Expectations?

Wow the pressure to perform, it is getting pretty intense out there. Is the blogging community really so bored? Or is some wag on BW right in claiming that the bloggers are bunch of plithy platitude spouting multitude? I saw several posts and comments out there heralding a Round 2 of blogger wars starting BSkewl and humble little moi. If I had to give an award for the best posts out there on the topic(since we are just getting out of the Oscar mindset):

The award for funniest post of the week goes to, Iceman07 for his humorous take on blogger wars II (aka the war that never was).

The best investigative blog post award goes to Swoop for his superlative skills in using Google.

The best one hit wonder award goes to the Field Guide for the Aspiring MBA, an hilarious read, animated by several images that go far in building the picture.

The people's choice award for the most diplomatic blogger goes to Dave for a diplomatic and mature take on personal attacks.

Phew and I am spent. Time to get back to work.

Edit: Added the recognition due to Dave for his exemplary attitude towards maturity.

Controversy?

I think not! In response to my post yesterday about our pet blogger's rant for not being mentioned on my blog, here is the rejoinder that was posted on his blog:

after spending 335 words reacting to what others think of his blog. It's a relief that he doesn't care, or we might have been treated to somewhat more than 335 words, right? Whew. Looks like I dodged a bullet there, huh?

Either way, I'm not trying to be l'enfant terrible of the b-school blogging world, but it's inevitable that more than a little of what I'll write here (or elsewhere) will rub someone, somewhere, the wrong way.

Actually the 335 word post from yesterday was not because I gave a damn, but more in response to the plaintive plea to be mentioned that I detected in the comments our attention deficit friend left behind. :)

I wouldn't go as far as to call BSkewl the l'enfant terrible of the blogging community, (despite references to my niece), I would rather compare him to the Chihuahua. All bark no bite. Extreme aggression online in the relative anonymity of the internet but probably quite as a doorknob when confronted in the hallway. :) (Offcourse the Chuhuahua reference is all subjective assumption, I would be pleasantly surprised if BSkewl was truly the l'enfant terrible in real life in which case the bark would be admirable).

But having said that I like the way he spins things around. :) That is BSkewl for you, always good for a chuckle (if not with him at him). There, two posts in two days, it should keep even BSkewls hunger for attention appeased.

Edit: Just checked my stat counter and realied I received several hits coming from the rejoinder BSkewl posted on his blog. I am impressed. He definitely has a following and it seems like it's pretty strong. Another place I am getting hits from is Google searches on the Sukhoi 30. The images I uploaded to test hello has put this blog on the first page for Google searches on the Sukhoi. Offcourse once they inadvertently stumble on my blog they don't spend too much time here. The average time they spend reading the blog is less than 0:00 mins. How humbling is that?

Wishes?

I came across this little comment by the blogging world's pet Chihuahua

"I'd like to nominate Aregorn and DaveforMBA for suckitudinal awards for their CONSPICUOUS avoidance of the word "bskewl" on their blogs. Aregorn, of course, is still huffy over my slights to Megami. He's the sort that likes to stick up for girls on the intarweb because it'll make them like him, maybe."

and it was fairly indicative of how people's insecurities come to the fore.

I have a simple rule for mentioning people on my blog -- I like your blog enough to visit it at least a few times a week. It doesn't matter if you link to me or even know about me. If I find myself drawn to your blog, it'll appear on my blog.

If I like the way you think or what you say, your statements will be recorded for posterity. Another way to be mentioned is if your statements are dumb enough to trip the idioto meter.

Expect to find your name on my blog or blogroll if anything you do meets the above mentioned criteria.

Coming back on topic, I am not too interested in reading about personal attacks no matter how witty or humorous it might seem. If I come across such posts, I am certainly not interested in saving them for posterity. That was the reason behind BSkewl's 'CONSPICUOUS' absence from my blog. But the idioto meter was tripped by this blatant cry for inclusion. If the so called 'nomination' had been for bad grammar (a charge I admit), posts that suck (something I indulge in all too frequently) or any understandable reason, BSkewl would have flown under the radar as usual. But the nomination for the simple reason of not being mentioned was just too hilarious to leave out for the viewing pleasure of a very few people. Congratulations BSkewl for making a very 'CONSPICUOUS' entry on the MBA jungle.

For the record, the only reason I blog is for my pleasure ONLY! I don't give a rat's tail what other's think of my blog. If something I write helps people, terrific, but the blog is written mainly for an audience of one. It's a perfect democracy with one man having one vote, and for good or bad, I am the man (with the vote offcourse).

