this is basically the topic of the essay I am writing right now. Writer's block.......
We are supposed to reflect on what our flaws are. I suppose it is a really good exersize, but how good is it to doing it under timre pressure? 5000 words, that is 15 pages double spaced. Damn it, I should have started earlier.
This sucks, having to think about what the hell is wrong with yourself, and put it on paper, all in one day.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
martini time!
It's spring again! This means it's time for some good martinis.
Two weekends ago I went to pick up a bottle of Bombay Saphire, and some canned litchi. I figured that a martini is a martini, and I could make it in a regular water glass, and drink it out of a red wine glass. Oh boy, it tasted no good at all.
So this weekend, I went to get a nice bottle of vermouth, and picked up two real martini glasses. I figured, if I spent 30 or 40 francs and get to enjoy my drink all year, it's well worth it. So I went to Globus, a pretty high end department store. They had a good selection of Vermouth, and some really nice glasses. The Vermouth (Noilly Prat) was about twice as expensive than I thought it would be, especially given we are in Europe (b school speak: the transportation costs are a lot lower), but the martini glasses were also a lot cheaper than I thought at $4 a piece.
Hmmmmmm.......
With a nice martini like this, what else could I wish for.
Two weekends ago I went to pick up a bottle of Bombay Saphire, and some canned litchi. I figured that a martini is a martini, and I could make it in a regular water glass, and drink it out of a red wine glass. Oh boy, it tasted no good at all.
So this weekend, I went to get a nice bottle of vermouth, and picked up two real martini glasses. I figured, if I spent 30 or 40 francs and get to enjoy my drink all year, it's well worth it. So I went to Globus, a pretty high end department store. They had a good selection of Vermouth, and some really nice glasses. The Vermouth (Noilly Prat) was about twice as expensive than I thought it would be, especially given we are in Europe (b school speak: the transportation costs are a lot lower), but the martini glasses were also a lot cheaper than I thought at $4 a piece.
Hmmmmmm.......
With a nice martini like this, what else could I wish for.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Accounting
Still hate it. The old grumpy irish man accounced last week that hte quiz this monday was going to be on cash flow statement. Somehow I missed that statement, and studied 5 hours for things since the finals (cash flow statement was taught before the last finals, a topic covered in the final, although not tested), obviously wrong. Screwed up the quiz again.
Emailed him after the quiz, he was totally unsympathetic. What an ass. Why doesn't he post what quizes will cover on the MBA web site like all other professors?
Not sure why this guy just hates Asians. In the first class, he said the Chinese are bad in accounting. ..........
Emailed him after the quiz, he was totally unsympathetic. What an ass. Why doesn't he post what quizes will cover on the MBA web site like all other professors?
Not sure why this guy just hates Asians. In the first class, he said the Chinese are bad in accounting. ..........
Saturday, April 08, 2006
making do
They are the things you do when you are poor, especially when you are a student. You make do. You find creative solutions to problems that can be easily solved. I drink a lot of wine. Although I have had to slow down because of the rigor of school, I still find time to have a glass every two or three days.
To help me avoid the "hard work" in using a regular bottle opener (I normally use the screw with an opposing a rest on the bottle, which really isn't much work since you could open the bottle with one hand), my buddies gave me an opener with a giant needle, and a little canister of compressed air. You shuff the needle into the cork, press on the canister, the compressed air gets injected into the bottle, and out comes the cork. Easy. They warned me: "you just can't use it on those rubber corks."
Ok, I will just have a regular tool for that. Most old world wines don't use those rubber corks, and I haven't ran into one until this week. Preparing a spainish mackrel one night, I thought, hey, let me open a bottle of white. Oh crap! After I took off the wrapper, I saw the rubber cork. Having not had to deal with rubber corks so far, I still haven't gotten around to buying a bottle opener. Well, let me try it anyway. Stabbing the needle into the bottle was a little harder than usual, but hey, what the hell. Pushing the little canister, nothign happened. Crap. I want that white with my mackerl.
Pulling the needle out. Well, maybe if I just stab enough holes in that thing, I could get enough wine out for tonight. I put another 5 holes in that thing. The wine was bearing dripping out. I guess the rubber was designed to expand to seal the wine in. You know what, knowledge is accumulated. The smart ass I am quickly came up with an engineering approach. If I stab the need in, tilt the bottle so the compressed air is now trapped at the bottom, there would be enough pressure to push some wine out of the little holes I poked earlier.
