Fall is in the Air

Music: Plain White T's- Hey There Delilah

Mood: Shin Splints Stink

So it's Tuesday, and it feels sort of like the week has been going on forever. It's kind of bad when you start loosing track of what day of the week it is. Every week is becoming a blur, and the weekends seem too short. The bane of my existence is to survive the week and make it to the weekend only to repeat the same thing again. It's sort of like an abysmal black hole. School and college life seems like a unsatisfiable monster, that wants more and more and more, regardless of however much I give. I really want a week to just sleep in every day and do NOTHING. But that isn't possible.... until Thanksgiving, and even then, Thanksgiving isn't really a break because you've got Thanksgiving shopping, Thanksgiving dinner preparation, the actual dinner, recovery from dinner, and then Black Friday. But, ah, yes, this weekend was relaxing.. I'm just greedy and want to relax some more.. and the sad thing is that I can't even take it easy during Winter Break because I'll be taking Gov 312L at HCC for four weeks, 9-12. So yes. College is a greed time-sucker who keeps wanting more. Shame on you Mr. College. Haha.

So other than that, things are going as normal. To avoid being scatterbrained, I'll break down my thoughts and then attack them one at a time.

[1] treadmills at gregory
[2] how to fax things
[3] case competition
[4] becoming a professor
[5] the weather and how it makes ppl bundle up
[6] + / - grading system
[7] office visit
[9] bleeding blue
[10] OMG Heroes
[11] Colorado Rockies!?!

ok so here we go, are you ready?

[1] treadmills at gregory- today, i waited 10 minutes for a freaking treadmill at Gregory Gym... at 4 in the afternoon. Ludicrous! There's a 5K Race for the Cure coming up soon, and I'd love to sign up for that. The thing is, I can't seem to go competitively for 3miles straight. Gah. I guess I should have gone up to the indoor track or better yet, since the weather is better, I could go jogging at Clark field in the PM. I guess that's what I miss about the summer. Many of ya'll know I interned in Detroit this summer. The company put me in an apartment in suburb, and everyday after work, I went jogging for about an hour.. It was intense and relaxing.. and the weather was wonderful. When I got back to Texas after my internship, I was like WHOA, it's soo humid and hot, even at 8pm. Now that Fall weather is finally coming through, I think I'll pick up jogging outside again.. So hopefully, I'll be prepared for a 5k. My friends are doing it too... so even if I don't get a good time, I know for sure I'll finish and it'll be for a great cause!

[2] how to fax things- Today, I had to fax a room un-lock form for the Case Competition to insure that the rooms would be unlocked on Saturday, November 3rd (the day of the case). I went to the Undergraduate Programs Office and talked to one of the office workers about faxing this form. She had never sent a fax before and I'd only sent a fax once... on the job this summer. So I think it took us a good 15 to 20 minutes to figure out how to fax a cover letter and the actual form. Now, I'm not sure if it was outdated technology or if it was me who wasn't sure how to use the technology. We kept pushing the button that said, cover letter, and then it needed some ID code, so I was really confused. What I ended up doing was just fax the cover page and then fax the actual form separately. I'm guessing I could have just put the cover letter and then the form, typed in the number, and hit fax.. but that cover letter button tricked us... So moral of the story: Faxes,, though they were really advanced technology back in elementary school, are now pretty obsolete due to email and the age of instant technology. Oh, and if you're interested.. i hit 65 emails today.. only 4 or 5 which were newsletters/mass emails.... and it's only 7:40... boy how i miss freshman year where I only got like 8 emails, 5 of which were newsletters, etc. ohwell, I guess email is "making us more efficient."

[3] case competition- SIGN UP! Applications are online right now at www.texasbusinesscouncil.com and are due 10/26. Info sessions are 10/22 and 10/23 at 5pm in GSB 2.122


