AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Finals Stress

I will live through this week, I will live through this week, I will through this week, I will live through this week.............

Barack Where We Started

By the happenstance (my fake word of the day) of fate, I was about six blocks from Grant Park in Chicago on Tuesday night, when and where the whole city was happily celebrating the election of our next president. I was in town on a marketing trip and in the company of a diverse group of classmates: Republicans, Democrats and a couple of foreign students just to make it interesting. As a wholehearted conservative and less-than-halfhearted Republican, I hadn't been too thrilled about the election, but I must confess there was a tangible excitement in the air on Tuesday. Though I have significant concerns about the next four years (I would have had concerns under the old guy, too), it was fun to be on the streets that night.

A few of my classmates (particularly the foreign ones) decided to witness history and go join the madhouse in Grant Park. The rest of us jaded Americans sat it out where we were, fairly confident we wouldn't actually get to see Oprah or her appointee Barack anyway. A small part of me wishes I went. The rest of me says, "eh". I do think it is a fabulous thing that a black man was elected president. With any luck, it will have a profound impact on race relations in America and inspire more black youths to set their sights a little higher. However, if Obama is the idealist that his campaign made him out to be, I think he will be completely inequipped to accomplish anything in the White House. If not, then we have yet another principles poor predictable politicking president (how's that for alliteration!)

Either way, I think by the end of four years, this country will be as messy as ever, if not messier. How's that for a little slice of sunshine!!? On the upside, we got to see where Ronald McDonald lives while we were in Chicago, and he is alive and well. As are Coca Cola and Wal-Mart. Despite what our president says or does, the real symbols of America are moving forward with gusto. As long as that keeps up, I will stay confident that everything will be all right.

A Blort Shog Due to Timited Lime

So I'm working on consistency with the whole blog thing. Seems like things have taken a turn for the busy! Most days I get home in time to spend a couple of hours with the kids and then start back on homework as soon as they are asleep. I'm not complaining, I'm just offering up an excuse (for those who can't stand people who make excuses, I'm not making excuses, I'm just complaining).

I just had my first job interview on Friday with Lockheed Martin. I think it went well, but it's very early in the internship search, and there are a few other companies I am interested in, too, so it's way too early to make any predictions. Unless we're talking elections, in which case my money is on Huckabee!! Oh, wait, make that Obama. There's got to be some consolation there--we missed out on having a President Huckabee, but I think President Barack Hussein Obama will be a fine substitute, speaking strictly on terms of ironic syncopation. Which, by the way, I think should be the primary standard for all important leaders. Just think, instead of Ronald Reagan, we could have gone with Inglebert Humperdink. But we missed our chance, didn't we?

I know what you mean Sonny Bono...

See what happens when you go 2 weeks without posting!!? Your former employer gets shut down by the government and bought by a competitor, the market finishes collapsing, pretends to rebound, the bailout fails then passes and the Office gets pre-empted by a debate. I'm guessing by my next blog, we'll be colonizing Venus. Wonder how their economy is doing?

On the home front, Ethan has started kindergarten. Alexa is dealing with it pretty well, although she does want to stay there with him. Zach just turned one and is in the 96th percentile for height and weight. Val is slowly recovering from a badly sprained foot and I am studying for mid terms every waking moment. And the beat goes on and the beat goes on...

At some point in life while all this normal life is happening, you begin to realize that regardless of your intentions or plans, life keeps going by, people get older and certain things in your life are now etched in stone. For example, the fact that I am past the age when the average NBA player retires suggests that I will never join that esteemed organization. Of course the rational mind realizes that there was never any ghost of a chance of ever having been a professional or even college basketball player (I didn't even start playing in earnest till after high school), but the unreasonable part of me says, "Dang! I missed the boat!" Ditto for any other completely unattainable closet dreams (movie star, rock star, you name it).

