So what's new in September?

Hello everybody!

Kash here speaking. It's been a while since I actually posted anything with content, so let's go through a quick update of what's going on in Montreal.
1- beautiful weather in August and September! Who would have thought? Certainly not me. I'm sweating my ass off and loving every smelly moment. (ahum) Well, let's just say that winters are long and cold and I'm definitely enjoying the brief respite from the cold.

2- school's in again! Actually, between the end of the summer session and the beginning of orientation and craziness that this fall was, I had very little time for a breather. I didn't even get to see my peeps since Marcel was working hard on his thesis and Bourgui on his black belt. At least they both are doing amazing things and I got to sit around and sleep in for a week-end (Waking up at 10 AM? Woohooo!)

3- I'm doing lots of cases in my classes. As in reading quite a few pages, analyzing them and trying to get a reasonable story and recommendations out of it. It's a very intense process and I think this is what makes the MBA worthwhile. I'm also taking an entrepreneurship class and I think I could be a good one. All I need at this point is a good opportunity on which I am qualified to act (i.e. probably something to do w/ computers) :) If not, I think I can be a strong management type guy that will actually understand the techies and might even share a few common things with them

Yeah, the MBA also teaches you to do lists. How pathetic that I can't find a better way to express myself :)
Nono would probably make all of this sound exciting and mysterious.

Oh, how could I forget? The wedding date has being narrowed down to the 18th of July in the Casino du Liban in Jounieh, Lebanon. We're waiting to see on developments in Lebanon's stability before confirming anything, but if you're reading this blog, there's a good change (100% I'd say) that you'll be gettting an invite around X-mas time, so plan your summers around this if you want to come!

As I already said, I unfortunately won't be able to provide lodging for anyone, but we an arrange for cheap accomodation nearby, especially if many people think they'll show.

All of this is still a little premature at the moment since Lebanon is not very calm and reassuring right now, but I still hope that things will be good by the summer.

That's it for my brief update, see you next month at the latest!
Love,
Karim

ZZZZzzz

... hnnnnnnn?
Whaat?

ZZZzzzzzzzzz

Summer's Zooming By

Hail oh adoring multitude who are suspended to my virtual lips (i.e. keyboard)!

Summer's almost over, at least as far as the MBA is concerned. A couple more weeks and I'll be done w/ the stupid classes and start getting ready for September and the real challenge. Although I must say that summer classes are necessary for me to graduate in May 2008 (if all goes well), the experience has been lesser than regular classes. The fact is the summer is split into to mini-summer sessions with a duration of 6 weeks (+ 1 exam week). This means that instead of going to each class once a week for three hours, you go twice a week.

I have taken two classes this summer. First professor's a part-timer, doesn't know the material enough to make it interesting, and gave us insane amount of work (two classes per week with a rather large due every class makes an interesting summer). He also tests on the content of the book, requiring not only reading of every chapter but also memorization of many small details that are in general irrelevant... Needless to say, that class is my least favorite so far in the program.

The other class though is the total opposite of the first one. The teacher knows his material so well he refers you to the correct pages to look at off the top of his head. He also eliminated all work, keeping only exams for this class (midterm and final). Of course, he strongly suggests doing a bunch of exercises as well as reading the material closely, but there are no formal assignments. Since this class is actually very interesting, I feel like I'm missing out on the additional content (like assignments and more readings) that he would prescribe in a regular semester.

Now that I think about it, I'm complaining about too much work in one class and not enough in the other... Either way, the coming end of the classes also reminds me of how little time is left in the Montreal summer season too, since September hails the coming of autumn in these parts. Janine and I haven't really had the chance to go out much lately, so I'm not looking forward to September...

Let's abrogate this painful story and just say that I miss you all and see you soon (in this blog, on your blogs and IRL one day).
-K

Post for the month of July

I wouldn't want to make the blog name a big lie, and I've been pretty skimpy on news like Wendy never fails to remind me :)

Here are some of the promised pictures I brought with me from Lebanon. First, I think this picture goes back all the way to the 5ieme in 1992, although it could also have been during the 4ieme. Bourgui is already tall and sexy, although not quite as much as his modern handsome self. Professor Dubuis (I think) is on the right, and many other familiar faces, although some have gone over the years. On the personal level, this was the beginning of the ugly years, with way too much hair on my head, not enough gel, ugly glasses and the beginning of facial hair.

