I love Jen and her sister and her friend K for making these lists, so I'm hopping on the bandwagon.
Five good things about today:
1) I felt productive at work. Finally.
2) I started an educated ab workout at the gym.
3) I decided it's now okay to listen to Christmas music. Sing it to me, Nat King Cole.
4) I haven't used the elliptical machine at the gym recently (since college) and today I wasn't even going to GO to the gym, but when I made myself, I thought "I'll just use the elliptical," and who should be right next to the only open machine but the most beautiful girl in the world - my sister!
5) I'm making a delicious dinner of pumpkin and chard spaghetti.
Monday, November 16, 2009
U of M and the Economic Climate
Five things the University of Michigan has not had to do that our private-university peers have had to do due to the severe economic downturn of 2009:
U of M:
1) Does not have any taxable debt to pay.
2) Has not halted any construction projects.
3) Has not changed the endowment spending or payout (distribution calculated over a 7 year average).
4) Has not instituted any hiring or salary freezes, furloughs, or layoffs.
5) Has not stopped investing in our campus and our community: in June 2009 finalized the purchase of the North Campus Research Complex (former Pfizer complex), and commited to hiring 100 additional outstanding faculty members.
Also see this article from the Institutional Investor: http://www.iimagazine.com/pensions_and_endowments/Articles/2331336/University-of-Michigan-Cool-Character.html?p=1
Hail!
U of M:
1) Does not have any taxable debt to pay.
2) Has not halted any construction projects.
3) Has not changed the endowment spending or payout (distribution calculated over a 7 year average).
4) Has not instituted any hiring or salary freezes, furloughs, or layoffs.
5) Has not stopped investing in our campus and our community: in June 2009 finalized the purchase of the North Campus Research Complex (former Pfizer complex), and commited to hiring 100 additional outstanding faculty members.
Also see this article from the Institutional Investor: http://www.iimagazine.com/pensions_and_endowments/Articles/2331336/University-of-Michigan-Cool-Character.html?p=1
Hail!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Top Chef is my life.
One of the very few TV programs that is on my must-watch list is Top Chef. I enjoy sitting on the couch in my pajamas, eating Meijer-brand ice cream or something else tasty and plebian, while reveling in the cuilinary triumphs and foodie missteps of perfectly normal and famous strangers. Often, Aaron and I will text back and forth about the drama, because if BRAVO does one thing, it's DRAMA (furnished by the Glad family of products!). Example:
"jersey mike is such a jerk"
"oooh eli should tuck in his shirt"
"robin is going home this time"
"WTF?!?! robin is still here now i miss jersey mike"
The producers of this show always make it painfully obvious to the viewers that in order to be successful and be crowned the ULTIMATE TOP CHEF (until next season) you have to make the food that inspires you, make "your" food, and execute it with the utmost degree of professionalism and chefery. Now. Nothing bothers me more than when a contestant (Eve, most notably from this season; sorry Mitten) acts like a big fat baby and worries about the kind of food that the judges want to eat and that the judges will think is clever and that will make the judges want to drool all over your crisp white cheffy coat. But really, when they try to make the food they think the judges want, they get all confused and make half good food, half sloppy mess and start crying in the stew room about how terrible they are and how much they miss their son/daughter/restaurant and they really ARE top chef material, and then they get to judge's table and start blubbering about how they were going to really truly make their style of food this episode but then Jersey Mike had this really great idea about chilled cod and polenta instead of regular food that they've actually executed successfully in the past. Then that adorable piece of man Tom Colicchio says something snarky but chock-full of truth and before they know it Padma is telling them to pack up their knives and JUST GO.
I sit on my couch and think smugly to myself, "Hah! You should have made your food, you silly cook!"
So...why in HEAVEN'S NAME do I do the same thing at my job?!
I need to suck it up, quit worrying so much about how someone else would do it and start putting my own stamp on the work that I do so that I'm proud of every contact report and project that scoots itself out of my office, instead of wasting time reading hilarious blogs that other quater-life-crisis-20-somethings write at their entry-level jobs.
I will do this until the second I decide to pack up my knives and move down to Cville.
"jersey mike is such a jerk"
"oooh eli should tuck in his shirt"
"robin is going home this time"
"WTF?!?! robin is still here now i miss jersey mike"
The producers of this show always make it painfully obvious to the viewers that in order to be successful and be crowned the ULTIMATE TOP CHEF (until next season) you have to make the food that inspires you, make "your" food, and execute it with the utmost degree of professionalism and chefery. Now. Nothing bothers me more than when a contestant (Eve, most notably from this season; sorry Mitten) acts like a big fat baby and worries about the kind of food that the judges want to eat and that the judges will think is clever and that will make the judges want to drool all over your crisp white cheffy coat. But really, when they try to make the food they think the judges want, they get all confused and make half good food, half sloppy mess and start crying in the stew room about how terrible they are and how much they miss their son/daughter/restaurant and they really ARE top chef material, and then they get to judge's table and start blubbering about how they were going to really truly make their style of food this episode but then Jersey Mike had this really great idea about chilled cod and polenta instead of regular food that they've actually executed successfully in the past. Then that adorable piece of man Tom Colicchio says something snarky but chock-full of truth and before they know it Padma is telling them to pack up their knives and JUST GO.
I sit on my couch and think smugly to myself, "Hah! You should have made your food, you silly cook!"
So...why in HEAVEN'S NAME do I do the same thing at my job?!
I need to suck it up, quit worrying so much about how someone else would do it and start putting my own stamp on the work that I do so that I'm proud of every contact report and project that scoots itself out of my office, instead of wasting time reading hilarious blogs that other quater-life-crisis-20-somethings write at their entry-level jobs.
I will do this until the second I decide to pack up my knives and move down to Cville.
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