I had the single greatest class of my entire MBA experience Monday night. It was the first session of a finance class I'm taking called "The Business of Music and Film." It started out with the CFO of Univeral/Motown (one of the three professors for the class, another professor is the soon to be ex-CFO of Miramax films/soon to be CFO of the Weinstein Bros new initiative) handing out free copies of the new Damian Marley CD to everyone. Then, we watched the video for the lead single, and discussed, well, the music business. Believe me, after three years of case studies, formulas, and financial analysis, discussing the impact of 50 Cent on Univeral's bottom line is absolute heaven.

The Miramax CFO took over for the second half of class, which was cool too, because it was nice to see a focus on corporate finance that is more similar to my position than that of an investment banker/portfolio analyst.

What I truly cherished about the class was that it got me excited, instead of worried, about my future. After three years of intense focus of investment banking, I felt like it was the only path that I should take, as if I was being inexorably dragged towards it, that my financial peers would consider me a flake for staying in the entertainment biz. I started preparing myself for the lack of any sort of life that goes along with banking, the 80+ hour work weeks, spending Saturday and Sunday at your desk, the intense pressure of watching the slightest movements in the Dow, the co-workers that I would have absolutely nothing in common with.

But as I listened to the CFO of Universal/Motown speak, it clicked. It might impress certain people if I worked at Bear Sterns, but how f'ing cool would it be if I worked at Def Jam or Interscope or Sony or Take Two Interactive? Who needs seven figure bonuses when you like what you do and get paid well to do it? How on Earth could I consider being a consultant?

I'm really glad I passed on taking Debt Instruments when I signed up for this class.

Today, I filled out the best form in the world - my graduation application for school. After going for my MBA part time for the last three years, I have one semester left. Come Christmas, I will no longer have to juggle my responsibilities between work and school. This makes me very very happy.

I have become such a bad student this year, along with everyone else graduating this year. I used to at least try to read everything that was assigned, now it's gotten to the point where I might glance at it and just wait to hear what I'll be tested on. It's kind of a vicious cycle - the further into your MBA you are, the higher up you become, the more responsibilities you're handed, the more meetings you're running back and forth from, the more difficult it becomes to leave at 5:30 twice a week for class. I missed about 40% of the classes for this summer's second term because I simply couldn't leave.

I'm glad I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started this whole process, because I probably wouldn't have gone through with it. :)

So January will be a very nice month, not having to run to class, and knowing that every weekend will be homework free. Then it'll be time for another necessary evil - job interviews!

in case you're wondering, even when you're older, there's nothing that brings out the hardcore procrastination techniques like having to study for a final.

so, why haven't i posted to my blog for the past month? well, i did have finals from hell and a vacation, you know. but also much of my web time has been spent on friendster. it's just really fun seeing all the whacky people your friends of friends of friends are.

dk might be enjoying going back to school, but i feel like i'm walking around like arnold schwarzenegger in t2 when they're in that crazy molten iron building saying "i need a vacation". i made the mistake of taking an intense mini-semester class over christmas break, so i've been going full steam since last january (that whole gmat thing). between my new duties at work and my professors that teach with a cat o' nine tails ("you didn't amortize for this year's depreciation!" *smack!* "no weekend for you!"), as that lady said in airplane 2, the pilot's turned to jelly.

so, my only break from the land of numbers and economic concepts has been a few head-clearing minutes here and there with super mario sunshine. that's right, mario. i traded in my ps2 for a gamecube, and the half hour i spent at gamestop while they checked everything out was one of my most bizarre shopping experiences ever. kevin smith should do a sequel to clerks, and instead of the two protagonists working in convenience and video stores, they should work at a video game store. the socially inept critters that dwell in these places boggle the mind.

por ejemplo:
-i've been in this particular store twice, both times there was this one guy trying to chat it up with the guys behind the counter. this last time, he sees that i'm going to be there a while and starts chatting with me. he is dressed in full army gear for absolutely no reason. he owns no video game consoles but spends half his time hanging out in this store. dude, you're in new york, there's stuff to do!!
-then, some random teenager comes in off the street:
kid: "did you get any new xbox games in?"
counter guy: "yeah, just (blah blah blah)"
kid: "how is it? have you read the reviews?"
counter guy: no response
kid: "i hear you don't identify with the characters and the tasks become menial and repetitive" (okay, wtf?)
counter guy: no response
kid: "oh... ok, thanks" he then, literally, walks out the door backwards, trying to get some ackowledgement from counter guy.
-3 middle aged women came into the store to buy games for themselves. who knew?

motto: stay away from these stores like the plague!