Friday, December 02, 2005
One Final Thought on Being an Actuary
One thing that I meant to bring up in my last post about being an actuary was that I used to study a lot for the actuarial exams. It was not unheard of me studying over 12 hours a day. (Of course, by "study," I mean read a chapter, surf the internet for an hour, talk to another actuary about football for an hour, do a problem or two, take a nap, read another chapter....)
It's been 5 years since I finished my actuarial exams. I find that I don't have quite the stamina that I used to. Or the drive. As an actuary, I knew that if I passed my exam that sitting (the exams were pass/fail with an average pass rate of around 30%), then I'd be getting a nice huge raise. More importantly, I'd never have to take that exam again.
I don't have quite the same motivation right now. I know that I'm going to get no worse than a B in my classes. (Isn't grad school great? You either get an A or a B! I can handle that.) And I'm sure as hell not getting any money if I study my ass off. One of my professors even hinted that I should study less (if that were even possible) and spend more time trying to find a job. I think that's a good idea. But I'm still pretty sure that a nice job is just going to land in my lap without me doing any work at all. (And that job is called "stay-at-home dad.")
It's been 5 years since I finished my actuarial exams. I find that I don't have quite the stamina that I used to. Or the drive. As an actuary, I knew that if I passed my exam that sitting (the exams were pass/fail with an average pass rate of around 30%), then I'd be getting a nice huge raise. More importantly, I'd never have to take that exam again.
I don't have quite the same motivation right now. I know that I'm going to get no worse than a B in my classes. (Isn't grad school great? You either get an A or a B! I can handle that.) And I'm sure as hell not getting any money if I study my ass off. One of my professors even hinted that I should study less (if that were even possible) and spend more time trying to find a job. I think that's a good idea. But I'm still pretty sure that a nice job is just going to land in my lap without me doing any work at all. (And that job is called "stay-at-home dad.")
Today, I LOVE Finals!
Yesterday, I mentioned how much I love being a TA. I stand by that. Today, I love finals. My finals are next week and so I'm studying for them this weekend. And all I can think while I'm studying is, "Thank god I only have one more semester to go!"
Actually, this semester hasn't been all that difficult. I'm taking 3.5 classes and it was a relatively easy load. (And I only have two finals!) I haven't had many assignments. And since I didn't really have anything due, I didn't really do anything. In retrospect, it seems as though that might not have been the wisest way to handle the semester.
On the other hand, with my free time I was able to finally finish Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. What a great game! Nothing makes you feel better about sitting in Chicago traffic than coming home and shooting people or having sex with prostitutes. It's not as much fun in video game form, but now that I'm a parent, I have to make sacrifices.
Well, since I blew off most of my reading and "optional" homework problems for the semester, I have to do it all this weekend. This isn't too herculean of a task. One of my finals (Accounting) is open-note, open-book. The other one (Finance) doesn't require a whole lot of reading. So, in theory, I shouldn't have to study a whole lot this weekend. But that doesn't change the fact that the time I do spend studying will be like a continuous root canal to me.
Right now I'm doing some Accounting reading and the more I read, the more I realize just how much I hate Accounting. (And by extension, I'm starting to hate accountants. I know a few accountants, and I can't wait to personally tell them how much I now loathe them.)
I actually find this incredibly amusing because I used to be an actuary. What's an actuary? It's basically an accountant who can see into the future! It's too bad I can't be an actuary when my son's older. I'd love to mess with his head by telling him that I can predict the future. ("I see you dying some time before you turn 120." Or, "If you had 100,000 friends your age, 250 of them wouldn't make it to their next birthday." Would the fun ever stop?)
The other amusing thing about me hating Accounting right now is that one of my concentrations is in Accounting. But I hate it so. I'm a semester away from graduating and only need one more Accounting class to get my concentration. I can't exactly say, "Screw Accounting, I want to concentrate in Modern Tap!" Actually, Modern Tap isn't even offered by my B-School. What's up with that? With all the problems corporate executives are getting into, they could use a few tap-dancing lessons. (I wish I knew how to add a rim-shot sound effect here.)
Well, I really need to get back to my Accounting right now. I keep telling myself that if I can just plow through Chapter 13 tonight, I can fire up the PS2, play San Andreas, and hunt me down a few accountants before bed. That should put me to bed with a smile on my face.
Actually, this semester hasn't been all that difficult. I'm taking 3.5 classes and it was a relatively easy load. (And I only have two finals!) I haven't had many assignments. And since I didn't really have anything due, I didn't really do anything. In retrospect, it seems as though that might not have been the wisest way to handle the semester.
