This is an op-ed piece written by a good friend of mine that appeared in the USA Today today.
Click Here
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
HAPPY TO BE AVERAGE
This week is going to be fantastic. I'm leaving town today to enjoy an incredible and incredibly extended Thanksgiving weekend in Utah where I will see and enjoy friends, family, excellent food and skiing. And if that wasn't enough, I've started the week with great news. Here it is.
The past few weeks have been filled with midterm exams. I took three, and up until today, the two I had received back with grades were dismal. I'm talking about really bad scores that I've never seen before. I wouldn't be upset by a low score if the average was also low. Thank you to Dr. Jay Goodliffe at BYU for teaching me about classes with very low scores AND correspondingly low averages. However, in both cases I was well below the average. So today I got my third midterm back. The verdict: perfectly average, perhaps even slightly above! I stress slightly though. That would be good news by itself, but to add to it, I discovered that on one of my other exams the professor missed an entire page of my exam. I showed this to her and she regraded it with an 11 point upgrade. Where did that bump me up to? THE AVERAGE! I've never been so happy to know that I was perfectly average. I figure in the company I spend most of the day with, average is pretty darn good, i.e. complements to my cohort because they are all incredibly intelligent.
But enough of the school junk. I'm out of here for the mountains!
The past few weeks have been filled with midterm exams. I took three, and up until today, the two I had received back with grades were dismal. I'm talking about really bad scores that I've never seen before. I wouldn't be upset by a low score if the average was also low. Thank you to Dr. Jay Goodliffe at BYU for teaching me about classes with very low scores AND correspondingly low averages. However, in both cases I was well below the average. So today I got my third midterm back. The verdict: perfectly average, perhaps even slightly above! I stress slightly though. That would be good news by itself, but to add to it, I discovered that on one of my other exams the professor missed an entire page of my exam. I showed this to her and she regraded it with an 11 point upgrade. Where did that bump me up to? THE AVERAGE! I've never been so happy to know that I was perfectly average. I figure in the company I spend most of the day with, average is pretty darn good, i.e. complements to my cohort because they are all incredibly intelligent.
But enough of the school junk. I'm out of here for the mountains!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
SOLICITING YOUR OPINION
In an effort to cut costs I have decided to downsize my cell phone plan. I currently have 900 anytime minutes plus unlimited nights and weekends. I never use all 900 minutes. The most I've ever used was this September when I burned up 722 weekday minutes calling every person I knew to help keep me company after the big move to NJ. The month after that I only used 413 and this month I've only used 157. (My plan renews every 28th of the month.) Because of this I have accumulated over 4000 rollover minutes.
My first thought was to downsize to a plan that had around 600 minutes. However, there is only one other available plan and it has 450 anytime minutes. That would be fine with my large mountain of rollover minutes. However, if you downsize, you lose all of your minutes except the number equal to the new amount of minutes you have for each month. (i.e. I would lose all but 450 of my rollover minutes.) I'm still thinking this is a good idea since I rarely go over 450 and if I do, 450 rollover minutes would be plenty to cover it. I would also likely keep building up a few minutes every month, and it saves me $20 per month!
However, I am reluctant to give up what is rightfully mine. So the most logical thing to do before changing plans is to use all 4000 extra minutes this month. Eat that AT&T. Why do I get such pleasure out of this idea? That's roughly 66 hours of talking. So I'm asking for your advice about who I should call for 66 hours. There must be some great good I can do with such an astounding resource. Aren't there charities that get money based on how long people are on the phone with them? Is there some company you despise that you want their phone line to be occupied for an entire week (Southwest Airlines)? Anyway, submit your suggestions quickly as I need to start talking (letting the phone run on) ASAP.
P.S. The person cannot be an AT&T customer as I have free mobile-to-mobile minutes.
My first thought was to downsize to a plan that had around 600 minutes. However, there is only one other available plan and it has 450 anytime minutes. That would be fine with my large mountain of rollover minutes. However, if you downsize, you lose all of your minutes except the number equal to the new amount of minutes you have for each month. (i.e. I would lose all but 450 of my rollover minutes.) I'm still thinking this is a good idea since I rarely go over 450 and if I do, 450 rollover minutes would be plenty to cover it. I would also likely keep building up a few minutes every month, and it saves me $20 per month!
