You know you are getting ripped off when…

(There is a $0.89 price tag still on some Skittles in a vending machine charging $1)

Gen Y Management

I read two interesting articles from the economist this past week about management of younger workers.  Some of the points are pretty interesting because they really do relate to how I (as a “Gen Y” person) sometimes think and act.  The articles also do a pretty good job of pointing out that how older managers may look at younger employees.  It’s at least something to think about.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12863573

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12853955

NECVA Preseason Poll

So for those of you that don’t know, I am going to be a volunteer assistant coach on the MIT volleyball team this year.  I’ve been pretty busy with work, but I make it over to MIT for practice whenever possible.

NECVA (our volleyball conference) came out with the first preseson poll. MIT is ranked 8th which is probably about right since we graduated 5 seniors. I even got a little love in the article.  If you read this too quickly it seems like I won a bunch of awards…then you reread it and see really understand it..

MIT, which will host the 2009 conference tournament, is picked to finish eighth. Paul Dill’s club was 25-11 last year, falling to Vassar in the NECVA Quarterfinals. With 27 points, the Engineers bring back six starters, but lose three-time First-Team All-NECVA pick and 2008 New England Division Player of the Year Praveen Pamidimukkala and Ryan Dean.

2009 Resolutions

So bpope and alice have inspired me to write down my new years resolutions.  Hopefully (I doubt it) posting them will encourage me to refer back to them and work on ones that I have fallen behind on. At least it will allow me to look back next year and see what I wanted to do in 09. So here we go…

Call my friends from home at least once every 2 months: It might not sound like a lot, but its more than the 2x per year that happens now.  I always find some kind of excuse not to, but this year its going to change.

Write thank you notes: I’m lucky enough to have a very generous family and I don’t thank them enough.  Whether it’s gifts from my relatives at Christmas or anything else, I should let people know I appreciate them.

Keep my weight under 175: It’s unlikely that I am going to get too buff this year, so I think my bigger concern will be gaining weight.  I weighed as little as 152 after my freshman year (probably a little too thin) and right now im probably about 170.  This being my first full year of work, I need to continue working out and stay concious of what I’m eating.

Stay aware of my investments: This year was pretty rough with the stock market and as I start to put more money away for retirement and investments I need to do a better job of staying on top of it.  With the market down so much the last couple months my current investments have been doing pretty badly and the only bright spot has been that I was so lazy with actually investing my money that some of it was in cash.  Since it was cash it couldn’t lose its value.  In 2009 I need to get in the habit of just being more proactive.  This is the time to do it since I am young and crazy stuff like the past couple months aren’t as big a deal for me.  Its a great opportunity to learn.

Leave Boston at least once a month: When I get a car this year it will be a lot easier to make this happen, but for now my goal is still once a month.  It’s too easy to get stuck in Boston proper just doing the same old stuff (bars, gym, TV).  I’ve already gone snowboarding this month and I am planning on going more this winter.  In the summer I want to do some camping and maybe even going whitewater kayaking.  In the mean time hopefully I can continue getting rides to volleyball tournaments when I need them.

A few more:

Work on my volleyball coaching skills

Have better posture

New year, new friends

It’s a new year and you know what that means, new years resolutions (probably coming soon to a website near you), and this year it got me thinking about keeping in touch with friends that I haven’t talked to in a while.  Taking a quick look at my buddy list its pretty obvious my friends have changed a bit since I got a screen name 10 years ago.  Even thinking back just over my 4 years in college its pretty different.

Think about who your closets friends are now, how you met them and who you hung out with before you knew them…

Stratton Snowboarding

Josh, Eddie and I went snowboarding at Stratton Mountain, VT this weekend. The snow wasn’t very good, but it seems like we got a pretty awesome deal. We snowboarded 2 days and stayed at a hotel overnight for $150 per person total. To put this in perspective: 1 day lift ticket =$82, 2 day lift ticket=$150…so basically we got to stay overnight for free. (Possibly another another post some other time to figure out if this was actually a good deal being that we may have gone for only 1 day instead of 2 without it).

The coolest part of the trip was when we found a picnic table set up as a jump/rail across a stream in some trees. Videos of Lake and I doing it are below. Turns out it isn’t as cool looking in the videos, but it was still pretty fun hitting a more natural jump instead of something just set up in the park for everyone.

Lake:

Dean: