High Flight

I've decided that I'm going to make one last post about my dad, funerals, etc. While I'm sure that most people reading this blog are interested in developments around this subject, I also concede that this blog could get a bit morbid if I keep posting about my dad's crash, NTSB investigations, plane wreckage, crying old men, widows, etc. So, I'm going to make this the last post on these subjects. With that in mind, I'm going to post t"High Flight", a classic poem that brings tears to the eyes of old pilots. I've seen that firsthand when one of my dad's flying buddies read it aloud at his memorial. This was originally written by a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot during World War Two.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

-J.G. Magee, RCAF, 1941

I spent this morning with the NTSB investigators at an airplane salvage yard in maple valley. They're still working out the details, but there is a preliminary report here. I got some photos of the wreckage, it's pretty gnarley. Everything was bent up from the impact and then burned really badly. I'll post pictures of that later. Finally, a fellow pilot snapped this photo of my dad taking off from Arlington airport on what would be his last flight.

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steps forward

The last week has been pretty rough. My two brothers have been busy taking over my father's company, and I have been busy at home arranging the memorial. All last week, I was in charge of calling folks to let them know what has happened, and boy is that a tough job. Many people already knew via the grapevine, but many did not. It is a strange and ugly thing to call someone in the middle of their day and give them such horrible news. I hated it, but felt like I had to be the one to do it... my brothers were so busy, and my mom and sister just don't have the stomach for it. We found a nice, non-religious place to hold the service, which was Saturday. Lots of people who were close to Norm spoke about him with great love and energy. I now know that it's really hard to watch grizzled old men cry, it just breaks me up terribly. Ethan spoke very well, and I also told some really funny stories about my dad and mom when they were younger, the whole room was laughing hard, that felt good. The best part was that the stories were all true. One good thing about the ceremony was that a LOT of my and Reba's friends came to show support, man that really felt good. Having people around you that love and support you is the best thing in the world, and I feel so lucky to have that here and in Oxford as well. It's a really cool feeling, especially in the midst of such a shitty circumstance. Afterwards, we all got totally loaded in the bar, something my dad would have certainly approved of. Today was the "day after" and my brothers and I are back to sorting out my family's business matters, which is absolutely no fun whatsoever. My cousins who had come out for the ceremony went back to their homes in LA and Massachusetts, and Reba and I are staying in Sarah's Capitol Hill apartment while she's out of town. We're upstairs from a bar with a cute little balcony. It's secluded enough and the weather is nice enough that I'm typing out here now (midnight), sitting in my underwear! So, there's a little bit of lightness in an otherwise dark week. Tomorrow, it's lawyers and phone calls. Sigh. Here are some cool photos of my dad doing stuff he really dug.

piloting his sailboat, the warlock

piloting his fan boat down in cedar key, florida

together with the whole family at Aubry's wedding

the warlock at the weekly duck dodge boat race, Norm is always pilot, captain and general overlord of his boat

more duck dodge

giving Aubry away at her wedding

still skiing at 66, bad knees, bad back and all!

national honor society in 1958... he's in the middle. Note that he's surrounded by girls, just the way he liked it!

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crash site

Shelby texted me early today to see if I wanted a ride to the airport. I gladly accepted her offer and off we went. The flight was short and uneventful, though I did have to take a few heavy phone calls when I landed. In case you're just tuning in, my dad was killed yesterday in a plane crash, so I had to leave SF to visit my family in Seattle. As soon as I got to my mom's house, we went up to Mukilteo to see the crash site, where we met a bunch of neighbourhood folks who were very nice to us. The guy whose yard it crashed into wasn't there when it happened, but talked with us a while, and let me use his saw to take a bit of the tree that my father's plane slammed into. I think I need to get something carved from it. The site was heavily burned in a very localised area, with big gashes in the lawn where a wing cut in. The NTSB and FAA hauled away the wreckage for the investigation, so there was just charred bushes and torn up earth where the wreck once had been. I took a few pictures.

