Smile ;-)

Apparently the world's first smiley was this one. Now all they need to find is the world's first 411 fraud, the world's first chain email, the world's first pyramid marketing email... Still, its nice that things like this have histories, and that someone will always be able to say, those smiley things? That was me. Now that is an achievement.

Can weblogs make the trains run on time?

Over at Bloggerheads Manic has realised that complaining about late trains will only get you so far. He's got a plan to make those responsible for the problems of the privatised public transport system more accountable, but he's not sure he's got the right audience. So, if you suffer daily on the UK's trains or buses take yourself over to Bloggerheads and offer to help. Otherwise next time you're stuck on the train, and its late, and you're thinking 'why doesn't somebody do something about this?' you'll know the answer. Its because you're too damn lazy ;-)

Incidently the buses in Newcastle are reliable and staffed by friendly drivers. The buses in Oxford are all over the place and staffed by some of the most miserable, cantankerous sods known to man (with the exception of Mad Mick). This is worth mentioning because they're run by the same company. Maybe the new textbooks which have just arrived (including one on company culture) can explain this. Or maybe folks are just nicer up here.

Old economy still broke

At least Seth Godin says it is (second entry), nice to see he hasn't let the end of the new economy get to him. To be fair, when I saw him back at Internet World 99 he opened by saying someting along the lines of 'the net is not TV and the dot coms who think it is are doomed'. The current solution? Quit and become an entrepreneur...

He also namechecks SherpaBlog, a quick look round didn't reveal whether or not this is the same Anne Holland who used to edit Clickz, but I think it is.

Scratch one lucky charm

Well, until last night I'd never seen Newcastle lose a match in the flesh. Now this is partly because I haven't been to that many games, a combination of finances, ticket demand and living 300 miles away put paid to that. Even so, eight unbeaten games was a good run, and now its over. This mornings papers lifted my gloom somewhat, heaping praise on the Leeds keeper, but truth be told we may have had plenty of chances but we rarely tested him - and when he was beaten we missed the target.

For my money I thought Gary Speed had a shocker, and Viduka and Kewel caused us far too many problems just by being big and quick and skillfull - its not like Leeds had the possession to give them great service. Not a disaster, but until someone learns to dominate at the back we're going to continue to leak goals.

On a more MBA related note I'm making progress with the reading material and starting to think I might be ok at this finance stuff after all, just as long as we can stick to abstract discussions. When it comes to practitioning, I'll call an accountant.

Portrait of a business student

"The 2002-03 MBA Class is made up of students from 32 countries, with 21% of the class being female. The average GMAT score is 688, with the average age being 29. The average number of years of work experience is 6 years." That is a whole lot of countries. It also means I'm going to be (on average) young and inexperienced.

It also means (I think) that the average GMAT has gone down slightly from last years. Now in a round about way this is a good thing, since it probably means they're paying less attention to the innaccurate monopolistic excuse for an intelligence test that is the GMAT and focusing on candidates actual skills...

In another world

Would Al Gore have been pursuing a foreign policy something like this one outlined by Bill Clinton?

I'm an Advanced Student

According to the lovely folks in the graduate office at Queens I'm entitled to wear an advanced student gown for the MBA. This adds to the commoners and scholars gown I needed as an undergrad. For the record you need gowns for exams along with sub-fusc - which is dark suit and white bow tie. You also need them for matriculation and formal hall - which is where you get to eat lovely food for little money on a regular basis. It's really just part of Oxford's traditional silliness, but aside from the expense I kind of like it.

See some of the gown wearing regulations, or buy a gown online.

It tolls for thee

Finally got to sleep at 3AM last night after what sounded like a car alarm went off somewhere down the road. However as far as I know car alarms are supposed to stop after twenty minutes at the most. This one was still going at 8 AM. I tried sleeping in the back room (could still hear it), wearing headphones (not comfortable at all) and ended up stuffing my ears with tissue paper. As as result I'm absolutely knackered.

On a brighter note I have tickets for the Leeds game. Last time I saw Newcastle play a Terry Venables side we won 3-1 despite Shay Given being sent off. Even Gullit said the crowd made up for the extra man, and an atmosphere like that on Wednesday will be welcome indeed.

Finally Adam's wife Jenny Brown is concerned that her blog gets less traffic than he does. So I've added her to the MBA links. If anyone's interested in what effect an MBA is likely to have on your significant other you could do worse than read this. Plus the stuff on the Harvard social scene for partners is hilarious. Blogs by professional writers - now there's an idea...

If you succeed in everything you do

You're not pushing yourself. Doesn't make me feel any better about the treadmill's victory at the gym today. Still, I now have a goal for the rest of the holidays. Oh, and the pec dec machine won as well, guess this is the point at which self improvement really starts :-)

Hmm the Onion's horoscope for me this week "Aries : Every day, in every way, you're getting better and better. But at this rate, you won't be good enough for 64 more years." Shucks, what will I be good enough for aged 90?