Two beers and a drop of 600 points in the market later!

If you haven't seen Inside Job yet, go rent it, pay 5 bucks for it on demand....see it immediately.
  
http://www.hulu.com/watch/174282/movie-trailers-inside-job---trailer


Basically the point of this blog is to bring up how rating agencies, specifically standard and poor's, dropped the *&^%ing ball when it came to the banks on the verge of clapse and the buying up of junk mortgages.  All those banks that went bankrupt, were bought out, or received a ridiculous amount of government bailout money had AAA ratings just days or hours before they filed chapter 11.  How did our rating agencies screw up that badly?  They suck that is how.

Why didn't our government prosecute our rating agencies for....i don't know...accurately rating our banks.  you know ....their jobs.   And now Standard and Poors downgraded the US GOV to a AA+ rating, sending our stockmarket into the dumps again.  As big a drop as in 2008.... once again you screwed us standard and poor.  Thank you very little.

doesn't play well with others

i recall the occasional phrase, "doesn't play well with others" on elementary report cards.  i was always exceedingly bright but would get knocked down to a "satisfactory" on report cards due to this.  i was also the youngest in my grade, started kindergarten at age four, went to college at age 17, will finish grade school at 24. so i am accustomed to being the youngest around but interestingly instead of being complacent and agreeable, i still to this day, get worked up over the stupidity of group projects.  lets just say, mba=a million group projects.  luckily i have formed amazing friendships with easily the smartest gals in my program, but still we wind up with some hangers on in our groups that, don't do shit, and just drive me bonkers.  i tend to get much more upset about these boogers then other people do.  don't get me wrong i am not a type a, perfectionist, will accept nothing but the best....... i am human, i will fall apart, or slack occasionally, or even procrastinate to dangerous levels.... but never, do i not complete my portion on time, when others are counting on me.  be it the magnitude of team sports i played growing up, or learning the worst thing you can do is let your peers down, or perhaps i just like to feel superior.  maybe it is a little of all of it, but i don't let me team down.  i finish my part with due diligence and am ready to get everyone else parts and see them fit together like a puzzle that creates a project that REALLY represents the magnitude of combined brain power of our group.  insightful, witty, creative, thorough, and most importantly complete.  but dummies that are in my group always seem to make this a near impossible task.

i once had a teacher who, during class one day, asked, "who here likes group work?"  about 1/5 of the class raise their hand, "the teacher says, now everyone take a look at these people, remember who they are."  ....."all of those that didn't raise their hand, hate group work more than anything, it is because of you few, with your hands raised, that they hate it."  quickly hands went down. but i felt so great in that moment, that a teacher understood and was empathetic of the struggles to carry the dead weight that is your lazy classmates.

but riddle me this.  why, if teacher know how horrible a struggle it is, do they still assign so much group work?

i know, because in the real world, you will have to deal with lazy, unmotivated, or just bad colleagues.

i maybe optimistic, or naive, but i hope to work in an atmosphere someday with people who care about the quality of their work, that can meet a deadline, that have a sense of time urgency, and are intelligent and decent people.  (oh, and team-players too!)

of all the lies that one could put on a resume....to lie and put you are a team player, when you actually are not, just because it is one of the BUZZ phrases that managers like to see, has got to put you in one of the deepest rings of dante's hell.

and that is why ladies and gents, i don't play well with others.

back to school, back to school

last night i started class again. i couldn't help but think about the contrast of this first day versus my first day last semester.  last semester (my very first semester of the mba program, i was so nervous i felt like i would throw up at any minute.)  i felt like i didn't belong, that people would make fun of my art degree (i was right, they did) and i would not be able to compete against these business undergrads and older professionals in class, ultimately (on my first day of class) i thought i would flunk out and it was just a matter of time.

last night however, i was happy, excited to see some friends i hadn't seen in a while, prepared (with all course materials, i brought two calculators, gross huh?) i had the confidence that comes with an amazing 3.5 gpa the semester before, and ringing in my ears was my little cheerleader inside (it's a metaphor, i was never or never will be a cheerleader), saying "kim you got this!"

here is the description of this class, so you can read how scary it sounds.




financial management-- the uglier sister to the financial reporting class i suffered through last year. a little bird told me the professor wasn't that great either!  this is what is said about the professor on ratemyprofessor.com ;

so as you can see i was a little hesitant.  but honestly, it isn't like he can flunk all of his graduate students, right? plus there were a couple little idiosyncrasies that i think i can focus on that will at least keep me entertained.  one....how he writes on the chalk boards.  (i know there are chalk boards, what are we in a 19 cent. school house with kids of all ages) sidebar:  i am very upset that this class is not in the fancy grad. rooms, shaped like a U (for the socratic method i suppose) with huge professional tables (looks like congress, but miniature) and we have pink comfy swivel chairs.  i love the chairs in that room. oh EBA 339 i miss you......okay back to my story, this classroom has chalk boards and those awful chairs that are connected to your desk set up in rows.  gross huh?  okay well, sterk tends to bang on the chalk board very loudly each time he writes.  cracks me the F up.  i love it. secondly i also love when he is a little rude and ends conversations abruptly and awkwardly with students.  so awesome to watch.

so here is the rest of my line up.....looks fun huh?  not.

