Tomorrow morning I will walk with the other students of the classes of ’05 & ’06 in the commencement ceremony of the College of Business.

I graduated in December but we only have one ceremony per year. It is very surreal. I have more friends walking with me than I thought I would.

Strangely enough, I am still struggling with the idea that I’m done. I have my Bachelor’s degree. I am working in the “real world”. I pay rent and bills and my student loans. Maybe tomorrow will make it more real.

PS: The gowns are really funny-looking. Also, they only come down to mid-shin. Ah well.

Finals upcoming. Next Thursday I will be done with college.

Weird.

DC conference was awesome…family, friends, etc. Music all over the place. I acquired a nasty cold on Sunday, but am fighting it with all of my strength. I keep falling asleep randomly. *sigh*

Wish I could write something vaguely interesting, but I have two finals and a 15 page paper to work on, so I have to concentrate on that.

Things can get repetitive in business…you hear the same terms, snazzy fads, and tired lingo over and over. In order to keep myself from going crazy while reading my finance, strategic orgs, and operations management texts, I decided to find the humor in them. They’re actually really good textbooks…but they’re textbooks nonetheless.

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“The name of the game is competition. The playing field is global. Those who understand how to play the game will succeed; those who don’t are doomed to failure.”
–Operations Management, Chapter 2

Sometimes, things are vocabulary words that would seem to be common sense:

failure- situation in which a product, part, or system does not perform as intended.

recycling- recovering materials for future use.
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“…what do we mean by the long run? As a famous economist once remarked, in the long run, we’re all dead!”
– Essentials of Corporate Finance, Chapter 1

“When looking at an income statement, unusual expenses should be excluded, but it appears that you should examine unusual expenses with unusual skepticism.”
– Essentials of Corporate Finance, Chapter 3
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Basically, I could go on and on…but you get the idea. I love being a business major.

Burnham Plaza Theatre

826 S. Wabash Street, Chicago, IL
Status: Closed
Screens: Multiplex (5 Screen)
Architect: Robert C. Berlin

The YMCA Hotel opened in 1915, located on Wabash Street in the South Loop, designed by architect Robert C. Berlin. Eleven years later, Berlin designed an addition to the hotel, in a similar style to his original.

The Burnham Plaza closed for good in September 2005. The building is scheduled to be converted into medical offices.

Source.

This was the cheapest theater in the area, and was always empty so you never had to search for a seat. It was also very close to us, and parking was easy at night. *sigh*
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Chase Cafe

7301 N. Sheridan, Chicago IL
Status: Closed

Located in the very large lobby of a Roger’s Park apartment building, this all-ages venue offers a section for eating that serves soups, sandwiches and salads, along with espresso and coffee. Patrons lounge on couches and chairs near a fireplace, but wander into another section and you’ll find a cyber cafe/copy shop/computer lab (complete with CD duplicators and a brand spankin’ new color copier…forget Kinko’s). Make your way to the next section and you’ll find a pool table and a gift shop before entering the largest area, where you’ll find a ballroom whose stage features live music and improv theater. Expect to mingle with artsy locals and hippie types eager to sample something healthy from the juice bar.

Source.

This was my freshman year hangout. It is where I started overcoming stage fright and made some very dear friends. I loved Tuesday night open mic.
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Zorba’s Diner

Status: Being renovated

Apparently under new management and being remodeled, and is NOT closed as previously thought. At least ONE of my college hangouts is not disappearing. whew! But I wonder if it will ever be the same…

Everyone has their own learning styles. And it also varies by topic. For instance, when I do research on something Baha’i Faith-related, I dive in, compile everything in a Word document, and then read over later. With business, I take notes as I read and make outlines.

The last 4 years of university have taught me some important things about my learning style. I actually pay attention when the professor engages the students in conversation and talks about real-world cases. I prefer to study with other people (even if we’re studying different materials).

The interesting phenomenon at my school (and maybe this is reserved to the business majors) is that people do not study together. I’ve had very few opportunities to form study groups. It is a commuter school, and most people work part/full-time jobs, so this is all understandable, but frustrating nonetheless.

On another note, many of my management professors insist that we dress professionally for our presentations. I have no argument against it, I think it is a good idea. It is easy to tell who the business students are on campus because we’re all walking around in snazzy suits and button-down shirts. It is almost like a uniform.

Speaking of presentations, I’m going to give one in 15 minutes. We’re gonna rock that joint. um yeah. 😉

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I am ambivalent.

I have most of my books, all of my supplies, and my schedule is set. I just have to show up to class!

The next few weeks will be flying by non-stop. Roommates/friends moving in and out of the house/neighborhood will keep me occupied, I am sure.

