LiveJournal – rich text

I could store them in a trunk

Rich — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:36:00 +0000

If I was a size 10.5 I would seriously consider bidding on these shoes. (Alas, 11.)

brrrrrr

Rich — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 04:26:00 +0000

Right now in Ottawa the temperature is -24 C (-11 F), but with the windchill it’s -38 C (-37 F). On the other hand, in Alert, Nunavut, it’s -20 C with no windchill. Maybe I should move up to Alert where it’s warm.

I beat the GMAT!

Rich — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:48:00 +0000

I wrote my GMAT at 9 AM this morning:

UNOFFICIAL GMAT SCORE REPORT
	Scaled Score	Percentile
Quantitative	47	82
Verbal	45	98
Total	740	98

YAY! I knew from practice tests that I was going to be up in that range, but I wasn’t sure how much the actual test was going to differ from practice tests. To give you an idea of where a 740 is: it’s generally understood that you’re expected to have above a 700, or at least a high 600s with substantial work experience, to apply to the ranked American business schools like Stanford (average 707), Harvard (712), and Wharton (700). The maximum possible score is 800, and the maximum theoretical score on each section is 60, although the maximum score they actually give out on each section is 51.

Now, I’m not applying to ranked American business schools, though; Canadian schools are a bit of a different world, because Canadians who want a Stanford-class MBA just try to get in at Stanford. The top-tier Canadian b-schools are a bit lower: Schulich (York)’s is 670, Ivey (Western) is 660, and Queen’s‘s is 650.

Even then, the University of Ottawa isn’t quite top-tier, although it’s respectable enough, and that’s where I’m hoping to head. Average GMAT there was 615, with the middle 80% range falling between 550 and 700. (Carleton is out of the question, because their program is… atypical.)

So a 740 is very good for my application. It’s not all I need to get in, of course; they also assess my work experience (should be fine, I think), academic transcript (shiny, with one dull spot that I’m not too worried about because it’s before I switched from music into honours sociology), reference letters (need to nag people, but otherwise good), and letter of intent (haven’t started). But it will certainly help.

The test itself went pretty well. The math section seemed a bit easier than it did on the practice tests, but since my math score was a little higher, I think that was more because I’d got over a bit of a plateau in my last few days of studying than because it was actually feeding me easier questions. (Easier questions mean you’ve got more hard questions wrong, which mean a lower score at the end.) Only one of them completely, utterly stumped me, and I think it was an experimental question that didn’t count anyhow; it was just too ambiguously phrased to be otherwise. (The testing company inserts potential future questions into current tests, so they can tell what difficulty to put it at.) Verbal was always easy for me, and I consider 45 to be a bit low, but I’ll take it.

I should list my practice test results here, for other GMAT students who come across this in Google or something: I only did two, both GMATPrep, and got 730 both times: one 45Q, 46V and the other 42Q, 48V. Incidentally, if I’d managed that 48V today, I’d have probably got a 760. I’ll take my 740 anyway.

This post contains 26 parentheses.

INVISIBLE BIKE

Rich — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 05:25:00 +0000

Especially for Eyeteeth and Substitute: Cat_macros.

For the rest of you:

If you’re only going to watch one, watch the second one. But watch both!

What’s your company doing about Daylight Savings Time?

Rich — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 05:55:00 +0000

Question for the IT types reading here: What have you/your department/your company done to prepare for the upcoming changes to the start/end dates for Daylight Savings Time in Canada and the US?

I’m really surprised at how little mainstream or IT press the change has been getting so I’m wondering how ready other IT departments are for the change.

(Background: The US Energy Policy Act of 2005 changes the start date of DST from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March, and the end date from the last sunday in October to the first sunday in November, so any software that deals with timezones needs to be updated to account for the change. Most Canadian provinces are implementing the same change.)

Yay boxing-day sales!

