The Best Time of Year In Denver

So this is one of the best times of the year to live in Denver...

• Leaves are changing colors
• 45-65 degree nights
• 65-85 degree days
• Occasional moisture from a passing front that hints of good skiing in the near future
• Snow Capped Mountains in the backdrop of our beautiful city, still with leafy greenery in the foreground.
• Blue skies contrasting on techinicolor flora
• Buzz in the air for winter
• Great attitudes of most residents due to appreciating the above mentioned.

The 4 tests I had last week went well. Hope the grader thinks so too.

More tomorrow after a jaunt into the mountains for the day.

Ciao

Some pics from the roof and one from the archive

I haven't posted any pics in awhile so here are a couple I just took from the roof. Such a beautiful day, but study study for me. Hope you are enjoying you day.
This is a sea of cubicles in corporate America. Mind you this is 1/4 of a single floor. Heh heh. Cheers to all those who shepard investor constirbutions by working diligently in pursuit of company objectives. Press On.

Congratulations

To Megan Von Wald and Lorin Ting on their engagement and soon-to-be-wed affairs planned for November. We, meaning many of their friends, family and them had a chance to get together last night for a little shindig and it was wonderful event. We started a their house for cocktails and appetizers, then ditched the ole fogey's to hit up Treo's across from Union Station in dowtown denver. Again congratulations. My apologies I don't have any photos.

So, I am studying my tail off for the 4 tests that I have this week. In fact I need to get to it, right now.

Ciao for now!

Long day and weekend

Feeling a bit duped today due to something that happened last night, won't go into details and I really don't have time for it anyway. Just thought I would post to say hello and tell everyone that they are forecasting snow for later tonight in Denver. Yes SNOW in September, crazy. No big plans this weekend other than study, double a, football and eat well.

Best,
JPD

Lebowski and a checklist for myself it seems

So the graduate student asssociation is doing a bowling social event this thursday. Pysched about that, haven't bowled since I went with my roomate to the that night of his league which proved hilariously fun. I am giving a presentation to the under-grad Society of Ecnoomics and Business on oil field service, just a non-technical overview really. I need to make plans for going to KY for Christmas. I have 4 tests next week and am keeping rather busy. I have been lucky enough to land a couple of interviews with oil companies I wouldn't shy away from, scheduled for first week of October. The Aspen leaves are beginning to change around here and I am hoping they last till next weekend so I have sometime to go up and check them out. Just figured I better get a quick post in since its been a while. More later...

JPD

In retrospect of writing... its photos with a rant at the end.

So I was able to load some photos from the baseball game. I can't speak for the rest of us, but I had a good time. The game was actually pretty good too... and the Rockies won.





Homer quote of the day: when asked if both cigarettes he is smoking are his... in a bland monotone voice, "Yes, I am in flavor country ..... its a big country."



On the career fair... Colorado School of Mines is obviously a school with a Engineering and Science focus, hence many companies recruit here to find the engineers and scientists they need... they don't know how to handle someone not graduating with a engineering or science degree. The challenge is to get a reputation as a school that also supplies business oriented professionals similar to an MBA program from it Economics and Business Division or the many joint/dual degree programs that it offers in conjucntion to the engineering or science degrees. To me this would take 3 steps:
1. Educate the CSM Career Center as to the specific attributes of the Econ and Biz Division, the Engineering & Technology Management Program, The Institute of French Petroleum Joint Program ect... So that they may better sell the programs. Let's be real here: with the lack of human captial in the engineering and sciences right now and with the reputation the school has; these engineering and science degrees sell themselves.
2. Research companies and their development programs that might be a fit for these graduates. It seems that many of the graduates have chose to pursue the Economics and Business Division at CSM instead of MBA, so look for development programs for MBAs.
3. Educate target companies of the programs and how they fit they comapnies needs; not by sending information, not by sending emails; instead via a phone call with the Director of Recruiting for the company and the Director of the CSM Career Center. Possibly invite a Professor from the department to sit in on the call as well.

The thing I noticed from this career fair, was that I was getting advice from recruiters on how to get a job with their company and much of this advice was to start as an entry level position and work my way up. Not to sound cocky, but if I wanted an entry level position, I would just go get one; then I would have years of entry level service and middle management to go through before get to a position of fiduciary responsiblity and that would probably not come in todays competitive market without more formal schooling. BUT WAIT... most of these students in the Economics and Business Division Programs are hoping to accelerate that pace of progression with a very pertinent formal course of study in what it takes to make business decisions on objective analysis... taking business strategy and economic analysis to what might be argued "a science". Not that we are opposed to entry level positions, but that many of us don't want an typical engineering position or geology position that could otherwise be had by anyone with said degree.
In closing the historical career path of years of service and gradual promotion with an emphaisis on tenure within an organization is a thing of the past. Employers are finding this diffifult to cope with. See the book: Knowledge Nomads and the Nervously Employed...". Those companies that accomodate these avid human capital innovating employees will lead the way. I have heardof some of Google's philosophy and approaches to attracting, motivating and retaining its employees and was impressed.
Enough on that...
Here are some references:

"KNOWLEDGE NOMADS AND THE NERVOUSLY EMPLOYED is terrific. Feller and Whichard deploy a large arsenal of facts and their own keen analytic powers to take readers through the realities of careers and career advising in the 21st century. What's more, instead of offering hackneyed insights and predictable advice, they call for something urgently needed in our national life: courage. This book is a must-read for any current or aspiring career development professional."
Daniel H. Pink, author of FREE AGENT NATION and A WHOLE NEW MIND

http://www.google.com/jobs/reasons.html

Business Card Whore and Chesapeake Energy

I made up some uber cheesy business cards because I hate not having something to give someone with my contact info on it. So i am thinking about buying a pocket proctestor with a window to display my card like a name badge. Sweet!

