Return of the Blogger

Wow, it's been close to a month. My bad.

I started my job on Monday, and this past week has gone pretty well. It's kind of a slow time for royalties because they're due on the 15th, and that means all the companies will start sending them then (just the way the music industry works). This has given me time to get familiar with the songs we work with, and I've started making some of the spreadsheets and databases that will eventually allow me to give our clients better data and more accurate projections for each quarter (kind of the whole reason they brought me on in the first place).

My schedule for work is your standard 9-5, which includes a flexible lunch. Some days will be a little longer than that, but I can live with that. The people I work with are great and have been extremely helpful in getting me used to all the processes and procedures of the office.

Which, speaking of, here are some pictures of my office and a video of the view from my desk chair.

The Big Loud Shirt/Bucks building


My office








And an extremely poor quality video:

April showers bring cold fronts

After a month of amazing warmth, with high temperatures rarely below 75 or above 85, it rained Tuesday night and got cold. Granted, having highs in the 40s is nothing like the 8 inches of snow that now occupies my parents' front lawn, but its still something. Best thing about this is I get to wear sweaters and jeans for another week.

Another week of classes down, another week closer to the crisis point that is graduation. I crossed a big hurtle this week with the completion of my individual paper for Strategic Management. 25 pages; 6,968 words. Now I really only have three big projects left. And all of a sudden I'm getting anxious and nervous and stressed and all of these things that I never am typically. This isn't me! I'm supposed to be calm and collected and... just definitely not this.

I think this is coming out because I had a meeting with Gonas today about helping me get a job. He seems very committed to helping me out, and sent out e-mails to a few former students looking for leads. The biggest problem is I'm looking for a good job for the short term, and those are hard to come by. Gonas said that if I wanted a job with a financial management company in town he could get me a junior analyst position pretty easily. These types of positions pay really well for a starting salary, but are more of a long-term deal usually, and are quite demanding. Plus it's finance! I thought I already decided I didn't want to do that! I just wish I could find a job that perfectly fit me and my time line and my budget and everything... So if anyone knows of a job like that, I'd love to hear about it.

I am officially going to Dallas May 6-8 for the SIFE National Competition. It will be fun, but it's another slot filled on the schedule. I need to sit down tomorrow and plan out the next month or I'm going to forget about some important events.

One of the best things about being at Belmont is the schedule. As a Christian university, they want to make sure they cover every possible Christian holiday, including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Thus, no class today or tomorrow. Another characteristic of Belmont is all vacations, at least in the minds of students, begin the day before. And, everyone takes vacation opportunities extremely seriously. Thus, most everyone is gone. There are a few strays like myself, but they are few and far between.

As a result, my day today was marked by two early trips to the airport, my meeting with Gonas, Talladega Nights, Good Will Hunting, a nap (can you believe it? Two whole hours!), and an evening with the comedies of NBC. The new episode of The Office was great as usual and long overdue. And now I'm laying in bed, watching Runaway Bride, wondering what tomorrow will bring.

So much confusion going on at this point. I need to get some crap figured out.

And I have a pancake craving.

Contra Dancing

Last night, I went Contra Dancing. For those that don't know what it is, it's folk dancing in lines and groups, and it involves a lot of spinning. Bascially, if you've seen the new Pride and Prejudice, it's like the dancing scene in the beginning of that (I think), with faster music and more spinning and much more "swinging" (not like swing dancing, but swinging like taking your partner or neighbor and swinging around in circles). It's definitely one of those things that you have to experience in order to understand, but it was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I would even say I had a good time with it, especially once I was ok with swinging (My apologies to Jess, Ashley, and every other woman there for my ineptitude, especially early on). I might even go again, which is a scary thought.

One of the funniest things of the night was a dance that I happened to sit out for. Ashely was dancing with a guy named Boots, a man in his 40s who had a massive manly beard and a long bandanna tied around his head. There was one part of the dance called the Gypsy Meltdown, where the partners walk in a tight circle, staring at each other, for four beats before going into a swing. Well Boots, if you hadn't guessed, is a very expressive and playful fellow, and he made some of the greatest faces at Ashley, who stared him down like a pro. I would have paid the $5 entrance fee just to watch those two go at it in their Gypsy Meltdowns.