[4] becoming a professor- on Monday, I met with Professor McAllister. She's a Marketing professor and spoke at the HBA meeting last Tuesday. I talked with her about my interest in becoming a professor and how to get a PhD in Business. We discussed the pressures of getting published and what the career path is like for a professor. I'm definitely glad she took the time to talk to me, because I really had NO idea what it was like to be a professor. I feel that in the business school, there is so much emphasis on getting a job after graduation, or going on to law or med school.. but what about masters or PhD in business. Prof. McAllister told me that first, i need to find out what I really want to do. She advised me to get involved with research during my undergraduate career. Many of the PhD coordinators here at UT have seminars or talks where PhD students and professors give talks about their research. She recommended that I sit in on these discussions and find out what field of business I'm interested and try working as a research assistant. Then from that, typically, after undergraduate, students interested in becoming professors either go on to masters programs or straight into PhD programs, where they have to be published one or two business journals. From there, you'd go to a university where you'd go on the tenure track. During the roughly 6 year tenure track, you have to be published about 6 or 7 times, which can include what you've done during your PhD program. So in short, I'm still interested in becoming a professor, but I'm not sure what area I'd be interested in. Prof. McAllister said that if I can get published as an undergraduate in one of the major business journals, I could go straight into a PhD program. So this sounds interested, but I just have to expose myself to academia business if I really want to get a PhD in business and become a professor. It's kind of tricky, just because I really don't know what I want to do with my BBA. I know I'm pretty good at many things, so this is tricky. But I did email the various PhD Coordinators for the different majors, and I intend on attending some of the seminiars to get a feel for the different business research papers people are working on, and perhaps I could become a research assistant. We'll see.. oh, and here's the link to see what publications professors have written- http://acsprod.mccombs.utexas.edu/publications/pub_search.aspx

[5] the weather and how it makes ppl bundle up- the weather is simply amazing! some times, i wish we could have class outside. last year, in my plan 2 world lit class, we always had class outside when the weather was nice. then again, there were only 18 people in the class. this year, my smallest class is spanish, with about 30 students, but i doubt we'd have class outside in spanish. anyways, i love how the weather makes people bundle up, even though it's not cold. people from the north would probably laugh at us crazy texans. I saw this girl today wearing a scarf and a leather jacket today.. and it was like 75 degrees? granted, I was a little chilly myself.. but still. it's nice weather. why hide from it?

[6] + / - grading system- personally, i'm against + / - grading because i think it'll make students more picky about grades and make professor's teaching responsibilities more difficult, as there will be a finer line between the 85 and the 87s or what have you. Apparently, + / - grading is inevitable, as the UT administration has approved it. However, there is a Plus/Minus Grading Forum being hosted by the Senate of College Councils this Thursday, October 18, 2007 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm in the Jester Auditorium. Go the forum if you're interested. I'm not sure what I'll think if +/- is implemented. Actually, my GPA might go down, because a 90 or 91 would be considered an A- and thus a 3.67. =(

[7] office visit- so I've arranged my office visit with the chemical company in Houston. I'll be flying into Houston on Tuesday, 10/30 in the morning and then flying back to Austin in the PM the same day. That's going to be some crazy day, and I'll be skipping accounting for that. So hopefully, this visit turns into an offer for the summer. I'm excited that I get to visit the offices. It should be fun!

[9] bleeding blue- I stabbed myself with a blue pen today trying to put the pen back on the cap. I missed the cap, and instead, dug a trench in my finger, now now, it's bleeding a bit, and the skin is outlined in blue.. it's pretty sick.

[10] OMG Heroes- Heroes is my escape from the real world. Maybe it's just nice to watch fake TV characters deal with problems entirely different than what I'm doing in my life. And I think the Clarie and Wes love is really adorable! They make a great couple. Oh I hope the dad isn't sketchy and let's them date.

[11] colorado rockies!?!- in the last post, I talked about how I'm excited about Boston. However, I cannot help but feel happy for the Colorado Rockies.. The first time in their franchise history of making it to the world series. That's pretty amazing. As an Astros fan, I can totally relate. Thus, I wish the Rockies all the best and inside, I'm cheering for them to take the world series title, just because I want them to do well. So if Boston can hold off Cleveland and beat them, I really don't know who to cheer for. My gut would go with Boston, but my emotions would go for the Rockies.. oh we'll just have to see. =)

Well, I have to say that this is one of my most structured posts. Tomorrow, is going to be a LONG day. I start at 9:30 and won't be done till about 9 again. =( Then I've got an interview with an oil company on Thursday at 9:30, and then there's the honors business corporate dinner later that night. Well, now that I've gotten all that off my mind, off to do the pile of homework I have for tonight. Hope everyone has a great week!