Cool! With a big thanks to Ernie the Attorney, I have a GMail account now and I’m ready to get started putting it through the paces. As someone who never deletes e-mail anyway, I think I’m going to like it…
Blog Advice
June 17, 2004 by
Tony Pierce has some excellent blogging advice which is pretty valuable. However, I do take some issues with a few of his points:
8. dont worry very much about the design of your blog. image is a fakeout.
Don’t worry much, but still think about it. Completely neglecting the layout/design of your blog can lead to something that is just down right painful to look at… although many readers may never actually see your blog (thanks to RSS) it’s still worth a little time to make it look presentable. Hell, with so many templates, it’s a no brainer to make your blog have a little style.
9. use Blogger. it’s easy, it’s free; and because they are owned by Google, your blog will get spidered better, you will show up in more search results, and more people will end up at your blog. besides, all the other blogging software & alternatives pretty much suck.
If you have a blog worth reading, it will spread regardless of the tool. Blogger is fine, but there are many other good choices out there. Don’t get hung up on the technology. If you find one that does works the way you want it to work, but it ain’t fee, so what? Pay for things you find valuable. I started on Radio, which has some pluses and minuses, and now I’m on Movable Type, and I love it. Being owned by Google doesn’t mean much, you’ll still get indexed. Google indexes your mother.
13. if you havent written about sex, religion, and politics in a week youre probably playing it too safe, which means you probably fucked up on #5, in which case start a second blog and keep your big mouth shut about it this time.
Everything is about sex, religion or politics. Anything you think isn’t really is, you just haven’t put it in context yet.
25. dont use your real name. dont write about your work unless you dont care about getting fired.
Boy howdy. That one should be the #1 on the list.
Most of Tony’s advice is applicable to writing in general. I think that’s the best approach to “blogging”. Fuck blogging. Blogging is for chumps. The best “blogs” are in reality collections of essays by writers, with a few exceptions (which are just collections of cool stuff). So be a writer and do what writers do: write. Stop trying to “shift the paradigm” be an “early adopter” or “embrace the revolution” just write. It’s about the writing.
JD v. MBA
June 14, 2004 by
So, why did I decide to go back to school to pursue a JD? And why not pursue an MBA? I do have a fair amount of entrepreneurial business experience, so an MBA might have made sense.
I’ve wanted to pursue a post-graduate education of some kind for quite some time, but I frequently vacillated between a degree in Fine Arts and a “professional” degree of some kind. I’m one of those artsy types who happens to have a head for business (or so I’d like to think). Unfortunately, returning to school full-time is not really a realistic possibility, so I needed to limit myself to degrees that I could get part-time/evening, which pretty much ruled out going back for my MFA.
I tried to think of what I really loved doing, what my passions were, and I determined that in order for me to be happy with my career, I need it to have a several components:
- 1. The “job” must be (for the most part) intellectually challenging.
2. I enjoy project oriented work, that is, work which involves deadlines as a motivating factor. Once a project is finished, I want the opportunity to work on another project (or handle multiple projects simultaneously).
3. I would like the career to have a writing component.
4. I would like a career that uses technology as a tool, but is not necessarily technology based (I’ve done software development, I’m done with that).
5. I like to interact with people.
6. I need to have some level of control over my own destiny.
So, having been on my own with several business ventures, I wanted an education that could help me find either a job for someone else that met those criteria, or would aid me in once again striking out on my own. The two degrees that made the most sense were and MBA or a JD.
The MBA had the advantage of being focused on business. But the MBA also had the limitation of being focused on business. Then I came across an article that mentioned over 10% of American CEOs have JDs. Not that I want a corporate career necessarily, but the fact that so many executives have JDs indicates that on some level, a JD is beneficial in the business world. That’s a big “Duh” for the most part, but still a factor in my decision.
Then I met Groklaw. I was hooked. You know you?re in trouble when you?re reading a motion written by attorneys for IBM and you find yourself laughing at the subtle humor. My wife happens to be an attorney, so I grabbed some of her books, and started reading about torts, and again, I was hooked.
I hope that my interest isn’t just a passing fancy, and that the intellectual challenges of studying law continue. I would like to go into some area of intellectual property law, combining my technical skills and background into a career that I might find challenging and rewarding. And even if I don’t end up practicing law (and at this point I am far from certain I want to practice law, at least in the traditional sense), it seems that the educational experience itself will be beneficial and applicable to many other areas I might end up.