approach path

finally came to rest here

all the trees like this nearby are very bushy, this one had all it's leaves burned off

a wing hit here

the tree that stopped the plane

Next door was a retired fireman who actually ran out to try and extinguish the huge fire that burst from the plane. All he had was a garden hose, and he couldn't get within 40 feet of the fire because it was so hot. He said that the plane came down so hard that my father must have been killed or at least knocked unconscious on impact. This makes sense because his plane was a special aerobatic plane with very small wings which facilitate fast turns, etc. Unfortunately, without power, those wings have no ability to glide, thus his Yakilov 55 fell like a stone. Each neighbour noted that he must have been very skilled to have missed the houses by such a narrow space, and they also observed that he seemed to be trying to reach a long, flat field near the house. Across the street we met a family that was home when the plane flew over their house on it's way down. The mother of the family was in tears as she told us how thankful she was for my father taking such care to miss houses in his descent... her two daughters were inside playing that day. I met them: a 10 year old named Kaylie and an 11 year old named Victoria. They were such beautiful little girls, wide eyed and jumpy. I hope I have daughters like that some day. They were clearly nervous to meet the family of the man they knew as "the pilot". Looking at those little girls, I realised how much worse this could have been, and got pretty choked up. So did Ethan and my mom. I don't think I'll ever forget that little girl's face. I'd like to think that my dad had people like Kaylie in mind when he gave that last effort to miss those houses. Kaylie and Victoria's dad said a prayer, which was a little awkward for us... me being an atheist and my mom being an old school "close to the chest" style Catholic. But, his intentions were really sweet and genuine, so we bowed our heads and respectfully took in his improvised prayer. I always feel weird when religious people pray for me because I don't think that it does any good. But, at the same time, it makes me feel good because I know it's something that is special to them. I always appreciate it when people share something personal with me, and so I always take a prayer as a really nice gesture on their part. This week is going to be packed with arrangements, meetings, financial planning, and consoling. The phone calls keep coming in from friends and colleagues of my dad. There are a lot of sad people in Seattle today.

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the worst day of my life

Yesterday I got an awful call from my mom. My dad, who is a competitive aerobatic pilot, wrecked his Yakovlev 55 stunt plane, and was killed when he crashed into an Everett back yard. He was out for a regular morning fly, one of his favourite things to do. Apparently he ran into engine trouble, and was trying to put down in a field when the plane just dropped to the ground at a very steep angle. I guess that we can be a little happy that he died doing something that he loved.

I'm leaving the Jambase consulting project and flying in to Seattle today to help my family, who are obviously in a terrible state. I don't know what is going to happen after today, and just feel horrible. In some ways, this seems like the wrong place to post this information, but then again, since the people who read this are family and friends, it's probably a reasonable way of spreading the news. Reba is flying out asap to help, and Shelby has been a great support here in San Francisco. Having close people that I love seems really important right now.

Still, I feel dead inside, and I'm so worried about my mom and grandma. I know that we'll all pull through and sort out our lives, but right now that sounds like a very very big task.

mom and dad

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in san francisco

Briefly, I am in San Francisco for a couple of weeks to work on a consulting project for school. The company we are working for is www.jambase.com , a web company that aggregates band touring information. We got in last night, and today I'm just getting my phone set up, getting settled, contacting people, etc. Shelby is here, Diego is on his way, and Dan comes on Saturday. I'll go to Seattle in two weeks. YAY!!! Photos and more details later!

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a day off

Today, Reba and I got up late, had brekke with Shelby, and went to the movies. We saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3. What a piece of crap. I can't believe they had all that money, and all that talent, and put together such a shitty movie. The other two were silly action movies, but they had decent enough stories, and were funny enough, at least for what they were. This one was simply way too much reliance on special effects and absolutely zero in terms of engaging plot. I just didn't care what happened to anyone in the movie. AND, it was confusing! The double crossing got so involved that at some point I just gave up following it. I don't think even the writers could tell you exactly what was going on... sort of like the X-files used to be: just pointedly confusing simply so it seem mysterious. Or something. Anyway, it was nice to sit in a theatre and hold hands with Reba and eat popcorn without stressing about some paper that's coming due. Later, we split a pizza at Gino's (an actually good restaurant in Oxford) and came home. I've been downloading reading and course materials from this term... my goal is to get the whole year worth of readings, notes, slides, handouts, etc., all onto one memory stick. That way I have the who thing at my fingertips if I need it. That will be cool. Just getting all the financial history readings took several hours... over 75 articles, some in excess of 70 pages long! I can't believe he expected us to read all of that. Sheesh. So far, I have all the materials from customer insights, entrepreneurial technology ventures, financial history, and media strategies for the networked world. I've got 20 more courses I took, and then about 5 that I didn't, that I need to get. This will take a while! Tomorrow Ethan and Eban get into town, and we're going out for drinks with Sally. That should be interesting.

me, reebs and julia out at the king's arms saturday night

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DONE!!!

