semester called Leadership Strategies for Music Presenters, taught by the dean of the music school. I was originally under the impression that the purpose of the show was to feature performers from outside the music school, and indeed that may have been the original vision, but in reality I was one of only two amateur acts; the other was a string quartet consisting of students from some of the science programs; and they were hardly amateurs.

To be honest, performing was terrifying. I say that knowing that the audience was small, the venue comfortable and the occasion low-stakes. I didn't think I would be so nervous, but in the moment I really got shaken up. I hadn't performed in a "recital" since college, 10 years ago, although I have played before an audience, though, at a couple weddings since then. Those occasions were also terrifying, come to think of it. Maybe I don't like playing the piano in front of people! Good to know.

I do like feedback, though, and sharing personal things, so that was my motivation. It's an odd proposition to play original songs for an audience. I've been writing songs since I was about 9, and there are several dozen I've done as an adult that I like, so which ones should I select? Which ones are the most "me"? To steal language commonly reserved for the designers on "Project Runway," what do I feel really represents who I am as an artist?

But I chose. It was a good evening, and I was glad that some friends came out for support. Friendly faces are nice to see in an audience.

I think I've made some awfully good friends at SOM. But there are still some people I don't know. To correct that, I've been setting up some coffee chats with classmates whose paths I never really crossed. My first one was this week, with a girl named Michelle who comes after me in alphabetical order. Therefore, I will be reading her name at commencement. I'd heard about her from time to time, but we were just in different cohorts, classes, clubs and social circles, so somehow I never met her.

Anyway, I was grateful she accepted my somewhat bizarre invitation. Inspired by how well that went, I then invited the person before me in alphabetical order, who I also haven't met. We're having coffee tomorrow.

FYI, there are about 230 people in my class. So it's not totally criminal that there are still people I haven't met. But I have a few more weeks to make a dent.

Oh give me a home

2011-04-19T08:48:00.000-04:00

It's fun to look at New York City apartments, even virtually. The more I peruse, the more my imagination runs wild. And the less certain I am of what I want.

Manhattan or Brooklyn? Studio or one-bedroom? Alone or with a roommate? Historic or modern? Near hipsters, bankers or families? Austere or Lavish?

And baked in those choices are fundamental questions of priority. Do I really care about a view? About sunlight? About floors, dishwashers, doormen, gyms, parking, high ceilings, etc? And regarding neighborhood, how much do I care about being near things to do, and what kinds of things am I really talking about?

Fortunately, being in a position to ask these questions is an awfully fortunate "problem" to have. And I'm looking to rent, so my decision isn't permanent. No reason to put too much pressure on this decision. At the same time, I would love to know that in the next couple years I'll be moving into somewhere I might actually stay for, oh, 10 years. Wouldn't that be something for a rootless wanderer like me. I could invest in personalized envelopes!

Roller derby and fishing

2011-04-17T19:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I went to the roller derby, and today I went fishing, which was fun and outdoorsy even though we didn't end up with anything to cook. (No worries -- I had chicken and rice.)

The roller derby was fun; it's always good to get out of Yale sometimes and do an activity elsewhere in Connecticut. We refer to our company in such cases as "townies," aware of course that this is funny because it's a bit derogatory toward non-Yale of Connecticut. I'd been to a roller derby back in Texas. I think I wrote a story about it. Anyway, one needn't understand the rules to get the basic gist, that aggressive-acting women skate counter-clockwise, elbow each other sometimes, and fall down.

Fishing was a bust in the fishing sense, but a great time in the outdoor-enjoyment sense. And best of all, it's free. Well, cheap. We bought worms. Anyway, in all a good weekend. I'm hoping that my upcoming job with Deloitte will afford me work-free weekends, at least most of the time. It's nice to have 2 of 7 days totally to oneself.

Shirtless fire thrower

2011-04-16T08:44:00.007-04:00

As a co-leader of Q+ (the LGBT group at Yale SOM), I'm often asked about the gay scene in Yale and New Haven, and I more or less say that from what I hear it's fine if that's your bag, but that I really don't know. I'm gay, and happy to have gay friends if they possess other qualities I look for in a friend, but I've never been compelled to seek out the gay scene, which I associate with late nights, parties, clubs and soap opera-worthy interminglings.

I'm an early riser. I like sunrises and breakfast. I like one-on-one interactions and small groups, singing along with the radio in the car, reading over coffee, talking and snacking in a living room. I like games and interesting articles and things that are beautiful or challenge my mind. I like flowers and silence and sunlight. I don't like dark rooms, and I don't like night time. I don't like noise, or moving awkwardly to bad music. And now I don't drink, and only very rarely have a cigarette. Maybe I'm just a dorky old man, but the "scene" doesn't really fit my tastes.

I can partake of the scene a couple times a year, but for me it's the emotional equivalent of going to a baseball game. It's something I never think about unless I'm there, so someone usually has to suggest it and take me there. And if I'm there, it's fine, but I'm also kind of keeping an eye on the clock.

This has nothing to do with having a problem with being gay or disliking gay people. On the contrary, I've been out since high school and have no problem with being gay at all. I wouldn't have co-led Q+ otherwise. Do I like gay people? Sure, to the extent I like people, but what does that mean? Do I like people from Kansas? Some, but not all. Do I like vegetarians? Some, but not all. Those aren't relevant dimensions to me. I have gay friends, but they're not my friends because they're gay, they're my friends because we get along.

Last night, two first-year students threw a reception at their house for LGBT and allied admitted students, and when that disbanded, a couple of us went to a party hosted by some gay Divinity School students. That's where I shot the video above, of the fire thrower. There, among the people I spoke to was a first-year PhD student in psychology (fresh out of undergrad, I assume). He asked if I was a prospective student, and I said I was a second-year MBA, about to graduate in a couple weeks. From what I could hear amid the cacophony, he said something like "Really? Wow ... So you must never come out," meaning of course that he didn't recognize me. I also interpret the surprise to imply being almost accused of actively avoiding the gay scene, as if it's the default and I had to opt out of it by doing other things with my time. The truth is I feel like I go out a lot, but of course he wasn't asking if I leave my house, he was asking why I don't spend my time with the gays. To that, I ask myself, "Why would I, necessarily?"

This weekend, I'm going fishing with Matt, one of my best friends. Matt's straight. Some of my closest friends are straight guys, in fact. Most are straight girls. Some of my friends are black, and some are not. Some are married, others single. They are fat and thin, older and younger, American and international, Southern and Northern, analytical and creative, able-bodied and disabled. If I were to tally, I dunno, maybe 10% of my friends are gay, reflecting the population at large. It might be even more. But I just don't care about that. I want to be around people who are nice, funny and interesting, people I can talk to and trust and feel good around. People who get me, and who I get. Why do I care who they kiss?

A literal sign of our legacy

2011-04-15T20:19:00.000-04:00

I got a little dewy-eyed today when I strolled by the club fair. This is Welcome Weekend, when admitted students visit the campus -- some have decided to certainly come to Yale SOM, and others have not. Among the activities is a club fair, mostly manned by the first-year students who have been chosen or elected as club leaders for next year.

I co-led two clubs this year, Q+ (the LGBT group) and the Human Capital Club, which I co-founded with my friend Erika. The purpose of this club is to help students learn about careers on the "people" side of business, which can include human-capital consulting (which is what I'll be doing after school), human-resources management, organizational design and strategy, training and development, and so on. Many business schools have such a club; ours did not, and now it does.

I was so delighted to see the official blue "Human Capital" sign shown above. Last fall, when our club wasn't yet "official," we had to borrow some space at the Operations Club table and do a sign-in sheet with a makeshift, handwritten sign. But now that we're officially approved, we are here to stay, and that's a nice feeling.

At noon, I attended a rather straightforward town hall meeting with the dean-designate, Ted Snyder, who is coming to Yale SOM next year from the University of Chicago. He discussed some of his plans for the school and took questions. I foresee much change on the horizon for my beloved school -- and even if that change is for the better, it's still a tiny bit sad to know it will change. The school is moving into a new building, for example -- a modern glass structure currently under construction and set to open in 2013. The class size will go up a bit, from the roughly 230 it's at now to as great as 300 (still small for a top-tier MBA program, granted, but a 30% increase in size isn't insignificant, especially when it comes to class cohesion and intimacy). It will be interesting to see what becomes of the Human Capital Club, among other things, under the new dean's leadership. I have no idea what his views on this are.

I love SOM and therefore want to see it be the best it can be, and like any school (or anything at all), there's room for improvement. There are some improvements that would be universally deemed as such; there are others about which there might be disagreement. Time will tell what kinds of "improvements" come to the school after I make my exit next month.

2 for 2 on ice

2011-04-15T08:59:00.002-04:00

Every year, the second-year students play the first-year students in an ice hockey game known as the Garstka Cup, named for one of SOM's deputy deans (and our accounting professor in the core). Last year, my class won, and this year, they won again, 5 to 2. It was a good time.

This event coincides with Welcome Weekend, which consists of events for admitted students, some of whom have accepted their invitations to Yale, some of which are still deciding. Last night, the LGBT groups at SOM and the law school teamed up to have a mixer, at 116 Crown. We get a lot of questions from prospective gay students about how many LGBT students there are at SOM, and the honest answer is that there aren't many. There are 6 self-identified out students in my class, and 9 in the class below me. The numbers are much larger at the law school. But depending on how much socializing with LGBT students is a priority, the Yale community is quite large, and quite accepting.

Many more fun Welcome Weekend events are to come, including a talk this afternoon by the incoming dean! I look forward to hearing from him.

Don't judge -- just give me a headline

2011-04-13T22:01:00.004-04:00

Today's section of Innovator -- a first-year class for which I am a TA this quarter -- was a memorable repeat of a class we had last year during which Mark Sebell, CEO of Creative Realities, led a session on brainstorming and building upon absurd ideas without judgment. Our other special guest this year was Laura Walker, President and CEO of WNYC, and thus the topic had to do with some new ideas for radio.

There are right and wrong ways to brainstorm, which a lot of people don't realize. Often a brainstorming session is misinterpreted to mean a disorganized free-form time during which people throw out ideas. But there's a process to a good brainstorm, and it involves a section where everyone's statements start with "I wish ..." and another during which everyone's statements begin with "We could." Sometimes great practical ideas stem from what began as impractical, ridiculous ideas. And the more absurd the idea, the better. And Sebell also encourages people to speak just in headlines -- get right to the point. To often, we stammer around with unnecessary setup and explanation.

The students came up with great ideas and seemed (generally) to be pretty engaged! Innovator is an interesting class; it's very important, and a lot of fun, and yet still some people resist. I can't understand it. Who doesn't like to be creative and talk about neat stuff?

Perhaps more importantly, if you visit the website, you will see a video featuring a gorgeous guy who also visited our class today. Distracting!

Hot pot

2011-04-12T19:08:00.002-04:00

As part of SOM's April Foolery, a set of regular fun activities organized by students, a group of us last night enjoyed a hot-pot Chinese meal. This is where you dip veggies, meats and other things into a large pot of boiling broth. You can then mix or dip the results with some sauces. It's a fun activity with a mild aspect of danger, as one is dealing with raw foods (and raw egg).

Afterward we felt the need for frozen yogurt at one of those places where you pile on the toppings and pay by the ounce. Therefore, by the night's end, I didn't even want to think about all the various competing things sitting side by side in my stomach. The gym this morning was well-needed.

Food is an integral part of the MBA experience -- so much revolves around lunches and dinners. Today, for example I attended a lunchtime speaking event with Jed Bernstein, a Broadway theater and television producer who was one of the first graduating classes at SOM ('79). Since food was there, and free, I had a delicious Thanksgiving-type sandwich with turkey, stuffing and some other goodies on it. And there are more meals to come this week, including tomorrow night's Club Transition Dinner, where we hand over control of clubs and discuss our experiences. There's always food all over the place, basically. Last week on my way into a class, there was a sandwich platter out in the hall, and I grabbed one. Don't even know what it was from. You do crazy things when you're living on student loans and hungry!

Because of all the regular food. exercise has also been integral. My friend Matt and I have been dedicated and are still going two or three times a week, bright and early at 7 in the morning. I find that if I don't go in the morning, it never happens. And I'm a morning person anyway, so it's not painful.

Fading in and out

2011-04-11T17:30:00.002-04:00

For the third -- and I reckon final -- time in my business-school exerience, I'm getting the chance to employ my previous-career video skills, which by video-production standards may not have been anything to brag about, but which by MBA standards are, well, pretty kickass.

My first time getting to doodle around with video editing for a class was second quarter, during Negotiations. One of our assignments was to film a negotiation, and then we had to edit each others' videos. This was fun. Then at the end of Innovator last year, fourth quarter, my group chose to do a video in lieu of a paper, per an option for the final project. I think it was this choice that earned me a coveted Distinction, and hence is why I'm TA-ing that class this quarter. And, finally, in my Navigating Organizations course this quarter, we were assigned groups of four and asked to do a video of up to 5 minutes, employing some persuasive-communication techniques we're studying. We could choose one of two topics -- the light one, which is trying to get people to go to the beach in the winter, and the more serious one, which is trying to get people to sign up to be organ donors.

We picked the latter. I'm excited about our project, in progress. In my editing hands, it's coming off on the dramatic side -- like a public-service announcement -- but I think it'll do. My group members (which, although randomly assigned, happened to be three of my closest friends) and I had to enlist some non-SOM people to "act" for it. These subjects include my friend Matt. I had to get him to act like he's not an organ donor and explain why. Our message is that people's excuses, although they may seem benign, have life-threatening consequences! (I am, by the way, a donor.)

Who is this woman, this Oprah?

2011-04-09T10:26:00.005-04:00

I'm interested in pop culture, more so than many other types of culture, and thus enjoyed yesterday's book reading and Q&A with Kathryn Lofton, author of Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon, at Labyrinth Books. Lofton is an assistant professor of Religious Studies and American Studies at Yale. Read a bit more about it here.

Oprah is an intriguing media icon to weigh in on, but I hadn't previously considered her "sermonizing" as religious per se, and I left the talk seeing how religious frameworks do indeed apply to her, from her humble beginnings to her androgyny to her congregation of an audience. I consider this a piece of a larger American idea of Mogul as Hero, which we discuss rdea of egularly in a course I take called Strategic Leadership Across Sectors, taught by Jeff Sonnenfeld (one of our "BFD" professors). Professor Sonnenfeld applies the hero-journey mythology to modern-day executives, convincingly. What that says about us, and our values, is of course great fodder for debate.

Anyway, this larger-than-life aspiration seems often in business school to be framed as a given aspiration, or a calling any of us might answer. I don't think an MBA is a path any likelier to lead to greatness than any other path -- Oprah doesn't have one -- but our program's focus on management and leadership leads us to discussions about our goals and visions, and how we can best use the tools of power to shape the world. I have an internal block against this type of talk and don't seek "power" per se; I just want a good job I enjoy that's stimulating and provides. Still, if I can clearly envision myself in a organization's higher-level jobs, I may want to be in them.

