Lara eTching J-Lo in the one-tard: " she should really worry about the cameltoe"

NYE quotes during the night, here's our first:

Rob- Who knows how to drink the absinthe?
Jess- I do
Rob- you sure?
Jess- yeah I've done this twice.
Rob- good enough for me

Happy News Years All!

will have a year in review later...

Duck Fried Rice and Star Wars trilogy... Merry Xmas

Baaaaah-ston Trip

Well it looks like Off The Schneid had it's 500th customer, congrats on whoever you are. I'll send you an autographed pitch-book or something like that...

Anyway, saw this place The Barking Crab up in Boston on Man Vs. Food. Looks absolutely awesome. Anyone for a road-trip this summer (preferably, before August)?

Big Mack

Schneid-Off (or shout-out) to outgoing Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack who is passing on a year-end bonus for the third year in a row. It is certainly admirable that his firm is back to profitability and yet is still being responsible enough to given the political climate.

While I don't know a lot about Mack, I do wonder: Is this simply him being genuine or is it a veiled shot at Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman saying "Thanks for screwing this up for the rest of us." Thoughts?

Comfort Food

After a weekend in Vegas with some b-school buddies, having Jess's awesome chicken soup. Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Semester over

Officially done with semester #3. 4th Down and Goal!!!

4th Quarter Rally

Had an interesting chat today with my dad. Reminded me "when its 4th and 15, game on the line, do you want the ball?"

Well, if I ever think I can't handle something, just remind me... I'm Michael Robinson.

Sportscenter: 12/8 Edition

New feature on Off-the-schneid: random update on a ton of sports stories that each can be a blog in itself. Basically, if i haven't updated in a while its a good way to catch up in one full swoop:

Derek Jeter named SI Sportsman of the Year- Great article really lends a good insight as to what makes him such a great leader. I admit, coming into the season I was skeptical about it based on how he handled the A-Rod situation (which wasnt addressed) but this shows how much more happens behind the scenes than the media portrays.

PSU heads to Capital One Bowl- To be honest, this is a fair placement for them. There were only two games of actual substance on the schedule (Iowa and OSU) and they were dominated in both. If you have to debate whether the best team they beat was Michigan St or Temple, then you don't deserve a BCS game. More on this game as we get closer.

Weis fired at ND- Bye-bye fat-boy! What makes his firing somewhat sweet is the sheer arrogance that he has had over the last five years. He was successful with Willingham's kids and couldn't win with his own. Clearly has no idea how to run a defense, but had tons of weapons in place for next year. Now with Clausen and Tate gone to the NFL, it will be interesting to see how the replacement fares. There should be a ton of talent though, its amazing how well they recruit year after year with the record over the past 20 years.

Bowden retires from FSU- This one is sweet. Bobby clearly has lost order over the program, which we all should have seen coming. For most of the 90's, he let his players get away with everything and barely did anything to discipline him. Finally the inmates ran the asylum and completely underperformed the last four seasons. Now the path is clear for Paterno to finish as the winning coach of all-time. However, based on the way Bowden was kicked to the curb, I certainly appreciate the class that PSU has taken with its legendary coach.

Sampson's Swoosh

My friend James is participating in No-Shave November it grew a pretty decent beard. Here's a look at it in more detail LINKY.

I have a slightly better concept: No Shoes Semester. During the summer, I like to exclusively go to dive bars where i can stroll in with a hat, t-shirt, and flippie floppies so I figured to carry that over and exclusively wear flip-flops every day to class. So far mission accomplished (with the lone exception of the one day I had interviews). This includes days when i'm teaching section, classes, meetings, etc. Definitely a much sweeter deal than an itchy beard.

Still here...

Just sent off my Marketing Strategies paper to my group for final review. Why so late? Here's the timeline:

5:00pm: Member A send his work to Member B to review
5:30pm: Member B says he can start looking by 6pm
6:00pm: I indicate that my half is done
9:30pm: B emails question about content
11:00pm: I email B asking what's his deal
12:00pm: B FINALLY send his work out
1:15am: Finish editing B's work, waiting for feedback on mine
1:45am; B says he didn't have anything
1:55am; email final copy out for review

So I effectively lost about 3 hours sleep here and time with the lady. Great, this is what I have to look forward to next year.

Women are (the ones) from Mars

In my version of hell week: 2 Marketing Strategy papers, presentation on our stock pitch for Financial Information Analysis, take-final for Investment Strategies, and the usual preparation for my Accounting sections on Friday. But on the bright side, we head to Vegas on Friday night for some extreme awesomeness.

Had an interesting exchange on Friday. I was down at Jess's for the holiday and we were headed to Macy's with her parents when the following took place:

Me: "So what are you getting?"
Jess: "What do you think?!"
Me: "A belt!!!" (note: i've been saying this for months [very proud of her])
Jess: "Will you stop it!"
Jess's Mom: "What?"
Jess: "He thinks that because my pants are too big that I should get a belt"
Jess's Mom: "That is the male way of approaching it"

Some things I just don't understand. Women's fashion and practicality apparently don't mix...

New (Old) Theme Song

No class today (4pm class cancelled) or Wednesday (nothing scheduled). Do have a group project meeting later, but very low stress. Just casually relaxing with some coffee, breakfast, CNBC/ESPN and Wall Street Journal and NY Times readings. Ahhhh, 2nd year of b-school....

While this has been nice for the last few weeks, im somewhat looking forward to classes 4 days-a-week next semester as I can see myself getting stir crazy. But for now, I don't want to get up, cause if I did, i wouldn't be a lazy-ass kid.

