So, always one to wonder about the value of an MBA, I've been thinking about the advantages of a joint JD MBA, specifically at Northwestern. The program is joint with Kellogg school of business and Northwestern Law school. You end up with a JD and an MBA in just 3 years. First year and summer are spent at Law school, second year at Business school and then the third year you do both. It certainly is exciting to think that in 3 years you could come out with such a huge qualification. Still, I'm not sure what its actual value is. I was also a little put off at first by the thought of having to take the LSAT and the GMAT, but it turns out all you need to submit is your GMAT score.
Still it seems that the majority of students come out working in a law firm- so why even bother with the MBA- but I do like the flexiblity it would give you.

Wife's birthday today.
Her sister e-mailed her yesterday to say happy birthday, her other sister talked to her today and 'didn't realize it was the 28th already in US. so I guess between them they got it right. Her Dad thought she was 25 today, that;s not until next year.
Still we had a fun day, Birthdays are very important to her. I got her a pink Ipod Nano, so thin I can't really believe they make them so small- meanwhile my mother also bought her a pink Ipod- well I guess it shows that was a good idea and now she gets to walk around saying she got 2 pink ipods for her birthday rather than say that her family forgot what day she was born :-)

I saw this new business idea today from Germany about a breaking up agency. It really seems like a stretch and I can't imagine why people would actually invest money into such an idea. It sounds like something out of a futuristic novel. I mean if you really don't want to see someone ever again, why on earth would you spend money on breaking up with them- with all the technology of text messaging and e-mail why would you waste your time and money? I guess we'll have to wait and see if the idea actually takes off, but I doubt it.

Well Craigslist works its magic again. We have managed to sell our TV and our Love Ac for the price we paid for them. It's so great, I think I will just keep changing furniture and appliances every few months, probably good for my brain or something- they always say variety is good. It's also a good thing not to get too attached to anything. That way if we have to pick up and move some day soon it won't be a big deal, we'll just sell it all with no regrets.

Sitting at a beautiful beach front restaurant this weekend I started to wonder why it is that San Diego does not develop its water front more. With the nature of Mission Bay, Coronado and La Jolla Cove, the coastline is immense, it seems bizarre that people haven't grapsed this opportunity more often, especially as it seems you can add an automatic $10 per plate onto a dinner entree if you have a sea view. It's not like there isn't development, the waterfront beach houses are endless and gorgeous. I just feel they would be more profitable as restaurants.
The same is true of the river, in Mission Valley particularly the San Diego River is just beautiful and yet there seem to be no river view restaurants at all. It's one of my dreams, I still hope to open a waffle restaurant one day in San Diego, and I think the river would make a perfect setting for that, nice deck outside, make use of that beautiful free externality.

Why is it so much harder to sell things than to buy them? I have been rearranging my house this week and hope to sell my television and love sac, sadly this seems to be a lot of work and sadly no takers.
Hopefully it will simply be a case of fixing on the right price and then suddenyl BOOM everyone will want them. Still this does seem like a lot of work, and at the end of it I don't come out with cool stuff.....

Pet Peeve of the week:

Blogger's spellcheck. It is just awful and doesn't recognize the most common words. Then when I spell a word wrong by missing the first letter it comes up with some completely random ideas for words I might have missed.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhh

Oh and by the way it didn't recognize 'Blogger's' or 'spellcheck'

I was just recommended this new site: headbutler.com . Very nice review of books, movies, TV shows and indeed all sorts. I was immediately struck by the article on entourage- show we have found ourselves watching at those times when working seems impossible.
At first I hated it, so shallow- I mean what exactly is the point of the show? But then I started to get into the characters, and certainly as Headbutler says, the humor. Ari Gold is a hilarious character, although there is no one funnier than Johnny Drama, played by Kevin Dillon.
One thing that really bugs me however is Eric or 'E'. This character shows no talent as a manager, never really does anything and you wonder what on earth he is paid for. He's also really goofy looking and his liaisons with the intelligent, attractive, affluent Sloane are not even slightly believable.

Still, it's a pretty good show, certainly has some excellent banter written in. I'll be glad when the decent TV shows start back up though.

So today I was sitting at work filling out my time sheet, and sorting to get very very annoyed. This week my semi-boos, (well she is a little above me, but really I do much more than she does) had a flat tire in the morning, she never showed up the whole day! This woman is off sick or on vacation pretty much one day per week, goes home with a headache plenty of days. Filling in my time sheet and having to leave out Monday, a federal holiday, but unpaid for temp employees like myself it hit me how she was getting paid not only for that Monday, but also for the flat tire day and every other day she finds an excuse for. Meanwhile I do her work whilst she plays around on the internet. I was told months ago I would be made into a permanent employee and yet here I am still waiting.

this avenging after work I then went over to my internship, I had been working on a project for them that they were having some trouble with. It has been quite a challenge but is just in the area I am good at- sorting out spreadsheets, making new systems etc. They were so appreciative of everything I had done, and amazed at how quickly I had done it. The difference was certainly stark- if only these guys could even afford to pay me as a temp!

Just watched the season premier of House MD. It was actually really good, the new House fresh from last season's operation is a very interesting character and I love the struggle he has to understand his hallucination and himself. I heard the other day that a theory for the writing of House is that conversations between him and Watson are like the two sides of one's mind. Now I have heard that I can't watch the show without thinking about it.

Looking forward to this labor day weekend. Somehow a three day weekend seems so so much longer than a two day one. Prehaps it is just because my wife is not working this saturday like usual, but it seems like we will be able to do so much.

