The Syndicate

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:Can I talk about music with you guys? I love music.

Remember that time we talked about Mike Oldfield? I love music!

Man, I haven't listened to Mike Oldfield in forever. I should do that.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:And sometimes I like to talk about music.

Who doesn't?

I finished my second year presentation yesterday morning so I am now (unofficially, hopefully officially on Monday) done with everything but the dissertation! It has been a long road, but I'm finally here.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:So... I feel like I'm getting pretty good at hunting baddies lately. The last 4 games I played there was one guy I was the first one to spot when no one else did.

I blame this site. I've lost every game I played here as a civ, but I've learned so much from that. It taught me every "do" and "don't" of baddie hunting, I feel. Now, instead of trying to hunt every baddie at once and going for the ones making noise, I'm specializing at finding that one guy nobody is paying attention to.

Now I only need to stop being terrible at playing as a baddie.

Freaking awesome.

Epignosis wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I passed comps!!!!!!

Is that like...a kidney stone?

Something like that.

I passed comps!!!!!!

Metalmarsh89 wrote:Congrats Sockface! Good luck on your final year.

I wish it was just 1. :P It'll be hopefully 2, maybe 3.

But thanks nonetheless.

I am finished with comprehensive exams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finished Thursday at 3:00PM. A moment I've been building up since before I even started the PhD program. Now I never have to study for and take another exam... ever!!! Assuming I pass, that is. And pending my successful completion of my second year paper presentation later this semester, I will officially no longer be a PhD student, but a PhD candidate and in the ABD (all but dissertation) stage. I'm so stoked, I've been dreading comps for years. They're finally over!

On another note, part of the reason you haven't heard that from me on Thursday afternoon (though you have if you have me added on Facebook since I popped on there briefly to post, and most of this is message is shamelessly stolen from my status updates there), I now finally I have a solid block of free time. I've been working non-stop even since comprehensive exams were over Thursday afternoon, and before that pretty much the last few weeks with occasional internet breaks to keep myself sane.

I think I've earned the rest of today and at least part of tomorrow off. I'm pretty sure the last "day off" I had was in July. I am so looking forward to spending time with the wife (shout out at Annie!), playing some video games, listening to some music, eating some awesome tacos (Torchy's!), and having some rum and coke (well, most likely rum and Dr. Pepper actually).

I really love teaching, but with everything else on top of it, my life has been such a chaotic emotional rollercoaster the past month and a half. From August 1st through just an hour or so ago qualifies as singlehandedly the busiest time of my life -- studying for comps and then taking them, working on research, teaching Principles I, moving to a new apartment, and planning this Excel training class and now teaching it. And I've had some incredibly busy times before, some real tough competition, but this wins the new award.

Especially with comps and the apartment move both now firmly over, and the first Excel session taught, it's so great to finally breathe and relax.

Wow, nice job, Quin! Congrats!!

Happy Anniversary, you two!!!!!!!!!

Congrats, Dom! You earned it.

Congrats DDL and Illy!!!!

Congrats, Dom!!!!!

Freaking awesome news, bea! You definitely deserved that raise long ago, glad you've got it now at least.

Epignosis wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I'm now officially finished with all coursework... forever. Can't believe it. Definitely hasn't fully sunk in yet, but I've been waiting for this moment way too long.

Now onto the next portion of the PhD program -- 2nd year paper, then studying for comprehensive exams! 2 years down, hopefully 2 to go (perhaps 3).

You should have some bean dip to celebrate.

LOL, I should have.

I'm now officially finished with all coursework... forever. Can't believe it. Definitely hasn't fully sunk in yet, but I've been waiting for this moment way too long.

Now onto the next portion of the PhD program -- 2nd year paper, then studying for comprehensive exams! 2 years down, hopefully 2 to go (perhaps 3).

Nice, nutella, congrats!!

bea, that is awesome. Glad to hear things have turned around.

S~V~S wrote:I actually got a Christmas bonus :O

Awesome!!!!

Golden wrote:Today, I got a pretty significant promotion. I'll now be the lead commercial solicitor where I work, so I'll have to somewhat manage how commercial work is resourced and be responsible for a number of client relationships and strategic decisions about how we contract.

I'm not yet sure if this is more exciting than winning world reborn... I'll figure that one out later.

Congrats, Golden!!

Congrats, G-Man and Mrs. G-Man!!