Penn State vs. MSU

Well, Penn State's regular season is over after a commanding 2nd half to post a 42-14 victory of the Spartans (ESPN LINK). Finishing at 10-2, they met my preseason expectations record wise, but we'll have to wait another two weeks to see if they make a BCS game.

Among the stats I found intriguing, Darryl Clark is now the All-Time career leader in both passing and rushing touchdowns by a QB. For as much as he has struggled in some big games, congratulations Darryl on a great career. 21-3 during the regular season is a great accomplishment.

I'll have a full season recap after the bowl game. But now, a little work before going into SF to see an 80's cover band, which are always sweeeeeeeet.

Round 1 down, 2 to go

Scotch event last night in SF (recall we do not call it "The City") was a little ho-hum. Tasted some good stuff, but paid full retail for it... Good people made it a little better experience. Apparently there is another Scotch Party at Arch St in a few weeks and some marketing company wants to a free (yes, free) Johnny Walker tasting for the finance club. Free blue label?! Um... yes please!

Hello, old friend

So it's been about 10 weeks. Ouch! Well, i'm stuck in one of my classes and am bored with such a monotone speaker talking about the Russian Venture Capital market. So I figured today would be a good one to pick things back up again. Any of you who read this know my latest news, so let's pretend like this whole vacation never happened, mmmkay?

Just picked my classes for next (and last) semester. Need to drop one and may end up reshuffling anyway. Here's what I'm looking at:

Corporate Financial Reporting
Managerial Accounting
Financial Institutions and Markets
Game Theory
Competitive and Corporate Strategy

Take Two

2nd year of b-school is officially kicked off, and I am preparing for my Tuesday Marketing Strategy class. The task at hand... read a case based on Playstation 3 and prepare for a discussion on the video game industry. Sounds like fun to me!

Da da da da da-da. Da da da da da-da.

Spending the first day of B-school... at a bar. Booyah!

Give Tarantino an Oscar, Inglorious Basterds was amazing!

Linked up blog to facebook status. Should make things easier. Booyah

Mergers & Incompetence

In our elevators at work we have a small tv that flashes daily news and updates. There's also a forum where they pose a general business question and viewers text in their answers. Today's questions was which two firms should merge and what would you call them?

The answer that I just saw: "I would merge Stop & Shop and A&P and then call them Stop & Pee." Love it...

Tick......Tock....

Man I am bored to tears right now. After today, I have six days left in this job and I cannot wait for it to be over. The minutes keep ticking by slower and slower. This is one of those days where I better leave at 6:30 on the dot, not because I really have anything to do, but because it would be miserable otherwise. I wish I had a dodgeball game, a happy hour, or a date night to look forward to, but soon enough…

Price of History

So I finally figured out how easily transfer pictures from my iPhone to the laptop (it took 5 seconds on Google) and now have a bunch of pics that I've been meaning to upload. The first of which was last Friday. I went to the Yankees game at the ball park and saw that they are auctioning stuff from the old stadium. Among the items were signed balls, bricks, infield dirt, and even seats. But the piece that really caught my eye was this...



Yes, this is the right field wall from the old stadium with the famous 385 ft sign. Many homeruns have sailed over this fence and now you can have it in your own backyard or man-cave. The final bid price... $22,000!!! Ridonk

Insatiable Hunger

My friend Eric has been raving about this halal street-meat cart on 53rd and 6th, saying its a must have. So there's two carts, one on the east and west sides of 6th and i went to the one on the east side since it was closer. Waited 10 minutes for lamb, chicken and rice and then crossed over to get a seat on 51st by UBS to eat. When I walked past the other line, I saw this:



There were 48 people waiting in line (i counted) for friggin' street-meat. That's absurd. I mean the food was good (worth $7 w/soda) but its not THAT good. Which begs the question, what would you be willing to do for food? I have gone to Philly with my buddy because he tempted me with a cheesesteak (and had the nerve to take me to Geno's instead of Pat's) to accompany him to pick up keys. But this weekend im going 11 stops into Brooklyn on the Q for what is supposed to be the best pizza in New York... I'll be back with a review.

Too Hot

It was hot today in the park, so I cooled off a little...

Fresh Air

Went for a six mile walk down the Hudson this morning. Was tempted to go all the way to the GWB, but had no idea how I'd make it back.

Now sitting under a tree in the sheep meadow in Central Park making calls and reading the Journal. Well needed air time...

Say what?

I'm writing up a section of a 40 page info book on a client we are looking to sell. One of the associates I'm working with said, "can’t we write something here even though we don’t have information?" Did I miss something?

Again?

Another night at blondies, another drunk guy buys my bar tab. I continue to be awesome

Bartender...

Just finished work and the last 2 hours was uber frustrating. I really hate Microsoft word and this memo I've been doing for the last two weeks is really pushing me.

I'm already 2 hours late for a Penn State happy hour ending in an hour on. The UES. I really should go home, but I'm doing what I do best... Saying "fuck it, why not?"

Update

Some drunk guy from Pittsburg is heatedly debating me in sports and buying rounds of drinks. I continue to be awesome.

Delay of Game

My plan for tonight was to come back home and write a couple of entries. Unfortunately, one of my roommates is having a dungeons and dragons event in the room with the tv. So I'm now having a few Yuenglings at Blondies while watching the Yankees game. Sorry folks, but we're delayed a night or two. At least I downloaded a new app on my iPhone that let's me do this at the bar.

