The MIT Incident

Yesterday I came across the story about the Dean of Admissions at MIT being fired for lying about her credentials. Ms. Marilee Jones apparently listed several advanced degrees on her resume when in fact she never graduated from any of the schools mentioned. In fact, she didn't finish her undergraduate education either. What struck me the most about the article was that from all appearances, she was an excellent employee with a great track record. She worked for MIT since 1979 and was appointed Dean almost ten years ago in January 1998. In this case while Ms. Jones lied, I don't believe she should have been fired. I went back and researched the announcement of her promotion. In it, the school official stated, ""The Dean of Admissions is a key position at MIT. Marilee Jones has been chosen for this position after a long, sometimes arduous and extremely thorough national search by a distinguished and hard-working search committee....She has worked hard at developing her staff and is well known as a fine supervisor who emphasizes team-building. On the road, she can reach audiences as few others can, serving as a superb spokesperson for MIT from coast to coast. I am delighted she will be part of the leadership team.." She had been working at the school since 1979 in various admissions roles. The ironic thing is that she worked very hard to ensure that women and minorities could get a better shot at getting into this prestigious school. She beat out PhD's and other highly qualified candidates and actually did what she was hired to do. And all for what? Mysteriously, somebody (anonymous of course) turned over her background information recently and this is what prompted the firing. Only someone really jealous of her would do that...and it probably was somebody really close to her. It always is that way. I use to send out what I called my "DD" version of a resume...the dummy down version. I did this because when I actually list my true chronological, factual information I usually get the same response...you are overqualified for the job. In other words...something about my skill sets and manner would make the boss feel threatened about their job status. While on my DD version (or any version for that matter) I have never lied, on that particular resume I would simply leave out large areas of important responsibilities that I had to do. If I was responsible for a multi-million dollar NBC feed, I simply would put down that I "handled several client satellite feeds". I stopped sending out my DD version two years ago because I thought about it and know that I shouldn't be ashamed that I actually have experience and like to learn from those willing to teach. Not everybody shares this philosophy. Oops...my ride is here. I have to go. Will revisit tomorrow to finish the thought.

Friday Part 2

Pretty much stayed indoors. My section for the May 9th presentation is done. Let's see if the other group members can get it together. I'm happy that I will be finishing up my slides for thesis presentation on the 14th and to practice. So basically i'm left with the Tobago group paper. Cool beans. Not really much pressure except job search. Even with that some possible work has come up in my alternate streams of income. I read that it's important to develop five streams of income so I put out job creation possibilities to some sources I know. Looks like good things are coming. Darren called today asking if he and Jeff can have a meeting with me about organizing them with client data. That is so do-able! Ricardo also set me up with interview for a remote paid-internship with a medical facility looking for organizational help as well. This on top of the full time prospects are good. My goal is to land a full time by the end of June. It will happen. I still have to work on that secondary report for the hospital on my findings. The possibilities of good things are endless.

I need to do some spring cleaning and get rid of some books. Lor can have the unused notebooks (surprisingly I only needed one for this semester). Once I catch up on reading all the non-fiction stuff I couldn't get to, I'll ask around and see if other friends may want to read them. If not I can resell them at half the value or donate them to the high school. I've been somewhat good with not creating paper piles anymore but still have to review the very last pile I created in my school paperwork frenzy. That will only take about an hour to correct. O.K. I better go since I want to catch 20/20. It's going to be nice this weekend. I'm going to make the best of Sunday.

