all day all night

This week has kind of sucked. I've been up all night writing papers every night since last Wednesday (including the weekend). Well, every night except one, and I'm not going into that. Today I got up at 5AM to write, and got home from group writing meetings at midnight. Then I wrote again until just now (1:30AM). I just finished a business plan review of a really really stupid company called "froghop", which was a dotcom era mobile outfit. The plan actually had the words "contrived serendipity" in it. That made me want to punch. And "vortal" ...that actually gave me the creeps. It reminded me of that super stupid time of the world where dotcoms were still the shit and every dickweek with a black turtleneck and a "smart drink" was a "genius" and bound to be a millionaire. Crazily, Froghop are still around (but doing something waaaay different than this stupid business plan says). I guess I can read a business plan now and analyse it from the the Sahlman's Fit model and Seidel's RACE model. Don't know what the RACE model is? That's RIGHT you don't because my professor Victor Seidel hasn't published it yet! Cutting edge academic Oxford sheeeeeeat, beeeeeeotch! Yeah well, Victor's a pretty cool guy, and I'm happy for his framework and everything, but it's really not that big of a deal. Just another one of those models you use to talk about stuff in business school. Who knows, maybe he'll be the next Michael Porter. Then it would be one of those models that everybody gets forced to use to talk about stuff in business school. :) Plus, it could be a whole lot worse: he could be making us buy his expensive book just so we could read about his framework (some profs actually do that). Instead, we get it in lecture notes. Maybe when he writes the book he'll start making MBAs do that, but I don't think so, because he really is a very nice guy. With a lot of damn degrees. Ok, so I am exhausted, I am sick of papers, and I have 2 more to write this week, and then I will get drunk on friday. Maybe thursday. And I am having one icy cold vodka right now. Because I'm icy cold cool vodka like that.

me at 1:30 AM

minor note: the blogger template I've been using for the last 3 months has dates built in. so I'm discontinuing the prefixing of entries with dates. like you care. but it's a big deal to me, I sort of feel like I've turned a corner. sometime ask me about how I like my coffee lids to line up.

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19.05.07 catching up

I have a LOT to cover... so much has been going on since my last post.

Grades

Please refer to my previous post on UK Grading before reviewing these scores, they're actually pretty good. :)

I have my grades from Hilary Term back in. I'm not going to go over them in excruciating detail like I did first term, but some post mortem is in order.

Macro Economics : 59% - this went OK. The course content literally changed my life and gave me a whole new way of thinking about things, but in keeping with my previous Econ Department experience, scores are grudgingly handed out. For future Oxonians, the good news is that Macro will make you think and work really hard, and will open your mind a lot, but they almost never ever fail anybody. The prof said, "I've only ever failed a few people and they really tried to make me fail them".

Financial Management : 54% - I'm frankly relieved to have passed this one. The test was a sucker punch, the prof gave us 3 exams to review from, and none of them were anything like the actual exam. The fact that the instruction was generally rushed and poor didn't help. Too bad that this is such an important subject. In any case, I'll take my marginal pass and be quite happy.

International Business and Global Governance : 59% - I should have gotten a better score on this, but it was fine. The class was really interesting and gave me lots of new ways to think about business in an international sense. I also learned some pretty good stories about international fuckups like the CNOOC - Unocal deal, the Sakhalin Island - Shell fiasco, and the truth behind Nike's "sweatshops". Great prof too.

Developing Effective Organizations : 72% - Distinction! This class wasn't as hard as it should have been, and didn't teach as much as it should have, but the stuff we did learn was organization building gold. I learned some great stuff. For future Oxonians: I was on a great team here, and it really paid off.

Marketing : 52% - Barely squeaked by on this one, which is pretty stupid because I learned a ton here, and really feel like I have a much better sense of the real marketing expertise. Unfortunately, the prof sat an impossibly long case for the exam, and it stung me and everyone else. Whatever, I know what I know, and they can't take THAT away from me!

Operations Management : 62% - Just fine on this one, another class where I learned a lot, though the instruction often left a lot to be desired. This subject is so rich and so deep that you could probably spend a year just getting the basics, so a one term course covering lean production, taylorism, six sigma, IDEF0, fragile systems and yes dad, even Goldratt's OPT, is a bit silly. You just can't learn all this stuff meaningfully in one course, and they didn't expect us to.