In and out

Just going to make a quickie today, I have a few things that I’ll address over the weekend. Going to see the new Transformers movie tonight, which is effectively the highlight of my summer. Not that’s not sad, that’s awesome. A few things that I’ll touch on:

* RIP Michael Jackson
* Shake Shack West shakes its way into the Top 3
* The B-School Life of an ex-NFL Linebacker
* Life as a banker
* My frustrations with the Yankees

Well in hopes that SOMEBODY will leave a comment, the next topic will be decided by you. Whatever generates the most comments ON THE SITE will be my next entry. You know why they call me Peoples?... ‘Cause I takes care of my peoples….

Phoenix Rising for.... Ice Cream?

I drove down Hamburg Turnpike yesterday to see Preakness Chevy has gone out of business. While I don't really mourn that loss too much, it's that a "what-if" has now gone off.

Back in '04, the car dealership purchased the Old Barn Milk Bar on the other side of the parking lot. "The Barn" was this restaruant on a huge parking lot that didn't serve good food, but did serve these huge portion of Welsh Farms Ice Cream that was perfect for a hot summer day. Making it even better, my PAL baseball team was sponsored by the Barn, so we went there everytime we won. One way or the other, it has a special place for everyone growing up in Wayne or Pompton Lakes.

When the Chevy dealer bought the place, it closed down the restaurant and a local monument. Now that they parent company no longer exists, I wonder if anyone will try to revive the place. Not the best business plan in the world, but seems like fun to me.

I mean it's no Penn State Creamery, but what is?

Did ya miss me?

So it's been a while since i've been on here. When you say you're going to do a big time-consuming entry, you just end up waiting for when there is time to write it, which you never have. So instead you fail to write, and your friends and family keep asking about your blog, which just creates more pressure to write something lengthy and meaningful which you REALLY don't have the time for. It's kind of like the giggle-loop for failing to blog on time.

But enough of this, no more blogging about...well... blogging.

This is me getting off the schneid (funny how that works out) and getting re-started on this. The key is to make short quick updates that don't take a lot of time. Hopefully the next one will be quick, I have a backlog of stuff that i've been meeting to share but hopefully something will spur some creativity for it come up.

But for now, just wanted to say happy father's day to all the dad's out there, especially mine. Love ya big guy!

Alright, Schneids Out!

Done and Done....for now

I just emailed in my Corporate Finance Final Exam, so with that I am officially done with my first year at business school. My how the year was so long yet so fast.

I'll have a recap at some point over the weekend. But for now, to the year-end gala in SF to celebrate. Autobots, transform and roll out.

How much for that?

Today is my last final for the semester in Ethics (well, I still gotta finish a take home for Corp Fin but im 95% done). Anyway we need to digitally sign a sheet that says we didn't cheat when the following conversation happens:

Roommate 1: Do we actually need to sign this?
Me: No, just type your name in, that'll do
Roommate 1: Maybe I should scan my signature so I can use it on stuff like this
Roommate 2: that's $Gay-99

awesome

Lack of Talent?

We had our talent show here at school last Thursday and it was abundantly clear that a lot of people have many other musical or physical skills where as i have.... excel? Just goes to show how fortunate i am to be with a great group of kids.

On the other hand, we do lack "talent" in other ways here. While on facebook i was looking at a picture taken of 5 2nd-year (asian) girls from this past weekend in Las Vegas. I had the following conversation with my roommate:

Me: "True or False, there is at least one hot girl in this picture?"
Roommate: "Are those a bunch of dudes?"

I can't wait for my girlfriend to be out here next year.....

She was a Ho.....

Thank you Pepsi, Safeway, and The 40 Year-Old Virgin

Robbed by the Rice Krispies Guys

I was at the grocery store today (and yes, Safeway stores in Berkeley are much crappier than most A&P and Shop-Rites back east) when something really strange happened. I got to the checkout counter and was emptying everything onto the conveyor belt when I noticed my box of Cheerios was gone. I KNOW that I put it in there. Someone actually yanked my cereal box out of my cart. WTF Man?!

I've had a few things stolen from me over the years: t-shirts, sandals, sweaters, my dog (i didnt even have a dog! long story....) but those are aren't even the strangest of them all. A few years ago, for Hoboken St. Patrick's Day, my roommates and I had one of our Apartment 1112 blowout parties. I'd say at least 130 different people circulated in and out of our place that day and also convened in our bedrooms since the place was so packed. And at the end of the day something of mine was stolen. Not my tv, laptop, ipod, nor clothing.... but my Gillette Fusion Razor. Really, Lloyd?! Really?!

So what's the strangest thing you've had stolen?

The Pen is Mightier

Just read an editorial in Time about circumcision, while in the bathroom none the less. Essentially, a jewish guy is about to be the father of a baby boy and is doing research to deem whether it really makes sense to cut off that initial piece of foreskin. Does it really prevent STDs? How much bigger does it look? Do the ladies love it? (just watch Robin Hood: Men in Tights for that one).

I was under the impression that it is almost standardized, but some of the stats kind of suprised me:

90% were snipped in the 60's-70's (what i figured)
50% are snipped today (really?)
30% are snipped in California (really Lloyd? really???)

While I don't want to know from my readership who's got a little extra down there, I am really curious about why so low in CA. Is this another hippie thing? Or am I missing something else here?

I actually had a conversation about this on Monday with my girlfriend, not about whether to do it or not, but why would you cater it and why would anyone go to it. Well, its more customary than anything else. Why else would you want to come home, 8 days after being born, to have your relatives and parents friends come by for bagels and lox to have the Rabbi (in the words of Mel Brooks) "nip the tip"?

Thanks Coach

Today I had the privilege of meeting Mike Montgomery, the head basketball coach at Cal. We're doing a paper on leadership for my.... leadership class, and we have to interview two senior...leaders and compare and contrast their styles. It's really more about social networks but dont get me started, this may be the most useless class that I have taken since Landscape Architecture 210 at Penn State (at least that was an easy A that i went to twice all semester).

