[ T - T R A i N ]

Suddenly 32

Really? Thirty-two? Wait, let me check... Yup, 32. Not that it just sneaked up on me. It's just that I really do not count birthday candles and I have to do a mental calculation almost every time I get asked about my age. With JC asking me on the weeks leading up to my birthday what I wanted as a gift, how could I not think about this day? So I got to spend the weekend with my dad, who flew in early Saturday morning and flew out to New York on Sunday afternoon, and JC, who drove in from DC (via Atlantic City) last Friday. We had dinner at Harvest on Saturday evening--that restaurant just became one of my favorites--and, just JC and me, at Sandrine's on Sunday. Both times my dessert got served with a birthday candle on them, thanks to JC who subtly excused himself from the table just before coffee was served.

Whoopee for having two papers due on my birthday. Tonight the Filipinos and Fil-Ams (and friends) at the Kennedy School are having a Filipino potluck at MV's house in Somerville. I volunteered to bring ginatan with bilo-bilo and pinaputok na bangus, two things I've been craving for the past few weeks. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to prepare two dishes on such a busy day but at least JC is around to help. Anyway, I'm looking forward to it since it's a great way to end this semester, and it's a good way to say good-bye to these people. I'll be the only Filipino left from this group since all of them are graduating this year. (I do not know how many, or if there any, coming in next year.)

Just like RP, who turned 31 last Thursday (Go Taureans!), I'm going to list some people who share my birthday... Burt Bacharach, George Carlin, Gabriel Byrne, Emilio Estevez, Vanessa Williams, Tony Hawk, Kim Fields, Samantha Mathis, Mackenzie Astin, Jason Biggs... Hmmm, such a mixed bag. Anyway, I need to continue working on my papers.

Bebackson

In the midst of finals week(s) and trying to finish a 15-page paper by tomorrow. (I'm about a third of the way done.) And then four more papers after that. Be back soon...

Satisfying VM

To add to my satisfying week, I got a response from the DC Public Schools Office of the Chancellor about my application to their Summer Associates Program. It was the application that I submitted last Saturday at almost 4 am, four hours past what I would assume was the midnight deadline. Obviously they still accepted it and yesterday afternoon I got a voicemail saying that I'm one of the finalists and that I had to schedule an phone interview with the program manager. That is good news because I'm getting anxious about finding an internship for the summer this late in the season. I don't know how competitive the program is but it's something that I'm really interested in doing so I hope this works out (although I should still be seeking out other internship opportunities). I have my interview scheduled for Monday morning. Wish me luck!

Satisfying Week

It's been a very busy week but also rather satisfying. Monday started off with the Boston Marathon. No, I did not run it but I got to see the final minutes of the women's race because it was being shown on the large screen at the HKS Forum. (JC waited it out in the apartment before driving back to DC.) It's the oldest annual marathon in the world and they just had their 101th race this year. I will never qualify for the Boston Marathon and will never get to conquer Heartbreak Hill but it's just nice to see other people do it. Later on in the evening, I met up with MP to prepare the slides for our benchmarking project presentation. It was pretty painless and we did a lot of work in a couple of hours. We both went home feeling good and confident about our material I was particularly proud of the framework (and the graphic) that we came up with to explain our topic, which was succession management.

Tuesday was a busy day for me since I had to interview two more organizations for our benchmarking project. It was a back-to-back interview in the afternoon and when I couldn't find a quiet spot anywhere in  school, I decided to just go home and do the interview in the comfort my own apartment. Both interviews went pleasantly well. It's hard to get hold of executive directors and CEOs of nonprofits because they all have very busy schedules but the ones that I talked to were very eager to help me out and found time to talk with me about succession. My problem after doing the interviews was figuring out whether to integrate it with the presentation we were doing the next day or not, but we ended up just picking up a few salient points and will just work the rest into the final paper later on. I worked on the slides a bit more but I fell asleep before I had the chance to work on my slide notes.

