The move to Switzerland and everything in between

fiber Internet!

2010-12-03T09:34:00.000+01:00

dslreports:9.5 megs down2 megs upThis is awesome!!!!!!!

an anthropologic view on Facebook?

2010-11-15T08:52:00.002+01:00

Was talking about Facebook with YiChun and the role it plays in her life. We both agreed that she didn’t even facebook two years ago. Now she is on it every day. Why? I wanted to understand.Her family facebooks. So? They call, you talk. But much more than that, you have a conversation over the phone just a few times a week, at most. But Facebook offers you the kind of everyday details

Le Montagne - Chardonne

2010-10-31T11:28:00.000+01:00

Sia: Autumn Menu: Foie Gras in soup veggie, Risotto in with very little sticks of black truffle, pigeonYiChun: Sea scallopsFood:You can see through the presentation that the cook had put a lot of thought into the food. Two generous slices of Foie gras were laid out with rock salt crystals on top, bringing some sweat out. The risotto was tasty in its own right with the mix of cheeses blended in

2010-10-31T09:24:00.000+01:00

old ladies.... curls in the hair

2010-09-12T16:42:00.002+02:00

YiChun is off to Germany for a week. I am taking advantage of the last bit of summer sun on the little balcony we have. Sipping a glass of champaign, having some bread of "campagn" with some Manchego, some tastless latteria magro,a bit of yummy formage aux Noix (soft cheese with walnuts) and jambon cru campagne fume (smoked ham), I am having a the time of my life. Down below, on the neighbor's

after mexico scored 1-0 against france in the world cup

2010-06-17T21:55:00.002+02:00

The lone mexican player got past the french defense, the french goalie went for the fake and mexico scored.A: Why were the french all standing around and not doing anything to stop him?B: The french work 35 hour weeks and the clock just clicked over. The mexicans work 60 hour week so they kept going.

Lancia club in Lucca?

2010-05-18T10:13:00.002+02:00

For the Lancia fans. Went down to Cinque Terre for the weekend and saw this...

hunger games

2010-04-26T16:03:00.000+02:00

if you haven't read it and need a book for the beach... Get it!

car trouble

2010-04-26T15:55:00.003+02:00

I guess the car has to give me some kinda battery related trouble every other year. Went to take the car to the only supermarket that has some resemblance of American supermarket in size, only to find out the car won't start. The lights come on, everything electric works.One successful jump, unsuccessful restart, and a new battery, and two days later, we are back in business. I really crossed

are we going overboard to create a false sense of security?

2010-02-03T03:00:00.004+01:00

are all these 21-year old anti-drinking rules resulting in fewer drunks in America than in Europe?Last nite, I went to Whole Foods to get some fruits, they wouldn't let me buy a small bottle of port because I didn't have my ID with me. Fine. Fair.Today, I went again to pick up a a couple bottles of beer to go with my lunch. I made sure I brought my Swiss driver's license. Still no dice. I

food in Taiwan

2010-02-02T07:13:00.002+01:00

watching the travel channel. Some dude (bizarre food) is in Taiwan chowing down some stuff.The first stop I caught was him at some place eating stinking tofu. He didn't do so well. Couldn't stomach it. Then he tried the 1000 year old eggs. Didn't do well either.Stop II. Scheelin night market. Oyster fry with egg. He survived. Chicken butt. Survived. Then he went shrimping which was

back to the states!

2010-02-02T06:13:00.002+01:00

Woowooooo! I am back! Haven't been back for 6 month and I am happy to be in the states again. At least I can speak the language!Two observations/experiences. On the way from SFO to Los Altos, I was reminded by how many cars were on the road of the Economist article that Americans on average generate at least twice as much CO2. Just on my SFO to hotel trip, I have driven more than I did in

balut

2010-01-28T19:26:00.002+01:00

So I ate one. I have never been soooo scared of an egg before, or any food of any other kind. I guess I have finally been able to understand other people's fear of various types of food I have ingested (bat, snake, sheep testicles, brains, intestins). I heard they used it on Fear Factor?

little duckies

2010-01-27T16:50:00.004+01:00

went to Paris for the weekend. Maybe more on that later. We did have some fantastic food (Thanks, Stu!). But the most "interesting" story is a continuing saga.We went to have some Vietnamese food. On the way back to the metro, we stopped by an Asian grocery store, just to see what is available. YiChun and I both love food shopping.We bought some Asian pears and didn't find anything that

getting openLDAP to compile on snow leopard

2010-01-05T11:58:00.001+01:00

1. go get BerkeleyDB http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/berkeley-db/db/index.html. Compile it and get it working.2. use the following when running configureLDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/lib CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/include ./configurefollow the rest.....