Anyway, Coach Monty was pretty funny. Right after walking into the room and seeing 4 MBA students he responded, "It takes 4 of you to write a paper?" and later uttered "What no girls? You guys must not be all that smart after all".

The biggest takeaway from it is that people make a lot of assumptions about you and your skills just by your association. He mentioned that if he is successful, than when his assistant coaches go for jobs it's assumed that they know what they are doing. Kind of like you can have a complete (common sense) moron go to Harvard, yet everyone looks at the name and makes an assumption.

Coach said his advice is to latch onto a star and ride the coat-tails. Looking back on some of life's decisions, I think there is a lot of wisdom in his words. Now if he can only help me with my jump-shot...

Sensorship

Was out to breakfast with my girlfriend, and we were talking about the "moral police" who go to school in Berkeley. One thing leads to another and we eventually get on the topic of sensorship, which she can't stand, and how in europe violence on tv is more sensored than nudity which is the complete opposite of the US. She then said:

"No one has ever been traumatized by seeing boobs"

Priceless.....

Stuck in SFO

Title says it all... so im just putzing around. Went to a speaker event last night with Sandy Alderson, former CEO of the Padres and A's. He had some good things to say about leadership in general, but nothing really earth-shattering. From a baseball perspective, i found it interesting that Money-Ball actually pre-dates the Billy Bean era and that it started back in 80's. Apparently, Mark McGwire was the first guy selected based on those criteria. Nobody asked about steriods though.

At some point he talked about the Yankees as an example of a team that is able to go out and spend and asked if there were any NY fans out there. I was the only one (surprise). I then got booed by my colleagues. I then turned around, and in Morpheous fashion (with hand-gesters) just said "bring it on". Sandy then said i better be working on Wall Street to afford those seats. Oh Sandy, if you only knew...

The Clairvoyant Bum

In San Diego this weekend to chill with my buddy Mark and celebrate his big 3-0. Thought I'd share a moment on my to the airport yesterday. Was heading down to the subway when I saw a bum sitting outside with a cardboard sign and a cup for donations. Normally, I don't pay any attention to this but I liked what the sign said:

"What Would Scooby Do?"

I got a good laugh at out of it and tossed him some loose change, just for the entertainment.

Learning to be (Un)Ethical

I am starting to really get a kick out of ethics class. Going to school in Berkeley has given me an exposure to the most ultra-liberal environment in the country. There are many people here who want to save the world one tree at a time and are all about "Corporate Social Responsibility", whatever that bullshit means. I'm all about capitalism and to be honest a lot of this hippie shit is really getting annoying at this point.

So one would think that our ethics class would teach us how to be more responsible and play into the hands of the liberal base. Well, not so much. Rather it teaches us that you still need to act what's in firms best interest and how society is actually better off by colluding, bribing, and when its appropriate to pollute. this is rocking all these do-gooders to their core. And I love every minute of it. I think the overall takeaways of Ethics class are: Stop Being A F'N Hippie!!!

What I've learned is that all this CSR stuff is basically a PR move that carriers a tax-writeoff and how you can exploit it. We have a Hall of Fame for people who act most appropriately in a business sense and takes advantage of those who are too weak and unreasonably immoral. And after 4 weeks, guess who's #1 on the HOF list.... you guessed it (mwah) and I have no qualms whatsoever. Thank you Gordon Gekko, greed is good.

New meaning to the breast stroke

Had the following conversation today with one of my buddies, let's call him "Guy"

Guy: I think I'm gonna start swimming more, but I hate that American crawl stroke.
Me: Yeah I'm not a fan either
Guy: Why do you think that is?
Me: Cause I was never really good at it. I do the breast stroke well.
Guy: Yeah me too, know why that is?
Me: No?
Guy: Cause we're "boob" guys! Get it?!

(what a pun)

And these are the things that go on in business school...

The Devil Works for Hallmark

I'd like to thank my dad for reminding me it's been 24 days (magic #) since my last blog. So I have an update on that day which happens to be Easter Sunday (or as my girlfriend likes to call it "Bunny Day"). Note: this may get offensive at the end

I don't get this holiday. I don't understand the bunny. I don't understand the eggs. And no Dan, bunnies don't lay eggs!!! But that's all hallmark bs to sell more than they deserve to. And on that note... I'm starting to hate Hallmark. Cards now cost $6 and they are just g-d awful. I feel compelled when I'm giving cards to my parents, ladyfriend, brother for whatever occasion that I have to apologize for "it's a shitty card season again" Did they lose all their talent and decide to hold us hostage at the register? Sure feels like it, there has to be a better way...

So to tie in 24 and Easter, courtesy of Jack Bauer Facts:

" Jesus died and rose from the dead in 3 days. It took Jack Bauer 10 minutes. And he's done it twice. "

Just finished watching Season 2 of 24, and it's awesome. That show is so addicting watching on DVD, I just want more. Season 3 is on its way soon!!!

Beer Can Wait

When I was heading to school the other day, I was listening to "The Herd" on espn and Colin had an interesting take. I'm pretty sure it was after Lebron and D-Wade went toe to toe for 50 points apiece and he wanted to know which one was more "Beer Can Wait" or "Bathroom Can Wait" worthy. In other words, who are you most glued to your tv when that person has the ball that pretty much anything else in life gets put on hold for those few seconds or minutes.

