Category: MBA

56.41%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m all stats-d out and it’s only Wednesday morning. I spent about 3 hours doing sample problems last night, and today should be pretty much the same thing, so…whee!

.:.

What the hell are Cobra Boxes?!?

.:.

This story bugs me:

A Toronto councillor has earned a powerful ally in his fight for a ban on panhandling in the city’s tourist areas.

Because where tourists come from they don’t have panhandlers? Because a tourist’s right to a beggar-free stroll from the Holiday Inn to Milestone’s trumps the beggar’s right to ask for change?

You want to make the entertainment district more tourist-friendly, Case Ootes? STOP THE MURDERS!! Also, keeping fratboys from puking on the street as they stumble out of clubs would probably help.

[tags]stats, cobra boxes, panhandlers[/tags]

36.20%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

When even the CEOs of energy, manufacturing, resource and heavy equipment companies are urging action on climate change, I think even the president will has to should listen.

.:.

Managed to squeeze in some basketball last night, as well as watch both 24 (by the way, did NOT see the brother thing coming) and Heroes. Even watched a bit of the Raptors game. If the next two nights are like this it shouldn’t be a bad week.
[tags]climate change, USCAP, 24[/tags]

23.68%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Today was an easy day. The day was spent working on probability, mainly questions using uniform and normal distributions, so I breezed through it. Strangely we were done before 4:00 so we’re gonna be behind from this point on. Not sure I like that idea. Anyway, we have a small social event tonight, then dinner, then I’ll do a few questions, and maybe even hit the gym or watch 24 before finishing up my work for the night.

I’ve not had too much trouble with the food yet. For lunch I had a huge pile of rice, broccoli, pasta (containing meatballs, which I avoided) and some celery/yogurt salad. Sounds bland, but wasn’t. Breakfast: lots of eggs and a soy drink (need protein, right?) and some french toast. And, cough cough, an apple pastry. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a couple of snacks throughout the day, but at least I haven’t dipped into the ice cream yet. My friend Russ, resourceful man that he is, secured 4 cans of Diet Pepsi for me, one of which I am sucking back right now; the other three have been duly stashed.

[tags]stats, probability, normal distributions[/tags]

8.73%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Day 1 is behind me. The class was pretty lightweight (just an intro and refresher), but already this feels like it’s gonna be a long week. I did manage to squeeze in about 45 minutes of shooting around in the gym, which felt good. I seem to constantly be hungry, though, so that’s bad; I’m making sure I always have some fruit in my room. The meal choices were a little lacking, but I’ll live. Our usual trip to Wendy’s could be tricky; I guess I’ll have to find a subway.

.:.

I don’t normally much care for football, but the Colts-Patriots game was a pretty great one.

[tags]mba, colts, patriots[/tags]

Ready for takeoff

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

All checked in and ready to go. Pretty soon I’ll head up for lunch, which should be interesting. It occurred to me the other night that this’ll be my first week being purely vegetarian. They do a pretty good job of offering lots of food here, but even as a meat-eater it was tricky to fill a meal sometimes. I believe they have veggie-burgers at dinner, as a last resort. God help me if I have to fill up on ice cream sandwiches the whole week…

[tags]mba, vegetarianism[/tags]

Good Day (no Sunshine though)

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Today was a good day at work. Not that I have any particularly bad days at work, but after four years at the same job days aren’t always the most exciting. Today, though, felt like a good day because a) nothing went wrong, b) several small things went right, c) a couple of biggish things went right, and most importantly d) I had lots to do. I’m not happy unless I’m busy, and I’m easily distracted if things are slow, so the more work the better. Today: plenty, but no crushing deadlines or anything.

.:.

It’ll be a quiet Friday night at home, as Nellie’s not feeling well and I have a bunch of stuff to do before I leave Sunday morning. It’s been a long time since my last course, and while it’ll be nice to see everyone again, I’m not looking forward to a week of stats. The math-related whining* will start around noon on Sunday.

* I should point out that I don’t dislike math. I actually enjoy doing math (for example: at 9:36 AM next Wednesday I’ll be exactly 60% of the way through the MBA). What I dislike is the memorization of formulae just to pass an exam, which seems pointless to me since I’ll never ever have to perform this kind of analysis strictly by memory.
[tags]stats, mba[/tags]

5 weeks off

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Yesterday I finished my last stats assignment. That means I shouldn’t really have to do anything for the next five weeks, except for a quick review of the assignment and maybe compiling some notes before the week of the exam. I can now finish up some pre-xmas errands and prepare for our trip to NS…as of the moment I get on that plane, I shall be in full relaxation mode. Relax on the farm, have fun with my family, have a nice dinner in Halifax, catch up on movies back in Toronto, maybe do some shoppin’…yeah. Sweet.

One more day in the office and then it’s mine, all mine.

[tags]rancho relaxo[/tags]

Have I mentioned how much I hate the word "monetize"?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

This NY Times story entitled Craiglist Meets The Capitalists kind of describes how my life feels.

“Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in “monetizing” his ridiculously popular Web operation. Appearing at the UBS global media conference in New York, Mr. Buckmaster took questions from the bemused audience, which apparently could not get its collective mind around the notion that Craigslist exists to help Web users find jobs, cars, apartments and dates – and not so much to make money.”

I’m a socialist, am pro-Kyoto and have no problem paying as much tax as I do, yet I work for a bank, am halfway to an MBA and have a copy of The Wealth Of Nations on my bookshelf. I understand the profit motive, but I certainly think it has limits. I’d like to think I’m the middle ground that the bankers in this story can’t understand. Actually, I live in constant fear that I’ll end up like them.
[via Yes But No But Yes]

.:.

Lindsay Lohan claims she’s been going to AA meetings for a year in the same breath that she says she hasn’t had a drink in a week. Apparently Lindsay learned math at a Verizon training seminar.

OK, I apologize…I’ve been posting about overbaked harpies like Lohan and Paris Hilton too much lately. I’m falling for their ploy to stay in the public eye. Never again.*

* the author reserves the right to talk about them if they do something quantum-physics-level retarded.
[tags]craiglist, ny times, lindsay lohan[/tags]

Making with the festive itties

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We popped ’round to CBGB’s place last night for their xmas party. I think in theory it was a tree-trimming party, but the kids (their nephew & nieces) took care of the heavy lifting, so the rest of us just ate and drank and admired the decorating job. The nerds were well represented; KittenWhiskers was holding it down.

.:.

We didn’t get home that late, but then I spent an hour IMing with two friends, so I didn’t get to sleep ’til after 2. Then the furry agitators woke me up, meowing for food at 6 AM. Nellie got up to feed them, but I never really got back to sleep, so I’m on 4 hours of sleep now. Thankfully I don’t have anything important to do today. I’ve finished reading all the stats I need to read and I’m taking today off before starting the final assignment tomorrow.

[tags]xmas party, fuzzy bastards, sleep deprivation[/tags]