Supplemental.

Holla, from da Kat unda da Kangol cap! Relief and uncertainty are the only things that loom from what has transpired the last week or so. Within that time span, I have taken exams for all but one of my classes. Just now, I took my first Bio exam. And truth be told, there were five or six questions that I know, if I had just a little bit more study time, I would not need to guess for. Other than that, the test is not as bad as I thought! In fact, it was a lot more relieving than when I took Bio 100 four years ago.
Yes folks, the big man upstairs has done it again.
Furthermore, this series of exams started with the intro to jazz, which needless to say, I excellently executed that one. It continued with the first of five Auditing "quizzes;" small tests in CPA-exam format. How did I do? Well, four of the five highest grades are accounted for, each being 15% of your grade, for a total of 60% (the other 40% is for the final and attendance). Keeping all else constant, if my first quiz is one of the higher quiz marks I get, I received 10 out of 15 percent of my final grade. Or simply put, I lost 5 percent of my final grade.
Now, why am I not giving you exact numbers? Because I was not given exact numbers. And you know what, at this rate, I don't want exact numbers; just the numbers that say I can B'ce or A-minus the class. And here, all I have to do is not lose more than 10% of my grade...
Lastly, in the corporate finance department, I took a short quiz that accounts for 30% of my grade. Seven questions, 30% of your grade. Weird, eh?
In any event, the first six were fine, until I got to what I call "the meat" of the quiz: calculating profit margins and ROE's without being given sales figures or cash ratios. The cash ratios I pretty much figured out okay, but sales figures with respect to amount of sale time remaining had at that point just bewildered me. I end up taking my best shot at it, and when I was satisfied with my answer, submitted 30% of my grade to determine how much of that 30% I lost.

Before, it was all about accumulation. Now, it's starting from the top, and working one's way down. Amazing.

Work...
Hold up, didn't I vow not to blog about work anymore? I mean, c'mon, it's the same old story. I'm sure being at the New York Public Library gives far much more adventure and spontaneity. So, I will not blog about work. End of story.
Meanwhile, my proving streak has continuned; soon to match up with the New Jersey Nets, who alas, lost to Minnesota last night.
And no, I was not watching the game when I should've been studying.
I was updating my iPod while I should've been studying...

The iPod mini

Katz, here's a tale for you. Upon buying my 30GB iPod, I faced deliberations as to whom to give my 2nd gen 10GB iPod to. After several weeks of soul-searching (some of which done right here on this blog), I came to the conclusion that my mother would benefit most greatly from my old iPod. So, in original packaging, remote, case, sealed earbuds, and 2-year AppleCare protection plan, I gave my old iPod to my mother, and left it at that. Well folks, my mother is a die-hard Wintel user, so the only way she knows to get music on her iPod is to give to me every so often to update. And up until last month, that's exactly what I've done.
Enter the iPod mini. A client of my mother's boss' works for some hardware joint, and they soon will have iPod mini's available; and thus, will be able to give my mother and her boss discounts on it. Already, she's worked up on the idea of getting the latest mp3 wonder, which just might be cooler than mine (nah, I think not!) It didn't take her too long for her to come to me and say, prepare my music for when the mini arrives. I'm gonna get me a red mini...

Street Dreams
Joe
And Then...

But, what of the 10GB'er I gave her? She asks me about giving it to my brother, or maybe even to Pop. All I could do was shake my head and say, I guess it's time for you to really think about that one...

Now, about the iPod mini. Does any mac enthusiast out there recognize the Espy-Sans font they're using? How come they couldn't incorporate this to the regular iPods? Second, the price. $250 for a 4GB hard drive is, well, steep. Steep because for a few buck more, you can get 15GB of disk space, and for a few bucks less, you can acquire a used 5GB iPod of the first generation. Third, being that the unit's screen is smaller, and we still actually have to see what we're listening to, a feature had to be eliminated. And the only thing that they logically thought should be omitted is the Album title on the display screen. Bad idea. Bottom line, the only good thing it has going for itself its design and size.
Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not knockin' the new mini, nor am I jealous that my mother is about to get an iPod device newer than mine. It does look cute, play well, and fit into my pocket easily (though not for too long, I don't need anybody thinking I'm about to steal it.) It's just that I feel that by it being smaller, it is also limited. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be cool if they came out with a regular size version of the same iPod mini? Same font, but regular screen size. Perhaps we could keep the wheel the mini has, but how's about the 10 hour battery that we had long ago? What happened to those?! With so much possibilities, and still no real line-in recording, the mini was a great start, but not for me. So I'm sticking with my original investment, and hope that Pop enjoys my old 10GB'er...

Okay guys. When did Apple introduce their iTunes giveaway, sometime during the Super Bowl, right? That means late January, right? Right. A whole month passes, and now, finally, the giveaway has finally hit New York City. A couple of days ago, I stopped at a deli several buildings away from Hunter, and finally saw Pepsi bottles with a 1 in 3 chance of gettin some new music. Without hesitation, I bought two: one for winning, and one for chance. Well, I lucked up on one, and lost on the other. And every so often, while ignoring the possibilities of gallstones and high blood-levels, I'll buy two bottles of pepsi, until I reach ten or eleven free-song caps. The goal: to download The Best of Anita Baker, while cramming for finals...
Sweet plan, eh?
But this plan is not without kinks. I do face every iPod sporting Hunter College student who has just learnt of our new fortune. And with this golden thumb rule that you can actually tell which pepsi bottle has a winning code and which doesn't, my chances aren't too good. I would invest in the rule myself, but I hear that requires me peering through each bottle to see if there is in fact a winning code on there. Too time consuming...

Truly
Lionel Richie
The Definitive Collection

Just to show me that they (my PCBU's) are capable of following the latest trends and newest flicks before I do, they went to see The Passion of Christ yesterday. And even they agree, while the film is indeed too gory, it sends the point home. Also of note, there were two things that were amiss in the film: a serpent appears before Jesus during his temptation in the wilderness, which never happened; and one of the other criminals who hung with Jesus had belittled him, and next thing they knew, was having his eye nearly poked out by a vulture; something I don't remember seeing in the Bible either. Despite that, the film was a great interpretation of what went down from 00 to 33A.D., at least, to my parents it was. As to whether I'll see the movie depends on who can convince my mother the best that it is a film I would want to see...

Speaking of films I did see, I finally, finally got around to seeing Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King with a friend of mine earlier this month, and I loved it. It was particularly great for me, because I vaguely remembered The Fellowship of the Ring, and didn't see The Two Towers; yet the story was a story in itself. I didn't necessarily have to see the previous films to understand what Frodo was truly up against. I love that.
Meanwhile, great story, characters were awesome; all in all, a great film.

Later on, Rosie gets married in SanFran...