My apologies for not writing for so long. I was actually waiting for the sun to come out to write again. Sun? What is this? Something that you rarely see in London!
So that is one down for London; the depressing weather. Second down..prices. I actually tried to compare prices of TGI Friday's in the U.S and TGI Friday's in London. A cajun chicken sandwich in U.S is $8, in London it's 9 English pounds which translates to about $18. A mixed drink is about $16 and an imported beer is about $7-9 depending on the area where you are from.
Let's go to the positives. There is always something to do anywhere. Want to go for a coffee or at a bar. It is more than likely that there is such an establishment down the road. Transportation is really easy with buses running all the time and underground trains (expensive..but easy).
As for my job, I really like it. I have 12-hour days (including the 1.5 hr commute each way) so by the time I come home the only thing I want to do is eat, watch an episode of Lost, talk to Molly and sleep. And yet the one episode of Lost becomes two or three, a little surfing on the web and the time goes to 1am before I sleep. And I am up by 6am and then again the same routine. Tiring, but it does fill my days.
Well, that is for now. I know, a pretty boring post but that is pretty much all I have for now. Until I have something interesting take care..
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
A video-game in real life
Since insomnia has taken over my life, I have decided to update this blog at 5am after 3 consecutive episodes of Lost.
Jetman is a game application on Facebook where your character is a spaceship moving through a cave. Objective of the game is to avoid the bricks or obstacles that come in your way and score as many points as possible. Driving a car in Cyprus is pretty similar to that game. The obstacles are usually cars that are parked either on the left lane of the street (if it is a two-lane street) or half-parked on the sidewalk and half in the street (if it is a one-lane street). At the same time, you have to be cautious not to hit people who think that they have the right to cut in front of you, just because they are in a hurry. Like Jetman there is no end to the game..you win a battle every time you reach your destination, but you never win the game. Of course the thing that annoys me the most is that a fair amount of Cypriots will drive a luxury or sports car well worth over 30,000 Euro, they go to cafes and pay 5 Euros for a coffee but yet they will not pay 2 Euros to park their car in a parking place. They just throw it in the middle of the street. Because, you know, here in Cyprus it is not healthy to walk for 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes. You have to park your car right outside of your final destination. And in the case you don't find somewhere to abandon it, who cares just leave it in the street and put the parking lights on. I guess people think that if they do that, they are covered by the law.
Which brings me to another subject..people driving and talking on their cell-phones. Please everybody, buy a headset or a bluetooth and use it. It just makes life so much easier. Or if you are not willing to do that, please don't use the loudspeaker.
Okay, now that I got everything out of my system, maybe I can go to sleep.
Jetman is a game application on Facebook where your character is a spaceship moving through a cave. Objective of the game is to avoid the bricks or obstacles that come in your way and score as many points as possible. Driving a car in Cyprus is pretty similar to that game. The obstacles are usually cars that are parked either on the left lane of the street (if it is a two-lane street) or half-parked on the sidewalk and half in the street (if it is a one-lane street). At the same time, you have to be cautious not to hit people who think that they have the right to cut in front of you, just because they are in a hurry. Like Jetman there is no end to the game..you win a battle every time you reach your destination, but you never win the game. Of course the thing that annoys me the most is that a fair amount of Cypriots will drive a luxury or sports car well worth over 30,000 Euro, they go to cafes and pay 5 Euros for a coffee but yet they will not pay 2 Euros to park their car in a parking place. They just throw it in the middle of the street. Because, you know, here in Cyprus it is not healthy to walk for 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes. You have to park your car right outside of your final destination. And in the case you don't find somewhere to abandon it, who cares just leave it in the street and put the parking lights on. I guess people think that if they do that, they are covered by the law.
Which brings me to another subject..people driving and talking on their cell-phones. Please everybody, buy a headset or a bluetooth and use it. It just makes life so much easier. Or if you are not willing to do that, please don't use the loudspeaker.
Okay, now that I got everything out of my system, maybe I can go to sleep.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Welcome to the United States of America...
where you can get a driving license when you are 16, you can join the military when you are 18, you can vote for the next president when you are 18, you can be trusted to having a gun when you are 18, you can go to Iraq or any other country of the world and kill people when you are 18, you can get alcohol when you are 21, but you WILL NOT BE SERVED ALCOHOL BECAUSE YOU HAVE A STATE ID AND NOT A DRIVING LICENSE even though you are 27 years old....
because you never know..a Pina Colada might force you to illegaly operate a vehicle, while holding your gun out of the window and killing people.
because you never know..a Pina Colada might force you to illegaly operate a vehicle, while holding your gun out of the window and killing people.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
End of Year 1
You are probably wondering why the hell I am on vacation and I am writing on this blog instead of swimming in the pool or the ocean or running around or even doing something. The answer is because I can't. So, sitting on my porch, with the view of the ocean and the aid of a frappe to keep me awake here is a summary of the classes that I have taken this year. Depending on how I feel, I might skip or forget some classes or might even break this blog to two. Let's start from the most recent ones:
M530 - Business to Business Marketing:
This class has exceeded my expectations.I feel I learned more in this class than I have learned four years in my undergraduate degree. Professor Fred Roedl does a great job in challenging students to think about B2B issues. He is not one of the professors who will agree or reword anything that you say and it's wrong just to make you not feel bad. He seeks for the correct answers. The cases used in the class are really challenging and sometimes hard to understand but they really require a lot of thinking of business to business issues and I believe help each student understand how to apply skills in each situation.