On a lighter note this incident reminds me of my niece who is about 5 years old, if I am in her house, I better be paying attention to her or there is a tantrum in the making. Ignore her at the risk of your eardrums.

(Haven't linkified the site where I picked BSewl's comment from but it is relatively easy to find out for those not google challenged)

Nada!

No change whatsoever! For the first time in 2 months I went back to the Wharton website to see if a miracle happened or that I made a mistake the first time around. Unfortunately nothing of that sort took place. Still on the waitlist, waiting patiently but I did read my application all over again. While I believe there are margins for improvement in several places, I am still convinced I did as good a job as it was possible in the time allocated.

It is definitely a strange paradox that I find myself facing. One side of me wishes that the R2 applicant pool is weak and several of the people admitted for R1 get admits to other schools and decide to matriculate there instead. On the other if I do get an admit in R2 off the waitlist, I want the class to the be the strongest possible, with the best candidates that the year has to offer. As I went for a walk after lunch to ponder over what next, I couldn't help but reflect on the hours, days, weeks months that I invested in my Wharton application. I am pretty sure that most of the successful candidates did the same and a little more but all I could feel was a deep sadness if all that effort was deemed not worthy or wasted by a ding. It doesn't really help me in any way that I was waitlisted in R1, unless I garner an admit in R2. While there are intangible benefits that the introspection will provide me for the future, the time spent on honing the essays is time lost. Not to mention the time that my recommenders invested in my future.

There was also this sickly sweet sense of "what if" that emanates from the remote possibility of being actually offered a seat in the class of 2007. Such a long time has passed with the situation so precariously balanced, my senses are heightened and my nerves at a breaking point. This is something that someone admitted or dinged instantly can never appreciate. I will definitely appreciate my time at Wharton a lot more if I am admitted and conversely I will feel the sting of the ding a lot more.

Smithsonian

I have been subscribing to the Smithsonian magazine for some time, (the magazine is comparable to National Geographic but more US centric stories), and consider it good reading. While their articles are usually thought provoking and intense, the one about Uganda in this month's copy was chilling. Not to make this post a politically charged one, but I am shocked that the government doesn't take more active interest in the problems faced by the citizens of these failed states in Africa. With over 20,000 children kidnapped and 1.4 million people displaced, shouldn't that qualify the country as a candidate for "freedom"? If we send 1% of the money we are sinking in Iraq to Uganda, we will make a bigger difference amongst people who truly need "liberation", help and will welcome our presence there. This somehow ties together with Swoop's post today about leaders who are forgotten as a result of state policy.

I was researching on this crisis in Uganda, on the net and found it heart wrenching. In one way it makes me glad that I have the education and opportunity to live in relative wealth and comfort, on the other I feel I should be doing a lot more to help these unfortunate and much abused people. I had a friend who very courageously broke from the standard mold of working as an engineer. Choosing instead to follow his dreams of working for the tiger conservation movement in the Sundarban forests. He quit his job, left behind his family and is today actually making a serious difference. He often comes to mind at times like this when I berate myself for not doing more than I do already.

On a different note, I finally managed to make reservations for our much anticipated trip to Yellowstone in July. We will be camping for 4 days in the Canyon campgrounds and hiking around that area. We hope to spend one day at the Glacier National Park followed by 3 days in Arches National Park. I hear they have great climbing and hiking at Arches which should make for a fun vacation.

13 days before we go on vacation to Asia. I will be traveling when the results for the various schools are released. I was a little worried that HBS could potentially tap me for an interview when I have no access to email or phone, but that thought about HBS frantically trying to contact me provided me with a good laugh.

Revelations

I should probably stop being so surprised at the insight that is offered into the business school process by the (now) many bloggers who blog about their experiences. Of late I have been following the internship hunts of several people spread through several schools (mark, byron, FMG and oldman to name a few). These insights have been very useful in getting a better picture of the recruiting process and in some cases the seamier side of business school.

My conclusions?

1. There no certainties, regardless of which school you go too. There is NO silver bullet
   
2. recruiting starts and ends with networking
3. Enormous amounts of research and ground work go into a successful internship offer
4. Focus is key, it is a frame of mind that will allow you to accomplish 2. and 3. above
5. It is never to early to start the internship search

While a lot of the points above might seem obvious and in some cases banal to some, it is really easy to lose track. The joy of getting into a business school (specially a top ranked one) sometimes appears to be the end as compared to a means to an end. With myriad new experiences thrown your way on a daily basis it will be difficult if not impossible to stay focused and dedicated towards a goal. But then that is what an MBA is all about. To teach you to prioritize, to manage (yourself and others), to use all resources available in order to achieve your goals.