the exciting media and us

2009-12-06T11:37:00.004+01:00

since I have been sick, I decided to spend this sunday morning reading something interesting and spend my time quietly. So I am reading the DIscovery magazine while listening to Ashkenazy play Bach's Well Tempered Klavier. An article triggered me to go over to discoverymagazine.com's blog section. I read down the blog trying to find what I was looking for when I stumbled on a link to Jon

Perlman is like the Samantha in Sex in the city?

2009-11-15T11:48:00.003+01:00

this morning, I woke up and put a Mozart CD in and started listening. Requiem soon became way too serious for Sunday morning. I know it would take me closer to God, but it's just not feeling like one of those Sunday mornings.So I turned to a newly acquired Oistrakh playing various violin sonatas (disc 52 of this series).A discussion with YiChun over skype ensued. Oistrakh's Back sonata really

Arrau & Francois

2009-11-12T20:54:00.002+01:00

Been listening to the collection of Arrau's last recordings (in Switzerland). Dad told me if I liked his Debussy's girl with flexen hair, I should listen to Francois.I did and must admit that Francois plays Debussy with a very different style, a much more active one. The music is still absolutely amazing. They do have different take on the music. Not just with girl with flexen hair. I have to

apple mail & SMIME

2009-11-12T00:21:00.002+01:00

Thawte announced a while back that they were cutting off the free personal cert and at least, they are replacing it with a free VeriSign class 1. I wonder if VRSN ever made that $500M acquisition worth their while. NetSol?Anyway, I never tried to make Apple Mail send out smime mail b4 so I thought I would give it a try. I have to say, I am not really impressed how complex Apple has made it. I

playing with iPhoto 09's face recognition

2009-11-07T18:17:00.002+01:00

Interesting results.It asks me to confirm 4 pictures of Maria B. In the 4, two of them are actually Maria, and two of them are Jorge. (I am not sure what that says about Jorge or vice versa)It asks me to confirm 5 pictures of Janeth. OUt of the 5, two were Janeth, and two of Katya. I think the 5th was a bit blurry.It also mistook my wife as Sandra F on one occasion.

TGIF!

2009-11-06T19:36:00.002+01:00

This week wasn't too tough, but I found myself just feeling sooo couped up inside. I just couldn't wait to get off work. After I finished that presentation, I really felt like getting some fresh air, not the kind of "fresh air" in the bar. So I decided to so something I have never done in Switzerland (actually I don't really find myself doing it in the states, but I was driving a Honda).I went

We went hiking

2009-09-22T23:32:00.004+02:00

and winded up...a big black cow chased us around..... because she didn't like me singing the pink panther theme.We started filming this because she wanted a picture with the sweet looking cows. You can tell how much she loves cows - like best buddies.Before the chase.Of course, the cameraman had to ditch filming because of the chase.Then after...Then she commented on what happened.Then we

upgrading to snow leopard

2009-09-08T22:21:00.002+02:00

the directory service is still burning up a lot of CPU for no good reason.The upgrade killed my openldap install so I had to install from scratch.This meant compiling the berkely BD. LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS are absolutely crucial to doing this on OSX. Google provided good help there.Orchestrator is still loading up with JVM 1.6 instead of 1.5.0 even with the hack. Don't know what is going on there.

i love TV, I love the bar

2009-09-02T03:53:00.003+02:00

been a tough few days.After VMworld, I had to unwind n0 matter how tired I am. So I ended up at the irish bar next to the hotel.Beer, wings.... boy, i didn't realize how much i miss it.then back to the hotel. TV!!!!!!!Swiss TV SUCKS dead goats!American cable rocks......... Ｉmiss it.

eeepc update ui

2009-08-26T14:23:00.002+02:00

first time I am running it. it just crashed on me. I think the updates are still running since the ps outputs suggest it's still alive.There is no way my wife would know that if she is the one running the update.......Also noticed that asus disabled the update button on firefox and only allows you (in the UI) to install newer versions of firefox through their update server. The problem is that

1st thoughts on the eeepc 1000

2009-08-26T14:14:00.002+02:00

not sure if the hype of ssd is paying off. Maybe it's the processor and memory spec that is slowing the down.The thing shipped with Xandros linux by default. Not bad, kinda cute. The keyboard is a bit clunky, and feels cheap, but I suppose what is what you would expect from asus.Why do the xandros UI folks choose to model their UI after Windows? There are plenty of good examples out there.

wise words.......