Next day was an early day. Without any of the presentation notes ready, I had to hustle it to school as early as I could so that I would have enough time to prepare for our 8.40 am class. Well, how hard could it be to write out notes for a 3 minute presentation? (MP and I were splitting the 6 minutes allocated for our main presentation.) Harder than I expected. The thing was I had a lot to say about our topic. I was also working with around six slides. That's about 30 seconds per slide? It could work... I had to edit out a lot of stuff but it all worked out in the end. We were the last of three groups for that day and we were the only one that did not have the client present. Our presentation went rather well although MP had to cut me off because I only left him with only a minute to do his bit! The response was enthusiastic--succession management is a very important topic in the nonprofit world but very seldom talked about in any detail--both in class and in the blog. The feedback were also very helpful. And apparently, we were the first group to ever benchmark succession management so it was great to have tackled such a topic.

I felt great relief after the presentation but the day did not end there. I had an appointment with my marketing professor almost soon after class. Remember the marketing paper that we/I did? Well, we got a 90 (out of 100) and it turned out to be one of the better papers. The prof said that not a lot of people/groups got a grade higher than 90 and we were one of the few to "get it." I asked her about market segmentation and the next case we have to work on--Boston's Museum of Fine Arts--and also felt good coming out of that consultation.

The rest of the day was doing research work and just waiting for the start of the formal launch party of the Kennedy School Review. Yes, we finally launched it (although we've been taking order for the last couple of weeks) and copies had been delivered to us. Unfortunately, the printers slightly messed up the cover and a corrected batch will not be delivered until Wednesday of next week. But it was good to finally be able to hold something in our hands, although I "lost" my copy to Prof CS at the party. The party was fun and I got to have a few very interesting conversations, especially the one that I had with the writer of the Michelle Rhee profile, MF. Speaking of Michelle Rhee... Maybe I'll just write about it in my next post...

So, fairly quiet day today. I got a pack of rice cakes today from my friend S, who just celebrated his baby's 100th day yesterday. I don't know if the rice cake had anything to do with the event but it's supposed to be a big deal for Koreans. And guess what? It finally feels like spring over here!

Hard Sell II

What? You still have not ordered a copy of the Harvard Kennedy School Review? Well, what are you waiting for? Click here.

By the way, I saw the proofs of the KSR the other day and it's amazing! It looked so good I wanted to lick it! But anyway, it's worth more than 10 bucks. It's a 140-plus pages of glossy goodness. Take my word for it. (And it's not just because I had a hand in creating it.) We'll start shipping them out beginning of next week. Oh, the anticipation!

Oh, and do pass the word around! Thanks!

Not a Scam

Just got this in my mailbox. Below is an email from Molly, an MPA/ID student here at HKS. You might know someone who's eligible or might be interested. Open only to American citizens, though. Sound like fun.

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Subject: $5,000 (from my sister) to choose your own adventure

No joke. $5,000 to go on an amazing adventure, and all you need to do is ask. ..

Hey there HKS classmates,

A few years ago my beloved sister, Colleen Kinder, published a book called "Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething's Guide to Seeking Adventure." The book counters the conventional wisdom of office work, and instead encourages its readers to scout out adventurous experiences (that pay the bills). Like, say, guiding snorkeling groups in Australia. Or working on a cruise ship. Or building homes in Namibian villages.

To put her money where her mouth is -- or, more accurately, her publishing company's money -- Colleen launched a $5,000 "Delay the Real World" fellowship competition to finance one very lucky twentysomething to pursue the adventure of his/her dreams. (**Note: unfortunately only American citizens can apply). Previous winners supported fair trade artisans in Ecuador; brought health and environment education to Cambodia (by bike!); and biked around the world for two years.

Colleen is now looking for a new fellowship winner for 2008.  Perhaps it is you. So if you'd rather be traveling by yak through Mongolia than pushing papers in a cubicle in a few months, apply now. THE DEADLINE TO APPLY IS NEXT WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23rd. I strongly encourage you to apply: I was on the selection committee for several years, and I can attest that your chances are surprisingly high of winning if you pitch a creative and catchy idea...

I promise you won't regret it.  And please spread the word!

