Daisy

There is a dog, She’s small and white
An ice cream in my hand she wants to bite
If she knew what I have learned
She’d make a plan to get that for which she yearned

A clever strategy she would devise
A programmed decision would not suffice
Her vision would be grand
To get this ice cream from my hand

But vision without actions is just a dream
Some leadership traits would help her scheme
Communication problems would arise
But through it all she would get wise

I don’t know how to finish this rhyme
Tell your friends not to was their time
And register for this class right now
Now rhymes with the word cow

Cotton Candy

I think the blog was a pretty good idea, just not for me. In general I think it’s a valuable asset in the courses curriculum, but it also takes the right person to use it in such a way. I’m just not that type of person. I viewed it as an assignment that had to be done for the sake of it being done. So most of the time I would just look for anyone who had posts, and reply back to the specific post with out really paying attention to who the person was. Nor did I seek these people out in class to match their online persona with a flesh and blood body. The people I met in class I met through the in-class activities, which were awesome by the way.

Same idea applies to how the blog was designed to make students think about the in-class activities. I cant say I really though about them while writing, I didn’t sit down somewhere and reflect, formulate an idea, shape it into something more, then write about it. I just wrote.

Concerning the Professors blog, why only four posts? No offense to anyone here, but I enjoyed his blog the most, probably because its more polished. Plus I think it was less forced, since he didn’t have to do it, he just did. So I was always a little disappointed when after finishing writing in my blog, I would find his blog unchanged. More posts Kurpis, don’t slack!!

Twenty percent? Really? Oh… hmm. The blog didn’t offset any test anxieties for me because I didn’t think it was worth twenty percent. Silly me for not paying attention to the syllabus. I also think that as students we need just a little more supervision. Maybe a rule of handing in a hardcopy of each post when the post was due? I feel like anything that has to be done purely online isn’t real (big problem when it comes to credit cards and paypal accounts, electronic funds don’t feel as real to me as cash in my hand, even though its just as real).

I don’t think I will continue this specific blog, although I am interested in starting a new blog, something for my self that I can read a few years later and laugh.

All in all I think the blog is a good idea, but there will always be people who underutilize it, like me.

Where do you want to eat?

Nothing like deciding where to get the next meal, always takes me a minute.
Usually i ask "where do you want to go?"

I am a C high D. But really i got a +7 on the C scale and a +6 on the D scale, so i think im an even mix of both. Every now and then i am quick to decide something and power it through, usually its something absurd but i get everyone onboard anyway. Then half way through (half way to Connecticut at 4am) i have to ask others why nobody challenged my decision!

Other times i am troubled by what might happen, have i considered all the alternatives, have i thought of all the details. Then i double and triple check all my work, it drives me mad!

All in all i think the test had me spot on, i wish i was a bit more decisive though. That +1 on the Conscientious scale gets me pretty bothered. Thats why when i sense i am thinking too much about a decision, going back and forth i just try to take a deep breath and pick. Just pick it and stick with it. My 1880 silver dollar comes in handy, especially when i decide to go against the outcome of the coin, then i know what i really want to do.

I think the downside to tests is that they limit people, and they also limit what others think of you. Who knows how one might react in a given situation, but after a test like this in the corporate world, some might never get a chance to prove themselves otherwise.

In the stranded scenario people that are high S would be good to have, since they would be team players. People that are high C are also necessary because they would think before acting, and in a survival situation, you dont get second chances, so its good to sit down and think. High D might be a problem because charging forward could have very negative outcomes.

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Much like a few other people, i have been putting this assignment off for as long as a could.

Out of all the things i do on a daily basis, the only thing that always brings a smile to my face is driving.

What i want is to learn to control a car to the n-th degree. I want to race cars as well, unfortunately im a bit behind, most start out when they are toddlers racing go karts, so maybe i will never be a professional race car driver, but to have great car control, well that's still possible.

example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&hl=de&v=rs-jAImScms

I have already started going to driver education programs which get me out onto real race tracks with semi professional instructors that teach the finer points of driving a car. all i need to do now is start taking it a bit more serious.

-Need to get rid of my current car, too expensive, and get something more track oriented, light, fast and cheap.
-Start saving up for a school that will allow me to get a racing license.
-Continue going to driver education programs.
-Start branching out and try different types of car sports, maybe try drifting or rally, so far i only have track experience.

I was thinking, i dont have many visions, or goals, but this is something that i completely overlooked simply because this isnt just a dream, its something that i am doing.

A modern Roman forum

Very novel idea, get a whole class of 80 people to decide on one thing. Pure genius. At first I was accommodating, I received a high grade on the test and decided that it should be up to other people to decide things. Logically I would be fine regardless of what the class decided. I did well on a test and everybody wanted to make the next test easier, so if the next test became easier I would do well again.

