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Attention Team D! Let’s all work together to help out my sister’s buddy Tony on a survey of epic proportions. You can even win $100!!!!

It takes about 15-20 minutes and is pretty interesting. I’ve disabled the comments in order to help ensure that no one can influence anyone else.

Perhaps once tony finishes with his study he can give us a little info on his findings.

Thanks guys!

Take the Survey HERE.

I’m on a short business trip today. But I have all sorts of exciting things to share.

Firstly, I went to a dermatologist yesterday. They did a biopsy on one of my funky birth marks. How did it go down? Pretty nasty. First a nurse injected me with some sort of local numbing agent. Then the doctor went in. I couldn’t feel a thing so all I got from the goings on was the conversations between the doctor and his helpers.

Doctor: “we’ll need some towels. he’s bleeding a bit”
Nurse: “I’ll grab some.”
mike d thinks: towels?
Doctor: “go grab Janet to do the stitches”
mike d thinks: stitches?
Janet: “well, I’ve seen worse.”
mike d thinks: awesome?

Actually, it all came out pretty good. I have to go back in ten days for stitch removal and biopsy results. But the whole thing was really very fast, and the dermatologist seemed to know what he was doing. I was in and out in an hour with a full review and minor surgery. For anyone looking for a dermatologist in the New Haven area, I recommend Savin.

The other exciting news is that last night I had my very last class for my mechanical engineering degree. Class… meaning… class. I still have an independent project that I must complete, but no more classroom time! Yes!! This is a huge life savor. From this day forth I will loose one less night a week to academia. Rock!

On the topic of environmental regulations.

Professor:
One particular interesting story is about a barge that was sent out of New York. It had hazardous waste in it and they wanted to dump it out at sea. This was before the laws completely prohibited the practice. So the barge goes out and New York says it can’t dump it within their waters. So the barge goes south. And as they go they keep meeting resistance. No one will let them dump the garbage. I mean, if it was solid waste? If it was solid waste they could have put it in a landfill. But obviously this was something atypical. They got all the way down to Costa Rica. And still… nothing. So what happened? Where did they have to go?

Classmate:
New Jersey?

The response from my professor was hilarious:

“Hot Stuff Mike.”

(more…)

“In Economics they say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But sometimes you may not realize you have a lunch. or you’re throwing your lunch away. When you can reclaim that lunch… it looks and feels a lot like a free lunch.”

Jim Stodder

Professor: So why would demand increase?
Me: International business?
Professor: yes. good. what’s your name again?
Me: mike.
Professor: Mike D?
Me: that’s right.

Last night I had a midterm in my Heat Convection class.

It went… okay. Hardly flawless, but not nearly as bad as I had originally expected. This tough exam comes alongside two great pieces of news.

1. it looks like I’ll be able to get credit for two of my MBA classes as ‘elective’ courses for the M.S.

This is awesome because I thought i could only get one. A bonus class would be SWEET. If that goes through we will have the following school completion levels.

2. Pete and I may be able to do a project for the engineering degree. That means I could be done as early as MARCH. MARCH!

that would be bliss. I can’t wait.

Studying is brutal when you don’t have a deep sense of passion for the content.

I’m really not digging my Heat Convection class. It’s too theoretical and doesn’t apply (at this level) to anything I do at work. I’m taking it to fulfill an elective requirement for the master’s in science and I’m just not happy with the subject. The only thing that amazes me about Heat Convection is that someone had the enthusiasm to figure all this stuff out in the first place.

This makes studying for this week’s midterm particularly trying. Especially with the everest of guitars quietly calling out to me from within its plush hard case.

Today I took a vacation day from work so that I can finish up that paper.

whoop-de-freakin-doo.

I just found out* I have a 10 page paper due in my international business class Friday. AND I had already agreed to go to Karaoke tonight. I hope ear bursting Journey tunes will provide enough energy for me to stay up for the next 60 hours to write this paper.

*we were actually told about this long ago**. I just forgot entirely until a classmate reminded me.
**long ago = about 4 weeks. But really. I just found out*(***)
***recursive footnotes!!!

Yesterday I took a vacation day so that I could work on some projects for school. Specifically, a take home exam and a New Product Development project. The exam was… well? an exam. Nothing too noteworthy there.

But the New Product Development work was a blast! Our group is working on a project with the Hartford Wadsworth Atheneum. The Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford that is known for its impressive Baroque collection. Myself and three project-mates met with a woman who is deeply involved in the museum’s education connection. We learned so many amazing things about museum operation.

