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Showing posts from November, 2009

A week has flown by

I haven't posted anything in a week, and it's not my fault. Well it kind of is. I took last week off from work, and it was enjoyable not having to do much. We hosted a turkey dinner, had two playdates, went to the Shedd Aquiarium, and did a whole bunch of little stuff. Fun week overall. Now it's back to the grind. I have a week's worth of backlogged work and studying.

About books

I am ashamed to admit it, but I have just finished a book i started to read about 3 months ago. I usually burn through books. This time however, I spent more time playing video games than reading, something about the state of mind. The book I finished was by Alistair Reinolds called The Prefect. An excellent Cop story set in the distant human future. I like the book a lot, not sure why I didn't read it faster. Any, the question that has risen after me finishing it is this. Why is there a tendency in recent books to kill off the bad guys in on-attention grabbing way. Just as a passing thought: "Oh, yeah. I passed him/her on a way down the dungeon/base/spaceship, or whatever was left of him." I want my dead guys to die a horrible gory death with the principles of irony, karma, payback, and comeuppance burning into my retinas and leaving brain scarred with the lessons. Just a thought.

What's an Innovation

I am writing this partially because the Innovation class deals with fairly abstract notions (the best kind) and I need to get my mind around it. All of the innovations fall into two categories: Sustaining and Disruptive. What places them in the these categories is not the idea itself but rather how it's being used. Sustaining innovations have a single purpose. They make things more, better, cheaper faster. Disruptive innovations are characterized by several very important criterea: - They have to be addressed to an uderserved or unserved public. - The have to create a brand new market niche. - They do not fit on the sustaining S-curve* The best example of Disruptive innovation is the iPhone. If Apple positioned the iPhone just as a call phone it would be sustainable innovation. All it did was create a possible better phone, an expensive one. What Apple did correct as they sold it as a brand new mobile computing platoform, allowing for the app content. The Apps content is the key

It's Tuesday..

It's Tuesday and I have nothing to write about. The ankle is healing nicely. I can walk now with almost no pain. Planning to go on the soft brace tomorrow, and possibly go to a gym on Thursday for some moderate walking. The Bears' season is done. The offensive line is like swiss cheese when protecting Cutler, and offers no routes for Forte. Cutler doesn't have anybody to throw the ball to, except Olsen. And the Defence is just plain bad. Lots of work and studying to be done this week.

I am allergic to stairs

Before I get urgent phone calls from people who usually worry about me (yes, Mom and Dad, I know you do it only because you love me, and even if I don't show it I still appreciate it) I AM FINE. Back to the stair allergies. It's true. I fall down them with a frequency I'd rather not mention. Yesterday evening, as embarrasing as it is, I misplaced my foot and fell down (oh horror) down about two steps on our wood patio. My ego was not bruised, I have very little. My ankle however got twisted for the umptienth time. Second time in four months, at least. Painful as it was, I know what to do in this situation. I slapped my trusted ankle brace on, and went to sleep, thinking that if the pain does not go away by the morning, or it will swell up I'll go to the ER. Well, there was no big swelling or visible bruises, but it was still unpleasant to step on my foot. I usually know where it supposed to hurt with ankle sprain, this time I had an additional spot. I've decided to

Pondering....

You know what's interesting. Why is it that kids can laugh (not smile) before they can speak or do very little besides relective motor movements? What is the congnative process behind my 4-Months-Old laughter when I dance around her like an idiot? She doesn't know what dance is. She doesn't know what an idiot is. Yet the combination of both brings forward an unstoppable mirth in her. Just thinking out loud...

New class

I have started this blog initially to share my experiences as an MBA student. I have realized that the last post about school was more than two months ago. The reason for that was that the class was boring. Seriously, I thought I could learn something new about IT Management. Nothing. All of the topics were familiar to me, and I could hold up discussions without even reading the material. I will see what the grade is going to be, but it certainly will have very little to do with the material, and more with how I wrote my papers. This new class is promising to be very interesting. The instructor is an accomplished entrepreneur and a Harvard Business School graduate, whatever that means. In a single session he completely destroyed our comprehension of business strategies, a class we have taken only a year ago. He has also put a dent in our believe that "betas" are the most important things when evaluating investment risks. He also wrote a book: Create Marketplace Disruption I H

What stars can tell

As I walked outside the house yesterday evening, I glanced up to the sky. What I saw was the Orion constellation rising up in the east. And then the realization that the Fall is upon us has settled inside my brain. Strangely enough, it's not the leaves turning or the colds that does it. It's this strange nostalgic event. I never look for it, I never expect it, it always comes very suddenly. You see, growing up, me and my brother were quite the Astronomy buffs. We've read books and could name and recognize more than a dozen constellations. I have always wanted my own little telescope. That of course went by as I grew up and became interested in other things. But this events always brings a flow of childhood memories (more like a trickle considering the ability of my brain to concentrate and remember things). I couldn't recognize the Big Dipper if it stared right in my face these days. One thing I could never loose is the ability to identify Orion's belt, and a memory

Halloween

Not much of a post today. Lot's of things to do. This is us doing Halloween. The Awesome Wife and The Baby as a little flower. The Five Year Old as a pink poodle.