Study Time

The cats study whenever I do. Here they are learning all about fish...

I'm so proud

My friend Travis is a 4th grade school teacher (and ex Abercrombie & Fitch model but that's another story). He sent an email entitled, "I'm so proud." Below is what it said (btw, he's not really proud):

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My kids are such great writers. Here's an example from one of my little boy's recent stories. (Cody and Sierra are other students in my class)

"Batman will never forget when he eat Cody and Sierra. He feel the cherry blood in his mouth. He wish that he got to eat Sierra hand. He said that some good hand."

I'm so proud of them!

Module III done, 5 more before graduation

May I just say that I loved this module since it focused on operations. Talk about restoring confidence! This was the longest mod, but went by the quickest. It also had the best class schedule.

Classes:
Operations Management - Fundamentals of capacity constraint, lean, JIT, Six Sigma, etc. I completely enjoyed this class, but only due to my background.
Cost Accounting - Finally an accounting class I understand! ABC analysis fell right in line with my old data analysis life. Class format was intended to be interesting, but wound up confusing classmates more than helping: during each class 1 study group would present their finding then another group would "challenge" them by asking questions about the findings. The prof would finish class by going over anything that the lead group got wrong (or as he said, "There's no wrong answer. Mine are just more right."), and answer any questions.
Marketing - More marketing and I enjoyed it just as much as in mod II. I love exploring a new world that's easy to understand.
Information Systems Management - I thought this would be a crappy class that teaches us how implementing the appropriate computer system can magically fix all your problem; wasn't the case. Instead, it focused on how to determine if/when to spend $$ on a new program, how to align your IT with company strategies, and right/wrong implementation practices. Again, completely spoke to some of my background.
Simulations - Woohoo! Creating simulations based on supply/demand, or maximize/minimize something such as profitability.
Organization Development - Focused on effective leadership and difficulties in terms of culture/behavior change. Helped to understand why implementing initiatives is so hard.
Finance - This was my difficult class. Capital budgetting, WACC, cost of capital, etc. All new and all interesting. I think I've learned it now, but this was the exam I was worried about.
Law/Ethics - See mod II for description.

Exams:
Marketing/Finance - Our finance prof, who hates marketing, commented that marketing was exactly what he was hoping to be paired up with (note the sarcasm). We were given the case at noon on Thursday to review and took notes as appropriate. Friday morning at 8am they distributed the exam and no one expected to use the entire time (the exam was due 5pm). However, it seems as though most of the class finished close to the due time.
Info Systems Mgmt/Org Development - This was our group exam that required a 10-page report after analyzing a 20-page case. This was more difficult than it needed to be since we had to decide how to break up the work to complete the paper. Our team was relatively effecient by spending all day on the paper and finishing around 10pm Monday evening. I came in on Tuesday morning for final edits that the team sent me via email/IM and submitted the paper after 30 minutes. Two other team members really went above and beyond by working pretty hard from home on Tuesday when they didn't have to.
Ops Mgmt/Cost Accounting - Of course, another case study. Extract the info and determine capacity constraints then do activity-based costing. Recommend managerial actions based on the data analysis and qualitative information provided in the case. 5-page write up for Ops Mgmt and another 5-pages for Acct. Ops Mgmt was pretty straightforward, but the acct portion was setup in a confusing way. I'm sure some of the questions were intended to help, but I didn't understand some of it and just started answering later questions After providing those answers, I understood some earlier questions and filled in those templates just to "check the box."

Other:
Mod III Kickoff - Our first day was spent getting to know our new study groups and getting an overview of how we'll approach operations learnings. Throughout the day, we touched on every mod III class.
New Sections - During mods I and II our class was broken into 3 sections. I was in section 1 and stayed with that group of 55 students for every class. In mod III we shuffled the sections. I'm now in section 3 and chose a different seat. Our seating is in a horseshoe design. In section 1 I was in a center seat, center row - primary spot for cold calling. Now I'm off to the side almost to the back, which resulted in less cold calling. However, it also meant it was harder to get prof's attention when I wanted to be called on.
New Study Groups - Changing sections also meant our official study groups changed. It's been a pretty good group and it's been nice to get to know some people in the group more.
BCAP - Having Wednesdays dedicated to BCAP was great for staying up-to-date with homework, but we didn't do a lot for BCAP. However, we did do BCAP on random days throughout the week, so I guess it evened out. And with no class on Wednesday, we treated Tuesday like Friday by getting a few drinks and hanging out in the afternoon.
Class Times - Classes during this mod ended by noon, so we had the rest of the day for homework and other activities.
Unofficial Study Groups - My friends tried something a little different this mod. In the past one person was assigned a reading, so they would summarize it for the others...didn't work so well. This mod we all read the readings 2 days before class. Then we would meet the day before class and work through the homework. For me it helped to talk through marketing. For others it helped to work through the number based classes.

Kailey and Leo

The last blog entry reminded me that we haven't provided an update on the kitties lately. Basically, they're still kittens but physically they're all grown up. The vet told us to take them off kitten chow a couple months ago because they were starting to grow out instead of up.

Kailey has turned into the more graceful, petite girl. Her fur is soft like a velveteen rabbit and her coloring is lighter. Her favorite toy is a little rabbit fur mouse (she prefers brown).

Leo weighs more and has a thicker head. His fur has a flame style to it (orange stripe on the head). I often tell people he's more "plyable" since you can push him around on the couch and hold him like a baby and he doesn't care - he just wants the attention. His favorite toy is...anything.

Both cats are very sociable. They expect attention from anyone that enters the house and are ready to play with those who want to.

Allergy attacks seem to be minimal as well. Three of us that are allergic to cats have only experienced one attack. Another friend is fine as long as he washes his hands frequently, and another friend takes allergy pills and can actually play with them. But overall, if we know an allergic friend is coming over, we lock the cats in another room.

Brian is a proud father. He cuddles with the cats every chance he gets and laughs when I put them in front of the webcam so they can wave at him.

Snow?

If you're familiar with Boston's winter last year, you know it can get pretty bad around here. This is the primary thing that I hated about moving up here for school. However, this winter has been pretty mild.

• Snow has been "fun" snow (snows all day then starts melting that afternoon or the next day).
• The snow prompted me to get boots that DIDN'T have heels. I guess there's a first for everything.
• Brian enjoyed it b/c he got to put the Jeep in 4WD and be "manly."
• We had 1 snow day at school. Sunday night was getting stressful since I hadn't done my homework, but I received a welcome IM when Cha Cha wrote, "No school tomorrow!" Thank goodness.