On another topic, I dabbled in a bit of karaoke yesterday at one of our April Foolery events. These are daily activities for students at SOM, ranging from sports to meals to whatever. The party then ended at a friend's house in the form of the American Idol game on PlayStation, or one of those newfangled consoles ... everything after NES is modern to me. Back in Texas, karaoke was like my part-time job. Now that I'm a non-drinker I had to rely on my own courage, not Long Island Iced Teas, to get me up there, but I did it nevertheless, twice. It helped that the stage was not the center of patrons' attention.

Speaking of "old lives," for one of my classes we're putting together a persuasive video (more or less a PSA), thereby allowing me again to use my video-editing trick from days of yore. Our job is to try to incorporate some theories about persuasion to get people to want to be organ donors. I may try to post the final product here.

Counselor flashbacks

2011-04-07T23:36:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy week -- no surprise -- with some moments where I, as a second-year, felt a bit like a camp counselor. One of my involvements this year was as a Second Year Advisor for the Leadership Development Program (LDP), a year-long course for first-year students in which they explore values and commitments. It's a program that has faults and limitations and is not widely appreciated, so much so that it is being shelved next year. But I enjoyed it last year (which is why I wanted to be an SYA this year).

My favorite of the sessions last year was the one that the students plan. Our activity was a speed-dating type of event where we went around and talked about first impressions vs. current impressions of one another. It was both helpful and a good bonding experience. This year, the group for which I'm an SYA decided to go to a local indoor climbing facility and climb. I declined to participate because I figured this activity was for them, not me ... and I felt it would totally undermine my credibility as an advisor if they saw me struggling to do this activity. (I'm joking, sorta.) Anyway, they had a nice time. Not sure it was as valuable as my session last year, but c'est la vie.

I am also, this quarter, a Teaching Assistant for Innovator, a first-year course on innovation, as the name implied. Thursday's class included this activity, in which groups try to build a tall tower out of uncooked spaghetti, tape and string, that will support a marshmallow. The punchline is that young children are very good at this activity because they don't plan, they just start experimenting. This approach is sometimes best when one doesn't know whether an outcome is possible. MBAs, on the other hand, tend to be more methodical, and run out of time or build sub-standard towers. Our classes confirmed that this is true.

TA-ing is fun (and you make a bit of money); plus it's a good way to review material. Innovator is a particularly cool class. In general I've enjoyed my activities this year that have connected me to the class coming up behind us. They're a good group. They're also going to have an interesting experience at SOM because the new dean will be joining them next year.

Darlin', I love you, but give me Park Avenue

2011-04-04T08:48:00.004-04:00

It was an interesting weekend. On Saturday night, I saw Nameless Forest, a "play" better described as a "dance piece" incorporating sculpture, audience participation and, my personal favorite, lots of male nudity. Beyond that it's hard to describe ... just part of the Yale artistic community's culture, in which one feels unintellectual and uncultured for questioning or objecting to, well, anything. I'll miss it.

And on Sunday, I went to Rhode Island to visit an old friend from college and hang out with her family, which now includes three daughters. We went to Wrights Dairy Farm and saw cows and roosters. It was a nice little area that naturally smelled farmy. It was a far contrast to what I'll be experiencing in a few months as I move to New York!

I've been in touch now with two brokers, both through suggestions from classmates who have lived in the city. It's very exciting to see what my money can buy me, although everything is about trade-offs that I'm not totally certain how to make. What is more important to me, floor space, or in-building amenities? Proximity to subways or new renovations? How flexible am I on price? I fear going overboard with what I can "afford" and then struggling with the cash I have left over after taxes, rent and loans. By my calculations, my goal rent should be about $2,000, but when a broker sends something that looks absolutely amazing for $2,500, it's easy to start justifying the expense (even though in my previous life I would/could never have nonchalantly bumped my rent up by $500 a month).

City life is going to be a real delight, I think. I'm on the edge of my seat.

This blog

2011-04-02T17:54:00.002-04:00

Here's the ultimate meta topic: a posting about this blog.

I was just thinking about whether I would consider this blog a success, for either me or anyone. I think I'd give a B. I'm proud to have regularly posted and not slacked off. And I would rather have done this blog than done nothing. But overall I'm not sure my vision was well-executed.

My original thought was that my transition from newspaper journalism into an MBA program would interest friends and strangers, and be something fun to document for myself. Before beginning, I decided not to be anonymous because I figured it would be too limiting. How could I, after all, say anything specific or interesting about this experience without identifying myself? What would be left to say?

All the same, identifying myself has prevented me from discussing personal developments and opinions that some people may want to know. I have to consider that a classmate, professor, future employer or family member could find these musings, and that makes some topics off-limits, such as gossip about my classmates, how much money I'll be making at Deloitte, my romantic life and personal family matters. I've alluded to these areas, but only broadly. I just can't discuss these topics here in depth and maintain any piece of mind that it won't come back to haunt me.

I've sought to balance three things: (1) keeping a journal for myself, (2) sharing news with friends, and (3) sharing information and perspectives for people interested in what it's like to be a journalist pursuing an MBA. Unfortunately, these three things aren't always compatible. If this were a diary, I would write more about my feelings, worries and personal affairs. If it were strictly for friends, the style would be less formal, and the specifics more personal. In trying to aim mostly at #3, I've sanitized things a bit and, at worst, been somewhat mundane. I often don't realize this is the case until I go back and read; then I'll notice that there are ruts where all I ever seem to talk about is how busy and stressed I am. Of course I also sometimes discuss off-topic matters, like a movie or song. I'd do that regardless of the audience.

Anyway, I'm going to keep plugging away until commencement (May 23), so my last post will probably be May 24 or so. Then I'll close. When I'm finished, as time allows, I might try to massage out the boring stuff and perhaps pull the whole thing into a more entertaining narrative (like a book, I suppose). Like I said, I'm glad I did this. I hope it hasn't been too painful to stay with me.

Why is everyone so mean to Rebecca Black?

2011-04-01T21:40:00.003-04:00

When I was a journalist, my coverage area was usually entertainment, and I have been an avid follower of music for 20 years. I've seen, along with everyone, overnight Internet phenomena come and go. But this Rebecca Black thing really gets my blood boiling.

The cruelty and ridicule this poor thing is enduring is outrageous, and this country should be ashamed of itself. She is a 13-year-old child! She had an opportunity to do what was more or less a silly bit of karaoke and a mall-quality video, posted it online for fun, and is loathed? On what grounds? Yes, the song is unprofessionally written, produced and performed. Why does its existence anger people so? And why is that anger directed at the child? She didn't even write the song.

It pains me to think about the fact that this kid, who we can imagine is sensitive as she is a human adolescent, is going to be scarred and traumatized by this ridiculous swelling of cruel group-think.

She needs some sort of professional handling, and I think one of two things needs to happen. (1) The video is removed, she refuses to do any sort of further interviews or public appearances, moves to a new town with her mom, changes her name and goes into therapy. (2) Her mother hires a media-savvy manager, or small team of people, who are good at handling children's show-biz careers in a caring way, and who can somehow leverage this sudden fame into a career in the entertainment business. Option (2) probably needs to begin with some kind of damage-control video that says, in effect, "Hello, I am a child, I was given a chance to sing a silly pop song and put it online, which I did."

When I was 13, I was writing songs on the piano, with lyrics, that I would be mortified if people heard today. And had YouTube existed then, I might have given an attempt to post a little video -- little, skinny me, singing a ridiculous song I'd written. Thank goodness I had the freedom to live out my dreams in my head instead of trying to do it on YouTube.

Fun to spare

2011-03-30T21:37:00.001-04:00

I'm shy, and was slow to make friends in high school, but by senior year things had really clicked. I feel like the same thing is happening in grad-school. This semester (the equivalent of our "senior year") has definitely been my favorite, by far. I feel like my friendships are solid, I'm efficient in my studying, I'm more surefooted in what I'm doing, and I'm generally happier.

Perhaps stemming from that goodwill, I decided earlier this week to run for commencement speaker. Our graduation is May 23 (frighteningly close). Students vote in a three-stage process that began with a nomination stage. People who accepted their nominations then submitted speech sketches, which were posted and subject to blind voting. And, lastly, there was a tryout where the five finalists read truncated versions of their speeches to an audience of students in the class. This made for a busy week, but I'm honored to have been voted commencement speaker today. Speaking at graduation will be a memorable experience for me, one I hope I can live up to. Plus it will be good leverage for getting friends and family to attend.

The rather dizzying commencement-selection process put me a bit behind work-wise, and it's been a long day, so I'm going to hit the hay and rise at 5 a.m.; I have an assignment due at 8, a class at 10:10, and a reading to finish by 11:30. This weekend will be well-earned.

My bracket is officially busted

2011-03-27T19:18:00.004-04:00

Damn.

With UNC's loss tonight, I now have no horses in the Final Four. What a snooze. I guess I can at least root for Connecticut, my current state's home team. My support will no doubt ensure their defeat.

Not that anybody could've predicted the bizarre outcome of teams seeded 3, 4, 8 and 11 in the Final Four. It's been fun to watch, though. Lots of tense and exciting moments. I'm happy for VCU ... what a great underdog story.

It just goes to show that past performance doesn't necessarily predict future success. Some of my "underdog" friends and classmates at SOM have landed incredible full-time jobs and internships. I might even be in that category. But when you get to the tournament, what got you there doesn't matter anymore; it's how you play going forward that counts!

That inspires me to go back to my readings. I don't want to blow it in the home stretch.

City Opera Monodramas

2011-03-26T17:26:00.002-04:00

New York was fun yesterday. My music class had a fascinating 90-minute talk with George Steel, Yale alumnus and general manager of the New York City Opera. We felt especially privileged to have this kind of access because yesterday was the opening night of Monodramas, three one-act avant-garde pieces like no other opera I've seen.

The sets were beautiful and the show incorporated creative multimedia, with modern dance, animated film, and even pyrotechnics. I'll grant that my tastes aren't the most cerebral or sophisticated -- think cheese and crackers and "Family Guy." -- so I sometimes find cutting-edge shows tedious and bizarre. Then again, exercise is also tedious and bizarre, and it's good for me, so I try to take the same attitude with art and theater. I do, however, maintain some Midwestern roots and refuse to spell theater with the t and r beside each other.

Today, I attended an afternoon seminar on music and digital rights, learning that when I complete my album of original music this summer, as soon as I put it out onto the Web, my life will be ruined. I'm going to do it anyway. In the spirit of my music class, which is taught by the dean and thus provides us with amazing access, this seminar was followed by a private lunch with the guest speaker. I had a great opportunity to ask lots of questions.

The deeper I've gotten into school, the more I've realized that my woes about the journalism industry, which to some extent prompted my return to school, aren't the least bit unique to that industry. Time and again I meet people who have the same struggles and complaints about their fields, be it music, education, architecture, etc. I guess it's a changing world in many more ways beyond the fact that kids don't like to read newspapers. Go figure.

The stage is set

2011-03-25T09:10:00.002-04:00

It's a real run-around week for yours truly, as, with determination, I have tried to accept (and offer) invitations and opportunities to do lots of stuff. Commencement is fast approaching.

In addition to normal classes, meetings, admissions interviews, TA-ing, the gym and other typical weekly happenings, this week's buffet of stuff included a few lunches with friends I needed to catch up with, meals with the incoming leaders of both the clubs for which I'm handing over the reins, going out to watch the systematic ruining of my NCAA bracket, and a few one-time events -- an Interfaith Feast, with a focus on looking at the tragedy in Japan through the eyes of different faiths, and a faculty piano recital featuring the dean of the music school, who also teaches the class I take over there.

I'd elaborate, but I have to run to New York for the day. Just wanted to alleviate any concerns that I was dead or missing.

Follow your cheese dreams

2011-03-21T18:34:00.001-04:00

When I was a first-year student, a second-year student named Michael Inwald left SOM before graduation) to launch his business -- Grilled Cheese To Go, recently renamed Cheeseboy. I think there are now three locations, and I think they're all in malls, but don't quote me on that. As the name implies, the place sells grilled cheese sandwiches, as well as soups, mac and cheese and a couple snacks. It's a limited menu.

While at the Westfield Mall over the weekend in Milford, I spotted one and persuaded my companion to indulge in an extemporaneous lunch, since I'd heard so much about it but never tried it. Not half bad. In fact, quite good!

I don't have the entrepreneurial spirit, and I'm not just getting down on myself or anything. My deficiency in this regard has been proven through aptitude tests, showing that my skills, strengths and motivators are at total odds with starting my own business. I'm more of a supporter. I like to help others succeed, and improve something that's already been created. It's the copy editor in me, perhaps.

But if it weren't for entrepreneurs like Mr. Inwald, I wouldn't get to enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches in malls. So a toast to him. Get it, toast? Ha!

Part-timers

2011-03-20T09:52:00.002-04:00

More than once, while driving back from the gym with my friend Matt at roughly 8:30 in the morning, we've see my friend and classmate Erika looking sharp and walking toward downtown. Turns out she has a part-time job, helping a teachers institute with its social media strategy.

When asked, I tend to say my fellow students don't have part-time jobs. (I am indeed asked this, believe it or not ...) When I give that answer, though, I'm thinking of "part-time jobs" in an old-fashioned undergrad sense, like waiting tables or doing office work. Nobody here has that kind of job just to make cash, to my knowledge. But in this grad-school world, a part-time job can mean lots of things -- consulting for an old employer, doing paid research at the school, etc. And my roommate works full-time at the Yale Repertory Theatre, while getting two master's degrees simultaneously. (Don't ask me how she does it without the use of cocaine.)

If I expand my thinking beyond what I think of as a "part-time job," I actually have had five of them this year. My gigs as a second-year advisor, admisisons interviewer and three-time teaching assistant, which I consider "activites," are actually jobs. By year's end, Yale will have paid me about $4,500-$5,000 for doing these things. It's not much, but it helps when one subsists on student loans.

Yale doesn't have a part-time MBA program per se, but there is an executive MBA (EMBA) program for people who have full-time jobs in the healthcare field. Classes meet every other Friday and Saturday. That's the same type of schedule at some part-time programs I was exploring before school, like the program that the University of Texas does in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, where I was living. This was worth considering, because I liked my job. But a few friends who had done part-time MBA programs warned me that I should try to do it full-time if I could, especially if I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, because full-time students tend to have more access to networking and job opportunities. That makes sense not only because there are only so many hours in the day, but also because students in part-time programs are often sponsored by their companies.