K513 - Data Mining
As much as I like Professor Albright, I was really disappointed with the class. I came in the class with big expectations but unfortunately the class was a bit disorganized, with no book to read and students have faced a lot of problems with software. I am sure that with a little bit of more structure this can become a very beneficial course.
M503 - Market Research
Being my favorite subject, this class could not go wrong. I am glad we went into detailed analysis of data using SPSS instead of just going over high-level fundamentals of Market Research. Professor Burke is really good and knows how to make the class interesting even when you have to use Chi-Squares to determine the significance of a results. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who is interested in analyzing data.
K507 - Data Analysis using Excel
Wow! I think that is enough to describe this class. One of the most interesting classes I have ever taken in the University. Professor Winston is an amazing professor and teaches things in this course that you would have never imagined you could on Excel. Solver and @Risk were the main Excel add-ins that we used. A word of caution. Students either love or hate this class. I think it really depends on how much one likes Excel.
K515 - Introduction to VBA
This was a really good class taught by Professor Albright. If you are interested in Visual Basic language using Excel this is a great class. It is challenging without previous programming experience but Professor Albright realizes that and teaches everything from the beginning. The assignments are challenging and time-consuming but once you complete an assignment and you realize what you have achieved, the satisfaction is priceless. My only complaint with the course was the final exam because there were no specific instructions for it.
M511- Marketing Productivity using Data
At the beginning I was a little disappointed with the course but as time progressed it got more and more interesting. Learning how to use numbers and data to measure productivity or market share or forecasting market size is extremely important and really interesting. Overall I would say that this is a really good class.
A548 - Managerial Accounting
I was a little bit disappointed with this class. The cases were interesting and I feel I learned a lot but it was hard to follow sometimes in class with the discussion. The important thing for this class is to read the book and understand what is going on.
X574 - Pricing
Professor Walters, or Rockney as he likes to be called is a guru of pricing. He is funny, friendly and makes the class a fun place to be for 1.30 hours. He manages to pass the message of pricing fundamentals and the applications he uses in class are ...priceless. Beware in class not to use the "PW" word..Price War.
These are the classes for this semester. As the year is over, I would like to wish all 2nd years all the best with their personal life and their careers and all 1st years good luck with their internships.
Also a special thanks to Professor Fred Roedl and Professor Ray Burke who were really understanding and supporting with the back problem I was going through. Kelley is such a great place to be, because of its great professors.
Have a good summer everyone. I will follow up with another blog soon about the NC vacation and adventures in London.
M530 - Business to Business Marketing:
This class has exceeded my expectations.I feel I learned more in this class than I have learned four years in my undergraduate degree. Professor Fred Roedl does a great job in challenging students to think about B2B issues. He is not one of the professors who will agree or reword anything that you say and it's wrong just to make you not feel bad. He seeks for the correct answers. The cases used in the class are really challenging and sometimes hard to understand but they really require a lot of thinking of business to business issues and I believe help each student understand how to apply skills in each situation.
K513 - Data Mining
As much as I like Professor Albright, I was really disappointed with the class. I came in the class with big expectations but unfortunately the class was a bit disorganized, with no book to read and students have faced a lot of problems with software. I am sure that with a little bit of more structure this can become a very beneficial course.
M503 - Market Research
Being my favorite subject, this class could not go wrong. I am glad we went into detailed analysis of data using SPSS instead of just going over high-level fundamentals of Market Research. Professor Burke is really good and knows how to make the class interesting even when you have to use Chi-Squares to determine the significance of a results. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who is interested in analyzing data.
K507 - Data Analysis using Excel
Wow! I think that is enough to describe this class. One of the most interesting classes I have ever taken in the University. Professor Winston is an amazing professor and teaches things in this course that you would have never imagined you could on Excel. Solver and @Risk were the main Excel add-ins that we used. A word of caution. Students either love or hate this class. I think it really depends on how much one likes Excel.
K515 - Introduction to VBA
This was a really good class taught by Professor Albright. If you are interested in Visual Basic language using Excel this is a great class. It is challenging without previous programming experience but Professor Albright realizes that and teaches everything from the beginning. The assignments are challenging and time-consuming but once you complete an assignment and you realize what you have achieved, the satisfaction is priceless. My only complaint with the course was the final exam because there were no specific instructions for it.
M511- Marketing Productivity using Data
At the beginning I was a little disappointed with the course but as time progressed it got more and more interesting. Learning how to use numbers and data to measure productivity or market share or forecasting market size is extremely important and really interesting. Overall I would say that this is a really good class.
A548 - Managerial Accounting
I was a little bit disappointed with this class. The cases were interesting and I feel I learned a lot but it was hard to follow sometimes in class with the discussion. The important thing for this class is to read the book and understand what is going on.
X574 - Pricing
Professor Walters, or Rockney as he likes to be called is a guru of pricing. He is funny, friendly and makes the class a fun place to be for 1.30 hours. He manages to pass the message of pricing fundamentals and the applications he uses in class are ...priceless. Beware in class not to use the "PW" word..Price War.
These are the classes for this semester. As the year is over, I would like to wish all 2nd years all the best with their personal life and their careers and all 1st years good luck with their internships.
Also a special thanks to Professor Fred Roedl and Professor Ray Burke who were really understanding and supporting with the back problem I was going through. Kelley is such a great place to be, because of its great professors.
Have a good summer everyone. I will follow up with another blog soon about the NC vacation and adventures in London.
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