However, I am reluctant to give up what is rightfully mine. So the most logical thing to do before changing plans is to use all 4000 extra minutes this month. Eat that AT&T. Why do I get such pleasure out of this idea? That's roughly 66 hours of talking. So I'm asking for your advice about who I should call for 66 hours. There must be some great good I can do with such an astounding resource. Aren't there charities that get money based on how long people are on the phone with them? Is there some company you despise that you want their phone line to be occupied for an entire week (Southwest Airlines)? Anyway, submit your suggestions quickly as I need to start talking (letting the phone run on) ASAP.
P.S. The person cannot be an AT&T customer as I have free mobile-to-mobile minutes.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
THE LAST FEW WEEKS
A lot has gone on in the last few weeks. I've had a great time traveling around visiting friends and family. Unfortunately I don't have a lot (and by a lot I mean any) pictures of my latest activities; nevertheless, here's what's been going on.
1. Boston.
I traveled up to Boston for the biannual Mormon young single adults education conference. The conference theme was innovating ways to share the gospel. The keynote speakers were Elder Ballard (Quorum of the 12 Apostles), David Neeleman (JetBlue CEO), and Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School professor). The weekend was fantastic. In addition to the speakers, there was an incredible Halloween masquerade ball in the very classy Harvard Club. My friend Kaeli has an excellent description of the event with pictures to boot. Check it out here.
2. Spokane.
Leaving from Boston, I flew to Spokane to spend the week of fall break with my family. It was so nice to be home with my siblings and parents. My brother, his wife, and my sister Nicole drove up from Provo to be there for the weekend. We all came together to celebrate my sister Christie's upcoming wedding. Saturday morning Christie went to the temple for the first time and received her Endowment. (For an explanation of Mormon temples and temple ordinances, go here). That night was her wedding shower. I did not attend, nor was I invited, but my brother and I did send a very matronly looking pair of shorts along as a gift.
3. Philadelphia.
After getting back from Spokane I traveled a few miles down the road to Philadelphia. Several of my friends from BYU were in town to attend a Public Health conference. It was great to see familiar faces and to spend a great evening talking about our plans for the future. Its fun to see all of us begin to focus in on our lives and careers whereas as undergraduates we were so lost as to where we would be in even 5 years.
In between each of these trips was plenty of school, including several midterms. I'll spare you the self loathing; suffice it to say that exams are much more difficult here than at BYU. Luckily, I don't have to go through that again until mid-January. Anyway, things are pretty much back to their regular routine, but I'm anxiously looking forward to going to SLC for the week of Thanksgiving.
1. Boston.
I traveled up to Boston for the biannual Mormon young single adults education conference. The conference theme was innovating ways to share the gospel. The keynote speakers were Elder Ballard (Quorum of the 12 Apostles), David Neeleman (JetBlue CEO), and Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School professor). The weekend was fantastic. In addition to the speakers, there was an incredible Halloween masquerade ball in the very classy Harvard Club. My friend Kaeli has an excellent description of the event with pictures to boot. Check it out here.
2. Spokane.
Leaving from Boston, I flew to Spokane to spend the week of fall break with my family. It was so nice to be home with my siblings and parents. My brother, his wife, and my sister Nicole drove up from Provo to be there for the weekend. We all came together to celebrate my sister Christie's upcoming wedding. Saturday morning Christie went to the temple for the first time and received her Endowment. (For an explanation of Mormon temples and temple ordinances, go here). That night was her wedding shower. I did not attend, nor was I invited, but my brother and I did send a very matronly looking pair of shorts along as a gift.
3. Philadelphia.
After getting back from Spokane I traveled a few miles down the road to Philadelphia. Several of my friends from BYU were in town to attend a Public Health conference. It was great to see familiar faces and to spend a great evening talking about our plans for the future. Its fun to see all of us begin to focus in on our lives and careers whereas as undergraduates we were so lost as to where we would be in even 5 years.
In between each of these trips was plenty of school, including several midterms. I'll spare you the self loathing; suffice it to say that exams are much more difficult here than at BYU. Luckily, I don't have to go through that again until mid-January. Anyway, things are pretty much back to their regular routine, but I'm anxiously looking forward to going to SLC for the week of Thanksgiving.
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