Who Uses Mahalo?

Nosing through CNN's "Most Popular" headlines has long been a favorite past time of mine. In my opinion, nothing illustrates our nation's collective mindset more so than the stories we click on CNN.com.

(FYI - Britney Spears, Rascal Flats, and Princess Diana are all in today's top 10.)

This morning, I spent some time trolling through Mahalo.com to get a sense of what the fuss is all about it and to gauge its traction in the search space.

Turns out that Mahalo has the loser market cornered:

Mahalo Top 10

Sweet, Sweet Victory

The KFBS first year flag football squad pulled off a serious upset tonight with our 14-7 victory over the The Basement. We played this (all undergrad) team earlier in the year and they lit us up for 38 points. So it was nice to have a little "get back" on them.

Jon Yee - our speedy WR and DB was the hero of the game. He broke up a pass in the end zone, hauled in a tipped pass to score a PAT, and made a key late game interception.

Your's truly rumbled for an improbable pick-six that began with an easy interception, had a few Reggie Bush-esque (ha!) hesitation moves and missed tackles, and ended with an excessive celebration penalty after Ben hoisted me over his shoulder and started singing an indecipherable fight song. My touchdown proved to be the difference in the game. Good times.

Unfortunately, I later blew a gimme interception that would have iced the game. It hit me right in the hands and, for whatever reason, it didn't stick. Had he seen it, my father would have been completely disappointed. He's the original thinker behind the "if it hits your hands, you should catch it" philosophy and thus maintains a pretty high standard for balls that should be caught. Even Kelly called me out on it.

As a consequence of a botched punt and, a couple plays later, my aforementioned botched pick, the game came down to a 4th and goal for the other team. I managed to get my hands on this pass as well, but could only tip it up instead of catch it or kill it. Someone for the other team caught the tipped ball, but it popped out when he hit the ground right behind me. Such an exciting finish!

Their quarterback's mini meltdown at the end of the game only added to our satisfaction. As if the accusatory "BLOCK HIM!!!" he screamed to his lineman after Matt sacked him on 2nd and goal at the end of the game wasn't enough, he walked off the field when the game ended and blurted a hilariously petulant growl/yell to voice his frustration.

Heh. Stupid undergrads.

A Billion Dollar Write-Off

We've been talking asset impairment in Prof. Mark Lang's accounting class, so the news of EBay's $1.4 billion write-off related to its Skype acquisition is pretty timely.

(Thanks to the class discussions and Prof. Lang's habit of beginning every class with a video, I actually know how a write-off works and how I would explain it to Kramer.)

The NYT post makes some insightful observations regarding the situation, particularly by couching the EBay/Skype fiasco as a warning sign for the pending Microsoft/Facebook transaction.

37Signals Grows Responsibly

In a world of Constant Contact IPOs, this is refreshing to read:

Will you ever hire more people?

Absolutely. We could use another person or two right now, but we also like feeling the stretch. The edge is where you are forced to be creative. It’s where your decisions are sharper and more informed. You make calls because you have to, not because they are convenient. “We can’t do this right now because that is more important.” Being at the limit forces you to think about value and we think that’s a great place to be.

Read the full post at Signal Vs. Noise.

Career Fair

Kenan-Flagler hosted ~50 companies for the annual MBA Career Fair today. These things are always great for comedy. You just can't beat being within earshot of so many awkward conversations...

Lots of good companies showed up, but only a handful remotely aligned with my Internet/software career interests. As I had hoped, the shortage actually worked in my favor. I spent ~15 minutes with each of my 3 target companies and was able to deliver a pretty salient story regarding my interest in their internship programs. Here's hoping they noticed and return the interest.

For others, the Career Fair will be a full day spent talking to as many of the attending companies as possible, all of which are completely diverse. I felt strange bouncing from a conversation with a marketing consultancy to another with a media software company. I can only imagine having to change gears from J&J to Blackwater to XYZ real estate developer, all the while keeping a straight face as I express my interest in the company. Guess you gotta find your way somehow...

Ric Flair Finance

At first I thought that this was a joke.

I mean, the "Figure Four Process"? The pink boa? Quotes like this?
Ric will provide you with a solution to purchase the car or home of your dreams or provide you with the cash you need to start living like the Nature Boy.

(In case you're wondering, "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair is an 80's professional wrestling icon and this is evidently how he lives.)

Turns out that Ric Flair Finance is legit.

Thanks to John for the link and this quote:
Apparently, (Flair) wants to take on Hugh McColl for the heavyweight lender champion of the world.

Wooooo!