Thanks to all the bloggers out there who have done so much to increase our knowledge trove of what goes on in business school and demystify an otherwise blackbox. I am a lot more comfortable with my decisions and better prepared to dive in the deep end of the pool because of them. Hopefully I can do the same and pay forward by helping people who come after me make better sense of this life changing experience.

Sukhoi-30MKI Back 

Sukhoi-30 MKI 

Manna

After a long time, we got home early last night (by early I mean 6:00 pm) and the wife and I promptly made a trip to the library. We staggered out with an arm full of books each that should promise us several weeks of reading pleasure. I have an eclectic taste in books but Science fiction and British humor usually have me more enthralled than most others. But to ensure that my manna has healthy mixture of the tasty and the healthy, I did pick up a couple of non-fiction books and some books on Excel. I plan to master the software by the time I get to school though I definitely believe MATLAB has a much better product in the market. (I know atleast one of you who will agree with me on that.)

Unfortunately the rain will continue over the weekend, effectively destroying our skiing plans and to add to the woes the wife hasn't been able to schedule her regular maid to come in on Saturday. So no prizes for guessing who will be scrubbing the bathtub. Definitely a let down compared to how I originally planned to spend my Saturday morning. But overall it can't be that bad. I have a ton of books to read and if I get bored, there is always school work and Excel.

Testing3

Testing Crontab functionality in Unix for serverside aggregator

Recap

Its been a crazy week so far. Our trip to Phoenix went off better than expected. We just loved the place. The temperature outside at all times of the day or night hovered in the high 60's. Offcourse we were advised that summer is a totally different ball game, with temperatures hovering in the 110's, but the current weather was great. We dint get to do much on Saturday other than hang out with friends and eat some great home cooked food. What is it about Kabobs that taste so good when eaten off the skewer?

Sunday was when we visited the Grand Canyon. While the weekend started with pouring rain on Friday and a slight drizzle on Saturday, Sunday was picture perfect day. Sunny and bright. The rain and snow over the past couple of days meant that the air had been cleaned off all the dirt particles and visibility was excellent. What can I say about the grand canyon other than the fact that it was GRAND! WOW! The only disappointment of the day was a glimpse of the might Colorado river that had carved this canyon out of stone industriously over millions of years. The river seemed spent from its effort and instead of roaring through the canyon with smoke blowing from its nostrils, made its way like a sedentary old woman in the grocery isle, placidly enjoying its labors of the past.

I was trying to post some pictures using hello but my bloggerbot is on strike, pretty much like the players of the NHL and failed to do his job. So the magnificent vista's will have to wait till I have more time to iron out the kinks.

Life

It's been extremely hectic these days with each day bringing something new to either think about or do. Blogging unfortunately has suffered due to my preoccupation, as has my reading. Unfortunately the things that have been occupying my time aren't things that I care to remember 10 years down the line regardless of how passionate I am about it today. But for the record, I just completed a pet project to build a server-side advanced file management system. Other things that I care to remember like this non-profit organization that is my pride and joy, are too personal for me to reveal. So I am left with nothing to talk about.

However some things that have morphed from nascent ideas into concrete entities are our travel plans with several reservations being made (in some cases several months in the future) and money being plonked down. This week we set of on our first leg of a six month weekend travel plan. We will be flying to Phoenix, AZ tomorrow, hopefully we will get to do a spell of spelunking at Kartchner caverns about 160 miles from Phoenix. Along with some camping and hiking.

Unfortunately the planets don't seem to be propitiously aligned towards outdoor activities with rain and snow on the anvil. The weather gods weren't appeased with my offering of a bitten cheek (it bled quite profusely) and deemed it too measly to banish the rain and bring on the sun.

On a tangential note, it never fails to amaze me that one point of time weather was such a complex and mysterious phenomena that people actually attributed it to weather gods. While researching on the weather on our sojourn, I ran across hordes of articles on low pressure building up and high pressure zones with cold fronts moving in, etc. till science ran out of my ears (I have to admit I like that stuff, I even watch the weather channel for fun). As and when scientists and innovators of the time discovered the reasons behind the weather changes and could predict(?) changes relatively early enough to take the sting out of most calamities, weather gods became a thing of the past banished to the interior parts of Africa where their only supplicants are mad shamans. Which brings me to the next obvious question, What will happen after we discover the reasons and mysteries of life, death and birth? Will we stop believing in god? Will religion as we know it collapse? Will people pray to scientists? I wonder!