My last employer, a newspaper, would have had no reason to sponsor me in an MBA program, as they would just be helping me jump ship. I do, however, have a former colleague who entered a part-time program at TCU when I was leaving for Connecticut. He had good reasons for staying in town and going part-time, though -- he's married, is now a father, and has a really good management job. I have another friend who did the part-time program at SMU, which is one of the highest-ranked part-time programs in the country. It doesn't seem like the school was terribly supportive in his job search, which is too bad but not entirely unexpected given what I just mentioned about companies commonly sponsoring students in the part-time program. But my friend is smart and tenacious, and on his own he's landed a job he likes, with upward mobility.

Overall, if asked, my general advice would be to do a full-time program if you can afford it, and to avoid a part-time job while in that program unless it's relevant and not too intrusive. There'll be plenty of time for real jobs after school. I think this is the time to seize opportunities that will be gone after commencement.

I'm 4,498,081st!

2011-03-19T09:49:00.005-04:00

In the same way I like to dabble with games of chance at a casino every few years, so too do I enjoy filling out an NCAA men's basketball tournament bracket each March, in the hopes I will win. Back in my offices, that was possible, but when competing against millions and millions of fans on ESPN, my hope isn't to win, it's simply to move up the ranks.

And throughout the past two days I moved steadily up from about 4.7 millionth to, at best, somewhere around 2.5 millionth. But by the end of the first round, I was back down to about 4.5 millionth. The good news is that all my Final Four teams are still in it.

I'm not a sports fan, but I did go to both Duke and UNC, which are schools that are very interested in and very successful at basketball. So I like to follow their successes and failures each year. And through my moves around the country, I've adopted other state-related affiliations that interest me. I was very excited a few years ago, for example, when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi made it into the tournament for the first time. Good for them, I say! They lost in the first round, as was expected, since they were a #15 seed, if memory serves.

Incidentally, I'm constantly asked whether I root for Duke or UNC, and the genuine answer is that I equally root for both. It's true. And if they play each other, I just hope it's an exciting game. I guess I'm a total weirdo.

Although I've downloaded a free app that lets me watch any game live, I really only take advantage of that feature if I notice that a score is close and there are a few minutes left. Other than that, the game doesn't particularly interest me.

Last night, I watched a few games with a group of folks with connections to the schools that were playing -- KU, Illinois, and UNC (for me). None of these games were close, but I had a super fun time. To amuse ourselves during commercials and slow points, we made up our own non-basketball brackets and passed them around, picking things like favorite movies, favorite bands, favorite onomatopoeias, and which of various awful afflictions we'd prefer to have (i.e. being wrongfully convicted of murder vs. being fugly and alone with terminal cancer). The most pleasant and thought-provoking of our mini-tournaments, pictured, led us into a nice discussion about love vs. happiness. As you can see, we picked happiness.

Note in this picture, too, that I had tea. I'm staying true to my sobriety vow, even in situations where drinking is integral and most other people are imbibing. Today is Day 35. I'm very happy with how things are going. I've discovered St. Pauli N.A.; I don't think I'd had a non-alcoholic beer since maybe sipping an O'Douls for fun like 10 years ago, so I assumed the worst, but it's refreshing actually. I also have discovered that when you're a non-drinker among drinkers at a bar, you may very well get those drinks for free, being deemed a responsible designated driver. I've also enjoyed the startlingly pleasant surprise of dinner bills of around $10 instead of the usual $20. Go figure -- abstinence has its perks. And it doesn't really have any drawbacks.

Where for art thou?

2011-03-18T11:44:00.002-04:00

Having a roommate in the drama school = knowing more people in the drama school = going to more plays. Last night, I was taken by my friend Art to "Romeo & Juliet," presented with its original dialogue, but modern attire. It was OK. The director seemed to be pushing the youth emphasis, so the characters behaved particularly immaturely -- sometimes to a pretty offensive extent. I also thought the portrayal of Julia wasn't the least bit sexy. Maybe it isn't supposed to be. But if I were Romeo I would take my wooing elsewhere. I was impressed with the performances of the supporting cast, particularly the elder members of the cast. And I liked the shirtless knife fights.

Today I hit the gym -- four times in one week, which won't continue happening when classes resume Monday. During my usual trip to the local market for a post-gym coffee, I noted the lead story on the New Haven Register, that the guy accused of killing that Yale grad student in 2009 has pleaded guilty. I bought the paper, as a show of solidarity for my foregone career. It was 75 cents, and not really worth it. Frankly, it's not a very good paper. There are editing mistakes, bad design choices (like doglegs), and pretty poor placement of filler stories. On the bright side, the comics are in color! But I sympathize; I'm sure their staff is a shell of its former self.

I'm really enjoying this vacation. Somebody stop me! I guess that somebody will be the Yale faculty.

International house of lingering

2011-03-16T15:48:00.000-04:00

After not going to IHOP for years, I've now been twice in the past week. I suppose that's the type of thing you do when you're on staycation. This morning, I was there so long, and so wrapped up in conversation, we were almost hungry again for lunch. Not helping matters in this regard was my choice of the low-calorie fresh-fruit crepes, which were as filling as eating a cloud.

Chain restaurants get a bad rap, but they're occasionally comforting, especially when you've moved around the country as often as I have: Since turning 18, I've lived in 10 different cities, so the sight of a chain restaurant somehow makes me feel less like a vagabond. I do, however, feel as though the cuisine I've had during my exceptionally rare trips to places like Outback, Olive Garden, On the Border and IHOP has gotten more and more disappointing with age. Are they getting worse? Maybe I'm just, like, super sophisticated.

Class starts again Monday, and believe it or not it's already getting a little busy, as I gear up for my final quarter at Yale SOM. Yikes, that's scary/sad. My four classes from last quarter will all continue, as they are semester-long classes, and I'm also picking up a quarter-long class called Navigating Organizations, for which I am currently reading a very interesting book called Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't, by Jeff Pfeffer, an organizational behavior professor at Stanford, not this guy. So far I've learned that, in order to obtain power, I apparently must hide all my traits and adopt the opposite ones. Perhaps I'll just leave power for others.

Toys, with my emotions

2011-03-14T00:32:00.011-04:00

I spent much of the past four days looking downward, sitting or squatting because I visited my best friend from high school, who has a 3-year-old son, and then my brother, who has two sons, ages 6 and 4. It's fun to see all their little personalities, and to see how quickly they mature and progress, especially in how they communicate. The kids are coming along, too.

Kidding aside, the kids were great -- impressively well-mannered. The youngest boys are still a bit stubborn and can get a little testy when they don't get their way, but everyone also had many moments of sharing, taking turns and saying their pleases and thank yous.

Kids by this age have already gravitated toward preferences for certain types of toys and activities. My high school friend's son is highly interested in trucks and could enthusiastically and accurately name different types of construction vehicles, and the parts therein. It's humbling to see a 3-year-old know more about a subject than you do! My younger nephew has enough of an attention span to get through real games that require sitting down, although he doesn't always follow the rules, as he does dislike losing. He also has a great sense of humor and likes to play improv make-believe storylines with his toys. This was a lot of fun for me, and gave me great practice doing funny voices. And my elder nephew is more quiet and independent, but a total prodigy on the piano. He can pick out things by ear remarkably. I did the same when I was his age, so I hope he takes (and enjoys) piano lessons, which his parents hope to start in a couple years. Check it out!

I'm scheming to take them here.

On the spectrum of "must have kids" to "definitely never having kids," I'm still closer to the latter but probably close enough to the center that I could be persuaded into the former under circumstances that still, at age 32, seem unlikely and distant. Spending time with kids doesn't really move my needle on this meter much. On one hand, kids are amazing and fun and all the rest. On the other hand, they are super exhausting. And if I feel that way as a brief visitor with no responsibilities, I imagine I would be a lifeless pile of bones if I were a full-time caregiver. Besides, why would I bother with having my own kids when I can just, like, visit some whenever I want? We call this getting the milk for free, in farm parlance.

On the Japan front, the students who were there for their International Experience trip have left for Seoul and are going to be trying to get back to the US as soon as possible. I'm eager to catch up with my friends who were there to get the inside scoop. What a mess.

Students in Japan are OK

2011-03-11T12:49:00.001-05:00

I'm in the midst of a three-week spring break because the first-year students are on their required International Experience trip. One group, of about two dozen students, is in Japan. We got official word today that they are fine, in a Tokyo hotel.

My good friend Carolyn, who is one of the TAs (teaching assistants) on the trip, told me in an e-mail that she's a bit nervous about the rest of the trip. The group was to spend the next week visiting companies, then fly back to the US. All these plans are unclear. And I don't envy Carolyn, since these types of logistics are her responsibility. Sucks.

The important thing, though, is that everyone is safe.

Ghost town clothes shopping

2011-03-09T17:10:00.007-05:00

My friend, neighbor, classmate and skydiving companion Aminah was of immeasurable assistance when I was shopping for new clothes last fall, so I took her on a fashion hunt today at Clinton's Crossing, an outlet mall that's hopping on the weekends but was totally deserted on this Wednesday morning. Go figure.

It was quite a success. For ages, I have wanted a particular type of brown leather jacket, and I found a fantastic one at Cole Haan that was originally $800 but was 50% off, then an additional 50% off that because the salesperson hooked me up with a coupon. That's 75% off! I felt like I'd won the lottery, except that I wasn't swatting away greedy distant relatives and bound for eventual bankruptcy and depression.

Thirty-two is an awkward age for clothes shopping. I want to be up to date, but not so trendy that I look 17. And I also want to be comfortable and grown-up looking, but not look 71. Distinguishing between these extremes is what Aminah is for. But I came away from the day with a nice assortment of pieces that hit the mark for both age and comfort. Thanks, marketplace!

Speaking of the elderly, Today is my father's 74th birthday. We had a nice chat. He asked me what I'm doing tonight, and I told him the truth -- I'm going to a lecture at the law school, and then bowling with friends. When he asked about the subject of the lecture, I again told the truth -- it's about how the school altered its nondiscrimination policy to include gender identity and expression. He was audibly uncomfortable. Eh, there's nothing wrong with a little truth on one's birthday.

Sad news

2011-03-08T20:23:00.008-05:00

One of the most nurturing and comforting figures in my life was Nellie, who took care of our house and helped raise my brothers and me. She worked for my family for almost 30 years, and passed away this morning. She was 91.

I last saw her during my most recent trip to St. Louis, my hometown, two years ago. My brother and I brought her lunch and hung out for a bit. I suspected at the time, given her age and the infrequency of my visits to St. Louis, that this visit might be the last time I would see her, and so it is. I'm glad she was around long enough for us to spend some quality time as adults.

Nellie embodied open-armed kindness. She picked us up from school, made our after-school snacks and played with us, in addition to cleaning the house (which was no small task). A majority of the time I spent with her was when I was home on summer vacation, or home sick from school. We particularly liked playing along with "The Price is Right." (When I finally saw a taping of the show out in LA in 2003, I got her a Price is Right t-shirt, which I think she appreciated.) She'd even write to me when I was away at summer camp ... which makes me wonder whether I have those letters somewhere. I'll have to look when next I'm at my parents' house. I'm skeptical. Anyway, throughout my various growing pains and family dysfunctions, Nellie was a stable source of love and order.

It's funny, but I was just thinking about Nellie this morning. I was out of coffee, so I went to the market on the corner for a cup. I usually add just one packet of sugar; I grabbed it and then decided to put it back. Instead, I poured loads of sugar from the glass container -- I was just in the mood to treat myself to very sweet coffee. And I thought of Nellie because when I was very little, she'd make me a little cup of the grown-ups' coffee and make it tolerable by adding tons of sugar. It was so sugary it was actually sticky. I thought of that this morning and smiled. Who knows -- that might have been right around the time she passed away.

Stu-stu-studio

2011-03-07T16:26:00.001-05:00

With a notebook, pen and dozens of questions at hand, today I lunched with Jack Vees, the director of Yale's Center for Studies in Music Technology, and a lecturer in electronic music. I reached out to him last week to see if he'd let me pick his brain about my personal summer project, which is to produce an album of original music.

Jack was kind, forthcoming, knowledgeable and helpful. He showed me around the studio spaces in Sprague Hall and gave me a rundown of the types of equipment I'll want given what I want to do. This will be expensive, but less so than I expected. My biggest cost will be a Mac, which is new territory for me.

I wish I'd tapped into Yale's music resources earlier, not that I would've really had the time while getting an MBA. I barely had time to juggle all my classes and activities as it was. But I might have even been able to take one of Jack's classes in pop music production. Since it's too late for that, he offered to let me sit in on some of his classes for the rest of this quarter. That's great news!

Recently, I received a "face book" document with the pictures and descriptions of those of us who are finishing grad school and will be joining Deloitte's human capital practice. I was surprised to learn there are only nine of us in New York. One of the questionairre fields is "summer plans," and it's no surprise I'm the only one who wrote, "I'm going to produce an album of original music." Almost all the others are traveling. Embarking on an international adventure was my first instinct when I learned of this impending free time, and it's what most people suggested when I was seeking good ideas. But as lame as this may be, there's just nowhere I'm dying to go. Japan? Italy? Brazil? Yawn. I mean, who needs the hassle and expense, not to mention the danger! I have a recurring nightmare that I'm in another country and lose my passport. That means your body experiences immediate sublimation, right? No thanks!

I'm super psyched to work on my music this summer. I can't wait. And I'll continue in my spare time after I've started working. This'll be a nice contrast to consulting. It's creative, emotional, solitary and personal. Maybe I will do a follow-up blog: Consultant pursues music career, blogs.

Career paths not taken

2011-03-06T18:12:00.027-05:00

A touchy, personal and rarely discussed topic among my classmates has to do with our abandoned careers and where we might be if we had stayed in them instead of getting an MBA.

Before school, I worked at two newspapers -- five years at a small paper in South Texas, then three years at a large paper in North Texas. The position I left behind at my last newspaper was filled, and that person is still there, so I assume that if I had stayed I would be doing the same I was doing when I left. I enjoyed that job but would probably still feel somewhat stuck and fearful of layoffs. That fear is warranted, as there have been layoffs since I left, layoffs are determined by tenure, and even after three years I was just about the least-tenured person in the newsroom.

It's harder to tell where I'd be if I'd stayed at the small South Texas paper, which, for whatever reason, I have a much stronger emotional and sentimental attachment to than the larger paper. When I left, I was an online producer; that position still exists, so if I were there I might be doing the same thing. Knowing me, and considering the fact I never stayed in a department at that paper for more than 18 months, I almost certainly would've moved into another role, by choice or otherwise. That role might have been a promotion. One of the reasons I left was that I didn't see any obvious advancement blueprint there. It turned out, though, that there were quite a few new opportunities that arose in the years after I left because several other newspapers in the chain relocated their production staffs into my paper's building. This created new departments and management roles I might have been qualified for and found interesting. If I were still there, after all, I'd be going on my 10th year with the company, which (believe it or not) would probably put me in at least the upper quartile for seniority. I might have been deemed, by this point, worthy of leadership.