Entrepreneurial Project : 70% - Distinction! Here are the presentation and the business plan. This was another case of having a kickass group. Initially, it was my idea to make a business plan for a brewery, but it changed a LOT from there. In the end it was beer made to pair with food, sort of like wine. We had a lot of fun, and did a lot of fun (and not so fun) research.

Overall, my average this term was 61%, down from 63% first term. This makes sense as last term was VERY hard and stressful. But, I made it, and still have an average above 60%, which is pretty cool.

Class Progress

This term's classes are coming along well, but there's a lot less work than last term. This is good, because last term almost killed some of us. If you think I'm exaggerating, ask my friend (who shall remain unnamed) whose immune system got run down, at which point he broke out with a major case of Shingles, and had to go home halfway through exams. He was sick as a dog, and still hasn't really recovered. He's not the only example of people who's health crumbled under the stress. This term has been a lot heavier on social stuff, balls, electives, cool speakers, etc. than the last two, even though I'm still working in the library on most saturdays and sundays.

Media Forum

This was the 3rd instalment of a yearly event that brings high level folks from the media industry to speak. We had: Lawrence Aldridge, SVP at Disney; Rene Olivieri CEO Wiley-Blackwell; Chris Cramer MD of CNN International (just retired); Robert Crozier, VP/MD Forbes Europe, Middle East and Africa; Johnathon Wilson Director of Marketing and Business Development - Wall Street Journal, and a bunch of other people. I chatted with Kevin Baughan, Head of Technical Strategy at Virgin Media and most incredibly: Ted Nelson, the guy who came up with the work "hypertext". There were lots of other people I probably should have talked to, but there was only so much time. The media department put up a wiki, and I took a bunch of shitty pictures and posted them. The idea is that there will be some discussion or at least a little wrangling as people try to agree on what the various speakers were trying to get across, etc. After the conference, I sat next to Ted Nelson, and got a laptop demo of his 47 year old software project: xanadu, which is pretty interesting. it's still not quite done yet, but is supposed to ship this year, according to Ted. After the conference, Lawrence Aldridge, Cris Cramer, and a couple of MBAs all went out for drinks: lots of fun. Lawrence is hilarious, and instantly started making fun of Dan Adams (good guy who is also on my summer SCP project, more on this below)... this earned him my respect, and we all had a great evening swapping stories and hearing about life at Disney. Chris didn't say too much to me, but did make fun of me for doing "fuck all" at Oxford beyond scholastics.

Jobs?

Everyone from my wife to my mom to friends back home is wondering: when/where will I get a job? I'm wondering too. Here's the deal as far as I can see: I have a bunch of pokers in the fire, but no offers currently on the table. I am sort of working on / thinking about possibilities with: Barclay's Bank, Jambase, Virgin Media, IBM consulting, financial IT jobs in London in general, plus other weird ideas. None of these are really even close to the interview stage, except for one. We'll see. It seems that the "MBA mill" type jobs that a lot of my colleagues are getting are either not my industry (I-banking, management consulting), not my kind of company, or not interested in me. I think that because I'm in IT, and because I'm 37 (old, by MBA standards), I'm going to have to score my next gig via networking or via headhunters. In either case, I can't really make a lot of headway now, because I'm not available for work until Sept 15th at the earliest, and that's really only if I don't take the trips with Reba and mom that I have planned for September and October. So, in reality I'm not going to be much use for work until November at the earliest (barring an amazing offer), and it's hard to say to people, "hi, I'd like a job in 6 months". In this situation, recruiters simply tell you to contact them in 6 months.

The Schedule

I sent this off to Tasha recently, but it's worth repeating...

June 30 : last day of exams

july 2 - 8 : ethan and eban visiting oxford! The town will never be the same!!!

july 9 -13 : working on SCP project in oxford

july 16 - 27 : working on SCP in san francisco

july 27 (evening) - july 30 : visiting seattle!

july 31 - aug 31 : working on SCP in oxford

sept 1 - sept 7 : TBD

sept 8 - sept 15 : final coursework

sept 15 - oct 15 : free

oct 15 - nov 3 : travelling with mom

SCP

What is an SCP? This is the Strategic Consulting Project. This is an 8 week consulting gig that we do for a company. Ours is for a company called Jambase in San Francisco. We have to solve some problem for them, and as you can imagine, SCP's usually have to do with making the company more money. We'll spend two weeks in SF, 6 weeks in Oxford, and at the end we have to write a big paper, due August 31st. So, there will be a couple of fun weeks in SF, a quick trip up to Seattle to see some folks, and then it's back to the OX1 for the summer.

