Category: Thoughts

(beer purchased for me by my friend Diana)

TRANSLATION: It’s been a while

Hello everybody. Its been a while since I have posted. It seems that this program has really been keeping everyone busy. It has taken me a while to get all caught up from my wonderfully relaxing time back home during Labor day. Since my last posting we have finished our Global Entrepreneurship class and have begun an International Management class.

This week’s highlights in brief:

1. Our team took first place in our entrepreneurship class, which was surprising to me. I’m glad our team pulled together and was able to come up with the market research, business plan, presentation, and presentation speaking points – even after switching the idea midway though our alotted time of three weeks. I thought for sure that some of the other business ideas presented would have taken home the prize – everything from new market areas to bio-fuels and a mall-based recording studio to global immersion consultants and family therapy in foreign markets. Excellent job everyone.
2. A friend of mine who I had met on a short trip to Texas stopped by for a few drinks. It is amazing to think that one can create such meaningful connections with people so far away and keep them intact. I had a great time hanging out a Speakeasy’s with Josh.
3. Finished my Personal Leadership Development plan.
4. Slept more than 8 hours in one night. ^_^

Now, the rest of this weekend is dedicated to figuring how the economy of Iceland. Enjoy yours!

Reflecting on my weekend, I realized that my accomplishments were quite odd and unpaired. I’m all over the map. What do you think?

• Succeeded on losing and subsequently finding my credit card
• Assisted a Disney Imagineer with a live synthesizer setup
• Lost $20 in poker in less than an hour
• Paid the dentist
• Learned how to ask “How many degrees is it outside?” in Japanese
• Posted an online video tutorial about Logic Pro
• Talked to my girlfriend for more than a 1/2 hour in one clip
• Read 31 pages of macroeconomics, 40 pages of operations management, 20 pages of marketing
• Completed 3 homework assignments
• Got over a cold
• Finished redesigning an assessment process for my prior employer

Time to begin a new week. What’d y’all do this weekend?

Yes, it is true. In another life I have been a rock musician. Less so now that I am also a full time graduate student. But nonetheless, these worlds still seem to intersect in weird, but satisfying, ways.

This past Tuesday, a good friend of mine was in Charlotte playing Van’s Warped Tour this year. I had made plans to catch up with him and brought along a few of my new MBA program friends, grabbing Alex after class, literally about 15 minutes before we left.

We arrived at about 3:30pm to a sea of black t-shirts, jeans, and emo-boy tattoos. Though we missed Helmet’s set (photos from Germany above), we managed to catch up with Page and take him away from the prepubescent circus that was brewing on the tarmac of the Verizon Amphitheatre.

As we headed downtown to find a brewery, I was completely blown away with the dynamic of the group we had. There were conversations occuring in German, coverage of avant-guarde jazz musicians, and plenty of mentioning of David ‘The Hoff’ Hasselhoff himself.

The next 3 hours seemed to simultaneously watch the Yankees / White Sox game, cover the history of Germany’s contribution to pop music, discuss politics and business, sample four different beers, share music stories, and just be human. I cannot recall such a diverse mix of people, ideas, and overall friendliness.

For me, it was as if someone mixed up all the aspects of my life over the past six years and threw them in a bar in little old downtown Charlotte. I met Page in LA, worked with him on the east coast, met my MBA friends here in Columbia, and now there I was with all of these aspects interacting with each other in such complimentary ways, together in Charlotte, NC.

(l-r: Jamie, Diana, and Alex)

I realized that night that life is full of these types of connections and you never know when they will come together in weird strange ways. A good night was had by all and another memory gets stored in that grey matter of mine.

I wish I had the fortitude to write more at this point. It is truly difficult to stay on top of writing. I am hoping in the long run it will become second nature.

In the meantime, I did update the site a little bit. I’ve received a few emails asking what the site is about, who the heck am I, general “I don’t get it” type emails. I can’t say that I blame them listening to my blather. But if you now look to your right on the homepage you will see two new pages. I’ve attempted to describe my personal reasons for pursing an internationa MBA degree where I’m somewhat at in my life right now.

I’ve got some great topics and some more video lined up for this week though. Until then, its studying Trilemmas from Shell….

Perhaps one of the best commercials ever. I hadn’t even waited for the download to finish before posting this.

Hey … you look like a real jerk!

Well I AM a corporate executive.

Words cannot describe the amazingness of this commercial. Our marketing tactics today are seriously lacking in the type of straightforward, “give ’em what they want”, marketing of the late 70s and early 80s.

And is it me or is that a segueway at the end of the commercial?