Trends to watch in 2007

The title of this blog post makes me sound important, doesn't it? Clearly, I know not what lies ahead in the coming year -- nor does anyone else (except, perhaps, the folks at Popular Mechanics.)

Still, it's fun to ask questions. In 2007, I'm wondering:

• Will any of these drugs have a substantially positive impact?
• Or how about humble old psilocybin?
• Will the continuing population shift from rural to urban areas curb population growth?
• Will any of Jon Swift's predictions come to pass? (Note that 3.5 out of his 8 predictions for 2006 were correct!)
• Will employers start paying less attention to the resumes of job candidates ... and more attention to their blogs?
• Will the atmospheric levels of certain pollutants continue to decline? (Answer: Yes, if coal plants go clean.)
• Will people recycle more? (Yes, if cities emulate the simple steps that Seattle has taken).
• Will a growing number of theists and atheists partake in rational, civil discourse with one another? (One can only hope. Here's an atheist and Christian whose blogs are cross-linked, and another very interesting blog co-written by an atheist and Christian.)
• Will Second Life continue to see an exponential increase in new users? Or will another metaverse (aka a 3D-enabled web of social spaces, economies, and technologies) rise to prominence?

Tags: future 2007 predictions trends drugs Jon Swift sustainability

Building a business plan in Second Life

A few evenings ago a classmate and I met with a couple of programmers to discuss applications (the details of which I'll keep mum) that they are building in Second Life. I took a screenshot as our avatars sat around a floating table on the roof of tall building. That's me with my back to the camera, and my classmate is seated to my right. The programmers are the two other guys.

I've roamed around Second Life on my own over the past few months, but this was the first time I've participated in a structured meeting "in-world," as they say. Communicating via Skype conference call and some in-world IM, we kicked around ideas for building a business plan. My classmate and I are going to work with a few other classmates on doing the market research and drafting the business plan, and we'll enter it in a competition in a few months.

To say the least, I'm finding this thoroughly fascinating. With the time-intensive first quarter in the MBA program complete, we're encouraged to start exploring directions in business that catch our fancy. The business plan competition is one avenue for this, as is the Business Consulting Network, which I am also participating in.

Tags: Second Life business plan UW MBA

X, Y, Z

Why do so many drug names contain the letters x, y, and z? I am curious about this.

Tags: drug names x y z

Like Treebeard, but not in a good way

My sister, brother-in-law, and his son spent the better part of today here in my apartment, as there was no power in their southwest Seattle home until this evening. Like many Seattleites, they had an unsettling evening this past Wednesday. But they had the added bonus of listening to a tree hammer against their gutter (pictured). They said it sounded like Treebeard was out there, making a ruckus.

Tags: Seattle wind storm power tree gutter

Wind-strewn wasteland

So, the wind was pretty intense in Seattle last night.

I walked around my neighborhood today and took some blurry pictures with my phone. Here's a couple of plastic chairs. The white chair is merely upside-down; the green chair suffered a much more grisly fate!


A lot of parked vehicles got damaged last night. There was a group of folks around this wind-felled tree, all snapping pix with their phones. I wondered to myself how many of these people work at Microsoft. The Microsoft campus was essentially closed today.


Chainsawing a tree in the yard:


Power stayed on in my building, but it went out in some houses in my neighborhood (the Internet cafe in my neighborhood was packed to the gills. More Microsofties, no doubt). Down in Southwest Seattle, where my sister and brother-in-law live, power is out everywhere. They're actually on their way up to my place right now, to fill up on gas and take showers.

Tags: Seattle Capitol Hill wind storm tree

My building just shook

Seriously. It's really that windy outside.

Since finishing up my first quarter as an MBA student on Tuesday, I've spent the past few days earnestly relaxing, absolutely revelling in the lack of a schedule. I've been catching up on blog-reading. I also watched 49 Up. This film gave me the same feeling I get when I look at old photos of my parents (and me): an awestruck awareness of the quick flicker of mortality.

Tonight I was walking down 15th Ave, my scarf blowing this way and that in the (then calmer) wind, when I ran into my old friend Brian. He invited me over to watch The Office and have some beer. Walking back from his place (my scarf flapping more, as the wind picked up), I thought how great it was to do something spontaneous like that, something unscheduled.

My winter break is going to be all about that.

Tags: Seattle wind rain storm unscheduled spontaneity 49 Up mortality

Oh, my aching thumb-joint

Just finished my accounting final a few minutes ago. My thumb-joint (is that what it's called?) is hurting from all the writing. Just one more final to go - Stats at 1:30. More writing there, including an essay ... egads I'm going to have to write gently. I think I probably press down on the page too hard. I'm not used to writing so much. I (greatly) wish that all exams could be done via computer. Maybe someday.

The accounting final ... it had its good parts and its not-so-good parts. I feel good about studying up on the bonds so much; they definitely made an appearance in the exam, and I feel like I nailed those questions. I don't feel so good, however, about spending so much time on employee stock option plans, which did not show up. As for inventory, I studied LIFO and FIFO, but the exam focused on the weighted-average method - d'oh! For the most part, though, I think I did ok. Studying the practice exams was definitely helpful.

As was the triple grande americano I consumed before the exam.

Ok. Time to do some stats review.

Tags: MBA finals accounting ouch thumb-joint exam

Finals Eve

Yes, it is Finals Eve, and not a creature is stirring in my home...certainly not me. I am an inert, stationary lump at my desk. But rest assured that my mind is aflame with the passion of learning!

Pictured is a tantalizing glimpse into my world of finals preparations.

I think posting that schedule the other night was a good idea; something about a public proclamation of "here's what I'm going to do" has helped keep me productive. We learned something along those lines in our Management class. It's a technique of influence: commitment and consistency. A declaration of public commitment to a (perhaps undesirable) task makes it more likely that you'll want to remain consistent with that declaration and follow through. That's straight from my study notes! I think I jotted that one down around 2 AM last night.

I'll get back to the Management later this afternoon. Now it's time for Accounting prep, which I am finding surprisingly enjoyable ... much more so than econ.

Tags: MBA management accounting productivity finals desk study

The pathos is palpable

Ok, so I know I said you wouldn't see me til Tuesday. But we all need study breaks, right? I've done well; I've stayed on schedule. Over the last few hours I've been working my way through stats, listening to one of the finest albums released in the last ten years, and if you haven't heard it, I urge you do do so soon.

So anyways, I was just checking my site traffic, as bloggers are wont to do (often). In the past hour, someone in California found my blog via the Google search string cheat sheet for marketing mba (although I offer no such study aid on my blog, as I don't take marketing til next quarter, I nevertheless unhelpfully appear at #20 in the Google search results.)

Ahh, but the pathos of such a search. One can sense the late-night desperation.

Tags: MBA studying Boards of Canada

The ferocity of finals

Behold my schedule for this weekend, filled to the brim with jollities and amusements:


I've pondered it for a bit and I think this will be the best way to allocate my studying time over the weekend. It gives me 10 more hrs for accounting, 11 more hrs for econ, 10 more hrs for stats, and 4 more hrs for management. That seems about right. It leaves time for nothing else other than eating and sleeping...

See you all sometime after Tuesday.

Tags: MBA finals business school schedule to-do list