Ok, now I have to prepare some questions for an interview, I still need to cover... mbats, balls, brasenose, exeter, pembroke, st cross, stuff I'm thinking about, Tim Westergrin, AND the AJ Rathbun Tribute Blog Entry.

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unimportant entry...

Just testing things out. will have details on school, jobs interviews, mbats, balls, visiting brothers, the AJ Rathbun Tribute Blog Entry, summer plans, and other neat items soon!

e

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01.05.07 mayday

Magdalen College (pronounced "Maudlin") has a 500 year old tradition called May Morning in which their church choir sing from the top of Magdalen Tower at dawn on May 1st, to crowds on the streets below. Also included in the tradition is jumping off of Magdalen Bridge into the Cherwell river, as well as the optional all-night drinking binge before the ceremony... this is England after all. Skipping the bender, I got up at 5 to make it to the event. The streets were full of people in various garb... some still in formals from last night, some in "may queen" hippie outfits with garlands, others with wacky outfits such as giant sparkly bow ties and union jack hats, etc. Everyone was moving toward Magdalen, and many were clearly drunk.

high street at dawn

magdalen tower

I ran into Pat Butler and some friends of his... they had been rocking the all night fantastic. I got some great footage of Pat's friend going on about how hot Reba is, I think her reaction is based on the show we played at the business school the other day. Pretty funny stuff.

the tower

Apparently the river has been so low recently that a couple of years ago some 50 people were hospitalized because they jumped off the bridge. So, today the cops barricade the bridge and try to keep the students from killing themselves. Not all that unreasonable, really.

cops keeping people off of the bridge

After a stop at the Merton MCR for some brunch, I walked back across the meadow, and got a few snaps of the cows. I like the meadow cows, they are funny and always want to smell you.

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29.04.07 vs cambridge (again)

In another episode of the continuous competition and network building between Oxford and Cambridge, we hosted a day of sports competition between the two business schools. There were a ton of competitions, but most interesting to me were rowing, rugby, and cricket. I had to miss our rowing defeat (Henley all over again), but got to see the other two. The rugby was touch instead of tackle, and was co-ed. We won. The cricket was limited to 20 overs (I think this means it only goes on endlessly for hours instead of going on endlessly for days). We won this as well. Of note here is the fact that there were maybe 2 non-Indians on the Oxford SBS cricket team, and also the emergence of Murtasa, an unassuming guy who turned out to be an amazing batsman. He basically just stood up there knocking it out of the park, over and over again. Everyone was pretty impressed. Cricket is basically impenetrably complicated for those of us who didn't grow up playing it, but that's cool, because a cricket match is more like a picnic than a sporting event. Everyone just brings blankets and snacks and drinks and socializes while the game sort of putters along in the background. Every once in a while something exciting happens, and then everyone oohs an ahhs for a few minutes, then it's back to picnic time. I dig it!

sbs students watching the cricket match

me with cricket in the background

julie and reba at the game

Julie Young was out for the weekend, as she had been on some Starbucks business in Europe, and then came to hang out with us for a few days. It was nice to have a hometowner out to visit. She came along to the party after the sports, and out drinking with the MBAs, etc. The party was pretty cool, another incarnation of the birdbath played, this time with Pat on bass and Prashant on vocals. We did 6 songs: "The Future Is Now" by Pat's old band The Solids, "Adding to the Noise" by Switchfoot, "Fell in Love with a Girl" by The White Stripes, and "Olympia" and "Snocone" by us. We finished off with a semi-improvisational harcore bit where our friend Robin would yell "hey, fuck y'all" in the breaks (ala "Lady" for any old Sicko fans reading this). The drum set sort of fell over at the end, and I left the guitar feeding back for a while after the set. Not particularly innovative from a Seattle hipster perspective, but shocking enough for my b-school colleagues. People certainly seemed to like it well enough. We kept changing our band name throughout the set, and went through "The Va-jay-jays", "The 5 Forces", and "Laser Cats UK". However, I prefer to think of this as Tales From the Birdbath - Version 6.

me and prashant

pat

reebs doing that hair thing she does

Of note is the fact that Prashant (an Indian) picked Switchfoot, which is a Christian rock band. The song is hardly identifiable as such, but the rest of their album is pretty well Jesus-ed up. He's not Christian though, he just liked the song and was a little puzzled about the notion of Christian rock. I have to say that I did too. The night ended up, of course, with us all going out dancing and drinking, and then finally stumbling around inside Merton bar (not in the college) at 3 AM.