Whether I could have, or would have, seized a management role -- or any other type of step up -- is obviously not clear. But I have several friends who stayed and have risen the ranks of management. I'm happy for them, but it would be rewriting history to claim that I aspired to do the same. Still, their success is a reminder that I might have moved on to some interesting challenges and management experience had I stayed.

Do I care? It's easy to say no, and then point to my subsequent accomplishments and bright future. The truer answer, however, is that I do care a little. But my reasons for leaving were reasonable. I knew I wanted to go back to school in the near future, and I felt I should get a larger, more recognizable newspaper from a major metro area on my resume before I left Texas. I still think this was wise. And there were personal reasons I left, too. I wanted to date more, which I have done, and generally have more of a social life. And I wanted to make more money, which I did, and will continue to do. But I think my main root of personal dissatisfaction was that nobody else wanted to stay there, so my friends were constantly coming and going. It was hard to feel good about any long-range plan at that newspaper when every two months I was at yet another going-away party.

So I left for various reasons. It's a curious exercise to wonder where I'd be if I'd stayed, but in business school we're encouraged to judge a decision by whether it was smart given the information available at the time, not by the outcome. For me, leaving the small paper for the larger one, and leaving the larger one for Yale, were difficult decisions borne out of a restless sense that there was more out there -- more to learn, do, see and experience. I can't undo those feelings, so I have to stand behind my choices.

It's OK to wonder "what if," but everyone does so regardless of circumstance. I'd be playing the "what if" game even if I had stayed at that first paper in South Texas. I'm pleased with my choices, and even the outcomes.

Floodgates into the past

2011-03-04T12:34:00.002-05:00

The stars, or whatever, have been oddly aligning lately to make me far more reflective about the long-ago past than I have been in ages. Maybe this has nothing to do with a journalist pursuing an MBA, but maybe it has everything to do with it. After all, I'm heading into major transition, so reflection isn't unwarranted.

Several recent incidents have exacerbated any natural introspection that would be happening at this point. For one, I've been reading my grandfather's book, on reincarnation no less. Another is that I began digging into the past a bit during a visit to Yale Counseling Services (prompted by my previously written-about abandonment of drinking, brought on by a personal concern about how I was metabolizing, or failing to metabolize, alcohol). Third is that I ran into my ex from college randomly, and we had lunch this week. And the fourth -- perhaps a result of the first three -- is that I've been scanning old pictures onto my computer, and posting some into albums on Facebook.

For many years, through many moves, I've been carrying around a box of pictures that has become increasingly less organized over time. The collection consists primarily of photos from when I was about 16 to 22, because that's when I was old enough to have interesting things to photograph and young enough not to have had this hobby thwarted by the ease of digital photography.

In this box are two photo albums my mom gave of assorted pictures from childhood, such as the one at the top of this blog of me in the breakfast room of the house I grew up in. I think this was in the mid to late '80s. Scanning these pictures made me wonder, for the first time, whether it would be hard/easy/creepy to get in touch with the family that moved into my old house, which I lived in from age 0 to 20. Turned out to be simple, thanks to Facebook, and not creepy, thanks to my talent for tactful note-writing. I sent a few of the old pictures to the matriarch of the house, and we've since exchanged some nice long notes.

The activity of actually engaging with the people who live in my old house, and of discussing the ways it's changed, has been -- and I use this world carefully -- unique. I can't quite articulate my feelings about it. It's both sad and, in a way, empowering almost to the point of being joyful. It's not as if I hadn't let go, but I think establishing this connection takes "letting go" to a higher emotional plane; perhaps I had come to accept letting go, and now I'm actually embracing it.

Anyway, this is a heavy topic that combines childhood-to-adulthood transition, family dynamics and other topics far beyond the scope of this blog. To some people, getting an MBA is a hoop to making more money. To others, it's a very obtuse angle in the road, and as you're making that turn, it's probably natural to look behind you.

Why a 200% raise = a 37% raise

2011-03-03T12:52:00.004-05:00

The many advantages of being a full-time student include tremendous tax refunds. Last year was my first experience with H&R Block, and although I think what they charge is a bit steep for what they do, I just, you know, want someone else to do my taxes for me, damnit. It's faster and easier enough to justify the expense for me.

Last year, my beloved Al found me an extra $2,000 in some type of education credit. This year, my beloved Al was on leave because he fell and hit his head. He should be fine, and I certainly hope that's the case because he was wonderful and very kind last year. In his temporary absence, George helped me, and I will be getting back quite a bit of money from the United States and the State of New York. I do, however, owe the State of Connecticut US$4.00. George was sure to let me know that I had until April 18 to cough up the Washingtons.

When it comes to generous refunds, I will probably not be so lucky in the coming years, as I will not be a student, and I will have 12 months of salary. I'll also be paying more in federal taxes because I'll be in a higher tax bracket than I was before. On top of that, New York State and New York City both like to steal and redistribute money. According to this handy paycheck calendar, if I am a resident of New York City, I should expect to have about 40% of my total earnings swiped from me before I ever see it, because of federal taxes, Social Security, Medicare, state tax and city tax. That's literally twice the rate I was paying on my old salary in Texas (where I made less and where there are no state taxes and, I think, no city taxes). What a stinky shame this is!

Of course, on top of more taxes, I will also be repaying student loans at the rate of roughly $1,650/month. Rent in New York is also a lot higher than in Texas. I've crunched the numbers, and any way you slice it, I'll be better off financially than I was before. But in the short term, the numbers turn out to be a little deflating. My base salary at Deloitte, before bonuses, is going to be more than three times what I made before -- that's a 200% raise. You'd think, therefore, that I'd be on Easy Street. But if you compare the actual cash taken home after taxes and rent (assuming rent of $1,750, which I sort of picked out of thin air), it turns out that I'll be making only about 37% more than before. When you think about it, that's truly unreal -- a 200% raise amounts to 37% more post-tax, post-rent spending cash?

There's a bit more nuance to this issue than what I've laid out, of course. And an MBA is really a long-term investment. Still, it's grating to see what looks like a jackpot get chipped away by taxes and student loans. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy fantasizing about what I might buy with my tax refund ... Maybe I'll make a nice donation to the Republican Party.

Family Guy opening movie credits

2011-03-01T11:56:00.002-05:00

I loooooove this.

The 83rd annual Academy Awards

2011-02-28T17:03:00.005-05:00

Two Oscar parties combined last night into a 12-person affair that left the best forecaster $80 richer. That wasn't me, but I came in second, thereby receiving $20, which helps soften the blow of having provided food and drinks, which of course I was happy to do. I made these, a more traditional version of individual portobello mushroom cap pizzas I made a few years ago.

Basically you remove the stems and dark gills from under the cap, turn them over, fill them with stuff and bake them for a bit. You can do pesto, artichoke, pepperoni, olives, whatever interests you. It's pretty easy and appreciated by those who like mushrooms.

I enjoyed the Oscars and the party, although I have subsequently read general dislike of the telecast. I think realistic standards are in order. It's an awards ceremony, thus is somewhat boring at times. But I thought it was nicely done and moved along at a good pace. I went out on a bit of a limb and predicted "The Social Network" for best picture, even though the experts were generally expecting "The King's Speech." I thought maybe, with 10 pictures in the running, enough of the Academy would have gone for the superior, more modern, more interesting movie. But no. I liked "The King's Speech" well enough but am not sure what larger impact it has, or will have in the future. Maybe in these times of short attention spans and questionable taste, a family-friendly movie about a king who tries to overcome a stammer is just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

One of the guests at this Oscar soiree was my friend Paul, who was in town from Ann Arbor, where he's getting an MBA at Ross (the University of Michigan). He was one of my fellow "business associate" interns from last summer, at the Associated Press. Paul and a few of our co-workers are looking for full-time jobs in the media/technology space. That's a tough field to break into as an MBA because there isn't as much structure around the recruiting process as there is for, say, banking, consulting or marketing. So you need to do more leg work and be a bit patient.

Sometimes people ask me whether I feel like a "traitor" for leaving media and going into consulting. Especially former co-workers have commented that I'm moving into "the dark side." I'm not sure what's so dark about it. In the purest sense, I'm going to be helping companies find the best ways to make their employees be happy, productive and fulfilled. Maybe that's a bit Mary Poppins, but I sort of like to think of my upcoming job as being along these lines. We'll see how the reality matches up. And, indeed, some of the companies I help may be media and technology companies; there's a whole industry division of Deloitte called TMT, which stands for technology, media and telecommunications.

Maybe someday I'll end up being deployed to help the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences make their annual awards ceremony more interesting to people.

Groceries are expensive, but what isn't?

2011-02-27T09:40:00.004-05:00

Of the things I am, price sensitive about groceries isn't really one of them. I note price when buying one-at-a-time items, like jeans, but when it comes to food, I sort of grab what I want, for the most part. I may notice that the fresh swordfish is $13 while the previously frozen is $7, and I may notice that my favorite apples are the priciest of the bunch, but often in these situations I treat myself to what I want, instead of what's cheap.

The result has been high bills. Last school year, there was a (ratherterrible) Shaw's in New Haven. I think the prices were low, because I don't recall having sticker shock at the checkout line. But that store folded. Now there's actually no supermarket in New Haven, as noted in this funny story in the Yale Daily News about another topic of interest, the possible opening of a Chipotle in New Haven. OMG I lurve Chipotle, y'all.

Anyway, now one must go to a neighboring town to get groceries; that probably sounds like an ordeal, especially if you're in a place like Texas, but in Connecticut towns seem to be very small areas of land, so it seems like you're in a new town every mile or two. My favorite grocery store is now Stop N Shop in Hamden. it has a great selection of just about everything I want. For example, today I'm making individuall portobello mushroom pizzas for an Oscar party, where the cap of the 'shroom is the crust. When I did this in Texas, I remember having difficulty finding 12 at one store; but that was no problem at my local Stop N Shop!

But I have also noticed that my grocery bills are out of this world. I can remember being a college student back in North Carolina, and feeling like I could buy basically anything I wanted, and I almost never paid over $100. These days, I almost never pay less than $200. Yesterday's bill was $227. Granted, a good portion of this consisted of party foods I won't be eating by myself. But that's still awfully high, especially considering there was no alcohol in my cart.

I'm sure these high bills are exacerbated by how infrequently I shop. But things aren't cheap in Connecticut. My two-bedroom apartment, for example, is $1,445/month. (I have a roommate.) Let's examine my previous rents for comparison:

CORPUS CHRISTI:

-- One-bedroom apartment, sort of crappy but really not that bad, fireplace, w/d hookup, dishwasher, garbage disposal, balcony, $439/month.

-- Three-bedroom house (yes, house!), quite nice, big yard, fireplace, w/d hookup, dishwasher, garbage disposal, two full bathrooms, $975/month.

-- Two-bedroom apartment, very cheerful, carpetted, spacious and on the older side, no amenities, $595/month.

-- Odd arrangement where I rented a small garage apartment from a woman in her 80s, included cable, electricity and meals, $100/month.

-- Two-bedroom apartment down the street from Apartment #3, exact same floor plan and lack of amenities but a little crappier, with bad hardwood floors, $425/month.

FORT WORTH:

-- Absolutely gorgeous one-bedroom apartment with high ceilings, fantastic appliances, French doors, amazing floors, historic built-in cabinets and great lighting, w/d (coin operated), garbage disposal, dishwasher. I loved it so much. $700/month at the beginning; got raised to $775 over time.

-- Sort of dumpy but neat two-story, one-bedroom townhouse, kind of tight on space, fireplace, laundry room on site, dishwasher, no garbage disposal, $700/month.

NEW HAVEN:

-- Very nice and quite spacious two-bedroom apartment, renovated, coin-operated laundry in basement, no dishasher, fireplace or garbage disposal, heat included, was $1,415, raised to $1,445.

I guess "expensive" is all relative. I'm sure New Haven rents are a dream to someone coming from New York, or even San Francisco, Los Angeles or Boston. But for me, it's steep. Fortunately, what I'm spending isn't real money, right? It's fake loan money ... like Monopoly money that will never come back to haunt me ...

Club election complete

2011-02-26T11:17:00.002-05:00

This year, I was a co-leader (along with a classmate) of Q+, the LGBT club at the School of Management. The time came recently to anoint leaders for next year. Each club goes through this process a bit differently. We have an amazing group of first-year students who would make awesome club leaders, but we really had no idea how many of them would want to run.

We decided to accept statements of interest, then hold an election in the event of more than two candidates. It seems like this setup had the effect we were hoping for, which is that the first-years sort of selected amongst themselves privately, so that in the end we did indeed just get two candidates, obviating the need for an election. And I'm personally thrilled with the people we got -- a guy and a girl who were probably the most involved in the club throughout the year. They're quite different from each other but get along great, and they are both good friends of mine. So I think the club is in good hands.

Being a club leader for Q+ turned out to be maybe the most formative and meaningful activity I took on this year, because I actually did learn how to lead better. I tried to create an environment where people feel listened to, supported, praised and encouraged.

That sounds like BS, so I'll be more specific. At the beginning of the year, I made a concerted effort to welcome each first-year, introduce myself, befriend them on Facebook and take each out to lunch, to assess what they were like, let them know they were important, and find out what their interests were. In light of the vibe I was getting -- that these were really nice people, almost all in serious or semi-serious long-distance relationships, and generally well-focused professionally -- I then started a weekly newsletter that focused on things to do at Yale that I thought would interest them, things Q+ was doing, career/networking opportunities, news and announcements, etc. I tried to make the tone somewhat newsy and professional but also dryly funny when appropriate -- my goal here was to keep people accountable, involved and publicly acknowledged.

Throughout the year, I tried to take care of the logistics that would stand in people's way; so for our trip to the Reaching Out conference in LA, I tried to deal with the hotels, flights and preparations for the students who went. Whenever possible, I completed reimbursement forms for people so they could get travel expenses and other things compensated easily. I also tried to listen and take action when people had ideas or issues; so when a student complained about the same-gender roommate policy for the international trip, for example, I inquired, found out what steps we needed to take to change the rule, formed a committee, asked someone to write up our thoughts formally, and submitted it on behalf of the club, thinking that something with the club's official name on it would be taken more seriously than the grievance of just a few students.

I could go on, and this is starting to come off as a boastful post, which wasn't my intention ... But I wanted to impart some personal learnings beyond vaguely saying that I learned things about leadership. I think a different approach, and one that might work for certain types of leaders in certain scenarios, would have been to be more authoritarian, plan all the events myself, and wield around the weight of my authority. That's definitely not my style, or my strength, and I think leading the club has been a good opportunity to sort of test how my natural personality can jibe with a leadership style. Ultimately, though, I wouldn't have been successful at all if the first-year students hadn't been so involved and responsible.

I hope I contributed, but at least I can choose to believe I didn't actively stand in the way of success.

