things to say before 2007 (not all sports...it just starts that way)

I had previously made the statement that FSU +5 vs. UCLA in the Emerald Bowl was a sucker bet because FSU +5 would end up equaling 5. About three minutes into the game, I saw FSU driving the ball, and that's when I remembered: the PAC-10 sucks. Those USC teams of the past few years were anomolies, and really it is still the conference of no defense. This was the worst FSU team in arguably 30 years (8th in the ACC) and they beat the #4 in the PAC-10, who had just beaten the #1. The thrashing Rutgers put on K-State and that Cal put on A&M would seem to indicate that the Big 12 sucks too.

BTW, thank you Emerald Nuts for not including the word "Nuts" in the Bowl name. The "Emerald Bowl" is much preferred to the "Emerald Nut Bowl." It even took away the awkwardness of players celebrating int he end zone, with a mascot nut with a crown on its head nearby. Somebody tell the good people over at Gaylord Hotels this fact, so that they might respond accordingly. On that note, if FSU wide receiver De'Cody Fagg goes to an AFC East team other than New England next year, we might have Patriot CB Ben Gay covering him twice a season for years to come. Now that's a headline matchup.

Despite Georgia's win over VTech today, I'm still hoping that the SEC wasn't the best conference this year. As much as I dislike Ohio State, I don't wanna hear UF fans gloating about two championships in one season for the rest of eternity.

The Giants defense seriously looks at times as though it is throwing the game. And I'm not just talking about defensive lineman letting th eother team's QB go off and score the go-ahead TD when they're clearly in the grasp, tonight a Redskin WR was double covered on about the one, and the CB just ran away from him while Sam Madison went for the pick and completely missed the ball, allowing for it to fall nicely into the guys hands for a score. If the Giants make the playoffs, which they likely will, it'll only be a testament to the hideous state of the NFC.

Amongst other gifts, my parents (surely with help from my sister) got me a most fantastic Christmas gift in the DVD of Fletch. Out of print, they had to go on ebay to get it, but they did. It's nice to be loved.

I rule at the Trivial Pursuit 80s version. I've got mad skillz. This perennial presedential candidate was sentenced to 15 years in prison during the 80s: Lyndon LaRoche, of course. The married members of the Talking Heads formed this dance band? The Tom Tom Club...who doesn't know that? This middleweight last successfully defended his title against then undefeated John Mugabi. Marvelous Marvin Hagler, no doubt. Somebody stop me! I'm a force of 80s nature! Beware, if playing with 4 people, someone's gonna have to be the Care Bear. The other options are the PC (the choice gamepiece of nerds), the CD, and the Trapper Keeper.

My father is a horrendous Clue player. After making an accusation, wherein the murder weapon was the candlestick, my sister said that couldn't be right, and then secretly showed him a card. My dad then said aloud "So that means I should cross off candlestick?" A few turns later my father made another accusation with the murder weapon being the candlestick. One might guess he was being shrewd. He wasn't.

New possibility in the "bub's new phone" race: the T-Mobile Dash. I've heard complaints about the Pearl's auto-complete function that compensates for having two letters per key. T-Mobile's plan where you can call five people for free is extremely tempting.

Both The Departed and The Pick of Destiny are no longer in theaters nearby. My hesitancy has cost me. Blost you!

I finished reading The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty by Buster Olney. It was excellent. Feeling nostalgic, I then used a Best Buy Gift Card to buy the 7 DVD retrospective on the Yankees 1996-2001 teams. If you need to watch any or all of those DVDs in their entirety, I'm good for it.

I survived my entire trip down in South Florida without going to 2 of the bars that are open after 10 not named Roy's (where I would only go in dire circumstances). One of these two avoided bars is TGIFridays. I come from a rockin hometown indeed.

I had a packed, 6AM flight back to O'Hare with a middle seat (of course). I left my house around 4:15 after about an hour of sleep. When I finally got back to Chicago, I went out and bought a comforter for my bed, anticipating the frigid Chi-town winter, checked that my car was still there (it was! and with no tickets!!) and passed out by 3PM, only to wake up 18 hours later at 9AM the next day. And to think, I know people who have never slept for more than 12 hours.

I've never been one to subscribe to the "Celebrities Die in 3s" theory, but the recent events taking away from us The Good, the Bad, and the Funky makes you wonder.

I've become addicted to Beerfest. If I quote it nonstop, don't say I didn't warn you. Oktoberfest is for tossers and sheep-shaggers.