2009-05-12T16:59:00.000+02:00

Nature commits no errors; right and wrong are human categories.-PARDOT KYNES, Arrakis Lectures

Quote of the day

2009-04-22T19:42:00.001+02:00

It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.' - Sam Levenson

vision for a company

2008-12-23T10:24:00.003+01:00

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-12/ff_ozzie?currentPage=allintriguing read. It makes me wonder, in VMware, we do have someone doing this kinda stuff, right? We need a vision, a concrete one.Another thought. Is MS just a good place to foster good managers? Thus far, I have really like Maritz's stuff, he too comes from MS. Cerrtainly Ray Ozzie doens't come from MS, but he works

jump starting the freakin' car

2008-12-04T22:03:00.005+01:00

hats off to German sports car maker......................... You have made jumping a car soooo freaking complicated, and the relevant portion in the manual so disjointed. Un-Deutsch und unglaublich. We accidentaly left the GPS plugged in. You would think the car would shutdown the aux power when its not running. Anyway, we were left with a great car that won't start. We were able to

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T22:40:00.003+01:00

As expected, we will not be celebrating Thanks Giving with a Turkey this year. Instead, we are heading out to Barcelona for the long weekend.Pretty tired now from working the whole day. Had lunch with Manu. For those from the Ecole, he moved out to Chicago 1.5 years ago. Suddenly, I am thinking of a friend from the east coast. I hope you are having Thanksgiving with your mom and things are

St. Laurent

2008-11-25T18:47:00.002+01:00

Today, we enjoyed a bottle of St. Laurent from Austria: Hoepler - Erwein 2005It's a bit light compared to the Malbec, tempranillo, Chianti, or french wines we normally like, but has yet enough flavor, and is slightly sweet to match with the mild venison Entrecote we had.I think it's a wonderful match, but also offers such an Austrian flavor that makes me think there is probably enough emotional

what a week

2008-11-22T20:35:00.002+01:00

Lufthansa pushed the flight back yet again...... I am sitting in Munich after a long haul flight from SFO.looks like some changes are coming down the pipe. Hopefully the situation will improve at work. It will be a hard couple of months, but hopefully all for the better. It's amazing how one person's actions could impact so many people's lives.Much learning on the job and life. Makes things

are we becoming dumber?

2008-11-13T01:43:00.002+01:00

The Perils of Public Chic. - an op ed from WSJ provided plenty of food for thought for Mark and me. This reminds me. The American people deserve more credit than I give them. I didn't think America was ready for a black president. I can't believe I would say this, Bush actually accelerate the giant leap forward by screwing stuff up so badly.Like the Chinese proverb: Mr. Tsai's loss of a great

The 80/20 rule in marriage

2008-09-20T23:59:00.002+02:00

From the movie: "Why did I get married?"In most cases in marriage, you are only going to get 80% of what you need. So here comes this woman offering the 20%, because you ain't gettin' it, you think you are getting 80%. Only when you go with her, and you end up with 20.

back in America

2008-09-12T18:24:00.004+02:00

For two weeks of meetings and VMworld.Oh do I miss it.Was watching the show Rachael Ray has. Never seen it before since it came on after I moved to Switzerland. (Looks like her voice is more horse, she put on some weight, and she just looks plain tired. Slow down, girl!)Jerry Springfield was on that day. On the question of what kind of food they provide in the backroom for guests, Springfield

Russia has invaded Georgia!

2008-08-22T18:36:00.002+02:00

My dear Americans, For those of us living abroad, sometimes these kind of posts just don't help persuading how great America is, no matter how hard we try to convince people near us.

before naming your child

2008-08-10T13:54:00.005+02:00

ah, one of the often talked about topic. You want our child to have a special name and yet not be ridiculed. With so many bad examples, one should just google a name before you name your child. I had a friend in college of Greek descend, his name was Clito. It's ok, just a Greek name, but did you ever think that you are giving birth to your son in an English speaking part of the world and

when voters lie

2008-08-03T08:37:00.001+02:00

Excellent article on wall street journal on political surveys and voters:

what would you do?

