OwenBloggers: Isha - MBA '08

Stressed out? Have a cup of tea

I decided to have a cup of tea to relax last night as I was having fun with accounting homework. I went for decaf since I like sleeping at night, so I picked a Raspberry White Tea by Stash. As I was waiting for the water to boil I read the package. Imagine my surprise when I read the last two words “Contains: Soy.” Now, I’ve always wondered what goes into 100% natural flavoring, I just never thought it would be soy. I’m not exactly a soy person. Call me a traditionalist, but I believe that milk comes from cows (or other hoofed animals), burgers are made of meat (not tofu) and beans are a veggie – not a meal. I am not morally opposed to edamame, actually I’m quiet a big fan of it, just not in my tea...

Song of the day:
Faithless - I want more

Clubs and clubbing

It would be a shame not to utilize a public forum for a shameless, self-serving plug and not to mention the Owen Culinary Society (OCS). I have mentioned it through out last year, but this year I am really excited about it. Maybe it’s because I’m more involved in it this year, or because I actually know what I’m doing. That strange operation’s term comes to mind – the learning curve. One way or the other, OCS has pretty cool events planned for the fall, including a dinner cooked by Dean Bradford. How is that for a treat? It just makes me wonder if deans of other B-schools get involved with students as much and if they do, to what extent. I think that this makes Owen such a great place. Faculty and staff are within reach of the students and they do care about the school and the students.

Clubs are kinda a big thing. You have the serious/academic/concentration related clubs which are extremely important to job search and then you have the social clubs. My suggestion, be active in a club that will help you with your career, but get involved in something fun! I chose OCS, because I just love to cook, wait, no, it’s because I love to eat well. But there are other opportunities, like 100% Owen if you are into volunteering, Net Impact (especially since we are hosting the Net Impact Conference this year), or even the Global Business Association. Just be active, network and have fun.

Clubbing is a spectacular opportunity to get to know people. And who knows, maybe after that 7 pm meeting of the Finance Club you can go clubbing in a less formal setting with other club members…

Song of the day:
Ferry Corsten - Are You Ready

Technorati tags: Owen Graduate School of Management, Business School, Owenbloggers.com, Owen Culinary Society, Clubs, Vanderbilt, Net Impact

Only great minds can read this

My cousin e-mailed me this yesterday and I found it really interesting.  I can read it, can you?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Day 3

Well, I survived days one and two unharmed and not yet panicking. Granted, I do have some labor intensive courses - actually, all of them are very labor intensive – but I think they are manageable. Yesterday I even managed to squeeze in an hour at the pool between classes. It was a spectacular idea and gave me enough power to last through my 3:40 class . However, I fell a sleep reading corporate valuation articles, so I’ve got plenty to catch up on...

Owen feels a bit odd. There are so many people I don’t know yet and they crowd the hallways, take up library rooms and dress like they were still on vacation. I never thought I would say this, but there it is: business casual makes sense. It conveys that seriousness about the program, about the school, and about the people that are there. Jeans do not. Soon recruiters will be arriving at school and somehow I don’t want them to see shorts, t-shirts and old sneakers. This is not California folks where flip flops are part of the school attire. But enough venting.

I miss my WSJ. For some reason I won’t start getting my paper until next week. Now that I only have two 8 am classes, I would like to see it early in the morning when I still can sit outside and read. There is nothing better then seeing the sun go up, sip freshly brewed coffee and read the morning paper. Until that happy moment arrives, I will have to delight myself with getting the news on the web. So this morning I found out that another Polish teenager won the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). Wouldn’t be that much of

a deal, if he hasn’t competed against 284 other young programmers representing 77 countries. So here is to Tomek Kulczyński, good luck in all of your featured endeavors. Apparently we are quite good at programming. Warsaw University is ranked number one by the TopCoder in the colligate rankings, and Poland is classifies in second place in the country rankings. I just thought it was interesting. Now anyone looking for programming talent can look outside of India and into Central Europe.

BTW folks, The King is dead. And this year, he even took some of his fans to the grave with him.

Song of the day:
Elvis Presley – Don't be Cruel

Technorati tags: Owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt, Owen Graduate School of Management, Business School, IOI, Elvis Presley

Monsters not under my bed

It all starts like a fairytale: In a land far, far away there was a damsel who lived in a castle vel casa with a beautiful garden (a.k.a. balcony). There she would spend every morning and evening taking care of her delicate flowers (or at least watering them so they wouldn’t die in the scorching, California like heat). Unknown to her, in her garden also lived a terrible monster. She has heard stories of such monsters, but has never seen one during the day. One faithful day, as she gently purred water into the flower pots the monster jumped out from underneath the leaves straight at her. She screamed and dropped her watering can. Water gashed out of the container splashing and spilling all over. The monster’s external skeleton was dark brown and shiny in the morning sun. His long legs moved with lightning speed and long antennas spiked out of its head like whips. The damsel tried to defend her castle, but the monster cunningly got through her defenses and dashed inside before she could close the patio doors.

