80's

Critical item: I have an 80's party on Sunday. What should I go as? Don Mattingly or Wade Boggs would be the obvious choices, but I don't think people would get it.

Business School Observations

Here's a quick update on things.

Last week I went to "math camp", which was an 8-5, 5-day class reviewing math concepts that we haven't used in a while (calculus, statistics, etc.). I'm glad I did it, if only to know that I've done what Duke considers sufficient. Perhaps a best reason for attending math camp was that I got to meet about 70 future classmates - a significant head start on everyone else.

This week I've been working pretty hard on getting all the pre-readings done. While most business schools don't start classes "for real" until late-August, Duke requires two core classes to be taken during August: a leadership course and a course on global institutions (which is basically macroeconomics). A couple years ago, Duke pulled these courses out of the first and second-term curriculum to ease the burden of students during the first few months of school - a very smart move, in my opinion.

My readings have been really fascinating. For the leadership class, we read a few articles on Enron and the "talent myth" (a great article by Malcom Gladwell). The Institutions class is a bit more heady. The study I just read analyzes how China has succeeded in the past quarter-century despite a relative lack of things economists traditionally consider to be necessary: maximum liberalization, stabilization, and privatization. Really interesting stuff.

Orientation starts this Saturday, and everyone is scrambling to do the pre-readings and finish a software review course (that's actually useful). I'm in a pretty good position, having done just about all the readings and half of the computer stuff.

Here are some random observations:

- I severely underestimated the time it takes to move into a new apartment, get the requisite software for school, and take care of everything except actually studying. In this regard I'm in the same boat as most of my fellow students (probably in better shape, actually).
- "Fear of missing out" is thus far the biggest force at Duke. It's simple: most people are sociable, young, and want to go out. But you must study (that is, if your goal is to learn). It's hard to say no. That said, I think I'm doing a good job of balancing everything - it takes a lot of effort to network and study at the same time.
- I'm well prepared to work in MS Word, Excel, and PPT (thanks to CEB).
- Microsoft Excel, Word, and PPT 2007 (for Windows) are extremely well-designed.
- Somehow I forgot that I'm a hard worker. I like this role.
- (no offense to anyone reading this who went to Harvard but...) I'm very glad I'm not going to Harvard. Not that I had the opportunity, but I've said many times in the past week that "I can't imagine going to a school where you look around and say to yourself 'damn, everyone here is a gunner.' I simply wouldn't learn as much in that type of environment. I'd be more concerned about keeping up with everyone else than I would with learning and making good friends. At Duke, the sense of collaboration (definitely a business school buzzword) is genuine. This makes a huge difference.
- It feels great to be back in academia. I like having informed opinions instead of BS-ing. I like making connections among the things I learn.
- I like Durham a lot more than I thought I would. I was hesitant to move south, where life might be slower compared to DC. Life is slower here, but for now that's what I want to experience. It's nice to drive 5 minutes to the gym and school. It's nice to go for a run, work out in the apartment gym, sit by the pool, and get a bunch of people together to watch a movie in the apartment movie room - all of which I did today. So for now, it's good.

Back to studying.

Mayonnaise

No, I'm not talking about the Smashing Pumpkins' song "Mayonnaise," although it's awesome in its own right. No, I'm talking about the real thing.



My sister claims to have witnessed our dad eating a late-night mixture of mayo and cottage cheese in a bowl, although this may be an urban legend. Regardless, I tell the story with great pride. Since I've been back in the South, I've heard no less than 5 people willingly admit "I love mayonnaise sandwiches." I couldn't agree more.

So I snooped around for some other uses of this sublimely-delectable condiment. It turns out that people are quite creative when it comes to their mayo:

Mayonnaise can be used as a natural hair conditioner. Massage a quantity of mayonnaise into your hair, much in the same way as a normal post-shampoo conditioner. Cover your head with a shower cap and allow the mayonnaise to remain on your hair for several minutes. Rinse thoroughly and the result should be shinier and softer hair.