That's why, as a clear-headed, responsible adult (yes, I said it), the only appropriate course of action is to start pushing all of these ridiculous fantasies on my children and saddle them with guilt if they fail to meet up to any of these unreasonable expectations. And finally my kids are getting old enough to start perpetuating the unending cycle of not being world famous. Important life lesson: if you try for something and fail, that makes you a failure, but if you never try, you still have all kinds of untapped potential, and who knows how far you could go if you really applied yourself!!

Having said all that, I just realized I'm old enough now to be president of the United States!! Hmmm.....

Because It's an Election Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPy2alWEZ-U

Quite possibly the best thing that has ever been on television!! Jesse is in rare form!

When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around

Okay, so I bought a car, but it's not a Co-rolla. I got a Honda Civic. Since the beginning of the year, I have hit the Japanese car trifecta: Toyota-Nissan-Honda. It's a stick, so I have to get used to that again--it's a nice enough old car, though.

I have gotten a couple of quizzes back now-so far, so good. I think the professors are taking it easy on us grade-wise, for which I am very grateful, especially in Statistics. Also, I was elected as one of two representatives from my class for the MBA Marketing Association-one more step in my quest to take over the world (I'm taking the long, slow road). Essentially what this means is that in addition to my class load, career search and family time I get to go a bunch of meetings and think of ways to make Neeley a more relevant marketing force in the universe. Then next year, I will get a real title, like president, vice president, treasurer or janitor. Piece o' cake.

So, how 'bout that economy? Few have been hit harder than WaMu. New CEO last week, stock prices around $2 this week and openly courting buyers! I would say it can't get much worse than that, but then I think of Countrywide, Lehman bros, AIG, Freddie, Fannie, etc. I guess it could get worse. While the company on a whole is in trouble, but I can't help but think the Commercial Group will come out relatively intact. It is still profitable and it has more apartment loans than any other bank in the country. Even if WaMu is bought by another bank, it won't have the infrastructure in place to originate & service these loans. They would have to retain the organization and personnel in place to manage the portfolio. That's my two cents (these days, that's almost enough to get you a share of stock).

Hopefully, the economy will recover before I finish school so I can get a job. Hopefully, whoever our next president is won't make things worse by fixing everything. Hopefully, my 401K won't be worthless before the end of the year. Hopefully, "America as we know it" isn't over. And hopefully, this season of Heroes will be worth the wait. Cause let's face it--what really matters is that the writers are back and it's almost time to plug in our IV of televisory anasthetic and forget what is going on in the world. I wonder if my teachers will start grading even easier, now that "must-see" TV is back. They have to--it's called "must-see" for a reason.....

Book Learnin'

So I lived through another week of mind-expanding classes and events. Busy as ever, but mostly doing worthwhile stuff. I particularly like my management class, where each session is spent discussing actual business decisions actually made by actual people in actual companies that I have actually heard of. Wonderful theoretic ideals such as balancing employee and stockholder interests, empowerment, etc. Right after the empowerment discussion where we all individually decided that empowerment is a wonderful thing that we will all implement at our very first opportunity, I read an article in BusinessWeek by Jack Welch explaining how in the real world, empowerment typically doesn't work and shouldn't be attempted. So, I am unlearning just as quickly as I am learning.
Speaking of book learning, I have learned recently that there are far more powerful lessons to be learned in popular literature than could ever be taught in a textbook. Apparently if I will temporarily suspend my manliness and read the teen vampire romance novel Twilight (the cover is 99% Fabio-free, by the way), I will understand women in ways in which I never before thought possible. I guess that's a good idea, although the book should come with some kind of guarantee that I will get my manhood back once I finish reading it. I'll get to it once I have read all of my textbooks cover to cover. Twice.
As a capstone celebration to the end of my income, I will be selling my car tomorrow (hopefully). This, the glorious Altima that I coveted for months and finally purchased. So after six months of that, my best guess is that by next week I will be back in an old Corolla again--probably a white one. While this may be a step backwards in my automotive pilgrimage, at least I know I can get along with a Corolla. I test drove an old Accord today--blech. Can anyone explain why Hondas cost more than Toyotas? Another cosmic mystery that Carl Sagan failed to answer before passing on.