Running Utes. Sweaty, Tired, Sore, Running Utes.

A while ago I mentioned that Jessie (who, along with getting into the Lassonde Center, has already landed a job upon graduation. God, I hate her. Hate her with me. We’ll hate her together) organized a team to run the Wasatch Back Ragnar relay. Basically, 13 of the other MBAers ran about 200 miles straight, relay style. That is ridiculously macho. Way to represent for the U MBA kids. So here’s a bunch of pics of my classmates who I think are just awesome. And no, I didn’t run. When I exercise, I prefer to take my life into my own hands. And I’m not talking eating-at-the-suspect-taco-cart taking my life into my own hands. I’m talking mountain biking with much better riders while being naturally blessed with no balance whatsoever. But I digress.

That's Ashley running at night. She is so not afraid of the dark. I've never written about Ash. I'll have to one of these days. She's the sweetest spelunker ever.

And that's Filip passing the baton off to Jarum who is, apparently, harnessing the wrath of the gods.

BTW...I should not say anything bad about the taco carts. I’ve eaten there hundreds of times and only gotten sick once which, I feel, is a totally acceptable ratio. You can’t go wrong with the cart in the south parking lot of Sears on 8th South and State Street. There are two in that parking lot, actually. Go to the one on the east end, not the south end. The eastenders were first. I used to drive by there every day on my way to work and remember vividly when the southenders started showing up. It got ugly fast. For a while there they were both simultaneously blaring music over each other. Dueling fiestas. That’s the problem when your brick and mortar is actually wheels and a trailer hitch. Competition can set up shop in your backyard. Sears, incidentally, seemed ambivalent to the whole thing. It's been dying a slow death there for 15 years. Mariachi requiem.
Check out this picture of Yogesh. Eye of the Tiger? This picture is so that song. That is a look that hits 3 out of 4 at the dunking booth.

Next to him is Sam getting shot out of cannon.

"Brick and Mortar”. That’s a term I heard for the first time when getting my MBA. It’s a clever way to refer to a physical place. I mean, it’s kinda clever. Of course here in Utah, instead of brick and mortar it’s more like stucco and…uh…stucco. Variety is the devil’s plaything. No, I exaggerate. Salt Lake is a beautiful city. Uniformity only really festers in some of the sub-divisions. They can be very Edward Scissorhands sans the cool hedge sculptures.

I don't know what Filip did to justify a judo chop from Robert, but I don't imagine that Filip survived.

On a Utah Culture note, Moroni got struck in the face by lightning. Utah has a bunch of Mormons. It was founded by Mormon settlers. We have lots of Mormon temples. Each Mormon temple has a gold statue at the top of it. The statue is the same on each one. It’s an angel named Moroni blowing a horn. Apparently, Moroni will blow the horn at the end of the world. Basically, it's dinner bell for the apocolypse. So if you’re driving by a Mormon temple, roll down your windows and listen. If you hear a horn blow…well, roll’em up.

Anyway, one of these statues got struck in the face by lightning. My knee jerk reaction was to call all my Mormon buddies and warn them that they might be barking up the wrong tree. But it occurs to me, those statues are basically lightning rods. I’ve lived here my whole life and this is the first time I’ve heard about one of them getting hit. The fact that those aren’t struck a dozen times every storm is nothing short of a miracle. Maybe these Mormons are onto something.

Incidentally, I think Microsoft’s spellcheck recommendations for Moroni are downright offensive. In a row… Moronic, Moron, Maroni, Morons. That is not nice.

Here's Aline with Dan's belly. Everyone's a winner.

Will Wonders Never Cease?

…I got an internship. Two of them actually. Started last week. Y’know what I just found out is my favorite thing in the world? Waking up. More specifically, waking up with no alarm clock. Like when nature intends me to wake up. And for me, it involves a few of those wake up, roll over, and slide back into sleep maneuvers. So nice. I had about a month where I got to do that every day. Then go to the gym. I hear people say if they didn’t have jobs they would just go crazy. What has two thumbs and would NOT go crazy? This guy.

But anyway, I have now committed myself to 55 hours of work a week for the rest of the summer. It’s good though. These internships are good news for me. I found one through Utah CareerLink and one through good old-fashioned David Eccles School of Business networking. I hate that word. Networking. It suggests to me that the only reason I want to know someone is because the relationship will somehow benefit my career. Which is lame. And I would be friends with Varun even if he didn’t get me an internship. But he totally got one for me. A good one. Thanks Varun. You are my favorite DESB grad. And that’s saying a lot because one of my best poker buddies graduated from the program a few years ago. I think the program frowns on gambling so I should point out that when we play poker we bet buttons. And cupcakes.

I want to mention that Varun hooked me up after we finished taping for a video that’s going to run on the DESB website. When they post it, I’ll let you know so you can see me in my internet debut. There are three guys and I’m whichever one you think is the most handsome. No seriously, I’m the one that looks like he’s on your nephew’s T-ball team. I’m 32 and look like I’m 17. I got carded for a Rated R movie when I was 30. And I was with a girl at the time. Emasculation seems to be a theme in this blog.

Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John just came on over Pandora. I love this song.

The only bit of a bummer is that both internships may want to me to continue working part time through the school year. Ug. Last year was a killer and I had no job, let alone 2. I’m banking on the rumors that the workload eases up a bit during the second year. Of course, most people probably don’t pick electives that they know they will find baffling. Like advanced finance stuff. Oh well. Too bad, too. I was actually doing really well grade-wise. It amazing what you can accomplish when, unlike most of your classmates, you have no spouse, no family, no job, and English is your first language. Grades are pretty low on my list of priorities, but I’m not looking forward to watching them tank.

Actually, I was planning watching them tank regardless. I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you about the Lassonde program. Utah has this amazing program that any potential students should really look into. Basically, a ton of research is done at the U (that’s what locals call the University of Utah…the U. Sorry Miami, your nonsensical logo may be the shape of a U, but Miami Hurricanes lacks the sheer “U” power that the Utah Utes carry. We’re fine sharing, but it’s clear that you aren’t. Luckily, you haven’t been particularly relevant recently so it’s easy not to care what you think. Wow, I’m snippy tonight.)

But I was talking about the Lassonde Program. Long story short, Lassonde takes business, engineering, medical, etc. students…teams them up…and has them investigate and develop business applications for technologies developed in the research arms of the school. Market size, business plans, financing, marketing...all the fun stuff. And it’s for real. Real money. Real business. Real opportunity. Amazing, amazing program. Having said that, they didn’t want me. I did not make the cut. I was bummed. And surprised. I shouldn’t have been. My classmates are bright, ambitious, and awesome. I don’t know who all made it into the program from my class, but I know who applied and there is no shame in losing a spot to anyone.

I did however, remind Jessie about applying. And she got in. I hate her.

Anyway, I was planning on doing Lassonde during my second year so instead I’ll do my internships. And my one internship does almost exactly what I would be doing in Lassonde. So right on. I’m cool with it. Except for stupid Jessie stealing my stupid spot. Brat.

BTW... the fact that Prof. Schallheim's son commented on my last post made my whole summer.