Use mayonnaise as a facial cleanser. Apply a layer of mayonnaise as you would a deep cleansing facial soap. After 15 or 20 minutes, wipe off the mayonnaise and rinse your face thoroughly. The oils and salt of the mayonnaise will restore moisture and remove impurities.

In case of a sunburn emergency, apply cold mayonnaise to the affected area. The coolness of the mayo will reduce the pain and the oil will provide much-needed moisture.

Some physicians are now recommending the use of mayonnaise to combat head lice infections. Certain strains of head lice have become very resistant to the traditional chemical treatments, but leaving mayonnaise in the hair overnight with a shower cap will cause the lice to suffocate and die. Comb out any remaining nits with a fine tooth comb and repeat the process seven days later.

Lubricate stubborn rings with mayonnaise. If a ring becomes too tight to remove, try applying a generous amount of mayonnaise to the entire finger, especially under the ring itself. Mayonnaise is very slippery, so it should reduce the friction well enough to allow removal of the ring.

Remove bumper stickers and residue with mayonnaise. A layer of mayonnaise applied to the remnants of a bumper sticker should soften the paper and dissolve the glue after several minutes.

Strengthen your fingernails: To add some oomph to your fingernails, just plunge them into a bowl of mayonnaise every so often. Keep them bathed in the mayo for about 5 minutes and then wash with warm water.

Remove dead skin: Soften and remove dead skin from elbows and feet. Rub mayonnaise over the dry, rough tissue, leave it on for 10 minutes, and wipe it away with a damp cloth.

Duke so Far

Here are pictures of my room (minus a kitchen table and chair, and wall hangings, which are coming)... it's very exciting stuff. Here is a link to my apartment complex.

So far, I'm having an amazing time. True, I've only been here a week, but it's obvious to me that Duke was the right choice. The one thing that's clear is that time is at a premium; there's tons of pressure to go out, which obviously clashes with the pressure to perform well academically. The tough part is that I want to do both.

Hassel the Hoff

As proof that I'm not a fairweather fan, I submit the following photo take in 1991 after the first of Duke's back-to-back championships. Also note the "half tuck", my preferred fashion statement during middle school.

Cameron Indoor

Before going to the gym today, I walked onto the floor of Cameron
Indoor - gotta say it gave me chills

TGIF

Photos posted

In case you missed it (and how could you), I posted photos of the Europe trip on my website:

Click for:

• Main site
• Spain
• Italy

And here is a picture of the Phillips legacy.

















I tried to figure out how to create a web poll, but this will do for now:

How big is Michael's head?
a) ping pong ball
b) grapefruit
c) sputnik

Last Day before Durham

Well, one more night in Birmingham before I head to business school. My mom asked me yesterday if I was getting nervous, but my honest answer was "I haven't really thought about it." For some reason this doesn't seem like a big move (at least at the moment). I haven't moved too many times in my life, but I've moved enough so that I'm a bit less numb to the extreme nervousness and excitement. Don't get me wrong - I'm excited. But I'm more ready than excited. It's hard to believe that I started studying for the GMAT 14 months ago; it's been a long journey and I'm ready to actually do something rather than just plan what I'm going to do. I'm not sure what to expect from school - will it be tough to study again? How much time should I spend studying vs. networking vs. looking for a job? Will the career options be overwhelming or will I find exactly what I want? Regardless of these questions, I think I'm going to kill it at Duke (if Grandma and Grandpa are reading this, "kill it" means to "do very well" in the parlance of youngsters these days... crazy kids and their words).

Since I got back from Europe, I've mainly been dividing my time between a) preparing for school (admin stuff for Duke, pre-reading, tying up loose ends, etc... this stuff never seems to end) and b) reading and swimming. I've pretty much been a homebody, but spent a few days relaxing with my Birmingham friends Daniel, Eleanor, and Allen. I can't complain. Now it's time to work.

Simon and Simon

From the archives

Recap of my Bike Trip in Italy

I never got around to telling about my Italy experience, so here goes...

