winter in cleveland

Cold-snow- and salt. These three components surround ones daily life typically in January in this town. Actually, I like it! Makes me want to go sled riding, even though I haven't done it yet. Work and accounting course work seems to suck up all my time these days.

So, down here in the eco-slavic village one gets cold because you know gas prices dominate so, so the thermostat is always set low. Hats gloves and scarfs are common place here in the eco village even indoors. One village resident managed to make it all the way until January 8th before turning his thermostat up making that call for heat and subsequently using cubic volumes from ole'dominion...

So... what can one do to reduce energy consumption on a daily basis.... not sure... but come to this years NOTACON conference and maybe some insightful tips may just pop up and inspire....

NOTACON

I noticed I haven't put up many pics lately... so here is one from my time in netherlands a couple weeks ago. It is at a cross border business park on the border between Germany and Netherlands. Windmills are in the distance...



Upon posting this, I had to agree to some legal conditions as terms of use for the new format of the site. While I am unsure of how much the content rules and property rights and what not are changing from the old system. I think that this will be my final post of content under this particular site. I will look into hosting my own site. All the best and continued succcess to all those commuting creatures that choose alternative means to the detroit steel...

Lastly, please use the links on the right of this page to keep up to date with coolness that is occurring all the time. Bernard at the video shop and Mark and his woman travelling across asia. All the best...

welcom new year

Well 2007 is has arrived and my first residential week has been completed for the MBA program. Very interesting and challenging events took place this week, ones that I will not forget anytime soon. Some of the highlights:
- Filmed a movie titled "Living the Tango" as a team building exercise. We had access to a professional Dutch television crew. Our film was rather artsy for a MBA students, but the creativity is what allowed us to win best film.

- Lectures from amazing professors, ex.
ok must go my taxi is here... later

As I was saying:
-Lectures from amazing professors from Erasmus and U M business schools.
Particularly the lectures on Trade Negotions were incredibly interesting to me.
Learning the particulars on what defines a most favored nation status and what GATT is all about anyway.

-Lobbying in the EU was another great session.
Here we had a case study present and we role play in the political market as either the EU Commission, the Union, Incumbents, or the Suppliers, the case study was on liberalization of the railway system in the EU.

- Numerous discussions on leadership and influencing styles and connecting with your audience.

Indeed the group in the program is close and the I think that is what makes the program a real success is the relationships that are formed during the learning process even at a distance of 6000 miles!!
Indeed that is all business is about, relationships with people. Simple.

So I fly from afar to learn about simple basic stuff... and pay for this out of pocket and live in the village to compensate my living expenses...hmmmm... so what is next???

One of the discussion was comparrison of qualities of a manager and then of a leader. It was ironic, but after that discussion my friend Mark and I were, as a joke, calling each other managers in a derogatory sense. Thus the use of the word manager became to mean something negative.... thought that was funny. We all want to be leaders!!!