New Weakerthans

The new Weakerthans album Reunion Tour released today. I haven't listened to it enough to have an insightful opinion, but I have listened enough to appreciate the following:

- The swirling, phased keyboard effect that intros the first track is tastefully angular, very Rush, and, thus, very Canadian!

- The record offers up another song from Virtue the Cat. How many other rock bands out there write (great!) songs with lyrics sung from the perspective of someone's pet?

- John Samson continues to supply smart, erudite, creatively-phrased lyrical narratives. Too bad one is misspent in the boring banjo/spoken-word number Elegy For Gump Worsley.

- I'm not sure that I will be able to enjoy the song entitled Relative Surplus Value.  It sounds too much like something I should be learning in my microeconomics class...

The last Weakerthans album, Reconstruction Site, stayed in our car's changer for over two years. (Not kidding - Kelly really likes the song about the cat.)

Here's hoping that Reunion Tour is just as good. Can't wait to start soaking it in.

Minty Fresh!

Mint won the TechCrunch (something or other) Award, so I gave it a look.

Wowzers! It's good now, but has a chance to be great very soon.

Simply put, the service allows you to link your online bank accounts to your Mint account through web services. Mint then automatically works its magic by categorizing, graphing, pie-charting, trending, etc. your financials 15 ways 'til Tuesday. For example, grocery expenses this month as compared to last month, as compared to total expenses, as compared to the GDP of Guatemala, etc.

I've only spent 20 or so minutes on the site, but have particularly enjoyed a couple of the helpful features. One, I got an email reminding me that my credit card payment is coming due next week. (Nevermind that I'd already paid it. That's an easy one for them to figure out.) I would LOVE it if the company could aggregate other online payments and provide similar reminders/payment help. Quicken already does this at some level with BillPay.

Two, the service makes suggestions for saving money. For example, it links me to credit cards with a lower interest rate and a cheaper phone provider. There's an interesting opportunity here, both for AI generated results and sponsored recommendations.

The categorization algorithm needs a little work, though. All of my credit card transactions that include the word "Chapel" from Chapel Hill are categorized as "church". I'm sure there is (or will be) some way that I can re-tune this to correctly ID my transactions.

Also - why don't financial institutions do this already?  My credit card company has several years of my spending data, yet all they provide is some lame EOY report mailed to me at the end of the year.  The data is there, they just need to build the reporting.  On the contrary, Mint has the pretty pictures, but doesn't have the wealth of data.  I suspect that this will be a challenge for the firm going forward.

I use a grotesquely unmanageable spreadsheet to track Boggs Family, Inc's finances.  I look forward to giving Mint a try in hopes of dumping my spreadsheet.

The Tree Brains

I just ordered my Tree Brains t-shirt from http://thesneeze.com.

Who/what are The Tree Brains?
The Tree Brains are an imaginary band that anyone can be a part of. No musical ability is required to join. The band will never play anywhere because it only exists in theory. There is no initiation into the band. If you want to be in it, you're in it. You may lay claim to any instrument or job in the band you would like. The style of music The Tree Brains are known for is "Theoretical Rock."

Here's the real (and hilarious) story behind the band.  In addition to playing spoons for the band, I'm also the group's Executive Rock Theorist, Southern Culture Liaison, and CEO for The Tree Brains Foundation, our philanthropic arm.

I can't wait to rock my new shirt.  If you don't read The Sneeze, you should.

In Search of the Summer

I can't believe how quickly the summer disappeared. Just a week or two ago, it was 110 degrees outside, school had just gotten underway, and I was still buzzing from the post Italy and China afterglow.

A round of midterms and a few football games later, it's autumn. It is still warm outside, but "pleasant" warm instead of "gates of hell" warm. Instead of enjoying the novelty of being in school again, I'm knee-deep in the stay up late, wake up early, can't put it down drudgery of actually being a student.

(Not that said drudgery isn't both extremely manageable and enjoyable, by the way.)

Despite the significant task at hand and the impending doom of finals, everyone here - me included - already seems amazingly fixated on next summer. Nearly all of my classmates are eagerly running the company presentation gauntlet in search of the ideal summer internship. Everyone shows up in suits and spends their lunch and dinner time listening to whatever it is J&J, GE, Deloitte, McKinsey, Lehman Brothers, etc. have to say. Some are going to 2 and 3 of these presentations a day. (Insanity if you ask me.)

I haven't attended any of these presentations (and probably won't), but that doesn't mean that I'm not hiking my trek toward summer internship Shangri La. I've got a number of irons in the fire and, excluding a Kenan-Flagler sponsored VC fellowship program, all of them are individually driven and outside of KFBS' career services machine.

