The Vernacularist

Another birthday come and gone

I turned 31 this past week. An un-unique age, but I had a great 3 days of events to celebrate. I had drinks with some Stern friends at Ace Bar.  The theme was a Skee Ball tournament, however very little skee ball was played.  The night turned into more of a reunion of Stern friends and everyone wanted to talk and see how summer internships were turning out.  After all the hype and pressure and urgency during the school year, everyone is curious about how its turned out for people.  Did you make the right choice?  Would you work there full-time?  Do you think you will get an offer?  About 90% of people are happy and 10% are miserable.  I think those are great odds. 

On Friday, I went to dinner with Chaela at Tao in East Midtown.  I had never eaten there, and it was delicious.  We had some lobster dumplings, and shared some sushi.  It was very fresh sushi that I highly recommend. 

On Saturday, I had a great dinner with 10 friends at Freemans.  I had already prearranged an eclectic menu and had been looking forward to ravaging it.  And it was fantastic! Wild boar terrine, fennel watermelon salad,  trout with sage and thyme, rum braised ribs, sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes with basil, bananas foster.  I highly recommend this restaurant.  If you want to have a bigger party (6 or more) you should try and reserve the Wine Room in the back.  It is a private room that is surrounded in wine.  It's cozy but still part of the restaurant.  Also, my friends who attending were from all different times in my life -- high school, college, business school -- so it was very special to put them in a room together.  Not surprisingly, they got along famously.

Our night ended at Motor City, a dive-ish bar in the Lower East Side.  Nothing so special about it except the drinks aren't over priced.

Great birthday weekend.  It's good to be 31.  Like I said on my 30th birthday...my twenties were great and my thirties can only be better.

Hello Tokyo...come in Tokyo

Just arrived at my hotel about an hour ago.  The trip was smooth. 12 hours in the air and then another 2 hours in a bus to get from Narita airport to our Tokyo hotel.  The All Nippon flight was excellent.  A couple of my Stern classmates befriended the stewardesses, who were adorable and sweet and very 1950's.  I should have taken a pic of their outfits: perfect matching pink and purple aprons with scarves tied around their neck in bows. I was all smiles.

My body thinks it's about 4:30am but it's 6:30pm here in Tokyo.  I'm pretty easy with time differences and jet lag.  It doesn't affect me very much.  If it's light outside, I just stay awake for the most part.  Especially traveling to new countries.  I wouldn't go to sleep before having dinner at some Tokyo restaurant even if I was paid.  In fact, I'm really starting to get dizzy right now.  Better drink some water....

Brain is pretty much friend right now from reading Crytonomicon (Nicco, I told you I would read it), wathching movies on the plane, kicking the plane's ass in chess (medium level, so I really shouldn't be boasting), and actually doing a little school work too. 

Pics for the fun of it:

 

recharged

The holiday and some serious snow activity has recharged my batteries.  I needed it bad after an exhausting second half to my semester.  Time to play a little catch up....

1. Finished my first semester of B School.  I ended very strong.  Received a 100 on my strategy case analysis of The New York Times Company.  It was my strategy team's final project for the semester.  Although we each had our own segment of the work, I am still very proud of my contribution of the corporate level strategy assessment and editing. Rest of the classes went very well too.
2. Went skiing with my friend Gregg to Snowbird, Utah.  It snowed 15in on the first of 3 days of excellent skiing. 
3. Came back to some great family time. Saw many nieces and nephews.  "Uncle Josh, Uncle Josh, let's play ping-pong"  and other ramblings and activities made my holiday.
4. Saw Avenue Q with my little sis and mom.  Basically Sesame Street for adults.  I recommend it, although I thought Spamalot was just a little more enjoyable. Fornicating puppets  made me more uncomfortable than human fornication.   

Now I have to prepare for a few summer internship interviews in mid-January. Thankfully, I'm generally good at these because I'm used to thinking on my feet.  However, I'm not going to leave anything to chance, so time to prepare. Also get to finalize my sports panel for the 2007 Media & Entertainment Conference on Feb 9.

Raphael Lemkin

I recently went to a lecture at the New York Public Library.  It was actually more like a conversation between Samatha Power and Kati Marton, two authors of books about genocide. Samantha is the author of A Problem from Hell:  American in the Age of Genocide, which I have been meaning to read since it came out but people keep giving me books to read.  I just haven't had the discipline to read it yet.  I think it's partly because the Darfur crisis weighs on my mind in a very present way.  Reading that book will make the Darfur genocide that much more preventable and tragic. Kati, a former journalist covering the UN, recently published a book  called The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World.   I don't think I'll get to that, but it certainly sounds passionate.

The authors wandered between stories within their books and contemplations about the current state of international diplomacy, the UN and America's diminshed reputation in diplomatic circles.  Samantha argued that America has lost two fundamental characteristics under Pres. Bush: competence and legitimacy. Regardless of what you think about Pres. Clinton's lack of action about Rwanda, Samantha thought we still had a moral authority within international diplomatic circles. I think it's clear that returning to our post-Clinton standing would be a gift.