Ricochet wrote:One-dimensional music gig amped into 3-D spectacle? What a stunning idea!

3D was hardly anything good to begin with, anyway, except for maybe Hugo and Godard's Goodbye to Language.

Figured you'd like that. :P

3-D was always one of those things that was awesome in theory that never worked that well in practice until recently, in my opinion.

As awesome as Kraftwerk was last night and deserving of kudos to me, what I'm equally excited about is that I got to spend time with bea from Thursday afternoon until just an hour or so ago.

What's better in 3-D than Kraftwerk in 3-D?

Nothing.

Bullzeye wrote:I have an interview on Monday! It's for a job I'd really like to get. Would appreciate it if everyone could cross their fingers and/or pray to their deities of choice for me

Congrats, Bullz! Will do.

Congrats, Mongoose!!!!

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I just learned I was accepted into the University of Oregon!

I'll start in the winter, after being a part-time student at the local community college the last couple years, I'm off to learn at the big university. Still working on my undergrad, but it's a step in the right direction.

I am also a Mathematics major. Yup.

Congrats!!!

Mongoose wrote:Settled a huge case!

Awesome, nice job!

Tax season is over in 2 weeks... upon which I will definitely be posting here about it!! Because at this point, that will be something to be congratulated upon getting through! The last couple of months have been something else.

But in seriousness, I am officially accepted into the University of Texas at San Antonio's Accounting PhD program!!! I will start this Fall semester. I am so absolutely stoked!!

And awesome, Elo!

Glad it's working out so well, Cam!!

As for myself, I failed to mention last week, but I spoke with the Director of Doctoral Programs at Florida State University and I am consequently going to FSU not this coming Friday but the one thereafter (the 14th) for a campus visit! Still too far from acceptance for this impatient accountant, but very, very exciting nonetheless! I really can't wait. Especially because FSU seems like they have a really killer program; I'd love to go there.

And I finally uploaded some pictures to correspond with the previously mentioned vacation to Florida.

That's awesome, Logan!!!! Congrats!!

Elohcin wrote:I have 599 likes on my Little Miss Cakes facebook page and I have SIX cakes this coming week which is amazing business for the month of January. Maybe some of you could help boost my likes if you aren't too cool for facebook . http://www.facebook.com/LittleMissCakesNC. Epi told me that some Syndicate members were talking about meeting up somewhere close to Washington DC. If it happens, I will be sure to make a cake for us all to share

I was the 600th like!!!!!

I can't believe I hadn't liked it before.

And hell yes! Can't wait for that meetup.

Mongoose wrote:Thank you!!! I think my luck is turning around.

Did you & Annie bring some good luck with you down here!?

Hopefully!

That's super awesome on both counts, Alison!!

LOL. It is.

I have a full class, so 36. It's going to take way longer to get their names down than I thought... I only remember like 3 off the top of my head. Lol. I don't know what's worse; that, or, the fact that I obliterated some of their names. Hopefully I get it right next time.

It was pretty good experience. I would say I wavered between being uncomfortable/nervous and feeling in charge/not nervous for most of the class, but less of the former and more of the latter as it went on during the night. I imagine the more I get up there and talk though, the less I'll be dealing with that former feeling.

Considering it was first day of classes and half of the class didn't seem to have their book yet and that I didn't even know I would be teaching for sure until this past Friday, it went well. I try to get the class as engaged and participatory as possible -- and I feel I accomplished almost as much as I could have, on that front, even if sometimes it went almost completely unsuccessful. I also realized how weird it is to teach some of these accounting concepts via lecture -- it typically is more effective, IMO, to work problems with them. I try to balance both, but I hate lecturing to them about accounting for long periods of time; it gets old, it sometimes lacks the practicality that problems have to make the concepts stick, and especially given it's a 3 hour night class, surely becomes tiring to sit and hear. So I'm going to try to break up all of my lectures into like a lecture -- problems -- lecture -- problems -- lecture -- problems type of format. I also noticed the students latch onto real-life applications -- they help the mind more easily grasp some of these concepts, which can be really abstract upon first learning them.

