Funny Math Equation - Even though I am a girl, too...

Happy Birthday to ME!!

My three wishes are:
..................
..............
.........
Shhh..can't say them out loud; not until they come true at least!

What Business School essays are REALLY asking?

 A friend of mine spotted this on the Businessweek forums: 

Harvard: Of which Fortune 1000 company are you going to become the CEO and why would you pick that company?

Wharton: Of which Fortune 1000 company are you going to become the CFO and why would you pick that company?

MIT: Draw an ASCII picture of your favorite Lord of the Rings character and describe three lessons that today's business leaders can learn from Lord Of The Rings.

Stanford: Why? (100,000 words recommended)

Chicago Booth: Provide a detailed statistical analysis of why Chicago-Booth is #1 in BWeek and never higher than #3 in USNews. Do the math in your head.

NYU: How badly do you need a vacation from your ibanking job, and what makes you think you will be able to get back into ibanking upon graduation?

Yale SOM: Which nonprofit organization do you plan to run, and what about running a nonprofit makes you feel important?

Columbia: In your opinion, what is the best way to sabotage the Whartonian CFO of your company and become CFO?

UC Berkeley Haas: What makes a hippie like you think you can succeed in business? Use the words 'sustainable' and 'green' at least twice in your response.

Cornell Johnson: Describe how awesome being an Ivy Leaguer would make you feel.

UVA Darden: How badly do you want your ass to be kicked by our professors on a scale of 9 to 10?

Notre Dame: Describe how awesome Irish Football is, and list ten ways we can make our MBA program as well-known as our NFL training program.

London Business School: Answer NYU's essay and use the find/replace function to replace all 'NYU' with 'LBS', 'New York' with 'London' and 'program' with 'programme'.

Wash U Olin: How early are you willing to wake up to serve coffee to our medical students?

UNC Kenan-Flagler: See Notre Dame but replace Irish Football with Tar Heel basketball, and NFL with NBA.

U of Phx (pick 2 of 4): When your boss finds out you have enrolled here, how loudly will he/she laugh? Have you ever wasted a lot of money on something useless before? Would you be willing to appear on a billboard or would you rather keep your enrollment a secret? What is 5+8?

Tuck: Do you remember summer camp? How amazing was that!?!? Don't you wish you could go to camp for 21 months? Attach a letter you wrote to your parents in fifth grade summer camp explaining how awesome it was.

UMich Ross: What was the craziest thing you did while tailgating during undergrad, and are you prepared to tailgate like a pro again? In your essay, try to include the words moonshine, goat, and anus.

Kellogg: Explain why you think good quantitative skills are not required in business and discuss the importance of teamwork in situations in which no one is skilled enough to do the job by himself.

UCLA Anderson: Have you seen that show "The Hills?" Isn't it amazing? Discuss your strategies for getting into clubs to party with the cast of "The Hills" so you can feel important.

Duke Fuqua: What are your short-term and long-term career goals? Begin your essay with the sentence, "My career goal is to provide investment and business advice to the much more successful graduates of the Duke Law and Medical Schools."

Carnegie Mellon Tepper: Draw an ASCII picture of your favorite MIT student and list three things that business leaders can learn from MIT.

INSEAD: List the number of languages in which you are fluent, and explain how knowing a bunch of languages and studying in one of the world's slowest economies for ten months will make you an effective business leader.

CEIBS: Would you rather be upper middle class in the US, or rich in China? Pleeeeeeeease say rich in China!

My Photo Walkabout in New York City - Greenwich Village

My first ever panning photo. Shutter Speed Priority mode (Tv) 1/30.  I am so proud!

(More on Panning - by Digital Photography School )

 The bird flew away soon after I pressed the shutter.












Busy corner in New York City

  

 I really like the following two pictures. The elements are very balanced and they seem very peaceful and quaint.

