Author: Dan Dickinson

Far coast: long shot?

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Today, on a short excursion to get my first fresh air in a week I walked by the new Far Coast coffee store that opened on Bloor. They were having some big shindig at the top of St. Thomas street. BlogTO popped in for a closer look (and taste) but I couldn’t handle anything more hectic than Whole Foods this afternoon.

One interesting angle is that Far Coast is owned by Coke, and this is obviously their foray into Starbucks territory. Two 800 lb gorillas duking it out, but they’re in the Seattle gorilla’s wheelhouse. I guess we’ll see if the Atlanta gorilla can get in the game.

[tags]far coast coffee, coke, starbucks, blogto[/tags]

Happiness is laziness & italian food

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Here’s why I am exceedingly happy at the moment:

  • I’ve had an afternoon to vegetate and regain some energy. I considered going in to the office, but I knew I’d be of absolutely no use. So I hung out with the cats and caught up on stuff around the house instead.
  • Nellie’s home!
  • I have decided not to do any work on my next course — quantitative methods — until we get back from Alberta. That means no studying for 2 weeks.
  • We’re going to Fieramosca for dinner.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

[tags]tranquility, quantitative methods, fieramosca[/tags]

Good old Beck

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A nice man is driving me home in a green and orange car that’s older than me. I don’t care; I’m just happy to be on my way.

The exam wasn’t bad at all. My hand is cramped up, but I feel pretty confident. I daresay there’ll be people still writing at the final bell.

[tags]final exam, beck taxi[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Scott Adams’ post on his Dilbert blog this morning nearly made me spit scrambled eggs. Same with The Onion.

.:.

Another trip down memory lane today: a movie adaptation of The Stone Angel is being made, the Margaret Laurence book we read in grade twelve. The director claims there’s lots of sex; I don’t remember it being like that, but I guess it was 13 years ago.

.:.

Okey doke, I’m off to write an exam. Wish me luck.

[tags]dilbert blog, the onion, the stone angel, exam[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

OK, the book-learnin’ is done. All that’s left now is to write the exam. I’m not worried; I reviewed the stuff over the last couple of nights and I believe we know this stuff better than we think we do. That’s the sign of a good prof. I could tell others in the class didn’t like her, but some people will always whine when they come up against a prof who expects a lot.

Oooh, and Thursday night’s pizza night. Sweeeeeet…

.:.

In other news entirely, I just took a trip down memory lane courtesy of this post at Cinematical. It’s about an old Warner Brothers cartoon called Duck Amuck, which they describe thusly: “You can argue whether the film is postmodern, deconstructionist, ahead of its time … but it’s inarguably hilarious.” I agree; I used to watch it as a kid and think, “This is probably even funnier than I think it is.” I should watch it again the next time I’m home on the farm.

[tags]mba, exam, pizza, duck amuck[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I have my ride-home playlist all set up and ready to go. There’s just no better feeling than climbing into that cab and falling into an exhausted stupor for the ride home, while the perfect music blares in my ears. Here’s the lineup this time around:

  • cat power . “sweedeedee”
  • mike doughty . “i hear the bells”
  • jose gonzalez . “heartbeats”
  • regina spektor . “better”
  • cold war kids . “don’t let your love grow away from me”
  • band of horses . “monsters”

That oughta do it. If I run out of time I’ll skip the Mike Doughty song.

OK. Must go finish off a deck, read the material for tomorrow and review some class notes.

[tags]cat power, mike doughty, jose gonzalez, regina spektor, cold war kids, band of horses[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

While this is only the fourth day of the class, it feels like we’ve been here a month. Coming up a day early, which I guess makes this our fifth day here, and knowing that we have another full day and the exam left, makes it feel like we’re deep in a hole. On the plus side, my group has all but finished our presentation for tomorrow afternoon and I don’t think we have to read much tonight, so I should have almost all of both nights to study.

What fun.

[tags]mba[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m a liiiiiiiiiiittle tired this morning. Had to re-write a bunch of stuff last night, but luckily I read far enough ahead on Monday that I’m already caught up for today’s lecture(s). Looking at the schedule, and knowing what we know about the marking scheme, I’m not too worried about the workload that suddenly fell in our laps yesterday. It is what it is, and we didn’t sign up for this thing to be coddled. Giddyup.

.:.

If I read one more article talking how Tie Domi — who retired yesterday — was “fearless” or “never backed down from a fight,” I’ll lose it. I suspect that if you so much as mentioned Vladimir Malakhov’s name around him he’d curl into a ball and whimper.

[tags]workload, tie domi[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

So much for a nice relaxing course. We just got handed a very large, microscopic-font case to analyze and report on for tomorrow at 1:00 (meaning we have to do the work tonight ’cause we have the usual lectures tomorrow), and we already have a 20-minute presentation due Thursday at noon which we haven’t really even started yet. Plus there’s the usual review and studying for the Friday exam. This means most of us have canceled plans to attend an executive talk scheduled for 5:00. Not sure how that’s gonna go over.
[tags]mba, workload++[/tags]

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Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Day 2 down. Just did a bunch of reading…even read ahead a bit.

The food is a struggle; not eating beef or pork anymore has severely limited my choices here. It used to be that if dinner just looked like shit you could order a burger; no more.

OK, must go see what’s doing over in the lounge.

[tags]semi-veggie[/tags]