2 years of MBA, 2 years of IBS.... oh god, i hope not!

oooohhhh midterms are upon us. 

*financial reporting midterm was a group one and is now behind me, my group got a 42/50, which sounds respectable but in grad school it is all about the average, and this score was just under the average.  major bummer!
*statistics, wicked hard test on probability functions that i took wed., will see how i do on that one, but i thinking 80/100 or 85/100 (after the curve)  curious to see how close my prediction is. (also already given a pretty complex assignment on determining confidence intervals and writing them up into a report for a marketing team, due on wed. this coming week)  that is just cruel in my opinion. (way to kick your students while they are down professor r)
*organizational behavior, midterm is on monday, i need to make about 250 flash cards this weekend for this test.
*marketing midterm on tuesday night (definitely typed tuesnight first)  which i will begin studying for, after the monday midterm, so as to not confuse my brain.


tangent----
saturday (after 12), i am officially taking a pause from add meds and studying and will go to the homecoming game (sdsu vs air force), with pickle and some mba friends/classmates/peers?  we will be tailgating and eating unhealthy food and drinking beer. 

ofcourse i am thinking that i might bring a sac lunch and be sipping peppermint tea.  reason being, i have self diagnosed myself with ibs and partaking in frat boy like drinking doesn't sound like a good idea.   (surprised?, i have talked about grosser things on my blog before) 
isn't it that true you take your amazingly intricate and delicate digestive system for granted, until the day it stops working.

i feel that there is a lot of misinformation online about what to eat to promote healthy digestion.  i always hear veggies, whole grains, foods rich in fiber.  (but this is if you have a relatively healthy digestion before hand)  the last thing you want to do in a serious bout of ibs is to start eating all the fiber you can find.  (in fact i continually make this mistake, which is my reason for blogging about it, force myself to remember for the future.)

anyway, i am torn from wanting to eat healthy, and wanting to end my ibs.  so i am going to try to not stress and i will go to henrys and get the following things.

peppermint tea
bananas
greek yogurt
sweet potatoes
apple sauce
white bread
white rice
acidopholus (supplements)

wish me luck on midterms, and with the digestive stuff.

first week of my mba

-$20,000 in student loans, -3,000 to bail friend out of jail, -2,600 to buy another car, -800 to fix old car (yes i now have two cars).


it has been a very busy month and i have not had a chance to write about all my goings on.  but, despite being as broke as can be i am extremely happy in my current life situation.  no longer am i stuck in the purgatory of out of college but without real job.  i am now back to being a student, enrolled in a mba program that is ranked in the top 50 in the nation.

i am one week in and have already decided that i need to save managerial economics til next semester.

my current schedule as it will remain;

ba 650 financial reporting and analysis
ba 651 organizational behavior
ba 652 statistical analysis
ba 655 marketing

my impression of my classes is that they will be very very challenging, ...of my professors, that they love what they do and really do want us to succeed,...of my classmates, that they are the most intelligent group of people that i have ever met.

i have quit my job and my guitar lessons :(, but i can't justify guitar lessons when i am living off loans.  my only focus for the next two years is to do well in this program, network my butt off, get great internships, and get a job that will make me rich.

master's degree in something useful that can get me a decent paying job, hopefully

cold rainy winter days like this make me want to move to mexico. but at least it gives me time to write about the beginning of my latest academic adventure. on feb. 16th i received an email from sdsu informing me of their decision to admit me into the mba program of the college of business administration. excited, yes....scared, yes! the letter informed me in kind language that because of my creative background i may want to brush up on some real material. i was assigned statistics, economics, and managerial and financial accounting texts to review before my program starts in the fall. i have yet to get them.


i feel that i really want to succeed this time, not just get the degree but make valuable connections, network, and graduate at the top of my class. of course, we all start out with the best of intentions. we will see where i am come december????

in other news. bought a polaroid camera, and $100 worth of film. first pack, fail. on second pack...pictures to come.