I have to take a final management class called “Strategic Management”. The way it is described in the course packet is that it is meant to bring together all of our previous classes and make them work in unison. To me, that sounds somewhat interesting. Too bad I am dead wrong.

So far the class has been a complete snoozer. The professor, who is on track to be tenured, basically reads off some slides and throws in an interesting story every now and then but so far there has been no real “meat” to the class. Maybe next week we will actually get into applying what we learned for the last four years.

An aside, I may actually have to buy “Million Dollar Baby”.

Those who know me know how little reality television I watch. I detest it.

Last night I was flipping through the channels and came across Beauty and the Geek 2. Now, I had watched an episode of the first season and thought it was entertaining so I decided to sit through the first episode of the second season. Quite frankly, this show is hilarious. They match up these absolutely gorgeous women with a nerd. There are many different characters in the nerds, including a guy that can solve a Rubiks cube in 12 seconds (a world record), a guy who thinks he is “buff” after 6 months of working out though it doesn’t look like it, and a poor fella that has extreme anxiety.

I’m being drawn in by reality television… AHH!!

If the current situation in Iran does not improve over the next few weeks the world is looking at sanctions being put into place over Iran that could reduce the amount of available oil in the world by 5%. If the situation was to be resolved today, we would see the price of a barrel of oil drop somewhere in the vicinity of $6/barrel.

The Iran nuclear controversy along with the constant problems with attacks in Nigeria have put even more of a strain on the world’s supply of oil. Nigeria is the 11th largest oil producer in the world and relies on the export to drive its economy. If the rebels that are attacking the wells and refining operations succeed in getting what they want, the control and hording of oil, the price of a barrel of oil will probably break all previous records. Alternative fuels are sure looking good, aren’t they?

This man has no business being mayor of New Orleans, even if he did apologize for his recent remarks about making the city “chocolate” again and how God hates America.

Do people not think when they speak? And how are we letting this man off so easily? Is it because he apologized? Nagin was not put into office by the black population of New Orleans but instead, the white population came out in strong enough numbers and voted for him. I really do not see how he gets away with the things that he says. First he bombards the media with criticisms of President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, though recent inquiries have started pointing out Nagin as the center of the problem, then he has the nerve, the gall, to come out and say that New Orleans should be black again. Great way to unite the city there Mr. Mayor.

This is right up there with Hillary Clinton’s recent comment about how the Senate is a like a ‘plantation’. What? I know you are one day hoping to become President but comments like that just won’t get you there. I’ll put $10 down right now that that comment haunts you in 15 years. Senator Clinton, you claimed in the same speech that the Bush administration would go down as one of the worst in history, well, I hate to tell you this but you may just go down as a horrible chooser of words.

I have finally come around and updated my class list. It will be a busy semester with a lot of research and projects.

I need to talk to the university tomorrow because it looks like they may have screwed up my graduation information and now I am a little worried. The hours that I am taking completes everything needed for graduation, yet my online degree audit does not match. Yikes. Hopefully the advising center on campus will be available tomorrow when I need it and they can get this all sorted out.

Heck yes!

Announced today, this is a definite “must-buy”. I don’t really have time to write anything about it but look for something later.

I know I said that I would have a new version of the site up by the 9th of this month but I have been busy with family things and there has been no time to put the site online. When I get back to Lubbock tomorrow I will try to get something up.

I am truly under the impression that car alarms serve no purpose. No one pays attention to them, and they do nothing to stop a potential car thief (unless it has one of those nifty ignition disabling alarms). I heard three alarms this morning and I didn’t even budge, just became annoyed as the sound went on and on.

With OnStar being installed in more new vehicles it is just a matter of time before it is used to alert authorities as to when a car is being stolen. I just wonder how much the fee is going to be for “false” alarms…

Of all of the things that frustrate me with cell phones, voicemail has to be the worst.

Let’s look at how my current voicemail works:

1. I call my voicemail. (I’ve turned off the password prompt)
2. I get a message stating whether I have new messages, how many there are, and if there aren’t any how many saved messages there are.

Now, things can go two ways here. If I have new messages:

1. The monotone voice proceeds to the first message.
2. I am given information about the time, the phone number of the caller and the message itself.
3. I am given options to save or delete the message.
4. The voice proceeds until the new messages are finished.

If there are old messages after the new ones or no new messages the following occurs:

1. The monotone voice starts at the beginning of the “saved” (we’ll get to why that’s in quotes in a bit) messages
2. I received the same information about the message and the message itself.
3. I am given options to save or delete the message.
4. The voice proceeds to the next message.
3. I am then told there are no new messages and the personal options menu is read.

Three or four years ago this system was fine. The number of people with cell phones was lower and the amount of calls people received on their cell phones was definitely less. Now, cell phones are some people’s main form of communication and the phone companies need to do something.

1. Give me a text message like structure.

   I should not have to listen to a voice telling me what a message’s associated number is and when it was received. I should be able to see the phone number and the date/time when the message was received. I should then be able to choose whether or not I listen to the message. This point blends with the next one…

2. Messages should be saved on my phone.

   There are some technology and space issues to work out with this one but I think it’s a necessity. Right now messages are saved on my provider’s network, yet, somehow, even though my messages are saved, they disappear after a certain amount of time. That’s not right and is unexpected behavior. If I save a message, I saved it for a reason and it should have a permanent space on my phone until I decide I do not need it anymore.

   If messages are saved on my phone, it would facilitate the first point and allow easier browsing of messages and would take out the hassle of having to listen to every message, or in my case, counting the number of times I hit the save button so that I can get to the message I want to hear.

I really do not think I am the only person with this as a pet peeve. If the phone companies can put music players in their phones, I am pretty sure they can give me enough memory to hold a few voicemails.

I recently upgraded my old cellphone to a brand new Sanyo VI-2300. Compared to my old phone, this thing is amazing. I can do pretty much everything I need to do, minus Bluetooth and a camera. Granted, the phone is heavy and bulky, especially considering that it doesn’t have a camera, and it is missing a front color display.

I have always been critical of Sprint and their service, especially when I have problems with my phone and have thought about switching services to Cingular recently. However, I have heard serious horror stories of people switching to Cingular (or any service for that matter) and having nothing but problems with their billing, service, and network. So for now I am going to stick it out with Sprint and hopefully here in the very near future I will upgrade to the brand new Samsung A900 or a new model Treo.