A Day in the Country

We spent much of today at my sister's house in the outskirts of Danbury (Texas). Less than 35 miles away from the apartment, she lives closer than I originally thought. My brother-in-law, the cook in the family, treated us to a lunch selection that included grilled steaks, chicken fajitas, sausage, and shrimp. We enjoyed the food and company as well as an afternoon of visiting with the family. My nephews were as much fun as always, and we made arrangements to go back tomorrow night (while sis is out of town) to help with a few of the back-to-school details. All in all, we had a wonderful day.

Novel Diversions

Have I ever mentioned that I am an avid reader? I have? Oh...sorry. This week, even though I've been scrambling to get all my readings for school and my homework completed, I did squeeze in enough time to wrap up several books. When I'm not in school, I sometimes go through a phase of reading a number of books in a short time. Don't know why, but I do. In the last two weeks, here are the books I've read:

"At Risk" by Patricia Cornwell

Not one of her best works, I still found the story a delightful diversion from the standard Cornwell fare. Don't know whether to recommend it or not, but truthfully, I enjoyed it.

"Predator" by Patricia Cornwell.

Now this was one of the standard gory, detailed, intriguing Kay Scarpetta mystery thrillers. A great read, although quite long and complex. While the editorial reviews didn't particularly favor this book, once again, I beg to differ. I really did enjoy it.

"Florence of Arabia" by Christopher Buckley

I know I mentioned reading this last week, but it really was a lot of fun. It was so good, in fact, that I've picked up another by the same author and hope to be able to read it before Friday morning. It is called "No Way to Treat a First Lady".

"Teeth of the Tiger" by Tom Clancy

Leo and I are working on this one together, so it is taking longer than normal. Still, I think that the trip to Austin on Thursday will give us time to finish this excellent (but long) story.

Others on hand, but I don't know whether I'll be able to finish anytime soon.

"Autumn Bridge" by Takashi Matsuoka

"Inside the Kingdom" by Carmen Bin Ladin

"Maximum Ride" by James Patterson

"Mary Mary" by James Patterson

My Homework

I thought you might be interested in seeing what my homework assignments generally consist of. This amount is typical (if there is such a thing) of what a 2-week period looks like, as far as the reading goes, but because it is being assigned prior to meeting these instructors, it is a lot "lighter" than normal on the amount of work that needs to be turned in. Enjoy.

1. STC381—Legal Issues of Commercialization.
   1. Allison & Prentice, Chapters 1-4.
   2. Participate in a threaded discussion of issues related to this session's reading assignments on the Blackboard Reading Discussion forum.
2. STC384—Commercialization Strategy.
   1. A listing of team members and a brief description of the technology is to be submitted via e-mail by September 1.
   2. BDSS [Textbook: "Economics of Strategy"] Introduction
   3. BDSS Primer: Economic Concepts for Strategy (review), 9
   4. BDSS 1, The Evolution of the Modern Firm (Skim), 43
   5. BDSS 2, The Horizontal Boundaries of the Firm: Economies of Scale and Scope, 74
   6. Porter, M., “What is Strategy?” HBR OnPoint Article #4134
   7. Fabtek HBS Case (#9-592-095) and Questions
3. STC394c—Managing Production and Development.
   1. HBS case 5-704-497: Strategic Inflection: TiVo in 2003
   2. Hagel, John III and Singer, Marc. March-April 1999. Unbundling the Corporation. Harvard Business Review.
   3. Morris, Charles R. and Ferguson, Charles H. March-April 1993. How Architecture Wins Technology Wars. Harvard Business Review.
   4. Jolly, Vijay K. 1997. Chapter 6 in Commercializing New Technologies, Getting from Mind to Market. Boston: Harvard Business School Press (STC380 text).
   5. Prepare the following questions for discussion:
      1. What factors facilitate and complicate the adoption of TiVo’s product? Who is the ideal candidate for TiVo’s product?
      2. What are Tivo’s competitive strengths and weaknesses? Where does TiVo fit in the entertainment value network? Who are its allies? Enemies?
      3. What is your evaluation of TiVo’s plans and execution to date (at the time of the case)? What is your assessment of its positioning and differentiation? Do you propose any changes that would help the company sustain and scale itself in this market, and appropriate gains from its innovation?
      4. What is the reason for the prevailing view that it is hard for a proprietary system to be open? Is it possible for a non-proprietary system to be profitable? For a proprietary system to be open?
      5. What according to the authors of “Unbundling the Corporation “ are the compromises inherent in a bundled company?
      6. What are the risks in unbundling a company? (What are the weaknesses of unbundled firms?) Is there any other way to overcome the above compromises without unbundling a company?
   6. In addition, each team will present a 5 minute presentation about their technology, product, customer, and “manufacturing environment” (product realization). The teams may prepare, but this will be an informal (not graded) presentation.
4. STC395—Market Driven Entrepreneurship.
   1. The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide: Read pp 1-14 and 47-56.
   2. The Entrepreneurial Venture: Read Chapters 1 and 14
   3. Posted to Course Documents, Session 1: Complete the Student Profile Form and email back to Erin. Download and skim the document on How to Read a Financial Report
   4. Some of you already have a book called Writing Business Plans That Work. That was a last minute addition, and only a few of the onliners have a copy. The rest of you will be receiving that and one other book in class next week. If you have the book, read pages 13-34. For the rest of you, I will scan and post a copy to Course Documents tomorrow morning.
   5. There will be three brief notes/cases that will be posted to BB no later than Friday. Please take a look at those, paying particular attention to the one titled A Note on Case Learning.