2008-08-02T23:56:00.002+02:00

Friends came to visit from Ireland this weekend. Younger of the two sons was a student of YiChun's. The older son is autistic. It's really touching to see how much effort both parents put into raising the son. Not only are the parents, the younger son also takes responsibility in watching over his older brother at times.Last night, I asked myself what I would do if I had a child like that. I

Wedding pics

2008-06-10T19:01:00.002+02:00

These are the most hi quality ones since Love who is a professional took them.........Check back often. I am sure there are more to come.Sia

why does everyone keeps asking.....

2008-05-29T00:07:00.002+02:00

"Are you nervous?"No, I am not really. I think I was tense a couple days ago because of work. I am cool about Friday though. Everything is pretty much done except the party favors that were supposed to have arrived from Germany today. But that's ok. YiChun are now picking out music for the party. Gettin' married is actually kinda fun. :)

gettin married

2008-05-18T14:50:00.002+02:00

ah, the Swiss government just informed us two days ago that we have to get married on May 30th. So we are having the civil ceremony, and a dinner party for the friends nearby.A little surprised? So are we.Check out the web page.

Urgh.... OS X 10.5.2 & Juniper SSL VPN

2008-03-06T14:54:00.002+01:00

IT had some issues with the SSL gateway. I think they must have upgraded to solve the problem. As a result, when I connected up this morning, it forced me to install a new client and that is where all the problems started. First the software wouldn't install. Then throwing the Network Connect software away didn't help. When I did finally get it to install, I got stuck where it was executing

HP Laserjet 4 m plus on OS X

2008-03-03T08:03:00.002+01:00

what a pain....... If you don't know how it works.It wasn't available in the drop down for OS X. The new OS X 10.5 drivers from HP doesn't have it either.On windows, duplex works, and everything is cool.The printer kept printing everything twice and ignore all duplex setting when printing from the Mac. So here is what it all came down to. To get the Laserjet4m plus working, you have to use the

On March 5th, 1979..............

2007-10-05T23:57:00.000+02:00

I turned 4. Our family spent a year in Vienna with an Austrian family. Today, I went to visit that family. They were kind enough to dig up some pictures of me. I must admit that I really don't remember that much of that year - I was only 4. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, and you be the judge whether I was a cute kid or not.

St. Moritz

2007-09-23T10:26:00.000+02:00

Highly recommended! Go in off season, stay in one of the villages 5km away from it and you too can experience what Prince Charles does every winter. I experienced one of the nicest surroundings in Switzerland. The lakes, the mountains were simply mesmerizing. It was truly incredible. They have maps you can take for free at the tourist information right in the villages. For hiking, they will

state side for a few days

2007-09-23T10:11:00.000+02:00

Went back to the states for three days. It was an interesting experience. I was able to test my idea of moving back to the states. There are certainly plus and minuses. The up side is certainly obvious - I speak the language, know how things work, have friends that make up a fantastic social network, the job opportunities available, the convenience, the amount of entertainment available, the

do you call?

2007-09-07T16:19:00.000+02:00

so, here is the situation.I traveled across the pond to the west coast for an interview. The time on land between flights was three days. I met up with two friends for dinner the first two days. The girl friend of a good buddy lives in that town; she is also a classmate from last year. Even though I might not have the best relationship with her, do I call and maybe hang out the last night

Nice, Cannes, Eze, and Monaco

2007-09-02T16:31:00.000+02:00

Eze, the destination YiChun had talked about for the last six months finally made our travel itinerary. The first trip YiChun and I took after her move here was to the French Riviera (as if the Swiss Riviera wasn't good enough).We stayed in this little hotel at the center of Nice, in the Messena street. It was well located. The seafood in Nice was pretty good. Although I do have to say they

Macintel part 2

2007-08-08T13:00:00.000+02:00

just a couple more things.1. My clock was running a lot faster than my wrist watch. Weird, I thought. System Profiler reported that the processor speed was at 1.4GHz while it's a 1.86GHz Core2 Duo E6300. So I thought my bios setting was wrong. Sure. But fixing that didn't do the trick either. I know that I applied the jAs 10.4.9 and have the 8.9.1 kernel so I shouldn't have the issues with

