And it's over...

Registration has come and gone. I successfully registered for all of my classes. It was all pretty funny though. At the stroke of 4:00pm, the entire study room went quiet, except for the click-clack of keystrokes. Then either sighs of relief, or people cursing under their breath. All in all, a pretty humorous way to start a week.

Let the Madness Begin

Things are already starting to brew up in the Reliant Reading Room. People are circling like buzzards, waiting for a desk with an ethernet connection to open up. There is sort of a weird buzz in the air. People are starting to get antsy.

More later after the melee.

The Mad Dash

Tomorrow afternoon, at 4:00pm, students all around McCombs will be tethered to the ethernet constantly refreshing their screens and trying to gain that nano-second advantage over the other students. All of this madness is for registration. That seems a little crazy to me. I've never participated in this mad dash for classes before, but I guess it will be an experience. My thought, is that they should civilize the entire process a bit and introduce either some sort of priority system, or better yet, a bidding system. If you really want a class, bid a lot. If you are indifferent, don't bid that much. It's pretty simple.

More importantly, I need to pick my classes. I've made the conscious decision to take a pretty finance intensive course load next semester since I really have no background in finance and feel like it is one of the things that you should really learn while in school. I talked to a couple professors at McCombs, asking them their opinion on what courses I should take, and they confirmed that taking a heavy finance course load will help me in the future. I'll admit, I am a little concerned about taking finance courses in the spring with the "Future Bankers of America," but after a long conversation with my current finance professor, I feel pretty confident that I'll do fine. I had a chance to see my midterm score, and apparently, I beat out a bunch of ex-bankers and finance types. I credit my grade to dumb luck. He said it's probably since I've been putting a lot of work in and that I'm open to his teaching. I guess if I keep doing what I'm currently doing (Which is busting my hump), I'll be able to keep this trend going. So, right now, it looks like I'll be taking Advanced Corporate Finance, Investment Theory, Financial Statement Analysis, the core Strategic Management class and my Venture Fellows Practicum. A pretty busy schedule considering Venture Fellows has 3 hours of class time per week and a required 8 hours of internship hours per week.

Hopefully, the classes that I want aren't too impacted. I have a feeling I'll be ok with registration, since a lot of students will be gunning for either a spot on the Global Connection trips, or classes with Professors like Doggett and Nolen. Also, both my Venture Fellows Practicum and my core class are restricted registrations, so, I really only need to register for 3 classes with the rest of the students. I'll let you know after the madness has ended.

BANZAI!

My fiancee and I just booked our tickets to Tokyo for Spring Break. Admittedly, Tokyo is not on the typical top ten list of spring break locations, but look past Havasu, South Padre, Puerto Vallarta and South Beach, and Tokyo is usually #12 or #13. (That was completely tongue in cheek.) I'm really looking forward to this trip, since I haven't been to Japan since I was a kid. (I'll delete any comments made about my current maturity level. Remember, I have complete administrative control over this blog!) More on this as the trip approaches.

Longhorns in Snow

Longhorns and snow don't mix. We can't kick field goals. We can't catch the ball. We can't hold onto the ball. Stupid play call on 3rd and goal. Now we have a walk on kicker, kicking his first ball, in a snowstorm. Ridiculous.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

I just finished midterm week at McCombs and overall, it was not too bad. To tell you the truth, the content of the exams was not too bad, but the scheduling of the tests really tested my willpower. The content of the exams really tested us on key concepts in the course and the application of these concepts. Really, there were not any questions that I did not expect. Professors are usually pretty predictable in what they will ask and what they will not ask.