Rich — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 09:14:00 +0000

For all I write about clothing, I’ve been sort of flailing around myself lately without a good sense of my own style. I did a bit of a jump from polo and jeans to smart business casual a while ago, and I think I jumped too far, because while I was still looking presentable I didn’t really look like me, if that makes any sense.

What this left me with was no idea what to shop for. I felt I was overdressing a bit for work because it’s really a t-shirt-and-jeans department, except for upper management who dress quite conservatively business-casual. I’m not very conservative. So I found myself trying to find some sort of anchor, and I found it in a couple pairs of jeans.

The problem, as I see it, was that people here dress very casually, but without a whole lot of care: pleated Dockers and a poorly-fitted polo or button-down, that sort of thing. It doesn’t send an “I care” message, and that’s the message I do want to send. The first time I tried to fix this I did it by buying inoffensive but nice business-casual: brushed-cotton chinos, dress shirts, that sort of thing. But that felt out of place around my jeansy coworkers and it felt like I wasn’t wearing something that I’d usually wear.

But I picked up a couple of pairs of jeans lately, dark and raw denim, slim straight fit (at Bluenotes, of all places — for $30 and $10), and while trying them on with some shirts in my closet I had an “Aha!” moment: If I dress up chinos-and-a-shirt I don’t feel like I fit in with my coworkers, but if I dress up jeans and a shirt then I’m getting somewhere. This sort of look, without the tie, and not as.. posed.

So with that in mind and the abovementioned $10 jeans on, I went out shopping last night, picked up a couple more shirts from America (for $20 and $30, regular $70), and a peacoat from Club Monaco ($100 off), and it was the easiest and most fun shopping trip I’ve had in ages, which makes me think I’m on the right track.

So yay! But I need new shoes and I’m having a hard time deciding what I want. I want brown boots or shoes to wear with slim jeans, stacked or cuffed.

My current options (click for details):

1. 2. 3.
4. 5.

I’m partial to #3 myself. What do you guys think?

LinkedIn connection whoring

Rich — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:19:00 +0000

I’ve been playing around on LinkedIn today. If you haven’t seen it, it’s like Friendster for adults — maintaining connections and contact details for professional networking.

Anyhow, if you’re there and know me, feel free to connect to me, rich [at] lafferty [dot] ca. If you’re not there and want to be, it’s free for basic networking stuff, although there’s some pay services too that I haven’t had any need for yet.

ring ring ring

Rich — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:29:00 +0000

Geostationary Banana Over Texas.

the people at our local coffeehouse are weird

Rich — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:52:00 +0000

i’m from the future
Uploaded by mendel on 24 Dec ’06, 4.11pm EST.

My missing photodocumentary

Rich — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:11:00 +0000

I have a nice camera. It’s easy to use, takes good pictures (after a couple of repairs, sigh), and it’s very portable. So portable, in fact, that I could take it places I go, and when I’m there I could take pictures with it.

Yet my flickr account runs dry, other than the wedding and honeymoon, and the odd picture here and there where I happen to be playing with the camera anyhow. This isn’t new. Even before flickr I rarely took pictures except on vacations and similar major events. Even then I take fewer at local events than I did then.

But I can’t help but think that I’m missing out. Flickr’s community functions alone look like a lot of fun, and I enjoy looking back through the photos I do have, of Montreal and Vancouver and hurricane skies and Christmases and old offices and so on. And I have at least a passing interest in the “pretty pictures” or “art photography” side of things, or some point in between those two. On the other hand, I’ve always felt that taking (too many) pictures means you end up being so busy documenting things that you miss experiencing it.

So, two new things to try: I need to start carrying my camera with me when it’s not ridiculously cold out, and I need to use it when I have it with me. But I don’t think that’s enough, or else I probably would have figured this out a while ago. A bunch of you folks are prolific photographers — any tips or advice on getting life on “film” without becoming The Guy With The Camera?

(At the rate I’m going, I’m going to have some resolutions for 2007. Huh.)