Precipitatio pulchritudinous

There is ambiguity no further -- that's snow out there. Big, beautiful snowflakes. Mesmerizing. Pulchritudinous, if I do say so.

And lest you're worrying about me 'n' my accounting, fret not. I'm ploughing through it. It's a case that examines consolidated vs. equity-basis ownership of affiliates. Coke and Pepsi are the two example firms. Interesting stuff, but pretty complex.

I recommend The Cocteau Twins, currently gracing my ears, as lovely study-accompaniment music.

Tags: snow Seattle Capitol Hill accounting homework Cocteau Twins

Precipitatio Ambiguoso

For the past several minutes, I haven't been able to determine whether it's been raining or snowing here in Capitol Hill. It honestly appeared to be doing both at once. Now it looks like straight-up snow. I could go outside to examine this matter further...but no. I like the view from my cozy warm desk.

Ah, but this accursed weather keeps my attention fixed out the window, when it should be fixed upon my accounting homework!

My musical soundtrack tonight is Mi Media Naranja, the exquisitely barren and contemplative 1997 release from Labradford.

Tags: Seattle Capitol Hill snow distraction Labradford

Jon Swift: satirical genius

If you're in the mood for some excellent political satire, check out Jon Swift. This blog has become one of my new favorite study breaks!

Tags: Jon Swift politics satire

Snow.

It doesn't matter that I'm 32 years old and in grad school. I keep looking at the falling snowflakes illumined by the streetlight out my window, and I feel like a little kid again, hoping school will be cancelled tomorrow. Chances are slim, I'm sure.

The snow is starting to stick now, up in the east Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The gradually growing snow-blanket makes my urban neighborhood smaller, more quiet, more rural-seeming.

It's a perfect evening for Nick Drake's Pink Moon. I'm listening to that now, in my pajamas and flannel shirt, doing some editing and stats research. Yes, still working on the stats.

Tags: snow Seattle school Capitol Hill Nick Drake

The problem with laptops

...is that they're too easy to work with whilst one is in a horizontal position. I greatly enjoy horizontality. Especially on days like today, filled as it is with slush and bluster, grey skies, and unceasing raindrops that have just morphed into snowflakes here in my neck of the woods.

I like to fool myself into believing that I'll actually get work done while I'm horizontal. And, if "work" is defined in a broad sense, then perhaps I am correct. I am "working" at present on this blog entry, for example.

Honestly, my industriousness from earlier in the quarter seems to be fading away. I spent much of Thanksgiving in a spot I've dubbed the womb room at my parents' place. There, down in the basement, in front of the happy warm fireplace, I spent much of the Thanksgiving break, catching up on my sleep.

Now that I've had a taste of the happy horizontality, I want more. More, I say! I wish to nap for hours on end.

But alas, there appears to be an inverse correlation between horizontality and industriousness. And speaking of inverse correlations, I have a stats project to work on ...

Tags: horizontality snow laptop snow horizontal fireplace Thanksgiving

So this is why we need two editorial voices!

This past Saturday, Seattle's two major newspapers offered rather different explanations for the recent crane accident in Bellevue:

Tags: Seattle crane newspaper editorial Times P.I.

Editing on the fly

Someone crossed out an erroneous apostrophe in my apartment manager's hand-written note the other day.



I swear it wasn't me.

Tags: apostrophe edit

IBM, Second Life, and v-business

Futurismic reports that IBM is heavily involved in Second Life. According to Reuters (itself a big player in Second Life), IBM has the biggest Second Life presence of any Fortune 500 company. The CEO, Sam Palmisano, even has his own avatar there:

The company's move into virtual worlds is due in large part to the efforts of its "multiverse evangelists," Ian Hughes (Epredator Potato) and Roo Reynolds (Algernon Spackler in-world), who said last month that IBM wanted to make "v-business" a priority just as it championed "e-business" during the dot-com boom.

"We always ask the question, 'if you knew 20 years ago what you know about the Web today, what would you do differently?'" Sandy Kearney, IBM's director of emerging 3-D Internet and virtual business, told Reuters in a Second Life interview. "The Web took decades. This will likely take half that time."

V-business? It's a term presumably indicating business done in virtual worlds, such as Second Life. Wikipedia has a brief entry on virtual business, which gives an old-school definition, bascially non-bricks 'n' mortar e-business: "a business which operates without a corresponding physical identity."

But no entry for v-business.

I get the distinct feeling that this will change in the near future, as the term picks up steam.

P.S. Looks like this blog post is the first with the Technorati tag v-business.

Tags: Second Life IBM v-business multiverse virtual world

Lean dwelling

Recently Bob Cremin, CEO of Esterline Technologies, was a guest lecturer in my IT & Innovation class. Two things stood out to me about his philosophy of management:

• He treats his employees as knowledge workers rather than expendable drones, and often incorporates their ideas for workflow improvement. He trusts his employees to learn from their mistakes (which will inevitably occur), and to contribute their experiential knowledge to the firm.
• He's a big believer in lean manufacturing: simplifying operations and eliminating clutter.

Somewhere over the course of midterms, much mysterious detritus has accumulated about my apartment. So, inspired by Mr. Cremin's approach, I've been tidying things up, to make my home environment more conducive to distraction-free learning.

I'm not quite done yet, but I can already feel my stress level reducing. Somehow, cleaning house seems to clean out my mind as well.

Tags: business lean manufacturing Esterline clutter

Bad Technorati. Bad.

My opinion of Technorati has dropped. Precipitously. I'm in the library at moment and when I visited Technorati just now, an ad started talking, loudly. Everyone around me heard it as I raced to shut down my browser.

Internet ads that immediately produce audio--without the user's consent--are absolutely the worst sort imaginable. Worse than the most godawful blinking flash banners. I don't care how much extra revenue these ads produce for Technorati; they demonstrate an utter lack of respect for their customers.

Seattle over the past few days

A little tap on the window-pane, as though something had struck it, followed by a plentiful light falling sound, as of grains of sand being sprinkled from a window overhead, gradually spreading, intensifying, acquiring a regular rhythm, becoming fluid, sonorous, musical, immeasurable, universal: it was the rain.

-Proust, Swann's Way

Nintendo Widow

One of my classmates, Sarah, has been blogging about her experience in our program. My own experience is very similar to hers, so it's been fun for me to read her posts.

Tags: MBA

God Bless American Apparel

American Apparel is offering a 15% discount to folks who show proof that they voted tomorrow.

I like this.

Tags: business American Apparel marketing