Another TA stint is complete

2011-02-26T10:47:00.002-05:00

This quarter, I was a TA for an course called the Economics & Financing of Journalism. Unlike Careers, a first-year required core course for which I was TA last fall, and Innovator, another core course I'm TA-ing next quarter, this journalism class was an elective. It was offered in, I believe, 2007, '08 and '09, but unfortunately not last year, so in needing a TA, the professor knew that in choosing a second-year student, he'd be choosing someone who had never taken the course. I decided to volunteer because I was a journalist and did pricing-strategy work over the summer at the Associated Press. And I was going to take the class anyway; this way, I didn't have to do the assignments, and I got a small stipend (quite small, it turns out, since it was an elective with only 11 students).

Anyway, this stint is over. As a TA, I have to say I didn't feel like I did all that much because the professor handled the grading and the logistics of bringing in each week's guest speaker. I mostly tried to support him -- making dinner reservations for the students after class, answering his logistical questions about the school, and things like that. Ultimately he asked for my opinion on grades for all the assignments. He kindly told me our assessments were uncannily similar.

I'm glad I did this because I really enjoyed the class, and getting to know the professor and guests, and I got the benefit of the material without having to be responsible for the assignments, which were substantial. One was a case study of a media organization in transition, and the other was a suggestion for a new business model that could support quality news journalism. Those are both pretty big issues.

I think the class went well and that the students enjoyed it. Almost everyone participated a lot; I attribute that, actually, to the cherry-picking effect that would come with not having offered this course last year. Consequently, I think we got the most interested students from the Class of 2011 and the Class of 2012. I hope that, somehow, next year's group is as enthusiastic.

Who watches short shorts?

2011-02-26T10:26:00.004-05:00

It was an Oscar-filled day yesterday. In the early afternoon, I saw "Winter's Bone" over at my friend Susan's place. That was my eighth (of 10) Best Picture nominees to see, and it looks like that's all I'll get to before tomorrow evening's awards. I still think "The Social Network" was the best, and in my opinion it will win, but "Winter's Bone" was awfully good.

It took place almost entirely in the forgotten woods of Wherever (there was a reference to driving to the Arkansas state line, so perhaps the story unfolded in my belolved home state of Missouri). The movie looked at the mysterious network of destitute people involved in a mysterious, mafia-like web of meth making/dealing. Amongst them is a bright, surefooted, sober 17-year-old girl who is raising her two younger siblings and catatonic mother. When the law come 'round, she gotta find her daddy right quick or she gon' lose that there house, which ain't much but's all they's got.

In the evening, I attended an SOM party with an open bar (a generosity that Yale may just be able to afford now that I've quit drinking) at a place I'd never been called Kelly's. After some time there chatting with classmates and partaking of free food, I rebelliously scooted to the movie theater next door to see the collection of Oscar-nominated animated short films.

They were cute. I'm not sure what the criteria are for judging these things, but I think there's no doubt that the 6-minute Disney/Pixar short "Day & Night" was the most clever and fun. If that wins the day, great. If not, my money's on "The Gruffalo," the star of which was a cute mouse pictured above; that was certainly the most memorable. The only short I didn't care for was "Madagascar, a Journey Diary," which was the most artsy and innovative in terms of animation but was trying too hard; the result was totally boring.

I really have tried to catch up with movies this year because, when you don't, the Oscars aren't much fun to watch. But despite that, I'm not nearly as wildly into them as I have been in years past, when I could name all the nominees quickly and discuss each one's merits at length. Maybe next year, once I'm living the leisurely life of a consultant, I will have plenty of time to get into the movies ... Ho, ho.

How's sobriety treating you?

2011-02-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

Eleven days ago, I decided I was going to quit drinking, cold turkey. I have succeeded so far, and I wouldn't say it's been particularly difficult, although last night I had a dream I "accidentally" drank almost an entire bottle of white wine; in the dream, I drank the wine, then remembered I had said I wasn't going to drink anymore.

I'm doing this because over the past several months, my body is not processing or metabolizing alcohol properly. I have a doctor's appointment next week to talk about it, but in the meantime I think the safest move is to make 0 my limit, as opposed to 1 or 2, which I think is harder to maintain in practice.

Quitting has been easy and hard, in waves. On one hand, there are very salient benefits to not drinking. I spend less money, can drive to where I'm going, and feel better at the end of the night (and certainly the next day). I also think I'm a better conversationalist, better company, and less likely to do or say something regrettable. On the other hand, it's a little weird to sip Earl Grey tea while everyone else is passing around a bottle of red wine. Friends know me to be a drinker, so they want to know why I'm not imbibing, and then I feel the need to be honest and explain. And, really, part of me wants some of that damn wine.

Am I an alcoholic? I don't think so. I just think that lately it seems that I get drunker off fewer drinks, for longer, and to greater consequence (like memory loss). It could be age, or it could be something else. Hence the doctor's appointment!

Going out and drinking is a large, large piece of the social MBA experience. Even the school hosts a weekly happy hour with beer and wine every Thursday. And at my recent visit to Steinway & Sons, the reception had appetizers and wine -- no soft drinks, or even water. So I just ate and was thirsty. These are the kinds of things one doesn't really notice when one drinks alcohol.

So we'll see how it goes. I think until I talk to a doctor, this is the safest move.

Steinway to go

2011-02-22T22:46:00.007-05:00

It is not every day that I get to play a Louie XV style Steinway Heirloom Piano with a mahogany finish, originally manufactured in 1930. But if I had $98,000 to spend, it could be.

I had an enjoyable visit today with my fellow MUS 673 students to the Steinway & Sons headquarters on 57th Street in New York. We met with Ronald Losby, the company's president, to talk about all things Steinway. And it was fun for me to get to play some original music for him, and for my classmates and the professor (who is also the dean of the music school). People were complimentary, which was kind.

When I was in newspapers, I shared my colleagues' interest in (and frustration about) that industry's challenges, to some extent finding them to be unique. As I've gone through business school, I have come to see lots of common threads between newspapers' plight and that of other industries, like pianos, which were once a centerpiece to about 1 in 3 living rooms and a key skill of any refined person. That's no longer the case, and Steinway is dealing, like anyone, with how to navigate digital technology, changing customer needs and habits, and even macro cultural issues that threaten the piano industry.

For example, for pianos to be sold, people need to know how to play them, which requires lessons. With two parents working, who's going to take kids to the lessons? And do young members of a somewhat instant-gratification generation have the patience and dedication to learn an instrument? It takes years of sometimes painful endurance to get to the point where playing is a genuine pleasure. People these days -- adults and kids alike -- don't want to wait even a moment for much of anything. Maybe this is all the more reason why it's important for people to learn an instrument, to gain the valuable skills of precision, and to experience the fruits of practice, patience and commitment.

Anyway, it was a very interesting visit, and it was nice to be back in New York. And with this field trip over, my absurdly long spring break officially begins! I will be off for the next month. Let the good times begin.

3 easy steps to getting rich

2011-02-21T05:50:00.012-05:00

Now that I'm almost finished with my MBA, I know everything. Among my newfound knowledge is a deep understanding of securities markets. So when people ask me how they should invest their money, I'm thrilled to help.

Not one to sit on my laurels, I encourage people to come up with their own active portfolio, and then combine it with a common, well-diversified index, such as the S&P 500. "How do I create an active portfolio?" you ask. It's pretty easy. Just find a few stocks that look good -- spend a few weeks doing in-depth valuations, or throw darts; the odds of success are the same -- and estimate alpha for each one. Then you need to figure out how much of your money to put into each stock. Use this formula:

w_i⁰ = [a_i/s_i²(e)]/[Sa_i/s_i²(e)]

No problems so far. You're just taking each alpha, which is a nonmarket premium specific to each security, and dividing it by the idiosyncratic variance of those returns, as a fraction of the sum of these ratios across all your stocks! Now that you have these weights, you need to decide how much you want to invest in this active portfolio, vs. the passive index. Again, this is a breeze -- just plug and chug!

w_A = [a_A/s_A²(e)]/[E(r_m - r_f)/[s²(m) + (1 - b_A)(a_A/s_A²(e))]
... where b_A = Sw_ib_i
... and a_A = Sw_ia_i
... and s_A²(e) = Sw_i²s_i²(e_i)

All you'll need to know here are the alphas and betas of your active portfolio, which are simply weighted sums of the individual alphas and betas (beta, of course is the covariance of a security with the market, divided by the market variance), as well as the active portfolio's idiosyncratic variance, which is a sum of the product of the square of each security's weight and each security's firm-specific variance, which itself is the square of the standard deviation. Oh, and you'll need to know the expected market premium, which is the difference between market returns and the risk-free rate; you can use historical data to calculate this if you want. Oh, and the market variance -- again, this can be researched on your own. And that's it! You'll know what percent of your money to invest in this active portfolio, which, thanks to your innate overconfidence (which you might want to compensate for with an overconfidence factor), you think is better than the market portfolio everyone else is using, and you can just subtract that weight from 1 to determine how much to invest in the passive index.

Now you're almost done! Finally, you'll want to assess your natural level of risk aversion to figure out the most comfortable mix for you between this new-and-improved risky portfolio and a risk-free asset, such as Treasury Bills. Mine is 1.8. You should be able to assess yours, if you don't know it already, through various psychological surveys. You can feel free to use mine for the time being; I'll need it back, though. Anyway, take that number and plug it into this formula:

w* = [E(r_p) - r_f]/As_p²

This will tell you how much to put in this mixture of the active and passive risky portfolios, and how much (the remainder) to stick into T-bills. And you're done! Good luck to you.

And to me. I have an Investment Management midterm this morning.

Three of a kind

2011-02-20T10:10:00.002-05:00

As a homosexual, I want people to respect my personal life, so I try not to judge. But I nevertheless was struck with rather WTF feelings last night at the symphony, seated behind three people whose dynamic my friends and I could not explain.

As violinist Wendy Sharp (Yale '82) and the Yale Symphony Orchestra began delighting us with Beethoven's Violin Concerto ion D Major, Op. 61, this dude in front of us reached his arms around both his female companions and spent the duration of the piece stroking their arms as they rested their weary heads on his shoulders. The women at times whispered into his ear, close enough that they were nearly nibbling his flesh. What the hell was going on?

I left at intermission, not because of this trio, but because I had developed a stomach ache. I'm not sure whether to blame the afternoon's all-you-can-eat lunch at Sushi Palace, or the heavy-as-a-brick prosciutto manicotti I had just eaten at Mory's. Either way, I left in a hasty fashion, unfortunately missing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in e minor, Op. 64. I'll just, you know, listen to my copy later today.

When I returned home, I was delighted to have received a copy of my late grandfather's book, which is about reincarnation. I ordered it on Amazon's UK site, since it seemed like the only copies available where in England. Not sure why or how that happened. The one I received seems to have at one time found a home in a library. This man, my father's father, wrote this book while in his 70s, and it was published in 1983, a few years before he died. It's subtitled "The Rationality of Reincarnation." I remember seeing several copies of it in the house I grew up in, but over the years we've lost track of them, and I never really owned one. Not sure what even made me think of it, but I thought it was something I should read. I'll tackle it in a few days, once my three-week Spring Break begins! I have a long list of books to read during that time.

I wonder what my grandfather would have to say about threesomes. Maybe the topic will come up in his book.

My gift of a day

2011-02-19T01:33:00.001-05:00

You're doubtlessly wondering how I spent the day that Fate gave back to me, following the last-minute cancellation of jury duty. I cleaned the kitchen, strolled around campus, studied for my Investment Management midterm in the wonderful Gilmore Library, worked on some original music, cooked me up some stuffed pork chops and sweet potato for dinner, and squeezed in some total laziness, all capped off with an evening trip to Starbucks and the Yale Cabaret. Better than jury duty.

The show was called PleasureD, and it featured three quirky-acting women in a bathroom, with virtually no dialogue, taking turns ringing a bell, brushing their teeth and doing various assorted strange activities with sexual implications. I've come to expect that everything I see at Yale will be weird. This was also very entertaining, clever and at times quite funny. The performers were all actresses in the drama school, and they conceived and wrote this show, too. They were very talented.

More culture will happen tomorrow when I see the symphony. Yay for access to quality arts!

Court is not in session!

2011-02-17T18:52:00.001-05:00

I just got the most amazing news. I was scheduled to go in for jury duty tomorrow at 8:15 a.m., and stay Who Knows How Long. But the instructions I received suggested calling the night before for a pre-recorded message that would tell me whether my services were needed. On the recording were a list of names of people who were not needed, and mine was among them.

I feel like I've regained a day of my life. What a precious gift. I will have to make the most of it. I could, for example, study for my Investment Management midterm! Hahaha. No, really, I could have some kind of adventure. But what ...

Are you on board, fellow?

2011-02-15T15:53:00.000-05:00

A little over a year ago, a second-year student named Brian asked the first-year members of Q+ (the LGBT club at school) if anyone would be interested in succeeding him for a year-long stint on the board of CABO, the state's first and only LGBT chamber of commerce. I said I would, and it was done. Now, in the blink of an eye, my commitment is nearly at an end.

I have therefore been asked to pass the torch. But rather than just pluck another gay guy from the first-year class and cross my fingers that this system is sustainable, I'm proposing that CABO participate in something at school called the Nonprofit Board Fellows Club. Actually, one of the leaders of this club suggested I approach CABO about this last fall, but sometimes it takes my brain a few months to process a simple piece of information.

This is a club that matches first-year students with nonprofit boards in New Haven. The purpose is, according to the club's materials, threefold -- to give a student a chance to experience board service, to give boards an MBA resource, and to strengthen ties between the school and the community. Because this is a program that's very in line with SOM's mission and will in theory exist going forward, I think joining forces makes sense.

I've said in this blog repeatedly that I was over-committed this year, and I don't think any of my commitments suffered more for this than CABO. Because I never see the fellow board members other than at meetings -- in other words, because I don't bump into them in the hall -- it was easy to prioritize this work below more immediate and pressing concerns at school. Not that I was totally useless, mind you; I used some of my multimedia editing skills several times, scrutinized some budgets and publication materials, attended a regional summit one weekend in Philadelphia (and thereby missed the Spring Formal), manned the front desk at a few mixers and am trying to get some members on campus to speak to students. When I put it that way, maybe I wasn't such a bad board member after all! But I feel like I should have been setting aside, say, one Saturday a month to stuff envelopes and make tons of phone calls. That's what it sounds like Brian did. But that never really happened.

I'm glad I did this, though, because I enjoyed learning more about CABO and board service more generally. I also liked the people on the board a lot and was glad to spend time with them. One takeaway, though, is that if I am going to sit on another board in the future, I will make sure I'm not simultaneously juggling a dozen other things. It's not fair to the board if each seat isn't being occupied by someone with a lot of drive, passion and, most importantly, time.

Celebrate VD with sex trivia

2011-02-14T23:37:00.001-05:00

To honor Valentine's Day, five classmates and I put everything we know about making whoopee to the test at the sex-trivia competition at GPSCY, the grad-school pub. The seven rounds covered all sorts of exciting topics, including the velocity of ejaculate, sex symbols throughout history and name-that-tune. There was even a round during which we had to identify pictures of sex toys.