First, you can see all my pictures (and a few videos) from Italy here: http://web.mac.com/davidhphillips/Site/Bike_Tour,_Italy/Bike_Tour,_Italy.html

I basically planned my entire Europe trip around this bike tour. A company called Blue Marble organizes guided bike tours all over Europe, and I chose the "Italian Lakes" tour (Provence was a close second). I liked the bike trip idea because it was different; hearing myself say "yeah, I just finished a week of riding along lakes Maggiore, Lugano, and Como" sounded appealing to me. So, I ponied up the money and went for it.

On June 13, I took a train from Granada to Madrid (4 hours), metro to the Madrid airport (45 minutes), plane flight from Madrid to Geneva, Switzerland (2 hours), and another train from Geneva to Brig, Switzerland (~3 hours). The train from Geneva to Brig was an experience... coasting down the shoreline of Lake Geneva with the mountains in the background, eventually carving our way through the mountains around sunset. I was definitely feeling the "independent Euro traveler vibes." I got into Brig just before the restaurants close (at 11:00 in Switzerland, unlike the 2:00 closing time in Spain). The hotel was nice (no hostels in Brig), and I was very glad to sleep in a clean single room after 3 weeks of being in a hostel. I watched Swiss German TV for an hour and then conked out.

Observation: On my trip, I was fascinated by cultural differences. I never got tired of asking "what do [Germans] think of [this]"? I spoke with Germans about WWII's legacy, learned that many Australians have a great sense of gratitude toward the US for coming to their rescue in WWII, discussed why Australians travel in great numbers, how the French and Spanish have a definitively relaxed pace of life (contrast to Americans and British), and so on. Stereotypes and generalizations don't hold true all the time, but when they do it's 1) hillarious and 2) hillarious. For example, there were more than a few Italian news anchors that wore skinny jeans on air. How funny is that? I digress...

The following afternoon at the Brig train station I met up with my traveling companions for the next week: Mike (a political journalist from Australia), Doug and Jen (a couple from Colorado), Barry (a friend of Doug’s from Colorado), me, and Catherine, our wonderful tour guide from NYC (but who lives in Bologna, Italy these days). Without a doubt, getting to know these people was the highlight of the bike trip.

I won't give a play-by-play account of what we did, but here are some highlights:

Here's our itinerary: http://bluemarble.org/RteItLakes.html
Day 1: Through the Simplon Pass from Brig to Domodossola
Day 2: Through the Ossola Valley to Pallanza on Lago Maggiore
Day 3: Rides around Pallanza, stayed at the (very nice) hotel a second day.








Day 4: Took a ferry across the lake to Laveno. Had lunch near the weekly market in a small town, took a swim in the lake, crossed to Switzerland for a bit, took a train to Lugano for the night.
Day 5: Amazing cycling along Lago Lugano. The last few km were rough before getting into Como.














Day 6: No biking today. Took the ferry to Bellagio for the afternoon, then the slow ferry back in late-afternoon.
Day 7: Dropped off our bikes and said goodbye at the train station. I stayed another night in Como with Barry, Jen, and Doug. Barry and I woke up early to take a train to Milan, from where we went back to the States.