Take, for example, the checklist of criteria that must be met in order for a museum to loan out works of art. It’s about a half inch thick stack of rules. It covers everything from “is the location in a flood zone” to the material of the walls (brick, drywall, etc…).

We learned a bit about the categorization of art pieces, how exhibits are formed, and that the museum owns more than 50,000 works.

After the meeting, two of us took a stroll around the museum. I need to make more time for culture like that, it’s such a treat.

Last night was my last night of Fluids!!! I’m excited to report that I pulled off an ‘A’ on my last exam.

Only four classes left for the MS!

Reasons why I suspect that my Saturday class will be one I enjoy

1) “and I’ll make sure that you learn enough about Excel… to make you lethal.”

2) The professor refers to the class as a ‘gig’

3) During class he asked “any Scrabble players here?”

I’m having trouble with some annoying algebra.

Suggestions?

This weekend gets a qualified “eh.” I came in to help with my company’s inventory count on Saturday and Sunday. Most of the rest of my time was spent on a Fluids homework assignment that reaches new levels of obnoxious.

The annoying part of this homework is that most of the work is just algebra. After figuring out which formula to use, which takes all of 3 minutes, the next hour is spent substituting in variables and simplifying equations.

Not fun.

Thankfully, there were two moments of enjoyment this weekend. Saturday night, at 6:45 Jesse and I decided to sprint up to Pinnacle rock and whip out two climbs. We did 1st and 3rd crack. Finishing 3rd crack as the sun set over the hills. Then, last night Pete, Crystal, Jesse, Irene, Joel, and I decided to save our sanity and get a quick climb or two in at Main Cliff.

I collected my first piece of climbing booty* (a sweet Tricam) on a 5.5 lead then tied into a top rope on Wetwall and some 5.9 face. It was raining by the time I hit Wetwall and the 5.9, so the fun factor jumped considerably.

Overall, this weekend gets a 5.3 toprope rating, more effort than enjoyment.

*a piece of gear that someone else left in the rock, either inadvertently or because they couldn’t remove it.

My innovation professor was commenting on the robot Asimo*.

During the discussion….

Prof: “like that movie with Will Smith?”
Student: “i robot!”
Prof: “yeah!”
Various students: “oh yeah!”

I am disappointed that the professor referred to ‘i robot’ as a Will Smith movie and not as a book by Isaac Asimov.

*the name Asimo was not made as a homage to Asimov, despite the closeness in name.

This weekend kind of stunk.

Friday I spent some time with Ernie after class making pizza and playing Wii. That was the extent of fun for the weekend.

Saturday I started in on a Finance project, and outside of the occasional guitar break, didn’t stop.
Sunday was more of the same with the added bonus of some studying of Advanced Fluids with Pete.

Pete and I were sick of working and we needed a break. It was 3:30. Jesse, Kay, and Gary were climbing at Cathole and I really wanted to do some leading. So we grabbed our gear and headed over.

Climbing Story
For a fun game… let’s keep track of the good ideas and bad ideas in the following story. Devin is going to LOVE this.

We arrived at Cathole and I decided I wanted to lead 5.8 Saturday Night Special (bad idea #1). I got my gear on and got ready. We went over my plan for setting anchor at the top and reviewed each other’s knots to make sure we were in good shape (good idea #1). Then I started leading (bad idea #2).

The protection was there… but not great. I found a few good spots and a handful of mediocre spots. I wasn’t TOO worried because I was doubling up like crazy on my gear (good idea #2 and bad idea #3 (bad idea explained later).)

Then the wind started roaring and I started freaking out. It was brutal! Here I was, 30 feet off the ground with 70 feet to go, getting forcibly pushed around by chilled winds. I was nervous as all heck. BUT, my gear placement kept getting better, so I kept climbing.

Suddenly I looked down and realized I was running out of slings (see bad #3). Slings are used to connect the gear to the rope, so they are pretty important. Thankfully I had two double long slings left, and there was only about 15 feet left to climb. My cams had wiregates, so if I could find one cam placement, and then use my two slings I could still have gear that was 5 or less feet apart.

I grabbed one of my slings… and found that it was tangled with the other sling (bad #4). I was in a decent rest spot though, so I decided to try and untangle them (bad #5). a SOLID 12-15 minutes later, I was no further along and my left calf was at point of failure. It then started to rain (bad #6).