The second one is from the other extreme of high school, the Terminal year, with many more familiar faces to all of you who read this blog. Ah the joy of having about 3 girls in class and the rest of them being boys... Although Bourgui was taken care of, Damien and I were busy getting record rejections (I won handily, but that's just due to my unabashed willingness to do silly things, or at least back in 1996 it was.

Anyways, I got a couple more pics like this for a future post. And maybe some more news by the end of August :p
I think that Kash Monthly is about correct these days, with not enough extraordinary things happening to be worth taking note of, and too many things pulling attention in other places, such as facebook.com (if you're not on there, you should be) and LinkedIn (which I have but don't really use yet).

I hope you are all OK, and I miss you all like hell.
Love,
Karim

About the wedding

Hi everyone!
Here's some news about the planned wedding in Lebanon: as some of you have commented, the last couple of trips to Lebanon have been all but peaceful. We are considering whether we want to take the chance and try and get married in Lebanon, or if we can and want to do it in Canada instead. I don't like the Canada option at all, as the family's in Lebanon. We are thus in a waiting mode, until the end of the summer. Hopefully we'll know better then about the situation in Lebanon and whether it is stabilizing or not.

Even if the situation is better in September, we don't have any idea if it will still be calm the next summer.

Stay posted for more information on this topic and others soon.

Love,
Karim

Back safely from Lebanon

Hi everyone,

I just wanted you to know that I am safe and sound in Montreal, and Janine as well. More details to follow soon, as well as some cool pics that I scanned there.

Love,
Karim

Going to Lebanon tomorrow

Hello everyone! I have made my title officially a lie by skipping the month of April in my posts. Oh well, at least I did good in my classes, am now the president of the Concordia Commerce Graduate Student's Association (CGSA), got selected for a very interesting case competition class and am going to Lebanon tomorrow (the 8th of May) for 3 weeks to plan for the wedding in 2008. We're thinking mid-end of July 2008, probably the 19th (to be confirmed). So in Lebanon, we're going to tour churches and hotels and restaurants to plan the whole thing. I was also lucky to see Bourgui a few times recently, although I wish that he and Nat had received more joyous news...
Anyways, now I'm sure May will have at least one post, and hopefully pictures and news of the trip end of May/beginning of June when I return to Montreal. We have taken travel insurance again, and this time we're hoping not to have to use it.
Oh, and today's the first real hot day in Montreal with the temperature flirting with 20C! Lebanon and the 30C weather is going to be quite a shock.

Well, that post was pretty much all that happened to me when you remove the details and keep just the essential of the last month and a half. The sleepless nights and crazy endless days of slaving away on papers, exams and cases are over and I am looking forward to Summer II (end of June) when I can resume the frantic lifestyle of an MBA student.

Have a great Spring y'all!
Love,
Karim

Blah blah Exams Blah Blah Tired

By now you must be used to the eternal I'm busy post, but what can I say, it's true and it's the end of the semester madness that makes it worthwhile to go ahead and say "I succeeded, I did well on my exams/papers, I can enjoy some TV and go shop now"
In other news, I'm applying to be President of the Concordia Commerce Graduate Student Association, with a great team of people. This of course adds more to the load, but we're up to the challenge and we are very motivated to win this thing!
I'll keep you posted, and mid-April should have a few days to catch up on the blogs of my friends to see what you guys are up to.

Ciao,
Karim

En Mars, ne te decouvre pas d'un fil?

So, not much to say except that I'm very busy these days, that I missed Marcel and Bourgui's meeting this week-end again, and that I hate the daylight savings changes that seem to have no intensive purpose but to annoy us. I've read scientific evidence that the alleged savings in energy are actually negligible or even negative, and thus we change hours twice a year to please a bunch of politician idiots. Some people say that it works, but I'd like to see the stats.
That's it for the rant of the month!
Love,
Karim