On the other hand, with my free time I was able to finally finish Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. What a great game! Nothing makes you feel better about sitting in Chicago traffic than coming home and shooting people or having sex with prostitutes. It's not as much fun in video game form, but now that I'm a parent, I have to make sacrifices.
Well, since I blew off most of my reading and "optional" homework problems for the semester, I have to do it all this weekend. This isn't too herculean of a task. One of my finals (Accounting) is open-note, open-book. The other one (Finance) doesn't require a whole lot of reading. So, in theory, I shouldn't have to study a whole lot this weekend. But that doesn't change the fact that the time I do spend studying will be like a continuous root canal to me.
Right now I'm doing some Accounting reading and the more I read, the more I realize just how much I hate Accounting. (And by extension, I'm starting to hate accountants. I know a few accountants, and I can't wait to personally tell them how much I now loathe them.)
I actually find this incredibly amusing because I used to be an actuary. What's an actuary? It's basically an accountant who can see into the future! It's too bad I can't be an actuary when my son's older. I'd love to mess with his head by telling him that I can predict the future. ("I see you dying some time before you turn 120." Or, "If you had 100,000 friends your age, 250 of them wouldn't make it to their next birthday." Would the fun ever stop?)
The other amusing thing about me hating Accounting right now is that one of my concentrations is in Accounting. But I hate it so. I'm a semester away from graduating and only need one more Accounting class to get my concentration. I can't exactly say, "Screw Accounting, I want to concentrate in Modern Tap!" Actually, Modern Tap isn't even offered by my B-School. What's up with that? With all the problems corporate executives are getting into, they could use a few tap-dancing lessons. (I wish I knew how to add a rim-shot sound effect here.)
Well, I really need to get back to my Accounting right now. I keep telling myself that if I can just plow through Chapter 13 tonight, I can fire up the PS2, play San Andreas, and hunt me down a few accountants before bed. That should put me to bed with a smile on my face.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
I LOVE College Kids
I'm getting my MBA here in Chicago. I'm "lucky" enough to be a TA for an entry-level finance class. This helps defray the cost of my MBA, but it also has the effect of giving me more gray hair. That could be helpful in the job search though because I've heard that men with gray hair look distinguished and knowledgable. I don't think that'll be the case with me. I'm just going to look beaten-down. More so, anyway.
I've forgotten what it's like to be a college student. It's been 8 years since I graduated from the University of Illinois. College was a bit of a blur for me. I remember there being buckets of beer every Friday afternoon. Beyond that, um, I think I had roommates.
Seriously though, college was a bit of a joke. I drank a lot and I partied a lot. But I always managed to get my work done. I think I even graduated with some sort of "cum laude." Magna? Summa? Mega? Giga?
I knew that people goofed off in college. I have no problem with this, in theory. But now that I'm a TA, it's starting to annoy me. The good news is that it has nothing to do with me being an old fuddy-duddy. It's because I hate dealing with morons, which quite adequately describes the kids in my class. (And yes, I find it odd that I refer to 18-22 year-olds as kids.)
Is it wrong of me to have minimum expectations of students? Is it really too much to expect people to turn in all their homeworks? Is it too much to expect people to know how to do basic addition and multiplication? Is it too much to expect people to know how to use their calculators? Honestly, I had someone ask me during the midterm how to use their calculator, as if that was one of the conditions on me being a TA to the class.
It's quite amusing to see the kids scramble for extra points now. They're asking for extra credit projects. (My professor amusingly told someone the other day that their time right now would be better spent studying for the final than doing any "extra" credit projects. Duh.) They're negotiating to get extra points on their homeworks. It's all rather amusing and it gives me a great feeling of power. Now I know how God would feel if HE were a TA.
I've forgotten what it's like to be a college student. It's been 8 years since I graduated from the University of Illinois. College was a bit of a blur for me. I remember there being buckets of beer every Friday afternoon. Beyond that, um, I think I had roommates.
Seriously though, college was a bit of a joke. I drank a lot and I partied a lot. But I always managed to get my work done. I think I even graduated with some sort of "cum laude." Magna? Summa? Mega? Giga?
I knew that people goofed off in college. I have no problem with this, in theory. But now that I'm a TA, it's starting to annoy me. The good news is that it has nothing to do with me being an old fuddy-duddy. It's because I hate dealing with morons, which quite adequately describes the kids in my class. (And yes, I find it odd that I refer to 18-22 year-olds as kids.)