a tab, kevin, me, jurgen

We also acquired a Cantabrian (person from Cambridge) who needed a place to stay after the party, since the bus had already gone back to Cambridge. Her name was Svetlana, and she's an investment banker from Moscow. She and Reba rapped about Tolstoy a bunch while Julie and I talked about boob jobs. The next morning, all 4 of us went to breakfast at a cafe before we put Julie onto her bus back home.

svetlana and reba

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22.04.07 exeter college ball

Oxford has balls (no Josh, not that kind), i.e. grand balls ala cinderella, etc. Saturday night was the ball for Exeter College, and about 20 MBAs went and danced the night away. I'll fill in with details later, but for now I think a few photos will give you an idea...

al (finance guy)

katy and reebs

me and my date

I definitly should have done night school...

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15.04.07 santorini!

Julie, Jean and I went to Santorini Island in Greece for the final leg of our vacations. This place is so beautiful, it's somewhat hard to do it justice via description. Technically, Santorini (or Thira in Greek) is a caldera, basically a big volcanic crater filled with water. Roughly, Thira is a big circular ring of rock cliffs surrounding a central lagoon 8 by 4 miles wide. There are a couple waterways entering the lagoon, and a volcano in the center. Some really beautiful and strange towns are built along the cliffs, they were once homes to locals, but now they are hotels and restaurants, etc. Apparently there was an earthquake in the 50s, after which the town we stayed in (Oia) sat empty until the 80s when someone got the idea of fixing them up for tourists. Good idea! We rented a cheap hotel room (not on the cliffs, those are really expensive) and basically chilled out for a few days. Reba and I are definitely coming back here this fall. Basically the only thing we did besides eat, drink, and gawk at the view was rent ATVs and drive around the island one afternoon. We went to a canyon where an old town had been built into caves, and even ended up driving through a square where a greek wedding was going on. Neat! I really liked driving the ATVs, I think I am going to get a scooter or a motorcycle after I get a job again!

Oia and the girls

the lagoon and me

more lagoon

Oai + e

atv-ean!

restaurant at the end of the island that's great for sunset watching, and a good one of julie

atv rental dude, when he found out we were mbas, he was really into talking with us

scooter gang

town in the canyon

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09.04.07 vacay midway

I'm in town for a few days, but won't be able to post pictures until my computer gets back (long story). The highlights:

-Paris: Tasha caught a French guy on fire in a bar, I put him out.

-Torremolinos: Shelby bought a belly dancing outfit, and demo-ed it. Movies to be posted soon.

-Hay on Wye (Wales): There were a lot of lambs in the fields when we drove out the day before Easter Sunday. There were a lot less when we drove back the next day.

-Belgium: cancelled, for various reasons.

-Now: Writing papers again. Blah.

-Greece: booked and on it's way!

e

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27.03.07 closer closer

We handed in the Operations Management paper on Monday at noon. Now we're working on Financial Management, that's due at noon on Friday. I also need to get a lot of work done on my business plan project before Friday. Basically, I'm on the same schedule as I was the last two weeks: 8 AM to 1 AM, working away all day. Though I have to admit I prefer papers to exams at this point... the exams here are so absurd that it really just sucks to take them. Everyone crams into a hall for 1 to 3 hours depending on the exam, you have to memorise every little thing you're going to use... for me this means boiling 8 weeks of reading and class down to several dozen frameworks/techniques and 5 to 15 sub points per framework. I sit down in the test, and write them all out on the paper they give us so I can refer to it. Then there's the bit about all work being done in pen. Even math. Oh yeah, and the exam schools won't let you bring in your own calculator, you have to use theirs, which generally means that it's fucked up in some way or other. And never forget the tuxedo and cape. Because you really wouldn't want to take an exam without your fucking tuxedo and cape would you? We all look like a team of Dracula juniors in there. Especially with the red carnations pinned to our lapels.

On to sunnier thoughts...

The reason I have to get the business plan work done this week is because the plan is due just after vacations, and I have a lot of really cool trips planned. Check it out:

- This weekend: Paris with Tash and Keith and Reba

- Next week: villa in Torremolinos, Spain with Barry, Renee, Shelby, and Dan

- Next weekend: Wales with Reba and AJ and Nat who are visiting us

- Week after: first few days in Belgium drinking weirdbeer with Kent

- Rest of week and weekend after: Greece with Jean and Julia and hopefully Reba if she can come!

