samirabid.com

Photo of Samir

The page “About Samir” has been updated.

Welcome to 2009!

Couple of site updates to check out, try reading the posts in your native language (click on your flag on the right column) and also check out some new additions to the MBA Resources page.

The pre-reading has begun for next week and there seems to be a fair amount; that is no surprise really.  Still, a good break was important after the intensity of the last few months and I am refreshed and ready for the push through to Sept (when we finish!)

No exam or module marks back yet but I understand these things take time. Keep those comments coming …

Happy New Year to you all.

Samir

Dave is a UK TV channel that is pretty focused on stereotypical bloke interests – car etc. It also happens to have the contract to show the World Rally Championship, of which Sebastian Loeb has just won his fifth title and today secured an exciting win on RallyGB; a fight right to the last stage with Latvala, who lead right until the end of the last special stage, losing out in the end by just 2.7seconds! Just what rallying needs in terms of excitment. One Valentino Rossi was also present while he balances the pleasures of 4 wheels over 2, as he has also done recently at (another) Ferrari F1 test … jealous? Indeed!

While on the Dave website I noticed their Davepedia … extracts below for those on a study break!

“The shortest unit of time in the multiverse is the New York second, defined as the period of time between the traffic lights turning green and the cab behind you honking.” – Terry Pratchett

“Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares? He’s a mile away and you’ve got his shoes.” – Billy Connolly

Facts:

1 – A “try” is so-called because the act of running over the line and touching the ball down originally carried no points and merely allowed the team to try for a kick at the goal.

2 – Research has shown that the scent of grapefruit on a middle-aged women will make her appear about six years younger to men. However, this perception is not reciprocal and the grapefruit scent on men has absolutely no effect on women’s perception.

3 – The use of animals as pub names harks back to times when literacy was rare, and pictures of swans, horses or dogs were used to mark houses where beer was brewed. The Black Horse became popular in the 17th century as it was the nickname of the popular 7th Dragoon Guards.

4 – Wall Street used to be an actual wall. The area was once a boundary of the original New Amsterdam settlement, and the wall was created by Dutch settlers as a defence against attacks by British invaders and Native Americans.

It is not often you see special things in life and today at Warwick was a special day. The last Economics lecture was again a pleasure and you got the feeling no-one really wanted it to end. When it did, the class gave a spontaneous standing ovation – truly awesome and a sign of utter respect from what must be one of the hardest audiences to win over; akin to some kind of northern stand-up comedy gigs perhaps?!

I never knew three UK football teams have swear words in there names until today!

Ben Knight was not the only one to recieve a standing ovation recently as it appears the McLaren CEO Ron Dennis also did a good gig in London last night (link here.)

Best of luck to all those revising hard … something that doesnt get easier with age I am finding!

Looks like there is a new driver database online for all those budding Lewis Hamiltons! Someone has kindly uploaded my stats for this year too which is very nice of them. Check out the website if you get the chance (click here)

Nick Bates’ presentation principals course yesterday was, in his language, awesome! It is really quite easy to get carried away with things and I can see the sceptisim some people have of him, but hey, if you don’t change what you’re doing, how can you expect the world to change around you?

I have always been fairly ok with presentations in the past, but now I have really investigated what makes a good one; needless to say it isn’t super fancy PowerPoint – rather unfortunately too as am pretty ok with that software! Less is more … and remember the spikes, they work!

Fireworks kicking off everywhere tonight so enjoy if you are out and about this weekend.

Well it seems like mid-term exam stress is really getting to everyone now. There has been a noticeable fall off in people attending some classes as they head to quiet safe havens to try to remember everything we have covered so far in this whirl-wind of the last 4 week. I find the whole change that has come across us as a group fascinating – from the time (only a few short weeks ago) when we were all new to school again, here to make a positive difference in our lives, to now, where you could argue there has been a total shift to dog-eat-dog mentality – looks like the cohort is in danger of falling into the Warwick Business School swap, perhaps!?! (I hope this analysis counts for OB?!)

On a lighter note the photos for the year book have been published, together with the comment that the photographer will have his discretion as to what gets in and what doesn’t. People are not so happy with some of their photos. This has resulted in some amusing email flying about and much good natured ribbing of those with concerns. It seems therefore, that this activity is not so democratic but, hey, at least you will stand out from the crowd!