Is it wrong of me to have minimum expectations of students? Is it really too much to expect people to turn in all their homeworks? Is it too much to expect people to know how to do basic addition and multiplication? Is it too much to expect people to know how to use their calculators? Honestly, I had someone ask me during the midterm how to use their calculator, as if that was one of the conditions on me being a TA to the class.
It's quite amusing to see the kids scramble for extra points now. They're asking for extra credit projects. (My professor amusingly told someone the other day that their time right now would be better spent studying for the final than doing any "extra" credit projects. Duh.) They're negotiating to get extra points on their homeworks. It's all rather amusing and it gives me a great feeling of power. Now I know how God would feel if HE were a TA.
Me Likey Music (Continued)!
Okay, so my last post was probably a bit dry. It was basically about all the music I've liked over the years. Who cares, right?
Well, my point is that my iPod has really changed how I listen to music and downloading and has changed which music I listen to.
I currently have 6520 songs on my iPod. That's probably between 400 and 600 CDs. That's just plain insane. Nobody needs that many CDs. Even I'm willing to admit this. But what's great about the iPod is that I can listen to any and all of those songs whenever I want. If I'm in the mood for Fugazi (and who isn't!), then I can put them on. If I want to hear the Beach Boys, no problem.
In fact, part of the fun of the iPod is the hours and hours I've spent cataloging my songs, rating them, and making playlists. I feel like my own private DJ. For someone as anal retentive as me, this has been both a blessing and a curse. It's not enough to throw 100 songs into a playlist. I have to throw the perfect 100 on there, depending on my mood. And they have to be in the right order so that the transition from one song to another is seemless.
Downloading has only made this problem worse. I pay a nominal monthly fee to download all the songs I want. So I do. By my estimate, I've downloaded at least 2000 songs. What's great about this is that it allows me to take risks and find some hidden gems. (For example, I never would have bought Chuck Berry's box set, but I downloaded it, found some great songs, and tossed the rest.)
But I find myself looking for new ways to improve upon my listening experience. For example, I downloaded all the popular songs of the 90s, which is over well over 400 songs. (In all fairness, I probably owned about half of those.) Now that that list is almost complete, I'm probably going to tackle the 80s. (My brother-in-law made a rather detailed collection of all the Billboard Top 100 songs for each year, so I'll probably just start there.) I'll probably keep working backwards from there until I get to the very first gramaphone recordings. Isn't it great being borderline obsessive/compulsive?
So what's the point of all this? I really do hate having a point, but I suppose I must if I'm going to write this much. I'm going to try to use this blog as a resource for all the music I love. Whenever possible, I'll write reviews of random albums, whether new or not. Some of these reviews might just be a summary of my life at the time the album came out. So be warned.
I've also added a Now Playing section and a list of recent downloads so you can track what I'm listening to. Eventually I'll probably add something similar with movies. But don't worry, this won't stop me from writing stupid things about my life. (As if this doesn't count....)
Well, my point is that my iPod has really changed how I listen to music and downloading and has changed which music I listen to.
I currently have 6520 songs on my iPod. That's probably between 400 and 600 CDs. That's just plain insane. Nobody needs that many CDs. Even I'm willing to admit this. But what's great about the iPod is that I can listen to any and all of those songs whenever I want. If I'm in the mood for Fugazi (and who isn't!), then I can put them on. If I want to hear the Beach Boys, no problem.
In fact, part of the fun of the iPod is the hours and hours I've spent cataloging my songs, rating them, and making playlists. I feel like my own private DJ. For someone as anal retentive as me, this has been both a blessing and a curse. It's not enough to throw 100 songs into a playlist. I have to throw the perfect 100 on there, depending on my mood. And they have to be in the right order so that the transition from one song to another is seemless.
Downloading has only made this problem worse. I pay a nominal monthly fee to download all the songs I want. So I do. By my estimate, I've downloaded at least 2000 songs. What's great about this is that it allows me to take risks and find some hidden gems. (For example, I never would have bought Chuck Berry's box set, but I downloaded it, found some great songs, and tossed the rest.)
But I find myself looking for new ways to improve upon my listening experience. For example, I downloaded all the popular songs of the 90s, which is over well over 400 songs. (In all fairness, I probably owned about half of those.) Now that that list is almost complete, I'm probably going to tackle the 80s. (My brother-in-law made a rather detailed collection of all the Billboard Top 100 songs for each year, so I'll probably just start there.) I'll probably keep working backwards from there until I get to the very first gramaphone recordings. Isn't it great being borderline obsessive/compulsive?
