Today is Bear Bryant’s birthday. You’d think that the University would give us the day off, but no…
just plain unfair
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Author Archives: Brandon
I could be an ad exec…
I’ve always thought that a good idea for a car commercial would be to have a car pull alongside a big-rig and have the truck driver signal the driver of the car and make the “blow your horn” motion with his arm. Then the driver of the car would comply, eliciting a big kid-like grin on the trucker’s face as the car pulls away.
Now if you see that kind of commercial on the air anytime soon, be sure and tell them where to direct the royalties for the idea…
but it’s your own kind, Porky!
Has anyone else besides me noticed how many barbecue places use pigs standing at a barbecue pit in their logos? Do the people who come up with these think that it’s cute in a cannibalistic sort of way?
pangs of guilt
I own eight Coca-Cola glasses. I use them to drink Diet Dr Pepper.
I feel like such a hypocrite.
bad commercial, okay pizza
On that “Bad Andy” Domino’s Pizza commercial where Andy sneaks up on that delivery guy in the shower, two things come to mind. First, why is he wearing his Domino’s cap in the shower? Second, why in the world is he showering at a Domino’s at all?
Am I the only one who finds this stupid?
apparent top-secret info
Why in the world is it so tough for Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to slay vampires? I don’t watch the show very often, but Ricky tells me enough about it to where I get the premise, and that she’s faced tough vampires before. I’ve watched The X-Files where they face vampires, and Mulder knows that if you spill items (I think that Mulder used sunflower seeds in the show) on the ground, vampires are compelled to pick all of them up. Wouldn’t you think that Buffy and her friends would be privy to this information? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to slay vampires if they knew this? Just carry a bag of seeds, and whenever you come up against one, just spill ’em on the ground, and stake the guy while he’s picking them up! Seems easy to me…
ironic money-waster
Who exactly buys coin tubes from Wal-Mart or some such store? Don’t they realize that most any bank will give you those for free? Why does Wal-Mart stock them anyway?
Parting Shots 2000
(or, some of what I learned this year)
Wow. Where do I begin? There were so many things that I could touch on. But I’m going to concentrate here on what the MBA program’s first year gave me, because that was my life for the most part this year.
On one of my previous thoughts I talked about “touchpoints”. I defined a touchpoint as anything, anywhere, or anyone that you can go to and feel at least somewhat comfortable around. This year one of the things that I learned was that the MBA program doesn’t offer too many of these. It’s not its fault; it’s its nature to be difficult. Some of the people, however, became very good touchpoints. For possibly the first time, I’ve made really good friends in my classes. I think that that’s because we all went through this together; we’re the only ones who understand what we’ve managed to accomplish (well, the only ones at this university, anyway). And that’s not just first-years (I don’t know if you’ll ever read this, but if you do, thank you so much for everything, Mandy).
I’ve been reminded once again that you really can’t change your way of acting, even around new people. I’m still not that comfortable around large groups of people, and I don’t know if that will ever change; much as I tried to be outgoing, I’m still not at the comfort level where I’d like to be. I’ve learned that not having that ability is kind of difficult in the business world. You need to be outgoing to really make it. Luckily, I’ve managed to learn how to pull off extroversion in two-hour or so spurts. It’s still not easy, though.
I learned that business school isn’t easy by any stretch. I’ve learned that Peter Robinson was absolutely right, and I recommended his book to practically every prospective student that I hosted this year. That is not to say that business school wasn’t worth it. On the contrary, I think that it was, overwhelmingly so in fact.
And yes, I learned a lot about statistics, accounting, economics, organizational behavior, production and operations management, finance, management information systems, and yes, even marketing. And that’s the truth. One of the big reasons that I came to this program was to get an understanding of the basics of business, and I think that I’ve done so.
What else has this program given me? For one, a new mindset towards solving problems. Before, problem solving meant having the problem and designing a solution to it, be it a computer program or a mathematical equation. Now, problem solving includes actually figuring out what the problem is. It’s given me a whole new way of thinking about everyday things. I’ve had to learn a lot of teamwork concepts. Most of my projects in my undergraduate days were either solo or with like-minded individuals. Here, I’ve had to deal with people from vastly different backgrounds, and while I didn’t normally take the lead on things, I did when I had to. I’ve learned even more about time management. I admit, I thought that they were feeding us buzzwords at the beginning of the year when they talked about it. But I’ve learned that sometimes it’s impossible to get it all done the way you want it done, so you just need to do as good a job as you can on all of it, but make sure that it all gets done.
But what’s perhaps the biggest thing that this program gave me this year was a sense of accomplishment. Not many people choose to go down this road, and not all of them make it. I started out with no business acumen, and I’ve come a long way since then. I feel that whatever decision I make concerning my career, I’ll be better equipped to do it as a result of this year.