The pacing worked out perfectly, even though I was worried. I knew I wanted to introduce myself, go over the student roster, and then talk about the syllabus/game plan/class schedule. Figured it would take like 40-50 minutes. Took like 20 minutes, tops. I was like, OK, lol. Then I got like over halfway through the chapter (which should have been mostly or all review, yay for that -- though it did make the lecture a bit awkward -- since I kept asking them, does this make sense? Or do you guys all know this already?), finished those two problems I had assigned, and it was like barely 7:00PM. My class started at 6:15PM. I seriously started thinking, well, these students are going to get out EARLY. Well, after getting through the last few lecture items and working four more problems, it was like 8:40PM. Perfect. Note to self: Problems can take a while.

There were perhaps a few bumps and bruises, I thought, BUT that could be attributed to the fact that I'm a perfectionist. I'll get the communication aspects down with more practice as well. Overall though I thought I did well and I certainly did enjoy it.

It cemented in my mind that this is absolutely what I want to do with the rest of my life. It was satisfying.

So my first ACC 300/teaching experience was awesome!!!

After a really long day, that's all I have time to elaborate on, for now. Lol.

Hedgeowl wrote:There are so many things I like about your vacation!

Pros:
Delicious food
Visiting friends (mildly jealous)
Doctor Who shirts
Dramamine working (gives me hope I will actually be able to ride something one day instead of being the "lame" mom)
Love that you say Mongoose and James

Cons:
A non-HP fan? How is this possible? Did you try to read the first book first?
Pipe cleaner and diabetes. So sorry Allison!
(In retrospect the cat should be listed first)

I remembering hating Epcot at 7 because it was boring, but loved the regular Disney and Hollywood studios. Loved Universal when I was 16 as well. Maybe some are better for adults than kids?
Also, I want to know more about this hedge maze!

Trust me, dramamine is a godsend. I get REALLY motion sick. Like I could never ride any ride. And I get sick in cars, boats, planes, etc. But this stuff works like a charm. Just use the less drowsy version... the one time I used the regular version it TOTALLY knocked me out.

Sorry. I tried reading it YEARS ago but it didn't interest me too much and I haven't tried them again, I suppose just due to lack of time and lack of enough interest to push it high enough on a list that has millions of awesome things to check out on it across all mediums (and music has soaked up most of it, historically). I did see the first three movies and the fifth though, if I remember correctly. I don't dislike HP, I just wouldn't consider myself a fan.

thellama73 wrote:

Spacedaisy wrote:Alright, which of you are somewhat near to the DC area? My sister (Captain Bunny Killer) lives in Lynchburg, VA and we are thinking of making a trip out there after tax season is over to visit her on a weekend and then thought, hey there some people in VA and the Dc area right? Maybe we can all convene for a day or so in some central-ish location and hang out! So... Speak up if you like the idea and might be interested!

I live in DC! I am interested!

Yes!! I definitely think this would be a fantastic next 'vacation' idea and I think we could get a solid, awesome group together. Hedge is close enough, right?

Maybe Epig and Elo could join us as well?

thellama73 wrote:Islands of Adventure is awesome. Alison is awesome. Sounds like a good trip.

And indeed! Forgot to include this in my previous post.

Mongoose wrote:Don't forget the phone-related shenanigans at the Dali Museum and how we got lost for hours and hours in the hedgemaze, ha.

A good time was had by all.

Tacos were had at the taco bus.

And both Alex and Annie were SO awesome about me dealing with an absolute crisis that erupted while they were there -- Pipecleaner got diagnosed with diabetes and spent their entire first day with me in the hospital (he's okay) so I was just palpably stressed. I dealt with this by spontaneously bursting out into 80s dance moves? I don't even know.

They were an absolute godsend. I've been giving the cat injections twice daily and he's rallying. His condition is likely reversible. You can follow his adventures on facebook if you please (search for Pipecleaner Lamont).

LMAO, yes!!!! The lobster phone!! I did have a few oversights in my summary vacation post, that being the biggest. I hadn't laughed that hard in way too long. Good times.

And Taco Bus was pretty damn good.

And it's not a problem, again, I understood completely. I really hope a speedy recovery for him!

Oh, and the other major oversight was that I neglected to explain the weather. Most days were not typical Orlando sunny days; in fact, most were overcast. On Hollywood Studios day, it rained most of the day, unfortunately. Ironically, on Sunday it was sunny and hit a high of 81! But that was the only real normal day. Tuesday while we were in St. Pete it was in the 40s all day! So strange. But the weather was WAY better than back home. It started snowing as we left the airport the first day, and apparently it snowed some more that week, and then the temperatures were in the negatives for a few days! Upon returning, it was 20s all day, then it has gotten warmer since, and today it was even in the 50s! So... all in all, I'm glad we missed that madness, even if the weather was a bit weird.