Chesapeake Energy is coming to mines today to give an information session so I will being checking that out this evening. They are based in OK City. They have grown quite a bit in the past 5 years. Here is a link to their website... http://www.chkenergy.com .

I keep trying to load pics from the baseball game we went to on Friday, but to no avail. I'll try again later.

Whoa, where did the week go...

Wow, I haven't posted in a week... So here's the update.
Classes goign well. Mathematical Econ is going to be the challenge, but I knew that. Looks like I am going to have 4 test in one week coming up here, last week of September so got that going for me. All in all, classes and school is going very well the classes are awesome, the curriculum is very interesting and new.

I had a change to go to a Rockies baseball game with some folks from the department, fellow grad students. The Rockies won and we had a great time explaining the game to Elodie, our french super-model exchange student who had never been to a baseball game before. We ended up going out after hte game till about 1ish and I had a great time getting these folks some outside the classroom.

I did some oh-so-unsuccessful trout fishing on Saturday...

And today, I watched the worst bronco football game ever. I don't even think I should refer to it to as a game, it was as if the Broncos were just there to watch.

Nothing too crazy to update you on... just relaxing and studying. Sure is nice settling back into Denver.

Simpsons is on so I am audi.

Labor Day Saturday

So I am sitting in St. Marks Coffee Shop because someone is snooping in my condo to see if they want to buy it.... keep you fingers crossed!!! This is the second person to check it out and I already have another visit scheduled for tomorrow as well. I would love to see a bidding war netting me thousands but I am not gonna hold my breath.

I have been bangin away at some Mathematical Economics this afternoon. This is a course based on math theory (to date algebra and calculus) and application of math to economics to deduce "real answers" about markets and their trends. For instance, if I thought a particlular commodity like let say Lattes was underpriced and had an opportunity to buy a bunch at this price I could deduce a equilibrium price based on current conditions to see what kind of discount I would be getting them at, or least give me an idea of what kind of margin I would have to work with when it came to unloading my mass of Lattes. I could also build a forecast for the market on Lattes based on specified parameters that would tell me what factors would more greatly affect the Latte market. Actually thats a little bit later in the course but you get the idea.

Another cool thing we are doing which is kind of related to what I was doing for work, or could be related, are the optimization problems we are solving. In the Operations Research Methods class we are using a functionality in Excel called "Solver". This has alogorithms for helping optimize. example: you get $x profit for selling a truck that takes 'y' time to build and 'z' time to paint; you get $a profit for selling a car that takes 'b' time to build and 'c' time to paint. You only have a build shop that is open for 'm' hours and a paint shop open for 'n' hours a day. Maximize the profit if all variables are given (a,x,b,c,y,z,m,n 200,250,4,5,5,6,10,9 respectively). Solver to the rescue...cool stuff. We are just trying to build the linear programming foundation right now, but the # variables should increase.

Anyway, I have been here to long and need to get off my butt before I lose feeling in it. (I have to sit on a book because the bench is too low to type, lord knows it isn't because I am too short.)

Hello Josh Grahmann!!!! Got your email and ya'll be safe south of the border. Watch out for the Hurricanes and I hear they have some good bass fishing down there, take a rod.

Got Hook?

Class went well this week. I think Mathematical Econ is going to be the more difficult of my classes due to its heavy math and tons of variables. I am sticking around in Denver this weekend and have a couple of things on the agenda, nothing spectacular and I have class on Monday. Apparently Colorado School of Mines has conducted classes on Labor Day for years. I wanted to get these pics up of one who shall remain nameless (ymay adday for those of you who speak pig latin). This gentleman embedded a rapala hook in his thumb with true fishing expertise. Seeing as it was a barbed hook the Chief Surgeon at HHI Medical resolved to cut the thumb off.

















Just kidding, after some lidacane and wasting a perfect good lure, the hook was pushed through instead of pulled out which would have cause the bard to do more damage. Simple mistake really and could have ended up in much more damaging tissue. Thankfully not though. The good news is that this fisher informed me that this is not his casting thumb so game on for the holiday weekend.














And here is a pic of me kicking but in the Rose Hill Bass Master Father Son Invitational. My father and I came in 1st and 2nd in the tourney catching about 20 bass in a 15 hour time span. This fish having heard of the tenacious anglers opted to flop up onshore for the a photo op, instead of having a hook embedded in his lip. Just kidding, but I did catch him right near the shore tough.
Hope all is well out there for everyone. Have a good Labor Day Weekend.