We came in second out of 25 teams.

Speaking of things that are hot, it started to warm up today -- I think the high was about 53 -- and the snow began turning into an ocean. There are still massive drifts, but progress is good. Now it's gotten cold, but it should warm back up toward the end of the weeks. I am looking forward to the spring flowers.

And speaking of flowers, I was a good son and got my mommy a pretty impressive bouquet, about which she called to express her appreciation. A good tip for all men whose mothers are living: Buy her flowers on Valentine's Day. She'll think you're a hero. And she'll be right!

A lot of people have a distaste for Valentine's Day, but I think it's nice to celebrate love, which takes all sorts of forms, like self-acceptance, music appreciation, passion for good coffee, and of course love of one another.

Don Giovanni: 195 minuti dell'opera

2011-02-13T18:53:00.001-05:00

This afternoon I saw Don Giovanni, a pretty funny opera that uses Mozart's music to tell the story of a womanizing lecher and his semi-faithful servant. It was required for my music class. I was originally a bit wary of the 3.25-hour running time, particularly because I have other things to do today, but as it turns out it was plenty entertaining and worth the time. The professor for this course is also the dean of the music school, so when I submit my impressions per the assignment, I will offer praises, and they will be sincere.

Fortunately, I finished my Investment Management problem set this morning with my friend Sarah. I don't regularly work in coffee shops, but I have to admit that I think I'm a lot more efficient when I do, even when I have the distraction of someone's company. Not having a finance background, I may not seem like a likely candidate to enjoy this class, but backgrounds can be deceiving. We'll see how long that lasts. Right now we're learning about the Black-Litterman model of active portfolio management. Never thought I'd see the day. We have a midterm exam one week from tomorrow.

Tonight I'll be finishing a short paper about the book Blink, which we were supposed to read excerpts from for my Behavioral Perspectives on Management class, although I read the whole thing over winter break because I found it interesting. The book (by Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote The Tipping Point) looks at the amazing power of intuition and how people can, in some situations, be surprisingly adept at reaching accurate conclusions based on very little information. And since a lot of the processing is subconscious, they may not be able to figure out how they know what they know.

In weather news, the high temperature tomorrow is 48, which is stunningly warm and should cause massive (and possibly problematic) melting of the snow. Boots it is.

Q+ day of service

2011-02-12T15:56:00.002-05:00

This afternoon, six members of Q+ (the LGBT club at Yale SOM) spent a few hours volunteering at the New Haven Pride Center. We cleaned the common space, reorganized the storage area and left the place warmer and more welcoming than we found it. It's nice to be able to see the fruits of our efforts. The center is totally run by volunteers, so I think our help was appreciated.

I stayed strong despite a bit of day-after-house-party nausea. En route to last night's affair, my friend Matt and I noticed a sign at a church advertising Christmas Eve services; there was also a nativity scene (pictured) with a special bounty of snack cakes. I'm surprised there's still evidence of Christmas anywhere; even the pride center was still decorated for Christmas (until we undecorated). I'm all for the holiday spirit, of course, but that ship has sailed.

Tomorrow, my weekend continues with some opera. This, when added on to volunteerism and homework, will complete the mature grad-student triad of culture, service and academics, concepts that are the backbone of our great society and that probably sound pretty cool in Latin.

Surreal dinner companions

2011-02-09T21:55:00.001-05:00

What a day. The multicolored appointments in my Outlook calendar were stacked like a totem pole, from 8:30 a.m. until 9 p.m., with the longest break being a half hour from noon to 12:30, during which I shoveled a gyro sandwich into my face.

Fortunately, it was also a great day, full of my favorite classes and activities, culminating in a fantastic kicker: dinner at the Graduate Club -- a 119-year-old private dining club -- with my Leadership Strategies for Music Presenters class and our two guests, incredibly fascinating music writers Anne Midgette and Greg Sandow. We ate in a private room, fireplace roaring, and had fantastic conversation about classical and pop music and arts criticism. We debated whether a music-appreciation education at a young age would really lead to classical concert-going as an adult, how/whether music creativity can or should be taught, and what role music critics do, or should, play, and who they should be writing for. This last topic was especially interesting for me because I was thrust into some classical-criticism assignments at both my papers, basically because I was a pianist. I always had fun at such concerts but found them difficult to write about.

This was the second time I've gotten to enjoy such a thing this week. On Monday, the professor of the Economics & Financing of Journalism class I TA took the students and our special guest David Shribman, editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, out for dinner as well. That conversation, both in class and at dinner, was a little frustrating, because the variety of ways I feel newspapers are missing the boat came flooding back to me. Now that I have the self-confidence (be it justified or not) to offer opinions from both a journalism perspective as well as a business-strategy one, I find it harder to swallow some of the rhetoric that print journalists use to defend their industry, while at the same time I remain skeptical of a lot of the solutions that non-journalist business students propose. It's an industry that needs help but doesn't really seem to embrace an MBA way of thinking. Maybe it's the better for it; who am I to say.

Anyway, regardless of where the conversation leads, these types of evening experiences are very kind of the professors to orchestrate, and I'm sure will be among the most memorable times I take away.

Bloody nice portraits

2011-02-08T21:07:00.001-05:00

My friend, classmate and fellow impending consultant Susan's old art history teacher once said that many artists spent months or even years doing a piece, so the least you can do is spend a full minute looking at it.

After recently discovering we are both blessed with class-free Tuesdays, Susan and I are hitting up some of those "Bucket List" Yale attractions we really should have gone to by now. Our first: The Yale Center for British Art (usually referred to as the British Art Museum).

The permanent collection (pictured) featured mostly portraits and landscapes, which while not always too exciting in and of themselves, often had somewhat interesting back stories in the explanatory plaques. I was particularly impressed with how shiny and wet-looking these several-hundred-years-old paintings were. On the third floor we breezed through the current exhibit, a much more modern and abstract series of pieces by someone named Rebecca Salter, called "into the light of things."

Some of the other things Susan and I want to do are to see the Collection of Musical Instruments, the Beinecke, and the University Art Gallery. It's just a good idea, if you go to Yale or any school, to see these types of popular attractions. Somebody down the line is bound to ask whether I've ever been.

Tonight was the final formal installment of LDP, or the Leadership Development Program, a series of evening sessions for first-year students, for which I was a Second Year Advisor (more or less a TA). We ended on a good note, with a great discussion about goals and strengths. The program gets some heat for being somewhat misfocused; "teaching" leadership is hard to do. But I hope some of the students got something out of it. As for me, my favorite aspect was getting to meet with the first-years in half-hour one-on-one advisory sessions. I much preferred that aspect to having to try to help facilitate the class, and having to play disciplinarian. But, you know, it's a living. (Being facetious there, although we do get paid.)

Speaking of pay, I was pretty psyched to receive half my sign-on bonus from Deloitte today! I'll get the second half after I start work. I must be prudent about it, though, because it's money I'm going to put toward living expenses over the summer, as well as working on some music during that time. Still, though, I'd like to treat myself to a little something I've always wanted ...

Application assignment

2011-02-05T14:47:00.001-05:00

Behavioral Perspectives on Management is, so far, my favorite course of this semester, and probably my favorite elective I've taken at SOM, and thus probably my favorite course of any kind at SOM, and therefore potentially my favorite course I've ever taken of any kind. Any class whose assigned readings are often from The New Yorker = a class I'ma lurve.

Today, I've been working on our first "application assignment," which is a brief paper in which we try to apply a class concept to our real life. We spent time last week talking about the Beltway sniper shootings from 2002. Remember those? We discussed it in the context of "expectancy," whereby one sees what one expects. In this case, there were early reports of a suspicious white van speeding away after the first shooting; once that information was released, there were always reports of a white van. This is, of course, because white vans are common. It turned out that the snipers were never in a white van, but when people were looking for one, of course they saw one.

I think this phenomenon has interesting implications for journalists. Generally, from what I observed, the mission of the newspaper was to inform the public quickly and accurately, but not much consideration was given to any type of psychological, decision-making ramifications. I can't imagine in the newsroom a manager saying, "The police have told us people should be on the lookout for a red truck, but I'm not convinced that they received reliable eyewitness accounts, and if we release that information then people will be subject to an expectancy bias whereby they will miss other potentially relevant pieces of evidence because they will be too focused on looking for a red truck. Therefore, we will not include that detail in the story."

Is it the media's responsibility to choose what it thinks the public should know, for the public's own good? Such a role makes me uneasy, because in the wrong hands, this intention could have scary consequences, like propaganda. Then again, media organizations already determine what it thinks the public should know, on some level. But I think the frame of mind usually has to do with what's true and fair, not what will best aid in solid decision-making.

Anyway, that's what I'm working on. I have an entirely open day, since my original plans were to see "Black Swan," which I saw yesterday, and to go to the Dartmouth-Yale hockey game, which sold out. Whoops. Having seen "Black Swan," I've now seen 5 of the 10 Best Picture nominees. My preference for those movies, in order, is:

1. "The Social Network"

2. "The King's Speech"

3. "Black Swan"

4. "127 Hours"

5. "Inception"

I still need (or would like) to see "The Kids Are All Right" (which I've received from Netflix and may watch this weekend), "True Grit," "Toy Story 3," "The Fighter" and "Winter's Bone." I am going to be teaming up with my friend Carolyn, who actually receives television in her home, to throw what I think will be a small Oscar party. Small because her apartment is small, and small because it's the Sunday after our spring break begins, so people who are smarter and richer than us will probably have flown somewhere tropical.

Star Search

2011-02-04T22:44:00.008-05:00

SOM has something called the Internship Fund, which is a student-run effort to raise money (from other students) to supplement the sometimes-meager wages earned at nonprofit summer internships. Throughout the year, there are various fundraising efforts, among the most fun being Star Search, a talent show.

I participated as a piano accompanist in last year's show, in two acts, but this year I had the pleasure of just watching. It was a good show -- a few singing medleys, some dancing and some humor. In school we often don't get to see one another's talents, so this is a good showcase. More importantly, it was a fun time.

Perhaps my favorite entertainment of the evening was a series of videos that played between skits. Unfortunately, the inside jokes will be lost on people who don't go to SOM, but nevertheless here are links to parts 1, 2 and 3 if you're curious.

Hockey tickets sold out

2011-02-03T08:54:00.002-05:00

Last year I attended the Yale-Dartmouth hockey game, and this year I won't. Tickets are sold out, because Yale's hockey team is #1! Or it was, recently; maybe it still is. I don't really keep up with such things.

Snatching tickets was on my Outlook Calendar every day this week, but I never made it over there, due to a combination of busy-ness and treachery. An ice storm this week made the city not such a pleasure to walk around in. Fortunately, as students we have access to a free shuttle system, both a regular one on a route and a point-to-point service. On my way downtown last night, I was able to take the regular shuttle with no sweat. Coming back was harder, though, because I was returning after regular hours and therefore needed to rely on the point-to-point service.

In theory, this service is great, but in practice, it rarely is. Just about everyone I know has some sort of bizarre or hilarious shuttle fiasco story. Last night's mishap revealed some pretty fundamental operational issues. Observe!

11:48 p.m. -- I call for a shuttle. They said Bus #82 will be there at a little after midnight.

A little after midnight -- I get the phone call that Bus #82 is approaching, so I head down a couple flights of stairs. On my way down, I get another call that Bus #82 waited for me and didn't see me, and drove away.

A few seconds later -- I call the shuttle back and explain what happened. They tell me a different vehicle, Car #16, will be there at about 12:20.

12:20 -- No car.

12:30 -- I call back, and they tell me that there had been an error, and someone else's name (and phone number) was put in for the request instead of me. I ask for a car, and they say Car #16 will be there at 12:40).

12:30 to 12:45 -- No car, but I do see a bus and two other shuttle cars pass by; they don't stop, because I'm not on their list.

12:45 -- I call back to check on the status, and they tell me Car #16 will be there at 1.

1:05 -- I call a freaking cab, which I should have done in the first place. But right after I do, Car #16 shows up, so I cancel the cab.

The kicker in all of this is that I indeed have a car, and so theoretically shouldn't need to deal with any of this nonsense. But my car is buried beneath enough ice and snow that I haven't been motivated to deal with it. But this Monday the high is 41; I'm not sure if that's enough to melt some of this crap, but here's hoping!

Today I saw a man

2011-02-02T00:58:00.001-05:00

Today I saw a man.

A man made of snow.

But what is a man?

And what is snow?

A man is a human.

Snow is wet powder that falls from the sky,

Often, this season.

I saw him,

The man, made of snow.

Fin

127 Hours = Plan B

2011-01-31T22:30:00.002-05:00

A week or so ago, I had plans with my friend Kate to see "Black Swan," but I had to back out due to illness. At the time, the issue was that I was coughing so frequently, I knew I'd be a terrible movie companion. It turned out I had bronchitis.

We rescheduled for the 7 o'clock show tonight, and we eagerly anticipated the creepiness, but there were nebulous technical difficulties, and they were unable to show the film. (Oddly, this was Kate's third attempt to see this movie; maybe it just wasn't meant to be.) Faced with the prospect of either a refund or a voucher, we decided to see another Oscar-nominated depression-fest, "127 Hours," starring Yale's very own James Franco.

It was basically what I expected, but a little more interesting. I think Franco's Best Actor nomination is unsurprising; he has to carry a great deal of the dramatic weight, in scenes with no one to talk to. (Incidentally, Franco is pursuing a PhD in English here and, no, I haven't seen him.) I think it's a little bizarre that he's nominated for Best Actor *and* hosting the Oscars, but then again it seems clear that the show is trying to pull in more/younger viewers.

Anyway, the movie reminded me of that story last year of someone who (nearly) shared my name, age, state of residence and marital status, who had to cut off his arm after it got trapped in a furnace. These stories are something. I'm not sure I'd bother to go to such lengths to escape, but then again maybe some sort of crazy animal instinct would kick in. Who knows. I hope I never do.

Meanwhile, it was a very long day -- a typical Monday -- and I look forward to a very fun Tuesday, with an assortment of enjoyable and entertaining adventures, i.e. no class.

I skied

2011-01-30T17:10:00.008-05:00

My first time skiing may very well be my last time, but I doubt I could have asked for a better setting, or better conditions, than Killington, Vermont. The weekend ski/snowboard trip is an annual Yale SOM tradition -- at least in the two years I've been there -- and a very popular one. About 200 students went; that's about 44% of the class.

I had a really fun weekend. Some people who experienced the weekend with me may not believe that, but it's true. The setting was picturesque. I loved having cocktails by a roaring fire, playing Celebrity with friends. I loved hitting the local bar and observing the athletic locals mingling with all my classmates. I enjoyed the too-expensive meals, and the unexpected "Sex & The City" mini-marathon that took place back at the condo when we were all exhausted. As for the skiing itself ...