“Not Good,” I thought. “Maybe I can just use the tangled sling and try to get two cams in later on” (bad #7). I put my one piece of gear in and climbed up a little farther. The rain stopped.

This is where trouble really started. I looked up…. and the crack disappeared (bad #8). As far as I could see, there was no good placement for equipment at all (bad #9). I realized, that when I ‘mock’ lead this previously, I stopped before the top because the anchor was hanging. Without a hanging anchor, I was out of luck.

The wind tortured me some more and then I decided I better down climb (good idea #3 and bad idea #10).

Down climbing is not easy. And it stinks when you know you can’t fall on your gear. But, it was smart of me to bail.

So I started my way down. Thankfully, it wasn’t any harder than a 5.8 so I made decent progress. When I was about 30 feet up, I got into some trouble. I had to climb over a small bulge, and the foot placement wasn’t visible. On top of that, as soon as I put any weight on my calves they went into Typewriter mode, shaking like crazy from being overworked on that ledge.

I was right under a solid cam. And I felt FAR more comfortable about this cam then I did the two nuts that hung below me. I tested the cam again, and decided to lower off the edge (good idea #4)

Pete tightened the belay. That cam was extremeeely solid (good #5). He lowered me down.

I removed the gear below that cam.

Now we were in a new jam. I had left a piece stranded in the wall. I’d have to be lowered from the top to retrieve it. Joel and I hiked to the top. I kept my helmet on (good idea #6).

We get to the top, and Joel lowers me down. The gear, because it had been used, was thoroughly jammed in the crack. It took me awhile to release it.

Joel lowered me down the rest of the way. I reached the bottom and walked a good 10-12 feet away from the hanging rope. Joel shouted “ROPE!” and let go of the top.

It whipped down, as ropes always do. But for whatever reason, it flailed right at me. I crouched down and the rope whipped me in the helmet.

I wasn’t going to try my luck any more. I packed up my equipment and went home.

I’m going to have to ask Irene how the climbing books rate placement of gear on that route. Because I did not find it comfortable in the least. Especially at the top. Yikes.

I would describe the climb as a complete failure. But as Jesse pointed out, there’s two types of Failure and I’m totally okay with yesterday’s type.

End tally?
6 Good.
10 Bad.

Theory of Elasticity: A

Last night I had my fluids class. I’m actually kind of enjoying it. It directly relates to my work at the Tool, and I find it pretty interesting. One thing I’ve learned is that I’m the only one who raises his hand when the teacher asks if people want to see something done.

Example:
Prof: “Does anyone need to see how to convert the units on this to meters squared per second squared?”

MIKE D’S ARM INSTANTLY FIRES INTO THE AIR! everyone else remains perfectly still.

Prof: “okay. well, first we take a Watt which is Joules per…..”

This means one of two things:

I’m the only one who has no idea what he’s doing
or
I’m the only one with absolutely no shame

Either way, I don’t really care. I’m getting something out of the class and that’s all I need to be concerned about. We’ll see if I’m still this positive about the class once a test is on the horizon.

Comment spam is hilarious. Today I moderated a comment that was trying to advertise a Cheap Gazebo website. Cheap Gazebos. Unbelievable.

Last night I had my first Fluids class. It’s going to be tough. The good thing is that there is no book requirement and the professor communicates well. The bad part is that it will likely require a lot of work, and Pete, my study partner, will probably use MathCad to solve all the problems while I struggle with pen and paper to keep my units legit.

Discoveries of the Masses:

JonAbad discovered Bang Camero. It’s a band made up of 4 guitarists, a drummer and a chorus of about 20 dudes who belt out the chorus. It’s everything awesome of the 80’s.

Ryan Schenk found this sweet surfing video. It’s a video of the legendary teahupoo wave. Schenk described it as such: “The Teahupoo is one of the most dangerous big waves on the planet but also one of the best and most sought after.”

Kurt came across this amazing example of creative graffiti.

Financial and Managerial Accounting: A-
Marketing: A-

It turns out I can apply one of my MBA classes towards my MS degree.

This saves me 14 weeks of class time, and $450.

Rock.

Classes start back up this evening. While it’s a bummer to lose my Friday night again, it’s always good to get my learn on.

Friday’s class this semester is: Information Systems for Management.
Saturday’s class is: Financial Management I

I think the Financial Management class has some potential. I really enjoyed my last financial class, so hopefully this one will go well.

Let’s look at the ol’ class completion charts shall we?

That’s right! over 20% done on the MBA, and 40% done on the MS.