I think I've either lost my touch or Matt has gotten much better at Tiger Woods. Either way, I lost 8 strokes over 12 holes yesterday, and that is simply unacceptable.

I now have a co-worker at Reverb on Saturdays (whose name, even though she's sitting 4 feet away, escapes me). She's on from 12-7, which means that I get to leave early! Every Saturday!

This afternoon I will be playing racquetball with the Gazebo boys, then going to the Belcourt to see Pan's Labyrinth with my housemates and Bland, then bowling with my community group. A full day if ever there was one (at least by my standards).

I am so glad Dwight came back. You have no idea. Although I thought they could have drug that storyline out a little longer. And Andy needs to go. STAT. He's served his purpose, provided some of the funniest moments of season three, but I would be shocked if he makes it through another three episodes.

AND WHAT THE FRICK DID JIM DO? He was screwed no matter how he answered that question because it took him much too long to respond. I really don't want Karen to leave, she's definitely grown on me, but I am interested to see how this all shakes down. I think they'll keep her around for the rest of the season, and the season finale Jim will have to choose (they can't have Pam choosing between Jim and Roy again, that would be lame). Or, maybe, the season will end with Dwight and Angela eloping.

Now that's good TV.

Let's start the New Year right

Happy New Year everyone!

Before I get into how much fun the past week has been, I would like to make everyone aware that there is currently a squirrel in our chimney, a squirrel that was, at 9 this morning, running around the living room and throwing itself against closed windows. One of the weirdest wake up calls ever:

Tim: (knocks) Hey Mark?
Me: (waking) Yeah?
Tim: There's a squirrel running around downstairs.
Me: Well OK then.

I can't tell if it's found a way to crawl out yet or not, but I haven't heard it in about 5 minutes, so maybe it's gone.

Anyway, 2007 has started off extremely well. For New Years, Kendra, Jess, and Ben came over to hang out with me and Jon. I made my mom's wild rice soup, which turned out great, and we played Settlers of Catan, pinochle, and spades. I also tried my first drink ever (champagne with a bit of cranberry grape juice), which was quite gross in my opinion. The other guys didn't seem to have a problem though...

New Years Day we slept in until 10ish, then had pancakes and eggs for breakfast, and played euchre. After a little break, Ben and I went over to the girls' place for Chinese, Little Miss Sunshine, and more cards. Pretty much every day since then has been like that.

I have yet to go to bed before 2 in 2007. This is seriously the longest streak of late nights and late mornings I've had possibly ever. But it's been great, and Kendra and I have actually started to win a few games after being skunked for the first several days.

Last night was another classic episode of The Office. Seriously, Dwight taking his jacket off and tying it around his waist is one of the funniest things I've seen in recent memory. No joke.

Ben and I have played racquetball twice this week, and I am not very good at all. But, I'm learning, and some day I'll score double digits on him. Winning a match, at this point, is out of the question. I am mostly just happy at this point to not be getting skunked anymore. Well, almost anymore.

I don't really want to go running right now, but I should. So I'm gonna do that. Then, Children of Men followed by a community group reunion game night. Should be pretty sweet.

Another winter day has come and gone away

I am home!

The actual driving was around 15 hours, which is making good time. I think the biggest help there was not having to wait in line at the one toll in Illinois. I did stop at my sister Sarah's boyfriend's house to have dinner with them and watch the Office Christmas special, which was hilarious as usual.

I slept until 9:30 or so this morning, and worked for my dad for 5 1/2 hours this afternoon. Abby had a basketball game tonight in Little Falls, which they won 58-39, and she played very well. I was proud.

Grades are in.
Kudos: I got an A in Investments! I thought this was a possibility, but it never really hit me that I could get that until it happened. I'd actually had a dream where I scrolled down to my grades and saw a C+, and that was freaking me out. But, thankfully, not all dreams come true.
Catastrophes: An A fricking minus in Intel Prop? What's up with that? Thanks for ruining my chances at a 3.95 Moser.

Tomorrow I will be working again, getting the oil changed in my car, and buying a coat at Steve and Barry's because I forget mine, along with all of my hanging clothes, in Nashville. Smooth, I know.

