The Shailesh-tival

In my line of work, I get to see and deal with a lot of clients trying to do something new, or trying to do something differently. Often times, despite the best of intentions, these companies fail miserably. They know where they are, they know where they want to be, and they even know what they need to do to get there, but they all forget about the dreaded bubble.

What’s the bubble? It’s basically the way you’ll operate while you’re midway between your starting point and your endpoint. When you’re at the starting point, you know how to function in your current state and you’re comfortable, and when you get to your endpoint, you’re enjoying the benefits of getting to the endpoint. But what do you do in the middle, when you have to behave differently but you’re still not seeing the benefits? Read the rest of this entry →

I’ve been bad about finishing this series because of the sheer workload at Kellogg, but its almost completely appropriate for me to write this post today. I am now one quarter into my Kellogg experience and the obvious question is, “What’s your plan?”

I’m somewhat proud to admit that I purposefully came into Kellogg not having a clear plan of what I wanted to do. As an undergrad, I was the complete opposite, and I ended up realizing that I took certain classes way before I was mature enough to appreciate the material. I did well in my classes, but I could’ve gotten so much more out of them. Read the rest of this entry →

This is the second part of my three-part series on some recent changes in my life.

After my first post, I think most people’s follow-up question is very obvious. I moved to Detroit for my dream job and I ultimately fell in love with the place where I lived, so it seems incredible counter-intuitive to suddenly want to leave after 3.5 years, so I think its begs the question: Why did I choose to leave? Read the rest of this entry →

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or taping a season of Survivor, I’m sure you’re well aware that last Thursday, the world lost quite possibly the most famous musical entertainer ever — Michael Jackson.

I’m sure somebody will comment about the quality of his music and name some other acts that were much better, but I will go out on a limb and say there was not a single person who was a bigger international celebrity than Michael Jackson.

But this isn’t a blog entry about his music, his level of fame, or what did or didn’t happen in the Neverland ranch. This is a blog entry about the ensuing media coverage. Read the rest of this entry →

I’m going to spend this blog entry complaining about something that’s really been bothering me lately.

Go to a bar or a restaurant on a typical Friday night and you’ll notice a new trend that’s starting to take hold. You’ll see groups of people sitting together, but each buried in their own mobile devices, barely paying attention to the people they’re with because they’re so busy engaging with people who aren’t actually there. Read the rest of this entry →

I was working on a pretty time-sensitive customer project last October when I didn’t come home from work until 8:30 one night.

Even though I wanted to take my mind off everything for a while, it was too late to go to Tae Kwon Do, and it was too late to convince anyone to go out that night.  I ended up ordering a pizza and staying in, and that’s when I discovered a reality show on truTV that followed repossession agents as they repossessed vehicles for banks and other lien-holders.  The next thing I knew, it was 11:30 at night, and I had to go to bed. Read the rest of this entry →

I should be an expert on this topic 🙂

When you move to a new city, there are a few experiences you will have over the coming months and years.  Each one cements your status as a true resident of that new city.  I say this because I experienced one of those moments twice today. Read the rest of this entry →

esktop Refresh St. Louis kicked off on 6/6/05, the first Monday in June, 2005. That was exactly 364 days ago.

For those that don’t know, desktop refresh basically amounted to me living on the seventh floor of the Bevo building (the giant Budweiser building in St. Louis). I think I even spent a night there once because I was there so late and I had to meet up with Andrea the next day.

Anyways, one day as I Andrea and I were sitting up there we were just talking in general and she asked me what my dream job was. I told her I’d love to have a job working with audio equipment.

Lo and behold, a year later, look at what I’m doing.

I have a lot of great memories from St. Louis. Very few of them occured in June or August of 2005.

So we carved up this dope Chief Illiniwek pumpkin and bought candy and the kids in my neighborhood are too freaking lazy to put on costumes.

One kid managed to at least find a funny hat and wear that. When I asked him what he was dressed as, he told me he was a pimp. Mind you, the kid is 8 years old. I didn’t bother asking him if he knew what a pimp was, or whether his parents knew their son was dressed as a pimp, because sadly I already knew the answers to those questions were no, and yes, in that order.

Anyways, all you parents out there, here is a guide to halloween for your kids:

• WEAR A COSTUME! If little Johnny is is going to make his fat ass fatter with all this candy, at least give him some exercise and let him walk around the store and get a costume and go through the effort of lifting his fat little legs to put the damn thing on.
• If you can’t wear a costume, find something around the house and pretend its a costume … i.e. wear a suit and say you’re a businessman. Sure you’re completely devoid of any creativity, but at least it shows you respect the concept of halloween.
• Be under the age of 15. Seriously, if you’re over 15 years old then the only way you’re getting candy from me is if you’re a 18+ attractive single female. Or if you’re collecting from Unicef, I’ll give you candy then too. I can respect that.
• Age appropriate costumes!! No 8 year old pimps, or ten year old whores. 18 year old whores are more than welcome, however.

Last year went I went to San Diego for spring break, Ninad and I went to a sports bar to watch the Illinois – Duke NCAA tournament game. Anyways, we’re sitting there enjoying the game when this guy comes up to us and starts talking to us. He’s piss drunk, telling us how he moved from Milwaukee and how “There’s so much ass to be had in this city.”

Then we watched him strike out with the waitress and just sit there drunk and all alone.

We both agreed that most people come to a point in their life when they’re about 26 where they just sit around and go to work and then get drunk when they’re not working.

Then we made fun of him for the rest of the evening.

Anyways, I guess I have an innate fear of ending up like that guy. I’ve seen it happen to too many people. There’s nothing particularly wrong about it, but it does seem like a waste of a few years.

Anyways, on a sadder note, here’s a list of concerts I won’t be going to this summer:

May 3: Ben Folds, at the Riviera in Chicago, IL
May 8: Ben Folds, at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC
June 18: Alkaline Trio, at the Riviera in Chicago, IL
June 29: Alkaline Trio, at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC

* sniff *