This is the tour I did in NYC. I enjoyed meeting people with the same hobby and passion for photography. Walking around NYC and being very focused on good photo shots are different from being just a tourist.

http://www.photowalkabouts.com/

My first encounter with Horizons for Homeless Children

Click here: Horizons for Homeless Children

Today, I finished my training as a Playspace Activity Leader with Horizons for Homeless Children. It's going to be a wonderful experience, and I know it. What's better than spending two hours every week playing with little angels and teaching them how to sing songs, make arts and crafts and role-play!?

Homelessness has become a very serious issue that has  only grown more rampantly as the worst recession in ages hit the nation/world. Kids didn't do anything wrong to deserve being homeless, did they?

Going through the training and thinking about these kids today really humbled me and made me realize how privileged I am. I am so glad that I've found a cause that I support and an organization that I can relate to and grow with.

A very interesting project - Collectable Shoes

 I love these shoes and I have several of them. I got compliments everywhere I go when I wear them. I am very intrigued whether people comment on them because they are so "different" or they really mean that these are so "cute" and they themselves want a pair, too?

They are really comfortable and so unique. Would college girls in the US want to wear them?

Photos are courtesy of NoConcept, the original shoe retailers.

Green Card Interview - painful 4 hours...

"Green card? I thought you were getting certified to be an organic farmer!" said one of my co-workers who heard where I was going today. I wish I were getting certified to be a green farmer...

After quite a long battle with the green card application process, it finally came to this day - the interview. All my knowledge of the Green Card interview came from the movie "Proposal." (If you haven't seen it, you have to! Lots of it was shot in New England!) I gathered all my documents to prove that my husband and I got married because we actually LOVE each other (which by itself is very tough already) and gathered my husband to go to the JFK federal building in Government Center today. After security check and long hall ways, we were faced with a rather unfriendly lady sitting behind the desk. Great first impression...

Out appointment was at 1:30pm and we arrived promptly at 1:15pm. We were told by the rather unfriendly lady to go take a seat along side with two dozen others in the room. The clock ticked and time slipped away, it was 1:30pm - no call, 2:00pm...still NOTHING. Even some couples who were accompanied by their lawyers that have arrived later than us have already got called into the secret chamber but not us. I was getting really agitated and annoyed...Why do I have to be here on time but then you would just keep me waiting for more than an hour! (ok, so this is a general complaint even when I go see my doctors.)


Finally, close to 2:20pm, we were finally invited into the secret chamber which was in fact a long hall way with dozens of small offices. We were asked to make an oath first to promise all we say is true. Then the officer asked me a series of questions that I had to answer with my serious expression. I had to try hard not to appear contempt, but the questions are such a waste of time...The legitimate ones include "How did you guys meet?" "How long did you date?" "What's your married name?" and that's it. Everything else is "Have you ever been arrested, have you been involved in brutality, have you ever trafficked drugs, will you try to hurt the United States (ie. will you become a terrorist?)" One question- have you ever profited from illegal gaming? I almost burst out laughing...and thinking to myself, yea right, I would ever be able to make money gambling...(Jon said less than 2 sentences during the whole time)

Anyways, the whole ridiculous interview process took maybe 10-15 minutes and we were again asked to wait outside. 2:35pm, I continued to sit in my spot, read and waited. Another hour has passed, I finally got a piece of paper that states that I need to re-petition in two years to remove my "conditional" status. Oh, and after waiting for an hour for the piece of paper which I imagine standard for every applicant, there is a big typo of my name on it. I was horrified by the thought that I needed to wait any longer so that they could fix the typo issue. Luckily that piece of paper isn't that important after all so there's no need to change the typo. (THEN WHY IN THE WORLD DID I SPEND ANOTHER HOUR + WAITING FOR IT?)  I left the government center around 4pm. There goes my day...

Bottom line- I am glad that I don't need to think about this for another two years. And two benefits that I am actually quite excited about are a) I can finally go through the "other" lane when I enter the customs b) I can go to Canada with the Green Card, no need for visa! yay...

One last PS: the officer who interviewed us was actually really nice. He told us while we were departing his office that he lived in Taiwan for a year, in "Tien-Mou." I had to gasp when I heard that...It was 1986...when I was 3 years old, this officer was hanging out in my neighborhood. This is crazy!