an undying love for....a school?
There is a religion here in ann arbor, and I'll call it Michiganism. The relic is the football and the dress gold and navy. Chief annual holidays fall on homecoming and graduation, and the town breathes the fight song in their sleep, deep slow breaths of "hail.....hail......" Everyone lives in peaceful bliss knowing that Michigan evangelism is live and well in the world. An example of disciples below:
Right now I'm on a team of four MBA's and we're supposed to be working on a real-world project for a real company. We've been flown to Ireland (see post below) and back, researched for four weeks, and spent quite a deal of time trying to figure out some way to create a deliverable worth about $10k for said company. Uh, as you can imagine, its not fun. sooooooooooooo, as I result, I have really blown myself and others away with new methods of procrastination. And so, here it comes, another list:
Margot's tips for successful procrastination (they're so useful, you'll dismiss your guilt by feeling happy and becoming popular with your friends because you'll have so many fun things to share!):
NUMBER ONE: download StumbleUpon. This is a website that gathers your tastes and then drops you off at sites that are highly rated by other users. Its so fun, that you'll just have to do it once a day...because who isn't bored for at least 30 seconds in a day?
NUMBER TWO: decide to make your music library more robust. You always wanted that acoustic album with your favorite song by your favorite band (mine: Radiohead) and now's the time to look for it. Really, your music collection is a reflection of your deep inner soul, so it'd better look good. (This is especially relevant when you're on a shared network and can see others music collections and scoff at them...N'SYNC, ha ha)
NUMBER THREE: decide to pick up your guitar, or piano, or whatever, and learn some new songs (perhaps inspired by #2 above). This always takes some time.
NUMBER FOUR: embark on a photo-organizing spree. Sure, you have lots of photos on your computer that you'll never print or look at, or share, but that's no reason why they shouldn't be organized!
NUMBER FIVE: start loaning and borrowing things. You meant to bring that book over to your friend's place a month ago, and now's the time to do it. While you're over there, borrow a book, and then you'll have to read it, and then bring it back. This could eat up at least a day (total in valuable procrastination time)
NUMBER SIX: do a graphic overhaul on your computer. download a new firefox skin, make sure you have all the right Yahoo! widgets, set your appearance settings to clear type. Your computer will look so spiffy that you'll want to...
NUMBER SEVEN: update your blog!
ok, that's enough. back to work.
Morning Musings
Don't get me wrong, Michigan is a great place. We're grounded people, with real expectations and more tact than your average bear. But frequently, we're spread a bit too thin and can't hire a webmaster to do the dirty work. This cracks me up.
Freshly Baked Brown Bread and Smoked Salmon in Dingle
Returned from Ireland yesterday and regrettably did not contribute to the bloggin enroute. During the brief 10-day visit I learned the following things about St. Patrick's island:
1. The roads are narrow, the castles old, and the seafood still wiggling
2. Green grass glows incessantly
3. The IRA exists healthily and people are willing to discuss it in dark pubs over a couple of pints
4. Irish people eat, on average, three times the amount of potatoes an American might eat
Really, we had a lovely time and got to see some hot spots. At the top of the list was Dingle (yes, let the dirty jokes begin!) a small vacay town at the tip of one of the rocky Western penninsulas. Various brightly painted row houses with pubs below and B&B's above line the windy hilly streets, and the food is excellent. Since it was the off-season, there were few people there but we were still able to find a warm basement pub with some fiddle and banjo (trad. Irish repetoire) and of course, a Guinness.
Another favorite spot was Dromoland castle (www.dromoland.ie) where apparently our dear W stayed recently. I am sure that they washed the sheets thoroughly. Hopefully Georgie got to enjoy the delicious chocolate truffle on his pillow. I certainly did. The castle grounds were magnificent, and in the summer, the place must look right out of a fairy tale.
Speaking of fairy tales, I was aptly named queen of the banquet during our visit to historic Bunratty castle. My faculty advisors are sitting on either side. We had to eat with our hands during the entire banquet.
Cliffs of Moher (below)
and, the first night out on the town in Galway.
and just when you thought this post was over, words from Holden Caulfield (channeled by my friend Srini):
"What really knocks me out is a book, when you're all done reading it, you wished the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it"
Wise words.
no frills and fruff...this IS why I'm working at Apple this summer...