My last exam (Financial History) was Friday, and went well. We all went for drinks at the Bear after, and had a swell time. Leaving the exam schools for the last time was a bit weird... the exam went fine, and we went out the Merton street gate (pictured below) instead of the front door, another Oxford tradition. Juergen and I were discussing how much our test taking abilities have progressed since the first exams in Michaelmas: now we have every minute of the exam planned out. For example, when I went in yesterday, I had 2 hours to write 3 essays on 3 of 7 options, and a minute by minute plan of how to get that done. The plan was as follows:

:00 to :15 - regurgitate all notes, without even LOOKING at the questions. Just get them all out where I can refer to them. In my one-track mind, once the "writing" track starts, the "remembering" track gets shut down. 8 weeks worth of Financial History notes actually look a lot like the board below. It's also creepy to see how much better I am at memorising that stuff now. 4 or 5 times through and I've got it all committed to memory. That was certainly NOT the case back in the fall.

the regurgitated notes basically look like this

0:15 to 0:25 - write first essay outline... outlines are KEY to to writing essays easily. I leaned that the hard way at Oxford.

0:25 to 0:45 - write first essay... it's amazing how I can write and think about other things at the same time, and how I can put sentences together on the fly now.

0:45 to 0:55 - write second essay outline

0:55 to 1:15 - write second essay

1:15 to 1:25 - write third essay outline

1:25 to 1:45 - write third essay

1:45 to 2:00 - review essays... I got to this about 3 minutes late, because I got a bit carried away with talking about that 1929 crash. Still, it's kind of amazing that I kept so close to schedule.

Of course I also have all my little test taking rituals down... 3 Pilot V-ball .5 pens, green piece of paper with student ID number, ID card on desk, watch off and sitting on desk, reading glasses, cloth cuff links (the metal ones clink too much when you're writing), etc. Because this was my last exam, I wore a red carnation, which looks nice with the subfusc. Normally, if I have to answer 3 questions of 7, I know about 2.5. This time, I knew 5! I actually had to spend some of my outlining time picking which subjects I knew the most about... I suppose that is, as Pete would put it, a good problem to have.

Juergen, me, Ryan and Heidi leave via the Merton gate

waving goodbye to the exam schools... the red carnation means this is my last exam

The saying above the exam school clock is the "legend" or motto of Oxford University. It says "dominus illuminatio mea", which means "the lord is my light" and is the opening words of Psalm 27. I like to think it means "lord show me the light"... and I think of some poor student sitting in the exam school hoping for a little divine inspiration. :)

Today, I wrote my last bit for my Customer Insights group paper, and revisited my Negotiations paper one last time. The group paper will get polished a bit by my fellow group members, and handed in by Mike on Monday morning. The Negotiation paper is an individual one, and I will hand that in Monday myself. It's due before noon, so that's about all I have to get done at this point! It feels great to be done, and great to have done well at the end. I was pretty worried about Financial History, but it worked out well after all. Now just 2 days until Ethan and Eban get here, that will be fun fun fun! My friend Eric Peterson from Seattle is in town today with his folks, I think we're going to have some dinner, and maybe I can show them around a bit.

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stay on target

my desk, 12:19 am, 28 june 2007

Just one more day of studying and then the financial history exam happens at 9:30 AM. That will be my last Oxford exam. Ever. I can now talk about the effects of legal tradition, social capital, endowment and politics on financial development. I can also tell you the 4 main academic perspectives on why the 1929 stock market crash became a depression. On Saturday, I help out a bit on a customer insights group paper for Monday, which is also when I simply turn in the negotiations paper that I've already written. I think the weekend will be relatively chill. I really dig this financial history, it's like economics with better stories.

