Should Have Paid Attention in Mergers & Acquisitions Class...

Wait a minute...I never even took a mergers & acquisitions class.

But I'm making up for lost time. Don't know how long this link will be live, but today our bank was bought by Merrill Lynch. That's quite an adrenaline rush on a Monday morning, to be sure.

The good news is it looks like there won't be any layoffs, and there are cash incentives for staying...paid out right about the time The Philosophress will be starting grad school. So that means we can either eat normally for 3 additional weeks before going back to macaroni & cheese, or we can pay for the first two weeks of grad school in cash. (Not really, but it makes a great story...insert puppy dog face here)

Anyhoo, the next several months are sure to be exciting and requiring some flexibility. Adventures in grad school, adventures at work, adventures with the kittens!

Speaking of kittens, I haven't heard from them lately, which probably means they've found an open container of food downstairs...

Not Found In U.S. News & World Report

So The Philosophress is looking into grad schools, and while the notions of "top-tier programs" and "national rankings" have merit, there's more to consider. Namely, what sort of football and basketball shenanigans are we going to have to put up with over the next three years?

Accordingly, I put together the following table and have come up with some observations.

School	Conference	2006 Football	2006 Basketball
Duke	ACC	0-12	18-3
UNC	ACC	3-9	18-1
Northwestern	Big 10	4-8	11-8
Harvard	Ivy	7-3	8-8
Columbia	Ivy	5-5	9-5
Stanford	Pac-10	1-11	12-5
Cal Berkeley	Pac-10	10-3	13-6
UCLA	Pac-10	7-6	17-1

A couple of noteworthy football games next fall: ND plays at the Rose Bowl Oct. 18, at Duke on Nov. 17, and at Stanford Nov. 24. Additionally, they're at UNC in October 2008.

In terms of basketball prowess, looks like UNC and UCLA get the nod, and if I want to the roundball equivalent of ND's "media overhyped team that everyone loves to hate," then Duke is the frontrunner. And UCLA would give me another reason to hate USC. Good times.

Looking towards the bottom of the sporting list, Columbia can't claim a winning record in either basketball or football, and Northwestern looks to be rather middling in their athletic attempts.

These, then, are my Grad School Power Rankings based upon athletic opportunities:

1. UCLA (bball equivalent of ND football superiority, mutual hatred of USC)
2. UNC (ND football visit in '08, good basketball rivalry)
3. Stanford (ND football visit in '07, Ivy League feel with CA climate)
4. Harvard (Ivy League rivalries, good Boston-ND following)
5. Berkeley (rivalry with Stanford, unsuccessful attempts to defeat USC football)
6. Duke (if it's not in your upbringing, why would you embrace the hate & arrogance?)
7. Northwestern (um, we play college sports in Chicago. And we wear purple)
8. Columbia (playing second fiddle to Ivy League's Harvard, UNC's baby blue)

The Name Game

So this website is fantastic for those of you who are "cooking" up munchkins, or want to know the history of your first names.

In addition to the etymology, it also allows people to rate qualities & characteristics of names, and provides popularity of names based upon geography and census information over time.

Some interesting facts about my name: it's a good, masculine name, connoting a wholesome sense of maturity, yet rough and unintellectual around the edges (that's what they think).


Of course, that's before you all have a chance to vote on my name's characteristics...we'll see how you rock the vote.

And for those of you who are incubating, Juniors named Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Emily, Emma, or Madison won't do much to distinguish them from the crowds.

Of course, there's always genetics, which are distinguishing enough.