It is mildly frustrating that I don't have the institutional support of my classmates.  However, I must admit that I enjoy the underdog/individual effort aspect of my internship search, as well as the freedom from the company presentation grind. Plus, my internship search is a great primer for the job search that I'll start this time next year.

As much as possible/appropriate, I'll update The Boggs Blog with my search progress and lessons learned.

Rankings Don't Matter. Oh Wait - Yes They Do!

Kenan-Flagler ranked #6 in the WSJ's annual MBA program rankings, up from #8 last year. Good for us!

MBA rankings are a fickle beast. Administration and staff have to pretend like they don't matter, yet does anyone wanna bet that Dean Jones and the MBA program staff aren't slapping high-fives this morning?

Students must say that they removed "rankings" from the decision-making process and instead focused on other variables, such as "fit". It is just amazing how Top 5 schools seem to "fit" a little bit better and how my classmates are and will continue to be abuzz about the new rankings.

Here's my brief assessment of the WSJ survey:

1. Recruiters like us because they can pay us less. KFBS has the lowest starting salary of the schools in the Top 10. Until we get pizzaid like a Top 10 program, I'm not buying the Top 10 distinction.

(Note - The article points out that the "what's in it for me" attitude similar to that which I just indirectly expressed caused Kellogg and Michigan to drop considerably from last year's rankings.)

2. We're eager. Which I presume relates to #1. We're a consensus Top 20 school. But, with regards to the Top 10, we're a bit of an up-and-comer, a scrappy underdog, if you will. Everyone loves an underdog - especially, it seems, MBA recruiters.

3. We don't have an "MBA attitude". KFBS does an amazing job of filtering out the jerks.  I can honestly say that I haven't met a single person here that rubs me the wrong way - which is pretty amazing considering my Jerry Seinfeld-esque sensitivity to jerks.

On the contrary, I visited a consensus Top 10 school in the Northeast this past February and decided not to apply because of the surprising number of abrasive personalities I encountered. It was a recruiting visit! Aren't you supposed to be nice to me!?

KFBS would do very well to continue this trend and steal some of the "collegial MBA program" market share away from Tuck and Kellogg.

4. Our test scores are weak, but getting MUCH stronger. The survey reports an average GMAT score of ~660. This is for the class of 2008. My class has an average score of ~690.

Hopefully the test scores and other improvements will continue to push Kenan-Flagler up the rankings, which of course mean nothing and everything.

P = MBA

I spent some time talking to a second year KFBS student on my way to an Accounting review Friday afternoon and he offered me a brief anecdote about his first year Microeconomics professor. My re-telling:
Bob Connelly told his students on the first day of class that the single most important formula that they should learn from his class is as follows:

"P = MBA"

He went on to say that if students are stressing about grades, then they just aren't getting it. Except for those keen on a finance gig on Wall Street, in which case grades DO matter, he suggested that students make sure to learn the material REALLY well, but spend their time exploring the numerous social, personal, community, and career opportunities that KFBS offers, not killing themselves for an "H".

His anecdote inspired me to skip out on the review session - (I already had the "P" in the bag.) - and caused me to reflect on the "P = MBA" concept. A few thoughts:

1. My Micro professor has written lots of formulas on the board, but none as relevant to reality as "P = MBA".

2. It is easier said than done. I'm a competitive SOB and I can't help it. For me, to "accept" a "P" is to accept defeat. This is probably why I've had so many late nights trying to stay ahead of the game with my coursework...and probably why I'm so tired all of the time.

3. It can be a timely excuse. Case in point - I'm pretty sure that I botched said Accounting exam for which I skipped the review session. (Note - I still studied quite a bit at home...)

But, you know what? I'm certain that I passed. I'm certain that I got most of the questions mostly right. Plus, I'm certain that some students did MUCH worse on the exam than I did. Most importantly, I'm certain that I know the material well enough considering my career aspirations.

So - while I might stink at Accounting - I'm not going to beat myself up over what will probably be a less-than-stellar grade. After all, P = MBA!

Courses related to my background and career interests will be a completely different story I'm sure...

Kelly Lets The Truth Slip

Because my hairline economy is mired in an unfortunate recession, I've started keeping my head buzzed.

I've gotten a little fuzzy and Kelly has been begging to give me a fresh clipping, so I let her cut my hair tonight. When she finished cutting, she cheerfully exclaimed:
There! Now you look more like David Beckham.

I was not amused.

A Busy Week...

Kenan-Flagler first years have 2 midterms and a paper due this week. Good times!

Our profs have mentioned numerous times that they work together to try to spread the load as much as possible and, to their credit, they've done a good job so far. I've been busy, no doubt, but it hasn't been the living hell that others had me believe that I would encounter.

(I might be singing a different tune at the end of this week...)