- The first half-day was almost all downhill through the Simplon Pass. We pedaled along a river that traces through mountain ravines, and descended onto a large, flat valley across the Italian border.
- The first night in Italy, the town was having some sort of festival. I witnessed one of the funniest things of the trip: Ty, an American who works for the Blue Marble company, was likely the only black man in the entire town, or so we thought. Then an older couple in full African dress walked by Ty, at which point they gave each other the silent "recognition head nod of acknowledgment." Of course we all stared at Ty and asked slyly "dude, what was that about," to which he replied sarcastically, "Hey, we made it!" We all laughed.
- Far fewer people than expected in Italy (at least the areas where we traveled) spoke English. I had assumed that Spanish and English would get me around, but I felt severely handicapped by not knowing Italian. Cate, our tour guide, was fluent in Italian.
- You might be wondering - how did they carry all their gear? We each had panniers (bags on the bike) to carry our stuff from town to town (on average, panniers w/ gear weighed 25 kilos or so. Every 3 days we'd have access to the rest of our luggage. So, we only had to carry 2 days of extra clothes/gear on the bike.
- The routes weren't too challenging, but we definitely got a workout. It was neither all flat nor all hilly. I got stronger as the trip went on, which was encouraging.
- We'd usually start around 10:00 in the morning, ride for a few hours, have lunch, then ride again until 5 in the afternoon (give or take).
- The scenery is exactly like I pictured it: countryside with old villas and small towns surrounded by mountains, large lakes with beautiful (and expensive) villas on the perimeter.
- I ate very, very well on this trip. We had gourmet food every night. A lot of it.
- While in Pallanza, the US soccer team was playing Italy (in South Africa). I thought it would be a huge deal in Pallanza and that the Italy fans would be at bars getting rowdy. I was mistaken. I, an American, was obviously the one person who cared most about the game. I walked to a couple bars, none of which were showing the game. Realizing the game was about to start and that I was far away from the only place I knew was showing the game, I took off my sandals and ran about 2-3k on the street/sidewalk back to this particular restaurant. All for a 3-1 loss.

Well, those are the highlights. Again, the best part about the trip was our group - everyone got along very well. Here's some random photos. To view them all, go here:

US Soccer History

There’s much discussion going on about who will make the 2010 World Cup roster for the US Men’s National Soccer Team. I’ll leave 2010 for another day, but I thought it would be interesting to go through the US’s rosters for previous World Cups. Ahh memories.

Apologies for the crude formatting. I obviously cut and pasted from other websites…

2006
Goalkeepers (3): Marcus Hahnemann (2006), Tim Howard (2006), Kasey Keller (1990, 1998, 2002, 2006)
Defenders (8): Chris Albright* (2006), Carlos Bocanegra (2006), Steve Cherundolo (2002, 2006), Jimmy Conrad (2006), Cory Gibbs (2006), Eddie Lewis (2002, 2006), Oguchi Onyewu (2006), Eddie Pope (1998, 2002, 2006)
Midfielders (8): DaMarcus Beasley (2002, 2006), Bobby Convey (2006), Clint Dempsey (2006), Landon Donovan (2002, 2006), Pablo Mastroeni (2002, 2006), John O’Brien (2002, 2006), Ben Olsen (2006), Claudio Reyna (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006)
Forwards (4): Brian Ching (2006), Eddie Johnson (2006), Brian McBride (1998, 2002, 2006), Josh Wolff (2002, 2006)

2002
Goalkeepers (3): Brad Friedel (1994, 1998, 2002), Kasey Keller (1990, 1998, 2002), Tony Meola (1990, 1994, 2002);

Defenders (8): Jeff Agoos (1998, 2002), Gregg Berhalter (2002), Frankie Hejduk (1998, 2002), Carlos Llamosa (2002), Pablo Mastroeni (2002), Eddie Pope (1998, 2002), David Regis (1998, 2002), Tony Sanneh (2002);

Midfielders (8): Chris Armas (2002), DaMarcus Beasley (2002), Landon Donovan (2002), Cobi Jones (1994, 1998, 2002), Eddie Lewis (2002), John O'Brien (2002), Claudio Reyna (1994, 1998, 2002), Earnie Stewart (1994, 1998, 2002);

Forwards (4): Clint Mathis (2002), Brian McBride (1998, 2002), Joe-Max Moore (1994, 1998, 2002), Josh Wolff (2002).

