A break from the usual format...

... so no Technology and Business today. No politics either. I've been discussing lots of (I think cool!) things in this blog, but for the last few weeks I haven't really discussed me in too great detail. And this is a journal, above all else! So in a laid back format, just some random things that have been happening in my life lately, as well as a few random thoughts of mine:

• Mini 1 ended, and in a remarkably/freakishly bizarre twist of events, I finished with the exact same GPA in my 4 Mini 1 classes as my cumulative University of Florida GPA. An exact " A- " by Carnegie Mellon grad school standards. Apparently I am an A- student...and that really works with me! Well, that's not entirely true; I can do better than that, and I will in the rest of this Mini and in the rest of my grad school program. I'm not one of these anti-social perfection freaks - they're rather common on this godforsaken campus - but I would like to graduate with Distinction or Highest Distinction - both of which require upping my current GPA.
• On that note, I find myself increasingly thinking about how well I will be able to make the school to career transition. I've been extremely successful in my academic career, but that is certainly no guarantee of real career success. If I stay in consulting, will I make partner one day? If I go into industry, will I ever become a chief executive? I do deeply wonder about those things; I'm not a very entrepreneurial person, but I am intelligent, hardworking, and I virtually always deliver on promises that I make, regardless of the personal sacrifices that are needed. This will be one of the major stories of my life...and I honestly have no idea how it will develop. We shall see...
• Speaking of transitions, I cannot emphasize strongly enough how difficult the Sun Belt to Rust Belt transition really is. There is certainly a strong set of reasons why such a large contingent of people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois have overwhelmingly come to the consensus over the last 50 years that states such as California, Arizona, and Florida simply offer a better quality of living - I have, of course, always been of that opinion, and living in the heart of the Rust Belt has only reinforced it. The climate here sucks. Period. Areas only slightly to the north and east of Pittsburgh are getting snow tonight, while it is 35 degrees here with the wind chill with snow set to arrive by the middle part of next week. With it comes the severely reduced mobility, painfully cold weather (literally, it was so cold this morning that even with multiple layers, I had a headache by the time I walked to class and back!), and high heating costs that plague this infernal region for close to half of the entire year. Am I being a sort of region bigot here? Perhaps. But again, I am clearly in the vast majority when it comes to this; people vote on their geographic preferences with their feet, and the simple superiority of the Sun Belt has thus been irrefutably established when it comes to the livability preferences of most people. So yea...counting down the days!
• Steam radiators take...getting used to. Damn old buildings. Indeed, the very idea of using heat in October (!!) takes getting used to for me. But at least the radiators keep it nice and toasty in here!
  
• There is this one really cute (nerdy cute - I'm really turned on by that) guy in Allies on whom I have this absolutely superficial sort of crush. Sort of like a teen girl and Leo DiCaprio thing, but more complicated/sophisticated than that (or maybe not...maybe I just don't like comparing myself to teen girls :-P) Clearly not something I'll be acting on, but still...oh I am such a little flirt, so easily distracted by cute guys. That's a definite weakness of mine, alas...cute guys - especially cute, nerdy guys. Ahh... :-)
• After settling down in South Florida, I will not relocate again in the next 10 years. To hell with whatever opportunities come up. Over the next year, I will have to 1) Find another short-term lease in South Florida for Summer 2009 2)Then find a short-term lease for my last semester (Fall 2009) at CMU and then 3) Get a one-year lease in South Florida during the "in-season"when rents/deposits are much higher and availability is lower. Each time I move, that's another $500 - $1,000 for a security deposit - which landlords always make you fight to get back - in addition to costs for storage and transportation, and the sheer physical exertion of it all. It is going to drive me into debt and serve as an extremely stressful, unpleasant experience. I'm done with this relocation shit - totally overrated. I am willing to acccept slower career advancement in exchange for location stability.
  
• I've been catching up on reading lately, mostly a new book on election demographics and some Harvard Business Review stuff. Should I read more fiction? Probably. I am committing myself to finishing at least three French novels by the end of this year, and 2 of them will be fiction.
  
• I skipped Niagara Falls this weekend to study, but had planned to go before the first snow. It's snowing in Buffalo at this very moment; shows how little I know about the Northeast!
• I was dozing last weekened when I had the most potent, real dream about my mom; I was so shaken that I could barely do anything other than stare at the TV for most of the rest of that night. She grew peppers as a hobby, and the dream involved her giving me a pepper plant as a present - some type of mini-pepper - as what I am certain was a sign of unconditional love, a way of saying "I'll always be there"; any botanist would know that peppers are a remarkably resilient plant, something that will grow year after year in perpetuity even if conditions are not ideal. There was something in that dream - the imagery of the pepper, invoking all of its symbolism in my life (I can't stress enough how much my mom loved peppers, and there was something about cultivating them that gave her such great pleasure throughout her life) - that touched me in a way that I hadn't been touched since the events in February and March. It stirred up so many memories from my earlier years; I was not my present age in the dream, but rather a kid of no more than 12 or 13 years old. We had a conversation in the dream, though I unfortunately cannot recall the details. But I am still struck at how the pepper was such an apropos symbol. I awoke with a gasp, my heart throbbing and blanketed in perspiration. And as I lay there crying in my bed for the better part of a half hour, all I can remember thinking was "It was all just so real."
  
• By an odd coincidence, this week I had no classes on Monday and I have none on Friday. As much as Carnegie Mellon is not nearly as cool as my UF years, being a stuudent - even a graduate student at the school where anti-social behavior clearly outweighs fun - still has its perks ! :)