Not a Journal

Credit is owed where credit is due. I heard this first today from Malcolm Gladwell on a podcast (I don't recall which one, either his or Tim Ferris') and I feel like it was a great point he made. And want to expand on it. Maybe controversial, but hear me out. So I'm going to focus on American sport drafts, mainly basketball, hockey and football. The work was done by a world famous sociologist who I do not remember the name of, but I wish I did to credit him. Basically he ran a study of the value of the first overall draft pick in football and shared his findings with team owners, who disregarded his findings after meeting with this researcher. I mean they're still filthy rich, but they are missing out on "free wins" each season due to their old habits. But let's talk about some background before getting to that. Scenario: If I had the first overall pick in hockey this year, (I'll talk about hockey since I know most about that relative to the other...

As I start writing this, I don't really have a map of where I want to take it. You're getting off the cuff-straight from my freakishly amazing brain-content right now. All 14 of you must feel so lucky. I was thinking about this shitty course I have to take next week which is about technology and its impact on society. I want to do this now, and get my ideas about it out before I start the course and get frustrated at some overly in-depth textbook some Generation X-er wrote, thinking he knows more about the tech and its applications that our generation has created, better than we do. Think about this. When's the last time you spoke to an older adult (~45+ is Gen X range) and didn't have to help them with some sort of electronic device. I love my Mom to death but she is just now beginning to flawlessly operate a cable box remote control. I need not say more, but I will anyway. I know not every Gen Y-er (our gen) is great with tech, so this doesn't apply t...

As a disclaimer, I personally have only ever been on the consumer side of the restaurant business. Even then, I don't eat out that often. But that doesn't change the fact that the current system is inefficient, awkward and unsettling. Let me explain. Now what specifically am I talking about? Well, after listening to a Freakonomics Radio podcast about one of the most famous restaurants in NYC, I'd like to share with you some of the concepts that were discussed, and spin my own opinion into how this may affect smaller class restaurants like the ones the average person goes to (like me!). First off, restaurants are not great businesses. By that, I am referring to their profit margins. Without doing a ton of research, I can say with 90% confidence that 7% is above average and most probably only make around 5%.. meaning, for every dollar I spend, they earn only 5 cents. Furthermore, there are two distinct services that a restaurant provides, wait staff which are referred to as...

I was just thinking, literally 2 minutes ago.. (well, by the time you read this, it could have been hours, days, months, years, lightyears.. you get it) about the voices of generations. First, let's define the generations, but starting after baby boomers because the majority of them are unable to cause much change in the world anymore ..old age, amirite? Generation X, which ranges from the beginning of the '60s to the start of the '80s. Basically, this is last generation of "The American Dream", mostly because this generation kind of messed that up. What they also did was fail to look forward enough to see the problems their predecessors were causing. And I don't really blame them, since the world was way different back then. Think about the '70s and '80s, or at least what you know of from movies and stories. These were the ones who basically had it easy since the world had just finished killing each other. Also, there were actually jobs available af...

Education is something I feel strongly about. And I think most people should. We spend 16 of the first 20 years (give or take) of our lives in schools and sure, we learn things, but extremely slowly. Should we consider a change? My cousin once mentioned that a toddler first discovering the world absorbs so much information at a rate that they will never achieve again throughout the remainder of their life. I find that outstanding. We grow up in a new world, with unlimited communication possibilities and access to almost anything you'll ever need to know. And that access is increasing at incredible rates! We went from libraries, to computers to internet on a wrist watch in 50 years. So why are we still educating our youth the same way as we did 50 years ago? This is such a huge concern and yes, I see it slowly changing. Now I'm not talking about asking us to use a computer to type essays, or even research essays. For example, I'm finally in classes where we use Excel a...

I don't really have a topic for this post. So I'm just going to write a little about whatever pops into my head. I've been faced with a disputative situation here living in an on-campus apartment. And I have to say, the staff I am communicating with is handling this extremely poorly, which is only furthering my cause. Here's my story. About 4 months ago, my apartment was given a noise complaint. First of all, the situation in giving the citation was handled terribly by the residence department representatives, thus leading to us formally appealing the complaint, which is allowed in the rules. After meeting with some staff and discussing my concerns, we appealed the infraction following their procedures. By the time the appeal was sent, exam time was around the corner and after a follow-up by yours truly, we were notified that all appeals would be dealt with after the holiday break. No problem. Shortly after, the first red flag then popped up. Money for the i...

Answer: Not yet. Thanks for reading! Oh... you want more of an explanation? I figured as much. So you're in the market for a new car, or maybe you just want to be part of the change for a better environment? You find yourself at a local car dealer and the salesman is trying to sell you a brand new... Nissan Leaf. You think to yourself, "Why would I want a go-kart like that? It's tiny and barley has any power. I want a car I can have some fun in, drive around longer than 170 km!" (I actually looked that up, you're welcome). Well, hold your horse..power.. get it? I know, horrible joke, why do I even try. Why do people think electric cars aren't great? Is it the range? Tell me when you drive further than 170 km unless you're travelling out of town? Is it power? Tell me when you need a car that has over 150 horse power (answer is never in case you were wondering). Even brand new cars like corollas and civics don't have 150 hp. The ...