Internet Connection in Houston

FINALLY! I'm connected!

Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to work (or play) without it? It's been a nightmare...especially when homework deadlines were looming. But now, well, today I'm back online, using my own connection, and running several (3) computers all at once. In other words...I'm in heaven.

After the fishing excitement over the weekend, it was really hard to come back to town. Still...I have projects and people waiting on me, so it just had to be done. Every day, I look at my UT homework for the upcoming weekend and for the semester, and every day I wonder just how I am going to survive it all. The topics look exciting, the new instructors appear to be wonderfully innovative and accomplished, and I'm looking forward to learning and achieving more. On the other hand, work is as busy as ever, more projects are added to my "pile" every day, and personal "problems" (taxes, bills, two houses needing a good cleaning) don't seem to be going away any time soon.

So...today I'm getting all set up for another couple of weeks of hard work. This week, I will have to work a couple of long days, and I have a TON of reading assignments to knock out before Friday. Leo and I will be heading to Austin on Thursday evening in preparation for Friday's class (I want to meet my new instructors in person, so this will be an in-class weekend for me), then we'll be home on Sunday to start another round of "can she survive working and going to school at the same time". Wish me luck!

Leo's Big Catch

We were having a great time down at the pier, although we weren't catching anything. I caught a crab, and Jess caught a stingray and a croaker. We were about to give up and shut down for the night when something hit Leo's line and doubled his pole over. Wow...we were sure it was a big stingray, but those are always fun when they want to battle, so Leo got ready for the fight. About that time, my line hit with the same force. Now it looked like we both were up for a bit of a battle.

Now Jess is by far the most experienced fisherman among us, so he went into full coaching mode. "Don't worry about the drag...it's fine." "Don't fight him...just keep tension on the line and he'll wear out before you do." "Keep your pole up...don't point the line at him or he'll get away." It was all good advice and we were thankful for it.

About 5 minutes into my battle, my fish took a run toward us. I was keeping up, and even saw a fin break the surface, although he was running parallel to the dock and heading for the grass. Then, all of a sudden, my line broke. My battle was over.

Leo was sweating by now, and the sun was going down. We usually don't stay out past this point in the evening as the critters and snakes start to come out, and it's a long walk back to the house in the dark. But...we couldn't give up yet. Even a good stingray would have been a welcome sight. What a battle this guy put up! Twenty minutes later, when we saw him break the surface, we realized this was not a stingray at all. By the time Leo was able to wear him out enough for Jess to net him, we saw Leo had landed an incredibly large (considering we fish from a dock in our own back yard) black drum.

Of course, we had no camera with us, so we put the big guy in a live well while Jess made a run up to his house for a camera (mine is in Houston). By the time he got back, we were taking photos and measurements in the dark, but with a little bit of work we got all the details. This guy was 36" long and weighed a bit over 25 lbs. Although he had been in our custody for a while, because of the live well, we were able to get him back into the water and watch him make a few faltering attempts before he was strong enough to swim away. What a battle and what a good time! Here are the photos:

Leo and Jess trying to get an accurate measurement.

Now for an accurate weight.

Now that we've had our fun, it's time to let this guy go. Jess does the honors...

Exhaustion after the battle. Note the measuring tape in Leo's hand...he carried it back to the house that way to make sure we were reading the tape correctly. We were. 36" long...what a catch!

Storm's a Brewin'

Home for the weekend for the first time in a really long time...Whoopee! It's an absolutely beautiful day. But the weather reports have us all a little worried. Hurricanes are a fact of life here, something that comes along regularly. However, because of their nature, people along the coast learn to evaluate them based on how close they hit. That's a little misleading though, since it's often the fringe storms that cause the most damage.

A lot of people want to know whether we'll leave when the storms come. That's never something I consider...I never leave. And the storms that blew through in late September of 2005 strengthened my resolve as more people were killed in "running" than were affected by the storms themselves. Nope...I'm safe here, the winds are my only concern, and I would be more stressed by leaving and wondering about what's happening at home than by staying, so it's no question for me. I'll be here.

