Irony Lives

"Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims: 'What is good for them and what is not.' And what this man who grew up in wealth and privilege considers good for poor Muslims is that they become killers and suicide bombers. He assures them that this is the road to paradise, though he never offers to go along for the ride"

Only a man completely without empathy or an understanding of how others see him could say this. Imagine that, a man of wealth and privilege who has the gall to tell those less well off in his society to kill and be killed for the cause. Yet he has never put himself in that position. Never mind though George, there's still some time left on your National Guard tour of duty, maybe you could re-enlist.

Cute Kid Stuff

• Juliette calls Star Wars The Chewy Show, "I love The Chewy Show"
• We just found a worm in the apartment, but we couldn't get rid of him because he's like Slimey from Sesame Street
• Juliette believes American Football players wear helmets to protect them from being hit in the head by balls.
• The funniest thing in the world according to Juliette:

Juliette - Jack said "it's a cookie"

Lindsey - But what was it?

J - A lion!!!! (Cracks up), Natalie said "this is poo"

Lindsey - But what was it?

J - A deer!!!!!!!!!!!! (Cracks up again), I said "This is an
elephant"

Lindsey - and what was it?

J - An elephant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Ilsa is copying everything Juliette is doing, so take everything from above and get the words wrong.

See, That's How You Do It

In 1985 the Broadwater Farm estate in North London was a crime ridden disaster zone of racial tension where a riot led to the death of a police officer, beaten to death by a mob. In 2005, this same estate has had 1 burglary all year. The statistics are below.

• 1985
  875 burglaries or attempted burglaries
  50 muggings
  50 assaults
  Population 3,500
  White 49%
  West Indian/African 42%
  Indian subcontinent 3%
• 2005
  0 robberies
  1 house burglary
  Population 3,800
  White 30%
  West African 27%
  Afro-Caribbean 24%
  Turkish Kurds 15%
  Somali and Congolese 7%

So how did they do this? Surprisingly not by gentrification, if anything the area has more immigrants and is even more racial diverse than before. They did it by a mix of sensible urban planning and community policing.

I Know What You're Doing Next Summer

One thing about being at the AC Nielsen Center as opposed to other business schools is that the internship interviewing season starts very early. My first interview is at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, my second is at 1:30 on Wednesday. Both are with companies in Chicago, both are with companies who are in the Food and Beverage industry. I know it's stupid to blog about your current employer so it's probably best not to blog about my potential employer as well, so that's all you're getting. The only other thing is that they are about 500 yards away from each other in downtown Chicago so geography is unlikely to be a factor in the choice if I end up being offered both.

Anyway, the next month is chock-a-block with interviews (or potential interviews). I'm signed up for 12 companies who are interviewing between the 10th of October and the 10th of November. All of whom are client-side, no suppliers. Half are Food and Beverage companies, three CPG companies, two Pharamaceutical firms, one in the Entertainment industry in L.A., and one retailer. So if I get them all (unlikely but let's be optimistic) that's 3 first interviews a week on top of school work, plus if I get through the first interview the second interview will usually (but not always) involve going to the site. At least this way I'll know where I will be next summer well before Christmas.

There are a couple of the companies that are interviewing I am definitely more interested in interning at than the others but I'm keeping my options open. The one at the top of my list at the moment I had as a backup before I went to the informational session so it's best to keep an open mind about the firms that haven't come yet.

The informational sessions are between an hour and two hours. They always involve food and drink, usually chicken fingers and carbonated beverages. 20 or so people are there. You get the food, then a presentation about how great the company is and what MR people do there, then a Q&A, then free stuff. So far I've got a big bag full of candy, a leather portfolio case, some shampoo and shower gel, and a home car-wash kit. This afternoon I have an informational session with a beer company. Here's hoping they bring some product.

Intro to Financial Management

Today was the first time I've been cold called in class and had absolutely NO idea what the answer was. This was partly because I didn't know what he wanted and partly because I had no idea what we were talking about. Obviously after someone answered it instead of me it became obvious. Not fun.

This was of course in Finance. To a large number of people in the class Finance is the most difficult. This fact actually makes me feel better about it. Marketing and Data Analysis may be easier, but it's going to be harder to get good grades in those classes because of that fact.

So my guess is as long as I try and keep a vague understanding of what's going on I can answer enough of the questions in the exams to get a median(ish) grade and in a class outside my speciality I'm OK with that.