MacIntel

2007-08-07T10:26:00.000+02:00

Ah, the beauty of OS Y on two heads without having to pay over $2k for just the system.Last year, I put OS Y on my Thinkpad. But it never ran quite smoothly because of the lack of SSE 3 support. Having a MacBook Pro really helped in convincing me of the switch. Long ago, I made a commitment that if a UNIX variant ever had a nice GUI, I would switch. While I am fairly UNIX savvy, it's just a

istanbul

2007-07-03T21:17:00.000+02:00

Was at Istanbul two weekends ago. I was really surprised at how modern Istanbul was. It was clean, orderly, and best of all, the people were friendly! Very few people hassled us, and even fewer people tried to cheat (of course, you have cabbies who would take money from you whenever possible). My friend said: "well, there is no sense of adventure here at all."Pretty cool place to go visit

some reflection on El Chemista

2007-06-07T09:06:00.000+02:00

Reading El Chemista. The section after the boy meets the al chemist in the desert and was given a speech on life.I agree, and wish that things in my life would also work out to be the same. Things and people help you get to where you are supposed to go. Any maybe everything that happens is a part of a larger plan to get me to where I am supposedly going. But I wonder how the boy started, and

been a while, life hasn't been great

2007-05-31T16:27:00.000+02:00

but you still have to find time to have a little fun.

Freak!

2007-04-12T17:39:00.000+02:00

Started taking french lessons this week. The lady is very nice and she seems to be very good at what she does.To supplement my french lessons, I decided to listen to those french lesson tapes when I walk to and from work. To get the most out of the tape, you should always try to "repeat after me." So there I was, walking with ear buds, mumbling to myself. I started to notice strange stares:

strategy time

2007-04-10T22:17:00.000+02:00

Got a board meeting to prepare for. I need to come up with a strategy, a staffing plan, and a budget. :) I guess this is the kinda stuff b school is supposed to prepare you for, and all MBA students hope to do when they graduate. Yet, I just feel nervous. I know, I have done this many times in school, but yet, I still find myself flipping through the ICP ("International Consulting Project"

deal time

2007-04-10T22:12:00.000+02:00

I have something GOOD to announce!Cidway just signed a signature deal with the largest bank in a country straddling Europe and Asia. Even though it's just a pilot, when a bank has millions of Internet banking users does a pilot, they do it for x00,000 customers! (Sorry, I can't really tell you what "x" is)Not only that, we beat out the European market leader! It's pretty exciting!I hope this

long distance

2007-04-02T11:20:00.000+02:00

It's hard. My last relationship endured through two years of long distance. The current one has pretty much been long distance from the get go. We are really happy together, but the distance requires a different kind of romance, and a different kind of passion. Lots of Skype (although I didn't feel it as much last year since I had less say over my schedule, and at least 50 others also kept

wow, she can write

2007-04-02T11:17:00.000+02:00

Banjot, a friend of mine married a writer. I had never read her stuff until recently, and wow, she can write. Meeta was recently published. Here is Banjot's entry about it on his blog.

startups are .......

2007-03-17T02:45:00.001+01:00

It is exciting to work for a startup. There is always a lot to do, and there is always that anxiety about getting your first BIG deal. Then there is the nervous wreck about the details of the deal: the engineer turned sales dude (aka me) sold the world to the customer; the application you are delivering on the platform the client wants has never been installed anywhere, your engineers are not

Leaving again

2007-03-12T13:00:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a nice week and half back in Lausanne. I realized that I need to stop traveling. It's difficult to build a company when you are on the road all the time.Off to NYC to a few days, then down to Orlando for a trade show (actually participating this time). Then comes the part that I am really looking forward to: 3 days on the beach!!!

en route from Singapore to Geneva

2007-03-05T14:37:00.000+01:00

Wrote this on the plane, I am a couple days late posting it.While I travel around the world this month, I have noticed how much my fellow classmates, or ex-classmates from IMD, travel as well.In San Francisco, I met Ihab, who was traveling from Boston. During my stopover in Singapore, I tried to meet three of my classmates but apparently no one was around: Aaron was in Bangkok (I am transiting

finally back in Lausanne

2007-03-04T17:19:00.000+01:00

At last. I am back in Lausanne. Going home to Taiwan was nice; as much as it was home, I still couldn't feel like it was my own space. I was surprised how good it felt to be back in my apartment in Lausanne.Didn't really suffer from much jetleg. I pushed myself to stay up the first day (yesterday) until 10pm. Still waking up at 6:30, but that isn't so bad.Feel much more energetic now, and

back in Taiwan

2007-02-18T03:55:00.000+01:00

Finally made it back in Taiwan, sick as hell, especially after 20 hours in the plane. Had to go see a doctor after I got off the plane. As an honorary participant of the 2007 Swiss flu season who prolonged his doctors visit, I had developed bronchitis. Great, it's exactly what I needed when I am on vacation. Gave up alcohol for the past two weeks because I have been sick, now I am on antibiotic