Roughed, Dropped

MP, my benchmarking partner, and I had a good meeting with our professor. We were both feeling a bit run down, just in general, and we're also a bit worried about our paper. We have only done three interviews so far for our project and we need at least six. We submitted a rough draft and rough was the only word to describe it. Next Wednesday we are presenting our findings in front of the class so we need to have an updated draft posted online so that our classmates can read ahead and comment on our work. This is a tough crowd so we're more than a little bit anxious about the presentation too. The first batch to present last Monday, three papers in all, did a very good job. Anyway, the professor told us that we only need to have interviewed four organizations at minimum by the time we present. We can make up for the balance later on when we submit the final paper. That's a load off our back. Plus, our client, being in DC, will not be present during the presentation. We sent them email telling them we can arrange a voice or video conference but did not really get a firm response from them. Another pressure point released. MP and I are both traveling this weekend and we're going to be squeezing in work whenever we can while at the same time hoping to enjoy our time off. We'll see.

The meeting with the professor was good for another reason. I haven't participated at all the whole semester in this class. At 8.40 in the morning, who has the energy? So I think he was happy just to see me in his office--I haven't gone to his office hours either--and hear me speak and share my thoughts. I'm more awake at 3 pm than I am at 8 am!

I am glad it's Thursday. Worked on a homework/memo this morning and I was able to finish with plenty of time to spare. Not that the final product was by any means an excellent piece of work. We discussed the case in class this afternoon and I definitely missed a lot of important points. But anyway, the point is that it's Thursday. No class for me tomorrow. I'm flying off to DC. We have a KSR staff party tonight (I think). And after I pack tonight, I think I'll be just about ready to drop.

Hard Sell

Buy! Buy! Buy!

Run, don't walk, to your nearest computer! Wait, you're already in front of a computer... Well, since you very conveniently have a computer in front of you, why don't you click on this link so that I can share with you a very exciting offer:

Harvard Kennedy School Review

Yes, it's the Harvard Kennedy School Review, the Kennedy School's public policy journal! Yours truly worked as this year's co-senior editor of features and commentaries and we're just coming out with our issue for the year. The KSR staff has come up a product that we are all proud of. All the pieces were written and produced by Kennedy School students (and a couple of alumni) and we crafted them so that they would be appealing and accessible even to people outside of our own little school. (Although we would like to think of ourselves as the New Yorker-slash-Foreign Affairs of student journals. Yes, we're a very ambitious bunch of people. We aim high!) We're a public policy journal but we also peppered this volume with some humor and off the wall pieces.

Have you ever thought about where the cut flowers you buy at the supermarket come from? ("Is the Bloom Off the Rose?" by Nora Ferm)

Are you interested to know where the love-hate relationship between the US and Russia is headed? ("The New Russia: Friend or Foe?" by Katya Gratcheva)

Do you want to know how religious rhetoric is being used in the 2008 presidential campaign? ("Duck Hunting in Heaven" by Emily Cadik)

How about honor killings in Germany? Hungarian presence in Afghanistan? How personal stories can facilitate immigration reform?

Have you heard of Michelle Rhee, Yon Goicoechea, Soraya Salti, Van Jones or Eboo Patel? Well, you will know a whole lot more about them after you read our Rising Stars of Public Policy profiles. We also have interviews with Donna Brazile, Chap Petersen, and Luis Soares.

Do you want to know how actual toddlers--well, with the help of their HKS dads--reviewed Bill O'Reilly's new children's book? About the economics of parking tickets?

The KSR staff also looked at the idiosyncrasies of public transport systems all over the world, came up with some new political terms to emerge from Campaign '08 (if '04 brought us 'swiftboated,' for '08 we predict it's going to be 'caucus-blocked'), and made predictions for up to the year 3000.

(Not only did I oversee, together with my amazing co-editor, TC, the features and commentaries section and edited some articles, I also wrote a short piece on policy gadgets, contributed a couple of artwork, and worked on the layout. I also solicited--which later on turned into nagging--the introduction from CNN regular, Anderson Cooper 360 blogger, and White House veteran, David Gergen. My fingerprints are all over this journal, people! Don't worry, I washed my hands. And you can wipe them off later.)