So I decided to come up with a list of my own. I wanted to do one for each MLB, NFL, NBA, and NCAA football and hoops. Problem is I don't follow NCAA hoops til March and can't honestly name more than 10 guys who actually play (excluding my NIT-tany Lions). I even tried outsourcing to it my roommate J-Dub but he came up with Hansborough and that dude isnt BCW in my opinion. So I'll do 2 College Football guys. And besides is there anyone is golf other than Tiger...

And without further adieu:

NBA- Dewayne Wade- OK, this wasn't exactly a rocket science pick. It's either him Lebron or Kobe. What i love about Wade is his ability to drive to hoop and slash his way in. The guy isnt as consistent as the other two, but when he is on late in a game.... kid is on!!!
NCAA Part 1- Tim Tebow- He is not be any certainty the most athletic or dynamic football player out there, but I LOVE his energy, fire, and emotion on the field. He is just fun to watch, and that jump-pass is pretty awesome.
NCAA Part 2- Terrelle Pryor- The kid is extremely raw, but there may not be a better athlete in the game. He runs so smoothly it looks like he is jogging... and he's a QB! If this guy can learn how to throw, I hope it doesn't happen until he leave Ohio State because he'll make Vince Young look like Jon Moxon.
NFL- Tom Brady- Another one of those "i hate to say it" picks. But he has lead 2 game-winning super bowl drives and almost pulled off a 3rd against the Giants (inches a way to 60 yard bomb to Moss). If he's down 4 with 2 min to go, I'd want him to have the ball.
MLB- Mariano Rivera OK, you got me, this guy is the sole reason I did this entry. But he is just SOOOOOO money, even despite his recent seasons as he ages. I once took my Norwegian boss to a Yanks-Sox game and when Mo came into warm-up he told me "I know nothing about baseball, but I can tell this guy is REALLY GOOD." Bottom line, if you are at Yankee Stadium in the 9th inning and Enter Sandman comes on.... YOU....DO...NOT...LEAVE!!!

My real identity

Click link. In case you forgot... I'm Batman

Cutler on the Chopping Block

3 entries in a day?! Yeah, im nuts (big whoop, wanna fight about it?) but like I said I have a lot of material that I've been chompin at the bit to get out. Again, its' about consistency... let's see how it plays out.

Anywho, it looks like Jay Cutler may be on his way out in Denver. It's a shame considering this is a team that looked to have their franchise QB and potentially lethal offense once they got healthy and firmed up that offensive line. Now it looks like they are starting from scratch. Do I blame the Broncos, not really considering there are only a handful of guys in the NFL who are absolutely untradable (I may come up with this list later) and he's not one of them. Still it's a head scratcher considering they lost out on Cassel and really don't have much of a plan B. But I have one....

This whole thing got ugly because New England took a significantly lesser deal for Matt Cassel to go to Kansas City and failed to help out their former assistant. Tells me there is some sort of rift here between Belicheck and his ex-assistants. Now perhaps the biggest Belicheck rival is Eric Mangini, who is now the head coach in Cleveland. Guess what? Cleveland has a QB to spare. Guess what? One of them is Brady Quinn who played at Notre Dame under Charlie Weis, who was McDaniels predecessor with the Pats, and knows the new Broncos offense. So you have two teams who can work to screw the Pats over but they need a 3rd trading partner who also needs a quaterback. Only one team comes to mind: The J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!! How bout that for a soap opera!

PS- Rock of Love is absolutely becoming one of my favorite guilty pleasures. These girls are CRAZY!!!

Cramer vs. Stewart: Post-Game Analysis

There's been a heated debate lately between Jon Stewart vs. CNBC and by proxy Jim Cramer of CNBC's Mad Money. Pretty much Stewart is wondering how the network missed this whole financial crisis and (Cramers) wrongful predictions about the stability of companies like Bear, Lehman, and AIG.

Thursday night I watched The Daily Show and watched Stewart tear up Cramer a new one. It was so amazingly one sided of a debate, so yesterday I wanted to watch the unedited version online here. After watching this take, it was much less one sided, although you still saw that Stewart won. It was pretty much like going from a 2nd round KO to a 10th round unanimous TKO. It is really a shame the way that it was edited in such a manner that it was.

I'm sure The Daily Show will get a significant ratings boost and Mad Money will see that of a decline. It's a shame because I really appreciate the work that Cramer has done. Through his show and website (Thestreet.com) I enjoy that he makes things simple to learn about the market and get some insights on particular companies. That does not mean (and he says so himself) that what he says is gospel, his advice is just that and nothing more. I certainly disagree on many opinions and truth be told he doesn't come up with anything that people on Wall Street hasnt thought of. You still need to do your homework and formulate your own opinions. He has gotten people into the game and made it entertaining at the least. The guy just simplifies things and communicates to a beginner's level audience. Let's take that at face value.

While I don't watch Stewart on a regular basis, I admit he is a funny guy who is well versed in debate. I hope this rivalry comes to an end soon. I ask (cause I don't know) has he brought on Buffet, writers for Wall Street Journal and The Economist, and everyone else who missed this? It's really easy to point the finger in hindsight, but its another to acknowledge these mistakes before it happens. If I had his magic eight-ball, I'd be filthy rich from it. Where were you a year ago buddy?!

PS- I've been calling before that we'd hit 6500 on the DOW before it be time to start thinking about pumping money in... looks like a good move, but a shame I have nothing to play with (yay tuition). Didn't think that would happen until the summer. I don't think we've hit bottom, i'd be surprised if we didn't have a down week this week. Tomorrow will be a key day.

