Anticipation

I know I've talked quite a bit about my fraternity throughout the semester but I definitely need to fill you guys in on some recent developments as well as my summer plans. The other day I walk out into the hallway and this is what I see. Bundles of gnats flying through the air around hallways almost hidden by trashbags. The stench of a living environment not fit for living. A piece of wood connects the once white hallway to the bathroom, and trust me you want to walk on the piece of wood. I walk in the bathroom to use the water filter and almost faint when I realize it has been taken away 3 days short of our eviction. Thanks Guys! They couldn't have waited until Friday to take away our drinking water? 10 minutes out of bed and already a miserable day has begun. If only I knew it was only to go downhill from there. I know I sound like a miserable pessimistic person but I like to think of it as being realistic. The next dissapointment comes immediately after when I open my laptop to find that there are no internet connections available. Hmm? WTF? My iphone gets an email from our treasurer stated that the internet company also decided to cancel our internet service three days short of our eviction. Thanks Guys! Now i'm really getting upset and I have to take my hardest final in about 2 hours. No internet to review the material and no water to hydrate myself. Great. The anticipation for summer is the greatest it has ever been. I feel as if the harder I try to obtain spectacular grades and enjoy myself during school, at least this semester, the worst the situation gets. In one week I will be laying on the beach with much less to worry about. I'll still be in debt hundreds of dollars, however I'll have fresh water and all the internet surfing I can get my hands on. Feel for me boys and girls.

Finals Week

So I've been up to my neck in studying for finals this whole week and during some break time while surfing the net I came upon a pretty entertaining website which definitely did a good job calming me down and making me come to realization of how minuscule finals are to your entire life.

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-23-2001-6237.asp

Take a quick look guarantee you'll laugh.

eviction may 7th

So we are being forced out of this house on may 7th at 5pm. Luckily my last final is prior to this time or I'd be bringing quite a large amount of luggage to my marketing exam. There are so my problems which have been generated because we can't live in this house next semester. Where am I going to park my car? I absolutely need my car up at school and I refuse to pay $90 a month at cedarbrook to park. I am going have to end up parking the thing miles away which is really annoying because I'll never be able to drive anywhere without a hassle. A larger issue however is storage dilemmas. I have a couch, table, bed and other miscellaneous items which obviously cannot fit in my car. I need to bring this stuff to my apartment next semester but I can't store it in the house which is just utterly ridiculous. This community has not only ruined my fraternity and half my junior year of college has created systemic risk! I feel like the market when Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns failed. Not only did those individuals firms go under but they caused so much drama and horror throughout all of the economy. I can't afford to pay for storage and parking over the summer and such. Thanks AEPI nationals I really appreciate it, assholes. Sorry for partying.

interesting video

Anyone is interested in the financial markets and how the SEC regulates them will enjoy this video.
The video really illustrates how intricate Wall Street is and how regulation can be a good thing and a bad thing.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

While your watching keep in mind how this issue which took place in the late 90's almost directly relates to today's news with Goldman Sachs and market regulation.

Business Presentations

I thought the presentations were very impressive the other day. I liked how that was the climax to the class because it was very realistic and made you think. I personally thought our idea "Interns R' Us" is a great idea. I am trying to actually go out there and really attempt to start up a similar company. My group says we should wait until we graduate and such but the downside to that philosophy is that after graduation i'm planning on being veryt busy working and getting my career started. I would think that starting up a business from scratch would be just a pipedream at that point. It brings up the question of the best age to start up a business. The downside of starting a business while you're still a student is lack of funds and time management issues. After graduation you're still probably broke and even more busy working somewhere. If I could get this business funded somehow it would definitely be a possibility but finding $100,000 is no easy task, especially when there are 5 college students running the whole show. I am a little dissatisfied with how the grades work in this class. There is very little disclosure of current grades and much confusion on how these grades are calculated. I hope I'm not flabbergasted with my grade for the class because I think the majority of students really did do a lot of work. I think the task of being exposed to new challenges and really putting some effort in these three projects is the purpose of the minor; grades should reflect that.

Goldman Sachs

What really is fraud today in the business world? Goldman Sachs was recently accused of fraudulent actions related to subprime mortgages. They would sell these packaged securities to another investment firm but would customize them accordingly. The buyer would then dish them off to uneducated institutions and made off with murder when the mortgage crisis developed. Now this may seem unfair on the surface but think about it, it's the business world and it's a capitalistic economy. Buyer beware man. Goldman Sachs is just making a profit and customizing securities for sale shouldn't be a wrongdoing. The institution purchasing these CDOs should understand what they're buying. There isn't any deception, don't buy them if you don't know what they are. People are also assuming that this company is going to be affected by this lawsuit. Goldman Sachs is the most well known investment bank in the country. An action such as this one isn't going to affect their wealth and ability to make a profit. I feel as if regulation in all aspects is getting way out of control. When is too much regulation too much regulation? When it starts to disrupt my social life and cause me inconvenience, that's when there is too much regulation.

IFC really?