Today, Leo and Jess are planning and scheming about the storm preparations. They are tying things down, moving things that can be moved, and walking the yard time after time looking for problems. I will be heading back to Houston on Sunday, but if hurricane Dean hits anywhere along the coast, I'll be back home before it hits.

The game plan now is to check in regularly and watch the progress. It's an easy thing to obsess over, but that's not really my style (and, I don't have the time for it!). So, now it's on to other things...homework, work, and the like. Talk to you soon.

Final Grade Posted

My final grade arrived, and in spite of my concerns, it was an "A". Whooppee! Admittedly, not my finest semester, but again, working full time, attending school in Austin, pursuing a Master's Degree in what amounts to an accelerated program, and an "A-" (91.69) average overall...you can bet I'm happy about it. Whooppee!

One More Grade

I got my Accounting/Finance grade this morning...I was hoping for an "A" but expecting a "B", so I am VERY pleased to announce that I received an "A-". I can live with that!

The final outstanding grade, however, could be anything under the sun. The two assignments that have not been graded are team assignments, and long and complicated ones at that. I do not have a clue what to expect on them, as we got little feedback along the way. Again, we worked very hard, so I'm hoping for the best, but really don't have a clue how things are going to turn out here. Guess we'll see soon.

Grades Starting to Roll In

Out of the four classes this semester, two of my grades have been posted. Although it's been a long time since I got something other than an "A", considering the workload and the team grading element in the classes, I'm happy with my grades. I made a "B" in Marketing Technological Innovations and an "A" in Technology Transfer. The "B" was an 87, so it only fell short by a bit, and the "A" was a solid 94. While I got a good score back on my Elevator Speech in Converting Technology to Wealth, the bulk of the scoring will come from our team efforts on the Quicklooks, so I can't really guess at what that score will be. In Financing New Ventures, I put a lot of effort into understanding the subject and completing the work, but it is definitely not my strong point. I have no guess at what either of these scores will be, as we are NOT graded on effort (guess that was the good old undergraduate days!) Wish me luck!

Semester Break

For two lovely weeks, I have little more to do than some reading in preparing for the next semester. Already I've taken advantage of the break by sleeping, going to the movies, sleeping, watching a bit of tv, sleeping, reading a new book ("Florence of Arabia", by Christopher Buckley, it was a HOOT!), and sleeping. I've started another book with Leo, (starring John Ryan Jr., for those of you who enjoy the spy genre with us) and expect to finish 2-3 more by the end of the week. Have I ever told you? I LOVE to read.

Our final day of class was a real blast as we got to listen to 15 minute presentations about one technology being assessed by every team in class. Not only are the program instructors for UT's MS|STC program incredible, but the students are as well. It's hard to explain, but so exciting to be a part of. I'm very excited about what next semester holds for us (although that won't stop me from enjoying the break).

I haven't been home for several weeks now, and miss fishing with Jess and seeing the deer in the mornings. Hopefully, Leo and I will be headed home on Friday evening to spend the weekend there. The apartment in Houston, on the other hand, is in a great location, but that's probably all it has going for it. The a/c runs all day long, and if we're lucky, gets down to 85F (29C) or 86F (30C) in the middle of the day. I'm expecting a monstrous electric bill for that any day now. The company that was going to get me a reasonable DSL connection made a mistake...it turns out they cannot help me. Plan B, a company called Comcast, will charge me some huge installation fee and $40/month. They have me over a barrel...I have to do it. They will get around to hooking me up on the 20th.

Work is going well, and I'm enjoying a wide variety of projects. The next job I have lined up, originally scheduled to begin in September, located less than a mile from my apartment, has been delayed a bit. However, it does seem to be in progress, and I am still in the picture, so I'm not worried about running out of work until 1Q08. There's a part of me that would like to stay with the company I'm working for now for the long haul. When I first came on, they thought about trying to groom me to be their Marketing Manager. Even though I am currently learning so much in school that could actually make this possible, in all honesty, it is not where my strengths lie. Although I'm really good with data, collecting, interpreting, preparing, and presenting, I'm not so good with people. (That's Leo's realm.) It's not that I don't like people, because I really do. It's just that people sometimes make me uncomfortable, something that my machines never do...never.

Gee, I'm rambling today. Sorry about that. I have to head downtown and print out some large format (poster size) prints of industrial HVAC equipment and make them look really good. After that, I've got to work on a collection of key words that line up to web pages with a focus on these same pieces of equipment along with others. So, I still have a busy day ahead. Still...no homework, no team meetings, no school projects, no online discussions--HEAVEN!