The Tragedy of the Bunnies

Here is the most ridiculous use of a flash game to illustrate an economic principle, in this case, the tragedy of the commons.

What are Jason Forrest's 36 favorite punk songs?

On Jason Forrest's last album, he had a song called "My 36 Favorite Punk Rock Songs," which is a mashup of his favorite 36 punk songs (ironic, huh?)

Let's see how many of them we can identify.

The track can be played (or downloaded) here

(the above link is setup so that the origin of the link is anonymous...don't freak out if what you initially see starts changing. There are no popups and nothing bad will happen by clicking on it)

I'll start by taking the ones I already know (which are probably the easiest):

Bad Religion - Stranger than Fiction
The Clash - London Calling
The Ramones - Sheena is a Punk Rocker
The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Minor Threat - In My Eyes
Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi
The Misfits - Die Die My Darling

and maybe

Dead Kennedys - Too Drunk to Fuck,

but I'm not positive on that one

That's 7 (or 8) down. 29 (or 28) to go.

Whaddya got?

As a sidenote, I think this is my hundredth post. A blog milestone!

All the Stuff (And More)

It's blog catchup time!

• VC Trek/WestQuest - 5 days in Sunnyvale. 0 days of sunshine. 1 alumni mixer in Palo Alto. 3 trips into San Francisco. 10 VC firms: CMEA, Granite, Globespan, Azure, Opus, Blue Run, DFJ, KPCB, TCV, Rustic Canyon. 3 companies: Intel, Cisco, Apple. Met a lot of impressive people, got a lot of great information, found out the A's were leaving Oakland to move into Cisco Stadium in the East/South Bay. Shocking! I also had an incredibly "small world" experience when one of the VCs turned out to be my old roommate's boss's brother. I missed out on seeing Google, Bain San Francisco , Electronic Arts, NVidia, and salesforce.com, but oh well, visiting all those VCs was well worth it. A summary of their advice: Those who were GSB grads were encouraging, those who weren't were realistic. VC's provide services, they're not blind investors. If you want to excel in VC, you need to provide something that's worth it to the entrepreneur. Some of the VCs were even humble enough to point out that they weren't necessarily yet qualified to do this. There are a lot of really cool companies being started right now. It was a lot to think over. Even more fun than Bank Week indeed.
  
• It's not fun to have a middle seat on a packed redeye from San Jose to Atlanta with a crying baby nearby, a drunk lady chatting everyone up in front of you, and Snorey McSnoresloudly in the seat next to her. subpoint: the San Jose Delta terminal suX0r.
  
• South Florida is a cesspool. People are genuinely miserable down here. I think it's the weather. See, I went to the mall yesterday. Also, if you enjoy being cutoff by pickups and/or luxury imported SUVs going 95 mph on the highway, South Florida is the place for you!
  
• I went to the Panthers/Rangers game last night, and the Panthers came back from being down 0-2 in the 3rd to win 3-2. I don't think I've ever seen the Panthers come from behind before. Ed Belfour was in the net. Yes, he's still alive.
  
• I want to see the Departed, that CIA movie, and the Pick of Destiny, and a few others, but I think I will actually see Rocky Balboa first, because I am a lemming.
• I've watched BeerFest twice since being home in Florida. And it keeps getting better...every time I see it.
  
• My niece is the cutest niece in the whole world. I have irrefutable proof.
  

Do you habitually orient yourself with respect to the world at large?

Not only do I think this article describes me pretty well, but I think it does the same for most all of my college friends. I wonder how well the distinction defines modern day GOP/Democrat splits.

A New Cosmopolitan Social Class Emerges

By Robert Shiller

As globalization proceeds, with the help of ever-faster communications, faster travel and more powerful multinational corporations, a new cosmopolitan social class seems to be emerging. These citizens of the world are developing loyalties to each other that cross national boundaries.

I was at a dinner the other night with Yale World Fellows, a carefully selected group of professionals, representing every major country of the world, who spend a semester at Yale University. It was an unusual experience, because I began to feel that none of these people were really foreign to me. It seemed they were probably easier to talk to than the local Americans who were waiting on us and serving food.

Of course, a cosmopolitan class is hardly new. In fact, 50 years ago, in his classic book Social Theory and Social Structure, the late sociologist Robert Merton described the results of a case study of influential people in a typical US town, Rovere, New Jersey. As a sociologist, he chose this tiny town to study how people relate to each other and influence each other, just as biologists study tiny worms with only a few hundred cells so that they can study how each cell relates to an organism as a whole.