sound relationship advice

2007-02-05T07:51:00.000+01:00

Got off the plane, and am in San Francisco.Staying with a very good friend in Berkley to hang out, outdate ourselves and save the company money. At brunch, the topic turned to my love life (wel, his is simple, married, new born, you know the drill). He gave some very sound advice when I brought up some of my concerns, especially on timing. "If you know the fondamental things line up, the daily

enroute to San Francisco via New York

2007-02-05T05:34:00.000+01:00

The last three weeks in the new job has been stressful, not as much from a workload stand point, but from a psychological perspective. I suppose ever new jobs brings a level of stress. I thought about it, two things really pilled on top of each other, or maybe even more.1. It’s a new job, a new function, new colleagues;2. I haven’t worked in a year; furthermore, I am used to work with

they don't have chocolate chips in Switzerland

2007-01-26T22:02:00.000+01:00

So what? You might ask.That means no chocolate chip cookies either.If you read one of the entries in early 2006, you would know that I finally admitted that I had become quite American, so life sans chocolate chip cookies is somewhat of a disaster. They do sell PepperRidge Farm chocolate chip cookies at the Coop in town, but they are SOOOO expensive, and there are only 8 in a pack.So, as a part

Life.... Getting it together again

2007-01-14T20:16:00.000+01:00

bit by bit....................Thursday morning, the buzz from my doorbell woke me up. Well, it didn't really, I was awake, just not out of bed. THE MOVERS ARE HERE!They were there to deliver my stuff from the States. It was great. They put together my bed, my office desk, and brought me all my stuff! My stuff! I could finally piece my life together again.I spent Saturday afternoon looking

working for a startup

2007-01-04T00:01:00.000+01:00

two things happened today.1. I re-learned startups are like giant vortex, they just suck you in. I went into work today to run a conference call. I planned to be there for no more than two hours, and ended up spending the whole day there.2. Leadership. I think sometimes I am too afraid to exercise my power, and take responsibility for decisions I take. I tried to run a decision process

Search for the perfect Sauvignon Blac

2007-01-02T20:28:00.000+01:00

Well, since really enjoying the Ave Maria 2000 and 2001 production of Sauvignon Blanc, I have been looking for something that is somewhat similar. I have been looking for a long time. And, what do you know, before new year's, I went to Globus to pick up some wine, and I am not sure what got into me, but I picked up the house Sauvignon Blanc. Good stuff. What do you know, sometimes house wine

setting up the new place

2007-01-02T00:24:00.000+01:00

In less than one week's time in early December, I found an apartment. I must admit that when I first saw it, I wasn't all that impressed. It's in this old building from the 1920s. The double pane windows are actually not double, it's just two windows one behind another. When you close the windows, you have to make sure that the left one and the right one line up so they close! That shows you

America

2006-12-29T00:03:00.000+01:00

I didn't realize how much I miss America until I went back two weeks ago. It was amazing. I totally underestimated how much I miss being in a familiar environment. I understood what everyone was saying, but more importantly, I knew how the system works. I was in my element. I love the availability of merchandise. It's consumer heaven! You can buy anything, any time you want. Instead of a

Transition to the real world

2006-12-28T23:49:00.000+01:00

Making the trip to Israel, working 6 days made me realize that ready or not, I am about to get dumped into the real world again. It was a little rough. I almost feel like a prisoner who has just been released into the real world. I started to wonder if a halfway house would be in order to help me adjust. Working again was an odd feeling. In business school, I have never had to make a decision

where have I been?

2006-12-28T23:38:00.000+01:00

I am just so bad at this blog thing. I need to get behind th wheel and starting writing this more often. Well, I guess I should start updating everyone on what I have been doing since the end of November.Nov 26. - YiChun arrives & Middle Eastern Party at IMDNov 27 - International Cooking Series dinnerNov 28 - School and a couple hours of work at CidwayNov 29 - School and apartment hunting.

What will Sia do after school?