The Rumble of Thunder

What an amazing morning. I woke up sometime in the 5am hour to the sounds of clashing thunder and rain. Listening to it made me think just how powerful and unpredictable nature can be despite forewarning from meteorologists. When I was younger, thunder and lightening terrified me. Everyone knew that when those types of storms occurred and I was at home, they would not be reaching me by telephone and nothing electronic was turned on. The funny thing is that to this day, I still follow this somewhat rudimentary ritual. In the case of this morning, it was very early so I didn't have to worry about anyone trying to contact me or some report to get done. I did enjoy the fact that while I was still slightly fearful of the enormous power of the storm, I was also intoxicated by the excitement of it. I thought to myself that those type of moments are great to share thoughts with somebody special. In my case somebody special is me at least for right now. It was quiet outside where I could listen to the wind rustling the budding leaves, hear the driving drops of water pelting the pavement, and encompass myself in the rumblings of the intermittent thunder. I fell back asleep listening to the rain. When I woke up again it was light out, around 8am, and the rain was still falling. The outside noises had changed somewhat but the rain still sounded calming. I feel much better today. Just spending a lazy day in cleaning up and wrapping up schoolwork. Two presentations and a paper and it's all done. Wow. It's starting to really sink in that I accomplished yet another goal I have set for myself. The next goal is to become fluent with my Spanish. I'm going to have to get even more creatively resourceful on how to take lessons for virtually nothing. I have a few ideas that I won't share! I'm getting really excited about my upcoming trip to Seoul. I will book my ticket on Sunday. Sungrim has already started to flush out what we can do and everything sounds great. If I can book my ticket on an earlier date, I might be able to make it there for the Buddhist Birthday celebration...the Lantern Festival. I've been researching it online and it looks so exciting and interesting. Not sure if I will be able to get there in time since I can't leave until after graduation and the travel time is almost 15 hours and they are 13 hours ahead of us timewise. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can coordinated a good travel passage.

In the meantime, dinner plans are shaping up. So far it looks like ten people will be joining me for the meal. It should be fun since many don't know one another and everyone comes from different backgrounds and experiences. I'm not really sure if my parents have anything planned for right after the graduation ceremony. It would be nice to attend a celebration that I didn't have to plan myself. I think in reality, i'm not going to plan any more group celebrations of my life moments. Not that there are many so far but in reality the only parties i've ever had in my life i could count on one hand. Two birthday parties a week before my actual birthday, my high school graduation and my undergraduate college graduation are the gatherings in a nutshell. While I am glad to have those experiences, I also feel a sense of lacking something. I think going away on my birthdays and creating my own tradition in that sense will remove that sense of loss. I felt different and good being away this past birthday. It felt right. Anyway...i'm rambling. I should make lunch, straighten up a bit, and do my powerpoint presentation slides (KISS). Tomorrow is a Costco run so I better build up strength for that. Not really sure why my father is shopping for food now since he's headed to Japan on Tuesday. I bet he wants to go out for the ride to shop for clothes. We'll see.

Seoul Searching

I've made a decision..I'm headed to South Korea for a couple of weeks! I think it's the right time for this adventure despite some obvious obstacles I have to overcome (and will). Sungrim wants me to stay for as long as I possibly can and says they can't wait to show me everything! I'm her only English speaking friend so she's a bit worried communication wise. She says I better learn Korean fast. Ha ha. Does kimchee count as my universal Korean language passport? Ha ha. I'm very excited to be going on this journey. I have to go to the ear doctor right now so I can get this thing cleared up in time (still can't hear and there's a slight throbbing sensation). More later.

5:30pm...I feel so much better. I can finally hear out of my ear! The wick is out and I can hear much better since my ear canal opened up. Still slight pain but it will go away soon with the ear drops. I still have to go back next week for follow up but the doctor says it should clear up completely in the next week or so. I wish I didn't have to go to class tonight but it should be interesting since Nidhi is coming to speak. I took his Analysis for Decision Making class last year. Pretty good. We'll be discussing the caste system in India. It will be interesting to hear his perspective on that. While I enjoy the class debates, I certainly won't miss these 8pm classes. Three more to go and then freedom! O.K. better go. When I get back I have schoolwork to do.