Alright, so the vacation!

It was absolutely sublime. Very tiring, especially the first six days, but so much fun, and certainly worthy of being my 'CPA celebration'.

My brother, Annie, and I flew out Monday the 30th, arrived in Orlando in the afternoon. Got the rental car (which was a Hyundai Sonata hybrid... I miss that car), ate dinner at Amigo's, a local Mexican restaurant which is completely amazing (Annie and I KNEW we had to visit while down there after we went there twice last time when I visited her), and ventured around the east side of Orlando for a bit before heading to our hotel. We stayed at the Disney All Star Music Resort starting that night through Saturday the 4th.

Tuesday the 31st began our insane five-day stretch of amusement parks, which was incredibly fun, but so incredibly tiring. My feet were yelling at me by the end of the first day and continued to do so throughout the week, but it was worth it.

Each day, these were the parks we visited:
Tue 12/31/13 Universal - Universal Studios
Wed 01/01/14 Disney - Epcot
Thu 01/02/14 Disney - Hollywood Studios
Fri 01/03/14 Universal - Islands of Adventure
Sat 01/04/14 Disney - Magic Kingdom

We actually headed over to Islands of Adventure in the early evening on the 31st... then Friday we went to Universal Studios for like two hours and spent the rest of the day at Islands of Adventure.

Overall, I was impressed by all of the parks, but here are my thoughts: While Disney's branding is absolutely genius and their fireworks/light shows at all three parks are mindblowingly outstanding, many of the rides are outdated, and I felt Hollywood Studios was essentially a poor man's Universal Studios. I love that I can now say I've been to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, but I'm not sure I have any desire to go back. Epcot, which I've been to twice before, is definitively my favorite Disney park and I still loved it just as much as always. That said, I am OK with not visiting it again for a while. Universal, on the other hand, I was ready to visit again on Sunday the 5th, and am still now! What they accomplish in their rides is truly awesome, particularly the new Transformers ride, the Spider-Man ride, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which is impressive, even for a non-fan such as myself). Now I get major motion sickness, so after discovering in the past year that dramamine is my new best friend, getting to ride pretty much everything was fantastic, especially something as technologically advanced as the Harry Potter ride (which is definitively the best ride out there among all five parks).

My souvenirs were a CD of the Moroccan jazz fusion band that plays at Epcot (because they are AWESOME) and a few Doctor Who shirts from Universal that I thought were pretty sweet.

My brother flew back home early Sunday morning; Annie and I spent the morning and afternoon with her friends from Orlando, which was fun! I know she didn't get near enough time with them as she wished, but it was a nice contrast to the previous five days, and in the evening we started to drive to St. Pete Beach. While there we stayed at the Postcard Inn, which is 'run down meets hipster' as Annie called it, and we were both very impressed. Actually better than Disney's Resort which was sort of underwhelming IMO. And it was right on the beach! Thanks to Mongoose for the recommendation there!

Speaking of which, getting to spend Monday and Tuesday with Mongoose and James was a ton of fun! It went way too quickly. We hit up the world's largest record store (which made me SO happy... until Annie had to drag me out , but it's okay because we visited a different, even better record store on Tuesday! and I bought my fair share of records at both places), Mongoose showed us around St. Pete, which was really cool, ate awesome food, and just hung out. On Tuesday we walked a pier in St. Pete and visited this awesome gelato place! The moment we left Tuesday evening to head back to Orlando, I know we missed spending time with them already! Then we spent the night at Annie's friend's place, stopped by an Asian grocery in the morning before heading to the airport, bought a bunch of Asian goodies mostly for my brother (he was going to buy a bunch at Epcot, and Annie insisted she would stop at the grocery instead because the prices were way inflated), then sadly went to the airport.

Well, now I'm getting kind of tired and I can't think of anything else, but that was pretty much it. Totally awesome vacation and I was very pleased with it.

I will likely post some pictures whenever I get them uploaded! Hopefully sometime this weekend.

Mongoose wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:Okay, for those of you who actually ARE interested, I promise to get to my recap of the vacation if not tonight, then definitely tomorrow.