You can purchase copies online by following this link. It's only $10--so cheap! And that includes postage! And it doesn't matter if it's a non-US address, you pay the same price! So go buy a copy (or two) for you and your friends! Donate one to your local library! If anything, it will make for a great bathroom reading.

Go read! Read! Read!

Up Since 6 am... Yesterday

What a way to confuse my body clock. It was 6 am and I was still up. On a normal school day, by 6 am I would already be walking towards school. (For the past couple of weeks I've been going to school at around 6 or 6.30 am so that I could get some work done before my 8.40 am classes.) Today, at 6 am, I was walking not towards school but away from it--I was just on my way home. I spent 12 hours--12 hours that I could never regain--in Lamont Library, a 24-hour library located in the Yard. I worked on a group paper, a marketing plan, for our Marketing for Nonprofits class and it did not quite feel like a group effort. I skipped a Michelle Rhee reception last night at HKS (Yes, we're now HKS, which stands for Harvard Kennedy School, and not KSG--part of this grand re-branding effort) just so I could start working on the paper and I continued to rally on till the wee hours of the morning. I had salad for dinner and was sustained further by stale doughnuts.

At 6 am I plopped on the bed with the alarm set for 7.30 am. The alarm was still blaring by the time I realized it was already 8.10 and I needed to get my ass moving. I had to attend my aforementioned marketing class at 8.40 am because the professor would deduct half a  grade if a student failed to attend more than two classes. (I've been present for every class so far.) So I went to class, sent out emails, treated myself to a crepe, then went home. I skipped my afternoon class at 1 pm even if I was feeling rather okay. I did not want to push myself too hard. And then I realized that another paper partner had set an appointment with a professor so that we could discuss our project. So I rushed to school and gave said partner a call telling him I would meet him at the Forum. So we met at the Forum and we started to have a casual chat. It was getting close to our 2.45 appointment. I asked said partner, "What time is our appointment with the professor?" "At 2.45," he responded, "on Thursday." Oh yeah, total brain fart.

So, that has been my day so far, and it's starting to feel so much like yesterday. I'm back in Lamont Library. I do not have a paper to finish tonight so that kinda takes me off the hook for now. I should be heading home soon because, really, should I be spending this much time in the library? I already treated myself to crepe this morning. I felt that wasn't enough so this afternoon I went to Crate&Barrel to buy some kitchen stuff (steaming tray, non-stick tongs, dishtowels), and then bought a large cup of Frozen Matcha, a green tea shake, from Tealuxe. I think now I can call it a day.

Amateur-crastinator, part 1

But I'm getting so good at it, I might as well be a pro.

I wrote this entry last Sunday evening while I was trying to study. I didn't post it then because I didn't want my family to read about a certain incident until I had actually told them about it. (See item 1 below.)  Anyway, this is just part of a longer entry.

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I’ve been a very bad blogger, I know. And there’s nothing like procrastination to drive you to do something else. It’s not that blogging is not important but, in my current list of things to do, it’s not urgent. And what should I be doing right now that is more important and more urgent than blogging? It’s finals week, friends. Yes, my nose should be buried in books and I should be doing research for my final paper.

I’m now in the basement of Lamont Library and there’s no Wi-Fi signal. Well, there is a signal but I can’t seem to be able to connect. (I don’t have any problems, though, when working from the café. Yes, people, it’s a library with its own café.) So, instead of making notes for my Public Finance class, I typed out a couple of emails that I should have sent out a week ago. And now, I’m writing this blog entry.