As I am sure most of you all know Alpha Epsilon Pi, my fraternity, is now officially abolished. Societal pressure left IFC and AEPI nationals no choice. You should have seen some of the responses from citizens under the centre daily times article. http://www.centredaily.com/2010/04/08/1900851/police-investigate-reported-hazing.html This article is so inflated that it's not fair what ended up happening to us. We were the low hanging fruit, the guinea pigs in the beginning of something that is going to get worse. I foresee very soon in the future Greek life not existing anymore. People think that we bring nothing to the community but that is just ignorant. Besides raising close to a million dollars a year towards THON, greek life is Penn State. The reason I love this school so much is mostly due to fraternity life and now that is nonexistent. We almost got thrown in the street the other night but the rep from natonals was nice enough to let us live in the house the rest of the semester with one exception. We are on lock down. A security guard is present in this house 24/7 and NOONE except residents are allowed inside. No girlfriends not even brothers who don't live in the house are allowed in. Miserable.

4/14/10

What do you think about the dilemma of reneging on job offers? Robin Stevens, big player in the career services center, has this mindset that if you reneg on a job offer she will blacklist you to every person she knows. That's one hell of a ethical principle isn't it? Now obviously reneging isn't that ethical of a thing to do but think about it, if you get a job offer at your dream job and you've already accepted an offer at a less attractive job what do you do? Isn't is career services job to help you as best as they can to chase your dreams and get your dream job? It's your life you are the one paying 30k a year to get an education and hopefully a solid job out of college. Recruiting cost money but the students are the ones funding it originally anyway! I find it preposterous that this women will do all she can to ruin your career if you chase your dreams and cancel your offer on a company to accept a better one. It is business, it's a democratic system, it's every man for himself in this country I shouldn't have to worry about Mrs. Stevens troubles, it's her job, and mine is to get the best job I can. See my point?

Fraternity Life

As I'm sure 98% of Penn State knows, fraternities are getting bad rap and are inevitably going to be destroyed in the near future. This entire year has been horrible socially. From suspension to a student dying in the fall, fraternities have got the blame for everything. Not to sound biased but shit happens, its no reason to ruin all of Greek life. My fraternity is struggling right now http://www.centredaily.com/2010/04/08/1900851/police-investigate-reported-hazing.html
We've been the front page of like 4 newspapers for the past few days. Shit has hit the fan and everyone is this house is really miserable. Horrible semester socially its really depressing how low morale is currently at this place. I just want to get out of this semester/house as soon as possible thank god im 21. Knolly not being here makes it even worse. His ebonics are missed by all and I really think things would be better if he was still around. My best bet is to visit a different school every weekend in order to have a little fun and get out of this dismal atmosphere. Next semester is gonna be awesome though living with my 3 boys in cedarbrooke. Wish me luck yall.

4/12/10

So after months of interviews and much attempt in getting an internship for the summer I finally got an offer. Target Incorporated offered me a position as a team leader for the summer at a store right near my house. Having engineering entrepreneurship as my minor really makes me stand out during behavioral interview questions. There have been a lot of team experiences that have really contributed to making me a well rounded individual. Anyway thats a relief now I have an opportunity to make some money and have a resume builder for later in college. It's also only monday through thursday so thursday night instantly hit the short for the weekend. Kinda excited for this semester to be over been through a lot lately, a lot. I'm going to Bloomsberg this weekend to visit my boys apparently it's supposed to be the biggest weekend there so I wanna see what this place is all about. Right now were considering some cool ideas for the last project of the class. We really like this business of designing a translating device and marketing it to large businesses who are consistantly dealing with business deals across the globe. I think its a great idea the only difficult part is designing the product, it's a tough job and would require a lot of R and D. I hope it works out, thats all for now.

2/8/10

Just got back from the career fair at the business building went pretty well. I had intentions of going up to about 8 companies and when I went up to target to talk about possible internship opportunities the lady got the main recruiter and insisted I sit down with him. He pretty much interviewed me for 45 minutes! When I got up the entire fair was shut down. I really wanted to hit up Liberty Mutual because that'd be a hooked up internship in Boston but they were gone. I got the recruiter's contact info and just sent her a message. Crash and Burn is due tomorrow I think team burnt umber did pretty well hopefully we won. The hustling of selling hot chocolate plus the innovative idea of transferring vhs to dvds is a golden combo remember that boys and girls.

2/3/10

Just took out my saxophone for the first time in months. Went down to the kitchen so I wouldn't annoy the entire house even though I still sound pretty good. I even went over to Robert M. Sides up on Atherton and grabbed an application for employment. I figure I can teach kids to play and make a solid dollar doing it. Guess we'll see how it pans out. Tomorrow night were actually going through with this jello wrestling rush event. I dont know if it's going to be a complete disaster or if it will be an incredible night. Somehow though I can't imagine sorority girls wrestling eachother in a pool of jello to be anything less then amazingly entertaining. Wish there was some way I could incorporate that in Crash and Burn but any idea I can think of relating to the event will basically be illegal so there goes that. At this point in the project though I feel were at a good standpoint. The fact that Matt extended the due date makes me think not many groups are doing great. I'm pretty curious to see what the winning team's revenue ends up being. Think I feel like i'm getting sick, shouldn't have went to the bars last night I always get peer pressured into those things. Hope it blows over I really don't need the H1N1 right now got way too much going on.