2006-11-18T08:42:00.000+01:00

Well, I have left my blog untouched for a long long time. The last part of the program is now. I am taking electives. The final hom stretch. I only have one more week of class, four days really. Then it's the three days of wrap up, final leadership training type thing (isn't it what we have been doing all year? oh well). November 30th is the official graduation day.So, the last few weeks

Busy weekend - Visit to my god daughter

2006-10-09T11:30:00.000+02:00

Went to Gruyere yesterday. Then went to watch “Perfume”. Today, I took a 2 hour train ride to go see Daniel who just gave birth to a baby two weeks ago, and my god-daughter: Emily. Things are good with them. It’s the first time Emily recognized me, and she was happy to see me. We went to take a walk together, and I let her ride on my shoulders for a while. We painted together, I read her

September

2006-10-09T11:26:00.000+02:00

I found an ice cream joint named after me!Sweden, what a place. Man, the babes! It’s so unfair. The “average” girl there are quite a few notches higher than anywhere else. Amazing. Oh yeah, the reason I was in Stockholm is because of the Ericsson project. I spent three weeks in September working on the project. It hasn’t been the easiest project because of the dynamics in our team. I

August

2006-10-09T11:25:00.000+02:00

Getting back into the swing of classes. But they were not the traditional classes. They were classes in ethics, negotiation, and crisis management. I learned that form an ethics standpoint, I am an consquentialist, someone who thinks the end event is most relevant. Then came the company presentations again. This is when the stress among my classmates started. It’s kinda mass hysteria.

July

2006-10-09T11:24:00.001+02:00

July was a welcomed month off. I did some serious traveling. YiChun and I spent the first week with Steve and Mike in Tuscany. Nothing against my Italians, but I only went because of my buddies wanted to go to Italy. Although I must admit that the house we rented was really really nice. I loved it. Tuscany really was beautiful. I really enjoyed it there. The Italians had better luck than

Cry for me, Argentina?

2006-10-09T11:24:00.000+02:00

Buonos Aires. What a town. I must say the most memorable part of the trip to Argentina was the trip to a ranch outside the city. It was a first hand lesion on how to not screw up the economy for a country. The cattle farmers were in the width of a populist policy (classically Argentinian). The government claimed that the beef export was driving up beef prices in domestically, so it banned

Accounting Relaunch

2006-10-09T11:20:00.000+02:00

Yes. I haven’t updated the blog for a long time. Ok, let me do a quick run down of what happened since June. June: Well, I failed accounting, so I had to do a re-take of the final exam. You probably know that I have had problems with the professor, Stewart. Jerk. But what was interesting was the stat one of my classmates found (he also failed accounting). During the semester, Stewart

more on the situation in Lebanon

2006-08-08T22:42:00.000+02:00

Everyday, someone from our class write a little about what happened during the program that day. Today, Mohamad wrote a bit about some of his experiences. One thing I really admire about him is that although he has his own opinion on the issue, he has always said: "it's not about politics, let's talk about how we can help the people there, let's make this humanitarian.""Cheers" said my friend.

The Rothschilds

2006-08-07T14:40:00.000+02:00

In the stakeholder module today, Prof. Jeannet told a story and asked as to think about how the world changes, and how the star of tomorrow can quickly become the orphan of next year.The Rothschild, the prominant European banking family 200 years ago, had six sons and realized that Frankfurt was no longer big enough for his sons to develope. The family decided to send the six sons to six

preparing for job interviews

2006-08-01T22:16:00.000+02:00

We have these "company presentation" days when companies that are interested in hiring IMD MBAs come and give an hour presentation followed by an hour of cocktails (they pay for it :)At the end of the day in one of these days, a female classmate pulled me aside: "Sia, you are pretty slim, your suits are a little too big. Invest in a couple nice suits, you will need them in the future anyway."

school starts again

2006-08-01T21:52:00.000+02:00

well, school started again Monday. It has been a grind. It was a struggle sitting through 8 hours of lecture in the last two days. I am not used to it any more.The topics have been interesting. The next three weeks are what they called: stakeholder module. We started with a crisis management exercise, and continued with training on how to handle the media. This afternoon, we started with

more on Isreali-Lebanon conflict

2006-07-22T10:54:00.000+02:00

As a follow up to the last blog, here is what I found when I checked my email this morning. Although I have my reservations about IMD, things like this is what makes me proud of being a part of this institution. We are not only business people, but also good caring citizens of the globe.The email came from our political econ professor, Jean-Pierre Lehmann. Enclosed was a "letter published in

shocking news

2006-07-19T11:40:00.000+02:00

I have been on the road for the last month. First for a school trip to Argentina, followed by holidays on a european tour to Italy, Austria, and Ireland. The month of traveling meant I was not only out of Internet access, but also extremely short on news about the world, and about my classmates. That is until I came back to Lausanne last night. More on my trip later, but first, I want to write

so you guys are big in strategy consulting , huh?