1998
GK Brad Friedel 18 May 1971 (aged 27) Liverpool
MF Frankie Hejduk 5 August 1974 (aged 23) Tampa Bay Mutiny
DF Eddie Pope 24 December 1973 (aged 24) D.C. United
DF Mike Burns 14 September 1970 (aged 27) New England Revolution
MF Thomas Dooley 12 May 1961 (aged 37) Columbus Crew
DF David Regis 2 December 1968 (aged 29) Karlsruhe
FW Roy Wegerle 19 March 1964 (aged 34) Tampa Bay Mutiny
FW Earnie Stewart 28 March 1969 (aged 29) NAC Breda
FW Joe-Max Moore 23 February 1971 (aged 27) New England Revolution
MF Tab Ramos 21 September 1966 (aged 31) MetroStars
FW Eric Wynalda 9 June 1969 (aged 29) San Jose Clash
DF Jeff Agoos 2 May 1968 (aged 30) D.C. United
MF Cobi Jones 16 June 1970 (aged 27) Los Angeles Galaxy
MF Preki 24 June 1963 (aged 34) Kansas City Wizards
MF Chad Deering 2 September 1970 (aged 27) Wolfsburg
GK Juergen Sommer 27 February 1969 (aged 29) Columbus Crew
DF Marcelo Balboa 8 August 1967 (aged 30) Colorado Rapids
GK Kasey Keller 29 November 1969 (aged 28) Leicester City
MF Brian Maisonneuve 28 June 1973 (aged 24) Columbus Crew
FW Brian McBride 19 June 1972 (aged 25) Columbus Crew
MF Claudio Reyna 20 July 1973 (aged 24) Wolfsburg
DF Alexi Lalas 1 June 1970 (aged 28) MetroStars


1994
1 GK Tony Meola 21 Feb 1969 (no club) 1990
2 DF Mike Lapper 28 Aug 1970 (no club)
3 MD Mike Burns 14 Sep 1970 (no club)
4 DF Cle Kooiman 04 Jul 1963 Cruz Azul (MEX)
5 DF Thomas Dooley 12 May 1961 (no club)
6 MD John Harkes 08 Mar 1967 Derby County (ENG) 1990
7 MD Hugo Perez 08 Nov 1963 (no club)
8 FW Earnie Stewart 28 Mar 1969 Willem II (NED)
9 MD Tab Ramos 21 Sep 1966 Real Betis (SPA) 1990
10 MD Roy Wegerle 19 Mar 1964 Coventry City (ENG)
11 FW Eric Wynalda 09 Jun 1969 FC Saarbrücken (GER) 1990
12 GK Jürgen Sommer 27 Feb 1969 Luton Town (ENG)
13 MD Cobi Jones 16 Jun 1970 (no club)
14 FW Frank Klopas 01 Sep 1966 (no club)
15 FW Joe-Max Moore 23 Feb 1971 (no club)
16 MD Mike Sorber 14 May 1971 (no club)
17 DF Marcelo Balboa 08 Aug 1967 (no club) 1990
18 GK Brad Friedel 18 May 1971 (no club)
19 MD Claudio Reyna 20 Jul 1973 (no club)
20 MD Paul Caligiuri 09 Mar 1964 (no club) 1990
21 DF Fernando Clavijo 23 Jan 1957 (no club)
22 DF Alexi Lalas 01 Jun 1970 (no club)

In Search of Dignity

Here's a great article on how the denigration of some social norms has made us less civil (or "dignified", as David Brooks says):

In the article, Brooks references George Washington's rules for comportment - worth skimming.

Maybe it's the southerner in me, but I really like Washington's rules. Some rules that many would benefit from learning (including myself):

In the Presence of Others Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet.

Shift not yourself in the Sight of others nor Gnaw your nails.

Spit not in the Fire, nor Stoop low before it neither Put your Hands into the Flames to warm them, nor Set your Feet upon the Fire especially if there be meat before it.

Shake not the head, Feet, or Legs roll not the Eyes lift not one eyebrow higher than the other wry not the mouth, and bedew no mans face with your Spittle, by approaching too near him when you Speak.

In other words, quit checking your blackberry:
Read no Letters, Books, or Papers in Company but when there is a Necessity for the doing of it you must ask leave.

Run not in the Streets, neither go too slowly nor with Mouth open go not Shaking your Arms kick not the earth with R feet, go not upon the Toes, nor in a Dancing fashion.

Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of Others and ask not how they came. What you may Speak in Secret to your Friend deliver not before others.

Put not another bit into your mouth till the former be swallowed. Let not your morsels be too big for the jowls.