It is worth mentioning that the week won't totally suck. My first flag football game since undergrad kicks off Tuesday at 8PM and Jason Isbell blows up the Local 506 Thursday ~11PM. Can't wait.

This Is Your Pharmacy

I just got the following phone call:
This is your pharmacy. A member of this household has a prescription that is ready for pick up.

(pause)

A member of this household has a prescription that is ready for pick up.

(pause)

A member of this household has a prescription that is ready for pick up.

etc.

Either the record player was broken, or that was the worst customer service phone call I've ever received in my life. It is unbelievable that Eckerd/RiteAid wouldn't invest a little more time/effort into a communication that reaches so many of their customers.

Even worse - why am I not getting an email telling me that my prescription is ready? My cell phone is just as susceptible to intercept as my inbox. Plus, the message contains no private medical information.

Italy Videos

Considering the ungodly amount of work I have to do over the next few weeks, it isn't likely that I'll finish up my grand plans to document my summer travels.

I did manage to upload the following Italy videos this past weekend. Enjoy.

Colosseum Walk - Kelly LOVES guided walks from travel books.

St. Peter's Bells - an empty square thanks to our 6AM wake-up.

Inside St. Peter's - check out the sunlight near the end.

Corpus Christi Processional - the Pope had just ridden by and we followed the swell of people toward Santa Maria Maggiore.

Cinque Terre Swim - Kelly takes a dip in the cool Mediterranean just outside of Riomaggiore.

Driving In Chianti - our Lancia - and my overly cautious driving - couldn't quite keep pace with the speedier Italian drivers.

Floating In The Grand Canal - listen for the singing gondolier.

The Pigeon Queen - Kelly feeding the pigeons in Piazza San Marco.

Update on the Discrimination

Surprisingly, I hit a 6 week traffic high with my post about life as a Mac user in Kenan-Flagler's Microsoft polluted driven computing environment. I suspect that the scandalous title enticed the Facebook profile lurkers and RSS feed ignorers to take a look. Speaks to the power of headlines and subject lines...

Jeff left a great comment. He's right - Macs are for ballers:
We look at it this way - Macs are for people who know almost nothing about computers and are getting started, or are for people who know a LOT about computers and need the heavy lifting that a properly pimped Macbook Pro can give you.

I emailed the IT office (again) about an LDAP connection and got the juice. I can now search the global directory from my email client.

I'll learn to live with the calendering issue, partially because there isn't a simple solution, but more so because I have qualms about people adding - or "suggesting" - things to my calendar - regardless of my ability to accept or reject the request. That is another post for another time...

Discrimination at Kenan-Flagler

What a shame. Such a titillating title for what you will find to be a whiny, self-righteous post.

Plus, I should be studying, not whining, especially not whining self-righteously.

At Kenan-Flagler, Mac users have to walk to school barefooted, in the snow, uphill both ways. The whole email/calendaring system is entrenched in Exchange and that isn't going to change any time soon. I can't access the school's address book. The program office distributes documents that inexplicably don't open in Office for Mac.  You get the idea...

(I guess this really isn't that bad or much different that anywhere else. You see? Whiny.)

To be fair, I don't really mind it - I actually enjoy it. I have what works for me and I'd rather stick with it than follow the herd. Plus, the feeling that I'm having to scrape out my interactive existence keeps it interesting for me. (Here comes the self-righteousness...) Most of all, 4 years spent working at a company driven by and built on open source technologies galvanized my belief in open standards. I'm perfectly happy trading convenience for conviction.

That said, I don't like it when the following happens:

1.) I email someone about getting 30 minutes of their time and they reply asking that I add it to their calendar. I reply saying that I can't. I get the meeting, the first 2 minutes of which is spent questioning my ability to be productive without Outlook and suggesting that I migrate to Outlook for the web. (The full version of which doesn't work in Firefox and/or Mac OS, by the way.)

2.) I schedule a resume critique through an online system only the receive a calendar invitation that I can't act on. I had to access web Outlook to confirm the meeting and add it to a calendar that I don't use.

3.) One of my classmates describes my iBook as "cute".

The IT department, though aware of our needs and reasonably accommodating, constantly reminds us that they don't support Macs. In fact, they set up a discussion board so the 25 or so Mac users can help support each other. How nice! (Too bad it was after we had already set up an email list...)

Instead of a discussion board, I'd prefer a migration away from the Microsoft death grip to an IT world in which we are all created equal. The following simple things would make me happy:

- Calendars distributed via the CalDAV standard.
- Some sort of LDAP access to the global address book. Thunderbird appears to support it.
- The disappearance of the assumption that we all use Outlook.