Then Trinity term starts and I get busy again. Oh booh.

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23.03.07 all done

The last two tests are done, I am done, Reba has split for the weekend, and I'm here with my papers to write.

Developing Effective Organisations: 9:30 AM Friday. I nailed this one. I nailed this one good. Perverse metaphors abound, but let's just say that this one went well. I used more models, terms and diagrams than ever before in an exam, and that frankly makes me feel a bit weird. Honestly, what kind of a skill is that? Applying Greiner, Goffee/Jones and Tacit-Formal communication to any situation and being able to draw a diagram to exemplify it is of ZERO real world value. But, it gets me through the 3 hour case study exam, so whatever.

Macroeconomics: 2:30 PM Friday. This was OK. There were 4 short questions worth 10 points each and one long question worth 60 points. I knew 2 of the 4 really well, and on 2 had to bullshit a bit, but probably got some points. I thankfully REALLY knew the long one, so this was probably a reasonable passing exam too.

After the Macro exam, we all went out to the Turf Tavern for some celebratory beers. Then Shelby and I got dinner at Gino's (an actually decent Italian place in Oxford) and I went home and to sleep. Yes it's true, I did not go and rage with my colleagues, I was just too damn tired, and felt the sick coming on, so I decided to rest instead of getting sick. It paid off, I feel good today. Now I just have to finish my OM and FM papers, and it's off to Paris to see Tasha and Keith next weekend!

I think the big news this term is that I put a lot less freaked out pressure on myself but still worked just as hard. I also didn't do some really stupid things, like trying to pull a 37 year old all nighter. Just like last time, I don't know what's going to happen with final scores, but I'm pretty zen about them... I think I'll be OK and if not, I'll figure something out. Plus, I have the secret weapon of really really good grades going into most of these exams, so even outright fails on certain exams would result in passing scores. Whatever happens, I'm not going to lay awake at night freaking out about results like I did last term! It doesn't change anything, except for making me go from feeling good to feeling shitty.

a little AM guitar playing helps me get my zen on

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21.03.07 brief respite

Two exams on Monday, one on Tuesday and one today, now I have tomorrow off and two more on Friday. The exams ran like this:

Financial Management: 9:30 AM, Day 1, BAM!!!! Right in your face with a totally unannounced totally unplanned level of difficulty and super fucked up questions. NO ONE finished the exam of 10 questions out of 200 odd MBAs. We had 1.5 hours and the 3 practice tests we were given by the prof left us utterly unprepared (not to mention the lectures, but that's another story). Apparently the exam school (part of the university) had chastised the prof for giving exams that were too easy in previous years, and told him to make it harder. We had the same amount of time as students had in previous years. I guess he showed them! Either this thing is going to be curved like a mofo or I am going to be resiting this exam with 195 of my closest friends this spring. The MBA class reps have lodged a complaint with the academic committee at SBS, and they will probably address it at the typical Oxford (sub-glacial) pace. What a bummer!

IBGG: 2:30 PM Monday. Not as bad, but not great. I didn't like how I did on this one, it just didn't feel like I got in all the models and concepts that I should. It's probably a passing paper, and my scores going into the exam were at distinction level (70%) so I'm not worried about passing. Though I would have liked to get a good grade in this class! I certainly learned alot and enjoyed it.

Marketing: 9:30 AM Tuesday. This was OK too. I finished, which is more than I can say for a number of my colleagues, but it wasn't concept rich like I wanted. I did cover all the points that the prof wants covered in a marketing plan, but still, it left me with a lame taste in my mouth. Probably another passing grade. Combined with my marks going into the exam, I'll be fine. What sucks is that we even had 3 hours to do this one! Everyone I spoke with (except Barry, mad genius boy wonder, of course) said they spent way too much time on the financial analysis and got all goofed up in the numbers taking time from the essay writing. That's certainly what happened to me: I wrote right up to the bell. Oh well.

