Is that a light I see?

Last night I was in class, wondering how we could possibly be going over the industry life cycle AGAIN (honestly, if we haven't learned it yet, it's not going to happen) and I was more amazed at myself for actually taking notes. As if I couldn't tell you the 4 phases of the industry life cycle (which mirrors the product life cycle) are introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. I'm fairly
certain I actually learned that in 10th grade. But there I was, taking notes like a trained monkey. I came to the conclusion that after 4 years they actually have run out of things to teach me. They are now going back to high school to find things to stretch out the semester. I'm a little afraid that next week we will go over the basics of supply and demand. Or worse, start having vocabulary quizzes.

There's some good news on the UMass front. Luckily I am graduating in a little over 2 months and this would not have effected me. But there was a $1500 proposed increase in fees at every Umass campus. UMass is famous for their "fees". They are triple what tuition is, and the fully admit those fees are just to make up the difference between what other colleges charge for tuition and what they charge for tuition. Since they are charging it anyway, why not just call it tuition? All they are doing by categorizing it under "fees" instead of "tuition" is screwing the students that are getting tuition covered by someone (work, loan, grant, etc) but not fees. And then they wanted to increase the fees by $1500. I would have been screwed if I had to pay an extra $4500 a year to UMass (I was there 3 semesters a year). I honestly do not know how I would have paid for it, but as I said - doesn't effect me. However I heard on NPR this morning that all 4 UMass campuses might be seeing some help via Deval Patrick via The Massive Stimulus Package. Patrick is proposing taking $162 million in federal stimulus money to allow
UMass officials to defray the fee increase down to as little as $380. While that's still a lot, it's much more manageable than $1500. In addition, the money will be used to prevent some
faculty layoffs and program cuts (not really sure what program cuts though).

For all the students not graduating in May, I hope this goes through. I also hope the money isn't just handed over to UMass officials, because god knows they have no idea how to efficientlyrun a school system and will probably just build another dorm at the Amherst campus. We'll see - Patrick is unveiling the plan at UMB this afternoon.

I was sitting in class tonight thinking about all the reasons I hate UMass. Then I realized that my long suffering readers have been forced to hear all about my hatred for the school and I very rarely list the reasons why. So here you go, long suffering readers. The reasons why UMB is terrible.

1. I have gone to school there for 3 years. Not once have I been in a room that contained a white board. Now I know that's not really a reason to hate a school. But it just shows how ass backwards the school truly is.

2. One word. Wireless. We have 6 buildings on campus. One building is wireless. The remaining 5? Well if you're lucky, there might be a "zone" in your building. Then again, there might not be one at all.

3. I cannot get a library card because I can't get to the student services office in normal business hours. Why? Right, because I work normal business hours. I use the Brandeis bookstore instead. I shouldn't have to do that.

4. Fees. Oh my god in heaven, the incessant fees. They actually have a fee that they ADMIT is there to make up the difference between what we pay in tuition and what other universities would charge. THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!? Just charge it all as tuition and stop lying. Honestly. Who cares what your tuition is if your fees are triple the tuition.

5. Parking.... this is a topic I have covered in the past. To rehash: UMB is a commuter school that is a series of building built over parking garages. In the summer of 06 the closed the parking garages forever, never open again. I'll say that again. THEY CLOSED THE PARKING GARAGES AT A COMMUTER SCHOOL. The reason? They were structurally unsafe. But don't worry, they insist the buildings on top of the garages are fine. Apparently they will just float in the air when the garages that are supporting them crumble away. Leviosa!!!


There are more reasons, but my language is getting away from me, as it is want to do when I'm livid. So I'll end this now and fantasize I am back in the SAC.

say it right!

There is an ad on the radio now that bugs the hell out of me.

UMass is pronounced u-MASS. Not YOU-mass. I don't know why, I know most other states emphasize the U (YOU-conn, YOU NH, YOU VM, YOU Maine, etc). But for some reason, it's u-MASS. Ask any graduate of the University of Massachusetts system where he or she went to school. The answer will be u-Mass. Not YOU mass.

So why, I ask, does an ad running on MA radio stations that is trying to promote Massachusetts schools say YOU-Mass? They have children at all different levels of education speaking about their schooling and then there's a voice at the end telling you to support Massachusetts education. We all know these are paid actors. But if you are selling Massachusetts schools to Massachusetts residents, maybe try to have them pronounce the name of the school correctly. When people from out of MA say YOU mass, it doesn't bother me. I don't know of any other school that doesn't emphasize the You. But here in MA we don't. So say it correctly.

Last one

I started my last summer semester of school. I can now officially start countdowns. One year from tomorrow I will graduate. Actually, one year from tomorrow I will be 2 years older than I am today. BECAUSE TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Sorry, I had to get that out.

Anyway, I will never have a first day of a summer semester again. And I am giddy about it. I'm not sure how I am going to get through the next 12 months, but I've already done about 31 months of it, so I am sure I will make it through. I can almost taste my freedom. And it tastes goood.

Speaking of tasting good, I made reservations for me and Andrew tomorrow at Intrigue. I wanted to go to Meritage, but let's face it, I am not made out of money. As it is, we are going to have to be somewhat cheap at Intrigue. But I love playing with Yelp and Open Table way too much so I couldn't not do some reservation somewhere.

It's also Andrew's last day of working in town, so I guess it's fitting that we meet in there after work one more time. It might actually be easier for us to go into town after work, we can hop on the train together instead of having to meet up in Back Bay.