2006-06-22T15:37:00.000+02:00

Companies that come recruiting in IMD are mostly professional, and show a lot of interest in us. McKinsey was no different. They brought out a partner, and actually were fairly low key versus the most perception of McKinsey: snubby. (BCG was a different story, but that is for another entry) In all fairness, the partner who came was really nice, down to earth, and left a great impression of

the never ending accounting story

2006-06-22T15:36:00.000+02:00

bombed it as promised............(retake scheduled during the july vacation, bloody hell!)

Time to find a job

2006-06-20T01:08:00.000+02:00

I guess it's the disadvantage of a one year program. Only 6 months into the program, we are beginning our job search. The two weeks between the end of finals, and our Argentina trip are pretty much set aside for job searches and workshops. We have two days of company presentations where companies like l'Oreal and McKensey come on campus and give presentations about their organization. The

accounting continued

2006-06-20T00:23:00.000+02:00

No, I haven't found out if I failed the accounting final or not. But, I did attend a birthday dinner tonight. The person who organized it has ac accounting background. After I got home from dinner, I got the following email.Hey, double-double... Kim Kian's Birthday Bill. The damage is CHF 56 each. Dinner = 1121 Zara = 110 Total = 1231 1x Ayin 1x Kenji 1x Maria 1x Lili 1x Paru 1x Woo 1x

finals

2006-06-06T00:26:00.000+02:00

tomorrow the last final starts, and it's my favorite subject: accounting. The professor already told the story a couple of times, every year, some of us don't pass the course. He makes them sign a pledge to never apply for accounting jobs. You know what, if he offered me that letter now, I would sign. Who the hell grew up asipring to be a bean counter anyway?

Lausanne Beer Fest

2006-06-06T00:22:00.000+02:00

Beer! At last, some choices of good beer. They tell you that europeans drink better beer, but the choices in Switzerland are few and not all that great. I picked up 8 half-pint microbrew for 10 CHF (about $8). Ouch!Anyway, the beer fest in town this year had a belgium theme, so there was PLENTY of good beer to go around from cherry beer to some pretty serious amber Kwak at 8% alcohol! It was

more interesting comments.......

2006-05-29T20:31:00.000+02:00

Experienced ex-McKinsey consultant-turned-professor: "he who tries to understand too much dies of anger."Prof. to a student A in the auditorium: "Can you wake Scott up?" (referring to the student next to him)Student A: "You put him to sleep, you wake him up!"

"interesting" comments in class

2006-05-27T11:18:00.000+02:00

Our accounting professor, Stewart, is this old, grumpy Scottsman who likes to perform accounting "forensics". He looks like failed companies with tries to pick apart their balance sheets looking for causes. He has also served as expert witness in court, blah, blah. We spent a fair amount of time looking at collapsed companies. One of the companies we looked at was Barings Bank, UK.The

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

2006-05-23T23:59:00.000+02:00

found a white hair, the first one ever.(I hope this is just a genetic accident, not an effect of aging or B school.)WTF [}*$^}{.<(#&($&%)_!+*$*&!@

living close to Ouchy

2006-05-22T22:59:00.000+02:00

For those of you who are not as versed in Swiss geography or the layout of Lausanne, let me start by explaining what Ouchy is. It's basically where the tourists go to when they come to Lausanne, and why, of course, it's lakeside. There are cafes, restaurants, and a huge open space for the city to host all sorts of events. For example, I went to see a circus near Ouchy during easter. Anyway,

school is ALMOST over

2006-05-22T22:43:00.000+02:00

well, officially no. But the reality of it is that there is only 4 days of school this week since the MBA Olympics is on in paris this weekend. Next week, there is a week of International Consulting Project sessions, mixed with Start-up project presentations for four days, and then the "reading period" begins. The last FINAL exam starts on June 6th, and ends on the 9th!Two weeks of "

insomnia

2006-05-09T21:13:00.000+02:00

ok, it's happened before this year. It just hasn't happened for this long for a while.5/1 - concept bag due for product design and innovation. 2AM.5/2 - telematics scenario analysis due. 2AM5/3 - preparation for startup project meeting with consultant - 1AM5/4 - startup project, meeting with consultant - midnight5/5 - startup project, meeting with advisor startup project. - Integrative