Getting My MBA at 48

Recovering from Way to many days of working

I can’t believe how down I feel after working, Saturday scheduling called me for a trip at 10:00 a.m. for a Oakland turn. Well by the time I made it home it had been 12 hours of waiting, flying, waiting. Needless to say I was exhausted.

Not much sleep the night before.

If you count back 45 days to the beginning of December I have only had 3 days off.

My butt, brain, attitude and emotions are all but gone.

I have not been studying or writing here as much as I should, I know that it is not an excuse but it seems like it is taking me longer to recover from being at work. So much expended energy on the planes, sitting at the airports, no where to nest or just waiting to called out to work.

Ok, that is enough of me feeling sorry for myself. (But I do need to release it from my self) I have studied yesterday and today just not as much as I know that I should.

I have time of here soon and will kick it into high gear, because the next few days I hope will be easy.

Yesterday while studying, I had to look the definitions for intrinsic value  and fair value, which now I understand but getting my head around these stock options, Non-qualified stock option and incentive stock options wow concepts are different than I have ever had thought of before.

But I do know that Accounting is going to get head more in a financial thinking which is good.

So on that note I am going to sign off, clean up the area do somethings for getting ready for tomorrow.

Tags: accounting, books, education, exhaustion, flight attendant, flights, flying, incentive stock options, life, management, mba, Non-qualified stock option, phoenix, san francisco, schedule, strategy, studying, success

Morning to Study

Well I have been lucky I was given Stand-by C which got switched to Hot Reserve 7 (7:00 p.m. – Midnight) at the airport. I thought it was a good thing, though I have the morning off, which I am hoping to get some studying done. Scheduling has put me on Stand-by B modified (from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m -7:00 p.m.)

What a joke. That our schedulers have no clue. If I had been on Stand-by C, scheduling would have to give me Stand-by C again but because they switched me to Hot Reserve at the airport I now can work 10 hours after my shift.

So again planning on having time for today and tomorrow for studying is shot.

So I am not going to be working on my 3 days off I need to get this studying/class finished. I can’t let them win. I have to be the winner in June when I finish my MBA.

CNN again had an article The 100 best companies to work for in 2010, I like reading those because it gives me ideas of what to shoot for when I start applying for jobs. SAS took the #1 position this year and it looks like a great company, to me the most impressive thing is not that it has been in One of the Best Companies for 13 years it is that Dr Jim Goodnight has been it’s only CEO in SAS 34 year history.

Having one CEO doesn’t always work, but there have been companies that have one CEO who impact has had a lasting impression. I really think that these CEO’s have a firm grasp of what it takes to run a company, it’s employees.

Take care of your number one asset “employees” and they will in turn take care of your business.

There are some CEO that don’t get that and only take care of the shareholders, which of course you should pay attention to them.

There are 3 pieces to a company, Employees, Customers and Shareholders take aways any one of these and the company becomes non-extistanct. Treat any one of these without respect to its relative part, the company starts to wither away. Treat any two of these without respect to its relative part in the company and it ceases to be a company.

After 3 cups of coffee and writing here at Winfield’s I have to get some reading done.

Well I have been here at the airport over 4 hours and have a 1.5 hours left. It really is a hard place to be, always busy and noisy with flight attendants talking about everything under the sun.

So studying is always not an option which is more my problem because I need quiet time to study. When to much is going on, mostly talking I have a hard time concentrating.

I spend my time reading, looking up things and talking to people I haven’t seen in awhile.

I also hope that I don’t get used tomorrow but one never knows around here.

Tags: 100 best companies to work for in 2010, accounting, books, business week, CEO, cnn, customers, dr jim goodnight, education, employees, flight attendant, flights, flying, life, management, mba, online university, san francisco, SAS, schedule, shareholders

Got to visit El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico three times

Storms in Phoenix, Arizona have it usual effect on air traffic, diversions, delays, and holding patterns. We were on one of the lucky flights. Coming in from Orlando, Florida we only had to be in a holding pattern near El Paso, Texas for about 1 hour.

Which meant that for about an hour we flew around El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico, so I got to go into Mexico 3 times (well the airspace anyway).

It is interesting being able to look out the windows down below at the “Wall” our border that divides the United States of America and the United Mexico States or Estados Unidos de América y Estados Unidos Mexicanos yet the name of each of these great countries are almost the same. You can see our border clearly at 37,000 ft for it stretching for miles in either direction.