Getting to the end. I can see the exhaust port just down the trench. I'm about to turn off my targeting computer. It's time to let go and feel the force...

(credit is due to cory for introducing this one to the lexicon)

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one more down

Finished my media strategies exam today. Weird exam... not really heavy on specific questions, more sort of looking for you to expound upon things. I thing I did well enough. Now it's 1.5 days of writing for Customer Insights, and then 2 days of studying for Financial History, the killer test. That will be a beeeeeotch. Oh well, it's all over in less than 7 days now. And with that, I will leave you all with one of my very favorite pictures of all time... me and my moustache (don't worry, it's a few years old).

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farewells and one last ball

This week I have a cold! La-me. I've just finished my negotiations paper, which was actually pretty fun because I got to analyse a negotiation I was familiar with. As it turns our, Michael Moore is making a documentary called "Sicko" about the fiasco that is the US medical system, and they wanted to get my band's domain for the movie. They wanted it for free, and we wanted $100,000... needless to say it didn't pan out too well. Anyway, it was interesting to analyse the negotiation using all of the theory I've picked up over the last 8 weeks. Too bad I didn't know about that stuff when they first contacted me a year ago! One of the neat aspects of this paper is that I asked friends, mentors, colleagues, and family members how I should tackle the negotiation, and analysed each of their inputs separately in the paper, so I'm posting it here for folks to read. If you can cut through the academic BS (required when writing academic papers), it's kind of funny and interesting. One hint: BATNA means Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement.

One of many funny things about Oxford is that every time you choose to do one thing, you are giving up on something else. You really have to get used to juggling stuff. So, because I had a fever last tuesday night, I had to miss my pal Brandon's birthday. But, I still managed to get to a dinner at AJ and Caroline's wednesday night and the St Cross Ball thursday night. Admittedly, I took it easy and went home early, but I just couldn't bear to pass up on these once in a lifetime deals. I missed Jimmy Carter's speech at the Sheldonian thursday because I had to get some progress on the negotiations paper. :( Pat Butler (latest Birdbath bassist) actually got to meet the man. Pretty darn cool.

Dinner with the Dennisons, Jurys and McInerneys

AJ and Caroline were kind enough to have the 6 of us over for a roast lamb dinner... good stuff. We chatted and teased each other, and talked about courses, but underlying the whole evening was the spectre of leaving. I may see these folks a few times over the summer, and then once again intensively in September for a week... and then everyone is off to their far flung destinations and back to normal life. I caught a photo of Claudia leaving with Andrew and Ava, and I wondered when we would sit down to a dinner like this again? I was hopped up on cold medicine, and just sat in the corner enjoying everyone's company, trying to keep from getting everyone else sick.

Gabe, Caroline, AJ, Ava, Claudia, Andrew

Reba, Katie, Gabe (giving me the hard-ass look)

McInerneys out the door... when will we see them again?

St Cross Ball

My friends Renee, Vai, and Shannon are all members of St Cross College, which is a new college in a very old building (the Pusey House... love the name!). St Cross is small and really beautiful. The ball was masterfully planned by Ms. Shannon, and had a French Revolution theme, complete with a beheaded Marie A. I was still sick, but feeling better. We all met at the famous Eagle and Child for dinner before, and then went to the ball. There was dancing, champagne, lawn bowling, croquet... all good silly Oxfordy stuff.

Reba and Monica in the cab on the way over

Renee at the Eagle and Child

Brandon in the cab with the Thames (Isis) in the background

Monica at the Eagle and Child... what a cutie!

me and my lovely wife at the ball

Reba and Vai at the guillotine

later on that night...

Sylvester Awards

I touched on this briefly in another post, but thought I should go into a bit more detail... every year, there is a silly awards show, called the Sylvesters where the MBAs vote on funny awards to give each other. I won the "Inaugural <name witheld> Best Use of Class Mailing List Award" which is basically for sending out too many weird requests to the class email list. The person who really deserved this was so obvious that they decided to name the award after him. He would send out these crazy 5am drunk mails that really did not make sense whatsoever... I just asked a lot of questions. :) And of course, another incarnation of the Birdbath, I think the 7th(?), played a few songs. I wrote a song for the occasion, called "Fear and Loathing in the OX1". OX1 is my post code. I'm going to try to do a home studio version of this this summer when I get time.