I'd never skied before. Never touched skis, actually. Also never rollerbladed. I've ice skated a couple times, over 10 years ago, and was pretty awful at it. I'm also tall and highly uncoordinated. You can guess where this is going: This was not the activity for me.

This is quite an embarrassing confession, but I actually found my beginners' skiing experience on the bunny slopes more terrifying than leaping from an airplane at 12,000 feet. I really did. I know that's crazy. With skydiving, though, I knew I was safe, since it was a tandem jump, and the whole experience was almost too surreal to be scary. Not that I wasn't nervous -- I was, of course. But I wasn't freaking out.

On skis, though, I was freaking out. At first, the sensation was fun. I didn't mind sliding around, and I thought I was in for a brisk, relaxing time, kind of like parasailing. But once we really started going down hills and needing to turn and slow down lest we die, I was not pleased. I never felt in control or that I had any sense of balance, speed or direction, so I was pretty panicky. All I could think about was how easy it would be to break an ankle, twist a knee, shatter my spine or fly off the side of the track into the woods and pull a Sonny Bono.

I guess I don't like slipping and sliding around, and that's OK. I'm very glad I went and got the chance to try it, and hang in Killington. No regrets. No more skiing, either.

The Yale School of Drama presents Ruzante

2011-01-28T07:48:00.003-05:00

I assume everyone is familiar with the groundbreaking comedic work of 16th century Venetian actor/playwright Angelo Beolco. Right? Neither was I. Fortunately, I can access Wikipedia articles from my phone, which is helpful research prior to seeing a show like last night's "Ruzante," based on the writings of Beolco.

The show was apparently a slight derivation from the Yale School of Drama's annual commedia play. This is a type of Italian genre with particular types of stock characters who wore masks. I'm still not entirely clear on how this was a derivaiton and not a straight commedia, as I have nothing to compare it to. Perhaps it has something to do with this show being, I supposed, adapted and sewn together from other translated writings? Not sure about that.

Anyway, the play -- and I believe the whole genre -- was characterized by linguistic humor (funny turns of phrases, misunderstandings and mistakes, etc.), as well as swearing and a bit of raunchy material, which of course was raunchier and more shocking in the mid 1500s than today. Unless I'm just hard/impossible to shock. This is the fourth drama school production I've seen this year, and they've all been radically different. You get a sense, given the context, that there's some inside winking going on in these productions, since they are ultimately and primarily exercises for students. We as the audience are seeing an attempt to learn, explore and experiment, as much as an attempt to entertain. That's a context that matters, and can actually make the experience more interesting and fun.

Meanwhile, I'm mentally preparing to hike several blocks this morning and borrow some winter-weather gear in preparation for the ski trip this weekend, to Killington, VT. It'll be beautiful.

January is snowiest month in state's history

2011-01-27T12:45:00.008-05:00

Yesterday, 6-9 inches of snow were predicted for overnight. But we got more like a foot and a half.

Weather isn't very interesting, I realize, so I've semi-attempted to keep this blog off that topic. That said, this has been a truly grueling, bizarre winter, very unlike last year. And it's not just my imagination; this is apparently the snowiest month in the history of the state! Read that story here.

There are real consequences to the snow, and the cold. For example, we Yale SOM students rely on the kindness of food-cart vendors to eat lunch, as we have no cafeteria this year. (Our cafeteria was converted to study space over the summer.) What if our food suppliers can't get to campus, or don't want to be out in the freezing cold? What will become of our tummies? Fortunately, about five of the carts appeared to have made it to school today, so I am still alive.

But these types of disruptions can really interrupt our little bubble of a world. Another example: This afternoon I have a class, Strategic Leadership Across Sectors, taught by Jeff Sonnenfeld, that relies on prominent guests for discussion. Today, one of our panelists is Sherron Watkins, the famous Enron whistleblower and former Time magazine Person of the Year (2002). Another is Daniel Scotto, also famous for being on the side of justice during that scandal. What becomes of our three-hour class if the guests are delayed? Dunno. Fortunately, all our guests today appear to have made it into New Haven.

The cold, snowy weather also:

1. Causes the floor in our apartment to be wet and dirty.

2. Makes people sick. I blame the weather, in part, for why I was sick for two weeks and developed bronchitis. And lousy feelings abound.

3. It and it leaves people stranded. I've had a couple classes canceled. My roommate had to crash at a friend's house last night because her car got trapped in the snow. One of the two prospective students I was supposed to interview today couldn't make it in, and he was hardly the only one.

4. Related to being stranded is not being able to get anywhere, like the grocery store. The food situation in my apartment is starting to get a little pathetic. If it weren't for leftovers from when my roommate threw a baby shower for two classmates on Tuesday, my dinner last night would have consisted of maybe cereal and a can of beans.

The snow may be beautiful to look at, from inside, but it can cause some ugly problems, and headaches. Fingers crossed we're able to leave town as planned tomorrow at noon, for the ski trip.

Interviewing prospective students

2011-01-26T20:03:00.006-05:00

I had a slightly surreal moment today while interviewing a prospective student. To give a little background, this is a fun opportunity and activity I applied for and have been doing all year; Yale SOM uses second-year students to interview prospective students. Only about 35% of applicants are invited to interview, and of those, something like a third or so of them are admitted. As interviewers, we spend 30 minutes with each candidate, then write up a report about our conversation. That report gets put into the candidate's application file, along with his or her application, essays and other materials, and the whole package is given to the admissions gurus. We, as interviewers, aren't involved in any decision-making per se; we just conduct the interview and write up our thoughts.

Anyway, these interview opportunities come in waves; this week I have 7 interviews, and 3 were today. They take place in different rooms. One of mine today was in the same office where I had my interview in 2009. I was sitting in the exact same spot. And in both cases, I could see the snow falling heavily outside the windows. Of course, in this case, I was on the other end of the conversation, which is definitely the preferable place to be!

The group of us who were selected to be interviewers went through some training, but in general the process is somewhat loose and more or less a conversation. I'm personally interested in hearing about people's motivations, rather than their accomplishments; I think accomplishments can usually be explained nicely in essays and on the application. I more want to know why -- why did you pick this major, why did you leave this job, why do you want to get an MBA, etc. It's really a lot of fun doing the interviews, and it's a great professional/leadership experience for me, too.

This was a very busy day; on top of the three interviews, and three classes -- one of which was three hours -- I also had two hour-long sessions helping first-year students prepare for their interviews tomorrow for summer internships with Deloitte, where I'll be working after school. So I have been tied up from the time I awoke at 6 a.m. until a few moments ago! It's going to be a long night, too, with much reading to do for my one and only class tomorrow. Part of my predicament today came about because I took a few hours last night for an extremely nice, leisurely dinner with my friend Yujie (pictured). We went to Ibiza. We were celebrating having accepted full-time jobs; and we were catching up on our gossip. I'm glad she'll be in New Jersey next year, not too far from where I'll be in New York.

Speaking of internships and jobs, I discovered this week that the internship program in which I participated this summer, at the Associated Press, has been put on hiatus this year. In fact, AP is suspending all of its internships this summer, as it focuses on its core businesses. In other words, it looks as though they don't want to spend the money. It's a shame because there were some first-year students who were interested in AP. Oh well; now I feel especially lucky to have had the experience I did.

Perhaps all the snow we've been getting will be good preparation for the weekend, as I join about 200 of my classmates for the annual SOM ski trip in Killington! Expect some good pictures.

A-tacky of the awful bedding

2011-01-24T21:41:00.001-05:00

I hate my new bedding.

My old bedding was fantastic. It was super comfortable and, I thought, pretty classy -- homey, but not in a kitschy or overly Southern way. Unfortunately, after nearly a decade of use, it was overdue to be retired. To be loyal, I thought a reasonable solution would be to replace it with what seemed to be a slightly different version of the same thing, from the same company. So I went online and did just that. In the thumbnail, it looked fine.

In person, though, it looks dreadful, in a way this picture doesn't even fully capture. It's shiny and has a leopard quality. I'm fuming mad.

I've never returned anything I've ordered online; actually I'm not sure I've ever returned anything, period. But in this case, given what I spent and given that I'll have to live with this decision for a long time, I've inquired about a return. If they deny my request, which I imagine is possible since I did indeed unwrap it, I will donate it to Goodwill and feel like a hero. This is my fault, anyway, for being lazy and taking the order-online shortcut on an item I really should have shopped for in person. Shopping in person is an arduous prospect, though, in weather like this.

I suppose I just got a bit unlucky. Speaking of luck, and chance, we are discussing these very topics in my favorite class, Behavioral Perspectives on Management. Specifically, we're looking at the proven tendency of people to discount the role of chance in everyday life -- to look for meaning and connections in instances that are more likely to be explained just by chance, which, by nature, sometimes manifests in non-random-looking clumps. As an illustration, imagine you were going to flip a coin 10 times in a row. Before you do, write down a sequence of 10 coin flips that you think looks random. Most people will put something along the lines of H-T-H-H-T-H-T-T-T-H. But if you actually take out a coin and flip it 10 times, you'll almost certainly get a sequence that looks less random. When I did it, I got T-T-T-T-T-T-T-H-H-T.

And that happens. People generally do this. By the same token, they look for cause and meaning when there could be cause and meaning, but when it could just be a coincidence. Examples: Cancer clusters, or cities with abnormally high rates of cancer. When this happens, a lot of money is spent finding a cause, usually something environmental. But, then again, there are many, many cities and towns in the U.S. -- and some of them are going to have higher-than-average rates of cancer, for no reason other than chance. Anyway, it's an interesting phenomenon. We had to do an assignment pointing out real-world examples. I discussed people seeing religious imagery in ordinary objects, like this grilled cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin Mary. Given how many objects there are a world, it stands to reason that some of them are going to resemble calm, pious-looking faces, which some people are going to interpret as resembling Jesus, the Virgin Mary or some other religious figure. That's not to say that God doesn't send some signals through your lunch -- anything's possible, and who am I to say? But it is to say chance alone would explain such things, regardless of any divine intervention.

What exactly this has to do with business is perhaps somewhat dubious, and still not entirely clear to me, although you can imagine using this kind of inside psychological information to manipulate customers or employees. Not that I'd ever do that.

Life of leisure

2011-01-23T22:10:00.000-05:00

I may regret saying this, but I really think this semester ain't gonna be too hard, y'all. Neither being laid up with bronchitis during the week nor having lots of fun of the weekend seems to have put me behind, work-wise. That's because there's really not much to do!

I've had time to go out drinking, go out to dinner, catch a movie in theaters ("The King's Speech"), watch a couple movies on DVD, have friends over to hang out ... and I'm still completely caught up on all my readings and work. Plus I've had plenty of time to work with the first-year students who are interviewing this Thursday for internships at Deloitte. This is the life, I tell you. Let's hope it stays this way.

Dangerously attractive

2011-01-18T16:03:00.003-05:00

What a beautiful and miserable day. To walk is to risk frequent falling, as New Haven is covered in ice. But that makes for some beautiful images, my photographs of which I don't think do the real thing justice. I tried to enjoy my time out there in the winter wonderland, but frankly it was totally unpleasant, and I'm still quite sick. In fact, I went to the doctor, and guess what she told me. Guess what she told me. She said, "John, you have bronchitis."

So now I have a five-day regimen of antibiotics that will hopefully knock this junk out of me once and for all. I'm very fortunate that this was a light week work-wise.

Something deeply personal about my feelings

2011-01-17T19:45:00.002-05:00

Yes, illness has won the day. I have tried to overcome the symptoms with medicine and positive thinking, but I'm allergic to the good over-the-counter cold medicines, and positive thinking presupposes a clear-mindedness that left me at the onset of this ghastly disease. I'm just being a baby, though. It's really a cold. But it won't go away! And when you have to brace the horrid winter conditions -- as I did today, because of an appointment on campus -- it's hard to recover.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. Sorry to not be more entertaining. Groan.

Relapse

2011-01-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought I was over the hump in my recovery from a typical cold, I was thrown back into the worst of the symptoms, more extreme than ever, this weekend. Luckily, I don't have class again until Wednesday, so I can afford to rest (i.e. not do work). And my roommate made matzah ball soup, so that's lucky, too.

Prior to this setback, I had two encounters I felt epitomized what I'd hoped for when I came back to school. The first was with a building -- the Gilmore Music Library, pictured above. One of my courses this semester is going to meet in a conference room just off the main library, so I went there to make sure I cound find it. Isn't it remarkable? Some of the study spaces in this school really do look out of a movie.

My second encounter was with a professor and an entire class. I'm TA-ing a course called the Economics & Financing of Journalism; there are 12 students. The professor graciously took us out to dinner Friday night in a private room at Mory's, and I thought it was a really special opportunity to get to spend time with a professor outside of school. When you begin school, you might expect/hope that such evenings will happen, but they're rare -- rare, not totally unheard of. Last semester, for example, a professor for whom I TA'd had the eight TAs to her house for a home-cooked thank-you meal at the end of the course. These are the kinds of things I think are so generous of professors because they needn't be done, but they'll be remembered by students for years and years to come. A more cynical angle is to point out that when we're all in a position to make generous donations to Yale, these are the memories we might remember fondly enough to add an extra 0.

... And there's no night like a snow night?

2011-01-13T23:20:00.000-05:00

Word is that the City of New Haven -- the governing operations of which, frankly, don't impress me -- will be towing cars tomorrow on a certain side of the street so that it can ... who knows. Plow, I guess? So this meant that I had to spend about an hour and a half this evening with a shovel and many layers of clothes, freeing my car from a situation I wouldn't have minded leaving it in for, say, three more months.

Don't think I didn't do a cost-benefit analysis, though. I wondered if the ticket and towing charge would be a premium worth paying. But I decided I'd just handle it myself, as a responsible citizen. It was not easy. But I guess that's the price one pays for a snow day.

Today I got some good news -- the Human Capital Club I co-founded was officially given club status by what's called the Clubs & Finance Committee today. Even though I expected that to be the outcome and would have gone apeshit had it not been, it's always exciting and a relief to get that official e-mail that begins with the word "Congratulations!" So I will have helped leave a legacy at the Yale School of Management for years to come. I think that's pretty sweet.

Today I also had two of my once-a-week courses for the first time: Strategic Leadership Across Sectors, which had a pretty remarkable guest-panelist list of Jim Woolsey, David Carpenter and former U.S. Congressman Chris Shays. The panel spoke of many things, like the security/infrastructure threats that keep them up at night, the recent Tucson shooting and the 1996 Peruvian Japanese embassy hostage crisis. It was fascinating even though I'm struggling a tad to see the direct managerial learnings to be derived from the conversation. Guess that's why they are smart and important, and I am not. After that class, I had Leadership Strategies for Music Presenters, which will normally meet on Wednesdays but which this week was postponed a day because of the snow. It's taught by Robert Blocker, the dean of the music school. Today was just a get-to-know-you introduction, but in the future there will be an impressive roster of guest speakers, too. This is going to be a good semester.