R.I.P. K-Rock

Today I went into iTunes radio and went to put on NY's K-Rock since the local radio out here is less than stellar. At first I heard that new Eminem song, which I'm not a huge fan of but still tolerable. Then another hip-hop song came on, and I was like "WTF?" So I check out k-rock online and use their listen now feature and it's a coldplay song (You know how I know you're gay..... you like Coldplay). I figure it will catch up eventually, but 5 min later its another pop song.

Then I find this link on the site to 923now.com (not link worthy, you'll see why) and its for a pop station. Ok, this must be in some other city, right? Wrong! How can there be 2 92.3 FM stations?... Cause they f^&$$%n' cancelled K-ROCK!!! It's now only available on HD Radio and over the internet.

This is really a shame, as K-ROCK was hands-down (pants-down) the best station on the radio. Now we have another BS pop station that I won't listen to. Great, we've sold out as a society again.

Thanks radio, i dont think im going to listen to FM for awhile, at least AM still has WFAN, 1050, and the news stations. So not all is lost, but I guarantee my iPod is going to get a lot more usage.

Breathe In, Breathe Out

Ok, so i've been gone for a while... good to know that I was going to get off to a not so hot start here. Unfortunately been way too busy with everything going on here and just haven't been able to take a deep breath and actually relax. Truth be told, this is my first free weekend in a while. I have nothing actually due for class this week with the exception of a 40 page case for M&A, at least I'll get to take a mental break.

Last weekend I had 18 hours of Financial Modeling, which dont get me wrong was a great learning experience but also a time-suck that could have been helpful to chill, study, and get my shit together. This is also on the heels of a late night at The Rack, which was actually one of the most fun nights I've had here so far. Check this place out: http://www.thesaddlerack.com. Before that Randy was in town for the weekend, which was really awesome and well needed, but still didnt get much done. You get the point...

Asides from not getting an internship so far (and lets not get me started on that), I'd have to say im the most disappointed with myself for not being able to balance myself out and get some things done that I wanted to. This blog being one, but more to reading the journal everyday, reading more period, being more social, getting to the gym, etc. I really need to go on an ESPN diet (good luck during tourney time)and cut some of the extraneous crap and multi-task better. Having a TV in my room is not helpful as i stay up a little later than i should and spend 20 min watching the tube before i get out of bed. An extra hour a day goes a long way.

OK, so I will try to do a better job of updating this, it only takes 10 min a day at max. Watch for some updates in the next few days.... before I head back to New York for Spring Break!!!!

The Jet-Blues

(note column was written on Friday, will have an update on the trip later on)

Sitting on a jet plane, heading to New York. The TV isn’t working and the bright stewardesses at JetBlue can’t figure it out, and they’ve said we’ve made progress…

Midterms for Spring A are done and I forecasted, Macro wasn’t so bad and Ops sucked ass. As I predicted, except that I thought Ops would be the easier of the two. Got dinged from Cisco yesterday, just surprised since I thought the interview went really well (apparently it did and I was the victim of a “numbers game” where there a lot of “immediate need”). Whatever……

Really looking forward to this weekend, get to spend some time with the lady, friends, and family. One of the biggest mistakes I made last semester was not going home until December, which definitely ate away at my level of sanity. So far I think I have a much better approach now, but we’ll see when the pressure to gain an internship only mounts even further.

It would be really easy for me to write about A-Rod right now given how much he has been talked about last week. I am going to wait until after he arrives for spring training and starts talking more to the media before I make up my mind what to think about him. There is definitely some holes in the story he told Peter Gammons, but we are going to hear so much more about him so I don’t want to jump the gun on this. A column is forth-coming, I guarantee you that. However…

The Brett Farve era in NY is over. Say what you will about his success in one year, but the guy was clearly hurt in the last 5 games of the season and didn’t resemble the guy who in mid-season was looking to be coming into form and lead this team into the playoffs. You want to blame someone, blame the Mangenius who wasn’t prepared to sit Farve to heal up and put the team in the best position to win. You just can’t start a quarterback with a bad arm and expect to win in November and December. The prudent move would have been to sit him for a week and played Kellen Clemens. Farve then could have at least tried to heal and be in a better spot to help the team win. Maybe this decision is why Mangini is out of here.

Question is now who do you get to replace Farve. The team seems to think Clemens isn’t the answer, but are looking for a guy who can replace the arm strength of #4 as a primary factor. I tend to think that isn’t the best choice. Let’s forget about the draft for the time being since whoever they take won’t help the team next year. And I think that is the big key…next year. This team is built to win within a 2 year window due to the age of their veteran players. Looking for a developmental guy with a big arm is not going to solve the issue of getting this team into the playoffs immediately. Rather they should seek an experienced guy with an adequate arm who can effectively manage the game and put the team in a situation to win. Kerry Collins would be ideal, but let’s assume he stays in Tennessee. Jeff Garcia probably isn’t a good fit, Matt Cassel isn’t happening, and Dante Culpepper isn’t what he used to be. That leaves two possibilities: Byron Leftwich and my dark horse candidate…. Chris Simms. Can’t you see him and Phil taking a limo-ride home together after a big-game in late December?

How does this thing work?!

So I'm still toying around with the format for this thing. Stories and rants are great but it doesn't let me tell the current events of what goes on around here. I'm going to try to have a "Status Update" either at the beginning or the end of each section, depending on how it flows. Let's see how it works... this is, afterall, a work in progress.

Status Update: Midterms for Core A classes start tomorrow with Ops and Macro on Friday. On top of that, I got an interview tomorrow (I will not name any companies that I have interviews with until I am officially accepted or rejected, otherwise it'll be bad luck to talk prematurely). But then I get to go back to New York for Valentine's Day.... I know a certain somebody is going to be really happy ;-)

Speaking of New York, my buddy Ryan was telling me today that he had a "New York Burger" for lunch at our sorry-ass excuse for a cafeteria. I asked what exactly was on a New York Burger, to which he said "I dont know.... Thousand island?" That's not New York. Not that I know what that would ultimately mean. I take it back... it just means that it's awesome!!!