If your neighborhood ever has a block party, I recommend that you attend. You may meet some interesting characters. I was introduced to an Italian woman who wants to teach me to cook Italian food (in exchange for me teaching her Persian cooking), a recent transplant from Texas with a child who wanted to know where to eat in the neighborhood (I was happy to oblige), an older couple with a friendly dog who lamented the fact that their son was not in attendance, and a woman with a young daughter from Ghana. There were at least 4 interracial couples and probably 30 children running around.

And I can’t even describe the food. 🙂

For the next week, I am consumed by the Baha’i National Convention and Finals.

I’m done next Wednesday at 5 pm, hurrah!

But for serious, I have 10 pages to type tonight, so I’m going to get on that now. Hope everyone is doing well!

(Imagine me ingesting large quantities of Persian tea and chocolate as I type desperately!)

This is has been my view every day for the last four years.

Today was beautiful. I took this while holding textbooks in one hand and a purse in the other, while wearing 3 inch heels. I’ve got mad skillz. haha.

(Our school mascot. I don’t know what it is wearing.)

I have realized that I may refer to my classes once in a while this semester, given that some of them are rather amusing (or rather, the professors are amusing).

Sociology of Organizations: Taught by a sociology professor who is tall, wears dark red lipstick, and says “um” a lot.

Comparative Marketing: I still have not figured out exactly what this class is about. I think it has something to do with Globalization, which is rather cool. I get this impression from our textbook, “Globalization and Business”.

Product Management: About successful products. Taught by the same professor as Comparative Marketing. He is awesome. I referred to him in this entry.

Business Statistics I: One of the most boring classes I’ve ever taken. We’ve spent the first 2 weeks drawing bar graphs and histograms.

Entrepreneurship: I had the same professor last semester. He is rather awkward and makes bad jokes, but I always do well in his class. Got an A+ on a paper that I wrote in 2 hours.

In conclusion, this semester looks like it will be easier than last semester, and I actually like most of my profs! Now, if only I could do something about my insomnia…

Also, I would like to add that my “study” playlist on ITunes includes Dark Falcor’s “Constructs”. That is all.

I ended the semester on December 10th, but didn’t find the need to write about it. I just checked my grades and I am very happy with them (yay!) so that is all there is to it.

Home is good. As usual. I hope everyone is having a great winter break/holiday/eating time. 😀

This is what has had me knocking my head against a wall for the last 2 months. (well, this and other similar problems)

yikes! Truth tables!

Ok, so with 6 classes, one tends to get confused about which class one is in at any given time. I literally had to check my schedule halfway through one of them to find out the title of the course.

Logic
Excerpt from text: The simplest forms of inference discussed in the last section are all instances of the principle that you can use already established cases of logical consequence in informal proofs. eeek!

Gender & Society
Turns out one of my aquaintances is in the class, so we’re going to have fun being silly together. Also, its all about women in the labor market, which I’ve already studied in 3 other classes. Easy A, hopefully. Open book and note final!!

Organizational Analysis and Practice
Evening class…the teacher was my TA last semester, and he gets very excited about the subject. Actually kind of interesting.

Human Resource Management
Don’t know enough about it yet, but there is a large amount of homework.

Consumer Market Behavior
This is the professor with the corny jokes. 🙂 I like this one because we talk a lot about how consumers are manipulated.

Marketing Research
Boring. heh. Easy, I think.
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Anyone going to GREENLAKE this weekend and wants to give me a ride from the city? I have class till noon. Just leave a comment, or tell me if you know of someone.

And I hit the ground running. 18 hours, 6 classes. I already have 6 chapters to read before Wednesday.

I walked into my Philosophy 102 (Logic) class and discovered a couple of interesting facts. a) Neda is in my class, which is a dangerous and awesome thing. Much laughter will occur. b) Our professor is Australian. c) This will definitely be my hardest class.

One of my Marketing Professors has very broken English. The other Marketing Professor tries to make jokes…and usually fails, but I laugh to make him feel better. 🙂

Also, I am currently looking for a job, because my Disability Services job doesn’t fit my schedule anymore. I’m hoping for a campus job just so I don’t have to travel all over the place.

My search for an apartment has ended. Well, it ended last week but I honestly couldn’t bring myself to write about it until I was really sure everything would work out.

It is very close to my school, the L, and 3 bus stops. It was renovated a year ago. Oh yeah, and its a HOUSE. We’re down the street from Shannon & Lev, which is exceedingly cool, of course.

-2 story (+ basement w/washer & dryer), 5 bedroom, 2 bath
-back deck, small yard in front and back
-free parking on side street
-hardwood floors throughout the entire house
-a kitchen that actually has countertops!! (my last place had none)
-beautiful molding on ceilings and around doors

There will be 5 Baha’i women living there (including myself), and it is going to be awesome. Yes, yes it will.

A piece of advice: never start a paper 4 days before it is due. Especially when it is 12-15 pages long. hmph.

To take a break from pulling out my hair over how to compare 3 target companies when I’ve only been able to interview 2 of them, I played with some photo effects. Whee!

(me on the left, Carmen on the right)