Okay, I missed a month or so of entries. Okay, about three months worth, so here are some of the highlights of the last three months, in no particular order:

1. Fracture

Okay, so it gets really cold up here in the Boston area. We had our first real snow last weekend. So, come Monday, I wore the boots that I bought a few weeks ago that I thought would be appropriate for such weather. Everything went fine the whole day—I attended my classes, worked on a problem set, attended a meeting. On the way that night, I went to CVS (a pharmacy chain) to buy some stuff. I walked up Mt. Auburn St., which was not my usual route coming home from school. I was walking, walking, walking when, WHAM! I slipped and fell on my butt. It was a very clean fall—no sliding around or twisting of the body. I just fell. My left arm, which I instinctively put out to break the fall, felt bruised although there were no obvious marks or damage. So, I continued on my walk home. I almost slipped a second time just a few steps away from where I fell. (Cantabrigians are so bad removing ice off the sidewalk!) My arm began to feel more and more stiff throughout the night and by the next morning, I was sure I needed to see the doctor.

I was seen by Dr O the next morning, on Tuesday. He was very nice and friendly and had a very dry humor. He asked if I had fractured anything before. I told him, “No, I’ve been very careful.” “Until last night,” he said. Uh, subtle. So, he ordered an x-ray and put my left arm on a sling. He then referred me to an orthopedic surgeon, Dr B. Okay, here was the thing, Dr B couldn’t see me until Friday afternoon. I found that distressing at first—“What? I have to wait four days to have a fractured elbow treated?!?”—and so did many of my friends. Later on, I found that re-assuring since it meant that it wasn’t an emergency situation (i.e., no surgery required). And indeed, Dr B confirmed, the fracture is very minor and I don’t even have to wear the sling anymore. Healing will take up to six weeks. I have a follow up x-ray next week to see how the healing is progressing. I still can’t put a lot of pressure on my left arm but I am doing quite well.

2. Marathon

So, I asked Dr B if I could run a marathon next month given the condition of my arm. He said it depends on how it feels. We’ll see. I have to ask doctor again next week. Anyway, J and I are going to Disney World next month to run the Disney Marathon. I’m very excited about that for several reasons: it’s going to be my first time at Disney World; I haven’t been on a roller coaster in ages; we’re going to see E&B and their daughters (the eldest being my goddaughter) since they’re driving up from Jacksonville; and we’re planning to go skydiving together after the marathon. I’m terrified as hell about the idea of skydiving but I’m also very, very psyched about it. Did I tell you I’m not so fond of heights? Which is probably why I love roller coasters and why I’ve bungee jumped over the Victoria Falls and why I’m all eager to sky dive. There’s nothing like facing your fears to give you a big thrill, eh?

3. Thanksgiving

J and I hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner in Cheverly. It was only supposed to be a party for three people when we invited MM, who’s a grad student at Columbia University, to spend the occasion with us. While we thought that everybody else was going to be out of town that weekend, we had about 11.5 people (half a count for the baby) over. We even had guests from Cebu! It was a real Thanksgiving feast that consisted of roasted turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing with caramelized onions, roasted asparagus with parmesan,mashed sweet potatoes, pumpkin soup, broccoli salad, garden salad, and garlic bread. Plus, we had four different kinds of desserts: apple pie by J, cheesecake pecan pie by me, pumpkin roll by N, and pumpkin cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. (The pumpkin cheesecake went hardly untouched I have to say.)

J drove up to Cambridge Tuesday because we watched a concert by Glen Hansard (of the Irish band The Framees) and Marketa Irglova, two of the stars of the indie sleeper hit of the year, Once, and who also collaborated on an album called The Swell Season. The concert was at the the Orpheum on Wednesday night, with Martha Wainwright opening for them. (Incidentally, J and I will be seeing Rufus at the 9:30 Club next Friday. I'm so looking forward to that.) For most of Wednesday morning and early afternoon, we baked our Thanksgiving desserts and made the soup. SP, my friend from school, came to help out because she wanted to watch us cook. Even though it was a long day, we still had to leave at 5 am on Thanksgiving day to pick up MM at Penn Station (in NJ). We arrived in Cheverly at noon, set up for the dinner, and the party commenced at around 4.30 pm. It was messy but it was fun. It was a memorable Thanksgiving.

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Entry to be continued.

It's Tuesday evening. Obviously, I'm still procrastinating.