I'll do a mini review of Intrigue tomorrow and let y'all know how it is. And how fabulous my birthday was :)

Where have I been?

I really am sorry I haven’t updated in what seems like forever. I don’t know where September went, I feel like I blinked and all of the sudden it was over.

I ran into an old classmate of mine from NDA, and she mentioned how crazy it was that it has been 9 years. In a split second the following thoughts ran through my head: “9 years? What’s been 9 years? We graduated 8 years ago, I saw her last year, what is she talking about? Oh my god, 9 years? They have been dead 9 years? Are you kidding me? I missed it? How did I miss that? How does that day go by without me even noticing? Does that make me a bad person?”. Had I been working on 09/22 I would have remembered, because I can’t look at that date without knowing. Just like you can’t look at 9/11, your birthday, Christmas, etc without knowing what that day is. For the past 9 years September 22 has been a sad day. I can’t figure out if that’s a good thing, that I don’t focus on the past, or if that’s a bad thing, that I let the anniversary of friends’ deaths pass by. I always remember the anniversary of Kate’s death because she died on my 18th birthday. Next year I have to make an effort to remember. And I can’t believe it’s been 9 years. God, I was a child when that all happened. It’s amazing how resilient we were, as a class. How do 120 emotional 17 and 18 year old girls move on? How do they deal with two separate car accidents that signaled the beginning and end of the senior year of high school? How do you bounce back from 4 classmates dying like that? I have no idea, and I experienced it. I still don’t know how we did it, and all came out of the ordeal still relatively grounded. Maybe our youth actually helped us. Maybe a lack of life experience under out belts helped us deal with the loss. Who knows… I certainly don’t.

Switching topics, last Saturday I went to my first BC game of the year. They played Army and of course Army lost. But Matt and Laney came down to see the game, they had tickets that were originally given to Matt’s parents. They had really great seats, in the second row. Andrew and I sat with them during the second half. I liked seeing the game from those seats, maybe I would pay attention to the game more often if I always sat in the second row. I sit in like the 25th row or something crazy like that. And after the game, Andrew and I went back up to Manchester and the 4 of us went to North Garden for some scorpion bowls, and watched karaoke. I’m not sure if there is anything better than scorpion bowls and karaoke at North Garden! Andrew is in the middle of a “I want to live in New Hampshire” kick. I told him if he can find a job that will pay enough for me to stay home, then I am more than willing to move. Seeing as salaries are lower in Manch than in Boston, I’m pretty sure the For Sale sign won’t be going up in my front yard any time soon.

Speaking of staying home, someone recently asked me why I am in grad school if I plan on having children. I’m not really even sure what that means. Both of my parents have graduate degrees and they have children… my brother has a graduate degree, AND he holds a CFA designation and he will be a father come January. I have friends who have graduate degrees and children. I wasn’t aware that it was one or the other. I thought about it later and I think the person was asking why I am going to school if I could possibly stop working for awhile when I have kids. I think this is what they mean, I really can’t figure out any other logical meaning to the questions. Unfortunately, having kids doesn’t necessarily mean staying home in this day and age. Although we both want me to be able to stay home when the day comes, we both are prepared for the very likely scenario where I will be working. The bills must be paid, and sometimes the creditors have to come first. Our best case scenario is me staying home full time. Our most likely scenario is me working full time. I would like to strive for me working part time. But… I don’t know what the future holds for me, and I fail to see how having an MBA will interrupt me having children. Whether or not I stay home remains up in the air, whether or not I have children remains up in the air, however the MBA is a certainty. At least it is right now, I haven’t failed out of the program yet!

This is a long post, and kind of rambling, and I didn’t even cover all the topics I meant to cover. Consider this post to be two posts to make up for the dry spell my blog has had recently.

It's not you, its me

We need to talk.

I think it's time we take a break. You're a really great audience, but I just can't do this right now. I don't think you would be interested in my ramblings for the next two weeks anymore than I would be interested in writing them. Maybe we can see after the 21st. but for now.... I'm sorry. I just can't.

Now that I have broken up with you, fear not, Dear Reader. I most definately will be back - but I am taking a mini hiatus until May 22. On May 21, I have two finals and a paper due, and these are not finals you can cram for (for which you can cram, I know, I know). I am under an enormous amount of pressure for both finals and I just don't have time for anything until they are done. If you know me personally and you don't see me until May 22, don't worry. I promise I will resurface then.

Until May 22, have a very pleasant Spring!

I'm not in a good mood.

I really hate my group for Accounting class. Except for one woman, who I actually think is very nice and I have had a few classes with her. But the other three? Cannot stand them. I'm two years ahead of them, but I'm just taking Accting 610 now, because I wisely decided to put off my core classes (CMs, as it were) for awhile so I wouldn't drop out when I took them. I have too much invested in the program now to quit, so my plan did work well. Except for the fact that I have to work with people who are in their first semester. These people haven't written papers in like 5 years since college. They're annoying. They don't know how to check email. They don't know how to communicate. They make me want to take a crowbar to .... well, never mind where the crowbar should end up. They just annoy the crap out of me, and I really hope I never have to ever take a class with any of them again (which hopefully I won't as one of them is actually getting an MSA not an MBA. Though, honestly, if you have to take Accouting 610 you really shoudn't be getting an MSA, but I digress.

I'm actually too annoyed to finish this post. I'll return

#44 people, #44

Yeah that's right. #44. In the country.

My degree is worth something! If I ever get it

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mbaschools_hired/2007/full_list/index.html