Cool Days in Denver

I had very mellow weekend in Denver. This is the longest (7 days) I have been in Denver since... May 14th. Prior to that it was the 4 day break from Saudi that happened in June. Sure feels good to be off the road for bit. The weather was very unseasonable with temps from the 50-70s all weekend with showers and sun; almost like Fall is already here. I was able to get my condo spick and span and ready to show... It looks awesome now. I guess I just have to keep it that way so its ready when the potential buyers are ready.
I had one class today, industrial accounting and one of the more commonly referred to examples was of course Enron. We did examples of balance sheets sighting the subjectivety of GAAP accounting with version of Conservative, Aggresive and Fraudulent... that makes me laugh, which is horridly inappropriate due to the lost pensions and fallout of all the corporate accounting scandals of the last 5 years. Let refer to it as progress.
Anyway, classes going well, keeping up with the the work and trying to decide where to get involved next whether its with the Graduate Students Association or some other club. I need an extracurricular. I still plan to find some part time work if possible in the industry, but need to give it another month before I start commiting time that may get chewed up with the onslaught of acedemic pursuits to come.
The other cool thing is that I was able to hook up the bunny ears to the TV since I watch sans cable so I can catch my favorite show on the planet, yes folks, the Simpsons. Its meditation to me.
Speaking of gotta run; Homer is on now.
Doh!

Class Schedule, ID Theft and Condo For Sale

My Monday and Wednesday I only have one class, Industrial Accounting. This gives me a full day on campus to take of business and be near all the resources, kind of nice seeing as I live quite a ways from campus. Funny thing is this professor is from Louisville, recognized my name and we reminisced about our most recent visits there. His is John Ballentine . He started off class with a little ice breaker story of his that invovled the theft of his identity by an ex VP of Enron with the name John Ball"A"ntine. He said it had been a 3 year ordeal and that whatever they tell about it being a pain in the butt is an understatement. Turns out that this got caught 3 years by him for stealing his ID, and still continued to use it. What made it difficult to progress to conviction was that this guy just wanted his ID, not the free stuff he could have gotten from. He would take out loans and kee current on them... hence when the file landed in a case workers lap, they would look at the acount, see that it was current and put it to the side as a mixup in files, not an ID theft case. What a bummer. I pray that I don't have to deal with that.

Moving along, Tuesdays and Thursdays I have 4 classes:
Mathematical Economics - Practical application and use of math in all economics
Natural Resource Economics - mineral and other resource specific economics
Operations Research Methods - aka Management Science/Optimization/Utilization
Economics and Decision Making - strategy and firm specific economic decisions
9:30-4:30, long day

Friday nothing, or I guess better put, no class.

So good to be back in a classroom again, full time and focused. I have tried the online learning thing and it just wasn't the kind of learning experience I want; not for this kind of pursuit at least.

On another note, I had a meeting with my real estate agent this evening and we took some pics of the place for the getting it on the market. I am going to send her one more pic of sunrise on Denver from my roof b/c the view up there is what sold me. Keep your fingers crossed for a successful and expedient sale.


Thats it for now, hope this finds you well.

Check out this pic of Denver in the Fall taken from my roof.

Back in School Full Time

So I had a long day in Houston on Monday. By 10am I had resigned my position and was trying to tie up the loose ends so that I could catch a 9pm flight back to Denver to be ready for school Tuesday. Resigning was scary, but liberating in way. It was just time to move on to something I have wanted to for the past 3 years, go back for a MSc.

I had my first 4 classes today, another long day. 9am to 4:30 at the campus trying to get settled and sorted to make it official.

I want to thank those that responded to my change in contact info email. I had about 40 responses of encouragement. Thank you. All my friends are so awesome, I am not quite sure where I would be without you.

I also coulnd't do this without the support of family. Thank you too!

I wanted to get a quick post up here. More to come so please check back soon.

Best,
Joe

Stateside and Still Traveling

It has been a little under month since getting back to the States and yes I am still traveling. Right now and for the past 3 weeks I have been commuting to Houston for work. Out at 6:15 from Denver on Monday and back at 5:00pm on Friday. This weekend instead of heading to Denver I am going to see my parents in South Caralina. I am really looking forward to seeing them and doing some bass fishing and golfing. Dad keeps sending me photos on my cell of bass he has caught so I guess I am in for a lesson. The commute is kind of wearing on me. Its been 2 and half years of this commute thing with a break this spring to be in town for some part time school. The international commute is a little more exciting than the Houston commute for obvious reasons. I happen to be flying the last Thursday when all the trans-atlantic commotion started and still the lines the Houston airport were non-existent; I walked through security in less than 5 minutes, no problem. Still I suggest getting their at least 90minutes early. I almost missed a flight in Denver recently due to the back up at security, but the was no reason I could find for the back up other than it was Monday morning.

That's about it for now, just wanted to drop a quick note on here. More to come for sure...

Best,
Joe