I haven’t learned yet what I want to do with my life. Luckily, I’ve got another year to figure that out. 🙂 I’ve got a few ideas running around my mind right now about what I want to do with my life that I would never have thought too much about before this year. We’ll just have to see what the next year holds to see what I’ll do with those ideas.
improving my vision
Passage: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to this purpose.” Romans 8:28
Well, I didn’t get the WorldCom position. It actually took about two weeks longer to find out than that one fateful night chronicled in the last thought I had, but I finally got “the letter”.
“We are pursuing other applicants…”
That didn’t make me feel very good, to be honest with you. I had been wanting to work for WorldCom for a while, and even though I heard that I was the first alternate, it didn’t really ease the disappointment.
But I got another offer. A company called Stonebridge Technologies was interested in me. I could work in Birmingham, commuting from my apartment here. I could save some of the money that I would earn over the summer that would have been spent on finding a place to live in Jackson, Mississippi, while keeping my apartment here too. Plus, I’d be doing really interesting, challenging work.
What else was there to say? I accepted the job this week.
What does this mean? With God sometimes you don’t get what you want, but you always get what you need, and you pretty much find out that what you needed ends up being better than what you wanted in the first place.
There have been many times that I wanted something and I didn’t get it. For example, I wanted to be a host at the BCM last year. I thought that it would be really neat to live at the center and get my rent free, etc. But now I look back at that and see that if I would have gotten my wish, I would have slowly gone mad. This year was hard enough with my own apartment and living space; getting all of the work done was difficult at times and downright near-impossible at others. Trying to do it while hosting at the center would have been insane.
Recently, I had my eyes checked. I needed a new pair of glasses because my old pair was out of fashion. Really out of fashion. I hadn’t had an eye exam in a couple of years, so I knew that I probably needed one. My glasses were about a prescription behind my contacts, so I figured that was a safe bet.
Let’s just say that the doctor was amazed that I had managed to drive there. Referring to my old lenses, he inquired, “You’re sure that you can see okay out of these?” I answered, “Sure.” I saw enough to know where I was going, I was thinking.
Lo and behold, when I put on these new glasses (stylin’ frames and all), the whole world opens up anew to me! Anyone who’s just had their prescriptions recently strengthened will testify to this. You can see the individual leaves on the trees again, you don’t have to wait until the last second to read signs when you drive, and on and on.
The obvious analogy in all of this is that my vision is only as good as the old pair of glasses. I think that I know where I’m going, and I think that I know what the best way is to get there. But God has the full perfect vision that I lack. He can see the whole picture, and it’s crystal clear to Him. He can see the details of my life that I miss. And the most important thing is that he knows the best path for me, even if it means not going the way that I, with my blurry vision, want to go. If I let Him, he’ll direct my paths, all the while improving my vision for myself, so that one day my will and His will shall be one.
anxiety vs. will
Passage: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6
It is 10:00 in the evening as I write this, and I have a little bit of anxiety right now.
Actually, a lot of anxiety.
You see, tomorrow I get a big idea as to where I will be working over the summer. I’m supposed to find out my status on an internship position tomorrow. I’ve really wanted to work for this company, and so it’s a big deal to me. I already know that my fate is not in my hands, though. Someone else has first opportunity at this position. If they take it, I have to look somewhere else. But if they don’t, it’s mine if I want it (which I do). So it’s hard for me at this point to feel anything but nervousness about the whole thing; after all, I have really no say in it.
Or do I?
In the above passage it says that I should present my requests to God. I have already been in prayer about where I should go over the summer, and about this job in particular. 1 John 5:14-15 says that if I am presenting my requests to God in His will, then I shall have what I ask for.
So I’ve asked for this position, if that’s what I’m supposed to do. I know that God wants what’s best for me (Romans 8:28), so really I’m asking to know if this is what He wants for me. Now, I can’t honestly say that this has somehow magically put me in a completely tranquil mood. I’m still not exactly at peace with this. But I do know that He is watching out for me.
Now, to extend this to other things in my life:
I was going to write a thought about how I feel that I don’t know a lot of things about life, and as a result I worry about them. I don’t know what a real job is like, and so a lot of the time I feel that I’m going to be inadequate when I start one this summer (wherever it may be). I don’t know how to live completely on my own yet, and so I’m concerned with what it’s like. (It’s comforting to know that my sister and brother-in-law have gotten along swimmingly so far, but that doesn’t completely put me at ease.) I worry constantly if I will ever find someone. When I think I’ve found them, I worry about how to act around them, how to approach them, etc.
I could keep on going for a while about such matters. But that doesn’t really do anything except make me think (and therefore worry) about them. One of the things that I have to constantly keep working on is to put my faith in God when it comes to myself. Too many times I want to take control of my own life; then I find that by “taking control” I mean just worry about everything. I have found that when I am really close to God everything really works out well. That goes back to 1 John. When I am in His will, what I ask for will be granted because what I want and what He wants are one and the same.
I know that I’ve got a long way to go before I completely manage to put this into action. But I know that it’s going to be better for me as a whole when I do.