Professor #2: Dr. Romney

Yes, another Romney. We Mackays can't seem to go anywhere without a Romney popping up.

Dr. Romney is a brilliant yet humble man. He's tall and of large stature with white hair combed over the top of his head. He always wears a collared shirt (usually one with the Marriott School logo) and matching pants to class. Once class is started, he usually puts a quiz on our desks. These quizzes are fairly difficult, but Dr. Romney usually comforts the students by reminding the class that we're graded against each other.

After the tedious quiz, Dr. Romney will lean against the chalk board with his hands clasped together in front and announce his teaching methodology: You learn more when you do it then from a teacher or a text book. With that, we role play! We either role play work flow processes as a class or walk through business cycles in our group. That's pretty much all there is to the Dean of the Information Systems Program. Oh, did I forget to mention that little known fact? He's the boss of our other professors.

Professor #1: Dr. Hansen

I'm really enjoying my schooling right now. When you have four great professors, it really helps. It especially helps when those four great professors have four distinct personalities (that must be a prerequisite). I think I'll write about each one so you can get an idea of what these guys are like.

When Dr. Hansen first walked into our classroom, he had a sour look on his face. He scanned the classroom up and down as if he was looking for someone in particular. At first he's not much to look at. His head is full of gray hair and his body is small. Now this body being small exaggerates another feature of his body: his belly. His belly sticks out considerably almost to where he could use it as a table.

It seemed his purpose upon entering the room was to "torture" our minds. And in a sense I was right. He started off by drilling us on our reading we were assigned. "What's a set?" he would ask.

"A group of items," came the feeble attempt. Dr. Hansen didn't even entertain the answer.

"No. *cough* Be specific." (He always coughs when he talks)

"I think its a..."

"You think? *cough* I want you to know! Tell me with confidence!" he answered as he grinned a clever grin that I would soon come to learn was his trademark. The round of answers kept on going for a minute or so when he explained his methods. "Look. My purpose here, and you'll hear me say this again and again, *cough* is to get you to think. (Ugh! It is torture!) I don't care what you learn necessarily in my class because you'll just forget it in a year. I care that you learn how to think." he stated as he pounded the podium. "Now, what is a set?"

I'll have a hard time forgetting this lesson, especially since he did in fact repeat it every week. Dr. Hansen is my favorite professor because of his challenging demeanor. I go to his classes hoping to beat him at his game. Never likely, but I try harder in order to see if I can outsmart the questionnaire.

Dating a Friend

There is a girl in my ward who I have liked but never liked enough to go after. In fact, I'm sad to say the one time I did go after her was out of envy, even dis-loyalty (sorry). However, as the months have past by, I've been able to discover her character's hidden gems. And if it's greed that I'm feeling, than so be it. I decided to go for it.

This decision was a tough one for a few reasons. First, she's a good friend. This makes me hold my breath because if it doesn't work out then I may lose a friend or at least part of the friendship. Second, her plans include serving a mission. Yeah, I could stop that from happening if things turn out, but that's if they turn out. Considering these and other details, I had to choose between folding before the hand was dealt and going all in. I chose to give it my best effort, and I hope it works out. Oh, I hope it works out.

Oh the Lessons You Learn

This past week I've been working on project after project, and that has caused me to work long days. But I've learned three things:

1. It's never good to work 10+ hour consecutive days
2. If you want something done right, do it yourself
3. Have a written plan before doing anything

I'm almost done with project 2 of 3 and my mind is already making trivial mistakes. However, this wear and tear does have its benefits. My mind is tired and beat, but just like any other muscle, it rebuilds itself and is stronger than before. I've been craving this strength for a while. When I first got home from my mission (the most exhausting mental event) I was very quick and witty. I'm not sure if it was the mental stress, being among New Yorkers, or a combination that gave me the strength, but it was awesome. After a year or so that quickness started to go away, and I'm finally getting it back.

So mentally I'm stronger, and I can also say that my patience has increased. One group member kept on handing in sub-par material and my roommate and I would look at each other and know that we would have to redo it. Well, as most big projects go, something sprung up last minute and it had to be done. Without saying anything, I stood up and took care of it. Ah, that was easy.

Finally, planning helps sort everything out. We had to write narratives for 20+ diagrams and they were becoming tedious and yet still challenging all at the same time. So I took out a pen and paper and wrote three relevant points to each diagram, sat at my computer, and fired away. Thirty minutes later I had a handful of good drafts. Now, who wants to edit them?

Facing Your Fear...Literally

Tonight I had to face someone I didn't care much to see. I was going to avoid it completely by hanging out at a friend's apartment, and my roommate was ready to talk to the person for me, but I got a phone call from an all too familiar number from the feared "old friend". At that moment, however, my mind went at ease and thoughts of words to say came into my mind. Suddenly the situation didn't make me want to hide, but rather face it and be done with it. I talked to the person and went to my apartment. I waited and about 10 minutes passed before the door knocked. Three people came in carrying the air mattress that was the cause of our meeting, and I smiled and didn't even flinch. I was myself! 100% me! The air mattress will help with me not have any rough nights of sleep, but my mind, my emotions, will finally be at rest. And in the words of my wise father, I "dodged a bullet."

The Scariest Halloween Costume

I'm sitting in the Isys Lab listening to TAs talk about their experiences in the Junior Core of the Isys program. From what it sounds like, the second semester has a lot more work as we create the same type of project we did as a group this semester, but we do it individually. Horror stories of 30 hour periods in front of a computer and back-to-back-to-back all nighters make me a little uneasy. Yesterday I heard another horror story of someone who transferred from business management to accounting and accounting to Isys and declared Isys was the hardest of the three by far. So this year I'm not afraid of the ghouls and ghosts, but rather the monstrous Isys Junior Core. Maybe that's what I should be for Halloween.

Programming Fiascos

One of my classes is a computer programming class. The class itself is pretty fun. I learn about how to make anything work on a computer, how to create some basic user interfaces, and sometimes even learn how to steal things from websites. However, the coding can be like raising a child: sometimes it will do what you want it to do the first time, and sometimes it won't work until the hundredth time.

Last weekend I made a bank program, and everything worked the hundredth time. My roommate and I (we both have the class together) sat on our couch, put our laptops on our laps, and ran mental circles around our programs. Finally, after working on the code all Friday and Saturday, we got everything to work. The best part came at 12:00 midnight between Saturday and Sunday when I looked to him and said, "We must be the coolest people around!"