Then I started to avoid the situation. I was a bit angry. The only way the next test would get easier is if we all agreed on something together, but things weren’t moving towards an agreement. Actually as time went on peoples ideas got more imaginative, thus more unique, which bred even more disagreement. I folded my arms and decided I would sit it out in the eye of the storm. Who cares, what we decided, either way Ill do fine.

By the end I was prodded into action. It seemed to me that a few people were missing the point, asking for too little, so I spoke a few times. But I still tried to avoid the situation. Im very much against true or false questions, but decided not to speak out, because it would just make things more difficult.

Im at work right now, in a datacenter, sitting on the floor surrounding by Dell Poweredge 1950 servers. I think its ironic that im doing well in management class, but when it comes to management in every day things, like work, friends, school, im failing pretty badly.

Concerning doing things differently, I would probably try to get everyone on the same page first. Explain how much we could ask for, get everyone to think in terms of a lot, not a little. Next I would have divided the discussion into 3 parts. First how the next test will look, next how the tests will count, and lastly extra credit. It seems that everyone was talking about everything, one person suggesting extra credit, the other true or false questions. And lastly I would ask who is against something to raise their hands, its easier to spot people that way.

Fallen Comrade

The egg and I became friends, but i knew our friendship was going to be short lived.

To some extent our group went through all the steps.

We didn’t define the goal, but we all understood it. The egg has to survive the fall. We also spent some time talking about what resources we had and how to best use them. A plan was drawn up and edited several times. We also selected the shortest person to do the drop.

There weren’t too many factors so from the start developing alternative strategies was simple enough, someone said why something wouldn’t work and the plan would be edited. Once we settled on the specific design of the contraption we decided who was going to be responsible for what once the supplies were given out, but it didn’t go further than that.

Once we already had the supplies though, there was a clear division of labor, even though it wasn’t pre-planned, i have to say it was carried out professionally. One person was writing up the procedure, two were creating the cushions out of straws, one was attaching them to the egg, i was tearing up tape to appropriate chunks. Once someone was done with their task, they would help the person next to them, and overall it was very smooth.

The plan was implement and evaluated (the egg was dropped and it didnt survive).


Something about this project just didn’t hit the spot for me. It just didn’t feel that involving, it was too simplistic. I mean with the amount of time we had, one class period it was perfect, but too many factors worked against it. The fact that it was either pass or fail, egg survives or doesn’t, it was hard to judge how well the planning worked, if there were multiple objectives you would see where the plan failed, were it didn’t. A single objective just didn’t reveal much about the plan. Plus there really wasn’t enough time to sit down and do a proper plan, not that it mattered though, an egg drop is rather simplistic and really could have been done with no planning. As I pointed out, even though we didn’t plan the division of labor, it still worked out as the process went on. Again it carried the point across but from a lot of my classes I get the feeling that everything is done just to say it was done. Like we are doing a presentation in finance… why? Just to say that we had somekind of presentation done and it potentially worked on our public speaking? That’s so silly. Half assed.

Not to say that our management class is half assed, no no, management is just too intensive and too broad to be studied like this, I feel like we fly past things so quick I don’t get all the flavor. Hmm, after a full day of work followed by a full day of classes I just realized I am tired and I am rambling on. Im getting new tires tomorrow, hope they fit. Gonna be sick, cant wait to see how much grip they will give me on the track!

Family and Business.

My two brothers own a small business. They run a webhosting company. Under them they had as many as six employees although now it is down to four (not counting me).

The problem is that my two brothers dont always get along. They cant seem to agree on anything. They both are very smart and have accomplished a lot, but on the other hand they both are young and inexperienced. Their egos get in the way of one seeing the other's point. there is also a nasty habit of one pushing the others buttons. They both know how to set each other off and rather than trying to avoid that, they both do exactly what would get the other one riled up.

Its like a very complicated dance.

Most of the time i wish i could just sit both of them down and slap them silly, unfortunately while they are a year apart, i am six years younger and have even less experience than them.

What can be done when two equal owners cant agree on a single thing and both are inexperienced but very full of themselves?

Intro

My name is Lev Uretsky. Right about now all i want to do is go back to the race track. During this summer my family and i started going to different race tracks around the country to HPDE events. HPDE stands for High Performance Driver Education, so you take your car to a race track and you get to drive it as fast as you can while professional instructors teach you the finer points of driving a car. Even though no keeps score, people get pretty competative. Later in February im going to a HPDE event on a frozen lake. Ice, snow and driving sideways. Cant wait.

Im a junior at baruch. originally i thought of going for finance, but over the summer i started considering switching majors.

I've been here for some time and i honestly dont know what else to say.