Merton discovered a strong pattern. Rovere's influential people seemed to be sharply divided into "cosmopolitan influentials," who habitually orient themselves with respect to the world at large, and "local influentials," who orient themselves with respect to their own town. As he and his assistants interviewed people, the division between the two groups became more intriguing, and significant, in his mind.

Merton did not say that the cosmopolitan influentials were influential outside Rovere -- apparently none of them was. What stood out instead was their habitual frame of reference, which was tied to their personal identities. When Merton engaged people in conversation, any topic would remind the cosmopolitan influentials of the world at large, while local influentials were reminded of things in their own town.

Cosmopolitan influentials, Merton said, tended to hang their success on their general knowledge, whereas locals relied on their friendships and connections. The cosmopolitan influentials were often uninterested in meeting new people in town -- the locals wanted to know everyone. The cosmopolitan influentials tended to take positions in local government that reflected their broad expertise -- board of health, housing committee, or board of education. The local influentials tended to be in positions that they got through their local popularity -- street commissioner, mayor, or township board member.

The cosmopolitan influential in the town is like the medical specialist -- the local influential is like the family doctor. Merton concluded: "It appears that the cosmopolitan influential has a following because he knows, the local influential because he understands."

The local influentials, Merton discovered, spoke affectionately of their town, as if it were a unique place, and often said they would never leave. The cosmopolitans spoke as if they might leave any day.

What was true in Merton's day is becoming even more starkly true in today's globalized economy. What I find particularly striking is the sense of loyalty developing among cosmopolitans.

After the World Fellows Dinner, the Fellow from Namibia was extolling to me, in impeccable and relaxed English, the beautiful vacation homes I might find (and even buy) there. I felt as if I could perhaps fall into a relationship with him that might work against the interests of the locals in Namibia. I could picture doing that, and he and I would be allies, if I let it happen.

I was left wondering why this is happening on such a scale now. Obviously, improved communications technology plays a role. But how much does that explain the impression that the division between cosmopolitans and locals is so much wider now?

One must realize that individuals choose whether to play the role of cosmopolitan or local, and how much to invest in that role. People make a conscious choice to become either cosmopolitans or locals, depending on their own personal talents and the perceived returns from making the choice.

In the twenty-first century, the new information age creates opportunities not just to be cosmopolitan in spirit and orientation, but to forge strong connections with other cosmopolitans. The cosmopolitans have shared experiences -- they are directly communicating with each other across the globe. Many cosmopolitans around the world now also share the English language, the new lingua franca.

The term "global village" was first popularized in the late 1960s by Canadian communications maven Marshall McLuhan in response to the already powerful communications media of that day. But McLuhan could not have anticipated the cosmopolitan class, because he could not have anticipated the immense development of direct interpersonal communications media that allow cosmopolitans around the world to form friendships.

The cosmopolitans tend to be increasingly wealthy, and their wealth helps mark them as cosmopolitan. Thus, economic inequality is felt differently in today's world. Perhaps it is accepted resignedly, as the cosmopolitan class is too amorphous and ill-defined to be the target of any social movement. There is no spokesperson for the cosmopolitan class, no organization that could be blamed for what is happening.

I fear for the future. How will the cosmopolitan class behave as their role in the world economy continues to strengthen? How unfeeling will they come to be about the people who share their neighborhoods? Most importantly, if resentment by the locals emerges, what political consequences will result?

I passed LEAD!!

Grade Nondisclosure prohibits me from commenting further.

This is a crummy post to cover over a week of blogging hiatus, but I promise to write more later.

That is the end of the 1st Quarter

With the submission of my group's 15 page paper on video game consoles between 1999 and 2005, I officially finished my first quarter at the GSB. I shaved my playoff beard and started drinking. I only took three courses this quarter, but one of them was the infamous "Turbo" microeconomics, with John Bates Clark Medal winner and "Genius" Grant Recipient Kevin Murphy. I loved everything about that class, except for perhaps the loads and loads of work that it sometimes required. Nonetheless, I really feel like I learned a lot.

My other two courses were Financial Accounting and Competitive Strategy. Accounting is the language of business, so although it's dry, it needs to be done. Competitive Strategy is the kind of course I expected to take when I came to business school. It was so good, I'm taking another course with the same professor next quarter (Technology Strategy). It was probably the course I did worst in gradewise, but hey, about 2/3 of my grade was based on analysis of video games and ice cream makers...Russian ice cream makers to be more precise.