So what's the point of all this? I really do hate having a point, but I suppose I must if I'm going to write this much. I'm going to try to use this blog as a resource for all the music I love. Whenever possible, I'll write reviews of random albums, whether new or not. Some of these reviews might just be a summary of my life at the time the album came out. So be warned.
I've also added a Now Playing section and a list of recent downloads so you can track what I'm listening to. Eventually I'll probably add something similar with movies. But don't worry, this won't stop me from writing stupid things about my life. (As if this doesn't count....)
Me Likey Music!
Okay, I really need to write a book report for my Negotiations class right now, but I don't much feel like reading right now. So I'm chillling out in a computer lab on campus and I'm listening to my iPod. (It's not actually an iPod, but I don't feel like going into that right now.) My point is that I'm moderately obsessed about music. And I love my iPod! In fact, I think the iPod fuels my obsession.
I distinctly remember getting my first tape ("Born in the USA"), first 45 (David Lee Roth's "California Girls"), and my first CDs (Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" and INXS "Welcome to Wherever You Are).
Ever since I was a kid though, I was mildly obsessed with "completing my collection." If I liked an artist, I had to have every one of his albums. This was no easy task 20 years ago when all I could do is ride my bike to the local Venture (it was basically a Kmart without all the fanciness) and browse their meager selections.
It's amusing to see where my tastes have flowed over the years. I've always like rock music. In fact my first "favorite song" was Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." Okay, so that's not really "rock," but at least I had the right theme song.
As far as I can remember, here's how things have changed for me:
Pre-junior high: Billy Joel, Footloose Soundtrack. (That Kenny Loggins sure could crank out the hits back then. "Footloose" and the theme to Caddyshack ("I'm Alright")!)
Junior high: Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi (I'm ashamed to even admit this), Cinderella, Motley Crue, Poison, Dio, Ozzy Osbourne. Yep, these were my "metal years."
High School: Black Crowes, Van Halen (still), Led Zeppelin (still), Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and I just started getting into the Ramones
College: I even remember the ORDER of how things changed for me. First came Sugar, which led me to Green Day (thank you, alt.music.org), then the Pixies (which are still one of my all-time favorites), then back to Husker Du. Eventually, I got into White Zombie and Nine Inch Nails, but that didn't last long.
Post-College: This is when I really started getting into music. I was an email list related to Sugar and Husker Du and followed the advice of many of the members there. That exposed me to Superchunk (Top 10 for me now), Sleater-Kinney (Top 5), Archers of Loaf (Top 5), and Dropkick Murphy's (Top 10), among others.
Wow, this post got longer than I thought. I'll have to post later about my current obsessions and how the iPod transformed my life. Well, at least my musical life.
I distinctly remember getting my first tape ("Born in the USA"), first 45 (David Lee Roth's "California Girls"), and my first CDs (Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" and INXS "Welcome to Wherever You Are).
Ever since I was a kid though, I was mildly obsessed with "completing my collection." If I liked an artist, I had to have every one of his albums. This was no easy task 20 years ago when all I could do is ride my bike to the local Venture (it was basically a Kmart without all the fanciness) and browse their meager selections.
It's amusing to see where my tastes have flowed over the years. I've always like rock music. In fact my first "favorite song" was Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." Okay, so that's not really "rock," but at least I had the right theme song.
As far as I can remember, here's how things have changed for me:
Pre-junior high: Billy Joel, Footloose Soundtrack. (That Kenny Loggins sure could crank out the hits back then. "Footloose" and the theme to Caddyshack ("I'm Alright")!)
Junior high: Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi (I'm ashamed to even admit this), Cinderella, Motley Crue, Poison, Dio, Ozzy Osbourne. Yep, these were my "metal years."
High School: Black Crowes, Van Halen (still), Led Zeppelin (still), Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and I just started getting into the Ramones
College: I even remember the ORDER of how things changed for me. First came Sugar, which led me to Green Day (thank you, alt.music.org), then the Pixies (which are still one of my all-time favorites), then back to Husker Du. Eventually, I got into White Zombie and Nine Inch Nails, but that didn't last long.
Post-College: This is when I really started getting into music. I was an email list related to Sugar and Husker Du and followed the advice of many of the members there. That exposed me to Superchunk (Top 10 for me now), Sleater-Kinney (Top 5), Archers of Loaf (Top 5), and Dropkick Murphy's (Top 10), among others.
Wow, this post got longer than I thought. I'll have to post later about my current obsessions and how the iPod transformed my life. Well, at least my musical life.