It is amazing that we so different now when clearly many years ago when the people named these 2 countries we were a lot closer in mind than today.

It was still nice looking out the window at the landscape, we arrived into Phoenix late. But definitely necessary the winds rock us like our plane wasn’t even there. Later in the parking lot I was watching one of the US Airways smaller planes on approach it was flying sideways because of the wind.

Southwest 737′s didn’t fair any better, flying sideways and getting tossed about like a balloon. It always is amazing to watch as see how they land.

I got my laundry done but I am so tired from being up since 1am. and with no great place to park myself to study I keep falling asleep.

I have got to force some changes on myself because this is not cutting it and work has not helping at all. Being on Reserves is so dragging my life in the direction I don’t want to go.

Though it has been a great jump starter for me to get my Masters, the weight of having no control of your work schedule to schedulers who don’t care about whether you sleep or not or what happens in your life, keeps trying to drag you down father into the depths of depressions and exhaustion.

Tags: accounting, books, cancelation, delays, depression, diversions, flights, flying, mba, online university, phoenix, southwest airlines, strategy, studying, success, us airways

Stormy day in San Francisco, Airport delays

It has been storming all day here in San Francisco, so the airport has had ATC delays all day. Which is a good thing today, the storm at times here has been has been pretty intense.

I have spent the morning doing the finishing touches on my packing and studying. I had to take a break from reading about Accounting, one to let it sink in too because of the weather here I have a headache all day.

As for the Accounting, I think I will be able to get the first draft of the essay done tomorrow. I am hoping that in the next 7 days I can have 3 of the essays done.

I know I won’t be able to get all the online work done by then but I need to have the essays in. I have to get back ahead.

So I will be able to pick up extra trips in February otherwise I will be behind in school and bills, not a good combination.

There is all this talk of a new iPhone and Tablet from Apple, for me I am on of the MacHeads, it is the only computer I have ever owned. So I am hoping that the Tablet comes out and is a eReader as well as many other things.

Carrying all these books gets heavy. The Accounting book by far is the heaviest it is about 3 inches thick and 10 lbs.

So I am hoping for a good cross functionality between my MacBook Pro, the iPhone and the New Tablet. We shall see on the 27th of January.

Time to run, so a parting shot of the Apple’s invitation

Tags: accounting, apple, books, cancelation, cnn, delays, eReader, flight attendant, flights, flying, iPhone, MacBook Pro, management, mba, online university, san francisco, schedule, strategy, studying, success, tablet, us airways

After a Long Flight from Maui

I just got back a few hours ago from flying all night from Maui. It has been the first time I have gotten back to San Francisco early and though I have the afternoon off and tomorrow morning I am still tired.

I have only had 1 day off this month, actually I have only 1 day off since the 25th of December and I pretty much worked the whole of December.

I AM TIRED, exhausted.

I studied yesterday in Maui, but only got a few hours in, today I just haven’t been able to concentrate. I got everything else done so tomorrow all I have to do is exercise, study and iron my shirt.

I feel bad because I haven’t even had the energy to write here on the blog it has been 6 days since my last entry and I didn’t even finish it.

I know life happens but I am having to work too much to compensate and that is wearing on me and cutting into my study time.

I have been trying to keep up with the news that has been going on and before I go on

Please go to the

American Red Cross to donate the Hati Relief Fund

They need our donations, and prayers.

It has been a big week for the American Automotive industry, this is the opening of the North American International Auto Show, I was hoping to be there but I decided to work instead, I have to friends that work in the industry. One at GM the other at Chrysler’s I wish them the best we need to be back on top of this industry.

I was reading in Business Week magazine edition about how some of the for profit school are going after the military members, giving them degrees according to the article that are not quite up to standards for better job placement.

It is all about the business of making money not the business of education. Seems that is always the deal, money.

Though I have always said it is what you get out of the education that matters, but the schools have to have meat and potatoes (good curriculum) for you to be able to learn.

I am going to sleep so I can get up early tomorrow, exercise and study then a little nap  before flying the redeye San Francisco to Charlotte.

Tags: accounting, American Red Cross, books, business week, cancelation, chrysler, delays, education, flight attendant, flights, flying, gm, Hati Relief Fund, hawaii, life, management, maui, mba, North American International Auto Show, online university, san francisco, schedule, sleep, strategy, studying, success, wall street journal, wgu