Maps

Congratulations road warriors Google has decided to step into the business of offering maps to make life easy. As usual it is slightly different from the other vendors out there, but as usual I like Google's approach over the previous offering. Mapquest has completely forgotten about innovation since the time it was bought out by AOL. And Yahoo maps that uses Mapquest as a mapping engine has suffered from the same malady. Google maps provides us with an incredibly simple interface and what looks like extremely fast panning/zooming. Give her a trial run if you want too. I know I will.

Commencement

Yesterday was my first day at Accounting class at U Berkeley. It is the first of a series of business classes I plan to take all the way up to starting school. The class is led by a good instructor who is self effacing to the point of underselling himself every time he opens his mouth. But by god he is GOOD! He really knows his stuff, and it is a nice change to see an instructor who honestly and without any pride stands up and says, "I don't know" to questions outside his area of expertise, while gracefully differing to members of the class who have more knowledge in those areas than him. I am not sure if this is the common trend in all evening classes, but if it is, then I must say I like it because the discussions in class are furiously fast and so interesting that it keeps you on your toes with absolutely no time to slack off. All in all, I enjoyed the first session and am looking forward to the remaining 15. I am sure that I will learn a lot from this class and that it will help me later in life even outside of business school.

For whatever reason, the class seemed tame as compared to Classy's first day at school. No one tried to hit on any of the girls in class, and for most purposes, everyone sat at their own desks. The funniest thing of note was the behavior of these two Indian girls. They probably hadn't seen each other before class started and noticed each other late in the game, but the moment the instructor released the class for break, they made for each other like a magnet draws iron filings. After 20 minutes of animated discussion, the girls were connected at the hip, with one of them moving her books and assorted paraphernalia to the other's tiny table. For the rest of the class we had to put up with furtive whispering which ultimately even annoyed our genial instructor to remark that it was okay for them to ask him questions. I found that hilarious because it is the first time outside of high school that I heard a professor advising a class to pipe down.

On travel news, our plans have been finalized for the next 6 months, with atleast one place of note that we plan to visit each month. The flavor of the month is Arizona, where we will spend a day underground at Kartchner Caverns. Next month is when we have our major vacation booked, South East Asia, and I just realized that I need visas to one of the countries we plan to visit. Must get around to doing that this week. We have less than 3 weeks before we fly out.

I was attempting to make a reservation for our camping trips at Yosemite in June when I hit the immovable barrier of finding accommodations. Most of the camp grounds on the valley floor are booked up 4 months in advance, a ridiculous state of affairs this early in the game. But then again it might work out well for us since we will visit other national parks that are a little off the beaten track and not so congested.

Gorgeous

Saturday Feb 5, 2005. What a GORGEOUS day to be outdoors and skiing! Blue sky's, 30 F with the sun shining down on you. It was such perfect weather that the wife decided she was too hot in her ski jacket and ordered me to stove it in the locker at the lodge. Reaching the slopes was no small task, we woke up later than planned on account of sleeping through the alarm set for 4:30 am. We had spent Friday evening with family, which usually means game night and is usually fun. For the first time in months we did not play as teams, which drastically cut down on the fights that usually mark these events. We were having so much fun that we took forever to get home. So it was quite late when we eventually got around to taking care of pre-skiing chores, including filling the hydration packs, laying out the bibs and jackets, ensuring the GPS, walkie talkies and camera batteries are juiced up, etc.

One of the most amazing things I saw on the slopes, were blind skiers. Saturday was "Discovery" day and there were tons of them all over the place. Some of them were just brilliant. We saw a blind skiier going at high speed through trees using only the voice of the guide in front as a reference for when to turn. It was awe inspiring to say the least. If someone can over come such disability to get so proficient at skiing blue and black slopes, one can do anything. This has got to be the gutsiest thing I have ever seen, even beating the blind sky diver on my first jump. Here is the website of the organization that facilitates such events in case anyone wants to donate money to a great cause.

I got back home by 7:00 pm and then had to attend a bachelor party. Being dog tired, I wasn't too keen on going but protocol demanded a show, so I volunteered to be the designated driver while people around were getting smashed, and with that the others dint feel too bad about waiting till I got back from the slopes. We closed out the night with a visit to the club, shaking our legs to some bad live band.

Eagles lost the Super Bowl, which sucked but for the first time in the many years since I have been watching the super bowl the match was not a blow out or a low scoring game. So it was quite interesting despite the lack of any bay area teams.

Overbooked

That is what happens everytime I am in charge of our social calendar. I build design plans at work, involving multiple people delivering a product, in some cases six months down the line, that work flawlessly. Put me in charge of contacting friends and family to ensure our weekend has the right mix of outdoor activities and personal time with both family and friends, then sit back and watch me as I blunder my way through the mess.