Operations Management: 9:30 AM Wednesday (today). This went pretty well. I had to bullshit a bit on a couple of answers, but I think that I even covered those reasonably well enough. The rest of the questions were cut and dried: I knew them and kicked out the jams. The f-ed up thing is that I committed about 30 major concepts (each with 5 to 10 sub concepts) to memory for this test, and these STILL didn't give me all the answers I needed. Oh well, it turns out that I am not a human mimeograph, and repeated Oxford exams demonstrate this fairly consistently. I still learned a lot, and actually rather like the subject, so as long as I pass, I'm cool

Now I have the day off, and tomorrow off as well. I have to study for DEO and Macro next, because both of those will be coming at me hard on Friday, so I will need to get cracking. This term has been exhausting: I have been studying from 10AM to Midnight or later every night, weekends included for two weeks, the exception to this being meals, trips to the stationary store, and exams. After Friday, we have an Operations Management paper due MONDAY (40% of our grade), and then a Financial Management paper due Friday (40% as well). Given the level of general disaster and mayhem around the exam, I suspect that the MBAs will be working their assess off to get a killer FM paper in by Friday. This, of course, means that everyone will have to be really good or else get stuck on the low end of the curve. SUCK SUCK SUCK!!!

Reba, forever the trooper, has been taking care of me very well: cooking, cleaning, making sure I have clean subfusc, making late night tea, being supportive, quietly reading while I study, and oh yeah WORKING TO SUPPORT HER STUDENT HUSBAND. So, once again I can only say how much I appreciate her. She's going down to Amsterdam to meet Tasha and Keith who are on vacation, but due to the scheduling conflicts with my EXAMS AND PAPERS, couldn't come to Oxford. :( After next week, Reba and I are going to go down to Paris to meet them for a few days at least. That will be fun.

Ok, now I study for DEO.

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17.03.07 what I see when I close my eyes

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14.03.07 getting weird in here

This term has been really busy: 6 classes, business plan, way more papers, intensified job search, more papers due the week after exams, and now: I'm in 9th week: the week off before exams. Next week is the big gnarley: 10th week means tuxedos and anxiety and exams. I'm holed up in the apartment from 10AM to 1AM doing revision (English for review) and as the exams get closer, I get weirder. I'm much more comfortable talking to myself, and spend a lot of time writing out frameworks on my whiteboard. I start to feel like I'm some sort of medieval monk in his chamber, scratching away at some academic work , oblivious to the outside world. But relief is in sight: 1 more week of this, 1 week of exams, 1 week of papers, and then it's off to Paris to see Keith and Tasha, then to Malaga with Barry, Renee and Shelby, and then to Wales with Reba, AJ and Nat. After that, I don't know for sure what I'm doing. Probably drinking. But for now, it's getting weird in here...

the stuff

the stuff close up

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16.02.07 pembroke black tie

really, not a bunch of dicks (really)

Black tie events are a staple of Oxford University living. The ritual is fairly standard, and really not too different from formal hall at Merton. (1) Go to XYZ college wearing specified outfit (in this case a black suit or tuxedo with a black bow tie), (2) have drinks in really old room with other dressy folks, (3) march into ancient hall, be seated at long tables, (4) drink, eat drink and be merry, and drink, (5) take pictures, (6) hit the town and get loaded.

marching

typical black tie Oxford scene

I like this one...

porter pouring wine for Pat (LA) and Jimmy (South Africa)

Barry (Detroit) and Simon (New Zealand)

Matt (Kansas) and porter and Dan (England)

Matthew Holgate, Economist, Englishman

Bond, James Bond, BEEEEATCH!*

Andrew "Double Up" Jury (South Africa)

During phase 2, there are usually at least a few opportunities to get condescended to by crabby old English people and smarty pants academics who will thinly veil their contempt for your MBA / American / Graduate / non-PhD / non "academic" / whatever-ness. Of course, when you go to one of these with a bunch of MBAs, the dicks keep things semi in check, because there's a lot of us and we're loud. :) Pembroke college was hosting the black tie event this time, so Andrew (a member of Pembroke) brought us, about 20 of us, along for the ride. Things went well, we had a pretty good meal, lots of wine, and hung out in the bar afterwards. What a lousy soundsystem, by the way. After this, there was a drunken bike ride / photoshoot across town to the Oxford Retreat (a bar) for more hanging around and trying to look cool in our tuxes... ties hanging untied in the deano/frank style.

ahh dork magic...

Shelby and Ean: the retarded romance continues...

Ok, maybe we are a bunch of dicks.

* Actually a photo of Andrew McInerny, dean's lister, new father, Australian, co-microbrew project conspirator, guy who likes to say "beeaaaaatch", pal and fellow Oxford blogger.

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