I now find myself in a hotel in Sunnyvale, CA about to embark on the "VC Trek." I'm pretty excited about it. We're really seeing some high powered VC firms out here in Silicon Valley, that I would be reasearching more carefully if I weren't procrastinating by updating my blog.

Random thoughts:

• Does anyone else chuckle everytime they see the Citizen watch commercial with skater Sasha Cohen because she almost has the same name as Ali G?
• How exactly did a studio executive greenlight another movie about dragons with Jeremy Irons? Seriously. This is a sign of very, very bad things to come. After the god-awful Dungeons & Dragons, my buddy commented that Jeremy Irons had to sit in a room for years and contemplate what he had done. Apparently that time of reflection is over, and Irons is back to making dragon movies.
• This is the first time in a long, long time that I've eaten greasy cheeseburgers two days in a row. Yesterday, feeling happy after finals, I treated myself to the Double Cheddar Charburger over at The Wiener's Circle, complete with a monstrous order of fries. Then today when I got into Sunnyvale, I went looking for a burrito joint or s ub shop, only to settle on an In N Out Burger nearby. Mmm...Animal Style.
• If the Dolphins played top-rated teams each week, would they be undefeated on the season?
• I'm reading The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty by Buster Olney, and it's top-notch thus far. Although it kills me that they keep mentioning the 2001 series, and Curt Schilling especially. Put simply, the world is a better place if it were a Curt Schillingless world.
  
• I was in Utah for the first time at the SLC airport, which is tucked in between the mountains and is rather scenic. I still was a bit freaked out thinking that many people around me might have been wearing special Mormon underpants.
• It's nice to escape that Chicago weather. I've heard people saying it was "the coldest late Autumn in 17 years" or someshit. All I know is that for about the past week, it was usually in the single digits with the wind chill, which is a bit much for early December. As I expected however, it compared to Boston as "colder, but with less snow and crap." I think by this time in Boston, we would seemingly be assured of more days of snow, ice, and sleet.
• Is Paul Krugman getting better about making TV appearances, or is this guy just a chump, or is defense of the current administration and Congress so untenable that Krugman has it easy?
• I have eclectic musical taste, but had one of those occurences the other day when I simultaneously bought a CD by the Brodsky Quartet playing a Janacek sonata that I heard live when I was in Prague in Spring 2001, the Ghostface Killah CD with Cherchez La Ghost, and a CD entitled "Welcome to Carcass Cuntry" by Jeff Walker und die Flüffers, an album of folk and country covers by the lead singer and bassist of Carcass. Very strange.
• In an attempt to be adult, I'll likely send out X-Mas cards this year. Email me your addresses.
• I'm getting a new cell phone shortly, and currently am leaning towards the Blackberry Pearl and T-Mobile, whose unlimited plan for the 5 people you call most seems pretty good. Besides, Verizon fails math
  

Par for the Course

Sure enough, when I picked up my drycleaning today, my name was spelled wrong on the ticket.

For those that haven't seen me for a while, I have grown a "playoff beard" for finals (I'm done with two, but still have a group paper to finish) . My inspiration can be seen below.

One Down

Finished my Financial Accounting exam today and had the opportunity to immediately go upstairs and sell the solutions manual to the text for cold hard cash. Mind you, I had the solutions manual for the 12th (recent) edition, while my textbook is the 9th edition (which I bought in Fall 2000 for a class I took as an undergrad). Interestingly enough, a lot concerning the accounting behind options expensing and goodwill amortization has changed since 2000, but hopefully it didn't trip me up too much having the old text.

Anyhow, I say to the guy "How much for this here solutions manual?"

He says "$19.75"

I say "How about I give you a quarter and you give me a twenty."

He says "Fine."

I then explain "You see I took financial accounting. I can now handle complex transactions like this."

This went much more smoothly than when I went to the drycleaners yesterday and had to give the same lady my phone number three times, my last name three times, and my first name twice. That reminded me of the time I was at a U-Haul and the guy behind the counter asked for my driver's license, took a good look at it, and then asked me how to spell my last name cause he needed to enter it into the computer system.

Metal By Numbers

This is probably funnier the more you know about metal and metal videos. But hey, I'm not here to please everyone.