And what do you know, the wine was shooting out of the bottle!
(kids, don't try this at home, compressed air is not safe!)
To help me avoid the "hard work" in using a regular bottle opener (I normally use the screw with an opposing a rest on the bottle, which really isn't much work since you could open the bottle with one hand), my buddies gave me an opener with a giant needle, and a little canister of compressed air. You shuff the needle into the cork, press on the canister, the compressed air gets injected into the bottle, and out comes the cork. Easy. They warned me: "you just can't use it on those rubber corks."
Ok, I will just have a regular tool for that. Most old world wines don't use those rubber corks, and I haven't ran into one until this week. Preparing a spainish mackrel one night, I thought, hey, let me open a bottle of white. Oh crap! After I took off the wrapper, I saw the rubber cork. Having not had to deal with rubber corks so far, I still haven't gotten around to buying a bottle opener. Well, let me try it anyway. Stabbing the needle into the bottle was a little harder than usual, but hey, what the hell. Pushing the little canister, nothign happened. Crap. I want that white with my mackerl.
Pulling the needle out. Well, maybe if I just stab enough holes in that thing, I could get enough wine out for tonight. I put another 5 holes in that thing. The wine was bearing dripping out. I guess the rubber was designed to expand to seal the wine in. You know what, knowledge is accumulated. The smart ass I am quickly came up with an engineering approach. If I stab the need in, tilt the bottle so the compressed air is now trapped at the bottom, there would be enough pressure to push some wine out of the little holes I poked earlier.
And what do you know, the wine was shooting out of the bottle!
(kids, don't try this at home, compressed air is not safe!)
Americano
Today, I felt like a stupid American. Well, I live in Europe, so this should be nothing new.
Background:
As a part of the MBA program, we work with a startup. Be it help them with fund raising, distribution, writing a business plan, or a marketing plan, we do it. There is no fee for the startup. First because we are just a bunch of yahoos trying to figure stuff out, second, they are startups, where the hell on earth are they going to find money to pay us. Most of them are just getting by. The startup I am working with is JMC Guitars. They custom make high end guitars that retail at 8000CHF (around 6,500USD). I met with them this morning. Oh, another piece of important information that might be important, you know how great my french is from my other postings.
So we were talking about positioning and distribution, and comminucation this morning. We talked about possiblly partnering with other luxury goods makers, to display our great guitars. The entrepreneur said: "oh, that is a good idea. You know companies like Vouis Vutton and 'Elmass' funitures. Elmass selects their leather just like we select our wood, and they dry it like we do. You know, there might be something." So, I thought I knew the luxury goods segment pretty well, at least the big names. Never hear of Elmass. But I am going to stay quiet. After all, I really don't know the luxury furniture market at all, and the Swiss have all these ultra expensive luxury goods companies that survive on selling two $200K sofas a year.
Three seat down, Liesal, from Nimbia, asked: 'how do you spell that?" Oh, thank god someone asked. I would love to find out who Elmass is, with a spelling and Google, it wouldn't be all that hard. Christos, the Greek next to him said: "it's h - e - r - m - e - s"
"Ahhhhh." Duh, I thought, and yelled out loud: "Her-mees". The room went silent for about half a second, and man, you should have heard the laughters. Finally the Brazilian next to me picked himself off the floor, and patted me on the shoulders: "you Americans...... Hahahah."
Background:
As a part of the MBA program, we work with a startup. Be it help them with fund raising, distribution, writing a business plan, or a marketing plan, we do it. There is no fee for the startup. First because we are just a bunch of yahoos trying to figure stuff out, second, they are startups, where the hell on earth are they going to find money to pay us. Most of them are just getting by. The startup I am working with is JMC Guitars. They custom make high end guitars that retail at 8000CHF (around 6,500USD). I met with them this morning. Oh, another piece of important information that might be important, you know how great my french is from my other postings.