The World Out There

So I think the ear is making a little progress. I still can't hear out of it however the sharp pain has now been reduced to a mild pain and an even lighter throbbing. I am dreading this group meeting before class. People always want to meet for the stupidest reasons and never have an agenda. I always find myself in groups where they expect me to take the lead and organize everything. While I appreciate that people look to me as a leader, it can get draining as well. In this case I am making a point of NOT being the go to person. I'm tired...and for the last two weeks physically sick as well. To boot, one of the girls in the group likes to send emails that have no less than five paragraphs each. Brevity is a good thing in certain instances. To add insult to injury, a member from my other group simply has no clue what we have been working on for the entire semester. With two weeks until presentation, she's going to have to get a clue quickly. Again, I'm falling back on this one even if it means finishing out with a B+ over the A grade I deserve. She has contributed the bare minimum on all group assignments. I am so happy school will be over very soon.

I'm going to book my ticket to South Korea this weekend. I'm going to take the chance financially and just do it. I know it's crazy but you know what...why not?!? Life really is too short. Years ago I use to think about what I would do in my 30s and travelling with a mate or good friend(s) was pretty high on the list. While I do have good friends, they don't want to travel as far as I do because of various reasons like their mate doesn't want them to go, location, no time, etc. Another one of my friends has been trying to get to Paris for the last four years. Each year the people he was to travel with cancel at the last minute. I told him he should go it alone because if you keep waiting on people he many never get there. I follow my own advice. I don't want to keep waiting on others to enjoy things like travel in my life. If I really think about it, I am fortunate in the sense that I meet people everywhere I go. I want to be a world traveller because it's a big world out there and so many different places to explore. Why limit myself to just reading about all of these places when I can also see it for myself? Every time I see the tourist bus go past my window I think about the visitors to our city who wanted to come to the Big Apple. They are on their adventure in NYC...I want to go on an adventure in their part of the world...and I will. I better go. More later.

Tuesday Part 2

O.K. So usually Tuesday is my favorite day of the week. It still is despite the pain I am in right now. So I was forced to go to the doctor since I basically couldn't hear out of my left ear and had tremendous pain. I have a really bad ear infection. After the torture of having whatever was in there sucked out, the doctor also had to put in something called a "wick" so that medication can get into my ear canal since it was completely shut. I hope this drops and medication clear this up soon. I still can't hear out of my ear and it hurts pretty badly. On the trainride uptown, I couldn't help but think about deaf people who have to work in our hearing world. It must be really difficult. I literally did not carry my MP3 player with me since I knew I wouldn't be able to hear anything with my "good ear" if I was listening to music. I even found myself not closing my eyes but rather paying attention even more to garbled subway announcements. It was a weird experience. I'm going to lay down for a bit and then get up and try to concentrate on schoolwork. Needless to say I didn't go to work out. I'll do some crunches on the floor later. More later.

10pm...Still can't hear out of my ear and there is still pain. I hope this starts to clear up tomorrow. Just a quick pet peeve... why do people put answer their telephones if they are into a t.v. show? Three friends literally couldn't talk because a series of t.v. shows were on...or if they remained on the phone, they were distracted so much that they weren't even listening to anything I was saying. I immediately ended the phone calls. Does t.v. rule our lives so much that one will die if we miss one minute of a particular show? Does technology and t.v. surpass human interaction? I think I was born at the wrong time..but I like being old school. Just a thought.

Another Early Tuesday Morning

Yes...it's true...I can't sleep again. In addition to this latest round of insomnia, I also have had the migraines and now earaches. I feel like screaming what the "f"...but I won't since that would technically be a complaint. Not sure if this is an ear infection or just some quirky thing that happens when you get older. I'll roll the dice and try to ride it out until Thursday. If there is still pain then i'll be forced to go to the doctor's office. I'm trying to avoid that like the plague since i'm sure they'll make me wait as a walk in over an appointment. Like I don't have something better to do with a three hour chunk of time so that I can see the doctor for a whole five minutes. Plus I don't want to incur any more out of pocket expense towards medical. So far the only outstanding debt I have is student loans. It's a good feeling not having credit card debt. The student medical center is virtually useless unless you need a flu shot or have a stomach ache so i'm not sure why we have to pay a usage fee on top of what we pay for student insurance. Lor says at NYU they also have the added benefit of using the dental services there on campus (for a slight fee) but that's still a good deal. She did say that they are allowed to extend coverage there for a year after graduation. I need to check on that at my school....soon. My advisor asked me to email my resume to him. He says he may have some leads for me. That's cool. There was only one presentation tonight. She had a bit too much info on her powerpoint slides but overall it was good. I need to finish pulling mine together by the end of the week so that it's one less thing to worry about.