We normally have Fridays off, but tomorrow classes meet because we're off Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I'm not sure why the school feels it necessary to observe the holiday and then take our usual day off away; either give us a day off or don't, I say.

Back to the snow, one good thing about getting super sweaty and nearly passing out from exhaustion is that it's been difficult to get to the gym since I returned from Florida; I've only been once, actually. Between snow storms, illness, early morning obligations and the gym-preventative surgery endured by my gym buddy, it's not easy. But next week. Next week.

There's no day like a snow day

2011-01-12T10:39:00.002-05:00

I've heard different rumors about Yale's history with snow days. One is that the school has never officially had one; another is that it hasn't had one for 31 years. With 18 to 24 inches of snow in the forecast today, students were abuzz with curiosity as to whether today would call for an official cancellation.

It hasn't. But the e-mail we received said, basically, that professors may cancel classes at their discretion, and that regardless, students shouldn't come to class if they feel conditions aren't safe. Two of my three professors officially canceled their classes, and the third said he would hold class but understands if people can't make it and will be taping his lecture for those who miss it. After putting all these pieces together, I decided to postpone two one-on-one meetings I'd scheduled for today, and make this a snow day at least for yours truly.

My plan for the day involves preparing for a lecture/presentation I'm giving tomorrow and Saturday for students who are interviewing for human-capital and HR internships and jobs. The first-year core class that most touches upon these subjects is called Employee, and it is a third-quarter ("Spring-1") class. This means that many students will have barely begun the class when the interview for jobs. So, in my capacity as a co-leader of the Human Capital Club, I thought it would be helpful to offer a sort of Employee crash course for these people, touching on the main subjects. Preparing for this is turning out to be more time-consuming than I'd anticipated, but it's good review for me as well.

Also today I'm going to be doing readings for my first session of Strategic Leadership Across sectors, a three-hour once-a-week class that's very reading intensive and will mostly entail prominent guest speakers. I've also successfully roped some friends into a reading group for this course, so starting next week we'll be dividing the reading, meeting every Thursday for lunch and briefing each other on the highlights.

A final priority today will be watching "Get Him to the Greek," which arrived from Netflix yesterday. I mean, I'm a human being. I have every right to watch a movie. Every right.

Classes are sick! Or is it just me?

2011-01-11T09:21:00.006-05:00

The first day of classes yesterday went well, except that the long day seemed to derail my recovery from a cold I caught over the weekend. But I just slept 10 hours and feel better, and I have no classes on Tuesdays. I do have some things to do today, though, including a morning doctor's appointment, coincidental to my cold. I'm going in to see if they can figure out why my feet have been in pain for years.

Also today I have some practice casing interviews with first-year students who are applying for summer internships at Deloitte, as well as a planning meeting for Q+, a session for the Leadership Development Program for which I am an advisor, and dinner plans with a friend. Fortunately I got so far ahead with work over the weekend that I don't have any pressing studying to do today, although if time allows there are some things I could read.

I'm optimistic about my course load, although it really hit me yesterday that these three-hour classes may be an endurance test. I've never had a three-hour class at SOM before, and this quarter I have three of them, on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. These courses meet just once a week. I think this arrangement is usually made because the professor is a visitor or has some other role at the school, or is very busy and important. The classes have loads of guest speakers on the itinerary, though, so I reckon the extent to which the three hours pass quickly depends on the extent to which the speakers are interesting.

Yesterday's lineup started at 8:30 a.m. with Investment Management, which I expect to be tough for me, but I wanted to take it to, well, learn more about investment management. This is the same reasoning that led me to take Corporate Finance last semester I don't expect to do much financial work in my career, but I consider these subjects critical elements to having a master's degree in business nevertheless. Corp Fin seemed to have many students who were like me, taking the class for "fun." I'm not so sure the same is true in Investment Management, though. Looking out at the crowd, I gathered that I was basically surrounded by future hedge-fund managers. One reason I'm not certain of that, though, is that this is the first semester that first-year students can take electives, and therefore this is the first semester where I've had classes with first-year students, many of whom I don't know. Anyway, I'm not going to let my perception of the class makeup deter me. I'll just do my best and learn what I can. That's the appropriate attitude in a program that doesn't have grades.

In the afternoon I had Behavioral Perspectives on Management, which I think is going to be fantastic. It's about the psychology of errors in judgment, basically. I love that kind of thing. And it's taught by Joe Simmons, who I had last year for Managing Marketing Programs, and he's a great classroom leader. He's a psych PhD who's quite funny and creates a good atmosphere, even though he does exude the somewhat bubble-bursted, melancholy demeanor of someone who knows far too much about the human mind for his own good.

The day ended with that three-hour class, the Economics & Financing of Journalism, for which I'm the TA. So it's basically like auditing the class; I'll attend, participate minimally where relevant and help the professor out with whatever logistics he needs handled, but I won't be doing the assignments. I actually won't be grading the assignments, either. Seems like an easy gig actually. I had lunch with the professor earlier in the day, and he's had quite an interesting career. And, oddly, he grew up in a house that's across the street from the School of Management. Sounds like the setup of a bizarre dream.

Anyway, I had to skip the gym this morning because I knew last night, as I was hacking myself silly, that rest was best. Now it's off to the doctor.

Go to the light

2011-01-10T00:22:00.002-05:00

There was a great article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine about issues that arise in managing one's digital life after death. If I die tomorrow, what would happen to this blog, my Facebook page, my Flickr photos, my years of e-mail and whatever other personal bits and pieces of my life are out there, password protected? The answer is unclear, but coming up with an answer and managing the process is a business opportunity that's becoming increasingly popular to seize. I imagine this will become a particular issue as more older people get online, and as we younger people get older.

I set up a blog for my father during winter break, and he's updating it rather nicely. I'm not going to link to it here because he's trying to maintain some anonymity -- just because he doesn't want to be bothered. It's mostly going to consist of political writings and opinion pieces. I thought it would be fun for him and give him a constructive retirement activity.

This was a nice weekend overall, although I caught a cold. I still managed to check out the Yale Cabaret, run some errands, talk to friends on the phone and enjoy an evening with a gentleman caller. All things I like to do, and all things that will become harder to do when the semester starts in just eight hours.

With that, time to sleep. I have to be all rested for Investment Management tomorrow morning.

Snow, right on time

2011-01-07T16:31:00.002-05:00

As those brilliant meteorologists predicted days ago, we had (and are still having) a nice snowfall today in New Haven. After doing some shopping, my friend Matt and I were lucky enough to enjoy it on some picturesque roads nearby. Enjoy this brief video.

Best practices for taking notes

2011-01-06T11:46:00.001-05:00

With my final semester at SOM beginning in mere days, I am trying to be as fully prepared as possible. To that end, I did quite a bit of organizing yesterday, including a rather deep introspection on what types of note-taking strategies have worked in the past, and which ones I should employ this semester. I want to see if I can finally get this right, because throughout my academic life, I've gotten it pretty wrong.

I feel as though last semester was yet another example of failing to make the best use of my study time, and failing to read and take notes in the most useful and efficient way. Basically I start each term treating class the same, and that's a mistake because each course's best approach will depend on how the professor teaches, what the class is about, and what the requirements are. Is the class discussion-based, or lecture-based? Is it more quantitative or qualitative? Is the material totally new to me, or semi-familiar? Does the professor pass out notes at the start, at the end, or never? Does she post slides online, or just use the chalk board? Will there be mostly short-term deliverables like case write-ups and pop quizzes, or long-term ones like big group projects and exams? Depending on factors like these, it may or may not be useful to take handwritten notes in class, print out all the readings and attack them with a highlighter, or save smartly labeled files to a folder in one's C drive.

In approaching this new semester, I've decided to try to tailor my reading, studying and note-taking for each class based on what type of material is in the class and what the deliverables are. I've tried to reflect on what's worked and what hasn't, and come up with a distinct strategy for each class. A boiled-down version of what I've come up with so far:

Investment Management. This class requires a lot of textbook reading, the material is largely new and unfamiliar to me, and there's math. There's a midterm, a final exam and four problem sets. So I know I'll want to keep track of definitions, formulas and concepts in a place I can easily quiz myself and review them. Hence I'm going to try to use OneNote (pictured above), a program I saw undergrads using in Theory of Media, to keep track of concepts from the reading. I figured I can kill two birds -- learn Investment Management while also learning OneNote, in case I want to use it at work after school. I don't yet know whether the professor will be passing out notes or slides, so I'll deal with that strategy once I observe his behavior.
Behavioral Perspectives on Management. This course, on the other hand, is about the psychology of management. In each class, there's a 35% chance of a quiz, and the assignments tend to be short and personal. There's no exam. So it seems unnecessary to print out or save all the readings, but I'll need to do readings and make sure I get main concepts; so I'm going to keep a handwritten spiral journal.
Strategic Leadership Across Sectors. This is a long, once-a-week class with prominent guests and a shit-ton of reading, mostly news articles, so it would be futile and environmentally irresponsible to attempt to print them all out. However, there is a final, so some type of review-able log of the course will be useful. Hence I'm going to try to keep Word-based summary of key concepts and blocks of readings, because that final is open book.

My fourth semester-long class has changed, and I don't have a syllabus for it yet. I was going to take New Italian Cinema, but a new course was just offered at SOM that I really want to take, and it conflicts, schedule-wise, with the film-studies class. This one is called Leadership Strategies for Music Presenters, taught by the dean of the music school, and it's about the business of putting on concerts. It's limited to 10 people, but I applied and got the OK to enroll (I doubt it was terribly competitive, since most students, by now, probably have their schedules squared away). I also have a quarter-long class that starts in March, Navigating Organizations, but I'll cross that bridge after spring break.

Anyway, I hope that the efforts I'm putting into thoughtful study approaches are sustainable. I know in real life that it's easy to fall behind and get lazy, but I'm particularly excited about these courses and trying to go in with wide-open eyes and a system of constant assessment and scrutiny, not just in academics but in all areas of my life. It's my last chance to do this whole school thing the way I've always thought I could.

Learning to fly

2011-01-04T21:54:00.001-05:00

When I was a journalist on a budget, I was accustomed to booking flights based almost solely on price. This sometimes led me to fly out of and into cities that were three or four hours from my home, all for the sake of saving a few dollars. That habit has unfortunately followed me, and I can only hope that when I am traveling regularly for work, I will learn how to travel properly.

This morning, my alarm was set for 5 a.m., but as is often the case when early morning travel approaches, I really woke up somewhere in the 3 to 3:30 a.m. range and never fell back to sleep. At 6 a.m., a van came to my parents' house to take me to the airport. I flew to Atlanta. At that airport, I took the famous "Plane Train" -- the farthest distance it can go, incidentally. I flew to New York City. I took the AirTran people-mover to the Howard Beach Station. I boarded the A subway and went what felt like 1,100 stops to Times Square. I took the 7 to Grand Central. I took the Metro North back to New Haven, a little less than two hours away. I took a cab home. All in all, I was traveling for about 12 hours.

As I think back, I wonder: Was it really impossible to fly directly into New Haven? How much more expensive would it have been, truly? I could've been home in a matter of hours, probably, rather than taking the entire day.

But home I am, and it's nice to be here. Real nice. There's snow on the ground, but not too much of it anymore. Most importantly -- my car's still here. So were some interesting pieces of mail, including a jury-duty notification. Back in Texas, I got one of those shortly before I moved away, and I was able to check off the "student" box as a legitimate excuse for being unavailable. But here in CT, being a student doesn't appear to be an excuse! So I will be there in a few weeks; hope it lasts only one day.

Ho visto un film -- 'Ladri di Biciclette'

2011-01-03T16:17:00.001-05:00

Today is my full final day in Florida. The itinerary has consisted of successfully sleeping in, burning more than 700 calories to death at the gymnasium, taking a dip in the pool, nearly totally conquering the relatively easy Monday New York Times crossword puzzle, and viewing Ladri di Biciclette, a classic neorealistic Italian film that really translates to Bicycle Thieves but is better known as The Bicycle Thief. This was the third, and will probably the final, movie I reviewed in preparation for a film-studies course I'm taking this spring.

Yesterday, I set up a blog for my father. He is a frequent contributor to the local newspaper's Letters to the Editor section, and doesn't like it when his letters are trimmed, edited or altogether not printed. I suggested he start a blog that would enable him to write whatever he wants whenever he feels like it, and he was intrigued, although since he is 73 I first had to explain what a blog is. He's caught on quickly and has already submitted five postings. In that regard, he's a good example for me. I think it will also give him something enjoyable and constructive to do; that's important when one is retired. I must admit I was somewhat reluctant to suggest, much less help, him launch this, since I don't agree with all his views, but who am I to prevent the healthy expression of free speech?

Visiting Florida is always fun and relaxing, and provides some instruction about retired life, which may seem very away but which I'm sure will be here before I know it. I fear being too sedentary and disconnected; actually I fear that now, not just in retirement. Those of us who are both lazy and introverted constantly struggle to be active and out there, making the most of life.

When I get back to New Haven tomorrow, I will have five full days to both relax and, more importantly, prepare for what will be my final semester at Yale, and probably my final semester of school in my whole life. My hopes and goals are high, so here's hoping they stay that way!

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T09:17:00.002-05:00

It is 2011. I celebrated last night with a couple cocktails, a good meal, games and, of course, jumping into the pool at the stroke of midnight. Fortunately, it has warmed up in South Florida, and fortunatelier, our pool is generously heated.

I like to make New Year's resolutions, or at least engage in a few moments of New Year's self-reflection and goal-setting. This year, a few weeks ago in fact, I took a different approach. Instead of looking at myself and thinking about what I wanted to change, I started with a blank sheet and detailed how I thought I'd describe the perfect man if I met him. What would he be like? I listed about two dozen things, some of which I'm further from than others. I'm not yet certain how much time I'll invest in transforming these ideals into specific goals or actions, but I have a good place to start to make at least one or two improvements. I think it's good for one to always strive toward improvement!

Example: I've decided to audit an undergrad European history class this semester, because I've never taken European history and think a well educated ("perfect," dare I say) person would know some things about European history. If this is what I think, regardless of whether it's right or wrong, I should act accordingly.

Anyway, last night was fun. Text-messaging technology enabled me to exchange several good wishes for a happy new year -- in both Eastern and Central time, since I still have friends back in my home state of Missouri and in Texas, where I lived before returning to school. Speaking of returning to school, that's what I'll be doing in three days ... and just when it's finally starting to be beachgoing weather, too. Will have to take advantage today, since the gulf is just a short walk away.

Disney pictures

2010-12-31T13:55:00.002-05:00

The arrival of my USB cord in the mail has enabled me to extract the dozens of glorious photographs taken during my recent trip to Disney World. I am compelled to share a few. Scroll over for captions, if you wish!