So we were talking about positioning and distribution, and comminucation this morning. We talked about possiblly partnering with other luxury goods makers, to display our great guitars. The entrepreneur said: "oh, that is a good idea. You know companies like Vouis Vutton and 'Elmass' funitures. Elmass selects their leather just like we select our wood, and they dry it like we do. You know, there might be something." So, I thought I knew the luxury goods segment pretty well, at least the big names. Never hear of Elmass. But I am going to stay quiet. After all, I really don't know the luxury furniture market at all, and the Swiss have all these ultra expensive luxury goods companies that survive on selling two $200K sofas a year.
Three seat down, Liesal, from Nimbia, asked: 'how do you spell that?" Oh, thank god someone asked. I would love to find out who Elmass is, with a spelling and Google, it wouldn't be all that hard. Christos, the Greek next to him said: "it's h - e - r - m - e - s"
"Ahhhhh." Duh, I thought, and yelled out loud: "Her-mees". The room went silent for about half a second, and man, you should have heard the laughters. Finally the Brazilian next to me picked himself off the floor, and patted me on the shoulders: "you Americans...... Hahahah."
Sunday, April 02, 2006
could men and women be just friends?
Yes, yes. I know this is a well discussed topic.
It came up again tonight after dinner with Charlie and Katia. In my experience, it is possible. Althought I have wavered a bit on this topic in the last few years. I have had a diverse set of experiences.
There has been at least one occasion when I fell in love with a good friend. I was 16, I think I just couldn't tell between great friendship and love. But once we cleared things up (or she cleared things up by telling me that she didn't want anything except friendship), we went back to being good friends again. Didn't miss a beat. As a matter of fact, I am actually the godfather of her daughter. See, it works.
I could name a few good female friends whom I have never had a sexual thought about. But, I will also say that as I grow older, I find it more difficult to build profound friendships with women. Not that I don't want to become good friends with women any more, but I think as you get older, the more in contact with the real world you are. Unfortunately, the majority inhabitants of the "real world" don't believe in friendship between men and women. And that has had an impact on me.
For example, my ex-grl friend repeatedly ask me about this good friend I have had since college: "come on, honestly, you have never had ANY romantic feelings for her." No. I can honestly say never. In this case, my ex even knew the good friend since college, but still, she suspected. I think attitudes like this do have an impact.
Imagine you becoming good friends with a member of the opposite sex. Let's say me, with a women. Now I have two things to worry about. First, what does the husband of the women approve of this friendship, and the fact that I have lnuch with her once every other week just to catch up. Second, what do I say when I go home, and my girl friend (or wife) ask whom I had lunch with? I wouldn't question the friendship beyond what it is, but the environment does, and makes it more complecated than it is.
Things just get more completed when you grow up. Peter Pan rules, he never had issues becoming good friends with Wendy.
It came up again tonight after dinner with Charlie and Katia. In my experience, it is possible. Althought I have wavered a bit on this topic in the last few years. I have had a diverse set of experiences.
There has been at least one occasion when I fell in love with a good friend. I was 16, I think I just couldn't tell between great friendship and love. But once we cleared things up (or she cleared things up by telling me that she didn't want anything except friendship), we went back to being good friends again. Didn't miss a beat. As a matter of fact, I am actually the godfather of her daughter. See, it works.
I could name a few good female friends whom I have never had a sexual thought about. But, I will also say that as I grow older, I find it more difficult to build profound friendships with women. Not that I don't want to become good friends with women any more, but I think as you get older, the more in contact with the real world you are. Unfortunately, the majority inhabitants of the "real world" don't believe in friendship between men and women. And that has had an impact on me.
For example, my ex-grl friend repeatedly ask me about this good friend I have had since college: "come on, honestly, you have never had ANY romantic feelings for her." No. I can honestly say never. In this case, my ex even knew the good friend since college, but still, she suspected. I think attitudes like this do have an impact.
Imagine you becoming good friends with a member of the opposite sex. Let's say me, with a women. Now I have two things to worry about. First, what does the husband of the women approve of this friendship, and the fact that I have lnuch with her once every other week just to catch up. Second, what do I say when I go home, and my girl friend (or wife) ask whom I had lunch with? I wouldn't question the friendship beyond what it is, but the environment does, and makes it more complecated than it is.
Things just get more completed when you grow up. Peter Pan rules, he never had issues becoming good friends with Wendy.
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