As for the scheduling, it really felt like a process of weeding out the weak from the strong. We had midterms every night of the week from 6pm until 9pm. My schedule for the past week was:

6:00am-6:00pm: Study
6:00pm-9:00pm: Test
9:00pm-12:00am: Relax, maybe study a bit
12:00am-6:00am: Sleep

I'm glad it's over. I'm also glad that the stress level for everyone at school has receded a bit. Everyone went out last night to blow off some steam. I could't go too crazy, since I had to make an airport run at 3:30am to pick up my finacee. It was great since everyone seemed so relaxed, but I felt as though every conversation I walked into, people were rehashing the test that they just took. A little counterproductive if you ask me. There are so many other great topics of conversation. For instance, we got the hairball idea that we were going to take a trip to Las Vegas in November. I'm not sure if that will come to fruition, but some of my best thinking has come from the inside of a dark bar.

I'm guessing that people will get wound up again for finals, but that is still about 2 months out. Ok, off to watch the Longhorns/Huskers game.

A Great Way to Start the Day

Sunday was a very important day in my life. That was the day that I asked my then girlfriend to be my wife. It was quite special for both of us, as I proposed in the early morning, away from the prying eyes of everyday people, but still in the city that we had both love and call home. (That's San Francisco for those of you who don't know.)

Operating under the guise of a trip for my sister's birthday, I travelled back to San Francisco to meet up with friends and family. My fiancee was definitely wondering why I was so keen on returning to SF, since midterms were the next week. In order to throw her off the trail, we spent all of Friday and Saturday with friends and family. I think she basically gave up hope, thinking that I was really planning on waiting until after I graduated from school before I popped the question, or that this just wasn't the time.

Timeline of events:

2:30am - Get home (from sister's birthday party and late night munchies with our friend in Chinatown) and go to bed for just over an hour.

3:45am - We wake up to catch our flight. (6am flight!)

4:00am - Pack up the car to drive to the airport.

4:05am - Girlfriend falls asleep in the car on the way to the airport.

4:10am - Girlfriend wakes up and finds that we are not actually on the route she would have taken to the airport. Grouchy - asks me why I'm taking the longer way. (Not that she really knows. She has a horrible sense of direction.)

4:15am - I say that I think I might have forgotten something and pull the car over...She now realize that we are in front of the Ferry Building with the beautiful Bay and Bay Bridge in the background.

4:16am - I pop the trunk. She asks me to get her pillow while I'm back there...and quizzes me on if I left my keys at our friends' place.

4:17am - I come around and open the passenger door - She thought to give her the pillow.

4:18am - I PROPOSE!

4:19am - She cries...and says yes!

4:22am - We're on our way to the airport so we can make our 6am flights!

Not overly romantic, but very exciting and spontaneous. I did get some great advice. Sorry we didn't use them. (Thanks TK, DA, JC, JG and those I haven't mentioned)

Some other ideas that didn't happen for one reason or another.

1. Throw the ring at her and see how fast she lunges for it.

2. Wrap myself in tin foil, attach the ring to the end of a pugel stick, and ride up as her knight in shining armor.

3. Send her on a scavenger hunt where she would have to get video proof of doing the UCLA 8 Clap and sing the Texas Fight Song.

4. Actually wait until 2080. His comment had to do with a cow, milk and getting stuff for free.

Venture Fellows

I found out over the weekend that I was selected to join Venture Fellows, a student run organization that pairs up students with local venture capital firms, helping students get a better grasp of venture capital through yearlong internships. This is pretty exciting for me, as I've always been interested in Venture Capital and the world of startups.

The selected group of students is a great class of people. There is quite a diverse set of backgrounds and really, some of the smartest people in the school. I'm honored to be in their company. Hopefully, what I lack in finance skills, I can make up in past experience with startups and contribute to the class.

The selection process was quite thorough, to say the least. The selection process culminated with a case writeup and group discussion of the case. During the discussion, there were lots of smart comments made and I actually felt like I hadn't contributed that much. I left feeling like I might have made a pretty big mistake by not making all of my points. Having had a chance to mull it over though, I think that by saying only key points at the right time, I actually improved my position by not taking up too much "airtime." I guess, in the end, it all worked out.

We won't find out what VC we've been partnered with until the spring, but it's great to know that I'm going to be able to get out of the classroom for a bit and actually apply some of the course education to real life scenarios. I'm really looking forward to having a real live venture capital firm as my classroom.