Also, I just found out I will be teaching Intermediate Accounting I up at my alma mater for this coming Spring '14 semester!!! I am so stoked. It means I'm going to be REALLY busy between a busy audit season (I'm scheduled for 7+ audits between now and April 15th), a busy tax season, and now teaching, but... still totally stoked.

Should be great prep for my PhD program path as well.

Yay! I'm glad you were able to work it out with your boss (James is excited for you too).

Way to go, Professor Sock!

Me too! Thanks!

I am nervous... but mostly excited!

Okay, for those of you who actually ARE interested, I promise to get to my recap of the vacation if not tonight, then definitely tomorrow.

Also, I just found out I will be teaching Intermediate Accounting I up at my alma mater for this coming Spring '14 semester!!! I am so stoked. It means I'm going to be REALLY busy between a busy audit season (I'm scheduled for 7+ audits between now and April 15th), a busy tax season, and now teaching, but... still totally stoked.

Should be great prep for my PhD program path as well.

So... I'm back from vacationing in Orlando and St. Pete. It was awesome. Truly.

More elaboration to follow when I'm not tired and have the time to do so.

So the vacation was pretty relaxing overall, spending time with bea and her husband-to-be (Dirk) was a lot of fun!

We went to the Desert Botanical Garden, which was really neat, especially for a city boy from the Midwest who had never seen a catcus before, and we also went and played some putt putt golf at Castles and Coasters (which also has an arcade and some rides). The day before we came back (Wednesday), we ventured to Tombstone, AZ, which was about a bit over a three hour drive. That was so much fun!! The sightseeing there was great; the town is historic, for sure -- the museums were cool, there was a gunfight reenactment (of the famous OK Corral shooting), and we ate at a saloon for lunch/dinner and it was a blast! There was even a stereotypicalish cowboy/local eating in there when we were there and he was hilarious and very nice. We stopped by the Boothill Graveyard while heading out of town that evening.

On the way back though, bea's car broke down, and we had to wait over an hour for the tow truck driver, who ended up being a douchebag, so then we walked a bit over a mile to a Walmart in Benson and stayed there until we could try to get someone to pick us up and bring us back to Tombstone so Annie and I could make our 7:00AM flight. We made it! But hardly had any sleep that night. Once we actually heard from Annie's aunt and uncle and knew they were coming to get us after Dirk contacted, the night turned from annoying to actually quite some fun, as we got some last minute bonding time and played some Euchre (in the store, lol, it was great!) and chatted some more before the farewell.

Besides those events, we mainly conversed, watched some TV (and the movie Tombstone the night before leaving, of course, especially since I hadn't seen it, somehow), and ate and hung out. Definitely a very worthwhile and enjoyable vacation. It went by way too quickly. I miss the weather too! Phoenix is absolutely perfect this time of year.

I will post pictures soon, I promise!

Mongoose wrote:Do we get a write up? Sooo curious what all you did there!

Definitely!

I will try to do this ASAP. I still need to get the pictures up too! And check with bea on that front because she took pictures as well. Working on PhD application stuff this weekend, so I've been trying to knock that out as much as possible.

bea wrote:T-minus roughly an hour till I have vacation guests!!!!! I'm sooooo very excited!!!!!

Yes!!! It was so much fun! It went way too quickly though, unfortunately.

Those of you who have me on Facebook may or may not have seen this by the time you clicked this thread, but I received this in the mail today:



Hell yes.

Congrats, bea!!!!! I am so happy to hear that!!!

Mongoose wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I know most of you might already know, but I PASSED THE CPA EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the new job is going great!

Epignosis wrote:Holy hell I just taught myself how to play "Blue in Green" on the piano in under two hours.

That's awesome!!

Cool man, that's excellent! Do you get a lot of accountant jokes?

Thanks! I do indeed. Lol.

Mongoose wrote:My good news is that last Friday I had an interview for my dream job (an Associate Director position at the law school from which I graduated). It was THREE HOURS long, so that has to be good right? It was also the third interview I had for this position.

I just got a phone call earlier that I am still in the running so we shall see. It will involve some travel in the fall semester (recruitment at colleges), so I am stoked about getting to travel to see my out-of-state buddies.

Wow, awesome! Here's hoping for you! It sounds pretty promising though.

I know most of you might already know, but I PASSED THE CPA EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the new job is going great!

Epignosis wrote:Holy hell I just taught myself how to play "Blue in Green" on the piano in under two hours.

That's awesome!!

The new smilies are here!

Woo!