So in the spirit of the things I've decided to post my Top 10 Burgers. My buddies back home have done extensive testing to find NY Burger Heaven and we all have much different tastes and opinions on consumes the best burger around. Being that I'm on the west-coast, I hope to broaden my experiences and add to the list. This will be subject to change as I visit more places and will refer to it from time to time. You may see the phrase "(burger) tour worthy". I will admit that this is heavily skewed to the east coast, I just haven't been here long enough to find anything else, although I welcome suggestions!!!

And without further adieu, here's the Top 10 with my comments, yours are welcome:

1. PJ Clarke's (Midtown, NYC)- Flagship restaurant is much better than its sisters downtown and at Lincoln Center. It's amazing how the juice manages to stay in place and last til the end, onion strings and fries are amazing as well
   
2. JG Melons (UES, NYC)- A close second, I like the thickness of the patty, as its different from most others on the list, but loses points on the fries.
3. Burger Joint (Parker Meridian Hotel, NYC)- Best greasy dirty burger you can get. They serve the fries in a brown paper bag. It helps that this is a dive shack hidden and nestled into a 4-star hotel that you need to pass through a maze in order to get to.
4. Shake Shack (Madison Square Park, NYC)- Yeah there's a long line, but it's well worth it on a summer day for a double stack patty with fresh fixins' and their sauce. Don't forget the shake! An upscale version of #6
5. Costco (Anyplace you can find a Costco and a BBQ)- Ok, here's where im going to catch some slack. There's something to be said about a DIY grill job, and the meat here is awesome. Coat with Sassy Salt (from Market Basket) and cook at 4 min a side. The bun can make or break this, I'd go with Martin's Potato Rolls
6. In N Out (Las Vegas, NV)- Hands down the best fast food burger on the planet due largely to their "animal style". So why Vegas? Well if you've never had one before and you've spent 4 nights there and haven't slept in 40 hours, it tastes REALLY GOOD
7. Buskers (Hoboken, NJ)- They used to make this stuffed burger with cheese (I preferred blue) that was ridiculous. Then it went off-menu, now it is no longer offered. The regular burger is still good, but its just not the same. Admittedly living off past success
   
8. Champs (State College, PA)- My senior year I think I ordered in from this place at least 2x a week, just excellent overall bar-food and goes great with a Yuengling
9. RARE (Murray Hill, NYC)- They're Steak Burgers are really good quality of meat and the fry basket is great.... it's just way too pricey of a meal for burgers and fries
10. Royale (LES, NYC)- Is it the 10th best burger that I've ever had? No... but you can't put a value on being able to order the "Royale with Cheese". The $3 pig-slap beer is worth brownie points too

Missed the cut: Corner Bistro, Stand, BLT Burger, Pop Burger, anything in CA
Looking to try: White Mana, 5 Guys, 5 Napkin, something worthy in CA (aside from #6)

Where'd you go to school.... the University of DUH?!

As part of the summer internship search, I am going to be filling out a lot of online applications. These are really becoming the norm. So much so, that when I was asked to print out, hand write and then FAX an application back, I was shocked about the lack of technology involved. This is after-all from one of the top "financial services" companies in the world. I mean, who uses a fax machine anymore? That was so 2003....

Anywho, I'm filling out one for Disney and they ask the question "Where did you hear about us?" I can't fault them specifically for asking this as just about every employer has this on their application. But on the other hand, who in their right mind hasn't heard of them. Unless you've been under a rock for the first 20 something years of your life, you've certainly know about this company. As you do with Proctor & Gamble, Goldman Sachs, Anheuser Busch, American Express, etc.

Why do these companies ask a question like this? I don't know. I have two potential solutions that I'd like to see:

1) Change the question to "How did you find out about this opportunity?" You at least acknowledge that the person filling out has heard of you.
2) Add "Brand Recognition" as an option to respond to the original question

By the way, I don't know if this is specific to Berkeley or if it applies to all other top b-schools, but the word "brand" is easily the most abused word used on campus.

PS, Im watching the Grammy's right now and Jay-Z just come out to play with Coldplay. It is perhaps the strangest combination of rock and rap I've ever seen and its actually quite uncomfortable, especially because this is a really slow song (not the one that's been on the radio for the last year).

Personally, I love the Jay-Z/Linkin Park combination. I'd like to hear your suggestions for new Rock/Hip-Hop combinations. Use artists past or present if you like.

San Fran-suck-O Radio

As an avid sports fan, I've been listening to sports radio for about 10 years now. It started with driving back and forth from work and now I will actually stream some stations on the internet from time to time. I really enjoy the debate that ensues during a program and also the potential strategies that teams "should" be enacting.... although I have my own opinions.

I guess I didn't realize how good I had it back east. There are 2 different stations back in NY, so at least I had a choice of whom I wanted to listen to. It got to the point where it was very easy to determine who I liked, who I didn't but appreciated their knowledge, and those that were full of sh!t and couldn't respect. Well here in the Bay Area, I'm limited to 1050 KNBR, an ESPN affiliate. I truly have the displeasure of listening to Jim Rome, who may be the most pompous arrogant sports personality in the world, I'm pretty sure he thinks he's G-d's gift to radio.

