Past the Halfway Mark- Update on my Life

It is the week before Halloween weekend. I have a big group presentation tomorrow in my Management class and an Econ exam on Friday. I am still trying to make sure that I give all the important areas of my life enough attention. Class registration is coming up. I am pretty sure I know what I want to take but I am going to talk to my advisor on Friday. One of the biggest skills I have tried to work on in college is public speaking and presenting the work I have done to a large audience. Tomorrow will be a big test. This semester has gone by quickly. I don't know if I am dressing up for Halloween yet but so far I do not have any plans to dress up. If I do, it probably won't be anything too fancy or complex.

Another Random note: It is getting chilly really quickly.

The Start of Junior Year

I have been at school for 5 weeks already and it has been difficult to find a good time to update everyone on my life but now is as good of a time as any. I am majoring in actuarial science now and I am enjoying it. Pure science was not my calling and I need to embrace and acknowledge my strengths. Tough times lie ahead but from what I hear actuaries tend to enjoy what they do. So let me begin by telling you the classes that I am taking this semester. I am taking Financial Accounting, Macroeconomics, Business Law, Organizational Behavior, and Calculus 3. I am enjoying all of these classes although they are certainly keeping me very busy.

Financial Accounting: I am impressed by the elegant system that makes up a financial statement. It is very important to know how to classify transactions. It requires good organization. There is a lot of analysis and interpretation that goes into it. My professor was a public accountant for 33 years. I am having my first exam in this class next week and I hope that it goes well. It has really helped me to understand how businesses classify their financial transactions better.

Macroeconomics: Economics is an interesting subject studied by curious people who make assumptions and enjoy asking questions. The material is enjoyable but quite basic. This is as good of a time as any to study this subject because of everybody going on in the US and the world. My teacher is enthusiastic about his subject and a very nice guy. The workload is not too bad and it has shed light on a lot of what policy-makers have been doing.

Business Law: This is a very new class where so many concepts are foreign. My professor has done a good job of distilling it down and making it interesting. He expects us to read a lot and to think logically. It is a different kind of logic from mathematics and one that will take some getting used to. It is insane how many different things a person can be sued for.

Organizational Behavior: One thing that I have wanted to do in college is take a few psychology classes before I graduate. I am curious to learn what this field is about since I enjoy chatting and meeting people. Well, this is a class with some psychology grounded into it. It has been interesting to learn all of the elements that are necessary to successfully manage an organization. I have learned a lot about different categories that are used to determine efficacy in managing people and working with others.

Calculus 3: This is a class that will be important to my major. There are some actuarial exams that require a good grasp of calculus. So far I have understood most of what has been presented. It has been nice to learn this material because it has an important basis in a lot of real-world applications. I am anticipating that it will get a lot more challenging and I am hoping that everything will click because I truly enjoy how conceptually rich this subject is.

Remembering 9/11

Twelve days ago it was the ten year anniversary of 9/11. 9/11 is still fresh on our minds and almost all of us remember what we were doing that day when it happened. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody that was affected by 9/11.

I still remember that day. I didn't hear about it until I got to school that day. I was in the fifth grade. My teacher asked us how we were and if we had heard what had happened. All of us did not. And then she turned on the t.v. and we saw. It was horrifying and sickening and my classmates and I will not forget what we saw. It was heartbreaking to see and it changed all of us forever.

So ten years later, it still impacts how we think and how we live. May those who were injured or killed that day not be forgotten.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II Movie Review

This is a movie review that I wrote for my cousin's blog. I just want to repost it here to let visitors of this blog know how I felt about the movie because I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series.

The movie “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II” was a great way to close out the series. It was a great combination of epic battles and touching emotional scenes. The battle scenes were well done and very intense. You can see how much Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) has grown as an actor. The scenes in this movie require a lot of emotional range of Radcliffe. Whether it is when he needs to confront Voldemort and his Death Eaters but also when he is required to show his friends and peers how much it means to him that they are all fighting against evil, in other words fighting beside him.

Director David Yates was able to take the audience deeper into the heart of the story because Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was split into two movies. Small plot elements that are crucial for the story are able to be incorporated into the movie because of this. This allows those that love the Harry Potter series to feel more connected to what is happening on-screen. A more faithful adaptation was able to be produced. Splitting up the movie let the makers of the movie construct an appropriate final showdown between Harry and Voldemort. There are definitely liberties that they [the makers of the movie] took but I believe that most fans will think that it is a solid representation of the world that J.K. Rowling created but it is still easy enough to follow for those that are not fans of Harry Potter.

College, NYC, and "Scrubs"

There is less than a month before I return back to school for my 3rd year of college. I have recently changed my major from Pharmacy to actuarial science. I am in New York City for the summer and I believe it is an experience that has helped me out tremendously. New York City can be an intimidating city at first but once you get used to it, it is not so bad. It also helps to have people that you know in the city and I do have a cousin that has helped me out tremendously.

I am interning for the summer in New York City. It is the first summer that I am doing it and I am enjoying the experience. It allows me to see first hand what the work environment will be like when I graduate and enter the job market. Besides the internship, I have also tried to see and do as much as I can in the city before I head back to the Midwest. I should go see a Broadway play before I leave New York. I mean that is one of the first things that people think about when they think about New York. NYC is a city unlike any that I have ever lived in before. You are able to find cuisine from essentially any country of the world. All of the different cities in New York are different from each other and even the different areas and subsections of Manhattan have their own local flavor to them. 

I also have a Netflix membership and I am currently very obsessed with the show "Scrubs". I guess that I got into it super late compared to everyone else. I can see why people like it so much. It has very memorable characters and a very unique method of presenting life from the perspective of a doctor. One thing that I am bummed about is the fact that I don't enjoy reading as much as I used to. I am trying to get back into it except during the school year, it is difficult to find the time to read. Other than that, I am anxious to return to school, excited about the new direction that I have taken in my academic career.