So there she was faced with a terrible decision to hunt down the invader and remove it form her home. Fortunately it didn’t take long to find a suitable weapon for such opponent: a large glass. She tracked it down hiding behind a box and as she moved it the monster dashed at her - again. But this time she was ready! Armed with her weapon she trapped the monster in its prison. Then she slid a piece of cardboard's underneath the glass, so the monster wouldn’t escape or attack her. As she was caring it outside, she told it that if she will ever see it again she will kill it dead. And as she finished her statement, she virtuously threw it over the balcony. The monster flew off defeated and haven’t been seen since…

Song of the day:
La Coucaracha

Senioritis maximus

My internship is over in 32 work hours. Yes, four more days of work and no play while majority of other second years are enjoying themselves and relaxing before classes start. However, I got an e-mail from a friend earlier this morning reminding me that I don’t have it all that bad. They had it different…:

(1) Office employees will daily sweep the floors, dust the furniture, shelves, and showcases.
(2) Each day fill lamps, clean chimneys, and trim wicks. Wash the windows once a week.
(3) Each clerk will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day's business.
(4) Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to your individual taste.
(5) This office will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. except on the Sabbath, on which day we will remain closed. Each employee is expected to spend the Sabbath by attending church and contributing liberally to the cause of the Lord.
-- "Office Worker's Guide", New England Carriage Works, 1872

Talking of work, I “skipped” work yesterday so I could hand gout with the first years. Well, not exactly skipped. I was working the orientation for the incoming class. It was pretty exciting. I remembered myself a year ago, doing what they were doing, all a little (or not so little) wide eyed just taking it all in. A lot of them still taking it in, feeling kind of unreal, and asking for advice. And what could I tell them? That there are moments in (almost) every MBA student’s life when they doubt them selves and have a low moment, that there is a time when they will wonder, even for a brief moment, why exactly did they leave their cozy jobs. I’ll tell you why: ambition, stagnation, and money. Anyhow, the first years seem like a nice bunch. We will just have to see how driven they are and if they can keep up with the second years.

The first social was at the Mercy Lounge, about a block from my office, so I couldn’t exactly relax with the shadow of the building looming over me reminding me that I have to be there in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy my internship and I have learned a lot over the summer, but I am having a mild case of senioritis. Oh wait, I did mention that already… In any case, ready or not, classes start in six days. No more free nights or weekends, no more paycheck, but lots of hard work and even harder play in the coming months.

Is it warm enough for ya?

Few weeks ago I was walking to work and it was hot. In fact it was so hot that I was thinking that I should be on a Greek island somewhere enjoying the sun and abundance of cold (and alcoholic) drinks. Well, as it turns out, it wasn’t hot back then at all. Now is hot. It is so hot that there is a heat advisory that started yesterday at 1 pm and will be in effect until 7 pm Thursday. Right now the heat index is about a 101 F, but the humidity is 30%. It could be 90/90... For the uninformed, that’s 90 F and 90% humidity. Welcome to the South!

Last Thursday when I was taking the international students on a pub crawl, I mentioned to a small group that they should enjoy the nice weather. I don’t think they believed me, but I’m pretty sure they do now. The pub crawl itself was a lot of fun. We started off at Owen and migrated over to Broadway Brewhouse (Midtown location) and then a smaller group moved on to Dan McGuinness. Still a smaller group was over 15 people so I think it was a success. Too bad I had to leave early and couldn’t keep on hanging out, but I did have to be semi conscious at work the next morning. I know silly me right? Getting people in the Owen grove wasn’t as difficult as I imagined could be.

Good bus system?

The mayoral elections are on Thursday and over the past few days there so a bit more buzz about it all.  There have been multiple commentaries that this time it’s going to be all about making the city greener.  Well, Nashville definitely could use some more environmental awareness, however some statements made by the candidates made me laugh, others made me cry. Why?  One candidate (city council) stated that Nashville has a very good public transportation system.  I’m sorry, I do believe that this candidate and I live on separate planes of existence, where he resides in an idyllic one.  I’ve lived in places that have good transportation, hell, I lived in places that have mediocre transportation, and Nashville just ain’t it.  There is almost no public transportation.  If there where, there would be park and ride type venture, there would be car pool lanes on the freeways, there would be incentives to take a bus or train (oh wait, there would be a train network), but there is none of that, so please don’t try to charm voters with delusions of grandeur.  We know better.  I hope.