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March 29, 2007
Breathing Underwater Without Gills
First and foremost, congratulations to all the Round 2 London Business School Admits out there! The notification date was last Friday so the tension of uncertainty should have long passed by now.Sometime in the past couple of weeks, I added labels to many of my posts. I was looking for a simple way to list all my labels in the side navigation using the classic blogger template format. Research has yielded a few complicated ways, none of which I particularly like. Regardless, all the MBA posts have been labeled for anyone interested in my path though the MBA process.
Interestingly, the number of LBS MBA2009 admits on the portal have ballooned from a steady roughly half class after R1 confirmation to over double immediately after R2 notification. I'm sure as the confirmation deadline passes the number will fall, leaving room for R3 and R4 admits. I don't think any applicants should be concerned by not having space at LBS with these numbers.
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As a friend promised, learning to dive was a blast. Another LBS admit and I spent last weekend at a PADI certification course at at Aquarius SCUBA. The classroom sessions were pretty laughable. The facility itself took it reasonably seriously, but there really wasn't much to really learn. The final module in the course book was essentially an extended advertisement for other courses that PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors - Put Another Dollar In - whatever) offers. It wasn't all bad. The safety tips (cardinal rule - never hold your breath, always keep breathing) and the dive table work were useful.
The practical pool skill work was the cool part. The instructor was great, ex-police diver, so he inspired a lot of confidence. One of the first things at the pool he told us was that it's normal at some point to panic underwater during the session. In the event that that happens, our first instincts would be to surface. What he stressed was that whatever you do down there, you're pretty safe. Just calm down and you should be able to think your way out of any problem. It's good advice in general, but me being me, I thought to myself - whatever! As if I'm going to panic. We did our entries into the water and with a quick briefing, we were to deflate our BCDs and descend.
The first breath I took was exhilarating! The sensation of breathing underwater was unreal. By the second breath, I was starting to feel a little less confident in my abilities. My mask started filling with water and, probably by virtue of it being a cheap rental, the regulator didn't fit in my mouth as comfortably as it could have. In fact, with the air pressure on the hose leading up to the regulator, it felt like it was going to be yanked from my mouth at any second. I then accidentally inhaled through my nose, sputtering as the water burned the places where water shouldn't be.
I'm confident enough to admit that, at that point, I was slightly panicked. Just like the instructor said, my first instinct was to want to surface. I fought it though, the rational part of my brain luckily kicking in. I reminded myself that as long as that regulator was in my mouth, I would keep on living. After a few solid deep breaths, I regained some semblance of composure.
Everything else was easy from there on in. The skill that concerned me the most was that of breathing from free flow. Free flow is the state where your regulator fails (or your hose has been cut) and air just streams from the tank. In that case, you are supposed to "sip" the air bubbles coming out and make a controlled ascent. I did not believe this whole sipping air business could be done. Apparently it can though, as my continued existence after breathing from free flow for a minute demonstrates. All without getting any water in my lungs too!
Labels: Activities, MBA
March 28, 2007
The WTL Sculpture Collection
Now showing on flickr.Labels: Art
March 23, 2007
It's All In How You Look At It
More lurking on the Business Week forums - A round 2 LBS applicant received a waitlist notification with a twist:... if you are not removed from the Waiting List this year you are guaranteed a place in the class beginning in August 2008 (MBA 2010). This variation on the standard waitlist decision is only offered in a very small number of cases.I for one think this is a great approach for the school to take - much better than the stream of we-still-can't-take-you-off-of-the-waitlist-but-please-hang-tight-you're-on-a-shortlist e-mails I received last year.
The responses from the forum seem a bit confused by the message - probably because connotations of being lumped in the dreaded limbo of the waiting list. What they don't realize though, is that the message is telling the applicant that he's been accepted. There's just a more flexible time frame associated with it.
About two years ago, I was in the situation where I had applied to LBS as my number one school as well as a backup school just in case. My backup school came through, as expected, and so did LBS... sort of. I was waitlisted. It was an interesting few months. I was just waiting and waiting for LBS to tell me I had been moved off of the waitlist but at the same time I had to make sure that I kept my options open for my backup school. Also operating in my mind was a self imposed a rule that that was to be the last year that I'd be applying for b-school - I'd attend whichever option worked out. The final outcome was personal urgency and stress - I really couldn't do anything but wait.
Having a notification like the one above is fantastic because all of the uncertainties about what to do and what options may or may not work out are gone. All the information one needs to make a decision for this round of applications is right there. As well, if that applicant decides to go to LBS, how often is it that anyone knows that no matter what he does from now till he attends class, that b-school thing has been settled already? It's potentially over a year of complete freedom from real world career responsibilities. Not too shabby a place to be.
Labels: MBA
March 22, 2007
More time fillers...
Parking perfection 2 and 3!Hopefully this will get Round 2 London Business School applicants' minds off of the impending admit decision. The date on the website for Admission notification is tomorrow, but some notifications may be filtering out today.
As I was lurking on the BW forums, I had a little chuckle that some of applicants were momentarily thrown off by the school newsletter that was sent out today. I remember how high strung I was when I was waiting to hear from the school too.
Good luck all you applicants out there!
Parking Perfection
Great time waster for a Thursday.Can you park this car?
Labels: Misc
March 16, 2007
Oilers may not win another game this season
I understand it supports breast cancer. In the macho world of sports though, there's a bit of humor in it.It takes a man secure in his masculinity to wear pink.
March 15, 2007
Figurative Sculpture (Piece 3)
Pics of another one of my pieces are now up. Along with some From the last Oilers game we attended. Not the best quality pictures in either case, but passable for the nonce.I really enjoyed working on this piece and how it turned out. It was a little rushed, me having missed one of the classes we had to work on it because of driving down to buffalo to catch the Oilers, but I think it turned out reasonably. I think the nose and the lips were bang on, though the cheeks look a little gaunt.
I liked the little technical aspects we picked up working on this piece. We essentially started out by creating the crude form of skull with eye sockets. From there, we built on top to add muscle and features. The eyes started out as actual balls of clay around which we built the eyelids, and all the muscles of the brow and cheeks. I think I got the form of the nose pretty close. Lips are fun to make too. We started the lips by making a wedge to form the top lip, then a small crescent for the bottom.
I really rushed the ears and the hair, so those could have been better. Ears are easy because they're like flattened kidney beans with a bent two-pronged lobster fork on the inside. It's a little after the fact now - but I also noticed that I forgot eyebrows... ah well.
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This is an interesting HCI concept. The site is not much more than a conceptual showcase, but it's interesting none the less.
Don't click this
March 07, 2007
Still counting down...
Friday was another good outing for some of the Toronto LBS admits. It's great how there's an instant camaraderie, the same one that I found when I visited the school before. I think the positive but ambitious nature of the people that attend is one of the defining characteristics of the school. Not that it wouldn't be different at any other school, but compared to some of the other places that I've checked out I get a different warm and fuzzy from LBS.Something else exciting that came out of the meeting was that one of the guys and I are going to get PADI certification for SCUBA together. I'm really looking forward to it as it was something that I've always wanted to do, but never really had a chance to.
If you haven't gathered, I'm a huge fan of the school and I'm getting more and more invested by the day. I've never really been in an environment where most everyone had the same ambitions as I do but also had the same demeanor.
Labels: Activities, MBA
March 01, 2007
"Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell
Great Orwell essay by way of Guy Kawasaki's blog.Labels: Interest