However, Rome is the least of KNBR's problems (well at least in my opinion, we'll get back to him another day). Their afternoon drive show is dubbed "The Razor and Mr. T". Now when you first hear the name, it sounds impressive. Like 2 guys who know their sh!t, tell it like it is, and may engage in some heated discussions. Well that show is like the Wizard of Oz, tough sounding but when you pull back the curtain, is just some shrilled up old man.

"Mr. T" envokes the thought of.... well, Mr. T... from the A-Team, Rocky III, and I Pity the Fool. A true bad-ass who'll knock your block off. Well, not so much here. "Mr. T" is Tom Tolbert, a journey-man back-up player in the NBA that appears to be pretty even keel. Now I don't mind Tolbert at all, seems like talking to the guy in the cubicle next to you, but I don't think he truly deserves the moniker "Mr. T", unless he can show a little mean streak in there every now and then.

Then there's the "Razor" and this is what peaves me. With a name like "Razor", you'd hope to have someone who's sharp and has an authoritative positioning. Not at all here. This dude Ralph Barbieri (as if the name Ralph shouldn't be a hint already), has a raspy voice that makes him sound like an old nebbishy neurotic nerd. Better yet, he sounds like Mort Goldman from Family Guy. For those unfamilar with the character, here's a link to describe the guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXpKNTBmpJ4

Now, does this sound like a guy you want to engage in a manly-sports dominated debate? Hell No!!! Here's a guy I'd love say my peace to, give an atomic wedgie, and flush his head down a toilet. Everytime this guys says something on the radio, I can't help but get frustrated, even if I agree with him. I can't stand this guy's voice. He kisses up to his interviewees, says how everything is fine and dandy, and is the eternal optimist who doesn't see reality.

Trivia Question: Who did the Miami Dolphins bypass in the 2007 draft to select WR Ted Ginn Jr. in a move that stunned NFL fans across the country?

If you're not an avid sports fan, I wouldn't expect you to know this. But if your JOB is to know everything possible about sports, you damn well better have the right answer. If you poll all the sports radio personalities in the country, 99.5% will know that it was Brady Quinn. Quinn was one of the most hyped quarterbacks coming out of Notre Dame, a Heisman candidate who was all over the media for 2 years. The Dolphins had a desperate need for a QB, and it was thought to be a forgone conclusion that they would take Quinn. Instead they bypassed and took Ginn (who hasn't amounted to anything yet) and Quinn free-falled from the #9 pick to #22.... marking about 3 hours he sat, waited, and nearly cried after being passed over and forgoing millions of dollars in the process. It was THE STORY of the draft.

This past Friday, while talking about the bust that is Ginn, Barbieri commented that Dolphins shocked everyone by selecting him, but didn't remember who it was. And there was dead time on the air... he clearly thought about it and couldn't figure it out. They never came back to it, hiding that they had a less than knowledgeable host. Is it the worst thing in the world, in isolation, no.... But it was the last straw for me, I can't listen to this dweeb talk about sports and not know what he is talking about. If you're going to sound like a nerd, you better talk the talk.

Per his wikipedia profile, the dude is a vegetarian. It might as well read "tree-hugger"(not insuating that all veggies are tree-huggers, just this guy). So Ralph, while you're wearing your tie-die shirts, eating tofurkey, sipping on organic lemonade and shriveling at the thought of getting laid out like Anquan Boldin, I'll be home eating my rare t-bone steak, drinking beer in my boxers and watching Ray Lewis knock out punks like you.

Now be a man, lose the wimpy voice, stand up for your thoughts, get tough, and know you sh!t.

Play Ball!!!

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand..... GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYBODY!!!! HOW ARE YOU TODAY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

So after long debate, I've finally decided to start blogging. Why? Beats me. I toyed with it at the beginning of last semester as a way to tell me stories about life in school to those back home. Unfortunately, I got ridonk-ulously busy and was way way way behind. For some reason today, I got inspired again and decided to strike while the iron is hot.

Welcome to "Off The Schneid"my way of diatribing to my circle and community. Most of you are probably wondering, "What the F&%$ is up with that opening line?" These are the famed words of Chris "Maddog" Russo, former co-host of the Mike and the Maddog Radio Show on WFAN in NY. It was the highest rated sports talk show in the area for over 20 years. And every day to start the show, 'dog would kick it off with the above phrase. However, it was done in a tone that was full of exuberence and energy but way over the top.

So what's the point? Well, first off I loved that show. But anyway, that is the kind of tone you will get on this board most of the time. And for those who know me well, you realize that the shoe fits. The content is going to be unfiltered, I tell it like I see it. I won't dance around a topic, it's going to be straightforward. I may ask for opinions to start discussions, look at this as interactive as possible.

Here's what's on the menu of topics:

• Sports- Particularly Football (College and Pro) and Baseball
• My experience in B-School
• Living in California
• Things I miss in New York
• 24
• Movie/Music that's awesome/terrible/surprising/disappointing
• Select business topics
• Mullets
• Cool Gadgets
• And other random bs

I do take requests, the DJ in me will not die...

Things that you wont see:

• Anything that can get me fired/not hired
  
• Details on personal relationships
• Politics
• Hockey
• Social Ventures
• Renewable Resources
  
• Lost- (I'm too far behind)

I do reserve the right to discuss the above, but it's more exception than the rule. Just don't get your hopes up...

Please be warned that context of the blog may be considered: humourous, abrasive, biased, random, strange, insightful, perplexing, off the wall, offensive, silly, well intended, not so well intended, academic, benevolent.

Expect up to 4 of these per session, they will come out of nowhere. I will invent words from time to time and may refer to myself as Batman, just go with it. Do not take with alcohol and consult your physician if you have a ____ for 5 hours or more.

Well there ya have it. Welcome to the big show, and holla at ya boy!