Of course, this could all be the rationalization of a naive, soon-to-be 1L…
The Value of MBAs
June 9, 2004 by
Disclaimer: I work for a very highly regarderd and ranked business school. The students here are very bright individuals who are highly motivated, and the faculty here are very intelligent and capable teachers, who do really seem to care about giving their students a top notch education. That goes a long way towards setting this school apart from the norm.
That said, a friend of mine recently sent me an article from Fortune magazine, entitled “Why an MBA May Not Be Worth It” which was a very interesting read. An even more interesting read was the paper that sparked the article. That paper, written by a Standford University business professor, is called “The End of Business Schools? Less Success Than Meets the Eye” and it has some really enlightening information, especially for anyone considering going back to school for an MBA.
It did a lot to reconfirm that I think I made the right decision in deciding to go back to law school, rather than pursue an MBA.
Web Comic Roundup
June 8, 2004 by
There are a lot of really good web-comics out there these days… here are some that I am currently reading on a semi-regular basis:
Something*Positive
Penny Arcade
The Devil’s Panties
Queen of Wands
Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles
Red Meat
Sore Thumbs
/usr/bin/w00t
User Friendly
If you know of any others I should check out, please let me know!
Vending Machine Economics
May 25, 2004 by
Perhaps it is because I work in a business school, but the soft drink vending machine near my office is helping teach us all the economic theory of supply and demand.
You see, it features two buttons, both of which dispense an identical 20oz. plastic bottle of Diet Pepsi. However, the first button dispenses the Pepsi for 1.10, while the second costs an additional .15 for a total of 1.25.
So, early in the week, while supply is high in the newly stocked machine, we can drink Pepsi for 1.10. But as demand increases throughout the week and supply decreases, the price jumps to 1.25.
In reality, it’s probably just a mislabeled button that used to be Snapple or something, but still, I’d like to think they planned it.
We’re Moving.
May 3, 2004 by
My building has every convenience
It’s gonna make life easy for me
It’s gonna be easy to get things done
I will relax alone with my loved ones
Loved ones, loved ones visit the building,
take the highway, park and come up and see me
I’ll be working, working but if you come visit
I’ll put down what I’m doing, my friends are important
We are moving into a new condo in less than two weeks (yikes!) more details to come.
The Hood
April 19, 2004 by
Okay, I’m getting pretty sick of my neighborhood. Really. It’s getting quite irritating. It’s an area that is in the process of “turning over” whatever that means. We moved there for the rents, when my wife and I moved in together, the rents were much cheaper there and we got a lot more space. It was a good deal all around.
Recently though, it’s become more and more crowded. It’s nearly impossible to find a parking space half the damn time… and on top of that, my car was just broken into for the *third* time last night. *Three times* and I’ve only lived there about 18 months. That’s once every six months! This is ridiculous. If you combine the fact that recently we just got some new neighbors who are very loud and have shifty looking people over at all hours of the night…
*sigh*
I’m moving.
Slow Week
March 31, 2004 by
It’s been a slow week at work so far? I’m mostly waiting for other people to follow up on some issues we discovered at the last planning meeting. And I’m doing a lot of research for one of the new systems we’re going to be installing in the new building. Basically, it’s going to be a real-time streaming solution. We want to be able to take a live feed from the classroom and record it, and at the same time, automatically create an MPEG/Quicktime/Windows Media version of the recording. Then we’ll archive the recording and make it available on a webserver. So if you know of any turnkey solutions for that type of system, let me know!
In other news, I turned 29 yesterday!! 😉
Week One
March 22, 2004 by
Ah, Monday, the start of my second week here in the new job. Something funny (especially for those of you working or living in University towns)… On my drive to work, I cross “Cottage Grove” and then proceed to cross “University” and then turn on “Woodlawn”. Do all college towns have the same street names? Or are these names modeled after some locale I’m not familiar with?
I still don’t have my computer (it’s on order though) and I’m still waiting for the phone to be installed in my office. It’s hard to hit the ground running in academia. However, I did already have a *huge* project meeting already, which, thankfully, went very well.
And I spent the weekend relaxing, which was much needed. I got to catch up on some movies… finally saw Stevie which was really excellent, although somewhat troubling. And I was surprised by the Pirates of the Caribbean, which for a movie based on a Disney theme park ride was shockingly entertaining.
All in all, a good weekend, hopefully to kick off a good week at work…