I listened to 8 hours of Christmas music on the road yesterday. It almost reached the point where I was sick of it. Not quite, but almost.

I was going to post about the Golden Globe nominees, but my sister needs the computer, so that will happen at a later date!

'Twas the best of times

Things in Nashville today are quite amazing. I'm not just referring to the fact that it is 5 PM and my desktop weather guide still says 74 degrees either.

I remembered last night as I was reading before bed that I had an appointment with Tina Dishman, resident expert on all things graduation requirement related in the music business department, at 9 this morning. I knew going into the meeting that there was the potential, if everything went my way, that I could come out of this meeting only needing 14 credits this spring. Lo and behold, Belmont did not screw me over, and I will be taking 4 3-credit classes and a 2-credit internship this spring. That is approx. 4 credits fewer than any semester I've had since fall of freshman year, and by far my lightest schedule ever.

It will be very easy to fit these classes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, possibly all in a row even. That allows me to intern at Gotee (which is a for-sure thing now) two days a week and spend a day at Showdown helping with publishing. That place is connected to so many places in the industry, and they're really nice and the work has kind of grown on me, so I figure why not right?

My regular class schedule today consisted of a test in Mgmt Comm, which was rather easy, followed by lectures and discussions in Intl Business and Investments. I skipped Business Ethics for the first time this afternoon, and I feel no remorse whatsoever. I also found out last night that I convinced my ethics prof that one of his test questions was wrong, giving me an extra 2 points on my last test and keeping my hopes of an A in that class alive. That's really the only grade I'm mildly worried about, besides my grade from Gonas, and that will essentially come down to the 15-20 page final paper he's having us write. Should be a grand time.

My mom told me yesterday that they're dropping the price on our house (it's still for sale, in case you've forgotten), and the new price is so low that if someone doesn't buy it they're an idiot. That means that I may be doing some packing when I go home for Thanksgiving, and there's a better chance at Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I've been listening to Christmas music since September (although when do I really stop during the year?), and it just can't be topped. Even on a sunny day like today when I wore shorts and was feeling quite warm in a long-sleeve button up, I can still listen to my "Best of Christmas" playlist on iTunes and not feel stupid. Good times.

And now tonight I get to watch "The Office." I'm not sure what's going to happen though, this episode is called "Branch Closing." So unless a miracle happens, I have a feeling we're gonna see some major changes in the next few weeks. The best aspect of this whole turn of events is that it makes the chances of a Pam/Jim reunion infinitely better in the near future. Guess we'll wait and see!

And a side note: I like the fact that "Lost" isn't going to just show reruns mixed in with new episodes, but three months is far too long to wait for new episodes, even if the ending of this last one wasn't spectacular, as much as they tried to make it a cliff-hanger.

Time goes by so slowly

Another week has come and gone. I got my investments mid-term back, which I got a 96 on! I had a hard time believing it, but it happened. The class average was 80, and Gonas said that the scores were pretty divided between high scores and low scores, so I rocked a test that a bunch of finance majors got D's on. It doesn't make me want to add the major, but it did kind of make my day.

Jim missed his chance on The Office last night, and it pissed me off. Pam better not move back to Roy.

I'm going into the studio tonight to record vocals for Matt's second project, which is a cover of "Over My Head" by The Fray. Hopefully it turns out good, I think we might try some weird harmonies or something just for fun, which probably won't get used but will still be fun to try.

I'm not looking forward to Reverb tomorrow. Not that I ever do, but more so than usual for some reason. Just have to suck it up, I guess.

I think I'm gonna buy MI:III today. Such a good movie.

This year, for the first time in a while, I bought jeans that I don't like how they fit. I typically end up getting the same kind every year, and they worked great, but I decided to try something else this time, and I really only like how one pair fits right now. That pair, however, fits amazingly. It's kind of disappointing though, I think I might have to buy another pair, hopefully like the good pair I got at Aeropostale. I might have to wait until I go home, I haven't shopped at a mall since I got down here.

Trying to decide if I want to see Borat or not. Do I go to that now or wait until next week and see Stranger Than Fiction, which I know I want to see. Such a dilemma.

AND, I'm trying to justify buying a Post Secret book, which I realistically can't so I have to wait until Christmas for that.