This time though, I have gone above and beyond any of my past futile attempts. I managed to surprise myself with my ingenuity, which knows no bounds when it comes to screwing things up. I committed us to several parties and events, all overlapping each other. Now the wife has been called upon to sort things without ruffling feathers and to prioritize events. And the first thing she did was to scratch my overly ambitious plan to fly to Las Vegas somewhere in the midst of other events I had planned. Luckily she couldn't cancel the Priceline car reservation I made, so we are definitely going skiing tomorrow. I will have to put up some photographs of Kirkwood, since this could possibly be my last season there for the next few years.

In Cornell news, Oldman who used to run the Cornell "reality show" has posted an excellent post on his decisions to quit blogging, while leaving us with a clearer view of the recruitment process there. His post and explanation to some extent assuages the initial terror of seeing the initial crappy numbers reported. So thanks once again Oldman.

The SuperBowl ads for this year promise to be a little tame thanks Ms. Janet Jackson's little wardrobe malfunction last year (I picked that exact moment to refresh everyone's drinks because I was sick of the backdoor boy and this silly skank gyrating on the screen). CBS after paying the 500,000 $ fine is making sure that even the advertisements have no possibility of offending anyone. Ford and Budweiser have already pulled ads that were termed a little risque. Look out for the GoDaddy ad, which is a hilarious take on the Janet Jackson episode. I can easily see it becoming the #1 ad this year around. With no interest whatsoever in either team, I am definitely watching the game only for the tradition and joy of drinking beer in the afternoon. Though since I do hate the Pats a little more than the Eagles, I will be booing them a lot more.

Happy SuperBowl partying everyone, TGIF!

Horrors!

Another blogger bought down after he raised questions about the recruitment process at a top school! Whether the statements were true or false it is anyone's guess (I for one am more inclined to believe them), but to see free speech abused thus is a sad thing indeed.

It appears as if there is a strong conspiracy to only showcase the brightest and the best of Business School culture, anything that doesn't meet the bar is either pressurized to shut up or ostracized to the extent that the whistle blower loses interest in the project. After all why go through so much personal grief to educate anonymous people of the inner workings of a school? Apparently even the top schools are not immune to the voices of dissent and feel the urge to stamp down on them, it happened in the past with Stanford and now Cornell.

Kool-aid seems to be the drink of choice and you will be punished if you don't lower the level in your glass in record time.

Next time I go to a bar I will definitely raise a glass to oldman who shot from the hip. I haven't seen as enthusiastic a person as him in answering questions raised by prospective students on the BW forum, while at the same time not pulling wool over their eyes when it came to the darker underbelly of the system. Here is wishing him all the best for the future, and hoping that he doesn't face too much repercussions for standing up and speaking the truth, atleast as he saw it. So long Oldman!

Ponderings

I am fast coming to the conclusion that the shotgun approach to Business school venture just isn't worth it. With those thoughts comes the dreaded feeling that I screwed up my application process. The what if scenario's keep running into my head till I am forced to purge them by giving myself a sharp smack on the forehead.

Despite desperately desiring to go to school at Wharton, I have been realistic about my chances of garnering one of the precious admits that they hand out each year. I was determined to go to business school this year and was not willing to take another year to take another shot at my dream school (if ultimately dinged). But recent events are forcing me to re-evaluate those thoughts.

With a Cornell admit in my pocket, I was confident of attending a school I liked. But the news out of Cornell reporting on the woes and miseries of current first year students in their attempt to get internship offers is really getting me down! From my sources there, I hear that recruitment is terrible for the current batch of first years, with some students getting multiple offers and others none. While I understand that competition is a part and parcel of Business school culture, the number of people without offers and the specific demographics that seem to be without offers is not merely disquieting but terrifying to say the least. Here is an interesting perspective of a Cornell First year student struggling to get his foot in the door.

Business school for me signifies a huge opportunity cost. We are giving up a lot to get the education. Without strong prospects for the future the ROI isn't worth what we are giving up. I am in the midst of a serious rethink of my plans and future strategy. I am actually toying with a plan B that has me applying to 2 maybe 3 schools next year in case I don't get into a school that I believe will help me get where I want to go. I guess what it comes down to is that if I don't get into a school of choice this year, I am not going to go to school.

This whole shot gunning is a farce. Why bother wasting your time applying to schools that can't help you get where you want to go in life? Why not take the extra time to apply to one maybe two schools that you really think will help you. The more I think about it, the more Riter's decision to apply to two schools in R1 makes sense. The more I feel I screwed up. All I can hope for now is that waitlist at Wharton materializes into an acceptance. Otherwise it is going to be a disappointing application season.