March 15, 2006 | PermalinkSometimes, you just have to look forward & Here's to hoping
Tonight there's a full moon. I drove by my new house which reminds me of the house my mother and her sisters grew up in in Minneapolis. White, with a front porch with a low railing, the house has that heavy, lived-in feeling that houses have from the 30's and 40's. I will be living there with two Desi guys and a Texan Chinese girl. We will have beer. We will cook. We will sit on the couch. We will throw parties. We will hang out. We will watch movies. We will be college students for one last time. It will be fun.
This post was inspired by my friend Phil, who sent me the following email for the blog: "Not to start anything, but I wonder how many lives have/will be saved due to the sacrifice/deaths from the Iraq war… Thomas Jefferson said: “The Tree of Liberty needs to be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Here's to hoping, Phil.
This one goes out to all my homies with da blogs who are kicking my assThings are great here at Biz-School, I'm heading to Ireland on Friday for 10 days and some adventuring relating to a "project" we're doing for school. There are four of us on the team, four intense, yet independent peeps, and I think things are going to go just swimmingly.
Tonight I played poker for the 2nd time at my friend Ari's house. For the second time, I was right in the middle of the pack, using the tips from Phil Helmuth's book (not that I'm a huge fan, but I bought the thing in the airport) chapters 1 and 2. The Israelis really knock it to ya at this table, joshing eachother and causing quite a ruckus...just when you think they're not paying attention, they'll come and swipe the rug right from under your feet. Pretty smashing entertainment for $20/4 hours, I say.
Other things I wanted to mention in this blog:
1. My band, p-hat and the ____(<--insert funny group name here, ie "heteroskedasticity" or "job shop" etc.) now has a website, at http://phat.wheresnate.com. We are the most merchandised band that's never had a paying gig. Chuckle chuckle.
2. The boys in b-school are having a mustache contest, and you can read more about it at their blog> http://rosstache.blogspot.com/. Highly worth checking out.
3. Do you know how many people have died in the Iraq war? Find out at http://www.iraqbodycount.net/.
Thas all that's on my mind tonight. I will try to be more dilligent about updating, as life is flying by so fast...
Screw Business School and Bring on the Rock and Roll!
Ok, so i've decided my current blog title is way too confining...what will happen after I leave business school and will my new title be as boring? (think: margot gets a job, margot moves to another city where she knows no one, etc..)
Back to the topic: this fine evening, P-Hat and the Job Shop (my band) will be blessing the ears of MBAs with good ol' fashioned rock and roll at (affectionately) "Skeepers" (also known as Scorekeepers). Yes, it is technically a sports bar. Yes, it hosts many slutty undergrads most evenings. And yes, we will only be playing for about 60 minutes. But the glory of rocking out! How could you miss it. Of course, most of you do not live here in Ann Arbor. You can always dream. I will try to obtain some sort of recording to post on my blog here.
This is really the most hectic week I've ever had. The COMPANIES are here: consulting, marketing, etc. and everyone is walking around dressed up in their (monkey) suits trying to look "professional". For those of you who do not know, I did not even OWN a suit before coming here. So I wear my one, over and over and over again. At least its a little stretchy (and from Banana).
Over and out.
me: agnostic dislexic insomniac
I sit up awake at night and wonder if there really is a dog.
Back in Minneapolis for the holidays: My extended family is a mele of chaos and comfort. Extended fam includes a bus driver, gymnastics coach, and argentinian tango expert (this is all one person) as well as an anti-semetic (a little tricky because I'm jewish), a musician, a politician, a helicopter pilot, and a 12th grader. This is just a sample. My joy comes from the fact that my cousins are doing great - we're all growing into our own skin and becoming grown ups (its very exciting) and entering a new era where our crazed parents won't run the show all the time. Looking forward to more adulthood (the first time in years!).
Happy happy to everyone.
M
It's never too late for anything!
Take my grandmother, for example. She's tiny, 90 years old, and a spunky character. If she was on friendster I'd leave lots of amusing testimonials, like:
"You may think Grandma Jean's a sleeper, but just when you think you can talk about illicit habits, she'll ask you how it was and if you're doing it now."
or
"It's never too late to conquer a new language - Grandma Jean's learning Yiddish at age 90. She's practicing every day on her half-mile swim at the YMCA pool."
Today on the airplane I sat next to a thickly bespectacled man with a voice like Garrison Keilor and the mannerisms of a Brooklyn Jew. A librarian, he continually wonders about things, with more curiosity than most people have in their pinky finger. Did you know about the ripe corruption in the Ann Arbor library system where secretaries and directors alike embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars? I guess we can look anywhere for corporate snafu's - just 'check it out' at the library!
Once the can has been opened, how do we contain the squirmy worms?
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