Tuesday, March 21, 2006

MBA-less May Be the Best

I read an interesting article from Ad Age this morning that discusses the drawbacks of an MBA. Wait, drawbacks of a Masters degree in Business Administration?!? Yeah, apparently in the real world a piece of paper isn't as important as you think. Ask William Gates, or any of the hundreds of successful people that never went to college, or dropped out. The skits on Kanye West's "College Dropout" album really sum it up humorously.

This is all coming from a 3.5-GPA graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. Don't get me wrong, college and a college degree are important. They show you put your mind to something over an extended period of time and accomplished the ultimate goal. College is a great experience where you can learn a lot more than just the academics. A degree will also provide stability if a business or other venture doesn't work out as planned. However, I'm not a big fan of graduate school, especially when it's just a temporary solution because somebody doesn't know what they want. Again, graduate school is important for a lot of professions; medical professionals, lawyers, teachers, etc. However, they're not necessary to be truly successful, nor do they guarantee success. That ultimately lies within yourself and the company you keep, amongst other things, of course.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

CBS NCAA MMOD

Enough acroynms for you? Well, those acronyms are quite possibly the most brilliant concept when it comes to men's college basketball. That's CBS Sportsline's NCAA March Madness On Demand. CBS bought rights to air the entire NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, but with so many games crammed into so little time, it was hard to squeeze them all into TV broadcasts. So, why not tap into the Internet and broadcast them, for free, during the first three rounds? I already signed up for my VIP pass to watch some of the games on CBS Sportsline, but you can still get a general admission pass. But you better try to enter their "waiting room" early, because there will be virtual lines to watch these puppies. It's madness time.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Carolina Eats Duke for Dinner

I had to make this post at some point, I was just too excited over the weekend to sit down and do it. Yes, the unthinkable, but far from impossible, happened. Carolina, with a predominantly freshman squad, beat Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Senior Night. It was amazing, and that's an understatement.

It was a perfect cap for the season. Sweet is a good word to describe the fact that JJ Redick played quite possibly the worst game of his life. Shelden Williams was not a dominant force. And the rest of the Duke underclassmen were playing their little hearts out, but they showed the world why Coach K has simply relied on his two leading seniors this year, and last. Pathetic. He should have no chance at Coach of the Year. We all know Roy Williams deserves Coach of the Year for what he's done with the squad he put together this year. And Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Bobby Frasor and Marcus Ginyard all deserve a round of applause for their stellar performances this season, and coming of age development from game to game. Also, the upperclassmen, David Noel, Wes Miller, Reyshawn Terry and even little Quentin, who hit some key shots in the Duke upset, all deserve an ovation.

This about sums it up:



Ok, enough said. The Tarheels of UNC made the blue devils cry. They devoured their hopes of beating us yet again on their home court. Our highly underrated (preseason anyway) team simply ate Dook for dinner on Saturday night, and I can honestly say I do not feel bad for Shelden or JJ. Carolina is, and always will be, the greatest. Duke, not so much. Go Heels!

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Knowing "Downtowns"

One thing that I really love - that makes me feel really good - is knowing Downtowns. An explanation is deserved before you dub me nuts.

It's the feeling I get when I've lived in a city or town, or frequented one often, and begin to learn my way around the Downtown area. I can't stand "downtowns," so I feel like it's a major accomplishment to know a downtown well enough to get around with minimal directions, or better yet, none at all. All the narrow lanes, cars parked along the street, odd traffic patterns, one-way streets (which I hate the most, as I'm sure you can agree), low speed limits, limited or complete lack of free parking, etc. They just don't sit right in my loin. So, when I've driven them enough and feel like I can navigate my way into, out of, and around the downtown area of a city, I'm on cloud 9. Fayetteville was the first downtown I mastered, then Chapel Hill. Of course, downtown Chapel Hill is about 2 major streets, Franklin and Rosemary, so there wasn't much to that. But now, I'm beginning to learn downtown Greensboro. And it feels awesome. It dawned on me a couple of days ago when I was attempting to cut through downtown to hit the Interstate faster than if I were to bypass it. I got turned around for a minute, but realized I knew the street names and patterns well enough to get back to my original path and "keep on truckin'." Kudos to me.

You can still call me crazy; tis' commonplace.