Reba is so cute when she lays down the rock!

Tales from the Birdbath version 7 (me, Pat, Reba, Gabe)

obligatory Oxford dudes in tuxes drinking... Ashish, me, Claude, and Kaz

(note: I've prepared an alternate version of this photo here. Ashish, please let me know if you prefer it to the original)

And one more...

Not sure exactly why, but I just LOVE this one of Reba.

budgie.

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view from the deck

Today I'm stuck inside with a cold and studying for my Financial History exam next week. :( I would like to be done with school now. Actually, it's not much further to go... two classes are totally done, and I'm nearly done outlining my final paper for one class. That leaves 2 exams and 1 other paper. It will all be over in 1.5 weeks, no matter what happens! Here's a view from the deck over the Thames (Isis) with all the summer greenery. A coot has been raising a chick down in the shrubs to the lower right. The geese, ducks and even swans have chicks right now too. It's neat to see the little fuzzy new birds all over.

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got a new camera

This is utterly stupid, but I go a new camera, and wanted to try uploading some video via youtube to the blog. Reba lost the old camera a few weeks ago when she was out drinking with the WAGs, so I had an excuse to get a new one. I guess it's OK, it's a Pentax Optio L30... 7.1mp, 3x zoom, iso3200 and with anti jiggle software built in. Seems cool enough.

...a bunch of folks from next year's class came out to the Jamfactory with some current year folks for lunch and Q&A. So I decided to try out the new camera. Yes, that's right. This post is stupid.

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nearly done

Things are coming to and end now. 9th week of Trinity term has begun, so I have taken my last class at Oxford. Unless you count the 1 week "capstone" course at the end of the year. Apparently we have to write a paper and do some group work as well. So, while that technically will be the end, practically speaking, we are just about through... left on the list are:

* write two papers (this week)

* sit two exams (next week)

* summer consulting project (two weeks in San Francisco, 6 weeks in Oxford)

* write up the consulting project (last week of August)

* 1 week capstone class and papers (1st week of September)

...and then I graduate from the OX1! OX1 is my post code in oxford. Speaking of this, we played an end of year awards ceremony this past Saturday, this time it was me, Pat, Reba and Gabe. The show was lots of fun and we debuted a new song, "fear and loathing in the OX1"... sort of a mba at oxford theme song. I plan on making a recorded version with protools once I'm done with exams and papers. Here are some pics of this latest version of the birdbath...

pat sings "big bottom"

in all our glory

my sweet wife on the drums

gabe throws down some sweet indie style noodles

my mouth is big

The plan for the fall is shaping up. Reba wants to travel a bit, so it looks like the "get a job" part of this whole deal will be going on hold for a bit. I get done with school on Sept 15, and then have a month off. I think I'll go back to Seattle for a while, and maybe visit some folks around Europe too, until Reba finishes her contract on Oct 16. Then, she and I will go on some trips together... Santorini, Cedar Key, maybe Belgium finally. Then, mom and maybe dad come out for my Merton graduation ceremony on Nov 3. After this its a trip to Normandy with mom for two weeks. Then for the last bit of November and December, we'll be in Seattle. At the end of December it's out to Taiwan to see Frank and June's wedding. Then, some time in Hong Kong and it looks like we'll have a train trip to Tibet after! Neat-O! THEN, back to Oxford to find a gig, get a London apartment, etc. This Wednesday we extend the lease to February 15 so we'll have time for all this... it's kind of scary because I really want to get a job lined up now... I guess that's conservative part of my nature. At the same time, I really want to have some cool travels with Reba, and with my mom, and it's really important to Reba to have some time with her family and new nephew at Christmas. Decisions, decisions. Well, after we sign the February extension on the lease this Wed, the decision will be pretty much made!

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springtime

I've been really busy with papers and visitors, but this picture was just too cute to not post...

me and reebs strolling through the gardens at merton

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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!

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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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