I never heard of Raphael Lemkin before the event, but we have him to thank for coining the term "genocide." He tried to persuade his family to flee Poland, however he lost 49 relatives in Holocaust.  During the Holocaust, he called this crime "barbarity" and "vandalism." Unfortunately, he found the most eloquent and exacting word in 1943, too late to turn up the spotlight any brighter. Years after WWII, he wondered whether having a better name for the crimes described by the Holocaust would have amplified his families' fears and encouraged them to flee like he did.

I am struck by the power of a single, well constructed, proportionately evocative word. It's a reminder of the complexity and nuance we give to a single word. This blog is inspired by the word "vernacular," my favorite word, for just this reason. Samantha and Kati provided me a reminder on the power of persuation. After all the number crunching I've done the last couple months, I needed some etymological inspiration.

synergies

What a over-used word, especially in a business context.  However, i've been struck with how my classes are all overlapping recently.  Accounting is talking about how to read a balance sheet, just like Strategic Management is teaching me how to do it. Marketing talks about differentiation as Firms & Markets describes the economic theories behind it.  Folks...it's all coming together.

Along the hyerbola that represents my overall assimilation to the monolithic business class, I've started to get the bug to go to the driving range.  I got a golf lesson about a month ago and have been to Chelsea Piers twice now to practive my swing.  Only hitting a 7 iron right now, but I'm starting to see some improvement.

I live near all these Indian restaurants now, so I'm trying them all.  Curry In A Hurry is my favorite quick stop for Indian food. Huge plates, fun atmosphere with the Bollywood films on tv, and good food.  I don't think I've cooked dinner for myself yet.  I spend every evening studying at Stern, so it hasn't made sense to buy many groceries.  I miss my old kitchen, which was much more fun for cooking. 

This month is going to be the big roll through of corporate recruiters.  All the big consumer packaged goods companies come through Stern, as well as the financial companies. I'm still feeling all the different industries out, but the Entertainment, Media & Technology focus is definitely where I think I want to be.  Consulting and Financial Services industries are very compelling and I need to learn more about them.  The travel for consulting is the real drawback:  often 3 nights and 4 days on the road every week.  Financial servies seems like a stable, creative environment where I could find some great mentors to help me learn marketing.  The entertainment, media and technology industry isn't known for bringing people up in the business. 

I could write for days about all this but I need to still explore and talk to Stern and Wesleyan alumni in professions that interest me.  No question that the Entertainment, Media & Technology program is what I'm most excited about currenlty. 

Snazzy apartment

Yes, I used the word snazzy.  And it's well deserved, in this case.  It's really a double threat word.  It starts with the "sn" combo and then, as if to flaunt it's Fonzi-ness, has the double "z" kicker. Snarf, snooker, etc. but with the zz package.  I am filled with awe. 

The one and only Mike Protevi has done his organizational/design magic with my stuff and created a great place for me to live.  If you don't rememeber, he revamped my DC apartment last year. Pics of the latest creation are here, here and here. 

Tell me what you think....

What's getting me through the day

Coming back to the blog only now because B-school has a lot of work. I haven't had time to have many other thoughts or experiences than solving statistics problems and practicing negotiations in class.

Today I have a formal presentation for Management Communication about one personal example showing how communication was the key factor in the outcome.  I'm actually going to use an example from EchoDitto where my communication style was negatively affected by my friendships.  I spoke too casually and it didn't come out right.

Here is what gets me through every day:

• Exercising at the Palladium, I'm 3 for 3 in attendence this week so far.  I've been pretty adicted to exercising since I started school.  It's the only thing that really clears my head. My endurence has been crazy high these past two weeks.  Working out for 45 min is barely cutting it, but everything gets so crowded that I can't take all the people every where for much longer than that.
• Listening to the new Muse album.
• Tea.  Yep, I'm trying to cut out coffee.  I hear the gasps of disbelief, but I believe coffee was making me considerbly more agitated than I should be.  Why cut it all out, you say?  I actually didn't need very much coffee normally, so subtracting a little from a little equals nothing. It's out and I haven't missed the caffeine, just missing the experience of coffee + newspaper in the morning.

Anyone else develop a greater sensitivity to caffeine over time?  Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one with these idiosyncracies.

Birthday Party pics are up

I just uploded the pics, but please check out the set rather than the stream.  I ordered the photos in the set the way they should be viewed. 8 out of 10 doctors recommend this viewing order (The other 2 docs can go screw themselves!). I had a great birthday party.  I can't say I'm happy that I didn't have it in DC, but it was definitely the right decision.  Sucked that I couldn't have everyone I wanted there, but those who came made it a blast.

Also, want to put you all onto my friend Owen's new blog, The Physical Plant.  Maybe not new, since he left it abandoned from 8 months, but like Phoenix, it's risen from the ashes. The blog is from the point of view of his house plant. There are a mulitude of characters involved: his better half and fiancee, the Postman and General (two cats), other friends, neighbors and crazy people.  Here is a little taste:

My natural plant pheromones have always sufficed for pollinating the bitches.

Take a read because I think you'll like it.

Yummy lunch

With family at Esca in NYC.  The waiters heard it was my birthday so they had this made.  I had the crudo (Italian sushi), a lobster spaghetti and a whole blue fish.  Totally indulgent and also delectible. The birthday week continues tonight....

Birthday lunch!

Birthday lunch!