Today looks like it's shaping up to be another good one. It was so warm on Monday. For me that basically means hot since anything over 50 degrees is guaranteed to make me sweat! That's the only part of warm/hot weather I don't like....sweating! Oh well...what can I do except wait for the day when I can splurge on botox! Ha ha. I really hope my ear stops bothering me soon. I definitely need to go work out. The goal is to lose 40lbs by my next birthday. That will be here before you know it. Denise is already looking in to travel possibilities for year's end. It really sucks that I basically will be charged double for a trip since I'm a single traveller. There really needs to be a better system in place for people like me who don't want to travel with a group of singles but rather solo (or at least until a great travel partner comes along). She asked if I was going to travel with my father again. It's an interesting prospect but I told her no. If I have nobody to go with me I will go it alone. I was thinking about it last week and realized that there really isn't any one day just for me...this includes my birthday. Let's go through the rundown of special days:
1. New Year's Eve/Day...that's a couple night and day. While the parties are fun...they get mighty depressing at midnight when everyone is paired up.
2. Valentine's Day...gee...what do I really need to say about this day? Ah...nothing.
3. Father's Day...this one is to make dad feel special even though every day is father's day.
4. Mother's Day...like father's day, every day is mother's day? How come we don't have a Children's day here in the U.S.???
5. 4th of July...Fun in the sun...hang with the gang yet all are paired up with summer flings or potential mates that will stick around till the New Year
6. Labor Day...maybe a few people are ending the summer flings but hey...they had them right? Also, they'll relapse and pair up again when the cold sets in just because.
7. Thanksgiving....a time to be thankful for having special people in your life, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, friends, etc. Many also use this as a gateway into Christmas. Time to shop for that "special person" in your life.
8. Christmas Eve...The day of last minute shopping, last minute traveling, and final touches on the Christmas spirit. Oh...did I mention my birthday is on that day. Try finding people who actually want to do something not related to Christmas on that day...that is if they are in town. If they are in town...they sure as hell aren't going to travel out of it because it's a birthday. Christmas outranks a birthday.
9. Christmas Day...Everyone is ripping open items they probably don't want or need but hey...somebody thought about you right?
10. And now we are back to New Year's Eve...did I mention the party?

So back to my original point...there really isn't any day on the calendar that's just for me so...I decided that I'm taking back my birthday...even if that means going it alone. I'll get use to it. I'm going to force myself to dammit! I am also going to pick a day on the calendar and create my own holiday. Not sure where I will end up travel-wise in December but I know i'm going someplace...someplace good....AND...i'm going to have fun. It will be my new annual tradition. I'm getting sleepy...let's see if I can actually fall asleep. More later.

New York Sunshine

What a beautiful day here in the five boroughs! I love my snow but I'll take the gorgeous sunshine too. It's about 80 degrees outside and feels like a typical SUMMER day! Amazing. I haven't been feeling too well the past couple of days but today is much, much better than a few days ago. I'm looking forward to class tonight as the first round of thesis presentations begins. It will give me a good number of additional ideas for my presentation. I am feeling a bit guilty that I haven't gone to workout since last Tuesday. Feels like I'm developing that gym rat mentality...which in my case is very good. I actually look forward to working out! Hopefully I can get back into the swing of it tomorrow. Someone keeps calling me and hanging up. At first I thought it was just a wrong number but now they've called enough times for it to be someone who knows me. No wrong number calls that many times. Oh well...nothing I can do unless they speak up or stop calling. In the meantime, I'll just keep hanging up if there is no response to hello. I better get going. More later.