Prime things on the list: BBQ in Mission Bay Park with friends and Snorkelling with Leopard Sharks in La Jolla. Should be fun, I really want to get into snorkelling. then of course we can catch up on chores, watch movies, cook a nice dinner together.

Can't wait, what I wouldn't give for a 4 day a week job!

Sitting in the car on the way back from a coworker's birthday lunch I was being told of all the many benefits my current job has to offer if I were to be employed full time. Three and a half weeks paid vacation, a weeks unpaid vacation, some of the best medical and dental coverage around. Sometimes it is really hard to make myself dig in, quit this job and move onto something more worth while. At the end of the day I know three and half weeks vacation only really amounts to $2500, nothing compared with what business school will cost me. Still the thought of lying on a beach whilst being paid is some how incredibly appealing.
However I have my resolve, I have already started my internship and know I am heading down the right path.

I am definitely not going to cave in and watch Prison Break tonight. Such rubbish, and yet easily to be drawn into I know.

I was shocked with the Emmy results last night- how on earth did 24 win anything- it is just really really bad television, and how it could win where there are pretty decent shows like Lost, House MD and of course the West Wing (which really should have won). Then there was the most ridiculous of all- Kiefer Sutherland after being denied best actor several years in a row suddenly won for his performance as Jack Bauer- yikes. What exactly did he do better this time?

I don't really understand why these awards exist at all, they are utterly meaningless. The only thing which made any sense was Alan Alda's win- very much deserved.

I went to my proposed internship tonight after work. Met a few more people in the company and looked at some projects I could get involved with. It all seems very positive. They are very aware of my needs and trying to work with them accordingly. I think there is probably a lot I can learn and get out of this opportunity- still taking things kind of slow seems like a good idea for now.

Watched the season 2 premier of Prison Break last night. Utterly awful. I will be happy to give this years season a miss.

Firstly- the last season ended with the prisoners in the dead of night, surrounded by helicopters and police and just totally about to be caught. How would they escape we all wondered. Well, it seems we will never find out as the writers obviously had no clue either. Next thing we see it is daylight and they are still running from the police, the helicopters, the cars etc. Totally ludicrous. They then manage to throw off their pursuers with the aid of running in front of a mile long train- the oldest cliche in a book.

This all followed by a ridiculous FBI agent who makes unbelievable leaps in logic to follow Schofield's every move. And of course a plot all too much a rip off of the Fugitive.

The only good thing I can say is that they killed off the moronic Veronica.

I went to look at the internship tonight. It seems really interesting , a great bunch of young people in an amazing startup with a great concept. Definitely something I could get my teeth into. they were however very reluctant for me to quit my job and join them. They are currently looking for investors, if this doesn't happen it is likely the company won't really get its feet off the ground.

Still it does seem like soemthing very exciting to be a part of, and I would definitely learn a lot and be able to push myself into new skill sets. If the company does get off the ground then who knows- maybe even a job down the line.

It is an interesting decision, I don't feel like I would have too much too loose even if they don't make it. Worst case scenario I go back and find another admin job. You neve rknow what doors will open for you until you get there.

To start out I am going to just go in there a couple of nights a week, without quitting my job. then I will be able to make an informed decision.

Pet Peeve of the week:

I really hate it so much when people send me a group e-mail that starts: "Sorry you guys for sending a group e-mail, I really hate group e-mails but its just the only way I can keep up, the only way I can write to everyone"

Of course it is, it is the same for everyone, that is the reason people send group e-mails! All that you do by starting this way is to make everyone who ever sent you a group e-mail feel really bad about it, whilst conveniencing yourself with this handy solution to keeping in touch.

Arrgh!

Still considering the internship possibility. One thing I keep coming back to is that this time in life must be for education, not quite at any cost, but almost that way. It will be so hard to learn later on in life. I am not learning much right now as an admin assistant. I mean I have discovered a world of mail merge and every other facet of Microsoft Office that will no doubt be useful in the future, but I think that I have almost reached a brick wall.
This internship I may not learn too much, but surely I will learn something, and possibly a lot. It will open new avenues of thought for me, stimulate new ideas, make me aware of a world of business perviously closed to me.
The lack of income shouldn't concern me too much, college can be $30,000 a year, and this wil be free....

I just had my first real conversation with the head of the start up company I may be interning at. He wanted to make sure to give me some disclaimers about working at a start-up company like his before we get anything started. His warnings were that a) there's not really money for the company to grow at the moment as they are currently seeking investors, b) there's very little delegation and no 'employees' so to speak since the company in its current form is only made up of a few people and c) I would probably be given very open-ended projects with little direction (which I think would be very good for my development). Now the plan is to come by and check the place out with some more face-to-face time.

I'm somewhat on the fence with this internship. On the one hand, it sounds like a fulfilling field as well as a lot of room for creativity and challenges. At the same time, however, it is a significant investment of time, energy and potential money (since I'm working for free instead of somewhere else) without any guarantee of what I will be able to get out of the experience, both in terms of learning and my resume. Hopefully this introductory meeting will help the decision-making process.

Well I have one new angle to peruse in the internship spectrum. I have been hoping for a while to get involved in a small business where I could make my mark and get the feel for what a young start up is like. I wasn't quite sure how to go about this, but fortunately I now have a contact in just what I have been looking for. It is a small company that works with both charities and local business for the mutual benefit of both. As a start-up I hope that interning there may well lead to me being given more responsibility than prehaps would occur at a larger organization,

Well I shouldn't get ahead of myself, but this does look promising